When Sakura's eyes opened, the sun had long since set and she was curled up on top of her sleeping bag facing a crackling fire, the quick tendrils of flame lapping at the air hungrily as it slowly devoured the wood stoked beneath it. She frowned when she didn't immediately see Kakashi but breathed a sigh of relief when she felt the weight of his familiar hand on her shoulder, his fingers giving her a gentle squeeze.

"Did you sleep well?" He asked her, leaning over to graze his lips over the top of her head before he walked in front of her, crouching on his haunches in front of the fire, where he poked at the base of it with a long stick. The fire roared as the smoldering debris settled and he added more firewood.

"I think so," she answered him with a yawn and a stretch of her arms before she cracked one eye open, meeting his gaze and adding, "Where were you just now?"

Kakashi nodded off in the direction of the tall building she'd surmised was a barn earlier. "I was just looking around the barn," he told her, confirming her deduction.

Sakura smiled as he took a seat next to her on the sleeping bag, leaning over her to grab the bag and fishing around in it for a few minutes before he sighed, lifting his eyebrow and giving her a stern look.

"What's wrong with how I packed?" she asked him plaintively, eyes narrowing slightly.

"Well," he started, turning the bag upside down and giving it a gentle shake, the contents pouring out in between them. "This is supposed to be an overnight survival bag, Sakura."

He glanced down and her eyes followed him, a blush forming on her face as he picked up a racy magazine with some impossibly athletic-looking man covered in glistening oil wearing only a standard pair of shinobi pants. "Let's see what She-Nobi has to offer for survival tips..." he trailed off with a flippant grin before he continued, "His Naked Body, Explained."

Sakura's face blazed red and she reached to jerk the magazine away from Kakashi, who was smirking mischievously as he stood and began reading aloud, "What a uniball is and why not to freak out."

"Kakashi!" She squealed, hiding her face in her knees much to his amusement as he scanned the page, reading another blurb.

"What to do when he has a third nipple," he laughed, tossing the magazine at the humiliated Sakura, who was currently wishing she could burrow underground and out of sight.

"That magazine," he snickered, "Seems to have some excellent survival tips."

"It's old," Sakura squeaked, peeking at him from between her knees.

Kakashi's eyebrow arched as he spoke again, eyes glancing down at the pile. "Oh? So, what you're telling me is that your survival bag isn't properly prepared, hmm?"

As if to prove his point, he picked up two empty energy bar wrappers and a half-consumed bottle of water. She opened her mouth to speak but he held up his index finger over the bottle, setting his finds to the side before grabbing a dirty sock and a broken compass next.

"I've been meaning to replace that," Sakura gave her best impression of Kakashi's crinkle-eye. He sighed, setting it down on the ground, his gaze softening as he reached over the pile for her hand.

"Tomorrow, I'm going to show you how to properly pack this bag," he told her, giving her hand a squeeze before he added with a guilt-laced sigh, "I should have done that a long time ago."

Sakura shoved the pile of junk and trash away from them onto the grass before she crawled over to him, positioning herself so that her legs were wrapped around his waist and her arms around his neck.

"You were busy teaching us other things, Sensei," she reminded him gently, pressing her lips to the corner of his mouth before adding, "You were busy protecting us."

Kakashi rested one of his hands on her hip, his other in the grass as he looked up at her, his eye searching her face as he pondered her words. Right from their very first mission outside of Konoha, there had been danger. He'd obviously anticipated that there would be; they were shinobi, after all. But what had been supposed to be a simple C-rank escort mission had turned into an encounter with S-Class criminal and Bingo Book entrant, Momochi Zabuza.

It hadn't gotten easier from there; in fact, Kakashi remembered with a dark look, it had gotten much worse during the course of the next several years that had led them to this year's Chūnin exams; when Orochimaru had finally made the move they'd been anticipating for years and sought Sasuke out. He recalled how traumatized Sakura had been after the Forest of Death; her pallid complexion, the haunted look in her eyes. The choppy haircut that he had never needed to ask about.

"I didn't do a great job of that, either, Sakura," he muttered against her skin, closing his eye and gripping her tighter to him. She was raking her fingertips gently against the nape of his neck, her lips not kissing him, but pressed against his cheek as she listened to him.

"I think Naruto would disagree," Sakura replied in her sweet voice. "I know I do."

Neither of them brought Sasuke up.

Kakashi let out a small exhale before he leaned back to study her face again before he spoke in a voice so quiet she almost couldn't hear him over the fire, "Do you regret-"

"Don't even finish that sentence," she warned him in a stern voice, one hand moving to tilt his chin up. She used her other to carefully lift his hitae-ate so that both eyes were meeting hers as she continued in a softer tone, "I don't regret anything to do with you, Kakashi-sensei."

She leaned in, firmly pressing her lips against his before he could respond, her hands pushing him back so that he was lying down. He reached around her, pulling the dress still draped around her elbows off of her completely now, leaving her entirely naked on top of him.

"You've taught me plenty of things," she whispered against his ear when she leaned down to nip the shell of his earlobe. His hands roamed up the backs of her thighs, his Adam's apple prominent as he groaned at the feel of her teeth on his skin.

"Such as?" He asked, his voice husky. He felt her smirk against his skin before she reached down, wrapping her fingers around his semi-hard cock.

"Let me show you one by one, Sensei," her voice was an airy breath; her words like kerosene in his veins, the touch of her lips igniting it and setting him ablaze beneath her.

They were both spent and lying in each others arms a few hours later when Kakashi chuckled when her stomach grumbled, breaking the comfortable silence they'd been lying in. He reached across his stomach and poked hers playfully, leaning in to press his lips against her cheek before he stood up.

"Where are you going?" Sakura mumbled up to him, reaching up with her hand. He smiled down at her, his fingers touching the palm of her hand as he bent over to grab his boxers before he began pulling them on.

"You're coming with me," he told her with a smirk, tossing her dress at her before adding, "Since someone didn't pack any rations, we've got to go catch our own dinner."

Sakura scoffed, pulling the dress on as she watched him look around for his shirt. "Hunting? At...what time is it?" She shook her head. "We're not going to find anything out there. That's another thing you taught us; do your hunting while it's still light out."

"Yes, well," Kakashi gave her a pointed look, standing on one foot gracefully as he slid a sandal on, doing the same on the other foot as he continued, "The same someone who forgot our food is also the same someone who fell asleep for six hours post-coitus."

She blushed, pulling her own shoes on before finding her feet. Kakashi tossed her four kunai from the small pouch he had secured to his thigh and then looked around for a moment, deciding where he wanted to enter the forest from before he nodded towards the east, grabbing her hand in his.

They walked silently into the trees and Sakura quickly found herself disoriented on where exactly they were. She had no idea how Kakashi seemed to know exactly where they were, his footfalls sure and confident as he led her deeper and deeper into the thicket for about fifteen minutes before he stopped dead in his tracks, holding his arm up in a signal for her to stop as well.

"Over there," he whispered to her quietly, nodding at a space between branches to a clearing not too far from where they were concealed. "Do you remember how to conceal your chakra signature?"

Sakura nodded, arching her eyebrow but closing her eyes in focus as she did it. He did as well and she moved silently to stand next to him.

"Why hide it?" She murmured against his shoulder, eyes darting over the grass meadow for any sign of whatever it was that he'd stopped them and gone into stealth mode for. She could find nothing until her eyes reached the other side of the grass, just below a young oak tree. A raccoon.

"They can sense it like they can sense predators," Kakashi explained in a soft whisper, lifting his arm to aim a kunai he'd pulled from his pouch. Sakura's breath hitched as she watched him completely focused on the task at hand, the forest completely silent around them. She'd seen him hunt before, but she'd never appreciated how he looked when he had his eyes locked in on his target.

His Sharingan was exposed, both eyes unblinking as he stood statue-still, his arm steady in the air. Her eyes glanced over his flexed bicep, licking over her bottom lip when she saw how the dappled moonlight found the curve of his tight muscles, shining on them like a spotlight. The vein in his neck protruded as he held his head at attention. His chest was unmoving; as though he wasn't breathing, waiting for the right moment to strike. She had never seen him look so much like an apex predator before; not a shinobi fighting for his life, but a wild predator, hunting to sustain himself and his...She blushed.

Was she a part of Kakashi's pack?

The kunai shifted slightly in his hand, and Sakura's breath stopped as it glinted in the low light. He was about to strike.

His arm moved with lethal precision, the kunai flying silently through the branches, disappearing in the tall grass of the clearing before they heard the animal's death cry brief seconds later.

"What was that?"

Kakashi's head turned to the left sharply, his arm going up to shield Sakura instinctively at the sound of an intruder's voice. Her heart leaped to her throat as she reached for one of the kunai that he'd handed her earlier, grateful that he'd had the foresight to do so when she'd been so thoughtless. Why was she always so thoughtless?

Before she could mentally chide herself any further, the sound of bodies rustling through the grass pulled her out of her thoughts, and Kakashi jerked her arm, yanking them both lower into the cover of darkness.

"Do. Not. Move," he mouthed to her, holding a finger to his lips as they watched two shadowed figures enter the clearing. Sakura reached for his hand but did not find it; he'd already prepared it to activate Chidori as the figures stopped.

"I don't see anything."

Sakura's eyes widened when she realized that she recognized the voice. Before she could alert Kakashi to her knowledge, the second person spoke.

"Perhaps a bear just found it's dinner," a man's voice mused suspiciously before he cleared his throat quietly and continued, "Now, back to my offer."

There was a short silence before the man Sakura recognized spoke again, questioning, "Why me?"

The second man let out a small laugh that sent a chill down Sakura's spine before replying, "I suppose you could say there's a..." he paused for a moment before continuing, "...family history between your clan and my organization. Your recent success in the Chūnin Exams brought you to my attention."

"I don't know anything about your organization," the familiar voice spoke curtly. "In fact, I've never even heard of it."

"Of course you haven't. We're what you could consider a...shadow organization," the other man told him before asking, "Tell me; aren't you tired of being overlooked by your peers and your superiors?"

There was another silence during which a distant dog could be heard barking. Finally, his answer came and Sakura gripped the ground as fear flooded through her at his voice, "Yes."

"Then join us," the second man implored, adding, "With us, you'll be part of a brotherhood; a family that won't overlook your skills and gifts."

Another pause before the first man said, "When is the next meeting?"

The sound of a hand clapping on a shoulder rang out in the forest, sending several birds into flight from the top of the canopy. Sakura heard Kakashi exhale quietly as the two men's voices became more distant, their feet carrying them away from the small meadow and back towards, presumably, Konoha. When she was sure they were out of earshot, Sakura reached for Kakashi's wrist, her fingers gripping him tightly.

"That was Aburame Shino," she whispered. His body tensed under her grip and when he turned to face her, she felt another shiver tingle its way down her spine, the hairs on the back of her neck standing up as he spoke.

"We need to go. Now."

Sakura didn't question him as he jerked her hand to follow him back the way they'd came. It was a much shorter trip this time. She stumbled after him, her feet catching on the overgrown roots and fallen branches that he'd helped her avoid before. His mind was elsewhere, she could see. He stopped again once their campfire was in view, her blood running cold when she saw the same thing she did.

Someone was already there.