Be happy you get a new chappie, I so don't have time to write right now! And I almost forgot to post it, too, so count your blessings. Ahem. Alright guys, warning: angst ahead! To prepare yourselves for the second part of this chapter (it begins as soon as it becomes Kakashi-centric), you should listen to Hey There Delilah by Plain White T's and Hurt by Johnny Cash. In that order. I think it will put you in the right mindset. I hope you enjoy, guys!

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Pans of the wall crumbled to the ground heavily. Sakura lunged forward, kicking some of them while snatching the entity she had recognized as Kurosaki-san from the floor. Clutching the woman in her arms, she kicked one of her torturers in the gut, dashing forward to finish him off.

"Sakura-san, what–?"

"No time, we have to get out of here," she answered the astonished woman. "Oh my–Stay here!"

With that said, she put the woman on the ground and sailed past her, running for a group of clustered prisoners who were about to be crushed by a part of the ceiling.

SMASH!

Dropping to one knee, the white-haired kunoichi grunted in pain. The pan of the ceiling had most surely crushed her shoulder. Blood ran down her arm and chest heavily.

"Are you guys alright?"

The trembling women nodded and whimpered, some managing to attest to their state.

"Good. Then get out of here, all of you! Those bastards should be in too much confusion right now to get in your way."

"But…But what about you, Sakura-san? Blind and pregnant at that…"

She waved the objection aside with a bloody smirk.

"Kunoichi can handle themselves."

Or so she'd said. In reality, she knew that she was in bad shape. Most probably, her shoulder had been broken by the pan of wall falling on it, and the stress she was intentionally putting on her body as she forced her demonic powers not to invade her had her clenching her teeth with the effort. After all, she couldn't very well transform here. All in all, it was taking a toll on her.

Now, she had to find the chakra suppressor that had been carelessly ripped from her and tossed somewhere in the room, knowing she must leave no incriminating evidence behind and aware that this, if anything, was some. Of course, without her sight, this could take a long time.

"Kuchiyose no jutsu!"

Immediately, dozens of foxes appeared in front of her, eager to please.

"Hey, guys. I want all of you except one to free and steer the prisoners away from here. Take them home safely. Narabi, I want you to find my chakra suppressor before checking on Kakashi. Just give it back to me as soon as possible, then go help him. Alright?"

There was a chorus of "Hai!" before the summons disappeared swiftly.

The target was going to be fine, she was sure of it. Kakashi would get her and her runaway husband out of here. She could count on him and on her summons. There was not much she could now do except try to get out alive.

Once the walls started to crumble to the ground, it was not too difficult to rush out with the help of Sakura's summons. Kakashi tried not to think of what that, plus the words she had one of his cellmates convey to him, could mean. He had grabbed the man they had been sent to save and, with a thankful nod to the russet fox that had brought the noble to him, had ran out as fast as he could. He had uttered the words Sakura had told one of the prisoners to tell him, but there had been no effect whatsoever. Amidst the chaos, he had found his second target–actually, the noble had flung himself at his lover– and had taken them out of the underground facility.

Once they came to the door leading outside, Kakashi's ninja senses roared to life. Spinning around, he put the two runaways behind his back and would have parried the blow that came their way if a wall of sand hadn't suddenly erupted from nowhere. It then morphed into a ball that confined the attacker and slowly crushed him to death. Belatedly, Kakashi noted that there was no blood leaking from the wrangled mass on the floor when the sand receded. It was as though it had been absorbed. Shaking his head at the thought, he took off again.

It was in something akin to a trance that he returned to Konoha after delivering the two lovebirds to his client.

Minato gazed at the new arrival in his office. The silver-haired teen looked like he had gone through hell and his black eye looked devoid of any emotion other than a quiet despair. He was almost afraid to ask why he was carrying both Sakura's backpack and his own. After all, Sakura's wind-whispered message had been rather foreboding.

"Hatake Kakashi to report, Hokage-sama."

Wow, even his tone was cold and flat. He was not going to like what he would hear. Kakashi had not sounded like that ever since Sakura…had…come…No! It could not be. He refused to believe it.

"Report, Kakashi-kun."

"Mission successful, Hokage-sama. The runaways were delivered safely to the client."

"…And Sakura-san? Is she at the hospital?"

"Iie."

"Then where is she? If you tell me she went back home instead of going there…"

"She hasn't."

That sounded worse and worse by the minute. Please, Kami, no…Not when Kakashi had finally reverted back to the young boy he had been before his father's suicide.

He looked at the teenager with serious eyes and asked: "Kakashi…What happened?"

"I obeyed the orders. She ordered me to leave her behind. That's the only thing she left me with," answered Kakashi as he took Sakura's necklace off and put it on the Hokage's desk. They both knew that Sakura never took her necklace off.

"Get some rest, Kakashi-kun. I'll send an ANBU team to check if they can find her body and bring it back."

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

He trudged despondently through the city, a dark cloud hanging over him. Without thinking, he went to Ichiraku, where his teammates were currently having lunch. Once Rin and Obito saw him, they jumped off their seats and ran to him, showering him with questions. They led him to the bar counter and made him take a seat between the two of them. Rin then proceeded to heal his superficial injuries while Obito asked him how the mission had gone. Through it all, Kakashi barely responded, only occasionally grunting or shaking his head.

"Wha–What's wrong, Kakashi-kun?" asked Rin gently. "Did something bad happen during the mission?"

He stayed silent for a long time, then looked at her for the first time since they had seen him.

"I…"

He swallowed painfully.

"I did it again."

Rin and Obito shared a worried glance.

"What did you do again? What is it?"

Kakashi closed his eyes and took a shuddering breath.

"I chose the mission again."

"I don't understand…" Obito trailed off, before his eyes widened. "Wait, no way, it can't be. Not her, teme! Not her!"

Obito jumped at him and began to shake him roughly, tears running down his face, unaware that everyone around the trio had stopped what they were doing to watch the drama unfold.

Kakashi did not make a move to stop Obito, so it was Rin who had to gently pry the Uchiha off him.

"I'm sure it wasn't your fault, Kakshi-kun…What exactly happened?"

"I followed her instructions. She ordered me to leave her behind." He paused. "I should have gone back for her…I should…I don't know, but I should have done something!"

Rin sighed sadly, trying not to cry like her other teammate. She would have to be the strong one this time.

"If she ordered you to, you did the right thing. When going on missions, a ninja should always be ready to put his life on the line, remember? And as taichou, she was the one to decide what to do, so if you had disobeyed her, it could have counted as mutiny. Besides, Sakura-san is way more experienced than all of us. She may come back yet. Ne?"

Minato was looking at the setting sun from his office window when he heard a swoosh of clothes behind him, indicating a group of ANBU had just arrived.

"Report."

"We inspected the premises and found traces of Sakura-san's blood."

"Did you find her?" he asked as he turned around to face them.

"Iie. There was no trace of her other than this," said the reporting ninja as he extended a lumpy cloth-wrapped package to the Yondaime.

Gingerly, the blond-haired man opened the layers of cloth to reveal sand. Curious, he touched it with a finger, surprised when the sand fell away to reveal a hand. And not just any hand. He would recognize the blackened nails and tattooed rings around the fingers anywhere. It had been hacked from Sakura's arm, he could see. The flesh was not cut cleanly as it would have been from a blow in a battle. And it was bleeding still.

She had been alive when it had been removed from her body.

A ninja without a hand is heavily incapacitated, unable to do jutsu.

The sand swiftly covered the hand again, sealing it off from the world in an impenetrable cocoon. Without it, the flesh would have deteriorated.

"Was it covered in sand when you found it?" he asked, forcing his voice not to tremble as all he wanted to do was to stagger back to his chair and crash in it in tears.

"Hai, Hokage-sama. We don't know why, but Sakura-san did seem to have an affinity to sand. Maybe it was part of a protection jutsu."

He nodded slowly, taking in a shuddering breath.

"Bring me Sakura-san's team. I'll have to announce to them first that she will be declared MIA, presumably KIA."

The funeral was held on a bright but rather windy day, not long before sunset. Minato said a few words about Sakura and her life, then a few people recounted their time with her and how she had influenced their lives. Among the ninja and, in some cases, civilian populace assembled, few were as sad as Minato and Sakura's teams, Jiraiya and the dozen people she had saved who lived with her. The geisha were busy cradling the children who had been experimented on and offering them comfort that they could not feel themselves.

Finally, Minato indicated that it was time to write Sakura's name on the memorial stone. He glanced at Sakura's team, noting how they gave Kakashi the cold shoulder. In fact, ever since they had learned how Sakura had fallen, they had pretty much ignored his existence, apart from the initial spat. After that part, they had thoroughly turned their backs on him. And now, they didn't even have a body to mourn over. He looked down at the small box in his hands in which lay the sand-covered hand and Sakura's necklace. Why did things have to turn out this way?

In the relative silence, a loud cry rang out.

A figure was running toward him, the setting sun hiding his identity at his distance, followed by a second one, who had a much more relaxed pace.

"Hokage-sama, there's someone here to see you. It's–it's–"

"Very important," came a voice on the wind, cutting the panting guard off. "You guys sure did not waste any time in writing me off, eh?"

As the figure neared all of them, Minato could only observe the woman walking toward them with round eyes. Her clothes, what little remained of them, hung in tatters around her frame. Blood marred her pale skin, but what surprised him the most was the amount of scars he could see on her body. Was this how she usually looked like, under her genjutsu? The hard glint in her eyes that he could only see when she was extremely serious had reappeared, like a protection against the world.

A smirk, then: "Ya missed me?"

And everyone ran to her joyously, tears brimming in their eyes, as though the spell had been broken.

Hope was here anew.

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It was so tempting to leave you guys with a cliffhanger, BUT, being the nice person I am, I decided not to make you suffer. How nice am I, eh? In thanks, I WANT REVIEWS!!!! And don't forget the poll.