Previously:
"What a terrifying technique," Dosu remarked. "This much damage even on spongy dirt..." He straightened up to face his opponent and drew back the sleeve covering his gauntlet. "Now, it's my turn."
'Oh no!' Lee thought, breathing heavily as he tried to straighten up with his sore muscles. 'My body is still...' His body still hadn't recovered from pushing it past its natural limits! "!!" Lee gasped when Dosu lunged at him and took a swipe at him with his acoustic gauntlet. Lee managed to dodge the physical part of the attack, but… "!!" he gasped again when his body was struck by the invisible and inaudible sound wave, shaking his body and blurring his vision.
"!!" Sakura cried out with concern when she realized he had been hit.
"Your jutsu is indeed fast… but ours are at the speed of sound. I'll show you a wall… that no amount of hard work can surpass," Dosu taunted him as he collapsed to his knees.
"Ugg..." Lee winced and gritted his teeth, doing his best to brace himself while he tried to find a way to regain control of the situation.
Chapter 51: Sakura's Decision!!
Kakashi had gone out into the hall to get a drink from the vending machine. He had trouble sleeping that night, and he couldn't sit still after what he saw. For Anbu to be on the move at a time like this, and for them to be heading toward the forest… It made him wonder if something was off with the exam. He hoped April and the others were still alright. He leaned down to retrieve the dispensed drink.
"Kakashi..." a familiar voice said, getting his attention.
"Yes, Hokage-sama?" he asked, straightening up to face the Third with the can in his hand. First Anbu, and now the Hokage himself. Something very serious was happening.
"Kakashi, what I'm about to tell you is information that cannot yet be shared with anyone… Do you understand?" the Third asked grimly.
"Yes," Kakashi answered seriously. His grip tightened almost imperceptibly on the can. From the expression on the Hokage's face, he knew whatever news he was about to receive couldn't be good.
"Yesterday, after the second test began, the bodies of three Hidden Grass ninjas were discovered. Their faces appeared to have been melted off…" the Third stated grimly, lowering his head for a moment before raising it again to look the young jōnin straight in the eye. "Orochimaru is back."
"!" Kakashi's eyes widened slightly. He furrowed his brow, wondering why he would choose now, of all times, to appear. "You think he stole the deceased's faces? Why would he…!?" he began to ask, the crease in his brow deepening when the disturbing answer occurred to him.
"That's right. I've received confirmation from the Anbu who met up with Anko. Orochimaru has infiltrated the Chūnin Selection Exam," the Third confirmed, stepping forward to stand beside him and place a hand on his shoulder. "It's difficult to say for sure what he is thinking. I'm on my way to get the full story from her in person, but given what we know of him… I believe we can be sure of one thing. He's after Sasuke Uchiha."
Kakashi's eyes were completely wide with shock. His grip on the can tightened, threatening to crush it. He didn't need the Hokage to explain what that would mean for his team. Orochimaru could crush them just as easily as he could crush the can.
"I know what you must be thinking… I understand how you feel..." the Third continued, squeezing his shoulder. "But what I need you to do right now is to prepare. From what I've heard, it sounds as though, Orochimaru has already placed his cursed seal on the boy. There was no mention of the others. I will send more agents to look for them, but we cannot stop the exam. You need to prepare for the event that Sasuke and the others survive their encounter with him… as well as to prepare yourself in the terrible event that they don't…"
Kakashi stared down at the floor, his face cast partially in shadow. "… I understand..." he said quietly as the Hokage's hand slipped from his shoulder, and the Third left to see Anko. The cursed seal was known to have a high rate of fatalities, he knew that. Sasuke's odds of surviving were probably better than most's, but the curse would need to be sealed for his own safety. There was no telling what Orochimaru would do to the others if they got in his way. Kakashi would never forgive himself if anything happened to them. Memories of the deaths of each member of his first team flashed through his mind. Minato-sensei… Obito… Rin… Her death always hit him the hardest, since he had not only failed to keep his last and most important promise to Obito to protect her, he was directly responsible for it, because he...
CLANG!
He didn't even notice that he had dropped the can until he heard it hit the floor. He glanced down at it as it rolled up against the toe of his shoe and noticed the star in the drink's logo. He kneeled down to pick it up and ran his thumb over the image. It reminded him of the star on April's jacket and in her last name. 'Whatever happens, please be safe…!!' he thought anxiously, clutching it, as he stood up and quickly departed to start gathering everything he would need for the sealing ritual.
Lee's vision of the forest swirled around him. "!!" he gasped and fell forward onto his hands as the bile rose from his stomach, and he vomited from the pain and overwhelming feeling of disorientation. "Blah!!!"
"Lee-san!!!" Sakura cried in alarm. That strong Lee-san was…!?
"!!" Lee flinched when he felt a popping sensation inside one of his ears, and something warm dripped from it. Blood. 'My right ear...' he thought, reaching up with his hands to cover the wound. A strange noise, something between a ringing and clicking, filled his damaged ear.
"There's a little trick here," Dosu bragged, holding up his gauntlet. "You can't just dodge… against my attacks."
"..." Lee winced, gritting his teeth while his body trembled. The pain wasn't just in his ear. The attack had left him with a sharp headache, nausea, and a heavy sense of fatigue.
"….!" Sakura frowned and furrowed her brow. She recognized from the little she could see that he was probably experiencing the same symptoms as Kabuto. April may have been right. No, she most likely was. But it was strange to think a sound that they couldn't hear could cause so much damage. After all, dog whistles didn't hurt people's ears, even though a regular whistle could…
"Hehehe," Dosu laughed darkly, enjoying their distressed expressions. "Your teammate was right. It's sound. Even if you dodge my fist, the sound will attack you."
'So, April-san was correct!!' Lee thought, the crease in his brow deepening. He hadn't doubted her, but it was surprising to discover firsthand just how damaging an attack based solely on sound could be.
'…!!' Sakura thought, a bead of sweat sliding down her face. 'But… if that's true, then how…?'
"… Do you know… what sound actually is?" Dosu asked them.
"…!" Sakura gasped, recalling the rest of April's explanation. "It's vibration…" she had known that much already, but it was April who had put everything else together. 'Of course, how could I have forgotten something so simple?' she scolded herself. April's explantation made much more sense now. That was how an inaudible attack could cause so much damage. It was like an earthquake. You didn't need to be able to hear vibrations in order to be affected by them. "I've been told hearing sound means that your eardrum is catching the vibrations traveling through the air… These are sound waves. And the human eardrum will break if exposed to sounds exceeding 150MHz. And deeper in the ear lies the cochlea, which is shaped like a snail and filled with fluid. When this is damaged, you lose your balance… Which can make people feel nauseous…" Sakura frowned when she looked at Lee. April warned them that kind of damage could result in permanent hearing loss, depending on how severe it was. She hoped that wouldn't be the case for him. April had also said that to stop that kind of attack, they would need some kind of sound barrier. Something with a porous surface would be best. April had suggested using the body substitution jutsu with logs as a counter, so the wood would absorb the sound vibrations in their place while they escaped. But Lee seemed to have already instinctively picked up on that since he used the tree root to that effect.
"Hehe… That's right," Dosu said with a smirk, also looking at Lee. "You won't be able to move your body as you wish for a while."
"Lame old taijutsu… won't work against us," Zaku added.
Lee glared at them.
"Well, you were doing well," Zaku told him. "You forced me to use my jutsu, of course you failed." He removed his hands from the ground, allowing them to see the openings in his palms. "I can freely control super sonic sound waves and air pressure, I have the power to even destroy a rock. Blasting air into the earth and creating a cushion is nothing. Our skills are different from your stupid techniques."
Sakura flinched in shock, startled that they could do all of this simply through using sound.
'Damn it...' Lee thought, gritting his teeth while he remembered the way Guy-sensei had praised him for mastering the Initial Lotus and how proud he had felt. 'Damn it!!' he cursed again, glaring fiercely at the sound ninjas. He was disappointed in himself for failing. Looking down on that technique was like looking down on Guy-sensei himself. He wouldn't forgive them for that!
"Alright… Now, you!!" Dosu said suddenly, preparing to swing his gauntlet again, as he charged.
"!!" Lee and Sakura gasped in alarm when he ran past the injured taijutsu user and headed straight for her.
"Oh no!!" Lee cried desperately, willing his impaired body to move.
'He's coming!!' Sakura thought, furrowing her brow and tightening her grip on kunai as he drew closer, forcing herself to muster enough energy to stand.
"!!" She and Dosu were shocked when Lee suddenly dashed toward them with incredible speed, placing himself protectively in front of Sakura and her wounded teammates.
"What!?" Dosu exclaimed, eye wide with disbelief. 'Impossible!!' he thought. How could this guy still move like that!?
'Lee-san!!' Sakura thought, astonished.
Lee gritted his teeth and pushed his body to keep moving. "Leaf Whirlwind!!" he shouted, spinning around to deliver to a fierce rotating kick.
"Damn!!" Dosu cursed when he realized he wouldn't be able to dodge in time.
Unfortunately, the damage to the leaf ninja's sense of balance made the rapid turning motion too much for him in his current condition. "Ugh!!" Lee grimaced, cringing at the new wave of pain and nausea that swept over him, causing him to lose momentum.
Dosu smirked when he was able to take advantage of the flaw in his weakened attack to stop it with one hand. "So that attack is affecting you, after all."
"!!" Lee gasped, startled that he had could no longer control his body as he wished.
"You scared me there for a moment," Dosu told him, pulling his arm back in preparation for the next blow he planned to deliver. "You've lost that ability to do repeated taijutsu in a flash."
"Gu!!" Lee grunted, wincing as he raised his arm to block his enemy's fist. He managed to throw the attack off line enough to avoid taking any serious damage from the physical blow, but he couldn't do anything to avoid being blasted by the powerful sound waves that followed.
"This arm amplifies the small sounds produced to their ultimate level..." Dosu bragged. "You could say it's a speaker. But the sound doesn't follow the direction of my arm… I use my chakra to make sure it always attacks my prey!!" He smirked at the shocked expression of agony on Lee's face when he manipulated the sound waves to make them curve around and punch him right in the ear canal.
"AWWW!!!" Lee screamed as the rest of his inner ear was completely obliterated.
"Lee-san!!!" Sakura cried, horrified.
"Gwaa!!!" Lee groaned, collapsing in defeat, overwhelmed with pain and disorientation.
"Now… Let's finish this..." Dosu said, raising his gauntlet again to deliver the final blow.
"I won't let you!!!" Sakura yelled furiously, drawing two handfuls of shurikens and kunais to throw at his head.
Dosu quickly moved his gauntlet to shield himself and deflected them with ease.
SHING! TING! SHING!
"Oh… Geez..." the sound ninja leader said, starting to get annoyed by all of their pathetic attempts to escape death.
'I also…!' Sakura thought, drawing more shurikens. 'I also can…!!' she hurled her weapons at him with all of her might.
"!" Dosu was a little surprised when Zaku suddenly ran forward to intercept them while forming a hand seal. He could have handled such a simple attack just fine on his own, but maybe this demonstration would show her how hopeless her situation was.
"Haa!!" Zaku exclaimed while he was thinking this, easily repelling her attack with his jutsu.
"Kyaa!!" Sakura cried, raising her arms to shield herself while she tried to dodge the flying blades. She was able to avoid taking serious damage, but there was a sharp pain in her arms where they grazed her. 'Air pressure… He blasted back my shuriken!?' she thought, squinting through the strong gust.
Zaku smirked when he saw what was happening behind her while she was too busy worrying about what was in front of her.
"!" Sakura gasped, startled further when something suddenly tugged on her hair. "Oww!!" she cried at the pain of being yanked harshly by her hair. "!!" she gasped again when she looked up out the corner of her eye and saw that it was the sound kunoichi who had grabbed her. When did she…!?
"Much more luster than me… This… Hmph… Trying to be a sexy ninja?" Kin scoffed at her with disdain. "If you have time to treat your hair, then train, you female swine..." she growled, pulling her up by her hair again, only to shove her back down.
"Ahh!!" Sakura cringed at the pain it caused her.
"Pfft… More luster than you… You say that like it's some huge accomplishment," Biki said sardonically, staring down at April while he loomed over her unconscious body, admiring the beauty that he was about to preserve forever. "I've seen stray dogs with fur that's smoother and shiner than that mange on your head. You shouldn't take your ugliness out others."
"!!" Sakura's eyes widened in shock when she was able to angle her head enough to catch a glimpse of his current location. 'When did he…?!!' How did he get past her!? How long had he been standing there!?
"Shut your mouth!! You selfish bastard!!" Kin snapped at the infuriating smart-ass while he calmly went about his business, lowering himself into a position that allowed him to straddle April and cup her face in his hands. "After saying you didn't want to have anything to do with this fight… You're just gonna use the opportunity to suck face!? How dare you take advantage of us like that?!!"
"Yeah. That's my character, in case you haven't noticed," Biki retorted dryly with a vein throbbing on his head. "Quit squawking already. You're ruining the mood… How am I supposed to enjoy devouring my prey's chakra with your ugly voice stuck in my head?"
"No!!" Sakura shouted, eyes wide with fear for her friend. What the hell was that pervert trying to do to her!? If April lost more chakra in her current condition…!! "What are you doing!? Don't touch April!!"
Biki only paused long enough to spare a sinister smirk in her direction before he finished lowering his head to press his lips against April's. Like he said before, there was no point explaining to someone who was about to die. Most people were too stupid to understand the appeal of his collection anyway. They called his room full of girls 'creepy'. He didn't see how it was any different from collecting butterflies on pins. All he was doing was taking pretty things from the world around him so that he could halt their aging process and preserve their bodies in prime condition. Getting old and decrepit was ugly, but this way they would stay young and beautiful forever. And the best thing about the girls in his collection was that they always became nice and quiet and could never have any thoughts about leaving him.
"Shut the hell up!!!" Kin snarled at Sakura, pulling so hard that some of her hair was ripped out by the roots. "Ahh!! That's it!! I don't care about that pervert anymore!!" the sound kunoichi screeched with multiple veins throbbing on her head, beside herself with irritation. "Zaku, kill that Sasuke in front of this chaser's eyes!! Let's teach this one a lesson!"
"!!" Sakura gasped in alarm.
"Ah, good idea," Zaku said.
"Hey, hey..." Dosu sighed, wishing they wouldn't play around so much during the mission. First Biki, with his sick obsession with collecting corpses, and now this… They might as well change their team's name from the 'sound quartet,' to the 'sadist quartet.'
"Don't move!!" Kin ordered Sakura sternly with a wicked smirk, pulling at her silky pink hair again. She was going to enjoy watching this one suffer.
"Ugh.." Sakura winced and grimaced in pain, but she was so worried about April and Sasuke that it barely registered. At this rate, both of them would die. It was unacceptable! 'I… can't allow that...'
'Sakura-san...' Lee thought, trembling with the desperate desire to move. He wanted to rush to her aid, but his body wouldn't let him.
Sakura's fingertips dug into the dirt. '… I can't feel my body...' she thought, clenching it in her fist as tears formed in her eyes. '… I… am still… just getting in the way...' she realized, trembling with frustration as the tears fell. Because of her… because of how useless she was… everyone else got injured. Even Lee, who only got involved because of a promise he made to her. 'Always being protected… I can't stand it...' She lowered her head in shame. There was even a time when she had once thought it was okay, because she was girl, so it was only natural that the boys were stronger than her, but… April was a girl, too! April was girl, but she never hid behind the others. Instead, she trained herself to become stronger and fought alongside them as an equal. Even with a broken wrist… Even with a seal absorbing her chakra… Unlike her, April never made excuses. April protected her and the boys the same way the boys protected the two of them, and yet… 'This time… I thought… this time… that I have to protect those who are important to me...' Sakura clenched her trembling fist tighter until her nails dug into her palms.
"So… Let's do it," Zaku said with a smirk, laughing as he began to approach Sasuke. "Hehe..." He was going to enjoy this.
"Hey!! April, Sasuke, and Naruto are in trouble!!" Shikamaru exclaimed while he and the rest of his team watched the terrible scene playing out before them from their hiding place.
"!!" Ino gasped, horrified. She couldn't believe this was happening. 'Wh… What should I do?!!' she wondered anxiously, a bead of cold sweat dripping down her face. If she went out now, then she would surely be defeated, but…!!
Sakura squeezed her eyes shut and drew a kunai from her holster. No! She wouldn't let it end this way!! This time… She wouldn't let herself fail them this time!
"Useless. That won't work against me," Kin told her, not even bothering to stop her from grabbing it because she was so confident in her own skills.
Sakura furrowed her brow and smirked ruefully up at her. "What are you talking about?" With one clean slice, she severed the long hair that had kept her bound. With that kunai, she cut ties with her weaker self who could only sit there cry.
"!!" Kin gasped in astonishment, shocked.
"!" Zaku and Dosu said, so surprised that the former actually stopped to look back at her.
"!!!" Shikamaru gaped, eyes wide.
"!" Chōji frowned, taken aback.
"!!" Lee furrowed his brow as his eyes widened in surprise.
"!" Ino stared at her old friend and current rival in shock, stunned.
Sakura's forehead protector slipped off, following the path of her severed locks to the ground. 'I always… thought of myself as a proud ninja…' she thought to herself with frown, rising to stand up on her own two feet again. 'I always said I liked Sasuke-kun… I would often ignore April's advice, thinking I knew better just because my grades happened to be higher than hers… I would lecture Naruto as if I was better than him… But all I did… But all I did was watch you guys from behind… Yet… they always fought to protect me.' She remembered what they learned about the ninja world in school. It was a lesson that she was relearning now the hard way. The strong feed upon weak. It was such an undeniably simple rule. Except in this world, her friends tried to be strong. 'Lee-san… you said you like me… and with your back to me, risked your life and fought.' She could see him lying on the ground, still unable to move. But instead of weakness, she saw strength. 'April… that time when we were still at the academy, I saw you training and asked you how you could keep going until your hands were scarred and your shins were bruised… When I asked how you could be okay with most of the boys avoiding you because of it… you told me, 'People who can't throw something important away, can never hope to change anything.' I didn't understand you then… But I think I do now… I feel like I've learned from all of you… I want to become like you guys...' she thought, clenching her fist as an image of her four brave friends flashed before her eyes. 'Everyone...' Her forehead protector finished settling in the dirt. 'This time… get a good look at my back!!'
'Sakura…!?' Ino thought as a bead of sweat slid down her face, staring at her lopped off hair and the determined look in her eyes in astonishment. This… This was Sakura…!?
"Damn!!" Zaku cursed, the first in his group to recover from the surprise. "Kin!! Kill her!!!"
"!" Kin immediately drew a handful of senbon needles and charged.
Sakura performed a flurry of hand seals.
'Hmph. That seal...' Zaku thought, smirking when he recognized the technique, forming his own hand seal so he would be ready to counter.
Kin lunged at Sakura and drove her senbon into her spine. "!!" she gasped, furrowing her brow as her eyes widened in surprise when her target's body suddenly turned into a log. 'Substitution Jutsu…!!'
'To the right...' Zaku thought, predicting her next move. 'Is she messing around…? Such a basic jutsu...'
Sakura drew more kunais, clenching them between her knuckles, as she charged.
'She's coming at me!' he thought when he spotted her. "Kin, get out of the way!!"
Kin leaped away without hesitation. The last thing she wanted was to get caught up in his jutsu.
Sakura threw her kunais at Zaku, adjusting her aim for one of them to send it flying at the head of the creep assaulting April.
"!" Biki pulled back in time to avoid a fatal wound, but the blade grazed the bridge of his nose. His pupil's constricted dangerously when a drop of his own red blood fell on April's cheek. His body started trembling.
"Useless," Zaku said, forming another seal while he turned to aim his hands at her. 'Air pressure 100%, sound waves 0%, blast,' he thought, adjusting his power.
Sakura gritted her teeth and formed the hand seals for the substitution jutsu again.
"Is that all you know?" Zaku asked scornfully. 'Slicing Air!!' He unleashed his own jutsu, blasting her kunais back. "You aren't fooling anyone," he told her as the kunais stabbed her false body, and it transformed back into a log. "Above," he predicted her next move, looking up to find her already in the air.
"!!" Sakura furrowed her brow and formed the Substitution hand seal again.
"How many times do I have to say it's useless," Zaku said, drawing several kunais and hurling them in her direction. "Time to get serious!!!"
"!!" Sakura crossed her arms in front of her face to shield her eyes and winced at the pain of being stabbed by his kunais. One in the right forearm. One in the torso. One in the right thigh, And one in the left shin. It was painful, but she would live. In her eyes, it was nothing compared to what the others had been through.
"Hehe… Now where are you?" Zaku asked, looking around to see where she would try to attack from next. "Huh?" he said when a drop of something warm and wet hit his cheek. He lifted his head to the sky, and his eyes widened in shock. "!" It was the leaf kunoichi's blood, and she was right on top of him now, wielding the kunai she had pulled from her shin. 'What the…!?' he thought, startled. 'This time… it's not a substitution!!' He crossed his arms protectively over his chest without a second to spare.
Sakura fell upon him with the full force and weight of her body, kneeing him in the gut while she stabbed the kunai into his left arm.
"Ugh," Zaku winced, turning his right palm out to aim it at her for a counter attack.
"!!" Sakura saw the small movement and reacted by sinking her teeth into that wrist to stop him, biting down as hard as she could. From now on, she would fight tooth and nail to protect her teammates. She wouldn't let fear of death stop her anymore. She would do whatever it took to protect them.
"!" Dosu, Kin, Chōji, Shikamaru, and Ino gasped. They couldn't believe they were watching the same helpless girl from before.
"Let go of me!!!" Zaku yelled at her, beating her repeatedly with his fist to get her to let go of him.
But she she didn't. Sakura only squeezed her eyes shut and bit harder, refusing to back down.
'Sakura...' Ino thought as she watched, horrified by all of the damage she was taking, astonished by her desperate struggle to protect her teammates. She had never seen her like this before. Memories of her old friendship with Sakura flashed through her mind. Sakura used to be so shy. Sakura was a crybaby who hid from the older girls when they bullied her about her forehead. That was how they first met. She had found Sakura alone, crying while she tried to hide her face with her bangs. So she gave her a ribbon to use to tie her hair back. She showed Sakura how cute she could be and taught her how to deal with the bullies. She had wanted to help her become more confident. She introduced Sakura to her other friends. Sakura had been so nervous, that she had to hide behind her while she greeted them.
Tears formed in Sakura's eyes as Zaku's blows drew blood and busted her nose, but she kept holding on. She wouldn't let go.
Ino remembered the day Sakura came over to her and the rest of their group of friends to announce that she had someone she liked. She had been shocked when Sakura confirmed that the others guessed correctly that it was Sasuke. That shy Sakura started acting more cheerful, hiding her feelings to appear more confident. Ino's lip quivered at the memory of how happy and excited Sakura had been when she shared with her that she heard Sasuke liked girls with long hair, and how she was going to grow hers out for him… and then the day that Sakura learned about her own crush on Sasuke, when she suddenly declared that they would be rivals from that point on and left her behind. And how proud Sakura had been when she informed her that she was assigned to the same team as Sasuke.
"I wont… lose to you anymore," Sakura stated with determination.
"It's the same for me… I'll never lose to you, no matter what," she retorted coolly without really taking her seriously.
Ino gritted her teeth while she watched Sakura cling desperately to her opponent to keep him restrained, ignoring her own pain and the blood flowing from her nose and the cuts on her face. The long hair that she had treasured so much as a sign of her devotion to Sasuke had been sacrificed so she could fight back. Now it was short and choppy and getting stuck and matted in the blood on her face. But even with all of that, Sakura still wouldn't let go. She was all alone. Sakura was all alone, but she kept fighting. She was fighting desperately to protect Sasuke and everyone else at the cost of her own life. The crease in Ino's brow deepened and tears welled up in her eyes. 'Sakura...'
Zaku finally managed to shake her free and threw her aside as hard as he could. Sakura landed face first in the dirt.
'This is bad...' Chōji whispered anxiously. At this rate, everyone over there was going to die…
Ino stood up. She didn't care that the bush was no longer hiding her.
"Hey… Ino…?" Shikamaru whispered, startled when he realized her intentions.
'I have to protect everyone...' Sakura thought, glaring and panting, struggling to keep her breathing even. Her body trembled as she tried to get up again. It had reached its limit, but she tried anyway.
"You brat!!!" Zaku roared furiously, thrusting his arms out to finish her off, preparing to blast her with everything he had.
SHHHHHHHHHHH!!
"!!" Zaku was startled when three new leaf ninjas suddenly slid in between him and his prey, with the first guy pulling the third by his scarf.
'Huh?' Sakura thought, stunned. She recognized them immediately. It was Ino's team!
"!!" Kin and Dosu furrowed their brows, surprised. The very nature of this second test meant that every other team should be viewed as an enemy. They never expected anyone else would attempt to come their rescue.
"Hmph… More weirdoes have appeared," Zaku scoffed, smirking as he recovered from the minor shock. It didn't matter how many bugs crawled out. He would crush them all.
"Ino..." Sakura said, relieved, but still surprised to see her there.
"Sakura… I won't lose to you," Ino said as she faced their new enemy, determined to protect their friends and get some payback for her. "I've already told you that."