Take it Like a Man
Chapter 5: Neji's New Look
By: Vampire Toy
Disclaimer: Me no own (sadness)
"Talking"
(Inner Sakura)
:Sound effect:
A/N: Hehe, so much inspiration from you guys and encouragement, thanks so much, and I think I might be able to do Ino or Hinata (since some of you wanted them). The plot is ever changing because of inspiration or mood swings so, its kinda like a 'choose your own ending' book, so if you want Ino that's fine, if you want Hinata, that's fine, the one with the most votes will win, thanks again! XD Votes go as followed:
Orochimaru: 2
Anko: 2
Tenten: 3
Ino: 1
Hinata: 1
Kakashi: 1
And thanks to Spring of Blood for the idea with Sakura's 'powers' XD! That's gonna be fun to work with, this chapter is dedicated to you for the inspiration:D
…
"Well then," yet another voice emerged.
Sakura blinked and saw Gai appear behind his team in an instant.
"Today, since we have a newcomer, we'll go to a nice open training area where we can all work freely on our moves and techniques, just so Seeu here," Gai suddenly appeared next to Sakura and put a hand on her shoulder, "…can get used to everything."
Sakura looked up at him a moment and then back at his team, most of who looked ready to kick her ass.
"Yay." Sakura sighed.
"That's the spirit! Now, follow us!" Gai said dramatically marching off into the forest with Kakashi and the others following behind.
"Come on Seeu-kun," Anko nudged Sakura along until she fell into a stroll a little behind everyone else. Sakura occasionally caught Tenten glimpsing back at her with pink cheeks and tried to ignore the 'I can't wait to beat the crap out of you' looks from Neji. Sasuke on the other hand, kept looking back slightly annoyed at how slowly Sakura and Anko were walking.
(If I do a replacement technique now….I might be able to surprise Anko enough for me to get out of here before I'm beaten to death…)
Sakura looked up at Anko who'd been talking the entire time.
"Do you have any special techniques?" Anko asked looking down at Sakura.
"Oh…er…no…" Sakura sighed.
(Even when given the chance to completely start my life over, I am just the same as I was when I was a girl, there are NO perks to this….)
"S-Seeu-kun! Why don't you come walk up front with us?" Tenten called, "I mean…so you can better get to know us all!"
Sakura looked up at Anko curiously to see if she might hold her back or shove her forward but Anko only smiled down at her and gave her a wink as if to say 'go for it'.
"Hehe…sure…" Sakura plodded forward slowing in between Tenten and Neji.
"So Seeu….do you have any particular strengths I should be aware of?" Neji smirked without turning to her.
"Uh…hehe, that wouldn't be….very fair to say would it?"
"I suppose not."
"It would make the fight more fun if we didn't know what to expect…haha…right?" Sakura asked sheepishly looking over at the white-eyed warrior.
"Yes I think it would….well, I see the clearing ahead, do you need to warm up first?" Neji asked looking at her for the first time.
"Oh…haha that'd be best…I wanna be at the top of my game…ahaha…."
"Yes…..well I suppose then you can warm up by sparring with Lee…."
"Oh well….doesn't he want a full fight too?" (So I don't have to fight you both in the same day?)
"Can you handle two whole fights? That's pretty confident for the newcomer." Neji grinned.
"No...! I mean…I….I…"
"I'm sure you'll do great Seeu-kun," Anko slapped her back hard and Sakura winced slightly.
"Oh haha, well I dunno…I mean….it wouldn't be fair…you know….I might be-"
"I see, you want to take us both on at the same time?" Neji asked his smirk growing.
(HE'S PUTTING WORDS IN MY MOUTH!)
"No! No you don't…" Sakura began to panic as Neji's eagerness grew. She didn't want to seem like a coward but she didn't want them to have any advantages over her, she was going to lose no matter what, but she didn't want to lose so painfully quick!
(He's making it sound like I go around looking for fights! Ugh…what a way to get the crap kicked out of me…)
"I'm all for that if your ok with it Seeu." Lee said peeking up from behind me.
"I…I…"
"He can do it! Come on Seeu-kun, I bet you could kick Uchiha's ass too." Anko grinned.
"N-n…" (SHUT UP WOMAN!)
Sasuke shot Sakura a challenging glare and Sakura felt like shrinking into a speck of dirt.
"No! I mean….no, I'm not that strong…hahaha, really! I'm just…well…."
"Why don't we just settle with Neji and Lee today? We shouldn't push him so much on his first official day…" Tenten perked.
(Thank you!)
"Yes, how about we calm down…" Kakashi shot a look at Anko and she grinned sheepishly.
"So do you want to take us both at once or one at a time?" Lee asked smiling.
"One at a time…preferably…" Sakura mumbled.
"No, I have a better idea, each of us against each other, so no matter what its two against one." Neji crossed his arms to show he wouldn't settle for anything less."
"Er…well…ok…" (Not that they're going to attack each other first anyway….)
"Good." Neji began stretching and Sakura turned to see Lee doing the same.
(AAAAAAAAAAH! This is too much….well at least I'm not fighting Sasuke-kun too)
"Are you going to warm up?" Sasuke muttered next to Sakura.
"Ah! I mean…yes!" she stretched quickly to show Sasuke she wasn't completely out of it and no sooner was grabbed by Anko's hand and dragged into the center of the clearing.
"Time's up, now you can show us what you're made of cutie." Anko gave Sakura's shoulder a pat and backed away, "I know you're gonna win Seeu!"
"Good luck guys, do your best Seeu-kun!" Tenten cried.
The encouragement from her female followers only stimulated Neji's bloodlust and Lee's determination.
"Heh…t-thanks…" she sighed watching the two dark haired boys wearily.
"Hey if you're any good you should fight me tomorrow or something!" Naruto cried from the sidelines.
"Just up dobe, he's trying to concentrate." Sasuke muttered.
"Well, alright then, are we ready?" Gai asked standing in the middle of the meadow as the last barrier between Sakura and her expiration date.
"Hnn." Neji smirked getting into one of his stances.
"Yosh!" Came Lee's reply.
All eyes were now on the pink haired boy who stood with a grim expression but finally spoke up.
"Ready." (Not really)
"Begin!" Gai leaped out of the way and both Neji and Lee dove first for the new nin.
(NO FAIR!)
Sakura dove out of Neji's way and jumped around spastically to confuse Lee and avoid amazing speed.
"What are you doing? Fight already!" Neji dove and struck a blow to Sakura's arm and she winced in pain but continued to try defending herself.
(What do I do? There's nothing I can do! I look like a coward…I need to do SOMETHING)
Lee punched her in the face and she slid back but only a little before she ran forward and threw a kick much to Lee's surprise and actually managing to jab him in the stomach.
(Yes! He must've slowed down or something, alright now where's-)
Another painful pressure jab went into Sakura's chest and she stumbled backwards as Neji continued his poking rampage. Sakura fearfully waved her arms to try block the blows and succeeded in punching one of Neji's arms into the other, temporarily confusing him.
(ACK! That really hurts! I'm really glad I'm not a girl now….) Sakura rubbed her chest and she bounded a safe distance from Neji and looked around for the man in green spandex. He appeared quickly, his punching and kicking coming from every direction and almost beating Sakura around like he had done with Gaara in the Chuunin exams. Sakura didn't want Lee to get that far though and abruptly dropped and stood on her hands to swing her legs around until Lee collided with one of her legs and flew back, sliding into the grass and dirt. Sakura looked up to see she'd gotten Lee in the stomach pretty hard and was about to lower herself when Neji gave her a hard punch in the stomach and she toppled over. She rolled quickly away from another powerful punch that Neji landed into the ground, making it tremble slightly with the force. Sakura hopped up and spun around to see where both boys were; Lee had recovered and was coming at her again and Neji's veins seemed to throb as he made a few hand motions.
(Hehe this is kidna cool, I'm taking them both on and I haven't -)
Lee punched at Sakura's face and she flew into Neji who beat her back with his sixty-four strikes. She crashed into the ground and slid until she was looking up at Lee who simply smiled and looked ready to kick her.
She did a replacement spell and appeared behind Lee; clenching her hands together and slamming them into the side of Lee's head, making him fly into a tree next to Gai and Kakashi. Neji immediately lashed out at Sakura who was already tired and wasn't able to pull out an attack so instead she dodged, spinning away from it and swung her hand desperately hoping to maybe prevent him from hitting her before she could turn around.
What happened instead was she got hit and toppled to the ground. She heard someone shout and a few people let out gasps. She pushed herself up to see what was wrong, it couldn't be her, she was still ok, just a little worn out, but when she DID see what the commotion was, her face went pale in horror.
Neji was frozen in his last attack pose but not because of a paralyzing blow or a hit, but out of shock. Sakura wasn't sure how, but somehow in her last defense she'd cut Neji's hair off right below his chin! The ponytail clump was on the ground behind him but a few more stray strands continued to fall as Neji's remaining hair framed his bewildered face.
Sakura looked over and saw Gai, with Lee who was just waking, and Kakashi sensei give Sakura confused and surprised looks while Tenten, Naruto, Anko, and Sasuke stared at Neji.
(Holy…crap…..)
Neji's arms slowly became mobile again as he stepped back and dropped them to his side only to bring them up hastily to feel his hair…or rather what was left of it. His look of awe turned into a look of rage and the first impulse Sakura got was the only one she listened to; she began to run.
"WAIT!" Anko's voice cried.
"Come back here!" Neji screeched running after her.
"No! Don't hurt him he didn't mean to!" Tenten cried as she and everyone else started chasing after the enraged Neji.
(I DON'T WAN TO DIE LIKE THIS!)
I don't want to die at all!
(RUN FASTER!)
I need to hide!
(YOU CAN'T HIDE FROM NEJI! He'll always see you no matter WHERE you hide!)
What do I do?
(I don't know)
Sakura could feel Neji coming up quickly behind her and fear rang through her body. Suddenly she began running faster and faster until she finally realized her body was illuminating a strange white-pink chakara.
(What the hell!)
She looked back but didn't see Neji or the others, only a quick moving scenery. She tried to stop then but instead began skidding at a high speed through the dirt, smoke rising from her feet as she strained to stop but her feet kept skidding, going deeper and deeper into the dirt until she finally toppled over. She let out a shriek of panic as she began rolling violently through the forest until she finally smashed through a tree and slid to a stop face down in the dirt.
(…….)
"Oww….." she murmured into the ground, shakily bringing her arms by her side to push herself up.
"Ugh!" she spit out the dirt in her mouth and flopped her body so she could lay on her back and at least breath.
(What the hell was THAT! I think I was on fire! I've never gone so fast in my life!)
Her legs ached now and her feet felt enflamed but Sakura was too tired to check so she instead watched the sky as the remaining smoke from her landing cleared out. She turned her head slowly looking back and forth around her to see where she was.
(Hmm, looks like forest….)
Ugh, the Leaf Village is one giant forest anyway!
(What if…I'm not in the Hidden Leaf anymore?)
Hello, forest…
(Other places have forests too!)
Where could I be?
(……..the Hidden Sound?)
ACK! No way, I couldn't have run that far.
"Don't be so modest." A voice cooed from somewhere nearby.
(CRAP)
"W…Who's there!"
"I'll give you three guesses."
"Just tell me dammit!" (I'm too tired to play guessing games)
There was silence and Sakura fumed silently but took in a deep breath and decided to play along until she could maybe move again.
"Neji."
"No."
"….Kakashi-sensei?"
"Think about it….."
"If I guess correctly will you help me?….or leave me alone or something in my benefit?"
More silence.
(That little…..gr….who the hell is it?…I hope its not Itachi or something…..but I don't think he'd be around here….hmmm….besides he'd kill me, not play games….wait…)
"…O….Orochimaru?" she asked in a tiny voice hoping he would tell her no.
"Ding, ding, ding. You win."
(NOOOOOOOOOOOO!)
"Will you go away now?" she asked trying to sound manly and unafraid.
"No, I'm going to help you like you asked."
"No, no that's ok, I changed my mind..." (I still can't move, this sucks)
A face suddenly appeared over Sakura's and she cringed when she saw Orochimaru grin down at her.
"How lovely you turned out, showing developing signs already, you make me proud."
"Fuck off!" Sakura spat.
"Don't be like that, I only gave you what you've always wanted."
"Yeah right! I liked being a female thanks."
"Power, you wanted power and I gave it to you."
"…by turning me into a guy? You're being really sexist right now…."
"You really don't know a lot about your family or yourself do you?"
"I know plenty, more than YOU do!"
Sakura felt her body lift from the ground and groaned in pain as her body was dropped into Orochimaru's arms.
"Obviously not."
"Just…what are you trying to say? Just say it and let me go!"
"I will explain if you'll be quiet a moment."
"Feh."
Orochimaru smirked down at her as he walked.
"You've always wanted to be as powerful as your teammates, you've always hated being left behind."
"And I didn't already know this?" Sakura muttered sarcastically, trying every now and then to see if her body would work.
"I'm not finished. You see, you're from a very powerful clan Sakura-chan."
Sakura had to keep herself from laughing and interrupting the snake-like man again but she shook her head lightly and bit her lip instead.
"In fact, that very powerful clan came from my village, the Hidden Sound."
Now Sakura was interested, she wasn't sure if he was trying to freak her out or if he was being serious.
"Your mother is from that clan, Sakura-chan, she ran off with some Leaf nin she met and hence you were born. Your mother's clan was a very violent clan despite their gentle appearance. I suppose that the Leaf nin that is now your father, put all sorts of different ideas in her head and dragged her away from her potential. I wouldn't let that happen to you."
The pink haired boy stared at the Sound nin in confusion; could all this be true? She couldn't be exactly sure, after all both her parents were ninja's and always away on missions. There was no way she could confirm or deny what Orochimaru was saying.
"You have very special powers locked inside you but you've been held back all your life, your parents afraid to tell you and afraid to help you unleash it."
"My parents wouldn't hold me back…" Sakura muttered softly.
"They would only stunt your growth…you see, your clan's abilities are not easily controlled as you have just seen." He said referring to her attempt to stop.
"That doesn't make any sense! Why would it just NOW come out? Why doesn't my mom have it!"
"I never said she didn't, but she could be doing just as she's done to you, simply ignoring it. The longer you ignore this power the weaker it becomes and the harder it is to get it out again and control it. Since you are still young you still have some hope….I'm afraid your mother may have suppressed it far too much for it to even emerge again."
"Why would she do that?" Sakura cried suddenly angry; her parents weren't the best nin's in the village, they were average, regular ninja's, not ANBU or anything as strong as Orochimaru was suggesting.
"So that you wouldn't know about it of course….and it might put you in danger. Like any clan, your specialty always has the possibility of being stolen. If no one knows she has it then you would be the last they'd expect."
"So why are you helping me bring it out!"
"I hate seeing power go to waste….besides, in return I want a favor."
"I'm not giving you anything! So you might as well take the powers back and turn me into a girl again!"
"Your ungrateful you know that?"
"Go get someone else from the clan to do something for you! They're in your village anyway!"
"I can't do that, you see they have all died."
"What?"
"I assume if I leave you you'll eventually figure it out but I'll explain again; clans have powers, clans want more power, clans fight with other clans to become the MOST powerful."
"And my clan lost the fight? So that means they're not so powerful!"
"Wrong, they were defeated by two clans working together against them, they could have defeated oen, but not two."
"Which two?"
"Who do you think? The two most powerful clans of the Hidden Leaf, Uchiha and Hyuuga."
"What!" (The fuck?)
"The Sound and Leaf never got along my dear, to hear that we had a powerful clan that might bring about the Leaf's destruction made them a little….tense."
Sakura couldn't believe what she was hearing! She had always admired Sasuke and Neji's power, how easily they could control their clans' abilities and how strong it made them. She knew that clans often competed, but she didn't know they would go to such great lengths to get rid of competition!
(He's lying! You don't know if he's being for real!)
"I'm surprised your mother is still with your father after that, but then again, she didn't much care for her clan or family….I guess that shows doesn't it?" Orochimaru looked down at her.
"W-what do you mean?"
"Your like a small stupid child, stop asking questions you know the answer to."
"Grr….I still don't understand how turning me into a boy brought out my powers!" Sakura snapped, beginning to feel her arms and legs again.
"Well your powers have been dormant for a long time, you needed a sudden shocking change to…I guess 'irk' your body, it helped wake up your powers."
Sakura stared in shock, everything made sense the way he explained it, but none of it could be true! None of it could be REAL! She would have heard about this clan if it was as powerful as Orochimaru said!
"Here we go, now be good for me, make me proud and think about what I said."
"Wh-?"
Orochimaru simply tossed her through a bush and she stumbled into the side of her house clumsily.
"Don't' want you getting lost, you were on your way to a dangerous place and I don't think your ready for that." his sleek voice came once more. Sakura turned quickly to either attack him or run away, but he wasn't anywhere in sight.
"Orochimaru?"
Nothing.
"OROCHIMARU!"
Still only silence, and she couldn't sense him anywhere near. A frown spread over her masculine face and she took in a deep breath leaning back against the wall of her home and sliding down to the ground.
(No way)
Her eyes began to droop slightly and she twitched angrily. Her new 'abilities' explained why she was able to stay in a fight with Lee and Neji for more than ten seconds but she didn't like the fact that she had to try control them. It felt like the powers only lasted a little while and then she would feel woozy and sleepy or she'd be unable to move.
(Do you even know exactly what they ARE?)
Not really, maybe speed and er….cutting things?
Sakura recalled again the fight with Neji and how she'd somehow cut his hair off.
(What WAS that?)
Who cares, I'm tired, I just wanna sleep.
(Yeah fine, maybe you'll wake up and all this will be gone)
Hahahaha…..
Sakura sat pouting in anger for a few seconds before her eyes slowly closed and she fell asleep, but her rest wouldn't last long.
"Found you!"
…
A/N: XD and so, Sakura…er…'Seeu's' hidden powers slowly come to light! Hahaha, Neji should be thankful for the free haircut, everyone in his family looks the same except for Hinata, he's so cool he needs a unique haircut and now he has it, besides, he still looks sexy. Anyway, some seriousness in there too, hope ya don't mind XD arg, sucky chapter, my apologies,