So… I've found a new Sakura pairing to like. ;) Even though I've no idea why, I just randomly clicked on a MinaSaku fic and started reading. Now I ship it. As a crack pairing only, though.

Anyway, this is my attempt at the pairing.

Disclaimer that I don't own, and enjoy! :)

On An Owl's Wings

Chapter One

The mission had been simple, if highly ranked. Track down the nukenin, follow him to his hidden base, kill or capture him, then raid the base for everything she could find. Tracking and following had been a success, killing him had been necessary once she realised that there was no way he was surrendering to her alive. But searching the base proved to be one heck of a stumbling block.

Why? Because the paranoid bastard had traps everywhere, that's why.

Now, Haruno Sakura was floating. Floating somewhere in her consciousness, somewhere that had her cut off from awareness of her surroundings. She knew she was injured, likely bleeding out. But she also knew that she'd managed to start the healing process right before she'd passed out. And thanks to her training with her shishou, her body would have continued to heal without the need for her to be awake.

All she could do now was wait, wait for her body to heal enough to trigger the waking process, so that she could drag her sorry ass back to the village.

As her unconscious mind floated in and out of cognisance, Sakura eventually became aware of the fact that she was floating. Her physical body, that is. Was she in a body of water? But how? There'd been nothing in the area of the base. As well as floating, her shoulder kept hitting something soft and pliable. Mud, perhaps? Whatever it was, she was stuck this way until she woke up.

Three years after the end of the Fourth Shinobi war, and things were going really well with the five Great Nations. Treaties and alliances were actually being upheld for a change, which was no small miracle where Kumo and Iwa were concerned. There was still a lot of work for ninja to do, because there were still nukenin, as well as others who wanted to take advantage of certain gaps in power. That was why Sakura had been out here, hunting down nukenin.

At twenty years old, Sakura was a member of ANBU. She had joined under the condition that she was only staying a year, and only had a few more months or so to go. Her shishou hadn't been happy about it, but she'd already passed the hat on to Kaka-sensei, and he had approved it. With the one year stipend, of course.

Something poked at her suddenly. No seriously, she was literally poked.

"Stop poking her!" she heard someone exclaim.

"How else are we supposed to tell if she's dead or not?" a whiny voice asked.

"Idiot," an incredibly vaguely familiar voice said. "That's not how you check if someone's dead. Did you sleep through that bit in the Academy?"

"Shut up you baka!" the whiny voice yelled, losing the whine and turning angry.

"Both of you back off," the first voice, that Sakura realised was female, said. "Do something useful and go get sensei, alright?"

Sakura heard two sighs, one long-suffering, the other frustrated, then two small hands were checking her vitals. Her brain was still quite clouded over, but she could sense that she was waking up, and it seemed the person checking on her could as well. There was a kind of 'swoosh' and Sakura sensed that someone else had arrived.

"How's she doing, Rin?" the newcomer, who sounded like an adult unlike the other three, asked.

"She's heavily injured, but her chakra is already healing her, so I don't actually need to do anything," the girl Rin said. "And she's waking up, too. She should be conscious any moment now."

"An owl mask," the newcomer, whom Sakura guessed was the jounin sensei of the other three (hey, if she's wrong, she's wrong) said thoughtfully. "And yet, as far as I know, there's currently no-one assigned the fukurou alias."

"How do you know that, sensei?" the girl asked.

"Sorry, Rin, but I can't tell you that."

A moment later, Sakura felt arms reach underneath her, and she was lifted easily. "We should get her back to the village," Rin's sensei said, just as the other two arrived.

"Wow, sensei, you're fast!" the formerly whiny voice said in awe.

There was a scoff, and the other one said, "Of course he is. You hadn't figured that out by now, Obito?"

"What? Of course I did!"

"Didn't sound like it to me."

"Aargh! Just shut it, Bakashi!"

The two continued to argue, but Sakura was currently in shock. Obito?! What the hell? And Bakashi… Did he mean Kakashi?!

If she wasn't already technically unconscious, Sakura might have been tempted to faint from shock.

"Enough you two," their sensei (the Yondaime, though probably not yet, the logical (yet also freaking out) part of her brain surmised) snapped at them. "The three of you make your way back to the village. I'm going to get her to the hospital. Until then, Rin is in charge, so listen to her, alright."

Three voices were abruptly cut off as the sensation of moving rushed through her, and once out the other end, Sakura, who was forcefully jolted awake from the sensation, was flailing in the man's arms, coughing up a little blood, which of course splattered against the inside of her mask.

"Medic!" her companion called, and soon enough, Sakura was laid flat on what was probably a gurney and rolled off to be treated.

Hands were there, healing her, and her mask was removed. A gasp, and Sakura vaguely wondered if it was because of her Yin seal. Her eyes fluttered open and she saw concerned, shocked, and notably unfamiliar faces before her. Soothing chakra flowed within her, accelerating her healing process, and soon enough, all but the most minor injuries were gone.

Another ANBU entered the room then, gave her a once over look, then nodded to one of the medics. Sakura knew what was about to happen and accepted it, even as cool but sharp chakra was shot into the base of her skull, and she was engulfed in darkness.

So what did you think? I'm gonna post this simultaneously on AO3, just so you know. Review please!

Btw, fukurou means 'owl'.