So uh, remember how I said I was excited for Konoha Crush and then proceeded to not update for two and a half years?

Yeah, me neither.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or anything associated with it. All rights to Naruto belong to Masashi Kishimoto and the other proper entities.

Summary: Sakura had been by his side since he lost his family, following him around since they were seven years old, trying to ease his loneliness in whatever way she could. He didn't even know why he allowed it. He just silently allowed her to claim the seat next to him at the beginning of every term.

Rating: M

Genre: Friendship/Romance

Pairings: SasuSaku / eventual light NaruHina

Rays of Spring Sunshine

Chapter Sixteen

Sasuke took off after the three Suna genin the moment the proctor finished speaking. He was smart enough to figure out more or less what was going on.

Konoha was under attack, and Gaara was a part of their plan.

He couldn't see them as he sped after them through the forest, but he could see the ripples of unstable chakra with his sharingan. He had one job: Find them, and, if necessary, kill them.

He grit his teeth and pushed his body to go faster.

Sakura broke the genjutsu as soon as she recognised it. Her head swiveling around, she noted people dropping like flies on all sides of the stadium, the genjutsu taking effect on the vast majority of the spectators.

There was still activity, though; Kakashi and Gai, and other jōnin in the crowd, were beginning to fight off the genjutsu's effects, engaging the enemy. Sakura kept low and crawled behind the last row of chairs.

"This isn't good." She heard Kakashi mutter to Gai nearby.

"It's worse." Gai agreed. "Look up at the Hokage's seat." Sakura's eyes tailed upward, taking in the scene.

"That's barrier ninjutsu." Kakashi growled low in his throat.

"And look who's inside."

"Orochimaru."

Sakura's stomach disappeared as she sprang to her feet. Orochimaru? At the exams? Why? Was he after Sasuke again? Her entire body felt cold as she turned her gaze to the bottom of the arena and found him missing.

There was a flash of movement to her side; she barely registered the nin coming for her before Kakashi flash-stepped in front of her and cut them down. She squeaked and dropped to the ground, hands over her head.

"Good, you're conscious. Stay down."

She snapped her attention to Kakashi, who had just thrown the bodies of the enemy nin halfway across the stands. She lowered herself to the ground, trying to appear as unobtrusive as possible as her mind whirled. Where was Sasuke? Had Orochimaru's men taken him? He wasn't the kind to run off and hide when things like this happened; the only reason he wouldn't be fighting right now would be because he couldn't. And he wasn't caught in the genjutsu down there—she'd have seen him otherwise.

Kakashi perched on one of the chairs above her as Gai engaged another enemy nearby. "I'm glad I taught you about genjutsu during our survival training. You're a natural at it." He said quietly to her. "Listen, I've got a mission for you." She nodded seriously, eyes wide as saucers. "Consider it an A-rank. I want you to wake up Naruto and Shikamaru. Sasuke has taken off after Gaara and his siblings—the three of you need to find him and stop him from pursuing. Once you catch up, the four of you are to wait in a safe location for further orders."

Sakura blanched. "If we're going to go after someone like Gaara, shouldn't I wake the others as well…?"

Kakashi shook his head, beginning a series of hand signs. "No. The village is likely being invaded outside of this arena—anything larger than the typical four-man cell will attract too much attention and be too slow. They should have taught you that in the Academy."

"Yes." Sakura bit her lip, looking up at the back of her teacher's head. "But who's the fourth?"

Kakashi cast his summoning jutsu, a little dog appearing on the back of the unconscious man in front of him. "Pakkun. We need you to track down Sasuke by scent."

Sakura remembered the little dog from their first mission, when Kakashi had summoned him to send a message back to Konoha. Anxiety pooled in her gut as the solemn ninken conferred with her teacher.

She crawled over to where Naruto and Shikamaru were sprawled near the back wall, breaking the genjutsu on her friend silently. She lunged forward and clapped her hand over his mouth before he had time to shout. "We're under attack. Keep your voice down, okay? We need to wake Shikamaru."

Naruto nodded vigorously before Sakura released him and crawled over to the other boy. When she reached for him, he rolled over and regarded her with a flat stare. "You're already awake. Why didn't you say anything?"

He sighed. "Because I didn't want to get attacked. I'm not going after Sasuke, the guy can take care of himself."

"Huh?" Naruto crawled forward. "What's going on? What happened to Sasuke?"

Sakura saw the enemy nin before Naruto did. "Behind you!"

Gai was there before Naruto could even turn. "Go!" He barked as he kicked the nin with the force of a battering ram. The wall behind them caved on impact, leaving a large hole. In any other circumstances, Sakura would have gaped at the sheer power of his kick. There was no way the other man was walking away from that.

Sakura grabbed Shikamaru's collar and forced him to stand, dragging him toward the hole. Naruto followed, calling a "Look out!" that made the two of them drop to avoid a stray kunai.

Shikamaru shook her hand off. "Fine." He groused. "I'll come. Don't need to drag me." He sighed as they started to crawl toward the opening, and Sakura heard the words 'pain in the ass' muttered under his breath.

Getting down from the arena was a slow process, having to dodge Konoha jōnin and invaders fighting on the walls outside, but they made it. They rounded the area to the side that Sasuke took would have departed, on high alert. Pakkun snuffled around in the packed earth for a few moments before announcing, "I've got him. This way."

Stomach tied into knots, Sakura leapt into the trees after him.

"Will they be alright, do you think?" Gai asked, standing at Kakashi's back.

In truth, Kakashi didn't know. Sasuke was the fastest of the Team Seven genin; it was entirely possible that he'd outstrip them and reach the suna-nin before Naruto and the others reached him. If that was the case, it would be bad.

Despite his reassurances to Naruto and Sakura prior to the match, Gaara's chakra bothered him. There was something off about it; not to the extent of Naruto's when the kyuubi slipped the seal, but close. Dark, warped, and wrong.

"They'll be fine." He said aloud. "I'm more worried about us at the moment." He parried an incoming blow, lifting his knee to bury it in his assailant's stomach. A kunai was embedded in the base of his skull a moment later. "Fourteen."

"Hah!" Gai laughed, breaking away to deliver a roundhouse kick to another man's face. It was clear when he fell that his neck was broken. "Seventeen! You'll have to work harder than that, rival of mine!"

Kakashi shushined behind another enemy and snapped his neck with brutal efficiency. He had to get out of here as soon as the fighting looked under control. He had to make sure his kids were safe. "Fifteen."

Sakura felt ice in her veins when Pakkun told her that they were being followed.

"There are eight—no, nine—of them. And they're gaining."

"What do we do?" She heard herself ask, voice higher than normal with fear and exertion. They were only three genin—an invading force would be chūnin level or higher. If they got caught, they were dead.

Kakashi could only occasionally steal looks up at the Hokage's battle with Orochimaru. Fire, water earth… the Saindaime was using everything in his arsenal, as far as he could tell.

He parried a blow from a suna-nin and grit his teeth. He could hear explosions, now. It was likely that the full-scale invasion had begun in earnest.

"I'll stay." Shikamaru cut her off before Sakura could suggest being the one to stay behind. She had little practical combat skill, anyway, so it made more sense that Naruto and Shikamaru were the ones to back up Sasuke. "I'm the one with the best chance of making it out alive. I'll slow them down and catch up to you. Go."

"But—!"

"I'll be fine. Go!"

Sasuke could hear explosions in the distance. So, it wasn't just the exams—the rest of Konoha was being attacked, too. He grit his teeth. He ignored the fighting. He had a mission.

His first potential kill. This was just more training. He needed to be able to kill, to get his revenge.

He was a shinobi. This was what he did. It wasn't anything more than that.

Sakura felt wrong, leaving Shikamaru behind to face their pursuers alone. Kakashi's words after the bell test rang in her mind.

Those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash.

"Should we really have left him?" She asked Naruto as they sped through the trees, following Pakkun.

"He'll be fine!" Naruto's scowl was determined. "You heard him. He'll stop them and catch up."

Sakura had heard him. She'd also heard him when he'd said that the decoy in these situations usually died.

But Sasuke was also facing the enemy alone, up ahead. It was a choice between the two of them, and when she'd been prompted, she hadn't even hesitated.

Maybe she would hate herself later, when Shikamaru was confirmed to be among the dead. But if the choice was between Shikamaru or Sasuke, then there really was no choice at all, was there?

Sasuke dodged the explosions one after the other, gritting his teeth as safe purchase became unsafe, feeling bursts of heat and pressure erupt one after the other around him. Razor sharp wires forced him to twist and tumble through the air as he leapt from tree to tree, until he finally found a clear spot on the underside of a bough. It was a good trap.

But not good enough.

Sakura heard the explosions up ahead and tried to tell herself that Sasuke would be fine.

"He won't die that easily." Naruto assured her, voice full of confidence.

She believed him. They pressed on.

The girl with the fan was clearly exhausted. Judging by her state, she'd already completed her exam battle before he'd arrived.

Sasuke didn't waste the time or chakra to take her out—he knocked her on her ass and moved on, chasing her brothers down.

"He's on the move again." Pakkun announced. "And we're not the only ones following him, now."

"More pursuers?" Sakura asked, landing heavily on a branch and pushing off. Her legs were beginning to ache, but she had to keep going. "Or is it an ally?"

"I don't know." Pakkun sniffed the air again. "Whatever it is, it isn't human."

"Not human?" Naruto demanded. "Then what is it?"

"I don't know. But it's close to him."

"Naruto, we have to hurry!"

"Right!"

The roof atop the Hokage's seat looked to be overgrown with trees. Given that the only shinobi in living history who was able to accomplish such a feat with jutsu was long dead, Kakashi had a bad feeling.

Orochimaru was up there. And if he had access to mokuton, Kakashi didn't want to know what other surprises he had up his sleeve.

He was down in the arena now, fending off a trio of suna-nin that were attempting to cross to get to the spectators. In the stands, where enemy numbers had been culled, others were waking the genin and civilians to evacuate to nearby shelters. People were starting to scream as explosions continued in the distance.

He hoped his kids were okay.

He ducked beneath a kunai swing, coming up with one of his own. The woman's blood sprayed over his mask when he caught her in the neck on an upward thrust, and she went down. One of her companions gave a wordless battle cry and charged. Kakashi spun around to avoid his swing and embedded a thrown kunai in his thigh, severing the femoral artery. He would bleed to death in minutes.

"Twenty-eight."

Shino had been a surprise, but if he wanted to deal with the decoy, Sasuke wasn't going to complain.

He kept up his pursuit, leaving the freak in face paint to the other boy. They didn't have much of a head start.

"We have to avoid combat zones!" Sakura wanted to shake Naruto, and probably would have if he'd been within arm's reach. "We don't know what will happen if we get close. We might get drawn into a fight even if we don't want to!"

"So?" Typical Naruto, she thought exasperatedly. He never used his head.

"Our mission is to find Sasuke and take cover." Pakkun reminded the blonde. "Not to get involved in other people's fights. Come on. We're going this way." He leapt off to the side.

Sakura followed him without protest. A moment later, she heard Naruto crashing through the trees behind her.

Sakura prayed to whatever gods might be listening that Sasuke would be okay.

Just, please, let us catch up soon!

I believe the original plan was to have Shukaku appear this chapter? I honestly don't remember. This has been sitting half completed in my documents for ages.

Apologies for all the jumping around. Trying to convey that things are happening all at the same time is a little difficult in text. I tried to skip as much as possible to cut down on the rehashing. I think we covered, like, 5 episodes of the anime or something?