"And what the fuck are you three grinning at?" Kosuke demanded angrily to the rogues who grinned wider, showing their pointed dirty teeth more to them, the sight making Ami grimace and look away. The rogues looked at one another before the final one spoke.
"Looks like someone in your group is a traitor…pretty pathetic that you couldn't tell that girl wasn't even here." he stated jerking his head in Ami's direction. "Unless of course it really was her…and she's lying. Either way you let someone take this Sayuri from right under your nose. Weak and shameful if you ask me." he grinned before letting out a roar of laughter along with his two comrades. It was now time for Kosuke to tense as two of the rouges were suddenly sitting on either side of the tall criminal boss while the leader stood next to Ami, his knife against her stomach while his free blood and dirt stained hand held the back of her neck. "Now lovey, you said there is a leaf ninja in your base…where is it?" he asked in a low voice. Ami swallowed and looked to Kosuke with unsure eyes. Kosuke looked at the two rogues on either side of him.
"Funny how none of you are targeting Kenta…" he mused.
"Not really, he don't have anythin' to offer us. You're the boss so you might have some fightin' talent. The little girl knows where your base is and were to find the other leaf ninja." one rouge informed him dryly.
"Why do you want to know where the leaf ninja is?"
"We have business with Leaf and one or two of their kind would be very beneficial for us. That's all you need to know " the leader answered before moving his face closer to the girl and pressing the blade against her stomach a little harder, enough to cause pain but not enough to draw blood.
"Business with the leaf?" Kosuke repeated, glancing at Kenta who was frozen in place. "Why don't you go after the others that left the town?"
"Because we aren't stupid. If they've left, they'll be back with their other friends once they make a plan. Plus we'd rather have one of their own as our hostage to make them hesitate." the leader growled.
"There's more of them?" Kenta asked, looking to the leader who nodded, Kenta looked back to Kosuke. "Maybe they took Sayuri." he suggested. Kosuke watched the man silently.
"Kenta, where is your father? I haven't seen him all day, that's very strange for him…maybe he worked with the ninja and is the one who has her?" he challenged before loud yells and screams of terror filled the area.
"What the hell?" the leader of the rogues growled, looking towards the door before back to Kosuke who looked just as confused.
"There really is no need to hold a knife to her. We can work together. You lend us your strength and we can divide the leaf ninja corpses between us." Kenta spoke up. "I mean we have a common target…all the Boss wants is them gone through whatever means and to have Sayuri back." he continued before looking to his Boss who smirked and nodded.
"He's right and I don't know if those screams were my men or the leaf ninja, but I'd like to find out…" Kosuke agreed. Satisfied, the leader nodded in agreement and released a shaking Ami.
"Very well, but try to double cross us and well…" the leader trailled off with an almost demonic chuckle. "It won't be just the leaf ninja corpses that could be halved, get what I'm sayin'?" he asked with a bloodthirsty grin. Kosuke nodded slowly, Hidden Mist ninja were always bad news especially ones this age; there was no doubt that they had all taken the gruesome graduation exam before it was stopped. Leaving Ami and Kenta behind, Kosuke and the rouges made their way out to the forest where the screams had come from. It wasn't long before they came across the scene. Some of the men that had been in the bar were slumped on the ground or draped over the branches in the trees. Not a scratch on them, a weapon in sight or any sign of blood. They were just unconscious.
"What caused this?" Kosuke asked with a frown.
"Genjutsu I'd say…" one of the rouges answered looking around cautiously in case some were acting or the person who'd done it was still around. A low groan came from a man just outside the group. Kosuke frowned and kicked the man sharply, adding a little bit of his chakra for an added boost; hoping that would be enough to knock him out of his unconscious state. Wincing the man pushed himself up to sit. Shakily he rubbed his head and blinked. His eyes widened and he looked around.
"B-BOSS?" he exclaimed, getting to his feet as fast as he could.
"What happened here?" Kosuke growled in frustration.
"I-I don't know. We caught sight of two ninja; that blond kid and the older silver haired one. We chased them and then…" he trailed off to look at the others scattered around the area. "it went dark. The next thing I know, I'm on the ground and I see you." he finished nervously. Kosuke frowned and looked around. Everyone was in a deep unconscious state…but this one seemed to have been less affected. Probably because of the chakra restrictors he had around the town, the genjutsu could only do so much and because he was further away he wasn't hit as hard by the others.
"Come on, get up. We can't waste time waking these weaklings up." Kosuke ordered before he looked to the rogues. "Sense any one around?" he asked, only gaining a shake of their heads as an answer. The rogues snapped their heads to the east of the forest and shot off, leaving Kosuke and the young man to follow them. They broke through the trees to stop a few yards away from Sakura, bent over and holding a dazed Naruto by the front of his shirt, looking as though she was about to kill him. Her jade eyes looked up to the smirking rogues. To anyone that knew Sakura, they would know to stay as far away from her as possible when she had that fierce, steely look in her eyes.
"She looks to be a lot of fun, huh?" one rogue asked looking to his leader who grinned wider.
"Seems like a feisty one…" the other commented with a lecherous chuckle.
"Now, now men. You can play with this one all you want…I just want to know where Sayuri is first. I like to limit the amount of females I hurt in one day." he said pulling out his blood stained blade, making Sakura glare.
"And who is this Sayuri?" the kunoichi asked casually, trying to hold back her anger as she released Naruto and straightened up.
"I know you know who she is…her blood is on your gloves after all…."Kosuke grinned, watching the young girl tense and fist her hands as though trying to hide the stains from his gaze. "So I'll ask one more time…where is she?" he asked taking a step forward, eyeing Sakura carefully. "You must be a medic ninja. You've already used a lot of chakra and Sayuri's blood on your hands, that's the only possibly explanation. The look in your eyes tells me I'm right, so as a medic…you should know of the damage that I did to Sayuri…namely her legs and side." he grinned when he saw the steely look falter in the blazing green orbs of the pink haired woman.
"I don't know… I healed her as much as I could and another team member took her to a safe location. They're probably half way to the next village by now." she answered him with a smug smirk. Kosuke rolled his neck from side to side and loosened his shoulders before slipping into a crouch. His cold, emotionless never left her face. With a wide grin, he pushed off the ground and shot at her. Sakura's eyes remained on his blade while he seemed to calm and relax his body. But the moment he pushed off the ground, she lost sight of him. Unsure from what side he'd attack from, she built chakra into her fist and slammed it down into the ground. Immediately the ground shattered, raised and cracked.
The unexpected strength of the girl and the attack itself, made Kosuke stumble and lose his footing, causing him to jump back to a safe and level ground. His gaze fell back to the pink haired woman and narrowed. His gaze fell back to the rogues who had gotten themselves into a fight with other leaf ninja. The one remaining member of his group was on the ground, knocked out and trapped by the broken pieces of earth. Snarling, Kosuke charged back at Sakura, this time not underestimating her.
"This isn't looking too good…" Lee fretted while leaning against the tree. Silently he looked at the group around him. Neji had his Byakugan activated, keeping an eye on Genma who they had found in Kosuke's hideout in the mountain next to the town. Shino hadn't said much since they left Konoha and kept his head down as he sat at the riverside. Tenten bit her lip nervously, unable to shake the image from her mind. Kakashi had burst through the trees carrying her limply in his arms. He had told Kiba to take her out of the town and to the next village where he was to wait for them. Kiba nodded, his eyes wide as he looked at Sayuri's bandaged body in his team leader's arms. The only sign of life was the slow, ragged rise and fall of her chest. Lightly draping the woman securely onto Akamaru's body, both he and the dog set off. Kakashi had told Sasuke to come with him before the two set off.
"Everything will be fine Lee. You and Sasuke destroyed the chakra restrictors so all of us have all of our chakra…not that it mattered for you anyway." Tenten spoke softly, deciding to reassure her team-mate while trying to push the image of the scarlet haired woman from her head…while she had been bandaged, there was something that unnerved Tenten. Slowly the brunette looked to Neji. "How is he…and are Kakashi-san and the others okay?" she asked. Neji let out a sigh.
"Genma's injured and exhausted…" he trailed off, allowing his almost all seeing gaze locate the others. "Kakashi-san, Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura are fighting. It looks like they are almost finished." he told them. And Sakura is perfectly fine Lee before you begin to yell out, the Hyuga added swiftly, silencing his usually loud team-mate who grew more enthusiastic and loud when it came to a certain pink haired kunoichi.
Her screaming had started when they came closer to the town. She was still unconscious but the strangled, agonised screams were unrelenting as he rushed to the nearest building. Thankfully he had burst into an inn with a kind-faced woman met him. "Oh my!" she gasped as the screams filled the building.
"Please can you give me a room?" Kiba asked. Quickly the woman nodded and hurriedly led him upstairs to the top floor, which had the biggest room in the building. Quickly Kiba lay Sayuri down on the bed and looked to the woman, his eyes pleading for help. The woman, looked her over and bit her lip and looked Sayuri's bandaged body over and slowly reached out to lay her hand on Sayuri's forehead. Quickly she whipped it away and looked to Kiba. "She has a fever…I'm sorry but I don't know what to do. There is a doctor just down the road. I'll go and get him." she said before rushing out as fast as she could. Kiba's panicked gaze shot from the door, to Sayuri and then to Akamaru who whined. How the hell did Sakura and the other medics act so calmly especially when a clearly injured woman was screaming her lungs out. He could see sweat forming along her hairline as she continued to scream. The dog ninja pulled off his jacket and rushed into the bathroom. Grabbing a hand towel from the rack her placed it under the tap and turned on the cold water. After ringing out the excess water and folding it, he sprinted to Sayuri's side to drape the cold, damp towel over her forehead. While it might have soothed the fever slightly, it didn't cease the pained screams and Kiba all but kissed the doctor and woman when they arrived.
Unfortunately this doctor wasn't a ninja and had no idea what was wrong with her. In his opinion with broken and cracked ribs she shouldn't have been able to scream like that. It pained him to hear such agony, the only thing he could do was inject her with some morphine. After a few moments, her screams lessened and it was reduced to whimpers and heavy, broken breathing. Silently, Kiba thanked the doctor and woman before sitting next to the bed and prayed for Sakura and the others to hurry because he felt helpless and couldn't do anything for Sayuri except sit with her and rewet the towel on her head, hoping that it helped in some way.
"You've done well to avoid getting touched by my knife, kids." Kosuke complimented Sakura and Sasuke, twirling his blade between his fingers. "But…unfortunately for Sayuri I don't think it's looking good." he chuckled.
"I healed her, that stab wound is closed and her life isn't in danger." Sakura growled at him, only to glare when Kosuke laughed loudly.
"Oh no little missy. Her life is in a lot of danger. The head wound, the wounds on her back, the broken ribs that's nothing compared to what this knife does. I don't even need to cut someone to cause them a slow and painful death. You see, separating Sayuri from Ami while she's been touched, cut and stabbed by my blade without proper healing has practically signed the poor girl's death certificate. And with the only little medic here and not with her…my guess is she'll be dead within a day." Kosuke explained with a long, loud and cruel laugh. He was serious. Fearfully, Sakura looked to Kakashi who was fighting with the leader of the Rogues. "Go, Sakura. Catch up to Kiba quickly. We'll take care of everything here." he ordered. Nodding, Sakura spun on her heal and sped off, hoping to catch up in time. Silently she cursed herself. What had she missed while she had healed Sayuri earlier?