By the Sword

BY: ang3Lix

CHAPTER: confronting the evil asshole

Hello guys, just wanna remind you that the author's notes are found at the bottom of the page, okay? Really important, so please read. Thank you! Enjoy y'all!

" You!" a female baritone yelled behind him, " Don't you dare take another step!"

The younger prince of Konoha stiffened at the command. Were women in this village supposed to be aggressive and impertinent? He was uncertain of what females acted in this part of town. But he had no second thoughts that this one is far from being effeminate.

Sasuke, being the egocentric person that he really was, ignored the holler that inhabited the streets. As both him and Naruto trudged through the cobble-stoned road, his best friend nudged him sharply on the ribs.

" Oi, Sasuke, I think the girl is calling after you." He stated, his voice a notch above a whisper.

" I don't care." The sable haired juvenile said simply, his statement sounding more like an irritated scoff.

Sakura watched as the two continued their walk, not even taking a small look back. Snarling vehemently, she trudged angrily to a nearby food stall. Scooping handfuls of what it seemed like white oval things, she gave her promise of full payment to the vendor by tomorrow.

By the time she was back on her current position moments ago, a small smirk already inhabited her pinkish lips.

Cradling the rest of the makeshift projectiles on one arm, she carefully took one within her delicate fingers.

Without even a mere blink, she threw it in the air, caught it once more, and hurled it straight to a person's head.

Without further mumblings or catchy phrases, she continued raining the man with her improvised grenades.

" Oh well, you never cared about anything," Naruto sighed, placing his arms behind is yellow, spiked up head, " so why start now?"

" 'Never thought you'd be that smart to realize." The young Uchiha jeered, smirking his all too famous sneer.

Of course, Naruto would be likely to retaliate with a smart and kick-ass comment. But who would have thought someone else had beaten him to it? Not to mention that person's comeback remark was much, much better than his could have been.

SPLAT!

A thick, slimy concoction slid down the prince's head, dripping sloppily into his clothing. White eggshells came along with it, some tangling with his jet-black tendrils.

Even before Naruto can open his slightly parted mouth to snicker at his rival-slash-best friend, he barely saw several more of these temporary bullets raining down on both of them. Lifting his arms to cover his head, he felt the things smash against his clothing.

When the torrent of eggs finally ceased, Naruto peeked slowly from his folded arms, a single cerulean orb popped open.

" HEY! I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!" he then protested, picking away eggshells from his garb. " … but she has an AWESOME aim!" Naruto started to cheer, obviously back to his jovial self.

The female responsible for the messy volley walked to where both boys stood. Sticking out her tongue playfully at them, she said, " That's for not stopping, you dumb asses."

" And she has a colorful vocabulary!" Naruto added, " Cool! What's your name?"

Ignoring the question, Sakura glowered at the brooding royalty before her. " Give me back my family's land." She ordered firmly, her tone of voice dropping dangerously low.

Snorting, Sasuke responded so simply, " No. And do I know you?"

" Well, you do now!" she yelled, her left leg boosting up by mere reflex, attempting to deliver a 45 degree kick on his midsection.

Unfortunately for the Haruno girl, five men in heavy metal armor came out of their hidden positions, four of them surrounding her, while the last blocked the kick for Sasuke. Truth be told, he was pretty much displeased by their appearance.

" No one harms the prince." The soldier before her muttered, sliding his sword out of his sheath. " The punishment for attempting is most severe."

" You guys again!" Sakura asked indecorously, seeing the same armoring and wielded logo in the metal covering one of their shoulders. " He's the prince?" she added curiously.

" You… you mean you don't know!" Naruto asked, flabbergasted at the recent discovery.

Shrugging in an indifferent manner, she reasoned, " I didn't care. And still not caring."

She easily felt the swift movement of the soldier behind her. She tried ducking, but the moment she twisted her body to evade the punch, Sakura felt a stinging sensation on her midriff. The man's fist barely singed her cheeks, and followed it up with a hard jab in the stomach. Stumbling back a few steps, Sakura side-stepped to dodge the unsheathed weapon her adversary thrusted in her direction.

The girl once again felt the same sensation burn her lower torso. Clinching her teeth together, she quickly disregarded the ache. In a fluid motion Sakura rapidly dropped into one knee and sent a rigid stab on his stomach using the handle of her sword. Apparently, she was quick enough the pull her weapon out, which was strapped on her back a while ago.

While she watched her opponent stumble back and struggling for breaths, she went to work with the other four. Blocking the sword that made a beeline for her neck, the warrior standing on her front received a kick straight on his jugular, his armor digging a little onto his flesh.

People began to form crowds around them, eager to see the outcome of the brawl.

" WOW! SHE'S TOTALLY AWESOME!" Naruto yelled in excitement, jumping up and down. " GO GIRLY! GO GIRLY! IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY!"

" DON'T CALL ME GIRLY!" Sakura nearly choked out, easily discarding her third adversary.

Sasuke watched both in utter shock and amusement. A very interesting girl…

Only two more left then. Both were standing, one before her and one behind her back, their swords drawn out. Without much of a glance behind her, she flipped her weapon, so that the handle of the sword was directed rearward. In one smooth move, she sent the sword handle-first to the combatant behind her, and ducked to evade the sword swinging for her neck. She was satisfied with the crash of metal-to-metal collision that took place; when her sword made contact with her enemy. Performing a accurate leg sweep, the last fighter hit the ground with a dull thud. His headgear rolled off towards the surrounding crowd.

Sakura roughly took his hand, twisted his wrist until his blade came loose. Stepping firmly on his shielded chest, she pointed the weapon towards his exposed and unprotected neck.

" Give up?" Sakura asked.

She grinned faintly when the man nodded his head, obviously in a way a traumatized person would.

Wit in the bustling and murmuring crowds, as small child picked the armor within his chubby arms. His eyes sparkled with admiration.

" Wow! Sakura-sama, you're so cool…" he called softly.

Smiling gently, she moved to where the boy stood. Kneeling gingerly, she said, " Don't call me Sakura-sama, 'kay? Sister would be good enough for me."

He nodded in a child-like way. " Sister, can I have this?" he asked, extending his arms to show him the abandoned headgear.

Sakura nodded.

The boy's mother moved forward. " Miss, I can't pay for this…" she began.

" Oh, no, no, it's on me." She stated in an assuring modus.

As both retreated back to into the clumps of towns people, she felt another presence behind her. Realizing it was not of an ally, she turned to send him a hit straight at the jaw, but found it blocked with accuracy.

What came next was expected of course. A sensation of ache pivoted through her head, as she lost control of her consciousness. She knew she was right then slipping away into a sure blackout.

Soon enough, that was the exact thing that happened.

Itachi was, to say simply, amused.

It's not on a regular basis that his cute, little, trotting younger brother brought home a living, breathing girl. Okay, so she's a bit unconscious, so what? She's still technically alive, right?

Itachi turned to Kakashi, who was currently discussing some matters with him just a while ago. But now, he too was eyeing Sasuke with the same hilarity as he was.

The girl was currently slung on his brother's strong shoulder, her unique, cerise tendrils spilling down gracefully. Her eyes were hidden behind their lids, and her lips were parted slightly. She bore all the signs of being cataleptic.

Now was a perfect time to ridicule his otouto, he had thought with that sadistic glint in his jet-black orbs. " Sasuke, hanging out with Kakashi a lot lately?" he jeered, knowing that he was prodding a whole bundle of sensitive nerves by that single statement.

Judging by how Sasuke was taking in a hue of heavy scarlet, it was clearly a 'shut up, or else I'll gnaw your head off with one bite' kind of reaction.

" Aaw, our little twerp is growing up." Itachi cooed, snickering as well.

" Shut up, Itachi." The younger of the two siblings gnarled beastly.

I need someone to take her someplace else, right now…

As if on cue, two servants gossiping and giggling with each other happened to pass by, oblivious by their presence. The moment they realized that they were absolutely not alone, both woman began stammering words of deepest apologies.

Disregarding their continuous mumblings and nervous fidgeting, Sasuke quickly unloaded the human package off his shoulder, and tossed her onto the outstretched arms of the maids. They barely caught Sakura's tumbling figure.

" Get her cleaned." Sasuke ordered, which caused the trembling females to nod their heads vigorously. " She stinks."

" No she doesn't, Sasuke-bastard." Naruto protested stubbornly.

" You sniffed her?"

" No," the knight said, " I just have keener senses than you do."

Kiriko sped through the bustling streets, trying his hardest to avoid the persons that came the other way.

He had checked everywhere.

Back at home, at the market, down the riverbed, back to their training spot, and back home again. He was getting damn tired of trying to find her, and yet, his efforts seemed wasted.

He did not like it when his efforts were wasted.

" Oi! Kiriko! Over here!"

His jade-green eyes scanned the vicinity for the sources of the voices. Halting into a stop, he spotted several familiar faces near the dango shop. All three slapped several bills onto the table, left the stall and jogged to were Kiriko stood.

" Hey…" Kiriko muttered, huffing out deep breaths.

" Man, every time I see you, you're all exhausted!" the one with bright scarlet hair complained, " What's up with all the work?"

Shaking his head vigorously, Kiriko began, " I need to find—"

" No, no, it's not the work, Kazuki!" another one quoted, grinning widely, " You know Kiriko's no match for his sister! Sakura, right?"

" Shut up, Hoshino!" the last hissed. He then turned to Kiriko, a thin layer of misery masking his orbs. " Dude, sorry for what happened to your little sis."

With that very statement, Kiriko's head snapped up, his emerald eyes flashing viciously. " What happened to her?" he hissed out.

" Uchiha Sasuke knocked her out." Kazuki spoke hollowly, " Then took her away."

" I mean, you know him. He's the prince of Konoha, and Sakura came up and tried to beat the crap outta' him. Then all these soldiers came out, and after she knocked them all out, he sneaked up on her back and knocked her unconscious." Hoshino explained, raking his hand through his hair.

" The crowd who watched heard she wanted your family's land back. No one couldn't do anything about it though, every person was scared of what might happen. Uchiha has the power over all of us."

There was a period of silence. The only thing they could hear was the shuffling of different footsteps.

" Kiriko?" Kazuki asked cautiously, " You still okay?"

" No." he snarled, his orbs gleaming dangerously. " I'll be back by 8 o'clock. I'll meet you guys at the ramen stand as usual."

As soon as he said those words, Kiriko had already disappeared.

All three craned their necks to gaze at the clock tower that hovered above the other buildings.

It said 7:30.

" Your brother took a woman home?" the king asked, doubting the whole idea.

" Yes, father." Itachi answered, taking a gulp from the golden goblet that stood beside his plate. " I think her name is Sakura. Maybe Haruno Sakura, I heard from other villagers that she was joining unregistered tournaments in sword fighting."

Everything fell into silence.

An almost voiceless murmur escaped Shizuke's lips. " Haruno…?"

Author's Notes

Uh… hey everybody! Long time no see!

Okay, so I have not yet been updating like a good author should. But hey! I do have a life apart from writing fan fictions. But, though I have my reasons, I would like to say I'm really, really sorry for the long delay.

If you ever had read my profile, I mentioned about 3 new titles to watch out for. Affections across time, Spinning Scarlet, Elemental and another one I couldn't remember are going to be posted in… I dunno, months time.

Please read! (and review if you want to answer my questions, or scold me for updating late)

Bye!

ang3Lix