Chapter 20: Farewell, my friend.

The sun had long rose from the horizon.

The wind couldn't stop Hii's footsteps as she rampaged through the Northern forest. Baki'd better be right about the information he told her or else Hii wouldn't forgive him. Hii bit her lips as she jumped up to a tree, hiding herself among the canopies. As located, in this very forest, an old friend of her was wandering nearby. She must not let this opportunity slip away. She must confront him…Sasuke…

A group of people was walking ahead.

Hii hurriedly dashed forward to take a better look. Her eyes glowed with delight as she saw the familiar spiky hairstyle, the same walking posture. The man in the middle…no doubt it was Sasuke. Hii silently raced ahead of them. Now, she was standing on a tree branch, looking down on her old companion. There was a mixed feeling in her head. Hii half wanted to tear him apart as he had captured Bee-sama while the other half persuaded her to raise a heart to heart conversation. He used to be her best friend. She couldn't just kill him off, could she? Before she could decide, Sasuke had caught her eyes from below.

"Long time no see, Sasuke-kun!" – Hii said with a broad smile.

Sasuke widened his eyes, astonishing.

"Do you remember me?" – Hii continued in a friendly manner.

"What is this? I can't sense her chakra at all." – a red-headed girl said –"Hey, who's that bitch talking to you, Sasuke?"

"You have a really…nice…teammate, Sasuke-kun…"

Hii smirked and flicked her hand.

The red-haired girl was flung to a distance, hitting her back hard against a tree. The clash was so strong that blood exited from her mouth. The girl then dropped to the ground, lying flat on her face.

"KARIN."

The other guys hastily came to aid her while Sasuke gave Hii an irritated look. Hii didn't mind though, she had used to Sasuke's grumpy mood every day when they were still in Konoha. However, his attitude right now somehow hurt her a little bit. This wasn't the Sasuke that she knew. The coldness in his eyes was alien to her.

In a flash, Sasuke took out his sword and engaged in combat with Hii. She dodged his blade with a speed of light then ducked to the solid ground. As she stood there, Hii calmly performed a shielding technique to trap them inside. Sasuke's comrades seemed to be panic since they were separated from their "leader". The Uchiha narrowed his eyes at Hii, spreading out a kind of murderous aura.

"Chill out, Sasuke-kun. I come here to talk, not to fight." – Hii grinned at him –"And don't try to carry out any jutsu. They're useless in my shield."

"What do you want?" – Sasuke said grumpily.

"I want to know what had happened to you, to the Sasuke I knew."

"Hah, now you care about me? If you do then why didn't you go after me when I left for Orochimaru? Why didn't you persuade me to stay in Konoha? Where were you when I needed you? Hah hah… HA HA HA HA…I got it." – Sasuke laughed evilly –"Because of Gaara, right? You chose Gaara over me. You willingly went to Suna just to help him and left me alone…"

"But you have friends..." – Hii said calmly.

"Friends? Who? Those useless genins of the Hidden Leaf? I don't think they reach the level to become my friends. They only drag me down. But you…"

"What make me any different?"

"You should have become an avenger like me. I thought we could go on the same path together. I thought you could feel my pain but in the end, you were just as ignorant as them. You family was KILLED, right? Don't you feel anything? I heard you got your memory back so at least you should be able to feel something, shouldn't you? Are you heartless?"

Hii felt like someone was squeezing her heart when Sasuke mentioned her family's assassination. That guy's words were sure hurtful. However, it seemed like Orochimaru didn't tell him the truth.

"You don't even keep your promise. You promised that you would support me no matter what. You promised that we could be friends forever…Never mind, I got my business all done. I defeated Orochimaru, happy? I even killed Itachi…"

"Then come back to Konoha."

Sasuke was looking at her doubtfully.

"You got your revenge, Sasuke-kun. There was no reason for you to hang out with the Akatsuki losers anymore. Besides, that cloak suits Itachi better than you…" – Hii said indifferently.

As Hii expected, Sasuke dashed to her place like a bullet, full of force and fierce. She only had a tiny bit of time to move before his blade touched her flesh. Sasuke continued to approach her with a monstrous speed and his sword was no different from a snake. Its movement was flexible and deadly dangerous. Hii quickly avoided the blade and at the same time tried to knock it out of his hand. Even though she had nullified his ability to use other techniques, his taijutsu and kenjutsu were quite annoying. Hii secretly attached her chakra strings on Sasuke's arms whenever she had a chance. Her swift moves got on Sasuke's nerves because she dodged his attack every time. He started to lose his cool and messed up with his strategy. Finally, her counterattack worked. Hii successfully disarmed Sasuke and punched him in the face with her bare hand. He was flying for a distance before hitting an "invisible" wall. Wiping a drain of blood away from his mouth, Sasuke stood up and smirked at the blue electric rays glowing from Hii's fingers.

"I don't fight fair, Sasuke. We're shinobi after all."

Sasuke's face showed nothing, nothing but a malicious smile.

"Tell me. Why don't you go back to Konoha?"

"Because you're not there."

Hii gave him a questioning look.

"If you went after me, things might be different…To me, you've been more than just a friend…"

Hii was startled…For a moment…

"But now you mean NOTHING to me!" – Sasuke suddenly appeared by her side –"You're just an unpleasant obstacle that I wish to get rid of. You will die…" – he grabbed her neck –"After that, I will kill Gaara, I will gouge his heart out and make him die the most painful way. I will make him suffer. I will enjoy his agony when seeing your corpse with his own eyes."

Hii bit her lip as Sasuke strangled her.

"Then I will kill the Raikage just like what I did to the Hachibi…"

Sasuke's eyes widened as his whole body was tied down by countless dazzling electric wires. Hii moderately walked towards him from behind, her facial expression was icy cold. No matter how much it hurt to accept the fact that Sasuke had changed, Hii realized that he was indeed a threat to her beloved people. Hii narrowed her eyes…The wire was getting tighter…Sasuke's blood started shedding from his pale skin. She could cut Sasuke into pieces immediately but then Hii realized she couldn't do it. She couldn't kill Sasuke that easily…

"You don't have the gut to kill me…" - Sasuke laughed – "I know you, Hii. You could have done that if you wanted to."

A sharp cut appeared on Sasuke's cheek.

"I will destroy Konoha."

Another appeared on his wrist.

"I will take the life of those you love. You'll have to pay for leaving me behind."

Hii had made up her mind. Raising her sword high, she was about to stab Sasuke when something spongy suddenly popped out from her limbs. Hii snapped her fingers. The disgusting thing was removed from her body but it was enough to distract her from maintaining the shield. By the time the Air barrier had disappeared, Hii saw something different in Sasuke's eyes. It was not his Sharingans anymore…In fact they were…

"Zetsu! You came!" – the other guys yelled.

"Let's go now, Sasuke." – the freak named Zetsu said –"And you three, you aren't her opponent so don't fight. It's not fun to mess with an Imai."

"What? She's our wanted Imai?" – the red-haired girl squeaked.

Hii only had a few seconds to get away from Sasuke as she sensed some evil chakra enlarging with such fast pace. It was unpleasantly cold and made her sick in the stomach. Hii turned her head and realized the technique used by Sasuke was no other than…

"SUSANO'O…How about that, Hii?"

Sasuke laughed madly to her face, getting ready to strike another attack. The others were looking at them in terror, the red-haired girl was begging Sasuke to stop and even "Zetsu" tried to interfere but he was knocked away by his dark shield. Hii observed Sasuke with caution…If he could go as far as to form a Susano'o, and then there would be no chance that he wouldn't use…

"AMATERASU!"

The powerful flames of darkness flew at Hii like an aggressive swamp of bees. Hii didn't have time to think now. It was either a kill or be killed situation. And much to what she preferred, Hii wanted to survive.

Sasuke was glaring at Hii in anger as he saw her blocking away his flames easily. He was yelling at Hii furiously as she hid herself behind the silver smoke. As the smoke faded away, Hii slowly showed herself again. Much to Sasuke's surprise, he noticed that Hii wasn't the same anymore. She had transformed into something really strange. He stared cautiously at the claws growing out from her hands. Her hair was disheveled and had a much greater length than before, flowing down to her ankles. Her eyes were like those of a hawk with shiny white and golden rings surrounding them. Her pupils were no longer black but turned into a mixture of pure red and light orange, glowing brilliantly like two gem stones in daylight. And her face…it didn't carry any of her features. In fact, it looked pretty extraordinary and demon-like.

"SASUKE, DON'T FIGHT. HER CHAKRA IS WEIRD!" – Karin shouted.

"Idiot Sasuke." – Zetsu mumbled.

Sasuke insanely threw the undying flames at Hii but strangely, they were all sucked into the transparent "holes" in the air. Hii smirked at him then formed a hand seal which he had never seen before. A moment later, Sasuke heard a high pitched whistle constantly entering his ears, deafening him. He felt that his Susano'o seemed to be cracking from the outside. He drew back and guarded himself with a stronger shield but Hii had already come to his side. Sasuke started to panic as Hii was drilling his shield with a strong whirling gust of wind. She was looking at him sorrowfully. Memories of their previous friendship kept pouring in her mind.

"I DON'T WANT TO SEE YOU THIS WAY, SASUKE." – Hii shouted in a hoarse voice that was not her own –"YOU ARE MY FRIEND! MY FRIEND!"

"No, you are damn not. You've never thought about me. You broke our promise. You only have HIM. I HATE YOU!" – Sasuke said bitterly.

"Is that how you feel?"

"Yes…I WANT YOU DEAD. I WILL CRUSH YOU!"

"Fine then…I'll have no choice but to kill you…though in my heart, you've always been the friend I adore."

Hii deliberately pushed her chakra a little stronger. A short crack appeared…then a longer one…then a deeper one…Sasuke's shield was shattered to pieces and he was knocked down to the ground. Hii was inches away from thrusting her air blade through his head when that Zetsu appeared again, carrying Sasuke with him and escaped under the earthy surface. As they emerged from the ground, Hii could see Sasuke was already badly injured with blood covering his body.

"Let's go."

Zetsu commanded then all of them vanished behind a smoke. For a moment, Hii was sure that Sasuke was looking at her again. "I hate you", he mumbled. Those eyes…those cruel eyes…