Chapter 11: The Fallen Angel
AN: I must warn you that this chapter does make a very brief foray into the realm of sexual assault. It is not graphic, but I'm putting a warning up on this chapter just in case. Other than that, the normal level of violence and language one would expect.
There are few things so painful in this world as a fight with a best friend. Still, the pain cannot compare to the agony of witnessing a friend fall to the plains of Pandæmonium, never to rise again. As Naruto and Sakura squared off against Sasuke, they understood how painfully high the stakes were. There would never be another chance to save him. This much was all too true. But they had come too far to fail. It was simply not an option. Even if it meant descending into the maw of Hell itself, they would stop his madness.
Naruto made the first move. With lightning speed, he ran through the seals for the Shadow clone technique. As half a dozen shadow clones materialized, Sasuke stood impassively, reading Naruto's every move. The shadow clones soon dove into to attack Sasuke at point blank range. Sasuke readied his chokuto to dispatch the clones, but before he got the chance, the attack ended as quickly as it began. "A feint, eh," Sasuke thought.
As soon as the feint began, Sasuke's attention was diverted to Sakura. In the split second since he'd last seen her, she'd already dashed out on to the river. Her hands worked through a blaze of seals, at least as fast as Kakashi had been able to the last time Sasuke had seen Kakashi perform the Water Dragon Missile technique. "It seems I've underestimated her," he said to himself as she completed the seals. She was fast, and he'd get himself into a lot of trouble if he underestimated her abilities.
Naruto's clones moved into attack once again and Sasuke found himself parrying their nimble attacks as Sakura completed the technique. Six mammoth dragon-shaped columns of water darted out of the river, streaming straight towards Sasuke. This would be nothing less than like being hit with a tsunami, and thanks to Naruto's meddling, there would be no way Sasuke could get out of the path of the massive wall of water aimed towards him. It wouldn't likely be life threatening to a shinobi of Sasuke's level, but this would still hurt like hell. "No choice but to try to maneuver through the trees as the tempest sweeps me away!" Sasuke reminded himself as the water missiles lanced at him.
It felt like he was being hit with giant concrete pillars. Naruto's six shadow clones puffed out of existence upon impact, but Sasuke was swept through the forest, crashing through a couple of the thankfully smaller trees as the current coursed inland. Sasuke held his breath for what seemed like an eternity before the water finally receded, leaving him kneeling in a coughing fit on muddy, torn up earth. Around him, the entire forest for several hundred meters had been flattened, the quite large trees snapped in half or pulled up by the roots, strewn out like match sticks, making a two hundred meter long and fifty hundred meter wide gash in the forest.
He hadn't felt anything really after the initial impact. But now the pain of all the subsequent impacts was getting to him. He winced with pain each time he coughed. At the very least, a few ribs had been cracked. He'd have to get serious if he planned to win. He had clearly underestimated Sakura, and couldn't afford to make the same mistake twice. "Damn. The last time we met, she was a sobbing mess, nothing more than a burden on the team," he cursed to himself."I knew she had improved in the past six years, but I was not expecting this." Sasuke pulled himself to his feet, and surveyed his surroundings.
"You look like a drowned weasel, Sasuke-teme," Naruto jabbed as he raced across the moonscape that Sakura had created.
Sasuke quickly answered with the Grand Fireball technique. Naruto deftly dodged the massive fireball, though avoiding the massive width of the fireball in such short notice forced him dangerously off balance. Sasuke redrew his chokuto, and moved in close to press his advantage. Naruto managed to barely dodge the first blow of his sword. The graceful arc of the blade cut slash through the chest area of Naruto's jacket, barely missing the flesh beneath. Naruto quickly moved in, and grappled Sasuke's arms, immobilizing both his sword hand and his free hand.
"Good, but not good enough, deadlast," Sasuke spat. Arcs of lightning exploded out of his body as he chanted "Chidori Nagashi!" Naruto's face contorted into spasms of pain before he exploded into a puff of gray smoke. Before he could react, Sasuke felt the blow of kick hit him square in the back. He recoiled, and spun around, slashing at the assailant. It too disappeared in a wisp of smoke.
Naruto had improved greatly since their last encounter, but he was still far too predictable. Sasuke caught out of the corner of his eye the image of a third Naruto, presumably the original, charging towards him, Rasengan in hand. Sasuke activated a seal on his arm band while making a throwing motion, sending a barrage of shuriken at the charging Naruto. Naruto evaded the barrage, but he slowed down just enough to give Sasuke the time he needed. As the shuriken splashed into the mud or fallen logs, Sasuke charged a Chidori in his hand and charged straight towards Naruto.
Once again, Chidori met Rasengan. Sasuke and Naruto were both blasted a considerable distance by the resulting explosion of swirling chakra. Sasuke was thrown into the air; he landed on his back on the slick mud before reverse somersaulting to his feet, carefully scanning the area for threats. The sound of shuriken whistling through the air behind him caught his attention. He spun around, and in one swift, fluid motion, he deflected all the shuriken with his chokuto. But the thrower was nowhere in sight. He quickly glanced up, catching the sight of Sakura descending down on him from on high, her fist pulsating with chakra.
Sasuke dashed out of her path, realizing that one of her blows would likely be the end of this fight. Her fist impacted the mud where he stood a microsecond before. The mire rippled violently; it almost seemed like the whole Earth itself was being shaken at its foundations. Was this really the same Haruno Sakura that he knew? The change was like night and day. No matter, Sasuke wouldn't give them any ground because they had improved over the years. He sheathed the chokuto and ran through the seals for the Grand Fireball technique. As the blazing inferno raced towards her, Sakura countered, raising a wall of water out of the saturated mire, blocking the fireball. A cloud of steam wafted over the battlefield, concealing Sasuke from view.
"Oh shit…Naruto, watch out, I've lost track of Sasuke-kun!" Sakura yelled as she escaped from the plume of steam. She soon heard the clash of metal against metal, and ran straight towards the sound.
Sasuke focused all of his effort in attacking Naruto with his chokuto. To his dismay, the dagger Naruto was using could successfully block the attacks by his blade. It was aggravating, but he'd work through this obstacle soon enough. The crackle of his lightning charged blade met the whistling scream of Naruto's blade, and Sasuke quickly deduced that Naruto's weapon also allowed him to channel his elemental nature. No matter, Naruto was too clumsy with bladed weapons to have a hope in this melee. Sasuke continued unrelenting, slowly drawing out holes in Naruto's defense, Only a few more strikes, and he'd strike through, and claim the upper hand in this battle.
That was the plan anyway, but Sakura had other ideas. Sasuke heard her coming too late. He attempted to break free from the melee, but his dodge came just a fraction of a second too late. Her fist connected with his cheek, and he was sent skipping across the watery mud like a human shaped skipping stone. As he skidded to a stop, and righted himself, Sasuke reflected, "This isn't going to go well for me if those two keep playing tag team with me. I have to end this quickly."
"Good, I guess you dead lasts have no intention of holding back," he smirked. The cursed seal began spreading its macabre pattern over Sasuke's body. He always hated drawing out the cursed seal, until of course he actually summoned its profane powers. Its power was an intoxicating drug to him, and like the faithful junky he was, he kept coming back for more sooner or later. But such is the life of a power slave.
Naruto and Sakura stood side by side, waiting for Sasuke to make the first move, but always careful to avoid his gaze. Unlike most shinobi who Sasuke faced, they had actually prepared to deal with his Sharingan, working for months on strategies to counter his eye's hypnotic power.
If Sasuke had been scary and abrasive before he activated the cursed seal, now he was positively terrifying. He acted considerably differently, now that he'd summoned its powers. Before, he took no pleasure in this battle, but now his bloodlust was painfully evident in the impish grin he wore. Still, Sakura decided to try diplomacy one last time.
"Sasuke-kun!" she cried, "It's still not too late. Come back with us. We don't want to hurt you, but we will if we must. You can still be saved, and we can still make everything right. This mad nightmare can end. You won't have to go the road of self-destruction. If you come back with us, we can help you defeat Itachi and Akatsuki once and for all. But if you let yourself be consumed by hate, and let Orochimaru have what he wants, than all that you have fought for is lost."
Sadly, her words fell on deaf ears. "There is no going back, Sakura," Sasuke barked, "It is already too late. If you two really do care about me, than you will turn around and go home. I don't want to kill you, but if you try to stop me again, I will kill you."
"Sakura-chan," Naruto crooned, "It seems that Sasuke-teme is a bit too obstinate for words to work. I guess we'll just have to bring him back the hard way."
Sakura nodded. That was the signal to prepare for their trump card. Naruto summoned a dozen shadow clones, while Sakura circled around to prepare to outflank Sasuke. Naruto and his clones plunged headlong into the melee against Sasuke.
Sasuke decided to forgo the blade this time, preferring to work over Naruto and his clones with his bare hands. Naruto was just never as good at Taijutsu as Sasuke, and both of them knew it. Muttering something about Naruto being a dumbass, Sasuke began tearing through the small army of clones with sadistic glee, searching out the original so that he could give Naruto the beating of his lifetime. Within a few seconds, there was only one Naruto left. Sasuke launched at Naruto, the whirring scream of the Chidori sounding off Naruto's impending doom. The poor dead last tried to block. "Too late, dead last," Sasuke gloated as he rammed the lighting edge straight through Naruto's heart.
To Sasuke's surprise, Naruto exploded into a puff of smoke. Before Sasuke could even say "Kage Bunshin!" a maze of tangling wires wrapped around this body, constricting his movement. This was a problem. "I could have sworn I managed to keep track of the original one in that melee. I kept my eye on him the entire time!" Sasuke silently cursed. Just as he was about to break free from the wires, strong arms worked their way around him, forcing him into a full-nelson.
"I see you did miss me, Sasuke-teme," Naruto chuckled, laughing at his own pun.
Naruto's grip was like a bear's. Even with the cursed seal, there would be no way that Sasuke could break free using strength alone. But other options caused him to smirk maliciously. "Chidori Nagashi," Sasuke shouted, shocking the poor blonde shinobi with all the power he could summon. But still, Naruto held on, gritting his teeth and taunting, "Is that the best you can do?"
Two large serpents streamed out of Sasuke's sleeves, coiling around Naruto, constricting him with beastly strength. "Let. Go. Naruto!" Sasuke yelled, as the serpents latched onto Naruto's limbs. He didn't, but Sasuke had other pressing matters. Sakura was charging straight at him right now, reading to deliver a crippling blow to him. But he had ways of dealing with that.
Instantly, Sakura realized she had screwed up. Sasuke had made eye contact, and slowly the whole world began to dissolve into snakes, reforming into the images of her worst nightmares. Sasuke meticulously planned out this Genjutsu with deliberate malice. The mud of the battlefield seemed to craw up around Sakura's body like invading serpents. Sasuke was determined to break her, even if it meant summoning up every god-awful, perverted hentai cliché in existence.
But he never got that far. As the serpents snaked around her tense form, threatening her with molestation, Sasuke noticed that Sakura wasn't reacting to this Genjutsu quite the way she should. "Oh fuck!" he realized all too late, "This one is a shadow clone!" For the first time in a long while, he panicked, searching for the real one. He looked to the left, and saw nothing but a muddy moonscape. So she had to be to the right. By the time he saw her, she was already right on top of him. This was going to be close. As he locked his eyes on hers for a second time, her gloved, mud-caked hands met his temples. Then, as they say, some really freaky shit happened. His vision exploded into a starburst of colors before slowly fading to black, as the sound of Naruto's grunts of pain slowly were swallowed by silence.
Sasuke found himself floating, surrounded by pitch black and silence. Complete sensory deprivation. Denied any reference point, each second seemed to pass at a snail's pace. And the disorientation made him want to vomit. On top of all of this, he was feeling withdrawal symptoms from the cursed seal. Evidently it had receded after whatever had happened. He slowly collected himself, trying to piece together what happened.
"Okay, pull yourself together, Sasuke. What the fuck happened?! Just go through everything in order, and you'll be able to figure it out. First Naruto pinned you down, and then Sakura made a feint with a shadow clone. Then I spotted the real one, just as she made contact with me."
He pondered for a moment considering all of the events. It still made no sense. It was like he was trapped in a Genjutsu. "But that's impossible. The Sharingan can see through Genjutsu! There has to be something I missed."
So he poured through his memories once more, trying to sort out if he missed some crucial detail. He double checked just to make sure. It still didn't add up. The last time he'd experienced and illusion this deep, Itachi had used the Mangekyo Sharingan on him. But this couldn't be that. Still, it was frightening in its own right. He was utterly at the mercy of whoever had done this. Could it have been Sakura?
As if to answer him, Sakura's soothing voice entered his private abyss. "Hello Sasuke-kun. Are you comfortable enough? Because we have a long itinerary to go through."
"What sort of technique is this, Sakura? There is no way you could cast something of this magnitude."
"My, my, you're an obstinate one, Sasuke-kun. I don't care whether you believe that it is me or not. You can't fight reality. Oh, how I'd love to tell you about this technique, but that would be telling, Sasuke-kun, and that would ruin all of the fun. But, hey, if you cooperate, maybe I'll let you in on the secret."
Great. Now she was toying with him. It was infuriating to be so helpless, especially to such a dead last like Sakura. But all of this anger would just wear him out and leave him no closer to figuring out what sort of predicament he was in, and more importantly how to escape it.
"What did you mean by 'itinerary', Sakura? What do you have planned for me?"
Her voice pierced the abyss once more, this time as a chuckle, "I'm glad you asked, Sasuke-kun. Let's just say that I'm going to make sure that you think long and hard about what you've done."
Just what he needed, a shinobi guilt-trip. He remained defiant, but nothing prepared him for the ride that came next.
Endnotes: The mindfuck begins! As always, reviews and comments are greatly appreciated.