CHAPTER 6

"IN TOO DEEP"

-Sum 41

Tamiko sat on Neji's couch eating a bowl of ramen thinking, as she had been for two days now. Not hearing about Kotone's health from Jooji was irritating. The poisoned needles lay on the table in front of her. She sat down the bowl of noodles and picked up one of the senbon, observing it. Something caught her attention.

"This poison is so familiar…" Tamiko thought.

A drop of the poison rolled down the end of the needle onto the floor. She held it up to her eyes and looked at it more closely. Suddenly, she dropped the needle onto the floor and clentched her fists.

"Sasuke…"

Tamiko quickly stood up and began forming hand signs.

"I am going to kill that little—"

Neji heard her yell and ran into the room.

"Tamiko-chan, don't!" Neji said grabbing for her arm. All he caught was thin air as she teleported out of the room. He swore under his breath and followed after her.

Sasuke sat in the center of his bedroom floor with his eyes closed, surrounded by candles. It was completely silent. He opened one eye when he heard someone running up the stairs. His bedroom door busted open and he turned to see Tamiko standing in the doorway enraged. She ran up to him and smacked him in the face.

"What the hell is your problem? Tamiko screamed. He never looked at her.

"What's yours?" Sasuke asked calmly. "Did that Hyuuga guy dump you or something? Going to take all your anger out on me?"

She slapped him across the face again. His cheek turned red.

"Don't act stupid with me." Tamiko said furiously. "Why did you do it?"

He didn't answer. She grabbed him by the arm.

"Answer me when I'm talking to you—"

Tamiko let go of his arm and looked down at her hand. It was a deep red. Blood ran down Sasuke's arm. He turned away from her.

"Kotone did that, didn't she?" Tamiko asked. "When you attacked her?"

Sasuke's body trembled as he nodded.

"Why did you do it?" Tamiko asked again.

Again he didn't answer. She grabbed him by his collar.

"Do you realize what you could have done?" Tamiko said. Sasuke's eyes were wide with fear.

"I didn't know those were the poisoned ones!" Sasuke said. "I didn't mean to do this!"

Neji came running into the room.

"Tamiko-chan." Neji said. "This isn't the way to solve this problem."

Tamiko threw her brother onto the floor and walked over to Neji. He could see in her eyes that she was nowhere through with her brother. All of a sudden, Tamiko yelled out in pain. A shuriken had hit her in the shoulder. But before she could react, Sasuke ran up behind her and pushed Tamiko to the floor and ran out the door.

"Now I'm really going to kill him!" Tamiko yelled ripping out the shuriken and chasing after him.

Once she caught sight of him outside, Tamiko stopped. Thinking quickly, she did an axe kick and hit the ground with her foot. The ground began to shake. A crack formed where her heel had impacted and the earth split apart.

The fault seemed to follow after Sasuke. The ground spread apart from under Sasuke and he fell into the crack. His foot was caught and he couldn't get it free. He looked up to see Tamiko coming for him. He quickly formed hand signs, blowing a large ball of flames at his sister. She barely missed it, but it gave Sasuke enough time to free his leg and escape. He stood up and kicked her in the side. He continued his attack with a punch in the side of her face. Tamiko was still a little weak from healing Kotone, her medic powers consuming most of her chakra. She had a hard time evading her brother's constant attacks. He punched her in the face again and she fell hard to the ground. She wasn't going to give up now though she felt tired, not to Sasuke.

"I will not let you get away with this, Uchiha Sasuke." Tamiko threatened. "There's no way I will let you beat me!"

She looked up at him with bright red eyes. Sasuke only smiled.

"You got your Sharingan too?" he asked. "No matter. Let's go, Sharingan versus Sharingan."

His eyes turned the same. Tamiko stood up and glared at Sasuke. She ran at him and formed hand signs. Out of thin air, multiple shadow clones appeared. They too ran at him. Calmly, he formed hand signs. A fireball burned all of the clones away.

"Kage bunshin?" Sasuke questioned. "What a waste of chakra."

He pulled out a kunai and aimed it at Tamiko who stood in front of him.

"Is this the best you've got?" Sasuke asked.

"Nope." Came a voice from behind him.

Sasuke quickly turned around only to be punched in the stomach by the original Tamiko.

"The other one…a clone?" Sasuke thought. "Why didn't I see that coming?"

Tamiko kicked Sasuke in the side and he landed hard on the ground.

"Maybe your Sharingan isn't as great as you had thought." Tamiko teased. "Or maybe you weren't meant to have it. So much power gone to waste. No wonder Kotone dumped you."

Sasuke lay in silence. His eye twitched slightly.

"Kotone-chan…"

He clenched his fists and stood up. Glaring at Tamiko, he pulled out an enormous shuriken. His hand shook and his eye twitched even more.

"What's the matter Sasuke?" Tamiko taunted. "Can't handle the fact that Kotone doesn't want you anymore? Get over it."

Sasuke opened the shuriken.

"Don't mock me!" Sasuke yelled throwing the shuriken at Tamiko. He pulled out a kunai and broke into a run. Tamiko dodged the shuriken and saw Sasuke coming at her.

"He's a freakin' psychopath!" Tamiko thought.

She did another axe kick like before and broke the earth. The crack moved quickly. As soon as Sasuke stepped down, the earth ruptured beneath his feet. It was too late to stop. Again, his foot got stuck in the hole. His whole body fell forward while his leg twisted and broke under his weight. He yelled loudly in pain. The Sharingan faded as he tried to free his leg.

Tamiko walked over to him and grabbed him by his collar.

"Are you ready to talk?" She asked him feircely. Sasuke tried to push Tamiko away. "Knock it off! I don't know what your problem is, but you'd better tell me now."

He didn't answer. Tamiko let go and turned her back on him, going inside. Neji came out and stood next to Sasuke. Sasuke's face was hidden by his hair.

"Are you ok?" Neji asked. "Need a hand—?"

"Leave me alone." Sasuke replied. Neji only stood there. "Go!"

Without another word, Neji left, following Tamiko. Sasuke sat with his leg still caught in the hole.

"I'm sorry…" He said quietly.

Jooji brought two bowls back into his room where he and Kotone ate. She thought it odd to be eating in the house of someone she rarely talked to.

"How are you feeling?" Jooji asked trying to break the silence.

"Better." Kotone replied.

"That's good." Jooji said.

Later in the day Kotone and Jooji walked around the Village. Soon they were bored, and Jooji offered to train with Kotone to get her strength back up. At the end of the day, Jooji walked her home.

Every day after, Jooji and Kotone would train together and each day, Kotone got stronger and stronger.

"Looks like you're back to full health." Jooji said one evening. "Glad to see you better. We can still train together right?"

"Of course we can." Kotone said. "Let's see if you can keep up."

"It'll be challenging." Jooji said. "Well, I should be going. But, I was just wondering—Want to go for some ramen with me tomorrow?"

"Sure." Kotone said. "See you then."

The next morning, Jooji met up with Kotone at the Ichiraku ramen shop. Jooji thought it would be nicer if they ate the hot noodles under a sakura tree in the park.

They sat at the trunk of the tree together and ate as the light breeze blew the pink blossoms all over. Kotone sat her bowl down when she finished and watched the flowers fall.

"It's so beautiful." Kotone said. "Thank you Jooji-san."

She moved closer to him and hugged him. His face flushed pink and he hugged her back.

"You're such a good friend." Kotone said.

"Do you think…" Jooji started. "that maybe we can be more than that?"

Kotone broke away from him.

"It's just that ever since that incident, I've been with you and I've started to see my true feelings for you." Jooji said. "Now that you're better, we have to go back to your teams. I don't want to be away from you."

Kotone looked up into his light blue eyes. The cherry blossoms continued to fall around them. Jooji leaned towards her and pressed his lips against hers. Kotone's face turned pink.

"Um, Kotone-san?" came a voice.

Kotone looked and saw Neji standing in front of them. She quickly broke apart with Jooji.

"Um, sorry to bother you." Neji said. His cheeks flushed slightly. "I didn't know you were—anyway, um…"

Jooji stood up.

"Hey, Kotone-san, I've got to go." Jooji said.

"Jooji-san," Kotone said. "You don't have to go."

"No, it's alright." Jooji said. "I'll tell Kimiko you said hi. See you later."

Jooji walked away as Kotone turned to Neji.

"What was that about?" Kotone asked. There was a hint of anger in her voice.

"I was just going to tell you that Tamiko is alright." Neji said. "I didn't know that you would be cuddling up to Jooji—OW!"

Kotone punched him in the arm and headed towards Tamiko's house. Neji followed.

When they reached the mansion, Kotone knocked on the door. Tamiko opened it and hugged Kotone.

"It's been so long." Tamiko said. "And Jooji-san never called."

"We just saw him." Neji said. "Him and Kotone were –"

Kotone glared at him.

"Never mind…" Neji said.

"Kotone, I need to talk to you." Tamiko said.

Tamiko led Kotone to her room and closed the door.

"I found out that Sasuke was the one who attacked you that night." Tamiko said.

"What?" Kotone said in disbelief. "He wouldn't –"

"I saw the wound you left on his arm." Tamiko said. "He told me he did it. He just wouldn't tell me why. He's been acting really strange since then. Yesterday, he attacked me too."

"Where is he?"

"In his room."

"I'll go talk to him. Do you mind?"

"Not at all."

Kotone went out of Tamiko's room and knocked on Sasuke's door. She waited a while before his door slid open. In the darkness she saw Sasuke leaning on a pair of crutches.

"What happened to you?" Kotone asked.

"You're best friend kicked my ass, that's what happened." Sasuke said smartly. "What do you want?"

"I want an explaination." Kotone said.

"For what?"

"For what you did. I dump you then you try and kill me –"

"I wasn't trying to kill you." Sasuke said softly. "I wouldn't…"

"Then what were you trying to do?"

"I lost my mind, ok? I didn't know what to do since you were gone."

"So, you poisoned me?"

"I didn't know those were the poisoned ones! I panicked. It all happened so suddenly. I freaked out. I just want you back Koto-chan."

Kotone turned away.

"I told you it won't work out." She said. "And if you cared about me that much you wouldn't take this so personally."

She walked away from Sasuke's room and passed Tamiko's.

"I've got to go." Kotone said.

"Already?" Tamiko asked. "You just got here."

"Sorry," Kotone said. "I just need to be away from Sasuke for a while."

Jooji lay in the grass in an open field and looked up at the sky. He sat up when Kotone sat next to him. He saw that she was upset.

"What's wrong?" Jooji asked.

"Nothing." Kotone said. "I'm just annoyed."

Jooji put his arms around her.

"It'll be ok." He said. "I'll make you feel better."

Kotone smiled and hugged him back.

Sasuke and Tamiko slowly made their way through the Village, with Sasuke on his crutches. Tamiko had heard his explaination, apologized, and told him to get some fresh air.

In the park, Sasuke sat down on a bench. Tamiko sat down next to him. They sat in silence for a while. They heard someone coming through the park. Jooji and Kotone came up the path hand-in-hand.

"Hey Tami." Kotone said.

"Hi Kotone." Tamiko said. "How long have you and Jooji-san been together?"

"A few weeks." Kotone said. "We used to spar each other when I was hurt."

"Why don't you anymore?" Tamiko asked.

"She's good." Jooji said. "I can't keep up."

"What a shame." Sasuke muttered.

"Stop acting so childish!" Kotone said. "Come on Jooji-kun. Bye Tamiko, Sasuke."

Sasuke looked down at the ground as they walked away.

"Damn it…" Sasuke muttered to himself.

"What's the matter Sasuke?" Tamiko said teasingly. "Jealous?"

"Shut up."

"What? It's your own damn fault."

"I know." Sasuke admitted. "It's just…I didn't expect her to be with someone like him."

"What's wrong with Jooji-san?" Tamiko asked.

"He's weak…"

"Not everyone is at your level Sasuke."

"What I mean is that I don't think he's good enough to protect her."

"So you're worried about her now?" Tamiko asked. He didn't answer. "Thought so. Why don't you just tell her that you made a mistake?"

"She dropped the suffix for my name…" Sasuke said. "She thinks so low of me now."

"You don't know that." Tamiko said reassuringly. "She's probably trying to make you feel bad for what you've done. Don't worry about her."