"Hey everyone Midnight here, I love the reviews thank you all so much for your feed back, I have made a list of all of your pairing requests, and I am still taking more so don't worry I'll make sure you all see the pairing you want at some point in the story~"
Hidan: "I bet I was the most popular vote"
Midnight: "Actually it was Itachi and Pein..."
Pein: "What?"
Midnight: "Forget it,~ I don't own any of the characters of Naruto~ Now one to chapter three!"
Sakura
Sakura's inner
Chapter three: The Set up
Sakura waited at the Konoha gates, the sun was setting and it began to get dark. 'How is it that I am more punctual than three ANBU, I mean I get Naruto, poor guy has never been on time for anything...' her thoughts were cut off as Kakashi walked up to her and gave her his usual eye crease smile and raised his hand.
"Yo" came his usual greeting, settling his hands into his pockets.
"Hello, Kakashi-Sensei" Sakura smiled at him, but he saw it didn't reach her eyes.
"You know that title isn't correct anymore, you're leading your own mission today," he patted her back and leaned close to her ear, "be watchful of those ANBU, Tsunade and I don't trust them."
"Hai, Kakashi-Sensei" Sakura nodded and took a step back just as a blur of orange barreled past her. Naruto looked up at her and chuckled.
"Hi, Sakura-chan, sorry I'm late... oh hey Kakashi" Kakashi nodded and waved and walked off, wishing them good luck as the three ANBU showed up. Sakura turned to face them.
"How is it that Naruto got here before three ANBU, aren't you guys supposed to be all about rules and punctuality?" The three masked men turned to look at each other and then down at the ground, "I know you can't tell me your real names, but give me something to call you..."
"Why don't you call that one beak face?" Naruto pointed at the one wearing an eagle mask. Sakura chuckled at the obvious annoyance in the man's features, but still none of them spoke.
"Very well, if you don't want to give me names it's fine," Sakura turned and began to walk, "I'll just have Naruto give you all nick names." She fused chakra into her feet and leaped onto the closest tree branch, Naruto gave the three ANBU a creepy grin.
"Oh I have a few in mind" He turned and fallowed Sakura into the trees, the three men looked at each other and then hurried to catch up.
"Taiyo" one wearing a wolf mask spoke, Sakura smiled and nodded.
"Kohiru" the other said, and before the one wearing the eagle mask could say a thing Naruto spoke out.
"You don't get a name, I'm calling you beak face" Naruto joked.
"My name is Taka" he muttered under his breath, causing the group to burst out laughing.
The village they were heading to was only a few hours outside of Konoha so it didn't take them long to reach it, Sakura decided to stop in order to get a lay out of the village and took Taiyo to go scout. They perched themselves on a high branch that allowed them to look over the small village, Sakura scanned her eyes over everything, noting in her mind the exits, easy escape routes and places she needed to avoid. Sakura looked over at Taiyo, who was trying to figure out which way the map was supposed to be, Sakura found it odd but didn't say anything as she flipped the map around and smiled at him. They marked the map and headed back to the others, as Sakura turned to fallow Taiyo back to the group Sakura spied two figures leaving the village, black cloaks with red clouds stood out among the villagers, they both wore woven hats but thanks to the large sword one wore on his back Sakura knew who they were. Sakura bolted to the group.
"They've appeared, and are leaving the village, we need to hurry to see where they go, Kohiru and Taka and Naruto, you three go around on the other side and stay out of sight, Taiyo and I will stay on this side of the path, remember cloak your chakra and stay hidden now go" the boys nodded and leaped off, Sakura seriously hoped that Naruto could keep quiet long enough to at least find out an area of where Akatsuki's base is. They fallowed just far enough to be able to see the members but so that they wouldn't be discovered. Hours seemed to go by as they fallowed, suddenly the men they were trailing made a sharp turn off the path and into the woods.
They entered a clearing and just stood in the center, Sakura could clearly make out the features of Itachi Uchiha, her former crush and team mate's older brother, his blank eyes scanned the treeline, at first Sakura was afraid they had been found out but then an all too familiar chakra came into the clearing. Sakura's eyes widened in disbelief. 'No, it can't be... not him, not now...' she thought as Sasuke Uchiha stepped out into the clearing across from his brother.
"Hello, little brother" Itachi spoke, removing the hat and tossing it to the side, his long hair blew in the small amount of wind, and his eyes met the black of Sasuke's.
"You have no right to call me brother" Sasuke basically snarled out, the sound of his voice sent shivers down Sakura's spine, Sasuke was still the same emotionless man. Sakura glanced at Taiyo and was shocked to see him shaking, 'There is no way this kid can be a seasoned ANBU like the elder's said he was..'Sakura's inner spoke and she had to agree, 'I didn't want to believe that at first, but what would they have to gain about sending three unseasoned ANBU with me and Naruto-' suddenly everything clicked into place, bringing Naruto along, and then, Itatchi and his partner smirk and use a teleport jutsu just ask Naruto jumps out of the bushes to confront Sasuke.
"Sasuke!" He yelled, the raven haired man slide his eyes to meet Naruto's just before jumping out of the way and swinging his foot down to meet the back of Naruto's head. Naruto hit the ground, Sasuke pulled his sword out and swung down at Naruto's neck. Sakura launched out and landed between Sasuke and Naruto, one leg balanced on Naruto's knee the other on the ground, her hands closed around Sasuke's wrists, stopping his swing, using his momentum she flipped off of Naruto and managed to land a blow to Sasuke's side, sending him to the ground, Sasuke jumped at her, kicking her side, landing blows to her stomach, his blade slices multiple places, but Sakura had enough, she channeled her chakra into her fists and slammed them into the ground, shattering the clearing sending Sasuke flying. Sakura stood and glared down at a guilty looking Naruto.
"You've gotten better, eh, Sakura-chan?" Sasuke stood and brushed the dust off of himself, "Leading your own team and everything, unfortunately only two of you are surviving" One of Sasuke's team came out of the bushes tossing the two lifeless bodies of Kohiru and Taka to the ground.
"Is this what your village counts as ANBU, they didn't even hear me coming, and seriously, I'm not the quietest ninja in the world... and this one, man he's more wimpy than Karin" he said as he kicked Taiyo to the ground, Sakura started towards them but Sasuke lodged his sword through Taiyo's chest.
"Sasuke you bastard!" she growled out, but as she looked up her vision faded and the world around her grew black, all she remembered where the sounds of people moving and the image of the sharingan burned into her mind.
Sakura awoke hours later in the clearing it was dark, her body ached all over, but she realized, she was alone, 'where's Naruto?' Sakura panicked and tried to use her chakra to see if she could feel Naruto but something was blocking her chakra from her, she saw Taiyo's body laying on the ground and she shuffled to it, kneeling down she removed his mask and let out a small scream. Sakura remembered Taiyo, he was in her class in the academy and he was very timid, not at all fit for ANBU.
"We were set up..." she whispered, 'the elder's knew this was going to happen, they sent untrained men with us on an impossible mission, and now Naruto is missing, but why?'
Sakura had just turned to head back to Konoha when a cloaked figure stepping out from behind a tree and caught her attention, Sakura spun around. 'Akatsuki!' normally her first instinct would have been to fight the wanted criminal.
"Did you take Naruto?" Sakura questioned, trying to keep her voice steady and even.
"No, but I do know who did, and why" Sakura looked up and met amber eyes, a silent bond passed between the two women. The cloaked figure placed two scrolls on the ground as she turned and disappeared into the shadows. Sakura calmly walked over to where the scrolls where bending over and picking them up she glanced at them before placing them into her side pouch, she didn't know why she did but something made her trust the Akatsuki woman. Sakura spun and ran home.
Hey guys hope you like this chapter, sorry if some parts drone on, I kinda wrote this at 3:00am so I was a bit tired, this one is longer than the others so give me your feedback :) I am still taking pairing requests if you haven't done so already, and someone asked me to put in a SasuNaru pairing, give your feedback about that, yes I know it's my story but I want my viewers to enjoy reading it!
The review number will be 5 again, so send me reviews and I send you your next chapter!
Much love!
-Midnight