DO PEOPLE CHANGE?
CHAPTER 4: Time
-While Team 9 are trapped-
"How long will the seal hold the team of Chuunin?" A man dressed in Otogakure colours said. It was hard to make out what he was saying though, as his mask was covering his mouth. He looked at his younger superior with unemotional eyes, she could feel his eyes on her, and it made her skin crawl. His superior glanced at him with icy eyes. She barely regarded him as a person. He was nothing, just another soldier. That was the way she had taught herself to think over the past years. Each ninja expects death. There is no escape from death. She really didn't care about this low ranked ninja at least that is how she was supposed to think. She was surprised at her train of thought and snapped back to her original one before the Ninja had interrupted her. She didn't gain Orochimaru's "trust" for no reason. She had a plan, even if that meant that she had to pretend, lie and destroy things she loved. But now that another player had entered the field it made everything much harder for her. 'Oh how love likes to bite people in the ass' she thought to herself. It was actually a joke. She snarled at herself. 'Ahhh I have to stop doing that' she said in her head 'I'm starting to sound like Sasuke' she said again. She crossed her arms under her dark purple cloak. 'Gosh it's cold', she thought. It had started raining again. This on and off weather was truly annoying. This was truly boring; she needed to initiate her plan before it was too late.
"Watch out for the Chuunin team but make no delays in the mission" She shouted. "I have other things to attend to for the moment", she said in a bored tone and shook her cloak. The rain drops hit the ground, small puddles around her sandals. 'At least it's not raining anymore', she thought hopefully. The superior turned quickly away from her team suddenly stopped and looked at them.
"Remember, die before you get captured and don't kill them, just harm them, don't make Orochimaru-Sama sorry for saving your pathetic lives." Her tone was so serious and bone chilling that it made her wince inside. She was so cruel to her team. Her eyes displayed slight remorse and sadness, but then it was gone.'They aren't your team, remember. These pathetic people will never be as good as your true team. They will never even get close to your team. You know, the team you left in shambles because of your selfish wish and bad luck. YEAH THAT TEAM! Come on don't pretend you don't remember them. You are practically giving up your life for them. I bet they want to kill you right now, hmmm, what do you think? Oh wait, this IS what you are thinking. Wow you really are pathetic aren't you? I hope they kill you and release you from the bonds of darkness that have wound themselves around your weak body.' A voice entered her head and spoke those words to her; she recognised it as the voice of her darkness. Everyone has one; some people just don't hear them. But lucky for her she had grown accustomed to her darkness as it seemed she had been living in it for the past year or so.
"Do not fail this mission, or else I will personally take her of your pathetic lives." She looked at the Oto ninja, their eyes widened and she disappeared.
Sakuraki was now alone. She let out a long awaited breathe of relief, it came out almost broken. She slouched slightly; the weight of everything was resting on her shoulders and she could feel it crushing her. 'How much longer?' she thought to herself. 'How much more must I bear?' she clutched herself under her cloak. Her nails dug into her skin, even if she had sleeves to protect her, it hurt. She was starting to really break and she had no one to blame but herself. If she had sought help from her team and not the creepiest guy in all Ninja history.
"Sakuraki…" a voice said behind her. It was sweet and caring and soft. There was a hand on her shoulder and it seemed like the weight was lifted slightly.
"Akihiko, you shouldn't be out here, you might get sick again." She said in a worried tone as she turned to face Akihiko. Her breathe caught in her throat and she felt the heat rush to her cheeks. He was so beautiful to her. He was taller than her, with pale skin that under the grey clouds looked marble and so smooth. She reached to touch his left cheek and brush it, just to make sure that he was real. As she went down his cheek her hand brushed his white hair. It was surprisingly soft as her fingers went through it and her hand continued until her hand came to rest on his heart. There was clothes and a cloak between her hand and his chest, but she could feel his heart beat and that was all she needed to keep her going. He had now become something she wanted to protect, from everyone and especially Orochimaru. He had done so much to Akihiko already, her hand clenched at the thought of him being dissected by that crazy man. Luckily it had not come to that because Sakuraki had taken Akihiko away.
"It doesn't matter. I can see how this is affecting you. We have to leave already. I can't bear to see you so broken." He whispered as he pulled her against him.
They stood like that, frozen in time almost. Their surroundings seemed to stop moving. The grey clouds above them reflected the sadness in both their hearts. It was a heavy scene, luckily no one was around to see the lovers clinging embrace. But she pulled away and turned her back on him, the cold side of her was back now. She wiped away the tears that had snuck past her eyes and stood straight again.
"Cloak yourself again, I don't want to have to fight past Oto ninja as well as Konoha ninja. If this is going to work you need to keep your chakra so low that I won't be able to sense you myself. For as long as you can…" She said as she turned her head toward him. He sighed and nodded as he disappeared from her eyesight. This was his special jutsu that he had created using fuuinjutsu and Genjutsu. She found it hard to believe that she had fallen for someone who was so opposite to her in fighting, it made her smile actually.
She turned in the direction of the multiple chakra signatures, she wasn't really sure though because her sensing abilities were really mediocre. It was more of a gut feeling that was driving her. She was heading toward her friend, someone she could never forget, she was heading toward Amaya.
Amaya's P.O.V
Still trapped
Sora had lead the team to a tree, a very normal looking tree. It was tall, with dark brown old bark that had lines running across the whole thing.
"Notice anything different about this tree?" Sora said, he seemed really happy to be honest. His smile ran ear to ear, like normal.
"It's darker than the rest of them?" Amaya said slowly and slightly confused.
"No…" Sora said looking at her with a hilarious expression on his face. Amaya pouted and looked away, embarrassed at her reply to his question.
"It's the only tree without any leaves! Look around, all of these have leaves except this one. I believe that the person who created this jutsu must have done it from the inside, therefore needing a way to get out, otherwise he would be stuck like us inside it. From was I think, it requires a focussed amount of chakra to trigger the seal to break. But not just anywhere on the tree, right here!" He said and he pointed to a place on the bark that was a spiral. "That's where you come in Rai-kun! I need to you to use your raiton chakra to make that point vulnerable enough for me and Amaya to be able to release the jutsu." He finished off his sentence with large movements and an exploding sound.
Amaya and Raiden just looked at him. They both knew he could do it, but they didn't expect him to actually DO IT. Raiden smiled at his younger teammate and rubbed him on the head, messing his dark blue hair up. Amaya laughed at him as he tried to reach and do the same to Raiden but he was unsuccessful and just stuck his tongue out at Raiden, who smiled slyly in return.
"Ok, let's show them the true power of TEAM 9!" Sora yelled.
"Hai!" both Amaya and Raiden replied.
Raiden took his polearm off from its holster. It was about his size. The handle was made from a dark oak wood; this was so it could be light enough for him to swing around with ease. The blade was made from silver and some gold. It started as a dragons tail until it wound so much that it was flattened into a long, sharp blade. It was a masterpiece; it was always on his back. He was mainly a medic nin, but when it was required he still had skills to fight. His amazing chakra control allowed for him to create ration chakra. He could manifest it and channel it through his polearm. It looked light a polearm of light, ready to strike foes where they stand. He closed his eyes and stood with the polearm between his hands as he focussed on it. You could see the small sparks being emitted from his hands; they leapt into the air and disappeared.
"Hikaru", he whispered at the blade. His breathe seemed to instantly ignite the blade with shocking lightening. It flickered across the blade in a sort of dance. The lightening was light and that is why the weapon has the name of Hikaru, to shine. The blade that cuts down darkness where it stands, it shines like a beacon of hope for those who have lost theirs.
Raiden lifted the blade in his right hand and raised it on the point where he to strike the tree, that spiral. It wasn't very big, but he was sure that he could hit it. His eyes zoned in on that area and everything seemed to black out around him and he thought of nothing else but that one point. He pulled back his right arm slightly and sent it down with lightening fury toward the tree. It hit the barrier and struggled, but the sheer force of the blow and combined lightening seemed to crack the barrier to a certain extent. Raiden pushed harder, the crackling lightening seemed to ignite more furiously from the tip of the blade that was cracking the barrier. He couldn't maintain it anymore and as he pulled away quickly, leaping back with grace, Sora's palm flew toward the cracked barrier. There was a seal in his hand; he slapped it on to the crack with such speed, not wanting the crack to fix itself. He pulled his hands together performing the correct seals, Amaya joined in.
"Release!" They both yelled at the same time.
The earth around them seemed to shatter, slowly falling onto the ground and disappearing into nothingness. Amaya and Sora were both speechless really, heavily breathing and speechless.
"Ama-chan! We did it! Yaaaay!" Sora jumped into the air and hugged Amaya.
"Yeah, we did." She smiled at him as he hugged her, until she couldn't breathe because he was hugging her so tightly. "Ouch…Sora… can't… breatheee!" she said softly.
"Oh, gomen…" He said as he released her from his grip.
"Well done Sora." Raiden said as he stood behind the shorter boy and of course, he put his hand on Sora's head.
"Guys, we have to go, team 8 need us. We van celebrate when we know that they are safe." Amaya said as she leaped onto a branch.
"Haaaiii Captain!" Sora replied as he saluted her and appeared instantly next to her, only to realise that Raiden was already there.
"Which way Sora?" She asked him.
"That way!" he said enthusiastically as he pointed north.
The three ninja's leapt from the branch at the same time, moving like shadows in the air. Their feet made no noise as they touched the wood. Their breath made no sound as they pushed themselves toward their goal. Amaya could only think about one thing, Kiba. It sounded like she was obsessed but, she knew how he liked to play the hero and she knew that one day that could get him killed.
"Captain, they should be right in front of us!" Sora yelled. The whole team leapt down onto the ground beneath them.
Amaya lead the team toward where team 8 were supposed to be. The crunch of broken twigs seemed louder, it was like everything got quiet. She could feel her heartbeat in her ears, an erratic heartbeat. 'Was he ok? Where his team ok? How many injuries do they have? What if she's too late? Oh,no, then Sora will blame himself. I hope we are not late. Shit, shit shit… What if they fought HER…', she thought all these things as she parted a bush in front her.
A kunai flew and landed in the tree next to her, close to her face. That gave her hope; it meant they were partially ok. She entered from out of the bush and her eyes widened at the sight. Akamaru stood, in his defensive position, fangs bared at the unknown, now known, people. She saw a cave entwined with tree roots where she could just make out Kiba and possibly Shino and Hinata in the back.
"Kiba?!" she said and his eyes snapped open. "KIBA!" she said again as she ran toward him.
