Torture

Chapter 3
Disclaimer: I own none of it!

Kakashi and Neji finally caught up to Pakkun. Neji activated the Byakugen and scanned the area. When his eyes settled on Sakura he grimaced.

"Neji, what is it? What do you see?" Neji couldn't bring himself to look away from what was happening before his very eyes and spoke as calmly as he could manage as the images of torture and sadism were fixed before his all seeing eyes.

"Kabuto is with her, she appears to be fastened to a large stone slab. I can make out water dripping like clockwork, every 15 seconds to be exact, on her forehead... water torture. Her body is rather... damaged. There are 4 guards outside the door to the chamber she and Kabuto are in. 6 in the hallway leading to the chamber, it would appear that there are other captives. The total number of enemies ranges anywhere from 12 to 15. It is not as heavily guarded as one would have expected. There are some traps set up, but nothing that can't be handled quickly."

"Genma is heading back towards Konoha with Tenshi in tow, they are to meet up with a rendevous party and two will be sent to aid us... kuso. We can't just leave her in there while we wait for backup... Neji, find us a way in and out. We are going in and will pull her out and make our way to another safe house, I will send word to Idate to have the reinforcments meet us there. We can't endanger him or that safe house."

"Understood."

---With Sakura----

Anything, anything to keep her mind off of what was happening to her, childhood poems, the faces of her friends and family, the last inventory at the hospital. All these things and more ran through Sakura's head as Kabuto continued with his torture and interrogation, though she had a feeling he was forgetting the interrogation part of the equasion.

The sick fuck had just dislocated her jaw and deadend the muscles so she couldn't bite his tongue as he swirled it around inside her mouth. She gagged and very nearly emptied her already barren gut.

Just when she thought things couldn't get any worse she heard the sounds of metal on metal coming down the hall towards them. Kabuto cursed and looked her over one more time before melting into the ground with a sickening promise of, "I will find you again hime, you need not worry about that. And then I will get the answers I seek. Your precious village and Kage cannot stop me from getting you... Don't forget all the fun we had, ne?"

The door burst open and there, standing before her was her savior, "Sakura!" Kakashi ran to her side and removed her restraints. Pulling the chakra inhibitor off her arm and gathering her in his arms to his chest, he pulled the ANBU regulation cloak from his shoulders and wrapped it around her smaller form.

"We have to get you out of here. Hang on."

Neji was standing at the door motioning for them to hurry. When his eyes landed on Sakura he very nearly threw up. She was covered in blood and other numerous and unmentionable body fluids as Kakashi held her closely and they made their exit.

They traveled as fast as they could to the other safe house, located just on the other side of the border of Fire and Tea countries. It took them a half day to reach it from their location just north of Fishing Village. The safe house Idate ran being an hour north of Degarashi Port.

Once there they set up a cot for Sakura and set about making food and getting water so they could try and start helping her recover from the experience of the past week and a half.

Sakura tended to the worst of her physical wounds once her chakra was up enough and then just lay there, not really saying anything, just staring at the ceiling of the small house. She knew she should probably cry, or something... but she couldn't.

Kakashi sent word via Pakkun back to Konoha, along with instruction to direct the relief to them should Pakkun encounter them on his way back. He sent another dog with a message for Idate as to the situation and that if the reinforcements should show up at their location they would send word to him via one of his pack.

----With the Rendevous Party and Genma with Tenshi----

Genma was just finishing up the directions for Naruto and Sasuke to follow when a small blur skidded to a stop in front of them.

"Pakkun? Is that you!"

"Ah, Naruto, are you guys the relief?" Naruto nodded and inquired into the situation, which the pug was more than happy to fill him and the others in on, Yamato, Shikamaru, Naruto and Sasuke all visibly relaxed. While Genma smiled and nodded happily that his friends were all out of danger.

When the pug finished telling the two young shinobi where to meet up with Kakashi and team he bolted for Konaha.

--- In Konoha approximately 8 hours later.----

Pakkun arrived at the Hokages Office and delivered his message, Tsunade summoned Shizune and Morino Ibiki to her office immediatley.

"Shizune, I need you to get a medical team ready for when they arrive, the note said it should be no more than 5 days from now. Ibiki, I need you ready to do a mental evaluation on her... I have no clue what happened to her, Kakashi didn't go into much detail, he only said that is was bad... and we all know what it means when Hatake says something is bad."

Ibiki nodded gruffly, he had grown quite fond of the pink haired woman's presence in the ANBU HQ. She seemed to make it a more tolerable place to be for the members of the elite black-ops, himself included. He could still remember the first time he had seen her. Her first chunin exam, she was the only person to get all of the answers correct, and now... well he knew first hand what torture could do to a person...

Shizune meanwhile busied herself setting up the plans for when her 'little sister' returned, she was relieved that Sakura was alive to say the least. And very glad that she would be home soon. In her mind she could see the girl grinning triumphantly after reviving that first fish during her training to become a medic-nin.

----With Naruto and Sasuke----

Sasuke took point, while Naruto followed close behind. Sasuke was worried about Sakura greatly. The Hokage had mentioned Kabuto... Sasuke grimaced, he could remember all too well the twisted things that Kabuto was capable of. Having seen him go about such things first hand.

Naruto on the other hand seemed almost lost in thought as they bound through the tree tops, doing their best to get there ahead of schedule. Sakura was like a sister to him, he couldn't stand that someone as disgusting as Kabuto had his filthy hands on her in anyway. He could feel the Kyubi's chakra bubbling withing his stomach and he quickly forced himself to calm down. He could not loose it right now... He had to be 100 percent himself when they arrived.

Sakura didn't need him flying off the handle, she would need him as himself, not as the damned fox that resided within him.

----With Kakashi and co.----

It was easy to see, Sakura was shell shocked. She was shutting herself off from everything around her. Kakashi was rather worried about her when she first dissapeared into the bath room saying she needed to wash up. He knew she did rather need to bathe, but the distant look in her eyes struck him deeply, she was after all his closest friend.

So as he watched her gather a towel and a change of clothes he had given her before walking like a zombie into the bathroom, he couldn't help but fret.

Sakura started the hot water, she didn't even bother with the cold. She needed to wash all of that horrible bastards memory from her skin. So when the tub was full to her liking she stepped in and sat down, ignoring the painful burning that came with it.

She scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed, she had no idea how long she had been in there. Only that the once scalding hot water was now cold and tinted pink from scrubbing so hard that she had actually begun to bleed.

Neji and Kakashi were both getting worried. Sakura had been in there for almost 2 hours now. they looked at one another and went to the bathroom door, Knocking lightly Kakashi inquired, "Sakura? are you okay in there?"

when there was no response, Kakashi pushed the door open to see Sakura still scrubbing her now raw, bleeding and cracked skin. He and Neji were forced to pull her from the water and wrapped her in a towel. Kakashi carried her back out into the main room and set her in his lap, running his hands through her hair.

"Sakura, please. You can't do this to yourself." Sakura shook her head and shivered as Kakashi moved to rub her back causing her to flinch, the look of hurt and yet understanding that crossed his face broke her again, and she let out a choked sob.

When Kakashi looked down and saw the tears begin to descend, streaming down her face he gathered her closer and began to rock slowly, whispering softly into her hair. Neji asked if there was anything he could get them, when they replied in the negative he stood and went to take patrol. Not wanting to interfere with Sakura speaking what she needed to say, when she finally got around to speaking.

About 15 minutes after the gut wrenching sobs had begun, they were slowly subsiding. Kakashi leaned his head back and looked at Sakura's face. The worry was evadent in his visible eye. Sakura moved her hand up and pushed the Hai-ate up and off his forhead, revealing the sharingan before buiring her face in his shoulder again.

"Sakura... do you think you can talk to me? Do you think you can tell me what happened?"

And with that, the damn completely burst. Sakura told him everything, every touch, every word... everything.