Chapter 26

Ino glanced down from her perch at Hinata, concerned as she saw the look of pure concentration on her pale features. She had her Byakgan activated, but at them moment her eyes were near closed as her trembling hands clung tightly to the tree that they were using as viewing leverage. It came up directly against the window of Kakashi and Sakura's bedroom, but they had to also account for any rooms in the building from which they might be viewed. They could mask their chakra, and be quiet as mice, but that would do them no damn good at all if someone saw their bodies, sliding up the slim tree. That's where Hinata's Byakugan came in handy, and Ino knew that this would be as good as impossible without it, but that didn't mean that she felt comfortable placing her life in someone else's hands while she was unable to judge the success of their endeavors for herself. As ninja, they had been trained to work in teams, but that made her in no way comfortable with allowing someone else to do the work for her; if you want a job done well, do it yourself.

Ino reached down and gently pressed two calm chakra filled fingers against the girl, letting the chakra seep in to gain the girl's attention. Hinata's eyes opened to stare at her quizzically.

"Are we alright?" She mouthed, exaggerated words so that she wouldn't have to repeat herself. Hinata waited for a moment, checking again and then nodded. Before she'd even started to move Ino had climbed up and vaulted through the window, opening it without difficulty. She frowned. Surely Kakashi would have at least put a seal on it... or had Sakura taken it off for them?

Ino spun around the space, searching intently, but she didn't have to be Hinata to see that there weren't any visible traps. So what? These criminals were so confident that they didn't have to watch out for intruders? That was encouraging.

Hinata landed behind her lightly, checking that the door was properly closed before she spoke. "Wha-t shall we do? Sakura's not here, should we look for her? Or wait for her to come back here?"

Ino frowned. "It was difficult just getting in here. For now I think we should just wait, and if she is not back in an hour or so we can go look for her."

Hinata's eyes narrowed in fear for her friend, but she nodded anyway and rested her weight down onto the large bed, kicking her legs backwards and forwards as she perched. "Well what do we do now then?"

888

"Right then, pretty soon we're going to have to split off, so we don't need any breaks until then. The longer we can go without stopping the better because we may have difficulty finding exact locations and setting up plans for the attack. Remember, all of the breaks are to be simultaneous and we can't hold any of the buildings off because we need to do a little more surveillance. Got it?"

Kiba rolled his eyes at Kurenai. "Yeah, no looking at the scenery, we got it!" Swoosh swoosh swoosh. Kurenai spoke over the sound of their traveling, not the sound of people hitting trees or rustling leaves; they were ninja, they could move without sound. No, it was the sound of them soaring through the air against the wind as they jumped from tree to tree so as to move quickly without alerting either enemy nin or civilians.

"And I know this is common sense, but don't lose or break your headsets. If you do, we have no way to stay in contact."

"We know Kurenai-sensei. We're not Genin, you know."

"I'm just making sure. I don't want anything to happen to any of you, got it?"

Kiba grinned and raised one hand in a sloppy salute. "Yes sensei, we got it."

"Alright then. Let's pick up the pace a bit."

Kiba grinned and rolled his eyes at Choji. Kurenai was every bit as Jonin slave-driver as Kakashi was, but that was still better than allowing Gai to be in charge.

Thank god he was the other half of Kurenai's team.

888

This group could not get any more infuriating.

Kakashi clenched his jaw as he pushed on faster, forcing himself to remain silent and his tense body not to lash out at his quite frankly ridiculous subordinates. They weren't even a fifth of the way through the journey and they were already slacking off, a far cry away from the 'capable' team that The Boss had claimed them to be. This would be a much easier job solo. He'd been sent in a four man group to complete a one man mission that judging by these clowns could not be of any real importance. It was nothing more than a waste of time.

His eye widening a little as he took that in, the Copy Nin pressed on, fully prepared to leave the others behind as he thought of Sakura, his sweet little Sakura left alone in that terrible place. He never left a teammate behind, and she was his teammate, not them.

He was going to stab these people in the back anyway, so the personal hatred that he was developing for them could definitely be of use if he could control it; decent leaf ninja could kill for the sake of the mission, but someone who killed selfishly was not an asset, they were a liability and would drag the team down.

So he wouldn't touch them until that time when it was absolutely necessary.

He pushed on, ignoring the protest of his teammates until he could no longer hear them and reach their stop point in record time, passing through it and moving on until he reached the next, arriving just as the sun was about to set. He'd stop here for now, and if the others caught up with him then good for them, but if not he would be leaving early the next morning as usual, and we would be going on without them.

888

Sakura gasped as she was slung into a dark room, her form hitting against the wall as the men bolted the door behind her, leaving their protection and sensory jutsu on it to stop her from escaping. The chakra restraints that they had put onto her had been bad enough.

Sakura looked around herself, searching for anything that she could possibly use, that could possibly help her in this blood drenched prison but to no avail. They were approaching her, but they were moving slowly and not attacking and she had broken from the plan. She had no clue at all in her panicked brain as to how she should act in this situation. She couldn't attack them. It wasn't time.

"Are you going to cooperate with us little kunoichi?"

She shook with rage, feeling the shudders of fear still shooting through her and her pride hoped that they saw it only as anger. She shouldn't be afraid of scum like them. She was a ninja, as strong as her team, hell stronger. She had no reason to be.

"Fuck no!" She spat out at them, feeling the kind of frustration most known by children as they try to antagonize their elders. These men were weak! She'd seen them work. They ought to be afraid of her, or at least shocked or angered by her. Instead they just smiled, and carried on walking towards her, their arms crossed as if there was no possible reason why they would have to fight.

"Fine." The taller one laughed at her, and carried on moving towards her, but his friend stopped. He walked towards the mother and her newborn child.

What was he thinking? He was going to check she was alright? Sakura felt dread crash through her even as the tiny part of optimism let that thought out. They weren't going to help her. She was not naive enough to really believe that they would.

It was no shock when it came, in the form of a laugh, the kind usually used to joke. "Put these on or the child dies."

She couldn't feel her chakra paths at all, it was as if a limb had gone numb without reason leaving her violently confused and powerless to protect herself against even the most basic of attacks. Without her chakra she was vulnerable. Not however, as vulnerable as that child, and that alone had been enough to control her. She could never let a child suffer. She could never let a child die. They were innocent, they were weaker than she was and they came before the mission. Before herself.

That wasn't quite enough to control her nerves and fear. She'd seen what they did to the women in here, she knew of the abuse that they suffered. She hadn't yet helped them; maybe this was her punishment. She would truly know it for herself. She'd known that for certain the moment that they had brought her up to the top floor.

This room was smaller than the others that she had seen and and the window was boarded up rather than filled in or blacked out completely with soundproofing. The boards were thrown on unevenly, allowing small slivers of light to shine in, bathing her face in both brightness and shadow befitting of a prison. She understood this scene, she was confident in that. She knew, for fact, that things could get a whole lot worse.

This could be in a different setting, in a family home. This could be ordinary. This could be abuse at the hands of her husband in front of the eyes of her child. The same baby that she had just sacrificed herself for could be hers, could be here watching as she screamed, as she bled. That same child could grow up here, being told tales of how they would leave, that what Daddy was doing was wrong, that one day they would be free.

That same child could know that she lied.

This room was bare, its only furnishing being a battered chair. It could be worse. She could be beaten for nothing more than being sat on the sofa, watching her child play.

She'd been wrong before, when she'd been the one watching. It wasn't worse to be and innocent child witnessing the most horrific act of violence. It was worse to be the adult, aware of the effects. Knowing that her child was watching and that nothing was being done to stop it.

Sakura frowned as she was brought out of her thoughts by the door being opened again, but when she turned she didn't just see them men that she expected.

"Well where did these little birdies come from then?"

A/N - Another chapter. Unfortunately I am once again having computer difficulties, and shall try and update as frequently as humanly possible. I can feel this coming to a close! Funnily enough, the original plan I had for this story ended up with Kakashi in jail as a prisoner of war... to say that I went off on a tangent with this story is an understatement. Oh well.

Thank you to Little-bad-Angel for reviewing! Yeah, we might need slightly more effective weapons... rusty kunai?

Reviews are appreciated.

Kashi-Cookie-Monster

xxx