Chapter 1

Silence. It's supposed to be golden, and it definitely has its uses. But for this line of work… silence for too long is too much to hope for. There was nothing, no wind rustling the trees we were crouched in, no animal life scuttling around, no breath of life for miles around, and worst of all, no signal coming from the radio secured to our ears and around our necks.

It had been 2 hours… it was supposed to only take 15 minutes. I rose from position and ran down the length of the branch, maneuvering my way around leaves and stray spider webs till I reached the end. I paused for just a moment… trying to get a bearing on Sai's position. The branch had barely lowered an inch before I found him and leapt off, letting my chakra give me the little extra push I needed. Landing, I turned and dropped to a crouch, snapping to my head to the right to avoid the kunai Sai had thrown, catching it with my left hand.

"We're not supposed to leave our positions Ugly." He murmured flatly, pale face and voice not betraying any of the irritation I knew he was feeling.

I handed him back his kunai, eye twitching a bit at his 'endearing' nickname "Time limits up, Makina. We need to take a team vote, head back to Konoha, or continue with the mission and hope Alternate is ok."

He nods and stands up to go retrieve Naruto, but as he prepares to push off, I can't help myself, "Makina?"

He turns his head, inclining it to show he's listening, keeping his fragile balance on the edge of the branch.

"Don't you get cold running around at night with that half-jacket exposing your pasty stomach?" I smirk a little.

Head still inclined, his mouth stretches into one of his fake smiles, eyes crinkling, "Only as cold as your shorts and skirt-flaps leave your thunder thighs Ugly." With that he pushes off, soaring through the twilight air towards Naruto's position. My smirk fades… skirt-flap? What kind of a description is that? And if he calls me Ugly one more time… and did he say THUNDER-THIGHS??? (Inner-Sakura's addition).

I was blinked back to reality mid-mental tirade by Naruto and Sai returning, one on each side of me, each in a crouch, and leaning in awkwardly close.

"What is with you two, Makina, Quartzy? Lean away!" I demanded, harsh whispering seeming to slice across the freakishly silent landscape, turning to each in turn.

Naruto pouts, "Why can't our codenames be something cool like Superman…"

"Or IdiotLovesRamen?" Sai supplies helpfully.

Putting a gloved hand on each of their mouths, which regrettably prevented me from rubbing my temples, I whispered again… more calmly this time, "Quartzy, you've been watching too many civilian TV shows again, and you," I turned to Sai, "We're trying to make it so the enemy can't figure out who we are, so while IdiotLovesRamen would be perfect description…" Naruto emits a little squeak of protest here, "that would be pointless where the mission was concerned. Now, we're here for a reason, what are your votes?" I took away my hands, Naruto looks suddenly somber again, reminded of the mission, Sai looks as apathetic as usual, I start us off, "I vote we continue the mission and try to retrieve Alternate."

Naruto nods, clenching his fist with resolve, "Same."

Sai shrugs, "Mission always comes first." Not wanting to get into that old argument again, I take in a deep breath and ask the next question, "Who's going to be the temporary leader?"

Naruto makes a confused face when I look at him, and flinches when he glances at Sai, shaking his head: "Definitely you Sakura, I'm too hotheaded and Sai's too independent."

"I'm fine with that as well Ugly."

I nod, "Ok, lets get ready to go then. Split up and enter the building in a triangle formation, meeting at the center. Avoid conflict until we find Alternate, the scroll, or both. Head out." With that we were gone, black blurs streaking into the night the only testament that we had occupied that branch a half-second earlier.

It was about a quarter-mile to the base that concealed our target, a quarter mile quickly eaten up by our chakra-enhanced strides. The rhythmic pumping of my legs off the rough bark and the cool breeze created by my passage was almost enough to put me to sleep… I always had that problem on night missions, shaking my head vigorously to wake myself up, I squared my shoulders and moved faster. I was coming in from the south, Naruto was approaching from the northwest, and Sai was advancing from the northeast. I slowed down as I came within a hundred and fifty feet or so from the base. I looked around, no shinobi I could see, but that didn't mean much. I nearly tripped over a couple of civilian thugs tied up and gagged, obviously unconscious and obviously Kakashi's work. If he had breached the base so easily, why hadn't he given us the signal? Maybe he wasn't used to them yet, after all, he was just replacing Yamamoto for this mission… would he make a mistake like that? I doubted it, but I'd rather it be that then the alternative.

"This is Makina, I've entered the base." Sai's calm voice pulsed through my ear, "There were no guards on my end… advancing to center."

Naruto intense whisper came next, almost immediately after. "This is Quartzy, I'm in Akai. No guards on this end either, I'll look around for Alternate and meet you guys in the center."

Realizing I was being left in the dust, I quickly crossed the last hundred feet to the base, swinging the wooden door open, kunai at ready… only to greet nothing but darkness and that creepy silence again. Stepping across the threshold, I entered, closing the door behind me, letting my eyes adjust to the dark, I thought I could see a torch far up ahead, "This is Akai, I've entered as well, there were guards on this side but Alternate had already taken care of them when I arrived. Don't forget to look for signs of the scroll either, there should be a purplish glow making a trail to it, don't touch it without gloves and the medical masks I gave you. The glow is a toxin, understood?"

"Hai."

"Got it."

With that I ran off down the tunnel, open toed boots making surprisingly little sound on the stone floors. Keeping alert for any strange sounds, I was met with only silence. Gathering chakra to my hand, I was given enough light to see by, only to be met with dull gray stone floors, dirty white walls and ceiling, and no glints of tripwires or weapons. It was as if there was nothing here at all. The first door I came to had the torch above it, I opened it carefully, kunai ready again, and tried to look inside… except there was nothing to look at… it was cemented over, completely filled with cement. 'That's odd…' I puzzled, shutting the door, I left down the hallway again.

'According to the map the ANBU gave us, this tunnel winds toward the center… where our target should be as it's the most defensible position.' I encountered a door every 500 or so feet, and each was the same, completely filled with concrete. Four doors in, I just about lost my poorly cooked lunch (Naruto's turn of course). Human fingers, hand evidentially in a claw-like position, and obviously recently deceased, were pressed up against and slightly into the door. Trapped in the concrete, fingernail scratches raked down the inside of the soft wooden door. People had been buried in these rooms… alive. Swallowing quickly to stave off the bile, I shut the door and continued down the tunnel, pace doubled. I was going to make whatever bastard did this pay. Thankfully there weren't any more doors along the way, I don't know if I could have made myself look. This job really sucked sometimes.

About 20 minutes of running later, I came upon what was known as the Room of Fire, the center of this complex, where our target was supposed to be. And sure enough, the telltale purple glow was seeping underneath the door. Donning my medical mask and pulling on the wrists of my gloves to ensure they were on tight, I radioed Sai and Naruto. "This is Akai, I've reached the center."

"I have as well."

"Yeah I'm here too."

"Have you had any luck finding Alternate?" I asked, not really expecting a positive answer.

"Negative." Both answered simultaneously.

"Well, let's hope he's inside and unharmed. Prepare to enter on 3…," I clenched my fist, leather gloves creaking with the strain, "2…" I gathered more carefully concentrated chakra to my right fist, "1." With a yell, I swung my chakra-laden right fist towards the center of the door, turning my body to throw my whole strength into it. The metal door buckled, tearing the hinges and the doorframe from the cement, whitewashed walls with a sickening screech and flying into the Room of Fire, bouncing and flipping end over end across the mosaic floor to land in the Great Central Fireplace, frame bursting into flame and red-hot coals spraying across the room, shooting embers and ash towards the high ceiling.

Sai's ink had oozed under the door on the right side of the room taking the shape of Sai himself… an ink clone… and unlocking the door from the inside to allow the real Sai to enter, along with 2 other clones.

With a muffled, "Rasengan!" One of the 2 remaining doors, the one on the left of the room, blew apart in an amazing array of shrap-metal, piercing various walls, articles of furniture, the Great Central Fireplace, and the ceiling. Soon followed by an equally impressive amount of Naruto's streaming from his tunnel.

Dodging chunks of ceiling falling from the aftermath of my entrance, I entered swiftly as well, however, with only one of me. I quickly took in the sights of the room, Naruto and Sai, all versions equipped with medical masks and gloves. Slightly vandalized furniture that might have been lavish once, with several civilians cowering behind the various pieces. A now charcoal-laden mosaic floor depicting some kind of sacrifice to a sun god… a couple of dead men, throats slit from the look of it, their fancy clothes most likely signifying leader-type positions. And in the center, a tied up, bloody Kakashi, uncovered fingertips clasped around a glowing purple scroll, dead ahead of me and about 10 feet away from the Great Central Fireplace. 'The toxin! He didn't wear the full handed-gloves like I warned him to, shit!'

"Damn it! This is supposed to be Kakashi; he's smarter than this! What's wrong with him!" Inner Sakura was having a heyday with this one… but I was too distracted to listen, my attention was all on the man holding Kakashi up, silhouetted against the roaring fire, his and Kakashi's long shadow's stretching across the floor like one of Sai's ink creations to cover me in a thick blackness.

My heart wrenched at the sight of him. The man I had given my whole life to… was I really that pathetic? This man I had let become my whole world, blinding me to everything else in this dangerous life. Maybe it was my version of denial of the violent world I grew up in, where death wasn't something that came when you were old and had lived your life; it was something that snatched beloved friends at any given moment. Maybe it was a way to fit in… not just with other kunoichi's, but with civilian girls too: become obsessed with Uchiha Sasuke. Everyone was doing it, why not me, the little girl with the big forehead. Being put on the same team just happened to be the f-ing fireworks the lit gasoline sloshed on to fuel my obsession. Kami, this man really was everything wasn't he? No wonder he thought I was annoying, freakishly obsessed is more like it. Was this porcelain-skinned, charcoal-haired boy always going to be able to make me drown in those red-tainted eyes? Just what were my priorities?

Naruto snarled from my left, concern for Kakashi and hate/determination aimed at Sasuke in one animalistic growl.

Sai simply stretched his mouth into another fake smile, "We meet again Uchiha."

"Rescue Team Leader, collect the scroll, save any civilians on your way out you can without endangering yourselves or the mission. Do not pursue missing-nin Uchiha Sasuke, I repeat, do not pursue missing-nin Uchiha Sasuke." Naruto was going to need all the emphasis I could give, and he was going to hate me for it. I closed my eyes, hardly believing I had given the order.

"Sorry Sakura-chan," A sickening baritone sounded out from the shadow that was Uchiha Sasuke, mocking me, " but Orochimaru wants that scroll as well. He and Kabuto plan to make use of it, and I get taught a new jutsu for securing it. Tell me how to neutralize the toxin, or the Copy-Nin dies."

My mind raced over the possibilities, that scroll was supposed to hold the recipes for 3 of Snow-country's poisons, to be delivered to Konoha, had intercepted on-route by a couple of rouge shinobi, and sold to the civilian overlord of this place. Allowing Orochimaru to get his hands on anything that would help him was a definite no, but Kakashi…

I allowed my posture to slump, apple-green eyes lowering as a sign of submission, natural-rose colored bangs falling forward to shadow my face. "Form the Tiger handsign then press your palm to the end of the scroll." I uttered the words clear and low, and winced as they echoed softly around the chamber. One of the civilian women was weeping

"Akai!" Sai barked harshly, "What about the mission?"

"Kakashi's more important." I deadpanned. Sai continued his condemnation, while Sasuke just smirked and pulled on a pair of gloves, letting go of Kakashi. He then removed the scroll from Kakashi's hands, forming the Tiger handsign, "Your ties to these people make you weak Sakura." He pressed his palm to the end of to the scroll… which promptly burst into flame."

Now it was my turn to smirk, "Now don't you sound just like your favorite family member Sasuke-kun." I mocked, "My bonds are the only things that have gotten me this far, and they're going to make me more powerful than even you someday Sasuke, and a whole hell of a lot happier." Sai and his clones were all standing calmly by his door, while Naruto looked like an invisible force was holding him back. Veins were appearing along his hands and face from the stress, whisker marks thickening.

Sasuke snarled, much like Naruto had earlier, and dropped the burning scroll, directly on Kakashi, just for spite.

"Initiate plan Foxy-Frog now!" I screamed (guess who named that one…sigh) I felt lame just for having to say it... Naruto was off like a shot, all 25 clones coming straight in for Sasuke, Sai's clones spreading out, herding civilians out of the now-open doors towards the outside world.

Sasuke was shaking with rage, curse mark sliding like some revolting plague across his exposed pale chest, open-style shirt and loose pants rippling from the wind created by his released chakra. Naruto was closing in on all sides of him but he only had eyes for me, crap. Maybe I had gone too far… too late to regret it now.

I ran for Kakashi, I had to get that scroll off of him before it burned him too badly, jumping over scattered coals from the fire and pieces of door from Naruto's entrance. The first clones reached Sasuke. One aiming a punch for his gut, another sweeping a leg to buckle Sasuke's knees while the 3rd aimed a karate chop for his neck. Sasuke jumped, crouching in mid-air and then kicking out, down and to the side to crush the clone's windpipe… who promptly disappeared in a cloud of smoke. He then caught the punch and the karate chop, one with each hand, and spun about has he landed, sending the clones flying into their brethren with 5 responding POOF!'s. Coming to a stop, he slid out his katana and slashed upward to the left, reducing Sai's great lion to splatters of ink that marred the mosaic floor and vandalized furniture with black. If Sasuke got any on him, you couldn't tell with the curse mark spreading so rapidly. I reached Kakashi and shoved the scroll off of him, patting him and the scroll out simultaneously. Thank goodness for leather gloves…

' I needed to get him out of here,' I berated myself. Forming the appropriate seals, I created two bunshins, one to attack with Naruto and Sai and one to guard me while I healed Kakashi's major wounds. Whipping out a syringe and vile of yellowish liquid from my shruiken pouch, I plunged the syringe in and sucked the precious liquid out. Pulling it out and pushing until I was sure there was no air trapped inside, I plunged the needle through his mask material into Kakashi's neck. He needed the antidote to the toxin more than anything right now.

This accomplished, I moved to turn him over and staggered as the clone I had sent to attack Sasuke disappeared in a puff of smoke, giving me all the knowledge it had learned. I was given memories of 3 more of Naruto's clones being taken out instantly with a fireball from Sasuke's mouth, feeling the heat singe my face and hair… Sai throwing shruiken from 2 different angles, only for Sasuke to deflect them all with his katana, sending several right back at Sai and adding a few Kunai and shruiken of his own. Then I experienced the sickening feel of that same blade slicing across and through my clone's stomach, defeating it. Shaking it off, I managed to successfully roll Kakashi over this time, crossing my hands over each other above an 18-inch kunai wound across his abdomen, 'How'd he get that?' I wondered, hands glowing green with the soothing chakra and sewing muscles, veins, and skin together.

My clone on guard suddenly spun into action, twisting around deftly to block 2 kunai headed my way and kicking up to stop a shruiken that otherwise would have embedded itself in the bunshin's thigh.

"Work faster Sakura!" Inner Sakura screamed, not really helping. Finishing with his stomach, I quickly took the time to relieve some swelling around his head that could make problems for his brain later, I ripped the shruiken out of my clone's boot and lifted up Kakashi, giving him to the clone, "Take him outside!" Nodding, my clone followed my order and ran for the door, picking up a crying little girl with auburn colored hair on the way out as well.

Now I could return my attention to the fight with Sasuke, but first to get the scroll. As I bent down I gave the order through my radio to ensure the boys could hear me. "Retreat! There's nothing left to fight for! Confirm all civilians have left and retreat!" I turned toward the battle just in time to hear Naruto scream my name and watch as a 3 ½ foot katana enter my stomach just above my left hip, and leave nearly directly across through my back, crimson blood glistening all along it's length. My crimson blood glistening all along it's length… I was having some trouble wrapping my head around that one. I dropped the scroll with a thud and it rolled away somewhere I couldn't see. Sai and Naruto were both rushing from their respective positions and all I could do was stare up and the eyes that were staring down at me. Eyes the same color as the blood dropping off the end of his damned katana. Had he really just done that? Did I mean that little to him?

"Of course you mean that little to him! You're just that annoying girl from his Team 7 days remember? He was never worthy of us!" Inner Sakura proclaimed, she was pretty persuasive when she wanted to be. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be depressed or encouraged though… all I knew was that my abdomen hurt like hell.

"Re-tcoughtreat damnit." I sputtered into the radio. "I hope you fall off a cliff Uchiha." I spat, words amazingly clear. He sneered and moved to yank the blade out, whereupon I swept my right arm up with a kunai to stab his right left shoulder. As he brought up his own kunai to block, I thrust my knee up into his groin. His freakish eyes widened considerably and his grip on his katana loosened. I jerked backwards, out of his grip, taking the katana with me. Thoroughly pissed off now, Sasuke brought a fist up and back, slamming into a disobeying Naruto's face and throwing the kunai he had been holding towards my chest.

Ripping out his precious blade, which earned me a searing pain all the way from my toes to my hair-roots, I blocked the kunai and slashed out towards him with his own katana. Sai ran up, dragging Naruto away, who was kicking and screaming the whole way. Sasuke flitted behind me, using his incredible speed to try and catch me off guard. I swung around and aimed a roundhouse kick at his hip with my right leg… which he caught, long fingers digging into my thighs, there would be ten angry bruises there tomorrow. I swung the katana around again toward his throat this time, instead of letting go; he just bent backwards to avoid it, ducking under the slash. While he was in this slightly awkward position, I jumped using my left leg, whipping my body around. Right after, I brought my left foot up, and… swinging with my momentum, kicked Sasuke in the head, snapping him up to an upright position again. I twisted the opposite way at the hips and brought the hilt of the katana around, smashing it into Sasuke's perfect nose.

I was rewarded with the sickening crunch of cartilage, and a release of my thigh, which brought on the reality of gravity with me in an awkward position and an ensuing crushing blow to my kidney. The force of his blow sent me flying several feet into the back of one of the worn velvet couches. The couch toppled over and sent me rolling and skidding across the wonderfully uneven mosaic tiles. I came to a stop on my right side, facing the toppled couch, which obscured my view of Sasuke. My skin was ripped all over my body and I had landed on a couple of embers on the way across. Wonderful. Paralyzed for the moment from the blow to my kidney, all I could do was lay there while my flesh started sizzling from a coal trapped under my right calf. Something long, round, and crumbling was shoved in between my arm and my body.

Just as I watched the couch explode in a great cloud of feathers and splintering wood, katana blade slicing through the middle, I felt two warm arms gather around me and throw me over their shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Recognizing Naruto's soft jacket I wasn't sure whether to be furious at him for disobeying orders… again… or to be extremely relieved that someone just saved my life.

I decided to go for option number two as I felt Naruto turn and bolt for the tunnel instead of staying to fight the man we had practically pledged our lives to with childish promises. Unless… this was a bunshin? Alarmed, my paralyses finally released and my body lost it's rigidity, making it easier for Naruto to carry me and enabling me to snap my head upwards to look behind us. My bangs made everything slightly shaded but from what I could tell, a barrage of black, fierce, shapes was attacking Sasuke. Then the tunnel swallowed us and I couldn't see him anymore.

"SAI! Get out of there now!" I screamed, brain recognizing the black shapes to be Sai's ink drawings, "Call in the back-up team and get the civilians out of there!"

His calm voice pulsed through my ear again, using the radio, I almost wanted to weep with relief, "I already have called the team in, they're assisting the civilians and are guarding Kakashi. I will leave as soon as you and Naruto are far away enough to be safe."

"Don't die on me Sai."

"And miss the chance to see your Ugly face every day?" I could almost see his fake smile, "Nah, it won't happen." He finished cheerfully. My wound was still gushing blood, I was starting to get light-headed. I pushed my hand in-between Naruto and I to get at the wound, applying just enough healing chakra to reconnect the veins to stop the bleeding. I didn't have enough chakra left to do anymore. Then Naruto turned a corner too quickly and my neck and head lurched to the left, blood rushing and causing me to black out.

I came to just outside the compound on Naruto's back, Sai rushing along side us, a still-unconscious Kakashi on his back.

"How'd you get out?"

That smile again, "I climbed up through the chimney, Team Guy has sent clones to escort the civilians to the village a couple miles off while they stay to distract Sasuke if he makes it out with the intention to pursue." Blinking in disbelief at the chimney comment, I noticed my remaining clone come up, still holding that little girl from earlier.

"What do you want me to do with her?" It asked, absently petting the little girl's hair while running with us, who was sobbing almost incoherently, "Mommy! Mommy's gone! They left her in the room!"

I felt the blood drain from my face as I realized this little girl's mother had been buried alive in one of those concrete rooms, "Bring her with, it's too late to take her to the others, if you get attacked on the way there'll be no one for her to depend on." Sai looked up, surprised.

"Sakura, you only have ½ your chakra while that clone still exists…"

"I can make it to Konoha, and neither of you should take anymore weight."

"But…"

"That's an order."

Sai looked away in what may have been disgust; it's hard to tell when someone doesn't show their emotions on their face. "Yes ma'am." And with that he picked up the pace, so he could be a little ways ahead of Naruto… so he wouldn't' have to be next to me. That hurt, but he didn't understand… all those people… how many had died, buried alive?

That object was still wedged in-between my arm and side. Stiffly I pulled it out and looked at it, it was the scroll. The scroll with only the first few rolls burned… I smiled, so it wasn't a failed mission after all. Feeling my eyelids getting bizzarely heavy, I handed the scroll behind me to Naruto, who received it with a jolt, which didn't feel good on my stomach wound… ah well. I let the blackness receive me.

Tsunade looked up from reading the report, "Colorful as always Sakura…"

The pink-haired kunoichi grinned, "Aw, come on Tsunade-sama! It's boring there in the hospital, stuck to a bed and IV for days… and I know my mission reports are WAY better than all those dry, stick to the main point mission reports you have to read from everyone else…"

Tsunade chuckled, shaking her head, "Alright, alright… of course I don't know, Sai might be able to give you a run for your money with the sketches I've been getting all over his mission reports lately…" she paused to brink a delicate cup of sake to her lips. The cup was decorated with little ramen bowls, and orange jumpsuits… courtesy of Naruto of course. Suddenly serious again, she put the cup down and faced Sakura, eyes slightly narrowed and elbows propped on her desk, fingers steepled in front of her nose and above her… well… her well-endowedness. "What are you going to do about that girl Sakura?"

All the good cheer seemed to have fled the room, and the apple-green eyes peered up at her mentor, looking at her blond hair in loose pigtails, the diamond on her forehead… anything to avoid Tsunade's amber eyes. "I'll figure something out Tsunade-sama, I swear. Even if I have to take care of her myself… maybe we can find her father."

Tsunade nods, "That will do for now then, she seems to have made quite the attachment to you and your teammates… though how she managed to do that with Sai still makes me wonder…"

Sakura laughs, "They say children can often see what adults can't, maybe she sees something in Sai none of us can see. That may come in handy later… maybe she could start at the academy… become my assistant?"

Tsunade's eyes widen at that, "Woah! Slow down Sakura… give her a few years… and you're still my apprentice, you don't need an assistant."

Sakura stopped, blushing slightly, "Gomen Tsunade-sama, I was thinking out loud… I'll see you tomorrow then?"

The Hokage nods, leaning back in her chair, "Hai, 6:00 AM sharp, you're dismissed."

Sakura stands and bows, "Thank-you Tsunade, I'll be there." With that she leaves the office, closing the doors, and shaking her head after seeing her master pull out the sake bottle as soon as she thinks Sakura's gone. "It's a good thing she's a medic…" Sakura muses out loud, "Or her liver would be shot by now." She walks down the steps away from the Hokage tower, and down the dirt street's towards her home, turning around suddenly to let loose a kunai into a tree. When this produced nothing but a few flying leaves… the rose-haired kunoichi frowns and keeps walking, not wanting to go back and get the kunai, 'I'll get it tomorrow,' but the whole way home… she can't shake the feeling someone's watching her.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

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