~A/N: So I've got 50 follows on this story now (actually it could be more, I haven't honestly checked since I saw it hit 50) and that's like 49 more than I thought I'd get, so I just want to say thanks to everyone who's been reading! There's still plenty of story to go!

Fourteen: Apology

The sun came too early the next morning, Sakura decided. If it had been up to her, she would have kept sleeping and recovered a bit more of her strength. Maybe then she could have finished healing her side.

As it was, Sakura didn't have the chakra levels to complete the jutsu necessary to heal herself completely and still be able to move. But, wincing as she pulled herself into a sitting position against a tree, she knew she wouldn't be able to travel for a full day in her condition. So she settled for using just enough chakra to ease the pain a bit.

"You're up," Kakashi observed, watching her from across the camp. "How's your side?"

She glared at him and turned the other direction. Sakura knew she was acting like a child, but she was really mad at him. Why couldn't he understand that she was just as strong as the rest of the boys on her team?

Yamato coughed, standing up. "I'm going to, uh, get some firewood so we can cook breakfast."

"Fine," Sakura snapped, while Kakashi nodded curtly.

It was only after Yamato had left their line of sight that the two realized that it didn't really make sense for a wood-style user to go get firewood. He could just make it himself.

"You don't need to leave to get firewood!" they yelled simultaneously.

Breakfast was tense, to say the least. Sakura had glared at Yamato when he got back, letting him know that she knew exactly what he'd been up to and that she wasn't pleased. She loved Yamato, but he really was such a coward when it came to dealing with people fighting. He always ran the other direction. It was no different from the first time Sai and Sasuke got into a fight while he was with the team.

He could deal with uncooperative teammates when the mission depended on it, but the second it became bratty fighting, he was gone. Sakura rolled her eyes, wondering how the man had ever gotten her and Naruto to work with Sai in the first place.

The brown-haired shinobi tried to make conversation, but that proved to be a bit difficult when he realized Sakura refused to speak to Kakashi, and Kakashi had no interest in speaking to anybody.

So Yamato had to suffer through a meal in mostly silence. It was broken only when Sakura gave one-word answers to his infrequent questions.

"Did you heal your side this morning?"

"A little."

"Does it still bother you?"

"Some."

"Will you be all right to travel?"

"Yes."

Yamato sighed. He wondered if this was what Team Seven's parents had felt like during their teenage years. Then he remembered that with the exception of Sakura—who had civilian parents—the rest of Team Seven had grown up without knowing theirs. And in a way, he supposed, it had been the same for Sakura. She'd moved out before she was sixteen because her parents didn't really understand her job.

Still, if that was how angsty teenagers acted all the time, Yamato decided he had no desire to ever have children. He didn't deal well with that sort of stuff.

After they finished eating, the three ANBU stood and started packing their respective belongings. Kakashi had disposed of Takeo's body the day before, and he stuffed the things he'd taken off his corpse into the dead man's pack, seeing as he hadn't had time to get his own before he'd left Konoha.

Sakura moved carefully, always conscious of her injured side. Really, it hadn't been that bad during the fight. She was annoyed that it was giving her so much trouble now. On top of not being able to expend the chakra necessary to heal it, as well as being mad at Kakashi, Sakura was in a really foul mood. She just wanted to get back to the Hidden Leaf Village as soon as possible, take a nice hot shower, and go to bed. For a week.

Yamato and Kakashi noticed her inhibited movements right away.

"She's hurt worse than she's letting on," Yamato said, nodding toward the pink-haired kunoichi.

Kakashi shrugged. "She always is."

Yamato glared at him. Most of the time, the wood user considered himself to be a pretty patient man. His sempai, however, had the habit of making him a very impatient man.

Yamato was not in the mood to deal with Kakashi's attitude today. The glare he sent him told him that.

Kakashi held up his hands. "What do you want me to do? I'm the one she's mad at, you know."

"Maybe if you apologized, it wouldn't have to be this awkward."

"You're the one who can't deal with awkward tension, Tenzo. You haven't changed at all."

"Neither have you. You still can't admit that you're wrong and apologize to people."

Yamato was feeling especially bold today. Maybe it was the fact that he was still technically the captain on this mission, or maybe it was because he knew Sakura would take his side since she was still mad at Kakashi. Regardless, the brown-haired ninja had no qualms about laying into his former superior.

"Since when did you become sassy," Kakashi grumbled, not really intending for Yamato to hear.

"Since when did you become a bitter old man," the wood-style shinobi shot back.

That was it. The last straw. Now Kakashi was mad.

"I am not old!" he hissed.

"Then quick acting like one of those crabby elders."

"Are you forgetting I outrank you?"

"Are you forgetting I don't care?"

"Argh! Stop that! It's seriously starting to piss me off!"

Kakashi was pulling his own hair at this point. Yamato was acting childish too. When had the two most mature members of his team become such brats? Was it to punish him? They knew he hated kids, so maybe this was their way of getting back at him for something he'd done long ago…?

He sighed, his normal eye drooping visibly. He couldn't believe he was thinking it, but he actually wished Naruto were with him right then. The idiot blonde would have known exactly how to diffuse the situation and make everybody happy. His optimism was contagious.

And that was exactly why the blonde jinchuriki was going to be Hokage someday, and not him. Pleasing people was not something that Kakashi enjoyed, or was particularly good at, as evidenced by his subordinate's grumpy attitudes. He sighed. The only person worse than him at people pleasing was Sasuke.

Kakashi looked back at Yamato, who was watching Sakura. The man's concern was written all over his face and posture, and Kakashi felt momentarily bad for yelling at him. After all, Yamato had been the captain on the mission, and even though the Rain ninja weren't a factor they'd planned to encounter, he knew the wood-style user probably blamed himself for Sakura's injuries.

"It's not your fault," Kakashi sighed, putting a hand on his friend's shoulder. "You had no way of knowing they would target you."

"Yeah, but she still got hurt on my watch, and who knows if we would both still be here if you hadn't shown up when you did."

"Don't worry about it. It's in the past now, and you have to just let go. Trust me, I've been there."

Yamato was still for a long time, holding his breath, before he slowly exhaled and nodded. "Yeah, I guess you're right." Then he smiled. "See? Was that so hard?"

"What?"

"That. You just apologized to me. Well, sort of."

Kakashi laughed. "I hardly think that counts as an apology, so I really doubt it will work with Sakura. That girl has a temper."

Yamato grinned. "Well, I guess you'd better be careful then. And do some extra buttering up."

Kakashi raised one eyebrow. "I am the great Copy Ninja. I do not do this 'buttering up' that you speak of."

Then the two of them were laughing, clapping each other on the back like they used to in the old days. But they sobered up as soon as they caught the glare that Sakura sent their way. Apparently she wasn't amused by their good mood.

Yamato slapped him on the shoulder. "I guess you'd better learn then, eh?"

They hadn't gotten more than fifty feet out of camp, and Sakura was already falling behind. Neither Kakashi nor Yamato wanted to say anything, but they knew her condition was going to be a problem. She needed to be able to travel so they could get to a safe place, but in order to do that, she needed to rest and build up enough chakra so she could heal her wounds. But in order to rest, they needed to get to a safe place. It was a catch-22, and one there wasn't an easy way out of.

After an hour, Yamato had given her bag to Kakashi. He knew Sakura was hurting more than she'd let on because she hadn't complained about Kakashi carrying it for her. She was limping slightly, and he noticed that her hand kept resting on her injured side subconsciously.

"Sakura?" he asked, as Kakashi scouted out a route ahead of them. "Do you want me to carry you for a bit? Don't get mad at me, it's just an offer."

He'd anticipated her reaction would be a glare, but what he hadn't expected to see were two tired green eyes looking up at him without their usual fire.

"Thanks, but you're too tired yourself. And don't pretend like your ribs aren't bruised. I know they are."

Yamato bit back a laugh. Nothing got passed his medic—that was for sure. "Fair enough. But you should take your own advice too, you know? That side's hurting you far more than you're admitting."

Sakura did glare, but it was at the ground, not him. "I'll just be glad when we're back in Konoha and I can go take a shower and sleep."

Yamato cracked a smile. "Yeah, I know the feeling. After we go to the hospital first, I assume, miss medic?"

Sakura grinned. "Well, maybe you guys weren't wrong about that whole taking-a-nap-before-I-go-to-the-doctor thing after all."

"Aha! So she admits it!"

"Just don't let Lady Tsunade hear about this, or I'll be dead for sure. She'll probably take away my status as a medical ninja."

"Well, we wouldn't want that. What would Team Kakashi do?" He realized too late that he probably shouldn't have used the K-word. And she'd been in such a great mood too.

"I don't know about the team, but I'm sure Kakashi would manage just fine."

Yamato sighed. How did he always get stuck having to deal with these messes? Those two were among his favorite people—hell, they probably were his two favorite people—but they could both be so goddamned stubborn. It was starting to grate on his nerves.

But he remembered his conversation with Kakashi the night before, and he believed more than ever that it really was just a misunderstanding between them. Knowing those two, however, that misunderstanding could turn into a grudge pretty fast.

"You know, I really think you should talk to Kakashi."

"What? Why? What do I have to say to him?"

"I don't know. Nothing. I just think you should talk to him, that's all. Come on, you two are teammates, and you've always been so close. Are you going to let your friendship be ruined over something like this?"

Sakura looked up at him, and this time, there was no disguising the hurt in her eyes. "If we were so close, then why doesn't he believe in me? Even Sasuke thought I could make it in ANBU."

Yamato sighed. "He does believe in you."

"Well he sure doesn't act like it."

"Just talk to him. Please."

"I don't know. Maybe when I'm ready. I just don't think I can deal with that right now. I'm already in enough pain, eh?"

She tried to turn it into a joke, but her smile was so fake that even Sai would have seen through it. Yamato sighed.

Kakashi, you really are an idiot.

"You know," Kakashi said later that afternoon, "it would be faster if you just let me carry you."

He fell back into step with Sakura, who was lagging behind. Whereas earlier in the day she'd been able to hide it, her injuries from the previous day were clearly bothering her now.

"If you're so impatient, you and Yamato can go on ahead. Don't let me be a burden. I wouldn't want to drag you down," she said venomously.

Kakashi wondered briefly if she was talking about the journey home, or something else.

"So what will you do if you get attacked by bandits? You can't move around very well with an injury like that."

She glared daggers at him. "I'll punch them. Kami knows you've got me mad enough!"

Sakura stormed ahead, despite the fact that it clearly pained her to do so. Kakashi sighed. He was trying to apologize, but he wasn't doing a very good job. All he'd succeeded in doing was pissing her off even more.

He looked ahead at Yamato, who just shrugged and kept at his pace. Kakashi sighed. It looked like the wood user wasn't going to be of any help to him. He was on his own.

"Sakura?" he said, falling into step with her again. "I'm sorry. Really, I didn't mean to upset you. I was just worried about you—not because I didn't think you could handle it," he said, seeing her glare, "but because I was worried you wouldn't, I don't know, get live your life. I was worried that you would become ANBU, because that's what happened to me."

He grew silent after that, thinking about his past. How many people had he pushed away because he'd been too absorbed in the job? He'd joined ANBU to escape from everything, and escaped he had—but he realized now that maybe it hadn't been a good thing.

Sakura's glare softened. Kakashi didn't open up about his past often, so he must have really wanted her to understand he didn't think she was weak.

She could feel her anger slowly dissipating. She wasn't happy with him, per say, but she wasn't exactly mad anymore. He didn't always know how to go about it, but Kakashi really did care about his teammates. Sometimes he just showed it in all the wrong ways.

"Kakashi?" she asked, her voice small. "My side really hurts."

He stopped by her instantly, concern written all over his body.

"Do you think maybe I could…?"

He nodded, crouching down so she could climb onto his back. He lifted her easily—her petite form was nothing for him—taking care not to jostle her injured side.

Sakura wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder, and Kakashi knew he was forgiven.

Up ahead, Yamato smiled.

A/N: Yamato's such a smug little bastard. I love writing him waaaaay too much haha and I don't really know why. I honestly didn't really intend to write him that much when I started, but then he started growing on me. Maybe it's because I get to take some liberties with his character because I really don't know how he'd actually act since he gets like no screen time :( poor baby. I miss him.