AN: Just to give you a heads up, the story will both be mirroring and deviating from the manga from this chapter onward. Could contain spoilers if you aren't up to date with at least chapters 357-363 or so.

Hinata spots them first, even before Kiba's nose starts twitching, (and with a great flare of his nostrils he announces their arrival) because she's been waiting and searching and worrying this whole time. They're coming in with the first rays of sunlight and just a glimpse of that golden hair bobbing through the trees is enough to tint her cheeks a light rouge.

From behind his jacket collar, Shino frowns.

Akamaru is being lazy this morning; he flicks his tail in the dirt like some great bovine and doesn't much react when Kiba jerks to his feet. Kiba stamps out the dwindling flames of their morning campfire and snatches up the last fish skewer (it's hers, but she wasn't going to eat it anyway), shoveling it into his mouth whole as he declares that he'll be damned if he shares their hard-earned catch with another team.

Shino tells him to stop being jealous and unnecessary which only causes him to kick up ash into their faces as he stomps across the embers more furiously.

Akamaru flicks his tail, and closing his eyes, whines.

Why can't they all just get along?

Hinata is inclined to agree.

It's a sad fact that whenever Naruto is mentioned (or not mentioned) their teamwork seems to crumble at the edges (or rather it feels like a stretching, taut and a little bit painful), but she doesn't understand why.

Afterall, he's such an admirable guy.

They're finally reaching their destination at long, exhausted last.

Sakura is damn tired by the time they arrive, apparently the most damn tired out of all of them. (Of course she is, they're probably thinking—she's the chuunin, the weakest link. The frustration makes her bite the inside of her cheeks.) Having lagged behind, she can't help but to wince as she drops down from the security of the leaves and limps to joins her team who has already joined the other. With much physical relief, she moves in to idle at Naruto's side.

She wants nothing more than to find a hot spring (and maybe a chilled bottle of sake) and to molest her idiot of a teammate. She rather likes this recent discovery of just what she's capable of making him do. (Whimper, writhe—begging is a personal favorite.) It's a power she holds over him, one she wields with lips and tongue and teeth. And like any new technique she's eager to practice and master, but she can't do any of these things because they're here for Sasuke-kun and her heart's already racing at just the thought of seeing him again.

Speaking of the idiot—Naruto is wound up like a clockwork spring, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "What are we waiting for?" he asks.

"A plan," Kiba scoffs.

"Yeah, well." Bounce, bounce. Like he hasn't just been running for two days straight. "Haven't you found anything?"

"If we did, we wouldn't be waiting here for you."

"But this is the meeting point—"

She's about to offer some form of understanding, teammate solace, to get him to calm down when Hinata interrupts (or rather begins murmuring and the boys pause to listen) with a pink-cheeked, "G-good morn-ning, N-Naruto-kun."

He offers her a sunny grin. "Mornin' Hinata!"

It's when he starts to rub at the back of his head in that awkwardly pleased way that Sakura elbows him in the ribs. Hard.

Oww. He shoots her a bewildered look, hand moving to massage the sore spot in his side which without his fox-chakra would likely ripen a lovely shade of plum. "What did you—?" but he clamps his mouth shut before she can jab him again. He drops to a sit, cross-legged on the ground, arms likewise hooked across his chest.

He's pouting but at least he's being still.

Sakura turns her attention on Hinata, but the girl's already averted her gaze. And suddenly she can't tear her eyes away from that long, glossy black hair. There was a time when her own hair had shown in health and care as well, but those years are no more than a plume of settling dust in her memory. She hasn't regretted running her femininity into the ground (not just for Sasuke-kun but for Naruto, too) in a long while. But now, without really understanding why, she aches just a little.

She feels a shameful burn set into the apples of her cheeks at the realization that in some way she envies this girl (and maybe is just a little bit jealous).

But before she can self-reflect for too long, Kakashi interrupts with a light clearing of his throat. They're going to split up and search for Itachi separately in the favor of covering more ground as revealed by the plan Yamato lays out. They'll be out of the range of radio transmission, so should signal any important findings by emergency flare and otherwise meet back at the campsite by dusk fall.

Immediately, Sakura feels alarmed. "But isn't it dangerous to break formation in enemy territory? At the very least we should go in pairs," she objects.

It's a reckless decision in her mind, and she'll be damned if she lets Naruto out of her sight with Itachi around. He didn't stand a fighting chance against the Akatsuki member's genjutsu—she'd seen the effect on him of just one finger's worth up close and personal before. What could their team leaders be thinking?

She's quickly reprimanded, shot down. She feels embarrassed at the accusation and insult—as if she were some coward of a kunoichi. She wants to remind them that despite her role as medic, her delegation as mere back-up support, she has no qualms about using her strength in offensive combat. But she swallows the words, unwilling to argue further. They don't understand.

"Don't worry about me, Sakura-chan," Naruto pipes up as if having read her mind. "I can take care of myself."

He shoots her an over-confident grin, and she half-hates him for it. That cheekiness scares her, always, because she knows the risk that recklessness and disregard for danger can mean on the battlefield. But she loves him even more because he's learned to interpret her in such startlingly accurate ways. And she can see it in his face—the way he beams, grin deepening with emotion, as her reaction confirms for him the accurateness of his guess.

It still surprises him to think that there are people who care about him now.

Sakura gives in to another rare blush, and Naruto waggles his green, nail-polished thumb at her.

Kakashi interrupts with another (seemingly embarrassed) cough. "I'll explain the team formations now. For this mission," he drawls. "You will each have two of my nin-dog summons with you at all times."

As if on cue, a haze of smoke cloaks their former sensei, blossoming from the ground up like a puffy white tidal wave where his cut hand has pressed to the grass. Shadows form in the dissipation then give way to color and texture, fur.

Naruto's voice is the first to ring out. "Pakkun!"

You'd think they were long lost friends. But Sakura understands, Naruto latches on to anyone (and anything) that will have him.

The dog for his part gives a friendly nod of his head. "Yo."

In the end they each go their separate ways, Sakura loathe to let Naruto from her sight, but what else could she have done? She can't exactly disobey her superior's orders based on a silly niggling in the back of her mind, and she'd been made to feel the fool on top of that for even being worried in the first place.

He should be fine.

Instead of two nin-dogs, Naruto had been assigned the largest of the nin-dogs and Hinata (which might possibly vex Sakura even more than him being out there on his own). She'd snicker at the idea, that Hinata counted as Naruto's second dog-escort except that Yamato had also chosen to accompany the group, so she's left with only her annoyance and jealousy over the whole ordeal. Why exactly, she wanted to ask, wasn't she fit to serve as Naruto's partner? Surely, they had the best teamwork and rapport. Surely, she could protect him better than Hinata. Was Hinata willing to lay down her life for him if—

Sakura is jostled from her silent fuming by the interjection of her own nin-dog. "You can count on me, Sakura-chan!"

She looks to the little pup with his ridiculous mo-hawk of a mane, scrutinizingly. He'd said as much when Kakashi had assigned him to her team so she wonders at his apparent need to repeat the sentiment. Is her mood really so apparent that it's affecting her dogs?

"You might not know it, but I'm one of the best," he continues, near prancing at finally having won her attention. "Yeah, yeah. I'm a ruff rider."

In the base of her skull, Sakura can feel a throbbing headache coming on.

"Jesus, don't you ever shut up for one second?" the second dog cuts in. (His hair eerily reminds her of Sasuke-kun's, and he has a disposition sour enough to justify the comparison.)

"Teme, I'll shut you up!"

"What? That doesn't even make—"

"Now, now, boys don't fight," Sakura soothes, but both dogs have suddenly gone stock-still, noses high and snuffling the air.

"Uchiha," the mo-hawked one snarls, the other pointing in the intended direction, both the image of serious professionalism.

Sakura suppresses a small shudder, nodding her consent. "Lead the way."

Her heart's fluttering like a trapped thing in her chest, her boots pounding against dirt and grass, crushing leaves under foot.

"Spilt blood," the sour one had snuffed, and then they'd ran.

She should send up a flare. She should send up a flare. She should send up a flare.

But no matter how many times the thought circuits in her head, she can't bring herself to do it. Not yet. She just wants to get a glimpse, ascertain what exactly she's dealing with.

An injured Itachi? Or had the dog meant to indicate the death of more innocents. She tries to form a cold lump in the back of her throat (it seemed only appropriate) but her body won't let her get sick. It's too busy pumping adrenaline into her system, expanding her lungs to suck in more air. Faster, faster, faster. The trees are a blur. Her lungs are on fire.

And then, she bursts into a clearing. There's a man up ahead of them with long blond hair who's rapidly deteriorating into nothing but a patchwork of black, squiggly lines, folding in on himself, pulsating with a vibrant dangerousness. Her hair stands on the back of her neck, an electric current tingling down her spine. And there's—

"S-Sasuke-kun?!"

The boy turns at the sound of her startled voice, and she can see fear in his blood red eyes.

"What was that?"

Naruto tears his eyes from the giant mushroom cloud in the sky in order to watch for Hinata's response. If anyone could have seen what happened, it would be her. Her empty eyes briefly meet with his before fluttering to the ground, and she gives a sad shrug. "I'm s-sorry, Naruto-kun. Too far away," she explains.

"Well, it sure as hell wasn't an emergency flare," Naruto gripes, glancing around the group as if he'd find his missing teammates there. It feels weird being in a cell without them, like he's walking around without his toes or something. And he doesn't feel all too comfortable that his Sakura-chan is out there alone, even if he knows she can take care of herself.

First they'd run into creepy Kabuto and now this?

It isn't real. It can't be real—in all the years she'd imagined what it would be like to finally see him again, to save him, she never thought it could be like this. The last time she'd seen him, he'd tried to kill Naruto, and then he'd turned on her. She'd cried a lot over that, the fear that maybe he hadn't been bluffing, that maybe he was no longer theirs. But none of that so much as enters her mind when she sees the state of him, takes it all in during that split second before the blast. He's bleeding on the ground, exhausted and broken in so many ways, and she just thinks, It can't be real.

Sasuke stopped being afraid of anything—not death, not Itachi, not even life or love or failure—after Orochimaru attacked them in the Forest of Death. She'd seen him first hand shuck the remains of his emotions, turn against his own teammate-brother-friend.

So it didn't seem right that he would look at her like that, with a terror, a sincerity, before he lunged at her from the ground.

She can feel the heat searing at her face and arms, pushing her backwards like a hot hand on her chest as they fall together, swallowed up by the giant mouth of a serpent. Orochimaru's beast.

She hadn't even seen him move. It was like a teleportation or she didn't know what, but that speed, to summon such a beast and close the distance to her in such short time—in NO time—it makes her mind hurt to think about it.

But he had reached her; he'd wrapped his arms around her and held her to his chest, shielded her full bodily. It makes her cry to feel his labored panting against her neck, except that she knows he'd done it all without thinking. Saving her would never be a conscious decision on Uchiha Sasuke's behalf. Not anymore.

AN: DUN DUN DUN the plot thickens. So Sakura is with Sasuke and Naruto is with Hinata, lovely I know. But again, just to remind everyone this has been and will continue to be a NaruSaku fic exclusively. So don't worry, I'm not going to throw in a SasuSaku lemon or anything like that on you, but looks like we will be dipping back into the angst for a bit. Apologies for the long wait, and as always thank you for the reviews. Any input is greatly appreciated.