Title: Bad Idea
Author: HarmonyRose
Claim: Sakura Haruno and Neji Hyuga
Theme: # 41 Rivals
Rating: T
Disclaimer: Do I have to write this? I'm pretty sure you all know I don't own Naruto since my name isn't on the credits.
Special thanks to Lady Kaliska for Beta'ing
Summary: Tenten knew having Sakura as her captain would end up disastrous.
Bad Idea
Tenten knew Sakura had fallen in love with her teammate, Neji Hyuga, but he was hers, and there was nothing Sakura Haruno could do about it. There were subtle signs of the medic-nin's affection. She would gaze longingly at him while she thought no one was looking and she was always the one to treat the stubborn male's wound in or out of the hospital.
Sure the pinkette used to be pretty enough. Her sea-foam green eyes used to glimmer emerald with the innocent sparkle of her naïve outlook on life. They were filled with life-giving hope that shone brightly in the midst of her former, broken gennin team. Her once sun-kissed skin and healthy rosy blush were gone now. They had been replaced with an almost unnatural pallor, gained from countless days spent tirelessly working in the hospital.
Her smile was faded now too. There were only two people in Konoha who could get the cherry-haired girl to crack a genuine smile nowadays. Even so, the smile was normally filled with melancholy and laced with regret. Besides, when the Brunette thought about it, Neji liked his women a bit more spunky than the docile cherry-blossom was. It was all because of one man though, the one that broke not only Sakura's heart, but her spirit as well. Sasuke Uchiha was that man. He left her a shell of what she once was, when he had betrayed Konoha. After the revenge bent Uchiha left, the only thing left glimmering in Sakura was her soulful viridian eyes shimmering from the unshed tears she refused to let fall.
Her fighting spirit seemed drained, almost like it hadn't ever been there at all. It hadn't been noticeable when Sasuke left the village on his own agenda. It was sometime after. Sakura appeared fine for a good while after. It wasn't until after a particular mission she had been assigned to find her lost teammate with Naruto and the replacements of team seven. After that mission her presence had gradually retreated into her strict hospital duties. The brunette woman hadn't ever found out what had gone wrong on that mission. She supposed her teammates probably knew, they were both close to the loudmouth blonde from Sakura's team and he would have surely told them. It was pathetic she didn't even stand a chance in the Weapon's mistress' opinion, Sakura would never be on Neji's radar, because she was too broken up about the past.
These thoughts left Tenten baffled as she gaped at the Hokage for assigning Sakura Haruno as the Jonin captain over both her and Neji Hyuga. Of course Tenten had known all three of them were the same rank but, really Sakura? She had nothing left in her except medical techniques.
Tenten laughed quietly to herself as she saw Sakura protest weakly about going on a mission at all. Who didn't want to go on a mission? Adrenaline was high and battles would be imminent.
"It will be good for you Sakura. You've been in the hospital for far too long," Tenten heard Tsunade answer the girl's protest.
"But as a captain Tsunade. Do I have to?" Sakura asked the question Tenten herself wanted to know.
"Sakura, you weren't trained to be just a medic. You are a Medic-Ninja, get used to responsibility over missions. Medic-Ninjas are trained to be clear-headed. You will do well as a leader," Tsunade silenced the pinkette's feeble protests.
The Jonin, now the Jonin captain, appeared to sigh as she listened wistfully to the details of the mission. It was a simple scouting mission, they really didn't need three shinobi to complete such a simple mission, just two Ninja would be fine. Besides Tenten had a bad feeling that with Sakura Haruno as acting captain something bad was going to happen.
The weapon's mistress was right. Something had felt wrong the entire mission and all three of the shinobi were tense, waiting for an ambush of some sort. Whoever was tracking them were obviously skilled ninjas, maybe foreign ANBU, if their silence and swiftness were any indication. The team from Konoha was moving rapidly through the lush canopy of the trees when their captain signaled them to stop with a quick motion of her hand. Jumping to the ground behind their captain, both former members of team Gai fell into formation behind her and waited for instructions.
"There are two ninja luckily we've battled them before. Your opponent's weak point is genjutsu, but don't expect that to beat them. You won't be able to, just get him to retreat," came the decisive, but quietly relayed instructions. "Don't get involved in my fight, no matter what you see or think," came a second set of quietly delivered directions, "I have some unfinished business to take care of."
Neji spoke up and inquired in a dead serious voice, "Who are we fighting?"
Speaking toward the general direction of the enemy shinobi Sakura called out, "You can come out and play Akatsuki."
Tenten thought quickly, the only member of Akatsuki she had ever fought before was that Shark-man Kisame and that meant Sakura would be facing…
Quick as lightening two cloaked figures appeared not more than fifteen feet away, "Kunoichi, we do not have time to fight insignificant medics like yourself, move out of our way and we will not hurt you or you team," the smaller figure of Itachi Uchiha spoke in a lilting, foreboding voice, that dared the listener to disobey him.
Sakura's eyes lit with something the weapon's mistress hadn't seen from the medic-nin in years, determination and confidence. They seeped through her aura, providing that same spirit for her comrades as she issued the challenge, "That's too bad Uchiha I've got a score to settle and a village full of precious people to protect."
The Konoha Ninjas leapt into battle, each sizing up their opponents before launching into a full-scale attack.
The brown-eyed Kunoichi jumped into the air with a slight burst of chakra, and launched her normal attack scroll of weapons toward the blue-skinned man. The speeding kunai and shuriken were stopped by the opponent's large, intimidating sword. He swung as if it were no more than a simple lightweight kunai. After launching a few more weapons at the man and Neji unsuccessfully attempting to get anywhere close to him to perform the Hyuga's gentle fist technique, Tenten was becoming increasingly worried. If the two them were only managing to distracted Kisame then what was happening to Sakura as she fought the genius of the Uchiha clan? The only thing keeping her from checking was the assuring sound of metal grating against metal.
Sakura waited for the Uchiha to make the first move. She knew it was foolish because it was unlikely he would start a fight he thought wasn't worth his time. He was a former ANBU captain and he had only become stronger since joining Akatsuki. She in his crimson, murderous eyes, was just a worthless medical-ninja. She would have to work hard to remedy that situation. She not only protected her village and Naruto, but also had a bit of revenge in mind. He had torn Sasuke's family from him and in doing so had torn Sasuke from her and the rest of the original team seven. Sakura vowed to herself, if she could just do a little bit of damage to the haughty male and send the Uchiha back to whatever hellish place he crawled out of, a minute amount of the pain the eldest Uchiha had caused to her heart would be repaid. She could perhaps finally break the last vestiges of love she had once felt for Sasuke. By choosing the village over her own pain and succeeding in what the youngest Uchiha hadn't been able to do, letting go of the past, she could break her longing for him and move on in with her life.
When the Uchiha still hadn't moved an inch she felt she had waited long enough, the Kunoichi diligently avoided the enticing crimson of her opponent's eyes…not that it would matter in the end. With a furious cry of a warrior, Sakura drove her fist into the ground. In the concealment of the dirt, rock, and grasses the earth shattering punch had strewn into the air the rosette woman drew out five kunai, added chakra to increase their speed and sent four flying rapidly toward the tall, raven haired Uchiha.
Disappearing instantly after the throw so she wouldn't become a target, the Jonin appeared near her opponent and began engaging in a ferocious Taijutsu battle. Itachi was quicker, but Sakura's chakra enhanced moves ensured he would need to stay on the defensive and dodge every well-aimed punch and kick thrown at him. Unfortunately Itachi had found this out for himself quickly after he tried to block a seemingly harmless kick from the Kunoichi. He ended up flying several feet back before recovering with a substitution jutsu, before he could hit the ground. The Kunoichi was also skilled enough to keep her eyes on his body's motions rather than looking at his face and risk getting trapped in his genjutsu.
"Why do you fight me Kunoichi? You know you cannot hope to kill me and I will eventually catch you in my genjutsu," Itachi asked coolly, dodging a quick swipe of her deadly right fist, merely curious on why she hadn't called backup or had taken the chance to run away yet.
"I'm not hoping to kill you Uchiha, all I want to do is loosen a bond I had with your brother. By choosing to protect my village instead of pointlessly trying to kill you, like I would have done if your traitorous brother were still around, I'm letting go of the past. I will drive you away from my village though, mark my words," the Kunoichi finished forcibly, resisting the urge to look into crimson eyes as she issued her challenge. It wouldn't be a good idea to reveal her trump yet.
The Uchiha was a fast learner and instead of evading the next punch, he grabbed onto the Kunoichi's wrist, unexpectedly he was met with a kunai in the woman's other hand. Using his lightening speed Itachi grabbed his own kunai and deflected hers with a resounding clang. Now having both the troublesome kunoichi's hands occupied he swiped her feet out from underneath her, ready to land on her, pin her, and trap the Kunoichi that he'd underestimated in Tsukuyomi. Sakura smirked as she began falling, leaving the prodigy suspicious, as the rosette's elbow hit the smooth ground underneath her, the ground ruptured, debris flying up. Letting go of his captive Itachi's unoccupied hands flew through a set of seals, allowing him to escape unscathed.
Scanning the area with his Sharingan, Itachi looked for the ninja that was beginning to cause a problem. To the left, he caught sight of her movement. She was much too close. He cast a genjutsu and jumped away using chakra to propel himself from the woman. The Kunoichi preformed a simple dispelling jutsu with one hand as she neared Itachi once again. He met her once again with a Kunai, "This looks a little familiar, eh Kunoichi," he raised a dark brow, she couldn't see. He grabbed her wrist again before she could comprehend the speed of his actions, tripped her once again with a swipe of his leg, twisting his body at the last second he landed on underneath the girl so she couldn't shatter the ground again. Quickly maneuvering her underneath the weight of his lanky body, he successfully pinned the nuisance to the ground. With one large hand Itachi kept the woman's arms pinned and tilted her face upwards to meet his eyes. Sakura knowing what he was attempting to do closed her eyes.
"Foolish Kunoichi, why avoid the inevitable? I think I know who you are now. You're the Hokage's apprentice and former teammate of my brother's and the copy ninja. I can see you've had some practice fighting Sharingan users. Its pointless girl, just give up," Itachi finished with a slight chuckle fully assured of his victory.
With the sound of the missing-nins amusement the Kunoichi's smirk that had been in place since the last attempted pinning, grew wider, "I wouldn't be so assured of your victory, Uchiha particularly since you know who my genin team leader was." Her emerald eyes snapped up to his, "I have a natural defense against crazy Uchiha's such as yourself."
By that time it was already too late, Itachi had entered her mind, where her crazy Inner personality waged her own war against the eldest Uchiha. In her subconscious Sakura could feel Itachi trying to release the technique, but failing to do so. Prying her hands out from the incapacitated Sharingan-users slackened grip and rolling out from underneath his loose body, the kunoichi stood up.
Eyes lit up brilliantly, complexion magically healthy again, and with an authentic smile, the Jonin Captain yelled to the debilitated missing-nin's partner, "Hey fish-face," the other battle stopped. The captain's teammates stared astonished at her, while the missing Kiri-ninja stared curiously at the sight and woman who managed to beat his powerful partner.
What kind of Ninja single-handedly wins a fight against one of their country's greatest threats and doesn't kill them? Kisame was puzzled by the woman's actions but figured he should listen to the girl. If he went to make a reach for his partner, the woman could possibly kill Itachi before he reached them. "Yes, doll-face?" Kisame answered her previous taunt with one of his own.
"Get your partner out of here, he won't be waking up for awhile. He's trapped in his own mind with a hellish vision of me," Sakura smirked inwardly at the prospect. She knew how vicious and annoying her inner self could be. Sakura stepped away from the body, allowing the giant shark man to get to his partner while her comrades looked on, confusion written all over their features.
Kisame lifted the prone form of the Uchiha up, slung him over his large, cloak-covered shoulder, and jumped into the safety of the trees above. Curiosity of the strange woman below compelled him to ask, "Why did you leave him alive, Kunoichi?"
"I had something to prove to myself. Beware I won't spare either of you should our paths cross again," resolve hardened her voice and the nuke-nin knew that there wouldn't be a second chance next time.
Using his large, almost limitless amount of chakra, Kisame disappeared with a transportation jutsu. As soon as Sakura was sure the Akatsuki were far enough away, she collapsed on the ground inhaling as much oxygen as she could possibly manage into her lungs. Her teammates withdrew from their hazy-eyed stupor and ran toward the horizontal form of their captain and quickly helped her to her feet. There was no discussion as they made their way back to Konoha. There was quite frankly nothing to talk about.
However, Tenten could clearly see the difference in the young woman she helped support. Her eyes were gleaming bright with emerald life. Her skin had the natural rosy blush it had lost in the past, and she looked as beautiful as her namesake, a cherry blossom of spring. The brunette female also saw something she didn't wish to see, a look of respect, admiration, and something she had never seen in her stoic, male teammate's gaze, interest.
It was then Tenten knew she would never compare or even hope to rival Sakura Haruno in Neji Hyuga's all seeing eyes. And the weapon's mistress could sum up her feelings in two words, she just wasn't allowed to say them to her captain.
Tenten knew having the rosette medical-ninja as captain was a bad idea.
Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed,
HarmonyRose