"Okay so we've made it here without any difficulties."
"Right. Now we need to come up with a plan to break their defenses."
"You can send me in first. I'll tear down any hopes of a defense!"
"Naruto, you can't just rush right into their-" Before Sakura had a chance to finish her sentence, there was a crash from the trees above them as weapons and ninja of all sorts rained down on them.
"Run!"
Kakashi immediately ran to Sakura's side and pulled her towards some nearby bushes to hide. "Sakura stay here. You have to keep yourself safe."
"No. I have to help fight them off, and I have to keep you safe."
"I can't have you rushing out to battle. That's what the fighting team's for. You have to stay hidden and heal everyone. Please stay here. For me." They looked into eachother's eyes for a moment, and that was all it took for Sakura to give in.
"Alright, but I'm only staying incase you need healing....or anyone else for that matter."
Kakashi took her hands into his own. "Thank you." He kissed her swiftly, and held her for a moment. "I love you."
"I love you too Kakashi." With one last kiss, he ran out of the bushes into the fight. Sakura couldn't hold back her tears as she watched, feeling helpless.
Naruto charged into the cluster of enemies with his army of shadow clones and managed to take down 5 or 6 of them. Then, the rest of the fighting group charged into the tangle of bodies, and Sakura immediately lost view of Kakashi.
Not long after that, the fighting stopped, and as the dust settled, it was obvious who the victors were. "YES! Thats was so easy!" Sakura's eyes darted around the area counting the number of fighters standing. One, two, three, four..... "They were such amateurs!" Five, six.....seven. Sakura sighed inwardly as she realized that no one was killed.
"Is anyone hurt?"
"I just have a few scratches, but other than that I'm fine." Naruto ran over to get his arm healed by Sakura while everyone else inspected the area. Kakashi came up to Sakura's bush as Naruto left with a freshly healed arm.
"Why do you think they sent in amateur fighters to intercept us?"
"Well, I can only think of two reasons. One, they didn't want to waste their good fighters on a fight with an enemy they knew nothing about, or two, they plan on attacking us with their main fighters afterwards. I hope it's the first reason."
"Me too. Are you alright?"
"They didn't scratch me." Kakashi flashed her a huge smile and kissed her on the cheek. "I'll be right back. I'm going to examine the bodies." He got up and began walking towards the pile of corpses in the middle of the clearing.
Right as Kakashi bent down to examine the first body, an unseen explosive tag detonated and blew Kakashi right into a tree. In the confusion of that moment, more enemies dropped from the trees and attacked. Kakashi got up and spit to one side. That's blood.....
"Sakura, move! Go quietly and don't get caught." He stood up and pulled his mask from his face, only exposing his eye. I have to wait for an opening, but I can move to that fern for cover. No one should see me back there. The instant she saw an opening, Sakura ran into that fern. From there she had a perfect view of the fighting. The enemy had the upper edge because of the ambush. Kakashi was fighting three at once while bleeding profusely. Naruto and the others each had two enemies to fight. Shino and Neji were fighting back to back. Everyone was injured by this time, and Sakura was shaking. I wish I could help.....I feel so useless now.... Her thoughts were cut short by a loud grunt. Kakashi faltered and grabbed his side. There was a sword protruding from his right side, and from the looks of it, the blade had sliced all the way through. Sakura had begun to cry, but while her vision blurred, a log replaced the vision of Kakashi. Sakura closed her eyes and took a deep breath ....I thought that was really him.
Sakura was jerked up roughly. She looked up and saw that the person had a mask on. "You're hiding from us! Why would a sweet little thing like you be sitting in a bush?" Sakura wrenched one of her arms from his grasp and punched him as hard as she could in the side of the head. He went flying into a tree about ten feet away, and it immediately fell over.
"Sakura! Hide!" Kakashi was shouting over the clang of metal on metal. She could barely hear him, but she knew what he was trying to say.
"They already know where I am! I'm going to fight!." Kakashi fought his way over to her.
"Then you're going to fight next to me."
Sakura kissed him quickly. "I can do that." They smiled at eachother and turned to face the rush of fighters. Kakashi was right. These are the skilled fighters he was talking about.... I just hope the rush stops soon. I don't know how much longer everyone can last. Kakashi was fighting a man behind her when she was pushed away and surrounded by a group of about ten ninja. "KAKASHI!" he whirled around just as the man he was fighting lunged. This time he was actually stabbed. He twirled around, decapitated him, and ran towards Sakura. She was frantically fighting for her life about five feet away. He cut down three in his path and another when he made it to Sakura's side.
"Are you alright?"
"I'm fine." She looked down at his back. It was stained crimson with blood. "But you're not."
"I'll be fine. They're almost all gone." With a grimace, Sakura took a knife from a nearby corpse and threw it into the neck of a nearby attacker. Sakura got lost in the fight then and didn't continue to worry about Kakashi.
--
"This is the last guy." Sasuke had an enemy at knifepoint and was ready to kill him at a moments notice.
"Don't kill him just yet. We need to get some information out of him. I'll hit his main chakra points so h can't do anything." Neji had taken lead of the interrogation since Kakashi was in need of medical attention. Kakashi had asked everyone to stay away to save him embarassment.
Kakashi and Sakura were about three trees away from the interrogation. Sakura was sweating over his wounded abdomen. "S-Sakura...."
"Please...don't speak. It will take too much effort." Kakashi reached towards her hands and tried to push them away.
"Sakura....stop."
"No. If I stop trying then....then you could.....die." He grabbed her hands and pulled them towards his face.
"That's what I w-want." Sakura's jaw dropped, and she just stared, eyes brimming with tears, waiting for an explanation. "You knew when it was a-a waste.....when you were healing the animals.......Why don't you know that now?" Her tears spilled over then, dripping on their entwined hands.
"It's not a waste!" She ripped her hands from his grip and smashed her fist into a nearby tree. "I won't let you die!"
"Sakura...I want you to stop trying to heal me......please...." She looked down at his face. It was etched with pain and frustration. "You m-must protect everyone. Go back to Konoha.....don't let them get their hands on my body...." When Sakura opened her mouth to protest, he placed his hand over her mouth. "Please...just do this for me... I love you..."
"I-I....I love you too." She collapsed onto his chest and cried. He ran his hand through her hair to comfort her, and they layed there like that, in the cover of the dense trees.
--
There was a rustling in the trees behind Sai and Shikamaru. They tensed and turned ready to spring at a possible enemy, but when they turned, they didn't see an enemy emerging from the trees. Instead, they saw Sakura walking through the trees holding Kakashi's body in her arms. Her eyes were red from crying, but besides that, her face was expressionless. "I couldn't save him." Her voice was as expressionless as her face. "He asked me to bring you all back to Konoha along with his body. If you are all in the proper condition, I would like to depart now." They looked at eachother and then at Sakura. Sasuke and Naruto were looking down, overcome with emotion.
"Everyone's fine....uh....We need to inform the hokage of what we learned here anyway." They left the clearing with not so much as a glance back.
"Are you all right Sakura-chan?" She didn't even acknowledge Naruto. She just kept looking ahead with a cold look in her eyes while she carried Kakashi's body. No matter what anyone said to her, they never got any more than an 'I'm fine.' Everyone offered to relieve her of her burdens, but she never allowed anyone to touch Kakashi's corpse. Even when they made it to Konoha, she had trouble handing it to the coroner. After that, she was no more than a walking void. She never spoke to anyone or went anywhere in public. So it was an oddity when she was at the meeting with the Hokage. After Neji and Sai finished relaying the details of the encounter, Sakura cracked.
"How can you just sit there?! You're acting as if nothing happened!"
"Calm yourself Sakura. You know as well as I do that we all cared about Kakashi, but we can't go running off after people that we haven't even identified yet."
"Well you sent us running off after a corpse held by people we hadn't identified." Tsunade hushed. Obviously Sakura had struck a nerve, but she was too overcome with grief to care. She walked out of the office and slammed the door. Naruto came running after her. "What was that all about?"
"She's ignorant." She said it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Sakura what's gotten into you?"
"Nothing. Now leave me alone." He grabbed her arm to stop her.
"What is it Naruto?" She glared at him. "You're wasting my time."
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going after those people who attacked us and that stupid corpse." He dropped her arm.
"What? When?"
"Tonight." This truly shocked the blonde. He just stared at her awestruck.
"But....are you bringing anyone with you?"
"No, and you'd better not tell anyone or come after me. It'll be your neck then." She turned on her heel and stormed away, and all Naruto could do was stand there and watch, wondering if he'd be able to save his former teammate from the ninja and herself.
~End~
