Shortly after the debacle at the Five Kage Summit, just as Kakashi had been about to be named the Sixth (or Seventh, depending on how one looked at it) Hokage, Tsunade finally recovered from her coma. Kakashi couldn't remember a time he'd been more relieved than when Gai had burst into the meeting with the Daimyo and declared that Tsunade had woken up. Kakashi had skirted that brush with 'death' by a hair and had never wanted to hug Gai more than at that very moment.
When Kakashi first visited the now awakened Tsunade, she had been shoveling down food at a rate that would have the Akamichi's challenging her to maintain their title of champion eaters. While she appeared to be busy, he had news that she needed to hear immediately. Not just about the summit, but about her… their very own student.
The Copy Ninja got the news about the summit over with quickly, saving the problem of their missing student for last lest Tsunade ignore all other issues pertaining to the newly started war in her anger.
"Lady Tsunade. I have… additional news as well. It's about Sakura," he began cautiously, tensing as Tsunade stopped eating and as her sharp, weighted gaze fell onto him.
"What happened?" the Slug Sannin demanded immediately, only her eyes betraying her concern.
"Sakura went to take on Sasuke alone right after the summit. When I got there to stop her and to take on the burden myself… she was gone. Sasuke says she disappeared during the battle and a captive we have named Karin, one of Sasuke's old associates, backs up his story. She says that Danzo had implanted sharingan in his arm which would close every time he seemingly reversed his own death. I believe that it is the Izanagi, a legendary jutsu that only sharingan wielders can use… and that Sakura was somehow caught in it."
Tsunade stared at him for a long moment, her intense gaze boring into him as her face slowly morphed into one of rage.
"That sneaky bastard! Stealing sharingan from Uchiha corpses for his own gain and now dragging my student into his depravity! Where is he?!"
"He's dead. Killed by Sasuke."
Tsunade scowled deeply in response, glaring down at the numerous empty bowls of food surrounding her.
"And his corpse?" she hissed, her rage still palpable.
"Gone. We suspect Madara stole it."
Tsunade let loose a breath between her bared teeth. "And there was no sign on her nearby?"
"Kiba, Naruto, Lee, my ninja hounds, and I all searched for her. Even in sage mode, Naruto couldn't find a trace of her anywhere…" Kakashi answered, his gaze falling to the ground as his disappointment in himself at being unable to save his student, another one of his precious people, surfaced once again.
Tsunade was silent for a long moment, her expression warring between the rage she clung to and sadness at her beloved pupil being somehow taken from them.
"You and Shikamaru are to form a team to find her and return her home immediately. I don't care what you have to do or what you need. Get it done!"
Sakura wasn't surprised to find that the caravan she would be guarding was substantially larger than the one led by the merchant brothers. Instead of one cart pulled by a gruff old ox, she faced four carts all led by two oxs each. The carts were heavily weighed down by goods concealed by tawny tarps.
The crew of men who greeted her had widely ranging reactions to her presence, from confused looks to horrified stares. She couldn't blame them. She was certain that Atsushi had told them of a skilled warrior who he would try to hire to guard their group and here they were, faced by a five and almost a half foot tall, pink-haired woman wearing a pastel green yukata. They probably thought their leader had lost his mind.
Either way, Sakura was expecting trouble. She hardly looked like the battle-hardened ninja she was and knew that any bandits would think nothing of her presence. They would all learn soon enough when the combat started.
The kunoichi just hoped these men knew how to duck and cover because she wasn't sure how easily she could protect nine people all fleeing for their lives.
The introductions were brief and respectful, but Sakura knew there was no way she could remember the names of all eight people. They set off immediately, four of the workers acting as drivers to spur on the oxs.
She sat atop the goods loaded up in the third cart from the front, extending her awareness as she waited for any immediate ambushes. She suspected that an attack wouldn't come until they neared the next city, considering such a massive supply of rare metals as this would be a pain to cart such a distance, but remained vigilent.
Sakura watched as four of the workers, all armed with various weapons, spoke briefly with Atsushi before laying in the back of a couple of the carts. They all immediately nodded off, falling into a deep sleep with trained skill. She noted their positions briefly before returning to her vigil.
It wasn't long before Atsushi himself approached her, the gigantic man still coming eye to eye with Sakura perched on the cart.
"Thank you for agreeing to act as our guard. The three day trek will be much safer with you accompanying us," he thanked sincerely with a kind smile.
'Three days of traveling like this?' Sakura lamented internally, keeping her features schooled. She simply nodded in response, knowing that she needed the funds. Even if this damn trip would take less than a day if she could simply travel the ninja way…
"Of course. It's my pleasure," she replied smoothly.
"I thought that I'd explain how we normally make this trip. Aki, Hideo, Keiji, and Hiroki are our drivers. They guide and tend to the oxs when we stop. Aki is also a wonderful cook, so that makes the trips far nicer," Atsushi explained, drawing a indifferent grunt from the driver, possibly Aki, guiding the cart Sakura sat upon.
"And Hisao, Shigeo, Dai, and Michio, the ones already asleep, are our regular guards. They usually take shifts guarding the carts during the day and at night. For this trip, they'll all take the night watch so you can get some sleep as well. We used to have six, but… Two of our friends were killed during an attack on our last trip…"
"I'm sorry to hear that. I can promise you no one will lose their lives with me around," Sakura promised with a determined gaze, drawing a smile from Atsushi.
"I… Thank you. With how Ichirou and his family spoke of you, I have no doubt," the giant of a man replied sincerely.
After participating in the most one-sided discussion of her life with the driver of her cart, Sakura's full attention returned to the passing landscape. She watched as the towering oaks passed by painfully slow and soon found herself lost to boredom.
Deciding that this would be the perfect opportunity to focus on replenishing more of the chakra in her seal, Sakura took it upon herself to meditate. The seal on her forehead was still in dire need of attention, her near constant funneling of chakra over the past week having only brought her to a negligible fraction of what she once had.
Her meditation, during which she focused on more efficiently gathering chakra into her Strength of a Hundred seal, lasted for three hours before two of the guards sleeping in one of the carts woke up. They had a quiet conversation among themselves for a few minutes before one spoke loud enough for her to hear.
"What the hell was Atsushi thinking? This girl looks more like a housewife than a ninja! And she hasn't even moved since we fell asleep hours ago. What is she even doing, sleeping during her shift?"
Sakura's eyes snapped open and her gaze settled on the man who had spoken. He seemed surprised by her sudden attention, as if he hadn't even expected her to hear, but maintained his stare bravely.
"Since you're so curious…" she began, holding back her rage at being so severely underestimated, "I'm gathering chakra for the upcoming battle. Meditation makes the process easier and more efficient."
"The upcoming battle? What, do you know something we don't?" the other guard hissed, narrowing his eyes at her dangerously.
Sakura's gaze flicked to him, her own eyes narrowing in a challenge. "A three day trek with four carts filled with goods? It's only a matter of time until someone attacks. Although I suspect they won't come until the last leg of the trip, they'll descend soon enough. Don't worry though."
The kunoichi smiled briefly as her eyes slid shut once again, dismissing the disrespectful men. "I'm good at what I do."
For the rest of the trip until night descended, the conversation around her was hushed and no one addressed her again.
Once the sun drew close to the horizon, the caravan pulled off to the side of the dirt road and let the oxs rest and eat their fill of grass. The drivers filled wooden buckets with jugs stored in the back of one of the carts and provided the beasts of burden with water to drink.
As the group worked to start a fire and one of the drivers began preparing a meal of stew, they took turns venturing out a short ways to relieve themselves.
Sakura withdrew her storage scroll for her obi and pulled out the materials she'd need to set up traps. She went around their small camp, running wire through the trees and rigging traps for any unwanted intruders. Most were simple traps which would make enough noise to alert the group as she refused to spare her few kunai for something so trivial.
She removed a bedroll from her storage scroll and found a place to sleep a short distance away from the group. She was provided a bowl of stew by Atsushi, the only person who seemed to be willing to interact with her, and she thanked him for his kindness.
The four guards took up positions around the camp, wary of Sakura's tripwires, as the rest of their group went to their bedrolls. Sakura herself soon succumbed to sleep, drifting off into a restful slumber.
The next day was spent in much the same way as the first. The driver was just as quiet and gruff as before, the guards quickly fell asleep in the backs of the carts, and Sakura spent the day more effectively replenishing the chakra in her seal.
It wasn't until the third and final day that they had company.
Despite not being a sensory type, Sakura spent her entire life growing up in the forest. When the wildlife around them suddenly became silent, she was already up on her feet in preparation for the upcoming fight.
"It's you!" a dark haired woman yelled from the canopy of trees, revealing herself to the group as she stepped out onto one of the branches.
Sakura immediately recognized the symbol of a shuriken decorating the stranger's shirt. Another member of the Fuma clan.
Not good...
"You're the bitch that killed my brother!" she declared furiously, her hand already reaching behind her to grasp the fuma shuriken strapped to her back, "You'll pay for that with your life!"
"Everyone, get down!" Sakura commanded before gathering chakra into her feet. She hoped that this jump wouldn't destroy the cart beneath her but knew that it was a risk she was willing to take to prevent this woman from letting loose her massive shuriken on the group.
She shot forward at the woman, surprising her with her sudden burst of speed. Sakura was just able to land a kick on the Fuma's leg which threw off the trajectory of her throw. Instead of her projectile launching towards the group Sakura was protecting, it shot off into the trees, clipping branches as it went.
The woman screamed as Sakura's chakra-enhanced kick shattered her femur, dropping out of the tree like a sack of stones. The pink haired kunoichi grabbed onto the branch the Fuma had been standing on with her hands, redirecting herself so she fell with her opponent. As she fell, intending on landing a finishing blow to take her out of the battle, the sound of another shinobi's shuriken cutting through the air met her ears.
Turning her head to the side, Sakura caught sight of another one of the massive projectiles flying directly at her. Someone had decided to take advantage of her fall to try to land a hit.
Sakura timed her strike perfectly, knowing there was no room for errors. Just as the massive shuriken got within her reach, she slammed her fist into the edge of the whirling blade. Grateful she was able to hit one of the blades of the shuriken, the massive weapon shot downwards with the strength behind her hit. It skewered her target, the woman who had fallen from the tree and landed flat on her back, the weapon piercing the dark haired woman's chest and embedding in the ground beneath her. She let loose a gurling yell as Sakura gracefully landed on the ground next to her, the pink haired kunoichi leaping back to the group and abandoning her fatally injured foe.
While Atsushi, the drivers, and most of the guards had taken cover behind the carts, one of the guards (incidentally the one who had spoken poorly of her just a couple days previous), ran off towards where the second shuriken had come from. He sprinted into the forest with a battle cry, threateningly drawing his katana.
"No, wait!" Sakura called out, already running towards him, intending to bring him back to the group by force if she had to.
The guard disappeared into the tree line and, before she could follow after him, two more Fuma clan shinobi dropped down from the trees above her, swords bearing down on her. She rolled out of the way of their strikes, shooting her legs back to kick the both of them. She clipped one of the ninja in the side, the man spinning rapidly a couple times before falling to the ground, while the other ninja, a kunoichi, dodged her.
The medic shot back to her feet with enough time to sidestep another slash from the now furious kunoichi. Her foe continued to strike out at her, corralling her away from her partner who clutched his side and coughed blood onto the ground.
As she continued to dodge the rapid slashes from her opponent, she heard the pained yell of the guard who had ran off deeper in the trees.
"Enough!" Sakura roared as she planted her foot in the ground, the earth trembling as fissures spiderwebbed across the ground.
The woman who was attacking her lost her balance on the dramatically shifting earth and Sakura used the opportunity to jolt forward and slam her fist through her chest. The enemy kunoichi was thrown backwards into a tree but didn't make a sound as she hit, her body instead slumping to the side.
Sakura leapt over to where the injured shinobi attempted to stand, raising her leg high into the air as she did. She ignored how the skirts of her yukata parted, focused entirely on her opponent, as she descended upon him with her master's signature technique: the Heavenly Foot of Pain.
When Sakura's chakra fueled axe kick landed on the shoulder of the struggling Fuma, her blow violently forced him into the ground. The earth below her foot cratered under the force of her blow, the enemy spewing a mouthful of blood before collapsing at the base of the hole.
Sakura immediately shot off into the forest where she had heard the pained scream of the guard and came upon him lying in a growing pool of blood. Another Fuma shinobi towered over him, his ninjato raised to deliver the final blow.
Sakura withdrew a kunai from the obi of her yukata before tossing it at the Fuma ninja. The man blocked her kunai, the projectile falling uselessly to the ground, but gave Sakura just enough time to close the distance between them.
When he swung his sword at her, Sakura slid underneath his strike and kicked him in the stomach with a chakra-fueled strike. He flew off into the forest in a wide arc before landing a fair distance away, unmoving.
Sakura turned to the injured guard on the ground near her, already in medic mode as she assessed the severity of his wounds. The man had a few superficial scratches on his face and arms, but the most concerning injury was his profusely bleeding stomach which he clutched in agony.
"It's alright, you're going to be alright," she comforted as she dropped down to her knees next to him, the puddle of blood around him staining the skirt of her yukata. She glanced around the battlefield, searching for more attackers, but found none.
"Damn… I guess I underestimated you…" the guard wheezed, his eyes half-closed as he blearily watched as Sakura's hands began to glow green.
"Yeah, I'd say you did," Sakura returned as she placed her hands on the uninjured part of his chest, already pushing healing chakra into the wound.
"I gotta say though… I'm underestimating you again here, woman…" he chuckled before coughing up a mouthful of blood onto the grass at his side.
"I thought you would have learned the last time. I told you: I'm good at what I do," she scolded as she began mending the torn blood vessels and putting a stop to the bleeding.
"Sakura?! Is everything alright?" Atsushi called out from the other side of the trees before bursting out of the brush and into their small clearing. His eyes immediately settled on the injured guard in horror before he too came forward to kneel beside him.
"Dai, my friend! You are… I…" he started, struggling for words as he grasped the guard's hand, tears building in his eyes.
"Everything will be fine. His wound looks worse than it is," Sakura comforted, touched by how much this giant of a man cared for his companions.
Apparently Dai was far less touched by his friend's concern, his face curling into a grimace. "Sweet gods, Atsushi. Stop crying over me, you giant baby."
"I cannot!" Atsushi wailed, a tear freely slipping down his dark cheek, "This has been an incredibly troubling day, especially after losing our friends on our last venture. I worry for you."
"Ugh, your housewife looking she-warrior says she has this under control, so get it together!" Dai scolded with a glare, apparently already feeling the pain lessening under the medic's ministrations. Sakura felt a tick develop in her eyebrow at his description of her.
"I told you not to doubt me," she reminded as she continued forward with her healing, now working on rapidly knitting together his perforated kidney.
The two continued to bicker among themselves as she finished healing Dai. After piecing together his tattered kidney, she reconnected the flesh and muscle surrounding it. Finally, she worked at removing any foreign bacteria which may have been introduced to his system following his injury.
Once finished, her hands ceased glowing and she pulled away. "How are you feeling? Any lingering pain?"
Dai, brushing off the concerned Atsushi, looked to Sakura with a surprised expression. He stared down at his stomach, reaching down to pull apart his torn shirt to look at where his wound should have been. His expression transformed into one of wonder as he lifted his shirt entirely to look at his now uninjured stomach.
"No, I'm… Fine…" he muttered in response, running his fingers over the still bloody, but now uninjured, flesh of his stomach.
Sakura smiled widely, satisfied with her work, before standing. Both Atsushi and Dai's gazes settled upon her, their eyes wide with shock and amazement.
"Is anyone else injured?" she asked, turning towards where she knew the rest of the group lingered.
"No, but… Lady Sakura…" Atsushi replied, a smile erupting across his face, "That was incredible!"
The rest of their journey was spent sharing more words than had been spoken over the last two days.
All the guards gathered around her in a loose circle on the back of one of the carts, excitedly asking her question after question about her strength, her training, and her 'magical healing powers'. After hearing the tale of how she saved Dai's life twice, once from the enemy ninja and then again by healing his life-threatening wound, this group took to calling her Lady Sakura as well (a fact which discomforted her as much as it had when the merchant brothers had taken to calling her such).
Even the gruff driver and cook got involved, uttering a couple words.
By the time they finally reached the city of Kiso, the group was torn about having the separate from her. The drivers gave her a polite farewell before taking their oxs to the nearby stables to rest, the beasts of burden huffing as if to utter their own goodyes. Dai and the rest of the guards shook her hand firmly, finally granting her their respect.
But Atsushi, the emotional giant he was, had struggled internally for a few moments before lurching forward to scoop Sakura up like a child. He lifted her nearly two feet off the ground without the slightest hint of a struggle and gave her a proper hug, nearly crushing her in his bulky arms. Never in her life had the kunoichi felt smaller than at that moment, being embraced by a man who towered at nearly seven feet tall.
When he had set her down, sniffling in a way that told her he was fighting dramatic tears, he distracted himself from his emotions by digging into his pockets and distributing his payment to her. When Sakura counted the money and found it was ten thousand more than they had agreed upon, Atsushi had simply laughed, telling her that she had gone above and beyond and that the extra was a tip for her excellent service.
Saying goodbye to her new friends had been just as bitter-sweet as separating from the merchant brothers had been. They left with the promise of seeing each other again one day and Sakura still felt like she was lying when she agreed.
She entered the massive trading city in search of an inn to stay at for the night, a bit overwhelmed by the size of the new trade city after spending nearly a week in the tiny town before.
After a few horrified stares and gasps from various townsfolk, Sakura glanced down at her blood-stained yukata and decided that she should probably look into finding an onsen and another clothing shop as well.
A/N: A ninjato is basically a short sword, smaller than a katana but shaped in a similar fashion. An onsen is a bath house.