Look at that! A double update.

Sakura wanted to roll her eyes at their naivety as they let out horrified gasps.

"They wouldn't!"

"Yeah! Why not send a rescue team?"

"Konoha most certainly would. Our history is bloody, and the members of the council act in however they think best benefits the village. They had already done so once, with the Uchiha Massacre. One shinobi, even if she was the Hokage's prized pupil, was not worth paying ransom for. Not when she could have given up secrets."

"But you would never!"

Sakura did not say anything. Like any other Konoha shinobi, she held fast to the belief that she would protect her village and its secrets with her dying breath. But, never having been tortured for information, she could not guarantee that her lips would remain sealed.

She told the children as much, delighting in their confused faces when she announced she had never been interrogated, the delicate way to say tortured.

"In the council's mind," she continued, "I was a liability. So, aware of the circumstances, the order was given. I was to be summarily executed."

The pinkette pressed on with her story, knowing the next part of her tale would clear up the confusion the students were feeling.

Sakura came to, slowly. Her eyelids felt crusty and weighted. She laid awake for several minutes before she even attempted to open them.

She was greeted with a brightness so harsh she shut her eyes again. When she went to open them again, after letting the bright light filter through her eyelids, they raised slowly. Not blinded anymore, she scanned the room she was confined in.

It was surprisingly comfortable for a cell. She actually had a cot, as opposed to just being tossed on the stone floor, and there was a window that was letting the unbearably bright sunlight into the room. It was by no means large. Long and thin, it stretched along the top of a single wall. Sakura lifted her arm, curious to see the window was large enough for it to get through, and was stopped by metal digging into her wrist.

She twisted her spine to look at her hands, chained behind her with chakra suppressing cuffs that were linked to a short length of chain bolted to the wall. The woman gave them an experimental yank, biting her lip to stifle a gasp when a jolt of electricity coursed through her.

Whoever had taken her captive was going to great lengths to ensure she didn't move so much as a muscle during her imprisonment.

Sakura observed the rest of her cell. Their second line of defense, which wouldn't amount to much if she ever removed the metal bracelets preventing her from using chakra, was the lack of door. The cell had to have been created by a Doton user, but a rock wall would be no match for her superhuman strength.

Nothing else stood out to her viridian eyes, but that didn't mean anything. There could be any number of unpleasant traps just lying in wait.

Instead of focusing on the unknown variables, Sakura turned her attention towards what she did know.

She had been issued a mission to treat with Tanigakure, the Village Hidden in the Valleys, for sensitive information that had been stolen from Konoha. They had immediately knocked her out and locked her up, so they probably never had that information to begin with. The entire mission had been a ruse to get their hands on her.

'And not even me, specifically,' she thought, recalling the village leader's comment on how he had been expecting Shizune.

Sakura could easily see the reasons why Shizune would have been sent. The dark haired woman had been Tsunade's apprentice longer; therefore she should be more trusted. Not to mention, as the Hokage's assistant, it was her responsibility to know every document she set on the blonde's desk inside and out.

It really would have been in Tanigakure's favor had her shishou sent her older apprentice. Shizune was not the fighter like Sakura and Tsunade were.

That meant that the cell she resided in was designed with Shizune in mind. Although she couldn't rule out the possibility that they had tailored it for her once she arrived. But if that was the case, it probably wasn't as strong as it could be. Either way, her green orbs flickered around the room, somewhere there was a weakness she could exploit.

She just had to find it.

And Sakura had some time to discover that weakness. Tanigakure would not send a message to Konoha about her this early. They would want to wait, to make Tsunade anxious and frantic with worry, so that when she did receive news of her condition she wouldn't think twice about handing over the money for her safe return.

But Tsunade would know soon that something was wrong. It didn't even take a day to travel to Tanigakure, and even if negotiations stretched more than the anticipated day, the Hokage would know Sakura encountered trouble if she wasn't back by the end of the week.

Even with that knowledge, she would react immediately. By a protocol unique to Konoha, every mission was given a week's leeway before flags were raised. If the team on the mission did not send word, at least, by the end of that seven day deadline, Konoha would not send out another team on the chance of putting the original mission in jeopardy.

Sakura didn't know how long she had been unconscious, but her shishou had expected her back within three days. So it wouldn't be long before she sent out reinforcements.

But that didn't mean she had to sit around like a damsel in distress for the rescue team to come. All she had to do was get those thrice damned cuffs off.

Then heads would start rolling.

"Wait a minute. Wait about the council's order?"

"To be quite honest, the thought never crossed my mind," Sakura answered. "I figured Tsunade-shishou would raise hell and put a stop to any such order. Plus, I was under the impression that Tanigakure would wait to send their ransom. I had been wrong it that regard.

"That letter made it to Konoha before I was awake. The council members didn't hesitate to put Tsunade-shishou on the spot, threatening to remove her as Hokage for showing favoritism."

Here, Sakura grinned darkly. Many students shuddered at the slight killing intent she released. "It mattered not. She apprised my team of the situation, and conveniently turned a blind to their reaction."