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40. Code 4

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I'm sitting here in the living room, enjoying a well needed matcha soy latte and writing the rest of the chapter, while outside the snow is covering the rooftop garden and the mountains around, reflecting the morning sun in different shades. What a sight to behold! Winter is beautiful, even after a long night on duty. My significant other is still peacefully sleeping, we will have a rich brunch later together. remember to enjoy the little things in life and be grateful for what you have.

SquaMata

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Sasuke squeezed her hand in a friendly manner. "Now get out! Go to Naruto and tell him: Code 4."

She looked at him, still shaken in fear. "I won't leave you behind, Sasuke! You're my comrade!"

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A very calm Sasuke made it clear, "Code 4 is a direct order from the hokage, Sakura. Don't worry, I can handle that."

"Are you sure?" Sakura was indeed worried, she knew by now what Sukaku was capable of.

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With a smug smirk he reinforced his words, "Yes. I know exactly what I'm doing. Trust me!"

The nervous pinkette nodded, "Take care!"

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"I will. Now go!"

Then the pinkette clad in a red towel dashed out of the room, clanking chains with every step.

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On her way out of the kazekage's apartment and downstairs to the guest floor Sakura managed to unlock the chains from the shackles, she let the chains fall one after the other. The ANBU at the staircase did not bother her, they were bound to secrecy anyway.

Naruto was sitting on his lounger next to the window and flipping through his own book as he heard loud banging against his door. By the force and frequency of the knocks, he was sure it was an emergency. Quickly he leaped to his feet and ran to open the door.

His former teammate stood at his door, he was not prepared for that sight. Sakura awaited him, tear stained, barefoot and by what he could tell only clad in a wine-red towel with a set of keys in her shaking. Her lips quivered and she looked completely thrown off the rails, in an instant he pulled her inside of his room. The blonde ANBU noticed the shackles around her wrists and ankles and gingerly took the keys from her hand to open them. When she was freed, he gently rubbed the obviously sore spots which had begun to change colors, then detected dried blood drops on her arms and legs. His azure blue eyes turned wide. The pinkette was still gasping for air as he set all modesty aside and tugged her towel aside to look for injuries on her body. She shook her head in negation and wrapped the towel closed again.

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With a raspy voice she answered his unspoken question, "Nothing serious, I'm ok."

"What happened?" By the sound of his voice she could tell that he was worried, but a bit relieved.

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"Code 4." She was sure he would ask a lot of questions, to which she knew she could not give him any answer, but to her surprise he did not.

"Ok, let's go!" He handed her a bag of clothes and pushed her into the bathroom. "Hurry up!"

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Naruto was waiting outside and closed the bathroom door to grant her some privacy.

At first the pinkette stood in front of the mirror like a deer in headlights. She did not realize in what state she was right now.

Breathe in, breathe out. We got this.

Slowly she let the towel fall to the white marble floor. Cautiously she looked at the deep gashes which resulted from the lashes with that cruel ninetail, the bleeding had almost stopped.

Good.

To her horror there were gashes, cuts, hematoma, blood droplets nearly everywhere, and she noticed that her metal body jewelry was missing.

Calm down, we got this. We're safe now!

Kakashi… Is he okay?

Absent-mindedly her hand found the delicate pendant around her neck again and traced it which had never failed to calm her senses. By the look of her reflection she knew she had lost most of her muscle mass. She fought back another stream of tears.

How much time has passed?

There was a dark purple point on her flat stomach, which had to be the scar from the exit wound of the arrow. Taking a deep breath she turned and watched herself in the mirror as she was searching for what would be left of the entry wound. On her back she found what she was looking for, it had a nasty x-shape with wrinkled edges and colored in different shades of violet.

This is bad.

We survived, that's all that matters right now.

Sakura was thankful that her recent injury had not been reopened, otherwise she was sure it would have been lethal. No-one could ever survive such a wound twice. By now she knew this would be her forever weaking point.

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The kind voice of her former teammate brought her out of her momentary shock, "Do you need help with your cuts?"

Sakura took another deep breath to stop her beginning sobs, then she focussed on her chakra. The kunoichi could even feel herself getting stronger and more powerful with every breath she took now. The inward blockade seemed to ebb away eventually with the regain of her memory and she finally managed to summon a small green healing chakra into her palm, "I think I can handle that myself."

"That's a relief!" The Konoha elite-nin exhaled soundly.

Her healing chakra was just strong enough to close the shallow cuts. She washed herself quickly, then she put on underwear and a jounin uniform from the bag.

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Through the closed bathroom door she asked with a toothbrush in her mouth, "Where are we going to?"

"Konoha." Naruto was glad that her voice sounded confident and more like herself.

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She even found a pair of her boots in the bag, they had planned this for a while now, that she was sure of. With a smile she hastened to put them on.

"What about Sasuke?"

"He will be just fine."

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The pinkette in her jounin uniform opened the door and looked worried, "No, we need to…"

"We do not, Sakura." Naruto dragged her by the wrist into the anteroom of his guest lodging. "Grant them their privacy. He knows exactly what he's doing."

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"That's what he said."She frowned, but she knew her former teammates well enough to trust them.

"See?" The blonde man reassured her with a quick smile, then he took two prepared backpacks out of the wardrobe and handed her one. Before they headed off from his balcony, she jumped onto her own to gather her precious tanto.

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On their way to the gates of Sunagakure she asked him, "Could you please tell me at least what code 4 means?"

"Code 4 is a direct order from the hokage as arranged with Suna. It says to bring you back to Konoha immediately the moment you have found your memory back and the chakra bond is re-established."

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"Chakra bond?"

The blonde sighed, "Sasuke said it's a sharingan thing. He can explain it better, but as far as I know it has something to do with deep love, soulmates and chakras united by the sharingan."

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"You're talking about…"

"Yes, you and Kakashi have developed a chakra bond."

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Slowly all her memories came back one after the other, all the experiences with Kakashi, how he had saved her life so many times in almost every thinkable way, how their relationship had changed over the years, their different kinds of training, their mission in Suna together, which had changed everything, their attraction, their denial, their love and their wonderful connection. The ways he had used his sharingan, their dreams together. It all made sense now.

Chakra bonding… It must have happened somehow during our mission…

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"Come on, hurry up! We need to cross the desert before the sun is up!"

She needed one thing to know, "You said 'reestablished'. Does that mean he knows we're on our way back?"

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Naruto looked at her with an excusing smile and shrugged, "Honestly I don't know exactly how it works, sorry. That's Sasuke's specialist field. But he said you two should be able to communicate somehow over distance if you concentrate or something like that."

Like in the dreams.

Remember the connection he made to find us?

She took a moment to close her eyes as they exited the village and tried to connect him, but all she could feel was a huge blockade like from an impervious brick wall. She had a bad feeling about this.

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"Naruto, how long have I been here in Suna?"

"An awfully long while if you ask me."

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Too long…

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"I want to go home now."

"Come on, let's go."

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His reassuring smile stopped her tears and she started running with him into the dunes. They were dashing through the sand at full speed, and soon they were out of sight of Sunagakure.

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Time to set the table and wake him up for brunch. Have a nice day everyone :)

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