Please read & review!


Sakura blinked a few times to see the creature clearly in its own form. She walked towards it and slowly raised her hand to touch its beak. She caressed it gently, which made a soft growl in response to her kindness. Then, the creature gave her a curt nod as a way to exchange for its own power. The pink chakra began to circle around the pink-haired kunoichi's body that was immensely absorbing every particle within her from head to toe. She gasped out for breath when her eyes started to flutter open calmly. Her bright green eyes became rose gold, which turned into fierce and persistence.

Katsumi became dumbfounded and confused at the same time. "Huh?! What just happened?"

Sakura's lips curved into a smirk when she flexed both of her arms out that crumbled the walls of the barrier, making an electrifying damage buzzes on the ground noisily.

The brunette gasped in shock as she stepped back nervously at her sudden outburst, whereas the pink-haired kunoichi took a few more steps and began to charge with her tight fist attempting to pummel straight through her face.

But Katsumi defended herself by dropping a purple smoking powder to disappear. Sakura narrowed her eyes and looked around, though her enemy is nowhere to be seen.

"Where is she?" She asked herself attentively.

"No idea… But we must not lose our guard," her inner self noted firmly.

Suddenly, Katsumi pushed Sakura down aggressively with her hands as they both rolled over twice until she tried to slice her neck with her katana sword. The pink-haired kunoichi immediately reacted to this when she protected herself using the kunai knife she was holding with her right arm being raised. The two of them gritted their teeth and gave glares at each other with a slight grimace of indignation. Then, the pink-haired kunoichi kicked her foot hard upfront on her abdomen, which made the brunette flinched out a little, but smirked maliciously.

Sakura's eyes widened in shock when Katsumi gripped her katana sword tightly and stabbed her in the middle of her stomach. The pink-haired kunoichi coughed up blood and disappeared in a puff of smoke, much to the brunette's puzzlement.

"What?! How could this be-" Katsumi questioned in anger until she felt an arm swung right across her back shoulders. "Ahh!"

The brunette didn't have time to turn around since Sakura flashed so quickly right before her eyes when she got punched underneath the chin that caused her to fly back farther away from her in the distance.

"Chhhaaaaa!" The pink-haired kunoichi exclaimed when she made a punch that cracked the ground, giving a trembling quake.

Katsumi bolted upright and made a quick charge at her, attempting to attack her physically in combat with her punches and kicks.

Sakura kept dodging her attacks and twirled over the right side to smash her with her right heel of her foot, but missed out when the brunette jumped back again.

"You really think you can just defeat me using your human power strength?! I must say, you did me quite a favor," Katsumi said smiling menacingly when she performed the hand signs and placed her hands down on the ground with her eyes closed. "Summoning… Black Serpents."

The pink-haired kunoichi stood frozen on her spot when the snakes came out of the ground, slithering back and forth to bite onto her ankles. She flashed out and stood upon the huge rock, panting breathlessly.

The snakes went on Katsumi's sides as they continued to hiss in which she started to laugh sadistically with her eyes turning purple. "Ah… This is just the beginning. In fact, I quite enjoy taking over the powers of these forbidden scrolls."

"Scrolls?! Where did you… How did you-" Sakura became suspicious, but didn't get to finish her sentence.

"Stole them? Hah! It's pretty easy if you ask me. I managed to go through my fiance's office and just came across the room that has a vault with all of them. It took me six days to master these jutsus or techniques and I think I'm getting the hang of it, actually," Katsumi explained, smirking emotionlessly.

Sakura shook her head and protested furiously. "Those forbidden scrolls are not meant to be used… You've used them just to gain credibility from the others, including Gaara! Why?! You have everything you've always wanted. Everything you've dreamt of. But no… You're wasting it. You're wasting everything just for the sake of revenge against me."

"Well, I suppose that hatred is the new form of love, isn't it? Hate runs through the course of my veins, which I will gladly accept," Katsumi stated coldly.

"That makes no sense. You have no idea what you're saying. You must be out of your mind," the pink-haired kunoichi pointed out in disbelief.

"If I was, then I should murder you right here and now," Katsumi declared with a dark look in her eyes as she raised up her left arm to release the poison darts out of her palm towards her.

Sakura dodged again and began to dash for a run with her arms held behind her back. They were continuously shooting nonstop until she quickly used Multi-Blossom Shards and Double-Crane's Earth Edge techniques.

She grabbed Katsumi's arms and kicked her upright, then flashed above her head and blasted two punches onto her chest. In a few seconds, the brunette hit the ground and groaned in pain.

Meanwhile, Lee and Neji stopped by and heard several quakes as they watched the thick walls starting to crumble around the room that they were in. They couldn't hear any voices, so they tried to look for much evidence there is.

"What was that?" The green leaf ninja asked blankly.

The byakugan user examined deep within the surroundings and saw two girls fighting against each other, much to his astonishment. "It's Sakura and…"

"Huh?! Who?" Lee asked further in curiosity.

"Gaara's companion. Katsumi…" Neji answered, narrowing his eyes sharply.

"Shit. No way. What is she doing there? Wait? They're fighting?! This is not good," Lee murmured anxiously and looked away.

"You sound almost guilty when you say it like that," Neji said in peculiar.

"The thing is… I wrote a letter to Gaara that explains everything about the situation between him, Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto. Mostly towards their feelings…" Lee responded nervously.

"Why? It's not your job to do it. You're not responsible for what they feel or what they do. It's theirs. But from what I can see, I understand that you're doing this for the sake of all of their friendship," Neji nodded in thought.

"Yeah because Gaara needs to know the truth. Otherwise, he will regret his decision later on," Lee reasoned out.

"Alright. But again, that's his life and theirs," Neji pointed out.

Lee sighed tiredly and said. "Right. Whatever. So, Katsumi must have her own personal motive." He gasped horrifyingly when he came to realization, widening his eyes further. "No. She must've read the letter!"

"Obviously. No matter, we came all the way down here and now we have to find…" Neji trailed off his words when his eyes landed on the red light button that is linked to the chakra strings, leading to the other room where Sakura and Katsumi are. "I see!"

Lee glanced at where he was specifically looking at and asked. "What is?"

"Those chakra strings are connected to Katsumi's body," Neji figured and continued on. "That means, she's collecting as much energy from these stones of White Zetsu. She's part of the Akatsuki."

"Shit…! How is that possible? Since when did she join them?" Lee questioned, furrowing his bushy eyebrows in speculation.

"Before, Katsumi read the letter and traveled all the way here to seek power from them. Then, we came along and got ambushed by them and fought with them while she started hiding here…" Hyuga explained logically as he returned back to his normal vision. "It's no surprise that she would start acting like a jealous fiance."

"Love is complicated, right Neji?" Lee chuckled exhaustingly, rubbing the back of his head.

"Not really. Love is not complicated. People are," Neji stated, smirking in amusement and continued on. "It's not love itself, if you ask me. People create more problems and try to justify what love is from their perspective when in truth, it is love that brings sacrifice, risks, and commitment. What I'm sensing right now from Katsumi is far different from what she is feeling towards Gaara."

"How so? When I first saw her, I thought she was amiable. Not to forget that she's pretty," Lee said, placing his finger under his chin in thought.

Neji snorted silently and smirked knowingly. "That is another one way to find out. Come on. We have to deactivate them."

Lee nodded in agreement as he followed him to solve the issue that was occurring. However, the stone is surrounded by a dark energy. If they touch it, their chakra will be absorbed and would only strengthen Katsumi's powers.

On the other hand, Ino and Sai have also discovered another stone that was displayed on top of the rock. They quickly made their way to it and started examining the insides as well as the chakra strings being connected together.

"So that means that each passageway that we've entered is linked…" the blonde-haired kunoichi said surprisingly.

"Hm. I assume that the rest of them know what they need to do. The person here is not on our side. She's our enemy," Sai pointed out calmly.

"You've found out already?" Ino asked blankly.

"Yes. According to my messenger hawk, it gathered more information from where Sakura is. Apparently, the person she's fighting with is none other than Katsumi," Sai stated thoughtfully.

"Ahh! That bitch… I never expected that she would go this far. Alright, so what do we need to do?" Ino sighed frustratingly.

"We must figure out how to disconnect the chakra strings without letting our chakra get absorbed from the stone. Basically, we need to find an opposite method that alters the dark energy," Sai explained simply and continued on. "This shouldn't be that hard."

"Um… It is because scientifically speaking, you just gave an explanation about it. What is the opposite of dark? It's light," Ino answered, thinking carefully as she placed her hands on both of her hips.

"Light?" Sai repeated and asked. "In what way should we demonstrate this?"

"Heh. That's the thing. If one of us has the power of light, then we are able to defeat her," Ino said clearly.

Sai paused for a moment as he recalled the time when he watched the pink-haired kunoichi training by herself in the leaf village, third ground. He saw how she performed her jutsus and other techniques, which surprises him and decided to draw multiple artworks of her in his book. He wanted to show her and their friends, but it wasn't the right time yet.

"I think we have to try using our powers. We might somehow demilitarize the stone," Sai noted firmly as he pulled out his blank scrolls and started drawing different objects and animals slowly.

"It won't work anyway," Ino said hopelessly in concern.

"Well, we have no choice. We are just going to have to keep trying," Sai said, kneeling down on one of his knees for support without bothering to look at her as he continued to sketch.

Ino watched him, then looked away as she sighed once again, thinking about the strategies that she may used to damage the stone.


TO BE CONTINUED...