Standard disclaimers apply. I'm just borrowing these characters for a little while.
Author's note: Kishimoto-sensei's plan is to fit the entire 4th Shinobi War Arc into a matter of days in the Naruto timeline, but I'm taking the liberty of extending it since war is never so quick and clean-cut. Events from the manga will be added, removed or shifted around. Please pardon my impudence.
And we finally move into the war itself. No long reviews = sad!Avium
It happened as Tsunade had predicted – Gaara would not go into battle with a medic tagging along. When Sakura came out of the tent, battle-ready and her face set in a determined expression, Gaara went up to her and assigned her to the Ambush Squad before she even had time to bat an eyelid.
"But I am your personal medic! I am supposed to fight by your side!" Sakura argued.
"Haruno-san, your value as a field medic cannot be denied. However, intelligence told us to expect a smaller force to come at us from the sea crossing. Given your combat skills and medic expertise, you will be a far more important asset to the Ambush Squad. Kankurou is leading the Ambush Squad," Gaara paused, as if searching for the right words, "I need you to watch him for me."
"And you're just trying to get rid of me, aren't you?" Sakura grinned.
Gaara smiled back, "Perhaps. As I have told the Hokage, I do not require a babysitter."
"Alright, Kazekage-sama. I will move out with the Ambush Squad," then she held a finger up, "On one condition."
"Speak."
"You must promise me that you will summon me the very instant my skills are required."
"Very well."
"Pinky promise," added Sakura, her last finger curled towards Gaara's general direction.
Sakura looked absolutely serious, which made Gaara scowl even more. When it became obvious that Sakura was not going to back down, Gaara heaved a long-suffering sigh and held out his own pinky to loop with hers. Sakura gave their linked fingers a firm shake, as if to seal the deal, then glared at Gaara for good measure.
If there was one thing she knew about alpha males, it was that most of them were too proud to summon medical assistance unless it was forced upon them. Sakura was pretty sure that although Gaara did not look the part, the fact that he was the Kazekage automatically made him an alpha I-will-sooner-die-then-admit-I-have-a-boo-boo male.
Plus, she was sure that nobody would have made Gaara a pinky promise in the past, so hopefully, this experience would stick in his mind and he would summon her when she was needed.
At least, that was what she hoped.
With the sand-cat at her heels, she left Gaara's side to meet up with the Ambush Squad near the camp entrance.
Kankurou, who had been addressing his small team, looked genuinely surprised to see Sakura approaching.
"Sakura-san? Is there a message from Shikamaru-san or my brother?" He asked.
Sakura blinked, replying, "No. Actually, I've just been assigned to your team as the field medic."
If anything, Kankurou looked even more baffled. He gestured to a shinobi standing nearby, "But Kiri here is our field medic for this team."
That definitely took Sakura by surprise. Had Gaara made a mistake in assigning two field medics to the Ambush Squad? It seemed unlikely that he would have made such an error.
Unless… he was sending her out with Kankurou, not so much as to watch over his brother, but to protect him.
"There has been a change in plans," Sakura smoothly lied, "Kazekage-sama wishes to maximise the survival chances of the Ambush Squad and wants two medics on the team instead of just one."
She then turned to Kiri, bowing slightly, "I hope you won't view my addition to the team as a comment on your medic skills, Kiri-san. I apologise for my sudden intrusion."
"Say no more, Sakura-san," the spiky-haired shinobi replied as he bowed back, "I have heard a great many things about you, and it is my honour to work beside a medic as accomplished as yourself."
Sakura coloured slightly; she was still unused to being complimented for her medic skills. But she did her best to look unaffected by the praise and instead turned to her newly-assigned squad leader.
So Kankurou had not known about Gaara's plan at all. And it suited her just fine – she did not need Kankurou to misread Gaara's concern for him as a slight on his abilities as a team leader. But Gaara should have told his brother in advance, because her abrupt addition to the team might have completely blew Kankurou's battle strategies out of the waters.
Brothers.
Kankurou, however, seemed to take the inclusion of another medic to his team in his stride. He beckoned her over into the circle of shinobis and began to go over their plans with her. Everything was very straightforward – they would travel into enemy territory on Sai's ink-birds, secure and establish a base, take out as many enemies as they can with explosives, and move on to repeat the same actions. Their goal was to root out any enemy bases and send their forces in as soon as they were discovered.
Whichever side that flushed out the most enemies first would invariably have a first-strike advantage.
Once assured that everyone was prepped and ready, Kankurou gave his signal and Sai unleashed his ink-birds. Sakura had often traveled on them during her missions with Sai, and hopped onto the back on one easily, Mr. Fluffy-kins following her soon after. The ink-birds took to the skies, and within moments, the 4th Division camp was nothing more than a speck in the distance.
"I must admit," Kankurou spoke above the wind whistling by, "I'm surprised that Gaara is sending you out on this mission. Isn't he supposed to protect you as much as you are to protect him?"
Sakura huffed, "Kankurou-san, I am a kunoichi, not some helpless little girl that needs to be constantly supervised."
"I could say the same for Gaara – he is the Kazekage, not some puny genin that needs a medic standing over him all the time. That's what our uncle used to do when Gaara was little."
Ah, the mysterious maternal uncle.
Sakura had so many questions about this particular figure in Gaara's life. He obviously had a great influence on Gaara's childhood, being both protector and would-be killer to him. It was not a conversation she wanted to initiate out in the open, though, so Sakura bit her tongue and did not reply.
"Hey, Ugly."
There was only one male in the entire world who would call her that, and somehow escape death each and every time.
"Sai."
"That's a very nice cat," Sai commented.
"Thank you," Sakura replied, turning behind to check on the sand-cat. Mr. Fluffy-kins was growling softly in annoyance and had dug its sandy claws into the ink-bird's back, trying to steady itself by crouching down at the same time.
Sakura had to stifle a snicker at the sand-cat's stoic suffering. She took pity on it and reached for it, prying the sand-cat's claws out of the ink-bird's back and then unzipping her flak jacket halfway down before promptly stuffing Mr. Fluffy-kins inside. The sand-cat had blinked in surprise at the sudden warmth, looked up at Sakura, then poked its head out the top of Sakura's jacket to watch the scenery go by. The kunoichi gave it an affectionate rub behind its ears before returning her attention to the skies ahead.
Sai continued to look at Sakura and the sand-cat for a while, as if contemplating something.
"Kazekage-sama made a very pleasing cat for you. I think I would like to draw the both of you sometime."
Sakura grinned, "Really, Sai? I thought you always said I was too ugly to be in your drawings."
Sai smiled that familiar condescending smile, and then nodded, saying, "That is true. I shall draw you holding the cat, but I'll replace your head with another model's."
Sai was lucky that Sakura was a close-range fighter, and that they were easily over two hundred meters up in the air. Otherwise, he would be bearing a nice impression of her fist on his cheek right now.
Sakura barely had the time to orientate herself before the first of many explosions to come went off above the trench that they had constructed. Kankurou was just putting away the map that he had gone over with her and Kiri when Saji the sensor shinobi alerted him to a foreign presence. When Sakura glanced over, she recogised that it was a member of the Aburame clan, clutching at his injuries. Kankurou yelled out something, but whatever he said was quickly obscured by a blinding flash of white light, followed by a loud blast.
When the dust had cleared away, she immediately sprung into medic-mode, rushing forward to heal any fallen comrades. Her first instincts were to find the Aburame male, have noticed how severe his wounds were, but Kankurou called her away.
"Sakura, he's dead – focus on Saji now!"
No time for mourning.
She made a quick dash towards the wounded shinobi, pulling him away from the open and behind some rocks to commence her healing. When she did look up to check on her surroundings, she was stunned to see two sets of chakra strings being wielded. One obviously belonged to Kankurou, and the other…
Someone, probably a skilled puppet master, was manipulating her half-dead shinobi comrades. Deidara hovered over the puppet shinobis on one of his clay birds, and for a moment Sakura remembered the sight of the blond once using his clay creation to carry away the dead Kazekage. A bitter bile rose in her throat at those memories.
But this was no time to be distracted, she reminded herself as she pumped chakra into Saji's open wounds. She had to focus on the task at hand, and only when Saji was no longer in a critical state could she join the battle.
Sakura leapt onto the boulder that she had been behind all this while to survey the battlefield the moment the last bit of exposed flesh knitted close, not even giving Saji the chance to thank her. Kiri was rushing to her side, one of Sasori's now-freed shinobi puppet thrown over his shoulders.
"Sakura-san! We need to get all the wounded behind this rock formation!" He gestured to the very boulder that Sakura was currently perched on.
Sakura nodded and swiftly scanned the fields for more injured shinobis.
And that was when she saw that familiar shock of red hair and the billowing black cloak patterned with crimson clouds.
She should have been able to put two and two together the moment she noticed Deidara, but her priority on the battlefield was to the injured. However, the sight of the Akatsuki puppet master stirred something vicious inside of her instantly.
Sasori was being violently yanked off from his place above the trench by Kankurou's chakra strings, and Sakura saw the opportunity that she never thought she would see again.
"Kankurou! MOVE!"
The puppet master turned just in time to see Sakura dash past him and towards the falling Sasori, feeling the wind slice past him as she went. Sakura leapt off the ground and right for the redhead, gloved fist glowing with chakra as she aimed with unrestrained rage at his face.
The sand-cat, which she had lost track of when the first explosion went off, suddenly appeared beside her. Snarling at Sakura's target, the sand-cat erupted into a cloud of sand that engulfed Sakura's fist, coating her entire lower arm in hard sand to increase the strength of her blow. Completely unperturbed by the cat's actions, she continued her line of attack.
Her mark rang true; she could feel whatever that passed for flesh and bone crumbling and falling away under her fist even beneath the sand.
Sasori must have flown a good twenty meters or so away, even when restrained by Kankurou's chakra strings. Kankurou could only gape open-mouthed at the pink-haired kunoichi as she practically stalked over to Sasori's fallen form, the sand-cat now a swirl of sand dancing and curling around her.
She looked every bit a she-demon of the sand.
Standing over Sasori, she waited for the man to meet her gaze before she clenched her fist at him, snarling, "That was for Chiyo baa-san."
Sasori looked back at her with an expression of puzzlement, and finally recognition lit up in his grey, dead eyes.
"It is you, the little girl who fought besides Chiyo," he stated, "Then I presume she is dead?"
"No thanks to you! She sacrificed herself to bring the Kazekage back to life!"
Sasori looked at the sand surrounding Sakura as if seeing it for the first time. "I thought that chakra signature was familiar. So, Gaara is still alive?"
Sakura gritted her teeth, then smashed her fist into the ground just a few centimeters shy of Sasori's neck, "Don't you dare address him so intimately – Akatsuki killed the Kazekage, and a great woman had to give her life to save his!"
Sakura closed her eyes for a moment to calm herself. How could she forget how so very cold Gaara's body was when she laid her hands on him; how terribly crushed Naruto was when it seemed as if Gaara had really left them; how useless she felt to have been unable to protect her friends once again; how Chiyo atoned for her past sins by making the ultimate sacrifice…
She straightened herself and took a step back, glaring daggers with grim determination at the fallen Akatsuki member as she muttered darkly, "Today, I am going to avenge them both."
For the first time ever, Kankurou felt sorry for the enemy.
"Was that really necessary, Sakura?" asked Kankurou while watching her brush off bits of debris from her combat gloves.
Sakura had to raise her voice above the ruckus that Deidara was making from inside Kankurou's puppet, "Absolutely."
Kankurou gave her a hard glare, "Sakura, your position in the Ambush Squad is that of a medic. You are not to leap into combat situations unless I order you to do so, or unless you are defending yourself. If you cannot respect your own station, I will remove you from my squad. Is that clear?"
For one moment there, Sakura looked as if she was ready to fight back, or at least argue. Inwardly, Kankurou braced himself.
He was taken aback when Sakura seemed to shrink a little as she bowed and replied, "You are right, Kankurou-san. I apologise for my behaviour, and ask that you give me another chance to prove myself."
"Just…" Kankurou struggled to find the right words, "Just don't put yourself in danger again, okay? Gaara will have my hide if anything happens to you under my watch."
"Kankurou-san, you had better be saying that because I am the only kunoichi on the squad and not because of anything else," Sakura warned.
Well, either way, it was still demeaning. But it was at least better to have Gaara tear his brother a new one over his failure to protect a woman than over his failure to protect a specific woman.
"What else, Sakura?" Kankurou's smile was a little too calculated for her liking, but Sakura had other matters to attend to.
She walked over to Sai who was still clutching onto his sketchbook. When she laid a hand gently over his shoulder, he had turned to face her with wide eyes.
They could never completely kill off your emotions, Sai.
"Is everything okay, Sai?" Her brows were raised in worry. She had her hands full fighting Sasori, but the sight of Sai defending himself against the man he called his brother, and the restrain he exercised in the fight…
Sai looked bewildered by her concern for a minute there, but his false smile slipped back into place after a while.
"Of course, Ugly. Everything is fine."
Sakura glanced down at the sketchbook in his hand, noting that Sai had held the side with his brother's drawing facing upwards.
"Well… if you need to talk to someone, you can look for me. Alright?"
Sai nodded mutely, and then went to rejoin the squad as if nothing had happened.
Kankurou gestured for the team to regroup, and laid out their next moves, "It was a bit unexpected – running into the enemy's own Ambush Squad like this. But we've taken them out, and we need to move further into enemy territory. The other Divisions are waiting for our intel to show them where to strike.
"We will split into two teams as of now. Omoi, I'm making you in charge of surveillance from the skies together with Kiri, Sai and Saji. The rest of us will continue on foot. This way, we will have two sources of intel instead of just one. Stay within contact distance – we are each other's backup."
Sakura could not quite shake the feeling that everything was a little too simple – running into the enemy's Ambush Squad was too much of a coincidence, and taking them out was perhaps too physically easy (if emotionally draining).
She touched her collar, feeling Katsuyu snug and safe within the confines of her jacket. The slug summon squelched as if to reassure her, but it said nothing otherwise. That meant that none of the other Divisions had anything new to report.
Maybe she was just on the edge, causing herself to over-read matters.
But why did the enemy shinobis still have their emotions intact? It seemed too casual a mistake for someone of Orochimaru's or Kabuto's caliber to make. Tsunade had once explained that the reanimated dead were usually resurrected as emotionless puppets to make them easier to control…
Argh!
Mentally pounding her head, Sakura followed Kankurou's half of the Ambush Squad. She had to invest her mental energies elsewhere for now – such questions could wait.
She hoped.
The best thing she could do now was to fight; to protect those most precious to her.
Surprisingly, she was not bothered that Gaara was now among those she wanted to protect.