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Lightning Struck Tower

Chapter One

Hatake Kakashi stared impassively at the orange-clad shinobi lying motionless on the other side of the clearing, sweat trickling down his face from the brief but intense battle that had left him sorer than he had been in months.

Still not relaxing despite his indifferent attitude, Kakashi focused his senses on finding any other enemies. Konoha ninja usually worked in teams of three, but there were only two in the clearing; the unconscious shinobi he had just fought, and a corpse with a kunai stuck deep in his head.

There—the briefest flicker of pink in the trees. He had retrieved the stolen scroll and technically completed his mission, but there was no point attempting to run. His chakra reserves were running lower than he liked and his injuries would slow him down. It would be best to conserve his strength now and face his opponent directly.

His gaze slid from where he had caught a glimpse of pink to the still-living shinobi that he had taken down, an idea formulating in his head. Kakashi moved in a burst of speed at the same time a volley of shuriken flew out of the trees, landing where he stood only moments before.

Sakura flickered through the boughs like a colorful bird, barely alighting before she launched onto the next one. The trees of Kaminari no Kuni were scrawny and coniferous, more sparsely spread out and with branches that were higher up and too thin to bear much weight for long. Had Sakura been any larger they would have likely broken if she landed on them for even a second, hence why her teammates had continued on foot while sending her to scout ahead via tree traveling.

She almost broke out into the clearing, pausing only when she sensed something off with the chakra signatures. There were two as there had been when she left, but one was unfamiliar and the other—Naruto's—felt comparatively weaker than before.

Cautiously clinging with chakra-imbued feet to a tree trunk on the clearing's edge, she risked a glance at the scene. Sakura sucked in a breath before whipping back behind the protective cover of the tree, having seen just enough to tell her that her teammates had been apprehended and come out the worse for it.

Satoshi, an unmemorable chuunin she and Naruto had been teamed up with for this mission, was dead. But Naruto was still alive, not that anything would take her chakra juggernaut of a teammate down so easily.

The thought scared her, she admitted readily to herself with a shaky breath. She was trained by the Slug Sannin herself, but Sakura still had a long way to go before reaching her Tsunade-shishou's level, and this new opponent was strong without a doubt. Sakura had barely had to look at him to get a sense that he was a true weapon of a shinobi, honed dangerously sharp to cut through any enemies.

Naruto.

Sakura would not let him die. She had faced worse odds and lived through them, and if she had to die then she would in the defense of a friend. With newfound resolve, Sakura fished out several shuriken from her weapons pouch and twisted around the tree trunk, launching them at the silver-haired shinobi.

She cursed as he moved out of the way, gaping at his speed. He had been a blur, reaching her teammate in nary a second and hauling him up in his arms.

No! Sakura leapt from the forest's edge, an outstretched fist impacting with the ground as she landed. The rocky ground moaned as it shook from the chakra-empowered force, a rift spreading from the point of contact and splitting the earth into several chunks that sent a plume of dust up over the area.

She grinned upon seeing the shinobi's surprise, quite clear if the visible fourth of his face was any indication by the single widening eye, though to her disappointment he had managed to find his feet and move out of the dangerous zone. Sakura ran forward, traversing the ravaged earth with help from her supreme chakra control, intent on taking advantage of her enemy's shock and attacking while he was still taken aback.

Unfortunately, Sakura was not so lucky. Whoever her opponent was, he lived up to Sakura's first impression of him and quickly adapted to the situation. Even lugging Naruto's weight, he was fast enough to dodge the deadly punch that Sakura aimed at his head and put enough distance between them that he had time to draw a kunai and hold it to Naruto's neck.

"Enough, or I kill your teammate," he declared, words clear despite the muffled quality of his voice that was courtesy of a mask concealing the entire lower half of his face.

Sakura froze in place, fists still raised in an offensive position.

Kakashi watched the unmoving kunoichi, marveling at how emotive she was. Even though her body remained rigid, her face showed conflict as she worried her lower lip and furrowed her brows, emotions darting through green eyes. Was she aware of how readable she was? It was a trait very unseemly for a ninja to have.

His sole eye perused the kunoichi, taking note of several details. The pink hair was unusual and the white circle could possibly be a clan symbol, though Kakashi had never heard of any clan with pink hair or that symbol, so that was a train of thought that could be pursued later. Something about the super strength and how it came out of such a deceptively small form niggled at his memories, reminding him of someone. The feeling was only enhanced upon catching sight of a scroll marked by a medical signal tucked through a loop in her skirt.

Wait . . . a medic with super strength? She wasn't Tsunade, but perhaps . . .

"Are you a student of the Slug Sennin?"

Sakura blinked at the question, bemused by the sudden question and how he could have come to that conclusion.

"Uh, yes?"

The pink-haired kunoichi thought she saw the mask twitch as if the Kumo shinobi—she could tell by the insigne on his headband, now that she was close enough—had just smiled.

"You don't sound so sure," he said amusedly.

Sakura's eyes narrowed—was he teasing her?—before responding, "Yes, I am."

"I see. Let's make a deal, shall we?" the shinobi proposed, but Sakura's lips thinned at his words.

"I don't make deals with enemies. You killed one of my teammates."

"True, but let's look at it this way: your team snuck into Kumogakure, stole a valuable scroll, and I now have your remaining teammate at my mercy." To emphasize his last point, the masked man increased the pressure with which he held the kunai edge at Naruto's throat, blood pearling at the action. Sakura's breath hitched.

"Let him go!"

"Will you listen to my deal?"

Sakura's eyes locked with the dark eye staring at her, measuring the weight of his threat. Reluctantly, Sakura lowered his arms to her sides and slumped as a sigh escaped her, knowing she had no choice.

"What is it?"

"Heal me, and I'll let your friend here go."

"That's it?" Sakura asked in disbelief.

She received a nod, the skin around the single eye crinkling slightly like a small smile.

"Mhm. I get back to Kumogakure with the scroll, technically fulfilling my mission, and you both get to keep your lives."

There really wasn't any other choice. Sure, the mission was a fail, but Sakura couldn't abandon Naruto for some stupid scroll, no matter what punishment she may face for her decision. As it was, it was a considerate thing for any ninja to do, knowing that he could have done much worse.

"I agree."

"Alright, come here and start." Kakashi gave no indication that he was going to relinquish his hold on his hostage just yet, letting his the medic know that he would keep this over her until she fulfilled her end of the bargain. He kept careful observation as she walked over to him and enveloped her hands in green, medical chakra. Kakashi had to clamp down on his control as her hands glided over his body, cataloguing his injuries.

Her chakra felt good. Kakashi made it a habit to avoid hospitals as much as possible, preferring to heal himself with cruder methods he had learned over the years. He couldn't recall the last time he had a medical check-up, and wasn't sure if medical chakra always felt like this. Maybe it was just this medic, who surely had to be worth her salt if she was apprenticed to the legendary medic, Tsunade of the Sannin.

He ended up watching her face more than anything, taking in the look of absolute concentration. She was young, probably in her later teens (maybe), but it was cute how serious she was. To be honest, Kakashi was kind of surprised she wasn't killing him (to his knowledge), but admired that she was willing to abandon a mission to save her teammate, even if it meant she had to heal a man like him.

"Two broken ribs, a few more cracked ones, a muscle strain in your left arm, and abdominal internal bleeding, in addition to being bruised up; not too bad of damage." Sakura stated as she wrapped up the healing process, earning a surprised blink (she thought) from the shinobi as she healed him. He had been a surprisingly decent patient, though the way he stared unnerved her somewhat.

Remaining close to the enemy, she straightened up and glared at him.

"I kept my end of the deal, now let him go," Sakura demanded, gesturing at Naruto. The Kumo shinobi shrugged and released his hold on the blond ninja, pushing him to land a couple of feet on the ground before him. Sakura gave a silent breath of relief and moved to pick him up—only to be stopped by a vice grip wrapping around one of her wrists and yanking her back with a single jerk.

"Wha—what do you think you're doing!" she sputtered indignantly, stilling as she found herself caged against the body of her enemy, face pressed against a flak vest and the solid torso behind it, while strong arms bound Sakura's arms at her side.

"I promised to let go of him; I never said the same about you."

Shocked by his announcement, Sakura thought back to their conversation and cursed internally when she realized that he was telling the truth.

"That was a dirty trick," she accused, testing his reaction as she squirmed in his grip. He hissed between his teeth at her movement.

"I'm a ninja, it's part of the job," he said teasingly, adjusting his grasp on his newest hostage so that one arm wrapped around both of her shoulders and continued to press her against him, while the other moved away. Sakura took a chance and began gathering chakra in her hands, struggling to put enough distance between her and the enemy that she could use her inhuman strength and push him off.

The shinobi's other hand came down onto her neck. Unconsciousness slammed into Sakura like a tidal wave, pushing her down into darkness.

End of chapter one.

Author's Note:

So, the first chapter. I'm on the fence concerning whether or not I'm going to write more of this story, but the idea had suddenly struck me and I liked it, so I wrote it entirely in one shot. It's quick and unedited, but this was fun to write so I will probably continue it.

Obviously, it's an AU. Kakashi is a Kumogakure shinobi but some things are the same, like him having one of Obito's eyes. How stuff like this works out will be revealed, but needless to say that a lot of things will also be changed. Not necessarily for the better.

Please review, it'd really make my day. Especially regarding any discrepancies and/or how I handled the point-of-views to flesh out the scenes from both sides as they happened.

(And don't think that Sakura takes this lying down, or that Kakashi gets away without any issues. Lots of conflicts to come!)