"Can we trust it?" The Hokage asked. "What if it's a trap? With Orochimaru as bait, Akatsuki could be lying in wait for you at the Tenchi Bridge."
"I think it's unlikely to be a trap by Akatsuki." Sakura said, face blank. "But if it is, then we'll just have to fight." Her tone was matter of fact.
"You say you'll fight but Kakashi will be out of commission for at least a week and there's only six days. I guess I'll have to form a new team."
"Tsunade-sama!" The Hokage's assistant protested. "In that case you should send a completely different team to investigate. Even if we send Sakura like you said, you must leave Naruto-kun!"
Sakura watched the Hokage think, knowing she wouldn't make that an option but curious to see what the Senju would say.
"Shizune, Sakura is like you, one of the few shinobi I can trust in." She said and Sakura couldn't help the small amount of surprise that leaked into her expression. Sure, they'd spent quite a bit of time training together- the Hokage had no qualms about using her rank to pull Sakura out of work when the Senju needed to blow off some steam- but she wouldn't have guessed the Hokage would particularly trust her. She was well aware of Sakura's personality. Perhaps it was because she understood Sakura's motives, highly immoral as they were? "I am definitely sending Sakura's team, team Kakashi, on this mission."
"Then wouldn't it be the same if my team went?" The assistant protested.
"It's not the same, Naruto is desperately chasing after his old teammate, Sasuke. He believes strongly, more than anyone, in rescuing Sasuke and Sakura has showed strong belief in Naruto. Those strong feelings will cause the mission to succeed. You and Sakura are different."
"Just for the sake of full disclosure." Sakura said, fully aware of both Uzumaki was standing above them and that she'd very likely be saying this even if he wasn't. When Uzumaki grew fully into his powers he'd be a force to be reckoned with and almost certainty end up as the Hokage. She wasn't going to risk being one of the future Hokage's best friends just to keep her tentative camaraderie with the current one. "I wouldn't risk my friendship with Naruto by keeping this information from him, anyway. If you decided not to send him he would just go anyway and I would go with him. So either send us on a team or we'll go get Sasuke back on our own."
"Damn right!" The Uzumaki said from above them. The Hokage's assistant jumped and looked around at him. Sakura fake jumped and looked around at him. The Hokage just smiled.
"Well now that you've heard it, what do you have to say, Naruto?" She asked.
He grinned. "I'll go looking for members straight away!" And then he jumped, disappearing towards the streets.
"Bah, always rushing. I haven't even finished talking." The Senju said with fondness. "I will assign members to fill the gaps left by Kakashi and Sasuke. Tell that to Naruto too." She said, walking off.
"Tsunade!" A voice called from behind them and Sakura turned to see an old woman looking out the door. "I would like to speak with you. Come."
Sakura's eyes narrowed. The distinctive robes the woman was wearing marked her as a council member and, considering the amount of corruption Sakura had sniffed out on her trips through archives, she was leery of anyone with power that treated the Hokage with such blatant disrespect. She turned her eyes from the scene and did her best to remain inconspicuous as she leapt over the railing. She had no interest in gaining the attention of anyone like that.
She briefly considered following the Hokage's orders and talking to Naruto but figured he was probably having fun. Instead she headed in the direction of the hospital.
She had a Hatake to bother.
Sakura cheerfully entered the hospital room and placed an orange toad plushy on the end of the bed. She'd gotten that one made custom. It had yellow tufts of fur on its back and was the size of an average five year old. "Hiya, Kashi-sensei!"
Hatake was lying flat with the blanket pulled up to his eyes. Little more than a shock of silver hair on a pillow. His open eye blinked and looked down at the toad.
"Do you want me to get you a mask?" She asked and he shook his head.
"This is fine." He said. She shrugged and dragged a chair across the room to sit next to the bed.
"Team Kakashi is being sent to explore the intel I got off Sasori before he died. We're meeting a supposed spy in six days in Grass country, though since you're stuck in here and Sasuke's spot is open the Hokage is assigning two others to fill the spots." She said cheerfully as she kicked off her shoes and used the bed as a leg rest, ignoring the small 'oof' Hatake made. "So they'll probably be ANBU disguised as real humans."
"You're human." He said. She tilted her head and hummed noncommittally. After a moment of silence he asked, "Naruto?"
"Knows about it, but missed the part where Tsunade said she'd assign the teammates." She said. "Hence, he is currently searching the village for the appropriate comrades." His eye turned admonishing and she pouted. "I figure he's having fun, plus he needs to go say hi to the other's at some point, the motivation of a mission is probably the only time he would." She explained. He conceded the point with a blink. "I'll go and tell him after a half hour or so."
"You're worried." He said. Her eyebrows furrowed.
"Am I?" She asked, Hatake just stared. "I don't think it's an Akatsuki trap."
"But?"
"Sasori was overconfident. He spent a significant portion of the fight with Chiyo bragging."
"You think it's Orochimaru's trap."
"I think there's a good possibility."
"It'll be fine." He eye smiled reassuringly and she nodded.
"If you say so, Kakashi." She murmured. "Anyway, enough about me, what about you!" He blinked. "You carried me through a desert! With chakra exhaustion!"
"I didn't want to be carried." He said and she raised an eyebrow.
"You didn't have to carry me."
"The other's would have thought it strange if I didn't."
"They just would have blamed it on your lazy personality."
"Would you have wanted to be carried by one of them?" He asked. She paused.
Three teenage boys, a girl she'd never said more than three words to and Maito Gai. Her eyes widened. Her legs came off the bed. She bowed in her seat.
"Thank you for your service." Her voice was deadly serious, Hatake snorted softly.
"Maa, Sakur-"
A bird tapping on the window interrupted him, a summons on its leg. Sakura smoothly walked around the bed and pushed it open, pulling off the small scroll and reading it as the bird flew away. "The Hokage wants to speak with me." She stuffed the scroll in a pocket and pulled her shoes on, hopping on one foot back to the window. She paused as she was crouched on the sill, turning to smile over her shoulder at the silver shock of hair. "Bye, Kakashi! I'll come see you before we leave."
She jumped, speeding to Hokage tower.
She walked in to the office to find Tiger standing before the Senju.
"Tsunade-sama, ANBU-san." She nodded to each, staying aware of both the formality of the office and the lack of mask on her face.
"Sakura." The Hokage nodded to her. "Tiger will be taking Kakashi's place."
That… would probably not end well. For Tiger. But Sakura would feel better knowing one of her teammates so well.
"To take Kakashi-senpai's place, it is indeed an honour."
"This is not at ANBU mission. It is a regular mission." The Hokage said. "You will remove your mask and be assigned a code-name. For the duration of your mission you will be assigned the name 'Yamato'. Neither you or Sakura have ever met before."
"Understood." They said simultaneously, Tiger removed the mask.
"There is one more person. One of the members of the ANBU training department ROOT has been assigned to team Kakashi." The Senju said and Sakura's eyes widened.
The disbanded ROOT? The ROOT that was whispered about in the fashion of bedtime horror stories in ANBU locker rooms?
"What do you mean?" Tiger asked, face alarmingly blank.
"Keep an eye on his movements." The Hokage said, her face was serious. "The new member is one that Danzō recommended. Danzō is a man that previously opposed the sandaime, emphasising the use of military power over diplomacy. He created a seperate division in ANBU, the training division ROOT, with himself as leader. The group has been disbanded and he has lost his position but he hasn't changed. He must have some ulterior motive."
"Are you sure you're not overthinking this?"
"Mmh, anyway. Neither of you know each other, but come up with a plan to keep a look out on the fourth member."
"Ok!" Tiger said.
"Yes, Hokage-sama" Sakura said.
She made a mental note to stay the fuck away from peaking Danzō's interest as she followed Tiger out of the office.
The next day team seven met at the usual time and at the usual training ground, yet their leader was already there. So in fact was the ROOT kid and the Uzumaki.
Sakura was last. It was an… unusual feeling. She almost felt powerful. She was the one they were waiting on. Was this why Hatake was always late?
The Uzumaki apparently hadn't been waiting long as he was pointing at the ROOT kid in shock.
"Y-you!" He screamed.
"Do you know him?" She asked, completely ignoring Tiger.
"Sorry about before. I just wanted to gauge the ability of my new team member." The kid said, a horribly fake smile on his face. Sakura was confused.
When she'd heard the new teammate would be from ROOT, she'd assumed he'd be some kind of bloodthirsty monster, but the kid wasn't pinging off a single one of her instincts. He seemed dangerous, sure, and that he was in ANBU meant he likely had a lot of blood on his hands. But he didn't like it in the slightest. He didn't want to kill. Didn't even feel like he'd enjoy the violence.
A complete softy.
"I just didn't know how much I'd have to look after the little prick with no balls."
With no social skills.
"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!" The Uzumaki was being held back by Tiger as he screamed, the man softly trying to calm him down.
Sakura was staring at the new kid, who was still smiling a poorly faked smile.
It wasn't the same way the Uchiha had no social skills. The pair had a similar surface level appearance and the same gooey core of goodness, but completely different middles. The Uchiha was like a cat, proud and haughty and disguised social awkwardness with simply thinking himself above everything.
The new kid was actually trying. He was just really, really bad at it.
"Totally a hedgehog." Sakura said with a nod. Everyone turned to look at her. She tilted her head and pointed at the new kid. "Don't you think? Spiky on the outside but with a squishy, cute core of goodness on the inside. A hedgehog."
"SAKURA! HOW COULD YOU CALL THIS GUY CUTE?!" The Uzumaki said.
"To be clear I mean cute as is puppy dogs, not attractive." Sakura said. She really didn't want to create any misconceptions on anyone's parts.
"You think I'm a good person?" New kid asked. Sakura smiled and nodded.
"Yep!" She said cheerfully. "I have really good instincts but you don't set them off at all. Even Naruto sets off some of them and he's a giant ball of sunshine." She pointed at the blonde who had settled to the point Tiger had stopped choke-holding him. Tiger himself was watching her with his eyebrows almost imperceptibly raised. The man had plenty of experience with just how accurate her instincts were. "The only other person I've met that doesn't set off any is Choji and he's literally the nicest person on the face of the earth."
"That's true." The Uzumaki nodded. "Choji doesn't have a mean bone in his body." The new kid's brows had furrowed. Just a tiny, little bit.
They all fell silent.
"Anyway." Tiger said. "From now on I will be taking Kakashi's place and the four of us will be going on a mission. There's no time to toss you all in a cage and get you used to each other. So introduce yourselves."
"Uzumaki Naruto." He was scowling again.
"Haruno Sakura." With a cheerful, very real looking fake smile.
"My name is Sai." The laughable fake smile was back.
"And I'm Yamato." Tiger said. "Now we all know each other, so that's the end of that. I'll explain our mission.
"From here, the four of us will proceed to Tenchi Bridge. There we will intercept the spy Akatsuki has in Orochimaru's organisation and bring them back. This is a chance for us to find out about Orochimaru and Uchiha Sasuke. We can gain an invaluable source of information which may lead to formulating a plan to assassinate Orochimaru and take Sasuke back.
"So keep focused!
"We will assemble at the gate in one hour! After sorting out equipment, we will depart!"
They nodded and headed off. Tiger and new kid in one direction, Uzumaki and Sakura in the other. A small, practically invisible bird followed the new kid home and perched on the tree outside his window, keen eyes and ears trained on the inside.
"Ah, I just can't stand that asshole." The Uzumaki said. "I mean, he mustn't be that bad if you think he's a good person but why is he taking Sasuke's place?"
"You trust my judgement of him?" Sakura asked, surprised.
"Of course, you've always had great judgement of people." The Uzumaki said, as if this was a given fact. Sakura was thrown. Had she ever shared her suspicions of people with the original team seven? She remembered being far more closed off with them. "Like that Kabuto guy at the chūnin exams. He totally freaked you out, I'd thought you just didn't like his glasses or something but he turned out to be working for Orochimaru."
"That's surprisingly perceptive." Sakura said. "But why don't you like Sai, aside from his obvious social deficiencies?"
"Three people is enough for team Kakashi!" Naruto said, turning suddenly heated. "That asshole can't replace Sasuke!"
Ah, Sakura understood. She probably should have expected this, actually.
"Mmh, I understand how you feel, but I can't say I agree."
"WHAT?! SASUKE'S TOTALLY COOLER THAN THAT ASSHOLE!"
"No, no that's not what I meant at all." Sakura explained quickly and the Uzumaki calmed. "I mean I don't see it as him replacing Sasuke, or even really taking Sasuke's spot. He's just another team member. I see team Kakashi as a six-man team at the moment. Though Sai and Yamato are only temporary until they prove themselves."
The Uzumaki was frowning as she talked, thinking over her words.
"I guess that's alright." He said slowly, testing the words. "But if he say's he's a replacement for Sasuke I'll punch him."
"Of course!" She said with a cheerful grin. This mission was going to be a lot of fun. "No temporary member can be allowed to talk shit about the originals! Us four are totally cooler than them!"
Tiger would hate it.
"YEAH! BELIEVE IT!"
Sakura had to stick to the wall with one foot as she tapped on the glass warningly and pried the window open with her toes. She entered the hospital room sideways, twisting awkwardly halfway through so she could fit.
She turned to see Hatake- bedsheets up to his nose- looking at her with his eyebrows in his hairline.
"Hi, Kashi-sensei!" She said with a cheery grin, placing the collection of plushies with the toad at the end of his bed and dragging over and slumping into her usual seat.
There was a silver wolf slightly larger than the toad with black fur over its muzzle and around one red eye. A black cat with red eyes that was smaller than both of them, but not by much. And a tiny, pale pink bird with green and white stripes on its belly.
"I can't stay long, I'm meant to be at the gates to go in half an hour." She said with a smile. His eye was still looking at the plushies, brows furrowed. "I was going to bring them one at a time, but then I realised you'd be out of the hospital by the time I got back so you're getting them all at once."
"Sakura." He said, voice flat.
"Yes, Kakashi?" She asked cheerfully.
"Why?" His voice was stressed. "How?" Her smile widened.
"I think they're more interesting than flowers." She said. "And there's this one plushy store that'll do anything if you have the money."
He turned to look at her, his visible strip of face despairing. Her smile widened even further. She leaned in and covered her mouth with a hand as though sharing a great secret.
"I have the money." She (loudly) whispered. He stared at the ceiling, closed his eye for a moment and opened it again. "Don't you want to hear about the new teammates?"
Hatake sighed. Did not look away from the ceiling. "I suppose." His voice was moody. She chuckled.
"Well, your replacement is Tenzō which I think is hilarious, but his name is Yamato now and I have to pretend not to know him." She said but he didn't react, still looking firmly up at the ceiling. "The other one is apparently ROOT."
Hatake's eyes snapped open and his head whipped around to face her. The Sharingan spun wildly. Sakura could feel the shock on her face.
Slowly, the man lifted a finger from under the blanket and pressed it to his covered lips. She nodded. He held the blanket to the bottom of his face and sat up.
'Talk, silent.' He said with ANBU hand signs and the Sharingan focused on her mouth.
'It was when Tsunade called me up to her office.' She said silently, keeping her lip movements natural. 'She said he was from ROOT, Danzō had put him on the team and told Tiger and I to keep an eye on him. She did say the group was disbanded, but it was just lip service. She heavily suggested that Danzō was undermining her rule as Hokage and had kept running ROOT as a secret organisation.'
Hatake slumped, his face drawn and weary, and the hand not holding up the blanket rubbed his right eye for a moment before opening it again and focusing back on her. 'Continue.' He signed.
'The new guy is interesting. No social skills what so ever so probably more assassin than infiltrator. Apparently a formidable long range fighter with a Kekkei Genkai that creates living creatures out of ink drawings.' Sakura's brow furrowed. 'But my instincts say he's a good person. Choji levels of good.' Hatake's eyebrows rose. 'I honestly think there's a good chance Naruto will be Naruto and convert him.' She stopped talking and he closed the Sharingan again.
He signed 'danger, be wary' and lowered himself back down to the bed. Sheet comfortably up to his eyes, a hand shooing her towards the window as he went.
"We'll be back soon, Kakashi-sensei." She said cheerily as she opened the glass. She paused, one foot on the sill. "Oh! I nearly forgot!" She dug around in her pack, pulled out two paper bags filled with fresh-baked cookies and dumped the emptier one- the salted almond and honey types, in deference to him not liking anything overly sweet- on Hatake's chest. "See yah!" She leapt out the window, beelining for the rooftops. As she went, a bird landed on her shoulder and sung into her ear.
She fed it a handful of caterpillars and it disappeared.
Sakura landed at the gates to find the others waiting for her, the Uzumaki looking annoyed and the new kid with a horribly fake smile on his face. Tiger looked seconds from snapping.
"Ah, Sakura-chan, right on time." Tiger said and she smiled.
"Cookie, anyone?" She asked and predictably the Uzumaki dove for them, grabbing two for each hand. Tiger put a show on of being unsure before taking one, thanking her gently. The new kid watched the other's take them, then saw the force of her puppy dog eyes trained on him and took one. A tiny bit of the tension in the corners of his eyes relaxed, just a few millimetres of lowering, and the very corner's of his lips quirked upwards a few degrees as he chewed.
"Right then!" Tiger said between mouthfuls and headed out the gates. "Team Kakashi departs!"
The four began walking in comfortable camaraderie and Sakura's smile turned smug.
The Haruno family cookies strike again!