As soon as he had his bearings straight, Kakashi quickly summoned his ninken and had them scour the area for any sign of Itachi. They returned after a thorough search some two hours later with not so much as a whiff of him having been detected by their combined eight noses. Knowing that attempting to track the Uchiha now was futile, Kakashi had thought over everything that he knew about the younger man while he'd quickly packed up his and Sakura's things from the tent, taking it down and storing it in the house.
Kakashi had been recruited to ANBU at the age of thirteen by his sensei-turned-Hokage, Minato. During his first year in the organization, he had risen through the ranks quickly and by his six month mark, he'd been promoted to Captain of his own squad, Team Ro. Their numbers had varied over the years, with few consistent faces.
Itachi had joined the same year that he had; both the Third Hokage and Danzo came to a rare agreement that the Uchiha prodigy belonged among ANBU's rank and file. He had been placed on Team Ro upon his joining them.
It had taken Kakashi only one mission to see just how brutal; how cold the boy could be when he'd taken Itachi with him on a two-man squad into the Land of Woods, where they'd been told to anticipate a betrayal by the Land of Woods. At his tender age, Itachi had effortlessly slain the enemy and finished them off on his own.
From there, he'd only seen the darkness grow in Itachi. He'd been detached and cold, never getting too close to any of their various teammates. For two years, they'd operated as a team just the two of them, but beyond a few conversations about their shared Sharingan, they'd never spoken much. When Itachi had been promoted off of the team and into Danzo's realm, Kakashi had worried.
And then that cold, October night had happened. He remembered the dread he'd felt approaching the silent Uchiha compound; remembered the pit in his gut when he'd seen the first slain civilians lying crumpled in the street. There had been blood and gore everywhere he'd looked; the bodies of young children and old men and women, all with looks of horror in their eyes and their faces. So many faces. He hadn't been able to bring himself to look at them all, too haunted by too many ghosts already at his young 21 years of life.
If he'd looked, would he have recognized her face among them?
The sound of the wind picking up pulled Kakashi out of his thoughts, and he shut the door to the house behind himself as he quickly made way for Training Ground 4. He had no idea what Tsunade would say when he told her that Itachi had made a second appearance in Konoha in recent times, but he knew it would concern her as much as it did himself.
By the time he arrived, the field was already destroyed; several large fissures cracking deep into the earth, huge chunks of ground tossed about where the force of impact had sent them flying. He found the two women taking a break underneath a tree, Sakura speaking animatedly with her hands and a triumphant look on her face.
A smile crossed his own lips underneath his mask, knowing that prideful glow could only mean one thing. When she saw him approaching, her words confirmed what he'd suspected.
"Kakashi! I did it! I finally did it!" She yelped in excitement as she jumped to her feet, launching herself into his arms. Kakashi caught her with ease, the velocity of her leap spinning them both around before he set her back down on her feet. Not needing to elaborate, Sakura chose to anyway, her eyes shining bright as she said, "I landed a perfect Cherry Blossom Impact!"
Kakashi tugged his mask down, vaguely aware of Tsunade politely turning to give him privacy as he leaned in to kiss Sakura, his hands on her hips. "I'm so proud of you," he murmured against her mouth, kissing her again. Sakura smiled into the kiss, her hands fisted in the front of his shirt.
"I can't believe I did it," she whispered, her hands shaking. "I did it!"
"I always knew you would," he told her, returning his mask to its place as he glanced at Tsunade's turned back. Remembering why he'd come here in the first place, Kakashi frowned and swiped a hand back through his hair, clearing his throat before speaking directly to the Hokage, his tone dark, "We need to talk, Lady Tsunade."
Sakura's excitement faded, replaced with a look of worry as she slipped her hand into his. He took it exactly as it was; a silent message that she was not going to be left out of the conversation. Kakashi gave her fingers a reassuring squeeze as Tsunade turned around.
"Go on, then. Spit it out," she told him impatiently, her arms folding over her chest.
His eyes glanced down at Sakura before flitting back up to Tsunade's pools of honey, set alight by the late afternoon sun. "Uchiha Itachi stopped by my farmhouse after you left," he remarked slowly, stuffing his free hand into his pocket. "With a rather interesting story."
"Itachi's back?" Tsunade asked, her eyes widening. "What did he want?"
Kakashi felt her eyes glancing him over, her eyebrow shooting up in confusion when she saw no sign of a fight. "To talk," he answered her simply.
"About Naruto?" She asked him, worry edging her tone. The silver-haired shinobi shook his head, not looking down as he felt Sakura's nails digging into his palm at the mention of her friend and teammate.
"No; about the girl from Iwa," he replied, soothing Sakura's unspoken worry by gently rubbing his thumb over the top of her hand.
Tsunade didn't interrupt as he relayed Itachi's story about Nokogiri Koishi and what part Danzo had played in her tragic ending. He told her about his suspicions that Itachi had only been telling half-truths, keeping his real motivations and the full truth behind the Uchiha massacre cloaked in mystery. He ended by repeating Itachi's final words before vanishing as suddenly as he'd appeared; that his child lived, and was in the Sky District.
She stayed silent, her mind racing the same way Kakashi's had after Itachi's mental hold on him had been severed. He'd never anticipated that any of this was a possibility; starting with the fact that Itachi had been a secret father. Of course, he could understand why the younger man had kept it hidden. Even as young as he'd been, the shinobi world far and wide knew his name. His child would have become a target, the same way Uchiha had been for some time by that point in several influential circles throughout the Land of Fire.
When she finally spoke, Tsunade's tone was urgent; none of the earlier impatience that she'd exhibited as she held his gaze in the setting sun. "You'll leave now. Go east, through the Land of Waves, to Kirigakure. It's a faster route than going through the Land of Hot Springs."
Sakura opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, Kakashi answered; his eyes glancing down at the pink-haired woman, taking note of the beginning twitch of the nerve in her forehead.
"I want Sakura to come with me." Both women stared at him as though they hadn't heard him correctly. He had been expecting Tsunade's confusion, but seeing the shock on Sakura's face stung, and he continued, his tone inflected with the pride he felt for the woman by his side. "She's ready, Lady Hokage."
"Very well," Tsunade nodded curtly, her eyes meeting Sakura's. "Use this opportunity to put your new knowledge to the test, Sakura. Kakashi," she glanced up at him, her eyes as sharp as her tone, "I expect you to gather information about this child; her name, a photograph for our files. Given the recent conflicts here, if you determine that her present location is currently safe enough for her to stay, then I would prefer that course of action. At least, until we can find a way to shut Danzo down."
Kakashi nodded. "I anticipate we'll be gone at least two weeks; the journey across the Kaizoku Sea and up the Kasumi Strait is a long one with the storms and choppy currents."
"That brings you to September 8th, then," Tsunade spoke as she did the calculations in her head. "A few days before Root's next meeting."
"If we have to bring the child back, it may take longer by a day or two," Kakashi mused as he thought about it. Tsunade nodded, waving them off as Genma approached from the edge of the field. As the two of them spoke in quiet tones, he pulled Sakura in front of him, speaking quietly, "Are you ready to leave now?"
"Yes, but-"
"Later," he murmured, cutting off the questions he knew she had. "We can talk on the way. Right now, we need to get to Kirigakure as quickly as possible to arrange transport to the Sky District."
She didn't speak as he led her east, avoiding the roads that he couldn't be sure Root agents weren't discreetly patrolling. They bypassed the village gates, opting for a more secretive route over the wall that Sakura hadn't previously been aware of. They moved quickly, the only sound their soft footfalls on the thick branches of sturdy oak trees that built up the majority of the forest surrounding them. When they had been traveling for about two hours, he came to a stop and turned to face her.
"We'll stop here for a bit so we can eat," he told her, pulling his bag off his back. He arched his eyebrow up at her when she didn't do the same, his tone taking on the same sound it always had when he'd lectured her as his sensei all those years as he asked, "Did you repack your bag properly?"
Sakura's face blazed bright red as she jerked the straps off her back, glowering up at him as she pulled the top flap open and pulled out a packaged pastry. "Well, there's no She-Nobi in there, if that's what you're asking."
He shook his head, nodding at the pastry in her hand with a cluck of his tongue. "That's going to make you cramp up while we're running later, and you'll be hungry again in an hour. Please tell me you packed some jerky, at least?"
"I repacked the bag, Kakashi. It has food in it now," she answered him, her tone more sharp than she'd intended. When she saw the look of hurt flash across his face, her features softened and she reached for his hand.
He sighed, dropping his gaze from hers and pulling his hand away. He reached back into his own bag, sifting around for a moment before he lifted a small plastic bag containing a thick hunk of dehydrated deer meat and holding it to her.
"I told you I was going to show you how to properly do that, and yet again," he sighed, dropping the bag in her lap when she didn't take it on her own. He continued, his words edged with self-depreciation, "I didn't do my duty."
Her eyebrow shot up, and she shook her head, a stern frown etched into her full lips. "Stop that right now," she insisted, reaching for his chin and turning his face so that he was looking directly at her as she continued, "We already went through this, Kakashi. You really need to stop finding failures in your actions where there aren't any."
She gripped the bag, putting it back in his hand with a stern glare. "I'll buy some actual provisions while we're in Kiri," she told him, crossing her arms over her chest. "Until then, I'll do what any other kunoichi or shinobi who was foolish enough not to pack properly would do - deal with it."
"No, you won't," he told her, his eye narrowing as he thrust the bag back at her. "Or don't you remember the first lesson I taught you?"
Sakura thought about his words for a moment, narrowing her own eyes when she realized that she didn't have a logical argument to shoot back at him. She finally accepted the bag, opening it and taking a bit of the meat before handing it back to Kakashi, who ripped his own bit off and then replaced it in his backpack.
"We'll travel through the night and stop a few hours before dawn to sleep for a few hours," he told her after they'd both eaten a few bites of the food. Sakura nodded, reaching into her pack for a worn map that she unfolded and studied for a few moments.
"The Great Naruto Bridge," she murmured, glancing up at him with a faint smile. "It feels like another lifetime ago that we were there last, doesn't it?"
"Five years is a long time," he answered her, finishing his food. "You've come a long way since then, Sakura. You aren't that weak, scared little girl anymore. I wanted you on this mission because I think - no," he shook his head, "I iknow/i you're ready for this."
He didn't add that he was terrified of the possibility that they'd encounter the Root agents Itachi had told him would be in the area. He made a mental note that tomorrow sometime, once they'd arranged a ship to take them to the Sky District, he was going to go over stealth tactics with her. He wanted to remain as invisible as possible while they were there, and Sakura had never been on a mission like this one before.
Once Sakura was finished eating, they silently began moving again; Kakashi taking the lead, Sakura falling in line directly behind him. As he glanced back, he felt happiness welling up deep inside his chest at the look of pride and determination on the young kunoichi's face. She had worked hard, he knew.
What he didn't know was how long Sakura had been waiting to hear Kakashi say those six words; that she was ready for this, and he knew it. It made her heart sing, her veins exploding with new-found confidence not just in herself, but in the value she brought to their partnership. He finally saw Sakura not as his student, or his lover, but as a capable comrade.
He saw her as his equal and with that knowledge, Sakura felt like there was nothing that the two of them couldn't accomplish together.