J A D E

Chapter Twenty-Five

"Sakura!" I look up, barely managing to avoid hit sent towards me. "What?!" I shout back, a bit annoyed. But annoyance is soon replaced by guilt as I remember that someone might be hurt. "What's wrong, Sasuke?" I ask gently.

"Something happened?" Kakashi asks me as we walk in the forest. I look up at him and shrug my shoulders, not wanting to talk to him about my boy-problems. Kakashi-sensei has never really been a help in this kind of situations. If anything, it only made him uncomfortable.

Instead of dwelling around and doing nothing, I start studying our environment. The forest is quiet. Not even birds' chirping is heard. Leaves are moving with the breeze lightly as sun is shining down on us blindly. I look down at the ground and raise my eyebrows as I spot water puddle. I smile as I remember what these ninjas did to us. This mission... It was so long ago.

"Look, Sensei!" I shout happily, startling everyone. I run towards the puddle and start jumping in it, with large happy smile plastered on my face. Kakashi nods at me, smirking underneath his mask.

"Come out, Sakura." Kakashi says in tired voice. "We are on a mission." He adds as if talking to a stupid. Naruto and Sasuke look back and forth from me to Kakashi, not understanding what happened to us. As soon as we pass the puddle, ninjas jump out of it, chaining Kakashi and supposedly killing him.

"Naruto, protect Tazuna!" I shout and push my brother towards our client. He does stand in front of him, but he is frozen from fear. I sigh and turn towards the Demon Brothers.

"We are going to kill you, bitch." One of them states. I shrug my shoulders and take out my kunai. Both of them start running towards me, ready to kill me on spot. But before, I am able to anything, Sasuke jumps in front of me. And he would have died if Kakashi did not intertwine, taking both ninjas out.

"You okay, kids?" Kakashi looks over us as he ties the ninjas up. All three of us nod, while Naruto is crying relieved that Kakashi is alive.

"Thank you." I mumble to Sasuke, who just nods. But pang of anger is still there. I... I did everything I could and he is still here. In front of me, trying to protect me. As if I am weak. Again. "But... I can protect myself." I add in anger and leave him before he is able to say anything. But I don't think that he wanted to add anything. I approach Kakashi and look over the Demon Brothers.

"I can interrogate them if you want." I offer with a small smile. Kakashi looks at me hesitantly. "I know what I have to do, Kakashi-sensei." I shrug my shoulders. "Find out information and then kill them." I state bluntly. "I have done it plenty of times."

"When?" Kakashi asks me surprised. "I thought Third removed you from active field missions."

"I am still part of T&I team." I offer him a toothy smile. "And I occasionally have missions with Anko-chan." I add with a shrug. "I was removed for year or two." I add and look back at brothers. "So, can I interrogate them?"

"Yes." Kakashi sighs and looks back at others. "I will take three of them a bit away from here. I also want to ask some questions to Tazuna-san." Kakashi elaborates and looks back at brothers and then to me. "How much time do you need to break them?"

"Tell others that I have some ladies business." I shrug my shoulders and smirk. "I will be back in five minutes."

***

I smile evilly as soon as Kakashi and others leave. I look at brothers and approach them with innocent look in my eyes. I know that looks can be deceiving, but I don't think they know it, too.

"They left you here, pinkie?" One of the brothers smiles at me and chuckles. "As if you can handle us." He laughs loudly again. "You had to be protected." He adds with another round of laughter.