Six: Rebirth
Kakashi leapt through tree after tree as he made his way as quickly as he could through Fire territory. It would still take him days to reach the borders of the Land of Silver, but he was anxious to get started on his mission.
Kakashi Hatake hadn't taken a real ANBU mission since before he'd agreed to take on the duty of overseeing Team Seven's training during their genin days. He'd taken missions far more dangerous than this one even before the war, but there was something he found refreshing about being out in his ANBU attire and mask again.
It was almost like he was a different person when he wore that mask. It was easy to hide away all his pain and all his feelings, and while the Copy Ninja was certainly getting better about letting people in—his newfound closeness with his team over the past three years was an example of that—the break from any and all emotions was always a welcome one.
Especially when he could spend a few months in solitude, looking for rebels in an otherwise peaceful country.
He smiled. He had a strange notion of what made for a good vacation.
When the sun had finally set low enough that he started running into stray tree braches, even with the use of his Sharingan, Kakashi jumped to the ground and set about making camp for the night.
He'd wanted to cover more distance that day, but he realized as his muscles strained in protest when he lowered himself down against a tree that he was probably more out of shape than he'd realized. Either that or he was getting old, but Kakashi refused to believe that thirty-three was old. He preferred to think of himself as…experienced. Or matured. Or well-ripened.
Scratch that last one, he thought with a shake of his head. It just didn't sound right.
No, he thought, as he stretched his legs out and removed his arm and leg guards, he was definitely just out of shape. It had been a long time since he'd run that far that fast, and Kakashi knew he was going to be feeling it even worse the next day.
He debated the idea of catching a few hours of sleep and starting up again before his muscles had time to tighten and stiffen overnight, but he knew that would do him more harm once he got to the Land of Silver. He wouldn't be of much use if he were too tired to process any of the information he picked up on.
Closing his eyes and willing his body to ignore the discomfort, Kakashi leaned farther back against the tree and pulled his cloak tighter around him. Wishing this mission had come a few months later when the weather was warming up, the white-haired shinobi fell into a dreamless slumber.
Daylight had come too soon, Kakashi decided as he bit back his fourth yawn in three minutes. He wished he could've rolled over and slept a little longer, but the sun was bright and there was no hiding from it, even under his cloak. And despite the fact that within the confines of Konoha, the silver-haired shinobi was constantly late, he didn't like to mess around on missions.
That was one of the hardest things for his team to get used to, he recalled, when they had finally reformed and started taking missions again after the war. He and Sasuke were perennially early risers, but Naruto and Sakura were a different story. Sai wasn't a problem. He was usually awake if they needed to leave.
Secretly Kakashi wondered if the boy ever slept.
He sighed as he felt a pang of something—longing? loneliness?—enter his chest. He missed his idiotic team more than he liked to admit. Even if it had been almost six months since all five of them had been on a mission together—he'd let Sasuke lead their last expedition when he'd had other duties to attend to—he still saw them almost everyday.
It never mattered where he was—reading in his house, lounging around outside the gates of the village, even hiding in a tree—one of his teammates would find him and drag him along to whatever they were doing at the moment. They kept telling him he shouldn't be alone all the time.
He was fairly sure that in the months that made up the first year after the war his team felt they couldn't leave him alone because of Obito, and what his return and subsequent role in the war had done to their team leader. They never spoke about it when he was around, of course, but the Copy Ninja was positive that Naruto had told them about how he'd all but given up on the battlefield at the site of his former comrade and best friend. The fact that Kakashi had killed Obito himself was also something that the blonde jinchuriki hadn't overlooked.
He had been surprised at the level of insight his old knuckle-headed student had shown, but Kakashi realized that maybe the blonde had been the best at reading people all along.
He knew he'd been depressed during the fight—in fact, if it hadn't been for Naruto shaking him out of it, he would have willingly let Obito kill him right there for what he'd thought were his failures at the time.
But he was past that now. These past three years with his team had shown him that things could be if not good, then at least better.
But with that camaraderie came the constant companionship. And he meant constant.
Kakashi appreciated the thought, but really, sometimes he needed a break. Teams couldn't be around each other all the time, after all, even though that seemed to be the case with the younger members of Team Seven, hence all the rumors always going on about them.
He supposed he didn't blame people for talking. The four idiots were almost inseparable.
Well, three idiots and Sakura, he corrected himself. He wasn't about to lump the pink-haired girl in with the other three boys. She was different.
If he were honest with himself, Kakashi knew he'd never paid her much attention when she was a twelve-year-old lovesick genin. Maybe if he had she would've gotten over Sasuke quicker and gotten stronger younger, but when he thought about her now he realized that maybe it had all been for the best.
After all, if she hadn't been so much weaker than Naruto and Sasuke, maybe she wouldn't have sought out Tsunade's training at all.
Thinking about Sakura and her past insecurities brought his memory back to the present, and the confusing conversation he'd had with her before finding out about his mission. Something had seemed off, and she'd shown an unusual curiosity about ANBU. Normally he'd write it off as nothing, but after hearing Naruto's comment, he wondered if the kunoichi had been questioning her skills again.
He sighed. He had really hoped that she was past all that. It wasn't her fault that Sasuke was freakishly strong and had the Sharingan, and Naruto was a jinchuriki of the Nine-Tails.
She wasn't asking about joining ANBU, he tried reasoning with himself. She was just wondering if her power level was equal to that of an ANBU agent. She'd just wanted some reassurance. Reassurance he hadn't given her, he recalled with a wince.
But it was too late to do anything about it now. Worrying wouldn't help. It would only cloud his judgment and inhibit his mission.
That was what Kakashi told himself as he sprinted through the trees, wanting to make it to the edge of Fire Country before it got dark. He didn't fancy using the Sharingan to see two nights in a row, especially when he could be heading into 'enemy' territory as soon as he crossed the border. He didn't know where the traitorous Land of Silver rebels were hiding, and while he was sure they didn't have anyone stronger than him, he didn't want to be careless. Not on a solo mission with no teammates to back him up, or Sakura to heal him when he did something stupid.
Grinning, he wondered how he'd ever survived without them. Then he rolled his eyes. Who would've believed that the great Copy Ninja who had mastered over one thousand jutsus would have gotten dependent and sentimental?
Yes, he thought, it was definitely time to take this mission.
Sakura strode into her kitchen, intent on having at least one decent meal before she left for training with Yamato. And kami knew how long that would take.
She'd heard varied reports about the ANBU initiation process, and she wondered what it would be like for her. It was all individual, of course. There were the basics that each recruit would have to be taught, but then from there it was up to the recruit's mentor to decide what skills they needed to focus on.
Tenten, she'd heard, had made it through the training in a few months, but Kiba had told her it'd taken Shino closer to a year. Sakura had no idea how long it would take her.
Eventually she did want to be an ANBU medic, but only after she proved to herself and everyone else that she was perfectly capable of fighting on the front lines.
But the fact that she already knew as much as even Tsunade about medical ninjutsu meant that she would be ahead, at least in that part of her training. Which was a good thing, because she knew for a fact that Yamato would have been completely useless if he'd had to teach her about being a medic, and she didn't want to have any teacher other than him.
Well, she would have been fine with Kakashi, but that was a different story, and one she didn't really want to concern herself with. He'd probably be mad at first, when he realized that she hadn't told him, but he'd get over himself when he saw what a great ANBU agent she was.
Sakura smiled to herself. All of her teammates would be proud, and she wouldn't have to watch from the sidelines any longer.
After she finished eating her dinner—hopefully not her last real meal for months—Sakura washed and put away all her dishes and set about tidying up the kitchen. She didn't know how long she was going to be gone, but she knew that a dirty apartment was not something she was going to want to deal with when she got back. It was annoying now, but she would thank herself later when she was too tired to move.
After setting everything where it was supposed to be and leaving a note telling Sasuke to take all the food in the fridge, Sakura grabbed the scissors she'd laid out earlier and headed to the bathroom. The lighting wasn't great, but it would have to do.
She looked in the mirror, admiring her pink locks. For the first year after the war, she'd kept her hair pretty much the same length, just above the shoulders, but as the peaceful times grew longer and longer, and Sakura began taking more hospital shifts than missions and treating more cases of the flu than internal hemorrhaging, she began to grow her hair out again.
It wasn't as long as when she'd first become a genin. She wouldn't make that mistake again. Long hair was great worn down when she was going out with her friends, but it was a bitch to take care of the rest of the time, and it just wasn't worth it for two nights out a week.
She'd let it go past her shoulders, but never let even the longest of the pink strands hit the middle of her back. That was when it became too much to deal with.
She remembered Ino telling her once that she was lucky, since she was one of the few girls who had a face that enabled her to wear her hair either long or shot. The blonde kunoichi had glared, and told her that she'd better make sure she took advantage of that fact.
"Taking advantage" of it turned out to mean letting Ino style her hair however she felt, but Sakura didn't mind. She was too busy with her work at the hospital and spending time with the boys to really bother with things like knowing the latest fashion trends.
Besides, that was what Ino was for, wasn't it?
Taking one last look at her long hair, but finding she wasn't feeling any sort of remorse like the last time, Sakura took a kunai from her holster and proceeded to whack off a good ten inches of hair, leaving it in a ragged line symmetrical with her jaw. Taking the scissors, she evened out the ends and shaped up the bangs.
When she finally finished, Sakura stepped back to take a look at her new appearance. She hadn't done too bad of a job. She wasn't going to quit her job as a shinobi to become a hairdresser anytime soon, but she at least looked acceptable. It was far better than that one time she'd gone over to Naruto's and found the blonde cutting Sasuke's hair. If she hadn't intervened when she did…well, let's just say that the Uchiha's amazing hair wouldn't have been so amazing.
"It still looks better than the time Kaka-sensei tried to cut my hair when we were on that long mission, remember?" Naruto had pouted when Sakura took the kunai away from him and ordered him to fetch her some scissors.
Sasuke snorted. "Who would've thought someone who can strike so precisely with a kunai would be so awful at cutting a few long strands."
Sakura had laughed, remembering how Naruto's hair had come out looking as off-kilter as Kakashi's did on a daily basis. It had led to another bet amongst the three of them over whether Kakashi's hair was the way it was because he cut it himself or not.
"How about I just stick to cutting your hair from now on, hm?"
She smiled, both at the memory and her new appearance. The short, pink bob fit her, she decided. It was like a new beginning, and just in time for her training.
~A/N: Hey! Hope everyone who celebrates it had a good 4th! The pace is getting ready to pick up. The action is coming soon, I promise. On another note, did you guys know there's a SasuSaku month. Not just a week, like KakaSaku week, but a whole month?! I wish we had a whole month. *sigh* But I do enjoy a bit of SasuSaku now and then so I guess I'll enjoy it. Anyway, random, but I was just surprised. Carry on!