Crimson Shuriken
By Ginta and Hakakku Fangirl
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, Kishimoto does. Lucky. I just like to mess with the characters.
A/N: If it's been a while, you may want to reread chapter 28. My rant for this chapter will be at the bottom of the page if anyone is interested in knowing why it's taken so long for me to get this up.
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Well That Was Easy Part Two
"Sai?"
Sai sat up with a jolt—he had been sleeping peacefully, with no dreams, when the crackle of electricity and Sakura's voice had woken him. He picked up the microphone to his radio.
"Sakura?"
"Hai."
"What's wrong? I can be there in—"
"Sai, nothing's wrong."
"It's three in the morning."
"I know."
"Then you should be sleep—"
"I got them."
"What?"
"I got Hoshimi Kai's scrolls. All the information we need is in them."
"How—you said you were going to try again tomorrow." Sai frowned. He had just spoken to Sakura not even a full seven hours ago when she told him Hoshimi had told her to meet him at the bar the next night. How had she obtained the scrolls?
"I can't explain now, no time. What hotel are you in?"
"The Lucky Dragon Casino, it's got rooms—"
"I'll meet you and the others there in an hour. I have to go, the trees are interfering with reception."
"Sakura, don't—"
But the static in the radio had cut off-Sakura had turned off her radio. Sai frowned at the device in his hand before throwing the sheets off his legs and standing up.
"Deidara!"
"What? 'S'all dark, Sai," Deidara mumbled, pulling his pillow over his head.
"It's important."
"You're not Kakashi, so it's not important."
"Dickless bastard," Sai muttered, heading for Kakashi's room. Why he and Deidara had to share a room and Kakashi didn't was beyond him.
"What do you mean, she's on her way here?" Kakashi demanded when Sai had told him what Sakura had said over the radios. "She's not even been there two days and she's already got the information? How did she—?"
"She wouldn't tell me and she turned off her radio. She said she'd meet us here in an hour."
Kakashi ran a hand through his disheveled hair.
"Wake Deidara. We're checking out of here and going to meet Sakura."
"But you told her to come join us when she got the information."
"Sai, think! She wouldn't tell you how she did it, she left in the dead of night, and she said that the trees were interfering with her radio's reception. You and I both know that one's a lie, our radios never get bad reception."
"You-you think she could be in trouble?"
"If she isn't already she will be soon," Kakashi said, already throwing his clothes on and piling his belongings into his rucksack. "Go wake Deidara!"
"Hai Sempai!"
XXX
Sakura turned off her radio, cutting off Sai's voice. She didn't look behind her and she didn't make eye contact with anyone who was still awake in the streets. And she didn't head for the city's main gates either. Instead she headed straight for the woods, for a direct path to Team Kakashi instead of the road to them. And as soon as she reached safe cover in the trees, she started to run.
Team Taka had passed her in the streets and she wasn't about to let them find her.
But she couldn't leave without completing her mission either.
XXX
It had been easy, really, to slip past Hoshimi's body guard as he slumped against the wall, dead to the world in his sleep. So foolish of Hoshimi to trust a man who couldn't stay awake even when paid to.
Injecting Hoshimi with the sleeping serum was a little harder—the man had horrible veins when it came down to it. Sakura hadn't even tried to use a vein in his arm—she went straight for his neck and was pleased to find it easy to slip the needle through his skin and inject the drug into his system. Then she began to search for the documents.
After going through every desk drawer, every folder and briefcase, after searching through the closet, beneath the mattress, and in suitcases, the small black case seemed to loom out of the darkness.
Of course it was the black case. The ornate black case carved with lotus patterns and—what a dead giveaway!—the Hidden Mist's emblem. How Sakura hadn't noticed it—then again, to see black in a room with no moonlight coming through the curtains would be difficult even for her master. And what an idiot the Mist diplomat was, to think it wasn't obvious where the key would be—slipping it from around his neck was a cinch with the aid of the sleeping drugs that were now in his blood.
With a chill as she had lifted the paper scrolls from the small chest, Sakura remembered what Hoshimi had said on his phone as he left her room—something about meeting an important team to give information to.
Team Taka was out on the street as she slipped the key back around Hoshimi's neck. It was Sasuke who was meant to hold the scrolls she had just stolen.
When she thought about it, it was all so easy. So easy to understand, so easy to figure out. So easy to be scared. And so easy to be caught. She would have to be careful until she could get to Kakashi. Then she would be safer, if only by a bit. That would be enough. The thought of facing even Bi-Polar Juugo was less scary than the thought of facing Sasuke in a temper, which he would surely be in when he was told the information and documents he was after were gone.
XXX
"She what?/" Deidara stared up at Sai before lurching out of his bed and beginning to throw his clothes into his bag. "She's crazy, yeah! That pink-haired little bitch is fucking crazy, un! Taking scrolls in the middle of the night and running away, of course the guy's gonna know who did it, yeah! I—"
"We don't know that she took them in the middle of the night, she may have convinced him to go back into her room," Sai said fairly, neatly stacking his freshly-folded clothes into his own rucksack. "She may only just have left the hotel when she contacted me."
"Why else would she be leaving in the middle of the night if she hadn't just stolen important documents, hmm? And another thing, why'd she radio you, not Kakashi-sempai, yeah? And stop folding your damned clothes, yeah!" Deidara added, slapping the shirt Sai was folding out of the black-haired ninja's hands and into Sai's bag. "We're in a hurry, yeah!"
There was a light knock on the door and Kakashi entered without waiting for an answer.
"Hurry up, we're in a hurry."
"That's what I told this pansy-ass, yeah!" Deidara said, strapping his bags of clay to his sides; he had forgone his civilian clothing in favor of his regulation ninja gear, as had Kakashi, save his forehead protector.
"Take off the headband," Kakashi said. "We don't want anyone to know we're from Konoha unless we have to. Sai, unseal your inks and brush. Deidara, is that clay ready?"
"Ready for battle, yeah!"
"Let's hope it doesn't' come to that. Now let's go."
XXX
"I know Sakura," Kakashi said as he lead Deidara and Sai straight towards the woods in the direction of the city. "I know the way she thinks. And I know without a doubt that she would never leave her post without a damned-good reason. Deidara is right. If Sakura is leaving the city in the dead of night, she's stolen the documents and that doesn't bode well for any of us."
"What do you mean, yeah?" Deidara demanded, far more interested in Kakashi's words than his agreement.
"I mean if Sakura saw it necessary to steal documents straight from the owner without using any tricks or persuasion, then something must have scared the hell out of her."
"Maybe she thought he might rape her, un?" Deidara suggested.
"Sakura could stop that," Kakashi said. "She'd be able to stop anything that could happen to her, which is why it's bad she's done this. Whatever she saw or heard or felt…Whatever her reasons are for doing this…" Kakashi shook his head. "She's scared shitless. Sakura's doing this to get a head start on something and that something isn't good."
"But with us heading towards her," Sai said, "it makes it easier for us to get to her in time to come up with a strategy for whatever it is that's wrong."
"Yeah! We've got one up on whatever's happening, un," Deidara agreed.
But Kakashi shook his head.
"It will take us fifteen minutes at a run to get halfway through these woods. If Sakura's running as well, which I'd bet anything she is, we'll meet in less than twenty minutes. That doesn't mean we'll have a head-start. It only means we'll meet up soon. Sakura could be injured or being followed. We could be being followed. If Hoshimi wakes up soon and realizes that his possessions have been searched he could have the entire city searched and when he sees that Sakura checked out of her room at three in the morning he'll know she's the one who took the scrolls."
"What's the deal with these scrolls anyway, yeah?" Deidara asked.
"All the Hokage knows is that the Hidden Mist may be entirely out of debt, but they have no army and their ninja are weak. With the Akatsuki more of a threat than ever, the Mist and other weak villages, even nations, are going to team up with whoever they think is the biggest bully on the playground—and right now, that's Iwagakure, the Village Hidden in the Stones. And it's becoming less and less of a secret just how much the Hidden Stone has come to hate Sunagakure and Konohagakure's allegiance. It's made us stronger than ever, and with our views of and desires for peace, more and more smaller nations are in favor of us. Iwa is a shinobi nation of a military design. If all shinobi nations come to terms of peace, then Iwagakure's exportations system will fail—not to mention the fact that they just like to fight. It's in their blood and their culture to be that way—no offense to you, Deidara."
"None taken, yeah."
"If the Hidden Mist is delivering scroll to anyone, then it's likely they're going to be giving them to the Hidden Stone. And the Hidden Stone is now in league with the Akatsuki. We can't take the chance that they Hidden Stone could be sending vital information to the Akatsuki, whether it be about the villages of peace or the villages who want war. We also can't take the chance of them sending messages that could give us information on them, that we could stop them." Kakashi shook his head. "Until we know exactly what the Village Hidden in the Stone is planning and whose side they're on, we can't be lenient or doubtful of the intentions of anyone contacting them in secret. And trading information in a village devoid of shinobi is too suspicious to be just a regular business dealing of weaponry exports. Come on!" Kakashi began to run faster. "The sooner we get to Sakura, the sooner we can find out exactly what's going on—and why she's left the city so soon."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Hey all. Sorry it's been so long, it's been hectic. Very, very hectic. I moved, I helped my parents and siblings move, I helped them move again. I got sick, I broke bones, and then my laptop crashed. So no more laptop.
And then of course, finals, I took off the summer to work but never managed to find a job. I filled out more applications than I care to remember and still didn't get anything. Pretty damned stupid, seeing how as I had great references and was willing to do anything they could throw at me. Apparently they didn't even look at my references…Idiots. Whatever.
So what's been happening? Well, other than still not being able to find a new job, I turned 21, I study, I'm going back to school in two weeks, and start a tattoo apprenticeship soon, under one of my friends. Very excited. And now that I've (finally) got some free time, I'm hoping I'll be able to write some more for this fic.
See you (hopefully) soon.
-Kunai
