Elusive {Book 2}

Naruto's Bee Buddy

7 Weeks Ago......

"Send this to Naruto please Katsuyu."  Sakura requested the slug politely.  Katsuyu grabbed the envelope with her mouth, slightly covering it in slime, and started sliding off.  Before the slug could get too far Sakura felt a gust of wind, and the pink haired girl quickly jumped between the slug and the direction the wind.  Standing in between the trees was what looked to be an ANBU ninja from Kirigakure. 

"Do you need something ANBU-san?" Sakura asked politely, crossing her arms while behind her Katsuyu left to deliver a message.

"Where do you hail from?" The ANBU asked.  Sakura furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.  "You obviously don't hail from Kirigakure, so which village do you hail from?"

"I currently don't hail from any village."  Sakura answered.  "Am I doing something to warrant ANBU attention?"

The ANBU didn't answer her.  He just disappeared.  Sakura has a feeling that he hadn't left though.  So she called out.

"If you don't mind, I'm going to continue collecting herbs for medicinal reasons." Sakura shouted.  She walked back over and observed her belongings.  She didn't have much, just her bag and a few weapons.  The rest of her things were sealed away in a storage scroll that Kakashi had given her after the team had completed their first B-rank mission. 

Sakura opened the front pocket on her bag and pulled out a small container.  Feeling eyes watching her every move, Sakura couldn't help but roll her eyes.  Normally she wouldn't act like this, and she knew that, but over the past weeks she had been piling up so much stress and anger, she knew she was about to explode.  Sakura walked over to the area she was previously inspecting. 

Digging through the shrubs Sakura grabbed what looked like a small, light brown, stick.  Sakura smiled lightly at the stick she had grabbed.  She went to put it in her open container when an arm grabbed her wrist.  Squeezing her eyes shut, Sakura slowly turned her head towards the ANBU.

"I'm sorry.  Is searching for ginseng a crime?  Because I can't see how it is." Sakura gritted her teeth at the ANBU.  The ANBU didn't reply, nor did he remove his hand from her wrist.

Sakura glared at the ninja in front of her. It wasn't like she was doing anything wrong. In fact, she had every right to be collecting herbs in the area. Apparently, Kiri-nin are a lot more anxious of other ninjas than she had previously assumed. Which wasn't too good on her part. Perhaps she should've thought about that before she yelled at the guard, because the next thing she knew, she was being brought into the village.

She was then escorted (dragged) to the Kiri interrogation building. Sakura wasn't too excited. Moreover, she was entirely sure that she was doing the right thing and wasn't breaking any law that Kiri had in place.  She quickly found herself sitting in front of a table with an empty chair sitting on the other side.  Her stuff was taken from her, which she dreaded, and she couldn't fight back without establishing herself as a threat.

While she sat nervously bouncing her leg up and down she unintentionally clenched her fists and didn't register the pain of her fingernails pressing into her skin. She had to have been in there for at least a few hours. About once or twice the door was opened and someone would stick their head in and look at her for a second but after that she was left alone. It wasn't until about an hour later did a woman walk in and sit down in the seat across Sakura.

The woman was tall, skinny, with fair skin, a dark blue dress, and long auburn hair. She sat across from Sakura, examining the younger girl. Once she seemed satisfied with what she saw in Sakura, she nodded to herself and leaned back giving Sakura a small smile.