Sakura anxiously knocked on the Hokage's door.
"Enter!" said the voice from the other side. Sakura opened the door.
Although the summons to Tsunade's office could have theoretically been about anything, upon receiving the message Sakura immediately started to worry that something had happened to Sasuke. He had been gone nearly a month on his latest mission and she had not heard anything at all...no rumors, no gossip...nothing.
The first thing that caught her eyes when she entered was Tsunade's solemn look. She could always tell when something serious was going on...her mentor just had a look that told her that there was a problem somewhere in Konoha. The second thing she noted was that she was not alone. Shizune was there, of course, but she also saw that Kakashi, Naruto, Shikaku and Shikamaru were all there as well.
"You sent for me?" Sakura said meekly not really trusting the situation as of yet. She couldn't tell yet what was wrong.
"Sakura, I didn't want to inform you of this until I received confirmation," explained the Hokage. "There is a situation."
"What? Is there a medical emergency? I can just - ," she started.
"No, you don't understand," said Tsunade, interrupting.
Sakura could tell right then and there that it was much worse than she feared. She stood there in silence and no one said a word...it was as if they were afraid to talk.
"What is it?" she finally said matter-of-factly.
"Sakura, it's Sasuke," Naruto finally let escape.
"Oh no," she said aloud. "Is he alright? Is he hurt?"
Tsunade looked at Kakashi, who returned her silent gaze.
"I have a right to know!" she finally exclaimed.
"We don't know all the details yet, but as of now, he seems to be...how do I say it? ... missing," said Kakashi.
"What?" said Sakura. She looked around at the faces in the room again. "No, you aren't all thinking...don't even go there..."
"Like Kakashi said, we don't know all the details yet, but we have to keep all possibilities in mind," said Tsunade.
Sakura looked at the father and son who were also in the room. "You don't really think...c'mon Shikamaru, you have been around him so much lately. You know he wouldn't have left us again."
"What a drag," said Shikamaru scratching the back of his head, not wanting to talk about this. "I think it is highly unlikely as well, but like Lady Tsunade said, we have to consider all the possibilities. Well, actually it was Dad who said that initially."
"The thing is, Sakura, he was traveling with two very important Leaf genin," explained Tsunade. "They were from the Koshosuru Clan."
"Koshosuru Clan?" repeated Sakura.
"...and they did possess the kekkai genkai," added Shikaku.
"Seishin-tekina Kanshoku?" Sakura asked knowingly. "But no one has been born to that clan with the gift in ages."
"It has been kept a secret...at least until they became genin," explained Tsunade. "They are now traveling the world for the first time and Sasuke was asked to help protect them in addition to mending bridges with Lightning and Mist."
"Just because you haven't heard...," started Sakura.
"I confirmed with the Raikage that they had, in fact, left the Hidden Cloud nearly 10 days ago. There were no indications that anything was wrong and overall, he was pleased with the outcome of Sasuke's efforts. Killer B helped with the situation quite a bit as well. He trusts Naruto and Naruto vouching for him made a big difference."
Sakura looked at Naruto who was now smiling ear-to-ear. He had sent advance notice to his good friend that Sasuke was back in the Leaf and was trying to make amends for his past behavior.
"The Mizukage had been expecting them, but they never showed," said Tsunade. "Somewhere between Lightning and Mist, they disappeared."
Just then, someone knocked on the doorframe of the open door to the Hokage's office. The figure standing there had a mask on...obviously, he was from ANBU. Shikaku walked over to the operative and had a serious conversation. Sakura couldn't hear what they were saying, but saw Shikaku nodding before the shinobi disappeared again in a poof of smoke.
Shikaku walked over to the Hokage and whispered in her ear. Sakura looked absolutely frantic seeing all this happening right in front of her. Did this have to do with the situation or not?
"Rida, the team lead for both Sasuke and the Koshosuru twins, has been found dead," she said flatly.
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Blackness was all he could see. Sasuke could have sworn that his eyes were open, but he couldn't make out anything. Where exactly was he? How did he get here?
Then he heard a distant voice. It was a male voice. Who could that be? It sounded somewhat like Itachi when he was young. But it couldn't be Itachi...he was already dead. Or...perhaps that was just a dream? Did he dream it all? Was he still, in fact, young? Would he open his eyes and be back home with his family? He dared not even hope.
"Sasuke," said the voice, this time obviously closer. He could now understand what it was saying. "You're going to make it."
I'm going to make it. Words of encouragement. Just what I needed.
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Sakura hurried to her home to gather the items she would need for the mission. Lady Tsunade was a bit hesitant to send Team Kakashi to find Sasuke and the twins for two very important reasons. The first was the personal involvement of most members of the team with Sasuke. Shikaku had pointed out, once again, that they did not know what was going on and that if Sasuke had defected again, that sending Naruto and Sakura on such a mission might be personally devastating to both of them. The second was simply because of the similarity to the "Sasuke Retrieval" mission from all those years ago. Again, a concern was raised over emotional attachment potentially causing poor decision making by the team depending on the situation they found once they found Sasuke...if they found Sasuke.
Naruto and Sakura were successful in overcoming Shikaku's concerns and were able to sway Tsunade's opinion in their favor. Not only was Sakura much stronger than she was back in the day when Sasuke first left, but her faith in him today nearly erased all doubt in Tsunade's mind that Sasuke was, in fact, betraying the Leaf again. Naruto's pleading was simply the "cherry on top" for Tsunade. Naruto was also very confident that Sasuke was not abandoning them again. Because of all that Naruto had done for the village, by defeating Pain and Tobi, it would take a lot for Tsunade to go against his wishes so long as they were within reason. Simply put, he was their savior and she owed him.
In only an hour, both Sakura and Naruto were at the front gate ready to depart. Both were chomping at the bit to get going and didn't like it one bit that Kakashi was the late one again. In actuality, Kakashi needed to find Sai and fill him in on all the details so that he could join the team as well. Twenty minutes later, Kakashi and Sai appeared.
The four shinobi left by leaping into the woods just outside the main gate.
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"Do you miss her?" asked the boy.
"Yes," he replied, barely audible. He obviously hadn't said anything for a while because his voice was hoarse and it felt like there was something in his throat.
"I could tell," the boy answered.
Sasuke opened his eyes again. It was a bit lighter this time around. He could make out the figure of the boy who had been talking to him.
"It was either a girl or...I guess you could have been missing a friend as well. But I thought it seemed to be more romantic in nature."
Wait..., he was starting to remember some things.
Sasuke looked around again. The light was very dim, but he thought he saw another prone figure on the other side of the room. The boy must have seen what Sasuke was looking at.
"She hasn't come to yet," said the boy. "But she's still alive."
"Sumato...," whispered Sasuke. He now knew the boy's name and remembered his ability to tell emotions from chakra.
Sumato pressed something onto Sasuke's mouth. "You need to eat," he said. "You've had a fever for a few days now. It's probably just a virus taking advantage of your already recovering body."
Oh, that's right. I was injured protecting these two. And Rida...where is Rida?
Sasuke was starting to remember what happened...it was all slowly coming back to him. He remembered being on a mostly uneventful journey from the Land of Lightning. First it was a brief water crossing to the land mass that would lead them right to the main island in the Land of Water. They were taking their time and Sasuke was quite enjoying the downtime - thus far, everything had been going like clockwork.
During the journey, Sasuke determined that Sumato and Kanja were really good kids. Their clan had entrusted so much to them. Sumato was the first to really open up to Sasuke about the pressures of having their clan's kekkai genkai...and with it all the expectations of the clan on their shoulders. Sasuke personally thought that Neji might have been a better shoulder to lean on for these kids, but he, too, had known what it was like to have certain expectations placed upon you because of the gift you inherited. Kanja followed closely behind Sumato - she would often sit around the roaring fire listening to Sumato vent about the clan and Sasuke sharing his experiences from when he lived among the Uchiha clan. Soon enough, she was opening up to him as well.
The four Leaf shinobi slowly made their way down to Kiri. They were only two days from Hidden Mist when they were ambushed. Sasuke had to admit that he had let his guard down. He was cursing himself as he tried to protect the two young genin he was charged to help protect.
One of the four attacking shinobi must have had some sort of jutsu that blocked the Leaf ninja from knowing they were being pursued. The first indication that there was a problem at all was when Rida was impaled from behind with a long metal spear of some sort. She didn't go down immediately. In fact, it became obvious that it was the twins these enemies were after. Apparently someone outside of the Leaf had found out that Seishin-tekina Kanshoku had returned and they wanted the power for themselves.
Sasuke fought admirably, but took a hard blow to the head by jumping in front of Kanja when a large boulder of earth had been thrown at her. If Sasuke had been fighting for himself, he could have easily taken down these shinobi; however, he now not only had to watch out for himself, but protect the twins as well as Rida from these high-level enemy nins.
Although they were full-fledged genin, this was one of Sumato and Kanja's first missions outside of the Leaf. When Sasuke saw how they fought, he was taken back to Team 7's mission to the Land of Waves all those years ago. Naruto was hesitant and unsure the first time he had been attacked, too - just like the Koshosuru twins were acting this time around. Unfortunately, the four shinobi with no visible hitai-ate weren't just fighting to fight - they wanted to abduct and kill.
Based on where he was at that moment, the enemy shinobi obviously didn't get their hands on the twins. What happened after that was still a bit hazy to Sasuke. His head was still hurting and he was starting to feel a little faint. He still didn't know where they were or what their exact circumstances were, but they had been ok so far. Sasuke guessed it would be fine if he rested a bit more. He allowed himself to drift to sleep once again.
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Team Kakashi decided that the best course of action twould be to follow the exact path of Rida's team...move as fast as they could to the Land of Lightning, gather information there about what happened on the mission, then try to track them as best as they could towards Hidden Mist (perhaps even get the Ninja Hounds in on the mission).
Team Kakashi didn't spend much time at all in Kumo...only a few hours, in fact. The Raikage himself was not available during those few hours, so Killer B made the arrangements for them to meet those shinobi in the Hidden Cloud who could give them the most relevant information as quickly as possible. He also made sure that food was provided to his friends so that they could be well-fed before having to leave. It all was to take place in a large meeting room situated near the Raikage's office.
"So what do you think, B?" asked Naruto, finally getting the opportunity to grab some food and rest his feet.
"I foretell, there's no way in hell, that guy would sell you out, fool," he rapped.
"I know," said Naruto. "I tried to tell them back in the Leaf, but they won't trust me unless they had proof. It's frustrating."
"If anything happened to the team on the way to Mist, it is more likely for it to be about the two genin rather than the Uchiha," said Darui, just entering the room.
"Darui," said Kakashi upon seeing his fellow battle division commander walk in the room.
"Most of the work done by Sasuke while he was here was under my direction," said Darui. "The others had their own plans, but Sasuke was mine while he was here. I had to make sure he was reformed before telling Raikage yea or nay as to his trustworthiness."
"And what did you determine?" asked Kakashi.
"He's good," said Darui. "I'd trust him with my life."
Killer B added, "We bumped fists and I insist, he is legit."
The overall picture from Cloud emerged quickly. They tested Sasuke and he passed with flying colors. In fact, he had made some important connections - and friends - while he was here.
Rida, Sumato and Kanja were taken under C's wing while they were here. C and the twins had similar abilities and, since the Hokage didn't want anyone other than highest levels to know that the twins were traveling, C was assigned to personally show them around and give them a taste of what their future might be like serving the Leaf.
C was also able to make the meeting and filled in Team Kakashi on all that happened while they were there.
"Did you happen to notice anything out of the ordinary during their visit? Any stalkers? Any strange occurrences?" asked Kakashi.
"Nothing at all," said C. "In fact, since the end of the war, we haven't had many problems at all."
Damn, thought Sakura. They were just wasting their time. The only thing they are getting out of this visit is more proof that Sasuke didn't abandon the village again. But she already knew that in her heart-of-hearts.
"Sensei, we really should get going," Sakura said to Kakashi. She was feeling the urge to start the search again as soon as possible.
"At least wait until Naruto is finished eating," Kakashi replied.
She looked over at her teammate, who eyed her back. He smiled. He knew he was now holding them up...but then again, Sakura was probably the most anxious to start on the next leg of their journey.