Chapter 7

Sakura and Kakashi barely talked on their way to Wave, but it was a comfortable silence – the kind Sakura had with someone she knew well, someone she liked.

Someone she liked.

The medic shook her head violently, almost causing her foot to slip off of the branch she had just stepped on. Cursing herself under her breath, she shot Kakashi a grin and a thumbs up when he turned to check on her, one eyebrow raised. Sakura never slipped, even when she was forced to run fast enough to keep up with the infamous speed of the copy-ninja. It was just part of having excellent chakra control.

Luckily for her, Kakashi shrugged and turned back ahead, clearly suspicious, but not enough to comment on it. That was an aspect of Kakashi's personality that Sakura was always grateful for – he wasn't pushy. He was always quick to check on her, but if she didn't seem to want to be bothered, he wouldn't pry. He always respected secrets. It must come naturally, Sakura thought, since he had so many secrets of his own.

"How much farther to the boats, do you think?" Sakura asked, feeling the need to say something to break the tension she felt she had just created.

Kakashi turned his head to the side, presumably so she'd be able to hear him through the wind. "I'd say another hour or two. Why? Do you need a break?" He had already slowed his pace, and was casting a questioning look at her, just a hint of concern beneath the surface.

"No, no, I'm fine," Sakura caught up to run beside him, "I'm just anxious to get there, I'm a little worried about Mami, to be honest."

There. That wasn't a lie, she was worried about Mami, that much was true. It wasn't the only reason she was being awkward or bumbling around like an idiot, but it would serve as a viable excuse for now. Ah, deception.

Kakashi nodded, "I know. I don't have a great feeling about this either. Here's hoping we find her safe and sound, hm?"

Sakura smiled grimly and gave a curt nod. "Here's hoping."

Something was up with Sakura, but he wasn't stupid enough to push her on it.

Kakashi had learned long ago that sometimes it was best to wait Sakura out, she usually came forward with her feelings eventually. This time, however, he worried things might be different. She was beginning to feel closed off from him again, and after the night they had spent in his apartment less than twelve hours before, he wasn't expecting it. She was clearly struggling with something. Should he just…ask?

"Sakura…" he began, his nerve lost before he could even continue his sentence. Fuck, was he twelve years old?

Sakura eyed him expectantly. "Hm?"

Great, now he had to say something. "What exactly did Mami say to you before, on that last mission?" He grimaced. They had already discussed this, but he was hoping that Sakura would assume that he was just concerned for the girl's well-being.

"She said 'they want what's inside of me', but she didn't say who or what," Sakura frowned, clearly giving the subject some thought. "I've tossed around several ideas, so I'm glad you brought this up. Kakashi, do you think she might be pregnant?"

The girl was a genius. How had he not thought of that? "I think that's a very real possibility. Maybe whoever impregnated her wants her back?"

"My thoughts exactly," Sakura's face took on a dark look. "And if the girl really has a seizure disorder, she could be in very real danger – not just from her kidnappers, but from her own body – especially if she doesn't have her medication."

"We need to talk to her mother, find out exactly what happened and who she may have been with – I assume her mother is probably aware of the situation, especially since she was being so secretive. With Wave being so conservative, it's not surprising," Kakashi slowed his pace a touch to make talking easier.

"She may have been raped," Sakura's face took on a disturbed value, "That would explain her PTSD symptoms."

"Alright," Kakashi frowned, picking his pace back up to full-speed, "Our first order of business will be getting the truth out of the mother, and we won't be leaving until we get it."

The ferry ride to Wave was rocky and had left Sakura feeling rather green in the face. She funneled chakra through her hand over her abdomen, attempting to alleviate her nausea as she and Kakashi walked through the city streets to Mami's home.

"You alright?" Kakashi shot her a look over his shoulder.

Sakura coughed lamely. "Yeah, just a little sea-sick. You know how I am with boats."

"I know," he smiled at her through his mask, "Our little Sakura-chan hasn't developed her sea-legs."

Sakura smacked him on the arm. "Go ahead, laugh at my pain. But don't come crying to me next time you've got a cold and you're laying on your couch with a fever dying a slow and painful man-sickness death."

"Hang on a second, you could never be so cruel," Kakashi put a hand over his heart. "You know you could never turn away a sick and dying…friend."

Sakura went quiet and tried to decide if she imagined the part where Kakashi choked on the word friend. This was seriously getting to her head, she needed to stop panicking and start focusing on the mission. Mami's life could be at stake.

They approached the Hakama estate. An impressive courtyard filled with beautiful landscaping stretched out in front of the equally impressive mansion. Sakura eyed it all rather skeptically, furrowing her brow as she turned to Kakashi and said, "They're much wealthier than I had anticipated."

Kakashi bobbed his head. "From what I understand, this family essentially controls merchant business in Wave. Buying, selling, trading, these guys have a hand in it all."

"Gotcha," Sakura frowned. She hadn't gotten the impression that the family was this wealthy when they had escorted them before. Were they hiding it on purpose? And if they were…why?

"I am curious as to why Hakama-san seemed to conceal their wealth from us," Kakashi mused, as though reading her mind, "She really didn't seem to want us to know."

"Maybe she didn't want us to know how big of a target they really were," Sakura scowled. "That's almost as stupid as it is dangerous.

Kakashi spared her a glance. "It explains why she paid so well, though."

"True," Sakura conceded. "But it was still stupid of her."

"Not everyone can be as smart as our Sakura-chan," the copynin crushed his eyes shut in a smile.

Sakura couldn't deny the sudden fluttering in her stomach at the compliment and the suffix. She felt like a child. She couldn't believe that such subtle, friendship-type behaviors had her reacting this way. What would Kakashi think if he knew how his words affected her now? He'd probably be worried to team up with her, since she was distracted…

"Earth to Sakura, come in, Sakura."

Sakura grimaced as she realized she was getting distracted thinking about being distracted. Damn, she was a mess. "Sorry, Kakashi. I'm kind of out of it today." She spared him an apologetic glance, meeting his eye momentarily. His head was tipped just a bit to the side and Sakura couldn't help but be reminded a bit of Pakkun. She smiled.

Their knock on the front door of the great house was answered immediately by a harried looking servant, hair sticking up wildly from underneath her little cap. "You must be the shinobi from Leaf? Please, do come in. Hakama-san is just in the sitting room, here to the left."

The two Leaf nin followed behind the maid quickly, not struggling to keep up as she wove through rooms and halls at a near run. After what seemed like an unnecessary maze, the trio finally turned a corner and found Hakama-san, wringing her hands on an impossibly uncomfortable looking chaise. She shot to her feet upon seeing the help from Leaf, only swaying a little as her great size caused her to be unsteady on her feet.

"Thank the gods you are here," Hakama-san clasped her hands together in front of her face. "My daughter, she is taken away. You must find her for me, please, you must."

Sakura quirked an eyebrow. "We will do everything in our power, Hakama-san. But we had to come to you first. We have nothing to go on right now. Can you tell us anything at all about who might have kidnapped Mami? Did you see anything? Do you have any enemies we need to know about?"

"I know exactly who took her." Hakama-san spoke in such a grave tone that Sakura felt a stone in her stomach.

"Who?" Kakashi took a step forward, posture relaxed but expression showing his true interest in the matter.

Hakama-san took a steadying breath. "Our next door neighbors."

Sakura frowned, shooting a look at Kakashi. "You neighbors did this?" she asked, returning her attention to the woman of the house. "How do you know?"

"Mami was betrothed to the eldest son of Saito family. His name is Hiroji. Always seemed like such a nice boy…" the woman trailed off, a devastatingly sad, far off look in her eyes. She suddenly looked eighty years old.

Sakura took a step forward, taking the lady's hand and guiding her back to her seat. The medic herself sat on the ornate foot rest, elbows on her knees. "Go on, we have to know everything you know to give us the best odds of rescuing your daughter."

"They were childhood friends," Mami's mother continued, "attached at the hip in their younger years. Of course, they grew apart with age, as boys and girls often do – especially in the social class they both run in." There was just a touch of pride in her otherwise distraught tone. "Mami was delighted when she learned she would be marrying Hiroji. She hadn't seen much of him in years, as her disorder keeps her near home most days, but she remembered her childhood friend and was excited to be bound to someone she at least knew." There was a brief pause as Hakama-san dabbed at her eyes with an embroidered handkerchief.

"She came home a few months ago, from what was supposed to be a supervised visit, completely distraught and with some very suspicious bruises. She tried to cover it up, but she was transparent. She eventually became so upset she triggered one of her seizing fits, and it took two of the best medics in town to stabilize her. I can only imagine what my girl is going through now – she may already be –" The tears overtook her voice then, and Hakama-san fell into a fit of ugly sobbing.

"Alright," Sakura began slowly. "I think I can understand what happened here. But why would the Saito family kidnap your daughter? Is she…pregnant? Are they so desperate for an heir?"

"Hiroji may be yet young, but he has become a power-hungry fool, just like his father," Hakama-san spat out the name of her daughter's rapist with such venom, Sakura flinched. "Even though I immediately broke off the engagement, he still views Mami-chan and her baby as his. In all honesty, he probably is keeping her relatively comfortable, as surely he wants his child to live. But, Mami, she is weak and gentle," the woman's eyes filled with tears. "She won't survive him."

Sakura's heart went out to the woman. Although she still harbored some anger towards her for lying about their wealth and being standoffish before, Sakura now saw the terror that prompted the behavior. Hakama-san was just trying to protect her daughter, and Sakura could understand and even respect that.

"Our job is to return your daughter safely to you, Hakama-san, and you can be sure we will do everything within our power to make sure that happens," Kakashi spoke up. "We are very good at our job, I can assure you." There was a lilt of well-concealed arrogance laced in his tone.

Hakama-san bowed her head slightly, "I thank you for that."

Kakashi leaned forward, elbows on his knees. "It would have been helpful to know of your neighbor's involvement before we came here," his tone wasn't accusing, it was purely tactical. "They may have seen us arrive. We'll need to disguise ourselves now to be sure they can't recognize us."

"I…apologize, for my secrecy," the woman of the house kept her eyes on the floor. "I was only doing what I thought necessary, I thought it would be safer to make as small a fuss as possible."

Sakura sighed, sparing the woman a small smile. There was no point in torturing her now, the woman's daughter had been kidnapped. She was suffering enough. "We'll need as much info about the Saito's as you can give us. We need to know as much about their day-to-day activities as you can give us."

Hakama-san nodded her head aggressively, thin hair slipping from the intricate knot at the base of her neck. "I've lived next to them for over twenty years, I'll tell you absolutely everything I know."

"This shouldn't be too difficult," Kakashi said, shooting a glance over at Sakura who was in the process of applying a complicated henge to her appearance. She had given herself long, dark brown hair and sparkly blue eyes. She was utterly changed and…and he couldn't say he particularly liked it. He immediately missed her brightly colored hair and her intuitive green eyes and that cheerful spatter of freckles across her nose and gods help him he was in trouble.

Sakura seemed to pick up on his inner turmoil and frowned at him, "You okay there, Kakashi?"

"Ah," the Copy-Nin did his best to smile good-naturedly beneath his mask, "Yes, Sakura-chan, I'm fine."

Sakura simply nodded and turned around, much to Kakashi's relief, and began fiddling with her weapons, finding good places to hide them beneath her plain, dark clothes. "This whole situation just really grosses me out," she sighed, lifting the hem of her shirt to strap a kunai to her side, "I can't believe that this Hiroji guy would do something so terrible to his childhood best friend. I mean, it would be awful no matter who he did it to, but to Mami? That's just exceptionally cruel."

Kakashi heard rather than saw her frown, and he quietly approached her to lay a hand on her slight shoulder. She paused what she was doing, seeming to hesitate, before she gently laid her hand over his own, never turning around. They stood there like that for a moment, and Kakashi wasn't eager to move. Sakura stepped away though, turning to offer him a small smile before she headed towards the mirror in the bathroom to check her henge.

"Can we go over everything again?" his former student asked as she stood at the bathroom vanity, tweaking her features here and there. "I want to make sure that everything is clear."

"Hn," Kakashi grunted, falling back on the little couch in the guestroom they were situated in. "Well, the ultimate goal will be to sneak in without getting caught, of course. We'll go in tonight, after midnight. There will likely be guards, nothing we can't handle. You'll go in an upstairs window, preferably on the backend of the house as that is probably where they're keeping her, and I'll go in through the cellar, just in case. Try not to smash anyone's skull in, as we really need to keep our body count at zero. The Saito's will know that Hakama-san is the one who orchestrated this, and they will be furious enough already without members of their security detail killed."

"Right," Sakura nodded. "This shouldn't be very difficult, then, I suppose."

Kakashi shook his head, "No, it shouldn't. I am more concerned about what happens after we get her back. What will stop the Saito clan from sending more men over to kidnap Mami once we have returned her home and gone?"

"Good point," Sakura frowned, "Maybe we should ask Hakama-san what her plan is? Certainly they'll need some form of protection…"

"We'll be sure to ask her before we head out tonight," Kakashi agreed. "Do you have your radio headset ready to go?"

Sakura held up the little earpiece and its corresponding box up in her hand, letting the wire dangle from her dainty fingers. "Aye aye, captain."

Kakashi reached out and ruffled her hair in the way he knew she hated, frowning slightly at the way the dark strands looked through his fingers. "It's so weird to see you looking so different."

"Really?" Sakura asked, tipping her head in that charming way she did. "I suppose it probably is. You look pretty different with dark hair, yourself."

"Ah, right," Kakashi ran a hand through his tangled mess of hair, remembering that he had set-up his henge a half an hour ago. He'd also covered his mask with bandages and removed his hitai-ate, choosing to just keep his eye squinted shut as though it was missing.

They were both dressed similarly in unmarked clothing. Not quite typical ninja garb but not civilian either. They both had on stretchy black pants that tightened around the ankle, and a similarly black and stretchy long-sleeved shirt. The only difference was that Sakura's shirt was cut off to expose a few inches of her midriff. Kakashi knew this wasn't for vain purposes, rather because a kunoichi's body was one of her most powerful weapons – a beautiful woman showing just a little bit of skin could easily take a man off-guard. And Sakura was surely beautiful.

Shaking that thought out of his head quickly, Kakashi pulled out his own radio and got it switched on and turned to the correct channel. "Let's head down and talk to Hakama-san about her plans for once we get Mami home."

Sakura sipped her tea across the table from Hakama-san, her heart going out to the poor, grief-stricken mother. She began to pity her more and more, realizing that the woman had done what she thought would be best for her daughter.

"I actually just received correspondence from the men I had hired as security for once Mami arrived back home. They were supposed to be here yesterday, you see. I had hired a couple of ninja from Suna to protect Mami for the remainder of her pregnancy and to scare the Saito clan away from us, but the letter I received yesterday informed me that one of the nin was killed in action by a rogue nin. They were coming to us here from a mission they were on in Mist. Now, there is no time for Suna to send a replacement."

"We will stay, Hakama-san, until the replacements from Suna have time to arrive," Sakura blurted the words before she even had time to think. "We will just have to inform our Hokage as soon as possible that we will be delayed for a few days."

Kakashi shot her a look from his spot at the table, but said nothing. She tried to make her face appear apologetic before turning back to Hakama-san, offering the woman a warm smile.

"You are so kind, Sakura-san. I can't thank you enough," Hakama-san's eyes were welling with fresh tears. "I know that guard duty is probably beneath someone of your skill level, but I promise, your time will be well worth it."

Sakura only smiled and nodded at the woman, returning her attention to the tea cup settled between her hands. She couldn't wait to get Mami back home, and give her a thorough medical examination. She wanted to be absolutely certain that both Mami and her unborn child were healthy.

"It's eleven-thirty, Sakura," Kakashi's voice broke her out of her thoughts, "Want to head upstairs and get everything ready to go?"

Sakura took the last drink of her tea and stood. "Let's go."