Chapter 2: Blossom of Temperance, Virtue Unleash!
Tsunade leaned back in her chair, biting her thumbnail as she stared the the glowing gems in front of her. Shizune was starting to freak out a little.
"Oh this is bad! Bad, Bad, bad!" she said worriedly, walking around the office in circles making Tonton who was watching very dizzy.
"Silence, Shizune!" said Tsunade sharply. The young woman obediently silenced herself and quickly scooted behind Tsunade's chair. "This is an emergency, call for the others, it's time to have a meeting..."
Shizune nodded and slid off the right side of her shirt just a bit to reveal a kanji marking that said 'loyalty' on her shoulder. Placing her left hand over it, she whispered "Virtue Connection:..." Suddenly, she rapidly began to trace out the kanji, which began to glow with each stroke. Elsewhere, in different parts of the school, five other kanji markings began to pulse.
"Foresight..." The kanji for it pulsed lightly in the pupil of someone's eye.
"Resilience..." The kanji pulsed behind someone's neck.
"Enthusiasm..." The kanji pulsed on someone's ankle.
"Responsibilty..." The kanji pulsed on the back of someone's hand.
"Understanding..." The kanji pulsed on another's forehead.
"Sympathy..." The kanji pulsed on someone's chest.
When she was finished, Shizune looked at Tsunade, who nodded at Shizune as she closed her eyes deep in thought...
"Urgh! This completely sucks!" growled an angry red head as she walked, arms crossed, down the school corridor with two other girls. "I can't believe they put us in separate classes! How dare they!"
To her left was a stoic girl with long blue hair tied in a high ponytail, she said nothing as she kept her eyes glued to the book she was reading. "Well, I can't help it if I'm in the gifted class," was all she said, turning a page.
The girl on the red head's right had shoulder length green hair with a white hairband and wore large round glasses. She also wore a large smile on her face that seem to be the reason why he sun is shining. "Now, now, Hikari-neesama, look on the plus side, at least we have combined classes during some of the periods, and we can always each lunch together," she said, trying to sooth her sister's anger.
It seemed to work as Hikari took a deep breath and sighed. "Yeah, I guess you're right Cori..." The green haired girl smiled.
"Mmhmm.." said the blue haired absentmindedly. Hikari side glanced her.
"Seriously Kaori, how can you read and walk at the same time?" she asked incredulously.
"Like this,"Kaori said, turning to a new page without skipping a beat.
Hikari sighed and rolled her eyes. 'Smart Alec...'
Suddenly Kaori stopped and closed her book. "Well, this is my class, I'll see you after school girls..." she said. Hikari and Cori nodded as they continued searching for their classes.
The blue haired teen gave a small smile before resuming her stoic face. Taking a deep breath, she slid open the classroom door and entered. Kaori's face deadpanned when she saw everyone in class fooling around like throwing paper airplanes and or talking. Her presence directed the attention of the students towards her, causing Kaori to stiffen a little. jet The teacher in charge was a young man, probably in his twenties. He had tall silver hair and wore an eyepatch over his right eye and a face mask which covered three quarters of his face. He casually looked up from a little orange book he was reading. "Oh hello, you must be Kaori," he said casually.
"Hai," Kaori replied trying to hide her appalled emotions.
The teacher turned to everyone else in the room. "Everyone, this is Nekojiwa Kaori, a transfer student from Suna, be nice to her okay? As for me I'm Hatake Kakashi, your teacher. Now I've got to attend a meeting. Your seat will be next to Haruno Sakura right by that window, see ya'!" he said pointing to an empty seat beside a girl with pink hair.
Kaori bowed and walked towards her desk, ignoring the stares of the others. The moment Kaori sat down, the whole class began fooling about again. She glanced to the side to see the pink haired girl smiling at her. "Yes?" Kaori asked.
"Hi, I'm Haruno Sakura, please to meet you!" greeted the girl in a friendly matter.
"Nekojiwa Kaori, charmed," replied Kaori dully.
Sakura's eye twitched at the curt reply. "S-so... how much did you get on the entrance exam?" asked Sakura in effort to make conversation.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you..."
"Try me."
Kaori raised her eyebrows at Sakura. "Full marks plus 5 more for pointing out a calculation error in the question..."
For a moment Sakura said nothing as her smile froze on her face. "You're putting me on!"
Kaori rolled her eyes and heaved a sigh. "Suit yourself, I've got proof if you don't believe me," she said taking out a plastic binder with an examination results slip on it.
It only took a glance at the results for Sakura's jaw to drop. Kaori simply turned her head away to conceal a small cat like smile. "I told you soooo~..." she whispered in a sing-song voice. 'Hmm?'
Kaori looked out the window and saw three men walking in through the gate. The tallest one wore a track suit of green and had a bowl haircut. The second one had tan skin and sported a short black beard while the last one had brown hair tied up in a ponytail and a scar running across the bridge of his nose. "Ne, Sakura-san?"
"Yeah, Kaori-chan?"
"Who are those three guys?" she asked.
Sakura looked over Kaori's shoulder to see out the window. "Huh? What are they doing doing here?"
"You know them?"
"The one in the green suit is Maito Gai while the the guy with the beard is Sarutobi Asuma. They're teachers from Shinobi Junior Academy. The guy with the scar is Umino Iruka, he's a teacher at the Konoha Elemantary School down the street. I wonder what are they here for?" wondered Sakura.
"Suspicious..." muttered Kaori.
In Tsunade's office, Tsunade leaned back in her chair deeply concerned with the situation. Apart from her and Shizune who stood right next to her, there were six other people in the room, their figures hidden by the shadows. Two of them were women while the rest were men.
Tsunade then took out the seven gems from her drawer. The other six gasped. "As you can see, since the gems are glowing now it means that it's only a matter of time that all the seals will disappear and he would regain his power. It also means that all seven Guardians have appeared in this school. We're not sure who they are but they give will off similar energies to the Gems," said Tsunade.
"You seven were all granted with abilities of the Sacred Chakra, therefore the Gems energies should react with yours. All you have to do is touch their hands and your kanji marks will began to pulse," she explained further. "One more thing, each of you are only able to sense the Virtue that corresponds to yours."
"Virtue of Foresight, Kakashi!" Tsunade called.
The first figure, a man stepped out of the shadows revealing himself to be the Gifted class homeroom teacher. He lifted his eyepatch to show the kanji of foresight.
"Virtue of Resilience, Anko!"
A short woman with lavender hair tied up in a spiky ponytail wearing a tan overcoat stepped forward. She lowered her collar to reveal her kanji mark behind her neck.
"Virtue of Enthusiasm, Gai!"
A tall man wearing a green tracksuit and a bowl haircut stepped lifted his right pants leg to reveal his mark.
"Virtue of Responsibilty, Kurenai!"
A woman with long black wavy hair and striking red eyes wearing black gloves stepped forward, pulling off her right glove to reveal her mark.
"Virtue of Understanding, Asuma!"
A man with black hair and a short beard wearing a head band appeared. He pulled off his head band to reveal the kanji of Understanding.
"Virtue of Sympathy, Iruka!"
A man with a short brown ponytail and a scar across his face came into view. He pulled down the front of his shirt to his mark.
"And finally, Virtue of Loyalty, Shizune!"
"Hai!" answered the said woman revealing the kanji symbol on her shoulder.
Tsunade nodded and held out the Sacred Virtues. "Respond!" she commanded.
Suddenly, each one of the glowing gems began levitating and slowly floated towards the seven people. The Flower floated to Anko, the Star to Kurenai, the Sun to Iruka, the Sphere to Gai, the Heart to Asuma, the Moon to Kakashi and finally the Diamond to Shizune. All the Gems began to glow their individual color more brightly then before as began to circle around the areas where the kanji symbols are located. The Gems began to circle faster and faster until they became rings of colored lights. The seven people felt their kanji symbols become warm as the symbols too began to glow in reaction to the Gems. Finally with a 'pop', the Gems entered the kanji symbols, which continued glowing for a split second before going back to normal.
"Now that the Gems have been stored, all that is left is for you seven is to search for the Guardians. Keep your actions as discreet as possible, I sense that Orochimaru had regained enough power to free one of the Sins," said Tsunade. "And one more thing, once you have found your respective Guardians, place a hand over your markings and say 'Virtue Release' to draw out the the Gems and present them to the respective Guardians."
"HAI!" exclaimed the group before leaving.
Tsunade waited until the last person exited the room and heaved a huge sigh. She then swivelled her chair around to look out the window. "It's such a nice day... but how long will it last?" Tsunade asked herself.
The bell suddenly rang signifying the end of school and all the students were flooding out of their classes. Sakura managed to meet up with Ino, Hinata and Tenten in the hallways.
"Hey girls! Good to see you awake Hinata!" greeted Sakura.
Hinata smiled and nodded. Tenten suddenly placed an arm around Sakura as they began walking. "So Sakura-chan,Ino-chan, Hinata-chan, I heard that you three got new students in your classes today!"
Sakura blinked in surprise."What? You guys too?"
"No way! You too Sakura-chan?" exclaimed Ino.
"What was the new girl in your class like?" asked Hinata.
Sakura placed a finger on her chin as she recalled Kaori. "Umm...let's see...she's really mature and totally serious. She's also has that air of intelligence around her but if you ask me, I find her icy."
"Icy?" asked her three friends in unison.
"Yeah, as in she's got a cool head and she's cold towards others.."
Huge sweat drops appeared from behind Ino, Hinata and Tenten's heads.
"You know, from your description she's sounds more like a yuki-onna than a school girl..."muttered Ino.
'Actually... it sounds kinda fitting...' thought Sakura as she imagined Kaori in a fancy white kimono standing in a blizzard. "What about in your class?"
"The one my class got was some sunshiny, smiley meganekko (glasses girl)... way too happy for my liking..."said Ino, waving a hand in front of her face.
"A-and the one w-who came to m-my class was a really fiery red head, or at least that she said when she introduced herself," said Hinata recalling.
Just then a thought struck Tenten. "Hey, all three of them came from the same school right?"
Her friends nodded, unsure to where she was getting at.
"Well don't you think it's weird that they all transferred at the exact same time?"
Sakura, Ino and Hinata looked at each other. "Now that I think about it is kinda weird. What do you suppose is their relationship with each other?" asked Ino.
"Who knows? Childhood friends maybe?" replied Sakura, stretching her arms out.
Suddenly, Hinata gasped, startling the group. Before they could ask what's wrong, Hinata placed a finger to her lips and pushed them close to a wall where they were hidden by a pillar. "Sshh! It's them!" exclaimed Hinata in whisper before poking her head out. The others did likewise appearing below her. Sure enough the three said girls were just down the hall, walking together.
"There's Kaori-chan!" Sakura whispered.
"And Cori-chan" said Ino.
"and Hikari-san too!" said Hinata.
All four girls looked at each other and nodded. Swiftly, they followed the three, tiptoeing and ducking behind every possible object that can hide them.
Meanwhile, the three girls glanced at each other discreetly. "Are they still following us Cori?" whispered the red head.
Cori took of her glasses and pretended to polish them. Lifting it upwards, she tilted it at an angle where she could see the quartet in the reflection of her glasses. "You bet! I wonder why they are following us?" she whispered back putting on her glasses.
"Weirdos..." whispered Kaori.
Elsewhere, a large fat guy with an almost bald head with small tufts of orange hair wandered about a park wearing a large tan sleeveless shirt and raggedy jeans. "Man, when that portal dumped me here, who knew how the Japan had changed..." he muttered. "Now let's see, where do I start with the corrupting?"
Just about then, Jirobo sniffed the air and smiled while his stomach growled. "Ooooh, somethin' smells gooooood!" he said salivating. He looked around finding the source of the smell. His eyes then rested on dango vendor van with tables and chairs lined up around it. "DAN-" he began to exclaim before stopping himself. He looked around and saw many food vendors scattered around the park. 'I have an idea~!'
Shimmying his way towards the dango van, Jirobo gathered Dark Chakra into his hand forming a few small kunai. Once he was close enough he smirked to himself. "Soul Corruption Jutsu: Gluttony..."
The kunai flew and disappeared in to a few people who went into a trance like state. Suddenly, it was as if a switch was turned on and the people struck by the kunai began grabbing whatever food from nearby tables or peoples hands and stuffing their faces greedily. One teenage girl screamed as a guy who was corrupted by Jirobo suddenly snatched a half-eaten crepe from her hands while a little girl began jumping on tables grabbing leftover food. Suddenly the little girl jumped on a nearby woman with her eyes crazed with hunger.
"Where's my food? I'm STARVING!" she screamed as she bit the woman's arm.
The woman screamed in pain. Black energy began emitting from the little girl's mouth and entered the woman's own. Now that woman went in to a trance like state before shoving the little girl off her and began stuffing her face. Many others became corrupted this way. It wasn't long before the whole park became filled with corrupted people. Jirobo sat on a nearby park bench laughing. "Haha! This is great! The corruption was quicker than I thought!" he exclaimed happily as he munched down on a crepe in one hand and a stick of dango in the other. "Wow, these taste great!"
A great yawn was heard from Anko's mouth as she stretched her arms high towards the evening sky. "Man, I never thought that discreetly sensing the Guardian of Temperance would be so exhausting! I haven't made any progress today... rats..." she whined. "Oh well, it's still the first day, there's still tommorow! I know I'll go pick some dango at the park!" she said happily as she skipped in the direction of the local park.
BaDump! Anko stopped in her tracks. She could feel her kanji pulsing. "What the-?" BaDUMP! "AAAAAAAAAARGH!"Anko yelled in pain as she covered her pulsing kanji. It stung greatly, almost as if someone was pressing hot metal on to her skin. "T-this pain... could it be... the Gem's energy is reacting to a Sin's vibe?" Forcing herself to get up, Anko began running with superhuman speed to the park, where she sensed the energy was coming from.
As she neared the park's entrance a trash can flew into view. Anko quickly ran ahead and slid to a stop right in front of a gate. "What the hell?" she gasped. She couldn't believe the monstrosity she saw before her. People, old and young were acting like animals eating scraps of food of the ground to stealing food from each other even going so far as to brutally injure each other. "How cruel!"
Suddenly she heard laughter. She angrily turned her head to see a fat man with junk food lying about him laughing at the terrible scene in front of him. "HEY YOU! FATTY McFAT-FAT!" she yelled angrily jabbing a finger in his directing.
The guy stopped laughing and turned to look at Anko in annoyance."What do you want bitch?"
"This is your doing isn't it?"
"So what if it is? What are ya gonna do? Bitch Slap me?"
Anko growled in anger. "Unforgivable, YOU! YOU'RE ONE OF OROCHIMARU'S LACKEYS AREN'TCHA?"
The fat guy smirked as he swallowed a hamburger whole. "Yep, Jirobo the Sin of Gluttony at your service little lady!"
Anko smirked as well. "Alrighty then, I'm gonna make you pay for corrupting all these people!" she threatened, cracking her knuckles and going into a fighting stance.
"Just try!" retorted Jirobo, who snapped his fingers. Suddenly all the corrupted people began to look at Anko with their eyes a blazing. Anko gritted her teeth as she held her ground.
"Bye Tenten-san, Hinata-chan!" called Ino and Sakura as they parted with their friends and walked together down a sidewalk towards the park.
"Hey Ino? Still on your diet?" asked Sakura. "We can drop by the park for a couple of crepes."
Ino looked at her best friend with look that screamed 'ARE YOU CRAZY?'. "You bet I'm still on a diet! I gotta maintain my lovely figure you know, OHOHOHOHOHO-huh?" she went when a figure came flying out in front of the two and smashed into a lamp post.
"What the- Anko-sensei?" cried Sakura in surprise as she and Ino ran to help their injured teacher stand up.
Blood was trailing from the woman's forehead and mouth as she turned her head to look at either of them. "B-both o-of y-you... get out of here, it's not safe!"
"Not without you! What happened?" asked Ino as she wrapped her sensei's arm round her neck.
"Never mind that we need to get her to a hospital!" yelled Sakura.
Just then, the two girls heard the sounds of maniacal laughter behind them. They slowly turned around and almost screamed when they saw a whole crowd of people, young and old alike, creeping towards them like hungry animals. Their eyes glowed red and they were salivating at the mouth like rabid dogs. "What's wrong with them?" asked a terrified Ino.
Suddenly, the deranged people made a dive at the three. Quickly, Anko wrapped her arms around both Sakura's and Ino's waist and jumped out of the way. The girls screamed in fear when they saw the crowd chasing them down the street. "Anko-sensei what's going here!" screamed Sakura as she ducked in time to avoid a little boy who pounced on her.
Sakura and Ino were running as fast as they could trying to keep up with Anko, who was running incredibly fast despite her injuries. "Their souls have been corrupted," explained Anko over her shoulder.
"CORRUPTED? BY WHAT? HUNGRY GHOSTS?" yelled Ino, jumping in time to avoid getting her ankles grabbed. Suddenly, Ino felt her skirt being pulled followed by a pair of hands grabbing her legs, causing her to fall over. Ino shrieked at the top of her lungs alerting Anko and Sakura to turn around.
"INO-CHAN!" cried Sakura as she ran back to rescue her friend who was getting dogpiled by the corrupted people.
"Sakura, NO! IT'S TOO DANGEROUS! YOU'LL GET CORRUPTED TOO!" yelled Anko.
"SAKURA, HELP ME!" screamed Ino in fear, stretching out her hand as she felt her body getting crushed under all the weight.
"INO!" Sakura cried again as she kicked and punched the corrupted people piling on top of her best friend, who by now was totally covered by people, save for her outstretched arm. Sakura desperately reached out to pull Ino out from the pile.
"SAKURA-CHAN! LOOK OUT!" yelled her sensei, who grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the way just in time to avoid a corrupted man from biting her arm.
BA-BUMP!
Anko gasped she felt her kanji pulse. Her own heart began to pound savagely against her chest. 'No way... could she be...?"' thought a surprised Anko who released Sakura's hand. The woman looked at her hand and then at Sakura who watched in horror as Ino's hand disappeared from sight. The pile suddenly crawled backwards off the girl to reveal Ino lying face down on the ground. Her body began to vibrate as demonic laughter could be heard emitting from Ino. Slowly, Ino's hand moved and pushed herself off the ground, her platinum blond hair coming lose from it's ponytail and falling over her face. "Sa-ku-ra-chan!" said Ino pronouncing every syllable of Sakura's name with a hint of mocking to it.
"Ino..." whispered Sakura, with a feeling of dread welling up inside her.
Suddenly Ino stood up straight and tossed her hair back revealing a grinning maniacal demonic face with glowing red eyes and drool which was starting to pour from the corners of her mouth. "I'm starving... mind letting me have a piece of you for dinner?" she asked in a creepy devilish voice, tilting her head to the side.
Ino began to walk forward with the rest of the corrupted people following behind her. Sakura just stood rooted to her spot unable to move in shock. "Ino-chan..."
"HAHAHAHA! This is great! That's one more corrupted soul to add!"exclaimed a male voice. Anko furrowed her brow as she and Sakura saw the corrupted move aside to reveal Jirobo walking towards them.
Anko quickly grabbed Sakura and stood in front of her. "Tell me Jirobo, what is Orochimaru planning to do?" she demanded.
"Heh, as if I would tell you bitch," replied Jirobo. "I'm just here to corrupt souls to-"
"SHUT UP!" screamed Sakura all of a sudden. "How dare you! I don't know what the hell is going on here believe me, but corrupting innocent souls is just too cruel!" she cried out running straight at the fat man before Anko could stop her. "SHANNARO!" screamed Sakura as she started to throw a punch at Jirobo. At that moment, Anko felt her kanji glowing warm with energy. She then saw the same energy in the form of pink aura radiating from Sakura's balled up fist.
Jirobo smirked. "Heh, ya' little brat, no mere human can harm m-ACK!" he yelled as Sakura's glowing pink fist connected with Jirobo's cheek with inhuman strength, sending him flying into the air.
Jirobo hit the ground and clutched his swollen cheek. "Impossible! No way a mere human could hurt me except the Guardian of Temperance! Unless..." quickly he snapped his fingers. "Hey you! Blondie!" he called to Ino. The blond girl nodded.
Sakura looked at her hand in surprise as it was still glowing with pink energy. "What is this? My hand..." she began to say before getting cut short by Ino who had closed her fingers around her throat and was proceeding to strangle her. Gasping for breath, Sakura grabbed Ino's wrists in hopes to pull her hands away. The girl began chuckling demonically as traces of blood lust entered her eyes.
"Sakura-chan!" cried out Anko who was about to go to her student's rescue but was suddenly held down by the Corrupted.
Sakura looked at her best friend while gritting her teeth. "I-ino..." she struggled to say. "S-snap out of it! W-we're s-supposed to be best friends, r-remember?" she gasped.
Ino appeared to ignore her words as she tightened her grip on Sakura's neck. "I-INO! WAKE UP! RE-REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE!" Sakura managed to scream.
BA-BUMP! The Gem sealed inside Anko pulsed.
Suddenly, Sakura's body began to glow pink brightly. Ino screamed in pain as she was suddenly repelled. The girl hit the ground unconscious with smoke arising from her hands which appeared badly burnt. Sakura looked at herself in complete surprise."I'm glowing!" she exclaimed.
Anko and Jirobo appeared to shocked as well as they confirmed their own suspicions. "YOU GUYS! KILL HER!" commanded Jirobo to a nearby by group of people who obeyed and pounced on the girl.
"STAY AWAY FROM ME!" yelled Sakura as the energy surrounding her formed a dome that reflected the Corrupted ones, rendering them all unconscious.
Anko grinned as she forced herself out of the grasps of the Corrupted ones with new found strength and jumped into the air, placing a hand over her kanji symbol. "VIRTUE RELEASE!" she yelled as her kanji began to glow. Anko lifted her hand to reveal a small glowing pink orb of energy floating in her hand. "SAKURA-CHAN! CATCH!" she yelled throwing it in the girl's direction.
Sakura looked up and held out her hand to catch the glowing orb. The moment her hand made contact with it, there was an explosion of light causing everyone to shield their eyes. Sakura felt a pleasant warm feeling wash over her as the glowing orb in her hand went 'pop' revealing a light pink cherry blossom made of rose stone. All fear left Sakura as she held the gem to her heart. 'What's this?... I feel strange..yet pleasant... '
Call out the power...said an unfamiliar female voice.
'Who is there?' asked Sakura.
Don't be afraid...my power is yours now... trust your heart and let the words come to you...
Sakura closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. Words began to flash in her mind as she held the Gem in front of her. Her eyes snapped open all of a sudden. "BLOSSOM OF TEMPERANCE! VIRTUE UNLEASH!" she yelled. In response, the Gem glowed so brightly it engulfed Sakura in it's light.
(Cue transformation scene)
The sound of an erhu and chinese drums were heard playing as Sakura appeared standing in the middle of a rocky terrain. The jewelled flower shot out of her hand skywards before seperating into five individual glowing petals. The petals flew around Sakura and disappeared into the ground. A large rumbling that occurred instantly caused the ground to tremor as large green shoots began sprouting out of the ground at an incredible speed towards the sky, covering up Sakura in the process. The sprouts merged to become one large stalk as a giant pink flower bud popped out and bloomed in to a giant cherry blossom revealing a much taller and mature looking Sakura standing in the center.
Gone was the girl's school uniform and it was replaced with a black sleeveless skintight suit with the leggings stopping just above the knee. The outfit included a mask that concealed the lower half of Sakura's face. (Like Kakashi's.) Cherry blossoms came flying in from all directions and circled around Sakura, leaving a sparkling trail behind circled around Sakura's torso, arms and legs, the sparkling trail sticking to her clothes as it began to glow.
Simultaneously, the glow faded away to reveal new pieces of clothing over the black suit. She now wore a crimson Chinese sleeveless shirt with a white ring printed on back. Long black fingerless gloves with metal plates bearing a cherry blossom on the back of the hands covered Sakura's arms. A short pink apron-like skirt fluttered, revealing a small part of Sakura's thigh to be bandaged with a kunai pouch attached to it. On her feet were a pair of black high-heeled boots.
The cherry blossom petals continued to swirl around Sakura, who closed her eyes, in an upwards spiral lifting up her bright pink hair. The sparkly trail sprinkled by the petals made Sakura's hair grow longer and become two shades darker, making her hair hot pink. The glowing petals then swirled around her head and merged together, fading out to reveal a crimson hairband with a metal plate bearing the same design as the metal plates on Sakura's gloves. Finally, the petals swirled around her neck and transformed into a glowing black choker with the jewelled flower as a pendant.
Suddenly, Sakura jumped off the giant flower and somersaulted to the ground at an amazing speed. A dust cloud erupted as she hit the ground. The cloud blew away revealing Sakura in a kneeling position.
"Guardian of Temperance..." Sakura began to say, standing up slowly. Quickly she took up a Hung Gar fighting stance, her legs spread out one in front of the other and bent at the knees. She pulled her fist to her waist while she held her left palm outwards. "Geo Rose! Kenzan!" she yelled with the ground exploding behind her for effect.
"It can't be!" exclaimed Jirobo in horror.
"YEAH!" cheered Anko boxing a nearby Corrupt.
Sakura looked at herself in surprise, feeling and checking out her new clothes. "Woah...coooooollll..." she exclaimed as she felt her new hair do and mask. But that momentary feeling of awe disappeared when she saw the Corrupted people make a lunge at her. Without thinking, Sakura balled a gloved hand into a fist and punched the ground with all her might. The ground erupted and broke into large boulders creating a huge surge of impact that deflected the Corrupted people along with Jirobo and Anko away at a distance.
"Sugoi... what power..." said Anko in awe, as she shielded herself fom the flying rocks coming her way.
"ACK!" went Jirobo as he tumbled and rolled head over heels backwards.
Sakura was also quite amazed at her new strength. She looked at her hands, opening and clenching them.
"Sakura! You have to purify the souls or they'll just keep coming!" yelled Anko at a distance fighting of some more corrupted people.
Sakura quickly dodged a swipe from a woman and threw a kick at middle aged man simultaneously. "HOW?" she asked grabbing another man by the shoulders and head butted him.
"CALL OUT YOUR WEAPON!" came the reply.
'My weapon?' Sakura asked herself.
'Your weapon can help purify the corrupted...' the mysterious voice from before spoke out. 'Listen to your heart like before and your weapon would come...'
'Listen to my heart?...' thought Sakura closing her eyes and placing her right hand over her pendant which began to glow. At that moment, her surroundings became silent as Sakura concentrated on the sound of her heart beating. "Sakura Hammer!" she suddenly cried out as petals emerged from her glowing pendant.
Sakura stretched out her right arm, let the petals swirl around before gathering in her out stretched hand. The petals then merged together forming a glowing staff which Sakura quickly grabbed and began spinning it expertly before wielding it in front of her. At that moment the glow dispersed with a 'pop' and revealed a long handled war hammer. It's staff was bright red, while it's hammer head (which resembled more like a wooden mallet) was white with two large pink cherry blossoms were printed on the face of either side of the hammer. The rims of the hammer were gold just like the bottom of the staff and base of the hammer head. The painted cherry blossoms began to glow brightly as Sakura raised the weapon high above her head. "Soul Purification: Temperance!" exclaimed Sakura.
"Do it, Sakura!" yelled Anko.
"STOP HER!" commanded Jirobo.
"Temperance Rumble!" Sakura cried out as she slammed the hammer on the ground creating a huge shock wave of impact in the form of pink energy.
The shock wave passed through those who had been corrupted, forcing out black energy from their mouths. No sooner had the evil aura cleared out the people collasped unconscious. Areas in the damaged ground began to repair themselves. If it weren't for the numerous unconscious bodies being scattered everywhere you wouldn't have guessed that a battle had just occured.
Jirobo growled angrily. "DAMN YOU!" he yelled as a black portal opened up behind him. "Orochimaru-sama would not be pleased..." he muttered with fear in his voice as he jumped into the portal which immediately closed up behind him.
Suddenly Sakura heaved a big sigh as she collasped to her knees exhausted. Her whole body glowed for a few seconds before dispersing revealing Sakura back in her original form. The Blossom of Temperance lay beside her. Anko limped over to her panting student and kneeled beside her. "That was great, Sakura. I can't believe I managed to find you!"
"Good for you, Anko-chan!" exclaimed a new but familiar voice that came from behind the two.
Anko and Sakura turned around to see an equally familiar face. "Shi-shizune-san? Wait, what the heck is with that outfit?" Sakura exclaimed in amazement seeing the school's secratary there wearing clothes that were different then the usual of clothes Shizune wor. She wore a casual black kimono with grayish-white trimmings and a similar colored sash. The skirt wasn't very long and revealed a pair of black sandal-like high heels. From where she was sitting, Sakura could see Shizune wearing a fishnet shirt under her kimono.
Shizune simply smiled as she walked up to Sakura and Anko. Anko grinned and nodded. Still feeling confused at the situation, Sakura watched curiously as Shizune did some weird hand signs and placed a hand on either won of their heads. Sakura gave a small gasp when she saw Anko and herself getting bathed in a green light emitting from Shizune's hands. She looked and her body to see all her sratches and bruises healing up. When she glanced at Anko, the same thing happened. As soon as the two were fully healed, Shizune removed her hands causing the glowing to stop. Anko stood and gave Shizune a pat on the shoulder. "Thanks Shizune, your a pal!"
"W-WAIT JUST A MOMENT! What the heck is going on here?" demanded Sakura standing up. "JUST A FEW MINUTES AGO I WAS RUNNING A WAY FROM A WHOLE FREAKIN' CROWD OF POSSESED-"
"Corrupted actually," corrected Shizune and Anko casually.
"THAT'S NOT THE POINT! THEN NEXT THING I KNOW, THIS LITTLE ROCK TRANSFORMS ME INTO SOME HAMMER WEILDING CHICK AND EVERYBODY HERE IS UNCONCIOUS! WOULD SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN ALL THIS TO ME RIGHT NOW?" Sakura screamed, jabbing a finger at the little sparkling Gem in her hand.
Shizune and Anko glanced at each other while Sakura panted heavily from screaming her lungs out. "Chill, ya' little maggot," said Anko bluntly.
"All will be explained in due time~!" Shizune said cheerfully.
Sakura's mouth dropped open. "WHAT THE HELL!"
Raven's familiar: 'Cheers happily' OH YEAH! FINALLY AT LONG LAST I HAVE FINISHED THIS CHAPTER! I hope everybody enjoys reading this alternate universe Naruto fanfic! Stay tuned for the next chapter cuz' a new Guardian is going to make her debut! Stay tuned~!
