Night, Day and Sunrise

Chapter 20 - On the Trail of Thought



The next day was a whirlwind of activity. Gaara had stayed up all night in order to par down the list Sasuke had given him, and they headed out only a few hours after dawn with ten of Suna's finest. The rest of the camp broke down in their absence with remarkable speed, but even so, they were already to the spot where Sakura's team had found their clue before the first tent fell.



Much to the surprise of the Konoha nin, Gaara had sent his siblings along on the search. Temari was accompanied by her new teammates, with whom Sakura had been working for the last week or so, so she was very familiar with them and their style. Likewise, Neji had been assigned to Kankuro's team, and so could give Sasuke greater insight into what they could expect on that front.



The other four Suna contributions were two pairs of hunternin, both sets having been partners for years, and working together seamlessly. They knew and respected the siblings of their Kazekage and, by extension, the Konoha shinobi chosen to lead them.



Sakura had thought that Kakashi would take over the rescue operation when he arrived, but he seemed content to take a backseat, letting Sasuke spearhead the effort with her as his right hand.



Upon their arrival at the site, Sakura pointed out the bloodstains, repeated her little chakra-reading trick to verify it's initial accuracy, and then waited for Sasuke to make his decision.



Nodding to Kakashi, the young jounin seemed cool as a cucumber while he waited for his former sensei to summon his tracking dogs. And the first one out of the smoke was a familiar face.



"Pakkun," Kakashi greeted briefly, "We're tracking Naruto. He's been missing for more than two weeks, and this is the last spot we know he was at. Can you manage?"



The tiny pug snorted derisively before turning his nose to the ground, along with his brother dogs. Likewise, Akamaru joined in the sniffing. Soon, the pack was moving slowly toward the north.



"He wasn't walking," Pakkun reported to no one in particular. "Someone was carrying him, and he was definitely injured, probably unconscious, I'll know more when we close the gap."



"How many people were with him?" Sasuke's inquiry came only moments before Sakura was going to ask the exact same thing.



"It's hard to say," the smallest canine in the pack continued as they began to pick up speed. "At least three, but with so much traffic in the area, it's hard to be sure."



It wasn't the most heartening thing they had ever heard Pakkun say, but nor was it as alarming as it could have been. At least they had the trail and were moving.



However, that was hardly promising in the long run. Sakura clearly remembered the state Gaara had been in when they found him after only four days of captivity. Separation from the Biijuu had been deadly for the young Kazekage, and Sakura somehow doubted that Akatsuki had refined their method over the past few years, at least as concerned the life of the jinchuriki. Clearly, they thought such people were expendable, perhaps even deserving of death.



As a person who had devoted her entire existence to the preservation of life, the medic simply couldn't understand such logic. Oh, textually she knew that some people had those opinions, but the concept was completely foreign to her.



Konoha was seen by some as unduly soft, since it propagated a belief in the sanctity of life. Konohanin rarely killed their opponents - never, in fact, unless there was no other way out of the situation. But Sakura took those ideals a step further in that she considered it her duty to save the life of any patient before her, if it was in her power. Even an enemy.



That didn't mean she was incapable of prioritizing and triage, but she was always the last one to give up on a code blue and the first one to the next patient in a mass casualty. And despite not having the energy reserves of other ninja, especially her teammates, she could somehow find the strength to continue treating patients long after her body should have worn out.



She was putting that same iron-willed endurance to the test on this mission, knowing they couldn't afford to stop for rest as often as she would have liked. Normally in circumstances like these, Sakura started popping soldier pills like candy. This time, however, she was reluctant to do so, since there had been no tests done on the effects of such stimulants on pregnant women or their fetuses.



Since finding out that she was expecting, Sakura had been incredibly cautious about what she allowed in her system. Despite what many women's liberation groups might have said, as a medic, Sakura knew that all medication and drugs taken during pregnancy affected the baby. All of them.



For that same reason, Sakura intended to have a completely natural labor and birth. Even if they did get back to Konoha safely in time to have the child at the hospital, she completely refused the idea of an epidural. The idea of drugging herself and her child just to avoid a little pain was ridiculous. Especially when meditation and relaxation techniques were nearly as effective at relieving the discomfort without damaging the baby.



Not that she blamed those who chose to take the drugs. Sakura simply felt that she couldn't take that risk, not with her child.



But having helped deliver nearly two hundred babies in her career as a medic, Sakura could tell at a glance which mothers had used drugs, even if she didn't see the child until it was brought out of the delivery room. There was a glazed quality in the babys' eyes, and their cries were weaker, confused. Reflexes were dangerously slow, and their ability to suckle was lessened, sometime permanently.



No one had yet done a study on the long-term effects on children born with the help of pain-relieving medications, but Sakura considered the entire idea to be an unnecessary risk.



At some point, she knew she would have to discuss matters like this with Sasuke, but she hoped to high heaven they would find Naruto first. She wanted him there, too. She needed his input. Not that he'd understand even half of what she was saying, but his misinterpretations would be fun.



The thought made her smile, a sight that brought relief to the two males running beside her. A frowning Sakura was simply unnatural. Crying was one thing, but she generally got over that soon enough and began smiling again.



During Naruto and Sasuke's long absence, it had taken a long time for her to be able to smile again, as if something inside her had broken. What smiles she had offered were pleasantly polite at best and completely fake at worst.



Upon the return of Naruto, she began to relax, letting her guard down enough to show real enjoyment upon occasion, though generally it was in response to the blonde's antics. But even then, she wasn't completely happy until their missing piece had returned.



Looking at it now, Kakashi could see, at least from Sakura's standpoint, why his students had become a, well couple wasn't exactly the right word. Item. Or something like that. She really did need them both to be complete. He could understand that feeling; his own teammates had been the most important people in his childhood. If they had all made it to maturity, Kakashi had no doubt that romantic entanglements would have changed their team dynamics, perhaps drastically. Though he and Obito probably would not have been able to share, nor was Rin adventurous enough to accept the idea, there definitely was something there.



Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto's romantic attachment should have come as no surprise to their one- time sensei. No, what had shocked him was that Sasuke and Naruto had actually managed to accept such a relationship, without constant fighting for dominance. And Sakura...



She had said the boys had ambushed her their first time, and part of his dirty mind wondered exactly what the story was there. The rest of him was stunned that prim and proper Haruno Sakura was in such a relationship. Unconventional was too mild a term. Kinky was too broad, and not entirely applicable. Abnormal and precarious were probably closer to home.



But if they were all okay with things as they stood, it wasn't Kakashi's place to interfere. While the official stance on in-team relationships was clear - should one occur, the people involved would immediately be assigned to separate squads - in practice, these happened more frequently than most people ever knew. If they tried to shift couples around to split them up at work, no team would remain together for more than a few months. There was just something about knowing someone so well you could trust them completely in a life-or-death situation that lead to a more permanent and emotional attachment.



Granted, it only made survivor's guilt all the worse when something happened. Kurenai had been devastated when Asuma had been killed. Kakashi didn't want to contemplate the state she'd have been in had she been present for his death - or worse, even partially responsible. As far as Kakashi knew, there was nothing anyone could have done to change what happened, but the copynin had seen Shikamaru's reaction. It wasn't pretty. The idea of combining the two was something on a scale the confirmed bachelor found himself grateful to be missing out on.



However, he might soon have first-hand experience in helping someone cope with the loss of a teammate-turned-lover. He hated to come across as pessimistic, but as the jounin ran a hand through his silver hair, he knew there was little hope.



Gaara had been dead after only four days, and they'd had Naruto for more than two weeks. The only thing that saved the Kazekage's life was a forbidden technique known only to one of the elders of Iwagakure: an exchange. Her life for his.



That secret should have, by rights, gone to the grave with Chiyo-baa- sama, but Kakashi's own curiosity had done him in. With the sharinghan gifted him by his own dead teammate, the Copynin was able to live up to his nickname and learn the technique in that single use.



It was an evil jutsu in so many ways, and at the time, Kakashi had tried to forget it. Now, however, he faced a dilemma. If they did find Naruto in the same state as Gaara, and he was recently dead enough not to have started to decompose, Kakashi did have the knowledge to save him.



But should he do so?



The answer seemed so simple, until one looked at it more closely. Some would say of course he should save his student. Naruto had his entire life ahead of him, had goals still to meet, had lovers waiting for him, one of whom was expecting. The energetic blonde still had yet to reach his full potential, both as a person and as a ninja. Kakashi, on the other hand, had pretty well hit the pinnacle of his life. There were few things left undone in the older man's life, and none of them were things that truly mattered to him.



The flip side of the coin was the betterment of Konoha. Naruto was the Kyuubi's jinchuriki and as such, he was distrusted, even feared by most of the villagers. While his determination and ability to find the good in everyone were commendable, they were hardly enough to counteract the public's opinion of the boy- young man. Nor did his training with Jiraya matter to any great extent. There was very little that Naruto had done for the village, as far as the council and general populace were concerned. He was simply another ninja at best, a dangerous and unpredictable animal at worst.



Kakashi, however, was the son of Konoha's White Fang, and an impressive ninja in his own right. His skills without the sharinghan were legendary. With the bloodline limit of the Uchiha Clan, some thought him to be unstoppable. The Copynin was one of Konoha's greatest heroes. Losing him would be a huge blow to the morale of the village, one Kakashi wasn't sure Hidden Leaf could absorb right now, with the loss of so many great men and women so fresh in the minds of the people.



Then there was also the fact that, even if he did perform the jutsu correctly - a difficult proposition - there was no guarantee that Naruto would be salvageable. It was just as likely that Kakashi's sacrifice would change nothing as it was that Naruto would be brought back, perhaps more. And if he managed to save his student's life, it was highly probable that his mental and emotional state would be such that returning to life would be more punishment than blessing.



Normally, Kakashi preferred to have every detail planned for and every decision made in advance. That way, he could spend his time and attention trying to ferret out more possibilities and figuring out proper responses to new and adapting situations. This time, however, he had to shunt the problem aside. There simply was no clear-cut answer on this one. He would have to wait and see what circumstances fate threw at them.



Until then, all he could do was plan for the fight which would inevitably ensue with Akatsuki, when they finally caught up with them. He'd never been able to come up with satisfying answers for the truly difficult questions in life, anyway. There was no point starting now.



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Phew! *wipes forehead* Another chapter up. Sorry for taking so long to post, but I've managed to survive my first week of the new semester. Hopefully, this will be my last year for my bachelor's degree.

Anyway, I'm interested to hear what you think about the latest chapter, especially about Kakashi's thoughts at the end. Let me know, either here or by e-mail.

Have a great day, and good reading!



Crimson Iris