((I'm going to do something I haven't yet done for a chapter before and I'm going to put a warning note here. This chapter is a doozy. Sakura will be facing a very sadistic enemy, and if reading about torture bothers you, I would recommend perhaps skipping the part of this chapter that occurs after the second line break. I have tried not to be graphic, but pain is pain, and there are some parts of this I cannot skip over.

In the shinobi world, there is darkness. But when all is said and done, remember that there will always be light.))

The first stage of the exams concluded in the late evening, which meant that Sakura had plenty of time to prepare her team for the next portion. It was easy enough to assume that the next portion would have a survival aspect, so Sakura made sure that all of her storage scrolls were stocked with food, supplies, and medical kits. From there, it was just waiting and watching, seeing which teams succeeded and taking note of how quickly they finished. At the end, forty-eight teams passed the first stage, including the Konoha rookies, Lee's team, and Fuu's team. As the teams were corralled to the next stage, Sakura also caught sight of the Ame team, as well as some Iwa shinobi that she remembered from her time in the village. There were a few headbands from the smaller villages, but the majority of the remaining passing teams were of Suna and Konoha.

There were still too many teams that could be enemies. Too many teams they couldn't trust.

They were led outside of the village walls, to Sakura's surprise. As the sun began to dip down below the horizon, Sakura caught sight of a vast stretch of forest in front of them, branching north towards Earth Country. Sakura had been on missions in the forests outside the village before, but they had usually stayed to the roads, never going into the untamed forests grown by Hashirama Senju decades ago. In the darkness, the woods seemed foreboding. Every shadow looked like it moved, and every sound seemed like that of a giant creature lurking on the prowl. It was the Forest of Death all over again, but without the boundaries of a true training ground.

The teams were divided into four groups, and the proctor led Sakura's group to a small building in a clearing. "This is your starting point, and your ending point." The proctor began to explain. "When the bell announces the start of the second stage, you will make your way northwards into the woods. Each team will be given a map of the forest indicating the boundaries of the exam. Within the boundaries are ten fortresses, guarded by skilled chuunin from several of your participating villages. Each fortress has a 'treasure' inside of it. Your goal is to find and make your way to one of these fortresses and retrieve what the shinobi are guarding. Once you have retrieved a treasure, you will make your way back to your original starting point, here. You will have seven days to complete your task. The use of lethal force will be allowed during this stage." The proctor then smirked, folding his arms as he surveyed the teams in front of him. "There will be no further information given to you."

"It seems simple." Sakura commented quietly. "Way too simple. For all we know they've spent months setting up traps and tricks all over these woods. And who knows what we'll expect in those fortresses."

"Seven days is a long time." Gaara added. "The exam boundaries will likely be quite vast. It's risky."

"There could be bandits or missing-nin. If not for the fact that most of the villages are participating, I might even postulate foreign shinobi interference. Though I suppose we are a bit too far north to worry about Cloud or Mist." Sai noted. "Plus, there's the other teams to worry about."

"This is the phase." Sakura concluded. "This is where...this is where the enemy wants us."

None of the teams in this quadrant were known allies. That meant, right off the bat, they would likely be fighting for survival. Every team would be looking for a chance to take a pot shot at other teams as soon as the phase began, especially since the number of 'treasures' was so small. Only ten...which meant only ten teams could pass at maximum. There was a chance no team could pass at all, or that a team might try to go for two treasures to keep other teams from passing.

And then Danzo was going to try and ensure her death, on top of everything else. Sakura was more than a little panicked as the proctor began to hand out maps. The boundaries of the exam stretched for miles, and it seemed unlikely that teams would run into each other at all after the first hour. Yet, this only served to unnerve Sakura more. Finding allied teams in these woods was going to prove a challenge, which meant they would have to deal with the possibility that, whatever Danzo had planned, they would have to face it alone.

Danzo had gotten weeks, if not months, to plan this out. Sakura had gotten a day.

Where the fuck was Shikamaru when you needed him?

But Shikamaru had seemed certain that everything would work out. It was possible the other rookies had plans of their own that she wasn't aware of yet.

Too many unknowns. Too many variables.

Sakura felt Emi brush against her leg, and she bent down to give the tanuki a couple pats. Well, if she did end up dying out here, at least she'd be with friends and a cute animal, right? She looked to Gaara and Sai, both of whom had a sort of stern, tight look to their faces that was more than indicative of their own stress.

Five quiet, agonizing minutes passed. All of the teams shuffled about into a ready position, weapons at the ready, routes planned. Sakura had opted to just pick a direction and run. Sai could easily help pinpoint their location from the air once they'd gotten far enough from the other teams. For now, all that mattered was survival.

A bell rang in the distance. Sakura pushed chakra into her legs and began to run.

She noticed, in her peripheral vision, that at least one of the teams didn't bother moving from the starting position at all. It was a gamble; teams had to return to their starting point in order to pass the exam, which meant that at some point, a team would come back with treasure in hand. A team could theoretically wait and set up an ambush, negating the need to actually take on a fortress. But it depended entirely upon one of the teams from their quadrant managing to take a treasure and return to the spot without dying in the process.

Sakura could allow herself to worry about the ambush team later. Right now, that just meant ten teams that were potentially trying to kill her.

She kept her three pronged kunai at the ready, deflecting two sets of shuriken as she leaped from tree to tree. Gaara and Sai weren't far behind her, but at the speed they were running, Gaara's sand was having trouble keeping up with him, let alone spreading out to cover the others. A quick glance back showed Sakura that Sai had already pulled out a blank scroll and begun to paint, but so far nothing had come out. Was he really wasting his time on something big?

From her left, Sakura saw movement, and suddenly an enormous gust of wind pushed its way towards her, sending her into the air. She was prevented from going too far when Gaara sand wrapped around her ankle, pulling her back to safety, but it wasn't long before more gusts of wind were sent their way. Suna shinobi, by the look of things, and they seemed hellbent on their team specifically. There wouldn't be a point to wasting shuriken on them either; the wind gusts would make any projectile moot. That left confronting them directly or getting away, and Sakura was reminded, as a shuriken missed her by inches, that slowing down meant a squabble with potentially ten other teams.

She felt a burst of air behind her, and after wondering briefly if an enemy's attack had just been that inaccurate, something appeared beneath her mid-jump: an enormous black and white bird, one of Sai's ink summons, and it was more than large enough to carry all of them. They swooped beneath to catch Gaara, and even Emi (who had impressively managed to keep up with their sprint), and from there Sai directed his bird skyward. They burst through the canopy of the forest, and after a couple swerves to avoid more wind gusts and shuriken, they were leaving the enemy teams behind.

"Son of a bitch." Sakura let herself curse. "It's gonna be a damn bloodbath at every gate. I don't know what we would have done with your bird, Sai."

"Died, probably." Sai answered.

"...thanks for the vote of confidence."

Sakura pulled out the map they had been given and started to look at the forest beneath them. It was easy enough to figure out their surroundings with an aerial view, and at first glance they appeared to be the only team with that advantage. But Sakura remembered Fuu's chakra wings, and it was entirely possible that there was another team with an actual bird summon that they might need to worry about.

"We can't stay up here too long." Sakura concluded. "Even a shinobi that climbs high enough will be able to catch sight of us. We should figure out a direction to try and get low to the ground again."

"Agreed." Sai replied. "If Danzo means to see us dead, our only course of action is to ensure those under his influence do not find us."

"All while passing the exam…" Gaara added solemnly. "Sakura, are you sure Shikamaru knows what he's doing?"

"Yes." Sakura paused, frowning. "...maybe. The other rookies know the situation. If we could find them, we could work together. I doubt there's any team that could take all nine of us."

"The question is going to be finding them."

"Emi can help." Gaara held up the tanuki. "She knows what they smell like."

"That's perfect." Sakura grinned. "Alright, take us down, Sai. We'll find the other teams and take it from there."

By the time they descended into the forest again, the sun had finished setting and it was dark. The trees were alive with the sounds of nighttime creatures, but even some of the larger animals scurried away once they caught wind of Gaara's presence. A benefit to housing Shukaku, Sakura supposed. There wasn't a creature alive that wanted to mess with a Bijuu. Though it was a potential risk, Sakura pulled out a flashlight from a storage scroll. Being able to see was just a smidgen more important than potentially risking discovering if an enemy saw the light.

"I don't know why shinobi haven't invented a jutsu for night vision." Sakura grumbled quietly as they walked. "What do shinobi on missions at night do, just hope they don't run into a tree?"

"Shinobi use their other senses to move about, Fisticuffs." Sai retorted. "A talented shinobi can use echolocation to avoid obstacles."

"Oh, so you know echolocation? Maybe you should take the lead."

"I never said I knew echolocation."

"So does that mean you're not a talented shinobi?"

"Hmm. Maybe not. But that means neither of you are either."

"Sakura…" Gaara spoke up suddenly, and even in the dimness Sakura saw that the boy looked somewhat distressed. "Do you mean...you really can't see where we're going?"

"...do you mean you can?"

"I've always been able to see in the dark." Gaara admitted. "I thought…"

"Has nobody else ever used a flashlight around you?" Sakura had to hold herself back from yelling in disbelief.

"Kankuro and Temari just followed me on missions." There was a pause, and Gaara frowned. "...Shukaku's laughing."

"Well crap, no point in using this thing, then." Sakura groaned as she put the flashlight away. "Put it down in your notes, Sai, I guess Bijuu have night vision. Shukaku's chakra has probably been helping you see in the dark all your life, that is so frickin' useful. If we get out of this alive, I'm gonna make Shukaku teach us how that works. We can invent the night vision jutsu."

"I imagine it's just enhancing how much natural light your eye can receive and process." Sai postulated. "Jinchuuriki might be able to do it naturally due to their symbiosis with the Bijuu. They have larger reserves to begin with, and if the Bijuu themselves process light that way, the Bijuu's chakra might instinctively do so within the host."

"Sounds like it would take really good chakra control not to blow your eyes out when you do it, though." Sakura tried to remember her brief studies into chakra pathways. There were plenty of chakra nodes in the head, and pathways that specifically moved around the eyes. That sort of jutsu would require molding the chakra in those pathways in a way that enhanced light, without altering the natural flow.

...but really, wasn't that what she did with her feet when she climbed trees or water walked? It had taken effort at first, but now that she had been doing it for over a year, it happened without thinking. It wasn't just a matter of using a jutsu, it was just training her body to naturally adjust her chakra to dim light.

All she needed to know was how.

"You and Emi should take the lead for now, Gaara. We'll follow behind you." Sakura decided. "And if Shukaku has any tips for us to practice while we move…"

"...he says you have a better chance of learning echolocation."

Sakura held up her middle finger towards Gaara. "For Shukaku, not you."

They walked well into the night, making their way forward as quickly and quietly as possible. Emi had caught wind of some sort of scent, but it was soon clear that it would take some time to catch up with whomever she'd decided to follow. It was past midnight that the exhaustion of the day began to catch up with Sakura, and even Sai looked as though his eyes were beginning to droop.

"We should rest." Gaara finally spoke up, coming to a stop. "I don't need sleep. I can keep watch."

"Yeah, and if we stop, that gives others a chance to catch up to us." Sakura countered.

"It won't matter if you're too tired to stop them."

"...right." It was a fair point. Sakura hadn't used up too much chakra in their early sprint, but without sleep, she'd just be at a disadvantage. This was a dilemma the other teams would be facing as well, and they didn't have an insomniac Jinchuuriki at their disposal to keep watch. Taking a brief nap now, conserving strength...they were just using their assets to their advantage.

Setting up a small camp was easy. Sakura had gotten experience setting up perimeter traps in the last exam, and Sai's artistic eye was able to help blend their little tent with the foliage around it. Sakura set up two sleeping bags inside of it, then distributed rations to the boys. From there, Gaara perched himself in one of the boughs of the tree above them, with Emi at his side to help keep watch.

Sakura was used to sleeping outside now. She remembered in the previous exam how difficult it had been to sleep on hard ground, but now the earth beneath her felt like a comfortable, firm mattress. She and Sai settled, back to back, and Sakura slowly began to let herself drift to sleep.

"...Sakura?"

Sakura's eyes flew open, and it took her a minute to realize that it was Sai speaking her name. Sai almost never spoke her name directly, it was always 'Fisticuffs' or some other name to reference her. But he had definitely said it; as Sakura sat up, she noticed that Sai had turned around to face her.

"Yeah?"

"We might be dying soon."

Sakura huffed, turning back around and laying down again. "Yeah, I know, Sai, I'm trying not to think about it too much."

"I thought I was ready to die."

Sakura looked back again. Sai was gazing forward towards the entrance of the tent, not meeting her eyes as he spoke. "I thought I was ready to die for Root."

"Sai-"

"I killed my brother, Sakura."

Brother? Sai had never mentioned a brother before, but Sakura was suddenly reminded of the book she had taken from him when they had first met. The book with two shinobi, battling foes until they met and held hands at the very end...at least, that was how Sai had ended it. Could that have been his brother?

"Root are told to eliminate all attachments. My brother and I...we had gotten close in our training. He let me kill him. He...he told me to live on, for us. He just...ran into my blade." Sai's voice still seemed apathetic as he spoke, but Sakura could see in the darkness that his hands had begun to shake. "He was ready to die so that I could live. But I realized...that wasn't really the truth. Not all of it. We could have tried to run. We could have gone to the Hokage and begged to be released from Root. We could have tried to defect. Maybe we would have died, but if we'd lived, we would have had each other. But my brother...he had already given up, then. He didn't think there was another way. Maybe he couldn't live in a world where I had died, but maybe more than that, he couldn't bring himself to live in this world at all."

Sakura reached out, putting her hand on top of Sai's. It still shook, but he did not pull away.

"But I wanted to live." Sai continued. "I did as Danzo asked because I wasn't ready to die. For all I swore about protecting Konoha with my last breath, all I was really doing was following orders so that they wouldn't kill me. Living an empty life was better than having no life at all. It hurt to live without my brother, but I couldn't change what he had done. And maybe, at the time, I hadn't wanted to live in a world without him either...but he'd made me promise to live. So I did. I thought I did. But living in fear isn't really living, is it?"

It wasn't. Sakura couldn't help but agree, but she didn't dare speak up now. This was...the most Sai had ever really talked about himself, and she didn't want to stop him now.

"I think I saw it for the first time when I saw you and Gaara. You both, working together, not because of fear, not because of duty, but because you wanted to. And then you started the neutrality pact and...I saw a world where no one had to be afraid. Nobody would have to die for anyone else. I saw it and...I didn't know it then, but I had to reach for that world, or else I might as well have been dead all this time. My brother might have given up, but I didn't have to. Instead of dying for what I was told to die for, I could die for something I believed in. It was the same as you and Gaara, I thought. You're ready to put your life on the line for this. You've already put your life on the line for this. Gaara will never stop putting his life on the line for you. And me...I've finally become like the brother I idolized. I can't go back to the way things were. And I can't let you fail. I can't live in a world where Danzo killed you. So you have to...you have to promise me, if I tell you to run and leave me behind-"

"I won't." Sakura insisted, squeezing his hand tight to assure him. He'd been joking about it so much, she hadn't realized...or maybe it hadn't been joking at all? Had she just been unable to see it this entire time? "That's not going to happen, Sai. You're not going to die out here. We're not going to die, Sai, because we have something to live for. Why do you think I was able to stand up to Itachi? Why do you think I was able to leave my village, run all this way, come this far? It's not about dying for something, Sai, it's about living for it. And I promise you, Sai, as long as I can move, as long as I can draw breath, we are not going to die in this fucking forest, no matter what Danzo throws at us."

"Sakura, please-"

"Maybe I can't live in a world where Danzo killed you either, Sai!" Sakura let herself snap, not caring if Gaara heard, not caring if anyone heard. "Haven't you put that together yet? You're my friend. We didn't go through all this hell just for you throw your life away. We are making it through together. I'm not gonna die. Gaara's not gonna die. And so help me you're not gonna die or else I'll figure out that stupid jutsu Orochimaru uses to bring the dead back and once I've used it on you I'll really show you some damn fisticuffs."

"...I see."

Sai went quiet for a while, though he still had not pulled his hand away. He hadn't yet met her eyes either. But as the seconds passed away, Sakura felt the shaking in his hand begin to stop.

"I see." He repeated. "That feeling...that look in your eyes then…"

Sakura didn't know what he was talking about, but she felt Sai's other hand reach to cover hers. "Living for something. You're right, I don't think I've ever tried that. No one ever speaks of living in the shinobi world. Only dying, and dying well. Living well...I don't think I know how to do that. But if we survive this, if the pact survives...would that be living well, do you think?"

"I think so."

"Then...as long as we move. As long as we draw breath." Sai's eyes met hers, and Sakura could almost feel a change in the air, as if determination was starting to leak into his chakra, into the very space around them. "We stay alive."

"That's right, Sai. We stay alive."

This time, as they drifted off to sleep, Sakura made sure her hand never left his.

When the morning came, so too did the enemy.

Their presence was announced with a mighty blast as one of Sakura's larger traps was deployed. Sai had stocked up on a plethora of explosive tags, and Sakura had lined up a dozen of them around the perimeter of their tent, along with an intricate web of trip wires disguised under the brush. They were midway into breakfast when it occurred, but each of them dropped their rations in a flash as the explosions sounded around them. Sakura let out a quick sensing pulse, and paled as she realized the number of shinobi that had approached them.

One, two, three...ten total, though the tenth's chakra was so low she barely picked up on it at all. She couldn't help but wonder if her traps had been lethal; ten was three teams plus one, which would have been an odd grouping. Briefly, Sakura hoped it hadn't been any of the Konoha rookies caught up in the explosion, but Emi's angry growling was more than enough to convince her that it wasn't friends who had approached them.

Nine of the shinobi moved forward into the perimeter. The tenth stayed behind, and Sakura's pulses confirmed, after several bursts, that their chakra was fading and fading fast. Dead, likely. Their preparation had turned it from a four on one scenario to a three on one scenario. Bad odds, but still better than it had been.

They were sporting Konoha headbands, and Sakura noticed that they were all wearing similar dark clothing, clothing that vaguely reminded her of Sai's attire. With the exception of one who had taken the front, the shinobi all had blank expressions that definitely were familiar. She had seen that same blankness on Sai when they had first met months ago.

Root agents, all of them. Danzo hadn't just persuaded the villages to sic their teams on her, he'd planted his own teams to take her down. It wasn't even about taking the exams. Root agents were supposed to be beyond chuunin level to begin with. Danzo had planted four Root teams into the exams in the hope of taking her down, and it was only by luck that her traps had managed to eliminate one of them.

The front shinobi had put on an expression that was something of a mockery of a smile. It certainly didn't look friendly; in fact, it reminded her of the look on Orochimaru's face as he'd toyed with Sasuke in the Forest of Death. Sadistic...and cold.

"Tera…" She heard Sai whisper.

"Not bad for a bunch of traitors." The man replied. He pulled out what looked to be three senbon at first, but as Sakura stole another glance she realized that they were longer than traditional senbon, and that there were wires attached to the ends. She saw Sai take a step back at the sight of them. Clearly he knew the man and what he could do, and seeing Sai afraid was enough to put her even more on the defensive.

"Danzo wants to give you a chance to redeem yourself, Sai." Tera spoke. "If you kill the Haruno girl now, he will welcome you back into Root. And there will only be...minor punishment."

Sakura and Gaara both looked to Sai then, but in this Sai did not show any signs of wavering. He pulled forth an empty scroll, prepared for a fight. "You may tell Danzo to…" He looked over to Gaara. "How does Shukaku usually say it? Ah." He looked back to Tera, and Sakura saw him put an equally fake smile on his face. "Eat shit and die."

Sakura snorted, her fear temporarily abated by the comment. Maybe Sai was wary of the man, but he certainly wasn't going to show it any longer. Sakura readied herself, letting her chakra begin to build.

"Well." Tera commented, sounding amused. "How unfortunate for you. And how stupid. You could have avoided all this suffering, but now you'll have to join in."

He gave a sharp jerk of his head, and the eight shinobi behind him leapt forward into action. Sakura was prepared. Three of the eight headed for her, another three to Gaara, and two towards Sai. Tera held back; if she could take him out, Sakura theorized, it might serve to scatter the group. But for now, she had to survive, and while she didn't know what Root were capable of, they didn't know what she was capable of either. She slammed both of her hands downwards, and five pillars of earth shot up in front of her. Two of her attackers dodged, but one wasn't so lucky. It didn't knock him out, but it did send him up into the air, and Sakura was more than happy to take advantage. She shoved chakra towards her feet and ran, just barely missing a sword blow from one of the other shinobi. Another well placed earth pillar just below her feet helped catapult her into the air, and from there Sakura let gravity take hold of her. As the enemy hit the ground, she twisted in the air, preparing to land a powerful punch while he was downed. However, right before she was due to land the blow, she felt a sharp pain in her arm; two shuriken had landed in her flesh, and though her punch still landed, it was with nowhere near the amount of force she had initially planned. She fell to the ground, only just managing to roll herself up and into a kneeling position. The shuriken had gotten in deep, and the shinobi who had thrown them was already preparing more to send her way. Sakura wrenched the shuriken out, not letting herself linger on the pain. With her uninjured arm, she flung them just in time to intercept the enemy's.

The shinobi she'd punched wasn't unconscious, but was still downed. For now, she wouldn't have to worry about him, which just meant there was two more to take care of before-

"Sakura!"

Sai's voice shattered her concentration, and Sakura glanced wildly around the battlefield until she caught sight of where Sai was looking. Gaara had been surrounded by his three attackers, but...they weren't attacking him. They'd each pulled out a large scroll and unraveled it, and the glow of the symbols on the paper were enough to confirm that they had already activated whatever jutsu they'd written upon it. And Gaara was…

Gaara was...glowing?

His sand had seemed to freeze in place around him, and as Sakura looked, she could see that the glowing was from a large symbol on Gaara's stomach. She could see lines and kanji that wove in an intricate circle, a seal she realized, the seal that was keeping Shukaku bound within Gaara's flesh. Whatever the shinobi were doing, it had caused Gaara to halt and the seal to glow.

One of the three pulled out what looked to be a large tea kettle, and in that moment Sakura understood.

They were trying to remove Shukaku.

They were trying to remove Shukaku.

Gaara had told her that in the early days of the village's founding, Shukaku had been sealed within a giant tea kettle, before he had ever been sealed within a human host. And of course Sunagakure would know the sealing techniques required to pull Shukaku from a host and put him back in his original prison; Suna had made the seals to begin with. And Danzo had ensured Suna's alliance by ensuring that they would have a chance to recover their Bijuu from his rebellious host.

Sakura heard a gut wrenching scream as the seal started to unravel, and it was at that moment that she also remembered that removing a Bijuu from its host would kill the host, which meant that unless she did something quickly Gaara was going to die. She turned her back on the enemies in front of her, sending as much chakra as she could to her legs. If she could just get there fast enough, land a good punch on one of them-

She felt a stabbing sensation in her shoulder, and all of the sudden her world was pain.

It felt like minutes passed before Sakura was able to understand what was happening. Her vision went white, and when she was able to feel something besides pain, she became aware that her entire body seemed to be vibrating intensely. There was a sound, a high pitched sound that she eventually realized was a scream wrenching itself from her throat. Eventually, the vibrations ceased, and her vision bled back into view. Sakura saw a wire in front of her, and as she forced her head to turn she realized that one of Tera's senbon had lodged itself into her shoulder.

"So sorry, Ms. Haruno." Tera spoke in a manner that reminded her of a parent admonishing a child. "But there won't be any interfering with the Jinchuuriki by you today. Danzo wants you dead, of course...but he told me I didn't have to do it quickly."

Sakura saw Tera move a free hand to make a hand sign. His other hand sparked with energy, his chakra building into lightning that suddenly coursed down the wire he was holding...the wire that was attached to the senbon in her shoulder.

Once again, Sakura's world became pain.

Her body seemed to lock into place, and as much as she longed to yank the senbon from her body, the electric shocks kept her from being able to move so much as a finger. She heard screaming again, and now she wasn't sure if it was her or Gaara. (Both?) When the shocks stopped, Sakura felt earth on her face. She had fallen over, and before she could even think of getting up again, another shock made its way through her body and all she could feel was pain pain pain.

"You're an earth type, of course." Tera's voice sounded muffled, distant compared to the ringing in her ears. "I'm sure my lightning must feel especially good on someone like you. Come now, are you really that weak? I haven't even used all three of my needles yet. I wonder if you'll be able to handle two of them? I'll let you take a breather. We don't want you to pass out just yet, do we?"

Sakura couldn't move her arms, she couldn't move her arms, but she could still see, still force herself to move, she had to keep moving, she had to keep breathing. Out of the corner of her eyes she saw that two shinobi had managed to restrain Sai, holding his arms behind him and forcing him to stay knelt on the ground, forcing him to watch, Sakura realized.

"Is the traitor having fun yet?" Tera looked back to Sai with a malicious sneer. "You've grown attached to her, haven't you? You weren't supposed to get attached. Now you get to see why. I think it's time to see if your precious Sakura can handle two charges, don't you think?"

Not two. She couldn't handle two. Sakura forced chakra through her body, trying to push something out, get a jutsu to work, force her legs to move, anything. She willed her energy into the ground beneath her, and she saw Tera suddenly dance to the left as a pitiful pillar of earth jutted out next to him.

"She's still got a bite." Tera stated, looking almost gleeful. "That just makes it more fun, doesn't it?"

He readied a second senbon, and Sakura knew without a doubt that she didn't have the strength to move, let alone dodge. It hit her other shoulder, and there was a second, a second that seemed to last an eternity, that Sakura and Sai's eyes met.

She saw him mouth the word 'no'.

And then there was pain pain pain pain pain.