She had no idea how long it took Tsunade to heal her, but she passed out the second the woman declared that she was done. When she woke up again, the very familiar ceiling of Kakashi's flat greeted her. The man himself wasn't there, but Pakkun rested on her belly, while the rest of the dogs were sprawling in various positions around her.
"If I'd known all I needed to do to not get thrown out was stop my moronic teammates from killing each other—" she started, but was interrupted by the grumpy pug.
"Oh come off it pup," he yawned. "He always lets you stay here when it's about you. He only throws you out when you're the one taking care of him."
Haruka rolled over, throwing the little dog off in the process.
"Hey!" He complained, mock growling at her and threatening to show her the door.
"What did he do to them?"
"He said he was just gonna talk to them, but I bet he'll give them the shittiest D-ranks he can find for a month or two, and maybe he'll kick their asses in a sparring match," Pakkun told her happily. "Actually, he'll probably kick your ass too."
"What?" Haruka sat up, startled by the cheerful way the pug had announced that last bit. "What did I do?"
"You got hurt." The dog gave her a hard look. "He smashed the Godaime's window and threw some filthy rich clients out of her office. She's not happy."
Haruka sighed. He had had to be close at the time considering how fast he'd been on the roof. Kakashi could easily beat her when it came to speed. If she'd paid a little more attention to the surroundings, instead of just Naruto and Sasuke she would have probably noticed him earlier. He could have stopped both of them without getting hurt.
Somehow she always ended up learning lessons the painful way.
She felt Sai approach a few minutes later. He stopped on the roof of a house on the other side of the street and then stayed there. Clearly within her sensing range and easy to spot form the window, but far enough away that the dogs wouldn't smell him.
Haruka told the pack that she'd be taking a walk, and that they should probably go back to their dimension so Kakashi had the option of summoning them if he needed to. They hadn't said that he was on a mission, but he only ever left the pack to watch over her when he couldn't do it himself. The dogs didn't argue, which told her whatever her sensei was doing was dangerous.
Konoha had lost a lot of people during the invasion, but they needed to avoid looking weak because otherwise one of the other nations might decide they were easy pickings and would finish them off. To meet mission demands Tsunade had to send out almost all of the remaining jonin an chunin, often in teams that were smaller than they should be. As one of Konoha's best Kakashi would have to shoulder a huge part of that burden.
She met Sai on the Shodaime's head, as usual. Unlike normal though he seemed worried and nervous. Even more so than the day he had taken her to Danzo.
"What's going on?" She asked, keeping her voice low. He startled anyway.
"Remember when you told me to come find you if I needed to get out?" He asked, not looking at her. "I have orders—" He started, but the seal in his mouth kept him from completing the sentence.
Haruka gave him a searching look. Sai was clearly miserable, which was so out of character for him that it worried her. He wasn't a cheerful person by any stretch of the imagination, but he never displayed emotions to the extent that anyone could just read them on his face. He'd been staying close and keeping watch for over a week now as well.
"To kill me?" She guessed, and his head snapped up, eyes wide. He didn't do anything to confirm or deny, which told her that he couldn't, and that meant she was either right or close enough to the truth that it triggered the seal. The timing seemed a little odd. If the order had been given because she had prevented Sai from killing Gaara or because of her interaction with Itachi then there was no reason to wait this long.
She had slept in the Uchiha compound the day after the invasion. It was remote enough that nobody would have noticed an assassination until well after it was too late. Afterwards she'd stayed at Kakashi's flat. Under normal circumstances trying to kill someone while the jonin was around was a really stupid idea, but he had been in a coma, so that shouldn't have been a deterrent. But then Sai was the only person that watched her wasn't he? It had been common knowledge that both Kakashi and Sasuke had fought against Itachi, not, however, why they were off the mission roster afterwards. Chakra exhaustion was such a normal thing for her sensei after using the Sharingan that Sai could have easily lied about his condition. Now Kakashi was out of the village though, and Ibiki had been stuck in T&I since the invasion.
Whatever Sai's actual orders, he'd have to leave with her or face the consequences if he stayed behind. The only other option they had was to come clean to Tsunade, which would be difficult seeing as Sai couldn't talk and Haruka had no proof. Not to mention that the Godaime hadn't been in the village for years before assuming her new title. She had even less of an idea who in her ranks could be trusted than anyone else. Haruka didn't think Danzo was very forgiving to tools that stopped following orders either. Someone like Kakashi was well known in the village, had been even as a boy because of his father and sensei. Sai though had no family as far as she was aware, and neither his teammates nor sensei would kick up a fuss if he mysteriously died on a solo mission.
"Thank you," she said, stepping closer to give him a hug. Sai froze and didn't relax for several seconds, but then he—very awkwardly—hugged her back. "Do you have what you need?"
He nodded, patting his bag. Everything Haruka had owned, except for the things she'd had with her at the time, had been destroyed during the invasion. Afterwards she'd been too busy playing Kakashi's guard dog to get anything more than a change of clothes. Even that was just a standard shinobi uniform Gai had brought over.
She wrote a note for Kakashi in her and Ibiki's personal code. He wouldn't be able to read it, but he'd know who could and if Sai's nervousness was anything to go by they didn't have time to waste. They would have to leave the village without raising suspicion too, which meant slowly. It would give Jubei enough time to bring the note back to her sensei's place and catch up with them though.
This time of day Izumo, Kotetsu or maybe even both should be at the main gate. They still owed her for not telling Ibiki about the way they'd decided to weed out the weak genin before the first stage of the chunin exams. With that kind of leverage she could definitely talk them into ignoring that she had forgotten the mission scroll this once. Especially with the added workload.
Sai walked slightly behind her in his usual position as they made their way to the gate. His chakra was still giving off a nervous energy, but his features were calm again, and that was all they needed.
In front of the open gate and staring into the forest stood Sakura. Haruka would have ignored her, but then the girl stepped right into their path.
"Did Lee find you?" She asked. "He said he would tell you what happened if he saw you on his way to the hospital."
"What happened?" Haruka asked back, raising one eyebrow. "And does that mean he's decided to risk the procedure?" Tsunade had given him a fifty percent chance of survival, but without the treatment he would have to quit being a ninja. Gaara had mangled his arm and leg too badly.
"Yes," Sakura nodded. "But more importantly, you have to go after Sasuke! He defected, and—"
"He what?" Haruka interrupted the other girl. How stupid was that boy and why the hell hadn't she heard about this before?
"I—well—he wants power so he decided to leave. Shikamaru, Naruto, Choji, Kiba and Neji are going after him to bring him back though," she rushed out, and then added before Haruka could ask: "Shikamaru is team leader. He said he didn't ask you to come because you were still hurt, so…"
"What an idiot," Haruka huffed. She marched up to the gate, where indeed Kotetsu manned one of the desks. "I'm going after Sasuke, don't argue with me."
"You—no!" he sputtered. "You are on medical leave, Hokage's orders!"
"I won't tell her," she shot back and kept walking.
"Hey! Wait, I can't just not tell her," Kotetsu called and then used a Body Flicker to get in front of her.
"You can do it later though, can't you? Maybe in an our or two. I mean you are completely swamped with work," Haruka tried to sweet talk him. He didn't seem convinced, so she added: "Also you still owe me a favor, remember?" At that he suddenly stood up straight. Both him and Izumo owed her many favors of that kind, but she usually didn't call them out on it. They were always appropriately frightened by the threat, which was more than enough to make them be nice to her. It was kind of like an unspoken rule that they wouldn't make any trouble for her and in turn she'd never tell Ibiki about their shenanigans.
"I suppose you're right," Kotetsu said slowly. He looked a little suspicious, but then shrugged it off. "After all, this paperwork is a lot more important than one genin leaving to help her fellow shinobi. I can't waste time leaving my position because of such a minor detail."
Haruka nodded her thanks and then walked around him and out of sight. She hoped he wouldn't get into too much trouble when she didn't come back.
"We're actually going after Sasuke, aren't we?" Sai sighed.
"No, if he wants to put a collar on himself I'm not gonna stop him. I've had enough of his stupid obsession with revenge that blinds him to everything else," she told him. Before he could relax however she added: "We are going after Shikamaru and his team though. Of course I'll understand if you don't want to come. We can meet up afterw—"
"Just lead the way," Sai interrupted her. He looked so annoyed that it made her laugh despite the situation. Apparently all it took for Sai to show some emotions was being ordered to kill a friend, decide against it and then come to the conclusion that his only other option was to defect.