A/N: Next chapter is here! This one was a bit difficult to write.

Chapter 21

What Was Lost

The next morning the four Leaf shinobi packed up their tents and continued their trek to Yugakure. They would arrive at nightfall.

Sakura was a little worried - it had been awhile since she had been on a mission. She hoped any rustiness on her part would not be a detriment, especially since she was one of the designated leaders due to her rank.

She waved those thoughts of insecurity away.

I am capable, Sakura reminded herself. I will not fail my teammates. I will protect them.

She had to believe in herself. After all, Lee believed in her.

She glanced at the back of Lee's head. She could feel her anger simmer inside of her.

But Lee made it clear to her three days ago that he did not truly respect her as an equal. Didn't that make his supposed belief in her meaningless?

Lee decided what was best for her that day despite her protests. He decided to corrupt the meaning of his promise to her and treated her like a helpless child. He decided that she was too weak to handle any silly rumors that may spread due to them spending time together in public. He then insulted her by running away like a coward without allowing her the chance to talk it out. How dare he acted like he had done something noble and self-sacrificing for her.

Did their time together mean nothing to him?

And now on his mission Lee had tried to extend a pathetic excuse of an olive branch by trying to chat with her over small nothings. Yesterday when she had called him out on it he refused to answer. It was clear to her that the topic was closed to discussion for him.

Lee severed their relationship. If that was what he wanted, Sakura would not degrade herself further by begging him to change his mind. She sourly realized she had degraded herself enough for Sasuke to last a lifetime. She had only just come to this epiphany recently. When she had last spoke to Sasuke she finally stood up to him for the first time and she had actually gotten results out of it. It had gotten her thinking back on her relationship with him, even back to their genin days, to how often she cried and begged to him to no avail. How... pathetic it all was.

Even if the wound Lee gave her was still raw, she had to be better than that for herself.

But Sakura could feel more than just cold anger - there was hurt and longing there too.

Her relationship with Lee had not been meaningless. As much as she would like to forget it ever happened - Lee had unwittingly changed her for the better. When Lee asked her to train with him she had been in a terrible rut. She had little joy in her life before he came along. While Lee had taught her new taijutsu techniques, he also taught her more about herself. Lee exposed her deep seated, inscrutable insecurities and nurtured her self confidence. He gently comforted her when she troubled without prying. He showed her what a caring, trusting relationship could look like - and with that, exposed the flaws in her relationship with Sasuke. Even with Lee out of her life she still felt the positive effects of what he had done for her psyche. She had to at least be grateful for that.

They all walked into Yugakure just as the sun set. There were no walls surrounding the village - a beautiful entrance gate towered over them, welcoming them to enjoy the hot springs. Clouds of steam were lazily drifting up from all over Yugakure. From the entrance Sakura could already spot two or three resort hotels. Even with it becoming darker by the minute, cheerful people bustled through the streets. The shop owners were all slowly turning on their decorative lights that lined nearly all of the buildings.

Kiba was holding the photo of their contact, Goda Saito, squinting at the people around the gate. "I don't see her. Think she forgot?"

"For an important matter like this, I doubt that," Sakura said, trying to pick Goda out of the crowd herself. "I think the best we can do is wait. I think she'll be able to find us - we probably already look like lost tourists right now, not to mention our Leaf headbands."

It wasn't long before an older blonde woman approached them, bearing the symbol of the Steam on her headband. She bowed formally at them in greeting. "You are the Konohagakure nin that have been sent, correct? Welcome to Yu. My name is Goda Saito."

Sakura bowed in return. "Nice to meet you. My name is Sakura Haruno and this is Shino Aburame. We are the jonin assigned to this mission. And these two - Rock Lee and Kiba Inuzuka - are chunin. You will find our particular skill sets quite useful for your village's needs." Sakura decided on a whim she would use her maiden name for this mission. The Uchiha name was too famous and controversial even outside the Land of Fire. It felt like a betrayal to use her maiden name, but at the same time it felt so comfortable and familiar - and wholly hers.

Goda smiled, but it did not reach her eyes. "Good. Come with me."

Goda led them through the crowded village. As they walked, Sakura admired the intricate details on the traditional-styled buildings, the streamers overhead, and the colorful lighting roped between the buildings. Yugakure was beautiful. Goda brought them to small, private resort hotel enclosed with a tall wooden fence, tucked in near to the Yukage's office. Guards made up of Steam-nin were placed near the entrance. For Sakura's trained eye, she was able to spot several more Steam-nin hiding in the shadows. When they entered the building the main room was decorated tastefully with a traditional minimalist design.

"This is where you will be staying for the nights you are here," Goda explained. "This is where we keep our esteemed guests. As you can see it is private and well guarded so you may feel at ease while away from home. If you so wish, we can assign servants here so your needs can be attended at all times of the day and night. However, I took the liberty to assume my fellow shinobi wish for privacy from prying eyes above all else."

Shino nodded. "You assumed correctly. Thank you."

Kiba initial excitement seemed to deflate at Shino turning down the servants.

Goda led them to the outdoors walkway, passing by a small garden with exotic flowers. They stopped in front of an entrance to a small building, with bamboo fenced behind it. Steam rose thickly above it. Sakura could feel the humidity in the air.

"This is the private hot springs. There is a side for men and for women. Inside the entrance building you will find changing rooms and towels."

Goda then led them down the walkway to their rooms. Eastern maple trees curled up around the outside walls, shrouding the area in privacy. She slid open one of the traditional paper screen doors revealing one of the large rooms. Inside there was a cozy sleeping mat, a short table, and a closet.

"These are your rooms," Goda said. "I will fetch you tomorrow morning for the mission debriefing. For now, please rest after your long travels so you may be at your best tomorrow when we truly need your talents."

"Rest assured, we will absolutely be at our best tomorrow for the mission!" Lee saluted.

Goda nodded. "Good. See you all tomorrow morning."

With that, Goda left them.

Once she was out of earshot, Kiba let out all of the giddiness he had kept pent up. "Wow, guys! This is unbelievably awesome! A whole private resort all to ourselves, can you believe it?! I don't know about you guys but I'm hitting the hot springs right away."

Akamaru whined.

"I know, I know; it'll be too hot for you, Akamaru. But I see a pond in that garden over there you can take a nice cool dip in."

Akamaru wagged his tail.

"Before we get too relaxed," Sakura interrupted. "How honest was Goda being about us having privacy?" She looked to Shino and Kiba.

"No one is watching us. The guards are only posted outside the perimeter," Shino answered, his insects crawling up his neck.

"Akamaru and I can confirm that too," Kiba added.

Sakura smiled, reassured. "It's so convenient having sensory shinobi on the team."

"Now imagine if Hinata was here with us too," Kiba said. "Then you'd have the complete Team 8 sensory-nin package."

"Naruto should have assigned Hinata on this mission as well," Shino said. "She would have been a great asset."

Kiba's lips curled with irritation. "Naruto's gone too soft on her, not assigning her on any missions. She's a damn jonin! To think we missed out on a Team 8 reunion mission!"

"...Yes, it has been too long since we've all been on a mission together," Shino said, looking down at the ground solemnly.

"I am sure with time Naruto will assign her on a mission with you two again," Lee reassured.

"Ah, forget about it," Kiba said. "I'm hittin' the hot springs."

"I will go too," Shino stated.

"What about you, Lee?" Kiba asked.

Lee glanced at Sakura with a uncertain look in his eyes, like he had something to tell her. "Yes, I will. In a moment."

"Sure thing, man," Kiba said nonchalantly. He tossed his camping backpack against the wall to retrieve later and left towards the hot springs.

Shino's unreadable gaze lingered on Lee and Sakura for a moment before he too set down his backpack and then silently departed with Kiba. Akamaru bounded after them, eager for a dip in the pond.

Guarded, Sakura looked at Lee. He shifted on his feet, eyes struggling to hold her gaze.

"Sakura, may I have a moment of your time?"

"Is it about the mission?"

"...No, it is not."

"Then no, I'm busy," Sakura responded coldly. Sakura strode towards one of the empty bedrooms, intending to disappear inside it.

"W-Wait, Sakura!" She could hear his footfalls behind her as he followed her.

Sakura didn't look back as she slid open the door, not want to entertain anything he had to say.

"Please?"

There was a desperation in his voice that pulled at Sakura's heartstrings, causing her to hesitate in front of the opened door. She bit her lip, afraid to look back at him. A part of herself wanted to turn around and go to him - to hug him and cry, and to beg him to have things go back the way things were, back when they were sincerely learning new things about each other each day. She terribly missed seeing his bright smile, his infectious optimism, and his soft, attentive eyes when he looked at her like she was the only thing that mattered. It made her heart ache in her chest.

No, Sakura told herself. She wouldn't be that type of girl any more, begging desperately at a man's feet. She would have some self-respect.

Lee made it very clear what he wanted out of any further relationship with her. He wanted a cordial distance like nothing ever happened between them, as though the genuine bond they had slowly built up over time was meaningless. It was clear to her that he was feeling guilty and just wanted to say something to her to ease his own conscious. Perhaps he wanted to guilt her into accepting a truce of some sort.

Sakura felt her anger flare up. She whipped around, glaring up him. He was only a few feet away. "You told me all I needed to know three days ago. I'm just doing what you wanted - creating distance between us. If you want to make sure my poor reputation that you worry so much about remains clean of any affair rumors you shouldn't try to talk to me about anything other than the mission. Or you know - people might talk."

Lee's eyebrows pitched together, and his dark eyes were full of hurt or guilt, Sakura couldn't tell. "Sakura, I-"

Sakura took a step into her room and slammed the door shut.

She let out a deep, shuttering sigh. She would keep it together. She wouldn't cry again over this.

No matter how ugly the fight, when Sakura fought with Ino she never felt this awful. They would spit fire at each other and then completely make up the next day and move on like nothing happened. Her situation with Lee hurt so much deeper than anything between her or Ino. Why did this hurt like heartbreak as though she had feelings for Lee?

Kiba sniffed the air. "The trail ends here," he said, crouched on the forest floor.

Akamaru whined in agreement, confused.

Lee returned to the group, shaking his head. "Even the physical tracks are gone."

Shino called some of his insects back to him. His brow crinkled. "My insects can't find any sign of them either. If they had a chakra signature to hone in on rather than a scent off a scrap of cloth, they might have fared better."

"This is the problem we've been having," Goda grimaced. "We can't track them. If we find any and give chase they just lose us."

Sakura placed her palm on the face of a nearby boulder, searching its surface in thought.

Shino approached Sakura. "I can think of several possibilities. They might be backtracking to deceive us, at least in this case. They could be doing something special to hide their tracks. Or, it could be some sort of jutsu - perhaps genjutsu. Sakura, what are you thinking?"

"Genjutsu. My thought exactly," Sakura replied. "Something here feels off to me."

"We've already considered genjutsu," Goda scoffed. "It was one of our first hypotheses."

Sakura closed her eyes and focused on her chakra stream. "It's incredibly subtle but it's there - a genjutsu is at work here."

"Impossible," Goda said. "None of my Steam-nin have detected any genjutsu in this area."

"Don't worry about it, I've been told I'm very genjutsu-sensitive." Sakura held out her two fingers in the genjutsu dissipation and focused.

Dissipate!

When she opened her eyes she saw no difference in the environment. She checked her chakra stream again - she still felt like something was off within it despite easily countering the genjutsu inside her body. "Kiba, can you smell Lee past the point you lost the scent trail?"

Kiba nodded. "Yeah, I can smell him just fine."

"Try a genjutsu dissipation and try again," Sakura said.

Kiba did as instructed. "Nope, no change here."

"Hmm..." Sakura mused. "It behaves like a genjutsu tag by holding its jutsu effect even after a dissipation... but it doesn't behave like a simple perimeter genjutsu."

"If these are genjutsu tags perhaps they work differently than ones you are familiar with," Shino commented. "The Sound have always had odd jutsu."

"Good point, Shino," Sakura said. "Fan out - check the area for genjutsu tags."

The five shinobi combed the area. They searched on every tree, rock, and hole with no luck.

"Sakura," Shino commented. "We should stop before we end up wasting our time and before we're discovered by the enemy. We're exposed searching like this. I no longer think the answer is genjutsu tags."

Sakura sighed. "Then what else would it be? Genjutsu users are so rare that it has to be something that a single skilled user was able to place themselves or give to their allies to place."

"I don't know," Shino answered honestly.

"We can't give up here," Sakura said stubbornly. "If we figure this out we would solve the mystery as to why every group of enemy-nin here are able to escape capture."

Shino suddenly perked up. "Wait a minute. One of my insects just found something."

Shino approached one of the nearby trees and leaped up on its branches. Intrigued, Sakura followed. There Shino located a hairline crack in the trunk, barely visible and too small for even their fingers. Shino's insects crawled out of the crack, pulling out a slip of paper in their pincers. Shino took it from his insects and handed it to Sakura.

"A seal," he said.

Sakura inspected the pattern on the seal, a swirl surrounded by inscriptions. "Interesting. I see how this works." Shino and Sakura leaped back down to the others. "It's not a simple circle perimeter. It's a spiral. The spiral patterns allows each layer of tags to support the next with additional genjutsu. You can't walk inside the genjutsu's safe zone because one doesn't exist. It's... genius really. "

"Then why can I smell Lee while in the genjutsu spiral?" Kiba asked.

Sakura pointed out a line of inscriptions on the tag. "See this here? It means that someone can wear a 'key' for protection from the genjutsu. It's a targeted tag jutsu. I didn't think something like this was possible."

"So, because Kiba only now lost the scent, we are at the edge of this spiral," Shino concluded.

"Correct," Sakura smiled.

Lee rubbed his chin. "But locating and removing all of the tags will take up a lot of our time, if we can find the rest."

"I have a theory," Sakura said. "Since the tags are supporting each other, the genjutsu should get stronger the closer to the center we are. I can sense these changes within my chakra system. If we find the center tag and remove it the whole genjutsu will drop because the center tag should be the one connecting all of the others together."

"What if someone is hiding in the genjutsu waiting to attack us while we're vulnerable?" Goda asked.

"My insects are unaffected by genjutsu due to their simple nervous systems," Shino replied. "They will be able to warn me if there is someone hiding in the genjutsu."

Goda nodded, satisfied with that answer.

Sakura led them deep through the genjutsu, using her chakra as her guide. The others stood close by, on guard. Sakura stopped in front of a tree with a large hollow, pleased at what she found inside. She reached inside and ripped off the tag within.

Something inside the tree hollow suddenly latched to Sakura's arm tightly, securing it in place. A mechanical whirring noise suddenly sounded behind them.

Oh no.

Sakura tried to jerk her hand free.

"Look out!" Goda shouted, dodging out of the way. Shino, Kiba, and Akamaru jumped away at the warning.

Flashes of metal shot towards Sakura out of the corner of her eye. In less than a second, Lee shifted in front of her, kunai in hand. Clangs of metal reverberated through the forest as he deftly deflected each shuriken. When they had stopped Lee surveyed the area, kunai drawn at the ready. In that time, Sakura was able to able to cut herself free from the rope trap gripping her wrist using her own kunai. Now that the genjutsu was dissipated, she could see the once disguised shuriken launcher connected to the tree across from them.

Goda immediately reacted, running towards the discharged trap to make sure it was truly disarmed. Seeing that Sakura was safe, Shino and Kiba spread out to check the area for other traps that needed disarming.

With his back still turned towards her, kunai raised, Lee spoke, his voice low and serious. "Sakura, are you unharmed?"

"Yes... Thank you," Sakura said. Lee had reacted so fast; his reflexes were truly extraordinary.

When things seemed satisfyingly quiet, Lee sheathed his kunai. He then plucked out a shuriken that was lodged deep in his flak jacket and flicked it away. Lee turned to Sakura, keeping a respectable distance away, relief clear in his dark eyes after he scanned her for injuries.

Sakura wanted to scold him for so clearly worrying about her when he had been the only one hit. "You... you were hit."

"It did not make it through my flak jacket. I am uninjured." Lee gave a curt smile with a tightness to it. He avoided her gaze. Even though he wasn't looking at her, she could see the uncertainty and melancholy in his eyes from their short conversation the night before.

"Good," Sakura nodded. She didn't know what else to say. Lee seemingly had agreed to keep their conversations professional after she snapped at him the night before, but it was hard to ignore his expressive eyes. "The tree was trapped. I should have assumed that."

Shino and Kiba approached them. Kiba spoke up, "That seems to be the only trap set up here."

Sakura turned her attention to Kiba, thankful for the distraction. "Good. It appears we now know how these Sound-nin are hiding. They are setting up genjutsu perimeters like this one spotted around the area to confuse anyone tracking them. If we disable them, then they will have nowhere to run."

Shino stepped forward. "It's possible some of these genjutsu perimeters may be hiding camps. We shouldn't approach any more of these perimeters until my insects can verify that there are no chakra signatures inside."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"The scent trail is back up," Kiba grinned. "Let's track this bastard down and get him."

Everyone was hidden in position. The perimeter was surrounded. Shino verified that there were eight chakra signatures hidden within the genjutsu barrier. Seven were resting, while the eighth was keeping watch. One of them was the target Kiba had tracked - a notorious Sound-nin known only for his four arms and the amount of Steam-nin he had killed.

As planned, Sakura went in first. She had approximate knowledge of where all the Sound-nin were hiding from Shino, but it would be made hard by the fact that she could not see them while in the genjutsu. She followed the signals and trails laid out to her by Shino's swarming insects for avoiding the enemy, while at the same time leading herself straight to the lynchpin genjutsu tag she had to remove.

When she reached what she deemed to be the center, she waited the set remaining time in hiding until Shino changed the insects' commands to search around Sakura's perimeter and destroy the tag, traps be damned. When Sakura heard the mechanical whirring of a trap going off, Sakura knew the insects were successful. The genjutsu was down.

"What was that?" a voice sounded, about thirty feet east of Sakura.

Sakura peered out of her hiding spot. She could now see a camp with enemy-nin bustling awake, disturbed from their daytime sleep. One of them came to check in on the discharged trap. As soon as he neared Sakura's hiding spot she grabbed him from behind and and slit his throat with her kunai. Seven left. Immediately after a bloodcurdling scream sounded through the forest before suddenly silencing - Shino had taken care of the shinobi on watch. Six left.

Now the remaining enemy-nin were on full battle mode. Sakura charged into the camp, fists and chakra blazing. Across from her Kiba and Akamaru charged in. On her left Goda darted in, stabbing at the nearest opponent with her two three-pronged sai. The enemy was surrounded.

One of the Sound-nin darted away when there was an opening. Before he could get far Lee cut in front of him and dispatched the surprised enemy-nin with ease. Five left.

The four-armed Sound-nin - Baisho - towered above the rest of his allies. His secondary set of arms were covered in grotesque scars as though they grafted onto his body. He set his eyes on Goda while her back was turned. Sakura delivered a glancing blow to the shinobi she was fighting, cracking his shoulder from the destructive force of her chakra alone. As he writhed on the ground in pain, Sakura dashed to Goda and punched Baisho's massive arm away from contacting Goda's skull, bursting her chakra right from the tips of her knuckles.

That got Baisho's attention. He turned his menacing gaze to Sakura, seemingly unaffected by her chakra-filled punch. Sakura would have expected broken bones, but he seemed unharmed. "So you want to play, little Leaf-nin?"

Sakura didn't respond and only stood her ground defensively.

Baisho grinned and began a flurry of blows with his four fists. Sakura weaved around them, taking all of her focus to avoid them. She didn't know how she was going to get a blow in. When Baisho raised all of his fists in an overhead smash, Sakura launched her momentum into a slide kick into his legs. Baisho stumbled only a little. He twisted around too fast and snatched her by the back of the shirt with one arm and cracked his fist straight in her stomach, sending her flying against a tree trunk.

Sakura retched as her stomach twisted itself in pain. When she opened her eyes she saw stars. Dazed, she tried to focus on the figure charging at her as she struggled to rise. When her double-vision focused she realized it was the shinobi with the cracked shoulder, uninjured hand crackling with some unknown ninjutsu. Before he could reach her, a wall of insects rose like a wave in front of Sakura, blocking the jutsu as it exploded. Hundreds of insects dropped to the floor dead. The rest curved in towards the shinobi, buzzing with fury, intending to swallow him in their swarm.

Sakura glanced at the camp and saw that Kiba and Akamaru had downed a shinobi, and were now squaring off with Baisho, darting around him as he tried to chase them down. Four left.

Sakura swiftly veered herself to the other side of the injured shinobi, trapping him between her and Shino's encroaching insects. Despite being injured, the shinobi was still quick on his feet, weaving around Sakura and Shino's insects. Seeing that he was at a disadvantage, the shinobi tried to run, but he failed to notice that the green grass around them had swarmed completely black with shiny carapaces. The bugs latched onto his legs, holding him still long enough for Sakura to deliver a final blow that snapped his neck. Sakura nodded at Shino, hiding up in the nearby tree. Three left.

Sakura surveyed the battlefield. Akamaru and Kiba were keeping Baisho at bay. Akamaru had been transformed into a clone of Kiba by using the Beast Human Clone technique, and the two were performing the Fang Passing Fang, as they coordinated a series of spinning blows to Baisho. Goda was slumped against a boulder, applying pressure to a wound on her thigh. Lee was juggling two of the remaining shinobi, including the one that must have injured Goda.

Sakura ran to Goda, readying her healing chakra. "Goda! You okay?" She kneeled next to her, placing her palms over the wound. The frayed skin began to knit together as Sakura's chakra flowed into her.

"The cut is deep," Goda said, very matter-of-fact despite how pale she looked.

"I got you," Sakura reassured, pumping in a surge of healing chakra. Sakura pushed herself - they were still in an active combat scenario - she just had to stabilize Goda to make sure she did not die on them.

Sakura heard a sharp yelp and looked up to see one of the two Kibas tumble away after taking a heavy hit. In a poof of smoke the Kiba transformed back into Akamaru.

"Akamaru!" Kiba hollered.

Shino's insects swarmed towards Baisho in defense of his old companions.

Sakura's eyes darted to Lee as he weaved and countered the attacks of two shinobi at once with ease. They looked identical, perhaps twins, and Sakura assumed had formed their duo taijutsu fighting style together. While they seemed confident at their odds at first, they were showing signs of frustration, especially with how much they were struggling to overcome Lee even with their number advantage.

"Sakura! Lee!" Shino called sharply, a request for aid.

Sakura glanced back at the fight with Baisho. Shino was in front of an injured Kiba, shielding desperately against Baisho's savage attacks with his insects. Akamaru was back up, trying to drag Kiba out of the fray, but foiled by his injured paw. Sakura focused all of her willpower on Goda's injury - just a few moments more and the bleeding would stop.

There!

Sakura charged at Baisho, intending to get his attention off of Shino. Once again she filled her fist with chakra and punched it square in the center of his back. He stumbled and whipped to her with an evil grin. Something was wrong with this Sound-nin. He was incredibly powerful, and seemingly immune to her chakra punches. Yet, it all seemed artificial - he did not seem to have the keen senses and reflexes an adept shinobi would have.

Shino took the opportunity to pick up Kiba and called his insects to carry Akamaru. He darted away from sight with them.

Baisho let out a roar and his massive muscles seemed to bulge even bigger, threatening to burst through his skin. He towered over Sakura, a hungry look in his eyes. "Round two, little Leaf-nin?"

What kind of jutsu is this?

Sakura didn't respond. She charged in, determined to be more watchful of his moves this time. She dodged and weaved around each one of his punches, and was able to get close enough to punch his gut. He stumbled back, but did not keel over or go flying as she would have expected with the amount of chakra she put into that punch.

It has to be chakra nullification, Sakura decided.

Baisho charged at her, growling like a beast. Sakura ducked under one set of fists, and then leaped over him. She threw two kunai that lodged into his back, as she landed behind him. She had missed his neck as he lurched around.

Baisho no longer looked cocky - he looked enraged. He pulled out the two kunai out of his back and wielded them. Sakura pulled out another kunai, ready for his next onslaught of attacks as he closed the distance between them. His attacks seemed faster this time, leaving little to no opening for Sakura to attack.

He was just playing before, Sakura realized.

Sakura could barely keep up between deflecting the slashes of his kunai and dodging his blows. She was starting to feel tired - she spent a lot of chakra trying to heal Goda quickly.

Baisho suddenly did an unexpected sweeping kick, knocking Sakura to the ground. Sakura rolled before he could smash her. The ground caved in where his fists landed. Before Sakura could get to her feet, she had to dive and roll out of the way of his merciless kicks and punches. He wasn't giving her a chance to recover. He cornered her between the massive roots of an ancient tree, with no way to escape without leaving herself open. When he charged at her she quickly used a genjutsu to create an illusion of wooden spikes springing out of the ground right before his feet. He jumped back in surprise, giving her the opportunity to wall-run up the tree and flip over Baisho's head. She kicked the back of his leg, causing him to fall down on one knee. Before she could stab him with her kunai, he threw sand at her face, causing her eyes to involuntarily flinch closed as he stood and closed in on her.

Oh no...!

She threw her kunai at him blindly. Just before he reached her she heard a sudden clash and opened her watering eyes to see Baisho flying away from Lee's kick. Lee landed in front of her. If Lee was here, his two opponents had to have been defeated. That meant they had only one opponent left.

Sakura rubbed her eyes free of the sand as she stood up. "Chakra attacks don't work on him. He nullifies them somehow. His attacks are also incredibly powerful. Don't let him touch you."

"I see," Lee answered, watching as Baisho rose to his feet, poised in his distinct fighting stance.

"Here he comes," Sakura said as Baisho charged at them, putting herself next to Lee in a defensive pose.

"Right!"

Baisho swung at them with heavy swings. Lee and Sakura weaved around each other as much as they did around Baisho's attacks. As they fought, Sakura felt like the two of them connected, both of them learning how to follow up each other's attacks to best support one another against their opponent. When one of them left themselves exposed after an attack, the other slipped in to act as defense, parrying any blows away. They were wordlessly in sync with one another. Their attacks flinched and staggered Baisho, but they clearly weren't enough to take him down. They needed more.

Sakura weaved behind him, leaped onto his massive back and found some way to grapple back all four of his arms as he shouted. "Lee!"

Bandages unwrapped, Lee charged at Baisho with inhuman speed. He delivered an upward kick to Baisho's chin as Sakura jumped off, sending Baisho soaring up into the air. Lee followed him up in the air with a series of kicks, sending Biasho higher and higher. Lee wrapped him tight with his bandages before spinning him head down in the Primary Lotus. The ground exploded on impact.

Lee landed close to Sakura, breathing heavily as the two of them waited for the dust to clear in anticipation.

The dust settled and Baisho was laying on the ground, unconscious.

Sakura approached him carefully and flipped him over on his back with a kick. He didn't react.

"We did it," Sakura grinned with relief back at Lee.

Lee grinned back at her, eyes warm and bright. "Yes, I think our taijutsu worked great together."

Sakura laughed. "I was thinking the same thing." They had displayed some incredible synergy with their taijutsu. She had not had an experience like that before when paired up with another shinobi.

They held each other's gaze for a few more lingering seconds, grinning like idiots, no words passing between them. After the high of their victory started to wear off, Sakura's smile slowly faded away upon remembering where her and Lee's friendship now stood. Lee immediately noticed, and his eyebrows pitched together slightly before he quickly looked away, smile gone.

"Where is he?!" came Kiba's voice as he stormed in. Upon seeing Baisho's unconscious body Kiba stopped in his tracks. "Aww, man."

Shino slinked in from behind a tree, Akamaru behind him holding up his paw.

Goda limped to them, a fresh bandage tied around her thigh. The usually stern looking Goda broke out in a full grin. "You Leaf-nin are really something else."

Sakura dug around in Baisho's pockets and found the genjutsu nullification key she was looking for. She held it out. "Look for this on their bodies. It's what we're going to use to hunt down the rest."

"I did not kill the two twins that I fought. They are unconscious back near the camp," Lee said.

"Good, then we have a more controllable target for interrogation," Goda nodded. She stabbed a sai through Baisho's heart. She spat on his body as he bled out and walked back towards the camp. The four Leaf-nin shared a glance.

They all wrapped up what they could from the camp after Sakura healed them. A map was located pinpointing the locations of the other genjutsu barriers. Since they had prisoners to bring back to Yu they headed directly back to base. They would continue their hunt the next day.

Everything has gone well so far but Sakura was waiting for it to get complicated. They hadn't yet run into the Talons with their poisoned weapons. She hoped that they would not cross them. However, if they did appear, she would be ready for them.

They all grabbed sushi for dinner to celebrate. Being so close to the ocean the fish was fresher than anything they could ever get in Konoha. Goda left early, saying she had other matters to attend to before the night was over. During their dinner Sakura's eye caught Lee's for a moment. He smiled hesitantly at her, his eyes apologetic. He was extending another small olive branch, most likely encouraged from the smiles they shared after defeating Baisho together.

Sakura looked away, expressionless. She cursed herself for making that mistake earlier. She couldn't help herself - in that moment she had forgotten her anger at Lee and once again he was just her dear friend, as though nothing bad had happened between them. It made her heart pang thinking of that single pure moment they shared because it reminded her of what they had lost. Maybe she could find it in her one day to forget her anger and allow things to go back to when they were more distant, just like he wanted, but today was not that day.

A/N: Woke: Having no one protect Sakura to show how capable she is where Kishimoto failed to do her justice because of his sexism.

My un-woke brain: LEE PROTECTING SAKURA MAKES ME FEEL FUZZY INSIDE.

It was a bit weird for me to write them killing random guys (except for Shino and maybe Kiba, honestly) because I don't remember seeing them casually kill people on their missions in the show or manga, but it absolutely has to be something occurring on their missions, right? It bothers me the most for cinnamon roll Lee honestly, haha.