Update no jutsu! Don't kill me, I have been a bed-ridden germ-bag.
Huge thank you to Moderndayportia for being the god of all things Beta and reminding me to actually post this...*cough*...and also ShipperTrish for back-betaing my earlier chapters! thank you to readers and reviewers, favouriters and lurkers, you guys are all wonderful rays of sunshine. Enjoy!
Chapter 19: Misplaced Trust
To the young shinobi crouched outside on the pavement. The smell of the store room had been an unpleasant mix of sweat, filth and illness. Those deep fetid odours had dominated their senses, eradicating the more subtle scents which could only be detected after long years of experience in the medical field.
Well, not that long.
Tsunade drew idle patterns across a dust coated shelf with a long, polished fingernail, leaving a dark swirling wake of exposed wood. Inhaling deeply, despite her reluctance to do so, she allowed the sweet, sickly smell to wash over her, filling her lungs and mouth with the top-notes of decay.
Underneath the pungent aroma of shoe leather, urine, faeces and sweat, there was an irony base-tone that was familiar to all experienced field shinobi and medics: the distinctive smell of raw meat, not yet rotten. It was the same fragrance that defined a butcher shop; sugary, metallic and almost wet. Somewhere in this cramped space there was a body.
In the blistering heat a corpse would start to bloat and stink within forty-eight hours, and, judging from the smell, only the first stages of decomposition had started.
Tsunade's quick, intelligent eyes swept around the small room once more before flicking down to the grimy hardwood floorboards. There. One of the long boards bounced slightly under the tap of her heel. She raised a hand and instantly her ANBU guard were at her side, the two tall men not reacting at all to the stench.
She sighed before declaring, "I want to find out what's under these floorboards."
She didn't. Not really. Turning on her heel, the Hokage strode purposefully through the store front and out into the baking sunshine.
Shizune was kneeling on the pathway with her black yukata pooling around her. Brow knitted in concentration, her hands glowed with a gentle green light as she scanned the still and pale form of the tiny girl on the stretcher.
"She needs medical attention immediately, but her body is rejecting my chakra. It's reacting as if I am administering a poison."
Tsunade's voice came out tighter and more aggressive than she meant it to, "Get her to the isolation wing. I want her on life support. I want as many guards as we can spare and the second she becomes lucid I want Ibiki to find out what the hell she was up to."
She ignored the angry growl from Konohamaru, who was being forcefully held in place by Hanabi.
"Yes Tsunade-sama." There was a soft scuffling as another two guards lifted the stretcher and followed Shizune to the hospital. Tsunade watched them disappear down the road in silence before turning her attention to the hyperactive genin who was shaking with fury.
"Say what you want to say, brat." She sighed, fixing her hands on her hips in preparation for the inevitable confrontation.
Konohamaru leapt from his perch, dragging a startled Hanabi up with him.
"You're going to have her interrogated!" he bawled, thrusting his jaw forward.
No sense of respect.
"She is an enemy Konohamaru, and if she doesn't co-operate she will be treated like an enemy."
"B-but she's sick! She needs help!"
Not for the first time, Tsunade found herself comparing the young Sarutobi to a certain orange-clad ball of energy. Really, only Naruto and this brat would choose to see an enemy as a friend. A sharp pang of concern shot through her, and not for the first time she felt her thoughts moving towards Team Kakashi. She hoped they were going make it home in one piece. She hoped that Tenzou's team would come through for her. She told herself that this concern was due to the fact that Konoha couldn't afford to lose one of its most prolific teams, but she knew she was lying.
She cared about each member of that team far beyond what was dictated by professionalism.
Tsunade curled her fist, planning to bop the petulant child on the head; shinobi couldn't afford to be emotionally invested, but she was interrupted by the sudden appearance of a masked figure by her side.
Sighing she turned towards him and raised an eyebrow, "Well?"
"There are three bodies inside and parts of a fourth. They have been...dismembered. From the remnants of clothing, I think it's safe to assume the deceased were Konoha shinobi." The ANBU stated flatly.
Tsunade felt the blood drain out of her face. "Do you have any idea who they are?" she asked trying to keep her voice indifferent.
"They are disfigured beyond recognition."
"I want dental records, I want blood typing, I want to know the identities of my missing shinobi NOW!" she bellowed at him. To his credit, the masked figure only shrank away slightly before nodding and retreating back into the building.
Her heated gaze slid back towards Konohamaru who was looking both shocked and confused.
"Will you be so concerned about this girl if you find out she is responsible for murdering someone you know? A teacher, a teammate, a friend?" The Hokage's voice was icy and hard.
The boy dropped his gaze to his feet as he awkwardly toed at a pebble.
"I didn't think so." Tsunade's long elegant fingers came up to rub her temples; her voice was softer when she next spoke. "Well done both of you for finding the girl and alerting me so quickly. You did a good job. Now I want you to find me Umino Iruka, tell him I need the roster of which teams were due to return from missions, when, and which teams have failed to check in. Let's see if we can identify our men that way. I swear the mission room has gone to hell in a hand basket without him manning the fort. The trainee he has left in his stead is god-awful."
Hanabi's lilting voice drew her attention. "Hokage-sama, Iruka-sensei has been busy organising and cataloguing the civilians, he was quite busy last time we saw him. Perhaps we could send over Kotetsu-san or one of the other mission room staff?"
Tsunade couldn't help the small curl of her lips as she plotted her next move.
"Tell Iruka-sensei that if he adds this to his list of responsibilities, I'll throw a chair into our deal." With that she strode away toward the hospital, her expression darkening again.
Konohamaru and Hanabi watched their Hokage depart with bemused expressions.
"Chair?" He asked curiously, turning towards the Hokage mountain.
The Hyuuga merely shrugged in an uncharacteristic display of confusion causing her hair to bounce around her shoulders.
Gingerly Konohamaru reached forward to weave his fingers into her long dark hair.
"What are you doing?" she asked narrowing her eyes at him, her hand snapped up to snatch his arm around the wrist. "Your familiarity is unsettling."
Gulping lightly Konohamaru sucked in a quick breath between his teeth. "You have sticky buns in your hair...sorry."
Hanabi's right eye twitched twice and then slowly the tight set of her mouth relaxed and her grip loosened.
"Very well. Continue."
It was hard to remain dignified when someone was tugging and pulling at her hair to remove globules of syrupy pastry, but somehow Hanabi managed it and Konohamaru noticed with admiration.
His shirt was sticking to his body like a second skin, an uncomfortable, sweat soaked second skin, but at least the sun was beginning to dip towards the tree line, taking with it the worst of the heat.
Kakashi sighed, casting a cursory glance around at his extended team. Sakura had taken point, moving ahead of their group, thankfully now fully clothed. Although Kakashi was sure that her haste to run ahead of the pack was more to do with her embarrassment over the earlier incident than eagerness to lead the way, she hadn't so much as looked at anyone since her impromptu striptease... He shook his head from side to side to dispel the unwanted image that laced across his vision. Who knew that large grey panties could be so...
"Amazing."
Exactly.
wait...
"Fantastic, awesome, incredible...unfair!"
"Huh?" Kakashi asked shaking his head more vigorously.
Genma drew up alongside him, matching him stride for stride as they wove quickly through the trees.
"I don't know how you do it."
Kakashi made a tsking sound low in the back of his throat. He really didn't have patience for this.
"A normal guy would buy a girl dinner, send her flowers, you know, a bit of romance, a bit of effort, and then after months of abuse to the wallet and long discussions about feelings, if you're lucky, you might get to see her with her top off." Genma's elbow jabbed him painfully in the ribs, "But you? Oh no, you just have to piss 'em off and the clothes go flying!"
Shrugging Kakashi answered, "It's a gift."
Smirking crookedly Genma inclined his head towards the shock of pink that could be seen darting from branch to branch in the distance. "Do you think she's okay?" There was a hint of concern hidden behind the layers of amusement.
Kakashi didn't immediately answer; instead, he dropped out the trees and leant against a thick trunk, he pulled out a senbon to dig the dried blood from under his sore nails. "She'll get over it, she'll probably get over it faster than Naruto." They looked over their shoulders to appraise the Kyuubi-container, who was quickly gaining on them and still sending waves of killing intent towards the back of Kakashi's head. "Sakura is a professional; she'll understand I was just doing my job as a team leader."
"What about your job as a friend?"
Kakashi brought a gloved hand up to rub the back of his head in a familiar soothing gesture. Genma had a point: what would happen if this breach of her trust was left to fester? If Kakashi was brutally honest, despitethe circumstances, the torture and the near death experiences, he had rather enjoyed the time they had spent together these last few days. He had become aware of the shift in their relationship the moment he found her, or rather, she found him, back at the Nakamizu Estate. And hadn't she acknowledged it in her furious tirade? Hadn't she acknowledged 'the thing' between them days ago when she had tried to kiss him on the hotel bed? Their bond had evolved into something new and uncertain. He was constantly aware of her; her presence a persistent prickle against his senses, an itch, an irritation...a 'thing' as Sakura had so eloquently put it. It was a fierce and unfamiliar sensation that left him feeling agitated, useless...a little bereft.
And then she'd taken off her clothes.
He didn't really know what to do about it. He didn't know if he wanted to encourage it.
"Stop over analysing Hatake. Just go make nice, yeah?" Genma cut in, plucking the grimy senbon from Kakashi's grasp and wrapping his lips around the blunt end of it.
Kakashi's nose wrinkled in distaste before admitting, "I don't really know what to say."
"Well you can ask her to fix that jaw of yours for a start. I can barely understand a thing you're saying."
Shizune wiped a shaking hand across her damp forehead and leaned against the large window for support, its coolness soothing against her burning skin. The surface fogged over with each hot exhalation, the room beyond distorting into an abstract swirl of muted neons. Gradually her heavy breathing evened, and only then did she turn to meet the measured stare of her mentor and Hokage.
Tsunade looked drawn, the usually faint lines around her eyes and mouth more pronounced than usual.
"Report," She said shortly, turning her attention back to the glass, and more importantly, to the girl hooked up to countless wires and bleeping monitors.
Shizune wiped away the condensation with her long sleeve and straightened herself. "The patient's condition is stable for now but for how long I cannot say. Her body is breaking down, the pressure of so much chakra in her system is causing massive internal failure. The addition of my chakra only seemed to speed up the process. It's as if...it's as if the chakra is eating her alive."
"So this chakra source is a foreign element?"
Shizune shook her head empathically. "No, not at all, the chakra is hers, but her body doesn't have the means to control the surplus. It's feels similar to how the Kyubbi's chakra attacks Naruto's system when released...but I'm afraid I can't tell you much more than that. Every time I try to do a thorough examination her vitals go critical. At the moment I am using medicinal methods to stabilize her."
"Are you able to wake her? How long do we have?" Tsunade asked, pacing the small observation room, her heels slapping out a beat against the flooring.
"I wouldn't like to try it just yet, I'd like to see if there is any improvement before attempting to wake her," Shizune bit down on her lip in frustration, "but it would be better to act soon, she could have hours left or it could be days. There's no way to tell."
Shizune winced as her mentors pacing accelerated, the snapping of her high sandals becoming louder.
"This is unacceptable, I need to know who our murdered shinobi were. I need to know if they were targeted or if they simply got in her way, I need to know what the hell these girls are doing in my village!" Tsunade bellowed, forcing Shizune to shrink against the glass.
Suddenly, a very uncharacteristically flushed Shikamaru burst into the room, skidding to a halt just in time to stop himself from face-planting into the Hokage's ample bosom.
Tsunade growled and, grabbing him by the collar, frog marched him back to the doorway; she turned to bellow down the corridor at the small group of ANBU guards stationed outside. "I told you no one! No one gets in here without my say so!" then focusing her fiery gaze back on the disorientated tactician she screamed at the top of her lungs, "What the hell do you want?"
Shikamaru's normally listless face was full of undisguised worry, and not only because he was being man-handled by the most terrifying women (next to his mother and Ino) he had ever known. Slowly Tsunade released her hold on him, her rage dissolving as she took in his grave expression and straightened his flak jacket.
"Well, what is it?" she prompted, exhaling through her teeth. She had a bad feeling about this; Nara Shikamaru did not get flustered without good reason, usually because getting upset was simply too much effort for the young special jounin. But, if the telltale pungent aroma of liquorice tobacco lingering around his collar was any indication, something had upset him very much.
Tsunade squared her shoulders.
Shikamaru's next words were honestly the last thing she wanted to hear. "Hokage-sama, we have a problem."
Umino Iruka squeezed through the tightly packed throng of impatient and perspiring ninja. He could feel the weight of their heavy irritation at being packed into the narrow corridors like sardines, and many of them, mission-worn and exhausted, did smell rather fishy.
However, once he was spotted working his way through the countless bodies, a low murmur of appreciation rippled through the group and they parted like an outgoing tide, pressing themselves flush against the walls to allow him access to the mission room.
"Thank the gods."
"Iruka-sensei, finally some answers!"
"This is getting ridiculous..."
Iruka allowed himself a small private smile, waving a hand above his head in acknowledgement. It was nice to be appreciated and even nicer to be appreciated for something he usually received so much stick about. Well this would teach all those uppity jounin not to underestimate the importance of admin. That thought almost completely dispersed the cloudy fatigue that had settled low across his shoulders.
More of the waiting shinobi parted before him, greeting him with warm and grateful smiles, and finally the subject of so much disorder came into view.
A small thatch of red spiky hair could be seen bobbing into view over a mountainous mound of paperwork, which spread out across a desk and swayed precariously against the breeze of a small electric fan. Piles of colour coded folders where stacked against the desk legs. A jumbo packet of metal staples and another of paperclips had fallen and now surrounded the desk in a wide semi-circle like a protective barrier of miniature caltrop'. Iruka wondered if this was intentional.
"B-bare with me Inuzuka-san...just one second...where is it? I swear I had it here just a minute ago."
The answering snarl was enough to let Iruka know that he would have to interfere if he wanted to avoid bloodshed.
A bandaged hand shot up between two particularly unstable looking paper towers to seize a small scrap of yellow from a third pile.
"Aha!"
It was inevitable. Iruka closed his eyes as the stack of paper buckled and slammed into one tower and then the other, the steady stream of air from the electric fan pulling the falling sheets up into a demented waltz.
"Oh...Gods...Oh my..." squeaked the poor desk clerk.
Iruka opened his eyes to see his replacement bent over the desk, her arm pinned firmly behind her back by Inuzuka Hana who was foaming at the mouth in agitation.
"Having trouble Amaya?"
"Iruka sensei!" the red-headed girl exclaimed, her eyes watering as her arm was pulled up further, her thin framed glasses bent into a diagonal across her nose, "Please, you have to do something, they're all crazy!"
Inhaling deeply Iruka summoned his most assertive teachers voice, "Inuzuka-san, you will not threaten, maim or otherwise terrorize the desk workers is that clear!?" immediately Hana's grip loosened and she stepped back, a sheepish expression appearing on her wolfish features, "As for the rest of you, please form an orderly queue and we'll see if we can get back on track!"
Iruka strode forwards, carefully avoiding the improvised caltrop barrier, and took up position on the far side of the desk next to the shaking form of Amaya. The young chunin radiated relief, rubbing her strained arm and readjusting the bandages encasing her fingers. Paper cuts, most likely.
Plucking up a small bundle of yellow papers from the white sea around his feet, Iruka licked his thumb and expertly flicked through them. Tsunade-sama seemed to think she needed to bribe him to achieve results, but he knew it was her way of showing appreciation. He had been awake for around sixty hours now and had taken on the workload of a least six men, but he didn't need offers of exquisitely hand carved furniture to motivate him when the situation in the village was this grave. Still...the thought of a sculpted oak armchair with lavish midnight blue upholstery sent a little shiver of pleasure through him.
"Right, Team's one to five?" he raised his gaze as the required teams pushed their way forward. "You are required up at the Hokage monument to work in rotation with the other teams catering to the civilians." He tugged a thin drawer open, extracted a red rubber stamp and printed 'approved' across the top, then rolled the sheets into a neat tube and tossed it to Hana. She smiled toothily and filed out with the other squads. Without pause Iruka's hands automatically worked through the chaos, immediately retrieving the next mission order, a deep red scroll. He stared at the seal which marked this mission as highest priority.
"Amaya, how long has this been sitting here?" he asked patiently. "This was delivered on behalf of the Hokage herself wasn't it?"
Amaya, who was now crouched by his feet trying to bunch the papers together into an orderly fashion, blanched and fixed him with glistening wide eyes. "I d-didn't even see i-it...oh...t-there's just been so much to do! ...and I just..."
Large fat tears started spilling down her face. Some people just couldn't handle the mission room.
"Well no harm done I am sure," Iruka soothed, adopting the tone he used when comforting hurt children. "We'll get it sent out right now. Why don't you...err...pick up those staples before someone loses a toe." He cracked his finger along the loose waxed seal, which came away easily after being kicked around the floor for God knows how long, and unfurled the scroll along the desk.
"Registration number: zero, one, two, six, one, two. Hyuuga Hinata. Registration number: zero, one, two, five, eight, seven. Hyuuga Neji." His two former students moved through the room with the easy grace that came so naturally to members of the Hyuuga clan. "You are to meet Nara Shikamaru at the Nara Estate as soon as possible. Here is the list of off duty ninja you are to gather on your way." He rerolled the scroll, stamped the approval and handed it to Neji who in return gave him a short perfunctory nod.
"Thank you Iruka-sensei." Hinata's gentle voice barely carried across the desk as she turned to follow her cousin.
Iruka continued working through the paperwork, approving new missions, the large majority of which included stationing units at various guard posts and generally heightening security throughout the village, but there was also cataloguing to be done and reports to be collected from ninja just returning from external missions. The work load gradually lessened. Iruka flew through the tasks until only two organised piles remained. One for outgoing and one for incoming. Amaya had stopped crying and was now sitting at the adjacent desk, quietly sorting the last of the folders into alphabetical order. He would really have to get someone to come and help her when he returned to manage the civilians. Letting a girl who usually did the photocopying or made the coffee, run the mission room had obviously been a grievous error...if her strange concept of 'alphabetical' was anything to go by.
Finally Iruka folded up the completed roster and glanced at the eight names still outstanding; the list of ninja who had not made it home from their missions yet.
Naruto, Sakura, Kakashi and Sai were there, their names automatically jumping out at Iruka, he felt an immediate rush of relief that at least the bodies couldn't have been theirs, Kakashi's dog ruining his beloved desk had alleviated that concern. He just hoped they were safe. Underneath were the names of four others who should've reported in by now, they were two days over their scheduled return. Hopefully these names would help Tsunade-sama identify the bodies. The idea that the threat they were preparing so diligently for was already in the village sent a shudder of unease through him.
She felt him slowly gaining on her, his familiar white hot chakra pressing at the back of her skull. But Sakura would not slow down for him, not a chance in hell. It was immature but she quickened her pace anyway, darting up through the branches and slipping through breaks in the foliage in the hope that he would get the message. She did not want to speak to him. Or anyone else for that matter. He caught up with her nonetheless, his long strides and quick reflexes putting him alongside her in a matter of seconds. She felt heat creep up her neck and around her cheeks but continued to stare resolutely ahead. She subtly tried to hitch up her slipping breast bindings, in her hasty retreat earlier she hadn't had time to dress properly.
If he expected her to acknowledge him he had another thing coming.
Please not yet, please just leave me alone. Just let me get home...just a few miles more of silence.
If he could hear the message she was trying to send him telepathically, he gave no indication. The dull smack of his sandaled feet against the branches following hers only a split second later. Why wasn't he saying anything? Her teeth ground together in frustration. If he was going to be obnoxious and interrupt her pitiful self-loathing then he could at least say what he was going to say and then leave. her. alone.
"Sakura..."
Great, he was using that we've-got-something-important-to-discuss tone of voice. He was serious...and lisping a little. If he kept this professional then perhaps it wouldn't be so bad, at some point she would have to address the problem and wasn't it better to get it out the way?
'So you got an eyeful of underneath my underneath and I got a bit fresh with your genjutsu...no worries, it was all in a day's work, yeah?'
Heat rushed back into her face with renewed vigour, she felt him draw closer when a strangled sob escaped her. As long as he stayed away from the topic of her...
Emotional slip up? Moment of lunacy?
'Love confession?' something traitorous whispered in the back of her mind.
She wasn't sure what it was but she did not want to talk about that. If she ignored it, it would go away. Unlike him.
He continued on in a more casual drawl, the impediment in his speech becoming more obvious, "...I wanted to talk about what you said– "
fuck fuck fuck!
"–and I want you to know that I do trust you, I trust you with my life. However, I don't trust our ememy. I needed to be sure, Sakura." He sounded sincere. Sakura realised that this was an apology.
The anxious knot in her stomach loosened a little and a palpable sense of relief ran through her limbs.
"I understand," she said shortly "you were only doing your job, but for an Elite, you were so damn clumsy about it! I feel like you are always underestimating me, you should know by now that only high-level forms of genjutsu work on me. I can't believe you would try and get away with something so rudimentary...and inappropriate. I deserve more respect than that."
In her periphery she saw him lift his hands in a mollifying gesture, "I know. Can we just put it down to lack of proper sleep and my charming idiosyncrasies?"
Sakura lifted her nose in the air and flicked her hair back dismissively.
"Sakura, I promise on my honour as a shinobi, that next time I trap you in a genjutsu it will be of the most horrific and aggressive type imaginable. I will not underestimate you again."
She turned to regard the man moving beside her with a cool look and instantly regretted it. His hand was on his chest, held in a mock salute, his visible eye was almost swollen closed and an ugly bruise was blooming above his mask, turning darker where it disappeared beneath the fabric. The mask itself was looking tight and askew due to the unnatural bulge along the right side of his jaw.
If Sakura was a lesser person she would have left him like that, she would have gladly let him haul himself over to the hospital she knew he hated so much and would have watched with undisguised glee as inexperienced trainee medics attempted to get that infernal mask off him.
But Sakura was Sakura. And Sakura was a medic. She grumbled unintelligibly before spinning on a dime and dropping through the trees onto the forest floor. Unsurprisingly Kakashi landed next to her only a moment later.
"Come here and I'll heal you." She tried her best to maintain a detached wall of superiority, but concern was quickly slipping through the cracks.
Overhead the rest of the team sailed by, followed by the ninken, Kakashi's lofty wave signalling them to continue.
Naruto's growled warning of "Molest her again and I'll kill you!" floated down on a warm breeze before he was tugged away by Genma.
Sakura felt a small spike of trepidation needle her in the chest at the prospect of being alone in the woods with Kakashi again. Was he intending to confront her about...the thing now that they were alone?
She wrung her hands together nervously before asking, what she hoped, would throw him off balance.
"Mask off please."
His head tilted sideways in incredulity as if she has just asked him to remove his head.
"Kakashi, if you want to have some inexperienced junior medic poking you in the face then by all means, carry on. From the look of the swelling I would say that you have a mandibular fracture but without checking I can't be sure. The impact of my fist hitting your face could have caused a network of smaller fractures to run up towards your eye socket, giving you that unattractive squint you are sporting right now." Kakashi managed to look slightly affronted through said unattractive squint. "If left untreated, pressure could build up behind your eye and render you blind. I need the mask off to check for those tiny spidery fractures."
Kakashi still showed no sign of complying; his body language told her that his fight or flight instinct was kicking in. His lackadaisical stance was wider, his feet planted slightly further apart, his shoulders shifting minutely.
She exhaled through her teeth, clucking her tongue impatiently, "I won't look you silly baby!"
Turning her back on him she slipped a hand down her top, yanking loose an end of her ill-fitting breast bindings, she began to wriggle them free, pulling them into a messy bundle around her neck. She tugged the cotton bandages up over her face, wrinkling her nose at the smell of the sweat wet fabric she secured them tightly around her eyes. Pleased that she was sufficiently blind she spun back towards him and held her hands out expectantly.
The silence was unbearably long, she began to feel awkward and exposed without the most important of her senses. What if he had just left her there? Standing like a lemon in the middle of the forest with her breast wrappings secured around her head? She fought the urge to peak, to make sure she hadn't been left alone.
Kakashi watched Sakura for a long time, forcing his gaze to stay above her collar bone. He tried to ignore the gentle rise and fall of her chest that looked fuller without the constriction of her wrappings. He tried to ignore that her sweat soaked shirt was clinging to those gentle curves. He tried to ignore the flashbacks that once again laced across his vision; her breasts had looked pale, firm yet supple under the dappled sunlight when she had thrown her clothes into his lap. He ignored the heat that licked up his spine. He looped his index finger into the rim of his mask and tugged it down around his throat.
Sakura had almost given up. She was about to tear off the makeshift blindfold and smack him in the face again for being so childish...although it was unlikely she'd get so lucky a second time. She was trying to accept his apology, trying to put this whole incident behind them before they entered the Village gates. This healing session was important; if he accepted her help it meant he trusted her again, which meant she could trust him again. If she did this then they could go back to how it was before. She would be Sakura the hot tempered teammate again, Sakura the mednin. Nothing would have changed. They could go back to normal. An understanding and clarity filled her thoughts at that moment. This was about so much more than healing her team leader. It was about fixing whatever had gone wrong between them, not only in the woods a few hours ago, but before then. Kakashi had planned this; he was giving her a chance to get them back on track.
Leader and subordinate. Kakashi-sensei and Sakura-chan. Normal.
She felt simultaneously relieved and disappointed. But it was the right thing to do.
She was just about to voice her impatience when his long rough fingers enveloped hers, his thumbs tracing small circles against her wrists. The contact was so sudden and unannounced that a sharp hiss left her lips unchecked, and then he was guiding her hands upward, very slowly. His gloves were soft against her knuckles, the leather warm.
Turning her wrist gently he pressed her open palms flat against his face, securing them in place with his much larger hands. Sakura's breath caught in her throat has his moved his grip down to her forearms, the light scrap of his blunt nails over her hot skin caused her skin to jump and tingle. She would have thought he was doing it deliberately if he were anyone else. She swallowed dry and splayed her fingers across his jaw and cheek carefully, the sensitive pads of her fingers pushing at a rough speckling of stubble. She shut out her wayward thoughts, fought the compulsion to let her fingers explore every contour of his face in the hope that it would shed some light on the great mystery that was Kakashi and channelled her energy. She felt rather than saw the light of her chakra seeping into his skin and minute flinch he gave against her as the healing process began. The fine lattice of fractures sealed, the swelling lessened, and during it all she was aware of the steady pounding of his pulse against her pinkie fingers.
Her task finished, she gave into temptation and smoothed her hands across his face and then ran a finger from the bridge of his nose to the tip, poking him lightly on the end and giving him a shaky smile.
"All done," She chimed pleasantly, "they'll be a tiny bit of bruising because I can't see to work, but nothing too grievous."
"Thank you." His voice was bright and clear without the very slight dampening of the mask, he sounded unfamiliar, his inflections crisper...he sounded closer than usual. Sakura wanted desperately to see him; her fingers itched to rip the bindings from her face.
"No problem." She carefully tried to extricate herself from his grip, frowning under the cloth when his hands wouldn't budge.
There was a ghosting of his warm breath against her lips, a quiet whisper of a sigh that sounded like a decision being made or hastily ignored, and then a sudden heat around her cheeks as his hands moved from her arms to frame her face. Sakura had barely registered his movement when his mouth was suddenly pressing against hers, the bristly coarseness of the stubble on his chin causing her mouth to open in a surprised gasp. A low purr that sounded positively feline reverberated around her as Kakashi took this as a sign of acquiescence to deepen the kiss, his tongue ran into her mouth, his fingers stroking languidly around the shell of her ear.
Sakura's heart suddenly shot into overdrive, a deep swell of confused arousal pulling tight in her abdomen. Her fingers were weaving into the mask cowling around his throat...whether to push him away or pull him closer she couldn't quite decide.
It was closer.
Definitely closer.
Her own tongue met his in defiance, wet and warm, her hands dipped down to run over his shirt, pulling and pinching. She heard herself moan, low and needy. The sound someone else would make. Someone older and bolder.
And then the proverbial rug was snatched out from under her; he disappeared.
Her breath was coming in short erratic gasps. Her fingers frantically tugged away the fabric; the warm orange glow of the sunlight filtering through the trees bloomed to meet her astonished gaze. She was blushing furiously, her chest was heaving...she wound her fingers into the mess of bandages, if only to keep them occupied. She found herself adrift, unable to string a sentence together. She looked at him beseechingly.
Of course he had his mask back on, his jaw and eye once again looking like they were in proportion to the fest of his face, only a slight reddening around his eye indicated a recent injury. His hands were stuffed in his pockets. He looked bored.
How could her perception have been so wrong? there she had been, thinking that he was using their little healing session as a way to re-establish their respective roles and to re-establish trust...when really he was using it as an opportunity to stick his tongue down her throat! How was this helping matters?
Some genius he was. Now she was even more confused.
She finally found a voice, but it sounded nothing like her own, "W-what the hell...What the hell Kakashi!?"
Kakashi held up a single finger, turning to meet Yamato as he flew down from the trees to stand between them, he was breathing as hard as Sakura.
"Kakashi, the dogs, they've sensed something up ahead...something big."
Kakashi cocked his head to one side in question. "Hm? What kind of big?"
"A huge amount of chakra, just south of here, in the Nara forest."
Kakashi nodded gesturing widely with one hand. "Lead the way."
Yamato leapt back into the trees leaving Kakashi and Sakura to trail after him.
Sakura collected herself quickly pulling chakra into her feet, she sprung into the canopy a moment after Kakashi, struggling to keep up with the pace Yamato was setting.
"Are you going to tell me what that was about?" she grumbled flatly, finding it hard to look him in the eye.
Of course he didn't answer her. She really wanted to punch him again.
"Naruto told you not to molest me...he will kill you if he finds out." Sakura whispered heatedly at the back of his neck.
Kakashi's head tilted towards her, his voice level and low and ever so slightly muffled again.
"Then I'll just have to trust that you won't tell him."
Sakura couldn't restrain the pleading whimper that escaped her, nor the overwhelming sensation that she was suddenly in over her head. She pushed down the rising panic that was demanding her to stop, demanding to know what the hell he was playing at. Instead she focused her attention on the steady rhythm of her footfalls and followed after her ex-sensei.
AN: Caltrop are those spikey ninja throw-y down-y things.
Hope you liked this one! ;)