"And what was your team's reaction?" one girl asked hesitantly, afraid that the brunt of malevolent feelings in the air would be turned on her.

"They strolled right out the front gates, right in view of the guards. Actually," Sakura chuckled just remembering Kakashi nonchalantly retelling their story, "they did it during the guard shift. So four shinobi watched Naruto, Sai, Kakashi, and Sasuke, who wasn't supposed to leave the village for another eight months, walk right out of the village.

"Tsunade-shishou threatened the guards who informed her of the Uchiha's infraction, so when the council came to her in an uproar about him vanishing, there was no one to say they had witnessed him leaving the village.

"Of course, since no one saw Sasuke leave, he had to be in the village," she said coyly, to the laughter of the students. "Naruto and Kakashi, given who they are, are given a lot of leeway, and many people often forgot that Sai was a part of our team. So it was laughably easy for them to leave the village without fearing punishment. Tsunade-shishou resolutely proclaimed that she never gave Team Seven authorization to leave the village and that they were probably biting their nails in fear somewhere."

"She can do that?" another child asked, rightfully incredulous.

Sakura shrugged casually. "Technically, no. No shinobi is supposed to leave the village without the Hokage's permission and Tsunade-shishou was told she would be removed from her position if she assigned a team to rescue me. But Konoha is not a typical ninja village. We put high value on our individual shinobi and fight tooth and nail to recover those taken or labeled MIA."

She smiled at the memory of her shishou. Tsunade understood that the rules were in place to prevent shinobi from coming and going as they pleased, which was a monumental security risk to a ninja village. But she also knew how important emotions and bonds were to her shinobi.

So she had no qualms sending Shizune to Team 7 with the knowledge of her kidnapping.

"Tsunade-shishou trusted that my team would bring me back safe and sound before the assassin the Council sent after me could step foot in Tanigakure."

"Did they?" came the curious question from a girl that reminded her of Hinata.

The pinkette chuckled. "Did they ever!"

Sakura sighed, bored. Aside from the first day she woke up, where a group of three shinobi had roughed her up and taken a picture of the mess of bruises and gashes, nothing happened. She figured the picture was meant to be proof that Tanigakure was serious about their threat to kill her if Tsunade-shishou did not pay the ransom.

But, even for someone as miserable at poker as the Legendary Sucker, it was an awful bluff. She had received more serious injuries in practice spars with her team. For some reason, they never could keep it at the level of mock spars and light workouts.

But, that had been yesterday. And while the pain was mildly irritating, it was not enough to distract Sakura from her boredom. The delivery of her only meal only took a minute and would offer no reprieve either.

Which was how she came to be sighing every five minutes and glaring petulantly at the handcuffs that prevented her from using chakra. It was easy enough to curl in on herself and bring her hands down and around the front of her legs so that her cuffed wrists were in front of her, easing the stress on her shoulders.

It was the most monotonous experience of her life. The safest political prisoner incident she had ever heard of, but monotonous nonetheless.

Just as the pinkette was considering counting the cracks on the wall (proof that the earth user who made them did not have excellent chakra control) the ceiling of her earthen prison rumbled.

Sakura tucked her chin into her chest to avoid the resulting dirt shower.

Two minutes and fifty-three seconds later, the wall to her left exploded.

"What took you so long?" She smirked at the four males in the opening. "I'll have you know I haven't eaten since yesterday."

"What?" Naruto yelped while Kakashi and Sasuke used a fire jutsu to melt the lock of her cuffs. "How could they not feed you, Sakura-chan? We have to go to Ichiraku's we when get back. My treat."

Sakura smiled indulgently. "I agree with Dickless. You've lost weight. Ramen is so unhealthy that you will gain it back in a single visit," Sai said from atop the ink eagle he had drawn to carry them home.

Naruto and Sai fought the entire flight back about the benefits of the blond's favorite food.

"What did Sai mean by you lost weight? One day without food isn't enough for weight loss to occur."

"I lost weight because I was overworking myself and the stress. Let this serve as a reminder to all of you, eating is important. All those salad diets you girls take are doing you more harm than good," Sakura lectured, watching with narrowed eyes as the female half of the class frowned and tried to discretely eye themselves and the girls around them. "You need a balanced diet with plenty of carbohydrates and protein in order to do half of what you do as a ninja."

The entire class fell silent. Behind her, the sensei nodded seriously.

"Did you really go for ramen?" one boy asked, curiously.

Sakura smiled brightly. "First thing we did. Teuchi-san closed down the shop for us and the five of us spent hours eating and laughing. Tsunade-shishou was furious when she found us. Apparently, Kakashi had terrified Tanigakure's leader so badly they ran to Suna for protection."

"But Suna's our ally!" a young girl exclaimed.

"Yes." Sakura said simply. "And Gaara took ruthless advantage of their stupidity. Tanigakure essentially became one of Suna's outposts, a supply warehouse, and a checkpoint, which Konoha, as their ally, had access to. Tsunade-shishou was particularly gleeful when she sent Team Seven to Suna, ordering us to stay the night over."