Beyond the Snow

Sakura laid completely still, her body tucked snugly beneath the blanket. The room was empty and all was quiet. Until her eyebrow twitched, consciousness began to spread in her body, energy circulated first to her face that had been scrunched up in discomfort then to her limbs where her fingers twitched awake.

Her mind was still hazy but she briefly recalled the smell of blood and metal but since when did she not awake with blood and metal on her mind. Then she felt it, the emptiness of the room and the fluctuation of chakra signatures on the other side of a wall. Her ears began to work, it was very faint, but she could hear Kakashi shouting orders and Naruto's loud mouthed battle cries. In an instant her chakra flared in apprehension and she bolted to an upright position. First waiting rid the nausea then struggling to get on her feet from the bed.

The sudden coldness that swept over her made her realize that didn't have her shirt or tights on, but instead her body had been mummified under layers and layers of bandages. She felt restricted but she couldn't be bothered to rewrap the bandages herself. Glancing around the room for her shinobi outfit, she dressed and armed herself before disappearing out the door.

The attack came from nowhere, one moment they were tending to the survivors of the army and the next they were under attack by a blimp. After catching them at a disadvantage, snow shinobi rained from the sky and the survivors of the kunai raid were forced to enter battle once more. Sasuke was in a particularly bad mood, having allowed Naruto to tease him endlessly about his reaction to Sakura's injuries and not to mention said kunoichi is still unconscious.

How she suffered the weight of a burden that was never hers to begin with. Her pain. Her choked sobs. It was all their fault and they dared show themselves before him. They were going to pay, and he was going to make them, brutally and mercilessly.

Sasuke lunged at an incoming snow shinobi, grabbing the man by the head and then twisting to manoeuvre his body behind the man then in one swift motion he twisted the man's head to the back. Uchiha Sasuke was not in a good mood.

But despite being grumpy because he didn't get to wait for her to wake, he was glad that she was still unconscious and away from the battle because he knew her character. She would undoubtedly try to get out of bed and throw herself into-

Pink.

Sasuke blinked a few times, trying to get the image out of his head. He could've sworn that he had just seen Sakura rush past him. He distracted himself by flipping back and kicking a snow shinobi on the back but she was still there. Flushed and panting as she took down enemy after enemy, her hair whipped around wildly, stirred by her flow of movements.

Naruto called out to him from somewhere nearby.

"Sasuke! Isn't Sakura-chan supposed to be in bed?" he shouted with a tone of panic and disbelief.

Annoyed all of the sudden, he shouted back to his blonde teammate whom he had no trouble spotting in the crowd. "Then what the hell is she doing there!"

Naruto landed on his feet after taking down another enemy, his shoulders heaving as he retorted "You expect me to know?!"

Suddenly annoyed with each other's incompetence to keep even an injured person inside, they stood glaring at each other until they heard her scream.

"Sakura!" "Sakura-chan!"

There she was, her body struggling to pull against Mizore's fist contraption as his trapped her petit body in his metal fingers. Grunting in a brute like manner as he played tug of war against the kunoichi. Yukie stood just a few meters away and the boys came to the conclusion that their teammate had probably thrown herself in the way to save her again.

Sakura's made tracks along the snow as she dug her heels into the ground to hold her position while she tries to break free of Mizore's grasp.

Enraged that he was faltering against a konoha shinobi and a girl, Mizore summoned all his strength to throw Sakura off, crashing her into Yukie just as a net fell upon them. As quick as it fell, the net picked them up from the snow and Sakura hadn't any time to retaliate before they were lifted off the ground. Acting quickly, she armed herself with her red string kunai; taking her chances by trying to sever the wires from beneath them.

However as her kunai touched the wire, her hand was greeted with an unpleasant zap that ran through her hand, paralyzing her fingers as her kunai was repelled from the wires. She could only watch as the bright red string dropped a long way down and landed in the battlefield that had never looked so pleasant to Sakura. Oh how she longed to have her feet touching the lumpy snow now.

...

After landing a kick in the yuki-nin's face, Sasuke flipped back and landed swiftly on his feet as he watched his opponent fall backwards and lie motionlessly in the snow; he was about to move to his next target; then he her something metallic land sharply in the snow just next to his foot.

He glanced down and his eyes were greeted with a line of crimson. Sakura's kunai. His head snapped around the battlefield, his sharingan eyes searching frantically for a sign of pink, or her gentle green chakra- Anything.

Instead he found his blond haired teammate, just stumbling back and landing on his butt as he took down a bulkier yuki-nin.

"Naruto! Where's Sakura!" he tried to keep the alarm from his voice.

Naruto took a moment for his brain to register Sasuke's voice then his head snapped towards his teammate, his eyes widened and panicked.

"You lost her!?" he yelled.

Sasuke ran a hand through his hair and gave an annoyed 'tsk' as he bent down and scooped Sakura's kunai up from the snow. He paused then looked up; he immediately noticed that the airship was beginning to leave and the Yuki-nin have stopped coming. She had to be there.

Replacing the kunai in his holster with Sakura's; he tied his wires through the loophole in his kunai before throwing it up at the airship and waited for it to come in contact. Almost immediately after he felt his kunai wrap around a handle of some sort then he was lifted off the ground.

Moments after the ground disappeared from underneath him, Sasuke watched in confusion as a bright orange spec grew larger and larger in front of him. His eyes widened slightly when he realized that it was no spec.

All Sasuke could note from that moment on was the pounding pain in his forehead as he ignored the familiar voice that cursed and swore.

"Damn it, Naruto!" Sasuke yelled, gripping his face to try and ease the pain.

"What the hell are you doing here, teme!" Naruto retorted, he too, was gripping his face.

Sasuke hissed in pain but tried to ignore the pain, he held up his free hand to shut Naruto up. "Don't start, Naruto. Sakura's the priority" he said, trying to ignore the throbbing in his ears.

Naruto nodded, trying to shake off the pain.

Sakura struggled relentlessly against the vice grips of Fubuki and Mizore, kicking her feet a few times in attempts to try and jerk herself free but it was no use, with one person restraining each of her arms, she didn't even come close to freedom. She glared furiously up at Nadare as he approached her with a circular disc-like device whose function she had no desire to find out.

She eyed the device with hostile eyes before she had it plunged into her stomach; she felt as if metallic needles had just been pricked into her stomach; she could feel her chakra flaring in self-defence but she was immediately greeted with a brutal electrocution that contracted all the muscles in her body and scorched her insides. She screamed.

Now on her knees and panting she etched the pain in her mind and forced herself to reign in her chakra. She heard footsteps and expensive looking shoes came into view, she looked up warily into the cold and cruel eyes of Dotou; he looked down on her chuckling as he mumbled something along the lines of "Pathetic" under his breath.

Sakura could feel a familiar presence in the room and only then had she been reminded that Yukie had boarded the ship with her; she forced her head to turn to witness the exchange between Dotou and her client.

Dotou reached out his hand and traced a finger around Yukie's ear then down to her cheeks then to her chin "You've grown quite beautiful, Koyuki" the older man grinned darkly before patting her cheek a little harder than necessary. "Where is the hexagonal crystal" his arrogantly narrowed eyes stared down at Yukie like she was unworthy of his presence.

Yukie looked at him with eyes just as apathetic, she lifted the necklace from around her neck and thrust it out in her hands. "Take it, it has caused nothing by trouble" she said, sullenly.

Dotou chuckled darkly, looking perfectly happy but all of the sudden his eyes turned hard and his jaw clenched. "This is a fake!" he roared, the necklace in his hand was crushed like pastries. His glare settled on Yukie, he stomped over and landed a hard slap on her face that threw her to the floor.

His eyes were now murderous as he looked down on her fallen figure. "Did you think you could so easily trick me?" he deadpanned.

Yukie gripped her cheek, thinking hard for a moment "That's not possible" then it hit her "The Konoha shinobi" she whispered hoarsely; Dotou's anger immediately shifted to the wary kunoichi; Sakura stiffened and expertly wiped her face of any emotion.

His grip tightened on the shattered pieces of the fake crystal as he pulled on her hand to make her look into his eyes. "Where. Is. The. Crystal" his fury radiated with every word. Sakura kept her composure, sure enough she knew where the crystal was because she felt it tied against her chest, wrapped in layers and layers of bandage; she suspected it was Kakashi who tended to her wounds and Kakashi who put the crystal there but of course she knew that she wasn't supposed to tell the enemy that.

Dotou released her hair and flung the shard at her face, she winced and turned away. "Useless girl!" he yelled at her. He pulled a remote button from his pocket and press it with unneeded forcefulness. Sakura felt the same electrocution from before; the same biting feeling in her cells; she crumpled limping against Fubuki and Mizore's hold. Dotou released the button.

"Feel like talking now?" he growled.

Sakura shook her head, panting.

Dotou clutched the button, but before he could push it again. Nadare strode into the room, nimbly making his way to his employer and leaned in to whisper in Dotou's ear. The corrupt lord's eyes lit up but he said something coherent to Sakura. "Bring them in"

Sakura could feel Dotou's smug gaze even with her head lowered.

"Hey! Let me go, old man! Or I'm gonna kick your ass!"

She knew that voice, that loud obnoxious voice could only belong to one person. Sakura looked at her struggling teammates through the veil of her hair. "Naruto, Sasuke!" she gasped. Then her attention landed on the similar chakra absorbers that each of them now bore. She had hoped Sasuke wouldn't be here, but before the moment she heard Naruto's voice, she had already recognized his chakra. She'd hoped she was wrong.

"Sakura-chan! Are you okay? Don't worry, we're here to save you!"

Sakura nearly laughed there and then, even in the bleakness times, Naruto could still bring light to the situation. She gave him a reassuring smile. "I'm okay" she said, her voice sounded pathetically hoarse to her own ears.

"Get them on their knees" she heard Dotou say.

The shinobi that restrained them kicked the back of his knees and their legs folded from under them. "Watch it!" Naruto snarled at the yuki-nin in a feral tone.

Dotou snorted arrogantly before turning his attention back to Sakura. "I know you know where the real crystal is." he paused to grab her hair, forcing her to look up at her teammates. "So tell me... where is the crystal"

She looked helplessly into her teammate's eyes, knowing that they would have to go through what she did if she didn't answer. She would be the one to cause them pain. She had never been put in this sort of position before, she used to put the mission ahead with such ease; to be able to watch as her fellow assassins were slaughtered as she left them behind to finish the mission. That was before she was human, and now her feelings for her teammates surpassed the mission but her conscience told her otherwise.

Sakura could see the hard look on Naruto and Sasuke's face, as if they were silently encouraging her to hold her ground. "I don't know" her reply was nonchalant.

"Oh?"

Dotou released her hair and put his hand out expectantly to the side, Sakura watched as Nadare placed a similar remote button into the enemy lord's hand. Sakura's breath hitched just as his finger came down on the button. She squeezed her eyes close but she heard nothing from her teammates, just the loud buzzing of electricity.

Annoyed, Dotou raised the voltage and the pair shrieked. Sakura swallowed, her breathing sped and her heart clenched painfully. Dotou looked at her with a triumphant smirk "Does that help to refresh your memory?" he said.

Sakura bit her lip and looked at the crumpled forms of her teammate and her heart broke. She couldn't do it, she couldn't put the mission first. She opened her mouth to say something, Dotou looked at her expectantly but she was cut off by a new voice.

"There was a little static in the air, did you feel that? Sasuke?" Naruto's gravelly voice said.

Sasuke snorted "I didn't feel anything" Sakura's eyes met with Sasuke's onyx eyes, she could a feel a surge of energy and confidence building in her just by looking into his eyes. He gave her a firm nod to assure her. A small smile appeared on her face before her expression hardened once again. "No, not at all" she said to Dotou.

Dotou was losing his patience with them, they were just brats after all and they dared stand against him? What did they take him for, a fool!?

The pushed the button down, the process repeated itself; but every time he thought the pink-haired kunoichi was going to give it; she rebounds with a new found confidence. Then he noticed the look she shared with the raven haired brat. How very interesting.

"Bring forward the black haired one" he said.

"Sasuke!" Came the helpless plea of Naruto as his teammate was move from beside him.

Dread began to fill her as Sakura watched the Yuki-nin bring Sasuke till they were face to face. "Sasuke..." she whispered. She knew they were going to do something to him, but her lack of knowledge on what exactly they plan to do to him was what frightened him.

Sasuke's eyes were still brimming with confidence, though they were somewhat wearier than when he had entered. "It's okay, Sakura. Don't give in" he whispered to her just loud enough for her to hear. Sakura bit her lip and looked at him as if she was in pain the nodded.

But her resolve only lasted till the moment something shiny was thrust in between them- a knife and the sharp side was then pressed against Sasuke's neck. Sakura nearly screamed but realized that the knife had stopped.

Sasuke held a look of frustration as he glared sideways at Dotou. "You tell me where the crystal is and I won't have to get my hands bloody." the man chuckled.

Sakura shut her eyes tightly "Alright" she muttered.

Sasuke's neck was released, the genin didn't look pleased one bit. Sorry, Sasuke. Sakura mouthed to him her apology before turning her attention to Dotou whose patience was at his limit. "So? Where is it?" he demanded.

"It's tied in the bandages around my chest."

Sasuke's eyes widened upon realization of what that would mean. "Don't. You. Dare" he struggled against his restraints but it was a futile effort, they won't budge. Dotou unzipped Sakura's shirt down the front, reached into her bandages and pulled out the crystal before taking her face up by the chin.

Her reluctant eyes met his and she suppressed a shudder. "If I had known that the crystal was this close, I would've stripped you down and thrown you off the ship myself" Dotou said through his teeth, his anger towards Sakura seething through his words.

"Don't touch her!"

Dotou's head snapped to the struggling Uchiha, snorting at his valiant words. He roughly pushed Sakura's chin away from him and pulled the button from his pocket and pressed down. Both Naruto and Sasuke suffered the full voltage of the restrictor. "Don't tell order me around, brat" he leered down at the twitching Sasuke.

"Sasuke...!" Sakura gasped, pulling against her Fubuki and Mizore's grasp to try and get closer to Sasuke. Even if it's just a little, I want to go to him.

Yukie witnessed everything from the beginning, shocked and awed by team Kakashi's bond. She slightly jealous as she'd seen how much they mean to each other. How can they throw themselves away with such ease just for another.

...

Now at the mercy of their enemy, Team Kakashi's genins were shackled by their wrists and locked up behind bars whereas Yukie received the same treatment, except she wasn't shackled up.

Sakura looked down at her feet as her body swayed slightly, her feet were not touching the ground. She turned to her teammates' cells. "Sasuke, Naruto, how are you feeling?" she asked.

"Couldn't they have at least restrained us on our feet" Naruto grumbled, his shackles clinking as he shifted.

Sakura smiled sheepishly, feeling a wave of warmth building up from within her. Suddenly she felt slightly embarrassed to look at Sasuke, she turned away instinctively; then silently questioning herself. It was just Sasuke- so why did she feel so shy?

"Sakura-chan!"

Suddenly alert at having her name being called out. Sakura shifted her attention to Naruto, tilting her head to the side in question.

"I said... They didn't do anything funny to you, did they?" he repeated his question, his concern still resonating in his voice.

"Nothing they did was particularly amusing to me, though" she answered, not understanding why Naruto would use the word 'Funny' in their situation. They were prisoners, how would that be funny.

"I don't mean funny as in the 'hahaha' funny, Sakura-chan. I mean, did they try to-" Naruto swallowed "touch you, in a pervy way?" he asked, sounding unsure of himself. Sasuke's head lifted, glancing towards Sakura's cell and trying to look as discreet as possible about it.

"No, not that I was aware of" she answered.

"He'd better not have done it, I'd kick his ass all the way to the other side of the world" Naruto flung his legs wildly to try and prove himself through exasperated gestures.

"You'll run out of energy before you'll be kicking anyone's ass" Sasuke deadpanned, his eyes patiently shut as he dangled loosely on his shoulder.

"Go away, teme!"

"I would if I could"

Sakura snickered, amused by her teammates and Yukie stared dumbfounded at her, marvelling at how she was able to smile when they were trapped in such a position.

"We're all going to die, you know" it slipped past Yukie's lips before she could stop it.

Sakura was the only one that had heard her since she was fitted into a cell that neighboured Yukie's. The restrained kunoichi smiled meekly at her. "Probably" she said.

Yukie frowned, confused. "Then why are you taking this so-"

"Yukie-san, I have lived a very threatened life until I met them" Sakura's eyes looked lovingly in her teammate's direction then she turned her attention back to a very confused Yukie. "If you think for one second that I'll allow anyone to die now, then you are sorely mistaken" Sakura's bright green eyes narrowed almost threateningly at Yukie.

Yukie's eyes widened and they held their gazes steady until Sakura broke it with a gentle smile "It's going to be okay, Yukie-san" she assured her client.

Yukie down casted her gaze "Koyuki. Kazahana Koyuki is my real name" she told her. Sakura nodded "Koyuki-san" then she glanced up at her shackles; she twisted and turned her head to take a better look at them. "Naruto, Sasuke"

Her teammate immediately stopped their bickering and focused their full attention on their pink-haired teammate. "These shackles are not joined, if we twist it in two different directions then we'll be able to snap it with enough force" she informed them.

Immediately after being told, Sasuke looked to inspect his own. "We'll need to use chakra if we hope to snap something this thick" Sasuke said.

"Exactly, I'm going to go first." Sakura shifted her body, making herself comfortable to draw strength into her arms.

"Wait, Sakura-"

Sakura cut him off "Sasuke, if I pass out before I could break them then you have to come up with another plan to get everyone out, we must save Koyuki-san"

"Sakura, don't-"

The sound of electrocution had already filled his ears, his breathing hitched as he watched Sakura's legs kick and struggle, her back arched in pain as her whole body glowed with spark of electricity, mercilessly running through her body. He could only watch.

"Sakura-chan! Sakura-chan!" Naruto called from the cell next to him, it was funny cause he thought that the helplessness in Naruto's voice greatly resembled his inner voice. He opened his mouth but there was no voice, and finally the electric sounds came to a stop with a echo of shatters.

Sakura laid completely still, crumpled in a heap of pink on the floor.

"Sakura" he tried his luck and when she didn't reply, he felt himself panic. "Sakura, get up. Stop playing" he said in a commanding voice in attempts to cover up his fear.

Koyuki felt her lungs hitch, her stomach quivered with dread as she looked at the girl that had smiled so brilliantly at her just a few moments ago, now laid motionless on the cold floor of her cell with the shatters of her shackles scattered around her.

"S-Sasuke... She's not moving" Naruto's shaky voice came up.

"Shut up" he snapped unconsciously at his blonde teammate and effectively shutting the latter up. He looked up at his shackles and twisted his hands in different directions, determined to break loose from his chains the same way Sakura did. He felt a small pulse of electricity, he pushed all thoughts of doubt from his mind and summoned all the strength in his body.

He promptly heard Naruto's scream above the chirping of the electricity. "Sasuke, that's enough" a firm and masculine voice broke his concentration. His sharingan activated eyes shot open and watched cautiously as a blur of silver approached his cell with a dead yuki-nin slump on his shoulder. Sasuke became lightheaded and he wondered how Sakura had managed to snap the shackles before passing out completely.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto declared.

"Kakashi, Sakura's-" Sasuke halted his words when he heard a ripping sound and he strained his eyes to focus. Eventually he could make out shapes again, he watched as Kakashi brought Sakura to lean against him, shaking her slightly to try and bring her back.

Her body suddenly jolted violently before her mouth opened, gasping desperately for air as she gripping onto her teacher's sleeves. She broke into a coughing fit, her chest jerking roughly with each cough. "It's alright now, Sakura. You did great... you did great" he told her softly.

She allowed her body to go limp against Kakashi's hold. "Thank you... sensei" she panted and tried to go for an assuring smile but managed just a twitch of her lips. "Stay put, I'm going to release Sasuke and Naruto" Kakashi said, setting Sakura back down.

Sasuke let out a breath he had been unconsciously holding. "Sakura-chan's going to be alright, right?" Naruto sounded anxious, much like how Sasuke was on the inside but he'd rather die than voice it.

"She's going to be fine" Kakashi picked the lock and allowed Sasuke to drop to the ground, the Uchiha sank to one knee as she couldn't find the strength in himself to stand firmly on his own feet. Kakashi made quick work of Naruto's cell as well and then Koyuki's

"We need to get out of here now" Kakashi opened up Koyuki's cell and reached out a hand for her, the slightly dazed princess instinctively reached out to the jounin before Kakashi tugged her to him then lift her onto his back. From the corner of his eye, he saw his only female pupil pushing herself on all fours.

"Can you stand, Sakura?" he asked her.

Sakura nodded, albeit she was breathing heavy. Her whole body throbbed loudly with the soreness of her muscles, especially in her arms but nonetheless she managed to pick herself up. She swayed on her feet slightly before fingers circled her wrist and clasped it tightly. "Sakura"

His voice was a low, smooth and surprisingly comforting accompanied by his hold on her. "Let's go" his words with simple and direct yet it gave her so much courage to know that he was going to be there. He tugged at her hand gently and she took two uneasy steps before she broke out into a run to join Kakashi and Naruto with Sasuke.

Sometime as they ran, Sasuke released her wrist and she found herself longing for it when they came to a stop inside a suspiciously grand room with the ceiling shaped like the inside of a dome. There was a sound of a door slamming shut. "I see you've managed to escape" a steady voice echoed around the walls of the empty room and as their eyes adjusted to the darkness, they could make out Dotou on top of a flight of stairs that was connected to an exit which was currently the only leak of light source.

"Ah! It's you!" Naruto's voice amplified throughout the room

The genin noticed that Dotou was dressed strangely, inside of the traditional robes that they had seen him wearing earlier, his body was now plated with armour that looked similar to the ones that the Nadare and his team were wearing.

"But that's as far as you'll go" Dotou chuckled then clicked something in his hand and multiple explosions went off simultaneously. The team glanced around a heavy air of nervousness that had strengthened now that they knew that room was caving in on top of them with no way out.

A large piece of the ceiling chipped of directly on top of them; Naruto noticed it and alerted the others. "Look out!"

Kakashi spread his legs, determined to think of a counter but someone had beat him to it. Someone that was small and pink. "Fuuton: Daitoppa! (Wind Release: Great Breakthrough)"

Sakura held her seal in place as she released the sufficient chakra for the technique, a sudden outburst in wind pressure shot upwards, it continued for as long as Sakura could hold it with the pain of the chakra controller sparking up her body. All signs of debris had been cleared and they could see the sky through the fallen ceiling and the feel the creeping cold of the outside.

The pink haired kunoichi fell on her knees, struggling not to scream as she clutched herself tightly; the residue of the electric shock still hurting her.

"You shouldn't push yourself, Sakura-chan" Naruto said, kneeling next to her, afraid to touch her as if she would cry out if he did. Sasuke's position looked like the mirror image of Naruto and Kakashi shook his head at his boys. Hopeless.

One last wave of pain and Sakura let out a breath that she had been holding in her chest. Despite the cold air, her skin was damp with sweat. "We'll split up from here, look for Dotou. Do not engage him if he isn't alone. Retrieve the necklace" Kakashi said, he took a step forward, about to leap out of the fallen building with Koyuki but not before turning around and offering one last word to his boys "Look after Sakura"

And then he was gone.

Sakura strained herself to stand but she couldn't seem to draw energy to do so; she felt weak and heavy like a burden. A hand suddenly touched her trembling shoulders and she stiffened. "Sakura, get on my back"

"What?! Why can't she get on my back" Naruto argued.

"Because I'm faster" Sasuke replied stoically.

"That is so not true!"

Sakura looked at Sasuke's back from the stray strands of her pink hair then limply brought her hands to his shoulders without protest.

The genin had to manipulate their strength properly otherwise they would subconsciously exert their chakra thus causing an unwanted electrocution. Sasuke's heart was pounding loudly in his ears and it's not because they were leaping from tree to tree at sub zero temperature but because he had Sakura breathing warm breath down his neck with every leap he makes.

Maybe he should've let Naruto carry her after all.

"Sasuke, we're being followed" Sakura shifted on his back so that her lips were now next to his ear "Don't stop, keep going" she encouraged and he nodded.

"Naruto" Sakura called out to her blonde teammate, Naruto synchronized his leaps with Sasuke to listen in to Sakura. "When I give the signal, I need you to intercept a Yuki-nin that's coming down the slope on the left"

"You got it"

"Sasuke, the other Yuki-nin is the one with the wings. You're going to have to set a trap for her on the branches. I'll tell you which branch in awhile"

Sakura's eyes noted all the details of the bald forest, they were running out of time; the pair was coming in from behind fast and soon they'll be on top of them.

Sasuke's insides were burning with anticipation, his fingers twitched against Sakura's thighs as his anxiety got the best of him. "Sakura, not yet?" Sasuke asked impatiently and even Naruto glanced over. There was a pregnant pause before Sakura's eyes narrowed in on the incoming pair of branches.

"Naruto, your left. Sasuke, 32 degrees north-east the thickest branches. Drop me on the next branch"

Naruto changed direction and leapt into the clear downhill slope. Sakura slipped easily off Sasuke's back before the latter shot up, unravelling his sharingan controlled wires and creating a web around the two branches that Sakura pointed out. After accomplishing this task, he shot back down to meet up with Sakura who had boldly landed on the bottom of the tree that she had been placed on, and they waited.

Sure enough a whooshing sound following by the snapping sounds of wires and they knew that Fubuki had just been caught in the trap. She yelled angrily as she tumbled through the air before her wings opened up again and snapped the wires

"Yuki-nin aren't that weak!" she roared angrily.

"Are you sure about that?" Sasuke's smooth voice came from behind her. Eyes widening, Fubuki acted rashly violently flung her body to face Sasuke but before she could do so, she was kicked on the side with enough force to send her tumbling back to the ground before poofing into nothing.

Sasuke landed on his feet, sensing a hostile intent from behind him in which he assumed was his opponent, he leapt out of the way to dodge Fubuki's ice swallows, they came around to target him once again. He formed a seal and immediately his body was plunged into a numbing state, his own electrocution buzzed in his ears and his muscles stiffened to the point of no movement.

The swallows came in swarms before his eyes and then his world jerked to the side, the sudden sensation of biting ice prickled on his whole left side, the other side was surprisingly warm. The weight lifted off him abruptly and then a loud clang resonated through the forest.

Sakura stood before him, one of her knees was plant in the snow with her feet. Her shoulders trembled against Fubuki's tanto, her opponent leaned her entire weight against her kunai and she was feeling the burn of it. The blade came dangerously close to Sakura's shoulder but it remained and descended no longer.

Before Fubuki could push it any further, Sasuke landed a successful upwards kick to her gut. He followed her up, appearing on top of her then slammed his heel hard down on her stomach to send her pummelling back down to the snow. Sakura just barely managed leap away on time.

Just then, Naruto came crashing through the trees just to skid and stop in front of Sakura; Sasuke joined them shortly as Sakura helped Naruto to get up. "This stupid chakra thingy is interfering with my ass-kicking!" Naruto raged, clawing at his device.

Mizore's destruction could be heard and Fubuki began to get up from the snow. "My attacks aren't getting through" Naruto admitted almost shamefully.

Sasuke's breathing was heavy, he glanced at Fubuki then he was suddenly hit with a plan; sweeping Sakura up from the ground; he placed her on a tree and told her to stay put.

"What are you doing?" Sakura restrained herself from sounding demanding.

"Just stay here" Sasuke repeated his previous statement.

Sakura grabbed the hem of his shirt to stop him "But-"

What she didn't expect was for him to turn around and smirk at her "Have a little faith, Sakura" and then he was gone.

Sakura sat back on the branch, staring at the space that Sasuke had just been in a few moment ago. Did she trust her teammates?

"Naruto, I have a plan"

"About time! Where did you take, Sakura-chan, you pervert!"

Sasuke twitched and chose to ignore his teammate's demands and proceeded to lay out the plan for him.

"Uh... can you repeat that?"

Sasuke sighed "There's no time, idiot"

"Alright alright, I just have make it count right?"

Before Sasuke had a chance to answer, Mizore's voice boomed from the other side of the trees "WHERE ARE YA, BRAT! SHOW YOURSELF!"

"Hyouton, Tsubame Fubuki"

"Don't be late" Sasuke said before he ran off down the slope of the forest with Fubuki's swallows chasing him. Even at his full speed without chakra, Sasuke could feel the swallows gaining on him; he allowed his speed to slow significantly before he turned around, his body suddenly emitting a very ominous aura despite the chakra absorber going haywire of his body. His sharingan spun as he formed his seals almost mechanically.

"Katon, Goukakyuu no Jutsu"

A large fireball swirled and shot at the swallows, effectively melting and evaporating them immediately upon contact. Fubuki who had been running behind her swallows attempted to leap back and avoid the flames and she did, to a certain extent, she reached a point where the flames could not reach her. That moment when she had let her guard drop made her vulnerable to the sharingan controlled wires that shot from the flames to wrap around her.

However, before she could even react to her bound situation, Sasuke at dragged her in and swung her over him, slamming her mercilessly to the ground. When Fubuki looked up she couldn't believe what she was looking at, even with the chakra absorber's cackling electricity, half his body had been engulfed in black markings, one of his eyes had turned black and his pupils glowed a piercing golden colour, he was still leaking chakra from his body, her chest constricted with fear as he truly resembled a demon.

A sudden slip of pain reached his features and Fubuki took the chance to try and attack but before she could regain her composure to do so, her teammate crashed from the trees; shouting obnoxiously as he yelled at her to get out of the way.

Sasuke released his wires and leapt away as far as he could, the two collided and literally exploded.

From up on the tree, she could feel the aftershock tremors causing the trees to shiver, her guard went up and stayed there. She wanted to know the condition of her teammates, she wanted to go to them if they're injured, what if they were caught in the explosion? Then what? Helplessness was not something Sakura enjoyed feeling.

She picked up a spike of chakra in which she recognized as the man who put the device on her just behind the wall of glaciers. She thought it strange as she was usually unable to sense chakra from that far away and then she realized that she could feel the chakra within a fixed area and that's when she sensed her teammates coming back for her.

She got up on her feet, the thrumming of her heart slowed once she laid eyes on Naruto and Sasuke, slightly dishevelled and weary as they appeared from behind the tree. She wiped the worry from her face and greeted them with a smile "What took you guys so long" she said, unable to keep the concern from showing in her voice.

Naruto panted a little as he grinned at her "We had a little trouble with these" he gripped restraining device on his stomach.

Sakura knew what he meant, they all shared the same restraint anyway. But when she looked towards Sasuke, she could tell that his cursed mark had recently been activated and that was never a good thing. "Sasuke, your mark-"

Immediately she was cut off "Let's go" Sasuke said, rather impatiently.

"Where are we going?" Naruto asked.

"Dotou is in the middle of the glaciers due south, I think that's where the treasure is" Sakura quickly answered.

"Then we'd better hurry"

...

When they arrived, said man had already inserted the hexagonal crystal and triggered the seal. Dotou laughed manically as the surge of chakra shot to the sky then he noticed he had company. He chuckled darkly then turned to look at the three glaring genins.

"Too slow" he told them.

Sakura lunged for him and her teammates followed just a few steps behind, Sakura drew her kunai and slashed at his face, Dotou side stepped it and took her by the wrist when she slashed past him. Sakura switched from holding her kunai with the tip up to having the sharp end held in the direction of her hypothenor. She slammed her palm into his elbow joint, causing his arm to fold but before she could slam the kunai in her restrained hand into Dotou he threw her aside like a doll; she crashed into Sasuke.

As the two of them tumbled, Naruto took over the fight with Dotou having his attacks easily blocked by Dotou's armor. Naruto gritted his when his fist had been caught by Dotou, instead of trying to break free he swung over his other hand and landed a sharp uppercut to the man's chin.

Before his head could be tilted upwards completely he cause a glimpse of black and blue just before he felt the wind leave his lungs as Sasuke landed a kick to his chest, sending him skidding back on the frozen ice.

Now having been provoked to take on children, Dotou flipped onto his feet, his eyes flashed wildly and his hair slightly dishevelled from the fall as he formed his seals in rapid succession. Before the genins could reach him on time, their enemy had invoked two angry black tornadoes "Hyouton, Kokuryu Bofusetsu( Ice Released: Black Dragon Blizzard)"

Team Kakashi skid to a stop upon meeting their obstacle and leapt backwards when one of the dragons slammed down on them.

However they hadn't managed to jump far enough when the wind from the dragon still affected them, throwing them uncontrollably into the cracked ice. Sasuke and Sakura landed two different floating ice platforms but Naruto hadn't been so lucky and was now struggling to move his frozen muscles through the ice water as he felt both the bite of ice water and the electrocution from the short circuiting device.

His body struggled for life and when he was beginning to drown, the Kyubi's chakra leaked into his system and soon the water around him was stained with his red chakra. The device cracked and broke from Naruto as it sank all the way down.

Sakura searched frantically for any signs of Naruto in the water as Sasuke distracted Dotou and just when she was starting to get frustration and on the brink of jumping into the water to look for her teammate herself, she felt Naruto's destructive kyuubi chakra growing stronger in the water.

A blur of blonde shot from the water and landed in front of her. She watched in shock as his body glowed with red chakra and the water evaporating off of him. Naruto's head lifted and his red piercing slit eyes began to fade back into his blue ones. The Kyuubi had saved him.

Sakura's ears caught a strangled cry from Sasuke's side, hurriedly she turned her attention to see Sasuke being thrown down, shattering the ice before he plunged into the water. His head resurfaced shortly having not fallen deep enough to struggle for retaliation. His face cringed in pain as his cursed mark began to activate, the electricity that ran throughout his body turned black.

Before Sakura could reach him, he shot out of the water; rushing past a dumbstruck Sakura. She watched as Naruto did the same with his mass of clones.

"Fools!" Dotou's voice roared loudly above the wind of his attack.

Through the fierce black wind shot Sasuke and Naruto; Sasuke's body glowed with demonic black electricity with his left hand gripping a thrashing chidori; Naruto's whole body was coated with destructive red chakra and his right hand holding his ready-made rasengan.

Dotou chose not to give in to the creeping fear he felt for the genin team and stood his ground, Sasuke and Naruto drilled their attacks into his torso, pumping more and more chakra as Dotou's armor tried to absorb their attack. The more chakra Sasuke used, the more he felt himself succumbing to the darkness. Frantically, he put a stop to his chakra flow before he could lose control but after doing so, he was immediately thrown off by the repulsion from Dotou's armor. Naruto followed suit when Dotou realized that his armor had been cracked and punched the boy off himself.

"Such low level techniques won't work on me!" his voice roared, but there was a hint of fear evident in his tone now. He was beginning to show weakness. Sakura knew that they had to finish this now, but it seemed to here that her teammates had run out of juice and now they laid at her feet, unmoving and passed out.

She didn't have time to check if they were okay when she noticed the black tornado dragon that was forming, this time it looked determined to finish them off.

Sakura's chakra reacted defensively and immediately she felt a numbing sensation pulse through her. Annoyed and desperate, she needed to get the device off of her. She knew Naruto had managed to do so by overloading it with chakra and she didn't have an expendable chakra source like him so that was definitely out of the question.

Sasuke had not managed to get the device out his body but inside the electric pulses only served for his benefits as it only served to reinforce Sasuke's chidori with the help of his cursed mark.

Now it was her turn and she needed to do it her way. She has 3 seconds before the dragon would be at full power, so she walked on the edge of death. She suppressed her chakra all the way to her core and ceased chakra production.

Chakra is a shinobi's life force. A shinobi's physique a very different from that of a civilians, because shinobis are used to the vigorous superhuman movements that are demanded of their muscles, they require chakra to flow in their body to reinforce their cells, to help increase the workforce of their body. Chakra is naturally produced for a shinobi body to a certain extent, if a shinobi requires expendable chakra to be used in techniques for combat, they will be required to mold it by themselves by creating a balance of physical energy and spiritual energy in their core.

If it so happens that chakra had been completely depleted from a shinobi's body, their cells would not be able to cope and they will die.

And that's what Sakura was trying to do- Die.

Or at least make the device think that she had died.

Since it was a chakra absorbing device, if there was no chakra for it to absorb then it would have no purpose and that would put it on automatic shut down.

By compressing all the chakra into her core, she intended hide herself from the device but to have her body come so dangerously close to shut down just before she had to defend against Dotou's attack was a gamble she wasn't sure she was going to win.

The device glowed red all of the sudden and suddenly it detached itself from Sakura's abdomen. Sakura felt the restrictions of her body come loose and immediately she felt free. She allowed her chakra to come loose and suddenly a very peculiar wave of sensations reached throughout her body, she felt her spine straightened and power in her muscles.

Sakura's eyes glowed an almost burning shade of emerald as she faced the black tornado dragon. Sakura felt as if the control of her chakra had suddenly been placed directly in her hand, she let out an even amount of chakra from all of her points and created a barrier around her and her teammates with relative ease.

The black tornado dragon slammed itself onto the glowing green field again and again but the more it tried, the more it began to lose its power. Dotou didn't understand. Feeling his blood boiling as he reminded himself that he was up against a mere team of kids, he brought his attack back up for one last attempt. Then he heard something growl. It wasn't exactly a growl, more or a mixture of destructive sounds.

"Sandagamae Ookami Inshi (Triple Element Wolf)"

Sakura felt her attack connect then there was a moment of brief of silence before everything within range was blasted back from the vacuum space created by Dotou's broken armour.

When the team came to, they weren't lying on the cold ice. In fact it was quite warm.

Five colours glowed brilliantly in the sky. Soft green grass.

Then everything fell back into darkness. Kakashi watched as his team slept through their exhaustion, smirking with pride. You guys did good.

Spring bloomed that day in the Land of Snow.

Tears streamed down Koyuki's face, her breath hitching as she could finally return to her right throne as the Land of Snow's rightful ruler. Sandayuu, everyone, rest well.

...

Sakura looked at the picture in her hand of the three of them unconscious in the hospital. She couldn't help but smile at Naruto's absurd facial expression. Sasuke slept with a cautiously peaceful face and her bed was located in the middle of her teammates. She had her fingers intertwined on her stomach, her lips slightly parted and her expression, serene.

On the bottom of the photo was the signature of Koyuki.

It was signed to: The greatest shinobi team of all time

-Kazahana Koyuki

Sakura beamed

"Ah! What's with my face!"

Next Chapter: Imposter Princess

"Rinko ojou-sama is great danger"

"Get me the Hokage"

"Urgent Mission from the Daimyo, round up team Kakashi"

"They're going to start a war..."

"Wow... She's like a real princess"


There really is no excuse for my punctuality. I'm currently working on another fic based on the anime Gakuen Alice. For those of you who know that anime or read the manga, look out for it :3

Random Question Time

Who is the better medic, Ino or Sakura?