Thirty-Four: Reunion

"I see why you're so particular about who you let on ANBU missions with you," Sakura said later as they stopped to rest. Kakashi was bent down next to her, cleaning the dirt and grime away from the wound on her side so it wouldn't get infected. She had her medical ninjutsu, but sometimes it was easier to do things the old fashioned way.

"Oh?" he said, giving her a quick glance before resuming his work.

"Yeah, it's because you always knock yourself out and need your partner to protect you. I bet you think it's embarrassing, being the great Copy Ninja and all."

"This is the thanks I get?" he grumbled. "I should've let those kunai hit you."

"Yeah, but then the rest of Team Seven probably would have killed you. I hear attacks from the Kyuubi can be pretty painful."

"You know, generally you're supposed to be nice to the person taking care of your wounds."

"Hm, I guess my sensei never taught me that one."

Kakashi gave her a look, which only caused the kunoichi's smirk to widen.

"Remember, Kyuubi attacks."

"You're lucky you're injured," he grumbled, but Sakura could still hear the laughter in his voice.

Truthfully, he was glad that Sakura's mood seemed to be all right now. When he had regained consciousness after her fight, she had seemed exhausted and a bit unstable, and she'd fallen asleep due to chakra exhaustion almost immediately when he'd carried her. Kakashi regretted the fact that she'd had to kill one of her friends to protect him, but he was also proud at the way she handled herself.

He sighed. Sakura wasn't the little girl of Team Seven any longer. He knew that for sure.

"There," the Copy Ninja said, securing the bandage around her middle and leaning back.

"Thanks," she said, checking over his handiwork quickly to make sure he hadn't missed anything. "Guess we'd better get moving again."

"We can wait a little longer. I sent Pakkun back to Konoha with the information for Lady Tsunade, and the rest of the pack confirmed that Kaoru's men have lost our trail. Using your genjutsu was a good idea, even if it was reckless."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "We didn't have any other options. Besides, I wanted to see if it would work on an area instead of a person."

"Well, it seems like you have your answer. Bull said the men who were trapped in it stood there for a few minutes before they realized they weren't going anywhere."

The medic grinned. "I think I'm starting to get the hang of this jutsu. That stuff you told me about switching up the hand signs really helped."

"Good," Kakashi said, "I thought it might."

They came to a natural lull in their conversation, and Sakura found herself drifting off slowly to sleep. Their pursuers had stopped following them, the ninken were guarding the perimeter, and Kakashi was with her. She felt as secure as she was ever going to be on an S-ranked mission.

"Kakashi," she mumbled as her eyes fluttered shut. "I'm glad you're here."

"Hm?" he asked, looking up from the book he'd pulled out and over to his teammate, but she was already asleep.

Tsunade sighed, looking through yet another budget report. Peaceful times were great for the happiness of the village, but it wasn't great for their wallets. As much as she didn't like the Land of Silver mission, it paid well—which is what she kept telling herself when she had the misfortune of having to read a mission report written by Sasuke Uchiha.

The Hokage groaned, pushing aside a stack of papers so she could lay her head on the desk. She cursed the fact that Shizune had to take a weekend off right when the influx of boring paperwork was coming in. Tsunade could think of many other things she'd rather be doing.

"Hey!"

She raised an eyebrow. Talk about timing...

"What is it Jiraiya? Can't you see I'm busy?"

"Oh, you'll want to take a look at this. Look who's back!"

"Yo."

"Pakkun?" Tsunade asked, startled by the sudden appearance of a small dog on her desk.

"Yeah, it's me."

"This must mean the mission has been completed?" Tsunade knew all of Kakashi's ninken were trained well, but she also knew Pakkun had a close bond with his master, and would probably not be so calm if he or Sakura were still in any sort of danger.

"Yeah. Kakashi wanted me to give you this, and to tell you that he'll wait for your orders."

The blonde took the scroll from the pug's side pocket and started scanning its contents. She felt a presence behind her, and a shadow fell across her desk as Jiraiya leaned down to read over her shoulder.

"Hm," the white-haired man said, leaning back after he'd finished. "That's interesting."

"What do you think?"

"I don't know," Jiraiya said, "but I think there's more to this mission than we've been told."

"I was thinking the same thing." Tsunade frowned, rubbing her temples and wishing Jiraiya had been useful enough to bring some alcohol back with him.

"What do you want me to tell Kakashi?" Pakkun asked, clearly anxious to get back to his master.

"Tell him and Sakura to head to Silver City. They will back up Team Seven until we have more information."

"Right, thanks," Pakkun said, before disappearing with a poof, much like his master.

"I take it that 'more information' means I've got a mission," Jiraiya said, rubbing Tsunade's stiff back muscles.

"Unfortunately," she grumbled, before letting out a relieved sigh as he workout out a particularly troublesome knot. "Ah, but it can wait a little longer."

Jiraiya smiled. "That's what I like to hear."

"Man!" Naruto said, throwing his arms up in the air and kicking a pebble across the street. "I'm so bored. I wish someone would just attack already."

"Careful what you wish for, idiot," Sasuke muttered.

"I have to agree with Naruto. I think even I am starting to feel a bit bored," Sai said from the blonde's other side.

"Well, hopefully Sakura and Kakashi-sensei will finish up whatever it is they're doing and get back here so we can leave," the jinchuriki said.

Yamato, trailing behind the three, sighed. "I wish, but things have changed since we first got here. You know it won't be that easy to just leave now."

"Hn," Sasuke said, a frown forming on his face as he remembered what Lord Sasaki had confessed to him and Yamato the day before.

"Yeah, but at least we'd have Sakura back," Naruto whined. "I miss her."

"Hey now, what about me?"

The blonde fell back, letting out a startled yelp as a silver-haired shinobi appeared in front of him.

"Kakashi?" Yamato exclaimed, equally surprised by the older ninja's appearance.

"Yo."

Having recovered from his scare, Naruto jumped back on his feet and pointed an accusing finger at his former sensei.

"Hey! What's the big idea sneaking up on me like that, Kakashi-sensei!"

"You're the one who was saying you didn't miss me. I was feeling offended."

"I never said I didn't miss you, I just said I was missing Sakura," the blonde jinchuriki grumbled.

Kakashi shrugged. "Same thing."

"Are you causing problems already?" another voice said, and soon after Sakura appeared around the corner, pink hair dripping wet and her hands on her hips.

"Naruto started it," Kakashi said, and if the rest of his team didn't know better, they would have thought he was whining. But it was Kakashi, so they knew they had to be imagining it.

"Grown men shouldn't be playing the blame game, you know," Sakura said, causing Yamato to snicker at his former ANBU captain.

"Sakura! You're back!" Naruto said, launching himself at the pink-haired girl.

"Naruto," she laughed, glad that her freakish strength saved her from toppling over.

"Ew, why's your hair all wet?"

"Because I just washed the dye out of it. Hey Sai, Sasuke," she said, nodding to the two black-haired boys who had come up beside her.

"Hello."

"Hn."

Sakura rolled her eyes. Those two never changed.

"So I take it everything went well and you found what you were looking for?" Yamato asked, going to stand beside Kakashi.

The silver-haired jonin nodded. "Yeah, Sakura was able to infiltrate their camp and find out the identity of the mystery leader and steal some of their battle plans."

"Nice, Sakura!" Naruto said. Even Sasuke and Sai looked impressed.

"Thanks guys," she said, brushing a strand of damp hair behind her ear. "But really, it was nothing."

"It wasn't nothing," Kakashi said. "You should be proud of your achievements. You did very well, Sakura."

She blushed, unaccustomed to being the one on her team to get all the praise and attention.

Yamato put a hand on her shoulder, looking down at her with a smile that said he understood, and that he was proud of her too.

"So who's the guy behind all this then?" Sasuke asked.

"Shinji Juba," Kakashi said.

"The merchant?" Yamato asked, surprised to hear a name that didn't belong to a shinobi or military man.

Kakashi nodded.

"Hn."

"Who's Shinji Juba?" Naruto asked, oblivious as always. Sai, at least, had the Foundation as an excuse for his general lack of obvious, cultural knowledge.

"He's a really wealthy merchant from the Land of Silver," Sakura explained. "But he sells his stuff to all of the Five Great Nations, and probably lots of other places too."

"Oh. So why's he leading this army…or rebellion…thing?"

"I don't know," Kakashi said honestly. "It doesn't make much sense."

"Actually it does," Sasuke said. "It seems Lord Sasaki decided to leave out one important fact when he hired us to do this mission. He's planning on uniting the Land of Silver under one ruler, which, of course, would be him."

Team Seven let out a collective sigh, lamenting the fact that they had always gotten the lying clients—ever since their first real mission to the Land of Waves.

"You know," Kakashi said, turning toward the dark-haired Uchiha, "we never got any missions like this after you left the Leaf. Maybe you should have just stayed rogue."

"Hey!" Naruto said, clearly offended on his best friend's behalf, but Sasuke didn't seem that upset. The dark-haired shinobi knew his old sensei was just teasing him.

That didn't stop Sakura from smacking said sensei across the back of the head, though. "Watch it, Kakashi."

"Ow, Sakura. So mean," he whined, causing Yamato to laugh. Whatever problems those two may have had before their time in ANBU, they had certainly worked it out. And, he had to admit, it was nice to see his senpai being the one picked on for once.

"Well," the wood style user said, "you're both probably tired. Why don't we head back to our places so you two can get settled in and get some rest."

"That sounds good," Kakashi said, knowing Sakura was just as tired as he was. Maybe more—since she'd had to deal with all of their injuries. "Where are you staying?"

Naruto scoffed. "Apparently there wasn't housing for us in any 'convenient' locations, so Captain Yamato built us our own. Ooh, Sakura, you can stay with us! Captain Yamato built me, Sasuke, and Sai this awesome house! It's like a mansion, so there'll be room for you too, and it'll be just like a giant sleepover!"

"Okay loser, I think she gets the idea," Sasuke said, shoving his best friend lightly on the shoulder.

"Well, I guess this means I'll be staying with you," Kakashi said, turning to Yamato with his signature eye smile.

"No way!"

"Aw, come on. It'll be like ANBU all over again, Tenzo."

The brunette sighed. "I told you not to call me that. And you're not staying with me! You'll eat all my food like last time, and then somehow make me end up paying for it!"

"But Tenzo, you wouldn't make me sleep out on the street, would you? I could get frostbite and die."

"But the temperature is very warm," Sai pointed out unhelpfully. "How exactly could that cause frostbite?"

"He's just being a baby. Ignore him, Sai," Sakura grinned.

"But—"

"Quit whining. I'll just build you your own place. Jeez," Yamato sighed. "You're such a drama queen, senpai." Secretly, the brunette was glad Kakashi had eventually been able to open up to them enough to joke around. He'd gotten to see a bit of this side of Kakashi when they were in ANBU, but it had been rare.

"Oh," Kakashi said. "Well let's get going then."

Sasuke groaned, and Naruto said something that sounded suspiciously like 'idiot-sensei,' but Sakura just smiled. She had missed her boys, and she was glad to be back.

Sai, oddly enough, seemed to be the only one to pick up on her mood.

"Welcome back, ugly," he said, giving her a perfect smile.

Sakura's eyes narrowed. "Why thank you Sai."

Across the town a yell could be heard.

"Shanaro!"

~A/N: Hey guys! So firstly I wanted to apologize that I've been awful about replying to reviews lately. I've been so busy :( But I'm still reading and appreciating them, I swear! This is going to start the next part of the story, and while all of Team 7 is going to be around a bit, this is where I think the KakaSaku will start to really pick up. I need to really sit down and plot out what I'm going to do, because I've deviated from my initial plan a bit, seeing as this story has turned out to be way longer than I thought it would be up to this point. I know what the next big plot thing is going to be, but now I just get to have some fun with getting there. So that's a little preview of what's coming up ;) Also, hello and welcome to the new readers! It's nice to have you along!