A/N: Okay, just a word of warning: things are going to get pretty graphic from here on out. Thanks for reading! :)
Falling into a crouch, Sakura whipped out a kunai and pivoted to put the three of them back to back. Neji surveyed the attackers calmly, his byakugan pulsing on his forehead. "They're shadow clones, Uchiha."
"I know," Itachi replied, his sharingan whirring to life. "Which one is the real one?"
"He's not in this group. But the chakra signature isn't far away. He has to be around here somewhere so he can keep producing them. "
"We need to eliminate him quickly, or we'll be here until one of us runs out of chakra," Itachi said over his shoulder, surveying the loose circle of clones around them. "Haruno, we're going to need you in this fight until we take enough of them down, be ready to fall back."
"Got it, I'll wait for your order. What about Naruto?" She replied, settling her kunai more firmly in her palm.
"He'll be fine, focus on the clones. Hyuuga, watch for the real one. I want him alive for questioning, understood?"
"I just need you to buy me some time," Neji replied, his byakugan searching the forest around them.
Sakura felt a cold bead of sweat trickle down her back. There was something about these clones that freaked her out. Why aren't they attacking?
They weren't moving, their katana glinting in the weak sun. Sakura saw out of the corner of her eye that Naruto had dispatched the clone that had attacked him, the puff of smoke disappearing into the air as a cold wind picked up. How was he able to cloak the chakra signature of so many clones?
"Naruto, are you okay?" She called, never taking her eyes off of the dark figures.
"Yeah!" He sprinted towards them, launching shuriken at the clones blocking his way.
"Uzumaki, don't-" Itachi shouted, but he was too late.
The clones disappeared in a puff of smoke, but when it cleared three more had appeared to replace them. In unison, the clones started to attack, as if on cue. They were waiting for us to make a move!
Sakura ducked to avoid a swift katana strike aimed for her jugular and smoothly transitioned into a spinning roundhouse kick with chakra charged legs. The clone disappeared and she gasped as another blade came thrusting out of the smoke, and she twisted just in time to avoid it. She threw her kunai, and her blood ran cold as she realised just how easily she might have just died. Holy shit! This guy's good!
They fought in silence for several long minutes, Naruto joining their formation seamlessly. The clones just kept coming; every time they killed one another would replace it. There are so many of them!
The clearing filled with smoke as they killed more and more opponents, making it difficult to gauge how many clones were closing in. Out of the corner of her eye, Sakura could see that Naruto was struggling to breathe, and he kept one hand on his chest. Ribs, they're probably cracked from the fall. If one of them pierces a lung, he's in trouble.
"Uchiha, I need to heal Naruto's injuries, cover me!"
Sakura switched places with Neji and got to work healing Naruto's ribs. It turned out that he'd broken four of them on one side, three on the other.
She often had to stop to defend herself, killing one clone after another with Itachi's help until she could spare a minute to heal a rib. It was slow, dangerous work. One slip and the bone shards would slide straight into his lungs, but she gritted her teeth and stubbornly refused to lose focus. Finally, his bones knit together and the team resumed their former positions. In the heat of battle, she was only awarded enough time to heal the bones. I'll deal with the bruising later.
"Thanks, Sakura." Naruto flashed a grin at her. "Good as new!"
She grinned back, wiping the sweat off of her brow. "Just like old times, hey? I can't even remember the last time we fought together, team seven's back together-"
"Focus, Haruno. We have twenty more incoming." Itachi interrupted her, brushing past her to put her at the back of the group. "I can't afford to have our medic distracted. Fall back."
Annoyed, she opened her mouth to argue. "I wasn't-"
She broke off as Neji suddenly glanced up into the tree canopy. "I found the shinobi."
"Go Hyuuga." Itachi hadn't broken a sweat, and he wasn't even breathing hard as he killed another clone with a single katana strike. "Take Uzumaki with you."
Naruto bristled, but catching Sakura's eye, decided it was better not to argue. He shrugged and addressed Neji instead. "Let's go get this bastard, Neji."
Sakura couldn't help but notice that he ignored Itachi completely. Oh well, it's better than picking a fight.
"I intend to. Uchiha, we'll drive him towards you if we don't succeed in an ambush." Neji was already moving, Naruto right behind him.
They rapidly ascended a large tree trunk and disappeared into the tree canopy. Sakura and Itachi were left alone to eliminate the remaining clones. Breathing hard, Sakura waited for the right moment to strike as many clones as possible.
"Uchiha, you're going to want to move!" She strafed backwards and gathered chakra into her right fist. He glanced over his shoulder at her as he gracefully dodged a katana strike. "Stay out of this fight, Haruno. Save your chakra."
Reluctantly, she reabsorbed her chakra. "There's too many of them! We're going to get ourselves killed." She snapped over her shoulder, throwing kunai instead. I'm not dying because of his Uchiha pride!
He chuckled quietly, continuing his relentless assault on the remaining shadow clones. "Your concern really isn't necessary. Look around."
The smoke finally cleared, and she realised that they were alone. She stood in silence, in awe of him, despite herself. The clearing had been filled with clones the last time she'd checked, but in a matter of minutes, he'd destroyed their ranks.
"Oh." She muttered sheepishly. Her anger dissipated, and she wiped the sweat from her brow. "Look at that."
"Hyuuga stopped him from making any more." Still chuckling, he finally turned to face her. "Uzumaki probably just yelled at him."
She laughed. "Yeah, he does that. How'd you know?"
"I make it my business to know who's on my team, and he's predictable. You already knew that I'm sure, considering you were on the same team."
Suddenly he was serious again. His mirth had disappeared, and she immediately averted her eyes from his face; painfully aware of the irony of the situation.
Her momentary joy at team seven's reunion was gone, and a sharp pang of loss had replaced it. They were finally together again, but somehow she didn't think Sasuke's eyes counted. She knew she was being rude, but to his credit Itachi didn't acknowledge her uneasiness.
She was almost relieved when he ignored her completely. He sheathed his katana and crossed his arms. The forest was silent around them, but Sakura didn't let her guard down. They stood there without speaking for several moments, Itachi looked pensive.
"Should we catch up with them?" Sakura asked suddenly, she was getting twitchy from the awkward silence. "Wouldn't they be back by now if they were able to catch him?"
"Yeah, let's go." He scaled the nearest tree, with her following a short distance behind. They sped through the canopy, ready for battle at any moment. Sakura could have cut the tension with a knife. I don't like having Naruto out of my sight. Why am I so afraid?
"Haruno, who knows about this mission?" Itachi asked suddenly, watching her out of the corner of his eye.
"Besides us? The Hokage and Anbu administration know, but beyond them, I'm not sure. Why do you ask?"
"Did you tell anyone about it? Did you mention anything at all?"
Sakura was deeply offended. Is he accusing me of betraying Tsunade?
"No, the only people I discussed it with were the Hokage and Naruto. What are you getting at?" She said, clipping every word to convey her anger.
"Relax, Haruno. I'm not accusing you of anything." He sounded impatient, annoyed that she'd snapped at him. "I find it strange that we've barely been on this mission for half a day and we're already being attacked."
He was staring straight ahead, his eyes narrowed "Someone either wants to sabotage our chances of intercepting Raiton, or they're after something else. The timing's too convenient."
Raising an eyebrow, Sakura was surprised to find that she agreed with him. "Why do I get the feeling that you mean they're after someone, not something?"
"Exactly, someone is right."
"Fugaku doesn't strike me as the type who would send an assassin after you again, not after what happened with the last one." She deliberately avoided using Sasuke's name.
He smirked. "Not that I wouldn't put it past my father, but I meant Uzumaki. Akatsuki have been known to attempt to capture biju. We're pretty isolated out here."
"Oh. Yeah, of course, you're right." Sakura flushed, embarrassed that she'd assumed he was talking about himself. He definitely confused her, with his odd formality one moment and random flashes of mirth the next. "We'll see when we catch up to them what we're dealing with."
"Yeah, there's no use speculating." He was parallel to her now, on the next branch over. "But if my father does decide to attack me, I'll handle it. It's better if you don't get involved."
She shook her head. "It's no use; he definitely knows that I was in the operating room with Sasuke. I'm involved no matter what. I'm not a fan of the situation, but I can handle myself."
"Not against Uchiha." He murmured, quiet but forceful. She flinched at his tone, suddenly reminded of Sasuke.
"Of course, I forgot how pitiful we all are compared to the Uchiha." She muttered.
Her voice was surprisingly steady, but her tone was filled with so much venom that she even surprised herself. Whoa, where did that come from?
"That's not what I meant."
Sakura was suddenly ashamed that she was letting her personal feelings get the best of her. He was her squad captain; he commanded respect. Don't be childish, Sakura.
"Uchiha-"
Before she could apologize, he pointed to a clearing up ahead. "There they are, keep your guard up."
They landed on a branch, and he held out a hand for her to wait. He then reached into his pack and pulled out an ANBU mask, and after settling it over his face he nodded at Sakura. "Best we don't sneak up on them."
"Yeah." She replied. She didn't see any signs of fighting, and she nearly sagged with relief as Naruto walked into view. They took off towards the clearing without another word.
"Naruto, what happened?" Sakura called when they were within earshot.
They dropped from the treetops, landing by their teammates. Naruto glared at Itachi, but Sakura couldn't see any outward reaction from the Uchiha.
"Hey, Sakura! What took so long?" Naruto grinned, ruffling his hair up. "We were waiting for ya!"
"Apologies, Uchiha." Neji sighed, gesturing at the hog-tied assassin at his feet. "He was troublesome, took us an unnecessarily long time to knock him out."
Itachi inspected the assassin, eyes thoughtful. "Did you manage to catch him by surprise?"
"Yes, but his reaction time was impressive. He had some unusual speed for someone who'd already expended so much chakra. Naruto had to produce clones to trap him."
Itachi took off his mask; there was no need for anonymity when the target was unconscious. He inspected the still body on the ground, taking note of the large head wound that was visibly swollen on the right side. "Uzumaki hit him too hard; I don't want Haruno to waste any chakra healing him."
"He'll be fine; you don't know what you're talking about!" Naruto retorted, avoiding Sakura's glare.
Itachi ignored him and turned to Sakura. "How much time do we have before he wakes up?"
She stepped closer and inspected the wound up close. Prodding gently, she could feel his bone shifting slightly, puckered out from the pressure on his brain. He's got a broken skull, plus major swelling in the frontal cortex. I'll need to bore into the skull to relieve the pressure.
"Hm, if he wakes up at all. He's got some severe brain swelling. I'll relieve the pressure, but that's about all I can do at this point. We should wait for a couple of hours, and if he doesn't wake up on his own, I'll have to intervene to prevent any further brain damage." She replied, already rummaging through her medical pouch for a large bore needle.
"I sort of kicked him in the head when he was running away, and he hit the ground pretty hard," Naruto said sheepishly, fiddling with his jacket zipper. "Sorry, Sakura."
Sakura sighed. "It's okay, Naruto. He'll be fine for now."
"How much chakra does he have left? I don't want any surprises when we wake him up. Given how much chakra he was using when we sensed his jutsu, I'd prefer him to be defenseless." Itachi started pacing, his expression unreadable.
"I've disabled his chakra points; we shouldn't have any further issues with his ninjutsu," Neji replied, settling into a comfortable position on the ground. He concentrated for a moment, his byakugan moving ever so slightly. "There's minimal movement in his chakra streams, he's not going to be a danger to us."
Sakura spread out a canvas sheet and lay the shinobi down, the bore needle in her hand. "With this much brain damage, I'm not ever sure if he'll be able to talk. Hand signals are definitely out."
"Can you heal the damage?" Itachi asked, finally he'd stopped pacing and was watching her with interest.
"Probably, I need to take a closer look, though. Naruto, can you find me a rock? Preferably a smooth one, I don't want it to chip."
"Yeah, a big one?" He replied, bending over to help her move the assassin into a more stable position. They adjusted the ropes on his bindings so that he was no longer bowed, but could lie flat.
"Probably about five pounds, I need to use it as a hammer for his skull."
Naruto paled, staring at her in horror. "A h-hammer?"
She laughed, inspecting the skull for the best entry point to prise off a piece of bone. "Yes, a hammer. I need to take a flap of his bone out so I can heal the swelling. I don't have a drill, so a rock is going to have to do."
Naruto stood up suddenly, looking very green. "Coming right up." He wasn't quite out of earshot, and Sakura could hear him muttering away to himself.
"Ugh, that's so gross!
She couldn't help it, she giggled as she watched him frog-march out of the clearing. Itachi crouched down near her, and she ignored him as best she could. Preparing for surgery was always stressful and time-consuming, the last thing she needed was the added pressure of someone watching her every move.
"What, Uchiha?" She finally couldn't stand it anymore, she looked up from her inspection of the head wound and glared defiantly at him.
"Hn?" He'd been so focused on what she was doing that the sudden question had surprised him.
"You have questions." She returned to shaving the assassin's head, the wound was slowly becoming more visible. She tsked, surveying the damage that had been hidden by the shinobi's thick hair. The right half of his head is nearly crushed. Thanks a lot, Naruto.
"Have you done this before?"
"Nope." She didn't even have to look at him to know that his eyes had widened in shock.
"You've never performed this procedure, and you're choosing now to experiment?" He nearly growled at her, standing up and crossing his arms.
"I've done it before, just not in these conditions. Do you want him alive and able to answer questions or not?" She replied peevishly. "Tsunade gave you an assessment of my abilities, right?"
"Yes." He snapped. "But nowhere did she mention that you like to take chances in the field."
"Why do you think she chose me for this mission?" She snapped back, losing her patience. "I do what needs to be done, and if I wasn't here to make this call you would have a dead rogue shinobi on your hands and more questions than answers!"
He glared at her. "If you kill him, his blood is on your hands."
"Fine, go on and report me if that happens. In the meantime, how well do you know pressure points?" She continued, glossing over their argument as she went into full on medic mode. I'm running out of time.
He seemed slightly taken aback, and as he crouched down near her, she noticed that he was back to his normal, expressionless self. "I know some of them, although Hyuuga is far more qualified than I am."
"The problem is that I need both of you to help. I need the two of you to hit four pressure points to alleviate the pain. The problem is that he might have a physical reaction when I start cracking his skull open."
"He might?" Itachi raised an eyebrow, looking faintly amused.
"Depends on how much damage he sustained to his spinal cord. His body might freak out and start trashing; if I move even a millimetre off trajectory, he's dead."
"And if his spinal cord is completely severed, he feels nothing."
"Exactly." She was digging around in her pack and came out with what appeared to be four silver thimbles. "These can help with the channeling of focused chakra, I need you guys to hit the pressure points with as steady a chakra stream as you can."
Neji, who had remained silent through this entire exchange, finally spoke up. "I know which ones you're referring to. It shouldn't be a problem to sustain the pressure, with the two of us. What about Naruto?"
It was Itachi who replied. "He'll keep watch. We can't be out in the open without someone to alert us to danger. I doubt this guy was working alone."
"I agree. How long will this procedure take, Sakura?"
She sighed, shrugging her shoulders. "Hopefully no longer than an hour, two at most."
Itachi nodded. "We'll get started as soon as Uzumaki returns, if you're ready, Haruno?"
"Yeah, I'm good. This is going to be extremely gross, just warning you now." She was grim, aware that even the most hardened shinobi could have an extreme reaction to visible brain matter.
"Won't be a problem." Itachi knelt down beside her; taking the two thimbles that Sakura offered him. "Where are the pressure points?"
"Here and here." She showed him, they lay six inches apart on the inner arm. Neji nodded, she wasn't worried about him being able to find them. The tricky part would be to keep the pressure steady, and not waver until she was inside the skull. The brain doesn't contain any nerves, but I'm going to need them for the replacement of the skull and skin.
She saw Naruto returning, and a trickle of anxiety entered her thoughts. Taking a deep breath, she steadied herself and reached out for the rock Naruto handed her. You can do this, Tsunade chose you for a reason. She told herself sternly, forcing her uneasiness away and concentrating on the task at hand.
"Uzumaki, you're on guard duty. " Itachi said bluntly. "This may take a while; alert us if you need to switch out."
"Whatever, it's not like I wanted in on a surgery." He pouted, and Sakura chuckled.
"If we get another chance, you can help." She promised, hoping she wouldn't have to make good on that statement. "Thanks for the rock!"
Glancing at the giant needle in her hand, and back to the skull, Naruto was looking extremely grossed out. Sakura wouldn't be surprised if he was fighting the urge to gag. "Yeah sure, whatever you say."
He pulled out a kunai and settled on a nearby tree stump, scanning the forest.
"Okay, let's get started. Pressure points activated now, please. " She heard herself say, as she placed the needle on the top of the skull. She brought the rock down on the blunt end with the tiniest amount of force she could manage.
The sound of bone cracking echoed through the clearing.
