Author's note : Small glitch a couple of people caught in the last chapter. Yes, I did get my tree names mixed up _ Sorry but thanks for pointing it out.
Moriko smiled and tossed Sakura the rope. She was saying something but Sakura couldn't hear her. The crowd was going wild and somehow, Sakura doubted she really wanted to hear what Moriko said. Moriko held up her arms and the crowd simmered down.
"First one to fall loses!" Moriko called. "The fight begins… now!" Moriko leapt backwards, landing gracefully on the ground. Hana had not wasted a moment, charging with a swinging axe.
Sakura's heart stopped as she watched the impending attack. She was going to die, no doubt about it. She couldn't use her substitution technique or make a clone of herself. Everything required chakra and she couldn't use it or she'd break their cover.
Break their cover… She would rather die then break their cover. Sakura had made the choice that countless ninjas had made before her. Their names were engraved on a stone Kakashi had shown them on their first day of training. And Sakura was about to join them.
She had finally done it, become a real ninja and understood that it took more then book knowledge to succeed at a mission. It took patience, a quick mind and understanding that your mission superceded everything else. This wasn't just about keeping the boys from falling into another woman's hands. If she had not accepted the challenge then she would have appeared weak and this society was built on strength. And if she just jumped off the log now, she would be even worse, a coward. There was no choice. She had to fight, even if she died or she would risk her teammates' cover and cause a rift among this tribe and the Hokage.
Hana came at her just as Sakura came to the conclusion. The axe swung towards her and Sakura flipped backwards. She held onto the rope tightly as she continued to move quickly backwards.
Five back flips later she stopped and righted herself, coming into a low defensive position. Hana was struggling to regain her balance. Of course, inner Sakura cried. The axe is extremely heavy and if she swings it with out hitting anything, the momentum will continue to spin her!
A plan, Sakura realized. She just might have a plan.
"OFF!" Naruto cried, pushing his feet into the stomach of the man on top of him. He stood up quickly and attempted to locate the rest of his team. But with all the fighting going on, he couldn't see them.
Screw this, Naruto thought as he brought his hands together to start a seal. Someone grabbed his hands before he even made the first sign and Naruto found an angry looking Sasuke in front of him.
"Idiot! Only taijutsu," he snapped.
Naruto's eyebrows furrowed in anger before he remembered the no chakra rule. "Sorry…"
"Forget it," Sasuke replied. "Just help me clear a path to the door."
Naruto took a moment to remember why it was important before he let out a strangled "Sakura-chan!" That's right, Sakura was still outside. Fighting some ogre who wanted to kill her! They had to get outside.
Sasuke was already moving with a progression of hand attacks that were only a flurry of movement in his opponent's eyes before they dropped unconscious to the floor. Naruto frowned. No way was he going to let Sasuke get outside first.
Naruto moved quickly, landing a solid punch on the guy next to him. What he lacked in fluidity, Naruto made up for in brute strength. "HA!" Naruto cried. "One down!"
"Dobe, I've already got two," Sasuke said. He moved quickly and another dropped. "Make that three."
Naruto growled and leapt into the fray, throwing a series of punches. "FOUR!"
"FIVE!" Sasuke called back.
And so it went until finally both of them had reached the doors, out of breath but unscathed, leaving a trail of unconscious men in their path.
"Beat you," Naruto said, holding up ten fingers. Sasuke glared at him, tempted to just show one finger but a hand on his shoulder brought him back to the present.
"As interesting as that was," Kakashi said, "we have a more pressing matter." The two boys nodded and the three of them pushed at the door only to find it was firmly locked in place.
"It's LOCKED!" Naruto cried, leaning against the door.
"Really? I couldn't tell," Sasuke replied.
"I was just saying that so you would know that we need something to break the door down," Naruto yelled back. "Something hard that won't break."
Kakashi and Sasuke paused and looked at each other. There was a silent agreement and they both grabbed Naruto, holding him like a log.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" The fox child cried.
"On three," Kakashi said. "THREE!"
Naruto's head became a battering ram and slammed into the door. The hinges whined under the pressure.
"Damn!" Sasuke cried. "Your head's gone soft!"
"Awww… look at the pretty ramen bowls…"
"AGAIN!" Kakashi yelled and they moved in unison. With the second hit, the hinges bent and the door cracked. They dropped Naruto on the ground, leaving him to watch his eyes go swirly and pushed on the doors, until it finally fell to the ground with a loud bang.
They barely had enough time to grab Naruto as they ran outside, drawing most of the fight with them. It took a moment but they found Sakura. She was still in the middle of the battle circle, high in the sky atop the log. And she was falling.
Sakura knelt down and quickly brought the ends of the rope together. Hana had already turned around and regain her balance, looking very annoyed that the first strike had failed. Sakura took the loop at the half way point of the rope and quickly threw it around the log. She took the two ends and threaded them through, standing up to tighten the knot.
"Trying to stay up," Hana smiled. "That's somewhat noble. Won't help you though, when I land this strike."
Hana let out a battle cry and charged. Sakura wrapped the ends of her rope around her wrist. Inner Sakura broke out pom-poms and started cheering, telling Sakura to wait, keep waiting, just a few more seconds until…
Hana pulled back the axe to prepare for the blow, drawing it over her left shoulder.
LEFT! Inner Sakura cried out.
The axe swung and Sakura fell to the left, following the arc of the strike but completely avoid the blow.
"SAKURA!" Someone screamed but Sakura ignored the voice as she felt the rope catch and tighten around her wrist. Now parallel to the ground, she had come to a stop, watching as the axe pulled Hana's view away from her.
NOW!
Sakura gave herself some more slack and pushed off the log. The jump was small, but she managed to clear the log and came hurtling at Hana's side, feet extended. The kick was solid and with the additional pull of the large axe, Hana faltered and fell to the right. Sakura followed, missing the log and falling after her.
But the rope caught after a few moments of free fall. And while Hana was forced to land on the ground, Sakura swung back up and landed on the log. The crowd had never stopped cheering but Sakura suddenly realized, they were cheering for her.
Tentatively she raised a hand and waved at them, a bit shy about the whole thing. She looked down at ground to make sure Hana had landed alright. She found the other woman looking up at her in surprise.
Then Hana shook her head in disbelief and reached down, taking the axe as she left. Sakura tried to see what Moriko was doing but the other woman had already disappeared. She walked back towards the ladder when she caught sight of a familiar trio of guys.
They held her attention for a moment before she realized what was going on behind them. The crowd, having followed her gaze saw the same thing, broke their circle and ran to quell the fight. Sakura moved quickly too, jumping down to the ground rather then bothering with the ladder. She ran up to her teammates before the crowd overtook them.
"What happened!" Sakura cried.
"Fight broke out in the slave quarters," Naruto said. "But who cares now! Sakura-chan was GREAT!"
"Ah," Sakura said shyly, "thank you."
"Good job, Sakura," Kakashi said, smiling beneath the mask.
"Yeah you even kept going after Sasuke cried out like a little girl!" Naruto laughed.
"Shut up idiot!" Sasuke said, punching him in the arm.
But Naruto was too happy at Sasuke's discomfort. "Sakura! Don't fall! "He mimicked. Sakura looked at Sasuke in disbelief but he never looked back. Instead, he turned on Naruto and began pummeling him.
"Sakura, exactly what happened?" Kakashi said, drawing her attention away from the other two.
Sakura shook her head to clear it. "I don't really know. I was talking to Amaya-sama and then Moriko came and…" Sakura trailed off. Amaya! Where had she been during the fight?
"Sakura, where is Amaya-sama?" Kakashi asked, reading her thoughts.
"I don't know," Sakura replied. "Moriko said one of the farms needed her council. I don't think it was a real story though."
Kakashi frowned. "Some of the men believe that Moriko is trying to take power away from Amaya-sama. If the story wasn't true, then maybe she was going to make her move."
"I'm SO STUPID!" Sakura cried. "I thought Moriko set up this fight to get to me, but don't you see!" The two boys stopped fighting and looked at her. "Neither she and Amaya-sama are here. With the fight going on, no one would notice if they weren't around. Kakashi-sensei we have to find them!"
"We worked the farms this morning, they're outside of town and fairly large" he said, already moving away. "We'll need to split up. Naruto and Sasuke go left, Sakura and I will start from the right."
"Hang on!" Naruto cried, watching as Sasuke bolted through the fields, tearing up the plants before he dove into a patch of tall stalks and disappeared. Naruto came to a stop and looked around. Letting out a curse, he attempted to jump up to see over the plants to try to see Sasuke. There was movement ahead and the leaves shifted towards him.
"Stupid Sasuke," Naruto said as someone emerged as from the field. But it wasn't Sasuke. Naruto's eyes opened wide as a female stumbled out and looked at him in fear.
"AH! Leave me alone!" she cried in a rather deep voice.
"What?" Naruto asked, watching as the woman tried to get away.
"No, just go away!" the girl cried. "GET AWAY!"
Naruto was completely confused. He had never seen this girl in his life and she was trying to avoid him like the plague.
"Just hold on!" Naruto cried, reaching for her arm. But she turned away and his hand landed somewhere else. Suddenly they both screamed.
Sasuke had gone off ahead, not particularly happy with Naruto at the moment. As if beating him in the slave quarters wasn't bad enough, did he have to rub in the fact that he gotten a bit worried when Sakura tumbled towards the ground? So what? They were all worried.
As he muttered to himself, he paused and looked back wondering why Naruto had been so quiet. Finding only green stalks behind him, Sasuke grumbled and started to walk back, figuring Naruto had gotten lost.
Suddenly two screams pierced the air, one the familiar Naruto cry of surprise. Sasuke took off, following the noise until he reached the clearing where Naruto was standing pale white, over a fallen girl.
"You JERK!" she cried. "You don't grab a girl there."
Sasuke can to a quick halt and stared at the girl clutching her chest and Naruto looking like a sheet. Sasuke shook his head and continued on his way towards Naruto.
"Oi, Naruto," Sasuke said, reaching the boy. "Apologize."
"But… it just… burst…"
"What?" Sasuke demanded.
"It just exploded in my hand," Naruto said.
Sasuke looked quickly at the girl on the ground and saw that she was indeed flatter on one side of her chest. He walked forward and noticed that most of her shirt was wet too. And finally, he got a good look at her face.
Reaching forward, he grabbed her hair and pulled. She screamed in protest but a minute later, Sasuke had the wig in one hand and had grabbed her, or rather his, wrist with the other.
"You!" Sasuke said. "You're Matsui Ichiro."
Sakura and Kakashi moved quickly, both attempting to find some sign that the two women were somewhere nearby. Suddenly Kakashi pulled Sakura to a halt and pushed her beneath the foliage.
"You are too young!"
"You just say that because you don't want to give up leadership!"
Sakura frowned, the second voice was definitely Moriko and she didn't sound happy at all. Sakura held her spot and kept track of the conversation, which didn't prove too hard since both girls were yelling.
"I have never attempted to keep control from you," Amaya yelled. "I let you implement changes despite knowing that they wouldn't work."
"I only did that because you are too soft! You've let the men grow lazy. And worse, you let unknown people get close to you without considering that they might be lying to you," Moriko shot back.
Sakura shrank, knowing they were talking about her.
"I have more faith in people then you do," Amaya replied. "I'm sorry that you had to face the battles you did, but just because people betrayed you in a fight doesn't mean that they will do it in every aspect of your life. I have tried to teach this to you but you refuse to see it. And until you do, you will not be ready to be leader."
"You? Teach me? You haven't had time for me in years!" Moriko cried. "Look what I had to do just to get a few minutes of your precious time. And there's always someone else that you seem to want in power rather then me."
"Maybe I don't want you to be in power," Amaya yelled back. "Look at ME! Do you think I want you… to go through… this? My only daughter?"
Sakura and Kakashi both balked. Daughter? Sakura thought. That just wasn't possible!
"Amaya-sama?" Moriko asked suddenly. Sakura looked at Kakashi and he nodded. He had heard the way Amaya's words stuck in her throat and then the panic in Moriko's voice. Sakura got up quickly and ran towards them, seeing Moriko bending over Amaya's fallen form.
"What did you do?" Sakura cried as came near them.
Moriko looked up and for the first time, Sakura saw something in her eyes other then anger. Moriko was afraid.
"Nothing," Moriko cried. "I didn't do anything! She was just talking to me and then collapsed"
Sakura kneeled down next to Amaya and put a hand to girl's forehead. It wasn't warm so it couldn't be a fever that had overtaken her. Sakura continued to look for some sign of what would have caused Amaya to look as if she had fallen asleep.
Suddenly Amaya's eyes were wide open. "It's coming," she said softly.
"What's…"
Sakura didn't even have time to finish the question. The ground beneath her suddenly began to rattle as an earthquake enveloped the entire town. The ground shook so violently that it cracked in several place. Kakashi emerged from his hiding spot and moved towards them, fighting to keep his balance. One of the farmhouses collapsed just as the shuddering slowly came to a stop.
"What was that?" Sakura asked.
"An earthquake," Moriko said, quickly picking up Amaya. "We need to get back to the town center."
Sakura nodded quietly, falling into pace behind Moriko. She saw Amaya's head as it lay over Moriko's arm. Slowly, the hair started to thin and turn white. Amaya's skin turned wrinkled and spotted with liver spots. In a moment, Amaya had turned from a child to an old lady.