Author's notes: Chapter fifteen YAAAY!!! Getting closer . I have to admit that I definately won't finish the story today coz well...school starts tomorrow and things are going to get slow from then on, so if I update ages from the last one I put on then I am really sorry. Still, I don't want to end this story so soon because of my educational needs; I can still do homework and work on my story at the same time XD. But yeah, I'll try to pitch in whenever I can and get the story done asap. Thanks again for reviewing on this story, love you guys for it, and hope you like this chapter; the title is a bit weird but I think it should make sense once you read through it properly. Enjoy .
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: LOST IN FAITH
Kakashi sighed, folding his arms over his chest and made himself comfortable on the bed he slept on earlier, "Sakura-chan," he started, quite seriously.
"Hm?" Sakura now had full attention to her former teacher, though still rubbing her wrist from when Kakashi had unintentionally held them a bit too tight.
"Why do you still call me by 'sensei'?" Kakashi asked, now far away from the serious act and more into curiosity and frustration.
Sakura shrugged, "I don't know, I'm just use to calling you sensei that I forget that I'm not your student anymore," she raised an eyebrow, waiting for Kakashi to say something else.
"Why do you worry about that so much?" Sakura continued, not having the patience to wait.
Kakashi sighed, looking a bit worried and above all, aggravated, "well it…it uhh…" he trailed off, trying to remember the reason for the killer of a question, why? Kakashi finally found his expression, "it makes me seem old," he despised that word 'old', it made it seem like he wasn't capable of doing anything anymore when people called him 'old'.
Sakura just laughed loudly, unable to catch Kakashi's honesty and seriousness. When she finally gained control of her mirth, she said, "but that doesn't mean you are old; you're only in your early thirties, that's not old at all," she gave Kakashi a good pat on the back and smiled widely.
Kakashi looked over to the smiling medic and grinned back, "I guess you're right," he sighed, his eye arching up to a smile.
"But, I do have an idea for you to prove that you aren't old," Sakura started suggestively, grinning still.
Kakashi blinked twice, allowing Sakura the time to talk, "oh yeah, and what would your 'brilliant' idea be?" he asked, ogling the medic suspiciously.
"A sparring session to pass the time?" Sakura opted.
"A fight? With you?" Kakashi rose an eyebrow, not really catching the real deal here.
Sakura nodded with a smile, "yeah, I haven't been able to fight since Naruto died so why not spar with you. You know, just a challenge to see how strong we've become over the years we've known each other," she exclaimed enthusiastically.
Kakashi thought for a moment before finally coming to a decision, "you're on. Lets go," Kakashi declared, leaping to his feet and dashing out the door.
Sakura was surprised, 'never seen Kakashi so fervent before, well…not since Naruto gave him the latest Icha Icha volume after his three year absence,' she said inwardly, with Inner Sakura punching the air in victory, 'Cha! Cha! Victory is ours,' she whooped in utter determination. Sakura grinned again and made her way out the bedroom and outside to meet Kakashi.
Right before making any further movements out in the open areas of the Tree village, Sakura had to keep in mind about the last time she frolicked about on the unsteady patches of walkable ground; falling through several branches as she went was not the way to be welcomed to the village. Cautiously, Sakura stepped easily on the strong areas of the branches and leaf filled patches where holes would await to be fallen through.
"This way Sakura-chan, there's a small area where we can train," Kakashi waved his arm lazily in the direction where he was heading and Sakura soon followed him towards the training area.
"Come on, I'm sure you can do better than that," Kakashi exclaimed, hopping from one branch to the next.
Sakura strained herself to push harder to keep up the elite Jounin, but they've been at it for over two hours straight, "I can do better," she shouted back, finally concentrating her chakra to her feet and speeding up to the silver haired Copy Nin.
Kakashi knew this would make Sakura determined as well as agitated. He chuckled to himself and hopped to the next tree limb, being careful not to fall or it would've been a long way down.
The silver haired Jounin finally slowed down enough for Sakura to catch up to him. With all the blood pumping through her veins and making things more exciting for her, Sakura didn't stop or slow down. In fact, Sakura was trying to speed up with her fists glowing in her light blue chakra colour and aimed right for Kakashi's head.
With almost the full intent to actually kill her former teacher, Sakura jumped up from her branch, bounced off from a tree's body and pressed her weight towards Kakashi.
"Uhh, Sakura-chan…" Kakashi warned, only barely able to see Sakura's fighting style up close. A bit too close for him to nearly get killed.
Swiftly, Kakashi ducked. It felt very slow as Sakura's fist went over Kakashi's head, nicking his silver mane by a small portion. Not only that, but the rest of Sakura was still going for him. Kakashi shifted his entire body down and away and let Sakura fly right over him; basically watching everything go over with detail.
Sakura knew Kakashi would've tried something like that and swung her legs at him. Expertly though, Kakashi blocked it and pushed it out of the way of his reach, causing Sakura to tumble down. But Sakura was a medic ninja for Kami's sake and Sakura wasn't about to give up that easily.
Sakura allowed herself to fall momentarily enough so her timing would be just right, and with luck, Kakashi wouldn't do anything to prevent her from saving herself. Sakura briskly latched her hand firmly on a branch and using her chakra, she spun herself back up the tree and landed safely on another branch not too far from Kakashi.
Both panting from their little sparring session, Sakura was trying to figure out what Kakashi was thinking; he had been acting kind of strange since they headed for the trees to train together. It must've been the excitement driving through the Jounin's veins.
"That was pretty good," Kakashi praised with a light grin on his masked face.
Sakura returned to her fighting stance and awaited Kakashi's next move. Looking down from the branch she was standing on, she hadn't really noticed how high they actually were until now.
"Now it's my turn," Kakashi opposed seriously, noting the obvious smirk on Sakura's face.
Kakashi leapt from his branch and headed straight for Sakura with instinct to knock his former student out; though he didn't really want to plan on that to happen. Pushing those thoughts aside for the time being, Kakashi attempted a heavy kick in the gut but Sakura saw it coming and once the older Jounin's leg had come in contact with Sakura's body, she pushed off from it and back she went.
Now on the verge on hitting a tree limb with the back of her head, Sakura ducked in all her hopes of not injuring herself, even though she was a medic and could easily heal herself, but a blow to the back of her head would most certainly knock her unconscious.
She dodged it, making sure her landing would be secure, Sakura looked back to shock. Sakura perceived the weak spot of the tree she was about to land on and knew it would end bad. It all desperation, Sakura had to avoid landing on that spot, but she had dropped her guard, allowing Kakashi to finally get her.
"Stay focused Sakura," Kakashi warned, appearing right in front of her and his arm pulled back, ready to strike at any second.
Sakura held her breath at the close proximity between her and the older Jounin and braced herself for impact with either the trees or Kakashi's fist. Alas, Kakashi got her first, punching her right in the gut and sent her flying. Sakura felt her muscles tense, temporarily immobilising her movements until she finally gained full control again.
Once Sakura could move again, she knew she'd get herself injured one way or the other. With that, Sakura twisted her body around so that her legs would be aiming downwards at the ground.
With barely any other way to make this any more enjoyable, Kakashi moved his forehead protector to reveal his Sharingan eye and gave Sakura a rightful smirk, "now lets get this battle really started," he proclaimed, kneeling to his fighting stance.
Sakura panted heavily to catch her breath and observed the situation: Kakashi had his Sharingan activated and there were tree branches sticking out in all directions and above all, they were up in an extremely high distance from the ground; falling would be a bad idea right now.
"Bring it," Sakura snapped, glaring seriously at the Jounin not too far from where she stood.
With that said, Kakashi leapt from his branch and made a handsign, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu," he announced, with multiple shadow clones appearing around him. Sakura wasn't intimidated one bit, but she had to keep an eye out for what Kakashi had in store for her.
There were at least ten Kakashi clones now- including Kakashi himself- and all ten of them jumped up and threw several shurikans and kunai knives at the pink haired Jounin. It was a direct hit. Sakura was blown back by the force of the weapons that hit her and blood ran from her mouth as she gasped.
Then, 'poof', Sakura turned into a log with the kunais and shurikans stabbed into it, "the Substitution Jutsu?" Kakashi grunted irritably and landed on another branch along with his shadow clones.
One by one, Kakashi's clones were disappearing with the sounds of kunais hitting the tree branches. Looking back, Kakashi only had two clones left; Sakura was definitely up to something and was also heading in the right direction with it too.
'There you are,' Kakashi thought, noticing a certain pink shade within the trees from the corner of his eye.
Stealthily he threw kunai knives in Sakura's direction, hearing the rustling sounds of the knives cutting its way towards Sakura and the sound of the medic scurrying to get away. Sakura winced, not really paying attention to what made such a painful throb in her left shoulder and payed better attention to what her former sensei could be doing.
Out of no where, Sakura lunged, appearing in front of Kakashi with a serious smirk on her exhausted face. Charging at the full intention of destroying the man, Sakura drew her attack. Once again, time felt slow; Kakashi watched as he ducked to get out of Sakura's blade she held in her hand.
Sakura was quick this time; Kakashi only just managed to avoid the kunai that was aimed for his neck to finally end the battle without killing him, but nicked the fabric of his headband and cut a small lock of his silver hair.
Kakashi moved as quick as he could to get out of Sakura's way, and he did it so fast that his headband had slid off his forehead as he sped his way to another branch. Checking quickly where his forehead protector could be, Kakashi found Sakura holding it in slight curiosity.
He narrowed his vision, watching Sakura's every movement while he tried to come up with an easy way to end the battle without truly hurting his former student, "last round?" Kakashi suggested, getting tired and wanting to rest for a while.
"Okay then," Sakura replied, returning to her fighting stance with Kitsune finally joining her on her shoulder.
With the sun now setting, the final round got under way; each blow and clash with their weapons and hand-to-hand combat forced both Sakura and Kakashi to push themselves further to win. Kakashi used up most of his chakra and so did Sakura; they were both getting tired and worn out. Kuro and Kitsune on the other hand had used up their energy trying to stay on their masters' shoulders without flying off or getting knocked off.
Still holding Kakashi's headband, Sakura swung her elbow at the older Jounin but was blocked, receiving a kick not too hard in the gut. Again, Sakura pushed off from Kakashi's leg and sent herself airborne backwards in hopes of landing safely and away from her former teacher.
Sakura flipped backwards, aiming her landing spot on a collection of piled branches overlapping with leaves covering the possible gaps and drops and made sure Kitsune wouldn't fall off her shoulder. Shock crawled its way over Sakura's face as she noticed trouble as she was landing on the closest branches that were in reach.
Unfortunately, Sakura's landing precautions had predicted wrong and the branches she landed on shattered under her feet, causing her to fall, "aaah!" she screeched, reaching to her right shoulder where Kitsune clung in fear.
"Sakura-chan!" Kakashi shouted, quickly making his way to the hole from where Sakura fell.
All he could see was the broken branches and the sounds of them snapping as the birds below fled from their resting places and headed up to the skies. Now it was silent; Kakashi snapped his gaze at anything that would remotely look like his former pink haired student.
"Sakura!" he tried again, but alas there was no response.
Having given up waiting for Sakura's voice to call to him, Kakashi carefully made his way down; knowing the amount of chakra he had left wasn't enough to hold him to a tree for much longer. He slowly made his way down the path of snapped branches until he couldn't tell what was broken compared to the thick growth of trees around him.
Kakashi was led deeper into the forest without knowing himself where he was going, just as long as he could find Sakura unharmed and safe.
The sounds of insects buzzing around and the throbbing pain in her shoulder and leg, caused her to moan uncomfortably. She felt something nudge her face, whining worriedly in hopes of Sakura to respond.
Slowly, Sakura opened her eyes to find herself staring at a pile of undergrowth and a bundle of brown fuzz, "…K-…Kitsune…?" she hoped, trying to find the strength to get up from her painful position.
Groaning again, Sakura tried to find her voice, wondering why she found it so difficult to speak in the first place. Slowly, Sakura forced her sore muscles to finally move and shook her head lightly to get a better view on her surroundings.
Sakura sat up, finding the world spinning at sight. What happened to her? All Sakura could remember was falling through an unexpected and hidden drop and remembered seeing Kitsune on her shoulder freaked out and then…nothing. She must've blacked out or hit her head on something hard because her head was pounding.
Finally realising where she really was, all she could think of was, "Kakashi?" she looked around, noting that the remaining sunlight was almost gone and night was definitely close, "how long have I been out for?" she wondered, rubbing her temples frustratingly.
Kitsune, who was sitting on a branch with worried eyes, meowed to get the pink haired medic's attention. Sakura looked up at the brown fox to find Kitsune glaring at her seriously with worry, "it's okay Kitsune, I'll be fine," she reassured, glancing at her left shoulder where a cut was exposed with dried and still running blood on her arm.
She felt it sting and winced again. Carefully, Sakura reached her hand over the deep cut and focused her chakra into her arm to heal it, but for some reason she wasn't able to heal her arm.
"Damn it!" she cursed, sighing audibly.
Sakura reached up to her surroundings and gripped onto a branch to pull her up. Warily, Sakura got to her feet and looked around for any signs of life or Kakashi for that matter. She felt her whole body ache, noting that she must've overextended her use of chakra again. But putting those worries aside for the time being, Sakura perceived something obvious on her brown fox friend; she wasn't purring, nor was she happy like she always was, but Sakura couldn't blame the poor fox, she had been out and about and now she's scruffy with dirt and twigs in her fur, not to mention the injured paw.
"Kitsune! You're hurt," Sakura exclaimed, pointing at the clear obvious.
Kitsune whined, frowning deeply as Sakura patted her gently on the head. Sakura knelt down on her knees and took a closer look at the injury Kitsune must've received as they fell to the bottom of the forest.
Sakura grinned at Kitsune, reassuring her that everything would be alright eventually, "let me try something," she suggested, knowing she wouldn't get anything out of it other than cuddles from her friendly fox.
Desperately, Sakura tried to collect as much chakra to her hand as possible and wrapped her hand softly around Kitsune's injured paw. Assessing the problem Kitsune had to deal with in the past how long, Kitsune had a sprained paw, along with a few scratches. The real problem in this situation was whether or not Sakura had enough chakra to heal her fox's injury.
Slowly but surely, it was working; Sakura's chakra was mending the ligaments in the right places and the bones back in place and removing the painful tension in Kitsune's leg, "there we go…" Sakura flinched at the amount of strain she put on herself after using up the remainder of her chakra reserves.
Kitsune meowed again, still not purring or looking the slightest bit happier. Sakura finally apprehend Kitsune wasn't upset about her injured leg, but more worried about Sakura's safety than her own. Gently, Kitsune hopped down from the branch and climbed up on Sakura's right shoulder, brushing her fluffy face against Sakura's to show her care.
"Lets go find Kakashi and Kuro before it gets darker," Sakura announced, patting Kitsune briefly and looking at her hand with Kakashi's headband in a tight grip.
Sighing again, Sakura started her search for Kakashi, first trying to find her way out of the dense fart of the forest where the tree branches were still sticking out in every direction. As Sakura got to a more level part of the woods without getting hurt, she realised that there was no sound in the forest at all, except for her own feet disturbing the strange peace within the trees.
Sakura had to frame it up that she couldn't run, walk up trees and at the very least stay awake; Sakura was tired and she needed to rest, but she couldn't waste time, she had to find Kakashi before someone else would. Kitsune constantly kept a close watch on her master- making sure she wouldn't head into danger without knowing it. Sakura was weak now, and vulnerable; she could barely keep her guard up.
After about an hour of aimless walking, Sakura sat down to try and tend to her small injuries. Reaching into her back pouch, Sakura pulled out a small flask of water she always carried around and stared at it for a moment or two, wondering what she could use it on.
Feeling the burning sensation in her shoulder again, Sakura made up her mind. She set Kakashi's headband down with Kitsune and braced herself for the pain she was about to receive. Sakura tipped the water onto her arm to wash out the dirt and blood, hissing at the pain as the now red water ran down her arm. She set the flask down and scooped the running water on her free hand and gently rubbed her cut with the water she had collected.
Again, Sakura poured some more water on her arm to clean off the excess blood and shook the blooded water from her fingers. Sakura looked around for anything she could use to dry her arm without getting it filthy. Having no other option available, Sakura tor a strip from her red and white top and dried her arm, dabbing the now bundled fabric on her cut, staining it with the dried blood and water.
Now that she was satisfied with her rough work and attempts to stop her arm from getting infected, Sakura disposed of the strip of fabric after wiping down the rest of the dirt and scratches on her body.
Sakura gets to her feet, still feeling rather dizzy from her lack of chakra in her body, "lets go Kitsune," she said, picking up the brown fox and setting her on the medic's shoulder.
By now, the last of the sunlight was completely gone and only darkness lingered with the dawning of a near full moon in the sky, but the trees were too thick for her to see it shine. Still in search of her former teacher, Sakura wanted to stop again and sleep, but something made her keep going. Kitsune looked around the forest suspiciously; she could smell something and was out of place and she decided to keep a look out.
Sniffing audibly, Sakura stopped to look at what Kitsune was doing, "what's the matter Kitsune, smell something?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. Kitsune ignored her master's question and jumped down from her shoulder and walked off ahead of her.
"Kitsune, where are you going?" Sakura called, following her through the trees without losing her only value of company.
Kitsune stopped and looked back at Sakura, who was clearly not in the state of following anyone at this point. She meowed, trying to tell Sakura something and started to walk off again on her own. Sakura was getting impatient with Kitsune's strange behaviour and followed her again, "Kitsune please, what's going on?" Kitsune meowed in encouragement and climbed up a tree, looking back only once to get Sakura to follow her.
Sakura sighed in irritation and climbed up the tree without the use of her chakra. Sakura was now in a tight position; she had an injured shoulder and Kakashi's headband in her other hand with both feet balanced on short and stubby branches. Carefully, Sakura tied Kakashi's headband around her neck and resumed climbing up the massive tree.
With one or two slips, Sakura managed to climb her way to a sturdy limb where Kitsune was waiting, "please don't strain me Kitsune, I'm already tired and worn out," she muttered jadedly, rubbing her eyes and standing up straight with a long frown growing across her face.
"Great, more climbing," she sighed, slouching in near defeat.
Kitsune meowed in warning. Sakura knelt down in front of Kitsune and placed a hand on her head, patting her gently. Before getting up, she felt something sinister within Kitsune's body. Sakura felt an enormous amount of chakra running within Kitsune's tiny body and it seemed slightly abnormal for Kitsune to have that kind of chakra.
Kitsune glared at Sakura seriously and placed her paw over Sakura's hand and closed her eyes. Sakura suddenly felt something tingle its way up Sakura's arm and through her entire system; Kitsune was donating Sakura her chakra so she could keep her strength up.
"Kitsune…you're chakra is…" Sakura trailed off at the pride she felt towards her fox friend.
Kitsune opened her green eyes and let Sakura take her hand back. Feeling the strength she needed at this point, she was thankful, yet completely taken aback from what Kitsune had given her.
Sakura clenched her fists in determination and felt her body slightly stronger than before. One thing Sakura had to ensure was that she wouldn't use it to heal the cut on her arm; that would have to wait until she found Kakashi and rested up to regain her own chakra and health.
With nothing more to lose, Sakura adjusted the headband that was nicely tied around her neck and leapt to the next branch. Kitsune led the way and Sakura closely kept up with her. As they went, the moon was slowly making its appearance in the dark sky and gave Sakura a bit more light to see.
"Okay Kitsune, which way," Sakura posed, waiting for Kitsune to make the decisions.
Kitsune meowed, softly and sneezed, hopping to another tree limb and continued to search. Sakura had no complaints with this now that she had chakra and the determination to persist until she had found what she was looking for.
'Naruto…if only you were here to help; you'd know what to do,' Sakura said inwardly, frowning momentarily before shaking the bad memories from her head.
Naturally, Sakura would keel over and give up, but something in her gut told her to never give up until you have accomplished what you are fighting for. Sakura did remember Naruto mention something like that constantly when they were training together, but it never really occurred to her that the advice she was getting was actually helping her.
Author's notes: Yeah, the injury Sakura got from the kunai Kakashi threw at her was a bit of a sob thing, but in a story like this, injuries have to happen; not to mention Sakura falling to the bottom of the forest and waking up at night. In this chapter, I made Sakura seem like she is actually useful and strong enough to do something about the situation she was caught in. Anyway, thanks for reviewing on the last chapter, I hope you liked this chapter, now reviews again please