Summary: After being sent on a long mission to Suna with Sakura's dream boy Sasuke, she is determined to show him how much she's changed since Squad Seven. But what will happen when she makes friends with Gaara and Sasuke starts getting jealous of an innocent friendship? SakuraXSasuke SakuraXGaara
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters associated with it.
Warnings: This story has been rated M for later chapters and will include lemon. There is also bad language and cussing. Now enough with the warnings and on with the story!
Chapter 4 – Ambush!
Sakura's emerald eyes opened sharply and she dragged her body back from its sleepy state. She went to sit up but she felt Kakashi's hand on her shoulder, gently holding her down.
"Don't let them know that you're aware of their presence. Pretend to be asleep," Kakashi whispered in her ear. Sakura instantly relaxed in her sleeping bag, closing her eyes whilst sharpening her other senses so she would still be alert. Anyone watching her would have thought she was sleeping peacefully, but Sakura's mind kept her from lulling back to sleep. She was going through her jutsu's and mentally preparing herself for the attack. Kakashi stood up and stretched widely, making it look like he was just checking if Sakura was asleep. The copy-ninja had already woken Sasuke up, not that he had needed to. Sasuke was already aware of the impending attack; apparently he had been unable to sleep. The Uchiha lay back with his eyes closed, itching for the ambush to begin. He could do with someone to release his anger on. As if reading his mind, three dark figures jumped down from the canopy above, one pinning Sasuke, another pinning Sakura and one trying to disarm Kakashi. Sakura's eyes fluttered open, feigning sleepiness. She saw a leering man on top of her, a kunai in his hand, his long hair obscuring most of his face.
His creepy smile that Sakura had seen through his mane of greasy hair sent shudders up her spine that had nothing to do with fear. It was disgust.
"I would love to take my time with you, little kunoichi." The man said in a deep voice. His breath had a pungent odour and smelled of something Sakura recognised but couldn't place. "Unfortunately time is not on my side today so I'll have to kill you quickly." His grip tightened on the kunai and he sliced through the air aiming for a clean cut to the throat. Sakura was ready and she kicked up hard knocking her knee in to his chest. As the breath left him he glared at her, doubling over in pain. Sakura jumped up and took out a kunai of her own holding it tightly against his throat.
"Don't move," she said seriously.
"My, how the tables have turned. Your quite a feisty one aren't you little Kunoichi?" He chuckled darkly to himself trying to recover quickly from her attack. Sakura allowed herself a smirk of her own and pressed the kunai closer to his throat, silently daring him to try anything now.
"Don't underestimate me," she said dangerously.
"Oh, don't worry my flower. I won't make that mistake again." He twisted her around quickly and took a deep breath. Caught off balance she jumped back a few steps, which proved to be the right move. As the mysterious ambusher released his disgusting breath a thick cloud of purple smoke formed where Sakura had been a second before.
'Poisonous gas!' Sakura thought to herself and she covered her free hand over her mouth and nose, trying to not breathe in any of the toxic fumes. To her utter horror the greasy haired man stepped into the cloud literally sucking the poison back into his lungs. She let the hand covering her mouth and nose drop down as the cloud dispersed. It must be a close range poison if he was bothering to suck it up and come at her again. She could try and work out the psychics of why this man could carry poisonous gas in his body without it killing him later, right now she had to focus on staying alive long enough to learn it. His lecherous eyes raped her body and he smirked sadistically, slowly taking a step closer to a slightly thrown off Sakura. She had seen he had a terrible scar from burns on his right cheek that snaked its way down to his neck line and she tried to put a name to this stranger. She must have read about someone with such obvious markings in a Bingo book at some point but she couldn't place him. He was either not much of a threat or he was keeping a low profile and judging from how quickly he recovered from Sakura's earlier attack she suspected it was the latter.
"Come my flower," his toxic breath called to her. "Come to me, I promise to take good care of you."
"Atsushi!" came a sharp command from the larger man locked in battle with Kakashi. "You don't need any more girls to take care of, just get on with the mission."
The poison wracked lecher chuckled darkly. "You clearly haven't had a good look at her then, Dai. I would give up half my collection for this pretty little thing."
The larger man did a full body slam into Kakashi who was thrown back amongst the trees. He took the few seconds of recovery to glance at Sakura and then his face split into a wide grin.
"She is defiantly a rare beauty," he said, thinking hard for a second. "Fine, just don't go overboard. Subdue her quickly then help us out."
Atsushi nodded, barely concealing his look of excitement. Sakura felt absolutely violated, even though they hadn't done anything to her; yet. She looked over at Sasuke, focusing on how this was the moment to prove to him her worth. She gathered a handful of chakra and braced herself, taking a deep lungful of air and charging at her opponent. Her fist made contact with his stomach and he coiled over barely able to breathe. Sakura felt a wave of triumph energise her and jumped back anticipating his next move. She gasped audibly when the man she had punched dispersed into a small cloud of toxic fumes. 'Some kind of poison clone?' She thought desperately. 'Which means!' She spun round a second too late knowing he would be right behind her. He smiled and almost lovingly reached out and grabbed a handful of her hair, yanking it back and exposing her neck.
"My my flower what pretty, silky hair you have." Before she could react, he pierced a needle into Sakura's neck making her cry out in pain and surprise. He quickly forced the liquid into her veins and released her from his greasy, dirty hands smirking evilly.
Sakura stumbled back, holding the place on her neck he had injected and spat angrily at him. "What the hell have you drugged me with?"
"I'm so glad you asked my flower," he said smugly as if showing off his prized work. "This type of poison is a specialty of mine. It spreads through your chakra network rather than your actual bloodstream which makes it a very quick acting poison. It renders your chakra useless almost instantaneously and will simply make you pass out in approximately two minutes."
Sakura's mind was working overtime. So she had about two minutes to take this guy down and her chakra would be rendered useless in a few seconds. Her only option was to kill this guy while she had the chance. She had a good idea as to what this creep was going to do to her if she didn't defeat him and she was not about to back down and let him. Wasting precious seconds Sakura formulated a plan and dramatically collapsed on the ground, as if the poisons effects had worked already. Atsushi grinned evilly and cupped Sakura's head, forcing her eyes upward.
"Oh come on flower, show me a little more of that feisty spirit of yours."
Sakura gathered all of her quickly draining chakra and held his gaze with her eyes, trying to distract him. He flicked his long hair out of his eyes to see her better and grinned once again.
"I'm going to have so much fun with you my flower."
Sakura had slid her hand behind him to his back and took the only chance she would get. With her chakra she sliced through the air, aiming directly for his central chakra nervous system. He twitched and released her immediately. Sakura rolled away from him, panting hard. The drug's effects were finally beginning to have an effect on her and she was fighting to stay awake.
"You're going to pay for that dearly flower, I promise you that." He tried to attack her but he merely flopped down on to the ground feebly twitching. Sakura's last thought before the darkness finally pulled her into unconsciousness, was that she had at least rendered Atsushi as useless as she was right now. 'Sasuke, please don't hate me for this.'
"Hurry up already Atsushi. I may have underestimated my opponent."
"You most certainly did." Kakashi said calmly to the chubby ninja. "In fact the only reason I haven't killed you yet is because I want to keep you alive for questioning."
"Atsushi!"
The poison master chuckled darkly from the floor. "You'll have to finish this one without me Dai. That girl did something to my chakra network and I can barely move."
"Damn it," Dai said. "Looks like I'll have to actually get serious."
Kakashi could hear the ringing sounds of Sasuke's battle but he heard silence from the area Sakura had been fighting in, save for Atsushi's laboured breathing. He sharply created a shadow clone and it jumped out of range of the battle, searching for the pink haired kunoichi. His clone found Sakura on the ground completely knocked out. What on earth could he have done to make Sakura just fall down like that? The copy-ninja's clone scanned the area more thoroughly and saw the empty syringe lying just out of the pair's range. His gaze grew intense and he carefully eyed Sakura, trying to confirm whether she had been injected with something. His strong gaze found her exposed neck and a small trickle of blood that had run into her candy coloured hair, tainting it red.
'This could actually be very serious.' His clone, unseen by any of the ambushers, released the jutsu, transferring the disturbing information to the real Kakashi Hatake. Maintaining his cool disposition Kakashi sighed at Dai.
"Indeed it looks like we both have to get serious." He pulled up his Leaf Village headband and revealed the Sharingan. A flicker of fear crossed Dai's eyes and he looked uncertainly at Kakashi.
"You aren't? You can't be?" he stuttered almost not daring to believe it. "Kakashi Hatake, the copy ninja?"
"Ah, I see you've heard of me." Kakashi said, smiling underneath his mask. "Now, shall we continue?"
Dai swallowed audibly when Sasuke came to Kakashi's aid, having defeated his opponent with a few well placed Chidori's. Dai saw the Sharingan swirling in Sasuke's eyes and recognised his lineage to the Uchiha clan. Sasuke's whole body was shaking with anger, and his eyes were murderous.
"Wait just a second!" Dai pleaded as Kakashi came in for the attack. Kakashi didn't falter, but instead of killing the large ninja, he subdued him, holding a kunai very tightly against his throat.
"Now then, just who are you three?" Kakashi asked calmly.
"Two," Sasuke corrected him.
Dai eyed what remained of Sasuke's opponent and gritted his teeth. "We're ninja mercenaries," he stated through tight lips, glaring daggers at Kakashi.
"Interesting," Kakashi replied, still highly alert. He felt Atsushi's chakra was still all over the place but he motioned for Sasuke to subdue him also. Sasuke obliged pleasantly and shot behind the poisonous lecher holding a kunai so close to his throat, his blood coated the edges of the sharp metal.
"So, what would a group of ninja mercenaries want with us?" Kakashi continued smoothly. "You seemed keen to end the battle when you found out my identity."
Dai remained tight lipped, even when Kakashi pressed the blade closer to his throbbing veins.
"I was hoping I wouldn't have to do this," the silver haired copy ninja sad, sighing deeply. He activated his Sharingan and pulled Dai into his deathly stare.
"Oh please!" Dai begged, before the Sharingan's effects took hold. "I'll talk, please stop!" Kakashi's twisting Sharingan slowed down, but continued to survey Dai, watching for any signs of deception or tricks.
"Alright, this is your last chance," Kakashi said dangerously. He was through with playing games, he needed to do this quickly and get Sakura out of danger. "Who are you and why are you attacking us?"
"Like I said..." Dai started begrudgingly, keeping an eye on the Sharingan, "We're ninja mercenaries. And don't it personally or nothing, we were only carrying out our mission."
"Oh? And what mission would that be?"
Dai paused for a second, glaring at Kakashi. "A mission to sabotage the documents the Leaf village courier was taking to Suna."
"Who were you hired by?"
"The Village Hidden in the Mist."
"As suspected."
"They thought you would only use courier-ninjas as is normal. We're a very small mercenary force; we don't take on big jobs. Courier-nins are tough but we can handle them."
"I see. I'm assuming you would use a transformation jutsu to gain our appearance and drop the tampered documents off as planned."
Dai nodded, reluctantly impressed that Kakashi had figured out the details in their mission so early on.
"So why is the Mist Village so keen on severing our bond with Sand then?"
"I don't know!" Dai said desperately. "I was only given the mission details and nothing more! They're not likely to tell me their reasoning's; I'm not part of their village."
"So why did they entrust this mission to some not so experienced mercenaries? A team of ABNU should have been more than efficient at getting it done."
Dai grunted at being called in-experienced but continued none the less. "They don't want to be linked back to this. Even if the team of ANBU had killed your team, the Mist Villages jutsu are well known and the bodies would have shown the markings proving it."
"Hmm," said Kakashi quietly. "A clever theory but a rather rushed one if I may say so."
Dai looked down sulkily, but his face expression changed to one of panic as Kakashi lifted him up and knocked him out with his Sharingan. Kakashi dropped him carelessly on the ground and dusted his hands, walking over to where Sasuke had their other ambusher.
"Atsushi was it?" Kakashi asked his tone light, yet he adjusted his gloves menacingly.
Atsushi chuckled. "I feel honoured that Kakashi Hatake remembered my name."
"I have a few questions for you too," Kakashi said seriously. "What did you do to Sakura?"
"Sakura? Is that her name?" Kakashi nodded gauging his reaction.
Atsushi laughed openly now, his long hair showing glimpses of his scar. "You know what?" Atsushi said conversationally. "I've been calling her flower since I first laid eyes on the petal."
Kakashi frowned and Sasuke's kunai sank deeper into his throat, making Atsushi choke in-between his macabre laughter.
"Sasuke! Stop!" Kakashi said quickly. Sasuke released a little of the pressure with difficulty and took a deep breath to steady himself.
"What did you do?" Kakashi asked calmly.
"I injected her with a special type of poison that freezes her chakra and knocks her out."
"So you were intending to take her somewhere after the ambush?"
Atsushi just nodded, smirking.
"Ok, so I'm assuming this poison will not kill her?"
"No," Atsushi said simply, continuing his manic smirking.
"How long will it be before she wakes up?"
"Between twenty four and forty eight hours. Her chakra will become active again a day after she wakes up."
"That's all I needed to know," Kakashi said quietly, holding his kunai dangerously.
Atsushi laughed again and waited for the killing blows with an eager face. Kakashi nodded to Sasuke and the pair of them sliced through Atsushi's throat cutting off his insane laughter. As he rolled on to the floor dead, the poison in his body started seeping out through the wound. Sasuke jumped to Sakura's aid and picked up her limp body carefully securing her on his back. As the poison cloud started flooding the clearing Kakashi made a signal to Sasuke to move out of range, which he quickly obeyed. Sasuke waited on the outskirts of the clearing for his former sensei, using his Sharingan to see through the nearly impenetrable fog of poison. Kakashi appeared seconds later nodding his head for them to continue. They ran off at a quick pace on the path to Suna, their senses on high alert, both sets of Sharingan's searching carefully for any more signs of attack.
The Uchiha's mind was distracted with the pink haired girl resting on his back. 'Even though you were knocked out practically from the beginning..." His eyes lingered on the blood slowly seeping out of her neck. 'You did alright I guess. At least you didn't get in my way.'
A/N: The next chapter will be much easier for me to write and should be up in the next few days. Thanks to everyone who has so far stuck with this story, it's very encouraging. I know I take my time in developing the characters and the plot but I think that's what makes a good story. I will not ruin this story line by rushing it!