A/N: Just a little something that's been in my head for a while. I get the feeling I've made Sakura too mature for her age but I'd like to think she wasn't an idiot until Sasuke and hormones. I also don't believe she acquired all of her ninja-know-how in school and assume it's been something she'd been studying for years. Then again, could be wrong. Thanks to xxtokidokixx for betaing!

Kakashi suppressed a sigh as he untied his ANBU wolf mask. Everything hurt and he was covered in blood, not really sure how much was his own. The vision in his left eye blurred but he was pretty sure that was from overuse and not blood loss. He hung the mask and now pink uniform in the small locker assigned to him. He did the minimal First-Aid required to stop his bleeding and walked through the small commons room to leave.

"Alright, people," one of the captains stated as she walked into the room. "I've got an assignment." Most of the shinobi in the room perked up only slightly. "Trackers or Hyuga would be best." The captain was left with only three attentive people in the room and Kakashi could sense the eye roll as the woman raised the scroll. "Missing five year old-"

"Wait," the Hyuga male broke in. "Someone sent an ANBU work order for a missing child?" He rolled his opal eyes and turned away muttering about civilians. The captain suppressed a sigh and continued to read.

"Name, Haruno, Sakura, most likely abducted. Last seen four days ago leaving her yard with a blue bag containing two books, two bottles of water, and a bag of granola and nuts. Likes to read, play with animals, and play in water, thirty-nine pounds, three feet six inches, green eyes, pink hair." The Inuzuka woman still listening blinked.

"Pink hair?" she snorted. "I swear, some people will go to outrageous lengths for vanity."

"According to the parents, it's natural." The Inuzuka snorted again.

"Pay?"

"Volunteer." She settled back into her seat.

"The Hokage doesn't have any Chuunin to spare?"

"Apparently they have been searching for the past forty-eight hours. Several Jounin joined the search yesterday to no avail. The parents put in a request to the Hokage this morning." The statement was met with silence. "Oh come on," the captain snapped after a few moments. "I know for a fact at least seven of you are off duty. A few minutes of slacking or the life of a five year old girl." A few shinobi shifted uncomfortably.

"I guess I can help," one man mumbled, getting to his feet.

"Yeah, what's a few minutes," a woman asked, pulling on her mask. In seconds the commons room was empty of even the ANBU who were assigned to missions starting within the hour. Kakashi shrugged and stuffed his hands in his pockets before ambling back to his apartment.

Within six hours most of the city was frantic. The Hokage had dismissed his staff and joined the search himself two hours ago. Kakashi levered himself off his bed and summoned his ninken.

Another two hours had even Kakashi a bit unsettled. Most of the civilians had given up the search, believing that if the best of their ninja force couldn't find the child, she was as good as dead. Kakashi moved carefully through the girl's room, surprised at the deep blues and light greens that made up the décor. He gravitated toward the many book shelves almost immediately. These weren't the books of a child. The scrolls and duplicate bingo-books were worn and much used, a stark contradiction to the set of kunai and shuriken still displayed in their boxes, covered in a fine layer of dust. Never touched, Kakashi guessed and moved on. He saw scroll after scroll of jutsus of different types and how to evade, counter, or neutralize them. Rules, regulations, and procedures took up almost a whole wall. The only element of a child inhabiting the room that he saw besides the diminutive furniture was a set of water paints and a stuffed koi fish that resided at the foot of the bed. Didn't little girls still like pink and play with dolls? Kakashi stepped towards the paints, noticing that the top doodle on the drying rack resembled a line of trees.

Kakashi soon stood in the woods between training grounds, his sharingan activated, though only slightly uncovered by his headband, in the third stretch of trees he'd searched in an hour. He scanned the area thoroughly and paused next to a large tree.

"It's a little late for you to be out, don't you think?" he asked. Silence was his response. "It's past seven. Your parents will be worried about you." The image of a tree trunk shimmered slightly before solidifying and becoming even more inconspicuous than before. He crouched down in front of it. "You can't keep hiding if you've already been found. It's against the rules of hide and seek." The façade dissipated immediately to reveal a small pink haired girl with large green eyes sitting with an open book in her lap, a flashlight, a blue bag, a half empty bottle of water, and a mostly eaten bag of granola and nuts.

"I'm not playing," she said with a frown.

"Then what would you call hiding in the woods without telling anyone where you're going?"

"Experimentation," she said with a disdain that could have been haughty if her voice were two or three octaves deeper. Kakashi suppressed a grin.

"Of?" She turned back a few chapters in her book after noting her place and turned the leather bound volume to him.

"This chapter is about the conditioning shinobi have to go through to be prepared to go on missions. They train their bodies to go for days, even weeks, without water or food." She shrugged. "In biology we learned that the human body can only go for about a week without water but more without food before the body and mind start to break down. I'm testing to see if the kind of food makes a difference. I know shinobi carry soldier pills but I figure high fiber and protein foods would work just as well and wouldn't have so bad a crash afterwards." She held out her bag of granola and nuts in offering and he shook his head.

"Just how long were you planning on staying out here," he asked, bemused. She shrugged again with the simplicity only children have.

"Until my water ran out." He frowned.

"You've been drinking from only the two bottles you brought?" She nodded but started flipping pages in her book again.

"This section talks about a rejuvenation jutsu. It takes the water from the plants around a person and provides it as clean drinking water." She frowned. "It kills the grass though so I've been taking it from the tree roots." Kakashi stared at her in surprise. It wasn't an overly complicated jutsu but one that required quite a bit of chakra control. Not the amount he would have expected from a five year old.

"How did you manage to hide from all the shinobi looking for you," he asked, sitting with his legs crossed in front of her. Once again she flipped through her book and turned it for him to see.

"The second chapter is avoiding detection. It shows how to shield one's presence from others with chakra and scent repressors and simple genjutsu. It also helped that no one really expected me to be able to perform it so they didn't look for it." Kakashi smiled.

"That must have taken a lot of effort to hold in place and use the rejuvenation jutsu." She shrugged again.

"Not really. After a while I didn't even have to think about it." Kakashi placed his chin in his hand.

"A Hyuga should have been able to see through the genjutsu you know," he stated. "They have special eyes-"

"That allow them to see the chakra circulation system in other beings; I know." She flipped through the book. "It also gives them penetrating sight, telescopic vision, and a sort of extrasensory perception that extends to 360 degrees." She displayed her book again. "This page outlined using components of a person's chakra to form it into something else. All I had to do was put up the genjutsu and mold my chakra into something natural to the forest. Squirrels are the easiest. They see the genjutsu and the chakra they see through it looks like a squirrel. No cause for alarm."

Kakashi couldn't hold back his amusement at the situation any longer. He allowed himself a deep chuckle and refocused his eye on the girl. Konoah's best, brightest, and most lethal had been bested by a five year old and a book of ninja-knowhow. You couldn't write this kind of comedy.

"An Uchiha-"

"Could have easily seen through my techniques," she supplied for him nonchalantly. "If they had bothered to look," she added and Kakashi didn't think he'd ever seen a child look so smug. "They didn't think they needed the Sharingan to find a child so never used it." She flipped to a section in the book and displayed it. "'Pride can be even the most powerful shinobi's down fall,'" she quoted from the page about controlling emotions. "How did you find me, by the way?" She asked finally. He gave a small grin.

"I'm not nearly so prideful," he stated simply. At her confused look he elaborated slightly. "I have a gift I wasn't too arrogant to use." She cocked her head to the side, mouth opening to inquire more fully. "And I was smart enough to check your room for clues." She blinked at that then frowned before turning to look to her bag at the small shinobi doll sitting upright inside. She took the time to arrange him more comfortably inside then turned back.

"I didn't leave anything." He smiled.

"But you did. The painting on your table was of trees." Her eyes widened. "There was also some grass, dirt, and leaf matter on the painting that told me you were somewhere in this area since these trees only grow around certain training grounds." She smiled.

"I like these grounds," she supplied and he nodded.

"They're near the river." Her eyes widened in surprise again.

"You're a really good ninja," she said, impressed that he knew she liked the water, and he smiled.

"I try to be." He held out his hand to her, helping her up, and helping to pack up her things. He carried her bag for her as she tucked her doll under her left arm.

"Is Mommy mad? I forgot to tell her I was leaving," she paused, a small frown wrinkling her brow. "I didn't mean to stay this long."

"I think she'll just be happy to see you." She nodded, relaxing and grabbing his hand.

"You didn't even put flowers in your drawing," he stated as they walked back to the village proper, not even twenty yards from the main road. "Those would have helped me find you too." She scrunched up her face.

"Flowers are stupid." He was surprised at the vehemence behind her words. "The flower arranging classes they make girls take are stupid. When is knowing geraniums from persimmons going to help me in life?" Kakashi didn't think this would be the best time to tell her persimmons were fruit. "Boys don't even like flowers," she huffed. "All they care about is how cool their older brothers are and how to perfect their stupid Fire Ball Jutsus." Oh no, Kakashi thought. Another Uchiha claims yet another heart. He sighed in acceptance, wondering which one had garnered this gem's attention and hoping he'd be far, far away when her hormones started adding to the attraction.