They quickly found out that the thieves had headed in the same direction. They caught up to about half way behind them before they stopped to make a plan. Sakura immediately was the one they looked to for a plan.
She sighed and rolled her eyes under the mask. "Okay. When we do catch up, we need to be ready for any situation. Here's what we'll do. In the situation that they split up into two groups, we will as well."
They all nodded. Naruto was trying his best to follow.
"Lee, Naruto, Ino, and Shikamaru will go with the first group if they don't have the scrolls. Me, Neji, and Kakashi will head on after the ones with the scrolls. If it is the other way around, just switch the groups. Our first priority is to get the scrolls back safely to Konaha. Understand?" she looked around.
Everyone nodded and they were off again. They thieves had split up, just like she had hoped. They immediately went with her plan. Ino and Naruto immediately attacked while Shikamaru and Lee waited until later to attack. Sakura and her group went after the scrolls.
The people that took them were waiting for them. They immediately got into attack position as did the enemy. Neji used the Byakugan while Kakashi used the sharingan to predict their movements while Sakura took on the leader.
She didn't move and neither did he. They both stayed at a stalemate until a misplaced attack landed near them. They used taijutsu mostly. Sakura was the first to decide to get serious. She quickly made the hands signs for her own jutsu.
Her chakra manifested itself into small, flower sized portions. It solidified and turned into sakura blossoms. She smirked as the man backed away. "Scared? This is my own special jutsu. That's why they call me Shukketsu Sakura."
He backed away from her. He knew who she was and he didn't want to die! "Please, don't kill me! He told us to do this!" he cried.
Sakura circled him with the petals. "Who?" she said in a low voice. She had killed people before but she didn't enjoy it at all.
He was visibly shaking. "I-I don't k-know!" he cried as he fell to his knees. "He just told us to steal the scrolls! We never saw his face!" he would have said more but a shuriken came out of no where and hit him, killing him instantly.
She didn't drop her defense. Her head jerked towards where Kakashi and Neji were fighting. Her eyes widened under the mask as she realized their plan. She flew off with her petals dancing around her.
She didn't get there in time. She got there just as one of the men hit Kakashi.
He fell backwards, his arm bleeding badly.
Sakura immediately sharpened her petals and sent them towards the ninjas. They were all dead in minutes. She immediately went to where Neji was checking over Kakashi. "This is bad." she said.
Neji nodded.
"Go and get the others. Tell them that we have all the scrolls and to come immediately." she quickly said. She had summoned another one of her jutsus while she ran. Vines came to life and immediately grabbed the scrolls and hiding them. They reappeared where Sakura was leaning over Kakashi.
She pulled her gloves off and pulled her chakra to her hands. Sakura quickly went to work on at least controlling the bleeding a bit. She had him bandaged by the time that Neji and the others came back.
Naruto immediately started yelling. "WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?!" he yelled. The others immediately clamped their hands over his mouth.
Sakura pulled all of the vines to the surface and sent them to Lee, Ino, and Naruto. They took them and looked at her. "You three will take the scrolls back to the village. Tell Tsunade what had happened, Lee. Ino, you are Squad Leader. Go."
They dragged Naruto away before he could say anything. Sakura turned to Neji and Shikamaru. "We will be taking Kakashi to the town near here. It is dangerous to take him a long distance at the moment."
They nodded and carefully took off with Kakashi on the guy's shoulders and Sakura following.
Tsunade was immediately told that a group of shinobi was heading this way. She met them and was relieved when she saw that it was Ino, Lee, and Naruto with the scrolls.
After the scrolls were secured, she forced them to tell her what had happened. She frowned when she heard that Kakashi was hurt. "Shukketsu will handle it. I am sure of it." she said out loud, trying to convince herself of that.
There was only one room left but thankfully it had three beds in it. One of them would be up with Kakashi at all times.
Since it was late when they got there, Sakura took the first watch so the guys could get some sleep. She had been up for about an hour when Kakashi regained consciousness.
He groaned and tried to sit up but Sakura gently pushed him back. "Careful. That wound is still fresh."
He groaned as he tried to move again.
She glared at him, even though he couldn't see it. "Don't make me tie you to the bed. I will carry through with that."
He fell back on the bed and fainted because he had lost a lot of blood and his body was still recovering.
She sat by his side until it was almost morning. She was dozing off when Shikamaru touched her shoulder. She turned her head towards him. "Get some sleep. I'll watch him."
"Make sure that he doesn't move around. Tie him down if you need to." she said while walking over to the bed. She laid down with her hood still on and quickly fell asleep. She sleep until noon. She groggily sat up and realized that her mask was crooked. She quickly glanced around and saw that everyone in the room was asleep and that Kakashi was indeed tied down.
She remembered the man saying that this was also hot spring. She pulled her hood and jacket off and she let her mask fell away. She gathered them up and took them downstairs with her. She put her clothes in the box and secured a towel around herself.
She walked into the girl's section and sat down in the steamy water. She sighed as the water relaxed her sore muscles. Sakura leaned back and just sat there for a while. She opened her eyes when she heard something moving around near the wall.
Sakura grabbed a loose rock and chucked at a small hole she saw forming. She heard a loud ouch from the other side of the wall. Sakura quickly dressed in a bath kimono and walked outside the hall. The person she had hit was also coming out.
"What did you do that for?" a familiar voice said. Jiraiya walked around the corner with a bump forming on his head.
"ERO-SENIN!!! I should have known." she slapped her head. Of all people, it just had to be him. She saw that he didn't remember her. "Sakura." she said.
He immediately remembered her then. "Sakura-chan!" he threw his arm over her shoulder. "What are you doing here?" he asked.
She pulled away from him. She knew that he was a pervert. "I was on a mission with Kakashi and he got himself hurt pretty bad. I……" she started to say but was cut off by a yell from outside.
"I DID IT!!! THE SHUKKETSU DIDN'T GET ME OR THE SCROLL THAT I STILL HAVE!!!!!" a man was yelling. He was wearing the same type of clothing that the other ninjas had been.
Sakura immediately ran up to the front desk. "Do you have a loose outfit that I can borrow?" she quickly asked.
He looked at her with distaste. "No, young lady, I do not." he haughtily said.
Sakura pulled the sleeve up of her kimono, revealing the Anbu marking. "I think that you might want to reconsider that." she said in a dangerous voice.
He immediately ran off and got her the clothes. She ran into a spare room and changed before running back out to where the man was still ranting.
Jiraiya was already standing out there. He held his hand out to stop Sakura. "He's no threat. We don't even know what scroll he has."
Sakura pushed past him. "I already know." she said while charging the man. He was actually pretty good but she still defeated him in under ten minutes. She grabbed the scroll from him and opened it. It was one of Konaha's scrolls, alright. She walked backwards and Jiraiya followed. Sakura turned to face him. "Why are you following me?"
Jiraiya shrugged. "I want to know what that was about."
Sakura sighed. She couldn't lie to a sannin. "Alright. Just let me get my clothes then meet me in the meditation garden." she walked off to get her Anbu outfit. She quickly changed and put the mask back on.
Sakura easily slipped outside to where Jiraiya was waiting. He was pretty surprised when she stepped out of the shadows. He stood up. "Does Hokage-sama need something?" he asked.
Sakura laughed. "Jiraiya, sit down." she said as she pulled the mask off. "Its me and this is my explanation."
Jiraiya's eyes were wide. "Sakura, you're an……. Anbu?" he managed to asked.
She pulled the hooded coat off and showed him the tattoo. "Its true. And not only am I in Anbu, I am Shukketsu Sakura." she revealed.
He was stunned, to say the least. "I still can't believe this. Little timid Sakura is a Anbu captain." he joked.
She narrowed her eyes and performed a partial blossom jutsu, like the one she had done the day before. "You may want to be careful about what you say about me." she said in a threatening voice but still a joking one.
Jiraiya put his hands up in defeat. "Joking. Sakura, you seem tired." Jiraiya pointed out.
Sakura was tired. She had been going on missions a lot and that took it out on the girl. She regrettably nodded.
Jiraiya stood and pushed her inside while she pulled the mask back on. "You, go upstairs and get some sleep. That's an order." he pushed her forward to emphasize his point.
Sakura was glaring at him through the mask. She didn't like to be ordered around. "Don't order an Anbu captain around. You never know where that could get you." She sighed before heading down the hall to where everyone else was waiting for Kakashi to get better.
Shikamaru met her in the hall. He bowed to her.
She tilted her head a bit. "Shouldn't you be sleeping or just being lazy?" She spoke the truth. Everyone gave him a hard time about how lazy he was. She was smirking under the mask.
He glanced at her. "Kakashi kicked us out. He wanted to eat but didn't want to take the mask off in front of us." he explained. "May I speak with you?"
She nodded and leaned back against the wall. He sat across from her. "You're different than all of the other Anbu captains."
Sakura hadn't been expecting him to say that. "How?" she said.
Shikamaru lazily sighed. "You seem kinder and you made sure that no one was left behind. You care about the lives of your team."
Sakura smiled and thought of the words that Kakashi had told them so many years ago. "Those who disobey the rules are trash but the people who don't care for their teammates are lower than trash."
Shikamaru nodded. "I've heard that before. The other reason that your different is because there are only two girl captains and you are one of them."
She started to cough. "You really are smart, aren't you?" she coughed out.
Shikamaru laughed while hitting her back a bit. "It wasn't that hard to figure out. Your voice is higher than a guy's, anyway."
She sighed and pushed her mask up past her mouth. Thankfully, the coat was big enough that it still didn't show her hair. "This isn't what you wanted to talk to me about, is it?" she said in a sort of tired voice.
He shook his head. "Nope. My friend needs your help." he said in a kind of nervous voice.
Sakura's eyebrows raised under the mask. She was a girl after all. When a guy wanted to talk about a friend, it usually meant that he wanted to talk about his own problems. "Alright." she said, going along with it. "What does your friend need help with?"
"Well, he has had a crush on a girl for some time and he thinks that he has fallen in love with her but he doesn't know what to do."
Sakura smirked again. She knew that he was talking about Ino and that she liked/loved him back but she was the only one. "Well, your friend should just tell her his feelings. Its bad for him just to keep it to himself."
Shikamaru looked confused. "But how? That's were I-he-um………." Shikamaru trailed off, his face bright red. He had just admitted what he was trying to hide from her. "I thought that I could avoid saying that!" he thought.
Sakura was laughing. "I thought as much. Just admit it to her and if she really cares about you like you do for her, then she will probably accept it." she stood and stretched like she had used to.
Shikamaru stood as well. "I got one more question. Have you ever heard of a Kika Village?" he surprisingly asked.
Sakura froze for a second but didn't let it faze her. "No. why?"
Shikamaru smirked. "Maybe you shouldn't try to tell lies." he walked off.
Sakura hurried after him. "And maybe you should tell Ino that you love her as much as she loves you." she retorted before pulling the mask down and walking into the room. Kakashi and Neji looked up at her. She smiled through the mask. "Good to see that your awake. Pull that shirt off, I want to check your wound."
Kakashi just stared at her.
"I can heal it and you won't have to go to a hospital." She said. The shirt was off before she could even get the sentence fully out of her mouth. Sakura pulled her gloves off and brought her chakra to her hands.
She lightly put them on his torn shoulder and it immediately started to heal. Ten minutes later, she pulled her hands off and fell backwards. She looked around and saw that Neji and Shikamaru both laying on the same bed, passed out from exhaustion. The had just been sitting there, but it must have been too long.
Sakura looked over at Kakashi and smiled to see that he was asleep as well. She must have been at it longer than ten minutes.
Shikamaru groaned and groggily sat up. He immediately stood and walked to her. "Was I right?" he quietly said.
She stood and opened the window to get outside. She used her charka to carefully pulled herself onto the roof. Shikamaru followed. Sakura sighed. "I guess I was right. You are too smart."
"Sakura, how…….why…….when……." he said, trying to get his questions out.
Sakura smiled. She reached up, pulled the mask of and let the hood down, revealing pink hair pulled in a high ponytail that was tight to her head. "Answers. The same way as you, taking the tests and everything. Because I could and I was skilled enough to make it. I joined when I was sixteen. I've been going on missions every since, for the last five years." she answered each of his questions. Now she had a question. "How did you know it was me?"
Shikamaru smiled. "I wasn't sure at first but what you said early convinced me. It was Kakashi's line. Naruto told me so." He stretched backwards. "So, Ino really likes me?"
Sakura nodded. "I should know. Every time I come home, all I hear about from her is you. I think she knows more about you than you do." She laughed.
They would have talked more but there was an explosion from the other side of the town.
Sakura was immediately on her feet, the mask and hood back in place. "Get the others." she said before disappearing into the night.
Kakashi was stunned, to say the least. Everyone was stunned. The destruction that had been done here was terrible.
Trees were broken, limbs askew everywhere. Blood was soaking into the ground from the dead ninjas that were on the ground. Weapons were thrown around everywhere. The last thing was petals. Tons of petals were everywhere, blowing in the wind.
Kakashi immediately looked around for Shukketsu Sakura. He saw a scroll pinned to a tree not far from where most of the petals were. He read it.
Shukketsu is hurt. Bad. I am taking her immediately back to Konaha and you are to follow.
Taka Hishou
Each of the guys briefly looked at each other before racing off towards Konaha. Shikamaru was very worried. He didn't want to have one of his friends die.
Sakura had been drifted in and out of consciousness after the attack. She still wasn't very sure what had happened.
She had arrived on the scene, something went flying at her and repeating over and over again. Before she knew it, she was on the ground and in pain.
She could feel someone picking her up but after that, it was all dark.
--------
It took her eyes a while to focus on wherever she was. She couldn't get her eyes to function properly. She tried to get up but her body couldn't move. She could hear voices.
"I don't how you found out but……."
"She let me know! I JUST MADE A GUESS!!" Shikamaru voice's rung in her ears. She winced from how loud it was.
A sigh was heard. "Alright. But she hasn't woken up yet……." Kohana's voice trailed off as Sakura slipped back into unconsciousness.
Kohana looked at her friend before continuing. "………….and I'm really worried." she cried a bit again. She had been crying ever since Sakura had been found.
Shikamaru looked at her from his spot at the door. "I'll keep this secret to myself. You can trust me." he said before walking out the door.
Kohana didn't know how long she had been sitting there but the thing that got her attention was a weak noise. She closed her eyes so she could listen better.
"Kona." was forced into her ears.
Kohana's eyes flew opened and looked to where Sakura laid on the bed. Sakura's eyes were partially open and she was trying to move her hands towards Kohana. Kohana was immediately out of her seat and running down the hall, screaming that Sakura was awake.
Tsunade was immediately in the room, checking Sakura over. Nothing else seemed wrong and they could successfully heal her. Tsunade breathed a breath of relief. Her student and friend was going to be okay.
