They followed the ninken in the same uncomfortable silence, with Kakashi taking point, Sakura in the middle and Shino at the rear. She tried not to be too insulted that she was in the most insulated position, thinking of Tsunade's words. A medic must stay alive to help others.

Sakura repeated it over and over to herself until she almost believed that she was being supported because she was useful that way, rather than because she would be no help if it came down to a confrontation.

The pack was leading them further and further north, closer to the border of Oto than she wanted to contemplate. When Pakkun stopped and scented the air, veering sharply east, Sakura couldn't contain her sigh of relief. While she was in no hurry to possibly encounter Orochimaru again, she was more concerned with being faced with Sasuke. I'm not ready. I may never be ready, but more time will be nice.

Kakashi somehow heard her sigh and looked back in concern, but she could only give him a sheepish shrug. He said nothing, his attention already back on the dogs in front of him. Sakura stared at he back of his head as they continued to move quickly through the trees. She knew how she felt about Sasuke's betrayal, but did anyone ever ask her sensei? Sakura thought about the aftermath of the failed retrieval mission. Did Kakashi have anyone to be there for him like Shino had been for her? She knew Sasuke had been his star student and thought that maybe he saw something of himself in her teammate.

She wracked her brains, trying to think of anyone she had seen Kakashi with outside of their team. Gai-sensei? Sakura made a note to herself to track down the exuberant jonin and ask, though it would almost certainly be awkward and embarrassing and probably end in tears. His, most likely. Maybe she could drag Shino along with her as Lee-repellant.

Sakura was barely paying attention to her surroundings, lost in her own thoughts. The kikaichu on her shirt buzzed, startling her back into the present. Kakashi and Pakkun had stopped up ahead; if she hadn't been drawn out of her worries, she would have kept going right past them.

She landed on a brand close to Kakashi and gave Shino a sideways smile when he came to stop next to her, grateful for his subtle interference. Flying past the team leader without a second glance was certainly not the way to get Kakashi-sensei to notice her new skills.

Pakkun stared at them all for a moment before he said, "There's a residence up ahead that the trail leads to. Seems abandoned. Smells like genjutsu."

Kakashi nodded. "We'll proceed with caution and assume that it's not as empty as looks." He looked at them. "Shino, you will watch the back of the building while I approach the front. Sakura, watch the western side and the pack will be on the eastern wall." At their nods, he turned. "Move out."

I get the least likely avenue for confrontation. Don't take it as an insult, Sakura. It isn't the time for pettiness.

Sakura settled into her position, observing the side of the building carefully. It had no windows to speak of, but she could see what Pakkun meant about "smells like genjutsu". There was definitely something glossed over the crumbling brick. She wavered about dispelling it and decided against it, knowing Shino was nearly invulnerable to it and Kakashi was well able to see through such things himself. If he wanted to approach with the jutsu still active, she would trust his judgment.

Kakashi left his position and reached the door within seconds, listening carefully and then Sakura could see him signaling to her, asking her to dispel the genjutsu. After a moment of confused hesitation, she did. "Kai!"

The shimmer that she had noticed around the dilapidated brick was gone, but otherwise the building looked exactly the same. What she could see of Kakashi looked oddly resigned and he signaled the all-clear. She formed one hand seal and whistled, informing Shino of the same. Kakashi gave her a strange look as she approached, choosing to break his self-imposed silence. "What was that?"

"What?" Sakura worried she had done something wrong, somehow. All she did was wait and get rid of a pretty useless genjutsu! Surely she hadn't managed to screw that up …

"The whistle." Shino appeared around the side of the house, followed by the ninken.

"Oh, you said it was all clear, so I told Shino-kun." She frowned slightly. "Is that okay? I should have asked if you wanted him to stay to guard the other exit. I'm sorry, Kakashi-sensei."

"It's fine. There's no one here." He looked between them curiously. "That's not a standard signal."

She smiled and motioned to the beetle on clinging nonchalantly to her shoulder. "It only works with Shino-kun, since the message is sent through his connection to the kikaichu."

"Ah." Kakashi looked at Shino. "A clan jutsu?"

"No." Shino was looking as unruffled as ever. "Sakura is very innovative. We developed this system together." He looked in her direction and smirked a tiny bit. "Though I was little more than a guinea pig."

Sakura huffed at him. "You agreed, Shino-kun! You can't complain about it months later!"

Kakashi was gave her an unreadable look, but didn't comment. He opened the door to the building and Pakkun preceded him in. Sakura and Shino followed him in, her good humor fading when she remembered exactly what their mission was. It had been easier not to think of it.

The inside had been clearly used, but barely cleaned. It was mostly one large open room with cots scattered up against the two walls and a bucket in the far corner. Kakashi unsealed the rest of the items he had taken from the parents and held them out to Pakkun. "Tell me if these children have also been here."

Pakkun sniffed around the room while the team searched it for anything more tangible that would give them an idea of the children's location. Sakura found patched blue nightdress stuffed under one of the cots, very similar to the little dress on the doll that had belonged to Mitsu, the most recently kidnapped child. She sat down quickly, horrified by the implications.

"Sakura? Are you okay?" She could hear an unusual tone of concern in Shino's voice.

She took a deep breath. "I found a dress. I think it might be Mitsu's." He and Kakashi drew closer to look. "I … she was taken out of bed, Kakashi-sensei. They wouldn't have brought her extra clothes."

Kakashi met her eyes reluctantly and his shoulders were tense. "You're right."

She sighed heavily. "These poor kids. I can't imagine how scared they must be. These people are monsters." Sakura gently ran her hands over the cloth. "I hope I get to punch them all in the balls."

Shino smirked slightly and said, "That would certainly be an effective way to take out the kidnappers."

Kakashi's visible eye widened and she could see that he had expected tears instead of highly inappropriate gallows humor. Just as she had gotten Shino to lighten up, he had influenced her with his dry and somewhat black sense of humor, something he had not shared with most of his peers.

Kakashi was clearly tempted to question them about more personal matters, but Pakkun had trotted to him and was standing at his feet waiting. "Hey, boss."

He squatted down to the dog's level. "Report."

"All those kids were here, including the first one. Seems like different times, though. That one-" he nodded his oversized head at the stuffed rabbit Takeuchi had given them, "The scent is pretty old. Maybe three weeks."

Sakura murmured. "That fits."

Shino nodded next to her. "Especially if they are only using this building as a short-term way point." He looked around, sunglasses obscuring his direct gaze. "It begs the question what, exactly, they are doing with the children."

Kakashi cut him off. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. We should work only with the information we have." He sighed. "Which is very little. The genjutsu that was on this house was annoyingly specific."

Sakura was concerned at how defeated he sounded. "What do you mean?"

"I wanted to observe the chakra patterns on it before we touched it and also as it was deteriorating. That's why I had you dispel it instead."

Warily, she said, "And?"

"Its primary cause was misdirection. It entirely scrambles the path that anyone takes once they leave here." Kakashi grimaced. "Even scent tracks. If I sent the pack out, we would be drawn in multiple directions, none of them correct."

She raised her eyebrow. "Shino-kun? Do you think …" she trailed off, hoping he would understand her vague idea, though she wasn't entirely sure how it would be put into action.

"You know my kikaichu are not susceptible to genjutsu, but without having placed a tracker on the target my range is regrettably limited."

Kakashi eyed him with interest, rubbing his chin. "How limited?"

He shrugged casually, something she was sure he had never done much of before she had barreled into his life. "Approximately twenty-five miles."

Sakura tried not to roll her eyes, given the serious circumstances, but it was a near thing. "Yes, very limited. You're barely a shinobi, with those skills."

Kakashi straightened, giving Pakkun a look and the dog disappeared in a cloud of smoke. "If you can get us headed in the right direction outside of all this-" he waved at the general contents of the house, "Then the pack may be able to pick up the correct trail afterward." He rubbed his temples and sighed. "This is more frustrating that Tsunade-sama led us to believe."

Sakura felt the need to defend her mentor. "This is more frustrating that Tsunade-shishou was

led to believe, Kakashi-sensei. I don't think the mission request was entirely accurate."

Kakashi looked at her and said wryly, "Not the first time that's happened to us, Sakura-chan."

She snorted, able to remember the mission to Wave now as almost a fond memory, instead of the terrifying nightmare it had been when she had first gotten back to Konoha. She glanced at Shino with a smile. That had truly been the impetus that really brought them together as friends. "If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong. Team 7's unofficial motto."

Kakashi's tense shoulders told her that she had misstepped again. Sakura despaired at her inability to reach across the gulf that separated them. He was the only part of her team that she had left and it frustrated her that he was blowing so hot and cold. Kakashi had almost sounded teasing for a quick moment and she had responded in kind without thinking.

Shino came to her rescue, just as he had when they abandoned her the first time. "Should I prepare myself for missing-nin appearing out of puddles?"

She laughed and stood up from the cot, tucking the small dress away in her pack, pushing the anxiety out of her mind. "A shinobi must be prepared for anything, Shino-kun, so … yes, obviously." She looked at Kakashi. "Should we go?"

The older man sighed and waved them on toward the door. "Shino will take point with his kikaichu."

"It would be best for us to remain here while I scout, unless the trail is outside my radius. Doing so while moving can interfere."

Shino set nearly his entire colony lose in every conceivable direction and Sakura could see him expand his awareness out to them, though it looked like just a tense jaw to anyone who didn't know him. As always, she was impressed by his control, even if it did mean that he was able to dodge or otherwise neutralize her powerful blows half the time they sparred. She smirked. My speed is getting better, soon he'll have more of a fight than he can handle.

Kakashi was shooting her that unreadable look again. She inched closer, not wanting to disturb Shino's concentration, and whispered to him, "What?"

He hesitated and she raised an eyebrow at him, looking more like Tsunade than she realized. "I did not know you were on such good terms with the Aburame, Sakura-chan."

"Oh. Mostly it's just Shino-kun. We were in the academy together. I've only met his parents in passing. The rest of the clan is pretty reclusive, as well you know."

"Right." He glanced at Shino, who paid them no mind whatsoever. "But you're not like this with your other Academy peers."

Like what? Did he think she was being unprofessional with a teammate during a mission? She sighed and realized that it wasn't like she had the best track record, considering how infatuated she was with Sasuke during all their missions together. Kakashi was clearly remembering those cringe-worthy moments.

"Shino-kun is my friend, Kakashi-sensei." She rubbed her eyes tiredly. To hell with it. This wasn't a political situation, maybe bluntness would work best. "I promise that this mission won't be compromised by my behavior. Or my lack of skill."

He was silent for a moment and Sakura could hear the quiet buzzing of the kikaichu on her shoulder. Idly, she wondered where Shino had hidden the one on her former sensei. She could see that Kakashi was mulling something over, but before he could put his thoughts into words, Shino spoke.

"I believe I have found a trace. We go north, close to the border between Fire and Hot Water."

She narrowed her eyes. "Hot Springs is known for being a peaceful village. That's an odd location for taking kidnapped children for … whatever they're planning." She winced, trying not to think of the most obvious reasons.

Kakashi tipped his head back to look at the dying light of the sunset through the trees. "Not all countries follow their hidden villages, Sakura-chan. There are monsters everywhere."

She frowned, unhappy with his words but unable to refute them. He motioned to Shino brusquely. "Lead us to the trail." With a nod, they were off through the trees, Sakura in the middle once again.

They stopped and started many times, following an ever weakening trail while it began to rain lightly. Sakura could see that constant use of his kikaichu was wearing on Shino, though he said nothing. Not that he ever would. Just like all the other boys in my life. She eyed Kakashi. Including this one.

She wondered if she was going to have to demand they rest for her own sake, if only to save face for her friend.

"Hold." Kakashi called from behind her and she skidded to a stop on a wet branch, her chakra control saving her from falling on her face. Sakura grimaced at her poor reflexes and wondered if maybe she should ask a break for herself. She looked over her shoulder and Kakashi said, "We're stopping for the night."

Her eyes widened. "The whole night? That seems … unwise, Kakashi-sensei."

Shino had backtracked to them and landed quietly on the branch next to her, not skidding as she had, Sakura noted sourly. Save me from overly graceful boys, seriously. Sasuke had been the same way. She could see him nod in the moonlight. "I agree with Sakura. We should continue."

Her former teacher looked at them and sighed. "I'm going to summon Pakkun. If he can pick up the trail from where we are now, we rest for a few hours." He held up a hand to forestall any protests and she could see that he was smiling a little behind his mask. "You won't be able to punch anyone in the balls if you're too tired to see straight, Sakura-chan."

Shino snorted in amusement next to her. She stuck her tongue out at Kakashi, happy to see that he was in a friendlier mood.

Shino watched the summoning with interest once more and leaned over to speak to Sakura in low tones. "Will he be able to scent anything in all this rain?"

Sakura dropped down to sit on the branch and tugged him with her, making him slip slightly before he settled. She grinned at his pink cheeks, crowing victoriously in her head. "Yeah, Pakkun has the best nose out of all the ninken, which is actually really weird. Most pugs have breathing problems."

"Ninken are not quite like regular dogs, Sakura."

She sniffed disdainfully. "I would hope that you think better of my intelligence than to point out the obvious needlessly."

"Just making sure you are not growing dull. I know it's been some time since you were on a mission."

Sakura reached over and flicked him the forehead, hard. He didn't squawk like Naruto always did, but the fact that he reached up to rub at it was enough for her ego. "You're lucky you're so cute, Shino-kun, or otherwise I wouldn't put up with your insults."

She could feel her face flush against the cool darkness of the night. She had always been obvious with her romantic feelings, but it was almost more nerve-wracking when she knew that they might actually be returned.

Shino surprised her by stiffly placing his hand over hers where it lay on the branch between them. "I suppose I'm lucky you do." She smiled in the dark, feeling happy despite their gruesome task.

Kakashi called out to them. "Hey, lovebirds! We're making camp here."

Sakura rolled her eyes and squeezed Shino's hand affectionately. She stood and stretched, dropping to the forest floor with barely a whisper. "See if I make you any food, Kakashi-sensei."

She heard him huff in amusement behind her and felt that maybe, maybe things would be okay between them.