(AN) I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry! I have NO excuse for 3 years of neglecting this story. I can't even remember why I stopped writing it in the first place. A couple weeks ago I got a notification in my email saying someone had favourited this story, and I was like, "holy crap, they found it in all the dust of not being updated in 3 years? That's faith, following an unfinished, hasn't-been-updated-in-3-years story."
Thank you to all those who read my story before and continue to read it now – I'm back and ready to finish this up!
"...Sasuke."
Sakura was frozen in place, her eyes focused on the dark form on the other side of the clearing. 'It couldn't be him...it shouldn't be, but it is.'
Naruto was staring at her, staring at Sasuke, and it was like all time had stopped. Sasuke was supposed to be hours ahead of them... had he really sensed them and doubled back?
'But why? Why would he do that?'
"Ah, so it's the two of you, then." Sasuke said with a bored tone, shifting his weight to his other foot. "I should have known."
He looked older, colder, and far more calculating. But still... he looked like Sasuke Uchiha.
His clothes were loose, his white shirt exposing his chest and billowing in the breeze as leaves danced around them. He was carrying a long straight edged sword, strapped to him by the rope around his waist.
In the presence of the man she had spent years hating and yet preparing to save, she had the most asinine thought that the setting amidst the lush forestry was far too beautiful for the dark task that was fast approaching them.
'Come on, Sakura! Say something! DO something!' her inner was shouting, but still she found herself dumbfounded, glued to her spot beneath the large tree she and Naruto had been in less than an hour earlier.
This wasn't how she pictured their reunion with Sasuke would be. They were supposed to find him. They would have the element of surprise and be mentally prepared for the encounter. When she was 14 she'd dreamed of stopping him, challenging him, knocking him unconscious and dragging his conceited butt all the way back to Konoha.
But now, in the moment, she was surprised and unprepared.
She could sense the chakra coursing through her old teammate, and for all the boredom he was playing up, he himself was prepared for a fight, his energy pumping through him.
"Couldn't Konoha spare some real shinobi to chase me?" Sasuke mused, a hint of a smirk on his otherwise expressionless face.
"Sasuke-teme!" Naruto growled out between clenched teeth as he fisted his hands and shifted into a fighting stance, prepared to move at a moment's notice.
"Still cowering in the background, Sakura?" Sasuke turned his attention to her, "ke, still so useless."
The pink haired kunoichi gasped, her jade eyes widening as memories flooded her.
"Your fighting is sloppy."
"You're never paying attention."
"You're holding the team back."
"...I have to keep saving you from your stupidity."
"You're not shinobi material."
"You're weak, Sakura."
A calm, collected coolness washed over her and she narrowed her gaze, taking a step forward towards the Uchiha.
Not anymore. She wasn't weak anymore. She'd trained for this, prepared for this, and she absolutely refused to choke in the moment any longer.
"Drop the act, Sasuke-kun," Sakura commanded, steeling her voice as she approached Naruto's side, "drop all of it and come back to Konoha."
"Or you'll what?" Sasuke smirked, speaking slowly, lazily, and placing a hand on the hilt of his sword, "Cry?"
Sakura felt Naruto bristle at the gesture.
Sakura could tell that Naruto was getting close to pouncing, and she marvelled at the speed with which the blond fell back into his old pattern with their old friend. Sasuke would insult her, and Naruto would jump to defend her honour.
But Sakura needed no one to defend her. She refused to take the bait she had so easily succumbed to years ago.
"We'll bring you back by force, Sasuke." Sakura spoke strongly, definitively, not with the voice of the girl that pestered the quiet, darkly handsome boy on the red bridge before training. She brought her slow paced walking to a stop as she fell in line with Naruto.
"What are you thinking, Sasuke? It's been three years. You know exactly what will become of you as soon as you get close to Orochimaru." Sakura focused on keeping her tone even and her body steady, even as she felt the adrenaline pump through her. There was no way, absolutely no way Sasuke was going to look between her and Naruto, shrug and concede defeat.
They would have to fight, and someone would have to lose.
'Sasuke... you're too caught up in yourself. Do you honestly believe you can take on that sannin alone?'
"Hn. You don't know anything." Sasuke blandly stated, looking to the world as if he wasn't even the slightest bit perturbed by the obvious impending confrontation between himself and his old team. And perhaps, in reality, he really wasn't.
"And you know shit all," Naruto barked, throwing his right arm out to the side in exasperation, "if you honestly think you can run into some hideout and what? Fuck up Orochimaru? Kill him and stop him from taking over your body?" The blond chuckled quietly, mirthlessly at the blank expression on Sasuke's face that revealed nothing. "That's your plan, ain't it? It won't work teme. You can't do that on your own."
"So what?" Sasuke asked, looking ever more prepared to end the idle conversation and return to his journey. He must have done what he intended by turning around and finding out who was following him. Now that he knew, Sakura guessed correctly, his next step would be to eliminate the trackers and move on. The trackers being his old teammates, she could see, meant nothing to him but wasted time in chatter. "You've come to offer your help? I don't need it dobe, you're almost as useless as her."
Naruto snarled, but Sakura took another step forward and raised her voice.
"It's not as if you'd accept any help from us," Sakura spoke, as if the very thought was laughable. If he'd ever wanted help, he would've gone to Kakashi-sensei, Naruto even instead of running off to Orochimaru. No, she well understood that he worked alone, as did Tsunade who gave the mission order. "Our mission isn't to help you, Sasuke. It's to stop you, using any force necessary. This is foolishness!" Sakura dug her heels into the ground, anticipating what was to come.
"There's no way," Naruto added, pulling his fist in front of him, "absolutely no way we're going to let you get to that hideout. Can't you see you've been manipulated into thinking you can take that snake bastard down? You think you're so fucking smart, Sasuke, but you haven't got a clue!"
"We'll kill you if we have to." Sakura spoke in a quiet, strong whisper. She would rescue him and prove to him just how strong she had become. Even if the only rescuing she had left to offer was killing him before Orochimaru could.
"I'd like to see you try."
In a split second Naruto had launched himself from his position beside her and was barrelling towards Sasuke at full speed. His hands moved at lightning speed as he formed the Kage Bunshin jutsu, creating ten shadows of himself to close in around Sasuke with him.
Sakura watched as Sasuke smirked, unsheathed his sword and launched himself into the air to meet the oncoming clones.
Not willing to waste any more time watching the old rivals start their fight, Sakura ran towards the fray, prepared to fight this battle and make her stand.
Sasuke easily dispatched the shadows and dodged the real Naruto in seconds, landing back on to the ground with an almost soundless grace. Whipping around, his eyes widened only a fraction as Sakura pounded her fist into the ground, sending a huge shockwave and rushing crater towards Sasuke. The Uchiha jumped back into the air to avoid being enveloped by the shattering rocks beneath him and pulled his sword sheath in front of him to deflect the barrage of kunai Naruto had sent speeding towards him.
Landing on a tree branch, Sasuke glanced down at Sakura as she knelt at the beginning of her crater and pulled her fist from the ground, staring defiantly right back at him.
"So you're not weak," he smirked, "you're just a Neanderthal."
"Raah!" Naruto announced his angry presence as he landed on the tree branch beside Sasuke and threw a punch for his gut. Sakura watched as Sasuke caught the blonde's fist and used the momentum of the thrust to throw the teen from the tree. Naruto popped into a puff of smoke and a small tree trunk fell the fifteen feet to the ground.
"Still with these old tricks –" Sasuke began before he was cut off by the whirl of a cyclone of shuriken bearing down on him from above. Not batting an eyelash at the obscurity of the jutsu, Sasuke sprinted down his branch towards the trunk of the tree, appearing to Sakura as if his plan was to drive the shuriken into tearing up the tree instead of himself.
But he ran straight into her next move.
Focusing her chakra into her feet, Sakura was already halfway up the trunk and still closer as Sasuke made it to the start of the huge branch he stood on. His attention was focused on the whirling blades as they followed his movements.
'Creative technique, Naruto,' Sakura commended as she made it to just above Sasuke's branch, 'But I have plans for the shinobi who underestimates his opponents.'
It seemed as if Sasuke noticed Sakura's absence from her crater but not fast enough as she quickly released her chakra from holding her feet to the tree and roundhouse kicked Sasuke in the side, sending him tumbling down through the branches of the adjacent trees.
She could have punched him, but as satisfying as that would have been, she probably could have killed him with the sheer strength she had coursing through her hands with her adrenaline. They were still at a stage where they could bring him in; they didn't need to seriously consider killing him just yet. And even if they needed to seriously consider it... despite her years of hating him for his cruel words, he was still an old teammate, still someone she wasn't yet sure she could kill while other options existed.
Sakura gripped the branch Sasuke had once been standing on and flipped over and down it to land on the ground below.
"Sasuuuuke!" Naruto was already on his way to intercept the other teen as Sasuke sprung out of the forest debris, looking pretty good for a man who'd broken several tree trunks on his way down.
Sakura sprinted to a better location to prepare for her next attack as she watched Naruto and Sasuke battle it out, weapons drawn. As much as she wanted to get in on that, she knew there was no way she could slip into that battle unscathed. The best thing she could do right now for their mission was think.
'We're never going to have another chance like the one we just used' Inner-Sakura reminded her, 'He's not going to underestimate us like that again.'
That was both a rewarding thought and a curse. Things were going to start getting dangerous.
Naruto ducked beneath the swing of Sasuke's blade and rolled off to the side, pulling a kunai from his weapons case as he flipped back onto his feet.
'Kami, Sakura-chan really has acquired Tsunade-baachan's brute strength' Naruto revelled as he used the Kunai to deflect several shuriken flying his way. 'She's on her game and I need to be, too. I won't let this battle go down the same as last time with that Akatsuki! I won't fail again!'
"Come back to Konoha with us Sasuke!" Naruto called out as he slashed through a shadow of his former friend whom he had loved like a brother, "we don't have to fight like this!"
Sasuke suddenly appeared behind the Kyuubi container and knocked him off his feet with a swipe of his sheath. Naruto didn't stay down for long, jumping back up and assuming a defensive stance.
"You call this fighting, dobe?" Sasuke questioned, his breathing even and not laboured in the slightest. The only sign that the remaining two members of Team Seven were putting up a fight were the rips and tears in the bastard's clothing and the blood dripping from the edge of his mouth. Sasuke swiped the blood away with the back of his hand. "This is a joke. I'm going to kill you two, and then I'm going to –"
"Bullshit, Sasuke!" Naruto shouted, forming the jutsu for his cyclone of shuriken once more. Sakura's epic roundhouse kick had thwarted his first strategy to use it, but he had more chances and more tricks. "You wouldn't do that!"
Naruto refused to believe that Sasuke would coldly, flat out declare his intent to murder his friends and follow through with it. Yeah, they were fighting, and yeah, Sakura had said that they were prepared to kill him if they had to, but they were going to avoid doing that as best they could. But Sasuke... he said it as if they were just two more bodies getting in his way.
"Yeah, I would." Sasuke growled out, frustration seeping through his voice as he took note of the familiar whirl of the shuriken cyclone bearing down upon him. "I wouldn't have to if you weren't so annoyingly persistent!"
Sasuke didn't lose any time noticing that the only way out of the descended whirl was up and he launched himself out, completely prepared for the blades to begin their chase of him. Naruto smirked as he clapped his hands and the blades enlarged and spun faster. The threatening speed with which they flew was only that, a threat, and Naruto knew he only had a small window of a few seconds to get into place.
Forming his next jutsu with rapid hand motions, Naruto created three clones of himself to help intercept Sasuke's return to the ground. Sasuke had stopped fleeing the blades and had turned around as he fell, deflecting the sharp metal expertly as they closed in on him. Once Sasuke had neutralized the threat, he turned in the air to shift into a comfortable landing position.
Naruto was prepared for this, and as soon as the Uchiha hit the ground, the Narutos rushed him from all sides, the real Naruto moving in from the front.
"Give it up, dobe," Sasuke commanded as he drew his sword from his sheath once more and spun, dispatching the shadows as they recklessly flew at him.
The shadow bombs went off with a crash, leaving the two teens shrouded in clouds of smoke as the small blaze roared around Sasuke, the flames nipping at him and keeping him from safely dodging anything Naruto threw at him. The only way out was through the Jinchuuriki.
"You're coming home with us, Sasuke." Naruto stood at the head of his fire trap, his figure looking clouded and rustic amidst the smoke and embers flying in the breeze.
"You know what, Naruto?" Sasuke's hands moved with a speed Naruto had never seen before, "you're still so fucking annoying."
"Denki Kēji no Jutsu!"
Sakura snapped from her thoughts and halted her focus of her chakra into her fingertips at the sound of Sasuke's shouting voice calling out a jutsu she had never heard of before. The pink haired kunoichi watched in shock as large spikes of chakra erupted from Sasuke, putting out the fire and roaring into the ground around Naruto, crackling with electricity as they pushed up from the ground around him and formed into a cage with the blond on the inside.
"Naruto!" Sakura heard herself call out in panic as Naruto stepped back into the wall of crackling energy and shouted out in pain, falling to his knees on the dirt beneath him.
'That's a dangerous amount of chakra Sasuke released to make that cage!" Inner-Sakura said with worried amazement, 'That's got to be a tough move!'
'A last resort, maybe?' Sakura thought as she ran towards the crackling cage holding Naruto hostage and Sasuke's smirking form, 'It looked like he was taking a beating from Naruto.'
'Well, he was,' her inner conceded, 'But not anymore. He's got the upper hand now and we don't know how badly that hurt Naruto!'
The only thing Sakura knew was that it must've hurt. That much chakra focused and used as a weapon? Sakura watched nervously as Naruto braced his hands on the ground and wobbled to his feet, careful this time of touching the walls of his prison.
"I don't have any more time to waste on you." Sakura heard Sasuke hiss at Naruto before pushing off the ground and back up into the trees.
'Oh no... What do we do?' Inner-Sakura panicked, realizing a decision needed to be made.
Sakura hesitated a moment as she skidded to a stop some feet from the electrical cage. Should she work at freeing Naruto from the crackling death trap or should she leave him behind and go after Sasuke? Either way, she no longer had any time left to plan. What she'd prepared already in the time the two boys fought would have to be enough. It had to be. Plan B was something she hadn't wanted to consider, but as it was... she needed to be prepared.
'The mission is to stop Sasuke... I can't lose him here and let him get to Orochimaru!' Sakura battled within herself, 'but Naruto...there's not enough room to sit down in there. As soon as he gets tired...'Sakura didn't like the thought as it entered her mind.
The very image of her energetic blond lover being forced to encounter the painful chakra walls of his prison once again...an uncomfortable shudder began to work its way up her spine at the idea of such pain coming to the man who had saved her from her own.
"I'll be okay, Sakura-chan," Naruto said confidently as if he knew her thoughts were running out of control, only a slight trace of strain evident in his voice, "go after the teme!"
At the sound of Naruto's voice, Sakura escaped the mental images of her love and best friend in pain and was brought back to the real world where Naruto was still trapped but smiling his goofy reassuring smile as he hunched slightly, looking through the chakra trap at her with his beautiful blue eyes.
Back to the real world where every second counted, and with every second she hesitated Sasuke got further and further away and closer and closer to Orochimaru.
Still, Sakura chanced another second, her concern for Naruto, the man who had returned and saved her from the grimness of the life she'd chosen to lead, trumping her mission.
'What if the Akatsuki come while I'm gone chasing down Sasuke!' another horrifying thought sprung to the forefront, 'He'll be trapped here practically like a gift basket!'
"Naruto," she began, even as she prepared to jump into the trees and go after their former teammate alone, having already anticipated the blonde's response to her concerns. Should she tell him she loved him? That would sound far too final. Naruto would be okay – and so would she. She could fight Sasuke alone – as it was, it had been her goal for years now, to fight that man one on one. And so Sakura said what she could with a final glance at her caged friend, "be careful."
"I'll find a way out, Sakura-chan!" Sakura heard Naruto shout reassuringly to her as she landed on a firm branch above the cage and braced herself to push off.
As Sakura focused her jade eyes on the forest ahead of her and ran after Sasuke, she tried her best to ignore the sound of the crackling chakra snap, signalling that Naruto's body had once again collided with his dangerous electric constraints.
Sakura dashed through the trees, straining her ears for any sounds that would reveal the missing-nin's location. She had been sprinting full force after the Uchiha for several minutes straight, perhaps ten, and still had not encountered him again.
'We can't have lost him!' her inner cheered for her not to give up, 'We didn't stay with Naruto long enough for him to get too much further ahead. He's fast-but so are we!'
No, she hadn't lost him yet. She had, however, taken note of several exploding tags hanging from the branches that a lesser shinobi would have missed.
She tried not to take the traps personally – and failed. Still, the Konoha medic-nin was well aware that being underestimated was an asset and refused to let her temper boil up. What was she going to do? Catch up with Sasuke and chew him out for only half-heartedly trying to kill her? No, after what she'd seen of the battle between Sasuke and Naruto, she believed the Sharingan wielder wouldn't half-heartedly do anything. He was just trying to kill 12-year old Sakura Haruno.
Sakura pushed off yet another branch with even more force, propelling herself even faster through the forestry. Even still, Sasuke underestimated her growth over the years. Suddenly, a sound permeated through the foliage, catching the pink-haired kunoichi's attention.
Was that... rushing water?
'Yes, it is!' Sakura felt the tables turn in her favour as she took a moment to assess her location. She was familiar with this part of the country from past ANBU missions – if the river was close, she knew she and most likely Sasuke as well were rapidly approaching a large drop-off that surrounded the river. The only way to safely pass the watery canyon and reach the country on the other side was to cross the bridge.
Sakura smirked and shifted her route due west, running even faster through the tree tops. She would reach the bridge before him and wait, banking on her hopes that Sasuke knew this part of the countryside less well than she did.
Judging by the lack of exploding tags hanging inconspicuously from the branches ahead of her as she ran, adrenaline once again coursing through her veins, she suspected her assumptions were correct.
After several more minutes of running, the large bridge suspended between two grassy cliffs, their sides crumbled and eroded from centuries of harsh weather and the rushing river below came into view.
Sakura stopped on a branch near the edge of the tree line and leaned into the trunk, cloaking herself amidst the dark shadows cast from the leaves on the tree. She would sense his chakra signature approaching and then she would make her stand – alone.
'Naruto...' Sakura's thoughts drifted to her blond best friend, teammate, and most recently lover as she stood in wait. 'Don't do anything reckless with that cage. If you hurt yourself... I'm too far away to heal you. I can't bear the thought of finally capturing Sasuke but losing you to his jutsu...'
She thought of the way his hands had felt on her as he'd caressed her body as they hastily made love, her fear of the end results of this mission having consumed her and pushed her over the edge. She absolutely had to experience being with him before anything irreversible happened – she had been so blissfully unaware of how rapidly that very situation was approaching her.
Never had she imagined that Sasuke would come to them. If he had been even minutes sooner... Team Seven's reunion would have been significantly different. It was foolish of her, Sakura's ANBU side admonished her – the side that had fought hard and long and worked late through the nights in the years her comrades had been gone – for desiring Naruto when she had woken.
Doing that on a mission? Still, Sakura shook her head as she leaned even further back into the cover of the leaves. She wouldn't have given up that moment for the world. And if they finished this mission – when they finished it – she would absolutely make sure she would have another chance to do it right. To wrap her cheerful blond love in her arms – the man whom she loved so desperately and clung to the memories of in the years he'd left her to go train, the man who told her she didn't have to fight alone – and she would show him how much she loved him.
A small smile graced Sakura's face. 'As if Naruto would argue with that.'
(AN) I know. I'm still an ass for not updating for 3 years. I'm also a jerk for leaving this story on such a cliff-hanger! I tried my best not to do so with this chapter. I promise this story will be finished! I have inspiration coursing through me!
Next chapter: Sakura faces off against Sasuke one-on-one. Who will come away the victor? Will Naruto escape from the cage or will Sakura have to go back and find a way to free him? Let's find out next week! (and I do mean next week – evil dancer-me isn't going to make you wait another few years, or even a month!)
I have maybe 2 more chapters left of this story, and then perhaps an epilogue. I figure, since I've proven I'm bad with updating, that this story will not have a sequel. I'm going to be sticking to one-shots for awhile!
Thank you, THANK YOU, Thank You to all of my reviewers from over the past few years – your reviews have kept this story on my mind! And so I give many thanks to: ssjgokillo,twin083,Jack_Shit, Anon, Cupcake-sama, coolgfunny, Serika2001, I.E.T.S., ComboBreaker, BlackBaccaraRose, jgsparks, Gravenimage, rasenganmaster777, NorthernLights25, XDarkFlameX, Carcas,bugzadc, TheBathman, and Happybird16
As for Denki Kēji no Jutsu - I used Google translate to go from "Electric Cage" in English to Japanese.
Please leave a review if you can spare the time! =)
~dancer-me