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Sakura
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This was such a bad idea, Sakura realizes, straining her ears. The footfalls of a dozen men welcome her as she tries to calm down her panicked heart. Why did they all follow her? Weren't they after Naruto, after the Kyūbi? She glances back at her pursuers, tries to count the exact number of Anbu masks jumping through the trees, but a sudden droplet lands on her cheek and redirects her attention upward.
Dark clouds, almost black, obscure the sky, and a strong wind picked up a few minutes ago. The last thing Sakura needs is a storm right now, and that's exactly what she will get.
The day goes by, and she cannot say how many hours she's run in the pouring rain, all of her chakra directed to the muscles of her legs, her blinking eyes trying to see through the curtains of water. But when darkness comes, her lungs burn so much, her heart beats so fast, that she could almost believe she's dying of a heart attack.
She slows down, infuses chakra to her ears, and a small smile graces her lips when she realizes the distance she's gained over her opponents. Sakura drops to the forest floor at that new piece of information, tries to ignore her body's protests upon landing, and settles on locating the river she knows course through those woods.
She follows the sound of the flowing water and soon reaches the shore. On instinct, her hands fly to her mission bag, only for her to remember she didn't bring it. Her shoulders slump, but she tries not to dwell on that problem too much and instead focuses on the water running in her mouth, easing her cracked lips, her dry throat.
She halts her movements at every rolling pebble, every snapping of twigs, like a defenceless doe with big bright eyes reverberating the moonlight, body tensed, muscles taut. But Sakura isn't the easy prey she used to be; she may not be the strongest or the biggest, but she's cunning, like the fox.
Instead of forcing her weight on her tired legs again, Sakura dives into the cold water, tries to ignore the feeling of hundreds of needles piercing her skin, the contraction of her stomach, the impossibility for her burning lungs to get air.
Then, her body drifts for a while as her eyes search for the perfect hideout. At last, she settles on digging a hole behind three big rocks when the cold water becomes too much to bear. She coats her body with the discarded mud to ensure that no one can spot neither her pink hair nor her green shirt from afar. Her tiny body crawls under the rocks next, and her head can finally rest on the cold, mushy ground. Her eyes close as she turns her focus to her surroundings.
From what she can tell, most of her pursuers have also come to a stop, so her body eases a bit, although both palms still stay face down on the ground. That way, if someone approaches her hideout, the feeling of the earth shifting underneath should be enough to alert her.
She inhales deeply; her eyes find a crack through the rocks to peek at the starless sky. Then, her mind goes back to the event of the day. What if the explosions were more than that? What if it means something terrible happened to Tsunade? The blonde's words have replayed a lot in Sakura's head over the day. Did Danzō win the fight? Is Konoha celebrating the succession to the fifth Hokage at this very moment?
Sakura doesn't want to think of what it would mean for her kind, for Lee, who was already struggling, for Neji. What will he do now that she's gone? Follow his uncle's orders? Bring Lee himself to Danzō's vacation house? Will he believe she died? Will he finally move on?
Somehow, this notion isn't as comforting as she thought it would. She doesn't want Neji to move on, but cannot give him what he wants, either. What a selfish girl she's becoming... Not that it will matter for much longer, though. Because even if Sakura has her Yin seal and the Will of Fire coursing through her veins, she knows deep down it won't be enough. She won't be enough. Her pursuers not only outnumber her, but they have also trained all their lives for this kind of mission.
A sudden, slight, almost imperceptible movement of the earth snaps her out of her depressing thoughts. They are close to finding her, too close. She crawls back to the river, tries to not make a sound when she dives in without a glance behind.
She stays underwater for a while, letting her body follow the stream as she advances further down the forest. She will hold her breath for as long as she can and use her hidden position to find an opening. Or at least that was the plan until the current speeds up, and her head smashes against a large rock. She swims back to the surface as she heals her wound, and her hip hits another rock. Then her gaze lands on the end of the river; her ears pick up the sound of a waterfall.
With her heart crashing against her rib cage, she awaits the fall, for her body to follow the curve of the running water. When it happens, she cannot hold back her gasp of surprise, and for a moment, time seems to stop. She comes crashing down a second after, and her body hits the bottom of the lake in a painful breaking of ribs. But there's no time for healing right now. She reemerges from the water as a shout breaks from the trees.
"By the lake!"
"Shit."
She hurries to the opposite shore and resumes to run as soon as her feet touch the ground. The rising sun makes a small appearance a moment later, its light piercing through the clouds, a brief sight the return of the pouring rain quickly replaced.
And she continues like this for a while, minutes turning into hours, turning into days. The periods of rest are getting shorter and sparser as she dives further into Oto's forest. During that time, Sakura comes to accept that she won't be able to return to her friends as she's promised. There's no way to overrun them, Danzō's men. She always thought she was in good shape, but clearly, Tsunade's training was nothing compared to theirs.
She curses when her foot slips on a wet bark for the umpteenth time. Since she knows they will eventually catch up with her, she should probably not put off the inevitable any longer. The last bit of her chakra shouldn't be wasted to escape. At that thought, Sakura drops to the forest floor.
Through her own noisy breathing, she can hear their footsteps as they near her. Her hands reach for the gloves in her pouch, then for a kunai in its holster. The men appear in front of her a moment later, their damp cloaks covered in mud, chests heaving. There's some satisfaction at seeing them like this, just as exhausted as she feels.
She doesn't wait for them to make the first move, and as soon as the last man reaches the forest floor, her chakra-infused foot stomps the ground, and the earth splits in two, creating a giant abyss that charges at them. While they try to find back their bearings, she lunges at the man who arrived last, the weakest link.
He ducks, avoids the kunai aiming at his chest, and unsheathes his blade. In one graceful arc, he tries to pierce the girl's shoulder, but she bends her body to the left and takes hold of his wrist. The sound of broken bones mingles with the man's cry, and before the Tantō reaches the ground, Sakura's hand closes around its handle and slices upward, cutting his torso in a diagonal line. She makes to retreat when he falls to his knees, but a hand tangles in her loose hair. Her body tenses, her hold on the Tantō tightens, and she redirects the weapon backward. The grip releases her when the blade finds its way into the man's bicep.
She swirls around, ready to land another hit on the injured man, but another blade blocks her attack. She recognizes the lithe body, the small frame, the mask covering the man's face.
"Mole," she whispers, eyes wide.
He uses her surprised state to seize her throat and lifts her until her feet barely touch the ground. The Tantō in her hand drops to the forest floor.
"Admit your defeat." The voice is lower, darker than she remembers. "Where is she?"
She? Sakura frowns and tries to voice her confusion, but the hand around her throat tightens, preventing her from speaking.
"Before I let you speak, I want to make sure you accepted your defeat." Her hands move to grab his wrist, but Mole catches them both and pulls them down in an iron grip. "Don't think I will let you do that trick on me."
She meets his two chocolate brown eyes through the slits of his mask, tries to ignore the flashbacks they bring, how soft, joyful they once were. Beads of sweat roll down the side of her face; the colour of her skin turns from light pink to dark red; black dots obscure her vision then, and she tries to blink them away, wondering if it's the asphyxia or the increase in her body temperature that causes these symptoms. When the feeling of her burning skin gets unbearable, Mole releases her with a curse.
"You burned me." He glances at her and meets her defying glare. "You've changed."
He tries to catch her again, but Sakura crawls out of his grip, only to charge at him a second later, with chakra scalpels at her fingertips. She ducks the attack of another opponent and turns to see the result of her last hit. Mole lies on his side, clinging to his bloody thigh and staring at her in disbelief.
"I could have healed you, you know. If you hadn't betrayed me."
Someone appears in front of her then, doesn't spare her a glance and carries Mole up in a tree.
Her shoulders slump. "So, I guess it means you have a medic. Too bad for me."
One whistle resounds through the trees, and it doesn't take more for the men to lurch forward all at once. She survives their attacks for a while by using her chakra wisely, winding her body around the men like some professional dancer, breaking bones and dislocating limbs as she goes. She avoids using her superhuman strength for fear of chakra exhaustion, but when a blade finds its way through her shoulder, she can't help it. Her hand grabs her opponent's arm and swings him away. She watches his body crashing against a tree a few feet away from the fight. He doesn't get back up.
She tries to heal the fresh wound, but fireballs get spit in her direction. She escapes them only to be hit by a powerful gust of wind that adds several cuts to her already damaged skin and sends her flying against a tree. It takes her some time to get up after the blow. Her head is dizzy, her chakra almost non-existent, her eyelids heavy. An arm circles around her form when she finally gets up, pressing her arms against her body and her back to a firm chest. She hisses when a sharp blade meets the skin of her throat.
"Game over, Haruno. You gave a good show, but now, admit you're screwed. We're nice enough to offer you a deal, though. If you tell us where your blond friends are, we'll let you come back to the village in one piece."
She wriggles in his clutch but freezes when the man only puts more pressure on his weapon.
"And if I refuse?"
She feels his chest growling with laughter as he places his chin on top of her head.
"We'll bring you back to the village as well. But we'll take our time."
She scoffs when another man walks in front of her with a kunai in hand.
"I won't talk even if you torture me for days. Tsunade's training does that to someone. I'm immune to pain."
She holds her chin up as he applies more pressure to her throat and moves his face to the side, the mouth of his mask stopping in line with her ear.
"There are no women in this squad. And pain is not the only way to torture."
The man in front of her uses the tip of his kunai to follow the curves of her body. Her pouch falls to the ground when he cuts her belt.
"So, what will it be? You only have to tell us where to find the Slug Princess and the Jinchūriki."
So, they don't have Tsunade. At that thought, her shoulders ease. It means there is still hope for Konoha, for her to keep her promise. She snaps back to the present moment when her shirt is lifted.
"What do you think you're doing?"
With one kick of her heel, the earth shatters under their feet, sending the three of them falling down a hole that seems to have no end. The man behind doesn't let go of her, so Sakura's fingers slide between the kunai and her throat, and she pushes it back, ignoring the blade cutting through her gloves and into her skin. Then, she stops their fall by embedding the kunai to the earth. The other man's hand closes around her thigh, so she kicks his face, shattering his masks and sending him tumbling down the hole.
"Where does that lead?" The man still holding the kunai glances between her and his vanishing teammate, but she ignores him and channels chakra to her feet and hands before climbing up the cliff.
"Drop it, and you'll know," she answers as she reaches the top.
As she hoists herself out of the hole, a kunai lodges itself in her hand, binding her to the ground. A cry of pain leaves her mouth, and she tries to get up, but a foot lands behind her head, and she comes crashing down, face first. "You know what will happen if I put more pressure, don't you?"
She rolls her eyes at his question, forces her head off the ground enough to speak.
"Why team up with the Akatsuki? What will you gain from it? Are you really not caring at all about Konoha's safety? You realize you're helping a man who murdered his entire clan, right?"
"Not the entire clan. You should know that."
The man kicks her head back down, applies pressure until her nose breaks.
"It's way too complicated for a little civilian like you. You think you know everything because you're the Hokage's apprentice, but you don't. You know nothing, and I'll show you just how much I'm right." He turns her on her back, the skin of her impaled hand tearing under the movement. "I've been dying to do this for weeks."
His hand trails under her shirt, but as his thumb grazes the skin above her navel, she grabs a fistful of hair and sends her knee to his face, propelling him several feet back. "You're the guard at the compound," she realizes in disgust.
Her first assailant reemerges from the hole at that and grabs her legs to hold her in place.
"There's no way to survive this, kid. So tell us. Where are they?"
She leans her head back, closes her tired eyes for a second, tries to slow down her breathing. Her free hand goes to her face of its own accord, and with a sinister sound, her nose is put back in place. She tries to heal it, but before she can finish the process, someone grabs her wrist and yanks her free hand back.
She resists the urge to scream her irritation away and lifts her head to meet his gaze. "Up. Your. Ass."
She takes the man holding her legs by surprise when she uses chakra to push her impaled hand upward, then grabs the kunai that is still stuck in the ground to throw it towards him. He has to let go of her to avoid it, and she uses the momentum to kick him back down the hole. At the sound of broken ribs echoing in the forest and the disappearance of his body, Sakura summons chakra to her fingertips and lunges at the man still holding her wrist, trying to cut his throat as she gets up. He avoids the attack by releasing his grip and retreating swiftly backward.
She scans her surroundings, notices the high number of opponents still standing, then hunches in two, a metallic taste in her mouth. There's no way she will get out of this alive, she realizes, trying to ignore the blood running all over her cold skin.
One man steps forward, Tantō raised. Her shaky hand pushes a lock of hair out of her blurry vision. She blinks a few times in disbelief when her assailant disappears and finds him a second later convulsing on the forest floor with blue strings of electricity travelling up and down his body. An Anbu crouches at his side, then glances towards her, but the eyes of his mask are set higher.
"And you finally show up when we stop looking for you. How convenient," the man says, and Sakura's heart sinks at the familiarity of the voice.
The earth shifts behind her, but she refrains from glancing back, doesn't want to see him, cannot believe he, of all people, saved her. She knows she should use the diversion to flee, but something is holding her, and instead of running for her life, Sakura steps back, her heartbeat increasing at the waves of warmth radiating from his body.
"I don't need help," she whispers, loud enough for him to hear.
"Doesn't look like it." His voice sounds different, manly, dangerous. Goosebumps rise on her skin, but she hides them by crossing her arms over her chest. She settles her eyes on one of the Anbu, the one who last spoke. Somehow, something about him seems familiar.
"Why did you follow me instead of him?"
He tilts his head to the side; the sight makes Sakura feel uneasy.
"Akatsuki members are already taking care of them, Ugly." Her heart skips a beat. No. This cannot be… "Danzō-sama wants you back to the village and wants her dead. This is our mission. Or part of it, anyway. Just come back, Sakura."
Upon hearing her first name, she takes another step back, but a firm hand on her shoulder stops her dead in her tracks.
"Sai." She shakes her head, tries to control the tremor in her voice. "What the hell, Sai? What are you doing with them? You were there from the beginning, and you did nothing to help me? What is wrong with you?"
"The mission always comes first. And I thought you would give up after noticing you were outnumbered. I guess you are not that smart after all."
She frowns, bites down her tongue as her sharp mind tries to find an explanation, her gaze lost in Sai's abysmal eyes.
"But plans have changed." He glances at his squad. "We have to regroup for now. But we will see you again, Sakura."
He leaves the fighting area with the rest of his squad, but before he jumps into the nearest tree, his voice reaches her ears one last time. "Nice to see you again, traitor."
He disappears after that, leaves Sakura behind with a hole in her chest, with shaking limbs and a dizzy head, with so much pain and sorrow.
"Traitor yourself," she mutters, fists tightening.
But then she remembers Sasuke's presence and glances to the side. There's a pang in her heart when her eyes land on a group of rogues. To know he replaced Team Seven is one thing, but to see it… She had avoided looking at him, but upon hearing him move, she redirects her gaze forward. His back faces her as he walks away from her, so she lets her eyes travel up his long legs, covered by black trousers, stop for a second on his broad shoulders hid under a black t-shirt, glare at the Uchiha fan embroidered in the middle. He's so tall now, she realizes, so different. He's a man. When he kneels close to the edge of the hole, Sakura stares at his jet-black hair. He keeps it longer now…
"Where are you going?"
The woman's voice startles her, but Sasuke doesn't seem too fazed by it. He lets the silence stretches for a while, only answers at the sound of an exasperated sigh. "I need one of them for interrogation."
"No need," Sakura says then, and she sees his shoulders tense. "They can't talk." When he doesn't seem to acknowledge her, she elaborates. "They have a seal on their tongue and everything."
He gets up, pinches the bridge of his nose, but before their eyes can meet, Sakura turns to the members of his team: a big man, a tall woman and a sword wielder with sharp teeth. Her medic eyes travel up and down their bodies in search of injuries, but to no avail. She just has to hope they'll let her go.
She clears her throat and extends a hand. "Haruno Sakura. Thanks for helping me." When no one reaches to shake her hand, she slowly retracts it and scratches the back of her head. The action makes her wince, and she realizes she still has a few broken ribs. She replaces them with a bit of healing chakra out of habit, but the side effects are immediate. She leans on a tree when a wave of dizziness hits her, wipes the cold sweat off her brow with a shaky hand.
"She's disgusting." The woman wrinkles her nose and joins the black-haired boy somewhere behind Sakura. She can feel his eyes piercing holes through the back of her head.
She pushes herself off the tree. "Alright, don't want to take more of your precious time. You can go back to whatever you were doing. The show is over."
No one acknowledges her, so she makes to leave, but stumbles and falls against a hard chest.
"Sakura."
She tenses upon hearing his voice so close to her, feeling his breath brushing the skin of her face. Her eyes slide to the side, her gaze resting on his shoulder.
"What?"
"You don't have a seal on your tongue, do you?"
Her gaze snaps to his face in astonishment or anger, or desperation, she cannot say. She takes a second to register his high cheekbones, defined jawline and aristocratic nose before boring her eyes into his.
"I know nothing about your brother, Sasuke," she whispers.
He smirks, not the reaction she was expecting.
"But you know where Naruto is."
Anger flares at that, and he must have sensed it because his smile only widens. She inhales deeply to calm herself, then redirects her eyes to the bleeding wound on her shoulder.
"I need to sleep, Sasuke, and heal myself. I don't have time for whatever this is right now. But I promise I will answer all your questions next time we meet. Is that okay with you? Now, knowing how hard you're trying to hide from me, it will probably be in another four years, but in the end, it's what you want, remember?"
She tries to walk past him but feels him move and turns just in time to stop his hand from meeting the back of her neck. She tightens her grip around his wrist. "You did not just try to do that again."
He raises his sword to her throat.
"I almost don't feel your chakra anymore, Sakura. You can't even walk. Do yourself a favour and take this as an invitation to sleep and drink and even eat for the first time in what?" He eyes her from head to toe. "Days?"
She narrows her eyes, knowing damn well he's right. But the prospect of spending time with him again isn't something she's looking for. She doesn't want to see his face, hear his voice, learn that he doesn't need her, doesn't miss her, doesn't care. But what else can she do? There is a blade against her throat again and black dots all over Sasuke's face.
"Find. Whatever. Just show me the way."
He stares at her longer, then yanks her forward by the arm.
"I can walk by myself, thank you." She tries to pull away, but his grip tightens.
"I don't think so."
"I can carry her, no problem."
Sakura turns to glare at the white-haired man. A broad smile of sharp teeth stretches on his face, but before she can answer, Sasuke releases her arm and pushes her forward.
"No one will carry her. After all, you heard her. She can walk by herself."
After the initial shock, Sakura struggles to keep standing and stumbles forward when she tries to walk again. She ignores the redhead's snort and lifts her chin up.
"See, I don't need help." She turns a glare at the Uchiha. "Especially not from you."