Chapter 2

Pain and Suffering

Disclaimer: None of these amazing characters belong to me.


The war had started.

Pink strands flew as Sakura twisted her upper body, successfully parrying a blow from a katana that sliced towards her head. She flipped herself upwards, somersaulting in the air to land directly on the flat of the huge blade. Then flicking out her own tiny kunai, she ran towards the owner of the blade, a sound ninja, and sliced his throat deftly.

Only to be shanghaied by another two more.

They were coming at her fast, probably part of a more elite Sound force. The ninja's surrounded her, forming a circle with Sakura in the middle. They made a stab all at once. Sakura quickly droped to the ground, kicking her chakra-fused legs around in a low arch, spinning to catch them all in the stomach and scatter the unconcious nins among their dead comrades.

Sakura did not stop moving while she scanned her liquid green eyes, seeking out her friends and any Konoha ninja who might need aid. Ino and Hinata were teamed up against a monstrous looking sound-nin. Ino had taken control of his mind using her clan jutsu, while Hinata was sealing up his chakra points. Neji and Lee were up against two ninjas who appeared to be jounin sound-nin. Tenten appeared to be struggling against five opposing ninjas at a time. Sakura spotted a ninja sneakily moving up behind Tenten and picked up speed in order to get to her.

'I won't make it in time!' Sakura screamed in her mind. Catching her thumb between her fingers, she rapidly drew a chakra circle in the air in front of her and placed her now bloody thumb in the centre,

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

A silver wolf appeared, no taller than her waist. 'Kira! Get to the sound-nin coming up behind Tenten!' She thought frantically to her wolf companion. Kira growled at the sound ninja, in response to her mistresses wishes, and lunged at him. The ninja had no chance to escape. He was already dead when the heavy 200 pound animal landed solidly on his chest, crushing his sternum with her paws.

Sakura skidded to a halt in front of Tenten, "You all right?" she asked worriedly. Tenten looked at her close friend and sent a reassuring smile before knocking Sakura aside and sweeping out three kunai to pin them onto three sound-nin approaching Sakura from behind.

Relief swept through her at the close save and she exhaled to gain back her focus. Sakura turned to face the onslaught of ninjas that were, once again surrounding her. Sakura took a step backwards, only to bump into Tenten. Back to back both females remained, alert against any attacks.

Sakura eyed the ninja suspiciously, gripping two kunai each hand while puzzling out a pattern in her mind. She nudged Tenten to get the woman's attention still keeping an eye on the circle of ninja,

"It seems as though we have a group of sexist males here, Ten", Sakura smirked at Tenten's confused glance before elaborating, "with Konoha ninja, it is very easy to recognize their gender, which in turn gives the enemy an advantage of planning out distinct attacks for, let's say, a female. With a female ninja, they simply surround and conquer, whereas with a male ninja, they charge forward and usually it's only one sound ninja against one male Konoha ninja."

Tenten rolled her eyes at the stupidity of these enemy ninja "Whopdeedoo, not only are we waisting our time against these ninja when we could be fighting Kabuto or Orochimaru, but these guys happen to have sex on their brains." Letting out a frustrated sigh Tenten narrowed her cinnamon coloured eyes at them mentally picking out the ones with a weak stance and a cocky smile, knowing from experience that they would go down quickly.

"I'm already done, Saki."

Tenten disappeared from her place behind Sakura. The Sound ninja's peered around in confusion seeking out the weapons mistress, only to see darkness blanket their vision. Tenten appeared back to back with Sakura again, smirking victoriously and balancing a kunai on the tip of her finger. She glanced back at the pink-haired woman with a quick wink before arming a sinister smile at the Sound nin's who hastened to replace the ones she just knocked out, "That's five dead and two knocked unconcious. I think I'm beating you Sakura. What exactly have you been doing in Tsunade's training sessions?"

Sakura made a crude gesture behind her for Tenten to see, causing the woman to roar with laughter.

"Not in the middle of battle, please show some restraint," Sakura commented dryly before charging into the oncoming crowd of enemy ninja's. They all smirked at the actions of the pink-haired female, thinking how easy it was going to be to take her out.

Glittering jade eyes were the last thing these suckers saw before they tumbled into the awaiting crater Sakura had created in the ground.

By now all the Sound ninja's were crowding the pink and brown-haired women trying to get close enough to attack without getting their asses thrown. Both females were now virtually, surrounded. There was no give in the ring that was formed by the black uniformed nin's and the two women were unable to see passed the large crowd. Sakura sighed,

'Oh what I would give for a hot bath'

One of them stepped forward, only halting when the small pink-haired woman shook her finger chidingly at them,

"You really don't want to do that, trust me." she purred dangerously.

This ninja was male obviously, Sakura noted, because of the arrogance that radiated from him as he looked down at the two small ninja's, eyeing them like a slab of meat. He easily towered over the women, trying to look menacing.

Sakura had a mental image built in her head summed up to shoving a stick up a very unappealling place.

The idiotic male pointed at her commandingly and made a gesture for her to come closer.

No this guy wasn't an idiot, he was more specifically...a dead idiot.

Slipping a flirtatious smile on, she swayed her hips forward, enough so that she could see the hunger in his eyes as he eyed her petite, curvaceous figure up and down.

"You wanted me...?"she said. Sakura chose to add a suggestive tone in her voice, trying to distract him from looking at Tenten. She scanned her gaze clinically up and down his length, noting the limp visible in his left calf and the weapons that were slightly protruding under his uniform. She counted six kunai and noticed a bow and arrow case slung across his chest. Sakura furrowed her brow at this. This nin was clearly skilled in close range combat, what with his big form but why the bow, without carrying any arrows.

She kept up the facade of a flirty, brainless, bimbo as she tilted her body slightly towards Tenten still keeping her gaze trained on the big ninja.

Subconsciously, she let her senses wander among the battlefield, searching, for a certain link. Closing her eyes, Sakura used chakra to enhance her vision causing every ninja to be give off heat waves, much like the vision of a cat. Turning her head slightly to the right, she could make out slight figures on top of the Hokage Monument.

The enourmous Sound nin was sliding forward without even trying to be subtle about it. Sakura reasoned that if she tried to punch him into seventh hell, a combustion of chaos would occur in which Tenten would be placed in danger and herself, swarmed.

Sakura settled on quick and clean, diving low on her hands and snapping up her heeled foot to impale his skull right between the eyes, severely damaging his brain tissue. This man would not be doing any fantasizing about her or any other woman ever again. The impaled man, sloppily tipped over landing with a thud and bounce.

Red liquid pooled down the dead man's cheeks, soaking into the ground and bathing his face.

Sakura propelled off the ground using her hands and momentum, performing a graceful aerobic spin in the air before landing lightly with a dramatic finish.

A stunned silence issued in the air. Any of the oncoming ninja's would not have claimed to even see her move, only that she was originally positioned two feet from the enourmous Sound nin and in a blink, she wasn't.

Crouching in defense, she swished her toe in a semi circle in front of her, kicking up dust and debris, effectively blinding her opponents. Sakura could hear Tenten switch to her curve blade, the most deadly out of all the weapons she owned.

Not only was Tenten's curve blade deadly, it was also very smooth...and quick.

The pink-haired woman brought up a finger and cocked it, plump cherry lips curving into a deadly smirk,

"Come at me boys, and we'll see who ends up dying tonight, ne?"


"Kage Bushin No Jutsu!"

Springing backward, the blond-haired ninja narrowly avoided being diced in half. He quickly disappeared, allowing his clones to deal with the thirty or so Sound ninja's that had surrounded him in attempts to defeat and capture a Jinjuriki.

The blond-haired man reappeared further ways off and immediately headed in search of his pink-haired teammate. Sakura was more important to him right now, seeing as how Sasuke was after her blood almost as much as his. Sasuke also considered Sakura the weaker link, the easier target and would be looking for her right now.

He came to a halt at the side of a huge crowd. Sound ninja's were trampling over each other to reach the centre, in which the fighters could not be seen.

It was right then that he caught hold of the anger-laced words,

"YOU BASTARD!YOU DID NOT JUST TRY AND GROPE ME! IN THE MIDDLE OF A WAR!"

The voice rang with incredulous disbelief, causing Naruto to wince at the volume, his ears vibrating with the loud pitch. Rubbing his ear, Naruto grinned in triumph. Yep that was definitely Sakura.

Looking around, Naruto walked backwards a few steps, then took off in a running leap and somersaulted over the crowd right into the growing chaos.


"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY HAVE ADVANCED!"

The informant inwardly cringed, taking a few steps back, but otherwise maintaining composure. He bowed and clearing his throat, went on

"The enemy has advanced to the centre of Konoha, all though it seems that the majority of Sound and Lightening Nin's have been held up near the gates."

"How many casualties?"

"About 10,000 of our ANBU went into battle, 50 of them have passed."

The Hokage had snapped her gaze up to eye the messenger, thinking him to be suspicious. It wasn't every day that so few ninja's died in a war as big as this one. Konoha was one of the biggest villages in the Fire Country, facing off against two other prosperous villages. That many casualties was near impossible.

A frown line appeared, showing that the Hokage was deep in thought. It was not possible for so few to have passed. Not that she was complaining but she could clearly sniff out a ploy in play.

Unless….

"Which ANBU division is currently holding the nin's off at the gates?" she barked out, crouched down and healing three ANBU's with serious head wounds. The informant fended off a Lightning nin who was rapidly losing chakra, before replying.

"When I last spotted them they seemed to surrounded, but alive with no physical trauma. And it looked as though your apprentice was enjoying herself."

The blonde-haired Hokage whipped out a tiny smirk and felt pride for the pink-haired woman that she helped shape and respected.

But the Informant was not done delivering the news, he just wished he wouldn't get killed in the process.

"Lady Tsunade, there is something else that I must tell you…."

Not taking her attention off of her surroundings, Tsunade narrowed her gaze at him, urging him to continue.

But when he didn't, she continued coldly,

"Spit it out already. In case you haven't noticed, we are in the middle of a war where fellow ninja's are dying by the second."

Hesitatingly, he said,

"The Akatsuki have joined the war. And they have joined our side."

Tsunade stood up and instantly adopted her fighting stance, eyes searching the battlefield for black and red swirled cloaks.

"Why?" she whispered to herself.

Answering her question, the messenger added,

"It seems as though they are after the Jinchuriki and it gives them an easier chance to get close to him. But their new objective, is not the jinchuriki."

Hazel eyes filled with fear met his piercing gaze.

"Sakura seems to have caught their attention now."

In that single moment, Tsunade felt her heart stop and then clench, her lungs refused to allow her to breath. This momentary display of weakness attracted the spear of Lightning Nin, but before he could behead her, the informant stepped in front taking the brunt of the attack.

His now detached head, rolled to the ground, leaving a red trail behind.

Rage combined with the fear she felt for her daughter played a part in the Lightning nin feeling all the 206 bones break in his body, before locking gazes with the Hokage and not seeing the light of day ever again.

Tsunade bent down to the body that belonged to the severed head, and muttered a quick prayer of sympathy, feeling the keen loss of one of her loyal and brave ninja's. She formed the right hand seals of transporting him to a morgue, where all the dead Konoha nin's were being transported to.

Thinking quickly, she scanned the battle taking place around her, holding tightly to her rage and mourn, which if unleashed, would most likely get her killed. The kunoichi she was looking for didn't seem to be in sight.

That was until she caught a flash of pink, tucked into the crook of a black-haired ninja's arm. But that wasn't what made all of the colour and flush in her cheeks drain. It was the fact that she noticed he wasn't a Konoha nin and seemed to be standing tall and straight against the oncoming murderous power of a rasengan.