A/N: I want to thank everyone who reviewed and my beta. Two more chappies to go and this story is officially finished! ^^. For the score of the poll on my profile is at the moment The power of youth on the lead. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto
Chapter 26:
Normally if somebody would say that to her, they either died the next seconds in a painful death or locked up in one of her torture genjutsu's for the next couple of hours. But this time she never had been happier to hear it, especially coming from him. She smirked when she saw her own ANBU team walking into the room, quickly followed by Tenzou, Naruto and Sai.
She already knew that the high pitched scream sounded familiar and she wanted to hit her head for stupidity for not knowing immediately that it was Nami. She heard the red haired girl screaming countless of times, from a small spider to a terror scream when someone of her team mates got hurt. Seeing the teasing and mocking glint in Daisuke's eyes never made her smile more. Sure he got a lot on her nerves from time to time but still you could count on him if you needed someone to back you up.
"I just wanted to see if you guys were alert or not," Sakura replied mockingly. Daisuke just grinned back, crossing his arms in front of him and radiating the language of: 'Ye right but I keep my mouth shut to safe your pride'.
"Are you alright captain?" Nami asked softly staring at the large gash on her stomach.
Sakura blinked thinking she just meant the little scratch on her arm when she noticed her gaze went to her lower regions. Following her gaze she stared at the wound decorating her lower abdomen. Then she looked up with a grin and shrugged her shoulders. "Ah, I had worse. It's nothing really."
Placing her hand over the gash she started to heal her wound. When she was done she looked up with a smile. But what Nami did the next thing surprised the whole group surrounding her. She slapped her captain straight in the face. Sakura gasped surprised, staring with big emerald eyes to the angry looking violet ones. Her fists were clenched into fists as her lips were drawn into a scowl and hot angry tears rolled down her cheeks. "You promised Captain. You promised to be there when we returned."
Sakura blinked confused, not grasping what she was angry about. "You said you would wait for us, and you weren't there!" As if a light bolt had gone on above her head, Sakura finally understood where her teammate was so upset about. Her gaze softened as her smirk vanished.
"I'm sorry, but you would have done the same if you're family was in danger."
Nami blinked. Family? They were only saving a girl that gave her captain back to her. Seeing her confused gaze, Sakura quickly explained about the situation. While Sakura was explaining, Naruto had grabbed Naoko and dragged her over to Sayuri.
"I'm so sorry captain, I didn't know," Nami gasped horrified, regretting her action from earlier. Sakura only smiled in reply, lying down her hand on her shoulder as a sign of forgiving before she moved over to their prisoners.
"What are we going to do now Captain?" Renge asked stepping away from Tenzou en stopping at his captain's side.
"Extracting information of course," Sakura said as if it was the simplest thing on earth.
"But how…?"
"If you shut up for a moment you'll find out yourself," Sakura sighed as she interrupted Renge in his sentence. Kneeling down she carefully placed her hands on either side of Sayuri's head.
"Here goes for nothing," Sakura murmured as she closed her eyes. Channelling chakra into her hands she entered Sayuri's mind, her eyebrows knitting together in concentration. Memories flashed by, from her crimes to meetings with her as Tyana and so on. Finally finding the information she needed, she stopped and simply watched the memory as it played off before her eyes. When Sakura finally had enough she opened her eyes, stopped channelling chakra into her hands and leaned back. Taking a deep breath the stood up while thinking off the best way to act.
"Captain?" Nami asked carefully, afraid that something had happened to her when she hadn't spoken for awhile.
"Before we can act further I need to know if you went to the estate of Akira's family." Sakura spoke softly, turning around to face the group that waited patiently for her guidance.
"Yes, we took out every guard and Ino healed any visible wounds on Hiro-san. She'd brought him back to Konoha while we tracked you guys down." Daisuke spoke.
"Good, since these two were on their way to the base Daisuke and I are going as them. When we enter the building we split up in two groups. One going out to search Kaemon and kill him, while the other search for Akira. Since Daisuke and I are probably alone with the guy we kill him while the rest searches for Akira. When we find her, we have 10 minutes to get out asses out before the blowing up the building. We communicate through the headsets, you have them with you right Tenzou?"
Tenzou nodded and took out two more headsets, giving one to Kakashi and the other to Sakura.
" When at some reason we can't act out our given assignment we simply switch. Just keep on your guard at all times and never wonder off alone, especially on the ground we know nothing of. Are there any questions?" Sakura asked when the headset was on its place. The group shook their heads in negative. Tying up the prisoners and leaving Kakashi's pack behind to guard them, they made themselves ready.
Sakura seeing the glances Naruto gave her, she sighed before making her way to the blonde knucklehead ninja. She knew why he was so nervous and she wanted to set some things straight before they moved out. If Naruto looses focus it might bring the mission in danger.
"Long time no see Naruto."
Naruto's big blue eyes shinned with hope and shame when Sakura spoke to him. Hope that she had forgiven him and shame that he had pushed her away from his life. "Hey Sakura." He murmured back, his eyes casting downwards as he spoke to her. Even after all those years, he was still the same. Sakura smiled and lay down her hand on his shoulder. "It's alright Naruto, I'm not mad at you anymore."
Seeing that as his signal, Naruto swung his arms around the pink haired ANBU captain and crushed her against him. "I'm so sorry Sakura-chan, I'm so sorry. I didn't know how it happened, or why. Please, please forgive me. I don't want…"
"Calm down! It's alright, I forgive you." Sakura chuckled quietly at his little rambling.
Pulling a bit back, his bright blue eyes stared hopefully into the green depths. "Really?" He asked softly. Sakura nodded only to regret it partly the next moment.
"N-naruto.. I-I need air! ...Please!" Sakura choked out with effort. Being released from the death hug Sakura took relieved a deep breath. She stared up at her former team mate who sheepishly was scratching the back of his head. "Sorry Sakura-chan."
Sakura simply shook her head, but couldn't help the small smile making its way on her face. When everyone was ready and knew what they had to do, Sakura and Daisuke changed into Naoko and Sayuri. Grabbing the snow cart that Naoko had used to get to the base, the rest of the group got in while Sakura and Daisuke stayed on front.
"Do you know the way?" Daisuke asked nervously.
"Of course I do," Sakura sighed back, grabbing the reins and steering the card into the direction of the main base.
The trip to it went pretty well, none interruptions of any kind. But when they neared the castle build within the mountain, Sakura noticed that they were being surrounded by shinobi. Not stopping for them however she swung another time with the reins in her hand, speeding up. She only started to pull at the reins when the group that was tracking them for awhile was now in sight, running along the wagon and signalling her to stop. When they finally came to a halt Sakura transferred the reins to Daisuke sitting next to her. Squeezing his shoulder when she saw him tensing up as reassurance without the others knowing before she turned to the leader of the group.
"What is the meaning of this?" Sakura hissed. "We're already running late as it is!"
"My apologies lady Kasaya, but it's a common affair to check any wagon nearing the head quarters."
Not even tensing of fear that they might have been discovered Sakura easily played her role. "Do you really think we're the right and left hands of lord Kaemon have spies in our wagon?! How dare you question my skills?!" Sakura yelled livid. She jumped off the wagon and stared coldly at the leader of the group.
The man stepped a bit backwards, an emotion akin to fear starting to show in his eyes. "N-no not at all milady but its-,"
"Enough!" Sakura yelled, holding up her hand and cutting the man off brutally. "Naoko and I are needed for a congress." Climbing upon the wagon, Sakura sat down again and took over the reins from Daisuke once again. Then when she was seated she turned to the man she had spoken to again, her eyes narrowed and a snarl adding to her angry features. "If you ever dare to do this to me again, I'll personally make your life a living hell before I kill you."
"Y-yes ma'am, my apologies. I was out off line, it won't happen again."
"It better," Sakura grumbled giving the man one more death glare before she swung at the reins, proceeding her way towards the castle looming at the horizon. It would only take another half hour before they would reach it Sakura guessed. Daisuke turned his head slightly to look back the group they just encountered. He snickered when he saw the man his captain had spoken to on his knees as if he was praying silently that he was still alive. The others looked shocked and completely terrified. Turning his head to look back at the now blond haired companion he couldn't help the smirk forming on his lips.
"That was awesome captain. You totally scared the shit out of them!"
"Ah when you have lived so long as me you pick up some things," Sakura smirked back, unlocking a small laughing fit from the man sitting next to her.
"You're not that old captain; we're only two years apart!" Daisuke smiled while he wiped the invisible tear from laughter away. "But really when we get back, could you teach me that?"
"Teach you what?" Sakura questioned not once taking her eyes of the land before her to look at the short dark purple haired female beside her.
"How to scare people away with only talking with them and such an imitating look? I thought for sure that if we would have stayed any longer the man would have pied in his pants."
"Hmm, I'll think about it."
"Ah come on captain!"
"So eager to learn from me, don't you my worthy loyal underdog?" Sakura teased him.
"Captain…" Daisuke sighed.
"Just teasing you, don't get you g-string in a twist."
"Captain!" Daisuke yelled out. His face glowing bright red at her comment.
Sakura only laughed, ducking her head at the hand now bristling over her that was aimed for her head. She could hear the choked laughs of her follow members of her current team. Sakura always picked out Daisuke to tease, she didn't know why but probably because he could handle it and knows she doesn't really mean it. Besides he was always in for a joke, how many times had he tried to pull a prank on her? So it was only right to tease him back when the time occurred.
When they finally reached the castle Sakura made a mental note from the drawbridge they crossed. Taking a quick glance down she noticed they moved over a very deep cliff. Well that might cause some trouble if something went wrong and they were trying to escape. Moving under the iron gates she watched the guards greeting them with a stiff bow. Her brown eyes looked over the courtyard and halted by the massive oak twin doors. It squeaked when it opened and saw that two guards were pushing it open. From the middle appeared a middle aged man. His half long dark brown hair danced on the small breeze of the wind. He had pale skin and his dark eyes twinkled with delight. He wore a dark blue dress shirt, the three upper buttons were unbuttoned and showing a bit of his pale chest. He wore a light brown clad pants and leather riding boots reaching his knees.
He waited at the entrance only walking down the step of stairs when Sakura stopped the wagon before the entrance. He extended his hand to Daisuke who grabbed his hand and helped him off the car. He didn't turn to help Sakura but simply kissed Naoko's hand before he turned around.
Not offended in any way Sakura simply jumped of the wagon and followed the two to the main entrance. She turned back to look at the two guards already taken her and Daisuke's place and riding the wagon to the stables. Praying a silent pray she walked into the main hall, their footsteps resounding through the hall as they walked to the door at the other side.
"Have you found her yet?" he suddenly spoke up.
Assuming he was talking to her Sakura replied. "No milord, it seems as if she's vanished of the face of the earth."
Her answer triggered something in the man before her since he stopped. Turned around and hit her square in the face. Sakura closed her eyes briefly with the impact. They seriously had something with slapping her in the face today.
"A kunoichi of her calibre doesn't disappear like that in an instance!" he growled at her. "She will be a hindrance with our further plans and she needs to be dealt with."
"Forgive me milord," Sakura mumbled.
"Be glad your still alive woman. I would already have killed you if I didn't need you so much."
Sakura bowed her head and caught a glimpse of the ring on his right index finger. It was a golden ring of a phoenix. So that was the thing that collided hard with her cheek. Seeing him turn away once again Sakura straightened and followed them further. They stopped in a long room, probably one of their meeting rooms. There was a long table standing in the middle surrounded with chairs. In the middle was a big fireplace with above a mirror. The head side of the table was littered with neat stacks of paper. He sat down at the head and silently watched as Sakura took place at the left as Daisuke took the right. He didn't see however that Sakura already pulled out the kunai from her belt; her hand curling over the hilt as it rested upon her lap.
"Now since Grass is almost under our control I think it's time to start on our final country. The land of Fire."
"Not when I'm still around." Sakura replied and at the same moment swung her kunai at him.
To be continued…