~Authors Note
Here you all are, kind of a cute little oneshot, sorta, of a what if moment that I thought up between Raiga Kurosuki and Sakura, enjoy because it's going to be long while potentially before I finish the sequel to Bridging the Gaps
End Authors Note~
"YOU BAKA" Sakura shouted angrily at no one in particular while abusing tree's in the forest, she was currently on a mission to pick up a shipment of herbs from Sunagakure but she was taking her time to get her aggression towards Naruto out.
Who had sabotaged the mission to find the Bikochu Beetle, they'd found the beetle alright but Naruto had went and screwed things up by passing gas, ruining their chance to find Sasuke and bring him back to the village.
Of course upon learning this she'd hunted down the idiot blonde and given him a good solid whack but that still hadn't completely satisfied her, she was still angry, just then the tree she was abusing fell over.
Leaving Sakura breathing heavily from exertion "Those cuts look painful" suddenly there was a voice of a small child and the pinkette whipped around looking for the owner of that voice but only spying a bag laying in the middle of the road.
That had definitely not been there a few minutes prior, cautiously in case it was a trap of some sort she kneeled down, unzipping the bag to reveal a young boy, probably no older than eight peering up at her with reddish-brown eyes.
He tilted his head to the side meeting her gaze "Oh you mean these, their nothing I can heal them, see" Sakura smiled, still uncertain and wary as she focused her chakra to heal her split knuckles from spending the last hour punching trees.
Reddish-brown orbs widened in response, he was opening his mouth to ask when a familiar voice called out to him "Ranmaru where are you" Raiga yelled, obviously looking for him and the young Leaf kunoichi peered uncertainly in the direction it had come from.
"Perhaps I should go, he'll be here soon and I don't want him to think I'm trying to keep you from him" Sakura laughed, attempting to stand but the boy, Ranmaru grabbed a handful of her qipao and refused to let go.
Just as whoever was looking for Ranmaru stumbled out of a copse of tree's "Get lost you little snot before I give you a funeral" the man demanded, stomping forward to retrieve Ranmaru before noticing that the boy had a hold of the girl.
Quite stubbornly refusing to release her in fact when the pinkette tried to gently pry his fingers open "Heal me just like you did your knuckles I want to be more useful to Raiga" Ranmaru shook his head when she gave him a pleading glance.
Chartreuse orbs widened, then ever so slowly shifted to meet the glaring gaze of Raiga Kurosuki, a rogue from Kirigakure, like Zabuza, "I can try but you need to know that I'm not very good at it yet, I only just learned how to heal quite recently in fact" Sakura offered very carefully.
It didn't look like Ranmaru cared "A warning if you hurt Ranmaru in any way doing this I'll kill you where you sit" Raiga threatened when the little kunoichi's palms glowed with a soft green colored chakra.
Before gently pressing her hands to Ranmaru, she was moving on to inspect his lower half when a kunai whizzed by her face, creating a long cut on her cheek "Fools, they don't know when to give up it seems" the rogue scoffed.
A little surprised when the girl leaned over Ranmaru protectively so he wasn't in the line of fire "Just give up Kurosuki, your coming with us, there's a hefty bounty on your head that we want to cash in on" the leader of the group of bandits demanded.
Sitting on a thick branch, several others hiding in the trees as well, Sakura honed in on that fact rather quickly then came to a decision of pure recklessness probably as she flipped over Ranmaru and aimed a particularly vicious punch at the tree.
Upon impact of her fist she released the pent up chakra in her hand and watched the resulting destruction with pride as the idiots flailed trying to regain their balance when the first tree created a chain reaction, knocking over more trees until they were all laying on the ground.
Taking the obvious opportunity presented Raiga slammed his twin Kiba swords into the earth channeling lightning nature to shock the piss out of the bandits before grabbing the girl and Ranmaru to take leave of the area.
Where hopefully those idiots wouldn't find him again, he'd already spent most of the day running from them and they'd even managed to separate Ranmaru from him as well, the only good thing that had happened was the kunoichi.
Who behaved and let him carry her off thankfully in the direction she needed to head anyway "Err I think we're far enough away now" Sakura commented quietly a few hours later, when they were about to cross the border into River Country.
Night had already set on them and now she was just tired of being carried like a sack of rice under his arm "Your going to finish what you were doing earlier first" Raiga reminded as he dropped the genin from Leaf.
Earning a wince from the rough treatment as he set Ranmaru down much more gently "Okay" the girl nodded, fairly quiet and subdued in his presence no doubt as she once again pressed soft green chakra coated hands onto Ranmaru.
After examining him for several minutes she pulled back and shook her head "Can you not do it" Ranmaru asked seeing the guilt on her face and in her eyes as the chakra faded from her hands, she really was inexperienced it seemed.
"I'm really sorry Ranmaru-kun if only this were two-three years in the future I might be able to do it then, right now healing what's wrong is entirely out of my league" Sakura sighed, sounding exhausted to his ears.
Probably using the amount of chakra she had that day had exhausted her completely of it "And what is wrong with Ranmaru" Raiga demanded, gripping her arm tightly, the little kunoichi didn't answer instead.
Her head tilted back, body falling to lay flat on the ground unconscious with chakra exhaustion "She might have used a bit to much chakra I think" Ranmaru commented carefully sitting up as Raiga released the girls arm.
Allowing her to rest and regain her chakra "That's what I get I guess for being reckless" Sakura groaned the following morning, holding a glowing green hand to her pounding skull to heal her headache before opening her eyes.
To find blue ripple patterned ones mere inches from her face, it startled her quite a bit to realize Raiga and Ranmaru were still near, enough that she jerked back harshly into a tree, heart pounding in fright.
Then making sure she could clearly see him reached out and roughly gripped her chin in his hand "You didn't answer my question last night girl, what is wrong with Ranmaru, why can't he walk" Raiga demanded to know.
Purposefully invading the little kunoichi's space to scare her "H..He's paralyzed from the waist down, an..and I'm not experienced enough to do the necessary healing that would enable him to walk" Sakura admitted.
More than a little nervous, especially when he edged closer, grip becoming painfully tighter with every passing minute, thinking that Raiga was going to kill her, she squeezed her eyes shut just waiting for her life to end.
When suddenly she was released, green orbs popped open in surprise to find him still near but no longer trying to break her jaw "So little brat what do you intend on doing now, you've seen me, how do I know that you won't report the fact I'm in the area to your Hokage" Raiga questioned.
Tempted to reach for one of his swords "I won't, I swear it….he seems happy with you and I'm not going to be the idiot that tempts fate like that" Sakura swore vehemently, feeling like it might be the only thing that helped her leave scott-free without further bruises or injuries.
Chancing a glance at Ranmaru as she did so "Hmm are you sure your not just saying that to save your own skin" Raiga remarked, leaning closer trying to be as intimidating as he could, the little kunoichi swallowed visibly.
Definitely nervous of him "B…Because I'm not heading directly back to Leaf anyway I have a mission in Sunagakure and am under no obligation to tell anyone how my trip went, by the time I pass back through you'll already be long gone so I'll have no reason to tell the Hokage" Sakura said.
Fairly smart it seemed "Good and you better keep that promise or else, I'll hunt you down and kill you little rat, maybe even give you a funeral to commit that face of yours to my memory" Raiga threatened.
Patting her roughly on the head, rising from his crouch as he did so, taking Ranmaru and properly vacating from the area, Sakura stood as well then hurried in the direction of Suna to carry out her mission and upon her return to Leaf, just like she promised made no mention of ever having met Raiga Kurosuki.