Riptide

The first night on the mainland, deep into Woods country and back at home amongst the trees even if they couldn’t compare to the ones around Konoha, the Team regrouped. They started a fire, ate dinner, slept in shifts, and when they woke up in the morning the four adults ducked up into the trees and convened.

“We’re being followed,” Yugao murmured lowly.

“Hunted,” Tenzo agreed looking into the distance, “My summons are finding signs of a single person.”

“The Pack has as well,” Kakashi hummed, “Kiri?”

It wasn’t Momichi. He was a master of silent execution and had the skills but it was not his scent the pack relayed to Kakashi as they covered their trail. The team hadn’t even fully waited for Momichi to disappear into the mist before they had taken to the trees, summons fanning out behind them for this very purpose of making sure they weren’t tailed. No one had disagreed with the plan and they all felt quite validated when they did indeed find a tail they had hypothesized might try to follow.

“Most likely,” Yugao nodded sharply, “Whether to make sure we truly do head in the direction of Konoha or sent to sabotage our return with the treaty, I can’t tell.”

The treaty of non-aggression wasn’t really that important. Hawks had been sent out with confirmation and it could be rewritten, but sometimes idiots who weren’t happy with their commanders decisions didn’t think about stuff like that and thought sabotaging a physical scroll would get them the results they wanted.

But it could by they were worrying over nothing and this was a simple watcher making sure they were truly heading towards Konoha; who would follow them for two days and then turn back. Not uncommon when there was a highly visible team like Kakashi’s who had just been in the heart of their village. It was a more polite ‘piss off, you overstayed your welcome’.

“Should a pair of us double back,” Gai asked, “And take care of it?”

“No. We stick together,” Kakashi frowned, “But we try to throw them off our tail.”

Sakura didn’t say anything when they dropped next to her while she finished tying her bedroll up. She sealed it with only a couple glances towards them. This far in the wilds of Wood Country there weren’t any real roads; so they were forging their own way. Sakura didn’t protest when they shooed her up into the trees, just furrowed her brow thoughtfully as she followed their winding path.

“Are we doing evasive maneuvers?” she finally asked when they stopped for a break.

Kakashi didn’t answer, instead watching the way she ate her protein bar. She wasn’t defensive about food exactly, but she ate in a way unlike before Wave. Before Wave Sakura had been a neat polite eater, whose manners he’d often used to hold Naruto against. She’d also eaten sparingly, something stupid about a diet. Now she ate quickly, eating anything and everything given to her. It wasn’t quite defensive, but it was definitely a wary way of eating.

He wondered when she’d gone without food and for how long. He handed her two more bars and watched her eat both of the terrible tasting things.

“Yes,” Gai answered for Kakashi cheerfully, “Always best to hide your tracks on a mission!”

Sakura narrowed her eyes as if she could tell that wasn’t all of it. But she let it go.

.--.

Gai watched Kakashi’s student as carefully as he watched Kakashi. She wasn’t falling apart like Kakashi had been. Wasn’t fraying at the edges like Kakashi was with a sort of possessive protective rage. Gai might put it on the resilience of Youth. Except Gai was starting to see that Kakashi and Sakura not very alike and they did not react the same way.

Kakashi had been a genius, born and bred for the shinobi life and weaned on war. He had been fighting since six, over twenty years of service on the battlefield that not many people could match. Kakashi was remarkably put together for a man who had been mauled by life as much as he had. But even Gai knew his friend was growing tired these days of loss. Losing his first genin student had hurt something deep inside of him. Losing her due to his own perceived mistakes had hurt him worse and Gai had wondered in the darkest part of him if Kakashi would ever recover from this last blow.

And then his student was declared alive. And Gai had thought Kakashi might go feral. It wasn’t a joke like he had heard others make in regard to the Hatakes and Wolf contract. Wasn’t a joke because sometimes Kakashi forgot how to be a normal person (raised on war by a pack of dogs in a home seeped in his family’s blood). No, it was a real worry, because Gai knew Kakashi. Knew him better than anyone else alive and he knew his friend had been broken and put back together so many times that he was a mass of instinct wrapped in shinobi gear.

Gai had told Sakura they had had to sit on Kakashi until a team had been put together to go retrieve her and he had not been lying. He had just been underplaying it. The fight that that had resulted in had been…intense. Kakashi had agreed to his Kage’s orders to wait far too calmly after that reveal and then walked out with all the intent to disobey and go straight to Sakura. And Gai had known he had to stop Kakashi and make him see sense. And so they had fought, full out and dirty. Gai had only won because Kakashi had recognized halfway through the fight that Gai was right. Gai had sat on his friend for six hours as Kakashi shook apart.

Gai hadn’t been further than ten feet away from Kakashi for that whole week. Kakashi had told him about Sakura before of course; there hadn’t been much to tell because Kakashi had tried to play at not caring, had tried not to get attached. She’d been taken from him anyways and Kakashi had broke just a bit more. So Kakashi had told him what he remembered of Sakura and Gai had been worried that this was a new Rin. Not to be cruel to his friend, but Kakashi had a bad habit of looking for ghosts, of comparing the living to the dead.

And Haruno Sakura, who Gai had never met who barely knew, hadn’t deserved that. Sakura had survived somehow, was a captive but alive, and she didn’t deserve Kakashi claiming her a ghost. Gai had managed to convey that somehow, had held Kakashi as he shook apart and told him that this student was not Rin. That she was alive and, spirits willing, doing better than broken.

And she had.

Gai would pray to any spirts who had watched over Haruno Sakura if only because seeing her whole and alive and unbroken had brought Kakashi back from the brink. Gai would die for any Konoha citizen, would die for his friends. Would die for Haruno Sakura who he didn’t know. But he would do things people didn’t think him capable of for Kakashi. Gai was not sure exactly the extent he would go for Kakashi but sometimes it scared him when he considered it. So he could be cruel enough to be thankful that Sakura survived not just for herself just because it helped Kakashi.

And Gai was realizing, that Haruno Sakura really had survived. There was no glory in her emergence from Kiri, just a quiet acceptance from a girl changed. She didn’t talk much as they headed back towards Konoha but Gai could pick up on silent cues. Haruno Sakura had muscle and speed he knew she must not have had fresh from the academy. She had a smooth efficiency to her motions, had knives strapped to her thighs, but she also had the look of someone who would go straight for the throat and would fight dirty to do so. Kakashi was too caught up in the fact she was alive to look beyond that yet, but Gai was starting to pick up on the fact Sakura had survived not by luck, but by sheer bloody will.

So Gai looked at her and could not help compare her and her sensei. And he was finding they were very different types of shinobi. Kakashi had never had trouble surviving the physical side of the shinobi life. He rarely had to truly fight for survival in fights. What Kakashi had to fight in truth, was the emotional toll of being a shinobi despite his calm demeanor and rumors of being cold-hearted. It was the loss of people that hit him far harder than any training. Kakashi was one friend away from losing it at all times. And that wasn’t to say other shinobi weren’t, but Kakashi was closer to the edge than many knew.

And Sakura, she looked like she had taken in all the loss and terror and simply absorbed it to power through. She must have been terrified, anxious, and leery for so long but she didn’t show the stress of it in the expected way. Instead Gai noted that she had funneled all that into scrambling for strength. He could see the look of a fighter who had punished themselves hard and harder.

Gai looked at Haruno Sakura and he did not see Kakashi, he saw himself. He saw the small boy who had pushed past all his insecurities and fears, past his schoolmates taunting’s and his father’s death. Saw a small boy who had pushed himself to the physical limits because it was all he could do. And yes, Sakura’s situation was far more difficult than his had been as a child, but he could still see it. A genius like Kakashi would not understand how hard it was to push past limits, how hard it was to keep trying and failing. Kakashi had always achieved what he put his mind to and even though he was aware of his advantage, he couldn’t fully understand how easy it made things like learning techniques.

Kakashi was like a stone that weathered nearly every blow but if you hit it right with a chisel it would shatter. Gai and Sakura were like sand; they moved with the blows, felt them but slowly they got packed down and down until they wouldn’t move or break for anything, until they reformed around any blow or wound. And if you scattered them, well sand was meant to do that, it could always be pushed back together. They were much more resilient.

“Sakura,” Gai said calmly the first day on their run, after hours spent contemplating the head of choppy pink hair.

The girl looked at him, eyes wide and open but shuttered from where she was drinking water from a stream. Kakashi was watching them too, not like a guard dog because he trusted Gai absolutely, but like a watch dog that wanted to be aware of everything. The rest of the team acted like Gai hadn’t spoken as they took their quick break.

“Would you like a lift?” Gai asked with cheer and volume, beaming at the girl.

They had been running for hours. A decent pace to eat up distance but what looked punishing for the girl who had not leveled one complaint despite the sweat on her brow and the way she was heaving for breath.

She looked at Gai carefully, face perfectly bland. Gai let her have a moment to consider his words. She finally looked at Kakashi but he was carefully looking ahead instead of at her. He didn’t react to Gai’s words and Sakura must have taken a hint from that as she slowly nodded. Gai beamed and crouched, hands flapping at his back welcomingly. She came forward slowly like a wary dog. He let her hesitate, let her hover for a moment before she carefully gripped his shoulders and held on. Gai stood carefully.

“If I have to let go of your legs I’ll squeeze twice,” Gai told her.

She made a noise that could be agreement and shifted once. The team took off down the road again, pace increased now that Sakura wasn’t lagging.

“How long have you known Kakashi-sensei?” Sakura uttered her first words to him hours later.

“Since we were very young!” Gai laughed, “His father and mine were friends for many years. Kakashi and I carried on that legacy of friendship!”

Sakura didn’t respond and he didn’t bother her for any sort of response, humming idly as they headed towards Konoha. Towards home.

Kakashi had a bad habit of looking for ghosts, of looking for what he was familiar with. He would continue to look at this Sakura like she was the old one for a long while. But Gai could tell that whoever Sakura had been before, this new one different. But she was alive and unbroken in all the ways that mattered. That she trusted Gai enough to let him carry her after only a week of seeing him briefly on the word of her sensei told Gai enough to know that Haruno Sakura would be okay.

.--.

For the two days through Wood Country Kakashi kept up a fast pace. Well. It was decently quick for ninja of their skill but was punishing for someone like Sakura. She kept up through sheer bloody will for at least half the days and did so without complaint. Only a couple times a day did Gai pick her up to give her a rest as they put in bursts of speed. Kakashi knew his old student would have protested at being carted about but this new kid didn’t even twitch when scooped up and Kakashi remembered the way Momochi would grab her off the water to carry. Kakashi was just glad that Sakura had opened enough to trust Gai to carry her. He had thought she might cling to him, and Kakashi would have carried her if she had wanted, but Gai was much better suited for extra weight and if needed, could fight just as easily without his hands than Kakashi.

She did much better than he’d expected as well; she was much faster and stronger than he’d seen her in Wave, with a great deal more stamina.

He was also so very happy that she allowed people to touch her. She didn’t seem to care when it was a man either and Kakashi tried not to be too relieved. They still didn’t know everything, and there was definitely trauma, but she was so much better off than even his best hopes.

“Are we still being followed?” Sakura asked one afternoon as she peered into the distance as if she would see someone.

“Oh? Are we being followed?” Kakashi tried lightly.

Sakura gave him a look that told him not to be stupid.

“We are,” Yugao said solemnly, giving Kakashi a pointed look.

Well, Yugao had always been for letting people know the situation. She was not a woman who liked to be uninformed, nor keep her team uniformed. She was not the type to play games or deflect. Kakashi liked her for that reason alone even if Kakashi was the opposite.

“My summons haven’t been able to pin him down,” Tenzo offered, “He is avoiding even them.”

Kakashi thought of the rather quick little squirrels his kouhai contracted with and frowned. To avoid squirrels in a forest, that spoke of a worrying skill. Kakashi’s dogs weren’t known for stealth and they had been switching shifts to keep an eye on their tail for the last few days, out fo sight of the team and far enough back to give good warning at the perimeter. They hadn’t picked up on the tail but they were closer to the team than the squirrels.

“Avoiding them?” Sakura asked, “But still tracking us?”

They all looked at her and her rather stiff tone.

“Sakura, do you know who it might be?” Kakashi asked, faintly incredulous.

Sakura looked into the distance and this time her face had a sort of wariness on it.

“There was a man in Kiri,” she said slowly, “Who wanted something of me. He was a chakra sensor.”

“Wanted something of you?” Kakashi asked darkly.

“Would he pursue us?” Yugao asked instead.

“I don’t know,” Sakura said, “He was… well, he wasn’t all there sometimes. He tried to fight Zabuza of all people to try and get me to be his …student.”

Kakashi licked the back of his teeth angrily and tried not to watch the way Sakura hunched defensibly while talking.

“If he’s a sensor our path won’t confuse him,” Yugao said immediately.

“And he’ll sense my squirrels before they get too close,” Tenzo frowned.

“Let’s go with speed then,” Gai said, “Is this man a jonin?”

“I’m not sure,” Sakura answered his question, “He’s strong enough to be a worry though. He’s also very adept at genjutsu and water jutsu.”

“Then we go with speed,” Kakashi nodded, “Gai, you have Sakura.”

The sky opened up and started pouring rain less than an hour later and his team exchanged sharp looks. A water user when there was this much water in the air? And good with genjutsu with the gloom?

They proceeded with caution but tried not to cut back on their speed. When Tenzo later flashed him signs saying that his squirrels couldn’t even find a hint of the man, Kakashi felt worried instead of relieved.

.--.

Since it was requested I threw something together…
OMAKE:

“This is where I leave you,” Momochi announced the second their feet touched down on the mainland.

Sakura, sitting on Momochi’s shoulder tensed very briefly at his words, fingers digging into his cloak. He very carefully set her down, gentle in a way he hadn’t been this entire trip. Sakura didn’t let go of his cloak. It was Gai’s hands that guided Kakashi away, that shooed the team to a distance as Sakura stared up at Momochi desperately. There was something feral in her gaze, something twitchy and Kakashi couldn’t look away. He strained his ears to pick up hints of their conversation as he was pulled away.

“I…” Sakura faltered, jaw working.

Something angry entered her gaze but left just as quick, changing to uncertainty.

“I told you, Brat, that I’d see you returned,” Momochi grumbled, “Well, you’re returned. You’re not my problem anymore.”

She still didn’t let go of him and he didn’t pull away from her grasp despite the harsh tone.

“I…” Sakura repeated, voice small.

Momochi reached up, fingers brushing across the leather collar at her throat and he said something to low for Kakashi’s ears as they stepped too far back.

Kakashi could have let it go, could have given Sakura some privacy as Gai was urging him to do. But Kakashi was a Mess. He could barely tolerate the fact that the bastard’s fingers were on that goddam fucking collar, so close he barely had to reach.

So Kakashi sharpened his senses with Chakra, careful not to overpower it and send his ears ringing as he locked onto the too. The Hatake had exceptional senses, like the wolves they had once been contracted to, and they had learned how to even enhance those with chakra to the point even the Inuzuka couldn’t compete.

So Kakashi sharpened his hearing, just briefly and caught Momichi and Sakura mid conversation.”

“-some collared bitch,” Zabuza said, fingers on that collar and face blunt.

‘Calm,’ Kakashi told himself, ‘you misheard.’

“I’m your bitch though,” Sakura said and there was a naked desperation in her tone.

Yeah. Calm wasn’t going to work out. Kakashi was between them before he even felt himself move, one hand on the back of Sakura’s coat collar as he swung her out of the line of fire, tossing her at Gai, while the other hand held a kunai dancing with lightening arcing for Momichi’s throat.

Momichi dodged by a hair’s width, only the faintest line of skin opening. Pity, Kakashi thought perfectly tranquil as he watched skin part not nearly enough to be a real blow. Momichi threw himself backwards as Kakashi aimed for his jugular again, intent on opening it up right where Sakura’s collar sat.

“Done playing, Hatake?” Momichi asked, lips spreading in something that looked like a grin but came across as a snarl.

“You keep touching my kid. I don’t like it,” Kakashi said, still perfectly controlled and serene.

Kakashi had been in ANBU for nearly a decade. He knew stillness. Knew tranquility. Knew control. For him it came a step after rabid rage, when you had a goal and you were going to see that goal dead.

He didn’t expect the blow to the back of the head, from the direction of allies. The world blurred, shaking and dimming until Kakashi was blinking spots away and looking straight up from Gai’s arms. Someone was laughing loudly.

Kakashi blinked spots away as Gai held him steady. When his vision cleared he came face to face with Sakura wither her teeth bared and her fist raised. Kakashi felt the back of his head and winced at the lump. Behind Sakura Momochi was howling.

“You hit me,” Kakashi accused, confused.

“You threw me!” Sakura accused right back, “by the neck! Fuck you!”

Kakashi stared at her. She glared back.

“Zabuza called you his bitch,” Kakashi said.

“Gato called me his bitch,” Sakura corrected, “I called myself his bitch.”

“Well stop that,” Kakashi said, “You shouldn’t do that.”

She glared at him. He stared right back. It felt like he was seeing her for the first time. Her eyes crinkled, her lips pulled back, her posture titled towards aggressive. Like a dog. Like a wolf. Like Kakashi did. When had she learned that?

Most shinobi got loose, casual, and took up instinctive kata forms, feet sliding apart to brace. Sakura got her hackles up like a wild animal with claws and teeth she was ready to use.

“Have you ever seen a wolf?” Kakashi asked.

Sakura reared back, blinking as if he had smacked her with surprise. Even Momichi cut his howling off to turn a look on Kakashi.

“No,” Sakura said cautiously, “Are they like dogs? I don’t like dogs.”

There was something there but Kakashi didn’t know what.

“They’re not like dogs,” Kakashi said, “Except for very distantly. Like how house cats are like mountain lions.”

Sakura shook her head.

“I’ll introduce you to some when we get home,” Kakashi said.

Sakura stared at him. Slowly she looked to Momichi, then back to Kakashi.

“We’re still going home?” she asked, voice small.

“Of course,” Kakashi furrowed his brow, “Why wouldn’t we.”

“I hit you.”

“It was a good hit,” he said still confused.

She seemed to shrink, back curling and hands going for her hem even as she kept her chin tilted oddly upwards.

“I like Zabuza!” She spat, “I like Haku. I like Kiri.”

He stared at her.

“Okay?” he said, still confused.

“Doesn’t that mean I’m a traitor?” she asked defiantly.

He stared at her.

“Sakura,” he finally said, “Are you going to sell them secrets?”

“No! But I don’t think I can fight them.”

“Well then,” he shrugged, “We’re not at war with them. And we just won’t tell anyone in Konoha that. Right guys.”

He turned a curved smile and sharp eyes on his team who all nodded without hesitation. Kakashi had picked his team for a reason.

“There,” Kakashi shrugged, “Now. Let’s go home. And never call yourself Momichi's bitch again.”

“But I can call myself a bitch?” she asked voice wary.

“All the best hunters are bitches. Men suck in comparison,” Kakashi said cheerfully, “I’ll introduce you to a few.”

She stared at him as if she was trying to peel him open. Her eyes turned to Momichi one last time.

“I don’t understand tree-huggers,” he shrugged at her, “But Hatake is renowned for being a guard dog. Won’t let you die, Brat.”

Kakashi glared at him on principle and crowded closer to his kid. Sakura blinked up at him and then at Kakashi.

“Show me your teeth brat,” Momichi said lazily.

Sakura bared her teeth in a parody of a grin.

“You cut them on anyone who tries to do anything to you, yeah,” Momichi said, still lazy and rather content looking as he flashed Kakashi a mean grin, “Sharpen them up.”

Sakura nodded. Kakashi’s head still smarted from her fist. He hovered over her as she looked at Momichi one last time.

“I’ll show you how sharp they are next time we meet,” Sakura said, voice determined.

Momichi flashed a grin of his own sharp teeth. Kakashi gave him the two-finger salute where Sakura couldn’t see and the kiri-nin slipped into the mist ringing with laughter.

“Let’s go home,” Kakashi told his kid, “I have some wolves to introduce you too.”

.--.