Invaded
Everywhere she looked, destruction confronted her sight. Houses were crushed and debris rained from the sky. But the destruction of the property were the least of their problems, Pein had caught the village in its most vulnerable state where the loss of Jiraiya is still affecting the villagers' confidence and the village is already missing 3 of its best shinobi.
Sakura shook the unhelpful thoughts from her mind and focused on the task at hand. She needed to provide assistance to the offensive teams in any way she can. Besides, they still had Kakashi and Tsunade. They'll just have to keep the battlefield as leveled as they can until they return. If they return. Sakura shoved her negative subconscious back into the corner of her mind.
A sudden pulse forced its way through her system and she jerked to the side in time to avoid the burst of repulsion that torn through the streets. She looked back to see if anyone was caught in the ripple but all she could see was destruction. Her head snapped up to meet the bemused ripple eyes of Pein's rinnegan.
"Girl" he began as he took a step towards her.
Sakura took on a defensive stance and drew a kunai. He took another step and she threw the kunai. He raised his hand up and the same pulsing sensation ran through Sakura's body and she threw herself to the side once again and avoided the repulsion energy that shot through the air. Pein raise a brow. "How peculiar" he said in low tone.
Sakura's chest heaved up and down.
There she was, standing face to face with one of the Pein paths that killed Jiraiya. Does she stand a chance? Sakura's eyes narrowed. No, she didn't. To engage battle now would only exhaust her chakra in vain when she could be using that chakra to heal her comrades. Her eyes widened as she realized something.
Her 50 kilometer range allows her to pretty much detect every single chakra signature in the village and battlefield and it had just occurred to her that the number of chakra flares that are winking out were continuous— They were being wiped out.
Sakura quickly covered up her fear and tore her eyes away from Pein, teeth gritting she turned and made a run for it. She felt the pulse and she threw herself in the other direction to avoid being caught in the attack.
She made her way towards the closest distressed chakra signature, her handicap of still not being able to recognize who's chakra belongs to who is beginning to bother her, how would she know if one of the chakra signatures that disappeared didn't belong to someone she knew. Please be okay, Kakashi-sensei.
The first person she found was Izumo, who was trapped underneath a pile of rubble with a broken ankle. He groaned as she approached him, she lifted the wooden beam off of him with help from a pinch of chakra. However, after successfully lifting the beam off of him, he immediately collapsed against the ground. Alarmed, Sakura found that Izumo had been holding up the beam to prevent the mass of rubble from falling and crushing a women and her child.
"Are you alright?" Sakura said, reaching out to the pair hiding beneath a makeshift dome of what's left of their home. The woman released one arm from her child to reach out to Sakura. The dome began to crumble and the woman's hand stopped halfway in fear. Determined, Sakura reached into the dome and pulled the woman out along with her child just as the debris fell.
Both parties were panting as the woman gripped onto Sakura like her life depended on it. "It's alright" Sakura whispered hoarsely then briefly scanned their body for injuries "Can you stand?" she asked the trembling woman and curious eyed child. Slowly, the woman nodded and Sakura helped them both to stand.
"Izumo!" she heard a familiar voice call out from a distance. Shifting her attention to the approaching chuunin, Sakura greeted him curtly "Kotetsu-san"
Kotetsu nodded at her in acknowledgment, though she could tell that he was more concerned with his partner's condition. Now wasn't the time, they needed to clear the area of civilians "Kotetsu-san, can you take them to the shelter? I'll take care of Izumo-san"
Without arguing, Kotetsu complied, knowing that it was the best route of action.
After handing the responsibility over to her fellow comrade, Sakura shifted Izumo into a more comfortable position, he groaned in pain. "Just hang on for a little while longer, Izumo-san" she assumed him. She kept her system on alert for any changes in the surrounding before she began to perform a full body restoration on Izumo.
The chuunin has had a few broken bones but none of them punctured a vital organ. Although there wasn't much internal bleeding, mending bones took a longer time and that would mean Sakura was left vulnerable throughout the process.
She could feel one of the paths closing in on her.
Were they specifically going after her? Can they sense her like how she could sense them? She doesn't allow her concern to affect her chakra control and instead, released her genkai seal and formed a first level chakra barrier around her to provide minimum cover for any incoming attacks.
He's coming closer. Just a little more...
A bead of sweat rolled down the side of her brow as anxiety overcame her senses. He's here. The Asura path had fired a series of missiles at her and they were landing hits against her barrier in rapid succession. Sakura's teeth gritted as she struggled to reinforce her barrier whilst releasing a consistent amount of chakra to heal Izumo.
The missiles had ceased however Sakura knew better than to let her guard down. She heard the sound of a chainsaw firing up and braced herself for the jagged contact on her chakra, she had no confidence that her barrier could hold against another attack.
However the contact never came, still in deep focus, Sakura snuck a peek to the enemy and found him fending attacks from her sensei. "Kakashi-sensei!" she gasped in surprise and relief. It was a good reassurance to her wandering conscience.
"Let's take this elsewhere" Kakashi challenged, leaping off with the Asura path following closely behind his trail.
By the time Sakura had finished mending Izumo's shattered bones, she had already lost her teacher's chakra in the crowd. After making sure that Izumo could handle himself, she dashed off to seek those who needed aid.
As she was running past an alley, she caught wind of an exceptionally strong just through the alley, she masked her chakra and snuck down the alley. Sure enough, she caught a glimpse of an akatsuki cloak however that person did not give out the alarmed sensation she gets when she is near one of Pein's paths therefore Sakura assumed that it was Pein's partner.
She rolled a smoke bomb towards the opening of the alley and she briefly activated it, smoke clouded the opening and for a brief moment, Konan stopped to contemplate her next move. Sakura shot out of the smoke and aimed a chakra powered punch right for Konan's head. With a powerful flap from her paper wings, Konan shot backwards as she knocked Sakura off balance with the force of wind she stirred.
Flipping back, Sakura landed on her feet with ease before she shoot right back at her violet haired opponent. She managed to land a solid on Konan but like she expected, the one she hit turned out to be a clone, however it wasn't a normal clone. The clone was made out of paper bombs and all at once, they scattered from the form they had taken and reattached themselves to her arm and began to cover up to her shoulders, with intention to cover her whole body before detonating themselves.
She couldn't risk ripping them off as tearing one of the seals could detonate the whole bunch. Concentrating hard, she redirected her chakra into her arm, allowing it to seep through her chakra points and counter out the chakra in the paper bombs before Konan has a chance to activate them all. The pieces of paper soon became nothing more than decoration in the battle field as it rained down from Sakura's form, deactivated and useless.
Although she had successfully saved herself from having her arm completely blown off, her arm had suffered a considerably high amount of damage from the ones that Konan did activate. Gripping her singed arm, Sakura slowly began to channel her chakra into it with her good hand. While she was healing, she kept her sense sharpened and hoped that the akatsuki member wouldn't attack her now.
She sensed an incoming attack to her right and just barely managed to dodge the paper crane that came darting part her face like a shuriken. Without much effort, Sakura managed to pinpoint the direction in which the paper crane had originated from and soon enough, she had been bombarded with an army of paper cranes in rapid succession. Except this time, they exploded upon contact.
How she found this out? Her shoulder had been an example of what would happen if you were to get touched by the crane. Luckily for Sakura, the shoulder that had been injured by the explosion was attached to the singed arm so she wasn't completely helpless.
However, while she was trying to avoid the paper cranes from landing another hit, they suddenly stopped coming altogether. This could either work to her benefit or it could mean that something big was about to happen with Pein and Konan did not want to be caught in the crossfire.
A sudden pulse of black energy shook through her system, it was awfully similar to Takuya's except this one weighed on a much bigger scale. She suddenly felt her world darken and with her body pulsing with tormenting loudness, only one thought came to her mind.
Run.
She had a glimpse of the destructive power that was about to be unleashed and it frightened her. There was no escape, there was no way they could run from an attack of that scale, the lights of chakra within the village were going out too fast for it to be a towards their advantage. Are we just going to lose everything here?
Run.
Run!
Someone please save us.
"Mama"
Sakura turned around sharply.
There was a ring that resonated through the village, silencing everything around it as if a vacuum had been created. The resounding ring nearly drove Sakura to insanity as she dread what was coming behind it.
The world suddenly did not exist anymore.
...
Pein stood in the middle of the massive crater. His face apathetic as he looked around the completely destroyed village. Feel the extent of my pain, mourn for your loved ones and struggle for life. More than half of the village had been blown away and crushed into nothing but bits and pieces of debris.
Sakura jolted back into consciousness with a sudden panicked breath but it seemed like her lungs weren't capable of expanding under the bone crushing weight packed up on top of her. Where am I? The child... where is she? Despite the suffocating weight on top of her, she slowly began to comprehend the situation and she vaguely remembered having seen a child wandering onto the streets, asking for her mother just before the catastrophic outbreak. Katsuyu had appeared on her then, offering to help but before she could answer to the slug summon's advances, she had thrown her mentor's summon at the child before she felt her body jerk back with a blind force.
She lost consciousness at some point of time, she had felt like she was being sucked through a vacuum and then everything faded to black.
She felt exhausted, a very faint voice in her mind told her to fight the darkness but the majority of her brain told her to simply give up, she would eventually die off when the oxygen runs out in the limited space she's trapped under. She felt her heartbeats calm and the silence hugged her immobilized, aching body. Slowly she became numb to the pain and all that was left was the vacuum silence. How comfortable this is, to lie unmoving and oblivious.
What would happen to the child?
The face of the frightened child had appeared, unwelcomed to her fading consciousness.
What would happen to the village?
Her finger twitched, a sick feeling in her stomach had wormed its way into the numbness.
You wouldn't be able to see Naruto and Sasuke anymore.
On instinct, she gasped in a lungful of air, snapping her body into the cold reality. She hadn't been able to see Naruto ever since she had awoken from her coma, she had no chance to explain herself to Naruto albeit she knew he had been worried about her the most.
Some teammate I am.
Sasuke. What would he do when he finds that she's dead and he was too late? Would he be angry? With her or the enemy? Would he blame himself? Would he mourn for her death or seek vengeance?
Would he cry for her?
She needs to get up, she has to. She couldn't afford to die, there was just too much for her to lose. Testing the waters, she slowly ran a pulse of chakra throughout her body to check for any serious injuries. Once she was sure she was fully capable of moving, she shifted her arms till they were under her. Pumping chakra into her muscles, she attempted to push herself up along with the weight of the debris on top of her.
When she could feel the debris shift on top of her, she put more effort into bringing out her strength. She felt a new circulation of air cooling her lungs, which meant that the debris were starting to roll off her, just a little more and she would be able to get free. As she was trying to keep a consistent amount of chakra circulating her body to make sure she didn't collapse she had realized that something was wrong with the outside world.
The strange sensations of chakra that flickered weakly around her were starting to take on very recognizable colors. Ones that she had been capable of feeling before she operated on Itachi.
Kotetsu-san, Izumo-san, Ino, Shikamaru, Neji-san, Tenten-san, Genma-san, Hinata-san, Kiba-kun, Sai, Takuya, Akamaru, Shino-san, Tsunade-sama, Chouji, Lee-san, Gai-sensei, Asuma-sensei, Kurenai-sensei-
Where's Kakashi-sensei.
A pulse of panic had been injected directly into her bloodstream as her heartbeats grew louder and her chakra searched desperately for her silver haired teacher's chakra. But her search ended up a failure as she could no longer feel her teacher's chakra signature, not even a small flicker of it— He had fallen.
Suddenly helpless, Sakura unconsciously unleashed her seal, desperate to find the person who had taken her teacher away from her. What would Naruto and Sasuke say? Why didn't she try harder to follow his chakra?
The sting of tears prickled in the back of her eyes as she felt her own chakra surrounding her like a protective cloak, her cuts and bruises disintegrated and her body had finally been freed of the burden of the debris. A wave of sorrow had suddenly washed through her as she mourned for her teacher, and she didn't even know how to locate his body. The tears ran freely down her cheeks and her throat stung as she tried to swallow back her sobs.
She turned her attention to the massive crater and spotted the culprit for the destruction of their village. And joining him in the crater were his other five paths- and Tsunade. Although she stood proudly against the six paths, Sakura could sense that her chakra had been thoroughly exhausted from transferring chakra to Katsuyu, not to mention the amount of chakra that was needed in order for her to protect as many shinobi as possible on the field.
Although it is a very valiant move and also strong moral reinforcement for Konoha, Sakura couldn't bear to see the outcome of the battle because it was painfully obvious. She had lost enough people in one day, enough is enough.
Tsunade's shoulders heaved up and down, she resisted the urge to blink away the haze away from her eyes and show weakness to the enemy. "You will not do any more damage here than you've already done. Leave!" Tsunade snapped, she tried and failed to keep the exhaustion from her voice.
"How noble of you, Tsunade-hime. But you're not the one I'm after, where is the Kyuubi jinchuuriki" The deva path question. Tsunade shot a glare back at the path who spoke "He is somewhere safe" The Asura path stepped up and aimed his arm at Tsunade. Seconds later, his arm transformed into a set of missile launchers.
Tsunade's eyes widened briefly before her teeth clenched and her expression hardened over, bracing herself for the attack.
"Doton! Tsuchi Kabe! (Earth Release! Earth Wall!)"
A thick wall of earth rose from the ground and just barely managed to block the incoming missiles from blowing Tsunade up. The hokage's legs gave way and she sagged to the ground, sighing in relief.
"Hm?" the Deva path exclaimed, his eyebrows raised.
Sakura appeared next to the fallen Tsunade "Can you stand? Tsunade-sama" she asked her mentor, placing a cautious hand on Tsunade's shoulders. Tsunade managed a nod before she was quickly helped to her feet by Sakura.
Sakura could feel Tsunade's body returning to its aged state with every step they took. She managed to get Tsunade up the crater edge and laid her down next to a few shinobi she didn't bother to identify, she did a quick check over Tsunade's body for anything major and healed them briefly, at least to make sure that her life was stable.
"How interesting" The Deva path mumbled. "Who dares stand for a ruined village?" he said, his firm voice loud enough to spread in the silence.
Sakura's glowing hands dimmed and her emerald eyes relit themselves as she toned down her seal that restrained her power. Slowly, she revealed herself to the enemy, her fiery eyes staring straight into the ripple eyes of the Deva path, which she presumes is the leader of the paths. Her hands shifted quickly in a flurry of hand signs "Doton, Kitei Gekihatsu! (Earth Release, Ground Outburst!)"
The ground beneath the proud paths began to tremble and immediately, all of them leapt back from the unstable ground, just managing to avoid being impaled by the spikes that suddenly rose from the ground, however that wasn't the end of it. Wave after wave, the spikes rose, tracking everywhere the paths step to escape. It was as if their footsteps triggered the spikes but Sakura was merely holding on to the technique, prolonging its active state and using her perfect chakra control to manipulate the ground.
Having enough of being played around by a mere girl's technique, the Deva Path aimed his palm at the wall of spikes. His fingers flexed and in an instant, the spikes had been snapped cleanly from the ground and are headed straight for Sakura.
Quickly canceling out the technique, Sakura bolted to her right only to realize that she hadn't completely moved from the range of Pein's attacks and braced herself for the devastating impact. However, through the gaps of her raised hands, she caught sight of the flurry of brown and black before her eyes adjusted to the shape and finally recognized the male figure that stood boldly in front of her.
"Tenraigan!"
There was a familiar ringing in Sakura's ears that told her that Takuya had activated his kekkei genkai. Her own spikes that were hurled at her suddenly slowed and then stopped dead in its track. There was an anxious pause before the oversized spikes crashed to the ground with a loud thud.
"Takuya" she breathed his name, a little overwhelmed by the thought of what could've happened to her if he hadn't showed.
She had half expected him to turn around and asked how what her day and compliment her looks but he didn't. Guess he could be really serious when he wanted to, she had hoped that that was the case however her suspicions had been shot down when she felt a very abnormal fluctuation in his chakra that almost seemed self-destructive.
Her eyes spotted his clenched hand and white knuckles. She knew there was something wrong with him. "Takuya!" She called out to him as she stepped towards him. When she reached out to touch him, he turned his head and her hand halted.
His eyes were a piercing shade of amber, she had known that it was a common feature for him when he activates his kekkei genkai, that wasn't what surprised her. In the corner of his eyes, black veins were spreading through the white of his eyes as it they were trying to reach his iris.
"Is that you, Sakura?" she didn't quite register his voice when he had called out to her as her name no longer bore the affectionate suffix that he had normally used on her name. She blinked twice to pull herself out of the surprised trance, Takuya's words were immediately processed and Sakura's brows furrowed.
"Your eyes, Takuya" she said, immediately stepping up to him and reaching for his eyes so that she may heal them.
He felt around blindly for her wrist and wrapped his fingers around them "Don't bother wasting your chakra here, Sakura-chan. Run." he told her, the light in his eyes were fading with his every word.
"What happening to you, Takuya" she said, struggling against his hold, desperate to help him but before she could do anything an intimidating voice rang out.
"An experiment of Orochimaru, huh?" The Deva path said, he had now regained the distance between them that they had lost when Sakura summoned the spikes on them. Sakura shot a heated glare at the Deva path as if to warn him to keep his distance. It was the suddenly lack of force in Takuya's grip that had her panicking. Not only was he swaying on his feet, but Sakura could feel the frenzy of chakra that was tearing his whole system apart.
He fell backwards with a thump and Sakura had failed to catch him.
"Takuya!" she shrieked, kneeling down next to him and immediately tried to start healing him but it was useless. The damage on his chakra system had restricted her from being able to heal him with the use of chakra. She wracked her brains and looked around for inspiration or some sort of blessing. For the first time in her life, she couldn't think of anything to help a dying man.
Damage to a shinobi's chakra system of this extent could only mean death. There was nothing she could do but call out to him and pray that he would respond.
"Takuya"
She called once and shook him twice.
"Takuya!"
She called twice.
"Takuya..."
He was gone.
Her vision had gone blurry with tears as she once against suffered the loss of someone close to her. Why did everything have to go wrong? She could feel one of the paths walking closer and closer to her but she didn't care anymore. She couldn't do this, what made her think she could? What possessed her to think that she could save the village? When all she did was watch as her friend passed on before her. I can't protect anyone.
She was going to die, she deserved to die.
Right now, she wanted nothing more than to wake up, curled up in Sasuke's arm and find out that everything had been a dream. But we can't always have what we want.
Frustration had taken over her actions. If I'm going to die, I might as well take some of them with me.
She stood up slowly and started walking towards the path that approached her, it was the Asura path. She lifted her trembling hands to form a seal then another one and another. Like an endless cycle, she formed each and every one of the seals with grace and precision until finally her green eyes relit with a determined look and a series of markings crawled up her neck.
She took the risk that Pein had no information on her family's techniques and he would continue to approach her, and when he was close enough-
She would set off every chakra point in her body.
She would make herself a chakra bomb, her capacity may not be big enough to take out all of them but at least she would be able to inflict some wounds and completely obliterate the asura path.
Naruto and Sasuke would finish the job.
She just wished she could've at least said goodbye.
The sky rumbled as Sakura picked up her speed. The Asura path transformed both his arm into chainsaws. Come.
And then suddenly a bright flash of lightning cut across the battlefield followed by an earth splitting roar of thunder. The Asura path had been sent hurtling backwards in a very abrupt manner; the other paths moved out of the way and allowed him to continue shooting backwards until he crashed into the side of the crater.
Sakura hadn't been able to stop herself and found herself stumbling into the white light, she half expected to be electrocuted but then a more logical side of her told her that it was no ordinary lightning. Not only did she manage to crash into the whiteness, she felt herself being engulfed into a rather warm embrace.
Funny, I didn't know lightning could hug people.
And then it occurred to her that this very familiar chakra belongs to the man that held her heart.
Sasuke!
The light died down and she could see the slightly distorted blue lightning outline of his figure before the glow faded away and Sasuke stood there, holding on to her in his normal form.
His outfit remained unchanged except that his white jacket now that a flipped up high collar and the black half tailcoat that clung onto his hips and dangled just inches above the ground. Behind him no longer only straps his Kusanagi but also a large Fuuma Shuriken. Sakura clutched a handful of his white jacket on his sides and her whole body trembled that the thought of what she was just about to do.
"Sakura" his voice sounded incredibly soothing to her ears.
"I'm sorry... I'm sorry" she apologized softly against his chest. Sorry that I couldn't save our teacher, sorry that I let the village get destroyed, sorry that I lost hope.
"Sakura" his voice reached out to her once again "Let go of it" he told her. He knew exactly what was she trying to do, he could feel the technique ringing loudly in her body as he held her. "Release the jutsu" he urged her gently but more firmly this time.
The markings retreated back down her neck and her blazing chakra calmed as her grip on his shirt softened and her body leaned in on his.
Sasuke's hold on her tightened as he buried his face in her shoulder, he let out a relieved sigh. The warm of his breath spreading up the side of her neck. "You're here" Sakura whispered hoarsely as if still trying to figure if this person that she held on was actually Sasuke.
"I'm here" he replied.
After a few more ticks Sasuke finally spoke again "Don't ever" his voice was hoarse "Do that again" he finished as if he was winded. Sakura nodded in agreement.
"Forgetting that you are in the presence of an enemy will be your foolish downfall"
Sakura felt Sasuke's muscles twitch and before she knew it, she had been lifted off the ground, everything around her looked so slow compared to the speed that they had been moving at, she clung on to him for reassurance and the way his protective hold had tightened made her smile with mirth.
But now she realized that they were suddenly on to the other side of the crate with the backs of the paths facing them. He's gotten even faster...!
She felt his chest rumbled as his words begin to fill the empty air "I didn't forget your presence, I simply brushed off your worthless existence" Sasuke said, smugly. Sakura blinked up at him, does he not realize that the wasteland that he stands in is his home village and the man who single handedly dealt most of the damage was the man with the 'worthless existence'
Then she just realized that he had his sharingan activated, Sasuke lowered her and placed her carefully on her feet. Her eyes had brushed over the missing detail that was supposedly attached to his back. His fuuma shuriken was missing.
There was a sickeningly loud sound of what resembled a can being crushed, Sakura turned her head just in time to see the missing shuriken flying at an alarmingly fast pace, however Sakura could tell that Sasuke had been controlling it's movements with his wires and instead of slicing past them, the shuriken tilted just slightly upwards and flew just above Sasuke's head, allowing the Uchiha to reach his hand up and grab it.
Just like that, the injured asura path, which Sakura assume had been trying to regroup with his fellow paths, had been taken out; shattered into a million machine parts. I didn't even notice him drawing the shuriken.
The eerie silence no longer hangs above the village, a series of murmurs and whispers had broken out around them and Sakura knew that hope had been restored to the village. Sakura was briefly reminded of the loss they had suffered as well and in an instant, her mood had fallen once again as she wondered how was she going to break this to Sasuke. Perhaps after the battle, right now he needs to concentrate.
"Sakura" Sasuke broke into her thoughts and she jerks to attention "Concentrate" he told her with a raised eyebrow and she flashed him a weak smile. That's ironic.
"You need to look out for the one in the middle, he's the only one with the longest range now that you've taken the cyborg out" In fact, he has an infinite range.
"Hn."
That was all he said before he jerked to the side and broke off running, his legs moving at an unnatural speed as they carried him around the crater. Sakura knew he was simply trying to bring the attention away from her. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes, his protectiveness knows no boundaries.
The deva path couldn't seem to follow Sasuke with his hands in order to send an accurate pulse of repulsion and instead raised both his hands to created a larger range, Sasuke found his legs lifting off the ground before his whole body had been dragged towards the pein paths by an invisible force.
Just a millisecond before Sasuke would come in contact with Pein, he exploded into a flock of scattering crows. The Deva path's body stiffened when the sound of a thousand chirping birds cackled behind him. He turned his head just slightly to see Sasuke with his katana drawn in one hand and a violent ball of lightning in the other.
Sasuke's attack didn't manage to come in contact with the Deva path as the Preta path intervened. His attack had been blocked by what felt like a wall of jelly that slowly ate away his chakra. With quick reflexes, he turned his body to the side and dragged his sword across the Preta path's body. He was sure that he had inflicted a fatal wound but he felt an ominous presence behind him. Before he could reposition himself to escape from the circle of Pein, a crab of some sort had grabbed onto him and flung him with enough force to render him motionless.
He winced as he felt his limbs twitch stiffly against the painful force; he waited for one hell of a headache when he lands. But the hit never came and he knew just the person that could calculate and exert the exact amount of chakra from her body in just a few milliseconds. He smirked when he felt himself lying back against her small frame and how warm she was. He was lit with her green chakra and the effects were immediate.
The tiny hands released him and he stands as if he had never been touched at all. He spotted his kusanagi stabbed into the ground just behind the Deva path and next to a wounded preta path. He stood still with a large gaping hole in the middle of his chest; there was no blood or expression on him. Sasuke couldn't help but feel a conscious shiver up his spine.
He silently cursed himself for losing his kusanagi, now the efficiency of his offensive engagement has been decreased drastically. They needed a plan, he looked back at Sakura and as if she could read his mind- she nodded.
She drew a kunai from her pouch and then ran past Sasuke, but not before slipping the kunai into his hands. Sasuke immediately felt the intrusion of her chakra forming her thoughts in his mind, his arm tingled with her chakra and he couldn't help but smirk at the feeling. Her voice surrounded him. We'll split apart, they'll expect you to go for the sword, you distract them and I'll try to get close to the kusanagi.
Alright.
Distraction? Guess he could pull something from his sleeves. He unraveled his roll of wire and attached it swiftly onto his shuriken before slipping it out of its hook. Raising it to his side, he pushed his shoulder forward before flinging the projectile with as much force as he could manage.
Forming a few quick and simple seals, he lit the entire wire on fire, the flames travelled fast and towards the shuriken and in less than a second a flaming shuriken was hurtling in the paths' direction. The crustacean that had flung him off was called to the front to provide defense against the flaming projectile, however with a simple tug on the wire, Sasuke manages to steer the shuriken away from the crustacean, although he missed the paths, he tugs the wire back and the shuriken retries to land a hit, this time coming round the paths' back.
They scatter to dodge the shuriken, giving Sakura the opening she needs to snag Sasuke's kusanagi. However just as Sakura's fingers manages to brush the hilt of the sword, from the corner of her eye she caught sight of a hand moving into her vision, but before she could call in her reflexes, she was grabbed by the neck with a cold hand, the fingernails dug into the side of her neck and she flung her legs around in attempts to try and loosen the grip.
"Sakura!"
She could hear Sasuke's frantic voice call out to her, but the burn in her lungs distracted her thoughts and the loud and panicked pounding in her brain wasn't exactly helpful.
"Where is Uzumaki Naruto"
She could hear the Naraka path's voice clearly whereas everything else remained a hazy detail. She refused to waste her energy which she could use to escape to argue with the enemy on whether or not she was going to give a legit answer.
However, as her silence prolongs, she felt the weight of the fingers pressing harder and more firmly down onto her neck, crushing her windpipe. She could feel the blood draining from her face as she gasped helplessly for air. She could hear Sasuke's frantic battle with the other paths, she could briefly imagine the concentrated fury embed on his face as his mind calculates each and every scenario for every move he makes, trying to pave a path to get to her.
Sakura felt a small burst of energy, knowing that Sasuke was struggling to save her. For her to give up herself would be like throwing his effort to waste. She squirmed and kicked but the hand at her throat didn't budge an inch. With her hazy vision, she caught sight of a large face materializing out of thin air. Her eyes widened as she willed her mind to try and comprehend what was happening. Was she going delusional? No, this was-
Sakura promptly screamed.
That very brief moment where Sasuke's concentration had been broken was all Pein needed to send him flying back against the wall of the crater. But he managed to pick himself up almost immediately, throwing himself back in battle. His eyes kept a constant eye on Sakura, whose back was the only thing he was seeing, her body was trembling and her hands hung limply on her side. Dread began to affect his movements, his desperation could be shown with his movements as they had become much more forced and predictable.
He had been promptly shoved back by the Deva's paths mini repulsion, he regained himself quickly and form a few quick seals. "Katon! Goukakyuu no jutsu!" he sent a scorching fireball in the paths direction, keeping the size of his technique in control as to be careful not catch Sakura in his range.
"I'll ask again, where is the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki, Uzumaki Naruto"
Sakura shut her eyes and forced a slight turn of her head to persist her refusal. "Very well" and with that, the Naraka path lifted her even higher where the menacing face because almost painfully clear to her as it opened its mouth. The lack of oxygen was beginning to affect her as she could no longer find the energy within herself to even move her finger.
It was then she heard the voice of her missing teammate that her eyes filled up with tears.
"If you want me, you can have me!"
Even as the dark spots dance in her eyes, Sakura could make out the two oversized toads that had just been summoned into the scene and then lastly her loudmouthed teammate's obnoxiously bright blonde hair. She felt a twitch tug at her lips- finally.
Naruto lifted his orange gaze "But remember" he grinned menacingly before finishing "You asked for it"
His sudden presence had obviously taken the paths by surprise as the ones that Sasuke had been fighting didn't manage to respond fast enough before the Naraka path had been kicked sharply in the side and sent flying and skidding across the dirt floor. Naruto hadn't figured that the path would still be holding on to Sakura as he sent him flying and so Sasuke had to tackle her out of the enemy hands with every ounce of speed in his body.
After wrapping his arms around Sakura, relief had overwhelmed his senses and he hadn't managed to recover himself before his speed caused him to tumble across the ground. He made sure to cover the back of Sakura's head and her back as he held her close while they tumbled, making sure he took the worst of the fall for them.
Finally they had skid to a stop and he relished feeling the rise and fall of her chest as she heaved oxygen into her lungs. He let out a relieved sigh as he stroked her hair "You're okay, Sakura" he told her.
"Sakura-chan!" he heard his obnoxious blonde teammate call. Like a relit glowing splinter, Sasuke was reminded of his anger directed towards his reckless teammate. If his speed had stumbled just a little then Sakura might've been lying alongside the corpse of the Naraka Path.
"Naruto, you idiot!" Sasuke yelled and Naruto visibly stumbled in his jog towards them.
Sasuke helped Sakura sit up; he could feel her trembling and mentally cursed his inability to save her sooner. "Is the little missy alright?" the elder frog that sat on Naruto's shoulder said. Sasuke looked up at Naruto and Fukasaku before looking down worriedly at Sakura.
"Did I do that?" Naruto asked quietly before dropping to his knees and reached out to console her "Sakura-chan?" he asked, brushing his fingers on her trembling arms. Her entire body stilled and her erratic breathing stopped. For a moment, Sasuke had fear that something had caused her heart to stop beating but instead held in a sigh of relief when Sakura pushed herself off the ground and stood on her own, brushing off his and Naruto's attempts to help her.
She lifted her head and the hardened look in her eyes told Sasuke that she had hidden herself away behind the cold façade that she once possessed as an Iwa-assassin. Her eyes traveled towards the four remaining paths and suddenly the look in her eyes transformed into a livid glare that Sasuke had never witnessed. What had she seen?