Sixteen

Sakura woke up to the feeling of cool wind brushing against her forehead. She opened her eyes to the sight of Kiba laying beside her, on his stomach his arms by his sides and his fists clenched. His headband was around his neck, and the backs of his knees were bloody.

With a throbbing pain in her legs, Sakura pushed herself into a seating position, and stretched her arms up above her head in tiredness. Around were was fallen trees, mounts of dirt, and not too far from her, was Lisa, struggling into a seating position.

Lisa sat, with her back against a tree, mud was in between her fingernails, and she was pushing her hair away from her eyes. Laying, in what Sakura presumed to be an unconscious state was Akira, with his head pressed down into her lap. Lisa was brushing his hair away from his eyes, and pressing her lips to his forehead, somewhat desperately. In a meek voice she called out his name, doing so until her lips grew tired.

Sakura didn't quite know what the best course of action was. She glanced down upon her legs, which were marred with several scratches, and one big wound that ran from the back of her thigh to the front of her ankle. Her skin had been split largely, and a trail of thick blood was mixing into the dirt beneath her, colouring it red. Dirt was seeping into the wound, and she was growing worried, and the pain was increasing.

She was quite the medical ninja, so it wasn't like healing herself was impossible. The problems were, she didn't know whether to help herself or Kiba out first. Kiba was stronger, and he had a better chance of protecting them both than she ever would. The second problem was the chance of Lisa seeing her alive. She wasn't sure if the girl knew, but she was certain that if she did it would only be a moment before Lisa would come over ready to finish what Akira had started.

Sakura could still remember it. Akira had completely changed, from a happy-go-lucky man to some sort of lightning monster. The way the light had covered and shaded his skin, the way his muscles had grown, how his body had taken a larger, rockier form. He'd smashed his fists to the ground, and as the noise from the blow had reached her ears, so had the pain.

The forest had split, several trees had fallen and had swatted them, sand had flew into their eyes, and rocks had pelted them hard in the stomach. Sakura had made sure to grab onto Kiba's leg in attempt to stay close to him, but in doing so she'd dragged him into an even worse situation. He would have gotten away with possibly a broken leg, but now he was bleeding, gross and most likely dying.

The problem with Akira's move, whatever he had done, not only had it hurt Sakura and Kiba, but it had hurt him. Sakura had heard of people with abilities such as his. With such great lightning power, so what he had done hadn't been a horrible shock, just not expected from him. The one thing she did know, was that if what he had done had hurt himself, he hadn't been very well educated in that realm of his abilities. He had probably just learnt the basics. And now he was paying the price.

Sakura wasn't quite sure why this man would endanger himself. As a shinobi, she, and everyone she knew had been taught that although comrades are important, it is more important to finish the mission. Also, that it is more important to preserve your own life rather than a friend's. Although, Sakura had came to the conclusion, that Akira and Lisa most like were more than friends.

The way he had looked at her, when she'd planned the moves with the kunai. It had been terrifying, but a look she had recognized It was the look people gave someone when they were endangering their loved ones. Aside from that, he had been shooting her adoring glances the whole fight. He'd been staring at her with those big brown, puppy dog eyes of his. And now he was probably dead.

Kiba rolled over, slowly and quietly trying not to make any noise. He tapped Sakura on the leg. The movement was soft, but Sakura had a feeling it wasn't him being gentle, but rather too weak to strongly touch her. His dark eyes, almost black, with flashes of burgundy stared up at her face, vulnerable and sad. "Sakura we have to get out of here."

He had whispered, giving Sakura the impression he thought they should try to be as quiet as possible. She looked down at him, with pity, "Kiba-"

"While she's looking after her boyfriend. We should go when she's grieving his loss. We should go now."

Lisa didn't seem to be moving anytime soon. She was cradling her arms around Akira's shoulders. Her hands were grabbing onto his, and her fingers were running lines down his arms. She bent down again to kiss him on the forehead, and as she did so she started to cry. She cried even harder the moment she pressed her head upon his heart. "No."

Without another word Sakura focused her chalkra into her palms and pressed her hands against the wounds on Kiba's chest. Ever so quietly she'd zipped down his coat, reached her hands up his thin grey shirt, and pressed her hands firmly against his skin. She could see that it hurt, by the way he'd bit down on his lip, and pressed his eyes shut in order to shut out the pain.

Sakura moved cut from cut, until for the most part he was healed. She didn't want to waste time on minor marks on his legs, she herself knew that her own larger wounds were more important. With quick, steady hands she focused all her strength on the largest of her cuts. She had just finished it up, and had begun working on her arms when Lisa had snapped her head up from Akira, and locked her cold, dead eyes on them both.

Kiba stood up, "we have to run."

"We can't run! We have to fight!"

"Look Sakura! I'm not one to run away from a fight either but if that girl's boyfriend could make trees fall, and expand like some sort of monster in a horror movie, we don't wanna know what she could do! Plus, to be honest, I'm not feeling very strong right now. Akamaru isn't with me, and without him helping I'm limited to begin with."

Sakura furrowed her eyebrows as she stood up with him. "Akamaru's sick right? Why were you picked to go onto this mission if you can't even fight properly."

"Who knows why Lady Tsunade does anything, or why she picks anything. All I know is, that Lisa chick looks pissed, and we gotta go!"

The two of them broke into a run as soon as they could, but Lisa was fast on her feet. For every five steps they took it was as if she took ten. For every small jump they did, it was as if she'd taken a giant leap. All Sakura knew was that Lisa was following them, that they were being tailed, and that they had to hurry.