Since the first night of their journey they hadn't spoken a single word. Shino continued to ignore Sakura and Sakura, not knowing what else to do in response, did the same.
When they neared the border to the Land of Hot Water, they came to a brief halt to cast the transformation-jutsu that would disguise them. While ignoring each other had been easy before, when they had been able to keep a certain distance between them, it was harder now that they walked side by side on a country road, trying to pass by as ordinary peasants.

That evening they set up their camp deep in the remains of a forest that once, before the war, probably had been as thick as it was ancient. Now, however, it took them some time to make out a spot concealed enough for them to rest. They set up traps around them – without exchanging anything but the most necessary words – and drew straws to determine who was to take the first watch.
"Are you sure you don't want to rest first?", Shino asked as he compared both their twigs with each other.
Sakura shook her head, annoyed that the strain their journey and the maintenance of her transformation put on her hadn't passed Shino unnoticed.
"I'm fine", she assured him, while she watched his fingers breaking his twig in two – tossing the longer end away, and leaving him with a stump shorter than that which Sakura held in her own hand.
She opened her mouth to protest, but couldn't think of any reason – except for her pride – not to simply accept Shino's offer. She was exhausted, and if she fell asleep during her watch, or worse would be overpowered by their hypothetical attackers before she had a chance to warn Shino, it wouldn't do either of them any good. Even with soldier-pills you could only keep going so far without putting your health at risk, and Sakura knew she was already pushing the limit.

Sakura had just fallen asleep, when she woke from something wet being dragged over her face. She opened her eyes, too sleepy to fend off what ever it was.
All she could make out were the vague outlines of a four-legged creature in front of her. She blinked, wanted to bring herself in a more defensive position, but the creature placed its paws on her shoulders. It wore a bandage on its front-legs, and now – with it leaning above her – Sakura could make out a forehead-protector dangling around its neck.
"Shiba?", she wanted to say – but was hushed by the dog. "I've got a message for you", he whispered, stepped back from her shoulders and tilted his head, so she could remove the scroll that was fixed to his collar. His voice sounded off, Sakura noted, like it took him a great deal of work to keep a somewhat light tone to it.
She removed the scroll as well as the collar it was attached to (the past months had given her the chance to actually get to know Kakashi's ninken, and she had learned that Shiba, for one, did not appreciate wearing anything but his forehead-protector around his neck).
"Did something happen?", Sakura asked. She reached for her back-pack and, after a moment of fishing around, found her torch.
"Not yet", Shiba answered, and then, after a moment of consideration added, that at least he hoped so, but that he had to get back to Konoha – just in case. Sakura nodded, tugged his collar (which he didn't need anymore) into her back-pack; She would give it back to Kakashi once she'd returned. And then she was on her own again.

It was a plain scroll, the kind commonly used for simple letters, and a letter was what Sakura found when she opened it. She recognised Kakashi's handwriting, neat and clean and with edges a little too sharp (it had taken her ages to get those right), took in the words that told of a plan he (and the others) had come up with, and the risks that – even if it all seemed simple enough in theory – would come with it. He explained why they could not wait for her to return, why he wanted her to continue her way to Kumo, and told her not to worry too much (she could almost see his eye forming a crescent smile). After all, you didn't go through with a plan like this, if you weren't sure that it would work.
However, here Sakura had to pause reading to dab her eyes, if, against their calculations, anything should go wrong, he wanted her to know that – Sakura didn't continue. If she did, she thought, it would be as if he had said good-bye to her and – against all rules of logic – this would make it so much more likely for something bad happen to him. Part of her was already blaming him for so much as writing this letter.

"Are you trying to signal our location to someone?", she was pulled from her thoughts.
She hadn't noticed that the flashlight was still in her hand, that it was still shining bright and clear.
Shino took it from her, wanted to switch it off, when his eyes set on the letter.
Maybe he had not intended to read it at first, simply had been unable to stop his eyes from processing the characters in front of him into words, words into sentences. But then he cowered down next to Sakura, who was still hugging her knees and unwilling or unable to take in anything that happened around her, and picked up the scroll.
At some point, while he was reading, Sakura realised what was going on. She turned to Shino, forced him to look at her instead of Kakashi's writing.
"You cannot tell anyone", she told him, and hoped that – despite the snot running from her nose and the shakiness of her voice – she somehow managed to convey a certain degree of authority.
"Naturally", Shino replied. Sakura wasn't sure if that meant he obliged to her request or merely that he understood the reasoning behind it.