I'll Protect you with my Life

Chapter 10

(Sakura)

"We need to get moving." Kakashi said rousing her gently from the place where she had been dozing lightly against his chest.

"Have they found us?" I asked struggling to my feet, wincing at the pain from cuts and bruises that had been obtained running barefoot through the treacherous wooded area where they had been hiding and trying to recover their strength enough to make their way back to civilization.

They had found that upon escaping that even the surface terrain was unfamiliar. They had no idea where they were, their best hope was to make it to civilization and to find their location and send word to Konoha. But they had yet to be able to get out of these damnable woods.

"They haven't found us, not yet, but I can feel them getting closer and we're too weak to fight them still." I just nodded and helped him up. We hadn't found much food, and due to our starvation in that hellhole we were severely overstretched. Stamina had always been Naruto's long suit. I was learning however, that if I didn't push myself beyond my natural limitations that I would be slowing Kakashi down and holding him back. I knew he would kill himself trying to protect me, and I couldn't let that happen.

"How far away are they?" I asked trying to sense them but I came up with nothing.

"They're about a mile away in the canyon that we came through last night. But they're moving a lot faster that we can right now." He gestured to our feet and the remaining cuff that still linked his left wrist to my right.

I woke slowly and shook my head trying to remember the remainder of the dream. I caught glimpses of the memory and it flooded over me in a rush of anger. I wanted to scream and shout and hit something.

Instead I just lay there thinking of the trap we had set up for them, how we had killed every member of the search party. Just the thoughts of how we had worked as a team back to back, unable to move further than a few feet away from each other, and how we had turned that weakness into our advantage.

I again lay in a bed inside a dim room, but this time I could see the curtains pulled closed over the windows to block out the light. I tried to sit up, but couldn't. I found that I was strapped to the bed with leather belts padded on the inside so that they didn't mark my skin. For a moment I was puzzled, then I remembered that the last time I'd fallen asleep I had been slumped across Kakashi's bed.

I immediately became angry again. "How dare they separate us!" Inner Sakura yelled, "He could need us and we wouldn't even know!" I struggled against the gentle bonds and pulled them from the bed using a bit of chakra. I sat up and brushed the straps from my form and then pulled my feet loose before stepping down from the bed.

I felt a lot stronger than last time apparently I was healing pretty well. As I pushed myself to my feet I once again pulled off the offending tubes and wires connecting my to the machines and IV. I found the robe again and pulled it on. I approached the door, but this time I could see a faint glow from the outside of the door before I even tried to open it. The door was stuck fast, I had been sealed in.

"Damn it!" I cursed stomping my foot pettily on the floor. I felt like stomping some more and throwing a screaming tantrum, but my foot hurt enough after the first stomp, and besides I wasn't a child any longer, I was an adult and needed to deal with this like one. So I instead thought about it, and crossed to the windows on the opposite side of the room. Currently they were covered with heavy curtains making it hard to see them in the dark.

I pulled aside the thick fabric and was greeted by moonlight outside the closed window. The window without a seal.

I grinned, and pulled up the window. I may be injured, but underestimating a determined ninja would always leave a "window" of opportunity. I chuckled softly as I pulled myself out onto the ledge. It wasn't very wide, only about ten inches for me to maneuver on. With my bare feet I stood on tiptoe and hugged the building using in my hands and feet to cling to the building.

This was a cinch now that I could use my chakra freely again. I climbed stealthily down the side of the building until I reached the second floor where I opened a window and climbed inside through another room. I was counting on the fact that I assumed the seal on my room would mean that Kakashi hadn't been moved, at least that was my fervent hope as I used a henge to transform into a nondescript nurse that wouldn't stand out too much as I walked the corridors.

I opened the doorway to the hall and stepped out with a clipboard chart in my hand, I pretended to examine it as if I had a list of things to do and then moved on down the hallway toward D-wing. I side stepped several service people making rounds while trying to avoid using a jutsu on anyone, I just wanted to sneak by and get to Kakashi. I needed to know that he was alright.

After so long with just the two of us, back to back, I just didn't feel safe without him by my side.

"Kakashi!" I screamed as a hard blow landed on the back of his head, one that had been meant for me. He just grunted in pain, and twisted around to lash out with his foot at the offender slamming him to the ground with a kick to the gut and another dead center in his face.

We began to run hoping that we could at least make it to the Konoha border, we were so close…

We ran, because we knew our lives depended on it. We could barely keep up in a fight while only able to use one hand each. I had been able to break the chains on our other cuff, but the unfortunate drawback of that was that I had broken several bones in my fist. Kakashi had done his best to set the bones, but without my ability to use my hands for seals I couldn't even use healing whenever he tried to use any jutsu's making it harder on him during a battle. This meant the only skills we had at our disposal were my super strength and our taijutsu abilities. Thankfully we weren't fighting ninja's though, that was one boon. But damn it, they were good! And they never gave up, they just kept coming. No matter how many we knocked down, more just seemed to crop up out from under every rock in our path.

I gritted my teeth as I felt a kunai imbed itself in my back causing me to stumble. Kakashi gripped my elbow and pulled me along so that I didn't fall. He pulled me behind a tree for some cover and started to form the seals for Chidori, I heard him give a loud shriek as the chakra formed around him. It shot out wildly as he concentrated the lightning like chakra into his palm. The sound of thousands of birds permeated the air blocking out all other sounds except his screams.

Then he was leaping around the tree, I stumbled trying to keep up with his speed. His hand flashed like lightning as he struck down five men with a single swipe of his chakra filled fist. He was breathing heavily as the small remnants of the group scattered like cockroaches that have suddenly had the lights turned on.

The pulsing chakra gradually diminished and faded into nothingness. I let out a sigh of relief, and then turned to Kakashi in time to see him fall to the ground in a dead faint.

I frowned at the memory, had the arm band that they both wore had somehow affected his internal systems, tearing up his lungs and the muscles in both his arms? Or had that been the Chidori itself somehow gone out of control and turning on its maker?

It had been hell on earth to drag him through the forest as we got closer to Konoha. If we hadn't been inside Fire country already we never would have made it.

'We must've been picked up by scouting Anbu.' I thought to myself, remembering how I had collapsed in exhaustion after only a few miles. It made me happy and sad at the same time. I was happy that we had been found and saved, but knowing that I wasn't strong enough to help my teammate when he was in need… It caused a sharp pain in my chest.

He had saved my life so many times, and I couldn't even return the favor properly. It made me feel worse than useless. I realized suddenly that I had been standing outside his door for a few minutes just berating myself, so I glanced around hoping no one had noticed before opening the door and slipping inside.

I let the henge release as I crept cautiously toward his bedside once more. Relief flooded through me and I let out the breath that I hadn't even realized I'd been holding. I took in his improved color and the lack of breathing apparatus' that had seemed to be all that was keeping him alive when I last saw him.

I rushed the last few feet to his bedside and pulled the chair closer to his bed where he lay sleeping. I picked up his hand in my own and held it tightly. His fingers were cold around my own and I rubbed his hand between mine to warm it, and I heard a small grunt escape from his lips. I grinned at his grimace and grabbed his other hand doing the same, trying to force some warmth into him. He had poor circulation and was always cold, or so he'd said. He said that was the reason he'd never minded it when I sprawled on top of him in the night, he said that was the only time he felt truly warm.

I looked down at him for a few more seconds thinking, and then ever so carefully I climbed up into the bed beside him. I snuggled up to his chilly frame wrapping him in my warmth I was able to feel useful, but more importantly, safe.