⏪ Back in Time! (HELP!) [Sakura Timetravel AU]

21: One Step Behind

Yay! It's time to rework this entire arc! Yay.... 😄

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Sakura pockets the Earth scroll, sliding the Heaven Scroll to Sasuke, "Okay...So now that we have the scrolls we need.."

"We need to get to the tower in the center of this forest!" Naruto finished, already raring to go.

Sakura nodded her head and looked slowly from Sasuke to Naruto, "If we want to get there safe we're going to have to come up with a plan." Naruto opened his mouth to say something, but she put her hands onto her hips and eyed him pointedly. "Everyone knows by now that something happened here. We need to leave. Fast. We won't be taking the short route to the tower, we have to throw potential pursuers off our tail and take a long path."

"Long trip, huh! I guess I'll go grab my stuff then." Naruto turned around and was met with a charred landscape, worn by the horrors of battle. "Gyaaah! My trinkets! They were destroyed!"

"Quiet, dobe." Sasuke scoffed and slung a bag over his shoulder.

"Shhh. Naruto, be careful not to attract any attention to us. Don't even make the birds turn their heads." Putting her finger to her mouth, shushing him, she opens her weapon pouch and tosses a kunai at Naruto. Catching it by the handle, Naruto cups the small weapon in his hands and grumbles to himself. Sasuke watches as the two talk amongst themselves. Sakura pauses for a second before walking up to Naruto and handing him something discreetly.

Together, the team jumped up into the trees and disappeared into the forest.

Turning and twisting, Team 7 silently jumped from tree to tree. In order to avoid the obvious paths to the tower, they had been traveling in zig-zags and even looped around a couple of times. The night was drawing on and with each moment, a tense feeling grew stronger, crawling up Sakura's skin. Perhaps they had not looped around enough, maybe someone was on their tail. Either way, this dreadful feeling made her feel sick in the stomach. There was a stinging sensation that never left Sakura since her fight with the genin-turned-abomination. The poison.... Or the unknown substance still appears to have an affect on her body. Medical experience told her that leaving this problem to fester would end badly. But, now wasn't the time for that. It was time to change direction.

Nodding to Naruto and Sasuke, she landed carefully onto a branch and then jumped diagonally right. If her mind map was accurate, they were on the edge of the forest, but right above the target location. All they had to do was make a careful loop around the tower and advance closer with caution. 10 meters. 20 meters. 30 meters. Almost half-way. Right as she leapt for the next branch, her inner alarm bells rang wildly. Ambush!

A twirling leaf floats on the current of the wind, blowing past them. Sakura stops dead in her tracks, her weapon already drawn. Her teammates follow suit. As graceful as the leaves, shadowy figures appeared from out of the trees. They were surrounded, entirely. Sakura scanned the area and found many other signatures popping up. One by one, the figures, hidden in elusive spots begin to slink out of their hiding places. All of them stalking toward Team 7, eyeing them down as if they were easy prey. Not one figure could be identified or seen clearly, as they were enshrouded with a weird blur. The three exchanged wary glances with each other, all of them feeling an unsettling sensation from these ninja's confusing appearances. It was as if they were visually impaired, the eerie figures' movements were partly invisible in this darkness. Right before the enemies in close proximity could do anything, Naruto took action.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" And just like that, chaos was unleashed. In a cloud of smoke, hundreds upon hundreds of clones sprung forth and scattered across the forest. Every Naruto took on an enemy for himself. Battle cries rang out from the clones as they engaged in combat, fending off the figures with vigor. Sasuke set off a couple of smoke tags just for good measure while Sakura beat her way through to make a path for the three of them. A discreetly as they could, they separated from the crowd and fled from the fight. But right before they were out of range, a figure lunged at Naruto with what seemed like light-speed reflexes, grabbing his entire body from behind.