Sakura and the medics she was training were kneeling in front of the Kazekage, waiting to be briefed. She admitted to herself that she didn't expect to be called on a mission while on a mission, but field training was imperative to medics, and she was in Suna to be training their woefully lacking medics. When the messenger had arrived at the hospital looking for Suna's own medics, Sakura couldn't help but offer her own services as well. She couldn't let the students she was training be killed in the field, not when they had made so much progress already. She desperately didn't want to start over, again. They finished stabilizing their current patient while listening to the messenger, and took off to the Kazekage Tower. Gaara immediately became angry at the Konoha kunoichi's presence.
'You can't be here, I do not have Tsunade-sama's permission to send her shinobi into the field'
'Argue all you want Gaara, I am not leaving my students to be killed in the field. This will act as another part of their training as medics' She then glanced at the famously irate sand shinobi, grateful at seeing his body heave a silent sigh.
'Very well, but I will be sending a note to your Hokage of your behavior and outright insubordination' Sakura blanched, but knew the training her class would receive, as well as extra protection due to her presence was worth it. She nodded, signifying that she understood the consequences.
Silently, she shook herself back to the present. She had missed some of the Kazekage's introductory statements, but based on his expression and glare, he knew she hadn't been paying attention and hadn't said anything of importance. Gaara delved into the details of the mission. They were to back up and fortify a rather important outpost between Sand and Rain. Internal conflicts within Rain had made the area unstable, and shinobi abandoning their allegiances made his border a potential war zone. He finally got to why he was sending medics – Kankuro had been grievously injured, and one of Suna's lacking medics wouldn't be enough to heal him. Sakura finally realized why Gaara seemed so tense about this mission and so dead-set on its success. Fully briefed, the medics nodded their understanding and left to retrieve a few weeks' worth of clothing. The rosy kunoichi stayed behind in the Kazekage office though, wanting a private word with her friend.
Still sensing her presence, Gaara sighed and turned around.
"Thank you for allowing me to accompany your medics. Now that I know the seriousness of the mission, I am sure they are not up to it by themselves. They might even kill Kankuro while trying to heal him. They have gotten better at detecting natural ailments to the body, such as dehydration or fever. None of them can handle large-scale healing needed for this mission" The Kazekage had realized this might be the case and nodded his understanding to Sakura. "Furthermore, this will allow them to fully understand the stress and heightened vulnerability of healing an ally in the field. Truly Gaara, thank you for allowing me to go on this mission. I accept full responsibility of Tsunade-shishou's wrath. May I write a note so she doesn't teleport to Suna in a fit of drunken rage?" Both her mouth and Gaara's quirked at the realistic thought, so he nodded to a piece of paper and pen on an extra desk he had in his office. Bowing her thanks, she quickly scribbled a note:
Tsunade,
Do not be angry with Gaara. I offered my services as a shinobi serving his village. Gaara's messenger will give you the details
- Sakura
Reading the message over her shoulder, Gaara grunted his approval and took the note from her.
"I will send a messenger to Tsunade-sama when you leave. Go get ready" He dismissed her and felt, rather than saw, her bow and departure.
Sakura hurried to the gates of Suna, seeing that all of her medics were already gathered with their packs. A chuunin that was familiar with the area was going to escort them there, then go to Konoha to deliver Gaara's message. He turned his back to begin the trek. The medics fell in step with him, Sakura silently wishing for the climate of Konoha for the nth time.
They finally reached the encampment and the pink haired kunoichi was hot and had sand in her sandals. Sakura wasn't surprised to hear fighting off in the distance. The medics she was training suddenly forgot everything she had taught them, and looked at her, uncertain of what to do. Sighing, Sakura hurried to the tent serving as a hospital, depicted by a small cross on the flap. She entered, and immediately saw the puppet master. Quietly cursing under her breath, she felt her students following her inside, staring much like guppies. That's what I'll call them…
"If you're going to stare, make yourself useful! Prepare sterilized equipment, gauze, and water!" She snapped to the guppies. Out of the six that had accompanied her, two heard her words. The remainders were too busy staring at the puppet master, missing a sizeable part of his thigh and with multiple still oozing slashes across his abdomen. Sakura ignored them, angry at their rubbernecking.
She bustled to Kankuro's side and sent her chakra into his system to see which site needed her attention first. Deciding to quickly close his intestines so he wouldn't turn septic, she turned her attention onto his leg. It was pure dumb luck that the enemy had missed his major artery, but it was a close call. As it was, the main artery had suffered some damage. She wrapped her chakra around it, reinforcing it, and coaxing new cells to grow until it appeared to have not been damaged. She turned her attention to the hole that was surrounding the blood vessel, and cleansed the area of infection, and stopped the bleeding. She wished she had the chakra to spare to help him regrow his muscles right then, but that wasn't possible.
After she made the area accept her healing and begin to recover, she moved to his abdomen. His intestines already looked better after she closed them before working on his leg, so she made the bleeding stop and stitched together the gashes. They were deep, so it took a lot of chakra to sew the muscles together.
Once she had finished that, she sent a few more tendrils of chakra into his body, looking for more damage. Finding nothing, she stood up and wiped off the sweat that formed on her face. She wrapped his leg up and turned to face her guppies. The fact that none of them had offered their help while she was healing was a letdown to her. She expected more, especially since they were not under attack. Not a single one of them could meet her eyes, suddenly finding their shoes, fingers, or ceiling of more importance than their angry sensei.
"I'm going to tell the captain that I healed Kankuro-kun while you watch him". She left the tent to find who she correctly assumed to be captain – Temari. Sakura was surprised to see that night had fallen while she was healing. She found the wind kunoichi looking over some maps with other Sand jonin. Upon hearing that her brother was going to live from his injuries, the wind mistress almost cried. She thanked Sakura profusely, and offered the pink haired kunoichi the captain's tent to recuperate in. Gratefully, Sakura accepted, and collapsed on the bed, exhausted from travel under the desert sun and her impromptu healing session.
Tsunade looked down at the kneeling foreign ninja. Her hand twitched towards her cup of sake, but she refrained in front of one of Gaara's shinobi. She sighed and shook her head at her apprentice's idiocy. This was a dangerous mission and she needed back up from Konoha. She called for one of her attendants and told her who to hunt for in the village. As her attendant took her leave to find Sakura's back up, Tsunade found herself rereading the mission requirements and Sakura's note. She couldn't believe her apprentice was this impulsive.
The attendant had a massive struggle finding the Copy Ninja, if the hours of delay were an indicator. With a slight dip of his head and his signature hand greeting, Kakashi greeted his Hokage: "Yo". With barely concealed annoyance, Tsunade cut to the chase, "A Leaf shinobi was coerced into accepting a mission in Suna while on duty there, and is in dire need of reinforcements. You will act as those reinforcements and bring them back safely here. Their mission is over, both of them. This is a rescue mission." She stared at his one available eye, daring him to ask who he would be rescuing. His eyebrow was raised, and didn't offer a word. He figured that he would see when he got to the camp. She offered Kakashi a scroll with the geographical details, and a synopsis of what was going on in the area. Leaf had similar camps, but none had broken out in fighting yet.
Due to this being a rescue mission, Kakashi didn't dawdle to leave. His devotion to his fellow shinobi made him leave immediately. He began his day travel through Rain to the border of Suna.
She was awoken by the sun rising and the sounds of fighting, and very close. She rose off the bed with a kunai already in her hand. She felt totally refreshed from her rest, glad to feel all of her chakra had replenished itself. She left the tent and was met with chaos. Senbon, kunai, shuriken flew in every direction. She saw Temari guarding the medic tent and made her way over to the fan-wielding ninja.
"What's going on?" Sakura yelled over the ruckus. Temari spared her a glance before blowing some stray weapons away from them.
"Some Rain shinobi tried to flee into Sand but we intercepted them. Then more Rain nin came to find the deserters. They began fighting and we're caught in the mix. I don't think they realize where they are" Sakura nodded at this explanation, fearing something like this would happen. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a Suna medic outfit. Horrified, she watched as one of her guppies crawled towards a toppled ally. Much to Temari's dismay, Sakura leapt after her student without thinking. She stood over him as he tried to heal his friend. Intercepting all incoming weapons, Sakura yelled at her student, "Take him back to the tent, just get out of the line of fire!" With tears in his eyes, her guppy looked up at her. She saw him mouth the words He's dead and whirled to block another senbon. The weapons were coming too fast for her to retreat – the movement back to her base could prove deadly with all the weapons being thrown, and blown. It was a miracle she had made it to her spot without injury. All she could do was stand where she was and continue to protect herself and her guppy.
Night had fallen and the fighting hadn't ceased. Temari watched Sakura's futile attempts to return to camp, but she had run too far away to safely make it back. She was going to have to outlast their enemies. Inwardly, Sakura was grateful that Tsunade had found it important to expand Sakura's chakra supply. She was able to outlast most when she was minimally using her chakra. All she was using it for now was heightened hearing and quicker reflexes. The guppy at her feet had long since collapsed due to chakra depletion because he attempted to help Sakura protect the duo. Vaguely Sakura knew that standing out in the middle of the battlefield made her a target and that both sides of the Rain shinobi must have been replaced by now. There was simply no way they've lasted this long while actively fighting…
She realized that if she was ever going to leave this spot, she was going to have to start fighting back. Every time a weapon came at her, she threw one of her own in the same direction. Slowly but surely the attacks lessened, allowing her more breathing time and time to realize that most of the fighting had stopped. She didn't have the strength to take her guppy back to the tent so she had to stay there, protecting him.
The sky was barely lightening as Kakashi flew through the waning trees that signified he was close to Sand's border by now. Kakashi didn't pause to rest the night before, anxious to relieve his comrade from their mission. He altered his route to arrive where his map indicated his partner was waiting for him. As he passed the last of the leaves what he saw made his eye widen in disbelief. The camp held bodies of Rain shinobi and Sand shinobi. He saw Temari at the entrance of the medical tent. 50 yards away from Temari he saw Sakura, still barely on her feet, who appeared to be defending a collapsed medic at her feet. She appeared to be panting hard. He watched as she still had fast enough reflexes to whirl to block one more flying weapon. She threw a kunai back and waited. She didn't have any more weapons coming at her for another minute before she fell from what appeared to be complete exhaustion.
He left his spot in the trees and made his way past Temari towards Sakura. He left a note for the Kazekage in the wind mistress's blouse. Surely with them being siblings he would receive it. He continued to walk towards his former student. Arriving, he saw her condition. He frowned as he took in the multitude of cuts and few punctures she had received while protecting the foreign ninja. The pink-haired kunoichi apparently hadn't even had time to remove the various weapons from her flesh. Sighing, he scooped her and her student up and started walking back to the camp. He set both down by the sleeping Temari and went into the medic tent, looking for her medical supplies. He found Kankuro with more Suna medics. They were cowering by the unconscious ninja's bed.
"Where is your sensei's bag?" He asked the novice shinobi. One looked at him and pointed to the corner of the tent. He turned around and chuckled. He should have recognized the pouch; it was the same obnoxiously bright yellow one she had carried when she was a genin. Picking it up, he settled it on his back and went back outside to pick up the unconscious kunoichi.
As Kakashi walked back to their village, Sakura shifted in his arms, bothering one of her injuries. The kunai went a little farther into her flesh and she suddenly awoke from the pain. Gasping, she tried to sit up only to realize she was in the arms of someone. Kakashi had stopped walking, and watched his former student in amusement. She struggled to get out of her abductor's arms while still fighting off the effects of sleep. He leaned into her ear and said, "It won't do you any good, you're still too weak from your fight". Upon hearing his voice, Sakura understood what had happened.
"Let me down Kakashi-sensei, I need to heal myself."
"Have you recovered enough chakra? I didn't take out the weapons because I feared the blood loss that could happen". Sakura had gingerly been let onto her feet while he had been talking and smirked at this. The legendary Copy ninja, her former sensei, scared of blood loss and his own first aid knowledge.
"Thanks Kakashi-sensei, but I know I can heal these. They're minor at best which is why I let them stay". He nodded his understanding at this and turned his back. Some of her injuries required her take off her shirt and he wanted to respect her privacy. Kami knows that she had respected his with his mask for the numerous times she had healed him.
Sakura unbuttoned her shirt after she pulled out all the weapons lodged in her. She sent her chakra into each wound, burning out any infection that may have taken root and cauterized her blood vessels. She mended every wound closed and went to get some gauze from her pack, as the site of each puncture and laceration was still going to be tender. Once she opened her pack she cursed. Her damn guppies had gotten the gauze she used on Kankuro out of her pack!
"Kakashi-sensei?" As Sakura said his name he turned around, only to be met with the sight of her almost naked torso. He shut his good eye and turned back around.
"Hmm?"
"Do you have any gauze? My idiot students used up all of mine when I healed Kankuro". Kakashi reached into his pack and tossed his gauze over his shoulder at her.
"Thanks". He could hear the smile in her voice and sense her amusement at the situation. She finished up her own first-aid and swiftly buttoned up her shirt.
"Okay I'm ready!" Now Kakashi knew he was safe to turn around. He made as if to pick up his former student and she started shaking her head. "I'm fine, really! I can walk back no problem". She started walking in the complete wrong direction and he watched while smirking. Sakura suddenly stopped and turned around to once again face her former sensei.
"Okay… I have no idea where I'm going". Kakashi chuckled at this and scooped her up, despite her protests. Once again they were off, heading towards their home. While Sakura was quite comfortable in his arms, she felt bad about her old sensei carrying her. "Really Kakashi-sensei, you don't have to carry me".
"I saw you fight and fall. You've only had 2 hours of sleep since then. It's my mission to rescue you, not let you wear yourself farther into the ground." His words came as a surprise to the kunoichi. She hadn't sensed Kakashi arrive at the battle. Suddenly she felt the past two hours of sleep catch up to her and she relaxed into his arms. She watched the blurs of green go by, listened to the faint noises of animals and a stream, and finally settled on resting her head next to the masked ninja's heart. She listened to his pulse and breathing for a while before the rhythm lulled her into sleep. Clutching her closer to him, Kakashi sped up their pace, eager to get his former student back to the safety of a bed.
Sakura's eyelids fluttered open as she heard the rumble of Kakashi's voice through his chest. She looked to see who he was talking to and was faced with a foreign Rain shinobi.
"You shouldn't be in our land right now. We've closed our borders, I cannot allow you to leave" Kakashi sighed at this news.
"The Hokage was not aware of any closed borders before I was sent on this mission; we're almost to the border of Leaf anyways. We'll leave and no one will have to know we were here" In the back of Sakura's mind she wandered if this shinobi was still loyal to Rain or not. As Kakashi finished up his sentence the foreign man took a menacing step towards the pair, resulting in Kakashi vaulting back into some branches of a nearby tree.
"We don't have to fight, just let us be on our way."
"This is too good an opportunity to pass up. The Hatake Kakashi, burdened with a useless kunoichi…" Sakura's face twitched at this comment and her hands curled into fists. The man grinned, "This will be my chance to get the elusive Sharingan from you" Before Kakashi could stop her, Sakura pushed herself out of his arms and on to the forest floor.
"How dare you say useless?! How DARE you threaten my sensei!" With that, Sakura was ready to fight, exhaustion or not. The man took out two katana and went into his battle stance, one katana poised horizontally in front of him, the other held diagonal just beneath the first. Sakura imbued chakra into her fists and reinforced her skin as well.
Kakashi would have intervened with Sakura's fight, but if she accidentally landed a blow on him, it could knock him unconscious, resulting in them staying in hostile territory for longer. The man teleported behind Sakura and struck, but Sakura whirled equally fast and blocked his strike with her hand. She snapped his katana blades in two and proceeded to approach the enemy ninja. He couldn't retreat fast enough, he was staring at his swords in shock. The pink headed shinobi punched the man in the jaw, feeling it crush on impact. She then punched him in the sternum, hard enough to send his sternum into his heart. Seconds after the Rain shinobi's corpse fell, Sakura fell too. Before she hit the ground, Kakashi was there to catch her. "Damn chakra…" she muttered before falling into the deep sleep that comes with recovering all of one's chakra. He laughed outright at this, and once again began their walk home.