Chapter 22

Smoke and Mirrors

Kakashi wasn't sure he'd heard her right.

"I did it," Sakura had breathed, turning her face to his. "I've got the antidote."

Kakashi's hands pressed into Sakura's shoulders, pulling her closer. "How?"

"Tenzo's wound wasn't healing," Sakura said. "I had to lance the wound and I found a piece of the shuriken still embedded in his flesh. Long story short, the poison was preserved and I was able to extract enough to make the antidote and it worked." Sakura's hands had found their way to the inner crease of his forearms and squeezed. "Tenzo and Aoto are healing."

Kakashi practically yanked her into his arms, tucking her neatly below his chin. It was all he could do with their masks still in place, but he was certain that his affection shone through, and that his touch communicated the status of their relationship to the prying eyes of the Amekage standing behind his shoulder. "You're brilliant," Kakashi told her, "and incredibly reckless."

"I made it here in one piece so you can save your lecture." She poked him in the ribs.

"The council will want to know about this," Kimika said in a distant tone, as if she were still processing this new bit of information and what it would mean.

"As will the Commander," Kakashi said.

"I'll call a meeting," Kimika said at once, turning her attention to the pink-haired woman who was dripping enough rainwater to create a proper puddle below her feet. "Fifteen minutes. That should give you enough time to change into some dry clothes–?" The Amekage lifted her chin, expecting an introduction.

"Kitsune," Sakura said, sticking to her codename. She wasn't particularly friendly in the giving of her name, but Kakashi wagered that had a good bit to do with what she had seen when she entered the palace… He would explain when he had a moment, but there was a small, selfish part of Kakashi's ego that found Sakura's jealousy to be a little… sexy.

"I'm Kimika, the Amekage," she said. "It is a pleasure to welcome you to Rain Country." To Kakashi's ears, it sounded anything but… "I'll have one of my guards show you to your quarters."

"That won't be necessary, Kimika-sama," Kakashi said in kind, and reached for Sakura's hand.

"Right," she said, "of course." Kimika gave a curt nod and then aimed for the hallway.

Sakura stayed quiet; her hand warm but stiff in his. "This way," Kakashi said, leading Sakura in the opposite direction. They passed a few guards standing at the mouth of the west wing, but they didn't seem to pay them any mind as Kakashi made his way down the twisting halls to his overly luxurious room.

When the door closed behind them, Sakura wasted no time taking off her fox mask – gaze raking over the finery of the room with a soured expression. "Do all the ANBU get rooms like this, or was yours extra special?"

Kakashi took his mask off and flung it to the foot of the bed before walking Sakura back up against the door. Her heels clanged against the wood, her spine aligning with the flat surface as Kakashi gripped her chin and laid claim to her mouth with his. He felt her anger in the stiff slant of her mouth, but kissed her harder, sweeping his tongue over the lush, lower curve of her bottom lip. Sakura's stubborn streak was waning under his influence, melting to liquid desire. She practically growled against his lips, and reached up to wrap her arms around his neck as Kakashi deftly unclasped the button at her throat and her heavy sodden cloak fell to the ground. He lifted her up into his arms, keeping her pressed against the door as her legs locked around his waist.

"All the ANBU were given rooms like this," Kakashi said, his breath warm against her lips. "Kimika only just guessed who I was when she saw me sparring with some of her men."

"You failed to tell me she was interested in you when we talked about her before," Sakura noted – the edge still apparent in her voice.

"You and I were getting attacked by Hattori's rebels, and I didn't think it was relevant."

"To tell me?" Sakura glowered.

"I didn't and don't return her affections." Kakashi's thumb swept over Sakura's ribs, brushing the underside of her breast through the thin fabric of her shirt. "I never expected to find myself in a situation with her where she would be so forward."

"She's beautiful," Sakura commented.

"She's not you," Kakashi said, his tone like the soft ridge of a feather. "You're the only one I see, Sakura." He kissed her again, softly this time, noting the sweetness in her taste. "You are reckless," he told her again, dropping his forehead to hers. "I will spare you the lecture but don't ever do that again."

"What – make an antidote that will save all our friends, or risk my life by traveling through enemy territory on my own?"

Kakashi narrowed his gaze.

Sakura grinned.

"Change your clothes," he said, releasing her from the door, though it was the last thing on the planet he wanted to do… (He was seriously contemplating arriving to the meeting late, but that would just prove to the masses why relationships among teammates were highly discouraged.) Still… he was going to catalogue the door and all the ideas that had popped into his head the second he had her against it, and save it for later.

"You're angry with me." Sakura turned towards her pack and began rifling through the contents for a spare set of dry clothing. She had worded it like a statement, and Kakashi detected the small note of hurt within her tone.

"I'm not angry with you," he said softly. "A number of emotions ran through my mind when I saw you standing in that doorway, and anger at the risk of your safety was one of them, but I would not begrudge you for being who you are, Sakura. Your surprises keep me on my toes."

Sakura peeled out of her wet shirt, tossing it to one of the golden velvet chairs without care. Kakashi felt himself becoming aroused at the sight of her and turned away before he could get either of them in trouble. Imminent threat. Lurking Danger. Poison. Battle.

A gods damned solid oak door…

"Okay," Sakura said, "I'm dressed."

Thank fuck, he thought miserably… "Let's get this meeting over with," he said, swiping his mask off the foot of the bed and taking Sakura by the hand.

Sasuke had been angry with her as she guessed he would, but when she set the medical pouch full of antidote syringes on the table, his tune quickly changed. Sakura reported her medical findings to the entire group, purposefully keeping her gaze from Amekage in fear of catching her on fire with it…

Sakura couldn't blame the Amekage for her affections and attraction to Kakashi, and it wasn't like the woman had been aware that Kakashi had a partner, but seeing someone else touching her man and looking at him with desire made Sakura's blood boil. For as strong and capable as she was, Sakura was disappointed to find that she wasn't immune to something so juvenile as jealousy. She was determined not to let it show – to be the bigger person, but she was finding it more difficult than she would've liked to admit.

"This changes things," Sasuke said, massaging the joint of his thumb in thought. "Our focus doesn't need to be divided now that we have the antidote, but with a limited supply, we still need to be extremely careful."

A decision was made to have a patrol unit made up of ANBU and Ame ninja alike spread out around the city and the lake border. The Rain Country army would be ready for battle, but the ANBU were hopeful they could achieve what the ANBU were best known for before it came to that. Solider pills were doled out, and the ninja were sent out into the rain to patrol. (Of course, Sasuke was reluctant to let Sakura participate until she had assured him that Riku had been left with specific instructions to keep making the antidote back home in Konoha.)

Sakura was tired of the rain and tired of being wet, and as she crouched on a rooftop tucked in the shadow of a nearby tree, she dreamed of a warm bed and being tangled in the sheets with Kakashi. The silver-haired ninja was perched at the opposite end of the building, a black cloak and hood draped over his head to keep the rain out of his eyes. Thanks to a lamppost across the street, Sakura could see the rivulets of rainwater dripping down the side of his porcelain mask. Kakashi was as still as a statue, and equally just as poised. Sakura practiced her wraith-mode and walked along the horizontal beam until she was standing behind him; her fingertips brushing across his shoulder.

Kakashi didn't even flinch.

"Now, I know you didn't hear me…" she said in a near-whisper.

"I told you," he said quietly, "I'm always aware of your presence, Sakura." Kakashi reached up and covered her fingertips with his. His confession made her smile.

Sakura crouched beside him, peering out into the street below and watched the way the reflection of the lantern lights pirouetted in the puddles of water. "You think the rebels will try to attack the city even though they're outnumbered?"

"I think they have people hiding in the city that will cause a distraction so Hattori and his men can sneak across the border," Kakashi told her. "When you have a small army, you spread out and have your men hit where it will hurt the most. They won't come in a single wave."

Sakura noticed Kakashi had not strayed too far from the Amekage's palace. They'd kept to the rooftop shadows, always in eyesight of the government sector. Neji had been sent to the border to patrol with the Ame unit, but Sasuke and Tora were somewhere nearby. The remaining operatives were stationed at other precious locations that the Amkage prioritized.

"So, we're waiting for a distraction," Sakura said, eyeing a couple who were passing beneath the awning on the sidewalk below. The pair walked hand in hand, an umbrella cradled above their heads. Nothing suspicious about a little midnight stroll through the streets of Ame in the pouring rain…

"They're leaving a brothel," Kakashi said.

Behind her mask, Sakura frowned. "How can you tell?"

"The way they're dressed," said Kakashi. "There's a lot of flash and a lot of layers to those kimonos."

Sakura quired an eyebrow as she watched the couple pass. She realized now that both were women, both finely dressed in eye-catching colors and extravagant garments. The beaded umbrella above their heads shielded their faces. It was easy to mistake them for a couple at first sight. "Maybe they just want you to think they're leaving a brothel," Sakura said. "Maybe the garments are just smoke and mirrors."

"Maybe," Kakashi agreed. He turned his head, following their movements as the women ambled down the sidewalk – the sound of their laughter carrying high through the rain.

It was a pretty good disguise, if it was in fact a disguise, Sakura thought… Kakashi broke out of his crouch and slid soundlessly down the slope of the roof, and leapt into the tree between the two buildings. Sakura waited for him to land before she followed suit. Rain pattered against the leaves and drummed against the balcony of the next building, the sound masking their movements. The pair leapt across the railing and landed easily, continuing to track the women from the high perches.

The two women in question hadn't looked up once, or even changed their pace, but there was something unsettling about their stride… Sakura hadn't known many women in the 'professional' world, but she knew they had been trained to look, act, talk, and walk a certain way, and these women didn't appear to be walking with the slow, measured footsteps the courtesan woman were known for. She guessed Kakashi had pieced that little detail together a smidge quicker than she did – which is why they were now tailing them from the rooftops.

The women were rounding a corner to the right, cutting across the street. Kakashi ducked and Sakura pressed herself flush against the brick wall, praying they remained out of sight. The women didn't look up, but something shiny cut across Sakura's vision. She squinted out into the pouring rain, catching a flash of Sasuke's mask from the opposite balcony. He had a mirror in his hand – the reflected light meant to get their attention. Kakashi acknowledged Sasuke with a two-finger salute and inched his way around the corner of the balcony.

The smell of wet horse manure was thick in the air, and distantly, Sakura thought she could hear the gentle whinny of a horse. She couldn't be sure, but she thought she saw the two women enter the horse stable and then –

BANG!

The sound of an explosion ricocheted off the surrounding buildings, emitting a light so bright and so hot that Sakura's eyes seared from the heat of it. Chunks of debris rained down on them, wood, stone, and ash, choking out the atmosphere and collapsing in the street. Sakura and Kakashi were blasted backwards and forcefully slammed into the railing of the balcony like they were mere ragdolls.

Her ears were ringing, and pain, sharp and acute, swam through her head like a detonated firework. Sakura felt like her soul had left her body and was hovering just above, waiting, as if to be called back. Her movements slow and lagging.

Kakashi suddenly appeared above her, his mask cracked at the cheekbone. He was pulling her mask off, fingers roughly palpating her face.

"–you hear me?" His voice registered all at once, but distorted somehow, like he was yelling at her through a long, hollow tunnel.

"What?"

"Your ears are bleeding," he said. "You need to heal yourself. Quickly. Can you summon your chakra?" The panic in his tone worked as efficiently as smelling salts…

Sakura's tongue licked at her lower lip, tasting the tang of coppery blood as she lifted her hands to her ears and closed her eyes around the pain thrashing inside her skull. She concentrated and called on her healing jutsu, mapping out her own network of pain receptors and sent her chakra out to heal those areas… Cracked vertebrae, ruptured eardrums, a gash on her lip from where she'd bitten it in the explosion. The lip could be delt with later. When she finished healing herself, Kakashi carefully helped her into a sitting position.

"Are you hurt?" she asked him. She set her bare hand on his forearm, already using her chakra to dive into his neural pathway and check him for injury. He'd cracked his cheekbone, bruised a rib, and his ears were bleeding. Sakura took off his ANBU mask and laid her glowing green palm across Kakashi's cheek and he groaned. "What happened?" Sakura was vaguely aware that the balcony had been blown to bits, and the slab of concrete they were perched against was heavily slanted. It would give any minute now, taking them down too if they didn't hurry.

Kakashi gripped Sakura's wrist as if to say, that's enough, and the two of them rose together, searching for the easiest path to maneuver to the ground. Civilians were yelling in the street now, trying to wrangle the frightened horses that had escaped the explosion. The stables were on fire, miraculously still burning despite the rain. Thick clouds of dark, fetid smoke choked out the atmosphere, masking the street in a layer of grime and pungent smog.

A hand shot out in the dark, and Sakura reached out and allowed Sasuke to pull her from the ruined balcony. He set her down on a pile of rubble, turning his attention to Kakashi who had begun climbing down over the railing. "The explosion was a diversion," Sasuke said.

"Where did those two women go?" Sakura asked, her lungs starting to burn from the nearby smoke.

"Tora is tracking them," Sasuke said. "The Amekage's army will come running to the scene of the destruction."

"Then we need to get back to the palace," Kakashi said, already moving in that direction.

Sakura was torn. She could see a woman hunched over in a nearby doorway with a screaming baby in her arms as smoke billowed out from the burning stables. The woman was frantic – her open mouth and wide-eyed gaze turned towards the chaos in the ruined street. Men were still leading horses out of the stables. She could hear the high-pitched cries from inside, and felt the pull on her heartstrings. "I'll catch up," she said. "I can help them here."

Sasuke was already running down the street with no time to lose, but Kakashi faltered – knees half bent in preparation to spring into action.

Sakura didn't hesitate. She grabbed Kakashi's armor vest and yanked him towards her at eye-level. "I love you with every fiber that I am, Hatake Kakashi, now go protect the palace." Before Kakashi could even respond, Sakura was hurling herself into the smoke and disappearing into what was left of the stables.

The thickness of it burned her eyes and forced her tear ducts to water as she blinked and coughed, attempting to cover her mouth and nose with her sleeve. Her cloak and mask were gone – abandoned back on that balcony ledge, and with it, Kitsune's identity. None of that mattered now. Sakura had never been any good at pretending to be anything other than who she was, and though she respected the hell out of the operatives, she knew her skillset as a kunoichi and healer had always been enough for her. Rain Country didn't care about her mask (or lack thereof) but what they did care about was her integrity and her ability to save lives…

"The beams are about to collapse!" a man called out into the smoke – but at least the fire had burned out. "Get out of here!"

"Are there any others?"

"It's a lost cause!" The man shouldered past her, but Sakura kept moving, checking each of the stalls as the structure of the building moaned and shrieked, threatening to collapse. She coughed and sputtered, picking her way through the debris and finding it easier to get through where the bigger men had not been able to. Finally, she'd made it to the back corner, and saw one last horse trapped inside its stall. The poor thing was snorting and kicking at the stall door with its hooves.

"You're okay, you're okay," Sakura tried to soothe the creature, but her voice was strained from the smoke. She summoned her chakra and channeled power into her hands as she pushed away a beam that had collapsed in front of the stall door. Embers rained down from what was left of the rafters, scouring the back of her neck as she fished the locking mechanism open. Luckily, the horse was wearing a halter, and Sakura grabbed it below the chin, gently coaxing it out of the stall. "Come on baby, just follow me," she said, covering her mouth and nose as she walked towards the back of the stable. Exiting the way she'd come in would be an impossible feat with a giant four-legged beast in tow. The wooden beams above them cracked and moaned, and Sakura tugged the horse a little harder, keeping its head down as they moved towards the back exit.

A pole snapped in front of them, falling diagonally across their path. The horse reared up and Sakura lost her grip on the halter. She grappled for a hold, shushing the horse through a coughing fit, but the smoke was getting worse… The wooden structure was caving in around them, and soon, would burry them in a pile of burning rubble. They would suffocate and suffer a most painful death if Sakura couldn't find a way out of this mess. An idea sparked in her mind and she acted on instinct custom of a ninja, and gracefully kick-flipped off a stall door and used the momentum to propel herself onto the horse's back.

"Come on, come on, we need to go now!" she shouted. Sakura kicked the horse in the flanks and leaned forward, fisting her hands in its mane. The horse reared up once more before launching itself over the collapsed beam and out through the dilapidated back door. Sakura had squeezed her eyelids shut and clung on for dear life, and only opened her eyes when she felt the rain hitting her back once again.

Behind her, the remaining rafters gave way and the wooden structure collapsed, the force of it nearly shaking the ground beneath them.

Sakura allowed the horse to lead her back into the street, and she gulped down as much of the cleaner night air as her lungs could stand, tipping her head back into the rain. Up ahead, the civilians had corralled the horses in an alley, and as Sakura approached, one of them stopped her from climbing down.

"You're a ninja from Konoha, aren't you?" the man asked.

"Yes," Saura rasped, "is everyone okay here?"

The man nodded, seemingly as out of breath as she was. "Take the horse to the palace," he said. "This is Kemuri; he will show you the way."

Sakura started to protest, but she had expended a lot of chakra already and the smoke had weakened her lungs.

"You must," the man said. "For saving him. Now let him save you."

Sakura pressed her lips together and nodded her thanks. "I will return him safely," she promised.

"He will find his way home." The man smiled at her, clapping the horse gently on the shoulder. "Now go."

Hey there readers,

I wanted to drop by and say thank you for all the support thus far. I know I usually do regular Wednesday posts, but I have recently started ground school to become a pilot, so unfortunately I don't have a lot of free time to write... I WILL be finishing this and still aim to update on Wednesdays, but just in case I am late - that's why.

As always, thank you for reading!

XOXO,
~Sparrow