Salvation

Disclaimer; All rights to Naruto belong to Masashi Kishimoto.

Chapter Ten

…..

She had been pushing herself to a limit lately. Spending every waking moment, that she wasn't doing grunt work with her team, training. Her speed was steadily increasing and her abysmal chakra reserves were growing each day. She realized that while she was able to perform her chakra scalpel technique a lot of her ninjutsu had been too high-level for her body, but not all and she only needed a handful at best. Her medical ninjutsu was acceptable but her taijutsu was lacking, her body had grown accustomed to the abuse and while her strength was still monstrous with chakra, without it was average at best.

She was sure she could at least land a single blow on Orochimaru and she only needed one. One to stop the sickness he would implant into Sasuke. She could calm down her training and rest somewhat easy after she'd proven that she could back up her theory. Until then, she would gather all the strongest and most toxic poisons in her arsenal and hope for a miracle.

Though- she already had a trick up her sleeve. Two weeks ago she requested leave to visit her grandparents in Bear Country, which was true that she had relatives in the area- as stated in her personal record, but it was not her intention for leaving the village.

Pulling a yellowing scroll from pack that rested comfortably on the small of her back, she smiled. Ibuse had been her most faithful ally throughout her past life. Tsunade had offered her a contract with her own personal summon, but she had declined. Hearing fables of a poisonous salamander were too interesting to let by.

She laid the long scroll out before her, biting into the tender flesh at the pad of her thumb until beads of red prickled above the skin, she began sloppily writing out the characters of her name before tapping her other fingers into the blood of her thumb and pressing her hand against the musky surface of the scroll, being sure to put as little chakra into the summon as possible- she couldn't have a giant salamander appearing in the outskirts of Konoha.

A small cloud of smoke signaled that the smallest pair of her group- Kotetsu and Kintetsu had appeared. Kotetsu being a white salamander, Kintetsu being the black. They looked up at her with suspicious black eyes.

"Why have you summoned us?" Kotetsu, always the more talkative of the two, asked in a calm tone. Kintetsu was busy cocking his head at the small girl, sizing her up.

The red scarf currently shielding the lower portion of her mouth was tugged down as she smiled warmly at the duo she had missed so much through her imprisonment. "I am Sakura Haruno and I wish to make a contract with you."

"Why should we fight alongside you, girl?" Kintetsu spoke up, his tiny black eyes fierce as the little salamander stood on it's stubby back legs, showing her it's purple spotted belly. She smiled warmly, remembering Kintetsu as the sharper and more calloused of the two.

She scooped a wriggling Kotetsu into her hands, he hissed but made no move to bite her, "Your previous master, Hanzo, has died, has he not?" She questioned, softly rubbing the space between the white salamander's eyes, it had always been his weak spot, the tiny creature cooed and curled closer into her hold,

Kintetsu, while trying not to look envious of his brothers petting, slyly moved forward on his tiny legs. "What of it?"

Sakura smiled as she felt the cool, skaley slick hands of the salamander on her calf as he tried to climb into her lap, failing miserably before she gently picked him up, scratching just under his chin.

"I promise to treat you with respect and not make contracts with any other summons." She bargained, knowing the Salamander's rule of once-loyal-always-loyal. They did not take kindly to their summoner making other contracts.

"We will report to Ibuse." Kotetsu mewled before disappearing in a cloud of smoke, Kintetsu following suit with only the grumbled words of "better not lose our scroll, brat."

She didn't want to recall how achingly hard it was to sneak into Ame, home to the current Akatsuki base, and steal this scroll from Hanzo's tomb. Sighing, she stuffed it into her pouch until the moment she would need it once more.

Unbeknownst to her, two sets of eyes watched her leave the clearing.

"Danna, why do we have to watch this stupid girl?"

"Shut up, Deidara."

…...