AN: A lot of readers wanted the scene where Shikamaru and company thrashed Neji, so I decided to make one. Here it is. The following two scenes are not part of the real chapter.
First, just Shika and Kakashi.
Shikamaru casually strolled through the busy marketplace of Konoha, weaving between the crowds of women doing their afternoon shopping. He paused in front of a bright red stand. He debated for about half a second; then bought a pound of fresh, ripe, juicy tomatoes.
Bag of produce clutched carefully in hand, he meandered out of the busy streets and towards Team Gai's training grounds, where he would find the little bastard that broke his little sister's heart. Sakura deserved a lot better than that Hyuuga. Shikamaru would now carefully screen, stalk his mind supplied, any further potential suitors before Sakura dated again. She had suffered enough pain in the last two years. This would be the last time he saw her shed tears.
The brunette was unsurprised when Kakashi Hatake silently fell into step beside him. He had never sensed his approach, but the Nara had no doubt that he wouldn't appear. The jounin may have worn a literal mask to hide his emotions, but he also wore a figurative one. His lazy, laid back, and perverted attitude hid analytical eyes and mind. Kakashi cared deeply for the first gennin team he had ever passed, and especially more so for his sister, because she was the delicate female, even though she had proven to be anything but as fragile as her namesake. He kept tabs on his students even after they were no longer his, and helped from the shadows when he could.
"Mou, the sky is so bare today. Not a cloud in sight." Shikamaru craned his neck to observe the all too blue sky.
Kakashi 'hmed' in agreement.
"With the lack of clouds I decided on a new hobby. I think you'll rather like this one. It will be just as therapeutical as watching clouds."
The silver haired jounin replied with another 'hm.'
"Neji is going to wish he had never met my sister." Shikamaru declared.
Kakashi nodded next to him, his one eye narrowing. Those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum. He had learned that lesson the hard way. Hurting a comrade was just as bad, if not worse than, abandoning a comrade.
Neji Hyuuga was about to discover what it felt like to be scum.
-Omake-
The only flaw in Shikamaru's plan was Neji's Byakugan. It made it much harder for him to be affected by genjutsu and almost impossible for him and Kakashi to come up on him undetected. But, Shikamaru decided that was unnecessary.
He wanted the Hyuuga to know they were coming, that he was going to feel pain for making Sakura feel pain, for hurting her. He wanted him to feel fear, to be afraid of the inevitable beating he was about to receive.
As predicted, Neji had seen them coming a few miles off and immediately tried to flee. He didn't need to be the genius he was to know that the arrival of his girlfriend's brother and sensei the day after he broke up with said girlfriend was bad news.
However, his way was blocked when Kakashi shushined directly in front of him. Before he could react Shikamaru had caught his shadow.
"Why?"
One word was all that the Nara needed to say before the Hyuuga started babbling. Shikamaru caught multiple apologies, a few insults directed at himself (Neji), and pleas to not hurt him.
Shikamaru was unimpressed, especially since the boy was muttering at his own feet. A look at Kakashi let him now that the older man felt the same. So, Shikamaru cut off Neji's incoherent ramblings with a tomato to the face. It was quite amusing to see him splutter as fruit juice dripped all over his clean, crisp, pristine clothes, soaking in and possibly ruining them.
Neji seemed to be more horrified at what tomato juice would do to his hair, so Kakashi smashed the next three directly into his long brown locks and rubbed them in.
"You are going to explain yourself to Sakura tomorrow. You will apologize for being an absolute idiot of Naruto worthy proportions and beg for her forgiveness. If she does forgive you, you will spend the rest of your lifetime lavishing her and worshipping her and making sure she doesn't regret the decision to give you a second chance. You will do the same even if she wants nothing to do with you. If she wants you dead, you will thrust your own kunai into your heart. Are we understood?"
Shikamaru may have been the only one to speak, but Neji didn't need to hear what the Copy-Nin had to say to understand his intent. His chakra spoke for him. Kakashi would never forgive him for hurting his most precious student.
The Hyuuga nodded frantically, vowing to visit the Nara compound early the next day and explain everything to Sakura.
For extra incentive, Kakashi trapped him in a Sharingan based genjutsu, and the two males enjoyed using the Hyuuga as target practice.
When they happily parted ways ten minutes and a pound of tomatoes later, both were smiling, sure that Neji would smell of tomatoes for at least a week to come.
AN: And the second scene, in which Tsunade and Shikaku join the party.
Shikamaru was surprised to return home to find his sister in tears. Again.
A quick explanation from his mother told him that Sakura had learned of hers and Neji's break up this afternoon from Hanabi. Apparently, Neji hadn't told them everything when they had cornered him earlier. There had been no mention of his not telling Sakura about the end of their relationship.
He concluded that Kakashi must have followed him home, wanting to check in on his favorite student and see how she was coping for himself, because Shikamaru found him leaning casually against the wall outside his front door.
They passed his father on the way out of the compound and two became three. The trio did not set off in search of the lying swine that had just crushed the heart of a young girl, but instead towards the Hokage tower. Tsunade-sama was very fond of her talented second apprentice.
After the blonde had shouted at Shikamaru and Kakashi for not coming to her the first time, the group of four made plans. Shikaku pointed out that it would be too obvious if Kakashi or his son tracked down the Hyuuga for a second time that day, and suspicious if he showed up, given his capacity as Jounin Commander and the child's chuunin rank. However, it would be too out of the ordinary if the Fifth Hokage randomly sought out and beat up a boy that was known to be dating her apprentice.
So a runner was sent to summon Neji to the Hokage's office, which was conveniently soundproof.
An unsuspecting Neji was firmly and harshly clouted to the back of the head by an angry father as soon as he crossed the threshold and trapped in place once again by the Nara's famous shadow jutsu.
Even with his eye closed and curved in the distinctive u-shape of when he was happy, Kakashi's dark eye still had a maniacal glint.
Tsunade took great joy and pleasure in indefinitely assigning the chuunin drudge work until he apologized to Sakura, which she was sure would be well in the future given the sheer amount of pride the Hyuugas, males particularly, had.
His despair was like music to their ears. Shikaku had fun threatening to remove his manhood, "If you even have it," as retribution. Shikamaru used his control of the shadows to make Neji beat himself up; amusing himself with the possible explanations he might make to explain his bruising the next day. And Kakashi quite cheerfully promised to sic his ninja hounds on the Hyuuga should he come within fifty feet of his student.
The torture was completed with another genjutsu, one that left Neji trembling and unable to sleep that night, and an unexplainable dock in his next pay that left his teammates confused as to why he received so much less than them. He only blushed and said he did not know. Only Gai noticed the evil grin on their Hokage's face.
AN: There, I hope those satisfy your expectations. On to the real story, of which I only own the changes I made to the plot and to the characters and not the plot and characters themselves.
Whispers followed Sakura through the village. They hushed when she walked by and murmured behind her back, when they thought she couldn't hear them.
"That girl killed two Akatsuki?"
Stares of disbelief were all she met. No one believed she was capable of taking down two S-rank criminals that even top ANBU couldn't defeat. There were even whisperings of her possibly being in league with the Akatsuki that even Tsunade, the Hokage, couldn't keep hushed.
Sakura didn't care what the villagers thought of her. She didn't care that the shinobi were secretly watching her every move to determine if she was a threat to their village. Her loyalty would always be to Konoha.
She did care about her team. Her carelessness had nearly gotten her team killed. The rosette had not learned from her sensei's mistake. She should have demanded the answers. She needed that information to effectively complete the mission. The knowledge the monk had withheld would have kept her team safe. Sakura would never, never, have accepted a mission if there was even rumors that the Akatsuki after the client.
But she had been lax. While irked about the lack of answers, she let the monk keep his silence. She may have laughed in the hospital about her team following in Team 7's footsteps, but she wasn't joking. It was the exact same situation. The lack of important and necessary information resulted in the almost death of at least one gennin.
Looking back after the fact, the only one who had come remotely close to death was Sakura herself. Moegi and Hanabi and been the only ones injured, and the concussion, broken tibia, and third degrees burns were easily healed and the two were released from the hospital within a day.
None of that registered with her, though. All she could think about was how she failed Team 3 as their sensei. Her four students had tried to make her see that it wasn't her fault; that they were alright because of her, that they didn't blame her or believe that she had let them down. In fact, they profusely insisted that she was the coolest kunoichi in the village.
Sakura found herself at Team 7's bridge. This place reminded her of happier times. Times when all she had to worry about was when she would find the time to juggle all the training and senseis she had. When she chewed her nails, anxious about the upcoming chuunin exams and psyched herself into believing that she wasn't good enough to be promoted. Those times seemed like ages ago.
There was a whirl of displaced wind and fluttering leaves as her former sensei transported next to her. One hand held his ever present Icha Icha novel and the other familiarly ruffled her candy colored locks. He didn't say anything, and she didn't need him to. Kakashi knew more than anyone how she was feeling at the moment, for he had been through the same situation with her own team.
"How did you manage?"
He gave her a sidelong glance, gently replacing his porn in his hip pouch. "I won't lie to you. It wasn't easy. You were the most difficult team I had ever met, and I still passed you for some reason. I must have been insane." Kakashi smiled fondly at her.
"The three of you could be an absolute nightmare to teach, at times."
"Hey, you mean that Naruto and Sasuke were nightmares," she jabbed her elbow none too gently into his ribs, delighting in his wince, "I was an angel."
"Yes, an angel that thought my training wasn't enough and left me alone with the two of them." He said dryly.
Sakura flinched, guilty. She had never meant to make him feel that he wasn't enough, that he couldn't teach her, but she wanted to improve as fast as she could.
"Don't think like that, Sakura. You are my favorite student. The point of gennin teachers is to help gennins develop skills beyond the basics in the areas they are talented in and ensure that they are at the least passable in the other areas. There's no such thing as a perfect shinobi. It's natural that you would seek out further instruction from teachers that could help you more than I could.
"Most senseis don't get attached to their gennins. They'll teach a new group every year. Their students are just another name to them, just another shinobi or kunoichi of Konoha doing their duty. They don't need to understand their students to make them successful ninja, and so they don't.
"But I couldn't do that. I learned years ago that your teammates were the most important. Ninja were supposed to develop strong bonds that would connect us further and incite us to learn more, learn faster, train harder and longer, make us better, more capable ninja.
"After all, those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum." Sakura repeated with him, grinning slightly.
"I cared for the three of you. I managed by promising to ensure you a better future. I would teach you all you needed to know to not just survive and complete missions, but be a true shinobi of Konoha."
Sakura nodded. That's exactly what she wanted to do for Konohamaru, Moegi, Udon, and Hanabi. She wanted them to shine, to have bright futures as talented, well-known, loyal shinobi proud of their village.
Kakashi sighed. "Your first C-rank mission was not easy. I wanted to march all of you back to the village and demand that the Hokage assign more capable shinobi to be Tazuna's escort. Someone had clearly wanted him dead and that was not a mission any gennin should be on."
His student nodded again. She agreed whole heartedly with that sentiment. "But the three of you were so stubborn. I regretted continuing the mission when we encountered Zabuza, even more so when I had to watch my students fight the Demon of the Mist. I nearly had a heart attack when I saw Naruto and Sasuke charging Zabuza. But at that point I knew we couldn't back out. Tazuna and the rest of Wave were in desperate need of help and we were the only ones in any position to help them.
"Although waking up weak in his house went a long way in ensuring that the mission continued." Kakashi glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, pleased that his comment had elicited a giggle from the girl.
"You won't always be prepared for what may happen on a mission. All you can do is adjust for the surprises that come and try to get everyone out alive. And that's what you did, Sakura. You made sure that all of your gennins returned home safely."
"But I failed the mission." She whispered.
Kakashi laughed. "Missions are failed every day. Each shinobi faces failure at some point in his career. It happened to you early, is all. Now you'll be more prepared next time. You won't make the same mistakes."
"Thank you."
Sakura hugged her sensei, trying to convey through touch how grateful she felt for his advice and how much she appreciated all he had done for her. Then she went to surprise her gennins with training, but not a mission yet. She didn't think she was ready for that yet.
-ANBU-
Kakashi Hatake watched as his pink haired student walked away from the bridge. He mourned for the loss of her innocence. The last year had opened her eyes to the true world of the shinobi. He had led his first mission at a jounin when he was her age. It had ended even more disastrously than hers had. Obito had died on that mission, and he never forgave himself for caring more about completing the mission than he did his own teammates and comrades.
It was with a heavy heart he watched Sakura go. He thought she was too young to bear the burden of responsibility that came with being in charge of a team of gennin. She had only been a gennin herself two years ago. Kakashi knew that she was mature for her age, all ninja were, but she was even more so. Unfortunately, he couldn't shelter her from death. She had already lost her parents and death was common in the hospital. Death changed a person, he knew that personally. He did not want to see her end up like him.
The thought that maybe he shouldn't have pushed her towards medic training briefly passed through his mind. He paid little attention to it. Kakashi knew that Sakura enjoyed helping people, which is exactly what she did as a medic. She saved lives and made sure shinobis returned home to their families.
Kakashi couldn't be more proud of his favorite student. Looking at her now, he truly believed that she would be the most famous member of his team. She was stronger than even he had imagined. Sakura had grown the most out of his three students and was now the most accomplished person on Team 7.
She would pull through this. She would bounce back stronger than before, ready to show the world that kunoichi were not to be underestimated. And she would teach that strength to her gennins, and he Will of Fire would be sparked in the next generation.
-ANBU-
Hanabi was trying to meditate.
Trying was the key word. It wasn't that she found meditation difficult. It was actually rather easy for her. Sakura-sensei said it would help her control her chakra and make her a deeper thinker, so she made a habit of meditating a couple of hours each day.
She didn't normally practice before training started, because Konohamaru and Moegi were so noisy that it was usually pointless. But the duo, all four of them really, had been quiet since Team 3's last mission. Sakura-sensei had yet to show up for training.
Part of Hanabi wondered if maybe their sensei was going to quit, to stop teaching, maybe even quit being a shinobi. She never would have imagined Sakura doing something so dramatic a week ago, but that was before they had encountered that Akatsuki guy. She desperately wanted to believe that her sensei just needed more time to heal and that she wasn't abandoning them.
The second daughter of Hiashi Hyuuga could not mediate. She stood, stretching her arms above her head, and twisted her back. She groaned when it cracked audibly, loud enough to draw her older teammates' attention.
Because of this, all four conveniently missed the appearance of their sensei, who took the opportunity handed to her to create a water dragon from the lake and send it smashing into her students.
"Sakura-sensei!" they cried. The four gennins dog piled their sensei, who collapsed laughing beneath them.
"Did my cute students miss me?"
All of her students blushed at being referred to as cute. Sakura made a note to avoid Kakashi. Every time she talked to him she picked up one of his habits. This time it was calling her students cute. Last time it was being lazy and not doing the paperwork her shishou gave her, which resulted in an hour long lecture/rant from the busty Hokage about dereliction of duty and what not. She did not want to start being chronically late or reading porn in public.
"Alright, get off of me. We have training today. You know the drill, laps first."
Four gennin soluted her with a raised hand parallel to their foreheads and a synchronized "Yes, ma'am!"
Sakura laughed once more as she watched them start, vowing to protect their innocence for as long as possible.
-ANBU-
It was a month before Sakura was comfortable enough to accept another mission for her team. She had planned to stick to D-ranks for the first couple, but Kakashi had visited her and said it would be better for both her and her students if she took a C-rank. Sakura needed to see that she could successfully lead a C-rank mission, and the gennins needed to realize that they were capable of completing one.
The pinkette had grudgingly agreed and asked Tsunade for a messenger assignment to somewhere nearby.
The Hokage had sent team 3 to a small town where she had spent a couple of months a few years ago and had run up quite a tab at the local casino.
The mission was easy. Her team traveled to the casino in less than a day, handed over the money to the owner and were back on their way to Konoha. They encountered no trouble. No Akatsuki. No bandits. No thieves.
Upon return to Konoha, Sakura let out a breath that she hadn't realized she was holding. Until she had walked through those gates, she was still half expecting a ninja to jump out of the trees and try to kill her and her students. As much as it galled her to admit it, her sensei was right. She felt lighter knowing that she could still lead her gennins on a successful mission, and looking at said gennins, she saw that they were basking in their accomplishment.
-ANBU-
The set the pattern for the next month and a half. Sakura continued pushing her gennins with difficult tasks and letting them take increasing longer quests. Her gennins were getting better. They were getting along better, had grown more skilled, and were completing quests with an efficiency eerily similar of what her own team, both her own gennin team and her current on were capable of.
She had taken a mission here and there with her own team, mostly when they needed a medic. Sadly, it was the only time she ever got to see her boyfriend these days, and it seemed that without her there to help him, or correct him as the case may be, he had reverted back to his old well meaning, truthful, but insulting manner of talking.
She had met Yamato. Her first thought was that he had an even better poker face that Fugaku. It was almost on scale with Kakashi's, although she honestly thought nobody would ever have a better poker face than her sensei.
Sakura was caught off guard when Kakashi asked her if she would be at the gates in the morning to wait for Naruto's return. Her last couple of months had been so hectic that she had forgotten that Naruto was due to return soon.
She had returned home with a grin big enough to break her face and exclaimed gleefully to her family that Naruto would be back tomorrow. She asked Shikamaru to come with her, because she wanted to let him know immediately that she had found family in the Naras. She also wanted to actually introduce Shikamaru as her brother to someone, and her blonde teammate was the only one who didn't know. Shikamaru knew what she wanted and agreed.
Sakura bounced out of bed the next morning before the sun was even up. She released pent up energy by training with Lee and Gai-sensei, making sure to leave before Neji and Tenten arrived. The rosette still felt awkward around her ex-boyfriend. Tenten's attitude made the situation worse. The bun haired girl blamed their Sakura's and Neji's break up on the pinkette, claiming that she was responsible for Neji's broken heart, and started snubbing, ridiculing, and ignoring her. Sakura decided it was best to just avoid all confrontation.
She met up with her gennins, informed them of the delayed practiced, and invited them to come wait for Naruto with her. Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon raced to the gates. Hanabi said she was interested in meeting the final teammate of her sensei and trailed after her own teammates.
So, by the time Sakura arrived at Konoha's gates, there was a whole entourage waiting for Naruto's return.
And they didn't have to wait long.
"I'm back, Konoha!" a familiar voice yelled. It was deeper than she remembered, but that was expected. Naruto was no longer a twelve year old boy. A figure dressed in orange and black somersaulted off the top of the gates, landing in front of the gaggle of people waiting to welcome him back.
His three loyal gennins got to him first, shoving him to the ground and excitedly telling him everything that had happened since he had left. Sakura stood back as he greeted the rest of team seven and observed him.
Naruto was growing into a man. He had definitely hit a growth spurt, because he now towered over her height wise. His shoulders and chest were broader, and beneath the orange and black jumpsuit she could see defined muscles. She was glad to see that some things hadn't changed in the long years he had been training. He still had the same bright smile, the same sparkling cerulean eyes full of fun and mischief that were still serious, the same spiky blonde hair that could not be tamed, the same enthusiasm, and the same love of the color orange and ramen.
She pushed her way past her gennins that were listening avidly to a story that Naruto was telling about a new jutsu he learned and gave her teammate a bone crushing hug.
"Sakura-chan! When did you get so strong?"
"It's good to have you back, Naruto." She laughed. "How about we go get some ramen and catch up?"
"That sounds awesome! Believe it! Does this mean you'll finally go on a date with me, Sakura-chan?"
She punched him none too gently in the shoulder. "No, I'm paying. And I already have a boyfriend. Come on Hanabi, Moegi, Udon, Konohamaru. We're going for ramen."
Naruto rubbed his shoulder and shouted after her. "What do you mean you have a boyfriend? Sakura-chan!"
-ANBU-
Teams Kakashi, both old and new, and Team Sakura plus Shikamaru enjoyed lunch at Ichiraku's Ramen. Naruto inhaled seventeen bowls. Sakura was grateful for the half off discount Teuchi was giving her because his favorite customer was back and the handsome pays she had received for the upper level missions and the bounties on the Akatsukis she had killed, otherwise she didn't think she could have afforded to feed the ramen deprived future Hokage.
Naruto learned that the rest of their age group had increased in rank in the years he had been gone. Everyone was at least a chuunin. The look on his face when he realized (it had to be pointed out to him by Shikamaru) that he was the only gennin was hilarious. Naruto had actually spat out a mouthful of ramen, right onto Sasuke. Sakura was the only jounin. He had been surprised to learn the she was a Tokubetsu Jounin and was teaching her own team of gennins.
Naruto had given her a bear hug, proclaiming loudly about how awesome it was that she was a jounin and pleading to join her team's training sessions so he could see her teach. With five pairs of puppy dog eyes pointed her way, Sakura had no choice but to tell him he could come. But she really didn't mind in the least.
After lunch, Kakashi had invited his team to have another attempt at his famous bell test. Naruto had jumped to his feet and accepted for all of them, proclaiming that he would now totally beat his sensei with his awesome new jutsu. Even Sasuke wasn't grouchy about having to take the test again. Both he and Sakura were anxious to see how much their teammate had grown.
Sai, Sakura, Naruto, and Sasuke stood in a line facing the silver haired jounin. Two silver bells jingled from his weapons pouch. Kakashi shouted begin and the game began.
-ANBU-
Sakura shook her head disappointedly. This bell test had turned out interestingly. This time found Sasuke tied to the post. After three years and two tries at this test, the broody Uchiha still had not thought about working with the rest of his team. He had tried to fight the Copy-Nin one on one, and received a royal beat down in his efforts to prove himself. She thought it was about time somebody beat the arrogance out of him, though judging by the dark glower Sasuke was directing at the rest of his team, not even Kakashi could beat some humility into him.
Sakura, Sai, and Naruto had worked spectacularly together, once she had beaten out a similar idea of striking out on his own from the blonde's head. She understood that he wanted to see how he matched up against their sensei, who, despite his flaws, they had idolized as gennins, but the point of this test wasn't to out power him, but to out maneuver him.
Kakashi foiled many, many plans. He didn't just want to see if they could work together. This time their objective had been to get the bells away from him, and every time she took this test, Sakura swore it got harder.
Despite not knowing what his most exuberant student was now capable of, he managed to evade the three of them every time. Sakura would admit that Naruto's Rasengan completely caught their sensei off guard. It was the closest they had come to hitting him all day.
It took the remainder of the day, but Naruto had finally discovered the one weakness they could use against Kakashi. For once, his annoying love of porn and reading those smutty books written by Jiraiya was going to help him.
They had tracked down their sensei with some of Sai's ink animal, a technique that Naruto thought was so cool, and tricked him into closing both his ears and his normal and Sharingan eyes so that he could not hear or lip read the spoiled ending to the book he was reading (the newly released Icha Icha Tactics which Naruto had a part in writing unbelievably), which allowed Sakura to grab the bells.
She clapped him on the shoulder. They all had a good laugh once he realized he had been tricked. Naruto made a joke about how he was getting on in age if he was beaten so easily. Kakashi replied by disappearing and dumping Naruto into the lake.
Sakura had bid Team Kakashi an early goodnight, for her team had a mission in the morning. Sai walked her home, as he always did whenever they could get together, and Naruto accompanied them, asking a million questions about their relationship and how Sakura was living with the Naras.
She answered his questions and invited him to come to the next Friday dinner. Naruto accepted eagerly and ran off to meet with Tsunade, whom he was supposed to see immediately upon his return. Sadly, Sakura did not feel bad for getting him in trouble with her shishou. For the first time in a long time, she felt like her life was complete again, and she thoroughly enjoyed the day she had spent with the blonde. Besides, she knew that Naruto wouldn't really get into any trouble. He had this way of charming people, and it worked on the Hokage. It was an unusual gift, but, without saying much, Naruto immediately ended up becoming friends with anyone.
-ANBU-
The next morning her team set out for a village between Konoha and Suna, delivering yet another payment of their Hokage's seemingly endless gambling tab. With an umpteenth debt settled, the team started the trek back to the village.
Not even an hour into the journey they intercepted an injured messenger hawk. It was Takamaru, Sunagakure's fastest hawk. Sakura quickly scanned the messaged. It was one of the benefits of being the Hokage's apprentice and assistant.
Her eyes widened in horror as she read the short encoded message.
She stopped her students in their tracks, healed the hawk, and practically threw it back into the air.
"Alright guys. We're going to have to head to Suna. Their Kazekage had been captured by the Akatsuki and his brother has been poisoned. You are going to have to follow every order I give to the letter."
Sakura didn't need to ask if they understood. Their demeanors hardened and their backs straightened. They knew this was a serious situation. She turned them around and set a fast and hard pace to Suna. If she pushed, they could reach Suna in less than a day. She only hoped her gennin were capable of withstanding the grueling pace she set. She knew the risks of going in blind all too well, but Suna was in desperate need of aid, and they were the closest team Konoha had to Suna. Luckily, Sakura was more than well versed in identifying poisons.
-ANBU-
They reached the gates of Suna when the moon shone high in the sky. The guards let them pass, having been informed to expect reinforcements and aid from their ally village. Sakura asked one for directions to Kankuro, and was directed towards the hospital.
She ignored the surprised nurses that demanded for her to explain her appearance and went straight for the fourth floor, where the poison ward of the hospital should be. Temari had been startled to see her, not expected anyone from Konoha until later tomorrow, but quickly dragged her into Kankuro's room and order the medics in there to listen to her.
Sakura wasted no time barking out orders for two bowls of water. The two medics attending the Kazekage's brother gaped at her.
"Don't just stand there! Get me that water!"
When neither looked like they were going to move she signaled Hanabi to do it. Sakura had taken Hanabi on many rounds at the hospital, so the girl knew the general layout and could do what the medics were not. Surprisingly, Hanabi took Moegi with her to carry the second bowl. Sakura wondered if their shared recent attack had somehow brought them closer together, but she didn't have time to focus on the interrelationship of her students.
The two girls hurriedly returned with the requested bowls of water, setting them at her side on a table she had Udon and Konohamaru move. She issued more orders at the medics that were still standing around aimlessly. Once all of this was over, she was going to have to convince her shishou and the Kazakage that Suna's hospital was in desperate need of an overhaul.
She asked Temari if she was felt well enough to hold down her brother. The blonde nodded stiffly, moving to the puppet master's beside and forcefully clamping down on his shoulders. Sakura nodded gently at her, and softly told her gennins to hold down his limbs. She could not have him thrashing about as she removed the poison. The less he moved the less it spread.
Sakura drew chakra to her hands, placing one Kankuro's chest to keep him from moving and the other hovered over the first bowl of water. She molded the water into a sphere and brought it over the wound. With a deep breath to steady herself, Sakura forced the water into the open wound, drawing the poison out of his veins, tissues, and organs and suspending it in the water so she could remove it. She disposed of the contaminated water in the second bowl.
Kankuro attempted to thrash. His movements were restricted and he bucked uselessly against the hands restraining him. Sakura repeatedly inserted and withdrew water laced poison until the water came out without a hint of purple. She closed the stab wound easily.
Sakura put a sample of the poison into a vial and safely disposed of the rest. That done, she turned to Temari.
"I haven't removed all of the poison. Even as advanced as this technique is, there are still trace amounts left behind. I need to analyze the poison and create and antidote that you can give to him. Once he has the antidote he will heal completely."
The pinkette found herself with an armful of a sobbing Sand kunoichi. She consoled the blonde and reassured her that Kankuro would be as right as rain as soon as he received the antidote. Temari thanked her repeatedly, promising Sakura anything she wanted for saving her brother. Sakura gave her one more hug, said she would appreciate it if accommodations for her gennins could be acquired and if she could have someone escort her to Suna's greenhouse so she could get started on creating an antidote.
With something that needed to be done, Temari pulled herself together. She offered to take Sakura to the greenhouse herself and settle in her students at the Kazekage's house for the night. Sakura nearly protested, sure that Temari would want to remain with her brother and not be trekking her and her gennins all over Suna, not to mention that she didn't need to invite them into the home she shared with her brother, but the look in the blonde's eyes stopped her. They were red rimmed and puffy and clearly said that she needed to be doing something, that she needed to feel like she was needed.
So the pinkette allowed the Kazekage's sister to drop her off at Suna's small greenhouse and take her students to her house for the night. Once Temari was gone she cracked her back, preparing for a long night of no sleep as she worked tirelessly to identify the separate components of an unknown poison and develop a whole new antidote for it.
-ANBU-
Sakura was gently shaken awake by a very cross herb caretaker that had not been informed about the guest that had taken over her greenhouse. Sakura didn't stay long enough for the older woman to work up a rant. The greenhouse wasn't large, but it had everything she had needed to make three doses of the antidote, one of which had to be given to Kankuro.
She traced her steps through the winding roads of Suna back to the hospital. This time no one tried to stop her as she darted on through to the fourth floor. Temari had returned to her brother's hospital room, probably as soon as she had seen Sakura's team asleep, and was dozing in an uncomfortable chair against the wall near the door.
She startled awake and jumped to put a kunai at the throat of whoever it was that was entering Kankuro's room, but Sakura easily pushed the dagger aside. The blonde dropped it and collapsed wearily into her chair when she woke up enough to see that the person she had tried to stab was Sakura.
The rosette gave her a knowing smile before crossing to Kankuro's bedside to administer the antidote. "He'll be fine now. Most likely he'll be awake in a couple of hours. I'm going to go to your house, check on my gennins, and get some rest. Send a runner to get me if he's in any pain or if anything goes wrong."
"Will anything go wrong?"
Sakura smiled gently. "No, it shouldn't. Sometimes the patient has an adverse reaction to medicine. That's easily fixed so long as a medic is notified as soon as possible. So just watch over him carefully."
Temari nodded again. She imagined by this point that the fan wielder was able to do anything else. Sakura briefly placed her hand on the older woman's shoulder and then strode out of the hospital. She was more than ready to fall into a bed and sleep for the rest of the day. She was exhausted, maybe not as much as Temari, but fairly damn close.
Unfortunately, Sakura did not have time to rest. She returned to the Kazekage's house, although it looked more like a mansion than a house, to find a pacing Team 7 that had been sent from Suna's request for aid. And not one of them knew what was going on, so Sakura had to explain.
It was a long explanation, mostly because Naruto and Sasuke could not keep their mouths shut. The blonde exclaimed over Sakura's ability, commenting on how much stronger she was and how she was so awesome and that he wanted to spar with her when they had the chance. Sasuke attempted to send her scathing comments and insult her and was then yelled at by Naruto, which resulted in a shouting match of "Dobe" and "Teme" before Yamato pulled a scary face with a flashlight under his chin.
As soon as she finished Naruto was trying to run out the door and hunt down the Akatsuki that had taken his friend. This time it was Kakashi that stopped him.
"Relax, Naruto. We don't know which direction they went. We would waste more time running around blindly trying to find them then we would if we waited to get the details of the attack."
"Kankuro fought one of them. He might know which direction they went."
"Excellent. I'll go talk to him now,"
"No, you won't." Sakura interrupted.
Kakashi blinked at her. "I won't?"
"No, you won't." She repeated fiercely. "Kankuro is recovering from a poison extraction technique and is not fit enough to be question. He will be awake in a couple of hours. Then you can interrogate him. But until then, you are going to stay here. And you will all be quiet," Sakura pointedly glared at Naruto, Sasuke, and Sai. "because I have not slept in over twenty-four hours. And none of you want an angry, sleep deprived medic operating on you."
Hasty promises to keep as silent as a grave were extracted from her teammates. A much happier Sakura climbed the stairs in search of her four gennins that were probably still awake waiting for her. She found them easily, by following their chakra signatures which she could pick out in a crowd of ninjas after six months together.
Hanabi was sitting crossed legged on the floor, trying to meditate. It wasn't working. Sakura could see her left eye twitching. Moegi curled onto the windowsill, arms wrapped around bended knees as she rested her head against the window. Udon sat at the only desk in the room, studying a taijutsu scroll she had given him two weeks before. Konohamaru flopped on his back on the bed. He had apparently shifted many times, because the bedspread was a mussed as if he had slept in it.
But none of them had slept through the night, as was evident by the purple shadows under her students' eyes. They were in over their heads again and it showed. They were stressed and anxious. They were only here because she had found the injured messenger hawk. Gennins had no place on missions to rescue a kage. It was too dangerous.
The whole situation had Sakura in a conundrum. As their sensei, she was supposed to teach them, protect them, and help them grow. She was duty bound to lead them. But she couldn't take them with her when they set off to face Akatsuki and rescue the Kazekage. But she also couldn't leave them in Suna, as they were her responsibility, and there was no time to detour to Konoha and see them safely back in the village. As much as it killed her, it looked like Sakura was forced to bring her team with her. She prayed that she would be able to keep them out of harm this time.
The Third Hokage's grandson was the first to notice her standing in the doorway. He had sat up from the bed with a huff and crossed his arms.
"Sakura-sensei! Did you save that guy?"
His cry got the attention of his three teammates, and all four gennin gathered at the door to ask Sakura if she saved Kankuro.
"Yes, he's fine. He's sleeping now, as you should be." They shuffled their feet guiltily at her admonishment. "And you clearly need to work on your chakra sensing skills. I was standing here for five minutes. If I was an enemy you would be dead."
It was said teasingly, but all four of them knew that the message was serious.
"Right, we have a couple of hours until Kankuro wakes up and we can get the information we need to follow the Akatsuki, so why don't we all try to get some rest."
"We? We're going with you?" Moegi asked.
"Yes. I can't leave you here, and there's no one who can take you back to Konoha. The four of you will have to come along." Sakura's tone became very serious. "You will stay out of the way. If we encounter any Akatsuki I want you to run, do you understand me?"
"It's because we're only gennin. That's not fair sensei. Naruto's still a gennin. We can fight." Konohamaru pouted.
"No." Four gennins stared at her shocked as she snapped.
"Yes, you are only gennins, but that is not why I'm not letting you fight. None of you are ready to fight S-rank ninjas. Don't let arrogance cloud your judgment. You all know you don't have a chance against a missing-nin. I will not see you killed because you foolishly disobeyed my orders.
"And Naruto might be a gennin, but he is also a Jinchuuriki. Not to mention he is older than you and has had more training. He has been preparing to fight the Akatsuki for more than two years now."
Four heads nodded their understanding and agreed to stay out of any fighting that may occur. Sakura smiled. At least she knew her gennins would be safe it anything disastrous happened.
And that was almost a given. Something always went wrong when Team Kakashi was on the job. It was like they were a magnet for bad karma.
-ANBU-
Sakura only got roughly four hours of sleep before Naruto woke her up by slamming open the door of the room they were given.
And if the door didn't wake her, his voice would have.
"WAKE UP SAKURA-CHAN! Kankuro's awake and he and Temari want you there before Kakashi asks any questions. You need to hurry, because the bastard's getting twitchy waiting for you, and because we need to save Gaara."
Sakura kicked Udon off the bed. Her students had joined her on the bed for a nap. It was cramped with five of them in a bed meant for two people at the most. Legs crossed and body parts piled. She apologized to him and they shook awake the other three.
"Go on, Naruto. We'll be there soon."
Naruto nodded and left. Team 3 quickly refreshed themselves and Sakura hurried them over to the hospital.
Kankuro was looking much better. His skin had regained its color, and was now nice and flushed. He was breathing naturally and his eyes were no longer glazed with pain. She ran a quick check up just to make sure that there were no lingering traces of poison.
"How are you feeling, Kankuro-san?"
"Just Kankuro. I think you have the right to call me that. You saved my life. And I'm fine."
Sakura rolled her eyes. Of course he was fine. Males never admitted they were anything other than fine, even when she could clearly see they were not.
"That's good. Kakashi-sensei wants to ask you a few questions. Is that alright?"
Apparently it was more than alright. The brunette tried to sit up and winced when he had raised his torso half off the bed. Yeah, he was just fine.
"Those Akatsuki are bastards. The one I fought used puppets. He said he made his own poisons. He left me for dead. Had you not come, it would have been dead. He said it only took three days."
Sakura worried her bottom lip. She didn't want to fight a puppet master that created his own poisons. He would be able to fight from a distance, and almost everyone here was a short distance fighter, and she hated the possibility of not have the necessary antidotes on hand.
"I got a scrap of his cloak."
Kakashi stepped forward to grab the piece of cloth that Kankuro held in a clenched hand. Sakura wondered how she had not noticed that earlier.
"Well, then, I think it's time we got a move on. Let's go grab our packs." Kakashi ordered.
"Wait." Temari had stood. "Let me come with you. We can't just let you save our Kazekage. Someone from Suna needs to go with. Let me go. I need to save my brother."
Sakura was about to say that she thought that Temari should stay here with Kankuro, but an elderly woman had entered Kankuro's room, and with a screech of "YOU!" bodily launched herself, kunai in hand, at her silver haired sensei.
Kakashi's widened comically and he raised his hands in the universal sign of peace. He still had to duck under the swung kunai.
"DIE WHITE FANG OF KONOHA!" The crazy old lady took another swing at her sensei.
Naruto leapt in between, stopping the attack by grabbing the woman's wrist and then support his own hand by bracing it with his other arm. A clone Sakura hadn't even seen him make latched onto the woman from behind and pulled her away.
"Why are you going at Kakashi-sensei so suddenly for? You wrinkled old hag!" he shouted.
"I remember that time," she muttered, glaring darkly at Kakashi. "The White Fang of Konoha. . . My son's enemy. . . I will get revenge for him today!"
Kakashi took a step back, protesting about not being whoever this White Fang was, but the senile lady charged again.
An old man, just as wrinkled as the woman, stepped in front of her and help up a hand. "Take a good look, sister. There is a strong resemblance, but he is not the White Fang of Konoha."
His sister stopped, blinked, and studied Kakashi. Then laughed as if she hadn't tried to kill him and passed it off as senility.
Sakura agreed. This old woman had clearly lost her mind.
"We don't have time to be fighting. We need to go find those Akatsuki and save Gaara!"
Naruto reminded everyone that they needed to get going.
"I'm coming with you." Temari stated.
"No. I'll go." The old woman spoke.
Sakura shared a look with Naruto. He looked as confused as she felt. Neither one of them wanted the person who had tried to attack their sensei to come with them.
"One of the Akatsuki is my grandson. I taught him everything he knows about puppets."
Kakashi agreed to let her join their party. Sakura wasn't happy. The woman was now glaring at her for some reason. But she could see the benefits of having along someone who knew the enemy and could wield puppets.
The group of eleven finally left Suna, following Pakkun as he tracked the scent of Sasori of the Red Sand, Chiyo's grandson.
Sakura dropped to the end of the column with Sai, having not been able to properly talk with him at all since he had arrived. Her students traveled in front of her where she could keep an eye on them.
As if he could read her mind, Sai said, "They'll be fine. They have you looking after them."
Sakura appreciated her boyfriend's confidence and belief in her, because her own was lacking. They had not been fine the last time they had a run in with the Akatsuki. Neither had she for that matter. She had landed herself in the hospital both times.
Still, she threaded her fingers through Sai's, and the two continued to leap through treetops hand in hand. She would have to take more missions with Team Kakashi. She rarely got to see her boyfriend these days.
A couple hours into the journey Kakashi received a messenger bird from Lady Tsunade saying that she was sending reinforcements. Despite the fact that Team Gai was the back-up, Sakura was glad. It was extra man power, and it meant there would be eleven people to fight the Akatsuki and to make sure her four gennin stayed well out of the fight. It was worth it even if she had to deal with the awkward atmosphere that came with her, Neji, and Tenten being in the same space.
The large group took no time to rest. Naruto, during his time training with Jiraiya, had learned that the demon extraction technique took three days. They had already wasted a day and a half, and night was drawing near. They survived on soldier pills and chakra pills. They were last resources normally, but if they were to have any chance of saving Gaara, they had to take them. Konohamaru, Moegi, Udon, and Hanabi were eating them like candy. Their reserves weren't as vast as the rest of the group and therefore needed them more often.
They pressed on through the night.
It was in the early hours of the third day that they ran into trouble.
They entered a clearing and found two figures shrouded in black cloaks decorated with red clouds.
Akatsuki.
The one figure towered over his partner, and Sakura knew immediately who they were facing. Kisame Hoshigaki, the Monster Hidden in the Mist, a former swordsman from Kirigakure's Seven Ninja Swordsman of the Mist, and Tobi, who she knew next to nothing about, only that he wore an orange swirled mask with a hole for one eye and had a childish disposition and a tendency to talk in third person.
Even if Tobi wasn't the greatest fighter, as she was lead to believe by the lack of knowledge about him, Kisame was more than enough for them.
Sakura signaled at her gennins. There was no hesitation from them. They instantly jumped back and prepared to flee back through the trees to Suna.
Suddenly there was only one Akatsuki standing in front of them. Tobi had disappeared.
"Playing hide and seek are we, little gennins? Tobi wants to play too. You hide and Tobi will seek you out and Tobi will kill you when Tobi finds you." Tobi giggled.
Sakura whirled around. Tobi was blocking her team's retreat, and he had no plans to let them get away. Fear caught in her throat. Why was he targeting the gennins? Were they going to die?
No. Sakura would not let him hurt her students. She would die before she let her comrades die. With a vicious snarl she launched her fist at the ground. The earth quaked and shook. Only the Akatsuki were caught off guard. Naruto, luckily, had seen her smash the ground during the bell test to reveal Kakashi who had hid underneath.
Tobi laughed delightedly, focusing his one eyed gaze on the pink haired female. "Tobi thinks he is going to have fun!"
'I'll show him fun.' Sakura fumed. She threw three kunai, with poisoned senbon hidden in the kunais' shadow, and watched amazed as the Akatsuki didn't make any move to dodge or block the weapons. He just stood there as they phased harmlessly through him, landed with a thud in a tree behind him.
Sakura froze. Her projectiles had gone right through him. How was she supposed to fight an enemy she couldn't touch?
Sai, who always fought beside her, released an army of ink animals. Countless claws, fangs, and swipes from large paws went right through flesh as if it didn't exist. Tobi had leapt to a crouched perch on a tree branch and laughed as the pair tried to land a hit on him.
Sakura had never seen a jutsu like this. How were they supposed to counter this? Tobi was capable of making his body intangible somehow, and as long as he could do that, they couldn't touch him. She didn't know what she was supposed to do. She ushered her terrified students behind her and Sai, placing them in the middle of the Kazekage rescue party. Hopefully, they could fend them off long enough that the Akatsuki disengaged.
Behind her, the rest of the team seemed to be having similar trouble with Kisame. Not that he was also capable of making his body intangible, they would be doomed if he could, but they were not able to touch him either.
Kisame wield his gargantuan sword with ease, like he was swinging around a stick and not a sword that must weigh a hundred pounds. They were having no luck getting anywhere near him, for fear that he would catch them with Samehada. Samehada meant "shark skin", and underneath the wrapping Sakura was willing to be there was a reason it bore that name. It had been described as the most terrifying of all the Seven Swordsmen's blades with its ability to devour an opponent's chakra.
They were at a stalemate. The Konoha and lone Suna shinobi couldn't get near enough to hinder either Akatsuki member, but oddly enough, neither one was attacking, only defending.
Sakura found an unwanted answer for their peculiar behavior an hour later. The two S-rank missing nins abruptly disengaged and withdrew from the battle. Kisame laughed.
"You're too late, leaf ninja. Shukaku's extraction is complete. Your precious Kazekage is dead." He grinned widely, showing off a mouthful of pointed teeth like a shark.
"LIAR! GAARA'S NOT DEAD!"
"Why don't you see for yourself, Kyuubi."
Sakura saw red. They only saw her friend as the beast he held caged inside him. Naruto was nothing but a demon to them. A means to an end. He wasn't a human, but the Kyuubi himself. It made Sakura so mad.
Naruto had to be restrained by Kakashi-sensei. His eyes had bled red as the Kyuubi's chakra covered him like a second skin. Kakashi flinched minutely as the demon fox's chakra burned. Naruto noticed this and wrenched himself out of his sensei's grip, the red chakra disappearing as fast as it came.
In the commotion of Naruto nearly losing control, both Akatsuki had fled. That's when Sakura realized that the two were acting as a diversion. They distracted the rescue party, delaying them until it was too late to save the Kazekage. They came and ruffled feathers, drawing them into a battle they had no chance of winning to buy to for the rest of the Akatsuki to finish extracting the Shukaku from Gaara.
And they succeeded. Gaara was dead. They had failed.
Tears pooled in Naruto's eyes. "He's lying. Gaara can't be dead."
"We'll see, Naruto. Let's keep moving."
The blonde nodded grimly. The column was reforming just as Team Gai caught up. Kakashi quickly folded them into the group and briefed them as they got back on track. The party of fifteen now silently followed Pakkun.
Soon they came upon the Akatsuki's hideout. They were hidden in a large above ground cave, surrounded by the forest and a river. A large rock blocked the cave's entrance. It was also protected by a barrier generated by five forbidden tags.
Kakashi had Neji locate the other four tags and assigned Team Gai to tear them down and disable the barrier. Team Gai found and removed the tags easily, but were unable to return due to a jutsu that forced them to fight a copy of themselves.
Sakura pulled on her leather gloves, a gift from her parents when she started training with Tsunade, and cocked her right arm. When Kakashi ripped off the seal on the door and leapt away, she charged. Her fist connected, and the rock shattered. She was surprised when she was suddenly pulled back.
Chiyo nodded at her, and Sakura returned. She didn't think the old lady had cared about anyone besides her grandson.
Hanabi, Udon, Konohamaru, and Moegi remained outside while the rest cautiously entered the Akatsuki's hideout, where they were greeted with an unpleasant site.
Naruto cried in outrage. A blonde haired Akatsuki, that Sakura though had a striking resemblance to Ino hair wise, was sitting on Gaara. On Gaara's body, actually. Sakura could see that Kisame had not been lying. The Kazekage was dead.
"We'll, which one of you is the Jinchuuriki?"
"You bastards! I'll crush you to pieces!" Naruto yelled.
"That one, it seems."
"Give him back." Naruto said softly, dangerously. "GIVE GAARA BACK! YOU BASTARDS!"
Unbelievably, the two Akatsuki starting arguing over who was going to capture the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki and true are. How did art even become relevant?
Naruto tried to attack them, but Sasori blocked it without even looking. The Akatsuki continued their argument as if they weren't outnumbered.
The blonde created a giant clay bird, which scooped up Gaara's body in its mouth so that only half of a leg was visible. The blonde leapt on top and directed the bird out of the cave.
The Kyuubi's chakra bubbled around Naruto, taking on the shape of a fox with two tails. He chased after the Akatsuki that had taken Gaara's body and was followed by Kakashi, Yamato, and Sasuke. If Sakura was concerned about her own inevitable battle with a renowned puppet master, she would have laughed at the overkill that was hunting down the blonde.
Sasori's tail flicked to the side, breaking the silence. And the battle began.
Chiyo moved forward, unrolling a summoning scroll and releasing a string of kunai. He deflected the kunai with his tail.
"I don't understand," Sakura said. "I know that's not his real body, but where is he? Don't puppet masters control their puppets from behind with chakra threads?"
"His real body is on the inside." The old lady answered. Sakura shot her a look from the corner of her eyes. She had seen Kankuro use a similar technique during the preliminaries of the chuunin exam, but she thought that had been a specific jutsu, almost like a replacement to switch the places of the puppet and the puppet master. She hadn't realized that puppets could be controlled from within.
"Because they're open to attack when controlling puppets, puppeteers are weak in close combat. So, that puppet circumvents that weakness. The puppet becomes the armor. And it also becomes a weapon. That's Sasori's favorite puppet, Hiruko. I know it well.
"First off, we need to get Sasori out of Hiruko if we want to be able to do anything. The most terrifying thing about puppets are the unpredictable traps, mechanisms that they can launch from anywhere."
Sakura could understand that fear. That was what had nearly gotten Kankuro killed. It was hard and dangerous to fight the unpredictable. It made it harder to go on the offensive, but too dangerous to sit back and only play defensively. Constant vigilance was needed or one of those nasty traps would get her.
"But Chiyo-baa-san, aren't you familiar with puppets yourself?" Sai asked.
"Yes, years ago. I have long since retired. It has been a long time since I've fought, and longer still since I had last seen this puppet. The shape's slightly different to the Hiruko I knew long ago. Firstly, that shell on his back wasn't there before. And that must have strengthened his defense. I've also never seen that left hand before."
Sakura studied the hand in question. It actually looked very similar to the one she had seen Dosu wearing in the Forest of Death, and she was willing to bet it had a similar purpose. Although given Sasori's love of poison, it probably released poison instead of air.
"Furthermore," Chiyo continued, "he might have redesigned his most important traps. Sakura, you have the same superhuman strength as Tsunade. That should be able to break through Hiruko's shell. You have to get close to him and smash the puppet. Sai and I will distract him."
"You're finally ready. You know I hate to be kept waiting." Sasori growled. "Not that it will do you any good. Making plans in front of the enemy is pointless."
Yeah, Sakura could see that. But they had to coordinate an attack. She thought the more pressing question was why did he let them make their plans? Why did he wait for them when he could have taken the advantage and attacked first?
"Relax, Block Head, we'll kill you quickly."
Sakura had to repress a snort. Only Sai, and Naruto actually, would insult an S-rank shinobi capable of killing them before they had even seen him move. Although, Sai's insult seemed to have irritated the puppeteer if the rapid, angry flick of the tail was anything to go by.
The females charged while Sai opened a scroll and began to draw. Hiruko's mouth dropped open, and a smaller portion of the bottom jaw lowered even further. Sakura could see a metal tube before senbon started flying. Sakura flipped onto her hands, twisting her torso left and lowering her left leg parallel to the floor. She pushed off, clearing the stream of senbon, and slid to the left, braced by one hand, as Hiruko's left arm was detached and launched between her and Chiyo.
The largest lion she had seen Sai make swallowed the arm. Sakura stood. Just as she straightened the lion exploded in a shower of ink and the dozen wooden pegs she had seen embedded in the arm released a second wave of senbon dripping with purple poison. Apparently being eaten didn't stop Sasori from being able to deploy his weapons.
The three of them duck, dodged, and weaved, expertly avoiding the rain of needles. At this point, Sakura was only feet away from the puppet. She pulled her right arm back as Hiruko's tail swung around towards her. Another of her boyfriend's lions pounced on the tail. It didn't stop the tail for long, but Chiyo's attached chakra thread did.
The tail's poisonous point was stopped mere inches from Sakura's face. The pinkette ran right by it and slammed her fist right into the center of Hiruko's shield as Sasori cursed Chiyo.
A third lion slipped between Sakura's legs and bore her away from the destroyed puppet as a black shape leapt from the ruins.
"Do you really think it will be that easy to defeat me, Granny Chiyo?"
Sakura stared open mouthed. It was unbelievable how young Sasori looked. He appeared to be the same age as her. His hair was short and as red as Gaara's. He had half closed brown eyes and was cloaked in another red cloud patterned cloak.
"He hasn't aged at all." Chiyo's voice was horrified.
Sakura shot her a pointed look. How could he not have aged? How long ago did he become rogue that she was expecting changes to his appearance?
A scroll dropped into Sasori's right hand. "I'll show you what I brought along. Killing him for my collection gave me a hard time indeed." The scroll rolled open, displaying the kanji for the number three. "That's why I like him the best."
"That is the Sandaime Kazekage!"
Sasori dropped into a crouch, straightening his left arm out to his side with fingers pointed back, and behind his right arm at the elbow in front of him. A puppet that could only be of the Third Kazekage according to Chiyo, hovered over him, almost lying on top of Sasori.
"Let us begin."
"Sasori. How could you? It has been over ten years since the Sandaime Kazekage disappeared. You led Orochimaru to the Yondaime Kazekage, and now you've killed the Godaime Kazekage."
Sakura's brain felt like it was working in overdrive. This man had killed three Kazekages, three shinobis that were supposed to be the strongest in the village. Sasori had fought and murdered three of them. How were she, Sai, and Chiyo supposed to kill him?
Sasori sent the Third Kazakage flying at them. His right hand unsheathed five blades and swung at Sakura, who was still retreating. Sakura thought she was going to die. Those blades looked like they were going to rip right through her, but the lion jumped beneath her, and the poisoned blades passed through the ink animal like butter, disrupting the jutsu and leaving Sakura unharmed.
Sasori's hands moved again. "Let's do this, Chiyo." The joints on the puppet's left arm sprung open, revealing seals. Hundreds of arms shot out from the seals, arching high into the air and jabbing down above Sakura.
Sakura felt it when Chiyo attached chakra strings to her shoulders, arms and legs, and let the older woman move her like a puppet and avoid getting hit. She was sprawled on the ground, bent unnaturally. When the arms stopped moving Chiyo pulled her out, setting her down between her and Sai.
A single tube appeared between the many hands. A cloud of purple gas spilled out, accumulating quickly and spreading faster. The three sprang apart in different directions. Sakura got the distinct feeling that Sasori was targeting her.
"Sakura, Sai, don't take a single breath!"
Sakura barely had time to realize that this was Sasori's unique poison when she was restrained. Kunai attached to rope had wrapped around her. One, binding her arms to her sides, and the other around her calves. She couldn't move. She bit her lip, struggling not to breathe. Her lungs felt like they might burst.
'Just a little more,' she thought, twisting her arm to reach into her weapons pouch.
"Sakura!" she heard Sai yelled, panicked.
She withdrew a kunai with a paper boom attached. With a quick hand sign, the seal exploded, dispersing the poison. Unfortunately, Sakura caught the brunt of the explosion. She kept from screaming as she was thrown back. Sai dropped his scroll and brush to catch her.
"Are you alright, Sakura?" he asked, holding her gently in his lap.
She stood with hands on knees panting. "I'm fine, Sai. Promise." She glared at Sasori from beneath her bangs. He looked a mixture of surprised and frustrated at her escape from his trap.
"I'll get you!" Sakura yelled, startling Sai and Chiyo. "Even if you blow off my arms and legs, if I take in your poison and it paralyzes me, I'll get you. I swear it! No matter how much you resist! No matter what you do! I'll beat you half to death! Got it?!"
"Let's test that, shall we?"
A barrage of kunai flew from between the arms. Sakura dropped to the ground. The kunai thudded into the ground in front of her. Sakura looked up to see Chiyo standing over her, holding two scrolls from which the puppets defending her must have come from.
The two puppets touch hands, wires attached between them. They pulled their hands apart and tore through the arms, slicing it to pieces, and then tried to cut the Sandaime Kazekage. The battle escalated, blades popped out of hidden compartments and fingers flew and puppets blurred as the two puppet masters fought. Sakura could only watch amazed at how fast the two puppeteers moved and reacted.
Sasori and Chiyo pulled back their puppets. "Shall I get serious?"
It was a rhetorical question. The Third Kazekage's jaw dropped open. What looked like black sand floated and writhed in front of the puppet.
"So that puppet uses the Sandaime's jutsu."
Sakura was startled. The puppet was using jutsus? How was that possible?
"The most feared weapon in the sand. The Iron Sand. The Sandaime created it himself. It can be changed into any form and weapons to suit the situation created. Sandaime Kazekage was born with an ability to change chakra into a magnetic force."
"But it's just a puppet!" Sakura protested. "Why would an inanimate puppet have chakra?"
"No, it's a human puppet created originally from a living body, thus, it's made to contain the chakra from a previous life."
Sakura had never heard of human puppets. It wasn't surprising. Puppetry wasn't common in Konoha, more so in Suna. But if Sasori was capable of making puppets from humans, was is possible that he had done the same with his own body? She thought that it would explain why Chiyo said he had not aged a day since he left. But if he did turn his own body into a puppet, it made it that much harder to kill him. As long as he had chakra, he could piece together his puppet again and again, each time it was destroyed.
"Satetsu Shigure!"
The iron sand formed into thousands of rock sized projectiles, and they moved faster than Sakura anticipated.
She grunted as the female puppet Chiyo had used earlier slammed into her side, shielding her. When the dust cleared she could see that the male puppet had shielded Sai. She looked worriedly for Chiyo, wondering how the old lady had protected herself if she used her two puppets to shield the leaf ninja. She was surprised to see a chakra shield in front of her. One of Chiyo's arms was also a puppet. The arm had opened at the elbow, and the four panels that created the form arm created a chakra barrier.
The arm clanked to the ground. "It's useless not that the Iron Sand has gotten inside the mechanism."
Sakura staggered to her feet.
"Now all aim for all three of you at the same time. Someone has to die." The iron sand shifted shapes into giant spears, several floating above each person. "There are only two puppets. There's no way you can all be blocked. Which of you will die?"
Dirt clouded her vision as rocks exploded from the force of the sand's impacted. Sakura coughed, trying to expel the dirt from her lungs. Her vision cleared. She could see that Sai was fine. Both puppets that had been protecting them were now useless. She could see the black sand that was crawling through the puppets. She search frantically for the old lady that was growing on her, and sighed in relief when she found her, only to gasp when she realized Chiyo was unconscious.
She desperately wanted to check on Chiyo and see if the woman was still alive, but Sakura didn't have the time. The Iron Sand was pooling into two large shapes, a pyramid and a rectangle, and forming wings on the back of the Sandaime Kazekage.
Sakura was totally blindsided when the next attack came not from Sasori, but Sai.
She yelped as she punched the ink tiger. "Sai! What are you doing?"
"I am merely following orders, Ugly."
Sakura clenched her jaw, both at the nickname, which now didn't seem like much of a pet name that meant he actually thought her beautiful as it did a derisive insult as he sneered it, and at the idea that someone had order him to kill her and he was listening.
"Who's orders?" Although she already knew, she wanted to hear it from him.
He cocked his head. "Danzou-sama's of course. You have become a threat to Root. Danzou needs you out of the way. It was always my mission to kill you, this is just convenient. Everyone will believe that you got cocky, trying to take down a third member of the Akatsuki, and that this time it was you who died."
"Danzou's, eh." Sasori interrupted. "My spy wants you dead, little girl? You have done more damage to us than him. Why does he want you dead?"
'Danzou is Sasori's spy!? And what is Root?'
Sasori's words startled her so badly that Sai's next attack, his ink flush technique, a jutsu in which he formed the animals directly from poured ink, trapped her in a writhing nest of snakes. The more she struggled the tighter the wound around her, until she thought they might stop her breathing.
Sai walked calmly over to her, his face as mask as always. It pained Sakura to see that he didn't care that he was about to kill. He had never cared for her at all. He had dated her in order to get closer to her, to gain her trust. She trusted Sai with her life, and therefore never thought that she would have to defend herself against him.
She was paying for that trust now. She couldn't believe she stupidly fell in love with him. Sakura knew that Danzou had placed Sai on their team for a reason. She was foolish to forget that, foolish to let him get so close to her, foolish to let him in her heart.
He gripped his tanto tightly, pushing the tip just into the skin above her heart.
Sakura took as deep a breath as she could get with the snakes still coiled around her. In one move, she simultaneously enhanced every muscle in her body with chakra and shoved against the snakes restraining her. She used that momentum and her moment of surprise to wrestle away Sai's tanto and slam the hilt into the side of his head, taking care not to bash in his skull.
Sakura frowned at him as he crumpled. She had never thought that Sai would turn on her. She never beat him that easily either. He had used that technique on her before and she had broken out of it every time. After the first time, he kept his distance.
A sudden idea left her short of breath and sent her staggering. Maybe Sai had not wanted to kill her after all. Maybe he had intentionally drawn his tanto and gotten closer because he knew she would break out of his technique. He had let her know that Danzou was a traitor, and involved with something called Root.
"Well, that was disappointing. You are proving to be very difficult to kill, little girl. You are quite annoying. It will be gratifying to kill you personally."
Sakura slammed her fists together.
"This again. . . useless."
Sakura charged. She jumped back as the pyramid compacted and sliced in front of her, continue up and around and cutting through the wall of the caverns. She had to through herself to the right when the rectangle came at her from above.
She bent one knee and used it to push herself towards the block of iron sand. A chakra enhanced fist slammed into the side, sending it rocketing to the other side where it slammed into the opposite wall, where the resulting shaking brought down the roof of the cave. Sakura took the opportunity that Sasori stood staring at his weapon to use the Water Release: Archerfish jutsu to shoot a stream of water at the sand.
The water did not have the effect she was looking for. It did nothing to weigh down the iron sand.
Sakura panted as she thought to herself. 'Before he attacks, the user always moves his fingers. That's the weakness of puppeteer's. . . and from the pattern of his hand and arm movements, I can start to tell the direction of his attack.'
Sakura tensed her muscles when his fingers flicked, but this time it wasn't aimed at her. The two figures of iron sand collided. For a minute, Sakura was unsure what Sasori was planning, then an absolute maze of sand exploded in every direction.
"Satetsu Kaihou!"
'It's going everywhere!' Sakura knew that even with her skill in evasion and predicting the enemy's next move that she could not entirely avoid this next attack. The best she could do was to minimize the damage.
One scratched the right side of her face. Two more crossed her right shoulder. Another just above her right elbow. She was cut on her left shoulder, and upper and lower arm. There were more cuts in the gap between her spandex shorts and her over the knee high boots.
For a few seconds, the only sound that could be heard was the splat of her blood hitting the ground. Sakura swayed, clutching her right arm, and fell to her knees, and then dropping completely on her front.
Sasori chuckled. "The poison's effective. The body instantly becomes numb and immobile. If left alone, you would have three days, but. . . I have no intention of leaving you alone. I hate waiting, especially waiting for someone to die."
Sakura waited with bated breath. She could hear the Third Kazekage flying towards her, and she heard when he unsheathed another pair of blades. She forced her body to remain limp, while discretely injecting herself with one of the two antidotes she had brought with her.
At the last second, the rosette stood on her knees. The puppet of the Sandaime Kazekage met its end at her fist. The puppet shattered, wood cracking and clattering to the ground. And with the puppet destroyed, Sasori's control of the Iron Sand died with it. It fell to the ground with a soft hiss.
'I have to finish this fast. The antidote will only work for three minutes. In that time, no matter how much poison I get, the effects of the antidote will turn it into harmless protein. I have one more, but now that Sasori's knows, I don't want to use it if I don't have to.'
She put her hands together forming the tiger seal, with her first three fingers straight and the last two laced.
-ANBU-
'Impossible!' Sasori thought. 'How can she move? She should have been caught by my poison. Did she use an antidote? Impossible.'
He thought of the puppet wielding sand ninja he had left alive. 'Did she use that poison then to. . . no. . . no chance. When mixing an antidote, not even a hairline mistake is allowed. . . even I who made the poison would need a detailed recipe of the mixture proportions.'
He watched as the pink haired brat began healing the cuts his Iron Sand World Method had inflicted. 'So she's a medical ninja, too.' His eyes widened. 'No way she. . .'
-ANBU-
Sakura ended her Mystical Palm technique. 'At any rate, I've stopped the blood in the big wounds. . .I have to focus all of my leftover chakra into attacking! This has to be decided in three minutes or it's over!'
Sakura was well aware of her limits. Even after three years of training, she didn't have the chakra reserves some of her friends had. She knew she was running low and that if she was going to end this, she had to do it soon.
"I'll acknowledge that you're a brat to be reckoned with. . . that you took out Sandaime Kazekage. . . at this point, using another human puppet would be useless."
Sakura watched entranced as Sasori undid the buttons on his black and red signature cloak. "It's been a long time. . .since I've used myself."
The cloaked dropped to the floor, revealing Sasori's true body. Despite the large five blades that attached to propellers on his lower back, the open compartment where his intestines should be that housed a thick coiled cable, and the out of place thing where his heart should be, the first thing Sakura noticed was how much wider his eyes were as a puppet and how that made him look insane.
Sasori stood on the cable, glaring at her from under a fringe of red hair.
Sakura didn't have time to congratulate herself for realize much earlier that Sasori had turned himself into a human puppet. She had to duck behind a fallen rock as fire spewed from pipes in his palms. Even behind the rock she could feel the intense heat of the flames.
Suddenly the flames stopped. The coiled cable shot at her, and she didn't have enough warning to get out of the way completely. It sliced through her right side, just under her breast, and impacted into the rock behind her.
Sasori used it to pull himself towards her, blades whirling. Wincing, she grabbed the cable, jerking it to the side and throwing Sasori off his projected path. With a great yank she pulled back, forcing him to come at her. She punched him.
She smiled as he fell apart. She had done it, and just in time too.
There was a click behind her. Sakura turned around slowly, not wanting to believe it. Sasori was putting his body back together.
"They say that the strength of a puppeteer is measured by the amount of puppets they use." He attached a chakra thread to a scroll on his back. He pulled it forward letting it roll open as he opened a compartment on his chest. Chakra threads explode from the opening. The light was blocked as the sky filled with more puppets than Sakura could count. "With this, I took down a country!"
Mockingly, Sasori held his head. "How will I explain this? How long it took me to take down a little girl? That I even had to take out my last trick. Aka Higi: Hyakki No Souen! I will show you this power."
Sakura craned her neck to stare at what must be a hundred puppets. She was scared. This was not odds she wanted to fight, especially not that the first antidote wore off. She was saving the other one for when she finished this battle, so that she would have the time she need to withdraw the poison, but it didn't look like there would be an after the battle for her.
She straightened her stance, pulling her gloves on tighter. She could not afford to think like that. She had a team of gennins waiting for her. She was the medic of the team. The medic was not supposed to die. This was going to be harder than her evasion training with Tsunade-shishou when she first started, but she could not die here.
"Surrender. . . and I will grant you eternal life. You shall become one of my puppets. I would have use of you. You would make a beautiful puppet, remaining eternally beautiful." He offered.
"Yin Seal: Release!"
It was a last resort. The Creation Rebirth Jutsu would heal the poison in her system and automatically heal any injuries she was about to receive. Sakura was uncertain how long she could maintain this jutsu.
A swarm of puppets cloaked in black descended on her. Not wanting to waste any of her chakra, Sakura kept to taijutsu, punching and kicking and whirling and twirling through puppets. Every fist that connected, every boot that hit wood, sent puppet pieces scattering. And for every puppet she destroyed, two more stood in its place.
Her body was fighting on autopilot. She barely registered her wounds before they were healed. She continued to fend off the horde of puppets. She attached a paper bomb to one and pushed him aside, letting him turn six other puppets to ash. Her fist went through one's head. There was no pause.
Her mind was occupied on Sasori. He had chakra. He could only wield and shape chakra if he was alive. That meant some part of his wooden body had to be alive. Sakura believed it was the cylinder in his chest.
She was so busy fighting the puppets that she wasn't paying attention to Sasori's movements. When he slipped between the mass of black she didn't see it. When she noticed him it was too late. He had stabbed her in the stomach with a poisoned blade.
Sakura gasped, stilling. Sasori stopped his puppets, grinning psychotically as her watched her slowly wrap her hands around the sword, gasping and panting, struggling to draw in breath as the poison tried to affect her.
Up close, Sakura could see that the cylinder in his chest had the kanji for core on it. It was the only living part of Sasori's body, and it was the part she needed to destroy.
Sakura needed to hurry. She used a little chakra to stop the bleeding. While the sword was still in her, her Creation Rebirth technique could not heal her, so she needed to stop herself from bleeding out. It was a slow process, while not paralyzing her; the poison was making it difficult to control her chakra. It reacted sluggishly, like she was a green gennin just learning that chakra control was possible.
Sasori made to pull back. Sakura fisted her hands, not caring as the blade sliced into her palms.
"What?"
"Not so fast."
Sakura stopped trying to fight the poison. She focused her chakra into her right hand, forming a chakra scalpel. She used the other to pull the sword further into her, forcing Sasori, who was still hold the hilt, to come closer.
He unhinged his right arm at the elbow, but it wasn't fast enough. Sakura's right hand came up, and with the precision of a medical ninja she had thrust her chakra scalpel into his core.
Sasori's eyes widened. He fell lifelessly to the ground. With the controller dead, the remaining puppet army clattered to the ground.
Sakura's eyes drooped. Her eyelids felt so heavy. She was so dizzy. She swayed and pitched forward. She fell into someone's arms.
With great effort, Sakura forced her eyes open. "Itachi?" She whispered. "What are you doing here?"
"That can wait, Sakura. Is there anything I can do to help you? I have knowledge of basic medical ninjutsu."
"The sword."
Itachi glanced down. He would never understand how he had missed the sword sticking through her abdomen. Later he would say that he was in such a rush to catch her that he did not bother to take in his surroundings.
Although Sakura did not twitch as he removed the sword, Itachi did. And he was horrified by the purple liquid dripping off the tip. "Sakura, is this poisoned?"
"An. .antidote. . . . in my. . hip. . .p. . .pouch." She answered, brokenly.
Itachi overturned said pouch, quickly grabbing the vial of antidote and placing it in the pinkette's waiting hand.
With his help, Sakura directed her hand to her thigh and injected the antidote. She could feel it as the antidote started working immediately, turning the heavy metal based poison, which intruded muscles and killed healthy cells, into protein.
Sakura had Itachi help her into a sitting position. Now that she had the antidote in her system, the Creation Rebirth would heal all damage. All she had to do was extract the poison. She explained the procedure to Itachi. With one of the water jutsus he had copied, he created an orb of water that she could use, and then restrained her with against his chest.
Sakura screamed as she forced the water in, nearly losing control of her jutsu. She mentally shook her head. This jutsu required extreme precision. She ignored the pain. She repeated the technique until the water came out clean.
"That's enough, Itachi, I'm finished."
The ANBU captain released his hold on the girl. "Can you stand?"
Sakura stood in response. The Uchiha gave her a small grin. "Come."
"Wait. What about Chiyo-sama and Sai?"
Sakura let Itachi carry Sai while she took Chiyo. She was unsure how she felt about him. Had he really tried to kill her, or was it an elaborate ruse so he could give her that information. Either way, he had at least acted like he was going to kill her, so she didn't want to be near him.
She regrouped with her gennins and Team Gai a mile from the hideout, where Genma was waiting for them. Shisui, being the fastest on the team, had gone after Team Kakashi. She was swarmed by four worried gennins, talking over each other and trying to see if she was alright. Sakura reassured them that she was fine and used the last of her chakra to heal Chiyo. She would not wake immediately, but she would live.
"You never did answer my question, Itachi. What are you guys doing here?"
It was Genma that answered. "Lady Tsunade received a message from you guys. Said you had a run in with at least two Akatsuki and were expecting more. As soon as we returned from our mission she sent us after you."
"She did? Who sent it?"
"I did, Sakura-sensei."
The pink haired kunoichi turned to face her youngest gennin. "I could see two different Akatsuki from the ones we had already encountered inside the cave, so I sent a request for more back up." Hanabi explained.
"You did well, Hanabi." She said, ruffling the girl's long hair.
Shisui and Team Kakashi returned quickly. Kakashi gave a brief recap of their fight, more of a chase after Deidara which ended in their distracting him so that Naruto could free Gaara and Kakashi could use his Sharingan on him, and congratulated Sakura on her single handed victory over Sasori.
Even with the extra man power, no one was comfortable hanging around a known Akatsuki hideout. Much to Kakashi's horror, Gai offered to carry him. Naruto kept a tight hold on Gaara, Itachi still had Sai, Genma took Chiyo from her, see as she was ready to collapse, and Shisui swept her onto his back.
Any other time Sakura would have complained, insisting that she could run by herself, but this time she was more than glad to let someone carry her.
The group of nineteen stopped in a grassy clearing. By this point Chiyo had awoken. Both her and Sakura moved over to Naruto, gently pulling Gaara from his arms so Sakura could examine him.
"Sakura-chan?"
Sakura shook her head, eyes squeezing shut.
"Can't your rebirth jutsu heal him?"
"I'm sorry, Naruto" she said softly. She knew he was grasping at straws, desperately hoping that Gaara was not dead, that he could still be saved. "I can't revive the dead."
Naruto started shaking, tears sliding freely down his cheeks. "Why Gaara? Why always Gaara? To die like this. . . He's the Kazekage. . .he didn't just become Kazekage. . ."
"Calm down, Naruto."
"SHUT UP!" Naruto yelled at Chiyo. "If you shinobi of the sand hadn't put a monster in Gaara, then nothing like this would have happened! Did any of you even try to ask how Gaara felt? What is this "Jinchuuriki" anyway? You just arrogantly made up that word to call them!"
Naruto started crying noisily. "I couldn't save Gaara. For three years I've desperately trained, but nothing's changed."
Chiyo knelt next to Gaara's body, laying both hands on his chest. Her hands glowed blue. "Chiyo-sama, that jutsu, what is it?"
"This is Kishou Tensei, a reincarnation jutsu. It exchanges the users life force to the target, restoring him to life. In exchange for my life, I can bring Gaara back" Her chakra flickered.
'She's exchanging her life for Gaara's!'
"Not enough chakra." Naruto dropped to his knees on the other side of Gaara.
"My chakra! Try using it! Can you really do that, baa-chan?"
Chiyo told him to place his hands on top of hers, letting her use his chakra to power her jutsu. "In this world of shinobi made by many foolish old people, I'm glad to see that someone such as yourself had appeared. The future, starting now, will surely be different from the time I lived. Naruto, you are the only person capable of understanding Gaara's suffering. . . Gaara understands your suffering, as well. . . please help Gaara for me."
Naruto grabbed Gaara's hand. "I promise."
"Naruto." Gaara muttered. He stared around him, clearly surprised by the number of people. Many shinobi of Suna had shown up while Chiyo had been using her reincarnation jutsu.
"Everyone came running to save you."
Temari shoved her way up to Gaara's side, pushing Naruto aside. "Gaara. . . how are you feeling?"
Her brother struggled to stand. "You shouldn't be in such a hurry to move. You're body's not back to full health yet."
"Thank you, Naruto."
The blonde shook his head slightly, angling it towards Chiyo. "You should be saying that to the old lady, not me. She saved you with her tensei ninjutsu."
-ANBU-
The squadron of Konoha ninja remained in sand for Chiyo's funeral, three days later.
Itachi had pulled her aside in that time, much to the jealousy of his younger brother, who had been trying to brag about his part in bringing down Deidara.
"Did you need something, Itachi?"
"I want you to join ANBU."
"ANBU?" She choked at his bluntness. "I'm only fifteen. I'm not skilled enough to be ANBU!"
"Don't patronize yourself, Sakura. I saw the end of your battle with Sasori, and the Hyuuga boy described the rest to me. That is the third Akatsuki you've killed."
"But, ANBU?"
"Your skills would be put to great use in ANBU." He replied.
"But what about my students?"
"They can be reassigned."
Sakura slapped him. "I know you've never taught a team of gennin before Itachi, but one does not simply reassign a team. They were given to me specifically because I could help them grow like no other."
Itachi rubbed his reddening check. "I apologize, Sakura. I only meant to suggest that you might wish to join. I do not mean to push you or force you to quit as a sensei."
"Maybe after they become chuunin."
The Uchiha inclined his head. "If that is your wish. Perhaps I could train you for the exams?"
Sakura gladly accepted. She knew it would be tough; she already had proof that Itachi Uchiha was a harsh task master, but it would be well worth it. If, in the end, she decided to rise in rank, she would be prepared, and if she did not, she would still be one of the strongest kunoichi in the Leaf Village.
Itachi wasn't the only one that wanted her to sign up. Shisui sidled up to her when he caught her alone, asking if she had agreed to Itachi's proposal.
It gave her some serious thought. Itachi's team was the strongest ANBU team currently, and all three of its members clearly believed her capable of being one of them. Shisui had let it slip that Itachi wanted her to join his team specifically, and that the Hokage had seemed agreeable to the idea. That had really surprised Sakura. She hadn't known her shishou was thinking about making her an ANBU, considering she hadn't officially taken the jounin exams yet, although that wasn't a requirement for ANBU. Any shinobi that felt they were ready could try their hand at the ANBU exams.
Either way, she did not think she would be joining anytime soon. The next chuunin exams didn't start for another month, and while her gennin had certainly improved leaps and bounds, they might not all be promoted to chuunin, which was usually the case. Most times a whole team did not get promoted at the same time.
But that was all circumstantial. She wasn't sure she was going to being signing her team up for the chuunin exams this year. While Kakashi had entered her team and all three of them had made it to the final round, only she had been award the rank of chuunin, although Naruto and Sasuke might have made it too had they not tried to fight Gaara.
So, while it could be possible for a whole team to pass their first time through, she was unsure about entering them. Even though she had done well, the chuunin exam itself was an arduous challenge that had ended in disaster.
She knew that the likely hood of another full scale invasion on the village the exams was being hosted in was slim. Security had escalated dramatically after Sound's attempt at her exams. But that was only part of the reason she held back.
The other reason was because she didn't want to let them go. She had been teaching them for over half a year now. They were her students. They adored her, almost as much as they did Naruto when they had been in the Academy, not including Hanabi, and by now all four of them worshipped her. Sakura loved teaching them. She loved that she could literally watch as they grew, and she wasn't ready for that to end.
She heaved a large sigh. She supposed that was really up to them. If they felt they were ready for the exams, she would let them try. If they passed she would be happy for them, and she would be even if it meant Sakura wasn't their sensei anymore. If they failed she would have more time with them to make sure they definitely passed the next one.
-ANBU-
Sakura debated the pros and cons the whole journey back to Konoha. After she delivered her report to Tsunade personally, which involved a lot of swearing and throwing of empty jars of sake on the Hokage's part over one of her Council's treachery, she approached the topic with her gennin.
All four insisted that they wanted to participate, so she handed over the forms to be filled out and returned them completed to the Hokage.
"So, Itachi convinced you to join his team."
"Partially." Tsunade raised an eyebrow.
"He's going to train me for the exams. Should my students pass the chuunin exams, I will attempt the ANBU exam."
The Hokage nodded at the explanation, dismissing her apprentice. Sakura left, not knowing that her shishou planned to promote all four of them so that Sakura would try out for ANBU.
-ANBU-
Team 3 took no missions during the month before the chuunin exams. This was both for her benefit and for her students. Sakura did not know how she was supposed to act around Sai anymore, so she settled for staying away. They spent long hours at training ground three, learning or perfecting new techniques, attempting to strengthen their jutsu armory. Sakura introduced the chakra paper to them.
Konohamaru was a fire type, naturally, as expected as a member of the Sarutobi clan, which was known for their ash jutsus. Udon was a water user, Moegi had a slight ability for earth based ninjutsus, and Hanabi had earth nature as well.
Sakura gave them each a scroll with elemental based ninjutsu, as well as some more medical scrolls to Moegi and Hanabi, whose medical ninjutsus were really coming along.
She also drilled them extensively on teamwork, taking turns on picking who would lead them in the challenges she designed. Sakura picked the least experienced member to lead the challenge so that he or she was force to think, strategize, and learn to use the abilities that were available to their advantage and lead although they were not capable of doing what was needed.
It was amazing how much they improved in a month. When it came time to leave to Suna for the chuunin exams, it was happy coincidence that it was Sunagakure's turn to host the exams, Sakura truly believed that her gennins would be able to take the exam by storm and pass with flying colors.
Surprisingly, she found that she did not feel that sensation of loss she had felt when the idea had first been suggested to her. After pushing them to the limits the last month, Sakura could see how much they truly grew, and was no longer disappointed that they did not need their sensei. It was proof that she had done her job well.
Sakura was excited to be going back to Suna. She hadn't really gotten to enjoy the cultural difference the Village Hidden by Sand had to offer. And she wasn't the only one.
Naruto had convinced Tsunade to let him enter the chuunin exams as a one man team. He didn't care that it would be infinitely harder to complete the whole exam on his own. Naruto was determined to become chuunin because it was one step closer to his goal of Hokage.
Sakura used to be unable to see that dream. Naruto had yelled almost every day as gennins about how he was going to be the greatest Hokage the village had ever seen. She didn't believe him. At twelve, he was immature, too childish, tending to think before he acted, running into things head on with no plan.
But three years had changed Naruto. Not only had he physically grown, but he had matured. He still maintained his innocence and his dreams, and was just as stubborn, if not more so, as the day he left, and still believed that ramen was the food for gods, but he was also different. Now, his emotions made him that much stronger. And while he still foolishly charged without think, he was capable of thinking on his feet. He had always been good at improvising, but now he was even better.
Looking at him, Sakura felt like she hadn't actually grown much at all. It didn't matter that she was the jounin and he was a gennin. Naruto was just so much stronger than her. He used jutsus she could even imagine, and acted like they were no big deal, like he wasn't special because he could perform a jutsu no one else could.
It hardened her determination to try for ANBU. She had been working so harder to improve herself; she was not going to be left behind. ANBU were the elite, the best of the best.
And Sakura was going to be the best.
-ANBU-
Sakura's second visit to Suna was not fun.
They checked in at the gate, showing their chuunin exam forms to the guard who checked them off a list of expected participants. The guard on duty gave Sakura a wary look, a look that she saw on other shinobi in the village. And it wasn't just sand shinobi. Ninja from Kusagakure, Iwagakure, Kirigakure, and Kumogakure gave her similar looks. Like they were waiting for to lash out and attack something. The ninja from Amegakure outright glared at her.
"Ne, Sakura-chan, why are they all looking at you like that?"
Sakura nearly jumped out of her skin. Naruto was looking at her pointedly, waiting for an answer. She wondered when he had become so observant, or if he could always tell what people were thinking because of how people look at him as a child.
"I don't know, Naruto."
The blonde huffed, putting his arms behind his head as he continued to walk. "Well, they should stop."
Sakura shook her head at him when he wasn't looking. She loved him dearly, but he couldn't change how other people acted. "Let it go, Naruto."
Naruto did no such thing. They went to the Kazekage's office, to inform him of their presence and to officially register Naruto and her students for the exams.
The blonde Jinchuuriki great the Kazekage with an enthusiastic hug and "GAARA! It's good to see you. Things must be pretty hectic around here with you hosting the exams and the whole Akatsuki thing."
Sakura could not believe that Naruto was acting like he was talking to just a friend and not the leader of a whole village.
"I am well, Naruto."
"Good," then the blonde's whole demeanor changed, "Why the hell are you people staring a Sakura with fear?" he snapped.
Gaara blinked. He turned his jade eyes on her, and she fidgeted. He was the same age as her, but he seemed a lot older than fifteen as he looked at her.
"I do not know why, Naruto."
"Then who the hell does?" Naruto raged. "It's not right. She didn't do anything to them."
"It's because she killed Sasori."
"Tsunade-shishou!" Sakura spun around to face her Hokage, who was standing in the Kazekage's doorway.
"Baa-chan! What are you talking about?"
"The shinobi world is starting to fear you, Sakura. You're responsible for the deaths of three members of Akatsuki. The Akatsuki is feared, and anyone capable of killing one is someone to be reckoned with. You killed three."
"So their afraid of her because she's strong? That doesn't make any sense."
Tsunade shook her head. "It's always the strongest shinobi that are the most feared. The ones with unheard of talents, capable of feats most ninja could even dream of. People with power are people to be feared."
Then, as if the conversation had never happened, Tsunade sat herself down in the chair across from the Kazekage and the two started discussing the security and design of the chuunin exams.
-ANBU-
Sakura sat in the hotel room she shared with her gennins. She had dreamed in the academy about be the strongest ninja in the village. What shinobi-in-training didn't? As kids, they all thought they were going to be the very best.
But she had never imagined the repercussions that came with being the best. It never crossed her mind that people would ever be afraid of her. Her pink hair made it almost impossible.
But she had proof that they were. The looks she received. The bingo book she had thrown against the wall.
She didn't need to pick it up in order to remember what it said, but she did so anyway, flipping to the page that sported her likeness. Most of the stats had not changed. But under what she was known for, Sasori's death was now added. Her bounty had skyrocketed to 50,000,000 ryō, the highest bounty ever recorded.
Sakura found the most recent additions to be the most interesting. Her name had changed. Someone had found that she had been adopted and added Nara to her name, because it now read "Sakura Haruno Nara." Next to her name were the words "Akatsuki's Bane." She was known, like Kakashi was Kakashi of the Sharingan, the Copy-Cat ninja, and the Sannin were the Sannin. She was Sakura, Akatsuki's Bane.
Right at the bottom of the page, in big block letters, were the words FLEE ON SIGHT. The last person to have a flee on sight order was the Yondaime Hokage, during the Third Shinobi World War against Iwa. And now she had one too.
-ANBU-
The first stage of the chuunin exams started the next day. It started later in the day, at eleven o'clock. Sakura gave her students what advice she could, based off her own experience, but also reminded them that each village's exams were different, so they had to be prepared for anything.
As it turned out, Suna's chuunin exams were drastically different from Konoha's. All participating gennin were locked into a large, empty, and dangerous fenced off desert space. Sakura later learned that it was known as the Demonic Sea.
Five minutes after the exam began, she could see why. What was formerly just a vast expanse of desert with no rocks, plants, or animals in sight was suddenly crawling with bugs the size of buildings.
Gennins screamed. The Kazekage stood to explain the first test.
"At the other end of the Demonic Sea is a stadium where the final test of the chuunin exams will take place."
Gaara's voice carried easily, projecting over the hysteria of the gennins. "The final stage will consist of a series of one on one fights, and the winner will become a chuunin. This test is simple. You have five hours to cross the desert. If you are not within the stadium at the end of the time limit, you fail.
"Begin."
It explained the late start. The five hours that was the limit for crossing the desert was when the temperature reached its highest point. It was a very unfavorable condition to be fighting in. Plus, by the time the gennins reached the stadium, they would be exhausted, overheated, and probably sun burned. That would make the immediate one on one battle that much harder.
Sakura watched Naruto decimate the first test. With a joyous laugh he created a platoon of shadow clones. Some formed the spiraling sphere of chakra, one summoned Gamabunta and another toad she did not know. Gamabunta swung his sword through the bugs, and Naruto did a combined jutsu with the other toad, who spat out a stream of oil which the blonde shinobi lit on fire. Some used a sealing jutsu, which beyond shocked her; he had not said anything about his learning Fuuinjutsu.
All in all, Naruto dazzled the audience with his display, setting the record for the fastest time, just under thirteen minutes.
Naruto's skills also stunned many of the gennin, who stood there watching his progress and not trying to cross the Demonic Sea as they were supposed.
"That's it, Naruto-nii! Show them how it's done! Come on guys! We have to get a move on! We can't let Naruto-nii be the only one to pass!"
Konohamaru spurred his teammates into motion, and with the teamwork Sakura had instilled in them, they fought their way across the desert. They were in no way as flashy as Naruto, and it was impossible to more flashier than the ninja that wore orange, but they showcased their abilities and got themselves noticed.
Sakura could hear whispers of how impressive the Konoha gennins were. It made her want to burst with pride. When they reached the stadium an hour later, she let herself relax. She was confident in their abilities and was positive that they would win their battles. Her only worry was that they might end up facing each other. Although it was ultimately up to the Hokage who became a chuunin, knowing that it was guaranteed due to a victory would be a weight of her students' shoulders.
The Suna gennin crossed the desert with relative easy, all thirty-six of them. It wasn't entirely home field advantage, but they definitely arrived in better condition than any gennin aside from Naruto.
At the end of five hours, the stadium floor was marked with gennins. A total of sixty-seven gennins, out of a hundred and twenty-six managed to reach the stadium. The stragglers that had just managed to walk through the doors before the five hours expired were given no time to rest. The final stage of the chuunin exams started right away.
Sakura watched some pretty spectacular gennin battles, and then some that stuck to basic techniques and made her feel like she was watching academy student trains. There were some gennins that were clearly not ready for these exams, and they were beaten easily. Sakura felt that wasn't necessarily a good thing, because their opponents might not have been the most skilled either, but would now be expected of holding to the standard of chuunins even if they didn't have the skills because of an easy win.
Although, speaking of easy wins, the kid matched to fight Naruto fainted when Naruto was named his opponent. By default, Naruto won.
Of course, he protested, saying that he wanted to fight and that they could give him a different opponent and let the kid fight someone else. The kid was still disqualified, but Gaara allowed for a gennin to volunteer to face Naruto.
A bulky boy from Iwa swaggered to the front. Sakura could tell just by watching him that he was cocky. He was probably the strongest gennin put forth by the Hidden Stone Village.
Observing the battle, there was no doubt the kid was skilled. He had an impressive array of earth jutsus at his disposal. Unfortunately for him, he was just not in the same league as Naruto.
The blonde Jinchuuriki had surprised Sakura again. He had started with his standard clones, but two of them had retreated to the wall of the arena, sitting crossed legged and meditating while the rest fought. Sakura could not figure out their purpose. They sat unnaturally still, never moving, while the Naruto clones used Rasengan and other wind based jutsus to smash through the Iwa ninja's rock defenses.
One of the stationary clones dispersed. The second it was gone Naruto's features changed. His eyes turned golden, with sideways slits, and the skin around his eyes turned orange.
Whatever he had done, it made him stronger. He punched through the rock dome the Iwa kid was hiding in with his bare hand, similar to her own enhanced strength, and threw the kid across the arena. He flashed to the kid, moving as fast as Lee, and ended the battle with the Uzumaki Barrage he had first used in the preliminaries of his first chuunin exams.
"That brat learned senjutsu." Tsunade said.
Sakura didn't know much about senjutsu. Actually, all she knew was that the shinobi that were capable of using it were classified as Sages, or Sannins. She wondered why Tsunade had not taught her this technique. She was the Slug Sannin. Sakura vowed to ask her once they returned to Konoha and decided to read up on it some more.
Sakura watched the remainder of the battles over the course of the next three hours. Hanabi's had been by far the longest. With a combination of her Hyuuga style taijutsu and her limited repertoire of earth jutsu, she had an almost impenetrable defense. It wasn't perfect, but after a near half hour of trying to force her way through, her opponent surrendered. Sakura vowed to have words with her later. While it was imperative that a ninja be able to defend themselves, Hanabi couldn't rely solely on defense, as she was disposed to do. She knew that even know that the Hyuuga girl was a chuunin, she would still follow Sakura around and insist that the pinkette continuing training her, so Sakura would make sure to impart some sort of offensive style on the girl.
Konohamaru's had been the shortest. Naruto had taught him the shadow clone jutsu before their own chuunin exams, as well as his own Sexy Jutsu, both of which Konohamaru took advantage of. He used his clan's signature ash jutsu, to create a smokescreen. Under the cover of the cloud of ash, he made four clones and used Naruto's Sexy Jutsu. His older opponent passed out from blood loss from a nosebleed.
Sakura mentally cursed both Naruto and Konohamaru. She couldn't believe that Naruto had taught that ridiculous jutsu to her student and that he used it in a sanctioned spar in front of the Kages. Both were going to get a beating from her for being perverts.
Moegi and Udon had, unfortunately, been faced against each other. It had been an interesting battle to watch. As teammates, they knew the other's strengths and weaknesses. It made it easy to predict the next possible move, and thus made the battle one that went back in forth as they switched from offensive to defensive and back. Moegi ultimately came out the victor. She surprised Udon with an earth wall that blocked his attack. He actually broke his hand on that attack, and in shock from the pain didn't react fast enough to block the girl's uppercut, which rendered him unconscious.
Gaara stood once the last match had reached its conclusion. He congratulated the gennins that had won their battles and earned the rank of chuunin and informed everyone else that they were welcomed and encouraged to enjoy Suna's hospitality and take part in the festival he had arranged to celebrate.
-ANBU-
Sakura awaited her team and Team 3's training grounds.
Her four students raced across the clearing, each wearing the green flak vest declaring them official chuunin of Konoha. Sakura's face broke into a grin. She was so glad that Udon had made chuunin as well.
The four preteens tackled her.
Sakura gave them her congratulations, stating how proud she was off all of them and that this was no excuse to slack off on training. Being a chuunin meant they had to work even harder. The newly promoted chuunins promised in unison and then made Sakura swear that she would not stop training them.
The rosette had laughed. "I never planned to stop your training. I still train with Kakashi-sensei and sometimes Gai-sensei. Just because you're now chuunin doesn't mean that you're no longer my students. You four will always be my students. You were my first. And I'll always be here if you need me, alright?"
After lunch, which was on her, a runner summoned her to the Hokage's office. Sakura hurried over, already knowing what Tsunade-shishou wanted her for.
Both the Hokage and Itachi were in the office when she arrived. Sakura smiled brightly at both of them, still happy over her gennins' success.
"Shishou."
"Sakura, come in." Sakura did as directed, falling into place at Itachi's side.
"Now, I've summoned you here to settle the situation of you joining ANBU. Itachi had agreed to mentor you. This means a minimum of three months with his team, in which he will teach you the skills required of an ANBU. You may remain longer than three months if necessary, or you may try your hand at the ANBU test. The test can be taken multiple times, but should you fail you must wait a year before you make a second attempt. Is this what you want, Sakura?"
"Yes, Shishou."
"Very well. Your training starts now. Get out of my office."
-ANBU-
ANBU training was grueling. Itachi had demanded she temporarily move into the Uchiha compound so that he could maximize the amount of training they could get done in the three months. The Uchiha was under the impression that she would not need even a day over that three month minimum.
Sakura thought he was insane, but if he had that kind of belief in her, she wanted to live up to it. So she didn't complain.
At the start of training, Sakura came to believe that her newest mentor was a demon. For a week straight he trained her nonstop. He did not let her sleep for a week, and neither did he. The only difference was, at the end of that week, he looked unaffected by the lack of sleep and she did not.
That was also when she decided she hated the eldest Uchiha brother. He set her insane tasks to complete, and then enlisted the help of Shisui, Genma, Kakashi, Naruto, Yamato, Sasuke, Kohonamaru, Moegi, Udon, Hanabi, Shikamaru, Shikaku, and Shizune to interfere in any way they wanted. It was a nightmare.
One time, he made her walk around Konoha with a blind fold, telling her that a shinobi must always be aware of their surroundings. To make it infinitely harder, she was supposed to find, defeat, and take a scroll off of Kakashi, Shizune, and Naruto.
Sensing and finding them wasn't the problem. She had excellent chakra control. Once she sensed their chakra she could follow them. Although that method did not work with Naruto. The blonde took the test to a whole new level. Shadow clones ran rampant through Konoha, and because they were shadow clones they all had the same chakra signature as Naruto. It would have benefited her if each clone had a copy of the scroll, but there were two problems with that. One, Naruto created the clones before he pocketed the scroll, which meant only one of the copies actually had the scroll. Two, even had each clone had a scroll, as soon as the clone was dispelled, so would have been the scroll Sakura had taken. Sakura had taken to marking the clones that did not have the scroll with her own chakra, so she would know to ignore them, and Naruto had switched up the game by passing the scroll between his clones. Simply dispelling the clones did her no good, because Naruto created an army to replace them and continued to lead her on a merry chase through the village. She wanted to tear her hair out in frustration, or hit Naruto all the way to the Land of Snow.
It was the real world that gave her a problem. Inanimate objects did not emit chakra, or have signatures of any kind, so she was constantly hitting civilians and tripping over tree roots and uneven paving and whatever else might be in the way.
Training was never the same two days in a row. Itachi had set an unpredictable schedule. One day she would be faking an assassination, and the next fencing a building that housed stolen information that she was supposed to retrieve, and the next uncomfortably learning torture techniques she prayed she never have to use. Sometimes he interrupted one training scenario and expected to her switch into another with no warning. Itachi took advantage of his many volunteers to thrust Sakura into a position of leadership on various training missions he designed, leading his team, with them as the enemy. Sakura never wanted to be Naruto's enemy. When he was fighting seriously, he was dangerous.
It was aggravating. She was positive he wanted her to move into the compound so that he could surprise her with an assignment at any hour of the night, which he did. His excuse was ANBU were summoned when they were needed, be it the middle of the night or midafternoon, and she needed to always be ready for a summons.
He randomly started issuing a uniform check. She didn't actually have an ANBU uniform, as it was illegal for anyone that was not an ANBU to even be in possession of one, let alone wear one, but he constantly checked the state of her gear. That was the time he decided she needed to learn to use a weapon other than her giant axe, which she was still learning to use. He set her to training with Genma with a basic katana that all ANBU carried.
This was promising to be the longest three months of her life. The time she had spent as a hostage of the cultist group praying that they didn't realize she was a shinobi didn't seem so bad now.
Every time she thought about quitting, Sakura had to remind herself that she knew this wasn't going to be easy, but that the rewards would be worth it. ANBU were the ninja elite, the Special Assassination and Tactical Squad. They were both feared and respected by civilians and shinobi alike, and it was an honor to earn the tattoo. It was the ANBU that protected the village from exceptional threats, conducted high risk missions into enemy territory, and dealt with extremely strong ninjas. They were the ones responsible for carrying out assassinations, tracking, surveillance, and other missions that required specific skill sets. Being ANBU was an enormous responsibility.
Sometimes Sakura thought she was too young for such responsibility at fifteen, but she knew that was a weak excuse. Age wasn't always a sign of maturity, and while she may be young physically, Sakura was not young mentally. Itachi had joined when he was only ten and her sensei had also joined at a young age.
Then she remembered the fear she had received from the shinobi at the chuunin exams. The same fear that had been directed at her by people in Konoha after she killed Kazuku. She didn't want the village to fear her. She wanted to protect Konoha and all the people living there. By becoming ANBU, she was proving her loyalty to the village, showing them that she would always protect and defend them and that they didn't need to be afraid of her.
So Sakura buckled down, insane as his methods were, Itachi was teaching her what she needed to know in order to join the ranks of the ninja elite, and she would be damned if she didn't learn it. She pushed herself past her limits every day, collapsing into bed at the end of each day exhausted.
And she grew stronger.
At the end of the three months her reaction time was instantaneous, she was much better at predicting an enemy's next move and planning how to counter them. She could sneak through the Uchiha compound without setting off the hundreds of traps that Itachi had set. She could design strategies when ordered and adjust them without blinking as the circumstances changed.
When her three months were up, Itachi declared her ready. Sakura had given him an impromptu hug, which he returned after a second of hesitation, and sprinted to the Hokage tower to tell her shishou that she was ready to take the most difficult exam of her life.
Tsunade had not been surprised to see her, and told her to return the next day for the first part of the exam. Sakura returned home to the Nara compound, telling her family that she would be taking the exams the next day. They had all been very supportive of her decision, and her father jokingly told Shikamaru that he needed to get a move on or his sister would really outrank him.
Shikamaru had called them both troublesome and mumble something about maybe taking the jounin exams next year, but that Sakura could keep ANBU. He did not want that much work.
-ANBU-
Sakura went from asleep to alert at the sound of weight settling on her window sill. A kunai was thrown before she even knew who it was. The ANBU crouched in her window plucked it out of the air.
"Lady Hokage requires your presence immediately."
Message delivered, the ANBU vanished. Sakura rushed to dress in black pants and shirt and her jounin flak vest, grabbed her already waiting packs, and appeared in the Hokage's office in a whirl of leaves.
Normally that irritated Tsunade, but now she did not even notice the leaves the littered her floor.
"Itachi's team ran into trouble on a mission. I need you to join up with them and finish the mission. I normally wouldn't do this, but there is a high chance that they are heavily injured, and you are already training for ANBU. I'm sure you would have passed the test tomorrow, so I'll let this slide and you can take the test when you return."
"Hai, Tsunade-sama."
"Your priority is the mission. Save them if you can, but make sure that the mission gets done."
"Hai, Tsunade-sama."
The Hokage handed over a scroll with the mission details of Itachi's mission and told her to hurry.
Sakura practically flew through the trees. Itachi's team had been sent on an assassination mission. Someone was giving the Akatsuki information on Konoha, and they needed to take him out as soon as possible, which in ANBU jargon translated to he needed to be dead last week.
The mission details said his name was Chokichi. His name seemed accurate. He had to have long lasting luck to not have been caught as a traitor before now, but that luck had clearly come to an end. Or maybe not considering she needed to save the team that had been sent to kill him. Maybe his luck was still holding true.
He was hiding out in Tanzaku Castle, a town a half a day's journey from the Leaf Village.
Worst case scenarios played through Sakura's head as she raced towards Tanzaku. Was it possible that Shisui, Itachi, or Genma was dead? Had all of them been killed and she was racing to her own death? Would she be unable to save them and complete the mission?
Each scenario was worse than the previous. Sakura's adrenaline levels had become astronomical. With the aid of adrenaline and chakra, she cut down the journey by several hours, arriving in Tanzaku town an hour before the sun was due to rise.
She needed to find one of her targets quickly. Profusely thanking Itachi for teaching her to sense chakra, Sakura let her chakra cover the landscape, searching for the signatures she knew so well. She found Genma first, to the north, and raced through forest in search of him.
She detected his genjutsu as soon as she stumbled across it. She pulsed her chakra so that Genma would know that it was her that had found him, and not an enemy ninja, and quickly dismantled the genjutsu.
Right away she could see the two large gashes that ran diagonally across his back, from the right shoulder to left hip. She reasoned that he must have been caught off guard by either someone who was left handed or capable of wielding a sword with equal skill in both hands.
It was a simple injury to heal. Her main concern was how much blood he had lost. It looked like the earth beneath him was bleeding; it was saturated with his blood. Genma was unconscious, and he did not stir once while she was healing him nor once she was done. Sakura moved him to a small cave she had passed on her way to Tanzaku. Leaving him alone, unconscious and defenseless was not the best solution, as she had no idea what had happened to those he was fighting, but she could not linger. She still had to find Itachi and Shisui.
Outside the cave she set up a few simple but devastating traps that would provide some defense for her unconscious teammate, and an elaborate genjutsu designed to make it seem like there was no cave and to subtly subvert the attention of anyone who might be looking in another direction. As it was a rather low key genjutsu, Sakura hoped it would go unnoticed.
She returned to the clearing where she had found Genma, and spread out her chakra again. Shisui's signature was so faint she nearly missed it. Fear gripped her heart. The weaker the signature the closer he was to death and his was currently flickering.
Shisui was breathing shallowly. That, plus no visible wounds that she could detect, told Sakura that he had breathed in poison. Airborne poisons were more difficult to remove than their liquid counterparts. With airborne poisons, the poison entered the lungs as well as the bloodstream, and removing poison from the lungs was a delicate procedure.
Sakura carefully and painstakingly set about removing the poison from Shisui's lungs first. The water combined with the air in his lungs, turning the poison into liquid form, which she quickly extracted before it could soak into the tissue of his lungs. During the entire procedure, she had to carefully monitor the level of water in his lungs. Once it was out of the lungs, the poison in the bloodstream was simple to deal with. Shisui had been poisoned by a well-known Konoha poison, and she carried the antidote with her.
"Captain."
She hushed him. He could talk when she was done healing him.
"They took the captain."
Sakura nearly dropped the antidote. Itachi had been taken captive. How? Itachi was an incredibly strong ninja, one of the Uchihas. How had they managed to take him captive? It seemed impossible to Sakura.
"They've taken him to the castle."
Sakura nodded, promising Shisui that she would get him out. "How did this happen, Shisui? How did you guys come to be so injured? How did they get Itachi?"
Shisui closed his eyes and grimaced. "They were more than we were expecting. We had been informed he only had fifteen guards. But there were fifty."
Sakura sucked in a breath. Fifty bodyguards?
But Shisui wasn't done. "They were stronger, too. Every one of them at least ANBU. We thought we would be face highly skilled jounin."
How on earth had this Chokichi managed to get so much protection? ANBU did not come cheap. It would cost a fortune to pay for fifty ANBU bodyguards.
"We had split up. I went ahead and Genma made sure we weren't being tailed. They ambushed us. I saw them carry the captain away, towards the castle."
Sakura pressed him for more details. She needed to know how many they had killed and how many she would be facing when she tried to rescue Itachi. She memorized the description of the floor plan that he gave her. It wasn't complete, seeing as their team had only expected to need to find Chokichi from their point of entry and get out once they were done. Once inside she would need to find Itachi on her own.
She moved Shisui to join Genma in the safe house she had made. She felt much easier now that Genma wasn't defenseless. Shisui might have been sleeping, but it was better than unconscious, and he would be able to react if needed.
-ANBU-
Sakura crouched in a tall tree, observing the castle. It was in ruins. Walls were falling apart; there were some places where she could see obvious holes in the walls. There was at least one ANBU stationed at each of these holes and some were also guarded with jounin.
She would have to be very careful infiltrating. ANBU were trained to stand for hours on end, remaining motionless. The only thing that moved was their eyes as they swept from side to side, searching for even the slightest movement. The ANBU were positioned so that every inch of the grounds, both inside and out, had eyes watching.
It wasn't only the enhanced security that had Sakura hesitating. Her heart and mind were at war. As a shinobi of Konoha, she had to fulfill her mission, which was to save the Konoha ANBU if possible and take out their target. Itachi had been capture, and that normally meant instant death for an ANBU. Theoretically, Itachi should have already killed himself to prevent the enemy from getting any information from him.
However, from the report Shisui had given her, Itachi was in no condition to do so. He had been rendered unconscious and restrained. That meant there was a possibility that he was alive and needed rescuing.
So, should she do as her mind commanded, and do her duty as a ninja by assassinating Chokichi, completing the mission but leaving behind Itachi, or should she listen to her heart, which was screaming that those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum. From day one, she had been taught that her teammates were more important than the mission, but she had orders from her Hokage, given to her as if she was an ANBU operative, telling her to finish the mission first.
Was there anyway she could do both? Could she assassinate Chokichi and save Itachi? If she rescue Itachi first, it was possible that he could help her finish the mission, but it was also possible that he would be in no position to continue or that they would be anticipating a rescue attempt and that she could be caught too. If she tried to take out the traitor first, she might alert the castle to her presence, in which case they might decide having a prisoner is too much of a risk and they could kill him.
She could always call for more assistance, but it would take too long to arrive. By that point Itachi would be dead and the information handed off to the Akatsuki.
Sakura could try to rescue Itachi, remove him from the castle and secret him away to the cave with Shisui and Genma. If she took that option, it was possible that she could save the captain and still finish the mission assignment. Security would most likely increase when she had returned, and it would be harder to get close to Chokichi, but Sakura felt like it was the best option.
It was the only option really. She could not abandon a comrade.
Sakura circle the castle. She decided to enter through a servant's entrance. It was a small door, tucked away into a corner of the castle where it was unseen. She would have to take a chance with it. She couldn't see any shinobi outside of it, but that didn't mean there wasn't someone standing guard on the other side of the door. She couldn't risk probing with her chakra. Every ninja in the vicinity would recognize a foreign chakra and would immediately be on the offensive.
She waited until the rotating guard had passed beyond the door. She had seen six different guards walk the perimeter. Sakura had three minutes before the next guard rounded the corner. She slipped under the wall through an opening at ground level that probably once served to release water. She moved in tandem with the shifting shadows of a large, bare tree, using it to cloak her own movements.
The door opened easily, and thankfully, without creaking.
There was a man on the other side of the door. Apparently, he wasn't expecting anyone to come through the servant's entrance because he was dozing against the wall.
The silent door didn't mean Sakura went unnoticed. He awoke with a snarl as she put one foot on the stone floor of the castle, leading her to believe he had been monitoring the floor with his chakra, and leapt at her, sword drawn high.
Sakura didn't take out her own sword, or any other weapon. Metal hitting metal was a distinctive sound, and it was imperative that she did not get caught.
Her short stature let her duck well under his swing, and she continued forward, thrusting her palm into his chest. A minute burst of chakra stopped his heart.
He stopped moving abruptly, his grip on the sword going slack. She grabbed the sword from the air before it could clatter to the ground as the ninja fell lifelessly. Sakura sank weak kneed to the ground, unable to take her eyes off the man she had killed.
He wasn't the first person she had killed, but he was the first that was not an Akatsuki. She understood as a ninja that she would be expected to kill, but knowing it and doing it were two different concepts. When she had killed the Akatsuki, she was fighting for her life, fighting to protect others, especially her students and Naruto. This guy was only doing his job, and she had killed him.
Sakura forced down the bile that was threatening to choke her, and with a simple fire jutsu, the only one she was capable of doing, burned the body.
She followed her gut instinct, sticking to servant passageways as she descended into the castle. She figured that Itachi would be held in the dungeon. It was typical for shinobi to keep prisoners underground for many reasons. One, it ensured that the prisoner could not determine where they were being held without any landmarks to be seen. Two, it deprived them of sunlight, which played a part in three, that dungeons made it easy for shinobi to lose track of time, and four, dungeons had a natural feeling of hopelessness associated with them.
The pinkette heard them before she saw them. She had smelt them even earlier than that. The guards that had been assigned to Itachi had been drinking. The scent of alcohol reeked. They were laughing drunkenly, taunting Itachi, and getting angry when he remained silent. There were only four of them.
Given their current state of inebriation, it was child's play to get the drop on them. Itachi was the only one to see her, and she quickly signaled for him to hold his breath. Without checking to see if he had, she rolled a smoke bomb that she had modified into a poison bomb into the middle of the drunken guards.
They had all gotten to their feet when it had gone off, but none had been smart enough to remember to not breathe. Four thuds later Sakura wrenched apart the bars on Itachi's cell and lead him out of the dungeon.
"What are you doing?" he whispered furiously as soon as they were out of range of the poison. "The mission. . ."
"I'm not abandoning the mission," she said sharply without looking at him, too focused on navigating the maze of passageways back to the door she had entered from. "but I am not abandoning my comrades either. Kakashi-sensei taught me that those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum, and I follow that creed."
Itachi fell silent.
"Are you injured?"
"Not physically."
At that Sakura stopped to give him a pointed glare. "What does that mean?"
"They sealed my chakra."
"I don't know Fuuinjutsu. I can't release that seal."
Itachi nodded. "I know. What do you plan to do?"
"First I need to get you out of here. I found Genma and Shisui. They're both fine," she said quickly when she caught his worried look, "I've hidden them away in a cave. Genma's currently unconscious, and Shisui was sleeping when I left."
"You left them defenseless?"
"There not defenseless!" Sakura snapped at his assuming and astonished tone. She would never leave an injured comrade defenseless. "I set up some perimeter traps and the strongest genjutsu I could that won't be spotted easily. I'm going to take you there. At least you'll be able to fight if you are attacked."
Itachi followed her silently to the cave. Once she had seen him inside and run a quick check on both Shisui and Genma, Sakura returned to the castle. She got inside quickly in the same manner, but this time she picked her way up through the castle in search of Chokichi.
The castle was unstable. It was dangerous to navigate because it was crumbling away. She made her way through the destroyed part. Chokichi would be in the safest part of the castle, and from what she had observed of the castle, that would be the north tower. The tower was the ideal location to take refuge. They were small spaces, which limited space. And while it limited how many guards he could have in the room with him, it was an effective strategy against anyone hoping to come up the stairs.
Sakura would literally have to fight ANBU in ones and twos in an enclosed space. Each opponent she faced would be fresh, with full chakra reserves, and she would tire with each consecutive battle and have less chakra available for the next fight.
There could only be ten ANBU in that tower, and maybe a handful of jounin, but that was certainly enough. She had gotten lucky so far. The ANBU she had encountered were unprepared. And while the ones in the tower didn't have warning of her approach, they would be more vigilant.
She would have to deal with them quickly and efficiently. If she took too long they could relocate Chokichi or raise the alarm, and neither sounded pleasant. Either way, she would have to face impossible odds to get to Chokichi and assassinate him.
She paused at the base of the tower. There were two guards, jounin, posted outside the door that lead to the spiraling staircase up. Sakura was willing to bet, and she thought the even Tsunade would too, that there was at least one ANBU on the flip side of that door. If she wanted to go unnoticed as long as possible, she would have to deal with these two quietly. She had no way of knowing how the guards were stationed inside the tower.
She cursed the fact that this was an assassination mission. It needed to be done quickly, cleanly, and silently, without leaving any incriminating evidence that would point back to Konoha. Even though it was a traitor to Konohagakure that was the target, it could not be known that Konoha had a hand in this. And that meant she couldn't simply blow out the tower with a superhuman punch.
Besides the fact that destruction of the castle would not go unnoticed, even though it would kill every single person in that tower, it was also an obvious sign that she was there because she was the only shinobi aside from her shishou capable of such destruction with bare fists.
Sakura decided that poison was her most efficient method since she could not take the risk of using her chakra. Naruto had told her that Tsunade had poisoned Jiraiya's drink when they caught up with her, ironically in Tanzaku town, with a colorless, odorless poison that left him unable to control his chakra.
Of course she carried it on her, and it wasn't a poison which could be traced back to Konoha. Nobody knew that Tsunade was capable of making it. She backed up a distance so she could unseal the poison and a gas mask for herself. She had five doses of the airborne version of the poison. She would release the first one now, letting it slowly accumulate in the air. It would take care of the jounin and whoever was directly on the other side of the door.
She unstopped the vial containing the poison, releasing it in the direction of the tower. She knew it would only take a few minutes to affect the chakra system, so she slowly counted five minutes, and then threw two kunais. They caught the jounins in the throat, and Sakura leapt forward to prevent them from hitting the floor. She tossed open the door, startling two ANBU on the other side. She nailed one in the gut with her fist, causing him to double over retching and struggling for a breath, and scuffled with the other, covering his mouth and nose with her hand. He struggled and thrashed and bucked, but Sakura clung tight. Eventually his movement ceased. She turned to deal with the first one, but he was already dead. It wasn't common, but her punch had enough force behind to break his xiphoid process and puncture his heart.
She repeated the process. The poison left them incapacitated, for they made to perform jutsus first only to discover that they could not. But by that time it was too late, and Sakura already had a kunai in their heart, had slashed their throat, and bashed in their skull. After each kill she dragged the bodies down the stairs so they would not get in her way.
Sakura found herself at the top of the stairs, staring at the door that was between her and her target. She had found it unbelievable that she had not been caught at this point. She was having a relatively easy time reaching Chokichi. So easy that she wondered if she was walking into a trap. She should not have been able to reach the tower unseen. She should not have been able to clear the stairway without the alarm being raised. Why hadn't she been swarmed on the stairs by ANBU? Her fights weren't completely noiseless. Someone should have been sent to investigate.
She cautiously opened the door with the toe of her foot, half expecting ANBU to fly through the door the second it was opened, but nothing happened. She peered around the doorway.
"Damnit!"
This tower had been a decoy. The room was empty.
She hurried down the stairs, pausing to burn the pile of bodies (how many had she'd killed? Sakura lost count.) The tower had been the obvious choice, and like a fool that was where Sakura assumed Chokichi would be. A systematic search of the castle was going to take time she didn't have. She needed to eliminate the traitor before he could sell any more information on Konoha.
But where the hell was he?
Sakura staggered. Someone was releasing an insane level of killing intent. It was crippling. She slumped to the floor, trying to steady her breathing. She was too late! The Akatsuki had come to get the information.
She pushed away those thoughts. If she thought like a defeatist she wouldn't get anywhere. If she couldn't stop the transaction she would just have to make sure that neither left alive.
Decision made, Sakura tracked the killing intent. It couldn't have been any more obvious unless a sign was hung that said secret meeting occur here. Whoever it was that had come did not care that Chokichi knew he was come. In fact, Sakura was sure that the Akatsuki was intentionally broadcasting his presence to terrify Chokichi.
She shadowed the cloaked figure down three hallways and a set of stairs and then another hall. The cloaked man order the guards outside to give them privacy and the guards vanished. Sakura took a premade seal out of her pack. With just a touch of chakra she activated it. It cloaked her in shadows, and she slipped into the room behind the Akatsuki unseen and pressed herself into a corner.
The hood of the cloak dropped, and Sakura barely stifled a gasp.
It was Kabuto.
Sakura mentally ran down everything she knew about the Akatsuki, but there was no mention of him being a member or working for one. The only known association they had for him was with Sound and Orochimaru. What was he doing here?
Kabuto reached under his cloak and removed a sack of what Sakura assumed was money. Chokichi tightened his grip on the scroll he was holding. Both items were set down on the table between them. As soon as he had let go of the scroll, Chokichi snatched up the bag of money and backed away from the table. Kabuto pocketed the scroll.
"That concludes our business." Chokichi said.
"Yes," Kabuto hissed, "it does." And in a blindingly fast movement, the silver haired bespectacled ninja struck out with a chakra scalpel and severed the trachea from the inside, leaving no outward marks.
"You have served your purpose."
Sakura watched as Kabuto strode across the room. What could she do? She didn't know what Kabuto was capable of, besides twisting medical ninjutsu and using what was meant to heal to kill. Should she confront him? Could she beat him and retrieve the information?
Kabuto thrust his arm out to the side, aimed at her, and four snakes shot out from beneath the sleeve of his cloak. She cried out when they bit into her. They didn't poison her, but they had a strong bite.
"Well, what do we have here? A little pink haired spy?" Kabuto laughed lightly as he yanked her out of the shadows. "Did you really think you could hide from me little girl?"
-ANBU-
Kabuto watched with unveiled amusement as the pink haired girl struggled in his snakes' grasp. She couldn't be very experienced. He had seen her sneak into the room behind him.
He released the snakes, replacing them with his own hand around her throat. Her own hands automatically came up, trying to wrench his hand off her neck. He applied more pressure, watching as her struggles grew feebler and she started to turn blue; then he relaxed his grip so that he was still holding her suspended but not choking her.
"Perhaps you should have stayed in the academy a little longer, little girl."
"Fuck. . you." She whispered harshly.
He smirked. "There will be plenty of time for that later, my dear." It amused him to no end to see how large and white her eyes got, how the color drained from her face.
"Now, what are you doing here? Who sent you? Was it Danzou? Does he not trust Lord Orochimaru?"
Her eyes widened further, and he took that as confirmation. Why Danzou had sent this vapid chit, Kabuto didn't care, but it meant that he didn't think that Orochimaru would uphold his end of the bargain.
"Well, that changes things. What to do with you?"
Kabuto yelped when she slashed his bicep with a chakra scalpel, slicing through the muscle. He cursed himself for being fooled by her appearance. Pink hair or not, she was one of Danzou's minions, and always more dangerous then she looked.
The girl tried to scuttle away. He sent a vicious kick to her rib cage, delighting in the sound of at least two breaking, and placed his foot on her lower leg.
He was interrupted by the ANBU that ran in armed for battle.
"Return to where you came from. I'll deal with her." Kabuto snapped.
The group of ANBU hesitated. He shot his snakes at one, this time letting them letting them inject their venom. The ANBU screamed, dropping to the ground foaming at the mouth. When Kabuto looked up from the disgrace the other ANBU were gone.
"Now, where was I? Ah, yes," he stomped down on her leg.
The girl shrieked as her leg snapped.
Kabuto knelt down beside her, stroking her check with the back of his hand. "Maybe this will teach you to keep your nose out of places it doesn't belong." He twirled a kunai by the ring around his ringer, grasped the handle, and slammed it into the girl's stomach.
She shrieked again, crying and begging for him to stop.
"I have to get going. Orochimaru does not forgive lateness. Unfortunately that means I can't finish this, but you'll die soon enough."
-ANBU-
Sakura watched horrified as Kabuto tortured her.
Part of it was because she was absolutely terrified by him and what he was doing. The other part was because she feared that he would see that it was a genjutsu, and do worse when he found her in payment for tricking him.
She had cast the genjutsu at the same time she cut him with the chakra scalpel. The unexpected pain, because he was not expecting her to fight back, distracted him long enough for her to put in place a simple illusion in which he she was still on the ground at his feet. In reality, she had crawled a short distance away.
When he crouched beside her to torment the illusion Sakura further, she had lifted the scroll from his pouch, which she could reach because cloak parted to allow him to kneel, and replaced it with an empty one intend for her mission report.
He strolled out of the chamber after he stabbed her none the wiser of her deception. She didn't release it though. Sakura didn't know if those ANBU were truly gone; and if they came back to find an empty room where there should have been a dying girl her ruse would be discovered.
She was amazed she had gotten out of the room relatively unscathed. Her only injury was the bruising on her throat and the bites left from the snakes. It was a miracle. Kabuto had been so cocky, so sure of himself and what he was seeing. He didn't even double check the scroll. Actually, Sakura realized that he had never looked at it to begin with.
Sakura retraced her steps out of the room, down the hall, up the stairs and all the way back to the servants' entrance she had first entered through. There wasn't a soul in sight inside and Sakura prayed that her luck held. And it did. The grounds were empty.
She crawled under the wall and ran to the cave.
Genma, Shisui, and Itachi were fine. The ANBU did not find them.
Sakura tried to give the scroll she had stolen from Kabuto to Itachi, but he insisted that she hold onto it, calmly pointing out that in the event of an attack, she was the only one that would be able to protect. Grudgingly agreeing with that logic, she slipped it into her hip pouch.
Shisui and Genma were still out of it. Sakura shouldered Shisui, the taller and heavier of the two, and she and Itachi, who was forced to carry a drooling Genma, trekked the long journey back to Konoha. At a walking pace, it took them nearly seventeen hours to get home. Sakura detoured to the hospital first and ordered a pair of nurses to settle in her two teammates. She couldn't express how happy she was that it wasn't her that was in need a hospitalization this time.
Then she and Itachi went to the Hokage Tower.
Itachi gave his report first, describing in monotone how they were ambushed by a higher number than anticipated and his consequent capture, ending with Sakura's rescue of him and removal to the cave where he guarded Shisui and Genma until her return.
Sakura's report was much longer. Tsunade stopped her every other sentence to demand more details, question her decisions, asking that she explain her thought process. She wondered if Tsunade had been second guessing her choice to send her on this mission, if she was concerned that Sakura was not experienced enough and had made a monumental error.
But that was not the case.
When Sakura finally finished her report, her shishou sat back in her chair with a satisfied grin and she heard Itachi chuckle next to her. She twisted her head back and forth between them, thinking that they had both lost their minds, when the Fifth Hokage spoke.
"Congratulations, Sakura."
Said girl blinked. So, she hadn't screwed up?
"That was extremely well done, well executed. You pass."
"I pass?" she repeated.
"The ANBU exam. It is tradition in Konoha to send aspiring ANBU on an ANBU mission and manipulate the circumstances so that their forced to take the position of leader, or finish the mission, and so on. Some villages, the Kage just hand picks those they wish to make ANBU. This way, I can have a team of ANBU evaluate your performance," Tsunade explained.
"Given, these were unusual circumstances. That was not the mission I had intended to assign you, but you did a fantastic job. So, you are officially an ANBU."
Sakura stepped forward when Tsunade beckoned her. Tsunade clapped her on the shoulder. There was a slight sting, and when she pulled her hand away, Sakura's shoulder was adorned with the signature black spiral tattoo that marked all ANBU.
Sakura stared at it. She almost didn't believe it was real. She had just made ANBU.
"Report to the ANBU Commander in the morning to pick up your uniform and receive your team assignment."
"I want to be the ANBU Medic!" Sakura blurted.
Tsunade raised a single eyebrow at her. "Yes, that is what I had planned."
The pinkette shuffled her feet. "Oh, I thought, when you said team assignment, that I would be placed on a team."
"You will be. You may be the ANBU Medic, but you will still have a team and take part in missions. ANBU can't be spared. You're filling in two very important roles. Most of your missions will be with your assigned team, but you will be shuffled around as needed or sent out as reinforcements as you were this time."
Sakura blushed and nodded her understanding.
"I'm very proud of you, Sakura. For such an unpredictable mission and one that we weren't in control of, I think you did a fabulous job. I don't think Itachi could have done as well."
"What?"
"I could not have deceived Kabuto like you did."
She jumped when Itachi smoothly inserted himself in the conversation. She had forgotten he was in the room. "But you could have used your Sharingan!" Sakura exclaimed.
"He would have been anticipating that move. I would have had to fight him to get the scroll back. Your method is more efficient. Until he opens the scroll, he will not realize that you fooled him."
Tsunade's gaze darkened. She leaned forward, setting her elbows on her desk and steepling her fingers in front of her face. "Kabuto's presence is worrying. I was lead to believe that it was Akatsuki that was buying the information. If it's Orochimaru that he's really working for. . ." she trailed off.
"I hate double agents."
"What about Danzou, Tsunade-sama? Both Sasori and Kabuto said that he was giving them information. When Sai tried to kill me"
"SAI TRIED TO WHAT!" Tsunade roared.
Sakura shrank back, forgetting that she had not said anything about Sai's betrayal in her write up of the Kazekage rescue mission. She had felt that it was something between just her and Sai. He was only able to let her know that Danzou was after her in front of Sasori, who knew about Root. When she tried to bring it up later, he had stuck out his tongue, showing off the seal that Danzou had placed on it to prevent his secret organization from spreading secrets.
She wanted to find more conclusive proof that Danzou wanted her dead before she tried to accuse a Council member of committing treason on multiple levels.
"During my fight with Sasori. Chiyo-sama was rendered unconscious, and Sai turned on me." Sakura winced as wood cracked under her shishou's white knuckles and hurried her explanation. "He said that Danzou saw me as a threat to Root and that Danzou needed me out of the way, although he didn't say why, and then Sasori said that Danzou was his spy."
"Why was I not informed of this four months ago?" Tsunade growled.
"I didn't have any proof. It was just my word. Who would believe that Danzou was a traitor? Without hard evidence?"
Tsunade's nostrils flared as she looked at her second apprentice, who was doing her best to curl in on herself in shame while still standing. Her anger bled from her. She couldn't blame Sakura. No one wanted traitors, and the Council would never have accepted a fifteen year old's word, even if she was a jounin, as proof against a respected advisor.
"Continue, Sakura."
"Well, Kabuto only mentioned Danzou. Asked me if he didn't trust Orochimaru."
The desk was reduced to splinters under the Sannin's fist.
Danzou was working with Orochimaru. He had a secret group called Root that he commanded. A group she had no knowledge of until now. A group that was loyal to him, and not the Hokage of Konoha. What was the man's game? Why had he created Root? What was their purpose? And how did he keep them hidden? How did she, or Sarutobi, have no knowledge of this force of ninja?
Tsunade turned to look out the window overlooking Konoha. Where was he hiding Root? And how many other secrets did he have?
She turned back to the two shinobi still standing in her office. "None of this leaves this room. You will not speak of anything we discussed here to anyone else. For now, we will be the only ones that know of Danzou's treachery. When you leave, you must pretend that this discussion never happened. Do not let anyone suspect the truth about Danzou. He'll wriggle out of our hands like a snake in the grass if he gets whispers of our suspicions. You go about life as normal.
"Sakura." The rosette jumped at Tsunade's sharp tone. "Do not go looking. If Danzou catches you digging up the skeletons in his closest. . .Promise me that you will leave this matter alone. Promise that you will let me handle this.
Obediently, Sakura vowed, "I promise."
She had no intention of keeping that promise. Danzou was targeting her. She needed to know why. She was going to do some searching. Sakura was going to find whatever he was hiding and prove that Danzou was a traitor.
-ANBU-
Itachi fetched her to the ANBU Headquarters the next morning so she could meet with the Commander.
The ANBU Commander was about the same height as Shikaku. He wore a dog mask, with three thick purple stripes, one along the side of each cheek and one on his forehead. She could see brown eyes through the mask's eye holes. He had a head of brown spiky hair.
He was the only one wearing a white coat.
Sakura was told that it depicted his status as ANBU Commander. While she didn't say anything, she thought it was pretty dumb to cloak the head of ANBU in white while everyone else was wearing black.
Tsunade had informed her before she left last night that Sakura would be the only other person other than herself to see ANBU members without their masks. She had been stunned by that information. It actually scared her a little. ANBU identities were supposed to be known only to the Hokage. The idea that she would come to know them too was mindboggling. She hoped that it was okay that her family knew, because she had already told them of her intention to join, and it's not like all ANBU were unknown. Everyone knew that Itachi, Shisui, and Genma were ANBU.
Sakura had been assigned to Itachi's team, which didn't surprise her in the least. She was handed three sets of the standard ANBU uniform and a porcelain mask. Her mask was a cat. It had three thin red stripes across both checks, slanted down slightly like cat whiskers, and three more on the forehead.
Locked in the safety of her room she replaced the standard green jounin flak jacket for the grey chest armor, metal arm guards, and ninja sandals with spikes for traversing mountainous regions. She kept her own gloves and decided to find boots with spikes to replace the sandals. She placed the mask over her face and stared at her reflection.
Even with her bright pink locks, Sakura looked fierce. She could imagine what it would look like with her giant axe strapped to her back.
She grabbed up the black cloak, which was a little large on her, and swung it around her shoulders pulling the hood over her distinctive hair. With the cloak covering her, she looked like a totally different person. It was almost like she wasn't Sakura Haruno Nara any more. She was anybody or nobody. She was whoever she wanted to be.
-ANBU-
Sakura did not keep her promise to Tsunade.
She tried to talk to Sai again, but he insisted that he could tell her no more than he already had. Sakura didn't push it. Danzou was a sleazy character, and she did not want to find out how that seal prevented Root from talking about him or the organization.
She did research in the library, but it was fruitless. There were no scrolls with a mentioning of Root.
So she took advantage of her position as the Hokage's apprentice and assistant to search the Hokage records, but that yielded no results as well. Well, no positive results. All Sakura learned was that Root had been disbanded years ago.
But that couldn't be true if Danzou was still using them.
However, she was seriously starting to believe that Root didn't exist. There was no record of them anywhere to be found. Tsunade had not called her in to discuss it again. Sakura's heart raced out of her chest with every summons from the Hokage, but it was always for a mission.
With nothing for it, Sakura tailed Danzou. If she watched him long enough, he would slip up and reveal something she could use. But the old war hawk was slippery. He was harder than Kakashi to keep tabs on, and that was saying something considering her sensei's disappearing tendencies.
She thought about asking Sai if he could lead her to Root's headquarters, seeing as that wouldn't involve him talking, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. Sai must have risked a lot to let her know that Danzou wanted her dead. And from what she knew of the man, he did not take failure lightly, so Sai would have gotten in serious trouble for failing to kill her.
But that had got her thinking. She switched to trailing Sai, thinking he would be much easier to follow than Danzou. And he was.
Sakura followed her teammate out of the village's gates and to an underground tunnel system. She waited a few hours for him to exit the tunnel and made sure he was long gone before she entered.
It was a maze. Root members had to know the way through, but Sakura was not part of Root. If she tried to navigate this and got lost, the consequences would be devastating. If she was caught in the Root Headquarters that was not supposed to exist it could be seen as insubordination or treason.
It would be worse if it was Danzou that caught her. That would ruin any plans the Hokage had to find him guilty.
She turned around, fully prepared to leave and not get involved in this situation any more than she already was, when she saw the note.
She recognized Sai's writing immediately, so she hurriedly unfolded the paper.
It was a map of the tunnels marking the path she needed to take. It looked like it led to a vault room, which was the perfect place for Danzou to hide his evidence of Root. There was a tiny note written in the corner.
Your training is lacking, Ugly. Root excels in stealth; you would never manage to track one down here. Your actions have alerted Danzou. Be careful and be quick. Destroy this. Thank you.
Sakura memorized the outlined route and burned the map. She would think about Sai later. Right now she needed to focus on getting into that vault.
-ANBU-
Accessing the vault was easy. Danzou had no protections on the door. Sakura thought it was because he never thought anyone that wasn't Root would find this place. He was certainly going to come to regret that decision when she used this information to oust him as a traitor.
She quickly scanned through the documents she found. She was looking for mission reports or statements, profiles, anything that proved that Root was still active and that Danzou was in charge.
Her eyes lit up as she finally found what she was looking for.
"It is the unseen ones who support the great tree of Konoha from the depths of the earth."
Sakura whirled, shoving back against a cabinet as a voice spoke from the shadows.
Danzou emerged into the flickering torch light.
-ANBU-
AN: alright, first, you read that right. It does say part one. There is a lot more that needs to happen in Sakura's time as an ANBU but it was too much for one chapter. If I tried to put it all in one chapter I wouldn't have it done before Christmas. So there will be a part two and I was nice enough to leave you with a cliffy so you can curse me and imagine what horrors Danzou is going to do to Sakura.
Second: A new poll. Should Sakura learn senjutsu. Vote on my profile or leave a review.
Third: Chapter 614 COMPLETELY FREAKING UNACCEPTABLE!
