A/N: Fair warning, I'm not the greatest on fight scenes.
Disclaimer: Naruto is owned by Masashi Kishimoto.
Bring Me To Life
Summary: After Sasuke left, Sakura didn't know what her purpose in life was anymore. Her presence has becoming nothing. When three years pass, Sasuke comes back to Konoha. At his return, Sakura is at a mix of emotions"Save Me From The Nothing I've Become."
Chapter 7 – The Fight
"Are you saying that you're going to fight me, Sakura?"
His arm rose, grasping the frail wrist that was held against the pressure point of his neck firmly.
"You did say you wanted to fight me, remember?" Sakura fired back, restraining from his pulls to remove her hand as she kept her hold of his pressure point.
Upon her words, a remembrance flashed in his mind.
"You were going to fight me one day, Sakura. It just happens to be today."
The prodigy crouched low, a rapid grasp following on the sheath of his katana. Sakura followed suit, tugging down her gloves as she bent her fingers.
"Let's make this more interesting." She arched a brow at his spontaneous decree. "If you win," he continued, "then I promise to never abandon Konoha again. But, if I win, I'm leaving. I won't be coming back. Sound fair?"
"But… you just got here…" the kunoichi whispered.
"Which gives you all the more intention to want to beat me," his retort was instant and flat. "As you said, there's no point in fighting unless you have an intention."
"Wait a minute," she started. "Can this fight… take place later?"
Upon the kunoichi's request to later the battle, Sasuke folded his arms across his upper torso. "No backing out. But since I'm feeling generous today… we'll hold this fight for later."
"This time," she began, boring emerald eyes to match his intense onyx stare. Her voice was laced with unedifying determination. "It's going to be for real."
Sasuke's eyes held a small glint of amusement at her statements.
"Don't hold back on me," she added in her croaky whisper.
"You asked for it," he replied brusquely.
He gripped the wrist holding the fingers on his neck, removing it swiftly before his other free hand landed a hard punch in the middle of Sakura's abdomen.
Emerald eyes widened at the force of the hit, feeling her body keel over in reaction. She made no sound, but instead winced from the pain. As a medical shinobi, she could feel some of her ribs breaking from his harsh strike.
Feeling thick blood clog the back of her throat, she spat out the crimson liquid. She then felt her body lifted, airborne in the air before being tossed roughly, eyes shutting when her back came in contact with the coarse bark of a nearby tree. Her body slumped to the floor, her shoulders growing slack.
Her teeth ground against one another, feeling, as the Uchiha had warned aforementioned, her bandaged wounds opening up. The heat from her thick blood pooled against her.
However, despite the slick movements he had just done, Sakura could still tell that Sasuke was holding back. She frowned upon this concluding comprehension. He still didn't take her seriously.
Using the back of her hand, she swiped the trickling blood falling from her mouth.
She gathered green chakra in her hands, hovering her healing chakra over her broken ribs. The energy concerted together, healing her broken injuries instantly within a few seconds – and that was all the time she needed.
The kunoichi then took out a kunai and a couple of shuriken. Placing the kunai's handle in her mouth and holding her shuriken in between her fingers, she gathered her "inner strength" and punched the ground hard with her knuckles, instantaneously creating a fissure.
Jade eyes watched him leap into the air, evading her attack. Doing just as Sakura had predicted, she launched the shuriken from her fingers, aiming expertly at his body.
Sasuke smirked at her battle strategy – it was all too predictable.
He took out a couple of shuriken himself, taking a few moments to focus where he was going to aim. The weapons launched through his fingers at an accurate time with a portion of his great strength, deflecting the shuriken thrown by the kunoichi that had continually gradually flew towards him.
Upon seeing her weapons deflected, but not at all surprised, Sakura crouched low. She then dashed forward, sprinting towards where she had estimated Sasuke would land against the terrain.
As expect, the raven-haired male landed gracefully on the ground, his body remaining unfazed as he merely stood. His face held that he was hardly intimidated, onyx orbs yet to find the purpose to divert into scarlet Sharingan.
He watched her form dashing towards him, his gaze wavering as he trailed down the wounds of her body. He could distinguish the stitches break, reopening the injuries.
Sakura immediately whipped around, sensing the Uchiha's chakra right behind her. She threw a fist at his face. Her strike hit him square in the face as his head turned – or so she thought. A soft poof was heard and Sakura realized that it was only a mere shadow clone.
She muttered a curse to herself silently, her fiery emerald eyes scanning the area for the raven-haired shinobi. She had to give him credit for deceiving her with a shadow clone – her eyes being specially fit for pointing out genjutsu. She almost smiled bitterly. She hadn't realized the talent of her eyes until Sasuke himself had complimented her with the skill early in the Chuunin exams.
She was instantaneously brought out of her reminisce when she heard a soft chuckle from behind her. Large sea green eyes expanded upon feeling the chilling sensation of a cold kunai pressed tautly against her porcelain neck. Her breath hitched in her throat at this realization.
"You lose."
His taunt was a mere whisper before he thrust his kunai inside her neck.
((SFX: Poof!))
Her form vanished before his eyes, causing piercing charcoal eyes to squint. Kage bunshin, he presumed in his head automatically.
Upon witnessing the Uchiha murder her shadow clone, Sakura darted from her hiding place. She pumped chakra through her body, placing her most powerful energy inside her closed fist. She sprinted towards him, the deadly punch aimed directly towards the raven-haired male.
"Your choice of offense…" drawled Sasuke in a murmur. "It's smart" – his body sidestepped as he gave her a side glance, noting her speed increased dubiously once he did so – "…but not smart enough for me."
Acting solely on instinct, his arm rose, his expecting had catching her flying fist. Upon the Uchiha's halt of her strike, Sakura grit her teeth.
However, she refused to be beat so easily.
Using the strange "superhuman strength" (as named by Naruto) the kunoichi had inside her body, she pushed her punch further against the palm of his hand. Swiftly, she diverted it from his grasp, pummeling him hard against the side of his face – noting how his eyes widened somewhat at the sudden blow.
His body staggered backwards from her powerful hit, scarlet Sharingan now flashing dangerously in his eyes. He could practically hear the bones in his cheek break caused from, what he had presumed to be, a simple punch.
Sakura frowned from the turnout of her punch. She had expected her blow to push him farther still. She bit her tongue seeing the mere distance he had moved.
All that training… she thought, unconsciously putting her hand on her healed broken ribs. All for nothing…?
Sasuke cursed under his breath, muttering, "That was one hell of a punch."
Her ears perked at his statement, despite the fact that it wasn't directed at her. She felt a small smile cross her face. He had at least somewhat acknowledged her for a part of her skills. She then realized that she had at least landed a vaguely powerful blow against him, and that was a feat all in itself.
Using the back of his hand, Sasuke swiped off the blood from his chin. Sharingan eyes bored into Sakura's large viridian ones. He took out a kunai and threw it at her, using his own speed to follow the flying dagger.
The blossom-haired kunoichi evaded the kunai and barely dodged the strong fist that Sasuke threw at her. Without a moment to spare, the Uchiha prodigy charged at her again, kicking her hard in the side of her body.
The Godaime's apprentice was knocked over a few yards to the right, her hands gripping the side of her body from the pain. She poured some of her healing chakra into the spraining wounds.
Oh no… she thought, slightly drastically. I'm running out of charka.
Her vision blurred as her mind raced to think of a defense plan.
He still refused to let her take a moment to catch even a breath. At full speed, Sasuke came at her, sporting kicks and punches at her. He then formed a few seals, fiery inferno erupting from his mouth as Sakura successfully dodged the flames.
One jade eye closed in a wince as she realized there were kunai beneath the fire as the flames distinguished. The daggers blazed across her skin, creating flesh wounds but nothing more drastic.
Sasuke then suddenly appeared before her, a fist flying towards her face. She caught the punch with the palm of her hand, keeping her grasp as the strength from his blow caused both hands to shake as Sakura continued to firmly grip his knuckled strike. Large sea green eyes bored into the crimson depths of the Sharingan.
"It doesn't have to be like this," the blossom-haired kunoichi whispered to him. "You don't even know the true strength of this village. You think we're weak, but that's only because we don't have to utilize our full potential. You don't see what we're capable of."
"Don't make me laugh," he retorted brashly. "This village has hardly any strength. It crumbled when Orochimaru attacked, however I killed Orochimaru using hardly anyof my true strength. Not even the Sandaime could kill him. What could this village possibly have to offer?"
Sasuke pushed his fist as Sakura took a step back, trying to hold his strength, his clenched hand still firmly grasped by her own.
"Don't you realize Sandaime-sama was old? He managed to prevent Orochimaru from performing jutsu for a period of time – he didn't die old and give up without a fight! That alone was a feat in itself. Besides, we're under new ruling then we were before you left. We have Tsunade-shishou now, and she's made the village stronger! You're only underestimating things, Sasuke—"
"The old man only stopped him for a short period of time," the said Uchiha rejoined. "Prove to me that this village is strong," he said whilst digging his fist deeper in her palm, causing her footsteps to begin retreating backwards, "and I might just consider staying."
He threw her frail body back with his fist as Sakura flew reversed, her backside hitting stiffly as her shoulders slumped forward, her mangled form dragging downwards against the coarse bark of the tree.
Pastel pink hair framed her porcelain face as her head hung over, thick lashes over distinct jade orbs. Her arms lay limp at her sides, her legs spread across from her.
Dark onyx orbs flashed, immediately recognizing the position she lay in as the identical state he had found her in after his fight with Itachi not too long ago.
Sasuke knew he was going to beat her. There was no way a weak kunoichi was going to defeat an Uchiha. The only reason he even considered the fight was to see how much she had grown, how her skills had increased. In the battle that had taken place only moments before, he had found the answers to his curiosities.
Her strength has increased, as well as her speed. She can heal fatal injuries in a few seconds, despite that the feat depletes a great amount of chakra. Her mind calculates battle strategies pretty quickly. And she had always been able to see through a genjutsu…
Sakura stared blankly at the ground in front of her, her expression in a vacant gawk. Why hasn't he finished me off? Given me the final blow? Kill me? She sighed, one answer to her multiple questioning lingering in her head. He was going easy on me – the whole time…!
Out of her verdant peripheral vision, she had seen a kunai flying towards her. However her defeated body refused to make a move, the knife seeping deep through the flesh of her forearm. She didn't wince from the pain, didn't make any movement whatsoever. Thick, warm blood trickled down from her flesh wound, and she didn't bother to make a move to heal it.
Sakura panted softly before taking a sharp intake of air, exhaling the breath slowly. Her throat had begun to feel constricted, and she could feel her heart pump faster at this realization as her breathing had begun to go shallow.
A whisk of wind brushed aside her hair before she glimpsed Sasuke kneeling in front of her, his strong, penetrating charcoal gaze boring into the features of her face, her emerald gaze still wavered from his own, refusing to meet his own stare. Instead they were pointed to a corner, lamely.
"What are you waiting for?" she spoke hoarsely, her voice barely above a whisper. "Aren't you going to finish me off?"
It was then she allowed her eyes to flicker upon his face, only to feel her body grow numb when she realized what truly close proximity he was to her. She warily watched his arm rise, his thumb and forefinger grasping her chin.
Large, sea green eyes expanded when she felt his mouth press against hers.
He pressed into her slightly more forcefully as his head tilted, his mouth slanting over hers. As he pushed against her, Sakura could feel the back of her head connecting with the rough bark of the tree she was against.
Before she could fully realize, her body still engulfed in stunned lack of sensation, Sasuke pulled back.
Somewhat desperately her eyes roved the sharp angles of his face, wondering what his reaction would be to his sudden spontaneous action. Instead, she only saw him whisk his head to the side, silky raven bangs hiding the reaction she so urgently wanted to glimpse upon.
"You lose, Sakura."
His murmur was brusque, attached with the low, husky tone of his voice.
Sakura felt another cold chill of air brush by her, witnessing a few idle verdant leaves fly by. Before she knew it, the breeze grew stronger, and soon Sasuke was gone with the wind, vanishing before her very eyes.
A few moments of stillness passed by for the blossom-haired kunoichi. Her mind was racing with thoughts, colliding into one another frantically. Her expression was aghast. Nothing made sense anymore.
It had taken a few minutes for the events that had just past to settle into her mind. Another few minutes for her body to properly react to the past proceedings.
He's gone…
Waves of tears began building up beneath her large emerald eyes, causing the pupils to glisten from the unshed tears.
((SFX: Drip, drip, drip…)
Before long, silent beads of moisture had trailed down the cheeks of her face, soaking upon the floor one after the other.
Her body wracked with silent sobs as Sakura closed her eyes. After years of pushing her tears aside, refusing to let the moisture fall – all was becoming unraveled as more droplets flowed from jade eyes.
He was gone once more, leaving behind a broken, lifeless doll in his wake.