Chapter 2 - Perseverance
Sakura cracked her heavy eyelids open. Grey mist covered everything. She knew at least that she was at the base of a giant tree. A few languid streams of light filtered down through lacy branches above her. The air had a pungent tang of wet earth and wood, save for a faint thread of smoke wafting from some unseen fire.
But that was as far as she got. Sakura couldn't fight off the grogginess long enough to identify anything else. Her thoughts slurred together, and she drifted back into thick sleep.
What felt like hours later, a shooting pain in her side drove her eyes open again. Sakura gasped, clinging to the awareness it afforded her and blinked her eyes hard to keep from sinking under again.
She immediately catalogued her surroundings: a forest, a smoking fire, moist earth clinging to her cheek and the incredible pain blazing along her left ribcage.
Trying to move, stretch her limbs and get out of the dirt proved to be impossible. Her hands were tightly bound behind her back. And she was sure the throbbing ache along her side was from being dropped among the roots of the ancient tree.
Relenting, she laid her cheek back down in the soft dirt and mentally picked through what she remembered of the previous day. She was with her team, then collecting herbs…but the rest were incoherent fragments. She worked over it all again.
Shaking off the mental fog, some images began to surface: cherry blossoms, unnaturally white and thickening like snow, and a pair of dark eyes staring back at her….
She remembered now…she'd been ambushed.
Sakura squeezed her eyes against the snapshot memories and blew out a long, low breath, trying to quell her panic.
If she'd been caught by some unknown group, then her first priority would be to make an escape plan.
Moving slowly, hoping not to draw any attention to herself, Sakura craned her head to look at her surroundings. From her vantage point, she could see into an encampment. There was a slight clearing where a fire was indeed smoking itself out, and beyond were several tents, most small and hastily thrown up. Farther on, past more large trees, Sakura could just make out some larger campaign tents.
These must be the ones ambushing the merchants, she decided. Probably bandits or rogue nins looking for a little money for her safe return.
Birds chirped brightly in the canopy overhead. A good sign. This meant that she'd been left alone for a while.
Sakura pushed herself off her hurt side and up onto her elbow. Pink hair fell away from her cheek and dragged in the dirt as she rocked herself forward. Squinting, she could just make out some figures past the largest tents, but couldn't discern anything else.
A sudden rustle nearby ended any hopes of a quiet getaway.
"Oi, the girl's waking up," a gruff male voice called out. Her movements had not gone unnoticed.
A large figure in brown fatigues stalked around from behind the tree, grabbed her exposed elbow and hauled her swiftly into a sitting position.
For a moment, the trees actually swam in front of her, and the sky bloated oppressively overhead, as if an onslaught of water was being invisibly held back. Her stomach lurched. She squeezed her eyes shut against the vertigo and forced back bile, refusing to allow the involuntary push to vomit.
Genjutsu, she realized. And it had been powerful too.
"Hey, don't do that! She'll get sick," a different, clearer voice intoned somewhere above her head.
Sakura leaned her head back against the tree, face pale and skin clammy, and waited for the nausea to pass.
As if reciting from one of her academy books, she recounted the symptoms of genjutsu sickness and recovery time. Since it wasn't too deep, she thought, pausing to swallow then take a steadying breath, she should be feeling better shortly. She swallowed again and concentrated on the rhythm of her breathing and listened to the sound of heavy footfalls receding across the forest floor.
Then, just as suddenly as it had come on, the pressure around her abated. She cracked her eyes and looked up to see the trees and sky behaving as they should. She exhaled in relief.
"Better?" the same voice asked softly beside her.
Sakura blinked and slowly turned her head towards its source. Perched on a root beside her was another man in brown fatigues. He wore the same face concealing wraps as the men who ambushed her, but this one had jettisoned any eye coverings.
The man, squatting nearly at her eye level, leaned forward on his knees and scanned her face intently. He was obviously watching for signs that any vertigo was fading, but he seemed to have a keen interest in her, studying her face as if memorizing it.
His gaze traveled over her her hair, her cheeks, lingered at her mouth (she frowned immediately), then flashed back to her eyes. He tilted his chin thoughtfully, but didn't take his eyes from hers.
Railing at the uncomfortable intensity of his look, she decided she wouldn't buckle if he was trying to intimidate her. Instead she mirrored his actions, scrutinizing his face for anything even remotely traceable or memorable. But she found nothing. Even his eyes were unremarkable. No highlights, no deeper tones, just brown.
"Feeling better?"
She knew he had been waiting for her to either recover or empty the contents of her stomach.
He looked at her meaningfully and nodded, still waiting for for her to speak.
"Yes."
"That's good" he said, hopping to his feet. "Because you've got work to do."
In short order she was up and being escorted toward the knot of tents beyond the large trees.
As she walked, she stole a glance at her warden. He scratched distractedly at a pair of goggles pushed onto the top of his head. Sakura narrowed her eyes.
She knew one thing for certain now — she had already met the man who walked next to her. After that genjutsu, she thought meanly, she'd probably recognize those scuffed up green goggles anywhere.
They passed a loose cluster of tents. Two men paused from sharpening kunais to nod to her escort. They eyed her with curiosity, not bothering to conceal their interest in the camp's newest addition. Sakura tried to size them up as well, but since they all wore the same garb, including head covers of some kind, identifying personal traits or even a nationality was impossible.
Some of their wraps reminded her strongly of a rogue nin from the Hidden Mist her team had gone up against in their genin days. Could these bandits be defects from Kiri?
The clusters of small tents became tighter, and Sakura and her captor had to weave through a maze of canvas flaps, ropes and pegs before reaching a large dusty fire circle. Several more men, all in the same fatigues and face covers, were settled around the circle, reclining on benches or lingering at large, flat boulders.
Across the dusty expanse, past the circle and it's tenants, a wall of large campaign tents stood silently. There seemed to be more rows of them, indicating that perhaps this was a headquarters.
The large tents were neatly organized and ominous. It made her breath catch in her chest. This was no band of desperate ambushers. This was an organized group with a military command center, not unlike Konoha's field garrison she remembered studying in her academy days.
Sakura's eyes darted around the circle. And these men were going to great lengths to conceal their identities—
She didn't have time to draw any more conclusions. She was parked unceremoniously on a long wood bench near the guttering fire. Her escort left her briefly to speak in hushed tones to another man standing at the edge of the circle. The other man nodded, then disappeared into the thicket of little tents.
"You're a medic nin, right?" her captor asked as he walked back over to her, eyes glinting as if he already knew the answer.
She turned her head away and set her chin. She'd give him no information.
"Right," he filled in for her firmly. He moved closer to get a better look at her face, the corners of his eyes crinkling up. "Or were you just out picking flowers to bring back to your teammate?"
Her stubborn expression yielded for a moment, but her escort had the confirmation he was looking for.
"You're not very good at this, are you?" An obvious smirk was stretching the face wrappings around his cheeks as if he couldn't resist taking her down a few pegs. Folding his arms over his chest, he began again. "You're in luck. We are in need of a medic. So if you're better at healing than you are at subterfuge, you might make it out of here."
"That's all you need — a medic?" Sakura hissed. "Why didn't you just get one in the local town? You can't be more than a half-day from a village."
He laughed at her. "Why do that when you made yourself available?" He ignored her other questions completely. She'd get no information out of him.
"No more talking. Time to work."
He removed the ties on her hands. Sakura rubbed her wrists and looked around, gauging at the same time if he wanted her to move and if there was a chance to escape. But there was a group of men approaching the bench, accompanied by the man her captor spoke to earlier. She sighed.
'Best to go along with this for now,' she thought.
"Here?" she asked her warden, who was now standing directly behind her. He nodded once in confirmation, and she turned to receive her first patient.
The man had a litany of minor wounds, scrapes, aches and pains. Sakura cloaked her hands in green light and shot a glance back down the line.
Probably all the same, she thought. But that was fine with her. She bit her lip, refocusing on the task at hand.
Sakura was glad this bunch was not in need of real medical aid. Though she had been in med-nin training for well over a year, she was far from proficient. Anything above standard wounds and basic field first-aid was out of her grasp. Not from lack of skill, however — she simply didn't have enough time for training.
Grinding missions with her team left little room for anything else. She was happy to have finally found something she excelled at, but there wasn't really a place for a med-nin on their team.
And after this mess she would be even more behind in her training. Sakura sighed to herself as she finished sealing a cut. Sometimes it felt like she was doomed to fall behind.
Sakura mentally shook off the negative thoughts. She knew she couldn't let her spirits flag, not when she was basically a hostage in an unknown encampment. As it was, she happened to be very good at treating minor injuries, and these men were rife with them. Sakura told her patient he was finished and waved over the next man to sit down.
The day dragged on. Minor lacerations and kunai wounds blurred together under her glowing hands. But the sheer monotony began to prey on Sakura.
If this was what they brought her here for, then how long would she last in their camp? How many bandits needed to be healed? Would it be enough time for her team to find her?
And once they had no use for her as a medic.…
Well, she didn't want to think of that.
But that thought gave her a measure of clarity. Perhaps it wasn't so bad to be working on minor ailments, she thought as she looked down the long line.
Sakura waved the next man on, testing out whether she could heal and inflict injury at the same time. A small flick of her hand sent the chakra bending in ways she knew it shouldn't. The man flinched immediately.
Sakura cooed, "Ooo sorry, I should have told you that might pinch a little."
She let the chakra ebb from her hand and he felt better, but the damage had been done. And now she knew how far she could go. She patted him on the back and waved on the next man.
Sakura plodded away, healing then creating her own injuries on the rogues. With a little flick of extra chakra she gave them all parting gifts, mostly internal lacerations, which would require her attention in the days to come.
Whatever plans they had for her, at least she was building in her usefulness.
'Better to be needed than to be dead,' she thought darkly.
Obviously having nothing better to do, several of the men stood around and watched after they received their treatments. The kunoichi resented the audience, especially with what she was trying to accomplish, but there was nothing she could do.
Sakura continued on, treating a wound then inflicting a new one, but eventually she could feel the first effects of chakra depletion kicking in. Sakura tried her best to remember ailments and inflict an injury that corresponded to the spot, but a few times she forgot.
One of the men pointed out that his wound was on his arm, not so close to his collar bone as Sakura had moved. She coughed, moved her hand smoothly away from the spot and put on her best doctor's voice.
"Of course, I'm just making sure there's no extenuating damage," she said.
The injured man seemed placated with her excuse, and she finished healing the area he had pointed out. 'No extra injury for him,' she thought.
When he stood, Sakura wiggled her fingers and stretched her arms as if tired, buying herself some time to check out the cluster of men loitering behind her.
She recognized about a half-dozen of the men as ones she'd already treated — some she'd injured again, some she'd spared. She glanced face to face quickly, then skimmed over body language, careful never to let her gaze rest on one spot too long.
She saw nothing to cause her alarm. They seemed just as shiftless as ever, standing in little throngs, hands on hips, muttering to each other and grimacing at the world. Apparently her exchange with the last man had gone unnoticed.
Sakura let out a small breath, gave her neck a final exaggerated stretch, then nodded to her warden. Clearly bored by the whole thing, he lazily shifted his stance and waved on the next patient. Sakura stuck to healing only on the next few men, just to be safe.
And eventually, to her relief, the line dwindled. She was beginning to worry her chakra reserves would run out before the line did. But as her last patient stood to go, and no more presented themselves, she drew in a deep, tired breath. She felt like she'd been the only doctor on duty after the hospital's busiest day.
"Am I done?" Sakura said, stretching her back. This time she didn't have to fake it.
"Looks like it." Her captor stifled a yawn behind her. "Give me your hands."
Sakura defiantly put her hands in front, certain he meant to tie her hands behind her back again, but he bound her wrists together in front without a word.
He pulled her up, and they walked back to the campfire where several of the recently healed men were lazing. Sakura was parked on a stone in full sight of them, so she couldn't run, while he disappeared between the tarps. He quickly reappeared with two apples.
"Here, eat," he said, shoving the apple into her bound hands. "You need to keep your strength up."
Sakura looked at the apple wedged between her fingers with growing defiance. Healing their men and gathering information may have served her purposes, but eating their food seemed traitorous, no matter how hungry or chakra depleted she may be.
Sakura dug her fingernails into it's red skin. "Don't worry about my strength," she said firmly. "I won't be staying long."
Beside her, her jailor had plopped down, loosened the concealments around his mouth and was happily crunching his apple.
"Huh?" he responded mid-bite.
"I said I won't be here long. My partner is the best ninja in Konoha, and he will stop at nothing to find me—"
Laughter erupted beside her. A few of the men looked up.
"You mean the one you whipped before you left your little hideout," her warden said exuberantly, pointing his half-eaten apple in her face. "Yeah, he'll be right along after you, I'm sure."
More of the men looked over, and her escort, seeing he had an audience, related the kunoichi's prank on her teammate. She sat stonily, ignoring his goading and the chuckles of the men. But she still felt like a mouse being toyed with by a cat.
Some of his teammates did not see the humor however. They snorted and hurled quiet insults instead. Sakura turned her head a fraction to catch some of the dissenting voices.
"Another foolish prankster with nothing to offer."
"Yeah, like we need another..."
"Leave it to him to waste our time—"
"Boy's been fooled by a pretty face—"
A half-eaten apple skidded past Sakura's feet. The digs were aimed at the man beside her, and by his quick response she could tell they'd found their mark.
He was up, fists clenched and feet planted sturdily beneath him, ready to retaliate.
Most of the men laughed off his anger, but a few stared back challengingly. Sakura took note of the strife in the group. She might be able to use it to her advantage later.
Her warden started to move, clearly considering taking on a few of the grumbling men, when a shift in the air sent almost all of them into a more alert stance. The rogues sat or stood quickly, jettisoned whatever time-wasting occupation they had, and adopted the closest appearance of a band of soldiers she'd seen from them yet. But there was something a little cowardly in their expressions they couldn't quite hide.
However her warden was not so quick to jump to attention. He registered the chakra change as well, but he lazily retraced his steps to stand casually beside Sakura.
The rest of the bandits reminded her forcefully of errant school children about to be disciplined. But the one beside her was not distressed at all. Hands shoved carelessly in his pockets, he seemed resigned to waiting and watching the space between the large tents,
She set the apple aside and followed his gaze, curious to see who could illicit such a response from this bunch.
A man fluidly rounded the corner, his black cloak rippling at his calves as he walked. He padded so smoothly across the dusty ground that his shoulders and limbs were nearly motionless, giving him the disconcerting appearance of gliding. There was a grace about him that was rare even among shinobi. Skilled in stealth, Sakura was just summing up, but she stopped suddenly as his face came into view.
His features were horribly familiar: pale skin, flat black eyes, glossy dark hair. His face had a pallor which gave him a menacing air, rendering the elegance of his movements into something infinitely more terrifying.
This man was a killer. And she knew exactly who he was.
Sakura flattened her nervous hands in her lap.
Black eyes swept over the group — the flicker of a frown told her that this scene was not what he expected — and landed back on her companion momentarily. He nodded at the man beside her, black wisps dancing along his face, then shifted his emotionless gaze a fraction to settle on the her.
A long dark ponytail trailed down his shoulder as he tipped his chin to assess her.
Sakura quickly looked down, focusing on the ground past the edge of her shoes. Even though his man was a nightmare version of her stormy teammate, Sasuke, she still prayed that somehow she was wrong about his identity.
The silence was punctured by the sound of gravel crunching beside her as her warden shifted his feet, coughed once and sighed. He was clearly unflustered by the scrutiny.
Sakura sat frozen on the stone, trying to keep her palpable fear concealed as long as possible.
With barely a whisper preceding them, the tips of two black sandals came into line in front of her feet and stopped. The fabric of a his cloak curled into the space between them. Sakura swallowed involuntarily.
"What is your name," a low voice addressed her as calmly as if she were a child who had wandered into their camp.
But Sakura did not trust his smooth tones. She kept her gaze trained on the ground.
"Are you a teammate of Sasuke Uchiha," he asked again patiently. And again she gave no response.
"Well then, do you know who I am?"
Sakura sat painfully still. Of course she knew who he was. How could she not!
In front of her was Konoha's most dangerous nukenin. The one who slaughtered his entire clan, save one. He was Itachi Uchiha.
Sakura pushed her fingers against her legs to keep them from trembling.
Itachi squatted down in front of her and steepled his fingers. Never changing his voice, the raven-haired man moved directly into her eye line. Sakura's only response was fear-driven: She knew what was coming next and shut her eyes.
He slid his fingers into a clasp. "You may open your eyes," he said, still speaking as if she were a child. But the patience was gone from his voice. Now there was an edge that meant he expected obedience. "I can see you've had some experience with genjutsu, but it will not be necessary today. Open your eyes please," he ended firmly.
Sakura took him at his word, truly afraid of the consequences if she didn't, and opened her eyes. But she focused on the ground beyond his shoulder.
"There's a good girl," he drawled.
Even if she tried, Sakura could not have stopped her lips from pressing into a thin line at the condescending remark. She flicked her eyes involuntarily to his face.
Itachi nodded almost imperceptibly, signaling that she had given the desired response to his provoking remark.
"Sasuke is my little brother, and I have an interest in him," Itachi continued as if they had resumed their pleasant conversation. "I would like to know how he is doing and how his skills are progressing. You and I are from the same village, I am sure we will find we have many things in common. Think about what I've said, and we will speak again later." He rose in a single fluid movement.
Sakura swallowed hard and stared at the ground where he was crouching, her body frozen in disbelief, her thoughts a whirlwind. Itachi Uchiha. This was no ambush for ransom! This was a targeted attack by Konoha's most feared rogue nin.
Sakura forced her expression to stay blank, desperately trying to mask the horror that was bubbling up within her.
Itachi spoke to her warden, issuing orders with a measure of respect.
"Katsuro, make sure she eats. If the apple doesn't suit, then find something that does. And don't waste any more of her chakra on them," he motioned with a careless flick of his long fingers to the men across the fire circle. Each one was alert to the little nuance as if their lives depended on it. "She is now your responsibility. Make sure she arrives safely. It is of the highest priority."
Her captor, this Katsuro, agreed, and Itachi strode back to the large tents, disappearing completely into the shadows.
"Come on," yawned Katsuro.
In shock, Sakura blindly followed him, putting one foot in front of the other, oblivious to everything else. Her mind was racing: Why was Itachi here? What could he want to know about Sasuke? And what information could she possibly provide him?
She didn't trust any of his little speech. He didn't want to talk with her — he was a murderer! This was really, really bad.
Fears leaping out of control, Sakura tamped them down, shakily telling herself to think, to come up with a new plan—
"Here we are!" Katsuro's voice cut across her thoughts. She blinked, slowly realizing just how far they'd walked from the main camp.
"These will be your accommodations while you're with us," he said and fanned his arm out toward a clearing. A single tent and a tiny fire circle sat at the base of a few large trees. Sakura stared at it, a little confused that she'd be given her own tent, until she realized that he was pointing to the trees.
"What!?" she said indignantly. "You're going to tie me to a…to a tree?"
"Yup! Take your pick." He dropped his pack onto a log as they passed the fire circle. "Can't just have you hanging about the camp while I'm gone, now can we?"
Sakura glowered at him, cursing his cheerfulness. But maybe two could play at that game….
"So…where are you going," she said, lacing her question with wide-eyed innocence.
He just laughed and kept walking. Katsuro pointed to a tree nearest the tent and backed her up to it. He held a length of rope at her waist and flung the rest around the back of the tree.
"You might want to have a seat. Standing out here for a few hours is not going to be very comfortable," he said and wrapped the rope loosely around her midsection.
Sakura ignored him. "What are you—"
"Sit down," he ordered and pushed a hand down on her head, forcing her into sitting. Sakura huffed, but angrily folded her legs underneath her.
Katsuro took up the slack in the ropes and checked the tension. Sakura thought for a moment if this was all he was going to do, tie her by the waist to a tree, then she'd be out of here the moment he turned his back.
But when he unwound the leather bindings from one hand then walked back behind the massive trunk again, all hope of an escape was squashed.
"Ok," he said brightly from somewhere behind the tree. "Now reach your arms behind you and give that tree a big ol' hug."
Sakura growled at his infuriatingly good mood. But before she had a chance to tell him off, he called out again.
"Do it now, on your own," he warned, "and I won't tie it too tight. Trust me," he laughed lowly, "that's the much better option."
He was right, there weren't too many options here. And she could probably strategize better in comfort than in pain. So Sakura slowly lifted both arms behind her and wrapped them around the tree, palms flat against the bark.
"There you go!" She could hear the smile in his voice. He obviously pleased with himself. It made her want to pull her hands back out of spite.
Katsuro tied them back behind the tree as loosely as possible. There was freedom enough to flex her arms but not enough to escape.
Walking around front again, he squatted down in front of her. "Don't worry, I won't be gone long. But you can stay like that for a while and still be OK. Believe me, I know." The corners of his eyes crinkled with his smile. Sakura just scowled back at him.
Katsuro stood and impetuously reached out a hand to tousle her hair, thinking wickedly it would make her even angrier. He wasn't disappointed. She jumbled curses and wrenched her head away, pulling her hair with her. Katsuro relaxed his hand, distantly aware of the coolness of the strands as they slipped through his rough fingers.
"Well, be good," he said cheerfully, then crossed the clearing and ducked under the tent.
Sakura was left alone with her anger…and her fears.
'That is probably what they want,' she thought darkly. 'We are our own worst enemies.'
She tried to use her time to strategize her way out of there. But she soon found that thinking about Itachi drew a near insurmountable level of fear, so Sakura opted to review everything she'd learned, names she'd heard, the size of the camp, how many tents there were, the food they ate, anything and everything…and commit it to memory. She was on her third round of repeating the same data, when the man — Katsuro, she thought robotically, my height, brown eyes, bad sense of humor — emerged from the tent.
This time, though, he had traded his brown fatigues for a more pale attire, as well as what looked to be a traveling cloak. When he turned fully, checking a few things, she got a better glimpse of his head covering. Instead of the cloth that draped over the top and back of his head, the fabric covered fully half of his face and was positioned with a Suna headband. The goggles were discarded completely, although the wraps still concealed his facial features.
'Sand,' Sakura thought to herself. 'They're disguising themselves as other villages.' But immediately Itachi's involvement sprang to mind, toppling the easiest theories. It seemed unlikely that he would be part of a gang ambushing lowly merchants, if that was in fact what they were doing.
Katsuro saluted her briskly then was off, bounding up into the tree and leaping from branch to branch back toward camp.
Sakura was alone again.
After what felt like hours of repeating the same information, the steady chirp of a nearby bird distracted her.
"Birds," she said, just to hear her own voice. Where her team had been situated there had been no sounds at all. Every creature had decamped in the heat. So where was she exactly? Sakura set to studying her surroundings to keep her mind occupied.
The trees around the camp were no different than the ones along the old road. But the air here was not as stifling as it had been the past several days. And the landscape was definitely more rolling and hilly. This meant that she had traveled quite far from her team. But she couldn't tell whether it was farther north or just higher into mountains.
Sakura leaned her head back against the tree and stared out at the empty campsite. It was so far from the rest of the tents that she couldn't even hear the group.
She looked longingly at the undisturbed woods beyond the little tent. Light slanted down through the trees, gossamer spiderwebs glistened in the branches, and tiny insects took to the air, their wings illuminated in the late afternoon sun. Her freedom was right there in front of her, but she couldn't take it.
More slowly than she ever thought possible, the sun sank below the hill and took all the colors of the forest with it. Sakura felt her spirits slipping away with the dying light.
Around her the nighttime forest was rattling to life. The riotous chorus of crickets and tree frogs was only drowned out by the occasional buzzing of an insect at her ear.
Sakura strained her eyes for as long as she could, willing the forest scenery to stay in front of her. She memorized the edges of trees, praying those would not dissolve into the murky, misty darkness that was fast descending on her. But eventually it did.
Tipping her head side to side and rolling her shoulders, Sakura closed her eyes and breathed in the cool air. But when she opened them again there was simply nothing left to see. The dense forest canopy had smudged out even the moon and stars
Hanging her head tiredly in front of her, nothing to focus on in the darkness except her own predicament, Sakura's resolve slipped away entirely.
She began to ache for her home, regret her decisions, doubt her abilities and wish for her teammates to come.
They wouldn't want to, she knew, and would do it only out of obligation. Sasuke was sure to demand retribution after this scrape, especially since she whipped him so soundly in the forest. Now she cringed at the memory. But she'd happily bear the brunt of all his anger and any future punishments they might dream up, just to be with people she knew and on her way home.
Sakura puffed air up the front of her face, fanning her hair back and blowing insects away, but the buzzing began again momentarily. Shaking her head hard, she flexed her arms frustratedly against her bindings.
If it had been Ino tied to a tree instead, Sakura thought petulantly, her teammates Choji and Shikamaru would have stopped at nothing to get her.
A mental rundown of the other teams produced the same results. They all had a bond that she was never able to attain with her own team. It wasn't about fighting well together — they were willing to go through hell for one another.
But now, utterly alone, in enemy hands, facing the horror of betraying her teammate to the man he hated most in the world, doubt was nagging at her.
Sakura tried to imagine them sprinting through the canopy, searching desperately for her. But that image rang false.
What if they went home for reinforcements? Then help might not come for days. And she didn't think she had days to wait.
She bit her lip. Would her team really leave her…her friends, abandon her? Were they right now, on their way home...without her?
She shook her head ruefully at the thought. Sakura knew she'd already hit upon the truth: These weren't her friends. They were barely teammates. And she had no guarantees.
Her sensei had always harped about bonds. But now Kakashi's words hit home — that bond was not for the good times, it was for the bad times. It was something to cling to in a time of danger.
Sakura hung her head and leaned forward against her bindings. She remembered what she'd been taught at academy, sitting in neat little rows in that sun filled classroom, about the beauty of the Konoha fighting strategy. She could hear her Iruka-sensei's inspiring voice, filling up every corner.
"You are bound to someone who would go to the ends of the earth for you, to protect you or to save you."
Sakura squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head, not wanting to remember anymore. Because it was clear now, what she had waited for, hoped for, was never there. For all her team's genius and skill, that vital strategy — the bond of friendship — had never been developed.
A few tears streaked down the sides of her cheeks. She understood too late the precious value of that camaraderie. It could be the difference between life and death.
Wet drops pattered onto her knees. The cold feeling reminding her she still had legs somewhere under the clinging darkness. Sakura squeezed her hands to keep the feeling in them. The bindings creaked like mooring ties, anchoring her mercilessly to the old tree.
But maybe all hope wasn't lost, she thought darkly. Maybe Ino's team would come for her.
Sakura tried to laugh at the irony, but it came out as sob. So she tipped her head back against the tree, closed her eyes and let the tears come.
Far away, across the dark forest floor, among the roots of another ancient tree, dry leaves crackled in the stillness. Any signs of occupation were cleared away. Backpacks were hoisted on.
The momentary whisper of fabric on fabric was replaced by the rhythmic crunch of footfall on gravel. Two pairs of feet retraced the worn path back down the forest road.
Silence descended again on the forest. The branches of a woody shrub, a bush which had until recently served as a shelter, slowly eased back into their natural position. All except for one long limb. Snapped off and carelessly discarded, it now lay wilted and dying in the empty woods.
Author's notes: Thanks so much for the notes and reviews! Glad to know people are enjoying it! Check the website for more spoiler notes and previews of the next chapter (link in bio).
Chapter Notes:
• As if reciting from one of her academy books, she recounted the symptoms of genjutsu sickness and recovery time. Since it wasn't too deep, she thought, pausing to swallow then take a steadying breath, she should be feeling better shortly. — One aspect of this story is the give and take of power. Using jutsus will have a cost to the user, and undergoing one will incur a physical cost on the victim. One that far outlasts the length of the jutsu. So even though Katsuro's genjutsu only lasted moments, for Sakura the physical duration is hours of unconsciousness. There will be more about these give-and-takes of power. Each skill will have an equally significant downside.
• Sakura was left alone with her anger…and her fears. 'That is probably what they want,' she thought darkly. 'We are our own worst enemies.' — I tried to make Sakura's time alone being one that preys upon her fears. She has to sit and wait, not just fight back.
• She tried to use her time to strategize her way out of there. But she soon found that thinking about Itachi drew a near insurmountable level of fear, so Sakura opted to review everything she'd learned, names she'd heard, the size of the camp, how many tents there were, the food they ate, anything and everything…and commit it to memory. — Sakura never gives up, even when she's terrified. I think memorization would be a big part of shinobi skillset (and one she is definitely skilled at), so I have her falling back on those to keep her spirits up.
• She shook her head ruefully at the thought. Sakura knew she'd already hit upon the truth: These weren't her friends. They were barely teammates. And she had no guarantees. — Shows how different Team 7 would be without Naruto.
• Silence descended again on the forest. The branches of a woody shrub, a bush which had until recently served as a shelter, slowly eased back into their natural position. All except for one long limb. Snapped off and carelessly discarded, it now lay wilted and dying in the empty woods. — Little bit of a call back to last chapter with Katsuro plucking the green leaf off the branch. But this time, it's the branch from their hideout, the last physical remnant from Sakura's time with her team.
Edited 4/24/20