Yamato appeared in the office, taking note of Shizune, Tonton and Pakkun standing off to the side. He wondered what one of Kakashi's ninken was doing here. He knew Kakashi had left on an important mission that came up last minute, but if the small pug was here something had to have happened. If something happened to their team Sakura was going to kill Kakashi.
"You wanted to see me?"
"Yes, that's right. I'd like you to head out and aid Team Kakashi." Tsunade explained.
"Kakashi? I heard it was nothing more than a search mission. Did something happen out there, M'Lady?" Oh yes Sakura is going to kill him. Kakashi had mentioned how Sakura didn't like the team assignment for the search mission.
"They had a bit of a run in which is where things get tricky. Their foe used a jutsu we've never seen. The details are still sketchy right now. Kakashi managed to get a sample back, and I'm having it analyzed as we speak."
"So, who shall I take with me?"
"Well, Sai can get a bird's-eye view. Sasuke's sharingan would also be of use against this unknow shinobi. He might be able to see things Hinata cannot. I want you three to leave at dawn."
"Understood. But M'Lady what about Sakura or Naruto?"
"Sakura just left for another mission earlier today or else I would be sending her as well. Naruto is not to find out about any of this!" She almost yells raising from her seat. "I want him nowhere near Orochimaru. Not…not after what happened last time. You three leave tomorrow at dawn."
"Hai M'Lady" Yamato responds disappearing into a cloud of smoke.
Neither of them had said a word since leaving the village. Itachi was unsure if it was because she was upset about the partnership or if this was her normal while on a mission.
He was surprised when he had set the pace and she had been able to keep up with no trouble. He was testing her skill set and her speed had exceeded expectations. With the pace they were going they should reach their destination in less than two days.
They didn't stop until nightfall. Each falling into their induvial tasks without communication. Sakura gather wood for a fire while he put traps around their makeshift campsite. By the time he got back Sakura had rolled out their bed rolls and was leaning against a tree eating a protein bar. When she saw him approach, she tossed him one. They ate in silence.
He watched her as she slowly leaned her head against the tree and closed her eyes. Her charka levels were not as low as they had been when they had been in the Hokage Tower, but they certainly weren't her normal standards. She hadn't moved like she was injured, quite the opposite actually. She moved with grace, flexibility, and speed.
Was this how all kunoichi speed through the trees? Or was Sakura special?
Itachi would be the first one to admit he hadn't really spent much time with any females, besides his mother and Mikoto had retired from the shinobi life when she married, so Itachi had never really seen his mother in action.
He knew she knew he was staring but he didn't care. He tried to justify his concern as normal concern as the mission leader. That as the one in charge for the mission he had every right to know about the health and wellbeing of the shinobi beneath him.
"I'm fine" she said as if she could read his thoughts. "I overextended myself during training this morning. If I had known I was being sent out for this mission I would have waited to train. It is nothing to worry about." Her eyes still closed as she stretched her legs out in front of her.
"Do you always push yourself so hard when training?"
"Do you?" She countered quickly.
Itachi didn't really have much to say to that. They both knew the answer. For some reason he felt like she had put up another barrier around herself. She seemed much more closed off today than she had been in the last several days they had been working together. He wouldn't dare approach her to touch her like he had the other day. He could tell the gesture would not be appreciated. Her behavior only lead to more questions. His curiosity peaked further.
"I'll take first watch" he said, standing and leaping into the trees. He watched her stand and climb into her bedroll. He watched as her breathing finally evened out and she feel into a deep sleep.
They weren't staying here for long. Maybe five hours or so. Itachi would have left sooner but he could tell Sakura needed sleep, regardless of what she said. If he was being honest, he had no intention of waking her up. He fully intended to let her sleep until they needed to leave.
That plan lasted all of three and a half hours before he felt her presence next to him.
"You were supposed to switch with me an hour ago. Why didn't you?" She asked turning toward him. She seemed more well rested, and her charka levels were up. But she was also annoyed.
"You needed rest." He didn't feel the need to explain further.
"I'm rested. I'm on watch now." She said calmly, but the order behind her words very much present.
Itachi didn't fight her. He simply turned and jumped to his bedroll. He turned to look at her and he could see her back turned to him. She was sitting on the branch, her legs dangling. Another curiosity peeked, what would she do if she thought he had fallen asleep?
He closed his eyes and willed his heartrate to slow and his breathes to even out. Too anyone else he would look like he was truly asleep. But Sakura didn't stir. She stayed perfectly still, at least for the first forty-five minutes. Then suddenly he felt her charka raise slightly. Slowly he opened one eye and he could see her hand was glowing green and pressed against her side. He shut his eye; his suspicions confirmed.
She had been hurt and she had lied to him about it.
Interesting…
Naruto walked through the village chugging milk. He had been training all day and milk always tasted better after he had been working hard. He was disappointed Master Jiraiya had to cut their training short and it was taking longer for Gamatatsu to learn waster jutsu than he had preferred. But today they had made progress. Master Jiraiya might not have been there to see it, but he was excited to be able to show his master the progress they had made when he got back.
This training was exactly what he needed. Sakura's words were still spinning in his head from their last training. She had a plan. She hadn't shared it, but the look in her eyes told him it was big. A gut feeling told him that the Akatsuki were coming after him sooner rather than later. Sakura thought so too, her reaction told him as such.
He starting to think dark when he notices Sai walk out of a weapons shop.
"Oye Sai!" He said running up towards him. "What are you doing around here, huh?"
"Naruto" he responded hesitantly, shifting the brown bag in his arm. "I just ran out of my ninja tool ink supply. This store's ink works quite well for infusing my chakra."
"Oh…Hey, wait if you need a refill or ink, that means-did you get a new mission or something?"
He watched as Sai grew even grayer than usual. Then he lunched forward locking eyes with Naruto. "No Naruto. I did not receive any new mission. You have nothing to worry about." He says stepping closer. "Just continue with your training."
"Wait! What? Then why are going to all this trouble? Hmmm. Hold on. Are you hiding something from me?"
"H-Hiding? No."
"Oh really? Are you sure about that Sai?" Naruto asked stepping toward Sai.
"It's nothing, really" he tried to reassure but drops his bag. A booked called "The Right Way to Lie" falling out.
"Let's have a little chat Sai" Naruto said wasting no time to throw a hand around Sai's shoulders preventing him from running away. Sai's sigh was proof enough he had given up any fight.
Kakashi was frustrated. The rain had washed way any scent the enemy might have left behind. He knew reinforcements were coming but they couldn't sit around and do nothing.
"Find anything?" Kakashi asked as Hinata and Kiba appeared in the clearing.
"No nothing." Kiba said. Hinata just shock her head. Neither had found anything of use.
"Well, what do we do now?" Kakashi asked crossing his arms over his chest. "We mustn't lose track of our enemy. If we can't pick up their trail, we won't get another chance."
"And since they obviously know about us by now, the chances of us getting into a fight are pretty much certain." Hinata says, and Kakashi knows she isn't wrong.
"Ture, but for the moment, we'd be better off avoiding a battle." Kakashi says his wheels already spinning thinking of a plan.
"It all points to one thing. We have to find these guys right away." Kiba declares.
Kakashi nods in agreement, his left pointer finger tapping against his bicep. "Kiba, you think you can sniff out the bats' scent?"
"Maybe" Kiba says as Akamaru starts sniffing the air.
"Alright I have a plan." If Kiba could locate the bats, it might just work.
Twenty minutes later Akamaru had been able to sniff out a bat. The three of them took to the trees, unwilling to lose the scent.
"I've picked up another scent, Kakashi-sensei. It's coming from our 2 o'clock." Kiba said moving closer to Kakashi.
"Got it. Then we'll take a detour."
"Understood" Hinata called out changing her footing on the next branch she landed on.
"You mean you think we can slip past the bats' formation, unseen, then, huh?" Kiba questioned.
"Bats can only sense things a limited distance away. There's lots of obstacles to shield us in the woods. If we keep far enough from them, they will have a hard time pinning us down."
"I see" Hinata said activating her byakugan.
"Then again, we can't get completely out of their search area, or they'll get suspicious."
"Right!" The others acknowledged. Their speed increasing as they set their plan in action.
Shisui was walking slowly back home. His eyes might have been fully healed but the rest of his body still hurt. The Hokage made a point of downplaying his injuries in front of the council. Why? He wasn't sure. He had a few suspicions but not enough to call her on it.
The papers in his left hand felt heavy. The paper themselves were extremely light, but the words written on them held so much weight.
This was never something he asked for. Why the Hokage had chosen him made no sense. He never even asked to fill out the mandatory paperwork that was needed to even apply for this position.
He never wanted to become part of the village council.
He never wanted to be in the public eye. He was more than happy to be behind the scenes of things. Protecting the village in secret, in the dark.
When the Hokage had called for him, he was certain it was to chew his ass out for his last mission, or worse that she had found out about his eyes. Imagine his surprise when he entered the office only to find the village elders, Ibiki, Shikaku, Inoichi and Shizune. His surprise only grew when they all congratulated him for his promotion. Tsunade had quickly dismissed everyone besides him from her office shortly after his arrival. Before Shisui could ask for clarification, Tsunade signed to him 'not now.'
So, he kept quiet. Only saying thank you for the promotion and giving her a promise to do his best. Tsunade explained the basic outline of what his new position would be, a quick summary of his new duties and ended with his new security detail. It seemed everyone on the council were given two guards for protection due to the raised threat level. Shisui wanted to fight about the security details, but she shot him a look telling him it was not up for debate.
Even now walking through the village he could feel two shadows following not to far behind him.
Tsunade told him to report back to the tower tomorrow at nine in the morning for his first meeting. It would give him plenty of time to review the scroll he had been given.
When he did finally make it to the Uchiha district the guards told him Fugaku had requested his presence immediately.
Shisui could already feel a headache coming on.
Sasuke was ready to kill Naruto.
It was already bad enough Sakura had all but disappeared so they couldn't finish their conversation. Sasuke kept replaying that night in his head over and over again. There were so many things he wished he had done differently. But damnit Sakura could be more stubborn than Naruto when she wanted to be and when she hadn't reacted to his words, his anger had gotten the better of him. Then there was their kiss. She had kissed him back. Even if it had only been for a few moments. She had said she loved him. Sakura thought she wasn't enough, but that wasn't true. Sasuke had never cared what the clan elders wanted. He was the second born. He wasn't important. The last meeting had made it clear that the only one they cared about was Itachi.
The more he thought about it, the more he realized that he would never ask Sakura to give up all the things she had mentioned in their last fight. To change all that would be to change who Sakura was. Sasuke was almost ready to admit to himself that he loved Sakura. He didn't back then, not when they were kids. Back then she was nothing more than an annoying fan girl, and then a teammate. But now everything was different. He was different. Why couldn't she see that?
At the very least he wanted the same relationship she had with Naruto. He wanted to spend time with her. He wanted to train with her one on one. He wanted to do things outside of missions and trainings. He wanted to take her to dinner. He wanted to be able to talk to her without any of her guard up. Like how it was after the mission to wave.
Sasuke still held on to hope. Sakura had never dated anyone. She never went out on dates. Sasuke knew for a fact she was asked out all the time and each time she declined. Men would leave flowers at her office and something by her front door. But Sakura hadn't even so much as given a man a second glance. There was no way her heart belongs to another. He was convinced he could win her back. It was just going to have to take time and effort. Sakura deserved nothing less.
But for now, he was stuck dealing with Naruto. How he had managed to convince the Hokage to send him on this mission he would never know. Sai could go fuck himself as far as Sasuke was concerned for letting it slip, they had this mission.
The bastard kept trying to sneak off to practice a new jutsu the frog Sannin had shown him. It had slowed them down. Didn't the idiot understand the importance of this mission? Kakashi's makeshift team might be in trouble. The whole point of sending reinforcements was to get there in time. When the four-man squad finally stopped on top of a mountain, overlooking a valley, Sasuke was tempted to push Naruto off it.
"Hold it" Yamato commanded looking around the area. "According to procedure, Kakashi should have left signs for us to follow."
"That's just great" Naruto whined. "You think maybe he forget we were supposed to be following him?"
"No, he isn't an idiot like you" Sai said already taking out his ink supplies. "Perhaps something happened to his team."
"Get airborne and take a look around for me, will you? Sasuke go with him and see if your eyes can find anything."
Sai quickly forms the bird and Sasuke jumps on top, sending charka to his feet to hang on. This wasn't the first time they had done this. Sasuke learned after the first attempt that Sai had a sick sense of humor and had no issue trying to make him fall off.
After several minutes of searching Sai finally spoke. "Curious, I don't see the search squad or any signs of their trail."
Sasuke couldn't see anything earlier. Besides something floating in the stream of water. He motioned for Sai to get a closer look. "Camellias?" Before the two could talk about it they are hit by a sudden gust of wind and sent backyards. Sasuke could see fog rolling in, and he could tell it wasn't normal. It was buzzing with energy, almost as if it had been laced with chakra. "We should regroup."
When Sai and Sasuke finally regrouped after searching the skies for another thirty minutes Naruto wouldn't shut up about a young boy he had meet. A child that had been left alone in the woods waiting for someone to come back. Naruto said the boy was waiting to go back to the person who was home. He said he was tempted to take the child back with him when a bug flew by, and he turned to check if it was Shino's bug and that when he turned back the child was gone.
Luckily Yamato had stayed focused on the task at hand and found some Shino's insects while they were searching in the sky. The insects would lead them to Kakashi and his team.
Kakashi's first plan hadn't worked.
Yesterday, they had been corned, split up and attacked. It was clear these ninjas had been Orochimaru's. Each one of them looked like their bodies had been experimented on. Each possessed unique jutsus he had never seen before. His team had been able to fight them off this time, but not without injury. Kakashi could sense they were still nearby. He could also feel a chakra surge up ahead. He looked at Shino.
Shino pointed forward. "That's the spot where my insects were interrupted before they could complete their net. There at 10 o'clock."
Akamaru began growling. "That's right boy its about time we found out what these guys are up to." Kiba said getting ready to sprite forward.
"No wait" Shino warned. "My insects are behaving strangely. They can't find their way out."
"What dose that mean?" Kiba asked.
"Its hard to explain. It's as if they'd suddenly lost their sense of direction. They're confused."
"Genjutsu?" Hinata asked.
"Doesn't make sense. Those guys type of attack where straight forward." Kiba said turning toward Kakashi looking for his opinion.
"Perhaps. Or perhaps that was the only type they'd chose to show us." Shino countered.
"Hinata, find out if there's a sealing jutsu or barrier." Kakashi ordered.
"Byakugan." She calls her jutsu forward, but within seconds she is on her knees, her hands pressed against her eyes.
"Hinata, what is it?" Kakashi asked concerned. Was she to injured from the previous fight?
"I saw us, over and over again. Endlessly."
"The Byakugan failed?" How strong was their enemy that they could take of that out? Swarms of Shino's insects fly by. "Looks like they've been sealed in by some kind of barrier, along with us."
"We thought we had them surrounded by my insects, but it seems they had an outer perimeter we didn't take into account."
"Here they come!" Kiba yells seeing a flash of something coming toward them.
"Move!" Kakashi orders as the scatter. The branches they were previously on were impaled but crystals.
Shino takes off to the left when a woman with purple hair appears by his side. "Jade Crystal Blade!" Her hand glows red and a sharp crystal appears on her forearm. She swipes at his head, but he changed direction and lands on the ground.
The same women, a clone, appears behind Kiba but he is able to punch her away before she can touch him.
Another clone takes on Kakashi, only this one has a weapon on both arms. Kakashi blocks her blows with kunais. He flips backwards to avoid another rain of crystals being sent at him. A crystallizing jutsu. It can crystallize any kind of moisture, which means it can create an infinite variety of weapons, literally out of thin air. Best if we don't let this be a long drawn, out battle. He moves his headband up, revealing his Sharingan.
"Kakashi the copy ninja," the woman says smiling. "So that's your Sharingan is it? It won't do you any good. My crystal style can't be copied." She laughs flipping backwards into the trees and disappearing.
Kiba, Akamaru and Shino quickly regrouped with him in the clearing. "What happened?" Kakashi asks turning to the boys.
"She just left." Kiba said, still trying to sniff her out. "I don't know why."
"Same thing happened with mine" Shino confirmed.
"Where is Hinata?" Kakashi asked looking around.
Before even either could respond the ground is shaking in front of them. "Your little friend is right here" the women's voice boomed from a distance. The ground splits in two and a pink crustal containing Hinata appears. She's frozen in the crystal. Her face locked in fear.
"Damnit!" Kakashi cursed. Some of Shino's bugs that had been trapped in the crystal had shattered and died. They still couldn't understand why someone of them survived and why others did not. This wasn't good.
The three of them rushed toward their teammate.
"Don't' brother." The women said appearing behind Hinata. "Light sealed inside the Jade Crystal can never escape." Kakashi goes to take another step when a crystal blade forms on her arm. "Oh I wouldn't. Leave me and my followers alone, or else your little friend will end up as shattered shards of glass." She moves her arm, placing the blade in front of Hinata's face.
This isn't good. Kakashi mind is working trying to come up with a plan. They were trapped in a crystal prison. Hinata was a hostage. Even if they could get to her, she would need medical attention. They were going to get her, and with how fragile the crystal appeared to be transportation to the Leaf would be an issue. His hand touches the outside of his kunai hostler, sending a small pulse of charka into the marked kunai.
They had reached the general coordinates given to them. Sakura had a sinking feeling. She knew the general location Kakashi's makeshift team had been sent, and it wasn't to far off. With everything that had happened the last few days, she hadn't put two and two together until now. She shook her head trying to get a grip.
"What's the matter?" Itachi asked appearing out of nowhere on the branch next to her. They had split up to survey the area. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. They hadn't found any trace of the three tails. Sakura had found a stream and was planning on working backwards to the larger water source. The three tails was from mist, it was reasonable to think the beast would be attracted to water.
"A team was sent out a few days before us to locate a base believe to have ties to Orochimaru. The base isn't within several hundred miles. But given what we are looking for, it seems to close for comfort." Sakura could feel Itachi's charka spike at the mention of the snake sannin.
"How do you know about this?" He asked, his eyes sharp.
"Kakashi is the team leader assigned." She could tell Itachi wasn't satisfied with that answer but she wasn't about to disclose more. "It's possible Orochimaru is looking for the same target we are. Dose your Sharingan pick up any additional charka signatures in the area?"
Itachi's eyes bleed red. He slowly turned in a circle. Scanning the area and stopping when he faced her. Sakura could feel the hair on the back of her neck stand. Itachi stared openly at her. She could feel his blood limit on her. Sakura simply stared back. She wasn't afraid of the Sharingan. She would never admit it out loud, but she had always found those eyes beautiful. The red was such a rich color, and the fact the irises changed depending on the stage gave the eyes so much more depth. The Uchiha clan was known for being emotionless, but whenever she stared into Sasuke's, Shisui's, and even Kakashi's she could see their emotions so clearly.
Itachi was no different.
The longer she stared the more emotion she saw. The anger was the most noticeable. She wasn't sure if it was completely directed at Orochimaru, or if some of his anger was toward her and Tsunade from withholding information. The second emotion that was present was hunger and not the kind that would be satisfied by food. It was the rare animal hunger that stared back at her.
Why would he be looking at her like that? Sakura could feel the tension growing between them.
Before she could question why, a loud cawing sound irrupts in the surrounding forest. Itachi blinks and his eyes are back to normal, his eyes emotionless once again. He holds out his right hand and a black crow lands on him.
"There is a massive barrier seventy miles from here. Several charka signatures, but they are to far away to tell if they are enemy or not." He raises his hand, and the bird takes back off into the sky.
No further words needed to be exchanged as they disappear into the trees.
"It's not letting me see through" Sasuke said taking a step back from the barrier.
"This is the same enemy's jutsu Pakkun brought back to Konoha. But on such a massive scale." Yamato explains placing a hand on the barrier.
Sai jumps down, his art popping above them. "It's at least a kilometer across with no opening."
"To be able to preform a jutsu this massive, this is the work of a highly skilled opponent." Yamato crossed his arms and took a breath.
"Whatever. Let's just break it down. Kakashi-sensei has to be in there."
"Hold on" Yamato said turning to face back toward the crystal. "We don't know if this barrier isn't rigged with some kind of lethal self defense system." He moves closer to the barrier, one of his fingers turning to wood and stretching out in front of him. He carefully taps it, but nothing happens. "I suspect that Kakashi and the others are trapped inside of it."
"Captain Yamato can't we just bust his wall down like we did to the wall at Orochimaru's hideout?" Naruto asked placing his hand on the crystal.
"It's not the same I'm afraid. For one we don't have Sakura's strength. This crystal is also much tougher. It has an incredibly dense molecular structure. Unlike that clay wall, the crystal has no weak spots. But perhaps if we tunnel under it" his fingers push into the dirt looking for an opening, but are forced up along the side, "as I said there are no weak spots anywhere. Not even underground."
"Because of its density, a jutsu concentrated on a single point won't do any good" Sai explains. "The attack would be dispersed over the whole surface, weakening its impact."
"For an attack to work it would have to be both wide ranging and extremely powerful." Sasuke said annoyed. His chidori wouldn't work. Yamato's wood style wasn't effective, and Sai's art wouldn't even make a scratch.
"I have an idea that just might work." He bites his thumb forming the necessary signs. "Summoning Jutsu!" Two fogs appear and his smile only grows brighter.
The barrier shatters, catching everyone off guard.
The enemy looks up as the crystals begin to fall from the sky. "What the?" She's confused. Her jutsu had never failed before.
Kakashi calms as the reinforcement team joins their side. He is surprised to see two summoning frogs next to Naruto. Did Naruto break the barrier? "Naruto was that-?"
"Yeah, the collaboration ninjutsu we've been working on with Pervy Sage. Now it's my turn to have some fun. Alright you don't try to escape."
"Huh so another big talker has shown up. Are you all like this?" The woman asks stepping closer to Hinata. No one responds. Naruto is trying to maintain his temper understanding that acting hasty would endanger Hinata. Kiba and Shino aren't fairing much better. "So, it seems you have realize that you have only one option.
"Now Gamatatsu!" Naruto orders.
"Wait!" Kakashi tries to warn. But it's too late.
"Wind Style Toad Water Pistol!" A water jutsu is released directly at the enemy.
She doesn't so much as bat an eye. Just slowly brings her arm up, touching the water, turning it into crystal. "My crystal style can crystallize anything. You'll need about ten more years' experience to challenge me" she warns as the crystal begins moving into the shape of a dragon. "Crystal Style Burst Crystal Falling Dragon!" The dragon smashes into the ground in front of them, making them scatter into the tree line.
"She not only did his crystal your jutsu, she turned it against you" Kakashi explained to Naruto. Both hiding behind trees. "Listen Naruto, I'll get her attention. When you see your chance, grab Hinata and get her away from here. Got it? Hinata' safety is our top priority right now." Naruto nods in understanding.
"What are you all hiding from? There is nothing you can do while I hold your little friend hostage." She jumps on top of the dragon and raises into the air.
Both Yamato and Kakashi walk into the clearing.
"Let Hinata go. Take me as a hostage instead." Kakashi commands.
The enemy starts to move forward but suddenly stops as her crystal shatters into a million pieces. Both Kakashi's and Sasuke's eyes widen when they see what caused her jutsu to fail. Standing between Hinata and the enemy is now Sakura. A small trail of blood drips down her right hand.
"Naruto now!" Kakashi yells, unwilling to pass up the opportunity.
Even confused at the sudden appearance of his female teammate, Naruto and Gamatatsu rush to into action. Gamatatsu's tongue wraps around the crystal containing Hinata and he swallows her.
"Oh no, you don't!" The enemy screams already regrouping her crystals for another attack, but its too late, the toad is already gone. She turns to try and trap the others, but they disappeared into a cloud of smoke.
The seal in her arm is burning when she finds everyone several miles away. Her heartrate is elevated as she tries to calm her panic. When the seal went off, she feared the worse. Granted the quick glance she got of Hinata wasn't good, but she could still sense her charka signature, so she was alive. Her right hand was still dripping with blood, but she ignores it. Whatever that jutsu was made up, was harder than she had expected. Much harder.
She lands next to Kakashi her hand automatically reaching for the kunai in his pouch. Kakashi doesn't fight her as she takes out the kunai and send a pulse of chakra through it and the pain stops instantly. They lock eyes, and she can read all the questions he is wanting to ask.
"How did you get here so quickly?" Kakashi asks taking back the kunai.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Sasuke asks grabbing her arm before she could answer Kakashi.
Sakura doesn't respond. She just rips her arm out of his gasp and walks toward Naruto and the toads, ignoring everyone else. "Gamatatsu can you please release Hinata?"
"That's it nice and easy" Naruto couches as the toad opens his mouth, Hinata still wrapped in his tongue. He places her gently on the ground.
Sakura kneels next to her, her hands glowing green as she scans the top of the crystal. Shino and Kiba join on either side of her.
"She's going to be alright, right Sakura-chan?" Naruto asks worried. Sakura doesn't answer his question. She isn't sure. There is already a massive crack from just transporting her here.
"Damn" a voice calls from behind them. "Guess I was too late" Pakkun says jumping on top of a rock. "They finished analyzing that insect of Shino's. There's no mistaking it. The enemy uses some kind of crystal style jutsu. The researchers say the effect on the insect was thorough. That thing was crystallized inside and out."
"So, it was true what she said, that her crystal stye works on anything." Kakashi said glancing between his dog and Hinata.
"This jutsu is a problem." Yamato stated plainly.
"That's putting it mildly. It's like I said, its effects are thorough." Pakkun just shook his head.
"You mean—?" Shino begins to ask but stops unable to finish.
"They found that even the insect's bodily fluids were crystallized." Pakkun finished. Akamaru just whined.
"We need to get her back to the village immediately." Yamato commented.
"I don't recommend that." Sakura said her hands glowing even brighter. "Transporting her is too risky. I can still feel her charka following within her. Even if we could transport her, we might not have enough time. We need to act now." She looked at Kakashi for permission and he nodes, trusting her judgment. She places one finger above Hinata's heart and taps hard.
The crystal begins shattering. Everyone in the clearing sucks in their breath and the prison holding Hinata shatters. Sakura's hands immediately fall to Hinata's head and chest.
"Sakura?" Kakashi asks after a few seconds. Everyone else in the clearing is still frozen.
Sakura doesn't respond right away. Her hands moving up and down the body double checking that every organ was working properly. "She'll be okay." Sakura smiles moving to help Hinata sit up.
"I don't understand. One of my insects that had been captured in the crystal style jutsu, it shattered in my hand. And yet, Hinata survived. Same things happen to the other crystallized shinobi we encountered."
"When I saw that I was going to be hit by her jutsu, I released chakra from all my chakra points at once, and surrounded myself with a barrier of my chakra." Hinata said slowly, still getting her bearings.
"Just as I thought, the enemy cannot crystallize chakra." Sakura said removing her hands from Hinata and letting Kiba take her place as she stood.
"Great thinking in a tight spot. Well done, Hinata." Kakashi commended her.
"All right, then Kakashi what do we do now? Any thoughts?' Yamato asked glancing at Sakura.
"Well, that depends." He said locking onto Sakura. "We're lucky Hinata was the only one hit by that jutsu. Since we don't have any countermeasures to this crystal style, cautions the best policy for now."
"We should have gone after them. Why'd we let them go?" Naruto yelled. He was pissed. They had hurt his friend. They weren't just going to get away with that.
"Who said we did?" Sakura asked placing a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "Take a breath." She could feel him approaching. Hopefully with more information. "You cannot just rush into things with this type of enemy. Who was that woman?" Sakura asked missing pieces of the puzzle. Their original mission had to been to watch and report. It was never supposed to be a combat situation. They were never supposed to follow an enemy, especially one who the village had no idea who they were or how their jutsus worked. This was exactly why Sakura had wanted an anbu unit assigned to this mission. Regardless of how short staffed they were, this should have been priority.
Sakura had hoped Tsunade would understand. If she wasn't sure he would have used any information gathered for his own selfish motives, she would have given the intel to him, knowing he would have sent the necessary manpower needed to protect that kind of asset.
She could already feel a massive headache developing. Maybe she had made the wrong choice. Her self-doubt was happening often, and it was concerning on more than one level.
"Her name is Guren" Itachi answer appearing out of thin air. His sharingan still activated. Everyone just stood there staring at him.
"Nii-san?" Sasuke asked confused. What the hell was his older brother doing here? He thought they had been the only reinforcement team sent as back up.
"There are five more shinobi with her. All with different charka types. Each possessing Orochimaru's curse mark." Itachi's eyes go immediately to Sakura's injured hand and then to Kakashi. "We need to talk."
