The sound of silent shoes hitting tree branches enters the forest. I count six but Kakashi holds up seven fingers. Naruto grins at me from his tree branch and his blue eyes light up with eagerness. Sasuke seems indifferent but I recognize the slight dip of his chin as he prepares to fight for his life. I feel Kakashi-sensei slowly remove his hand from my mouth and leans down to whisper in my ear.
"I'm not calling you weak; but if you need anything, just throw this on the ground." He whispers and I feel his hands place a small circular bead in mine. I realize instantly that it's a smoke bomb. Silent, and confusing. His fingers linger on my hand while he locks the bead in my grip, and finally releases me.
When the footsteps are almost beside us, we all leap from out positions. I see a flash of blue light to my left and instantly recognize Naruto's chakra supreme strategy. I go for more of a silent and dark attack; lingering in the trees before finding a target and hurling a kunai knife. The figure is surprised and barely manages to escape the blade. I see him begin to use hand signs and I am not ready to be pushed into another simulation jitsu. I shoot out of the tree, doing a flip in the air so my feet are forced towards him. He tenses and I twist myself around at the last instant, my feet slamming into the tree behind him as I push off and embed my kunai knife in his back. He utters a sound and falls to the ground. Hearing lots of noise around me, I climb back up into the trees to get a good look.
Most of the noise I hear is the rustle of leaves and twigs breaking on the ground, along with the occasional guttural cry of a ninja being cut down. This is good, that way no one will be alerted of the ambush.
I spot my next target and slink to the ground behind him. This one, however, notices me and hurls some shuriken my way. I dodge deftly and concentrate my chakra on my hands as I throw some punches. He moves swiftly and manages to dodge each one. He makes a hand sign and holds his fingers to his lips. As he breathes into his hand I feel cold air in front of me and barely leap out of the way before ice shards shower the area where I was standing. I duck low to the ground and throw a foot out to trip the man, he jumps easily and I turn myself so I'm standing on my hands and shoot a foot out to catch him. He blocks the kick with his arm and I throw another punch. The man holds up a kunai knife and we spar a bit. Finally I manage to land a kick in the stomach and a punch to the head and he was out. I pant on the ground, slightly exhausted. When a rustle sounds beside me I leap into the air and alight on a tree branch.
Not seeing anything I whisper a substitution jitsu and disappear into the leaves. I hear more clangs of kunai knives connecting. I push some leaves away from my eyes and watch my opponent carefully as he spars with my shadow clone.
He curses when it poofs into dust. I leap from the tree, holding my arms and legs tightly at my sides for more of an aerodynamic hit. Before I can reach him however, I see movement from the corner of my eye and just barely manage to cross my arms to lessen the blow. I'm thrown back against a tree and cough as the wind is knocked out of me. I wipe my mouth and face both of my opponents. They're about the same height and weight, perhaps brothers. Slowly, I reach into my pack and pull out two kunai knives. The first man holds up a single hand signal and I watch a bit scared as his skin seems to mold into a clay-like substance. The other makes several hand signals and I recognize a double attack right before it happens. Sure enough a thick fog emerges from the man and I realize its poison. The clay-like skin the other ninja uses is to provide immunity to the poison gas. I whistle two long trills, our signal for poison or other sneak attacks. Whispering another substitution jitsu I develop a plan in my mind.
The poison is thicker than the air so it won't rise, but it can seep into the ground and be expelled in other places if I can make space for it. I grab one explosive from my pouch and watch it create a small opening in the gas when I drop it and I leap for it. The bomb was small and not too loud. Once on the ground, I pull out a tag and place it in front of me. Whispering some words and making several hand signs the tag begins to shoot into the ground in front of me. I follow it as it tunnels under. My plan seems to be working fine but I neglected to look too far ahead. I would run into a problem soon. I listen carefully as I continue to tunnel further into the ground. When I hear the sound of kunai knives I realize I am below Sasuke, Naruto, and Kakashi-sensei. Now is the time to begin the hard part of my plan. I pull out another tag from my pack. A wind tag. I place it above my head and another on the right and another on the left.
I then sit on the ground and concentrate my chakra around me in a circular shape. A whirlpool. I feel the wind tags begin to pick up speed. My plan was to force the poison gas into the ground and then expel it into the faces of our opponents, however, I neglected to see how I would manage not to be poisoned in the process, and after all, I am the one who is going to force the gas onto our opponents above me. I sense for the right time as my hair whirls around me in the wind. I see the purplish color of the gas appear in front of me as it combines with the air above me and joins the whirlwind. I grab my headband and tie it around my mouth and nose in an attempt to keep it out.
Seeing the timing perfectly I scream loudly and hope to alert Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi-sensei to leave the ground. Hoping they get the message, I concentrate chakra into my right hand and in one motion, leap up and hit the ceiling of dirt above me. I grin as I hear the crack of the ground breaking all around me. At that moment, I dispel the chakra that had been keeping the poison gas in such a small area and leap into the air as it explodes up towards the trees.
Around me I notice our opponents coughing and gagging, slowly dropping to their knees one by one. I smile when I see Kakashi-sensei, Naruto, and Sasuke alighted safely on a tree above me. They understood. I jump up to reach one of the branches when my breath catches in my throat. I wince and shut my eyes as my lungs heave for air. I must have breathed in a bit of the poison, I realize with horror as my hand brushes the branch I was aiming for and I fall backwards down towards the poisonous gas. I hear Naruto scream my name and I feel a hand grab mine. I open my eyes and glance up above me to see Kakashi staring down at me with his same half-open eyes but he was unable to disguise the worry that flickered behind his lazy gaze.
I attempt a smile but end up coughing instead. Kakashi-sensei grabs my shoulder and heaves me up onto the branch, picking me up by the shoulders and behind my knees and jumps to the branch next to Naruto and Sasuke.
Naruto runs over to me and stares worriedly as Kakashi-sensei lays me down on the thick and steady tree branch. I note that Sasuke walks over and leans over Naruto's shoulder. Kakashi turns to grab something from his bag and I grab his hand to stop him. He turns back to me.
"It's fine." I pause to heave a huge breath.
"Sakura, you idiot! Why'd you do that! You could die!" Naruto yells.
"Naruto, the poison's short lasting. It'll leave my system soon; it's like a one-hit-kill thing. If it doesn't work at first contact, it doesn't work at all." When Naruto continues to stare at me I reassure him. "Besides, I've trained myself to be resistant to many poisons." I grit my teeth together as a new wave of pain washes over me, and let a small moan leave my mouth.
"Sakura, what you did was very intelligent and brave but you need serious medical help." Kakashi says digging around in his bag again.
"Just don't worry." I make out through my gritted teeth. "The worst will end soon." I say going into another coughing fit. I curl my legs toward me and clasp my hands together as my lungs burn.
"Sakura!" Kakashi-sensei exclaims. Without thinking I reach out and grab his hand and pull it into my chest, clutching it tightly, willing for it to take away some of the pain. I feel my whole form shaking with the effort of not passing out from the pain. Come on Sakura, just stay awake, it'll be over soon. I will myself to ignore the pain in my chest. I feel a hand on my forehead and realize that it's Kakashi-sensei. He reaches down to my mouth and gently pulls my headband away and rests it on top of my forehead, smoothing my hair away to tie it behind my head. Only then do I realize how hard I was gripping his hand and I release him slightly. However, he keeps his hand in mine and squeezes it. I force a smile when I look up.
And just like that, I feel the pain slowly ease away. I breathe deeper and feel my body relax and I release Kakashi-sensei's hand. It was as if I had never even been poisoned. I turn and ease myself into a sitting position, instantly embarrassed at the amount of weakness I had just shown, and the time I'd wasted. I realize it will be a bit longer before I regain strength in my body, as it seems wracked of all strength from my shaking. I glance towards the trees again, no ninjas around.
"See? What'd I tell you? I'm fine. But we need to keep going; I apologize for the hold-up." I say standing and bowing in front of my team. Naruto stares at me, clearly not reassured, but he holds up a thumbs-up sign. Sasuke glances away when I meet his eyes. Kakashi-sensei waves his hand, shaking off my apology and smiling behind his mask.
"Alright, we'll keep going. And I must amend you on that plan of yours Sakura, wonderful job evaluating your enemies and thinking of a way to use their weapons against them."
"Oh and don't worry about the man with the clay-skin. Sasuke took him down; he was going after you underground." Naruto grins at me. I glance up at Sasuke, surprised. He jumps to the next nearest tree branch.
"Well come on then, let's go." He sounds impatient. I share a glance with Naruto and we all leap after him. We travel in silence and I have some time to think of a real solution to my problem.
While the poison was more of a one-hit-kill thing it would have some aftershocks. The poison has entered my respiratory system and died down to a less harmful level. In just a few hours I am likely to experience one more episode of coughing and choking, possibly worse than the first one. Of course, I'm not about to tell that to Naruto, Sasuke, or Kakashi-sensei. Besides, the mission will be over in a few hours anyway, right? While I mentally reason with myself I barely notice Sasuke disappear into the leaves of a tree in front of me. Naruto lifts his nose up and sniffs the air and disappears too. Recognizing the boys' sign of danger ahead, I press myself behind the trunk of a nearby tree and pull a kunai knife from my belt.