Tsunade sat behind her desk impatiently drumming her fingers along the rich mahogany wood. She had already been up for 18 hours after an ANBU team came back in critical condition, and that damn Shizune had found her most recent hiding place for her beloved sake, now exhausted and painfully sober her patience had all but expired. She had sent a messenger chunin out over two hours ago to deliver a mission scroll and the captain of said team still had yet to show up!
"Oi! Granny what did you call us in here for!"
"Shut up Dickless, im sure she is waiting for Taichou to arrive before she debriefs us-"
"Hey don't tell me to shut up! WAIT WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME!"
"Both of you be quite before i break every bone in your body and leave you to heal the natural way!"
Standing in front of her desk was an arguing Naruto and Sai separated by a nervous Yamato who desperately tried to calm his teammates down for fear that the Hokage might actually come through on her as she was getting ready to call shizune in to track down the elusive team captain. She heard a poof and as the smoke began to clear she could see the outline of the ninja she had been waiting for.
"Sorry i'm late, you see there was this little old lady who needed help crossing…- "
"-cut the shit Hatake, I have no patience for you today." Tsunade cut him off with an irritable huff.
"Now let's cut to the chase, as you know the Hidden village of the Snow has been an allie of ours since the formation of the seven Hidden Villages. Last night an organization known as The Akatsuki attacked the Village Hidden in the Snow, they were able to send out a single distress signal before all communication went dark."
Tsunade motioned for Shizune to hand each team member a scroll with the mission details. Kakashi took the scroll, opening it and scanning the details while Tsunade continued to debrief his team.
"This is an S rank retrieval mission, Your only objective is to locate and retrieve one Sakura Haruno".
Tsunade slid a manila folder across her desk for Kakashi to take. He picked the envelope up and opened it, paperclipped to the inside was a single color photo of a young girl. She looked to be no older than 16 with vibrant, coral, shoulder length hair. Her skin was like porcelain, smooth and creamy, free from imperfections like scars or blemishes. But what struck him the most were her brilliantly bright emerald eyes that held an innocence to them.
"According to the distress signal we received last night she is the one The Akatsuki was after. We do not know the full extent of damage The Akatsuki has caused to Hidden Snow so be prepared for anything. You leave first thing tomorrow morning."
Taking the folder from his captains hands naruto scans the photo, his face morphs into one of utter confusion before asking, "What's so special about this girl granny?" Sai seemed to be thinking along the same line as he turned towards the Hokage curious to what her answer might be.
"She is the last survivor of the Haruno clan they carry a bloodline limit known as the Shinomigan, The Haruno clan are a deeply rooted and highly sacred clan to Hidden Snow. We do not know much about them or the kekkei genkai that they possess. When the alliance was made between our two village, it was stated that if one of our villages was to fall to the hands of enemies a member from each clan (possessing a kekkei genkai) would be sent to the other village in hopes of keeping that bloodline alive."
" Now, that is all I can and will tell you. You leave first thing tomorrow morning. Get out of my office! " With that tsunade flicked her wrist dismissively and returned to her never-ending stack of paperwork.
Smoke saturated and burned her lungs as the smell of burning flesh, wood, and ash filled her nose. Loud ringing continued to sound in her ears, impairing her hearing to anything else surrounding her. Taking short, bated breaths she slowly opens her eyes, viridian irises and dilated pupils slowly adjust from a hazy blur to sharp understanding. As the fog began to clear from her vision and brain, realization of what had happened began to form in her mind. Her village was under attack and she was going to die.
"...Kura, c..ou...me!".
Gradually the ringing in her ears began to fade, she could faintly hear someone calling for her but she didn't have the strength to call back.
"Sakura please! Oh god...answer me!"
Sakura tried to respond but her burned lungs protested and instead of words her body was wracked with violent coughs. She tried her hardest to quell these painful coughs as she gasped for air.
"Sakura, you need to run, run as fast and as far away as you can!" Strong arms wrapped around Sakura's limp body shaking her out of her haze.
"...mama…" Sakura mumbled as she weakly raised her hand to her mother's face.
"We don't have much time, you have to leave now!". Her mother franticly yelled as she picked her daughter up and placed her on her feet. Hearing the desperation in her mother's voice sakura felt her consciousness setting into place.
"Sakura, no matter what happens i need you to know how much your father and i love yo-" Her mother's words were cut off with a bloody cough. Sakura's eyes widened in horror as she felt her mother's blood splatter on her face and neck she watched helplessly as her mother's body crumpled at her feet, a kunai firmly embedded in her back.
"...run…" her mother choked out, before taking her last breath, dead eyes staring hauntingly into the night.
Sakura took one last look at her mother and the shattered remains of a village she once called home before darting into the forest.
Sakura felt her body drop unceremoniously to the hard earth, snapping out of her deep thoughts She briefly looked down to see her hands and feet were tightly bound in rope, while stainless steel cuffs adorned each wrist. Inconspicuously, she tried to summon chakra to her arms in order to break the binds only to feel a white hot pain shoot through her body. It felt as if she was burning from the inside out, a loud scream erupted from her lips.
"AHHH!"
"Tsk Tsk… I wouldn't do that is I were you." A deep smooth voice sounded from behind her, "Those are chakra inhibitors, if you try to summon any chakra, well...you saw what happens".
The man let out a low chuckle as he slowly walked into the girls view.
The first thing Sakura noticed was how young and beautiful the man before her was, He was tall with long silk black hair that flowed down his back, held together in a low ponytail. Center parted bangs framed a stoic face that was perfectly smooth except for deep tear troughs. His onyx eyes were hard and calculating watching her every move as if he knew exactly what she was thinking.
Instead of responding, Sakura lifted her head and took in her surroundings. The first thing she noticed was the cold, damp minerality of the air, from the smell she had to assume she was deep inside a cave. She could hear water in the background dripping, slowly onto every growing stalagmites.
"What's the matter girl, not in the mood to chat?"
Another voice sounded from inside the cave.
As the figure came closer she could see the beginnings of another male figure, this one was a little shorter than the first man. He had slanted blue eyes and long blond hair in a style similar to that of the first man. However his bangs hung over his left eye concealing it from view. The weird thing about the two men, Sakura noticed, is that they were both wearing the same long high neck black cloak with a red cloud pattern.
It must be a uniform… She thought to herself.
"Sakura Haruno, 16 years old. Sole survivor of the Haruno Clan and owner of the last Shinomigan in existence. I mean there would have been more if that pesky mother of yours didn't try to interfere-"
"Deidara, that's enough." The man said as he stepped closer to Sakura.
"Awe come on Itachi, you know i'm right! If she didn't get in the way wouldn't of had to kill her then we could have two Shinomigan users instead of one." Deidara complained.
"All we need is one."