Chapter IV
The enemy's movements were sudden and sharp, weaving an unfamiliar hand sign as she screeched "Ice Style, piercing crystal jutsu!" Sakura saw hundreds of crystal shards flying towards her, casting tiny glints throughout the air as the sun's last rays clung to them like a baby to its blanket. Sakura jostled right, her eyes whipping around to try and track the trajectory of the shards while the sun aided her vision, but there were too many. The impacts felt like jumping into freezing water, feeling hundreds of thousands of pins and needles embedding into her skin at once, the sensation making Sakura gasp in pain. The stinging of the deadly ice caused her to fall to her knees, shielding her eyes, water and blood mingling in a thin pink film all over her arms and legs.
When she was flush with the forest floor, Sakura felt the glass-like crystals embed deeper into her skin, cutting into her body like tiny knives. She heard cackling as she turned her face towards the woman, feeling her ecstasy as she sauntered her way over. Sakura reached towards her ninja pouch just as a kick collided with her side, rolling her over onto her back. She hissed in the early night air and closed her eyes again, the pain overtaking her body. She forced her eyes open, her vision blurred, as she used her remaining strength to swipe her leg under her foe, toppling them to the ground alongside her, entwining her legs around the enemy to hold them in place. Sakura pushed through the agony of a thousand cuts as she grabbed a kunai from her pouch and placed it over the woman's neck. She took a ragged breath as she uttered, "You're mistaken. You really shouldn't have done that."
She saw the wildness in the woman's eyes, fully ablaze now with the sensation of a weapon so close to her artery, feeling her breathing slowly being cut off. The stranger got high off danger, had lived her life up until now facing adversary after adversary, never knowing when she would next find solace; The world she knew had long been burned down, the smoke so thick and full that it still shrouded her psyche, her nights long and tiresome from keeping one eye open, always on edge and fully aware of her surroundings so she would have the upper hand in case of an assault that was always around the corner, for that was the life she had lead, the life she grew accustomed to - the life of a killer.
Sakura pushed the kunai into her challenger's neck, utilizing her medical knowledge so that the kunai was applying enough pressure to restrict her breathing, but not enough to puncture her skin.
The woman locked her gaze upon Sakura, her ragged breaths increasing in frequency as she chuckled, slowly at first, the breath catching in her throat with each inhale, the sound deep and raspy like that of a manic hyena that was bleeding out in the Savanna.
"Y-you're good, kid," The woman sputtered as Sakura held the kunai strong against her throat, feeling her hands begin to shake from the shock of holding down someone that had such bloodlust within them. "But not good enough!"
Searing pain hit Sakura's right arm, making the kunai topple out of her hand as the woman stood up. Sakura bit her lip and turned around as the ice clone shattered, the ice nearly needling into her eyes, but Sakura shut them tightly and blocked her face with her left hand, a shard embedding into her palm instead. "Fuck!" Sakura screamed out, examining her shoulder to find blood gushing from the wound where the kunai had slashed into her. Sakura placed her right hand above her shoulder wound and concentrated her chakra, closing the bloodied hole as she sucked in breath through gritted teeth. This woman's ice is like glass, so sharp, Sakura thought. Who is she?
A cacophony of pops and explosions sounded behind the pair; it sounded like hundreds of bodies had been hurled through the air and were flying toward them. Fast-moving shadows below sped toward them as an army approached mid-air. Sakura hardly turned her head before seeing a blur of orange and yellow - so many, how many? - on a collision course with the ice woman. The mist of icy knives and needles was blown away by an oncoming storm of Narutos, a few at the front line with outstretched Rasengans absorbing the brunt of the woman's cruel icicles. The few icicles that weren't ripped apart or blown away merely cut shallow holes in the jackets of the approaching shadow clones.
The Narutos surrounded Sakura, fully obscuring her vision now, as she felt a hand rest upon her own, felt his hot breath against her neck, his chest against her back - bodies close, so close - as Naruto growled "I've got you." and Sakura felt safe again, the pain instantly evaporating into nothing at the sound of his voice.
And then she was flying; no, she was being lifted, once again, into the air by Naruto, bridal style, and they landed upon a tree branch. Naruto placed her down gently, his body was scorching from the anger he felt towards the ice woman, and he placed his hand onto Sakura's head and gently slicked her hair back and out of her face, hesitating for a millisecond when he reached the back of her neck, his hand cupping around it as though he wanted to pull her into him before he released her and disappeared into the dense forest brush, and Sakura was left in the dark.
"Rasengan!" Naruto rumbled, and Sakura heard the impact - a sound that can only be created by powerful energy forces colliding - and she jumped down again, unable to stand idly by, unable to allow herself to once again become a bystander while Naruto protected her.
"Who are you?!" Naruto screamed, his hand wrapped around the ice woman's neck, her feet not connected to the forest floor, her body pinned against a damaged tree trunk from the impact of the Rasengan. The woman was wheezing out laughs, clawing at Naruto's arm for relief, as he held her firmly.
Suddenly, an ice pillar emerged from the ground beneath Naruto, lifting him up. Startled, he dropped his hand from the enemy's neck as ice spears began to fall from the sky. Naruto jumped down, skidding his feet against the forest floor before slowing to an abrupt stop in front of Sakura, his left arm outstretched in front of her to shield her from any damage.
It had started to rain, the drops slowly falling, tickling Sakura's hair and face as they danced their way down from the sky. Sakura took note of her surroundings as the woman caught her breath and stood up, noting the way the ground beneath her feet was starting to turn soft from the rain, sinking her slightly into the mud. She looked for Akira and found her twenty feet away, hiding behind shrubbery, her face contorted into a look of pure terror and bewilderment.
The rain shifted suddenly, the drops becoming larger and now fully soaking through Sakura's clothes, and then shifting again into pellets of hail. She grabbed Naruto's arm quickly and pulled him back with her underneath a tree canopy as some hail scraped against his cheek. A smear of red dripped down Naruto's face, his eyes fully pinned onto the ice woman, as tiny icicles fell from the sky, some working their way through the protection of the canopy and shattering upon impact of the pairs heads, most likely from the double impact, Sakura noted, without the canopy, we'd likely be severely injured.
"Ice style, shrieking storm jutsu!" Sakura heard the enemies' howl too late, as a sudden burst of icy cold wind thrust her and Naruto backwards, slamming their bodies through tree after tree, the first impact knocking the wind out of her. Sakura felt the bits of ice cut into her again, the blood looking crimson in the moonlight as it pooled out of her body, gravity forcing it forward as she continued to fall back, dark crimson and bright white blurring together as her vision started giving out. Her body toppled to the ground and she slid to a stop, mud and blood mixing all over her clothes and hair; she tried to catch her breath as she looked towards the sky, the stars fuzzy and out of focus, and she slowly closed her eyes.
Kakashi saw his students flat on their backs in the mud and the rain, saw Sakura's chest rising and falling quickly, saw Naruto begin to sit up, the mud congealing around his back and fully covering the orange of his tracksuit. He ran to Naruto and offered his hand, lifting the boy up, before turning to Sakura.
He quickly scooped her up and saw her eyes crack open slightly. Good, she's still conscious. "Naruto," Kakashi's tone was hushed yet firm, "Take Sakura, find Akira, and get out of here."
"Are you crazy? I'm not doing that!" Naruto was furious, his navy blue eyes filled with the fury of a storm, "I'm going to kill her!" Naruto turned to face towards the ice woman and Kakashi stood in front of his student again, narrowing his eyes.
"Turn around." Naruto stood his ground for a moment before faltering, obeying Kakashi's command, and turned to face a crystal castle - no, not crystal - ice. The castle was huge, covering most of the abandoned field the group now stood in, and he gawked at the structure in disbelief. How had she done this without them seeing?
"She has a partner," Kakashi answered, able to predict Naruto's question in his mind before he could speak it into existence. "He's big. Tries to fight close up if he can." He stood in front of Naruto again and handed Sakura to him, a hoarse groan coming from her mouth at the feeling of the hand-off. Kakashi could tell she was in a lot of pain, and though she had plenty of chakra left, it would be difficult to utilize it in her condition and would require extreme willpower.
"But-" Naruto tried to object as he looked at Sakura's muddy and bloodied face. Her eyelids were barely open as she looked up at Naruto and he saw the way her pupils grew, ever so slightly, as he looked down at her. "I know you will, Naruto," Sakura had said to him as he sat in the hospital bed, promising her over and over that he would get Sasuke back, her hands wrapping around his own, making him stop in the middle of his sentence as he felt her warmth through his bandages, watched her spring green eyes light up as the black in her pupils expanded almost imperceptibly, the same way they did now, through the blood and the mud and the grime of it all, her eyes lit up for him and Naruto felt his heart flutter gently like the petals of a dandelion floating in the breeze and he knew he would do anything at all to save her.
Without another word, Naruto gripped Sakura tightly in his arms and ran to the left, leaving Kakashi behind. He didn't know where Akira was, but he had to get Sakura away from the fight first. He placed her against a tree, feeling terrible about leaving her in the mud but knowing he didn't really have a choice right now, and he squeezed her hand lightly as she stirred.
"I can-" She tried standing up and Naruto gently kept her on the ground with his hand on her shoulder. "You can't right now, Sakura. Please."
Sakura looked at Naruto and nodded slightly. She knew she couldn't fight like this, and as a med-nin, it was in his best interest that she stay out of sight for now in case of an injury. She would be even more useless to him if she got hit again, and so she nodded at him as tears filled her eyes, either from pain or from frustration, and Naruto used his thumb to catch them as they spilled onto her cheeks.
"Just go." She tried to sound strong but heard her voice falter. Naruto didn't acknowledge it and instead leaned in to kiss her forehead. "Just stay here. I'll handle it." And he turned around and she watched him run back towards Kakashi as she put her index and middle finger to her forehead where he had kissed her, tears freely falling from her eyes now, salt water mixing with rainwater and blood and dirt and mud, and through it all, Sakura smiled.
Author's Note: I hope you're enjoying my story! I'll admit I am not the greatest action writer in the world, but it's important to me that I write a strong Sakura and a strong Naruto for this story. I want this to stay as close to canon as possible - their abilities, personalities, and outfits are all, for the most part, the same as they are in the anime. Naruto and Sakura are fresh of the heels of the first Sasuke encounter in Shippuden in this part of the story, so Naruto doesn't have any of his later abilities, but he will get those throughout the rest of the story. The next chapter is going to be a full-on battle with less angst (I apologize to those of you who love angst, but it will be back as it wouldn't be an azurelyy story without it! Haha.) Thank you for all the reviews and faves! Obsessant, thank you for the kind words - I am so glad you are enjoying the romance and little details as much as I love writing them. Narusakufan1985, thank you for the review and I agree - NaruSaku for life!