Relentless (Book 2)

Construction- Katsu

"We're going to have to set up a home somewhere eventually," Kakashi said beside Katsu. The vast forested area had finally thinned to a grassy plain with few trees and a small black lake. "Somewhere to return to."

It was some time in the evening, the sky changing from a light blue to a pale shade of pink.

"Won't it be dangerous though?" Katsu asked. "Stopping and returning to the same area? Won't that make us easier to track?"

Kakashi considered this and shook his head. "Not if we're careful. If we have a set place to return to, then it will make our jobs easier if we are to split up while looking for the scrolls. I think it best for us to stick together, however. At least, the two of us."

Out of the corner of her eye, Katsu noticed Sasuke's back straighten.

"And for the matter of being tracked, we can set up protections that would lure passersby away. Just like those that I'm sure are placed around Orochimaru's hideouts. They're never easy to find."

Sasuke stopped walking and turned around to face them, his arms crossed.

"And you can create those?" Katsu asked Kakashi.

The man considered this skeptically. "I've never attempted it," he admitted. "They are quite complex, however. It would take practice..."

Katsu slowly turned to Sasuke. "Do you  know how to create protections like that?" she asked him carefully.

He only stared at her, annoyed, in response.

"Oh, you can speak now," she remembered.

"I'm not an idiot," he said immediately. "Of course I can create basic protections. You two are jokes for shinobi."

"I'm getting tired of your voice again already," Katsu muttered.

"Then might I make a suggestion before you silence me again?" Sasuke asked.

"Sure," Katsu said skeptically.

Sasuke looked over the two of them boredly. "Set up your 'home' here," he said with a shrug.

"Here?" Katsu asked suspiciously, glancing around. "This is a nearly open plain."

"True," he said. "Which is not where one would ever be expected to hide. "And I recognize this area. There's a city not too far from here. We can obtain food and other necessities without drawing attention to ourselves."

"Your face is on every wanted poster from here to the Leaf Village," Kakashi snapped.

"I don't have to be the one to go," Sasuke growled. "I'm actually attempting to help a bit here, old man."

"Again," Kakashi said with a long sigh, "I'm twenty-four. And frankly, I don't like you talking at all. Are we just supposed to trust your judgement on a safe location? How much of a fool do you take me for?"

"How much time do you have?" Sasuke asked after a moment of consideration.

"Like we'd ever really listen to what you have to say," Kakashi continued, his tone calm though his gaze was somehow barely managing to not set Sasuke on fire. "Even this attempt of yours to trick us is pathetic."

"It wasn't an attempt to trick you," Sasuke said with a shrug before chuckling. "But that does sound like something I would do."

"Kakashi," Katsu said quietly, tugging on his arm.

"Yes? he asked, moving to the side to talk with her privately.

"I...I don't think that what he's saying is such a crazy idea."