Disclaimer:

I don't own Naruto sadly... or a giant anvil would of landed on Orochimaru long ago and there wouldn't be so many damn fillers!

Full Summary:

When our favorite ninja's reach the rather odd age of nineteen, they find themselves facing some of the most challenging, hair-pulling, fearful trials after Sasuke's one year girlfriend, the pink-haired kunoichi, Sakura disappears. He returns from a mission to find Tsunade stressed, Ino blubbering, and a few pissed off shinobi. There is a new enemy to the hidden villages who is currently in a bad state of health, so the Leaf takes the lead in search for the med-nin. If they find Sakura, will she be the same or looking to fix a mistake?

Chapter 9

What the Hell?

The snow was painful as her feet dug into, impressions of weight trailing after her. Sakura had one goal in mind: run until she was in Konoha or her lungs collapsed. When she started this little escape though she never took in toll what she would do with the girl on her back that was just shy of hyperventilating. The silent tears that dribbled down her face were unmistakable as well, she couldn't deny that she was happy to get away but regretted bringing Mina. This girl was now suddenly her responsibility and along with the scar decorating her cheek, a constant reminder of the past few days.

Sakura shook her head, pushing the thoughts of uncertainty to the back of her mind. She would deal with that bridge when she crossed it. Her green eyes landed on a tree branch in her path and her muscled contracted as she pushed against the ground in all efforts to clear the said piece of detached tree.

As she landed though she never counted on the fact that the flat ground she had been sprinting across would change to a steep slope and she inevitably lost her footing. The medic-nin fell hard onto her side, trying not to crush Mina, and against her will she began violently tumble down the hill until she rolled to a stop at its base.

Darkness threatened to take over her vision as she used her arms to slowly prop herself up to give herself a clear view of her surroundings. The spunky brunette was nowhere to be seen. A panic rised in Sakura as she let out a cough and blood spurted out onto her hand and the crimson snow beneath her. She had already been bleeding badly enough from the stab wound and running hadn't made it any better. Internal bleeding was no joke when it came to a life or death situation. She needed surgery and the middle of the woods lying in a pile of snow soaked with you own blood was no place to do it. And to top if off Mina was gone.

"Mina, where are you?" Her voice was raspy and cracked when she raised it above a whisper. Her hands turned a shade of red as she dug them into the snow, searching for the earth beneath her to give her a bit of support as she tried to push herself up.

Her elbows gave out and Sakura collapsed, her hair falling across her face. The smell of forest was strong and that brought her dull green gaze to the blue scarf lying next to her. She focused on Uchiha symbol as the black dots dancing in her vision began to coagulate. She knew there was other things she should be thinking about, like how she was going to make it out of this alive, what she would do if she woke up in the dungeon again, or how she was going to find Mina. But she couldn't shake the thought out of her mind on how the blue scarf that had clung around her neck through this entire thing still had that smell of the damn Uchiha boy that resided in her heart. She had tried, she really did, but the flame of hope that had been inside was snuffed out, and by the looks of it, Sakura figured either one of two things would happen. She was either going to die or wake up in the dungeon only to die a little bit later. In Sakura's opinion, she would rather it be the latter.

O.oo.O

The moment Sakura hit the ground and began to roll down the slope Mina had luckily skidded herself to a stop. She scrambled back up the hill, hiding herself behind the tree that the root the pink haired girl jumped over petruded from. She knew others were coming; she had overheard some of the other ninja's gossiping about the talk they heard from their recent visits to the village about leaf ninjas. Mina knew they would attack her upon seeing her, and seeing as how Sakura was unconscious and couldn't exactly vouch for her there was no reason for Mina to hang around. Her friends if they were worth anything would find her and Sakura would definitely live.

Turning on her heel she began to run back, the feeling of the snow crunching beneath her feet unwelcome. Mina hated the snow with a passion, it was never on her list of what she found pleasant. So the moment she reached the opened doors of the complex she felt a feeling of comfort wash over her.

Turning the corner she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Ryo crouching down next to a dead body in the middle of the hallway. "She crushed his side and his ribs punctured his lungs, I just found him. What are we going to do Mina-sama? Do you want me to go after Sakura-san?"

"No. There is no point in fighting with the leaf and they are to close. Let them take her, heal her and we'll lie low for a while. Give it a few weeks and then we'll go retrieve her." Ryo nodded before looking up at the ten year old hovering above him. She subsided the shiver running down up his spine as he looked into her eyes, they may have been a shade darker in the range of blues, but they matched with her older brother's in emotion. Cold, terrifying, and dead to the world.

"Mina-sama, why do you want her?"

"Finish your research and you'll know." Turning from the dead body and Ryo without so much as the bat of an eye Mina began to head down the dark corridor toward her room. "To let you know, there is another body in the dungeon."

Ryo raised an eyebrow as he watched the girl retreat before turning back towards the body. He wasn't close to completing his research on Orochimaru, having only read notes and a few books. That was only scratching the surface on whatever Mina and Ichiro were planning. Sighing he wrapped his long fingers around the arm of the body before slinging it up over his back.

O.oo.O

A flash of movement caused Hinata to stop dead in her tracks and immediately activate her Byakugan. Veins bulged out around her eyes as she concentrated on finding the source of her delay. The group of nine had been running for about ten minutes now so they had to be close if the old man had been right about the gang only being a few miles in.

"Hey wait up you guys, Hinata stopped." Naruto's voice carried to the rest of the group when he noticed his fiancé was no longer between the rival blonde of the group and himself. He jumped down next to her, staring out into the trees with a sense of hope filling up inside.

"I see a girl running, but she only looks about ten or so." Hinata bit her lip as she scanned through the trees once more. "Neji take a look to." The other Hyuuga nodded as he to activated the bloodline limit, scanning the tree line along with his cousin.

"Hinata, look right there." He outstretched his arm, pointing out to the base of a slope. It looked to be a log from where they all stood but there was something suspicious about it. "What does that look like to you?"

Redirecting her attention to the spot Neji singled out she concentrated once more on the "log." Before she could make any judgment though her eyes widened at the actions Sasuke displayed as he was already making his way towards it.

"Teme, there could be a trap!" Naruto glared but followed his best friend without hesitation. When Sasuke suddenly increased his speed though Naruto knew that something was up and like everyone else hope began to build in the kyuubi boy.

O.oo.O

"Sakura!" Sasuke skidded to a stop and dropped to his knees next to the pink-haired girl and began to push her hair away from her face. He felt a sense of relief wash through him when he saw her face, but the fact she was pale and her lips had a tinge of blue coated on them were not exactly settling to the Uchiha and rage began to fill.

He rolled her over and almost backed away with the amount of blood he saw, his eyes widening considerably. "Ino, Hinata!" When the two girls arrived they slowed to a stop, freezing in their steps. Sakura had been the one to teach them both medical jutsus, forced them to study, and constantly tested their abilities. To see her in such a condition was anything but expected. A student usually pictures that their sensei can overcome most obstacles, no one had ever said out loud that Sakura was their teacher, but it was just and unstated fact. She was one of the best medical ninjas known besides Tsunade, it was ironic to see that a simply kunai wound brought her down.

"Ino, Hinata! Don't stand there, do something!" Sasuke was glaring at them, pressing his hand against the wound using the common sense he had about medical jarb that applying pressure stopped the bleeding. His voice seemed to awaken the two girls as they shook their heads, almost as if they just broke free of a genjutsu. Quickly moving to either side of Sakura they began to work while the Uchiha stood up. "Get her back to Konoha."

"Where are you going?" Naruto gave a confused look at the Uchiha as the raven head turned toward the hill.

"To kill the ones that did this." Naruto's eyes widened a fraction as he stared at Sasuke's back. He knew the boy was pissed and that this kind of response would be how he reacted, but he never expected that kind of tone. It held possessiveness and rage, and the fact he said he was going to kill someone so easily wasn't that reassuring.

"She's going to want you there when she wakes up, there are other things more important then fighting them right now. If you are going to give her that ring you can't only protect her, you have to be there for her to." Naruto was actually expecting to deal with an angry Uchiha, but he had to restrain his jaw from dropping when Sasuke simply nodded his head and clenched his fists. Not in his entire friendship with the Sharingan wielder had that boy ever been so submissive to anything anyone except Sakura had ever said. What the hell…

"Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun. We got the bleeding to stop, but we need to get her back to the hospital as soon as possible. She also need to make her warmer." Hinata stood up and gave them both a sad look as she glanced back down at Ino. Silent tears were streaming down her face as the blonde gently traced the burn mark scratched into Sakura's porcelain cheek.

Sasuke didn't pay any mind to the girl though as he took off his jacket and wrapped the small nineteen year old up in it before picking her up. "Let's go."

Author's Note:

Sorry this is a short chapter, but it's 2 in the morning and I felt like I was beginning to ramble on or something… So I'll get to work on the next chapter in these next few days, and seriously test Sakura's sanity. Maybe. I dunno, we'll see.

Review please! I like reviewers… and I love this story, but sad to say I only have 22 reviews right now… that's telling me something people, and it's not good… I am going to finish this fic, eventually… but if I don't get reviews I do think I'm going to make a sequel. Anyhow, enough rambles… Review please! -