CHAPTER 1. THE COLOR OF BROWN

The clouds were passing by like paper-cranes in a river, quickly and eye-catching as they floated by. There was a soft breeze in the air, but only enough so that the white t-shirt and shorts were just enough clothing for this beautiful summers day.

Now that she contemplated it, it was just right. Ino would be a little cold by now in her small bralet and miniskirt, showing off her flawless flat belly and long legs. All made out of brand-clothes and diets.

It wasn't that ninjas didn't think about this stuff, it was just that ninjas weren't supposed to think about it.

Clothes were essential, for every self-conscious, bashful and coy feminine being, with the slightest hints of anorectic tendencies and dreams of style and ability to walk in 5inch high heels.

That was the dream. Sakuras mind wandered to her black velvet pumps with pearl embroidings, just... lying there, in her walk-in closet, pining for a walk. A walk that was longer than from the closet to the front door, where she would always, always, change her mind and them for something comfier.

Not that Sakura was jealous of Ino, she was just critical about the blonde and contemplating her degree of exhibitionism for attention.

If you were to trace Sakuras thought, it would go like this: Sakura never wore her high heels- Ino always wore high heels- Sakura could never muster the confidence to wear her shortcut skirts- Ino always borrowedSakuras shortcut skirts… INO always got the guys, old, young, middle-aged, simply put: Ino always got what she wanted. And however much Sakura tried, she would never, ever get what she wanted... Last night obviously proved that.

Lying there on the meadow trying to fully exploit her lunchtime break, Sakura just couldn't seem to cease thinking about last night.

"You see Saku, this trick, this f* trick, will always,alwaysget you laid. Let me demonstrate..." The blonde long-legged ninja proceeded to put the cherry-stem ever so persuadingly into her mouth, rolling it around in there for a while and then pulling it out, holding it up and showing a flawless knot on its middle to the whole rest of the bar.

"There you goooooo!" She giggled. "AAw!" Sakura pulled her down on her stool again.

"Yeez Saku, be a little more of a prude will you?"

Ino for the record never payed much attention to her, however hard Sakura dragged her down in a chair, like now, she was eyeing a dark-haired gentleman from the Akuzo-clan who had been eyeing her little trick.

"More white cosmopolitan for you ladies?" The bartender asked, instantly getting Inos attention. Sakura couldn't believe it, Ino had promised to train with her the next morning and if another drink went into that big lipgloss-smeared mouth of hers, she was afraid she wouldn't see her at all the next day. There were consequences to mixing cosmopolitans with lipgloss and dark-haired men from Akuzo-clans.

So Sakura just gave her a meaning look, one that Ino didn't seem to notice.

"Yeees! A lot of cosmos!" She giggled, winking at the bartender "and pop some cherries in there too, will you?"

Sakura sighed. It was going to be a long night. Even though she had sworn not to go to the jonin celebrations this year and even though Ino had slid right back in the role as the slutty party-girl, which she had promised Sakura to keep to a minimum, she still was having fun.

It had been a while since she'd been out on town and her pumps were really complimenting her legs even thought they were mashing her toes to a degree of constant pain. She was pretty, she was young and a little drunk and she was having fun.

That was how it was supposed to be right?

Not even a giggly Ino could mess that up.

Ino pulled her to the side of the bar as soon as they both had a drink in their hand. Her eyes were glittering with mischievousness and the excitement of a rumor she was so obviously about to tell her. There was no mistaking that look.

"Heey, Sakura, do you know what i heard?" Sakura rolled her eyes and tried to close her ears, figuratively at least. "I heard from Tenten who heard from Hinata, that Anko is about to hear the wedding bells ring!"

"mm" Sakura looked around for someone, just anyone else to hang out with.

"You want to know the lucky guy?" It seemed that it didn't matter what Sakura answered, Ino had heard a rumor and now she simply had to spill the beans.

"Well, as a matter of fact i know that you wont be happy with this..."

Silence.

"Sakura?!"

"Yes yes," She looked back at her blonde friend, now even more afraid of the mishap in her eyes. "What... Who?" Sakura asked with little enthusiasm.

"Kakashi-sensei."

Sakura slowly placed the white overly fragrant drink on the counter and gathered her stuff. Ino looked displeased.

"Nonono! Don't go baby, stay!"

But Sakura was heating up with anger inwards. She should have known that she would be teased in all eternity for her secret if she told Ino. And unluckily for herself, she had. It had been the worst decision ever. Sakura made a note to herself, never tell a lip-glossing party-princess anything that you would rather keep to yourself, especially if the information was embarrassing. She would never keep quiet about it.

"Come on!"

Sure of her decision Sakura left the bar.

"If you want we can go and beat her up!" She heard Ino yell/giggle from the door.

Obviously a giggly Ino coud infact ruin her fun.

She wasn't in time. It was inevitable, she had learned about it too late and now she herself was too late. As she ran through the blackened forests of earth country, twigs brushing her face, the only emotion present in the little pink haired head of hers, was anger.

Angry that he was alone on that mission, angry that she was to blame for not getting the information, so busy trying to ignore him and his life. Angry at Tsunade, at Ino, at him, at herself.

When her feet finally tapped on rocky ground she stopped and took a deep breath, searching the area for his chakra segments. As she turned around, a few hundred meters from where she stood, she saw the silhouette of him fall to the ground.

Now Sakura had never been one for unconsidered actions or that of slow reaction, but this second, when she saw him falling to his knees, his eyes wide by the force of the sharingan and his body pumped out of energy by the use of it, she hesitated.

Then she ran, slid down to his side and checked his pulse, she pulled down his headband over the eye, hoping that he would have enough chakra left for the shut down procedure. She should have confronted the enemy first. Looking up again she barely managed to duck a dozen shuriken and then didn't see the blast coming from behind.

She was thrown forwards, away from the hurting ANBU on her left, off the cliff.

Sakura held on to the cliffside for dear life, the blast had closed some of her chakra channels and she was working desperately to open them again. She had gotten hold of the sharp edge of a rock but it was becoming difficult for her to hold on.

Damn Ino, she thought, she had insisted that they train chakra expansions and not physical strength. She knew what her sensei would have said about it:"Never trust anything for certain. Always have a back-up plan."

If she had known she would be fighting someone with "gentle fist" fighting like Neji, closing chakra channels as they went, she obviously would have trained physical strength.

Well she wouldn't have listened to sensei even if he had told her, not because she would have thought he was wrong, but because he was arrogant, annoying, quite frankly a bit of a prick and also he should have a lesson that he couldn't tell everyone what to do.

She knew she couldn't beat him.

That guy... Sensei couldn't beat him and she surely wasn't as arrogant and deluded to think that she could take a guy that he couldn't. She would have to come up with something.

Trying to collect herself and taking a deep breath she pushed her right hand to a more solid position and looked down beneath her, it was a long fall, not something that she would survive without chakra. It meant the guy probably thought she was dead.

There was a chance he would leave her for dead, seeing he didn't know who she was and since she was hit unprepared, he would maybe think that she wasn't even a ninja. She had to admit to herself that had not been some of her finest work, running to him like there was no enemy present.

She could only hope he wouldn't try to make sure she was dead.

What were the options?

It felt like a kick in the gut, when she thought about her senseis high temperature a weak pulse, his low chakra level and the expression of agony in his face. The guy wouldn't in a hundred years take the risk of leaving him for dead. He would obviously check his pulse and make sure once and for all that he'd taken out the copy-nin.

One of Konohas greatest resources.

"Sakura?"

She opened her eyes. For how long had she been asleep? The skies over her that had been so violently blue, were now more of a greyish brown and her clothes were moist and a bit dirty.

The only thing that made her even less happy of sleeping through her noon shift, was seeing her blonde friend from the night before.

"Hey Ino."

She prepared for the enemy. She would have to loosen up her chakra channels in the left arm, if she was to do a hand seal. It was tricky, but if she focused she would be able to hold on to the cliff with one hand and do the tiger seal with the other.

Kakashi had learned her the fire-release, which he had copied from Obito Uchicha, an old, very good friend of his, if she recalled correctly. Also the original owner of that eye Kakashi got famous for.

She closed her eyes and shut everything out. As if in a dream she heard footsteps closing in on the cliff-edge, her right hand was aching holding onto the rock, but nevertheless she prepared the left hand for the seal.

Aki Gatomokoro walked to the edge with cool severity. Sakura lifted her left hand with a last effort to save hers and Kakashis life. As Gatomokoro came close enough for Sakura to see him, she released the fire, hoping that the element of surprise was on her side.

Gatomokoro flinched. He fell back as the fire caught his clothes and skin, with a scream of agony he was out of her sight.

Sakuras hand was trembling as she reached for a rock to grip, the left side of her body was numb from performing the seal with one hand, and her right hand wasn't doing so good either, without any leftover energy.

With one last push she got over the cliff edge and onto the platform.

Usually she wouldn't have to put any effort into the healing process, as she had done it a hundred times before, focus, chakra in palms and go, it was routine at the hospital and it came naturally for her.

This would have been under the usual circumstances, where she hadn't performed a one-hand tiger-seal, fire-release, been knocked out of chakra and climbed a cliff with one hand. When she had crawled up to Kakashi lying on the platform it seemed as if she had forgotten how to heal. Her hands didn't fill up with chakra, and her head couldn't focus.

She tried again. Clearing her head, focusing on her palms, letting the energy flow through her arms. The energy just couldn't flow. She started crying.

As if she was trying to see the chakra blockages in her arms physically, she ripped of her sleeves, feeling her arms, trying to summon all possible strength she had left.

When Sakura had tried and failed for the fifth time she realized: she wouldn't be able to heal him and he wouldn't survive without healing. With trembling hands she searched his body for where Gatomokoros blasts had hit him, she went through his legs, arms, neck and head with the professionalism and routine of a true medic-nin, but didn't find a scratch.

Obviously he was in a coma-like state, he didn't breathe and didn't make a sound, it made Sakura lose herself in frustration and cursing herself she began crying again.

The she noticed a mark on his stomach, right above his navel, a blueish mark, like a bruise.

The severeness of the situation dawned on her, the bastard had cut off his center from the rest of the body, all his chakra was going through this blueish point to somewhere...

She tore of her senseis mask, not even noticing the beauty of that face she so long had wanted to see, but she didn't find the critical spot.

Sakura sat back, hiding her face in her hands.

"Sakura, I'm so glad to see you, bla bla bla, you're… LATE! Come with me right now young lady!"

As always, Tsunade expressed her love for her every morning right the second she got to the hospital. This time though, she was using a more serious tone, one that didn't leave room for individual wishes of taking a slow morning.

When the pink-haired medic-nin had caught up with her sensei in the hospital hallway, Tsunade only sneered at her. "Someone has been using chakra blocking techniques. We have a kid seriously injured."

Sakura knew better than to assume a kid had injured another kid. Tsunade called all ANBUs "kids", for whatever reason. Maybe so she would keep herself from sleeping with them. "Never sleep with an ANBU," had been one of the many "great" advices Tsunade had given her over the years… Sakura guessed that had to do with it.

When they entered the surgery room, there was very correctly a grown man lying on the bed. Tsunade looked him over, while Sakura tried to confirm his medical condition.

But she wasn't prepared for the state he was in.

"Tsunade, there's no breathing!" Sakura gripped his wrist quickly, "and no pulse!"

Her sensei only shrugged. Still searching his belly for injuries, suddenly she stopped and pointed out a little blueish mark to Sakura. "Here." she mumbled.

Sakura moved over to his stomach and inspected the blue dot, it was the size of a small bruise, just beneath his navel, she summoned chakra to his palms and was just about to heal the spot when Tsunade slapped her over her face, sending her flying a few steps backwards.

"This is not an ordinary bruise, this means someone has caught off his chakra center from the higher part of the body." Without warning she pulled off the anbus pants showing all of the no longer covered body-parts to Sakura (who squeaked) and two young interns (who giggled).

"It's now concentrated here."

Sakura cranked one eye open and was met with the most horrible vision ever. The left leg of the ANBU looked fine, to right under the knee. The rest of the leg was blueish black and seemed like it was about to fall off.

"This is what happens when someone cuts off your chakra and pumps it into just one specific place. His leg would've exploded if he hadn't gotten in in time." Tsunade lectured. "Now, we just open up the channels and let the chakra float right through again."

Sakura hesitated. "How is this possible?"

"I don't know, they sure are doing some crazy experimental stuff out there in earth country... Freaks."

It dawned on her, quickly she dried the tears off her cheeks, Gatomokoro would have used Kakashis' weak spot to put such an attack, his sharingan. At least that seemed chakra was to flow only to his sharingan, it would have used all of his chakra in a short time.

True enough, as she lifted the headband she so knowingly had put on the first thing she did, the eye was blueish black.

"Start his heart, start his heart, first things first." Sakura repeated the words Tsunade had told her when they had gotten that ANBU in. Slowly she collected herself, she would only have to use minimum chakra, but it had to be focused onto the heart. Sakura didn't think about the consequences of a mistake, the costs were simply too high. So she slowly focused herself and sent a small dose of chakra to his heart.

She sighed when she could feel his pulse again.

She didn't have enough chakra to open his channels again, so she did the only thing she could do. With still trembling and aching hands she got out her kunai from her belt and prepared for cutting out the sharingan. But then Kakashi growled.

"What do you mean, emergency?"

"I know you would want to know this Saku. You have to talk to Tsunade."

Sakura shook her head. "If Kakashi-sensei is on a mission, that's his and Tsunades business. She knows what she's doing and he agreed to it."

Ino furrowed her brow, then looked surprise as if she had somehow damaged it permanently by furrowing it, like she'd done something she'd never done before. The point is she tried to look resolute and angry. Though the blonde never thought any of those looks suited her.

"No Saku, because now is different! You know that time he should track down Naruto and failed? He was downgraded to ANBU, or upgraded, however you see it, the point is: he can't say no to a mission and this is a suicide-mission, really! I'm not saying this as a joke Sakura, I really think he's in danger. We haven't heard anything from him in weeks up in the report room, he has disappeared. You know I'm telling you this as a friend, I could lose my job. If you're going to get angry, don't expect me to ever tell you this kind of stuff ever again."

Sakura sat up, "Yeah, okay. What were you saying his mission was?"

Ino came closer, whispering:

"Take down the hunternin in earth country."

then she leaned in even closer nodding meaningly: "the Gatomokoro group."

"What are you...-no. No. No."

Sakura was startled by the voice coming from the "mostly dead" man beneath her. "Kakashi-sensei?" He growled again. "Keep quiet, I'm healing you."

"Get the kunai... out...of... my face." He rasped weakly with an very unarticulated voice.

She shook her head, tears once again floating down her cheeks like she was a blow-up swimming pool with holes in it. "No no, keep quiet."

"You do not touch this eye." He growled. "I die first."

"I will take out this eye now Kakashi." She stated with certainty.

"No."

Sakura broke down, she simply hid herself in his vest, not planning on ever getting up again. She just lay there, listening to his breathing, troubled and slow, but existing.

"Hey kiddo…" He whispered softly. "You know… I'm really… glad… to see you… though.

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