He hadn't even noticed it was raining until there was a warm hand wiping away the water from his eyes. He blinked roughly. He knew he wasn't crying, so it must've been rain. Sure enough, he was drenched, likely had been for some time.
"Kakashi?"
Right. He wasn't alone anymore. How long had she been there? How long had he been here? His eyes were as unfocused as his thoughts. Such a dangerous, dangerous position for any ninja to allow themselves to be in. He twitched.
His hard-wired reflexes had abandoned him in favour of staring at the same stone carved names; his whole being absorbing and reciting the names with perfect muscle memory.
Memory of every loss, every regret, every blood-soaked hand…
Hand.
Someone was griping his hand and he hadn't noticed. He thought he ought to wrench himself away, maybe hurl a kunai at the intruder. Yet, his body told him, stay. Told him, safe. This hand was safe to hold. She was safe. She was okay. She was here. She was –
"Sakura?" the name tumbled out of his mouth without any real thought or sense.
"I'm here."
Those two words were like a balm to his soul. Her voice blanketed him in calm. His fingers curled slowly around her rain-slicked hands. In the back of his mind he thought it odd that for once his hands were colder than hers. That couldn't be right, she always had the coldest hands. Something must be very wrong with him.
He turned his eyes to inspect their linked hands – an action he did not realise had broken his intense stare off with stone for the better part of six hours. He blinked the rain from his eyes. Kakashi was fixated on the slim pale fingers threaded through his own. Her nails were always so neat and clean. He was absurdly focused on them; their shape, their colour, their lack of blood –
"Can I take you home?"
Her soft voice cut through his mind – a curtain drawing across a window. Kakashi forgot what he was thinking and looked up at her.
Konoha spring time… Pink hair. Green eyes. White dress.
Oh.
She was going out with Hinata for brunch today, her day off. He remembered her saying that now. His brow furrowed minutely. A poor choice of dress for the weather. Had it been raining this morning? She was drenched right through.
He wanted to take her home, get her out of the rain, get her dry –
Finally, her words caught up to him. His mask shifted slightly with the acknowledgment. She was always so smart.
"Yeah." He rasped.
Sakura didn't say anything. Just smiled and pulled him along after her, out of the field and through empty streets. He held on tight; afraid the rain might cause her to slip through his fingers… slip right through his fingers.
It wasn't until he had a fluffy pink towel wrapped around his head and another one draped across his shoulders that he realised she had taken them to her home.
Kakashi sat dutifully on edge of her couch with her gentle fussing.
Yes, her house was probably a better idea. He knew what waited for him at his place. Blank walls, an empty kitchen, sweat soaked sheets from his morning's nightma –
His cold hands were suddenly very warm.
Kakashi glanced down. He was holding a mug of tea, his mind supplied when his eyes couldn't quite make sense of the image.
The cup was big, pearlescent and had the words 'World's Greatest Nurse' scribbled in pink writing across it. Something in the back of his mind nudged him. He wanted to smile at the sight of it, he just couldn't figure out why.
"All things considered, it's still a good mug. So I guess that part gets you off the hook."
Sakura was smiling at him from her spot in front of him. She was perched on the coffee table, cradling a plain mug in one hand and – oh.
Her other hand was on his forehead. He hadn't felt that.
Sakura frowned absently at him and her hand glowed a soft green. It was bright in the otherwise dim room. Kakashi suddenly realised how dark it was outside, suddenly became aware of the pouring rain and flashes of lightning. How late was it?
Her soft palm slid from his forehead and over his scarred eye. Obito's eye – no. Not Obito's eye anymore.
Kakashi screwed his eyes shut and leaned into the gentle touch and chakra. Slowly a fog was clearing from his mind. He could breathe a little easier.
He felt completely bereft when that relieving hand withdrew.
Sakura muttered something to herself and got up to disappear further into her apartment. He tried not to reach after her.
Kakashi took the moment to slip his watery mask down and take a sip from the curious mug. Chamomile. It calmed him further. He set the cup down and had a beat of clarity.
He recognised the mug now. He bought it for her in retaliation for the one she had gifted him. His was hot pink with… hearts and it said 'World's Number 1 Fanboy' in glittery writing. It sat proudly on his desk. He used it every day, much to the regret of every one of his advisors.
Kakashi's vision was suddenly engulfed in white. He blinked. White with the tiniest hints of white lace underneath.
Sakura was standing in front of him, he realised. Her dress still drenched.
Right…He was using her towels.
She had been speaking but he hadn't been listening; distracted by her lulling voice and curious image. His eyes felt heavy. Kakashi's head tipped forward and landed on her sternum.
There was a sigh somewhere above him, then hands running the towel through his hair and lifting off his headband.
He let it happen.
Hands taking the towel from his shoulders and passing it over the rest of his reachable body.
He closed his eyes.
There were hands at his cheeks and his head tilted back with their encouragement.
"Think you can get changed into these dry clothes for me, Sensei?"
Kakashi opened his eyes to stare at her kind face. For a moment her hair was brown and her lips were bloodied. His bent his head back down to hide.
Apples and jasmine. Pink and green. Safe and present.
"They're Naruto's but I've got a mask you can wear."
He felt the vibrations from where his forehead rested against her upper stomach. Her thumb swiped once over his damp clothed cheek.
He turned his head slightly to chase the touch and his eyes landed on the pile of clothes and surgical mask. Right. She had asked him to do something. He could do that, for her.
Kakashi acted on autopilot, reaching down to pull up his wet shirt. Sakura's hands fell away as she left. He shivered with the loss.
She only came back when he was clothed once more and seated numbly on the grey couch. She was blue now. Uniform blue. They were big on her. He wondered who they belonged to. He -
Kakashi's attention shifted purely to her hand now – warmer but still cold– as she took his and led him through her apartment, and coaxed him to lie back on a fresh bed.
Her bed.
He tried to struggle away, something in the back of his mind telling him it was a bad idea. Not appropriate. Where would she sleep? Hasn't he caused her enough trouble already? He wasn't worth all this.
But before he could get his words to follow, Sakura had already drawn the sheets and up over him. It smelt like her and Kakashi thought the comfort it brought should've panicked him more than it did.
No. The panic was there; it only set in when she tried to leave, tried to slip through his grasp.
His heart lurched and he sat up abruptly and caught her wrist.
"Wait." His voice was harsh in the low light.
She listened, understanding settling in her jade gaze.
Kakashi didn't expect her to stop so easily. He didn't expect her wrist to feel as small as it did. He didn't expect how hard it was to let go. In fact, he couldn't.
He swallowed. "Please."
Sakura moved slowly, tentatively. She didn't speak as sat down on the edge of her bed and waited for him. Patient, breathing, alive.
Kakashi felt her heartbeat through her wrist. It grounded him. He thought he'd never felt anything so perfect, so relieving.
He stared at her wrist intently, memorising every freckle and vein along her soft skin; his thumb stroked over her artery. He heard her quiet intake of breath and looked up at her.
Kakashi didn't know just when she became entirely unreadable to him.
Sakura moved. Gradually at first; a light touch at his shoulder easing him back to lie reclined in her soft linen sheets. His eyes were locked in her oceans of viridian and he saw his own sidling desperation reflect back at him.
He couldn't let her go.
Neither spoke as he pulled her wrist along with him, slowly shifting to the middle of her bed.
After a pause, Sakura obliged; moving to lie carefully alongside him. He turned to face her – she was so close.
But not close enough.
With his hand still locked around hers, Kakashi moved her wrist again and Sakura silently waited for his lead. He guided and she followed. He steered her wrist to rest in his hand over his head, her legs coming to brace themselves on either side of his waist as she held herself above him. A curtain of pink hair fell from her shoulder to brush the side of his cheek and he inhaled.
She was warm. She was safe. She was here.
A flash of lightning flooded the room, illuminating their entwined figures.
They shared a breath, their noses brushing. And Kakashi felt as though they were the very storm themselves; something like electricity passing between them. His other hand drifted to her warm thigh.
With a soft gasp, Sakura lowered herself completely atop him, relaxing into his hold. He groaned softly into her hair, turning his head to bury it there. She was here, she was safe. She slid her wrist from his grip, smoothing her palm into his. He griped it strongly. She griped back.
She was present. She was Sakura.
The hand on her thigh tightened and Sakura pulled back and away from him, her head hovering over his. He breathed in the air she breathed out and Kakashi suddenly couldn't even remember what woke him up that morning.
Then she drew a hand to his face.
His mask.
It slid off his face easily and he saw her eyes darken and lips part. Kakashi felt his mouth run dry. There was a moment of stillness; his blood froze, his breath halted, the very earth stopped beneath him.
And then a clash of movement returned his spinning world.
He didn't know who initiated it, only that he was kissing her and she was kissing him back.
Her lips were so soft – too soft – and Kakashi groaned when she ran her delicate fingers through the ends of his hair to pull him closer. His fingers twitched and he let go of her hand to latch onto her hips, gripping her by the divots of her hip bones. He wasn't sure if he was trying to push her away or pull her closer. Push her away! Her body was warm as she pressed it flush against him, humming a little as her chest dragged against his.
His brain short-circuited.
In one swift movement he pushed, and she pulled and he sat up to meet her. Her legs were straddling his hips as she sat squarely on his lap. Kakashi had to fight not to buck up into her when she slid her tongue against his bottom lip and ran her hands down his shoulders, moaning into his mouth.
Kakashi frowned through the fog of pleasure. Something was very wrong. This never... No. Sakura had laid on top of the covers and he held her wrist the whole night as he slept. What was - ?
The woman in his lap rolled her hips, stuttering his thought process. Kakashi pulled his head back and groaned into the room, panting at the sensation. She chased his movement, kissing down his bare neck and sucking, all the while continuing the sinuous sway of her hips. The smell of cherries wafted into his nose.
Cherries - !
Kakashi grabbed her arms and wretched her away. Green eyes stared back, hurt and startled. Kakashi willed himself not to be affected by them – they weren't Sakura's eyes, not really.
"I don't have the chakra to dispel you right now. But I would advise getting out of my head." He growled, low and deep at the intruder, his knuckles white from the death grip he held on her arms.
Sakura's pink lips trembled, then curled, eyes sharp as she smirked. Kakashi cursed himself for not noticing sooner, he loathed himself for it.
The mirage licked her lips then faded away, the genjutsu lifting from his mind.
Kakashi jerked back to reality, his body immediately subdued by the limp weight in his arms. Sakura was still unconscious and clammy in his embrace on the cold cell floor. He freed a hand to check her temperature and found her to have developed a fever. Sakura was beginning to burn up, her breath becoming slightly laboured. Kakashi bit his tongue and brushed her hair from her face carefully.
"Well that was entertaining." A disembodied voice bounced off the stone walls, alerting Kakashi to his voyeur. "You two really make quite an attractive couple. When you're not hiding your muzzle that is."
Kakashi glared at Ara through the bars of his prison, his body still uncomfortably stiff from her earlier intrusion.
"Oh, don't look so upset. You're the one who ended things, and right when it was getting steamy."
"That never happened." He wasn't sure why he said it. Maybe to defend the unconscious woman in his arms, maybe to remind himself. Ara looked far too pleased either way.
"Maybe it should have."
Kakashi ignored her; he hated her really. She was arrogant, cunning, manipulative, and worst of all, unpredictable. Her motives unnerved him. She had him almost entirely vulnerable at her hands and yet she chose to play with an innocent memory.
She could've tortured him, perhaps twisted his mind to reveal sensitive information on countless nations or shinobi, and yet she dismissed all of that in favour of perverting a meaningful moment in his life. It was undoubtedly an important memory to him – precious – but could hold little use for her other than her own amusement…apparently. She was manipulating him, but for what specific outcome, Kakashi was unsure.
"Get what you came for?" He asked bluntly.
Ara threaded her arms through the bars and leaned her elbows on the cross section of metal. Kakashi absently wondered if she'd do the same if he wasn't chained to the floor. He would gladly rip her arms off.
"Actually yes. I told Yukine that getting close and personal was far more effective than mere threats, and so much more pleasurable, wouldn't you say?" Ara cocked a hip, levelling her eyes on the sleeping medic. "I wonder, does she feel the same way about you? You're curious too, I can see it. But you're too afraid to act on it. I wonder why?"
She was taunting him, and Kakashi wasn't going to give her the satisfaction of a reaction. He stared blankly at her.
Ara pursed her lips. "Scared of a little extramarital affair, maybe?" she guessed, "You lost her before you could have her, so now you're trying to be noble? Respect her marriage to the Uchiha or whatever. Although you did tag along on her honeymoon, so I guess romance truly is dead." Ara laughed sardonically.
Kakashi schooled his bare face despite the clear misinformation this woman was spouting as fact. Affairs? Marriage? Honeymoon? He would've gawked if he weren't captured, stripped and entirely pissed off. But something had been gnawing at the back of his mind since the moment they first referred to Sakura as 'Uchiha's woman'… a dark suspicion he hoped would prove wrong.
Ara brought her red nails to cheek and tapped an absent rhythm. "I've heard rumours that you're a particularly close team, so perhaps it's more of a… sharing situation." Her grin sharpened at the twitch of Kakashi's eye. "I mean you are the Rokudaime. You can make or break the rules, it's not as if you'd be afraid of the scandal…" Her eyes flickered over him, triumphantly. "Or maybe it's a different scandal you're avoiding? Hmm, Sensei?"
Kakashi forced himself to act aloof, ignoring the blood boiling under his skin. "Is this the torture? Having to endure your fantasies and speculations? I would rather the physical pain, if that's an option."
"Mm of course you would." Ara sighed and straightened. "You men are all the same you know. It almost makes things boring. But as easy as it would be to hurt pretty little Sakura to get to you, I'm much too fond of her to do such a thing. Hansai and Yukine, however, won't share the same objections as me."
Kakashi curled himself protectively over Sakura. They would have to pry her from his cold dead hands before he'd let them lay a finger on her.
Ara scoffed. "Such a loyal guard dog. Honestly, it's making me a little sad for you." She considered him for a moment, then smiled, cruel and twisted. "You shouldn't have ended the genjutsu so quickly. That might've been your only chance to have her."
It wasn't white-hot fury that burned through him at the insinuation, but rather an ice-cold inferno that settled in the deepest parts of his being; calm, calculating and destructive. Dark charcoal eyes stared deep into fiery gold. Kakashi knew torture, he knew manipulation, psychological warfare and suffering. And he dared that woman to come even close to scratching the surface of what he was capable of when threatened with the wellbeing of one of his few remaining loved ones.
"Giving me the silent treatment, hm? Did I perhaps hit a nerve? Well I suppose it can't be helped. You should probably enjoy this little reprise while you still can. Once she's awake, we'll begin."
"What do you want with her?" His voice was perfectly neutral in his simple demand, and Ara straightened at his direct gaze, a tinge of severity pulling at her lips.
"For now, I want her awake." Ara answered just as blankly, before she pushed something through the gap of the bars with her shoe. It was a tray of food and water. "Keep your strength up, Guard Dog. Our Princess needs you."
Naruto woke up to the smell of bacon. Sapphire eyes blinked through the blur to pinpoint the smell – a smell that certainly did not match his understanding of where they currently were. His stomach groaned in eagerness for a taste, but his mind was cautiously confused.
"Teme?" he croaked groggily, rubbing his eyes.
"Aa." A voiced sounded softly from beyond the hollowed trunk.
With a stifled groan, Naruto shuffled out of their shelter to be met with the sight of Sasuke cooking a peculiar husk of what was once presumably an animal, over a fire. Naruto stood and cracked his spine, glancing warily around the lush tropical forest.
The strange rain had stopped, and warm sunlight was filtering in through the gaps in the canopy, bathing the forest in a gentle green and yellow glow. Most noticeably, however, was the lack of noise from the wildlife Naruto had come to respectfully fear. Things were unsettlingly still and silent.
Naruto took a seat next to Sasuke, "How long have you been up?" he asked in hushed tones.
Sasuke's attention never strayed from his task. "A couple hours."
Naruto scratched the back of his head and cast another glance around the entirely too peaceful Death Jungle.
Sasuke must've picked up on his unease, "This dimension is primarily nocturnal. Its inhabitants thrive in darkness. We're safe during the light hours." He took the nondescript animal off its spike and severed it roughly in half with a kunai.
Naruto wrinkled his nose as Sasuke handed him the sweet-smelling meat. "Is this going to taste how it smells? Cause I've never seen bacon look like this."
Sasuke levelled him with a flat look. "I've seen you eat four-day old ramen off the floor."
Naruto pursed his lips. "It wasn't off the floor." He corrected, mildly defensive, "Only the bowl was…"
Sasuke didn't dignify that with a response – much to Naruto's chagrin – merely brought the meat to his mouth and teared a piece off. Naruto watched him for a moment, and when Sasuke didn't immediately start throwing up, he tentatively copied his actions.
Despite its abstract shape – what the hell sort of animal had three legs? – Naruto couldn't tell if he was more comforted or horrified that it did in fact taste just like his beloved bacon. His stomach was grateful at least. Naruto sighed into his meal, reluctantly thankful Sasuke had managed to catch and cook something to sustain them. He guessed Sasuke had spent a decent amount of time here before, for him to be so calm and knowledgeable about the dimension. He just hoped there was a source of drinkable water nearby. They had both already lost of lot of fluids and would probably continue to do so, judging by the sweat gathering at his brow and back.
Naruto took another mouthful of meat and glanced at Sasuke from the corner of his eye. He looked too pale, with dark bruising around his eyes, and he was willing to bet the Teme felt even worse than he looked. Naruto could just make out the blistering of skin on the edge of Sasuke's collar and trailing down his shoulder blade. That maniac's blast must've got him in their escape. Naruto twisted his lips and lowered his food.
"Sasuke." He called seriously, "We need to take care of your burns."
Sasuke shifted a shoulder, as though attempting to turn himself from Naruto's view. "It's fine."
"The hell it is, Teme. If that shit gets infected we're both screwed!"
Sasuke grimaced, "I can handle it. It's not important right now."
Naruto could feel his frustration building, but he withheld himself. "I know we don't have much, but you can at least try to clean it and wrap it with something?" Naruto paused abruptly then smiled sheepishly, "I think I might still have a roll of gauze from the one Sakura-chan forced me to pack ages ago. I didn't know where to put it, so it's kinda been living in my kunai pouch."
Sasuke raised a brow at him and let out a huff. "Idiot."
Naruto grinned. "Yeah well, this idiot is saving your ass so you can at least try to be grateful, Bastard."
"I saved your ass first, Deadlast." Sasuke pointed out wryly.
"Well then take the damn gauze and we'll call it even." Naruto bit back into the meat and felt his shoulders lighten at Sasuke's small nod.
They ate in companionable silence in the calm forest, and for a moment, things weren't so bad.
Sasuke trudged back to their makeshift camp with handful of roots and nuts clutched in his palm. His shoulder had been freshly washed from the riverbed, and cleanly wrapped with gauze. It had been a difficult task to dress his blisters with just one hand and his teeth, but he had managed. Sasuke grudgingly admitted Naruto was right – he couldn't afford for his wound to become infected. And while Sasuke had always refrained from drinking the slightly silvery water here in the past, he had taken a gamble in using it to clean the dirt and blood from his shoulder and upper back. It had stung, but it was better than nothing. Hopefully.
Sasuke grimaced as he calculated how long they could theoretically go without water before they would be faced with the choice of drinking the questionable liquid or suffering dehydration. He sighed. At the very least, he would be the first to know if the water had a negative effect on human physiology, he thought morbidly. Sasuke distantly hoped that Naruto's advantages as a Kyuubi vessel would include prolonged stamina against dehydration.
Sasuke stopped to rest briefly at the side of a giant tree. His eyes still ached, mirroring his pounding head and fatigued muscles. It was definitely taking longer for him to replenish his chakra this time around, and he had no illusions as to why. He wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand and clenched his teeth. He just had to push through. Whatever he was experiencing, he had no doubt that Sakura likely had it far worse…
Sasuke felt a stab of fear as his mind recalled Hansai's mocking words.
'We both know that any who touch the Seal dies.'
No. Sakura was too stubborn to die. He'd seen the fire in her eyes. He felt the strength of her power and conviction. Sakura wouldn't leave them so easily. She was far stronger than him.
Sasuke pushed himself off the mossy tree and kept trudging.
"She's too stubborn." He murmured under his breath like a mantra.
Sasuke caught sight of Naruto, meditating outside the bass of the tall hollowed tree. He quietly slipped down to sit across from him, and joined him in his meditation. At the very least it wouldn't hurt to speed along his renewal of chakra.
Sasuke tried not to let his thoughts stray back to the days when Sakura was the only one of them to ever be interested in such a 'stationary' form of training. He and the Dobe had always voiced their vehement complaints, while Sakura readily and successfully embraced the task. She practically excelled at the things that required patience and dedication. Maybe that was why she had chosen to love him all those years ago…
"Sasuke?"
Onyx eyes snapped open as Naruto placed a hand at his uninjured shoulder, and Sasuke became aware of the dimming light. They must've been meditating for hours… although time cycled differently here, so it would be difficult to say for certain. Sasuke inwardly reached for his chakra and found it marginally fuller, but still greatly lacking. His lips twisted in mild frustration.
"I think the forest is waking, or whatever." Naruto pulled a face and Sasuke could hear the rumbles and hisses of the emerging creatures. "Should we head back in or something?"
Sasuke gathered up the meagre supply of food he had scavenged earlier and rose to his feet. "Hn. We should be safe undercover. They struggle to hunt what they do not see."
"Right, that's good I guess."
"The creatures here don't have a sense of smell. That's probably the only reason we haven't been attacked whilst hidden from sight." Sasuke confirmed blandly, ducking back under the trees' shelter.
"How much time have you spent here exactly?" Naruto queried, coming to sit beside him, and leaning back, his hands fidgeting.
Sasuke shrugged. "I spent a few days here a couple years ago, when I was exploring dimensions for signs of threats. It's one of the more habitable ones, lucky for us."
Naruto shivered in an exaggerated fashion and shook his dirtied blond head. "Then I guess I should be thanking you for pulling us into this one instead of some acid river or something." He joked lightly, elbowing him in the arm.
Sasuke felt his headache worsen, and picked absently at one of the nuts he had gathered. "That's not how it works, Naruto." He corrected, earning himself a confused look from the Dobe.
Sasuke worked his jaw. "I didn't choose this dimension. It was merely the closest aligned dimension from the nearest entry point."
"Huh?"
The sigh that pushed past his lips was heavy with exhaustion. "Dimension hopping is linear." He began to explain, drawing a line in the dirt with his finger. "There are entry and exits points – portals – I guess you could call them. Points in space that cross link to other points in other spaces. The distance you travel in one dimension directly correlates to where you will be potentially spat out in the next."
Sasuke lifted his eyes to peer beyond their refuge. The light had almost completely departed from the realm, and the strange smattering of moss on the trees was beginning to glow luminous in the absence of light. It painted the forest neon in the most unearthly way, and Sasuke heard Naruto gasp from beside him. Sasuke guessed the forest hadn't been glowing when they first arrived here in the pouring rain.
"There is no real fixed point from where you can access all dimensions and still come out in the same place you went in. It's all relative." Sasuke lightly traced his finger just above the line he had crudely drawn. "Like walking on the water's surface. Where you go, your reflection follows. And that same water will branch out in multiple directions; connect multiple sources, landmasses, oceans, continents. It's the same with dimensions…" His hand stilled. "It's also part of the reason I couldn't stay in Konoha."
Always another reason... Sasuke thought bitterly.
"So, you're saying that whatever direction and distance we've moved here, it'll be just like we moved back home?" Naruto summarised thoughtfully.
"Essentially. But time and space can move differently from one dimension to the next, so it's never an exact science."
"But we can still get back home, right? We haven't 'moved' too far from our own dimension?"
Sasuke could hear the worry in his voice and spared him a glance. "No. I'm always inherently linked to my own dimension. I can't 'lose' home."
And Sasuke would've laughed at the irony in that sentence if he could.
Naruto nodded with a hesitant smile. "Oh. Well that's good." He scratched his head sheepishly. "I didn't know you were so smart to figure all this stuff out, Teme."
"Hn."
"But… That still means we have no way of knowing where exactly we'll come back out." Naruto pondered, a hardened face of concentration lining his features. "What if you tried for a fixed point? You know, like focused on returning us back to the cave or something?"
Sasuke read between the lines. "Of all the places Sakura and Kakashi could be, the cave we left them in is the least likely possibility." He disagreed. "They will have moved by now. If not of their own volition, then by someone else's. Besides, the cave is probably under heavy investigation by neighbouring villages by now. It's not safe there."
Sasuke left out the fact that even if he did try, he had no real control of where he arrived in dimensions. He was always in some way travelling blind – another absurd irony in his life. If it was possible to dictate such a thing as specifically conjured points in space, he certainly wasn't powerful enough to do so. Not yet anyway. The chakra required to make jumps in the first place was as taxing as it was immense. And the clarity of thought necessary to transport you directly to the place you most wished to be in the universe… Well, Sasuke didn't think he had something…someone… like that. Not one he was ready to selfishly admit to… He had hopes, but –
"Will it be like this?" Naruto asked quietly, and Sasuke looked up at him questioningly. "When you warp us back home. Will it take the same toll on you?" he clarified with concern so clear in his blue eyes.
Sasuke brought a knee up to his chest and rested his forearm across it, casting his eyes back to the luminous trees. "Probably." He admitted. "Usually I am only transporting myself between dimensions. We have no water or rations to sustain us here, and warping two people will tire me out much the same as it did when we arrived here. We… I will be vulnerable again."
Sasuke curled and uncurled his fist restlessly. The words were as painful to say as they were to acknowledge. He had been useless when they arrived here, and still mostly was. But they couldn't afford to wait around until he was fully replenished to warp back home. Sakura needed them.
It burned him to admit that Naruto was going to have be the one to save her… save them again. Whatever fate they had abandoned Sakura and Kakashi to, Sasuke was going to be useless against it. The least – and most – he could do, was get them back home and give Naruto a fighting chance.
Let the Saviour do what he does best…
Sasuke snapped out of his spiralling by Naruto's palm coming to clutch his shoulder. Sasuke lifted his eyes to see the blonde's bright reassuring grin.
They didn't need words. Sasuke understood the promise Naruto was making all too easily. It had become as familiar as his own name. And Sasuke was filled with equal parts sorrow and pride at that; the same mix of emotions he carried with him every day, etched onto his back in reds and whites.
He shrugged off the familiar touch, not unkindly, his voice soft. "Yeah whatever, Dobe."
They both took a lungful of the dense herbal air and watched the glimmering of the trees shine to melody of the waking forest.
Hansai rocked back and forth on his heels as he stood in the corner of the large torchlit room. Grey bricks stretched around them and columns of concrete lined a pathway to the room's alter where a simple throne sat. This was the 'special room' for 'special occasions' – the one they never got to use before. Yuki once told him the story of the great Samurai clan that used to live here… before they were all killed. Hansai wished he could've seen it. Their deaths.
His hands fidgeted, so he hid them in the folds of his pockets, just like Yuki taught him to do. After-all, he had to be on his best behaviour. He was in the presence of their Master. And Atsuhiko-sama was not be disrespected.
Hansai watched through the veil of his tangled hair as Yuki and Ara-chan rose from their bowed positions on the cold floor. Atsuhiko-sama sat above them in his stone carved chair, speaking softly to them and Hansai wanted to giggle at the way he looked so alive.
Hansai thought he looked better when he was pale and gaunt on his deathbed. He liked the way his skin had shrunk onto his bones, and the wrinkled hollows of his cheeks. He missed the rasp of his breath and the croak of his voice when he struggled to speak. He was beautiful then.
Now, he was far too… full.
Hansai twitched and giggled. The hushed conversation stopped, and their Master lifted his eyes to him. Hansai's mouth twisted into a broad grin, and froze there. Yuki tilted his head to glance back at him, his eyes telling of his disapproval. Hansai ducked his head and clawed the fabric of his pockets, his shoulders shaking with repressed laughter. He couldn't get Yuki in trouble with their Master. Not now that he was alive and they got to use the 'special room' and they were making him happy.
Almost happy.
Hansai ground his teeth together in mechanical movements, his head bobbing.
He had lost Uchiha-sama and the Demon Fox. He didn't do a good job.
But Yuki had caught the Princess and the Doggy.
And Hansai knew Astuhiko-sama wanted the Princess now.
She was very pretty, he supposed. She was sickly, and pale and dirty and wrapped with sick-people cloth. He liked her too. He could see why Uchiha-sama chose her as his Princess wife.
Ara-chan liked her too. But Hansai didn't know why she wanted her, except that she liked rare and precious things. He supposed the Princess was that too.
She had broken the Seal. And she didn't die. Hansai didn't like that. It was his favourite part when people died at the Seal. He loved collecting them and adding them to his friends. They were beautiful.
But… Uchiha-sama and the Demon Fox had given him lots of new friends too! The ones Atsuhiko-sama sent after them at the Seal. Hansai couldn't stop his smiling that day. Master said he could play with and keep the dead ones. And they had killed so many for him, in front of him! Given him so many gifts of friends. Anyone who did that for him had to be his best friend. And Uchiha-sama had killed the most!
Hansai giggled again and quickly clasped his hands over his mouth. His eyes sought for Yuki, but only Ara-chan looked back this time; something ugly on her face. He liked it, and brought his hands down to grin at her. She rolled her golden eyes then looked back to their Master with a nod.
Hansai cocked his head when Ara-chan came marching straight towards him.
"Come on, Hansai." She griped, taking him by the scruff of his collar. "Atsuhiko-sama would like a moment alone with our dear Yuki."
Hansai let himself be dragged away, watching longingly as Yuki and their Master gazed impassively at him. He waved back giddily.
"Did we do good Ara-chan?" he pepped still being dragged along the grey corridors. "Was Master-sama happy?"
Ara-chan sighed. "Apparently there was 'room for improvement'." She said bitterly. "Of course, Yuki got all the praise, even though he failed the one job he had. To find that damned fucking berry."
Hansai felt himself frown and stretched his smile wider to cover it. "But Yuki will find it, Ara-chan. He is the best sensor in the world!"
She scoffed. "Yeah, whatever. In the meantime, our Princess is rotting away in a cell and your dear Uchiha-sama is nowhere to be found. Hence the 'room for improvement'."
"But he will come for her. And then Atsuhiko-sama will have everything he wants. The Princess, the Uchiha-sama and the Pomegranate." Hansai cheered.
Ara-chan stopped in her tracks and let him go, pivoting to face him. She bent down to catch his eyes, and Hansai found himself watching her ripe red lips move and twist. "And what do you want Hansai? When Atsuhiko has everything he wants, then what?"
Hansai stared at her, suddenly still with curiosity and confusion. "Then… we will have done a good job and Yuki will be happy too. And…" he stopped and chewed his lips roughly in thought.
Ara-chan dropped her head in another sigh. "Never mind, you're a fucking lost cause." she muttered cruelly and Hansai smiled warmly at her. "Come on, we've been ordered to go on patrol." She swivelled and began walking away from him.
"Patrol?"
"We're going on another hunt for your runaway 'best friend'. Doesn't that sound nice?" She called back with deep sarcasm.
Hansai jumped a little then stopped in realisation. "But what about Yuki?"
"Astuhiko-sama has a special mission for our special Yuki." Ara-chan's voice was entirely mean and Hansai turned his head to look back towards their Master's throne room.
Yuki was very special. He was Hansai's first friend, and he liked him just as he was. Living and everything!
Hansai smiled to himself and scuttled after Ara-chan.
Uchiha-sama would be a great best friend. But no one would compare to Yuki.
Yuki was his forever friend.
Sakura didn't want to open her eyes when consciousness finally came for her again. Every time she had been tasked with waking up these last few days, it was to more pain than the last time. Sakura groaned deep in the back of her throat and arched her back slightly, barely aware of anything beyond the scope of her internal pain.
She was no stranger to physical agony. But Sakura wasn't sure her body could take much more like this. There was a mind-numbing throbbing starting at the centre of her brain and emanating out through every available space in her body. It fluctuated between a resounding deep ache and sharp angry stabs of discomfort. She felt much the same as she did when she first broke the Seal, except now it was like the culmination of days' worth of pain hitting her at once.
The next groan came out a little louder, and was followed up by a gasp when she tried to shift again; her body spasming from its disuse. If her throat wasn't the embodiment of a razor blade, Sakura might've voiced her discomfort with a string of curses. As it was, she recognised the sandpaper desperation that was acute dehydration and wanted to hammer her head against a wall if only to release some liquid in her brain – flood it with something to cool its violent pounding.
Sakura flinched slightly when she felt a hand at her cheek. She suddenly felt obscenely hot, and yet blistering cold. She writhed uncomfortably again only to notice the strange elevation of her body – not quite flat, and mildly constricted.
A soothing tenor called her name, and Sakura would've ignored it completely to go back to sleep, but her eyes had other ideas.
Scrunching her face in concentration, Sakura gradually worked her eyes open, blinking slowly to piece together her reality. She had an abundance of thoughts flood through her head – How long have I been out? What happened? Can we go home yet? – but all of it evaporated completely from her grasp at what met her hazy green eyes.
"Hey there, sleeping beauty." Kakashi's mouth twisted into a relieved smile and Sakura's jaw dropped at the fact that she could see it.
"'Kashi…?" she struggled to speak. "You – you're…" she swallowed roughly.
"Yeah." He agreed softly, the hint of embarrassment curling at his thin lips.
Sakura's wide eyes stayed riveted on his exposed face; bathed in a warm glow and dancing with flickering shadows. He was entirely ordinary. A perfectly ordinary straight nose, a strong jawline, some silver stubble and a beauty spot right below the corner of his mouth. Stupidly ordinary. And yet he was…
"Beautiful." She breathed.
Sakura struggled to lift a heavy hand, shifting to pull it out under the peculiar blanket swathing her. But her eyes did not stray from Kakashi's remarkably open face. Entranced, she reached her fingertips to trace his stubbly chin and over his beauty mark, captivated as his lips parted in surprise. Sakura had the bizarre urge to laugh; he always complained about her cold hands.
Her fingers stilled. "Stupidly ordinary." She murmured aloud.
Kakashi huffed a laugh, the movement startling her. Sakura drew back her hand and looked up to his eyes. The same charcoal grey eyes she had always known… Except now they were looking at her in a way she didn't recognise.
"Thanks, but I think that's the hypothermia talking." He said dryly, studying her intently.
Sakura's attention was drawn back to his mouth, and she became distracted with the way it moved when he talked. She was fascinated by the naked emotion that blazed across his face, all but changing from one moment to the next. So painfully clear, she thought she finally understood why he would choose to cover such an expressive face.
Her mind caught up to what he had said, and she shook her head. "It can't be hypothermia. It's too hot." She grumbled, managing to pull her eyes from his face down to assess her unreasonably temperamental body.
Sakura stiffened when realised the full nature of the reality to which she awoke. It was like a bucket of ice was dropped over her head.
She had been stripped down to nothing but her under things; clad in only a scratchy blanket and gauze and sitting in Kakashi's lap. She gasped and looked back up to him.
Her mind stalled momentarily at his wince, and how plainly she saw it colour his face. Her own face flamed in response at how closely she had been to that face not seconds prior, without even realising it. How long she had been in his intimate proximity without her even realising it! She suddenly felt the heat of his body sear against every part of hers, wrapped together as they were, sitting on the damp floor - !
Sakura's boggled mind latched onto the next piece of missing information.
Where the hell are we?
Frantic jade eyes shot to sympathetic grey. "Wh-what's going on?" Sakura beseeched, fumbling to sit up of her own power.
Kakashi was steadying her as she flailed within the confines of the thin blanket and his loose hold. And Sakura wanted to scream at how weak her body felt; at the realisation that she had left Kakashi to deal with this alone. She must've started to hyperventilate slightly, for Kakashi soothed a hand down her head and called for her attention.
"Hey, look at me."
Sakura couldn't. Her eyes were too busy absorbing the prison cell they had been locked in. She saw the long chains that were nailed down at the centre of the floor, and traced their length as they disappeared under the blankets she and Kakashi were wrapped in. Sakura jerkily pulled her hands back into her vision, and shook at the sight of Fuinjutsu engraved manacles on her wrists. The reason why her hands had felt so heavy. Soon to be another reason as to why she won't have her chakra.
She had left Kakashi, and he had been ambushed and captured while trying to protect her. And she had been dead weight.
"Sakura." There was a hand at her chin tilting her face up. "Look at me." Kakashi repeated sternly.
Sakura didn't realise her eyes had begun to water until she was blinking through the watery image of Kakashi's bare troubled face. She bit her lip, hard.
"Breathe." He encouraged, and she shakily obeyed. His hand fell from her face and she felt faintly lost without it. Her fingers grasped the blanket to keep from trembling – fury, exhaustion, guilt and embarrassment all at war within her at once.
Sakura kept her bottom lip gripped between her teeth to keep from apologising to him, just as she hoped he wouldn't try apologising to her. She wasn't sure either of them had the energy to absolve the other of their guilt. Sakura looked down at her hands and let out a heavy breath. She needed to focus on something else. Almost immediately her mind conjured up the humbling fact that of course the first time she gets to see Kakashi's face, she is just as exposed.
"I'm glad you're okay." She began with only a slight wobble, and slowly lifted her head to study his too close, too open face. "I…" she licked her chapped lips. "I never imagined seeing your face quite like this." She managed a half smile.
Kakashi met her halfway with his own. "The handcuffs are a surprise." He agreed with a tick of his cheek.
Sakura let out a dry laugh and shivered; goosebumps finally rippling across her exposed, clammy skin as she felt the true depth of cold in their cell. Kakashi was fixing the blanket back over her before she could think to move. "Where are we?" she dared to ask quietly.
There were a million different things she wanted to ask, wanted to do in that moment, her tired mind could hardly decide on a hierarchy of priority.
"Of that, I'm not positive, but somewhere underground is my guess." Kakashi answered, shifting her slightly so he could stretch out one of his legs. "We were ambushed by our old friend 'Creepy Kunoichi' and another pair of men. One is a chakra-string user, the other is a sensor with a technique I've never quite seen before. Oh, and our lovely lady from the woods apparently dabbles quite successfully in genjutsu." Kakashi bit out disdainfully.
Sakura scrunched her nose. "And what exactly do they hope to gain by abducting us?"
Kakashi levelled her with a look, halfway reluctant and almost amused. "Well, not to sound jealous, but they seemed far more interested in you than in me." He quipped with a dry grin, and Sakura momentarily lost her train of thought at his flash of perfectly straight white teeth. "But they were predictably upset at the lack of Pomegranate they found on us, which is telling. Though I doubt they're done searching us for it."
Sakura sniffed. "Well I hope they're prepared to be continually disappointed on that front."
Kakashi's returning smile dimmed a little at his next words. "They know our identities, Sakura. Although some of their information on us is remarkably off."
Sakura frowned at his tight-lipped scowl. "Meaning?"
She visibly saw the irritation play out along the planes of his face. "This little band of merry nin seem to also be gunning for Sasuke. For what reason, I haven't figured out yet."
Sakura's shoulders dropped with a sigh. "So, we're bait?" she guessed resignedly.
"Seems likely."
"Well, I'd insult their unoriginality, but they did succeed in getting us this far so…" Sakura trailed off, wincing at her poor taste in humour but relaxed when she felt Kakashi's gentle chuckle.
"Maa, we've got to keep things interesting, don't we? Can't have ourselves becoming bored in the field." Kakashi looked down at her and winked.
Sakura wanted to laugh at the way it pulled at one of his stubbly cheeks, but she settled for a smile. "No chance of that with Team Seven." She said with mirth before breaking off in a coughing fit, her lungs screaming and throat burning.
Kakashi startled, reaching around her to feel for something before he offered a clay cup of water to her lips. Sakura took it greedily, not even bothering to sip the blessed liquid. She guessed the novelty of Kakashi's face had finally worn off for her to be aware of her body's acute problems again. She tore the empty cup from her lips and sought back the air she forgot to breathe.
Kakashi hummed. "I'm going to have to confiscate independent drinking privileges for now. You only have one cup of water left and you need to ration it." he scolded lightly, patting her back as she heaved for breath a little. "You also need to eat, but I'm afraid the rice has been cold for some time now."
Sakura finally regained control of her lungs and gazed behind her at the tray. There lay two bowls of untouched rice, and now only one cup of water. She snapped her head back to Kakashi at his implication.
"I'm not taking your water or your food." She said immediately, not quite succeeding in hiding the worry in her tone. "You haven't even touched it?" she accused with a frown.
Kakashi glanced down at the tray nonplussed. "Wasn't hungry."
Filled with abrupt fury, Sakura pushed at his chest in an effort to gain some distance from him. She wanted to stand up, hit him upside the head and demand he stop being an idiot in her presence. It was so him to try and put other's wellbeing before his, to his own detriment and it made her irrationally angry!
"Kakashi!" she scolded fiercely.
Kakashi struggled to keep a hold of her as she kicked her numb legs off his, and tumbled from his embrace – something in her becoming swiftly overwhelmed by him; his nearness, his stubbornness, his self-sacrificial tendencies. She landed harshly and awkwardly on the cold stone floor, her chains clanking slightly. Sakura withheld her groan and the impulse to bury her head in her wrapped hands when she couldn't seem right herself. Her shoulders shook with the effort, and she kept her head bent from his view.
Kami I can't even move... I'm so weak!
Sakura felt a frisson of hysteria build back up within her. Her chakra was gone, along with her clothes and now the last few shreds of her dignity.
Kakashi's hands wrapped around her arm and across her shoulders as he began pulling her back upright. She let him move her, her eyes cast down in defeat. He hadn't eaten or drunk in how long, because he was saving it for her… Because he knew she would need it more. Because she was the helpless one again. Sakura hated feeling weak; hated feeling like a burden, dead weight. And she wanted to scream at the fact that it was always Kakashi who was seeing her at her weakest and worst. Always Kakashi.
A traitorous tear slipped down her cheek, but she wiped it away before Kakashi could see. She let him pull her back over to him and felt his heavy pause. Concern bade her to look at him, and Sakura wanted to turn away at what she found.
She knew from the moment she realised that she had been stripped that Kakashi would've been too. But now, seeing him bare faced, bare chested and looking at her like it pained him in some way – she didn't want to see how pathetic she looked in his eyes. Sakura drew a shoulder to her chin and looked anywhere but at Kakashi; her cold and fevered body now burning in shame. One of her greatest fears were coming true before her eyes – her weakness being the reason her teammates suffer, fail or die - and she didn't even have the strength to face it.
The warm hand that had been resting along her shoulders suddenly fell away, but Sakura kept her head turned.
"I'm sorry." Kakashi started softly, and Sakura wanted to snap at him to shut up, he had nothing to apologise for. "I… I won't touch you if you're uncomfortable. I should've given you space as soon as you woke. I was just trying to keep you warm." He explained faintly, his grey eyes downcast respectfully as he offered her his blanket in addition to her own still tangled around her waist.
Sakura blinked at him, suddenly confused as to what he had seen in her eyes. Surely not… revulsion of him? She bit her lip, her heart tugging uncomfortably at his solemn apology. She could never think such a thing of him… he was Kakashi. And she owed him her life, countless times over. Sakura reached to lay a tentative hand along his forearm, chains dangled between them.
"Thank you, Kakashi." She said earnestly, urging him to look at her and to see her deep admiration for him. "For saving my life."
His cheek twitched, though his eyes did not lift. "I'd appreciate it if you reserved your thanks for when we're not trapped in a jail cell." Kakashi tilted his head back and let it knock heavily against the stone wall. "I swear I can do better."
Sakura smiled faintly at the weary grimace in his voice, and his attempt at deflection. Carefully, she took the blanket from his hand and shuffled closer to him. Kakashi watched her from the corner of his eye as she crawled to his side and sat up on her knees. With her nudging, Kakashi leaned forward and allowed Sakura to drape his blanket back across his shoulders.
When she sat back, he wordlessly lifted his arm, and Sakura wedged herself under it, pressed close against him. She brought her blanket back over to cover them both, and Kakashi quietly helped her adjust it. He crossed his legs, and she folded hers against his side, both of them huddling together against the persistent cold.
They sat in silence for a while, until "Kakashi, we need to get out of here."
Sakura's cheek lifted as Kakashi's chest expanded in a long inhale. "Oh, I agree. But one problem at a time. You're still in no condition to move, much less participate in a jail break." He said blithely.
Sakura steeled herself. "But you are." She felt him stiffen and forged ahead before he could protest. "Kakashi, if they know your identity, then you have to get out. Now. You're far too valuable as a hostage, they could leverage our entire village with you."
His arm tightened around her. "I won't let it come to that. We're getting out of here and we're doing that together."
Sakura lifted her head to stare up at him. "Kakashi, listen to me, please." She saw the tightness in his jaw as he dropped his grey eyes to her. "I don't know how far I'll be able to get in this condition. But if you get a chance, you have to take it." She stressed. "I will not let some thugs use you to start a war with our village or any others for that matter. You're too important."
"So are you Sakura. So don't even think of asking me to do what you're suggesting." He clipped.
"I'm not asking. I'm ordering."
His frustrated huff jostled them both. "I think you misunderstand. I'm the Hokage, I do the ordering." He glared at her.
She matched his stare. "And I'm your medic, and when my orders concern the life and death of my Hokage and teammate, they overrule yours."
"Sakura."
"Kakashi."
His lips thinned and Kakashi drew his chin up, breaking their staring contest. "I'm not leaving without you, so either come up with a better plan or we're both staying to see what exactly these thugs want."
Sakura curled her lips back in irritation and knocked her temple against his chest roughly in petty retaliation. "Fine." She bit out.
"Fine."
"But I'm not eating your rice and we're sharing that last cup of water!" Sakura asserted firmly.
She felt the weight of Kakashi's put upon sigh. "As you wish, Sakura-sama."
Sakura hid her grateful smile against the cool skin of Kakashi's chest and closed her eyes, finally listening to her body's demand for rest.
Yamato sat back on his heels and ran a hand over his face as he hid in the confines of a tall fir tree. He spied at least a dozen or so ninja lingering at the base of a nondescript point in the canyon walls, and a few half dozen more littering the trail up to the peak of the near-mountainous forge of rock. He guessed that was the entry point for whatever base Orochimaru had crafted to conceal that damnable seal.
A whisper of wind grazed his cheek as Sai silently landed beside him.
"Report."
"There appear to be ninja from both Iwa and Kumo investigating the area, although cooperation is tenuous." Sai began. "My mice are still navigating their way through the base itself. It is unsurprisingly riddled with traps. But they will succeed."
Yamato nodded and measured the sky. It was verging on just over twenty-four hours since the light explosion, and the cold snowy weather was only making things more difficult for everyone.
"Taichou. I also found evidence of a battle on the eastern side of the canyon walls." Sai said slowly. "There were no bodies, but undoubtedly there were signs of Naruto and Sasuke's skillsmanship. There are tracks that lead from there further into the forest at its back, but I cannot be certain we would be following our team."
Yamato turned to regard Sai at his strange hesitancy. "What is it, Sai?"
"I have so far not detected any signs of Sakura or Kakashi-senpai." Sai admitted, concern colouring his tone. "My mice have not yet reached the heart of Orochimaru's base, but I find it unlikely for them to still be there."
Yamato pressed his fingers deeper into the snowy branch upon where he sat. "We'll have to stick around to build some more substantial leads before we go dismissing one or the other." He said absently, despite the part of him that wanted to start scouring every inch of the surrounding forest immediately.
Sai paused a moment longer before speaking. "Wherever Sakura has gone, she did not put up a fight… perhaps was not able to." He observed aloud tentatively. Dark eyes peered up to almond. "I fear for our team's wellbeing, Senpai."
Yamato chewed on the inside of his cheek, a crease forming between his brows. "I know Sai. But we have to remain focused." He levelled the younger man with a firm look he hoped Sai could take solace in. "I want you to do another sweep then meet me on the eastern plateau of the canyon." He ordered.
"Hai Taichou."
Sai disappeared just as he had arrived; on a whisper of wind, Yamato only seconds behind him.
His sandals crunched upon the icy ground as Yamato landed on the stretch of torn earth. Snow had come to cover much of the ground, and yet even that could not conceal the depth of fighting that had occurred there. Patches of white were riddled with muted reds and browns, so vast and plentiful it was as though piles of bodies had formed one top of another in clumps – each of them seemingly cut down right where another stood. Some parts of the ground were entirely missing, whole chunks of earth ripped from its place and hunkered across the open field.
Yamato walked slowly across the field and crouched just above a curious lump of snow, something catching his attention. His fingers dusted the hardened slush from the unidentifiable bundle, his lips thinning at what he uncovered. Yamato clutched the frozen material in his fists, praying that the blood colouring Sasuke's and Naruto's ruined cloaks were not their own.
He passed another assessing glare over the immediate area, squinting as his eyes mapped out the scores of fire or perhaps a vast blast that had been etched into the ground. He catalogued the barely noticeable depressions of earth surrounding the discarded cloaks and tilted his head. Yamato could just make out the remnants of the connected indent, as though a large being had been summoned into the midst of battle.
His jaw tightened as his mind ran rampant with theories as to who and why. But the rattling questions stopped short as a new puzzle piece caught his careful attention. The bodies were all entirely missing, just as Sai said. But there was no discernible evidence of them having been moved.
There were no trails of blood from where they might've been dragged. No crudely dug graves marking the land, or evidence of mass burning. Not even the littering of belongings or clothes if someone might've bothered to steal from the corpses. And Yamato knew there had to have been corpses. This much blood was not spilt for everyone to have walked away.
Suddenly Yamato felt surer that the tracks leading from the battlefield and into the forest were in fact not made by any one of his team. Yamato's stomach churned at the idea that perhaps the bodies had walked themselves off the field. The notion did not bode well for the welfare of his team. Yamato brought a hand to his chin. Perhaps someone had come to collect the bodies, sealed them away for some reason. Except who? And for what purpose? But then what about the tracks? Nothing was quite adding up.
Just who had Naruto and Sasuke been fighting? And where had they gone?
A twig snapping from ahead had Yamato swiftly withdrawing a handful of kunai.
What he did not expect was to be completely winded by a brown ball of fur flying at his chest and knocking him to the ground. Yamato tensed, his hands at the ready to wrench the creature from him when he abruptly recognised his would-be attacker as one of Kakashi's Ninken.
"Pakkun!" He said aghast as the pug in question began licking his face and whining earnestly into his chest. Yamato felt his heart drop. He had never seen Pakkun this distressed. Ever.
"Tenzou." The pug sniffed.
Yamato sat up and brought a hand to Pakkun's head, stroking him consolingly. "Pak, what are you doing here? What's happened?" he struggled to contain his mounting panic from further upsetting the canine.
Pakkun slid down to sit on his hind legs in the cold snow, and lifted his dark eyes to Yamato's, a deep frown wrinkling his fur. "They're gone. I've lost them all."
Yamato's heart lurched up and into his mouth.
He subconsciously noted Sai's cautious arrival behind him, and signalled for him to approach carefully – this could very well end up being an entirely devastating conversation. Yamato focused his mind and cleared himself of his tumbling emotions. He had to think like a shinobi.
"Report Pakkun. I need you to start from the beginning." He commanded steadily.
Pakkun straightened at the order, and Yamato watched as the pug responded to the firm instruction.
"I was summoned approximately twenty-four hours ago by Kakashi to track down and retrieve Naruto and Sasuke when they both failed to check back in with Kakashi at the cave." Pakkun began, reciting his report with a perfectly controlled voice. "Their scents were strongest here but led me to a dead end deeper within the forest at the sight of a mass explosion."
A breath of air was stolen from Yamato's lungs. "They – "
"No. They didn't die there." Pakkun affirmed. "Just vanished, as though their existence was cleanly wiped out."
Sai came to kneel soundlessly beside them. "Sasuke is capable of inter-dimensional travel. Perhaps he used his technique to pitch Naruto and himself out of harms way?" He offered calmly.
Yamato found himself once more abundantly grateful for Sai's level-headedness in all situations. He smiled thinly at him. "Knowing those boys, that sounds about right."
Sai returned with a frail smile of his own, before turning thoughtful. "And what of Sakura and Kakashi-senpai?" he directed gently to Pakkun.
The pug bowed his head in shame and Yamato exchanged a careful glance with Sai when the Ninken didn't immediately respond.
"I don't know." Pakkun said lowly. "Last I saw, Sakura was down for the count and the Boss was attempting to move them to a safer location. It wasn't ten hours later that I felt Kakashi's chakra cut off completely."
Yamato and Sai both stiffened, and Pakkun dutifully continued, despite his clear upset. "I had already switched over to my own source of chakra to sustain me in this realm. I had felt the Boss becoming drained from whatever toll he was pushing his body through. And when I felt his chakra snuff out… I had to search for him." A small whine escaped the back of his throat. "I disobeyed his orders to find him, but I couldn't. Only the faint markings of enemy shinobi and his blood. I followed his trail but by the time I realised it was a dead end, it was too late." He sniffed.
"Pakkun – "
"I waited too long, strayed too far from them. His scent is too faint to track now. The snow's washed it all away. But he's in trouble. He's got Sakura and she's hurt and they're both in trouble. I can feel it!" Pakkun barked roughly, his hackles raising and falling as though undecided between anger and fear.
Yamato drifted a hand back down to the pug's head and pat him gently. "We'll find them Pak." He promised as Pakkun melted slightly into his touch, a clear sign the usually crotchety pug was exhausted and stressed.
"Taichou." Sai said haltingly. "We must report this to Tsunade-sama."
Pakkun's ears pricked and he whined when Yamato stopped the soothing motions on his fur. "I don't know what good such news can do her, but you're right Sai. She deserves to know." Yamato resumed his careful stroking as Sai nodded and withdrew some ink and parchment.
"Pakkun, how much longer do you think you'll be able to stay here? In this realm without a direct link?" Yamato asked.
Pakkun puffed up with a hint of pride. "We've trained in prolonged summoning before with Kakashi. The longest I've gone is 70 hours."
A proud smile pulled at his lips. "Are you willing to stay with us until your limit?"
"Of course." The pug sat a little straighter, his dark eyes becoming wide and focused with determination.
"Taichou." Sai interjected, offering him the parchment and brush.
Yamato took it was a small nod of thanks. "Any news from your mice?"
The smallest twitch of disappointment edged at Sai's eyes. "They successfully reached the heart of the base, and found nothing but the remnants of a mass chakra signature. No discernible trace of Sakura or Kakashi-senpai."
Yamato nodded grimly. "I guess we never expected anything on that front in the first place. Thank you for checking, Sai."
Sai dipped his head mutely, and silently drifted his attention to a shivering Pakkun who was still nosing around at Yamato's knees. Yamato saw from the corner of his eye the way Sai carefully lowered his hand to stroke delicately at Pakkun's soft fur. The Ninken dutifully turned and trotted fully up to Sai and welcomed his hesitant touches.
It wasn't until Yamato was rolling up his inked missive to Tsunade-sama and attaching it to Sai's hawk that the young man spoke once more.
"Do you think she'll be okay?" he ventured gently, now cradling Pakkun aloft in his arms and bundling him close to his chest.
Yamato tilted his head fractionally. "Sakura?"
Sai lifted his eyes and Yamato saw a peculiar sensitivity swimming in the depths of his onyx gaze. "Lady Tsunade." he corrected faintly.
Pakkun perked his head up to look at Yamato as well, with a questioning cock of his head.
Yamato was torn between bemusement at Sai's surprisingly sensitive query, and resignation that his question was likely well warranted. "She's Tsunade-sama. She's strong enough for an entire village." He found himself saying, despite the part of him that sympathised the burden of that strength.
The three of them watched Sai's messenger bird take flight up into the greyscale sky, lamenting its purpose with every flap of its inky wings.
A/N: Hey team!
Let me just say it before you can. I definitely took liberties with my 'dimension talk' with Sasuke and Naruto. But it's my AU so I'm sticking with it, however wrong my science may be. :P Also, if you squint you might be able to see the parallels happening between Sasuke and Sakura's circumstances.
Sakura was probably the hardest to get right in this chapter. She's going through so much (aren't they all). It's almost impossible to address all the new plot points she keeps waking up to (whilst keeping in character and in reason), so I hope she hasn't been coming across as too OOC in her reactions and such.
We got a Ara Vs. Kakashi rematch with some deeply invasive psychological mind-trickery. And also a little insight on our anti-heroes motives through the highly unreliable perspective of Hansai, which I hope maybe answered some questions and gave you just a few more to ponder over. :P
And of course, Pakkun found some of Kakashi's pack. Just not the ones he was searching for. :'(
As always, I love hearing your thoughts. Any parts that got you particularly worked up or intrigued. I know I had a few personal faves in this chapter.
Much love team!