Flash of Red and Black

Chapter XXXI

Dodge and roll.

Jump, throw shuriken, and follow with a Rasengan.

Land, smirk, taunt.

"Is that all you've got? I may be a guest, but you guys had better not be taking it easy on me, dattebayo!"

The ANBU vice-captain tensed at my taunt and then rushed forward, throwing kunai ahead of him. I grinned and pushed forward too, knowingly heading into a trap planned by the captain.

Thinking my attention was on the vice-captain, she moved behind me as soon as I pushed forward enough for her to be out of my peripherals. She waited for the moment that my kunai clashed with that of her subordinate, and then she sent a water bullet flying towards me. I dodged easily enough, and the vice-captain sent a massive katon to collide with the water bullet, filling the field with steam, temporarily limiting my field of vision.

I crouched and listened, waiting for the next attack, but I didn't have to wait long.

I felt the ground beneath me start to move, and I jumped up, avoiding one of the vice-captain's doton techniques, while deflecting shuriken with a kunai.

As I fell back towards the earth, I made a bunshin to fling me in the direction of the last kunai that was sent my way, Rasengan in hand.

The captain narrowly dodged my unexpected attack, and I rolled out of the way of another flurry of shuriken once I was back on the ground.

Back on my feet, I sent my own shuriken flying through the clearing mist towards both of the Suna ANBU.

Then I crouched, preparing for an attack as the two surged forward, but just before they reached me, I sensed another chakra approaching, so I decided not to drag the fight out any longer.

So I flashed behind the vice-captain and pushed him forward, throwing off his momentum, sending him rolling towards his superior, and then I flashed next to her just as she was about to dodge her teammate, knocking her forward to just barely trip over the vice-captain as he was about to stand back up. Just before they were able to recover from the slight trip-up, I flashed between them, kunai at the shoulder of both.

They halted, and the match was over. Then I righted myself and smiled, helping the vice-captain up. Then I looked towards the new presence, and the two followed my line of sight just as a third ANBU appeared. I could almost feel the frowns of my sparring partners for being too into the fight to notice the presence sooner.

"My apologies for interrupting your spar, but Gaara-sama needs the captain and vice-captain," the ANBU said, kneeling in front of the three of us. The two ANBU looked at me and I nodded at both of them, and then the three were gone, leaving me alone in the field.

I sighed as I picked up my jacket from the edge of the training ground and headed back. At least I was able to get a decent work out, but I was still a ways from even breaking a sweat.

Not including travel time, we had already been at Suna for a week and a half, though the original mission only called for three days tops in the village. I didn't want to get involved and seem like I was implying that Suna couldn't handle some missing-nin on its own, but after the sixth day, I started getting antsy.

So once a full week had passed, I asked Gaara if I could train with the ANBU, giving myself something to do and hopefully help push the Suna shinobi a little harder.

But it seemed that I was the only one of the team feeling anxious to head back.

Sakura and Ino continued helping out at the training school and hospital, teaching classes and assisting where they could, and Kakashi seemed to be treating it as a vacation since he hasn't gotten much down time since rejoining Black Ops.

But I just couldn't relax.

I was getting daily reports from Shikamaru back home, and everything seemed to be fine, but I still wanted to go back. Still, I just tried to keep busy to keep my mind off it since it was probably just a case of homesickness.

Once I got back to the place I was sharing with Kakashi during our stay in Suna, I felt a little conflicted when I saw Kakashi laying out on one of the beds. For the first time in a very long time (at least as far as I'd seen), he had Icha Icha in hand. But more noticeably, the part of his face that was hidden by the little green book was the only concealed part of his body.

The door fell closed behind me, but I just stood there, trying to decide if I should laugh or roll my eyes.

By the time he lazily looked up over the pages, I still hadn't made up my mind, and seeing his dark eye even darker than normal, I forgot what I was debating to begin with.

We stared at each other for a while, but then I finally broke the eye contact and headed towards the bathroom to take a shower, leaving a trail of clothes along the way.

I felt his stare on me the entire time I moved, and I didn't bother to shut the door as I turned on the water and started washing off the dirt that had accumulated during my spar. But after a couple of minutes of feeling him staring at me, I finally turned just enough to glance back at him on the bed and smirked before facing the shower head again.

I didn't need to make another invitation.

Not half a second later, I felt a rough pair of hands running along my skin before I was pinned against the tile wall in front of me with a faint thud coming from the bedroom from the book falling to the floor.

If it weren't for Kakashi's skin continuously making me forget my train of thought, I would have laughed because of the similarity of the moment to chapter six of the book now abandoned on the ground, but as it was, I could barely remember to breathe.

oOo

My fingers combed through the mess of silver hair next to me for what felt like the millionth time that night.

"Maybe a vacation isn't so bad," I mused aloud, and then I felt a swollen set of lips against my own yet again.

"I'm definitely up for a few more days like this," he said, a suggestive smirk just barely visible in the darkness of the room.

I returned the look and rolled myself on top of him, trailing kisses and hands wherever they pleased, but just as I was about to get to the best part, the call of a familiar bird came from the window.

I groaned and let my head fall against Kakashi's stomach, debating ignoring the messenger, but I reminded myself that I wasn't actually on vacation.

I rolled out of the bed, pulling the blankets with me and wrapping myself up as I headed to the window, earning a quiet groan from Kakashi as he curled up beneath the remaining sheet to try to block out the cold of the desert night. I just grinned back at him as I took the scroll from the bird's back.

I opened it and started reading as I headed back to the bed, but the more I read of Shikamaru's report, the deeper of a frown appeared on my face, and apparently Kakashi noticed my concern.

"What is it?" he asked, and I just handed him the scroll in response before tossing the blankets back over him as I moved to change.

"I have to talk to Gaara," I told him as I pulled on the layers, and by the time I was dressed, Kakashi was pulling on his clothes too with an expression that mirrored my own.

"I'll come too," he said, reaching for his ANBU mask, but I stopped him.

"If you're coming, I need you as an advisor, not a silent observer," I told him, and he nodded and finished pulling on his clothes before we headed out, scroll in hand.

We were definitely not on vacation.

"Naruto? Is something wrong?" Gaara asked as Kakashi and I were allowed into his office. I handed him the scroll and started talking as he looked it over.

"Suna isn't the only one having trouble with groups of missing-nin," I told him, and he nodded, looking up at me though he hadn't finished reading yet.

"Yes, the Mizukage has informed us that Kirigakure will not be able to send medic-nin for the training program for the time being because of trouble with missing-nin near its borders," Gaara told me before looking back down at the scroll, but I frowned more and shook my head.

"It's not just Suna. Konoha teams that were on missions near the Land of Grass and the Land of Sound also ran into missing-nin, so Iwa and Kumo are also probably dealing with them," I told him, and Gaara's forehead wrinkled as he read through the scroll.

"Konoha has not been having such trouble?" he asked, looking up at me once he was done reading. I shook my head, and he frowned fractionally more.

"I suggest that you prepare to return to your village. I have the feeling that, though it may not be safe to return with the missing-nin around, it would be unwise to keep you from Konohagakure any longer," he said, and I nodded in response.

"If you can't spare a guard, I understand. We will be able to manage—"

"No. You may not have a full guard, but I will prepare an escort for your return. When can you be ready?"

"As soon as your escort is."

"Then I'll arrange for you to leave at dawn," he said, handing the scroll back to me, and I nodded as I took it, and I was about to leave, but then he spoke up again.

"I would like a minute with Kakashi-san, if you don't mind," Gaara said, looking at both of us. I shrugged and looked at Kakashi he nodded at me before bowing his head just slightly to the Kazekage.

"How may I help?" I heard him ask as I left, heading back to let Sakura and Ino know before packing up my own things.

I silently worried as I packed, wondering if things were about to go downhill again. We had just finally rid the world of one menace, but I couldn't shake the feeling that another was about to arise.

Once I finished packing, I read through the scroll again.

Two of my ANBU teams were in the hospital, all because I didn't leave any bunshin behind because I thought it was only going to be a week-long mission. Had I known that I would be gone for over two weeks, I would have left some kagebunshin behind, and then those teams wouldn't be in the hospital, struggling to hold on.

Not to mention two of Konoha's best medic-nin were stranded with me, over a day and a half from home, and that was if we didn't run into unwelcome company.

I felt like punching myself for my stupidity.

"Prepare before it's too late. That's a shinobi rule."

I was just as laughable a shinobi now as I was as a kid, but now my stupidity got other people hurt and killed.

My teeth ground together until I felt a familiar presence approaching, and then I rearranged my thoughts as best I could as I continued packing.

"It looks like the first ANBU team will be our guard on our way back," Kakashi said after a moment when he walked in. I nodded.

"Alright. That should be enough. Any more would probably slow down our return anyway," I said, shoving the scroll into my bag.

Again, I could feel Kakashi's eyes on me, although this time the stare was worried instead of burning.

Then I found myself wrapped up in his arms, his face buried in the side of my head.

"Don't blame yourself. Just leave it to Neji and Shikamaru for now and concentrate on getting home. We'll be back soon," he whispered against me, and I took a deep breath and grit my teeth more as I hugged him tight.

The effects of the last mission were still evident, and the news from Shikamaru only brought them back to the surface.

So sorry that this took so long!
My computer crashed in the midst of studying abroad, so I lost everything that I had, but it's back working again, and so am I!

Thank you all for your patience, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter! I'm going to try to get a chapter of this up every other week for a while, so I hope you'll be looking forward to an action-packed chapter 32 in two weeks! (For those of you who also follow Falling Silver, I'm going to try to get a chapter of that up every weekend that there isn't a Red and Black chapter, so next weekend will hopefully have a new chapter.)

Also, I have a couple of KakaNaru/NaruKaka oneshot ideas floating around my head that will soon be needing to get written down, so I hope I'll have a couple of oneshots up in the next few weeks too.

Anyway, sorry again for taking so long, but thank you so much for reading! I hope you liked it!