Of course that idiot would send her on a kiddie mission right out of the gate but not only that, to rub salt in the gaping wound, he sent his student along with her. She felt she was being babysat by a hyperactive child. At least it had been an important mission, a high ranking official had needed a doctor so Naruto promised to send his best. Her being recently reinstated made her the one to go. It was simple and they were in and out of there in a day.
They were walking in the forest close to home and the medic could tell the little demon was disappointed as her in the mission. Haruko was just like Naruto, always wanting to prove herself. It brought back nice and painful memories for the young woman. Her two idiots always going all out and her playing catch up with them.
As they were joking about the Hokage and some of his more interesting habits Sakura felt something was wrong. She noticed Haruko shift her posture to be prepared to take a defensive stance. Before any words could be spoken between the two about the change in the atmosphere a shower of kunai rained down from several directions. They both dodged and blocked with practiced ease. But Sakura's worry got the best of her, forever the worrier of the team. She took her focus off the bombardment of kunai she was dodging to make sure Haruko was fine, in that split second one blade grazed her cheek. A small dribble of blood slipped down leaving a small crimson trail.
As soon as her skin was broken she knew something was wrong, seriously wrong. Whatever the blades were soaked in had snuck into her body quickly. It wasn't a lot of the mystery substance but it was enough to slow her movements. In a fight with this type of battle reaction time was important. She had to think of a way to get them out alive.
"Haruko, head to the village," she ordered, wanting to get the girl away from danger.
"I'm not leaving you here alone," the girl protested defiantly.
"You will do as you are told," Sakura demanded in the best commanding voice she could muster.
"Fine, I'm getting Sensei,"she pouted before she took off for home.
Once Sakura knew the girl was out of sight, she let her knees buckled and collapsed to the ground. Her breath was labored and her eye sight was blurry at best. The numbness was spreading rapidly.
"I finally track you down only to find out you ran home like a scared little girl," came the sound of a man's voice, one from her past she thought she would never have to hear again.
"Took you long enough, I was starting to think things were over between us," the dazed woman snipped.
Confident strides came toward her. She knew she was not in any condition to fight, but her stubborn side would not admit defeat from a man like this. He was trash of the worst kind. Not only did he abandon his teammates when battling her last time, he had sacrificed one of his own to get away. He was an expert with explosive things, mostly paper bombs but not limited to them.
"A ninja should never leave a debt unpaid and I have to repay you ten fold for destroying my team," he snarled.
"Explain to me how your attacking me and getting your ass whipped is my fault. Shouldn't it be the team leader's for underestimating a ninja of the Leaf?" she inquired of the rouge ninja.
"Our information was wrong about you, that's not my fault you turned out to be someone of skill," he defended.
Sakura let out a dark chuckle, she didn't feel very skilled now. She felt pathetic, her teacher had drilled into her the importance of medics never being the first injured. She felt deadly intent move next to her from a different direction than the man talking to her. He never traveled alone and he rarely blooded his hands with anything other than explosives. She was trying to blink away the blur and see her killer but in a moment of clarity it wasn't a rouge she saw. There was someone else there oozing the killing intent. He looked dangerous even to her eyes. He leaned down and caught her as she fell back, losing the feeling in her legs.
"What's wrong?" Naruto barked in his Hokage voice, he hadn't meant to use that tone but her looking so weak brought it out of him.
"A laced kunai, I'm becoming numb all over," she labored out.
"Don't you dare die on me, I won't forgive you," he warned in a whisper.
His voice was full of concern for her. It broke her heart to do it to him but she didn't see herself pulling through. She was breaking all his rules, but she always did.
"You can't start lying to me now, I know you too well. You'll forgive me no matter I do, you love me that much," she coed, as she tried to reach his face with her hand but only made it half way. His giant hand covered her small one and helped it the rest of the way to his whiskered cheek.
"I'm pretty sure, even my heart can't forgive this," he murmured, a tear slipping on to her cold hand.
A shiver ran through her body, not from fear of death but from not being able to use her lungs properly. Before he could protest more she slipped away from him to a place he couldn't follow. He felt a part of him go with her in a way he didn't know was possible. It wasn't like when she left before, at least then he knew she was somewhere out there and he could find her again but now his sense lose was so great her felt it crushing down on him.
He closed his eyes and laid her in the soft green grass. To untrained eyes she could just be sleeping peacefully. When he opened them he was in sage mode and could tell they were surrounded. This was more than just a simple assassination.
"Get the body," the stranger ordered coldly.
That had Naruto's mind racing, why would they need her body? She wasn't part of an important clan of the village. Her body wasn't holding any secrets for them to learn from the Leaf. These monsters knowing something about her that he didn't angered him. He had to lock down his emotions so he could fight properly. He had to save what he had left of her, even if it was a hollow shell of what he once loved.
He was keeping them all at bay without the help of shadow clones. He kept close to her for the most part, the leader drew him a little bit too far and Naruto was roughly shoved away from her body by an explosion blast. Her body had also been sent flying but it was caught by one of the rouge ninjas. Three more explosions clouded his view of his dead lover and they all vanished as the ANBU showed up. Haruko fell to her knees and cried through her blue mask. Naruto had to remind himself it wasn't the girl's fault. Sakura was stubborn to a fault. Two ANBU showed up after everyone with heads of some of the rouges.
"Nine, you shouldn't be here," Naruto noted to one of the fox masks standing next to his shoulder holding a decapitated head.
"I thought you might need me," she whispered, her emotions slipping into her voice.
He nodded, unable to speak. Snake moved next to Nine and held her free hand. She was suppose to stay home but she had been in the Hokage tower getting paperwork taken care of for medical leave when an irate Haruko showed up babbling about the danger Sakura was in.
"Hokage-sama, please head back to the tower and let me and Demon handle this," Snake requested calmly. He had a feeling of why they wanted her body but he wasn't going to tell his friend. He didn't need to worry about it yet. He felt he and his student were enough, she would want to redeem herself anyways.
Naruto hadn't allowed his emotions to run ramped yet. He decided to keep them sealed up until he had her body back, then he could mourn. He consented to the request of his friend and sent the masked ninja to do what they do best, hunt.
"The rest of you, clean up my forest. There seems to be a lot of trash," the Hokage noted, he took Nine by the hand and let her lead him back to the village.
Tears slipped under her mask, it wasn't professional but her heart broke for the man she admired. There was nothing she could do for the him now. She had already done too much and was sure she was going to be scolded to no end by both her husband and the Hokage. It was worth it in her mind to take a piece of revenge on the group who took her friend from her too soon.
Naruto could tell she was upset she couldn't join the hunt. He wanted to hunt them down too but his place was in the village. He had to leave it in the very capable hands of the elite of the Leaf.