A/N: I got some pretty good reviews for the previous chapter; one, especially, hinted at the reader's confusion, which is just what I wanted to happen! I'm so mean! XD Right now, my left ring finger hurts because I accidentally smushed it between the movable seat and the chair stand holding up that seat. Ouch... (Okay, useless info...)
Disclaimer: I own neither Bakuten Shoot Beyblade nor Naruto. The former belongs to Aoki Takao-sensei; the latter belongs to Kishimoto Masashi-sensei. I do own Takenoichi Yuriko and her grandmother (like I'd want to own the old lady... XP)
Chapter 17: Yo Ga Akeru Mae Ni...
Pale eyelids fluttered closed as Uchiha Sasuke, mumbling uninteligibly, drifted off into unconsciousness.
A sly grin replaced the grimace of pain on Shikino Shinichi's face. "It's just as well I listened to Eiji on this one..." he said, placing a hand on Takenoichi Yuriko's shoulder. "You make a fine ally, Yuriko..."
"That...that can't be..."
Yuriko turned to face the source of the voice, her once-shining purple orbs now robbed of all light.
Rei stood there, mouth agape, staring at Yuriko, then Sasuke's prone body, and then back. "Yuriko...why did you..."
Shinichi smirked. "Why don't you take care of this nuisance, Yuriko? I need to take care of...other matters..."
The auburn-haired girl nodded, falling into the ready stance and gripping her sword tightly. Rei looked on horror and bewilderment, aware that it was he who was the target, yet doing nothing to prepare himself. The shock of what he'd seen had rendered him stiff, like a puppet without its master to pull the strings.
"Wait...Yuriko...don't do this! I'm a friend, remember?" The neko-jin stammered, finally finding the strength in his muscles to move backward, put a little more distance between him and his friend-turned-foe. "A-and Sasuke's a friend of yours, too! Why did you - Ack!" he was cut off as a flaming shuriken headed his way, and he was forced to duck, taking his eyes off Yuriko for just a second.
When he glanced up, he saw what a fatal mistake it had been to break eye contact with the amethyst-eyed girl. Yuriko had launched herself at him in that split-second after she let fly the fiery weapon and was now just a foot away, the sword gleaming with an otherworldy half-light.
Dammit! Rei thought as he scrambled through his thoughts, trying to find a way out of this fix that would leave both him and Yuriko relatively unharmed. At the same time, he quickly pulled a kunai out of his pouch, holding it out in front of his body to block the coming strike.
At the last second, the sword changed its trajectory; instead of coming down vertically, it slashed almost horizontally across Rei's abdomen. The Chinese boy grit his teeth, glancing down only momentarily to assess the damage. To his relief, it was only a shallow cut, but it was still bleeding profusely. And he knew that a cut in the abdominal cavity was one of the most fatal injuries one could get; if the stomach wall had been cut or punctured, gastric juices would soon leak out, filling the cavity and eventually poisoning the victim.
He leapt back, ignoring the searing pain the movement caused him, then quickly turned and began running.
"Running away? Such cowardice."
Rei shivered. This girl looked like her and fought like her, but her voice was so different, so much more malicious than Yuriko's that he wondered if she'd been possessed. There was a bestial quality to it, a sort of low growl that came from the back of the throat. And those eyes... the neko-jin shivered again. Those eyes were inhuman. They had been blank, devoid of emotion when she turned to him, but as soon as Shinichi had issued the command, an eerie dark light had begun to shine behind those amethyst pupils, and it frightened him, much as he hated to admit.
I have to lead her over to the others...maybe they'll know what to do... he thought as he bounded over the carriage, landing in the middle of the small circle formed by Kai, Max, and Takao. Around them, around fifteen ninja lay, injured and moaning in pain.
"Rei!" Takao exclaimed, not turning his gaze away from two of their foes and piercing them through with wind chakra-enhanced kunai; they stopped in their tracks and literally collapsed. "I thought you were going to go help Sasuke with the Shinichi guy."
"Well, I was, but..." Rei hesitated. How was he going to phrase this?
"Have you seen Yuriko?" Kai asked suddenly, causing his teammate to jump slightly.
"Huh?"
"She isn't in the carriage anymore, and her bonds are lying strewn about the floor." Kai explained, raising his arm to block an overhead strike. With his other hand, he grasped his opponent's wrist and, painfully twisting his torso obliquely downward, used one foot to sweep the dark ninja off his feet and threw him to the ground. There was a muffled crack as the ninja's head hit the ground first at an impossible angle, and then he lay still. Kai turned his attention back to Rei. "That means she must have escaped. Did you see her anywhere nearby?"
The amber-eyed teen nodded slowly. "But..." he paused. How could he tell them what he had just witnessed, that their friend had somehow been turned against them?
"Katon: Rasen Hidama!"
"What the-?!" Kai turned around just in time to see Yuriko bearing down on him, a dangerous flaming sphere in her right palm. Crimson eyes widened when he saw the fury and the bloodlust in the girl's face, and he jumped away, throwing a kunai at her as he did so. She raised a hand and caught the handle between two fingers. In the same, fluid motion, she flung the weapon back at the slate-haired teen, who had to duck to avoid having his neck skewered on the blade.
"Yuriko!" Max and Takao exclaimed in tandem, the surprise showing on their faces.
"Why'd you attack Kai?" Max went on, moving quickly into a defensive stance in case the auburn-haired teen decided to attack him, too.
"I know why you're after me..." Yuriko replied, her voice low and feral.
"Eh?" Takao looked confused. "'After you'...?"
"You intend to use me," Yuriko continued, the fury in her voice rising. "That's why there are so many of you; you wish to overpower me and take me back to your village, and then force me to bend to your will, to do your bidding!"
Amber eyes widened. Was this deception part of the hypnotic spell he guessed Shinichi or Shinji had used on her? Had she been told terrible lies just to get her to turn on her allies and her village?
"No...Yuriko, we'd never do that..." Kai, who seemed to have calmed down somewhat, took a step forward, looking not sad, but slightly angry.
"You lie!" A bright blue ball began to form, the chirping emanating from it growing louder and louder as it expanded. And then, all at once, Yuriko rushed at him, the dark light in her eyes flashing dangerously.
"Raikiri!"
A great explosion, kicking up huge clouds of dust and smoke. Max, Takao, and Rei were literally blown away, landing in the bushes nearby, while Kai had to swing himself up onto a branch in order to not crash into a particulary large tree trunk.
"It's Kakashi!" Kai called down to his teammates.
"How'd you know?" Takao asked, skeptical. "The smoke hasn't cleared enough to see yet!"
"It's the diluted Sharingan, baka!" the slate-haired teen returned, mentally slapping his forehead at Takao's ignorance.
Then, a gust of wind, and the dust and smoke blew away. There, indeed, stood Kakashi, right hand still crackling with the electric blue light of his attack. A few feet away from the masked ninja stood Yuriko, panting slightly with the exertion.
"Kakashi-jisan!" Rei called, struggling up from his slightly thorny landing pad. "Be careful! Yuriko -"
"I know." Kakashi interrupted quietly. "Tsunade-sama and I saw what happened between her and Sasuke. But don't worry; the Hokage is working on him now.
'Working on him'...? The Hokage? Kai frowned, concerned for Sasuke, who had bravely said to leave him to take care of Shinichi. The crimson-eyed teen knew that the Hokage was a highly-skilled medic nin, so if she was working on Sasuke...
"But that Shinichi fellow-" Rei was saying.
"-Is unconscious. For now."
Kai leapt down from his perch, landing closer to Yuriko than he should have, but he didn't care. Behind him, Max and Takao were having a bit of difficulty srambling out of the bushes; the thorns caught at their clothes, and they were trying not to get too scratched up.
"Yuriko, listen to me," Kai began, his voice stern as he approached. "I don't know what Shinji or Shinichi did to you, but you were right about one thing: you are being used, but not by us; it's the Shikino."
"I am Shikino." Yuriko replied curtly, turning towards him with her frost-hard gaze.
Suddenly, Takao let out a cry as another Shikino ninja slashed at him. Luckily, the dragon wielder had managed to dodge a bit, and so ended up with a cut on his arm instead of on his neck.
Kai, noticed the design on the hilt - the enemy ninja was close enough for him to see some detail - and started; he recognized that weapon! He then turned back to the auburn-haired teen in front of him, getting ready to launch his offensive. "You're not Yuriko..." the crimson-eyed teen said loudly, leaping forwards abruptly. A sudden smoke cloud obscured his vision for a moment, but he pressed on. When it cleared, he smirked inwardly; he was right.
Where the amethyst-eyed teen had been standing a few seconds ago, there, instead, was Shinichi, holding up his own ninjato in a defensive strike.
"Very good, boy..." Shinichi commented, smirking as he knocked Kai's kunai away and, in the same movement, swung his blade outwards in a killing blow.
A split-second before the sword was supposed to connect, Kai jumped up and, using the flat of the blade as a springboard, performed a backflip that took him out of harm's way. Once he landed, he reached for the immobile Shikino ninja who had attacked Takao, while Kakashi rushed forwards to try to subdue Shinichi.
Kai motioned for Rei to grab the ninja's right arm even as he grasped the left, and then, as though reading his captain's mind, Max stepped forward and reached up to pull off the mask.
Once the mask was removed, Rei gasped, Max's cerulean eyes widened considerably, and Takao gaped.
Yuriko struggled against the hands that restrained her, but Rei and Kai held fast.
"Yuriko, stop struggling!" Rei beseeched her, gripping the girl's wrist harder than he meant to, but he knew it was necessary. It was obvious that, though it had been Shinichi who had attacked them earlier, the real one was still under whatever hypnosis had been used on her; she would attack were she given the opportunity. "We're your friends! We're here to help!"
"Let...go!" The auburn-haired teen ground out savagely, wrenching her right hand free and elbowing Rei in the solar plexus. Mouth open, the neko-jin staggered backwards, arms folded over his middle in a pained protective gesture. Takao, half-panicked, hurried over and caught him before he fell, while Max quickly took Rei's place and held on.
Suddenly, Kakashi went flying backwards, landing hard on the packed earth.
"Kakashi-sensei!" Takao called out even as he clung onto Rei, who was still having trouble getting air into his lungs.
Then Max let out a cry as jet-black ball of energy barrelled into his side. The young blonde fell down, clutching his side, and let go of Yuriko's hand.
Taking this as her cue, the amethyst-eyed teen swung her sword out of its sheath and in a glittering arc towards Kai. The slate-haired boy ducked, at the same time using a leg to sweep Yuriko to the ground. As she fell, Kai grabbed the sword out of her hand, and then, in an unprecedented move, held the point to her chest, preventing any further movement on Yuriko's part. Seeing she was trapped, she grit her teeth angrily, her fists clenched tight.
"I hate doing this..." Kai muttered to himself, "threatening an ally at sword-point..." He then lowered his sword arm until it dangled by his side, the weapon aimed harmlessly at the ground at his feet. In a louder voice, he said, "Yuriko, you have to listen to me." He gestured in turn towards Kakashi, who was struggling to his feet, then to Rei, who was taking deep breaths now, and then towards Max, who was wincing as he sat up. Kai secretly hoped it wasn't a broken rib or two. "Look, those guys are your friends. I'm a friend, too. Those Shikino freaks did something to you to turn you against us, but you have to fight! Don't you see? They're going to kill you after you carry out their dirty work! That was their goal all along, remember? To kill your entire family, including you!"
"...'family'...?" Yuriko's fists relaxed, the taut muscles loosening. The look on her face was undecipherable, a queer cross between confusion and fury. A small smile crept onto Kai's lips, but he kept himself in check and erased it; after all, he still had a reputation to live up to.
"Yeah. It was the Shikino who killed your parents, and then killed your adoptive parents when they wouldn't say where you were, when you were only five." Yuriko remained silent, as if she had heard this piece of information for the first time.
"Do you see now?" Kai asked after he went on to tell her briefly how she'd met him and the rest of Team BBA, and why they were currently engaged in battle. "We're not your enemies, they are."
The amethyst orbs remained dull, and Takao glanced up at his captain, his expression questioning. Is this method working? Kai shrugged,"Yuriko," he began quietly, in an attempt that he really meant her no harm. "Can you hear me?"
"...yes." Yuriko replied, blinking as she locked gazes with him.
Takao grinned broadly. Yes! he thought excitedly to himself. Looks like it's working after all...she's coming back!
Kai seemed to be thinking along the same lines, because he bent slightly to help Yuriko up, barely aware of Kakashi shouting.
And then, in a blinding flash of sudden, biting pain, he became all too aware of what the silver-haired Jounin had been trying to tell him. Forming a deadly, slender barrier between him and Yuriko, a silvery blade, surrounded by a menacing black aura, had torn through his back, emerging at a point around two centimeters below his sternum.
Rei, recovered now, froze in the process of sitting up, and Takao just sat there, mouth agape for what seemed the umpteenth time.
Then, the dark smile of the blade disappeared, wrenched cruelly out of its victim's back, and Kai slumped to his knees, a hand to his chest as he coughed painfully, gobs of crimson spattering onto his shirt. Above him stood Shinichi, smiling triumphantly and sadistically as he gazed upon the fallen.
"At last, that little annoyance is out of the way..." he commented, his grin growing wider. Then he turned his attention to Yuriko and held a large, powerful hand out to Yuriko. "Come along now..."
Yuriko had sat up a moment ago, and now her eyes were wide with horror as she watched Kai collapse, the wound in his back glowing faintly with the deadly black aura. "No..." she whispered, her breathing ragged.
"Aren't you glad he's done away with, Yuriko?" Shinichi knelt down, forcing her to look at him. "He's your enemy, remember?"
Suddenly, a blur shot towards him and he gave a cry as he went down. Kakashi had launched himself at the dark ninja and, after withdrawing the kunai he'd used to stab Shinichi in the stomach, held it to his neck. He turned back to Rei, Max, and Takao. "Get him to Tsunade," he called, forgetting the all-important honorific. "And do it quick!"
Takao nodded wordlessly and crept towards his captain, who was breathing hard. Apparently, if chakra were a factor in the injury, he was incapable of healing it; a frightening amount of blood was already on the slate-haired teen's shirt, and the wound was still bleeding.
Rei took his red headband with the yin-yang symbol and, after folding it several times, pressed it to the dreadful wound, using moderate pressure so as not to cause any more damage. He cast a quick sideways glance at Yuriko, and blinked in surprise.
The girl's eyes were wide and still had that blank look, but her cheeks were shining faintly with the light of the moon reflecting off the small drops of salty liquid trickling slowly down her face.
Tears...?
Apparently, Max noticed too, because he had just reached out a hand to touch Yuriko's shoulder. But he stopped abruptly when a soft whisper grabbed his attention.
"I'm sorry..." The voice was cracked, thick with emotion and regret, and so faint that Rei and Takao had to strain to catch it. Shinichi stopped struggling, bewildered, to glance at what he thought had become his weapon against Konoha, and Kakashi let up a bit on the pressure he was exerting to keep the dark ninja from getting up and attacking anyone else.
"I'm...so sorry...Kai...everyone..." There was no mistaking it.
Takao's face brightened a bit upon hearing Yuriko's voice, knowing she had really broken through whatever spell had been cast upon her. The auburn-haired girl reached out a shaky hand to grasp Kai's limp one, and she held on tight, as though willing him to wake. To everyone's surprise, the crimson eyes blinked open, albeit wearily.
"So...you've finally...snapped out of it..." he said, his voice barely above a whisper, yet its tone was still rather cocky - an annoying, yet endearing trait. He tried to smirk, but it came out a grimace; wincing, he moved his other hand to try and put pressure on the wound, to stop the bleeding, but he had not the strength and the hand dropped to the ground.
Yuriko hastily wiped her eyes and gave him a small, good-natured smirk. "I came out of it, yeah, but look at you! Sounding all strong and self-assured when..." She took a deep breath, shook her head, and then gave his hand one last squeeze. The auburn-haired girl picked up the sword at his side before standing up and then turned around slowly and faced Shinichi, her mouth set firmly in a thin, hard, line.
"You're going to pay for this..." she snarled. "For causing all this trouble and for using me to hurt my friends..."
Shinichi quickly threw Kakashi off of him, sending him flying towards the trees. Thankfully, the masked Jounin twisted in the air, landing on a branch instead of crashing into one.
Yuriko readied herself to go head-to-head with Shinichi, who looked half-crazed with anger, but instead, the dark ninja ran past her. She realized in an instant who his intended target was, and moved to intercept him. Fortunately, Takao, Rei and Max had had the same realization and quickly but carefully picked Kai up and moved him a bit farther from where the fight was about to take place.
A metallic clash rang out as Yuriko and Shinichi's swords collided.
"You're such a coward, Shinichi," Yuriko hissed, apalled by the dark-clad man's disregard for an opponent's inability to fend off attacks. "Attacking someone who can't defend himself."
"If it weren't for his interference, I'd still have my weapon!" Shinichi spat, channeling his strength into the blade of his sword. Yuriko grit her teeth as she was pushed backwards several centimeters, but she kept up her defense, watching out of the corner of her eye for the sign that the members of Team BBA were well out of harm's way. She noted, too, that Kakashi had disappeared from sight, apparently to report the incident to the Hokage or to someone else.
After assuring herself that her friends were at a safe distance, she began to move, to turn the tables in her favor. She leapt upwards, causing Shinichi to stumble forwards with the force of his momentum, and then landed on his back, pushing him to the ground as she leapt off of him. She rounded up quickly onto her feet, turning to face her opponent again.
"You have it all wrong, Shinichi," she said, her brow furrowed as she sheathed her sword. "Kai never interfered in anything. I was still under that spell of yours, unsure whether to believe him or not.
"However, I realized that he'd only pointed a sword at me as a way to get me to stay still long enough to listen to him, never to threaten me; hence, he never wanted to hurt me. It's only logical to think that anyone who won't hurt you is a friend or ally, hm? I finally came to my senses only after you stabbed him, because he told me something you would never understand. Those words helped me to fight off your spell completely..."
Shinichi snarled, the dark fire burning in his palm once more. "At least I can finally get rid of you!"
Yuriko moved into a ready stance, holding her sword midway between the forward and lower right attitude. She moved most of her weight onto her lead foot, the muscles in her rear leg tensed and ready.
Shinichi rushed at her, the dark sphere already more than five inches across.
Yuriko grit her teeth, holding her ground, tightening her grip on the hilt. A split-second before the point of impact, she leapt upwards. At the apex of her jump, she moved her sword immediately into the upper right attitude and slashed downwards.
Blood spurted, once more staining the dark gray canvas of the night.
Yuriko landed, one knee on the ground and her sword extended obliquely from her upper torso. And the slumped, her weapon clattering to the ground.
"Foolish girl!" Shinichi said, turning to gloat. "Did you think I'd fall for such an amateurish move? You've sorely underestimated me, Yuriko...and now you'll pay dearly for your mistake!" Two more spheres of that hellish black fire began forming, one in each of the Shikino's palms.
Yuriko, clutching her middle, struggled to a half-sitting position, gasping for air but not seeming to get enough. Through bleary eyes she watched as Shinichi combined the two deadly spheres, and shuddered inwardly. She knew how much power was concentrated in a mere four-inch sphere of that type of chakra; how much more power would be in one that was six inches across, and combined with another of its kind? The amount of devastation, if it connected, wouldn't be doubled, but quadrupled. She was up to her waist in this one. But no matter... she thought as she forced herself to stand up. Whether she lived or died didn't matter to her now; what was important was that she stopped this power-hungry man before the situation became worse.
She lowered her stance as she ran, gathering momentum. Speed was of the essence now; if she didn't move fast enough, Shinichi would be able to attack her once more. Of course, she could deflect that one, too, but she'd have a rough time doing it, and then she wasn't sure she could fully fend off a second attack, if, indeed, the dark ninja could manage one.
Yuriko took a deep breath and finally pushed off, hoping that she'd gathered enough speed and power to take the dark ninja out with only one hit. Seeing their leader fall would be enough to convince their other foes to turn tail and change their minds about trying to usurp power in the Leaf.
Suddenly, she quickly moved her sword - into which she'd channeled most of her chakra - into a defensive position, but she was too slow. She had seen, too late now, that Shinichi had lengthened the sphere until it resembled a large dart, fearful and glowing. This he had thrust at Yuriko, and it was this that she failed to spot in time. However, even as the dark blade pierced her flesh, tearing cruelly through bone and muscle, she mustered enough strength from her reserves to push the arm that held the kunai forwards and into the side of the dark ninja's neck.
As one, the two dropped to the ground. Using her free hand, Yuriko pressed her shirt to the gaping hole in her chest, then quickly sheathed the now-cumbersome steel sword. With her sword arm, the auburn-haired teen reached over towards Shinichi, who was scrabbling for the kunai.
"Here...let me...help you with that." The girl said, a tiny smirk gracing her lips even as blood trickled from a corner of her mouth. She grasped the handle of the small blade and pulled sideways, knowing that with that, she had severed the carotid artery and part of the trachea. Death would be knocking on Shinichi's door in a matter of minutes.
Then, a sudden puff of smoke and a popping sound as Shinichi's body was replaced with a large log.
"Shoot..." Yuriko muttered, chest heaving with the exertion to breathe. Kawarimi no Jutsu she thought. And if so, where is he...? she struggled to sit up, but failed; the steady blood loss had taken most of her strength. Dammit...
"I can't believe you fell for that..."
Amethyst eyes widened upon hearing that, and Yuriko knew that the dark ninja was now standing over her, though she couldn't see what he'd do next. But then, she noticed that the moon had cast Shinichi's shadow in front of her; perhaps she could use that.
"And now..."
Yuriko watched as the Shikino's right hand seem to grow a pointed extension at right angles to it, and knew that he'd taken out a kunai, probably extending and sharpening it with his dark chakra. Her right arm she braced against the closely-packed soil, tensed and ready to heave her out of the weapon's deadly path.
The dark ninja's shadow moved, and Yuriko pushed off with as much strength as she could muster; she could have used chakra as a boost, but she couldn't seem to channel it properly due to fatigue. She twisted her body as she neared the ground around five feet away from where she'd originally lain, trying to land on her feet so as not to aggravate her chest area more. The minute she landed, though, her legs collapsed from under her and she fell. She let out a small groan as she landed on her side, jarring her ribcage and sending jolts of pain throughout her torso. And then she started.
Like a grotesque statue, Uchiha Sasuke and Shikino Shinichi stood frozen, the shafts of each other's weapons all but disappeared in the other's body. Sasuke's Kusanagi was buried deep within Shinichi's chest, its extra layer of stark blue-white electricity providing a blinding background to the dark ninja's chakra-enhanced kunai, which had pierced through the flesh of the Uchiha's abdomen.
In tandem, the two ninja pulled their weapons sideways, widening the wounds and extending the damage they'd inflicted on each other. Sasuke slumped to his knees, his sword arm hanging at his side and the sword dangled from half-uncurled fingers. Shinichi fell to the ground, several major blood vessels severed, the blood fairly spurting out of him and spattering onto the ground and onto the teen who had been his demise. "You know..." Sasuke said - as he watched the dying ninja - his voice near-inaudible but sounding just as strong as always, "You should be constantly on the lookout for other threats...other enemies nearby...otherwise...you're never really safe..."
Finally, Shinichi's eyelids fluttered closed for the final time.
Thank goodness he's finally gone... Yuriko heaved a sigh of relief. Then, having held her head up until this point, she allowed herself to rest it, finally, on the ground, easing her neck muscles as she did so. She was barely aware of the sound of Sasuke hitting the ground, too.
She forced herself to stay awake, keeping her eyes on the abandoned, ruined carriage. It seemed ironic to her that, despite all that had happened around it, the wooden vehicle, an inanimate object, was still in what could be considered a standing position, while most of the animate ones were lying on the ground, spent, dying, or dead.
Then, her vision blurred, and Yuriko shook her head, blinking. You have to stay awake! she scolded herself. You're resting now, but you'll have to get up sooner or later; everyone's probably going to looking for you...
"Yuriko! Sasuke!" came the call, but it seemed so faint and from so far away that the amethyst-eyed girl didn't think it was real; she could have already been asleep and dreaming at that point, but she couldn't really tell. And then, someone obscured her view of a dead Shinichi - she was happy to have finally exacted revenge, somehow, for her family and wanted to wallow in it a bit more - and she frowned slightly at her inability to identify the person.
"Wh-what..." she managed before her eyes closed, too, and her left hand, which had been pressed against her chest, relaxed and fell away, revealing the wound.
"Crap!" Sakura exclaimed as her fellow kunoichi went limp, and she caught a glimpse of the damage caused by Shinichi's final attack.
A few feet away, Naruto knelt, holding on to Sasuke and berating him for putting himself in danger. A few tears were visible on the blonde ninja's cheeks; he didn't think he would ever see his best friend in such a state, and he could tell from the amount of blood staining the Uchiha's dark blue shirt that it wasn't good.
Sakura quickly assessed Yuriko's wounds, aware that Tsunade had arrived just seconds after she and her companions did and was now doing the same thing with Sasuke, and then turned to the former bladers who stood behind her. Kai had been brought to the hospital a few minutes earlier for monitoring, and seeing another friend in such a condition did nothing to ease their concern. "It looks really bad..."
"Can't you do something?" Rei knelt next to her, trying to keep himself from shuddering when he saw just how injured his friend was. "You're a medic nin, right?"
"Well, yes, but I'm not sure-"
"Please, Sakura-san, you have to try!" Max begged. As a friend, he'd grown quite attached to the auburn-haired teen and didn't think it fair for all of her loved ones' sacrifices for her safety to go to waste.
"A-all right..." the pink-haired kunoichi nodded once, and then bent to her task. A gentle green surrounded the girl's hands, suddenly making the atmosphere appear calmer. For a few minutes, she was silent; Rei, Max, and Takao, out of respect, fell to watching quietly what was taking place. Suddenly, Sakura spoke up, sweat beginning to break out on her face and along her neck. "I know you want her to be all right...but I...can't guarantee that I can repair such massive damage..."
"It's okay, Sakura..." Rei assured her, though in his mind he was already panicking. "We know you're trying your best, so there's no need to worry..."
Sakura gave a small, grateful smile, and then went back to focusing her entire being on her task.
C'mon, Yuriko... Rei thought, glancing at the limp girl's already pale face, and noted that it was growing paler still. Don't give up...not now, not after all that's happened... The neko-jin glanced over to where Tsunade was working on Sasuke for the second time since the start of that night's second battle, and found himself wishing fervently for Sasuke's recovery as well.
Meanwhile, the sky, which had remained dark for the most part of the battle, now began to brighten, the colors of the new dawn creeping across the clouds and chasing away the interfering shadows left over from the discarded night. The moon, whose silver sphere had stood as witness to the horror of the battle, now chose to hide herself behind a wispy cloud bank, slowly acquiescing to the first rays of the sun as they peeked over the far-off mountains.
A/N: Wooh...that was quite a long scene...no page breaks whatsoever! O.o pardon my babbling... Did I leave anyone in the dark, or lost and wandering back there? Just checking...oh, and in case you're wondering, the chapter title means 'Before Night Breaks' - in other words, before dawn... XD
Peace out, everyone! God bless!