This was strange. Sakura knew she had to be dreaming, it was so obvious. Everything around her was dark; she could walk on and on without bumping into something or tripping. Not to mention she was the only thing that had any type of color, as if everything else was void of it. When calling out, there was no echo and the sound just dissipated quickly after speaking. She wanted to get out of here, this unknown place, but had no way to get someone to wake her. Why now did this have to happen?
"Hello!" she called out, hoping there was a point to all this. "Now what?"
She kept walking for what felt like hours until giving up and falling to her knees with a sigh. It wouldn't be too long before someone woke her. After all they were on an important mission. The only reason the group stopped was to rest and recuperate since they were about to face the enemy soon. She sighed and looked up, hoping something would happen. How long would it take for this to end?
"You have to get out of here before they get to you," a voice said from behind her.
Sakura jumped up and turned, getting into a fighting stance. She narrowed her eyes, wondering just how strange of dream she was having. He looked just like Sasuke, but after taking a second glance she noticed he had some different features. His hair was longer in the back and pulled into a messy low ponytail wearing something similar to Madara only a few shades lighter and with a cloak. Though the resemblance was a bit uncanny. He was an Uchiha for sure giving his appearance.
"Who are you? What are you talking about?" she questioned, trying to keep her head together.
"The masked enemies... They are surrounding your group and you don't even know it."
"Wha... What?" she said standing straight. "How do you know?"
"Miyo-san sent me," he told her. "She wanted me to warn you all. They are using the poison on all their weapons, even taking a risk of hitting an ally. Be careful because they are using only the aggressive version now that they know it is successful. Your group is about to be ambushed. Even the sensors do not know they are there. Which shocks me since Tobirama is so skilled," he explained as best he could.
"I figured they would..." she said, looking down. She looked up for a moment in relief. "Miyo is alive then?" He nodded in response.
"She is safe and on her way to Konohagakure. But the others are still captured. You need to stop him, the boy has finally gone insane," he said before looking around. "I have no time left. Be cautious."
"Wait..."
"Sakura-san, take care of Madara for me." He suddenly faded and it took a second to realize what he meant. Izuna... that was Madara's younger brother.
She jolted up from her sleep, alarming Madara. She was trying to wrap her head around what just happened, but unfortunately she had a headache. Miyo was alive and going back to the safest place right now. How was she able to send Izuna? Sakura didn't understand until she remember what Tobirama explained earlier. Miyo must have encounter Izuna at some point but Sakura did not want to think about how at the moment. She needed to get rid of her headache and ask questions later.
"Sakura-chan, are you alright?" Madara asked as she held her head.
"Yeah," she said looking around. "Tobirama, Roiki, can you sense anyone nearby?" Both of them looked at each other before shaking their heads.
"Why?" Roiki questioned, confused.
"Just making sure," she said getting up and stretching, peaking around for movement. "How long was I asleep?"
"Only fifteen minutes or so," Madara answered, crossing his arms.
"Oh," she sighed, grabbing her things.
"Are we leaving already?" Roiki complained. She grabbed a kunai and looked up at the majority of them in front of her.
"Get ready." As soon as she said it, Sakura threw the kunai and hit her target in the shoulder.
The rest of them immediately went for their weapons as the masked enemies jumped from their hiding spots and began to throw kunai and shuriken. They all jumped up and prepared to fight. The enemy was just as Roiki described, covered in black clothing with Kitsune masks. It was impossible to tell if they were male or female. Sakura immediately defended with a kunai against a very aggressive attacker who seemed intent on killing her. She caught a glimpse of the Shinobi's sword, instantly recognizing the poison.
"Their weapons have the poison on it! Do not let yourself get hurt. And Protect Fume!" she shouted, hoping the majority heard her.
Izuna was right, they were there to ambush them. Which meant the poison was aggressive and the only one who was capable of getting rid of it was Fume. If she had been able to learn the technique he used, she wouldn't worry as much. But even her life was in danger. And at the rate this Shinobi was attacking there was a slim chance she would be able to attack at some point. Sakura quickly grabbed another kunai and swung it upward after she defended against the sword. The Shinobi maneuvered to the side but still got hit before jumping back. They began to heal themselves much to Sakura's surprise.
"A medic," she commented.
"Of course. All of us have some medical skills. I being the most skilled of all." It was a Kunoichi.
"Then are you the one who made the poison?" she asked.
"It was difficult to get it to work properly but we had enough subjects to use," she said with a chuckle.
Sakura's anger rose before she lunged forward, using both kunai to attack the woman. To her it was vile to use people for such terrible experiments. She didn't want to think of how many people they used before perfecting it. To think they just found out about it when it was perfected. Just how many peoples lives were lost because of this. It fueled her anger and made her attack faster. When she saw an opening, she immediately dropped her kunai and punched her, making her fly across the forest and smashing into many trees.
The woman immediately jumped up, her mask crack but not yet broken. She seemed to be laughing to herself before laughing loud enough to hear. Sakura looked around and noticed everyone was separated. Aside from her everyone was facing at least three people. Tobirama and Madara both having at least double that. Knowing those two it wasn't something they couldn't handle. It looked like the enemies were trying to get to Fume but the enemies were making sure to keep the group busy. Sakura looked back to the Kunoichi, taking a deep breath before slowly breathing out. Both immediately rushed at each other, using taijutsu to fight.
She was swift, getting out of the way of most of Sakura's punches and kicks. Sakura chased after her but only caused craters int he ground and severed many trees. They had to know who they were because every time someone attacked or evaded the enemy, these masked Shinboi could counter and predicted what they were going to do next. That went especially for Sakura and her enemy. She watched carefully to see if she had a weakness or if she was going to slip up but unfortunately she didn't so far.
Sakura noticed her fast hand signs too late as she put her hands to the ground and everything started shaking. The ground beneath her started to crack and cave in while the rest around her seemed to be moving up. It hit her, the masked woman was trying to trap her but Sakura wasn't going to let it happen. She jumped on to the rising part of the ground, using it to get high enough before jumping into the trees. Just as she got close to the top and saw kunai flying at her from behind. They were suddenly deflected and Sakura landed on a branch only to see the masked woman had been the one to deflected them. She threw kunai above Sakura, hitting one of her own allies.
"I told you she is my enemy!" she shouted as the Shinobi fell.
Before Sakura could say anything the woman leaped from the tree and threw kunai at her. She jumped down to avoid the attack before making her way through the forest to get back towards the group. Fireballs came towards her, catching some of the trees on fire as they past. Sakura landed as soon as she could only to start running backwards and dodging the punches the woman threw at her.
She really wanted Sakura dead given the way she fought. Sakura could tell she was extremely talented and held rage towards her, which fueled her attacks. How she could keep up with Sakura at this rate was pretty impressive but unfortunately for her the pinkette was at her tolerance limit. She had to do something to get the upper hand so Sakura came up with a plan, something the enemy wouldn't expect. She dodged to the side to avoid a punch and swiftly moved her upper body back to avoid a kick. As soon as the Kunoichi pivoted on her foot to turn and kick again, Sakura threw a punch. She dodged thinking it was over but Sakura smirked, moving her elbow out so she could backhand her across the forest.
Sakura didn't hesitated and jumped into the trees to chase after her. Just as she had done early, Sakura came after her with no hesitation. She made hand signs and used fireballs as a distraction but followed it up with a wind style jutsu to amplify the attack. Sakura landed as soon as she could and saw as the Kunoichi tried to get out of the fire. She noticed Sakura and rushed at her, skidding as she reached and pivoted on her foot again to dodge the punch. AS she did she pulled out her kunai from her sleeve and stabbed Sakura right in the back.
"Shannaro!" Sakura shouted from above, hitting her as the clone disappeared and causing a huge crated.
Sakura stood above her, sighing. It had been so long since she had to fight like this so coming up with a strategy took a minute. But she was able to use some old tricks that were still new to this timeline. She went to take a step to leave only to jump and avoid kunai from the side. She felt some fly behind her and hit a surprised mask Shinobi who was coming towards her. With that going on she had almost forgotten that there were more enemies.
"You certainly know how to take down an enemy," Madara said landing beside her.
"Well I did take you down at one point," she smirked, getting into a fighting stance as two more enemies landed ahead of them.
"Hashirama did most of the work before you even showed up," he retorted.
"Maybe one day we can fight for real and see who is the strongest," she suggested.
"I'll try to go easy on you," he smirked, watching her make a face.
Sakura rushed at the and jumped, using a kunai to deflect the shuriken while landing behind them. As she landed, she took each one down with a single hit as soon as she got the chance. This was no time to be hesitant as she realized so she went all out to make sure she didn't have to repeat the incident she just finished. She looked back at Madara and shrugged.
"If that is your choice then so be it. Just remember..." she said pointing to her forehead. "I things get to bad I still have a backup plan," she finished with a mocking smile, loving the slightly irritated face Madara made.
Author's Note: I AM SOOOOOO SORRRY! Life is just...ugh. I am trying to update as much as possible but my routine is get up, go to work, get home, sleep... with an occasional go to my moms when she needs help. (With my two day marathoning of Akatsuki no Yona) My computer hasn't even been charged for like three weeks. I am trying to update as much as I can and hope by May it'll be finished. I only have a few chapters left anyway. Please remain patient with me. I am trying! T.T
I was going to add more tonight but I think it be best to separate this into two chapters because it would be loooooong and I want to make sure I have time to give you well written chapter (as much as I possibly can) and not be rushing everything, so next chapter is already part of the way done :) And yeah I know, the battle scene probably wasn't the best but hey I try. It is hard to write what you imagine descriptively ^.^'
Anywho, Happy Valentine's Day!
