Been at a quicker update rate! :) I think this story is as good as finished by the end of this summer! (Though it will be quite a few more chapters.)

Thanks for the support, all! Some of you guys have been with me on this story for like what, a year or more now?

Midori Fujiwara

Sakura looked ahead, seeing her two teammates a good two seconds before her. Sakura forced herself forward with another burst of energy, but she found it harder to maintain the higher speed than the last time she had tried to catch up.

Sakura half tripped over a branch and she tensed up when the two boys looked back at her, pretending nothing was wrong.

"You okay, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked, concern tinting his question.

Sai said nothing but there wasn't ignorance in that either.

"No, I'm fine," Sakura answered, knowing how important this mission was. They couldn't just stop because she was getting tired. Why should she tire before Naruto, if in reality Naruto was carrying so much more responsibility?

An additional shot of willpower quickened her pace.

Sai whipped out a scroll and his brush, dragging ink into a drawing of hawk.

"I thought we would keep undercover for some time," Sai said, still performing a jutsu to animate his hawk into reality and letting the three of them fly on its back as it rose altitude over the sky.

"We'll just be on the lookout," Naruto shrugged.

Sakura felt guilty that all this had to be done for her and apologized, but neither Sai nor Naruto accepted her apology.

She decided that while they were now explicitly traveling, she had might as well prevent any consequences that could arise. Like surprise attacks.

Sakura turned her head to face north, seeing a dense darker forest beyond a heavily mountainous terrain. She could already see Sasuke…he was so close.

But he, at the same time, was so far.

All three of them were so focused on looking outward for enemies that none of them noticed they had picked up an extra person while passing through a cloud.

A form suddenly solidified from out of the mist, revealing one of Anko's former opponents and one of Kakashi's current capturers, Iki.

Iki's hand reached into the air and grabbed hold of some water vapor, which materialized into a sharp kunai for him to stab into Sai's lower spine.

Sakura, feeling somewhat of an awkward air, turned around, and seeing her comrade about to become paralyzed from hip down, threw a chakra-infused punch at the sudden opponent.

Although Sakura's attack never hit him, the wind behind her taijutsu whistled and called attention to both Sai and Naruto.

Sai hurled shuriken out with his quick reflexes, while Naruto dodged an incoming attack from Iki, who had switched targets after realizing he was caught in the act.

Naruto, bending backwards, put his hands together to form the signs of his signature jutsu, and a couple of clones pulled Iki back into a fight while the real Naruto leaned forward in order to keep his balance on the still flying hawk.

Sakura looked back at Sai to ask with her eyes whether the hawk was able to support the extra weight. Sai's unresponsiveness told Sakura that it was okay, but she looked over at the hawk's wings just to make sure.

But then she noticed a girl running…in the distance. Sakura's disbelief caused her to look twice, and again she saw the same girl…running on air! How?

"Sai!" she called, pointing to the incoming figure, knowing Naruto was already occupied with the other opponent.

His eyes caught sight of the girl and he squinted in an attempt to see more clearly. But it was true! There was a girl running in the air towards them! Sakura looked back towards Sai to see what he would suggest to do, however being the rather quiet one, Sai only set off himself.

"Sai!" Sakura called, watching him suddenly jump out of the hawk. "You can't walk on air!"

But he did! And he ran to catch up on the same platform as the girl. Had Sakura missed a detail?

Sakura hurled shuriken at the girl, making her stop and back into Sai's kick, which she gracefully dodged. But Sakura still couldn't understand why either of them were standing on air.

Until she noticed a flutter of paper in the girl's hand, and a brush behind her ear. No way…the same type of specialization as Sai?

Sakura looked back at Naruto, tearing her eyes away from an interesting new opponent, to see how Naruto was faring with his opponent.

Naruto, even with his clones didn't seem able to land a single blow on Iki at all. Sakura gathered chakra in her fist once again to get back at the opponent, seeing if maybe this time he would get the punch she had wanted to give him.

This blow Iki did receive, in a way…

Sakura's eyes widened when seeing her fist one the other side of Iki's head, her wrist and part of her lower arm right through! What? But no! His body was…wasn't material. Her punch went…right through his body?

Naruto's face carried the same shocked expression as Sakura's face.

The opponent only laughed, flipping a round house kick. Although his body wasn't solid when Sakura had penetrated his head without a punch, his kick felt very real, knocking Sakura and Naruto to opposite sides of the still flying hawk and destroying Naruto's two clones. The opponent left himself in between Sakura and Naruto, smirking.

"Thank you're so good, huh?" Naruto shouted at the opponent, which only made Naruto brush up in anger.

"I am if you can't defeat me," the opponent shot back.

But Naruto had already hidden two clones underneath the hawk and charged at the opponent from behind.

divider divider feed the fire break your vision divider divider

Anko reached another clearing of trees, and was again disappointed to find no chakra signature from Kakashi or any of the previous opponents. In fact, she sensed no chakra signature at all…and Anko felt extremely alone.

Now the great question: to go on without Kakashi and trust that he could manage himself and let Anko be able to catch Oroochimaru before he got stronger or not. Oroochimaru was weakened now, the old body at its limits, so there was just a greater chance for her to do her part.

But Anko…admitted that she cared for her fellow jounin. She didn't expand on the amicable feeling she had toward Kakashi and justified her reason to search for Kakashi by assuming that no matter how weak Oroochimaru was, she was weaker than him and would ultimately die.

divider divider throw your fists up come on with me divider divider

Naruto's sudden attack forced a curse out of the opponent's mouth, and the opponent was unfortunately too late to stop Naruto's attack. However, never did Naruto's Rasengan actually reach him. Some barrier obstructed Naruto's attack, and for some reason, both Naruto and Sakura looked in the direction of Sai and his counterpart's fight.

She drew a barrier, Sakura realized, and wondered if Sai needed back up. Yet Sai seemed like he had everything under control, however, as occupied as he was. It was just tricky that his opponent had a better defense. Once brush stroke covered a more dense range.

And beyond that, the opponent Naruto and Sakura were up against was…penetrable! Not even a chakra-based punch allowed Sakura a hit.

Sakura analyzed their situation again.

But if their opponent truly wasn't material then why did the opponent's attack hurt? And why did his comrade provide him a block against the Rasengan? This had to mean there were openings in the opponent's immateriality.

She just had to find a chance.

But Sakura suddenly felt a shadow loom over her. She looked behind her.

That brush girl Sai was against!

The girl smirked, displaying a predrawn drawing of Sakura down to the detail of her eyelash. Sakura didn't like the look of that, seeing the brush hovering, full of ink over the page.

She wrote a few characters over the page and then—

Sai swooped in, trailing his own brush over the picture to ruin the girl's drawing of Sakura, which Sakura figured was some type of voodoo.

But now there was a bigger problem…because the two opponents were together and not separated by distance. They leaned against other to prevent Sai, Sakura, and Naruto's triangular format take advantage of the situation.

So if she could lean on him…obviously the guy was material in this scene…

Naruto seemed to understand the concept as well and charged quickly but was held back by another set of hands, quite familiar to Naruto.

The ANBU from before!

The Pig and the Lion!

The Pig held Naruto up away from him by the collar.

Sakura couldn't believe it! She was tired and she now paid the consequence of having both enemy groups attack simultaneously! She cursed and punished herself, ignoring the leg craps in her calves as she stood back to think of a plausible way out of the troublesome situation.

Shealso couldn't believe that the ANBU were even after them in the first place and now not only that, but also didn't help them fend off another enemy group?

"You guys should be helping us!" Naruto yelled, repeating Sakura's thoughts. "They're the enemies! They reek of Oroochimaru!"

But the Pig-masked ANBU was stubborn and held onto Naruto, who couldn't find the coldness to hurt a fellow Konoha comrade. The same village shouldn't be fighting against itself! Isn't that what the civil war ended a long time ago?

The other two enemy laughed. "Weak Fire Country…"

Sakura's teeth grit.

But then a sudden scatter storm of shuriken fell upon the two enemies of Oroochimaru, revealing water replacements.

Naruto smirked, looking at the Pig-masked ANBU and then the Lion-masked ANBU, who appeared later, the master of the shuriken shower.

"Huh," Naruto lauged. "Guess that means you're on our side."

Just another fight chapter :D

Midori Fujiwara