The One Night Henge

Chapter 12

Sakura was sitting in front of the small window of the cabin waiting. It was her shift for watching the lab. It was now day three of their mission. The first two days she and Kakashi were able to confirm that there were in fact people coming in after hours using the lab, but the second half of their mission they had yet to complete: figuring out what it was that those people were doing in there.

She glanced over at Kakashi who was sitting in the other chair with his nose buried in his usual orange book. After their little disagreement the first night, Sakura had tried again the next night to find common ground with him. As usual, he dodged or ignored every attempt that she made. She was running out of ideas and growing frustrated.

Kakashi was running through plans for how they could find out what was being made in that lab without giving themselves away. Tomorrow was supposed to be the last day of their mission. If they wanted any chance of ending it on time, he would need to come up with something to get them inside that building.

He was hiding behind his book as he brainstormed, trying his best to look too preoccupied to be disturbed. Despite his best efforts to avoid unnecessary contact with Sakura, it kept happening. Each time she initiated a conversation, he did his best to keep his distance. He didn't want to mess anything up any further with Sakura; he felt that he had already done enough of that.

He had just decided the best and only course of action here would be to sneak into the lab before the intruders came in to do their work after closing. That way they would be able to get set up somewhere inside, and then they could see exactly what it is that they were doing.

Then he felt her glare on him again. She seemed to be doing that a lot on this mission. Looking up to catch her gaze, he asked, "Did something happen?"

Sakura, lost in her thought, hadn't realized that she was staring at him. Now he was looking back at her expectantly. Great, I bet he thinks I'm a weirdo now.

"No, I was just thinking. We need to figure out a way to get inside; we aren't getting anywhere sitting out here like this." She sighed.

"I know. I'm already working on it," he told her.

"Does that mean we don't have to keep watch anymore?" she asked hopefully. It was incredibly boring. Nothing had happened the whole three days they had been there.

"No, we should still keep watch. You never know; we could still see something useful tonight."

Sakura groaned and went back to her duties. Kakashi went back to planning the heist that would hopefully end this mission.

Kakashi was irritated and grumpy. Everything about their mission was a disaster so far. It was their last day and last chance to complete this mission without an extension. They had only managed to complete half of their objective—confirming that people were sneaking into the lab after hours. The other half; figuring out why they were there in the first place, had to be done tonight. There was no room for mistakes tonight.

On a personal level, he was irritated at life's sense of humour for putting him on this mission with Sakura. She seemed to hate him more every day that passed and yet for some reason continued to seek him out several times a day. Maybe she is just bored, he thought. It couldn't be because she enjoyed his company. They hadn't had a pleasant interaction with each other since this mission began.

I can't wait to be back home. I'm not leaving my house for a week.

It was mid-day and they were walking through town to get some food before getting ready to sneak into the lab. Sakura had failed each of her attempts to connect with Kakashi so far and the frustration was showing. She would even catch herself glaring at the man from time to time, lost in her frustration at his stubbornness.