Chapter Six: Endgame
The attack came from above. Four black-clad ninja dropped from the thick forest canopy to the ground and surrounded Sai while four more descended on Ino. Their ninja masks covered everything except their eyes and they had small gas masks on so some kind of toxin or sedative was likely coming. As a fine mist sprayed in Sai's face, a pair of his signature snakes, enormous black vipers, rose from the ground. In an instant, one snake spiraled around the attacker, pinning the man's arms to his side while the other snake wound around his face and snapped his neck. Sai pivoted to the other man and sunk a kunai into his side.
"The sedative isn't working!" yelled another, "Just restrain him!"
Ino threw one attacker off of her and stabbed a knife into his side. She flipped two shuriken into the other two and started to run towards Sai when she felt the sedative effects of the mist slowing her down. Sai pulled his tanto from his back and slashed at the one who had shouted.
"Listen. Just stop fighting and come with us and no one else will get hurt."
Another advanced on him. Sai flipped his tanto to drive him back. Three more assailants appeared, dropping from the upper branches of the trees. Ino hesitated a moment and then leaned herself against a wide tree trunk. As her body slumped against the tree, she projected her mind into one of the new arrivals and promptly used him to attack the other two.
Sai immediately felt the transition of Ino's mind entering the enemy ninja. His adrenaline rush from the battle drained away as he realized her own body was now unprotected. If the attackers realized her vulnerability…
As he worriedly looked for her another two ninjas dropped in front of him. One charged at him with a kunai and as Sai turned to block with his tanto the other leapt in front of him and drove a blade directly into Sai's chest. Suddenly it was painful to breathe, he glanced down in surprise at the blood leaking around the blade that had impaled him.
"No, no we can't kill him!" Someone shouted, causing the attackers to pause for a split second. Sai slammed the hilt of his sword into the attacker's head sending him tumbling to the ground unconscious, but already Sai's vision was blurring.
Ino, frantic, released her mind back to her body in its hiding place behind the tree but she realized she was now too far away from him. This is how Asuma died. Two new assailants appeared and pinned Sai's arms while a third desperately pulled the blade free from his chest and struggled to apply pressure to the wound. Sai's vision swam and he coughed up blood, splattering crimson from his lips and down his already bloodied shirt.
Ino fired a kunai across the woods at one of the ninjas holding Sai. The kunai struck the black clad ninja in the head and he tumbled to the ground, but it was already too late. More reinforcements arrived, lifting Sai away from the carnage as Ino sprinted towards him.
"Sai!" Ino yelled, half scream, half sob. Sai was too weak to even lift his head, he vaguely felt his arms pinned behind him and thought that can't be good for this type of injury. The pain in his chest was excruciating, it was the only thing he felt clearly. Everything else was like a hazy dream: Ino's distant cry, the warm pressure of a green chakra bandage on his chest, the pull against the ground as they sprinted him out of sight. Ino's cry was the last thing he remembered before he finally fell unconscious.