Chapter Nine

The Rogues of River Country

Sakura was awake before the arc of the butter-yellow sun peaked above the horizon the next morning, her subconscious swimming with equal parts nerves and excitement for the mission. She'd packed her gear the night before after returning home from ANBU Headquarters, and decided to take an extra long shower to ensure she was thoroughly clean and her legs were freshly shaved. Sakura didn't own an ANBU uniform, but since she was part of a special Ops mission, she decided to 'dress the part.' She put on a pair of black leggings with various holsters for easy access to weapons, and a long-sleeved black shirt that hugged her slight frame. The right sleeve was missing entirely, and Sakura painted the ANBU signature tattoo on her shoulder in red ink, using an art jutsu Sai had taught her for making ink stay until you didn't want it anymore. She wasn't nearly as gifted as Sai where art was concerned, but she was pretty sure he'd be proud of her work.

She'd packed her gear with a basic med kit, tools, and scrolls she would need to transport the violet-spotted salamander back home once she found it. If she found it… Quickly, Sakura snapped the jaws of her mind shut on that little intrusive thought and forbade it to resurface. Yes, it was true that the violet-spotted salamander had been a non-issue in terms of poisonous creatures for many years, but none of her textbooks indicated they were an endangered species. They lived in the rivers, hidden beneath stones and kept a reclusive life… They were the Kakashi's of the reptile world, she decided with a little chuckle as she pulled on her backpack and headed out the door.

Neither she nor Kakashi had discussed a meeting point the night prior, but the sun was just beginning to crest the horizon line and Sakura was willing to bet (we know, we know, it's against the rules) that Kakashi was probably still asleep.

In part, Sakura knew that she had not been able to sleep so well because she couldn't shake the image of herself pressed up against Kakashi in that janitors' closet… She felt silly – silly because she was a grown woman now, and assumed things like butterflies ceased to exist the moment you left your adolescence behind. Truthfully, she wasn't sure she'd ever felt butterflies like that before. She still wasn't sure what it all meant – what she wanted it to mean, but she was definitely having fun with it. The way his hand had flattened against her stomach – his fingertips just barely curling around the curve of her hip as he'd pulled her to the ground to hide… It hadn't felt intimate at the time considering they were hiding, and considering she also thought White-Fang was someone else. But later, when she gave herself permission to recount the events, heat had spread through her like wildfire. The sensation was even more thrilling than their kunai game – which reminded her that Kakashi was still in possession of the weapon. No matter… she had plenty of time to come up with some clever ploy to get it back.

Sakura walked up to his apartment complex, entered through the front door, and took the stairs to the third floor. Kakashi's apartment was at the end of the hall. She and the boys had been there a handful of times over the years, but it seemed like Sakura's house had become something akin to a home base when they weren't on missions. And she loved that – loved having her teammates close.

Sakura lifted to the tips of her toes and felt along the ridge of Kakashi's doorframe for the little key he kept tucked behind a loose piece of wood. It was a terrible hiding spot, but Sakura reasoned that literally no one in Konoha would even dream of screwing with the legendary Copy-nin if they wanted to live. Once the key was in her possession, she fished it into the lock and let herself into Kakashi's apartment. "Dearest, I'm home!" she called as she shut the door behind her. Kakashi's apartment was a small, open concept design. The living room area and kitchen existed within the same room, while the bedroom was tucked around the corner along with his bathroom. A bathroom in which Kakashi was currently exiting – with a towel wrapped around his waist. He'd pulled his mask on, but his body was still delightfully glistening from his shower.

"Thanks for the warning," he teased her.

Sakura didn't move from her spot on his living room floor, but she might have craned her neck to admire the hollow of his spine and the shape of him as he slipped into his bedroom and closed the door. She grinned and took a turn about his living room, noting that the only two picture frames in his possession were in need of a good dusting. The furniture was nearly threadbare, and most of his possessions were hand-me-downs, but Hatake Kakashi was a neat man, and not prone to clutter.

"You're up early," he commented as he strode out of the bedroom, running a towel over his damp hair. Sakura liked it that way – hanging loose and a little in his face. It was more inviting of fingertips that were desperate to explore.

"I didn't sleep that well," she admitted. "I was up before the sun and decided to make the most of it."

"You even got a tattoo." Kakashi lifted one of his platinum-silver eyebrows.

"Ink jutsu," Sakura said, turning her arm so Kakashi could see the detail. "How'd I do? Does it look close enough to the real thing?" The real thing was tattooed on Kakashi's left upper bicep, aged, considering he had gotten the damned thing when he was eleven.

"Looks pretty good to me," Kakashi said as he stepped up to the counter and reached for the cupboard handles. "Tea?"

"As long as there's caffeine in it," Sakura said.

Kakashi pulled two porcelain cups down from his cupboard and set to work on filling the teakettle with water at the sink.

Sakura pulled herself up on his counter, reaching for the box of pre-packaged teabags. "Your ancestors might come back from the grave to haunt you for this," she teased him.

"We don't have time for loose-leaf."

"I bet you don't even own a loose-leaf infuser."

Kakashi only gave her an eye-creasing smile as an answer. He set the kettle on the stove, adjusted the knobs, and then leaned against the countertop next to Sakura in a position that looked like a standing pushup. Sakura tried not to ogle the cut of muscle that was his triceps. "So," he said, "what's the plan, Mission Leader?"

"Mission Leader?"

"We're hunting your poisonous purple-spotted–"

"–Violet," Sakura corrected.

Kakashi gave her a look that desperately made her wish she could see the rest of the expression hidden under his mask. "Purple rolls off the tongue better."

"Oh, well if it makes you feel better to call it by something other than its name, by all means…"

Kakashi's visible eye was a thin slit. "Purple," he said again, mostly to be a pain in the ass.

"If we're moving at a steady pace, we should get to River Country in seven hours, add another hour to make it to the main river system, and a blanket of two hours to find a salamander or two," she said. "I packed a transport scroll and wrote out specific handling instructions for Baku to keep the salamander contained until we make it back."

Kakashi nodded. The teakettle began to whistle. As Kakashi poured the hot water into the cups, Sakura removed the outer packaging from the teabags and placed one into each of the cups.

When Kakashi handed her the cup, the tips of his fingers barely brushed hers, but it was enough to send a tiny little bolt of electricity right through her. Damn, that new development was going to be inconvenient… She sipped her tea, stealing glances of the Copy-nin from beneath the halo of her eyelashes when she thought he wasn't paying attention, and tried to ignore that little kernel of want that was beginning to make itself at home in the pit of her stomach.

oOoOo

Kakashi was loath to admit the ANBU uniform looked better on Sakura than her regular shinobi or medical gear combined. Maybe it was the slim black fabric hugging her petite frame, coupled by the fact that it allowed him to fully appreciate the view of her feminine form from behind… But either way, he was certain the thoughts stirring in his brain on that particular topic was going to send him straight to the fiery pits of Jigoku. If he were greeted at the gates by the Lord of Death, and Emma-ō asked him if he knew what he'd done to get there, Kakashi would gladly accept his punishment…

Especially, when she bent over.

Kakashi swiped a hand over his masked face and drew a heavy breath before exhaling. They'd just crossed the border into River Country, stopped briefly in the woods for a quick energizing snack, and Sakura's bootlace had come undone. It was a blessing and a curse.

"What do you think about the new Kage in Rain?" Sakura said, interrupting the dangerous path his mind was traipsing down. "We never really address the topic during our meetings."

"Kimika is young, bright, and hopeful," Kakashi said. "She's ambitious, but she still lacks the necessary skills to hold the respect of her elders. She'll get there, though. She has a good council backing her."

"Oh, the Kage is a female…" Sakura sounded surprised.

"You'd like her. She reminds me of Naruto, and her mother is a healer. Kimika doesn't have a healing bone in her body, but she's quite gifted on the battlefield."

"She must be, to hold that kind of power." Sakura straightened, much to Kakashi's dismay, and dusted the crumbs of granola from her pant legs. He thought he noticed a slight tick above her eyebrow, and if he didn't know any better, might guess that she sounded just a tad jealous.

Kakashi tried not to smile. "She's quite the menace with a kusarigama."

"Did you spar with her since you're quite the menace with a kusari-fundo?" Sakura inquired as she slipped her backpack over her shoulders.

"I thought you had become quite the menace with that," Kakashi counter-inquired.

Sakura pulled the thin chain from her hip pouch and spun it in a dizzying wheel. "Wanna find out?"

Kakashi held up his hands in mock surrender. "And risk an unnecessary ass kicking? I think I'll pass."

Sakura chuckled, but her lighthearted response was short-lived.

There was movement in the trees beyond, no more than a passing shadow, but it caught Kakashi's attention in just enough time to see a spray of shuriken being hurtled right at them. He dove forward, his arms sweeping around Sakura's shoulders as he twisted midair. Kakashi's back took the brunt of the damage as he landed on the ground with Sakura on top of him, but she was already using him as a springboard and gracefully leaping to her feet.

"How many?" she asked as she pressed her back flush to the nearest tree and pushed her fox mask back into place. Not that it mattered… If the rogue ninja had seen them without their masks, they would have to be eliminated.

"Seven," Kakashi gathered. He'd pulled himself into a crouch before her, his face nearly pressed to her knees. "They're not in uniform."

"Bandits, my favorite," Sakura said with a sarcastic tone. "Weapons?"

"By my estimation," Kakashi said, reaching over his left shoulder to inspect what he thought was a shuriken embedded in his muscle, "they've got shuriken." His fingertips came away with scarlet stains.

Sakura visibly winced. "Can you still fight?"

"Does a bear shit in the woods?"

"You know, I really hate that saying…" She edged closer around the tree, peering into the woods. "They're not advancing."

"Probably waiting to see how we react," Kakashi guessed. "We didn't go running for the hills, so now they know they have to fight."

"Maybe we got lucky and they went running for the hills."

"I can still sense their chakra," Kakashi dragged himself to his full height, ignoring the pain in his shoulder and dug a couple of kunai out from his hip pouch. "They've seen us without our masks… We can't compromise the mission."

Sakura nodded once, firmly. "You want to take the trees and I'll meet you on the ground? Long-range jutsu isn't exactly my strong point."

"See you on the field, soldier." Kakashi squeezed Sakura's arm before taking a chakra-enhanced leap for the tree canopy. His porcelain mask was back in place now, and he used chakra control to camouflage his sound as he leapt from limb to limb, searching for the chakra signatures of the enemy nin below. It wasn't long before Kakashi spotted them hiding in the brush of what appeared to be a somewhat permanent campsite. Through the branches, Kakashi could just make out the pine-bark roof of an outpost hut, its surface sprinkled by rust-colored needles and mosses that reminded him of Sakura's eye color. There was a stone firepit not far from the building, though the blackened ash made it obvious that a fire hadn't been used since the night prior. He also noted that they were dressed in Rain Country colors, though their hitai-ate's were different… He wasn't sure, but from this distance, it appeared the emblem engraved on the metal was a salamander.

What were Hattori's rebels doing in River Country – and so close to the Land of Fire at that?

Kakashi knew he needed to keep at least one of them alive for questioning, but who among them was their leader? Who among them would talk?

"Any sign of them yet?" one of the nin whispered to his nearest companion who had a set of binoculars pressed to his eye sockets – looking in the wrong direction.

"No, but they were wearing Leaf ANBU uniforms, so we need to be cautious," the other replied.

Too late for that, Kakashi thought.

"You shouldn't have thrown those shuriken at them," Rouge Nin One said. "Not unless you were sure you could have taken them out."

"I was sure," Rogue Nin Two replied with a snap in his tone. "I miscalculated. I'm pretty sure the male is Kakashi of the Sharingan…"

Well, that confirmed Kakashi's suspicions… He was going to have to kill them.

"Fucking idiot," Rogue Nin One hissed. "When Hattori finds out about this–"

"–There's seven of us and two of them, Arata. With any luck, we'll be delivering their bodies to Hattori's doorstep by the end of the day."

"Not if that was Hatake Kakashi…" Rogue Nin One pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes and gritted his teeth. "Hattori specifically told us not to attack anyone unless we were being attacked. Our objective was to keep watch and collect information. You've risked the entirety of the operation."

Kakashi loved that his reputation preceded him… He hated it at the same time, because now he was going to have to kill in order to protect his mission objective. He focused his mind and flung his first kunai at Rogue Nin Two, who had made the deadly mistake of lowering his binoculars. The kunai sank into his temple, immediately dropping his foe before the nin could so much as blink. Rogue Nin One scrambled to his feet in a crouch, his arms darting about as if to defend himself from an attacker he couldn't even see.

"We're under attack!" Rogue Nin One shouted, scrambling towards the safety of the outpost hut. Kakashi had already decided he was saving him for last.

Sakura appeared out of the brush to his right, sweeping one of the rogue nin off his feet as he tried to pull a knife on her. He watched as the nin bounced back to his feet, slashing angrily in Sakura's direction; the knife blade audibly slicing through the air. Sakura ducked, efficiently popping up behind the man and flung him into a nearby tree with super-charged chakra strength. The tree splintered when the man hit, and Kakashi knew he was dead on impact.

Two down, five to go…

The rebel nin advanced in a group, attacking solely with weaponry. Kakashi quickly deduced that none of them had enhanced abilities that would make them challenging foes, which made killing them worse. Kakashi and Sakura were out of their league, and the rebels were dying now because one of them made a mistake and didn't keep to their code.

A large brute with a long sword advanced on Sakura as Kakashi took on two opponents at once. Sakura managed to perform a spinning twist in the air to avoid the sword, and pulled a handful of senbon from her hip pouch, flinging them in the man's direction as she landed on her feet. The senbon sank into the meat of the man's left side, and Kakashi knew she must have pierced the man's lungs. He was as wide as a tree, and merely grunted as he pulled the senbon from his flesh.

"You'll pay for that!" The man growled as he threw the senbon back at Sakura. She used the nearest tree as a launchpad, leaping at the man as the spray of senbon peppered the tree trunk where she was standing a fraction of a second before. Sakura landed on the man's back, digging her knee into his wounded side as she brought a kunai down into his carotid. The man teetered, but Sakura didn't let go. She kept him in a chokehold until his massive body fell backwards, and then Sakura drop-rolled across the ground, springing back up beside Kakashi.

"Doing all right?" he asked as he snapped a rebel nin's neck with his bare hands and let him fall to the ground.

"Peachy," Sakura answered breathily. "Bastard popped my shoulder out of socket. You?"

"Splendid." There was still a shuriken embedded in Kakashi's shoulder, and he was pretty sure his bicep had been sliced open, but they had taken out six of the rebel nin, and the seventh, Rogue Nin One, was hiding in the small outpost hut. "The last one is for questioning."

"I figured as much," Sakura said as they approached the building.

Kakashi gripped a kunai in his palm, peering through the doorway of the hut as a shuriken sank into the wooden frame about an inch away from Kakashi's head. Sakura was on his right shoulder, her left arm pressed against his as they flattened themselves to the side of the hut. "You're all alone now, Arata," Kakashi said in a chillingly low timbre. "We just want to talk."

"I wish I could believe you," the rogue ninja –Arata– said. "But I know the ANBU doesn't take any prisoners." Arata's voice was coming from inside the hut, in the far corner of the room. "Besides, I would rather die for my country than live as a prisoner in the Land of Fire."

"You're a Rain shinobi?" Kakashi asked experimentally.

"Under the leadership of Hattori," he confirmed. "I will never serve the false Kage bitch sitting in his rightful chair!"

"Keep him talking," Sakura whispered. Kakashi felt her warm palm brush across his arm before she vanished from his side. Kakashi could see light slanting across the floor in the hut and knew there must be a window on the opposite side and guessed Sakura would try to catch him off guard from there.

"Why did Hattori send you and your team to the border of River and Fire? Are there more of you?" Kakashi asked.

Arata laughed, but it was the kind of laugh that dissolved into a sob of defeat. "We were just a scouting squad," Arata answered in a quiet voice. "Only supposed to track movement of Leaf nin entering River."

"Why?"

"I don't know… Hattori didn't say." Kakashi had no way of knowing if Arata was telling the truth, but the nin seemed to be a nervous talker. "You're Kakashi of the Sharingan, aren't you?"

"Yes," Kakashi replied.

"Kill me quickly, will you?"

The sound of glass breaking filled Kakashi's sensitive ears. He spun around the corner, entering the small hut in time to see Sakura landing on her feet behind Arata, a sprinkling of glass shards at her feet. Before the rebel nin could even try and defend himself, Sakura had him in a headlock.

Kakashi stepped forward. Arata was in his early twenties, his skin still pockmarked by acne scars. Too young to be dying for a cause like Hattori's. "You can turn yourself in… Konoha will take you prisoner," Kakashi offered in eerily calm voice.

Arata chuckled, and a single tear slipped down the curve of his hollow cheek. "Long live the Salamander King…" A kunai appeared in his hand and he tried in vain to thrust it in Sakura's side, but Kakashi closed the distance in a single stride, sinking a blade of his own right in Arata's heart. Light drained from the rebel nin's eyes, and Sakura lowered him the ground between them.

When it was over, they stood face to face, mask to mask, with the weight of lives taken between them. The fighting was nothing new… nor the responsibility that came with the territory of being shinobi. They both understood they were doing what had to be done for the greater good, but that never eased the weight of those heavy burdens – or made the killing any easier. There were no words to make the situation better, only gratitude that he and his teammate were still breathing at the end of the day. Only gratitude that he still hadn't lost her.

oOoOo

Thank you kcann17 for the amazing comment you left me on Chapter 8. I appreciate you! I'm super grateful to SilverPetal777 and gojo girl for leaving comments, also! You guys rock!

I'm excited to get Chapter 10 in your hands, and look forward to hearing from you! Don't forget to check out my Tumblr page for a sneak peek of the new chapter(s). I post those on Saturdays. You can find the bink in my lio. ;)

Thanks for reading.

XOXO,
~Sparrow