"KUSO!"

The birds left the trees loudly after being disturbed by the sound from the middle of the forest. Three people sat in the middle of a clearing around a still smoldering, slightly crackling fire.

Even from a distance the loud noise one of the men was easily heard, though the others were less obvious in showing their presence.

Besides the first man, A second man was in the clearing. Just sitting silently, muttering to himself about idiots and loud people. The third was probably sitting, leafing through a book very loudly, and was reciting different things. The man who was yelling was obviously pacing the clearing, his footsteps heard rather loudly because of the up kick of the leafs

"WHY CAN'T WE DO ANYTHING?. This mission is fucked up!"

Even though the sound of the men was very audible, there was no light. It was like somebody had turned the sun off and had hid the moon. Nothing could be seen, but the sounds suggested that the three men were very close by. It was obvious they were in a forest, because the sounds of the birds and the trees were only occasionally disrupted by the sound of little soft moans, grunts and moving limbs on linen close by.

"Heh, Dickless!"

One of the two men stood up, picked something wooden up to bring to the third person. Muttering was heard before the obvious sound of a departing ninja was heard; sound of leafs rustling on the trees, the thud of shoes on bark, and the swishing sound of fast moving air. A book tome was audibly closed and was put on the ground with a heavy "thud" filling the now silent clearing.

"The enemy will know we're here now, we'll have to leave soon."

The loud man started pacing even harder and gave grunts of something like disapproval. By now the little moans and grunts had turned into heavy panting and coughing. It had become so heavy, that the sound of somebody entering the tent was in-audible. After the coughing fit had passed, it had become hot, so very hot, that the coolness of the gloved hand on her cheek was more than welcome.

Leaning into the hand, a sort of pressure was lifted off, and light was suddenly coming through. The hand left again, taking its welcome coolness away again and making her feel even more sick then before.

Suddenly a bright light came into what she could now identify as a tent, and one of the three men stood in the middle of the light. The man himself wasn't clearly visible due to the blinding light, but on the background stood the second man, pacing and pacing. The big light source went away again in a moment's notice and the man in the tent was now visible.

He had white-silvery hair kept from his face by his Konoha hitae-ate. The forehead protector was covering his left eye, and she could see his visible right eye was a beautiful light grey. The underside of his face was covered by a mask, and he wore a standard jounin uniform, with the leaf insignia gleaming on his forehead protector. Dangling in his hands was the reason she could only hear the men earlier on. The now completely dry towel was being dipped into the bucket the man had brought with him, completely soaking it in water.

He walked over to her and he placed the palm of his hand on her forehead. The visible part of his face was pulled into a concerned scowl.

The pressure of the gloved hand was moved into her hair, moving it successfully out of her face, and the pressure on her forehead was replaced by the towel. Beads of water dripped down her forehead, and he moved his gloved hand to her cheek.

"NARUTO!" The man yelled through the tent flap, "Where are the herbs Sakura said we needed?"

The man named Naruto returned to the tent. He was wearing a black and orange tracksuit, and he had the same Konoha hitae-ate. His only covered his forehead and kept his hair in place.

"I don't know Kakashi-sensei, she doesn't have them anymore and Sai isn't back yet with more. He sent one of his animals to return with some willow bark."

She had seen the man named Kakashi before, he had checked up on her several times. She didn't know how long she had been out of it, but she could gather from the frown on Kakashi's face that she was very, very sick.

Naruto handed the willow bark to Kakashi and he looked at the girl in the tent as he sent Naruto for more water and some cups. As soon as Naruto was gone, he slid one of his hands to her neck, and helped her sit up on the makeshift bed in between his legs. He wiped hairs out of her face and removed his mask from his face. He sighed deeply and let her lean against his chest.

"What has he done to you?"

As a response she snuggled up to his neck and let out a deep sigh.

"n..o…g.."

Kakashi turned his head to the girl in his lap and saw her trembling there, fingering the thin wet cloth that had now fallen off her forehead. It was so different from the strong woman she was only an hour ago.

"K...Ka..kashi-…."

Not knowing why, he gave her a brief kiss on the forehead. It was only meant as a reassuring kiss. He could see the surprise on her face from the initial shock disappear behind a smile. All the feelings of pain left her body numb over the past few hours, and the kiss made her feel more alive. She stopped trembling and let out another sigh. The kiss had some of the pain vanish. She smiled again and started to chuckle.

"What's so funny?" he asked gently while he shifted her in his lap, and she chuckled again. She took a deep breath before answering.

"You've…n..never..done….that before…." Kakashi started to chuckle lightly .

"Hey,… what's.. so…fun.. funny!" he smiled even broader and she saw he had dimples in his cheeks. He was pretty handsome behind the mask he had on earlier.

"Did you mind it ?" she paused and made a very fake thinking gesture before answering.

"No…not…at…all, it's...kinda… nice!"

She smiled a tired smile and he put her arm around his neck. He let out a throaty laugh that made his chest rumble. It brought flutters to her stomach and made her feel so different from before, she felt more secure and safe.

"no….no!.. H.. Help.."

Suddenly, a burning fire started from her neck, spreading to her entire lower body and slowly continued up her neck. She grabbed her neck with the arm around Kakashi's neck and he had to hold her tightly with two arms to prevent her from falling. Whatever it was that was happening to her, it turned the white of her eyes black and her dark green irises turned grey.

She grinded her teeth together to prevent screaming, and Kakashi was muttering to her, but it was falling on deaf ears. No sound could be heard, everything was mute and going slower than normal. Kakashi couldn't hear his own voice. A scream that didn't come from her overpowered all sound. The light in her eyes died out, making her look dead. She let out another scream that started as a growl, and ended as a deep throat howl. In her eyes a neon green fluid filled her irises, making her pupils disappear. At this point Kakashi had to hold her down on the mattress because she was having spasms.

The diamond shaped chakra patch on her forehead started spreading and battling the burning feeling. There where the diamond's arms where spreading, her skin turned red.

Within a few seconds her entire head and bust was red. The howl had now turned into a wail and tears streamed over her face. There where the tears were flowing, steam came off her skin. The skin on her upper arms was red by now, making Kakashi's hands burn off her skin.

Kakashi screamed himself, but no sound came out off his mouth again. His hands had burn wounds on them which were eating away at his flesh. He quickly put his hands on the dripping wet cloth to stop the burning, making slow clouds of steam rise off the flesh.

Naruto walked into the tent with the water and cups, and immediately dropped them at the sight he saw. The smoking hands, the green glowing eyes, the red skin. When the water from the wooden bucket was completely spilled, it slowly flowed towards the bed. As soon as it made contact with the red skin, it started steaming and vaporizing like Kakashi's hands had with the towel. He ran to Kakashi and tried to talk to him, but no sound could be heard. Suddenly everything went completely mute. Everybody was still making the lip movements, but no sound came. The scream died out, but she still appeared to be screaming. Her body was convulsing without anyone to hold her down, shaking and bucking against the small mattress and the floor.

When the sound returned, her eyes glowed up for a moment, making the green contrast even more with the black in her eyes. She stopped screaming and went entirely still.

Kakashi and Naruto's eyes glowed the same color green, before they went mute like the girl before. Kakashi grabbed his eye in pain, while Naruto had to lower to his knees and grab his abdomen.

The muteness went on for seconds, before out of nowhere a low beep started. It started as the sound of a mosquito zooming around, but it quickly grew into the sound of a Boeing 747 flying over. The sound stopped when it couldn't get any worse, only to be replaced by a countdown beeper. It started with a 5 second interval, but it started speeding up, going faster, making everybody feel like it was going to go faster than possible.

The hair of the girl had turned from its natural color to a very light blonde. No sign was left of the beautiful pink hair as the platinum blonde ate away at it. When the hair was completely changed, she went out. Completely unconscious, the beeper slowly died out, and Kakashi and Naruto were able to get up again. Once everything seemed normal again, her body started glowing. It lit the tent with a pure white light, blinding everybody in it.

The light had knocked the three people in the tent unconscious, and when they awoke it was no longer the early morning. The sun was setting and Sai had long since returned. Sai had hauled the three of them out of the tent, laying them on their sleeping bags around the now burning fire.

Sakura stood up, surprised at the burning feeling in her muscles. She hadn't had a muscle ache since her training with Tsunade. She stretched her body for a while, straining the muscles in her body to the max.

"Hello Sai." She turned her body to Sai after sensing he was awake.

"Hello Ugly. All better now I see?" Instead of answering she just nodded and walked over to the artist. He was painting again, and when she looked over her shoulder she could see that he was painting something that looked a lot like a really white bird in the forest.

She looked up at the sky and thought about a few things for a moment. She sighed and turned around to wake up Kakashi and Naruto.

Maybe they could tell her more about what had happened.

Sakura waked Naruto, and she had already sensed that Kakashi was waking up by himself. He stood up, and shook his head like a dog would do to wake up, and walked to his tent. Sakura woke Naruto up and smiled at him.

"Hey," Naruto smiled back at her and yawned his own greeting.

"So, are you better now?" He frowned and gave her a once over.

She nodded. "I guess so. I traced my body and I couldn't find anything so I guess I'm okay."

Naruto looked at her with big eyes. "OKAY? OKAY? Sakura, you friggin' almost exploded this morning by the looks of it! What do you mean with OKAY?"

He had grabbed her arms and had started shaking her a bit before she grabbed his wrists with her own hands and stopped his shaking. "NARUTO!"

He stopped shaking her and stepped back with his hands in the air in a way that said, 'don't hurt me, I already stopped'.

"I'm sorry! I was just really worried you know.."

Sakura looked at the ground and nodded. "I know."

Kakashi came back out of the tent with a small scroll that Sakura recognized as a summoning scroll. She saw that he splashed a bit of blood on it as she had seen him do a million times, and not soon after a small poof of smoke revealed Pakkun.

"Hello Sakura!" The pug smiled broadly from his place in front of her feet.

"Hack..Whut?, Pakkun! You're MY summon you know! Not Sakura's!" Kakashi stumbled from surprise into anger, and he planted his heel into the ground to make his point.

Sakura smiled and scratched the pug behind his ear. "Hello Pakkun! I think it's best if you go to Kakashi now.."

The pug nodded. He gave her hand a small lick before turning over to Kakashi. Kakashi looked at him with his one visible eye, clearly angry. He put his hands on his hips to futher emphasize his point, to which Pakkun turned his puppy eyes on.

The stare off continued for a few seconds, and Sakura sweat dropped at the exchange.

Kakashi gave him one last stare, before he threw a small scroll at the pug which he could effortlessly catch.

"Just take this to Konoha please.." The pug nodded, and gave Sakura a one pawed salute before poofing away.

Sakura smiled at the disobedient act of kindness towards her, and Kakashi just shook his head.

"I sent out a message to Tsunade reporting our return, so we best head back to Konoha."