Chapter Fourteen: The Battles Begin!

"Kakashi-sensei – Rei!" Sakura gasped when her sensei finally popped up for the first time in a month, wheeling in Rei. "Oh, right." Kakashi laughed. "Sorry about that. You must've been worried…sorry for not keeping in touch." He apologized, locking Rei's wheelchair in with the aisle. The other kunoichi looked worriedly at Sakura, feeling genuinely guilty.

"I don't mind, that's okay," Sakura said quietly, and looked back at the stage at Sasuke, seeing him for the first time in a while. Something definitely changed about him, a confidence that was now sevenfold. She looked clearly worried. "Listen, sensei –"

"Hm?"

Sakura's eyes fell. "You know that there was a mark on Sasuke's neck, right? Well...is it…"

"It's nothing to worry about," Kakashi said calmly. At last the worry was lifted from her face but Rei's own was darkening as she examined the arena. Kakashi looked back around, saying calmly, "so, that's that." Noticing Rei, Sakura turned to her teammate and her heart was heavy again. "Are you okay, Rei?"

Rei, distracted, turned and like always, a smile brightened up her face in a moment Sakura had her attention. "I'm stellar." But when the pink haired girl looked down at the wheel chair, Rei just laughed dismissively. "Oh, it's just precautionary." Kakashi gave his student a sharp look. Yeah, sure. Why call it a precautionary when she couldn't even stand up this morning without getting faint? Still, Rei looked completely untroubled as she waved off her worried teammate and then nodded towards the stadium. The fight was beginning.

0-0

Rei had felt tense the entire fight, but as soon as the first set of eyes were drifting asleep, Rei knew that a genjutsu – a massive one – was being casted among the crowd. She only looked at Kakashi and with a nod, he confirmed it. Quick to release it, she swivelled around to her teammate. "Hey, Sakura!" she prompted but the girl had realized it too and did the same. Slowly, Rei got up from her seat and turned around, analyzing the situation. Time to take action. A huge crash brought her attention to the scene and chaos broke through and then Kakashi was shouting orders as enemy began infiltrating the stadium.

If this wasn't an emergency, she didn't know what was.

They can help you, Rei.

That was what Sasuke said. And she needed the help of the ration pills if she was going to help the rest of her squad, and the rest of the village. As the rest of her team woken up, Rei scrambled to find the pills. Her hands were shaking as she lifted them to her mouth – but she forced herself to be calm. One won't kill you Rei, but if you won't take any…others will die. In a flash she threw them in her mouth faster than she could think twice about it and swallowed them, watching Kakashi jump over Sakura protectively. She felt a surge of energy through her muscles and a rush of adrenaline, of capability.

Then she was moving. With the rest of the jonin, Rei collided with the enemy. Using the chakra scalpel she brought down one, two, and then three of the enemy with two jabs – and to no fatigue. "Rei!" Kakashi called out and she retreated back with Guy and Kakashi. "Can you do this?"

"I'll be okay!" She jumped, kicking back the ninja that was racing towards her sensei. Knowing that she didn't need his help, he went towards his other student. "Sakura! It was worth teaching you genjutsu during survival training for the genin exam - you truly do have a talent for it," his eyes remained on her but his ears strained to interpret all the sounds of clashes, and getting to the point, he said, "release the genjtusu and wake Naruto and Shikimaru. Naruto will be delighted he'll be getting a mission after a long time."

Sakura was still in slight shock. "What kind of mission?"

"You'll have to be careful on this one. It's the first A-rank assignment since the Land of the Waves." The girl gasped slightly but did as she was told. Summoning his ninken, Pakkun, they assembled their team. "But what about Rei?" Sakura asked as Naruto watched around him – at the ill girl that was moving so fast she was a streak of brown and grey.

"She'll be with me," Kakashi reassured, and he explained the mission as Gai and Rei covered him.

To be completely honest, Kakashi knew that if he sent Rei with them, it would ensure that Sasuke would return to them. Seeing the two's relationship, there wasn't much that Kakashi suspected Sasuke wouldn't do for the brown haired girl. But Kakashi would rather have her close by in case she were to collapse. When his genins left, Kakashi concentrated back onto the battle at hand. Eventually, the enemy numbers were winding down.

"Rei," Guy called out, "Kakashi and I can handle it here. Go find Neji and Tenten and secure the village."

"Yessir!" She complied almost enthusiastically and jumped through the hole to find the older genins. They were at the lower floor – well, Neji was and Tenten was on the floor, taken out by the genjutsu. Neji was cornered by several ninjas who had watched his previous battle, all noting him to be a fighter. "Hey – you!" he called out as he struck one of the other ninjas with his gentle fist. "Wake Tenten up!"

"Let me help you first!" she said back and jumped into his fight, dispatching two of them quickly. For a couple of genins, they fought well and efficiently. With Neji and his gentle fist attacking chakra points and Rei using the chakra scalpel towards pressure points – their battle styles suited each other well. It took a lot to impress the Hyuga boy, but this definitely did.

She broke apart from her newly made partner and released the older girl from the genjutsu, ducking her hair from a stray kunai. "Hey – I don't mean to sound pushy but you really have to be quick and fight for your life. Like now," Rei said, shaking her gently but speaking quickly with an arm in the air to cover her from any other flying weapons. Tenten looked up, disorientated but seeing Neji battle, immediately fired up and nodded, her hands on her scroll and ready to let loose all the weapons she had sealed.

Widening their battle range, there was still simply too much enemy and Neji, Tenten and Rei found themselves the only battling ninjas in the premise. With the help of the military pills, she could only hope that she could keep it up.

But for how long?

As great and skilled Guy's team may be, she would prefer having Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke by her side. The only thing she hoped was that by the end of this, it would still be a squad of the four.

A ninja almost got a hold on her, but thankfully, Tenten was there to her rescue. "Hey – you all right?"

"My name is Rei," she said quickly, as she kicked another Sand ninja and attacked him with the chakra scalpel. That was when the other girl realized that Rei wasn't killing any of them – just shocking them and rendering them unconscious. She looked sharply at the younger kunoichi, wondering what she was thinking – this was war, not a spar. They were enemy and they were invading Konoha - there will be deaths. But Rei didn't change her method; she didn't want to kill anyone so she wouldn't. Simple.

Still, just because she didn't kill anyone, it didn't mean that there weren't those who tried to kill her – and worse, those who were dying. With each fallen ninja – on her side or not – Rei felt her grip on reality slip bit by bit.

Seeing another chunin fight an enemy down to weariness, Rei jumped in, momentarily saving the chunin's life. Even then, she refused to kill the enemy. Turning to see Tenten and Neji holding their own and fighting well together, she decided to move on elsewhere. "I'm going to see where else I can help!" Rei called out, and disbanded throughout the village. Her body felt tense with an overwhelming sense of pressure – where do I start? There's so much to do...and I'm wasting time thinking - they're dying! They're dying and I...I...

I have to help.

One by one, Rei treated to the fallen ninjas. Her heart raced each time she checked for a pulse and a faint one appeared, then she was working manically to try to save them. But when she got to a body that was cold and dead, Rei was plunged back into depression all over again. But she pulled herself out, dragged her feet, kept on moving to another. Her arms went sore as she pounded the chests, forcing breaths into bodies, and then racing to cover up and open wounds. But she felt herself weakening with each action, her arms aching and her hands shaking, the chakra not smooth any longer.

"Rei!"

Her heart melted at the familiar sound. "Yuri!" she called back, wanting to faint of relief but her hands were still on the strange chunin's chest, exerting the chakra. The older medic-nin looked around, impressed. There were several chunins around her, alive and moving even though the blood stained on their jackets indicated that they should've been dead. "You did…all of this?"

"I'm not sure how much longer I can last," Rei admitted and her voice was oddly quiet – too quiet. Traumatized. Disturbed.

Yuri knew she had to intercept here and get this girl out of this battle field. She stared at the young child, with blood on her face and on her hands. Her eyes were completely dark with the haunt of a war in them, but still Rei was desperately trying to save a life. For God's sake, she is only twelve, how is this even possible? "I can handle it from here, Rei, go to your squad – they need your help."

Out of curiosity, would you guys be interested if I wrote another random arc on this story when it's over? Or would the ending suffice...then again, you don't know the ending yet so I suppose this question is redundant. :)

Thanks for reading!