A Deal with a Devil

Chapter 6: A Rival is Born!?

Sasu stood in one of the right corners of the dueling ring, she had stripped down to her skivvies and put on a very tight pair of sports clothing, a sports bra and athletic shorts. Many of the males in the audience crossed their legs as if they were synchronized swimmers when they sat down. Across from her stood Sasuke, he had not changed out of the clothes he wore when he had greeted the delegates from Konoha. Sasu saw a very palatable look of confidence upon Sasuke's face, he was so confident in the fact that she was weaker than he was that the idea that he might lose had even crossed into his mind. Sasu could see this and would make him regret it. Come to think of it, Naruto had never actually seen Sasu's skills in battle. She was an Uchiha which meant she probably had access to the Sharingan and surely she could sense the pure power radiating off of the boy in the ring with her.

Naruto stood in Sasu's corner like a boxer's trainer, and watched the girl he had been with since Sasuke left and saw that the confidence in Sasuke was mirrored in Sasu. It was at this point that Kaze walked over to the blonde headed boy's side and looked at him as he stared at the combatants. "They know to tone it down right?" wondered Kaze.

"Probably." Naruto responded without taking his eyes off of the ring.

"Probably?" wondered Kaze.

"You see, Sasuke doesn't usually hold back."

"I'll say, you should have seen him in the battle with our parents. He doesn't give any quarter. What about your girlfriend?"

"She's not… oh never mind. Sasu seems kinda of the same, but I've never really seen her in battle." Naruto shrugged and then put his hands to his mouth and shouted at Sasu, "You better kick his ass!" Sasu turned and smiled brightly.

"Excuse me; I have to start this fight." Kaze stepped into the hardwood, boundryless ring, "Just to go over the rules, there are only two: No massive destruction and going outside of the ring equals defeat. That said lets get this over with." Kaze walked over to Sasuke and placed her mouth at his ear whispering, "Just don't kill her, ok, we need Konoha." Sasuke gave slight grunt as confirmation and Kaze stepped off of the ring.

VVV

Kakashi was weak in the legs, he had been for short amount of time, hence the fact that he was now sitting and not standing in the quarters that he had been given in the Village of the Dusk. It was all he could do to stare at the picture in the locket Kaze had given him. The locket itself was a beautifully crafted piece of reinforced ivory with an ornately designed symbol of Konoha's leaf pattern carved into the outside. However, it was not the locket itself that had made him so weak in the knees but the picture inside. It was a small picture of a young silvered hair girl, not more than three or four years old, smiling happily. Kakashi assumed that this girl was Kaze. This girl was wrapped in an older woman's arms; this woman couldn't have been much more than twenty years old and had frosty blonde hair with a pair diagonal rectangle marks on her cheeks that pointed inwards toward the bridge of her nose. On the inside of the lid, there was a seal that looked like one of the type that Tenten used to hold her weapons in her scroll. Kakashi pricked his finger and placed it to the seal. With a slight puff of smoke a small scroll appeared at Kakashi's hand. He slipped the locket into his jacket and opened the scroll. It was written in a code that his team had invented in order to talk to each other during missions. He began to read.

Kakashi,

If you are reading this, then my daughter has given you the locket. First off, I wanted to say that I'm sorry. I'm sorry I tricked you, I'm sorry I wasn't more careful, but most of all I'm sorry I let you think that I was dead. After that day, I made it a point to disappear and went to the mist as a civilian, and married a Jounin there. I led him to believe that the child I was pregnant with was his, and he took good care of us until he died on a mission. Kaze was about a year old and it was then that I decided not to keep it a secret from her who her father was. Kakashi, if you don't know by now (you always were a dense one) Kaze's family name is Hatake. It was her decision to take it upon leaving the Village of the Mist and she has a great desire to know you. Please take care of your daughter, and who knows maybe we'll see each other again.

Forever yours,

Rin.

Kakashi looked over the scroll one last time before placing it too in his jacket pocket. Why had Rin run away from him? Did she think he would have been a bad father? Was he not skilled in anything but Ninjutsu? Would he have even wanted to know? Kakashi sat in the dark of his quarters left with only questions; that was until he came back to his senses and to the heart of the matter. "I have a daughter!" Kakashi exclaimed in a tone that was five parts surprise, three parts joy, and four parts horror.

VVV

She thought it would be a good thing to show the ambassadors of the Hidden Dusk the most beautiful sight there was to see in Konoha as a method of breaking the ice. Sakura led the two down the 'walk of cherry blossoms' which was essentially a giant cherry blossom orchard. Consequently, it was where she was conceived, hence her name.

Sakura didn't quite know what to make of the two ambassadors; Genbu was tall, built like a tank and covered in scars topped off by one of the brightest smiles she had ever seen. The other was a nervously wild looking girl by the name of Kirika who had the habit of scratching her knuckles. From what she had learned from them they were the elders of their newly founded clans and that Genbu hailed from the hidden village of the Rock, where as Kirika hailed from the hidden village of the Snow. It was quite a weird pairing to send as ambassadors, but from what she understood the village of the Dusk was a newly formed village that consisted of young refugees from nearly all of the hidden villages and had to admire them for standing up against their parents. "Sakura-sama," said Genbu brightly

"Please, not so formal." Responded Sakura

"Sakura-san, while we do appreciate you keeping us company while the Hokage debates our official induction into the fire country," Kirika snorted as Genbu paused his sentence, "but we must have an answer as soon as possible."

"We do not have the time to wait; our village is weakened greatly by our absence." Kirika jeered.

"Weakened? Surely, the others can make up for two people being gone."

"Oh really?" Kirika sneered angrily as Genbu stepped in between the two girls.

"We possess… certain skills that are tightly held secrets in our own villages, and the absence of those skills weakens our defenses. Our clans are strong, but inexperienced and in a battle to the death it is experience that always wins out. Our village is strong, but inexperienced and we need all the experienced fighters we can get." Genbu explained.

"Hence the need for Konoha's help." Kirika growled.

"I apologize, I'm sorry I can't be much more than a tour guide at this point." Then it hit Sakura, one of the many things that Tsunade said to her before her recent fore into indecision was that she should take any chance to learn that she got. So Sakura decided to make a chance with these two. "Something that might force the council's decision quicker would be an act of good faith."

"Like?" wondered Kirika curtly.

"If I could show Hokage, that you are willing to share some of your skills, nothing major, with a Konoha ninja…"

"Yes, I see were you are going with this," responded Genbu, "and it sounds like a good idea. Kirika if pass a few of our skills to this Kunoichi, Hokage-sama might be more forth coming with resources."

"What? Teach her? No offense, kid, but you can't just learn my abilities. There's a process you have to undergo first," Answered Kirika with a pained expression, "and I would not force it on anyone." Sakura looked at the wild girl and for the first time noticed an aspect of her that was not wrathful and course. Kirika put her left hand over her right knuckles, and stared nostalgically into the distance.

"…but mine are not so exclusive, and I find the idea intriguing." Genbu smiled again, "Is there a free training ground around here?"

VVV

Sasu stood in her corner, the fight had not stared yet, and she was taking her time to analyze her opponent. Sasuke was not the least bit nervous and did not give off any sense of doubt. The only thing that Sasu got from her male counter part was a sense of confidence; confidence that he would win, and confidence that he would make this quick. She also got this impression that he was not going to let everything he had go in the fight. That was down right insulting, and he would regret it. He was operating under the notion that she was weaker than he was. She loved it when people thought she was weaker than them, it gave her openings to exploit from the get go. The bell dinged and in the following split second she flashed off at a speed unmatched and caught Sasuke off guard. Sasu smiled as she landed a punch to his gut and felt one of his ribs crack just before he substituted a tree trunk and disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Not wanting to be caught off guard Sasu perked her ears. It was just in time too as she heard the draw of several kunai from their leather pouch at his hip. Sasu dodged back to avoid the sharp objects launched at her, but surprised when she found that Sasuke caught her in a full nelson. Sasu searched the Sasuke holding her, it was a copy, "Kage bushin!?" Sasu gasped as the real Sasuke charged her with the intention ramming his elbow in to the same rib she had felt crack in him. Thinking quickly Sasu flipped backwards over her captor's shoulders, effectively reversing the hold, and providing a shield for the oncoming attack.

However the shadow clone went up in a poof of smoke just as Sasuke's blow was about to come into contact with it and knocked into her collarbone fracturing it slightly. Sasu was hurt, but not hurt enough to keep her down for more than a tenth of a second as Sasuke had immediately tried to pounce her. She flipped out of the way just in time to avoid the attack and spun into a handstand that connected the ball of her foot to his chin. Sasuke staggered back, but came forward and blew a giant cloud of fire in her directions without the use of hand seals. It was too fast to avoid so Sasu put her arms up in defense and molded the chakra around her into a solid shield.

The fire cleared and Sasu stood, playing at being unscathed, but knew that she had been burned. However, Sasuke's body was just as injured as hers, and he was playing at the same. As if of the same brain, both Sasuke and Sasu took up similar stances with their right arms back behind them.

Naruto knew this stance, he knew it well. It was the same stance that he had seen Sasuke use in their battle, and he knew the move's name well, "Chidori…" Naruto whispered as the sound of thousands of chirping birds whistled and squeaked with the pale blue energy that crackled at the Uchihas' finger tips. He had to stop this or they were going to kill each other! Without thinking fully, and reacting to the two charging at each other, Naruto jumped onto the ring and ran to be in the middle of the two Uchihas. "Naruto NO!" Sasu screamed as she could not stop.

"Idiot!!!" Sasuke yelled as he could not stop either, but it was too late Naruto had jumped into the middle. He knew that they could not stop and called on the Kitsune's power in an effort to shield himself and stop the two attackers. What happened next was anything but a shield. The ensuing explosion rocked the ring into rubble and knocked all of the onlookers at least fifteen feet back. A mushroom cloud reached into the sky as the dust cleared and Sasu swept the smoke and debris floating in the air away to clear her vision. Sasuke did the same and looked for the blonde idiot.

"NARUTO!!" Sasu called out. Soon the dust cleared enough to find that Naruto was now lying on ground in an oddly contorted position, but otherwise unharmed. Sasu rushed over to the boy on the ground and turned him over; he was unconscious. However, there was something strange about him like something had changed. Sasuke moved to see and gave a very obvious sigh of relief when he found Naruto unharmed. Naruto slowly came back to consciousness when Sasu realized what had changed about him. His whiskers were gone. "Oh…" Sasu felt a presence form behind her.

"Free, ha ha, I'm finally loosed from my prison!!"

"...shit" Sasuke finished Sasu's phrase.

Sasuke and Sasu turned to face the presence behind then, it possessed a chakra unlike anything they had ever felt before in their lives. It was both as hot as the blazing desert and chilling as the frozen tundra. However, what their eyes beheld disarmed their feelings slightly. Their stood the nude female form of Naruto's oroke no jutsu, affectionately called the sexy no jutsu. A tall long legged blonde girl with eyes as blue as the sky and hair done up in pigtails with Naruto's trade mark 'whiskers' across her cheeks stood at the center of the crater that used to be the ring. Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the blonde girl as a slight trickle of blood dripped from his nose. "Naruto?" he wondered.

"I am Kitsune no Kyuubi."

End Chapter 6

AN: Like that little twist at the end, it's something I was planning since the beginning of the series, and hope I carried it off well. Let me know if I did ok. I also have the direction I want to take Sakura in, as well as a new character to exploit… er… um… flesh out I mean. I was going to wait to post this as a apart of a big update I'm brewing but decided to go ahead with it anyway.