Ruined Chapter 3: Falling Petals

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Sakura's POV

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I trudged my way to Suna intimidating any who were unfortunate enough to cross my path. Even Naruto dared not cross me.

i"Hey! Sakura-chan, do you want t—"

-Glare-

"Eh . . . never mind . . ." he backed away slowly, palms fowared in a sign of surrender.

"Baka."/i

I had stormed off, inflicting the same amount of fear in the two unlucky jounin guarding the gate.

And so began my very, ivery/i long day. . . In my earlier haste/adrenaline rush, I had no time to be weary, but now it stuck me head-on. Had I not been so pissy or exhausted, things may have gone better . . . maybe.

First, the tent was broken. Some might say say iI/i bbroke/b it. Some might say attempting to remove it from its case by use of a paper bomb was a bit much. . . I, however, believe that fault belongs to the tent and the tent alone. No simple cloth shelter should have the right to be so impossible to unpack. So I unpacked it . . . with explosives. Luckily, I was able to pull together enough charred shreds of fabric to cover some ground. Thanks to a smashed tree, I could create a makeshift tent. [[I'll let you guess what happened to that tree. . . ]]

The seemingly endless hell of that first night dragged on (the fire wouldn't start) . . . and on (an animal stole half of my dinner) . . . and on (I fell asleep only to have nightmares) . . . and on (it started to rain). . . So let's bypass my impressive display of vocabulary that followed each incident and skip ahead to the next day, shall we?

I never really "rose" that next morning. More like sat up. --Yeah, lets go with that.-- I sat up to see cherry blossoms floating down around me in a soft breeze. It was as if in my lack of dreaming last night, my imagination was making up for it now. . . My lids felt heavy, but I thought nothing of it – after all, I hadn't slept in 30 some-odd hours. As I watched the blossoms float and twirl and dance upon the tiny platforms of wind that carried them, I wished for nothing more than this not to be a dream. . . iWait, what?!/i My mind began to clear and I realized that in a swift moment of intuition (or more probably, sleep-deprived instinct), I had detected the weak genjutsu.

Because of my anxiousness I had been letting chakra flow recklessly through me. Thus, the genjustu had effect; I would need only to stop chakra flow to break it and escape . . . but this was so weak I wagered I could pinpoint the shinobi using it with closed eyes. Plus, in my exasperated and keyed up state, there was nothing better for my frustration than a fight.

Though my expression remained placid and sleepy, the gears in my head were turning faster than the cherry blossoms. iIf I can gather enough chakra, then block it, I might be able to get a glimpse of the attacker and let a jutsu fly to mark them. But if they have any skill at all, they'd notice the massive increase in chakra taking place. . . Then again, judging by the strength of this illusion, I'm willing to bet it's a kid straight from the Academy thinking bringing me down will earn them extra points. . . i*Sigh* Stupid kids. . ./i One thing I knew for certain, though, was that I could not risk staying immobile for much longer. Especially if I was wrong.

I yawned for effect, but found myself still fighting the urge to sleep. I closed my eyes to help focus my chakra and detected something I had not before – the presence of the other shinobi became painfully obvious to me. And along with it, their chakra. I nearly hesitated in my act from surprise. iNo, not again! Why won't he leave me alone?!/i The blue I sensed was all too familiar; the trademark of an Uchiha. And though it would have been fun to toy with him some more, I had no patience for the idiot right now. iDammit! FOCUS MORON, FOCUS! . . . He must have laid the weak trap in order to make me feel as if there is no danger. Unless, of course, he thought I wouldn't notice that it was genjutsu at all. If that's the case, he is far more conceited than I thought . . . which will make this even easier. bIf/b that is the case./i

I allowed my chakra to bleed inward towards my core; to most it would appear that I was weakening. But to those with understanding of massive chakra control, my trick would have been seen as deadly. I closed my eyes wearily and let my chakra flow cease. As my vision began to slowly blur through my eyelashes, I saw him; I looked him straight in the eye. . .

iNo/i.