Sakura masked her yawn as her eyes watered, they ached from overuse as she blinked a few times staring at her laptop trying to force her eyes to focus on the dimly lit screen. Dawn peeked over to check on her commander who had been working around the clock.
While Sakura was with Kakashi in her free time she would be inside the leaf village but now that he didn't want to be with her Sakura was home more, Dawn enjoyed having Sakura around the waterfall village but was becoming worried about her health.
"Sakura?" Dawn questioned pulling Sakura's gaze off the charts on the laptop and onto the brunette. "You haven't checked in on Carver and Raiden's training sessions in a while, shouldn't you go see if they are not slacking off?"
"Oh, I am sure they are slacking off." Sakura said leaning back in her chair. "But Carver and Raiden no longer work for me, they belong to the Leaf Village if they chose to continue their training sessions that has nothing to do with me now."
"Oh..." Dawn muttered looking to her feet.
"I haven't checked on the other villages though that, I probably should do soon." Sakura sighed at the long list of things she needed to do; the pinkette moved her head to gaze at her second commander who was looking at her shoes disappointed. "Are you missing when those two would run around the village stirring up trouble?" Sakura teased; Dawn blushed as she shot up.
"N-No!" Dawn shook her head. "How could I miss those annoying little splooges-!?" Sakura smiled leaning on her arm as Dawn got ruffled up, the waterfall village did feel quiet without Carver and Raiden here. Dawn and Diem in their own ways were close to the two men, they would hang out when they swung by after completing a mission.
Sakura turned her eyes as Diem walked in, he tilted his head seeing Dawn was ranting mostly herself about not missing anyone, she didn't care that Raiden and Carver took off leaving them in the dust to retire inside a different freaking village!
"What did you do to break her?" Diem asked Sakura.
"Why is it always me?" Sakura leaned back in her office chair as Diem chuckled, "What's up?"
"Do you remember our fun-loving snitch inside the Reapers?"
"The one who gave us half ass information!?" Dawn growled.
"That would be the one." Diem nodded.
"What did he do now?" Sakura sighed.
"He knew you weren't too pleased with him when the whole memory issue with the shinobis who came back from the dead occurred so he sent you a present to try and get back in your good graces."
"Oh?" Sakura's interest perked. "I like presents."
"I know." Diem smiled, "That is why I knew you would be happy to hear it turns out, the Reapers sent a spy into the Leaf Village and it was able infiltrate successfully."
"Who?" Dawn wondered; Diem shrugged.
"Don't know-" Diem said, "-from what our snitch said the Reapers used something like the mind transfer jutsu, when the user transfers their consciousness into the target's body, giving them complete control of that person."
"What's different?" Sakura asked stretching her arms above her head.
"Whoever they used-" Diem said, "-is dead, this technique kills the person the jutsu is being used on."
"Fantastic." Dawn sighed.
"The user is projecting his consciousness into that body it's, basically a puppet at this point." Diem finished crossing his arms over his firm chest.
"I see..." Sakura breathed licking her lips, she really didn't want to go to the leaf village and risk running into Kakashi or Naruto or really anyone for that matter. TenTen had blown up her phone with text messages for some bonfire going on tonight, she didn't really pay much attention since it wasn't like she was going to go to it.
"They also-" Diem yawned, "-have a small camp set up a few miles from the village."
"A camp?" Dawn frowned.
"The reaper projecting his body would have to stash his body somewhere." Sakura muttered out loud, "How many Reaper's are inside this camp?"
"No idea." Diem answered as Dawn stepped forward.
"Diem and I can go." Dawn offered,
"Oh, I believe you would." Sakura smiled, "You miss-"
"I do not!" Dawn blushed with a stomp of her foot.
"What's going on?" Diem wondered.
"Nothing." Sakura said closing her laptop. "Let's go."
"Huh?" Diem blinked. "Go?" It was rare Sakura removed her commanders from the village unless it meant going to a battle beside her.
"All three of us?" Dawn questioned.
"Unless you want to stay home from the field trip?" Sakura smirked at her commanders who gave her an annoyed stare causing her to laugh. "Diem go find Hazel and her team she will be coming too."
"Hazel?" Dawn muttered once Diem was out of the room, "Why would we need her?"
"Rather have her and not need her than need her and not have her." Sakura taught Dawn a lesson in preparedness. "We don't know what we are going to be walking into, Hazel and her team will be on standby near the leaf village just in case."
"On standby because...?"
"Because she and the Leaf shinobi don't get along very well." Sakura explained, "Pack your gear, we leave in a half hour."
"Yes Commander." Dawn nodded before exiting the room. Sakura turned and looked out her office window. She did not want to go back to the leaf village, Naruto's terrified expression when he saw who she truly was still lingered around in her head. That side of her, the pieces that wanted to crawl into the leaf village and dice up those shinobi were still inside her, she just had locked them away inside a tiny box and threw them into the deepest and darkest parts of her mind and she ignored them the best she could.
Pulling in a deep breath Sakura stood up from her chair and went to collect her gear, the plan was to get in and out without the leaf shinobi even noticing they were inside their village. That wouldn't have been so difficult if she hadn't sent Carver and Raiden to train them.
The three commanders of the waterfall village dropped into the leaf village inside a breeze of silent wind. Sakura opened her eyes looking around at the sunset soaking the sky, Hazel and her team were miles away begging to hear her call.
"Where is everyone?" Diem muttered seeing the empty sidewalks.
"It's dinner time." Dawn answered, Sakura walked forward running her hand through her long hair.
"Alright, Dawn-" Sakura said turning around. "-go search for the spy while Diem and I head into the forest and track down the camp of Reapers and take them out."
"Wh-Why do I have to-"
"Because I said?" Sakura shrugged, hoping this wouldn't take longer than an hour to complete. If Sakura truly was a bitch, she would drag the spy to Minato and Tsunade's doorstep and drop it off for them gift wrapped but that would be too much work.
"Wouldn't it be easier for you to find the spy?" Dawn countered but Sakura shrugged.
"What if I wasn't here?" She asked, "What would you do?"
"But you are here!"
"You'll be fine." Sakura smiled.
"I really don't like you sometimes." Dawn muttered walking away.
"That's ok!" Sakura called with a wave. "I don't like me most times either."
"Why don't you go and-" Diem cut himself off seeing an annoyed look from Sakura, "-got it boss!" He said with a nod. "Searching for the Reapers in the forest is our job! Let's get in and out of this place with little fuss!"
----
Dawn grumped to herself as she walked through the leaf village with her arms crossed over her chest tightly. She was extremely agitated why couldn't Diem do the workout chasing after the spy, after all he was the third commander and fell below Dawn! She sighed annoyed with her petty jealousy; she was just annoyed Diem got to spend time alone with Sakura.
The second commander of the waterfall village knew Sakura was just doing her job, if she didn't check up on her and Diem what kind of commander would that make her? Sakura always made sure Dawn and Diem were always up to speed and never slacked off.
Dawn quickened her pace having found the wolf walking around in sheep's clothing. She spun through the air pulling her blade as she jumped into sight from the tree line. Dawn stood face to face with a young-looking kid, no older than Annistyn. Dawn cursed under her breath, of course those sick bastards would target a child! The young boy looked at Dawn with large brown eyes,
"Ca-Can I help you Miss?" He shivered looking at Dawn's sword,
"Your disgraceful using a child's body as a puppet!" Dawn glared into the eyes of the dead boy.
"I-I don't know what you're talking about!" The boy backed away from Dawn as she gripped her sword pulling it back, "No! Please I beg of you!" Tears filled his large eyes as he dropped to the ground, "Help me!" He cried, Dawn flinched. Could she have been wrong? If this child was the Reaper, then wouldn't he fight back from his puppet being killed off?
"What is the meaning of this?!" A strong voice echoed through the night; Dawn glanced over her shoulder. She knew Tsunade and who the masked man beside her was. Fuck! Sakura was going to kill her.
"Dawn?!" Raiden's voice scratched Dawn's ears as she groaned, Sakura was not going to be happy she was spotted.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Carver wondered walking towards her licking an ice cream cone. Dawn remained silent staring at the kid in front of her who curled up in a ball on the ground, she couldn't tell now it was hard detecting a jutsu like this one...was this kid the Reaper's spy? Dawn understood now why Sakura was making her do this.
"What um...what are you doing?" Raiden wondered looking from Dawn and then to the kid. Naruto handed Raiden his ice cream cup and jogged over to the kid.
"Hey, are you ok?" Naruto whispered moving closer to the crying boy.
"She-She tried to kill me!" The boy pointed towards Dawn who glared at him.
"Any reason for that?" Carver asked.
"Yes." Tsunade glared at her, "What is the reason you're inside my village attacking my students!?"
"Did Sakura send you?" Kakashi questioned, Dawn groaned at all the questions.
"You there-!" Tsunade turned to the boy, "-what is your name?"
"A-Aiko Sato." The boy answered getting to his feet,
"Commander." Tsunade stated, "You better get to answering my questions or call up your boss and have her speak to me! The fact you're even standing inside my village-" Aiko bolted left running from the forming group of shinobi. Dawn cursed about to go after him but was stopped by Tsunade's hand on her wrist.
"Agh." Naruto turned; Aiko was walking backwards as Diem moving towards him.
"Diem?" Carver tilted his head feeling confused as to why they were here. Aiko turned and ran from Diem. Dawn went to run after the boy but Tsunade wouldn't let go. The blonde Hokage kicked Dawn's legs out from the commander and forced her to her knees.
"I want answers!" Tsunade snapped holding Dawn's arm behind her back. Naruto's eyes widened as her pink hair drifted through the soft breeze, his mouth opened seeing her arm lightly draped around Aiko's neck as she stood in front of Tsunade.
"I wouldn't do that." Sakura smiled feeling Aiko trying to run out of her grasp. Tsunade looked past Sakura's eyes at the blood stain on her left cheek.
"Nice catch!" Diem praised.
"What is going on!?" Raiden looked around at the group of people, Sakura ignored them as she looked the boy in the eye.
"Tsunade." Sakura turned her glowing Christmas wreath eyes onto her. "Get your hands off my commander, before I break them off."
"Sakura..." Tsuande released Dawn who quickly stood holding her shoulder. "...what-"
"By now-" Sakura said. "-you know my village is your ally so you would think if you saw one of my Commanders you would trust they were here only for your best interest."
"Well-She-She was attacking one of my students!"
"Did you ever stop to question why?" Sakura asked,
"What reason could there be-" Sakura turned to Aiko ignoring Tsunade seeing no use of carrying out this conversation with her.
"Tell me something." Sakura said looking down at the boy, "Is Aiko Sato in there?" Sakura hoped Diem's information was off like last time, but the boy's face grew twisted and dark; Naruto blinked and was taken back seeing Kakashi suddenly standing beside Sakura. Kakashi held the boy's hand who gripped a kunai tightly aiming it in the direction of Sakura's rib cage. Kakashi's eyes was hard as he looked down at Aiko, that kind of blow would have killed Sakura in seconds.
"This kid has been dead for months!" Aiko laughed. "No one even noticed-" Sakura looked into the kid's eyes, trying to get into the reapers head.
"Well-!" Raiden breathed shaking his head. "-I am a little embarrassed!"
"A little?" Dawn turned. "You should have known this kid was a puppet being controlled!"
"Well..." Raiden trailed off in a high pitch tone.
"Have you just been fucking around the entire time you transfered here?" Diem moved to stand beside Dawn facing Carver and Raiden.
"N-No!" Raiden defended.
"We don't have to answer to you." Carver reminded them.
"We know." Dawn rolled her eyes. "You have said that to us maybe a million times but last time I checked we were still friends-" Carver and Raiden sucked in a breath, this was the first time they heard Dawn say that word to them. "-one day we are told by Sakura you are going to be training the Leaf shinobi and before any of us know it your retiring before the fight is even over and moving into a different village...I..." Dawn turned her head away.
"We thought we meant more to you than-" Diem went to finish,
"You do!" Raiden cut in.
"Then why are you here?" Diem asked.
"Why wouldn't they be?" Sasuke frowned,
"Because they were ours first." Diem stated, Raiden's eyes filled with tears. "You were our friends first; we were in the same fucking unit trained by the same person. I thought for sure if there ever came a day, we stopped this crazy fight we would all be together, but you left us..." Kakashi looked away from the emotional turmoil and to Sakura's face as she stared into the kid's eyes holding her famous poker face. Kakashi has never seen eyes that looked like those before, they were beautifully mysterious like she was. Kakashi felt an urge to reach out and brush away the dried blood on her cheek.
Kakashi quickly looked back over to the four bickering back and forth at each other as Sakura blinked and looked around. Sakura unwrapped her arm from around Aiko as he groaned looking like he had a headache. Kakashi let his hand go and placed it in his pocket.
"Holy shit the brat is alive!?" Raiden's mouth dropped open seeing Aiko looking around confused.
"What?" Dawn breathed, "Sakura-" Sakura held her hand up stopping the flood of confused questions.
"You ok kid?" Sakura asked Aiko, the puppet looked at Sakura with wide eyes.
"U-Uh...Ye-Yeah...what happened?"
"You got hit." Sakura nodded over towards her commanders. "They get a little rowdy, if you have any pain let me know and I will check you out ok?" Kakashi was impressed how naturally lying came to Sakura, before she vanished from the leaf village, she couldn't tell a fib to save her life.
"Oh...thanks..." Aiko muttered walking away from the group.
"What was that?" Diem stepped up looking at Kakashi who hadn't moved from his close place beside Sakura. Diem reached over and wiped the blood off her cheek, Kakashi felt his exposed eye narrow at the sight of him touching her. He didn't like seeing Diem softly wiping anything off her skin in such a loving way, only Kakashi could be the one to do that—what the hell was that? Kakashi looked off the distance wondering what these thoughts in his head were. Why did he care who touched her? Why did it bother him if Diem was more to Sakura than just a comrade?
"I placed a seal on him." Sakura informed, "I will know what he knows."
"Oh." Dawn realized, "He is more useful alive than dead."
"Yeah."
"What about those kid's parents!?" Tsunade breathed out, "I can't-I mean-"
"It sucks-" Sakura said with a shrug, "-but I can use that kid to know what the Reapers are doing."
"But-"
"That is the best we have right now Tsunade, I haven't gotten any closer to him in the months since Malachite was last here." Sakura said.
"Really?" Naruto asked, that fact scared him.
"I injured him." Sakura turned, "He is going to lay low until he heals."
"How good did you get him?" Carver asked,
"About as good as he got me so-" Sakura shrugged, all eyes fell onto her torso as the leaf shinobi recalled the video of Sakura fighting Malachite.
"But still..." Tsunade whispered.
"Aiko isn't a threat to your village." Sakura said, "I wouldn't let him walk around here if he was, that kid most likely died months ago when Malachite invaded I could remove the jutsu on him but his heart would then stop and his body wouldn't be able to go on living. What made Aiko himself is long gone, there is nothing I can do to bring that boy back, but what I can do is make it, so he didn't die in vain. I can use his death against the Reapers."
"Very well..." Tsuande sighed. "I trust you, Sakura."
"What are you doing now?" Raiden asked Sakura, who licked her lips looking around. Naruto could almost feel the sarcastic comment radiating off her tongue.
"We have work to do." Dawn answered with a wave of her hand. "Unlike you two we haven't-"
"Dawn." Sakura warned as she turned her body to leave the leaf village, feeling a headache from the constant bickering. Sakura's eyes shifted, she wrapped her seal around Hazel and her team sending them home. Kakashi watched this, he almost reached out and stopped her from going. What was going on with him!? She was his student and that was it!
"Sakura!" Naruto and Raiden called, turning her head to looking at them as she was just about to do the same with herself and her commanders as she did to Hazel and her team.
"Well..." Raiden muttered looking at Naruto, "...I was wondering, well we all were hoping you would hang out with us tonight; we sent you a couple texts and..." Sakura glanced over at Dawn and Diem, even though they were puffed out and annoyed right now she knew they missed their two friends.
"Are you sure-" Carver quickly moved forward, "-that Aiko is the only one? It sounds odd to me that the Reapers would only place one spy." Sakura turned to her commanders, she knew there were no more spies inside this village but for the hell of it...
"Well?" Sakura asked them.
"Wh-What!?" Dawn sighed.
"Are there?" Sakura questioned.
"You can detect them in seconds!" Diem groaned not wanting to go fishing for jutsu's.
"What if I wasn't here?" Sakura repeated.
"But you are!" Diem stressed.
"But what if I wasn't?" Sakura smirked at the annoyed expressions she was getting.
"But you are here!" Dawn groaned, "It will take you like three seconds to-"
"Get to work!" Sakura called spinning on her heel moving towards Naruto.
"Wh-Where are you going!?" Diem called,
"This way-" Sakura pointed in the direction she was walking.
"Ha-Ha, get your little smart ass over here and help!" Diem called, Kakashi glanced back at Diem, Kakashi didn't like Diem's tone when he dealt with Sakura.
"Mmm..." Sakura taking in a breath, "No." She turned and begin walking away.
"No? What the fuck you mean no!?"
"Non, Nej, нет any other way you need me to say it?" Sakura laughed over her shoulder.
"Du är ett sådant rövhål!" Dawn muttered to herself turning to look at the darkening village.
"What did she say?" Naruto muttered to Carver who shrugged having no idea.
"So, are you going to hang around?" Naruto wondered catching up to Sakura.
"You already scanned the village for more spies, didn't you?" Carver threw another question out.
"There is only one in the village." Sakura said, "I want to see if they get led back to Aiko."
"Your testing them?" Carver wondered.
"I am." Sakura nodded.
"You never stop do you?" Raiden muttered.
"I do not." She smiled at him.
"Have you eaten?" Naruto asked her. "If you're hungry we can swing by ichiraku ramen for a quick bite before the bonfire!"
"Bonfire?" Sakura muttered to herself lightly cringing.
"Come on." Raiden pouted. "It will be fun."
"Fun for who?" Sakura questioned.
"Everyone will be there!" Raiden bounced, "You haven't really seen anyone since...erm..." Raiden looked behind him seeing Kakashi and Tsunade went their own ways.
"I uh..." Sakura said looking the three men who were giving her large puppy dog eyes. "Sure." She sighed, "But you have to keep Dawn and Diem entertained."
"W-Why!?" Raiden whined.
"Because."
"Because why?!"
"Because they miss you."
"They...They miss us?" Raiden asked slowly.
"That doesn't sound like them." Carver said.
"Doesn't sound like me either." Sakura shrugged, "You two raised hell inside our village for years and then out of nowhere you vanished. You had to expect them to at least react to that."
"Uh...no." Raiden shook his head.
"Yeah." Carver agreed, "Didn't think they would give a damn."
"Hm." Sakura hummed looking around, she understood the empty streets were due to the large bonfire inside the training grounds that was taking place tonight.
"What is 'Hm' mean?" Carver wondered as they walked to ichiraku ramen.
"You don't give those two enough credit." Sakura told him.
"Dawn and Diem?"
"Yes, and I don't like that." Sakura said as they took their seat at the bright red bar in Naruto's favorite place.
"How?" Naruto wondered,
"You know Dawn and Diem are related right-" Sakura didn't even finish her sentence before Raiden was already screeching.
"What else haven't you fucking told us!?" He glared.
"They are cousins, Dawn use to be a lot like Hinata-" Sakura said looking at Naruto, "-Diem use to be like you Naruto."
"What happened?" Carver asked.
"That, I don't even know the entire story." Sakura answered quickly placing her order with Teuchi. "I know their town they grew up in along with their families no longer exist like most of the shinobi inside my village."
"But Dawn and Diem have like a really big stick shoved way up their-"
"You know-" Sakura said looking at the bar. "-it is really hard to have a big heart when your whole life turns into a trauma story, Dawn and Diem's way of coping with that was turning off their emotions and they have come a long way from then."
"Is that what you did?" Naruto asked, "Turned off your emotions after Tsunade kicked you out?"
"Something like that."
"What do you mean?"
"Well..." Sakura replied, "...sometimes deciding who you want to be is deciding who you will never be again, and I hated who I was when I lived here."
"Is that why you let Kaguya turn you into..." Naruto trailed off not knowing if this is a road he wanted to go down.
"We cannot become what we want by remaining what we are." Sakura said. "Kaguya may have done what she did but I allowed her to change me, I am at fault too."
"I call bullshit on that." Carver coughed.
"Carver." Sakura sighed.
"What?" He laughed, "If we are going to have this conversation then let's have the whole thing. I remember nights standing on guard and hearing you screaming on the top of your lungs begging her to stop."
"What?" Naruto asked turning to look at Sakura.
"Yeah-" Carver said, "-she never told you about her training with Kaguya did she?"
"No." Naruto said cautiously.
"Kaguya killed Sakura, I can't even count how many times."
"I-I'm sorry, what!?" Naruto stood.
"Calm down." Sakura muttered.
"She killed you!?"
"Oh yeah!" Raiden stepped, "That is just the beginning of it, Kaguya is a fucked-up bitch man."
"This is not how I thought my night would go." Sakura muttered to herself.
The food arrived and Teuchi quickly scurried off into the back feeling sickened after hearing a small piece of Carver's story to Naruto about Sakura's training with Kaguya. Sakura felt annoyed, every time she tried to shut down the conversation she was waved off, she was questioning herself as to why she was hanging out this village right now until-
"Sakura-" Dawn walked into ramen ichiraku.
"This is where you have been?" Diem said looking around.
"Yeah." Raiden smiled,
"We can only find the one spy." Dawn said looking at Sakura who nodded standing to her feet.
"Very good."
"You knew the entire time, didn't you?" Dawn glared at her.
"Are you leaving?!" Naruto jumped up.
"Our job is done here." Sakura said she was confused, she cleaned out a spy for them and even sat down and ate a meal with them. Why was he looking so upset?
"But-But the bonfire is starting!" Naruto whined. "I thought you were going to come!"
"A bonfire?" Dawn muttered. "Why would that be fun?"
"Why wouldn't it be?" Raiden asked.
"You traveled for years, camped out in the woods and basically lived round a campfire why would it be fun to go hang out around one just for the hell of it?" Diem rationalized.
"This Sakura-" Raiden pointed at the two commanders. "-this is why they suck."
"You think you're a picnic?" Sakura asked him,
"I am a delightful evening!" Raiden puffed out.
"That ends in food poisoning." Diem added with a muttered tone.
"What was that!?" Raiden pounced to his feet to get in Diems face.
"You really want us around?" Sakura wondered looking at Naruto. "We are not much fun-"
"You guys are going to fit right in!" Naruto laughed as he grabbed Sakura's arm and pulled her out of ramen ichiraku. "Come on!"
"Naruto!" Sakura objected.
"This is going to be fun; I promise!" Naruto smiled over his shoulder.
"Hey!" Raiden ran after them. "Where the hell are you two going!?"
Naruto ran dragging Sakura the entire way to the training grounds, he didn't want to give Sakura the chance to bolt back to her village through her spillery seal. Naruto and the others came running into sight louder than a bullet shot from a gun. Inside the large training grounds of the leaf village multiple fire pits were set up with chairs and benches placed around them. Tables with food and drinks were set up around each fire.
"Naruto!" Hinata smiled jogging towards him.
"Hey!" He smiled engulfing her into a hug,
"S-Sakura?" Hinata's breath hitched in her chest seeing her standing behind him.
"Hm?" She asked turning her head.
"You came?" Hinata breathed, she really didn't believe Sakura would make an appearance.
"Yeah!" Naruto laughed wrapping an arm around Sakura's neck. "I might have dragged her, but it was worth it!"
"I can't believe you left us!" Raiden huffed coming up behind them.
"I see you have gotten slower." Sakura commented making Raiden jump.
"I-I was waiting for Carver to catch up!"
"Don't use me as an excuse you fucker!" Carver snapped walking towards the chilled beer in coolers.
"She came." Kiba breathed looking at her long hair blow through the air as she looked around the training grounds.
"Well come on!" Hinata giggled, taking Sakura's hand moving her to the fire she had been sitting at waiting for Naruto.
"Sakura-" Dawn quickly whispered following closely beside her.
"You're ok." Sakura said looking over her shoulder as Naruto and Hinata took their seat. "Take your hand off your sword."
"But-"
"Your safe here." Naruto smiled at the two commanders who appeared to be stiff an extremely out of place. They reminded Naruto of Sakura when she first returned home to the leaf village.
"Sit." Sakura ordered as she sat on the end of a bench, Dawn and Diem sat beside her looking uncomfortable.
"Sakura you came!" TenTen said moving from the fire beside theirs.
"Yeah..." Sakura trailed off.
"I texted you like twenty times!" TenTen puffed her cheeks out, "Why didn't you reply?"
"Er...I was busy?" Sakura muttered.
"Yeah!" Naruto laughed, "She just found a sp-" Sakura quickly kicked Naruto's ankle shutting him up.
"O-Ow!" He whined glaring at Sakura.
"Naruto come help me." Sakura said getting up.
"Huh?"
"Come."
"I'm coming!" Naruto called getting up on his throbbing ankle following her to a table with smores and drinks. Sakura picked up three canned beers. "Why did you-"
"You can't go around talking about the spy in this village." Sakura's tone was dead serious.
"Huh? Why not? Everyone should know that you-"
"No one needs to know a damn thing I do." Sakura snapped, "My plan will only work if that Reaper thinks his cover hasn't been blown."
"Oh...I-I didn't think about that, I am sorry..."
"It...It's fine." Sakura sighed looking over at her commanders. Carver and Raiden had joined them and were sparking up conversation.
"You are very protective over them." Naruto realized seeing her face.
"Yeah." She said clearing her throat, "I am protective over a lot of people." She said walking back to the bonfire. "Ugh-" Sakura groaned. "-your one of them Naruto." She called feeling his gaze on her back, Naruto grinned quickly running to catch up to her.