Chapter Thirty Six

The darkness around me disappeared as I entered the world of the living once more. My jaw was throbbing in pain and my back was burning. I ached all over and, to top it all off, I was still tied up on the ground. The muscle-headed goon's footsteps were imprinted in my mind as the 'heavy and clumsy' ones, while Sai stepped a bit lighter on his feet.

Tiredness was still consuming me, but I knew better than to sleep when I'm around people who could hurt me. That was a lesson I had learnt on one of my first team seven missions. I didn't sleep well enough on the day we were supposed to escort that bridge builder to mist, and I paid for my unawareness in blood and injury. That was the last time I let myself fall into waking sleep.

'I need to get out of here…' 'We need chakra…' 'We need a miracle.' For the millionth time since I first woke up here, I felt helpless and alone. The man who wanted revenge on me for biting was going to come back, maybe not soon, but he was still coming back to hurt me again. Sai wouldn't be letting me go any time soon, he still needs his ransom for the war. The other men were now too scared to come near me and, the one time I needed help more than anything else, Konoha, Suna and the Akatsuki think that I have run away. My life sucks.

Neji's PoV (Before Sakura got knocked out)

I had been waiting for Sakura for around eight hours and it was beginning to irritate me as to how long one pointless exam took. She would probably end up being the cat or the dog or something. Why couldn't she just pick her own mask? I took the exam and it didn't take this long. This was getting ridiculous.

The woman who made me wait outside told me that Sakura would only be an hour or two; this was defiantly longer than she had told me. Deciding that I cared more about the pink-haired ANBU's safety than avoiding getting my ass kicked out of the building, I walked to the doors and pushed them open with little force. The sectary looked over at me and glared, pushing the security button under her desk.

"Where is she?" I demanded.

"Who?" The woman countered, genuinely confused by my query.

"Sakura. The girl with the pink hair and the gem in the centre of her ANBU tattoo." I elaborated.

"She left… six hours ago…" The brunette explained slowly. All of my rage died and I was trapped in a state of shock. 'She left?'

"Oh…" I replied, snapping out of my trance and leaving slowly.

Once outside my anger lit up again. 'She left us… She ran away again!' I should have trusted my original instincts and gone into the exam with her, it would have turned out differently if she had tried to run while I was their. She would still be in the village, the village jail, but the village none the less.

Rage overtook my better judgement and instead of searching for something that would have told me that she didn't run, or she defiantly did, I went to go and see the Hokage to tell her of the recent events concerning her old apprentice and her habit of betraying the ones who trust and care about her.

I was about to jump onto a near by rooftop so I could get to the tower faster, but a scrap of paper caught my eye. Upon closer inspection, I found it was a note, written by someone I believed to know, but apparently I didn't know them well enough. The words didn't calm me; they actually had the opposite effect. However, I was no longer angry at Sakura; I was pissed at someone else.

On my way to the Hokage's office, my mind was plagued with questions. Why did he kidnap her? When did it happen? Who told him to? What does he need her for? Where was she taken? How did they manage to take her right in under by nose? I was a pathetic excuse for an ANBU captain if I couldn't even prevent one kidnapping.

"Hokage-sama!" I called as I entered the office of the super-strong medic-Hokage.

"Neji-san, I told you to call me Tsunade! Hokage makes me sound o-" She stopped when she caught sight of my face. They other people in the room, the ten members of the Konoha twelve, the sand siblings, Shinrin and…Sai.

"YOU BASTARD!" I yelled as I punched Sai in the face. He reeled back and fell on the floor, looking at me with wide, questioning eyes. "WHERE DID YOU TAKE HER?!" I demanded of the artist-nin.

"Who?" He asked, still puzzled about why I hit him. I dropped the note and Sasuke caught sight of it. He picked it up and read it to himself, before dropping it and getting as pissed with the artist as I was.

"WHERE IS SHE?!" Sasuke yelled at him, earning strange looks from everyone in the room. It wasn't every day that the two most calm and cold shinobi in Konoha yell at someone in blind rage. Sasuke and I were about to lunge at Sai and beat him to within and inch of his life, but we were held back. Naruto had taken hold of one of Sasuke's arms, with Shinrin on the other, and Lee and Shino were holding me.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!" Tsunade yelled. Sasuke and I calmed enough to be let go, but still wanted to kill the artist before he could speak in his defence.

"This should explain it." Sasuke told our superior, handing her the note. She scanned it quickly with her eyes and became as angry as both the Uchiha and I were a moment ago. She was about to punch Sai out of the country, but Hinata spoke up before she got the chance.

"W-Wait a minuet!" She started, louder than usual. "Sa-Sai-san couldn't h-have taken her. He w-was in here w-with us the w-whole time." The bolder heiress informed us.

My own mind didn't know of this, but Sasuke and Tsunade were in here with them. It only showed their worry for the girl that they forgot about him being with them and accused him of the crime.

"Tsunade-sama, what does the note say?" Tenten asked, wondering what words were bad enough to make two cold prodigies and a calm and collected Hokage attack one ninja in rage.

"It says;

To the people of Konoha,

We have captured your cherry blossom konoichi and do not plan on returning her to you. My superiors have a use for her and told me to capture her in any way possible. Our leader has had his eye on her for a while now and, if she doesn't join our army and fight against you, we will kill her.

I hope you understand why we must go to such measures as to kidnap little Sakura, but it will all be made clear in due time. I strongly suggest that you surrender to us, or get the Akatsuki or sound to attack us for you, since they don't have bonds with the girl. Then again, the Akatsuki might not be as willing to sacrifice her in the chances of winning the war. More than one of their members is said to love her, just as some of your Konoha and Suna shinobi do. Too bad.

I do trust that this news will not be taken to heart. We don't really have anything against you or Haruno Sakura, we just need her. Hopefully you will concerned in this battle and let us win.

Have a nice day.

Sai

By the end of the note, the konoichi in the room were either crying or on the verge of tears and the rest of the shinobi and I were more vengeful than we ever had been. This 'Sai' person was right though, many people in Konoha and Suna loved Sakura. Whether it was a brotherly love, like Shino, Naruto and Shikamaru had for her, or something more, like Sasuke and I, everyone loved her.

"Why would you think that I would kidnap or harmRyoushi in any way?" He question, using his nickname for the assassin.

"Sai, they were just worried about Saku-chan, don't take it personally." Temari told him. He nodded and everyone became silent, wondering where the cherry blossom of Konoha was taken.

Sakura's PoV

The sun had raised high in the sky, most likely meaning that it was mid-day. It was too hot, but not too cold either. If it wasn't for the ropes, rebels, lack of chakra, pain and sense of being in great danger, this would have made a great vacation. I rolled my eyes at my own sense of sarcasm, still lingering despite my current position. I heard someone approaching me and got ready to yell bloody murder if that muscle-head hurt me again.

It was, in fact, the ugly guard. He walked into my line of vision and sat me up. He seemed to check me over for serious wounds and noticed the one on my back. His thin eyebrows furrowed together and his mouth curled down in a frown. Apparently, this man wasn't happy, at all, by his comrade's treatment of me.

"Are you hurt anywhere other than your back?" He asked. I simply observed him and, being the proud girl I was, shook my head. It was a lie, since my stomach, jaw and cheek were throbbing as well. He seemed to pick up on my lie and gently prodded me in the stomach.

I whimpered quietly in pain and the ugly man sighed. He then cupped his hand under my chin and moved my face from side to side slowly, observing my injuries, which I guessed had bruised. His buck teeth clenched in anger as he continued to scan me, my own eyes watching him with predatory ease.

"Don't worry; I'm not going to hurt you." He said, trying to comfort me in a way.

"Why would you think that I'm worried?" I questioned suspiciously.

"You're watching me like an owl watches its next meal. Either you're worried about your safety, or you have a thing for me. I seriously doubt it's the latter." He finished in a chuckle. I couldn't help but to smile a little, he was nice and actually fun to talk with, even if he's the one doing most of the talking.

"What are you doing here anyway?" I wondered. He looked at me briefly and smiled.

"No matter what type of person they are, killer, assassin or simple villager, no woman should be kidnapped and beaten. I'm Junseishin. I no last name though, since I'm an orphan from birth." He told me with a small grin. 'Junseishin, pure heart.'

"I'm Haruno Sakura." I introduced.

"Ah, the Haruno clan. I though you looked familiar." He mused. "From the mist, right?"

"Yes…"

"You probably don't remember me." Junseishin informed with a sad smile. "We never met, after all. I just saw you around."

"You did?" I asked, confused at the realisation of me not remembering his appearance.

"Well, when you walked to the academy, I used to sit by the fence of the orphanage and watch you. The others made fun of me, saying that I stood no chance with you. I guess that they were right."

"Oh…" I said, feeling slightly weirded-out by his confession of watching me walk to school.

"If I untie these ropes, will you run?" He enquired. I thought about it for a moment, but was hit by the truth. I had no chakra, no idea where I was and I was tired. They would just catch me and than muscle-head will beat me again. I shook my head.

The ropes fell off me when he undid the knots, but left my feet bound. I began to wonder why he chose to untie me, but it was made clear when I felt his chakra warming me, healing me. The sting of my back subsided slightly, enough for me to call it a scratch pain and he moved to my stomach. Once the bruise on my abdomen was no longer painful he worked on my face and, before I knew what was happening, I felt next to no pain.

"I'm not a very good medic, so I can only lessen the pain. All of the marks are still there and you might feel a bit stiff for a while." He explained. I smiled.

"Thanks Junseishin." I said, grateful for his effort in healing me.

"Don't thank me, I have to tie you back up now, or everyone will get suspicious. It's bad enough that I'm talking to you." He told me as he rushed to tie the roped back around me, a bit looser than last time but still able to stop me from escaping.

After he gave me some water, my new and only friend here left. It didn't take too long before I heard another person approaching me. This time, the sound of the feet wasn't a small, rat-like scurry across the dead leave, which covered the ground. It was loud, heavy and clumsy as hell.

"Looks like you made a new friend." A voice cooed into my ear. I shuddered at the closeness of the brute and closed my eyes tightly as he began to trace the cut on my back.

"What do you want?" I snapped harshly.

"Now, now, no need to bite my head off. This bite on my hand will suffice. I just want to know your name little one." He whispered roughly.

"It's rude to ask for a name without providing your own first." I retorted. He chuckled and ran a finger across the bruise on my cheek.

"Me? I'm Koudo oite Oozora. Your turn."

'Koudo oite Oozora? That means that he's heaven on earth! No way!'

"Haruno Sakura." I told him. He chuckled again and lifted me off the ground.

Tears came to my eyes as he cut into my arm. This time, the cut was deep and would defiantly scar. After that was done, he moved his kunai to my stomach and ran it from my left hip to my right. The last thing he Oozora did with his weapon was trace the old wound on my back, so it would scar, and place two more lines with it, one vertical and one horizontal.

The next thing I could feel was his rough hand around my small neck, stopping my breath and killing me slowly. His thumb rubbed the side of my neck gently and I began to see black spots clouding my vision.

"Goodnight Sakura-chan." Were his last words.

However, he never got the chance to finish me off. I was dropped to the ground and his body fell a few feet from my own. I still couldn't see properly and I was slowly loosing conciousness. My breath was soon returned though, and the feeling of someone else's lips on mine, giving me the air my own lungs could receive on their own. I began breathing again and the person who saved me sighed in relief.

"Thank god." I heard him say. "Junseishin, carry her to the medical tent and have my Kaa-san take a look at her. Don't let Oozora get near her again."

"Hai, Sai-sama." Another man, who I knew to be Junseishin, replied.

'Sai…'

My thoughts carried my into a dreamless sleep as I was carried away from the man who sought to kill me.