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Playing the Game	By : erincthomas Category: Naruto > Het - Male/Female > Kakashi/Sakura Views: 2679 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, the characterisation would be a lot more consistent. No more Kakashi doing the good guy pose, please. No profit made from this.

Chapter List
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Kakashi stared at the door of The Rusty Kunai. He knew the bar fairly well. It was a dive, to be sure, but the alcohol was reasonably priced. It was as good a place to drink as any, if one didn't terribly mind seedy patrons and frequent brawls. Despite the extensive efforts to rebuild in the wake of the invasion – through which Konoha had started to take its new shape faster than Kakashi had ever thought possible – this place had been scrapped together from its own rubble. It was dilapidated to the extreme but still managed to stand proudly. It seemed to suit the place, really.

Normally, if he wanted a drink, he'd just go in, but today, he hesitated. He knew exactly what he'd glimpsed inside when he'd cracked open the entrance: pink hair, sitting at the bar. There was only one person he knew of with pink hair and she shouldn't be in The Rusty Kunai – especially at this time of day.

Sighing, he steeled himself and pushed open the door. It was about time he talked to her anyway. It had been almost two days since Danzou had handed down the order that had so thoroughly blindsided Kakashi; he and Sakura had a lot of things to sort out. Her first ANBU mission was in four days, in fact, and she didn't even know it yet.

"Mind if I join you?" he asked, nonchalantly sliding onto the stool beside her.

She shrugged. "There's no one else to keep me company besides Stubby over there." It was true. The place was deserted except for a one-armed man passed out in a corner booth. His snores periodically rent the air. The bar tender was at the other end, slowly polishing glasses with a dirty rag.

Her hair was longer, Kakashi noted. Almost down to the small of her back. He was sure it hadn't been past her shoulders the last time he'd seen her. Did girls' hair really grow that fast?

"Have you thought about how you're going to change your appearance?"

"I've taken care of it," she said flatly, not bothering to look at him as she nursed her bowl of sake.

"How so?" He hoped she didn't think changing the length of her hair would do anything at all to disguise herself.

"I've taken care of it," she repeated. "Don't worry about it."

"Did you have any trouble getting your uniform?"

"No." Her responses were unusually clipped. He frowned, wondering what he'd done to make her mad.

"Have you picked a name yet?"

"Madoka Chiyoko." She picked at the rough-hewn bar absentmindedly.

"Chiyoko? After Elder Chiyo from Suna?"

"Yes. After her."

Kakashi wasn't that surprised. It was one of his clearest memories, leaving Sakura behind to face a powerful enemy with only an old crone whose skills he wasn't at all sure of as backup. Something had passed between the women on that day but he wasn't sure what. In fact, he didn't know much at all about anything that had transpired in that cave and it was likely he never would. Sakura rarely offered information of that sort and it wasn't in his nature to pry. Maybe she'd told Naruto the details but somehow, Kakashi doubted it.

"Why Madoka, then?"

"It was my mother's maiden name."

"Circles," he mumbled, suddenly putting something together that he'd never thought about before. "It's your mother's symbol you wear, isn't it?"

She looked at him for the first time, startled. "Yes, actually."

"Why is that?" he wondered aloud. "Why not your father's?" That was the usual way of things, after all.

"What's with the questions all of a sudden? You haven't spoken to me for over two months. Why now?"

Had it really been that long? He supposed it had, if she wasn't counting the night she'd healed him or yesterday at the Hokage's office. She'd been on a mission for almost three weeks, though, so he wasn't sure what she was driving at. Her voice was intense but not quite angry as she evaded the question about her father, Kakashi noted, but he didn't know if there was any significance to it. He cleared his throat. "You're to meet me at training ground sixty-seven on Friday at eleven hundred hours sharp. Come fully uniformed and prepared with enough supplies to last approximately one week. Wear your mask and make sure you're not seen."

"Mission. I see," she replied, shoulders relaxing upon pinpointing a reason for his presence. "I'll be there – shit," she cursed suddenly, squinting in the darkness to inspect the tip of her index finger. "This fucking place is falling apart. Masashi-san!" she called in a louder voice. "Your damn bar gave me a splinter. I ought to take my trade elsewhere."

The old barkeep looked up. "Now, Sakura-san. You wouldn't do that to an old man, would you? How would I stay in business without my best customer?" Kakashi was surprised at the familiar way in which the man spoke to Sakura. His establishment's ninja-friendly environment appealed to many but often made for a rough crowd. Being a semi-frequent patron himself, Kakashi had never seen Sakura there before but knew the old barkeep to be a hardened ex-shinobi that didn't often socialise with customers. Before today, Kakashi hadn't known the man's name.

"I suppose I can't let you go out of business," Sakura grumbled with feigned annoyance. "You serve the best genshu in town, after all."

Masashi's wizened face split into a relaxed grin. "That's a high compliment coming from one such as you." Returning to his task of cleaning a new glass, he spun the same dirty rag with his gnarled fingers – one of which was missing – and continued, "Five percent off your tab." At her surprised expression, he added, "For the splinter."

"Thanks, old man," she said, smiling genuinely. "Medical expenses add up."

"Indeed," Kakashi chortled, watching her deftly remove the sliver of wood, wiping away any traces of blood on her skirt and using chakra to seal up the wound as if it had never been. "Medical jutsu are a handy skill set, don't you think?"

"Yes. Healing is the only thing I'm good at, besides taking tests. So, the only useful thing I'm good at."

"Well, I don't know about that. If I were looking to, say, launch myself through a wall, or perhaps if I were trying to find a sure fire way to break something large, you'd be just the girl for the job."

She laughed with a touch of bitterness. "Oh, yes. How could I forget? I'm quite accomplished at destroying things."

He looked at her strangely. Since he was not following her train of thought and didn't particularly like where this seemed to be headed, he changed the subject. "So why are you sitting here getting drunk all alone?"

"I've gotten drunk on this day since they let me loose around sake."

He poured himself a bowl of sake from her bottle to cover up the fact that he was totally mystified at her response. Try as he might to find a significance in the current day's date, he was coming up blank. Taking an idle sip from his bowl, he had to cough to conceal a choke, caught off guard by the strength of the alcohol. It was undiluted sake, heady and full.

"Actually, I meant, where are your partners in crime?"

"Oh. They're busy." She paused to down another bowl. "I don't have that many. I'm not a very good one, in any case. I always fuck things up somehow."

"A good what?"

"Friend. Ino's on a mission but she's mad at me anyway because I was awful to her for no reason, just like I always am. And Naruto's off doing something I'd rather not think about with Hinata. He forgot about today so I thought it was better not to remind him."

He drank chilled sake through his mask, still stumped. September seventh. What the hell was special about today? He had the feeling that if it was something Naruto was supposed to remember then he probably should as well.

"Have you noticed I've been trying to become friends with Hinata?"

"Not really," he answered truthfully.

"Figures. I thought I should, since Naruto.… I mean, sure, she's sweet and all, but she's so timid. What the hell do you do with a girl that can't talk about her own whatever those two are without fainting dead away?"

Chuckling, Kakashi conceded, "That's a fair point, actually. You might be a bit too head strong for someone like that."

Sakura sighed. "In reality, I think I'm just jealous of her. Keep your enemies closer and all that."

Kakashi's hand froze with his sake halfway to his covered lips. "You're what? Because she's with Naruto? That's – I had no idea."

Seeing the stunned expression in his one exposed eye, she snorted. "No, not like that, really. Since when have I been smart enough to love someone who could actually love me back? He gave up on me awhile ago anyway. Not that I blame him. Even he's not that much of an idiot, I guess."

Kakashi set down his drink, unable to stop staring at her, though she was focused solely on the alcohol in front of her. He had never heard her so openly morose. Ever. It was disconcerting – just as this whole situation was disconcerting. He'd always thought it was funny, before, how Sakura cursed more and dropped the good girl act when she was tipsy. But she must have been playing, those very few times he'd seen her drink, because she had never been like this in front of him or even Naruto before.

She continued talking about Hinata. "After all, she's the only one who saw him for who he was, even in the Academy. Not like me. He deserves someone who can love him like that. Despite the fact that they're, well, totally mismatched, they're perfect for each other." She sighed again, listlessly fingering the edge of her nearly empty sake bowl. "I depend on him too much. If I could form functional relationships with people, I'd probably be happier for them."

"You do form functional relationships with people."

She stared at him as if she were waiting for him to suddenly realise the stupidity of his words and take them back. "I have two friends, Kakashi-sensei, and in case you weren't listening, I'm openly a bitch to one and secretly a bitch to another. I'm not a very nice person."

"People that aren't nice don't generally make bento for their teammates before hard missions," Kakashi pointed out.

"Well, nice people don't generally extort their teammates into rushing dangerous ANBU missions first."

Kakashi frowned beneath his mask. "I wanted to be there."

"I know," she replied simply but said nothing else. The silence stretched between them as they further depleted the sake bottle.

"You have other friends," he insisted after awhile, doggedly pursuing the conversation. "You've forgotten some, surely."

"I guess I did forget Shizune. I'll grant you that, but she and I aren't exactly close. She never really has time for me and she hates when I drink because it reminds her of…." Sakura trailed off. "Not to mention she thinks I'm an annoying drinking partner. Too melodramatic, she says." Sakura smiled thinly at Kakashi. "I'm pretty sure she's right about that one. Sorry, Kaka-sensei."

He returned her wan smile with a genuine one. "Don't mention it, Sakura-chan. I don't mind. Now, I think you're leaving someone else out of your little list."

"Sai? Yes, I suppose. Although I think we've proven that I'm twice as likely to kill him when he's drinking as when he's not."

Kakashi chortled, recalling exactly how loquacious the young man became under the influence. "True. I didn't mean him, though."

Sakura's brow knit in confusion. "Tenten-san? I like her, but I would call that more of a business arrangement…."

Business arrangement? That was odd but he'd leave it alone for now. Outwardly, his eye turned up with sudden gaiety. "I was thinking more along the lines of impressive ANBU captains who rush missions in order to help you win bets," he cajoled.

The alcohol-induced flush in her cheeks deepened. "Well, it's not like you didn't owe me money. And if you were a bit more responsible I wouldn't be able to bet against your perpetual tardiness."

"True," he agreed without outward concern, taking another sip of sake.

For a minute, he thought she was going to totally ignore his implication of friendship, but then she spoke. "I always had the impression that all your friends were dead and you weren't really looking for new ones," she said quietly. "I guess I was wrong. Sorry."

"You weren't wrong," he replied, realising as she voiced it that she was correct and that he'd always unconsciously avoided the issue. "But these things have a way of sneaking up on you sometimes. And as far as I can tell, I'm not alienated by your presence. Seems you don't always fuck up."

She smiled at him – sincerely, this time. "Thanks, Kaka-sensei. That means a lot to me." She fished around in one of her pouches for money and put some under the corner of the empty sake bottle. Shakily, she stood.

When she wobbled, Kakashi placed a steadying hand near her elbow. "Whoa. Why don't I walk you home, Sakura?"

She scowled at him in response but he hadn't really meant it as a question. Rising behind her, he guided her out the door with a hand on her shoulder.

Sakura groaned when they stepped out of the dimly lit bar. As she squinted her eyes against the sun and swore loudly, Kakashi wondered vaguely just how long she'd been inside. It was barely one in the afternoon and she was more intoxicated than he'd ever before witnessed her being. He'd thought she'd been pushing her limits that night that Sai had goaded the whole team, Tenzou and Kakashi included, into experimenting, but apparently, Sakura was a better actress than Kakashi had ever given her credit for. He had no idea how she was still conscious after consuming so much strong genshu. He himself wouldn't have been, if he had kept going that much longer. She must drink more than they ever knew. But why hide it? What other secrets was she keeping?

They made their way towards her house in silence. The occasional stumble led to her clutching his arm for balance, but other than that, the walk was as normal as the cheerful weather. That in itself discomfited Kakashi, who felt the beginnings of a paradigm shift tugging at his perceptions.

He led her up to the door of a generic-looking house typical of "Yamato Works", the famously quick construction company that he knew was actually Tenzou with a bit of spare chakra. Kakashi distantly remembered his junior mentioning that he'd redone most of this section of town in the reconstruction.

Kakashi was surprised when she pulled away from him before they quite reached their destination.

"No," she protested. "Not the door. Never use the door to my house."

He stared at her in confusion. "Why not?"

She ignored him. "Take me to my window."

"Your window? Which one would that be?"

She pointed to a window in the side of the top floor that was actually a glass door leading to a small balcony. "That one. It's not locked."

"Well, just walk up there yourself," he sniffed, annoyed at the unnecessary demands.

Scowling, she turned away from him. "Fine. Go away then."

Without bothering to see if he'd gone, she began to scale the wall by channelling chakra to her feet. Unfortunately, balance that was not quite steady on flat ground was rather hopeless on vertical surfaces. Kakashi caught her as she started to slip.

"Okay, I'll take you to your window."

When he threw her over his shoulder and started climbing the wall for her, she had the gall to smack his shoulder in indignation.

"Put me down, you brute!" Apparently her befuddled brain had failed to realise that if he was going to take her to her second-storey window, he'd have to get her up there somehow.

"Has anyone ever told you that you're very bossy?" he asked casually, stretching a long leg over her balcony railing and fumbling to open the window-door with his one free hand.

"No, never!" she seethed. "Now put me down or I will chop off your –"

"Gladly," he said, dropping her none too gently on her bed. "See the next time I do you any favours –"

His playful scolding was cut short by a tremendous shout of "Sakura! Is that you?"

Sakura's door slid open violently to reveal a middle-aged woman with a pot belly who had obviously let herself go to seed. Though he'd only met her once, right after Sakura had become a genin, he recognised the woman as Sakura's mother.

Kakashi could feel the woman's eyes flicking between him and her daughter. He thought he might have to explain himself and opened his mouth to do so. She, however, completely ignored him and stomped over to Sakura, yanking the girl upright by the arm.

"Sneaking men home, eh?" She leaned in and took a whiff of Sakura's hair. "And you reek like a distillery. Typical."

Kakashi stared at Sakura's mother in alarm. He didn't recall anything like this behaviour from his previous encounter. Though, if he remembered correctly, he'd found her total lack of concern about the details of her young daughter's new and perilous career puzzling at the time. And quite frankly, he was shocked the woman could smell anything at all besides her own stench, a sickening mix of stale cigarettes and cheap booze. Clearly, this was what had Sakura avoiding the front door.

He was even more surprised that Sakura was standing there quietly, looking ashamed and strangely guilty as her mother continued to dress her down thoroughly. Feeling very much like he was intruding, Kakashi snuck back out the window he'd come in.

Using the rooftop shortcut back to his apartment, his thoughts settled again upon the possible significance of this date for one Haruno Sakura. What had happened in September that was –? Right as his building came into view, he stopped abruptly. Wasn't today the anniversary of Sasuke's defection?

No wonder Sakura felt the need to get fall-down drunk on this day every year. Suddenly, Kakashi wouldn't mind getting a little more intoxicated himself.

It was 10:58 and Sakura still hadn't shown. He was surprised, really. She'd always been punctual, almost to a fault.

"What are we waiting around for, Taichou?" complained Ryoji. "Can't we just leave?"

"No," he said curtly. He hadn't known how to broach the subject of Mogusa's replacement, so he simply hadn't.

He was spared doing so again as he caught sight of her. At least he assumed it was her. It was so strange to see a girl approaching in an ANBU uniform and to think it was Sakura even though her hair was all wrong. The image was not one he'd ever thought he'd associate with her. And she looked so different, so small – like a child, really.

That he didn't normally think of her as a child caught him off guard, but not as off guard as the fingers that were suddenly gripping his elbow almost painfully.

"That's – you let – someone's replacing him? So soon?" choked out Shiori.

"Not exactly." Kakashi stared pointedly at her hand until she released him. Never before had they been so presumptuous as to touch him. He hoped his little stunt hadn't confused them into imposing a closeness that didn't exist.

"Remove your mask," he commanded as Sakura neared. He had to secure her identity.

As she moved to obey, he glimpsed a bare shoulder. The sight of it made his blood run cold. Angrily, he snatched her arm and dragged her away from the other two.

"Where's your tattoo?" he snapped.

"Wh-what are you –" she stuttered, shock apparent even with the porcelain mask concealing her features.

"Your ANBU tattoo. As a medic, you'll already be targeted first. Without a tattoo, they'll know you're not official. Do you have a death wish, Sa – Chiyoko?" he hissed, purposefully emphasising her codename.

"Take it up with Danzou if it bothers you," Sakura sniped, uncharacteristically dour. "Do you think I don't know? I'm not stupid, Kakashi-sen...." She trailed off before she could finish the familiar name. "I've already argued with him over it. Maybe you could have done better but you didn't bother."

"Shit." He should have known that Danzou would insist upon following the letter of the law even when it made no sense. In wartime, when this had last occurred, chuunin were temporary ANBU members for a mission or two at most. Sometimes, a more suitable replacement was found. Usually, though, the chuunin died. As a rule they were thrown into the mix as a last resort without the time or opportunity to receive the mark of an ANBU agent so it wasn't part of the standard procedure. He sighed wearily. "We'll just have to make do, this time around, but you won't be going on another mission without a –"

"I can add it to my genjutsu," she whispered, all anger falling away.

"What?"

"The genjutsu on my appearance. I can add the tattoo if you give the order, right?"

"Oh. Yes, do that."

He felt a little dumb as he watched her check to make sure she was shielded from the others' view. Of course she would use genjutsu. Why would a genjutsu type dye her hair? It would be pointless anyway. With a hair colour as noticeable as hers, people would notice if it was anything other than pink when she was off-duty.

He observed silently as a swirling leaf rippled into existence on her left shoulder. As it did, the twin braids snaking down her skull shimmered with a more cerise hue but faded quickly back to tawny brown.

Something was off but it took him a second to pinpoint exactly what. "Wrong shoulder."

"But yours—"

"I'm a man. You're a woman. Wrong shoulder."

She sighed and repeated the process on her right side. "Does it look okay?"

"Fine. Now follow me."

He stalked back over to Ryoji and Shiori. She tailed behind, movements more timid than he would have anticipated given the way she'd snarled at him not too long ago.

"Take off your mask," he ordered again, though he instinctively knew it was Sakura. She complied and slipped the mask – painted like a mouse, he noted – off of her face.

Her brows were a lighter brown than her hair, almost blonde, though their arch was familiar. The eyes they framed, though, couldn't be more dissimilar from their usual vibrant green. Changing iris colour was a tricky process he hadn't expected Sakura to attempt. But she had, it seemed; her eyes were now a warm russet shade and no less expressive than before.

"This is Madoka Chiyoko-san," he explained mechanically. "She is a chuunin but her medical skills are sufficient to serve our purposes. Hokage-sama has seen it fit to bestow her upon us for now. She is not officially ANBU or a true member of this team but she will be acting in that capacity for an indefinite period of time."

"How old is she?" blurted Ryoji. "She looks about twelve. Fifteen at most."

Sakura stiffened and replaced her mask. "I'm seventeen," she informed, tone neutral.

"Chiyoko-san," Kakashi began, the honorific feeling foreign on his tongue when talking about Sakura, "meet your temporary teammates. Your life will depend on their skill during these missions and in return, you'll heal any injuries incurred in the line of duty." He produced a small scroll from one of his vest pockets and handed it to her. "These are the details you need to know to complete the mission. Read it then return it to me."

The minute she handed it back over, he set it alight with a quick fire jutsu. "From here on out, I will be known as Agent Wolf, this will be Agent Tiger, and this Agent Cat," he said, pointing to each of them in turn. "You will be Agent Mouse. Am I clear?"

She nodded.

"Good. Let's move out."

He leapt into action and looked back to see if they followed. Ryoji and Shiori were right behind him but Sakura was a little late and had to scramble to catch up.

When they neared the barrier, he stopped and carefully performed the jutsu that would allow them to pass.

"Do I get to learn that?" breathed Sakura incredulously, allowing a hint of wonder to creep into her voice.

"Only captains get that privilege," Shiori replied dryly. "Sorry."

"What if he's injured, though?"

Ryoji laughed harshly. "If our Taichou doesn't make it back that means we're all dead, sweetheart."

Kakashi frowned, though they couldn't see it. "If I'm incapacitated, you are to use the main gates."

When they were through, Sakura turned and flattened her hands against the section of the barrier momentarily visible because of his jutsu. It rippled beneath her touch. She'd most likely never seen anything like it before.

Such childlike awe was not something she allowed to surface often. Under different circumstances, he might have been amused. Now, though, it seemed foreboding.

ANBU was no place for children.

A/N: As should be quite obvious, my versions of Sakura and Kakashi are probably a bit different than you're used to seeing. I'm trying to stay true to what we know of them in canon but I'm also attempting to delve deeper and construct pasts for them that forge their disparate personality traits into more cohesive wholes. Kishimoto's characterisations leave a lot to be desired but that's why fanfiction exists!

This chapter is a bit melodramatic for my tastes but not only is she drunk, teenagers are still teenagers, etc.

A note on the name "Madoka": The rationale behind the choice of Sakura's mother's maiden surname is complex. One main reason is to explain the crest Sakura wears, since neither "Haruno" nor "Sakura" have to do with circles as far as I can tell. The most common spelling of Madoka is "円" which roughly translates to "circle"; this is the spelling that Kakashi assumes here. However, Sakura's version of Madoka is ACTUALLY spelled "円花" which is closer to "circle, flower". There is a reason for this which will come into play later but I thought I'd clarify here just in case I left anyone confused.
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Playing the Game