A few days later, Kakashi stopped by his apartment again.

"Meet up with everyone at the bridge on the far side of town tomorrow morning at seven o'clock," the man told him. "We have a mission."

Sasuke watched him carefully. ". . . I still haven't been put on trial yet."

"Maybe you shouldn't mention that," was all Kakashi said, and "Pack for a week."

He left Sasuke's forehead protector at the apartment. The scratch along it had been mostly filled in with new metal, but Sasuke could see the mark where it cut directly across the lines of the leaf.

(Kakashi was the one who had pocketed the forehead protector and brought it back that day three years ago; but most people thought that it was Naruto who had held on to it, and he never corrected them.)

—

Naruto and Sakura were already there when he arrived at the bridge. For a few minutes, none of them were quite sure what to say, so they just waited.

But after those few minutes, it became clear that Kakashi was going to be late again; and by then things were too familiar not to relax a little bit.

Sakura huffed and sat on the railing. Sasuke leaned against it a meter away, and Naruto crossed to the other rail and jumped on. He began walking along the very edge, practicing his chakra control.

"I bet he's deliberately never on time for anything," Sakura muttered. "It's probably some weird principle of honor."

"Do you know what we're supposed to be doing?" Naruto asked, looking over at her. "He told me we're heading straight out from here."

Sakura shook her head. "I don't know, but it must be something to do with the Sound."

Sasuke gave her a sideways glance. ". . . Why do you think that?"

"Because you're here," Sakura replied. She quickly related the story Tsunade had told her weeks ago, about Orochimaru getting out of being put on trial for negligence regarding his genin team.

"So it has to be something to do with them," she ended, "since you're the only person who would know best. She's probably not happy about it, though," Sakura added with a warning undercurrent.

Sasuke ignored the tone and looked out in the direction of the village, waiting for Kakashi to show up. Naruto had continued his slow pace along the edge of the railing while she spoke.

Kakashi arrived a surprising twenty minutes later, and he came with Temari.

"Hey, Temari-san!" Sakura called, jumping down from the rail.

"Hello," she called back, nodding to the three of them.

It turned out that Sakura had been correct. As Temari told them, the Lord of Fire country had contacted the Hidden Sand with a mission: the Lord of Grass country had sent him a notice that he suspected Soundnins were hiding there, and that several ninjas of the Hidden Grass sent to scout the locations had been killed. The Grass country was in the middle of a recession, and the government couldn't afford to pay its ninja village for an high class mission; so it had contacted Fire in hopes that, since they were harboring a former Soundnin, they would take care of the mess free of charge--or at least hire the Hidden Grass themselves.

But the Lord of Fire country and Tsunade were still not on the best of terms, so he had felt it fitting to send the mission on to the Hidden Sand.

"We had one of ours go missing to the Sound a couple years ago," Temari said by way of explanation, "and about half a year ago, he got back in contact with us and handed over a lot of information in exchange for the promise to return without being executed. He cut off contact abruptly, though, so we assumed he's dead." She looked over at Sasuke. "Do you know whether that's true? His name was Ito Junji."

Sasuke nodded. "He was buried alive by the Sound's Five after he was discovered."

Temari made a small disgusted motion with her mouth. "Sick sense of humor. . . . Did any of them happen to live?"

"No," Sasuke said, "they were all killed a few months ago."

"Ah," she said, and shrugged it off. "That data is old, so we thought it would be wise to contact Konoha anyway. You'll get half the pay we earn from this mission--is that acceptable?"

The four of them nodded, and Temari folded her arms. "The information that the Hidden Grass managed to collect indicates there are two main groups, one that's located in a large tourist village a few hours from Kusa and a smaller one that's near the border with Waterfall country. We've already sent a team of our ninjas to the group by the border, but we left the group near Kusa to you." She looked to Sasuke again. "They're the ones that have killed the most Grassnins, so we were hoping you would have the best knowledge of their fighting style."

He nodded once more, and Sakura frowned. "But if that group is so close to the Hidden Grass, why haven't they just sent a large group of ninjas to deal with them? How many are there supposed to be?"

"The information said between seven and ten," Temari told her. "And we're curious about that, too. The Lord of Grass country said they don't want to risk losing any more ninjas, but. . . ."

"The Hidden Grass hasn't been very connected to the country since the recession started," Sakura finished.

Temari nodded. "And the village itself is splitting into factions. So, if you'll bring any of the Soundnins you capture back to Suna alive, we'll find out what's really going on. Rain country already gave permission to cut through their territory, so just state what mission you're on at the border and you should be let through."

Kakashi, Sakura, and Sasuke all nodded again. Naruto said "Okay," and jumped off of where he'd been sitting on the railing.

"Please send the Kazekage our thanks for this," Sakura added.

Temari tilted her head with a smirk. "After everything you guys have done to make the Lord of Wind country back off of our village?" she said. "The least we can do is return the favor."

Sakura chuckled under her breath.

"Is there anything else to know?" Kakashi asked.

Temari thought about it. "According to the information we were supplied, most of the Soundnins are young," she said. "Some don't even have forehead protectors, though those might have been left behind. So be on the lookout for children or adolescents. There didn't seem to be anyone over twenty in either of the groups."

"No way," Naruto said. "The Hidden Grass was scared of a bunch of brats?"

Temari shrugged a shoulder. "That's why we want them brought back alive."

——

The Hidden Grass was just under three days from Konoha, moving at high speed, and the tourist village of Kamogaya was beyond it in the direction of the border between the Grass and Earth countries. They reached the border of Fire the morning of the third day.

A few copses were nearby the border and along the roads--but they weren't taking the roads, because those curved and the fastest way to Kamogaya was straight through the fields and plains. The trees thinned out rapidly as they moved along, soon leaving them with nothing but grassland.

"Whoa," Sakura said under her breath when they crested a hill only to find that there were no trees at all along the way down or in the plain before them. Sasuke glanced over at her.

"Have you been in terrain like this before?" he asked.

She shook her head, and Sasuke looked at Naruto. He nodded, adding "A little."

"You can mimic Naruto's moves better than mine or Kakashi-sensei's, right?" he asked Sakura, and this time she nodded. Sasuke looked to the man.

"I'll take the rear and cover our movements," Kakashi told him.

Sasuke nodded once, and then reached back and shifted his katana up so that it wasn't as far out over his shoulder. He ducked slightly and took off down the hill, moving through the tall grass with an ease that reminded Kakashi the majority of Sound country was composed of grass and marshland.

Naruto followed, with Sakura behind him, and Kakashi took his place at the end, making sure to shift the grass back upright where Sakura had pushed it too much aside and to smear their footprints into blurry lines in the dirt.

—

They stopped for a late lunch two kilometers from the road they would be taking into Kamogaya. A small rise in the ground blocked them from view.

"It's so bright," Sakura replied. "It's like all the sun is going to blind me."

Naruto laughed. "I know, it's creepy." He bit off a piece of dried jerky and chewed thoughtfully. ". . . But Earth country is worse. At least here there's grass for cover--there it's nothing but mountains, and when you're at the top of one, there's nothing. It's like inviting somebody to attack you! And then there's all the crevices and stuff that go up the mountains--and all the roads run over at least one." He snickered. "I don't know how all the Stonenins aren't totally paranoid."

"Keh," Sakura said, making a face. "I like trees. I'll stick with trees."

"The view's cool, though," Naruto said. "Some of the places there--you know the view from the top of our mountain? It's like . . . five times that. Especially this one place, that's got some weird name because of an old superstition . . . uh. . . ."

"Enchanted Rock," Sasuke supplied.

"Yeah, there!" Naruto grinned. "You've got to see that view, Sakura-chan, it's so cool. Even if it sucks to have no cover, it's still awesome."

". . . You can see the birds flying underneath you," Sasuke added, looking down at his food.

Sakura was laughing slightly. "Okay, I believe you. It sounds cool."

Naruto looked over at Sasuke. "Did you ever go to those caverns? The ones named after a bridge or something?"

Sasuke gave him a disbelieving look. "That's a tourist trap."

"Yeah, well," Naruto shrugged. "Jiraiya had me visit them. He said it would be a good experience, dealing with tiny pathways and having half a kilometer of rock over my head." He paused, and then added with a wide grin, "He finally found a woman drunk enough or crazy or something to put up with him. He threw me out the whole time we were in that damn town, until they had this big fight and she stole his purse and disappeared. So I got stuck in those kinds of places a lot."

Sakura had to swallow quickly to keep from choking on her laughter. Sasuke rolled his eyes.

Naruto crammed the last bit of jerky into his mouth and quickly swallowed. "You know what, you've gotta come there with us," he told Sakura.

She shook her head. "I don't think that'll happen."

"Naw," Naruto said, waving her doubt off, "we'll get a mission into Earth country eventually. Then we'll just take the long way back and go by there."

"'The long way back'?" Sakura repeated, giving him a skeptical look.

Naruto pointed a thumb at Kakashi. "Sure! We'll just say we got lost or something, and that Kakashi-sensei rubbed off on us."

"Hey," the man replied.

Sasuke rolled his eyes again and looked out at the horizon. Sakura grinned, but still shook her head.

"I really doubt it'll happen," she said, leaning back slightly against the hillock. "All my missions stay in Fire country, remember?"

"Those were just . . . what, extenuating circumstances?" Naruto said. "Things are going back to normal."

Sakura looked down and bit off another piece of her jerky.

Naruto watched her for a few moments, tilting his head. "Why? Even if the hag is still annoyed now, it's not like that'll last forever."

"It's not that," Sakura said, with a small shake of her head. "It's . . . you know I've read a lot of the stuff that's come into the Hokage's office."

"So?"

"Some of that stuff . . . if I ever got captured. . . ."

Sasuke looked over again. Sakura took another bite of her food and chewed slowly; but when she was finished, Naruto was still staring at her, waiting.

She shrugged a shoulder and didn't look at him. "Well, if I get captured and there's no one close with a good possibility of rescuing me, I'm expected to commit suicide immediately. I know way too much; Konoha would be at severe risk if I broke and talked."

"The Hokage told you that?" Sasuke asked.

"Not really, not in words. . . ."

"That will never happen," Naruto said flatly. "I'll never let that happen."

Sakura smiled faintly and looked down again.

"It was my choice to snoop around," she said a moment later. "It could have been worse--she could have stopped teaching me. She let me keep getting away with it."

"It's not that she let you," Sasuke replied, turning back to his food.

Naruto picked up on his emphasis a moment later. "It's that she couldn't really stop you from doing it anyway."

The three of them exchanged a look.

Naruto and Sakura both burst into snickers a moment later, and Sasuke looked away again with a half-smirk.

Kakashi lounged against the grass, watching the heirs to the legendary sannin carefully.

—

They each used an illusion to conceal their forehead protectors and weapon packs before stepping onto the road that led to Kamogaya, and mingled with another group of tourists entering the village. Sasuke used a larger illusion and changed the color of his hair.

An hour later, Kakashi had wandered along the main market area and collected information from several irate merchants about an increase in street urchin thefts in the past week and a half. Naruto and Sakura had gone with Sasuke to study the other area where Grassnins had been found dead, and then settled in a basic triangular formation around the market.

When Kakashi joined them and told Sakura the typical time when food would disappear from stalls, they shifted the formation to a square, and then sat down and waited. Kakashi kept half his attention on Sasuke; but the teenager, secreted in the space between a skylight and an awning on the hotel across from Kakashi's location, kept his face blank.

After forty minutes of waiting, wherein Kakashi had stretched all of his muscles carefully without moving too much and then started over again, beginning with his ankles, Sasuke shifted further into the space he was hidden in. Sakura, across from him, did the same, and when Naruto saw her move he echoed it. Kakashi shifted slightly, letting the shadows from the setting sun fall further over him.

Kakashi scanned the broad street, searching for a child or adolescent that looked furtive or otherwise likely to steal. He also studied several of the children running along the street that seemed to have absolutely no interest in their surroundings, and gave no inclination that they didn't have parents to take care of their meals.

It was in the latter group that he found the Soundnins, though first their own position was given away.

A bluebird, which had been quietly building a nest about two meters away from the place on the roof where Kakashi was located, suddenly dropped the grass in its mouth and began singing.

There was a shift from Sasuke's location, and then a shuriken left the bird a lump of bloody feathers. But by then a girl on the street had stopped and let out a shrill whistle. She managed to keep the noise up for a full second before two needles pierced her in the throat and a third one struck her in the back. Before she hit the ground, a boy who had been talking in a group a meter away grabbed her and began running out of the street. Seven more children scattered as well, in various directions.

Nine--all of them? Kakashi had enough time to process, and then he was off the roof and chasing down the three that were running closest to him. Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were already moving as well.

—

The three that Kakashi chased down weren't all one team--or at least, the two boys weren't. He never found out if the girl was teammates with either of them, because the taller boy shoved her to keep running and then the two stopped to fight him.

The taller boy used a scythe on a chain, and the shorter one a form of taijutsu that would have been potentially lethal, if it had flowed along with the first one's weapon. Even so, Kakashi got his arm slashed twice, and his back was barely spared a similar wound thanks to his vest, before he managed to disarm him and tangle the two up long enough to knock them unconscious. As soon as that was done, he grabbed them and rapidly ran out of the village, leaving a large amount of confused and shrieking people behind.

—

He met up with the others a quarter of a kilometer outside the village walls. Sakura had the girl with the needles in her throat thrown over her shoulder, and Sasuke had done the same with another boy. Naruto caught up with them a moment later, and he was gingerly carrying a second girl.

"Sakura-chan!" he called as soon as he was close enough to not have to yell too loudly. "Can you do something about her burns?"

Sakura let her breath out in a hiss when she saw the girl. "Let's get back to that hill."

They didn't take the road this time, and thus got there while the sun was still setting.

"What happened?" Sakura asked, dumping her girl beside Sasuke and kneeling next to Naruto's.

"One of the guys I was chasing threw a fireball at me," Naruto said. "I grabbed her while I was jumping back, but she caught the worst of it." He indicated his singed clothes.

Sakura pulled her medical kit out of her pack and started rummaging through it.

Naruto glanced over at Sasuke. "A really big fireball," he added. "And he was a small bastard, too; didn't come up to my shoulder, brown hair--"

"It doesn't matter if you describe him," Sasuke interrupted. He had dropped his boy as well, and had folded his arms as he watched Sakura work. "He'll have already changed by now."

Naruto frowned. "What?"

"His bloodline limit allows him to alter his DNA to resemble anyone he's managed to incorporate a sample of," Sasuke said unemotionally. "We won't find him."

Sakura whistled quietly at his first sentence, but didn't look up from the salve she was applying to the girl's face and arms.

". . . Who the hell is he?" Naruto demanded.

"My spare," Sasuke said. "I reached a point where I could land enough hits on Orochimaru that he acknowledged I might escape."

The complete blankness in his voice made even Naruto drop the subject.

Sakura finished applying the salve and had Naruto prop the girl up so she could quickly wrap her arms. Sasuke and Kakashi bound the other four children's hands, threading the rope around their fingers so they couldn't form any hand seals, and disarmed them while they were all still unconscious.

Sakura kept one eye on Sasuke as he removed the Soundnins' weapons, and noticed that none of the times did he take away that tiny, handleless blade she had seen him use before.

"Asshole," Naruto muttered to himself as Sakura taped a bandage over the worst part of the girl's face. "Treating his teammate like that. . . ."

"She isn't his teammate," Sasuke replied from where he was unstrapping a small knife from the ankle of the taller boy Kakashi had captured. "This one is. You missed the right girl--and she's the one that can summon birds."

"Screw you," Naruto snapped, "I was busy trying not to get set on fire."

"Guys," Sakura said flatly as she carefully maneuvered the girl's arms behind her back so Sasuke could tie her wrists and hands. Kakashi was removing the needles from the second girl's throat.

They stopped talking after that; and as soon as all five were tied up, Sakura took a small jar of liquid from her pack, poured several drops onto a cloth, and held it over the burned girl's nose and mouth. She repeated the process for the other four.

"That will keep them unconscious for several hours," she said as she put the bottle away. "I think we should get away from here and then use the time to sleep." She looked over at Kakashi, and he nodded.

—

They stopped at a copse of trees that was only a few hours from the Rain country border. Kakashi took the first shift, Sakura had the last, and she woke all of them up when the drug was close to wearing off.

"Why don't you just knock them unconscious again?" Naruto asked as he slung the boy Sasuke had caught over his shoulder.

"Later," Sakura replied, picking up the boy who'd had the scythe and the girl she'd hit with needles. "We have to feed and hydrate them first."

She asked Kakashi to carry the girl with the burns, because he had the most body mass to be able to drape her over his back without putting too much pressure on the wounds. Sasuke was left with the smaller boy of Kakashi's.

The girl with the burns regained consciousness first, while it was still dark. They paused for Sakura to reapply a little salve to her face and to force some water into her; and while that was going on, the boy Sasuke had been carrying began to stir.

Sakura made him drink as well, and then checked the other three. She seemed to have her doubts on whether the second girl was really still unconscious, but picked her up anyway.

Sasuke picked up the boy Sakura had also been carrying before she could. Then he hauled the boy he'd previously been carrying onto his feet.

"Walk," Sasuke told him. "If you try to run I'll slash your hamstrings."

The boy glared at him; but after he glanced around and saw that the rest of the children were still useless, he spat out, "Yes, Uchiha-sensei."

Sasuke shoved him in the back of the neck, and the boy started walking.

. . . Well, Kakashi thought as he watched Sakura and Naruto exchange glances, fuck.

—

By the time the sun had risen, all of the children had woken up, and they had noticed a raven was following them.

"Damn it," Naruto muttered, glaring up at the sky where the bird circled lazily. Sakura was struggling to make the boy who'd had the scythe drink. "Why don't you get rid of that thing?"

Sasuke was watching the sky as well, arms folded. "We'd just be throwing weapons away trying to hit it."

"Can't you hit it with a fireball?" Naruto asked

"Because sending that straight in the air certainly won't give away our position."

"So use one of those damn snakes!"

Sasuke looked over at him. "Do you expect me to throw the snake at it, idiot? Get one of your frogs to catch it with his tongue."

"No, asshole, just summon a big snake. You can do that, can't you?"

"Sure," Sasuke replied, "if you don't mind me turning it loose on a town afterward."

Kakashi glanced over, and Naruto looked at the other teenager. "What?"

"Any snake bigger than a meter demands human sacrifices," Sasuke said.

Sakura narrowed her eyes as the boy with the scythe spit out another mouthful of water. This time she forced the neck of the canteen between his lips and used it to tilt his head back slightly, and then pinched his nose shut. He just started at her, and after a moment Sakura's features shifted to a blank expression. She didn't let go of his nose.

". . . liar," Naruto finally replied. "The viper that's attached to your hip is at least twice that."

"Kyomamushi is an exception. He doesn't demand anything."

Naruto made a half-hearted attempt at a snicker. "Of course not, the damn thing's in love with you."

Sasuke made a rude gesture at him without unfolding his arms.

Naruto looked back up at the sky. "The frogs'll bitch if I summon them just to attack that puny thing," he said.

"Then shut up," Sasuke replied, watching Sakura and the boy continue their standoff from the corner of his eye.

Naruto returned the rude gesture and then shaded his eyes, still watching the bird. "Think we'll lose it in the rain?"

Sasuke pulled a kunai from his pack. "Probably not. Even if we do, she'll just send another one once we're out of it." He threw the kunai behind him.

It grazed the boy's arm. He gasped reflexively, and then sputtered and started to choke as he inhaled the water. Sakura pulled the canteen away and slapped him once on the back before stepping over to the unburned girl. Sakura gave her an expectant look, and Sasuke pulled another kunai out.

The girl drank the water without making trouble. Kakashi tossed the kunai back to Sasuke, and he wiped it off and put it away.

—

They were almost within sight of the Rain country border when they were attacked.

It wasn't the work of the refugee Soundnins, Kakashi noted as he dodged a handful of shuriken and flung the scythe into one of the ninja's throats. He wrenched on the chain, ripping the weapon out, and was immediately confronted with another ninja. These were adults.

The ninjas that had attacked them were actually targeting the Soundnin children. The girl that Kakashi had been carrying was already dead, multiple kunai and shurikens embedded in her flesh. The ninjas were also conspicuously lacking forehead protectors.

They're not that good, he noted, and abandoned the scythe when it stuck into another of the attacker's ribs and wouldn't come out easily. Chuunin level. No distinctive weapons, no distinctive hand seals. It was only because they had come in such a large number--ten or twelve, possibly fifteen--that they had managed to split the team up.

This was a suicide mission, Kakashi realized, as he dodged three kunai to his shoulder and got close enough to break the arm of the ninja who'd thrown them. They had to kill the children without giving their village allegiance away.

He broke the right leg of the ninja as well, and then kicked him in the head hard enough to leave him temporarily unconscious. The rest of the ninjas in his area were dead, so he moved rapidly to Sakura's location.

Sakura wasn't comfortable fighting in such a wide open space, so she'd immediately used a genjutsu to create trees. Three of the four ninjas cancelled that, though, so she went with the next best move and had torn up the landscape until there were pits and chunks of rocks for her to work with.

When Kakashi arrived, he didn't see Sakura. Instead, he found one of the ninjas attacking his companions. The only really interesting detail about that was the fact that the man was bleeding considerably from a kunai jammed in his throat.

A genjutsu . . . or did the Hokage teach her that--

One of the ninjas dived at him, aiming a kick with a leg that already had two shurikan stuck in it. Kakashi caught it, twisted, and threw him to the side before attacking one of the others.

He had just swept the ninja's feet out from beneath her and slammed a kick into her chest hard enough that the crack was audible, when Naruto bellowed "Sakura-chan!"

Kakashi turned his head and saw five things at once. One, Sakura had concealed herself in a pit caused by the damage to the terrain; two, the ninja he had thrown aside had spotted her and had managed to wrap a wire around one of her legs; three, the ninja with the kunai in his throat was sliding forward to place himself between Sakura and the attacker; four, Naruto and two clones were diving at the attacker; and five, Sasuke had his katana out and was jumping over the huge clods of dirt to reach the area.

Kakashi threw two kunai into the back of the last ninja, who had been about to take advantage off all the movement to fling a few stolen shuriken at both Sakura and Sasuke. Past him, one of the Narutos threw another at the attacker. When the second Naruto ungracefully bodyslammed the man, the third one caught him before he could fall and threw him towards Sasuke.

The man hit the ground in front of Sasuke on his knees, and before gravity could pitch him forward, Sasuke had driven the katana into his heart. The teenager wrenched the sword to the right, tearing it out of the man's ribcage and gouging partly into his arm. Then he kicked the ninja in the chest, sending him backwards and dislodging him completely from the katana.

Sakura had already snapped the wire. One of the Narutos had attacked the ninja with the kunai in his throat, apparently not having noticed that the man was already dead. The ninja, now that Sakura's hands were no longer in a seal, was being thrown around like a rag doll.

No one else was moving besides the four of them. They each scouted the area anyway.

After several seconds passed and their adrenaline was slowing enough that they could be comfortable with the thought of the fight being over, Kakashi looked around more casually.

"I don't suppose any of you left one or two alive?" he asked.

Sasuke knelt next to one of the dead ninjas and began cleaning off his katana with their shirt. "No."

Sakura bit her lip as she unwrapped the wire from around her leg. "No . . . sorry." She finished untangling it from the torn cloth of her pants and pulling it out of the leather of her shin guards, and tossed it away. "They seemed so weak, and I had this jutsu I wanted to try . . . I didn't think."

"That's a spywork jutsu," Sasuke said, checking the blade for remainders of blood. "You shouldn't use it in a fight."

"I know, I know," Sakura said sheepishly, as she stood up and stamped her leg against the ground a few times. "It's my worst habit, wanting to try something. Tsunade-sensei says it's going to get me killed."

"Don't joke," Sasuke said flatly. He slid his katana back into its sheath. "I managed to keep one of the Soundnins alive," he added to Kakashi, jerking his head in the direction he'd come from.

"Same here," Sakura said, pulling the girl she'd attacked with needles--whom she'd knocked unconscious again--out of the pit.

The Naruto clones disappeared, and the real one scratched the back of his head. "Mine got killed," he said. "But I did leave one of these bastards alive!"

"Good," Kakashi told the three of them.

When he went back to the area he'd been fighting in, he found that the ninja he'd left alive hadn't stayed unconscious as long as he'd expected and had killed himself with a stray kunai. Kakashi sighed in annoyance and followed Naruto to where he said he'd pinned one of the ninjas.

Sakura was dragging the girl with her, and Sasuke had gone back to collect the smaller of the two boys that Kakashi had fought. They met up with Naruto and Kakashi just in time to find the last ninja dead from a kunai through the neck.

Sasuke snorted. "Next time, try pinning him through the foot instead of the throat."

Naruto was crouched next to the body and barely bothered to wave Sasuke off. "This isn't--I changed that jutsu, dammit! It was supposed to just hold him!"

Kakashi studied the corpse carefully. "Naruto . . . was this the Body Flicker jutsu?"

Naruto looked over at him. "Huh? How'd you--yeah, it was. But it wasn't supposed to kill him!"

"I don't think it can be modified the way you were trying," Kakashi told him.

Naruto glared at the ninja as if it were his fault for getting killed.

Sakura was carrying the girl under one arm, and picking up several shurikan with her free hand. "Were these Grassnins?" she asked, looking at Kakashi.

"Probably," Kakashi said. "But they made sure not to confirm it." He looked around one last time. "Pick up your weapons quickly--a cleanup group will be here soon."

Sakura and Naruto nodded, and began collecting more of the weapons. Sasuke tossed the boy he was carrying at Naruto and headed back to the area Sakura had been in before the blond could yell at him. Kakashi followed a few moments later, picking up the various kunai and shuriken strewn around on his way.

The raven was pecking at the earring of the boy who had had the scythe. Sasuke shooed it back and checked his pulse.

A moment later he pulled a kunai out of the boy's chest and used it to cut of a lock of hair. He tossed it at the bird.

The raven didn't deign to pick it up. "That ain't good enough."

Sasuke unfastened the earring that it had been pecking at and tossed it on top of the hair. Then he stood. "Go. And tell them to stay away."

The raven made a strange cawing noise that might have been a laugh. Sasuke slit his thumb on the edge of the kunai and said nothing.

The bird ruffled its feathers once, but picked up the hair and earring in its beak and began to fly off.

Sasuke slammed his hand against the ground, and a moment later two vipers appeared, one small and one large.

"Follow it," he told them, indicating the bird. "Keep Ichiro out of Fire country if he heads that way."

"Where's the please, brat?" the smaller viper said, but then Kyomamushi hissed. The smaller viper curled away.

"Fine," it said. "You want us to kill him?"

Kakashi watched Sasuke start.

Whether he would have said no or yes, or whether he would have hesitated, Kakashi wouldn't know. Kyomamushi said "It's getting away," and shoved the other viper with its head. The two of them took off through the grass.

By the time Sasuke had wiped the kunai off on the grass, his thumb off on the cuff of his pants, and turned around and started walking towards Naruto and Sakura, his face was set in its usual expression. He didn't look over at Kakashi.

They collected all the weapons they'd used, cleaned them enough to return them to their packs, and then took off toward the border before a second group could arrive.

——

Because the ninjas who'd attacked hadn't given away their village affiliation, Kakashi didn't want to ignore the slight chance that they had come from the Hidden Rain, a village which wasn't too far and which could better afford to throw away such a large group of shinobi on a suicide mission for whatever reason. He had the team jump the border instead of going through customs.

They stopped twice for fifteen minutes to eat and take care of other business, and once for twenty minutes to force water and one meal into the two remaining Soundnins. Even with the extra hour they added to skirt widely around the Hidden Rain, they had almost cut across the whole of the Rain country and were near the border of Wind country when they had to stop for the night.

The country lived up to its name. The area around the border had been soggy marshland, and they weren't far into the country before the path they were cutting ran through a lot of mossy undergrowth. A medium drizzle had started a few hours before the sun began to set.

They built a rough shelter out of brush and tree branches, which did very little to keep the rain off and absolutely nothing to make the ground any dryer. The girl Soundnin bitched about being stuck in the wettest corner until Sakura drugged her and the other one again.

Sasuke had the first shift, but he'd only been sitting up for twenty minutes when Naruto sat down next to him.

"Go to sleep," Sasuke said.

"Can't," Naruto replied. "It gets pissy whenever I use one of the Fourth's jutsus."

Sasuke glanced at him from the corner of his eyes. "That was one of the Fourth's?"

"Jiraiya taught it to me and Kakashi-sensei recognized it," Naruto said. "Whose else would it be?"

Sasuke nodded once in agreement, and Naruto added in a quieter voice, "Are you sure you want to do this?"

The other teenager didn't reply for a long time, and checked that Kakashi was really asleep before he did. "It's not like I can turn back now, idiot."

"That's not what I meant," Naruto said flatly. "These kids--you know them, don't--?"

"I don't care," Sasuke replied.

"But--"

"I don't care," he repeated, folding his arms. "A shinobi doesn't let his emotions interfere with his job. You might suck a lot less if you'd realize that."

"Yeah, yeah," Naruto muttered, "the mission is the most important thing, and a ninja is a tool without a heart, and that's all bullshit."

Sasuke didn't reply. Naruto watched him for a few minutes, and finally slouched forward slightly. "I know what's riding on this mission," he said. "But, still . . . are you sure you're okay?"

"I don't care," Sasuke said for the third time.

Naruto stared out at the drizzle and the undergrowth that they had stopped in for the night. Then he stretched and jerked a thumb over his shoulder, towards the shelter. "I'm not gonna get to sleep for a while. Trade with me; I've got third shift."

Sasuke stood up and moved to the shelter, leaving him there.

——

The drizzle became a downpour by early afternoon. The bridge on the road to the Sand border was closed, and they were obliged to turn back and rent a room in a small village that was off the main road. They used an illusion to make the two Soundnins look like adults resembling Sakura and Naruto, which lessened the questions slightly. Locking themselves in the room and not leaving except when Kakashi gave Sakura his purse and asked her to bring back whatever passed for good food in the place really lessened the questions (at least the ones directed at them), but didn't do much for anyone's restlessness.

Sakura brought a deck of playing cards back with the boxed meals. She told Kakashi she'd reimburse him, but he said as long as it made Naruto stop pacing, it wouldn't be necessary. Sasuke said something to her as he helped pull the bentos out of the bag, but Kakashi didn't hear it over the noise they made setting the boxes down.

Kakashi wrung out his vest as best he could and loaned it to Sakura so she could let her shirt dry without having to wear only her fishnet and bra. She threw a chopstick at Naruto when he suggested they play strip poker since they were all half-naked anyway.

He left the room briefly when night fell, reusing the henge that concealed his mask and forehead protector, and bought a drink at the small bar beside the inn. The owner said that the rain looked like it was clearing up, and would be over before the night was done. When Kakashi asked whether the bridge would be open by then, the man said it was likely--they built bridges high in Rain country.

Kakashi went back to the room soon after, and broke up the poker game before the rounds could reach triple digits. He told them to get sleep now, since they'd be leaving before dawn. The Soundnins were already asleep in a corner, and Sakura said she had drugged them early so they'd stop interrupting the game.

Kakashi thought back to the words Sasuke had said to her that he couldn't hear, and didn't believe it.

He nodded, though, and a few minutes later nodded again when Sasuke said he would take first shift. He noticed that Sakura and Naruto's bedrolls had been set down between the window and his while he was shaving in the bathroom, but couldn't tell if Naruto was involved or if Sakura had just laid them out herself.

For the first half hour, Sasuke did nothing but sit by the window, watching the rain slacken and sharpening a few of his kunai and his katana. Kakashi let himself half-doze, his back to the teenagers.

But then Sasuke put the katana back in the sheath and opened the window, just a fraction, just enough that the rain was loud enough to partially cover a quiet conversation. Kakashi woke up fully, but kept his muscles relaxed and his breathing mimicking sleep.

Sasuke might not have noticed, or he might have. He made no indication either way.

"Hey," the girl said after the window had been open for a few minutes. "I'm thirsty."

There was the sound of rummaging, a canteen being opened, and bare feet on the wood floor. Sasuke only let the girl drink a few swallows before recapping the canteen and moving back to his previous seat by the window.

"They're going to torture us for information, aren't they?" the girl asked a minute later.

"Yes," Sasuke said.

The girl blew her bangs away from her face. Kakashi heard a few thumps against the floor soon after, and guessed that she was pushing herself up to a sitting position--probably using the wall, since her arms were tied behind her back.

"Is that bastard--" she broke off. "No, you wouldn't care."

"Kazuo is dead," Sasuke said.

There was a long pause. ". . . How did. . . ?" the girl asked suspiciously.

"I don't remember your name," Sasuke said, and his voice reverberated slightly as he glanced out the window, "but you were the girl that Kazuo was pretending to change his class records for."

"Pretending?"

"He wouldn't have lied to Orochimaru-sama for trash like you," Sasuke said without malice. "But he put in a request that you be kept out of the experiment cages for a few extra months."

The girl let out a long, shuddery breath. "Was fucking him for nothing . . ." she muttered. And then: "Did you tell Ichiro about that?"

"Why would you think that?" Sasuke asked neutrally.

Another pause. "The same night you disappeared, he showed up at my house and said he and his team were leaving, and I could come with him. I talked him into bringing the guys and asking if Isamu's team wanted to go." There was another pause, and Sasuke just looked at her. "They agreed, too . . . it wasn't really an offer you could turn down and live."

Sasuke 'ch'ed. "That's why there were so many of you? I was wondering why he thought he could keep such a large group secret."

"It wasn't too hard . . . but then that other group showed up."

"He didn't invite them, too?"

She snorted. "Hell no, what, you thought we would believe we could take fifteen people out of Oto? I don't know when they left, but we told them to stay away from us."

Sasuke brought a leg up and rested his arm on it. "It didn't work. You should have just kicked them out of the country or fled it."

She glared at him. "It wasn't that simple! The damn Hidden Grass had invited them, too, so we had to pretend we were all going to get along."

Sasuke took that important bit of news in stride. "'Get along'? Like any of you assholes have ever done that."

She scuffed her heel quietly along the floor at him, the closest to an insulting gesture she could make with her arms behind her and the noise restraint on their conversation. "They didn't need to know that. We just had to keep them happy unt--"

She stopped suddenly, and Sasuke just looked at her again.

". . . If I tell you, and we get attacked again, will you let us die?" she asked.

"No," Sasuke replied. "My full reinstatement to the Leaf depends on this mission."

There was a faint thud as the girl leaned back against the wall. "Then I don't know anything," she said.

After a long pause, she added: "It was all Ichiro's plan from the minute we left, finding some normal work in other countries until things were settled and we looked old enough to get freelance work. We just went along since his team could beat all of us into the ground if they'd tried."

"Right," Sasuke said. He let his leg drop and settled into a cross-legged position, glancing out the window again.

He pushed the window open a little further, making the sound of the rain a little louder, before saying, "Tell the Sand that and they'll kill you relatively quick."

"Really are the soft one . . ." she snickered derisively, and then, "No. Isamu managed to escape."

"Ichiro will have already taken everyone to somewhere he knows you five wouldn't have thought about," Sasuke said. "A boy isn't worth getting tortured for. Give the Sand your old plan and take the quick death."

". . . I can still buy him some time to get further," she replied.

The other Soundnin, the boy, spoke for the first time. His voice was muffled because he didn't look up. "Stop acting like you give a damn, you fucking asshole."

When Sasuke didn't bother to reply, he continued. "Kazuo was your teammate, you traitor. All that bullshit you told us that day, I actually listened . . . I could have gotten away."

"Those four were never my teammates," Sasuke replied. "They were just people I worked with."

There was a scrape along the floor, and the boy's voice was no longer muffled. "Why are you getting away with this? We were born there. You came."

"Keep your voice down, idiot!" the girl hissed.

"Because my blood is worth more than yours," Sasuke replied.

"It's not fair!" the boy snapped.

This time, Sasuke's voice bordered on amused. "Where the hell are you from again?" he asked. "Life isn't fair."

"You--"

"Oh, shut up, Akino," the girl said. "Take it like a man."

The boy muttered several curses under his breath, until Sasuke closed the window. Then the three of them were silent.

Sasuke woke Sakura an hour later. Kakashi didn't fall asleep until he heard her drug the Soundnins and settle into place beside the window.

—

Now that he knew it had been the Hidden Grass behind the attack, Kakashi could have had the team cross through the border like normal--except that if the Hidden Rain checked the records, there would be no notice of them having entered the country. Kakashi decided to jump the second border and, if the question ever came up, say they looped through Fire country. The rainstorm had added enough time that it would be believable, and the guards stationed at the borders of every country knew to lie when their ninja village told them to.

They traveled through a hanging valley that dropped into the riverbed area which separated Rain from Wind, and met the team from the Sand on the other side of the river. They were shepherding one child and one man, the latter of whom had his throat wrapped with a swath of bandages.

"They attacked you, too?" the leader called as they approached. Kakashi nodded.

"He isn't talking yet," the man said, indicating the adult, and then jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the boy, "but this one told us that it was the Hidden Grass who sent them."

"Ha," Kakashi said, making his voice sound like he was grinning, "we could have taken the normal roads, then."

The other man shrugged a shoulder. "Better safe. . . . I figured the only way to work the timing would be to say we cut through Fire," he added.

When the two groups met up completely, Akino hissed "Coward" at the boy. The girl spit at the ground near him, causing one of the Sandnins to push the boy to the opposite side of himself, away from them. Sasuke ignored all three.

"That's what I was going to state as well," Kakashi said. "Should we say we met up in the Grass?"

The Sandnin leader nodded, and both the groups began the last leg of the trip, to Suna.

—

The Soundnins were driving Kakashi mad.

The two that his team had brought back were bullying the one the Sand had caught whenever they got the chance. The three of them threw insults at each other the entire time they were moving, they kicked or tripped him whenever they managed to get close enough, and when the group stopped to eat lunch, Akino kicked the food Sakura had been about to the feed the Sand's boy out of her hands. And Sasuke always seemed to have his back turned when something happened. Kakashi was not looking forward to the next day or day and a half.

Though, things had settled down somewhat after Sakura had punched Akino in the cheek and then refused to heal the broken bone. Now it was just the girl and the Sand's boy tossing insults back and forth, but they did it in quieter voices and only when Sakura was at least a meter away.

"Do something about them," Kakashi heard her whisper irritatedly to Sasuke.

He didn't reply to her demand until they set up camp for the night.

"Heh," Naruto said, looking up at the sky as he threw out his bedroll. "That bird's gone. And you said we wouldn't lose it in the rain."

"It didn't follow us into the country," Sasuke replied, eschewing an insult since the Sandnins were just to their left. "Didn't you pay attention?"

"Then what did happen to it?"

"She sent it to keep track of her teammate," Sasuke said, tossing his bedroll flat. "He got killed, so it went back. These ones don't mean anything."

"Fuck you too," the boy the Sand had captured muttered.

"Shut up, you son of a non-shinobi whore," the girl replied angrily. "You don't have the right to talk to us anymore."

"Children," Sasuke said, suddenly, in a voice that was thirty-seven years too old for him. "I've tolerated this for long enough. Behave properly."

Kakashi froze.

Naruto hissed at Sasuke under his breath. Sakura glanced at Kakashi before narrowing her eyes and glaring at him as well.

There was a long silence, and then the Sand's boy whispered, "I'm sorry."

"Be quiet," Sasuke replied, still using Orochimaru's voice.

After that, the Soundnins were as silent as if they were already dead.

Kakashi took first shift, along with one of the Sandnins named Komaza. About half an hour in, he noticed a movement from the area where the rest of his team was sleeping. He turned his head slightly and watched as Naruto rolled onto his opposite side, tossing his arms out as he did and punching Sasuke hard in the shoulder.

Sasuke scooted away slightly, and at that, Sakura stretched and kicked him in the shin with her heel.

Sasuke made a disgruntled noise and tucked his legs closer. Sakura yawned, keeping her back to him. Naruto snorted and shifted back onto his other side, and Sasuke stretched out enough to elbow him under his ribcage.

Kakashi couldn't help rolling his eyes.

—

A day later, they reached Suna a little before noon. The Sandnin team led the way to the jail.

The transfer went over relatively quiet--Kakashi and the Sandnins' leader did the talking--and since it was a delegated mission, the Sand was the one that would have to file the majority of the paperwork.

Behind him, Sakura asked one of the police who were transferring the Soundnins into handcuffs if she could speak to the medicnin in charge of the jail.

The officer gave her a confused look. "I don't think we have one of those . . . we just transfer the really sick ones straight to the hospital and keep a guard over them."

"Ah, no," Sakura clarified, "I meant. . . ." She pursed her lips, trying to find the right term. "The medicnin who will handle those four."

Sasuke tapped Naruto on the shoulder. "Let's go."

"Huh?" Naruto said, looking over at him. "Kakashi-sensei isn't done with--"

"Oh!" the officer said. "You mean the medicnin in charge of torture?"

After a brief start, Sakura clasped her hands behind her back and nodded. The officer left, and Sakura stared at the hallway he had gone through.

Naruto started to ask a question, and Sasuke kicked him subtly--but hard--in the heel. When the blond turned to glare at him, Sasuke had his hands in his pockets and was studying the papers that lined the wall next to them.

Kakashi had just finished scrawling out his notes on the Grassnins' attack and the claim of going through Fire country rather than Rain, when the officer returned with another man.

"Can I help you?" he asked, after the officer indicated Sakura.

She opened the pack on her leg, and a moment later removed a small, handleless blade. She held it out to the medicnin.

"I took this from the female Soundnin, but you need to search for these on the two males. We captured a couple spies from the Sound a few years ago, and these were so small that they didn't turn up when we despoiled them," she explained. "And while we were working on the first one, the second cut out her tongue and tried to sever her wrist before the blood loss killed her."

"Ah," the medicnin said, taking the blade from Sakura and eying it carefully.

Sakura paused briefly, giving Sasuke a chance to state where the blades were likely to be hidden. He continued to study the posters on the wall.

"Thank you," the medicnin said, giving her a quick nod. She returned it.

". . . Aren't you a little young to be trained in this area?" he added, raising an eyebrow.

Sakura just smiled and shrugged a shoulder.

Kakashi finally finished signing his name and set the pen down, before handing the paper to another officer. "Does that cover enough?"

He skimmed the notes and nodded. "This is sufficient. Thank you for your help with this mission."

"Thank you for contacting us on it," Kakashi replied, and then looked to his team. They headed for the door; and Kakashi overlooked the fact that Sakura deliberately stepped to the opposite side of Sasuke, keeping away from Naruto.

They were only a couple meters from the police station when someone started calling them. Kakashi turned to see a young man striding up.

He gave the whole group a quick but deep bow, and then explained: "The Kazekage has invited the four of you to lunch . . . if you haven't eaten already?"

Sasuke noticed Sakura tense beside him, but when he glanced to the side, her face was politely unreadable.

"Heeeey!" Naruto said, shouldering his pack and grinning. "Sure! Let's go!"

He glanced at Kakashi, who nodded. Sasuke and Sakura followed the two of them.

—

Gaara had changed in the past three years. It was harder to read his face now.

But, in Kakashi's opinion, unreadable was better than the homicidal look that had been there previously, so he kept his mouth shut and just ate. Sasuke wasn't prone to talking during meals, and Sakura--after politely thanking Gaara for the good food--didn't seem inclined to chatter either. That left Naruto to carry the conversation, but neither he nor Gaara seemed to mind.

All of them had finished eating over ten minutes ago, but Naruto was still in the middle of one of his stories, while Gaara was listening with an expression Kakashi would have almost called a bemused smile.

Kakashi hadn't heard this one before, and was wondering how the hell Naruto and Jiraiya had managed to do so much within less than a year and a half--and when they had actually had time to train. And why they hadn't been arrested at least a dozen times over. But, considering that the story involved a bordello, at least he was no longer wishing it was appropriate to read at a kage's dinner table.

"So then," Naruto continued, using his chopsticks for emphasis, "the bastard uses an illusion and suddenly I can't tell him from all the other women running around and screaming their heads off--and that pervert sannin was still nowhere to be found. And damn, but it was noisy! Women scream so freaking loud."

"Oi," Sakura said.

"Well, it's true!" he defended, turning to look at her. Then Naruto finally noticed that everyone else was done, too. He set his chopsticks on the plate.

"Were you planning to stay a night here, or to head back immediately?" Gaara asked.

Kakashi sat up slightly. "It would probably be better if we leave today--we were already thrown off our expected time because of that rainstorm."

Gaara looked at Sasuke, who looked back impassively. Then he nodded once and stood up.

"Oh, hey," Naruto said as he shoved his chair under the table, "there was something else I needed to tell you. Do you have anywhere private?"

"Yes. Ask someone to take you to my office," Gaara told him. "I'll be there immediately."

"'My office,'" Naruto repeated as they started to leave the room. He pointed a finger at Gaara over his shoulder. "I'm gonna be saying that one day too, so don't be gloating about getting there first!"

"I wasn't . . ." Gaara started to say, but Naruto was already out the door.

He dropped the sentence and instead said: "Sakura. Sasuke."

They both turned. Kakashi paused just outside the door.

". . . Thank you," Gaara told them. "For what you did for him."

For a moment, a genuine smile almost curved on Sakura's lips. But then she bowed and said "Thanks," and started to leave. Kakashi moved out of the way, and Sasuke faintly nodded before leaving as well.

When they were almost at the courtyard of the Kazekage's tower, Sasuke said quietly, "It would be easier to claim his debt if you acted like you could stand being in the same room with him."

"He tried to kill Lee," Sakura said flatly and just as quietly.

"He tried to kill all of us," Sasuke reminded her.

"I could have forgiven that," she replied. "Lee did, I know that. If it had just been me, I could forgive. . . ." Her fingers curled up slightly. "But he crippled him. If . . . if Tsunade-sensei had refused to come back to Konoha. . . ."

Sakura seemed to notice her hand then, and uncurled her fingers and didn't continue.

Sasuke could have mentioned that it had been Lee's own decision to use a forbidden jutsu in his fight against Gaara, but he wasn't hypocritical enough to interfere in other people's hatred. Kakashi felt the subject would be better discussed out of Suna.

—

It barely took a quarter of an hour for Naruto to meet up with them again.

"You were right," he told Sakura once they were past Suna's walls. "He told me they'd found a spy that had been brainwashed by one of Akatsuki several months ago. They've been on watch since then."

She started to nod, but Kakashi stopped dead.

"What?" he said, looking at the two of them. "Akatsuki has been hunting Gaara, too?"

Naruto nodded. "He said that's what it looks like."

Kakashi focused on Sakura. "And you suspected that they were targeting more than one of the bijuu?"

Sakura gave him a confused look. "'Bijuu'?"

Kakashi eyed the three teenagers around him, and then glanced at the walls of Suna before looking back at Sakura. "What was it you were right about?"

She shifted on her feet slightly. "There . . . a few months ago, Tsunade-sensei had these coded letters from the Sand on her desk. Most of the translations I did were pretty mangled, but I got that it was something about Gaara and Akatsuki . . . until she started taking them home with her," Sakura added. "And when I mentioned it to Naruto, he told me about that badger demon."

Kakashi wanted to ask if she was trying to get Tsunade to reject her as a student, but now the question had more meaning that it would have had fifteen minutes or an hour ago. "Ah," was all he said.

"What are bijuu?" Naruto asked.

Kakashi pursed his lips, enough that it was visible beneath the mask. ". . . You'll have to ask Tsunade-sama to tell you," he finally said, and started moving again. Sasuke fell in pace behind him, and Sakura once again moved so that he was between her and Naruto.

She frowned even as she did so. "What? Kakashi-sensei, why?"

"I don't have the authority to tell you," he replied.

"But--"

Naruto cut her off. "I get it," he said. He looked over at Kakashi. "But why's she still pretending there's a point to keeping this secret, now?"

"There was more to it than just the fox demon," the man explained vaguely.

Naruto let out a low, irritated breath, but didn't push it.

——

Sakura had first shift that night. As soon as Naruto was certain that Kakashi and Sasuke were both asleep, he got up and sat down next to her.

She wouldn't look at him, so Naruto stayed where he was and didn't speak. It wasn't easy, but it helped that he couldn't figure out what was the right thing to say until she explained.

It took several long minutes of silence, but finally Sakura shifted into a cross-legged position and folded her hands on her lap. She still didn't look over.

"I told you . . ." she said quietly. "There were . . . there's some things that you wouldn't like me for anymore."

"I think some of the jerk's stupidity has worn off on you," Naruto replied, and she tensed. A moment later, he elbowed her arm gently until she finally glanced at him.

"I told you," Naruto replied, looking her in the eyes, "nothing could make me hate Sakura-chan."

She blinked.

About half a minute later, Sakura finally looked away. She pulled her legs up to her chest and draped her arms over her knees, and stared out at the dunes on the horizon.

"You should get some sleep," she said. "Your turn is next."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Really worn off," he said with a smile as he stood up.

She smiled slightly in reply, but kept her face forward.

——

Things were mostly normal for the rest of the trip, until Naruto began acting oddly a few hours after they started moving on the second day.

"What is it?" Kakashi called after the teenager had glanced behind him for the twelfth time.

". . . it's nothing," Naruto said.

Kakashi raised his visible eyebrow.

"I have the feeling we're being followed," Naruto explained.

Sakura glanced behind her, and then over at him. "I don't sense anyone."

"Me neither," Sasuke replied a moment later, after checking.

"I can't smell anyone but us," Kakashi said.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah. Okay."

He didn't sound convinced, though; and Kakashi noticed that he was still glancing behind and beside him as they moved, just a little more subtly now.

Finally Kakashi tugged his mask down enough that his nose wasn't covered. He felt the usual flash of irritation when he flinched reflexively at the sudden increase of sensory input, but checked the air.

"There's nothing out here," Kakashi said, pulling the mask up again. "Just us."

Naruto nodded, and stopped looking around.

——

Naruto had the second watch that night. When he traded off with Kakashi, he waited for several minutes after he was certain the man had fallen asleep before shaking Sakura awake. He hesitated a second before waking Sasuke up as well, by kicking him in the soles of his shoes.

He motioned for them to follow him, and they settled in a tree that was far and high enough they wouldn't be overheard, but still close enough that they could see Kakashi and anyone who would have been coming up to him.

"Make a barrier," Naruto said when Sasuke landed on the branch.

Sasuke reflexively gave him an irritated look for the order, but did so. He had to borrow several of Sakura's kunais to seal off the space below them as well as around and above, and told them not to let their feet dangle.

A few minutes later, he eyed the kunai jammed into the trunk above Naruto's head. "The angles are too awkward. A strong attack will break it."

"Can anyone hear us?" Naruto asked.

"No."

"Then it's good enough. We're being followed," Naruto told them. "By foxes."

They didn't even get a chance to speak. Naruto shook his head at their looks. "I swear--he says they're there. He says they're invisible, that's why nobody can see them. I can't, either, but I can kind of feel them."

"It," Sakura said quietly.

"Right," Naruto said. "It. Yeah. It says they've been following us pretty much since we left the Sand."

Sakura made a small hand motion. "But . . . invisible foxes? Like . . . what, like a genjutsu?"

Naruto shook his head. "I don't think a genjutsu would last this long. Or if it did, wouldn't you or Kakashi-sensei have noticed by now? And, hell, it's only been us--there hasn't been anyone to catch me in one. They're real, they're just. . . ."

"Do you mean fox spirits?" Sasuke said.

Naruto scratched his head. "Maybe?"

"Well, ask whether they're real or spirits."

"Don't just say that like it's easy!" Naruto snapped at him. Sasuke didn't change his expression.

A moment later Naruto snarled something under his breath and pulled a leg up to his chest. He rested his arm on his knee and hid his face behind it.

Sakura and Sasuke waited. Sakura kneaded her fingers against the old bark of the tree. Sasuke kept a hand near the pack containing his shurikens.

". . . He says they're kitsune-tsukai," Naruto said a few minutes later. He looked at Sasuke. "What are kitsune-tsukai? He's being insulting about them."

Sasuke frowned. "Are you sure?"

"Yes I'm fucking sure," Naruto answered.

"They're. . . ." Sasuke shifted to a sitting position, still frowning as he tried to remember old information. "Chartered fox spirits," he said. "They're supposedly bound to a person who can control them and give them orders. A kitsune-mochi," he said, recalling the term.

Naruto snorted slightly. "Where did you learn all this junk?"

"I made Tayuya tell me everything she knew about foxes when I learned about you," Sasuke replied.

Naruto's fingers curled slightly.

". . . That was useful," Sakura ventured.

"It was like eating glass," Sasuke said. "They shouldn't be here. All onmyouji and animal spirit users were practically exterminated decades ago."

". . . oh! Right!" Sakura said. "That was mentioned in our history class. Before the Great Ninja War started, they were cleared out first. It was . . . Lightning country they evacuated to, since it doesn't border any of the other major ninja countries."

Sasuke gave her a sideways look. Naruto blinked.

"You remember stuff from that far back?" he asked.

"It was interesting," Sakura said in her defense. ". . . And Iruka-sensei said he would include it on one of the tests."

Sasuke and Naruto just stared at her. Sakura made an annoyed face. "Well, I didn't remember it until Sasuke used onmyoujutsu during the surgery! I went and looked it back up after that."

Naruto looked like he wasn't sure whether to laugh or call her a nerd. Sasuke just glanced back at Kakashi.

"It's illegal to use that kind of majutsu in any of the countries," she added. ". . . I think even Lightning forbids it, since it's so dangerous to others?" She looked at Sasuke. He shrugged a shoulder to show he didn't know that much.

Naruto frowned. "Then why are they here? Who would be able to. . . ."

Akatsuki.

The three of them were silent for a few moments.

"So now what?" Naruto asked, looking at Sakura.

"We should get back to Konoha as fast as possible," she said. She glanced at Sasuke. "Can the foxes do anything to us?"

Sasuke still had his face turned away. "I can't think of anything," he said after considering it.

Sakura pushed herself into a crouch. "Then, we're only half a day away. Let's wake Kakashi-sensei up and run for it."

Sasuke started pulling the kunais free, breaking the barrier.

—

Kakashi didn't look entirely believing of their explanation--especially since magic users had been dispelled from Fire country before even he was old enough to go on the battlefield--but he was willing to believe that there was someone out there chasing Naruto. And when it came to Akatsuki, frankly, anything went.

He said as long as they stopped so he could catch a fifteen minute nap around dawn, they could make it back to Konoha by late morning.

——

They were half an hour from Konoha when they were attacked again. The ninjas still lacked forehead protectors, but this time they used hand seals common to the Hidden Grass, and some were carrying scythes.

Some of the chuunin looked weary, and Kakashi suspected they had been running all the way from Kusa. Other of the chuunin looked scared, and Kakashi learned why ten minutes in.

There were three groups of four, each which approached from different angles. The groups had been poorly put together--there were imbalances of taijutsu and ninjutsu users in each one. There were also two jounin leading the groups, and another man (who probably would have been a jounin if he'd had the time to polish his skills and tactics) leading the third; and when it became obvious that they were going to lose, they started killing off their chuunins in the midst of fighting the four of them.

Kakashi was both glad and annoyed to have his team underestimated. The Grassnins' tactic of overwhelming them with numbers was automatically nullified because of Naruto's presence. If he had been more tired . . . if Naruto hadn't managed to regain enough chakra control that he wasn't draining his stamina with the smallest tasks . . . if Sakura had still been in unfamiliar terrain . . . then there might have been trouble.

Kakashi was old enough to prefer a quick slaughter to a straining fight, but he didn't like being held up by such sloppy planning. If he had had the time, he would have been irritated.

He didn't have the time because Sasuke had disappeared--Allowed himself to be separated from the rest of us, Kakashi corrected--with the almost-jounin.

Kakashi noticed from the corner of his eye that Naruto used the Body Flicker jutsu to pin one of the chuunin before joining Sakura, who was trying to keep the second jounin from killing off the rest of the chuunins. Then Kakashi's attention was distracted by the first jounin, who had recognized him.

Sometimes it sucked to be famous, Kakashi thought to himself, as he dodged a scythe.

Despite the imbalance of power between the Grass and the Leaf, the jounin were still jounin. The fight was messy, and everyone was bleeding by the end, even if Naruto healed quickly enough that it wasn't very noticeable.

"Damn!" the blond swore as he stared down at the dead chuunin. He started to run a hand through his hair before remembering there was blood on it. "Maybe if I shift that last seal. . . ."

"This one's going to die," Sakura said, examining the jounin that she and Naruto had been fighting.

"Well, there's still this one," Kakashi said, pointing a thumb at the jounin he had pinned down with wires and the chain of the scythe. He wanted to scan the area for Sasuke, but as long as the Grassnin was conscious, he wouldn't risk looking away.

When Sasuke did rejoin them soon after, he had the sense to announce his presence loudly. Since Naruto and Sakura were picking up weapons, it was a wise choice.

Sasuke was dragging the almost-jounin. Kakashi noticed that the man was unconscious, that there was hardly a mark on him, and that Sasuke's eyes were in the sharingan.

Before he could say anything, Naruto pointed a finger at the other teenager. "Don't run off on us!"

"I had to separate this one from the others," Sasuke replied, letting the Grassnin drop.

Beside Kakashi, Sakura knelt next to the jounin. He took advantage of her presence to shift his gaze to Sasuke.

"You can do that jutsu in a group, too," he said, "as long as you have someone to keep watch as you do."

"Who else is coming?" Sakura asked the jounin.

Sasuke glanced at Kakashi without turning to face him. "With this many attackers, we couldn't afford to have half the group be still for several seconds."

Kakashi pressed his lips together and gave the teenager an annoyed look.

Naruto moved to slap the back of Sasuke's head, but Sasuke shifted away. "Bastard, next time wait until we've thinned them out more and then do whatever you did. Just tell us beforehand so we can watch your back."

Sasuke folded his arms. "Announce an attack? Braggart."

"Don't twist my words, asshole."

There was a crack, and the jounin let out a short, sharp scream. Kakashi, Sasuke, and Naruto turned to look.

"Who else is coming?" Sakura repeated.

She gave the jounin ten seconds to reply, and then broke his other thumb. The man screamed again through clenched teeth.

Sakura shifted into a crouch, folding her arms casually on her knees. "Thumb breaks are the worst of all the fingers," she told the Grassnin. "If you won't talk to me, we're going to have to carry you back to the Leaf, and those bones will jar with every jump."

She pushed on his forehead, tilting his head up so that he was forced to look at her. "If I re-fuse the bones in the wrong alignment, you're never going to be able to form hand seals or hold weapons properly again," she said in an easy tone. "Your use is over. Who else is coming?"

When the man didn't reply after another ten seconds, Sakura let his head drop and reached for his right pointer finger.

"Let me try," Sasuke said, eyelids lowered halfway.

Sakura gave him a curious look, but pulled her hands back and pushed the jounin towards him. Kakashi folded his arms.

Sasuke hauled the Grassnin up by his vest collar, and punched him once. The man jerked his head back up, glaring at Sasuke--and then froze.

When Sasuke let go of his collar a few seconds later, the man sank to the ground. Sasuke frowned.

Sakura crouched next to the man again and looked at Sasuke, who was now staring at the almost-jounin. She cleared her throat quietly; and when he made a small hand motion, she looked to the Grassnin. "Who else is coming?"

"Just us," the man said in a hollow voice.

Sakura appeared startled, but it didn't show in her voice. "Where are the people you had to report to at?"

The man didn't answer, so Sakura broke the question down. "Were you to report our deaths?"

"Yes," the man said in that same voice.

"Where are they at?"

The man hesitated.

"Answer her," Sasuke said, walking over to the almost-jounin.

". . . Just inside the border," the man said.

Sakura nodded. "They can't reach us before we get back, then." She started to reach into her medical pack.

Sasuke glanced over again even as he picked up the second man. "I can't guarantee he's telling the truth," he warned.

Naruto moved to help, and Sasuke started dragging the man forward before the blond could reach him.

"He is," Sakura replied. "It's the tone." She pulled out the small bottle of liquid she had been using on the Soundnins and checked the amount left. "How did you do that?" she added, raising an eyebrow at him. "It takes hours on seasoned men."

"I convinced him of the hopelessness of his situation," Sasuke said, making an irritated noise when Naruto grabbed the man's feet and yanked them up with a glare, leaving both of them a little unbalanced for a second. "If it would have taken you hours, why start now?"

Sakura pulled the cloth away from the man's face. "I was going to break his main fingers and leave him conscious until we reached Konoha. That could make him more likely to talk once we got there."

"Crass," Sasuke muttered as he dropped the other man's shoulders beside her. Naruto let go of his feet as well.

"It's not pretty work," Sakura retorted, quietly, as she packed the bottle and cloth away.

"Will you do me a favor?" Sasuke asked, looking at her. "Compare the chakra flow of these two."

". . . Okay," she said, resting a hand on the jounin's forehead. Kakashi tried to catch Sasuke's eyes, but the other teenager had folded his arms and was staring resolutely at Sakura. A moment later, though, he sat down beside the second Grassnin. Naruto watched him from the corner of his eyes.

Sakura shifted her fingers lightly over the man's forehead. "The damage is pretty centered, but it's deep . . . I can't believe you managed to make him speak so quickly."

Sasuke rubbed the heel of his hand against his temple, closing his eyes. "I told you, I used the mangekyou to overwhelm him with the knowledge he couldn't escape. It was one of. . . ."

Sasuke didn't finish the sentence, and rubbed his temple again.

Kakashi began to wish he had brought his headache medicine with him. He didn't take it on missions because it made him drowsy, but it wouldn't have been an issue in this case.

It probably would have been better if Sasuke had fallen asleep, actually. Easier.

Sakura pulled away from the first Grassnin and moved to the second one, the almost-jounin. She rested her hand on his forehead.

And a second later, she jerked back so quickly that she wound up sitting on the grass. Sasuke opened his eyes and looked at her.

". . . God, why didn't you just kill him?" she finally managed to hiss.

"You can't get information out of a dead man," he replied.

"You can't get anything out of a braindead one, either!" Sakura snapped, gesturing at the man.

"It'll wear off," Sasuke said.

When Sakura continued to glare at him, he added, "Why are you giving me that look? He's just an enemy. It doesn't matter if he suffers."

Sakura grit her teeth. "Keep your mouth shut," she bit off. "We haven't put up with so much shit just so you can screw your life up yourself."

Sasuke only continued to give her that faint smirk, so she threw in: "If you really don't want to be here, you should have stayed away back then--dammit, life was hard enough without all the trouble you brought!"

Sasuke looked to the side. "So should I have taken you with me?"

Sakura flinched.

Kakashi was about to break them up, but Sakura didn't give him a chance. "Don't ever bring that up again," she said coldly. "I'm not that stupid anymore."

"Neither am I," Sasuke snapped, jerking around to glare at her. "So stop acting like it. I chose weeks ago."

"We know that," she retorted, "but we aren't Konoha. You still have to prove it."

"How fucking much is she going to demand?" Sasuke growled under his breath. "Tell me, how am I supposed to make her stop seeing Orochimaru when she looks at me?"

". . . Just endure it," Sakura said, suddenly sounding weary. "She's fifty-three. You're fifteen."

Sasuke looked away again, and a moment later pressed the heel of his hand back to his temple.

When the two of them were silent for a few seconds, Kakashi folded his arms. Before he could find the right words to begin with, however, Naruto crouched down.

"Hey," he said, and Sakura looked over. Sasuke kept his back to him.

"Both of you, shut up," Naruto said. "You know Kakashi-sensei has to report all of this."

He glared at Sasuke's back until the other teenager shrugged a shoulder. Sakura looked down at the second Grassnin.

"That could be a good thing," she said a moment later. ". . . After all, aren't people starting to worry that our team is getting too close? Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi took a second to make his voice even before answering. "Somewhat."

Naruto gave him a disbelieving look. "How can you have a team be too close?"

Sasuke snorted quietly. Sakura thumped him on the arm before pressing her hand back to the second Grassnin's forehead.

About a minute later, she pulled it away. "The damage here. . . . Did you deliberately focus the genjutsu you used on the other one?" she asked, rubbing her hand roughly against her pants.

Sasuke partially looked over, rubbing at the bridge of his nose. "No."

She frowned. "Then, what? Did you use two variations of the same jutsu?"

Sasuke smiled.

"Thank you," he said, standing up. He picked up the almost-jounin and didn't answer her question.

Kakashi picked up the first Grassnin and told the team to move quickly, on the chance that the man had been lying.

—

It only took three minutes for it to be obvious that something was really wrong with Sasuke. He was only jumping to large, wide branches, and he was using more chakra than necessary.

At seven minutes, Sasuke started wobbling with each landing. After the third time, Naruto grabbed the Grassnin off of Sasuke's back when he jumped past the other teenager. Sasuke remained on the branch for an extra second until he adjusted to the change in weight, and said nothing.

Kakashi heard Sakura drawn in a quiet breath at that; and she subtly shifted into a position behind Sasuke. Naruto was already keeping pace beside him.

At a moment when the guys were both in front of them, Sakura made a small motion with her hand, and Kakashi looked over. She gave him a curious look and tapped near her eye. Kakashi nodded.

Sakura rolled her eyes, but then Sasuke skidded slightly on the smooth bark of the tree he'd bounced off of, and she turned her attention back to him.

—

Sasuke almost made it back to Konoha. Kakashi was both impressed and disturbed--he could feel the teenager's chakra fading with each jump.

They were nine minutes away when Sasuke wasn't able to push enough chakra into the soles of his feet to stick to the branch. He didn't help things by landing too close to the edge instead of in the middle.

"Not the arm!" Sakura yelled to Naruto, when he jumped to catch Sasuke. She darted to grab the Grassnin that Naruto had let go of.

Naruto quickly released Sasuke's arm before he dislocated the shoulder and caught him around the waist instead. They wound up dangling awkwardly for a moment, since Naruto had only managed to get one foot stuck to the underside of a branch, until Sasuke kicked him in the chest and forced Naruto to drop him.

Sasuke activated the curse seal before he hit the ground.

"Asshole!" Naruto snapped as he dropped to the ground beside him, and rubbed at the spot on his chest where Sasuke's boot had caught him.

Sakura and Kakashi landed nearby. Sasuke immediately backed away.

Sakura took a step forward. Sasuke took two more steps back.

She held up her hands. "Just let me look at it, Sasuke."

"You can't do anything," he replied. "I can make it back if we don't waste time."

"I can try to--"

Sasuke interrupted her. "I used the mangekyou so extensively on that one Grassnin that it shifted the level of the illusion up. My chakra system is trying to add extra connections to my eyes." He jerked a thumb at his shoulder. "This is going to make it worse. Don't waste time."

"Damn it! Dumbass!" Naruto clenched his hands into fists. "If you pull this crap again--"

"Don't worry," Sasuke replied. "This is as far as I can go on my own."

Kakashi disliked the way he phrased that sentence.

"Then we'll take a break," Sakura said. She dropped the Grassnin on the ground. "Even if he's lying, we'll just fight them off."

Sasuke was starting to shift on his feet, impatient. "If I pass out, I'm not going to be able to wake up for a long time. You're so worried about appearances--how will it look if you carry me into the village unconscious after this mission?"

Sakura shoved her bangs back, and opened her mouth. It looked like she changed her mind at the last second, and instead said, "Then we'll wait. We're off schedule already, it won't matter."

"Are the foxes still out there?" Sasuke asked, turning his head slightly in Naruto's direction without looking away from Sakura.

Naruto used several choice curses on him and said "Yes."

"Then let's go," Kakashi said. He shouldered the Grassnin he was carrying, ignoring the man's reflexive whimper when his broken hands brushed against the front pockets of Kakashi's vest. Sakura let out a breath between her teeth, and picked up the other Grassnin.

"Come on," Naruto said irritatedly to Sasuke. He jumped onto a branch, looking over his shoulder.

Kakashi noticed that Sasuke watched the jump and waited for Naruto to move off the branch before jumping to the exact same spot.

—

When they reached the gates, Kakashi continued to focus a faint amount of chakra in the soles of his feet even as they jumped to the ground and began walking normally. He wasn't surprised when Sasuke, after using a henge to hide his eyes, soon fell in step behind him.

He can't see normally right now, Kakashi noted. Or he can only see chakra.

They made it to the jail without trouble, and in the middle of the transfer paperwork Tsunade herself showed up. She brushed the officer out of the cell and examined the first Grassnin. She started to raise an eyebrow when she saw his hands, but then changed her mind and astutely avoided glancing at Naruto.

"Should we try to brace the fingers?" Sakura asked.

Tsunade examined them. "There's not much point--it sustained too much damage during the trip. How much of the ether did you give it?"

"The remains of the bottle . . . about two milligrams."

Tsunade nodded, and then moved toward the second Grassnin. "How much did you give this one?"

"Ah," Sakura said quietly.

"Nothing," Sasuke replied. "I used a genjutsu on him; he hasn't regained consciousness from that yet."

Tsunade pursed her lips slightly, and pressed a hand to the Grassnin's forehead. A moment later, she raised both eyebrows before looking over at Sasuke.

"Do you have an idea how long it'll take him to wake up?" she asked dryly.

Sasuke surprised everyone in the room by clasping his hands in front of him and bowing from the waist. "I apologize for that," he said. "I used the mangekyou sharingan and miscalculated how it would affect a normal person."

". . . I see," Tsunade said after a moment. She turned back to the Grassnin. "What part of the chakra system does that genjutsu attack? A simple flow disruption isn't changing anything, and it's different from the last time I saw it."

"I'm sorry," Sasuke repeated, without shifting position, "that's a clan secret."

Tsunade gave him an unreadable sideways look.

Kakashi reminded himself that shaking sense into a person had a zero percent success rate, and restrained the urge. He was mildly glad that Naruto was on the other side of the group.

"Very well," Tsunade said a moment later. "After you write up the report and turn it in, you're free to go."

"Tsunade-sensei?" Sakura said quietly. When the woman looked at her, she tugged slightly on the sleeve of Naruto's jacket. "We need to tell you something. Privately."

Tsunade frowned slightly, but jerked her head at Kakashi. "Go clear the hallway."

"Should I get Shizune?" he asked, resolutely not looking at Sasuke, who had had to shift his footing to catch himself when he straightened up.

Sakura nodded, and Tsunade agreed.

She didn't say anything when Sasuke followed Kakashi out of the cell, but that might have been because Naruto had already caught her attention with: "Don't kill me, okay? It talked to me first."

—

Sasuke leaned against the wall as Kakashi spoke to the officers. He could tell that the teenager was using as little of the curse seal as possible, and it wasn't visible because of the high collar of his shirt, but a few of the better officers were giving his shoulder and Kakashi's feet oblique looks.

When they were in the front hallway and no one was close enough to hear, Kakashi said, "I didn't think she was going to let you get away with that."

"I must have passed," Sasuke replied.

"You can't maintain secrecy forever, Sasuke. You don't have the kind of power to keep the Hokage out of your clan's issues anymore."

"I already told Naruto most of it," he said. "When he's Hokage, he can write down."

Kakashi looked over at him, but there was no sign of sarcasm in Sasuke's voice or on his face.

Is that why he was talking so freely. . . ? he wondered. He had assumed Sasuke had been sharing information in order to see how much he would report back.

"You shouldn't wear your loyalties so obviously," Kakashi told him, as he held the door open. "It's dangerous."

Sasuke made a noise in the back of his throat and pushed the other door open. When Kakashi gave him a look, he said, "I can see. It's just blurry."

"Ah," Kakashi replied, and didn't release the chakra in his feet.

He hoped Sasuke was telling the truth, because when he started toward the hospital, the teenager broke aside and turned down another street, walking away from him as quickly as he could manage.

—

Shizune nodded at his message and quickly transferred the care of the patient she'd been working on over to another doctor before departing for the jail. Kakashi went to track down Sasuke.

It was easier than he had expected, because Sasuke had kept close to the walls of buildings and even brushed against them at times.

When he came to the juncture that would have led to the teenager's apartment, Kakashi was startled to find that Sasuke had turned left instead.

He followed Sasuke's scent down the streets until he reached his own apartment, let out a sigh when he found his lock had been kicked in, and entered to find Sasuke collapsed a quarter of a meter into his front room.

The viper was there as well, curled loosely around him, and Sasuke had pressed his forehead and eyes against the cool scales.

Kakashi started to step closer, and the snake flicked out its tongue. He paused.

"He's sick," Kakashi said a moment later.

"No shit," Kyomamushi replied.

The snake opened one eye, watching him. "Have you dealt with obsessed people much, dog-summoner?" it asked. "The thing that they're obsessed with is the smallest piece in everything they do. If even the fox couldn't make him let go, did you really think you had a chance?"

". . . I was talking about his eyes," Kakashi said carefully.

The viper flicked its tongue out again. "So was I."

Kakashi decided it wasn't going to leave Sasuke to attack him without provocation, so he crouched to get closer to its eye level. "I need to get a medicnin to look at him."

"It won't help," the snake replied. "He's doing this to himself--the activation of the mangekyou depends on death. The knowledge that the fox is still alive is what's killing him, not his eyes . . . and he knows it."

"Shut up," Sasuke said suddenly. His voice was muffled by the snake's scales.

Kakashi glanced at him.

"Someone needs to tell them before you destroy yourself, kid. I told you to let the fox die, but you--"

"Shut up." Sasuke shifted slightly, as if he were struggling to push away.

The viper draped itself over his back, pinning him, and Kakashi thought uncomfortably of boa constrictors. The snake curled around enough to look at him again.

"If you really want to help, kill the fox," it said. "There's nothing else you can do."

"Ah," Kakashi said neutrally. He made a small, testing motion towards Sasuke, but the viper just continued to stare at him. Kakashi paused again.

"Is there anything else I should know?" he asked after a moment, and watched Sasuke's hand twitch.

The viper flicked out its tongue again, and something in the motion seemed oddly sarcastic.

"I don't like the way you look at him," it said, "and see someone else."

Kakashi set his hand against the floor, balancing. ". . . I don't do that."

The snake made a small undulating motion that almost looked like shrugging. "I only know what he tells me," it said.

"Stop it," Sasuke hissed, and his voice cracked on the last syllable.

Kyomamushi shifted again, sliding off of Sasuke to the floor. It then nudged his head carefully, until he was lying on the wood rather than on itself. "I'll entrust Sasuke to you for now," it told Kakashi. "Fetch the tree-girl."

It disappeared with that. The hand that Sasuke had been digging into its scales fell to the ground.

When Kakashi moved over, the teenager made an attempt to push him away, but he caught Sasuke's arm and picked him up. Sasuke stopped struggling after that, and it didn't take Kakashi long to lug him to the bedroom and lay him on top of the covers.

Kakashi checked his temperature, checked his pulse, and noticed that there was no blood on either of his hands. There weren't even any fresh cuts.

As he was filling a bowl with cold water and pulling a rag out of the kitchen drawer, he examined the area where Sasuke had been lying. There was no trace or even scent of fresh blood there, either.

Kakashi had had the dogs simply appear around him without being summoned before, too, but it was usually to ask for some kind of treat--though once he had been invited to a wedding, which he'd had to decline due to being in the middle of a mission. But that had only started happening in the last few years, and he had had a contract with the dogs for over a decade. Sasuke couldn't have had his contract for more than three years.

Every once in a while, when he really thought about it, Kakashi was amazed that all three of his students had managed to get embroiled in more trouble than should have been possible in peacetime.

"Was what he said about Naruto true?" Kakashi asked as he laid the damp cloth on Sasuke's forehead.

The teenager didn't answer. Kakashi hadn't expected him to.

——

Tsunade had taken the news relatively calmly, though it helped that Jiraiya had already returned to Lightning country and she could get a message to him faster than she could have sent someone to do additional research.

"Dammit," she muttered, tossing a dogtail that had fallen forward back over her shoulder. "All right. Write me the best description you can of these things, so I can send it to Jiraiya."

Sakura looked at Naruto. "Did they follow us into Konoha?"

When he shook his head, she looked back over and asked, "Tsunade-sensei? Can I check on Sasuke first? I'm worried about his health."

The woman raised an eyebrow. "He was acting like he was fine."

"Of course," Sakura conceded. "But he really strained his eyes when he used the mangekyou. I just want to look at him quickly--I didn't have time before, because we were trying to get back as fast as possible. And . . . I'm worried about his old wounds," she added a moment later, looking down. "I don't . . . don't think they're going to heal properly if the sutures keep getting ripped out."

Tsunade gave her a long look.

". . . Fine, go," she finally said. "Naruto can write it himself."

"I'm going with her," he said.

Tsunade started to look annoyed.

"I can write it at wherever we find him, and I'll bring it back soon as I'm done." Naruto's tone wasn't asking, or insisting, or flat--he was just stating a fact. "I'm going with her."

Sakura shifted nervously on her feet, not quite looking at him, either.

After a moment of debating with herself, Tsunade turned away. She focused her attention back on the Grassnin and waved them off. "Fine. Get it to me within an hour."

—

Sakura let out her breath once they had left the station. When Naruto glanced over, he noticed that she had intertwined her fingers and was pressing them against her stomach to hide their trembling.

He looked away again before she could catch him; and a moment later, he folded his hands behind his head.

"Geez," he muttered, loud enough for her to hear. "When I'm Hokage, I'm gonna be like the Third. Only way cooler."

"She's only doing her job," Sakura said quietly. "She has to think of the whole village."

"Nn," Naruto replied.

A moment later, Sakura smiled slightly and let her hands fall. "You better," she said, quietly enough that only he could hear. "We're counting on you."

Naruto nodded.

After a pause, he asked, "Do you think Kakashi-sensei will have dragged that bastard back to his apartment by now?"

"Yeah, he should have found him . . . we can check there first, anyway."

——

Sasuke had passed out some time between when Kakashi had set the cloth on his forehead and when he had rummaged through all the drawers in the bathroom, trying to find the thermometer that he was relatively certain he had.

Kakashi eventually gave up on the thermometer and brought his bottle of headache pills out of the bathroom. He was trying to decide how much he should give Sasuke, and whether they would even do any good, when Sakura and Naruto showed up.

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