A/N: Fanfiction dot net is broken and has been for a long while now. I'm considering migrating to AO3. The only reason I haven't yet is simply because the UI confuses me and I'm not in the mood to maneuver something outside my comfort zone.

To answer Emjan-chan, before starting this story, I had no idea how much I love Kiba and Sakura and this allowed me to rediscover it. Hurting Neji and Kiba is something I hate, but I'll continue to write some things as I had already planned as I love writing hurt fics too. Till now, I haven't decided how any of it will end and who exactly ends up with whom, and letting the words guide me themselves. KakaSaku and SasuHina is just my guiding point and I'm leading towards it, and the abruptness at first was just words escaping me at full sprint before I lost motivation and got busy in work and life. I had planned a 10 chapter prologue type thing before jumping into the present, slower chapters. Let's see if I can keep my stamina up.

This chapter got super long as the words just carried me away, so I've split it into multiple parts.

Chapter 18

"Karin, for your first mission, please see to it that the leaves in the Academy park are raked and disposed off properly. You then have to exterminate the pests who are destroying the crop in the Nara field."

Returning after so long, Karin may have expected everyone to react to her presence and welcome her in awe, but Kakashi had no intentions of treating her any differently and Ino smiled evilly, elbowing Sakura.

"Sasuke, your mission is to retrieve the cat called Tora who has escaped from her owner yet again. Here is the description. As you might remember, she is Madam Shijimi's cat, so this mission should be executed smoothly otherwise we don't get paid. If you damage village property, the fines will be compensated accordingly as well. Once you are done, both of you, you will ask your squad lead for your next tasks."

Kakashi handed them both scrolls and they took it. Karin did so like she had tasted a lemon and Sasuke just curled his lip slightly but remained more or less expressionless.

Sakura looked on in amusement. Kakashi was handing genin level missions to the pair and Ino had whispered in her ear that the list of tasks he had intended were more or less the same. After all, they were technically genin, and it was Karin's first mission for Konoha.

After the war, missions were scarce anyway and the village had an abundance of D-rank missions for which they were also thankful, even if they didn't pay that well. Sasuke and Karin had both cut jail time before being pardoned by the Sixth Hokage and then having set off on their separate journeys - at least at first. She assumed, judging by the lines on the side of the Hokage's face which clearly indicated that he was hiding a smirk behind his mask, that he thought they should be grateful, and she agreed.

But, as Ino had chirped to her anyway, they themselves would be getting assigned higher level missions today, and she was excited for that.

"Tenten," he called her to attention and she stood straight. "You will be their squad lead."

Tenten sighed audibly and actually pandiculated. Apparently, Tenten wasn't one of the lucky ones to get a decent ranked mission today. She was stuck babysitting the two ninjas on parole. Sakura had to marvel the guts on the girl. If looks alone could kill, Sasuke and Karin would've flayed her. She took the mission scrolls for her team from Shikamaru, bowed to Kakashi and left.

Kakashi waited until they were out of earshot to continue, in all seriousness.

"The missions I am about to assign now are all part of the Intelligence Division. Needless to say, you have to be completely discreet about them and are not allowed to divulge information to even your family members and friends."

They all looked at each other as murmurs of excitement ran through them.

"Alright!" Naruto pumped his fist into the air. No one was surprised by his reaction. Despite the severity of the situation, Naruto was excited to finally be getting something above a D-rank mission. Even Sakura felt her tummy tingle.

"This is a 6 month old mission to assassinate a fast-growing organ trading ring and capture alive the leader; a cousin of the Daimyo himself. We also have intel that some infiltrators would try and destroy the evidence we hold as the culprit has gotten wind of our tail, which is why this mission is now high priority. Just as we were about to near the end, some of our key men were taken out."

Kakashi dipped his pen in the ink pot and refilled it. He proceeded to draw the plans on the large sheet of parchment which already displayed a model in front of them as they huddled. The pins indicated squads, and the different colours indicated the different divisions.

"Mitarashi Anko is your squad lead. Sakura, you and Kiba are in charge of the Autopsy unit," Kakashi started and wrote their names under two circles paired together on the left, and there went all the excitement to be replaced in panic. "We're expecting returning ANBU very soon. You are expected to do some post-mortems. Kiba, you are to be Sakura's assistant. Make a detailed report and submit to Shizune-chan and Anko-chan your findings on the post-mortems. You need to study the cadavers for evidence."

Sakura turned to Ino helplessly. Ino looked at her sympathetically. This couldn't be good. Kiba barely looked at her or talked to her and had taken to running away in fright from her.

"Ino, you are to stay here as my scribe and help Shikamaru with filing and studying the documents sent by the Cryptoanalysis team for the Analysis Team," Kakashi instructed her.

"Um," Ino interrupted and Kakashi looked at her. "Is it possible that Kiba and I switch roles? I feel like I am better qualified to make a medical report and Kiba is better at scribing as he is very fast."

Kiba nodded vehemently in agreement. Sakura looked at Ino lovingly. Bless her heart. She knew Sakura had not come up with how to approach the elephant in the room yet either. She needed time. Ino also suspected the truth; Sakura didn't know who was the father of her little problem.

"I wish I could," Kakashi said. "But it's not simply scribing, Ino-chan. We need to have you prepared so you know what we're looking for when you dive into the minds of the targets Lee is assigned to bring back with Naruto and Hinata, the Infiltration unit." He underlined Lee's squad in the parchment.

"Yeah, believe it!" Naruto was heard cheering right next to Neji, who had to massage his ears to avoid going deaf.

"Kakashi-sama, then perhaps I can help Sakura-chan?" a soft voice spoke up and they all turned to look at Hinata, who somehow always escaped notice in the room.

Lee placed a hand on her shoulder. "There is an underground fighting ring we have to infiltrate. They are being run by some mobsters who are involved in this trade as the intel tells us. However, Kiba is also a member of Team 8. I just need a sensor, Kakashi-sama. If Hinata-chan wants to exchange places, I'm open to the option."

Kakashi stuck the back of the pen he was holding against his chin thoughtfully. A lot of them appeared to agree that Sakura and Kiba should not be paired in the same squad. He wondered if he was indeed being selfish, but Shikamaru had also agreed that the resource delegation was tactful. He had also voiced his concerns about the tension between the pair, however, and Kakashi had justified that their stats showed that they had worked well together. And who knows, maybe it'd help distil the tension between them, to which he had shrugged. Shikamaru did wonder why he was pressing the two together, but he didn't want to get involved. Ino had him getting involved enough as it was, and it was so troublesome.

"You are my brightest, yet you all seem to be struggling in teamwork I see. I really don't want to reassign missions as is as it'd set me back further," he said groaning, gesturing to the waist high stack of documents he had pushed in the corner of the room to make way for this meeting. "I need to get these out of the way by the weekend. As Neji would be away on reconnaissance, I seem to also need a substitute teacher in place of him to reiterate to you all the importance of teamwork I believe."

Neji saw Hinata worried, looking down and twiddling her thumbs. He sighed. If she was worried now, he didn't know how she'd react when she found out why his substitute was even needed. He was assigned to replace one of the dead ANBU. It was this very task he had been studying late into the night the past week to catch up. He had barely been having enough time to plan his lessons.

Kakashi checked the clipboard in front of him, dipping his pen in ink again and scribbling some notes and comments on the parchment while they waited patiently. He shuffled some documents in one of the files next to him.

"Where is the approval from the Ambassador of Sand," he mumbled to himself.

Shikamaru reached over and took out the document from the file underneath the one Kakashi was looking at and handed it to him with a flourish. Sakura noticed Ino bristling. Kakashi handed it to Neji - whose eye zigzagged over the document quickly. Sakura noticed Kakashi didn't take any names as he discussed with Neji his teammates and understood they were ANBU. It made sense for personnel to be replaced after some were returning dead and injured. Dissecting ANBU bodies was inexplicably tricky, as they almost always ruptured their organs to make themselves useless to the enemy.

She shuddered, hoping she wasn't dissecting anyone she knew today. She looked at Neji and wondered how he would break the news to Hinata; that he was going into the fray itself. She further hoped she won't ever need to dissect him and the shudder which erupted was like someone had walked over her grave.

"Very well. Off with you all," Kakashi dismissed them.

After everyone left and Ino and Shikamaru were the only ones left in the room, Kakashi finally relaxed his shoulders and sighed heavily. This weekend was tougher than most and he couldn't wait for it to be over. He did not need Anko or Shizune to inevitably bring another stack on his desk, but he figured that would be at least after the weekend was through. Sakura was a good medi-ninja, but reports took time and Shizune had to sort them first.

"All I want," he turned towards the pair who had started sifting through the documents to find the ones related to their division. "Is a glass of sake with Hana-chan at the end of the day. Please don't make me spend the night here at the Hokage residence with my bed cold."

Shikamaru chuckled but Ino frowned, no longer amused with her Hokage's love life. She had to figure out how to approach the topic which Sakura had her sworn into secrecy. She had also been avoiding Shikamaru, so she was focusing on her own pile.

Kakashi noticed her cold behaviour and didn't press the subject further. He also felt the tension between this very pair itself, and it had been brimming since a while now, he realized. He was curious though. Did the girl know something? If she did, it was remarkable how well she was holding in the information. Kakashi wondered how long she was capable of retaining such a feat.

"Kakashi-sensei, we can really use Sasuke's sharingan with the documents since you no longer have one. I told you this yesterday also, Mitoku-san also agrees his talents are being wasted," Shikamaru sighed. "While I understand your concerns. Shiho suggested the same as well."

Ino looked at him nastily, breaking her silent treatment. "Of course, if it isn't Temari, it's Shiho," she suddenly erupted. "It's been fine meeting with other women but not your girlfriend."

A blush started to creep up Shikamaru's neck. "What are you talking about? You're the one who blew me off yesterday." He looked back at Kakashi, who appeared to be ignoring their conversation and continued his perusal of the files in front of him.

"We're in here all the time, or have you forgotten?" he hissed, hoping he had been low enough for Kakashi not to have heard him. But Ino wasted all that effort immediately.

"And that's the problem. We're in here all the time! And we haven't even met for a while now except in the Academy! Remind me the last time we've been out on a real date? But you have plenty of time to hang out with Shiho or Yurika or the rest of the team? You literally drop every plan when Temari visits the village! Why? Can't anyone else ever show her around, or does it always have to be you?"

Shikamaru had now turned beet red, but Ino's outburst was met in silence, and it was only the scratching of Kakashi's pen which made any noise, and he noticed it had picked up its speed. Shikamaru quietly continued to shuffle the documents and placing them in a neat pile. How very troublesome, he groaned to himself.

When he had gathered the ones he needed, he turned to Ino, who appeared to be on the verge of a breakdown. A tear had escaped her eye and had fallen onto the scroll at the top, blotting a character.

He sighed, coming over and squatting down beside her. He was so terrible at this.

"Tell you what," he said, putting a hand on her shoulder and kissing her wet cheek. "If we're halfway done by tonight, I'll take you out for barbecue."

Ino looked up, expression still grim as she nodded and turned back to her work again.

Kakashi felt he should remind Shikamaru that he had scheduled to see off Temari tonight as well, but figured it was best to stay silent and not interfere with the gears turning in the boy's head.

"I also have something very interesting to tell you while we eat," he said. "Maybe you blowing me off yesterday worked in your favor, as the gossip I scored for you is... how do you call it... very juicy."

Even Kakashi looked over in curiousity when he said that before turning back immediately, pretending not to be hearing their conversation.

"As usual, a terrible choice of words," Ino commented, without turning around.

"Tell me now and I'll be the judge of that," she continued after a few seconds, unable to resist.

"And risk my only weapon?" he said snidely. He chuckled as Ino huffed up.

She'll be alright, he thought.