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.
I am going to openly request for long reviews, please. If I get 3 long reviews by Friday, there will be another update on Saturday. Deal? Otherwise, I'll count this Wednesday's post as this week's update ;D
Hey, weekly updates are hard, you know!
Gaara was currently having one hell of a headache. His headache was blonde, busty, and went by the name of Hokage-sama; Tsunade to her close friends.
Said woman was presently inside his head, courtesy of Inoichi's telepathic communication network. And boy, was she yelling up a storm.
"I cannot believe you sent Sakura with the Ambush Squad! Do you even know the mortality rate of Ambush Squad members?" Tsunade screeched at him.
"That was precisely why I sent Haruno-san with them – she would be able to save more lives that way."
"Gaara, consider this for a moment – why do you think the Ambush Squad is always an all-male squad? It's because they have the stamina and resilience that outweighs most kunoichis'. You have placed Sakura in a disadvantageous situation by doing so."
Gaara frowned, "Hokage-sama, I think you have underestimated your own student. Haruno-san is easily the strongest kunoichi I know, and from what I've learnt about her fight against Sasori more than a year ago, she took a lethal wound and healed it while still in combat situation. Is that not resilience?"
Tsunade really hated debating with logical people; their arguments were always so… logical. If Naruto heard about what Gaara just did, he would have blown a gasket and ran off helter-skelter to save his "Sakura-chan". And here was Gaara, treating Sakura like an adult woman perfectly capable of handling herself.
… Wait a second.
"Gaara, please tell me that Sakura is just a friend to you."
"I shall not insult you with a lie, Hokage-sama. Haruno-san is not merely a friend to me," he thought he heard Tsunade's breathing halt suddenly, "She is a good friend, and one of the finest kunoichis I've ever met."
Tsunade exhaled so long and loud, Gaara thought she sounded like a deflating balloon.
"Gaara, you really… test my patience sometimes," Tsunade finally spoke up.
"With all due respect, Hokage-sama, I know that you have assigned Haruno-san to me partially because you wanted me to protect her, and that I will do. What I want to know is, why not Hatake-san? As her teacher since her genin days, he would…"
Tsunade cut him off quickly, "I respect Kakashi as a shinobi, and had I not survived the attack on Konohagakure by Pein, I would have been more than satisfied to have him succeed me as Hokage. However, Kakashi always took Sasuke and Naruto more seriously than he ever did Sakura. He always leaps a little too quickly to her defense even when she can handle the situation herself. The last thing I need is to have him crush her hard-earned confidence by treating her like the little girl she no longer is."
Gaara rubbed at his chin, and then replied, "So in a roundabout way, you are telling me that I was correct to send her out with the Ambush Squad?"
"Yes… No! I mean, arrrgh!"
Gaara frowned to himself. The Hokage was committing the very same mistake that she had accused Sakura's teacher of – of being overprotective towards the kunoichi. Sakura was a strong woman, both literally and figuratively speaking – she could handle herself.
Gaara wondered if Tsunade heard any of his thoughts.
The snorting sound from the other end probably meant that Tsunade did.
Inoichi's hand which was placed on Tsunade's head twitched involuntarily.
"Gaara," Tsunade sighed, "Just so you know, I did genuinely want Sakura working as your personal medic. You are commanding an army of 80,000, and you need to be in peak physical condition at all times. Sakura, bless her worry-wart nature, would have been an excellent source of 'encouragement' to not overlook your own needs."
"I am not a child that needs to be monitored day and night, Hokage-sama. Since you have given me your vote of confidence to lead the Allied Shinobi Forces, I'd assume that you know that as well."
Men and their stubborn, stubborn pride.
"Very well, Gaara. But if you drop dead of exhaustion or something equally stupid on the battle field, so help me, I will dig you up from the ground, reanimate you, and then kill you personally," Tsunade threatened.
Gaara smirked, "I expect nothing less from a legendary Sannin and Fifth Hokage."
Muttering one last colourful phrase, Tsunade broke their telepathic connection, allowing Gaara to finally heave a sigh of relief.
In truth, he was a little worried about Sakura. Intel came just prior to Tsunade's little lecture from Omoi's half of the Ambush Squad, and it seemed like the 3rd Division has already began to engage the enemy forces. Gaara had suspected that his brother might split the Ambush Squad up to improve their chances at flushing out the enemies, but it was a risky move as well – Kankurou's decision had effectively halved their squad strength.
Still, he would not question his elder brother's military decisions. This was not a one-man war, and he needed to trust in his people to make the best decision no matter what the circumstances.
However, if he did not hear back from Kankurou's squad soon, which he presumed Sakura to be on, he might have to make a personal trip down to find out exactly what was going on. The sand-cat might be a useful animal ally, but unlike Katsuyu, it had no way of communicating with Gaara telepathically.
Sakura was having A Very Bad Day.
It was as if the Gods above decided to throw her back to the day that they fought for Gaara's life, because right now, standing in front of her, was Chiyo. She was traveling with a group of 3 other shinobis, one of whom had summoned a huge salamander-like creature which spewed poisonous mist at her Ambush Squad.
Right now, everyone was within range of the mist, including herself.
The moment she caught the first whiff of something odd as the squad advanced, it took her but a moment to process that there was something dangerous in the air that they breathed. Right now, the mist was practically invisible and almost scentless, so unless one was specialised in poison detection like herself, they would not have noticed anything amiss.
Moving on instinct, she grabbed Kankurou by his collar, choking him in the process, and promptly flung him as far behind them as she could.
She did try to find him a soft landing, but Kankurou had landed on a sparse treetop canopy. The branches gave way under his weight, and after several stop-starts as he fell, hitting every other branch along the way to the ground, he finally landed face-first on the grass.
When Kankurou looked up, ready to give Sakura a stern talking-to, he was shocked into silence by the sight of his entire team collapsed in a now greenish-mist, sprawled haphazardly and very much exposed to enemy fire.
Flicking out his chakra strings, he quickly retrieved his teammates. Kankurou made the decision to grab his male shinobis first, erroneously assuming that just because Sakura could identify the poison in the air, she must have some sort of counter for it.
Sakura tried holding her breath to avoid inhaling the poison, but the toxin appeared to have been absorbed merely through contact with her exposed skin, if the pinkish patches growing on her arms were any indications.
Limbs numbed heavy by the poison and her vision rapidly blurring over, Sakura could only watch helplessly as an enemy shinobi with a strange breathing apparatus over his face came at her with his sword drawn.
At least she kept her promise of ensuring Kankurou's safety, Sakura mused to herself.
The sand-cat growled and started to blur into a cloud of sand, ready to aid Sakura in deflecting the coming blow, but it suddenly solidified, and turned instead to Sakura's fallen form. It purred anxiously, watching helplessly as Sakura's eyes fluttered shut.
She passed out just before General Mifune of the samurai dashed forward to parry the blow aimed at her. Kankurou's strings attached themselves to her form and quickly drew her away from the combat situation, pulling her right into his arms.
"Sakura? Sakura!" He patted her cheek gently at first, then a little harder when she didn't stir.
Crap.
The sand-cat came running over, hissing at Kankurou and confusing the brunet.
"I don't have time for you, Fluffy, or whatever-your-name-is! My team is down and I…" Kankurou didn't even get the chance to finish his sentence before the sand-cat turned into a cloud of sand, blanketing Sakura and blocking her from Kankurou's view. Several heartbeats later, the sand-cat was gone.
And so was Sakura.
Kankurou's first thought was, Double crap.
It was quickly followed by the thought, Oh God, Gaara is going to commit fratricide!
"Kankurou!" yelled out Chiyo, effectively getting his attention, "If that is Gaara's sand-animal, which I suspect it is, it has probably taken Sakura away for medical attention. This poison must be treated within the next few hours before permanent damage can set it. Why don't you do the same for the rest of your team now?"
Kankurou could only nod, and began directing a few samurais to assist him in the task of transporting his comrades back to the medic base.
He hoped desperately that Chiyo-sama was correct in her assumptions, because he was not interested in dying anytime soon. Especially by sand.
The third Tsuchikage, Oonoki, was a man of considerable age. Therefore, he prided himself in having seen and experienced just about everything there was.
He had, however, never seen a kunoichi materialise from a cloud of sand and drop out of the sky.
Oonoki had been discussing with Gaara about the advancing armies of White Zetsu clones, which appeared to be acting as reinforcements for when the resurrected Kages were to attack. Gaara listened, voicing his own opinions only every now and then, when he suddenly looked skywards, seeming to gaze at nothing.
That was, until a few specks of sand started to materialise in the air above. The few specks changes into a larger mass, and finally a sizable sand cloud. Oonoki noted that Gaara did not seemed alarmed, so he figured that he had nothing to be concerned about as well.
What he did not expect was for the sand cloud to suddenly drop a pink-haired kunoichi into Gaara's readied arms.
Oonoki glanced upwards discreetly, just in case the sky decided to drop more surprises.
The sand cloud floated about for a little longer before changing into the form of a cat that was now circling Gaara and purring fretfully. Gaara was staring wide-eyed at the obviously distressed and unconscious kunoichi he was cradling, and appeared to be at a loss on what to do.
"Mun, what happened?" Gaara asked the sand-cat.
The sand-cat only purred harder and angrier.
Right, cats don't talk. And that included sand-cats.
There was a faint glow coming from inside Sakura's collar, and Gaara hesitated for only a second before he gently pushed back her collar. It was Katsuyu, and it appeared to be trying to heal Sakura with its chakra. But it was obviously not enough, if the alarming pink blotches on her skin were anything to go by.
When Gaara turned to face Oonoki, the Tsuchikage could see that the young man had already made up his mind about what he was going to do.
"Tsuchikage-sama, my personal medic is in need of healing. I must take her to the medic base right away."
"Of course, Kazekage-sama. She is, after all, the Hokage's apprentice."
A swirl of sand, and both Gaara and Sakura had transported away. The sand-cat leapt into the vanishing sand at the last second, effectively tagging along with both Gaara and Sakura whether Gaara wanted it to or not.
"And why couldn't you take her directly to the medic base, cat?" Oonoki pondered aloud.
Oonoki stroked his beard, not quite able to forget the look of silent alarm in Gaara's eyes when it became clear to him that the kunoichi he was carrying was unconscious. It was most strange, really – shinobis getting killed during a war was a given, so why had the Kazekage been so worried over a kunoichi that was certain to recover with proper medical care?
Unless…
Oonoki chuckled to himself.
"Ah, to be young again."
His back involuntarily gave a sound "krick".