Waiting had always been the hardest part for her. Whether it had been waiting for her noodles with Naruto or waiting for the perfect moment for an ambush, ash she was now.
Her foot was falling asleep, so she shifted her weight on the branch of the tree, the encampment below her unaware of her presence. A chill wind blew through trees, blowing her smell downwind. She hoped there wasn't a tracked nearby. Such a little thing could make all the difference in a stealth mission such as this.
Deciding not to wait around to find out, she leapt to another branch with the svelte grace of a hunting cat, not even bouncing the branch she glided onto when she alighted on it.
The sun sank lower in the sky, casting strange patterns in the clouds that almost looked like seals. The moon was already hanging in the west, waiting to take over. Again the wind blew down from the forest down to the camp, but it was alright, the makeshift village was still silent and sleepy in the decline of the day.
Only a few more hours and it would be time for her to make her move for the main tent in the center of the camp that housed the Akatsuki records she was looking for. She went through the complex hand seals for the untraceable copying jutsu she had learned for the mission one more time to make sure she would not mess up under pressure, even though she never did.
Ever since she had been promoted to ANBU she had been precise and deadly in her actions, never a detrimental operative like her blond best friends had occasionally been with their clumsy impulsiveness. She did not like to, but she could wait for her prey.
While she mused, the sun had made the rest of its travel to the horizon quickly, and now the crickets were chirping in the new darkness of the summer night. The coldness of the wind that continued to blow concerned her.
When she could no longer distinguish shadows from the saturation of the rest of the night, she slipped from her perch, slipping down her mask onto her face. She rally didn't see the point of her wearing a mask, though; her pink hair saw to the recognition of her identity.
Two Sounds guards stood at the perimeter of the tents, but she made quick work of them with her poison-dosed senbon as she fell to the ground. There were four more at the corners of the tent she was headed to, though. They needed to be taken care of simultaneously.
She did.
Sending a push of chakra, she lowered each of them slowly to the ground so they did not crash down, causing unnecessary noise. Making sure the tent flap did not even flutter and no one passing by would notice the collapsed guards, she set a simple genjutsu around the tent.
Once inside, she recognized the snakes and dark aura of two dark haired, pale shinobis. So Sasuke had taken Oorochimaru's role as Otokage if he was staying in his old quarters. She had been assured he would be no where near the camp for the next few days, which would leave her well out of his way and safely back in Konoha.
The scroll she was looking for was set on the desk in the far corner of the tent, not even bothered to be hidden from a nosy guard. He must be confident in Sound's loyalty.
She unrolled the paper, going through the now easy motions of the copying jutsu, watching the words form on the blank scroll she had brought. She was about to turn to leave when a whisper of metal through air caught her ears, and sure enough, a steel point was pressed to her neck. A single drop of blood rolled down to her collar bone.
"You're a long way from home, ANBU," came a slow, lazy voice that was much deeper in timber than she remembered in her nightmares. She jumped, unintentionally pushing the blade deeper. She instinctively healed it before it could start pumping blood down her black uniform. The green glow of healing chakra spread quickly from the room, illuminating her mask and hair eerily for a second.
It was his turn to recoil. He hissed unintelligibly, whispering, "Sakura."
"Long time no see."
"Ironic or not, I have to discuss something with you, ANBU."
That explained why he hadn't killed her with chidori yet.
"Yes, well, whatever it is, we're not interested."
"You were the ones who opened the negotiations."
"I know nothing of it, so if you'll just excuse me…"
"Now, now, you have to stop running all the time."
The irony made her scoff, before running her own chakra down his blade, and dashing from the tent, taking her chances since he had made clear he wasn't going to kill her.
One problem, though, in her uncharacteristically impulsive get away, she had left both scrolls on the wooden desk behind her.