Author's Notes: Thank you to everyone who is enjoying the story! I know my updates are few and far between but I hope you continue to enjoy my stories.
Disclaimer: I do not nor have I ever owned Naruto. I simply play in their world.
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The Edge of Rage
Chapter 6
Now...
"We're almost to the safe house," Sasuke told Sakura, "once we're there, I'll need you to tell me what poison those shinobi are using so I can treat you."
Silence was his only reply.
"Haruno? Answer me, this is no time to keep quiet."
Again silence met his query.
She's just fading in and out, he told himself, she'll answer me soon.
He counted the seconds and when he reached a full minute, his heart dropped unpleasantly to his stomach.
"Sakura?" He shook her, not harshly but enough to give her a jostle that with those wounds would at least make her tell him to stop.
There was no response, not even a moan of pain.
Fuck, he swore, she can't be dead. I didn't give her permission to die on me!
Sasuke moved with such speed that even with full moon in the sky no eyes could have followed his movements, except perhaps those of the Uchiha clan gifted with the sharingan.
He was back at the hut within minutes after her continued silence. Gently, as though she were broken, he laid her upon the wooden floor of the main room. Normally the room was used as the common eating area but for right now it would work as triage for Sakura.
His eyes narrowed as blood flowed freely from the slashes on her upper thighs and right shoulder. But what worried him was the scarlet bloom just under her left breast. The white armor should have protected her, but it had not stopped the blade from piercing her body.
Her clothes were tatters, her gloves shredded so that her fingertips were exposed and also seeping blood.
Her skin, a normal luminous glow, was ashen. Sasuke had no idea how much blood she had lost but from the waxy feel of her skin, it could not be good. Abruptly he began stripping her of her armor and shredded clothing.
"Not how I imagined stripping you the second time around," he muttered furiously as each article of clothing revealed another cut. Her mask still lay off to the side of her face, covering her features. In his haste to check the rest of her wounds he had forgotten to remove it.
He did so now and his eyes dilated, a wash of red over his vision as he took in the bruise marring one cheekbone, her lip cut and swollen.
She had hid the marks of her beating from him, using her mask as a shield to his sight.
His hands visibly shook as he suppressed the instinctive need to go back out and find the Lightning shinobi and replicate each cut and bruise that was on her body.
"Later," he promised himself, "much later. Right now Sakura is your priority."
Finally he had stripped her down to just the scrap of black underwear, her skin an unhealthy pallor next to the dark color.
The blade had pierced her through and through, Sasuke sensing that the lung had collapsed from the way blood had bubbled out of her mouth. Her breathing was shallow and ragged.
"Collapsed lung, three broken ribs, a myriad of cuts," taking inventory of her injuries he began to wonder how she had been able to stay on her feet as long as she had. Heat radiated off of her body that could rival that of a small sun. Being so close to the high temperature was starting to make him sweat.
"I need to get her fever down." He knew that if he didn't treat the fever there would be no point in worrying about the other wounds and the poison. The fever would literally cook her brain and she would never wake from the coma she had slipped into.
It was at times like this that he fervently wished that his talent was with water and not with fire and lightning.
He remembered that there was a spring-fed well to the back of the hut. The spring was underground and impossible to contaminate which was one of the main reason the safe house had been constructed so deep in the woods.
Sasuke touched the purple bruise marring her face with tender fingers. "I'll be back, so stay alive."
He literally disappeared from the room and instantly reappeared at the well. The well went several feet into the ground and there was no way to fetch the water except the old-fashion crank handle.
She will live. She will live.
This mantra kept in time of the cranking of the handle and as Sasuke worked the handle, feeling the seconds tick by as he hauled up the water, his mind replaying the events that had led him to this point...
Twelve hours ago...
His gloved fingers dug gouges into the branch as he kept his sanguine eyes fixed on the lithe form of his partner. For the past two hours he had done nothing but watch her work her wiles on both merchant and tourist. He had nearly bitten through his lips in an attempt to stop himself from yelling at her the first time she bent over a merchants table, her breasts straining in that laughable excuse-for-a-top,while the two males fell over each other trying to get her attention.
That didn't stop him from wanting to draw his kunai and permanently blind them for staring so blatantly at her body.
Hence the gouges in the tree branch.
However the transmitter was working perfectly and he could hear every word she was saying as well as the replies from the unsuspecting males.
He actually found himself laughing softly as she interrogated them with such ease that they had no idea she had them well and truly fooled.
No wonder Ibiki was impressed with her and it is damn near impossible to impress him.
But despite her best efforts and the conspicuous use of her body, no results were forthcoming. Sasuke was beginning to wonder if he was going to have to tell her to fall back and regroup and find another way to flush out their target.
No, he decided, I will give her another hour, the day is still early.
And he went back to watching her with smoldering eyes. Nekko-chan he had called her, recalling the nickname he had heard bantered about in regards to the newest ANBU. She believed it was because of her mask, the one that Sai had designed.
But that is incorrect, Sasuke contemplated even as he moved to a new location, he had started calling her Nekko-chan before he carved her mask. He knew because he had overheard the normally stoic young man talking to Naruto about his mission with Sakura and kept referring to her as Nekko-chan.
Annoyed by the almost affectionate tone for the pink haired kunoichi Sasuke had joined their conversation and demanded to know why he kept referring to her as a cat. Sai had actually looked surprised by his inquiry. "It's the way she moves," he had explained in that deadpan voice of his, "she always lands on the balls of her feet and the way she walks, a swaying motion that I think I heard many of the others say that was...ah, yes, sensual."
That particular conversation still brought a snarl to his lips but he forced himself into a calmer mien as his eyes found Sakura once more.
Her long black hair danced in the slight breeze, a stark contrast against the white duster. She blends well, he thought trying to keep his thoughts neutral regarding his partner and the mission, she could be one of the women from my clan with that hair.
Oddly he found himself missing her natural pink locks, even though he knew she hated the color because it made her stand out, apart from everyone else.
Too bad, he decided, because after this I will never allow you to change your hair color again.
"...do you have a description of this Kana?"
Sasuke's focus suddenly snapped back on the conversation and off his sudden obsession with the color of his partner's hair when he heard the subtle nuances of the merchants voice.
He knows something, he was sure of it. Now it was time to see if Sakura picked up on it and could get the fat male to reveal what he knew.
From his vantage point high atop the tree's that grew close to the city walls and the precise details that his sharingan could pick up, Sasuke saw both Sakura and the merchant Hiroto as though he were standing right next to them.
He noted that Sakura had once again leaned over a table to better display her charms and distract the male with her creamy, white flesh so she could ask her questions. The oily smoothness of the man's voice as he answered her questions confirmed what he already suspected.
He knows Kana and now he is marking Sakura for abduction.
He watched as Sakura bantered with the sly, old man for a minute longer before leaving his table, the illusion that she was going to see her 'friend' right away.
Sasuke did not follow immediately behind but waited to see what the merchant was going to do after Sakura was no longer in sight.
His patience paid off as a shadow detached itself from a nearby wall and walked over to Hiroto's table. The person was covered in a nondescript cloak of pale beige that concealed everything but the top of his head, as he had thrown back the hood to talk to the merchant. Though Sasuke no longer had the audio help of the transmitter, his sharingan allowed him to read the lips of the two men.
"Follow her," Hiroto told sandy-blonde haired man, "she knows one of the women we abducted and I don't want her asking too many questions."
"Shall I take her now?"
Hiroto shook his head, "No, I have sent her to the Blue Diamond. Aiji and the rest of the shinobi will make sure she is taken to where the rest of our merchandise is being held.
Sasuke's eyes widened only slightly as he digested that bit of information. Tsunade had suspicions that other shinobi had been contracted to abduct these women but at the time she had no proof.
Well now I have my proof and can send word to have the retrieval squad meet up.
He would have to inform Sakura of the change in plans. There was no way he was going to allow her to be kidnapped now that he knew that other shinobi were involved. Normal humans is one thing, he thought even as he slipped back into the shadows and followed the lightning shinobi, but with other shinobi involved this complicates matters.
ANBU were well versed in the ninpou arts but that didn't make them invulnerable. Sasuke had no way to gauge just how many cell's had been contracted to kidnap these women. He would pull Sakura out and then wait for the retrieval squad. Now that he knew of the other shinobi, he would have a sensory member attached to the retrieval squad to track their quarry.
Sasuke was still following the other knowing that he would lead him to Sakura when a burst of static came over his earpiece that connected to the audio piece around Sakura's neck.
"Usuru-san," Sasuke's lips turned up in a half-smile at her code name for him until her blood-curdling scream came over the earpiece, "I've...contact...proce...plan..."
Sasuke heard the distinct sound of a body hitting the ground and the transmitter went utterly dead.
Haruno! Sasuke instinctively went to his mouthpiece to call out to her, but stopped short of speaking. I can't say anything, those lightning shinobi may be close enough to hear my voice. Right now being inconspicuous is her best disguise.
Sasuke swore long and hard and with great imagination. He wanted nothing more than to pull those shinobi apart with his bare hands but the mission came first.
Sasuke dropped into one of the many tree's surrounding the city and pulled a long, silver whistle from the inside of his shirt. He gave a short, silent blast on the whistle and waited.
Seconds later a beautiful hawk of golden brown was diving from the sky to his exact location. Sasuke lifted his arm and the bird alighted on the white armor, his amber eyes looking at Sasuke with unnerving intelligence.
"Hebi," he told the bird as he attached a tiny cylinder to its leg, "take this to the Hokage and be swift about it." The bird gave a sharp chirp and Sasuke launched him into the air once more. Sasuke watched his progress until the bird was invisible to the eye and then quickly turned his mind back to the business at hand.
No time to wait for the retrieval squad, I'll have to track the lightning shinobi to Haruno and the others.
I am coming for you.