Pit of Fire

The Beginning

The attack was aimed at her.

Sakura saw the rogue nin running toward  her from the corner of her eye, but she was already busy dodging the blows of the enemy she's currently fighting. Sakura smirked; she was enjoying the combat with the strong-built man in front of her, but now is the time to finish him off and his teammate together. Both were no match to her. But the giant man did something unexpected. He took a handful of yellow dust from his side pouch and blew into her eyes.

"Ughh..." she growled, rubbing her sore eyes. She felt lightheaded for a moment and her vision went blurry. "Bastard! You can't defeat me," she cursed.

"We know, but that can," the giant pointed a syringe held in the hand of his friend. "The poison of a thousand flowers. It can kill anyone in seconds and no antidote," he grinned wickedly, "Goodbye Pinky."

Sakura vaguely saw a green liquid filled syringe coming near her throat. Whatever dust the giant blew into her eyes, it did more than blurring her eyesight. She felt paralyzed and couldn't move her limbs as another rogue nin was about to succeed his attempt.

Then her teammate kicked in and the poison-filled tube was thrown off, crushed, and destroyed. Both nins widened their eyes in horror and glanced over the place where Kakashi had knocked out the rest of their teammates. They all lied unconscious on the ground.

"I suppose this is your last drug. You wouldn't use this kind of stuff unless you're out of options. It's time to end the fight," Kakashi said, chidori was already forming in his hand.

The two rogue ninjas looked at each other and the larger man took out his axe with a decided expression. "You don't win if you lose your teammate." He then rushed to Sakura with an axe in his hand.
Kakashi was alarmed and shouted at his former student's direction, "Sakura! Move!" He threw a bunch of shurikens at the man but even when they cut through his back, the man wasn't stopped. Sakura stood on the spot freezing with her eyes wide. Kakashi turned his feet to run to the man and finish him off before he could kill his teammate, but his distracted state allowed the other enemy to make the attack. Before he could move, Kakashi felt a sharp pain at his clothed neck as the rogue nin near him injected a whole syringe of shiny purple liquid into his body. He cursed for his carelessness pressing his abused skin but wasted no time putting chidori in his attacker's chest. The man was dead in his hand.
At the same time, Sakura who found herself capable of moving hands activated her seal just before the giant man got her and moved away from the axe coming at her head. All the bruises on her body have been instantly healed and the effect of the yellow dust abated. Then she ran off throwing a fist at her enemy and sent him flying a few yards away.

She then ran back to her captain. "Kakashi-sensei are you okay? I saw he put something in you. It couldn't be anything good. Let me check your vitals."

Kakashi let Sakura examine his body while resting on the forest floor. The medic's hands glowed with green chakra and scanned over her sensei's body. She found a purplish bruise on his neck where the drug was injected. She healed it and it was gone within seconds. Aside from other small cuts which he got during the fights, Sakura was unable to find the symptoms or effects of the drug.

"I can't... I can't detect any harmful substance in your body nor anything abnormal. This is weird," she breathed. "How're you feeling Sensei?"

"A little hungry," Kakashi answered with a crinkle in his eyes.

Sakura lightly hit his chest with a small pout on her lips, "This is not the time to joke. We don't know what that drug is or what it would do. Anything could happen to you anytime." She picked up the syringe from the ground and perused a droplet of shiny purple liquid inside. She then put it in her back pouch. "We'll do more detailed research when we get back to Konoha. If this is some kind of poison like the other one, we must find the antidote. Until that time, we need to keep an eye on you kaka-sensei. The effects can show up anytime." She held him up to his feet. "Now let's hurry home. I will write Shinji-sama about the drug dealers and where to pick up their bodies. I suppose the victims have been rescued from their hideout by now."