Chapter Two

Keep Thy Enemies Closer

A sharpened point pressed between two vertebrae of her lower spine and stole the breath from Sakura's lungs… A kunai, she realized, was a few mere centimeters away from severing the nerves in her lumbar region.

Sakura didn't have time to think – she could only react.

Sakura infused chakra into the base of her spine, creating a sort of protective barrier between her skin and the tip of the kunai. She spun on the edge of her foot, thrusting an elbow at her attacker. Bone connected with bone as she delivered a sharp blow to the ribs, and deduced that her attacker was a man by the sound of the deep, muffled groan the pain elicited. Sakura twisted the nin's wrist, quickly disarming him of the kunai, which was now in her possession. She dropped low, performing a sweeping kick to the enemy's ankles that knocked him off balance. The nin was on his back, splayed flat across Sakura's living room floor as she flung herself across his body, pressing the tip of the kunai to the tender flesh of his jugular.

Through the window, light from the streetlamp pooled across Sakura's floor, saturating the beige carpet in the cooler blue tones of the rainy night beyond the glass. The light was muted, but it still managed to glint against the metal of the enemy nin's headband.

No, not enemy…

That was a Leaf insignia, she realized, letting up just a little pressure on the kunai as her vision swam into full focus. The muted pool of light revealed the shock of moon-white hair spilling over the headband – the sharp, masked contour of jaw. Sakura's heart sped beneath her ribcage, heightened by a wild rush of fury.

"What in the actual nine realms of hell, Kakashi?!" Sakura flung the kunai away and it landed with a heavy metallic thump somewhere in her kitchen. "I could have killed you!" Gods she was infuriated! She should have known that Kakashi would pull something like this. He had a habit of sneaking up on her and the boys during their training regimes, but pulling this on a night like tonight when she was already exhausted from her journey, and on edge about that scroll was just the icing on the cake. "Scratch that. I should kill you!"

Kakashi chuckled but he made no move to get up.

Vaguely, in the midst of her anger, Sakura realized that she was in a rather compromising position: straddling her ex-sensei's hips. The fury in her blood quickly turned to something else. Heat rushed into the blades of her cheeks, coloring them in a shade of pink that probably matched the blossoms from which she'd been named. Sakura quickly scurried to her feet, grateful that her living room was still cloaked in shadow, and the light coming in through the window wasn't bright enough to show her discomposure. She thought about offering Kakashi a hand up, but the bastard deserved to struggle on his own for what he'd done.

"Exactly how did you get into my house?" Sakura crossed her arms over her chest, jutting out a hip as Kakashi managed to pull himself in a sitting position.

He pulled one knee towards his chest, casually draping his arm across the peak of his knee as he answered, "Your window was unlocked."

Sakura's eyes narrowed into thin slits. "My window? As in my bedroom window?"

"You should really be more careful about those things, especially when you leave for a mission," he told her with a half-serious reprimanding tone.

"And what, pray tell, were you doing on my balcony?" She leaned forward, glaring down the straight bridge of her nose at the Copy Ninja before her. A look like that would have caused a lesser man to shiver in his shoes, but Kakashi was unfazed.

"Well," Kakashi said at length, drawing out the syllables, "I did try the door first, but you must not have heard me knocking. I figured you were upstairs so–"

"–So you decided to break in and engage in a little impromptu sparring session because you were what? Bored?" Sakura guessed.

Kakashi held up a finger. "Actually, no. That came as an afterthought when I realized your bedroom window was unlocked. If it had been a real intruder instead of me–"

"–A kunai would be buried six inches deep into your carotid right about now."

"Are you always this fond of interrupting?"

"Are you always this fond of being such a pain in the ass?" Sakura dropped her defensive stance and sighed as the remaining frustration departed her body. She may have had a quick temper, but it usually dissipated just as fast. Sakura walked a few steps over towards her bookcase and flipped on the light switch, bathing them both in a warm glow. Kakashi hadn't moved from his spot on the floor, and Sakura noticed the stark contrast of blood in several spots on her carpet. "Kakashi, are you bleeding?" There was no way any of the moves she had pulled on him would have caused him to bleed.

"You never asked why I was coming by to see you so late in the evening." For the first time, Sakura realized that his words seemed to be a labored effort. Kakashi unzipped his flak jacket, pulling up the hem of his black long-sleeved shirt to reveal a bandage that was wrapped around his torso and soaked clean through with blood.

A momentary surge of panic welled in Sakura's chest at the sight of her injured teammate. It didn't take long for her senses to snap-fire, awakening the medic portion of her brain that was as natural to her as breathing. Sakura immediately dropped to her knees, helping Kakashi out of his flak jacket and lifting his shirt so she could expose more of his torso. "Lean against the couch," Sakura instructed as she began unwinding the bandage. The meager layer of cloth had poorly contained the four-inch gouge that was carved into his side. The skin around the wound was puckered and inflamed, and already bruising beyond the wound. She called on the healing power of her chakra and gently pressed her right hand to his side. "Idiot," she said breathily, keeping her eyes trained on the wound as her chakra set to work mending him. "Only you would sneak into my house with a serious wound and still try to pull one over on me."

Kakashi offered her a small smile – she couldn't see his actual smile, but his visible eye creased at the corners, eluding to the hidden expression beneath the confines of his mask, covering everything from his nose down. "I didn't count on your reaction."

Sakura gave a rather un-lady-like snort in reply. "You didn't expect me to defend myself?"

"Yes, that I expected. I just thought you would know it was me before you gave me a thorough ass kicking." Kakashi tilted his head back, exposing the column of prominent bones in his throat through the thin fabric of his mask, and closed his eyes.

Sakura recognized that look. It was the look most ninja gave whenever her medical ninjutsu was beginning to knit torn flesh back together and deliver a dose of pain relief. "I'm sorry, Kakashi. I was… distracted." Her gaze traveled across the living room towards her coatrack until she spotted the abandoned scroll lying just below her armchair. It must've rolled there amid the action. Sakura should have sensed Kakashi's chakra signature the minute she realized someone was in the room with her. His, Naruto's, and Sai's were as familiar to her as her own.

"Was the trip to Suna that taxiing?"

Sakura glanced up at the Copy-nin, her expression softening. "The trip was fine. The return journey in the freezing rain, however…"

"Ah," Kakashi said.

Kakashi's uniform was soaked also, but she knew the cold rain probably helped to numb the pain in his side. "I take it you just got back from Rain Country?"

"Ironically it wasn't raining there."

Sakura cracked a smile, lifting her hand to check on the wound that was suturing itself under the guidance of her ninjutsu. "Sai actually made a joke about that earlier tonight."

"His jokes are getting better," Kakashi allotted.

"Nice attempt to segue, but you're still going to tell me how you got this nasty gash," Sakura told him as she pressed her hand back against his side, her eyebrows furrowing in concentration.

"Bandits," Kakashi said. He dropped his head to the couch cushion, eyes still closed as Sakura kept working to heal him. "Any time a nation undergoes a leadership change, things are bound to get a little dicey. There's still a small collective that thinks Rain is better off being a 'free' nation without a Kage ruler. A rebellion is rising."

"And I don't suppose they very much appreciate Konoha nins sticking our noses in their business," Sakura guessed.

"Bingo," Kakashi said. "I got jumped by a rogue band of about ten or fifteen. One of them managed to skewer me with a short sword before I could get away."

"You probably should have gone to the hospital," Sakura said.

Kakashi turned his head laboriously and cracked open his eyelid. "Are you sick of putting me back together, Sakura-chan?"

A small surge of warmth stirred in Sakura's chest at the tender, albeit rare, tone of Kakashi's voice. Sakura met his tired gaze, her lips forming a soft smile. "I could never be sick of putting you back together. I just wish you weren't suffering, that's all." Sakura was struck by how young Kakashi looked just then, what little of his face was visible in the soft glow of her living room light seemed to frame him in expressionless peace. Not that Kakashi was old, anyway, just that he had lived through so much and had experienced so much hardship from such a young age, the weight of burden was visible in how he carried himself. It was a rare event indeed when Sakura got to glimpse the man in a more vulnerable state, and she was honored he felt safe enough to relax around her.

"I'm glad you had the awareness to at least bandage yourself," Sakura said, checking on the progress of the nearly closed wound. "Still, you lost a lot of blood."

"Nothing a little rest won't cure."

"And as your medical advisor, I recommend you just stay here for the night." Sakura lifted her hand, satisfied that the wound was now healed. She sent a surge of chakra through his body, searching for any other abrasions or wounds he may have forgotten to share with her. She slipped her hand across his ribs, healing the small crack she'd managed to give him when she drove her elbow into him earlier.

"I can make it home," Kakashi said, though his eyelids were already closed again.

"Shut up and take the couch, Kakashi."

At this, he smiled.

"I'm pretty sure one of the boys probably left some clothes around here if you want to change." Sakura rocked back on her heels and blew a strand of hair out of her face.

Kakashi slowly lifted his head, his visible eye traveling the length of Sakura's body as she imagined that he was assessing her own clothing choices.

Sakura pinched the hem of the overly-large shirt and said, "I think it's Naruto's. Big shirts are just comfier to sleep in." She shrugged as she pushed to her feet and disappeared down the hallway.

oOoOo

Kakashi pulled himself onto the edge of Sakura's couch, bending slightly as he dragged the wet fabric of his Jonin shirt over his head; the sore muscles in his back aching in protest. He propped his elbows on his thighs, dropped his face into his hands, and stared at Sakura's floor. He hadn't meant to get so much blood on the carpet. He frowned now, wondering why the pink-haired nin had chosen to go with beige carpet in the first place. Maybe it hid dirt stains well enough, but blood was on a whole other color palette and it didn't compliment the aesthetic.

Kakashi sighed and raked his fingers through his tangled hair. Maybe Sakura had some carpet-cleaning solution in the kitchen. He knew she kept most of her cleaning supplies under the sink so he decided to get up and at least try to make himself useful. He walked slower than usual, having expended more chakra than he realized during that fight, and even more on the way back since he was trying to keep from bleeding out before making it back to the Hidden Leaf.

He knelt at the kitchen sink, opened the cabinet, and began rifling through the spray bottles and cleaning solutions for something that claimed to get blood out of the carpet… He palmed a can of industrial strength carpet cleaning spray and made his way back into the living room, popping the cap off and spraying the first bloodstain near the bookcase. Kakashi wasn't too proud to admit that he'd been wrong to challenge Sakura in her own home in the dead of night, but he'd been half irritated that she'd left her bedroom window unlatched, and his only thought was just to scare her into being more careful. Then again, Sakura had grown into one of the most powerful chakra enhanced shinobi he'd ever known, and it was highly unlikely that an intruder stood a chance of surviving. He also reasoned that a locked window probably wasn't going to keep out an enemy if they wanted in badly enough – but if the window was locked, said enemy would have to break the glass and then Sakura would hear them and why had that unlocked window bothered him so damned much in the first place?

He'd think about that later…

Kakashi leaned over the next spot on the floor, zapping the bloodstain with the cleaner as something below Sakura's armchair caught his eye. A contemplative frown creased his brow as he reached for the roll of parchment. He'd just turned the scroll over in his hand when Sakura efficiently swept it out of his palm.

"Must've dropped that earlier," she said, ferrying the scroll away before Kakashi could make heads or tails of the emblem embossed on the seal. She deposited the scroll onto the top shelf on her bookcase and shoved a stack of blankets into Kakashi's arms. "I couldn't find any of the boys' clothes lying around, and nothing I have will fit you. Um, you could wrap up in one of those blankets and I can throw your clothes in the wash if you want."

"I don't want to impose," Kakashi said, "I've already ruined your carpet."

"That's what the cleaning solution is for." Sakura grinned and bent to pick up the can that lay at Kakashi's feet. "This stuff works like a charm. Sai spilled an entire pot of ink on my carpet a few weeks ago, and you can't even tell where the stain was."

"Magic in a bottle," Kakashi said. "I can finish cleaning up." He shifted the blankets to one arm and made a grab for the can with his free hand but Sakura stepped out of his reach.

"Please," she said, "I would feel a lot better if you would just go sit down and get out of those wet clothes."

Kakashi arched one of his moon-colored eyebrows. "That's very forward of you, Sakura."

"Don't flatter yourself," she shot back, swatting his upper bicep playfully.

Kakashi was grinning again, watching her pass him by as she bent to spray another bloodstain a few feet away. Kakashi swiped a hand up the back of his neck, tearing his gaze away from the very toned legs of his teammate and the tiny pair of shorts she was wearing… Did they even count as shorts? There wasn't a whole lot of fabric to them, not that Kakashi was paying attention or anything…

Kakashi ambled over to the couch, dropped unceremoniously onto the soft cushion, and began working the laces in his boots.

"Did you eat?" Sakura asked as a thoughtful expression pulled at her features.

"Ah, no." Kakashi pulled the fingerless gloves from his hands, set his boots beside the couch, and began stripping out of his pants.

"Oh, for the love of the all the Kage's, Kakashi…"

"What?"

Sakura made a show of scrunching her features into an expression of disgust. "I said to wrap yourself up in a blanket. I don't need to see all… that." She waved her hand at his black boxers and quickly turned towards the kitchen.

"How is this any different from what you're wearing?" he challenged.

"I have a shirt on, for one thing." The fridge opened up, and Sakura disappeared behind the door momentarily, returning with a stack of takeout boxes. "There's not much left, but you should eat what's here. I think Sai left his dumplings, too." Sakura set the takeout on the counter before sweeping back into the living room, making a concerted effort not to look at the Copy-nin as she picked up the strewn articles of his wet clothing.

Kakashi laughed quietly. "I apologize for offending your delicate femineity," he quipped, heading to the kitchen to inspect the leftovers.

"I'll be happy to give the other side of your ribs a good cracking if you keep it up," she warned him. Kakashi could hear the washing machine start up and assumed his bloodstained clothes were at the mercy of Sakura's unique brand of domestic care. Sakura may not have been a 'homemaker' in the traditional sense of the word, but she was a natural born nurturer, and whether she admitted it or not, Kakashi knew she liked taking care of her teammates. He just didn't particularly enjoy being a burden.

When the pink-haired kunoichi returned from the laundry room, she headed towards the bookcase and scooped the scroll off the shelf. "I'm going to head up to bed, but make yourself at home, okay?"

"Thank you," Kakashi said, "for saving me. Again."

"We both know you're not the greatest at taking care of yourself," Sakura teased him. "Rest up, and I'll see you in the morning." Sakura turned for the stairs, pausing with one of her hands on the railing. "Kakashi?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm glad you're home safe."

Kakashi offered her an eye-creasing smile and dipped his head. "I'm glad you're home safe, too, Sakura."

oOoOo

That probably wasn't the cliffhanger you were expecting, but I hope you enjoyed it nonetheless. Now if only we could figure out what's in that damn scroll...

Thank you for the comments/reviews! Good to hear from you again Tarani Bosatsu!

(If you want teasers for the new chapters, and some occasional artwork, be sure to follow me on Tumblr: blackbriarsparrow)

XOXO

~Sparrow