Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

They had agreed to put the tent against a large hollow tree they found a few meters away from the ravine. It took them half the time to set it up than to get Naruto untangled from the ropes of the tent. Neither Sakura nor Sai could even think how the blond boy ever got into that mess in the first place, but none of them had the stamina left to make fun of him. Right then, their top priority was to make shelter. And a fire.

The hollow tree was perfect for making an indoor bonfire, as it served as a sort of chimney for the smoke. Once everything was settled, they all hung their cloaks on pegs Sai had hammered to the tree, and Naruto stripped down to his shirt and baggy shorts. In normal circumstances, Sakura would have pummeled him to death for obscenity, but privacy was a necessity they could not afford right now. She had also removed her red shirt and white, now muddy flail skirt, revealing a lightweight strapless chain mail that clung to her body too much for comfort and her black Chamois leather shorts. Sai, who majority of the time frolics around with his abs exposed, was not at all shameful to shed his top, but seemed to have enough decency to leave his pants on. Sakura still could not believe how pale he was. The dark-haired boy was looking at the fire gloomily. It must be from waiting for his little critters to bring him news.

Sakura tried to dry her hair by rigorously running her fingers through it. "You think the sky will clear sometime today?" she asked her teammates.

Naruto did not look too optimistic as he peered out the flap of the tent. "If we wait that long, we'll never see the end of this mission."

Sai nodded. "Naruto's right. It would be best if we could at least locate half of the staircases before nightfall, and destroy them, then destroy the other half tomorrow. That would be very hard to do, I suppose, with the water level still rising. Then we'll use the earlier half of the third day making sure we didn't miss anything, and the later part of that day heading home."

Sakura had to agree with Sai's plan because it seemed the most logical one they could possibly follow, though it was easier said than done. The ravine was just too vast to explore in this rain. She was about to voice out her opinion about this when two black things darted into their tent. Sakura did not even realize Sai had taken out his scroll and the two mice jumped into it. Sai smiled as he met Naruto and Sakura's curious looks. "I've found two staircases."

Sakura gasped in awe. "I thought you were looking for signs of life?"

"I was. These mice had to get down the ravine to do so. And the only ways down there are those staircases."

"Sai, you're a genius!" Naruto exclaimed. "Man, I thought we have to get out in that downpour just to look for those stupid targets."

"Actually, we still do." Sai drew several more mice and snakes, performed his jutsu and watched as the tiny things squirmed out of the tent. "Though I can send twenty three mice out to the ravine, the chances of them going down twenty three different paths are slim. I can command them to do so, but their priority is to look for people down the river. Once we rest a bit, I think it would be better to look for the passages ourselves."

Naruto thought for a moment before finally nodding vigorously. "That's true." And without another word, he jumped into his still dripping wet overalls. "Let's find half of those passages and get today over with then."

Sakura watched in resignation as Naruto stepped out of the tent, and with his usual hand sign, countless Narutos popped in a screen of smoke and all darted towards the ravine saying some weird battle cry as they leaped out into the forest.

Sakura was used to Naruto's recklessness, but in this mission she had no right to complain; Tsunade did not specifically assign a team leader, and she knew Naruto meant well.

One of the Narutos, most likely the original, popped his head into the tent flap grinning. "Be back in a flash." And with that, he dashed after his clones. Sakura could only shake her head in frustration. Count on Naruto to run off without a concrete plan.

Sakura fiddled with the laces of her boots and pulled them off. Her feet felt clammy. She hated clammy feet…

"You have nice toes," Sai suddenly said.

Sakura jumped. Sai had been so silent that she almost forgot he was sitting opposite her, shirtless and wet, one arm resting on his knee, the other hand scratching his shoulder unconsciously.

"Is that an honest assessment?" Sakura asked, looking down at her toes. She knew Sai was not very good at giving compliments, and toes weren't exactly the sexiest part of the human body, but it was the first time anyone ever took notice of hers.

Sai, as if suddenly realizing he had spoken without thinking, averted his eyes from her. "Yes. It's not until now did I realize you have such small feet."

Sakura stared at her teammate curiously. She couldn't help but notice that Sai had not insulted her ever since the mission began. Brushing that fact aside, she threw more wood in the fire, then decided to change the subject. "Have you thought your feelings out about Naruto and Hinata?"

Sai was a bit surprised with the sudden question. The hand scratching his shoulder stopped. "Their relationship confuses me."

"What's so hard to understand? Hinata likes Naruto and Naruto is completely oblivious of it. It's as simple as that."

Sai shook his head. "How can he be oblivious of those feelings when Hinata practically shouts it with her actions?"

Sakura had to smile. "For someone who can't express his emotions well, you sure are observant with these kind things."

"That doesn't answer my question…"

Sakura shrugged. "Well, how can I put it? Naruto is just… well, Naruto."

"And where does that put Hinata?"

Sakura paused, mouth half-open as if quite unsure of what to say. She looked into the fire absently. "Sometimes, we love people even when we know they would never love us in return."

Thoughts of Sasuke flooded her mind like a drug. Though she already made herself give up on him coming home, the memory still made her heart ache.

Sai's next question made her come back to reality. "What satisfaction do people get from having a one-way love, then?"

Sakura scratched her forehead, starting to get annoyed. "I'm not saying that Naruto doesn't like Hinata. Because as far as I know, Naruto seems to possess some unconscious desire to protect the girl with his life. And this has been proven in many different occasions." She gestured with her hand, willing to make Sai understand. "But sometimes, people are content with how things are going, with or without reciprocation."

Sai titled his head, obviously clueless.

Sakura sighed. "Hinata seems to be okay with how things are going; watching in the sidelines, admiring Naruto from afar, gaining strength for him when he's near, and getting inspiration from him when he's not. Do I sound like I'm making any sense?"

Sai thought for a minute, eyes looking down on the ground. "I suppose…"

Sakura dropped the hand she used to gesture to him earlier. "But you still seem lost. I'm sorry, Sai. I don't think I can explain well how things go with these kinds of situations…"

Sai shook his head. "No, no. Your explanation was perfect. I got the gist of it somehow. It's just that…"

"Just what?"

"It's just that… If the situation came to me lo-loving someone…" He stuttered at the word loving as if it was the first time he's ever put the word into use. He seemed to realize this and repeated himself. "If I were to love someone, I think I would appreciate it more to be loved back."

And with this Sakura could only feel for him. She knew the feeling, of the desire to be loved back. Sasuke never loved her back. It was like fishing a strawberry from a bowl using a paper bomb; it was virtually impossible. Sakura, however, did not want Sai to start being pessimistic about this emotion, especially now that he seemed to be showing quite an interest to it.

"I hope that when you do fall in love, Sai, the girl would love you as much as you love her." She gave him a small grin, then fished inside her bag for the small pouch of food pills she had packed before they left the village.

After that conversation, they lapsed once again in silence, listening to the sound of rain and the quiet chewing of food pills when three mice came hurrying inside the tent. They all leaped back into Sai's ready scroll.

"Did they find anything?" Sakura asked.

"One of them has determined a passage, but no sign of anyone down there."

Sakura was about to say something when ten Narutos suddenly started fighting their way noisily inside the small tent. Sakura felt a wire snap inside her head and with one swipe of her fist, the Narutos all flew out into the clearing, grunting in pain.

Sakura stalked after them into the rain, not caring that she was hardly decent and barefooted. "You idiot! Do you want to destroy what little shelter we have?"

The Narutos started talking all at once.

"I can't understand what the heck you're saying!" Sakura roared, and another attack sent all except one Naruto disappearing in puffs of smoke.

The original Naruto pointed to the direction of the ravine. "I've found ten passages down the crevice!"

The news brought Sai out of the tent, with his midriff shirt and slicker already on, and the long flat dagger over his right shoulder. "That makes a total of thirteen. That's a good number to start with today."

Sakura slapped her fist in her palm excitedly. "Now all we have to do is get rid of them." She turned to the two. "I have the paper bombs ready."

"Excellent," Naruto said. He stopped talking at once, a worried look crossing his face.

"What is it?" Sakura asked.

Naruto looked over his shoulder. "The rest of my clones were swept away down the river just now. The rapids are crazy down there. This could be harder than we think."

Sakura nodded grimly. She hurried back into the tent to get dressed. Naruto popped his head into the flap after a few minutes.

"Sakura, we're going on ahead. Sai's mice have all come back and they found two more passages. Give us the paper bombs and we'll start ahead of you."

Sakura looked over to him. "Good idea." She handed the pouch containing the paper bombs she had tied to kunai "I'll get dressed, kill the fire and catch up to you as soon as I can."

And with that, Naruto left with Sai into the rain.

Sakura quickly buried the fire with some rocks, threw on her clothes and cloak, then examined the tent in case there were things she needed to bring with her. She was surprised to see Naruto and Sai's backpacks completely forgotten on one side of the tent. She looked at her own pack. She supposed there was no point in bringing all their supplies with them as the task did not look like it was going to take too long. Kneeling down by her pack, she procured several meters of rope, tying one end of it to a kunai then stuffed it into the pouch strapped to her leg. Better safe than sorry.

With one last look around, she nodded to herself, satisfied and quite sure that there was nothing left forgotten, she hiked her hood up and broke into a run to the direction where Naruto and Sai headed off to.

Sakura could only gasp at what awaited her in the ravine. The riverbed was hardly visible anymore, and the only thing seen of smaller houses were the roofs. She found Sai riding on one of his painted falcons on the opposite side of the slope throwing a kunai at what looked like mossy boulders from where she was standing. She had no idea that the staircases would be camouflaged. Had Naruto and Sai not been ninja, she doubted those passages could have been found, especially in this weather.

"Sai!" Sakura called when she reached the slope, waving her arm over her head to catch the former ROOT member's attention. She saw Sai look over his shoulder and waved from his falcon.

"Where's Naruto?"

Sai silently pointed to his far left, and Sakura spotted an orange blur jumping up the crevice after releasing a kunai, piercing another passage that looked like undergrowth alongside a dead tree protruding from the upper slope. Sakura saw Naruto and Sai signal to each other, and Sai swooped over to Naruto, who hopped on the bird. They then made their way back to where Sakura was standing, and Sai's jutsu faded in a splash of black ink.

"That's fifteen down," Naruto said proudly, rubbing his nose with his thumb. "We've timed the paper bombs to detonate in five minutes. That would give us time to get away at a safe distance."

Sakura wiped at her face when it seemed the rain started pouring harder. "Five minutes. And you didn't even wait for me to help out a bit."

"You can do the remaining eight all by yourself tomorrow if you want," Naruto offered teasingly as they started to walk away.

Sakura was about to reply when something caught her eye. From under a bush, dark and slender, came one of Sai's drawn snakes.

Sai, too, seemed caught unaware of his jutsu suddenly appearing from out of nowhere. Unrolling a blank scroll he took out from his pouch, he let the snake slither in.

And at that moment, Sai whirled around, usually expressionless eyes now big with panic. "There's someone down there."

"What?" Naruto demanded between gritted teeth.

There was not much time to spare. In silent agreement, the three leaped into action.

Sakura, running low with Sai a few paces ahead of her, asked, "In one of the houses?"

Sai nodded gravely, the panic in his eyes earlier replaced with a determined dark look. "In the highest house in the farthest end of the ravine, already half-submerged." He frowned. "We have four minutes."

Damn.

Naruto, who was running on Sai's other side, nodded when he learned of the coordinates. "Is it accessible?"

Sai took out his scroll and brush, wiped at his eyes of excess water, and drew a falcon in remarkable speed. "If we fly, yes. Ninpo! Choji Giga!" The bird swooped out of the scroll in a whirl of ink-black feathers, circled their heads once before swooping low to let Sai ride on it.

"Get on!" Sai ordered, a hand outstretched to Sakura.

Naruto nodded to her. "Go on. I'll back you up. If things don't go according to plan, it won't do us good to have all three of us swept away in the river. Kage bunshin no jutsu!" Several clones dashed on ahead of them, some going down the ravine as close as they could go near the water line, some standing by the edge of it, waiting.

Sakura gave the original Naruto a nod back, looked at Sai's waiting hand and took it, hopping onto the falcon. No sooner had she crouched down on the painted animal's back did it soar fast into the sky, and then swooped down into the crevice like a hawk. Sakura forced the chakra down her feet, making sure she did not fall from the beasts back. She quickly grabbed the rope from her pouch. How lucky was she to have prepared it just in time for a situation like this.

Three minutes…

Sai looked over his shoulder. "Over there!" he said over the noise of the rain around them and the raging river below.

Sakura peered in front of them and saw what Sai was talking about. The house was almost like the others – crudely made and almost about to fall apart – but it was indeed situated on higher ground. The window opposite the slope's face was thrown open, and Sakura could see a crying boy, about five years of age, sitting in the middle of the room hugging a teddy bear. "Can you get closer?"

"If you don't mind being swept away in the current, sure," Sai said.

For the love of her, Sakura smirked. Sarcasm. That's a first.

Sakura's eyes immediately scanned the slope overhanging the house, looking for something sturdy to swing her rope at, and she smiled as she found a strong enough looking tree situated on top of the upper slope. Swinging the end of the rope with the kunai tied to it, she turned to Sai. "Did you plant paper bombs anywhere near here?"

"There are two within the area."

Wonderful, Sakura thought dryly. Letting the kunai-end of the rope fly to her target, she let out a cry of victory when it hit its mark. The rope wound its way around the thick trunk of the tree several times and lost its slack with a loud twang!

Two minutes… Come on!

Sakura nodded at Sai. "Back me up!" And then she jumped. Without thinking much about it, she jumped. The rope bit into her hands, making her wish she had worn her gloves, as she swung over the out of control river, straight into the window of the house where the child was. She landed on the floor, scraped her knee hard on a protruding nail. She didn't care. She hurried to the child who had stopped crying the instant she dropped in.

"You're safe. Come here." She grabbed the child around the waist roughly and headed to the window. She could see Sai's falcon soaring above them, waiting. On the upper slope, she saw a dozen Narutos all watching, ready to act when needed.

She tugged on the rope. If she could get on the roof of the house, Sai would be able to get to them. She turned to the boy. "Hold on to me, all right?"

The boy looked at her with tears threatening to fall again, but he nodded obediently and clung to Sakura for dear life.

One minute… We can make it!

After battling with the rope a few seconds, Sakura found her way to the roof, and Sai immediately swooped down to retrieve them.

"Good job, Sakura," Sai said as he put his arms out for the boy, which Sakura handed to him in a hurry. But the boy suddenly started struggling.

"Teddy!" he cried as he tried to free himself of Sai's grip.

Sakura's mind drifted back into the room, remembering the boy had a teddy bear in his arms. It must have fallen when Sakura grabbed the boy and escape through the window.

"What the heck are you doing, Sakura?" Came Naruto's voice from the far slope. "Get your fat butt on the bird and get out of there! There isn't much time!"

"He's right, Sakura! Get on!" Sai demanded, once again stretching his free hand out. The boy stared at Sakura with big, watery eyes.

Sakura bit her lower lip. There was no time to think things over. She grabbed the rope again. "It won't take long." And, ignoring Naruto's and Sai's protests, she shimmied her way down the window once again, and searched the room with her eyes for the bear.

Thirty seconds…

She found it lying on the floor where the boy had been standing. Relieved that it had not fallen into the river, she quickly grabbed the toy with one hand and the rope in another.

Twenty seconds. If she could just make it to the roof where Sai was waiting…

She could still hear Naruto's loud, worried voice in the background when she hiked one of her legs over the window pane. Pulling at the rope and getting ready for her ascent, she proceeded with her heart pounding in her chest. I can make it!

Ten seconds...

Sai's falcon was hovering over the roof like a panicky mother hen. "Sakura! Hurry!" She heard the dark-haired boy scream.

Three seconds...

Sakura clambered over the roof, panting heavily.

Two seconds...

She looked up and saw Sai's face, paler than usual, eyes on her, an emotion that she couldn't even have dreamed of the boy feeling. Fear. Fear for her life. She reached her hand out to Sai's outstretched one.

One second…

There were loud explosions in fifteen different places within the ravine. The earth beneath Sakura began to shake.

"Come on! Reach!" Sai screamed at the top of his lungs over the noise.

But she couldn't reach him. The house beneath her feet started to tilt sideways. She saw Narutos all around cluster around the tree where she had tied the rope to, and all of them started to pull her up.

"Naruto!" Sakura exclaimed, relieved, as she gripped the rope with her one hand, the other hand still clutching the teddy bear. She was safe. They were going to make it!

But her joy did not last for long. One moment she was looking at Naruto and his clones rescuing her, and the next, she was overshadowed by something from behind.

She did not mean to look but she found herself staring as the water of the river rushed down into her, debris of splintered trees and fist-sized rocks rained down on her. And the next thing that came along made her gasp. The explosion must have dealt the river a great disturbance, because Sakura found herself face to face with a thirty-meter wave that did not hesitate at all as it crashed onto her.

Sakura felt muddy water enter her nose and she began to gag, opening her mouth only to cause more water to invade her system. Underwater, she felt her whole world turn dark, her lungs burning, and her hand, the hand gripping the rope, felt rubbery. She tried to hold on, but the cold water and strong current made her limp inside-out.

It was more than she could take. She finally let go, and felt her body being swept away into nothingness, the thought of the boy being all right being the only thought she had in her head. She hugged the teddy bear to her as if her life depended on it.

The moment Sai watched Sakura disappear in the black water, he felt an unfamiliar bad feeling gripping his throat, making it so very hard to breath. His eyes searched the river's surface, and the bad feeling escalated when he could not find her. He turned to his other teammate, whose clones had been thrown back when Sakura's weight was suddenly swept away into the river. "Naruto! The boy!" And without another word, he swooped down to where the blond was, uncaringly dropped the child in the blonds arms, and was down by the river again in a blink of an eye. Naruto didn't even have the chance to speak as he cradled the now crying boy sitting on his lap..

"Sakura!" He screamed, though he doubted she would hear him over the river and the rain. His heart began to race. He was not used to this. He wanted it to stop. Dashing at his eyes, hoping for more visibility, hoping for the rain to stop pouring, hoping for the river to stop flowing, he soared dangerously low over the water.

And another unfamiliar feeling – a good feeling – sprouted within his chest, a warm, almost sickly happy feeling when he saw Sakura's pink head bob out of the river's surface like a cork. She had her eyes closed, unconscious. But the sight of her made him want to dive into the river with her.

He made his falcon hover lower into the river, making it catch up to the current which carried Sakura down the ravine with unreasonable speed. He tried to reach his hand out to her, and he could have gotten to her too, if a washed away branch of a tree hadn't tried to maul him over. He dodged the offending thing, nearly lost sight of Sakura, and hurried when he saw her head somewhere to his right. This time he was not going to miss. He was going to pull her out of this water hell and stop this bad feeling gripping his throat.

In the corner of his eye, he saw Naruto, with the boy on his back, running along the slope. "Sai! Can you reach her?" he asked loudly, though sounded faint in Sai's ear.

Sai did not bother to respond. He did not have the time to. Right now, all he could see was Sakura's unconscious form, and he had to – needed to – save her. He attempted to grab at her again. Diving lower to the water surface, he desperately reached down at her again, his shoulders aching and arms shaking a bit from the strain. He was almost there! He felt his fingers brush her wet hair slightly.

And then in the background he heard Naruto scream.

"Sai! Look out!"

No sooner did he hear those words did a freight train hit his head from behind. He did not have the chance to cry out in pain. The last thing he saw before the whole world turned dark was pink hair and closed eyes, and he felt the coldness envelope him with a watery embrace.

Sakura felt her whole body aching terribly, from head to foot. She willed herself to open her eyes, and found her cast somewhere dark, cold and unfamiliar. She could feel her feet were still in something very, very wet, and she could hear water somewhere in the distance. Where the heck was she?

She looked down and saw the teddy bear still clutched in her left hand. That's right. She had gone back to get the boy's toy, and then everything went wrong. So completely wrong.

She blinked when she felt something gripping her other hand. The darkness was penetrating, but somewhere seemed to be a light source, and the faint eerie glow made her gasp at what she saw.

There, unmoving was none other than Sai, lying on his back, his hand gripping hers with so much force it was starting to hurt.

"Sai. Sai! Wake up," she urged between chattering teeth, but the boy barely even moved.

Prying her hand from his vise-grip, she pressed her ear to his chest and sighed in relief when she heard his heart beating. She rubbed her bare arms vigorously, hoping to bring back some warmth in her bones. She just had to pick this time to get stranded in a weird place when she had decided to be careless and leave her pack in their camp. She had no food, no tinderbox, and no water. This was turning out to be a very bad day.

It got even worse when Sai suddenly began to tremble violently.

It was cold in this place.

Sakura abandoned the teddy bear to one side, pulled Sai by hooking her hands under his arms away from the water, and used her chakra to examine if he was doing all right. Nothing seemed to be wrong except of a huge lump the size of a robin's egg forming at the back of his head, which was probably why he was still unconscious..

By the time she had finished probing Sai, her eyes had started to adjust and she used the opportunity to look around. They appear to be inside an underground cave. The ceiling was low and moist. The air wasn't heavy so she assumed the cave was connected to a passage that leads to the outside, but with the water level this high, she doubted they would be accessible. The river must have swept her here after the explosions. But why was Sai with her?

She shook her head. This was not the time to think about that. Right now, she needed to tend to Sai before he suffers hypothermia. She looked around the cave once more and sighed in despair. Though there were some branches swept along with them inside the cave, she doubted she could make a fire with wet wood. But there was no time for wishful thinking. She got started with taking off Sai's boots and slicker. She held the latter at arms length and thanked the heavens that Sai had opted to wear something waterproof and nonabsorbent. She spread the slicker on the far side of the cave, dragged the still shivering Sai laboriously – who would have thought he could be this heavy? – and rolled him on it. Then she proceeded with taking off his shirt. It was not an easy task, since the patient was not being too cooperative.

She carefully laid the wet shirt on a splintered branch, along with his boots, forehead protector, gloves and pants. She had discarded all thought that she had just undressed Sai without his knowledge, and here he was lying naked in front of her.

She looked away, embarrassed. If she were not a medic, and did not know how severe hypothermia could be, she would not be doing this. Right. She attached her thoughts to that rational reason as she too began to undress, neatly hanging her own clothes right next to Sai's. Her face completely red from ear to ear, she gingerly laid down beside the dark-haired boy, pulled her own cloak over the two of them and wrapped her arms around him.

He was cold to the touch. She began to worry since the only warmth she could provide right now was body heat. If only she had her tinderbox…

She gasped when she felt Sai's arms snake around her waist, in desperate need of more warmth, and he pulled her against him, making her squeak.

This was the closest she has ever been to a guy. This, she knew then and there, was going to be a big problem, because though she had never really been romantically involved with the person lying next to her, she could not help but acknowledge the fact that she was very, very uncomfortable with their situation right now. While in normal circumstances, she was very professional in her medic work, she could not avoid the plain truth that she was a girl, and Sai was a boy, and they were alone and naked under the same cloak.

Feeling stupid for thinking these thoughts, she suspected that she too was suffering from mild hypothermia where the person suffers from mental confusion and lethargy, and will be back to normal once their body temperature stabilizes. Satisfied with that rationalization that she was hypothermic – that has to be the reason for her weird thinking! – she allowed herself to bury her face against Sai's lean chest, and inhaled his scent of charcoal and parchment. In no time she was fast asleep, dreamed that she was lying down next to Sai, each enjoying the warmth of the other, only to wake up later to discover that it was not just a dream.

Well, I wasn't really gifted with making action stories, but I wanted to give it a try. XD

I just thought that it was about time I try to some fluff between the two, though it was a bit harder than I thought. I didn't want to make it sound rushed, but I had fun writing this chapter. A little longer than the other chapters, so bear with me. And don't worry, I have no plans of turning this story lemony. XD

To those who reviewed, know that you are all loved. 333