As always...i don't own Naruto (cries)

wee another chapter... my head hurts... crap.

ENJOY!


Act 22: Protect Rain! (Part 2): Haruno Reviled.

"AAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Mai screamed her eyes clamping shut as she crossed her small arms in front of her face in a last and desperate attempt to protect herself. Turning her head away.

"MAI!" Sasuke shouted.

Naruto and the Mizukage and Jin heard him

"MAI!" The Mizukage shrieked seeing his daughter being attacked.

CRING

The sound of the bird's claws grabbing a hold of something solid, but soft, seemed to echo silently throughout the street.

Mai's innocent eyes opened. They were wet and watery from fear falling tears and she wondered why there was no pain from impact. She turned her head to see a thin but toned frame kneeling over her. Shielding her from the bird who has grasped on to the figure's long flowing pink locks of hair.

"SAKURA-ONEE-SAN!" Mai shirked. She could tell Sakura was in pain as her face was twisted into a scowl and she winced slightly from the pain.

"SAKURA!" Sasuke shouted.

Sakura ignored everything around her but the safety of the little girl. She even ignored the pain when the bird tried to fly away, still grasping her hair. Sakura opened her eyes and looked at Mai. Mai couldn't believe that even in this kind of situation, the Konouchi was still able to smile.

"Sakura-onee-san…" Mai said, tears now falling from her eyes. She looked into Sakura's shining green eyes which were filled with relief.

"Mai… are you ok?" Sakura asked still smiling even though the bird was flapping its wings harder and blood was starting to ooze from her hair line.

"Yes..." Mai nodded.

"Good…" Sakura breathed out a heavy sigh of relief. Then the pain started to get to her. Her eyes clamped in pain, teeth clenched, and she even started to tremble. Her shoulders and arms were shaking and she balled her fists tightly. "Now get out of here!"

"Demo…you're hurt." Mai protested.

"GO!" Sakura screamed reaching for a kunai.

Mai's eyes widened as sakura gripped the Kunai, reached behind her and cut through her pastel locks, freeing herself from the giant ugly bird's grasp. Stands of rosy pink hair sprinkled all over the street. Mai stayed rooted to the spot. Sakura's hair is one of the things Mai admired… besides, she always thought that's why Sasuke liked her so much, because she had long hair.

"She cut it away like it didn't matter at all to her…" Mai thought astonished.

Sakura was still, up tall on her knees. Her face was frozen in a lifeless glare. Her cheeks were pale, her cherry lips in a relaxed frown her eyebrows furrowed and matched her hard and angry eyes. She was so pissed off. And yet, Mai's admiration remained.

"Mai… get out of here…" Sakura repeated in a low heartless tone.

Mai was stubborn, but she knew when she had to go. She scrambled to her feet and ran out of there, she hid behind Sasuke. Who understood his task now was to make sure she was safe.

"Sakura…" Mai heard him whisper her name aloud. She peered up at him, his face was blank. She expected as much. But his eyes were filled with worry and they shone with a wet gloss.

"He really cares for her…" She thought watching him. "Be careful Sakura-onee-san!" Mai cheered in her head diverting her attention back to Sakura.

--

The big ass ugly bird flew to his master… sprinkling little bits of Sakura's hair as it flew.

Sakura got up and turned to face Aki. Her eyes still hard, her face still static, cherry lips pressed into a fine frown. And yet, the males still found her extremely attractive, but at the same time scared to tell her so because she looked so pissed. Her uneven stray hair fell to her shoulders now, no longer to her knees, and it graced her blades gently. For someone who cut her hair in that situation, it didn't look half bad; actually it kind of framed her face.

But back to business…

Sakura channeled chakra to her eyes. She was not going to take that assault on Mai lying down. She didn't care that he had actually came for her; she had no problem defending herself. But to go after an innocent child? It pissed her off. Turns out Sakura still has a soft spot for kids. She closed her emerald eyes and after a brief moment she opened them.

Sasuke was taken back at her purple eyes. "What the hell is that?"

"Neh, what's that?" Naruto said as if reading Sasuke's mind.

"That's Irunei." Jin answered smirking; he knew something about her that her childhood friends didn't have a clue about. "That's what I guess you would call… her bloodline limit."

"The Haruno family isn't even shinobi… Sakura's the first shinobi in her family." Sasuke said slightly aggravated at the 'know-it-all' tone Jin now had in his voice.

"No they're not, but that doesn't mean they're not special… actually they're quite powerful, not physically, but emotionally, intellectually and mystically."

"Mystically?" Mai questioned.

"Yes…" Jin paused looking at his "love's" eyes. "The Haruno Family… are… well."

"Spit it out already!" Naruto scolded.

"Well they're gypsies."

"Gypsies?" The Mizukage, Mai, Naruto and Sasuke chimed at the same time.

"Why didn't Sakura-chan tell us this?" Naruto asked kind of hurt that she kept having a bloodline limit to herself and didn't even tell him. He doubted any of the girls knew, even Ino.

"Not sure, but she told me." Jin said confidently.

Sasuke could sense Jin grinning his head off even while not looking at him Jin seemed to really piss him off.

"So what does it do?" Mai asked referring to Irunei, Sakura's purple eyes.

"Ehh... well…" Jin scratched the back of his head.

"She didn't tell you did she." Sasuke said smirking "Payback!"

"She said it allows her to see things, predictions, people's pasts, even read people's minds." Jin replied smirking again. The beat the Uchiha silently twice now. "Her Grandfather taught her how to use it."

"I didn't know Sakura-chan had a grandfather…" Naruto said dumfounded. Another think she "forgot" to mention. Then again, Sakura never really talked about her family.

"Yeah, he wasn't too thrilled when Sakura made some, err… modifications in her gift." Jin replied, remembering the last time he met her grandfather, a cold old fellow. He wondered why Sakura admired him so much if all he did was criticize her and try to get her to give up being a ninja.

"Modifications?" Sasuke repeated.

"Yeah…"

"So what is she capable of?" Sasuke asked him.

"Well I--"

"You don't know." Sasuke cut him off.

Jin remained silent. He didn't' know exactly what Sakura had done with her bloodline limit. And he certainly didn't know what she was capable of. Current score: Jin- 4 Sasuke -5. Sasuke smirked to himself.

--

The Konouchi took the kunai she has in her hand and threw it at them. The man in front of her grinned and easily jumped out of the way, his bird flew above. In the blink of an eye sakura was up in the air behind the bird and snapped its head. It fell down to the ground and landed at its master's feet. The dark lord looked down at his deceased pet and frowned. He looked up to see if she was still there, but she was gone.

"What the fuck? Why is she all of a sudden so fast? And sneaky? Where is she?" He thought looking around. Out of nowhere he felt a slight pain on his back and on his thigh. He looked down; a rather large senbon was embedded fairly deep into his thigh and he felt the same sensation in his back. He felt warm liquid slowly trickle down his spine. He cringed. Damn woman.

"WHERE ARE YOU?" Aki screamed enraged.

No answer. He decided that he had to taunt her to get her to reveal herself. A sly evil grin crept onto his face as he bent down, despite the pain, and picked up a few long silky strand of her hair. He smelled it.

"Heh, you smell good… like strawberries. I bet you taste just as great." He mocked taking a whiff of her hair again. Just as Aki predicted Sakura appeared in front of him glaring and angry.

"You fucking sick sun of a bitch." She muttered her grip on her katana tightening. "I'll kill you slowly."

"Heh, I'm bringing you home with me little lady." Aki replied squeezing the silk locks in his right hand. He glared at her and smirked.

Sakura said nothing. With one hand she made one seal. She smirked. "I'd like to see you try."

Aki's smirk twisted into a deadly frown, he launched himself at her, or so he thought, he found that he could not move. He was frozen, still, stuck… paralyzed. "What the hell?"

Sakura smirked again. "You touched my hair."

He realized it then. "BITCH!" He screamed. It only made Sakura grin.

--

"I see… Ino used that on her many years ago… this one is much stronger… but it's the same thing." Naruto said remembering when they were just kids in the chuunin exam.

"I don't see it…" Jin said rather disappointed.

"Well, see, Sakura used the stands of her hair everywhere as a sort of distraction. You can't see her chakra strings? They're well concealed, maybe it's because Sakura emits pink chakra. But while he was err creepily smelling her chopped off hair; she tied him up with chakra." Naruto said looking at Jin like he was a total idiot (oh the irony).

Sasuke continued smirking, he knew Sakura improved, but she was like…really really good. He liked her even a little bit more.

--

Her grin seemed to become more devilish as she walked up too him.

"So let's see what exactly is in that mind of yours?" She said gazing into his eyes.

Before long she saw everything…

His past…

A child crying…

A mother dying…

A father dead…

But the child was smiling… evilly as he cried. He held a rather bloody dagger.

Then there was some kind of beast woman…. Sakura heard a name…

"Marriallis"

She snapped out of his mind. Hearing his thoughts and plans.

"YOU WANTED ME TO DO WHAT?" She scolded at him.

"Yeah." That's all Aki said, he seemed to be drained from his energy. Because of Sakura's little mind trick.

"Never." She replied in a lower more calm voice. "Never would I disturb the dead so you can take over a country with no real motive." She raised the blade of her kitana. "You disgust me." She said thrusting the blade right between his eyes… She pulled it out swiftly… blood spilling everywhere.

Sasuke had covered Mai's eyes to shield her from seeing the kill. He himself had a hard time accepting that she could kill anyone like that. The dark dude didn't even have a chance. She restricted his movements. Killed his counter defense. Drained his energy with her gift and even found out what this entire assault was all about. He wouldn't have been surprised if she collapsed right there out of stamina and chakra depletion. It was weird, but he felt himself even more attracted to her.

The wounded were carried to a hospital. The four of them with the Hokage and his daughter made it to the main house to rest.

"Sakura-chan, you look tired." Naruto said to her.

"Get lots of sleep." Jin said yawning himself.

Sasuke just walked into his own room.

"I will. I promise." She smiled at them. They seemed content with her answer.

She went to her room and took a shower. "Many men were injured today… I should at least help out…"

Sakura only rested for a bit. Not even an hour. Then she got up out of bed and left the house. Sasuke sensed her leave her room. "Sakura where are you going?" He thought, slowly rising from his bed.

--

(I was going to end it here.)

--

The four-man Nin team stepped out onto Rain's village streets. 24 hours ago this was a battle field. Filled with nothing but the stench of blood though a thick mist. Sakura sighed relieved to see the villagers perfectly fine. She was happy with the fact that none of the 25 Nins in the battle had died… many were injured, but they'd survive. She had been busy healing wounds all night and even in the early morning. Today they were going back to Konoha. She was happy to go home, and was looking forward to a nice long nap on that fluffy bed in Sasuke's house.

"BYE BYE!" Mai screamed at the top of her little lounges.

The group turned and waved to her and her family who was also there waving at them.

They walked through Rain's gates and turned around from waving.

"You know, that kid's not so bad after all." Naruto said. Placing his hands lazily behind his head and facing the sky his eyes closed.

"Aa…" Sasuke replied. Sakura just smiled.

"Sakura…"

"Yes Jin?"

"Are you alright?"

Sakura paused, then sighed. Sasuke knew something was wrong. He made his way to her side and looked closer at her face.

"I'm fine Jin." Sakura replied. Jin didn't believe her. He even noticed that Sasuke had gotten closer to take a look.

"You look pale" Sasuke said.

"I'm fine."

"There are bags under your eyes." He told her coldly.

" I. Am. Fine." She emphasized.

"Really?" Sasuke didn't believe her.

"Sakura-chan, how much sleep did you get last night?"

"5 hours." She lied.

"Where did you sleep?" Jin asked.

"In my room."

"You're bad at lying." Sasuke said to her. "I saw you leave you room last night."

Sakura was silent.

"You were at the hospital healing the injured men weren't you?" Sasuke continued.

"Yes…" She admitted. "Is there anything wrong with that?"

"No… but you should have rested… out of all of us you much have used the most chakra." Naruto said. "Common I beat Sasuke's count yesterday (cue stupid Naruto grin) but I didn't use as much chakra as you did… and you used even more healing those men. If you're not careful Sakura you could…"

She felt all of a sudden light headed. Her knees buckled. Her eyes closed. She felt so tired… all she wanted to do was sleep.

"Faint." Naruto finished his sentence… only to notice that Sakura was wobbling. "OI SAKURA-CHAN!"

Sakura fell to the ground bust Sasuke caught her.

"She's out." Sasuke said holding her bridal style. "I'll carry her."

"Damn Uchiha!" Jin sneered in his head in a jealous rage.

"Jeez… No body listens to me…" Naruto complained.

"That's because you're a moron."

"WHAT WAS THAT BASTARD?"

"Nothing dobe…" Sasuke smirked.


once again thank you to allllllllllllllllll of you who R&R.

you're the only reason i keep going.

I hope i answered some of your questions with that chapter.

i'm pretty certain that you'll love the next one:

warning (my own spoiler...tee hee)!

it's SasuXSsaku

lol duh.

(i think i'm deffinately out of it... err...weeeeeeeeeeeee!)

(heart) always!

- lady rine