Rinn stood there open mouthed as she tried to work out what Kakashi was saying to the proctor. She was desperate to know what their excuse was. Shichiro chuckled to himself as he watched her strain herself to hear, she really was very inept at certain sensory techniques sometimes…
"He said, 'You wouldn't believe the traffic'," Shichiro said, amusement dancing in his eyes as he saw his orange-haired teammate look personally victimised by this comment. He watched with glee as her facial expression changed several times as she deliberated her next plan of action.
Sasuke, who was stood confidently in the arena below, was already desperately scanning the crowd for a flash of orange hair – having missed Rinn's match, he wanted to make sure she was OK.
He need not have worried.
"OI! UCHIHA! WHAT TIME DO YOU CALL THIS YOU LITTLE W- heyyy!" Rinn bellowed over the balcony edge, gripping onto the railings and leaning dangerously far over them before Shichiro leapt forward and restrained her, forcing a hand over her mouth. Humoured though he was with her little tantrum at first, he soon realised how dangerous it was for her to draw attention to herself. He did not want Orochimaru to notice her under any circumstances.
Sasuke however, not understanding the good intentions behind Shichiro's actions, found himself suddenly infuriated by this, already firing him up for his fight with Gaara. He didn't like it when any man put their hands on Rinn – especially not Shichiro.
The crowd erupted into applause and cheers as Sasuke and Naruto exchanged a few words, and Rinn fought herself out of Shichiro's vice-like grasp by using her barrier jutsu; the mere force of which was enough to cause his arms to fly out to the sides, releasing her.
"Come on Gaara, get down here," The proctor yelled, loud enough for all to hear. It was a few minutes before the redheaded sand shinobi made it to the arena, which only fuelled Sasuke's already ignited anger. He was ready for a fight. Now.
Upon Gaara's arrival, the proctor instructed the two ninja to move to the middle. The crowd fell silent with anticipation, and Sasuke gave one last lingering glance up towards Rinn before the proctor announced:
"BEGIN!"
In an instant, the sand started to erupt from Gaara's gourd, causing Sasuke to jump backwards and widen the gap between them.
Rinn gasped.
Shichiro tutted.
On the defensive already Uchicha? The match has only just begun.
However, as quickly as the sand had been pouring out, it halted. Sasuke's opponent grabbed his head, as if something was causing a struggle within him. Rinn looked at Shichiro questioningly, yet he merely shrugged in response and narrowed his eyes.
This sand guy is someone I should be keeping an eye on...
The sand suddenly crashed down around Gaara, and he hung his head for a moment before appearing to have regained his sanity. Sasuke studied his opponent with confusion.
What the hell is going on with this guy? Who is he talking to?
Sasuke's expression of confusion changed into one of irritation and determination.
Who cares anyway? We're here to fight. Let's get on with it!
He launched several shuriken at Gaara, which were effortlessly blocked by the sand that was now suspended mid-air around him, as it morphed into a sand clone.
"Idiot." Shichiro mumbled, before he could stop himself. Rinn glared angrily at him, and he looked down guiltily. He was after all trying to be nicer to Sasuke, for Rinn's sake.
Sasuke charged forwards, dodging incoming attacks, and landing several blows to the sand clone. Rinn watched from above with admiration at his fluid taijutsu movements. Shichiro on the other hand, was wondering what the hell Sasuke was playing at. He hadn't landed one hit on his opponent yet – it was obvious the sand shield was going to block everything so why was Sasuke bothering with all of these wasted attacks?
Then, for a split second, Sasuke vanished.
He reappeared in a flash behind Gaara.
In the next moment, he had landed a hit – right on Gaara's cheek!
Rinn cheered loudly and looked over to Shichiro smugly, who, much to her surprise, also held a mildly impressed grin on his face. He nodded at her as if in agreement, now taking more acute interest in the match and walking forwards to join Rinn up against the balcony. He had thought Sasuke would probably be wiped out instantly – clearly he had underestimated him.
Sasuke hesitated for a moment, waiting for a counter-attack. When none came, he took off once more, landing a kick this time, causing Rinn to let out another loud cheer.
Wow! When did Sasuke get so fast?!
Continuing his onslaught, Sasuke hit Gaara another one, two, three times before his opponent ended up lying in his sand across the arena from him. Sasuke allowed himself another quick glance to where Rinn was watching the fight – sure he wanted to win for his own merit, but it was equally as important for him to impress her. He so desperately wanted her to be proud of him, and to respect his abilities as a ninja.
As Gaara got to his feet, he stood very still. Gradually, the sand began to form a protective sphere around him, and Sasuke couldn't help but think of Rinn once again, with her blue lightning-style protective sphere.
NO. Concentrate Sasuke. CONCENTRATE.
He charged forward once again, landing a heavy blow directly to the sand.
Rinn screamed a little as the sand shot out into a dozen sharp spikes in Sasuke's direction, and even Shichiro held his breath. She relaxed a little as Sasuke jumped back, obviously not too drastically injured, but she couldn't take her eyes away from the blood that was now trickling from various parts of his body.
Unphased by this, Sasuke became the aggressor once again. This time he used his sharingan to help him, and Rinn watched carefully as he attempted to break through Gaara's protective barrier from all angles, effortlessly dodging any counter-attacks launched by the sand. Sasuke paused for a short moment to consider his options.
Well... that approach isn't going to work.
Whilst he's hiding in there, it gives me the perfect opportunity to get ready to use my new technique.
To show Rinn...
Sasuke leapt onto the high wall of the arena, right below where Rinn was standing to watch the match, and slid backwards up the wall until he was almost at the top. He looked up at Rinn with an intense and feral gaze, his sharingan eyes glowing a dangerous red as the sunlight caught his pupils. For a moment, it felt like it was just the two of them. No crowds, no fight – everything was silent between the two friends. Rinn bit her lip as Sasuke shot her a confident grin before his eyes travelled back down to his opponent as he began to make hand signs.
His left arm flew downwards so that his palm was facing towards the wall, his right arm supporting it at the elbow. Shichiro and Rinn let out a surprised gasp as what appeared to be lightning flared out from Sasuke's left palm.
Shichiro subconsciously shot a glare towards a pre-occupied Kakashi.
Chidori.
He still thought that it was irresponsible for Kakashi to teach someone like Sasuke how to perform that jutsu. He was impulsive and reckless. Shichiro did not trust this part of Sasuke's personality one little bit. In fact, he was sure that one day Sasuke would use this technique against the very village that taught him in the first place. Of course, he would never tell Rinn of this, but he couldn't shake the feeling that Sasuke's instability was like a ticking time bomb. He was too heavily governed by his emotions.
The concrete beneath Sasuke crumbled as he launched himself towards Gaara at full speed, and, before anyone could blink, he struck through the sand barrier with his chidori, feeling his hand hit Gaara's chest.
The crowd fell silent once again.
Then, suddenly, came a strangled cry:
"BLOOD! IT'S MY BLOOD!" Gaara screamed.
This brought Sasuke quickly back to reality, and he tried to pull his arm from the sand.
It wouldn't budge.
Shit!
He desperately tried to pull his arm away with no avail, and before he knew it, he was forced to leap back away from what appeared to be a hand made of... sand?!
As Gaara's sand barrier collapsed around him, Rinn felt a firm grip on her shoulder.
"Time to go," Shichiro stated firmly.
"What?! Hell no, I need to make sure Sasuke..." She trailed off as Shichiro gestured around to the crowd below, who were all slowly falling asleep.
Genjutsu?
"Now." He repeated, more dangerously this time, as he grabbed her other shoulder even more firmly. He spun her away from the match, forcing her to walk in front of him as all other crowd members started to drift off to sleep as they passed them by. Rinn brought her hands in front of her and was about to release herself from any impending genjutsu.
"No need, I have already released us from it. Now seriously, hurry up!" Shichiro said, beginning to panic a little. Rinn, finally realising the seriousness of the situation, nodded and moved substantially more quickly through the crowd to the nearest staircase.
Out of nowhere, there was an explosion. Both Sasuke and Rinn instantly stopped what they were doing, each worried for the other. He looked up to where she was standing a moment ago.
She was gone.
Sasuke's eyes widened in alarm, as he desperately scanned above and side to side around him for her blazing orange hair.
"Rinn?! RINN!" he yelled, no care for at all for his fight as he started to run towards the stairs which lead to the balcony where she had been watching the match previously.
Rinn and Shichiro quickly made it to the bottom of the stairs and watched with horror as the Hokage was taken hostage by the Kazekage, whom Shichiro already knew, of course, to be Orochimaru in disguise. Sasuke spotted them right away and ran to Rinn without even a second glance back at Gaara, who was now accompanied by his siblings and sensei.
"Rinn!" Sasuke said once more, as he finally reached her. He placed a hand on either side of her face and looked deeply into her eyes.
"Are you ok? You weren't hurt in the explosion were you?" he asked, quietly inspecting her for any new damage. Shichiro looked away – their closeness often made him feel uncomfortable.
"I'm fine Sasuke. What's going on?"
But before Sasuke could answer, Shichiro cut in:
"Rinn, we need to get going. Tatsuo is already waiting for us at the site of the summoning, and we-"
"The WHAT?!" Rinn and Sasuke interrupted simultaneously.
"Look Rinn, I'll explain on the way but we really need to go. We shouldn't even have stayed to watch Sasuke's match if I'm honest..." Shichiro trailed off as Sasuke looked daggers at him.
"OK fine. Sasuke, are you coming?" Rinn asked, much to Shichiro's dismay. He was about to protest when someone else beat him to it.
"Sasuke, you need to put all your training to good use now. I need you to go after Gaara," the proctor said hurriedly as he blocked several incoming kunai from hitting the three unsuspecting genin. The perpetrator was none other than the sand village genin's sensei.
"NO! I'm not leaving her!" Sasuke said a little too loudly, standing in front of Rinn protectively.
"Sasuke, now isn't the time to be arguing! We have our orders and we need to go. I'll come and catch up to you as soon as we're done, ok? I promise," Rinn reasoned, pulling him into a tight embrace.
She used his slightly stunned state as a result of this action as an opportunity to escape, and before Sasuke could gather his thoughts she was tearing off ahead with Shichiro.
"BE CAREFUL!" He yelled after her, as he dodged another incoming attack.
I don't know what I'd do if anything happened to you...
"Sasuke. Get. Going." The proctor said menacingly as he continued to fight the sand shinobi.
Mind back on the task at hand, Sasuke determinedly sped off after Gaara into the forest.
- X -
Shichiro and Rinn caught up to Tatsuo in a matter of minutes, and found him crouching down on a high up branch, hiding his presence from the sand and sound ninja below.
"Tatsuo! What do you think you're doing?! You were supposed to stop the summoning!" Shichiro whispered harshly to him in disbelief.
"Toru-sensei said he would catch up to me! He isn't here yet!" Tatsuo responded defensively.
"So you did nothing?!" Shichiro asked.
"Shichiro, there's nothing short of 40 ninja down there. At least. I know I'm an idiot but I'm not suicidal!"
Shichiro didn't say a word, continuing to shoot him a scathing look.
"Besides, if I'd rushed in there with no back up and gotten myself killed, we wouldn't be able to use our summoning, would we?! And I think that's our best shot against this giant snake thing..."
"S-snake?!" Rinn gasped in horror. If there was one creature on this earth that she was terrified of, it was a snake.
Shichiro placed a hand on her forearm and gave it a comforting squeeze. She gulped before she continued.
"I think Tatsuo has a point. I think our summoning would be our best chance of eliminating the problem," Rinn whispered calmly, not wanting to even use the word 'snake' again.
Sighing, Shichiro reluctantly nodded.
"It's becoming increasingly apparent that Toru has been held up somewhere. I agree with you both regarding the summoning... however... I also think it is our duty to do something about those guys down there," he said quietly, gesturing to the enemy ninja below.
"So, what would you suggest?" Rinn asked, starting to grin slightly.
"I think we should teach them a lesson about what happens when you dare to attack the leaf village," Shichiro replied, a confident smile also growing on his face.
"All right!" Tatsuo exclaimed, almost a little too loudly, "Let's show these losers what we're made of!"
Before anyone could stop him, he was diving headfirst into the middle of the gathering of ninja below with a descending "WOOHOO!"
Rinn and Shichiro exchanged an amused but despairing look before they too leapt off the tree branch to the ground below, although their style was more akin to stealth attacks rather than full frontal like Tatsuo, who had already incapacitated three opponents with his projectile fire jutsu. In all honesty, he provided the perfect distraction to enable Shichiro and Rinn to pick off the other enemies with ease.
Shichiro whipped in and out of about ten enemy ninja, sapphire eyes radiating a mint glow, the runes on his neck coming alive once more. A mere second after the *click* of his sword being unsheathed, all ten ninja were lying on the floor in pieces.
Rinn was equally as dangerous. She snuck through the crowd at speed, landing quick hits with her red chakra directly to their hearts, mere seconds later returning to finish the job by breaking essential limbs clean in half.
It took them less than ten minutes to completely wipe out the huge squad of enemy ninja, the three of them now standing back to back in the centre of the fight, guard still up.
"Is that all of them?" Tatsuo asked, panting a little.
Shichiro's eyes flashed green for a split second.
"Yes, that's it in this area... for now," he replied calmly, not even slightly out of breath.
Rinn looked at the bodies around her. She still had not hardened her heart to the casualties of war. Her victims were only badly injured, yet Tatsuo's were completely charred. As for Shichiro's...
Rinn gulped, and averted her gaze to the sky.
Noticing this, Tatsuo draped an arm across Rinn's shoulders, pulling her to his side.
"Hey. Don't worry. This doesn't make you a bad person. We're defending the village here. I know it's hard to see, but we are helping people," he said, in an attempt to comfort her.
Rinn had always struggled with the thought of what she was capable of doing to people. In reality, had she wanted to, she could have snapped every single one of those ninja's necks, killing them instantly.
And it scared her.
She had not yet managed to bring herself to kill someone in such a way, and feared that one day, she might have to.
A crash and terrified screams pulled her from her thoughts, and served as a reminder of the enemy invasion.
"Orochimaru's serpents..." Shichiro muttered to himself, instantly pinpointing its location and beginning to head off towards it.
"Rinn. Tatsuo. Let's go," he stated, earning nods from his teammates as they followed behind him.
They darted through the trees quickly, soon arriving at the source of the commotion. Clocking their target straight ahead of them to the right, they hid behind a nearby building as they devised a strategy.
"SNAKE?! Snake you said! SINGULAR!" Rinn blurted out in a distressed tone.
"Uhhh... yeah?" Tatsuo retorted, unsure of what the problem was.
"Would you care to tell me, then, why there's THREE FUCKING SNAKES?!" she responded, the volume of her voice growing with each word.
"Shhhh!" Shichiro reminded them, placing his index finger directly over his lips to demonstrate this.
Rinn's eyes followed his finger as it moved, her gaze lingering on his lips for a moment longer than perhaps they should have.
To make it worse, Shichiro caught her.
Thankfully, Tatsuo broke the tension that was now mounting, as Rinn and Shichiro awkwardly looked away from one another blushing.
"Three heads, but joined at the tail. Still one snake as far as I'm concerned!" Tatsuo said to Rinn, flashing her a toothy grin.
"Anyway guys, shouldn't we be getting this show on the road, rather than arguing about the particulars?" he continued jokily, already getting fired up for the next fight.
"Yes, I agree. Any suggestions for plan of attack?" Shichiro said.
"I say we meet that thing head on with our summoning jutsu!" Tatsuo offered excitedly.
"We've only successfully managed that a handful of times! And besides, I wouldn't really call it a summoning... It's not a real living breathing creature is it?" Rinn responded, sighing a little in exasperation.
"Again, getting hung up on the particulars Rinn!" Tatsuo teased.
"Well someone needs to make sure we don't all get killed..." she replied sarcastically.
"GUYS. Not the time or the place. Whilst you two are arguing, the village is getting more destroyed every second. Now listen up, here's what we're going to do..." Shichiro interrupted to reiterate the focus of the mission, before continuing and explaining their plan of attack.
"Sounds good!" Rinn said after hearing his strategy.
"Gotcha!" Tatsuo chimed.
"Good. Shall we then?" Shichiro said, gesturing towards the giant triple-headed snake.
Rinn gulped a little, her fear for snakes beginning to take hold of her once more.
"Follow the plan and we'll have this thing roasted in five minutes, OK?" Shichiro reassured, noticing her visible discomfort. She nodded in response, beginning to wander higher up the building they were using for cover.
"Just so you know guys, my snake anatomy isn't as good as my human anatomy!" She announced, winking, before she disappeared off the roof of the building towards the target.
"Guess we'd better take our places, huh?" Tatsuo said to Shichiro, eager to get going, and they too came out and got into position.
"I just hope she can find its heart quickly enough before it tries to kill her..." Shichiro mumbled, eyes now on Rinn who was sneaking toward the snake.
Her heart was hammering faster and faster as she got closer to the giant belly of the snake whilst it paused to attack some fellow leaf ninja atop a nearby house.
Remember, you just need to immobilise the target. You can't kill it because you won't be able to get high enough up one neck to sever the spinal cord without the other heads killing you first...
She took a deep breath in as she got within arm's reach of the scaly beast, activating her eyes and red chakra. Looking a hundred or so metres away to Shichiro, she gave him a brief nod to indicate she was about to begin their attack. Nodding back, his eyes lit up as he held one hand up to concentrate his chakra on the snake, shutting off its senses a subtle amount – Rinn had little idea where the heart lies within a snake, and as her eyes allow her to see only bones and not internal organs, it could take her a few attempts to locate its heart. Furthermore, she had no way of knowing if she had a direct hit until she began attempting to fracture its bones. It was Shichiro's job to keep the snake as oblivious as possible to her movements, and he was doing so by slowly lowering the snake's sensitivity to touch, little by little so that the beast did not realise it was under the power of his jutsu.
However, this gave little comfort to Rinn as she got ready to make the first strike.
What if the snake still feels the blow? What do I do then?!
Taking another deep breath in, she pulled her arm back and struck the snake with a *THWACK*, flinching instantly. She stood still as a statue for a few seconds.
Nothing. Phew!
Rinn exhaled in relief, before quickly dodging the tail as it slithered once or twice as it moved around the street slightly.
Now to see if I got a hit...
Trouble is, if I did get the heart, the snake will definitelyfeel this next one – no matter what Shichiro does.
She mentally readied herself for any possible fallout from the next attack.
Pulling her arm back again, she swung another blow, this time to the area which she thought would contain vertebrae.
Shit.
Nothing.
Glancing over to her teammates, she shook her head with disappointment. Shichiro cursed, not liking leaving her in harm's way. Tatsuo however, sniggered, amused by her failings and obvious obliviousness to the insides of a snake. He waved at her to attract her attention.
Looking over to him with a confused frown, he pointed directly up to the sky.
"What?" She mouthed at him.
"HIGHER." He mouthed back, pointing upwards once again.
The fact that he may have already known this, and still watched her attempt her jutsu in the wrong place irked her immensely, but that would be something she'd have to deal with another time. Looking up to the torso of the snake, Rinn tried to work out the best way to get up there. Although its bottom half was reasonably stationary, its top half was whipping around all over the place as it attacked the defending ninja. She sighed in irritation as she realised she'd probably have to waste some chakra to climb up its body, reluctantly beginning her ascent.
The snake still appeared to feel nothing, although it was not easy for her to remain grounded on its body as it moved left, right, up, down. She had to hand it to Shichiro though, he was doing a pretty good job of making sure she was not detected. Rinn was about to make another strike in an attempt to hit the heart, just at the area where the three necks met the lower body of the beast, when a small stone hit her in the back. Managing to stop herself from swearing loudly, she looked over her shoulder to try and locate the assailant, hands and feet still attached to the snake's body with chakra.
She rolled her eyes as she saw Tatsuo waving again.
"WHAT?" She mouthed down to him angrily. He just had interrupted her.
The young man below appeared to have a mischievous glint in his eyes, but he was too far away to tell for sure.
"HIGHER." He mouthed to her again, pointing upwards, this time not even managing to stifle his laughter.
Glaring at him, she looked up. It couldn't be higher... could it?
There's no more torso left above here... Just the three necks and heads.
Then, realisation dawned on her.
Oh Christ.
"THREE?!" She mouthed down to Tatsuo, taking one palm away from the snake and holding up three fingers.
Tatsuo merely shrugged in response.
Why I oughta...
She sighed.
He does have a point though. Three hearts. Makes sense. Then if one head dies the other two can continue to do some damage. But the more times I miss the more time I'm wasting. And I need to catch up to Sasuke as soon as I can!
Trying a different approach than just going in blindly, Rinn climbed up one of the necks of the serpent, being sure to stay in a position that would keep her hidden from the other two heads. This time, she (despairingly) placed her ear to the cold, smooth, scaly skin of the animal, listening for its pulse.
There!
She found a trace of it, and followed it to its strongest and loudest point.
Better get this over and done with quickly...
In ten seconds or less, Rinn had leapt from neck to neck, effortlessly striking all three with her red chakra in what she hoped were its heart(s). Sliding down the third neck she had hit, she reached the torso, looking over to her team and giving them a final nod.
1... 2... 3!
The snake hissed and reeled around as the sound of cracking bone echoed around the street, and Rinn quickly tried to get herself off of the snake, which was now trying to locate its new attacker.
"TATSUO! NOW!" Shichiro yelled.
His teammate responded by frying the eyes of each serpent so that it could no longer locate them by sight, allowing Rinn a little more time to rejoin her team.
"Everyone ready?" Shichiro said, glancing to his teammates, who responded with confident nods.
They each made about five hand signs, before Rinn's eyes turned their deathly white, Shichiro's glowing that eerie mint green, and Tatsuo's brown orbs came ablaze like a fiery sun. Touching each of their left palms together in the centre of the triangle formation they were now standing in, a thin beam of gold shot down from the sky and hit their fingertips, growing larger and larger until it formed a gigantic golden dragon, glittering with the beauty of a thousand coins and diamonds. The three comrades jumped onto its back and held tightly as it proceeded to claw apart and burn the three headed snake, until there was barely a trace of it left.
Some of the villagers cheered, others were aghast – even horrified – by the creature that these young ninja had produced. Landing on the ground, still atop the dragon, the two boys began to make the hand sign to release the jutsu.
"Wait!" Rinn said urgently.
"What is it?" Tatsuo asked, lowering his hand.
"Sasuke!" she reminded them.
"Rinn, you know how much chakra this jutsu expends... from all of us. We should release it now," Shichiro said curtly.
"He's got a point... If we keep this up too much longer we'll be useless in any other fights-" Tatsuo began.
"-Which there's sure to be many more of," Shichiro cut in, looking at Rinn condescendingly.
"Look, I see what you're saying. I'm not asking you to use it in whatever fight Sasuke may or not be having at the moment. I'm just asking you to get me there. We can fly there in what... thirty seconds or so? It would take me at least thirty minutes to run there, if not longer!"
Tatsuo looked over to Shichiro, who sighed reluctantly. She was being dramatic. As the fastest member of the team, there was no way it would take her half an hour to reach Sasuke.
"All right, but we'll drop you off and Tatsuo and I will make ourselves useful elsewhere, OK?" he said.
"Yes! Thank you! Thank you!" Rinn replied gratefully, planting a kiss on each of her teammate's cheeks and they took the dragon back into the sky, Shichiro already having pinpointed Sasuke's location.
- X -
Sasuke was doubled over on all fours, the pain of the curse mark ripping him apart from the inside out. All he could do was watch helplessly as Naruto battled Gaara.
And he hated it.
He hated being useless.
He wasn't strong enough.
Itachi was right – he was weak.
Watching Naruto, seeing how far he had come, was just rubbing salt into the wounds. He could feel his anger and frustration, as well as his bitterness, building with every second – only fuelling the curse mark even further.
Sasuke's thoughts were interrupted by a harsh light hitting his pupils.
The sun?
He flinched and blinked a few times as he looked up into the sky.
Instead of the sun, he saw some sort of... creature?
And it was getting closer.
Is this Gaara's doing? Another one of his tricks with the sand?!
It approached closer still, its hide like liquid gold, rippling in the wind. It had wings, and a tail.
A... dragon?!
Is it friend or foe?
Against his better judgement, Sasuke activated his sharingan once again – desperate to know the origins of this creature. As he observed the dragon quickly nearing him, he was in awe at the immense amount of chakra being channelled into the beast, and the rate at which it was maintained.
Who could possibly have...
Sasuke's eyes darted to the dragon's back, atop which sat one, two... three ninja.
A squad?
"Argh!" he winced in pain as his body punished him for the use of his sharingan, his eyes quickly fading to their normal ebony black. Sasuke squinted back up to the sky, still doubled over. The dragon was now hovering just a few feet above the trees overhead, the flapping of its wings causing the branches to strain against the air current it produced. There appeared to be some sort of shouting going on above him, but he could not hear the voices clearly enough. And then –
*THUMP*
Two booted feet landed on the same branch as Sasuke, inches from his face. He would recognise those boots anywhere.
"Sasuke?! Jesus, are you alright?" A worried Rinn called to him in panic, as she crouched down in front of him, face now nearly level with his.
"S-starfish?" he managed to choke out, one of his arms clumsily reaching out for her hand, which of course she gladly gave, holding it tightly. She gently placed her other palm on the side of his cheek, keeping some of his hair from falling into his face as she studied him intently with her emerald eyes, her face a picture of concern. Sasuke relaxed a little at her touch, yet his body was still unbelievably tensed as he tried to cope with the waves of pain hitting him every few seconds. He let out another tortured groan as the latest wave crashed over his body.
"Shit! Sasuke, talk to me? Where does it hurt? What can I do to help you?!" Rinn said desperately, letting go of his hand and holding both sides of his face firmly.
Sasuke glanced to Naruto briefly, who was still neck deep in his battle with Gaara. Rinn mistook this as an instruction, turning away from Sasuke in one fluid motion and was about to leap off of the branch to join the fight against Gaara, when Sasuke's hand flew out and grabbed her ankle. Hard.
"D-don't you dare," Sasuke said firmly, panting slightly at the effort it was taking him to talk.
Rinn looked at him questioningly.
"I... I know... You're running low on chakra. I saw you on that... thing... Please... Please..." he looked up at her, eyes pleading her not to get involved, before he flinched in agony once more.
"OK, it's OK. I'm here, I'm here," she said soothingly as she took her place next to him once more, this time easing him to a sitting position as she sat up against the tree trunk, cradling his body in front of her. Sasuke gripped her hand once again as he laid his head back against her shoulder.
His eyes suddenly widened.
"RINN!" He said as loudly as he could muster, causing her to direct her attention back to the fight once again. There were shuriken and sand flying towards them at an alarming rate.
Rinn gasped, her eyes widening even more than Sasuke's. As quickly as she could, she cast her jutsu and protected them from the impact not a second too soon. Sighing in relief, she decided that she had best keep her shield going until the fight had concluded. Suddenly, she felt Sasuke consciously squeeze her hand a few times, as if to get her attention.
"What is it?" she answered, worriedly, hoping she could do something to help her friend.
"Sakura..." he managed to say, still struggling with his curse mark.
Rinn drew a sharp breath in, feverishly scanning the area for pink hair.
Oh no! I didn't realise Sakura was here too! I hope she's OK...
As her eyes landed on the kunoichi, she cursed under her breath as she saw her pinned to a tree by tightly compacted sand, unconsciousness. Rinn's eyes darted between Gaara and Sakura, trying to work out what she could do to get her out, whilst still keeping Sasuke safe.
"You can't... You can't break through it. Gaara's jutsu will only be compromised once he's defeated..." Sasuke tried to explain to her, remembering what Gaara had said earlier in the fight.
Rinn looked down at him doubtfully, still considering whether her red chakra might be enough to smash through the sand.
"D-Don't... Don't. Please, trust me," he re-iterated, gripping her tightly. In his vulnerable state, Rinn was having a hard time denying him anything he asked of her.
Then my only option is to try and project a barrier around Sakura, whilst I still maintain the one surrounding Sasuke and I...
I still haven't perfected it, but...
A small crackling sound hit their ears as Rinn fired turquoise sparks in Sakura's direction, which moulded themselves around her into a protective sphere upon impact.
"Thank you," Sasuke managed to croak at her as he gripped onto her shirt in pain.
"Shh... It's OK. Try and relax now. Besides, I need to concentrate, OK?" she said, her left hand still tightly entwined with Sasuke's, as she caressed it comfortingly with her thumb, eyes still forwards, focussed on both the unfolding battle and on Sakura. Sasuke blinked up at Rinn, at first watching her with admiration.
I swear she gets more beautiful every day... Even in battle.
She's already fought, and yet here she is, still managing to defend us.
Rinn, you have certainly become a powerful ninja.
Then, he frowned. The bitterness reared its ugly head once more.
And here she is, saving my ass. Again. Just like in the forest.
She's protecting Sakura.
Because I can't.
Am I... weaker than Rinn?
How has she come so far?! Her whole squad is miles ahead of us. Ahead of me.
Look at her. Look at Naruto even! Both managing to summon powerful beasts to their aid – beyond anything I am capable of.
Could I beat her one-on-one?
Could I even beat... Naruto?!
Sasuke smirked. Of course he could win against Naruto.
But Rinn...
He wasn't so sure.
He studied her features once again, her brows furrowed as she fought hard to maintain her jutsu, her spare hand still gently stroking his in an attempt to comfort him... he already began to hate himself for the things he had been thinking. Jealousy. Anger. It was cowardly. And for him to think negatively about Rinn – his precious Starfish...
Yet as much as he tried to close his mind to it, the poisonous thoughts about his comrades were already spreading, niggling away at him from the back of his mind.
Before he could stop himself, Sasuke snatched his hand away from her.