Chapter 24
Kakashi poofed out of the meeting, reappearing in his and Sakura's room. He might as well get as much info to her as he could in the time before he left and walking was a definite time waster. So would waking her up be, and true to her word Sakura had fallen asleep again. Kakashi sighed. Waking Sakura could be like waking the dead.
Kakashi prodded her in the shoulder a few times and sighed, turning to the wardrobe. If he made enough noise packing, she'd wake up on her own anyway. If not, he could always pin a note to her forehead. He sought through his things quickly, only placing absolute essentials into his pack. They wouldn't be gone too long, so he saw no real need for that to include a change of clothes. He'd shower the moment he got back, and Sakura would never be the wiser to his bad mission habit. He chucked in a spare pouch of kunai and senbon into the bottom, and secured his usual one to his trousers before he turned back to the now half-awake kunoichi.
"Morning," He said with a smile, and leaned forward to stroke some stray pink hair out of her face. Instead of a happy good morning, her eyebrows scrunched up even more.
"Where are you going?"
"Mission. It's not optional I'm afraid."
"And no one else can go?"
"I'm not too sure. But we can't really afford to test the waters lest they turn out poisonous."
"What about a woman's wrath? I thought that that was much worse."
"It is, but doesn't change anything. If I don't go, and we fail the mission, I face Tsunade's wrath once we get back. At least you'd heal me once you were done."
Sakura sighed. "I'm not going to forgive you for this." She glared, but Kakashi knew that she was only joking. The teasing glint in her eye and the hand that rested gently against his neck gave her away.
"Hurry back."
"Only because you asked so nicely." Both of them sat in silence for a moment, smiling softly at each other as she wondered why he hadn't left yet.
"How long before you have to go?"
"About 4 minutes."
"So you thought that you'd use all of them wisely right?"
"Absolutely," He grinned, his mouth lifting up slightly higher on one side than the other. "I shouldn't be gone too long, but you'll want to go see Naruto and Sasuke as soon as possible. I have the final location mapped down." He chucked her said scroll and sat down beside her.
"Will you be alright without me?"
Sakura scoffed. "Yeah, like I need you here."
"You don't mean that and you know it."
"You're right. But I'll only admit it to you."
"That's good enough."
He kissed her, slow and gentle, cupping her jaw in the palm of his hand. "You're mine Sakura," He whispered. "Mine and no one else's."
Sakura smiled. "I'd like to keep it that way too, so hurry."
"Your wish is my command."
"Yet you won't stay completely."
"Can't, not won't. And I'll be thinking of you every minute."
"Well then, I hope you don't share a tent with any of the others."
Kakashi laughed. "I thought you wanted to terrify and traumatise them?"
"Not that badly, and-"
"HISOKA! GET YOUR LAZY BUTT DOWN HERE!" Kakashi scowled at the use of his fake name.
"That'd be me. Looks like someone's a little impatient."
Sakura leaned forward and pressed one final kiss gently to the corner of his mouth. "Take care."
"Shall do." And so the silver haired shinobi saluted her, and replaced his henge before leaving the room. Feeling sentimental rather than scared, Sakura did too, following him. She saw no reason not to see him to the door.
A high pitched screech stopped her. "Akina dear!"
888
Sasuke scowled. "We're gonna have to rearrange the teams."
Naruto nodded. "Everyone rest up a little. I'll help." He pulled a piece of paper and a pencil out of pretty much no where, and found some room around the table for him and Sasuke to ponder it. "Right. We have Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba, Tenten, Lee, Gai, Kurenai, Bug Guy, and two ANBU wierdos."
Sasuke glared at him. "Their names are Yamato and Sai. And Shino's name you should know by now."
"So they say." He didn't comment on Shino.
"And so we shall call them."
"Whatever."
Sasuke sighed again, loudly. "Ok, we have 10 people to send out."
"Would have had 12 if we had Hinata and Ino still."
"I know, but there was nothing else to be done."
"Well, the creepy ANBU can work as a two. That's what they'd do anyway right?"
"I think that they're all going to have to work in pairs. We need to get ALL the bases drop-out."
"So yeah, two per base."
"Once we get word from Sakura and Kakashi that is."
"Shouldn't be too long, I mean Ino and Hinata have gone over there now." Naruto frowned. "Hey! Why aren't they part of the teams?"
"We need to keep them with Sakura."
"...Oh... But Kakashi's with Sakura."
"It's just in case."
"Surely that's not great use of people?"
"No, but we're Team Kakashi. Our teammates come before the mission."
"Right-oh. Suicide-sized teams it is." He thought through the numbers again. "Couldn't we go too?"
"Sure, if you wanna doom Sakura with Ino and Hinata."
Naruto scowled. "Are you sure we can't go?"
Sasuke laughed, his eyes lighting up in a way that they only ever did with Naruto. "I'm sure she's not too bad."
"Can't we tell people we're together?"
"I think bunch of them just heard you anyways."
Ooooh shhhiiittt...
888
"What the hell is going on here then forehead?"
"Shouldn't I be asking you? You've already been breifed on the mission, but I'm guessing Sasuke gave you some info to give to me."
"Right you are. We have shown our faces here in order to protect you, but you'll have to go with us to see Sasuke before anything is really done. The teams are all set, and me and Hinata are staying here with you. Come on," She motioned to Sakura to get up. "We should go as quickly as possible."
The girls hurried out down the stairs, talking ecstatically about dress shopping as they did. Ino didn't even have to fake her happiness over the shopping part. They barely payed any attention at all to the people that they passed, as they all assumed that they would be ignored in their small group. Unfortunately, they were wrong.
"Akina-san. Are you planning on going somewhere?"
Ah crap. It was crazy boss man, and with him was... that lech. Apparently dumb, disgusting parasites had quick healing times. Shame there was nothing that she could currently do about that. Instead, she turned to the man next to him.
"Yes, you see, I was thinking of going to buy a dress while Hisoka is away." She gestured to her two female companions. "And my friends came at such a good time."
"Yes..." His eyes trailed over both of them analytically, and Sakura fought back the urge to break his nose. "Excellent timing." He smiled again, only false apologetically. "Is it possible though, for you to do that later dear? Only we have some business to attend to right now, and we would rather not have any of the building's inhabitants leaving right now."
Sakura frowned, slightly non-plussed by his words. They didn't make any damn sense. "Of course." She gestured to Ino and Hinata. "Looks like we'll have to stick here for now guys."
"Ah, I'm afraid not."
Sakura's frown deepened. "...Fine. Go on without me. I'll catch you up. You can narrow down the dresses for me."
Meaning find out the possibilities for their business. After all, nothing like this had happened at all since she'd gotten here. And as Ino and Hinata left, the slow smile spreading across the faces of the men before her told her that the chances of her just going back to her room were not very high.
A/N - Sorry for such a short chapter. Speed over length I'm afraid. Thank you to: Little-bad-Angel and Temarilyn for reveiwing.
Yup, Sasuke and Naruto are together. I can't really remember if I said so earlier. I think I did, but it was about a year ago.
R&R
Edit: Sorry for the absurd amount of typos. Hopefully they are all fixed now.