Three left. All that remained left were three possibilities. Sakura contemplated to herself as they traveled through the forest. Kakashi's orders were simple, find Sasuke and Gaara. With this mission, she was solidated to 3 options. One the smart but lazy Shikamaru, he too would fall off the list leaving them to deal with a group of attacking Nin. This only left two, and two of the best fighters she knew.
One was an obvious desire, her heart fluttered at the idea of being able to fight with the boy she admired for his strength and determination, his looks stood as a triad of what made Sasuke such a prominent figure to her generation. However, when they arrived on the scene to The Uchiha on his last leg, even his seal on the curse mark given to him was broken, sending dark marks of control all over his body. This eliminated him as well...he couldn't fight any longer less he sought out death. He fell into unconsciousness not long after they arrived.
They arrived on the scene to the shapeshifted form of Gaara, taking a similar appearance to that of the demon he held inside him. Sakura didn't know if it was the ability of the sword perhaps, or maybe it was the invokers that allowed her to travel into Kage ha that pierce her ears, but whatever it was Sakura could see an aura around them.
It had gotten much larger than they were, and it waved like static in frantic motions like the shadows that had gotten into the real world she fought earlier. The color felt akin to blood, it was sickening and gave a look he was surrounded by nothing but carnage. There stood the Red sinner for all to see, and his sins eating him alive.
Within seconds Sakura watched as a sand tendril had raised and spiraled toward the raven-haired boy, her only instinct was to jump in its place. A kunai in her hand was raised as if to fight it off directly, however as the sand attempted to restrain her she soon pointed it at herself.
"Yoru!" She called, he had instructed her to do so in a dangerous situation. She clenched her eyes shut, hoping it had worked. She kept them closed, till she heard a noise signaling it had work, a deep noise of an hourly chime of a clock. She opened her eyes and looked at the world around her, it was exactly as the cat had said. The sand lay stop mere inches from her face, the leaves and branches lay still in a paused fashion. Even her teammates, whose horror-stricken faces lay in a frozen manner. Time had stopped, if only for a brief while. Her invokers had prevented her from being held in the same manner.
Another chime had sounded, she didn't have much time. With a quick motion of hand, she summoned a clone of herself to take her place, then jumped back to the branch Her blonde teammate had stood on. It was her only option, the only person who stood to be her ally in this battle was the blonde bonehead himself. She walked to him and raised the kunai to him pointing the very tip to his ear. She cut it gently, blood freezing with time. She reached up and undid one of her own invokers and began to press it through the cut, soon making it a hole. She stood back as the color of time returned to his face and his initial action reacted upon.
"SAKURA-CHAN!" He yelled in terror, only for him to silence and notice the difference in his world. he looked around to see Sakura standing by him, then back to the sand to see another Sakura. Then to his surprise figuring out it was a clone. "Sakura-chan... what's going on?" He asked in an anxious voice, he cringed slightly noticing the pain on his ear, and reached up to feel a metal earring in it.
"Don't remove that! that's what keeps you outside Yoru's power." Sakura explained much to Naruto's confusion.
"Who the hell is Yoru...wait did...did time stop?"
"Yes...Naruto I need your help with something." She paused for a moment, trying to find the words, she looked around to find the words, then focusing on Gaara, wondering if he can see the aura. "Do you see that Naruto? that odd glowing around him?" She pointed at Gaara who remained frozen in a rageous face. Naruto looked over at him and studied him hard, squinting his eyes till he was able to see something out of place.
"yeah...what is that?" He asked Curious, if Sakura was able to point it out to him she had to know what it was right?
"That's his anger Naruto...His anger, his hatred. it's his sin." She looked at it with a worried expression. "It at ate him so long, possibly his entire life, that he'll eventually become a monster." Her gaze returned to him with a determined expression. "I need your help to destroy it."
"Destroy it? is that even possible? If it's his own anger then won't that kill him?" Naruto seemed surprised, he wasn't the type to kill, anyone who knew him knew that.
"I don't know, but if we don't then He'll destroy everyone. Please, Naruto!" She asked as another chime sounded, startling both of them. "We don't have much time left till it wears off." The blonde looked between her and the victim of this so called self-anger, then just nodded.
"Ok, I'll help you...I don't understand any of this though." he murmured, unknowing of his teammate in this mission was turning a kunai against herself. He only caught a glimpse of her impalement.
"So she picked her ally, you were correct in that guess milord. however, how do you expect them to defeat the sin?" Within darkness, a voice spoke to a man which was only silhouetted by the bright sun behind it. "He has to manifest within Kage ha for it to be defeated, and it's doubtful they will lead him to it."
"You are correct in that, however, you must remember he has calculated that as well." A familiar voice spoke, it's tail wavering. The darkness seemed curious of the cat's words.
"You aren't intending to raise Kage ha are you? " it asked to the silhouette, he only received a light chuckle in response.
"To raise Kage ha would destroy the very purpose of it. If the darkness it collects from the world is released we would have no choice but to destroy that world."He spoke, a voice akin to bells and the essence of warmth. He raised a hand, the motion showed he was holding his chin. "I do however intend to bring them into it...though there may be a straggler or two." His raised hand waved to him and a bead began to take shape. Reflective like water yet almost metallic. The bead flew out from his hand and into the darkness.
"SAKURA-CHAN!" Naruto yelled frantic, seeing her self-inflicted wound he bound only a step to her before she pulled out a Katana in exchange. He stood there frozen, he had recognized the sword from the forest of death. "You...you pulled that katana out of your body...h-how." Naruto took a step toward her, she seemed unfazed by her actions.
"I promise I'll explain as much as I am able to after, but we need to focus on this now." She heard another ring and the color of time started to return to the world. The sand soon enveloped the fake Sakura and pinned her to the tree. Another Tendril of sand came flying toward them, this time, Sakura was fully prepared. Lifting the colorless blade she cut through the sand, sending it in a useless spray unable to touch them.
Naruto watched fascinated as Sakura was able to subdue the particles with this blade, but then it hit him that she was waiting for him to act. He grinned largely and raised his hands, his fingers bent and turned in all directions, allowing him to generate an obscene amount of clones. they jumped out from the spray and surrounded the sand bender.
"You're going down!" They all yelled before diving to the red haired one, a repeating cycle of destroying one and another 3 came. Sakura watched as Gaara's aura started to grow larger and larger his rage increasing. The sand and bloody aura seemed to melt together and began to send spiraling drills of sand and rage at them. the two went separate ways, naruto focused on dodging and creating more clones. Sakura sliced each projectile with the 10 color blade, disintegrating the attacks with ease. This enraged him even more, no matter the attacks it seems they found a way to evade it. At the peak of his rage, the sand wavered and began to flood around him, combining with his aura his rage becoming almost too great for him.
"Sakura-chan! what's going on?!" Naruto yelled as he watched the sand and anger spiral around the other.
"I don't know!" Sakura held her arm out in front of her face to block out particles from getting into her eyes. Her focus deterred from him however when she heard a familiar bell, causing her to looked up. something was coming from the sky at a tremendous speed it flew through the trees past the middle of their fight and to the ground. Bouncing off the hard ground it hovered for a moment before flattening and growing in size. It covered the ground , spreading across the roots and bushes as if almost destroying their very existence. The ground turned reflective if almost mimicking a mirror, then changed to a familiar place to Sakura.
"It's Kage ha!" She exclaimed, looking down into the abyss that mimicked their home.
"What the hell's Kage ha?" Naruto said looking into this hellish land. Before Sakura could answer they watched as the sand began to sink down into the newly opened portal and into the hell of Kage ha. the sand seemed to retreat into Gaara, however, the Red aura had expanded and seem to engulf the shadowy land. The two watched as the aura seemed to expand and change forms, it grew into a silhouette of a beast, the size perhaps of the ancient demons that plagued the earth from before.
The dark town took on a red hue, reminiscent of a blood-stained city. A terrible scream emitted from the head of the monster as the aura seemed to crack and peel away. Leaving behind a creature beyond a demon itself. The power of the Shukaku and the manifestation of Gaara's rage left behind a creature of horrendous nature. Spikes covered every inch of its body which looked like that of a tanuki, where its head should have been a second body rested, that of an armless man's. A human face reminiscent of Gaara's rested on his shoulders with two large horns protruding from its head. A centaur-like beast, the Red Sinner.
The sinner has been born.
They both looked in horror at the beast, nerve seeing anything that could resemble it before in their lives. Even Naruto who held Kurama, never seen something so atrocious. He looked up to his pink teammate who stood frozen in fear, a few shakes from her body, then her head he watched her begin to lift her foot off the branch they were on. "Sakura-chan you can't be serious?!" his retaliation went unheard as he watched the girl descend into the hellish town replica. He stood there a moment before jumping in headfirst, Sakura needed him and he'd be damned he'd turn her away in her time of need.
Descending into the city both of them landed on different buildings and stared up at the hellish beast.
"Sakura-chan! What's the plan!?"
"Not die!" Sakura said looking down at the ground, the creatures she fought before raided the ground, acting as the monster's minions. They seemed to be safe however on the top of the buildings for now.
"So the red sinner has been born." Sakura turned her head to see a familiar feline.
"Yoru! How did you get here?"
"I am an ambassador to a god I have no bounds, so I figured you would need some guidance." He said walking up to them tail swaying. "I can only interfere briefly, this battle is for you as dictated by my lord."
"Sakura-chan...you have a talking cat?" The blonde approached her, seemingly surprised.
"Oh...Naruto this is Yoru...he's...he's kinda the one who's been guiding me." Sakura admitted a bit nervously.
"Now now let's stay focused, there will be plenty of talk later on. For now, let's concentrate on the Sinner." The cat walked to the ledge of the building and jumped to the next, signaling them to follow. "The objective is to eliminate the sin, destroying it from taking over in the outside world."
"Ok...but how do we do that?" Sakura asked worriedly, the cat could only chuckle.
"You have two great powers to battle with Sakura," Yoru started, leading them building to building, this confused her greatly. Two powers? "The 10 color sword which will cut through anything you desire and the second being your ally. Believe in each other, you may surprise each other on your abilities." Naruto was frankly surprised by the compliment, a great power. It made him chuckle, him a great power? This cat knew what he was talking about.
"Ok then, we destroy this thing, it stops all these weird creatures right?" Naruto asked, looking down below to what appeared to be a small army of the red creatures.
"Yes, however destroying it will be a difficult task. The Sin is powered by the sinner with it." The cat paused and jump, one of the spikes from the creature had fired, targeting them. "Run!" The cat sprinted, the two following close behind, dodging and attacking the spikes that attempted to impale them.
"How can we attack it Yoru?! we can't get close to it!" Sakura exclaimed, even if she used the sword to deflect the attacks it could mean several targeting her at once. It almost felt like a game of cat and mouse, then adding the very nature of Kage ha which would spin at a constant as it repeats itself, mere evading attacks became high-risk jumps.
"That is for you to figure out my dear! My time is up!" The cat almost seemed to evaporate slowly into smoke. "Believe in each other!" He yelled before completely disappearing.
"Sakura-chan I have an idea!" Naruto panted, pausing a brief moment to make a motion of hand signs. Another set of clones appeared, all running in different direction. Attacks soon followed the fakes rather them and they made their way closer to the beast. From the roof of the building they made their way to the spikes on the creatures leg. Naruto paused a bit to catch his breath.
"Are you ok?" Sakura asked, already on the spike.
"I'm fine! just a bit winded." He jumped on a higher spike trying to get ahead. He didn't want to admit he was still tired from his battle in the Chunin exams. He was already on the creatures back when Sakura started to cut the spikes away from him, she had to keep up somehow. Stopping on the back of the animal half of the Centaur beast again to pause. He looked up seeing something they didn't see earlier. "Sakura-chan! up here!"
Sakura perked hearing her name, finally getting to the top she headed over to Naruto. He merely pointed up and looked in shock at the image before her. What almost appeared to be a crystal lay in the center of it's back, black and red swayed together, in the center the lad rested, a prisoner of his own madness. The sand constantly tried to attack the crystal, as if it were no longer attached to the boy and paid no mind to the two genin.
Sakura stood there contemplating, if she destroyed the monster, she would destroy the sad boy whose life she watched turn into tragedy. She didn't want to hurt him, He didn't deserve this hatred.
"I can't do it..." She said, clenching the sword hard.
"What?"
"I can't kill him! He doesn't deserve to be killed! He's the one who's hurting the most! " She said in a frantic manner, flashbacks of watching his life in the tv, all he wanted to do was find someone...anyone.
"Sakura-chan..." Naruto looked at her, A perspective change on their target was a difficult thing to believe. Perhaps Sakura couldn't stomach ending him..though in his mind he couldn't do it either. Before he could try to comfort her the beast seemed to realize where they are and started to move, frantic movements trying to buck them off, one final slam and it sent both ninjas flying off the beast into the uncontrollable gravity of Kage ha. They fell forever it seemed like, it was hard to say when they'd reach the ground. Spirals of the spikes started to chase after them.
"Damnit!" Sakura yelled in frustration, their hard work was put to waste to her indecisiveness. She began to slash at the air, destroying the spikes around her and trying to calm her anger. each swipe happened if in a chain, one after the other, then another. Within a blink of an eye, one spike had disappeared and she was all ready to swing for the next till another spike didn't appear, only Naruto.
'Oh no.' Her mind raced, her body already in the motion, it felt like time was stopping again, she would end the poor boy in a fit of rage. she begged, don't cut through Naruto, don't cut through Naruto.
"You can cut through anything." rang through her head.
"Make me eat my words forehead girl"
'cut through...his exhaustion.' her mind chimed, finally at peace as the sword hit the boy. Rather than cut through him, the blade appeared to phase through the lad, smoke only emitted through it. As it had only cut the creature when it grabbed ino, it only cut and destroyed Naruto's exhaustion. Had he an extra burst of extreme energy no, but the lag from earlier was no more much to his surprise. A flick of his wrists and more clones were summoned, who maneuvered their ways to the sides and were able to force them out of falling and back to a controlled gravity. They laid on the side of a building for a brief moment before Sakura began to push herself up.
"Sakura-chan...what was that?" Naruto asked following her movements. She stood a moment before staring at her arm.
'cut only the air' she thought, lifting the sword onto her arm. just as it did earlier it phased through her flesh, only making a strange suction from the air being displaced.
"That's it Naruto...this blade can cut through anything...that means...If I can cut your exhaustion...then I can cut his bonds to his sin." She said, her voice almost sounded in disbelief, yet affirmed in this new concept. She turned back to Naruto and smiled, before turning back and charging off the building back to the beast.
"Sakura-chan!" He exclaimed, his clones and himself soon followed her, staying more the building and becoming more of a game of climb down. With each spike thrown the clones attempted to deflect them, becoming a deadly repeating lattice of bodies, kunai and spikes.
'Don't worry...' She got closer and closer to the beast. 'I'll get you out of this.' nicks and cuts soon covered the girl. ' you won't have to feel this pain anymore.' She soon aerial dived onto the back of the beast. Cutting through the sand, then the crystal , then the bonds that tied the sin to the sinner. From the other side, the two bodies fazed out of the creature as it gave a terrifying shriek. A hard cold ground would of greeted them if the sand hadn't returned to the boy, creating a slope of sorts for both of them.
Sakura lay there a moment, her ribs hurting from the rough ground, swallowing hard she pushed herself up and walked over to the fallen boy, soon sitting next to him. Naruto had reached her a few minutes later, soon joining her to watch the boy. The monster raged on, charging through the Destroyed nature of Kage Ha, in it's fit it seemed to forget about Sakura and Naruto as they waited for the red haired boy to wake. He shook a bit and adjusted himself before finally opening his eyes to see the two nin he had watched before his descent into madness.
"W-where am I?" He was groggy and sounded hoarse.
"You are in Kage Ha...You...you've been cut away from your sin." Sakura hesitantly said.
"My sin?" He forced himself to sit up and looked to see the terror of a beast that shared the same face as him. "W-what is that thing?"
"A combination of your hatred...your rage...and your despair. It overtook you and became a monster." Her voice seemed to relax a bit, taking on a soft tone. Gaara stared at them, trying to process her words. Any anger he had previously felt toward them or the situation had faded, it was a quiet state of mind he hadn't felt before.
"Why...why would you help me. I'm a monster who is despised and hated, I hold a devil in my body that I can use to kill thousands..." He reached for his head to rub it, this new feeling of emptiness felt akin to a headache, though instead of an overload it was completely emptied.
"No...your not a monster. You hold...a beast inside you...one of tremendous power and dark intent...but that doesn't dictate who 'you' are" Sakura began, remembering the images she seen of the boy in his distraught childhood. "People...people feared you for stupid reasons...they treated you like an item and forgot you were a person...and it ate at you till you burst." Her tone grew sadder and sadder. "I watched you want nothing more than to not hurt. You started to hate it, hate everyone and wanted to destroy them. That cycle only fed into their fear, creating a ruthless cycle of irony." Her eyes began to water, seeing no longer the sinner, but the victim of sin itself. "I want you to know I don't think your evil...I think you can be a good person. I accept you...I want to be your friend. I want to be there for you...so you don't have this on your shoulders. If you can't bare it anymore. " She stood up slowly, a smile on her face. "Then I will."
A sinner is forgiven
Gaara sat there, staring at her with a shocked expression. Something he never had before, she had done for him...She cried for him. Though tears couldn't come out of the boy it did another. A single tear that fell down the cheek of Naruto Uzamaki.
Sakura turned and had every intent to dive in by herself until a hand grabbed her wrist.
"Wait..." The blonde asked, bucking up before she could see how he was affected. "You asked me to help you right...then...Then We'll fight this together. Right?" He almost seemed worried in his question, would they fight together...did she accept him?
"...Yeah..." She smiled softly to him. "We'll end this...together!" Naruto's face soon produced a determined grin, they both turned to face the beast and charged up after it. A battle that became easy once they knew how they worked together, a battle that changed the opinions to the few watchers who were caught into the power that brought them to Kage ha. A battle that gave light to a new destiny for both of them.
The destruction of the monster sent a burst of energy that rippled from Kage Ha to the real world. Sending back any who were unfortunate enough to stumble into the hellish nightmare town. The two allies laid in the grass, exhausted and covered in a variety of injuries. Beside them the red haired boy sat watching over them, they weren't dead he knew that much. Soon two Genin approached them, the sand siblings who had pursued them were no longer seeking to harm. They too were thrown into Kage Ha and had to outmaneuver the shadows that served as minions to their brother, however, they were able to watch the battle and viewed "freeing" Of their little brother. They approached them and waited, watching them slowly regain consciousness.
"They're awake...Nin from their village will be here any minute. We need to go." Temari said softly, Her brother turned to look at them, his face almost holding worry.
"but..." He trailed off looking to the two who turned around and fought for him.
"G-go...we'll be ok here." Naruto choaked out, coughing hoarsely before smiling at him. His siblings started to help the boy up.
"Wait..." He turned back to them. "What are your names?" The victim asked, weak from the entire ordeal.
"I am Naruto Uzamaki, I fight so I may become Hokage." Giving one of his famous smiled, showing his entire personality.
"I am Sakura Haruno...And I am the bearer of the 10 colored blade." She spoke weakly, the first time she had properly stated what Yoru would call her title.
"Naruto...Sakura...Thank you."
