Her surroundings had gotten colder as soon as the sunlight was gone. Within the next hour it was way too cold to be comfortable anymore and she still couldn't move. Usually shivering would have given her at least a tiny amount of warmth but even that bit was missing. It didn't get very cold in this area though so she wouldn't have to worry about freezing to death, which was a small ray of light on her mind. She could hear the wind outside whistling through the trees, moving leaves and branches which made a calming melody mixed with the silence of nightfall.
As long as no wild animals or rogue nin appeared, there should be no problem for the next twenty-four hours but she doubted it would take that long for somebody to find her. The mission was known to every shinobi in Suna and her friends should be somewhere not to far away. After defeating the enemy they would return here for sure to look after her.
Breathing and blinking with her eyes were the only movements she could control, which was a weird, unnerving feeling to her. Not being able to change anything about the situation, her thoughts began to wander to places her body couldn't follow.
No matter how hard she tried to calm her mind and assure herself there would be no further complications, the growing emotions kept nagging on her, whispering scenarios to her mind. Contrary to outside - her unmoving body -, inside raged a storm mixed of fear and blind anger for her new found enemy. The redhead, who made her run for her life just to paralyse and then leave her here. Whenever she could see clearer and the fury declined, there were parts where she tried to emphasize with him to understand why he'd done it. But no matter how hard Sakura thought about it, she couldn't get a hold on his motivations. These actions didn't make sense.
Maybe it was another stupid sadistic game, like the one he played on her before. First he tortured her body, now he continued with her mind.
She came to the conclusion that he had never used his full potential during their fight. Even with the antidote and her partner in this fight, the call was clear from the beginning. Destroying Hiruko wasn't luck, he had calculated it and taken the risk willingly. That's when he found out about her chakra induced strength. He probably wanted to get information about her fighting style, since she wasn't as known in the ninja world as others that were featured in bingo books and similar resources. And with almost three hundred dolls at his command, losing one was peanuts to him.
The third kazekage was nothing but another sacrifice to block the powers of the two puppets Chiyo had wielded, mother and father. Dodging the huge iron sand formations had strained her chakra in addition and made her use the first antidote. Had he known about the existence of it?
Sakura had a weird feeling about this thought, something was off about it. This jigsaw didn't fit kazekage one was way more powerful, especially with the iron sand jutsu. Could it be he had underestimated her there? Maybe it wasn't a part of his plan, there was no sense in giving up on it. No, at this point he went for her life and got taken by surprise. Surely he didn't know of the antidote and her superior medical knowledge. Most people underestimated her concerning this. Being a medic nin at her age was uncommon. And being a brilliant student taught by Tsunade herself was nothing he could have predicted.
The hundred dolls he used - that was harder to solve. And the first time he seemed to have to concentrate at all during the fight. So wielding many puppets might to be harder. Why hadn't he used ten like the elder lady then? Or twenty which still should be easier to manage than the amount he had summoned. Another part that didn't seem to fit.
Had be become more careful after the destruction his favourite toy? A possibility she had to consider, but he could have used all of them at once to attack her. Yet most of the time more than half of the puppets were flying around without actually attacking, she realised. Ten, maybe fifteen had issued her at the same time but never more. Chiyo had to fend off about the same amount of attackers during that phase of the fight. Whenever one got destroyed, another took its place. It mostly challenged her dodging skills and stamina, while she ran from the dolls and smashed them one by one whenever the chance occured. Maybe he tested her physical skills even further during that phase.
Her mind would be calmer if he had acted like a major show off similar to Naruto instead of the cold calculating puppeteer that seemed to be up to something at all times. But the redhead had constantly incited her during their fight and examined her reactions.
It was a constant test of her abilities, she realised, surprised by the conclusion she couldn't come to until now..
But why would he try her, and then leave? If he deemed her a threat to his life, killing her would be a simpler way to handle the risk. Not taking her life meant he wasn't scared of her. Which hinted the scale of his skills. According to this, his strength had to be superior to hers. That made her a little toy he liked to play with for a second. The paralysation had probably changed that to making her and Chiyo irrelevant in his eyes.
That thought made her wonder about her companion's state. She tried to locate the other woman within her wrecked surroundings, looking from the right end of her limited field of view to the left. Unsuccessful, she sighed inwardly. At least her chakra was still somewhere close to her which meant she was still alive. She desperately wished to ask her about Sasori. Maybe she knew more about his intentions, they had been a family once. If she didn't know what was going on in his head, nobody would.
It unnerved Sakura how much he had snuck into her head, haunting and controlling her brain like one of his puppets. The man was crazy, nothing else. He shouldn't captivate her thoughts like that. Somehow he still controlled her behaviour long after he left. She wanted to bite her tongue to concentrate, to regain consciousness, but the paralyzing toxins left her unsatisfied. As mind blowing as their fight had been, she had other things to tend do. Her friends were still fighting and Gaara was somewhere unknown to her, his life in danger. Right now Sasori's motivations didn't matter. She had to get out of here and help before she could hunt the puppeteer a second time, but without the others finding her, the chances to do so were decreasing drastically.
How long might their fight with the blonde Akatsuki member last? They had an advantage in numbers but she didn't know his fighting style except for the explosions from before. He had almost destroyed Suna. Impossible to calculate his strength by that alone. Overthrowing Gaara was hard, he hadn't become Kazekage at his age without a reason. Which meant the crazy bomber was another deadly threat nobody should underestimate.
Not even if he looked like a kind of cute, male version of Ino. His weapons were as explosive as her best friend's outbursts during her PMS. The resemblance amused her, but if the blonde girl ever found out about her thoughts, she'd probably punch her in the face. She deemed it wise not to let her know about this. Especially since she shouldn't joke like that in her situation. How much she wished her best friend to be here with her. Or any other of her friends.
She decided to trust in her friends and to believe in them as much as they had in her. Thinking of them made the current situation less frightening and helped her not to think about the shadows that seemed to dance around her the longer she looked at them. She had been scared of the dark since the night when Sasuke had left Konoha and knocked her out to stay behind on the bench. The feeling had almost overpowered her, but a motivation by inner Sakura helped enough to keep the trepidation away for now. Giving up wasn't an option. Of course they would find her.
According to her feeling, about two hours had passed since her enemy left when she gave up fighting against the overpowering tiredness that kept coming. She had spent the last hour dozing off every few minutes whenever her eyes fell shut. Sakura wanted to be awake when the others would find her. They might get scared seeing her like that. Otherwise, the short tempered Naruto might think she were dead or something. But after fighting against the sleep for so long, the chakra depletion got to her and she gave in to the sweet temptation that sleep and dreams provided.
Sakura's dreams faded slowly, when she felt hands on both her shoulders. Someone was shaking her. Wondering why she were able to feel the movement she fought herself back into consciousness only to open her eyes to a pair of ocean coloured ones, filled with tears and a sea of emotions. The boy right in front of her had blonde, chaotic hair. As soon as he realised her stare the biggest smile she had seen for days grew on his face.
It took her a while to realise it was Naruto. Her head brimmed with a headache and dizziness. Thinking was hard. She couldn't remember how she got here, in this chilly place. But at least one of her friends was here with her. Trying to express her happiness, she opened her mouth, forming words..
To her annoyance, she didn't open her mouth at all. Her lips wouldn't make a movement. Her tongue was made of stone. She couldn't. None of her body parts would do as she wished. Unnerved about her situation, she remembered. What had happened, where she was.
The bloody fighting scenes captured her mind again. The helplessness she had felt, when he came closer. The hate that filled her heart, when he said these evil things to Chiyo. He had hurt her somehow during their fight. And she realised the effects of the puppeteers poisons were still working on her body. The loneliness must have made her lose her mind if she forgot omnipresent things like the state of her body. She had to tell him somehow. But how should she explain Naruto what was going on?
Talking would be the easiest way, or gesturing but none of it was possible. She couldn't think of a way to get rid of the hindring effects without the antidote she had created. There were no doses left and the next amount could only be produced in Suna with the recipe she gave the doctors in the hospital and the herbs the gardeners harvested and the chemical gear inside their research buildings and…
The thoughts somersaulted inside her head again, leaving no space for clear thinking. It took a while for her to sort it out again but the conclusion didn't make her happy at all. The Konoha nins would have to bring her there. But she had to tell them first, somehow.
Her blonde teammate hugged her cheerfully, crying tears of joy that ran down his face.
"Sakura.. we.. we thought you were de.. dead," he sobbed, his whole body shaking. He was clearly upset. Having her seen like that, unmoving on the floor on this battleground must have induces the greatest terrors in his heart. That's why she wanted to stay awake. That was exactly what she had wanted to avoid.
"I'm so glad you're alive. We were so worried, you looked dead!"
"Na, na, Naruto, don't strangle her. Give her some space to breath," a older man's voice censured the blonde. She recognised it from somewhere. Immediately she was being let go, now able to look into the faces of her friends. They all appeared exhausted, but alive and just minor injured to her great relief. If they were hurt or in a critical state right now, she couldn't have helped them. The moment she saw them all, she realised the voice belonged to Kakashi, her sensei. That explained why Naruto had obeyed so fast. He seemed to be more exhausted than the others. Deidara must have had been a strong opponent to wear her teacher out like that.
Another wave of hatred for Sasori and his actions rolled over her. Making sure she couldn't follow him was a smart move. But making sure she couldn't help her friends if his partner wounded them was a sadistic one. She couldn't shake the feeling off her that he planned everything to the last bit. But still, killing her would have been so much easier for him.
"Sakura, are you okay? What's wrong, why don't you say anything?" a voice interrupted her thoughts. For a moment her feelings had consumed her again. The questioning eyes made her try to answer, but she couldn't, leaving her with a feeling of growing pain and failure.
Wanting to communicate with them, she thought about how to tell them about her situation. The only things she could do was breathing and blinking. And so she did, closing her eyes, keeping them closed for a short, yet longer time than a blink usually lasted, and opened them again. Then she stared intently at them, to underline her action. Hopefully at least her sensei would recognize the signs she gave them.
Sakura had to repeat the process four times to make them understand she wasn't able to speak.
Her assumption was correct. As she had predicted, the grey haired shinobi was the first to realise she was trying to tell them something and read her signs correctly. He explained his theory quickly so the others knew what her situation was, too. If she could, she would have started to cry yet her eyes stayed dry. Now they might find a way to understand.
Kakashi found a quick way to communicate with her, getting the information he needed to form a new plan. He asked questions and told her theories. One blink would mean 'yes'. Two meant 'no' and three ones were meant for questions she didn't know the answer.
"Is Chiyo here?" - Blink.
"Are you two poisoned?" - Blink.
"Is there an antidote?" - Blink.
"Ok, tell me where so we can help you." This was neither a yes, nor a no. It was in Suna. So she went for the third option and picked three blinks. He flinched at her answer. Of course. A medicine against the toxins would have hurried the interrogation process. He tried some other variations of the question to make sure his assumptions were right before he talked to the others for a bit.
They made the decision to bring her and Chiyo back to Suna into the hospital, where the medics would care for them. It was the only logical reaction for them, since none of them had the advanced medical skills to examine the two kunoichis and extract the poison. If Sakura was correct the doctors should have replicated her antidote by now with the help of her orders given to the head doctor. As soon as she would get treated with it, the paralysation would be released and she would be able to use her body again. Finally.
Kakashi and Gai decided it would be the best and fastest way to carry the two women piggyback, since there were no other ways to transport them. Naruto carefully put Sakura's arms around his neck and pulled her up to carry her on his back, always concerned about the state she was in. He asked a never ending amount of questions during their short trip, and laughed at himself whenever he realised she couldn't answer. Whenever one of her arms slid down, he would stop for a moment to put it back in the right location, jokingly lecturing her that she had to be more careful where she touched him. First she desperately wanted to punch him for the stupid comments, but his sunny attitude enlightened her mind and blew away the worries for a short time.
Grinning with a smile that presumably went from one ear to the other, he boasted how awesome his fighting skills were and how he made sure of the fanatic bomber's death with Kakashi. "You know, Kakashi sensei used this weird new type of sharingan. I've never seen that before. He's such a great sensei, Sakura-chan," he praised their sensei, which probably made the older man grin in pride underneath the black mask that covered half of his face. She was glad the two of them had defeated the Akatsuki member. If both of them were still alive, it would be a big problem. One was more than enough.
Somewhere on the way he got more quiet and directed his speech to another topic. In short, confusing sentences he tried to explain what had happened to Gaara. Often he would start a sentence to end it in the middle without going on or stuttering until he gave up. Or gulping. It was clear to see that he didn't feel good and worried a lot about his friend. She had been told the Kazekage had fought against Deidara and lost, but she didn't know what happened between his abduction and the moment they had found him in the cave with the two enemies. His words weren't really clear and disturbed by him gulping several times. She felt the desperate urge to hug Naruto, pat his head and tell him everything was going to be alright. That she was personally going to make sure Gaara was fine. Just comfort him in any way. But for now she had to wait until they reached their destination.
Shortly after she could make out Sunagakure in the distance. Motivated by the sight, her friends speed up even more and within ten minutes they reached the gates, welcomed by the guards on duty. Under different circumstances Lee and Gai would definitely blabber something about youth and new records, but the mood wasn't right for it now. She never thought she'd ever miss that weird talk of them.
As soon as the guards on duty spotted the group with the lifeless Gaara, everything began to get hectic. They immediately rushed towards them where Gai gently gave the Kazekage's body to them. Without asking any questions, they turned on their heels to carry their leader to the hospital, completely ignoring Sakura and her companions. Not sure what to do her friends looked confused at each other.
"Follow them, and bring Sakura and Chiyo to a medic that knows about the antidote," Kakashi ordered. "I'll go explain the situation to the council." Naruto nodded and ran after the guards as fast as he could, while carefully carrying his teammate on his back. They rushed through the dusty streets of Suna, followed closely by Lee who carried the elder lady, that was as unable to move as herself.
"Sakura, are you alright? I'm so worried about you," the eyebrowy shinobi called out, manly tears on his face. He had confessed his love to her several times and was a good person with a heart of gold, always worrying about others. Just too special for her to like him back. She winked at him, which seemed to ease his worries. "Aah, as expected of the sweet Sakura, you're so strong!" He really was a special guy.
"Of course she's alright, she's Sakura!" Naruto joked back at him, his widest smile plastered all over his face. "She smashed the dumb puppet jerk to pieces with her ultra strength!"
Thanks for reading my second chapter! I'm so not confident aabout this and really not happy with some parts but I decided it was really time to post this. So I hope you enjoy some party of it!
I included some of my thoughts about the original Saso - Saku fight. Like he couldn't have lost this thing. But my chapter explained that enough already.
So I'm really interested in what you think: should Sasori have won?
And of course I like reviews! Thanks for my first one ever, I was really happy about that one.