Where Our Loyalties Lie
By: somedayisours
Summary: AU-ish. When Team-Kakashi comes back from a mission what waits them is something close to a nightmare, except their awake. Sai-Sakura-and-Kakashi-Centric. Three-Shot. Mentions Root Invasion.
Time: It's before Pain's attack so it is an AU event. They were on some random mission.

A/N: Saying lie instead of lay means passed tense. This is a Three-Shot, but there is going to be a complete story that is going to be written that will be the AU version of chapter two. It is going to be Kakashi going back to get Iruka out of Hidden Leaf. It most likely not going to be a pairing.

Chapter One - Sai - Toys of Ink

Just enough dark to see
How you're the light over me
- The Tallest Man On Earth, The Dreamer

They had come back to the Village with the walls destroyed and their homes raided.

Naruto had left instantly, almost without giving them a second glance as he disappeared in a puff of smoke, at a small toad's insistence. Sai had watched the way Sakura's face had crumpled at the swift abandonment, but there'd been little time to concern himself with the emotions swirling painfully in his gut when they were being attacked.

The remaining members of Team 7 had been an easy capture. Kakashi, who had been standing on his last leg on their arrival, was dragged away before either of them could stop it. Sakura had been grabbed after a jutsu had hit her, Sai had immediately recognized the vivid orange hair, and knew who it was and what jutsu they had used just a moment before the back of a kunai slammed into the base of his skull.

He had woken moments after Sakura who already had blood dripping from her lips, the fact that her chakra was sealed preventing her from healing herself. She was shackled to a pole behind her back, much like him. Then sun beat down and Sai immediately knew what was to happen.

They were on display. Hands tied behind their backs and forced to sit, they were a public display, and the civilians and even Shinobi would watch them tortured until they would be executed just before the sun sunk below the horizon.

Sai reached out with his chakra, probing the seal that suppressed it. The seal wasn't strong, it wasn't a Root seal meaning there was a little leg room. Sakura he was sure had the Root Chakra suppression seal, those could not be used on Root agents.

The day was spent with Sakura in and out of conciseness, Sai kept his back strait and his eyes trained on the faceless Root agents who didn't pull any punches.

Danzō had no use for him any longer, if he hadn't been replaceable he would most certainly be under some sort of suppression seal that controled him. He was like a broken toy, only useful at harming the stubborn child that continued to play with it.

Danzō arrived two hours before the sun would set, preparing for their execution as his Root subordinates gathered the Villagers. Sai sat straighter, his face an emotionless void as he took in Danzo's speech and the wide fearful eyes of the civilians. Sakura was still slumped over, she was sunburned and had a few visible injuries, but compared to Sai they were nothing.

Sai felt the chains bend with the force that he pulled on them, he had no time and this was his last chance. The smaller of the two Root operatives that had come with Danzo was inches away from dragging her tanto across his neck and spilling all his blood everywhere.

There was a flash of silver and the tanto was gone from the girl's hand and embedded in her throat. It was that moment that Sai's chains gave and he was on his feet, grabbing the wrist of a Root agent that had hoped to catch him off-guard and sending him to the ground. There was another crack of chains and Sai turned to see Kakashi lifting Sakura, both looking close to death.

Sai was beside Kakashi in an instant.

"You have any way to distract them?"

Sai frowned at the pure tiredness that came with Kakashi's voice. "Yes. Summons."

Biting his thumb hard enough to draw blood he quickly formed a two-fingered seal and placed his bloody thumb on the ground, sending the small amount of chakra he had been able to pull past the seal into the summon. Immediately multiple ink shapes sprung from the ground, some forming people and others were just blobs. The Summon's immediately took action and responded to the enemy, they were unaffected by the attempts at harming them.

"Nature-chakra ink summons..." Kakashi murmered, "I see you completed them."

Kakashi turned and ran, Sai trailing behind him as they escaped the village.

Thank You for reading Where Our Loyalties Lie.

somedayisours