When Leaves Change
I Naruto's Defeat
"Shut up!" shouted Naruto. Water droplets fell from his spiky blonde hair, and his breath briefly materialized in small grey puffs as he stood tall facing his enemy. The black and orange tunic that he wore was soaked from being in the weather. He clenched his teeth together in anger. The low light seemed to make the metal on his forehead protector glisten.
"I will never lose to someone like you!" he shouted. His determined voice echoed through the woods, only to be swallowed by the persistent dripping of raindrops into small puddles and onto the large leaves of the trees that surrounded them. Though there was no wind, grey clouds could be seen moving across the sky, and they blocked most of the sun's warmth.
"I will protect Konoha!" shouted Naruto defiantly as he reached into his wet utility pouch and retrieved a long, sharp kunai. As he held it up preparing to fight his enemy, small droplets of water gathered on its dark metal surface and eventually dropped off its sharp end. Though he watched his opponent carefully, every passing moment found him more and more anxious to strike. His bright blue eyes hardly blinked, and the stripes on his face seemed to grow larger and darker as he stared down his opponent.
"I will never forgive you…" he said in a lower and more deliberate tone. His opponent laughed as she looked at the anger of the leaf shinobi. She stood in a taunting pose as the rain continued to fall from the skies. Her boot-clad foot landed in a small puddle as she stepped slowly toward Naruto. The water rippled around it as if it were trying to flee from the presence of a terrible enemy. The ambient light seemed to shine on her forehead protector, illuminating the scratched out symbol for the hidden village of Konoha. She pulled her black gloves tighter around her hands and pulled a stray lock of pink hair behind her ear.
"Sakura-chan!" shouted Naruto. As he uttered the familiar name of his opponent, she smiled.
"Naruto…" said Sakura softly. "You are so naïve!" Her voice was soft and smooth, but Naruto found no comfort in her tone. Rather he stepped cautiously, realizing that any direct hit he took from his powerful enemy could be lethal. Her chakra training under the fifth Hokage had augmented her natural talent tremendously, and he had seen her demolish buildings with a single punch. More than this however, Naruto had a visual reminder of the danger right before him. Her black robe was drenched, but it was not only from the rain. It was covered in the blood of Leaf shinobi that she had slaughtered. Terrifying splotches surrounded the familiar red cloud design that appeared on her Akatsuki attire.
"There is nothing naïve about being loyal!" shouted Naruto. "I will stop you!"
"With what?" taunted Sakura.
"Kage bunshin no jutsu!" shouted Naruto as a dozen shadow clones materialized before him. His clones dashed toward Sakura with tremendous speed pointing their weapons toward her. In less than a second they had closed the distance between themselves and Sakura and began wildly slashing and lunging. She effortlessly dodged their attacks and countered with hits of her own. The shadow clones made a distinct air puffing noise as they vanished away revealing that Sakura had successfully avoided all of Naruto's attacks.
"You cannot stop me…" said Sakura coolly as she continued to approach the blonde ninja.
"Taju kage bunshin no jutsu!" shouted Naruto as hundreds of clones appeared all around Sakura.
"The number will not change the result…" said Sakura as they began pouring down on her like the rain from the clouds above. The faster they attacked, the quicker Sakura seemed to dance around as she seamlessly dispelled shadow clone after shadow clone in a flurry of motion.
"Rasengan!" shouted Naruto as he dove into the pile hoping to strike her while she was preoccupied. The constant puffing sound of his clones being vaporized grew louder as he fell toward the center of the action. Sakura was punching and kicking so powerfully that she was destroying dozens of clones with each of her attacks. Naruto tried to suppress the growing terror in his heart as he neared his opponent. At last he saw an opening and leapt with tremendous speed toward Sakura. His powerful attack connected with her and threw her and dozens of clones backward. She skidded across the muddy ground until colliding into the thick trunk of a tree and slouching over completely unconscious. Suddenly, she puffed away revealing a log in her own place.
"A replacement technique?" whispered Naruto in confusion. Suddenly he felt a tremendous pain in his back and felt himself flying through the air. Sakura rushed underneath him as he flew in between tree trunks. Using her speed, she moved to Naruto's projected landing place and punched the ground causing a large amount of hard earth and rocks to fly up and collide with the flying Leaf ninja.
"I defeated the Fifth Hokage!" said Sakura. "The strongest of Konoha… and you thought you could defeat me with these cheap tricks?!?" She pulled Naruto up by his black collar and held him above her triumphantly.
"Why have you done this Sakura?" whispered Naruto as he struggled to maintain consciousness. "Why would you be a part of Akatsuki?" His question seemed to catch Sakura off guard. She paused as she saw a small amount of blood trickle out of Naruto's mouth and drip onto her dark robe.
"To see what I was capable of…" she said slowly. "Good bye… Naruto-kun…" She tossed him into the air and threw a tremendous punch that landed squarely in the center of his chest and sent him flying into the air out of Sakura's vision. She smiled and wiped her hands off as the rain continued falling all around her.