Sakura was lowered onto a soft sandy surface that her mind barely registered. They'd been travelling long into the night and almost to morning. And since Sakura couldn't really argue against him, lest she wanted to go plummeting straight down the sky in which they travelled upon, she just fell silent.
After all, that's what she always did with Sasuke.
And soon, sleep came to fill her senses from every angle.
Despite not wanting to go to sleep around a foreign person (that had abducted her no less), Sakura couldn't help it. Her body felt too sluggish from having an entire night's sleep deprived away.
Karin stayed on the edge of their prison hideout. The place they'd retreated to once Jugo's condition had been stabilized enough for him to be carried over great distances. Karin wanted to say that Sasuke had went with them, to perhaps make sure that a valued member of his team Taka made it there safe and everything…but she couldn't.
Because he hadn't.
After giving them instruction to take Jugo back and place him in the healing chamber, the selfish Uchiha had left them again.
This past year had already seen him spending hardly any time at all with his team and when Karin had confronted the bastard about it he'd just laughed at her.
Laughed at her.
Karin would have hated the man…if she didn't freaking love him so much!
Her nails dug so hard into her palm that blood actually started dripping down onto the stone floor beneath her.
What the hell made that Haruno girl so special? What in the world did Sasuke see in her?
WHAT THE HELL WAS HE STILL SEEING IN HER?
Sakura was woken up to the distinct smell of….flapjacks?
The fresh yeasty aroma pervaded her senses and Sakura's eyes peaked open. Sitting right next to her head, about five inches away on a white ceramic plate, was a high stack of pancakes with a dollop of yogurt drizzled over with honey. There was also a metal fork on the plate.
Sasuke.
Sakura blinked.
She didn't know why she'd just thought that.
Her head whipped up to take in the entrance of the cave she was presently in. A calm beach shoreline stood about forty feet in front of her; she could even see seagulls flying over the waves.
Where was she?
She could remember…last night, someone dressed completely in traditional shinobi black clothes had taken her from Konoha…allegedly for her own good. The village ops had talked about having some sort of plan for her at midnight…
The ANBUs that had come rushing in were even all Jonin level.
Why was that?
More than just Tsunade knew about her chakra paralysis and those people had definitely spread word about it to everyone else. So there wasn't really any need for all the high level ninjas, for whatever they had planned for her…
So then why…
Her thoughts were cut off when the only light that came from the entrance of the cave got cut off all of a sudden by a shadow that cast over her body.
Sakura looked up again; there stood the masked individual that had rescued, possibly kidnapped, her.
"Who are you?" she asked tremblingly.
The person ignored Sakura, even though they looked right at her, before they turned and walked past the entrance.
"Wait!" Sakura cried as she hurriedly ran out to follow.
In her haste, she almost slid on the fine sand but caught herself at the last minute. Sakura looked up and was shocked to see no sign of the black garbed figure anymore. Instead, her eyes came across a line of white clothes and clean towels pinned on a clothesline, drifting in the gentle wind, between two wooden poles stuck firmly into the ground.
Posted onto one of the poles was a note that gave directions to a nearby creek good enough for washing. At the base of that same pole were two soap blocks, wrapped in wax paper, piled on top of each other.
A campfire with a steel pike of finely roasted fish was also in front of her, obviously intended for her to eat.
She wasn't overly germophobic or anything but Sakura did like to bathe at least once every evening and she'd been unable to do so last night…
Sakura took another careful glance around herself; there really was no sight of the masked person (who very well could be a man)…but she knew Shinobi were trained to specifically not be detected when in hiding.
She pursed her lips.
Should she risk it?
Sakura decided to let time decide this one for her.
She first ate breakfast, alternating between the surprisingly well cooked flapjacks (that she'd retrieved from the cave) and the flame roasted trout. It wasn't phenomenal but still a good meal. When after she was full and there were still no signs of the masked person, Sakura decided that if they hadn't come back now they probably weren't going to.
She quickly pulled off the clean clothes and towels before setting off into the neighboring forest following the notes directions. Not even thirty feet into the thicket, she came across the aforementioned creek. Testing the waters, Sakura found it was lukewarm.
Quickly, she stripped down and slipped in.
Sakura let herself soak longer than she originally planned; the fresh pooling water was like a salve against her skin and just seemed to strip away all of the stress that had accumulated in her body since she'd arrived back in Konoha.
Was she still in the village?
Sakura had no idea as she stepped out and towel dried herself. Though she still spotted no one around her, not even woodland animals, she acted fast before throwing on the white clothes left to her.
They were loose robed garments made of layered white fabric: a top that had sleeves down over her hands and came to flow past her waist. She belted it with the white sash provided; whoever had given these to her must have known they would be too big. The pants were also loose fitting and she had to roll them up at the hems to keep from tripping on them.
Satisfied, Sakura stepped back to the campsite.
Again the scene before her had changed but still no living person appeared in front of her.
The wooden poles had been taken down and stuffed into a big green duffel bag that hadn't been there previously. Sakura rummaged through it and found a cache of standard shinobi tools and weapons. There was another note inside the bag that said one thing: Use these to defend yourself, should you have to.
Sakura gulped; this note implied that people were after her.
Her thoughts were racing; yesterday the ANBU ops had talked like her captor had really been trying to rescue her from something they'd had planned at midnight. So…was her village really trying to hurt her?
…no, that couldn't be.
There…had to be another explanation.
Evening came around when Sakura realized that whoever was taking care of her had no plans of showing themselves.
Sometimes, when she turned around to stare into the open sea for a few minutes, Sakura swore she felt a shift in the wind, like someone moving at breakneck speed but as soon as she turned around, the shift was gone and no person stood in front of her.
It made her feel pathetic.
Here she was, being taken care of like a three year, and she couldn't even identify her benefactor. She was always being taken cared of. Be it Sasuke or this mysterious stranger, who didn't even deem her fit enough to talk to.
Why was she so helpless?
Sakura's head fell onto her knees as she started to cry, further proving her point. All she ever did now was cry and it sickened her. If it wasn't for the people around her, Sakura would have been dead a long time ago.
Her fists tightened in the sand around her as she continued bawling.
And what made it worst was that…she still missed Sasuke.
A great part of her wanted to be treated this way (because it was so simple) by him and him alone.
The independence she'd built up for most of her life was nearly all gone and just like her chakra, it didn't seem to be coming back anytime soon.
She just…wanted to be herself again.
She wanted people to respect her instead of make decisions for her, without ever telling her the explanations behind it.
Sakura spent an entire week like this. Three times a day food would be left for her on the campsite and though she'd tried on multiple times to never take her eyes away from the camp, she still had to blink and during that one second, the masked person would use it to appear and set down whatever was needed.
It wasn't always food either, sometimes whenever Sakura needed anything within the hour the object would drop by her feet. Sometimes the object would just appear and she wouldn't even see a shifting shadow.
Whoever the person was taking care of her, they had truly strong chakra.
Strong chakra that they used over her.
It sickened Sakura.
While she was grateful for their actions, she hated that after seven days the person still hadn't revealed themselves to her yet, and probably never intended to do so.
Did they think they were too good to meet with her face to face?
…but then again, the person could have their own reasons.
She'd most likely met the person in the past before otherwise they wouldn't be helping her out, tremendously like this. But what reason could they have for not wanting to meet with her now?
If they were deformed, they should have known that Sakura wouldn't hold it against them.
If they were a fugitive, Sakura still wouldn't have judged them for it, taking into account of the many days they'd been helping her.
So what other reason was there?
By the morning of the eighth day, Sakura was darn sick of this life. This time for morning breakfast, there was s steaming hot pot in front of her cave.
But once again there was no sign of where it had come from.
Sakura burst standing up. In fury, she kicked away the hot pot, spilling the contents onto the sand. Some dim part of her was angry at herself for wasting so much food but Sakura ignored it.
No, she couldn't be like this. She couldn't live like this. She wouldn't let herself be mollified like this…
In an instant, Sakura was running, from the campsite, in the first direction before her. She didn't care where she was going…she just had to go.
To run away from all this misery…and craziness that was possessing her…
Sakura made it halfway into the forest when the back of her outside sweater got caught on a thick tree branch. In her fervid tirade, she took this as another obstacle the world wanted to throw at her and Sakura furiously tore off her outer sweater so that she was only in her tank top, before taking off again.
Sakura ran deep into the thicket and foliage. Fallen branches and twigs snapped under her weight as she tore through. Everything. Everything.
She just had to get away from everything, even if it was for just a few moments.
Somewhere behind her again, she felt again that unnatural shifting of wind (only much faster now) as whoever the chakra movements belonged to, followed her.
Damn it.
She was still being watched.
This thought infuriated her.
There was absolutely nothing she could do to free herself!
As if to slap her in the face, right then: three ANBU masked shinobi wearing Iwagakure armbands suddenly appeared before her vision. Sakura's feet halted too abruptly and she couldn't help falling onto her back, upon the open clearing of the forest.
"Sakura Haruno! You are under arrest on order of the Five Kage Council," the central masked person stated; Sakura guessed them to be a guy by their voice.
"The Five…Kage?" Sakura reiterated in shock. So Tsunade was in on this too…
"What did I do?" she asked while getting up on both feet again. They stood about five feet away from her.
"For being an accessory to the Fifth Kazekage's murder."
Sakura's jaw completely parted as the color completely drained from her face. "Wh-what did you just say?"
"Sasuke Uchiha murdered Gaara of the Sand and injured probably hundreds more all to possess you. Right at this very instant he is on a rampage against the outlying villages of Konoha in his quest to find you. Additionally, your resurrection has indirectly caused a plethora of natural disasters to occur across all five villages. The Kages have voted that this world cannot afford to have you live amongst us a second time."
"We will take you back to Konoha where all the Kages will gather to bind and undo your reanimation."
Sakura felt her head spinning again.
"Natural disasters?" she inquired but no one felt inclined to explain anything else to her.
Several things happened all at once in the next second: just as all three ANBU lunged towards her, with Aichi Needles (sedated drug weapons) propped between their fingers to shoot at her, the strength in Sakura's legs collapsed.
But before any of the ANBU even got to her, that same masked person, clad in all black traditional shinobi robes, appeared in front of her. They had within both of their hands two broad flattened swords. The three were shocked at the sudden arrival but they didn't stop.
The Aichi Needles shot out towards the black garbed person but they easily knocked it out of the air before they came in contact.
Sakura watched in awe as the single masked person did battle with all three jonin level ANBU (she'd seen their armbands) and hardly had to put in any effort to stop them from getting close.
Quickly, her masked helper parried their attacks while backing them up in the process. It was obvious the blacked garbed person was holding back their power; there had been several kill shot openings that Sakura had seen exposed but each time the black garbed person merely ignored it.
The other reason she knew he was holding back: Sakura could tell, merely by their fast movements and the swiftness of their speed that they had a lot of chakra at their disposal but her masked fighter refused to use any of it. Both, she was sure, to not mortally harm any of the ANBUs but also to prevent their jutsu from being recognized.
Sakura must have met whoever this person was before.
Just as she thought that a hand came covering her mouth, from behind, muffling her one-second-delayed scream. Luckily, as she struggled, her hand broke a twig on the ground and a loud snap occurred thru the air.
The masked individual turned to look behind at Sakura; in that one second, one of the ANBUs jabbed a kunai knife straight into their abdomen.
The masked ninja whipped his head back around, while grunting from the extreme pain. For one-sixteenth of a second, they seemed to contemplate something, and then they did it: an invisible force suddenly exploded between him and the rest of the three ANBUs, knocking them away straight into tree trunks behind them. They fell limply onto the ground, unconscious.
The black masked individual turned back to Sakura and in a second, they had disengaged the person that had been smothering her.
Sakura fell limply onto her back as her eyes stayed locked on the black garbed man.
Right before they collapsed onto the ground next to her. Sakura gasped as her eyes finally caught sight of the kunai knife protruding from their abdomen, slicing right into their stomach.
"Oh, oh god," she called out while her hand tried to cup the wound that continued to gush out blood like a geyser. She was a medical-nin and so Sakura could tell the injury had pierced deep into an internal organ. If it wasn't stopped soon, this person would die.
In the drastic moment, Sakura didn't think to undo his mask right now, too worried about saving their life.
The person grunted as she examined the wound fully; the cut wasn't actually that big, just too deep; Sakura couldn't pull the knife out unless she had something to stopper the blood.
"H-hang on, I'll be right back," she stated while gently placing him straight down across the forest floor.
Koriko leaves, that's what she had to find. They were renowned for their healing and blood restorative properties because the plant actually contained fermented alcohol within the stems and could act as an emergency war tincture. The plant grew usually in forest areas so she was in luck; now she just had to find the base of an Orma Tree, for the Korikos always grew around their roots…
It took her longer than she expected, longer than she could stand- but eventually Sakura did locate the Orma and quickly dug around the thick barked roots. She cut her hands in the process but Sakura ignored the pain.
In a second, she found the blue leaves and quickly picked them all off. It wasn't a lot but enough to heal one person.
Just as Sakura stood up, pocketing the leaves into a zip pocket on her trousers, a hand came clamping down on her wrist, gripping it tight.
Her breath caught in her throat, as she turned her head, expecting to see Sasuke-
-only to see a man she'd never met before.
He had pale white hair down to his chin and shark like sharp teeth.
"Well, look at what I've found here? Sasuke will be so glad to finally get his pet back."
Sakura's breath caught in her throat. Sasuke. This man worked for Sasuke.
"Who are you?" she asked, terrified.
"Suigetsu," he intoned with a big wide smile, revealing ferocious teeth that Sakura could just imagine tearing apart any type of animal…or human. He had a broad sword that was longer than his entire height, strapped diagonally on his back.
Sakura was at first too shocked to think of what to say but then she dropped back down to reality, pleading with a shaky voice: "Please…you can't take me back to Sasuke."
For that was another thing that she'd decided upon during her week-long stay at the beach, without anyone to interact with; she had to let go of her love for the dangerous man, and his insane tendencies. At first, when she'd been torn from him, it was like she'd been facing withdrawal; withdrawal from being addicted to him for too long…but then the symptoms dimmed the longer she had to herself and Sakura finally realized how…unjust her relationship was with the man.
She'd only just managed to escape from the psychological prison the man had imprinted upon her mind and Sakura would be damned if she let herself go back in. And she knew that was exactly what would happen if Sasuke ever found her again.
But Suigetsu didn't seem any bit sympathetic.
"No can do princess, if I let you go and something happens to you before Sasuke actually finds you again…" the man winced before running his index finger across his throat, emitting a slicing sound with his crooked teeth. "Hell, he'll kill me even if he just found out I'd let you go," Suigetsu stated while tightening his hold on her wrist.
Sakura winced at the grip but wouldn't give up: "N-no! I-I…I at least can't go right now. Give me ten minutes then I'll come back. Please! I have to go back to…to help some-"
She was cut off by Suigetsu's laugh. "Sorry girl, I'm not stupid enough to fall for that."
Sakura tried to pry free of his hold but the man merely started dragging her, outright, through the forest terrain. They were going in the wrong direction!
Sakura's head whipped around to stare into the distance, where past a long series of trees she knew was where the dying masked man was. He'd taken care of her for an entire week and now she couldn't even treat a wound of his?
Sakura acted before her mind registered the thought: she bit down on Suigetsu's hand.
"AH!" the man cried out, immediately letting go of Sakura who then tore off from him, down the direction she'd been careful to memorize by landmarks. At least her intellect hadn't dwindled any bit during this quagmire.
Unfortunately, the distance going back was still a long one and Sakura could hear Suigetsu's frantic footsteps furiously chasing her.
Halfway there, Sakura's foot slid on the ground and she fell down the sloped decline of the forest.
"AH!" the pinkette screamed as her body tumbled down the spiky declivity. Her face, arms, legs and torso got sliced open in numerous small cuts by the countless sharp rocks and branches. By the time Sakura had made it to the bottom, her entire body was searing and all common sense told her to just stay down but the pink haired kunoichi stood up again.
And continued to run.
She couldn't stop.
"Oh come on!" Suigetsu cried out from behind her. "Sasuke's going to have my head if he finds you like this."
But Sakura ignored him, continuing to hurry. Something dripped down her shin and she vaguely realized without looking that her knee must have been sliced open during the fall.
Yet her body barely registered any of the pain, probably because of the adrenaline coursing thru her veins right then.
Either Suigetsu was amazed at her continued speed despite all her nasty injuries, or he really was worried that she would now get away from him –for a sudden light ball shot up into the sky, exploding into a work of colored fire.
Sakura felt her breath tighten again.
He had called for backup, which meant it was only a matter of time until Sasuke got here, and found her.
Sakura gulped, putting all of her strength into each step now. By the land markings, she knew there was only a quarter of the distance left. Almost there. Almost-
Suddenly a group of ANBU ops, this one carrying the armbands from Suna materialized in front of her.
What else could go wrong today?
She had to stop, lest she wanted to run right into them. A few seconds later, Suigetsu's arms came wrapping around her neck and midsection, trapping her.
The ANBU were obviously shocked to see the shark-like man, but not in the least bit intimidated.
"You will hand over Sakura Haruno to us, unless you want to be listed an international criminal against all five villages," one of the masked shinobi stated, immediately causing the shark man to chortle.
"I'm already one such criminal. Say hello to Suigetsu Hozuki," the man stated with a cocky grin.
Some of the ANBUs visibly stiffened but it was only those at the back. Those at the front, with the jonin armbands merely stayed where they were, answering: "Then you are hereby under arrest as well."
Before Sakura could register anything, the man that had spoken came rushing up right towards her with their sword propped-
-Suigetsu blocked the attack while still managing to detain Sakura, with only one arm now around her waist.
The pinkette wanted to flail but she was afraid that with all swords being so close to her right now, her head might just get sliced off. But Sakura knew she still had to hurry; Sasuke could come at any moment now.
As soon as the ANBU retracted their sword, five other ANBUs came in to ambush Suigetsu.
"Damn it!" the man swore as he tried his best to parry every blow given to him. Eventually, one did make it through his defense and a sharp cut appeared beneath his shin. "Aghh!"
The man screamed as he finally let go of Sakura; protecting her was only burdening him.
The pinkette used that moment to burst off of him. Suddenly, she remembered the various tools the masked man had given her to defend herself with.
She'd pocketed some of them and so she reached into her pouch to grab a small rounded ball-
-suddenly a person's hand came clutching around her ankle, pulling her down to the frenzied battlefield. Her grip on the smoke ball fell and it hit the ground too fast.
Immediately, choking smoke came pillowing in through the battleground, causing countless Shinobi's to start coughing. Sakura, who had held her breath at just the last second, managed to save her lungs and used the confusion of the moment to crawl out from the fray.
Once she was out, Sakura took off running again.
Within minutes, she came upon the sight of where the first three ANBUs had appeared and the still body of her black robed rescuer lied on the ground.
Oh god. Had she taken too long?
Sakura ran to their form and to her surprise, they were still breathing, though very faintly. Keeping the kunai in must have acted as a stopper anyway.
Hurrying, she stuffed the Koriko leaves into her mouth to chew on them roughly, releasing the juices. As she did that (staying careful not to swallow any of the nutrients) she ripped off strips of cloth from her outfit for makeshift bandages. When that was done, she regurgitated the gross slew back out onto her palm, trying to let the least amount of juices drip to the ground. Her other hand closed around the kunai knife and without hesitation, she ripped it out.
Immediately a short gush of blood came out and Sakura cried as she pressed the wet mess of foliage onto the wound, before carefully wrapping the strips around his stomach, in three layers.
She'd done this many times in the Fourth Shinobi War, but never on someone that she was indebted to for saving her life and so her hands couldn't help trembling as they stayed pressing over the wound with all her strength. If this person died, because of her…Sakura wasn't sure she could live with herself.
Just then, she felt that strong shifting of wind behind her again. Someone had appeared behind her, through chakra. Only this time, she knew exactly who the chakra belonged to.
For she had felt it for far too long, for an entire year.
"Sasuke," she said the name without having to turn around to know that he stood right behind her.
Sakura stood up and turned to come face to face with the man that had raped and imprisoned her for over an entire year.
Some part of her wondered as to which awaited fate was worse for her: the punishment he would give her for running away for more than a month from him, or the things he would do to her after the punishment, once he'd had her locked up again inside that steel box.
Sasuke did nothing but stare at her for a long time, as if finding it hard to comprehend that she was really before him once again. Finally, his hand reached up towards her cheek-
-Sakura instinctively flinched.
A flash of hurt came over Sasuke's beautiful features but it disappeared just as fast. Instead of fury, Sakura was surprised to find him question her, in a hard tone: "How did you get all these injuries?"
Sakura pressed her lips together, not wanting to say that it was because Suigetsu had been chasing her. Despite the shark man's cruelty, Sakura didn't want him to face Sasuke's malevolence. "I tripped and fell."
"You're lying."
Sakura sucked in sharply, ready for a slap to her cheek. She'd forgotten somewhat of how well the man could see through her duplicity.
But surprisingly, the slap didn't come.
Sasuke only continued staring at Sakura and the pink hair kunoichi found herself on the verge of a nervous breakdown. This anticipation of him hurting her was too much and it gave her the worst kind of anxiety.
And what made it worse was…her heart was again beating sporadically from being so close to him again.
Anxiety and elation.
That was what he always caused within her.
The conflicting emotions caused tears to well up inside Sakura's eyes and soon she started crying –as soon as the first tear streamed down her face, the girl felt arms wrap around her, drawing her into a tight embrace.
To her surprise, Sakura felt Sasuke's face burying itself into her hair. He inhaled sharply. "God, you're still so intoxicating."
Sakura felt her face pluming again because of their proximity, even if they'd been in far more intimate positions in the past before.
And just then rushing out of the forest came the team Taka members: Karin, Jugo and a semi injured Suigetsu.
As soon as they appeared, Sasuke let go of Sakura and pushed her lightly away.
But in that moment, the Haruno girl didn't care. For her eyes took in the sight before her. Everyone except Sasuke, had blood splatters over their clothes, but somehow she knew they all had taken part in the fights that had drawn the blood. Sasuke had just been able to avoid getting any of it on him.
Sakura gasped as her eyes widened in horror. She waited for injured ANBU ops to come following out, preparing to finish the battle.
But no one did.
The battle had already finished.
Suigetsu might have had problems with the ANBU jonins but once Sasuke had joined in, the victory side was pretty much decided upon.
Sakura's trembling lime green eyes flashed her worry and Suigetsu smiled purposely grim as she took in his bloody outfit. "Men at our finest, girl."
Sakura squealed and instinctively drew back. With this action, she also drew distance between Sasuke and her. Immediately, the Uchiha stepped forward, extending his hand out for her to take. "Come Sakura, you're going back with me."
The pinkette stared at his lithe slender white hand for a long moment.
Oh god.
Oh god.
She…she couldn't.
She couldn't willingly choose to go back to his obsession. To that pain.
Sakura shook her head.
Sasuke took a menacing step forward. "Excuse me?"
The pinkette backed up as fear over took her senses and suddenly a shuriken came whizzing through the air, only it didn't hit her because it'd been aimed at Sasuke.
The Uchiha evaded it at the last second and only managed to get a cut on his right cheekbone, as he (and everyone else) came to stare at the origin of where the shuriken had originated.
And that's when Sakura realized, the masked man she'd healed should have been right where she was standing right now but there was nothing but grass where she stood.
Mainly because the masked body she'd healed was now standing thirty feet in front of her, slightly hunched from still having the fresh knife wound in their stomach...only they were no longer masked.
And Sakura, as well as everyone else, could see exactly who it was that had rescued her from Konoha.
"Gaara," Sasuke spoke the name furiously as he took in the appearance of the red haired sand demon.
"Gaara!" Sakura shouted a second later, in astonished elation as she smiled in genuine happiness at seeing the man still alive.
The Uchiha whipped his head around to glare at her for the excitement she had.
The Fifth Kazekage, still dressed in that all encompassing black skin tight robe except for the face mask now, was still wounded and so his breaths came in labored pants. One of his hands clutched at the bandaged wound on his abdomen and Sasuke's lips rose up into a smirk at the sight of his injury.
"Dying by my hands wasn't enough for you the first time?" the Uchiha taunted but the Fifth Kazekage stayed silent.
All he did was raise his hand and suddenly, the Sakura behind Sasuke melted into a pool of sand in the grass.
Sasuke's eyes widened. That had been a sand clone. He looked up again towards Gaara and sure enough, coming up tentatively from behind the man was the real Sakura. When in the world had the Kazekage made the switch?
The pinkette stayed close to Gaara not because she cared for him necessarily more than a friend but because she felt safer. Of course, this only made to infuriate Sasuke further.
The Uchiha growled in fury. "I killed you once, I'll kill you again."
Gaara remained passive and emotionless, clearly not intimidated.
Sakura looked frantically around her from side to side; her heart had soared at the sight of Sasuke but her mind told her to run as far as she could get from here, right now, while she still had the chance. She had to get away from him, lest she got addicted again.
Gaara could read her distress; his eyes flickered back to Sasuke, then once more to Sakura then to Sasuke again.
"I swear to god, if you don't hand her over to me right now."
The Uchiha clearly had one and only one weakness: this girl. The Fifth Kazekage had never seen the man lose his calm collected demeanor except for when things that concerned Itachi…and Sakura. Since the prior was already dead…
Sakura wasn't sure what was happening when she was suddenly jerked around by her upper arm and she felt soft lips against her own. Gaara's lips.
She was kissing Gaara.
Or rather, he had kissed her.
Sakura's eyes widened in the act and tried to pull away but hands rose up to lock her head against his. She saw that Gaara's eyes were closed, as if he was…actually savoring the kiss?
In a second, Sakura saw Sasuke charging right towards them, with his Kusanagi raised; the blade was flashing violently, charged with his chidori lightning chakra to behead both of them.
Right before he came into contact with them, sand suddenly came popping up like a geyser on all sides of the Uchiha, right through the grassy terrain. It encased him in the time of half a second. At the same time, a six pointed trigram, with kanji written around the perimeter, appeared beneath the man. It glowed with clear infusion of chakra and Karin emitted a scream of horror from behind Suigetsu.
The girl tried to move to help Sasuke but Jugo and Suigetsu stopped her, lest she get trapped in the curse jutsu too.
In another second, the sand that had drowned Sasuke took the shape of a perfect cube. Sakura watched as Gaara did a series of hand signs: horse, boar, ram, serpent…then the actions grew too fast for her eyes to follow. As he did this, a huge sword suddenly came charging at both of them, with Suigetsu intending to stop him from completing the seal but his thick blade merely met against an invisible force field over both Gaara and Sakura.
Finally, the Fifth Kazekage was done and he slapped his palm straight onto the Earth, shouting at the same time: "Ultimate Sand Sealing Jutsu!"
Immediately, bright light encompassed all of Sakura's vision and she had to block it out with both hands in front of her eyes.
In a few seconds, the light dissipated and there stood Sasuke Uchiha, encased not in sand but in a cube of glass.
The Taka members were nowhere in sight.