Chapter 9

Matsuri sat with her back turned to Sakura. She was angry with the rosette. How dare she compare her tragic love life with mine. Who does she think she is? Just because she had a failed relationship didn't mean that that was going to happen to her. The brunette let out a soft scoff. Sakura didn't know anything about her.

Matsuri continued to ponder on the questions that Sakura had asked her. The more she thought about it, the more it made her angry. There was no way that her Gaara would ever fall in love with someone from outside of Suna. As she sat there, she balled her fists and ground her teeth. Sakura had no right to tell her those things.

It would be so easy for her to take Sakura out right now, Matsuri thought angrily to herself. Sakura is too trusting. Even though she was angry with her traveling companion, she remembered that Sakura didn't know what the true intentions were for the trials. I'm glad she doesn't know the truth.

Matsuri, in her anger, contemplated knocking Sakura out and running off with her supplies, but she remembered the kunoichi from Mist was still out there somewhere. That kunoichi had been her first opponent. For some reason, the girl hadn't finished her off. It seemed as if she wasn't even serious about the trials. If she wanted to survive this, then she was going to need Sakura's help to combat the kunoichi from Mist.

The brunette decided to let Sakura be for now. She wasn't going to forgive her for trying to sway her feelings away from Gaara. Once she finished the trials, then Gaara would see how strong she was and be more approving of her. She would have the title of Kazehime and she would be able to spend more time with Gaara. If he didn't love her now, then he would learn to love her over time. After she made her decision, the brunette laid down in her spot and fell asleep dreaming of Gaara.

Sakura had tried to fall asleep after her conversation with Matsuri, but the noise of the storm batting against their shelter had kept her awake. She rolled over and noticed that Matsuri had finally fallen asleep. She knew that the brunette was angry with her, but the girl needed to accept reality for what it was. Gaara was the Kazekage and needed to be with someone that would understand him and also be able to support him. Gaara had a lot of responsibility on his shoulders. Matsuri wanted a fairytale romance, but not everyone got to have a romance like that. The only one who seemed to get that kind of romance was Naruto and Hinata, she sighed to herself.

Morning would be coming soon and they still had a long way to get to Suna. She tried to let the wind of the sandstorm lull her back to sleep.

A few hours later, Sakura woke up to everything being quiet. When she looked between the slats of the building, she could see that the storm had finally passed over them. She sat up on her cloak and pulled out her food storage scroll. She was tempted to be selfish and not share her food with Matsuri and to just leave the girl in the shelter, but her kind heart won the battle. What kind of person would she be if she left another person to suffer. However, being a medic, Sakura had vowed to do no harm and leaving someone to survive on their own went against that promise.

Matsuri was like a bratty, younger sister, but a sister nonetheless. If only Masuri could change and this was a different time, Sakura thought, the two of them could be fast friends - but this was not a different time.

Sakura hauled herself to her feet and walked over to where Matsuri was sleeping. She reached down and shook the girl awake. "Matsuri, it's time to get up," she told the sleeping girl. "We'll need to leave soon. Here is a granola bar and a canteen with water."

The rosette walked back over to where her cloak was and finished her breakfast.

Matsuri didn't want to get up yet, but hearing that there was food and water available to her forced her to get up faster. She ate the granola bar and drank some of the water that was in the canteen. "How much water do we have left?" she asked the rosette.

"I think we have three canteens left with water," Sakura answered her while putting the scroll back in her pack.

"If we keep walking north, we should come across an oasis soon," Matsuri informed her travelling companion. "We could probably fill most of the canteens there."

Sakura nodded her head at Matsuri while she gathered her things. "Let's get going."

After exiting their shelter, Sakura looked at the compass to get their bearings and started walking in the direction of Suna.

They both walked in silence. Matsuri didn't want to talk to Sakura. She was afraid that if she said anything about Gaara, then she would be accused of having a crush. Like that was true, she mentally scoffed. She knew her feelings for Gaara were real and nothing Sakura would tell her was going to make her change her mind.

Sakura was used to talking a lot when she was with other people. She didn't always feel comfortable in long silences, but she could tell that this was a time when she needed to be quiet. The vibes she was getting from Matsuri were not good. The girl was still angry with her. Again, she was tempted to leave the girl and go her own way. Mentally rolling her eyes, she just kept walking.

Before the end of the day, they had been attacked three times. Each time they were able to knock out their opponents. Sakura thought they must be getting closer to Suna if they were coming across more opponents. She was also surprised that Matsuri was starting to fight alongside her. Maybe the girl was starting to warm up to her and maybe she decided to listen to her about working together during their battles.

Sakura decided to stop for the night after walking two more hours after their last battle. She needed rest and needed to be able to restore her chakra supplies. She handed Matsuri some fruit and a granola bar. She also shared some of the dehydrated meat she had stowed away. They shared a canteen between them and said goodnight to each other.

The next day they continued their journey. Around noon time Sakura thought she was starting to see an oasis, but doubted herself and thought that she was seeing a mirage. "Matsuri, is that an oasis up ahead?"

Matsuri wiped the sweat from her forehead and looked to where Sakura was pointing. "Yes. That's the oasis. Let's get moving. The sooner we get there, the sooner we can get something to drink and maybe wash our faces," she said excitedly.

"Great." Sakura exclaimed and she joined Matsuri in the run towards the oasis. Matsuri was laughing so hard as she ran that she missed the exploding tag hanging from a trip wire. When the explosion rang out, it threw Matsuri into the oasis and just knocked Sakura off of her feet as she was on the outside of the blast range.

Unbeknownst to them, traps had been laid around the entirety of the oasis. A kunoichi from Mist had come across this spot and knew that the other participants would most definitely be stopping here for water. This would be the best spot to take out her competition, so she set up camp waiting for the foolish kunoichis to come her way.

Hearing one of her traps go off, the Mist kunoichi left her tent to see who her next victims...err - opponents would be. She saw a brunette face down in the water and someone with pink hair starting to stand up a little ways away from the trap she had laid. Hmm… pink hair. What a novel concept. She should be easy to take down, Kasumi thought to herself.

Kasumi walked over the water in the oasis not bothering to look down at the girl floating in the water and waited for the pink-haired girl to come to her. She didn't like wasting her chakra if it wasn't necessary.

After the blast had knocked her off her feet, Sakura checked herself to make sure she wasn't hurt anywhere. Not finding any injuries, she started standing when she noticed someone with green hair walking towards her and then stopping a little ways past the oasis. The green-haired girl was watching her. "I see you laid traps around the oasis," Sakura shouted toward the girl. "A good tactic if you want to protect something. Are you a participant in Suna's kunoichi competition?"

"Why, yes I am. It looks like you are a participant as well," the Mist kunoichi chuckled at Sakura. "Well, why don't you come at me? I want to get this fight over with and go back to resting in my tent."

"I'll be right with you as soon as I check over my friend first." Sakura saw Matsuri floating face down in the water and worried that the girl might drown when she came too or even before.

"No. You will fight me first. She should be able to take care of herself," the Mist kunoichi told Sakura.

Sakura was not happy with that answer. Matsuri was in danger and this girl was preventing her from doing her job as a medic. Sakura figured even if she told the girl that she was a medic, she still wouldn't be allowed near Masuri. I'll just have to fight her to get to Matsuri. Hopefully, this won't take too long, she thought to herself.

Sakura squared her shoulders and looked around the oasis. She wasn't sure where all the traps were laid and how many there were. Using a jutsu she pulled water from the canteen hanging from her belt. The water was used to take out the blast tags closest to her. She then poured chakra into her feet and into her fists. After the blast tags had been taken out, she ran towards the girl with her right fist extended. She jumped, yelling SHANNARO, and made to punch her opponent, but the green-haired girl jumped out of the way.

"Is that the best you can do?" the girl laughed at Sakura. Kasumi figured that the pink-haired girl was a short range fighter. Well, that was going to make things easier for her. This battle shouldn't take too long. She decided to wait for the rosette to attack her again.

Now that she was closer to the oasis, Sakura felt that she would be able to use stronger water jutsus against her competitor. The ground around the oasis also would be of some benefit to her as the desert sand just absorbed most of her punches. She still was not close enough to Matsuri to rescue her from the water that she was floating in. Sakura was hoping the Mist girl would start attacking, so she could get a read on how she fought, but it seemed as if the girl was waiting for her to attack.

Sakura pulled out some of her shuriken and threw them at the girl, then jumped up into one of the palm trees near the oasis.

Kasumi watched as the shurikens came her way and quickly formed a water shield and protected herself from the oncoming attack. When she looked up to see Sakura in the palm tree she felt disappointment. It seemed like such a cowardly act to hide in a tree. "Already running away," she challenged. "You kunoichi are all fools. Allowing yourselves to fight each other over a man."

What is she talking about, Sakura wondered. What man is she talking about? She wasn't here to fight over a man. She was just supposed to be a medic. It was Temari who dragged her into this competition. She only fought because she had to. All she knew was that this competition was supposed to show who the strongest kunoichi was. There was no way a man could be involved with this competition. Sakura wanted to ask the kunoichi what she was talking about, but it would take time away from rescuing Matsuri so she decided to continue the battle instead.

Sakura jumped down from the tree and formed the hand signs to create a water chakra whip.

The Mist kunoichi used her chakra and water to form a short water sword with her hand. She lifted it and tried to stab the Konoha nin with it. Sakura recognized the technique for the sword to be similar to her chakra scalpel. She dodged the attack from the sword.

Sakura then slung the whip, hitting the girl in the arm holding the water chakra sword. She heard the girl yelp in pain. Seeing that the girl was distracted, Sakura ran at the girl and punched her in the shoulder.

Kasumi slid backwards from the force of the hit, but remained standing. Sounding out a growl, she created her own water whip and struck back at the rosette.

Sakura moved out of the way of the whip and then ran towards her opponent. She then jumped and flipped high above the girl, landing behind her. When she landed she gave a roundhouse kick to the kunoichi's back. Her opponent was thrown forward and landed face first in the sand.

Kasumi quickly got back up to her feet and created a water clone. The water clone ran at Sakura with a kunai. It attacked Sakura, but she was ready and defended herself with her own kunai. The clone and Sakura clashed, matching kunai attacks and punches. Sakura lept back away from her attacker. This fight was taking longer than she expected. It seemed almost as if she and her opponent were on equal footing, almost. The rosette created another chakra whip using water and lashed out at the clone. She was able to take out the clone after the third hit by wrapping the length of the whip around the clone's neck.

Kasumi watched as Sakura defeated her clone. Angered, she started the hand signs and yelled out Suiton: Fuuma Mizu Shuriken (Water Release: Evil Windmill Water Shuriken), creating a large fuuma shuriken made of water and launched it at the rosette. Distracted from the smoke of the disappearing clone, Sakura caught sight of the large water shuriken at the last second and moved to dodge it, but was clipped on her left shoulder. She fell to the ground in pain from the hit. She quickly grabbed her shoulder to check the damage. Noticing that the damage was not extensive, she left the wound alone in order to save her chakra.

While holding her shoulder, Sakura clambered to her feet. She gave an angry glare to her adversary and decided to ask the girl what her name was. "I'd like to know the name of the girl I'm fighting," she told her opponent.

Laughing, she told the pinkette "I'm Fujita Kasumi and I'm from Mist. If this is all you can do, than I will easily defeat you just like I did the other kunoichis who crossed my paths. You are all weak and foolish women."

"It's nice to meet you, Fujita-san. My name is Haruno Sakura, apprentice to the fifth Hokage. I'm certain you have heard of me," not condescending, but with the confidence of a seasoned warrior. "I won't be taken down that easily. I'm just getting warmed up," she grinned at the green-haired girl.

"Hmph. I don't care who you are. You will fall just like the others," Kasumi declared while she did the hand signs for the Hidden Mist technique, blanketing the area in a fine mist. She then created another water clone and both ran at Sakura from different sides to attack the rosette.

Sakura recognized the mist technique and remembered her first mission to the Land of Waves, when Zabuza had used this jutsu. It was good for a distraction, but Sakura wasn't going to let it work on her. She created her own clones and they dispersed within the mist. Sakura sent one of the clones to rescue Matsuri from the water in the oasis. Sakura and the other clone waited for Kasumi's attack.

Using the Mist vision technique, Kasumi watched as Sakura created her clones and went to hide amongst the mist. She and her clone ran after Sakura and tried to land a hit on the pinkette and her clone. Sakura was able to dodge each attack. Kasumi was able to dispatch of Sakura's clone with a water pellet attack. She turned to assist her clone with attacking the pinkette when she saw Sakura dispatch her clone with only her finger. What the hell was that, the Mist nin mentally yelled at herself. How did she do that?

Both girls were standing apart from each other panting and sweating. Sakura was the first to recover. She gathered chakra into her fist and started to run at Kasumi. At the same time, Kasumi created water chains and used them to grab Sakura's legs to bind them. Sakura fell to the desert floor face first. The rosette lifted her torso with her hands and gave another glare to Kasumi. The kunoichi just chuckled at her.

The clone sent to pull Matsuri from the water, looked over and saw Sakura fall; while laying the brunette on the sandy beach of the oasis. The clone slapped Matsuri's face a couple of times, hoping to wake the girl up. This opponent from Mist was strong and Sakura was going to need Matsuri's help to defeat her.

Kasumi walked over to Sakura and sat on her chest. Looking down at the Konoha kunoichi, she said, "Told you that you would fall. It's seems as if the great Haruno Sakura is nothing but a fake." Hearing these words angered Sakura. "I am not a fake and I am not weak. I will defeat you," she angrily told Kasumi. Sakura gathered chakra into her arms and her hands and using her strength, she threw Kasumi off of her.

Sakura got back to her feet once again to face her adversary. Using her chakra-infused strength, she easily broke the water chains around her legs. Both girls ran at each other and fought another battle chock full of kicks and punches. Finally, Sakura was able to land a punch to Kasumi's chest, throwing her back towards a small dune. She made a quick check of her chakra stores and realized they were starting to get severely drained. This battle was taking too long and she needed to end it quickly, so she could get back to Matsuri.

Kasumi stood up, wiping blood from her lips. She chuckled to herself, feeling exhilarated from the fight. No other kunoichi had battled her this hard. In another time and place it would have been nice if they could have been friends instead of enemies. Kasumi felt that Sakura was a good challenger as she pushed her to use her best jutsus in order to defeat her opponent.

Sakura saw the big grin on Kasumi's face and couldn't help but to grin back at the girl. She had sparred many times with Naruto and Sasuke, but it never quite felt like this. She wondered if this was how Naruto felt when he sparred with Sasuke.

Kasumi walked back towards the oasis, keeping an eye on the pinkette. When she was close to the water, she formed the hand signs for her suiton twin dragon water strike. At the same time Kasumi was forming her hand signs, Sakura was forming the same hand signs. Two sets of twin dragons came out of the oasis and clashed at each other head on. Sakura's dragons were stronger than Kasumi's, as she had poured more chakra into the attack, and they were able to overtake the kunoichi's dragons. The water splashed to the ground with a heavy thud.

Sakura once again poured chakra into her feet and ran at the girl. She tackled Kasumi to the desert floor and landed on her chest. "It seems as if the tide has changed," Sakura challenged her.

On the other side of the oasis, Matsuri was just coming around. While trying to expell the water from her lungs she looked over and saw Sakura sitting on the Mist kunoichi's chest. She wondered how long she had been out and if Sakura was going to be able to defeat her opponent. It looked as if Sakura had things under control, so she decided to stay where she was and watch for the final outcome. If by some slight chance the kunoichi from Mist won this battle, she wanted to make sure she could easily get away. She knew there was no way she could defeat the girl. Especially, if Sakura couldn't beat her.

Kasumi pushed Sakura off of her and went to stand up, but Sakura beat her to the punch by rolling and getting up to her feet first. They squared each other up. Sakura threw a punch to Kasumi's jaw, but it was blocked. She then tried to kick Kasumi's feet out from under her, but Kasumi just jumped over Sakura's kick. Sakura pulled out a kunai and covered it with her chakra. Kasumi created another water sword and was able to block Sakura's attack with the sword.

Sakura decided to distance herself from Kasumi. When she felt she was a good distance from the girl, she poured chakra into her legs, feet and fists. She ran at Kasumi, then slide-tackled her attempting to knock her off of her feet, but the kunoichi avoided the tackle by jumping in the air. Using her shoulders to lift her feet up in the air she kicked up her feet at Kasumi's body pushing her up into the air. Sakura jumped to her feet and as Kasumi's body was returning to the desert floor, she punched her opponent in the neck with a chakra laden fist. Kasumi landed next to a palm tree, unconscious.

Sakura fell to her knees, panting and with sweat running down her body. Her opponent had been strong, but she was stronger. She looked over to see that Matsuri had disappeared. Last time she had looked, her clone had removed Matsuri from the water. As she was pondering where Matsuri had run off to this time, she was struck in the head and for a moment it seemed as if her world went black.

Matsuri had seen Sakura run away from the Mist kunoichi. She knew that this was probably going to be the final strike. Both girls looked to be on their last feet. They were both breathing heavy and perspiration was running down both of their faces. The brunette watched as Sakura kicked her adversary into the air and then knocked her out with a punch to the throat.

When she saw Sakura fall to her knees, she knew that this was the moment she was waiting for. She jumped to her feet and flew over to the rosette. She landed a heavy punch to the side of Sakura's head and watched as her one-time companion closed her eyes and fell to the desert floor.

Hearing the thud of Sakura's head hitting the sand, Matsuri felt accomplishment. She picked up Sakura's pack and using the compass, she walked away back to Suna.

Author Notes

This was Sakura's hardest battle yet. I hope you enjoyed it and that I did it justice.

Thanks for all the reviews, follows and favorites. I enjoy reading the reviews and seeing that someone thinks this is worthy of being read. Especially, since it is the first fanfiction that I have written.

Thanks everyone for the condolences. I miss Neon greatly, but I am taking it one day at a time.

FallenInDreams, Sakura-Fairy-Tail, Jacpin2002 Sakura is just too kind and forgiving for her own good sometimes.

Tanuki What is up with Matsuri and killing the poor girl? She is young yet and she is making a lot of mistakes. Sorry, but Matsuri is not going to be killed off in this story. I still have plans for her.

Keep reviewing and looking forward to the future chapters. There is still a lot to come.