A jolt of adrenaline surged through Sakura's body, a vicious reminder that she needed to escape quickly if she didn't want to suffocate.
Calling upon the force of her will, the kunoichi shoved massive amounts of chakra into her muscles. They convulsed with pulses of nerve-wracking energy, adding spikes of sharp pain to the omnipresent dull aches. Her lungs burned from the strain, and she was unable to take oxygen to sate them. Already, the kunoichi was going lightheaded and beginning to fade from consciousness. Were it not for her still-active hundred healings jutsu, Sakura knew her body would have been far too damaged for any hope of escape.
Forcing herself to remain calm, Sakura steadied her frame and let her mind blank.
Then, she ripped with every ounce of her might.
Berserk fury consumed her mind, and spots of color danced behind her vision to the rhythm of pounding in her head.
Later, the woman would be unable to entirely call what had happened next. It was only by means of the fact that Sakura was able to breathe once again that she deduced her escape from the pythons' grip. With her vision blocked, she took a long, panicked gasp of air.
It was cut sort, though, when the pressure around her chest redoubled suddenly. Still, the momentary breath had been enough to bring her vision and awareness back.
Sakura screwed up her face as she tensed her abdominal muscles, knowing it was the only thing saving her ribcage from being ground to dust. Then she looked down and saw the coils of snakes that still constricted her lower body. Evidently, she had, in her haste, released only one arm from the living cocoon. From its bent position, the scattered bits of snake bodies, and the way her gore-drenched hand hovered in front of her face, the kunoichi surmised what that arm had unconsciously achieved.
"Shannaro!" Sakura cried through grit teeth. The vocalization was muffled, and it sounded less intimidating that it otherwise should have been, but it was enough.
Her free hand clutched at the largest python coiled around her torso and squeezed. A hand-sized section of snake was instantly converted into a pink pulp as its owner feebly attempted to spin on the attacker and strike it with a fang. The teeth fell pitifully short as the snake flopped to the floor, bringing Sakura with it, but a pair of their allies managed to land a retaliating blow.
Sakura cursed and ripped her hand away so forcefully that the teeth came with her. The now-toothless reptile spasmed in agony and slackened its grip on the kunoichi, but the damage was already done. With a brief glance, Sakura saw that the back of her palm was turning a shade of purplish-black. Tendrils of the obscene color shot out in pulses, spiderwebbing cracks expanding as the toxin infected her circulatory system with each beat of her rapid heart.
Anyone else would have surely perished. Anyone other than Sakura Haruno, a master of medical ninjutsu and a specialist in the art of poison.
The black tattoos that wove across her skin flared and shifted a shade darker. Green light raced along them like electricity, and faster than the blink of an eye, the necrotizing infection was gone.
There was still more work to be done, however. Sakura's extensive knowledge regarding the chemical compositions of snake venom would be rendered useless if she didn't manage to free herself from their strangling grasp. So, with another barbaric thrust and grunted "Shannaro!" the pink-haired nin continued to claw at the ropes of flesh that entangled her.
It was a difficult fight, but Sakura was ultimately victorious. No matter how strong mundane snakes were, they couldn't hold a candle to the chakra-infused wrath of a sanin-level kunoichi. Within moments, most of them had been mushed to a pulp, ripped in several pieces, and flung against the surrounding walls of the circular stone tunnel.
Her success came at a steep price. The moment the reptiles had noticed the momentum swinging in their prey's favor, they had loosened their grip and swiveled, turning their fangs upon her in their death throes. Dozens of bites scattered Sakura's flesh now, putrid marks spreading in unison. Some were quickly extinguished by the power of her jutsu, but other splotches had grown far too large and could only be contained by her healing power.
The kunoichi stood, her legs threatening to give out. They felt like pudding, but she forced them into submission. They buckled once, then went still, only to be shaken by a slight, intermittent trembling.
They would hold for the moment, Sakura decided, but not for much longer than that.
And then a more fearful thought ran through her: if their fate boded so poorly, then what would become of her jutsu? Without it, the python toxin would quickly spread to her heart and stop it.
I need to find Sasuke, she thought. He can loan me some chakra…if he's still alive, that is.
Sakura's stomach turned more surely at that last thought than the layers of blood and gore drenching her body ever could have. Shoving aside the pain, fear, frustration, exhaustion, and disgust, she was able to narrow her mind to a singular goal: find Sasuke.
It was a task easier said than done. The kunoichi was standing in a narrow, ovoid chamber whose walls were interspersed with dozens of snake holes. Twenty or so meters above her, a crumbling hole led to the larger chamber above. Smoke all but entirely obscured her vision of it, but Sakura could hear faint sounds of rushing footsteps and the clang of metal on metal.
The fight was still on.
A smile broke on Sakura's face, and she felt her spirits lifting. Then she frowned, disappointed in herself for doubting her companion's skill.
With a few wobbly steps, the kunoichi attempted ascend the rough tunnel she had dug with a combination of her own might and earth-style jutsu. While the technique, in combination with her regeneration, had clearly proved effective in surviving Shin's apocalypse shuriken, it seemed that the woman had unintentionally breached a snake den.
Her foot hesitated for a split second before touching the vertical tunnel's edge. Something just didn't add up.
If the territorial snakes were so hostile to humans and had been just below their feet the whole time, why hadn't they emerged earlier? Shin seemed comfortable enough in the stone domicile, and based on the oil traps he had set, it seemed as if he had stayed there for quite some time. Moreover, the snake holes also dotted the room above, lending them easy access.
These facts seemed to imply that Shin had made friends with the reptiles in some fashion, a theory that also explained why the beasts had waited for his shuriken to go off before coming out of hiding.
They're coordinating, Sakura thought. They saw an excellent chance to strike and they took it. Immediately. And they were already positioned perfectly to do so.
That left only one possibility: someone other than Shin was summoning the snakes. Someone cunning and mobile and intelligent…and most likely possessing snake-like qualities of their own, given the terrain.
Could it be…Oorochimaru all along? Sakura thought in a moment of dawning realization.
As if on cue, puffs of smoke and uncanny popping sounds filled the ovoid chamber. Sakura leapt back, thanking the spirits that she had risked wasting precious seconds by hesitating at the wall. Had she not, the summoning would have gone off directly in front of her face, and while she was in a vulnerable position to boot.
The kunoichi hit the ground in a crouch and slid back to the center of the den, her fists raised. A pair of kunai appeared in her hands, and the female jonin twirled them in anticipation.
The snakes came, and there weren't dozens of them. Or even a hundred.
They were thousands.
Granted, these variants were practically microscopic in comparison to their mutilated brethren, but based on their identical color and scale patterns, Sakura deduced they must have been the same species. That meant their poison was still a significant factor, and with this many of them, it would be nigh-impossible for her to stop all the bites. Getting trapped by another cocoon would mean certain death. How could she smash or crush that which she couldn't touch? It would have been as futile as slapping a swarm of angry bees.
An albino sea of reptile poured into the chamber from the multitude of dark holes, individual snakes leaping at her, droplets of water in a spraying storm.
Sakura's spinning kunai met them one at a time, her body contorting acrobatically as the weapons shredded the oncoming snakes. Pink mist filled the air and the raw stink of reptilian gore tore at her nostrils. The kunoichi had never come closer to gagging during one of her fights, but the vomit reflex was irrelevant now. Beads of sweat were rolling down her skin, mingling with her war paint of snake blood as she concentrated on the defending against the overwhelming tide.
As more and more of the tiny reptiles made it past her defenses, scoring a bite here and a bite there, Sakura began to weaken. The kunoichi knew that she was running out of steam and couldn't keep up the dance much longer, especially with the piles of oncoming snake reaching critical mass. Soon there would hardly be any room to dodge without stepping on a carpet of the angry little beasts.
Yes, she could have collapsed the room with a quakefist, but such a tactic would only serve to harm her as well, not to mention very likely bury the woman under a ton of earth.
Yet to stay was also futile.
As much as Sakura hated to admit it, she had once chance.
"Sasuke!" she roared at the top of her lungs.
Sasuke Uchiha almost jumped. Hearing his name yelled with such desperation would have usually been cause for supreme annoyance, but coming from her, especially in this context,it filled him with supreme panic. Still, the shinobi was galled by how indescribably elated he was at her apparent survival.
Though, if her cry was any indication, that state would not persist for long.
"Go to her, Sasuke," Shin taunted as he sidestepped a katana strike and lashed with his katar. "Your wench needs you. She's dying as you insist on continuing to spit in the face of a god."
Sasuke grit his teeth and slapped away the claw-like weapon, sending a jolt of chidori through it as he did so.
Shin reacted quickly, jerking the katar away before the lightning could do any serious harm to him. He had learned from his prior mistake and refused to overcommit on his attacks during the intervening time he and Sasuke had dueled, thus enabling him to avoid getting shocked without wasting too much energy. Of course, such a strategy seriously reduced the man's offensive power, but then again, it was Sasuke who had a ticking time bomb hanging over his head.
Sasuke took several rapid steps backwards, buying himself time as Shin repositioned. He was sure his analysis of the Uchiha abomination's tactics had been correct, but something still didn't make sense. There was only one person in the entire world with greater command of the chidori than Sasuke's own, and he was certain that not even non-committal strikes could account for Shin's ability to outpace lightning. It was a scientific fact: lighting was fast, and not even the quickest shinobi should be able to dodge direct contact with it so perfectly.
Narrowing his eyes, Sasuke used even more chakra to scan Shin once more.
It was flash, so brief that even with his superior vision, Sasuke almost missed it.
There was a blue, human-shaped chakra aura leaping through the air alongside Shin. Its hands were braced against the edges of the katar, parallel to Shin's own, and were helping him withdraw it.
So that's how he does it, Sasuke mused to himself. He's summoning spirits to guide his movements…that's how he's keeping pace with me. No one else should be able to, but he can, because of those strange sharingan.
A glimpse of memory flashed through Sasuke's mind. Once more he saw the iron spike flying towards him, and the humanoid aura that clutched it in a stabbing motion.
"You look puzzled, Sasuke," Shin teased with a wet hiss. Blood trickled from his mouth, creating red streaks on his chin and torso, evidence that, like Sasuke, he had sustained scores of minor wounds throughout their fight.
Sasuke wiped away some of his own mouth blood and marveled at its testament to Shin's skill. Few had even come close to putting him in such a state, and Naruto had been the only person to do it regularly.
"Your inferior, traitorous brain working too hard?" Shin continued. He took a step forward and licked a line of Sasuke's blood from one of his blades. Then false Uchiha moaned orgasmically and looked up at Sasuke with half-lidded eyes. "The suffering of a bastard child is so delicious, isn't it? Here, let me help free your thoughts from that pitiful skull of yours."
Sasuke grunted, outwardly displaying no reaction to the man's threats and grisly suggestions. "I know how you're doing it."
Shin came at Sasuke in a blurry curve, swept passed him, and pulled his arcing katar away from the chidori blade at the last second. As he did, Sasuke saw it clearly again: a pair of supporting spirits this time. They curved around Shin's body, incorporeal torsos emerging from his back and reaching out with wispy tendrils of arms to lend strength to Shin's movements.
Most horrific of all, though, was the tortured looks on those beings' distorted faces. Sasuke was sure they would haunt his nightmares for years to come. Their visages reflected sheer agony, unreasoning and unceasing torment, souls who were twisted and controlled and contained in the shell of an evil perversion, forced to shirk their peace in the afterlife in favor of unthinkably cruel servitude.
Sasuke shivered. Even the most violent and foul experiences failed to rouse any emotional response in him after living through the hell of his clan's demise. The fact that Shin's servants had affected him so was a demonstration of the inherent wrongness in it.
Right then and there, Sasuke decided that Shin would die, even if he had to make the whole world burn to do it, if he had to not only give up his own life, but even Sakura's or Naruto's. His years of enlightenment, contemplation, and atonement would be for naught if he permitted Shin to continue shackling innocent souls to his will.
Sasuke gripped his sword so hard that it rattled in his grasp. He was sick to death of the cruel shinobi world's victimization.
"No…more…" Sasuke spat.
Shin came in for another swipe and Sasuke held him off.
"Speak up, doomed lamb; I can't hear you!" Shin wailed maniacally.
"NO MORE!" Sasuke half-screamed, half-growled. "You can't do this, Shin. I won't let you."
The albino experiment showed his toothless gums. "I can, and you will," he shot back coldly, all hint of sadistic glee absent in his tone for once. He spoke evenly and sternly, as if his words were law itself.
And Sasuke supposed that, for him, they were.
He opened his mouth to speak, but another sudden cry cut him off.
"Sasuke!"
This time it was more desperate. Weaker and more agonized. Pleading.
Shin's main eye flashed with sudden inspiration.
"I could conjure up your mother or father right now," he went on. "I could make Fugaku Uchiha watch as I rip my blades through his son's innards, or Mikoto guide my hand passionately as I saw his Achilles tendons. I could make your whole clan flay the skin from your bones and pluck out your organs. After all, I've had them do it before…
"…to each other."
Sasuke narrowed his eyes. The sharingan flashed a shade of crimson so dark and foreboding it was almost black, and his rinnegan radiated purple luminescence.
"Shut your fucking worthless mouth," Sasuke barked. His katana was rattling in his grasp again, the intensity of his strained muscles causing his cuts to weep more fiercely. His teeth ground together so strongly that their creaking cut over the lingering echoes of swordplay. An intense heat radiated from his skin, so hot it threatened to singe Shin's flesh. Lightning danced unbidden across his sword, up and down his arms, and in his eyes.
Shin's face contorted with awe as if he were a child receiving his first birthday present. "Oh, is that a sore spot for you Sasuke-kun? I'm sorry I've gone and gotten you so upset. And to think, I didn't even need to tell you just how talented that mother of yours is with her mouth. And I don't mean just the carnal delights either, you should hear how deliciously she screams when…"
The next thing Shin knew, a shadowy afterimage of Sasuke was already passing him. He swung his katar in vain, far too late for any hope of landing a blow.
Unbelievable pain wracked his body as a red gash materialized on his torso, bisecting another one of the unused eyes. Shin stumbled, his lips burbling with blood as the gash expanded into a wave of crimson blood and yellowish eye fluids.
Then, after a long moment of silent denial, he fell. Hard.
He blinked and saw Sasuke's crazed face hovering above. The world spun, but Shin could clearly see the outline of the other Uchiha's expression, nearly as perverse in that moment as one of his own.
The abomination tried to raise his katar, but found it held down by the seemingly infinite weight of Sasuke's foot. He struggled vainly for a few seconds, then gave up with a sigh.
"Finally, you've embraced what it means to be a true Uchiha," Shin spat, blood turning his words into a nearly-incoherent slur. "Now you see that…"
Sasuke didn't let the man finish. With one smooth motion of his katana, he opened Shin's throat…all the way down to the bone.
Shin's eyes rolled into his severed head, jerked once, then went dull.
But even in his moment of bestial rage, Sasuke could not completely dispel his cold pragmatism.
There was a red flash of a sharingan, and Shin's body shimmered and dissipated into a field of shadows. Then he re-appeared, one more eye missing all but its sclera, and stabbed at his would-be killer from behind.
But Sasuke had already begun his defensive maneuver and met Shin's stab with a swipe of his own.
"Each death will only get more and more painful," Sasuke spat, coating Shin's face in his own blood.
"Sasuke!" a feminine voice called up through the nearby tunnel once again.
Shin licked his lips. "And the next will belong to her," he stated reasonably.
Sasuke ground his blade more forcefully against Shin's, heedless of the fact that it was being nicked to all hell and that he had forgotten to use chidori. He was nothing but a mindless animal now, unable to do anything but move his body with brute strength and frantic speed.
He pushed back against Shin, and the man began to lose ground.
The latter spun away and tried to use the spirits to help him escape Sasuke's clutches, but his opponent seemed possessed of impossible speed. Each time Shin faced a new direction, Sasuke was already there, batting at his katar so strongly that both weapons dented. The albino's arms grew numb and liquified from the sheer force of the concussive shocks. The sensations quickly became so painful that even he began to groan in pain.
Sasuke advanced, refusing to give Shin an inch. Within seconds, he had pressed him against a wide column and pinned the katar to his own body. It was all Shin could do to hold back the final blow, yet he knew that his strength would be the first to give.
The peal of shredding metal filled the air.
"Take it back," Sasuke demanded.
"What?" Shin gasped incredulously, sweating. He had more Izanagi to burn, but at this rate, that statement wouldn't be true for long.
"Take it back. Beg for forgiveness," Sasuke commanded with unfaltering conviction. "Beg for mercy, beg for penance, and I'll consider inflicting only half the misery you've done to others."
Shin gulped. Ordinarily he would have laughed at the tears that poured from Sasuke's face, the savage anger that trembled in his skin and bore into him from behind his cold eyes. But the plan had backfired…badly. Instead of making Sasuke sloppier, his uncontained wrath only made him more formidable. He must have been holding this outpouring of emotion at bay for years…his entire life, even.
Sure, Sakura was doomed to die, but stalling Sasuke from saving her in this way would hardly matter if he got himself killed for it.
"Sasuke-kun…" Shin whispered from inches away, his breathy voice a mockery of intimacy. "You know she loves you, right?"
Sasuke's eyes went wide.
Sasuke-kun. I love you.
The words seemed to ricochet off the inside of Sasuke's skull, louder than even the intense grinding of his katana against Shin's claws. A silent image of Sakura's tortured-yet-relieved face mouthing the words appeared before his eyes. It was preserved in perfect detail, a permanent reminder of his greatest failure that he would be forced to carry with him for the rest of his days.
As the initial heartbeat of shock passed, Sasuke's first reaction was to snarl like a rabid animal and steadily begin increasing the pressure of his katana. The Uchiha saw Shin began to sweat profusely and squirm with nervous panic. It was an immensely satisfying sight, and he had to stop himself from laughing in satisfaction. The expression on Shin's face as he slowly thrust his steel into the man's belly and made him spasm agonized death throes promised to be a delicious one.
What gave that slimy bastard the right to bring up such a thing?! Sakura's feelings were private: hers to know and his to endure. Just hearing her name on Shin's lips made him want to string out the man's painful death over a span of years, which was to say nothing of how deeply his other comments had infuriated Sasuke.
Images of the Uchiha's dead clan flashed before his eyes. In the span of an instant, he saw a macabre slideshow of every one of their horrifying deaths, recalled in perfect detail not by the strength of his sharingan, but by the repetition through which he witnessed them every time the man closed his eyes.
Sasuke gripped his sword so tightly that his own fingernails began to dig deeply into his palm, drawing thick lines of blood, and a dull ache began to creep up his remaining arm.
Mother. Father.
Sasuke didn't know if what Shin had implied about his parents was true, but the possibility seemed likely, given what he had concluded earlier about Shin's powers. If he had wanted Shin dead before, now he wanted his soul annihilated, every scrap of evidence that he had ever existed utterly expunged, and anyone who even dared mention him stabbed to death.
And after that, Sasuke didn't know if he would ever stop. He was instantly taken back to the early days of his life as a ninja, when he'd frequently fantasized about making the world drown in blood until it was forced to acknowledge the depth of his pain. And even then, it would never be enough, Sasuke knew. A universe painted red could not match the injustice that he felt.
At the time, he couldn't have imagined anything more terrible than living with the memories…the nightmare-inducing tableaus of death, the loneliness and isolation. A younger Sasuke had thrown himself into his training, fearless of injury or death. It was how he had achieved his great skill with blade and jutsu.
After all, what worse fate could the universe possibly throw at him?
It seems that now I have my answer.
More images appeared to Sasuke's mind, and he lost his connection to reality. He saw his mother's conjured soul being raped and tortured by the man that now writhed under the force of his blade, of his beloved family being forced to engage in depraved acts of violence upon one another, and much, much more. Every one was a jolt of power that filled Sasuke with the addictive strength of rage. Tears began to fall from his face, too, but he only wondered distantly why his face was suddenly soaking wet.
"No, you can't…please! Stop!" a harsh, unseen voice pleaded from beneath him.
But Sasuke's world was already a blur, and he pressed on without comprehending the words or their significance.
Then a voice spoke something that did reach him.
It was feminine and panicked, where it should have been strong and resolute, and it rang like music, even in its warped state.
Sasuke's heart leapt. Whoever the speaker was, she was in danger, and Sasuke knew that he was supposed to feel terrified about the fact. He always had, and always would be, though he couldn't-and had never been able to-explain the exact reason why. At times, he had even lied to himself about how much the owner of that voice mattered to him, tried to disguise his feelings with an indifference so deluded he had only recently unraveled his own self-deception.
The stills of dead Uchiha returned, only this time, they were all replaced by the corpses of beautiful, pink-haired kunoichi dressed in red.
A strange sense of lucidity overwhelmed Sasuke when he realized that seeing this person lying dead before him was far more traumatic than those she had replaced. It was an injustice no smaller in scope than the one that had been perpetrated against his family…except that this time, Sasuke knew that he would be the one to cause it.
Vision returned, and Sasuke grew rational enough to see Shin below him once again. His hallucinations had evidently passed in the span of mere seconds, and Sasuke frowned down at his opponent.
"No…" he whispered. The words tasted alien, as if he weren't really the one speaking them. "No…I won't...sink...to your level."
How can I condemn you, and the unfairness of the world, for the crimes against my family, Sasuke questioned himself, if I do the same to her?
The next thing Sasuke knew, Shin was no longer in front of him. A smoke-filled stone cavern was blurring past him instead as a deep, cylindrical hole in the ground approached.
He skidded to a halt and peered down into the tunnel.
And what he saw froze Sasuke in his tracks.
Sakura heard the sound of approaching feet and looked up. Her spirits soared with relief when she saw Sasuke finally standing at the rim of the vertical tunnel, even as several more snakebites dragged her closer to numbed unconsciousness.
"Sakura!" the kunoichi heard Sasuke scream, his voice oddly expressive for once.
She tried to move her lips to respond, but no sound came out. The woman sagged as she slashed futilely at one lashing snake with a kunai.
A dozen more were slithering their way up her body at that moment, biting as they went. Her veins were literally flooded with toxin, and Sakura was far too weak to do anything about it. Her healing had run dry, leaving her chakra depleted and unable to continue fighting. A weak twitch of her limbs was the best attempt she could manage to throw the reptiles off.
Not that it mattered. A sea of hundreds more were closing in on her feet from inches away. Soon, Sakura would be dragged beneath the tide of painful bites and cold venom.
She let her eyelids flicker closed. Sasuke was too late. There was no fight left in her.
Heat washed over her as the darkness closed in, and it took Sakura a minute to realize that it wasn't the warm embrace of the afterlife.
It was a fireball jutsu.
Roaring orange flame filled the cavern, instantly incinerating the snakes with a series of sickening crackles and hisses. They burned Sakura too, but she managed to roll into a ball and take meager cover against the fire. As usual, the pain was unbearable and was followed by the scent of her own charred flesh.
But as much as she wanted to hate Sasuke for causing her so much pain, Sakura had to admit that the fireball proved effective in saving her life. The swarm of reptiles was now nothing more than a pile of foul-smelling corpses and acrid smoke, after all, while she yet lived—though not for long, since the poison still pumped determinedly through her body. Had she any healing ability left, Sakura would have countered the substance by converting it into harmless proteins.
There was a swishing sound, and the kunoichi suddenly felt a reassuring presence crouched next to her.
"Sas...Sasuke?" she managed to choke through blackened lips.
"I'm here," Sasuke stated gently. "I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to hurt you again." His voice sounded genuinely regretful.
Sakura barely had time for confusion as a sharp stabbing sensation appeared in the meat of her upper right arm. At first it seemed to jolt her with adrenaline, but as the seconds passed, it became clear that she was fading away even more quickly now.
No, it was not the embrace of death, Sakura realized with a euphoric start.
It was the comforting rush of chakra infusion.
With hope surging, the kunoichi reached out for the strands of energy entering her body. If only she could grasp them, gather enough focus to channel that energy into her healing techniques...then maybe there was a chance of survival.
"Come on, Sakura. Please. You can't die," Sasuke begged from behind the wall of muffled darkness surrounding her. He sounded like a completely different person, but Sakura knew he was sincere.
Using those pleas as a beacon, Sakura harnessed what energy she could and reactivated her hundred healings.
Moments later, she rolled onto her back and tried to sit up. The smell of burning skin and the throb of necrotic toxin was gone, and all that remained as evidence of her wounds was a lingering itch.
Sakura blinked. Things were still hazy, but she was coherent once more. "Sasuke?" the woman asked as she searched dizzily for him.
"I'm here," the Uchiha answered, his face appearing in front of her. She had never been more relieved to see it.
"Thank you." Sakura didn't know what else to say, and it seemed underwhelming for the situation, but she didn't care. "I'm...I thought you might be...where's Shin?"
Sasuke started to answer, but his sixth senses must have told him something, because he looked up sharply.
Sakura followed the man's line of vision. The eye-covered Uchiha stood at the rim of the tunnel's summit, a cluster of floating metal shards hovering around him.
Sasuke was on his feet in an instant, and the kunoichi found herself following...painfully. The chakra infusion had given her body enough power to keep moving, but after spending so much on healing, the woman doubted she could fight.
A dull ache throbbed in her arm once again, and Sakura examined it with a flash of her eyes. A sharp, short black length of Sasuke's chakra rod was embedded in her flesh.
The kunoichi moved to rip it from her arm in preparation for battle, but Sasuke stopped her with a hand. Then he gripped the piece once more and began to force more chakra into it.
Sakura looked at him, aghast. "Sasuke, don't!" she protested with a whisper. "You won't have enough energy left for..."
"I do," Sasuke breathed between his heavy pants. "I have to. You have to be able to move, Sakura."
The pinkette frowned at the Uchiha, then faced Shin once more. Without fine-tuned chakra control like hers, Sasuke would be spending far more energy than she would be able to receive. The rods, as far as she could tell, were indeed made to transmit the user's chakra...just not to other living people. And certainly not in these quantities. To say that attempting it was inefficient was a colossal understatement.
But she thought he knew that. And besides, there was no point in continuing to argue while their enemy was poised to strike.
"How cute," Shin taunted from above, his words echoing down. Then he shook his head disdainfully. "Foolish to give of yourself like that, Sasuke, when you'll need that strength to finish this."
Sasuke glared up at the pale man from between his bangs but did not reply. Instead, he whispered underneath his breath at Sakura: "Do you have enough for it yet?"
Sakura flexed a fist and experimentally shunted chakra into it. She answered with a confident nod.
Shin, completely unaware of this interaction, shrugged. "Fine. It makes no difference to me. Divide your power. It will only make it easier for me to destroy you."
With a whistling slash, the blades descended.
Sakura pivoted and aimed a punch at Sasuke's sternum.
There was a purple flash and the chiming sound of space-time energy suddenly dispersing, and the kunoichi's hand collided solidify with bone.
It wasn't Sasuke's.
It was Shin's.
A thundering crack reverberated through the snake den, and a mass of mangled albino flesh splattered against the uneven wall.
Sakura wrung out her fist with a groan. Newton's third law was a bitch, and even with shinobi conditioning, hitting people that hard hurt. Still, the kunoichi found herself smirking and placing a hand victoriously on her hip.
"Who's the idiot now?"
As if in answer, Shin's corpse fluttered into a mass of shadows and disappeared. Sakura looked up and saw a retroactive Shin fighting Sasuke once more. Sakura leaped out of the tunnel with an earth-shattering kick, and landed right next to him.
Shin spun away, gathering a cluster of mismatched, broken weapons around his body in a twirling arc of steel as he did so. Yet another sharingan's light had been extinguished, leaving him with only a handful. His weapon control was clearly diminishing, as evidenced by the flying scraps of metal that wavered tentatively and sagged in midair. The main, natural eye pulsed now and was bloodshot with intense concentration.
"Heh, I forgot about that special rinngean," Shin said, practically spitting the final word. "That eye of yours, which should belong to me!"
Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "Then come and take it," he challenged, his sword pointing straight at the man's heart.
Shin released a feral growl of flying spittle and blood, then charged.
Yet despite his bravado, it was clear that the tables had turned. The abomination was on the ropes now, and Sakura was back in the fight.
Time for payback, Inner Sakura cheered.
"Shannaro!"