Author's Note: Hi everyone! Thanks, yet again, for the wonderful amount of reviews and the support you've all been handing out in tenfold. It really helps me out. Only Secret (my wonder, awesome, great beta of marvelous-ness) and I have been doing some plotting behind the scenes for this chapter and a few up coming scenes (can you say SasuSaku moment beyond all moments?) and they're actually slowly getting written out. So never fear! This story has a plot and is actually going somewhere. I'm not sure you'll all like it, but oh well.

Sacrifice: Wilted Blossom of Spring

Chapter 4: Self Decimation, Part 2

Clouds dotted the midnight sky, obscuring the slight amount of light Sakura had to work with. Their assumption of needing to protect themselves had been correct—around noon they were ambushed by a small number of skilled shinobi. They were trapped like rats, with nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. They somehow managed to force the battle on for hours and come out victorious but if another attack came that night, they would be incapable of fighting. Nearly all of their chakra had been used, and their bodies needed time to recuperate.

Hinata was sitting against a tree, her hand covering one of the larger wounds she'd obtained, trying to hold the blood in by applying pressure. Sakura was digging in her pouch for the small vial of medicinal crème before she turned to Hinata and removed the woman's hand. The gash was large and would require stitches if she wasn't careful with the healing.

Positioning her hands above the wound, Sakura watched and concentrated as her green chakra began seeping into her friend. Hinata winced a bit as the tissue began a rushed healing of itself, cells splitting and doubling to increase the healing process. When most of the bleeding had stopped, Sakura began bandaging the cut, her hands skillfully scaling around Hinata's abdomen and behind her back without irritating the injury. Taking a small, damp cloth, she began cleaning the blood that ran from Hinata's hairline, trying to determine where the wound started and if it needed any special care.

"We survived the first day." Hinata stated, her voice weak. "Tomorrow I'll try to keep a better watch."

"It wouldn't have mattered. We can't escape this spot." Came the cynical response.

Frowning, Hinata could do nothing but concede. It was true. It had taken a while for them to discover they were in a genjutsu bound prison. When they'd figured that out, the ambush came. There hadn't been time to try and focus their energy into dispelling the illusion, and now neither had enough chakra to do so. Still, they had made it through the first day and a half.

Shikamaru and Anko should have arrived in Konoha by then, assembling a team to head back.

Sakura handed over a medicine vial to Hinata, silently hoping they could last the rest of the time out there alone.

They sped through the trees, silently keeping watch of everything around them from the animals to the smallest speck of dust in the air. They were one day away from where the two kunoichi were trapped—one day away from bringing them home safely. Shikamaru had attempted to contact the girls via radio, but they were too far out of range for a signal. There was no guarantee they had their radios on to begin with.

Sasuke had been positioned behind Naruto and in front of Neji, playing the role of back support. It irritated him how he was not in Naruto's position but he wasn't stupid enough to challenge Shikamaru's tactics—even if he didn't understand the reasoning, he knew his mind wasn't as sharp as Shikamaru's and it was pointless to fight over something he didn't understand.

Sometimes, Sasuke wished he'd carried earplugs with him on missions to drown out Naruto's annoying chatter. He had not closed his mouth since they left, muttering things about 'we have to get Hinata back', 'Hinata could be hurt and it's my fault', or 'they could be dead'. The talk was grating on Sasuke's final nerve—he was worried enough as it was (and that was irritating all within itself); he didn't need to listen to Naruto's eternal mantra.

"Hey Shikamaru, we need to stop!" Kiba cried, clinging desperately to a limb behind him.

The group of five halted, Akamaru taking the time to sniff and bark things no one but Kiba could comprehend. Kiba grunted before turning to Neji.

"Can you look straight ahead?"

Neji did as he was asked, Byakugan in place. "Chakra strings. So thin they're invisible to the naked eye."

"So how do we get around them?" Naruto questioned, impatience in his voice. "I don't want to leave Hinata out there all alone longer than I need to. She and Sakura-chan can only do so much by themselves."

"Shut up, dobe." Sasuke stated. "We're going to get there. They're strong enough to hold out on their own."

"Sasuke-teme!"

Neji pointed to the right. "They end abruptly on that side. I don't know if there is another trap waiting for us there or not. Our other choice is to go above them."

Shikamaru stopped to think, analyzing the information Neji had given him over Naruto's inane arguments and insults toward Sasuke. They were making this more troublesome than it needed to be by believing they were the only ones with emotional attachments to the girls they were after. Shikamaru was responsible for the predicament in the first place, Kiba was originally a member of Hinata's team and Neji was her cousin. Everyone had a reason for trying as hard as Sasuke and Naruto claimed to be.

They were only holding them back.

How utterly troublesome.

"I thought they'd be back by now." Hinata stated, taking over Sakura's job and bandaging Sakura's wounds. "It's already been three days."

Leaning her head to the side, Sakura allowed Hinata to place the ointment on the kunai injuries marring her neck. "The traps probably delayed them. Just be happy we broke the genjutsu prison. We can meet up with them halfway."

"This isn't healthy."

"What's not healthy?" she replied, utterly confused.

"The way you've been." Hinata stated, somewhat shy in speaking her mind to her friend. "Naruto-kun was right, you have not been yourself lately."

Glaring, Sakura pulled away from Hinata and continued bandaging her wounds on her own. "You don't know anything. It's none of your concern anyway, so stop prying where you don't belong, Hinata."

Hinata backed away and turned silent. She now understood what Naruto had been telling her about—Sakura definitely wasn't herself. It had her worried. Sakura would easily forget something that had enraged her as opposed to holding a grudge. What could have possibly happened to her? With the way her thoughts were going, Hinata could only hope she was wrong.

"Let's keep going Hinata, before the Country of Earth's shinobi…"

She was cut off when she tripped over a string hidden in the foliage, kunai racing toward her from the trap she'd just set off. Hinata raced into her absolute defense technique that Neji had taught her, while Sakura was stuck to dodging. She blocked and dodged, hopping every which direction until a kunai lodged itself in her thigh. She halted in mid step, forcing herself to protect her vitals with her arms.

Blood splashed out of the kunai wounds in her defensively positioned arms and legs before she fell forward to the ground, rolling onto her back to begin pulling the cursed weapons out of her body. She heard Hinata stopped spinning in her chakra whirlwind and rushed over to help pulling out the daggers. All the sounds and images began blurring together into an intricate pattern of nothing before Sakura's world filled with black.

They were running late. What should have been a day and a half trip was slowly slinking edging toward two and a half. With all the traps they were forced to evade, more time was spent on treading carefully along the tree line than actually focusing on reaching their goal. No one wanted to stop—they were already over the allotted time frame by a day and were still out of radio contact range. Shikamaru sat against a tree with his hands in the usual position when he was plotting tactics, trying to come up with a plan regarding the kunoichi.

Sakura had told him they only had enough food for three days, meaning they would soon be scavenging away from where they were left. That only complicated matters further- if they couldn't find them, how would they retrieve them? The situation continued spiraling out of the control and left Shikamaru at a loss. The best thing they could do was keep heading northwest and hoped that they ran into the people they were trailing. They were close enough that radio contact would be established after another hour or two of traveling.

Shikamaru heaved a sigh of relief. There was one thing in their favor. If he could instruct the girls to remain where they were and get a detailed description of the place, Neji could use his Byakugan to estimate where they were at. From there everyone could start heading for each other.

Yes. This was what would have to happen.

Removing his hands from their tactical position, he leaned back and cracked open one eye. Everyone around camp was asleep except for himself and the only surviving Uchiha, who was entertaining himself by poking the dying fire between them. Honestly, Shikamaru would have preferred if Sasuke had not been included on this mission—his skills weren't in high demand for a retrieval mission, and his constant brooding only drove the rest of the five man cell into deeper, darker moods. It was distracting.

"Are you done staring at me now?" Sasuke inquired, his voice laced with annoyance.

"I'm trying to figure out why you're here. As troublesome as this mission is, your presence is just one extra person to try and keep alive on my part." Shikamaru responded, not minding if his words were insulting. "The Hokage did not assign you to this mission."

"She never said I couldn't come." Sasuke stated.

Raising an eyebrow and crossing his arms, Shikamaru decided to pry further. "How did you find out about the mission in the first place?"

"I saw you come back with missing members, one of which was my teammate at one point. I came to the office to find out what happened when I saw the dobe heading there." He responded, his voice leaking out the irritation he felt with/of the interrogation.

It wasn't Shikamaru's business as to why he'd decided to go on this mission, with or without Tsunade's permission. He was just there. The most vexing part of the situation was that Sasuke himself wasn't entirely sure why he was there. He had acted purely on instinct and his homicidal, primal urge to protect his remaining important people. Had it been Naruto, he would have done the same thing.

'I would have… right?'

Shikamaru shifted and prepared himself to sleep. "Get some rest. You'll be troublesome if you're too tired to keep up."

To appease the search party leader, Sasuke lay down on the small blanket every ninja brought with them. Staring toward the few embers left in the fire, he allowed his thoughts to wander and focus on the issue that had contaminated his mind. Sasuke let out a sadistic grin—he knew something was wrong when thoughts of revenge refused to circulate through his mind because he was too focused on something else. He just needed to figure out what was wrong with Sakura and he could go back to his never ending search for vengeance. It was annoying how she occupied his thoughts so much.

Then again, she always had been annoying.

Sakura and Hinata walked in silence as both of them focused on their path. Hinata's Byakugan was searching for any possible chakra induced traps while Sakura searched the ground and tree tops for any the smallest inclination of anything out of place that could be used against them. Both of them were skeptical of each muscle movement they made—after three days of almost non stop ambushes and attacks, everything had suddenly become quiet.

They knew better than to believe they were out of the worst of it.

"Sakura, Hinata? Can you hear this?"

Stumbling to push the response button, Hinata took the initiative to start their conversation. "Yeah, we can hear you Shikamaru."

"Hinata? You can hear Hinata?" came Naruto's voice came through the static on Shikamaru's radio. "Shut up Naruto. Where are you two?"

"We're walking back on the same path we took to get here." Sakura answered, her voice aggressive. "What took you so long?"

Turning toward her friend, Hinata gave a disapproving shake of her head. Sakura frowned a bit in apology—she hadn't meant to sound so desperate and enraged, but she was tired and wanted to go home. She knew she was stressed more than Hinata—her mind wouldn't allow her to rest until she got home. Every time she fell asleep, she'd be haunted with images of the assault and needless sacrifice she'd made. Her mind was on pins and needles, causing her to question the motives of every blade of grass or falling leaf.

She hated herself for her weakness. After working so hard to become as strong as she was and have everyone acknowledge her strength, Sakura was headed on a downward spiral toward the weakness that had made her nothing but a burden. Instead of being enraged with the man who brought her to this point, she was depressed over the fact she was allowing herself to be this way. No manner of self control could fix the state she was in or how torn she felt—she was no longer suited for the life of a ninja.

"These traps that were set are very troublesome. Don't think we got as far as we did unscathed."

Static overflowed the radio, sometimes interrupted in what the two girls could make out as Naruto being his usual noisy self. "Hinata, Sakura-chan! You two aren't hurt, are you? Who did it? I'll kick their…"

"Moron… they would have said something if they needed us there in two seconds."

"What was that, Sasuke-teme?"

Hinata let out a small smile. "We're fine Naruto-kun; now give the radio back to Shikamaru so you can find us."

"Okay. Where exactly are you?" the next voice was Shikamaru's, plain as day. "By the sounds of this signal you can't be more than a hundred meters ahead."

Sakura looked around, trying to find a landmark that could help him pinpoint their location. "If it helps any, there are two boulders next to a large, dead coniferous tree."

Silence met her response.

That was when they heard the branch snap.

"Akamaru has their scent." Kiba informed everyone. "He'll lead us straight to them."

Whimpering ensued from the dog as he began backing up against Kiba's legs, trying to bury himself in the cloth of his pants. He bent down and began to pet him, listening intently to the incoherent sounds his beloved pet made. After shaking his head and telling the dog to compose himself, he turned to the others.

"He sniffed out hostile chakra up ahead, and a lot of blood."

Author's Note: Okay. A cliffhanger. The chapter turned out longer than normal (even if I'm not happy with it). Thanks for all the reviews though! I never expected to as many as I did. Remember to read and review!

Love and hugs-

Crystal Renee