Rogue.

The sun will always rise.

An odd warmth and movement surprised me when I woke up, causing me to jump away from my bedroll in a panic. I heard a slight chuckle as I gazed at the two dogs who were staring at me as though I'd just dishonoured their families.

"I didn't know you are afraid of dogs." A familiar voice came from above, making me look up to see Kakashi sitting on a tree limb.

"I'm not." I glared at him, hoping it would counteract my reddened cheeks. "I'm just not used to going to sleep alone and waking up not alone."

I heard Asuma's booming laughter and turned to find him and Kurenai cooking together. "I guess it's a good thing you didn't climb into bed with her."

I raised my eyebrows, looking from Asuma to Kakashi in confusion. I was still way too tired to process all of this and I was half considering just crawling back into my bedroll with the warm pups. "You were going to what?" 

Kakashi fell out of the tree, landing practically on his head as he adjusted his mask to hide more of his face and righted himself. "No, no I wasn't going to do that!" He sounded nervous, it was funny to see him waving his hands around so defensively. "Hey! Stop laughing at me!"

Kurenai and Asuma were busting a gut at the scene as I must have looked mortified at the idea of the jonin crawling into my bedroll while I slept. I was also still embarrassed about the way I had woken up. I groaned internally, pulling my blankets away from the big bulldog and taking the tea Kurenai held out for me. She pulled the smaller dog into her lap and I leaned up against the larger while I sipped my tea and tried to wake up.

"You were having some pretty rough nightmares." Kurenai informed me as she patted the head of the dog in her lap. "Kakashi summoned Buru and Bisuke to help comfort you, he does it for his genin when they are on missions and they keep him up at night." 

"Well, I've got to get some sleep somehow." Kakashi was back to his too cool to care self as he sat down with orange book in hand. 

"What are you always reading?" I asked him, which caused Asuma and Kurenai to begin their laughter again. 

Kakashi quickly shoved the book into the pouch on his hip, his face turning as red as a tomato "Nothing, its nothing... just uh.. Mission tactics and such." 

Asuma snorted, spitting some of his breakfast into the fire as I actually saw him tear up. I glared at them, wondering what kind of joke I was being left out of but decided I had more to worry about. The Daimyo would be moving out again soon and if I didn't get dressed I would be trudging down the path in Kurenai's tiny shorts and probably just my chest wrappings as Kakashi would probably want the sweater back. I took my blankets into the woods and set them up the way Kurenai had before I changed back into the only pair of my clothes I had. It was a cold morning, so I took more care to wrap up my exposed leg, arms and my stomach where the padded top I wore ended. I was also frustrated with my hair, after two days of only brushing it with my hands it was beginning to look like a matted mess laying against my back. I pulled it up, rolling it into as tight a knot as I could manage and then tied it with some of the wrapping fabric. I usually kept it up on missions as it tended to get in my way. 

"Time to go, Kairi!" Asuma called from back over at the campsite. I rushed back and packed up my stuff, noticing with a bit of sadness that the Ninken had been unsummoned in my absence. 

Even though we had less distance to travel this time, it was a much longer day. Kakashi wasn't really talking to me for whatever reason, he had his nose buried in that book as he walked. I noticed he'd hidden the cover of the book which made me more annoyed. I decided to focus on the mission instead of the voice that was ringing in my head, telling me he'd gotten the information he needed and was now done with me until he handed me back over to the Kazekage. He didn't know the details of my mission, but it was easy enough to guess that I was following Naruto around, and now he knew that I was in the Root.