Foundations

Chapter 4

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The rebels were here.

They were in the city walls, somehow undetected. They hadn't just got into the city either, but into the Kazekage tower, without anyone realising. How was that possible from people who supposedly weren't even ninjas?

Sakura could only stare at the flower for a moment, the feeling of violation washing over her at the thought that someone had been in her room and no one had noticed.

As much as she wanted to sleep, this was bad, and definitely couldn't wait.

After a quick scope of the room in search for traps, she snatched up the flower and ran back to where she had left the boys. Not even stopping to knock, she burst into the room. Kankuro was slouched in a chair, Kakashi was staring contemplatively out of the window and Gaara and Shikamaru were bent over a map of the desert, but all four men looked up immediately at her dramatic entrance.

"They were here, in the building." She exclaimed, holding out the now-slightly crumpled flower as Shikamaru started towards her. He reached out to take the flower, eyes narrowed on the bright orange petals.

"It was on our pillow, they've been in our room. Who else would leave me an Ember flower? They know we figured out the antidote, which means they must be watching us."

At her explanation, Kankuro clambered from his chair and Gaara's fingers tightened where they grasped the edge of the table.

"Kankuro, have the building searched now, I want every inch of this place checked," the Kazekage ordered, his brother quickly leaving the room with a grim look. Turning to Kakashi, he continued, "Do you think your dogs could find the scent?"

The jounin nodded, already pulling the necessary scroll from his pocket.

"Then I think it's best you summon your team, we cannot miss this opportunity."

Kakashi nodded once more, and went about his summoning as the redhead turned to Sakura and Shikamaru.

"Shikamaru-san, please accompany me, the perimeter needs to be checked."

"Of course, Kazekage-sama." The Nara bowed, locked eyes with Sakura once more and then followed Gaara from the room.

Sakura nibbled her lip worriedly, staring transfixed at the deceptively innocent looking flower in her hand. She was only brought from her musings when a hand clapped on her shoulder, and her vision was drawn to a single, calming eye.

"How much sleep have you had in the past couple of days?"

Sakura huffed a laugh and rubbed at her eyes.

"You don't want me to answer that."

Refusing to meet his concerned gaze, she waited until he harrumphed and removed his hand, heading for the door. She instantly followed, as did the band of dogs and as she walked, Pakkun fell back to trot at her side.

"You alright there, kid?"

It was still weird that she considered a talking dog as a rather good friend.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she reassured, but the frown she wore wasn't encouraging. "It's just that I have absolutely no idea what's going on. I mean, this is just plain weird. Shikamaru was right, they're trying to reach out to us, or provoke us or something."

"And you're wondering why they seem to be directing that at you?"

The little dog was watching her closely with a wisdom that a lot of the humans she knew lacked.

"Actually, I'm more worried that they might be targeting Shikamaru. Although, I suppose the fact that it was the flower that I discovered they were using might suggest it's me they're after. "

Sakura trailed off, deep in thought as she let her old mentor and the excited pack into her room, watching as Bull carried on down the corridor to wake the others. The dogs immediately got to work, noses stuck to the floor as they spread out around her room. Kakashi took to the window instead, undoing the latch to swing it open and examine the ledge.

"You know, considering these guys aren't supposed to be ninjas, they sure are good at scaling buildings without a single person noticing."

The sarcasm in Kakashi's voice was so palpable that Sakura couldn't stop her eyes from rolling. Instead, she took the opportune moment while he had his back turned to subtly kick a not-at-all-appropriate bra under her bed.

She ignored the snickers that came from Shiba and Bisuke.

Urushi was the one to suddenly let out a sharp bark and call quickly for Kakashi.

A matter of minutes later, and Sakura was stood at the base of the wall somewhere along the Eastern side of the village. The dogs were scattered again, trying to figure out the entrance point of the rebels. That was where they were met by the rest of their team and Kankuro, the Konoha nin having been pulled from bed then quickly filled in.

"Wait, they came from here?" The puppeteer looked in disbelief at Kakashi. "People aren't supposed to get through these walls, that's kinda the point of them. Who the hell are these guys?"

Kakashi let out a heavy sigh and shook his head slowly. "I'm beginning to worry about the answer to that."

"It wasn't just us they were targeting this time," Kiba supplied, sniffing at the air distractedly. "They stole from a bunch of stalls over in the market, nothing major, but enough for them to live off for a couple of weeks."

This new information only made Kakashi sigh louder.

But before they could dwell on this, Pakkun padded over to his master.

"They definitely came from this way, boss. The scent leads underground right here."

"So they used Earth jutsu to burrow under the wall?" Kankuro asked incredulously. "Great, so they are ninjas, and good ones at that. Fucking fantastic."

Sakura couldn't help but agree with the sentiment.

"Ok, Sai, take one of your birds and fly straight over the wall, scout the area for anything out of the ordinary. Shino, go with him and use your bugs."

Both boys gave out a quick 'yes sir' as Sai drew out one of his ink eagles, and within seconds the two were so high in the night sky that they were invisible to the untrained eye. The group on the ground watched them for a moment before Kakashi began speaking again.

"I'll use my Earth release and follow their path underground, the rest of you head out the gates and circle round to me. We can't be far behind them judging by the strength of the scent, so be ready for a fight."

The team nodded, and Kankuro quickly led them out of the village and into the surrounding desert. It was pitch-black out here, and cold to boot, and Sakura rubbed her arms lightly as she squinted into the silent, empty horizon.

At her side, Neji was doing the same with his byakugan, a frown on his face as the veins around his eyes bulged and twitched.

"Hatake-san is that way, and his dogs are searching the vicinity. Perhaps we should stray slightly further this way, cover more ground." The Hyuga blinked away his dojutsu and turned to Shikamaru, the sub-team leader.

The Nara nodded, and ordered the group to scatter in pairs with their radios on at all times. Fixing the device around her neck, Sakura caught Kankuro's eye and smirked. The two didn't get to work together often, but when they did, they made a devastatingly powerful team. Their combined expertise of poison, along with the mix of short and long range attacks meant they complimented each other greatly - and besides, she didn't trust Kiba and Kankuro to work together. Instead, Neji and Shikamaru headed slightly South, and Hinata and Kiba started North towards Kakashi.

Sakura and Kankuro took the middle ground, and it took several minutes of walking for Sakura's sleep-deprived mind to realise what they had just done.

Neither of them were trackers.

Groaning at her own stupidity, she ignored the puppeteers questioning gaze and tuned into her chakra as closely as she could, all senses on high alert as she searched for anything.

A few minutes later, a small figure raced through the sand towards them and yelped an excited greeting. Sakura smiled at Shiba in return, following the pup that had his nose buried in the desert.

Tracking through a desert was notoriously difficult when the wind flattened out any footprints minutes after they were created, and scattered scents in the blink of an eye.

It was twenty minutes before crackling filled her ear, and Kakashi's deadpan shortly followed. Nothing to report, scents weak due to the wind, keep searching.

This carried on for half an hour before Shiba abruptly stopped, spinning to stare into the distance with his ears pricked attentively.

Kankuro and Sakura shared a concerned glance, subconsciously pulling their weapons out as they too squinted at the point Shiba was facing. Dropping into a fighting stance, Sakura crept silently up to the dog's side.

"Shiba, what is it?"

The dog growled, ears flattening and back tensing.

"There's chakra here, I don't know how many because they're trying to hid it, but it feels like a lot."

"Shit, we need to call this in." Kankuro advised, his puppets already in front of him in anticipation for a fight.

Nodding grimly, Sakura reached up to turn on her radio, eyes never leaving the horizon.

But she didn't get to call for backup, as before she could even part her lips, the ground under them shifted so violently that she had to flood chakra to her feet and drop into a crouch to stay upright.

Kankuro cursed loudly beside her, and Shiba began barking menacingly.

Then, just as the ground stilled enough for Sakura to regain her bearings, men began to emerge from the sand around them in a circle.

There were around twenty of them, all different ages and builds, but all looked tough enough for Sakura to know that the three of them probably didn't stand a chance.

This realisation was echoed in Kankuro's hardened expression, and he looked ready to pounce at a moment's notice. But in typical villain fashion, the men didn't just attack. Instead, the one she assumed was the leader clapped his hands together gleefully. He had dark burgundy hair and bright green eyes, and if Gaara grew 6 inches and seriously bulked up, this guy was pretty much him, just 5 or so years older. He held a long katana by his side, and had a smirk that was fixed on Sakura. The man then opened his mouth.

Oh good, a monologue - Sakura really loved those.

"I see you got our message then? I was surprised it took you so long. And I know, you have many questions, but now is not the time for those." His final words were punctuated by him raising his katana, and Sakura realised that actually she wasn't going to have the chance to formulate a plan while the dude rambled on about how great he was and revealed all their plans.

Well, shit.

It was silent for a moment as everyone in the vicinity took up fighting stances, and stared eachother down. Then the rebel leader made a move.

A kunai flung in Sakura's direction sent her side-stepping left, where she then had to jump over a low kick from a brunette. Not sparing a second, she leapt backwards and clashed her sword against that of a burly thug. After a quick parry, she managed to nick his chest with the blade, and she quickly cartwheeled away to let the poison do its work as a lightning jutsu went flying over her head. Behind her, she could see Kankuro taking on another bunch of rebels, and Shiba ran around underfoot biting viciously at anyone he could reach.

Punching a rebel in the back with a force that sent him crashing into one of his buddies, she flung several hallucinatory smoke bombs around before retreating swiftly. Luckily, she had had the foresight to immunize Kankuro, and Shiba was clever enough to quickly back away from the smoke to the other side of the fight.

Taking advantage of the momentary distraction, she pressed down on her radio speaker and flung a handful of shuriken towards the stumbling rebels.

"This is Sakura, we found the rebels and are engaging in combat. Repeat, we're in combat and need urgent backup, do you read me?"

A chorus of 'on our way' and 'copy that' were her reply, and with no doubt that they would be able to find her team, she immediately got back into the fight, landing a roundhouse kick in the face of a drugged rebel and slashing the neck of another.

But the effects were wearing off, and Sakura was suddenly struck by the severity of how outnumbered they were. There was no time to worry, though, and Sakura had to ignore the protesting of her tired limbs, quickly chewing a soldier pill in a brief moment of reprise.

In no time at all, Hinata touched down on Sakura's left and began Gentle Fisting everyone that she could reach. Kiba and Akamaru careened through the chaos in their Fang Passing Fang move, and the numbers of rebels began to steadily dwindle.

Shortly after, when Sakura's sword was sent flying off into the distance and she was left flinging her hands up to deflect a katana blow, she was saved when the man suddenly dropped into a twitching pile at her feet.

Neji stood over him impassively, barely sparing Sakura a slightly smug look before he turned to fight at his cousin's side.

Only slightly irritated that Neji was now one-up in their little game of 'I save your ass more than you save mine', she was cheered up instantly by the familiar presence that blanketed her as Shikamaru hovered at her back in their usual formation.

The joy was short-lived though, as just when Sakura thought that they had this fight won, the sand under them shifted once-more and another 30 or so rebels sprang into the fight.

Sai, Shino and Kakashi all took this moment to drop down from Sai's bird, but Sakura still feared that it wouldn't be enough. Nine of them, plus an assortment of ninken, against over forty unknown ninjas?

It didn't look good.

However, she wasn't about to admit defeat, especially as the disappearance of Pakkun suggested that reinforcement from Suna's ANBU was incoming.

So instead, she gritted her teeth, retrieved her sword and faced up to the new wave of enemies.

They may have been using the remains of Sound country as a base, but these men clearly came from anywhere and everywhere. Justus of every elemental type flew through the crowd, and Sakura was faced with weapons and fighting styles she had never encountered before.

Combined with her tiredness, this led to Sakura taking more of a beating than she was hoping for. She had cuts scattered across her arms, a dislocated shoulder, and a pretty hefty blow to the back of her head had left her dizzy and sluggish.

In other words, this was really not good.

Then the leader appeared in front of her, and things went from not good to fucking terrible.

He was grinning as they fought, even though she was holding her own. She was smaller, stronger and quicker than him in spite of her head wound, but he was clearly much more experienced and was gaining the advantage.

In desperation, she feinted a stab at his stomach, then lunged for his face with her other fist as he dropped to block her.

Unfortunately, she wasn't quick enough, and his katana came up to protect his face from her swing. The blade sliced through her wrist so deeply that she felt it scrape the bone, and a short, strangled scream broke free before she could stop it.

Immediately, she pushed away from the man to clamp a hand over the wound. Her chakra weaved the tendons and skin back together, but her chakra reserves were dangerously low from all the work at the hospital, and she couldn't afford to heal it all the way.

At her yelp, Hinata, who had been closest to her, had turned and shouted her name, alerting Shikamaru who was now threading between enemies to reach her.

Then suddenly there were two Shikamaru's, and her arm was on fire. The burning sensation that ripped through her arm travelled up towards her chest, battering her heart, and if Sakura had the ability to form words she would have screamed again.

Posion.

She'd immunised herself against the one created from Ember Flowers, so they had used a different one to catch her off guard.

Really, she should have expected that.

As she cursed her own thoughtlessness, she felt her legs give out and she dropped heavily to her knees.

Except that she kept going, sinking into the sand as if it was water. She tried to anchor herself with chakra, but couldn't, and the others were too far way. They wouldn't reach her in time.

And as the sand swallowed her whole, the rebels simultaneously melted into the ground after her, leaving a group of stunned ninjas, and Shikamaru yelling her name into the darkness.

The desert was silent.

A/N: University assignments are a bitch, but I'm back thanks to Christmas break, so hi! (I'll update Frat Boys in the next couple of days as well, don't worry)