• Dark Dawn •

Ep 50 - Cheap (Arc 9)

(Arc 9 - War - pt 2)

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Sakura

The days before the attack were some of the most peaceful ones Sakura's had.

Although her investigations with Kakashi-sensei into Sasuke and the Yoake character hadn't yielded any substantial results. The sightings of Sasuke had simultaneously put her on alert and strangely at ease, knowing that Sasuke was both alive, but actively fighting against something unknown.

She still hoped that when the time came, Sasuke would be willing to talk with her.

(Sakura desperately wanted to know why he had disappeared so abruptly, over two years ago. Wanted to know what really happened, because she didn't believe for a second that Sasuke would have just up and vanished without a single glance back. Hoped that their old team, team 7 hadn't meant nothing to him.)

She clung onto that hope like she was drowning.

Tsunade must have sensed her tense anxiety, and kicked her out of the reserve corps and the hospital for a mandatory vacation because apparently, she'd been doing the work of three medic nin in the hospital ward. She wasn't allowed to go on missions either.

But she did take it to heart and tried to relax. Going out for some walks, visiting her parents, things like that.

Yet it didn't last.

Just two days into her break, a large spike of the sudden frantic chakra signatures of the higher level chunin and jounin flitted about and told her that something had happened. There was no other reason for the whole village to suddenly be on such high alert.

Sakura didn't have to go too far to figure out what the cause of the commotion was.

The screams of the civilians started to erupt from every corner of the village, and Sakura wove through the stampeding crowds before leaping onto a rooftop, next to another shinobi - Shikamaru, whose shadows were spreading like waves in the surrounding areas.

"Skihamaru," said Sakura as she landed next to him, eyes trained on the civilians running below. "Have you figured out what's going on yet?"

Shikamaru's face was scrunched up in an expression of both annoyance and hesitation, eyes never leaving the sight of the village. "I've been searching for the source of the attack, but it's strange, I can barely even sense the enemies here. My shadows have caught something, but I'm not sure what it is." Sukamaru replied, jutting his chin in a direction where he'd presumably restrained an intruder.

Sakura frowned, as she honed in on the point from where the people were running from. Several vague all-white forms seemed to permeate through the ground and ambled around like puppets.

Even with her senses stretched out as it is, she could just barely sense their presences.

It was like they were literally a part of the ground, indistinguishable from the surrounding nature. In other words, basically imperceptible to shinobi who aren't already well versed in using nature chakra.

Nature chakra was not her area of expertise in any way, but she didn't have time to dwell in it for now.

At this moment, she had to minimize the amount of damage being dealt to the village. So first things first, she would take out every single of these white puppets in her vicinity.

The way they were moving looked rather sluggish and she supposed that they would not be difficult to dispatch.

"I'll take care of this area. Shikamaru, if you happen to run into Lady Tsunade, tell her where I am." Sakura said right before leaping into the fray.