Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, only the OC!
"…" speech
'…' thoughts
When the Snow Melts..
Chapter III
Ryuuzaki
Long locks of coral messily kept together by a senbon framed the kunoichi's now smirking face. She had eyed her opponent with a look of pride and hatred.
"Shall we continue now?"
Kazumi returned her look with a smirk of her own, eyes gleaming in excitement.
She launched towards the petal haired kunoichi who sprang to her feet to meet her halfway. She took out her katana to strike Kazumi's stomach only to hit a tree trunk. She immediately darted to her left, managing to avoid a rain of fireballs.
A well aimed kick hit her back, forcing her to move forward and nearly lose her balance.
"What, you're tired already? I haven't even started yet, Sakura-chan!"
"Don't you dare use my name, bitch."
Kazumi took a step back and melted into the darkness, vanishing into thin air.
'Genjutsu?'
Sakura looked around her for any sign of movement. She muttered a soft curse as her hands formed hand seals.
Water immediately surrounded her body, whirling around her like a transparent shield.
"Tsk tsk. Why so tense pinky?"
"Why are you hiding then Kazumi, scared?"
"She really is Sakura-chan isn't she!"
Naruto's voice was tinged with disbelief as he turned to the people around her, but the Konoha shinobi's attention was completely on the fighting kunoichi, especially a pair of onyx eyes that belonged to none other than a former missing shinobi, Uchiha Sasuke.
Naruto turned around to face Akito who was standing not too far from him.
"That shinobi, with the pink hair, what's her name?"
Azure eyes stared at the figure who didn't deign a single reply.
With demonic speed, he appeared in front of him, grasped the collar of his dark blue shirt and pulled him up. His eyes, the color of the cloudless sky now seemed to glow like the dying embers of a fire-deep scarlet.
"Answer me! Who is she!"
Seeing that the Mist nin would not reply, he grabbed his mask and threw it to the ground. He was met by a pair of emotionless amber eyes set not on his face, but on the pink haired woman fighting behind them.
"She is the matriarch of the Ryuuzaki clan of Mist. Ryuuzaki Sakura. My brother's wife."
The rest of the Konoha shinobi suddenly moved to watch them. No one spoke, but the tension in the air grew thicker with each passing second.
Dark swirls of red appeared in a pair of midnight eyes as he took a few steps closer to the Mist nin.
The blonde man holding Akito calmed down at the response but was yet to be satisfied.
"Her last name before she married. What is it?"
"Answer the question."
A deep baritone voice from behind him spoke, belonging to the Uchiha prodigy.
"Let go of him."
A new voice spoke, belonging to the other Mist nin.
Hyuuga Neji moved towards the group, to restrain things if they got out of hand. As a shinobi, he had spent time with Naruto during missions and knew that any information about Haruno Sakura, the latter's former teammate was enough to send Naruto into action. He couldn't blame him though, should he be in Naruto's position, he would be drowning in guilt just as he did, but that would not compare to how the blonde man felt, for Naruto, from a long time ago, had feelings for Sakura.
"It isn't my place to say. You should ask her if you want to know."
Akito looked like he was barely containing his anger. Shikamaru moved to pry Naruto's hands away from him, to prevent a fight from ensuing.
"Look people. I want to know who she is just like you."
Sakura has been in some of Shikamaru's previous assignments and had healed him in more than one occasion. Once in a while, he would ask her opinion about the tactics concerning the ANBU which she would gladly give. But their relationship was not only in professional terms, Shikamaru had Sakura to thank for his relationship with Yamanaka Ino, the former's best friend. She had helped him confess his feelings to Ino and more often than not, defended him when Ino was angry at him for trivial things. They were close and Shikamaru would never admit it, but he had seen her as a younger sister.
"But we won't get any decent answers if we kill her brother in law in the process. We should just wait for this to finish and ask her in person."
Again, Shikamaru was the voice of logic. Naruto's hold on Akito loosened, but his glare remained.
"Oh my god, she's going to stab her!"
Tenten's voice brought everyone's attention to the hunter-nin and muke-nin.
A shadow reappeared behind her, kunai splitting the whirlpool of water. Senbon hit Sakura's pressure points, rendering her immobile. She fell to the ground, eyes boring on Kazumi's face.
"Such a disappointment, I thought you'd put up more of a fight."
Kazumi's hand moved to stroke her face in mock caress. Jade eyes glared daggers at the hand moving at her face then moving to a set of malicious eyes.
"Then again, you can't even save you're husband. Oh wait, your fiancé. I killed him before that, didn't I?"
Her cold laughter rang in the darkness, as if already triumphant over the female lying below.
The people beyond the shield simply watched in astonishment.
Naruto knocked on the shield as hard as he could.
'If it's really you, Sakura-chan, I can't let you die. I won't fail you again.'
"Stand aside dobe"
The sound of a thousand birds taking off echoed, a blue light resembling electricity emanated from Sasuke's hands.
"You finally think of something decent, Sasuke-bastard!"
Naruto gathered a swirling ball of chakra in his hands- the infamous Rasengan.
Before their hands could make contact with the invisible wall, two bursts of water resembling dragons blocked their way.
"What the?"
They both looked at Akito whose hands where glowing blue with chakra.
"I thought she was your sister-in-law! Aren't you even concerned about her? Fuck this!"
Naruto had lost it, he hit one of the serpent like torrents of water with his Rasengan. Water fell on them, like the raindrops during a storm. But the water remained in front of them, effectively blocking their way.
"You don't know her like I do. One-san would never give up. She hasn't used any strong attack yet, she is still measuring Kazumi's ability. I trust her."
"But.."
Naruto was silenced when the light emanating from Sasuke's hand disappeared.
He grumbled but stopped the swirling charkra in his hand.
"If she gets hurt again, I won't forgive myself."
He sighed and brought his eyes to rest at the roseate haired nin.
Kazumi crouched in front of Sakura, holding a kunai against her throat. Screams of the other shinobi were heard but the emerald eyed woman didn't move, she didn't even blink an eye.
"It was nice knowing you, princess."
She dragged the steel blade on the other's throat, releasing blood. To her confusion, Sakura's lips tugged upward in a smirk. Before she knew it the blood became water, and so did the person before her, pouring unto her body before freezing to ice.
"I didn't know you were that careless Kazumi."
A figure from behind her emerged, a devious smile lighting her face.
She moved her katana to rest on the crimson haired woman before her, preparing for the deadly strike.
No emotion showed on her face but her movements were painfully slow like something was holding her back.
Something red glowed and she jumped back a few steps to prevent contact with the explosion.
Smoke concealed the surroundings, temporarily disabling her to see the surroundings. The missing-nin's voice, tinged with amusement resounded in the confusion.
"You are still too soft, pinky. How do you expect to get revenge when you can't even kill the murderer of your most important person?"
Suddenly dozens of kunai flew towards Sakura, cutting through the gray haze. A few of them managed to slice through her clothes, creating scratches on her porcelain skin while one managed to lodge itself on her right shoulder.
The smoke cleared and Sakura and Kazumi stood face to face with each other, separated only by a few meters. Blood trickled slowly in Sakura's right arm, moving to drip past her fingers.
Kazumi stood before her, eyes mocking, moving across her body and coming to rest on her know blood soaked shoulder.
"If you'd be like that Sakura, I sincerely doubt you can get your revenge."
Bangs hid green orbs, she made no sound but her left hand moved slowly to rest at her bleeding wound. She roughly traced the path of blood before stopping at the two azure swirls at the back of her right hand.
Confusion and alarm reflected on Kazumi's eyes. She has seen the move somewhere, from a long time ago. Then it finally dawned on her.
Sakura's hands started to move forming hand seals, before her right palm had descended to touch the ground.
"Kuchiyose no jutsu! Hiryuu!"
Smoke engulfed the area once again, an outline of something was moving in a darkness. Not too far away, Akito's lips curved up in a smirk.
A loud beastlike roar echoed in the fields and a pair of golden orbs glowed in the darkness of the night. The smoke cleared and floating in the air was a gargantuan blue dragon, in all its regal glory, snaked around Sakura's now unconscious body.
Naruto started to panic once again, moving his eyes back and forth from Sakura and Akito. Sasuke didn't look pleased either, he was disturbed by the feeling that something might have gone wrong with the summoning.
"What the hell is going on! Why is the summoned beast wrapping around Sakura?"
Naruto was screaming now, desperate for answer. He was distracted by the bright light that was released by the creature, temporarily blurring his vision. When he opened his eyes once again, Sakura was nowhere to be found.
"Shit! What now? Where is Sakura!"
"The summon was successful."
The other Mist nin spoke, making Akito sigh.
"But I can't see her!"
Akito's eyes stared at Naruto's orbs taunting him.
"Are you blind?"
Naruto's brows knit in confusion and he moved his head to face the field again.
Clouds have gone past the moon, enabling it to cast its silver beam on the ground below.
Standing on where Sakura was a while ago was a presumably a woman, whose hair as blue as the deep sea reached the ground. The wind blew and her bangs swayed with the wind revealing two orbs of molten gold staring directly at Kazumi not far ahead. On her right hand was black tattoo of a dragon's silhouette, starting from the back of her hand were there were two golden circles which served as the eyes and the tail ending at the tip of her upper arm. Her lips curved up in a sneer, showing two sharp fangs. She tipped her head to the right as she moved her hands whose nails resembled claws in sharpness, to point them at Kazumi.
She spoke in an all too familiar voice, startling the Konoha shinobi and making the Mist shinobi smirk widely.
"You won't be disappointed now, bitch."
"Is that Sakura?"
Naruto looked at them in disbelief.
Pride could be clearly seen in Akito's amber eyes.
"Onee-san. The one and only."