Chapter 7
Ugh this chapter gave me so much trouble. I don't even know why. I'm not very happy with it, but hey, what can you do? Thanks for reviewing guys! Makes my day and motivates me to update more often! Anyways, enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto blah blah blah.
"Thoughts"
"Speaking"
Sakura awoke from her peaceful slumber with a jolt as she felt a malicious aura leaking onto the edges of her own. Nudging Sasuke awake, she saw his eyes shoot open. Placing a finger to her lips, she pointed in the direction of the aura, using the sign language they had all learnt at the academy to communicate.
'Do you feel that?' she signed.
Sasuke nodded, signing back, 'Powerful nin. Hide or attack?'
Sakura paused, biting her lip as she rapidly weighed the pros and cons of each option.
'He can definitely sense us. Pretend we're weak.' She replied. Sasuke nodded, kicking Naruto awake, covering his mouth as he quietly explained the situation. Sakura took this time to rethink the plan, before deciding that it was indeed the best option.
This nin was powerful, more so than any of them had ever seen before. Which meant that he or she knew that Team 7 was here, so hiding was out of the option. The nin obviously meant to confront them, otherwise they wouldn't have bothered with coming this near to another team. So their only option was a confrontation and the only way they could possibly survive this was if the nin was overconfident and with the element of surprise.
Seeing Naruto now briefed, Sakura nodded to her teammates, cursing her previous self, "Shit! Why couldn't I have started training earlier!"
As a group, the group timidly crawled out of their hiding place, brandishing shaking kunai in an attempt to appear weak. They stood; back-to-back, worried expressions on their face as their eyes darted side to side, twitching at every small noise.
"Well well well…I must say…I expected better from the Uchiha heir." Said a low voice, "Why did Itachi-kun bother to leave you alive I wonder?"
Sakura saw Sasuke twitch as she groaned mentally, "Please Sasuke! Control yourself!"
All eyes darted to the far edge of the clearing as the grass-nin from earlier sauntered out of the far end of the clearing. "My my, Sasuke-kun…I never thought you would be so weak…" the nin said mockingly, emphasizing the weak.
Sasuke spoke, glaring at the nin, "I'm not weak."
"Oh really? All I see before me is a team of scared, weak, little genin…your parents would be ashamed," he taunted.
With a roar of rage, Sasuke lunged for the nin, anger clouding his judgment as Sakura cried, "Sasuke, no!" leaping into action after him, only to be stopped by a large snake that took up a quarter of the large clearing, poofing out of thin air.
Naruto looked torn between his two teammates until he heard Sakura yell with a glare at the snake, "Go Naruto! Help Sasuke! I'll take care of this mongoose food."
Tilting her forehead protector down, Sakura sized up the snake.
"This thing is big…I'll need a big jutsu to kill it…What are snakes vulnerable to?"
"Choose from either a lightning jutsu of a really big fire jutsu." Inner Sakura advised.
The snake lunged for her, forcing her to leap away, just barely being crushed by the surprisingly quick thing.
"It's too fast…I'll need to slow it down first…"
Changing her rapid hand signs, she started on a new series, hoping this would work.
"Ninja art: Devil's Cage!" She yelled, throwing several shuriken tied with razor sharp wire around the general area of the snake. The shuriken wrapped the snake up tightly, cutting into its flesh making it hiss in pain. As the wire cut into the snake, it erupted into flames, scalding the snake, making it thrash in pain.
Sakura wasted no time, moving to her next set of hand seals, hoping to enhance the strength of the fire jutsu and finish the snake off.
Her hands moved rapidly, only just finishing the final seal when the snake broke free of the wires, lunging for her, mouth open wide in a fit of pain-induced rage.
"Fire style: Great Dragon of Fire!" she cried, leaping to the side clumsily as she completed the jutsu. She held back a cry of pain as she felt one of the snake's fangs tear deeply down her leg.
Focusing through the pain, she took a deep breath and blew, a great column of fire erupting from her mouth, twisting to from a dragon. The dragon let loose a roar, swooping down on the snake, impaling it with its talons and biting at its neck. It held the snake still, wrapping its wings and body around the trashing snake until it went limp.
Seeing the snake dead, Sakura gagged at the smell of burning snake flesh and fell to her knees as the adrenaline wore off and she took a look at the gash in her right leg. She bit back a cry of pain as she moved it slightly. She ran her healing chakra over it and helped staunch the bleeding, but it had torn muscle and possibly some ligaments, which was something that she hadn't learnt how to deal with yet.
She turned to look at her teammates, seeing them just managing to hold of the grass-nin. Looking closer, she could see that the nin wasn't even utilizing his full power.d
"Inner, help me!"
"I-I don't know what to do…" The usually confident inner personality said.
"J-just make the pain stop…I need to help N-Naruto and Sasuke…I don't care about what happens after."
"…Okay. I'll do by best." Inner said solemnly.
Sighing as she felt the pain slowly abate, Sakura reached for her hip pouch, pulling out a small med-pack. She groaned, wrapping her leg as tightly as possible with some bandages as well as downing a soldier pill.
Feeling herself re-energized, Sakura stood up, putting weight on her leg. Deeming the pain to be bearable, she bent her knees and bounded over to her teammates, interrupting the battle with as Sakura saw a kunai heading for Naruto's unprepared side.
Whipping out her own kunai, she launched it, deflecting the kunai off course. Seeing eyes turn to her, two concerned and one curious, she glared at the grass-nin.
"Who are you? What do you want?" Sakura demanded, blood seeping through the bandages on her leg.
She vaguely heard Naruto's concerned voice, but was too concentrated on the unknown nin to reply back.
Said nin chuckled, "Well well well…Aren't you an interesting one?"
Sakura glared.
"To answer your question…my name is Orochimaru…I want the Uchiha heir." He said, smirking as Sasuke stiffened.
Sakura's eyes widened, "Orochimaru…As in Sarutobi-sama's student?"
He turned surprised eyes to her, "How did you know that girl?"
She glared, ignoring his question, "You're a missing nin, what the hell do you want with Sasuke?"
"Don't brush my question off you insolent girl. Now answer me."
"I know Sarutobi-sama well." She said simply, being privy to knowledge from Sarutobi himself, her studies, as well as what she concluded herself.
"…I see. As for Sasuke…I have great plans for him…I can offer him untold power…" Orochimaru said, maintaining eye contact with the young boy.
There was silence for a moment as the snake sanin's words processed in Sasuke's mind. Sakura could see the temptation in his eyes and knew she had to do something quickly.
She reached down, and tugged off her weights, shaking her limbs slightly.
"I feel so light…" she thought
"S-Sakura…hurry it up…I can't do this forever…" Inner Sakura said.
Focusing, Sakura bent her knees and took off, disappearing in a flash that shocked her teammates and surprised even Orochimaru as he was forced to raise his kunai to deflect hers.
The two clashed, Sakura attacking with viciousness and intensity brought about by the threat to her teammates' health and safety. Utilizing every gram of taijutsu the Lee had instilled into her, she was frustrated to see that it wasn't doing much to the nin.
She leapt away, panting as blood dripped down her leg and she saw her vision waver.
"No! I have to keep fighting!" she thought, shaking her head free of the blurriness as she began to sign a jutsu.
"Fire style: Fire bombs!" she cried, large balls of fire flying towards Orochimaru.
She saw him smirk as they collided with him, exploding in a huge fiery explosion that sent Team 7 flying back. With bated breath, they looked to see his charred body.
Naruto's celebration was cut short however, when Orochimaru started to chuckle, his skin peeling from him like that of a snake.
"Hmm…seems I underestimated you, girl. You have some potential…but alas, I can only take one of you this day, and my choice is still the Uchiha." He said nonchalantly, casting a genjutsu on the team that had them freeze in their tracks, fear overwhelming them.
They each saw their worst nightmares, how they would die, amongst other terrors planted by Orochimaru.
Sakura immediately shut her eyes, trembling with exertion as she tried to fight the genjutsu. Usually she would have Inner Sakura's help, but she was occupied with holding off the pain from Sakura's wounds.
"I-I need to break free of this…but how?" Sakura thought, watching as Orochimaru strolled closer to the team, stopping a few meters away. She watched with horror as his neck elongated and he opened his mouth, revealing fangs.
As the head started to descend, aiming for Sasuke's neck, she screamed.
Orochimaru smirked, before his eyes widened, seeing pink where black should have been. He released his bite, seeing the girl crumple in front of him as he frowned, "She took the attack…Dammit! I can't execute two curse seals so close to each other. Sasuke-kun…just wait."
The snake sanin leapt for the trees as Sasuke and Naruto looked with frozen horror at their unconscious female teammate.
As it turned out, seeing her teammate in mortal danger had broken Inner Sakura's concentration, sending a shot of pure pain rushing through Sakura's body, which in turn allowed her to break the genjutsu and throw herself in front of Sasuke.
Said girl was now unconscious on the floor as the genjutsu was lifted from her two teammates. Immediately Naruto began to panic, guilt racing through him.
"Dammit! Why can't I be stronger? Sakura got hurt…" he thought, watching Sasuke pick the limp girl up and head back to the hollow tree they had stayed in earlier. Following him in, Naruto saw Sasuke unwrapping Sakura's bandages slowly.
The pair gasped and turned green at the sight of her leg. Sasuke gagged, seeing the creamy white of bone. He turned panicked eyes to Naruto. Neither of them knew what to do with an injury like this.
"Sakura…how did you manage to stand, let alone fight like this?" Sasuke thought.
The black haired boy grabbed some bandages from his hip pouch, beckoning for Naruto to help him. He re-wrapped the bandages as tightly as possible, pushing the separated flesh back together in hopes of restricting the bleeding.
With that done, the two turned their eyes to the girl's neck. Their eyes widened, seeing three black tomoe occupy the space that Sakura had been bitten.
"W-what is that?" asked Naruto.
Sasuke shook his head, unsure, "We need to get her help, this was obviously too big of an injury for her to heal with her medical ninjutsu."
Naruto nodded in agreement, "But who else knows medical ninjutsu that we can trust?"
The two contemplated the question in silence for a moment, both coming up blank. Then Sasuke spoke, "We have both scrolls. We'll just have to triple time it to the tower and get help there. We don't know what that bite does and how much blood she's already lost. I'll carry her first. Be on guard, we're vulnerable now."
Naruto nodded, serious in the face of his teammates danger. The two gathered what supplies they had left and leapt for the trees, moving as quickly as they could.
"Ouch…my neck…it's burning…" Sakura thought, "Where am I? Who's carrying me? Inner? Where are you?" She wondered, her face contorted in an expression of pain.
"…I'm right here…" Inner replied, also sounding pained, "Let's hope whoever is carrying you can get us help soon…Neither of us can take much more of this…I'm already siphoning as much of the pain as I can take…"
"I'm sorry, Inner."
"Don't apologize. We knew we had to do it."
Wincing, Sakura slowly opened her eyes, seeing a blur of green as the forest rushed past. Looking around, she saw a familiar person.
"N-Naruto?" she rasped, seeing the boy's shocked eyes. He then stopped on the branch and called Sasuke over.
"Mah…Sakura-chan, you really took a beating…don't worry though! We're going to get you some help! So just relax, we're pretty close to the tower!" he said, his positive attitude making her weakly smile.
She knew she was badly injured. Besides the gouge in her leg and the amount of blood she already lost, she could feel herself getting weaker as the pain from the bite took over.
She looked up, seeing the boys tense as another nin landed close to them.
"Wow, what happened?" Kabuto asked.
"…she was injured…what do you want?" Sasuke asked, unsure of the nin's loyalties.
"Nothing, I just saw you guys. I can try to heal her if you want." Kabuto said, stepping closer, sighing as Sasuke pulled his kunai higher. "Fine, fine, fine, I can understand your hesitance. Here, hold these." He said, tossing a heaven and earth scroll from his pouch to Sasuke.
Sasuke caught them, seeing the subtle message. Sasuke held something valuable of Kabuto's while Kabuto dealt with something Naruto and Sasuke found valuable. A trade off. While it wasn't ideal, Sasuke didn't have a lot of options, so he stepped aside.
Following Sasuke's lead, Naruto gently placed Sakura on the wide branch, taking a step back as she glanced over at Kabuto.
"Oh great…it had to be him. I still don't know why, but he gives me a weird vibe."
"Well, beggars can't be choosers. If he can fix our leg, then it's worth it to just put up with him." Inner Sakura said, pained.
Sakura watched the boy kneel next to her, unwrapping her leg as she bit her lip, trying to restrain a cry of pain as the small breeze stung it. He sucked in a breath, "Well, looks like I have my work cut out for me…"
Raising his glowing hands to her leg, she started to feel the strange sensation of her flesh and muscles pulling back together as tears of pain escaped through her eyes. Cursing her weakness she wiped them away forcefully, closing her eyes as Kabuto continued working on her leg.
After what felt like an eternity, she felt the pain ebb away and opened her eyes, the previously deep wound now a long, shallow cut. Kabuto pulled back, panting, "That's it, I can't expend anymore energy. That took a lot of chakra."
Sakura nodded, "Don't worry, you stopped my from dying anyhow. Thank you." She said, taking a long swig from her canteen before offering it to Kabuto. She shrugged and continued drinking when he shook his head, turning to Naruto and Sasuke.
"I have to head back to my team. See you guys later." He said, taking his scrolls back from Sasuke as Naruto thanked him energetically. Once he was out of sight, Sakura wrapped her leg up with the remaining bandages, not wanting to waste any chakra on an unnecessary wound. She downed a soldier pill, feeling her energy and chakra return. Doing this multiple times wasn't recommended, but she figured just this once, she would be okay.
Sakura could feel Inner Sakura now drawing the pain from the bite away as she sighed in relief. Looking up at her teammate's eyes, she stood up, testing her leg.
"Alright, are you guys okay to keep going to the tower?"
At their nod, Sakura smirked and they all took off, eager to put this test behind them.
As Kabuto travelled through the trees, he was deep in thought.
"That girl…why did she have the curse seal? I thought Orochimaru-sama wanted the Uchiha boy? I'll have to check with him to see what he wants me to do now."
Nodding, he changed his course, soon meeting up with a familiar snake. Entering the clearing he dropped to his knees.
"Orochimaru-sama."
"Rise, boy. What is it?"
"I was wondering what are your plans now? I saw the pink-haired girl was cursed, I thought you wanted the Uchiha?" Kabuto asked, standing.
Orochimaru turned to face his servant, "Yes you are correct, the girl got in my way and took the seal meant for the boy. However, all may not be lost, the girl has potential, perhaps even more so than the boy. She doesn't appear to have a known kekkei genkai, but she somehow defeated my snake summon and even challenged me."
A moment of silence passed as Orochimaru appeared deep in thought. Wisely, Kabuto kept his mouth shut.
"Yes…we will see how the seal reacts during the preliminary rounds then make our decision. After all, it was built with the Uchiha in mind. I do not know what will happen to the girl yet."
Kabuto nodded and bowed, "Yes master," he said before taking off to rendezvous back with his team.
Thanks for reading! Please review! I'll bake you brownies!
