Fallen Petals
by Diana-san

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Chapter 15

"Revenge?" Sakura echoed.

Oboro chuckled again. "Yes, revenge. After what you and your friends did to us, we want revenge."

Sakura fumed. "So you did all this to get your stupid revenge?" she shouted at them.

"Correct," Oboro replied, ignoring Sakura's sudden outburst. "And if you want to see those two alive, then you better not do anything suspicious."

Sakura smirked. Then she suddenly burst out laughing. Tears formed at her eyes as she continued to laugh. Sasuke looked over his shoulder and stared at Sakura in surprise. "Sakura…"

Before Sasuke could say anything, Sakura started to speak as her laughter died down. "Really? You two must be cowards. Do you really think that I would believe that you can kill them?"

Oboro looked at Sakura as if she was crazy. "What do you mean? Of course we can kill them! And if you continue with this nonsense then I'll have them dead right this instant!"

Sakura chuckled. "Go ahead."

Sasuke whirled around and faced Sakura. "Sakura! Are you crazy?"

Sakura stared directly into Sasuke's onyx eyes. "I believe in them. I believe in Naruto. There's no way he's going to die just like that. After all, he has to become Hokage before he dies."

Sakura smiled. "This is Kakashi-sensei and Naruto we're talking about. They'll be fine."

Sasuke smirked. "You're right. That idiot surely can't die."

"You can stop your bluffing," Sakura called out to the Rain nin.

"Bluff? We're not bluffing! We really will kill-" Oboro said but was cut short. A kunai was placed underneath his neck and a strong grip was latched onto his right arm. The pink-haired kunoichi had come up to him in the middle of his sentence and placed the sharp tip of the kunai underneath his neck.

She looked up at him, her emerald eyes glowing with defiance. She smirked. "If you weren't wasting your time bragging then you wouldn't be in this mess."

She slashed the kunai through his neck. Sakura's eyes widened when her kunai went through him and he disappeared. Sakura looked back and gritted her teeth. 'A water clone?'

"Damn."

"Sakura!" Sasuke called out. "They're all clones!"

The kunoichi nodded. "They must have switched places with water clones at the last minute."

"They're multiplying."

Sakura whirled around and sure enough, there were twice the amount of clones surrounding them. "How lucky," Oboro said and his voice echoed around the two Konoha shinobis. Sasuke and Sakura narrowed their eyes as the clones increased in numbers.

Sakura pulled out some kunais and shurikens and tossed it at a group of water clones. The small group disappeared into puddles of water and then more clones emerged from the puddles.

"They keep coming!" Sakura said in frustration as she knocked out two more water clones.

Sasuke tossed two clones over his head and looked back at Sakura. Sakura glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. "So, Sasuke. Any brilliant plans? I would love to hear about them."

Sasuke backed up against Sakura. "My Sharingan can't see through the clones."

Sakura gritted her teeth. "They are exactly like Kage Bunshin and you should be able to tell the difference. How…"

Suddenly, Sakura's eyes widened. "They're water clones," she muttered. Sasuke turned around while slashing through two other water clones. "It took you that long to realized that?"

Sakura shook her head. "No, that's not it! They're water clones! Which means that the water inside the clones are all circulating with chakra that's connected to the user's body."

"Huh?"

Sakura punched a clone in the stomach and sent it flying. "Okay, the body is made up of 60% water so they must be using their chakra to fuse with their body water and then creating a clone so that the water in each of these clones would have chakra flowing through them."

"Then how come my Sharingan can't see through the fakes?" Sasuke said through clenched teeth.

"Because, they aren't fake."

Sasuke whirled around. "What?"

Sakura closed her eyes. "All of them are real. Whoever's using this technique is dividing up his body water into each one of these clones so that every clone is actually a actual part of him."

"I don't understand but go on."

"When we attack a single clone or two, the clone just disappears into a puddle of water and then re-emerge."

"So you're saying-?"

Sakura nodded as she opened her eyes again. "We have to attack all of them at once."

The raven-haired man smirked. "How do you suppose we do that?"

Sakura grinned. "Leave it to me." She ran over to a large tree and grabbed onto its trunk. Using all her power, she lifted the tree from its roots. She carried the tree over to Sasuke while Sasuke stared in awe.

"You're lifting a-" he started.

"Duck!" Sakura commanded.

Sasuke did and Sakura swung the tree around. "SHANNARO!" she yelled. The tree slashed through all the clones and they all disappeared in a poof of water. "1000 Water Clones Attack with a Tree," she remarked.

Sakura hurled the tree to a clearing and it landed with a loud thud.

"Damn. Where is he?" she asked in frustration.

"Sakura!" Sasuke yelled out.

Sakura turned to look at Sasuke to see what was wrong. Instead, she felt someone grabbing onto her foot. A hand stuck out from the ground and was held latched onto Sakura's left foot. Sakura jumped up into the air and pulled the Rain nin, Oboro, up along with her. Sakura twisted herself and tried to kick him off. Sakura grabbed onto the Rain nin and slammed her elbow into his gut. She used her free foot and kicked him in the face hard before he let go of her foot. Sakura landed back on the ground safely on her two feet with one knee kneeled on the ground as she watched Oboro fall from the sky and crashed onto the ground.

Sakura tried to catch her breath as she watched Sasuke deal with the other two Rain nin and finally he defeated the two and sent them flying and landing on top of Oboro.

The kunoichi grinned. "Well, that was easy."

Sasuke walked over. "Not yet. We still don't know where Naruto and Kakashi went."

He looked over at Sakura. "Are you going to stay kneeling on the ground?"

Sakura looked up in surprise. "Oh right." She started to get up but went back down when a shooting pain went up her leg. She winced and tried to get back up again but did with fail.

"What's wrong?" Sasuke asked.

"It's nothing," she muttered.

Sasuke bent down beside her and pushed her down so that Sakura was now sitting on the ground. He held up her left leg and examined it. "It's swollen."

Sakura exclaimed, "It can't be! I-"

She thought back to her fight with Oboro. "He grabbed my leg and I must have twisted it when I spun around."

"Idiot," Sasuke said. Sakura looked down in embarrassment. He sighed and turned around as he crouched down.

Sakura stared at his back and blinked. "What are you doing?"

The dark-haired man glared at her. "What do you think? I'm offering you a ride on my back. Or would you rather walk?"

Sakura blushed but turned her head. "I rather walk," she said stubbornly.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Even though you say that, I'm still going to end up carrying you."

"Fine."

Sakura hopped onto Sasuke's back and Sasuke stood up. "You gotten heavier," he grumbled.

Sakura's eyebrow twitched. "What did you say?" she asked while stretching out every word.

Sasuke looked away. "Nothing."

Sakura smiled. "I thought so." Suddenly, she shook Sasuke's shoulder.

"What?" he asked irritated.

Sakura pointed into the distance. "Look, isn't that Naruto and Kakashi-sensei?"

Sasuke looked to where she was pointing. "You're right."

Kakashi waved to them and Sakura waved back. Naruto ran over to them and shouted excitedly, "I defeated them all by myself. They didn't stand a chance against me!"

Kakashi walked up behind Naruto. "Naruto, you were knocked out unconscious the whole time I was fighting against them."

Sakura giggled. Naruto made a pout and crossed his arms. "I wasn't unconscious. I was just pretending to be so that I could take them by surprise."

"Hai, hai," Kakashi said with a sigh.

Naruto uncrossed his arms and stared at Sakura and Sasuke. It took a few seconds for him to realize that Sakura was on Sasuke's back.

Naruto pointed wildly at the two. "EH? What are you doing you teme? How can you carry Sakura like that you-"

Sakura raised her fist and brought it down on Naruto's head. "Idiot! Don't say such stupid things!"

Naruto grabbed his head where a small bump was slowly emerging. "Ow! Sakura-chan…" he began to whined.

Sakura sighed. Kakashi scratched his head. "Should we go on?" the Jonin questioned. The other three shinobis nodded and they continued on the path leading to the Tea Country.

Up ahead, they saw a small tea shop come up to view. Naruto jumped up excitedly. "Let's go eat!"

Sakura frowned. "We already wasted enough time getting here, there's no time to eat." When she saw the disappointed look on Naruto's face, she sighed. "But maybe we can stop here on the way back," she suggested.

Naruto's face brightened up. "Alright then. Let's go find that Jirochou boss!"

The four Konoha shinobis stood in front of the house of the Wasabi boss. The door slid open and a young man around the age of nineteen appeared.

"It's you!" both Naruto and the man exclaimed.