This story is one of those ones that starts abruptly but the missing pieces will begin to slot together as the story progresses...
And finally please enjoy and all reviews are appreciated (:
Sakura scrabbled at the arm holding her, holding them.
Things were not… going according to plan. If there even had been a plan.
Trapped beside her, Naruto was screaming with anger, his eyes full of tears as he thrashed against the arm pinning his throat.
"You killed Sasuke! You killed Sasuke, bastard-"
But then the arm was pressing them harder against the man's torso, and suddenly it was all they could do to get in any breath at all.
Sakura felt so helpless, so weak. They were forced against the lithe, slender form of this terrifying man, and he had easily restrained both of them against him with a single arm and no jutsu whatsoever.
But she had to think. The lack of oxygen was crowding her brain, but surely she could do something?
No jutsu. There was nothing she knew that could get her out of this situation; no subjects for a substitution. She doubted wall walking, a clone or the henge could help her out here. She cursed Kakashi for not having taught them anything else.
Why was the Hokage not doing anything? He stood only metres away, staring upon his former student with a mix of cold acceptance and a lingering sense of regret.
Like Naruto, who was pressed shoulder to shoulder with her, she could feel the tears welling in her eyes. But where Naruto turned his emotions into strength, into passion and action (even if it was just useless flailing and screaming), all she could feel was an overwhelming sense of terror.
"What an adorable litter of children, wouldn't you agree dear sensei?" Orochimaru's silky-smooth voice all but cooed. Sakura couldn't shrink away as she felt a long-fingered hand pet her hair. "It's such a shame the baby Uchiha didn't survive my gift."
Naruto was sobbing now, only just able to get enough oxygen to sustain himself. Each exhalation sounded like a little heartbroken cry.
"Orochimaru! Let them go. They have nothing to do with this," Hokage-sama growled.
"Is that so? But truly, you must be worried that your jinchuuriki is a helpless child. Your effort to protect him will go to waste once the Akatsuki enter the game."
Akatsuki? Jinchuuriki?
Sakura didn't know what these things were, but she did know something- kunai. She still had one, in her pouch- on her right thigh. If she could just… just stab him, though with the position she was in it would be difficult. But she could always go for the forearm that was holding them.
Her left hand reached for her kunai, and she was bringing it up to slice his arm—
The hand patting her head moved to catch her wrist before she could strike. The kunai was plucked from her trembling grip with ease and lazily tossed aside, clattering on the tiles of the roof.
"Funny how villages still send children to fight their battles for them. Quite ineffective, really."
The forearm digging into their throats crushed harder. All Sakura could do was let out one last mewl for help before they couldn't breathe at all.
"Orochimaru…" Sarutobi said warily, and she wanted him to hurry up and do something because hello they were dying over here! "Stop playing around. Please, leave the children. What do you want?"
He was almost pleading. Their Hokage, renowned as the God of Shinobi, pleading with the enemy.
"Want? Well, I intend to kill you, sensei, as you may well have guessed. But what fun is it without inflicting a little suffering first, hm?" Orochimaru chuckled lowly, golden eyes gleaming with dark humour.
She could feel herself going limp. Naruto, who had been so adamantly thrashing before, had almost stopped moving. She could make out his parted lips that futilely strained to take in air from the corner of her darkening vision.
Just when she thought she was going to black out, the two were sent staggering towards the Hokage with a gentle push, gasping for air. Sakura tripped on a loose tile and toppled onto Naruto, and they collapsed in a shuddering heap.
"Put up a good fight, and I might even spare the little lambs."
Before Sakura could so much as blink, she and Naruto were whisked away by a giant monkey.
Summons, Sakura dimly categorised, recalling Iruka explaining the concept to his awed students.
There was only so far that the monkey could take them with the deadly purple barrier trapping them in. While the two legendary ninja fought, the monkey protected them from stray projectiles.
She could barely keep up with what was happening; the two were moving too fast, trading blows quicker than lightning.
Then there were faces she recognised in a blur; the first two faces from the Hokage monument (but how?) and there was the Shinigami and thank kami the Hokage was going to win this-
Until he wasn't. Naruto was crying for some reason, and the Third Hokage was collapsing and-
The monkey disappeared.
And the supposed God of Shinobi lay in a pool of his own blood. Orochimaru stood over the corpse, his delicate features contorted with fury. It was clear there was something very wrong with his arms.
From her side, Naruto suddenly lunged, no longer held at bay by the summons, letting out a scream of outrage as he charged the ghostly pale victor.
But no, even injured and worn down by the fight, there was no way Naruto could win this. Had he not just seen the battle, or glimpses of it at least? And from the pure malice radiating from this man that had just defeated the God of Shinobi!
She had to stop him. She couldn't let another teammate die. She had to-!
"Naruto! Stop!" She yelled, and she was so terrified because she was running closer to that... that monster and Naruto was almost upon him-
She tackled him from behind, taking them both to the ground. With a sense of ever-growing horror, she realised that they were barely a metre from the snake sannin.
"Let me go!" Naruto yelled, desperate and trying to throw her off. "Let me go, Sakura! I'll kill him! I'll kill him!"
But there was none of that strange power he had exerted in the forest, none of that redness, of those slitted eyes and elongated canines. Not since the man before them had jabbed him with that five-pronged seal jutsu – and just what had he sealed anyway?
Not that it would have helped them. Naruto's strange power hadn't helped them in the forest, and it wouldn't help them now.
Sakura wanted to close her eyes and hold on for dear life, but she couldn't help but watch, entranced, as Orochimaru stared down at his former teacher, not seeming to notice the two of them no more than a metre away. His fury slowly seemed to evaporate until he was just staring blankly down at Sarutobi.
And finally, he seemed to come back to himself. Sakura felt dread pool in her stomach as he slowly turned his head and looked down at them; at a thrashing, screaming Naruto and at Sakura, who was struggling to hold him down. There was no humour in his expression anymore; only a hint of calculation.
Without taking her eyes off him, her fingers found a loose tile. If he moved, if he so much as twitched, kami help her she wasn't going to stand back anymore.
Then a ghost of a smile quirked his lips and she could see him turning to face them, and she had to move, felt her leg muscles bunch up as she prepared to lunge-
But then he vanished and there was a foot pressing into her spine, the breath rushing out of her as her torso was forced against Naruto's back and they were effortlessly pinned together – and to the ground.
From this angle, there was little she could do with the tile she clutched in her hand other than wave it around fruitlessly.
We're going to die, she realised numbly. As if it finally got through his thick skull, Naruto fell still.
"Let us go!" he cried, but his voice was starting to waver as exhaustion doused his rage and his more fragile emotions began to leak out. She could see his lip trembling from the way he turned his head, trying to glare up at Orochimaru with large glassy blue eyes.
He was ignored. Instead, the purple barrier surrounding them vanished, and suddenly there were four people surrounding them. The four that had held up the barrier.
"Jirobo, be a dear and take the jinchuuriki."
The words were uttered as Sakura found herself lifted by the neck, freeing Naruto to be grabbed by the large teenager with the orange hair – or what remained of it.
"If I can't have the Uchiha, I may as we get something out of this endeavour," mused the serpentine man behind her, mocking, taunting – as if it was just a throwaway thought that he should kidnap her teammate.
He couldn't have him – couldn't have Naruto too, couldn't take him from her. Naruto might be the most annoying, idiotic, dumb blond she ever knew but that didn't mean she could just let this lie.
And yet, she knew there was nothing she could do. She had never felt so helpless as she was held by the back of her neck like an errant puppy. But she had to do something, or she knew she would hate herself for not even trying, just like she did when she stood back and let Sasuke get bitten, let him die.
Never again!
"Sakura-chan!" Naruto screamed just before Jirobo knocked him out. His voice had been full of desperation. Naruto, bull-headed, brave, never-give-up Naruto was desperate. And now it was only her who could save him.
She only knew three jutsu. Substitution, transformation and clone jutsu. Before, she thought these would all be useless, but a thought occurred to her in her desperation - a textbook excerpt suddenly flashed through her mind.
'While the substitution should only be attempted on a subject of equal or similar matter, it is possible to exchange positions with a subject of greater or smaller mass. However, the exponential drain on chakra have rendered some who have attempted this technique dead or with crippled coils. One must have extremely high chakra capacity or chakra control to complete a substitution with a subject of dissimilar matter.'
It was a terrible idea. A horrible risk. Yet if she didn't at least try, she would be no better off.
And before she could think about it too much, her arm whipped forward like a viper striking – launching the tile straight at Jirobo's head. Her aim had always been good; if she could throw a kunai to catch Naruto falling to his death in the forest, a mere hairsbreadth from his head, she could aim a tile at almost point-blank range.
But Jirobo was fast; his head tilted incrementally, allowing the tile to soar past him – and by then it was too late for him. her hands clashed together, forming the signs, and she felt her chakra flow into sequence.
A drain, tremendous for her meagre reserves, was soon followed by a sudden switch in viewpoint as she found herself staring at the back of Jirobo's head. She was still suspended in mid-air, but no longer were long, spindly fingers wrapped around her neck.
With a cry, her hands found each side of his head, and she twisted.
It was vicious, it would have killed him, and she was just a little bit relieved when Jirobo managed to tense his neck in time to stop her from breaking his spinal cord; her arms too weak to break through the thick muscles in his neck.
But then panic washed away the relief because what now?
Her window of opportunity had vanished; her moment to turn the tides over because she was too weak to wring a man's neck. If only she had trained more, done just a little bit of strength training, she might have been able to do it.
Instead a foot slammed into her side, throwing her into the tiles of the roof. A kunai embedded itself through the skin and bones of her hand, making her scream in pain. A pink-haired girl was suddenly towering over her, about to slam a kunai through her throat.
Sakura shut her eyes tight, bracing herself for the feel of her throat being torn open, but it never came.
"Tayuya-chan, remind me of my one rule on the battlefield?"
Sakura cautiously opened her eyes, her mouth dry and her heart pounding in a way she had never before experienced. Above her Tayuya knelt, her wrist raised above her head clutching a kunai, caught in Orochimaru's grip as he stood over them both.
She was going to die. Or was she? She should be dead already.
Sakura wanted to curl up, to sink into the ground and disappear.
Tayuya glared down at her with rage, lips twisted into a snarl, yet she responded.
"No permanent injury or death to children," she recited through clenched teeth. Though there was a wariness in her eyes; a hint of fear as her hand trembled in his grip.
Golden eyes crinkled with amusement.
"Good. Now get up; we're leaving."
And then those serpentine eyes fell on her, and her heart shuddered with fear; at feeling those intelligent eyes on her, seemingly weighing her up with mild curiosity.
Her legs instinctively curled up into her chest and she might have hugged them if it weren't for the fact a kunai was lodged in her right hand, pinning it to the tiles. Through watery eyes she watched him, unable to form a coherent sentence through her shuddering sobs.
"If you want your teammate back, you'll have to come find him. He'll get so lonely. And get the Hatake boy to teach you properly, ne? There's nothing more irritating than wasted potential."
She tried to pull her lips back into a snarl, but no doubt it looked more like a pathetic, weeping grimace.
And then she was alone, with only the sounds of war and battle and death in the village – Orochimaru was gone, but the invasion waged on.
She had to get up – she had to get help. Maybe Kakashi-sensei could track down and fight off Orochimaru while his arms were weakened. She had to see that the others were ok. She had to… move...
Blackness.