A/N: Hello, everyone. I apologize for delaying my deadline that was supposed to release a week after my previous chapter, but my beta reader surely took a lot of time to finish editing it. I found out that he did not have a internet at that time, so he was unable to edit my chapter. However, unfortunately, he quit being my beta reader due to under certain circumstances. Time to find A/N who can edit my story very well and someone who doesn't quit because I constantly write 10k+ words. C'mon!
Sorry, no Vegeta or Clone Jerry. I'm locked inside my room in the spaceship because I loathed the fact that Vegeta and Clone Jerry were making fun of my genderbender! Why?! Why do I have to be a girl? I am supposed to be boy when I come back to life! :( I'm sure they're still discussing what to call me name since I'm a girl. No, don't think about it, you guys. Yes, I'm looking at you, readers. Only call me Jerry, all right?! :D Because I will return to my gender as it was before!
Disclaimer: I, Jerry-sama, do not own all rights to Dragon Ball franchise and Naruto franchise! They only go to Akira Toriyaman (Dragon Ball) and Masashi Kishimoto (Naruto)!
Chapter 113: The Exiled Clan
Age 763, December 1- Outside Danzo's Hideout, Konohagakure, Land of Fire
Smoke continued to spread through the air after the sudden explosion. There were two girls near the smoke taking rapid breaths, trying to get some oxygen. They looked like they were almost dead. Indeed, they almost died.
Sakura was lying on her back, panting heavily. She knew that she almost died back there, but she did not fear death. At this point, she no longer cared if she died… Not as long as her parents remained dead. But she realised she still needed to save the world. She needed to restore her Ki powers as soon as possible so that Konoha would have a better chance of holding off Coola and his men until Naruto and Sasuke return.
She glanced sideways at Hinata, who was on her knees, panting as well. She couldn't quite understand what Hinata was getting at. She was told that she could not kill people simply because she was a Haruno. What does that have to with being a Haruno? The way Hinata called Sakura a "Haruno" was like as if it was an actual clan. As far as she recalled, she never had a clan. After all, none of her family in her generation were ninjas. All of them were civilians. She was the only Haruno who became a ninja.
"Damn!" Hinata muttered. She punched the ground in anger as she recalled how Sakura and her escaped and survived the paper bomb trap.
Flashback Began
"You should have listened to this, Hyuuga heiress. Now this will be your downfall!" The Root Survivor declared. "Release!"
As soon as she said "release", paper bombs appeared all over the underground hideout, causing Sakura and Hinata to stop running as they scanned the area around them in shock. Everything was surrounded by Paper Bombs! There were too many to count. But with the endless paper bombs, it was enough to destroy the whole hideout.
"What?!" Sakura said, shocked. She looked around, realizing that there was no way to escape. They were surrounded by too many paper bombs. She looked down at the ground and saw the bombs near her feat as well. She gulped, realizing that she could've have triggered the bombs if she stepped on it by accident. Fortunately, she stopped as soon as the Root Survivor said release.
'Impossible!' Hinata stared in shock at the genjutsu user, who managed to fool her eyes into thinking there was no genjutsu around here. 'There's no genjutsu that can trick my eyes! I never saw paper bombs around here, but why now when she released it?! What kind of genjutsu is that?!'
"This is the arrogance of Hyuuga, the one that you inherited, Hyuuga heiress." The Root survivor mocked HInata, who was scowling at her. "As I said, I'm an expert genjutsu user. The genjutsu that cannot be detected by everyone, not even Hyuuga or Uchiha, but myself. And I intend to take you down along with me."
Hinata scowled. "You coward! Using paper bombs to take us down, knowing that you can't take me down yourself!"
"It's called tactics. Brain over brawn, right?" The Root Survivor said, using Hinata's earlier line from before that was used against Rage to mock him. Her taunting worked well as Hinata began to show signs of irritation. Wasting no more time, she activated all of the paper bombs by just saying, "KAI!" The paper bombs immediately started to burn.
"Hinata!" Sakura warned, looking at the Hyuuga Heiress.
Hinata knew what Sakura was trying to tell her. "I know!" she scowled as she turned around, grabbed Sakura, and ran as quickly as possible towards the large Boulder that blocked the exit completely. Aura began to envelope her as she began to build up her Ki and concentrated it into her palm.
"HYAAAH!" Hinata shouted, propelling herself along with Sakura and smashed her palm onto the Boulder, successfully destroying it. The paper bombs finally exploded, knocking them away outside the exit. But at least, before the explosion occurred, Hinata used a Ki shield which she had learned from Gohan by just watching him. The skill actually came in handy, and suited well for the Hyuuga clan.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
An explosion blew up entire underground that bellowed up the giant cloud of flame, along with black smoke streaming out.
Flashback Ended
She scowled. She could not help but to think about the female Root survivor who killed herself in a vain. 'Who does that idiot think she is? She thought she would have done us in, but instead she took herself down. What an idiot. At least, we're still alive.'
She also stared into the light green eyes of Sakura whom stared back. 'Sakura-san… What've gotten into you? Since you saw the brutal murder of your parents with your own eyes, you've drastically changed. Has your inner persona begun to take over you? Not tell me you're…'
"Why?" Hinata quirked up her eyebrows, eyeing Sakura's emotional face, who spoke that word. She was not sure what to answer. What the why is for? She did not speak up, but was willing to listen to whatever the pink-haired girl was going to say next.
The pink haired girl shifted to her front, as she scrambled up to her feet, keeping her eyes on her new rival's eyes. Her eyes were filled with a determination. Apparently, she was looking for an answer.
"Why?" Sakura repeated that same question. "Why won't you allow me to kill people, yet you're allowed to kill someone? Is it wrong for me to defend this village? Is it wrong for me to have no choice but to kill someone just for the sake of the village? Why am I different from any of you? You treat me like I am very dangerous girl since—" She paused. Her tears began to fill her eyes, as she remembered the brutal murder of her parents. She had been traumatized since then.
She shook her head, wiping tears off her eyes and clamped her hands together on her chest. She looked down and frowned. "I don't understand. Why do you suddenly treat me like that now? I thought you were my friend. After all we have been through… I mean, we've fought before. It's all thanks to you that I've realized that I have to move on. Yet… I've witnessed what that bastard Danzo did to my parents…" She never felt the massive hatred towards someone before, but she put it aside since he already died. She was glad that she killed him. "You suddenly freak out when I kill him. You act like I've become insane. So why?"
"Because you're a Haruno. That's all you need to know, Sakura." Hinata said coldly. She did not feel like explaining everything to Sakura. She would like to move on and prevent Coola and his men from damaging any further to Konoha. The more they both talk, the more Coola and his men will damage the village further. She turned her back on Sakura, sighing. "We're wasting our time. We should perform our duty and protect the village from the invaders. Let's go."
She began to walk away.
"No…" Hinata froze as she heard Sakura's voice becoming a little dark. "That's not enough. You speak as if Haruno is a clan. Last time I checked, it was never a clan to begin with. I want to know more."
Hinata turned around and sighed with exasperation. "Sakura…" She began to worry for her friend as she wondered if the side effects of the Haruno was beginning to surface.
"I want you to tell me why I cannot kill anyone, yet you're allowed to. However…" She fished something out her pouch and took out a Kunai, raising it in front of her face, almost as if she was ready to kill someone with it. She even shifted into her battle stance, glaring at her Hyuuga friend. "If you still refuse to answer me… then I'll KILL YOU!"
Hinata's body suddenly stirred up. She shot a glare back at Sakura and clenched her fists. She began to feel enraged once again. Again, there was an altercation between Sakura and Hinata. "You…" Her biggest fear was that if she was forced to kill Sakura, should they come to kill each other. And Sakura seemed to use the term "Kill" more often now. Hinata noticed that and thought, 'I hope her inner persona—no, something worse than her inner persona- doesn't take over her…'
Sakura suddenly threw the Kunai at Hinata, but it whirled past her. She widened her eyes in fear and wondered whether Sakura was trying to kill her. However, the Kunai wasn't even aimed at her, but at somewhere else. She nervously glanced behind her shoulder, only to see one of Coola's men lying on the floor, dead, with the Kunai embedded in his left chest.
She gulped. 'She saved me! If she hadn't, I would've been ambushed and killed in the process. I let my guard down and didn't use my Ki.' She stared back at Sakura, who just picked up another Kunai from her pouch. 'Damn! She killed someone once again! At this rate, she will get even worse. I should be more careful and put up Ki around me. I should stop her. Otherwise, I'd have no choice but to kill her.'
"Next time, it won't be someone else, it will be you instead." Sakura threatened her. "If we fight each other, I will try to kill you and you will be forced to kill me. Even if you attempt to restrain me, I will make sure that you'll kill me. But should you know that if you were to kill me, Naruto-kun will hate you forever, even if I'm brought back to life! What choice will you choose? Answer me or…" She raised her kunai again, threatening to kill Hinata to get the answer from her. "We fight to death!"
Hinata widened her eyes in shock. Did Sakura really say that? Was Sakura being serious about killing her or forcing her to kill her, so that Naruto-kun could hate her forever? She knew that Sakura gave her no choice. She feared if she killed Sakura, even in self-defense, Naruto would hate her forever. He would think she's the same as every other Hyuuga out there. She didn't want that to happen.
She clenched her fists, baring her teeth. She closed her eyes and contemplated whether she should reveal the Haruno's clan traits to her or not. But given the current situation she was currently in, she would have to tell her everything. Perhaps Sakura would listen to her and stop killing more people until she gets cured.
"Fine…" Hinata opened her eyes. She could have rendered Sakura unconscious if she wanted to, but she did not want to make it even worse for Sakura. She had to be very careful with the pink haired ninja from now onwards. "I will tell you…about why you cannot kill other people but I can."
"Last year…" Hinata began. "After the death of my Mother, I demanded to challenge Hanabi for the title of the heiress. At first, Father did not give me a chance, but I pestered him and he listened in the end. But before that, despite being older than my own sister, I was already defeated by own sister who was only about 5 years younger than me. When I was 10 years old, I could not defeat my 5-year-old sister back then. Even after I became a ninja, Father still did not acknowledge me and wanted to test my strength if I could defeat my own sister, yet I wasn't able to. That time when Father decided to strip me of the title of the heiress and bestowed it to my little sister, I did not care anymore. He thought of me as a worthless daughter and a weakling, and that I became a nuisance to him. What became of me no longer mattered to him, even if death claimed me… He began to neglect and abuse me more than he had ever before. He altered his focus onto my younger sister who had the ability to make a promising future."
Sakura widened her eyes in shock after hearing Hinata's story. How could a father do like that to his own daughter? Not even her father would do something as horrible as that. How heartless Hyuuga Hiashi was!
Hinata frowned. "Even when I was still weak during the preliminary at the Chuunin Exams, I managed to defeat one of the Konoha-nin. At that moment, I began to worry about Naruto-kun. He never came back along with you and Sasuke. I feared that Naruto-kun had died along with you and Sasuke, so I came back to my father and begged him to train me some more, but he refused, claiming that I was too weak to resist his training. But I knew it was not training. He was willing to abuse me further. But it appeared that he became bored of me. So I secretly received training from a member of the Hyuuga clan who actually disagreed with Father's ideology and philosophy. Because of him, I've managed to barely defeat Neji in the Chuunin exam tournament. Needless to say, Father was shocked.
"But I still thought that I was lucky to defeat Neji. It was because of my anger I never let out before it finally exploded. At the same time, I still viewed myself as a weakling, so I decided to train more on my own for a year. That is, until the death of my Mother. When I saw the look on my father's face, he did not bother to mourn her death. Because he thought that was her fate, and that no Hyuuga should ever cry. He viewed that as a sign of weakness. Of course, I was enraged by his petty belief. The next day, I demanded to reclaim the title of the heiress, but of course, he refused. Like I told you earlier, I pestered him and succeeded. He decided that my sister and I would fight each other after three days."
But it turned out that it was not a simple duel for the title of the heiress, but they also fight with the stipulation where a winner shall gain the title of the heiress and the loser shall be branded with the cursed seal.
She scowled. She did not like that a bit, but she felt it was the need to leave out a detail like that. Outsiders like Sakura would not need to get involved in her part of little affair with the Hyuuga clan. "I beat her to regain the title of the heiress for myself."
Being an heiress to the Hyuuga clan, she could have let Father to brand her little sister with the cursed seal, but because her love for her little sister, she had to bail her out. She basically 'kidnap' her out of Father's sight and also prevented them from branding her little sister with the cursed seal.
But Hanabi demanded to be returned to Hyuuga clan. Hinata tried to reassure her that if she returned, she would be branded with the cursed seal the instant she set her feet inside the Hyuuga compound. Yet, her little sister was too stubborn. She stated that it was her fate, and that she deserved to be branded with the cursed seal, because she lost to Hinata whom she always beat all the times. She even stated that she'd rather to be branded with the cursed seal than running away from her fate, because that would make her disgrace to the Hyuuga clan.
They argued. No matter what Hinata tried to say to her little sister, Hanabi wished to be returned to the Hyuuga clan. So Hinata had no choice. She had to knock her out. If she was her past self, she would have let Hanabi do as she wished to. But not the current Hinata. She simply did not want her little sister to suffer, not when she had seen how Neji was suffering.
Of course, Hanabi gave her a hell of time. She even tried to retort to fighting Hinata in order to escape back to Hyuuga compound. But Hinata, once again, stopped her. Eventually, Hanabi gave up. She even stated straight to her face that she hated her. Really hated her.
Hinata was shocked, and cried a little, but she moved on. After three months of staying away from the Hyuuga clan, they returned to the Hyuuga clan and threatened Father that if he still decided to brand her little sister with the cursed seal, then they would leave the Hyuuga clan. Father was shocked that Hinata would do such a thing, and Hanabi did not say anything, but seemed slightly nervous around her big sister. Given in this situation, if Hinata and Hanabi left the Hyuuga clan, then there would be no heir or heiress to inherit his position. He had no choice but to drop the plan to brand Hanabi with the cursed seal.
Despite Hanabi hating her, they still looked out for each other. But now Hanabi is…
"Hinata!"
Hinata's train of thoughts derailed after Sakura yelled her name. She realized she was busy mulling in her own thoughts.
Hinata's train of thoughts derailed after Sakura yelled her name. She realized she was busy mulling in her own thoughts. She looked down with a sad face. "I'm sorry. It's just that…" She diminished that thought of that flashback. It was no reason for her to dwell in the past. They resolved the issue, and they were fine. She titled her head up, locking her dark eyes into the jade green eyes of Sakura.
"As an heiress of the Hyuuga clan, my need for knowledge drove me to study every clans, including Uchiha, even if it's no longer existed. I went to the library where there was filled with the history books. Every books will give out the details of these clans, excluding the top secret they have, such as their technique or whatever secret they do not wish to reveal. I wished to study every clans, even if they had gone on extinct, or exiled. I researched every single details of what's important in these clans. Even my own clan… That's one of biggest reason why I decided to go out to research more about every clans in Konoha, is because I wanted to find a way to erase the existence of the cursed seal that was given to the Branch House of the Hyuuga clan."
That's why her Father was more aware of other clans, so he could be wary of them. Such as Uchiha Clan. That's because her Father studied more about other clans to gain a knowledge. So that way he can be more aware of his surroundings. To learn more about their history. All of clans in Konohagakure. He would know what to trust or what not to trust. That's why Hyuuga clan were so distrustful of Uchiha clan.
Even Hinata did not trust Uchiha. She knew the existence of Sasuke since her first day of academy. They never once interacted with each other. Not even one word to each other. That's because at that time, she was too shy to talk to everyone. Only few people actually talked to her like Kiba and Shino. Sometimes Naruto, Ino, and Sakura. Never Sasuke once in her life. And other reason why they did not interact was because he was too brooding every day during the class, probably because of his clan being massacred. He dwelled on it since then. She pitied him at that time, but even at that time, she did not trust him, and still now.
"I've read every prominent clans." Hinata resumed. "Uchiha Clan, Nara Clan, Aburame Clan, Inuzuka Clan, and even Hyuuga Clan. All in separate books. Even though Uzumaki Clan was not prominent clan in Konoha, I still picked up and researched about it. I have to say… It's very interesting about them. They have a unique trait that depended on their life, such as self-healing, and there's also interesting technique in them. I never knew Uzumaki was a clan, but it was one of extinct clan.
"Then I found a book titled The Exiled Clan right next to Uzumaki book. Before I came in this section, I just read the book that gave out the small details about every clans in Konohagakure. It even involved every exiled clans in Konohagakure. It amounted to 27 exiled clans to be exact. It even has every names in it. So I wondered why there's book titled The Exiled Clan when there's already a book that gave us information about every exiled clans. But it was outdated. Every exiled clan from the foundation of the Konohagakure up to twenty-five years ago. Then I realized that book was published in most recent dates. It was two years ago. But it seemed important enough for me to read about it.
"Once I turned the book over… I was shocked. I never shocked that it would be that clan, and that clan actually existed before. That clan, despite some people under that name still lives here, was exiled." Once again, she diverted her eyes, which just turned into a serious expression, onto the calm jade green eyes, who seemed like she was willing to listen to her every words. That's good. But what would be Sakura's reaction when she would reveal to her? "The exiled clan was the Haruno Clan."
She just noticed the sudden shock on Sakura's face.
With Konohamaru
Somewhere in Konohagakure, in a district which consisted of hotels, casino, bars, strip club and movie theater Konohamaru was currently running whilst searching for his teammates. That's where adults usually were gathered there. Sometimes, they brought kids to that place to watch the movie at theater. Hotels were for visitors who needed a place to sleep when they were visiting from outside of Konohagakure. Mostly ninja, very rarely civilians though. But only one hotel that actually bended with the adult themes was 'Love Hotel'. Love Hotel is a place where a male and a female would sleep together. Other than movie theater and hotels, these places were mostly for adults. That place was what they called: Red Light District.
Anyways, that's where Konohamaru was running in that district, searching for his teammates. Earlier, they were split up by an enemy. He got lost, so he had been looking for them long times. The enemy earlier was a woman who ambushed them and managed to split them up easier. He did not get a clear view of her though. All he saw was a figure of woman that ambushed them. After that, he lost them.
He really had gotten worried about them. It had been 10 minutes since they were split up. From what he had heard, Coola's men were made up of most dangerous men with some unique abilities that could make them shit in their pants. Plus, he also had heard that they were not like most enemies that they used to face before. They were on entire different league from them, and that's what made them the most dangerous foe they would come to face.
He already created many what-ifs scenario in his mind. What if he came across only to find Udon and Moegi lying in the pound of blood? What if they were already vanquished? He had seen what Coola's men did to other ninjas. With a wave of Ki, that vanquished them before his very eyes. Needless to say, he was scared, but he had to fight back to protect the civilians. Because he was genin, it was his duty to escort all citizens of Konoha to the evacuation shelter, and also fight to protect them. Now most of citizens were already escorted to the evacuation shelter, so genins' duty was done. They were supposed to go to evacuation shelter as well. Because most genins were kids, they needed to stay alive for the next generation. But they ran into a shadow of figure that managed to split them up. Refusing to leave them to die somewhere, he had to look for them to rescue them.
From the faraway sight, he saw something—the body of someone laying on the floor, in a pound of blood. His body tensed, and it was shaking with a fear. He hoped it was not either Udon or Moegi over there, so he mustered for a courage, and he hurried towards the corpse. The corpse was laying facedown. He recognized the back of the corpse, and he braced himself for the worse. Once he turned the corpse to get a good view of the face, he widened his eyes and his face paled. It confirmed his fear for the worse. Some stuff in his what-if scenario came true. That corpse was one of his teammate, Udon.
"Udon!" His tears came off from his eyes, trembling in shock. His good friend and his teammate had died to protect the Konoha.
He analyzed the corpse of his friend a bit. It would appear that his neck was broken and his ribs were already crushed badly. A bit of blood leaked from Udon's mouth, and his glasses on the floor next to him had been destroyed. Also his mouth was left opened and his eyes widened, probably due to the shock before his death. His eyes almost bulged out as well.
Konohamaru's heart clenched and anger started to rise inside his chest. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists, rolling more tears from his eyes. "I-It is so… horrible. W-Whoever did this needs to pay!" Udon's life was only so short, and he never lived to see himself becoming adult, let alone rising through the ranks!
Suddenly, an intense scream echoed all the way to his ears, promptly him to stand up and looked around. His panic rose. "MOEGI!"
Outside Danzo's Hideout- With Sakura and Hinata
Haruno Clan never existed, as far as Sakura was aware of. The Haruno family were all completely civilians, and in other words, she came from civilian family who was only Haruno that successfully became a ninja. Her Father was never a ninja. Her Mother was never a ninja. She never met her extending family in her life before. Her parents were only family she got, and she was really happy with her life. Although she got tired of her parents nagging her too much, especially her, she still loved them.
But… Haruno Clan? Among the exiled clans? Nonsense! She would not believe in such a tale! The Haruno never had been a clan. If that was the case, she should not even be here. And maybe she never existed to begin with. Her Father came from Haruno family, and her Mother came from another civilian family.
"You're lying!" Sakura accused Hinata, narrowing her eyes at her friend here.
Hinata shook her head. "No, Sakura-san. I'm not lying. It's all true. I can confirm that it is the fact. If you'd like to, I can explain the whole story to you."
"And about why I cannot kill people because the fact that I'm the Haruno." Sakura said impatiently.
"Patience. I'm getting there soon." Hinata scowled a little, disliking how Sakura's patience had begun to thin out. That was uncharacteristic of Sakura to do that. Usually, Sakura would have a patience when it came to listen to the story. She turned her back on Sakura and looked up at the storm, as the rain continued to drop rapidly on her face. "I told you earlier. The reason I went to research more about the clans is because I want to learn more about them and so that way I can understand my own clan as well. When I came across The Exiled Clan, I opted to read them and researched more about them one night. They gave out every details of their history, except their secret techniques, of course. About how the Haruno Clan joined as a clan among the Konohagakure and such. The Haruno Clan was one of newest clan that moved to Konoha. Approximately 40 years ago. That would mean your Father was an outsider and moved to Konoha when he was a kid. They aligned with the Konohagakure because of their amazing abilities to heal people and their ability to release genjutsu… and a bit of their strength, too."
Realization hit Sakura in the head. "Oh! Mom told me a bit about them, too. She told me that Dad's family side moved to Konohagakure when he was a kid. But were they really a clan?" She asked in disbelief. The more story being told her, the most likely she believed in the story.
"Yes, they were a clan. They offered a lot of good deeds for Konohagakure, but their loyalty was the issue. Really an issue worse than the Uchiha. Their loyalty still unable to match Konoha's expectation, but despite all that, Konoha had not made a decision what to do with them. The Haruno still had a place to live after all." Hinata turned back at Sakura and folded her arms, looking down with a frown face. "However, one day… it's where this all begins. About 30 years ago, one of the Haruno Clan members' relative was brutally murdered during the mission in front of his very eyes. But he was not in shock… He just went ahead and killed the killer of his relative, out of anger. No one, not even himself, thought about it. After all, killing the enemy is just a normal. That's because you know, shinobi killed enemies on daily basis. That was… normal. But of course, he has to go through mental therapy due to being traumatized after witnessing the death of his relative.
"It did not work out for him. He already was an unstable since the day of his relative being brutally murdered. He was no longer stable, as he already became insane very slowly. Some of his friends and his relatives expressed some concern to him. But no one knew what he had been through. They thought he was still traumatized since that day, but that was not true. He was like that, because the fact that he heard someone's voice inside his head every day and night since that day."
Sakura widened her eyes. 'The voice in his head...?!' She encountered that similar problem, too. Since the death of her parents, she recently started to hear the voice that had been telling her to kill something, someone. Sometimes, she could not handle the pressure of a voice in her head, so she acted impulsively.
Hinata noticed another shock from Sakura. That would mean Sakura had been through that recently. That's not good. Pretending to remain an oblivious to her friend's expression, she nodded her head once. "That's what he said to interrogator after he brutally killed several of his relatives, his friends, and some stranger. It took a month for them to identify the serial killer, and they apprehended him. Some said he was really insane. Some sympathized with him. Some cursed his name. Some called him a monster. Some said he should be executed for that. At the Konoha Torture and Interrogation, he explained that he had heard the voice inside his head. He called the voice Inner. They discovered that he had split personality, and that explained why he could not be cured by the therapy because Inner already surfaced and took over his body. So he was the guilty, and he was sent to the Hozuki Castle the next day, the prison where all most dangerous convicts were sent there. Prisoners interned there are intended to remain there until they die or the hidden villages that sent them there officially requests their release.
"But during the night, before the next day he was supposed to be escort on way to the Hozuki Castle, he was missing from his cell. A pair of ANBU teams were dispatched to search for him and kill on spot if found. Instead, they found his body somewhere in the forest." Hinata's looks darkened, as she looked at a bit shocked pink-haired girl with her serious face. "His body was disemboweled. Each part of his body were missing, including his head. Only the torso was found there, along with the pound of blood. The torso was already opened, and his organs were missing. Heart, liver, lungs, guts intestines, etc. No one knew where they went. But it was most horrible death they had ever seen. They had never seen something like that."
Sakura's eyes already widened, and her hands covered her mouth to conceal her mouth opened in shock. "No way!" Hinata just told the story, and it was already disgusting. One of her Haruno fellow already became insane, and he died because of that. Did another member of her Haruno clan do that?
Hinata looked down again. Sakura wondered if that was her tendency every time she made an explanation. It seemed like Hinata tended to do that. Perhaps it was out of habit? The habit where she stuttered often back in her young years?
That was the story in The Exiled Clan. When she read that history, she was disgusted with the details in the book. She even almost vomited at some point. She had never heard of someone who would go as far as that. Apparently, some Inner personality were varied. First one was not as crazy as the second two. But still… They were the insane people to begin with anyways. Moreover, who'd had a gut to write like that in the history store. Even as non-Haruno members, the author had to be insane and indifference to write the story like that. In her assumption, the author probably enjoyed writing the story like that.
"No insane people would do that. It was beyond the insanity. Due to the serious situation, his corpse was investigated. Meanwhile…" Hinata resumed. "at the outskirt of the Konohagakure, another Haruno clan member opened the crater with the body disembowelment of the serial killer in front of these people. It turned out that the one who received these body disembowelment was the mother of the serial killer. She demanded the culprit to reveal himself and also demanded that the culprit to give her one-year old son back. There was a note in the crater. Apparently, whoever wrote that note hated that man for murdering his girlfriend and he believed that the serial killer got what he deserved. And he admitted that he ate the serial killer's organs. Not only that he ate the organs, he kidnapped her one-year old son, and he planned to do something with the baby as well. He also stated that he'd come after her entire family."
Sakura flinched at the mention of someone doing something with the baby. She could not stand the slight of innocent babies being slaughtered. "W-What?! W-Who would do that and why would he do that?"
"Because he's insane, Sakura." Hinata told her, glancing up at the jade-green eyes. "Only insane people would do something like that. That's why he did something like that. It's disgusting, to be honest. I cringed when I read the history like that. I suppose the author of the The Exiled Clan wanted to give out a details of what the Haruno Clan was. Normally, most author from any history books would not give out a detail, but this author was the first."
She shook her head. She recalled meeting the author, and her theory was correct. That author was sort of insane, but not as insane as most Haruno Clan members though. It would seem that the author really enjoyed writing details, including gore and disgusting words like that. The author often loved to talk about them.
"During that incident, she snapped and started demanding the return of her baby son, and culprit must show his face. If the culprit won't return with her baby son, she'd start killing random people whoever was nearby. Killed few people in the public, and even killed some of Haruno Clan member. She would kill everyone nearby, as long as her one-year son had not returned. She'd not stop until her one-year old son returned. At that point, she did not care what she did… right or wrong. She even killed the children just to trip the guilty into the culprit, but it did not work out. She became insane and she was placed under the arrest. However, one day, the culprit returned in her presence, but without her one-year old son. She demanded where he was, and the culprit confessed that he did kill the serial killer, and he also killed her one-year old boy. But he did not regret a bit one. He told everyone that he enjoyed doing that. He did them for fun, because he had nothing left to live anymore, not after the death of his girlfriend. That culprit was also the Haruno."
"THAT'S BULLSHIT!" Sakura snapped. "You believed that bullshit?! That author wrote that book, implying that all the Haruno Clan members were insane! That made it sound like he hated the Haruno Clan and he wanted to make our clan look like it is much worse than Uchiha Clan!"
"IT IS TRUE!" Hinata shot back. "Once they were recorded in the history, it makes all true. If that's bullshit, then the Hokage or council would not have allowed that. They would not have allowed any make-up story in the history book. All books in the history section are all true! Sorry, if you don't believe in them, but that is the fact. The Haruno Clan, you are correct, is filled with people who were insane, and their insanity were superior compared to Uchiha clan who looked for revenge. They were the people who became insane, and they did some insane stuff they had ever done. Like I said, it all depended on their Inner personality. One might loved to cut up their bodies and send them a crate of disembowelment bodies, one might loved to kill random people on daily basis, one might loved to torture a certain every day, just to break them, but won't kill, because that won't be any fun at all, and one doesn't kill, but have sexual desire and willing to rape people if necessary. But they were all insane.
"The Haruno Clan caused more problems. Both the woman and the culprit were arrested, and they were deployed to the Hozuki Castle for their insanity. The citizens of Konoha began to become wary of the Haruno Clan, and no one trusted the Haruno Clan anymore. From time to time, more members of Haruno Clan had let their Inner out, and that made it worse, and they were either deployed to the Hozuki Castle or they were executed. They created more chaos and they caused the problem here, the council took an immediate notice of it and expressed their concern to the Hokage, but he said he would figure out. The council and the Hokage had been discussed for a year. Although, the news of Haruno Clan members started to diminish long ago, the council still believed that they needed to do something about them. Sandaime Hokage, however, believed that it had stopped a while ago, but he still sent the ANBU to look over them. Any sign of insanity resurfaced will be arrested on spot before they could do anything.
"Nothing had happened in a year. One day, one of Haruno Clan members were sent on a C- rank mission with a couple of teammates that was led by the jounin. A female Haruno. They came back, but there was two missing out. Two missing people were a couple of teammates that were sent on a mission with the Haruno. She looked like she was perfectly fine. Nothing happened to her. However, in actuality, her mind slowly became insane. It took a month for her insanity to finally come out. One day, she murdered the family who had been taken care of her in a bloodbath. All in the family, except one."
Sakura was horrified by the fact that her clan was full of insane people. Was Hinata trying to imply that she would become insane, just like most other Haruno members? She shook her head, dismissing the thought of her becoming insane. "So… Have everyone… been cured? Or is it physically impossible that any Haruno members can be cured from their insanity? Are they permanent once their Inner fully came out?" She was afraid of herself. Afraid of her Inner that might came out and took over her body. She prayed that there was possibility of curing the insanity. Probably a special therapy or something. As far as she had learned, no normal therapy would cure insanity.
Hinata took a long sigh. She was shocked when she found out who the survivor of that family was, and that only survivor was actually… "Yes, there's someone. In fact, he was the first one to be cured. He had been cured from his insanity. Inner never came out. That someone was actually the only survivor of that family… It was…" She narrowed her eyes and spoke in a low tone. "…Haruno Kizashi… Your Father…"
Red Light District- With Konohamaru
He had to hurry. He couldn't let another of his longtime best friend die. He ran and ran, as his feet stomped on some pounds, spilling a bit of them. He heard her scream. He had to hurry or else, she would die, just like his other good friend. It was not supposed to happen. They were supposed to arrive at the evacuation shelter safety. But instead, they ran into a shadow figure with the shape of a woman who managed to split them up.
He still could not get over the death of his best friend. He reminisced how he had met Udon. He was his first friend ever. They were best friends since then, and then Moegi joined his group. Since that time, they have always been best friends. He named the group Konohamaru Corps, and they shared the same idol. Their idol was Uzumaki Naruto.
He did not realize that tears began to form in his eyes because of the rain that made him wet all over his body, so he could not tell the difference between tears and rain.
He leapt over rubbles of a destroyed building that had collapsed a while ago.
He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. Udon was dead. He still couldn't believe it. Of course, shinobi died all the times, but still… He cursed himself for not being able to protect Udon. If only he had not allowed them to split up, Udon would've not been dead, and Moegi wouldn't have screamed.
He followed the sound of her scream… She was still screaming. Plus, he saw another building that was destroyed nearby. He knew that Moegi was close by. He needed a plan to ambush whoever had killed Udon and was currently attacking Moegi. He just ran around the corner to find a woman staring at something. He rushed to cover himself behind a wall and glanced over at the woman.
The woman was rather big…and very ugly. She was nothing like humans or even an alien that looked like a human with unique skin colors. But this was an alien, especially a woman he had never seen before. The woman's body was covered with fur and wore one of Coola's standard attire policy—Battle armor, of course, and there were one and a half horns on top of her head. One of her horns were already broken. Cut in half. Her mouth and nose were pretty big. She looked like an angry cow. That woman also possessed a furry tail.
He glanced at something the woman was staring at. He widened his eyes after seeing what it was, or rather, WHO it was, 'What the…hell?' That was Moegi. But why was she floating in midair. She looked like as if she was hanging in the air, her body also constantly shifted, and she groaned painfully, almost as if she was given a bear hug. What was going on?
'Either way…' Konohamaru shut his eyes tight and clenched his fists, trying to overcome his fear. He had never seen something like that before! He was so afraid, but he knew he had to save her. 'I have to save her one or other way! I'm not sure what's going on, but I have to stop that woman!'
He was really scared, all right. He did not realize that his hands were shaking uncontrollably, but if he was not going to do something, she would die! But he had no idea what to do and how to do! He did not know what's the best way to ambush that big cow woman! He could not let another one of his longtime friend to die like that!
He shook his head, trying to get rid of his fear. He slapped himself in the face a bit. "Okay… What would Naruto do in that situation?" He muttered quietly. "All right! Here I go!"
"Run!" Konohamaru snapped out of his thought. That was Moegi's voice. Despite still covered behind the wall, she somehow knew he was there. He glanced over his shoulder at Moegi with her eyes widen.
"K-Konohamaru…" Moegi groaned, but her body began to get crushed slowly. She had to keep herself from screaming intensely. She somehow managed to speak. "…Run…!"
"NO!" Konohamaru panicked. He could not let her die! She just could not. She must not! He turned around, revealing himself, but before he could do anything, Moegi's head snapped, and her head went down to one side, and blood leaked out of her mouth. Her eyes stopped moving. Her body stopped shifting, and her legs stopped dangling around.
Moegi died.
Outside Danzo's Hideout- With Sakura and Hinata
Sakura's eyes widened, her mouth open. "F-Father…?" Haruno Kizashi was the first one to be cured from insanity? But how? Was there really a cure to insanity? No normal therapy could help them as far as she learned. More importantly. She still was horrified once she learned that the family who were murdered by an insane Haruno girl was actually her father's family. And he probably became insane.
Hinata nodded and explained, "Correct. It was your father, Kizashi. When he was a teenager, he came back home from a mission when he saw a trail of blood running from the entrance of his home. In a state of panic, he followed the trail of blood and found bloody corpses of…his family lying on the ground. His dad. His mom. His older brother. His younger sister. There was a pink-haired girl, same age as him, standing in front of him while holding a bloody axe. Both of them eventually fought, but in the end, he killed her…in self-defense."
"So what happened next?" Sakura asked, wanting to know more and more. The more she learned about her clan, the more horrified she became of herself. All Harunos who witnessed brutal murder or found corpses, they would become insane. She feared that she might become one of them since she had witnessed the brutal murder of her parents. Since then, she was hearing voices in her head.
"What happened next?" Hinata muttered as she took a moment to calm herself before answering, "Nothing. He didn't do anything afterwards. The ANBU arrived at the scene and arrested him."
Sakura was shocked. "B-But he's innocent!" she protested.
Hinata sighed, casting her eyes down to the ground once again. "He is... Unfortunately, the ANBU thought he had murdered everyone and thought he had become insane. That's why they arrested him. Sandaime Hokage and the council thought he did, so they planned to send him to the Hozuki castle without investigating the matter or backing up any evidence first. And even if he wasn't the guilty one, he was going to be sent anyway because they feared he would become insane in any moment.
Sakura clenched her fists tightly and bared her teeth in anger. "That's bullshit! Why send him if they hadn't even done anything wrong? And even if they are not the culprits, they should still not be sent there until they actually did do something horrible!"
"Sandaime Hokage must have figured out that the insanity of the Haruno Clan members will emerge once they either witness the brutal murder of a victim, or if they saw a corpse of their loved ones, such as parents, friends, families, or even their lover." Hinata explained. "That's why the Hokage and Council became wary of them. They sent all the Haruno clan members who've already become insane, or who haven't become insane yet. I hate to admit that I agree with them. That was for the best. If no normal therapy can cure insanity, then no one from the Haruno clan can be cured through the normal therapy. Numerous times of Haruno Clan members have been through that normal therapy and none of them were cured.
"After the incident with Kizashi's family, originally, he was going to be sent to the Hozuki Castle, but he claimed that he did no such, and he demanded for the justice, and demanded that he must be interrogated before they made any claim that he's the culprit. He also demanded that he received the special treatment, such as therapy. Not normal therapy but special therapy that he thought might cured his insanity that'd soon come out. The Council were quick to veto him because they already made an unwritten law that any small sign of insanity came out of the Haruno Clan members, they would be arrested immediately on spot and sent to the Hozuki Castle."
"That's not fair…" Sakura muttered angrily. She never knew that the Council were corrupted and cowards as well. Of course, Danzo was one of them. He probably made most of decision and advised Sandaime Hokage from the shadows. She did not understand why Hiruzen continued to listen to his advice.
Hinata dismissed Sakura's small complain and continued, "Kizashi threatened them if he was going to Hozuki Castle for a crime he did not commit, then he would kill himself. The Council obviously did not care what he would do with his life, but thanks to Sandaime's gentle heart, he overruled the decision of sending him to Hozuki castle, despite the Council's protest. He decided to follow Kizashi's suggestion, and he sent him to be interrogated by Ibiki's predecessor, and the Yamanka. And they found out that he was not the culprit. It was the Haruno girl who was killed in a self-defense. She became insane without them knowing. No one knew that her teammates were her precious people, so that's why she was not arrested immediately."
Hinata smiled at Sakura. "And he requested that the love of his life to talk to him for the therapy every day for a month. Might worth it, since he figured that only a Haruno became insane if they lost their precious people to most horrible death. He thought it might work well if his another precious person, if any left, talked to him every day, then insanity will be cured."
"Mother…" realized Sakura.
"Yes, your mother." Hinata nodded. "She came inside the room where he was locked up for a month and talked to him every day. No therapy was needed. That was the special therapy. It did not matter what subject they were talking about, except the incident, of course. That was the only way to keep his sanity in check. She agreed and was willing to help him whatever he needed. So she came to his room every day. Day by day, his sanity slowly returned back to him, and he was getting better every day. Once it was cured, he returned back to his old self, but he felt it was not enough. There was one last thing he needed to do, and that he encountered his inner self in his mindscape, and in order to completely free himself from insanity in case it emerges again in the future, he drove away his Inner persona away once and for all. In other words, he successfully defeated his Inner persona. However, without the dark side, he wouldn't have been able to return to his old self. He became a cheerful man, and wasn't the man he used to be. He was full of light."
Sakura widened her eyes. Not the man he used to be? Then what was she like before he was able to drive his Inner persona away? She wanted to know what he was like. All she knew about him was that he was a very cheerful man. But still, he wondered why his parents had never told her about the existence of the Haruno Clan. And Inner persona…
"Wait…" Sakura suddenly said before Hinata could continue with the tale of The Exiled Clan. She held up her hands and stared at them. "The truth is… I've also heard voices in my head before all of this happened. But my inner persona was never like that before. She never repeated the word "kill" in my head."
Hinata widened her eyes in shock, but it went unnoticed by Sakura.
Sakura remained oblivious to her friend's sudden change in her expression. "She'd usually react to the opposite of what I would react. For example, way back before we disappeared from Element, Naruto-kun decided to put an eraser on top of a door to prank Kakashi-sensei. When it did happen, I apologized to him on behalf of Naruto-kun, but my inner persona cheered and said that he deserved it. Another example… when I was put on the same team as Sasuke, I looked at Ino and said, 'I told you so.', but my inner persona declared, 'Love Prevails!' She was not insane at that time, but now…"
"You are Light and your Inner persona is Dark." Hinata blurted out quickly.
Sakura snapped her head up from her hands, and raised her eyebrows in confusion. "What…?" She began to wonder if The Exiled Clan would tell everything what the Haruno Clan was. The information all about the Inner was supposed to be secret, probably. Normally, Kekkai Genkai should not divulge all to the outsider.
"Your Father told me that…" Hinata muttered, hanging her head down. Sakura did not know that she spoke to her parents. She felt the red on her cheeks, embarrassing that Sakura's Father told all of that to her, instead of his beloved daughter. Perhaps it was for the best. Sakura probably did not need to know all about the Haruno Clan. It's probably for the best that Kizashi continued to pretend that the Haruno Clan never existed, and pretended that both Kizashi and her Mother were citizens their whole life. But now she told the story and Sakura was shocked right now.
"My Father… told you that…?" Sakura stammered, baffled that her parents never told her all about them. She could not understand why they did not tell her. She was not mad at them, but disappointed that they never mentioned the existence of Haruno Clan. She was also disappointed that her parents told about the Inner to the Hyuuga heiress.
Hinata closed her eyes and sighed. Once she regained her composed, she opened her eyes and resumed. "Before I can tell you more about the Inner persona that Kizashi-san told me… As a matter of fact, even though Kizashi-san was cured of her insanity, and he was his whole life. The Council still wanted to do something about the Haruno Clan. Even if there were few numbers in the Haruno Clan, they were still dangerous. If the unthinkable were to happen, more insane people will come out and there were no precious people left to cure them, it will be dangerous for Konohagakure. And they could not keep sending them to the Hozuki Castle. That prison will be filled with the Konohagakure shinobi, and their economy will go down, due to their tax that they paid all for The Hozuki Castle. So they convinced The Sandaime Hokage to exile the Haruno Clan for the sake of Konohagakure's safety."
Sakura frowned. Something was not right. "If the Haruno Clan was exiled, then why my family and I still live here in Konohagakure?"
"Indeed, why are you and your family still here if your entire clan was exiled?" Hinata agreed. "In fact, the last part in The Exiled Clan was just a version of the story that everyone knew about. Outside of that book, there was actually an honest version of that last part of the story. There's more detailed story to that than The Exiled Clan, in which the irony is that that book gave out a more details. The truth behind the reason why they were exiled!"
"The truth…" Sakura froze in her place, confused. "The honest version?"
Red Light District- With Konohamaru
Konohamaru's body trembled in fear, eyes widened, as he stared at his teammates dead body. He began to imagine how the death of Udon must've been like if that was how Moegi died. But he still couldn't figure out why she was floating in the air. It was almost as if someone invisible was crushing her to death.
And he was full of regrets at the moment. He had failed to save Moegi. First Udon, now Moegi.
He froze as his heart stopped for a few seconds when the cow woman's eyes locked onto him. Realizing the woman had noticed him, he stumbled backwards, tripped on a random stone embedded in the ground, and fell on his butt. The woman now towered over him as he stared at her in fear.
The Cow Woman rolled her eyes and sighed. "Great… Another innocent kid… Seriously, why do I have to keep killing innocent people? They did nothing wrong. Why kill them to find Naruto? So annoying! I wish people could strive for peace FOR ONCE!" she muttered, as she showed signs of irritation, but managed to regain her composure. She shook her head and strode over to the Konohamaru as her eyes became icy cold. "Whatever. I'm getting paid to kill you all. That's what I only care about at the moment. That's all."
Konohamaru flinched after his enemy's sudden change of tone. "What?" Before, she disliked killing people, but all of the sudden, she did not care as long as she's getting paid to kill them?
She narrowed her eyes and stared down at Konohamaru. "Do me a favor, will you? I don't like torturing people before their death unless I have a good reason to. Let me be done with you already so that you can have a swift death. A swift death will be painless, after all. You'll only get a quick, clean death."
Konohamaru lowered his eyebrows and frowned, realizing that she had a gentle heart, yet a terrible attitude. He had never encountered an enemy whose ethics were to not kill, yet had no choice but to kill before. But he was not going to have it her way. He refused to die. If she wanted to kill him, even with a swift death, for money, he'd rather force her to fight against him to die.
He stood up, despite his legs being quivered in fear, and gritted his teeth in anger as his head moved up, shooting a glare at her. "Sorry, but I won't back down without a fight! I refuse to give up, and I'm going to protect Konoha no matter what! I am Sarutobi Konohamaru, honorable grandson of the Sandaime Hokage!
The Cow Woman's gentle face turned into a scowl as she began to growl. "So annoying! Your little pathetic friends before you heeded my request to kill them swiftly. But why are you denying my request?"
Konohamaru widened his eyes in shock. Udon and Moegi gave up that easily? They let her kill them with a swift death? But then he remembered how Moegi was crushed to death.
He scowled. "A swift death? That's not a painless death! That was brutal!" There was no way they could feel no pain when they were crushed to death like that. He had witnessed how Moegi had died before her death. She looked like she was suffering so much in pain. She looked like as if she was being bear hugged. Whatever was crushing Moegi must've been invisible or something like that.
"I'm telling you…" The Cow Woman sighed. "That was the quickest death I've ever given them. And I'm assuring you what I'm about to do to you will be much worse than a couple of brats I've killed." Her lips turned into an evil smile. "Like I said, I won't torture them to death unless I have a reason. Well, congrats, you gave me a reason to torture you to death. After all… you chose brutal over swift death!"
Konohamaru narrowed his eyes as he shifted into a battle stance of his own, while raising his kunai to defend himself. He knew she was dangerous. He was going to fight her, but was still scared. He was literally going to fight someone with an invisible companion or whatever had killed Moegi. Maybe it came from the Cow Woman's name?
"Kali Cresthorn." The Cow Woman took a step forward, putting her opponent on guard. "That's my name. Are you prepared to face your worse, Konohamaru?" as she introduced herself with a pleasant smile.
'Shit.' Konohamaru cursed to himself. He knew he was going to die now. No one was going to save him this time, or at least that's what he thought
As Kali walked towards him, a blur suddenly landed between them, down to one knee. It was a dark haired man in standard Konoha shinobi outfit, with flak jacket, and he wore black sunglasses, and also wore his hitai-ate like a bandana.
"It seems you went ahead to do as you please." The man in sunglasses glared up at her. "I have no mercy for scum like you!"
"Ebisu-sensei!" Konohamaru gasped. He did not expect someone like Ebisu to show up at a time when he needed help the most. It was quite the coincidence.
"Go. Konohamaru! I will handle her!" Ebisu commanded without diverting his eyes away from his new opponent as he shifted into his battle stance.
"What?" Konohamaru was at a loss of words. His sensei just asked him to run away! But he did not want run away. "That person just killed Udon… and Moegi!" He glared at her, and clenched his fist, trying to keep his anger in check. Yet, he was so scared at the same time. He never faced very dangerous opponent like that!
"Konohamaru… I understand that you want to avenge Udon and Moegi, but she's a dangerous foe. She's not someone that you can face. Run and let me handle her!" Ebisu assured him.
Konohamaru frowned, staring at Ebisu's back for a while. He debated with himself whether he should help or not. Ebisu was right, he realized. Even if he wanted to avenge his friends, it would not do him any favor since he probably would have joined them in the afterlife. He nodded, indicating that he already accepted Ebisu-sensei's request and hopped off to flee the battle.
Outside Danzo's Hideout- With Sakura and Hinata
Truth be told, when Hinata first read the book, she felt some information was missing. There was no way the council would let the Haruno clan free, let alone the potential insane people who could be unleashed one day. There must be someone else's doing behind all this. Knowing the council, they would probably purge all the Haruno and be done with it. But that was just her theory.
"I've read all the pages in The Exiled Clan. But I had a doubt that there was something missing, but felt it was not of great important as of that time. It was far enough for me to learn about the Haruno Clan. They were exiled, even though you and your amily are still here. I did not bother to question your parents, because there was no reason for me to pry into your clan affairs. So I moved on. Initially, I had no intention of asking your parents about the Haruno clan until…"
"Until I came…" Sakura finished the sentence for Hinata. She figured that Hinata probably spoke to her family when she was doing the 'Bell Test Reunion', as it was called by Naruto against Kakaski.
Hinata closed her eyes and nodded with a sigh. "Yes." She opened her eyes again and resumed, "Until you came… When Ino informed me of your return with your teammates, I was shocked and really happy. So I rushed towards Naruto's whereabouts, but I later learned that he was divulged an information of his two-year absence, so I waited, and you came to threaten me if I can't leave him alone, since he's your boyfriend. As you know that, I became jealous and anger that he can't be mine anymore, but I remembered The Exiled Clan. So I spoke to your parents."
"Because I threatened you, you came to my parents?" Sakura frowned, not liking that Hinata spoke to her parents without her made aware of it. "When?"
"Around time before Konoha Nine and I meet you and your Earthling friends at the restaurant, and before I faced Root ANBU whom 'killed' your parents'." Hinata revealed. "That's why I came later."
Sakura widened her eyes and clenched her fists, gritting her teeth too. Her face just turned into a furious a little, realizing that Hinata confronting her parents were all on her. Probably if Hinata never confronted them, they would have gone elsewhere. They were not known for staying in the house around lunch after all. Her boil almost came out, but once she cleared her mind, she calmed down. She had to think twice about it. There's no way Hinata could have known that Sakura's parents were going to be killed beforehand. Then again, his parents were never killed in first place until she witnessed their brutal death firsthand.
"Yes." Hinata frowned and nodded, bowing her head. "I must admit that I'm willing to take all the blame you placed on me. After all, I kept them where they were supposed to go elsewhere. Again, I'm sorry. I do not expect to be excused after all I have done." Even though she knew that it was not her fault, she did not want Sakura to think that she was a heartless bitch.
Sakura shook her head with still frown on her face. "No, Hinata-sama. It's not your fault. You did not kill them. Danzo bastard killed them, a brutal murder, no less!" Danzo killed them on the order of Lightning, but she knew that he was enjoying the slaughter of her parents.
Hinata smiled, relieved that Sakura did not blame her. She went back to the subject of The Exiled Clan. "I spoke to them and asked them a lot of questions, regarding the book I had read from two years ago. I even brought the book to them, and asked them if all of the information were true. I also asked them not to lie to me about the last part. I wanted them to tell me the truth. Somehow, I convinced them to disclose all of truth behind the whole exile clan stuff to only me and alone. In exchange for curing your insanity if it ever should occur to you and protect you all from falling to madness that might cause you to abandon your humanity for all."
"B-But… I'm.. I'm… I'm not insane… yet…" Sakura stammered. Hinata kept saying all of that, but she did not think she already became insane yet, despite hearing 'kill' voice that repeated in her mind.
"Not yet. You're not insane yet, but you will be. But I doubt that started with the death of your parents in front of your eyes. I created my own theory, and I believed that it already started from the moment Coola's brother blew Naruto-kun up on Planet Namek, as you described before. From there, your insanity already began to build up, and you were not aware of it. After that moment, I'm sure you already thought about killing someone else. Did you?"
Sakura widened her eyes. Hinata was right. She actually thought about killing someone else back on Earth, most notably named Yusuke of new Sound Four. She tried to kill him with her most powerful technique that was taught by Roshi, but it came with the risk of her life if she made even a bit of mistake. But he was still alive. She wondered how much of his life was right now back on Earth. Had he stopped killing women?
Hinata just noticed the relief on her face. "Judge by your looks, it appears that you did not kill him, which is good. Because killing him will only further your insanity."
"But I don't understand. You said it is first sign of developing my insanity when Naruto was blown up by Freeza. According to The Exiled Clan, every list of Haruno members who have witnessed bloodbath have gone insane just a moment later! You said it yourself. No one can remain sanity for more than a week after a certain incident unless undergo the special therapy like my Father!"
"You are correct. Everyone lose their humanity after a week without undergo the special therapy after witnessing the traumatizing scene. You, however, are different. You must have strong will enough to defer your insanity for a while. I don't know how you did, but you did it anyways. But now, not this time, though. You're beginning to hear the voice in your head."
"I…" Sakura hesitated for a moment, but decided to say it anyways. "I have heard the voice in my head since I was seven. I don't know why, but I continued to ignore it. I never told everyone about it."
"In fact, he told me that was the reason behind their insanity because of multiple personality. It was not disorder, but a kekkai genkai. That was also the reason why the council demanded for the massacre of the Haruno clan."
"Massacre of the Haruno clan?!" Sakura exclaimed, shocked. But what made them change their mind about exiling them? Who did that? And who demanded for the massacre of the Haruno clan?
Hinata nodded and continued. "Among the council, it was Danzo who demanded for the massacre of the Haruno clan. Some members in the council agreed with him, because they feared their kekkei genkai. They feared that there will be more dangerous members among the Konohagakure. The Sandaime Hokage reluctantly agreed with them after asking for another method to soothe the Haruno Clan's kekkei genkai, but he realized that there was no other way to make the Haruno Clan any better. However, before he agreed, he suggested to exile them, so they can continue to live better outside the Konohagakure, but he was overruled by the unofficial vote of the council."
Sakura's chest clenched, as the rage started to boil inside her, but she suppressed it somehow. Her fists clenched and her teeth bared in anger. "I don't understand! Why does Danzo must continue to make us suffer?! And why would the Sandaime Hokage agree to that? I thought he was an old man with a gentle heart! Asking for other method or not, he already lost all of my respect!"
"Because he feared your clan's kekkei genkai. He feared that the Haruno Clan will cause the chaos for Konohagakure, and they will try to take over Konohagakure. Anything must be taken with precaution before it can ensue chaos. Just like he feared the Uchiha Clan and the Hyuuga Clan." Hinata said sadly, remembering when she was shocked to discover the truth behind the Uchiha Clan's massacre. And… "And Uzumaki Clan too."
"What?" Sakura froze. "The Uchiha Clan and the Uzumaki Clan?" Of course, she was aware that Sasuke's brother, Uchiha Itachi, slaughtered every single members of Uchiha Clan with the expectation of his little brother, Uchiha Sasuke. She also learned from her boyfriend who learned from his parents about his Uzumaki Clan. She learned from Naruto that the Uzumaki Clan was one of extinct clan.
"That I cannot tell you, however, I will tell you about them later if you want to know more about them. Your clan is more important topic right now." Hinata said, making Sakura scowled, but allowing Hinata to continue anyways. "Your Haruno Clan was very dangerous that needed to be eliminated. It was supposed to be S-rank secret, regarding the council's meeting about the plan to wipe the Haruno Clan members, but it got leaked. One of council members was the head clan of the Uchiha, Uchiha Fugaku. He leaked the S-rank secret to the head clan of the Haruno, Haruno Kizashi."
"Sasuke's Father?!" Sakura shocked. She thought he was just a cold heartless bastard, as rest of Uchiha clan members. But she did not realize that he actually cared about the Haruno Clan. "What happened next?"
"Once learned of the council's plan, Kizashi confronted them about it, and he had a counteroffer that Danzo and rests of council should reconsider. The massacre was going to take a place immediately after the council all would vote 'yes'. But luckily, Kizashi appeared before the Hokage could begin initiate voting."
That inquired Sakura's curiosity. There was more to her Father than she thought. She never thought him of a ninja, but the more she learned about him, the more she admired him. "What's his counteroffer?"
"His counteroffer was 'Execute all members of Haruno Clan who already had been victim of their insanity, and exile all members of Haruno Clan who already had not been.'" Hinata revealed, making Sakura's eyes widened. "But that's not all. Danzo wanted to add one more offer to their deal, and it would finalize their decision to vote whether the Haruno clan should be wiped or exiled. Kizashi would be only one remained here in the Konohagakure, while rests were executed and others were exiled, and he must find his future wife and reproduce their first offspring. Their first child shall be given to Danzo, so he can mold either male or female into a potential weapon. And whatever it came out of their mouth in this room must be kept secret no matter what, or they shall be executed for spilling the beans. Kizashi accepted his offer, and he also requested that he resigned from his career as a ninja, despite his young age and his prominent talent."
Sakura was shocked. Her mouth left opened in speechless, and she quickly dropped her kunai. She was unable to process all her brain as to why her Father would accept such an offer, and why was not the Hokage doing anything? He was willing to give up his child just for the sake of the Haruno Clan. But why was not she taken away when she came in this world? There's so many questions she wanted to ask Hinata, but not probably a lot since Hinata won't know all about them.
Hinata could see a mix of sadness and shock, and a little bit of angry in her face. She, too, was angered by the truth behind The Exiled Clan when Kizashi told her that he had a counteroffer and he accepted Danzo's additional offer to their deal. She could not believe that Kizashi was willing to give up his first child to Danzo just for the sake of the Haruno Clan. She also asked why Sakura was not taken away, which gave her an answer. "She has a twin brother, so my wife and I gave him away, because he was the first to born. He's now member of Root ANBU." She saw the disapproval in Mebuki's eyes when she learned that, but it would appear that his wife accepted it as well. It disgusted her, too. There was no such as perfect clan after all.
She wanted to tell Sakura that she had a twin brother, but she was waiting for Sakura to say something. She knew Sakura was not going to be happy. A simple revelation could change Sakura's life forever.
Sakura turned her head down, as her damped hair shadowed her eyes, but Hinata knew that it was tears, even though the rain constantly came down from her face. She clenched her fist, and her body could be seen shaking, sobbing. "W-Why… Why did he do that? Why did my Father accept his offer? Why wasn't the Hokage doing anything? He's the Hokage, and he should prevent that and why was I not taken away the moment I was given a birth?!"
Hinata frowned. "I… I don't know." That was all she could say. That's why she was still trained to become the heiress, so she can know more about the political.
"W-Why… Why would they do such a thing…?" Sakura cried. She cried not because she learned that her clan that she never knew about was exiled, but she cried because she learned that her Father would do such a thing. Also, she just realized that the true reason why Danzo wanted to kill her parents was because they told Hinata all secrets that was not supposed to come out of the council's meeting, not because she inflicted a harm on Danzo. During Hinata's meeting with her parents, Root ANBU must have eavesdropped them and reported to Danzo. That's also why Danzo wanted to kill Hinata, too. But it was not Hinata's fault, though. There's no way Hinata could have known about that.
At the same time, she felt more hatred towards Danzo. She only wanted to bring him back to life, so she could kill him again and again and again, so she could enjoy seeing Danzo suffer more. Once she realized that she thought about that, her body trembled so hard, and she panicked, clutching her head. "STOP! STOP! STOP!"
Hinata felt her throat choked once she saw Sakura in that state. "Sakura!" She trembled in fear, showing concern for her good friend. 'Oh, no! I told her too much that would better be left off.' She worried that she might triggered Sakura's insanity. She was going to run to soothe her, but Sakura raised her hand to signal stop while clutching her head with her other hand.
"Sakura-san?" worried Hinata.
Just a moment ago, she heard the voice in her head. "KILL! KILL! KILL!" She still could not understand why she started to hear the voice in her head now. She started to fear herself when she learned the history of the Haruno Clan. She did not want to become like them that she heard about from Hinata in the story of The Exiled Clan. She did not want Hinata to help her, or that would make it worse. She fought to suppress whatever the voice was in her head. She did not think that was her Inner's voice, but something else. Something else that had been laying low in her head for long times. She would have to figure out how to control the voice in her head for a while until they defeated Coola and others.
Once she calmed down the voice, she sighed with a relief and panted a bit. She looked up and realized that Hinata worried about her. "When did your heart become big?" She joked with a sarcastic tone. She changed her tone quickly and smiled sadly. "I'm sorry if I worry you too much. But I managed it somehow." She wondered if she had to endure it for a while until she received a special therapy.
'Scratch that. I should not be telling her about her long lost twin brother. That will only make it worse.' Hinata thought with a relief. She realized that if Sakura already lost her humanity, she would be forced to kill her. But she was glad that she did not have to do that. Sakura handle it well.
"I think that's enough about the Haruno Clan." Sakura finally spoke up again. "Earlier, you mentioned something about the light and the dark. I am the light and my Inner persona is the dark."
"Hybrid is something I could call. Half of light and dark resides in you. That's why you have split personality. Any normal people who have split personality becomes insane no matter what the reason, because they can't handle split personality. You, on other hand, can handle the split personality, so that's why you don't have any problem until that incident. When you encountered that horrible scene, and because the light and dark conflicted, and thus created insanity. Some kind of disagreement between the light and dark. You probably are not aware of it, but sometimes, your Inner persona controlled you at some point. Like you rushed to Root ANUB with the intention to kill without any second thought."
"That explains why I rushed all of the sudden. I thought it was me, but…"
"Apparently, the Haruno will only become insane if they witnessed or came across the most brutal death of their loved ones. Like your parents' death. It is part of their kekkei genkai."
"Dad told me to not look, but I did anyways." Sakura realized.
Flashback Began
"P-Please… Please…" Sakura sniffed. "Mercy… Please… show them a… mercy. Spare them, please! Spare—"
Danzo finally made a decision. He moved the sharp point of the sword from Kizashi's back to the front chest. He stole a glance at her panicked eyes for a moment there. He hated her so much. He'd want to make her suffer to see her parents to die in a gruesome way before her very eyes.
He made an evil smirk. Then he swiftly shoved his sword through Kizashi's chest. A blood splattered all over Sakura's face, as she stared in shock at him. Once it shoved through Kizashi's chest, he jolted up from the shock, and became aware of his consciousness. The first and last thing he saw was his little daughter who was so horrified.
"Sa…kura…?" He muttered shockingly.
He could barely breathe, as he lost a lot of bloods right now. When the sword pulled out of his chest, he coughed up the blood few times. He realized he was going to die, but he also realized that his daughter was standing there and watching him to die. He glanced at his right, and he saw his own wife who was still under the influence. At that moment, he just realized that Sakura was going to watch both of them to die here.
He tried to reach her with his hand, but it was out of his reach. Tears clouded his vision, and he tried to cry out for his daughter. "S-Sakura… Don't… look…"
Danzo stabbed him in the opposite chest, as more bloods just came out of Kizashi's mouth. Next, he gutted him, just like that. A pound of blood fell down on the floor, and more bloods came their way.
Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab!
Danzo just stabbed him all over and over again across his whole body. Blood splattered every time he stabbed him. He'd stabbed him all over and over again until Kizashi stopped reacting to him being stabbed. His arms were let down, and it no longer moved. His eyes would still open, but they were not moving at all. Their eyes looked like they were dead. He was definitely dead in a gruesome way, the one that Sakura would never forget.
Flashback Ended
"Even if you did not look, you will notice their brutal corpse, and you will still be like that." Hinata said. "But that's probably why the Inner rushed to last survivor of Root without any thought. Just like you, she's tired of hearing the mysterious voice in her head."
"What?" Sakura was confused. She thought it was the Inner who told her to kill something. "You mean it was not the Inner's voice that repeated the word 'kill' in my head?"
"No. Like I said, when you witnessed the death of your parents, there was already some disruption to your agreement with…" Hinata cleared her throat, having no clue what is the appropriate way to call the Inner. "…your partner, so it created insanity, and that's when mysterious voice in your head began demanding for kills. Or at least what your Dad told me."
"So you're saying the Inner is not actually some form of insane personality? Rather she's just other myself? Other Sakura, but more darker?" Sakura asked, still shocked by the discover of her clan and the truth behind the exiled clan. She was more confused regarding herself and the Inner.
"Yes, that's what I'm describing. No one, in fact, knew the originality of the Haruno Clan or where their kekkei genkai originated from. But in The Exiled Clan, the legend stated that there was used to be one. In other words, the Haruno used to be the whole one, instead of split into two. That's probably created a kekkei genkai where the light jailed the dark one and vice versa. But the one who lived inside the user's body is called the Inner. But it doesn't say EXACTLY how they created a split personality." Hinata frowned. "Either way, it all started when they were on disagreement, and you know the rest."
"So I am the light and the Inner is the dark." Sakura muttered and repeated that words. "If the light works together with the dark…" She was not sure how that idea came on her mind, but she found that idea excellent.
"Besides, even if it'd take a week for you to reach the level of insanity, it can reduce your sanity by just killing people faster. If you kill a lot of people, your sanity would have dropped faster, and you could become insane in just one day! There was an incident where a Haruno lost their teammates during the war, and they killed a lot of enemies after that… Out of nowhere, they killed their own allies. They became insane in one day!"
Sakura was glad that Hinata actually cared about her. She now understood why Hinata worried about her, and why she tried her best to prevent her from killing people, but she had to understand that this is an invasion, and it was the battle to protect the Konohagakure and eliminate the enemy, which means killing them. She knew there was nothing she could stop, not as long as the invasion was still going on.
"Now do you understand why I tell you not to kill anymore?" Hinata shot her a hard stare but with the worry look, like begging Sakura to obey her. "Let me do the killing, and you watch me whatever I do. You can fight, but only disable your opponents."
"Hinata-sama…" Sakura turned her head down at the ground for a moment before tilting her head up, giving her eyes to lock into her friend's eyes who was filled with the worry. "I understand your concern. Even so, I can't stop killing."
"Sakura-san!" Hinata yelled, tears streaming from her furious eyes, slamming her fist on the wall behind her. "Do you understand what that means?! That means you will turn into a freaking psychopath like the rest I mentioned earlier! Sakura, you will become insane! And because I am your friend, I most certainly never wanted you to turn into a monster! When you do become insane, I will have to be forced to—"
"Hinata-sama!" Sakura interrupted. She gave her most genuine smile she ever had given before, as she walked towards agonized Hinata and grabbed her hand where it was on the wall behind her, and pulled it to her chest where the heart was located inside. "Feel my heart?"
Hinata slowly looked up at Sakura and was speechless at how Sakura still managed to keep her smile, despite all that happened. She concentrated on feeling her heart. She could feel her rapid heartbeat.
Sakura smiled sadly. "My heart is beating rapidly. It means I'm scared. Scared of myself. Scared of the voice in my head that tells me to kill. Scared of what I may have become if I'm not too careful. Scared of my own kekkei genkai. Scared of my Inner. I'm scared to become insane. But being scared is what keep me stronger, and it keeps me to escape from my insanity even for a short. After the brutal murder of my parents, I started to hear the voice in my head that demanded for killing, and sometimes I refused them, and sometimes I acted on my body's accord, or the Inner controlled me, as you said it earlier.
"But a shinobi does not let their emotions clouded their judgments. They must never show their emotions at the battlefield. That's the rule of shinobi." Sakura's smile curled up into a grin, which shocked Hinata.
"What's more, you have forgotten about the rule of shinobi! You must not show your emotion no matter what!"
That was the quote Hinata used against Sakura few days after her parents' 'death'.
"As a shinobi, it's my duty to protect the Konoha and eliminate the threat whatever it takes, even if it will turn me into a monster. I'd rather to put my comrades and civilians above before myself. That's the reason why I became a shinobi in the first place. I love them all, so I'd hate to see them gone forever because I don't kill their enemies just for the sake of my sanity!"
"B-But—" Hinata tried to proest, but Sakura interrupted her again.
"Hinata-sama, I'm so happy that you cared about me. You and I have a lot in common. Before, I, too, was shy girl until I met Ino. She was only truly closest friend I had. Besides Naruto and Sasuke, and Ino who are very precious people to me, you are one of them. I thought you as my precious person. But please… please don't worry about me. I will figure it out. I will still kill them, but I will make sure that insanity won't take over me. I will keep my sanity in check. I can't promise that, but I can try. All you need to do is to trust me. Just trust me on that. You won't see me become insane when I return with my Ki powers."
Hinata stared in disbelief at Sakura. She just realized that Sakura had changed. She remembered Sakura as obsessive Sasuke fangirl and was useless before. After Naruto's first C-Rank turned into S-Rank mission, she heard that Sakura did not do anything, because she was too scared while Naruto and Sasuke worked hard to protect Tazuna. She heard it from Ino who heard it from Sakura herself. But now… Sakura had turned into full-fledged kunoichi, and she was no longer useless. She became useful, and she understood the principles of the shinobi.
"Even so, I'm still useless. I can't bear to remain a useless, so all I can do is to protect the Konoha and eliminate the threat until I get my Ki powers." Sakura laughed, tears formed on her eyes a little.
Hinata was taken aback by Sakura's confession. "No…" She frowned, looking down. "You're not useless. If you use your ability what you're the best at, then you're not useless. In fact, I feel that you're more useful than I am. Even with Ki powers, I'm tasked to hold Coola's men with what left of my Ki powers until you return. But you are right." She looked up at Sakura with a genuine smile. "I should trust you. I will trust you, because that's what friends would do right?"
Sakura's eyes widened at first when Hinata said that, and then her eyes softened and her lips curled up into a smile again. "Thank you. That means a lot from you. I'm sure I can gain your trust. There's nothing you need to worry about. Just go and help Gohan-kun and others. I'm sure they will need your help, while I'm going to Bulma to get my powers back."
Hinata finally stopped worrying about her. If Sakura reassured her that it was going to be all right and that she should be trusted, then who was Hinata to deny anymore? She retracted her hand from Sakura's chest, and walked past her. "Sakura-san… I wish you good luck, and I hope you will return the Ki power what was yours before." With that, she hopped on the roof to roof on way to help Gohan and others, leaving Sakura to smile happily.
Sakura remained stood there and started to cry a little. She tried to wipe tears off her eyes, but realized that rain still poured. "Thank you… Thank you to be there for me, despite our problems before. I want to thank you to tell me all about the Haruno Clan that I did not know about. It means so much to me. I'm so happy that we solved that problems, so we can become friends. I'm so happy that you give me a chance to be with Naruto-kun, even if I did not need your approval, and even if you still don't think I deserved him. I truly love him. He returned the love to me what Sasuke could not. You know what? I, too, think I deserved his affection, so I'm going to prove to you why I deserved his affection, and I deserved to be his. But I want to thank you to be there for me when I needed the most. You were there for me when I'm in my darkest time after my parents' death. You're there for me when you desperately wanted to save my parents. You're there to protect me. Now it's my turn to protect you, Hinata-sama." She said to no one particular.
Red Light District- Ebisu vs Kali
Konohamaru already retreated into the alley, so that way Ebisu could focus on defending the Konoha against the cow woman without worrying about his student.
Kail's mouth twitched into a smirk, striking a fear into him, but Ebisu managed to suppress the fear. He began to walk sideway a little bit, but the cow woman did do nothing. He knew that she would not being her move, so he made the first move here.
He took a stride forward, and hurled a trio of shuriken towards him, and at the same time, he charged her. But she merely snorted at him and simply titled his head to dodge all of them, and she also noticed that he charged her. She was mentally laughing at how exposed his strategy was to him. Too easy to spot his next move. He tried to distract her with the shuriken but it was futile anyways.
She whirled around and attempted to deliver a roundhouse kick, but Ebisu slid under her and slammed his foot on her shin. She felt the pain that tingled through her shin, glaring at him with her furious eyes. Because she was too big, her legs did not buckle. However, she still felt the pain in her shin. She hated the pain. But she was not going to bitch about it. She simply swung her leg and slammed the top of her toe onto her opponent's side, sending him skipping across the ground against the wall, and it created the crater on the wall. The small dust kicked up that surrounded her opponent, and it became clear, revealing Ebisu's body bent down.
"Heh…" Kali smirked. Even though she hated killing people, but when she was provoked by her opponent, she was pissed off, and she enjoyed doing that to that guy. She was going to make him pay for how much he humiliated her. She glanced over to the alley where Konohamaru retreated into. 'Oh, well. I will find him and I will kill him. But then again, he refused my offer to kill him with a quick, clean death, I'm going to make sure that he will suffer a brutal death.'
"Where do you think you're looking?!" Ebisu glared at her, as he stood up, panting painfully. He never anticipated that it was going to be real pain for real. She hit harder than most her comrades that he had faced. He killed few handful of them. They were too easy, but this woman was very difficult than he thought.
Somewhere behind the alley, on the top rail of the wall, Konohamaru slammed his fist on the wall, and already shook his body with a fear. He was too scared. He never felt fear in his life before. That woman was very dangerous.
"It'll take more than that to kill me!" He heard Ebisu's voice shouting.
He took a peek over the wall at the battlefield. He was still shaking with a fear. "Ebisu-sensei…" He did not want his sensei to die, just like his other two teammates. Udon…Moegi… That was all he could think of. He thought of them as his teammates and his closest friends. He could save Ebisu-sensei, but he did not want to die young. He was still 12 years old, but he did not want to die young. He just barely became genin after all. His teammates were about his age, and they already died. Ebisu-sensei was going to die. He realized that, but he was still scared. He did not have enough courage to fight back. The cow woman was too powerful and too dangerous. There's still invisible enemy lurking around somewhere.
Back with the battlefield, Ebisu shot her a glare through his sunglasses and gritted his teeth. With one kick, he was already damaged.
He flickered a trio of kunai straight to the cow woman, who simply deflected all of them with just her arm. He threw few more kunai at her, only to be deflected away again. However, that move was just a distraction for him to create his next move.
Once she was done with deflecting them all, she looked up, realizing that Ebisu already jumped up into the air and held six kunai in between each fingers before coming down and throwing them all at her at the same time. She swatted them away with ease, and while she was at it, he spun kicked right at her jaws, only to miss, but he still maneuvered his body around, his leg just came down to the ground after missing her. But as soon as his foot touched the ground, he immediately used the same leg to kick upward her jaw.
She scowled. She almost got hit, but she was grateful that she blocked his kick. However, after blocking the kick, he used her hand as a step to jump with a backflip. Immediately following by that, she was enraged, as she began her assault on him. She threw around her punches, but he dodged them easily. It was because she was too slow. That's why she was letting someone to do her work.
Ebisu backed off to miss her opponent's wild throwing punch. He looked up and realized that she was not going to stop anytime soon. She screamed, swinging her arm in an arc in attempt to crush him to ground like an ant. He wasted no time to make a hustle by jumping back right before Kali smashed the ground with her mighty fist. He was shuddered to think if he allowed that to happen to him, he'd be annihilated, no doubt about that!
While he was jumping in low-air, before he landed on the ground, he threw another trio of kunai at her, successfully impaling all of them into her shoulders and her neck, making her scream in the pain.
This was his chance! He quickly grabbed another kunai and ran towards her, in an attempt to stab her in the neck, but she raised her unbreakable arm to parry his kunai. Ebisu refused to back down, as he staggered toward, trying to get past her with his kunai, but Kali would not budge at all. She would resist him. They already proceeded their mind on what to do next.
Behind them, in the alley, he was shocked to witness their fight. He noticed that Ebisu-sensei struggled against Kali. His body still trembled, but he had no idea what to do. 'Wh-What'll I do? What'll I do?' He shut his eyes down and gritted his teeth, trembling in fear. He ducked his head down, thinking about his teammates. They died young, but they died to defend Konohagakure. But Kali mentioned that they submitted their life to her, because they did not want to experience the brutal death. But from what he had seen, it was indeed a brutal death for them. What was Kali thinking? What was her definition of brutal death?
He clenched his fists tightly, trying to stop his fear. 'How can I…?'
Ebisu held the kunai to her arm, which Kali still held him away from trying to get past her. He noticed her glare through his eyes, but he was not flinched. Based on how long they had been fighting, he would assume that Konohamaru already got away. His lips slowly curled into a smirk.
Thanks to being distracted, his cheek was met with her knee slamming him harder onto the ground. It broke his cheekbone. He gritted his teeth in the pain. 'I messed up…' Ebisu realized, struggling to turn his head to look at Kali. 'But I've done what I needed to do.' He noticed her face becoming a furious snarl.
"You know I hate the pain! You hurt me! I should make you suffer, so you can pay for it before your death! But…" Kali softened her eyes, which calmed her down. She sure had a temper. "I am going to ask you one question. Your answer will be depended on your life. If you want to live, you better answer my question, then I will kill you swiftly. If not, I will personal see you to your suffering and you shall die with a brutal death!"
Konohamaru noticed that Ebisu was picked up all of the sudden and was floating, just like Moegi before. He was shocked that Kali possessed that kind of technique. What kind of technique was that? He cringed when he heard Ebisu screaming in the pain. It was almost as if his body was being squeezed.
He heard Kali asking his sensei a question which it shocked him. "Where is Uzumaki Naruto? If you know, I highly recommend you to tell me the truth. My pet will know if you're telling the truth or not."
His internal blood just leaked out of his mouth, due to being squeezed so hard. He curled his eyebrows in confusion. "N-Naruto?" Oh, that Kyuubi brat? The same brat that taught Konohamaru the sexy no jutsu, and the same brat who seduced him with sexy no jutsu and kage bunshin no jutsu combined, in which he went unconscious due to too much nosebleed? He wondered what she wanted to do with that demon brat?
Konohamaru widened his eyes. 'Naruto-niisan?!'
Kali's snarl instantly turned into a grin, as it became wide, almost as if she was proclaiming victory. 'Yes! Everyone in this village hates Naruto with a passion because the fact he had a monster sealed inside him. He will sell him out, because that's what he will do! And on the bright side, that means more money for me!'
"Hehe… It seems you do know Uzumaki Naruto." Kali chuckled. Ebisu clenched his jaws, saying nothing. She burrowed her eyebrows. "Well? Are you going to tell me or what? I don't have a patience, you know! You hate him, right?"
Konohamaru widened his eyes. He was so lost… What did she mean when she said that his sensei hated his boss? He was willing to her what Ebisu was going to say. He feared that Ebisu might sold Naruto out.
Being squeezed harder, Ebisu took his time to regain his oxygen. "I may… not look it…but I do hold the elite rank of instructor. I did hate Naruto."
Konohamaru's body froze. He bowed down on the rail and his hair darkened his face. 'Ebisu-sensei hates Naruto-nissan?! Why?' He recalled meeting Sakura and asked here where Naruto had gone a month ago. He later learned that Naruto was in jail, and he asked her why. He begged her to explain to him why, and she eventually gave up and gave him a long explanation.
She explained that Naruto was the jinichuriki which meant the Kyuubi was sealed inside him. Konohamaru was shocked, but he still considered him a brother, and now understood why everyone hated him. He was disgusted with them, and how they treated Naruto as such.
Konohamaru bared his teeth, and his tears leaked from his eyes. 'Ebisu-sensei hates him because he thought Naruto-nissan was the Kyuubi itself. Damn! Not him too!' He thought Ebisu-sensei would not be the same as most people here, but… 'Ebisu-sensei is going to sell Naruto out!'
"But Naruto is my comrade." Ebisu's voice declared. Konohamaru widened his eyes, and snapped his head to look at Ebisu in shock. "Long ago, I considered him a nuisance who stood in the way of Konohamaru's rise to Hokage. That's what I believed…"
Ebisu recalled how he first met Naruto. He thought that Konohamaru being with Naruto was bad influenced. He did not want Konohamaru to turn into a delinquent, because he was already influenced by Naruto. Indeed, Konohamaru was already influenced by Naruto, because he attempted to use Oiroke no Jutsu (Sexy Jutsu) on him, but it eventually was futile. He proclaimed that he was an elite jonin, and he would not be tricked by such a childish technique. He tried to pull Konohamaru away from Naruto, but his student refused.
"However," Ebisu continued, "Naruto didn't allow his cursed fate to discourage him. With unending optimism and a never-say-die attitude he faced one challenge after another and overcame them. The important lessons which I could not teach, despite being an instructor, Naruto taught them to my students."
Konohamaru shook up. He almost choked a sob after hearing Ebisu's tale. 'So he doesn't hate Naruto? I… I… don't know what to do now…' If he decided to show up, he was going to be killed. If he ran away, he would be safe, but he would be considered a coward in Naruto's eyes. He thought of Naruto.
Kali's arms already folded her arms with the bored expression on her face. She opened her mouth, yawning. "Hmm… That's nice. I hate to admit that, but I'm flattered by your story. But you did not answer my question." He smirked up at him. "Well, since you did not answer my question…"
Ebisu suddenly screamed in the pain, which made Konohamaru's sweat dripping on his back neck. He could tell that Ebisu's body was squeeze tighter now. After a while, he stopped screaming, because his body was not squeezed tighter anymore.
"He's going to hurt you, you know." Kali chuckled darkly. "Give me your answer. That should be simple answer, right? This is your last chance, though. Again, where is Naruto? Surely, you know where he is, right?"
Ebisu did not answer.
Kali was already annoyed. She scowled, glaring up at him. "ANSWER ME! OR ELSE I'LL KILL YOU!" She thought it was going to be easy, but it was difficult than she thought. Why would someone not sell someone that they hated so much out? What a weirdo!
'Naruto… You… You will come back and defeat Coola…The strong will you possess will teach Konohamaru… no, everyone in the village, many things.' Ebisu thought before chuckling at a furious cow lady. "Naruto is a member of the Konoha! I have no intention of telling you scum anything!"
'Ebisu-sensei!' shocked Konohamaru.
"How annoying! Huh, why must you be so annoying?!" Kali scowled, as the rage started to boil inside her.
Konohamaru, still hid behind the alley, closed his eyes, trying to calm down and overcome his fear of Kali. 'Naruto-nissan…'
Flashback Began- Two years ago- Forest, Konohagakure
Somewhere in the forest at the Konoha, Naruto and Konohamaru were sitting on the log, while Naruto was drinking his juice. The young Konohamaru looked down and sulked. "When people look at me or call out to me, they only see me as the grandson of the Hokage. And I'm sick of it! That's why I want the title of Hokage right now!"
Naruto frowned. "It's not easy, stupid!" Konohamaru looked at him in confusion. "You keep harping on about the Hokage. If you want that title so badly…" He grinned widely around at the academy kid, "…you can have it over my dead body!"
Later on, Naruto and Konohamaru stood face-to- face. "Then starting now… we're rivals!" Konohamaru declared to Naruto, who had his hand on his hip with a smirk.
Naruto grinned. "One day, we'll fight over the name of Hokage. So look forward to that day, Konohamaru!" Konohamaru looked up at Naruto, and that's when he began to look up to Naruto since that day.
Flashback Ended
That moment when Konohamaru finally overcame his fear of Kali, and began to smile.
Ebisu kept losing the blood, and he kept coughing the blood. He was squeezed to death so badly. He could see the cruel smile on Kali's face.
"I gave you a promise, didn't I? I'm not going to back on my words! If you don't give me an answer, that's brutal death for you! You have chosen the brutal death after the swift death! Sorry, but not sorry!"
Ebisu still smiled, despite being squeezed in mid-air. 'I guess this is the end of the road. I hope that Konohamaru was able to escape.'
"SUFFER WELL!" Kali laughed like a maniac. No one could know what she really wanted. Earlier, she did not want to kill people, and was given no choice, but now it seemed that she was enjoying seeing someone suffer to death. "SUFFER!" What was she? A bipolar? As soon as she said that words, suddenly, the kunai stuck into her arm, and she screamed in the pain, which abruptly dropped Ebisu.
Ebisu widened his eyes behind his sunglasses, which, for some reason, somehow was intact after all hit he took to his face, and stared in shock at the direction where the kunai came from. Kali hissed, pulling the kunai from her arm, allowing the blood to leak and dropped before glaring up at the direction, but soon, her grim expression would turn into a cruel smile.
It was Konohamaru. He stood small mid-roof by the building with his hand holding against the wall and his other hand clenched into a fist. "I'll take you on!" He panted hyperventilation.
As soon as he revealed himself to Kali, he already started to become afraid of her. He was trembled in fear, knowing that she could instantly ended his life anytime if she wanted to. He would have to be extremely careful.
He shook his head, realizing that he couldn't be still afraid. He realized that he should be more brave. "I was taught that…" His memory consisted of Naruto grinning ear-to-ear at her. "…there's no shortcut in the world of the ninja!"
"Konohamaru!" Ebisu cried with mixed of shock and disappointment. "Why didn't you run away?! You have the potential to one day become a Hokage! Do not waste your life in a place like this!"
At first, Konohamaru was shocked, as the fear started to loom over him and began to realize his mistake, but as soon as he thought about Naruto, he smiled with the sound of chuckle inside his throat. "I made a promise long ago. To fight Naruto-niisan over the title of Hokage… That's what we promised."
Ebisu stared at him in disbelief with his mouth hanging open. "Konohamaru…"
"Naruto-niisan is my rival!" Konohamaru declared proudly, spreading his arms out. "So I'll never choose to run away!"
"Tch…" Kali scowled. 'Do all Konoha ninjas talk too much when they're too desperate to live? They should die like they're destined to be!' Without any further words, she began to run on her feet towards Konohamaru, even though he was on mid-roof by the building.
He clapped his hand and clasped all of his fingers into together, screaming louder with all of his strength alone. "Because Naruto-niisan won't be waiting at the end of that short path!"
"How annoying!" Kali yelled, jumping up and down at Konohamaru, who was already aware of that. He backflipped as soon as she swung her most powerful arm, forming the crater on the wall.
"So slow!" taunted Konohamaru. He kept backflipping to dodge every and each of her attacks. Then he realized that he was on the edge of mid-roof. He sidestepped when she clawed towards him. However, she used the force of her leg to stop charging and changed her direction.
He turned his head a little angle and widened his eyes in shock. She delivered a roundhouse kick at his side, smashing him through the building onto another destroyed building which was filled with the rubbles.
That was hurt. He never got to tolerate the pain like that, even though Kali had hit him before, but that was too much. He groaned in the pain and slowly opened his eyes, spotting Kali rocketing down towards him.
She used the ax kick and slammed her leg down onto him, kicking up the massive dust. He barely dodged that, but the wind knocked him to the ground. He scrambled up quickly and dodged immediately once she leapt down at him, forming another crater on the ground. She threw few attacks, yet he continued to evade every and each of his attacks.
Enraged, she hated it when someone always dodged, yet did not fight back. And she was baffled that earlier he made a resolve not to run away ever, but all he did was to run away now! That's what made her piss off.
Konohamaru panted heavily, trying to regain his oxygen, as he observed her carefully. He would not let her touch him. She was very dangerous woman. What he knew so far was what he saw Kali did to Moegi… and almost Ebisu. So far he had seen them floating in mid-air and for some reason, they were squeezed.
'One thing's certain. If she catches me, I'm dead.' He gulped nervously. Moegi was killed by that unknown technique. 'If I'm caught, she'll kill me with some special technique.' Coola and his men doesn't use chakra, but they only use Ki, which made them very dangerous.
Because he was distracted by his own thought and his wary of Kali, that lead him to be punched in the guts by Kali. His body lurched down and clamped his guts in the pain.
Once he came down on his knees, he felt something grabbed him and lifted him up into the air. He slowly opened his eyes, and widened his eyes at what he saw. With his own eyes, he saw a golem with red eyes, and he was already in a golem's giant hands. Now he just realized that it was not coming from Kali's technique or something. It was her technique that created an invisible golem where no one could see that thing, but once a golem held them, they could see it. That was the thing that killed Moegi and Udon.
Ebisu, having experienced that, knew that the golem was very powerful opponent and dangerous. With his resolve to save his own teammate, he rushed towards Konohamaru. "Konohamaru!" He already let his other two students to die today. He was not going to let his third one.
"You're…" Kali glanced over her shoulder at her opponent and growled. "…annoying!" Without doing anything, she simply made her eyes wide more, and there his body shot backward, just like that.
"S-Sensei!" cried Konohamaru.
Kali returned her eyes to Konohamaru and smirked, almost as if she was proclaiming victory already. "You know the drill, brat. Just like that useless fragile over there, I will give you a chance to choose which death you'd prefer. Swift death or brutal death. However, this time, I won't give you a choice. You can have a choice by just answering my question. If you answer my question with only truth. If you tell a lie, he will know, and he will torture you as he's pleased. If you don't answer, that's same as lie. He will still torture you. Do you understand?"
Konohamaru felt the fear in his heart, but he ignored it. He did not want to answer a piece of scum anyways!
"Heh… That's the question, you know that, right?" Kali chuckled, prompted the golem to squeeze Konohamaru with just a giant hand alone. "How do you feel? It must have been painful for you. I told you… If you tell a lie or not answer my question, he will decide on his own whether he will kill you or not. What he's about to do to you is not entirely up to me. I cannot control him. He's my pet, but it doesn't mean I tamed him entirely."
Konohamaru gritted his teeth. There was nothing he could do. He could not break free of golem's giant hands that trapped him inside. He worried if a golem was going to break his bones, and he would have a numb, and he could have not feeling anything anymore. That's what scared him the most.
"Where the hell is Naruto?" That was her question, but he did not want to answer her.
'I get it… So this is what you see if you get caught.' He narrowed his eyes at the golem. He felt the anger… Anger that he let his teammates down. Anger that he was too scared to do anything. Anger that he could not fight back, despite his earlier statement that he would not run away. Anger that this sadistic woman killed his teammates. Finally, anger that he was caught like that.
Kali used her favorite stance of the day… Her favorite stance was her folding arms below her chest. She watched him out of boredom. "In few seconds, if you're not going to answer me, there's no telling what my pet will do to you. You know, I don't like killing, so that's why I'm making my pet doing the kill. So answer my question, brat."
'I'm starting to figure out… her ability.' Konohamaru thought. As long as he was telling the truth, then it should be fine. He was not going to sell his rival out after all. "I don't have a clue!"
"Careful." Kali smirked. "The golem is going to digest whether you're telling the truth or not." She did not care what her pet was going to do. Swift death or brutal death, she did not care. She did not think that Konohamaru did not know where Naruto was anyways.
Earlier, she was asked to gather some information on the whereabouts of Naruto, so she was not going to fail Coola-sama anyways. Because the money was all she needed after all. If there's any other jobs available, she would choose them over an assassination any days. Assassination job was only one job available that day, and that job was what she did the best.
"Konohamaru?!" worried Ebisu, who was still laying on the floor, clinging to his side.
Once the golem done deducted Konohamaru, he immediately crushed Konohamaru to smithereens with all of his strength, and his body was gone and blood flew everywhere, just like that!
"Konohamaru!" cried Ebisu. He could not believe it with his own eyes! Not Konohamaru too… First Udon…then Moegi… and now Konohamaru… He clenched his fist, and he felt heartbroken. He clenched his teeth. He began to regret many things. His failure was one of them. He failed his students. He failed all of them. He let them down.
"Hmm… Swift kill, huh? He's telling the truth, apparently. Hehe… Number 10 kills! Haha, I'm going to be rich for killing a lot of people!" laughed Kali. The money was all she could think about right now. Until…
There was a poof of white smokes from the golem's clasped hands.
"What?!" shocked Kali. She never realized that it was Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. She scanned the area to find where Konohamaru was, but once she realized that he was behind her, he hurried to turn around, only to find him smirking at her.
"One of valuable lesson that Naruto-niisan taught me is the element of surprise!" Konohamaru grinned, throwing a couple of shuriken towards her, and while he was at it, he quickly weaved through his hand signs. "Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! (Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu)"
Three shuriken suddenly multiplied by them and more popped up next to them, flying towards her.
"What?!" Kali screamed, forcing her to raise her arms to defend her own life. It was almost as if her arms were made of steel, yet her entire body was not. Then she heard Konohamaru's shouting again.
"Katon: Haisekisho! (Fire Release: Ash Burning)"
She lowered her arms to check what was going on, only to find Konohamaru stood very close to her, and began to take a breath longer. She widened her eyes, realizing that he was going to do something lethal to her. But it was too late now. She would not have a time to dodge it.
He spewed a stream of chakra-infused gunpowder from his mouth like an ash and surrounded the cow lady in that region. As the gunpowder was composed entirely of ash, it stayed in the air around her like a cloud. Once surrounding her with the ash, he simply ignited it with one of his fire jutsu, creating a spark, resulting in a violent explosion, burning the enemy.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Ebisu was baffled to witness such a power that manifested from Konohamaru! 'Konohamaru… When did you become such a strong?'
"I am a genin of the Sarutobi clan, honored with the name of this village! Surname is Sarutobi! Given name is Konohamaru! Remember that!" Konohamaru declared proudly, to no one particular. He looked around to find Ebisu, and saw that he was greatly wounded. So he rushed to him. "Ebisu-sensei!"
However, Ebisu felt something was not right. Even though Kali was dead, but for some reason, he had a bad feeling about that. He had a feeling that next moment was going to be bad one. He could not let this aside, so he ran towards Konohamaru who was confused by his sudden urge to run.
"Ebisu-sensei?!" confused Konohamaru. Regardless, he still ran to him, in case if Ebisu was going to collapse. But at the same time, he had similar feeling. He knew something was wrong, yet he ignored it, because he did not know what it was. He killed Kali, so there's no way she could still be alive with that technique like that.
Just as they reached each other, Ebisu noticed something flashy inside that smokescreen, he cried for Konohamaru and shoved him aside, as the energy wave shot through his chest, making him spew the blood.
Konohamaru's body forced away to the ground, as he stared at Ebisu with his widen eyes. "Ebisu-sensei!" His tears began to form on his eyes after witnessing the death of his sensei. He immediately got up to his feet and ran to Ebisu's side, only to find out that he was dead.
"How long are you going to be annoying?! Why won't you let me kill you?!" Kali scowled with her fury eyes on him. Most of her fur were burned, and she looked heavy damaged. Some of her armor were torn apart. She already had her sight set on Konohamaru. That brat made her rage so much, and she wanted to kill him so badly! "I need a money, so let me kill you, brat!"
Unbelievable! Konohamaru was certain that he killed her. He thought he had her, but how could she survive after that?! Was that power of Ki that possessed her ability to resist the damage that much? That moment when he knew it was all over for him and his life. Kali already set her furious eyes with seething rage, and she was going to destroy him.
He did not notice that his body trembled in fear again. He just had no idea what he should do next. He knew the moment she killed Ebisu-sensei, she was going to kill him next. But he braced himself and prepared for that. If he was going to die, then at least he was going to see Udon, Moegi, and Ebisu-sensei. He showed her his smile, kind of telling her that he already submitted to her.
It did not matter anymore. He was going to die. He closed his eyes, so he would not know if he would die for sure. He just shut his eyes.
"Well, at least you did not contradict your statement earlier." Kali's seething rage slowly transformed into a gentle smile, but with a regret look. "You were not running away after all. At least you will die with an honor. I acknowledged your name, and I shall engrave your name into my personal memorial stone. As of now, I shall remember your name forever, Sarutobi Konohamaru!"
Before she could do anything, something sharp stabbed into her back, causing her to jump away, and turned around, staring in shock at the culprit. It was teenager girl with a pink-haired and jade green eyes giving her a cold eyes and her little smirk. And her entire body was covered in blood, but obviously that blood was not her. She probably had been killing a lot of people on way here. "Who are you?!"
She had to hold onto her back, probably bleeding. She knew it was bleeding badly. That bitch just stabbed her deeply into her back, and it hurt her really badly.
"Sakura!" Konohamaru yelled happily. Maybe at least he was not going to die. With Sakura in their presence, he would be safe.
Kali heard him screaming her name. Sakura? So that was her name? She glared at Sakura. "You bitch are called Sakura?! How dare you stabbed me?! If you're going to kill me, then at least kill me! What annoying brat you are!" She looked up and down at Sakura's body.
She was going to analyze her, but not until something that caught her eyes. She widened her eyes. It was bloody cow man that was in Sakura's grip of his hair. "Urekaw!" She shot her with a fury eyes. "WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO TO MY SON?!" She was really pissed off. She raised him, and he just barely turned adult, and now he…
Sakura raised her eyebrows. "Oh, this is your son?" She casually tossed the head of Kali's son at the floor beneath her. She chuckled. "Obviously, I removed his head. But of course, I made sure I tortured him. He screamed and begged me to take him to his Mom. He cried for you. I'm enjoying his company, so I did what he asked me to. So I delivered him to you, but I did not know that his Mom is so damn bipolar!"
"Sakura?" Konohamaru was scared. He never heard her laughing like that. It was almost as if she had gone insane.
"I'm not Sakura." Sakura answered for Konohamaru, smirking evilly at Kali. "I'm but the Inner persona that had been locked inside the original whole life. Call me Inner Sakura, or rather Inner, if you will. For the first time in my life, she welcomed me and allowed me to switch for a while until we defeat Coola. I'm so happy that I'm finally free for the time being!" She squealed with excitement, and then she smirked at furious cow lady. "Looks like you're going to be stuck with me for a while, hehe…" Her evil smirk quickly turned into a snarl. "Because you're going to pay for what you have done! You just killed two of my comrades who just barely turned genin and you killed Ebisu-sensei! I'm not about to let you kill my FRIEND! I'm going to do to you just like I did to your son!"
"Is that really necessary? That's only reason why I allowed you to switch is because you said if we don't switch, insanity is going to take over my head. But I did not know that you are insane to begin with! Seeing you butchering that poor cow man is making me cringe enough! Disgusting!" The voice ranted in her head. That was the voice of original Sakura who hesitantly accepted to switch to Inner Sakura in order to stop insanity to take over them both together. None of them wanted to let insanity taking over them completely. They both were traumatized enough to witness the death of their parents, so that's why they suffered enough and insanity appeared. Since they switched, they quieted the voice of insanity that bothered them before.
"Hey, it works though! But you agreed to let me control your body for a while until we defeat Coola. I just want to enjoy the fresh air and my freedom while it lasts! That, and I'm really enjoy killing them, and they tremble in fear before me is truly satisfy!"
"You're really insane! I hope I don't make mistake!" The original Sakura scowled in disgusting. She just started to regret her action, but it was too late. If Inner was planning to trap her forever, then well, all she could say was 'shit'.
"Don't worry! I don't lie to you. Only the reason why I'm insane is because I'm already insane to begin with. Only that I'm already aware of my actions, and I only act like this towards enemy. See? I don't act that insane towards you, because I'm aware of my action and what's going on around me."
"So that's why most Haruno became insane after a certain incident is because all Inner are about 90% insanity and 10% sanity. No wonder they become 100% insanity. But… ugh… just be careful. I don't want us to die or go insane because you're going to commit stupid decision."
"Hey, I'm not stupid. I have same brain as you, but only that I am not afraid to kill people like you do. And yes, I will be careful. Now just shut up and let me enjoy fighting them!"
There was no more conversation between them. Come to think of it, Hinata was right. There was some disagreement between the original and the inner persona, there was going to be conflict and they would create insanity. But at least they agreed on one thing: that they should switch their persona once every in a while until they received a special therapy.
Inner Sakura gripped the hilt of her kunai tightly and began charging towards Kali, leaking her killing intention which made Kali frozen in fear. She grinned, finding satisfied that Kali was sweating so hard out of fear.
Inner plunged her kunai into the cow lady's guts and then swung her kunai across the guts, spraying the blood out from the inside, leaving Kali's blood on her face. Oh, the bloodbath! Yes, there was so much red blood all over the place. Her heart started to beat, and her body started to tremble with excitement. She did not know why she was getting excitement, but that was first time she had killed a lot of people since switching.
She drove her kunai into her enemy's chest, forcing her to fall to the ground. She took a seat position on Kali, so that way the cow lady could not escape. She started to get more bloodlust.
First, she drove her kunai into Kali's right eye, and pulled her eye out of its socket, making the cow lady screaming intensely.
Inner laughed manically. "YES! YES! YOU JUST PAID YOUR PRICE! NOW YOUR OTHER EYE!" She stabbed the cow lady's other eye and also pulled the eye out of its socket. She could have heard the sobbing in Kali's throat. There was no tear, but she knew Kali was crying. "Oh, no… You cry! You cry! Like a baby! How do you feel when you were torturing my friends?! You gave them a brutal death, so I'm giving you too! Oh, haha, I'm going to enjoy seeing you cry like a baby!"
"Stop! Please don't hurt me anymore! KILL ME!" Kali begged. Oh, this bitch begged her. Oh, Inner was going to enjoy it.
"Oh, no… No… I'm not going to kill you. But I'm tired of you constantly opened your mouth, even though you don't talk very much! I ought to do something about your tongue. It's getting in your mouth's way, huh?" Inner giggled like a madwoman. She crawled her hand inside Kali's mouth and grabbed her tongue, wrangling it out. The blood suddenly filled the cow lady's mouth. She did not want her to drown in her own blood. She was going to heal her to torture her over again and again and again.
But it was Sakura's voice that called out to her. "That's enough! You tortured her enough. Just let her die."
Inner Sakura scowled, glaring at Kali. "But… She killed many children. You had seen them, and I'm sure you're shocked by them All of them died the same way, and they suffered worse. That's why I'm doing the same stuff to her, as she just did to them! She pissed me off, and I want to see her suffering! Sakura, she predated on children only! She hunted the children to kill them all off. She doesn't just kill them. She tortured them and then killed them. She pissed me off!"
"Shit! You're really crazy! How the hell did I agree to your deal?! The whole deal is that I have to let you take over my body for a while until we defeat Coola in order to hold off random voice in our head, but I have seen enough! YOU ARE INSANE THAN I THOUGHT! You will only drag us down to entire insanity! You're not like this when you killed them before this one! SWITCH NOW!"
"Blah, blah, blah… I'm growing tired of your whining! Just shut up and let me go back to torture her!" Just when she went back to reality and looked down at Kali, only to find out that this cow lady was already. "THIS IS YOUR FAULT! Look at what you have done! She's dead, because you distract me! Because of you, you ruined my plan!"
"Good…" Inner heard Sakura chuckling in her head. "Because you're scaring Konohamaru more than already. Look…"
Inner widened her eyes and snapped her head up, finding Konohamaru staring in shock at her with his body trembling. "Konohamaru…"
"That's the other reason why I told you to stop. He's going to think we're insane, and he's going to tell Naruto when it's all over! Damn, and Hinata will brag to me that she's right whole time, because of you! Also, if you want to torture someone else because you're losing control of your emotion, DO IT WHERE THERE'S NO PEOPLE AROUND!"
"What have I done? He saw what I have done. He knows who we are, Sakura. I…" Inner looked down at the ground, and her fists clenched, tears formed on her eyes. "He knows what we are… I… If I kill him… He won't tell Naruto-kun and everyone else."
"NO! Switch now!" Sakura demanded, but Inner shut her down and continued to walk to Konohamaru, who took a step backward in fear.
"W-W-Who are you? Y-You're… not Sakura." Konohamaru stuttered with a fear for his life. He just witnessed her torturing Kali, and she was laughing like a maniac. He was so scared. He had never seen her like that before. He thought she was nice and sweet girl, despite her temper. But now he had seen it all, and she was no different from these monsters that was attacking the Konoha! He could not let her getting close to him. He dragged his kunai up and shot her a glare. "Stay away from me, monster!"
Inner and Sakura froze when he called her monster. Sakura inside the mindscape already leaked the tears down her cheeks, feeling hurt that he called her like that. Inner, on other hand, was shocked that he called her monster. Her rage slowly rose in her chest, and she gritted her teeth, shaking her fists.
"Y-You…" Inner hated it. She did not understand why. She just saved Konohamaru's life, and he was so ungrateful and called her a monster like that! "How dare you call me monster when I save your life?! UNGRATEFUL BRAT!"
She just stood, glaring at him, leaking the killing intent that made Konohamaru's back hair stand up and made him getting goosebumps! Before she could make any move on him, she felt her head throbbing and she heard the voice in her head again. It's back.
KILL! KILL! KILL!
Inner clutched her head and groaned. She could not stand a random voice in her head, just like Sakura could not. In fact, Sakura also heard that, but her head was not throbbing because she was inside the mindscape right now.
"Oh, no! It's back. It's been five minutes and it's back already?!" Sakura panicked. That means… that means it was not good thing since Inner was already controlling her body, and at any moment, she could give in to that voice, and she was going to kill Konohamaru. "SWITCH, IF YOU KNOW WHAT IS GOOD FOR US!"
"But Konohamaru…"
"Don't worry about it! There's another way for him to not tell Naruto-kun anyways. JUST SWITCH BEFORE YOU DO SOMETHING! Please… You don't want to be mindless for the rest of your life, right?!"
"You better not lie to me. All right!" Inner managed to calm down her temper and remembered that Konohamaru only saw what she did outside, but not from inside, and of course, everyone would be scared of her after that stunt. She could only hope that Sakura would find alternative method without killing him after all. She clasped his index and middle fingers together and closed her eyes. "Soru Suitchi no Jutsu! (Soul Switch Jutsu)"
That forced Konohamaru on his guard, thinking she was going to attack. But he was not sure what she meant by soul switch jutsu? He began to wonder if she had two souls. However, he still did not trust her yet.
Nothing happened, but Sakura, for some reason, fell to her knees and breathed hyperventilation, which confused Konohamaru. He failed to understand why she acted like that. What was going on?
"Five minutes…" Inner Sakura muttered inside her head.
'Five minutes what?" Sakura asked her, but she still would not forgive Inner for what she had done. She was still angry that Inner was willing to kill Konohamaru simply because he called them a monster. True, calling her monster impacted her heart big times, and she cried, but she never wanted to kill her comrades. Now she was scared of her Inner. She did not think she can trust her to switch again.
"It would appear that the random voice in our head disappeared again. But it lasted five minutes since we switched. If my theory is correct, that voice will come back in next five minutes, and we have to switch again."
"No." Sakura said flatly. She could feel that Inner was glaring at her, as if she was demanding an answer right now. "You're dangerous, and you're crazy. I will never trust you to use my body again. I will never switch with you. You scared me and Konohamaru…"
"I told you… I'm only like this when I'm fighting enemy, and only when they pissed me off! Just like these children who did not deserve a brutal death!"
"Sorry, but I do disagree with your behavior. You're doing the same stuff as Kali did, so why shouldn't you be worse than them? I don't like what you're doing, so I will never switch with you ever again."
"When the voice is coming back, you will switch it with me again! But remember if we happen to become mindless because you refused to switch, then I'm placing a blame all on you!"
Ignoring Inner's ranting, Sakura then stood up and walked towards Konohamaru, who was still on his guard. "Konohamaru…" She was nervous. Now he had seen it all and she did not know what to say. Should she tell him she had two souls? Would that make worse? Would Konohamaru be wary of him forever? Would he tell Naruto that she was crazy woman if she won't explain the situation to Konohamaru?
Konohamaru took a step back, still on his guard, and shot her a glare. "Your voice… It changed again, and this time, you sound like Sakura. Just… what are you?! And why did… you kill her in a cold-blood? Why can't you simply kill her rather than torturing her like that?!" Sakura tried to step forward, but Konohamaru quickly backed away from her and snarled at her. "Just stay away from me!"
Sakura was taken aback by his harsh words. He gave her a stare like she was the plague, and it was almost as if she was the monster here. "Konohamaru… Give me a chance… to explain it to you." Now she understood what it was like to be stared down and be treated like the plague. That's how Naruto was feeling right now?
"No, explain it to me after we beat Coola… Right now, so far, I know what you are. You're covered in these blood that you've slain. And most of bloods came from that cow woman. I know she deserved to die, but she doesn't deserve to suffer a brutal death just like that. You're no different from her!" Konohamaru placed his kunai in his pouch and walked away, but before he could leave, he stopped, glancing over his shoulder at her. "I won't tell Naruto-niisan and everyone else. Your secret is safe with me. But you still have to tell me after this." With that, he hopped away with no chance of her to explain the situation.
She was shocked. He never gave her a chance to explain it to him. She wanted to clear misunderstood, but Konohamaru would not give her a chance. She was relieved that he would not tell everyone and Naruto-kun about what Inner did, but still… She was crying… that Konohamaru would fear her. She never experienced that someone would fear her. For the first time in her life, she hated her life. She always thought she was perfect, but until she discovered the trait behind the Haruno Clan, she started to worry about herself. Why her parents did not tell her about it was beyond her. And…
It was all of Inner's fault. Because of her, Konohamaru was going to be scared of her forever. It's Danzo's fault that he murdered her parents in front of her eyes that unleased her insanity. It's Hinata's fault that she told her all about the Haruno Clan. If Hinata did not tell her about them, then she would not realize it and she would not worry about losing her humanity. Now because Hinata told her, she constantly worried about her own insanity, and Inner had convinced her to switch to avoid becoming insane quickly. Now she was afraid to switch to her Inner, rather than victimize herself to insanity.
She could not decide which she should do. Switch to Inner when five minutes would be up, or ignore Inner, hoping that she could resist insanity for longer. She doubted herself and her own decision which was the best for her.
She shook her head, shaking off her tears and looked up over the direction in front of her with her determination eyes and clenched her fist. 'First thing to do… I'm going to find Bulma and I'm going to get my power back. Then I will beat everyone that gets in my way, and then beat Coola. If we beat Coola, I'm going to need a special therapy, and I will erase Inner for good!'
That settled her plan for sure. She found her determination and she was going to make sure that, if she would not die during the invasion, that is. With that, she hopped off on way to find Bulma.
To be continued…
A/N: How will Sakura handle the truth of her clan? Will she find out that she had a twin who was given away to Danzo? How can she handle her Inner? Who was that voice that kept echoing 'kill' in her head? It was not Inner, but who? Was there another voice in her head, besides Inner? FIND OUT NEXT TIME ON TEAM Z!
Next chapter will feature Bulma and Inari, and there's new enemy that lurked around them, and the chapter titled "The Chase"... It is basically filler... Pretty much most of chapter 114 and 115. Only few important stuffs will be featured in these both chapters. It will be short chapter, really... Of course, just don't expect me to update it shortly, but I"m trying my best to update it shortly.
But remember that I'll need new beta reader since my previous beta reader can no longer editing my story.
Chapter 116 is when I will finally begin featuring Gohan and Kuririn vs Paradox and Guure. Also, maybe on Chapter 117 onward, there will be return of a certain person. I'm sure you will be excited to see him again. I will give you a cookie if you can figure who he is! :D
THUD! THUD! THUD! (There's someone that knocked the door so hard) Ahh, don't mind knock! Vegeta's probably telling me to get out of this room that I have been isolated in for a while. NOPE! I refused to leave this room until Thedarkpokemaster returns me to my male self! (pouts) I hate my life!