The Girl They Never Saw [Completed]

Chapter 16 ~ Marble Stairs

      "The best way to lie is to include a part of the truth." -Sakura Haruno

      Once Sakura had formulated her plan, she picked up the pace a little. It was slow going, because she had to be careful not to let Kakashi or Pakkun catch sight of her. They had already noticed her presence she knew, but they hopefully couldn't and wouldn't identify her.

      Slowly, she gained on them, passed them, and pulled ahead. She widened the distance between them bit by bit, but not so much as too lose track of them. When she felt the breach was far enough, she stopped in a small clearing. She had maybe three minutes until she was caught, so she worked quickly.

      It was easy to fake a battlefield. All she had to do was tear up the ground and knock down a few trees. When she was satisfied that it looked real enough, she glanced at her body. "This is going to hurt like hell." She muttered, then raised a kunai and plunged it into her stomach.

      A small scream burst from her lips, and she fell to her knees. She curled into a ball but that made it worse, so she straightened and tried to shut out the pain by focusing on Kakashi. Three...two...one. Kakashi and Pakkun landed a few feet away from her, the Jonin and dog completely unprepared for the sight that awaited them. The pinkette was lying in the middle of a totally destroyed clearing, with blood gushing out of her stomach and a pool already forming around her.

      Kakashi was brutally ripped to the past, to a very similar image. Instead of pink hair he saw white, and instead of grass he saw a wood floor. For just a second, it wasn't the tiny child he saw, it was his father. But one thing was vastly different. His father had been dead. And this girl, she was still alive.

      Torn, Kakashi glanced back and forth between the forest ahead and the injured girl in front of him. He groaned, knowing what he had to do. He removed his jacket and carefully wrapped it around the child. He pressed it to her wound to slow the bleeding and scooped her up in his arms. "Pakkun, mission aborted." He instructed, voice clipped. "Dismissed."

      Pakkun glanced at the girl warily but nodded and disappeared. He had a hunch about her, but would let Kakashi figure it out on his own.

      Kakashi glanced at the girl, who had seemingly lapsed into unconsciousness. He broke into a chakra-infused run back to Konoha. Along the way he studied the girl. She was small, not so much short as petite, with that tell-tale pink hair that was longer than the average seven or eight year old would wear it. Other than the kunai wound she seemed to be fine, with only a few minor scrapes and bruises, mostly on her hands. Which brought about the question: Why on earth would a little girl like Sakura Haruno be doing out in the middle of the forest?

      From her surroundings when he found her, there seemed to have been a rather large fight, but that too felt wrong. He shook his head and refocused on the mission at hand. Don't be distracted. Get her back and into a hospital, then try to figure out why.