Chapter 12: Jishinkaminarikajioyaji (Earthquakes, Thunder, Fires)

After long hours of soaking in the hot springs, mud baths, and massages, every muscle in Sakura's body felt like jelly as she walked forward. She would feel entirely in bliss if it weren't for the heavy pack on her back and the steep mountain road that was quickly making her build up a sweet. Thankfully the aromatic herbs she had bathed in would cover up the stench of travel at least until they reached their next destination. Early that morning, Raido, Ino, Kakashi, and herself had all departed from the hot spring town. A couple kilometres down the treacherous road north they found a hollow in a tree hidden by genjutsu. From within that hollow Sakura and Ino retrieved the heavy packs of rare medicines that currently tortured their backs.

The kunoichi tried valiantly to make it seem as if the packs did not bother them, but they still solicited a few pitying glances from their jonin protectors. Raido in particular seemed like he would take the pack himself any moment, even though he should not because he was here to stay alert and protect the medics from harm.

Just as Raido was assisting Sakura down a particularly steep incline, an earthquake hit again. The pinkette tilted to the side precariously granting her a stunning view of the wooded ravine to her right. A rough hand snatched her wrist and yanked her back away from the drop making her fall into the steep but soft slope to her right as the earth continued to rumble.

"Arigatou, Raido-san."

Raido answered after checking to see if Ino was fine. She had been on an safer portion of the trail and maintained her footing easily. "It's tough with that pack, isn't it." He was about to offer to carry it for her, but she refused graciously. It was her part of the mission, she was not about to abandon it.

Kakashi stood still. He looked at the trees on the other side of the ravine and noted how they were not shaking. Raising his headband, he used his Sharingan and noticed stray chakra in the stone. Before he could even shout or sign a warning he heard a familiar voice yelp in surprise behind him.

He whirled and immediately saw a black serpentine thing wrapping itself around Sakura's leg. She gasped in disgust as the fluidic form slithered further up her thigh. She tugged forward but instead felt herself lose all footing as she was whipped back into the depths of the ravine.

"No!" Raido shouted, his hand just barely scraping her fingers as she disappeared over the edge.

Silently, Kakashi moved to follow but the cliff face before him erupted into a wall, out of which protruded stone spikes. A mix of mud wall jutsu and stone spear jutsu. All we need, a combo expert. With his Sharingan Kakashi could already tell that he was dealing with at least three enemy chuunin or jounin.

"Shinobi of the Leaf, a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Raido moaned in despair when before them materialised the bespectacled redhead from the hot spring that had so captivated him. "Just my luck."

"Why hello there." she waved, relishing how even though they were now opponents, the scarred ninja could not hide his reddening cheeks.

"What do you want?" Kakashi demanded as he strategically placed himself between Ino and the woman.

"I should think that would be obvious." the redhead grumbled, her hands a blur as she formed a series of hand signs.

Kakashi gritted his teeth behind his mask. He had not seen this one's chakra yet, now he knew there were at least four nin. That would delay him by at least a minute before he could get to Sakura and ensure the safety of the rest of his team. Sakura, don't let me down!

Sakura braced herself as she entered the forest canopy, wiggling out of the way of sharp branches. She spotted an opportune limb and kicked off of it, sending herself tumbling towards a massive, branchless trunk of an ancient cedar. Infusing her feet and hands with chakra she latched onto the broad surface and came to a stop like a fly on a wall. She moved on instinct when she heard a suspicious noise and successfully dodged another black snake. Judging by the residue left by the one on her leg, it was probably some sort of oil based jutsu, and she felt particularly worried by the fumy stench it gave off.

Suddenly a whirl of dark clothing dashed at her. Sakura was engaged in a deadly dance up and down and around the trunk, the ground nowhere in sight below as she desperately attempted to avoid the nin's assault. Unfortunately all she could perceive was a dark blur and each time she dodged the nin's blade would get slightly closer. Finally Sakura figured that she would only succeed in a failing deadlock so she infused her feet with chakra and jumped, plunging towards the yet concealed forest floor. Hoping desperately that she would not regret her action she swung her feet beneath her and a bright blue glow surrounded her extended foot. She felt an odd pain as she released lightning chakra from her toes just before her foot made contact with the dirt.

The earth shattered beneath her as it was torn asunder and created a ripple of massive destruction like she was a bolder thrown into a lake, also sending a geyser like blast of dust and rubble up beyond the distant canopy and columns of lightning connected heaven an earth and bolts of electricity ran along the cracks in the earth. Using only a just a sudden burst of chakra she successfully caused a chain reaction that drew from the static and geothermic energies of the clouds and the ground.

Sore and having sustained a nasty sprain, all Sakura could do was hold her breath and wait for the dust to clear.

Ino shuddered at the booming cacophony that erupted behind her, forcing her to turn around to see. Her eyes widened in shock at the sight of the pillar of dust that shot into the sky. D-did Sakura do that? Then the flashes of lightning blinded her momentarily.

Once her eyes recovered she looked around desperately for an opening, any way that she could hurry to her friend's side and fulfil the mission; protecting the precious substances in their packs. Before her, seven rock clones emerged from the path and stood at ready. All of them mirrored the appearance of a green, portly, shinobi who sported long brown braids that tumbled over his broad shoulders.

Raido materialised beside Ino, drawing his pitch black blade. He gave a stern nod in reassurance that he was still protecting her.

"You are not going anywhere sister, and even if you did make it to pinky, Kai is more than enough for either of you." When the ninja noticed the pained expression on the beautiful blonde's face he frowned. "What's up with you? Are you chewing on a lemon?"

"No, just amazed that there is someone else in the world with as bad a taste in clothes as Might Guy Sensei. And trust me, the braids are completely an abomination."

The shinobi and all his clones looked puzzled at the oddly out of place comment in relation to the situation. He shook his head. "Well… anyway… let's just get on with it."

Suddenly Ino collapsed and screamed. "Landslide!"

Raido's look of confusion only lasted a moment. "Ino, ignore it, it's a genjutsu."

Kakashi glared at the redhead. "Raido, you and Ino deal with braids. I'll take care of her." He opened his sharingan wide.

"Oh I'm so scared." The redhead replied mockingly. A slight smile on her face. "However, I already have you figured out."

The dust began to clear so the dark clad ninja stepped into the crater. He scanned the area but could not see her. He could not even sense her chakra anywhere because her kick to the ground had left a residual electromagnetic field, destroying all attempts to sniff her out the easy way.

Sakura pressed closer into the rock she hid behind. She drew her short katana from her waist and used the reflective surface to see around the corner. Her assailant had his back turned. Struggling up she placed all her weight on her good ankle. She had to quick to catch him off guard. Rushing chakra to her feet she dashed around the corner. She swung her blade at the nin's unprotected back.

At the last moment he spun around and snatched her wrist. "Got you young one!"

He knew!

An oil serpent appeared behind his back and slammed into her body pounding her into the ground. She hit the back of her head and saw stars, and something else; her grandmother's scroll unrolled in the branches above. All the strange lettering had gathered into the centre forming five crescent moons radiating outwards from a black full moon.

Her eyes shown bright verdant green and the world slowed and she became deaf to even the pounding of her own heart. The ninja's blade lowered to her throat to end her life, but to Sakura his hand was almost staying still. She moved chakra to her hand and it sparked as lighting surrounded the tips of her finger.

The dark masked ninja cocked an eyebrow at her sudden change in her eyes. But he ignored it and brought his blade to slice her, but the moment the blade touched her flesh he felt numb sensation over his whole body and could feel her touch, but he was certain the girl had not moved. His eyes rolled back, and he died, unknown to him that his oesophagus, jugular vein, and spinal cord had been severed by raiken. His stiff body tumbled down, covering the kunoichi like a bag of flour.

Sakura's hearing returned just in time to hear the sickening thud of his body falling atop of hers. She tried to move but she was completely drained and so to her terror she was stuck beneath a warm corpse until her friends found her. She bit her tongue to keep from crying or retching in disgust. Still tears rolled down her cheeks in a mixture of fear, relief and revulsion.

"Someone… come…" she breathed.

The redheaded, genjutsu user's face contorted in an expression between agony and surprise. She looked down to see a ball of electricity flaring from a fist sized hole in her chest. The white haired warrior ripped his sparking hand from the woman as she drew her final breath and fell to the ground.

He glanced up at Raido as he cleaned blood from his black blade and Ino rose recovering from her mind switch jutsu.

Raido looked up at Kakashi. "Hey, Ino was able to get in the fourth ninja's mind. Whoever it is, he's hightailing it out of here. Should we pursue?"

Kakashi walked towards the cliff edge, seeming to ignore the scarred nin. "Probably going to get reinforcements." he said aloud to no one in particular then jumped down the cliff into the forest below.

Raido shrugged. "I guess we wait here?"

After some rest, Sakura felt that she finally had enough strength to move the enemy nin's body off of her. Slowly she dragged herself out from under him. When his head fell to the ground and hit a rock she caught herself apologising. I'm sure apologies mean a whole lot to a dead man.

Her body was shaking. She had killed people before, but never before had it felt this… personal. She was face to face with the man, expecting to be killed when all of a sudden the tide turned and she won and watched up close as the man's spirit departed. She looked at the body and the charred hole through his abdomen. She also felt another emotion, empathy. This man was not necessarily even bad, just a ninja under orders, and now someone, somewhere had lost their father, brother, son.

She flopped back against the crater's loose slope.

"Sakura!"

Shuddering in surprise and relief she opened her mouth to speak but her throat was so full of dust the sounds that came out are hardly more than a mumble.

"Sakura? Sakura!"

That's Kakashi! Shouldn't he be able to detect me? Why is he shouting? "I'm here!"

The ground crumbled beside her as a Kakashi landed and stared down at her. "You alright?"

"Besides a sprained ankle I'm fine. How is everyone else."

"Better than you." His eye crinkled pleasantly. He offered a hand to help her up.

"Why couldn't you track me? I mean, it's not typical to go announcing your position."

Kakashi had a ready made answer. "That explosion you made earlier scattered the scents around here and your chakra is everywhere but inside you." And I was impatient to know if you were ok.

Sakura giggled a little as she leaned on his shoulder. "I guess I overdid it a bit."

"I assume you can't just heal your ankle then."

"No."

Kakashi nodded leaning his student against a log and gathered her backpack. He heard a rustling above him and looked up just in time to catch the Haruno scroll as if fell from the tree. "Is this everything?"

"Let me see." After rustling through the bag she nodded in approval and put it on her back.

"Hop on then." Kakashi turned around and knelt down, offering a piggyback.

Seeing no alternative option she clambered on, wrapped her arms over his shoulders as her took hold of her thighs. She turned slightly green when she had a sudden flashback when Guy-sensei had done similarly for Kakashi. For both our sakes, I'll try to forget that thought.

"Ready?"

"Yes." She gripped his jacket tightly as he ran through the forest.

She's lighter than she looks. Kakashi thought absentmindedly, assessing Sakura's frame that was pressed against his back. With all that strength I would think there would be more bulk to her.

"Sakura, I'm going to run diagonally up the cliff face, you'll need to hold one tight."

"Yes."

Come to think of it, this is the first time I've carried her in a long time. She's grown up a lot, not so much in the right places yet though. …pervert… He wondered if he was blushing beneath his mask. Here I thought not reading hentai would be a step up for me. But this whole mission my mind has been more in the gutter than before. First thing I'm doing when we get to the Land of Lightning: Icha Icha Violence! That should take care of the problem. Then again… I thought I detected a hint of pride from Sakura when she noticed I didn't have my nose in Icha Icha… would she be disappointed? I want my students to respect me…

He leapt up on top of the cliff to see Raido and Ino. He felt Sakura slip off and grab his arm for support. It made him feel, proud. Even after she just displayed her capability to handle herself alone, she was still fine with admitting she needed his help. It felt good to be needed, especially by her.

Ino ran forward her face rife with concern. "Sakura, are you ok?"

"Fine, just sprained my ankle."

"If we wait a while I could probably heal it." Ino offered.

Raido shook his head. "No, we don't know how far away those reinforcements might be. We could take turns carrying her."

Sakura was about to reply but Kakashi spoke up before her. "I don't mind, you need to be our rear guard." He was careful to not look Sakura in the eye. The truth was, he enjoyed carrying her, it was an innocent way to be close. This would off him a chance to make up for all the stupid things he said and did that might have hurt her over the past few days.

Seconds later the squad had vanished from the battleground, chakra granting supernatural speed to their flight.

Got the fight done and over with in just one chapter! I feel kind of proud of myself for not dragging that out.

Been a long time since the last update but I can't control the plot bunnies or my own life (college, other priorities).

I hope you all enjoy this though and I do have the ending planned out, so no worries, this is not an endless plot but there is still quite a distance to go. Expect character development next chapter as well as more connection to the manga.