Confession: I speak zero Japanese. Therefore, I must apologize in advance for the unreserved yet unintentional butchering of the Japanese language throughout this fic, particularly in regards to the newly minted jutsus in this chapter.
Disclaimer: As I said, I don't speak Japanese, and Naruto is, you know, a Japanese creation. So, yeah. Not mine.
Intent to Kill
Tense figures faced each other as rain fell in sheets, puddling at sandaled feet. A glowing sphere illuminated the dark night, casting an eerie light on the shinobis. Two faces, as different as night and day, were ablaze with anger. But Sasuke and Naruto made not a sound nor stirred a muscle, each understanding without speaking that this would not be like their usual spars. They were quiet and still, like the calm before the storm. One wrong move, and one of them would die.
A streak of lightning ripped through the sky.
As one, the shinobis surged forward.
"Rasengan!"
"Katon: taka engo!" yelled Sasuke, as fire in the form of a hawk burst to life in front of him. Even in the downpour, the fire hawk raced unflinchingly towards the spinning orb. The two jutsus met with a powerful clash and dispelled into the night.
In that instant, Sasuke's right arm came alive with crackling lightning. Straight and true, it plunged towards Naruto's heart when -
"Futon: katta toku!"
A blast of wind forced them apart and cut mercilessly at Sasuke's body as he flipped backwards and landed on his feet. Tiny rivulets of blood marred his pale skin until the rain washed it clean. Naruto dropped down into a defensive crouch. There was no clear winner after the first exchange. Naruto had drawn the first blood but expended precious chakra in the effort.
As rain poured around them, the two shinobis didn't speak but watched each other warily. Like two predators assessing a threat with barely contained ferocity. With a start, the blonde was the first to move. Renowned across the five nations for her speed, Naruto darted forward at a blinding pace, her fingers flying through hand seals.
"Suiton: rasen ame!"
The rain changed its downward course, as though no longer subject to the call of gravity. Raindrops coalesced to form spiked vortexes of rapidly spinning water - at least twenty of them, whipping through the air wildly. And Naruto raced towards him at the center of maelstrom.
With a growl of frustration, Sasuke activated his Sharingan. He needed every advantage fighting against Naruto at such high speeds, even at the expense of chakra. Three tomoes spun wildly in the crimson irises and gave Sasuke those valuable moments of foresight that would save his life.
The blonde could control the vortexes individually and coordinate her attacks accordingly. It was a crippling technique to a shinobi who could not match her in speed.
For Sasuke, the challenge was invigorating.
"Doton: doro funsui!"
The earth erupted around them, and fountains of mud deflected the rasen ame vortexes while Sasuke slipped through the bedlam of flying mud to counter his blonde rival. Their fists met with a force that produced a shockwave. Both shinobis were thrown back by the impact.
No sooner had their feet regained purchase than they were charging each other.
Sasuke felt his body loosen as he responded instinctively to Naruto's assault. A kind of peace swept over him, and in that moment, all was right with the world. It didn't matter that Naruto wasn't who she used to be. It didn't matter that Sasuke was at a loss to understand the impact of that change. Because, right then, they weren't friends or enemies or even shinobis of Konoha. They were Sasuke and Naruto. Free of demands or influences or prejudices. Sasuke's angers and frustrations, the villagers' accusing glares and Konoha itself melted away until he was left with a single-minded purpose.
To battle Naruto in their eternal struggle for supremacy.
He took the offensive, closing the distance between them as the ground blurred beneath his feet. Naruto's suiton abilities weren't the only techniques with a weather-induced power boost.
"Chidori senbon!"
Thousands of lightening needles flew at Naruto, their aim enhanced by his Sharingan. They would strike Naruto at her vitals - kill her if she didn't -
"Futon: bakuhatsu!"
An explosion of wind burst from her core. Blasted from their trajectory, the electric senbons scattered and fizzled out as they fell towards the earth. That was a new technique. Futon: bakuhatsu, she called it. It was an effective counter against many of his lightening-type techniques, maybe even Kirin. Sasuke knew instinctively that she had created the jutsu solely to counter him.
Well, she couldn't do that forever.
In the confusion caused by the falling senbons, Naruto brought her hands together in a familiar seal. "Kage bunshin no jutsu!" And four clones appeared beside her.
"Idiot!" Sasuke yelled over a clap of thunder. "Without your usual chakra reserves -"
Two Narutos grabbed the clones beside them and launched them at Sasuke at startling speeds, duel Rasengans spinning in their palms.
"I'll worry about my chakra reserves! You worry about this."
Sasuke dodged the first clone and sent the second flying with a kick to its gut. A Rasengan buried itself into a tree. Sasuke struck at the first chance. A kunai buried in its back, the clone disappeared with a satisfying pop. The first clone charged from behind. He threw it off-balance with a Doton jutsu and dispelled it with a kick to its sternum.
Meanwhile, the remaining three Narutos were upon him.
"Suiton: hoippu!" cried two of them simultaneously as thick veins of water surged from their arms. Naruto was going through chakra like a river over a waterfall, blowing through it as though she weren't already severely limited. All the better for Sasuke.
Concentration was the key here. Naruto was trying to trap him, to halt his movements just long enough to cage him in a watery prison. It was the ability that had captured the Kumo missing nin. But if Sasuke concentrated and didn't allow the water whips to herd him, he could avoid their partner technique - Suiton: kangoku - with minimal chakra expenditure.
He launched himself towards a clone. Another down, two Narutos to go.
That was his strategy. Let Naruto take the offensive and have her consume her chakra like it were candy. Then, at the moment she faltered, he would strike - a simple yet perfect plan. It fit their personalities like a glove.
Naruto was passionate.
He was rational.
Her inability to hold back would work against her while his clear-headedness would win the battle.
The number of water whips doubled, exploding upwards from the puddles on the ground. Not startled, Sasuke catapulted out of their reach with a chakra-enhanced leap and rebounded off a tree.
It was time for the counterattack!
He landed lithely just inside Naruto's range. Her back was half-turned to him as his right hand crackled with Chidori. She wouldn't make it in time to dodge. She was at his mercy as he drove his arm towards her exposed torso. With this, he would be victorious!
Instead, Sasuke faltered. Then, incomprehensibly, he fell to one knee.
What the hell?
Momentarily frozen, he barely had time to register the softly glowing markings on the ground. Markings that were draining his chakra at an alarming rate.
When did she -?
Oh, shit. When his back was turned. The first clone must have placed the seal while he dispelled the second. Naruto's Suiton: hoippu was for mere distraction while she moved into position. Look underneath the underneath. He hadn't. He had fallen for the trap.
Naruto had never used fuinjutsu against him before. Her last clone disappeared, replenishing a portion of her chakra, and she leveled a hard gaze at him.
"Right where I want you, bastard."
Time was suspended for Sasuke. Those few short seconds seemed like an age as icy blue eyes bored into his own. His heart was beating wildly, blood coursing through his veins. The thrill of battle worked its way in his bones. Not since he had fought Itachi had he been so invested in a battle. Not since he had fought Madara had he felt the gut-wrenching feeling of being overwhelmed. Not since he had last fought Naruto at full power had he felt the euphoria of being perfectly matched. Now, here he was, kneeling before his blonde-haired rival, defenseless. It was humbling. It was bewildering. It was somehow enticing. Knowing that he was one blow away from death intensified his will to survive. No one else in the five nations could make him feel this alive.
There were few things that Sasuke enjoyed. This was the exception. He loved this. He knew Naruto through and through, but there was always an unpredictable element that he could never account for, that took him by surprise. He was supposed to be the prodigy, but she was a force of nature. She was the wind. Pressing down on him from all sides. Breathing life into his darkened soul.
The spell broke as Naruto delivered a high-powered kick to his backside and sent him crashing through the trees. The underbrush unfortunate enough to lie in his path was ruthlessly cleared as he went skidding across the ground in a spray of mud and debris. With a groan, Sasuke pushed himself off the ground just in time to block Naruto's fist and launched himself backwards to regroup.
"I told you I would kick your ass," Naruto said, her calm tone belying the spark of unrestrained anger in her eyes.
He hadn't realized she meant that literally, but his butt cheeks smarted painfully from the blow. If he hadn't raised a chakra shield at the last moment, his tailbone would be in fragments.
It was rather humiliating.
"So what do you think of my fuinjutsu? Eh, bastard?! What do you think of me now? Still think I'm too weak to stand next to you?!"
"I never said you were weak." Quite the contrary. He spat out blood.
"What else would turn you back into a prickly ass bastard?!"
They were back to that. In the course of the fight, he had managed to forget why they were fighting with such abandon in the first place. Now she drew it back to his attention, and his hackles rose.
"Answer me, Uchiha!"
He didn't know the answer any more than she did! He only knew that something was bothering him, something was throwing him. Something was different, and it royally pissed him off. Logically, he understood that the something was centered around Naruto's transformation but had no clues beyond that. If he could just figure out what it was, then he could fix it and everything would go back to normal!
Sasuke was frustrated as hell, and as per usual, he took it out on Naruto.
His fire was greatly weakened in this weather. Chidori was too costly, and the strange seal had funneled at least half of his remaining chakra. He needed a new strategy - something that would freeze her movements with minimal chakra loss for himself.
It was so easy, it was almost cheating.
Sasuke smirked as he raised his eyes to meet hers. Like a switch had been flipped, he was all over Naruto, striking fast and hard, never giving an inch. Taken aback by the sudden reversal of roles, Naruto tried to counter, but she was blocked at every turn. She needed just a moment to regroup, just a moment to form seals for her next ninjutsu attack, but Sasuke allowed her not a spare second.
Kami-sama, the bastard was fast! He planted a foot in her chest and pushed off from her. While he flipped through the air, she fought to regain her footing. He pointed a finger at her.
"Chidori eiso!"
Too fast!
Naruto couldn't fully deflect the lightening spear. It shot through her right shoulder and propelled her into a tree. She met the trunk with a hard thud that dazed her. She instinctively raised her fist to block Sasuke's kick. No good. He reversed and came at her from the other side. Her right arm was in agony, hanging useless by her side. Blood poured unhindered down her chest.
He was winning. Beating her thoroughly. When had he gotten so fast? Or had she gotten slower? Her damn female body was losing. Her vision was blurry.
Damn, if Sasuke had this kind of speed, why hadn't he used it at the beginning?
He was fast.
Too fast.
Naruto's thoughts suddenly realigned.
He was too fast.
Genjutsu, she realized with a start. Well, hell. It was her fault Kurama wouldn't help her out of this one. The fake Sasuke flew at her, but she ignored him and gathered her chakra as best she could.
"Kai!" she yelled, and Naruto found herself standing still in a puddle of muddy water.
Sasuke blinked. It hadn't been a high-level genjutsu, but Naruto had never managed to break even one of his illusions without the fox's help.
Equally surprised, Naruto looked down at her body. Her right shoulder was unharmed. She had actually managed to dispel a genjutsu! Being in her rightful body had its perks, after all. Then she frowned. Her chakra was really low. Man, having only low jounin-level chakra reserves sucked!
Her opponent didn't seem to be faring any better. They were both breathing heavily, their chests heaving in and out, while scratches and bruises adorned their flesh. As Kakashi had once said, You won't succeed unless you come at me intending to kill. Neither had held back.
It was risky, but she had to conserve her chakra and wait for a chance to strike with ninjutsu. In the meantime, she had to rely on taijutsu. Sasuke had said, "Since your limbs are shorter now, your taijutsu will be wrecked. You'll overreach and leave openings." Well, Sasuke wasn't wrong, but she had a temporary solution to that problem. Naruto had sworn to win, and she never went back on her word. She would beat the truth out of Sasuke if she had to - and his bastard attitude along with it.
"Kage chi bunshin." A blood clone appeared next to her. "You'd better be worth the chakra. Let's go!"
"Hai, Boss!"
As one, they moved towards Sasuke.
... ... ...
Hidden from sight by a line of trees, Sakura watched from a distance as her teammates exchanged blows. Though she understood their rivalry better than anyone besides themselves, even she was shocked by their unbridled ferocity. They came at each other with intent to kill, setting a pace that she couldn't hope to match. Their kunai were out, igniting sparks as they clashed at frenzied speeds. Even now the two shinobis were rivals. Equals.
And she was on the sidelines.
"Sakura."
The pink-haired shinobi tensed, not having noticed her friend's approach. Taking a moment to paste a practiced smile on her face, she turned at Ino's call.
"We should get back to the party, Sakura."
Sakura nodded and said lightly, "I just wanted to make sure my two idiots were all right. That Naruto-baka should know I can't be tricked by a blood clone. I'm a medic after all!"
Ino wasn't fooled by her friend's carefree voice. "Sakura," she began slowly, "I know what you're thinking."
Pink brows raised quizzically. "That I'm still hungry since Choji ate most of the meat?"
"I-I know what you're thinking b-because I thought the same thing the moment Naruto became a girl!"
"It's really crazy, isn't it? Who ever would have guessed? The Yondaime may have been a genius, but he was completely -"
"Quit it." Ino's voice was suddenly harsh. "You know exactly what I'm talking about. You saw it just like me. W-when Sasuke-kun bristled like a jealous boyfriend!"
The pasted smile threatened to slip, but Sakura grit her teeth and held onto it for dear life.
"I know you've already realized it, even if you haven't admitted it to yourself. I didn't want to believe it either, but I knew the minute he stood up to leave that - that I had lost." A noise that sounded suspiciously like a sob caught in her throat, but Ino forced it back, determined to get this out. "I've always waited for him. Waited for him to start noticing girls, waited for him to be impressed with my latest jutsu, waited for him to return home. When he came back to Konoha, I thought, Finally. Finally he will acknowledge my existence. But he rebuffed me at every turn." She gathered her courage and said, "Now it's too late."
The silence was long as Ino waited for Sakura to speak and Sakura grasped for her quickly departing composure.
Then Ino said, "I met him before the massacre, you know. He came to the shop to buy flowers for his mom, and I helped pick them out. Before he left, he smiled at me and thanked me. That was when I first fell for him." Ino's lips tilted in a smile at the memory. "He was always the prince. I dreamed countless times that one day he would walk back into the flower shop and ask me what my favorite flower was. Lilies, I would say, white lilies. And later, he would surprise me with a bouquet.
"After the massacre, he was cold but so handsome and mysterious. It's no wonder all the girls in the academy got crushes on him. I'm not sure when my crush became something more. It's always hurt when he just...wouldn't respond to me, but I still couldn't give him up. I kept telling myself that the next day would be different. The next day he would notice me. The next day he would fall for me. I don't even know how many 'next days' I waited for." Ino straightened, and her voice grew firm. "But no more! I'm done loving him! I quit! I give up! And, Sakura, you should, too."
Denial choked by emotion forced its way past Sakura's lips in a garbled utterance, but she sealed her lips tightly.
"Sakura, it's not like we have a chance. We never had a chance with him, and it's taken something like this for me to admit it." Ino gripped her arms, digging her nails into the skin. "We have to move on."
"It - it's not that simple for me, Ino," said Sakura a little harshly, finally catching her stride, "you really didn't know him at all. You didn't fight with him, almost die with him! I've had all the same dreams and disappointments that you've had, but the difference is that I actually know him!"
"Do you really?" she asked quietly. "Can you really say that you know him? Do you know him well enough to know what he's thinking those times when he stares off into space? Those times when his eyes are on us but it's clear he doesn't see us at all?" Ino gained momentum until she was shouting. "What about those times when we ask him a question but instead of answering he looks past us as if we don't exist?! Do you know what he's thinking? Because I sure as hell don't! I never had any idea what was going through his head, but that all changed tonight at the party! For once - for the first time! - it was obvious what he was thinking! N-naruto," Ino said in a suddenly quaking voice. She shook her head to ward off the feebleness of her heart. "Naruto," she repeated firmly, "makes him lose his cool composure. Naruto riles his emotions. Naruto -"
"This - this is ridiculous, Ino! Naruto has been a boy for eighteen years! Even if - even if Sasuke-kun did like Naruto, there's no way that Naruto would return his feelings. So the point is moot!"
"The hell it is! If there's one thing we learned from the war it's that Uchihas love intensely! And if Sasuke-kun is this far gone in - what has it been, four days? - imagine what he'll be like next week! Then what? You'll just bide your time like you've been doing for the last decade?"
"You're just searching for an excuse to give him up, and that's fine for you but -"
Slap!
Ino's palm stung where she had slapped her best friend's cheek.
"Snap out of it, Sakura. Stop holding on to something that was never yours to begin with." Ino lowered her hand as Sakura's shoulders began to shake. "If anything, I keep searching for an excuse not to give him up. I've loved him so long that - that I don't know how not to. I've loved him for most of my life, so don't you dare think that giving him up is easy for me, Sakura!"
Silent sobs wracked Sakura's body. She had known. Some part of her had realized in the Hokage's office four days ago that she might finally have lost. The past two years, she had held out hope that Sasuke would wake up one day and see her with new eyes and her happily ever after would come true. Though that didn't happen, his disregard for her was bearable because he never gave any girl his attention, unless he was sparring with her. And Sakura had sparred with him numerous times within the first year of his return. She reveled in his undivided attention, drawing out their spars, working hard so that he might acknowledge her strength and, from there, her feelings. Sometimes he let a match last longer than it could have, and at those times, Sakura had allowed herself to hope that her patience had not been for naught. Maybe he wanted to spar with her a little longer. Maybe he enjoyed being with her. Even if he was only humoring her, at least he was taking her feelings into account.
Then, during one such spar, Sasuke was toying with her, and Sakura was tearing up the landscape to get at him. Her strength was waning, but she forced herself past her weakness, determined to show him a good match.
Focussed as she was on Sasuke, she didn't sense the approach of their other teammate until Sasuke himself took his gaze off her and inclined his head in Naruto's direction. His eyes, which had been cold and calculating during their spar, finally showed some life.
At that moment, Sakura knew that she was nothing but a placeholder for Naruto. She was the occasional convenience that Sasuke used to relieve his boredom. The blunt tool he used to keep himself sharp for his next spar with Naruto.
"You didn't have to end it on my account!" Naruto had called, upon bursting through the trees. "We've got some time before -"
"It was over a long time ago," Sasuke had said dismissively.
The words uttered more than a year ago echoed in her ears.
"It's really over for good, isn't it?" she said more to herself than to Ino.
"Yeah. It really is."
It was the culmination of a decade-long love, and a dead feeling settled heavily in her stomach. Sakura didn't know how to come to terms with it.
"You know," she whispered softly, "I always imagined that somehow, I would be the one to bring him back. I would change him. I would save him."
"Yeah, I know. Me too, but that didn't happen for either one of us. It was Naruto. It was always Naruto, and now, it's only a matter of time before Sasuke-kun realizes it."
Both girls sat in silence for many long minutes.
"Naruto, huh?" Sakura gave a choked sort of laugh. "When Sasuke-kun first came back, I tried to act more like Naruto. I started yelling and slurping ramen and being obnoxious. I was hoping that Sasuke-kun would open up to me like he did with Naruto. Instead, he looked at me like I was insane or was some disgusting bug. That is, when he looked at me at all," she added in a pained voice.
There was a long pause, then Ino snorted. "So that's what you were doing. We all wondered if the war had turned you funny."
Almost involuntarily, Sakura giggled, remembering the stomachache she'd had after inhaling four bowls of ramen, and before long, the two girls were laughing until sharp stitches form in their sides.
It was laughter born of heartbreak, of distress, of mutual understanding tinged with hysteria.
"I - I'm tired of loving Sasuke!" she exclaimed.
A sudden crash startled both girls as a green-clad ninja fell off a nearby tree. Rock Lee sprung up from the ground. His face was burning red, but his eyes were shining with ill-repressed emotion.
"S-sakura-san!" Excitement made his voice squeak. His arms were stiff by his side, and his back was rim rod straight. "I followed you and Ino-san from the party because I was worried! I beg you to forgive my unyouthful eavesdropping, but if you are giving up on Sasuke-san - I must know. Is this true?!"
"H-hai."
"In that case, allow me to express the Fires of Eternal Love to you! Sakura-san!"
"L-lee?" she questioned in astonishment. "You still -"
"I never stopped loving you for one moment! And now I wish to prove myself to you!"
Ino began tiptoeing away.
"Lee-kun, I - I've just now come to a decision about S-sasuke, and I can't -" Her voice wobbled, and she stopped to fight back against the sweeping tide of emotions.
"But after your broken heart has mended, will you be accepting other suitors?"
"I - I," stuttered Sakura, "I need...some time -"
"Then there is hope for me?!"
Sadly, Sakura looked into Lee's shining, black eyes, knowing the truth could crush him as she was crushed. "Probably not."
Lee lunged for her hands in joyful rapture. "Then there is! Thank you! Sakura-san!" Planting a quick kiss on her gloved fingers, he sped off towards the barbecue restaurant, positively glowing with youthful vigor.
In a daze of confusion, sorrow, and something akin to exasperation, Sakura made her way over to her blonde-haired friend.
The two stared at each other for a long moment before Ino snorted, "That boy has no sense of timing. Doesn't he know that he needs to wait the requisite seventy-two hours to take full advantage of your vulnerability?"
"Why seventy-two hours?" Sakura asked with morbid curiosity.
"That gives you just enough time to accept the inevitable, to cry your heart out a thousand times, and most importantly, to be desperate enough to fling yourself onto the first hot-blooded male who's interested."
Sakura sighed miserably. "Wanna stay over tonight?"
"So we can cry our hearts out together?"
She nodded.
"Mind if I bring sake?"
"As long as you bring enough for me."
As the kunoichis walked away from the training ground, Sakura cast one last glance over her shoulder. Into the darkness, she murmured, "I can't believe we got beaten by someone who wasn't even trying to win."
The fight was all going to be in one chapter, but it along with Sakura and Ino's bit got too long. Review please!
New technique translations:
Katon: taka engo - Fire: hawk guard
Futon: katta toku - Wind: cutting shield
Suiton: rasen ame - Water: spiral rain
Futon: bakuhatsu - Wind: explosion
Doton: doro funsui - Earth: mud fountain
Suiton: hoippu - Water: whip
Suiton: kangoku - Water: prison
Kage chi bunshin - Shadow blood clone