Disclaimer: I, Lady Sassy Sas, do hereby disclaim all rights to the wonderful world that is Naruto.

She moved swiftly, unerringly, fluid in her motion, whirling. He was brought to a stop when her arm barred his way. Before he could react, she latched onto his shin and swung him around and he was hurtling towards one of the few trees still standing.

He flipped in the air to right himself and used his hand and feet, skidding to a stop.

Standing upright he watched as Sakura wiped the sweat from her forehead and panted.

He smiled and made his way towards her.

"You're getting better."

"Thanks. It still takes a lot out of me though. Is this how it feels when you use your Sharingan? If it is I have a new appreciation for you."

Kakashi snorted, "And you didn't before? Should I be thankful or offended?"

"Well, how was I to know? It could have been due to your age."

"Definitely offended."

"Bite me."

Kakashi was brought up short. He tried desperately to ignore the images that remark brought up.

Gulping he patted her head and quickly dodged as she swung her arm out to punch him, "Ma ma, Sakura-chan. It's not nice to punch an old man."

"So you admit then?"

"What? That you're not nice?"

"Baka! That you're old!"

"I don't recall saying that."

"You just said it's not nice to hit old men!"

"Because it's not."

"So you admit you're old?"

"I never said I was. Just that it isn't nice to punch an old man."

Sakura growled and muttered profanities under her breath. He watched and the blood rushed to the surface of her skin around her neck and cheeks.

The green chakra had faded around her eyes making them go back to the milky green. That cloudiness had started to appear during the procedure with Tsunade. The Hokage had something about it being similar to cataracts but instead of just covering the pupil it had covered the iris as well.

Kakashi had a vague understanding of what she had tried to explain, which was enough for him.

He missed the vibrant green though.

"Have you tried this with Lee, yet?"

Sakura shook her head, "No, I wanted to perfect it with you first."

"Wouldn't it be better to test it with a prodigy in taijutsu?"

"And you're not a prodigy yourself? I've heard the rumours; you confirming more than one of them."

Kakashi just stared at the back of her head. Of course she had. She knew pretty much everyone from working in the hospital and in the Hokage tower.

But what rumours had he confirmed? He was about to ask this very question when Sakura fell back against him and sighed. Kakashi tensed at the unexpected contact but forced himself to relax a moment later.

"Do you think I'll ever get my sight back?"

And that question also unexpected. Sakura hadn't said anything about it in months so why now all of a sudden?

Kakashi took his time to reply as he thought of what to say, "I'm sure Tsunade and Shizune-san will come up with something, Sakura."

Sakura snorted and sighed, "I doubt it but thanks for the careful reply."

Kakashi froze in surprise. She had never caught him out like that before. Again he was about to ask when she beat him to the punch.

"I'm starting to learn your tells better, Kakashi. You hesitate when you don't want to speak the truth. You drop your shoulders when you're sad or disappointed in yourself. Your walk lightly on your feet if you're in a good mood, scuff them when you're down or angry. And you tense when you're surprised. And you gulp, sigh or scratch the back of your head when you're nervous."

Kakashi sat there quietly staring down at her relaxed face like a deer caught unaware. She had been paying that much attention to him?

Why?

"Byakugan: Mizu Hari!"

Needles made from water launched at different points in the dome with extreme precision and timing. Hinata waited with bated breath as the needles made contact.

There was the same thundering boom that she had heard previous times from their countless tries to fell the barrier.

She watched as the dome glowed brightly and held her breath, daring it to fade away as it had all the other times. But it didn't. Instead there was a high-pitched screeching which kept climbing in decibels.

Hinata covered her ears and saw Shino, Shikamaru and Naruto do the same. And then she saw it with her Kekkei Genkai. The chakra that had held itself in the shape of a dome began to waver. She saw as it shook, writhed and waved about, stretching itself to the point of brittleness.

She brought up her hand as though demonstrating an upper-caught. She felt the blast from the dome and the pressure. She felt the disturbance as Naruto launched himself high into the air and let loose his Rasen Shuriken.

She observed the effects as the jutsu met the chakra dome. Saw the thousands on chakra needles penetrate the dome all over. Saw Naruto blasted away as it made contact.

And finally, finally saw it give way and collapse. She would have jumped for joy and sigh in relief if she wasn't worried about the blonde-haired love of hers.

Dashing across the water and reaching his side in a matter of seconds she dropped to the surface of the water and cradled his head in her knees.

"Are you alright, Naruto-kun?"

"Hai, Hinata-chan. Just a bit tired." He smiled brightly at her and this time she did sigh in relief.

"I'm glad." And then she helped him up and supported him.

"Oi! Shikamaru! Did it work?" Naruto shouted to the man a hundred feet away.

Hinata saw the irked look on his face before she replied in his stead, "Hai. It worked."

Making their way over to the others Hinata looked towards the island to determine if there were any hidden traps made from the same chakra, seeing none she breathed out the tension in her body.

"Alright! Let's go and check out this island!" Naruto shouted and was already high-tailing it to said island when he stopped dead.

"Naruto. We can't, not until we make sure it's safe."

"Safe? From what?"

"Traps."

Naruto scrunched his face in annoyance before it turned to impatience, "Well, hurry up!"

Shikamaru rolled his eyes but heeded Naruto.

"Hinata can yo-"

"Already did. I can't see anything." She reported.

He gave her an irritated look for being interrupted before turning to Shino.

"Shino, I need you to-"

"My bugs found nothing. Why did I go ahead and scout? Because I knew you would ask me to."

Shikamaru felt like saying something sarcastic but sighed in resignation instead.

"Right. Then we'll proceed but carefully and slowly. I don't want to be caught in a situation if we can help it."

Naruto looked like he wanted to argue but bit his tongue. Hinata smiled fondly at him knowing how hard it was for him.

Spreading out, they moved steadily forward keeping their senses open for anything out of the ordinary.

An hour or so later and Hinata was starting to feel the strain from having her Byakugan activated for so long. She was about to ask to stop when she froze as something caught her eyes in the distance.

"Wh-" she stopped abruptly focusing her attention.

"Hinata? What is it?" Shino held fast and stared at his team mate intensely.

"I-I'm not sure but…I think there are people in the distance."

"How can you not be sure?"

Hinata frowned as she continued to observe, "They've got the general outline but lack substance."

Shikamaru and Naruto whipped their heads around to stare at her. Shikamaru narrowed his eyes and turned his gaze towards the same place as Hinata stared.

"Shino? Do you think your bugs could have a look?"

The bug user stayed still as he pondered. He gave a curt nod, "Yes, but I'd rather get as close as we can so they don't have to travel too far. It takes too much chakra."

Shikamaru nodded, "Head out."

"So it's going well?"

"Hai."

Tsunade rested her lips against her clasped fingers and continued to stare at her apprentice. Sighing, she leaned back in her chair before turning to face the village.

She couldn't help but remember the destruction Pein had caused those few short years ago. Her expression became slightly darker when she remembered all those who had died and how she couldn't stop the devastation. Sure, she had used Katsuya to help protect those she could and heal the less serious injuries but the failure still grated on her nerves.

Jiraiya…

"Well, I'm going to test that. I'm sending you, Hatake and Lee on a mission. It's C-ranked but I want to start of cautious. I'll wait until the others arrive."

Fifteen minutes later and Lee appeared and it was another fifteen after that Kakashi turned up.

"Good. All of you are here and you're not that late for once, Hatake. I'm sending all three of you on a C-ranked mission. It's primarily to see how Sakura does in the field with this new chakra vision of hers. If there's a fight let her fight and only step in if she's in any real danger. Understood?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama!

"Hai."

"Lee, you're leader," she threw the scroll towards him. "You are to go to a local village that has been terrorised by bandits for the last week. You will deal with the problem as you see fit. Sakura, you are to heal the injured. Kakashi, there's a side mission I'd like for you take on."

As they nodded Lee brought Sakura to the side and started to relay the details of the mission in full while Tsunade debriefed Kakashi on his mission.

Twenty minutes later and they stood in front of her desk again, "Good luck to you all. Any trouble, send word immediately and Sakura? Don't take any stupid risks. Ask for help when you need it."

The blonde ruler smirked when she saw the underlying petulance in the girl's expression being surprised the edge to her voice as she begrudgingly agreed.

"Good luck."

"It is as Hinata described, Shikamaru."

The genius of Konoha grimaced. Discarding many strategies and plans because he had no idea what they were actually facing.

"Bah! Enough waiting! Let's just go and greet them, dattebayou!"

And before any of them could stop him, Naruto charge straight through the trees and ruins to where the things were.

"Damn it, Naruto! Troublesome!" Shikamaru muttered irritably as he and the other two charged after him.

They nearly crashed right into him as they came through the trees on the other side.

"Naruto, what are you doing!?" Shikamaru demanded.

But his anger faded as he realised Naruto wasn't answering and when he looked at the blonde's face he nearly did a double take.

"Naruto? What's wrong?"

But all Naruto did was lift a shaking arm and hand to point in front of him.

"This just got a whole lot more difficult."

"But how?" Hinata asked quietly, bewildered by the sight.

"Even I don't know." Shino replied.

"I thought we destroyed them all during the last war?" Naruto questioned in an unusually subdued tone.

Shikamaru didn't reply to any of them right away.

Eventually he made up his mind, "We need to retreat. We need to send word to Konoha…I think we're going to need reinforcements."

There was no arguing. They fled the scene.

"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune screeched as she careened into the office.

Sake went everywhere as Tsunade thumped her chest in order to regain her breath.

"What the hell! Shizune! This had better be good or I-"

Shizune thrusted a scroll in her face interrupting the Hokage.

"Word from Nara Shikamaru. It's not good, Tsunade-sama."

The Hokage ripped the seal off the scroll and set to reading it, with Shizune shifting by the sidelines. Her butterscotch eyes grew wider, then narrowing every other minute.

When she finished she slammed it down on her desk, it protesting with an ominous groan.

"Who do we have in the village apart from ANBU?"

"Yamanaka Ino, Tenten and…that's it, Tsunade-sama."

"What?!"

Shizune cringed away from the bellow.

"Where are the rest of them?"

"Out on missions."

Tsunade sighed and bit her nail, "Who's due back within the week?"

Shizune made to reply but stopped herself, unsure.

"Who, Shizune?" Tsunade glared at her, running thin on patience.

"Lee, Kakashi and Sakura."

Tsunade's face fell. "Anyone else?"

"The next team due back after them is Genma, Kiba and Sai. But they're not due back until the end of the month."

"Kuso!" Tsunade slammed her hand down on the desk breaking it in half.

She breathed in deeply as she tried to calm her nerves and anger and it was five minutes before she managed it. Shizune watched as the wheels and cogs spun behind her mentor's eyes.

"Fine. Once Sakura and the others arrive inside the gates tell them to come straight for me."

"Tsunade! You can't be serious! Sakura's nowhere near-"

"Don't you think I know that!? If I had other options don't you think I'd use them!? I don't, Shizune. Besides we both know better than to underestimate her."

"H-hai, Tsunade-sama."

There was a tense silence in which both of them tried desperately to think of any other solution.

"What if we send Ino and Tenten with them and hold Sakura back?"

Tsunade snorted before fixing Shizune with a doubtful expression.

"Really, Shizune? You think Sakura's stupid enough to fall for that?"

"No but-"

"I'm sending the other two with them anyway. I'm making strict orders that Sakura is only there as a medic. She's not to fight even if this current mission she's on proves successful."

Shizune slumped a little in relief but there was still an ominous tension in the room as she left Tsunade to brood over the new information.

I thought we had left all that behind in the last war…

This is unbeta'd so please ignore all errors!

Another (short) chapter. The fun is about to start in another chapter or so!

Thank you for hanging in there with me while I sporadically update this! I do appreciate it!

Read and review or lurk and read. Whatever floats your boat! ^.^

Lady Sassy Sas xXx