Close to heart.. far from arms...| Sasusaku

3. Land of flowers- Part II

Sasuke and Naruto stood distressed as the only kunoichi on their team got kidnapped. Recovering from the state of panic, the loudmouth screamed at Sasuke, "Hey, why don't you use that Sharingan thingy of yours to find Sakura-chan?"

"Shut up, loser. I am trying already," the raven shouted back, his eyebrows furrowing, "the enemy has used some type of illusion or clone jutsu. I can't sense her chakra."

"Hmph! You are useless when the time comes." Naruto crossed his arms. The raven, chipped by the blonde's disregard for his abilities, lunged on him and grabbed the collar of his orange-upper.

"What did you say, loser?" He shouted and Naruto himself grabbed Sasuke's blue tunic.

"You heard me, you bastard."

God swear, if not for the situation they were in, Sasuke would have beaten the pulp out of the knucklehead.

Sasuke pushed Naruto on the ground and frowned, calmly analysing the situation.

"My Sharingan is not working because of whatever jutsu the enemy has used, but still, my perception is far better than yours-"

"Hey!"

"-so, I will go find her while you go and inform Kakashi."

"As if I would listen to you ordering me around." Naruto pushed himself on his toes.

"Why don't you listen for once?"

"Because I don't leave my friends in danger, no matter what."

"I will protect Sakura from whatever danger she is facing." Sasuke said, instantly regretting it, feeling the heat rising up his neck. Honestly, the idea of fighting two chunin or above level shinobi alone was too exciting for Sasuke to let it be ruined by Naruto, but there was also the fact that Sakura was in danger, and her safety was his biggest priority, not that he would like to say it out loud, like he did earlier.

"I.. will go now. Don't worry about Sakura. Notify Kakashi."

"You idiot, I am not talking only about Sakura. I am talking about you too. I will not leave you here." The blonde spouted, leaving Sasuke as surprised as he was when Naruto came up with a plan to free Kakashi from Zabuza's water-prison jutsu. The warm feeling, he had been trying to shrug off since that morning came fluttering back. In his mind, he had already acknowledged Naruto as a 'friend', but it still felt weird each time he was reminded of it.

"Hmph! Do what you want." Sasuke vanished with a hidden smirk, leaving Naruto surprised and gleaming, with the rare sight of Sasuke not denying the status quo. He himself hurried of in the opposite direction, to widen the search area.

***

Sasuke jumped from branch to branch rolling his eyes to find any sign of Sakura's chakra. The whole forest was filled with the multiple chakra of the two shinobis and Sakura, and it was almost impossible to tell which of them were real, if any of them even were. Although, he could grasp an extremely faint, but, existing smell of the pink-haired kunoichi's shampoo, and that's what he tried to follow. He mentally promised himself to not let any of his teamates know how he found Sakura, if he did, or he would have to spend rest of his time earning sneers from Naruto and Kakashi, and he certainly knew Sakura would increase the amount of shampoo she used just to let him notice it more, and that would be extremely annoying- and embarassing.

Pushing the thought to the back of his mind, he continued the search, just when the Chakra clones started disappearing. He turned around and noticed one of the two enemy shinobis standing behind him.

"Don't move from that spot. If you do, my partner will kill your little friend."

Sasuke paused in his tracks, considering the seriousness of their threats and letting it get to him.

"Who are you?"

"We area a shinobi duo who work as fighter-for-hire. Our client has requested us to get Sasuke Uchiha."

"Why?"

"We don't know."

"Then why kidnap Sakura?"

The shinobi smirked, much to Sasuke's irritation.

"You know that very well, don't you? Well, your blonde friend was a nuisance, so it was a good thing we used the chakra illusion jutsu to separate you two, while we hid underground."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes.

"Hn. Then, why are you telling me all this?"

"To let you know the difference between our strengths, so that we don't have to waste unnecessary time fighting and knocking you out. Now listen, my partner and I can communicate telepathically inside a certaing range. You make a move, and I instruct him to slay your beloved's throat."

Sasuke clicked his toungue as he realised he played right into the enemy's hands.

"I will tie your hands and you will follow the path I will tell you. Any resistance, and he'll kill her. Use your Sharingan, and she'll die. Try to escape and she'll die. So behave like a good boy."

The raven frowned and pondered upon his next step. He could cooperate and their plan would go on smoothly. He could retaliate, and the enemy would kill Sakura. In both cases, he was at a disadvantage. There's no way to ensure her safety by going with them, and it's not like he could escape this man without a fight. In the worst case, Sakura would end up being killed while he got himself kidnapped. He had no choice.

"How can I be sure that she'll be safe if I don't resist?"

The rogue nin smirked, or maybe, sneered at him the way Naruto would have, and Sasuke's brows furrowed deeper.

"There's no way to prove to you but I ensure that we won't put a scratch on her if you cooperate, except if she tries to resist. But in either case, her life would be spared."

Surprisingly, a sense of relief washed over Sasuke. He forced his head to nod as the enemy tied his hands. If he could use his Sharingan, he would have caught the enemy in his genjutsu but he knew he was not fast enough and the after-effects of using it were already getting the best of him. He would have to save his visual prowess, for when he found Sakura. Only if, he were stronger, she would not have been in danger. The realization left a bitter taste in his mouth as the raven left with the enemy ninja.