"Trade no good, assholes." In a move as swift as the lightning flashing outside, Sakura pulled a kunai from her hip pouch and flung it straight towards Karina. Karina shifted, but not quick enough to totally avoid the blow, and the blade sliced across her upper arm before sinking into the wood panel behind her. Kakashi flash-stepped out of the room with the poisoned Amekage in his arms, and ninja from both sides began rushing into the council room through the open doorways.

"Take no prisoners, Konoha doesn't get out of here alive!" Hattori shouted above the din, his words fading quickly into the sound of clashing weapons.

Chapter Twenty-Three

The Ballad of an Antidote

"Masks!" Hattori called at once, and all around her, Hattori's rebel fighters began snapping chemical respirators on that covered their eyes, noses, and mouths. Sakura didn't have time to react. Hattori lifted his arms and pressed a button on his poison contraption that let out thick clouds of inky black matter. It spread through the room impossibly fast, shrouding what remained of the light.

Sakura's panic was an ice storm surging in her chest. She spun, clenching the weapons in her hands and took count of the ANBU operatives still locked in battle with some of the rebels. Sasuke and Tora managed to fell their enemies before the cloud of ebony smoke entirely filled the room and swallowed them inside a sea of shadow that was so thick Sakura could no longer see beyond her own limbs. Please let them make it out. Tora and Sasuke were so close to the door.

"Kitsune is mine, no one lays a hand on her."

In the storm of black vapor, Sakura slid one of her blades back into her weapon pouch and felt around the confines of a smaller pouch strapped to her thigh. She'd already distributed the vials of black salamander antidote to the council members earlier in their meeting, but she had foolishly forgotten to keep one for herself. She still had two of the violet-spotted salamander antidotes in her possession, and knew without a shadow of doubt that she needed to get one in her bloodstream before it was too late. Already, she could feel the effects of Hattori's poison beginning to take root within her system. The walls of her esophagus were constricting, making it hard for Sakura to breathe and stay conscious. Her fingers brushed against a syringe within the pouch, but Sakura was getting dizzy…

She fell – landing on the floor with a huff as her vision blurred around the edges. Sakura drew the syringe out of her pouch, and laboriously drew herself up onto an elbow as she popped the cap off the needle with her thumbnail. The room had gone quiet. Dimly, Sakura could hear the footsteps of Hattori's rebel nins as they searched the room for the fallen operatives. Sakura jabbed her own thigh with the violet-spotted salamander antidote and pressed down on the plunger. Her eyes lulled, but she was still fighting against the poison and couldn't get her limbs to work. Her eyelids fluttered shut, dragged down by the weight of a thousand bricks as a pair of hands clamped down on her shoulders.

"I've got her," a female voice said as she hauled Sakura to her feet. Sakura could barely move but she still managed a weak slice across an unknown body part of her enemy and the woman groaned before wrenching the kunai out of Sakura's left hand. "I'll take that," she hissed in Sakura's ear. "You better hold on to your fighting spirit Kitsune. Where we're taking you, it'll be the only thing that keeps you alive."

"Here," a dark voice said, and Sakura felt herself being lifted away from the woman and hefted into a strong pair of arms. "Was that the antidote?"

"I don't think so," the woman said. "At least not for the black salamander poison."

They must've been talking about the syringe that Sakura had plunged in her thigh. She didn't even remember taking it out. She wondered if the poisonous fog had begun to clear – how else could the nin have known what she'd done? If only she could see through the thin slats of her eyelids. If only she could will them to open.

"Cousin antidote, then," the male said.

"If it were the black salamander antidote, she would've snapped out of it by now."

"We can't have that now, can we?" The male shifted Sakura in his arms, cradling her like a small, wounded child. If Sakura had control of her facial expressions, she would have frowned. She'd expected her enemy to haul her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, but Hattori was being generous with her.

"She's still conscious," the female –more than likely Karina– said.

"Can't have that either," Hattori said.

"Allow me."

Pain erupted in Sakura's temple and true darkness swallowed her whole. Her last thought before the surging sea of unconsciousness claimed her was of the Copy nin and the words she imagined him saying inside her mind: Hold on Sakura, I'm coming for you.

Sakura woke in a daze.

Pain crackled up the back of her neck as she jolted; her chin had been resting against her chest and her neck was excruciatingly stiff. Sakura blinked, mentally cataloguing all her injuries as her consciousness snapped into hazy focus. How long had she been out? Her breaths were shallow and labored, and every inch of her skin ached with a force that could only be accompanied by a high fever. Sweat coated her brow – or was that blood? Her temple possessed its very own heartbeat, and she was positive there was a slice through her eyebrow that was leaking blood clear down the side of her face. Cool stickiness covered her jaw and part of her neck. Sakura ran her tongue over her teeth and then across her lower lip in an effort to check for broken teeth and force moisture back into her skin. Her throat was dry and on fire – side effects of the black salamander poison.

Sakura straightened her head and tried to move, but with the minor adjustment came a dawning realization that her arms were bound at her sides, and her ankles were constricted to the chair legs. They had her tied to a chair. Sakura managed a weak snicker of amusement, pulling on her binds to see just how tightly they'd restrained her.

"Something funny?" Karina stepped into the light, her arms crossed over her chest. Sakura noticed that her upper bicep was wrapped in a length of bandage (a wound Sakura hoped she had been the one to give the woman.)

"I'm flattered," Sakura said, her voice a little scratchy. "I've been poisoned and yet you still took extreme measures to keep me from moving." She would have gestured to her bindings if she'd been able.

Karina made a sound in her nasal passages that Sakura supposed was meant to be a derisive laugh. She took a step forward, swinging to the right of Sakura and didn't comment. Sakura took a moment to shift her gaze and check her surroundings. From what she could tell, she was being held in some underground cave area. The ceiling above her head was low and encased with stalactites that periodically dripped water. An eerie aqua light was at Sakura's back. She managed to turn her head just enough to see that the cave flooring disappeared into the edge of the prettiest crystalline pool Sakura had ever seen. She had no idea where she was, or how the pools were emitting their own light source.

"Where am I?" she ventured.

"Below the temple," Karina answered in a bored-sounding tone. "The lake surrounding the city was once a glacier, and it created these caves long ago. The compounds in the cave stone give healing properties to the pools. They feed the fountain in the temple above."

Sakura lifted her eyebrows. At least she knew she was still in Rain Country. If the pools fed the fountain and the lake, that meant there was a way out – and in, which might have explained how Hattori and some of his rebels had gotten into the city without being detected by Neji. There was also a single tunnel opening in the cave wall, and Sakura wondered where it would deposit her if she somehow managed to escape. In her condition, the chances of that happening were very unlikely.

She also wondered how many of the operatives had managed to get out of that room before the poisoned cloud touched them… Hattori gave orders to not take any prisoners (herself excluded, evidently) but she had faith in the ANBU. They were the best of the best for a reason, and she had to believe that they were able to escape… She wouldn't even let herself think of the alternative. More than anything she wished she could lay eyes on Kakashi. She'd seen him flash-step out of the room with the Amekage before Hattori detonated his poison reserves, but just how far had he gotten? He was an incredible force on his own, and Sakura just had to trust that wherever he was that he was okay. It was a silly notion, but if something had happened to him – she'd be able to feel it, wouldn't she? Their bond was that strong.

"Where's Hattori?" she asked, leaning back into her chair to alleviate some of the pressure on her wrists.

"He'll be here soon, Kitsune."

Luckily for Sakura, soon was just a few seconds later. He walked through the opening in the cave wall with the poison contraption still strapped to his person. "You're awake," he said, striding up to Sakura and fisting a handful of her hair and jerked her head back. She grunted, and regretted ever thinking that this man had been gentle. He appeared to be scanning her wounds, clinically diagnosing her for better or worse. Not that his rough handling was helping matters.

"Nice deduction, asshole," Sakura ground out through clenched teeth.

Hattori laughed. He released Sakura's hair from his fist, shoving her with enough force that the back of her head met the wooden headrest with a crack. Sakura spit in his face, pleased to see that there was a little blood in the spittle – probably from the split lip she'd received during the explosion at the stables. "You are a fiery little thing, aren't you?"

"Is that rhetorical or do you want me to answer?"

Hattori laughed again. "You lied to me, Sakura of the Hidden Leaf. I don't know how you managed to create the antidote to my poison, but reliable sources tell me that your wounded ninja have been healed and that you distributed a small number of antidotes to the Amekage's council before our attack." A little vein of annoyance throbbed in Hattori's temple.

"What can I say? I'm a real menace." She tried to smile, but the pain wouldn't allow for the bright beaming display she'd aimed for.

Hattori leaned down, hands folding tightly over the wooden chair arms that Sakura's wrists were bound to. His nose was less than an inch away from hers. She could see the coal-dark endless depth of his midnight irises swirling with barely contained fury as he said, "Who else has the formula?" His words and the ominous dark tone in which he'd used chilled her skin. Chilled the very marrow in her bones.

Sakura swallowed. She needed to remain valuable to him – if she wasn't, then he would have no reason to keep her alive. "I've given specific instruction to the ANBU operatives to release the formula to the Hokage in the event of my death," she said wisely.

Hattori sneered in her face. "Smart move."

"I learned from the best," Sakura said.

"She could be bluffing," Karina said, walking back into Sakura's line of sight, just behind Hattori's shoulder.

"You could take that chance," Sakura said, "but it would be at the expense of your own funeral."

Hattori released the chair and pushed up to his full height, the vein in his temple throbbing to a whole new tempo. Sakura genuinely didn't think he knew what to do with her.

"How about we skip to the negotiations part," Sakura suggested. "You can't kill me, or the formula to the antidote will be released and the whole continent will know how to protect themselves against you, ensuring that you never actually rise to power." She took a moment to catch her breath, because every word was painful to get out and the fever was really kicking up a notch. She needed some acetaminophen. She needed to get out of these gods damned bindings.

"Negotiations for what?" Hattori spat.

"The way I see it?" Sakura paused. "At this juncture, you're outnumbered and outmatched. You want to take the throne and rule over Rain in the name of your tyrant father, but our operatives have been one step ahead–"

A spark of vibrant black and red crackled across Sakura's eyes as Hattori reared back and smacked her across the face. She tasted blood, and the wound at her temple throbbed with a new force.

Hattori was losing control over his poised resolve. She'd angered him because she'd been right. "It was a good plan," Sakura said as blood dripped over her lower lip. "You probably would have succeeded if it hadn't been for me."

Out of the corner of her eye, Sakura saw him rear back, but before he could strike her again, Karina caught his arm. "Don't," she said firmly as she stepped between his legs and gently laid her palm against his cheek. "If you kill her, we'll have no leverage."

One of Sakura's eyebrows flickered upwards. Karina had a point there, too. "I'd listen to her. When my team inevitably finds out where you're holding me, and they will find out, the two of you will be living on a prayer." Sakura really should mind her tongue, but she couldn't help goading the salamander prince. Her pointed jabs were unraveling him. It was a dangerous line to balance on, but it was also buying her time. "That's if they let you live of course." And they wouldn't… This mission was designed for the ANBU. The operatives were assassins and they didn't leave anyone alive. Wielding the black salamander poison like he did made Hattori far too dangerous a target. The mission objective had been to eliminate him from the get-go.

"Just leave her here," Karina pressed. "We still have a chance to escape."

Hattori jerked out of her reach. "Do you think I'm a coward, Karina?"

"Of course not…" Karina gave him a wounded expression, furrowing her delicate eyebrows. "But it would be a shame to die when you've already come so far. Think of your mother… Think of me," she pleaded. "Think of everything we've sacrificed to get here."

A rush of footsteps echoed up the tunnel, and Sakura's heart leapt into her throat. Karina drew a weapon, but it was only a group of Hattori's rebels spilling in to the open cavern. She counted maybe seven or eight men in total. Some of them were wounded, but by Sakura's estimation, most were unharmed.

"Were you followed?" Hattori asked the group of ninja.

"No, my lord," answered one of his men. "Ame's soldiers have taken the palace and forced us out. We're out of our poison supply and Konoha's elite have barred the entrances. The Amekage lives, lord Hattori. The poison didn't work on her."

"Oops," Sakura said. "In my defense, I told you the trade was no good."

The rebel nin at Hattori's side slid a massive broadsword from the sheathe at his waist and took a resounding stride towards Sakura. "You!" he bellowed. "You made the antidote!" Hattori grabbed the man's shoulder and stopped him from advancing.

"Man, I am popular today." Sakura forced another grin. Maybe some of her brazen attitude was due to the fact that her fever was spiking and she felt positively delirious. Her vision swam in and out of focus, Hattori and his men blurring before her.

"We need her alive," Hattori said. "If she dies, there's been instruction to release the formula for the black salamander antidote."

"So, what do we do with her?"

"Some fever reducers would be nice," Sakura quipped.

The lantern in the corner flickered.

Sakura's head lolled against her shoulder and her grin widened. "You all are in big, big trouble."

A shadow had begun moving through the room, and Hattori's men were dropping like flies. No one saw the operative, but in Sakura's delirious state, she thought she saw the red glow of the Sharingan. One by one the men fell into boneless heaps to the cave floor until there was only Karina and Hattori left standing. Kakashi's indomitable form came into view, and to Sakura, he looked like an avenging god. Every line of his powerful body was pulled taut. Rage sharpened the visible lines of his face - wrath honed into a promise of death that was sure to be delivered by his hand.

Karina flung two shuriken at Kakashi, but he easily deflected them with the broad side of his short sword, and the shuriken dropped to the cave floor at his feet. She threw her kunai next, but Kakashi plucked it right out of the air, turned it over, and threw it back before Karina could even blink. The blade sank into the soft skin below her shoulder and collarbone.

Pure terror sketched the planes of Karina's brow as she pulled the blade out with a small cry and took a running jump for the shimmering pool of water and disappeared below its surface. Sakura vaguely recalled the enemy picture board back at HQ and thought she remembered something about Karina having water technique abilities. But when the nin surfaced, she looked back over her shoulder and then just kept swimming.

So much for loyalty...

Hattori didn't bother pulling a blade on Kakashi. Instead, he pushed the button on his poison device and aimed the black cloud at the Copy nin. Kakashi had pulled a respirator over his face and dove forward through the foul cloud, driving the sharp point of his sword directly through Hattori's heart.

There was a moment that hung in suspension. Between life and death. When everything that was once precious to a person heightens to the pinnacle of focus – before life is swept away… From her chair, Sakura watched the light fading out of Hattori's eyes, and with it, the years of anger he'd carried with him to fuel his misguided cause. The emotions flickered in quick succession. Regret. Confusion. And finally: Acceptance.

This was really over.

Hattori hit his knees with a loud thump and stared up at the Copy nin. "Don't… harm… my mother." Hattori's weight fell away from Kakashi's blade as his body crumpled to the floor. Kakashi dropped the sword and rushed to Sakura.

He was kneeling before her in a flash. His hand trembling as he brought it gingerly to her face and gazed into the depths of her eyes. He didn't say anything at first – eyes roaming over every inch of her body that he was barely touching – probably because he didn't know where he could touch her without making the pain worse, Sakura surmised.

Kakashi pulled something from his pocket, and Sakura barely registered the tiny sting of the needle as Kakashi carefully dosed her with the black salamander antidote. "I'm so sorry, sweetheart," he breathed, reaching up to wrestle the matted hair back from her forehead as he tucked it behind her ear. He leaned forward and pressed his masked lips to her forehead. "You're burning up."

"They wouldn't bring me any acetaminophen," she retorted, and Kakashi chuckled – a smile creasing the corner of his eye. Gods it was a relief to see him. To lay eyes on him and know that he was unharmed. "If I weren't already in love with you, seeing you drop every rebel in here definitely would have done the trick... I forgot how fast you could move." His skill with those weapons was so incredibly hot. Not that she was going to share that with him. It seemed insensitive at the current moment, but she was terribly delirious with fever.

"Something very precious to me was at stake," he said, stroking the back of her hand with his thumb.

"Me?" Sakura grinned groggily.

Kakashi kissed her forehead again and then bent to untie the bindings of her ankles, and then moved to cut the rope that was chafing the skin of her wrists until she was free. "Let's get you back to the palace and find a doctor to look you over."

"That sounds delightful," Sakura agreed as Kakashi scooped her out of the chair and pulled her into his strong, solid arms. The antidote was starting to take effect, and some of the dizziness and blurred vision was beginning to subside. It made her all the more aware of how much pain she was in from all her other injuries. She was pretty sure she had a concussion.

Kakashi held her carefully, and yet his grip on her told her that he wasn't about to let her out of his sight anytime soon. She felt his strength seeping into her body and rested her face in the crook of his neck, breathing in his scent as he carried her out of the cave.

"I'm so tired, Kakashi," she breathed.

"Don't fall asleep. We need to examine that head wound."

"Can you tell me a story then?" she asked, nuzzling deeper into his warm neck.

Kakashi chuckled. "Sure," he said, "let me tell you a story about the woman I love and how she saved all of Rain Country by creating an antidote to stop an evil villain from rising to power."

"You love her?" Sakura yawned. Of course - this was the single most important aspect of the story.

"More than anything," Kakashi said assuredly.

I saw your comment babeeluiza. I'm back, and ily2! ;)

Thanks for reading.

XOXO,

~Sparrow