Stumble [Rewrite]

Worth

Chapter 69/72

::

She stood, but Kakashi grasped her wrist before she could step too far away. His eyes went to the crumpled note in her hand to the scorpion clinging to the bottom of her shirt to the troubled look in her eyes. His silver knitting needles clattered onto the ground from his spot half-off the couch.

"What's happening?" he demanded. He let go of her wrist and watched it fall limply to her side. "Why are you sneaking around like this—like you're part of a whole game and you're the only one playing it?

She looked away as his eyes softened.

"I don't know what's going on, but whatever it is, it's not good for you. Is whatever this is worth it?"

Her face went blank as she allowed the little scorpion to crawl all the way up to the divot of her shoulder. He'd seen an insect like that in her presence once before on their mission to Wave when she was alone, on watch, talking in quiet circles so no one else on their team would listen.

She carefully considered her next line of thought before she spoke. "If I tell you one thing, will you cover for me when I get back?"

A dubious look crossed his features. The last thing he wanted to do was allow her to leave with all the old and new questions bubbling up inside of him, but he nodded and waited for what she deemed enough to negate his suspicions for the time being.

Sakura took in a deep breath.

"I killed Orochimaru by using his remaining life force to save Neji. After doing that, I asked Hyuuga-sama to secure my position in ROOT."

Kakashi openly gaped at her, his mouth opening and closing to try and form the words he really couldn't make come out of his mouth. She fixed him with a pleading stare.

"Ask me all the questions you want later, okay? Just cover for me."

"Sa—"

"Please."

Reluctantly, he took a step back and didn't stop her from running out of his apartment. He couldn't stop her—not really—not after having an anxious sea in her face and looking near ready to escape whether or not he decided to let her go. Their needles and yarn were left abandoned on the couch as Kakashi raised a hand to scrub his face.

"Sakura, what are you doing?"

::

Sasuke drew on the couch of his temporary home with Naruto sprawled across the floor, his feet kicked up against the wall and a handful of chips stuffed in his mouth.

"Sakura-chan ran off somewhere again," he munched. "Kakashi-sensei's covering for her, so if anyone asks, we don't know anything."

Sasuke erased something from his sketchbook. "So like what we usually do?"

"Yup."

Which was an everyday occurrence since their days together at the Academy, and they already learned not to mind it early on. Besides, if Kakashi was going to cover for her too, it probably wasn't going to be anything too bad.

"So did Sai teach you anything new?" Naruto asked. Nothing much had been going on for him except the occasional time he spent either helping Iruka out at the Academy or helping Mari down at the bar. Sasuke, he hadn't seen too much of, because of his unfortunate family problems and his father's recent decision to lock him up in his room for something that wasn't even close to his fault.

"He said it was time for me to work on motion," Sasuke replied. "People walking, running, and jumping to start with. I also need to—"

Knock, knock, knock.