Red Moon
Chapter 8
"I think Samehada will have fun tonight"
A cold laugh could be heard emitting from the blue lips of the tall man with strange shark traits. It was Kisame from Akatsuki.
Sakura widened her eyes but kept her fighting stance with determination. If she was to fight this man, she needed to be calmed and prepare for the unexpected. She knew he was much stronger than she was even with her new techniques she doubted to be able to claim the victory as her own.
Even so, Sakura would not afford to loose this match for she just found a way to defeat the Akatsuki.
"Look what the snow brought! ...Shark-man Kisame"
Kisame smirked at her comment.
"Watch your words Anbu…you could be severely hurt if you don't…even dead"
With that, Kisame widened his smirk revealing two lines of sharp teeth. He advanced towards Sakura with firm steps. He didn't even position himself in a fighting stance for he was so sure of winning. He knew he could win over an Anbu he had done it many times before so why not this one?
With that, he charged in full speed towards her with his Samehada ready to attack. Sakura saw this and dodged just in time before the sword could even touch her cloak, taking advantage of the situation, Sakura gathered chakra into her fist and punched into Kisame's stomach.
Kisame widened his eyes as an unbearable pain extended through his body. This was no regular punch. Then he felt something move inside him as the agonizing pain increased.
Sakura smirked at his widened eyes. She had used one of her reserved punches into him. In fact, there was so much more hidden in her hands that not even the Sharingan could see. Sakura tried this punch in Kakashi before and he told her he only saw a punch was coming but he didn't see the other part of it.
"What is this punch…shinobi"
Sakura smirked once again and was deciding whether to tell him or not.
"I will tell you… I inserted in your body a senbon needle. When I punched you, I let go one of my needles into you and with my chakra I put it into your nervous system and keened all your nerves, the pain you feel is an example. In easier ways, it acts as a pain intensifier and I control the pain you feel"
Kisame looked at her stunned. He couldn't believe it. This Anbu must be a medic-nin for sure if he does know how to increase the pain and even insert a needle into your body in mare seconds.
"Don't underestimate me"
Sakura didn't know what hit her. In a blink of eye, Kisame had appeared in front of her and in less than a second, he swung his sword over her body leaving her with a great part of her cloak and skin gone.
Sakura widened her eyes as she fell to her side from the impact. She could feel her chakra leaving her and her blood oozing out of her left arm and shoulder. She let a weak yelp out and an agonizing scream struggling to come out on her throat but she kept it in.
The feeling of her scream intensified, and in short, she couldn't bare the agonizing pain on her arm and she didn't have enough chakra to reconstruct her skin. She was about to give up.
'This is it, I guess I am still a weakling after all of these years'
Sakura's eyelids fell a bit and her eyes darkened as she fell to the snow-covered floor. She was starting to loose hope now. She couldn't understand that after all of these years of hard training almost killing sessions with Tsunade hadn't showed in this battle. And with just one hit she was off.
A tear lingered in her eye threatening to fall off. Sakura started to remember all of her sad times as she let the darkness consume her. Her senses were now dull and her vision blurred. Then something happened…
"Sakura…get up and be strong…you've grown into a beautiful flower the best of all…its time to show them who are you…my Sakura…be strong for I will not be able to protect you this time…"
Sakura widened her eyes as she heard that voice. She knew it belonged to someone very special in her heart and a new hope raised her hopes and determination to continue with this battle.
Kisame had this sick smirk in his face as he approached the girl in the ground.
"Not so tough are we now?"
A cold laugh echoed in her head as she turned to see Kai terrified looking at her with tears in his mahogany eyes. She turned again and this time to face Kisame and glared at him.
She stood up slowly and sent chakra into her needle and saw how Kisame contracted his face in pain. He clenched his thorax and bent down trying to ease the pain in vain.
Sakura growled softly and ran to Kisame with her fist ready to attack. She punched the ground with her inhuman strength similar to Tsunade and parted the ground in two letting the Akatsuki fall down to the crack above his feet.
Kisame felt his pain doubled and the ground crack above him. He tried to move but the pain on his body was too much so he fell into the darkness. He was desperate now, who knows where this whole is leading or if it has an end so with his last efforts, he stretched out one arm and could grab one of the ends.
Sakura watched in horror as her most powerful technique didn't work on the shark-man. She was scared now.
Neji walked around the western part of the village with a frown on his face and hands on his cloak-covered pockets. He knew his mission was to look for survivors but right now he was trying to block all thoughts of a certain pink haired girl and her closeness with a certain Nara.
Oh how he hated when she talked to him so normally, he hated when she called him 'Shika-kun', he hated when he walked by her side, and he hated when Nara stared at her for more than five minutes. Yes, he had counted them and he didn't like it one bit.
His only hope was the memory of those kisses they gave each other when she was at his house.
"Maybe I'll invite her sometime over my place"
Neji was determined to win Sakura's heart again. He sighed mentally and activated his Byakuugan one more time.
Then he saw a very familiar chakra emptying from one certain kunoichi's body.
"Sakura!"
Shikamaru was seated under a tree nearly dozing off. He hadn't found anything nor anyone since they separated and sincerely, he suspected that if someone was to be found it would be probably be found by the Byakuugan or Sakura's mother instincts so he had nothing to do with that.
He looked up to look at sky when he felt a tug at his cloak. He looked down and raised his brow as he stared at gigantic sapphire eyes looking up at him
"Hey there"
Sakura stopped Kisame's attack by crossing her arms in front of her resulting in an almost completely loss of her skin and more blood. Her eyes watered as the sword pierced her skin and take away her chakra.
Her eyelids were fighting to keep themselves open but it seemed like an invisible force were making them heavier.
Kisame laughed mercilessly. He continued to push the sword further into her arms trying to break them.
"Now, lets see who is the one behind the mask"
Sakura widened her eyes and shook visibly. Who knows what he would do if he saw her maybe squishing her and wiping the floor with her or…
His hand grabbed her mask and with a swift movement it was off, his smirk faded and was replaced by a scowl. Talking about the macho fish-man.
"A kunoichi?"
Sakura glare at him with darker green eyes and with lost strength she pushed him away and punched his stomach with her last chakra. Her knees weakened and she fell to the snow.
Kisame grabbed his stomach and was ready to go and kill her.
"Now I am going to kill you…you slut!"
Kisame advanced towards her fallen body and her eyes barely open and smirked a sadistic smirk as he raised Samehada to strike her when a new voice joined the conversation.
"The only thing that is going to die is you"
Kisame turned and his face met with a very painful fist on his face that sent him flying across the small street landing a few feet away from Kai who was hidden behind old boxes.
Neji ran to the fallen girl and shook her a bit then scoop her in him arms.
"Sakura"
Dull eyes turned to stare at him with a tear sliding from her left eye quickly coming cold from the snow now falling on her face. She was bleeding badly from her arms and stomach. Her eyelids fell and her lips trembled trying to speak.
"N-Neji…I…I'm…I'm…sorry"
Sakura's weak voice reached Neji's ears making his heart sink to his toes. He hated to see her so fallen, to see her in that state he knew she hated to much, that bought back memories of her past she wanted to erase.
"Don't apologize…you did it the best you could"
Neji's hands trembled as he touched her bloodied face and slid his arm behind her probably bruised back.
"Don't close your eyes Sakura, you are going to be fine"
"Neji…I…herd…him"
"Sakura don't talk"
Neji studied her nearly white face and her dull eyes. He traveled his hand from her face to her stomach trying to stop the bleeding but wouldn't stop.
"Just wait, Sakura, I'll take you away to a better place"
"K-Kai…"
"What?"
Neji noticed now the boy behind the boxes looking at him terrified. He took off his mask and looked at him with his white eyes.
"Come here boy"
"Hi! Are you a ninja?"
"Yes"
"Oh! And you have shurikens?"
"Yes"
"Why do you wear a mask?"
"So little girls can ask about the mask"
"Can I see your face?"
"No"
"Why not?"
"Just because"
"Do you travel?"
"Yes"
"Are you from other village?"
"Yes"
"Which village?"
"None of your business"
"What is a business?"
Shikamaru sighed. He looked down to see the little thing pestering him. He really didn't think that actually, the one he was supposed to find had found him. How ironic.
"Do you have a candy?"
"No"
"Do you like my teddy bear?"
"For the last time! I have no time to answer your stupid questions!"
The girl with sapphire eyes looked at him with thick droplets coming out of her big eyes. Her lip trembled and her small arms hugged tighter the broken teddy bear covered in dust.
Shikamaru sighed and let himself drop down so he could be eyelevel with the girl.
"Listen, I didn't mean it ok…stop crying"
The girl sniffed and wiped her tears away with the back of her hand.
"Ok"
"What's your name kiddo?"
"Nami"
"Great…"
"Shikamaru!"
"Shikamaru!"
Neji yelled as he carried Sakura in his arms with Kai behind him looking up at him in awe and fright. Neji's eyes were surrounded in veins indicating that he was using his Byakuugan.
He saw him standing next to a small figure at the entrance of the village and sped up totally forgetting the poor boy far behind him.
"Hey wait!"
Shikamaru raised his eyebrow as he heard Neji shouting his name. Then he saw him in the distance and noticed Sakura sprawled in his arms severely hurt.
Neji arrived to his side and laid Sakura on the ground before he started to speak.
"She is fine, just unconscious"
"She found Kisame and fought him"
"That's bad…but that means that Akatsuki is actually involved"
"Yeah, Kisame is unconscious too so we need to leave and tell The Hokage about this"
"Let's drag the survivors along with us"
In that moment Neji noticed the little girl hiding behind Shikamaru looking at him with a big but shy smile on her face. Then turned around to see Kai trying to catch his breath due to his running and nodded.
"Yeah I think so"
A/N: Hey there, I know is a short chapter but it was my birthday and I broke my right hand so I can't write that well with left one so if you find any spelling mistakes you know why… and also I will be late updating because of the same reason.
Anyways, thanks for reading and reviewing this. I love you all.
Sincerely,
Mars7
