Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Hidden in Plain Sight ❯ Initiate ( Chapter 9 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: FlameTwirler 
Anime/Manga: Naruto Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Drama / Adventure / Action | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 01.08.2016 | Pages: 5 | Words: 3.3K | Visits: 498 | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: Naruto Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Drama / Adventure / Action | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 01.08.2016 | Pages: 5 | Words: 3.3K | Visits: 498 | Status: Work In Progress
Chapter 9: Initiate
~ ~ ~
Sakura started off her mission essentially the same way she had her last one, with one exception. This time she had a partner so she had to make sure to actually be punctual about when she left. On a solo mission, leave times were variable - as long as a shinobi got the mission completed on time it didn't matter if they left fifteen minutes or an hour late.
Technically, since she was partnered with Kakashi-sensei, punctuality wouldn't really matter anyhow, but she had to be wholly immersed in her role as Moriko. She'd have to be on time and not only because she shouldn't know Kakashi's habits all that well. After all, with rumor being Moriko's only basis for this knowledge, she wouldn't know how much had been exaggerated. But also, as a new ANBU recruit meeting someone with a vaunted reputation both within the unit and the city in general, she'd want to be on her best behavior, looking to impress him.
As such, she went straight home and took a nap after her meeting with Tsunade, knowing she'd be up for most, if not all of the night preparing. She got to work at seven that evening, starting on her hair since it took her so long and still made her ill enough that she had to pause multiple times. During those breaks she studied the particulars of the mission, everything from location to approach routes to those things known about the attack that were picked up by those nin who recovered the body.
She lamented the hours she was still stuck in front of the toilet as a waste of time, once again promising herself she'd get better at this quickly, and regretted the amount of water she had consequently downed when she tried to put on her ANBU uniform and felt miserably bloated and stuffed inside of it. She took great care in latching the concealed compartment that housed her ANBU uniform - Shizune herself had come over to create, measure, and ward the secret nook just for the occasion. Sakura had watched over her shoulder to try to get a better understanding of this type of stabilized ward, and Shizune even took a little while to explain it to her after she was done, but they were both too occupied with other, more pressing matters to give much thought to it. Sakura had plenty enough things to try to perfect already so she had no problem sticking the idea of wards on a very far back burner.
Then came the arduous task of applying her tattoo. Her first attempts had been disastrous and even on her first mission she'd had to wear a light jacket to disguise just how shoddy her copy was. It wasn't the design but the texture, the subtle variations in color on skin as different types of light hit it. It wasn't a huge difference but to a shinobi trained to analyze detail it would be like a beacon.
There were too many potential problems with getting a permanent tattoo, even one she could have removed later. Not only did her normal shinobi clothing show too much of her arms - the ink would show in her everyday life - but she had to consider what could happen if she was knocked unconscious for some reason. Medics didn't care anything for clothing or modesty and would cut right through them if needed. There could be any other assortment of reasons the tattoo could get seen as well, and if it was that could spell doom for her mission.
Therefore she'd needed something temporary but strong enough that it would last days at a time, wouldn't smudge, and wouldn't run if it got wet. She'd tried making her own concoctions, like she had with her hair dye, but didn't meet with any amount of success. The ones that stayed put didn't look right, and those that looked right wouldn't stay on properly. Luckily Tenzou had been her saving grace on this one.
Four days ago she'd been venting her frustration to him during their training when he's suddenly gotten the strangest look on his face. He wouldn't say a word about what had been going on in his mind, no matter how she'd wheedled, instead just intensifying her training so she couldn't think about anything else.
The next morning he'd arrived with two bottles of dark liquid and told her he couldn't say where he'd gotten them. Of course she peppered him with questions anyhow, but the only thing he would say was that he'd gotten it as a personal favor from Ibiki - which had taken him weeks to accomplish and why he hadn't had it in time for her previously - and that it 'had its uses'. That was plenty of information in and of itself and her mind went into overdrive considering all the possibilities.
First she looked at Tenzou in a new light; she hadn't known he'd ever been involved with the interrogation squad. It was obvious, now that she'd stopped to think about it. Considering his past and how he'd been used by Orochimaru she supposed it was almost a given. Regardless of whether he'd ever been part of the interrogation squad itself, retrieving intel from others, he'd almost certainly been on the receiving end. Someone would've questioned him thoroughly, and likely periodically over a long period to make sure any repressed memories came to light, about what he'd experienced at Orochimaru's hands and just what the sannin's tactics had been. Considering Tenzou was their comrade they would have handled him with kid gloves, using extreme care to prevent fracturing his mind as they wanted to heal, not hurt him, but they also would've needed to make sure to be completely thorough. It would've been necessary to gather as much information on Orochimaru as possible, making sure he hadn't somehow planted anything in Tenzou's mind, and also helping Tenzou expunge the trauma of the memories.
The real question was whether he was still involved. She tilted her head and squinted at him but the beatific smile he threw at her gave nothing away.
He held the first bottle out to her but pulled it back when she reached for it. "This doesn't exist," he said gravely.
Sakura rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, technically I don't exist either. I understand the whole secrecy thing, you know."
He shook his head. "This is even more serious than that. ANBU doesn't even know of its existence - only a select few in all of Konoha know about it, let alone what it does. If you think there's any chance that either it or you might be compromised then you need to destroy it immediately." At her wary look he crouched down in front of the rock she was sitting on so he could address her face-to-face.
"I'm not privy to all of the details of your mission but I know that if Tsunade is willing to risk you like this, especially on something so far outside anything you've ever attempted or been trained for before, then it must be of the utmost importance."
Smiling softly, he reached out to ruffle her hair. "Once a teammate, always a teammate, and I will do everything I can to help you. I trust you with this, I just need you to understand the gravity of the situation and how vital it is that you protect this."
She took his hand off her head and squeezed it in her own. "Secrets upon secrets, eh?"
"Such is the nature of our business."
She nodded once in response to that and gingerly took the first jar he held out again. "This one will ink your skin, exactly mimicking a black tattoo in color, texture, and all other appearances." She looked at it in appreciation but obviously not enough, as he continued, "The ink cannot be washed off."
Glancing back up at him with widened eyes, she asked, "Really?"
He nodded, allowing just a bit of a smirk to quirk his lips. "Really. The compound is made such that it won't wear, fade, or wash off. The only way you actually could remove it is by removing the skin itself."
"Thanks for that visual." She grimaced. "So what you're telling me is that putting this on is just like getting a real tattoo, just without the needles. I mean, the no pain thing is a plus but I have a hard time seeing how that's a benefit?"
Looking rather disgruntled, he said, "Well if you'd let me continue explaining-"
She waved her hand in the air. "Don't worry about it, you already said enough. This stuff can't be removed short of shedding my skin, and since I'm not reptilian enough for that that isn't happening. I bet this second jar doesn't even have any purpose at all. It's just filled with water to throw people off track if they stumble onto this stuff."
He glared at her. "Why do I put up with you?"
"Because you love me," she beamed up at him, finally giving in to her laugh. "And you're protective of absolutely everyone you meet, and probably even everyone you haven't met. Plus I'm beautiful, charming, intelligent-"
"Yes, yes, I get it," he interrupted before she could keep going. "Are you done harassing me now?"
Fluttering her eyelashes at him, she pouted. "But you make it so easy."
Sighing he finally gave into a laugh. "You're incorrigible."
"I try my best," she confirmed brightly. They both knew how serious this situation was, how serious their jobs and world were in general, and a little levity went a long way even if the timing for it wasn't perfect. "Besides, you know how logically I think and how picky I am about absolutes. As soon as you said this stuff," she held up the first jar, "absolutely could not be removed, no matter what, I just couldn't resist. So I'm guessing the second jar is full of the solvent that removes the ink?"
He nodded, still smiling, and she considered that a win.
"So the ink really won't come off at all without this second solution?"
"Absolutely, and believe me, people have tried. Unless someone happened to stumble across the formula for the solvent, which is pretty complex from what I gather, there's nothing they can use to remove it. Besides, that requires them to believe the tattoo is a fake in the first place, and you won't give them any reason to think that, will you?"
"Of course not," she said with more certainty than she felt, still studying the jars curiously. The solutions were beyond intriguing and she wondered who had developed them in the first place. Then a few more of his words filtered through. "You don't know how to make this then?"
He shook his head. "Like I said, few of us know of its existence, even fewer how to make it. Then again with my skills, even if they told me how to make it I likely wouldn't be able to. But it can be used as a dangerous weapon in the wrong hands and we don't want something like that slipping out into the world."
She had a million more questions, naturally, but he must've already seen them forming on her lips because he held up a hand to forestall her. "That's really all I can tell you. Keep them hidden, keep them safe, and above all keep their existence a secret."
Holding the jars to her chest she nodded solemnly. "That I can do; I promise."
Winking at her and holding a finger to his lips one last time, he turned and walked away, leaving her to go home and experiment with her newfound materials.
It was perfect, of course. Not like she'd expect anything less from Tenzou, especially after everything he'd explained about the liquid's history. She'd practiced endlessly until she could apply the swirls flawlessly.
This formula though...it intrigued her to the point where she had to tell herself that, no, she couldn't take it back to her lab and try to reverse engineer it. And no, it wasn't worth joining the interrogation squad just to learn what other little secrets they might have. If she was cut out for it in the first place then that'd be one thing, but she and Ino both agreed vehemently that she did not have the skill set, temperament, or constitution for interrogation.
It did make her wonder just how, precisely, they used it though. Obviously it was for subterfuge, but just how many manners could it be employed in? She could only imagine two scenarios, both focused on confusing an enemy combatant taken prisoner. The first was disguising the interrogators as ANBU from the enemy's hidden village and trying to convince the prisoner that they were back at home, merely being questioned by their home ANBU to discover if the nin had revealed anything to the 'enemy'. The Konoha interrogators could draw the enemy ANBU mark on themselves. (For this scenario she had to assume that they would simply use interrogators who'd never enlisted in ANBU, or that they had some way of covering their own Konoha ANBU marks if they'd ever been part of that unit. The latter wasn't really a stretch, considering the chemical marvel that was the tattoo ink they'd come up with. It made her irritatingly curious to know what else they, and other units, had cooked up in secret.) Treating the prisoner in a friendly manner, allowing them freedom to interact with the interrogators and try disproving their stories or marks, could break down the prisoner's walls to the point where they'd start talking details of their mission, of all the things they hadn't revealed. Thereby, of course, revealing all of it.
The second was drawing an ANBU tattoo of Konoha on a captured enemy and trying to convince them they were truly from the Leaf Village and had only been brainwashed by the enemy they thought was home. They could give the nin every opportunity to attempt to remove the tattoo or look for other physical proofs or disproofs. Once the enemy nin was convinced they were truly from Konoha, they would spill everything they knew of their homeland, who they would now think of as their true enemy.
Sakura wondered what would become of such a nin after said subterfuge was completed. Would they throw the nin in prison as an enemy soldier? Would they send him back in a prisoner exchange? Or would they continue the charade, integrating him fully into Konoha society without him ever knowing the difference? The higher-ups could always concoct a background story for him about a secret mission no one had known about, or even a secret squad no one had known about, to explain why no one in town knew him. Or they could even use some of the members of various secretive squads to pretend to be old family members or friends, thus more easily keeping an eye on the nin and seeing if he stayed in line or ever started to question the lie he'd been fed.
The more she thought about it the more intriguing and disturbing such a situation seemed to her. Human minds were fascinating, incredibly complex things and were capable of so much. She wondered how many enemy had been successfully integrated into Konoha, and how many of their own they had lost to enemy villages because of such tricks.
She shivered. While part of her understood the need for such politics and mind-play tactics in keeping their village safe from enemies, and both feared and admired the kinds of people capable of pulling them off, she herself much preferred the straight-forward method. That was why she'd never been much cut out for ANBU either, excepting the current mission.
Now, she ran the brush across her arm with a flourish, double checking herself in the mirror before tucking the bottle away in a second, smaller secret compartment that Shizune had helped her set up again on extremely short notice. Luckily for her Shizune didn't ask what it was for this time, as Sakura wasn't sure whether she knew about the liquids and their nature. She didn't have time to ask Tenzou and so defaulted to secrecy. Shizune didn't ask what the second cabinet was for, and she wasn't sure if that was because the brunette could detect her nervousness or was just trying to help her maintain her secrecy when they were outside of Tsunade's office, where she could effectively sound-proof their conversations.
Double-checking to make sure that everything 'incriminating' was secured and there was nothing out in her apartment that could tie her to her ANBU identity, she nodded to herself in satisfaction. Then quadruple-checking her disguise, she made a clone of herself - which did a henge to look like the normal Sakura - and headed out toward the town gate.
Sakura really didn't want to show up on time to meet with Kakashi. After all, years of going on missions with him had taught her that no matter what, he'd show up about an hour or so late. However she reminded herself, yet again, that Moriko couldn't rely on that so she showed up ten minutes early to act the star-struck, admiring newbie. That meant that after all her backtracking with her clone she'd had to leave her apartment an hour and a half early. She'd barely slept and had a pounding headache on top of it, so she wasn't in the best mood to be waiting around forever for her partner to show up.
She kept grumbling about how she could be sleeping just then but made sure to keep her complaints quiet. Couldn't have the gatemen think this goody-two-shoes was irritated already. That would indicate she was loosening up, and no one in town gossiped more than the gate guards, who were witness to who was seen off by who, who waited for someone's return, who was late, who was underprepared, who was injured, who was laughing, upset, too close, too far, etc. The list went on and shinobi were already too adept at reading (or sometimes misreading) body language, so there was always plenty of fodder. She didn't doubt that by this afternoon there would already be talk of her and Kakashi: how late he'd been, how she'd behaved, and whether she'd been frustrated or gracious about his lateness and general lack of decorum. Who knew what else.
Surprisingly enough though Kakashi was only fifteen minutes late. Sakura had to fight to keep the shock from her voice when she greeted him. Maybe he had some sympathy for new teammates or maybe this was some respect he held solely for ANBU. Either way she appreciated it, though she knew she'd now be all the more irritated when he showed up absurdly late for his next meeting with Team Kakashi.
~ ~ ~
Sakura started off her mission essentially the same way she had her last one, with one exception. This time she had a partner so she had to make sure to actually be punctual about when she left. On a solo mission, leave times were variable - as long as a shinobi got the mission completed on time it didn't matter if they left fifteen minutes or an hour late.
Technically, since she was partnered with Kakashi-sensei, punctuality wouldn't really matter anyhow, but she had to be wholly immersed in her role as Moriko. She'd have to be on time and not only because she shouldn't know Kakashi's habits all that well. After all, with rumor being Moriko's only basis for this knowledge, she wouldn't know how much had been exaggerated. But also, as a new ANBU recruit meeting someone with a vaunted reputation both within the unit and the city in general, she'd want to be on her best behavior, looking to impress him.
As such, she went straight home and took a nap after her meeting with Tsunade, knowing she'd be up for most, if not all of the night preparing. She got to work at seven that evening, starting on her hair since it took her so long and still made her ill enough that she had to pause multiple times. During those breaks she studied the particulars of the mission, everything from location to approach routes to those things known about the attack that were picked up by those nin who recovered the body.
She lamented the hours she was still stuck in front of the toilet as a waste of time, once again promising herself she'd get better at this quickly, and regretted the amount of water she had consequently downed when she tried to put on her ANBU uniform and felt miserably bloated and stuffed inside of it. She took great care in latching the concealed compartment that housed her ANBU uniform - Shizune herself had come over to create, measure, and ward the secret nook just for the occasion. Sakura had watched over her shoulder to try to get a better understanding of this type of stabilized ward, and Shizune even took a little while to explain it to her after she was done, but they were both too occupied with other, more pressing matters to give much thought to it. Sakura had plenty enough things to try to perfect already so she had no problem sticking the idea of wards on a very far back burner.
Then came the arduous task of applying her tattoo. Her first attempts had been disastrous and even on her first mission she'd had to wear a light jacket to disguise just how shoddy her copy was. It wasn't the design but the texture, the subtle variations in color on skin as different types of light hit it. It wasn't a huge difference but to a shinobi trained to analyze detail it would be like a beacon.
There were too many potential problems with getting a permanent tattoo, even one she could have removed later. Not only did her normal shinobi clothing show too much of her arms - the ink would show in her everyday life - but she had to consider what could happen if she was knocked unconscious for some reason. Medics didn't care anything for clothing or modesty and would cut right through them if needed. There could be any other assortment of reasons the tattoo could get seen as well, and if it was that could spell doom for her mission.
Therefore she'd needed something temporary but strong enough that it would last days at a time, wouldn't smudge, and wouldn't run if it got wet. She'd tried making her own concoctions, like she had with her hair dye, but didn't meet with any amount of success. The ones that stayed put didn't look right, and those that looked right wouldn't stay on properly. Luckily Tenzou had been her saving grace on this one.
Four days ago she'd been venting her frustration to him during their training when he's suddenly gotten the strangest look on his face. He wouldn't say a word about what had been going on in his mind, no matter how she'd wheedled, instead just intensifying her training so she couldn't think about anything else.
The next morning he'd arrived with two bottles of dark liquid and told her he couldn't say where he'd gotten them. Of course she peppered him with questions anyhow, but the only thing he would say was that he'd gotten it as a personal favor from Ibiki - which had taken him weeks to accomplish and why he hadn't had it in time for her previously - and that it 'had its uses'. That was plenty of information in and of itself and her mind went into overdrive considering all the possibilities.
First she looked at Tenzou in a new light; she hadn't known he'd ever been involved with the interrogation squad. It was obvious, now that she'd stopped to think about it. Considering his past and how he'd been used by Orochimaru she supposed it was almost a given. Regardless of whether he'd ever been part of the interrogation squad itself, retrieving intel from others, he'd almost certainly been on the receiving end. Someone would've questioned him thoroughly, and likely periodically over a long period to make sure any repressed memories came to light, about what he'd experienced at Orochimaru's hands and just what the sannin's tactics had been. Considering Tenzou was their comrade they would have handled him with kid gloves, using extreme care to prevent fracturing his mind as they wanted to heal, not hurt him, but they also would've needed to make sure to be completely thorough. It would've been necessary to gather as much information on Orochimaru as possible, making sure he hadn't somehow planted anything in Tenzou's mind, and also helping Tenzou expunge the trauma of the memories.
The real question was whether he was still involved. She tilted her head and squinted at him but the beatific smile he threw at her gave nothing away.
He held the first bottle out to her but pulled it back when she reached for it. "This doesn't exist," he said gravely.
Sakura rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, technically I don't exist either. I understand the whole secrecy thing, you know."
He shook his head. "This is even more serious than that. ANBU doesn't even know of its existence - only a select few in all of Konoha know about it, let alone what it does. If you think there's any chance that either it or you might be compromised then you need to destroy it immediately." At her wary look he crouched down in front of the rock she was sitting on so he could address her face-to-face.
"I'm not privy to all of the details of your mission but I know that if Tsunade is willing to risk you like this, especially on something so far outside anything you've ever attempted or been trained for before, then it must be of the utmost importance."
Smiling softly, he reached out to ruffle her hair. "Once a teammate, always a teammate, and I will do everything I can to help you. I trust you with this, I just need you to understand the gravity of the situation and how vital it is that you protect this."
She took his hand off her head and squeezed it in her own. "Secrets upon secrets, eh?"
"Such is the nature of our business."
She nodded once in response to that and gingerly took the first jar he held out again. "This one will ink your skin, exactly mimicking a black tattoo in color, texture, and all other appearances." She looked at it in appreciation but obviously not enough, as he continued, "The ink cannot be washed off."
Glancing back up at him with widened eyes, she asked, "Really?"
He nodded, allowing just a bit of a smirk to quirk his lips. "Really. The compound is made such that it won't wear, fade, or wash off. The only way you actually could remove it is by removing the skin itself."
"Thanks for that visual." She grimaced. "So what you're telling me is that putting this on is just like getting a real tattoo, just without the needles. I mean, the no pain thing is a plus but I have a hard time seeing how that's a benefit?"
Looking rather disgruntled, he said, "Well if you'd let me continue explaining-"
She waved her hand in the air. "Don't worry about it, you already said enough. This stuff can't be removed short of shedding my skin, and since I'm not reptilian enough for that that isn't happening. I bet this second jar doesn't even have any purpose at all. It's just filled with water to throw people off track if they stumble onto this stuff."
He glared at her. "Why do I put up with you?"
"Because you love me," she beamed up at him, finally giving in to her laugh. "And you're protective of absolutely everyone you meet, and probably even everyone you haven't met. Plus I'm beautiful, charming, intelligent-"
"Yes, yes, I get it," he interrupted before she could keep going. "Are you done harassing me now?"
Fluttering her eyelashes at him, she pouted. "But you make it so easy."
Sighing he finally gave into a laugh. "You're incorrigible."
"I try my best," she confirmed brightly. They both knew how serious this situation was, how serious their jobs and world were in general, and a little levity went a long way even if the timing for it wasn't perfect. "Besides, you know how logically I think and how picky I am about absolutes. As soon as you said this stuff," she held up the first jar, "absolutely could not be removed, no matter what, I just couldn't resist. So I'm guessing the second jar is full of the solvent that removes the ink?"
He nodded, still smiling, and she considered that a win.
"So the ink really won't come off at all without this second solution?"
"Absolutely, and believe me, people have tried. Unless someone happened to stumble across the formula for the solvent, which is pretty complex from what I gather, there's nothing they can use to remove it. Besides, that requires them to believe the tattoo is a fake in the first place, and you won't give them any reason to think that, will you?"
"Of course not," she said with more certainty than she felt, still studying the jars curiously. The solutions were beyond intriguing and she wondered who had developed them in the first place. Then a few more of his words filtered through. "You don't know how to make this then?"
He shook his head. "Like I said, few of us know of its existence, even fewer how to make it. Then again with my skills, even if they told me how to make it I likely wouldn't be able to. But it can be used as a dangerous weapon in the wrong hands and we don't want something like that slipping out into the world."
She had a million more questions, naturally, but he must've already seen them forming on her lips because he held up a hand to forestall her. "That's really all I can tell you. Keep them hidden, keep them safe, and above all keep their existence a secret."
Holding the jars to her chest she nodded solemnly. "That I can do; I promise."
Winking at her and holding a finger to his lips one last time, he turned and walked away, leaving her to go home and experiment with her newfound materials.
It was perfect, of course. Not like she'd expect anything less from Tenzou, especially after everything he'd explained about the liquid's history. She'd practiced endlessly until she could apply the swirls flawlessly.
This formula though...it intrigued her to the point where she had to tell herself that, no, she couldn't take it back to her lab and try to reverse engineer it. And no, it wasn't worth joining the interrogation squad just to learn what other little secrets they might have. If she was cut out for it in the first place then that'd be one thing, but she and Ino both agreed vehemently that she did not have the skill set, temperament, or constitution for interrogation.
It did make her wonder just how, precisely, they used it though. Obviously it was for subterfuge, but just how many manners could it be employed in? She could only imagine two scenarios, both focused on confusing an enemy combatant taken prisoner. The first was disguising the interrogators as ANBU from the enemy's hidden village and trying to convince the prisoner that they were back at home, merely being questioned by their home ANBU to discover if the nin had revealed anything to the 'enemy'. The Konoha interrogators could draw the enemy ANBU mark on themselves. (For this scenario she had to assume that they would simply use interrogators who'd never enlisted in ANBU, or that they had some way of covering their own Konoha ANBU marks if they'd ever been part of that unit. The latter wasn't really a stretch, considering the chemical marvel that was the tattoo ink they'd come up with. It made her irritatingly curious to know what else they, and other units, had cooked up in secret.) Treating the prisoner in a friendly manner, allowing them freedom to interact with the interrogators and try disproving their stories or marks, could break down the prisoner's walls to the point where they'd start talking details of their mission, of all the things they hadn't revealed. Thereby, of course, revealing all of it.
The second was drawing an ANBU tattoo of Konoha on a captured enemy and trying to convince them they were truly from the Leaf Village and had only been brainwashed by the enemy they thought was home. They could give the nin every opportunity to attempt to remove the tattoo or look for other physical proofs or disproofs. Once the enemy nin was convinced they were truly from Konoha, they would spill everything they knew of their homeland, who they would now think of as their true enemy.
Sakura wondered what would become of such a nin after said subterfuge was completed. Would they throw the nin in prison as an enemy soldier? Would they send him back in a prisoner exchange? Or would they continue the charade, integrating him fully into Konoha society without him ever knowing the difference? The higher-ups could always concoct a background story for him about a secret mission no one had known about, or even a secret squad no one had known about, to explain why no one in town knew him. Or they could even use some of the members of various secretive squads to pretend to be old family members or friends, thus more easily keeping an eye on the nin and seeing if he stayed in line or ever started to question the lie he'd been fed.
The more she thought about it the more intriguing and disturbing such a situation seemed to her. Human minds were fascinating, incredibly complex things and were capable of so much. She wondered how many enemy had been successfully integrated into Konoha, and how many of their own they had lost to enemy villages because of such tricks.
She shivered. While part of her understood the need for such politics and mind-play tactics in keeping their village safe from enemies, and both feared and admired the kinds of people capable of pulling them off, she herself much preferred the straight-forward method. That was why she'd never been much cut out for ANBU either, excepting the current mission.
Now, she ran the brush across her arm with a flourish, double checking herself in the mirror before tucking the bottle away in a second, smaller secret compartment that Shizune had helped her set up again on extremely short notice. Luckily for her Shizune didn't ask what it was for this time, as Sakura wasn't sure whether she knew about the liquids and their nature. She didn't have time to ask Tenzou and so defaulted to secrecy. Shizune didn't ask what the second cabinet was for, and she wasn't sure if that was because the brunette could detect her nervousness or was just trying to help her maintain her secrecy when they were outside of Tsunade's office, where she could effectively sound-proof their conversations.
Double-checking to make sure that everything 'incriminating' was secured and there was nothing out in her apartment that could tie her to her ANBU identity, she nodded to herself in satisfaction. Then quadruple-checking her disguise, she made a clone of herself - which did a henge to look like the normal Sakura - and headed out toward the town gate.
Sakura really didn't want to show up on time to meet with Kakashi. After all, years of going on missions with him had taught her that no matter what, he'd show up about an hour or so late. However she reminded herself, yet again, that Moriko couldn't rely on that so she showed up ten minutes early to act the star-struck, admiring newbie. That meant that after all her backtracking with her clone she'd had to leave her apartment an hour and a half early. She'd barely slept and had a pounding headache on top of it, so she wasn't in the best mood to be waiting around forever for her partner to show up.
She kept grumbling about how she could be sleeping just then but made sure to keep her complaints quiet. Couldn't have the gatemen think this goody-two-shoes was irritated already. That would indicate she was loosening up, and no one in town gossiped more than the gate guards, who were witness to who was seen off by who, who waited for someone's return, who was late, who was underprepared, who was injured, who was laughing, upset, too close, too far, etc. The list went on and shinobi were already too adept at reading (or sometimes misreading) body language, so there was always plenty of fodder. She didn't doubt that by this afternoon there would already be talk of her and Kakashi: how late he'd been, how she'd behaved, and whether she'd been frustrated or gracious about his lateness and general lack of decorum. Who knew what else.
Surprisingly enough though Kakashi was only fifteen minutes late. Sakura had to fight to keep the shock from her voice when she greeted him. Maybe he had some sympathy for new teammates or maybe this was some respect he held solely for ANBU. Either way she appreciated it, though she knew she'd now be all the more irritated when he showed up absurdly late for his next meeting with Team Kakashi.