"The Bijuu are mythical demon beasts with tails. The sand has had the Ichibi for a long time, that would be Shukaku who's been sealed within Gaara. There are nine in total, and they all have unique characteristics and powers. Each of them has a different number of tails, and are essentially enormous masses of chakra. During the Great Shinobi War each nation tried to obtain them, hoping to turn them into weapons. But their powers are far beyond human understanding. They can't be controlled. I don't know why Akatsuki wants their powers, but it's far too dangerous."
Sakura bit her the inside of her cheek, wanting to tell the older woman off for speaking so blandly about what was going on. For a woman who had so much knowledge, she must know that Naruto had the Kyuubi sealed inside of him.
Sasuke stopped suddenly, and they found themselves in a clearing.
"Sasuke-kun?"
She watched as his fists clench and his body begin to shake.
Her hands grabbed on of his, pulling it to her chest.
"Sasuke-kun!"
A figure appeared from the wind, a figure she hadn't seen in a long time.
"Don't look into his eyes."
Sasuke's words were cold, and distant.
"Sasuke-kun, no!"
"Sasuke, I'm going to warn you once." Naruto's voice was distant too, but he wasn't even looking behind him to see if Sasuke was looking at him or not. "You leave again, and I will beat you senseless. I will break your arms, and legs, just to keep you home."
Sakura wrung her hands together before turning to the older woman with them.
"Chiyo-baasama, please-"
"Child do not tell me to stand back."
Sakura bit her lip, worried over the older woman. Itachi was technically an S class criminal.
When Itachi walked closer, she stepped in front of Sasuke, holding an arm out. Her other hand reached out and forced Naruto next to her by his shirt.
"Sasuke-kun, Naruto, cover me please."
"Sakura-chan-"
Naruto reached out to her but she pulled away. Sasuke then pulled away from her.
"Don't be stupid."
"I'm not being stupid. The Akatsuki wants Naruto. I won't put him in danger. So, I'll attack first!"
She ran at Itachi, not looking at his face, or at least trying not to. He caught her fist in a second, but before she could spin around, something was pulling her back. Getting frustrated by the restricted arm movements, she started to kick.
"Let me go! What the fuck! You coward, fight me!"
While she ranted on she gathered chakra to her feet as silently as she could, hoping he wouldn't detect it.
Suddenly Naruto cried out behind her. Two clones held back Chiyo-baasama, while two more held her. They weren't easy clones to disperse like Naruto's used to be. But when she looked at him, he was staring off into space, eyes glazed over.
He's trapped in a genjutsu.
"Naruto! Snap out of it!"
Looking over she found Sasuke attacking Itachi.
Idiot.
Her heart constricted as she heard him cry out and grab his hair.
"Naruto!"
She started to pull at her arms but quickly stopped before using her right foot to kick to knees out of the second clone, making it disperse. Gathering chakra into her fist, she hit the clone squarely in the chest filling the air with smoke. Sasuke and Itachi were fighting, the only sound was the sound of metal against metal.
Running towards Naruto, she was able to grab his arm before another clone grabbed at her, forcing her back with it's arm around her neck.
"Sasuke-kun! You have to free Naruto!"
When he didn't respond, she grew anxious.
"SASUKE!"
He finally landed beside her, looking annoyed before roughly grabbing Naruto's arm, and pushing a little bit of chakra into his arm before blocking Itachi's oncoming attack.
"Katon, Housenka no Jutsu!"
The clones dispersed and a fireball nicked her arm before she was able to pull Naruto out of the way.
"Katon, Goukakyuu no Jutsu!"
A large fireball rolled through the area. In a moment Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura made a quick plan, leaving Chiyo-baasama out of it.
"Ready?"
"Aa."
"Yosh!"
"Good luck."
She gathered the chakra to her hands and feet, and took off, directly attacking Itachi. When he pushed her away roughly, she heard them a split second before he saw them.
"Chidori!"
"Rasengan!"
Naruto landed beside her, and she caught him before his back hit the tree.
"Katon, Goukakyuu no Jutsu!"
"Sasuke-kun!"
He didn't land anywhere. Which means he was about to be hit.
"Hn."
She about screamed.
How did he get behind me.
Sasuke's breath hit the back of her ear, making her skin rise with goosebumps. Taking a deep breath, she stood up, helping Naruto along the way.
"Let's do this. Can you both?"
"Tch."
"Don't count me out yet Sakura-chan."
A clone appeared beside Naruto and together they started to form a Rasengan but she noticed it was much bigger by the second.
"This is my own technique now."
Sasuke turned to her and nodded, signaling her to go on.
"I'm going."
She dashed out of the trees so fast, it all started to blur around her. Attacking him full on, she gained the upper hand long enough to block the chakra flow to his legs.
At least she tried. Ducking under him and dodging the attack from Naruto and Sasuke she paused. Looking at her hands, she could feel the chakra tingle the finger tips and even see a faint blue glow. As the explosion cleared behind her, she could her a sound of annoyance from Sasuke and a cry of outrage from Naruto.
"Are you okay child?"
"I'm fine."
Standing up she saw what they were annoyed at and nodded.
"I couldn't stop the chakra to his legs. There was no chakra left."
Chiyo-baasama walked over to the body and confirmed what Sakura remembered.
"He's from my village."
"I remember his body amongst the others when we arrived at Sunagakure."
Naruto stomped his foot on the ground and crossed his arms over his chest.
"This is bull shit! What was the point?"
"To buy time."
Sasuke's sharingan deactivated, and he was clearly frustrated.
"Don't doubt yourself Sasuke-kun. It's a forbidden technique that they won't teach in Konoha. We didn't learn about it in school, I read it in a medical text book. It requires a corpse, and a sense of the puppet technique. This clone had in the very least 30% of Itachi's chakra, and he was able to control it from a different location. He could even use genjutsu with it. But he didn't talk much, did he? That would require some of the chakra supply. He obviously didn't want to waste it. It's also why he only stuck to fire technique jutsus. But this wasn't just a delay. They now know our abilities."
Her words hung in the air and Naruto just kicked the dirt angrily.
"So what the hell do we do now?"
"We keep going."
Sasuke began to walk away and Sakura hurried to walk next to him, hands clapped behind her back.
"If they're already using this strong of a technique to delay us, then they must've begun extracting the Bijuu."
Sakura paused but Sasuke kept going. Chiyo-baasama was walking beside Naruto. But as she talked Naruto moved a head next to Sasuke and Sakura fell back to walk with her.
"How do you extract a Bijuu?"
"You need a lot of time, and a powerful sealing technique that can balance out the Bijuu's power. Their vessels, the Jinchuuriki will die."
The gasp escaped her mouth before she could stop it and she immediately went to Naruto and grabbed his hand.
"Naruto, don't worry. We're going to save Gaara."
His eyes snapped to her face and he ripped his hand from hers before walking forward, keeping up with Sasuke. Sakura sighed before following behind.
By dawn Sasuke had stopped much to Naruto's annoyance.
"Why are we stopping?"
"Our pace has slowed. We need to break, sleep, and start again in the morning."
"But-"
"Naruto! Sasuke-kun's right, and he's the mission leader."
Sakura placed a hand on his arm.
xxXXxx
When they decided to sleep it was a struggle to convince Naruto to sleep first. She slept beside him, with Sasuke on first watch. The fire crackle was the only noise heard in the cave. Chiyo-baasama had fallen asleep first, but even though she should, she just couldn't sleep. So instead she just watched Naruto. Their quiet whispers had gotten him to fall asleep eventually with the promise of an early start.
She couldn't blame him, deep down. If it had been him who was captured she would never stop. The realization startled her. She never had siblings, but to feel so strongly of a connection with Naruto was sort of scary to her. But it was nice. As a ninja she put her life on the line everyday, but she would do anything to keep him safe.
"Sakura."
She turned over, slowly blinking. Had she fallen asleep? Sasuke was above her, hand still on her shoulder. She sat up and stretched, and he took her spot.
"Three hours."
With a yawn and a nod, she sat at Sasuke's post. They would sleep very little between the two, while letting Chiyoo-baasama and Naruto rest. She didn't like that Sasuke wouldn't sleep so much either. It wasn't like she did anything while he used a lot of his chakra.
With a smile she just brought her knees up to her chin and rested her hands on them. That was Sasuke though, he refused to stay down for too long.
Even with the seal.
Her throat felt suddenly dry. Grabbing Sasuke's canteen she took a sip.
What can I do for three hours?
Looking down she noticed Sasuke's scribbles in the dirt.
Math problems?
But there were a lot of wipes, as if he erased the answers and how he worked them out. She grinned at the realization he left them for her.
He knows I'm bad at math.
He always bested her at math, all of their years at the academy. Biting her lip she looked at the first of apparently ten equations. By the time she was done, she even double checked, she was annoyed with the Uchiha. Although it did well in passing time it made her frustrated. The sun was peeking at the edge of the horizon, so it was time to get up. Standing up and stretching her legs she woke Sasuke up first. Placing a kiss on his forehead, she chuckled at his frown before moving to Naruto.
She frowned as her shaking did nothing to wake the blonde. Sasuke, who had just woken Chiyoo-baasama up, calmly walked over and used his canteen to pour water on the blonde's face causing an immediate action.
"WHAT THE HELL?"
"You want to save Gaara, don't you?"
Naruto was packed in seconds. Sakura just sighed and grabbed her bag. When they left the cave this new area had trees to travel through, so it made travel much easier. But not too far into their travels, Sasuke had to catch Naruto when he slipped up on his steps.
"Naruto! Quit day dreaming!"
She scolwed at him, but it was out of worry. Once he'll get into a state of mind it wouldn't do them any good. But when his eyes flashed red at her she became startled. It wasn't a blood trait like the Sharingan, no it was the demon's chakra he was tapping into. She had only seen it barely a hand full of times, and it always made her afraid for his own safety.
In seconds Naruto was already leaps a head of them. She heard Sasuke's noise of irritation.
"Go keep up with him, Chiyo-baasama and I are fine at our pace."
He nodded and leapt to catch up with Naruto. Once they were alone, Chiyo-baasama turned to her.
"Why does he care what happens so much to Gaara anyways?"
Sakura didn't know how to take the question at first. Shouldn't Chiyo-baasama be worried just as much?
"He connects with Gaara better than anyone else."
"How's that?"
"He's also a Jinchuuriki."
"What-"
"He has the Kyuubi sealed inside of him."
She watched Chiyo-baasama's face change from curiosity to sadness and pity.
Sakura held back a scowl. Naruto never wanted to be pitied, just accepted.
"Naruto may not care about Sunagakure itself. No matter where they are raised, Jinchuuriki are treated the same. It doesn't matter if he's from Sunagakure or Konoha."
But Sakura let out a chuckle.
"Naruto's dream is to become Hokage, and be recognized for something other that a Jinchuuriki. You can imagine his frustration when he heard of Gaara becoming the Kazekage. At the bottom of his heart Naruto was happy for Gaara."
Finally, after a moment of silence Chiyo-baasama spoke again.
"I've lived a long time. I've watched countless other people, and learned about the different philosophies out there. I came to believe alliances with other villages was just for appearances and did everything I could to protect Sunagakure. I'm the one who performed the technique to bind Gaara to Shukaku. I discussed it at length with his father, the Fourth Kazekage. Everything I've done for the village has ended in heartbreak. And now, an allied country I never trusted and always tried to avoid is the one helping us."
Sakura's emotions had changed through Chiyo-baasama's confession. This small women had knowingly doomed a child to a life of hell.
"Chiyoo-baasama, I mean you no offense when I say this. Once Naruto becomes Hokage, things will forever change. I promise you that. There will be many allies, and no war."
"So you do know of the upcoming war."
"There won't be one, Tsunade-sama won't allow it."
"You see the world to bright girl. I envy your innocence."
xxXXxx
Her feet touched the water, and she smiled upon seeing familiar faces. Neji, TenTen, and Lee were there, along with Sasuke and Naruto.
"We can't figure it out!"
Sakura bit her lip as she stared at the rock. There was a barrier, they confirmed it. But the more she stared at the tag with the 'forbidden' kanji.
"There are four more."
Neji and Sasuke looked at her sharply.
She sighed and explained herself.
"This is a five point seal, the first on is the one we're staring at. Remember? They have to be removed at the same time or it seals itself from us forever."
At the same time Sasuke activated his Sharingan Neji had activated his Byakugan.
"Then we'll be quick to get this over with. Sasuke, we have enough radios with us, what's the plan."
Neji opened his pack and started to hand out wireless radios.
"Lee will take northwest. Neji will take northeast. TenTen will be south southwest. Pukkun, you will take the northwest mountain."
Sakura looked down and indeed the dog was there.
"We'll use the 174 frequency."
Lee, Neji, TenTen, and Pakkun nodded, signaling they were ready.
"Good, now move out."
With a blink of an eye they were gone.
Sasuke waited until they were enough distance away to move. He crouched on the boulder at an awkward angle, right in front of the seal.
"We'll release on my command. After they are removed Sakura will destroy the boulder."
Neji's condisending voice came over the radio.
"Haruno Sakura?"
But TenTen was quick to defend her, she had been a sparing partner of Sakura's at one time after the twins were born.
"Don't doubt her Neji, she's kicked my ass before."
But Sakura's was already riled up. She crossed her arms and began her walk on the water a reasonable distance from the boulder, but in hindsight only maybe six feet from it.
"This is Neji, I'm in place A."
"Got it."
Hearing their voices in her ear was weird, for she hadn't used the radios in over a year.
"TenTen, I'm in place B."
"This is Lee, I'm in place C."
"Pakkun, here at place D."
"Good job you guys. I'm confirming that I'm at point E. Sakura, are you ready?"
She cleared her throat before answering.
"Yes, ready whenever you are."
Gathering the chakra to her fist, she had to be careful not to offset the chakra to her feet, or she'd end up in the water.
"Touch a corner everyone."
"Got it!"
"Me too!"
"Ah."
"Ready!"
"Okay. Remove the seals on three. Sakura?"
"Ready!"
"One."
Her body stilled and her mind left, focused on the task at hand.
"Two."
"Three!"
She was already running before Sasuke had torn it off. As soon as he was off the boulder her fist connected, cracking it into at least a hundred pieces. Sasuke grabbed her and pulled her beside him as the rocks fell around the entrance.
"Good work everyone. The boulder is destroyed."
"I have company."
"Me too."
"Same."
"I'm leaving. The rest is up to you all."
Pakkun had left in a cloud of smoke, she could hear it and the connection was gone.
"What kind of problem?"
They moved inside the cave, but it was empty except for two Akatsuki members, and Gaara.
Except, Gaara wasn't moving. He wasn't breathing.
She turned to Naruto only to gasp. The marks on his cheeks were darker, and his eyes were blood red.
"Naruto-"
"You son of a bitch! Where the hell do you think you're sitting?"
He was growling so loud, it vibrated in her ears. The blonde Akatsuki was sitting on Gaara's body. She gulped and gripped Naruto's jacket tight in her fist.
"There's no mistaking it. He's the Jinchuuriki."
The blonde chuckled, before standing up.
This is bad.
"He'll scream and run at you first. Ha, Itachi was right."
Her hand snapped to Sasuke, feeling his body tense at the sound of Itachi's name.
He actually gave them information about Naruto?
"Sasuke, we have a problem."
"What is it TenTen?"
"There's a clone of me, staring at me. But I don't think it's a clone."
"This is Neji. The same is happening to me."
"Lee here, the same just appeared from the forest floor."
"Defend yourselves, then meet up with Sakura and Chiyoo-baasama."
Sakura turned to him with a glare.
"I'm not leaving you two, no way. You two leave."
"Gaara! How can you be asleep at a time like this?"
Her sad eyes turned to Naruto.
"Gaara!"
She tried to get his attention.
"Quit playing around!"
Before she could console him, Sasuke called out coldly to him.
"Enough, Naruto."
Naruto pushed away from her and charged towards the pair, but Sasuke was already blocking him, arms out, and glaring harshly.
"Will you think with your head for once? You're going to get us all killed!"
"Sasuke-kun, he doesn't-"
"Don't baby him Sakura!"
Smoke filled the cave and Sakura tried not to inhale it. She watched as a white bird swallowed Gaara's body, and Naruto lost it. He chased the bird outside of the cave along with the blonde Akatsuki member. Sasuke followed him without a word to her, but she understood clearly.
Take care of this one, then help Lee, TenTen, and Neji. I'll watch after Naruto.
Taking a deep breath she prepared herself for a long battle. Chiyoo-baasama moved beside her. Suddenly the monster thing that was a part of the Akatsuki started to laugh.
"I thought you retired."
"I had an urge to see my cute grandson's face."
Cute?
"Sakura, do not be afraid. I will fight him."
She looked at the older woman in disbelief.
Really? She'll fight him? There's no way-
A string of kunai released from the older woman's cloak, and float in front of her.
"Sou Shuu Jin!"
It was amazing to see the kunai be controlled with just chakra. The weapons tore at the Akatsuki cloak, shredding it's revealing the hard as bone shell.
"You dare attack me? You and the brat will become a part of my collection grandmother."
Grandmother?