-Chapter 41-

The last bit of rope suddenly snapped, and just as it did, the group of kids cheered.

"That's everyone!" Sakura announced, looking around. "So what's the plan? How do we get outta here?"

"Well, you saw the door before you got taken, correct?" Shikamaru asked. When she nodded, he smiled. "The bottom isn't secured by boards. We can just kick it out."

"Perfect," she said. Then she paused, hearing yelling from outside. "Wait, who's that?"

One of the skinnier kids got up on another's shoulders, and when they peered out of the only holes in the shack, they gasped. "It's Director Tsunade! They've come to rescue us!"

This time, the kids cheered louder, several clapping and chattering amongst themselves.

"Let's get to work on that door then!" Ino announced. "Find a weak spot and roundhouse kick that sucker harder than a drunk pervert after Happy Hour!"

While a couple of kids gave her weird looks for that way-too-specific example, some of the stronger kids went to the door, trying to find anywhere to kick.

One of them actually slammed their foot into a spot in the middle, but to her dismay, it didn't even budge.

"Aim lower," Shikamaru advised. "I highly doubt they secured the bottom of the door."

She took his advise and kicked the bottom hard, and to their shared delight it cracked.

"Hell yeah!" Sakura crowed, getting in on it with a hard sweep of her own. It cracked a little more. "Let's kick this fucker down!"

Unfortunately, even though the kids took turns kicking, it didn't crack much more than it already had.

One of the bulkier kids, a kid named Shinji, decided to try body-slamming it. After the initial shouts of 'do it do it do it!', he backed up to the opposite wall, and, kicking backwards on the floor like a bull kicking up dirt, he sprinted at it like a linebacker, slamming into the door with the full force of his shoulder.

The bottom of the door exploded open, wood going everywhere.

"Let's move!" Shikamaru commanded, herding everyone out.

As soon as everyone was out of the shack, Sakura rounded the corner and saw Tsunade with a knife up to her neck.

Her eyes went wide at the sight, spotting a bit of blood on the wall in front of her. She quickly put two and two together and clenched her fists. A couple of kids gasped.

"What the hell is going on out here?" One of the bigger kids demanded. He smacked his hand into his palm. "Let's get 'em!"

She turned to the group of campers behind her. "Here's the plan: on the count of three, we bum-rush them and take 'em down. Alright?"

They all nodded. The smaller kids got ready to run, while a few of the bigger kids cracked their knuckles and got into a sprinter's stance.

Ino took her hand and squeezed it for a moment, and they shared a smirk.

Sakura took out a broken-off branch that she'd grabbed from the ground and counted. "One... two..."

...

"THREE!"

With thunderous war shrieks, the twenty or so kids ran at the fighting, causing them to whirl around in surprise.

Some kids jumped at the conscious enemies, others began kicking and punching Kabuto, who was stunned for a second as he watched them pour out.

"H-- how--?!" He sputtered before several angry girls descended upon him. One girl kicked him in the back of the knees, causing him to go down. One by one they began kicking him and stomping on his back and face, shouting at him the whole time.

"This is for seeing me in my underwear!" One younger girl shrieked, kicking him in the nose. His glasses went skittering across the ground, where a boy stomped on them, shattering them.

Ino and Sakura jumped at the cloaked man, who had resorted to letting go of Tsunade to defend himself. Ino latched onto his arm, shoving the fabric up and chomping down hard on his wrist.

He screamed in pain, dropping the knife he was holding. Sai swooped in and grabbed it, holding it with a random handkerchief he carried in his pocket.

Sakura managed to catch Tsunade against the wall when she slumped over. She ignored Ino's shrill screeching at the masked man about 'how dare you hurt my friends' and 'you have a lot of nerve daring to hurt Miss Tsunade' and asked her, "Are you okay, Auntie?"

Tsunade tried to smile at her, although the blood in her mouth stained her teeth a little pink. "I could be better," she admitted with a short laugh. She paused to snort and spit to the side, groaning. "I think he dislocated my nose."

"Help is coming, don't worry." She took out a napkin from her back pocket from when she'd gotten kidnapped and dabbed daintily at her nose with it.

Just then, one of the adults stepped in and put his full weight on the man, grabbing some rope from the kids to tie his hands behind his back.

"You're hereby detained under the order of... well, me!" He laughed. "Now let's see who you are underneath that mask."

"Ooh, is this a Scooby-Doo moment?!" Sakura exclaimed, turning to look. "I've gotta see this!"

Jiraiya flipped back the hood and ripped off the mask, revealing a pretty pale face and black hair that reached his shoulders. He was glaring at the white-haired man pretty fiercely, and his eyes glinted red in the light.

"Hey, he looks like Sasuke-kun!" One of the girls exclaimed.

Sakura frowned. "Hey, yeah, he does!"

Tsunade grunted, getting to her feet. She extended a hand to Jiraiya and helped him up by his good arm. The two of them leaned against each other as the adults hauled the conscious henchmen away.

"Thank you for helping us, kids," she gratefully said, giving them a smile.

Sai stepped forward and handed her the knife, giving her a sweet smile. "The would-be murder weapon," he said cheerfully.

She took it with a bit of a concerned look to Ino, who just shrugged in a 'what-can-you-do' fashion.

Tsunade noticed a bit of blood on the knife's edge -- her blood. She had to look away before she started to panic, instead handing it to Jiraiya.

At that moment, Gai burst through the cave, his laughter booming.

"I've brought company!" He announced as two young adults rushed out after him.

Jiraiya's eyes widened when he saw two familiar faces. "Obito! Rin! How long has it been?"

"Far too long, Gramps," Obito chuckled as he gave the man a side-hug. He looked around at the unconscious bodies on the ground and groaned. "Aw man, didja have to clean up the party before we got here? I was actually looking forward to a good ol'-fashioned mudslinging!"

"For your mother's sake, you should be glad you missed it," Rin, the pretty brunette at his side, retorted. She looked at Jiraiya with a worried grin. "Good to see you're still standing, Jiraiya."

"Excuse me, but I don't believe we've met before." Tsunade interjected, looking between them warily. "You are...?"

"Oh, sorry!" Obito chuckled, holding out a hand. "I'm Obito, and this is Rin. We're Kakashi's old buddies."

"We were here during Minato-sensei's time as director," Rin added, shaking her hand next. "It looks like you're keeping peace around here! Not much has changed in fifteen years."

"Speaking of not changing, where's the staff at?" Obito asked, looking at Sakura. "You've been here before, right? You're that girl that Naruto talked about? Could ya show us?"

"Course I can." She said, giving him a brisk nod. "My name's Sakura."

"Lead the way, Sakura." Rin smiled sweetly at her and elbowed Obito, who yelped in surprise.

"I've been meaning to ask, how's the medical life treating you?" He asked as Sakura led them into the cave. "You ready to come back home yet?"

"It's going great!" Rin beamed. "I don't think I'm ready to come back yet. I still have so much to do and so many people to help, you know? It's not my time yet."

"Well when you do decide to show your face around here again, lemme know so I can book a special Ichiraku visit for the five of us!" Jiraiya laughed. He turned to Tsunade, wiggling his eyebrows at her. "Or should I make that six?"

She groaned, but gave him a playful shove. "Don't count your chickens before they hatch, old man. I'll have to watch my schedule."

As they walked, Rin went ahead with Sakura and began talking with her.

"So, Sakura, how have you been enjoying camp?" She asked.

"It's okay, I guess." She shrugged loosely. "It was better before people started getting kidnapped, to be honest."

At this, Rin began laughing heartily. The conversation behind them lulled for a few moments, but when she pulled herself together, they kept talking.

"I guess this beats out a lot of experiences!" She agreed, holding out her hand. "I'm Rin Nohara. I was your teacher's friend when we were here."

Then it clicked. Sakura brightened up and shook her hand. "Oh, I remember you! Kakashi has mentioned you! It's cool to meet you in person finally."

"I hope he's had good things to say!" Rin giggled nervously.

"Don't worry, he hasn't said a bad thing about you." She gave the older woman a grin. "So you work in the medical field?"

Thankful that she changed the subject, Rin nodded. "Yes! I'm one of the head physicians over in Kusa. Are you interested in going into the medical field someday?"

"Are you kidding?" Sakura's eyebrows rose in disbelief. "I've been wanting to be a doctor ever since I was nine!"

"That's quite the decision to make at your age!" The brunette replied, surprised. "I didn't even know I wanted to be a doctor until I was eleven."

Sakura realized that they were coming to the end, and she pointed to the right. "The only other place they could be is through there. Karin mentioned seeing a couple of people talking in there, so they must be held there."

Obito nodded. "Makes sense. They didn't really seem that bright."

As they headed down the hall, Sakura grew more and more nervous.

"What if I'm wrong?" She thought desperately, glancing up at Obito and Rin's worried faces. "What if Kakashi-sensei and the others just disappeared? What if they got to them first?"

-line-

After a couple of minutes of silent, tense walking, they reached a corner. They turned to the right and came into a big circular room with stalagmites all around. Staff members were tied to them, some of them slumped over, others awake and talking quietly.

Rin gasped when she saw Kakashi. "Kakashi! Thank Kami, you're alive!"

His head whipped around quickly, eyes wide when she ran to him. "Rin?! You're here? But-- but how?"

"I gave her a call," Obito announced, strolling over with a terse grin. "How're ya doing, Kakashi? To stubborn to stay down as ever, I see."

He chuckled weakly as Rin ripped through the ropes with a knife from her pocket. As his arms were released, he crumpled to the ground and into her arms.

She checked him over in concern, calling over her shoulder, "Obito, Sakura, do me a solid and free everyone else!"

"On it!" Obito agreed, gesturing to the girl. "You have a knife on you?"

"I picked one up outside," she replied, pulling out the kunai knife.

"Ah, how much I missed seeing those dorky things," he chuckled as they went to the stalagmites.

They both worked quickly, cutting the ropes. They helped each counselor to the ground, but when they got to the ones with the bloody rocks Obito paused and frowned.

He held his fingers to their horribly bruised necks, waiting. After a few moments, he grit his teeth in anger. He clenched his fist and punched the rock.

"Dammit!" He hissed.

"What's wrong?" Sakura asked. As she looked up at them, though, her heart sank. "No. No, they can't be."

"Long dead," he confirmed, falling to his knees in anguish. "Possibly from strangulation. See those rope marks?"

She looked them over and found them, nodding in acknowledgement.

"What's wrong over there?" Rin asked, walking over.

"Two dead," Obito responded, looking up at her with a guilty frown. "Possible cause is strangulation."

Her face dropped as she inspected them.

After a few moments, she stepped back with a heavy sigh. "You may be right."

Sakura watched the man as he leaned into Rin's soothing hand on his shoulder. She could see a lot of Naruto in his face, especially as he looked up at her with those heartbroken eyes. She could tell that he cared -- probably a bit too much. Hell, even his face seemed like what an adult Naruto would grow up to look like.

She shivered, looking back at the dead counselor. "I wish Naruto and Sasuke were here."