"I'll try and get the memory from Slughorn, sir." I paused in my footsteps towards my common room. What was that I just heard? Turning around, I headed towards the source. Closing my eyes, I took one step, another step, and another and….crack. Wincing, I looked up to see a hideous gargoyle leering at me.
"You don't get any closer sonny!" It squawked. "Unless you know the password we're not going to let you in!" Another one on my right cackled. I glared at them to no avail.
"I guess I'll just have to listen then." I whispered, and concentrated chakra into my ears. Immediately the voices inside multiplied by volume.
"Very well, Harry. I'll see that next time you will have the memory?" It was Dumbledore's voice.
"Yes, sir." Harry answered. He sounded ashamed of himself. Wait a minute…memory from Slughorn…that rung a bell…oh no! I clutched my head and started to pace around the talking gargoyles, which looked at me bewilderedly at my actions.
Sakura might've gotten the memory already! But with so many parties he has this week, plus constant detentions to cover she wouldn't have a chance this week, or the last one. This week there were no parties, no detentions, and Hagrid's giant spider that was blind, Aragog, had died and Slughorn was going to visit him so that meant…she was going to do it today!
Before I could shout out any of my thoughts the door behind me creaked open, and I shot upward and attached myself on the ceiling.
Harry came stumbling out. "Oh god, what am I going to do?" He said to himself. Then, it was as if a light had appeared on his head.
"I've got it!" He whispered hoarsely to himself. "I've got to tell Ron and Hermione!"
Harry turned a corner and disappeared. Crawling along the ceiling, I scuttled like a spider after him.
"Password, Harry?" The fat lady asked. "I…uh…" Harry scratched his head. I hopped down from the ceiling.
"It's Monokuro, Harry. Japanese password just for us." I said. Harry gave a start and turned to look at me.
"You gave me a heart attack, Sasuke!" He said, looking flustered. I smirked and walked into the dorm.
"Excuse me, Sasuke." Harry said, and pushed past me. I watched him as he motioned to Ron and Hermione to come over and talk to him.
Concentrating chakra into my ears, I pretended to read in my red chintz armchair as they muttered and whispered behind me. Their voices automatically doubled in volume as chakra began running through my eardrums.
"I nicked some Felix Felicis from Slughorn. Here, look." Harry fished around in his pocket, and pulled out a tiny bottle filled to the brim with the golden potion.
"What are you going to do with it?" Ron asked, fingering the bottle. Harry looked thoughtful for a minute.
"I'm going to take a few drops of it and get the memory from Slughorn." Harry said. "When are you going to take it?" Hermione asked.
"Tomorrow night."
"I know you'll think this is crazy, but we've got to stop Sakura from taking that important memory!" I growled, pacing up and down the dorm after everyone went to bed.
"Since you keep insisting about it, fine, Sasuke. I'll come." Naruto said. Hyuuga glared at me for a second, and nodded.
"Get dressed, and bring your weapons. I have a feeling that this is not going to be an easy battle." I said, and looked out the window. A white dove flew past it and into the castle. It had emerald eyes.
I yanked out a kunai. Holding up two fingers, I made a signal to head inside Slughorn's office. They both nodded, and ran inside. I could hear their footsteps go tap, tap, tap across the rubble floor.
Suddenly, I heard them gasp, and the clinking sound of kunai echoed in the room. I ran inside, and what I saw made me clench my teeth.
"Oh, I have one more visitor tonight." Sakura said in her bittersweet voice of poison.
"Give it up, Sakura. It's three against one." I snarled, and swung out my katana. The serrated blade glinted in the moonlight shining in from the window.
"Is that so?" Sakura retorted, and laughed a high, clear laugh that sounded like the tinkling of wind chimes and bells.
"It doesn't really matter. A hundred of you good-for-nothings can't stand against me. Zero multiplied by any number is always zero, you know." Sakura whispered. Her pink lips curved upward in a half-smirk.
"That's enough!" I growled. "I'll end this once and for all. This battle shall be your last."
"I don't think so, Uchiha-kun."
All of a sudden, a crackling noise filled the room and a blue light shone around Sakura's fingers. My katana started to slip away from my fingers.
I made to grab it, but my sword was sucked into Sakura's grasp. Naruto's blade was also sucked away.
"What is this?" Hyuuga asked, his voice shaking.
"I might as well explain to you, Neji-kun, Naruto-kun, and Uchiha-kun." Sakura smirked widely.
"This is my kekkei genkai. Did you always think the Haruno Clan was made of weaklings, not worthy enough to mention before the presence of the Hyuuga and the Uchiha?" Sakura's eyes narrowed and her eyes turned a malicious acid-green. Instantly, my spine tingled with fear.
"Actually, I have three kekkei genkais all rolled into one within my blood. Two from my father, and one from my mother." Sakura started to examine me and Naruto's swords. After a minute of silence, she tossed them away to a far corner.
"Wonderful, isn't it? I think its even more powerful then that stupid sharingan." Sakura looked up and smiled as if she had just gotten a sack-load of her favorite candy.
Naruto started to tremble. I started to count. 1…2…3…the dobe exploded.
"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS, SAKURA-CHAN? WHY?" Tears dripped down his face.
"I trusted you…believed in you…why are you doing this? You're not evil…you aren't!" He shook his head as if trying to deny that Sakura was evil.
Sakura smiled. "Why couldn't I be evil, Naruto?" She put on a mock-innocent voice that had once belonged to her.
Then, her voice changed and her face wrenched up into a terrible snarl.
"My life is my own, and so are my choices!"
Naruto gave a wail and collapsed onto the ground. Sakura sunk into a fighting stance that I had never seen before, and large amounts of fire appeared on her palms.
"No…no!" Hyuuga shouted, and yanked Naruto away to safety as Sakura let out two massive fireballs from her fingertips. I saw Naruto's eyes widen a fraction, and I knew what he was thinking; Sakura really meant to kill us.
Hyuuga rolled on the ground, and Naruto was thrown onto the cold stone floor. I rushed to help him up. To my left, Hyuuga got up and charged at Sakura with his jyuuken.
Before I could reach him, Naruto's arm flung out as if to stop me. "No…" Naruto said, his eyes stared blankly at the ground.
"She's not Sakura anymore!" I shouted. "Don't you see she doesn't care, that she wants your blood spilled?!" I made one more attempt to get him up, but Naruto slapped my hand away.
"I don't want to fight. I don't…I don't…" His eyes no longer carried the playful glint; they were buried deep within the sadness and sorrow Sakura had created in him. Naruto was already defeated.
Behind me, Hyuuga was fighting a lost battle. He was fighting with Naruto's katana, and Sakura wasn't using anything.
"Why - are - you - doing - this?!" Hyuuga snarled when his sword clashed against the back of Sakura's glove, which was covered with a steel metal protector.
"Wouldn't you like to know, Neji-kun?" She hissed, and thrust Hyuuga back with one of her insane-strength blows. While he was stumbling back, she dealt a series of swift punches to his stomach, and for the final touch sent him flying backward into the office wall with a chakra filled roundhouse kick.
My tired eyes swept across the room, and my gaze fell upon my huge discarded katana. I grabbed it, and leapt into battle.
"You'll regret that, Sakura!" I said, swinging my sword at her. She ducked, and opened her mouth to let out a huge storm of poison gas which engulfed me head on. Holding my breath, I jumped out of the cloud of death and burned it up with my katon: goukakyuu no jutsu.
In the purified steam, I stood back and looked around for her. Suddenly without warning, Sakura lunged at me with four senbon and whipped out a flute.
Sakura lashed out with her flute. Expecting the familiar clanging noise of metal, I swung as hard as I could. I shouted a battle cry, but to my surprise Sakura smirked.
Hyuuga stared in shock as Sakura's long, elaborately decorated flute sliced right through my steel sword.
Everything seemed to act in slow motion. Her flute made no noise as it ran through my katana, and the top half of my trusted weapon fell off and clattered on the ground for what seemed like an eternity. Just when I was about to look up, Sakura did a lightning roundhouse kick to my jaw with her spiked heel, and before I could recover she stabbed me with a senbon in my arm and brought down her flute on my head, sucessfully cracking my head open.
I collided with the wall and slid down. A white hot pain spread from the top of my head to my forehead. Sakura had cracked my skull.
Before Hyuuga could recover, Sakura disappeared from her spot, appeared in front of him, punched him in the stomach, grabbed his arms and swung him around, and when she let go, he went through another wall and toppled out of sight over the railing of the corridor. Blood rained on the ground in nightmarish splashes as Hyuuga disappeared out of sight.
Blinking my eyes groggily, I saw Sakura leering down at me.
"Well, how does it feel being defeated by the weakest member of team 7?"
Sakura spat out the last few words as though it was crap in her mouth.
I stayed silent. Sakura extracted her claws and bent down to whisper in my ear, "This is a reward for surviving. On the last day of school, I will attack. Be prepared, or I won't be able to have any fun."
Without warning, she stabbed me with another senbon in the gut and pulled it downward. I screamed through gritted teeth. Satisfied, Sakura yanked it back out.
Amazingly, Slughorn was still asleep. As if reading my mind, Sakura said with her back to me, "I put a spell around this place. He and the others never heard anything."
She placed a slender finger on the side of his head and drew back. A string of a slivery blue substance that looked like solid, yet not solid liquid followed her finger out of Slughorn's head.
Sakura placed it in a small vial made of diamond and placed her hand over it. But before I could see what she was going to do, the ground rushed up to meet me very quickly.
