Hola. Si, continuará…

I just want to say that I wish to block the last few months from my memories.

Anyway, enjoy the chapter! I'll try to post another soon: I'm starting my last semester at uni (WOOOOOO) but I don't have as many classes as the previous semester, so I'm hoping I get to write more.

Chapter 3

Two weeks later, and four months into her imprisonment, Sai makes good on his oath.

Sakura hears a shuffling and clanking at the cell door. They move like someone not wanting to be noticed, but not quite having the dexterity or training to achieve such a feat. She shifts, having been woken by the sound. The wounds on her back, on their way to being healed, still twinge as she moves, new skin and scabs tight across her back.

An unfamiliar medic had been sent to her after the lashing, but only to administer a topical antiseptic to her back, so she would not succumb to infection. Danzo, far from being generous, probably thought sepsis too easy of a death for her.

She gazes with bleary eyes at the shape before her cell.

Not until the stranger shifts to get a better angle, does she recognize the face of the medic who had been sent to her after her lashing.

Confused, Sakura shifts into a sitting position and gazes at the medic.

Has she finally gone bonkers?

"What are you doing?" She asks wearily.

"Shh!" He whispers fiercely. Ice blue eyes glare at her before he starts fumbling with the ring full of keys again. He drops the keys noisily. "Shit! Why the hell do they need so many damn keys anyway?" He tires a few more before hissing a quick "aha!", the cell finally popping open.

"What are you doing?" Sakura asks again, quite stupidly, although in her defense, she still thinks she is hallucinating.

"And he told me you were smart," the dusty haired man scoffs. "I'm getting you out of here, obviously. Now hurry, before they come for both of our heads!"

Sakura eyes him suspiciously. "How do I know this is real?"

"Oh, for the love of—look, we can discuss this later when we are in relative safety away from Konoha."

Sakura sits and thinks for another minute before she shrugs and goes along with it. If these are her final moments, better them spent in a delerium where she is escaping. She tries to stand, but fails miserably, if anything was enough to convince her of her reality, this was it: there was no way that she would be hurting this much if she were in a dream state.

The medic barely holds back a frustrated sigh, but pity does finally enter his gaze when he sees her struggling to stand with an arm wrapped protectively around her barely protruding belly. He moves to slide an arm under her arms. Weeks without a proper bath has taken a rather smelly toll as she realizes she can't smell very nice but he does not comment on it.

"Come," he says, trying to hurry her along. "We only have to get past these damn dungeons and then we can use chakra to get away from here."

"You can use chakra?" Sakura asks weakly as she struggles along.

"Well, yeah. I'm a fucking medic aren't I?"

"I'm sorry, but I don't recognize you from the hospital."

"You wouldn't. I'm a medic for Root. Ah, fuck!" He exclaims as he trips over some unseen obstacle in his path. The hallways are even darker at night due to some of the sconces being put out. Sort of a lights out for the inmates, she figures. That consistent action had been the only thing alerting Sakura of the days gone by for the past four months. Time is not something that can be tracked down in the dark dungeon; in fact, the daily lighting and dimming of the sconces was one of the constants that had kept her sane…

Maybe.

Sakura still isn't sure if this is real or not.

Although...she had felt a miniscule amount of relief from leaving the cell—her small amount of chakra returning to her after months of stasis and repressment—but she can't be sure what the feeling is. If it is her chakra resurgence, it is extremely weak from months of malnutrition and focus on her baby.

Sakura shakes her head, trying to get her wandering thoughts back on track. She reflects on what he just said: Of course he was from Root, Sakura thinks, a Konoha medic would never have used such foul language in front of someone they didn't even know—Tsunade-shisou would never have allowed it.

"You swear a lot," Sakura croaks feebly.

"Yeah?" He replies with eye-rolling sarcasm. "Usually when I drag half-dead, five month pregnant girls out of a dungeon with the threat of violent execution over my head, I'm pretty blasé about it. Today must be an off day for me."

"Alright, alright," Sakura grumbles, finding enough strength to muster up some grouchiness. Then she realizes… "Where are the guards? We should have encountered at least two by now."

"I took care of the one that was watching you. He's keeping the others busy."

"He…?" Sakura asks.

Oh.

Sai.

"Isn't he coming with us, too?" She knows that was a foolish question: there's no possible way he could, but the other truth wrenches her gut in a painful twist.

"Dear, you know he can't," the medic says, voice pitying.

No, he can't. Sai is risking sure execution so she can escape.

Sakura allows for a moment of heart-wrenching ache before she concentrates on her task. One step at a time. Grief later.

Sakura searches for something that will distract her from her grief before she lands on an obvious question: "Why are you helping me?"

"Don't talk now!" He commands. "You're already slow enough as it is without half of your concentration going towards talking. I'll tell you everything once we're out of this forsaken place."

Now who's being loud, Sakura thinks bleakly. "Fine then, just answer me this one?"

He nods his head tersely after just a quick sigh.

"What is your name?" She wants to know the name of her rescuer and would like to stop referring to him as just "the medic".

He smiles...or it might have just been a grimace. "Tori."

"Right, thank you, Tori."

…

They move along in a slow pace, to Tori's obvious frustration, but he keeps a gentle hold on her nonetheless.

Once they reach the stairs after navigating the seemingly endless hallways, they face another tough obstacle. Sakura measures that climbing up takes almost twice as long as it did to traverse through the long sinuous hallways below. Surprisingly enough, they hadn't encountered another prisoner on their trek. Sakura supposed that Danzo doesn't really like to keep prisoners, especially if he considered them a threat. Best to get rid of them right away.

Finally at the top of the stairs, Sakura is close to hyperventilating from the stress of the exercises. She is no help and is basically a useless heap leaning heavily against Tori. They are currently in a shaded hallway in the office space of ANBU headquarters which is—probably thanks to Sai again—empty to Sakura's relief: her harsh breathing is a beacon to their contrived stealthy escape.

"Come on, girl! That took much longer than it should have. We need to keep moving and I need your help," he says, almost in a panic. "Just a few more steps and we can disappear from here." He tries to drag her, but even if she has lost a significant amount of weight from months of abusive isolation, Tori is not a large man and does not possess great strength.

Sakura grits her teeth: this is the only chance she will have at escape. For her and her baby.

She musters the smallest amount of chakra from her body and uses it to keep her legs straight and standing. "Let's go." He's right, while they cannot use excessive chakra from inside the ANBU headquarters for security reasons, such as a prison break, once they are outside that limit is lifted.

Sakura gasps again when they step outside, but not from exertion: fresh, clean air assaults her senses and caresses her face as she steps into the clear night. She inhales huge lungfuls of soft, crisp night air as she takes in the outside surroundings for the first time in four months. Her heart clenches, everything looks the same—from the buildings surrounding the ANBU headquarters to the small food stand that opens early in the morning. Everything still looks like home, even though she can no longer call Konoha that.

Her skin goosebumps as she realizes that late Autumn has settled over Konoha while she was locked away.

All this she observed in the ten seconds it took for Tori to be ready. As her eyes adjusted to the night, though, she also noticed an odd glow in the distance.

"What's—?" She starts to ask before Tori interrupts her harshly.

"Questions for later, remember?"

Sakura nods hastily, "Sorry."

"Right, ready?" Tori asks, clenching the arm thrown around her shoulders more tightly.

"Yes. Get me the hell out of here."

…

Tori is not an adept chakra user, so they take the Body Flicker technique in small bursts until they are in the leafy trees surrounding Konoha.

She wonders why Sai chose this man to help rescue her, but Tori did promise to answer her questions so she will keep quiet until they are farther away.

They are about three miles from the village when Tori suddenly releases his grip on her arm and slumps heavily on the floor. He places one shaking hand against his forehead and takes slow, harsh breaths. "I think that's it for me, dear. I'm not that good at regulating my chakra—it's amazing we got as far as we did."

Sakura watches him while leaning heavily against a tree. She hadn't done much work per se, but she is exhausted. "Can you answer my questions now?"

Tori takes one long-suffering look at her, then wipes one hand down his sweat stained face and nods. "I got you out," he grumbles, "what more is there to know or care about?" He sighs and gets shakily to his feet. "We're still too close for comfort, so how about we talk while we walk. I'm sure it won't take Root that long to figure out you are missing and then we'll have one fucking chase on our hands."

Sakura wholeheartedly agrees and starts limping after Tori. She faintly realizes they are heading towards a small village, Kimoda, that is almost a day's walk from Konoha as she asks her first question. "Why did Sai ask you to save me?"

"Honestly?" starts Tori. "Because I was probably the only one stupid enough willining too. Dear, don't start thinking that I did this out of the goodness of my own heart—although what they were doing to you down there in your condition is pretty despicable. Sai paid me quite a small fortune to do this."

Sakura blinks, surprised. "Why? And why would you agree?" She knows, of course, that this man had not just gone to help her because he pity's her, which was why she had been curious of his motives from the beginning.

"I want out of Root," he states bluntly. "Danzo is becoming increasingly paranoid about infiltrators in his group and I, and many others, fear his reign because of it. He has always been a ruthless leader, which I didn't mind, but after your group of friends escaped right from under his nose, he's been terrifying. Also, the way he supposedly killed you and Shizune that day created an even bigger disapproval of his leadership by other villages and by the Konoha people. You and Shizune were pretty famous people, believe it or not, and a lot of people admired you within and without Konoha. There were huge repercussions to the way he supposedly executed you that day." He looked back briefly to a shocked Sakura to make sure she was still following before continuing. "Anyway, like I said: I want out. I honestly was starting to fear for my life under his rule. He's executing people left and right! But I'm sure you already know that—you saw all those bodies on the wall."

Sakura flinches, but Tori doesn't notice.

"Sai approached me with an offer and I finally made up my mind about leaving. Of course, I didn't have to risk my neck even more by trying to help you escape, but he did offer me a lot of money and he promised that I wouldn't be compromised in any way...and I do need the money. You keeping up dear?"

"Yes," Sakura says quietly, still trying to absorb his story. She wasn't sure if Tori meant keeping up physically or mentally, though, which were both iffy subjects at the moment. "What about that glow when we left the ANBU building? Was that part of Sai's plan?"

"Yeah, he told me he was going to create some kind of distraction. One big enough to draw out all of ANBU and Root on Danzo's orders. I'm not entirely sure of the details, but I believe it involved blowing up a wall and creating shadow clones of your renegade friends to run around the village."

That would surely have drawn out Danzo himself, Sakura thinks. He wants Naruto and Kakashi in his grasp almost, she was sure, as much as he would want Sakura back once he learned she had escaped. She had figured out that he hated her more than maybe Naruto well enough. The healing wounds in her back gave a sharp twinge.

Sakura also realized that Sai had figured out a way to help without directly helping her.

Oh, Sai.

She focuses on her breathing and on keeping one foot in front of the other.

They travel for a few more hours in silence, Sakura's eyes threatening to shut close from exhaustion, until they finally reach the outskirts of Kimoda.

Tori abruptly stops and Sakura, who had been following behind his back, runs into him. Her bones ache terribly now that the surge of adrenaline from their escape has run out.

Tori turns and there's a look of pity mixed with shame upon his face. "This is where I leave you, dear. I'm sorry, but I am risking my life by even traveling with you this far, though Sai did not ask it of me, I couldn't just leave you right outside of Konoha—they probably would have caught you again in an hour if I had. I covered our trail this far, so they should not be able to trace us easily. Here," he hands out a small purse that clinks when he moves, "take this. It should keep you fed for a month if you're careful." He scratches his head awkwardly. "It really is a shame what they were doing to you down there, you now? A pregnant woman, no less. I'm not a selfless man, but damn it if I at least couldn't try to help you get outta there."

She's not angry, not in the least. She never would have expected a complete stranger to lay down their life for her on command. She appreciates Tori's honesty and so it is with complete sincerity that she bows to him and says, "I completely understand, Tori-San. Please, take my sincerest gratitude. For me and my child."

Tori smiles and bows back. "Stay safe, dear. I wish you a happy life after what you have been through. You and your child." And with that, he turns and walks away from her without another backward glance.

Sakura stands there for a moment, looking at Tori's retreating back and deliberating on whether to drop there and sleep.

She needs to think, but she is running on fumes at the moment.

What should she do first?

Her body screams sleep at her, but she knows she must plan past that.

Food, she needs food. That's the next step. She needs to do that first then keep on moving.

Right now would be the best time to walk into the village. The sky still glitters with midnight stars which will help disguise her state. Her clothes are filthy and although she hasn't looked in a mirror in four months, she knows her cheeks are probably hollow and her face gaunt. Her body has also been beaten and tortured ceaselessly. She probably has bruises all over.

Right. Food first.

…

After leaving the village one hour later. Sakura wanders back into the path that she and Tori had been following. The visit to the village had been uneventful. She had cleaned up a few of the worse visible bruises with the little chakra she had left. The street, though, had been almost empty because of the time, and the one, twenty-four hour shop that she had found open had been deserted. She had grabbed a few groceries and had hastily picked out a set of clothes before checking out with the cashier who hadn't even glanced in her direction. The evidently scintillating soap opera playing on the monitor suspended above the register deserved more scrutiny than her.

Now she sits at the base of a giant tree, sipping water and taking eating an apple in small bites so as not to overwhelm her stomach. When she finishes, she fishes out the prenatal vitamins Sai had given her months ago and takes one before promptly falling unconscious with no regards to her surroundings.

…

Awakening the next morning is excruciating.

Her bruised limbs ache from the sudden and extended output of exertion she had managed yesterday, ache to a point where she can barely move.

She gently places a hand on her small bump, agonizing again for the millionth time that she has not felt her baby move yet. She is five months pregnant. The child should have moved by now.

While in confinement, she had worried that her baby had died inside her without her knowing—something she wasn't sure she would have been able to handle in her mental state—but now that she had her chakra back, if only minimally, she could check on her child's well being.

She reaches out tentatively, hand shaking. While she has no extensive knowledge in obstetrics, she has learned how to feel the heartbeat of a fetus in an expecting mother.

She holds her breath in terror as she searches for that small thump that will impact her future significantly, regardless of its presence or not.

She cries in small quiet sobs when she feels the faint, thumping gallop of a small heart beating strongly inside her. Relief leaves her sagging against the tree, boneless and breathless with joy.

"We're okay. We're okay," she gasps while rubbing her hand across her bump.

…

For the next few days, she wanders, on autopilot. She's not sure what she needs to do, but she knows she must keep out of Root's grasp. Thanks to her rigorous training, she has managed to keep them off of her trail for the past week, but she doesn't know how long that will last once her pregnancy is more advanced. Feeling her baby's heart beat for the first time has driven new strength and purpose into her limbs.

She travels along a small stream in order to keep her tracks hidden without expending much energy. The energy from her limited chakra she keeps wrapped snugly around her baby.

Eventually, Sakura faintly recognizes that she is heading towards Ame as the foliage starts thickening and new humidity hangs in the air.

One night when she makes camp, she finally allows herself to break down and sob for Sai. For her friend that made sure two lives were saved that night.

…

On the fourth day she has enough energy to stop and think.

Fear has encapsulated any other feeling she might have if she had found out she was pregnant under other circumstances. She couldn't have been happy exactly, because any happiness she could have found at realizing she was going to have a baby could have been torn from her at any moment. Now, though, she has time to think of her condition and what it actually means. She is going to be a mother.

She has always wanted children, but that had been a thought accompanied by a fulfilled career and a dutiful partner.

Her reality is, though, that she is alone, without money, a home, or even family or friends to support her. The father of her child and whatever friends might have escaped don't even know she is alive.

Sakura tenderly rubs the alarmingly small bump on her stomach for being already five months pregnant. Maybe it is better this way. Only Danzō, Sai, and, she is sure, the group of Root agents he sent after her, are the only people who know she is still alive.

She can disappear, for the sake of her unborn child. Disappear and birth the child in relative safety, away from war and carnage...or she could try to find her friends and join them.

She examines her fragile form, a body that has been weakened and bruised consistently for four months. Limbs that are weak and thin at a time where they should be just the opposite, plump with health. Although she bathed in the stream she chose to travel in yesterday, and is now wearing clean clothes, she can't hide her malnutrition. She must look like a pot-bellied skeleton.

Obviously in no state to move or travel, and if she does so, she might actually miscarry.

Her heart gives a sharp pain at the thought. She is ashamed of the times she thought of giving up, because it would not just have been her life lost.

Determination abruptly fills her as she thinks back on her hopelessness, the feeling warms her weakened form. She is alive today, because of her growing baby. The child gave her the strength to endure when she felt like letting go once and for all would have been much easier. The child gave her the strength to run faster than she ever would have thought her weakened body capable of once she had escaped.

The baby is all that matters right now.

Her baby will come first. Always.

Again she marvels at the fact that she has not lost the baby.

The child is strong.

The child very much wants to live.

So she will make sure her baby lives.

…

Sakura is slumped against an abandoned building in a remote village in the Land of Rain a week later and about a week's travel from Konoha. She can't take another step. She is exhausted and two weeks of travel after four months of imprisonment—no matter that she is now well fed—is not what her body or baby needs. She recognizes that what her body needs more than anything is long-term rest and a roof over her head where she doesn't have to worry about leaving in the morning. The small bag of money she was given by Tori was really only enough to keep her fed for a couple weeks, so her choice was either to buy food or a few nights' rest at an inn. She has chosen food, but the constant days of traveling and sleeping in damp and harsh conditions are not doing her body any good. Having no idea where Kakashi or Naruto could have gone, she can't very well go traipsing across different lands in hopes of bumping into them.

She thought that she could resort to stealing, but then didn't think that drawing that kind of attention to her was wise. She also thought of maybe doing honest work and getting a job, but one inventory of her weak-limbed, five and a half month pregnant body ruled out that idea: just one look at her would scare any prospective employers away. No one would want to hire a frail pregnant girl.

So, here she is, fatigued and worn against a crumbling building, money running low and running a low-grade fever.

That is the most worrying part to Sakura, the fever. She is constantly checking on her baby's heartbeat which still thumps strongly, but a fever is an extremely troubling sign for a pregnant woman. She has taken to checking her undergarments every few hours for blood.

Sakura falls into a fitful doze—forehead resting against a rotting door frame—which she tries very hard to fight, because she is terrified that she might not wake up again if she succumbs. But her body—her limbs wispy strings—have lost all strength. Maybe falling asleep in a strange town is not the best idea, but she is just so tired that reason does not matter.

While floating through her fever-induced doze, she faintly hears a low, soothing voice drift in through one ear and right back out the other. She is too far gone to care or worry that there is a man crouched in front of her at the moment. Gone, gone, gone, are her worries floating through her head as the man's voice did. A dangerous mindset, she would admit to herself if she were but a bit more aware, but she can't seem to muster the strength to care.

But the baby, that voice ghosts against her barely conscious mind with a soft whisper. The baby…

"Miss?"

That voice again, deep, but soft and gentle. Then a soft brush of skin against her forehead and cheek.

"Miss?"—wait, that's not her ethereal fever voice— "Miss, I apologize, but I'm not sure if you can hear me. Please, don't be alarmed, but I'm going to pick you up."

The ground drops from under her—or is it that she goes up?—at an alarming rate that her eyes fly open and adrenaline fills her lagging mind.

Sakura kicks in every direction as strong, vice-like arms grip her tightly. She does not currently possess the finesse she was taught in years of training in taijutsu, but she doesn't care and fights however she can.

Who found her? Was it Root? Had someone recognized her even though she had made sure to tie a scarf tightly around her pastel pink hair?

Her eyes roll wildly, blurry images rush by, and can't seem to focus. She tries to channel chakra into her limbs to make her strikes more potent, but she can't focus through her fever-haze enough to direct the chakra within her.

"Miss, please! Calm down, you're going to hurt yourself!" Shouts a panicked voice. The one who picked her up finally releases half of her and sets her feet on the ground. She can't stand by herself, but she figures that will be a problem when she forces this man to let go of the grip he has on her shoulders.

"Let me go, bastard!" Sakura snarls. "You can't take us back!"

"Please, allow me to help," the quiet voice pleads gently.

Sakura, still in the middle of her fighting frenzy, accidentally locks eyes with her captor as her eyes swing wildly around in all directions.

She stops her attacks all at once. That color, forget-me-nots in a violent bloom at the peak of summer, that color belongs to Naruto. "Oh," she breathes, "Oh." Naruto…

The arms around her shift and her feet are off the ground again in the next instant. Her shivering body is cradled against a warm chest again.

"My name's Mirio, Miss. Is Naruto someone that I can call for you?"

She must have said his name out loud. "No," she mumbles, all the fight having left her again. Her eyes are half-lidded, gaze faraway. "I don't know where he is. He's lost…"

"Okay," says the same kind voice. Mirio. "I'm going to take you to someone who can help you."

"I think we're dying," Sakura sighs, her cares floating away again. This man that has eyes the same color as Naruto isn't going to hurt her. She might already be too far gone anyway. Her limbs are heavy and her worries far away. Dying isn't so awful. "I'm so tired…"

"No, just keep talking to me, alright?" Tell me, how many weeks are you along now?"

Weeks? Oh, too many for what they've been through. "Twenty-two," she mumbles, slipping increment by increment into darkness.

"Come on, Miss," the voice coaxes, "stay awake. We're almost there."

"The baby," she manages in a whisper so quiet, she hopes he can hear her. "Save my baby."

Her eyes roll back and she is in darkness.

…

Thanks for reading :)