Down the Same Path

*3rd person pov*
"Well that went better than expected," Shikamaru said as they entered the Hokage's office. "Yeah, no kidding," sakura said. Hinata nodded, agreeing with them. Sakura turned to look at her sensei with a proud face. She had faced her past demons, the betrayal of them leaving still hurt but she faced them. She was finally strong enough to stand in front of them. "We did it and their reactions were better than what we expected, my lady," she bowed as the other two followed her moves. "I have a new mission for you three and the ANBU captain," at this Sakura and the others tensed. What mission needs the Captain of the ANBU. Is it that important. Tsunade continued seeing the confused expressions of the ANBU in front of her,"The village hidden in the sand is being under attacked by the Akatsuki and it is your job to gather information and put an end to this. The kazekage asked for my four top ninja and you and your squad along with the captain were chooses for this. Now do you accept?" Sakura, Shikamaru, and Hinata looked at each other and nodded yes. "Good, here is the scroll explaining more details, be at the gate in an hour. Dismissed," they all ran to the house they shared and packed their bags. Choji, who had entered the house, saw them packing and understood. "Good luck," he said to them as they put on their masks before going outside and leaped on the rooftops.  Naruto and the others were talking until they saw theee figures leaping onto rooftops. "Guys, do you see who they are?" He asked while pointing to the jumping figures. Itsuki, their captain, met them halfway through the gates while Naruto and the others stared. "I see pink hair," kakashi said and he realized who the three figures were. "It's Sakura, shikamaru, and Hinata sling with another ANBU." Ino scoffed and Karin crosses her arm,"I wonder what the weakling is up to," she said and Kiba nodded. Unaware to them the four ANBU quickly changed greetings and starting heading towards the gates. Sasuke saw the ANBU moving and quickly told Shino to place a bug on them. Shino nodded and did as told. Now they wait.
*2 day time skip*
"Come on were almost there," Itsuki said as the sand village was in sight. Sakura nodded and picked up her pace, hoping her friends were okay. Shikamaru kept a serious face on and Hinata was quiet. They were about to enter the village, but out of nowhere a bomb dropped in front of them. "Take cover," itsuki said as they all jumped to a safe place. The bomb went out taking part of the gate down and Sand Shinobi could be seen on the ground. Itsuki looked for Sakura and when he found her , he signaled her to heal the wounded. She nodded and quickly went to work. "Shadow start planning a strategy that can help us and Lily use your byakugan and scout out enemy shinobi. I'll take care of the ones on the next side of the gate," and with that their captain ran and gave his aid to the sand shinobi. Shikamaru was fighting two enemies who had cave to him while thinking of a plan at the same time. Hinata sported 10 coming towards them and quickly alerted Sakura. "Blossom 10 enemy shinobi are coming our way," Sakura nodded and quickly got into a battle stance next to Hinata. As the shinobi approached the girls ambushed them, and begins furious battle of Taijutsu. Hinata blocked the enemies' chakra points and Sakura used her chakra enhanced punched and kicks to knock out any shinobi that crossed her path. As they both took out the last one, their ANBU gear was ripped and stained with blood. "Shadow, Lily! Let's go help our captain," Sakura shouted and soon ran to the other side of the gate with Shikamaru and Hinata. When they arrived there was 30 enemy shinobi and only 20 sand shinobi. Their captain was nowhere to be seen. Giving no mind to their captain's disappearance, they all jumped into battle. Shikamaru caught 5 enemies with his shadows and had Hinata block their chakra points, and knocked them out. Sakura and the sand shinobi slowly took the numbers of the enemy down to 10. 'They're strong, gotta hand them that,' Sakura though as she was slowly tiring out. She saw her captain and grinned under her mask, but time seemed to slow down as he slowly fell to the ground, kunais impaled on his back. 'No! Captain!' She ran to his aid but was blocked by an enemy shinobi. She was tired and only had a little bit of chakra left. 'Come on just a little more,' she suddenly felt energized as if she had barely woken up from a good sleep. She punched with all her might and her punched went through the shinobi. She didn't pay attention to the black lines and blood on her arm and ran to her captain. The rest of the sand took out the enemy and slowly started surrounding the two ANBU on the floor. "Captain..captain, the mission is a success. Now wake up!," Sakura stated as some Sand shinobi and Shikamaru along with Hinata looked down paying respects to the ANBU captain. Shikamaru raised his head and looked at the heartbreaking scene in front of him. Sakura tried healing Itsuki but no matter what it didn't work. Just like her parents, she had been too late. She let her hands fall and heard a cough from the pale Itsuki. "S-sakura h-Haruno, you're n-now cap-captain. Do you give your whole life to the village?" Itsuki said trying not to stutter. Sakura looked at him and said ," Yes captain, I do." Itsuki slowly took of his mask and his black hair that cover his eyes was stained red with his blood. "Welcome Sakura Haruno to ANBU Captain Status,' and with that his eyes closed. Sakura slowly stood up, turned to the rest of the quiet shinobi along with her comrades, and slowly took of her mask. A tear slowly fell from her right eye, but her will of fire seemed to grow.