Important AN at the bottom, please read.
~•~
I had thought I'd seen my greatest fear fighting against Orochimaru in the Forest of Death. I couldn't have been more wrong.
This was a different kind of fear. A fear of the unknown.
As I was watching Sasuke and Gaara begin their match, I knew it would be intense, but this was on another level.
The two had fought for a few minutes, seeming to be on even footing in the beginning. Sasuke had learned a new jutsu, in the form of a ball of lightning centered in the palm of his hands. It reminded me of Naruto's Rasengan that he had used against me in our own match, only instead of his wind, it was Sasuke's lightning.
He had called out the jutsu's name so confidently.
"Chidori!"
He had ran towards Gaara who had encased himself into a sphere of sand that had hardened, he had called it his ultimate defense. But just like the stone braces that I had used, it was weak when powered against something strong.
Sasuke had pierced through Gaara's ultimate defense, and when Sasuke had pulled his arm free, there was another arm clinging on to his own. Only instead of a normal human arm, it was the arm of a beast.
Merely seconds later I saw several feathers begin to fall from the sky.
I was confused at first, but I soon began to feel drowsy as the feathers began to lull me into a slumber. It was only thanks to my natural ability to sense genjutsu along with Senbonzakura telling me to snap out of it that I was able to release the genjutsu around me.
Shortly after I had realized that the fighting arena was in utter chaos.
All the people who were once watching were now passed out. Several Shinobi were scattered about fighting off enemies that had suddenly attacked the village.
The first thing I had noticed was that the Shinobi we were fighting against were wearing Suna and Oto headbands. I felt my body begin to tense as I had realized what was going on.
"We're being attacked." I said to myself, only to feel a shiver go down my body as I felt a presence appear behind me.
"Well done girl, you were able to break free from the genjutsu, but it's too bad you're going to die here."
I snapped my head around and came face to face with a ninja from Sound. He had a kunai in hand and got ready to charge when all of a sudden he was attacked from behind. A quick strike to the back of his head knocked him out.
I watched as his eyes rolled to the back of his head before falling straight back.
The person who was behind him who had struck him took a step to the side and let the mans body hit the ground with a thud.
I felt relief flood my system as I came face to face with Ibiki-sensei.
"Hey kid, glad to see you're still in one piece." He said with a grin that I couldn't help returning. "I'd love to stand here and congratulate you on your win, but I'm afraid that's going to have to wait. We've got trouble here."
I rapidly nodded my head.
"What can I do to help?" I asked, eager to be of some use.
"I need you to wake up that Nara kid and the Hyuga brat. If you can find Uzumaki, take him too. I know you two aren't on the best of terms, but I need you to have as many people as you can get. Once you've got everybody, I want you guys to chase after Sasuke. He went after Gaara and his siblings who came down and took him away through the hole in that was caused by an explosion. Do what you can to help Sasuke out. We need these guys away from the village, we can't have the innocent bystanders getting hurt in the crossfire." I nodded my head and told him I understood.
He gave a curt nod before flickering away to continue his fight against the invasion.
I ran over to Neji's body who was closest to me before releasing him of his genjutsu.
He looked at me in confusion before looking around and seeing the state of everything around us.
"What's going on here Haruno-san? Is the village under attack?" I nodded my head in confirmation.
"Yes, we have a mission we have to do, given to us by a superior. We need to wake up Shikamaru first though." I told him as he nodded, taking a moment to fully wake up from being under a sleeping genjutsu.
I found Shikamaru lying not too far from Neji and went to do the same thing to him only to realize that he was already awake.
"Shikamaru, what the hell? Why are you just laying here?"
"Troublesome woman, I was trying to stay out of the fight for as long a possible." He complained as he clicked his tongue, sitting up now that he was caught.
There was so many ways I wanted to retort, but instead settled for hitting him on the head, causing him to groan in pain.
I heaved a sigh while Neji came over, his eyes no longer clouded from the genjutsu.
I told them both about the sudden mission we were all assigned to go on.
Shikamaru complained some more while Neji remained stoic.
I had asked Neji to try and look for Naruto with his Byakugan.
He merely nodded before his family dojutsu came to life and he looked around.
As luck would have it, he was only fighting a short distance away. He said that Naruto was up in the stands fighting with his mother who appeared to have a stab wound in her abdomen as she clutched it tightly with blood slipping from her fingers.
"Oh no." I whispered in fear as I immediately went into action and flash stepped over to them both. I aided Naruto in defending his mother until all enemies were taken care of.
Naruto looked at me in shock before he turned his attention to his mother who was bleeding.
"Kaa-san, are you alright?" He asked her just as Neji and Shikamaru arrived, giving me impressed looks at the speed I had used to get here.
"I'm fine Naruto, I've had worse wounds during the war. This is nothing." Kushina said, standing a bit taller despite the fatigue that was all over her face.
The next moment Tsunade had appeared and placed a glowing hand to Kushina's stomach, asking her if she was hurt anywhere else. Kushina ignored the Slug Princess as she turned to us instead.
"You guys need to get out of here." Kushina said as she struggled to speak, blood spitting past her lips, causing Tsunade to swear.
"Stop talking Kushina, you need to rest." Tsunade barked as her brows furrowed in concentration.
"Lady Tsunade is right Kushina-san, besides, we have something else we have to do." I said as I looked to Naruto. "We were just given a field mission, we have to go after Sasuke and the ninja from Suna. We have to lead them away from the village and do what we can till proper authorities arrive."
"Absolutely not!" Kushina yelled in her mother like tone. I frowned at her.
"With all due respect Kushina-san, I follow orders from Shinobi, not from Kunoichi who hung up their ninja gear to become a house wife. My orders were to find Naruto, and take bring him with us so that we have strength in numbers against our current enemies. My orders come from Morino Ibiki himself and I'm not about to ignore them just because you told me to." Everyone seemed to have been stunned into silence at my words.
Naruto gaped at me before a glare soon formed on his face. "Don't talk to my mother that way!"
I returned his glare tenfold, taking in a bit of satisfaction as his face faltered.
"Shut up Naruto. Like I said, I'm only doing as I'm told. You should learn to do the same. Now either come with us or disobey direct orders from a superior by listening to your mommy."
I heard Tsunade try to cover up her laugh before she cleared her throat.
"Alright brats, knock it off. I'm sorry Kushina, but Sakura's right. If she was told by an outranking ninja to do something, she has to do it. And seeing as the Hokage is otherwise occupied with his battle with Hiruzen and Orochimaru, he can't give out orders, that falls to his highest ranking men, including Ibiki." Tsunade continued her healing as she looked from the red head who looked upset back to the rest of us. "Go with them Naruto, there's nothing you can do here anyway. All the fighting has been moved away from the arena and I've got your mother taken care of. You did well to defend your mother but you have to go now." Naruto looked like he was ready to protest before his mother once again spoke up.
"Go Naru-chan, they're right. I guess my maternal instinct kind of overcame me. I had no right to tell you to disobey a direct order. Go with your friends and help Sasuke-chan." When Naruto hesitated she pushed on. "Go on son, I'll be fine here with Tsunade, I'll be up and about in no time with her healing me."
Naruto finally seemed to be okay with leaving his mom behind.
I left relieved as we finally began our journey in the direction Sasuke took off to, way beyond the walls of the village borders.
While on our way, Neji, who had his Byakugan still activated, had informed us that we had nine enemies in pursuit of us. Shikamaru opted to stay behind to fight them off.
I grew concerned as we left behind one of our own to fight a battle where he was clearly outnumbered.
Ease your worries Blossom, I sense another man approaching from a further distance, one that seems familiar, in a good way. He'll have help soon enough.
Thank God.
The distance between Sasuke and us seemed so far away.
If I concentrated my chakra enough, I could feel him in the distance, seeming to be engaged in battle again with Gaara.
Sasuke's chakra levels were incredibly low, causing even more concern.
We were almost there.
Just a little further.
We broke through the trees and I had come face to face with something that struck fear into my soul.
Sasuke was collapsed by a tree while Temari was also thrown to the side. Neither one of them were unconscious, but both had some serious injuries.
An animalistic growl came from a few feet away, causing my attention to shift to a figure that was getting ready to charge at Sasuke.
Watch out Blossom, it looks like Gaara lost control and is getting ready to attack Sasuke, you must protect him while he is unable to defend himself.
Wait a minute, what did you say? That's Gaara? What on earth is happening right now, what is he?
I'm afraid I don't have the answer to that question, but you can worry about that later. You must help Sasuke.
Right!
The three of us immediately split up. Neji went to take care of Temari, Naruto went to deal with Gaara, and I ran to Sasuke. I quickly began to check him over for injuries to see if any were life threatening.
But the only thing that seemed like it could cause some serious damage was his low chakra, he barley had anything left in his reserves. If he were to even try and make a simple clone he'd more than likely exhaust his reserves and slip into a coma for a few days while his body recovered.
So as of right now, Sasuke is useless, Neji, Naruto and I are low on chakra due to our own battles from the exams, and Shikamaru stayed behind to help us out. None of us are at our best, how the hell are we going to fight Gaara in this form long enough till reinforcements arrive?
Neji grabbed Tamari and moved her out of harms way while I tried doing the same to Sasuke.
Naruto tried his best to old off Gaara in his current state. The two of them were having a conversation on their own, but it only seemed to fuel Gaara's anger.
"You know nothing of what I've been though! We may both have our demons but at least you had your family there to support you, my family tried to kill me for what I am, YOU KNOW NOTHING!" Gaara released a large amount of chakra and slapped Naruto away with his monster like limbs that were made of sand.
Gaara set his sights on Sasuke who was draped over my shoulder as I tried to move him out of the way. Gaara charged our way causing my body to go into fight mode.
I jumped out of the way of Gaara's lunge and up into the trees.
Gaara snarled at me before he continued his assault on me and Sasuke.
"Sakura, you have to find a way to put me down, I'm only holding you back." Sasuke said, his breaths coming out in heavy puffs.
In any other situation I would have loved hearing those words from the brooding Uchiha, but not in this case.
"I can't do that Sasuke, right now Gaara has his eyes set on you. If I put you down he'll ignore me and still go after you. As of right now I'm the only reason you're still alive. He would have killed you by now if I had left you at the tree back there."
"So what are you going to do, just keep dodging and hope he doesn't hit us."
"Well unless you have some other kind of master plan, yes, this is the best I can do."
I continued to dodge while struggling to hold Sasuke over my shoulder.
Damn it, is this really all I can do right now is dodge? I can't cast spells or jutsu, I can't carry something too heavy and stand on air at the same time without sinking back to the ground, I can't even use you Senbonzakura!
Blossom calm down, you won't have to worry much longer, I can feel reinforcements on their way, they should be here in about five minutes.
I don't have five minutes. I can barley keep dodging Gaara as I am. He's too close for anyone else to try and attack without the risk of hitting Sasuke and I as well.
I yelped as one of Gaara's claws managed to scrape my leg, knocking me out of the sky and landing on the floor with Sasuke on top of me.
Damnit! Is this it? Is this really all I have? I spent thirty days training nonstop, and this is all I have to show for it? Am I really this weak?
Blossom please.
I watched as Gaara had grown a tail and half of his face got covered in the same sand that gave him his tail. He pushed himself off of a tree that was closest to him and once again headed my way.
With him being in mid air there was no way for him to change direction, he was headed straight for us no matter what.
With quick thinking I concentrated wind chakra to my hands and used it to create a force strong enough to throw Sasuke away from me, I threw him right into Naruto and Neji who were also on their way to us, but were now knocked back with Sasuke right on top of them.
I quickly faced back and saw Gaara merely a few feet in front of me, monstrous claws poised, ready to strike.
I had no time to dodge.
No time to think.
No time to breath.
I couldn't even blink.
Is this really how I'm going to die?
Call on me, you know my name.
Of course I know your name.
No Sakura. Call me.
Call you?
Call on me from the darkest depths of your very soul. From the very essence of your being. Call on me.
Suddenly, the world stopped moving, Gaara was only inches from my face, Naruto, Sasuke and Neji all had their mouths open from when they were all calling my name.
The looks on their faces was that of pure horror.
I mean sure they might have seen death first hand, but none of them have seen the death of someone they know, the horror on their faces was to be expected.
What I wasn't expecting, was the image of Senbonzakura, who usually only appears in my dreams, to be walking my way, Sakura petals floating around him until he was right in front of me, looking every bit as majestic as I remember from my dreams.
Senbonzakura? What's going on here?
What do you want Sakura?
I'm sorry? What do you mean by that?
What do you want, to win? Survive? Save your friends? Your village?
Well, yes-
Do you not care much about what happens to you?
Of course I care! Yes, I want to win, survive, save my family, friends and my village. But most of all I want to win for myself. To prove myself to everyone, not just those that witnessed my match against Naruto. But to prove it to myself. So I know that when I put my heart and soul into bettering myself that its not just for nothing. So yes I want to do this for all those reasons, but most importantly for myself.
Yourself?
Yes, I want to win, for myself.
Good.
What?
Wanting to fight for others is good, but fighting for yourself is even better. What happened next, is for you. Just to show you that when you do train, with your heart and your soul, you're rewarded. Now again Sakura, I'm telling you, to call my name!
Senbonzakura yelled at me as he threw his sword at me. As soon as I felt the sword touch my fingers I felt reishi build up inside of me that poured out of me in waves as Senbonzakura fell apart into individual petals.
And suddenly I knew. I knew what to say and what he meant by asking me to call upon him
Time began moving again as I spoke the words, "Scatter, Senbonzakura."
~•~
Authors note!
The previous notes are deleted!
I didn't need three different chapters to take up space.
But I'm writing this here note so future readers know what's happening.
Once this story is done I will be writing two sequels, one in the Naruto Universe, and one in the Bleach Universe. This story will still be the beginning story for both sequels.
For those of you concerned about the bleach universe and there being two of the same Zanpakuto, don't worry, I've got that figured out, you'll just have to wait and see.
Please vote for who you want Sakura to end up with in the end. I read through the comments and counted all the votes from other chapters.
I will takes those votes into consideration but many of them were doubles from the same author and on all three chapters where I asked you guys to vote. There were also votes for people she isn't going to be paired with. Therefore those numbers aren't something I can't really go off of, but like I said I'll take them into consideration.
It's either Shisui or Itachi for the Naruto Universe.
And either Ichigo or Grimmjow for the Bleach Universe.
That's it.
Please vote only once!
For those of you that want to know what the previous numbers were for the votes. Here you go. Keep in mind some are doubles from the same person commenting more than once
Ichigo-26
Grimmjow-23
Shisui-80
Itachi-41
It looks like Shisui is way in the lead for the Naruto Universe.
And for the Bleach Universe it looks like it could still change but for now, Ichigo is in the lead.
Please vote all over again, only once, so I can get a more accurate count.
The numbers above will not count, but will be taken into consideration.
Thanks for reading everyone!