Disclaimer : I do not own Naruto or its characters.
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She coughed blood as the sword impaled her. But she was not worried, at least she saved chio.
Chio looked horrified. And only Sasori's mocking chuckles could be heard.
Everything happened so fast.
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"Naruto!!!" Kakashi yelled.
"Naruto, don't be reckless. We have retrieved Gaara, there's no need for further pursuing the enemy. He's half dead anyways." kakashi tried to tell some sense to his former student.
"No sensei I need to finish that damn akatsuki for doing that to Gaara." Naruto yelled back. He was furious. His friend was dead, can't he see he needs to take revenge.
Gaara didnt deserve this. He didn't deserve any of this bullshit. And After he finally started receiving the respect of his village, this happens. He'll kill that blonde bastard.
Kakashi yet again said in a calm voice."Naruto, he's going to die even if you don't give him the final blow. Deidara of the akatsuki will die soon, you shouldn't waste your time on him, we have to go back." When Naruto didn't listen kakashi changed his tactics.
"Do you want Sakura to be dead too?" Came his sensei's voice.
He halted. "Sakura-chan is strong, she can handle it and that old granny is with her " he said although there was doubt in his voice.
"Is that what you think? Then you should probably open your eyes from your blind rage to see the situation. Gaara was defeated by one of them,how do you expect Sakura to take out this enemy, even if chio baa-san is with her the enemy is a formidable opponent . She's probably waiting for us to help her." Explained kakashi. A frown was on his face.
Worry for his female student apparent on his masked face.
Naruto looked like he's contemplating the situation. He looked at the half dead blonde, then back at his sensei.
His sakura-chan was more important than any of those bastard akatsuki.
He nodded and they began their sprint back to the hideout.
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They were halfway to the hideout when they spotted a battered sakura and chio baa-san Coming their way.
The four of them stopped at the nearby clearing and only then did Naruto put Gaara's body down. There was a deafening silence around the clearing.
It was like even the wild animals knew that something terrible has taken place and that one of the kind Souls is not within the living anymore.
He was still crying. He looked at Sakura and relief flooded in him as he saw her alive. Thoughts of her being dead were haunting him the whole way back here. But it couldn't lessen the pain he was feeling by having one of his most precious friend being dead.
Sakura was bending beside Gaara's body and was checking if she could do something with her medical ninjutsu.
Naruto knew it. Knew that there isn't anything more that could be done anymore. But he just didn't want to believe it.
She withdrew her hands from Gaara's chest and shook her head. She looked at Naruto.
He was shaking , his face was down. When he looked up, he was crying again. He moved towards Gaara.
"Why...why is it always him. Why every bad thing happens to him. Why the hell did he have to die. Damn those akatsuki members."
He was crying and shaking so much that sakura thought he will fall on the ground.
Chio baa-san moved towards Gaara and and placed her hands on Gaara. Blue chakra started flowing from her hands and into his lifeless body.
Sakura's eyes widened in realisation."chio baa-sama that jutsu-" she cut herself off as she saw the smile on her face.
Naruto looked confused and looked at sakura then chio who was still doing the jutsu.
"Why" Came Sakura's voice.
"I've done many wrongs in my worthless life. Because of me, many lives have suffered. I want to do a single worthy thing to add to my sin filled life."
The dam broke and tears started flowing freely from Sakura's eyes as she nodded. She is not yet experienced enough to have that wisdom that chio has, she doesn't even know what kind of sins chio has committed in her long life to decide if her decision to sacrifice herself is right or wrong.
And really who is she to decide what is right or wrong, so she kept her mouth shut.
After a few more minutes life started returning to Gaara's body. Naruto and others looked ecstatic but Sakura still had a grim look on her face.
She explained everyone that to save Gaara's life chio baa-sama is giving her own life force as a sacrifice.
Naruto's face looked crestfallen.
Everyone sobered up after hearing that piece of information.
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They wrapped her body and were about to start their journey back to suna.
Gaara was alive again and was just unconscious. He was being carried by Naruto and kakashi, who too was exhausted due to the use of kamui, was being carried by Guy.
Then Sakura remembered something. She felt light somehow. And her hair were missing her headband.
She called to the rest of the team.
"I want to retrieve my headband back from the hideout. You guys go on ahead, I'll catch up real fast."
"Are you sure Sakura? You should take one of us with you and it's only a headband, you can get a new one back at konoha" said Neji.
Sakura frowned. They still think that she can't take care of herself on her own. That She's week. she replied with a bitter smile on her face.
" I will be fine on my own. Thank you for worrying. And I can't abandon my headband, it is the symbol that I too are a konoha shinobi and I'll only abandon it with my death"
Neji shook his head amused. "You are spending too much time with naruto" she smiled and was ready to take off.
"But Sakura-chan" Naruto protested as expected. Sakura looked at her blonde best friend and smiled. "I'll be back in no time. You won't even notice me gone, I promise." And she was gone.
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As sakura reached the entrance of the hideout, she heard a strange noise coming from inside it.
Her eyes narrowed in suspicion.
She walked inside and hid behind a boulder.
What she saw seemed unbelievable even to her own eyes.
There in the middle of the destroyed cavern stood Sasori in all his glory assessing his broken puppets.
And before she knew it, a gasp escaped her. Sasori's eyes looked lazily towards where she hid.
"What a bad luck you must have. Coming back here just to lose your life, little girl" he said her mocking nickname so slowly that she felt shivers run down her spine.
She concluded that there's no point in being hidden anymore so she stood up and faced him.
"Smart." He looked around the destroyed area then back towards her."look what you've done to my prized collection."
She looked around warily. She knew she couldn't fight him, now that she's so exhausted and running low on chakra.
"Now you have to pay for what you have done. You will become my new prized puppet" he said with an insane expression on his face.
Sakura couldn't do a thing to stop him. Sakura smiled bitterly and said in her mind 'well it looks like I won't be able to keep my promise to you, Naruto'
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She was having a very bad feeling about this. Even though she sent team Guy as a back up, something felt horribly wrong.
Team kakashi and team Guy are due to come back today. And she won the lottery, again.
They didn't tell anything in the short report save for that the mission is completed and the kazekage is safe and sound back in suna.
A knock.
"Come in " tsunade yelled. Worry over taking her usually calm mood.
A chunin came in and looked nervous of his hokage's mood.
" Team kakashi and Team Guy are back from their mi-" the scared chunin was cut off with a "send them in quickly"
The chunin hurried away and moments later came the two teams.
They all were silent. The usually chattery group was as silent as a deadly night. She realised that something was missing.
She surveyed them again with a critical eye. And came to a conclusion that rather than something, someone was missing.
And that someone happen to be her apprentice, the girl she came to love as her own daughter.
'Maybe she went to the Hospital right away. But it's her duty to submit her report with everyone. Hmm I'll scold her later.'Tsunade thought.
But she asked anyway.
"Where's Sakura?" Was what she asked. It was simple and rather ordinary question.
But the looks she received were far from what they normally should've been.
She was feeling knots forming in her stomach.
No one answered. Her patience with her control on panic was running low.
She yelled at them this time." I asked where the hell is Sakura? Why the hell are you acting as if she was dead or some-" she cut herself off as her own words registered in her mind. This had to be a sick joke.
She looked at kakashi, but he looked away. Naruto was already crying.
She looked at team Guy. Lee and Tenten were crying, Neji too looked away but she caught the moisture forming in his eyes. Guy was looking at her grimly.
Tsunade started panicking. No, No , No. This can't be happening. It's not what it looks like.
This is all a part of naruto's prank. That brat is going too far with this.
I am sure Sakura will just walk in from that door and say that I fell for it and everyone will laugh their asses off.
I sure of it.
So so so...sure.
Moisture started forming in her own eyes.
Her voice wavered. " if this is a big joke, I am telling you this is going too far." She looked at Naruto " I will not give you any mission for a whole month and you will forced to do D-rank missions. I am warning you."
When there was no voice of protest. It became all clear.
This is no joke. No nightmare.
This is reality. It is really happening. Her daughter like apprentice is dead.
She forced herself to remain calm in front of her followers and reminded herself that she is their Hokage and she have to follow her duty as the leader.
Her lips formed a grim line and she asked "Give me a full mission report, right now." She put in in a lot of effort not to let her voice waver.
Guy gave the whole report with some inputs of Neji and Kakashi. They first informed her about how they retrieved the kazekage and then started explaining the happenings of after the mission.
After the finished mission, when everyone supposed to go home together without anyone missing. When there wasn't supposed to be any casualties.
"We waited for 1 whole hour, but she didn't show up and we were starting to worry. So Naruto and Kakashi went to look for her at the hideout." Finished Guy and looked at kakashi to continue.
Kakashi said " When me and Naruto reached the hideout-
Flashback
Naruto and kakashi couldn't reach the hideout quickly since they were exhausted from their fight with the blonde akatsuki nin.
When they entered the once hideout, they found it completely destroyed.
The roof was blown up and there were craters every where."Hmm they sure had fun defeating him." Exclaimed Naruto.
Kakashi ignored him in favour of a thing far more important than Naruto's praises.
A red konoha headband.Sakura's headband.Naruto too noticed it and picked it up.
"It's sakura-chan's""I know that but the question here is, where Is the owner of this headband." Said kakashi warily.
They looked around for half an hour but couldn't find their teammate.They were about to call team Guy to help them when they noticed a presence just a mile away.
They looked at each other, nodded and followed that presence.What they saw was horrifying.
Sakura was there. Lying on his shoulder.But her eyes... her eyes looked dead.
There was no light in her eyes."SAKURA-CHAN " Naruto yelled and ran towards his best friend who was in the enemy's clutches.
As he reached a hand towards her totally ignoring the red head's glare, the said red head moved. Fast.
One moment he was there standing with sakura on his shoulder and the next moment he was perched on the tree above them, sakura still on his shoulder.
Naruto's hand was only able to grasp air.
"You bastard. Give my Sakura-chan back." He yelled.Sasori chuckled. " your sakura-chan" he repeated mockingly. " She is no longer yours to have jinchuriki. She is going to be my puppet now."
"That's not gonna happen" yelled Naruto.But before naruto or kakashi could do anything Sasori dissappeared with sakura.
Only his laugh could be heard.
End of Flashback
"We searched for hours but couldn't find anyone. Even my nin dogs weren't able to track them."
Tsunade nodded and send them away to rest. Of course naruto protested but with a glare and a threat he too went home.
No one knows what she did when they left her office. She cried her eyes out. She drank sake all night.
She knew now.
She knew that she was dammed for losing her loved ones.
Tsunade stared at the photo framed in the left wall and another series of sobs started escaping her.
It happens every damn time. But it hurts the same, every time too.
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Thank u for reading. ;D