Twenty-Eight: Preparations
Kakashi sighed, pacing back and forth between two trees while he waited for Sakura to show up. It was five hours past their normal meeting time, and the medic wasn't normally one to be late.
"Relax boss," Pakkun said, lifting his head up from where he was sunbathing on a nearby rock. "I'm sure she'll be here any time now. She probably just got busy treating someone back at camp."
Kakashi paused just long enough to look at the little pug before he resumed his pacing.
"Yeah. I sure hope you're right."
When Sakura hadn't shown up on time, Kakashi had figured she was still angry at him for the other day. He hadn't meant to seem cold and upset her by refusing to elaborate, but he honestly hadn't thought she'd care. Back when they were just normal teammates, Sakura would never have given his lack of explanation another thought. But now that they were ANBU teammates, she probably felt like he owed her at least a little more insight into what was going on in his head.
Kakashi supposed she was right. It was his own fault for keeping everyone out for so long, though. The first people he'd ever really let in had been Rin and Obito, and look what had happened to them. Then there was Minato-sensei, and he'd died too. In fact, the only person from his youth that he'd trusted implicitly who wasn't dead was Tenzo, and he hadn't been able to have contact with him for years while the wood-style user was still a member of ANBU.
There was always Gai, but Gai was Gai, and not always the best for deep and meaningful conversation when they were younger. He was better for having fun with, and that was something the silver-haired jonin didn't get a lot of.
He realized that over the course of their time together in ANBU—especially during their month-long stay in Gintown—he had started to grow comfortable with Sakura. He'd shared things with her and spoken to her in ways that before had only been reserved for those five people. And while he was accustomed to going right back to his usual, quiet self, Sakura probably wasn't. Knowing his medic, she would think she'd done something wrong.
He would make a point to tell her it wasn't anything she did, and apologize when she showed up.
If she showed up, a growing part of his brain was telling him. It wasn't like Sakura to be this late. Something had to be wrong.
"Pakkun!" Kakashi yelled suddenly, startling the pug out of his nap. "Come here. I need you to do something for me."
"What is it, boss?"
"I need you to sneak into the enemy's camp and find Sakura. I'm starting to get a bad feeling."
It only took one look at his master's face for Pakkun to see that the man really was worried. Pakkun didn't know Sakura as well as Kakashi did, but the pug knew she wasn't normally one to tolerate tardiness. He'd gotten a few good laughs over the years when the pink-haired girl yelled at his master for not showing up on time for missions.
"Sure boss. I'll go check on her."
"Thanks, Pakkun."
"No problem."
I hope everything is all right, Kakashi thought as he watched Pakkun disappear into the trees. He kept staring long after the small dog had disappeared, before he resumed his pacing in the forest.
Pakkun sensed the genjutsu barrier easily enough this time, since he already knew where it was. He tried not to let Kakashi's worry rub off on him, but he had to admit he was a little nervous. It wasn't like Sakura to miss a meeting unless something was keeping her from leaving.
The pug slipped easily through the barrier. The guards may have been well trained, but they weren't shinobi, so they wouldn't know that a disturbance as small as the one he caused by passing through was something that they should be worried about.
Now he just had to find Sakura, and he had to find her without being seen. He'd discarded his identifying gear when Kakashi had joined back up with ANBU, but even as a regular dog, an army wasn't likely to let him stick around.
Still, Pakkun had worked with Kakashi since they were both very young, and he knew how to move about in far more dangerous areas than this and not get caught. He was the captain of Kakashi's ninken for a reason.
Sakura's scent was easy enough to sniff out, because it was the only one Pakkun was familiar with. And just like back in Konoha, it was mixed up with the smells of herbs and medicine—neither of which were Pakkun's favorite smells, after Sakura had tricked him into taking some once when he'd been sick.
The pug, it seemed, had inherited Kakashi's immense dislike of hospitals, and therefore kept skipping his scheduled appointments with Kiba's sister. Kakashi hadn't felt particularly inclined to make him go either, telling Sakura that Pakkun insisted he was fine and he trusted him. Sakura had laughed, saying something about how his definition of fine was usually anything but fine, and proceeded to trick Pakkun into eating some medicine by telling him it was a treat. He hadn't forgiven her for weeks.
Pakkun quickly tracked the scent, pushing aside all his inhibitions about following a smell that would take him towards medicine. He had no trouble staying out of sight; in fact, he hardly saw any people out at all. It was somewhat surprising to the pug, seeing as it was a war camp, but he didn't let himself dwell on it, instead concentrating on finding Sakura. He would leave worrying about the details to the humans.
Pakkun was certain to make sure that there was no one in the medical tent besides Sakura before he nudged the entrance open and slipped under the bottom of the tent flap.
Sakura turned, her keen ears picking up the near-silent sound of something entering her tent.
"Down here," a familiar voice called, and she relaxed momentarily, realizing it was only Pakkun. Then she frowned.
"Pakkun! What are you doing here! You can't be seen talking to me!" Suddenly an awful thought sprang into her mind. "What's wrong? Is it Kakashi? Has he been injured?"
The pug shook his head, laughing to himself. "You shinobi are always so worried about each other. No, Kakashi's fine. He sent me here to make sure you were okay. It's not like you to miss the scheduled meet up time, and considering the situation, Kakashi was worried something had gone wrong."
"Kakashi was worried about me?"
"Yeah. He was pacing around like an idiot," Pakkun snorted. He wondered if he was betraying his loyalty to Kakashi by telling Sakura, but the pug liked the pink-haired girl. He thought she might get a kick out of it.
Instead, she sighed. "Doesn't he trust me?"
Pakkun frowned. "Of course he trusts you. He wouldn't be on a mission with you if he didn't. Kakashi has always been very…particular about who he works with, especially in ANBU. It's not you he doesn't trust, it's everyone around you. And himself, I think. He's never been very good with that."
Sakura frowned back, cocking her head to one side like the dog she was talking to. Pakkun sure had an interesting way of putting things, but she knew the pug probably had better insight into Kakashi than anyone.
"Well, I'm fine. Everything is going okay here, but they've shut down the camp in preparation for the leaders' arrival. Even I'm not allowed out to stock up, so that's why I couldn't make it to the rendezvous point today."
"Ah, I see. What do you want me to tell Kakashi?"
"Tell him not to worry. I'll to try to sneak out the day before the leaders get here. Hopefully I'll have more information then."
"That's risky," the pug muttered, shaking his head. "I don't think Kakashi's going to like that."
"I'm the head medic. They can't keep me out of the camp forever," Sakura said. "Besides, I think I've got a plan."
Pakkun simply stared, and Sakura took it as an invitation to continue. She bent down, lowering her voice instinctively.
"Today I stole a bit of herbs from our supply closet. I didn't take enough for anyone but me to notice, but it'll make a difference over the next week. When I 'discover' that the supplies are low, they'll have to let me go out. We wouldn't want to seem like we're doing a bad job when the big shots come to town," she said with a smirk.
Pakkun grinned. "That just might work, kid. Good thinking."
"But Pakkun—there's something else. Kaoru's taken over command of this camp. Tell Kakashi he has to be careful if he's planning on snooping around here anymore. Kaoru's better about patrolling the area, and I don't need to remind him how observant he is."
"Right," the dog nodded. "I'll be sure to tell him."
"Thanks, Pakkun."
"Not a problem. Glad everything's going all right on your end. I better go and report back to Kakashi now. I'll see you later, Sakura."
"Bye, Pakkun. Be careful."
"Same to you," he said, giving her a curt nod before slipping out silently and disappearing from her view.
Sakura sighed, wondering if she should have told him about her run in with Kaoru earlier that week. No, she realized, it was probably a good idea she hadn't. He would have told Kakashi, and Kakashi seemed to be especially jumpy when it came to the blonde captain. It was probably for the best that she kept that incident to herself.
"Fancy seeing you here," a familiar voice said from the shadows, causing Sakura to instantly freeze.
"Captain Shiba?" she asked, thankfully remembering to stay in character.
"Do you want to tell me what you're doing out here all alone, Kaiya?"
Sakura wanted to flee. It took every ounce of her willpower not to blow her cover and make a break for it before Kaoru could alert the whole camp that he had discovered another spy.
But she didn't. Instead she took a deep breath, reminding herself that this is what she trained for, and that she had a perfectly valid reason to be out there.
"A headache," she said, her voice sounding like something halfway between a grimace and a growl. If she hadn't been so worried, Sakura would have been impressed with her acting skills.
"I was heading over to the medical tent to get some medication, sir," she continued quickly, praying he believed her. "This route is usually more deserted, so I was hoping to get there quicker and avoid all the traffic that comes with taking the central path."
"Ah," Kaoru said, and he looked like he was about to say more, but he was interrupted by another loud voice.
"Kaiya! There you are!"
"Mitsuo?" She spun, surprised to see the blonde standing behind her with a canteen of water in his hand. "What are you doing here?"
"I, uh, was going to bring you this," he said sheepishly, holding up the canteen. "You had that headache, and I thought you might be dehydrated. I know you're a medic and all, but you're always working so hard that sometimes I—I mean, we—worry that you're not looking after your own health enough."
"Oh," she said, "thanks. But how'd you know to look for me here?" She knew better than to leave a trail.
He grinned as she took the canteen. "I noticed you weren't in your tent when I came to give you the water, but since I'd just come from the central road and you weren't there, I knew you would have probably taken the back route to get the med tent."
"I see," she said awkwardly, and behind her, Kaoru laughed. Apparently someone found the situation amusing.
"Well, I'll leave you to it then. Make sure you take care of that headache, Kaiya."
He winked at her as he passed, sending shivers down her spine that she knew had nothing to do with the temperature outside.
Thinking back on it, Sakura still couldn't tell if Kaoru had been sincere, or if he was just playing along, biding his time until he took her down. Sometimes the man showed insane levels of intelligence, and it made her think she'd stumbled upon another Shikamaru, but then at other times he appeared so dense she wondered how he'd possibly managed to uncover Kakashi's identity. It was the difference between a soldier with above-average intelligence and a ninja, she supposed.
But no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't figure Kaoru Shiba out, and that was what made him so dangerous.
~A/N: Hey guys! So I think 2 chapters a week (at least of this length) was a little ambitious of me. Until mid-October, my class schedule is insanely hectic, but things may calm down then when I am no longer in my 4 credit online course that's essentially acting as an 8 hour course now. Stupid college. Anyway, I thought about making chapters shorter to keep posting twice a week, but these chapters aren't all that long to begin with (usually 2,000-3,000 words) so I've decided that I'm going to go to weekly updates for awhile. If everything settles down or I'm able to get ahead of schedule then I will most definitely post more often, but expect updates once a week from here on out. It'll probably be on Mondays or Tuesdays, but I'm not 100% sure yet. Sorry, I wish I could've kept going at the same pace as this summer, but you know how life gets. :D