( Disclaimer: I Don't own NARUTO! They belong to His Highness Masashi Kishimoto! )
Chapter Six - Hazard
Little more then a month went by and the quite cold October had turn in to a slightly colder December.
Kakashi had trained Sakura almost everyday since she had been accepted in to ANBU and he had noticed that she had began to do well with the mastering of the Katana she had been received, but she had still much to learn.
And today hadn't been much diffrent.
"Can we... Can we take a break...?" Sakura panted and Kakashi looked at her and putted his Katana in its sheath.
"Well, if you have to..." Kakashi said to her and he had almost forgot that she would be much more exhausted and even quicker then before.
But at least she was still keeping up with the training and did almost everything he had asked her during their trainings together. And she had surprised him when it took her a bit longer to get hang of things he told her, that was one thing he really had taking for granted when it had come to Sakura. But what right had he to complain, she was after all pregnant.
"While you are taking a rest, we can talk about the proper way to take care of your Katana..." Kakashi began and watched how Sakura had walked to one of the big oak trees with leaf still on its branches and sat herself beneath it.
"Didn't we talk about that the last time...?" Sakura asked him and looked up to him.
"Um, maybe we did... But it's not wrong to repeat it..." Kakashi said and leand on to the big trunk of the oak.
"Who is the absent-minded one here?" Sakura grunted and received an eye roll from Kakashi.
"As you know you need to keep the blade well-oiled, powdered and polished... You got the bottle of Choji oil*, right?" Kakashi said and looked down to the half slumbering Sakura. "Are you listening...?"
"Aaa... I do..." Sakura mumbled and Kakashi sighed.
"You can't sleep out here..." Kakashi told her and looked up to the December sky and saw something that he really didn't want to see.
The Hokages falcon was hovering above them and Kakashi knew what that meant.
"Sakura... Naruto wants us..." Kakashi said to a Sakura who groaned annoyed.
~oOo~
"You wanted to see us, Hokage-Sama..." the silver haired ANBU said and walked closer to the blond man behind the desk.
"Aaa... Something has... How should I put it..." the blond Hokage pondered. "Ah! People had been abducted by a ghost..."
"Are you serious?" a pink haired ANBU beside the silver haired one said.
"I am, Sakura-Chan... Well, that is the best way to explain it on... People have disappeared with out a trace and then they have been found miles away... dead..." the Hokage told them.
"Okay... But how do you know so much about that fact, Naruto...?" the pink haired ANBU, Sakura said to the blond Hokage.
"Well, our ANBU finally found a surviver at the border between Hi no Kuni* and Kawa no Kuni*... But all he could tell us was that he had been traveling in Tori no Kuni* and that he had seen a silver mist..." Naruto said and picked up a scroll from the desk.
"Nothing else...?" the silver haired ANBU asked.
"Nope... He was putted in to hospital... the psychiatric ward actually..." Naruto told them and both of the ANBU glanced at each other. "I don't really want to send you, but this mission would be a good start for Sakura as ANBU and make her quicker be accept by the other ANBUs and even the elders..."
"It's okay, Naruto... We can handel this... After all, I have Kakashi with me..." Sakura told Naruto and looked up to the silver haired ANBU beside her.
Naruto too looked at Kakashi.
"Just therefore I want you to be careful... The people that have been abducted have been traveling couples. They had taken the woman it seems and most likely killed the man..." Naruto told them and looked a bit worried to his friend and former Sensei.
"So you want us to take a look at this and mostly find out how and who..." Kakashi said and Naruto nodded.
"Hai... Even if a ghost would be the easiest way to explain things. I don't think a ghost could kill people..." Naruto said and shivered a little. "Kakashi-Sensei, you will leading the mission. You will leave in ANBU uniform and change to civilian clothes before you enter Tori no Kuni..."
Kakashi nodded and took the scroll Naruto gave him.
"Wakaru*... Let's go, Sakura..." Kakashi said and walked out of Narutos office, followed by Sakura.
He was a bit annoyed about this mission Naruto had given them. To the beginning it had sounded like a simple boring B-ranked mission just to get Sakura out to the field again, but this time as ANBU.
But now Kakashi was forced to put Sakuras saftey in jeopardy. Something he didn't like very much, not after he had promies Ino that he would look after Sakura.
He cleanch his fist around the scroll hard and Sakura noticed it.
"Is something wrong?" she asked him.
"No, nothing at all..." he lied. "You do understand that this mission is dangerous..."
"Aaa, but we have been on more dangerous missions before..." Sakura said and almost walked in to Kakashi, who had stopped.
"I know... But I'm thinking of your personal situation... If something would happen to you and your... Um, Chibi-San... Ino will kill me..."
"Chibi-San...?" Sakura asked.
"You know... That one..." Kakashi putted a finger on her stomach.
"Oh..." was all Sakura could say.
"Anyway, we should pack and talk about this mission before we leave tomorrow..." Kakashi said and began to walk again. "Meet me today, at my home when you are done with your packing..."
"Why your home...?" Sakura looked up to his back.
"Well, we can meet each other at your place if you want..." Kakashi said.
"Your place is fine..." Sakura mumbled and he glanced at her.
"Good... Don't be to late..."
"You're the one to talk..." Sakura muttered and watched how Kakashi disappeared in a smoke cloud. "Something does really never change..."
~oOo~
Sakura knocked on the door to her Senpais apartment and waited for him to answer.
"Are you in there?" she called and suddenly the door opened up and she looked up to she her Senpai drying his damp silver hair.
"It looks like it..." he answered and let her in and he closed the door. "Are you already done...?"
"Both yes and no... I figur that somethings I could pack before I go to bed and others tomorrow before we leave..." Sakura told him and he nodded agreeable. "And you? Are you finish...?"
"Pretty much..." he said and waved his hand to tell her to have a seat in the sofa. "So about this mission... Do you have any idea who could be behind this kind of thing?"
"No, not really... They did use the Kirigakure no Jutsu* on their victims, so they could be from Kiri..." Sakura mused. "But that doesn't explain why a Shinobi from Kiri would be in Tori no Kuni..."
"True..." Kakashi said and hang the towel around his neck. "But that was no ordinary Kirigakure no Jutsu... Didn't Naruto say something about a silver mist...?"
Kakashi looked at Sakura who rubbed the upper side of her breast with the tip of her fingers thoughtfully and Kakashi looked away from her.
"He did, but I don't see what the different is..." Sakura finally said and began to rub the other breast as well.
"The different-... What exactly are you doing?" Kakashi said and glanced at her.
"What?" Sakura looked at him.
"You... You are rubbing your breasts..." Kakashi said a bit flushed and she stopped to rub them.
"O-Oh..." Sakura blushed and looked down to her lap. "I-I was just massage them... They have began to hurt a bit and they are a bit tense as well..."
"They hurt...?" he asked her in a tone of disbelief. She nodded. "And they are tense...?" She nodded again.
"And I can't use some of my tops or T-shirts anymore..." Sakura muttered her complains to him.
"Why?"
"Because they have gotten bigger... And I can't even use my bras anymore..." she continued and Kakashi bit his lip to keep him from squeeze her breast to see if it had been some difference. "And talking about bras... You still owe me a new bra and milk and rassberry jam as well..."
"Can we focus on this mission again...? We still haven't come up with something..." Kakashi finally said and Sakura looked at him.
She could sworn that she had seen a blush on his cheeks. But she let it go and they began to talk about their mission again.
"Can we just assume that they are Shinobis from Kiri?" Sakura asked Kakashi who shook his head.
"Well they could be, but I doubt that... A silver mist is most likely a special Jutsu, maybe even a Kekkei Genkai*..." Kakashi said and sat himself down on the coffee table.
"A Kekkei Genkai... I have never heard of a Jutsu that would alove to produce a silver mist..." Sakura said and looked at Kakashi. "But Naruto did say that the victim had ended up at the psychiatric ward, so he could have imagin that he saw a silver mist... But I believe that those attackers is from Kiri..."
"So you have never heard of the Ginnin*...?" Kakashi asked her.
"Ginnin...? I don't think so, well Iruka-Sensei told us at the academy about a special Shinobi clan that could 'produce' silver and they was called Ginnin... What have it to do with our missions...?" Sakura asked.
"Well to be honest, nothing..." Kakashi said and Sakura frowned. "But just keep that in mind will you, about the Ginnin... So anyway, what have we figur out...?"
"Well a side from that our attackers maybe be from a clan that is said to be long dead and could produce silver, I will say nothing..." Sakura mumbled and stifled a yawn.
"Nothing, huh..." Kakashi sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Maybe we should drop that I continue with the battle stance..."
"Same as usually I assume..." Sakura yawned.
"Hai..."
"Why? You know that I can protect myself..." Sakura said and frowned.
"I do think that you can protect yourself, but what about Chibi-San...?" Kakashi said and looked at her. "If you die, it will die too... So don't do anything that stupid... You and Chibi-Sans life is more valuable then my own..."
Was he really saying this? He was and he knew that was the truth. He would protect her with his life and that thing inside of her too.
"Do you really mean it?" Sakura asked.
"Just because I do lie some times, it doesn't mean I would lie about a thing like that..."
"So you would protect me?"
"Of couse I would... You are my team mate... I will always protect my team mate..." Kakashi said and putted his hand on her head. "You look tired... You should go home and have some sleep... I will see you tomorrow, at dawn and at the gate..."
Sakura nodded, raised from the sofa and walked to the door.
"Um, night... Senpai..." Sakura said to Kakashi before she walked out of his apartment and Kakashi just looked at the closed door.
A smile tugged on his mask covered lips and he couldn't help to chuckle a bit to himself.
God what he loved that woman.
~oOo~
Sakura looked up to the back of her Senpai, who had been awfully quiet during the whole travel and she sighed.
Had she done something to make him upset with her? If so, what?
Well, it could be that night. That night before they had left Konoha for this mission, but it had been four days ago. He couldn't still be angry with her because of that night.
Sakura had smacked open the door to a little apartment and enter the little living room.
"Kakashi-Sensei!" she called and walked closer to a closed door that suddenly had burst open.
Sakura looked up to the dark shadow who had emerge from the other room. She smiled a bit when she recognized the unruly silver hair that bad been exposed by the moon from the room behind him.
"Kakashi..." she almost sobbed and fell down to her knees.
"Sakura? What's wrong?" Kakashi said and walked towards Sakura and kneeled down beside her. "Oh god, Sakura! You are bleeding! Have someone hurt you?"
Kakashi looked down to the floor and saw traces of blood on the wooden floor and on her thighs. He looked shocked up to her and he didn't know what to do at the moment.
"No... None have hurt me..." Sakura sobbed in pain and Kakashi grabbed her shoulder to steady her.
"Then why are you bleeding?" Kakashi asked and tried to see after an open wound. "You must tell me, what happen...?"
"I-I don't know..." she groaned in pain, still sobbing. "I went to bed and... and next thing I knew my abdomen began to hurt... really much... oww... and then it was blood... blood on the sheet... It hurt so, Kakashi..."
"Do you need a painkiller or something like that...?" Kakashi asked her and looked up to her tearily and sweaty face.
"No-No painkiller... Chibi-San... Chibi-San!... I am about to lose Chibi-San! That is why I'm bleeding... Oh God, Kakashi..." Sakura sobbed even more and began to breathe faster and heavier.
"Calm down Sakura... You are hyperventilating, you need to calm down...!" Kakashi said and stroke away her pink bangs from her face. "Do you want water...? I can get you some..."
"Don't -Don't go... Please, stay... It hurt..." Sakura whined and held herself around her stomach and tears dripped down to her lap. "I have lost it... Haven't I...?"
"I-I don't know, Sakura... I am not a medic..." Kakashi told her and he felt Sakuras distress. "If it would feel better for you, I can take you to the hospital and they can cheek you..."
"No! Not the hospital..."
"Sakura you are an Iryou-nin... If it concern you so much about Chibi-San, you should see for yourself if you have lost it..." Kakashi said calmly and patted her back. "I can't do more for you then take you to the hospital... Gomen..."
Sakura leaned in to Kakashi and rubbed her face in to his naked chest.
He was so warm and smelled so nice. She felt how all her fear and despair just washed away.
"Help me hold up my jumper..." Sakura mumbled to Kakashi who did as he was told.
She raised a hand to her abdomen and let a flow of medic Chakra cover her hand and Kakashi could feel her warm and soft skin against his hand. And he noticed that her stomach had began to stick out a bit. He gazed curious down to her belly that was mostly covered by Sakuras glowing hand and he then could see the worried expression she had on her face disappeared.
"It's still there..." she mumbled.
"Okay... Maybe you should take a rest from this mission and let someone else take your place..." Kakashi said to her and she shook her head.
"No... I can do this..."
"Sakura, your body obviously told you to slow down a bit... No one is going to call you a drop out..." Kakashi looked down to Sakura. "Do you want to lose it for real next time?"
"No... I don't..." Sakura said and looked to the floor that was covered with her own blood. "But I don't want to say no to this mission either... I know I can do this..."
"Alright... How is it...? Is it okay...?" Kakashi asked.
"I think so... I was really scared, thought..."
"Well to easy your mind a bit... I think Kurenai told me about that she had a bleeding, similar to the one you have..." Kakashi told her. "I can't say that is normal, but as long as you take it easy I think it would be okay. I don't think this was a kind of miscarriage, as I said before your body is probably just telling you to take it easy..."
"You think so?"
"Hai... Now if you don't mind, we have a long day in front of us and I really need to sleep..." Kakashi mumbled and stood up and helped Sakura up.
"Um... Sorry about your floor..." Sakura said.
"It have seen worse... Well, I should walk you home..."
"You- You don't mind if I stayed here...? I can take the sofa..." she looked up to Kakashi, who looked back.
"I don't mind... You can take my bed, I will take the sofa..." Kakashi said and walked with her to his small bedroom. "And don't mind the sheet..."
"What...?" Sakura said and looked to him.
"You are still bleeding, I guess... so you don't need to bother about the sheet... I will fix that tomorrow..." he told her and placed her on his bed and walked to the door. "If you need anything, just tell me. I will be just outside..."
He closed the door and Sakura laid herself down to his bed and looked up to the ceiling. She could hear him utter something about a door and then a quite loud bang and then it fell silence.
She then fell to a light sleep.
Well, he looked kind of angry or was he just tired? She coulden't blame him, Kakashi had been the one to keep watch all the nights, because she had fallen asleep both of the times she was supposed to keep watch. So maybe he was a bit tired after all.
Suddenly Kakashi stopped and so did she and looked up to him with a tense look on her face.
"Is something wrong?" Sakura asked him. "Have you seen something...?"
"No. I just thought we should take us a breather and we are closing in to Tori no Kuni, so we should change our clothes as well..." Kakashi said to her and that was the longes thing he had said to her since they had left Konoha.
He dropped his backpack to the ground and began to take up some clothes and then the scroll Naruto had gave him.
"Alright, I guess I will go to change as well..." Sakura mumbled and placed her backpack on to the ground as well and dragged up a red kimono from it. "Don't peek..."
Kakashi looked up to her from behind his ANBU mask and he raised an eyebrow.
"I believe you already have showed me everything..." he said to her. "Or have you something more to show...?"
"Your perv!"
"Hai Hai... Go dress yourself and be quick..." Kakashi unzipped his ANBU cloak and placed it to the ground along with the chest armor, arm guards and his forehead protecter.
He putted on a slightly torn, deep blue man kimono, opened the scroll and waited for Sakura to finish.
"You are taking a really long time, you know..." Kakashi said and glanced down to the scroll and heard how Sakura came out from her 'hidding' place. His eye widened and he was amazed over her beauty. Her long pink hair was tided up to a bun and she looked at him.
"Well, except from you, my kimono is slighter harder to dress in..." Sakura said and walked up to him. "So, what is the plan...?"
"The plan...? The plan, right... Well the male victim was found between the boarder of Kawa no Kuni and Hi no Kuni as Naruto told us..." Kakashi said and pointed at a the tin red line that separated the two country on a map.
"I got that much, something else?"
"I took the liberty to talk to some of the ANBUs that have been stationed in that area, they could confirm my guesses..." Kakashi said and looked up to Sakura.
"And?"
"And more then just one have been killed and hidden in the forests of Kawa no Kuni, ANBU could tell that much out of the soil in the forest." Kakashi looked back to the map.
"No bodys to comfirm that?" Sakura asked.
"Nope, just traces of decaying human body parts... I guess the wild life have been busy with making it harder for us..." Kakashi mumbled.
"Maybe that was the reason... If someone would find the bodys..." Sakura said and looked a bit worried. "And what about the other victims, the females...?"
"That is the tricky part... They have been last seen, obviously by their now dead husbands or boyfriends, at this location..." Kakashi pointed to another spot on the map, but this time at the Tori no Kuni and Sakura frown.
"You do know that they have banned every Shinobi to enter their borders after the 4th Ninja War, if you don't have permission and we don't have that..." Sakura said and Kakashi looked up to her.
"I'm aware of that... That's why Naruto asked us to bring civilian clothes with us... We will enter the borders as civilians and I even brought with me false ID if it would be necessary..." Kakashi said and rolled the map together. "Is that a satisfied answear to you...?"
"What about Kawa no Kuni...? Shouldn't we look at the surrounding there as well...?"
"Why? ANBU has already looked there, we won't find anything more... So that's why we are going in to Tori no Kuni..." Kakashi said and took out a small scroll from his backpack. "We will be leaving, give me your things. I will seal them in to this scroll..."
Sakura looked annoyed down to her thing on the ground and gave it to him with a low grunt. Kakashi ignored her and began to seal their belonging in to the scroll that he kept safe somewhere in his Kimono.
"Alright. We are not far from Tori no Kuni, so let's go..." Kakashi said and they where of, to Sakuras annoyance.
She had noticed that she had began to be grumpier then usually and her temper was even shorter, but she keept a smile on her face even if she beated the hell out of some poor thing along the way (that poor thing happen to be a boulder, that was left on as a grey powder on the ground).
Kakashi had seemed to be highly amused about that, but didn't care to say anything else about that and Sakura was the one who became really annoyed about his silence.
"Are you mad with me?" she asked him and he turned to look at her.
"Why should I be mad at you?" he asked and raised an eyebrow at her.
"You have been so quiet and you haven't barly looked at me..." Sakura said. "I figure that you probably was mad with me because I break down your door and did a mess in your home and... and woke you up..."
"Ah... About that... Well, I'm not really mad with you about those things... I have just had a lot of things on my mind and I have been a tad tired as well... I'm sorry if I made you worry..." Kakashi told her and looked back to the road again and Sakura looked down to the ground.
She knew that he didn't want to talk about the things that worried him. He had always been like that and those was the small things that she find annoying with him.
`Who would have thought that my childs father would be a careless, perv that will keep everything to himself... I hope you don't be like that, little one...´
Sakura placed a hand on her belly, that was a little bigger now and it had been for six weeks ago. Her kimono didn't show that she was fifteen weeks pregnant and she was a bit relief about that. She only hopped that people wouldn't noticed it to soon and began to ask questions she couldn't answer.
Kakashi glanced at Sakura out of the corner of his eye and looked troubled at her.
If she kept to press her kimono like that she would look even bigger then she was and it would scream; 'Hey look at me! I am pregnant!'
Kakashi didn't like the idea of nosy people looking at her and then judge her for her more or less unwelcomed pregnancy. It wouldn't be fair if she was to be marked as the black sheep of Konoha and he found it would be his job to 'protect' her from that. Even if it would mean to hide her in his own home, during the months left of her pregnacy.
"Stop with that..." he told her.
"With what...?"
"What you are doing... If you continue to press your kimono like that it will show what state you are in..." Kakashi muttered. "Taken a pregnant woman on a mission is like asking to be attacked..."
"Are you referring me as weak?" Sakura growled and looked up to him.
"No, I don't... But moste bandits often attacks the weakest chain... A pregnent woman is the weakest chain, because she can't protect herself in the same way she could do before..."
"You are referring me as weak..." she said and looked away from Kakashi who sighed.
"Not really, I was only making a point..." he told her. "You have to dress in clothes that will hide your state, that was all I really was saying..."
"Then say so...! You are only making things confusing when you talked like that..." Sakura muttered and pouted. "Are we in Tori no Kuni yet?"
"We have already passed the border, now we are heading to the place the abductions have taken place..." Kakashi told her and grabbed her arm.
"What are you doing...?"
"I play my part and you play yours... So just hock your arm with mine..." he hissed and she did as he told her. "We are quite close..."
She did enjoy his closeness somehow, but she was too annoyed with him for even thinking why she did enjoyed his closeness.
"What now-..." Sakura began but Kakashi hushed her.
"Ssh... Just walk, okay..." he pressed her arm closer to his body and they began to get closer to a little river and to a big bridge, that would lead them to the village of Yosomi.
Sakura looked up to him and they crossed the bridge and when they was on solid ground, she felt a bit relieved that nothing had happen to them yet.
"That went well..." she sighed. "Can you let me go now...?"
"Not yet... I can feel Chakra being released..." Kakashi mumbled. "It's faint, but I can still feel it..."
"I don't feel-..."
Right then a light silver mist appeared around them and Kakashi stopped.
"If a ghost can use Ninjutsu, they are no real ghost..." Kakashi mumbled and looked down to Sakura, who had let go of his arm. "I didn't say yo-..."
A cut through the air and fabric getting torn sounded and the silver haired Jounin took his hand over his light bleeding upper arm on his right side.
If he hadn't been faster, then he was, he would probably get cut through his muscles in his arm.
"Sakura... Let's move out of here...!" Kakashi said and started to retreat, but Sakura didn't move. "Sakura...?"
What Kakashi saw wasn't what he had wanted to see. In front of him he could see Sakura with a bloody Kunai in her hand (how she had got it was a issue for him, because she didn't have any on her) and her eyes was misty.
`Why always her...?´
Kakashi watched how Sakura did a strange move and attacked him.
`She must be under a Genjutsu or something...´
Kakashi jumped away from her and grabbed the wrist she held the Kunai in and hold down the other hand behind her back.
"I don't want to hurt you... So snap out if it..." he mumbled to her and then he let her go and backed away from her.
Sakura turned around and cut the Kunai in to the open air and Kakashi wasn't sure if she did that with meaning or if she had began to fight what ever was possessing her.
He began to understand why Naruto had called those who did this to Sakura for ghosts. It was this mystery mist and the way Sakura acted that could be a possibly possessing of a ghost, but as he had said to her. Ghost doesn't use Chakra, in that way.
Sakura did a quick move and Kakashi was surprised by her suddenly quickness and then he felt how something warm began to run down his chest and dripping down to the ground.
He looked down to the pink haired Kunoichi, before he fell down to the ground with a thud.
The mist cleared and Sakura blinked once and she looked down to her hand that hold the Kunai. It was covered with blood, the blood of Hatake Kakashi.
Author note:
Kakashi and Sakura is finally on their first ANBU mission together and things has already gone bad. What will Sakura do now?
It may contain some spelling errors...
And some notes;
When I writes the text 'like this' it means that the person in question is thinking. When I writes like thisthe person emphasis just that word and when I writes like this that means flashbacks.
Mini Japanese dictionary and little more;
Choji oil* = Oil of cloves, also known as Clove oil. Clove oil is used in the polishing, cleaning, and maintenance of Japanese swords. In this role it is referred to as Choji oil. Choji oil is about 99% fine mineral oil with a very small amount of clove oil (pure clove oil should not be applied directly to a sword). (wiki)
Ginnin* = Silver-nin
Hi no Kuni* = Fire Country
Kawa no Kuni* = River Country
Kirigakure no Jutsu* = Hidden Mist Technique
Kekkei Genkai* = Bloodline Limit
Tori no Kuni* = Bird Country
Wakaru* = Understood
Do feel free to ask me if something is bothering you.
And thank you all for your reviews! I also want to thank everyone els who read this and fav it! Thank you! ^-^
Take care!
Next Chapter: Never Surrender