Otokage

June

Day 13

A hawk tumbled through the window of the Otokage's office and crashed into Sakura's desk. It soon popped up, ruffled feathers and all, and offered the note on its leg.

Haruno-sama,

A large portion of our people have been poisoned after being invaded by shinobi, and our doctors are not any closer to finding an antidote. It isn't doing considerable damage to their bodies, but it's sending them into comatose states and has begun the process of very slowly shutting down each of their systems. It has come to my knowledge that your village has some very talented medical shinobi. Please, lend us your help.

Takumi Village Head, Agano Koji

Kabuto scratched the back of his head.

"I... don't think we have anyone to spare at the moment. We've had a recent surge of missions and most of our shinobi are busy. If they're not busy, they're not qualified," he said. Sakura frowned. She gave her word to their leader that she'd help them whenever they asked of it. After all Takumi had done for her and for the village, it gave her an even greater reason to not refuse. She wasn't about to let them down.

"I was able to decode Sasori's poison once," she mentioned. Kabuto crossed his arms.

"You can't go alone."

"I know that."

Kabuto would go, but these were active times. Someone had to stay behind and approve all missions requested and document all the mission reports that seemed to flow into the office by the hour. Kisame couldn't go along with her either. He was one of their strongest assets, and with most shinobi out of the village, he needed to be here to insure that Oto wouldn't be at a loss if someone decided to attack.

"Sakura-sama, might I make a suggestion?"

Day 14

"I'm sorry for troubling you with this, you know, not being an Otogakure shinobi and all."

"It's fine, hm. I was getting bored anyways."

Deidara was the best bet she had. All she needed was someone to go with her just in case there was an instance of coming across rogues or hunter-nin. Once they arrived, she would find an antidote, make sure that all affected shinobi were in stable condition, then return to Otogakure quick and simple. No delays. Soon, the two of them came to a fork in the road. Sakura made a step towards the right side.

"What are you doing, un?"

She spun around on her heel. "Um... going to River Country?"

"It'll take longer down that path. Going down the left side will take us right through Fire and cut us about two days of travel, hm," he said. Sakura bit her lip and considered her options. Going through Fire would run her a far greater chance of being seen by Konoha shinobi, leading her to a high risk of getting captured. But if she went the other way and wasted those two days, the poison would be talking more lives and she would be the one at fault. With Deidara at her side, she supposed that he would help her out if worse comes to worst.

"You're right. Let's head that way."

Their travels were made mostly in silence, and it was really starting to get to Sakura. It was hours into their journey and Deidara had kept that same bored face the entire time. He wasn't particularly bothered at anything, and when they took breaks, he spent that time molding small sculptures with his clay. At nightfall, they sat in silence on opposite sides of the campfire. Sakura cleared her throat.