IX

Sasuke and Sirius jumped back on top of the water. Sasuke eyes changed to the same red as his Sharingan and his cursed seal started to form on his body. He stopped once the first level was complete and rushed at Sirius with speed that Sirius couldn't even compare to.

Crap! he thought as Sasuke came from behind, but quickly weaved around and slammed his fist into Sirius' face. The punch connected and Sirius flung back, but Sasuke quickly swerved behind him and punched him in the back, making Sirius land into the water nearby.

I can't believe I have to use it now... Sirius thought as he began to sink. Irregular, twisting, black stripes started forming on Sirius' entire body. He had entered the first level of his own cursed seal. The origin of his cursed seal was from a long time ago, when Sirius was 12. Sirius was one of the first and was used as a test subject. That's why he was called an experiment in the first place. It was believed he died after the early cursed seal began to control his entire body in a final stage that was rumored as the "third level" of the cursed seal.

But, this was proven wrong after Sirius returned, and then, Sirius defied Orochimaru and left him. After the skies blackened, Sirius believed it to be his quest to help the skies return to their former color.

Sirius immediately lashed out of the water and formed hand seals. "Suiton: Suishōha!" The water below the waterfall rose up into a gigantic tidal wave. Sasuke's eyes widened as the massiveness of it. Sirius pressed his hands together and the tidal wave crashed down upon Sasuke with so much force it created a large basin of water where the tidal wave had struck. Soon enough, the basin bubbled and crashed up; imploding upon itself. Sasuke didn't have time to attack. Sirius started forming even more hand seals.

"Suiton: Daibakure no Jutsu!" The rising water spun around viciously and started lowering, crushing the earth below it. A giant maelstrom appeared from the collapsing water. You couldn't even see Sasuke through all of the water movement. Sirius pressed his hands down into the water and the maelstrom subsided. Sirius sighed and stood up, staring down at the water. The skies grayed more than usual as Sirius started to look up at the skies. They seemed to darkened, as if some sort of hurricane was coming. That's when Sirius looked down, hearing a bubbling sound below him. Eventually, a grayish-tan hand appeared out of the water and grabbed Sirius by one of his ankles; Sirius instantly felt himself being lifted upward. Sasuke shot out of the water, pulling Sirius upward. Sasuke had transformed to the second level of his cursed seal. The white of his eyes was, instead, black. His hair was much longer and turned into a bluish-gray color. His skin was grayish-tan color and two large hand-like wings were grown out of his back.

Sasuke stopped, high in air. He grabbed Sirius other ankle and wrapped his legs around an up-side down Sirius' upper body and they were instantly thrust downward. Shit! Sirius thought and allowed his own cursed seal to consume his body. But, Sirius' cursed seal was different. All of the lines moved over to the right of his body and formed there, but not over on the left side. Sirius' headband fell of as well during the transformation. Sirius' body glowed red as it usually would during transformation. Also, only half of his face was covered by the glow. When they hit the water, Sasuke instantly let go with a broad sneer of a smile on his face. But something was wrong to him... Sirius didn't seem to be dead... When the idea hit him, it literally hit him. A large, elongated, black arm with only three claw-like fingers and a clawed thumb; with white stripes all over the place struck him and shoved him into the water. That's where he saw the transformed Sirius. Sirius' body was only consumed by half-yes, but half of his face was black and covered slightly in white stripes. Sirius' scar also turned white, but you could distinctly tell his scar from the other stripes. His right eye was red and his eyes color was white. His left eye was the regular color or a cursed seal: the white was black and his eye color was yellow. Sirius' mutated arm shortened back to its regular size. Where his shoulder was, there was a long spike there, also black with white stripes. From all angles, the arm looked a little flat, like it was tape.

"Let us begin..." Sirius replied. His voice was higher in tone and a smirk was on his face.

Back to the battle with Four-Tailed Kyuubi Naruto and Inner Empowered Sakura...

Sakura had a small trail of blood from the corner of her mouth. She punched back a lunging Four-Tailed Kyuubi Naruto, knocking him back into a nearby boulder. Sakura jumped up and struck at the boulder once and an earthquake issued afterwards. Naruto was caught in the earthquake, but didn't allow himself to be defeated that easily. Sakura gripped her arm in pain. Even though she had unmatched strength for now, it was painful for her to use this power excessively so. Naruto found his spot to strike and powered up an attack within his tails.

Sakura noticed the attack coming and immediately stood up, let go of her arm, and punched the fox-like Naruto in the stomach, blood spurting from its mutated mouth. Sakura thrust another punch into its face, making it fly back. Sakura fell to her knees, each arm holding each other in agony.

I've just got to beat up Naruto enough to change him back, she thought. That should be easy enough... If this pain doesn't kill me first. That was true in itself. Every- time Sakura got injured, the chakra she had would regenerate the cells and heal the wound entirely, but this would shorten her life span a little bit each time.

But Naruto didn't back off, he just kept coming. This both irritated and scared Sakura. He wouldn't stop and this would continue to shorten her life span with each injury, not to mention the pain from defending herself. She had to stop this madness somehow. Then she thought of something. Sakura herself backed off and jumped over to a nearby ledge. Naruto followed wildly, but to another cliff instead. He must've known what she had in mind.

Sakura started to forming a ball of swirling energy in the palm of her hand.

Naruto formed the nine-tail chakra into a slightly larger ball in his clawed hand.

Sakura's ball started to take shape and turned the color of a sort of pinkish-green.

Naruto slightly larger ball of chakra also took shape, but his was black and the center was blood-red.

The two looked up and stared at each other for a moment, revealing all of their emotions into this one last attack. They both took stance and shot up from their ledges, flying above the ground, chakra emitting from both of them. They were soon just inches from each other, ready to attack. Sakura pulled back her "Spiraling Sphere", anger on her face. The same with the Four-Tailed Kyuubi Naruto. Then, they shot their attacks at each other. There was silence for a moment and then...

"RASENGAN!"

The "Spiraling Spheres" clashed with one another. Vibrant auras of red and green shot out from the clashed attacks. They both put even more power into their attacks, trying to make it so themselves beat the other. Once they were all out of chakra, a white flash was left behind, engulfing the area around them. Nothing could be seen past that flash

Sakura and Naruto were both normal now, but with white all around them. For a second, Sakura thought she was dead.

"Sakura... Thank you..."

Sakura smiled.

"But is it true...?"

"What?"

"Do you love me?"

Sakura thought for a second and then smiled strongly again and shook her head.

"Good... I knew we were just friends anyway..."

The light around them faded.