Sakura felt her eyelids begin to feel heavy as white feathers in the air floated over the crowd. Perhaps this is the start of the invasion... She then blinked hard, and made a hand sign. "Kai," she muttered, instantly feeling more aware.

"Sakura-san!"

Sakura turned immediately, hand in her kunai pouch. She loosened up minutely when she saw her spandex-clad trainer. "Youth-man," she greeted.

"You must hurry! Konoha is under attack by both Otogakure and Sunagakure, and Naruto and Sasuke have already set off to chase down Gaara." Gai stopped to kick the man behind him, then continued.

The pinkette nodded. Orochimaru's minion did not inform me that Sunagakure would also be in the invasion. Why is it he had me fight a key opponent, I wonder.

"You have to go after them. Luckily, you were able to take out Temari, so she won't be able to do any harm in her condition. However, Kankuro is still an issue! Take the youthful Shikamaru with you; he is only pretending to be asleep."

Sakura turned when she heard a "shit!" and nodded to the lazy genin, who only groaned. "This is so troublesome."

"This will be a B-ranked mission! Chase after Sasuke and Naruto, stop Kankuro, and then assist in helping them take down Gaara! That is all. Good luck!" Gai leapt down to the stadium and took out two more shinobi.

Shikamaru shoved his hands in his pockets and sighed. He looked to Sakura. "Guess we'll have to play hero, then. Let's go."

She stared at him curiously, then nodded. Orochimaru ordered for me to stay undercover. I will have to do as he says, even if it be assisting the enemy. "Let us go."

:::

"What is that noise I am hearing?" Both genin froze as they heard a rustling in the bushes. Out popped a brown dog, its expression bored.

"A summon...?" Shikamaru squinted his eyes and looked at the back of the dog's vest.

"Yep!" The dog's voice was surprisingly gruff. "I'm Kakashi's. And you're Sakura, right? I don't think we met in person last time."

The pink-haired girl stared at him, then turned to face the edge of the forest. When no one did anything, she spoke. "You are a dog, no? Track Sasuke and Ramen-boy."

Pakkun nodded. "Straight to the point, blunt. You're like Naruto and Sasuke described."

"Hn." Still, Sakura didn't look at the dog.

"Let's just make sure Kankurô doesn't get to Naruto and Sasuke first," Shikamaru suggested.

"Right!" The small dog leapt onto the boy's back.

:::

"There are multiple shinobi following us," Pakkun informed the small group. "We can fight them quicker and without a possible higher risk of one fighting alone."

"No," Sakura disagreed. "I will fight them, and then catch up."

"Sakura, I can hold them off for as long as possible. You'll work better with Sasuke and Naruto, because you've been training with them. You three can use team attacks. Go on without me."

When Sakura opened her mouth to tell him she didn't actually practice with her team because the two boys always fought with each other during team practices, Shikamaru interrupted her. "Go."

Finally, she nodded, and then allowed the dog to lead her away from the boy and closer to the fight.

"Well..." Shikamaru turned and faced the open line of trees. "This will certainly be troublesome."

:::

Sakura jumped off another tree branch and propelled herself forward, still silently.

"We'll be running into Kankurô soon," Pakkun informed the pink-haired girl, who merely grunted.

After a few minutes of traveling, Sakura spotted a figure in black in front of her. "Boy," she called out monotonously, causing him to turn and sneer.

"You again, huh? You just don't know when to stop. You already ruined part of the plan by making Temari unable to fight," he snarled, reaching for his puppets.

"Not so fast," another voice called out, raspy. "Why? Because you still owe me a match, Kankurô." Pakkun turned around to see a boy with a heavy winter coat coming to his nose standing above them.

"Bug-boy," Sakura greeted without turning. "It was very coincidental of you to show up. I will continue on my own way." Sakura and Pakkun sped by the puppet-master, who was too surprised to say or do anything.

"Nice work, Sakura," Pakkun said once they had gotten far enough. "It looks like Sasuke and Naruto are up ahead. Let's hurry up and meet them!"

"Hn." Sakura narrowed her eyes at the shouts she could hear. Orochimaru has commanded me not to do anything that my give my true position away. I will assist Konoha in the fight.

:::

Back in the village, a purple rectangular prismatic shield contained the Hōkage and his old mentee.

Hiruzen breathed heavily, attempting to minimize his movements so the sword through his abdomen wouldn't shift. In front of him was his student that had abandoned Konohagakure more than ten years ago.

"You fool—!" Orochimaru hissed at him, but couldn't do anything from the stone-like feeling setting into his arms.

"No," the third Hokage spoke, "you are the fool. You have placed a very heavy burden on a lost little girl. You don't know how much power she contains, Orochimaru." For a second, he saw his student as he looked fifteen years ago. It quickly turned back to the monster he knew in the present. "She can still be persuaded. Sakura has friends and a team. They treat her like family."

Suddenly, Orochimaru laughed. It was truly a horrific sound. When he was done, he spoke. "If you think that's what can save Experiment #528, you're surely mistaken. After all, I would have been like this even if my so-called family didn't pay attention to me. However, you did. You, Jiraiya, and Tsunade," he muttered. "You three failed at your job. And my prized experiment will follow my path!"

The last thing the third Hokage thought of was not his student as a young genin, but a smiling, pink-haired girl with green eyes. May the Will of Fire be passed onto her, so that she may realize the wrong of her master's evil ways.

The invasion has ended! Next chapter will explain what happened in the genin's side of the story.

What will happen next?

Who and when will retrieve the next Hokage?