It's been days.
No words of a ransom or the like.
Just three whole days for which Sakura has been missing.
His one remaining student, who he took under his wing, into his home, who both frustrates and amuses him, just gone. As if she had suddenly just stopped existing.
Is she even still in the country? Three days is more than enough time to reach the border for shinobi. Sakura might be anywhere right now.
Land of Rivers.
Land of Wind.
Water.
Waves.
Earth.
Grass.
North, south, east, west.
How is he going to find her?
Worse still is the knowledge that the chances of finding her alive decreases with every passing hour.
He doesn't know what he'll do if he can't find her.
It was bad enough with Sasuke, who left of his own volition. That was still a failure on his part, but at that point he had to choose between going after Sasuke and getting Naruto to the hospital. Sasuke just had to wait. People who don't want to be saved can't be saved.
And Naruto had left of his own volition. Kakashi wasn't about to start arguing with that, seeing as how Jiraiya is clearly a better fit for a teacher.
This is different. This is … most likely his fault.
He should have paid better attention to her.
He never should have let her go running on her own.
He certainly should not have let go of the urge to investigate the Haruno clan more properly, regardless of what the third Hokage had to say about such an investigation. At least Lady Tsunade has now launched a proper investigation into the clan, but interrogations have so far yielded nothing.
If Sakura dies because of this, because Kakashi wasn't paying enough attention or being through enough or … He doesn't know what he'll do.
Worse yet is the thought of never finding her at all. That she might just be gone, forever, and he'll never know what happened to her.
The last thing he said to her was to get to her morning exercise before breakfast.
Why didn't he just let her sit down and eat her breakfast first? Her exercise could have waited until after he'd been to see the medics again, and then he could have followed her on her run and …
But berating himself over what he might or might not have done won't help him find her. So instead, Kakashi forces himself to focus on the road before him. Konoha is surrounded not only by a vast forest, but also by a complicated network of roads. It means that there are plenty of places to hide, whether one is trying to sneak up on or leave Konoha. Kakashi has to believe that somewhere along these roads there is a trace of Sakura. He has to believe it, because he cannot be too late to find her.
He can't!
So he continues searching, even though his body is screaming for some rest, for a proper night of sleep and a meal.
Sakura is depending on him.
He has to find her.
He has to …
A howl sounds, not too far away.
Akino, Kakashi recognises.
His breath catches in his throat and a moment later he takes to the trees, following Akino's howling.
He's not the first to reach the scene. Most of the other dogs are already there, all of them sniffing the road.
"It's Sakura alright," Pakkun huffs, noticing Kakashi's arrival. "'Bout a day old, but it's her."
"Are you sure?" Kakashi asks, studying the ground.
Whatever scent there is isn't enough for him to pick up on and there are no tracks on the dirt road that suggests that Sakura has been there.
"She marked this place," Pakkun states. "No mistaking it. Probably travelling in a carriage or something, if whoever has her didn't notice. Travelling in that direction."
Marked, Kakashi thinks in wonderment. His brave, wonderful, stupid apprentice marked the trail for them.
Good girl, he thinks, even as he shies away from the thought of what such defiance must have cost her once it was discovered.
"Can you track her?" He barely dares to even ask the question.
"Yeah. Definitely." Pakkun's voice is gruff but certain. "And we'll figure out the scents of those who has her too."
Hold on, Sakura. We're coming.
It has been too long. Three days since the incident that almost got her drowned, and with every day they're getting further and further away from Konoha. From the confines of her cart, Sakura can only watch as the trees get smaller and smaller, the landscape more barren. The air is colder too, which tells her that they're going north. She doesn't recognise the path they're on, but she'd guess they're heading in the general direction of the Land of Earth. Which doesn't mean that's the goal of their journey, but Sakura still likes to at least try to keep track of roughly where they are.
Her captors have been running double shifts, travelling both day and night. Sometimes they split up, going separate ways, only to reunite later at some other place. Sometimes they'll go back the way they came, only to then continue in a completely different direction, Tsushima and her people doing everything they can to erase any and all traces they leave behind.
Aunt Kasumi complained pretty much nonstop for the first two days, but now she has succumbed to exhaustion and settled for unhappy silence in her carriage. Poor aunt Kasumi, Sakura thinks sarcastically. Forced to endure such an arduous journey in a cushioned carriage, with other people handling the practicalities.
The advantage, of course, is that the tempo is slowly wearing down her captors as well. Especially Tsushima who, as far as Sakura can tell, hasn't slept more than a couple of hours. She's getting short tempered even with her men. They've all complained about the carriages on multiple occasions, but aunt Kasumi refuses to budge and leave the carriages behind. So they're stuck with the carriages and three ever more exhausted horses, travelling at a semi-civilian pace.
Ironically, Sakura is probably the most well-rested one out of all of them.
Her rations have gone down to being fed once a day with a ration bar, leaving Sakura's stomach painfully empty. At least she's getting water though, Tsushima staring at her in challenge every time she offers Sakura a drink. So far, Sakura hasn't found the courage to meet that gaze.
With nothing else to do, Sakura tries to get what little sleep she can and spend whatever time she isn't sleeping wondering where they're going. No one has told her yet, but she has her guesses. This isn't a wedding caravan, that's for sure. Pink hair might be sought after, but a bride in chains? Not so much.
Still, Sakura has the distinct suspicion that she's the main ware, about to be sold wherever they're going. To whom or for what purpose she can only speculate. There might be some rich noble or merchant or something in want of a pink-haired slave or, worse, broodmare. Or maybe she's about to land in a cell somewhere in a foreign country, tortured and interrogated for whatever information she might have on Konoha and/or Kakashi-sensei. There are even tales of shinobi in other countries who have the ability to turn you against your own country; who'll send you back to the people you love only to then stab them in the back.
Sakura has far too much time to think and imagine.
So she has to do something.
Anything.
She doesn't want to be sold.
Restlessly she circulates her chakra, experimenting with what she can and cannot do. She cannot perform any of the jutsu she knows, but she can somewhat soothe the ache in her arms and shoulders by using the chakra-circulatory techniques Kakashi-sensei has taught her. She cannot enhance her strength to break the chains or the handcuffs or even the walls of her cart, regardless of how much she tries. She can, surprisingly, stick her feet to the wood with chakra.
In other words, she cannot even enhance her strength or use a jutsu, but she could, theoretically, climb a tree using chakra. Huh.
It doesn't make sense, her logical part rages.
But it doesn't have to make sense in order for her to use the knowledge. She'll happily accept any little thing that might give her even the slightest advantage. And if, if, Tsushima and her men aren't aware of the fact that she can, in fact, walk on trees and probably even water, despite the cuffs, then this knowledge is indeed an advantage. If they are aware of this fact, then, well it may not be an advantage, but not knowing would certainly be a disadvantage for Sakura.
It's probably just fuinjutsu-stuff anyway; something akin to a spelling mistake or a grammatical error leaving a loophole just large enough for this.
The more theoretical part of Sakura would love to delve deeper into this conundrum though! What else could she do, theoretically? Would a healing jutsu have the same reaction, or lack thereof, as something like the Body Replacement Technique? What about elemental techniques? If she could form elemental chakra, could she focus that in her palms or on her feet? Could she use a sealing scroll? Could she-
Anyway, it's been five days since her kidnapping and Sakura is dangerously close to going stark, raving mad from being locked up all the time and not knowing what ominous future they're travelling towards.
Help is obviously not going to arrive in time, so she'll just have to find a way to save herself.
Now.
Before it is too late.
Horses being horses, they do need to rest occasionally. Tsushima and her people have been driving them harshly, but now they come to a halt. Time for another short break, during which Tsushima will reiterate the advantages of leaving the horses and carriages behind, aunt Kasumi will refuse to listen and the other three will tend to the horses.
It's late. The sun is about to set, casting long shadows and bathing the forest in orange light. Sakura shivers. The air is getting colder, and being chained up as she is does not really allow for much movement to keep herself warm. Absent-mindedly she adjusts the flow of her chakra, peering out through the cracks of the cart.
Tsushima and her men have a brief conversation, their voices too hushed for Sakura to be able to overhear what they're saying. Afterwards, two of the men head over to tend to the horses, while the third one starts to collect wood to start a fire. Apparently, they've decided to allow themselves some rest and a hot meal as well.
Aunt Kasumi, of course, does not help with anything. She walks around the clearing they've made their temporary camping spot, no doubt enjoying the ability to stretch her legs a bit, before delicately seating herself on a knocked over tree where the fire is just getting started.
Tsushima, meanwhile, has checked the parameters and is now approaching Sakura's cart. She undoes the latch, opens the door and reaches for Sakura's chains. When only the handcuffs remain, she pulls her out into the cold evening air.
Sakura doesn't fight her. She does need to use the latrine, and she really, really needs to stretch her muscles a little. As Tsushima grabs her shoulder, leading her towards the forest, Sakura suppresses the urge to flinch. There is no large body of water near this camp, but she does not doubt Tsushima's ability to hurt her anyway.
Without touching her face or causing any permanent scarring.
A shiver runs down her spine at the thought. She doesn't want to cross Tsushima again, but she doesn't really have a choice, does she?
It's been too long.
Help isn't coming.
Sakura isn't going to accept whatever fate aunt Kasumi and/or the Haruno clan has planned for her.
As she has several times before, Tsushima helps Sakura pull down her shorts before she crouches down to do her business. Afterwards, she helps her clean and pull the tights back up again. This time, however, Sakura pretends to stumble forwards with the movement. It's not much of a pretence, really, once she gets the movement going.
Tsushima, exhausted and patience worn thin over the last few days, sighs in annoyance but does not reach out to steady her.
Sakura twists just so, allowing her body to fall.
A grunt escapes her as her shoulder erupts in pain, stars dancing before her eyes as the rock she'd landed on pushes her shoulder back and back, past the confines of its socket.
Desperate times call for desperate, stupid plans, she tells herself.
When Tsushima reaches out for her, Sakura's responding flinch is entirely real. Nothing feigned about it at all, really. She rolls away, groaning again at the pain in her shoulder.
"I'm just going to help you up, girlie. Come on, don't make this difficult." Tsushima reaches for her again.
Sakura's fingers dig into the earth beneath her and then, when Tsushima is bent over and as close to unbalanced as she'll ever get, she moves. Her foot connects with the woman's face with a disgustingly wet and crunching sound. Tsushima stumbles backwards with a grunt, eyes tearing up at the pain and hands instinctively rising to her face.
Though her arm is still in agony, Sakura can't afford to waste the opportunity. She rolls over again, her uninjured arm pulling at the chains. The arm that is dislocated won't move like she wants it to, and every movement is like a kunai stabbing through her shoulder, but she clenches her jaw and forces herself to breathe through it. Through the chain her uninjured arm can move the injured one, and with the added mobility of the dislocated shoulder she has just enough leeway to make the chain pass by beneath her butt as she rolls. She pulls her knees as close to her chest as she can, and then her hands are in front of her for the first time in almost a week.
"I'll teach you to mess with me again, girlie ..!" Tsushima has recovered and comes at Sakura with an ugly snarl that shows her bloody teeth.
Sakura uses the momentum of the roll to continue moving, until she's standing in a low crouch in the underbrush. The pain makes her dizzy, her vision blurry at the edges, but she forces herself to push through that. Instead she dodges Tsushima's attempt to grab her, throwing the dirt still clasped in her hand in Tsushima's face.
Blinded by tears, dirt and pain, Tsushima stumbles past Sakura, blood and snot gushing down from her clearly broken nose. Sakura might have felt guilty for causing that, if not for her own desperation. Tsushima is a jounin. Sakura cannot afford to hold back, and even then it's only the exhaustion and Tsushima underestimating her that has allowed her to take her by surprise like this.
She kicks out, the force enough to unbalance Tsushima, and then Sakura is on top of her.
Sakura doesn't allow herself to hesitate. Her functioning hand finds a rock on the ground and in the next moment both her hands are clasping the rock, bringing it down with as much force as she is capable of without her chakra.
Her strength isn't what it would be under ordinary circumstances, but the head is a sensitive thing. Sakura brings the rock down once, twice, thrice before the body beneath her grows still. Even then, Sakura continues, again and again, just to be on the safe side. Tsushima certainly won't make the mistake of underestimating her again, so Sakura will not give her a chance to.
All in all the fight is over in moments, less than a minute. Somehow, the fight has also been mostly quiet. Tsushima hasn't called for help, and they're far enough from the camp that it doesn't seem like the noise has reached the others. Sakura sits perfectly still, listening intently to her surroundings for another minute or so, just to make sure that the others aren't coming for her.
Once she's relatively certain that they aren't coming for her right this very moment, she looks down on Tsushima again. What little skin is visible is pale, but most of it is covered in blood. Her face and forehead is a bloody, crushed mess, bleeding heavily in the waning daylight.
Sakura's stomach churns at the sight, but she forces herself to reach out anyway, touching the throat in search of a pulse. Her own heart is beating too hard in her chest, her hands too unsteady to be of much use. Is Tsushima dead? Or is she still alive? She's certainly unconscious, and badly wounded at that, but Sakura isn't going to make the mistake of underestimating her opponent.
She forces herself to take a few calming breaths.
A living enemy is a dangerous one.
A dead enemy is a good one.
Sakura reaches for Tsushima's kunai holster. Her hands almost tremble too much to get a hold of a kunai, but once she does she clasps it tightly in her hand. That helps, at least, and her hands are marginally more steady as she slashes Tsushima's throat, the sharp edge cutting easily through skin, flesh and cartilage.
That done, she reaches for Tsushima's kunai holster again, undoing it and shakily fastening it around her own leg. She reaches for the weapon's pouch as well, but quickly realises that with her hands still chained she can't fasten it properly to her hip. Rather than continue to fumble with it, she drops it on the ground next to Tsushima's body. A quick search through it reveals that there is no key to her handcuffs there.
Sakura takes a deep breath, forcing the rising panic down. She cannot afford to relax yet. The other guards will notice their absence soon, wondering where they've gone. They'll come looking, and Sakura cannot afford to still be here then.
Her first instinct is to run as far and fast as she can, but she forces herself to think past the fear. They are three against one, not counting aunt Kasumi, and most likely all of them outrank her, if not officially then at least in practical skills.
If she runs, she won't get far.
Besides, weakened as she is, she won't be fast.
Instead, she opts for the exact opposite. As quietly as she possibly can, she sneaks back towards the camp, not following the exact path she and Tsushima took but instead aiming to circle the camp, ensuring that she'll be approaching from another direction. Though the cuffs probably means that her chakra cannot be sensed, she still pushes it down, disguising it.
As she approaches the camp she keeps to the shadows. They're dark and deep, the sun now down and the moon not yet risen. The underbrush provides further cover, the smell of grass and leaves all around her.
Aunt Kasumi and two of the other men are now seated around the fire, the two men cooking something while aunt Kasumi talks. Sakura cannot quite make out the words, but from the tone of it she's complaining.
The third man is nowhere in sight, so Sakura continues her slow approach, quietly creeping forward towards the carriages until she spots him. He's tending to the horses, brushing their manes as they eat and drink.
Sakura lowers herself to the ground, the cool, steady earth against her stomach comforting. Then she waits. Although her heart is threatening to beat itself through her chest, she forces herself to take slow, even breaths.
Her fingers clench around the kunai in her uninjured hand, still covered in Tsushima's blood. The uninjured shoulder is stiff from having her arms tied behind her back for so long, only obeying her right now due to her ability to slowly circulate her chakra. The dislocated shoulder is still painful, but has now settled into a steady, throbbing pain that she can breath through.
Eventually the man finishes whatever he's doing with the horses, looking up and around before sauntering over towards the fire. "The horses can't keep this pace up for much longer."
All three of the men look to aunt Kasumi, who ignores them in favour of staring into the fire.
"Doesn't seem like we have much choice," another man mutters.
Realising that this is the best chance she's going to get, Sakura creeps closer to the horses. They don't pay her much attention, probably as exhausted as everyone else and just happy to be allowed some food and rest.
"Well, it won't do us much good to have the horses collapse either, will it?"
"Where's Tsushima by the way?"
"Aren't they back yet?"
They look up, suddenly alert, eyes scanning the area.
Abandoning discretion, Sakura throws herself towards the nearest horse, quickly cutting the rope keeping it tied. It rears away from her in fear, pulling free and fleeing towards the road.
"There! By the horses!"
Grimly, Sakura cuts the rope of the second horse, barely managing to climb up on it before it too starts to flee.
This is perhaps the part of her plan that she really ought to have planned better, if she had the choice. Sakura has never been in a horse saddle, much less learned how to ride without one. With one arm essentially useless she finds herself clinging tightly to the poor horse, heels kicking it in the sides to urge it to run faster.
The other freed horse has slowed down a bit down the road. The last horse neighs in fear and abandonment, though he's not left alone for long before one of Tsushima's men throws himself on top of it and sets off after her.
"Come on," she urges the horse quietly, focusing on the horse and where they are going again. "Faster, please!"
One man following her on horseback, two in the treetops. With a quiet apology to the horse, she kicks her heels in its sides again. Obligingly, it speeds up. The blurry edges of her vision creep closer as her dislocated shoulder protests the rough handling.
Maybe she would have been better off just trying to sneak away in the night after all. Well, too late to worry about that now. They've definitely seen her.
Behind her, one of the men manages to catch the freed horse. Two men on horses, one in the treetops, and she's right out in the open, vulnerable for attacks, as long as she stays on the road.
Spotting a smaller path, probably one used by local animals, a bit further ahead, Sakura tugs on the rope attached to the horse's head, trying to steer it there. It neighs in protest and then it's turning too soon, jumping over a fallen log and straight into the forest.
The landing is rough and despite her best efforts Sakura can't hold on. Instinctively she tries to curl herself into a ball, rolling as she lands on the ground. Only her tightly clenched jaw prevents a cry of pain from escaping her.
Then everything goes black.
When she comes to, she's lying in the underbrush, face pressed into moss and her shoulder as well as her ribs feeling as if she has been stabbed. Probably a broken rib or two, she deduces, taking stock of the rest of her. Amazingly it seems like there are no more injuries, save for a number of scratches and bruises.
Lifting her head, careful not to move too much, she tries to orient herself. There are voices nearby and she holds her breath in fear.
"Come on, over here! I saw the horse go this way!" A voice shouts somewhere above and to her left.
The sound of running horses comes closer and she forces herself to remain still, even as the ground seems to shake under their hooves. Then gradually, the sound grows more and more distant.
Only when she can no longer hear the sound of the horses or the men does she dare to raise her head a bit more. The road is somewhere behind her. The horse must have continued into the forest, and the men must have chased after it believing that she was still on it. Which probably means that she has a couple of minutes to make herself scarce before they have caught up to the horse and realises that she is no longer with it.
Suppressing a pained groan, she stumbles to her feet, carefully looking around for any signs that she is no longer alone. Cautiously she approaches the road again, looking up and down it. She can just make out the carriages further down the road but they seem abandoned. Most likely all three of the men are still chasing her, and her aunt is hiding somewhere around the camp.
It might give her a chance, if she returns to the camp, finds her aunt and takes her hostage. She has had the thought before, after all, and Sakura isn't exactly thinking too fondly of her aunt at the moment.
Wounded and tired as she is though she wouldn't be much of a match to the three men, even with a hostage. Besides, given the fact that she has just killed their teacher, they might just decide to abandon their mission and kill her anyway.
Her best choice is to stay hidden then, she decides. Keeping her head low she crosses the road, breathing a sigh in relief as the underbrush on the other side envelopes her. Protects her from view. Now she just needs to create distance between herself and her pursuers.
Because she has no doubt that they will pursue her, once they find her tracks again.
On careful feet, stepping lightly to avoid making too much noise, she runs as fast as she dares. Too much speed will mean making too much noise, but too little speed and they will catch up to her. She finds an animal path and decides to follow that for a bit. It allows her to run a bit faster. She glances over her shoulder, but as of yet there does not appear to be any pursuers.
She glances at the trees but decides that she's better off hiding in the tight underbrush than up in the treetops. These aren't the same thick, luscious trees back in Konoha and they won't hide her as well. So she settles at the quickest sprint she's currently capable of, trying her best not to leave any traces behind.
Suddenly she comes upon a river. For a moment she halts, staring at it in horror. Cold sweat breaks out on her temples, but she forces herself to approach it anyway. As far as she knows, none of the men following her are trackers, but she'll be the first to admit that she doesn't know much about them at all.
Given that, she forces herself to step out onto the river. Walking on, or in, the water will make tracking her that much harder. The only question is whether she'll go with or against the stream?
Against, Sakura decides, not giving herself much time to think it over. Neither option is particularly good or bad, meaning that she has about a fifty/fifty chance that her pursuers will go in the other direction.
Sprinting up the river gives her a sense of control that she hasn't had in days, yet at the same time it also leaves her exposed much in the same way she was while riding along the road. She keeps glancing over her shoulder worriedly, expecting an attack at any moment.
The river isn't big, just about as wide as she's tall, and the water would probably reach her chest at most. The spring flood has made it wilder though, and cold water splashes across Sakura's feet and calves as she continues her escape. It takes everything in her to keep running, to keep on top of the water, and more than once her chakra control waves and she winds up with her whole foot submerged.
Eventually she comes upon some cliffs and there, hidden from view by the river and some brushes, she finds a cave only accessible from the river. Sakura doesn't hesitate. Not much, at least. Exhausted she crawls in, grateful to find the cave unoccupied. The last thing she needs is to startle a bear or boar and have that to deal with as well.
As safe as she's going to get at the moment, she leans her back against the cold cliff, which is damp from the river but reassuring in its sturdiness nonetheless. Briefly she closes her eyes, allowing her breathing to calm down naturally and her heart rate to return to something approaching normal.
Now what?
It will take some time for them to find her here, hopefully, but if she just stays as she is they will find her eventually. And nothing good is going to happen then.
The chains, she thinks. And the shoulder.
She winces to herself. So what will she do first?
It's probably best to do the dislocated shoulder first. She recalls Iruka-sensei lecturing the class about training injuries, of which dislocated fingers and shoulders are relatively common. He'd sternly advised them to seek immediate medical attention, or the dislocated limb might suffer permanent injury. Then he'd shown them how to fix it themselves, should they ever find themselves without access to a medic.
With a grimace, Sakura adopts a position much like the one she prefers while meditating. She takes a couple of deep breaths, trying to relax her muscles as well as she can. Relaxed muscles make things easier, she tells herself. Less painful.
It's still going to hurt.
A lot, probably.
Chains jingling softly, she grabs the wrist of the arm with the dislocated shoulder with the hand of her uninjured arm. She raises both arms in front of her and takes another deep breath before pulling on the injured arm.
Yep, it hurts, she notes bitterly. But she can't scream or make any noise.
She squeezes her eyes shut, forcing herself to continue pulling, ignoring the pain as best as she can until finally her shoulder shifts, falling back into the socket again with something she imagines is a soft crunch.
Cold sweat has once again broken out across her forehead and she sways dizzily for a moment before leaning back against the cliffside again. Once she can breathe properly again, she brings her hand up to wipe away the sweat, relieved to find that the arm is once again functional.
Painful, but functional.
She's not done though.
Shoulder's fixed. Now for the chains, she thinks grimly.
Opening her eyes she studies the handcuffs. Despite the recent rough housing they haven't so much as a scratch on them. Some dirt and moss, but undamaged beneath that. Running her fingers over the manacles she comes to the conclusion that she'll have to break them somehow. Though how is another matter, given the quality.
She might try picking the lock with a kunai, but she's more likely to cut her own wrist than succeed in that endeavour, given her unsteady hands.
Meaning that she'll have to find another way. Perhaps breaking them with a rock or something, but that will take time and effort, not to mention make a lot of noise too. Perhaps enough to attract the attention of her pursuers.
She sighs, staring wistfully at her hands and the handcuffs.
Then again, perhaps she's approaching this the wrong way. Perhaps she shouldn't focus on breaking the handcuffs.
Hands break more easily than shackles.
But she needs her hands!
Her fingers move from the shackles to the hand as she considers the possibility. Breaking a finger or two is certainly easier than breaking shinobi grade chains, and a lot more quiet. Breaking your own fingers though? That's another thing.
Does it hurt more than dislocating a shoulder though?
She tugs, not giving herself time to think on it further. One quick, ruthlessly firm movement.
A grunt escapes her, but compared to the throbbing pain in her shoulder and in her ribs it is next to nothing. One, sharp pain and then it quickly becomes lost in the other pains.
Funny how her perspective of pain can change over the course of an hour or so.
Experimentally she moves the dislocated thumb inwards, towards the palm of her hand. It makes for a smaller circumference of her hand than she was capable of before, and carefully she pulls on the manacle. It won't slide over easily, not like a wristband, but given some force it will.
Clenching her eyes shut again she pulls on the manacle, the pain from the thumb making her feel faint and ill.
It comes off.
The manacle, that is, not the thumb. Though from the stabbing pain that might also be true.
Already she can feel her chakra flowing more freely, rising as if eager to be used. Then it clashes against an invisible wall.
"Damnit," she mutters.
She'd hoped that it would be enough to just remove one of the manacles.
Giving herself some time to breathe through the various pains, even as she imagines hearing voices outside already, she eventually grabs the thumb again. It is so much smaller than a shoulder, but the technique ought to be somewhat the same, she reasons.
And she tugs.
It takes her three attempts to get the thumb right again, and by that point there is heavy bruising surrounding the joint. She can only hope that she hasn't caused herself permanent damage.
Death is probably more permanent, she tells herself.
After that it takes all of her courage to repeat the process on her other hand, made even more difficult due to her dislocated shoulder and thumb.
Eventually, it works.
She has to clamp down on her chakra as the second manacle comes off, so eager it is to rise to her aid. She crawls up into a ball, mindful of her injured shoulder and cradling both of her hands close to her chest, focusing on her breathing and the even circulation of her chakra.
Eventually she sits up, not yet caring to put the thumb back into position. Instead she sinks down into meditation, focusing on her chakra and then on her surroundings, just like Kakashi-sensei showed her back then. Her aching shoulders, ribs and thumbs doesn't make it easy but she forces herself to ignore those. Instead she focuses on the circulation of her chakra, feeling it soothe - though not heal - her injuries.
If she ever does get back to Konoha she'll learn medical ninjutsu, she promises herself. Next time, she'll be able to heal injuries like these.
But first she needs to get out of this situation.
She's mostly alone in her immediate vicinity, she learns from reaching out with her chakra. Something semi-large is moving around somewhere behind her. Probably deer, judging from the number of them. Maybe boars. Then there are the smaller wildlife: birds and squirrels and the like. There's the steady hum of the river, and the fish in it, and a similar hum from the ground, the trees and the bushes.
Then something startles the deer, sending them running. Returning her attention to that area she senses something else approaching. Bigger, chakra-wise. Two of them, with a third one somewhat to their right. Moving systematically in a grid-like pattern. Probably searching for her.
"No," she groans quietly.
Luckily, they don't appear to be sensing her though, nor are they heading straight for her. They are, however, following the river upstream, as far as she can tell.
Eventually, they'll reach her hideout.
Does she keep hiding or make a run for it? Now that she's got her chakra back she can run much faster and longer than before. She can use jutsu to distract them and maybe even put up a fight if she's caught.
They're still three against one.
Afraid that they will pick up on her sensing them she withdraws her chakra, reaching out in the opposite direction instead. Hoping, praying that maybe …
There's someone else.
Her breath catches in her throat and she has to force herself to calm down, to not jump to conclusions. Reaching out again she finds him.
It's definitely him. She'd recognise that chakra anywhere, after meditating beside him so many times.
Kakashi-sensei.
He's far away though. Just at the very edge of where she can possibly sense him. She can't even tell if he's alone or if he has the dogs with him, seeing as how their chakra signatures are much smaller than his and therefore harder to detect.
So close, and so far away. Probably following the road too, which means that he won't be coming in her direction anytime soon.
The enemy is much closer now. Perhaps they've even sensed her chakra.
Kakashi, she thinks, flaring her chakra in one, single pulse for a distress call, just like he'd shown her. Help me. Please.
Immediately afterwards she bears down on her chakra, suppressing it as hard as she can. Her enemies will have sensed her chakra flaring too, and no doubt they are heading straight for her now. All she can do is hide, as well as she can, and hope that Kakashi finds her first.
Long, torturous minutes pass by. Because her chakra is so contained she cannot sense if anyone is approaching, and so she is forced to rely on her eyes and ears. The opening of the cave is small and mostly hidden, but a sliver of moonlight makes its way through anyway. Very little can be heard above the surge of the river outside.
She can't help but imagine them creeping closer. Sneaking up on her.
She begins to hear phantom noises, barely even daring to breathe for fear of revealing herself.
Quietly, she reaches for Tsushima's kunai holster on her thigh, grasping a kunai in each hand. It's especially difficult with the hand that still has a dislocated thumb, but she doesn't dare take the risk of tending to the thumb right now.
She can't afford the distraction.
If she makes it back to Konoha, she'll ask Kakashi-sensei to teach her Sasuke's fireball jutsu, she decides. She smiles grimly at the thought of frying her pursuers with a large fireball, until only charcoal remains of them.
There is a light crunching noise of feet against stone, and that is her only warning before a shadow looms in the cave opening. She doesn't hesitate, doesn't hold back. With all of her might - which is far more considerable now that she is free of the chains, even if she is still injured - she throws one of her kunai at him.
There is a surprised grunt, then he falls backwards. The water splashes as he falls into the river, but there is no noise of him splashing around, trying to get back to the riverside.
There is just the cursing of the other two.
"He's dead?! What kind of genin-bitch is this?"
"He was careless," the other one replies, his voice colder. Calmer. "Just don't make the same mistake he did and you'll be fine."
"Oh, and how do you suppose we get her out of there?!"
The other man doesn't reply but there is a shadow of movement at the entrance. Too small and hasty to make a good target, so she holds her next shot. Instead a small paper sphere is thrown into the cave.
Fuck! she thinks before the smoke bomb detonates.
She throws herself against the ground, mindless of her injuries, hastily pulling the cloth of her dress up to cover her mouth and nose as best as she can. The smoke stings in her eyes and burns in her nose and throat.
She'll suffocate if she stays where she is. With no other choice, she crawls towards the cave opening, desperately searching for a pocket of air that isn't filled with smoke. But the small, confined space of the cave makes the smoke bomb that much more effective.
There is only one way out, one way to fresh air, and that way lies danger.
She'll die if she stays. Just like that bandit that died when she and Hajime fought those bandits. And that cave was a lot larger than her current one.
Coughing, despite her best attempts not to, she crawls towards the opening. Her injured hand has already dropped the kunai, but she clasps the remaining kunai tightly in the less injured hand.
Predictably, there are hands reaching for her as soon as she comes near the opening. She hits blindly at them with the kunai, but they pull away before she can do any damage. Instead, they manage to get a hold of her hair, tugging her further out by that. Then another hand grabs onto her upper arm, roughly pulling at her again.
A pained shriek escapes her, and stars dance before her eyes again as the pain of her shoulder and ribs make themselves reminded. She doesn't have time to dwell on that though, because a moment later she is being pressed down against the rock, a knee against her back as her hands are roughly forced behind her back again.
She's lost her hold on the second kunai. Something between a sob and a cough escapes her and she kicks fruitlessly, only managing to stab her own toes against the rock.
"See, I told you this li'll bitch wasn't dangerous!"
The wire strings bite harshly into her skin as she is once more restrained. Still coughing and trying to breathe through the pain she's about as strong as her first day in the academy, and it is only a matter of moments before both her hands and feet are restrained.
"Let's get back to-"
"You have exactly two seconds to step away from my apprentice before I kill you."
Above her, the enemies freeze in place.
"Too late."
Before she can quite register what is happening there are two quick thuds and then there are new hands pulling on her, on the wires restraining her.
She growls, kicking out as best as she can, trying to twist away, to get in a better position to-
"I'm sorry, Sakura, I just have to …"
The cold steel of a kunai rests against her arms for a moment and she goes perfectly still, instincts kicking in. Then there is another painful dig of the wires into her skin, before they fall away.
Too shocked to protest or fight she finds herself swirled around, a warm body curling around her. Not in a restraining or threatening manner, just holding her close.
They stay like that for a few moments, Sakura's mind finally catching up and identifying the familiar arms and scent as Kakashi.
Safety.
Home.
"Kakashi," she whispers, clinging to him. "Sensei."
"I'm here, Sakura. You're safe now. I'm here. I won't let them hurt you again."
She's panting, though if it's from the smoke bomb and danger earlier or from emotion at finally being safe she's not sure. She just buries her nose in his shirt, breathing in his scent and taking in the warmth of his arms and chest.
"That's all of them, Boss. No one else is around."
Pakkun's voice breaks the spell they're seemingly under and Kakashi-sensei straightens a little, pulling away to glance at the dog. Sakura does the same, looking around the cliffs. Two men lie in a pile on top of each other, and a third halfway into the water. She notes with some satisfaction that there is a kunai buried to the hilt in his forehead.
Pakkun comes up to them, his cold nose pressing softly against her arm.
"You ok, pup?" he asks gruffly.
"I-I think so."
"Your hands are bloody," Kakashi-sensei notes.
Surprised, she looks down, noticing that they are indeed bloody.
It must be from before, she thinks, the memory of Tsushima's face crushed by a stone flashing before her mind.
"It's not mine," she says. "At least I don't think so."
"Smells like it's mostly not," Pakkun agrees, glancing at Kakashi. "Did you kill them?"
Straightening up a little more, pulling out of Kakashi's embrace, she nods. This is the part where she gives her her report, she tells herself.
"I think so. I tricked her when she helped me to the latrine, and then I beat her head in with a stone. Cut her throat too."
Distantly, she notes that Kakashi flinches slightly at her words. She meets his gaze, noting the worry in his one visible eye. The relief is almost as palpable, but also intermixed with something else. Something almost akin to guilt, though for what she can't possibly fathom.
"Your hands are bruised," Kakashi notes, eyes lingering on her hands but not reaching out for them.
"Oh."
She brings her hands up, looking them over more closely. The thumb of one hand doesn't look right. She never did get around to pulling it right again. With a grimace she does so now, and it falls back into place with a pop and grinding of bone against bone.
The pain barely even registers. She must be in shock then. That explains why everything feels so strange.
"I had to dislocate the thumbs to get out of the chains," she tells them, hearing her own voice as if from a distance. "And the shoulder, before that of course. That's how I overpowered her in the first place."
Gloved hands reach out to hold her, the touch gentle as a feather. She looks up at his face, frowning a little as their eyes meet again. Is she imagining things, or does he look faintly green?
"I'm going to take you home, Sakura," he says, his voice softer than she can ever remember it being. "And we'll get a medic to look at those injuries. Maybe Gina."
She tilts her head lightly, because although it hasn't even been a week it seems as if "home" is something almost foreign to her right now.
"I'd like that."
"Good. Then let's get going. We need to regroup, in case there are more of them around."
"There aren't," she tells him calmly. Assuredly. "Just those two." She nods towards the little pile of men, then towards the one halfway submerged in the water. "I killed that one. And Tsushima. It's just Kasumi left. Probably hiding in the carriage."
The last thought brings a small smile to her face and makes something almost warm bloom in her chest. She's safe. Her enemies are dead, and aunt Kasumi isn't a threat anymore.
"Kasumi?" Kakashi asks.
"Yeah. We should probably bring her back to Konoha though. Obaa-sama will be angry otherwise."
Not that she really cares about obaa-sama's anger anymore, she realises. Not after this. The Haruno clan can crash and burn, for all that she cares.
Except for maybe Kiku.
"Ok," Kakashi agrees easily. Too easily, probably. "Can you show me where she is?"
She looks around, trying to determine where she is. Can she find her way back to the campsite? Probably.
"I think so."
"Good. Then wait a moment."
Kakashi-sensei withdraws a scroll from one of the many pockets of his vest, then pulls the halfway submerged man out of the water and deposits it on top of the others. He unrolls the scroll and places it on the ground beside the pile, standing back to perform a few hand signs. With a flash of light, the pile of bodies are gone.
"Now we can get going," Kakashi says, pocketing the scroll again.
He turns to her, noticing her staring at him.
"If you're alright to go, that is," he adds.
She cocks her head, another thought entirely having entered her mind.
"Kakashi-sensei? Do you have anything to eat?"
As if on cue, her stomach growls loudly.