A/N: A Kaka/Saku-story. What happens when Sakura (9-years old) finds a bloody and battered Kakashi in the forest? And how will she react when they meet again, years later?

I hope you'll enjoy my (first!) story, and find the time to review. Inner Sakura is quite mature in here, kind of already grown up but helping the still young Sakura on her way… xD

Enough with my ranting, onwards with the story!

Little Haruno Sakura, 8 years old, had always had an affinity with chakra. Of course, she hadn't always known it to be named chakra, or its incredible usefulness. No, she'd always thought it to be some sort of magic, her own little secret, and had never told anyone about what she was able to do with it, not even her parents. Upon entering the ninja-academy, she'd found out everyone knew about it, had it, was able to use it, and she'd been sort of sad. But she was still capable of understanding, using and inventing practical ways to use it for, way better than most of her classmates. It came to her almost as if solely by instinct. And of course, it was all instincts, at least in her pre-academy days. While attending the academy, she had learned to control it on command, but it felt as though her chakra was her friend, helper, ally and companion. It was around that time that 'Inner Sakura' made it's first appearance, and she couldn't help but feel a slight connection between the two…

Her chakra control was nearly perfect to begin with, so she started practising other jutsu forms as well. Genjutsu was easy, as is was almost solely based on chakra, but taijutsu was just plain HELL. She had basically no stamina, at all. Rather than doing (one-handed) push-ups, or running 500 laps around the village on her hands (just thinking about that Rock Lee dude made her shudder), she decided to put her focus on weaponry. Her teacher at the Academy, Umino Iruka, had began giving them kunai- and shurikenpractice, and she fared resonably well. Though she couldn't help but find them a bit… blunt… somehow. She couldn't quite place the feeling at first, but when she walked past Kanketsu one day, Konoha's finest shop for Ninja Weaponry (specialised in Senbon), she spotted something slinsering in the corner of the window. Drawn to it as if by some higher force, she walked into the shop, while keeping her eyes locked onto the shiny object, as though in a trance. Displayed were some of the finest senbon(-needles) she'd ever seen in her life, their quality could almost be seen radiating from them. It was as if something clicked inside her brain, thery were perfect! Thin and elegant, yet deadly when used right, and highly functional! Of course there was no way she'd be able to buy these, but there were other options! A plan started forming in her mind, and almost embarrassed at the simplicity of it, she quickly exited the shop and stalked off, homebound.

0o0

Upon arriving at her home, a pink-banged girl kicked off her shoes, but then (remembering her mothers last reprimand), went back and placed them neatly in the closet nearby the door. 'Tadaima!' she exclaimed, then paused and listened carefully to the 'Okaeri, Sakura-chan!' that was bound to follow, to determine where her mother was located. It turned out to be in the kitchen. 'Ne, Okaa-san', Sakura started off, as she walked into said room, 'can you teach me how to embroider?'. Though her mother was taken aback a little by the sudden question, she agreed to teach her daughter the basics of emboidering. And while Sakura planned, at first, to only use it as a ruse to gain access to her mothers needles, she found embroidering turning out to be quite fun and relaxing. Killing two birds with one stone, she spent the next week (aside from eating, sleeping, school, homework and drooling over Sasuke-kun) spending almost every fee minute at her new-found hobby. Her mother, when convinced it wasn't a fleeting obsession for the girl, got Sakura her very own set of needles, so she wouldn't keep on borrowing her mothers needles when the aforementioned wanted to use them herself. Sakura, thrilled by this, went out and bought herself a needle-sharpener from her allowance, shooting down her parents concerns over this with the words: 'But I intend on using them very frequently, so they will get dull…'

School came first for Sakura, of course, and doing homework second. Furthermore she spent quite a lot of her time (not so) secretly admiring and gathering information about Uchiha Sasuke, or 'Sasuke-kun', as she called him. He was a boy she'd met at school and who was positively "the cutest, hottest, coolest, smartest and best boy EVER!" Too bad he didn't really seemed interested in anything other than getting stronger, faster and better, and had only ever shown interest in the practical lessons of Iruka-sensei: Kunai- and shurikenpractise, and real combat situations/simulations. The latter weren't really Sakura's cup of tea, but the former she trained very hard on, hoping to receive some kind of acknowledgement from Sasuke-kun. And to out-do Ino-Pig, of course. Ino was the girl that got her out of her shell, and taught her not to be ashamed of her forehead. They were best friends for a while. Then Sakura found out Ino was also hopelessly in love with Sasuke-kun. That was when they broke up as friends, determined to out-do each other at anything and everything, including winning Sasuke's heart.

The last two activities Sakura spent time on were embroidering (whenever het mother watched het at home), and training with her needles (which she'd secretly dubbed 'senbon' in her head) in the forest. She'd also gained knowledge on how to attach strings of chakra to her 'senbon', and how to (slightly) change their direction with it, and that way is was also easier to collect them again after training. Even though she'd found out about this particular skill by accident, she quickly realised it's usefullness and practicality, and added 'learning how to attach chakra-strings to senbon' to her traininglist. She knew the radiation of her chakra would be a give-away to anyone passing her, and she'd thought of explaining it by saying it helped her guiding the threads through the fabric. Too see if it was true (in case someone would actually demand proof for some reason) she tried it a few times, and found out it was actually true! She then tried to manipulate them a little more than just through the fabric, and thus the new addition to her traininglist was born.

0o0

About ¾ of a year after she came across needles for the first time, Sakura'd managed to (almost) perfect the art of hitting any moving or non-moving object with her needles, though she still lacked the determination to hit actual humans with the intent to kill. Not that that hindered her, mind you. She'd rather wait a few more years with that. Neither did it hinder her that she could've perfectioned it in far less time, if she hadn't spent all that time ooh-ing and aah-ing over Sasuke-kun, trying to impress him. Perhaps it would've impressed him to've seen the skills she'd been training on, but that was her secret. She wasn't going to share that with anyone (yet), not even precious Sasuke-kun…

She trained alone, in the forest, and in secret, making sure she wasn't seen. And it somehow, somebody did happen to come by, passing through the remore part of the forest she was training in, she quickly hid all but one of her needles, and acted as though she'd been embroidering a cushion all along. She'd gotten quite well at the art of hiding evidence of her training. She was aware such a ruse couldn't hold up forever, if she stayed in one place too long people were bound discover her. The marks of her senbon on the surrounding area weren't the biggest deal, there were marks of ninja-weapons on almost every tree in the whole forest, yet she still switched locations a lot.

Sakura still liked embroidering, and, since training all the time (the time she didn't spend on school or swooning over Sasuke-kun) wasn't all that fun either, she still found herself embroidering for the relaxation of it. Plus, it gave her some solid evidence of the alibi she was forming for herself. For she couldn't just tell her mom she was training to use her needles as senbon, of course, so she told her parents she went into the forest to embroid in peace, that the forest relaxed her, and gave her inspiration. Her parents did believe her, however they (all but) demanded to see some of the work she'd been doing, they were quite curious. Another reason for Sakura to embroid cushions, handkerchiefs, little blankets, jackets and so on.

0o0

And thus she was, than one fatefull day, sitting high-up in a tree, ebroidering a cute little kitten on one of her friends white handkerchiefs. Hyuuga Hinata had found out about her friends new hobby, and had shyly asked if she could embroid a kitten for her on one of her handkerchiefs. Suddenly, Sakura heared rather than sensed someone approaching. Because of the above mentioned method of detecting his/her presence, 9-year old Sakura didn't sport very much concern for herself and her wellbeing, but it never hurt ot be cautious, so she kept the façade of not having spotted anyone. Waiting for him/herself to 'make their presence known.' She thought she'd braced herself for 'the worst', or 'anything', yet she certainly wasn't prepared for the sight that met her eyes when it exited the bushes, and ented the clearing. More like crashing down on it, he hardly seemed able to keep upright. What the cherry blossom saw was a grown-up man in ANBU-uniform, donning a white mask with almost wolf-like stripes adorning it, slits for eye-holes and not a single expression present on it. His posture and general physical appearance gave her the impression that he wasn't all that old, yet his gravity-defying silver hair threw her off a bit. All of these impressions were a tad warped, though, as this man not only seemed to be soaked in blood, he also appeared to have quite some trouble keeping himself on his feet. The pink-banged girl, still clutching the handkerchief and a single needle in her small hands, sat frozen in her current tree. She'd heared about the illustrious ANBU-members, ninja's of the highest elite. They were to be taken seriously, even (or maybe especially?) when seemingly almost unable to walk, let alone fight.

The ANBU had finally noticed her, and had tilted his head upwards. He started to lift a hand up, but suddenly Sakura snapped. It was probably a combination of not quite knowing why he'd started raising his hand (greeting or a possible threat/attack?), and the fact that Inner Sakura had been screaming: "ANBU EQUALS DANGER! RUUUUUUN!". Her stupor broken, Sakura focussed chakra to her fingertops almost instinctively, cutting the thread which connected her needle to the handkerchief. She then flung the needle towards the figure down below, whilst almost simultaniously jumping for cover in some bushes that adorned the edge of spoken clearing, carefull not to make any excess sounds.

The ANBU had found the strenght somewhere to sense the approaching senbon, and had managed to jump out of the way from it. The needle it a tree behind him, and stayed embedded in it. To Sakura's enormous surprise, the stranger lost his footing upon the landing of his backflip, slipped, and fell whilst hitting his head on a rock in the process. For obvious reasons, Sakura immediately felt horrible, afraid, and somewhat impressed/awed that the man (who was now lying seemingly out cold on the forest floor) had been able to pull that kind of trick when he had to be in an excruciating pain (judging from the extent of his wounds). About 20 of Sakura's mind was still expecting a trap of some kind, and if it hadn't been so horribly real she'd have thought it to be another of that Naruto-brats doings. Baka. Slowly, yet steadily, she inched closer out of hiding, keeping her eyes trained on the man before her at all times. Sakura almost crawled out of anticipation. The needle still embedded in the tree was buried almost halfway in, yet she didn't pay any heed to that, all her focus was on the masked stranger before her. Something about him made her instinctively reach out, gripping the mask obstructing his face, and peel it off. What met her eyes was a hidden face. Because of the mask covering the lower half of his face, the hitai-ate covering his left eye, and the (red-streaked) silver hair hanging down over almost all of the rest of his face, she could scarcely make a man out underneath it all. When the removel of his mask didn't seem to rouse the man, she prodded his cheek a little, then jumped a few foot back when he groaned.

0o0

The man grunted, then twisted a little, turning his head towards the offender who'd assaulted his face. Sakura was relieved he hadn't moved any more than that. A tad anxious, she slowly moved forward once more, listening carefully as he seemed to want to say something to her. Apparently he could still talk, though it costed him a lot of trouble, and his speach sounded somewhat slurred. In a hoarse voice, in between violent coughs, he enquired after her name. Giving in a moment of concideration, then deciding it couldn't hurt much, she answered him with: "Ano, my name is Sakura, mister ANBU-sama. Haruno Sakura." Then, very quickly as she remembered the respect she had to show such a powerfull and potentially dangerous man, she added: "Nice to meet you…" Even though it probably wasn't the best of additions, she figured her mother hadn't thaught her polite manners for nothing, though they seemed a little inappropriate in this particular situation. The ANBU chuckled at her words, though it turned into a coughing fit quite suddenly.

Sakura stood a petrified. Normally she was the ever-helpful person, patting said coughing persons back to relieve the tension. Yet with this particular man being covered in blood and all, plus the fact that she didn't knew if he had any further injuries she could be worsening, she refrained herself from her usual course of action. Thankfully it didn't last (the coughing), and the silver haired shinobi adressed her once more, though with an even hoarser voice this time: "Well, Haruno Sakura-chan, I must say I'm impressed with your aim. Where have you learned to throw like that?" Sakura, thoroughly confused by his sudden compliment, felt a (to her) familiar pink hue rise up to her cheeckbones, and stammered out: "I- I- Iruka-sensei taught us how to use shuriken and kunai… But they just never really felt right to me. Then I conviced my okaa-san to teach me how to embroider, after I'd seen the senbon in the shop, and I learned about them, and the threads, and manipulating them with chakra, and…"

The little girl stopped abruptly in mid-rant, as she realised she was babbling her head off in front of a stranger, purely out of anxiety and partly because she didn't really knew what else to do. If her silver haired companion-for-the-moment was fazed by her antics, he didn't show it. Instead, his features seemed to relax a bit, which was quite hard to tell really, since the mask still covered the lower half of his face, and all the bloody hair sticking to his otherwise visible features. Inner Sakura kindly pointed out: "Are you aware that he now hardly seemes able to keep conscious?" Barely the sound of a wisper passed Sakura's lips, as she stroked said hair out of his face with a tenderness she hadn't even realised she posessed. "Uuhm, ANBU-sama?" the pink banged and cheecked girl quietly enquired, her hands falling into some kind of pattern, repeatedly stroking the sides of his face softly.

She shot up at his next words, or rather, 'word', namely a mumbled "Medic…"

"Of course!" Sakura thought to herself, mentally slapping herself over the head, why hadn't she thought of this before? Yes, his entrance had been abrupt, presence was alarming, as was his status, but that shouldn't have kept her from running back to the village's hospital or even the guards at the gate the instant she'd laid eyes on him. For all she knew he could've died because of her inability to see what needed to be done! What was it about him that had fascinated her so, as to make her abandon al rational thoughts? Was it his appearance, his words, the hoarse and sensitive voice he used when he asked for her name? Or was it his silver hair that had enthralled her, or his ANBU-mask, or the one visible eye that had been trained on her, or… "No, no, no! Bad girl, bad girl!" Inner Sakura admonised. "No matter how much I'd love to continue that train of thought with you (and mind you, I'll get back on that), this man needs medical, professional help, and he needs it NOW!"

Sakura couldn't help but feel a strange sense of loss, yet realised the importance and truth of Inner Sakura's words. "Don't worry, ANBU-sama, I'll get you a medic as quick as possible!" she all but shouted, then took off, through trees and bushes which scraped at her arms and legs, over the paths she came across, making a beeline towards the entrance-gates of Konoha Village. Her current training ground had been, of course, the one located the furthest into the forest. That, combined with the fact that Sakura's stamina wasn't the highest of the village (read: near non-existent), it came as no surprise that she ran out of breath halfway back. And yet, for the sake of a man she didn't even knew, she pushed herself, way beyond her usual limit. She tapped into a hidden strength she hadn't even realised she had up until this point, and someway, somehow, she managed to make it back.\

0o0

A few hundred yards from the village, the main gates came into view. Sakura nearly fell over from relief. She refrained from that course of action, however, until she was actually at the gate. Leaning heavily on the counter of the guards desk, leaving a trail of blood (his! She realised) in her wake, she fought a spell of dizziness off for a few seconds, unnerving the two guards behind the counter, and also the shinobi who was standing next to her. Truth be told, she only noticed the person next to her because he had a senbon twirling in his mouth. Struggling to regain the ability to breathe, she still managed to deliver her message, panting out: "Forest… ANBU… man… hurt bad… silver hair… mask…" The three shinobi around her watched and listened to her with growing alarm evident in their eyes. After her last three words (she felt ready to collapse at the spot), the three looked stricken. Then, after a few heavy laden seconds, they all seemed to take action at the exact same moment. A few words were exchanged ("Kotetsu, you and Genma go fetch Kakashi, I'll get someone to alert the hospital and make them send some medics after you." And "Hai, Izumo."), and then suddenly the person who she now knew as 'Genma' scooped her up in his arms, and he and 'Kotetsu' were off.

Whilst hopping from tree to tree (well, being carried, the men did all the jumping) Sakura understood the unspoken request even before they could even begin to form it, and she silently pointed them in the right direction, showing them where a certain short-cut could be taken. None of them uttered a sound during the trip, but Kotetsu and Genma did exchange some glances, consisting of "I hope we'll make it in time…", "Kakashi had better still be alive when we get there, wherever 'there' may be.", "This girl sure knows her way around this part of the forest…" and "Did she run all this way at top speed? It's a miracle she hasn't passed out already. Better have the medics take a look at her too. After they save Kakashi, that is…"

Sakura didn't care about the silent communication that was taking place over her head, she was too absorbed in her own little world of thoughts. She tried to reign her thoughts in, though in vain, and then decided to try and figure out what this mess in her head was about. "Why do I want to see him again? And so badly? And what is this pit I'm feeling in my stomach? It must be from the long run I made…" Inner Sakura said nothing, just chuckled to herself knowingly. "Someone's looking like pleased, and as if she's enjoying herself…" Sakura thought annoyed. She couldn't help but wonder what it was about, but just as she was about to hold a cross-interrogation on her Inner self, they arrived at the clearing where the elusive 'Kakashi' still lay.

0o0

Instantly, all thoughts were erased from her mind, as she felt that he now looked even worse than when she had left him. She heard Genma utter a "Shit, Kakashi!" at the sight of the shinobi. He put her back down on her feet again, and as soon as she felt solid ground under the soles of her sandals, she took off running towards the fallen man. The "No! Stop, girl, come back here!" and the "You're better off not seeing him right now, stop!" didn't even reach her ears, let alone her mind, and neither did the sound of two pairs of feet chasing after her. Even if she had heard the words, she wouldn't have cared, for she had already seen him up close, and wanted (for some strange reason) to repeat that experience, and ASAP! All of her focus was on the man in front of her, and as soon as she reached him, she dropped down on her knees next to him, her (slightly trembling) hands reaching for his face tentatively. The fingers of one hand threaded through his knotted hair, whilst her other cupped his cheek, shaking him slightly. "Ka… Kakashi-sama?" she whispered, the new name strangely odd yet pleasant on her tongue. The two men behind her had unwittingly held their breath at the abnormal display of curious affection, but released it from shock as their fellow comrade actually opened his eyes at the sound of the little girls voice, albeit a tad unfocussed. Sakura had not expected him to open his eyes either, and as he did, she felt like either falling backwards on her bum, or blacking out from all the strain she had unknowingly put on herself. Thankfully (and with a little help from Inner Sakura), she did neither, but instead chose to give the silver haired shinobi a hesitant and careful hug, making sure that she wasn't crushing him, or causing him any additional damage/pain, while whispering in a barely audible voice: "Thank Kami you're okay…". Neither of the four moved for several minutes, which felt like hours, and just as all of them were starting to relax, if only a little, they heard the medics from Konoha Hospital approach (following the trail left by Kotetsu on their way). Sakura retreated, with her almost signature blush creeping up again, and she could just feel it spread over her entire face and neck. Hell, her whole body seemed to feel aflame! When she heard Genma saying: "Hey Kakashi, even beaten into a bloody pulp you still attract girls like bees to honey. Honestly, why aren't I more envious?" in a way that could only be described as habitual, her blush increased tenfold (or so it felt) and she was very, VERY sorely tempted to fling a senbon at his babbling head. She realised the man was probably just worried over his friend, and trying to cheer him up somewhat, but she still didn't appreciate his choice of subject, let alone the words he had used…

The newly arrived medics (a team of three) quickly assessed the situation, then brought out their garb as they made their way over to the silver haired bloody mess known as 'Kakashi'. "Hatake-san? Hatake-san!" one of them urged the human wreck on, as the other flicked a light on and off in front of his eyes after a few more routine checks to determine just in how bad a shape he was, two of the medics sat down on both sides of him. Their hands started glowing green, and as they placed them over his body, the healing process started. The remaining medic took Genma and Kakashi aside, and gave them a brief summary of the events up untill now.

Izumo had grabbed hold of the first person passing by, which had happened to be Maito Gai. Genma and Kotetsu groaned at this, aware of what they were about to be briefed upon next. Gai had rushed off to the hospital to alert the medics, then had insisted upon his joining them. It took 5 medics to hold him back, he would only've been a burden.

Gai was waiting for Hatake Kakashi's arrival back at the hospital, no doubt to praise him for his 'Joyfull Youthfullness, His Ardent Sense Of Right and Wrong, His Hip Posture And Incredible Stamina!' and then to challenge him to yet another stupid contest as soon as he was out of the hospital again, which was to be very soon, considering Hatake-san's deeply running dislike of hospitals in general.

0o0

At the moment, as they were informed by the medic, his two colleagues were trying to stabilise Hatake-san. Genma and Kotetsu instantly agreed to help carry Kakashi back to Konoha on a stretcher. It would be some 20 minutes more before they would possibly be able to move out, the medic told them. Kotetsu and Genma offered to guard their surroundings, but when the medic enquired after the status of their own health, Kotetsu suddenly remembered the little girl. Feeling ashamed over having forgotten all about her that easily, he quickly informed the medic what she had put herself through, and how he and Genma viewed her situation. The medic looked alarmed, it didn't sound very promising, but when he asked after her whereabouts, the men couldn't answer him. "She was just here a minute ago!" A quick scan of their surroundings found her at Hatake Kakashi's head, holding said appendage on her lap, stroking it tenderly.

When Genma and Kotetsu had walked off for a bit to discus matters , Sakura hadn't minded. Instead, she'd been kind of fascinated by what the medics were doing. After only a few minutes, their patient seemed to appear marginally better already, a fact which stunned Sakura beyond words. That humans were possible of such actions while needing only chakra had surprised and enthralled her.

Quietly, as not to keep the 'doctors' from their work, she sat down next to his head with her legs crossed. She lifted his head, softly and carefully, then scooted a little closer still, so she could lower his head onto her lap. The medics noticed her, and her actions, of course, but couldn't really do much, as they had just entered a critical phase of the healing, so they decided to just let her be, as long as she didn't do anything to further endanger their patient. Sakura relaxed, and laid her hands on both sides of his head, gently massaging and stroking it. Sakura let her thoughts flow free as she relaxed into her current position. But when she had only followed a few trails of thoughts, she felt something tugging at the very end of her senses. It took her a few minutes, but she was finally able to determine it's source; the chakra of the two medics, who were sending it throughout Hatake Kakashi's body, in order to heal him. But, even now she knew where the tugging originated from, she still couldn't stop it from annoying her. It felt like one of those itches you desperately want to scratch, but are just unable to reach, and it just won't stop irritating you. Such was Sakura's perception of the chakra.

Finally, after some uncomfortable minutes of twisting and twirling on the spot and in her place (around the time she felt if it lasted only one more second she couldn't take it anymore), she found a solution for it. Instead of scampering away from her (newly dubbed-) 'friend', she slowly released some of her own chakra (what little remained of it) into his still rigid body. The itch disappeared instantly. Sakura didn't want to hurt this Kakashi-fellow, so she didn't utilise the chakra she'd sent into his body, but instead left it there to dwell, waiting for the medical nins to pick it up and use it properly.

The chakra had forced some kind of connection between the two, as Sakura now felt as if it was her who had been beaten into a pulp and was not receiving the according treatment for it. She massaged his temples even more, unwittingly redirecting a miniscule amount of her chakra that was in his body towards said appendage. Then suddenly, all went black, and she passed out on top of him.

0o0

"Onnanoko!" the medic shouted out, as he and the two other men beside him saw the girl collapse. "Daijobu desu-ka?" he exclaimed, hurrying towards her. The two other medics were still working on Hatake's body, and weren't to be disturbed, so Genma, Kotetsu and the remaining medic had to approach Sakura with delicacy and the had to be damn-some careful. When they finally did manage to reach her, they found it impossible to remove her from her current position. She had clamped down on Hatake-san almost vice-like, yet she didn't seem to pose as a threat to her 'captive's' health, so the medic decided to allow her to stay. Of course, he could've forced her muscles to relax, but that would've meant he had to cause some damage to her. Non that couldn't be dealt with, of course, but this kind of treatment was always discouraged on children of not yet legal age.

They waited at her side for some minutes, then shot up again as she suddenly started convulsing heavily. Just as quick however, the convulsions seized again, and she rolled over to the side (effectively releasing her 'prisoner' from her grip) as she appeared to be in a very deep slumber.

The five healthy adults transported Kakashi and Sakura back to Konoha Hospital, where both were given beds in adjacent rooms (after the additional testing on both of them came up clean). Kakashi was in for some recuperating, but would survive nonetheless, and Sakura only appeared to be in need of some extensive resting up. Sakura's parents were alerted, and they came immediately. They sat at her side, alternating as though running shifts while one slept and the other kept guard, sitting on a chair next to her bed.

0o0

After Sakura's blackout: A flowery field in the burning sun, a clear sky, and a lake glinstering and reflecting the sunlight brightly smile at little Sakura.

Sakura woke up in a field, the smell of a least a thousand flowers permeating the air. She sat up and took a look around, before deeming it safe to stand up and walk around. The field lay on the side of a huge lake, and had a forest lining the opposite end. Deciding to venture around a bit, out of the scalding sun that shone down on her, she headed towards said forest to escape the heat a bit. She stopped at 5 yards into the forest to take another good look at her surroundings. The air was crystal clear, as was the water in the like (which reflected the sunlight into a blinding glare), the sun stood high up in the middle of the sky, which had her assume it was suddenly around midday. At a whim, Sakura formed a hand seal and whispered: "Kai!" , yet the image didn't even flicker for a second, so it couldn't be genjutsu, right? But then how had she ended up here, and just where was here? As she travelled even further into the forest, cautiously, she came upon clearing after clearing. At the 5th one, she noted something out of the ordinary. In the middle of said clearing stood the man from before! But this time, his ANBU-mask was still in place, he seemed to (still) be unharmed, yet still on guard for something.

She wanted to shout out to him, alert him of her presence, yet somehow she just stood paralyzed in her current spot, f the very edge of the clearing. Hatake Kakashi, as she remembered his name to be, suddenly called out: "I know you're out there, you know. Will you treat my like an equal and show yourselves, or must I chase you out like the children you are?". Then, out of nowhere and seemingly even everywhere, weapons (shuriken, senbon, kunai, etc.) flew towards the 'unsuspecting' man, who turned into a log with a poof of smoke as the first weapon hit. Unfortunately, this caused his height to diminish greatly, and a few of the senbon aimed for his head missed, heading straight towards Sakura! Said girl was still frozen in place, and at this point fully expected to die painfully and slow. Yet as she readied herself for the seemingly inevitable, her surprise was great when said weapons just passed right through her, lodging themselves into the bark of the tree behind her. She twirled around, reaching for the one closest to her to touch it, perhaps discover what the had just happened, then she realised… She could move again! Even greater was her surprise when she appeared to be unable to touch the senbon, her hand slipped right through all of them.

In the mean time, the ANBU-clad man had engaged into a fight with at least a dozen men at the same time. Testing her theory, Sakura stepped right in front of one of the charging men (still half expecting to be knocked over) and as her other half had already foreseen, he sped right through her! She didn't quite understood what on earth was happening, but at this point she really didn't care anymore. She now focussed solely on the scene folding out before her, and the ensuing fight. As she crept closer and closer towards the group, she kept her eyes on the only familiar (though masked) face, that of Kakashi's, while repeating the same mantra over and over in her head: "Please don't die… Please don't die…".

At first he appeared to have no trouble at all, but as he continued on, and only 5 of the previous 12 survived his rampaging, he seemed to actually have to put some effort into defeating them. He stopped, all of the sudden, as did his assailants, as the air filled itself with a general tension, almost like anticipation. Sakura ventured to stand directly in front of him (secure enough he wouldn't be noticed by anyone, or be open to any physical harm) as he peeled the white and black mask off of his face, then lifted his hitae-ate off of his left eye to reveal a completely red eye, with three comma-shaped black shapes twirling in it. They started out slowly, almost leisurely, but picked up speed faster and faster, until only a black circle could be seen.

Sakura, who all but stood up on her toes to lean in even closer, mesmerised by his left eye, had all her hair suddenly stand on end as he leaped off, of course, right through her. To her great shock (and wonder), the silver haired loner looked back at the place where Sakura stood (though she knew he couldn't see her), with an almost quizzical expression in his eye(s?). then, just as quickly however, he deflected several kunai who'd been aimed for his back, and the actual fight-to-the-death had begun…