Thanks for waiting everyone! chapter two up now 3
'Breath Sakura...Breath' I reminded myself as I pumped small amounts of chakra through my body, making sure to keep a steady pace. Stumbling briefly I maneuvered to a clearer path trying my best to stay steady in my strides as my untrained body started to feel numb from the fast paced sprint through the Forrest. Feeling a sheen of sweat on my temple I was aware that my body no longer felt like 'my' body.
My chakra had barely been tapped, my muscles untrained and my scrawny childish physic was more then unthreatening... It was downright laughable to any ninja. The more I ran the more I swore at how inadequate I felt. 'Argh Sakura, move goddamn it!' Frustration was rising and all I wanted to do was punch a big enough hole in the ground to jump in and be over with it all! So many questions were running through my head and I needed time to think this all through.
I needed a plan.
High jumping over a low hanging branch I sensed another chakra in close pursuit, their familiar presence one that sent chills down my spine and lethal amounts of what little chakra I had left straight into my fists.
Sasuke Uchiha.
I knew what was coming and there was no escape. Even at the tender age of twelve he was relentless.
If there was one thing I learnt from Sasuke it was that an avenger doesn't stop pursuing. So I stopped. Dead in my tracks. I stopped, caught my breath, shut my eyes and turned towards a man and now a boy who I had loved, hated and if needed.. Would have killed for.
"Sakura" He said like he had been there the whole time. Not trying to catch his breath, not scared or uncertain. He looked as though he was exactly where he should be and I was the one intruding. Sasuke had always had a way of doing that.
I gave him a small nod in acknowledgment, not ready yet to say his name out loud.
"We are going" He said deadpan "now." Not a question or even a demand. He was nonchalant towards me even here with me standing half naked in front of him covered in sweat, hair wild and eyes ablaze. To him I was a common house hold cat.
I shut my eyes again briefly and steadied myself, sinking into my body again. "Go back." I said with a calm I didn't feel on the inside watching his eyes light up with a flash of rage. 'Now that was the Sasuke I knew.'
"We are going now wether you like it or not" He said a little more deliberately this time taking a few steps towards me.
"Don't. Touch. Me." I said, my voice becoming a whisper but with so much venom I almost saw a small eyebrow raise. He took another step while he slipped his hands into his pockets and gave a slightly irked look. "Sakura" He said in a voice like velvet as he moved towards me. "We're going." He waited with an outreached hand.
It was an offer.
A non violent option that I was meant to choose when I came to my senses. He's eyes were strong with conviction, his hand steady waiting for mine but something started to boil, just under the skin... It happened so fast I barely had time to steady myself for the onslaught of memories that flooded my mind. Gripping my head and squeezing my eyes closed I felt my knees almost give out under the unseen enemies that were memories of the past. Of him, the war, the deaths of my comrades and friends. There was so much pain, so much anger, genjutsu or not this person had hurt me, my friends and my entire village.
I was suddenly shaking, moving my hands to ball them up on the side of my pink frilly shorts I lowered my head and allowed my now long hair to curtain my face from view. I sensed Sasuke relax somewhat thinking perhaps that I had finally realized my mistakes as he moved closer now, he assumed of course that I felt a sense of remorse or understanding of the situation.
He assumed wrong.
This time when he extended his hand a little further to me I did take his offer. With a chakra infused hand I grabbed his right wrist and swung him with so much force that the tree he hit cracked and caved slightly under the pressure. Hearing a wheezing breath from his reluctant and now winded body I didn't let go, with my left hand I kept his pinned to the tree with chakra, with my right I grabbed his throat and lifted him off the ground just enough that he had to use his other hand to support himself.
I kept close, so that he couldn't make a move without me feeling it and keeping my gaze locked on his only inches away from his face.
His eyes were as I remembered them, strong, hard and full of rage though the pain was not totally hidden either. How our roles had finally reversed.
I felt power. Even as I stood there with almost no chakra, I was in control. I had the experience and I was no longer watching from the sidelines. I could almost feel a smirk at the corner of my lips.. Almost.
I could have killed him then, crushed his windpipe, slit his throat and felt the life drain from him, just like many others. I looked at the boy in front of me again. He was angry, slightly panicked but mostly he was shocked. While his expression almost made me laugh it was that ridiculous! Sasuke Uchiha shocked? Because of me?!
And it was truly sobering, for in that moment I realized this was not the man that had caused me all the pain I felt, this was a boy that had lost everything and hatred is what gave him his will to keep going.
I truly pitied him in that moment.
As fast as I'd grabbed him I let him go and watched Sasuke slip to his hands and knees to catch his breath briefly before looking up at me like I was genuinely someone he wanted dead. Taking advantage of his shocked state with speed I wasn't even sure I was capable of in this state, I grabbed his hair in one hand pushing his face towards the ground and with the other pushed two fingers full of medical chakra between to vertebra at the top of his neck.
I'd just disconnected Uchiha Sasuke's chakra and he was not going to be happy when he realized.
Hatred, something Sasuke was familiar with, even felt comfortable with when indulging in the feeling was now seeping through every pore. It was almost second nature to let the consuming emotion drive his body forward and this time was no different. To think that this small frail girl he'd known his whole childhood could catch him of guard made his hands shake and his teeth grit. 'How dear she..' His eyes blazed and hands dug into the dirt with such force he could feel the skin tearing on his finger tips. Without a second thought Sasuke automatically reached for a kunai but by the time he stood spinning around his most useless teammate was gone and she had taken away his ability to do anything about it.
The fact that her eyes reflected something he didn't expect to see in her caught him more off guard then he'd ever admit but he would not forgive her for this, nor forget what had passed this day.
With one last look at the empty Forrest in front of him Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he turned to head back towards the others and a very weary Kakashi.
I was numb. I no longer felt the burn in my muscles or chest when I inhaled, it almost felt like I was in a trance as I ran through the darkening Forrest. My mind was buzzing with recent events, Sasuke, Naruto. The likely hood of this being a genjutsu was close to non by this point but that fact helped very little right now. My body was frail, untrained, my chakra reserves low and my alertness fading. I knew I'd have to stop and break at some point but while running, my worries seemed further away. Like all that mattered was the next step I took and nothing else. Jumping through a particularly thick area of greenery it almost felt like any other day in Konoha, though I knew that wouldn't ring true for much longer it still comforted me somewhat in all this confusion.
'Soon I'll hit the border between the Land of Rivers and the Land of Wind, so if I'm going to break before I hit the border it will have to be now while the canopy is still thick.' I thought to myself jumping from one branch to the next, dropping down beside one of the larger trees on my hands and knees. I felt my limbs shaking with fatigue the second I stopped moving and the chakra exhaustion came next, hitting me like a ton of bricks. I knew this would not be an easy journey but I never imagined I'd have so much trouble. The situation was not ideal be any means and in the next three hours the temperature would drop to a point that if I could not keep myself warm with chakra or find a place for shelter, I would die.
I hadn't felt so vulnerable and week physically in a long time.
Id worked so hard to become strong, strong enough that only a few could rival my strength in battle. My medical abilities were unmatched and yet here I sat shaking, smaller then Iv ever felt and more uncertain. No doubt in my mind this body had been starving it self since I almost felt my muscles being eaten away for crucial energy after my fast pace escape. Shakily moving my back against the tree trunk and crossing my legs I ran threw my earliest chakra control exercises I learnt from Tsunade Sensei. They were not the most advanced by any means but while I had to keep an alertness to my soundings they would have to do.
I spent an hour meditating, running chakra through every inch of my being while stretching my chakra coils to there current limit as I went. It wasn't a pleasant feeling by any means but would make a world of difference to my endurance since I was not physically in good form.
When it appeared like I had done all I could with my chakra exercises, it seemed as good a time as anytime to make my next move. My body while not in great condition would be able to keep a steady pace for a few hours more, long enough to find shelter or clothing I hoped. I knew sitting here was becoming increasingly dangerous as the sun started to fall, and It appeared that I couldn't have been more right.
I sensed three chunin level chakras heading towards me from either side not a moment after I had started to stand and make my way along a branch, masking my chakra down as best I could and moving slowly to a more hidden part of the branch I now perched on, I slowed my breaths in wait.
Where there was a small open clearing in the thick Forrest below, there was now three ninja, all looking stiff but non looking ready to fight and I knew immediately why. The headbands they wore I recognized as fast as I'd recognize my own, two from the Hidden Sand village and one From the Hidden Sound village Orochimaru had created. I found myself barely listened as my mind deducted the situation, it was exactly around this time that Orochimaru infiltrated the Sand village and Killed the Kazekage to take his place.
Now this situation was one that would undoubtably lead to bloody confrontation if I did not slip away now. Sliding back towards the trunk of the tree with extreme precision and stealth I moved around the body of the tree as quietly and swiftly as I could where I caught myself in a rather bad predicament.
At some point Id let my guard down and senses fall for a fourth ninja had moved only meters away from me and lay in wait for his partner as he masked his presents and chakra. The minute we locked eyes from our positions in the canopy above I deducted I had exactly two seconds to get a head start on this soon to be flight or fight.
My mind ran a hundred miles an hour.
The sakura I was in now was innocent, as innocent as a shinobi to be could be. Never having spilt blood or lost a loved one, she'd never felt the true burden of having ones hands stained with death or not having the strength to save someone.
I wasn't afraid of dying or pain, the worst kind of pain, the pain of losing the ones you love was something I'd been experiencing for years now, so what harm could these chunin really do to me that I already hadn't felt. I didn't sense the others moving towards us yet meaning I may just have a chance at getting away if I played my cards right.
Which meant that this shinobi had picked the wrong fight.
When he finally lunged at me after what felt like an eternity, I stood and faced him square on. His hand was raised with a kunai and eyes blazed with killing intent, no mercy for the young girl he was about to kill just the simple pleasure of death I'm sure, like so many other's I had met. A split second before his body came crashing into mine, I threw my arm out and caught his throat in midair, forcing him to let go of his weapon and grab my arm to support his dangling body. In the same second I squeezed, I knew the exact amount of chakra it would take to crush his throat and break his spine. I made myself watch the life fade from his eyes, its horrible, but it was necessary.
A split second later I felt the three ninja below us spike their chakra ready for pursue. My heart was racing as I took one last second to soak in the shinobi I had just killed before I dropped the Sound ninja like a sack of rice and pushed a steady stream of chakra to the soles of my feet.
I knew now even like I was, my chakra control would be almost second to non. I pushed through the thickest parts of the canopy knowing my small body could fit through places theirs would not. Jumping from smaller to smaller branches I could almost feel them breathing down my neck. I just hoped I was giving myself enough space and time to figure out a plan.
Kunai where flying at me from every angle as I spun through the air, Shuriken came next. It was a weapon onslaught and my body couldn't keep up. My arms and legs where covered in cuts and gashes, what little clothing I had on was now in shreds and barely hanging on. Streams of blood were dripped from my arms to my legs making me look like nothing more then wounded prey. I could feel them moving closer and closer, so close that they could have reached out and grabbed me!
Why they didn't I wasn't to sure but I wasn't ready to give them a second chance to find out.
Seeing a thick area of scrubs and thorns ahead where the canopy thinned l dropped down as I pushed and maneuvered my way through the dense greenery hearing the slash of kunai against vines and branches not a second behind. I felt thrones tearing at my already turn skin further and my hair getting pulled in every direction when I saw a glimmer of light just ahead, pushing through with even more charka I felt I might just be able to buy myself some time if I could just break out before them. The scraps of clothing were becoming less and less as I tried to slice through the thick branches with my chakra scalpels, I pushed what felt like everything I had into my fists using brute force now to make a way out for my small body in desperation.
When I finally broke through the last branch I came flying out hands first into a small open clearing... I was already thinking of my next move, ready for action.. But not for this.
Everything seemed to stop.
Like time itself had frozen and the only thing moving now was the slow spinning of tomoe in Itachi Uchiha's sharingan.
Before I knew I was doing it, I found myself on one knee with my head down. I almost wanted to scream at myself before I heard the thud of the ninja behind me that was just hit in the heart with the kunai that was amid at my head. when I looked up from my position I noticed Kisame perched not to far from where Itachi leaned relaxed against a sturdy tree and I knew that the next words out of my mouth may just be my last so I had better make them count.