HELLO. Happy Fire Friday, all!
After reading and properly squealing over your reviews last chapter I feel like I should start by saying... unfortunately, K isn't Konan or Kakuzu (lmao, guys I've been laughing my ass off this past week) y'all seem to think I'm much smarter than I actually am lmfao I love it. Thank you so much for reviewing, I really missed you guys! 3
Now, this chapter is a roller coaster of emotions and I'm super nervous to be posting this. I love the fight in this chapter and I wish I could do it justice. When you get to the end just remember to trust me, yeah? Since it ends on a cliffhanger, I'm just gonna throw it out there that I can be convinced to post the next one sooner... you know what you have to do ;)
.
.
.
Sakura was stretched out on the floor of what they were considering to be their spot, against a tree a bit further away from the crew's sparring ring. The sun was warm enough that day that she had forgone her hoodie and was enjoying the afternoon air around them.
Kakashi and Asuma were chatting from either side of her and from time to time they would get up to spar with someone. Sakura pretended to nap in between healing whoever lost the fight and kept her senses alert to what was going on, cataloguing everyone's conversation and who was going where.
It was a Sunday and the window for them to find the key for the box before the next 'mission' was closing fast. She knew it was probably okay to wait for Friday to come to execute the plan but she absolutely wanted this mission to be over already. More importantly, it didn't sit well with her being so close to the Akatsuki and not having anything on them. She wanted information. Sakura wanted the upper hand on those bastards and she wanted it now.
She was smoking a pilfered cigarette from Asuma, lounging next to him when some of the chatter quieted.
The sparring going on—Kakashi and Aya's boyfriend Matsuo—didn't stop but the chatter around camp seemed lower as Yuuto made his way across the clearing. Sakura thought for a moment that he had only gone to watch the fight but then he made eye contact with her and changed his course. Sakura forced a natural grin on her lips and waved slightly.
Something seemed off about him, he was almost dragging his feet through the grass, his eyes narrowed and shoulders tense. Yuuto looked like he was trying to hide how worried he was and was failing miserably, at least to Sakura's trained eyes.
"Sorry to bother you on your free day, Akari-chan," he greeted her when he was close enough. "Could you help me with something?"
Sakura fought the urge to raise her eyebrows at how polite he sounded and just nodded with a small smile.
"Sure!" She got up and took a last drag of her cigarette before stubbing it on the bark of the tree she had been leaning against.
"I'll be in my tent." Yuuto left without another word and Sakura's heart sped up at his odd behaviour. What changed?
Sakura turned to share a concerned look with Asuma and he got up as well. The cigarette still hanging from his lips was gently releasing smoke in the air but he seemed to have completely forgotten about it.
"Do you want me to come with you?" Asuma took a step closer to her like he needed to protect her from some sort of attack right there in the open. It was equal parts sweet and annoying.
"Stay." Sakura's tone of voice was the same she used as a taichou but her features were still relaxed. Asuma furrowed his eyebrows but didn't try to follow her when she headed back to camp.
Sakura dropped the cigarette butt in the firepit as she rounded it to reach Yuuto's tent, the flaps hanging open as usual. He was sitting in one of the chairs of the first room, sprawled on it like he was too heavy to stand up straight, one hand buried in his hair.
"Is everything okay, Yuuto-sama?" Akari asked sweetly, a concerned frown on her face.
"Just a headache, Akari-chan." The man looked even more tired from this close. Sakura wondered yet again what had happened for him to suddenly look like this. "I think I'm beginning to catch a cold and with another job coming up I don't want to risk anything."
"Of course," Sakura said, her mind whirring, trying to decide how to get him completely alone. "A-ano, Yuuto-sama, it would be easier if I could heal you in a horizontal position. The procedure can make you dizzy and… I'm really not strong enough to keep you from falling," Sakura finished with a conspiratorial whisper.
Yuuto grinned indulgently at her and got up from the chair.
"Sure, Akari-chan." He waved with a hand for her to follow him. "Come on, I'll lay on the bed if you promise your husband won't mind."
Sakura forced a blush to her cheeks and sputtered a coy response about Kato trusting her while Yuuto settled on his bed. She kneeled next to him, mostly because she knew he would appreciate the view and visibly hesitated before placing a careful hand on his forehead.
"You don't need to be scared, Akari-chan." Yuuto shot her a quick look before closing his eyes. "Even if you weren't married, I've already met my better-half. Ever wonder why I make it a point to visit the village every Friday?"
"I always thought you were taking care of business there…" Sakura said, not bothering to hide her surprise. The letters from K had been raunchy and sweet but didn't hold a single bit of information about the two of them meeting up. It made sense that he would have a standing date with his lover at the nearby village.
"You could say that, I suppose," Yuuto snorted and Sakura fought a smile. Time to get to her own business.
"Just relax now, Yuuto-sama," Sakura said, her voice quiet and sweet, lulling him into a false sense of security as her chakra entered his system. "I'll be done before you know it!"
Within seconds Yuuto was in a chakra induced coma. Sakura allowed herself a private smile before quickly getting to her feet without making a sound. It was extremely unlikely that someone would enter the tent with the two of them there but Sakura had to act fast so the others wouldn't be suspicious of them taking too long.
She quickly patted him down trying to find a key hidden in his pockets but found nothing. Then she moved to open his shirt in search of a necklace but was disappointed yet again. Sakura was already getting frustrated as she tied his shirt back closed but was nowhere near giving up. This was the perfect opportunity and it had fallen right in her lap, she would see this through.
Her hands quickly moved to his wrists and there it was. The key dangled from a leather bracelet on his wrist, hidden beneath his long sleeved shirt. Sakura carefully checked it for traps even though she didn't expect to find any and snatched it from his wrist. Completely silent, she made her way to his desk and opened his hidden compartment to fish the metal box out.
The chakra in the key hissed slightly and the lock clicked open.
Sakura felt like all the air had been sucked out of the room. For a second her breath caught in her throat and she was worried her next breath would hurt because of how tight her chest felt. Inside the box were about twenty letters. All of it was coded but it was a Water code that Sakura had learned through Usui a few years back and it was easy to read it.
The crew was being supplied with the schedules for the caravans by the Akatsuki and most of their recruiting had been done at their request. The first letter seemed to be from a few months before and it was asking them to procure three more men so they could raid a caravan headed towards Wave with ten men.
Some letters were only a few sentences long, asking for a meeting in one of the villages near them but Sakura could get the general idea of what was going on from them.
The Akatsuki were financing this group to rob places, offering information in return for a cut of their profits. It was a hefty cut at that and Sakura suddenly understood what they were missing.
Because the Akatsuki's objective with the jinchurikis seemed so nefarious and mysterious, they had let their common sense in the background and put the organisation on a pedestal, making them seem mystical and devoid of flaws. The fact was that just like any other group, they needed money and influence to operate successfully. She was just surprised that they had chosen this unknown crew, especially since they had been much smaller when they began their partnership.
Still, this was everything they needed to go forward.
This confirmed the gang wasn't tied to any specific country, and their operation was strictly based on small thefts around the area and robbing the caravans the Akatsuki asked them to. Sakura and her team could dismantle them while half of their camp was away on the next job on Wednesday and set a trap for when the others came back. They would even have the upper hand since, according to the last letter, the team would leave before sunup and most of the remaining ninja would probably still be asleep.
Sakura quickly fixed everything before going back to wake Yuuto up. She knew he'd still be groggy while she actually healed him but it would add to the lie she had fed him about making him dizzy.
"Akari-chan?" Yuuto slurred.
"We're almost done now, Yuuto-sama!" Sakura exclaimed sweetly but knew the high pitch of Akari's voice would make his ears ring. She quickly finished up but kept her place kneeling next to him. "There we go! Good as new?"
"Good as new, Akari-chan," Yuuto slurred while sitting up, his beady eyes glued to her. "You're a miracle worker, Hatanaka is a lucky son of a bitch."
Akari smiled bashfully and blushed while averting her eyes to the floor. Her hands wrung on her lap as she carefully bit her bottom lip.
"A-ano, Yuuto-sama." She looked at him through her lashes before quickly averting her eyes to her hands. "I have a favour to ask…"
"What is it?" Yuuto's voice was beginning to sound annoyed and Sakura quickly dialled back on the bashfulness. She raised her eyes to his and gave him her most disarming smile, making sure to show some sadness in her expression.
"It's just that Kato and Asao's teammate Yasahiro died five years ago and I was wondering if we could get the day off on Wednesday to pay our respects?" Sakura shrugged her shoulders a bit, still kneeling on the floor.
Yuuto frowned but didn't outright deny so Sakura waited him out, making Akari seem nervous and repentant. It would be better if the three of them could focus their efforts on each half of the crew at once but if it came to it, Sakura knew she could take out the half that stayed. It probably wouldn't be easy and smooth but she could get the job done.
"We have a job Wednesday, Akari-chan…"
"Ah, I didn't know that, Yuuto-sama! That's okay!" She struggled to her feet and waved her hands anxiously. "I completely understand, I'm so sorry I bothered you, Yuuto-sama!"
Sakura made her cheeks redden and her eyes fill with tears and Yuuto sighed at the sight of her.
"I… I suppose paying respect to the dead is an important thing… I'm sure my ma would rip me a new one if she knew I didn't take it seriously." Yuuto scratched the back of his head and Sakura knew he was sold. Of course, she knew that about his mother from a letter his brother had sent him about one of their friend's funeral in Water. She had bet this was the right button to push and it had paid out.
She widened her eyes comically and bowed low twice.
"Thank you so much, Yuuto-sama!" She straightened up and shot him her most dazzling smile. "We'll be sure to double our shifts the next day! Thank you, thank you!"
Sakura bowed her way out of his room and happily made her way back to the outskirts of the camp. Asuma was the one on the ring while Kakashi was half sitting half lying against their tree with both his legs straight in front of him, dark eye taking everything around him until they locked with hers. Sakura let a devious smile stretch on her lips for a millisecond but didn't let it linger. She carefully reigned in the excited roll of her chakra and simply smiled cheerfully at him.
"Beautiful day, isn't it, husband?" she asked him with a small giggle once she plopped down in front of him.
She made sure to sit with her back to the camp so she was completely facing him. Kakashi raised one knee so she could lean back on it and Sakura relaxed against it, completely unable to fight a relieved sigh that turned into a delighted laugh. She mouthed happily, "I got what we needed."
Kakashi's eyebrow twitching was the only indication he gave that he understood but then he adjusted their position so he could slide his face closer to hers. He pressed a kiss to her lips and breathed in slightly. Sakura couldn't fight the urge to raise her hand to play with the hair on the nape of his neck.
"Tell me everything," he whispered against her lips and the sound of his voice so low and so close made a small shiver run down her spine.
Sakura relayed every bit of information she had and the plan she had already started working on. She faked she was whispering sweet nothings into his ear, pressing gentle words to his lips and cheek and despite the few chats around the sparring ring she heard, no one bothered them.
Kakashi looked behind her for a second and pressed another kiss to her lips before disentangling himself from her to get up. Asuma arrived then, his eyebrow raised as Kakashi went past him but his friend only clapped him on the back before moving to take his place on the sparring ring.
Sakura waited for Asuma to sit down before asking for a cigarette and brazenly laying her head on his leg so she could face the sky. This way it would be almost impossible for someone to read her lips from the distance and she could relay to him every part of their plan. It was unlikely that they would get another chance to talk before taking action.
Sakura went to sleep that day with her heart still beating strongly inside her chest. The first taste of adrenaline was finally making itself known and Sakura had to reign in her excitement since they were supposed to be approaching a sombre time for Kato and Asao but it was surprisingly hard for her to do so.
She hated missions where they had to wait too much to act and this one had the particularly unknown variable that was the Akatsuki duo. It was finally coming to a headway, they would not only take out a band of rogues that was making trouble for their commerce and had killed a whole team of Konoha chunins but also take out one of the Akatsuki's way of making money.
When Tuesday night came, Sakura had to force herself to sleep for at least six hours. She didn't even pretend it was the cold that made her press closer to Kakashi. Her hand found his wrist and while she didn't wrap herself in his warmth, his scent was all around her lulling her to sleep.
.
.
.
Sakura woke up at exactly six o'clock, knowing that the sun would take much longer than usual to rise this close to winter. They had already packed their things the night before and the half of the crew was leaving just as the two of them got up. They waited half an hour, monitoring the chakra signatures of the group while they ate ration bars and drank sparingly from their water bottles.
Sakura unsealed her weapons from a hidden scroll in her pack and put her still dark red hair into her usual braid, preparing for the fight ahead. She shared one nod with Kakashi before they left their tent.
Sakura quickly covered herself with her genjutsu and matched her chakra to a beetle flying next to the fire pit. She moved silently through the camp, entering what tents she could and putting the people in them into chakra induced comas. They would request a caravan from the prison to come pick everyone up when it was over and it was better to not engage as many as they could.
Kakashi and Asuma would go deal with the sentinels and Sakura only had to evade the guards on the ground while trying to incapacitate as many rogues as she could.
Kaede and Hotaka had followed the other half of the crew to their job while Kimi and the twins hid in the outskirts of their camp to serve as backup for when the other half of the group arrived so they could spring their trap on them. The rest of her pack was with Team Ro spread out around the woods between their camp and the caravan undetected, keeping an eye on the situation.
Sakura had just put Matsuo, Aya's boyfriend, out when she heard a commotion outside. Someone had sounded an alarm.
Sakura sprinted outside to get a feel of the situation and was relieved that it was still only the people on their half that were milling around, trying to combat a still unknown enemy to them. Since Kakashi and Asuma had stayed behind, Yuuto had taken all of the jounin in the camp with him and the only obstacle that could possibly make things hard for them were a few high level chunin.
Sakura dropped her genjutsu but kept her chakra levels halfway hidden as she moved through the chaos to find Kakashi and Asuma on the sparring ring, fighting back to back. They were surrounded but in no way worried and Sakura picked her way through the few rogues between them.
The rogues were aiming to kill but Sakura moved easily through them, smacking the butt of her tantou to their temples to knock them out as she went. It was easy for her to take them out like that but some of them… some of them hesitated in attacking her.
She had gotten to know them and had been on a first name basis with many and while she didn't exactly feel remorse—she wasn't killing them and she had her duty to her village—Sakura did feel pity for them. In the end, she felt a pang in her chest when she realised she would have to fight Yukio and Aya, probably to the point that they were either incapacitated or dead.
While these rogues were chunin at best and could be easily dealt with without much hassle, a battle with a jounin always escalated even if they weren't particularly skilled like Sakura's team.
Sakura's thoughts wandered as they fought, and she was struck with the sudden realisation that her shishou and Shizune were right. If she had gotten this attached to their targets in a short mission, she could only imagine how Itachi felt. Sure, she would easily kill any of them if asked by her Hokage but she had spent about three weeks with them. Itachi had spent close to ten years.
She wondered what kind of bonds he had created with the people around him even if they were S-Ranked criminals.
They were almost done, only two chunin left standing when Sakura's whole body froze. Kimi's howl sounded in the distance where she had kept formation with the twins. It was a warning and it was one only used when extreme danger was nearby.
"Kakashi!" Sakura tried to warn him while she ducked beneath the strike of one of the last chunin's kunai. She quickly spun on her feet to knock him out with her tantou.
Sakura tried to get more words out but by then she had already felt them.
Two chakra signatures, ridiculously strong and moving towards them too fast to intercede. Asuma's kunai was stopped by a macabre scythe.
The last chunin ran away and no one moved to stop him. Across from the makeshift sparring ring stood two figures cloaked in black and red. One of them had his cloak slightly opened at the front, showing off his chest and a necklace with a symbol Sakura had never seen before. His hair was silver and slicked back, his eyes holding an insane amount of bloodlust that made Sakura's killing intent instinctively respond. He was holding the long range scythe that had blocked Asuma's attack and his head snapped towards her when her killing intent reacted.
The other was standing a few meters behind, his whole head covered showing only his eyes and… he was holding Yukio's body.
Sakura was disconcerted by the pang that went through her chest. Despite knowing all along that she was working on a mission that would take Yukio to jail, seeing his mutilated dead body still made her stomach churn. He had been sweet and even caring and he was the first one to open up to her. She had meals with him, worked shifts and even gotten drunk. He looked to have suffered a horrible death.
Sakura fought a shudder when she realised that he and Kenji—his partner and love of his life, as Yukio had confided in her—had probably watched the other die.
"Who are you?" Kakashi asked, his voice taking that dangerous tone that Sakura had in her early years only been able to associate with Zabuza but now knew fit the persona he had created for Hound-taichou.
The one on the left pulled the scythe back and laughed a deranged kind of laugh that made Sakura's upper lip pull back into a snarl. Kakashi and Asuma closed ranks from either side of her, stepping slightly in front of her so that their enemy's gaze would focus on them instead of her.
It did quite the opposite. The silver haired man on the left smirked and locked eyes with Sakura before laughing again.
"Oho~!" He licked his lips. "Which one of you two idiots is fucking Red? Well, it doesn't matter. You'll all be sacrifices soon enough. Jashin-sama wasn't nearly satisfied with the others."
Sakura snarled at the man, her hand tightening on her tantou. For a second she was lost in a haze of bloodlust that almost left her dizzy. She wanted to kill him. Not only because of his clear affiliation to the Akatsuki or because he was their opponent but because she felt he deserved it. She would rip him limb from limb and watch as his body bled dry. She would tear away at his flesh until—
Focus, Inner snapped. Something feels wrong. Who the fuck is Jashin-sama? What does he mean by sacrifices? Focus on what's important, don't let yourself get baited. Hatake and Sarutobi are already too emotional for this fight, stepping in front of you like you're a damsel in distress like that, you have to keep a clear head.
Sakura took a deep breath and accepted the cloak and mask Inner offered her. She was right. Sakura had to get her brain back into action and focus on what was important.
First, she catalogued what she had gathered from them so far. Mouthy Psychopath was a long range fighter given his weapon, he was overconfident and seemed deranged. Pink Eyes was quiet and there were only a few reasons he would be holding Yukio's body like that. He was probably going to exchange it for money in the black market and if that was the case they were there to get the crates from Yuuto's tent where all the valuables were hidden.
Sakura didn't have all the pieces of the puzzle yet but she could guess that the Akatsuki had betrayed Yuuto somehow. They needed money for their organisation and the cut they took from Yuuto's operation was big, sure, but it was much better to have him do all the hard work and then swoop in for the kill.
They were vultures.
"Hidan, don't take too long with these three. We still have to go all the way to the Collection Office," the one on the right said, his voice scratchy and deep, the kind of detachment on it only a certain type of shinobi could manage. "I'm going to go ahead and collect Yuuto's bounty."
"Ehh, don't tell me what to do! You had me rush the last ritual, I'll take my time with this one!" As the two bickered, Sakura sent a silent signal to Kimi and the twins. They had stayed hidden so far and Sakura wanted them to hold their position for the moment. Until they had figured out what they were dealing with it was best not to show their cards and since Kaede hadn't made contact yet, Sakura could only assume he was still on his way. Hidan muttered under his breath, "Money-loving fucker."
This was good news. They seemed to be underestimating them so far. This was something Sakura could work with. That is, until Pink Eyes moved to go past them and Kakashi leaned forward.
"You're not going anywhere." Kakashi had his katana drawn, his chakra moving dangerously like a storm waiting to be unleashed. Sakura could see the exact moment they began to be taken seriously and her half formulated plan to play to the fact they were being underestimated went to shit.
"Your chakra level… You're not a nobody like the others," Pink Eyes said, his gaze locked firmly on Kakashi.
"Oi, Kakuzu!" Hidan yelled. "They're going to be sacrifices for Jashin-sama, you already stole one of my offerings! Go and get your money."
"You feel strong but I don't remember seeing your description in any Bingo Book," Kakuzu continued talking at Kakashi, completely ignoring his partner. "Unless…"
"Enough fucking talking already," Hidan yelled as he prepared to attack. Sakura's whole body tensed in response but she kept still and waited to see how things would unfold. "Go get your money and leave me to my sacrifices, Kakuzu! Don't you fucking dare interfere!"
Hidan took a few steps before launching his scythe at them. He was fast and Sakura had no doubt that what had happened with the other half of the camp had been quick and easy for the two of them. If Kakuzu didn't figure out their identities, they stood a chance of battling Hidan together before moving on to the other. However, Kakashi wouldn't be able to use the Sharingan.
Could they afford that?
Sakura didn't know and she didn't have any more time to wonder at that because Hidan had begun a series of consecutive attacks with his scythe that made them disperse. The scythe left craters on the forest floor which meant Hidan was strong but he wasn't as fast as Sakura or Kakashi. Asuma seemed to be holding up well so far with only kunai instead of his chosen weapon but Sakura knew if it came down to it, he would probably be the one to suffer more in this fight.
Sakura threw a few senbon towards Hidan, barely distracting him as he sent his scythe on attack after attack. At first he seemed to be aiming completely towards Kakashi who had shown himself to be the more powerful but when Sakura and Asuma started attacking him together, he had seemed to reevaluate the situation.
Sakura kept her distance this early into the fight but managed to distract him with a few shuriken hidden in genjutsu enough that Asuma's barrage of kunai managed to cut him on his ear.
They were all so worried about engaging Hidan, safe in their assumptions that Kakuzu had heeded his partner's warnings that when his attack came, they were caught off guard. Thick wire-like… tentacle spears came out of Kakuzu's sleeves and reached for Kakashi with enough speed that he could only dodge at the last second.
The wires scratched at his temple, cutting the string of his eyepatch and drawing blood. Hidan stopped his attacks and while it went against what she wanted to do, Sakura didn't press forward into offence.
"What the fuck, Kakuzu, I said get the fuck away—" Hidan began yelling but Kakuzu cut him off.
"Shut up, you fool."
Sakura turned slightly to see the thin line of blood stretching vertically on Kakashi's temple. She checked the wound for any signs of poison but didn't find any from afar. His eye was closed, hiding the Sharingan, but if their enemy had gone straight for the eyepatch… He already suspected Kakashi's identity.
"These three were fighting the rest of the crew. I bet you were… infiltrated here." Kakuzu's eyes narrowed at each of them and the shinobi knocked out behind them. Sakura held her breath. "I imagine either Konoha or Kiri sent you to take care of them. Now the eyepatch… Your physical attributes don't match anyone on the Bingo Book but your scar…"
Shit, Sakura thought. He was going to figure him out. And when he did, Kakashi would become his main target. His bounty was ridiculous. There's no way the Akatsuki wouldn't try to go for it. Even if Asuma managed to keep his identity hidden, Sakura and Kakashi had no choice but to use their full arsenal to their disposal and sooner or later Kakuzu would figure out that together they were worth more than a couple hundred millions.
Sakura was about to attack, smash her fist to the ground to try and catch her enemies off guard when she heard him.
"Sakura-hime!" it was Kaede, hidden in the trees but sounding breathless even through their mind connection. He had probably raced all the way back. "You have to be careful! This man, Hidan, worships Jashin, the fallen god. His abilities far exceed what shinobi will consider possible. He's immortal."
Sakura's eyes widened minutely at Kaede's interference. His voice was full of disgust but beneath that… fear. Sakura kept herself from reacting any further and stayed absolutely still while the others did the appropriate amount of trash talk. She told Kaede to keep going.
"Kakuzu will figure out that you all have a bounty on your head soon. He's close to figuring Kakashi out and then he won't stay away from the fight. That's exactly what happened back with the other half of the camp. Sakura-hime, it was a massacre." Kaede's voice was anxious inside her head and Sakura tightened her hand on her tantou in response, her stomach rolling with dread.
Sakura jumped away from Hidan's next attack at the same time Kakuzu went for Kakashi. There wasn't much time to react anymore and her body moved in autopilot as she dodged the scythe while trying to keep Kakashi and Kakuzu in her line of sight. She sent two kunai with exploding tags hidden with genjutsu on the shadow of another set of kunai towards Hidan and grabbed Asuma by the back of his shirt to jump back.
She had modified those exploding tags herself and the power behind it was considerably greater than usual.
She looked at Kakashi just enough to see he was keeping the fight with Kakuzu from escalating so he wouldn't need to use the Sharingan but it was no use. If they were getting out of there alive, they would have to go all out.
"Tch." Hidan spat blood on the ground and impossibly came out from the smoke the explosion had created. He was holding his severed arm with the other hand, the rest of him sooty and bloody in some parts but otherwise he was fine. If he was immortal, then it shouldn't have been enough to get him but the sight of him was still gruesome. "The bitch took my arm. Oi, Kakuzu! A little help?"
"Didn't you say not to interfere?" Kakuzu said while dodging several of Kakashi's strikes effortlessly. "Make up your mind."
Sakura used her opponent's distraction to contact Kaede again.
"Kaede, you need to tell me everything you know about them and fast."
She watched as Hidan and Kakuzu bickered while the latter engaged Kakashi. It was only a matter of time before Kakashi had to use the Sharingan. Hidan was doing something with his feet while Kakuzu sent a string to sew his arm back into place and, impossibly, his arm was functioning yet again.
"He's drawing a circle on the ground with his own blood, it's the start of the ritual. Konoha shinobi don't worship the original gods and goddesses but we wolves remember. Jashin was the god of pain and suffering, he was revered until he fell from glory. This Hidan asshole worships him and as long as he performs his rituals and follows Jashin's rules, he is impossible to kill." Kaede's voice was a constant in the back of her head as she tried to engage both Hidan and Kakuzu at the same time, providing back up for both Kakashi and Asuma. She didn't want to leave either of them to deal with their enemy by themselves but the way things were progressing she would have to choose one… and Asuma would need the most help.
Sakura changed her direction mid jump to avoid being hit by Hidan's scythe and interceded one of Kakuzu's hands with her tantou before it got to Kakashi.
"For the ritual to be complete, he will have to drink someone's blood and stand within the confines of his sacred circle. Sakura-hime, once it's complete, the person whose blood he assimilated into his system will receive all of his—"
Kaede's voice was drowned out by the sound of an explosion. Asuma had used an A-ranked jutsu to cover their enemy in a dark fog that turned out to be explosive. The blast rocked the forest as Sakura and her teammates jumped back to avoid it.
Their feet hadn't even touched the ground before Kakuzu's strings were coming at them. They were faster than before and Sakura knew Kakashi would break his cover before his chakra even fluctuated with the use of his Sharingan.
"Sakura-hime you have to understand! If he assimilates your blood into his system, all attacks he suffers will go to you as well!" Kaede was yelling frantically inside her head but thankfully her wolves were following her orders of staying back. "Do you understand me? If he cuts off his arm, your arm will fall without him even needing to cut you!"
Sakura gasped, unable to comprehend that such a jutsu was possible. But then… Kaede hadn't said this was a jutsu. It was the worship of gods, something so foreign to her that her first instinct was to deny it. However, there was no bond as strong as hers and her pack. If Kaede was saying that, then it meant it was the truth and they had to act accordingly.
Sakura pulled back from the battlefield mentally, registering in the back of her mind that Kakuzu and Hidan were arguing and that Kakashi's identity had been revealed. On one hand, she could alert her team of what she had found out and have them avoid getting hit at all costs, on the other hand…
She would lose the element of surprise. Her enemy's abilities were so obscure she was sure part of his strategy relied on his victims not knowing what was happening before it was too late. If she shouted out his secret now, she would lose the giant edge she had just earned.
Sakura made a split second decision and hoped it was the right one.
She dropped her henge, letting her hair take its natural colour and drawing Kakuzu's attention to her. She had to trust that Asuma would be able to hold his own for a while because they didn't stand a chance fighting two of them at the same time. She needed to get Kakashi away from them and focus his attacks on Kakuzu while she and Asuma dealt with Hidan. It was the only way she saw the three of them surviving.
"There's only one kunoichi from Konoha with pink hair." Kakuzu nodded to himself. "You have to be—"
Sakura drew attention to herself as she jumped up high.
"Shannaro!" Her fist smashed into the ground between Hidan and Kakuzu forcing them to spring apart. In the second it took for them to jump, she turned towards Kakashi and caught his eyes.
She sent a volley of shuriken towards Kakuzu weaving genjutsu over genjutsu so he wouldn't be able to tell which ones were fake or not, and pressing him towards the treeline.
"Kakashi, you need to go," Sakura yelled over the sounds of Hidan and Asuma fighting behind her. "Kimi and Hotaka will be going with you but you need to engage him on your own."
"Sakura—" Kakashi started to say and she knew he would protest her staying behind but she didn't let him finish.
"Go!" she yelled, begging him with her eyes to follow her plan. "And don't you dare fucking die. Kaede says this guy is more powerful than it looks."
Sakura didn't wait for him to answer, her chest constricting painfully at having to leave him alone fighting an enemy that seemed to be powerful enough to take them all out. In the end, she trusted his abilities and she was truly the only one who could successfully fight Hidan.
.
.
.
Kakashi panted, the drain of the Sharingan making him familiarly dizzy for a second before he managed to control himself again. Kimi and Hotaka had followed behind him as he fought Kakuzu and had stayed by his side when he ran one of his hearts through with the Chidori. Now, a bit longer into the fight, they were actively engaging the enemy, buying him some time to catch his breath while they attacked with their combination of fire and lightning chakra natures.
There had been little reason in the past years for Kakashi to exert himself as much as this. The last few times he had come this close to thinking he would die had been with Zabuza and then with Itachi.
While the missions he had taken in the last four years had been taxing in their frequency and difficulty, it was nothing close to this. Kakashi was glad to say he had more control of his body now than he had during those two fights and was holding far better against the leech that the Sharingan was, but he had the uncomfortable realisation that this enemy might just be the one to take him out.
If he had encountered Kakuzu on the battlefield six or even five years ago, he would without a shadow of a doubt have died to make sure his enemy was no longer a threat. After his father's death, Obito and Rin, and after his sensei Kakashi had only wanted to die an honourable death. For a shinobi, that meant succumbing in the battlefield, finishing a mission with little regard to his own well being.
Now Kakashi had much more to think about than his own well being.
The need to go all out and completely obliterate the monstrosity that was Kakuzu was there and for a second the sheer bloodlust of it made Kakashi take a staggering breath through his mask. But it was quickly overwhelmed by the need to come back to his friends, to make sure they were alive and okay.
Kakashi wasn't the man he had been those years ago and now, while eliminating the threat that was Kakuzu was important, being alive to make sure his team was okay was more important. If Kakuzu had been the only threat then he would have thrown himself without thought into a fight but as it stood, Kakashi had to also think about Hidan back there with his loved ones.
He took a steadying breath, formed the necessary signs and disappeared into the ground as his clone burst forth.
His clone engaged the fire creature while Hotaka fought against the wind wielding monster and Kimi tried to distract the suiton user. None of them were well matched against their opponents, if they were to win this as quickly as possible they had to at least try to play to their chakra affinities. Kimi's being fire, she would be well suited to fight the wind type but Kakashi had already killed the Earth user and Hotaka's lightning affinity was more of a liability against the wind-type than anything.
Kakashi's clone was using every suiton technique he had pilfered from his enemies and friends alike throughout the years and was still just barely scraping by. The good thing was that since the wolves had arrived, Kakuzu had seemed to play things more carefully, taking his time before truly attacking. It was for that reason that Kakashi was caught off guard when Kakuzu brought wind and fire together to create a fiery explosion that his clone's water jutsu couldn't hold off.
Kimi and Hotaka both pulled back and Kakashi was glad they had moved closer to where he had hidden beneath the earth.
"Raiju!" Hotaka growled and from his open jaws the giant wolf made of lightning burst forth. Kakashi had seen the technique just a few times before when he was a child and it was still impressive even when he could only feel it by chakra from beneath the earth.
The Raiju attacked Kakuzu himself while Kimi used her Onibi no Okami to separate the fire and wind creatures. Kakashi was getting ready to disappear behind the wind user to finish it with a Raikiri when he noticed the high amount of chakra being charged by the lightning user.
He knew that the attack coming would be devastating and that neither Hotaka nor Kimi would be able to dodge in time, not preoccupied with their own fight as they were. Kakashi burst from the ground without a second thought. Sure, he would be breaking his cover but it was useless if the wolves died while he stayed hidden, especially since his clone had already been obliterated.
Kakashi rushed forward, his hands already cackling with a lightning nature transformation. He had cut a lightning bolt in half once, a long time ago, and while the mechanics behind it was the same, absorbing this amount of lightning was on a whole other level.
He stood with his hands raised in front of him, his feet planted and endured.
The gloves he had worn as Kato disintegrated by the sheer power behind the attack, the outer vest going much in the same way. Little zaps licked at his naked forearms, raising the hair there as he tried to absorb all of the chakra aimed at him. It entered his system like a tidal wave, too strong to hold back or control and the sheer immensity of it threatened to overwhelm him.
Still, Kakashi stood firm.
When it was done, he stood still, the churning energy inside of him making his blood sing. It felt exhilarating if exhausting to have that much inside of him, the energy discharge rattled his bones and dizzyingly coursed through his veins. It unbalanced him as much as it made him feel strangely alive.
Kimi and Hotaka closed ranks from either side of him and he pushed forward before his enemy had a chance to open his mouth and drag the fight out by talking. He was in no mood to play into this bastard's ego.
He fought with the wolves for a while, the lightning still running through his pathways, before he felt Team Ro approaching.
"It's over," he called across the clearing, making his opponent stop briefly. "Soon you'll be outnumbered by the best team Konoha has to offer and your partner will be dead."
"No one can kill Hidan," Kakuzu said, sounding sure of it even as his eyes roved over the clearing and zeroed in the direction Team Ro was coming from. They had moved closer to Sakura and Asuma's fight during their own skirmish and they could even hear elevated voices and the sounds of steel on steel. "If I could kill him, I would have a long time ago."
That troubled Kakashi, though he didn't show it. If Kakuzu, a literal monster that had fought the Shodaime himself said that about Hidan, then Kakashi didn't want to know what kind of horror his friends were going up against. Still, he cocked his head to the side.
"Eh? I take it you haven't met Sakura-chan, then. That girl is craftier than you'd expect." Kakashi tried to make himself stall the conversation, even as every fibre of his being sung for him to run towards the other fight. "Asuma's no pushover either. I'm completely sure they have it handled."
He wasn't. While he did trust their abilities and the fact that they would always have his back, this Akatsuki pair was unlike anything they had ever encountered before and Kakashi didn't particularly want to test his teammates' capabilities at the moment.
Good thing he didn't have to. In the next second, Team Ro and his pack had Kakuzu surrounded. They fought a brief but intense battle until Kakuzu broke away from between them. With one more combo move from the Fire and Wind creature, Team Ro fell back while Kakuzu ran, lightning and water protecting his retreating back.
No one from Team Ro moved to follow, but Tenzou instructed a wood clone to follow him unseen and that would have to be enough because at the next second, Sakura's scream echoed through the woods.
Kakashi was moving before he even realised, leading his team towards Sakura and Asuma, and almost stumbling on his feet at the sight that met him.
"Sakura!"
.
.
.
Sakura watched in horror as the scythe came for them and instead of dodging, Asuma stepped in front of her. He made a half-ram with his left hand and placed his right one parallel to the ground and then he spoke in an eerily calm voice.
"Raigou: Senjusatsu."
Instead of hitting them, the scythe seemed to hit a giant translucent palm and ricocheted back towards Hidan. Asuma pressed forward with his attack, the almost spirit-like palms striking at Hidan like the Gentle Fist from the Hyuga. The force of it was enough to drive their enemy back and Sakura followed him.
She weaved the same genjutsu Chika had done on her during her first training with the pack, the one to make sure her opponent would see the world around him just a few centimetres to the left, and attacked. Sakura moved through her arsenal of skills quickly and leaving no room for the man to retaliate, all the while becoming increasingly aware that she sorely lacked any effective mid to long-range jutsu. That would definitely be a priority in her training when she got back.
Hidan was slower than her but the sheer strength in his hits and the fact that he was taking almost all of the brunt of her attacks without even flinching made them tie fairly even in the short but intense fight.
Sakura felt Asuma moving into place next to her, the two of them now standing closer to Hidan to nullify the range he had with his scythe. It seemed like a good idea at the time, bringing the fight closer to him and taking the advantage he had away but it backfired tremendously.
It only took one wrong move, one slightly delayed response from their distraction by the explosion that had come from Kakashi's fight. In the blink of an eye, they had lost their upper hand.
Hidan's maniacal laugh echoed through the forest.
"Finally! The ritual is complete." Hidan's voice was shrill and pleased and it sent a shiver down Sakura's spine.
Asuma had a cut on his shoulder.
It was deep and not life threatening but… there was blood on Hidan's mouth and that could only mean one thing.
"Sakura-hime, the rest of the pack are on their way with Team Ro, you only have to hold off until they get here!" Kaede's voice echoed in her head.
For the first time since the fight began, Sakura answered Kaede even as she and Asuma worked together to evade Hidan's scythe.
"Kaede, listen to me very carefully. When they get here you need to send them Kakashi's way. I'll deal with this one, don't you worry."
"I want to feel your pain!" Hidan yelled, grabbing Sakura's attention instantly and making her realise she had made a mistake in not giving the fight her full attention.
He unfolded a metal spear and Sakura thought he would use it to throw at them along the scythe but instead… instead, he pierced his thigh with it.
It took every ounce of her being and Inner's help for Sakura not to react. She forced her body to delay the reaction for when Asuma fell to the ground next to her and used Inner to bring tears to her eyes. She would rip him to shreds.
"Asuma!" her voice sounded shrill to her own ears and for a second all she could hear was the blood rushing in her ears. He hadn't hit anything vital but it would greatly impact his ability to fight to his full potential, adding to that the fact that while Sakura was fully capable of dealing with their enemy she couldn't use any of her favoured skills to attack him while he was connected to Asuma...
What if she had made the wrong decision? Either way, Asuma would have already been dodging Hidan's hits but now that he was on the ground bleeding, her self-doubt was starting to catch up to her. She couldn't let him get hurt. He was her teammate, she had to protect him. If she couldn't keep her teammates safe, what was the point in all of her past four years of training?
Sakura kneeled next to Asuma and immediately began to heal his leg. She knew it was against the iryo-nin code but she had to appear weak and useless and she could get her friend into fighting shape again as a bonus.
"The rest of the pack is here, Sakura-hime. Team Ro is less than five minutes out. Pakkun's leading them." Kaede sounded tense but Sakura could hear the note of relief in his voice.
She had healed most of Asuma's injury, using an insignificant amount of chakra to do so. Hidan had been monologuing in the background but she tunned him out as she tried to think of the best case and the worst case scenario and all the possibilities between them.
Once she established them, she started devising a plan.
It was a good one, where Asuma wouldn't be hurt anymore, really all she had to do was get Hidan out of his circle. However, before she could even finish her thought, Hidan was pulling his scythe back.
Sakura hadn't realised in her distraction that the scythe had been carved on the floor a few meters behind them. She had barely enough time to push Asuma to the ground before it sailed past their heads and it was only then that she realised her mistake.
The sound of steel piercing flesh was one that had haunted her dreams for years but right then it sounded particularly loud in her ears.
Asuma choked on blood as Hidan laughed, all three points of his scythe embedded in vital points on his torso.
Sakura's vision tunnelled.
There was the sound of explosions in the distance and of a fight approaching them from the direction Kakashi had gone into. There was Kaede's voice yelling something inside her head and the beginnings of what looked to be heavy rain falling down on them.
Sakura didn't hear or feel anything other than the sound of Asuma going limp as he choked on his own blood.
Inner unleashed a string of nightmarish sounds and images so fast and with such intensity that Sakura couldn't breathe for the next second. Her killing intent had never been that strong, it permeated every free space in the forest around them and she reached with it towards Hidan and squeezed.
He stopped mid laugh and fixated wide eyes on her but it didn't last for long before Sakura reigned it in, afraid she'd hurt Asuma even more.
"Eh~" Hidan laughed, "That killing intent! Such an amazing feeling. I've never met anyone with such a strong one before. I'll enjoy breaking you, hot stuff. This one is done for. Jashin-sama, I send this offering to you."
Hidan hadn't even bothered taking the scythe off himself and Sakura hoped that would keep Asuma from bleeding out too much. Whatever types of wishful thinking she had with that last thought went out the window when she saw he had taken the spear again.
Sakura snarled.
Her body moved faster than she thought she was able to. Her chakra gathered on her muscles and enhanced them, working with the very air around her and the earth on her feet to impulse her forward.
She didn't have much of a plan in her head anymore, she was working instead on pure instinct. Habit made it so that she didn't need to do any type of calculation to accomplish exactly what she wanted. Sakura angled her body, gathered almost all of her chakra where it was needed and moved.
Hidan's spear pierced her back, ripping through her insides before it came out through her chest to scratch his.
Sakura's vision blackened for a moment and she lost all ability to speak or even breathe. Despite the amount of chakra she had circulated in the place, her chest hurt like fuck and the pain was too overwhelming for a few seconds. She recognised distantly that someone was screaming her name but it sounded so far away, she couldn't even tell if it was real or if she'd been dreaming.
In the next second, something snapped.
Sakura didn't know how to describe what she was feeling, she had never felt like that in her whole life. The centre of her forehead seemed to be leaking warmth down her face and neck and spreading all the way down throughout her body. Energy and chakra churned inside her and it took a few breaths for her to realise that she was Sakura, she was actually alive and…
She had awakened her seal.
Sakura laughed even as blood poured out of her lips, splattering Hidan's face where he stood just a few centimetres away from her. With steadied hands, she gripped both of Hidan's arms so he wouldn't be able to move from the macabre version of an embrace they were mocking and cracked her right heel on the forest ground. The ceremonial seal broke but just to be sure Sakura propelled them backwards and completely out of the circle.
"What the fuck?" Hidan yelled in her ear.
Sakura snarled at him, used the extra chakra burning in her centre to take the spear out of her, even with the awkward angle, and chucked it aside. The wound on her chest was rapidly closing but she could feel it had left a drain on her chakra.
No matter, she thought, this will only take a second more.
"You're a fucking monster, hot—" Hidan tried to put more space between them but Sakura was faster. She grabbed him by the scythe still buried in his torso and pulled.
It ripped out of him with a squelch and Sakura used his disbelief to push forward.
"Now!" Sakura barked.
As one, four shadows jumped from the treeline, each one of them attaching to one of Hidan's limbs; the twins holding each leg, Kaede and a Yukari on each arm. He had nowhere to run.
Sakura bared her teeth at him and enjoyed the look of genuine fear that came over his eyes.
I'm going to rip you to shreds, she promised, her killing intent paralysing him further. She was the apex predator that day, and her prey had fallen into her trap.
She heard some people behind her but paid them no mind as Tamotsu approached Hidan from behind. He was frantically trying to get away, moving his head from side to side and trying to throw his weight against the wolves. Although his muscles tore, it wasn't enough for him to be able to escape the confines of her wolves' jaws.
"Jashin-sama is a forgotten fool, Hidan. Sengen-sama will take you as an offering today," Sakura said just before Tamotsu closed his jaws over the man.
First on his head where he chewed once, then on his torso and arms once Kaede and Yukari let go. Sakura breathed heavily and let her head fall.
The chakra that had consumed her system was retreating into the newly formed seal on the tenketsu of her forehead. It wasn't something she'd been expecting, the absolutely drained feeling when the sealing properly formed but Sakura forced herself to push through.
She turned to see her team was all there, standing around Asuma. Sakura dropped to her knees beside him.
Keiichi had been pressing chakra coated hands to Asuma's abdomen but Sakura could tell it wasn't enough. She replaced his hands with her own. Her chakra had greatly receded into her seal and with it her energy but she pretended it wasn't happening.
She had no idea creating the seal officially would make her so drained.
The rain continued to pelt heavily around them and Sakura didn't even bother to pretend her face was wet from it alone. It took her a few seconds of working on him for her to realise she'd been speaking. Babbling, really.
"You're going to be okay, don't worry, I got you, it's okay now, try not to talk," Sakura sobbed and she felt a familiar hand on her shoulder. Genma. "You just have to hold on a little bit longer, okay? I'm here, it's o-okay."
Asuma's insides were a mess. Sakura knew she could fix him on a good day, although he had been hit in three vital points plus his shoulder, Keiichi had taken over first aid quickly enough that he hadn't bled as much as expected. She could easily save his life on a good day.
It wasn't a good day.
"Sakura…" Asuma coughed up blood and although him speaking made Sakura shut the fuck up, she had to choke down a sob. "Even I know…. Even I know this is it."
Sakura had been feeling progressively fainter in the past few minutes—ten, if she had to guess—but his words brought something alive inside of her. Hot anger coursed through her bloodstream, sending a jolt through her system.
"Are you fucking giving up on me, Sarutobi?" Sakura snarled and Genma's startled intake of breath almost made her want to punch him.
"I just want—I just want one last cigarette," Asuma rasped and Sakura's anger vamped up as she doubled the amount of chakra she'd been pouring into him.
The silence around the clearing would be deafening if it wasn't for the rain. Sakura saw Genma leave his place behind her and reach for Asuma's cigarette and lighter while she and Keiichi continued to work on him. Kakashi took his place behind her but didn't reach out to touch her.
Genma lit the cigarette up and put it to Asuma's lips with a quiet, "Here you go, old friend."
Sakura couldn't see. Her vision was too obscured with her tears and the rain but it didn't matter, she didn't need to see to perform iryo-ninjutsu. She took several shuddering breaths and tried to blink the tears away until she realised she couldn't see because there were black spots in her vision.
"Sakura…" Kakashi said from behind her, his voice utterly devastated and hollow at the same time. "I… He's gone."
Sakura immediately stopped pumping chakra into him and ripped his shirt open with a chakra scalpel to press her ear to his heart. She waited one breath, two breaths and nothing. There was no more time for crying. She sat back on her heels and only then Kakashi reached for her but she shrugged his hand away.
"Keiichi! Start chest compressions. Give him four blood pills and push whatever chakra you have left into his heart." Sakura shrugged off someone's hands—she wasn't sure if it was Kakashi or Genma or both of them—and folded forward to reach her hands directly into Asuma's torso.
She was too dizzy to give any more orders, only hoped that Keiichi would remember his training and come through as the amazing field doctor she had shaped him into being. Sakura poured every ounce of her energy into Asuma, making his cells multiply where needed and his blood clot where necessary.
Her vision was quickly tunnelling in, the black spots that had been on the edge of her vision swarming closer to its centre. Chakra burn began to make her hands hurt and the small hissing sound was coming from where the rain came into contact with her hands.
Sakura coughed, choked on her breath and tasted iron but she kept going. She kept going until her vision blackened completely and her body slackened. She kept going until she didn't have anything else left to give.