She needed time to think!
The weapons had already turned to point at her and Gaara, and Sakura's body couldn't move, couldn't react fast enough to do something. Sand rushed quicker than her mind could process, blocking once, twice, three times, until it became an uncountable barrage of blade and earth. It was automatic, Sakura remembered, but only when it came to Gaara's own defense, which meant that Gaara was protecting her faster than she could blink and she couldn't do anything.
And then, out of the corners of her eyes, she saw the sand begin to grow in volume around her, growing thicker and thicker until it became like a dome around them. Before Sakura could think on it any further, the world around her became pitch black. Around her, she heard distant thuds as Hiroshi's weapons threw themselves against Gaara's ultimate defense. A solid barrier of sand. Sakura had remembered seeing this from the outside during the chuunin exams, and knew that only something with the force of Sasuke's Chidori could penetrate it. (And Hiroshi couldn't have such a power, could he?)
But of course, she hadn't realized that the dome left the user in such darkness. They were on the second floor, which meant no earth beneath them to use, and without opening up the barrier, neither of them could attack from their position. They were defended, but...they couldn't do anything else.
Sakura forced herself to breathe.
"Well. Here we are."
The barrage of attacks seemed to quicken outside. Hiroshi was testing the dome's strength. Sakura heard a small rustle of movement next to her.
"What are you doing?"
"I can connect my optic nerve to my sand using my chakra. I can see outside, that way."
"...I can't even begin to tell you how weird that sounds."
But it was a useful weird skill, and Sakura realized that she too had a useful weird skill that could allow her to have a similar sort of 'view' of the battlefield. With a couple of hand signs, Sakura let out a sensing pulse to the area around them, noting with a small bit of glee that Gaara's sand dome didn't seem to block her. She pinpointed Hiroshi immediately, as well as confirmed that the rest of the fortress' inhabitants still appeared to be focused in one location. They wouldn't be interrupted anytime soon, which was probably a good thing. If any of the other shinobi came into this room now…
Sakura thought of the bodies Hiroshi had pinned to the walls and let out a small shudder.
"He's slowing down." Gaara commented, pulling Sakura from her thoughts. "I think he's realized he can't penetrate the sand with his weapons. But if he has experience with Magnet Release, he might be able to pull apart my sand anyway."
"Well isn't that just peachy?" Sakura pouted. But, for the moment, she had time to think.
She'd been called the smartest shinobi of her generation. She'd aced every tactics exam she'd been given at the academy. If she couldn't figure out how to handle this man, they were dead. (Or Gaara would be forced to summon up Shukaku's power, and...she'd probably end up dead anyway.)
If they wanted an edge, one thing had to happen. They needed to get themselves and Hiroshi down to the first floor so that they'd have access to earth. If they tried to flee outright, Sakura wasn't sure if Gaara's sand would be quick enough to protect them both, plus she risked leading Hiroshi to her comrades. (And Hiroshi potentially freeing his own men.) This meant that she had to bring the first floor to them, or rather, eliminate the second floor from existence. She'd brought plenty of paper bombs with her, and if she placed a good amount of them on the floor, it was likely she'd break the floor apart enough that they'd have no choice but to fall to the first.
Downside to this plan: she'd have to leave the safety of Gaara's dome, which essentially spelled certain doom for her. Even if Gaara took down the dome and focused on defending her as she ran, that left himself open, and Sakura didn't want to place bets on Gaara being able to protect her from the hundreds of weapons currently in the room this man was a maniac.
What they needed was a way to temporarily disable Hiroshi's weapons, long enough for her to throw down enough paper bombs and take out the floor. Problem: the most obvious way of doing this was to take out Hiroshi, which wasn't happening easily enough for this current goal.
"Sakura." Gaara's voice sounded urgent in the darkness. "He's starting to pull against my sand."
"I'm thinking." Sakura hissed back, reaching into her pouch to ready her paper bombs. If she attached them to her kunai, she could throw them anywhere she needed in the room.
She had one idea, and she was pretty sure it would work, but if not...she was probably dead.
"I'm going to destroy the floor so that we'll be forced to fight on the ground floor." She began to explain her plan aloud. "I think I have enough paper bombs to do it, but I need a break from Hiroshi's blades long enough to throw them down around the room. What I need you to do is expand your dome out so that it pushes Hiroshi and all of his weapons against the walls."
"That'll make the sand thin." Gaara pointed out. "Hiroshi will be able to push out of that fairly quickly."
"All I need is enough time to throw." Sakura insisted. "Once I detonate them, I make my way back to you, and we get under the dome again. From there, we'll have ground beneath us and I'll be able to attack him while you defend."
"Okay. Just tell me when."
Sakura took a deep breath. She needed to be prepared to move quickly. She began to focus her chakra to her feet, hoping the boost would be enough to get the job done. Then, she held her hands at the ready.
"Now."
The sand around her suddenly pushed outwards with incredible speed, and just as Sakura thought, it pushed the weapons and Hiroshi back towards the walls of the room. She sprinted forward, throwing her first several bomb-wrapped kunai as she did. Then, she twisted around to throw more at the corners behind her. She made it down to her last two just as she saw Hiroshi burst free from Gaara's sand. She saw swords and shuriken begin to pull forth right as the last two flew from her fingertips. Hiroshi was aiming at her, and she only had seconds.
She brought her hands together to make the Snake sign, simultaneously pushing herself towards Gaara in the hopes that she would be quick enough.
The sound around her was deafened by the explosion that rocked the room. Her ears rang, and several bursts of wind and force blew her about like a ragdoll before the floor began to give out from under her. For a moment, all Sakura could do was allow herself to fall.
The room beneath them appeared to be a sitting room of some kind, with chairs, tables, and sofas decorating it. Sakura considered herself lucky that she landed on one of the sofas, something soft at least, and considered herself doubly lucky when she saw Hiroshi land on one of the tables with a loud 'crack'. Though the blast had disoriented her, she still remembered the next step of the plan. Get to Gaara.
He'd landed on his feet, with the sand having shielded him from the negative effects of the blast. Sakura pushed herself to her feet, noticing that Hiroshi was quickly doing the same. Not much time. She forced chakra to her legs, leaping across the rubble in front of her, closer and closer and-
Pain.
Pain radiated up her shoulder as a kunai blade buried itself into her flesh. Sakura cried out, tripping and falling forward as she did, and then all at once the room went dark around her.
For a brief moment, Sakura thought she'd fallen unconscious. Only when she felt Gaara's hands on her did she realize that he'd pulled up his dome of sand again.
"Sakura, I...I wasn't…"
"Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck." Sakura yelled, another wave of pain shooting through her. "Fuck and shit."
"I'm so sorry."
Sakura gritted her teeth, trying to keep herself from a further outburst. By the sound of his breathing, it seemed like Gaara was panicking, and that was the last thing she wanted.
"It's okay." She forced herself to say. "It's alright, it's just a kunai."
"You're bleeding."
"Yeah, that tends to happen when kunai are involved." Sakura mentally cursed again, reaching up to feel at the weapon. It was buried fairly deep, and if she left the safety of Gaara's dome, Hiroshi could like push it deeper. It was a bad idea to remove embedded weapons, but she'd have to if she wanted to face Hiroshi head on. And boy did she really want to hurt that man now. She reached out to touch Gaara's hand, guiding it to the handle. "I need you to pull this out."
"W-what?"
"Pull it out or Hiroshi's just going to push it in further."
"Sakura-"
"It's okay, Gaara. I'll be okay." Sakura wasn't quite sure if she'd be okay; bleeding out wasn't high on her to do list but it looked like she might not have much choice. Still, Gaara was hesitating. "It's...not your fault." She continued, trying to calm him. "We didn't move fast enough. It happens. As long as we finish this, it won't have mattered, alright? You pull this out, I'll blast that mother fucker to kingdom come, okay?"
There was silence. Then, with a quick pull, Gaara yanked the kunai from her shoulder. Another kind of pain, a different kind, shot through her, and Sakura knew she didn't have too much time.
"Now we need to bandage it." She used her good arm to reach for her pouch, shakily pulling out a roll of bandaging tape. "I can't do it myself, so you'll have to do it blind. Get it as tight as you can to make a tourniquet."
"I'm losing focus on the sand." Gaara replied, his hands shaky as he took hold of the tape.
"Then move quickly."
She heard the sound of the tape unraveling before feeling a painful pressure on her shoulder. Gaara was panicking, yes, but he at least had the clarity of mind to do a good wrap. After a few seconds, Sakura gingerly forced her arm to move. It was her non-dominant arm, which was the only plus side at the moment. Hopefully she wouldn't need to use it much.
"Alright." Sakura stood up, taking a breath before sending out another sensing pulse. Hiroshi was approximately ten feet away, and they were now on solid ground. Since he could use Magnet Release, she had to assume he could use earth-style jutsu too, which meant all three of them would now benefit from being on the ground floor.
"I want to test something out." Sakura decided. "Get your little optic-nerve sand thing going. I'm going to use my sensing to aim some attacks, and you let me know how accurate I am, alright?"
"Alright."
Sakura gave him the time he needed before sending out her pulse again. Hiroshi hadn't moved, the cocky bastard. He was about to figure out why that was a bad idea. Sakura only wished she hadn't had to use all of her paper bombs on getting them to the ground floor; another Tunnel Bomb would have been ideal for a scenario like this. For now, she'd have to settle for her Reverse Tunneling to see if she could knock the man out.
She focused, picturing a tunnel coming outwards exactly ten feet away from her, and hopefully right beneath Hiroshi's feet. Then, she pictured filling it, before she reached down and poured her chakra into the earth.
Sakura heard Gaara wince, and she grinned.
"It hit?"
"Yeah."
"Where it counts?"
"Yeah."
"That's what he gets." Sakura let herself pump a fist into the air. The victory was short lived, however, as she suddenly felt the ground rumble beneath her feet. She and Gaara jumped, just in time as the earth beneath them suddenly shot upwards to form hardened spikes. As gravity kicked in, she felt Gaara's sand form beneath her feet, and suddenly the dome moved upwards into the air.
"I can't keep this up for long." Gaara admitted.
"I didn't think he'd consider using the earth beneath us like that, but I guess I gave him the idea, didn't I?" Sakura groaned. "We need to end this before he starts affecting your sand, and I've only got one thing left up my sleeve."
"What's that?"
"...I'm going to need to get close enough to punch him."
She could almost feel Gaara's judging gaze upon her. "Your final idea is just to punch him?"
"Well, hopefully not just punch." Sakura admitted with a nervous chuckle. "I mean, if I do it right, he'll be unconscious, and that solves all our problems, right?" Besides, Naruto won all of his battles with punches, so why couldn't she? Plus, she actually did have an idea for giving her punch some extra...well, punch. But it would require manipulating earth chakra in a way she hadn't done before, all while using a minimal amount of hand-signs, and while dodging whatever Hiroshi had to throw her way.
But Gaara did have access to the earth beneath them now, as well as his sand. Maybe now he'd have enough to defend both of them. Sakura just needed to dodge whatever Gaara missed and dodge it perfectly.
One shot. One chance to end it.
"Drop us to the ground and get ready. If you have the chance to take him down, take it, but if not, keep him off my back."
The sand lowered, and Sakura readied herself. She sent out another sensing pulse to confirm Hiroshi's location, turning to face the man just as Gaara's sand dispersed around them.
"Are you done hiding, little brats?" Hiroshi spoke, standing at the ready with several weapons around him. "You're going to pay for that potshot, girl."
Sakura didn't give him the privilege of a response. If he was talking, he was distracted. She shot forward at a sprint, hoping beyond hope that she and Gaara were fast enough to get her where she needed.
Weapons flew at her, still too fast for her eyes to follow. Burst after burst of sand blocked her from the weapons' paths, but before she could reach Hiroshi, the man summoned up a wall of earth to block her. Great, so now he was playing their game, and that meant that Sakura would need to either break through the wall or go around. There was rubble in the way, but Sakura knew she didn't have the physical power to break solid earth, so around it was. Left or right? For a brief moment, she hesitated, and just as she shifted to head left, she felt pain as another kunai embedded itself into her right leg.
"Sakura!"
Gaara's cries kept her focus. It hurt, it hurt bad, but if she stopped it would only keep hurting. She looked back up just in time to see Gaara's sand fly at the earth wall in front of her. Hiroshi had hesitated after landing the hit, and Gaara had taken the opportunity to launch an attack of his own. Sand hit earth and dirt seemed to fly, but Sakura caught a glimpse of Hiroshi beyond the wall and knew that Gaara, somehow, had been stronger, and this was her only chance. Pain be damned, she had to go.
She ran, and as she did she briefly closed her eyes and focused on the chakra in her right hand.
There was earth chakra in the ground beneath her, and her own chakra that ran through her. What she needed to do was pull the two chakras together, and use the earth to envelop the chakra in her hand. All she had to go on was a single hand-sign from when her enemy had used this jutsu before, but if Shukaku and history were to be believed, hand-signs weren't necessary at all, just a focus, so a single hand-sign would have to be enough. She brought her two hands together into the sign of the tiger before thrusting her hand downwards towards the ground.
And she could feel it, she could feel the chakra in the ground beneath her, if only for a brief moment, and all she needed to do was pull.
Hiroshi was in front of her, wide open, and though he was frantically trying to make hand-signs of his own, Sakura knew she could make it to him in time if she just concentrated. She needed chakra for her hand, but she also needed chakra for her legs to keep up speed, and Kakashi had told her that her chakra control was impeccable which meant she knew she had the capability to do this, to be fast enough, to be strong enough.
She thought of Sasuke, dashing forward with his Chidori to face down Gaara's ultimate defense. She thought of Naruto and Sasuke facing each other down, unyielding, hands aglow with chakra. She thought of Kakashi, facing down Zabuza, one of the strongest shinobi she'd ever faced.
This time it was her turn.
This time she'd get to be strong.
By the time she got within range, pieces of earth had molded themselves around Sakura's fist in the form of a rock gauntlet. She pushed herself forward, ignoring the shooting pain in her leg, and ignoring the rock wall that Hiroshi was pulling into existence in a desperate attempt to keep her away. All that mattered was the moment. All that mattered was the hit.
She aimed for the face and her blow struck true, slamming against Hiroshi's jaw with enough force that she heard his bones audibly crack. The man went flying backwards, slamming against the nearby wall with the force of Sakura's hit, before slumping down to the ground.
Sakura landed and fell to her knee, her injured leg shaking with pain, but it didn't matter. She'd landed it, she'd landed it, she'd landed it! She could do it, she could be like Naruto and Sasuke, she could-
Hiroshi groaned and moved. She'd hit him, but he wasn't unconscious.
Fuck.
His jaw, at the very least, looked broken, but Hiroshi pulled himself to his feet without much fuss. Her move certainly wasn't a Chidori, not something that could kill, and she'd been lucky enough to get that one hit in. What were the chances of her getting another hit in now? Hiroshi had to be in pain, though, so how much longer could he possibly drag the fight on?
For a brief moment, she and Hiroshi simply looked at each other. A brief reprieve for them, Sakura realized. He was injured, she was injured, they both could afford to rest for a second. But what was Gaara doing? Now was his chance, now he could-
"Holy shit, would you look at that pink bitch go? She's gonna take out your bounty before you get the chance, Kakuzu."
Sakura's heart froze in her chest. Someone else was here.
She turned to look behind her, and her breath hitched as she caught sight of black robes decorated with red clouds.
Akatsuki.