Ink's Notes:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA I am so sorry this took so long to get out! I was nervous about working on this chapter, plus I got really sick and had to spend quite a bit of time recovering, I'm so sorry for the delay! I hope this chapter makes up for it!

Chapter Seven

Sakura took a look around at their new surroundings. Ryo had led them to a small clearing about a mile away from the village. She idly wondered if the boys were all right, before reminding herself that they could handle themselves and they weren't the ones who were currently facing off against an A-Rank missing-nin. Marco had perched on her shoulder again, and it was helping her relax, but not by much – She'd fought S-Rank missing-nin in the form of Akatsuki before, but she'd had allies, a rough idea of their abilities, and even still it was a tough battle. And here she was, facing off against an A-Rank missing-nin with nothing more than backup in the form of her pet bird.

"Yoi," Marco said, lifting off of her shoulder and flying in midair in front of her. He glanced over his shoulder at her, then motioned with his head in the direction of the village.

"…Are… you telling me to run?" Sakura asked, mostly out of disbelief. He nodded, and she frowned. "Are you crazy?! You may have been able to beat Tama, but a B-Rank isn't even remotely in the same strength area as an A-Rank!" Marco flinched as Sakura began to scold him. "I don't know how you beat Tama in the first place, but I am not leaving you alone here to fight some shinobi that we know nothing about! We don't know his strengths, his weaknesses, or even have a remote inkling of an idea as to how to fight this guy! We'll stand a better chance of fighting him together, not one on one, and even if it were to be one on one, I would be the one fighting him, not you!"

Marco recoiled slightly, then seemed to give up and repositioned himself next to her.

"My, so your bird really was the one who beat my earth specialist?" Ryo asked, hand never leaving his sword. "And here I thought that was just a running joke you and your friends were making. He must be some bird to be able to fight a B-Rank missing-nin."

Sakura tensed, bringing her fists up. Marco's eyes narrowed. Ryo gripped the hilt of his sword.

It happened in an instant. Ryo drew his sword, only for it to be intercepted by Marco, who'd shot forward and caught the blade in his talons, keeping him from making his intended action of swinging it in a horizontal arc. Seeing this as her cue, Sakura charged forward, tightening her fist and slamming it into the ground when she was about ten feet away from Ryo. The ground cracked and broke into jagged stones that shot up in a path towards Ryo, and he was forced to abandon his attack as he jumped backwards, Marco releasing his blade as he did so. Sakura grabbed one of the jagged stones that had been brought up by her attack, before lobbing it at Ryo, Marco trailing close behind it. Ryo channeled his chakra around his blade and swung it through the stone, slicing it cleanly in two, but was unprepared for the bird that slammed his wing into his face.

Ryo tumbled backwards, holding his face with his free hand. "The hell…?" he muttered, removing his hand to reveal blood on his face. "That felt like steel…"

Marco didn't let him recover, charging forwards again. Sakura followed his example, but while Marco kept Ryo occupied, parrying sword slashes with his talons, she moved around behind him. Sakura focused her chakra and created a clone, and the clone slammed its fist into the ground, cracking it in a similar way that she'd done before, then dispelled itself. While Ryo lost his balance, Marco attacked from the front while Sakura attacked from behind, effectively sandwiching him.

Ryo stumbled from the force of the blow, before quickly going through a few hand signs. Marco and Sakura were both knocked backwards by a sudden torrent of wind spiraling around him, the wind creating multiple light gashes on Sakura's body and slicing holes in Marco's flames. Sakura shook herself out while Marco seemed to be regenerating, both taking a moment to reorient themselves from the attack, while Ryo took that same moment to compose himself. He gripped his sword, and Sakura saw chakra flow around it before he swung it through the air, releasing an arc of wind at Marco. Marco flew upwards to avoid the attack, before dive-bombing towards Ryo, his height giving him extra speed for a stronger impact. Ryo held his blade ready for the bird, but Sakura shot forwards, grabbing his wrists and pinning his hands behind his back. Ryo struggled against her grip, but she reinforced it with chakra, keeping his hands firmly in place. As she tightened her grip, she heard the telltale sound of bones cracking and Ryo was forced to drop his sword. Sakura kicked it away as Marco got closer, and the bird brought his wings in front of himself. She could have sworn they turned black just before he made contact, but she was forced to disregard that piece of information as she released Ryo's hands and jumped back while Marco slammed both wings into his face. Ryo yelled out in pain, using his now free hands to grip his bleeding face, wincing from his broken wrists.

"What kind of a jutsu is that?!" he roared, squinting through his fingers at the smug bird hovering before him. "Why is a bird able to use jutsu?!" His rage and pain made him oblivious to Sakura making hand signs behind him, and by the time he realized he had two opponents and turned to face her, she had finished them. To Ryo, the environment began to change. Noon became sunset, trees burst from the ground and began wrapping around him, and everything became colder.

Now, Ryo wasn't an idiot. He knew a genjutsu when he saw one. He began to channel his chakra to release himself from it.

But didn't get any further as Sakura and Marco simultaneously pounded his face in as hard as they could, knocking him unconscious.

Sakura had just finished securing Ryo when Naruto, Sai, Kakashi and Tama arrived carrying the other three missing-nin, whose current condition matched Ryo's – battered, beaten and bruised.

"Sakura-Chan!" Naruto called, charging over to her. "Are you all right? These guys let it slip that their leader was an A-Rank, and – what happened to you?! He didn't get you too badly, did he?!" Naruto began freaking out about her current condition, and she gently pushed him away, then began healing her own injuries. She glanced at Marco, taking a minute to comprehend that he seemed to be able to effectively restore himself (but then again, he was a phoenix, so she shouldn't be surprised...), before looking back to her team.

"I'm fine, Naruto," she smiled. "He actually didn't do that much damage. Marco and I were able to dispatch him with relative ease."

Naruto pouted, crossing his arms and glaring at Marco, who just smirked at him before perching on Sakura's shoulder. Kakashi and Sai secured the four ninja together, before Kakashi summoned his dogs and told them to go and get the proper law enforcement from the town.

"Some bird, huh?" Sai asked, looking over at Marco. "Helping you take down an A-Ranked missing-nin." Marco puffed his chest out, as if he were proud of himself. "Are you sure you can take care of him, Ugly?" In an instant, Sai found himself fending off Marco, with Naruto laughing something along the lines of it not being him for once. By the time the group managed to get Marco to stop, the proper law enforcement had arrived and taken the four missing-nin into custody. When she asked, Sai informed Sakura that Tama would be returning to Konoha with them, and they would talk to Tsunade about getting him some work there as a thanks for his help and cooperation.

"Maa, we'll start heading back to Konoha tomorrow," Kakashi spoke up, cleaning out his ear with a finger. "Let's get some rest for now."

A few murmurs of agreement, and the group was heading back to the village to rest for their trek back home.

Yes, Tama will be showing up in future chapters. I love the little dork too much to just stop using him. Maybe once I have more free time I'll make some sort of story for him? It might be fun, but we'll see.

Sorry if the fight wasn't really that great. I should probably work on my fight scenes, but then again I also don't really want the focus of this fic to be combat (since Marco's rather powerful and would probably just sweep through any antagonists they face).

Well, thank you for reading, and again, sorry for the delay. See you next time, and hopefully it won't take as long~!

-Ink