Kankuro's internal clock was nearly foolproof. Despite the new sleeping circumstances, he woke up right on cue between two and three in the morning. He lifted his arms above his head and yawned while he stretched.

"Hmmm."

He turned quickly to see what had made the sound. The panic he felt for a split second quickly subsided as he once again realized his exact circumstances...that there was another shinobi in the bed with him.

I've got to get going, he thought to himself. Sai had, after all, graciously offered to take the first shift even after the long trek from the Leaf to get here.

He dressed in his villager's garb and made his way out the door. If anyone had accidentally seen him, he would have looked just as normal as any other person. The only strange thing that might catch someone's attention if he was seen was the current time of day. After all, there weren't too many people - villagers or not - out at this time of night.

Kankuro walked less than ten minutes before he heard the anticipated bird call. He returned it with a call of his own before continuing to walk directly towards the origin of the sound.

Sai swooped down from a tree and landed next to his relief.

"Anything happen?" Kankuro asked.

"No, nothing," Sai replied. "But then again, I didn't expect much. I located the building where ANBU said Kanoshi supposedly lives. It's just up that hill." He pointed in the general direction of 2 o'clock from where they were standing. "No signs of life...no lights, no one entered or left."

"Got it," acknowledged Kankuro. "I'll take it from here."

In a twist of ink barely visible in the darkness of the night, Sai disappeared leaving Kankuro on his own for at least the next third of a day.

OlOlOlOlOlOlO

Sai arrived back at the house they would call homebase for the duration of the mission. As he expected, it was dark and not a sound could be heard. He stood in the living room and stared at the two bedroom doors.

He had already guessed the situation, but just to be sure, he opened the door on the right and peered in...there was Jento taking up the entire bed. He repeated his actions on the door to the left. Inside, Sakura slept soundly.

I guess I'm on the couch, he thought to himself.

He showered, then made himself as comfortable as he could on the couch. After some tossing and turning, he drifted off...

"Sai!" Sakura shouted. She was peering over him, both of her hands on her hips.

He popped up in a frenzy and immediately took note that it was now light outside.

"Oh, Sakura. It's you. What's wrong?" he asked sleepily. He felt as though he had just gone to sleep, though the daylight streaming around the edges of the closed blinds meant that it had been at least a few hours since he had laid down.

"There is no way you are going to get any good, solid sleep here on the couch...not to mention where are Jento and I supposed to go while you are out here?" Sakura asked.

"I arrived back here in the middle of the night and didn't want to disturb either one of you. Well...actually, even if I had wanted to take half of Jento's bed, there was no way I was going to fit...," Sai started to explain.

"Sai, how long have we been teammates?" Sakura asked.

"Um, for about...," he said as he tried to count the exact amount of time it had been.

"What I'm trying to say is...next time, just come to the bed. I know you wouldn't be as comfortable with Jento since you don't know him that well, but we're friends and we've slept side-by-side many times," Sakura said.

"Are you sure?" Sai asked.

"Of course! If Kankuro can sleep in the same bed as me, you most certainly can," Sakura added.

"What?" Sai asked even though he had clearly heard what had just been said. "You let Kankuro sleep in the bed with you?"

"Sure, why not?" she asked. "The couch looks dreadfully uncomfortable and it wasn't fair that I took the bed. Jento was already hogging his bed. And Kankuro is my friend, too."

"Sakura, are you sure that was a wise choice?" Sai asked.

"I don't get you, Sai," she said. "Why would it be ok for you, but not for Kankuro?"

"Sakura, you really don't know? Kankuro is a man after all," Sai said.

"And...so are you," she added.

Sai was at a loss. He was trying not to be blunt. He recognized that his was a delicate conversation, but also knew that he wasn't the best person to be doing this. Unfortunately, there was no one else who could do it at the current time.

He exhaled in frustration and decided just to say it straight. "Sakura, you like him, don't you?"

"Sure, I like him. Like I said, we're friends," Sakura answered.

"No, I mean like-like. You have feelings for him...romantic feelings," Sai clarified.

Sakura was taken aback. She hadn't realized that her recent increased interest in Kankuro had been noticeable to anyone.

"Um...I," she started. "Ok, I admit it. I do feel something for him. I'm not sure what it is yet though. Right now, we're still strictly platonic. After all, why should my one-sided thoughts be..."

"He feels the same way, you know," Sai interrupted. "It's not one-sided."

Sakura didn't reply at first.

"He does?" she questioned.

"I don't know if he knows what it is yet either," said Sai. "But yes, he has taken a liking to you as well."

Sakura turned a nice shade of pink.

"I don't have a problem with you two being together...now or in the future, as a crush or much more than that. Just be careful, Sakura. He is a great guy, but we are on a mission here. And he is from another village, too. I just don't want to see you get hurt and I don't want to see this mission fail."

"Don't worry, Sai. I hear you loud and clear. I promise you the mission will be my first priority," said Sakura.

Sai nodded at his friend and smiled. "Good enough for me," he said.

"Now get your butt to the bed!" she ordered him, pointing to the bedroom she slept in last night.

"Ok, ok," he said quickly making his way into the bedroom.

OlOlOlOlOlOlO

The first few days were full of nothing much. The three shinobi who were assigned to watch duty did their due diligence, but nothing was ever seen or heard around the small cottage near the top of the hill.

It was mid-morning on the fourth day when Jento noted a strange tapping noise was coming from the window. He peeked around the shade and saw a medium-sized bird pecking at the window.

"Um, Sakura?" Jento said. "I think there's a bird..."

"There's a messenger bird?" she questioned. She quickly opened the door to the outside and went directly for the window Jento had been peering through. The bird didn't move (as it had been trained not to) as Sakura carefully removed the message strapped onto its chest.

"Go ahead back," she told the bird. "Sai's on this mission and we'll send one of his creatures if we need to send something." With that, the bird flew away.

She unfurled the small scroll and read it as she walked back into the house.

"What does it say?" Jento asked.

Just then, the door to the bedroom opened and Sai emerged.

"Did you get a message?" he asked.

"Yes," she said in a serious tone. "And it's not good news."

"What do you mean?" asked Sai.

"The enemy we think is Kanoshi, well, two days ago, it seems he struck again," said Sakura.

"Impossible," said Sai. "We've been watching that house 24 hours a day."

"We must be missing something," Sakura added. "We need to regroup and discuss what we need to do moving forward. What we are doing now just isn't cutting it."

"Perhaps I should go with you when you relieve Kankuro in a few hours," suggested Sai.

Sakura thought for a few seconds. "Better yet, I'm just going to go get Kankuro and bring him back. If that is really Kanoshi's house...and I do trust the ANBU on that one...he obviously has other ways to move around other than blatantly going in and out the front door. Us maintaining a watch on his home hasn't done a thing for us."

Sai nodded. "Agreed."

OlOlOlOlOlOlO

In the early afternoon, the four shinobi who were on the mission finally sat together for the first time in days.

"I still don't know if I'm comfortable with this," admitted Kankuro. "Someone should be out there watching that house."

"I think not having someone there is low risk at the moment," said Sai.

"We received a message from the Leaf earlier today stating that the enemy has struck again...and it was during a time we were actively watching the house. There are several possibilities as to why we didn't see a thing," said Sakura. "This could be the wrong house, but like I've already explained to Sai, I am choosing to believe that our ANBU did their jobs and had pretty conclusive evidence that this is the right place."

"There is always the possibility that the man they were watching does live there, but that he is not the puppet jutsu user we've been searching for," said Sai.

"There's that and there is also the possibility that we have the right man, the right house, and that there is another exit somewhere else that allows him to come and go as he pleases," said Sakura.

Kankuro pounded his fist on the table. "If that's the case, we'd just be wasting our time watching the place from afar."

"Which is why we are here talking," added Sakura, as if it wasn't already obvious.

Jento wasn't really part of the main conversation. He was in the room, but sat off to one side reading. It wasn't that he wasn't interested, but he had learned by now that even with the good suggestions or information he might have, it wasn't worth butting in at the wrong time lest he be ignored again. However, the time for him to pipe in was fast approaching.

"The way I see it...," Jento started. The intro quickly garnered the attention of the three veterans. "We've got two options. We either storm the house or..." He paused. "I'm not really sure how this would work, but we could..."

"Spit it out already!" Kankuro insisted.

"It's just that...it's going to make this mission a little long and drawn out," Jento explained.

"What is it?" Sai questioned.

"We could lure him out," explained Jento. "The villagers in town don't know much about this man, but from them we did garner the bits of information that we have today. The man we know as Kanoshi must come out now and again else the villagers would know nothing. We need to show our faces...not hide them away like we have been. That way there is a level of comfort amongst the villagers and possibly this enemy. We could befriend him and possibly gather additional information that might help us in the future. We still don't know a lot...certainly not enough to say for sure that this is the man who has been attacking those remote locations or even why he is doing it."

Sakura sighed loudly. "This is going to take forever," she lamented.

"Can you think of something better?" Kankuro asked her.

"No, I guess not," she replied. "So how are we going to do this?"

Kankuro thought for a second. "I still think Jento should remain hidden inside the house." He looked over at Jento and received a nod in return.

"I will look for a job in the village," said Sakura. "I'll pick a place where most villagers need to go to at least every once in a while...like a market or something like that. Oh, and I'll tell the owners of this house that a couple of friends are coming to visit for a while so they aren't surprised by the new faces they see."

"I'm going to make friends with the people in town who might have something to do with puppetry," stated Kankuro. "Perhaps I'll find a job as well, but we know that he is a puppet jutsu user and that means that on occasion, he may need to buy supplies. Wood, hardware...things like that."

"What about you, Sai?" Sakura asked.

"It seems that you two have the village covered. I think I am going to keep watching the house," said Sai.

"But Sai, what good will that do?" Sakura questioned.

Sai smiled. "I'm quite a good artist," he started. "I'm sure the trees and natural surroundings of that area will make for some nice drawings. Perhaps my presence in the area will force something."

"Oh, I see," said Jento. "You are going to keep watch, but do it out in the open so that if he's in there, he'll know you are outside."

"If nothing else, I may raise his curiousity," said Sai.

"We start tomorrow," said Kankuro. "For now, get a good night's rest."

"Uh, Sakura?" Sai asked.

"Hm?" she replied.

"Since we are all here at the same time...who is going to sleep in the bed with you tonight?"