Sakura quietly closes the door, aware that despite her best efforts not to wake anyone, both Tomomi and Aimi have probably been disturbed. Shinobi tend to be light sleepers, after all. Regardless of rank. Guiltily she hopes that they will be able to fall back asleep again quickly. That they aren't plagued by the same kind of restless thoughts that seem to plague her as of lately.
The night is pleasantly warm this early in the autumn and she doesn't need a jacket as she sneaks out. She sets off at a light jog through the empty streets, heading towards the mountain and the area around the Academy. Because the streets are so empty she allows herself to channel some chakra into her legs as she speeds up, making her midnight run both a physical exercise as well as one in chakra control. Not that she really needs the practice.
When she reaches the Academy she turns down the road towards the Hokage Tower, looking at the familiar training areas where she has spent so many hours training with her classmates. How naive she was back then, she thinks. If only she'd spent more time training and less pining over Sasuke or squabbling with Ino.
Even this late there are guards at the Hokage Tower. She doesn't approach but gives them a friendly wave, though she doesn't know any of them. One of them waves back.
Kind of stupid anyway, wasn't it? She attended the Academy because she wanted to become a shinobi, but then she spent most of her time there pining after a boy who didn't even like her back.
As she reaches the river she steers off of the street and onto the water, shifting to water walking swiftly and without effort.
She almost doesn't even think about the little boy who died on that mission. Ko, her memory supplies her, unhelpfully.
When she reaches a bridge she charges faster towards it, jumping over it even though there is plenty of room for her to run under it. She leaves a small ripple behind, as if someone has thrown a pebble into the water. The landing is smoother, barely disturbing the surface at all.
Why would anyone want you for an apprentice?! The words ring in her mind but more than the words it's the tone that hurts. Sharp enough to cut glass, it easily cuts deeply into her self esteem. She knows, objectively, that Sasuke has a point. Why would anyone want her, when there are so many other shinobi more skilled than her around? The admission that there are plenty more skilled shinobi than her doesn't even hurt in and of itself.
Why him? she thinks as she leaves the water and heads towards the big marketplace near the gates. The Haruno compound is only a few streets over but she carefully keeps some distance between her and it. No need to go near a sleeping lion.
She could probably accept Lady Tsunade rejecting her and taking another apprentice, if that apprentice wasn't Sasuke. Which is strange, because she's always known that Sasuke is a skilled shinobi. Back in the Academy, if he'd won a price and not her, she probably wouldn't have minded. Not much, at least. But now she does, and she isn't sure why.
Without really thinking about it she turns to follow the main road, back towards the village centre. It's a familiar street, and it will take her just past Sasuke's place. She knows, because it used to be her favourite path to and from the Academy, even though it's not the shortest route. The possibility of running into Sasuke had more than made up for the extra walking distance, back then.
Something is different, she states to herself. Back then she admired him so much. For some reason she doesn't anymore. He's been so … hard, as of late. Mean, even.
It frightens her, more than she wants to admit.
When she sees another figure ahead of her on the street she slows down, taking the opportunity to catch her breath. They're walking slowly towards her, and it takes her a few moments to recognise that it's none other than the person that has been occupying her mind so much. Sasuke.
"It's the middle of the night," he says once they're close enough to talk without shouting at each other. "What are you doing out here?"
"Just … couldn't sleep," she says sheepishly, afraid that he will somehow be able to tell that it is thoughts of him that has kept her up. She's still a little bit out of breath too. She must sound stupid. "What about you?"
He shrugs, still walking towards her. Past her. And he's wearing a backpack.
"Are you going somewhere?" she asks, suddenly tense for some reason.
It's Sasuke.
She shouldn't be suspicious.
It's disloyal.
"Mission."
It's not a bad answer. Somewhat likely even, in a ninja village. But it doesn't feel like a truthful one.
"It's the middle of the night," she points out quietly, stepping into his path.
He stops then, meeting her eyes with a strange sort of calmness that is somehow even more frightening than the anger she has grown used to seeing.
"Get out of my way, Sakura." There is an edge to his voice, as sharp as a kunai.
"No." There is a lump in her throat and it is difficult to talk around it but she forces the word out. "You're leaving."
"For a mission." There's not a sign that he's lying but she knows he is. He's just … too calm. Too controlled. Like the calm before a really bad storm.
"You're lying."
A wind sweeps over them as they stare at each other, both of them refusing to give up. Finally Sasuke looks away. He scoffs, an almost fond smile on his lips.
"You can't stop me."
He steps around her.
Her arm shoots out to catch him. "Why?"
"There's nothing for me in Konoha anymore."
The answer surprises her, because she wasn't entirely sure that she would get an answer to begin with. And then the meaning of the words is a surprise in and of itself.
"Nothing for you?" she asks, disbelieving. "You've got two of the best shinobi in the country, in the world even, training you! Why would you give that up?"
"You wouldn't understand." He shakes her hand off and continues to walk away from her.
"Then explain it to me!" she demands, raising her voice in frustration. "You've got everything I want-"
He turns around then, eyes swirling and becoming sharingan red as he glares at her. "I have nothing! Everything has been taken from me, and until I get my revenge there is no other path for me than this! Someone like you can't even begin to understand what it's like!"
Though she wants to be brave and stand her ground against him she takes a step backwards at the force of his voice and the power of his glare. It's almost like a physical blow to her stomach.
"Maybe I can't understand what you've been through," she admits, forcing herself to stand still - forcing her voice not to waver, making her tone as reasonable as she can possibly manage. "But I've lost people too. And from where I'm standing you've got so much, so many people who care about you -"
"It's not enough! I can't wait in this place forever, hoping to get strong. I don't have that time!"
"So what will you accomplish by leaving? Who will train you if you leave the village?"
The smile he gives her is sharp and dangerous, like a cat smiling at a mouse.
"I've got someone in mind."
Out of words she falters for a moment, still struggling to believe that this is really happening.
Sasuke is leaving the village.
What is she supposed to do?
"I won't let you go." She takes a deep breath, clenching her fists. Squaring her shoulders.
"You can't stop me."
"Then I'll scream. Alert the guards, and they'll stop you."
In a flash he's behind her, moving faster than her eyes can follow.
"Stop getting in my way!"
On instinct, she throws herself to the ground, just barely dodging the blow to her head. The momentum carries her through a roll and she comes up to face him a moment later, just in time to block the next attack.
"Why do you always need to get in the way? You're as bad as Naruto!"
"Worse," she grunts back, blocking another blow and remembering his words to her after the Chunin Exams. "At least he's useful, right?"
She stumbles backwards, creating enough space between them for her to draw her kunai. A shinobi must always be properly armed and prepared, she remembers Iruka-sensei lecturing them back in the Academy. By bringing kunai to a fistfight, you will already have an advantage.
Back then she'd thought she understood. She thinks she understands him even better now.
With a wordless howl she lunges forward. Sasuke sidesteps her attack, still scowling at her. Still fucking unarmed and still dodging her attacks, still not taking her seriously.
Sakura growls, low in her throat, and lunges again and again, forcing him to continue his retreating, ducking and sidestepping her attacks.
"You are useless," Sasuke growls right back at her. "Always getting in the way, always annoying and weak and-"
"I'll show you weak, damn it!"
Anger like nothing she has ever really felt before, a fury born out of frustration that's been building within her for months already, courses through her like hot lava. Her heart is beating fast, the sound of her blood pumping loud in her ears, accompanied by the soothing coldness of her chakra.
She wants to hurt him. Hurt Sasuke.
She wants to smack his stupid face into the ground and make him eat his own words.
She's going to hurt him - to cut through that stupid, arrogant attitude of his and-
Her arm, her whole body, vibrates with her chakra as she makes her next attack, and it's almost as if things are suddenly moving in slow motion. His eyes grow large with surprise, sharingan still active.
He dodges, but it's not quite fast enough. Her kunai slashes across his forehead, cutting through one of his eyebrows and just barely missing his eye.
The next moment the kunai literally explodes in her hand.
With a gasp she jumps back, Sasuke mirroring her actions. Defensively she raises her other kunai, but Sasuke crouches to the ground, his hand clutched to his forehead and eye.
Sakura's chest rises and falls, her breath a steady staccato that seems to override everything else, including that internal voice of hers that's shrieking in wordless horror at what she's just done.
Slowly, Sasuke brings it away, revealing a bleeding wound where before there used to be perfectly smooth skin. Sakura's breath is already caught somewhere in her throat, or she'd gasp at the visible proof of her actions. As it is, she can only stare.
He stares at his hand for a moment, and then raises his eyes to meet hers.
She's not even sure which of them is more surprised at the turn of events.
A small part of her is horrified. She's fighting a fellow Konoha shinobi, a teammate. Sasuke. Perfect and wonderful Sasuke-kun, who now has an uneven slash across half of his forehead because of her.
Hope it leaves a really ugly scar, another part of her snarl.
Unfortunately, there is another of Iruka-sensei's lessons she seems to have momentarily forgotten: never underestimate a Kekkei Genkai.
Sasuke's eyes flare, tomoe spinning wildly.
Then her chakra short-circuits and the darkness envelops her.
"Hey! You there! Wake up!"
Gentle hands shake her but she is slow and sluggish in waking up, only regaining consciousness a little bit at a time.
"You're going to catch a cold if you sleep out here."
With a gargantuan effort she blinks her eyes open. Two faces come into focus above her; vaguely familiar ones dressed in the uniform of T&I. Her mind scrambles to make sense of it before the memories come crashing over her.
"Sasuke!" she exclaims, throwing herself up. As sluggish as she is her mind spins and she gets no longer than sitting up before she has to stop. "No!" She's not sure if she's groaning over Sasuke or her own weakness. Both probably.
"What?" one of the two men asks, the one that is crouching closer to her. He's carrying a large stack of books and papers, and there is a bandage running across his cheekbones and nose.
The air is chilly around her. A couple of birds are chirping and there is just the barest hint of daylight. It must still be early then, she realises. It can't have been more than a few hours, at most, since her fight with Sasuke.
There's still time to get him back!
"I need to speak to the Hokage," she groans, standing up as soon as her spinning head will allow her to. It is only when she is standing that she realises she has no idea of where to find the Hokage at this time of the day. Night? Whatever.
"Why?" the same man asks again.
"I need to report an incident. It's important."
Looking around she wonders if she should try the Hokage Tower or the Hokage Residence first. Anyone in their right mind would still be asleep at this time, but then she might not even be let into the Hokage Residence. It might be better to go to the Tower, and hope that one of the guards there will take her seriously enough to summon the Hokage.
"We were just on our way to the Hokage," the second man says, the one standing a little further away. Like his friend he's carrying a large stack of books. "Why don't you walk with us and tell us what happened?"
After a moment of hesitation, Sakura agrees and they fall into step alongside each other. As they walk, she tells them about her midnight run and her run in with Sasuke. When she's finished they both look grim.
"Good thing we came across you," the first man says. "This needs to be reported."
They reach the Hokage Tower, where she is surprised to find that the lights are still on in the Hokage's office. Lady Tsunade must either be working very late or be a very early riser. Or maybe not, she thinks as they near the door to her office and can hear light snoring from within. One of her escorts knock loudly on the door before they enter, just in time to see their Hokage pull her face off of her desk. There is a smudge of ink on her cheek and Sakura tries not to stare.
"You were fast asleep, weren't you Lady Hokage!" the man with the bandage across his cheekbones exclaims, theatrically outraged. "You made us go fetch these heavy documents while you just took a nap!"
Lady Tsunade chuckles but waves the words away with a reassuring smile and an unconvincing "No!"
"Well, in any case Lady Hokage, we have something to report," the second man says, stepping aside to let Sakura further into the room.
The Hokage straightens, absentmindedly rubbing most of the ink away as she gives Sakura her attention.
Things move quickly once she has given her report. Kotetsu - the man with the bandage - is sent out to retrieve someone to go after Sasuke while Izumo - the other man - is tasked with taking her to the hospital.
"I'm fine, I don't need to go to the hospital!" she objects. "Please let me come with the team going after Sasuke!"
"Absolutely not! The team will need to move swiftly, and you need to be properly checked out to see if Sasuke has caused any permanent damage to your mind with his sharingan!"
Reluctantly she allows herself to be led away and submits herself to an extremely thorough examination by a sourly medic, followed by another, equally through examination by one of Ino's many cousins.
"There is a strong chance that Orochimaru has his henchmen assisting Sasuke, so don't underestimate the challenge of this mission."
Shikamaru sighs wearily but - probably wisely - keeps otherwise quiet. How tiresome. Not only did he have to get up at the crack of dawn in order to get in some training with his father before his father had to leave for some mission, but then the morning was interrupted before the training even began and he had to drag himself before the Hokage. And now the news that Sasuke has left the village and that Lady Tsunade expects him, Shikamaru, to go after him.
So. Very. Troublesome.
"If so, this mission should call for a small team of jounin and/or chunin," Shikamaru finally says.
At least that way, Shikamaru shouldn't have to do much heavy lifting for the mission. In fact, if Lady Tsunade was going to send jounin after Sasuke, Shikamaru might just go back to bed already.
But of course it's not that easy. If it were, Lady Tsunade wouldn't have had to drag him here in the first place.
"Apart from the bare minimum needed here in the village, most jounin and chunin are already out on missions. Our forces are stretched thin as it is, and so I have no choice but to put you in charge of this mission."
His father has probably already left for his mission. Mother has been picking up extra shifts as well, as has most of the adults Shikamaru knows. Asuma-sensei is on a mission as well - they've only had time for brief team-trainings and dinners ever since the invasion, and even that is mostly because Asuma-sensei has been prioritising seeing them when he should probably be resting.
"Sasuke already has at least a couple of hours of a head start. I'm giving you free choice of what genin you choose to include for the mission, but make sure you all leave within the next half hour."
He's backed into a corner. There's no real way that he can refuse the mission. As heir to the Nara clan - another troublesome position he never asked for - Shikamaru knows very well how important the kekkei genkai and secret techniques of the clans are. He knows that losing the last wielder of the sharingan would be a serious blow to the village, not to mention the potential of having that sharingan used against them in the future.
"What a drag," Shikamaru sighs. "Fine. If I can't have chunin or jounin, I want Temari and her brothers."
Lady Tsunade raises one eyebrow pointedly. "No."
"Why not?"
"The former Kazekage's children are prisoners of Konoha, not your fellow genin."
"And yet you've been working on tying them closer to Konoha through me."
He thinks back to his meetings with Temari and Kankuro, which had started with that one unreasonable request of his and then continued almost daily through his father's and Inoichi-ojisan's plotting. And he knows for a fact that they've been working with Gaara too, even though neither he nor Temari or Kankuro has been allowed to see him yet.
"That's a separate issue."
"Is it? Because Temari and Kankuro were just as fooled by Orochimaru as everyone else. And trust me when I say that they'd love to get revenge on the guy who killed their father and tricked them into a war with Konoha."
Lady Tsunade's gaze grows calculating, which is how Shikamaru knows that he's basically won already. Now, for the final push;
"They'd certainly be grateful to anyone who'd give them that opportunity."
She hums, clearly thinking it over, before she speaks one decisive word.
"Cat."
Shikamaru blinks in surprise. That's not the answer he expected.
A masked ANBU agent appears next to him, immediately kneeling before the Hokage. "Yes, Hokage-sama?"
"Show Shikamaru here the precautions taken for the Sand jinchuriki and have him keyed to the restraints before they leave."
Jinchuriki? Shikamaru thinks. Like some sort of human sacrifice? He grimaces. Seems like things are taking a much darker turn that he would've expected.
"Yes, Hokage-sama."
"And Shikamaru?"
"Yeah?"
She scoffs at the tone of his voice, and Shikamaru straightens a little, bowing his head apologetically. He's getting what he wants, after all. You know, apart from the part where he gets to go back to bed.
"The clock is ticking. You've got twenty-eight minutes before you have to leave, so choose your other genin carefully."
To that Shikamaru can only nod, before allowing Cat to lead him away into the bowels of T&I.
Temari and her brothers are a good start, but really, the more the better on a mission like this. Who else can he count on?
Choji, of course. He'd ask Ino too, but she takes forever to get ready in the mornings, even for a mission.
Team 7 will be eager to get their teammate back too, no doubt. He'd ask Sakura, but according to Lady Tsunade she'll have to spend the morning with a Yamanaka mind healer, making sure that Sasuke hasn't done something to her. So only Naruto remains. He'll probably be in bed this early, but his apartment is just off the road to the gates, so it'll be close.
Temari's brother, Gaara, is already awake when they arrive at his cell, which is basically covered in protective seals. At their arrival, he looks up but makes no other move. His eyes glances over Cat before zeroing in on Shikamaru, who's no doubt the youngest and least threatening person he's seen since the invasion.
"What's going on?"
His voice is raspy and weary, but without that undertone of barely restrained anger that Shikamaru recalls. He assumes that's good news.
"You're getting out," Shikamaru says. Good news is generally supposed to be delivered by him, or that's what he's learned during his interactions with T&I, Temari and Kankuro. That way, in their minds, he becomes the good guy. An ally of sorts. "You and your siblings."
Gaara just blinks slowly, as if he's struggling to understand. There's dark circles beneath his eyes, as if he hasn't slept well in forever, but the eyes themselves are more puzzled than anything else.
"You're going on a mission with me. Get up, I'll explain on the way."
Glancing again at Cat, as if wanting to confirm Shikamaru's words, Gaara slowly gets up and approaches the bars. Without being prompted to, he holds his hands out through the bars to Cat. The wrists are covered in wooden manacles - as are the ankles, and there's a collar around the throat as well, Shikamaru notes - which are carved with seals that grow faintly in the dim light of the room. Cat places his hands on the manacles, and Gaara hisses as if it causes him pain but does not pull away.
"Give me your hand." Cat holds out his hand expectantly, and Shikamaru wearily places his own hand in it.
With surprising gentleness Cat places the hand on the wooden manacles.
"Now, focus your chakra into the palm of your hand."
Doing so causes a light, stinging sensation to his palm. Gaara, on the other side of the bars, groans, clenching his eyes against what appears to be a significant amount of pain. His fingers twitch, as if trying to escape even though the hands themselves remain still.
"There." Cat lets go of both Shikamaru's hand and the wooden manacles, turning to face Shikamaru more fully. "Now, repeat after me."
He shows a short series of hands seals and Shikamaru obediently repeats them a couple of times, until Cat is satisfied.
"Now, do it for real."
Shikamaru repeats the seals again, using his chakra this time, and as he feels the jutsu complete Gaara hisses and sinks to his knees, clasping at the collar around his throat.
Quickly, Shikamaru lets go of the jutsu.
"Good. When the time comes, use that to restrain him," Cat says.
Not if. When the time comes. Shikamaru swallows, remembering how it had taken both Sasuke and Naruto to defeat Gaara during the invasion, and nods seriously. Perhaps he's gotten a little bit over his head.
Cat unlocks the door to the cell, and for a moment Gaara just stares at it.
"Come on. We've got to get your siblings too, and we're kind of in a hurry."
With no further prompting, Gaara stands again and steps out, falling in line behind Shikamaru as Cat leads them up the stairs to the cells of Temari and Kankuro.
By the time they head out of T&I, most of Shikamaru's allotted time has passed. He won't be able to go back home and get packed. He'll just have to make do with what he's already got on him.
He's refusing to go without Choji though, and thankfully Choji is a champ about being woken up early. Shikamaru promises to pay for dinner when they get back, which is sure to eat up most of his money, but he's dressed and ready in minutes.
Naruto's apartment is practically on the way, and then their time is out and they have to head for the gates. Shikamaru is just lucky that they run across Kiba and Lee on the way, and that both are able to drop everything to join them.
And so, only a couple of minutes later than ordered, they head out to find Sasuke.
"Here you go," Kakashi says with a jovial smile as he hands over the 24 slave traders and their shinobi entourage to T&I.
The chunin in charge wearily eyes the bruised and very obviously abused men and raises an eyebrow sarcastically. "Had a little bit of trouble in transport?"
Kakashi cocks his head, widening his smile even though he doubts the chunin can tell.
"Nah, they behaved well enough once they realised who was the top dog."
The chunin waves to the other collected chunin to begin signing the prisoners in, assigning them cells and whatever other nightmares goes on within the depths of T&I. Kakashi is happy that he doesn't need to know the exact details. As he starts to walk away the nearest prisoner violently flinches away and Kakashi smiles, baring his teeth beneath the mask.
"Hatake-san?" the chunin calls after him.
"Hm?" Kakashi only turns partially back.
"I believe Hokage-sama wanted to see you as soon as you got back."
"Oh, I'll make sure to stop by her office then."
Having taken a large portion of his bad mood out in violence during the mission, Kakashi feels pretty ready to remain civil as he discusses the practicals of Sasuke's apprenticeships. At least that is what he thinks until he arrives at the Hokage's office and hears the recent news about his student.
"What did you say?" he exclaims when Tsunade-sama is apparently done informing him that Sasuke has deserted his village and plans on joining the third Legendary Sannin as a missing nin. He feels himself grow both hot and cold at the thought, and it is not a pleasant sensation.
Then Tsunade-sama's last words catch up with him, and he finds himself leaning over her desk, arms braced against the front and nails digging into the wood as he tries to stop himself from doing something truly stupid.
"You mean you sent genin after Sasuke?"
"Well, what else could I do? You know the state that the village is in right now."
For one, drawn out moment, they look into each other's eyes as everything hangs in between them. Then Kakashi sighs, feeling his shoulders and general composure sag into itself as he draws back a little.
He knows that she is right and logically he can't really blame her for that. But the fact remains that a group of genin will be woefully unprepared to deal with Sasuke.
"There's eight of them," Lady Tsunade reassures him.
Kakashi doesn't feel reassured at all. He stares emptily through the window behind the Hokage's desk, mind spinning as he comes to a conclusion on what has to happen now. Wordlessly he turns around and starts walking, weariness in every bone of his body.
"Hey, where do you think you're going?" Tsunade-sama shouts after him. "You already have another mission assigned to you!"
"I have to go run an errand first." Without turning he offers a half-hearted wave of his hand. "Be back in a bit. Don't worry."
If she suspects the truth of what he plans to do, which she would have to be stupid not to do, she still doesn't stop him. Kakashi puts one foot in front of the other, feeling the exhaustion that comes from recent hospitalisation followed by a couple of solo A-ranked missions like an ache in his bones. Yet that is nothing compared to the knowledge that he has once again failed and his worst nightmares have come true. Another Uchiha prodigy entrusted into his care, only to then go rogue.
He knows what he has to do. Mentally he pulls on the numbness of ANBU agent Hound, steeling himself for the task. Another part of his mind is already calculating his physical condition (tired, but mission capable), what timeframe he has to work with (Naruto and Sasuke already have about two days of a head start, but they'll be travelling at the speed of genin, or possibly chunin, which means that he ought to be able to catch up with them within a day) and the quantity and quality of equipment he still has from his last mission (Kakashi always carries more than he could reasonably need, so he's still got plenty of kunai, shuriken and other tools left). Good. He'll be able to head out immediately then, and not waste time stopping by his apartment to restock or -
"Kakashi-sensei!" a voice calls, interrupting his reverie.
Kakashi stops in his tracks, spotting another one of his ever-growing list of failures heading for him. She's dressed in the uniform of the Genin Corps and looks tired and weary, as if she hasn't slept well lately.
"Kakashi-sensei, have you heard? It's been two days since Sasuke left! Naruto and the others haven't come back and I'm not allowed to go after them!"
She starts to pour her worries out onto him before he has a chance to stop her. Kakashi takes a breath, bracing himself to deal with this as well.
"I know," he says, trying to interrupt the oncoming tirade of teenage love-triangle drama that is coming his way. "I'm pretty much caught up to speed right now."
His words seem to have no effect on her need to share her worries with him.
"I tried to stop him, sensei, I really did! And now Naruto and the others are going after him, and I trust Naruto, I do, but if anything were to happen to them because of-"
He places a hand on her shoulder, attempting to make the gesture comforting, and if nothing else it seems to startle her enough that she falls silent.
"Sakura-chan, you don't need to worry about anything. Just leave it to me."
He even forces himself to offer her a smile - one of those that is more of a tightening of his lips beneath the mask and a brief closing of his one visible eye than the real deal, because he can't bring himself to offer a genuinely comforting smile - and then he walks past her before she has the chance to say anything else.
Perhaps he should feel guilty for basically blowing her off like this, but he honestly doesn't have the time to deal with her at the moment. Naruto and Sasuke already have two days of a head start, not to mention that there's two jinchuriki out there and potentially an unknown number of enemies. Orochimaru has been manipulating Sasuke for weeks, after all. Kakashi cannot imagine that he'd leave it up to chance whether Sasuke makes it to him or not.
She catches up to him by the front gates, just as he summons his pack. He pretends not to notice her standing there, just inside the gates as if she is afraid of stepping past them without permission. Which is probably wise, considering her age and rank and everything.
"Alright guys," he says, addressing the dogs. "Fan out and start looking for Naruto's and Sasuke's scents.
Barking in excitement they scatter to do as they're told, leaving him once more alone with Sakura. He glances over his shoulder at her, spotting her half hidden behind a pillar as she worriedly looks towards the forest.
Well, he thinks with a sigh, Naruto and Sasuke did go at it right before her eyes the last time they saw each other. There's probably no point in telling her not to worry. Briefly, the memory flashes before his eyes - Sasuke with the chidori, Naruto with the rasengan, charging full speed at each other - before he pushes it away to the back of his mind.
He'd been too naive. Those two could've ended up killing each other already back then, and now it's come to this.
He hopes he's not too late.
"S-sensei, can I …" Sakura stammers, her mouth opening and closing as if she's struggling to find words.
A familiar howl in the distance indicates that his dogs have found the scent, and Kakashi sets off to follow them.
"Good luck, Kakashi-sensei." The wind brings the dejected words to him, following him as he leaves the village behind in search of his errant students.
Please, don't let him be too late.
Author's note: It has been pointed out to me that chapter 2 - Hatake Kakashi of this story bears more than a passing resemblance to galvanotrope's Working Dogs. As a fanfiction author, I draw inspiration from a lot of places, including works of others. I do try to give credit wherever it's due, but this time I did not realise that I had been inspired to such a degree by this particular story.
In other words, I apologise to galvanotrope for not referencing them where I should have. I also highly recommend that you go read their work, because it's really good!
If there is anyone else who feel like I might have borrowed from their works without acknowledging them properly, please tell me and I will be happy to give you credit.