Twenty-Six: Old Friends

Strangely enough, Sakura didn't panic when the blonde captain told her his name—not even internally. She maintained a calm that did her ANBU training proud. The only thing running through her head was oh, so that's why the third regiment seemed so familiar. That was the regiment Kakashi had infiltrated before.

"It's good to meet you, sir," she said, reaching out to shake his offered hand. She was careful not to grip too tightly.

"Shiba here is one of our best new captains," her commander said, smiling at the blonde man like he was the best thing that had ever graced the rebellion with his presence. And, Sakura supposed, in a way, he probably was. He was the one who caught Kakashi Hatake, and even if he hadn't been able to stop him, that feat was good enough.

"You give me too much credit, sir," Kaoru said, bowing his head slightly to the man in thanks. "Please, allow me to introduce my second-in-command, Hideki Osaka. He will be helping with any commanding duties while we are staying here."

"Welcome, sir," Sakura said as she shook the dark-haired man's hand.

Hideki grinned. "Thanks! Ha, I feel so important here with people calling me 'sir.'"

Kaoru rolled his eyes. "As you can see, Osaka is still getting used to his position."

Hideki glared at his friend. "Oh, gimme a break, Kaoru. We were just lowly foot soldiers before we happened to befriend that Copy Ninja and catch him spying."

Sakura pretended to act surprised, since Kaoru and her commander were both still looking at her. "So you're the ones who caught the intruder?"

"Well, technically it was just Kaoru," Hideki said sheepishly. "I honestly thought he was just our weird friend."

Sakura wanted to laugh, because 'the weird friend' was a fairly accurate description of Kakashi, but that would definitely blow her cover. She made a mental note to remember to tell Kakashi what his old 'friends' had thought about him when she saw him next, however.

"I was just doing my job like any soldier," Kaoru said simply, attempting to wave his actions off, but Sakura could tell he was sharper than the average recruit. He probably wasn't Shikamaru-level intelligent, but she would definitely have to be more careful if he was around—especially because he'd been the one to figure out Kakashi's identity.

Sakura inhaled sharply, suddenly wondering how much Kaoru actually knew about Kakashi. Would he have looked up more information on the Copy Ninja after he had fled? Or would he have just let it go? Could Kaoru actually know who she, Sakura Haruno, was? If he knew about Kakashi's teammates, it could pose a problem. Sakura was thankful she'd had the foresight to dye her hair. She would have to try to avoid the man as much as possible. She wondered if it would be harder for her to get out to make her weekly visits to "gather herbs."

The three men left after politely excusing themselves, and Sakura busied herself in her work. She worked at a much quicker pace than usual, sorting through their supplies and taking inventory now that they had more men to care for. Sakura wanted to finish as soon as she could so she could head out to collect more herbs.

She needed to talk to Kakashi. If Kaoru had come to camp, he needed to know.

As it turned out, Sakura didn't need to worry about the camp being shut down more tightly with Kaoru's arrival. The guards were still as friendly as ever, and she had no problem explaining to them that she'd forgotten to grab a certain herb the other day, so she needed to go out and get more. Like every week, they offered to go with her for protection, but Sakura declined, saying she wasn't going far and promising to call if she needed their assistance.

She hurried faster than she normally would have under normal circumstances. It wasn't a conscious decision, she was just preoccupied with worrying about Kaoru, and her pace matched that.

Kakashi, however, didn't know that.

He froze when he saw Sakura heading toward him, moving at a fast pace with a flustered look on her face. Only someone who had known her for as long as he had would be able to tell, but something was clearly bothering her. His first thought was that she had been found out.

"Sakura! What's wrong?" he asked, dropping out of the tree he was hiding in and into a defensive position instantly. "Are you being followed?"

"No," she said, a bit breathlessly. She frowned, realizing for the first time that she must have been moving at a faster pace than she'd initially thought.

"Then what's wrong?"

"Kakashi, we've got a problem. Kaoru Shiba is here. The same Kaoru that discovered you."

Kakashi's visible eye widened. "We should leave, now."

"What?"

"I'm serious, Sakura. You can't stay there. If he's done any sort of research on me, he might know who you are too. It would be bad for Konoha, not to mention us, if he were to catch on to you too."

"I get what you're saying, but just wait a minute. I was basically alone with him, and he didn't act like he recognized me."

"You were alone with him?" Kakashi exclaimed, gripping her shoulders. "Sakura, you have to be careful. He's smarter than you think."

"I know that," she said, and Kakashi dropped his grip on her. "It wasn't like I had a choice. My commander brought him into the medical tent to introduce us. He didn't seem to know who I was. I think if he had, he would have said something."

"Hm."

Kakashi frowned, wondering how likely Kaoru would be to sit on that sort of information. If he thought Sakura was working with someone else, he might wait and see if he could discover the other intruders, but the more he thought about it, the more inclined he felt to agree with Sakura. Kaoru probably hadn't recognized her.

"I still don't like that he's shown up here," Kakashi said, narrowing his eye. "But I trust your judgment on this."

Sakura paused, thinking about her decision. It wasn't just her that would be affected by this. Kakashi and the rest of the village could be put in danger too if she messed up.

"We'll wait it out for one week," she said finally. "If by then we haven't heard anything about the leader then we can go. But I'm pretty sure I can stay under the radar until then."

"Pretty sure isn't good enough in our line of work, Sakura," Kakashi warned.

"Then I am sure."

"Okay then. One week. Are we still meeting on our normal day?"

Sakura nodded. "Yeah. It wasn't hard for me to get out of camp at all, so I can still meet you then. But I probably should be getting back earlier today. I told the guards I only needed to collect one herb."

"You should probably keep your searching to a minimum too, at least while Kaoru and his men are here. You don't want to give anyone a reason to suspect you."

"That's probably a good idea."

Sakura turned to go, but she was stopped by Kakashi's hand on her shoulder.

"Be careful. Don't do anything reckless without sending for me first."

She grinned. "So you're implying we can do the reckless stuff together?"

His eye lit up. "Exactly."

Sakura swore as another tool snapped under her unnatural strength. It was the second one she'd broken that afternoon alone. Groaning, she picked up the shattered pieces and disposed of them in a trashcan.

She had been crushing ingredients to make medicine all week it seemed, so she hadn't been able to find time to walk around camp and see what was going on. There were only two days left until she was supposed to meet Kakashi, and if they had no news in the next four days then they were going to have to leave.

Kaoru Shiba coming to camp sure had put a wrench in her plans. His men were better trained than the ones who were stationed at the camp, so she probably couldn't have snuck around at night even if she'd wanted to. But the lack of action mixed with the tension of having Kaoru around was starting to make her crazy.

"Can I come in?"

Sakura's eyes widened, and she was glad her back was to the tent opening, so no one saw her slip a knife into the waistband of her skirt before turning around.

"Of course, Captain Shiba. Please enter."

Kaoru pushed the tent flap aside and ducked into the tent. He was alone, Sakura noted.

"Is there something I can help you with? I hope you're not sick or injured."

"No, no," he said, waving her off. "I'm just here to pick up the supplies for the scout team that's going out tonight."

Sakura frowned. The scout team normally wouldn't go out for another five days. Kaoru must have seen her confusion, because he quickly explained.

"I guess word hasn't reached you out here yet. Understandable, considering the messengers are all new here, it would be easy to forget to inform you. This camp is going to host the leaders of our army. As head medic, you should have been informed so you can adequately prepare."

"How many soldiers are we talking here? I will need to get more supplies," she added quickly, in case her question seemed odd.

"I'm not sure, but it will most likely just be the leaders and their guards. We don't want to draw too much attention to ourselves before any sort of plan can be made."

"I must ask. These leaders that you speak of, would they be the ones leading the rebellion?"

Sakura hoped she wasn't overstepping her bounds with her questions, but she needed to know, and she prayed Kaoru thought it was for medical reasons.

"Yes," he said, "you can expect all three of our commanders to be here."

She nodded slowly, handing him the supplies he had originally come for. "I will make sure to be prepared then. Thank you for informing me, sir."

"Of course," he said, but he made no move to leave.

"Was there something else you needed, captain?"

"No," the blonde said, shaking his head. "I was just thinking about how lucky this camp was to find a medic as good as you, and one with healing abilities as well."

Sakura's hand twitched toward the knife. She couldn't tell if Kaoru was suspicious or not. Kakashi had been right. This man was hard to read.

"Thank you, sir," she said evenly.

"Normally only shinobi are capable of using healing arts. They call it 'medical ninjutsu.' It's very rare to find a civilian with this kind of training, unless they come from a family line of doctors, of course," he mused.

Sakura breathed out, thankful that Kakashi had chosen a family tradition of medicine to be a part of their cover story.

"My older brother and my father, while he was alive, were both doctors. I believe my grandfather was a medic as well. My father and brother taught me everything I know."

Kaoru nodded, as if satisfied by her answer. "Well, lucky for us they did."

He smiled at her as he stood, taking the supplies she'd given him and exiting the tent. Sakura stared after him for a moment, pondering the fact that she had just gained Kaoru Shiba's trust. That was something to tell Kakashi.

~A/N: Hey guys! So there probably isn't going to be a chapter on Friday. I've got a lot of work for an online class due tomorrow, and I've been interviewing for various jobs and internships lately so I haven't had as much free time as I'd like :( I'm taking 16 credit hours this semester, but 4 of those are this online science class that will end in mid October, so this will hopefully be the busiest time of the year for me. Sorry about not getting another chapter out this week, but I will have one next week for sure!