Chapter Four

Kakashi watched as Sakura lead their troop out of the land of fire and into the lawless lands. She carried herself just as well, a spine filled with will and shoulders spread with determination. He knew than in a split second she could bend and spring like wildfire out of the way, but as she walked in front of them, all he could think of was the stone and mountains no man could move on his own.

Truly, she was a leader if ever there was one. Obito and Rin felt the same way, but it didn't fill their hearts with dark aching the way it did for Kakshi. No, he doubted either of his comrades wrested with such unspeakable emotions late into the night day after day without ceasing. He should really get over it by now. All it brought him was suffering and frustration.

Sakura sama, Hokage, sensei… no matter what they called her she was always a world removed from his reach. She stood so close but she was also so far, he knew.

His skin grew taunt over his white knuckles as he fought back the dark thoughts. He couldn't allow himself to get distracted at this rate. They had to be alert and on guard. In a day or so, after they had made came and bunked for the night, they would be picking up the two refugees from Mist.

Zabuza…Kakashi had heard of the kid. They were the same age, but while Kakashi had been learning how to be a splendid ninja who protected his village and friends, Zabuza had been slaughtering his classmates in the name of national pride. Just because someone told him, he took the heads and separated them from the bodies of all the other children in his age group.

What kind of sick freak was he and why was Sakura okay with helping someone like that? It seemed like Sakura had a thing for monsters. It was something even Sasuke eluded to on the rare mentions of his teammate. He remembered when he confronted Sakura about the wisdom of helping someone as violent as Zabuza.

"Ah," Sakura bent down so that she was the one looking up at the younger boy. "The others don't know do they?" Kakashi shook his head. "Good, it should stay that way. Please keep this to yourself, Kakashi kun. I don't want you to think poorly of someone you haven't already met. From what I've read, he is a distraught child. I'm hoping we can help him here in the village."

Whatever. It didn't matter how much of a monster this kid was. Kakashi would be able to protect Sakura well enough alongside Rin and Obito if it came down to it. And Sakura sama herself was a power house to be reckoned with. She wasn't made Kage for her pretty face, (thought there was no one out there with a prettier face). She was a legend on the field. She would be able to take care of herself and then some. Kakashi didn't need to worry, but he couldn't help it. It was hard to imagine that Sakura could mean more to him than she already did.

"Keeping up, Kakashi?" Sakura called back, keeping her pace even and undisturbed.

To his credit, Kakashi didn't jump anymore when she called out to him, but he still had a hard time fighting back his blush. "Hai."

Sakura turned back to look over her three students. "Okay then, we can step it up a notch from here. I'd like to make good time from here on out." Without waiting for them, Sakura took off into the trees and sprang from one burdened branch to the next. Kakashi was quick to follow, and Obito and Rin stayed close behind.

"So fast," Rin panted before letting slip a laugh.

Kakashi didn't say anything as his female teammate pushed herself to keep up. Obito beamed with pride beside her, matching pace just as well. They traveled like that for a few hours without stopping. It was more than they were used to, but the rigor was good for them as a team. They needed to build up the stamina and this brutal teacher was doing just that, teaching them.

Suddenly Sakura broke off her pace, slowing down substantially before rocketing even higher into the trees. The three of her students were quick to catch on and do the same, joining her up in the canopy. When Kakashi landed on a branch across from her she pressed a finger to her lips and pointed down. Rin and Obito saw it too.

"Mizu nin," Obito breathed.

"Not who we want to run into," Sakura whispered back with a cheeky smile.

"We could take em," Obito replied, glaring at the two men dressed in black. Beside him Rin rolled her eyes.

"Maybe, Obito kun, but it would be wiser to conserve our energy for the travel, and we don't want to let the enemy know we're heading this way. If the Demon Brothers didn't show up to wherever it was they were going, that would be bad for us. As ninja, we must remember stealth is are best defense."

Obito turned a little red in his cheeks but nodded, agreeing with her and glancing sideways at Rin to see her reaction. His blush only grew worse when he saw her smiling over at him. Kakashi wanted to gag.

"Are we very close to our destination then?" the Hatake child asked.

Sakura turned her eyes on him and her cheeky smile turned impish. "Only because we've made such excellent time. You three have really outdone yourself. When should reach there a little after nightfall. We move under the cover of darkness."

Her students nodded as one and flashed into action behind her just as she took off into the trees. She was a ghost in the branches, and a phantom between the leaves. The three of them were quiet as well, but there was a gap of experience between their stealth and hers. Kakashi remembered his father talking about it once, how the ones who had to ghost through battlefields full of dead friends actually turned into ghosts when they wanted to be as silent as the dead. They learned to breath the breath of the world and never had to leave evidence of their existence behind to be found.

After a while Rin and Obito had to start channeling chakra into their legs and only Rin was able to manage it with enough control that her steps didn't tear at the bark of the tree branches or leave marks. Sakura noticed this and slowed her pace, shaming Obito without words.

"We are due for a break," she said to her group before flickering to the forest floor. Obito and Rin collapsed and Kiba knelt in the dust, too tired to pretend he wasn't. "You guys have done so well."

"Sasuke would have growled at us or something," Rin giggled, her cheeks red and her lungs sore. "It's nice to be encouraged for once."

"Nah," Sakura chuckled. "Maybe I'm just a bad teacher. I've never had my own kids before so I don't know what works."

Kakashi looked up at the sky and saw that the sun was low. "How far are we from our destination?"

Sakura pulled out some snacks and munched on some bread before swallowing a solider pill. Seeing the red and blue capsule go down Kakashi narrowed his eyes. Sakura didn't seem to mind it though, since she answered without missing a beat. "We'll take a ten minute break and then for the next three to four hours we will be in transit. The safe house needs to be scouted, as well. Obito, you and your pinwheel eyes will help me with that. K?"

Once she got a head nod from all three of them she left the clearing to get water from a nearby river and replenish her supply. Kakashi watched from a distance, feeling only partially embarrassed for his inability to let her out of his sight.

The minutes went by too fast, and soon they were on the trail again. Unlike before, Sakura would pick up speed, hold it for a time, and then pace down to a less breaking speed that they were bettered suited to managing. Up and down, she was building their stamina, but wasn't wearing them out. She was taking measures to keep them fresh and rested. Did she think they would have to fight an enemy or was she just being extra cautious?

Kakashi's thoughts were simple and to the point, but they kept coming back up in his mind, nagging him. Again and again, his thoughts plagued him without variety until they were at the checkpoint just outside the safe-house. Safe-house was putting it loosely. It was a fisherman's cottage with dilapidated roofs and cracks streaming up the sides. Inside a pale orange light set the interior aglow. The team could see it through the window left partly uncovered by the curtains.

Obito made a face and shared it with Kakashi and Rin. "It doesn't look very safe."

"Not like the kind of place you would expect Mizu fugitives to hang out in hiding, right?" Sakura asked in a low voice. "Obito, what do you see?"

The young Uchiha's spun crimson. "I don't see anything, no jutsu, no traps, nothing…"

Sakura grimaced. "Nothing?"

"No."

Her lips tugged dow, but she refused to frown. Instead she pulled free a scroll and unsealed a faded green, cotton kimino. She quickly wrapped it over her ninja gear and pinned up her hair. When she was done she looked like a normal civilian woman. Kakashi blushed at the smile she scent him when she caught him staring. She then looked to Rin and Obito. "Fine, stay here you three and keep an eye out. Provide long range cover if you can."

Sakura took off towards the house, jogging but not running. She moved like a civilian and Rin remarked on her acting abilities before saying something else about how different Sakura was from Sasuke.

"Yeah, if it had been Sasuke he would have made us go out there on our own," Obito replied.

"That's not really a good thing to say about your Hokage," Kakashi sighed. "Other Kage have full time guards. It's almost like she has a death wish."

"Or a complex," Rin added thoughtfully.

Kakashi hadn't been totally serious with what he said, but hearing Rin's tone he turned to look at her more fully. "What do you mean?"

"It's something very common among medics and survivors of the wars. Survivor's guilt, multiplied by the sympathy of a healer, it's a mental concoction for a person with a savior complex. I wonder if she would have taken this mission without us and tried to finish it on her own."

Before anyone could say anything more, Sakura came jogging out of the house, only slightly faster than before. Instead of running to them, she stopped, faking a tip and landing on what looked like a twisted ankle. She looked up directly at their hiding spot, and then glanced pointedly towards a cluster of trees beyond the immediate surroundings. Obito turned his eyes on it and growled.

"There's two of them there. We should take them out before they move," the Uchiha said.

Kakashi was off first, running faster than the others and launching himself into the fight first. He engaged with the chunin from Mist while Obito and Rin teamed up to take down the genin.

Knowing he was outmatched, Kakashi was cautious in circling his opponent and avoiding attacks instead of going on the offensive. He was better than Rin and arguably outmatched Obito, but part of the reason for that was an honest intake of his abilities. His opponent was older and battle worn. There were scars that stood out against his face as a warning. His opponent also used a short sword that channeled chakra in a wind style that extended the reach of each cut.

Kakashi knew he would need help in facing his opponent, even as Obito and Rin successfully neutralized their own, but he didn't expect to get the help he did.

Sidestepping another swipe, Kakashi rolled out of the way and shot off another kuni with an exploding tag cloud coverage gave him enough time to summon a water dragon that pushed the Mizu nin back, but it did no real damage.

His opponent charged with another extension of his wind sword, but stopped short when a larger buster blade slashed the air and chopped his own sword in half. Cursing, the ninja turned to see what Kakashi was seeing.

He was shorter than Kakashi by maybe an inch, and only because he slouched so terribly, with cobalt gray hair spiked up at a slant and angrily narrowed eyes. The bottom half of his face was wrapped up in strips of cloth, but through it Kakashi could see the downturned line of the kid's frown.

"Oi," the brat started, glaring at Kakashi. "Don't antagonize what you can't finish, brat."

A vein bunged in the Hatake boy's forhead. "Who are you calling a brat, brat?"

The bandaged boy growled, eyes narrowing dangerously. "What did you just say to me?"

Between the two boy's faces a thin spike of ice shot out, hitting the Mizu nin in the neck and dead on a vital artery. The chunin went down a moment later and a new figure with a slashed through forehead protector touched down in front of the dead man.

"Gome," said a soft voice. "But you've seen out face and you've attacked our allies, so I couldn't let you live. Rest in peace, troubled ninja."

The new arrival turned and Kakashi let his stance lessen just a bit when he saw the face of this person. She was almost as pretty as Sakura with classically lovely features like doe brown eyes and long brown hair worn straight over the shoulders. She smiled at Kakashi and the other brat.

"You must be the Hayate boy Sakura chan told us about." The kid snapped back to glare at Kakashi, hearing these words from the older woman. The woman didn't seem to notice or care. "My name is Haku, and this is Zabuza. Thank you for coming to meet us."

Rin and Obito touched down beside them, huffing from their encounter with the genin who now lay dead. "You're the two we're escorting to Leaf?" she asked.

"Supposedly," Haku chuckled in a cute way, smiling at the group. Xabuza glowered at the rest of the group and Kakashi felt his ire simmer.

"Then where's the Hokage," Zabuza grumbled, looking around.

In response to his question a limp body fell down in front of him, lading on top of the dead chunin. The group looked up, collectively as one, to see Sakura perched on a tree branch with her legs dangling prettily off the ledge. She kicked them once and then smiled impishly. "Their Jonnin," she explain in a sweet voice.

She was still wearing the cotton green kimino, but her hair was loose around her face, making her eyes stand out all the more. Kakashi drank in the sight, but tore his eyes away when he heard a gasp out of the Zabuza kid. The boy from the village hidden in the mist was staring up in a familiar way, eyes wide with wonder and cheeks faintly dusted with pink above the bandages. Kakashi felt his gut pinch with a queasy sort of roll once he recognized that look. It was one he knew well, because it was one he wore all the time when he looked at Sakura sensei.

"Sakura chan," Haku laughed in good nature. "I'm so glad you decided to join us. I hope our friend didn't give you too much trouble."

"No more than expected." Shifting her weight she rocked a bit and then gracefully vaulted back over the branch to fall and land between Rin and Obito, stealthy as a cat. "You two should feel flattered you were worthy of such scrutiny. Even without being sure of your location, they sent three very dedicated Mizu nin." She then flashed her own team a smile. "I'm proud of you three. Excellent strategy."

The praise felt empty in Kakashi's ears, but Obito and Rin beamed. They had managed to take down their opponent. Kakashi had been useless. His knuckles went white at his sides, his hands having curled into tight fists.

Sakura noticed this right away and stepped over to kneel in front of him and grab on of his hands. "You're hurt."

He hadn't noticed it, but there was a shallow cut, nothing more than a paper cut, running down his hand. Sakura's green healing chakra flowed into the wound and in an instant his skin had knitted itself back together. Even after she pulled away, his hand felt warm with her presence.

Her attention then shifted to the two missing nin who stood together, off to the side. Her smile came naturally. "How have you two been faring these past few weeks? I hope you were not too terribly inconvenienced when waiting for us."

Haku's smile was just as warm. "Nothing a little stealth couldn't fix." Haku reached down and ruffled Zabuza's hair until the boy whined and slapped the hand away, glancing nervously at Sakura to see if she had seen or how much she had paid attention. She didn't seem concerned, so Zabuza let out a held breath.

Haku stepped forward and formally bowed. "Thank you Hokage sama for personally seeing to our protection. Our lives are in your hands. Thank you."

Zabuza took a hesitant step forward and then stiffly bowed as well, going a bit deeper with his head and eyes downcast. "D-Dōmo arigatōgozaimashita," he said in a less gruff voice.

Sakura bowed to the both of them in turn, but not as deeply. "I'm looking forward to having you two become a part of my village. Please treat my team and I kindly."

When she lifted her head she caught Zabuza's eye and winked. He turned pink in the face and tripped over every word in his mouth before he stuttered out a sloppy, 'hai!'

Obito and Rin both grinned, looking over at Kakashi who was glaring daggers. "Looks like you have a new best friend. You have so much in common already. Both the same age, both ninja, both wear masks over the bottom halves of your faces, both like the same older woman…"

"Shut up, Obito," Kakashi growled.

Rin giggled into her hand.

Sakura looked around her and then nodded at the house. "We can't go back, but there is a hot-spings not too far from here. If we leave now, we can let ourselves in and no one would be the wiser."

Haku said something about not knowing there was a hot-springs anywhere near where they were staying, but in half an hour, they crested over a ridge and passed into the privet property of civilian family. Sakura went ahead with Rin and after slipping inside, came out with a light and the doors all unlocked.

"Looks like the family is out that runs the place. Season must not be ideal," Rin commented to her team.

"How funny. There is never a bad time for hot springs," Haku said, letting himself inside. He and Zabuza took a room while Obito and Kakashi took one right across the hall. Sakura and Rin shared a room next door. The mattresses and all they would need was right inside the closets to their rooms, but they had to pull everything out themselves and set up. This took a few minutes and the boys decided they were okay with a crap job if it got them into the springs sooner.

Zabuza must have thought the same since he was there, undressing when Kakashi and Obito walked in with their towels on. Without his bandages, Kakashi could see that Zabuza's teeth were razor shaped, like many of the Mizu nin. When Zabuza bared his teeth, he looked like a shark.

Never one to be a downer, Obito laughed and threw an arm around the missing nin's neck, dragging him into the waters with stories and pointless information regarding their village. Grudgingly, Kakashi followed the boys into the water, frowning all the way.

He didn't like this kid, even before having met him. All the stories about Zabuza were bad ones, and they gave Kakashi a equally bad feeling. But after having met the nin, Kakashi felt even worse. Something about the kid rubbed him the wrong way, and maybe there was something about the jealousy Obito pointed out earlier. Regardless, Kakashi didn't like Zabuza.

The boys paused their conversation when they heard Sakura and Rin on the other side of the fence, coming into their spring. Kakashi imagined Sakura slipping into the water and felt his face go even redder. If anyone asked, he would blame it on the baths. From the looks of it, Obito was thinking the same things about Rin.

Kakashi looked over at Zabuza, but saw the missing nin had sunk low until the water lapped up just below his eyes. When he caught Kakashi staring, he sunk even further down until he was nothing but a shadow in the pool.

"Kid freaks me out," Kakashi grumbled.

Obito laughed. "You're one to talk."

"And that means?"

Saying nothing, Obito splashed his friend and laughed. Kakashi growled, sinking back to the other side of the bath. Closing his eyes, he listened, wanting to hear more of Sakura and Rin's conversation. Had Haku come out to join them yet?

"So, Zabuza…" Obito called out to the newly emerged male. "Is there anything about Leaf you want to know about?"

Zabuza looked like he wasn't going to answer, but he caught himself after Sakura laughed loudly. Kakashi saw the red grow in the boy's cheeks. "Ah…ano…maybe about the Hokage, since we will be working for her. What is she like? What kind of person is she?"

From across the pool Kakashi scoffed. "Heh, thirsty much?"

Zabuza glared sharply. "And that's supposed to mean something, brat?" The kid tilted his chi up to stare down at the Leaf nin. "And not that it's any of your concern, but I was asking for a friend…someone else."

And it was in that moment Haku decided to walk in, decked out in nothing but a wrap around his waist. Obito and Kakashi both froze. It was a while before either said anything.

Hake smiled widely at the boy and then slipped into the water. "Wonderful night for a bath, isn't it?" Haku asked.

"Ah….Haku san…are…no, you're a…guy?" Obito stuttered out.

The reaction was one that made Haku's grin widen. "Ah yes, I remember the first time Sakura found out as well. She wasn't as timid though. She nearly beat me to death with a chair, actually."

"Why?" Obito asked, wide eyed. In the background, Kakashi caught Zabuza sulking back into the waters until they lapped over his nose.

Haku blushed and cupped the side of his face. "Ah, well I had a sort of crush on her back then, and let her believe I was a girl so she would share a room with me during a mission in Mist. Ah, we even shared a futon and that was what angered her the most, I think. She's forgiven me, but I've had no luck in courting the beauty since. I was hoping this career move might make things easier."

Kakashi felt a vein throb in his temple.

Across the bath, Obito laughed nervously.

AN:/I couldn't help myself. :)

Please review. I know it's rough, it hasn't been edited or proofread or anything like that yet. But, it's on my to do list.

I'm not doing to great, to be honest. It's senior year, I'm still working, and my body has not been playing nice with me. But writing is a huge de-stressing agent for me, I find. If I can write, I think I can manage. Tip to the young, life does not get easier, it only ever gets harder, no matter what they say. It might seem easier at times but that's because you get stronger. Life isn't in the habit of cutting me breaks right now, but I have my stories, so I'm good. I don't want to think about what sort of sad person I would be without them. Bless you all no matter what sort of day you are having. :)