Shikamaru was woken abruptly by a knock on his window. Kakashi was standing outside, demeanor unusually serious. "Tsunade-sama has summoned us."

He was annoyed. It was only a few days before Sakura was likely to come back and Shikamaru didn't want to be sent on a mission now just to miss her homecoming. Still, he dragged himself out of bed and dressed quickly, following Kakashi across the rooftops while yawning. They were met at the Hokage Tower by a bleary-eyed Naruto with Kiba and Neji arriving only a moment behind them. Tsunade looked surprisingly awake and just as serious as Kakashi. Shikamaru was starting to feel dread sink deep into his stomach. Something was very wrong.

"Some of you may know that Konoha recently sent out a medical team to a small town suffering from an mutated influenza outbreak." His stomach twisted and he could see Naruto's eyes snap into focus. "I have just received word that the entire town is gone. Including our team."

Shikamaru could feel the blood drain out of his face and he stared at Tsunade uncomprehendingly while she continued. "You are to investigate and find our medics and the townspeople. I hate to send this specific team," she glanced at Shikamaru's white face, Naruto's shaking hands, Neji's stiff demeanor, "because nearly all of you will be emotionally compromised, but your individual skills are the best we have for this mission." Distantly, Shikamaru remembered that Hinata was with Sakura on this mission. "Kakashi is field leader and he has the previous mission details. You are to leave once you are full briefed. Dismissed."

Shikamaru felt rooted to the spot, but Kakashi's hand on his arm broke him out of his daze. He laid out the entirety of Sakura's mission, which sounded clear cut and basic for a medical emergency. Tsunade had given them the daily status reports that Sakura had sent and Shikamaru looked them over with frustration, not seeing anything amiss. The last one was dated two days ago and was just the same as the others, careful tabulations of patients cured and their rate of recovery with a cheerful note at the bottom about how they hadn't had any new infections in over a week. She would have been home tomorrow, if everything stayed the same. What happened?

They traveled for hours at top speed, Kakashi pushing them to their limits. No one complained, though Kiba was looking thoroughly spooked by Naruto's uncharacteristic silence. This trend continued for the next two days, speaking at a minimum. As they drew closer to the town, Neji's Byakugan was consistently activated, looking for anything that may lead them to their lost comrades. And betrothed if I remember correctly. The Hyuugas are pretty fond of keeping it in the family.

Thinking uncharitable thoughts about others kept him from contemplating the horrible things that could be happening to Sakura, though it didn't get rid of the overwhelming distress that burned throughout his body and settled in his chest.

The group came to the entrance of the town in midday and it looked completely normal. Lights were on, buildings were standing without damage and there was even laundry flapping around on several lines. The only thing missing were the people. It was disturbingly quiet as they paced through, Kakashi with Shikamaru, Neji with Kiba and Naruto by himself.

Shikamaru could see that the fruit in the small stands in the market square had started to rot, indicating that they had been there for several days. Kakashi had summoned his ninken as soon as they had arrived and was conferring with them, before sending them all off in different directions again. Sakura loves those dogs.

He shook his head, as if to physically remove the intrusive thoughts. Kakashi appeared before him. "This place is a ghost town. Pakkun says that every scent he has picked up so far is at least four days old."

Shikamaru reeled in his frustration and anger as much as possible. "Right timeline. How could an entire town's worth of people just disappear? It makes no logical sense."

"Are you sure Sakura's messages didn't say anything?"

He grunted. "They were all very routine, filled with medical jargon and professional language." Except the last one. She had written a post-script for it. His eyes widened and he dug through his pack for the last report and flipped it open, looking at the exact wording Sakura had used. Is this a code? Did Sakura see this coming?

He read it aloud to Kakashi, who was still looking at him for an explanation for his hurried movements. "She wrote a post script only on the last report that Tsunade-sama received. It says 'This week has seen zero infections, though we have still been bombarded with patients. There are two who have the worst of it. The healer and his assistant are out of commission. I hope to see you all soon.' Do you think that means anything?"

Kakashi looked dubious. "That sounds pretty innocuous to me. Don't get your hopes up."

Shikamaru wasn't so sure. "If something was going on, Sakura would notice. Maybe she couldn't actively handle the problem herself." He read the message again. "Why would there still be new patients if the last person infected was over a week ago? What happened to the healer? Why would she mention two specific patients?"

Kakashi shrugged. "It's possible that the healer was just burnt out after dealing so many people. We can't know that it was because he was removed by an outside force."

"It's the closest thing we have to a clue right now, Kakashi."

Before the other man could respond, Naruto shunshined up to them, eyes glowing yellow. "Something happened about two miles south of town. There are busted trees everywhere and Sakura-chan's chakra signature was left there, but it's faint."

Kakashi whistled and Shikamaru saw Kiba's head pop up from behind the fence he was inspecting several streets down. He bounded their way, followed by his faithful shadow. "We're heading south. You and Neji stay here, search the entire town from top to bottom."

"Sounds good." Kiba clapped his hand on Shikamaru's shoulder. "We'll find them, man."

"Yeah." His throat tightened on the word. "We will."

The three of them stood among the destruction, searching for anything other than fallen trees that would indicate Sakura's whereabouts. "This is definitely Sakura's handiwork, but what would she have been doing so far away from the town on a mission?"

"Letting off a lot of steam." Naruto took in the acre of forest that had been demolished, but Kakashi shook his head and pointed at several burnt embers of wood.

"That's from a katon jutsu. Sakura-chan is powerful, but she has no real affinity for fire. Something happened here." He looked around and said with a touch of pride. "She put up one hell of a fight."

Pakkun trotted up them with a strange look on his doggy face. "She gave up. There's a spot over there where she was facing someone and then walked off with them. After twenty feet, the scent disappears entirely."

Naruto immediately protested. "Sakura-chan wouldn't just give up! Kakashi-sensei is right, she's powerful!"

Shikamaru interrupted him before he could gain steam. "If someone threatened her patients, people who couldn't defend themselves? Sakura would surrender in an instant if she thought it would save them."

Pakkun took them to the spot where the scent had disappeared for him and they searched every inch of forest, overturning rocks and inspecting the bark on the trees. It was as if she had been plucked off the very earth itself. Naruto had sat down hours ago, trying to stretch his senses as far as possible through senjutsu with no luck.

Disheartened, they trudged back to the town to meet up with Neji and Kiba. When they arrived, Shikamaru was surprised to see them sitting casually at one of the empty outdoor tables. There was someone else with them, someone alive. His heart beat faster, even though he knew it wasn't Sakura. Anything new was welcome. It would tear his attention away from the hopeless emptiness he was feeling.

Kiba turned around, having heard them coming through the trees. "Hey guys! Look who we found!" He pointed to the pale young man in front of them who shrank away as the trio's intense gaze shifted to him. "This is the healer's apprentice, Akaya. He was busy being one with the spring nearby."

Akaya covered his mouth as he spoke, but Shikamaru could see a flash of sharp teeth. "I can hide my chakra when I merge with water. But sometimes I … lose myself."

"What happened here?" Kakashi did not care about this boy's jutsus.

"Two men stumbled into town over a week ago, one of them very badly injured. Sakura-san healed them when the non-injured man pledged his service to our village for the duration of our quarantine in payment. But after she was finished, he became more and more belligerent …" Akaya trailed off, looking away.

Naruto sounded as impatient as Shikamaru felt. "What happened? Tell us!"

Akaya winced at his volume. "Two days after they arrived, I saw the first man argue with her, though I wasn't close enough to see what about. She left with him and Hinata-san was in charge until she returned. But before Sakura-san came back, the other man rose out of bed and just began taking people."

"Taking them how?"

Akaya shuddered. "His arms were like rubber and he extended them to wrap around large groups at once. Then he just disappeared without a trace, reappearing after only a few moments alone. He did this multiple times, though the medics tried to fight him off before he got to the patients." He glanced at Neji. "Hinata-san was the most successful. She had blocked off one of his arms before he threatened to kill everyone instead of just abducting them. She allowed herself to be taken to care for the patients."

Neji let out a shaky breath and they all tried their best not to stare in amazement. Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at Akaya, annoyed that he had no further information on Sakura. "And where were you this whole time?"

Akaya flushed brilliantly, pale skin showing his embarrassment like a beacon. "My shishou and I both had caught the flu not too long after the medics arrived. Our reserves were so low from healing the town. I heal quickly, especially in water, so I was in a therapy pool Sakura-san had set up. It all happened so fast …"

Kiba finished for him. "He did his weird water jutsu thing to hide and he's been here ever since. Akamaru wouldn't leave this pool alone, so Neji and I poked at it until he appeared." Neji looked slightly disgruntled at the idea of him doing anything so common as poking an enemy.

Kakashi stared down the flushing apprentice, reducing him to a shaking mess. "Is there anything at all these men may have said that would help us? Did they wear hitai-ates or indicate a direction? How was the second man injured?"

Naruto and Shikamaru didn't do anything to stop him from bombarding Akaya, intent on getting information as soon as possible. Neji was silent as well. Kiba put his hands up to ward them off. "Whoa, guys. I know you're worried, but you're not going to get anything out of him if he passes out and pisses his pants."

Akaya muttered, "Thank you. I think."

"So?"

"I didn't see any hitai-ates on the them at all and they never once mentioned where they were from. The man seemed to suffer from multiple stab wounds that would have been fatal on a civilian, though Sakura-san patched him up with no problem." His eyes brightened with admiration. "She's very talented."

Shikamaru snapped at him angrily. "And she's also very missing. Get on with it."

"When he threatened Hinata-san, he mentioned something about children. We had many patients who were younger, but I don't think he was referring to them."

Neji looked troubled. "Hinata-sama is very susceptible when it comes to providing aid to vulnerable children. If he had implied that there were more patients where he was taking them, that would have been another reason for her to back down."

Kakashi was still staring at Akaya. "I assume the man was bandaged when he arrived at the village?" Startled, the boy nodded. "I'll need those." Akaya raced toward one of the medical buildings, happy to do something useful. He soon returned with a armful of bloody cloth and hesitantly handed it to Kakashi, who summoned his pack with a speed that made even Neji's eye's widen.

Kakashi turned to Kiba, but addressed the group as a whole. "Akamaru and my ninken will take point. We'll travel as a team unless the scent paths converge. If that happens, Neji and Naruto will go with Kiba, Shikamaru with me."

Kiba waved goodbye to Akaya and then they were off through the trees, following the dogs. After a few false starts, Akamaru and Pakkun had caught the same scent and led them in a relatively straight line north of the town.

They traveled in tense silence for hours, not seeing anything extraordinary about the forest around them and feeling worse for it.

Without warning, a massive fireball was launched in Naruto's direction from up ahead, followed quickly by one at Kakashi. They dropped out the trees to avoid them, with the rest of the team following suit. Naruto was slightly singed and pissed off. "What the hell? Did any of you see where that came from?"

Neji peered through the trees, eyebrows raised. "There's someone up ahead. He's just standing there."

Naruto brushed at his blackened hair and grumbled. "Would have been nice to know before he decided to barbecue us."

"He wasn't there a moment ago." Neji glanced at Kakashi. "I think he's waiting for us."

Shikamaru didn't want to stop, could barely hold himself back from leaping forward toward the man who knew where Sakura was. He was totally out of control and glad beyond measure that Kakashi was team leader. The man would make the right decisions in the field and not let his emotions guide his commands.

With this in mind, Shikamaru was still relieved when the older jonin lifted his hitai-ate to reveal his Sharingan. "Let's show our friend a good time, shall we?"

note: and now for something completely different! sakura and hinata are not easily subdued, but a medic has to stay alive for the sake of their patients. tsunade is pretty adamant on that.