Introverted
Chapter Twenty-Nine
There was so much blood on her hands it didn't even wash away properly —not that she had tried. There was so much pain running around her body, dancing in the sun's glare —she had never seen pain before, it was strange and exciting. There were quite a bit of colors around her too. Naruto was orange-like, Sai was dressed in navy blue and looked like Sasuke. The Proctor looked strange too…was he laughing at her? She'd give him the bird. It was the only thing she could do after all…horrible proctor, telling her she's late when they are all early... She had felt safe hugging her teammates, because it meant she was still alive and could still feel.
It had been so cold for so long…She loved them because they protected her, and they loved her because she protected them.
The scary purple woman was a whore. Yes, she was a bad, bad whore who had to die slowly for taking her away from her team. She kept on the smiling face and the half-dumb grinning even as her teammates had to leave her behind. She was sad because of that…but she'd meet them again soon. She just had to make the white eyed enemy die. Make him stay still on the ground drenched in blood…there was so much blood on her hands…wasn't there?
"Haruno Sakura," the silver-haired proctor stated, "And Neji Hyuga," he retorted pointing his single eyed gaze at the Hyuga branch member, "Begin."
Neji had no qualms hitting girls. It took him the moment to activate his byakugan however, to understand something was wrong with that particular girl.
She wasn't running away from him, but closing in with a kunai in hand. He scoffed at such a crude display, his left hand shooting forward to counter-strike the girl's wrist, to shatter her bone and then deliver a devastating gut punch to the pink-haired imbecile that believed she could win against a Taijutsu user who had trained extensively in the art for years.
Really, what did she think…that she could win by training hard for as little as she had and defeat him?
There was no dodging his counterstrike. There was no strange technique or chakra spike. His punch actually connected with the girl's guts and settled the match in a single strike. Only a tiny amount of chakra actually escaped the girl's chakra coils an instant before his fist connected. There was no Genjutsu or strange other technique afterwards…only the body of the pink haired Genin crumbling down on the ground.
At least, that was what he had expected to happen. The girl instead…she just smiled as blood came out of her mouth, without falling down. He was pretty sure he had hit her hard.
"Boom," she choked out through pained groans. Her black shirt, hidden beneath her fishnet one, opened up with that single whispered word. His attack hadn't cleanly landed on her stomach, but against tags that had been tied to the girl's skin, and which she had activated with a precise chakra pulse in the same instant as his arm had shot forward to deliver his own devastating blow.
A thick cloud of pollen, poisonous vapors, itching powders and whatnot exploded and passed through Sakura's fishnet shirt within mere instants, engulfing the Hyuga before he could even reason what had happened. Neji screamed in pain as he began to furiously claw at his own eyes, rolling on the ground.
Sakura was in her happy world. She was in a place where the pain couldn't reach her, because she knew that if she returned to the non-happy world she was going to suffer. She was in the happy world where nothing bad happened. She was in the world where everyone and everything was fine. She was happy. Her skin was on fire, her body convulsing and filled with spasms but she…she was fine. All the poisons had a short duration. They meant to make the body spasm for a few minutes at most.
She just had to relax and let them run their course. Really, she was in a happy place. It was a happy place, where her parents loved to stay at home and where her teammates were there for her.
She wasn't going to let some dumb Hyuga prick hurt her teammates —not a chance in hell. She'd get him first. She stopped convulsing after a short while, taking a few steps forward as the kunai she had been clutching with her now broken wrist seemed to be glinting and whispering to her 'kill him'. She couldn't move mister shiny-kunai however. It didn't want to move.
Therefore, she took out mister shiny-sword and tried to plunge it deeply into the Hyuga-bastard's eyes. It didn't work because the proctor decided against it, and stopped her from executing the Hyuga.
"Haruno Sakura," he said then and she finally heard him and grinned dumbly. "You have won the match."
"Yeahhh…" she whispered in her low voice, before spitting out blood from her mouth and wobbling all the way out of the arena while bobbing her head up and down as if half-drooling.
"Medic-nin!" Kakashi snapped his fingers, letting the Chuunin shinobi arrive and take care of both the winner and the loser.
Naruto had watched the entire fight happen in front of his eyes, from his position on the box of the contestants. His knuckles clenched hard against the metal of the guardrail as he ground his teeth. What had happened? Why had that…why had that happened?
"Neji lost," the girl of team Nine murmured from the other side of the box, her face pale. "How did she…"
"I don't know," Naruto suddenly snapped, "But I'm going to find out who tried to get my teammate killed and I will kill her so brutally they will talk of it in the years to come."
His eyes shone crimson for a moment, as the Kages up in the box appeared to be deliberating over the match.
"Interesting match," the Kazekage remarked. "Short lived, but then again that's the way it should be…poison used seemed to be a fairly normal blend. No tolerance to poison in the Hyuga?"
"I recognized a few of the herbs used by the color," the Takigakure chief replied. "It is a simple but effective idea actually…a kill switch based on the eventual lack of chakra."
"The precision to execute it however must be astonishing," the Otogakure leader remarked. "The tags had to be primed with chakra before the lack of chakra forced the paper tags to disperse, and she still took a devastating blow to her own chakra coils. For her to stand after that, with a broken wrist I might add, and try to finish the enemy? The pain must have been excruciating. Did she drug herself to numb the pain? It would explain her behavior and her late arrival…she couldn't waste time with the drug in her bloodstream."
"A tricky way to deal with a Hyuga, I admit," the Hokage acquiesced. "Ultimately a one-shot skill, but still…the principle is workable." Mentally, Hiruzen decided to give a nice tongue-lashing to Anko for her apparent decision to overlook the long-term effects of such training.
"She comes from a civilian background, correct?" the Nibi Jinchuuriki remarked calmly as her narrow gaze went for a moment to the contestant stands, where the brief spike of a chakra that felt familiar to her was stirring the two-tailed demon from its slumber.
"Indeed," the Hokage nodded. "That amount of devotion and self-sacrifice to the cause is something that any Chuunin should possess."
"Someone helped her with the tags," the Nibi said dryly. "The execution was top-mark, but the before and after…I doubt she will be able to stand for the next fight. It was a Kamikaze attack, inexcusable on a battlefield unless the very last moment and on the brink of defeat...and even then, explosive tags would have been better."
"I am with Hokage-dono on this," the Kazekage replied. "And the point was illustrated clearly with or without explosive tags. She is Chuunin-rank."
"Loath as I am to admit it, there is little more to say," the Otogakure chief murmured. "It seems the Byakugan itself can be countered with simple ink…what a terrible thing."
"Fuinjutsu has always been a dangerous art, even a so called prodigy like Neji Hyuga can be defeated with wits," Hiruzen said. He quickly scribbled the Chuunin rank beneath Sakura Haruno's name. The fight had been short, anti-climactic…shinobi-like.
"The next match may begin!" the Hokage exclaimed then.
With a flash of speed, Naruto Uzumaki descended in the arena with crimson red chakra lapping around his entire frame. The ground cracked under his mere presence as his crimson orbs held a gaze of pure murder. His right hand slammed in a fist against his left, before he snarled.
"Well?"
Tenten Satou swallowed nervously. She had been present when the boy had begun the fight that had ended with the death of the Suna ninja. She had seen just what he could do before running away with her team. There was no way she could win…whatever bloodline the boy had made him a monster, but she had to try. At least, if she put up a good show, she had a chance to become a Chuunin and move on to more rewarding missions, find a Jounin to apprentice to and be one-step closer to becoming like Tsunade of the Sannin, her idol.
She jumped down in the arena, taking her distance from her opponent and clenching on her scrolls packed with weapons. She had trained for this…she could win this.
Naruto's right foot tapped against the ground. "Well?" he smirked. "Are we going to begin?"
"No killing, if it can be avoided," Kakashi spoke. The silver haired shinobi locked eyes with Naruto's crimson orbs and Tenten's dark ones, before finally whispering out: "You may now begin."
Tenten jumped backwards, as she extracted three scrolls one after the other in rapid succession from her back. Chakra poured as they unclasped, letting projectile after projectile fly out and land in a continuous barrage against the spot where Naruto was standing still.
Many landed against the boy's shoulders, slamming into his chest or his body as he simply widened his arms with a feral grin and a look that was half of ecstasy and half of rage. "Hey, girl," he snarled as shurikens the size of his body tore through his jacket, their jagged edges and points tearing his skin and making him bleed. "Are you the trap specialist of your team?"
"W-What if I am!?" she yelled back at the boy who didn't even seem fazed from the copious amount of blood lost, or from the amount of metal that was currently piercing his entire frame.
"Then I have a debt to repay," he snarled. "A debt of blood…"
As he said that, all the weapons, the projectiles frown, all the pieces and bits of metal that had embedded in his skin flew out of his body with a vigorous explosion of metallic shrapnel. Naruto's entire body shrouded itself in the chakra cloak of the Kyuubi, giving him a fox-like appearance as twin tails swashed away behind him.
"And let it be known…that the Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki always pays his debts back tenfold!"
His right hand pushed itself forward as a chakra-claw advanced on the scared Tenten, who barely dodged it. The caustic chakra managed to wound her cheek slightly from its mere presence as the ferocious sting it caused made the long-range user wince in pain. The small nick on the girl's cheek increased in size drastically, leaving behind an actually wide gash on her side.
"What is left to grow too much, starts to rot," Naruto sing-sung, as he lowered himself on all fours.
Kakashi wanted to call the match in that moment.
He wanted to, but he was too late. The boy's speed was beyond what he, without the sharingan, could see. Soon, both hands of Naruto Uzumaki had plunged deeply into Tenten's own stomach, piercing her entire body apart as they emerged reddish with blood on the other side…
And the screams…
They made him shudder.
In the sewer-like mind, the Kyuubi watched with amusement the scene unfold. Beyond the bars, Naruto was looking in shock at the same thing. His skin was pale and his eyes wide. He hadn't wanted that to happen, probably.
"What's going on?" Naruto screamed from within his own mind, looking at the Nine-Tails as if he had the answer to it. He actually did.
"Look above you, Naruto," he replied soothingly.
Naruto did just that and as he did, he blanched.
A twisted red and black eye looked at him from above the ceiling, spinning wildly more and more. It resembled a sort of three-pronged shuriken, but it just felt…wrong. It felt evil just by looking at it.
"The power of the Mangekyou Sharingan," the Kyuubi snarled from his own cage. "Terrible power, cursed and wretched and stolen from me," the nine-tailed fox roared and laughed at the same time. "How it feels, I wonder." He chuckled. "How it feels…to be betrayed? To be forced against one's own will? To have freedom taken away and never given back? How does it feel, Naruto Uzumaki…to be myself?"
"What are you talking about?" Naruto asked softly, taking a step back and falling in the water from the shock of recoiling from the thing. "What is that thing!?"
"You can't remember…the Kotoamatsukami steals and rapes the mind and the memories. The power of unbridled malice, uncontrolled hatred, unquenchable thirst for vengeance birthed it...I offered it as a gift to the first born of the Sage of the six paths, a gift of friendship…from brother to brother." He laughed bitterly. "This is what he made of it. It was supposed to ensure loyalty between friends, it bred domination and tyranny."
Naruto heard a sickening sound all around him, as the water seemed to reflect his Kyuubi-influenced form attack and tear apart the sides of the kunoichi he was battling. How could the girl still be alive!? Why was no one intervening?
"Show no mercy to your enemies," the Kyuubi's crimson eyes shone brightly as the demon spoke. "Be the weapon Konoha wishes you to become. Well, who am I to refuse such an offer?"
"Stop it!" he yelled.
"Stop it? Why?" it was a third voice that asked, with a tone all too familiar to Naruto… because it was his own. "It's so much fun!"
Sickening dark red eyes and a feral smirk settled on a face identical to his a few meters away. "Well, Naruto? Nothing to say?" his clone opened his arms wide. "No saying hello to your brother in anguish? I felt all alone down here, you know? Wallowing in misery, hearing the big fuzzy ball snarl and rant about 'malice' and 'hatred of the world', watching you go around smiling and acting like the glares and the stares didn't matter…"
He smirked. "Then thankfully you changed a bit. It was nice, you know…no longer being left in a corner. Silence and muttering of how we were going to kill them…but it lasted too little," his dark-self whispered. "Too little time in the light makes me go mad, you know?"
His clone brought up his right hand clenched in a fist as he growled. "It's time for payback, Naruto. They have to pay and suffer and scream! They dared talk behind our backs; act as if we were scum…when they should have honored us! They should have kissed the ground where we walked! They should have held us up high as heroes, not slammed us in the dirt like monsters!"
His Dark-Self laughed out bitterly as he pointed his finger to the ceiling. "That thing over there? It grants me freedom. Finally…I. Am. Free. Your deepest desires, your darkest secrets…that person at the market? Let us slaughter him. That woman who hates us and gives us those nasty glares? Let's kill her son and rape her daughter, before feasting on her blood like we should! They will bow to us. All of them…they will know our power and tremble beneath our strength…together, brother, let's do this," the dark Naruto extended his hand towards him. "We are the same, you and I…together, we can fight them. Together, we can defeat them. Together, we can cleanse this world of the darkness that inhabits it. Together…don't you want this? Don't you want to be free? To be unchained, unclasped to ideals that do not belong to you? Don't you want…don't you want revenge for the way they treated you?"
Another strong impact resounded as the girl's chest was literally ripped apart by the strength of one of his blows…and yet she was still alive. He was torturing her by tearing her own body apart and keeping her alive at the same time. Naruto felt sick. "Well? They will all die anyway, brother," the dark-him took a step forward, and as he did the water around him turned to grime and dark rotting blood, expanding like a sickening patch of oil on the liquid. "But together…together we can make their deaths painless and swift…"
"No," he shook his head. "No," he growled out.
"So you refuse me?" his dark-self replied. "You refuse my might, my power, the strength that could guide you flawlessly to freedom? And for who? A half sociopath who makes pretty drawings? A sensei that you barely know? A girl who let you down and then acts like a lunatic on a drug high? An old man who views you like a hero and does nothing to act upon it!? Is this what you are exchanging your freedom for? These…these rotten remains of a putrid society unfit to exist? These…these stench filled bodies that will eventually rot and die?"
"They're not like that!" Naruto screamed.
"No? Then look!" a sickening crunch, a horrendous sound of something squishy being taken out…and when his gaze turned to the puddle of water, the girl he had been fighting had its entrails removed. Her eyes were wide in fear as the claw-like hand of Naruto held steadily onto them, healing and at the same time burning and ripping through her flesh.
The girl's screams echoed throughout the sewer-like area now filled with the stench of blood and the moans of the wounded. She no longer had a lower half of her body, but she was still alive. She was still alive even as her entrails were on the ground, her upper half torn apart and held by the same chakra hands that had attacked her before. She was constantly rotting and healing, the pain…the pain was…
"LET ME GO PLEAASE IT HURTS PLEAASEEE PLEASE HURT HURT HURT HURT IT HURTSS PLEASEEE" the girl's screams turned into a cacophony of noise and sounds as Naruto clutched both of his ears. He shuddered and trembled as he fell on the ground, his knees sinking deeply within the dirty water that seemed to sprout half-rotten hands that clasped at his clothes, his vest, his flesh and seemed to be pulling him down through the water.
In that final, fleeting, instant…Naruto Uzumaki's throat let out a single half-wretched sob.
"Enough."
And then chakra chains shot throughout the entire room, twisting and pulling away at the rot that was encrusting the walls, binding tightly against the dark-self of Naruto and pulling him within the seal just as the body of the real Naruto was stopped from drowning and gently brought back on his feet.
The noises and the screams of pain soon subsided.
Naruto felt himself return to the world of the living, as the chakra surrounding him disappeared in a flash. On the ground, laid rotten and still twitching was the body of his opponent.
Her blood soaked the grounds. Naruto's eyes looked from her dying form to that of the proctor, who seemed to be holding himself still as a stone.
"I won," Naruto remarked calmly. It was enough to start the avalanche of screams from the people in the stands. It was enough to make Kakashi return to his senses long enough to weakly nod.
Death was something that happened in the tournament. It was something rare. Something that wasn't meant to be among shinobi of the same village, but that happened all the same when mistakes were made. He had been so lost in his thoughts and remembrance of the Kyuubi's attack when the thick malice of the beast's chakra had blanketed the area, that he hadn't even called the victor.
If he had, would it have changed anything? The first blow would have been fatal anyway, and he knew he should have called the match there and then…but he couldn't. He couldn't because there was no way he could link that boy, that boy covered in blood and with crimson eyes to the one he had been teaching till then.
He hoped against all hopes that his sensei's son wouldn't turn out as a blood-thirsty monster, that his words on not wanting to kill anyone and on not claiming revenge were real…he had told him that much, when he had come clean on knowing who his father was.
Then this had happened. He had outright murdered, toyed with, even…eaten the girl. Tenten Satou was an orphan from the war, she had been living in the orphanage for a while until she had moved out for one of the one-room apartments the Genin got from the state.
And there she now was, dead…nobody deserved to die in their village, and nobody especially deserved that type of death. This was only supposed to be some normal exam; sure, deaths were possible but…
Up above, in the Kage stands, the Hokage was trying to act like the calmest person. The Nibi Jinchuuriki was actually the calm one. The Tsuchikage was half-way through a shit-eating grin and the other allies of Konoha were instead failing to act calm.
"Was this display designed to impress us on the ruthlessness of your village, Hokage-sama? You must have recovered your losses quite proficiently, if you are willing to see your own shinobi die at the hand of your Jinchuuriki. He does appear to be quite…in control, if a bit on the sadistic side." Nothing she couldn't kill or face however. She was confident that she defeated him in speed and power…as well as experience. Unless he could control more tails of power, then it was clear who was…
"You would die." The Nibi simply spoke three words with her unnatural calmness. "The Kyuubi is different. He has always been different." She actually added some words to her short-cut sentence, before returning to her usual mask of indifference.
"How can he be different? He is no different than you or the Hachibi," Yugito grumbled in her mind. "And you could give me more information about him. I'd just ask Bee to ask the Hachibi anyway."
"Then do so," the Nibi remarked placidly. "It is not my task to answer your questions."
"I believe you should pull him out of the exam, Hokage-dono," the Otogakure chief spoke. "He will without a doubt be a Chuunin. We saw his might right now…to see him fight again would be…"
"Don't you dare!" the Tsuchikage actually laughed at that. "I want to see him fight my granddaughter! If he's really in control, then he won't kill her will he? And if he isn't, then this is only bark and no bite!"
"And if he does kill your granddaughter?" Suien replied. "Will you claim it your fault?"
"Tsk, if he can manage to out speed me, then I will retire from my position," Oonoki remarked with a dry chuckle. "Well, is your proctor daydreaming or what? Have him take the corpse out of the field…unless he wants to leave it there for the next bout?"
Meanwhile, in the hospital's common room Hinata was desperately clutching on to the wool cloth that covered her legs. Her eyes were wide and trembling, tears streaking down her cheeks as she had just watched the carnage happen in a blur. From the small screen, all she had managed to glimpse was Naruto suddenly turn into a red blur, before slamming into his opponent and then…
The screams had begun. They had been so horrid even the children had to leave, and her father had tried to get her out too. She had remained instead, her hand having firmly grasped her father's arm when he had attempted to take her away.
She had said 'no' to him for that... and he had let her.
Hinata had watched, but mostly she had heard the screams. She had seen the blood fly, the bits and pieces fall off and she had felt sick…but she hadn't retched. She had fought against the queasiness in her stomach and had held in a vice-like grip of steel her father's hand with both of hers, like she did when she was little and he was still kinder.
"What is that?" she whispered in fright. "What…Where is…Where is Naruto-kun in that?"
She couldn't see Naruto-kun. She saw a beast of red and crimson, a monster born of darkness. She saw nothing resembling the laughing blonde-haired person with deep striking blue eyes she admired from afar.
"You know the Jinchuuriki?" Hiashi asked calmly. The boy had practically announced it to the world —he doubted the third's law was still in effect after that. He was slightly perplexed at the 'kun' suffix, but said nothing for the moment. He could school his displeasure perfectly after all.
"N-Naruto-kun," Hinata stammered out. "He…He was always smiling in class," she shyly whispered. "I…I admired him. H-He was a…a failure, like me," she croaked out, "But…but he always smiled. He…he fought on," she shook her head slowly. "Th-That isn't Naruto-kun," she whispered again. "It's…It can't be…him."
"A Jinchuuriki is the host of a Bijuu," Hiashi spoke without really knowing why he was telling his daughter that. "When the Kyuubi attacked Konoha the Yondaime had to seal it in a baby," he remarked. "That baby was Naruto Uzumaki, an orphan."
"H-He has the Kyuubi inside of him?"
"Yes," Hiashi nodded once firmly. "And Jinchuuriki…they are renowned for being weapons of mass destruction. The Ichibi, the weakest of them all…it could raze Sunagakure to the ground if given time. Fuinjutsu, the art of sealing, was the only known mean to counteract the demons. The first Hokage sealed the demons and handed them away to ensure peace…but then somehow the Kyuubi got free and attacked Konoha."
"N-Naruto-kun wasn't liked because of that?"
"Indeed," the head of the Hyuga clan whispered. "Why hold him prisoner, when killing the baby would give Konoha years of peace? The fools knew nothing of sealing or demons. They didn't know that the demons simply cannot die, but are reformed countless times until sealed."
He looked at Hinata then. "You all weren't supposed to know. It wasn't just for his safety…but to ensure the enemy villages didn't attack Konoha in a moment of weakness. The tale that had to spread was of a mature shinobi holding the Kyuubi, to keep the enemies away."
Just as Hinata nodded numbly, somewhere else in the same hospital Sakura was slowly opening her eyes. She actually felt somewhat nice. There was a sort of…peace in her body.
It lasted three seconds, and then pain wracked her entire frame as she felt her muscles as if they were combusting in flames. The convulsion stopped a moment later, but by then her peace of mind was shattered. She saw the drip and the needle inserted in her arm. She saw the nurse entering with hurry to look at her. She even heard her speak…but it didn't matter to her.
"T-Teammates?" she whispered. Her voice felt weak. The Teammates were important. It was the only thought she had managed to keep in her mind. That and 'going boom' when the time was needed. She didn't actually remember much else.
Only the forest that looked at her and didn't see her, but prey to eat. The forest was evil. She was going to burn it down when she had the time.
The bad guy was white-eyed, and she hoped he had died with her boom. Even if he hadn't, she was going to kill him anyway.
The purple haired whore had told her so. She had to be broken, and then mended again, but since they didn't have much time she would just break her and give her something to do while broken. Yeah, that was all there was. Nothing more, really…she said something about doing it multiple times…something of a failsafe with captured enemy shinobi exchanged back…
She convulsed again.
The nurse called for a doctor, didn't she?
There were no doctors in the forest. She had bled and used leafs to heal herself. Not the poisonous ones of course, she remembered Sai's words on those. And Naruto had told her of food to eat and not-to. She had daydreamed of being there with her teammates. It had been nice…were her Naruto-stick and her Sai-stick still back there?
The tiger's blood felt warm.
No, there were no tigers. She was safe…so why was she holding the doctor with the needle on the ground? Oh, she had broken his arm…
Accidents happen, don't they?
Two big bad shinobi entered afterwards, and so she had to snarl at them and attack them.
It was the only way to survive in the jungle after all.
Prey or predator, right?
She was done being the prey.
"That's the reason no-one should train beneath Anko," one of the two shinobi interns of the hospital muttered after gripping the girl's waist and holding her still, so that the second one could pierce her neck with a sedative. Outside the room in shock were both of the girl's parents looking inside with wide eyes. The woman's right hand was to her mouth, while the father's fists clenched tightly.
"Sakura? Honey?" Mebuki whispered with a pleading tone as she took a step forward.
"Stay back ma'am," the nurse said, moving away from the doctor who was cradling his broken arm. "It's…well, it's going to be all right once we get a Yamanaka in here."
"Keep her strapped," the doctor snapped out with a bit more of anger than normal —after all, he had his arm broken by the girl. "And sedated…once they've taken her memories and placed them under lock, have her start therapy with a psychiatrist."
"What is going on?" Kizashi asked then, his eyes moving from his daughter's unresponsive body —who was laying in the bed now, and was being strapped by the interns— to the doctor who had a grimace on his face.
"She's not the first one to break after a traumatic experience, sir. It happens regularly. That's why Chuunin-above get regular visits to the psychiatrist. We were warned on who trained her, but well…" the doctor sighed. "We couldn't risk drugging her with anything heavy, not with the state her kidneys are right now…and her inner chakra coils? They're scrambled."
"What does it mean?"
"It means," the man's eyes settled on Kizashi, "That it will take a while for her to heal. Physically? She'll be fine in a few weeks. Mentally? It might take months for her to assimilate whatever she has gone through…and knowing Anko Mitarashi…it had to be something horrible."
"But…she'll be back to her normal self, right?" Mebuki asked, as her right hand went to caress a lock of pink hair that was half-dyed green. "This isn't dye," she whispered then. "It's…grass?"
"We don't usually make predictions on these cases," the doctor replied. "Sometimes…they heal. Sometimes…they don't. Most of the time they simply keep on functioning like time bombs…we generally try and suggest them to find an administrative work spot, somewhere nice and quiet like the archives or the likes, but only a few actually listen."
"I-I see doctor…"
"Yakushi," the doctor replied. "Now, if she wakes up and there is no one around do not agitate her. If she says something then be condescending, but do not actually let her leave, understood? Don't undo the straps and if she acts violently or risks harming herself call a nurse. I know she is your daughter, sir…but she is also a kunoichi. They can be extremely violent when in this state," the doctor's sane hand went up to squeeze gently Kizashi's shoulder. "I insist on this. Do not under any circumstance attempt anything alone. Call a nurse, an intern, or someone if she wakes up with only you in the room."
"I…I understand."
"Good," and with that the doctor left to have his broken arm placed in a cast.
The interns and the nurse left soon afterwards and in the end, only the two of them remained. They both sat next to Sakura's prone form on the bed.
"My little girl," Mebuki whispered. "She looks so…peaceful."
"It was only months ago that she went on about the Uchiha," Kizashi murmured with a hard tone. "If this…If I had known this would happen…"
"Why her? Why not someone else?"
"I…I don't—"
A sharp knock at the door interrupted the couple's talking, and they both looked towards it as it opened slowly.
A man with dark short hair and a stern expression entered next, his left hand holding onto the clinical records of Sakura probably.
"Ah, excuse me," he replied closing the door behind him. "I'm Doctor Torune…"
Kizashi felt a slight itching sensation up his arm…and he barely glanced towards his wife to see her cross her arms over her chest and look at the doctor with a look of worry. She was also scratching her left shoulder.
"Is everything all right, doctor? Doctor Yakushi said…"
"Oh, don't worry," the Doctor smiled then. "Everything will be fine."
The corpse of Tenten was removed from the arena, just as Naruto climbed back up on the contestants' box. His hands were still covered in dried blood when the green spandex clad boy from the same team as the girl pounced and grabbed him by the clothes.
"YOU!" he screamed with tears in his eyes. "First Neji, then Tenten! You monster! How could you!? You—"
"Shut up," the Otogakure kunoichi snapped. "Your teammate was trash for losing anyway. In Oto if you lose you die. It's as simple as that," she rolled her eyes. "At least someone is taking the exam seriously. Leave the brat alone."
"Y…you! You most unyouthful person!"
"Let go of my teammate," Sai's voice was cold and composed, but the kunai placed at the neck of Rock Lee was showing the exact opposite. "You can fight him if you win the tournament."
Naruto staggered back as Rock Lee let him go, before turning and moving to the far-end corner of the box they were in. "I will avenge my teammate with the fire of youth," he snapped pointing his finger straight at Naruto. "You are not worthy of being my youthful rival…but I will avenge Tenten."
Sai's eyes fixated on Naruto, as the blond boy returned the gaze with a mixture of worry and perplexity.
"What happened, Dickless?"
"I…I don't know." He whispered out those words just as, beneath them, Kurotsuchi and Kidomaru began to battle…
With the sound of battle raging on, nobody heard the soft footsteps of Orochimaru, as all around him the village burned and was torn apart piece by piece by his men.
"Leave no survivors!" he barked out as he wielded the Kusanagi and pointed forward. "Come on! Let us be the wind that makes the windmill spin! Let us bring change to this world! For our future, for perfection! Let us fight and destroy these rotten bastards! Kill them all! Destroy them all! Let none survive our wrath!"
"Hai, Orochimaru-sama!" and as a single man hundreds of sound-nin converged as one against the titanic structure of wood that was Takigakure's main defensive position. The village hidden by the waterfall would soon fall, and as the secrets of the Hero water would be delivered onto him, he couldn't help but laugh.
Hebi was next to him, shuddering and slightly worried. Orochimaru-sama had inked some sort of seal on her neck, but hadn't activated it yet. She couldn't help but feel worried because…well, of course their leader wouldn't just kill her, but then again…
There were screams all around her, as the lack of a Kage, of a Chief or of their Jinchuuriki actually facilitated the defeat of the small and enclosed village.
There was nothing but death all around her…
…it reminded her of home, somewhat.
Author's notes
…
I actually felt sick writing Tenten's demise.
And…really…you weren't expecting a Shounen-training period with relative win, right?
Ps: Kotoamatsukami's cooldown is reduced with Hashirama cells. Naruto-Wikia is generally the source of my infos.
