Act 7: Howls of the Beasts
Chapter 43: Kinuta Kyoto (III)
Updated on: 11 January, 2014


Unlike Orochimaru, who had his strange ability to wear human skin, Jingi Kagetsu could not put on a fake mask like what Orochimaru did, or wear a new head like what Tako did, that was why, she had no choice but to pretend to be a Sound-nin. Donning a grey spotted uniform with a grey scarf, Kagetsu slipped into Konohagakure without any trouble.

She was provided with two 'students' to keep up the act, one she quickly recognised as Orochimaru's prized student, Kinuta Kyoko, the other was relatively unknown to her. Adding to the pair, was Kagetsu's own student, Yamanaka Ino, who took up the name Abumi Aoi upon the lost of her memories.

The final match was about to begin, and Kagetsu did not like it one bit, everything was screwed up, the matches Akatsuki decided on did not play out as expected. Someone tempered with the 'fixed' machine they had earlier implanted behind the electronic board, and now the matches they wanted were played out in the worst possible combinations she could think of.

Originally, Ino was to fight against Naruto, but fortunately, Naruto was weakened enough by Orochimaru's other student, Akado Yoroi, to be captured by Tako. According to her friend, Tako had already summoned Ino to perform the capturing on Naruto, and was already on her way there.

In addition, Gaara of the Sand was supposed to fight against Sakura, to weaken her enough for them to capture her like Naruto, but Gaara's ability was wasted on a boy called Haku, while now, Sakura's opponent would be Kyoko. That was what worried her, she knew she had berserk once or twice before, she just hope she would not kill Sakura, they needed her alive.

x

"Ino…?" Shikamaru asked with uncertainty, his voice trembling as his eyes blinked rapidly with doubt. Standing behind the door, Shikamaru appeared shocked.

Panicking, Ino dropped her helmet, with her mask removed, Ino appeared as the girl she originally was.

"What are you doing here?" Shikamaru asked, immediately recognising the uniform she was in. "You are that Aoi girl, aren't you?" Shikamaru asked again, heightened emotions highlighted in his voice, with hints of surprise yet joy.

"Go away, you don't have to see this," Ino answered while backing up, eventually pressing her back against the wall.

"What is the meaning of this?" Shikamaru asked with a raised voice, stepping into the room, he turned and looked, and was equally surprised to find Naruto lying on the bed. "What is going on…?"

"Kill him," Tako interrupted immediately, cutting Shikamaru's remark in the middle as he walked up to Shikamaru from behind without being noticed, still in the guise of the doctor called Kane.

Spinning around, Shikamaru almost had a heart attack. "Who the-?!"

"Kill him," Tako repeated.

"No!" Ino shouted.

"Then I will do it myself," Tako said with remarkable calmness, but Shikamaru had already retreated backwards, his hands opened up, pushing Ino behind him.

"Run, Ino!" Shikamaru shouted as he took out a kunai from his pouch.

"Foolish boy, trying to protect your enemy," Tako said disinterestedly.

"What?" Shikamaru questioned, before hearing a soft murmur sound from behind him. Turning halfway around, Ino whispered something into his right ear, a sudden sense of dizziness came over him, and before he could react, Shikamaru fell over on the floor.

"You are too soft, Ino," Tako said as he shut the door to the room. "You won't survive long if you continue to be so weak. I can let you die, but you are the hope of your mistress."

Stepping over the fallen boy, Ino approached the bed, standing by the side of the bed with Naruto lying unconsciously. Using her index finger and thumb, pulled down his chin, effectively opening his mouth. Without wasting another second, Ino gave Naruto a mouth-to-mouth kiss, blowing down cold air along with something else down his throat.

An icy cold feeling went up her chest, up her throat, and passed from her mouth to his, entering his body. Naruto's body jerked uncomfortably, resisting the entry of the foreign object, but it soon passed once the pearl completely entered his body.

Standing back up straight, Ino watched as Tako attempted to call Kagetsu with his telepathic skill, "Kagetsu, the pearl is in, can you feel it? Yes, good, good, okay, we will proceed to phrase three. Yes, good, good, once Sakura is ours, contact me."

"Sakura?" Ino said worryingly, as far as she knew, no one told her anything about Sakura. "What do you want with Sakura?!"

x

"Last match's fighters, please come on down," Gekkou Hayate announced.

Hearing the call, Sakura started to walk towards the stairs, but Sasuke stopped her by pulling onto her hand. "Be careful," the boy said uncomfortably. The two of them paused for a second, looking into each other's eyes, nodding slightly, Sakura pulled away from his grip and started to walk down.

"Go for it, Sakura, we will support you all the way!" Lee cheered as Sakura walked by him.

"You're being ignored, my friend," Neji commented.

"Neji, please, you are not helping here."

Laughing softly, Tenten shook her head in amusement.

Suddenly, a loud sound caught their attention, looking over, they saw as Kyoko had apparently jumped from the platform straight, creating two small craters at where her feet were. Removing her feet from the craters, Kyoko eyed Sakura as she took her time walking towards the judge.

Orochimaru, who was watching everything, noticed Kyoko's odd movements immediately, wondered for himself what was going on. Her hands were shaking, never in his life had he seen her being so excited.

"Could it be…?" Suddenly, the worst-case scenario popped up in his mind.

"Please begin," Hayate said, when the two girls met up in the centre of the arena, which had by now gained a lot of rumbles, craters, holes, and cracks. However, unlike all the other matches before them, they did not start immediately, instead chose to stare at each other.

"What's wrong with her? Looking at me like that, is she waiting for me to start?" Sakura asked herself, slowly and steadily pulling out a kunai. Throwing it at Kyoko, Sakura immediately backed up, waiting for a counterattack from the girl, but instead, Kyoko caught her kunai and merely held it by the blade in her hand.

Surprised, Sakura halted for a moment, but it was at this moment that Kyoko threw the kunai back at her. Dodging it, Sakura threw two shuriken, but similarly with kunai, Kyoko caught both shuriken and threw them back at Sakura with deadly accuracy. Upon ducking her own shuriken again, Sakura was curious to find Kyoko to have once again stopped moving, merely watching her.

"What is she doing?! Is she playing a game with me?! No! She's testing me, judging my abilities, but it's obviously who's stronger here. She caught all three weapons and threw them back at me at lightning speed! And it is like as if she is expecting more out of me."

Sighing, Kyoko said, "Let's begin."

With that, Kyoko dashed forward, pulling her right fist backward, readying it for a punch. Dodging it, Sakura was not surprised as the wall behind her shattered. "It was that jutsu she used against Kabuto! A sound attack!"

Kyoko's movement and speed were amazing, no matter what kind of escape Sakura was planning, Kyoko always managed to catch up to her. Blocking her sound-induced punch was out of her league, thus making dodging her only option. After three more moves by Kyoko, Sakura realised that they were getting nowhere, as it was obvious that Kyoko was missing her on purpose, with her kind of speed, smashing her brain in was not really that hard if she tried.

"Is there anyway Sakura can stop that attack?" Sasuke asked himself aloud.

"And that girl, she's not even moving at her usual speed!" Lee sort of answered, pointing at the craters created. "Look at that, just from how she landed, we can tell that she's pretty good at her speed in accelerating to be able to create those holes."

"Either that, or she's just plain heavy," Tenten commented.

As if answering them, Sakura managed to got close to her opponent, using her right shoulder, she tried to throw Kyoko onto her feet. However, Kyoko's weight suddenly increased to the point whereby her feet sank down into another pair of craters, using her body as weight, she countered Sakura's move and flipped her over instead. Landing on her back, Sakura moaned in pain while holding onto her lower back.

Turning around slowly, Kyoko waited for Sakura to ready herself before grabbing on her face and slamming her back onto the ground. As blood spattered, the boys upstairs became uneasy and worried. "The way she moved, it's… impossible! It's too fast!" Lee mentioned, prompting Neji to use his Byakugan on Kyoko.

"Byakugan!" he whispered, and everything became crystal clear to him. It was the first time he saw such a sight, beautiful yet horrifying chakra pattern, her chakra flow was like no other. Sensing someone spying on her, Kyoko turned her head sharply, and hissed at Neji, prompting him to be snapped out of his Byakugan.

Kyoko continued to toy with Sakura, and every time Hayate wanted to help Sakura, and almost announced Kyoko's victory over Sakura, the Sound-nin would back out, allowing the stubborn girl to stand back on her feet. Cursing at the girl's stubborn nature, Hayate watched as Sakura wiped off the blood off her lips.

"Are we finished with the warm-ups, Haruno?" Kyoko questioned coldly, with no hint of emotion in it. Encircling the Genin, Kyoko watched as Sakura cuddled her splitting headache.

"Right… Let's get it over with," Sakura barely managed to answer back.

Pleased with the answer, Kyoko continued her attack, but only this time, it was faster. Kyoko slipped within Sakura's defences before she could even react, staring at Kyoko with her wide-opened eyes, as the Sound-nin delivered a blow to her abdomen. It was a normal punch, one without the aided effect of chakra or the sound shockwave.

"Hmph," Kyoko said with disappointment, backing up once more.

As Sakura toppled forward onto her feet, unconsciousness was already slipping in and out. One Kyoko became two, turning her head, she saw Sasuke blurring into Lee, just as Neji and Tenten were fusing into a single body.

"Hmph," Kyoko made her sharp sigh again, though this time, the sigh echoed in her mind.

"Hmph," Sakura mimicked in response, but this was no longer the same Sakura her friends knew. Looking up, the young Genin found self back deep within her mind, in front of her were iron bars, each a foot thick. Sitting behind the bars on a chair was a girl that looked like her, with pink hair and green eyes, that girl was her.

"Why am I here?"

Sakura was no longer afraid of her other self, at least much less than sometimes how her other self was afraid of her. Ever since their return from Wave Country, they had met more often in this kind of dream-like state, the other self gave her a few minor lessons, mostly dealing with better control over her chakra, but their meeting only happened while she slept, and not like this, when she was clearly conscious.

"You are pathetic."

Sakura did not see Inner Sakura's mouth moved, but a coarse voice did indeed come from her direction as usual before. And it was true, she was performing badly, but she was blaming herself for it, because she also recognised that Kyoko was a monster on an entirely different level, in a way.

"But you still want to win, don't you?"

Sakura clasped her fists in response, she did want to win even when knowing she had no way of besting Kyoko. She had to win because Sasuke and Naruto had already won their matches, and they would be separated should she lose hers. She didn't want to be left behind anymore!

"Hmm, so you are afraid of losing them? Of the team being broken up? Is being a part of a them more important than your life? To follow someone else's path? But if one fails, while the other passes, who will you follow, I wonder. Then, let me take over."

"No," Sakura rebuked, her body was hurting all over, but her voice was strong. "Never," she reaffirmed. Though the two were now on a friendlier state, memories of what happened when she last took over reminded her on how her inner self almost killed Haku.

"You will never win without my help."

Sakura closed her eyes. Left alone in the darkness, Sakura weighted over Inner Sakura's proposal, and was immediately disgusted by herself.

"Lend me your experience!" Sakura suddenly shouted. "Show me how to fight!"

"So chakra lessons aren't enough, and you want more?" Inner Sakura asked. "Interesting, instead of letting a monster take over, you want to be the monster herself?"

Sakura looked back in surprise, did the demon misinterpreted her words? 'No', she quickly realised, the monster never hear, but read, she read her mind like an open book, her other self would know what her words meant no matter how she phrased them. Deep down, Sakura wished to fight like a monster.

Inner Sakura thought for a second, her eyes looking into the darkness around them. "Never have both our consciousnesses co-existed together, I can't promise anything."

"I am not afraid," Sakura insisted.

"You will fight with my abilities, instinct will come naturally to us," Inner Sakura replied, but after thinking for a bit, she continued saying, "You have never been alone, I have always been there for you, Sakura."

"I…," Sakura said as the world around them lit up, brightening the world with colours. Standing before the two of them was Kyoko, waiting patiently, as if understanding what was going on, Sakura could almost see a mad smile on Kyoko's mask.

Sakura's hair felt lighter, running her hand through her long pink hair, she was sure that her hair was of a softer pink colour now, touching her face, Sakura could imagine the same change with her eyes, glowing like a cat's eyes in a moonless night, glowing green with renewed energy.

"Sakura, she… changed," Lee said, appearing dumb-folded. However, no matter how taken aback the trio were, none could be more shocked than Sasuke, who had only heard of it from Naruto, yet never expecting it to happen again.

This was the fourth time in her life that her appearance changed, first, when she stole the Forbidden Scroll, second, when she fought Haku, and third was in the forest where Naruto and Sasuke were injured and unconscious, now this was her fourth. Sasuke never got the chance to see for himself, but could instantly recognise it from Naruto's description. Sakura's hair colour appeared brighter now, and her face appeared to be more mature as well.

"Sakura! What is happening?!"

Back below, the Hokage could not believe what he saw, his fingers digging into the wooden frame of his seat, tried to not to bolt from it. Around him, Jounins and Genins alike, were surprised with the change, and certainly scared and frightened.

"Welcome back, Haruno," Kyoko said without missing a beat. "Now, I can finally release my full potential, for us to finally finish our fight."

"I remember now, you… that night, we fought," Sakura exclaimed, remembering the night after Naruto was bitten by Orochimaru, in the middle of the night, a person came, and that person was her. Not only did she received Inner Sakura's fighting experience and instinct, she found herself remembering something new as well, was this intentional from Inner Sakura?

"Yes, though we never did finish that fight," Kyoko admitted sadly. "But it was fun, long have I since fought like that, and this is how our match should be. You will need a weapon, you always felt naked without one." Lifting her right hand up straight, she fired a ball of highly concentrated shockwave up into the ceiling.

As rumbles fell around them, suddenly, a heavy metal cut through the air, and landed itself nicely next to Sakura's right hand. Taking to look, Sakura recognised it to be Gama Heijin's broad sabre, easily three times her height. (#1) Lifting it with unearthly strength, Sakura positioned herself for the fight.

"Thank you." Sakura recognised that it was not her voice that said that. Realising too late that too much of Inner Sakura was coming out, Sakura quickly tried to calm down and force back Inner Sakura, but she then said, "It's time for you to reveal yourself as well, my dear."

Sakura yelled in pain as her head ached greatly, Inner Sakura was coming out, and she had no way of stopping that. Kyoko smiled at he result, and as if hit by a sudden growth spurt, she expanded, her height increased as bones lengthened. Bandages and fake skin tore apart, her smaller clothing could no longer hold the growing body and tore apart as well. From where Kyoko stood, there was only Hakkotsu.

x

"What the hell is happening?!" Tenten exclaimed, around her were her teammates, Neji and Lee, who too were shocked by the revelation. The girl they knew as Kinuta Kyoko had transformed into a heavily armoured female fighter, covered from head to toe. Even her voice had changed, now deeper and sounding somehow hollowed with echoes.

At one corner of the room, the Hokage sprang up from his seat, just as the Jounin instructors started to surround their leader, watching Hakkotsu closely.

"I have seen her before…," Sasuke murmured absent-mindedly as his brain trying to process everything that happened.

"What?" Neji questioned, appearing disturbed that Sasuke might know the kunoichi.

Quickly explaining, Sasuke answered, "Back then… that Orochimaru guy, she was there." (#2)

x

"Security!" Hayate shouted out as he himself ran forward towards Hakkotsu (and Sakura).

"No! Hayate!" Kakashi shouted after the Jounin.

"Mikazuki no-," (#3) Hayate shouted, ignoring the weakness in his throat. "What?!" Hayate watched in surprise as time slowed down for him, coming closer and closer was Hakkotsu, with her fist clutched tightly readying a punch for him. Unable to dodge it, or execute his attack technique in time, he braced for impact.

Suddenly, Sakura came in between them, lifting her sword with ease, blocking the blow for him. However, even with the thick iron sword between Hakkotsu's fist and his body, the sound wave travelled through the thickness of the broad sabre and hit him, sending him flying backwards, crashing into the wall.

"Your opponent is me!" Sakura screamed.

"No one shall interrupt us!" Hakkotsu shouted back.

As the Jounins around the Hokage gathered to protect him, Orochimaru and Kagetsu made their moves.

"Do you know something that you didn't tell me?" Orochimaru hissed at Kagetsu.

"What made you said that? She's under your charge, not mine," Kagetsu asked, sounding very much annoyed as he was.

"Hakkotsu remembering her past, did you foresee that?" Orochimaru asked again.

Kagetsu said nothing else as she unsheathed her katana that was hanging from her hip. Walking by Baki, the Jounin instructor of the Sand-Genins, Kagetsu nodded her head, silently informing their partner in crime that it was time for him to send forth Gaara.

Orochimaru ploughed through the miscellaneous Chuunins with no problem, sending them flying all over as he went deeper, heading towards the Hokage. Kagetsu leapt in, challenging the Jounin instructors into a fight, leaving the tougher Hokage for Orochimaru himself.

Climbing out of the rumbles, Hayate tried to shake off the dizziness. However, in no time, Baki appeared before him. As if it was not bad enough, Sand-nins and Sound-nins appeared out of nowhere, fighting against the few Leaf-nins who were trying to reach the Hokage.

"What the heck?!" Tenten shouted in disbelief, what was previously an organised competition now turned into such chaotic rumble.

"Chuunins?! Jounins?!" Neji questioned, looking at the Sand-nins surrounding the instructors below, just as more Sound-nins appeared from the passageways.

"Ompf!" Tenten sounded suddenly just as the air was knocked out of her lungs by something hard. Rolling on the floor, she got up and saw Temari wielding her folded fan.

Looking around, Neji and Lee realised that Temari was back to continue her match with Tenten. "I will kill you this time!" the Sand-nin declared, smirking once more. "Oh heck, all of you, all at once!"

Knowing that Neji and Lee could most likely handle Temari on their own, Sasuke jumped over onto ground level just as Gaara used his sand to lower himself down slowly. Seeing Gaara's eyes set on Sakura, Sasuke shouted at the boy to get his attention. "Oh no, you don't!"

x

Ignoring everything happening around them, their only attention was only towards each other.

The heavy piece of steel in Sakura's hand acted gracefully with every swing, while Hakkotsu, though now larger in size, still reacted with deadly agility. The two of them parried with one another's attacks without using any special jutsu, but were still blows that even normal Jounins could not be able to handled by themselves.

Hakkotsu jumped over Sakura, landing behind her, slamming both palms behind her, creating a sudden shockwave. Blew forward by that blast, Sakura used the sword as an anchor, digging it into the stone tiles, spinning around, she confronted the charging Hakkotsu with a kick to the face. Alas, her leg was too short. Missing by more than a foot from her target, she found herself being seized instead. Pulling upon Sakura's leg, Hakkotsu easily lifted the lighter girl up, and spun her around like a doll.

Using her sword to slash against the armoured Hakkotsu with no effect, she found herself soon being thrown out. Barely landing on her feet, she was unable to block the next blow from Hakkotsu. Skidding on the floor on her back from that impact alone, Sakura turned the sword up, and tried to hit back. The length of the sword was long enough, but Hakkotsu was too fast for that. Hakkotsu jumped up, and landed steadily on the edge of the blade itself.

The added weight from Hakkotsu brought Sakura's blade down, sinking it deep into the ground. As Sakura tried to extract the weapon out, Hakkotsu delivered a heavy kick up Sakura's chin. However, that was the needed assistance Sakura was looking for, with that, the blade came loose, but at the cost of another aching bruise.

"Enough for games, let's begin!" Hakkotsu said laughing, enjoying every single moment of the fight. Retreating back, she stretched out both hands to her sides, snapping her fingers, she called out her technique, "Rousoku Shirei (#4)!"

Six orb of sparkling lightning appeared beside her, moving off one by one towards the direction of Sakura, homing onto her every movement. Dodging to the side, Sakura swung her sword to hit second orb ignoring the coming electrifying pain from the energy ball. The second orb spun out of control and crashed against the third and fourth orbs, just as Hakkotsu dashed forward, grabbing the fifth and sixth orbs in each hand.

Throwing one orb at Sakura, Hakkotsu came in with the second orb, pressing it painfully against Sakura's stomach just as she dodged the previous orb. With the wound already healing by itself, Sakura ignored Hakkotsu's electric attacks, instead chose to spin in a circle, dragging the blade around her in a circle, quickly gaining the momentum before bringing it up again with one hand.

Recognised it as her trademark technique, Hakkotsu challenged her in return, by retuning a counter move.

"Chouryuu Shindou (#5)!" Sakura shouted as she placed her left hand on the hilt as well before slicing horizontally from the left to the right towards Hakkotsu.

Leaping forward and landing in a feline-like posture, with two hands stretched outwards in front of her, shouting, "Nanka Kishi (#6)!" A column of lightning came forth from where her hands touched the ground, tearing the floor tiles apart as it moved towards Sakura's Chouryuu Shindou.

Hakkotsu's lightning attack moved slower than Sakura's wind attack, but it proved to be more powerful than the incoming Chouryuu Shindou. As the stored energy was released, the two techniques exploded, sucking in air for a brief moment before blowing both Sakura and Hakkotsu away from the explosion as wind met lightning.

Almost everyone within the hall was knocked off their feet with the aftermath of the explosion, even those who were fighting on the observation platform were not sparred from the blinding light created.

Sakura pressed against the bleeding wound she got from the explosion, though knowing that it would eventually heal. Suddenly, footsteps sounded from the opposite direction, from beyond the light, a figure walked towards her. What left of her clothing were burned off, revealing the full horror of the armour she wore, covering from head to toe, Hakkotsu was embraced in a suit made of bone.


- Glossary -

#1 :: Broad Sabre – Back in chapter 40, Yoroi attacked Gama Heijin, causing him to accidentally throw his sword up into the ceiling where it got stuck.
#2 :: Green Hooded Stranger – Remember the strange person in green that Sasuke thought he saw in chapter 35, who warned him of Orochimaru's coming?
#3 :: Mikazuki no Mai – My version of the Dance of the Crescent Moon is different from the canon storyline's version, read next chapter.
#4 :: Rousoku Shirei – Ranged homing lightning bolts, numbers vary from two to a maximum of eight bolts.
#5 :: Chouryuu Shindou – Tidal Shock, Inner Sakura's strongest of the three attacks used so far. The attack travels as a wave, it gets more powerful as the distance it travels increases. Sakura will channel chakra into her weapon, and cuts the air, causing a fierce wind.
#6 :: Nanka Kishi – Ranged heavy attack, using chakra to release the stored energy in the earth, unleashing a powerful and fast moving pillar of lightning.

- Author's Note -

In the original draft, Sakura was using Zabuza's sword. The awakened Inner Sakura has three wind techniques (from the weakest to the strongest):
1. Shiro Gufuu – White Tornado – Upwards spinning attack
2. Hanabira Boufuu – Petal Storm – Vertical up-to-down slash, longest range
3. Chouryuu Shindou – Tidal Shock – Horizontal left-to-right slash, damage accumulates as it travels longer
4. Combo – Knock him up, push him away, then blast him

The awakened Hakkotsu has four lightning techniques (from the weakest to the strongest):
1. Gesshoku Suzumebachi – Moonlight Wasps – Rapid fire
2. Rousoku Shirei – Candle Ghosts – 2x to 8x homing missiles
3. Butou Kairai – Dancing Dolls – Fixed location area of effect
4. Nanka Kishi – Pumpkin Knight – Powerful blast shot