Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters. This is just fan work for other fans and not for profit in any way.

Chronicle One: Shinobi in the Mist (Version 1.93)

Chapter 4

Sakura sat back from the unconscious Kane. She was breathing heavily, her naked chest rising and falling at a rapid pace. Taking the nightgown from under the body she threw it on top to cover him. She didn't want to look at the naked man; she had nearly lost herself and made love to him. Even so, the ninja girl was proud of herself. She had held onto her alias until it suited her before discarding it. All she needed to do now was obtain the secret plans and make it back to Konoha. That shouldn't be that hard. With the blow she had just given him, he should be unconscious for quite awhile.

Standing up, the shinobi redressed herself before making her way to the suitcase. She examined it for a second before punching the locks twice with her chakra imbued fists. The front of the suitcase popped open. Sakura smiled to herself. She rummaged inside but didn't find anything of note. Standing up, she decided to check the bathroom next. She found Kane's jacket, hanging on a clothes hanger. Searching the jacket, Sakura found a few shurikens and kunai and an open envelope. Inside the envelope there was only a slip of paper with a sequence of hands seals. These couldn't be the secret plans. It was just an ordinary piece of paper. Maybe it was a password for something.

Suddenly, the sound of running footsteps reached her ears. Sakura quickly tucked the paper away and exited the bathroom. The sound of footsteps got louder, they were coming from the corridor outside. The pink haired girl quickly assessed her options. Did Kane have back-up? Did they notice something amiss and decided to check on him? If so, she needed an exit strategy just in case. The girl looked towards the window. Her eyes widened; a mist ninja was flying through the air towards her. The man flew into the room, shattering the window and sending glass flying everywhere. At the same moment, the door burst open and three more mist ninja entered the room. Reacting quickly, Sakura slammed her fist against the wall. The entire building shuddered from the blow and the wall crumbled to pieces. Taking advantage of the brief hesitation from the mist ninja, Sakura bolted through the open hole she just made. A shuriken whistled through the air and slammed into her back. The ninja girl clenched her teeth in pain but continued running, the sound of her pursuers close behind. Smashing through a door into the main corridor, she made for a nearby window and dived through. Tumbling through the air, Sakura landed and rolled to her feet. Standing up, she smashed her fist against the side of the hotel. The stonework crumpled as gigantic cracks fractured across the side of the building. Not bothering to look back, Sakura ran off into the night.

The mist ninja surveyed the alleyway, searching for any sign of the girl. Seeing that she was long gone, he kicked a nearby bin in frustration. Worabi, Jounin of the mist, had been tasked with following Kane and making sure no one interfered with him. Now this girl out of nowhere managed to take him out and in addition, she stole the pass code that he had been carrying. And all this while under his watch!

"FUCKING BITCH," he swore out loud.

He yelled a few choice words at his subordinates and gave them some specific instructions. They scurried off to gather the other teams.

Earlier in the evening, he had seen the girl walk into the bar and watched on as she got herself roaring drunk. He saw the confrontation with her ex and her subsequent retreat with Kane to his hotel. She didn't seem like a ninja from an enemy village at all. Nonetheless, Worabi had still followed the pair to the hotel just to make sure. The couple had then entered the room and had gotten intimate with each other. Just when everything had seemed fine, the girl knocked Kane out in one blow.

Kane. In one hit. This was the same Kane that had single handedly entered a warlord's camp and assassinated him and all his lieutenants.

Worabi glanced at the wall of the hotel. Jagged cracks had spidered all across its surface. Pieces of stone and mortar had crumbled along the fissures and fallen to the alleyway floor. The mist Jounin decided to reassess his thinking. Perhaps Kane was lucky that he was only unconscious. Considering the force of the blow that had damaged the wall, the man could've easily been smashed to a pulp.

The girl was definitely a shinobi, that's for sure; most likely from the cloud village or the leaf village. Probably a leaf ninja seeing as Konoha's Hokage was rumoured to have incredible strength. In addition, Fukaku town was also closer to Konoha.

The mist ninja considered his next course of action. A medical ninja should be tending to Kane. Worabi needed to get that activation code back from the bitch who had stolen it. Taking out one of his kunais, he leapt up onto a neighbouring building before vanishing into the shadows of the night.

Reaching behind her back, Sakura grabbed the shuriken and in one swift move pulled it out. She gasped as pain shot up her side. The weapon clattered to the pavement as she dropped it, her fingers wet with her own blood. Gritting through the pain, Sakura channeled chakra into her hand and applied a healing technique to her wound. She felt the pain slowly subsiding as her injury quickly healed itself.

Slumping to the ground, Sakura leaned back against the alleyway wall. The events of the night had taken their toll on her stamina and she took the opportunity now to rest and gather her thoughts. Ignoring the ice cold pavement, she thought back to the ninja who came through the window. She recognised him; he had been at The Dolphin's Dive and was one of the last remaining patrons. He must've been the ninja guarding Kane's back. But Kane was a highly skilled Jounin yet he still had someone tailing him, protecting him from the shadows. Yet she couldn't find the plans to their tactical operation. Sakura took out the slip of paper with the sequence and looked at it. Either this list of hand seals was important or she had failed to find what he was guarding.

Suddenly it dawned on her. The sequence of seals must be an activation code to view those secret plans. Kane carried the key while the plans were kept by someone else. Without both, no one can read them. It was an extra precaution against someone stealing them and reading its contents. Now the only two people to know the key are Kane and herself. Sakura wondered if he would be coming around anytime soon, she did hit him pretty hard.

The night had become cold, the air chilly against the ninja girl's bare arms. Sakura sighed, her breath misting in front of her in the cold night air. The plans were most likely located in a secret base that the mist village had set up here. She needed to find one of the mist ninjas looking for her, follow him around and hope that he will lead her to the plans. It was going to be a long night.

Crouching on a rooftop, Worabi surveyed Fukaku town below him, his eyes searching for any sign of the shinobi who had stolen the pass code. The other teams still haven't managed to spot the thief. Damn that bitch. Had she already left the perimeter? Or was she still within the town limits, biding her time to escape. The mist Jounin swore again. His speculations weren't doing anything except winding himself up. A flash of smoke suddenly appeared behind him and from it emerged a mist kunoichi.

"Report," Worabi demanded from his subordinate.

"Sir," the black haired girl responded. "We've finished checking all of Kane's possessions and we were unable to find any slips of paper that he might have left behind."

Worabi shook his head. He hadn't really expected them to have found anything. It was a very remote possibility that the thief missed what Kane had been safeguarding.

"Any news from the medical team?" the man asked.

"Master Kane is still unconscious from his severe head trauma. The medical team do not think that he will be waking up anytime soon."

"I want you to go back out there, and find that fucking bitch," Worabi swore again.

"Sir," the kunoichi replied hesitantly, "I was just with the east patrol team; I was relieved of my position just a few minutes ago. I came to give a report before going back to–"

"Well I want you to keep looking," the man cut in, "I want every available ninja on the streets looking for her, including you. Is that understood?"

"Yes sir."

The girl bowed before leaving in the same way in which she came. Worabi continued to look for his target. The light from the full moon had bathed the town in a pale eerie light. However, even with the help of the moonlight, there were still too many places that a thief could hide on a night like this.