Chapter 21: Discovery

The next few weeks progressed in a similar fashion. Sasuke worked everyday at the bar and everyday without fail, the band of thugs would be waiting, a little more beat than the day before but waiting nether less.

Naruto went everyday to see Ronoa. The old man didn't teach much and just attacked Naruto with his sword. Soon Naruto learned the basic ways to block from sheer trial and error. The intense training left him with many bruises and cuts, due to his failed attempts at blocking and attacking, which he brought home healed to Sakura, whose curiosity only blossomed next to the healing prowess.

Sakura, herself, found an abandoned seal training ground and began to use it as her own. She went out and bought an entire roll of sutras (behind the back of Naruto and Sasuke) in addition to their daily food supply. Everyday, after Naruto and Sasuke left, she'd sneak off to her secret training and practice.

12 days passed without incident, like the calm before a storm as the weather grew warmer, the days grew longer and the month of May slowly faded into June.

-

Sakura wearily peeled her green eyes open and stared into the blue sky. Her body felt like concrete, her head spun like a carnival ride and her inhuman strength felt about as strong as a petal in the wind.

Am I alive…? At this point, she could care less. Her body rejected any movement and her mind rejected any thought. Weakly, she held up her hand to the sky and cringed.

I look like Orochimaru. She thought as she admired her pale complexion. I shouldn't be lying in the sun; I'll give myself cancer.

Her arms shook as she hoisted herself up. Her head continued to spin like a merry-go-round. Blindly, she patted the area around her, fumbling over the granite flooring, faltering over the neat piles of sutras, scraping across the yards of scroll that curled around the stone arena like one of Manda's disciples, until, at last, her hand landed on a plastic canteen. Sakura fumbled with the cap and slammed the bottle against her mouth. A warm, bitter liquid ran down her throat. She coughed as she pulled it away and wiped her mouth.

"Uh…" The rank juice simmered with her stomach acid. She felt like she was going to hurl, but her head stopped its crazy dance. She replaced the cap, set the canteen down and inspected the bloody etchings on the ground in case she messed them up in her search. The gray stone glimmered under the dark, red patterns of the seal. The intricate design made its epicenter at a blank sutra and branched out around it like the spindly legs of a spider. Nothing seemed smeared or smudged.

Sakura looked down at her pale limbs. Flakes and smears of blood dotted her arms and legs, like paint to a dedicated artist.

I must look like a serial killer… She thought humbly.

In her crazy pursuit, Sakura made two sets of each of the Binding Seal's 12 parts, one for practice, one to show Kikyou. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but 8 pints of blood later, Sakura began to have her doubts. She couldn't chug the blood production serum fast enough to keep up with her loss, so her skin paled and she felt light headed and dizzy.

C'mon, you can do it… She encouraged herself. This is the last one.

Sakura swayed upright and shook her head of any nausea that was left. She stumbled over to the blank sutra, stood over it and made a few seals. She placed her hands rigidly over it.

"Sealing no Jutsu!" She cried. Chakra began to flood the area. The power blew the scroll around and nipped at the edges of the completed sutras, held down by rocks.

"Ryu-gatsu!"

The fell wind ceased its meandering and blew straight up. Sakura's hair pulled harshly away from her scalp. The drawn inscriptions began to slowly twist into the sutra, like a vacuum, but with much more reluctance. As the blood patterns were sucked in, the sutra began to inscribe the words "ryu-gatsu" across its surface.

Several seconds later the word completed itself, the last of the blood pattern receded into the sutra, and the immense wind stopped abruptly. Sakura fell over into a heap, the sealed sutra blowing like a leaf in her wake.

"Good job. I'm impressed to see you so far along at this point in time."

Sakura rolled to a sitting position and found Satori Kikyou watching her from amoungst the trees.

"It took the last person I taught it to tooknearly six weeks, and you've only done it in two."

"Satori Kikyou-sensei..." Sakura muttered. "What are you doing here?"

"It is my duty, I believe, to make sure you're doing this properly." Kikyou replied nonchalantly as she made her way toward Sakura. "I can't very well have you blowing half the town up because you preformed it wrong."

The old woman bent down and picked up the newly created Ryu-gatsu sutra.

"However, it doesn't seem like that will be a problem. Come now, finish it off." She handed Sakura the slip of paper and moved off to the side again. She snapped her fingers and the yards of scroll instantly rolled themselves back up into a tight bundle.

With a groan, Sakura stood up and hobbled over to her neat stacks of sutras. She flicked a rock off one, picked up the pile and walked into the middle of the stone flooring. Sakura unsheathed her red dagger and pierced her finger. Red blood dripped down her palm and, with it, Sakura drew a spiral on the granite floor. She placed each of the twelve sutras in an even circle around the spiral and stood in the middle.

"Sealing no Justu!" Sakura cried forming several complex hand motions. The chakra-induced wind picked up again, whipping around in a circle like the tail of a demon.

"Advance Bloodline Binding Seal!" She slammed her hands on to the spiral. The wind blew upward, as though the ring of sutras had created a reversed vacuum. The pieces of paper remained stuck to the ground, unaffected by the updraft and began to unseal themselves. The dark red inscriptions tiptoed out toward the spiral core, inching closer from all directions. The creeping writing stopped an inch away from the spiral, along with the wind. Sakura stumbled backward and took in her work. The entire platform was covered by little black designs that circled outward around her. It was like taking in the splendor of a sprawling city. Sakura stared down, confused.

Kikyou smiled and stepped forward onto the design.

"Excellent work." She said.

"No…. No, this is all wrong!" Sakura exclaimed. "I must have messed up somewhere…"

Kikyou gave her a funny look.

"Why do you say that? It's very well done."

"Then this is the wrong seal! Because this doesn't look anything like Akari's! Hers wasn't so complex… It was linear and…"

"… a fake." Kikyou replied grimly.

Sakura snapped up in surprise.

"Akari faked her seal?!" She gulped, "but then, how…?"

Kikyou sighed.

"The judges would've voted for her anyway. Usomaru rigged it. It was a clever scam to transfer money without suspicion."

"But they let her keep the prize!"

Kikyou laughed.

"You honestly think the Pageant Committee knows anything about Seal Jutsu? They're not even ninja! Just some old guys who sit in an office and get pushed around by NinCola. They wouldn't know the first thing about seals."

"But she was still cheating… She could've gotten disqualified."

"That's probably what she wanted."

Sakura looked at the ground in thought.

"Akari is a lot smarter than most people give her credit for… than I give her credit for." Kikyou smiled.

Sakura looked up questionably.

"I know that this seal was preformed correctly because you followed the directions and it didn't explode." Kikyou went on. "If the seal is preformed or destroyed incorrectly, it explodes and, depending on how you mess it up, you may or may not have a few seconds before it detonates. Akari, while she attended my academy, was one of my brightest students, but she had very little confidence in her abilities. I bet she feared messing up the seal and killing everyone. That is probably why she faked it."

"I see."

"But that is in the past. Show me you know how to destroy this thing properly so I can teach you about your seal."

Sakura nodded and walked across the intricate pattern.

"The destructive seal is in the Tora-gatsu… 24th line… 10th column…" Sakura tiptoed over the seal and bent down over it and swiped her bleeding finger over the 24-10 fragment. Sakura squeezed her eyes, preparing to be ripped apart by an explosion, but nothing came.

"Perfectly executed." Kikyou grinned. "Now come to my office and show me this seal of yours."

-

"Hmmmm…" Satori Kikyou squinted at the reconstruction of Naruto's seal. Sakura peered at the old woman over a cup of tea, hoping her memory had served well.

"Where did you find this?" Kikyou inquired. Sakura bit her cup, and glared at Kikyou suspiciously. How much could she tell her without giving them away…?

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone." Kikyou said as though reading Sakura's mind.

"It's… on my friend's stomach." Sakura ventured. Kikyou didn't seem surprised.

"Well, it's defiantly the Hakke style…" Kikyou set the diagram down on her desk. "You were right in thinking that it's a powerful seal, but what it contains is much more powerful. I could not begin to describe it."

Sakura latched on to every word.

"The person who performed this seal was a genius; it's designed so that the power of your friend and the power within him merge as necessary… otherwise, the power would merely devour your friend."

"So, the seal is protecting him… but why is there something powerful inside of him?"

"There are only two reasons people perform seals: education and necessity, and this is not a seal based on education."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because, in exchange, the sealer gave up his life."

Sakura nearly choked on her tea.

"Are you serious?!"

Kikyou nodded.

"How old is your friend?"

"Um… 14. Why?"

"This seal is so strong that it could only be preformed on a newborn child, whose umbilical cord had been freshly cut."

"So… 14 years ago something was sealed into my friend. What does that have to do with anything?"

"You are aware of The Law of Conservation of Energy?"

"Of course. That energy cannot be created or destroyed, only turned into something else."

"Precisely, meaning that this large power within your friend did not merely generate out of thin air."

"It must've shown up and was sealed into my friend because of necessity… probably because it was too dangerous!"

"Dangerous enough for someone to give his life for it."

"Well, then… if it was that bad, then someone must have seen it, right? Someone other than the sealer must have noticed it too. People must've died fighting against it."

Kikyou smiled.

"Now you're getting somewhere!"

"But I can't think of anything like that that happened 14 years ago… I don't remember learning about anything being sealed away."

"Maybe you did," Kikyou picked up a cup of tea and stirred it with a small spoon, "but all you really heard was a cover up."

Sakura gave Kikyou a confused look.

"Let me give you a hint." Kikyou smiled, "When you came here two weeks ago, did your friend come with you?"

"Yes."

"Was he the one who threw up on the cement out front?"

"Yeah…?"

"You did see the pattern on the concrete right? Well, that's not just for show. Hundreds of years ago when demons ran rampant across this country, this was a school of seals that specialized in sealing away demons. The demons didn't like this and attacked often, so a barrier was set up around the school. That seal completely halts the movement of anything from a B-rank demon and below; they should not even be able to cross that line."

"What?"

Kikyou laughed.

"Well, if you still don't get it, the answer is shut in a mirror given to your friend recently."

"What? You know what the answer is?! Why won't you tell me!?"

"Because…" Kikyou walked over to Sakura and tapped her on the nose. "I have given you all the pieces. It is your job to seal them together in a way that won't blow you up…"

-

Sakura sighed as she walked home, large scroll stuck to her back, the useless extra sutras in her pocket, the many torturous questions beating at her mind. The street lamps flickered on in the dim light. She felt so drained, yet so alive. The ends of her mystery swung before and her heart rejoiced while her gut cried out in foreboding. Did she really want to know what Naruto carried around?

Yes, you need to know so you can help him.

But if he hasn't told me already, maybe he doesn't want me to know.

But you're his friend, right!? You have an obligation to help him. "Those who don't care about their companions are worse than trash."

Would I really be helping him if I knew?

Of course, he doesn't need to fight his inner demons alone. There's what friends are for.

Inner demons…

Sakura's foot caught on a stray NinCola can. She grabbed a fence for support. She heard something metallic hit the ground.

I need to be more careful… She thought as she turned back to pick up whatever it was that fell.

The eerie glow from the street light glinted off the object as Sakura bent and touched the shining instrument. She held it up and noticed it was Ino's kunai.

I thought I left you in my backpack. Sakura thought as she continued on her way. Her thumb rubbed the pink string around the handle and she turned it over. The clean, polished surface glimmered back at her.

That Ino and her psycho cleaning habits… What's this?

Sakura felt something etched into the iron. She turned it over again and noticed a small inscription along the kunai's edge.

"'Yamanaka Ino'" Why didn't I see this before?

Sakura held it up to the light and looked at her pallid face staring back at her. She cringed as she tried to flick flakes of blood off her cheeks. Suddenly, Sakura froze. Her eyes widen as revelation hit her like a mallet.

INSCRIPTIONS IN A KNIFE!?

She swallowed dryly.

Naruto brought home a sword… and on it was…

Sakura began to run toward the apartment, every muscle in her body pulsated with her heartbeat.

N-no… it can't be! It… was killed! Yondaime…

She rounded a corner. Five figures blurred in her vision.

"Hey baby!" The middle one called out as she charged toward them. "Give us a toll and we won't hurt cha!"

"Get out of my way!" Sakura's foot landed squarely in the guy's face. He flew a hundred feet down the street and smashed into a dumpster. Trash exploded with the force of a monster, but Sakura didn't stay for the fireworks. She dashed down another street and slid into the apartment building. She thundered up the steps and threw open their door, not bothering to unlock it. The room yawned at her, beckoning her inside like a witch to a poisoned apple. Sakura gingerly stepped inside. Her knees threatened to buckle underneath her and her stomach felt like putty. She slowly drew near Naruto's belongings as though approaching a poisonous snake.

Sakura knelt down next to the yellow backpack and reached toward his sword. She swallowed hard as her trembling hand grasped the handle. She drew the blade closer and closed her eyes at the sight of the sheath's gold pattern; her heart burned to look at it. Slowly, she withdrew the blade, which clattered as she drew it with shaking hands.

Sakura read the label, embossed by its picture, and whispered her dread into the night.

"'Kyuubi.'"

Author's Note: MWAHAHAHAHAHA! I have created a monster! Can you taste the suspence!? I'm so evil! (although... this was kinda a crappy chapter, if I do say so myself...) Don't worry, I'll go over exaclty why Naruto's sword is home next chapter, along with the conclusion of Sakura's revelations. As always, I'd like to thank everyone who reads this fic, not just the reviewers, although they hold a bigger chunk of my heart. I'd again like to apologize for characters being out of character; I'm not Kishimoto, it's artistic interpretation. :)

Next Chapter: Sakura's revelations meet Naruto's insecurities!