Disclaimer
K. I'm not sure if I have to write these things but I will. I don't claim any rights to Naruto or the charecters. I give full credit to the rightful owners, blah, blah, blah. Except my story line. I mean I have no problem with them using it in Naruto, but I want credit if they do. lmao.
Contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want, but the realization of how much you already have.
- Unknown
Sasuke leaned against a tree lazily, his eyes flickering between the 'purely weapons fight' in front of him. Neji and Lee were sitting on the ground near the training logs, talking about the newest jutsus and about their powers. The Uchiha sighed and slid down the tree so he was sitting on the grass.
"Do they fight often?" He asked conversationally, watching his girlfriend fight their only female teammate.
"Yeah, Tenten says that a Jinchuuriki is the only one who would be able to match her...uh... what did she call it, Neji?" Lee asked, looking up from their coversation, his eyes flickering between Sasuke and the fight.
"Weapon's mastery." The Hyuuga responded airily, more of a second nature thing than anything else.
Sasuke nodded and turned back to the fight.
Sakura backflipped out of the way as Tenten sent a wave of shuriken at her, all of them missed and the pink-haired kunoichi laughed cheerfully. She pulled out a kunai to deflect another wave of shuriken, but she hadn't thrown a single weapon at her opponent yet. Just a quick glance at their fight, and anyone would assume it was a fight to the death - judging from the way they were attacking each other and darting around the clearing. But, a trained eye could see that Sakura was only helping her friend practise her aim.
"I don't see the point to this." Sasuke admitted finally, pulling a blade of grass out and examining it.
"Tenten wants to practise aiming at a target that moves and can think, act, train and... be a person all by itself. Neji and I aren't exactly the best at dodgeing without using chakra." Lee responded, glancing back at the fight calmly. "Sakura has the least tails so there's less chance that she'll loose control... Or, at least that's Tenten's logic..."
Sasuke leaned back against the tree, he hadn't considered the possibility that him, Naruto or Sakura would lose control of their demons that easily. In a simple training mission with a friend? There was no way. But, on a mission outside the village with others attacking them...? Probably. But, definetely not on a simple training session. Not Sakura. And not when she was 'fighting' one of her closest friends.
Sasuke was the first to figure out something was wrong. There was a large amount of murderous intent creepy off of Tenten - when they had just been joking around before - and Sakura was having harder time dodgeing, actually using her chakra to make sure some didn't pierce her skin. He stood up warily, by this point Lee and Neji had sense the sudden change in their friends chakra.
"Neji, Lee, go find Naruto now." Sasuke snarled at them, taking a threatening step towards the two women. "Sakura, get over here... You know that thing we were talking about earlier?"
"Yeah..." She said in a confused voice, stepping away from the other girl.
"I think we just solved part of it." He responded, gesturing at the strange chakra seeping out of Tenten's body.
"Is that a good thing? Cause, I don't think we really thought this through." She glanced over at Sasuke, watching Lee and Neji run back towards Konoha.
Sasuke smirked at her, waiting until she was standing beside him. "Did the Akatsuki teach you any techniques that could seal chakra?" He asked her in a hushed voice as a feral cry escaped from Tenten's throat.
"Oh, please have a low level of tails. Please, don't be Hachibi... please." Sakura begged silently, turning her head to the sky and closing her eyes weakly.
"Focus, please!"
"Sorry! Uh... I can't remember. Everything I've learned is kind of rushing together.. um..."
"Sakura!"
"I know! uh... yeah, but it could do major damage to Tenten's chakra flow."
"Well, that's the beauty of having a Gentle Fist user around." Sasuke responded, activating his Sharingan and letting out a small amount of his demonic chakra. The Shichibi's chakra slowly coated his body and formed a tail behind him.
"Do... do you have any problems holding her down? Cause I won't be able to hit her if she's moving around and trying to kill me, ne?" Sakura asked, her eyes flickering over to him as her chakra covered her, as well. The golden chakra tail swished nervously behind her.
"Aa."
In a moment, Sasuke had vanished from all sight and the one-tailed Tenten looked around sadistically, like a wolf might look for its next meal.
'Good news, bad news. Which do ya wanna hear first, Sasuke?' Sakura asked him suddenly, her eyes flickering around the clearing to look for the target of her thoughts.
He sighed. 'Good news.'
'She can't have a very high level of tails, because she wouldn't lose control this fast. She's definetely lower than me.' Sakura said cheerfully, as if she had just told Sasuke the location of the Holy Grail.
'Okay then, Kill Joy, what's the bad news?' He countered easily, his form still completely hidden.
'Kill Joy? Why am I a kill joy?' He didn't respond so she sighed and continued. 'You just want to fight a higher level jinchuuriki. Whatever. Well, the bad news is that her demon's in control already so she'll be crazy powerful. Watch out, will you?'
'Aa...'
Tenten turned her attention to the pink-haired kunoichi when it was apparent that Sasuke wouldn't make himself visible. A sadistic smile spread across her face as she fell into a defensive crouch, laughing maniacally. Sakura looked back at the other Jinchuuriki, freezing when the second tail started forming and Tenten's forms became barely distinguishable. Tenten launched herself at Sakura, causing the younger woman to fall back in surprise. Before Tenten could even get half way to Sakura, though, a silver and red form slammed into her and pinned her to the ground. Sasuke wrapped his arms around Tenten's and held her down so that she couldn't hurt either of them.
'Sakura...' He grunted when Tenten elbowed him in the stomach. 'Hurry, her chakra.... burns...'
'Hold her still...' Sakura cautioned, focusing her regular chakra into the tips of her fingers as tiny blue flames appeared there.
She launched herself at the two wrestling Jinchuuriki, her hand held out. Her hand collided with Tenten's stomach - and the location of her demon's seal - as the blue flames melded with the seal, strengthining it.
"Five-Pronged Seal." She cried, only letting her hand fall away when the demonic chakra starting to reside.
Sasuke let Tenten slip from his grip as she fell lightly to the ground, his demonic chakra - and Sakura's - started to mold back into their respective seals, as well. He cleared his throat and observed the unconcious girl between them.
"Wasn't that the jutsu Orochimaru used on Naruto that one time?" He asked her in confusion, his mind going over any possible reason why she would know one of Orochimaru's forbidden jutsus.
"Yeah, but technically it's the Akatsuki's jutsu. He learned it from them." She answered calmly, leaning forward to make sure Tenten didn't have any injuries. "So... Tenten's a Jinchuuriki, too, huh? Didn't see that one coming..."
Sasuke nodded in agreement, using his Sharingan to see where Neji and Lee went. The two were racing back to the clearing with Naruto not far behind them. He sighed and leaned against a tree, knowing that Tenten's teammates would be able to take care of her. He tilted his head to look up at the sky in boredum as the three Shinobi burst into the clearing.
"Tenten!" Neji and Lee cried in unison, rushing to the fallen kunoichi's side and examining her quickly. Neji peered up at the other two. "What happened to her? What was that? A justu?"
"Aa..." Sasuke responded, walking around Tenten and towards his teammates, sending them a meaningful look. Sakura jogged after him and gestured for Neji and Lee to follow them.
"Come on, we have to bring her to Tsunade, okay?"
"I'm a what?" Tenten asked in disbelief, staring at the Hokage across her desk. "I can't believe that, I would have known if I was a demon."
"We prefer the term 'Jinchuuriki.'" Naruto told her from the corner, his arms crossed in annoyance - he was making it very obvious that he was angry at his teammates for fighting before he could get there.
"But... I still would have known... right?" She asked, ignoring the people behind her and focusing entirely on Tsunade - the only normal one in the room, in her words.
"Not neccesarily." Tsunade said, clasping her hands in front of her and frowning. "The village didn't even know, there was no way for you to know unless your demon contacted you directly. And we've learned from experience that they'd rather stay out of human lives."
"I'm a Jinchuuriki?" Tenten asked herself in a hushed voice, her eyes falling to her lap weakly. "But...how?"
"But, Shishou, I saw Tenten's seal when I healed her earlier, and it looked different than mine." Sakura said, sitting casually in the couch at the side of the Hokage's office. "Why would that be? I thought all the demon's were sealed the same."
Tsunade frowned and stood up, waving her hand airily. Sakura immediately leaned back, and pulled the bottom of her shirt above her belly button. The inky, black swirls wrapped around in a fist-sized design over her stomach. Tsunade's frown deepened. Sakura leaned over to pull up the bottom of Sasuke's shirt to examine his, looking between the two. They were identical. She looked over at her brother and he obediantly pulled his shirt up.
"But, we all have the same." Sakura said immediately, glancing between the three seals again.
"Great, now I'm the freak of the freaks." Tenten muttered sarcastically, they all ignored her.
"From what I know, Tenten's is what it's supposed to look like. I'm not sure why your's are different." The Hokage admitted softly, moving back to her desk in confusion.
"I do." Naruto said suddenly from the corner.
They all shot him strange looks and asked in perfect unison. "You do?"
"Yeah." He said, confused at why they hadn't figured it out before him. "Because that Akatsuki leader guy blessed us or something... remember? That's why we can hear each other..."
Sasuke and Sakua exchanged glances, both of them looking back to the seals on their belly's. The normal black, swirly design - now that they looked at them closer - there was another design pressed over that. One that looked strangely like the cross between the Akatsuki cloud and a rain drop. The three frowned deeply.
"So, does that mean that none of the others will have Nagato's protection like we do?" Sakura asked in a hushed voice, fear flitting across her face.
"It looks that way." Tsunade said thoughtfully, closing her eyes and sighing. "But, Tenten was in that clearing, as well. Why didn't his powers affect her?"
"Because Nagato didn't know she was there." Sakura responded subconciously.
"Ne, Baa-chan? What are the chances that the other Jinchuuriki are in Konoha, too? I mean all four of us were, right...?" Naruto asked, pulling himself into a standing posistion so he could better view the room.
"Normally, I would tell you that we would've known about it. But you, Naruto, were the only one we were aware of. How the demons were sealed without our knowing it is beyond me..." Tsunade said, throwing her arms up in the air and frowning. "Shizune?" The other woman rushed into the room. "Go find Jiraiya and bring him here."
Shizune pouted lightly but raced from the room. They waited until her footsteps had faded before continueing.
"But, Shishou, I was born in Cloud, remember?" Sakura said immediately, looking her teacher in the eye.
"You were?" The other four room occupants asked in unison.
"Oh, yes, I had forgotten that. Is there anyway that someone from that village sealed the Gobi in you?" Tsunade asked, rubbing her chin thoughtfully.
"um.... Yeah, I suppose so. My Grandfather also said that I was meant to be a weapon. I just thought he meant that I was going to participate in a war or something..." She anwered in confusion, her eyes distant as if viewing something the others couldn't see.
Tsunade frowned again and stood up, walking over to the metal cabinet next to her desk. She lightly skimmed the files before selecting two and tossing them to Sasuke and Tenten - respectively. They flipped them open carefully, to stare at a picture of themselves - their ninja photo. Sakura leaned over Sasuke's shoulder to look at it in amusement.
"Is it just me or do we all looked stoned in these pictures?" She asked conversationally, tilting her head to the side curiously. "What're these for, Shishou?"
"Find anything in there that could mean a demon was sealed in you. If we find enough of a pattern, we may be able to find out how many others are in Konoha." Tsunade answered, leaning back in her chair to grab a pile of papers she needed to authorize. Naruto eventually drifted over to his teammates to help Sasuke scan through his folder, though they all left Tenten alone - in case she blew up at them. They stayed in Tsunade's office for a few hours, it was dark by the time any of them spoke a word.
"Here. It says that my family travelled to their vacation home when I was born. That when they brought a baby back, when they didn't have one leaving, it caused a major border problem." Sasuke said airily, his eyes skimming the rest of the paper. "There's also a side note that says people should keep an eye on him - me, because the Uchiha may have done something to make him stronger..."
Tenten gently placed hers on top of Tsunade's desk and gestured at a certain paragraph.
"Tenten's parents were sent on a mission to examine the country of Sound - when it was still growing - and came back with a baby. It was believed that they must've been attacked, and the shock caused their baby to be delivered early. But, if they needed to seal a demon inside her, that could cause enough shock." Tsunade read, just as the door slammed open.
