I had this typed but never got around to putting it up haha. Unforgettable readers, the 21st chapter is almost done! As for this story, let me know if I should finish it up. I won't bother if no one reads it haha.

-Belle :)

Ino woke me up at around 2.

"Psst... Sakura." She prodded my shoulder.

"Yeah yeah." I said quietly, getting up. "Let's go."

We were walking toward the Konoha gates alone; Ino had told me that Temari and Hinata had went ahead.

We could see the gate in the distance when Ino stopped me with her arm.

"Listen..." she said slowly. "You don't have to do this if you're not ready.

"I'm ready." I said, inhaling carefully.

"In that case... be careful, okay?" she smiled. "I plan on coming to your house later; it'd be better if you were there to let me in instead of me having to go and find your spare key."

I managed a half smile in response. "'Kay."

She hugged me suddenly, pressing her cheek to my hair. "Seriously. Don't get hurt, 'kay?" she sounded like she was going to cry.

I then realized how much of an effect my depression was having on her. I leaned and pressed my cheek to her hair instead.

"I'll be fine." I said in what I hoped was a soothing tone. "You just focus on making sure you're okay, best friend."

"You bet." Ino's voice broke. "There's one more thing, Sakura-"

"Is something wrong?" Shikamaru's smooth voice cut in behind us.

I drew away from Ino and stood a few steps back. "Yep. She wants you." I said, walking away as Shikamaru took Ino in his arms.

I would never know what it was she had to say.

I walked over to Hinata and Naruto when I got to the gates.

"Good morning, Sakura-chan." Hinata said politely.

"Hey." I said quietly, and then looked at Naruto. "What's with him?"

Naruto was sitting on a bench looking near passed out and exhausted.

"I believe he got too excited last night and was up celebrating most of the evening." Hinata said sadly.

"He'll be fine." I said confidently and walked over to TenTen's trio.

I was instantly slightly antagonized by Neji. "Feeling proficient today?" he asked harshly. "Or is today not a good day?"

"Can it, Neji." TenTen said flatly.

"I agree." Rock Lee said proudly. "Let us not disrespect our allies!"

I simply said nothing, sitting down on the grass in the pre-dawn darkness.

"Despite the fact that what Neji said was rude, he was right." Shino said quietly behind me. "But to put it more politely, you shouldn't fight if you're not ready."

I adjusted my headband and unfastened and refastened one of the pockets on my new jounin vest. I heard Shino walk away and I stretched out and looked down at myself. How bittersweet, I thought. Me being the one who flinches at the sight of a jounin uniform and now myself and everybody around me are dressed like one. I picked a piece of lint off of one of my navy blue pant legs as I stood slowly and saw Tsunade and Shizune approach, along with the rest of our forces. I suddenly felt my knees begin to shake, but I ignored it.

"Prepare yourself to move in." Tsunade announced. "You will depart in 3 minutes and should arrive at the base at dawn, in perfect time for the attack."

Everyone around me began moving quickly. Chouji was standing next to Ino and Shikamaru. Naruto and Hinata were holding hands and standing right at the gate, Kiba and Shino a few feet from them. Neji, Rock Lee, and TenTen were lurking around the gate, Neji looking unhappy. Genma, Kurenai, and a couple other jounin I recognized were standing in a large group by Tsunade and Shizune, and Tsunade was going over plans with who I presumed to be the leader of this operation. I just stood where I was, willing my knees to hold me up.

Just as I was about to move closer to the group, someone flicked the metal plate of my headband on the top of my head. I blinked and turned around.

"Hey," Kankuro said. "Miss me?"

"Hi." I said in a small voice. "Where's Temari?"

"Oh she's over talking to the Hokage." he said, jerking his head toward Tsunade. "You ready for this?"

I nodded slowly and glanced in Tsunade's direction. Sure enough, it was now Temari talking to her.

"You don't look it, shorty." He poked me. "You sure?"

"Ready as I'll ever be." I said.

"I heard about your fight with the Hyuuga guy." He said uneasily. "Let's just say Temari's kinda worried about you."

"She shouldn't be." I said. "I don't want her to be."

"Well she is." Kankuro said resignedly. "Our only thanksgiving is that Gaara doesn't know anything about this." He said, referring to me and not the war. "After what happened last time..." he kind of trailed off, and then continued. "I don't think Gaara would let the guy live if he knew what he's done to you..."

Temari came over to us, sparing me from having to answer.

"Hey you two." She said. "I talked to Tsunade, Sakura, and she said it would be okay if we formed a squad."

"Really?" I noticed Kankuro and Temari were the only ones not wearing a jounin uniform. Understandably, since they were from Suna, the sand village.

"Yep." Temari answered, her eyes curving up. "Will you have us?"

I smiled a little. "Of course."

"You better." Kankuro mock-threatened, tapping my headband again.

"Alright!" Tsunade yelled, catching everybody's attention. "Time to depart!"

Shizune nodded and instantly most of our forces were gone ahead.

"C'mon!" Kankuro said, grabbing my arm. "I don't want to miss all the action!"

Temari whacked him. "Jeez, you'd think we were all genin again."

I smiled slightly and we all leapt for the trees.

...(Time lapse)

The base finally came into view just as the sun was about to peek up over the horizon.

We were all informed of where we were to be stationed, so Temari, Kankuro and I were in some trees a few meters away from the North wall of the base.

The tension was as thick as peanut butter. I was shaking slightly, Temari was touching her fan and Kankuro has one hand on the wrappings of his puppet.

Suddenly a kunai flew past us and struck the highest point of the base, which happened to be the lookout tower. The guard didn't notice.

That was our signal.

I went to start forward when Temari suddenly shoved me out of the tree.

"Sakura, look out!" she screamed as shuriken flew up at us from the bushes down below.

That's why the base was so quiet. That's why the guard didn't notice our clearly obvious signal.

The base was mobilized. The base was ready. The base was waiting for us.

We were being ambushed.

Kankuro caught me and landed on another tree before I fell right into the waves of enemy ninja.

"Careful, shorty." Kankuro said into my ear. "I know it's hard but we're here to protect you, so help us out, okay?"

"Protect me?" I squeaked. "But I don't need-"

"Yes you do." he interrupted me. "Gaara allowed us to come help the leaf village fight its war on the condition that we keep you safe while we do it. So... we'd appreciate it if you don't make our job harder for us, okay?"

I nodded and pulled a kunia out of my vest. He nodded back at me and we both jumped down into the fray to help our allies.

I landed back to back with Temari. She glanced over her shoulder at me. "You okay?"

Every cell in my body ached to scream "No."

"Yeah."

Temari smiled. "Watch this. Hidden Blade Wind Jutsu!" She waved her fan and a great whirlwind came and blew about 3 of the enemy jounin away nearly 20 ft away, crashing through tree trunks as they went. Their bodies suddenly spurted blood out of various places. My eyes widened. How...?

"Kunai travelling so fast they are concealed by the wind." She smiled again. "Helpful when trying to defeat multiple opponents."

"I'll say." I said softly.

But it looked to be a wasted effort. For every jounin we managed to strike down, 2 or more would come out of nowhere to fill his or her place. I looked through the rest of the trees to see many of our force missing as well.

We were going down.

I had yet to do anything useful. I stayed frozen against Temari's back, and occasionally blocked a blow from the enemy.

I had no idea this would be this hard. I was fighting for my sanity as I was simultaneously struggling to stay alive.

Fight back. His words rang in my mind.

"No..." I whimpered as I closed my eyes.

Fight back! My memories distorted his voice, so he now sounded angry.

I cried out in pain as a shuriken lodged in my thigh.

"Get her out of here!" Temari yelled to Kankuro.

I was suddenly lifted off my feet and was flying several feet away from the battle.

"Sakura!" Temari screamed, and I looked up at who had me.

It wasn't Kankuro.

It was someone worse for me to see than Kakashi, and more dangerous than even Orochimaru.

It was Sasuke.