Fade In

Fade In

Chapter Five – Mission

…

They sped through the trees, nothing but blurs among the shadows and blends under the clear blue sky of the early autumn morning.

Kunai flew in every direction, hitting bark and narrowly missing flesh and blood. Sweat trailed down bodies and glistened in the patches of sunlight that peeked through the cover of trees.

A swift chakra filled kick to a tree trunk had it hurtling in two pieces towards Aki. Dropping to the ground, he quickly dodged it and sent three shuriken at Sakura, which she countered with her own, sending them careening into the ground. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Kano’s rapidly moving hands and jumped out of the way before the spiral of fire could touch her.

But she was too late to notice Aki coming from behind and abruptly her back met his knee. However, she didn’t miss the golden opportunity to send a left hook, chakra withheld, flying and cleanly struck the underside of his face before twisting and using his chest as a springboard to propel herself into the air.

Sakura saw the flash of metal to her right and hissed when Kano’s ninjaken slid across her upper arm. He was good with a blade, but fortunately she was better. With one swift movement, her own was pulled from its sheath sitting on her back and she blocked a succession of heavy blows.

Right, left, right, left, their ninjaken kissed and sparked, the sound of hard shiny metal against hard shiny metal disrupting the chill air of the training grounds. She swung in an arc and sent a powerful kick towards his chest, but Kano effortlessly blocked it with his arm.

Sakura jumped away and throwing her blade up into the air, her hands rapidly shot through a wave of seals. She caught her ninjaken midair and with a downward sweep, smiled when a swirling mass of razor sharp wind molded with her chakra made its way towards her teammate.

Kano swung upward in an effort to deflect the attack. His body was rammed against a tree from the force and the breath knocked out of him. One thing he could always be assured of was that training with his captain was no joke. Seconds later, he dodged a flying boulder only to be pummeled with a black gloved fist hiding behind the huge stone. He skidded backwards, his hand digging into the forest floor to keep his balance as he spat out the blood filling his mouth.

Aki, ever the opportunist, dove at Sakura from above, his two daggers acting like extensions of his arms and poised for swift attacks and even swifter blocks. She noticed the shadow from above and flipped out of the way but she was one second too slow and the sienna haired ninja was able to knick her shoulder with his chakra infused dagger. He sent her a glorified grin and Sakura was pretty sure that if he didn’t need to worry about letting his guard down and her pounding his face, he would’ve done a little jig right there.

She saw Kano get up and with a nod towards each other, they both came running at her. She barely had time to pull a shadow clone, but managed all the same before Aki’s knee connected with her ribs. She stumbled back, gasping for breath. He advanced on her, twin daggers at the ready. Her clone was in a hand to hand duel with Kano as the real Sakura pulled two kunai out of her tan leg holster and met Aki face to face, a series of sparks erupting on impact.

A leg came down with bone crushing intent as a right hook was thrown. Metal against metal as all the motions were blurred and kicks and punches flew left and right. Heavy breathing and panting sounded from amidst the flying grass and pieces of timber that fluttered to the ground with the orange and yellow leaves in an autumnal array around them.

…

Thirty minutes later found them completely exhausted, sitting under the shade of what few trees were left on the training ground. Sakura took a long swig from the canteen of ice-cold water and passed it on to her teammates.

Aki had tiredly sprawled himself on the grass, sporting a busted lip and several bruises that throbbed with the slightest movement.

“Sakura, did you really have to bust my lip open? I think it was seriously uncalled for.” Aki said painfully.

The pink haired captain gave him an apologetic smile. “Sorry about that. I guess I just got a little too excited.”

Kano let out a small laugh then hissed in pain at his own busted lip and the quickly purpling bruise just under his cheekbone.

“Hah! Serves you right.” Aki pointed at the black haired ninja, enjoying his teammate’s momentary pain cause it always did seem to lessen his own.

Sakura shook her head and got up, her own body screaming in protest. Cuts adorned her arms and legs and she was positive that she had a nasty bruise by her ribs. The back of her shirt was ripped and charred from Kano’s fire attacks, but all in all, she was in relatively good shape. At least she had managed to avoid a split lip, unlike both of her twenty-two year old team members. Walking over to Aki’s prone figure on the ground, she bent down stiffly and using her healing chakra, ran her fingers over his mouth.

“There, as good as new.”

“And that’s why it’s completely awesome to have a medic-nin as your ANBU captain.” Aki prodded his lip and smiled happily at feeling no pain.

Sakura smacked him on the shoulder.

“Oww.”

“Don’t take things for granted. I may not always be there to heal your busted lips and bruises.”

She then made her way over to Kano and healed him, his lip no longer bleeding and swelled and the dark bruise gone.

“But…for the time being, consider them healed.”

“You know we love you captain.” Aki gave her a thankful look, his blue violet eyes soft and sincere.

“And that you may never be able to get rid of us.” Kano added, his amber gaze very matter-of-fact as he leaned against the tree.

Sakura shook her head and laughed. It was real. It was happy. And it made her emerald eyes shimmer. “I think I might’ve hit you guys on the head too hard.” And then she smiled, plopping herself on the ground and throwing her arms beneath her head in a very nonchalant manner. “And I love you guys too.”

It was times like these that Kano and Aki truly cherished. Times when their beautifully jaded cherry blossom of a captain wasn’t so monstrously strong and calculated, when she wasn’t such a hardass and was simply just human…just Sakura.

They often wondered how she had been like before ANBU. They both had assumed her younger years had been filled with infatuations with boys and spending time with friends, as was the case with many younger female shinobi.

But their captain didn’t talk much about her past. They knew she was a former student of Konoha’s Copy Ninja and former teammate of the blonde haired Uzumaki Naruto and the infamous Uchiha Sasuke. They knew that her parents were deceased, just not how. And they were both aware of what had happened to her first ANBU team.

Before being assigned as her teammates, they had quickly been briefed about what had happened in Lightening Country. Details of course had been scarce and they didn’t feel it in their right to ask for more. For both Kano and Aki were fresh meat and this, their first team so they didn’t know what to expect. Was she some dysfunctional and emotional psychopath? A breakdown waiting to happen? An apathetic icicle with sadistic tendencies?

Suffice to say when a five foot six pink haired kunoichi walked into the room all business-like with a twinkle in her jade eyes, they had been surprised and a bit incredulous. Aki perhaps had been more enamored than surprised, especially since he was prone to swooning the ladies with his boyish charms every now and again. Kano had been the more lucid of the two when they had first met her.

But she just barely reached their shoulders and she just seemed so…just so different from what they had imagined. Perhaps if a seven foot kunoichi with biceps bigger than theirs who put their own masculinity to shame had walked through the door then they wouldn’t have been so dumbfounded. But pink hair and very feminine curves with a beautiful face, it was highly unanticipated.

They had been told by Ibiki not to underestimate her.

They had.

And Kano had ended up with three broken ribs, a black eye, and bumps and bruises galore and Aki had nearly fell into a ten foot crack in the earth after failing to dodge a couple senbon. He ended up seeing stars and suffering a mild concussion.

All three had come to an understanding during that first training session. And Aki and Kano had come to understand their captain more and more as they trained and went on missions. Sakura was strong and fiercely protective, but she was also honest and caring.

She was a healer with an assassin’s touch or maybe she was an assassin with a healer’s touch. But Sakura was everything all rolled into one. A living, breathing contradiction. And sometimes, when she thought they weren’t looking, she’d become faraway and she’d almost look…vulnerable…and lonely. Sometimes, being a ninja left much to be desired.

But they loved her. They loved her like a best friend, like brothers would a sister, like a cool breeze on a hot and humid day. She wasn’t the only one who was fiercely protective. Kano and Aki had both agreed on a night sprinkled with the brightest stars and under the cover of a weeping willow while their captain slept that they too would die for her.

Twigs snapping and soft coughs interrupted the silent and contemplative atmosphere that had settled around them.

Sakura opened her eyes and sat up, smiling when she saw who they were. The trio was more or less just bigger versions of their past genin selves, down to the goggles and everything. “Konohamaru, Udon, and Moegi…what brings you three around here?”

All three looked to her with something akin to relief and joy on their youthful faces. “Sakura-san!” They darted towards the pink haired medic-nin and tackled her.

“Guys…guys…can’t….breath…”

They quickly let go, spewing apologies and poking her to see if she was alright as she regained her breath. “You three remember my team, Kano and Aki.” Sakura gestured to the two shinobi a few feet on either side of her.

Konohamaru’s eyes widened then his head proceeded to nod followed by a nervous bow. Udon did much the same while Moegi blushed like a cherry tomato and stammered out a ‘Good morning’.

Kano and Aki smiled while looking on with interest. They usually saw these three around the village. One of the boys always seemed to have a runny nose and the girl always had a red tint to her round cheeks. They knew of Konohamaru and figured he was the leader of this chuunin group. This was the first time however, that both of them had been present in the younger three’s company. Most of the time, it was just their captain.

“Sakura-san, we were so worried about you! Tsunade-sama wouldn’t tell us anything and then we tried finding Kakashi-san and that was like impossible and—” Moegi was silenced by the older woman’s laughter.

“This isn’t funny Sakura-san!” Konohamaru crossed his arms as a haughty expression took over his features. Udon followed with a stern nod of his head.

“I can’t believe you three attempted to find Kakashi. He’ll only be found if he wants to be found. And I’m fine so stop worrying and slow down for a minute. Now, what’s the real reason you guys are here?”

Over the years, the three had grown by leaps and bounds and somewhere along the way, they had attached themselves to her. She saw them often in the Hokage Tower when she was finishing up her training. Always wreaking havoc and running around under the impression that they were actually helping.

Sakura had often wondered why the three had so conveniently glued themselves to her side during the past years before ANBU and then it had occurred to her the reason why. She was what was left of a friendship and a team the three had idolized and emulated. A last dwindling link to Naruto and Sasuke. Was it so wrong for them to want to hold on to any piece of that they possibly could? Sakura wasn’t about to shatter what little was left by shrugging them off. So she let them cling to her.

More often than not she would find herself eating at Ichiraku with them or being subjected to the perverted jutsus the Third Hokage’s grandson liked to pull or listening to the woeful heart of Moegi as she expressed her unrequited love for said chocolate haired chuunin. It was during these times as she sat listening to the red-cheeked girl that Sakura was reminded of her thirteen-year-old self.

But so much time…so much change had occurred since then.

“Sakura-san? Are you listening?” Konohamaru asked.

Moegi and Udon leaned forward, scrutinizing the kunoichi with narrowed and suspicious eyes.

She perked up and ruffled Udon’s hair with a smile, causing the boy to blush and the snot to run quicker. “What were you saying again?”

The seventeen year old continued with a huff. “I was saying that Tsunade-baachan sent us to find you and your teammates. She said she wants you three in her office pronto. Something about an important mission.”

“Well, so much for taking a few days off.” Sakura muttered. It had been Tsunade’s suggestion after all. But after three days in the hospital and two days training, drinking, and lounging around her dusty apartment since everyone was on their own missions, there was only so much that she could take before getting edgy. She supposed being a part of ANBU and assigned non-stop missions would do that to a person.

“Hmm…I wonder what’s up…”

“Hokage-sama seemed a little…tense or maybe it was worried when she was relaying the info to us.” Udon commented. Though the teen always looked tired and clueless, his observation skills were much better than his teammates.

“Really?” Sakura furrowed her brows. Whatever was happening was probably serious then.

Udon nodded as the three chuunin stood up.

“Sorry we can’t talk longer Sakura-san, but we’ve got our own mission to prepare for.” Konohamaru said, apologetic smile lifting the corners of his mouth.

“Don’t worry about it. Take care of yourselves.”

“You too Sakura-san!” Moegi embraced the older shinobi tightly before stepping away.

She nodded and ruffled the two boys’ hair despite them being taller than her and ignored their protests of being subjected to such childish handling when they were obviously the ‘most powerful shinobi in the village’. She only grinned before watching them take off through the trees.

“I guess we should make our way to the Hokage’s office then.” Aki stated as he gracefully stood from the ground, stretching his long limbs and suppressing a yawn.

Kano and Sakura followed suit and they were soon making their way out of the training grounds and towards Tsunade’s office.

…

“Kakashi?” Sakura tilted her head questioningly when she spotted him by the window.

“Yo.” He placed the little novel of scandalous smut in his back pocket before throwing a wave towards Sakura and her teammates.

Kano raised a brow, betraying very little of the curiosity he felt at being in the presence of the Sharingan user. He glanced at Aki and saw a similar expression on his teammate’s face. They really didn’t know how to act when in the same room with Hatake Kakashi. While they held nothing but respect for the older and more experienced shinobi, they couldn’t help but feel a bit intimidated by his presence. Though, by all outward appearances, the gray haired ninja seemed completely harmless. Yeah, that was until he whipped off his hitae-ate and used his Sharingan on some poor unfortunate soul. Still, if Sakura could be at such ease with him, why not them?

It was then the blonde Hokage decided to sweep into the room in a blur of green.

“Good. You’re all here so I’ll get strait to the point.” She swirled around and crossed her arms over her chest, a serious expression adorning her features.

“I got a scroll from Getsugakure about an hour ago from one of their fastest flyers. It seems that some type of unknown sickness is plaguing the village and the leaders of prominent families are being murdered left and right. They’re in dire need of help, especially since most of their medic-nin are inexperienced and they don’t have many shinobi to spare.”

Sakura fisted her hand. Moon Country. Snippets of memories fluttered across her mind but her attention was once again directed at Tsunade as she began speaking again.

“Sakura…” The Hokage leveled a stare on the pink haired kunoichi. “I need the medic not the ANBU member on this mission. I need you to find out what’s causing the villagers to drop dead after only three days and fix it. I’m sending Hatake as a reinforcement since I know you and your team are gonna need it.”

Sakura nodded, a strange sense of foreboding beginning to fill her.

“There’s no time to waste. I want this contained before it spreads beyond control and I want the murders solved so travel fast, travel hard and pack light. You leave within the hour.”

All four showed their understanding, Sakura and Kakashi sharing a knowing look. They had ties to Getsugakure. They had snippets of time of that mission and people they knew despite the lack of contact. It was a memorable village and so to have it be plagued by illness and death…it was just unbefitting for such a place where the moon’s luminescence cast the surrounding waters in a beautiful glow.

After Sakura and her team headed out with the promise of meeting at the front gates in half an hour, to which she had directed a pointed glare at the chronically late Copy Nin and threatened to castrate him if he dared show up a second late, Tsunade quickly stopped Kakashi before he disappeared through the window.

“I know Hokage-sama.”

“Just…”

“They’re ANBU first and foremost. You know as well as I do that we’re stubborn little shits. But I’ll try.” That was the best he could offer.

No promises cause more often than not, Kakashi was always forced to break them. So he would leave her with the reassurance of doing everything he possibly could to bring them back to Konoha if this mission proved more than what it was.

“That means you too Hatake.”

He gave her a smile, one that made his exposed eye crinkle a little, and a small wave before disappearing.

Tsunade took the few steps needed to reach the open window and looked out into the village she loved and cherished. She hadn’t wanted to give this urgent mission to Sakura’s team. The fact that they had just gotten back from a six month ANBU mission in Sound made her feel slightly guilty. Not even a week and they were already preparing to leave. But there was no one else, besides herself and Shizune, who was as well versed in the medical field as Sakura. And if anyone could figure out what was ailing Getsugakure, her former apprentice could. She just hoped that adding Kakashi to the team was enough to ensure their safe return to Konoha.

Letting out a deep breath, Tsunade scanned the distant horizon.

Travel fast but travel safe… and come back home alive…


…to be continued…


A/N: Heartfelt thanks to everyone for all the wonderful and supportive reviews and taking the time to read! Oh and I have a soft spot for Konohamaru, Udon, and Moegi, which is why I couldn’t resist putting them in, if only for a brief moment. I did change their ages a bit also.

-hasu86