Chapter Eighteen: Missions
Sakura carefully finished arranging the combs in her hair to her liking just as the clock on her wall clicked to seven thirty. With a sigh she smoothed down her dress and took one last look at herself in the mirror. She had debated over which one of her several black dresses she should wear for the evening before settling on one. Before coming to her final decision she even tried on the one Genma had given to her for her birthday and had been pleasantly surprised to find that though he may a letch, he was a letch with taste as the dress looked better on her than she could have imagined. The pink haired woman had been sorely tempted to wear Genma's dress regardless of the fact that he had asked her not to, but had rather reluctantly realized that she was probably going through a little more effort than she really should seeing as she was going out with her former teacher. After all, it wasn't like it was a date or anything. In the end, she decided on a dress she had recently purchased for an event that she had ended up missing due to a last minute mission.
Finished with the mirror she started toward her kitchen to wait – she was sure Kakashi wouldn’t be on time, but wasn’t sure just how late he would be. The pink haired kunoichi was anxious for the silver haired man to arrive, not only so they wouldn’t miss their reservations, but because she had a little matter to discuss with him: his latest and most inscrutable, though thankfully private, gift to date. Vaguely she contemplated starting a small pot of tea for while she waited when someone knocked at her door.
Feeling completely dumbfounded, the clock still very clearly read seven thirty, she changed course to answer the door. Upon opening it she found someone completely unexpected.
“Hideki!” she exclaimed with some surprise. It had been a while since she had last seen him. Her landlord just hadn’t been around as much as he had been previously – not that she was complaining. He still made her feel uncomfortable for reasons she couldn’t quite define and as far as she was concerned the less she saw of him the better.
“Wow, Sakura you look… beautiful,” the bespectacled man let slip before visibly pulling himself together to try greeting her again. “Er, good evening.”
She flushed a little. “Thank you. I’m going to dinner with Kakashi tonight, somewhere nice.” The pink haired woman smiled at her landlord, wondering what he could possibly want with her and why he seemed to flinch when she mentioned her former sensei’s name.
“Oh that sounds very… With Kakashi you say?” he asked with a bit of concern in his voice.
“Yes, he owes me dinner in return for a favor. Actually he should be here any minute, though I couldn’t really say when he will actually arrive.”
The brown haired man seemed to lose a little of the color in his already pale face. “I see, well then I won’t keep you…” he turned as if to walk away without mentioning why he decided to stop by her apartment.
“Hideki?” she called, still wondering why he had decided to pay her a visit. “Is there something I can do for you?”
He hastily turned back to look at her. “Oh, um I nearly forgot… Are you having trouble with your… hot water?” Hideki fumbled, obviously very nervous as he seemed unable to prevent himself from fidgeting in place.
“Oh, um no, not that I’m aware of anyway. Why?” she asked.
He waved his hand negligently and took a step away. “Ah, good… um, good. Er, some of the other tenants are having issues with their hot water… I’ve just been trying to… um, ascertain just which apartments have been affected… Good to hear that you haven’t been…” He waved, still inching away from her. “I really must be going… Got to find the source of that hot water issue. Good evening.”
Feeling puzzled she wondered at his hasty departure and clearly fabricated reason for paying her a visit. Hideki had started to panic after she had mentioned that Kakashi was due at her apartment any minute and she had stopped seeing him around the apartment building around the time she had returned from her hot spring holiday...
Quickly she dismissed the idea from her mind – there was no way that Kakashi had been threatening or intimidating her landlord into staying away from her. He had no reason to do such a thing. Furthermore her friends, in Kakashi's presence, had been dead set on setting her up with Hideki, not keeping the vaguely creepy man away from her.
Another knock interrupted her as she pondered the peculiar visit. Rushing to her door she noted that it was now seven forty-five and though she didn’t know where they were going, she was fairly certain they would probably be late if they didn’t hurry. She opened the door and was relieved to see Kakashi waiting for her. Her relief quickly turned to surprise as she noted that not only was he wearing civilian clothes, but he also looked quite good in them.
He smirked at her surprise, fairly confident in the fact that she couldn’t make it out beneath his mask. “’Evening Sakura, you look lovely tonight.” He was pleased to note that she was wearing a little black dress as he had suggested, though he couldn’t be sure if it was the one that Genma had given her. She was also wearing the hair combs he had given her for her birthday and for some strange reason he had a little thrill of pleasure every time he noticed that she was wearing them.
Still a little astonished she opened her door wide enough to allow him inside. “Hello Kakashi…Thank you.” She blushed a little. “You, um, clean up pretty nice.”
The silver haired man chuckled as he entered her apartment. He knew that he looked good in his dark dress pants paired with a dark lightweight sweater and a discrete eye patch replacing his forehead protector. He had to admit, to his inner annoyance, that he was enjoying her reaction. “Are you just about ready? We’ll miss our reservations if…”
“I’m all set,” she interrupted him as she hastily grabbed her purse from the kitchen table where she had intended to wait for him.
He raised an eyebrow at her taking a purse but knew better than to say anything. Instead he offered her his arm, which she took with a smile and a lingering faint blush.
“So where are we going?” she asked with obvious curiosity. Sakura had been wondering ever since he had refused to tell her the day before.
“You’ll see when we get there.”
“Aw, Kakashi!” She huffed as she cuffed him lightly on the shoulder in an attempt to pull her arm away from him.
He laughed and tightened his grip on her, not allowing the pink haired medic to slip away from him. “Too impatient, we’ll be there in a couple minutes.”
She sighed loudly and glared at him for a moment before choosing to let it slide; he was taking her out to dinner after all. Instead she decided to bring a little matter that had left her wondering.
“So, cherries, Kakashi?” she asked with an eyebrow raised inquiringly.
“Cherries?” he responded feeling faintly confused until he remembered his latest stealthy delivery. “Ah, yes cherries… What about them?”
“Kakashi!” she exclaimed with a little frustration. “What on earth possessed you to buy…”
“I thought it only fair to replace what I’d ruined… What you don’t like them?” he asked, managing to sound a little hurt at the idea of her not appreciating his gift.
She looked at him in complete disbelief trying to ascertain just how serious he was with his gift. “Seriously Kakashi… Cherries?”
“I rather liked them. I think they’re cute.”
She glared at him suspiciously, trying to find an imperfection in his façade; she knew he had to be having a good laugh at her expense. “You do realize I’m twenty-two, right?”
He nodded, barely able keep his gaze from wandering over her figure and the certain attributes that clearly spoke of her age, as it would not only ruin his entire act and therefore amusement, but mostly likely earn him a violent reaction from the kunoichi. “Of course.”
“And you thought that an appropriate motif would be…”
“Cherries? Yes, I figured you must get tired of people getting you things with cherry blossoms…”
“So you went with the fruit?”
“Hmm, that’s right.”
Tilting her head to the side she decided to try one more time. “Kakashi… You do realize that I…”
“Here we are,” he interrupted her as they arrived in front of one of the nicer low profile restaurants in the village. Quietly he heaved a sigh of relief, as he had not expected Sakura to go quite as far as she had to try and convince him that he hadn’t exactly given her an age appropriate gift – though, if she chose to look for it there was a very inappropriate angle to his gift and he had to wonder if she had thought of it. Quickly he dismissed the idea as she hadn’t tired to hurt him yet, as surely she would have done if she had realized the potential naughty implication of his gift.
With some surprise she looked up to take in their surroundings and sighed, though partially in relief as she couldn’t believe what she had just been about to say to her former sensei – especially since she knew the pajamas had to be a joke. There was just no way he could seriously expect a grown woman to wear the girlishly cut – though adult sized – pink, red and white pajamas. The frilly tank top was printed with cherries while the shorts featured a large pair of the berries strategically positioned on the rump. She honestly couldn’t imagine anyone older than five or six wearing such childishly girly apparel and had to wonder just what sort of a shop he had have gone to in order to make the purchase and what kind of a response he had gotten from the clerk – he wasn’t exactly the sort of man one would expect to be purchasing such clothing.
Once she finally took in their surroundings she was delighted to see that it was one of the restaurants she had heard about and had always wanted to try, but had never had the chance or occasion. Absently she wondered how he had known and how they had managed to be only five minutes late for their reservations when it should have taken them longer to get there.
The young medic was more than aware of the stares they collected as the hostess set out to show them to their table. Apparently his unspoken but understood plan to go to a smaller restaurant off the beaten path for most shinobi wasn’t enough to prevent people from noticing and recognizing them. She shrugged, he was her former sensei and current friend, why shouldn’t they go out for a nice dinner? Just as she decided that she really didn’t care about the other patrons she noticed something that made her wish they hadn’t been so close to punctual for their reservations.
Discretely she tried to hurry the hostess only to find that her efforts were already too late.
“Miss Haruno!” a young voice carried across the restaurant too clearly for her to convincingly pretend not to have heard. “What are you doing here? Are you here to eat with…” she hesitated, remembering her gossip partner's comments about Sakura’s silver haired companion, “your father?”
With a sigh she detoured from the route that was being set by the hostess to stop and say hello to Mine and she guessed the medic in training’s parents, gesturing to Kakashi to continue on to their table. The threesome appeared to be just finishing their dessert, and if they had been late enough to miss their reservation then they probably would have missed the exuberant and inquisitive student medic as well.
“Hello Mine, nice to see you. Congratulations on passing your first level exam!” Sakura smiled at the young medic to be and nodded at the older man, undoubtedly a shinobi himself, and woman sitting with the girl
The blonde girl giggled and grinned. “Thanks! I never thought I was going to pass, but Kotoko helped me… a lot, and I did!”
The woman at the table smiled kindly at Sakura; she was clearly not a kunoichi to the pink haired medic’s observant eye. “You must be the Miss Haruno Mine has been talking about so much lately. Thank you for being so kind to our daughter.”
“Oh! Not at all!” The pink haired medic blushed a little, “Mine is a joy to have around the hospital. It’s always nice to have a cheerful and smiling face around. She does wonders with some of the elderly, er grumpier, patients.”
The older man’s eyes widened as Sakura spoke and a couple things connected in his mind. “Sakura Haruno?”
“Um, yes?”
“I had no idea that you were Mine’s Miss Haruno. I’m honored to have you at the hospital helping to teach my Mine.” He inclined his head a little in respect, much to Sakura’s embarrassment. “You helped save my team when we barely made it back from…” he trailed off with a sideways glance at his daughter who was staring at him with wide eyes, obviously she had been unaware of any near fatal incidents involving her father. He coughed a little. “Well yes anyway I’m very thankful for what you did…”
“Oh, uh you’re very welcome. I’m sure that it was nothing, really…” she trailed off as she sensed Kakashi’s presence behind her.
The impatient silver haired man placed a hand on her shoulder to gently pull her slightly away from the table. “Please excuse us. Our server is getting a little impatient as to our order…” He smiled at the woman and girl, and nodded at the man. “Evening Shin.”
“Kakashi? I wouldn’t have expected to see you here.” Mine’s father blinked in surprise. “I almost didn’t recognize you in civvies.”
The silver haired man laughed, choosing not to comment.
Taking Kakashi’s not so subtle cue she took a step away from the table and waved. “Have a nice night! I’ll see you at the hospital Mine.” She turned toward the blonde girl’s parents and smiled. “It was nice meeting you.”
As they walked away Sakura heaved a sigh of relief and tried not to appear to be listening to Mine’s father scolding her for her apparent lack of respect for Kakashi. She had to laugh and feel slightly embarrassed at the apparent fact that Mine had chattered not only about her, but about Kakashi to her parents – so much so that they seemed to be picking up and reiterating an old conversation. Unable to stop herself she slowed their pace to catch some of the points of their argument.
“But daddy,” Mine whined, “he’s old and a little scary looking…”
“He’s younger than I am, but that’s beside the point! He’s a jonin, became one when he was your age… He’s one of the elite, and he deserves more respect from you…”
The blonde girl huffed noisily. “I don’t care, Kotoko and I still find him a bit creepy… Never mind the fact that we think he’s Miss Haruno’s secret admirer… and Miss Haruno deserves a better secret admirer! Someone young like she is and… hot, he definitely has to be someone hot!”
As the discussion became more and more embarrassing for the pink haired medic to overhear she tried to rush Kakashi along, only to find that he was now the one lingering a little to try and catch the conversation.
“Mine,” her father admonished sternly, feeling his face flush with embarrassment at his daughter’s silly ideas. “He was her genin sensei, for crying out loud! We all keep in touch with our sensei even after graduating and moving on. Besides he doesn’t need to sneak around the hospital to give her something. If he wanted to give her something I’m fairly certain he would just give it to her. He doesn’t have to worry about a lot of things other men might have to take into consideration…”
“Wow… He was her sensei? He is old,” Mine uttered without thinking about her father’s comment about his own age being greater than Kakashi’s.
“Mine!” her mother rebuked her, trying to contain her mirth at her daughter’s uncontrived comments.
Doing her best not to laugh Sakura clung to the older man’s arm to prevent him from doing something unnecessary and pushed him on to their own table – thankfully outside of hearing range of the bickering family.
~*~*~*~
She sighed contentedly as she took his arm upon exiting the restaurant. It had been a fantastic meal despite the occasional strange or disapproving looks they garnered from some of the other patrons. Honestly she didn’t particularly care all that much; he was her former sensei after all and there was nothing wrong with the two of them going out to eat together.
Granted it was quite a nice restaurant, far beyond Ichiraku or any of the other places most of her friends occasionally met up with their sensei, but then again she figured she was probably closer to Kakashi than they were with their genin sensei. There was also the fact that he did pay, which honestly surprised her as she had figured he might try to either weasel out of paying entirely or insist that at the very least she pay half.
As they walked along in companionable silence it slowly dawned on her that, had he not been her former sensei, she would have considered the evening to be a date – and a very successful one at that considering she had definitely enjoyed both the meal and the company. Hastily she tried to shove the thought from her mind, finding to her dismay that it had deep roots and was not as easily pushed aside as the other thoughts of Kakashi she had deemed inappropriate.
“Damn, Sakura! That dress is wasted on someone like Kakashi!” an irritatingly familiar voice interrupted her thoughts as the shaggy brown haired senbon wielding man landed in front of them.
Sakura stopped abruptly as Kakashi halted at the sound of Genma’s voice. She looked up at him feeling a little surprised as she felt him pull his arm and consequently her a little closer to him.
“What do you want Genma?” He sighed, not really wanting to deal with the letch, but still thankful for his interruption. The silver haired man had enjoyed having dinner with Sakura but was starting to realize as he walked her home that the evening was starting to feel uncomfortably similar to a date which was the absolute last thing he wanted to think about – or have get around to the gossip mill.
Genma grinned, his ever present senbon shifting to allow the wide almost predatory smile. “I should think it would be fairly obvious by now…” he hastily pulled himself up short upon noting the un-amused expression on his silver haired friend’s face. The brown haired man cleared his throat. “Right, I was looking for you.”
“What? Me?” Kakashi asked, feeling as though it really was a mixed blessing.
“Yes, you. Guy has had a little too much to drink tonight at the pub and we’re having some issues getting him to go home to sleep it off. I guess he’s still a little upset at losing that challenge to you... and might have been led on to believe that drinking several bottles of a particularly potent sake would give him an edge in your next competition. Must have taken that last challenge a little too seriously. He really thought that in winning he would finally give Lee that chance with Sakura he has been trying for years to get…”
Sakura’s interest in the conversation suddenly increased. “Excuse me, can you elaborate on that Genma?” she asked sweetly, shaking her hand from Kakashi’s arm and stepping away from the silver haired man before he could try to prevent her from doing so.
With feigned surprise Genma turned his attention to the pink haired woman. “Oh? So Kakashi never got around to telling you what he wagered on that little challenge yesterday?”
“No, he didn’t. Just what was it that he promised on my behalf? Should he lose, of course…”
“Ah, well then,” he took in the dark glare he was receiving from the Copy Ninja and hastily made an offer. “Why don’t I walk you home and tell you all about it?”
She narrowed her eyes in suspicion, torn between accepting his offer or demanding an explanation from the less than forthcoming silver haired man.
Sensing the kunoichi’s indecision Genma decided to give her a push in the right direction. “Kakashi, you should really go get Guy… The staff was threatening to ban all shinobi if he were to make another scene…” Genma smirked, safe in the knowledge that the taijutsu master tended to only respond to his ‘eternal rival’ when in advanced stages of intoxication. Kakashi was the only one able to handle Guy when he was more than pleasantly drunk and the Copy Ninja knew it.
The silver haired man stood for a couple moments, beyond annoyed, trying to find an alternative that would allow him to deal with Guy but also prevent Genma from walking Sakura home and telling her about the forfeit. Unfortunately his mind failed him and he was unable to find a way around his senbon wielding friend’s obviously well planned crossroad. Calming his anger, after all he wasn’t annoyed with her, he was able to smile at the pink haired woman. “Good night Sakura…” He paused, feeling as though he should at least try to say something that may assuage her anger once Genma told her what he agreed she would do if he lost. “I had no intentions of allowing us to lose or pay the forfeit…”
Slightly surprised that Kakashi had given into Genma’s obvious ploy to get her alone, though not sure why she should be, Sakura returned his smile wondering just how bad the forfeit could have been for him to try one last time to remind her that he had not even thought of the possibility that she may have to pay it. “’Night… and thank you, Kakashi.”
He waved and turned, with a murderous glare at Genma, before taking to the roofs to go deal with the drunken taijutsu master. Still his mind was firmly with the pink haired medic and her sure to be explosive reaction upon finding out what he had promised on her behalf. He sighed; Sakura was likely to kill him the next time she saw him unless he could come up with a better distraction than a nice evening out.
~*~*~*~
“You’re late,” the irritated blonde woman stated flatly as he entered the room.
He shrugged. She should know better than to expect him to be on time. “I’m sorry, I seem to have lost track of the time.”
Tsunade glared at Kakashi for a moment before huffing with annoyance. The busty woman shifted her attention to her desk, which was piled with documents. After a couple moments' search she tossed a mission scroll at the perpetually late shinobi.
He caught it and immediately broke the seal to scan its contents as she started speaking.
“This should be a fairly straightforward mission – missing girl, suspected that she ran away with her boyfriend and has been living in a nearby village. Generally I would just send you out on this one as a solo, but because of the nature of the girl in question’s chosen profession – she’s a dancer, classic not club – we’ll need to send a kunoichi with you as I hardly suspect you’ll easily be able to infiltrate the backstage areas of some of the classier places she may be hiding...” she laughed, as though a thought just occurred to her “Unless you’re willing to dress in drag, and even then,” she looked him up and down with a smirk, “I rather think you’d make an ugly woman and an improbable dancer.”
Not allowing Tsunade’s disparaging remarks to concern him he concentrated on the part of the mission that interested him the most. “I’ll take…”
“Sakura is not available,” she interrupted, before he could start in on what she was beginning to suspect may become a big problem if not dealt with soon. Unfortunately for her she really didn’t want to have to be the one to make him deal with it.
“What? I was just out with her last night and she didn’t mention…”
“You were who she was out with last night?” she asked with some surprise. The problem she had thought she was staying on top of seemed to be much larger than she had realized. She had summoned Sakura first thing that morning and had noticed right off that the kunoichi had been tired and perhaps even a little hung-over, which was not at all like the pink haired woman.
He shrugged. “I owed her dinner and we both had the evening off. She didn’t mention a mission in the morning though.” He frowned, wondering why she hadn’t thought to mention it to him. “I wouldn’t have kept her out as late as I did if I had known.”
The blonde woman shook her head. “She didn’t know about it until this morning and left at first light with her escort.”
His eye widened in surprise. “Escort?” he queried, immediately wondering just what sort of a mission it was and why he hadn’t been included – the mission he had just been given could have been taken by any decently experienced tracker.
“Yes, escort. Sakura’s presence, to the tune of a nice hefty fee for the village, has been requested… elsewhere.” She laughed at the surprise he hadn’t been able to prevent from skittering across his face. “Your former student may spoil you guys rotten with the house calls and preferential treatment, but when all is said and done she is an excellent medic whose skills are in more demand than you realize... especially in light of the research she has been working on.” Reining in her mirth she managed to pull her mind back to the business at hand. “I’ll be sending Ino with you for this mission. She has plenty experience and the two of you should be back fairly quickly.”
He nodded absently, still stuck on the thought that not only had Sakura been requested and Tsunade had acquiesced, but the hokage had not seen fit to send him along with the pink haired medic. “Who…” he started to ask before she interrupted him.
“Did I send with Sakura?” The Hokage eyed him suspiciously before sighing. She knew anything she may try to say to him about the fact that the mission was classified would be ignored. Kakashi would find out, one way or another, the identities of the two shinobi she had chosen to send as Sakura's escort. The easiest thing to do would just be to tell him and save them both some trouble. “Raido and I wanted to send Guy, but he was in no fit state to participate, so Genma volunteered to go in his stead.”
“I see,” Kakashi’s voice had a slight edge to it at being overlooked. He also hadn’t missed the fact that Tsunade had said that Genma had volunteered, implying that he had been hanging around hokage tower at the crack of dawn – certainly not one of the lecherous man’s usual loitering locations.
Tsunade rolled her eyes at his rather childish behavior and decided to throw him a bone of sorts to keep his nose from getting too bent out of joint. A sulky Copy Ninja tended to cause more trouble than she was willing to put up with. “For that particular mission it had to be Sakura and I couldn’t send Naruto, Sasuke or you with her. She was wanted for her research, and I rather doubt any of the three of you would like to be roped in and studied by other medics since you just happened to be there?” She raised an eyebrow inquiringly at the dark eyed shinobi who shook his head slightly. “Didn’t think so, and neither did Sakura – though they probably thought that by requesting her they would be almost as good as guaranteed to get at least one of the three of you as well. But that’s beside the point – you’re here to pick up your mission, not question what I have chosen to do with one of your former students.” She gestured impatiently at him. “So go, Ino has probably been waiting for you at the gate for at least an hour.”
~*~*~*~
“Genma! I said no!” Sakura exclaimed for what felt like the millionth time as the letch tried once again to convince her to change into the cooler clothes worn by a scant few of the local nurses and based on something either from or inspired by Naruto’s Pervy Sage’s little orange books. Just where Genma had managed to get a replica of the particular ‘naughty nurse’ uniform – the same one Kakashi had cheekily suggested she wear to treat him – she would never know and certainly didn’t want to ask. Raido, the more sane of the two shinobi, had chosen to stay at the hospital, having declined to go with them to a small noodle place outside the medical complex for lunch.
“Aw, c’mon Sakura! The medics here…” he tried as they made their way back to the hospital for her sessions.
“Are conservative and stuffy, at least the ones I’m working with are,” she finished his sentence, feeling tired of discussing it with him. “It’s hard enough working with them as it is. Never mind the problems I would have wearing something I suspect may come from the pages of something like Icha Icha! Just forget about it!”
He sighed heavily in defeat. “Fine, fine…” he glanced at her from the corner of his eye. “You sure you won’t even just try it on for…”
“Genma,” she growled warningly, “I swear…”
“Alright, alright! I’ll leave it alone.”
“Good.” She turned to him as they entered the room she had been using as her office. “I’ll probably be in here for the rest of the day, you know the drill.”
He sighed; as much as he had wanted to get himself assigned to the mission he was finding that it was boring beyond belief. Sakura had been spending days locked up in the office assigned to her with her host medics and Raido, while he kept an eye on things outside. Granted he had figured the mission would probably be something along those lines, but he had hoped that in their down time he might have been granted a chance to get to know the kunoichi better. Unfortunately his hopes had been in vain as her free time, such as it was, was entirely taken up by their hosts – by no means was he the only shinobi in town interested in the pink haired medic.
~*~*~*~
“Kakashi! Hold up a little, will ya?” the blonde woman struggling to keep up with the older man finally cried with some exasperation.
Startled out of his reverie he turned to find that his teammate had fallen quite a ways behind him. He cursed himself for the fact that he once again found himself thinking of Sakura and had consequently been distracted from what was going on with his partner for the mission. He watched Ino for a moment, noting that her limp was much more pronounced than it had been when they had started out for home that morning.
“I thought you said it was only a slight sprain, nothing to be worried about?” He frowned. He was tired and just wanted to get back to the village, but if the kunoichi had injured herself it would take them even longer to get back. As it was, the mission had taken much more time than it should have, something of which he was at least partially suspicious of as the blonde woman had taken every opportunity to subtly – and not so subtly – express an interest of a romantic nature in him. Kakashi had thought that the slight injury she had incurred while performing the previous evening had been her latest attempt in attaining more of his attention. Thinking back on it he realized that if Ino had genuinely injured herself, the pace he had been setting would definitely have not helped matters for her, though it probably did reinforce his image as a hardass in her mind.
She finally managed to catch up to him, limping quite seriously. Glaring at him she came to a halt next to Kakashi. “It was a slight sprain. I think it’s rather progressed now.” With a heavy sigh she hopped a couple more steps to a conveniently fallen tree trunk by the side of the path and eased herself down onto it. As soon as she was seated she carefully removed her sandal from her foot and unwrapped her ankle and calf, hissing a little as she did so – removing the support of the wrappings only served to increase her pain.
Feeling slightly guilty for pushing her too much when, he was now convinced, she was genuinely injured he knelt down to take a look at her leg. Forgetting himself for a moment he carefully ran his hands over her ankle and partially up her calf, looking for a better assessment as to the extent of her injury.
At her hiss of mingled pain and surprise he glanced up and upon seeing Ino instead of Sakura, he quickly remembered himself and hastily removed his hands from her calf. Clearing his throat he rose to survey their surroundings while he tried to plan their next course of action. With an silent groan he realized that the sun was due to set shortly and, though he was fairly familiar with the terrain, he wasn’t particularly pleased, especially with the prospect of having to have to seek lodgings in the area for the night. Sighing to himself he turned back to the clearly slightly baffled kunoichi.
“Can you heal it?”
She shook her head and frowned. “I’m not Sakura.”
He flinched a little, knowing that he had on more than one instance most likely irked her by expecting her to act and react as his former student would.
Noting his slight sign of culpability she continued slightly less harshly. “Maybe before I pushed it a little too hard I might have been able to mend it… But now it’s gone beyond my talents.”
“Alright,” He had to consciously keep himself from sighing. “There’s a small village with a hotel a couple miles away. We can spend the night there and have someone in the village look at your leg in the morning.”
She opened her mouth to protest that there was no way she would be able to get there on her own but he acted before she could put voice to her thoughts. Kakashi stooped back down to her level and quickly lifted her from the tree trunk before heading off toward the small village. Ino squeaked a little in surprise but otherwise stayed silent and hastily clung to the now rapidly traveling man. She had been wondering throughout the course of the mission how Sakura could deal with such a mission minded man on a regular basis as he had been entirely focused on the task at hand from the moment they left the village and completely distant on everything else. It left no time for fun or getting to know the stoic man as she had originally hoped.
Upon returning to the village from the hot spring resort she had spent some time thinking about her former rival's former sensei and his penchant for little orange books. Actually, to tell the truth the blonde woman had been wondering about them for quite a while. Finally she had decided to pick one up to see what all the fuss was about. After finishing the novel, with a deep blush, she had found herself going back to reread the deceptively well written prose, again and again, until she had broken down and purchased all other available volumes in the series. Once she finished all available novels in the Icha Icha series she found that she had a new respect for Jiraiya and a strong desire to find a man familiar with the series and try a few things. To that end the blonde kunoichi had promptly dumped her senbon wielding bedtime buddy in search of someone with different qualifications.
Fortune seemed to have smiled on her when the hokage had decided to assign her to an undercover mission alone with the man who had originally sparked her curiosity in the smutty series. Unfortunately, he had been nothing less than completely professional and had ignored all of her standard ploys for attention. After injuring herself the previous evening and receiving no results whatsoever from the stoic man she had pretty much given him up as a lost cause and even started to wonder if it might just be easier to casually introduce the little orange books to one of her past bedmates.
However, with his reaction upon finding that she was genuinely injured, she was surprised to find that it was almost as though he was a different person... at least until he remembered himself and backed off once again. He was definitely a tough nut to crack and she couldn’t quite figure if he was even crackable in the first place or worth the effort when she may just as easily find someone else.
Kakashi wasn’t too thrilled about returning to the nearby village, especially with a different woman. Unfortunately he didn’t really think he had much of a choice unless he wanted to carry Ino all the way back to Konoha. Which, with the way she had been behaving, was definitely not an option. He was tired of dealing with her and just plain wanted the mission to be over.
As he traveled, far quicker now that the injured kunoichi wasn’t slowing him down, he hoped fervently that he would not be remembered in the village he was fast approaching. Just in case he was he spent the time trying to think of a good cover story for not only him being there but also for the fact that he was there with Ino instead of Sakura.
Upon entering the familiar hotel he found that his hope had been in vain. As soon as he entered the lobby, helping his mission partner limp along rather than carry her – part of an attempt to try and minimize the reaction he feared – the woman sitting behind the front desk did a double take before practically flying at him with a broom that happened to be within her reach.
“Cheater!! Liar!! Adulterer!!” the old woman shrieked as she swatted at the resigned shinobi with the broom, punctuating each word with another swing of the makeshift weapon. Kakashi made a conscious effort not to dodge her blows for fear of irritating her even more. “Molester!! Pervert!! Dirty old man!!”
Ino fought hard to contain her amusement at the abuse Kakashi seemed to be taking from the little old lady who apparently ran the hotel. She couldn’t imagine what the old woman thought, or rather she could and she found it to be quite unbelievable, though she couldn’t imagine who the confused woman thought Kakashi was being unfaithful to.
The old woman paused in both her tirade and abuse to take several deep breaths and prepare herself for another verbal assault and he took it as his cue to carefully state his needs and hope she would calm down enough to accommodate them. Otherwise they have to head off to the next closest village and try to find lodgings and a doctor there.
“Two rooms please.”
The hotel manageress inhaled, opened her mouth, and raised her broom to start in on her verbal assault again when she paused in surprise. “Two rooms?”
“That’s right, two. One for me and one for the lady.” He gestured at Ino who couldn’t wait to grill the Copy Ninja about the situation once they had secured rooms – it seemed as though there might be a juicy story behind the hotel manageress’s reaction.
“One for you and one for her?” the ancient woman asked hesitantly as though slowly testing out the words and their meaning. She narrowed her eyes and lowered the broom. “Where’s…”
“She hasn’t been feeling well lately; in a delicate condition you know.” He smiled and lifted his hand to the back of his head as if embarrassed. “I thought she may appreciate a visit from her best friend from another village, to help cheer her up…” he trailed off hoping the story would appeal to the woman’s romantic side – smitten husband moving heaven and earth for his young and pregnant wife. Well, going off to get her friend from another village at the very least. The silver haired man had thought it had sounded appropriately sappy to be something that could be found in one of the romance novels the older woman was addicted to. He had had plenty of time to come up with it as he carried Ino to the village he and Sakura had used as a base of operations while quelling an epidemic.
The effect on the old woman was almost immediate as his fabrication successfully appealed to her romantic side. “Well then! I must say, congratulations are in order!” She grinned almost toothlessly at them and pulled out two separate keys. “You must be sure to convey my well wishes to your wife. To think a man at your age is going to be a father! You must be so excited!”
He laughed nervously as he took the keys from her. “Thank you, and I am. Can’t wait to get back to my village…” he paused as though something just occurred to him. “That reminds me, there is a doctor in this village isn’t there? My wife’s friend here seems to have injured herself on the journey…”
“No problem! We’ve the finest doctor for miles right here in this village. I’ll send word to him and he’ll be here first thing tomorrow… I assume you’d probably like to leave as soon as possible?” She winked at him with a knowing smile.
Genuinely feeling a little embarrassed he smiled a little. “Er, yes please. Though don’t go through any trouble on our behalf…”
“Oh no, trouble, no trouble at all!! He’s my son and hasn’t been by to see his poor old mother lately…” She picked up her broom and gestured with it. “It’s about time that ungrateful brat paid me a visit!”
Edging away from the woman and her broom slowly, he smiled again at her. “Thank you, I appreciate it.”
She gestured with the bristled stick negligently. “Don’t worry about it. Just get home to your wife where you belong!”
“What the hell was that all about?” Ino hissed as he helped her down the hall to her assigned room, located on the exact opposite side of the hotel as his – to prevent ‘temptation’ he guessed.
He sighed, not wanting to get into it with the nosey kunoichi. “Nothing to worry about.”
“Oh come on Kakashi, I know there has got to be a reason for her to react as strongly as she did… Now what is it? And, what was that nonsense about you having a wife who’s expecting?” She tried very hard not to laugh at the idea.
He glared, not wanting to tell her, but figuring it would be better if she heard his brief and highly edited version as opposed to the old woman’s – which was sure to be heavily embroidered with unnecessary hearts and flowers. “I spent a couple months here on a sort of undercover mission and the old woman decided that I was married to my mission partner. She enjoyed giving me marital advice.” He shrugged with more annoyance than he would have liked to have displayed. “She meant well I’m sure.”
He paused as they reached her room, unlocked the door, and handed her the key.
Surprised, Ino stated at him for a couple minutes with her mouth slightly open, key dangling unnoticed from her hand. “You can’t be serious?”
He shrugged, frowning at her obvious amusement.
Ino finally gave in and laughed, unable to contain it any longer. “I can’t wait to tell Sakura about this…” she trailed off as it hit her that the woman in question probably was Sakura and she abruptly stopped laughing. “Oh! It was Sakura, wasn’t it?!” She studied his annoyed expression for a moment seeking a confirmation.
“Good night Ino. I’ll see you in the morning.” He turned and stiffly walked away, trying very hard to ignore the blonde woman’s laughter echoing through the corridor.
