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Chapter 14

"WHAT!" shouted Sakura.

Tatsuya clamped his mouth over his sister's screaming mouth, gently shushing her, downstairs another scream was heard.

He slowly let go of his hand.

"What!" hissed Sakura, "what are we going to do?"

"We have to get out of here as fast as we can; Ryou's holding them off for now. Just pack some clothes, some food and your weapons, I have a feeling we'll need them later on."

Nodding silently she rushed to her cupboard and changed into a white short skirt with blue shorts, a dark blue shirt with some long gloves and a pair of ninja sandals as well as a kunai holster tied to her leg. Stuffing some more clothes in a black backpack, she packed a few other things as well as some spare food and rushed out with Tatsuya at her heels (Naruto had gone to help Ryou). When they reached the bottom, they had to avoid some flying kunai's as they zoomed past their heads.

Ryou was holding off the ninjas by launching some mud clones and Naruto had his shadow clone jutsu active, so a dozen hyper ninjas were all attacking at the same time.

Suddenly an enemy ninja came charging at her; Sakura was just about to slash a kunai into his throat when a figure stepped in the way. The kunai went into their arm, causing them to hiss in pain.

Running to them she find herself facing Ryou's clammy, sweaty face.

"Save your energy," he rasped, "you must leave here with Naruto and Tatsuya. Get to Konoha as fast as you can and alert the Hokage. GO NOW!"

"What about you?" asked Sakura.

"I'll hold them off for as long as I can, don't worry about me," he managed to give her a smile.

"Let me heal your arm," she put her glowing hand over his arm, but he stopped her.

"No, you have to save your chakra."

Ignoring him she gripped the kunai and took it out of his arm causing him to hiss in pain, just as it came out she rapidly healed it.

"Good luck," she whispered before rushing to Tatsuya who was fighting off a ninja.

"We have to get out if here," she said, just as Tatsuya finished the ninja off with a quick slash to the neck.

"Ryou said we have to get to Konoha as fast as we can and alert the Hokage that they've found us," grabbing his hand she dragged him to where the Naruto's were all fighting. The shop was now like a war zone, books were strewn everywhere, bookshelves had collapsed and many antiques were lying smashed on the floor.

"NARUTO!" she bellowed.

"YEAH!" screamed all the Naruto's, both herself and Tatsuya sweat dropped.

"ER! THE REAL NARUTO!"

Scrambling out and narrowly missing a kunai Naruto ran towards them.

"What's up?"

"We have to get out of here," she said frantically, "and go to Konoha as fast as we can to tell Tsunade-sama what happened."

"What about Ryou-sensei?" asked Naruto.

"He said he'll buy us some time," said Sakura as they made their way to the back door.

"We can't just leave him!" shouted Tatsuya, he turned back.

"Nii-san!" cried out Sakura, grabbing his arm, "it's his choice and we have to respect that."

"AAAAAHHHHHH!"

To their horror an enemy ninja had managed to creep up on Ryou and stab a kunai in his back. He stumbled before crashing to the floor, the mud clones carried on fighting because Ryou hadn't dismissed them yet.

"Ryou-sensei!" screamed Tatsuya as he rushed to his mentor's aid, killing anyone who came in his way.

Sakura and Naruto rushed forward as well; kneeling towards him she ran a hand over his wound while Naruto and Tatsuya covered for her.

"You should have gone by now," rasped out Ryou, his face getting paler by the second.

"Hush now," whispered Sakura, tears springing up in her eyes, "you shouldn't speak in this condition."

"NO!" he said, trying to sit up, "I swore to your grandfather that I would keep you safe and I always keep my word."

With the help of Sakura he managed to stand up and stared at her straight in the eye.

"When I say GO you must run out of here as fast as possible because I'm going to do a powerful jutsu that will get rid of all these ninjas."

"But you can't" stuttered Sakura, "you'll use up all your energy, you'll die."

"It's a risk I'll have to take," replied Ryou grimly.

Leaning over to Tatsuya she grabbed his arm, causing him to glance at her from the corner of his eye.

"When I say go, run out of here as fast as you can."

Merely nodding because he was to busy in a fight with two ninjas, she quickly turned to Naruto who was flinging kunai's at the ninjas necks, instantly killing them.

"When I say go, run out of here as fast as you can."

"Why?"

"Just do it Naruto!" she said in an annoyed tone.

She could see Ryou form a ball of chakra in his hands, getting bigger by the second.

"GO!" he shouted to her.

At once she rushed to Naruto and Tatsuya who both immediately understood and together they ran to the back door as fast as they could. The enemy ninja looking at their retreating backs with confused looks.

What was going on?

Once they made it outside Sakura let go of Naruto and Tatsuya and was about to turn run into the woods when Tatsuya held her back.

"Where's Ryou-sensei?" he asked in a serious voice.

"He, said that he would hold them of as long as he could so that we could have some time to escape," she answered not meeting his eyes.

Realisation dawned on him and he quickly turned around to go back when Sakura held him back.

"It's too late," she continued, "It was his decision."

"NO!" shouted Tatsuya struggling out of her grip.

Giving Naruto a help-me look, he helped her drag Tatsuya across the training field and they were just about to go over the fence when the house exploded.

Slamming into the fence Sakura shielded her eyes away from the blast she could feel tears stream down her face and memories flashed in her mind.

The time when they all had a water fight, Ryou included, the time when Sakura and Naruto broke an antique and hid it under the sofa and Ryou found out and made them clean the whole shop, Sakura had never realised how much dust there could exist on some bookshelves. So many memories, and to think that he was gone. Just like her parents, another loved one had been claimed, how many more?

Leaving her thoughts she lifted her head up, Naruto was standing up staring blankly at the wreckage that he once lived in, Tatsuya was kneeling with a defeated look on his face, tears slowly appearing but he furiously wiped them away. Naruto stuck his hand out for her which she gladly accepted, standing up she stared at the wreckage tears still streaming down her cheeks. The house was a wreck, walls were heaped on top of each other and blood was splattered everywhere from the ninjas who had been caught in the blast, fire was still crackling the ruins and no sign of life was seen.

Choking a sob, she saw some movement from a distance, squinting she realised what it was. More enemy ninjas.

"Come on," she said, grabbing Naruto's hand, they both lifted up Tatsuya.

"We have to get out of here," she whispered to him softly.

His eyes showed emptiness but he nodded anyway.

They jumped over the fence leaving the wreckage behind them.

They were running down a steep banking which was littered with trees, branches and old leaves. She felt a sharp branch cut her face but ignored the blood from the cut.

"Sakura watch out!" screamed a voice.

Sakura was so busy in her thoughts that she didn't realise that they had come to a cliff, a few hundred feet high, beneath it was the rest of the forest that lead out of Suna. Naruto had quickly snapped her out of her thoughts but it was too late.

In a flash she slipped over the edge and could feel herself topple over, seeing the trees and a lake below her.

"AAHHH!" she screamed flailing her arms about, trying to catch anything.

A hand shot out and grabbed her hand; looking Naruto had grabbed her hand and was grinning at her.

"Hold on Sakura-Chan," he said gritting his teeth and with a grunt hauled her up so that she was standing on the safe hard ground.

Her eyes soon caught sight of Tatsuya who was staring straight ahead, eyes frozen frowning she turned to ask Naruto what was wrong with him when she realised that Naruto was stood frozen glaring at something in front of them.

Turning around her eyes widened.

Mordans followers had surrounded them; now that she was closer to them she observed their clothing, a pair of black ninja sandals, some long red trousers that went just above their ankles, a black vest top and a ninja head band which had an unknown symbol probably the symbol of their group.

"You have no where to go now," said one of them smirking at them, "just give us the chosen one and no-one get's hurt."

Sakura scoffed.

"Yeah right."

"If you want them you'll have to go through us," growled Naruto getting into a fighting stance.

"Fine then," smirked the ninja, "if you want to do that way then so be it."

Grabbing something out of his pocket he flung it at them. It was a kunai with an explosive tag attached to it.

Their eyes widened and they jumped out of the way, but Sakura jumped a second too late the exhaustion was getting to her and so was the overwhelming feeling of Ryou's death.

She could feel herself being thrown off the cliff at the force of the blast, and flying through the air.

"SAKURA!"

She could hear Naruto scream her name, but there was nothing she could do.

Let me help you

Serenity quickly enveloped her in pink chakra as she plummeted into the lake at the bottom.

Feeling the cold water woke her up instantly as she struggled to swim up to the surface, Serenity lended her more chakra and she managed to swim up before her lungs exploded.

Taking a deep gasp she rubbed the water out of her eyes and looked around.

Trees covered the ground and there were no noises, it seemed the whole forest was on mute or something.

Looking up she heard cries and shouts and could hear the clashing of kunais and the shouts of different jutsus, it seemed Naruto and Tatsuya were involved in a fight.

Swimming to the edge she slowly stood up and wrung out her clothes, scowling to herself.

'I'm so weak'

'Why do you say that?'

'I couldn't even dodge a stupid explosive tag, I mean I trained for five months and there's still been no difference'

'It's not your fault; you were just very tired, besides everyone gets tired'

'Yes, but not just as an explosive tag is flying towards them'

'Look, you have to believe in yourself and your abilities, how else will you become a powerful ninja? You could learn all the jutsus in the world, but without confidence and faith those jutsus are useless'

'Yeah! So suck it up and stay strong!' cried out Inner-Sakura puffing up her chest.

'Where did you come from?'

'Oh, I was making a cake when I accidentally burned it so I came to see what you lot were up to,' she replied giving them a grin.

Sakura and Serenity both sweat dropped.

'I shouldn't have asked'

'I think you should get back up that cliff and see if Naruto and Tatsuya need help'

'Right'

She started to walk to the foot of the cliff when Serenity suddenly shouted in her mind.

'Sakura watch out!'

But it was too late; a sharp pain caused from the back of her neck caused her to black out making her fall into the arms of a dark man dressed in a black hooded cape.

He smirked as he held her in his arms.

"Che, too easy."

T.B.C

There I've finished it, finally.

Hope you all like it, I know it's a short one but there wasn't much to write in this chapter.

So, who is this mystery man (guess?) some of you will have definitely worked it out by now. But why did he capture Sakura?

You'll have to wait till next time!

Starryeyes22