Hello readers and welcome to the next chapter. Now I hope you all actually were happy with my chapter being a bit longer last time after I made them a bit shorter for the last few. Course right now I am possibly even more busy than I ever have been simply because I am figuring out things in my own life. But I won't be the person that rants about my life to you all (this time). Anyways I will shut up now and simply let you get to what you really came here for (well at least I hope anyways)
Chapter 60
*NOTE BEFORE REAL START*
Due to me assuming that everyone that is reading this has seen at least some of the Naruto series. So, I am gonna go out the sort of lazy way by not writing the whole confrontation between Deidara, Sasori, and Suna…course you all kind of benefit from this as well seeing as I won't fill this chapter with stuff you already know hundreds of times over. Though I WILL write it if someone really wants me to do so (note that I will probably take a decent while to do this if it is asked for).
Anyways so I am going to be starting this chapter off with Temari going to Konoha for help after everything went down.
~Hokage Tower~
"S,o you are sure they were Akatsuki members?" Tsunade asked Temari who was clearly distraught even though she tried to hide it.
"Y-yes Lady Tsunade now normally we would go after them ourselves but without your help my brother will…" Temari told her honestly seeing as their best medics weren't having any luck helping her poisoned brother…it didn't help that her other brother was also kidnapped by the same group who are known to kill jinchuriki.
"…I understand." Tsunade told her understanding the pain and worry that was going through the younger girl's mind. "I will have a team prepared right away" She told her happy to see the grateful smile that she received.
"Thank you Tsunade-sama! Suna will not forget this generosity." Temari told her with a bow. Course Tsunade waved off her gratitude and quickly summoned one of her ANBU.
"Fetch me team 7!" Tsunade orders then watches as the man quickly leaves to do just that. "As much as I hate to put Naruto into the line of fire of the Akatsuki again but Sakura is the only one that can really have a chance to cure a poison that the poison masters can't…and as much as I hate to admit it…he probably will leave to help them anyways." Tsunade thought knowing how the blond would react when he found out what happened to his 'brother'. Thankfully with Sakura and Kakashi being strong ninja themselves they should have a pretty good chance of defeating them.
+15 minutes later+
"You called for us Tsunade-sama?" Sakura asks as she opens the office door with the rest of her team following. Course they all were quick to notice the tense feeling in the air and that Temari was standing in the office corner.
"Good...you all came and actually on time." Tsunade says sending a glare at Kakashi who rubbed his head.
"Maama, I'm not that bad." He tells her trying to avoid the woman's rage.
"What he means that he is thankful for his thoughtful students reminding him that you wanted us to come ASAP." Sakura told her adding a quick glare at the man herself who wisely kept his mouth shut. Afterall no one wanted one woman with anger issues and super-strength after you let alone two.
"Anyways what do you need Baa-chan?" Naruto asked only to get smacked to the floor from his pink haired teammate.
"I have called your team for an S class mission of dire importance." Tsunade starts making all of team 7 focus on her now completely serious. "You see Temari-san has just brought me news that Suna has been attacked by men that can only be members of the Akatsuki. This attack has left their Kazekage kidnapped and Kankuro in the hospital with a supposedly incurable poison." She told them then paused for a second to let the shock of her information soak fully into the shocked ninja's heads…though mainly Naruto who had an unreadable expression on his face. "Your mission is to follow Temari-san to Suna and help in anyways possible; understood?" Tsunade asks them.
"Hai Tsunade-sama!" they all told her serious.
"You have thirty minutes to prepare then meet Temari at the village gate. Do NOT be late." She orders the team who quickly begin to leave. "Wait Naruto." She adds in stopping the blond just as he was going through the door.
"Yes?"
"I know that you are focused on rescuing Gaara and feel completely recovered. But please remember that you did just come out of the hospital…please be careful." She tells him softly. Naruto just looks at her for a moment before giving her a thumbs up and quickly leaving the room. "…that boy." Tsunade mutters shaking her head. "Please be safe…last we need is for them to get two of you…and I don't want to lose another precious person." She thought before turning to Temari.
"You probably should do anything you need to do and get ready to meet them." She tells the girl who nods and slowly walks out of the room. Not in a major rush seeing as unlike the rest of them she was already pretty much ready for a mission and only had to wait for the team to finish their own preparations.
~Naruto's house~
As soon as Naruto entered his apartment, he quickly went to his own personal supplies much to Haku's surprise.
"You have another mission already?" She asks "You just came out of the hospital. You should be resting." She tells him with a frown. Clearly not happy that her 'master' appeared to be pushing himself too far.
*sigh* "Yes, Haku-chan I do…but it wasn't my choice." Naruto tells her only to see Haku's glare get seemingly worse.
"Then tell Tsunade-sama or whoever gave it to you that you aren't completely ready to be back on active duty." She tells him. "To hell with being the submissive tool for right now. I refuse to let Naruto-kun get himself killed by allowing himself to be run into the ground…even if I have to go against the Hokage herself."
"I can't." Naruto tells her and watched as she was about to argue with im. "Haku-chan the bastards took Gaara. I have to help my brother before it is too late." He tells her honestly then looks her right in the eyes. "Please…for once I have an order for you…don't try to stop me from leaving." Naruto told her completely serious.
After he said this Haku just looked into his deep blue eyes and saw nothing but determination and finally relented. *huff* "Fine…but be safe." She tells him. He then gives her a quick peck on the lips.
"I promise." He tells her with a small smile before finishing his packing and quickly leaving his house. "I am going to have to make up to her when I get back…but first to let the rest of my angels know." Naruto thinks with a small from…not excited to have to go through basically the same conversation several more times.
+25 minutes later; main gate+
"Ugh, come on where are they?" Naruto complained as he leaned against the village wall with Sakura and Temari close by.
"Naruto I know you want to hurry but they still have five minutes before our designated time." Sakura told him.
"But we need to hurry!" Naruto complained.
"Naruto while I appreciate the hurry we need to make sure that you have everything that is needed to actually help us." Temari told Naruto honestly. After all they would be going after a very dangerous poison and at least two S class missing ninja. After she said this Naruto still continued to grumble about them taking too long but both of the girls decided to ignore him and simply wait for the other two members. Sai came right at the thirty-minute mark and Kakashi came about a minute later receiving a death glare from both Sakura and Naruto.
*cough* "Anyways team let's head out." Kakashi told team 7 awkwardly trying his best to ignore his students death glares…though at least Sai kept a neutral expression. Course they relented at this and all began the journey towards Suna with all of them having to pump a large amount of chakra into their legs to keep up with Naruto.
"Naruto I know you want to help but you need to slow down!" Temari calls out to him already feeling the chakra drain.
"But we need to get there as soon as we can!" Naruto told her.
"You BAKA! None of us have the stupid amount of chakra you have!" Sakura yells at Naruto.
"She is right Naruto while we may get there faster; We won't be much help with all of us besides you suffering from chakra exhaustion." Kakashi adds.
"Tch, fine." Naruto mutters and cuts back on the amount of chakra he was using till the point where Kakashi took the lead to set the pace.
"No wonder Danzo-sama wants the jinchuriki under his control…the amount of chakra they have to use is just unimaginable" Sai thinks honestly seeing as Naruto didn't look any worse for wear after using so much chakra while the rest of them were clearly winded.
"Is this really how much chakra Gaara had at his disposal?" Temari thinks remembering how large her brothers jutsus were and that was with him having the one tailed biju. Though she didn't focus on it for too long before finally refocusing on their goal.
~Suna~
After their long journey the Temari and Team 7 finally reached Suna's gate where two chunin women were currently standing. Though when these two girls see Temari they quickly rush over to her with smiles on their face.
"Temari-sama! You are back!" One of them calls out rushing towards them. "Huh, so this is the help that Konoha sent" she then muttered looking over Team 7 clearly not impressed.
"Yes, now be thankful that they sent anyone let alone the team that could possibly be the most helpful at this moment." Temari told the girl scolding her. "Sorry about that. Allow me to introduce two of the girls that I have helped train. This is Ayaka." pointing at the girl that appraised them.
Said women was on the shorter side with dark brown short hair and green eyes. She currently was wearing black tight pants and a tan shirt underneath her chunnin vest. On her back she had a basic katana with a small fan at her hip.
"And this is Miki" Temari adds pointing at the other girl that had light brown hair that framed her face. She wore a long sleeve dark blue shirt underneath her vest and brown pants. Finally she didn't appear to have any weapons on her other than a pouch she had on her hip. She also seemed to be more serious of the two judging from the disproving stare at her teammate.
"Hello" Kakashi tells them with a quick eye smile. "But instead of introduction it may be better to get Sakura-chan to Kankuro-san" Kakashi adds with Temari nodding in agreement.
"Yes, I will talk to you two later…now come with me." Temari ordered them quickly leading them to the hospital leaving the two girls in their dust.
*cough* "But they didn't sign in." Ayaka mutters only to be ignored by even her friend who walked off to continue guarding their village.
Meanwhile Temari quickly led Team 7 right to the room her brother was in and quickly stepped to the side and Sakura rushed to the downed man momentarily ignoring the other medics. She then quickly did her own exam before finally looking at the charts of information already collected. "Everyone besides medical staff please stand back." Sakura told the group without looking at anyone. Course her team simply nodded and did as she asked.
"Wait w-who are you?" one of the medics asks confused about her presence.
"I am a medic from Konoha." Sakura told them with a quick glance. "Now let's focus on what is important right now." She told them refocusing her efforts. She then places her head onto Kankuro's chest and listens to his heartbeat for a few moments before finally giving her information to the medics around her.
"This seems to have been a heavy-metal based toxin, a type that affects the muscles on a cellular level quickly killing them off. With the toxin spread throughout his body for so long there is a chance that his heart could give out at any moment." She told them somberly. "It is quite possible that he could pass away before an antidote can be created…" Sakrua admits.
"N-no" Temari mutters in shock. "I can't be losing both of my brothers today." She thought holding back tears. Sakura then looks at her completely serious.
"Temari-san I know it may look bleak but there still is a chance." Sakura tells the girl before focusing on the medics. "Now in order to help him I am going to need you to collect these items for me as soon as you can." Sakura tells them quickly writing down several things and handing it to one of the medics.
"R-right" the man tells her quickly rushing off to get what was needed; and thankfully due to the it being for the Kazekage's family all of the hospital worked even quicker to collect the requested items and bring up a large quantity to Sakura in no time at all. Sakura then quickly grabs the second medic and walks over to the basin of water that they brought up.
"Now I am going to need you two to keep creating batches of this infused water for me as I treat him so watch carefully." Sakura tells them quickly placing several herbs into a grinder and turned them all into a paste. She then drops said paste into the water turning it all a light green color as it dissolved into the water. She then looked at the rest of the medical team. "Meanwhile the rest of you will split off into groups. A few of you will be holding onto Kankuro-san firmly while the rest of you remove the used water and bring me fresh doses as soon as it is needed." Sakura tells them before glancing at the ninja that were watching close by. "A few of you can help hold him down just don't get in my team's way." Sakura tells them with a glare promising pain if they messed up her treatment.
"B-but what are you going to be doing?" one of the medics asked confused as to what water would be so important for.
"Grr. I have no time to explain to you. Just do as your told so we can save his life and I will explain later." Sakura growled at the man who swallowed a lump in his throat clearly terrified by the glare he was getting from her.
"R-right!"
"Now let's get started…" Sakura mutters touching the medicated water with one of her hands while pumping chakra through it. She then lifts up her hand to show that the water was following it in a bubble-like shape. She then brought it over to Kankuro's chest and slowly pushed it into his body allowing the chakra to aid the absorption through the skin. Course while she was doing this Kankuro quickly started to moan in pain and even pushed out of hands of the medics and sat up for a moment.
"Keep him laying down! I need complete focus on this." Sakura orders the team clearly upset. Course this lead, to the ninja watching to quickly take the medics places and firmly pinned Kankuro to the bed enough that he could only squirm a little bit as Sakura reinserted the water into his body. They all then watched as the water seemingly was gone for several seconds before she somehow pulled it out of his body using her other hand showing that it now contained a good portion of black specs in the once clean water. Sakura smiled at this for a second before dropping it into the basin that it started in.
She then quickly did the same process with the new batch that quickly took the polluted one's place. She then slowly did the same process all around Kankuro's body pulling as much of the toxin from his major organs as possible for what seemed like ages to Temari before finally Sakura smiled and wiped the sweat off her brow.
*phew* "The amount of the toxin I was able to remove should be enough to keep it from being life threating now." Sakura tells the group who are all clearly overjoyed. "But this isn't over…you collect several samples of the toxin…now we must work on an antidote to completely destroy the toxin that is leftover in his body." She tells one of the medics who quickly does as she asks.
Meanwhile the ninja's quickly left the room into the hallway where they saw two elderly people walking towards them. Though much to all of their surprise this quickly changed when the older woman noticed Kakashi; for she quickly ran at the man ready to kill. She quickly went on the offensive after him only for Kakashi to managed to dodge each attack by a small margin.
"Damn you White Fang!" She growled out.
"Chiyo, look closer. You have the wrong man" The old man with her calls out to the woman who quickly does just that and notices a few differences.
"Mam I think you have me mistaken for my father." Kakashi tells her feeling awkward to have to mention this.
"Hmm" Chiyo muttered before laughing loudly. "Of course, I knew this I was just testing all of you." She tells the group who all sweat drop at her weirdness. "Now where is the patient you needed help with?" She asks the group.
"Umm, Lady Chiyo thank you for coming to help us but the medic from Konoha was already able to extract enough of it to make it not be life threatening." Baki tells them respectfully.
"Hmm a Konoha ninja?" Ebizo mutters a bit surprised.
"Oh, so that wench Tsunade was the help they brought us eh?" Chiyo asked annoyed about her 'enemy' being so close.
"Actually, it was a young medic that did it." Baki tells them hoping that the Konoha ninja wouldn't start anything due to their elder insulting their kage.
"What" Chiyo says surprised before pushing past the ninja into the medical room where she saw Sakura. "Hmm, so it was just a young girl?" She mutters impressed. "Who would have thought anyone besides that damn bitch of a medic would be able to help people poisoned by a high caliber poison." She thought simply watching as Sakura asked for the samples to be stored and for a way to figure out the cure.
"That is Sakura, Lady Tsunade's apprentice." Temari explains to the old women whose eyes widen a bit.
"Well, well. Who would have expected that darn medic to teach someone other than her sidekick?" Chiyo muttered letting Sakura hear the comment.
"Heh, well she didn't make it easy on me that's for sure." Sakura tells her with a small smile choosing to ignore the insult to both of her mentors.
"Thank you Sakura-san. I owe you so much for saving my brother." Temari tells her gratefully over the elder's shoulder.
"You are welcome Temari-san. We are here to help after all" Sakura told her with a small smile. "Now I have a poison to cure if you don't mind." She adds walking away from the group with a medic showing her the way to where she could work.
"Well now that Kankuro-san isn't in danger anymore let's look over the information we have on our opponents, shall we?" Kakashi said with his regular eye smile. Which Baki is quick to agree to and leads the group out of the hospital leaving Kankuro to the medics now that he knows his life is safe.
~Suna Herb garden~
Currently Sakura was about done with a blend of medicine and calmly walked over to a microscope that had a sample of the poison. She then put the sample into some water and quickly ground it down further to put the pulp created into the liquid. This liquid was quickly sucked into a pipette and placed into the poison's sample dish. Though sadly the test didn't seem to have any effect on it.
*sigh* "This may take a while." Sakura mutters tiredly. She then turned to one of the staff that came to. "Though I have to say I am surprised to see Suna having such a wide variety of herbs to chose from." Sakura told the woman with a smile.
"Heh, well with us having so many ninja focused on poisons we had to make sure we had a large amount of samples for both them to use and for us to help those effected." They explained. Sakura didn't respond to this and simply began creating another test determined to find an antidote as soon as she could. Not only to save her patient but also due to them most likely facing the ninja whose weapons are soaked in the same poison. So, the pink haired medic continued on until finally exhaustion finally forced her to rest.
+few minutes after she passed out+
A nurse quickly walked into the garden with Naruto following soon after her.
"-Your teammate just fell asleep here. She must have worked herself to exhaustion trying to help us." The nurse explained clearly admiring Sakura and her efforts making Naruto chuckle a bit.
"Yea she does seem to put her all into things now." Naruto agreed with a small smile on his face. He then gently scooped up the girl from the chair making sure to try his hardest to wake her up. "Don't worry I am sure she will be back as soon as she wakes up ready to continue." Naruto tells the nurse who waves her hands.
"Oh, she doesn't need to rush that much. All of the medical staff here would understand if she needed a good long rest after that amazing poison extraction technique." The nurse told him seeing as all of the medical staff was talking about the amazing jutsu a few noticed. After all, both the chakra users and regular staff never saw anything like it before. They were all calling Sakura a medical genius simply for treating a patient they thought was going to die no matter what. Naruto didn't say anything after this and simply began walking away from the garden with the nurse following after him watching as the woman in his arms fidgeted around a bit. "I have to say I wish I had a boyfriend that was as caring as you are." She told Naruto making him blush.
"Um..well we aren't actually dating. Just close teammates." Naruto told her with the blush staying on his face.
"Oh…sorry she just looks so comfortable in your arms that I assumed. Please forgive me." The woman told Naruto.
"Heh, its fine." Naruto told her not wanting the woman to feel too bad. They then reached the entrance of the hospital's property.
"Though if you need help with anything I am always available to help you." She told Naruto clearly flirting which Naruto missed.
"Heh, I'll keep that in mind." Naruto told her with a wide smile that made the girl smile as well with a large blush. Though she had to return to her job and quickly left the blond to his own journey back to the hotel room their team was provided. He then gently set her down in the bed before taking off her shoes and equipment pack. He then calmly pulled the blanket over her and gave the young women a small kind smile. "Good night Sakura-chan." He mutters before going to his own spot to turn in for the night.
+Next morning+
In their room all of team 7 were currently still sleeping even as the sun slowly came through the window. Sadly, for the pink haired girl this was enough to disturb what was a good rest. "Ngg, damn sun ruining my sleep…wait I was working on the antidote!" Sakura thought forcing herself to wake up. Though much to her confusion she quickly realized she was in some sort of house rather than back in the greenhouse. A thought that quickly put her on edge and felt even more problematic when she realized that her weapon pouch was gone. Thankfully though her stress was quickly relieved when she saw Kakashi sleeping in a chair with his precious book sitting calmly on his lap. "Thank kami." She thought with a sigh of relief. She then refocused on her incomplete task and quickly decided that it was time for her to get back to work.
With that in mind she took a quick shower, got ready, and was out the door just when the rest of the team was starting to wake up themselves.
"Ugh, Sakura-chan?" Naruto mutters confused when he heard the door shut.
Meanwhile Sakura was already back in her station prepping her next test.
+midmorning+
Yet again Sakura was testing a sample though unlike the rest of her trails when this one came into contact with the sample it quickly broke down the sample making Sakura gain a wide smile.
"Finally" she mutters happily and quickly preps more of her solution. Twenty minutes later she calls in one of the medical staff to prep the solution into syringes. With both her and the medical staff happy they finally have an antidote after they saw themselves that it truly did work. And as soon as it was truly ready they rushed to Kankuro's room
~Kankuro's room~
Kankuro still laid in his bed sweating as his body worked hard to expel the remaining poison in his body. Luck for him though he was soon joined by his sister, one of their medical ninja, and Sakura who looked at the poor man.
"Don't worry Kankuro. Sakura-san has found a way to help you even more. Just please hold on for a little bit longer." Temari tells him softly then turns to the other two. "Please let this work." She asked them and got a confident smile from both medical ninja.
"Don't worry Temari-san we have both tested the antidote and it has worked one hundred percent of the time." The medical ninja tells her then calmly walks over to Kankuro's side. "Now Kankuro-san I don't know if you can hear me right now but know that you will feel a quick sting." The medical ninja told the unresponsive ninja. He then quickly stabs the shot into Kankuro's neck and quickly pushed the plunger down injected the full dose into him before finally pulling the needle out.
They all then waited patiently for the solution to do its work. And finally, after what seemed like hours, they heard a few groans come from the man as his eyes slowly began to move.
"Ugh, where am I?" Kankuro mutters confused as he weakly looked around.
"You are in the hospital Kankuro…I thought I lost you to the poison." Temari told the man not caring that she sounded so soft at the moment.
"Heh, like I would let my own game be the thing to take me out." Kankuro weakly tells her with a weak chuckle. "What happened to my puppets?" He then asks only for Temari to look away.
"The team that found you brought back what they could." Temari tells him simply pointing over at the wall where his destroyed puppets sat.
Kankuro just looked over at them sadly before moving his hand slightly and sending out a single strand of chakra thread at one of the hands.
"Kankuro I know you are upset but now isn't the time-" Temari began only to be ignored as Kankuro opens the puppet's hand showing a small scrap of cloth.
*cough cough* "I wasn't able to stop them….but I at least got a piece of his clothing." Kankuro tells her with a small bitter smile.
"Kakashi-sensei can use that to track the people that took Gaara-san." Sakura realized happily.
"Really? Then let's hurry up and get him so we can prep a retrieval team." Temari tells them rushing towards the door only to pause and look back at the group behind her. "But if you ever tell anyone about what I did I will end you." She threatened before continuing on with finding Kakashi.
*cough cough* "Please save my brother." Kankuro mutters looking at Sakura who nods to the man.
"Don't worry we will do all we can to help." Sakura tells him before looking at the medical ninja. "I am going to leave him with you now that we have to formula figured out. Take good care of our patient." She tells him getting a nod. She then left to search for Kakashi with Temari.
AN: Now before I get people complaining about it I would like to say my reasonings for those that will read this. I took out Gaara's attack because it is something that everyone has seen/heard of and more than likely has been seen a few times because it was 'cool'. Now on the other hand Sakura's medic knowledge isn't seen very often in the anime. And I don't care if you like her or hate everything about her she still became one of the best medical ninjas out there. A fact that while true just doesn't seem noted too much. This is why I added this in here seeing as it is probably one of my favorite Sakura moments due to her doing more than just being a relief character.
And that is where I am going to end this chapter. Now I know this was mostly about Sakura saving Kankuro but I did change it up a bit. And I have already explained my other reasons for this. Anyways I hope you at least sort of enjoyed. Ja Ne.