"You know, I actually used to laugh at how you all did everything Sakura-chan asked," Tenzou remarked with uncharacteristic sullenness. Likely feeling useless after he'd had to spend the day huddled in a blanket and replenishing his chakra, the wood user was making up for it with overly enthusiastic participation in setting up a small stage at Kakashi's chosen location. The rest were busy handing out flyers in the town's market square with the exception of Sakura, who'd vanished into the cart she had claimed as her own with mysterious and unconvincing excuses that the 'main event' never showed themselves before the performance.

"Yeah?" Kakashi said, listening instead to the unmistakable slide of paper that indicated Sakura was catching up on her reading rather than helping out.

"I'm serious," his companion pressed. "I used to imagine what blackmail she had over the team - you in particular, because you really let her get away with everything - but I turned around one day and realised I'm just as bad as the rest of you." The ANBU thudded a long slat of wood into place and slid it forward with a satisfying click, staring disapprovingly at it as though the plank was in on the conspiracy to make him bend to their teammate's whims.

"Was that before or after she convinced you to make her a throne?" Kakashi asked, adding a teasing lilt to his voice.

"Oh, don't, senpai." Tenzou looked pained. "Chakra exhaustion on an A-rank mission in a non combat situation?" He held a hand to his head, brown hair sticking up through his fingers. "I'll buy your beers for a month if you leave that out of the mission report."

"Mah…" Kakashi pretended to consider, straightening up from where he'd been securing the stage to the ground. "It's a good offer." He shrugged. "Shame I'm not going to be writing the report." Saluting with two fingers to his temple and a wink at Tenzou's obvious consternation, the copy ninja trotted over to where they'd set up camp, hearing the small scramble from within her cart as Sakura went about hiding the evidence of her relaxation at his approach.

He paused outside the wooden door, struggling against his desire to take a deep breath as he knew she'd hear it. Their normal friendship dictated that before entering he'd make some kind of enquiry as to her decency while she countered with a comment on her continuous lack of it, but that was before she'd gone and breathed on him and before he'd mostly accidentally had a handful of her curves. What to do? They'd been acting normal all day but this was slightly different and he'd already been lingering outside for too long -

"I know there's no window, Kakashi... but you know you can come in via the door as well, right?" Sakura's voice drifted from within, speaking in the sing-song way she liked to adopt when teasing.

This time not bothering to hold back his relieved sigh, he placed a hand on the sturdy door and began to pull it open, replying in the same amused tone, "but are you decent, Sakura-chan?"

She snorted. "No." And then when his hand suddenly paused in its progress, she burst into peals of laughter that had him rolling his eyes and grinning under his scarf as he opened the offending door fully and stepped up into the narrow cabin.

Inside, his nose was immediately assaulted with the sting of drying herbs and the heavy scent of a stewing medicine, and through the watering of his eyes Kakashi saw she'd transformed the space into part triage and part herbal den. Every available surface was loaded with a hefty stack of cut-and-dried medicinal plants, in such volumes that meant she had to have been gathering them quite voraciously over the past few days. Amidst it all were mysterious bundles of cloth and even the glittering scarf that she'd bought in the Fukuro market when they'd set off, lending the small space a heady atmosphere that had him sitting on his heels to avoid the worst of the sensory overload.

"No wonder you didn't want anyone to share with you," he remarked, taking in all the paraphernalia that marked her as a medical ninja cluttered together with gear he assumed had to do with her role in the troupe. "Sure you're not going for the fortune teller aesthetic?"

Peering around exaggeratedly, Kakashi made sure to give her a lazy wink as she met his gaze, "where do you even sleep?"

"Oh, shut up," she replied without any real acidity in her tone. "This part of Fire Country is really good for stocking up supplies at this time of year, so I figured I'd make myself useful if I'm not in the hospital and replenish our stores of some of the rarer plants."

The shinobi nodded, understanding. As much as Sakura liked to complain about spending too much time in the medical bays he knew her thoughts were never far from her patients; it was very much like her to spend her time as a 'civilian' working as much as she could to assist the village's sprawling health service. Again he was assaulted with a vague sense of guilt at depriving the organisation of one of its core members so often over the last year, but he reminded himself that it was highly likely this mission had been given to Sakura as a holiday as much as it had been to him. Kakashi was under no illusions that Tsunade would stick around as a constant presence in Konoha after her retirement from the Hokage position, at least at first. The slug princess had been loudly hinting about a tour round the casinos of the continent with her retirement stipend in hand, and her absence would leave Sakura with even more responsibility than she currently had.

If he hadn't been too busy feeling sorry about his own impending doom Kakashi was certain he'd be feeling sorry for his medic on account of hers.

"Can I help?" He offered instead, thinking of ways the team could lighten her load. "Pakkun and the others are made for this sort of thing, after all."

Sakura turned away from where she had been rifling through a box of what looked like junk. Where had she even had time to gather so much stuff?

"Oh, would you, Kakashi?" She smiled broadly, showing off pearly teeth. "That would be really appreciated."

"Sure," he shrugged, smiling back almost as widely, though it was hidden beneath the scarf that was currently protecting his olfactory senses. "I'll summon them outside though, as I'm not sure they'd be able to cope with…" he trailed off, waving an arm vaguely at the drying plants hanging from the ceiling.

"Of course!" She gave him an even bigger smile, not bothering to hide how much his offer of help had obviously brightened her mood. "I can separate the plants into groups according to their scent classifiers and give them a little time to reach full potency - to make it easier." Sakura had worked with his ninken often enough to know how to make their jobs as trackers as uncomplicated as possible; he didn't think there was anyone else outside the Inuzuka clan who understood the importance of emphasising a single strain of scent particles to follow. If he had to guess it was similar to how she crafted poisons and their antidotes, but he still thanked the gods that Team Kakashi's skills aligned in such a complementary way.

Muttering under her breath about whether Bisuke or Akino would be better at tracking water-based botanicals, Sakura shifted away from the box of junk to begin absent-mindedly sorting through the piles of leaves and stems on her desk: clearly intent on starting right away while his offer was still fresh on the table.

Her movement caused a small black book to fall with a heavy thud to the floor of their caravan. Guessing that it had been the offending piece of relaxation while he and Tenzou had been working, Kakashi made to pick it up in curiosity when it was swept out of his reach by a suddenly attentive Sakura.

"Hmm, I hope the spine wasn't damaged," she muttered, looking far too intently at the cover, which immediately drew his attention to the rather dull, dusty tome in her hands. It looked in about the same condition as all Sakura's books; surviving within an inch of their spine.

"What's this?!" The Copy Ninja drawled, affecting a tone of mock surprise. "The Great Defiler Sakura suddenly cares about the wellbeing of her books?"

They'd had many arguments over the years about the correct treatment of literature - Sakura was of the opinion that books were to be scribbled upon and thoroughly enjoyed, whereas Kakashi proclaimed that they should be kept pristine, resulting in Sakura huffily agreeing that she'd rather the kind of books he read did stay in untouched condition - and soon the pair fell into lighthearted bickering over the merits of using a bookmark versus folding the pages.

It didn't escape his notice, however, that Sakura very carefully slid the book into a too-small pocket instead of waving it in his face like she usually did to prove the medium's sturdiness.

Blinking up at her through dark grey eyes he gracefully let her win the argument - though no way were any books of his going around dogeared - while he angled his head to read what he could of the cover.

'...the Body' was all he could make out and if it weren't for her secretiveness Kakashi would be content to think it was simply yet another medical textbook. But it it couldn't be, not with that caginess, and now he had another puzzle to occupy him en route to their mission: acquire one mysterious book from one misbehaving subordinate.

It was challenges like this he'd miss most.

"I'm just saying I don't think that's, you know, a normal observation to have, Sai," Naruto paused thoughtfully. "I mean actually, maybe it is normal to notice, but it's definitely not normal the way you said it."

The blonde crossed his arms over his chest with a decisive nod, heedless of the flyers now crumpled into uselessness against his arm. While Sakura, Kakashi and Tenzou were in charge of getting the stage ready for the evening's performance Naruto, Sai and Sasuke had been tasked with handing out flyers and drumming up interest in the town square for the show: a job Naruto privately thought would be better suited to himself and Sakura, and Kakashi at a push.

But no. Sai had insisted on gauging the reaction to his artistic advertising and Sasuke had just stared at Kakashi until the older man had sighed in defeat, shooing them away.

So instead of a cheery group drawing in the crowds, Naruto found himself marooned against the town's drinking fountain in the square, with the locals responding to his friendly smiles and nods before sliding deliberate glances towards his accidentally threatening companions. Sasuke wouldn't make eye contact with anyone (a habit formed from the necessity of tempering the Sharingan) and Sai made too much eye contact with everyone.

It wasn't going well.

"Even Sasuke probably agrees with me here, right?" Naruto continued, nudging his silent friend. "Right? It's definitely weird that Sai's trying to get my shirt off, no?"

"You are deliberately misinterpreting my suggestion, Naruto." Sai pushed off from his perch against the fountain, leaving behind a stack of flyers precariously perched against the stone lip. "I merely stated that you appear to be the preferred male archetype for the residents of this village, so it would help our task if you were to make yourself more… noticeable for them."

"Yeah, by getting half naked," Naruto huffed. "Can't you see why that's not an OK option?"

He drummed his heels a little into the dirt of the town's main thoroughfare, watching as a faint smirk spread across Sasuke's face, though he stayed silent for now.

"I really don't see the problem," Sai rebutted. "You are in prime shape, so there's nothing to be afraid of from a physical perspective. Except for the Seal… but I would be happy to paint other markings to make it less, I suppose, obvious."

Naruto perked up. "You mean like fake tattoos?" He shook his head. "Wait! That's not the issue here." Holding up a hand in front of his oblivious teammate, the blonde ninja racked his brain for a way of explaining. "OK. Think of it like this. Would you ask Sakura to do this - get half naked to attract more villagers for this evening's show?"

"I hate to inform you that you do not have breasts-"

"No I know but it's the same kind of idea-"

"... not that Sakura-chan has breast breasts, but-"

"Augh! Listen to me! It's not OK because it doesn't give us-"

Abruptly, Sasuke picked up the remaining pile of flyers, breaking up the pair's bickering. "Nobody wants to see dobe shirtless, Sai." He shoved a handful into the artist's hands. "The sooner we hand these out, the sooner we can get ready for tonight."

Naruto sighed, relieved. Sasuke was an unpredictable element in the team's banter: he could either be on your side or deliver the most cutting remarks depending on his current mood, though it seemed here he was opting for the path of least interference. It wasn't ideal (for Naruto's dignity) but at least he'd moved away from being deliberately cruel - that had been a difficult stage to coach through.

"Sasuke-san is right, Naruto." Sai brandished a finger at him as though he hadn't been the one delaying their objective by insisting his teammate get half-naked. "We should hurry back, and see if we can be of any use to the others."

Naruto grumbled, annoyed at being blamed for the very reasonable excuse of not wanting to flaunt his body any more than he had to. He'd had enough of that in his years cavorting with Jiraiya, thanks very much.

"You just want to see if you can sneak a peek at what Sakura-chan is going to do," he muttered. "Or, more like what she's going to wear."

Sai blinked slowly, his momentary confusion causing him to successfully pass out some flyers to the braver of the townspeople.

"I assure you I have no interest in what Sakura is wearing, or what she's going to do, beyond artistic considerations."

Naruto snorted, flashing a bright grin at some children and tossing them a crumpled flyer before turning back to his companions. Sasuke shook his head, fed up with their antics, and moved around the fountain to unsuccessfully engage with the townspeople on the other side.

"I know, that's the joke."

"What?"

"I mean, not being at least a little curious at what your teammate is about to unleash upon you is weird."

"But... I am curious?" Sai tilted his head inquisitively.

"Uh huh... not in the right way, Sai." Naruto said, grinning as he tossed the last of his flyers towards a smiling group of youths their age.

They worked in silence for a time before Sai made a small sound of understanding.

"I see… you're referring to the high likelihood that Sakura-chan's performance is going to be sexualised in nature, based on her reluctance and embarrassment back in the teahouse." He nodded, satisfied in his deduction. "And are teasing me because I am not expressing the right amount of male interest in this?"

Naruto grinned even wider than before, slapping a hand off his knee in mirth.

"Bless the hokages!" He yelled. "Sai's grown up!"

Sakura sent a silent prayer of thanks for Sai's obsessive need to observe people; there was no way she'd have gotten useful information from the trio otherwise.

Naruto, Sasuke and Sai had returned from their flyering operation arguing about acceptable levels of nudity - she didn't even want to know - and when she beckoned them towards her cart Sai looked as though he was about to draw her into the conversation when a surprisingly tactful Naruto placed the whole of his hand directly over his pale teammate's mouth.

Of course, Sai bit him. Naruto squawked with rage and Sakura shared her first look with Sasuke that wasn't fraught with awkwardness since the mission began. There was just something about bickering teammates that promoted camaraderie above all other emotions; whatever the reason, she was just grateful that Sasuke's emerging social awareness was focused on the scene their companions were causing.

Eventually, the pair stilled and Sakura sighed heavily, clutching the neck of her changing robe closer to her chest. It was a hot, muggy evening, and she could feel the sweat gathering at the small of her back, so she was desperate not to delay the debriefing any longer and choose something to wear.

"Well?" She prompted.

"A wealthy town with a large proportion of middle aged or elderly residents, most of whom appear to be involved in the mercantile profession associated with crossroad settlements. There is no one particular deity revered but many of the shrines in the centre were decorated with sheaves of wheat local to the area. It is not a festival season at this current time, and I noticed that the general mood of the town was cautious in our presence." Sai reported to her mechanically, listing his observations about the area on his fingers.

Naruto looked askance at his companion and even Sasuke widened his eyes fractionally.

"All that," Naruto asked, "while you were cajoling me into taking my shirt off for the local girls?"

"If you were a halfway decent ninja," Sai replied, "you'd have noticed that there weren't that many local girls in the first place."

At this, both Sakura and Sasuke snickered, and she felt any irritation at being overly warm smooth away in the face of Naruto's narrowed eyes and suspicious look.

"I also noticed," Sasuke piped up, "that even when I moved away from Sai and Naruto the reactions of the people were conservative."

Naruto spun on his heel. "You, too?!"

Sakura frowned. "I did ask you to tell me what you thought of the village when you went in, Naruto."

"Yeah, and I noticed that I was being tormented for someone's own amusement."

Sakura pushed back her hair from where it hung loose around her face, and offered her friend a conciliatory smile. "Well, it's okay, Naruto-kun." She only called him that when she was trying to get in his good books or trying to pull a fast one and he knew it, judging from the way he swung his gaze towards her. "I won't tell Hinata about you showing off for local ladies if you promise to help me out with my hair for this evening."

"What?!" Naruto threw up his hands even as his companions edged backwards. "I didn't even- wait, where are you going? Sai? Teme? It is definitely not my turnnnn…"

He trailed off with a glower even as Sakura extended a hand towards him that was half helping and half commanding. "Come on, get in."

The blonde ninja huffed in disgust at his abandonment, accepting her proffered hand and hauling himself after her into the enclosed space of her caravan. "Wow, I'm sure Kakashi-sensei is loving this," he remarked, sending a pointed look at the copious volumes of herbs littering the surfaces.

"Actually," Sakura replied as she placed heavy hands on his shoulders to seat him where she wanted him, "he offered to get the dogs to help gather more, which is better than the rest of you have been doing."

She started pulling combs and ornaments from one of the many boxes on the cart's floor.

"Well of course," Naruto said, rolling his eyes as though stating the obvious, "that's only because he's worried that if he's not nice to you, you'll stop going on missions with him, and probably more importantly that you'll stop being nice to him."

Sakura frowned. She wasn't nice to Kakashi, was she? No more so than any of the rest of the boys; that is, she was nice when they deserved, which wasn't often, and her regular moods drifted from friendly to frightening with any given comment. But never overtly nice.

"That's a strange comment," she said instead of protesting.

Naruto scoffed, settling behind her as she sat down before picking up the largest comb to tackle the curled mess her hair had become. Some girls thrived in the field; Sakura's hair just lamented the heat of the cart and lukewarm water of a makeshift shower.

"So says the kunoichi who woke up with her hands up his shirt."

She flinched at the comment, even though there was nothing behind it but good-natured teasing. Naruto ignored the movement and picked up a comb before gingerly tugging at her pink locks. It was a ritual they'd begun back in the very earliest days of Team 7 when Sakura had been more interested in how her hair looked than how her kunai flew; one day her arms had been too tired and sore to move let alone brush her hair, and somehow (after lots of tears, though she'd never admit it) the night had ended with Kakashi half-heartedly pulling a comb through her hair to appease her. After that it had turned into one of the unspoken customs of the team's fieldwork: Sakura would occasionally ask one or another of the team to help with her hair and they did it, usually with only a minimum of complaint.

Over the years they'd all taken a turn, even Sasuke, and in the end the kunoichi had privately decided that grumble all they like, but her boys enjoyed the quiet moments spent in this way. Naruto had even become something of a hobbyist stylist and Tenzou could be convinced to weave wonders with braided flowers - Ino had remarked on a number of occasions that it simply wasn't fair that Sakura had a personal army of beautifiers until the kunoichi in question reminded her that Kakashi's dog-grooming attempts and Sasuke's methodical but misguided braids rarely made for the best looks.

Still, it felt good, and Sakura leant back slightly into her blonde companion, who seemed consumed with his task of smoothing out the tangles of the day from her tresses.

"I was just cold, you know," she remarked, eyes closed from the sensation of the comb moving through now-straight hair.

"I know," Naruto replied quietly, though she could hear the smirk in his voice. "I woke up just before you did, and I swear I've never seen Sensei look so at a loss."

"Oh, no…" Sakura resisted the urge to put her face in her hands. "Was he disgusted? Was it really weird? I've been trying to act normal all day, but…"

"I think he was more worried you'd wake up and bite him in the jugular, Sakura-chan." At her displeased huff, Naruto laughed into her hair and reached around her to pluck some pins from her hands. "How do you want this to look?"

She thought for a moment. "How did the girls in town look?"

"According to Sai there weren't any girls!"

"So nothing fancy, then?"

"I guess not. I'll just twist it and stick like, a stalk of wheat out of the back or something."

Sakura frowned. "That doesn't sound unfancy."

"No, I'm sure I saw it in the square before, so it'll be fine..."

They sat in companionable silence for a few minutes while Naruto fussed over her hair and Sakura planned her routine for the evening's show. From the town's atmosphere it looked as though the more risque parts of her repertoire were solidly out of commission - not that she could complain - which left a host of sedate, harvest style dances that required gravity and proper frame of mind to dance properly. The wheat implied a reverence for surety and sustainability but with the aging population and wealth of the town it was perhaps best to lean towards gratitude for the bounty granted by the merchant trade. She deliberated for a few moments more before settling on a slow, reverent sequence that was danced as a thanks for the blessings bestowed upon people without singling out any one source; with the assessment she'd gotten of the town it was likely to go down well.

Not a showstopper, but an easy enough start for her heart when it came to exposing this part of her personality to the people who knew her best.

Kakashi felt a glimmer of worry as he looked over the restive crowd in front of their small stage. They'd been bravely moving through the motions for close to an hour now and while Naruto's enthusiastic tumbling ticked all the boxes it was apparently only making the middle-aged crowd simmer in envy. To make it worse Tenzou's tricks with flowers had been met with polite applause, while there weren't any children for Sai to paint, leaving him rather aimlessly holding a brush and circling the crowd like an accidental vulture. And the less said about Sasuke's scowling presence on the other side of the stage, the better.

Perhaps Sakura hadn't been wrong about flower arranging after all. Plucking aimlessly at the strings of his beaten-up biwa, the jounin had to admit that this had been pretty much a roaring failure from the moment they'd misjudged the townspeople. Far from getting a free meal and maybe even a place to stay for the night, it looked as though they were close to being run out of town for either their terrible performance, their clear difference from the makeup of the locals, or for the simple fact that they'd tried to bring levity to what was obviously a conservative sort of place. Kakashi just hoped that Sakura wasn't going to seal the deal by flaunting what she had and the locals so obviously had not.

For the last half hour or so she'd been mostly motionless in the small waiting area behind the curtain; from where he was perched on a brightly coloured box he couldn't quite see what she was up to, but at least she looked to be fully dressed. The only clue to her actions was the gently undulating waves of chakra pouring from her to dissipate just above her clothes. And as she was as much a master of control as Kakashi himself was - maybe more - he had to assume it was deliberate.

Finally, Naruto ran out of steam, coming to a rolling stop with a smile that managed to ignore the crowd's mood and embrace it at the same time. To the sounds of yet more polite but disinterested applause, Kakashi felt rather than saw Sakura stand up behind the curtain even as Naruto bowed his way back. Too late, he realised they hadn't discussed how to introduce her and the shinobi swallowed in momentary indecision.

It didn't matter.

Because as soon as she stepped through into the bright lanterns of the stage, Kakashi could have stood up, screamed, even summoned a chidori and the residents of this conservative little backwater still wouldn't have taken their eyes off of his teammate. She was already swaying even as she advanced to the front of the space, moving with a precise slowness that spoke of the perfect control she was proud of. Dressed in the kimono she'd carried from Konoha - which managed to be at once plain and magnificent, a sombre dark green affair with hidden flashes of startling gold - Sakura had painted a bold golden stripe over her eyes, the luxurious colour a contrast to the green of her irises that gave them impossible depths, two pinpricks of nature shining from within a canvas of wealth.

She looked like a goddess long-forgotten, and the audience watched enraptured as she swung an elaborately tied bundle of wheat in wide, meaningful arcs. It wasn't a dance at all: it was a ceremony, and as Kakashi dragged his eyes from her reverently sweeping form over the stunned faces of the crowd he couldn't be sure any longer who was being worshipped and who was the supplicant.

She'd opted to appeal to both their humble farming beginnings while celebrating their obvious wealth and it was clear they loved, adored, worshipped her over it. Belatedly Kakashi realised he'd trailed off playing the little lute in his hands at her entrance, but he didn't think he'd be able to start playing again even if he wanted to.

Feeling as detached as though under the strongest of genjutsu, Kakashi watched along with the rest of the crowd while his teammate spun and twirled with graceful clarity. If pressed, he couldn't have estimated how long he sat before he realised Sakura was turning to face him, still moving with devastating slowness.

And then she winked. Such a small movement, it pinned him as effectively as though she'd run him through. With a secretive smile on her lips she turned away from him again, the movement so smooth that for a second he just sat there unmoving, feeling a strange whooshing sound rush past his ears before - embarrassingly - the pale skin of his cheeks burned red.

Kakashi blinked, the spell broken, and swallowed a suddenly dry throat. He was utterly, devastatingly fucked.

But watching her dance... it was hard to care.

AN: Good grief, I'm back! I'm sorry this took so long to post. It's been simmering for a while. Let me know what you think!