AN: Note that I do not own Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, or any of the characters from either Anime. This work is a fanfiction written out of my love for the series and not in any attempt to make a profit.
Proofread by: Author
So, this chapter is a bit late… Real-life can be really tough sometimes. I won't get into details, let's just say that the human body is a mess and life isn't fair.
Chapter 90: Bells that flail
Sakura couldn't put her finger on it, but something was definitely wrong. Wrong in the sense that something was different. Several things tipped her off, but the primary one that was staring her in the face was how exhilarated she felt at that moment. Entering battle against two opponents to save a teammate. She felt as if she was useful, powerful, and that nothing could go wrong. It felt as if it was her moment, and no one else's, which was completely out of character for her.
Sakura was aware enough of herself that she noticed the absence of fear and self-doubt she would have felt had things been normal. She supposed that Heikō might have changed their response somehow. Sakura wasn't worried, as, in the end, it was nothing but a benefit. Like this, she could focus on the battle, rather than on the what if's, or the risks that only became greater when she hesitated.
So, it was without worry that Sakura took immense pleasure in seeing the fear on the faces of Tamari and Kankuro as they were caught in her Genjutsu. Sadly, she didn't know what they actually saw. What she could observe however was Temari suddenly fleeing for dear life, crying, while Kankuro seemed to choke on nothing but thin air, struggling as if he was drowning, before he fainted.
Of course, with the opening Temari offered them, none of the nearby Konoha Shinobi could pass the prime opportunity up. Temari didn't get far before her back was suddenly struck with kunai, shurikens, and senbons from Sakura, Sasuke, and Karin respectively.
"Well, that was anticlimactic," Karin commented, as Temari fell to the ground with a pained cry. Sakura jumped down to follow Temari while trusting Karin and Sasuke to take care of Kankuro and Gaara.
Sakura permitted herself a smirk as she saw Temari writhing in pain on the ground. An unfortunate landing seemed to have further aggravated her injuries, judging by the way her left arm was bent at an odd angle, and how her muscles spasmed around Karin's Senbons.
"Well, isn't this just perfect? I wonder, what exactly did Sunagakure intend to accomplish with this attack? Doesn't look like it worked out all too well for you. You've underestimated Konohagakure!" Sakura accused Temari, who managed to turn and glare in her direction, before rapidly getting onto her feet, trying to dash away.
Sakura, while considering the battle over, hadn't lowered her guard yet, so she wasn't caught by surprise and immediately dashed up to Temari, making the feat look easy, due to her speed advantage, as well as Temari's hurt state. In a desperate attempt to get rid of Sakura, Temari used her good arm to grab the fan on her back, before swinging it in Sakura's direction without unfolding it, intending to club Sakura, as she was suddenly too close to just blow her away. Something made nearly impossible in the first place due to her broken arm.
Sakura side-stepped with confidence, able to sense her surroundings with ease. She did not need to look out for any unexpected attacks or assaults, as long as she kept her mind focused on sensing her opponents. With Kankuro and Gaara out of the fight, Sakura had no worries. Feeling rather vindictive, she made sure to show off just how casual she was about side-stepping Temari's desperate attacks, using slow, lazy movements while smirking at her.
"So, do you want to give up? Konoha isn't heartless, I'm sure we'll find some use for you after T and I are done with you. We might even give you back to Suna." Sakura told Temari with an exaggeratedly happy cry, before narrowing her eyes and changing her smile into a sadistic smirk. "Or I could spare us all the trouble and kill you here. How do you want to die?" Sakura asked, ignoring the faint chiming of alarm bells ringing somewhere in the back of her mind.
"Screw you!" Temari exclaimed with one last cry, throwing herself at Sakura.
"A pity." Sakura simply responded, dropping her smile as she found Temari's reluctance to entertain her boring. Side-stepping Temari's charge with ease, Sakura was about to deal the finishing blow and bury a kunai in the back of Temari's neck, only to suddenly find her world turn to pain.
For a moment, Sakura was overcome with surprise. She hadn't turned her senses off, so the fact that something had managed to hit her, meant that it had simply been too fast for her to notice. The next thing Sakura realized was how the entire left side of her body felt as if she had collided with a cliff while using the body flicker technique. At least, that's what she imagined it would feel like.
Before she could even cry out in pain, the sensation repeated, only this time, she felt it all over her right side instead, including her head, which sent her thoughts into oblivion, as her vision went white in from pain, and she lost all the air in her lungs.
She was vaguely aware that someone was suddenly beside her, trying to speak to her, but what was said was lost to her, as the pain all over her body kept her from thinking about anything but the pain.
Closing her eyes, Sakura tried to breathe normally, only to grimace from the pain that flared up from it. Some kind of liquid caught in her throat caused her to begin cough, further robbing her of precious air, as she entered a violent coughing fit. Once she finally managed to draw a breath, she barely managed to keep herself from entering a second coughing fit by swallowing the liquid in her throat. Her mouth tasted like copper, no doubt she had been coughing blood.
Opening her eyes again, Sakura was greeted by the red swirl on Karin's back. Karin was looking around worried, but as Sakura tried to turn her head to see whatever Karin was looking at, she felt immense pain in her neck, prompting her to stop. Frowning, she tried to figure out how serious her injuries were. With her thoughts clarifying somewhat, she could easily use her senses for Natural energy to inspect herself.
Sakura held back a wince as she realized that both the right and left side of her body was severely bruised. The bruising on her left side would be far worse, but it didn't seem that anything else had been seriously hurt, except for her head. She was bleeding, and she had a concussion to boot.
Sakura wondered why Karin hadn't healed her yet but realized that perhaps her injuries might not be severe enough to warrant Karin's type of healing. She considered attempting to heal herself using Natural energy, but the chiming of alarm bells became deafening at the thought, only lowering to tolerable levels once she abandoned the idea.
However, despite clearly not being in top condition with her concussion, Sakura understood that something was wrong. Heikō wasn't responding, instead, she was hearing bells. She imagined Heikō had either fainted or was the one ringing the bells, doing her best to help Sakura despite their injury.
"I need to get this concussion healed," Sakura growled out, before carefully moving her body, twisting her body together with her neck as she turned to see whatever it was Karin seemed so scared of. Exactly what she was seeing took Sakura a moment to process, but as soon as she did, her head seemed to clear, her previously unnoticed tunnel vision cleared, and sound returned with a vengeance.
Gaara had apparently awoken and was fighting Sasuke, decimating their surroundings as they darted around, destroying trees. However, Sasuke was clearly on the defensive, as he was merely dodging, seemingly trying to delay Gaara rather than seriously fight him. Sakura could understand why, as well as to why Karin was scared of what she saw.
Half of Gaara's face was covered in sand, forming an eye and an ear, while continuing down his neck and arm, transforming it into a giant, spiky limb that extended and demolished anything he aimed it at. It was easy to tell that the sand wasn't normal. To begin with, it had streaks of blue running through it, just like the one seen in Sasuke's and Gaara's match before. Secondly, when Sakura turned her senses towards the limb, she noticed that there wasn't one type of Natural energy coming off of Gaara anymore, but two. Somehow, the sand was alive.
"Karin, I think I have a concussion. Did you and Sasuke kill the other two? I think I'm of no real use here." Sakura spoke, trying to get things moving, only to frown as Karin failed to react.
Gritting her teeth, Sakura calculated the risk of trying to stand up. She hurt like hell, and the only reason she could even sit up was that she was leaning against a tree. Standing up would upset her delicate situation, and she didn't think she was ready to abandon her only support yet.
Growling, Sakura looked at Karin and spoke again. "Karin, my mind isn't good right now. Please tell me you can get me out of here so I can recover." She tried again, feeling relieved as Karin turned to look at her. Although she was confused by the pitying, sad look Karin wore on her face. "Karin?" Sakura inquired, before Karin walked over to her, sat down, and pulled up the sleeve of her arm, showing it into Sakura's mouth.
Sakura couldn't comprehend what Karin was doing until she suddenly found her thoughts unclouded, and her pain severely muted. Blinking in surprise, Sakura let go of Karin's arm and frowned at her. "Karin, I don't think a concussion warrants you using your ability!" Sakura pointed out, concerned about Karin's wellbeing.
"Don't worry. I wanted to help you. Besides, Sasuke can't handle that monster on his own. We need to help." Karin argued, before standing up, offering Sakura a hand.
Sighing, Sakura took the offered hand and allowed Karin to pull her to her feet. She was still disoriented, so in an attempt to set things straight, she turned her thoughts inwards. "Heikō?" Sakura thought, feeling herself smile as she heard Heikō groan in response.
"What hit us?" Heikō asked, sounding disoriented herself before the feeling passed a moment later. "Oh, that was a close one," Heikō commented, seemingly figuring their situation out somehow. "Right, no point in crying over spilled milk. What can we do to stop Gaara? We're not fast enough to just grab Sasuke and escape unless he can turn into something small for us to carry, and even then, it'll be a big risk." Heikō immediately began planning.
"We could take his teammates as hostages," Sakura suggested out loud, glancing over at where Temari seemed to be struggling on the ground. Sakura wasn't sure, but Temari seemed to be crying not just from the pain, but out of fear as she followed Gaara with her gaze. However, Karin shook her head in response.
"It won't work. I already tried. Temari kept shouting at him that he was ruining some kind of plan. Gaara just told her to shut up and stay out of his way, not even batting an eye as I threatened her life." Karin revealed.
Sakura furrowed her brows in confusion as she looked back at Temari again. "So why didn't you kill her?" Sakura asked, becoming even more confused as Karin looked at her as if she was seriously disturbed by Sakura's question.
"I hope Heikō can undo whatever she did to you two. You're seriously freaking me out like this. Once this fight is over, you're not going anywhere until you're back to normal." Karin insisted, while Sakura just felt lost. Heikō's dread only added to her confusion. Something was seriously wrong, and she felt blind for being unable to see it, even as Karin was pointing it out.
AN: This chapter felt a bit off towards the end. I almost feel like I was trying to avoid writing any fighting. It's not really the case, I've gone over it a few times. I just think that real-life hit hard and sucked all the fun out of writing at the wrong moment. Still, if that isn't the case and I'm being an idiot, do feel free to tell me.
I know I've been hammering in the fact that Sakura feels something is wrong, and that Heikō is being sus concerning what she did. I already explained what Heikō did, but it's slightly more complex than that in a way.
For clarification, Gaara was what hit Sakura, and the second hit was her hitting the tree.
Also, does anyone else feel like Sakura is slipping a bit more the longer she's "different"? No, just me? It's not intentional, but it kinda works in conveying just how much of a double-edged sword self-modification is I think. Hopefully, I won't have to write Sakura like this anymore in a chapter or two.
