Someone Screaming

Alternate Story - Dim Light

Ayane Selznick

The elite medic Nin jumped high and continued throwing kunais at the Akatsuki swordsman. After she blew his foot and heard his angry roar, the blue skin-toned man released the bandage that covered his sword, brandishing at mid air while she was evading all attempted hits.

He's getting wilder and wilder by the second. I have to buy some time before Neji and the others come in.

Feeling a presence behind her, she hastily grabbed some kunai from her pouch and shielded the sword that almost slashed her face. She gritted her teeth.

That proves I inflict some damage to him.

They held each other's defense for a while until Sakura decided to push him off. Quickly executing some hand seals, she called forth a fire element. Kisame angrily wielded his sword towards the ground and started executing a batch of hand seals to counter attack Sakura's element.

Earth Element: Ground Spike!

Instead of defending he made an attack! My, he's really insane!

Sakura flipped thrice and rolled towards the wide tree to make a cover. She held her hands together to form another hand seal but was cut off when she was almost gashed by Kisame's sword. Not much plan to think of, she gathered her Chakra to her fist and punched him square at his face only to recognize that it was just a Water Clone.

Shit!

Too preoccupied of searching his presence, Sakura roughly met Kisame's Samehada who lunged from below. Sakura jumped backwards a little farther away to study her situation.

Too close! Damn, how desperate is he going to kill me?

She wiped the sweat that dared to drop down her chin. She has to admit she wasn't as cunning as Shikamaru is, but she's also one of the people that Tsunade trusted in terms of battle strategy— on the spot battle tactics. In this situation however, she's in a little bad shape. She couldn't read the opponent's mind in terms of attacking her. He had this murderous intent after she exploded his foot.

Her Genin-attitude was forever gone to that she was grateful. She need not to rely on someone else to solve a certain problem instead, being one of the elite ninjas of their village, she has to rely on her strength and knowledge. She had experienced a lot battles from before.

Add this one to her list.

Well, this isn't really a great long battle she longed to experience. She needed to buy some time until Neji's troops come in to stop him and then she'll flee to where Naruto and Sasuke are after all the given instruction is to stick with the team – fight together as a team.

But for now, she has to think a plan. Fast.

She's within her country's border so she should have been advantageous in this short fight. Secondly, this enemy of hers was from Hidden Mist. Most probably he relies on water element than other elements. Noticing his previous offensive Ninjutsu to her, she noticed that it wasn't really that powerful or to be feared of. It was used to camouflage his next attack.

He relies on the power of his sword. Other than that, it has really an odd appearance, seeing it was created from shark fins. I wonder what it was made of and what it's capable of other than slicing and cutting.

Kisame pushed himself off of the ground to chase after Sakura. Noticing that she doesn't have any time to react for any possible attack, he brought his sword towards her torso… once touched; smokes clouded the Sakura in front of him.

Very tricky aren't you?

He dropped himself on the nearest branch with a loud descend. He glared at any directions and increased his sensitivity towards the opponent's presence. Just then, he noticed small shadows being cast down within his radius. He looked above and— shocked! Several kunais with exploding tags rained on him!

Sakura was hiding at some area outside the radius of the blasted area. She watched how her plan worked on him though going back from where she was just starting to develop a strategy she was done with phases one and two. First phase to create a Bunshin then the next phase was to rain explosive tags on him.

She stood proudly at her strategy and smiled bitterly, now's the time to escape and follow them.

Turning around she came face to face with the opponent! Kisame recovered fast! She was almost open-mouthed at the person in front of her.

"Same techniques won't do any good."

Then he grabbed her by the shirt with an angry pull. His other hand however leveled the sword at Sakura's neck. With precise flexibility and defined speed, Sakura put her Chakra on her right fist. She used a back fist attack to destroy the sword. Her left hand however was open with molded Chakra visibly flowing around it. She needed to be sure to finish things off.

Medical jutsus aren't just for healing. It's also for killing!

With one swift movement, she placed her open palm directly at Kisame's left chest— where his heart pumps.

Sasuke and Naruto were both trudging the path that almost reached the Valley of the End. Naruto can't stop worrying at Sakura's situation even after Sasuke told him that she would be okay. Looking at the person who would least tell something positive about Sakura, he couldn't help but feel weird around him. The Sasuke he knew was changed a little.

Other than that, he wanted to know how strong and how far this young man did to himself after the long absence, as well as betrayal from the village. Did he become stronger just like what he intended to do from the past? Did he become colder than usual? Naruto knew that this is not the moment to inquire Sasuke about his achievements and failure. What's important now is— locating Uchiha Itachi and finally finishing him off.

Looking back from the past encounters with Sasuke's brother, he had experienced deadly and cunning techniques Itachi showed to him. If his comrades weren't there maybe he was captured long time ago. Nevertheless he was young and vulnerable back then, now, he's sure to defend himself from being caught by the organization that wanted to get the Kyuubi inside him. No matter what happens, he will not surrender its power to them.

"Hey Sasuke, do you really think he'll be heading here?" He asked out of nowhere. Well, being loud mouth and talkative hasn't died down in his habits.

Sasuke didn't bother looking at him, "We're luring him away from the village borders. And the only way to lure him to whichever place we're going to fight him, he needed to look for you."

What the hell? He's using me as bait! Naruto yelled more to his thoughts while glaring at the person jumping in front of him.

"I'm not using you as common bait. I'll deal with him and force you to leave out of him."

Naruto narrowed his eyes at his former comrade, but now, he could feel that Sasuke is, again, a comrade for him. Restating the words Sasuke just said seconds ago, it simply means that Sasuke wouldn't let Itachi hurt Naruto. The blonde guy lowered his head.

Looks like I'm being protected again. How am I going to be a Hokage with all these things always happen to me?

Abruptly they both felt something swooning in front of them. Both Sasuke and Naruto split up and searched for the person whoever threw the kunai with exploding tags looping around it. They knew who it was but feared where he would be hiding. Naruto had his palms balled into fist while trembling because of both anger and fear, as they would be facing the person that Sasuke hated the most.

On the other hand however, Sasuke was noticeably seething with fury. He had activated his level 3 Sharingan to detect Itachi's chakra everywhere.

Tch. You better not runaway from me, bastard. Let's finish this thing once and for all.

Unbeknowst to Sasuke, a zooming figure coming from the ground he positioned himself to, was currently preparing to stab him from behind.

"Sasuke, behind you!" Naruto yelled from afar, seeing that his comrade was totally engulfed with all excitement thinking that Itachi is right in their hands.

Hastily, Sasuke rolled out of his location and threw two sharp kunais at the figure. It doesn't have a face and they both assumed that it was a Bunshin. The young Uchiha jumped to where Naruto was and resumed searching for his bastard of a brother.

"He's playing hide and seek huh." Naruto would say, helping his comrade to look for the Akatsuki brother.

"Shut up and keep looking." Sasuke quickly retorted. Few minutes later he would say, "Stay close to me until we find him."

Naruto glared at him at the corner of his eyes with mocking statement, "You're not in charge in here, Sasuke-teme."

Said person couldn't help but notice the suffix that Naruto would always add when calling him by his name. It makes him remember their old Team 7 day with all of their childish antics and unbelievable teamwork. With all those times during his very young age he would of dreamed of having a power to turn back time. If only he was more livelier and friendly… then maybe—

Tch. Enough of this reminiscing. We've got to find Itachi before he attacks us again.

When he turned to his left a zooming weapon flung towards his face.

"SASUKE!"

Thud… thud!

Pairs of feet landed gracefully yet soundly at several tree branches within the forest. Their team leader occasionally used his advanced bloodline technique together with his medical Nin cousin to look for their target.

"Did you find them, Hinata?" One of the crew would ask.

Said person deactivated the bloodline technique only to shaking her head in dismay. All of them turned to their ANBU captain hoping that he found some hints, clues or luckily the target itself. Hyuuga Neji did not deactivate his Byakugan. He had himself stunned for a moment while he was obviously looking at something else. His fiancée noticed this and went towards him.

"Neji, what's wrong?"

Neji's eyes turned to his fiancée for a moment and returned to where he had been looking. His whole team got curious to the point that they were itching to ask him what he just found out. It was like reading their minds when raised his right hand with his two fingers up for a signal.

"Target found. Scatter at my signal."

Neji bent his two fingers commanding them to scatter.

GYAAAAAAAH!

She was thrown at faraway distance due to his surprising strength. Sakura's back went past the sturdy branches until she reached one final trunk with a painful growl and slid down helplessly. She sucked in breath horrendously. Crouching and limping away from the trunk, she coughed out a little amount of blood. Feeling the pain at her back, she immediately executed her medical techniques to heal herself.

And I thought I am able to deal great damage to him. Seems like that sword wasn't meant for slicing alone.

Sakura looked at her left hand, the one she used to accumulate Chakra thinking she was able to kill him with one shot.

The moment I almost hit him with my palm, he shielded himself with that sword. At the same time, I noticed how my mounted Chakra quickly sucked away.

Sakura slowly looked at where her opponent is, glaring yet studying what he is capable of.

That sword is quite amusing. Being able to slash you and sucking your Chakra out of your body. I wonder if it could transfer Chakra to its wielder.

Finishing her healing sessions, her gloved fist reached to her lower face wiping away the trailing blood at her lips. Crackling the other that hanged beside her, she hastily launched herself ascending to where Kisame was.

I will destroy that thing before it sucks in my entire Chakra!

Sakura jumped a little bit a higher, disappeared in front of Kisame only to reappear behind him. She rolled herself in the air with one final move as she raised her leg in a high arc and dropped it heavily at Kisame's back resulting to another loud angry growl. This time, it was Kisame who was thrown towards the ground with a loud fall creating a massive crater that surrounded him. Smoke came up on the view as Sakura arrived at a branch to see her fallen enemy. She brought her hands together assuming she was executing another set of hand seals only to be messed up by water dragons coming up from where Kisame was.

Sakura jumped and evaded the dragons that chased her. She would occasionally perform some seals to destroy the Ninjutsu. Finishing the last head of the dragon, she noticed that Kisame was gone from his previous position.

Shit!

As if on cue, Kisame connected his foot at Sakura's shoulder blades almost touching the position of her spinal cord. Sakura reacted with a painful cry while dropping at full speed towards the ground. Kisame followed her direction while dragging his sword that stuck at the middle of a large trunk. He dashed towards Sakura's location with trailing smoke behind him and his sword as he as cutting the middle of the tree. When he entered the scene, Sakura was gone.

The brat's fast eh?

His opponent reappeared from some bushes to attack him from behind using her Chakra covered fist but with utmost timing, Kisame twirled around and protected himself again using his sword. Sakura's eyes widened.

Shit! He'll extract Chakra again!

She pulled her fist back and resorted to throwing of kunais to him.

I shouldn't use my entire weapon for this shark man alone.

Kisame ran to her and started attacking her with his sword.

"What's wrong kid? Have you lost your Chakra?"

Sakura gritted her teeth while evading his attempted hits on her. He started laughing when Sakura lost her balance and finally regained it only to evade another set of incoming hits.

He's that desperate to kill me, really.

She twisted her feet and crouched swiftly until she saw an opening to where she would deliver her next attack – to his abdomen.

"SHANNARO!"

The sound of a fist connected to a body part of her opponent echoed throughout the forest. Once again, Kisame was thrown to a far distance, thrashing and slumping at all trunks he broke in. Sakura noticed the Samehada left dropping at the ground. She walked towards it and examined the sword.

I can feel my Chakra being sucked in but I don't know how to get it back. Somehow she smirked, either way I have to destroy this one before he use this to hit me.

Gathering her remaining Chakra to her fist, Sakura prepared herself to one of her devastating blow as her balled palms emitted a dangerous yet visible amount of Chakra. Her eyes almost shut close for she roughly felt her energy being used to just one sword.

"IYAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Her fist was moving fast towards the target of her hit with all her condensed Chakra visibly crying out to finally crush the remaining tool of this pathetic encounter. What she didn't know was Kisame had recovered a little from her last blow only to return to her at full speed. The moment her fist inched closer at the sword was the time she sensed Kisame's presence nearing her. She didn't stop her intention of destroying the goddamn thing and never thought of any possible casualties that might happen after this.

Her attempted hit at the sword…

Kisame approaching at great speed…

Can she destroy the sword called Samehada—

KONOHA SENPUU!

In an instant, the blue skin-toned Akatsuki surprised to feel another group of Chakra that approached him. One of which attacked him but he was able to defend himself. Nonetheless, his sword was shattered completely by Sakura's enormous strength.

The female ninja watched the sword being shattered at all directions. She only noticed her comrades enter the scene when one of them, the person clad in green jumpsuit, stood up and called out her name.

"Sakura-san!"

"Oh." Sakura turned around to meet the person who called her, "Lee-san!" She was rather surprised to see him approaching to her.

Looking closely at her status, Lee could imagine how she fought with the Akatsuki. He believed her strength and knowledge in terms of combat experiences. Other than that, the determination not to be defeated is at his top list. Knowing Sakura, she would think of every possible ways to destroy, defeat and outsmart the enemy.

"We're lucky to find you." He jabbed his finger behind him and pointed at Shino, "His bugs are awfully good."

"These aren't just bugs." Shino butted in and walked towards Sakura. "Where are Sasuke and Naruto?"

Sakura recomposed herself completely. Dusting off the imaginary dirt in her forearms. "They went ahead. I told them I'd be holding off the Akatsuki." She shot an incredulous look at the fallen Akatsuki behind the two. "Contact Neji-san's troop and take the Akatsuki. I have to run after my team."

Lee and Shino nodded at her command and watched her as she was preparing to take off.

"Thanks for the great timing, Lee-san, Shino-san."

As always, Lee raised his thumb up and flashed his shining teeth while Shino nodded, yet again, at her. When Sakura left, Shino and Lee readied themselves upon noticing that the fallen figure behind them was a Bunshin.

"The beautiful green beast of Konoha is ready to kick your ass!"

Shino spread his arms as his bugs started flying off the host.

CLANG!

Sasuke stood in astonishment with widened eyes and almost trembling fingers. Recalling what just happened minutes ago, he couldn't believe that the person he always called as a "drop out" would save his life once again. The first time was during the Chuunin Exams— where Orochimaru's overly large snake attempted to go after him but with an utmost timing and strength, Naruto prevent the snake from attacking him. Naruto mimicked his words. The one he said when he saved him and Sakura from the Demon Brothers—

"Are you okay, Scaredy-cat?"

Now it was like Naruto was telling him the same words right in front of his face. But no, Naruto said nothing and he was even keeping up his senses to locate the elder Uchiha traitor. Unwinding his mixed up emotions he glared at a location where he finally saw the culprit of all the attacks. He slowly walked in front of Naruto and discarded the bandage he rolled in his left hand.

"What the hell are you doing—" Before Naruto could continue his statement he thought of following Sasuke's eyes.

Up on a branch was a figure clad in black and red Akatsuki cloak, standing and watching them menacingly. Naruto could visibly see the bloody red eyes amidst the high collar of the cloak.

"Long time no see, little brother." He finally said after some intense minutes of just watching and waiting for the other to come up or down to start the fight.

Sasuke didn't take off his eyes at his brother. Deep inside his mind was a bountiful ways of how he would kill his brother.

"I'm not your little brother, bastard." Sasuke mocked at his once brother while sneaking his other hand behind him to reach his backpack.

Itachi moved his eyes towards the person that involved in his mission. He failed to get him at first try and he wouldn't want to make the same mistake again. He narrowed his eyes at the Jinchuuriki and smirked.

"Long time no see, Naruto-kun."

Said person glared back at the older brother of his comrade. His eyes turned to bloody red, too. Orbs that were similar to the eyes of the Nine tailed demon fox that resided in his stomach. His teeth slowly growing and sharpening each second while he was staring with fury at the subject of this commotion.

"I won't let you have the nine tailed demon fox!" Naruto head on with much more fury as he readied his fist that was covered by his red chakra.

Sasuke shouted at him, "NARUTO!"

The blonde ninja tried to hit the Akatsuki man square at his face but the target seemed to have fast reflexes as he was before. Itachi was able to stop Naruto's attempt by lifting his right hand to grab his leg and threw him far off distance of the arena. In some split second, Sasuke appeared after he threw off Naruto. Sasuke delivered a roundhouse kick at his face only to be evaded when he rolled sideways. In an instant however, he was able to summon a Grand Fireball technique towards Sasuke who was still in mid air.

POOF!

Kawarimi. What a reflex.

Next thing he knew, Sasuke was behind him and was trying to deliver another swift kick at his spinal cord. Itachi was hit at that moment but was able to recompose himself before his little brother gave him a strong punch in the face. He was able to deflect it with his arm brandishing off Sasuke's wrist.

Sasuke back flipped twice and resumed glaring at his brother.

"I will make this place your death bed."

To be continued…

Author's Note: I'm running out of ideas. My pRO character is going 99 but I'm too lazy to play it. The Episode Fillers suck big time. Gladly, Gaara's alive but the Shukaku is gone, can he stand the position as the Kazekage without its power?

Watch out for our Naruto group at Hero TV Launch! (wide grins) Shannaro!