Chapter 36. The odds are not even.

The smell of a setup was thick in the air.

As "Sakura," I've never been betrayed. Those around me that could hurt me had no desire to and those that wished me harm; I kept away. To think Kakashi, someone I kept in high regard, would do something like this.

The shinobis burst through the foliage and surrounded us.

"Anbus?" one said, surprised. "What the hell are Anbus doing stealing from us?" There were less than twenty of them, most of which were the gym members. Sai and I said nothing as they glared at us. Infiltration 101, "if caught, kill the witness." As much as I would like to try out the killing potential of my new jutsu, I couldn't kill our own shinobi. I wasn't an Anbu like Sai that dwelled within the shadow; I had a life, one I couldn't jeopardize.

I had to find Shin and rescue him, then find Kakashi and kill him. I nodded to myself and turn to the one who spoke.

"Please return to your station and refrain from getting in our way," I said. I needed to sound authentic. I wasn't an Anbu, hell, I wasn't even a shinobi, but they didn't need to know that.

"We're not leaving until you tell us why you're doing this!" he said. They were wasting the time I needed to find Shin. Losing a bit of my patience, I released killing intent.

"Are you stupid?" I asked, my voice unnaturally deep. "As a shinobi, you should know that asking such questions is illogical. The fact we did not knock on your front door and ask you nicely means you are not supposed to know." My eyes found the one that sensed my chakra, and I glared at her. "Had you not sensed us, you would be non the wisher." She had the decency to look away. "Return to your station; if you have a problem, voice it to the jonin commander or the Hokage."

I turned away from them and moved toward Sai, but a kunai burying itself in the ground in front of me forced me to stop.

"We're shinobis," the attacker said proudly. "A little Killing intent isn't going to scare us off." Were they really shinobis? Had I been a real Anbu, I would outrank them, yet they dare to question my orders. Insubordinate brats.

A series of screams rang out as they fell one after the other, bound by black snakes that looked like living ink. I looked to Sai to find his hand a half ram seal as he poured ink from his container. I smiled tiredly; couldn't he have don't that sooner.

"You won't get away with this," my attacker groaned as he fell from the trees. They disobey their superior's order; I think they are the ones in for punishment.

"Stay here if you refuse to go back to your station," I said, not that they had a choice. "I'll be having words with your supervisor." We took off, making our way to the meeting site. Upon arriving, it became clear that Kakashi was not there. I scattered my springflies, but they found no trace of another soul.

I bit my thumb and waved through hand seals.

"Summoning jutsu!" In a poof of smoke, a litter of cats appeared. They meowed at me.

"This hunting season, kitties," I said. "I need you to track a scent."

"We are not dogs," one protested, turning their nose up at me.

"Of course not," I said, not missing a beat despite wanting to roll my eyes. "You are far superior to them." That did the trick; the reluctant cat sat with the pride of a lion.

"We are better hunters, aren't we," they said. "Very well, I shall hunt this prey you seek."

Good good.

I leaned down to let them smell me. "I've marked the pray with my scent; you just need to follow that."

While smelling like sakura petals all the time made me easier to track, it also made anyone dumb enough to rub on me easy prey as well. Shin had all but carried me; my scent would be all over him.

My felines sniffed the air and the ground, as well as the nearby trees. Nodding at each other and, they took off in all directions.

They would find Shin. Cats might not be as good as dogs, but they were still predators and wouldn't lose to mongrels. I took a chakra pill and medicine for my nausea, I wasn't sure what I was about to walk into, but I wouldn't go in unprepared.

"You okay, Sai?" I asked, crouching in front of him. He nodded, but I performed an examination anyway. He was okay, if a bit low on chakra. I gave him a chakra pill and looked away as he lifted his mask to take it. It seemed using the ink without drawing first was a waste of chakra as he hadn't use any jutsu that would drain him so much.

"We don't know what's waiting for us when we find Shin," I started taking out a blank scroll. "We need to prepare for a fight." I handed the scroll to him and walked away. I wasn't supposed to know what Sai could do, and so I feigned ignorance. Why did I give him a blank scroll? So he could prepare, he can write down a plan or even a seal. I don't know what he can do.

I took out my paper boom pouch and began to fold them into origami. Looking up at the sky revealed it noon had passed. You can't deliver something if there is no address. What kind of game are these morons playing?

There was a meow in the east, and I stood. The call was cat equivalent of a howl and just as unpleasant. I turned to Sai, who was rolling up his scroll, when I heard another meow. I looked to the south and frowned; had they found Kakashi? It was further away than the one to the east, so it was possible. Sai jogged up to me as I put away my paper bombs, but before he could say anything, there was another meow. I turned to the west.

I thought back to the map Kakashi showed us. To the north was the tower which meant, there were at least three people with my scent in three different locations. I couldn't sense them, so they were out of my range. It was only a shame I had more eyes.

The springflies I scattered hounded in on the cats' locations. I watched as they flow through the leaves and emerge at the cats' side. To the west, in a clearing, two boys sat around a map arguing. Shin wasn't there, and so I moved to the other location. To the east, two girls with a map on the ground between them, were also arguing. It took me longer than it should to recognize them. Ami and Fuki. Looking back at the boys through my shared vision, I realized they were Naruto's teammates. Now the million ryo question is, where are Naruto and Sasuke?

That question soon received an answer from the vision from the third location. Naruto, Sasuke, and Shin were held captive. Tied to a tree, the boys sat unconscious. I felt relief upon seeing that Shin was fine, but that relief quickly turned to rage when I spotted their captures.

Three men stood having a discussion not far from the boys. I recognized all of them.

"I found Shin I stated for Sai's benefit as I'd been quiet for too long. Sai's chakra brightened. "There's just one problem." I cut his victory dance short. "There are three Anbus guarding him."

As an Anbu himself, Sai could understand the severity of the situation. I hadn't acknowledged it before, but Team seven's watchdogs were all Anbu captains. I couldn't take them all on and hope to win. I could serve as a distraction for Sai to rescue the boys, but I wasn't sure they would wake up in time.

Movement from Naruto's teammates drew my attention as they rolled up their scroll. It had the kanji for seven on it and was identical to ours. Frowning, I reached into my pouch only to realize the scroll wasn't there.

"Sai, do you have the scroll?" my voice was flat. He patted himself down before shaking his head. "I think Shin had it." A springfly flew down to the boys. Indeed, Shin did have the scroll with him. I cringed. This mission was doomed to fail. Taking a wild guess, I figured the scroll was the same for the girls and had my summons fly closer. It was the same map Kakashi showed us with a few changes.

To the north beyond the tower was a base of some kind, the kanji for mission goal return around it. To the south, where the boys were held captive, was highlighted as "enemy base" If the scrolls we stole had this kind of information, it meant this was the actual test.

In the end, it didn't matter what the mission objective was since we didn't have the scroll and would otherwise not know. We would need to rescue Shin and with him the scroll. I nodded to myself, pleased with the excuse I would use.

Naruto's teammates were making their way north. It seems they were going ahead without Naruto. No surprise there. Ami and Fuki surprised me by also heading north. "Sasuke will catch up no problem," they said. They had too much faith in the boy.

I was planning on teaming up with them, but it seems that won't be possible.

"Okay, Sai," I sighed, suddenly feeling tired. "Let's go rescue Shin."

I don't recall where I heard the term "Mission impossible," but it seemed appropriate a title for this mission. From getting to the tower and finding the scroll to retrieving it, the mission screamed B class at least. Having our teammate kidnapped didn't help. Ordinarily, we would have to make a choice on whether to save our teammate or not, as the others had, but our teammates had the scroll.

We need the scroll to complete the mission, so there was no choice in the matter.

"Sai, focus on rescuing the captives," I said as we raced through the trees. "I'll sever as a distraction for as long as I can. Grab the boys and get out of there." I turned to him. "Do you understand? Your priority is the hostages, not me."

He nodded, and I felt relieved he cared more about Shin than me. All he had to do was save Shin and the boys while I fought the former Anbu captains.

…

There's nothing wrong with my mind as I don't expect to win. I'm just a distraction, nothing more.

We split up as I went head-on, and Sai went around the side. I pulled out my origami and decided that I might as well start my role. I cleared the foliage and spotted the three Anbus as they saw me. In mid-air, I through my paper shuriken.

They were lighter and slower than metal shuriken, but they just needed to get close. Wind chakra could give them cutting speed, but that was Naruto's specialty, not mine. As expected, they dodged the harmless papers.

"Was that supposed to be an attack?" Itachi said. I couldn't tell if he was genuinely asking or mocking me.

"Tch."

I moved around them, drawing their eyes to the opposite side of the clearing and away from the hostages. Sai was close by; I had to trust him to get them away, or at least Shin. Itachi took a deep breath, and without hand seal, blow an enormous fireball at me. Was he trying to kill me!?

"Water style, Water wall!" I conjured a wall of water to cover me from the ball of death. The water evaporated in an instant, leaving nothing but hot steam. Under normal circumstances, this steam would be the perfect cover, but against two Sharingan users, it was more of a hindrance.

Closing my eyes for their own protection, I used my chakra senses to track them. A kunai from above, make that three. I leaped to the left, rolling to get away before charging forward. Kunais rained from above, coming from angles I didn't sense away one. Itachi was showing off again.

I slid under a kunai with a boom attached, getting away in time to dodge the explosion. Said explosion took some of the steam, but I dove into the survivors. Their attempts on my life were no joke, yet I couldn't help but chuckle.

I longed for this excitement; I was only alive because of my hard work. I could handle the attacks, and they knew it. They acknowledged me.

Wood burst from the grown as I leap into the air. They took the form of wooden arms as they reached for me. It was common knowledge you can't dodge in mid-air; as such, shinobis have invented numerous ways to counter this weakness.

"Cha!"

Wood splintered and brake as it came in contact with my fist. Punching the problem until it went way, was always a solution. Unfortunately, my attack cleared the mist and revealed Itachi and Kakashi closing in. I landed on a tree truck using chakra to stick it and smirked. The thing about the heat of battle is that you don't keep track of where you're stepping.

Throughout the fight, I shattered paper bombs and led them back to where we started. They leaped over the useless paper, and my smirk grew wider.

"Kai"

The forest went up in flames.

The chakra signatures informed me everyone survived the explosion. I wasn't surprised. My attackers had put some distance between, now more cautious of me. This was fine. I was only a distraction.

I honed in on Sai's chakra signature and frowned. He wasn't where he was supposed to be. Smoke covered the clearing make it hard to see. I reached out with my senses, scanning the area, and found what I feared.

Sai was somewhere behind me, along with Shin, but only them. The little shit had only grabbed Shin leaving Sasuke, and Naruto behind. I was going to wring his little neck. Of course, it could be a case of him collecting them one by one, and Shin was his first pick, but I really doubt that.

My doubt was confirmed when Sai came up to me and signaled for us to leave. I was going to kill him slowly.

"That's quite the little show you put on Sakura," Kakashi's voice rang out from the smoke. "But It time we put an end to this." in a gust of unnatural wind, the smoke cleared to reveal the tree Anbus and their remaining hostages.

"Kill Sai, and you get to pass the test."

The sentence was so ridiculous it took me a minute to translate what they said.

"Eh?"

"You'll be placed on the same team as Naruto and Sasuke," he said. "You need only kill the outsider."

My Japanese must be rusty, odd since it worked so far.

"Of course you could refuse," he taunted. "In which case you will be on a team with Sai, and Naruto and Sasuke will remain on their current te-"

I moved before he finished his sentence, kunai drawn.

Blood ran from an open wound.

Don't you love it when nothing goes according to plan?

See you in two weeks

Night song~