Sorry this is so short and sketchy. Thanks for bearing with me!
The blue light seemed to come from all over, and for a moment Sakura was completely disoriented. She pressed her hand against the wall of the alley, slowly feeling her way along. Apparently the light made her deaf as well as blind, because even the sound of her own breathing became faint and muffled. It was as though somebody had detonated an explosive tag nearby, leaving her shell-shocked. Suddenly her left foot snagged on something and she was pitched forward. Instincts kicked in just in time to save her nose from being broken, but not soon enough to prevent grazing both her arms. To her relief, the jolt from the impact brought her senses flooding back. The light was still there, but it had subsided to the point that she would be able to see through it once her night-vision returned. Her hearing had also returned to full capacity; but the noise that met her ears almost made her wish it hadn't.
Someone was screaming, and Sakura could tell it was the blonde woman. She tried desperately to locate the sound, but it was echoing off the alley walls around her. Something squeezed her leg, and she yelped despite herself. What she had thought was just a crack in the pavement was actually the man Kuma, lying prone on the ground. His breathing was ragged and his expression terrified as he clung weakly to her boot. Sakura hastily shook her leg free and scrambled back from the giant. His mouth opened and closed as though he was trying to say something, but she couldn't make it out over the nearby shrieking.
Then, with a horrible gurgling noise the screams suddenly cut off. Kuma gave a small moan of dread as the eerie light began to take physical form. It looked like a huge animal, bent on all fours and bathed in blue. It turned its head and Sakura gave a cry of understanding and pity. It was clear now why the screams had been silenced; the beast had swallowed the woman whole. Her body was suspended in the creature's, travelling slowly toward the centre. Sakura wasn't sure if she was dead or merely unconscious, but either way she was beyond help. Sakura could see another body beside hers, much smaller by comparison but with very long hair. Both were doomed, and Sakura's only chance to escape sharing their fate was to run.
She began to sprint down the alley away from Kuma and the creature. With a low growl it sprang after her. Stopping to pick up the petrified man in its mouth, the blue beast bounded off the alley wall to land in front of Sakura, cutting her off. Skidding to a halt mere metres from it, she took the opportunity to get a closer look at its features. It had pointed ears and almond-shaped eyes that were black and cruel. With Kuma's limp body hanging from its jaws like a mouse, its appearance was clearly feline. Its forked tail twitched and the familiarity of the image made her heart sink.
"Demon," she whispered.
The tailed beast growled again, as if in understanding. Then without warning it pounced.
Sakura was ready for it this time, springing back with a burst of chakra. She continued backwards in leaps, just out of reach of its terrible claws. She couldn't turn her back on it, and she couldn't fight it head-on. There was nothing to do but keep the gap between them as wide as possible. This wasn't the first tailed demon she had encountered; it wasn't even the first without a jinchuuriki vessel. But every other time she had been prepared and backed up by her friends and comrades. Every other time, there was hope.
With a slam that knocked the wind from her lungs and seemed to split her head in half, she realised hope was gone. The demon cat had been herding her, guiding her toward the wall. And now it was upon her, there was nowhere left to run. Even if she tried to scale the bricks, a single swipe of the claws or lash of the tail would send her sprawling back to her death before she clear it. She was reminded of the training session where she had played the rabbit and been backed against the tree. The way she had gotten out of that situation suddenly seemed foolish. An emotional genjutsu would never have worked against a true enemy like the one she faced now. She couldn't fight the two-tails demon like it was a friend.
The thought of her friends, safe and far from this danger, was a comforting one. Clinging to Naruto's infectious laughter, Sai's unreadable smile and Kakashi's crinkled black eyes slowed her breathing and helped to quell the dread in her heart. If these were to be her final moments, she would not fear them. She was going die like a true ninja, in service to her country. Granted, it was sooner than she would have liked, but it seemed ungrateful to be afraid when at least she had been spared the grief of having her teammates share her fate. She closed her eyes to the burning blue glow, calmly waiting for the final strike. One second passed, and then two. Sakura frowned, wondering why the beast waited to finish her. Cracking one eye open, she saw the cat's tail twitch in what seemed like agitation as it paced back and forth uncertainly. It seemed to have lost its focus, leaving enough of an opening for Sakura to flee through if she hadn't thought it would attack if she did.
"Sakura!" someone cried, appearing over the opposite wall.
Kakashi's voice was like an injection of pure guilt and fear straight into her heart. Oh kami, she thought, I've killed us both, now. All those years of feeling like a liability, all those insecurities about how her comparative weakness would impact her teammates were suddenly realised. He must have woken to find her gone, and then tracked her down. The jounin had followed her to his death, and it made her want to scream. The two-tails hissed, but instead of concentrating on the newcomer like she had expected it to, it swiped out at her instead. Dashing between its paws on instinct alone, adrenaline left her blissfully numb to the three claws that raked her arm as she leapt up toward Kakashi.
Kakashi barely had enough time to get a good look at the enemy before his pink-haired teammate barrelled into him and tackled him backward. "Sa-" was all he managed to get out before the breath was knocked from his lungs by the impact of her lithe body. They crashed down onto the roof of an old café, scrambling for purchase on the loose roofing tiles. Sakura got free first and immediately launched herself back over the ledge toward the demon. She was trying to draw its attention, and even though Kakashi was closer, it was working. It stalked her slowly, matching her movements step-for-step with predatory relish.
Kakashi formed some quick seals and tore the alley apart with an earth-type jutsu. It rained brick and mortar over the cat, which simply shook it off. But part of the wall had collapsed to make a space large enough for a person to crawl inside. Kakashi saw the girl dive for it; but so did the monster. It opened its massive jaws, forming some sort of orb of fire inside its mouth that would almost definitely incinerate Sakura at that range. Kakashi felt the same way he had when he saw her body riddled with kunai in the forest back home. A thousand strategies ran through his genius mind, but all would be too late to save Sakura from her fate. Still, it wasn't in his nature to give up on his teammates, so ignoring all his clever plans, he dove straight for the beast.
One second it was there, and the next it was gone. For one wild moment he thought he had destroyed it with a single blow. Then he realised that it had not vanished into thin air, merely retreated. It ran silently along the length of the alley before turning and disappearing from view. Kakashi wondered what had happened to make it run like that. He and Sakura were outmatched and about to die, yet it had chosen to flee instead of finish them off. Why?
Something in the wreckage shifted, and the jounin was brought back to the present. Sakura slid from her almost-coffin, and he rushed forward to help her up. Her chakra was almost spent and she looked like she was about to faint.
"Why did it run?" she wheezed, voicing his own concerns. "We were done-for."
As though saying it aloud had made it real for the girl, she clapped her hand to her mouth in horror. "Kami, we were done-for. You were about to die and it would have been my fault." Kakashi could feel her pulse race through his loose hold on her arm, and he squeezed it reassuringly.
"We're okay, Sakura. Somehow we survived. And even if we didn't, I would never blame you for it. You did great just now."
"But if it weren't for me you would never have been out here in the first place," she insisted.
So that was why she pushed me backward, Kakashi realised."If it weren't for you we'd be no closer to finding out what enemy we were meant to be fighting anyway. Now we do; even if we don't know what it ran off to all of a sudden." he frowned beneath his mask.
"Not to," Sakura breathed, gazing at something over his shoulder.
"What?"
"Not running to. Running from," she explained, pointing.
The sun was just cresting the top of the buildings, bathing the town in its comforting golden glow. Dawn was breaking.
A/N: Yep, that was the two-tails demon (sort of). To remove any confusion about the time that this story is set, it's been a few years since the Akatsuki extracted the two-tails from Yuugito, which was a canon event. So why does it seem to be running around years later? Find out next chapter! (hint: remember the Sora arc? It's like that).
