..Chapter Seventeen..
..
.
..
The evening sun slowly peaked beyond the veil of the forest edge. Light flickered along her chest, thighs and calves as her booted feet brought about the sound of dirt sliding in friction between her soles and the surface below. Her knees bent in a crouch to cushion her landing. Her gloved fingertips touched, barely brushing, the flat surface of stone which made up a cliffy edge under her. Green orbs shifted to her right as the sound of her partner arriving just after her own landing became noticeable.
She moved to stand slowly as he pointed to a location in the distance. Her eyes drifted to the falls peaking out above the forest tips.
"That it?" she asked, hands moving to her hands hips while her partner moved to sit and get comfortable for a moment.
He nodded, digging through his backpack. "Yeah, we should be able to make it there in ten minutes or so if we keep an even pace."
She didn't say anything; not that she needed to. Kakashi would know she'd heard him--he always seemed to.
She reached up up to push aside a few strands of pink while her face remained impassive. She looked on at the falls in the distance as she would while analyzing a careful piece of evidence. It looked safe and serene, a calm embodiment of nature constructed by the world around it. That's what it looked like anyway. Sakura knew better. And high level shinobi with a decent set of eyes, or a Sharingan, knew better. The falls were a lie, a falsehood visually come to life meant to keep the average passerby from snooping. She had no doubt those who got too close were taken care off efficiently and effectively.
"Do we need to worry about speaking freely here, you think?" she asked, turning to him with a curious look.
Kakashi busied himself with going through his bag and looking for the civilian disguise he'd been provided for this mission. "No, they won't be patrolling this far out. Halfway there we're going to need to act different. Me more the prisoner and you more the victorious rogue nin who has escaped Konoha."
She nodded and watched as he stood up with what clothing he'd gathered from his bag and made way to go into the forest behind them to change. Her eyes narrowed on the tattoo on his arm. "Kakashi... what about that?" she pointed to the mark that symbolized he was ANBU.
"You'll have to remove it when I come back." He turned to look at her, brow raised. "You can, can't you?"
She nodded. "I was just making sure, is all."
Without much else to say he turned his back and disappeared into the brush to do as he planned.
Sakura turned her head to look back on at the falls while moving to sit on the edge of the cliff. She grunted, shifting about so her legs hung over and stared off at the distance. Her hands half gathered together, fingers loose on her lap. Her mind drifted, thinking on the mission, the evening before and the morning earlier today.
At least it wasn't storming anymore. That could make their arrival a tad problematic. She wasn't fond of dealing with enemy nin in hazardous conditions. She wasn't sure she would have to fight; but, it might happen depending on whether or not the guards/grunts let them in to see the shinobi running the place straight off. She wasn't really afraid so much as she was apprehensive. In these past few months she'd grown use to these missions, the ones that had her pretending to be something she wasn't. It never really got easier to deal with, just easier to accomplish.
She gave a soft, momentary yawn; not one made out of sleepiness, but more out of traveling so far and finally being made to sit.
Kakashi was true to his word and so she remained true to her own. He quit ignoring her and she didn't pressure him. All of what had occurred, all of that which had been building up over the past few months, all of it would be dealt with later. This was a mission. There wasn't any time to act like a love-struck teenagers. Both of them had to be in complete focus for the task ahead. If either were too busy dealing with their own dramatic issues someone could get killed. They both knew it.
However, Sakura considered herself a shinobi first and a woman second. The woman in her didn't exactly stop wanting to talk about it. That part of her wanted answers and some kind of resolution. It wondered where they stood after last night, if there was any chance of a relationship happening.
No shinobi life was easy. She could acknowledge that. Sasuke was a prime example of that very fact. When she'd been a girl, even learning that about him, she'd been prepared to deal with his demons. As a woman, now in love with a man who obviously had far deeper ones, she was prepared for it still. This waiting game was going to eat at her, she knew. But, she had to sit it out. She would. It wasn't like time would be a factor after this was over. For now, having a level of normalcy with him was far better than anything else; that at least made dealing with her questions easier to hold off on.
"Ready?" a voice called from behind.
Sakura turned slightly where she sat, half drawing her right calve back onto the flat top. Her right hand moved to give her support as she looked up at him in the drifting sunlight.
His clothing was around poverty level ranking. The shirt must have been white before, but now gave off a brown, stained discoloration. The sleeves were ripped off completely, leaving the tattered ends to stop at his shoulders. The pants were an ugly brown, stopping midcalve. He was shoeless; which, made sense. His mask was gone, his eyes both uncovered. Some smudges of dirt he'd obviously done up himself coated the visible parts of his body. Both eyes were black, leaving no immediate sign of the Sharingan.
Everything that classified him as a shinobi was gone and tucked under his arm. His sandals dangled from his grasping hand. The final piece that identified him as a nin was the mark of the ANBU on his upper bicep.
Her nose wrinkled at the attire. "Are you trying to look like a bum or a civilian?"
He raised a brow. "It's rather far from Konoha. Do you think my care would have been well given the situation?"
She frowned. "It looks like I drug you kicking and screaming the whole way..."
He sighed as he stuffed his things into his bag. "I doubt my 'guard' would have allowed me a bath or a wash of my clothes. You would have taken my shoes to keep me from going very far. Much of it make sense, bum or not."
"I suppose..." she agreed moving to face him in a cross-legged position. She said nothing more while waiting for him to place himself next to her so she could remove the tattoo. When he did she reached up with her hands, a warm glow of green chakra surrounding them. She paused. "Ready?"
"Not really," he muttered. "But, it has to be done."
"You can have it replaced once we get home.." she added softly, noting his irritation. He'd have to, actually.
"Go on and do it," he answered while giving a small wave of his hand for her to hurry up.
Sakura resisted the urge to sigh and turned her focus to his arm so she could work. The warm glow wrapped about his bicep as her flesh touched against his own.
She paused before starting and said, "This might hurt some, just so you know.." She exhaled when he didn't reply, not that she was terribly surprised, and began the process of removing the ink from his skin. She watched carefully whilst the blackened, liquidy mess coiled into blobs as she drew it from his pours and the needle pricked holes where the tattoo had been etched. Left behind, a faint, red-pink reminder of what was once there began to appear. She would take care of that after she was done with the first part.
Her eyes darted up to gauge his features while her body went into autopilot and did the rest of what she considered a simple procedure. At first glance he appeared serene and unaffected. Long lashes rested just above his cheeks in a relaxed fashion. His lips were slightly parted, softly, as he allowed breath and nothing wholly seemed out of place. Still, to the careful observer, you could tell it pained him in some way; if not physically then perhaps mentally.
The tattoo was something of a symbol. One felt proud of it, as if having accomplished things other shinobi could not or would not dare for any number of reasons. After graduation, she couldn't imagine not having it, much less having it removed. Despite the requirements of the mark, the unit, the symbol became apart of who you were as much as the changes that personified into yourself did. She didn't know if all who were in the unit felt this way; however, she was fairly certain Kakashi shared her sentiments, even if neither ever voiced the viewpoint.
She looked down at her work and realized it was nearly done. Her hands pulled away from the area, retaining the mess of what was ink in her glowing grasp. Her hands moved to the side and allowed it to dump in a small splatter in the ground below. It was after this she went to work on removing the redness from his arm.
"You ok?" she hazarded to ask softly.
"Yeah," he said in reply, no real emotion backing the response.
She gave a small nod as she finished off her work. "I'm all done. You should feel a small sensation there for about an hour; but, it shouldn't be any bigger than the feeling you'd get from a minor scrape after having scabbed over." She stood up the same moment he began to and dusted off, inadvertently mimicking his movements.
"I'm sure I can handle that," he said as he grabbed his things. "Do you want to eat before we go?" His face was more impassive than it had ever been. She could only assume it was because he was now not only down his mask, but a defining part of his own history as well.
Still, she shrugged off the feeling to nag him about it and turned her eyes to the distance, the falls, shielding them only in slight with her hand on her brow. "No, I think that large lunch we had was a good idea. I'm still full from that. You?"
"Same."
"I suppose we'd better get going." Her eyes turned to him. "I guess this is the point where we make sure there's nothing left to be said. From here on out it's game time, right?"
"Right."
Her lips pursed as she took that information in. Her eyes flickered to the forest below, her keen ears picked up on the tumbling sounds of mother nature and she paused to burn the smells around her into her memory while she prepared the jumble of thoughts in her head to come forth from betwixt her lips.
"I know I said I was worried... and I meant it. This is big for me.. but, despite that.. I want you to know I wouldn't feel really ready for this type of mission, that is... being on this side of it, if it hadn't been for all you've done for me.
"I'm scared, I won't lie to you; but, I think I'm more scared for your safety than anything else. I know you can handle it, you always do that so well--far better than me, anyway... And I shouldn't be that scared or worried... but... I am.
"Still, regardless, I have your back. And no matter what happens, I'll do my best to live up to all you've given me, as both your student and as your partner. I don't want to be one who always depends on you. So... even if you don't, know that it's ok, it's good for me, if you have to depend on me a little.."
There was that long silence afterward, the one that always seems to permeate the air once someone says something that has a level of depth that really requires the listener to think of a reply, if any. Sakura knew that. And if, in the end, he did nothing more than nod, she'd be ok with that. She'd be ok with that because it was Kakashi. It was because it was him, and not someone else, that she'd said it to begin with.
And he did, nod that is. His eyes shut slowly, that she could see from her peripheral vision, and his head relaxed down in that signal that he acknowledged her words. She couldn't do anymore but assume that was the end of it. With a soft smile she readied herself for the plunge downward. That is, until a hand gripped her arm, stilling her completely.
"I will," she heard him say. Her eyes, her head, turned to his, locking. "I want you to know I'll be depending on you..." ...and maybe, his eyes said, I'm a little scared as well. Maybe, the look went on to tell her in that way she had come to read, I'm just a little scared not because I think you'll screw up and I'll be the one with the short end of the kunai, but because I wish you didn't have to do this, that you didn't have to be the one to stand by and watch. He was telling her, in his own way... that what she had to do was harder, and he knew that because he'd been the one not too long ago who had to stand by and watch her.
It was her turn to nod.
The mood wasn't gone entirely, not even after they made the jump below, not even after Sakura tied his bindings and returned to her ANBU training skills to safely pull off the missing-nin-with-a-prisoner act. She said nothing while her eyes remained fixed on his back and they slowly made their way to towards the base...
ooo
By the time they were deep enough in and standing before the massive falls night was thickly summoned. The only presence of light, which blanketed in the boughs above, was the reflective aura of the sun bouncing off her lover the moon.
Sakura's face remained impassive as she kept her hard-edged guise up. Green pools glared, harshly into Kakashi's back as she snapped off an order, "Stop." Immediately, he ceased movement and stood before her, hunched. "Kneel," she muttered, eyes narrowed. Slowly, he did so. Her keen eyes roved the environment around them. Her senses sharpened, acutely, as she relaxed her form, ready and waiting for the two presences she felt to appear before her. She showed no signs of going for a weapon. Thankfully, the didn't know yet that she didn't need one given her taijutsu skills and Tsunade's harsh training regime with chakra control.
In a flash, almost too fast for her eyes to read, they were before her--both male. The two donned themselves in similar attire: white and camo browns. The scratched out symbol for Rock on their headbands told her they were from Earth County and its respective village. She could only assume they'd either gone rogue and met here, or, they'd went rogue at the same time and knew each other before arriving at the base. Both mattered little to her. She could only blame it on her over-active mind.
Both were dark skinned, from what she could see of their half covered faces and Arabian-wear, and both had the same black strands. Actually, if they dressed exactly alike and never spoke, she'd be hard pressed to tell them apart.
"State you business, shinobi of Konoha.," the left one gruffly bit off.
"Quickly," the right added.
Ok, nevermind, even when they spoke she could hardly tell them apart. Shadow clone or twins? One had to wonder. Despite her wandering mind, her hard features did not change. Her tone remained as a reflection of her expression. "I'm here to speak with whoever's in charge. I want in and I have something he might want."
The two males glanced between each other and the right looked at her, responding, "You're rogue from Konoha?"
She nodded.
"Why isn't you headband nicked?"
She frowned as if insulted, playing her role. "I've been traveling nearly nonstop with hunter nins on my back for days with a prisoner while I tried to lose their trail. Do you honestly think I had time to do something so trivial?"
They immediately tensed up the moment she said 'hunter' and 'nin' in the same sentence together. Both snappishly drew forth a kunai and a short sword. The left one spoke up, tone heated as he gripped the kunai before her, "They were trailing you?"
"No, because it's everyday a nin goes rogue, takes a prisoner and leaves her village. They didn't mind at all," she deadpanned seriously, making both give her a scrutinizing look. She frowned again, this time looking aggressive. "Do I look like an idiot to you? Do you think it would be in my vested interest to lead ANBU here? Or can you not see well enough?" she asked heatedly, looking ready to knock heads and cut throats as she motioned to her attire.
Both paused, as if considering before slowly lowering their weapons.
Right spoke up. "What are you offering the boss?" She could almost hear the curiosity, the need to take whatever 'it' was. It didn't take a nin to recognize that tone. This was generally the prime moment in any good movie or novel where the bad guys tried to steal the prize and glory for themselves.
She smirked and lowered her lids. "I wasn't born yesterday, Rock nin. Lead the way."
The left chuckled, eyes narrowing. "You're cute girlie... but ah... we don't let outsiders in without some kinda penance. 'Sides, boss don't like being bothered with nin he ain't got time to waste on."
"That's right," his partner, chimed in, "so... ah, how about you give us what you got and we'll...ah... talk to the boss for ya, eh?"
Ok, so, usually, this is the part where the 'hero' of the story fires back with some witty comment, more banter ensues, and then at one point or another the 'bad guy(s)' makes a stupid move and the 'hero' show 'em what's what.
Usually.
Sakura, wasn't very aware of this novelistic approach, nor did she care nearly as much for it as her dear teammate Sai and those blasted mangas he so loved to read and tell her about. So, naturally, her patience was thinning and she terribly wanted to simply skip with the usual prebattle warnings and get right to it.
Simply put, she took a small page from Sasuke and Naruto's book and took action. Her fist flew at the left before the right could even form thought. His partner was, literally, thrown by the weight of her chakra enflamed limb and sent smashing into the flat stone, rock encrusted wall behind him near the base of the faux falls. The sound crumbled in the air as she dusted off her leather covered digits and scrutinized her work. Next to her she sensed the fear washing over the remaining shinobi. Her speed had vastly improved since working with Kakashi; so much so, apparently, that even this nin--perhaps a Jounin level gnat--couldn't follow her movement. Granted, it had taken a good chunk of her chakra supply to pull that off and knock his partner out so swiftly in combination with her speed---but it had been well worth it. The remaining now saw her as an opponent he couldn't match and would probably be effectively punished, if not by her then by someone else, for not letting her in to see 'the boss'.
She turned, hands on her hips, glaring, and said to him, "Care to lead the way now? Or will I be finding it alone?"
He said nothing as he smoothed out his features and jutted a finger at the mouth of the falls.
Sakura moved towards Kakashi. Once by his side, she made a showy movement of grabbing his upper arm and hauling him up with a snapping order, "Let's go. You first, Rock nin." Her head jutted in the direction of the entrance as if no other option would be available to him while she kept a good hand on Kakashi.
So far, so good, she rationalized to her calming nerves as the missing nin left his partner and led the way through the genjutsu.
The falls, she noted, made everyone wet as they passed through, keeping with the illusion that they were very real. However, once you reached a good five feet away from them past the exit, you were as dry as when you entered. Upon doing so she looked up, and spied the brightness of the moon from above. Green depths roved downward as she continued to follow the ex nin. All around her were shinobi working or working out in a courtyard of sorts. There were patches of grass here and there, a stray tree or two; but, for the most part, the area around the base had been cleared out.
She noted, even as she ignored the curious stares, leers and looks, many of the shinobi were looking to be making the base itself bigger. Rooms and defenses were being added on. And for all the work they were doing, they didn't look the least bit underfed. In fact, if the place wasn't stashed with thieves, rogue nin and black market items from here to Kami's floating palace in the skies, she could have easily said they were working building a stable working hidden village. For a group of those with even less moral than a reputed shinobi, the thought was a bit scary.
The base itself wasn't a lot to look at from the outside. It only had two levels and appeared made mostly out of wood. She could only guess that's where the plant-life within the place had gone to. Either that, or they had someone like Yamato lingering around. The latter seemed unlikely given the evidence and the rarity of such a shinobi.
The guards, if you could call them that, said not a word as they opened the doors for her, Kakashi and the Rock nin. Immediately, they shut behind while she at once became aware of the large room before her. A vast, red, square carpet edged in a faint gold covered the room floor and stopped just before the overhang of the second floor balcony that wrapped about openly. To her left and right she could see, out of her peripheral vision, wooden staircases leading up to it. Doors lined the second story. On the first floor, doors lined around in much the same fashion just under that same wrap around attribute. Amazingly, she could see the base was much larger than she thought originally. Because, from the back of the room to the left and right, were hallways leading somewhere else. She wondered, briefly, if the same went for the above story.
Around her, half lingering, half speaking and whatever else she couldn't fathom, rogue nin, servants and a slew of other people made up the occupants of what she would call, for lack of better word or words, 'the main hall'.
Many of them ignored her, or appeared to anyway. Their eyes lingered, some smiled at her and others quietly watched from corners while puffing on a pipe or partaking of some other inebriation inducer.
She stopped as the Rock nin before her made a motion with his hand and she refrained from asking why when her eyes landed to on a large... 'throne' shadowed and shaded in sheer drapes at the back wall of the room. The colors were simple and it was hardly glorified as one might expect given the shadowed boss' station. And yes, it was a man, from what she could tell of the silhouette; that is, unless one of the giggling women within happened to be the leader. She doubted that; but, one never really knew and she had to be open to all possibilities given the situation.
She released Kakashi and gave him a tight order, she made sure others could hear, that he stay knelt on the ground until she gave an order otherwise. And he did so, quite dejectedly, with his head dutifully bowed in a manner that was either to be considered brutally submissive or highly cowing--as if she beat him; although, if the crowd here thought she beat him it would more than likely be for the better, she imagined.
Her green depths snapped in the direction of the 'throne' the moment she heard the Rock nin step away and speak to her.
"He wants to know who you are, what you have brought for him and what you want."
Direct and to the point. Good. Instead of addressing the nin she kept her gazed fixed on the relaxing shadow within. Once again, when she spoke, her tone was even, crisp and commanding in a way she'd been taught effectively garnered respect, gave it and at the same time instilled you weren't to be fucked with, "I am Haruno Sakura, former ANBU of Konoha. I want to become apart of your organization, be given provisions and in return will become a most loyal asset." She motioned to Kakashi who was still on his knees with his head bowed. "In return, I offer unlimited use of my servant, a spoil of my departure and a most valuable... companion," she finished.
She waited, ever patient, as the Rock nin leaned in to hear the boss' response to her announcement. She watched as he nodded a few times, listening and stood to speak to her again.
"He wants you to lift his head so that he can see for himself."
It pained her, but she had to do it.
Sakura reached down and hauled him, none too nicely, up to his feet. She reached over and grabbed his chin roughly, directing his stoic features at the shadowed figure beyond the shears. She released him, knowing he wouldn't move from where she placed him. She did her best, at that same moment, to convey with her eyes, that she didn't mean any of it. She hated doing it; but, in the end his life would be placed in danger more so if she didn't. Her eyes ripped away from his own as she heard the chuckle start. They snapped towards the throne as the laughter became deep. It was the sort of sound one made when he or she realized they held all the cards, or knew the answer when everyone else thought the answer they had to be the correct one.
"Ah," he said smoothly, deeply, in a voiced reply, "my dear, wherever did you find such a.... prize?" Another rumble of laughter. "No, I suppose that would be a stupid question, considering where you're from... still..." His voice was cryptic and she was wound up in that mystery thoroughly. Her senses focused on the man as he moved to stand and stepped forward.
He was tall; but not terribly so. That was the first thing she noticed. Second, was his lankiness and lithe muscle the likes of which coated his body in a manner of refined fluidity; something she would most associate with a god or an art piece come to life. His inky, ebony hair was swath of liquid about him. It moved and fell in a manner so natural it almost seemed alive. His eyes were almost a fire of color; a mixture of amber and electric-cat yellow.
He wore nothing save the billowing, gauze pants that wrapped tight about his midsection with a brown sash. The pants themselves were a light haze of the same color.
The presence of the man was... daunting. It seemed like everything about him demanded all those in the room look and pay attention to him and nothing else. The feeling of terror never really made recognition; no, more along the lines of complete rapture.
Still, the only thing that drew her from the aforementioned was the sound next to her, the title, the voice. Next, it was the unparalleled fear she felt from a man--at the same time the word was spoken--that she never would of imagined ever feeling from him.
"Taichou.."
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
AN :: Ok! Ok! Ok! Calm down! Down I say! Back, back! -exhales deeply after that-
Alright, so I know you weren't expecting that. Well, maybe... some of you are pretty sharp readers. And some of you who talk to me on msn knew this was coming up. Still, I know a lot of you were thinking, 'Hey, everything is all calm... that's cool. I can relax from the drama for a while..'
...Wait... really? You thought that? You guys know me so much better that that. At least the readers of my other stories know that. If you're knew to my cliffhangers or spastic WTF moments in stories, then..ah, well, welcome to my WTF moments?
Moving on though...
I know a bunch of you are going to be dying for the next chapter; especially since this one took so long to get out. Well, I have good news for you guys. I already have next chapter--basically--mapped out. I'm hoping to have it done in the next day or two. Since it'll basically be a double update I'll be putting much of my focus on Mona Lisa for the week of the 19th. Trust me though, -whispers- it'll be good and ALL your questions about Kakashi, his Taichou and the loopholes in his own flashbacks about the dead teammate will be filled in.
--Blade