.

.

Someone was shaking her awake and saying something to her in a language that Sakura couldn't understand.

"Arry, wake up. The Brotherhood without Banners will be moving out of this place soon," an unfamiliar voice say to her and almost at once Sakura jerk upright, her hand going to her kunai pouch, but discovered that there was none to be found at her hip.

She frowned when she saw a dark-haired boy of no more than fifteen looking at her with alarm in his deep blue eyes.

"Dare desu ka?" Who are you? Sakura asked the boy while warily surveying her surroundings. She noticed that she had been sleeping in a very tall hill while around her stood a ring of odd-looking tree stumps. Clearly, it was an ideal place to camp at night, considering the hill was of relative height compared to the very flat surroundings below, making it nearly impossible to be approached unseen by enemies.

However, Sakura remembered that she and her team mates hadn't camp in such a place last night, and certainly not in such company with the boy and other strange men, who were now preparing themselves to leave on horseback.

Her eyes narrowed at the men who were wearing strange-clothing and carrying outdated weapons.

Samurais? Or Civilians? Sakura wondered as she eyed the men around her, who were all oblivious to her scrutiny, save for one other boy who had ash-blonde hair and pale blue eyes.

Sakura knew she was weaponless. She didn't feel the weight of her kunai, or shuriken, or even an exploding tag on her person. Someone must have taken it from her while she had been asleep.

And where is Kakashi-sensei and Naruto-kun?

"Huh?"

She heard the boy say and Sakura turned her attention back to him once more.

Sakura saw the boy frowning at her and was saying something in a language that she still couldn't decipher, "I don't understand what you are saying Arry."

In response, Sakura struck out and caught the boy in a chokehold. Sakura began interrogating him while dragging him back and away from the other men.

"Omae wa dare? Watashi no chi-mu o nani sita?!" Who are you and what have you done to my team mates? She demanded, tightening her hold on the boy and nearly crushing his windpipe.

She could hear the boy making choking sounds as she pulled him back from the group, where then Sakura could make her escape.

They must be bandits, or some kind. Sakura silently concluded. And they must have done something to my team mates when they took us unawares.

"Have you gone mad boy?!" a man with a yellow-cloak shouted as he strode towards Sakura and her captive.

The boy in her arms started struggling in her hold.

"Arry! Let me go!" the boy was saying to her and Sakura nearly lost grip on him when he elbowed her in the gut.

Sakura sucked in a pained breath and held unto him, not intending to let him go until she was out of there.

"What are you doing?!" another man said as he came running towards Sakura's direction. He had a clean-shaven face and a stocky build. "Let the smith go!"

"Clearly, the boy wakes up in a killing mood this morn," commented another man who had a thin, foxy appearances with a sharp nose and a wide smile.

Sakura kept an eye at all of them, even at the boy with ash-blonde hair and pale blue eyes, who was walking timidly towards her as well. His purple cloak swirling behind him.

"Omae wa dare? Watashi no chi-mu o nani sita?!" Who are you all and what have you done to my team mates?! Sakura repeated, her green eyes flashing dangerously. "Kotaetara, ko no ko o hanasu.." Answer my question and the boy will not be harm.

"I don't know what you are playing at boy, but clearly you have lost your mind, for we can't understand the fuck you are saying!" the man with the yellow-cloak said, raising his hands in exasperation.

Sakura's frown deepened.

Her momentary distraction, however, caused her, because the boy in her grip suddenly elbowed her right in the face and tore himself away from her.

Sakura staggered back, pain flaring across her right cheek where the boy had hit her. She tasted the iron salt of her blood in her tongue after she had accidentally bit the insides of her cheek.

"What the fuck Arry?!"

Sakura heard the boy yell and she watched with alarm as the men converged around her. Surrounding her from all sides and preventing her escape.

"That was an unwise, Arry." the boy with the purple cloak said. His face set in a grim line.

Slowly, carefully, Sakura raised her fists. She gritted her teeth as she started to summon her chakra.