Rated T for language and gore

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto characters

-X-orcist-

-.-

"What happened Sasuke?" he asked.

"Why are you asking me?" Sasuke replied, "There are plenty of other people who saw the fight, if you can call it that-"

"You're the one who started this!" Naruto shouted and pointed his finger at the Uchiha's face, "If you just let the blond girl flap her gums than compare her to Sakura-chan, then she wouldn't have to be in this mess!"

"Shut up Naruto! I can handle my own fight so butt out!"

"Enough!" Kakashi raised his voice and turned to the other class and picked a person who was in the neutral zone; "Hinata, tell me what happened here."

The small girl blushed heavily as all eyes looked at her. She swallowed hard twiddled her thumbs as she began to recount the previous event, "A-ano, it all started when Kakashi-sensei went back in the building to get the Minus when..."

Flashback

Kakashi sighed as he walked back to the building and looked back at them, "Just stay there until I get back. I'll return within a few minutes so no one can kill each other!" he joked. Sakura mentally cursed as she felt the glare of the sun directly at her face. She spotted her team mates made a retreat towards the shade of the lone large tree. "Hey, tell your dog to stop sniffing me!" Naruto shouted as Akamaru sniffed his shoulder with keen interest. Kiba looked at the blond to his dog then just shrugged and leaned on the tree, "So? Dogs like to know what kind of animal you are. It's like saying you're not human or normal"

Naruto stood up and crossed his arms, "'Course I'm not normal dog breath. I'm a badass Banisher, compared to you; I'm as freaking amazing as God!"

Several sounds of groans and muttered indignations were heard around the shade that made the Uzumaki frown and curled his hands into fists, "What? You think I can't be an amazing soul weaver? I can take all of you on!"

"I suggest you shut up. The heat is already tiring; we don't need you to torture us with your useless ramblings." The male Hyuuga grunted as he leaned on the tree with his eyes closed. Naruto growled and made to advance to the exorcist only to be held back by Lee. "Sorry Naruto-kun but this is neither the place nor the time for battle" he said but Naruto didn't bother to listen and instead turned to him, "Anyplace and time can turn into a battlefield bushy brows! And... aren't you getting hot in that?" he asked as he stared on the thick spandex with the green jacket.

The bowl-haired boy studied himself and gripped his chin, "Hmmmmm it might be a bit warm-"

'He's only feeling it now?' Naruto thought to himself incredulously.

"But a true warrior can overcome trials with anything he wears! I'm sure Gai-sensei would be proud!"

Sasuke just watched as Naruto continue to question Lee's sanity before he heard groans beside him. Sakura leaned down on her text book and bit the tip of her pen with a frustrated look on her face like she was trying to concentrate. He ignored her for a couple of minutes but amidst of the quiet groans and soft remarks like "... no, not that..." and "... too impossible for this..." he finally had enough;

"Why are you so noisy?" he asked.

"Huh?" she looked up absent-mindedly with her pen hanging from her lips. She took it off of her mouth and tapped it to her book, "I'm trying to answer these questions Kurenai-sensei gave us but I can't think of the appropriate answers to any of them!"

Sasuke thought it was something serious and just chose to shrug it off and said, "Good luck with that" unhelpfully. She sent him a sour look before returning her attention to her book-

'If you gave out too much of your wavelength to attack, you may be prone to losing control but if it's too weak, your attacks will be useless. It's common sense to use the right amount and force but how will an exorcist know if their wavelength is also in sync with their weapons if they didn't use an incantation?'

"Argh, this is torture!" she moaned and scratched out a couple of sentences she had written on her paper, "If I base this on what was in the book, then it would look as if I just copied it. Maybe if the exorcist will measure his or her wavelength with the way his weapon reacts then he could... but what if the weapon is not accurate or if the weaver can't manipulate his wavelength with the weapon? No no no!"

Sasuke stared at her like she had grown two heads. The girl intrigued him with a whirlwind of emotions she displayed every second. She can be as soft and smooth as velvet and the next second; she's as hard as steel and tough as sandpaper. Her green eyes were sometimes a myriad of unspoken feelings made him suddenly think of a difficult puzzle he wanted to solve; after all, he hated not knowing things. She might even be a good companion if she could stay quiet for more than ten minutes,

"Damn it!"

… Or maybe not.

She crumpled another paper and started with the new pad when a shadow of a person blocked out the sunlight. Sakura looked up to see it was Ino who was standing in front of her with her hands on her hips, "Hey forehead, move over!"

Sakura decided that it was simply too hot and too tiring to even answer her with a witty retort so she just stayed on her spot and pretended that the other girl is just a small buzz in the ear. Ino obviously didn't appreciate Sakura's reaction and instead slipped a foot between Sakura and Sasuke which made the former emit a sound like a puppy's growl on her throat and an annoyed look from Sasuke.

"Hey, I don't know what your problem is but I'm not in the mood to kick your ass right now!" she hissed, the thought of slicing the offending foot on her side tempted her but it would obviously lead into expulsion... or maybe lifetime imprisonment. Ino scoffed and turned to Sasuke, "Sasuke-kun wouldn't you rather sit next to a hot and strong cleric like me than this plain tomboy?"

"I'd rather be a tomboy than a bratty priss" the pink-haired teen whispered but it was loud enough for the other girl to hear it.

Her blue eyes narrowed and twitched haphazardly and placed her crossed arms under her chest, "Whatever freak. You're just lucky that you got teamed up with an Uchiha and they're always in the top weaver status. Besides, everyone knows Sasuke-kun's nii-chan is a powerful soul reaper as well. Compared to your teammates, you're deadweight!"

Sakura's eyes flashed dangerously and gritted her teeth. She mentally counted to thirty and then back towards one before she looked up again with a glare that can melt an entire valley of ice. Sasuke, with the heat of the sun, shortened his patience even more and he reached his boiling point; comparing him to Itachi. He stood up and glared Ino down, which made her stare with a frightened expression back at him, "Sasuke-kun?"

Now everyone in the class turned their full attention to the three of them. Sasuke ignored the dozen eyes that bore at them and placed a smug and cold front, "At least Sakura learned when to keep her mouth shut. Listen girl; don't ever talk about Itachi or about him as being my brother. I suggest you leave me and my team mate alone." He turned his heel and made his way towards the building.

The blond girl gaped at his statement and turned to the equally stunned Sakura who had her mouth open and her eyes trailed after Sasuke who resumed his brooding in the courtyard despite the sun. She didn't want anymore drama so she tried to slip pass Ino but she found herself being blocked by the said cleric, "What is so damn special about you?" she asked, more to herself than Sakura. Green eyes glazed with annoyance for a moment before she shrugged her grip from her arm; "Maybe if you stop acting like a spoilt little brat he might know you exist." Ino's grasp slackened and she thought the storm had already passed. But she was dead wrong;

"Ino don't-"

"Shut up Chouji! This is between me and that candy hair colored bitch!"

She stiffened her posture as she felt the anger from the girl radiate but she doesn't really care at the moment; "Whatever slutty pig." She continued her way towards the courtyard and flipped her hair for good measure. She knew this would piss her to no end but it was too good to pass up. The last thing she heard was the twin bun-haired girl yelling, "No don't-" before she felt her hair being pulled harshly back. She turned around and placed a well-aimed punch on the girl's stomach. 'You should be thankful I haven't synced my wavelength in there yet' she thought bitterly as Ino yelled in pain. She turned back again just to be tackled to the ground.

"You're insane!" Sakura shouted.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto gasped and ran towards them to help her only to have Ino thrown to him with Sakura's foot up high that indicated she had kicked her on the midsection. Hard.

She heard several people talking and shouting around them;

"Shikamaru, d'you think we should stop 'em?"

"*yawn*Let Ino deal with this on her own. It'll be more troublesome if she lets out her anger on us."

" Cat fight!" was that Kiba? She thought in the back of her mind.

Ino growled like an enraged cat and attacked Sakura once again but this time; she pulled on Sakura's hair and twisted it upwards. Sakura felt the sting of pain from the roots of her hair and managed to grab a hold onto Ino's loose bangs and pulled just as fiercely. The blond gritted her teeth and pressed her fingernails on Sakura's shoulder and dragged it downwards that made her yelp and elbowed her arm away from her now stinging arm. Not satisfied with the scratches, she then threw a few punches on her stomach and a rather nasty kick which she aimed at her thigh.

Sakura retaliated with a punch to her side and sent a violent jolt of spiritual energy towards Ino that several watchers gasped. "Hmph, if it's a weaver battle you want, I'm gonna dish it out!" Ino challenged with her wavelength furiously weaving across her body with a violent intent. Sakura shifted into a battle stance with her crystal's energy thrummed with her heartbeat. But before she can move, Ino had already side-stepped out of her vision and yanked her hair back. Sakura shot her arm around the blond's hair and twisted it around that both of them were face-to-face again.

Sure enough, the audience tried to break up the fight. Tenten's voice was the first to ring out;

"Stop this!"

"Hmph, how immature"

"We-we could get in trouble!"

The loudest she could definitely hear was Naruto who was split from encouraging her to kick Ino's ass and taking her off of Ino and calm her down. There was one voice she did not want to hear in the moment;

"What is going on here?"

Flashback ends

Kakashi exhaled deeply and shook his head, "I'm so disappointed in both of you." Sakura gaped at Kakashi and began to justify her actions, "If you haven't been listening clearly sensei, I was the victim here! I'm not the one who threw the first punch! Well, maybe I did punch her but I'm not the one who instigated the fight!" She wanted to add more things but the blank look made her silent and backed down.

"By what Hinata had told me, you have also provoked Yamanaka into a fight. You should have just walked away rather than rubbing salt to the wound. And you-" he turned to Ino, "I shall have a word with Asuma-sensei about your behavior. Your father might be working within the administration but it doesn't give you the right to do whatever you want. One more stunt like this from any of you guys in this class and you're off to the headmistress' office."

"Yes sir..."

"Sasuke"

Sasuke looked at Kakashi who also looked at him like he did to Sakura, "You do realize this is also partly your fault?"

"Ha! Told'ja!" Naruto quipped victoriously

"Quiet Naruto. I will overlook this incident for just this once but if this happens again; I will switch your souls with each other's body and let you kill yourselves. Alright?" The way he said it made a chill crawl to the base of their spine that even the innocent by standers also got spooked with his threat.

"Yes sir!"

His masked face suddenly broke into what seemed to be a smile and held out the canister, "Ok, so let's get back on track. Now, what is a shadow Minus' affinity?" He turned to Tenten who tapped her chin with an unsure tone, "Uh, most of them are dark, right?" Kakashi shook his head and held up his forefinger, "Nope, that's a common misconception" Tenten's face fell as Kakashi corrected her answer, "True, Minuses have the reputation of corrupting and stealing souls but not all have affinity to darkness. Minuses are the devolved state of a soul once the body has been expired or forcibly removed from it. Those that are purely dark-based are rare; these are the ones who were born from negative energy which were already present from the said body. You could say they were the ones who were 'rotten to the bone' There are different kinds of Minuses. This little guy, for example,"

He held up the jar with the Minus who protested and continued to try and smash the glass in vain. "Is a Shadow Minus. Shadow Minuses are specks of negative souls, they are not really threats like other Minuses but they cause mischief and sometimes diseases to anyone unlucky enough to disturb them." The tiny Minus glared at the surrounding students but when it laid its eyes on Sasuke; it blew a raspberry and flipped him off. Naruto guffawed loudly and pointed at the now pissed Uchiha.

Sakura flinched when the Minus then turned to her and showed of its rows of sharp teeth that were designed to pierce rather than shred. Kakashi jiggled the container for a bit and placed a small incantation with his finger. Within a few seconds, the Minus was out like a light. "Sleep incantation" he vocalized when he saw excited and interested eyes that stared at the snoring Minus, "Defensive and basic incantations will be taught by instructors while special abilities will be by your respected class categories."

Neji raised a hand, "If Shadow Minuses are the lowest, then what will be the highest level?" Everyone them turned to their teacher who hummed for a minute or two before returning the container back into his bag; "The highest ones that you're asking are the yokai (demons) and fallen" Naruto scrunched his face and crossed his arms behind his head, "Pfft, can something be scary if they're called 'fallen'? It's like they just tripped or something'" he scoffed.

"Do you think you can even finish that laugh if a fallen targets you?" Kakashi asked; his voice changed into a darker and cold tone that made everyone silent, "Many soul weavers who had decades worth of experience can't even come close to a fallen without having their souls taken. Fallens are Minuses who had achieved a solid form without any assistance of spirit companions like rogues. Along with demons, they can control thousands of shadow Minuses to their will and claim dozens of lives. They can come as a pandemic, a natural disaster or corruption of hearts that leads to wars; it is rare that a fallen will directly kill a civilian. You can laugh about what they're called only after you survive an encounter with one." Naruto shrunk back into the back of the line with Shino, Chouji and Hinata who gave him a sympathetic look.

Sakura, out of curiosity, "Sensei, have you ... seen a fallen?" she asked in a quiet voice. Kakashi turned around and said, "That's a story for another time. We wasted to much time chatting, we'll continue this tomorrow."

Everyone looked at each other with the exception of Sasuke who packed his bag and Sakura who stared at her instructor's retreating back. Naruto and Sasuke's receiver buzzed simultaneously as soon as Kakashi was gone from their sights. Naruto's face broke into a smile and punched the air with his regained energy, "Haha! I'm gonna meet my retainer today!"

"That's nice Naruto" Sakura automatically replied. Sasuke said nothing and made his way back to their dorm. She looked at the clock on top of the main building and remembered she had another class to attend. The earlier classes made her frown when Kurenai-sensei was on a leave and the substitute teacher was Gai-sensei, much to Lee's happiness and excitement, also leaving her questions unanswered. With an exasperated huff, she trudged to the building with her bag hanging on her shoulder, not optimistic about how her next class would treat her.

A snow white haired young man with shark-like teeth hissed as he chased a negative soul through the Midokimi forest. "Fucking bastard's too slippery!" he hissed as he jumped from one branch to another. The Minus sprinted with lightning speed as it tried to evade him through the thick vegetation. Suigetsu cursed again when a loose branch almost hit his face if he hadn't ducked a second earlier; "This soul should be worth this trouble!" he complained into a small mic that was pinned on the collar of his shirt.

"Just hurry your ass up and get it!" a female's scratchy voice replied.

He frowned and whispered, "Whore" under his breath but loud enough for the woman to hear and proceeded to cut down the overgrown branches with the huge sword he had fastened on his back. He hacked through the thick woods with ease and within moments he and his companion, an orange haired young man named 'Juugo' closed in on their target with their masked subordinates a few branches behind them.

A large cat-shaped Minus leapt on the branches and growled as it saw its pursuers shortened the distance between them. It decided to try and lose them one by one; it kept changing its course from left then right then right and then left again in hopes to confuse them. Suigetsu, however, had already figured out its plan and as soon as it crouched to jump on the branch of the fire tree on its left, he threw several knives with talismans tied on them and intercepted with the Minus' leap. The Minus howled loudly as it felt the knives stuck deep into its form. The talismans glowed simultaneously as the Minus hit a nearby tree with a large thud; it prompted the surrounding birds to flee for their lives. Suigetsu stopped near the fallen Minus while Juugo looked up and watched the retreating birds with a blank face.

"Man, you sure don't know when to give up!" he told the Minus who gave out a feral growl and tried to take a swipe at him only to find itself paralyzed by the talismans. "Sir," one of the masked men took a step front, "I think we should catch it while its still-"

"Yeah yeah yeah, I know what I'm doing" he grunted offhandedly as he walked closed to the Minus. It glared at him with its large red eyes before he took out a small canister and tapped the written symbol with incoherent words. The cat's figure curled up into a ball of black smoke before it disappeared within the confinements of its new prison.

He clicked his tongue as he examined his sword that was covered with sticky green tree sap "Damn. And I just polished it this morning!"

The day could not get any slower for Sakura, or worse for that matter. Got into a fight with a fan girl, late for ten minutes on her first attendance for Soul Healing class, almost half of the said class was Uchiha Sasuke fan girls. She slumped to her seat next to the quiet Hyuuga girl. "Hey..." she quietly greeted that made the indigo haired girl jump slightly and glanced at her sideways as she bit the inside of her cheek. Sakura raised a brow and proceeded to ignore her; interacting with extremely shy people was not really her strongest suit. With another bored sigh that escaped her lips, she crossed her arms on top of her desk and laid her head down as she kept her eyes on the board.

It was for another five minutes did she notice that the girl beside her kept stealing glances every now and then. At first it didn't really bother her; having freakishly pink hair does give you the tendency to attract attention, wanted or otherwise. But then, the looks started to turn into small stares with the pair lavender eyes watching her within her peripheral vision that made her feel as if she was a sample under a microscope. Finally, she snapped; "What?" she hissed through her teeth.

"E-eh?"

Hinata swallowed a lump in her throat when Sakura stared her down with a frustrated look stamped on her face. "A-Ano..."

"Do you want to say something or what? Is is my hair? Yeah, I know it's pink. My forehead too big? Well good for you to notice. I've heard all one-liners from "cotton candy slut" to "You're forehead's so wide that an airplane can use it as a runway" So if-"

"Spider" Hinata gasped out

She quirked a brow and asked, "Spider? What are you talking abo-" Then, she felt something move on her head. She tentatively fingered her headband and sure enough, she made contact with a hairy leg.

"What the heck?"

Sakura leapt out from her chair and ran her hand through her hair furiously like a rake. Shizune stopped in the middle of the lecture and placed her free hand on the frame of her reading glasses; "What is going on back there?" she barked.

The other girls either giggled or squealed at the sight of a brown spider hanging on Sakura's bangs for dear life. With a well placed whack, she smacked the arachnid to a random direction, which led to more screams as it fell in the middle of a group of Clerics. Soon, the girls were panicking and kept their feet above ground or their hands on their heads. Shizune groaned and massaged her temple; much like her mentor Tsunade, and took out a small whistle from her bag and blew it with all her might.

"Ahahahaha! That's the funniest shit I've ever heard! Man, I wish I'd been there!"

"Shut the hell up Naruto!" Sakura seethed as she kicked a pebble viciously with her eyebrows scrunched into a permanent scowl. Shizune had been so lenient that she dismissed the class an hour earlier. She just wished that none of the other teachers will know about this; an exorcist-in-training was scared out of her wits, by a four inch spider. With a room full of would-be clerics. In her defense-

"That thing had fangs! It could've killed a bird and ate it within a few seconds!"

"So you dived right into battle with soul sucking Minuses but face with an insect, you're frozen with fear? Not a very promising description for an exorcist" Sasuke muttered that earned him a menacing look from the girl. "I'm not scared of insects. And spiders are not insects, they're arachnids, they make me a bit... squeamish" she chirped in a casual tone.

The walk was more eventful than usual, with Naruto and Sasuke's on and off bickering, Sakura's futile warnings to shut them (mostly Naruto) up and the way Sakura had reacted with the whole "situation" in which she debated with- "It's not a situation, it was a spider that somehow fell on my head!" Somehow, the teenager felt guilty for yelling at Hinata. "I suppose I could apologize tomorrow" she mussed as they approached their dorm.

She went up to her room, leaving the two boys in the living room and began to open her blouse. She flinched as she poked at the thin red lines that Ino had inflicted on her earlier. Along with a few splotches of purple bruises that appeared on her stomach and thigh. "Rough day?" a cool voice asked. She turned around from the chair she was sitting to see Kinshu sprawled on her bed with a bored look in his amber eyes. Sakura rolled her eyes and stood up so he could see her far from perfect body state, conservative be damned, he snuck into the bathroom when she was showering and she didn't see him blush! "NO, I have a lovely time! I can't wait for it to happen all over again in a not so distant future!" she chimed as sarcasm dripped with every word.

Kinshu beamed and sat up on her bed, "You could have taken out that cleric with a flick of your wrist and yet you've just engage into a physical duel. Good girl!" he praised. Her eyes narrowed at the patronizing soul, "We have rules to follow and I don't like the idea of wasting spiritual energy just so she could lay off my back!" she argued. Kinshu wasn't fazed by her and swung his small feet back and forth on the edge of the bed; "Do you like secrets?" he suddenly asked.

Sakura stopped her actions of putting her arm in the sleeve of her robe in halfway as she stared at him, "I already have you as a secret. What do you have for me?" He snapped his fingers and out of nowhere a shining red key materialized in his hand. Sakura walked closer as she placed her robe around her shoulders, "What is that key for?" He opened his palm and revealed her the shining key with a shape of a jagged-lined heart as its bow. Its pin and shoulder crisscrossed like vines with alternately colored red and black steel.

"That," he started, "Is how you can call on Koukuro."

"… call Koukuro?"

"Yes"

"Koukuro is a scythe"

"Yes, a very potent weapon at that"

"It's an object…"

"Objects can be summoned as long as the wielder is in sync with their wavelength at due course-"

"Can't I just call on you?"

He gave her a blank look before her reached up to her neck and pulled on her crystal by the chain. "Hey!" she protested as the chain strained on her skin uncomfortably. "I am already part of your crystal. The moment you summon Koukuro, I will be able to manipulate the wavelength you project with your attacks. The only thing I can't do for now is call on Koukuro on my own without draining your energy."

He looked as if he wanted to say more but a knock on the door interrupted him, "Let's finish this later" he concluded and vaporized back into her crystal. "How did he get out of here anyway? I'm getting more and more crazy…" she told herself. She opened the door to find Sasuke with his hands in his pockets and he glared at Naruto who was at the other end of the hall. "Sakura, the dobe wants to…" he trailed off as his eyes zeroed in on Sakura's clothing, though more likely, lack of. Sakura stared at him with confused eyes, "Hm? Something wrong Sasuke-kun?"

"… don't you feel a draft in here?" he asked as he continued to stare at her exposed skin and even the wounds she had gained.

She looked at what he was staring at before she closed the door with a slam and yelled out, "Sasuke-kun you perv!"

Naruto's laugh echoed through the dorm before a sound of someone being punch was heard closely afterwards.

A/N: Sorry for the long delayed update but I had a lot of things to clear up. Thanks for those who reviewed the previous chapter:

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Ashura-B

Orochimaru's past will come later than expected and we will find out why Ino's so very obsessed with Sasuke.

Comments, suggestions, requests and constructive criticisms are always welcome. If you give me Flames or rude comments/messages, I