“Where are you taking me?” enquired Sakura.

Under the threat of the killing of their son, Sakura surrendered herself to her ex-husband, Sasuke, and left Naruto in order to safe her first baby, Nokuto. Sasuke placed Genjutsu on Sakura so she couldn’t attack him with her super-human strength. After five hours of traveling, they finally reach an entrance made out of stones and with the two snakes on top of it. Sasuke smiled evilly at Sakura.

“Welcome to my lair, Sakura.” he said, “This is your new home.”

“Unless Naruto save me”, counter-argued Sakura, “it won’t be.”

Sasuke glared at her. “Forget him”, he snarled, “he is too cowardly.”

“At least he braver than you!” she retorted.

Sakura earned herself a slap from Sasuke. “One more word from you”, growled Sasuke, “and you receive more than a slap from me!”

Sasuke pushed roughly into the dark lair. The stairs were slippery with moss and water and only a few torches flared the corridor. After walking down three flights of stairs, there finally entered a small room dimly lit. At the center of the room were two figures crouching on the table. One of them was big in size while the other one was thin with long, white hair and shark-like teeth.

“Suigetsu! Jugo!” called Sasuke, “We have company.”

The two men looked up. “Who the chick, master?” asked the man called Jugo.

Sasuke pushed Sakura forward for them to see her properly. “My wife!” he answered casually.

The man named Suigetsu whistled. “Wow Lord Sasuke. She’s a pretty one, right Karin?” he said with glee.
At the corner of the room, a figure stepped out of the shadows. The figure was a woman with red eyes and unusual hairstyle; her hair is short and unkempt on one side, and long and combed on the other. On her face showed hatred and jealousy.

“Dear Sasuke”, she hissed, “you mean you have been running after this slut rather than me?”

Sasuke glared back at her. “Now Karin, none of your flirtations.” he said firmly, “Although I have my wife back, her suitor will try to get her back. So you three will wait in ambush for him and do what you want with him.”

Suigetsu slowly stood up, stretched, and pulled out a long sword. Sakura stared at the sword. She recognized it, it used to belong to one of the Seven Swordsmen of the mist, Zabuza, a ninja they fought but later sacrificed his life when dealing with a common enemy.

“First”, Suigetsu said, “I will tear every limb in his pathetic body and chop off his head!”  

Karin rolled her eyes. “Come on! Let set the ambush.”

And lo and behold, they disappeared into a puff of smoke.

Sakura looked at Sasuke. “Lord Sasuke? What about Orochimaru?”

“Stupid girl”, Sasuke said, “I killed him. So I’m the new leader of Sound.”

“Do you know that blade belongs to Zabuza who is now lying in his grave?” she screamed at him.

“So what?” he said, “I needed Suigetsu’s loyalty.”

“You just can’t take people’s properties from the graves!” she shouted at him.

“SHUT UP YOU SLUT!” he roared.

And with that, Sasuke pulled Sakura by the hair and dragged her into an abandoned room. He pushed her on the bed, tore off her clothes and his and started ramming himself at her. Sakura’s screams could be heard from the outside. Exhausted but satisfied, Sasuke left the room and locked the door behind him. Sakura, disgraced and wounded, wept and sobbed on the cold unfriendly floor.

                                                          *

“I see”, said Tsunade, “so that what happened.”

Tsunade was sitting behind her desk thinking thoughtfully. Shizune was standing next to her instead of holding Tsunade’s pet pig, was holding Nokuto who was sleeping peacefully in her arms. Hatake Kakashi was leaning on the wall with his head down. Naruto was standing in front of Tsunade, tear-stricken from telling the past event to her. Silence reign, until Shizune broke the silence, “But why Sasuke would killed the Haruno?”
  
“Revenge”, Kakashi said bitterly, “he was a vengeful kid. It a way to show revenge on Sakura for leaving him.”

“But that because he treated her as dirt”, Shizune argued, “He just can’t……”

“Granny Tsunade”, Naruto cutting in the argument, “I going to save Sakura.”

Tsunade leaned forward, frowning. “Due to the death of the Haruno, we have less ninjas in defending the village. We need you to defend it from other countries or the Akatsuki.”

“Granny Tsunade”, Naruto saying impatiently, “Sakura is my life! Without her I will be nothing! I will rescue her and returned here shortly!”

Tsunade sighed, looked at Kakashi who just nodded, said, “Very well Naruto, before Sasuke could bring any more harm on Sakura, rescue her and bring Sasuke back so we can bring justice on him.”

Naruto, now rallied, said, “I will bring those two back!”

“What!” exclaimed Shizune, “But what about Nokuto……?”

Naruto turned to Shizune. “Shizune, you can baby-sit him while I’m gone, can you?”  

Shizune blushed. “I love to Naruto.”

Naruto stroke Nokuto’s head. “Be a good boy okay?” Then he turned to Tsunade, “I better start now, Granny!”

“Hold it!” shouted a voice, “You’re not going without us!”

Naruto turned around as four figures entered the room. One was a boy with hair tied up in a ponytail, another boy with spiky and brown hair with red marks on his cheeks, a boy with black and long hair and a fat one.

“Shikamaru! Kiba! Neji! Choji!” cried Naruto, “what are you guys doing here?”

“We heard what happened”, answered Kiba, “so we decided to see if we can help or something.”

Naruto stared at all of them in disbelief. “You mean you want to help me rescue Sakura?”

“It troublesome”, muttered Shikamaru, “but we know how you’re suffering.”

“But what about your wife?” asked Naruto.

“Hinata allowed me to help a friend.” answered Kiba with a shrug.

“Ino went on a mission.” replied Choji.

“Along with TenTen.” added Neji.

“And I need to get away from Temari for a while.” muttered Shikamaru.  

“But…” Naruto started.
“Don’t but us”, intervened Kiba, “we can risk any danger.”

“Instead of rescuing Sasuke”, said Shikamaru, “we’re going to rescue Sakura.”

“Just like old times, eh Naruto?” said Choji with a grin.

Naruto stared at his friends saying, “Thanks guys.” He had to look down so nobody could see him at the verge of tears.

Tsunade stood up and declared, “In that case, I’m appointing Shikamaru as Team captain and Neji as lieutenant!”

“But Neji is a Jounin!” protested Shikamaru.

“You have the experience in tactics and strategies. And besides”, Tsunade said proudly, “you made everyone alive last time so I don’t you can’t this time.”

Shikamaru just scratched his back. “So troublesome”, he grumbled, “but fine.” He turned to his teammates, “Gear up and meet at the entrance!”

“Right!” cried everyone together and left the Hokage’s office.

When all of them were gone, Kakashi started to chuckle. Tsunade raised an eyebrow, “And what is so funny?” she asked.

“It like the battle between the Three Ninjas.” answered Kakashi.

“Get to the point.” said Tsunade impatiently.

“The students of the Three Ninjas”, replied Kakashi, “Naruto of Jiraiya, Sasuke of Orochimaru and Sakura of you.”

                                                         *

“Is everyone here?” asked Shikamaru.

“Yes!” everyone cried in unison.

“Before we set out”, Shikamaru said, “check your equipments and supplies and then I give a small briefing.”

After checking their equipments and supplies, Choji said, “So Shikamaru, what the plan?”

Shikamaru massaged his neck thoughtfully before saying, “Our last mission was pursuit, this time it is locating the target. However, I believe that Sasuke will lay ambush for us. So we go in two groups, the first group consists of Kiba, me and Naruto; the second group will be made of Neji and Choji.”

“Why?” asked Naruto completely clueless.

“The purpose of the first group is to locate the track of Sasuke; that’s why we need Kiba and Akamaru to track them.”

“Leave it to us.” said Kiba confidently.

“ARF!” barked Akamaru.

“The second group is to detect ambushes that will appear in front of us”, Shikamaru said as he gestured to Neji and then to Choji, “and to counter-attack when the first group is at the verge of defeat.”

“How will we communicate with each other?” asked Neji.

Shikamaru pulled out two black devices from his rucksack. “Here Neji, we two will communicate through this walkie-talkies. When you see anything suspicious, warn us.”

“Understood.” said Neji.

“Our main objectives”, Shikamaru continued, “is to safe Sakura, bring back Sasuke and stay alive. And one more thing!”

The others stood silent to hear what else he has to say.

“I don’t really like Sakura nor show respect to her for I think that all women are so troublesome”, he said, “But she is a ninja of Konoha and it is our duty to safe her and bring her back to the village.” He looked at the others before continuing, “Like last time, all your lives will be entrusted in me.”   

After hearing the speech given by their leader, each ninja’s respect grew and their morale were raised.

“All right!” said Shikamaru turning his backs on his teammates, “Operation ‘Rescue Sakura and Capture Sasuke’ begins now! Now forward!”

                                                               *

When Sakura woke up in the dark room, she felt lonely and cold on the floor. She wrapped herself around with a blanket on the bed. She lay on the bed with tears gushing down her cheeks.