The adrenaline stopped her from feeling fear, pain or cold. She ran as fast as she could. Her left arm, the broken one rested against her chest. Shinki was thrown over her right shoulder. Her right arm held the back of his knees to keep him from falling. The bird flew above Sakura's head, following her lead. Shinki held onto Sakura' robes with his small hand while the other hand was stretched forward to send his iron sand in cannon balls and arrows towards his enemies. He hit one on them in the leg. The enemy fell to the ground and didn't get up. 2 more men followed Sakura.

"Sakura, one of them is down!" Shinki said happily.

Sakura forced an answer:

"Good job! Don't stop!" Her alert tone mobilized the boy and he gave all his strength to attack. He wasn't at the peak of his power because the poison didn't completely leave his system. He still needed an antidote and Sakura was aware of it. That was why the first thing on the priorities list was to get rid of the assassins and the second to find Matsuri so they could work on an antidote for the poison.

Sakura stumbled on a knoll and fell. She caught herself in the broken hand by mistake and hissed in pain while tears pooled in her eyes. Blood leaked from her open wound and stained the sand, making it a deep shade of red. It's so hard to run on this land! Sakura thought. Shinki was just shaken from Sakura's fall. She had one knee on the ground when she whistled. Shinki looked at her with concern, but he fell silent when she saw the determination in her eyes. The bird flew back to them. When the bird was right in front of Sakura's face, its eyes shone like a mirror and it looked hypnotized.

"Gaara, we are under attack. Shinki was poisoned, but he lives. Come quickly!"

The bird recorded the message and flew away as fast as the wind. Not long from now, the dark was going to settle over the desert which meant the bird wasn't going to see anything. It had to fly as much as she could and then sleep until tomorrow when the first ray of sunshine allowed it to continue to her destination. The message had to be delivered as soon as possible.

Sakura would have healed her arm, but the green glow of her chakra would have betrayed their location which was exactly what she was trying to avoid in the first place. She couldn't rick making a fuss because who knew if the locals would be on her side or not. Thankfully, the assassins thought the same.

We can't go anywhere we've been before. We were most like followed ever since Gaara left. We need to hide so I have time to think of a plan. Sakura thought.

The little boy started coughing and the strength he used to hold onto her decreased significantly.

We don't have much time. The girl thought with worry.

Back when Sakura strolled through the city, she had enough time to observe that the balconies of the buildings weren't see-through, like in Konoha. In her village, balconies had a wooden base and twisted iron bars to prevent people from falling over. In Suna, all balconies were made of clay and stucco without any bars or wholes. They could easily hide there.

"Shinki, I need you to scatter our smell, so they lose track of us."

"Yes." He replied emaciated.

He called the wind to blow in all directions, spreading their smell to confuse the attackers. He coughed again. Sakura felt moist on her shoulder and felt the robe sticking to her skin.

It must be blood. It's bad. She realized.

She forced herself to run faster and jumped from one building to another until she found a house with no lights on. She crept on the balcony and put the boy down before she gestured him to shut up.

"Make a sand shield around us. I have to heal you." She whispered.

Shinki surrounded them with a black layer of sand one couldn't distinguish from the dark outside. Sakura's hands glowed a deep shade of green. She put her right hand on the boy's chest and healed her left arm at the same time as she healed the boy. Shinki looked at the hand he hurt and felt bad. He didn't intend to hurt her, of course, but he did it and regret reflected in his almond eyes. Every crack of the bones that were getting fixed hurt him, too. He didn't mind seeing or spilling enemy blood, but Sakura's blood disturbed him. That was when he felt a sting in his heart, even if Sakura struggled to heal the effects of the poison on his frail body.

"Shinki, we can't stay here long. We have to find Matsuri until Gaara comes back. Spread your sand and see if you can find her chakra signature."

We have to analyze the poison in the bottle to make an antidote. It's the only way to get all the poison out of his system. I can only stall the time until then.

Shinki's sand left them uncovered again before it spread in all directions to try and find Matsuri. They both started to feel the cold, now that Sakura wasn't running anymore. She was all sweaty, stained with blood, the dress clung to her body and she shivered. Even so, her first thought was to take care of the baby. He must have been cold, too. At the very least, the balcony shielded them from the wind. Her left arm wasn't bleeding anymore, her bones were healed, but it still hurt to move it and it moved slower than usual. She took the boy in her arms and squeezed him to her chest before she pulled on the collar of his shirt to blow hot air. Shinki was surprised to feel heat. Sakura kept on blowing hot air into the boy's shirt and rubbed his back up and down to create friction which creates heat. Shinki felt she was trembling so he tried to warm her up, too. He stuck his nose and mouth in the space between the collar of her robe and the back of her neck to blow hot air, too. As much as his lungs could. Unfortunately, he forgot to get his mouth and nose out of there when he inhaled and a shiver ran down her spine. Shinki realized his mistake and fixed it when he blew hot air into her robe again.

Sakura got emotional. Children are so sweet when they try to copy you. She thought. She was sure Shinki wasn't used to take care of somebody else, so this was a premiere for him. Tears pooled in her eyes and she couldn't prevent her body from shuddering.

"Sakura, are you ok?"

"Yes, I am just happy."

"Then why are you crying?"

"I'm not crying. Sand got into my eyes."

"Oh, that's right. You aren't used to the sand. It doesn't get into my eyes no matter how long I keep them open. Do you want to see?"

Sakura laughed and held him closer into her arms.

"Did you find Matsuri?" She asked and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.

"No." He replied with his head down.

"That's ok. Keep searching."

"Yes." Shinki frowned, meaning he was focusing on his task and looked again through his sand. It took about 2 hours, but he finally found her.

"Ready!" He happily said.

"Great! Where is she?"

"You don't know the streets of Suna. I will lead her to us."

But Sakura couldn't stay in the cold for so long because she risked dying of hypothermia. Thus, she decided to cover them both in blue coats of chakra to burn and make them warm. Even if she gave away their position, Matsuri was going to get there soon.

"Shinki, they're getting closer. Focus on bringing Matsuri here while I take care of them."

"Yes."

There were at least 4 hours before the break of dawn. Sakura jumped from the balcony onto the ground and waited for them with her fist ready. She couldn't wait to knock them down. Shortly after, a kunai stabbed the sand by her feet.

"Elmer, wait for me! I won't let you get all the credit for putting her down."

"It's not my fault you are so slow! A prostitute from Konoha doesn't belong in Suna, unless she came to lick our shoes." The man in front of her spat the words as he laughed.

"Elmer, right? You must be the only ox with a cow's name." Sakura mocked him.

Elmer lost his temper and rushed towards her with his fists and feet. She easily ducked all of his attacks and laughed. This is going to be so easy. Sakura thought. Her plan was to manipulate their emotions so they attack her without a plan. She was already at a disadvantage because she wasn't fighting on her territory, she didn't know her enemies and it was still dark outside. Matsuri will be here any moment now.

As Sakura followed Elmer's every move, she kept mocking him.

"Now that you're closer, I realize you look like a shaved potato."

"What?"

He didn't get the chance to be even more dazed because Sakura's fist connected with his chin to send him flying next to the other man, who wanted to let Elmer embarrass himself before he decided to join him in fighting.

"We'll attack her from both sides, do you understand? You cover me and I cover you."

"Fine." Elmer said as soon as he got up from the ground while rubbing his bloody chin.

Sakura adopted a fighting stance as she patiently waited for their attacks. She was good at taijutsu. As soon as she caught an exposed ankle, she kicked it, but she never had time to land the fatal blow because the other opponent always jumped on her. This way, Sakura received some elbows, fists in the stomach and punches in her side, but she quickly regained her composure and kept fighting. The most silent of the attackers came up with the idea to attack Shinki in order to distract Sakura. When he flew towards Shinki, Sakura desperately ran in that direction, slit the tendons on both his ankles and attempted to annihilate him when a hand yanked her hair until she fell on the ground. A fist hit her throat causing her to choke blood and struggle to breathe. Elmer climbed on her back as she lied on the ground and he was prepared to slit her throat. His kunai stopped a few millimeters away from her pulse point. He had a grimace on his face as if he couldn't move. Sakura looked over her shoulder and saw Shikamaru with his hands clasped together and a knee on the sand. The first ray of sunshine appeared behind him.

"Shadow jutsu complete."

Sakura felt relieved. Shikamaru stood up to move closer to her and made Elmer stand up and away at the same time. Shikamaru kept the man in place as he asked Sakura a question without having eye contact with her. In battle, you have to always keep your eyes on the enemy.

"Are you ok?"

Sakura brought her hand to her throat to heal herself. A few minutes later she replied:

"Yes. It's so good to see a familiar face. Thank you, Shikamaru."

Sakura stood up on her feet and gestured for Shinki to come closer. The child listened to her and went to stand by her side with worry in his eyes.

"Don't worry, little one. I am fine." She ruffled his hair in reassurance.

Shinki's big brown eyes moved on Shikamaru.

"He is a friend from Konoha. Don't worry."

Sakura looked behind Shikamaru to see Matsuri running towards them with another man who was wearing an ANBU mask. It must be one of the guards Gaara left here to protect us.

"Finally!" Sakura said.

It was the morning of the day by the end of which Gaara was supposed to come back. Gaara, Kankurou and all his suite were running through forests as they got closer to the final destination: Suna. Something moved on the sky which made Gaara direct his eyes up to check. He noticed the bird he sent to Sakura from the Land of Cloud. She still had the note tied to her leg. He recognized the color of the paper he used to write the message. Gaara's eyes became bigger in worry, then he frowned at his brother:

"Kankurou, the bird!"

His big brother untied the doll from his back and sent Karasu to capture the bird and bring it down to them. Gaara untied the paper and read the message after he freed the bird so she could return to her home. He was now convinced the message never reached Sakura. This is bad.

Kankurou didn't know about the note and he couldn't ask in front of everybody. He tried to put the pieces of the puzzles together in his mind just by looking at his little brother's face. He learnt to read him after all these years. That's how he figured out something must be wrong.

"Let's hurry!" Gaara told everyone with a hard look on his face.

"Yes, sir!" They all replied in chorus.
One more hour of running through swamps, stones and holes in the ground, and another bad sign appeared before them: Sakura's bird. She seemed exhausted. She flew very close to the ground, as if the sky was about to cry. Gaara lost his breath when he saw it. He sent his sand to get the bird and let in rest on his shoulder as he kept running. Something bad definitely happened.

The bird chirped the message in his ear: "Gaara, we are under attack. Shinki was poisoned, but he lives. Come quickly!" The bird even mimicked Sakura's pant. She must have been running when she sent me this message. It means she was being hunted. I have to go back to Suna right away! Suddenly he heard his brother yell out of nowhere:

"Gaara!"

His sand only had time to create three quarters of a shield around him before small white balls exploded everywhere around him. He spat blood and realized his sand could partially shield him from one of the bombs. He hid the bird in his shirt, to his chest, so she wouldn't see anything. He lifted his sand cocoon high in the air to take a look at the situation from above. Kankurou stood on his giant cocoon in a fighting stance along with his killer puppets.

"It looks like they want to eliminate us." Kankurou said.

"You have always had good instincts, big brother." Gaara replied with a sly smile on his face.

Note: Somebody is going to get punished? ﾟﾘﾂ?