Chapter 3

Sakura cautiously lifted her right hand to put one of the four keys dangling at the heavy metal ring in the lock. It matched! But as soon as she tried to move it she was disappointed.

The rusty piece of iron didn't move an inch. "Okay keep cool" Sakura whispered to herself "you still have got two keys and one of them will definitely open this damn lock!"

She quickly switched the mismatching key with a similar looking one. Again it slid into the small hole without any problems.

When she tried to turn it to the left side it actually worked. The lock croaked under her hand as she slowly opened the iron door and cautiously looked inside of the cell.

It seemed to be identical to hers but she wasn't able to see anyone. So Sai and Neji aren't here she thought disappointed. To make sure that she didn't look over one of her friends she stepped inside the cell and moved to the opposite wall to check the dark corners she wasn't able to see through

But as soon as the door made a clicking sound, showing that the lock was closed again she felt a figure creeping behind her back. Before she was able to turn around a dirty hand had already found a place at her throat. "Give me your key or I will kill you" threatened a weak, but determined voice. A voice she was very familiar with. "Sai!" she shouted but quickly lowered her voice again. "It's you? How are you? What happened to you?" She felt the pressure at her throat immediately vanishing. "Ugly? It's you?" Sai asked confused. "But how did you get the key?"

Sakura, having turned around to face her friend, smiled and answered:" Well I did the same thing you wanted to do right now but my attempt was actually a bit more successful."

Sai chuckled" Yeah seems like that".

Sakura grinned back at the pale boy standing in front of her.

She would have never imagined that she would get along with him so well after all the bickering and arguing their relationship had started with.

It had all begun with this picture he painted.

Flashback

Sakura let drift herself lazily in the warm water of the lake she discovered weeks ago. It was quite a long way to reach it but it was worth every drop of sweat she gave away on her way to this place.

It was wonderful. All around her were beautiful plants blooming in this warm summer day and animals like rabbits came here regularly to drink the clean water from the small lake.

It really was a harmonious end of a tiring training day. She dipped under water for the last times that day and then slowly emerged brushing her middle long hair out of her face.

As soon as she had left the warm water she felt cold in the evening breeze. Sakura quickly reached out for her towel which was securely positioned on a thick branch.

After she had dried herself she quickly put on her stinking training clothes.

She turned up her nose. She obviously had sweated quite much today.

Shrugging her shoulders she started to make her way towards the small path she had created during her numerous visits.

But suddenly she heard a weak noise coming from a few bushed. Judging from the volume it was neither a rabbit nor a grown-up wolf.

It was definitely a human. Turning red from the image of an old geezer sitting behind these bushes, watching her swim while his nose was a waterfall of blood she created a shadow clone that stood at the place she had been currently before.

Sakura quickly vanished and appeared only meters behind the human form she could clearly see now.

Rushing at this person with a very unlady-like scream she immediately pinned him to the ground only to look at the face of her team mate. "Sai?" she asked dumbly. Said boy turned up his nose. "Ugly you are stinking. Could you please get up?".

Sakura now totally red again answered angrily: "So you watched me while I took a bath? Hentai!" shouting the last word she gave him a slap on the face.

"What are you talking about? I didn't watch you you idiot. I painted the clearing like I do nearly every day since I came to Konoha. I discovered this lake way before you did so get up already!" Sai all but shouted.

Sakura now totally embarrassed slowly stood up again. "I'm sorry I didn't know-"Sakura started to apologize but was soon interrupted by Sai"It's okay. Let's just forget 'bout that"

Hesitantly the girl started to nod.

Feeling an uncomfortable silence occurring Sakura started to talk to him again "What exactly did you paint?" Sai after examining her face for a short time answered" I can show it to you if you are really interested."

"Sure" Sakura said cheerfully.

The dark haired artist bowed down and lifted a small worn out sketch book up, leafed through it and stopped when he saw she picture he had painted today.

"Here." he plainly said. She quickly grabbed the small book and started to examine the beautiful picture of the clearing. "Wow!" she breathed "it's perfect"

Sakura was too caught up to notice the small blush forming at the cheeks of her team mate.

"You can have it if you want. I don't know what to do with it at all. "He nonchalantly said.

"Really?! Oh thank you so much!" she happily said moments before she gave him a big hug.

"What are you doing ugly? You are totally stinking so stop it!" the pale boy chukeled, a smile forming at his thin lips.

End Flashback

Remembering the peaceful days in Konoha she let a small sight slip out. Sai looked at her quizzical but she just shook her head.

"Do you know what happened to Neji?" Sakura hesitantly asked. She was clearly afraid of the answer.

"No. The last thing I remember is fighting TenTen, Naruto and Lee. When I dodged a few weapons thrown by TenTen I saw a dark figure arriving at the battle field. I looked his way and saw something crimson in his face. Then everything went black." Sai explained.

"What happened to you? I thought you were able to escape?"

Sakura let herself sink down to the ground closely followed by Sai and started to tell him what happened after she had left the training field.

"So we have to find Neji and escape from this place!" She finished her story.

"Alright, let's go!" Sai agreed immediately.

They got up again and crept to the door, slowly opening it with the key. But they weren't able to prevent the same croaking sound it had caused by Sakura's entry to occur again.

As soon as they had closed the door and safely locked it they made their way towards the left side. Stopping every few meters to listen to imagined sounds only to realize that nobody except for them was down here they soon reached another door.

Cautiously trying to open it with one of the two remaining keys Sakura silently prayed for Neji to be in there. Even thought the key opened the door without any problems they were soon disappointed. The cell was empty except for a small broken chair lying in one of the dark corners.

Sakura hurriedly inspected it and found a few iron nails which could maybe be used as some sort of weapon.

She cautiously removed them and put them back in her empty weapon pouch- Itachi had emptied it of course- before she walked outside of the cell and they moved on towards the door at the opposite side.

If Neji wasn't inside of this damn cell their whole plan of escaping would be screwed up.