So glad so many people are in love with this story as much as I am. I feel like a bad parent because I am currently favoring this story than my other children/stories. Thank you to those wonderful people: Xx4ying4yang4xX, AnimaAmore, MystereKitsune, sakura-cherrytree, SakuraHarunoxBleach, Shadow's Ruby, curlyhair37, sapphireangel09, Kraziibunny11, Black snake eyes, xSakuraWings, naïve-toots, killerninjaz, Cindy Medeiros, XionNight, k.p.l, pein's naughty girl, Ketsueki no Kuki, sheINSPIRED, Skye-Tear, music1462, Yeng-chan, . .CHoMP., Weasel-Scarecrow Luvrs, Vesper Chan, Jasper's little angel, no1ucanc, Sinister Blossom, Rawrgoesdadino, thegirlofmanymoods, BetterThanAHeartAttack, Kireicomplex, IndigoChild21, yoyoyo, The Glass White Queen, TheEmoChick, Under the Darkest Shadow, Saiyuri Haruno, DeliciousXDistractions, keraii, CrimsonVampireFreak, Niixxy, carsly, Jashinista, CrazySakuraHarunoXD, thedoggydog12, Don' . .Me., Kireicomplex,
"Talking"
'Thinking'
"Phone Conversation"
DISCLAIMER: Don't own Naruto.
RECAP:
"Why would you do something so stupid?" Itachi asked firmly as he looked down at her now injured limb as he lifted her slightly to lean against his chest.
Sakura let out a choked laugh as she winced at the increasing pain in her arm, "Because you were going to shoot her. And that's not happening on my watch."
The FBI agent let out another pained noise as Kakuzu lifter her injured limb and tore off the offending sleeve that covered it. "She's losing a lot of blood too quickly. If we want her to stay alive, she needs to be taken to a hospital which is something we are not capable of doing for her."
Sakura's vision was blurring and she began to see two of every member that was crowded over her form. Her breathing became shallower by the second as the powerful need to sleep crept into her senses. "Don't go to sleep you hot piece of ass, you fucking hear me?" Hidan told her.
Sakura's lips quirked to one side as her eyes continued to falter in staying open as she let out a dry laugh, "I always win in the end, you bastards."
"You call this winning, princess?"
The pinkette didn't answer as her eyes fell closed and the voices around her fell upon deft ears.
"Sakura!"
"Sakura!
"Sakura!"
Ch.4 Unappealing Recovery
"How's she doing baa-chan?" Naruto questioned towards a doctor, as his cerulean eyes gazed sympathetically at his pink haired partner where she lay in her hospital bed. The constant sounds of the life machines beeping in the background.
"I told you to stop calling me that you insult child," the doctor replied as she slid one of her blonde pigtails over her shoulder as her hazel eyes glared at the blonde agent. "I swear you're too stupid to learn."
"Harsh words, baa-chan. Harsh words," Naruto replied quietly as she sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck while Sasuke rolled his eyes at the blonde's actions.
"Regarding Sakura, she'll be fine. She isn't one to be taken lightly," the woman told the group in the hospital room who watched their unconscious team member as her chest rose with every breath. "The bullet grazed the side of her arm, but it was nothing too severe. She has quite a few stitches and needs to take it easy until the stitches are ready to come out."
She turned to the FBI chief and gave him a serious look, "That means no major field work. She may not like it, but it's what has to be done if she is to have a full recovery. Having her overwork herself will only make her recovery period longer."
A small groan was heard from the hospital bed as Sakura's quiet voice followed. "What do you mean I can't work?"
"Sakura-chan!"
"I mean exactly what I say, Sakura," Tsunade told the pink haired agent with a small smile as she tucked her clipboard under her arm. "You can't work again until your arm has fully healed."
"No work at all?" Sakura retorted in a disbelieving whine.
Kakashi smirked from his corner of the room at his prized agent as she pouted in her hospital bed, "I have some papers you can file, if you're really desperate for something to do."
Sakura let out a small snort at his sarcastic comment before turning back to the blonde doctor, "How long 'til I can get these stitches taken out of me?"
"Ten to fourteen days. But you have to wear a sling until then," the woman replied.
Sakura let out another distasteful groan as she looked down at her arm that rested in the dark blue sling that hung around her neck, "There is nothing sexy about a sling."
"You're sexy no matter what, Sakura," Kiba interjected with a smirk.
Sakura just rolled her eyes as Tsunade smiled and walked towards the door. "You're free to leave whenever you're ready. I'll leave your discharge papers with the nurse."
"Thank you, Tsunade."
"You're welcome. Just remember to take it easy," she replied. "I don't want to see you back in here for a long time after you get those stitches out."
A smile tugged at the pinkette's lips as the busty blonde exited the room. She then turned her attention to her FBI team members that were scattered through out the sanitary white room.
"How are you feeling, Sakura?" Neji asked her from his position at the end of her bed.
"I'm fine," she told him as she noticed the concern lacing the eyes of the rest of the males in the room as well. "Really you guys, I'm fine. It doesn't hurt that bad."
"We're really sorry about what happened, Sakura-chan," Naruto told her as he sat down in the chair placed next to her bedside. "I wish I could have been there to protect you."
"You can't protect me from everything, Naruto. None of you can. "
A pregnant pause filled the room as so many words that wanted to be said, couldn't because their speakers could find the will to speak them. Finally, Kakashi spoke up and broke the silence. "I'm sorry I put you into such a dangerous situation, Sakura. I should have known that something like this could have happened. I just wasn't thinking straight."
"For starters, chief, I'm the one who made you let me go," Sakura replied as she looked at her boss. "And you don't have to beat yourself up over the fact that I got hurt. It's in my job description under what is to be expected, so you can't blame yourself for anything that did happen or will happen. There was no way any of us could have known that there were going to be five other Akatsuki members waiting for me in that warehouse."
"We should have taken more precautions," Shikamaru added quietly from his position next to her bed.
"Hey," she called out softly as she grasped his hand in her uninjured one and gave him one of her sweet smiles. "Stop dwelling on it. I'm alive with no major injuries, Ino and the other police officers are safe as well as uninjured, and no one was killed when they easily could have been."
The males in the room were silent once more as the pinkette let out a deep sigh before speaking up, "So where are we at now with the current situation?"
Sasuke let out a short laugh, "You never stop working, do you?"
Sakura smile widely at the Uchiha, "Would you really expect anything less from me?"
The males smirked at the truth behind the agent's words as Kakashi moved to stand next to Neji at the end of her bed, "What do you remember?"
"I remember being shot, then I was on the ground with all of them around me, then I blacked out," she told them as she closed her eyes and replayed the events of the previous night in her mind.
"Why would you do something so stupid?"
"She needs to be taken to a hospital which is something we are not capable of doing for her."
"Don't go to sleep you hot piece of ass, you fucking hear me?"
"Sakura!"
She opened her apple eyes and looked up into her boss's eyes, "What happened after I fell unconscious?"
"They got away," Sasuke replied stiffly. "They got away again."
"I'm sorry I couldn't do anything else," Sakura spoke up as she glanced around the room. "Do we have any leads as to where they may have gone?"
"No," Sai replied. "They left behind no trail or hints to where they are or what they may plan to do next."
"I believe it's safe to say that the Akatsuki will stay on the down low for a while," Shikamaru explained to the group as he crossed his arms over his chest. "They are the top case with law enforcement right now, so for them to stay hidden they need to make sure they leave behind a minimal amount of footprints regarding their illicit activities. They may even try to hide behind others scandals so that they can remain active in the crime world."
"I'm pretty sure that they will continue to remain in the Konoha area," Sakura added as she pushed herself into a sitting position in her hospital bed.
"Well, for the time being we will let them lay low because if the Akatsuki doesn't want to be found, they won't be found," Kakashi told the group as he crossed his arms over his chest and let out a sigh. "For now we need to focus on finding the next person on the most wanted list."
"And who would that be?" Naruto asked.
"Orochimaru."
"You're absolutely positive that your source is reliable?" the red headed man questioned.
"Of course," a blonde woman replied as she crossed her arms over her chest and sat on the corner of the male's desk. "I would never give you this information if I found the source to be unreliable."
The man leaned back in his seat and followed the woman's actions of crossing his arms over his chiseled chest. "I know, Temari," he replied in his deep velvet voice before he met the blonde's eyes with his jade ones. "Call the Konoha unit and tell them what we know."
He stood form his chair and picked up a manila folder from his desk before looking back at his sister. "Tell them I want them over here as soon as possible, and request that Sakura Haruno be part of the team that they assemble."
"Yes, Gaara," Temari replied as she went to make the necessary calls.
The next morning when Sakura woke up to the familiarity of her own home she let out a thankful sigh that she was here instead of in the white washed walls of the Konoha hospital. As she carefully maneuvered herself out of her full sized bed, minding her injured arm, she moved to get ready for the day by showering then dressing for work.
Her routine took her longer than usual, but she was eventually ready and dressed in her black pants and light green button up shirt. Since she was told not to drive, she waited outside of her house for her ride to come and pick her up.
'I hate my life right now,' she thought to herself as she noticed a familiar black escalade pulling up into her driveway and one of her partners stepping out of the driver's side door.
"Good morning, Sakura," Sai's unemotional voice greeted her as did his smile. "How are you feeling today?"
"Not too bad, Sai," she replied with a small smile as she moved to slide into the passenger's seat while the black haired boy held the door open for her. Once she was in, he shut the door and drove down to the Konoha office.
When they arrive, Sai helped the pinkette out of the car as they made their way straight to Kakashi's office where everyone else was already waiting.
"Good morning, everyone," the chief began as he ran a hand through his silver locks and stood from his desk chair and moved to lean on the front of his desk. "This morning I received a rather interesting phone call from the Suna unit. They told me that they received a call from one of their sources regarding some of Orochimaru's henchmen being seen over in their area. Gaara requested a team over to Suna as soon as possible."
"Did he request anyone is particular?" Neji asked.
"He requested Naruto and Sakura," Kakashi replied as he looked towards the pink haired female. "But with your injury, and instruction from Tsunade to not participate in any field work, I feel as though I shouldn't send you."
"Oh c'mon, Kakashi!" Sakura complained as she threw her uninjured arm up in the air in frustration. "This is my case! My case! I've been working on it for the past year and a half and now that there's a break in the case. You can't just expect me to stay behind and do nothing when I know just about everything there is to know about this case."
Shikamaru smirked at Sakura's outburst as well as her many valid points, "She makes an excellent point, chief."
"Although she makes a point, Shikamaru, would you like to be the one to tell Tsunade that she has gone against her medical instruction?" Kakashi asked with a brow raised in the tech expert's direction.
Shikamaru let out a short chuckle as he stuffed his hands in the pockets of his dark trousers, "Not really. Much too troublesome for my tastes."
"I promise I won't do any major fieldwork that could open my stitches," she told the chief with pleading emerald eyes. "Please, Kakashi. Let me go to Suna."
The FBI chief let out a long sigh as he ran a hand through his silver tresses once more. "Alright, Sakura. You can go." A large smile spread across the pinkette's face as he continued to talk. "But you have to be careful. I'll be telling Gaara about your recent incident and what Tsunade told me."
"Who else will be going besides me and Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked as he moved to stand next to the female and sling an arm around her shoulders, pulling her into his side.
"I'll be sending Sasuke and Kiba with you," Kakashi told the blonde as the two addressed agents replied with a nod. The chief then turned to Shikamaru. "You are more than welcome to go on site with them, but I wasn't sure if you wanted to be with your own computer systems or use those that you are unfamiliar with."
"I'll go," the brunette told the chief as he leaned back onto the nearest wall. "Their systems could use an update anyway."
"Alright. I'm not sure how long you'll be there exactly, but I've arrange a hotel for you all to stay at," the older man told the group as he handed Sasuke the information. "I can't guarantee a whole lot of progress in the case, but hopefully you can gain more insight than we have right now. For those of you going to Suna, go back to your places of residence and pack what ever you'll need for your trip."
The five agents nodded.
"The rest of you start gathering together all the files that relate to this case so that we can keep them as references for your fellow agents. Shino, you will take Sakura back home to get her things. Everyone understood?"
The rest of the agents nodded as Kakashi then dismissed them to go do as they were instructed. Once everyone left the room, the FBI chief pulled out his familiar orange book and picked up where he last left off.
After everyone had returned from grabbing what they needed from their homes, the team loaded everything into one of the familiar FBI Escalades and took what files they needed with them.
"How long is the drive to Suna again?" Naruto asked as he shut the tall trunk of the vehicle.
"About three hours," Shikamaru replied as he placed the last of his tech equipment in the back seat then taking a seat and buckling himself in.
"I don't know about you guys, but I plan on catching some Z's," Sakura announced as moved to sit in the second row of seats.
"Ditto," Kiba added as he took the seat next to her in the middle row.
"You guys are seriously going to leave me up from with Sasuke-teme?" Naruto whined as he moved to sit in the passenger seat as Sasuke moved around to the driver's side with a blank look on his handsome face. "He can't entertain me if he's driving, and he's really not entertaining to begin with!"
"Shut up, dobe."
"This is going to be a wonderful car ride," Sakura mumbled as everyone shut their doors and Sasuke started their three hour car ride to their next destination.
"Suna, here we come!" Naruto declared.
After the three hour car ride, and Naruto obnoxious conversations then his persistently loud snoring, the team arrived in Suna and parked outside their unit's office.
"Man, I forgot that it was warmer here than in Konoha," Kiba murmured as he moved to open the trunk of the Escalade before turning to Sakura and shooting her a suggestive smile. "I hope you brought some shorts to wear these next couple days."
Sakura snorted as she rolled her eyes and took Sasuke's helping hand out of the car, "The only time you'll be seeing my legs is in your dreams, Kiba."
The brunette let out a chuckle as he grabbed the briefcase containing the files they needed and shut the trunk before he began to make his way to the entrance of the Suna office.
Shikamaru let out a sigh as he grabbed his two cases from the back and followed Kiba's lead, "He is going to be troublesome this entire trip."
Sakura let out a light laugh as the rest of them walked to the building and opened the front door. "Of course he is, Shika," Sakura retorted as she began to walk through the sister office and gain attention from the male officers and agents. "He wouldn't be himself if he wasn't."
"Is that the Sakura Haruno I see walking into my office?" a voice asked. "I must have died and gone to heaven, or I'm having a very good dream."
Sakura let out a light laugh as she saw a familiar brunette walking in her direction. "I see your brother has demoted you to welcoming committee, Kankuro."
Kankuro Subaku was one of the top FBI agents in the Suna district. The eldest Subaku brother was know for his laid back personality in the office and his fierce determination when it came to a case. He was always noticeable when he showed up on scene during a case because he was the only one wearing purple face paint. Sakura had told him many times before that he would look much better without it, but he believes it makes him an individual. He was right about that much.
The addressed man let out a laugh as he walked up to the pinkette and pulled her into a side hug to mind her arm. "Nah," he retorted as he began to lead the group to the back offices. "When I heard you were coming, I volunteered. But I see you got scratched up since the last time I saw you. What happened, babe?"
"Oh, nothing," she began as they reached the last office. "Just got shot, it's not a big deal though-"
"You got shot?" he exclaimed as he pulled slightly away from her and glanced down at her injured limb. "Who the fuck shot you?"
Sakura let out a sigh as she pulled away from Kankuro and pulled to door in front of her open. "Like I said; not a big deal. Ask your brother if you want to know what happened. Kakashi was supposed to tell him the whole story."
"Don't give him a reason to be more obnoxious, Sakura," the red head sitting at the desk told her, his deep voice sounding refreshing to her ears. "I don't need him to be more annoying than he already is."
Sakura let out a soft giggle at the male's comment as she moved to gracefully sit down in one of the chairs placed in front of his. "Sorry, Gaara," she apologized with a small smile still playing on her features as her emerald eyes gazed into his jade ones. "But you know he always gets extra annoying for you when I'm here."
"I suppose I can deal with it," he replied with a small smirk as he leaned back in his chair. The red head glanced around the room, acknowledging all the male agents from Konoha before turning back to Sakura. "How are you feeling?"
Gaara was an amazing person in Sakura's opinion. He gained the position of chief of the Suna FBI unit within the past year and the force at taken a great leap in their efficiency as well as their success rate while working on cases they recieve. He had a firm hand when dealing with his forces, which was something the pinkette really admired in him. His looks most likely helped him in that area as well. At first glance, Gaara Subaku appears to be one of the most intimidating people you'll ever meet, with his fire red hair, stern jade eyes, and chiseled build. But one you got to know him, he was so much calmer and professional than one could have first expect. It probably was also a threat to his forces that he was good looking as well as powerful.
A double threat, as Sakura called him.
"I'm fine, but we're not here to talk about me," she answered as she adjusted her arm in her dark blue sling. "Let's here what information you have about this Orochimaru case."
Gaara gave a quick nod as he tossed a folder near the end of the desk that she was closest to. Sakura picked it up and began to look through process pictures that she had yet to see as Gaara began to explain.
"Yesterday one of our sources captured those pictures of one of Orochimaru's known henchmen outside one of the clubs in Suna," Gaara began as he glanced towards to the photos in Sakura's hands before looking back up at the male agents. "This is the first sighting of any of his lackeys in the past six months."
"Do you think there is a possibility that it's a set up for us?" Sasuke asked as he leaned against one of the walls in Gaara's office.
"That's something we have to consider," the Suna chief replied. "We can never be too careful with the sound gang."
"What do you think they're doing in Suna?" Sakura questioned quietly as she flipped to the next picture in her hands.
"They're probably looking for more soulless recruits to join their ranks," Naruto scoffed as he crossed his arms over his chest.
"So what's your plan?" Shikamaru questioned.
"I would like you to install a video camera outside of the club they were spotted at," Gaara explained as he clasped his hands together in front of his mouth. "I don't want it noticeable, but I want to have video proof of all the people going in and out of that club."
"Don't you think the club already has a camera placed outside?" Kiba questioned.
"They do, but they don't want to have any connection to this case or the FBI for that matter," Gaara answered with evident distaste behind his words. "That's why I'd like us to have one of our own. Once we get that settled, I want some of you and my own agents to go undercover to see what information we can find out."
"When can we get started?" Naruto asked with a goofy smile gracing his features.
"Right now."
"Have we confirmed their location?"
"Yes," a voice answered. "It seems they have arrived in Suna just this afternoon."
"Perfect," another voice replied. "Go and tell this information to Orochimaru. He has been waiting to here something like this for quite some time now."
"Yes, sir."
"So what do we do now, Kimimaro?"
"We'll let things take their destined course," the man replied as he fiddled with a pen between his fingers. "It's only a matter of time before they come looking for us in places that aren't safe for them."
The other person let out a chuckle, "Should we give them a show then?"
"I believe they deserve one."
The man smiled viciously, "I'll go cook up some mayhem then."
"Just this once; try to keep the mess to a minimum," Kimimaro instructed to the man. "I don't want to chase to spoil too quickly."
"Sure thing," the man replied as he exited the dark room with his wide grin.
"I'll be seeing you soon, Sakura…"
Phew. Glad I could get through this within my time period. Sorry it wasn't nearly as action packed as the other chapters but I provided you with some hints for what's to come! SOME ANNOUNCEMENTS: 1. Looking for a BETA reader? I'm available. 2. There will be a BRAND NEW STORY out within the next couple days for ShelbySabaku's contest and my one-shot collection. 3. Take the new poll for the next one-shot you'd like to see. 4. Check out my others stories and let me know what you think of them. 5. Leave me some love here!
