Fifteen: A Mission Fulfilled

As much as Sakura hated to admit it, with Kakashi carrying her, the trio made much better time. Her stubbornness from the morning still put them behind schedule, but if they kept going just a bit past sunset, they would make it into Fire territory that night. All three shinobi would sleep better, knowing they were out of enemy lands.

"Hey, guess what," Sakura said as she played with a silver strand of hair that had been ticking her nose.

"What?" Kakashi asked, tilting his head in amusement at how quickly her mood had changed.

That girl never stopped surprising him. She could be furious at him one minute, and then be back to her normal self two seconds later. Well, maybe not two seconds, but…

"I've almost perfected that jutsu you were helping me work on. You know, the original one I was trying to create?"

Kakashi raised an eyebrow as his eye widened in surprise. "Really? You've gotten that far along with it?"

Sakura nodded enthusiastically on his back. "Yeah. Yamato helped me hone it a bit when we were taking breaks from training, but it's still not ready yet. It's missing something, I just can't seem to figure out what."

"Maybe I can take a look at it when we get back?" Kakashi offered.

He was a bit hesitant. Sakura was in a much better mood, but he wasn't sure how far her forgiveness had gone. For all he knew, he could still be on probation. She might slap him at any minute, she was in perfect position to.

"Yeah. I'd like that," Sakura smiled, leaning her head against his and closing her eyes. "You were the one who helped me start it, after all."

Kakashi chuckled, remembering that day a year ago when Sakura had first approached him about inventing her own, original jutsu. She told him that she'd already tried using medical ninjutsu to fight, much like how Kabuto had done, but she said she could never master it. Tsunade wasn't the biggest fan of using medical ninjutsu to kill either, so Sakura hadn't gotten any help from her teacher.

"Well, I see your problem," he'd said, scratching his head.

"I want to create my own jutsu," Sakura told him, her green eyes lit up with determination. It was like they were on fire. "Like you and Sasuke. Hell, even Naruto sort of has his own jutsu."

"Don't hit me for saying this, Sakura, but you've never really been good with ninjutsu—apart from medical. Taijutsu and genjutsu were always much better suited to your skills."

Sakura laughed. "Don't worry, Kakashi. I wasn't suited for much of anything when I was a genin. I blame you for that, by the way."

Kakashi pretended to be offended, clutching his chest dramatically, earning a laugh from Sakura. He smiled to himself. She was on of the only people he acted that way around, but a genuine laugh from her made it all worth it.

"So what sort of jutsu were you thinking?" he asked, after she stopped laughing.

"I was thinking some sort of genjutsu. Something that would let me catch my opponents off guard. Then I can rely on my strength to take them down."

Kakashi nodded. "That's what I was going to say."

Sakura grinned. "Guess I didn't need your help after all."

"You still have no idea how to even go about creating a jutsu."

"Then teach me, Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi groaned. "I told you guys not to call me that. We're all jonin, Naruto and Sasuke are both stronger than me, and it makes me feel old!"

Sakura laughed, knowing that Kakashi's age had been a touchy subject for him ever since he hit thirty. "Alright Kakashi. I don't think you're old, don't worry."

He sighed. "Let's just work on your jutsu."

Kakashi smiled, remembering how they'd made a habit of staying after training at least three times a week so Sakura could work on her own original genjutsu. He wondered how much she'd progressed in the months she'd spent with Yamato. If the wood-style user's praise was any indication, there probably wouldn't be much left for him to help her with.

"Have you thought up a name for it yet?" Kakashi asked.

Sakura didn't answer, and the silver-haired jonin realized that she was sound asleep. Her grip had loosened slightly, and he worried that she would fall off, so he hiked her up higher on his back. Her head was now draped over his right shoulder, and he could see the peaceful expression her face made when she slept. He brushed a few strands of soft pink hair away from her eyes and hurried ahead to catch up to Yamato.

They still had a few more hours of walking to go.

"Did she really sleep through all that?" Yamato scoffed as the two shinobi made their way back onto the road. Now that they had crossed over into the Land of Fire, they felt more comfortable travelling along the main road.

They had been walking along one of the trade routes that went through Rain territory, but when they'd heard the sound of footsteps approaching quickly, they'd scrambled to get out of sight. Luckily it had turned out to be nothing more than a group of travelers, but the two shinobi couldn't be too careful. They didn't know if the Rain ninja would come back, looking for revenge.

Kakashi shrugged, slightly jostling the sleeping girl who was now cradled in his arms. During their flight, he'd switched her position to make it easier for him to hold her, but it seemed the change hadn't disturbed her.

"Her chakra must really be depleted," Yamato said. "And you can't be completely unaffected by carrying her almost all day. You said you'd just gotten back from your mission when you came to find us. Let's call it a night."

"Fine," Kakashi nodded, but secretly he was relieved. He was beginning to tire, even if he wouldn't admit it. Leave it to Yamato to notice, though.

They stopped at the next suitable shelter off the road, far enough that they were out of sight, but close enough that they would be able to hear anyone coming down the path. No sense in making an enemy ambush easy.

Yamato rolled out Sakura's sleeping bag, and Kakashi set her down, careful not to wake the sleeping girl. He tucked her in and quietly zipped the sleeping bag up, and then proceeded to set out his own.

He was too tired to bother with dinner, and he knew Yamato felt the same way. They would make sure to eat in the morning, and now that they were inside their own territory, it wouldn't be more than two days before they made it back to the Leaf village, even with Sakura's injuries.

"Go ahead and sleep, sempai. I'll stay awake and make sure no one followed us."

Kakashi nodded gratefully to Yamato, relieved that he would be able to get at least some decent sleep. It wasn't necessary for someone to remain on guard all night once they were in Fire territory, but because they had just come from enemy lands, it was protocol for someone to remain awake for a few hours after they made camp to make sure they group hadn't been followed.

"Wake me if you sense anything," Kakashi said, falling back into his sleeping bag. He rolled over, and it wasn't long before his mind went blank.

Despite the fact that he'd remained awake a whole two hours longer than his teammates, Yamato was the first one up the next morning. He winced as he sat up, realizing that he'd been putting a lot of pressure on his bruised ribs. Yamato sighed. The sooner they got back to the village the better. He didn't like sleeping on his back, but sleeping on his side hurt even more in his current condition. But there was no way he'd ask Sakura to heal him. Not when she couldn't even heal herself.

Sakura was the next to wake up, and Kakashi not long after. By that time, Yamato had already started a small fire, and was cooking a bit of breakfast. They had been too exhausted to bother eating the night before, so they would need to eat to regain their strength before they set out for another day of traveling.

The first thing Sakura did after brushing her hair back with her fingers was to try to heal her side a bit more with the chakra she'd recovered throughout the night. She still didn't have enough reserves to heal herself completely, but she was at least able to take the pain away a bit.

"Yamato, how are your ribs?" she asked, as the trio sat down to eat.

"They're fine," he said, but Sakura knew he was lying.

"Let me heal them."

Yamato shook his head. "I can't. You haven't even healed yourself."

"At this point, a little bit of extra healing on me wouldn't make any difference," Sakura said, waving him off. "Just let me take a look at your ribs."

"Sorry."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Men."

They finished eating their breakfast, Kakashi said they should move out as soon as possible, so the three shinobi started packing up their campsite. It was small—they hadn't brought much with them—so it didn't take them too long.

Sakura watched Yamato moving gingerly across from her, and suddenly she was struck by an idea. She grinned, dropping her bedroll.

"Ah," she said, inhaling sharply and clutching her side, as if she were suddenly overcome by an intense pain.

"Sakura? What's wrong?"

Yamato was the closest to the pink-haired girl, so dropped what he was doing and went to check on her. Sakura looked up at him with a grin before flipping behind him. With one hand, she grabbed Yamato's arm and twisted it behind him, while her other hand glowed green as she used her medical ninjutsu to work on his damaged ribs.

"Sakura," he complained, but she just shushed him. Kakashi watched them from across the camp, amusement twinkling in his dark eye.

"Looks like she got you, eh Tenzo?"

Yamato resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Make her stop, sempai. She's going to waste what little chakra she has left on me."

"Stop complaining," Sakura snapped, twisting his arm slightly.

"I think this kind of defeats the purpose," Yamato grumbled, wincing from her grip and looking over at Kakashi for assistance.

"Sorry, there's nothing I can do to help," Kakashi said lightly. "Not while she's got your arm like that. A dirty trick, really."

She smiled. "Well, that was the only way I could think of to get you stubborn boys to let me heal him. Looks like I was right."

"But you can't have that much energy left!" Yamato protested.

"Well, you can just carry me then. Since you'll be all better before I let you go."

"You know, there really is no arguing with her once she gets like this. Medic-mode, I mean."

Yamato sighed, defeated. "Fine. Just don't overdo it. You're probably heavier than you look."

He was rewarded for that comment with another twist of his arm. Any further and Sakura was going to have another injury to heal.

"I meant because you have so much muscle!"

She twisted farther.

"Ow. Okay, I deserved that one! I admit it. Just stop!"

The next two days passed without incident, and by the afternoon of the second day, Sakura had built up enough strength to travel at the same pace as Kakashi and Yamato. She would still need to have Shizune or Tsunade look at her wounds, but she was in much better shape than she had been when Kakashi had found them.

"Sakura! Back from your first ANBU mission I see!" Kotetsu waved as the three ninja approached the Konoha gates.

"And Kakashi! There you are! The Hokage has been looking for you," Izumo said upon seeing the silver-haired jonin who accompanied the group.

"I suppose she would be," Kakashi said, rubbing the back of his head. "I never did go in for my mission debriefing. I guess that means my mission isn't technically fulfilled."

"We can go see her together," Sakura said, wincing as she turned to look at him a little too quickly.

"Are you hurt?" Izumo asked, leaning out of the booth to get a good look at her side.

"Did you and Captain Yamato run into trouble?" Kotetsu looked concerned.

"Yeah, but it was nothing we couldn't handle once Kakashi got there to back us up," Sakura replied. "And don't worry about this. It'll heal easily."

"All right, if you're sure." Izumo didn't sound reassured.

"Which one of us is the medic here?"

Izumo shook his head. "Fine. I'll stop worrying. Go on. Go and see Lady Tsunade."

The trio bid the pair of gatekeepers farewell, heading straight to Hokage Tower. They all wanted to go home as quickly as possible, but letting Tsunade know what had happened took precedence. And they all probably had injuries that needed to be taken care of in some form. Sakura wasn't entirely sure Kakashi had come away without a scratch, even if he acted like nothing was wrong.

"Lady Tsunade is busy right now. I'll have to set something—oh!" Shizune looked up in surprise when she saw the three shinobi in front of her. "It's you three! You're back. And Sakura! You're wounded."

"It's not that bad," Sakura said, but she was cut off by Kakashi.

"She was stabbed in the side by a rogue shinobi we encountered in the Land of Rain. She hadn't been able to heal herself because of low chakra levels."

"Here, let me heal it for you," Shizune said, stepping around the desk and placing her hands on the pink-haired medic's injured abdomen. "You really should be more careful with your chakra use, Sakura."

Kakashi expected her to glare at the black-haired woman, but to his surprise, Sakura merely sighed.

"Yeah, I know. You might take a look at Yamato's ribs too. I healed them, but I don't think I was able to do a very good job."

"I'm fine, Sakura," Yamato protested, but Shizune fixed him with a glare that made him pale in fear.

Sakura frowned, fairly sure she'd never seen Yamato look that scared. Besides, she didn't think Shizune's face was that scary. Yamato could scare himself better just by looking in a mirror. Kakashi raised an eyebrow at him, but didn't say anything, so Sakura let it go.

As soon as she finished with Sakura, Shizune moved on to the wood-style user, gently mending the fractures that Sakura hadn't had the energy to take care of. After a few minutes, she allowed the green glow to fade from her hands and looked up at him.

"How does that feel?"

"Better."

"Good," Shizune nodded. "Now I'll go get Lady Tsunade."

She came back a few minutes later, and told the trio that the Hokage would see them in her office.

"I'm glad all of you are alright," was the first thing she said when three of her top shinobi walked into her office. "I heard you were ambushed?"

Yamato nodded. "The mission to retrieve the scroll went without incident, but on our way back, Sakura and I noticed we were being followed. It turned out to be Rain ninja, intent on capturing the bounty on our heads. They probably would have succeeded too, if Kakashi hadn't shown up when he did."

"I heard about this particular group of Rain shinobi while I was in the Land of Silver, so I went to back Sakura and Tenzo up once I heard where they were. I killed their leader, but I'm afraid the others got away."

"That doesn't matter. It's just important that you all returned safely. Do you have the scroll?" she asked, turning to Yamato.

He nodded, producing the scroll that had been the objective of Sakura's first ANBU mission. The mission seemed like it had been so long ago that the she'd almost forgotten about it.

"And Sakura? How did she perform?"

"Perfectly. I have no complaints," Yamato said.

"Well then, Sakura. Now that you've completed your first mission, you are officially a member of the ANBU Black Ops. Congratulations."

Tsunade smiled at her, and Sakura felt herself smiling back. If her shishou was proud of her, then that must mean that she really was strong. She looked over at Yamato, and the brown-haired shinobi grinned, flashing her a thumbs up, which she gratefully returned.

She didn't think she could get any happier, but she was wrong, because her smile widened even further when she felt a strong hand rest on her shoulder. She looked up to see Kakashi smiling down at her, his visible eye making its signature crinkle.

He bent down so his masked mouth was level with her ear, whispering words that were meant only for her.

"I'm proud of you too."