Kakasaku : War of the Zetsu

Chapter Four: She's Not You

Chapter Four: She's Not You

The pair of them were odd together to say the least. All three of the most notorious nin in the Sand village, sharing a father rather than mothers, looked nothing alike.

Still, they all had a ferocious, if not larger than life feel to them, and the middle child, Konkuro was the last person Kakashi expected her to pull into the embrace of when the shaggy haired Sand nin, came up behind her.

"I'm glad you were never that demanding...." he chuckled with wrapped around her with his arms at the waist, before Sakura turned to offer a loose side hug.

Rather than dignify it with an answer, she rolled her eyes at him, but didn't to Kakashi's dismay, step out of the hold or deny that what he was insinuating never happened.

"Well, the night is young." The burly brunette bobbed his head side to side, looking her up and down, with a suggestive wink.

"Nice try," that was closer to the prim lady Kakashi knew, but still not the prude he was hoping she'd be with someone touching her. "There are plenty of easy targets down the street."

"My door's open if you change your mind," Konkuro chuckled before following the absent wave of her hand in that direction, not seeming too put off by the rejection. "Well, unless it's closed." he thought to add, halfway down the road in a matter of seconds.

"Get out of here, idiot." Sakura sighed, picking the pieces of the Sho board, putting them in the velvet bag. It was obvious she was stiff and tired, but her movements were still calm and graceful as always.

"Really him?" Pakun mimicked Kakashi's exact thoughts at their exchange.

"We're just friends," the gentle shake of her head did nothing to sooth Kakashi or Pakun's skepticism on the matter. Especially with her trying to distract from the encounter by neatly folding the board over.

"I have a nose, ya know?" The little pug's eyes rolled at her before looking her up and down. "Your scents are all over each other."

"Sort of happens when you travel together for days on end." Sakura huffed again in a clear signal to end the conversation while she put the Sho board in her worn pack, before scratching his ears. "Now, if you're done with twenty questions, I'm exhausted and need to find an inn."

"What happened to your apartment?" Pakun's tail stopped wagging, with the widening of his large brown eyes.

Had she really given it up? Was she really transient as she seemed, no longer keeping a home stead in their village, Kakashi wondered, feeling like all the air was knocked from his lungs.

"Ino and Sai are shacked up in it." Sakura's grumble released whatever was gripping his chest with instant relief. "Five days on the road, I'm ready for food, bath and bed." Pakun started to walk with her, regardless of her obvious though gentle dismissal.

"Shouldn't you be getting back to Kakashi?" It only took a minute of him following for her to further push for solitude.

"Spirit no! Please no! Nooo more errands." Pakun's dramatic whimper joined with him falling to the ground.

"It can't be all that bad." Stopping to look down at the miserable show boat didn't have her bending to him, like Kakashi suspected the ever caring girl might. Instead, Sakura simply lifted a brow while adjusting the heavy pack on her shoulder.

"He refused to get an actual secretary or a hospital chief." The little imp drolled on about everything Kakashi had done, or rather failed to do, in Sakura's absence.

"He's really been doing it all by himself?" The concern in Sakura's her voice tugged things that were better left alone in Kakashi's chest.

"Shikamaru is the only person he really allows to view files." There was a sorrow in the pug's reply. A sorrow that they all felt. It was like his confession, voiced into the previously breezy night, stalled the spring air, making the heat and situation thicker.

Whether it was their overly cautious nature as Shinobi, or simply their grip to the past, it was difficult at best for him to consider transitioning from the paper filing system that grated his every nerve, to the electronic database, that had the potential to ease the rigor of his day-to-day responsibilities as Shikamaru suggested.

Kakashi knew that it was his own stubbornness, if not distrust. Even so, there was no denying that he was the wallowing sort, and being buried in paperwork gave him less time or more excuses to avoid the ache he could never rid himself of.

"Can you really blame him?" Again Sakura's pace and actions stalled, with her focus turned to the sky, as if it might have the answer they all needed. "The peace is fragile enough as it is without those monsters running amok." There was venom in her grit, understandably so.

Their newest enemy took many faces, including the ones closest to them both.

"You could have been there for him," Kakashi cringed; his whole body gripping at Pakun's chastisement to her. Even though it was something Kakashi thought in bitter moments. It was not something he'd never say to himself half the time, let alone aloud. The only time Kakashi ever allowed the harsher and unfair words drift through his misery was when he was hammered.

Loss was something their nation, their village, and their people knew all too well, but..... Kakashi of all people, knew the unique pain of surviving. The first glean of what he actually was, rather than what he was assumed to be, was being the only one the medical nin could save on that fateful mission. The first that ever felt like a failure, with his team dying, and barely recovering enough to share the intel of their betrayer when it was too late.

"I was there for him, Pakun," Sakura snapped, to both of their surprise. Small as he presented in the village, the pug was a Sage, and a powerful one at that. The fact that her outburst didn't get her a growl or flex of any kind proves the relationship she has built with Pakun's herd over the years as much as Kakashi himself.

"I have been to every territory, of every nation, vetting potential allies, as well as placating our existing ones. I've been there for Kakashi and the Leaf, the best I know how to be." Her arms cross and her flush deepens to that same indignant frustration, Sakura was never fully able to hold back like her mother did.

"I have been doing everything I can to make sure we get this bastard so we can all sleep at night." There was a break to her voice. "I wasn't running and this wasn't one of Na..." Sakura couldn't do it. Couldn't get out the name she'd choked on. It was too painful.

"I was keeping the peace and doing the research to get ahead. To stop that....." Her tone softened as she continued to stare at the direction of the sky without really taking it in, realizing the increasing harshness mingling with her obvious anger. "I'm sorry," she deflated with a deep breath, running her hands through her loose pink hair. Tugging ever so gently to pull herself back to her usual calm.

"Kakashi is apparently the youngest Hokage ever. Despite his efforts during the war and Garra's mastery of the Kazekage's seat at an even younger age; there were a lot of doubts and a lot of questions." She looked back down to the uncharacteristically quiet ninja hound. "My experience with Lady Tsunade taught me a great deal. It also put me in a position to influence certain people. I thought I was more help to him there than here. I had no idea Shizune wasn't at least with him."

"Even if she was, she's not you." Pakun pawed her leg.

"I missed you too, mutt." Pakun never let any one pick him up like a dog. He'd sooner bite someone's hand than be pet by it. Then again, she was Sakura, and the fact that his most surly hound allowed the pinkette to scoop him up into her arms for an embrace, wasn't all that shocking.

After all this time, Sakura was still the miracle that was Sakura.

"Now go back to Kakashi." It was obvious she was shooing Pakun as much as her own tears.

Chapter Five : Cobwebs and Corners

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