SSD: I'M NOT DEAD!
Renji: Congrats, now you'll just continue making my life a living hell.
Sakura: You're already dead, Renji-baka.
Renji: Urusai, gaki!
Hitsugaya: Abarai, shut up. (glare)
Renji: (gulp)
Sakura: So when are you gonna work on the new trailer?
SSD: Meh (shrug) whenever I can I guess, I did get promoted after all.
Hitsugaya: Perhaps you're not so worthless.
SSD: Shut it, Shirou-chan!
Hitsugaya: (twitch)
SSD: I finally have all the box sets of Naruto! After so long, they are mine once more. And I now have the eighth Bleach set so I'll probably get to the trailer soon.
Grimmjow: Oi, oi, oi, this some kind of wimpy ass shinigami convention?
SSD: Grimmy! When did you get here?
Grimmjow: (twitch) What the fuck ya think yer doin' callin' me "Grimmy"? Call me that one more time and I'll shove a fuckin' Cero down yer throat! And I snuck in through the back, shinigami-fucks.
(Collective growl from all but authoress.)
SSD: Well, since Grimmy- er, jow-is here, the gang's all assembled, we can get on with the story! Hey, Grimm-kun, care to do the honors? (hands him a note card)
Grimmjow: Why the fuck do I have to? (sees puppy dog eyes) Fuck me.
Silverserpentdragon does not fuckin' own Bleach or Fuckin Naruto or she would- I AM NOT FUCKIN' SAYIN' THAT, NO FUCKIN' WAY! Get on with the damn story!
Trinity Blade Saga 1: Of Red Head Weirdos
The next morning, Sakura groggily sat up on her bed. She ran a hand through her tousled sunset hair and yawned. Morning, Hanookami, she customarily greeted the zanpaktou. After a few moments of not receiving an answer, everything that occurred over the past couple of days slammed into her and shocked Sakura awake.
That's right, Hanookami insulted Sasuke and when I tried to defend him, she retreated into my soul. But, she was right. I do have my spells and yet I still rely so much on Sasuke and Naruto. Sakura paused momentarily in her thoughts as she realized a disturbing fact. When, when did I stop calling him "Sasuke-kun"?
"Sakura-chan! Time to get up! Sakura-chan?" A female voice called from downstairs.
"I'm up! Chotto matte-yo!" Sakura replied and went through her morning routine before grudgingly putting on the Haruno dress. The red really did not go well with her complexion. The kunoichi shinigami trudged down the stairs and entered the kitchen.
Haruno Michiru smiled serenely at her adopted daughter. She had waist length teal hair and green eyes. Dressed in a modest white sundress with a light green apron, she was the perfect picture of a housewife. Seated at the table was Haruno Haruka, Michiru's husband and Sakura's adopted father. Despite his effeminate face, his jaw had a harsh square frame and gave him a stern countenance. He had ruffled blonde hair and clear blue eyes. Haruka looked up from the paper he was reading to where Sakura had entered.
"Morning, Saku-chan, sleep well?" Haruka asked while smirking at her bedraggled appearance.
Sakura glared. "Shut up, 'tou-san." Michiru set a bowl of miso soup in front of her as Sakura took a seat. "What happened to the clothes I bought?"
Michiru appeared thoughtful as she sat down beside Haruka. "Hmm, you may want to talk to Minako and Rei. They were here yesterday saying that you gave them permission to borrow your clothes. When I saw they borrowed everything I put your clan outfits in their place."
Sakura's eye twitched. She did not mind Rei too much, her adopted cousin was most likely only tagging along to have something to do. Minako, on the other hand, Sakura did not like. She was one of Haruka's nieces, related to him through his brother, Hikaru. She was bubbly, boy obessed, and the complete definition of a dumb blonde. Way back when, she begged her parents to enroll her in the ninja academy so she could be close to one of the Uchiha boys her age. Of course, it was after the Massacre that she dropped out. Minako was actually the reason Naruto got on her nerves so easily. Sakura resisted the feral growl rising in her throat and smiled sweetly at Michiru. "Thank you, 'kaa-san, I'll be sure to speak with Minako-chan after meeting up with my team. Itadakimasu!"
Sakura stormed to training ground seven, ready to blast the hell out of the first thing that annoyed her. In which case, she really hoped she got to the training logs before Naruto showed up and she shot off a Byakurai up his ass. Sasuke was leaning up against the left log with his usual air of aloofness around him. Renji was perched, in shinigami form, on the top of the middle log with Byakuya, also in shinigami form, standing in front of it looking as immaculate as always. Naruto was crouched beside Sasuke with a pout on his face and glaring at said Uchiha.
"Ohayo, gaki!" Renji called out while waving to her. Unfortunately for him, he didn't realize Sakura's current mood and was hit by a low powered byakurai. "Oof!" Renji laid flat on his back with a smoking hole in his shihakusho. He recovered quickly and was soon up and yelling in the neo-shinigami's face. "What the hell was that for, kusogaki!"
Sakura eye-twitched. "For annoying me, Renji no baka! I'm currently pissed off at my cousin for stealing my clothes or 'borrowing' them as she claims to be. I can't exactly blast her with a kido just 'cause I'm pissed off."
"Why would your cousin steal your clothes?" Naruto asked while cocking his head to one side.
"Because she's a complete boneheaded, do-nothing, mommy and daddy's angel who thinks she's queen of the universe to even think of getting a job! She still can't get it through her head that they'll never let her play Fuuin-hime because of her clutzy, ditzy, incompetence!" Sakura drew in ragged breaths as she recovered from her rant.
A puff of smoke appeared in front of the five to signal Kakashi's arrival. The scarecrow eye-smiled at his students and raised a hand in salute. "Yo. Glad you all could make it on time."
"Speak for yourself," Sasuke muttered to himself under his breath.
"Anyway, we won't be doing much training today. Just wanted to give you these, I forgot to give them to you yesterday." The jounin sheepishly scratched his cheek as he handed them three slips of paper, one for each. "You'll need to sign those and meet at room 301 by 1500 hours Saturday. Well, that's all for now. Meet here tomorrow at nine." With that said, Kakashi poofed out.
"No training again today! What a lazy ass!" Naruto complained loudly. "How're we supposed to stand a chance in the Exams if our sensei won't even teach us new ninjutsu or taijutsu!"
"Hn, the baka has a point. We need what little time we have left to train if we hope to become chuunin. Sakura, what's your opinion on this?" Sasuke turned to their orange haired teammate and promptly sweat dropped at the maniacal gleam in her chocolate eyes.
Perhaps if I put pink hai- no, no, that wouldn't work. Oh! If used maple syrup and chicken feathers…kukuku. You will pay yet, Haruno Minako! Hanookami's wielder plotted against her cousin. Sasuke's question snapped her out of her prank-related thoughts. "Well, we could work on the stuff we already know, like tree climbing, Sasuke's katon, Naruto's bunshin…" Sakura paused as a different road occurred to her. "Actually, my cousin Makoto is a chuunin, maybe we can get her help."
"Yahoo! Finally, someone who can actually teach us a thing or two!" Naruto cheered.
"Great and all, but what about your training, gaki? You still have a bunch of kido to learn." Renji spoke up from by the center log.
"Renji is correct. You cannot ignore your shinigami duties at this time." Byakuya finally spoke.
"Well, I can go get Makoto to train Naruto and Sasuke while I train with you."
Byakuya nodded in acceptance. "Very well."
Sakura smiled brightly. "Great! C'mon, Naruto, Sasuke!" The genin shinigami turned on her heel and sped off into Konoha.
Haruno Makoto was, a bit of an oddity in Konoha. There were a number of things that made her stand out above the crowd. First of which was her height, Makoto towered over the general population by a good three and a half inches. Standing at 5'11 ½" made her quite an imposing figure. She was also a taijustu specialist having undergone the horrific and brutal training of Maito Gai, she had an aversion to the green/orange color combo ever since those terrible years. Makoto, though, never learned how to access the Eight Gates and, as such, was not nearly in the same league as her sensei after her tortuous training. One of the habits she did pick up was wearing a lot of green, but wore pink arm and leg weights rather than orange. However, her outfit was more tolerable than Gai's. A green tank top and black, loose-fitting jeans that wouldn't restrict her movement, she wore the red headband signifying her as a specialist on her forehead and topped off her outfit with black shinobi sandals and her chuunin vest. Her auburn hair was usually held in a tight French braid that fell to midback. As such she was minding her own business while on her daily jog through Konoha before any missions she accepted.
Sakura was well aware of her much more tolerable cousin's schedule and intercepted her just as she passed the bookstore near the clan compound. "Makoto-chan! Chotto matte yo!"
The brunette slowed to a stop and dabbed lightly at the slight sheen of sweat on her brow. "Hey, Saku. What's up? Haven't seen you since you got back from Wave."
The pseudo pinkette shrugged. "Okay except for Mina-baka raiding my closet again. Umm…I was wondering if I could ask you a favor?" Her masked green eyes looked up at the older girl questioningly.
"Sure, what do you need? Want me to go beat Mina-chan up?" Makoto asked jokingly.
Waving slightly she replied, "Nah, I have my own mean of revenge for later. I was wondering if you could help my team train for the upcoming Chuunin Exams?"
Makoto regarded her cousin, puzzled. "Why do you need my help? Isn't your sensei THE Sharingan no Kakashi? You should be learning loads of jutsu from him."
"We would if he'd bother to stay out his stupid porn books and actually pay attention to us." Sakura admitted bitterly with a twitch of the eyebrow.
"Seriously? Huh, thought a jounin was more responsible than that. What kind of training are you lookin' for?" Makoto settled herself comfortably against the wall of the bookstore while regarding Sakura with curious green eyes.
"Mainly taijutsu. Naruto's horrible at it, I know I need work on it, and Sasuke's the only one of the three of us who's actually good at it. I'm getting better at kenjutsu from a couple of tutors who've taken a liking to me but otherwise I suck worse than Naruto." It hurt to admit her faults like that, but it was the truth, Sakura just really REALLY didn't like admitting her shortcomings.
"Hmm," the Haruno chuunin mused. She realized the trust being put in her by her cousin for revealing her team's strengths and weaknesses and really didn't want to disappoint her. She mulled over the possibilities. "Just taijutsu training?"
Sakura nodded. "Yeah, maybe if I ask really nice Ami will give us some pointers in genjutsu and Rei in fire jutsu."
"Why not Run or Kiyume?"
Sakura leveled her cousin with a deadpan stare. Run was very antisocial, genius, but severely disliked kids. The only, ONLY, exceptions were the twin Rin and Ran and that was because they were still quite young and his siblings. His proficiency with fire jutsu was unseen outside of the Uchiha clan and even then it nearly outmatched the infamous clan's techniques. Kiyume was a possibility she hadn't considered though. She was quite skilled with fuuinjutsu and had many seals planted on her own body. If anything, the team could learn to make their own exploding tags or sealing scrolls. If they were EXTREMELY lucky, they could find a way to form a summoning contract.
"You know Run would be more likely to burn me to a crisp than train me, but I can ask Kiyume-san if she'd be willing."
Makoto nodded. "Alright, but you won't have much time to really practice so I can only provide a few pointers." A mischievous gleam lit her eyes as she eyed the ledge of the bookstore's roof. "And you can tell your teammates there was no need to eavesdrop. I'll meet you at your training grounds at 1400 this afternoon and see if I can drag Yume-chan along. Later, Sakura."
"Ground 7, Makoto!" Sakura called out as the auburn haired teen continued her jog.
Naruto and Sasuke leapt down and were by her side almost immediately after the green wearing chuunin had left. "So, who's Run?" Naruto asked. Sasuke twitched at the name and glowered at the wall.
Sakura sighed. "He'd be the Haruno Genius. He excels at fire jutsu and is supposedly a better wielder of it than even the Uchiha. Sorry, Sasuke, but I've seen one of his training sessions before and it was…well…let's just say I was almost too close for comfort." She shifted uncomfortably. "Kiyume, on the other hand, isn't nearly so prone to violence. She's really good at fuuinjutsu so we'll probably learn how to make exploding tags or storage scrolls."
Sasuke stared at his teammate blankly. "You mean to tell me, that you're actually related to Blaze King Run and Crest Master Himegawa?"
Sakura shuffled her feet. "Through adoption? Yeah."
Naruto stared at her in awe. "Sugoi na, Sakura-chan! You've got, like, super ninja for family!" Unbidden, a slight shadow flicked in his eyes, but vanished just as quickly as it had come. "This calls for some Ichiraku Ramen! C'mon!" He grabbed his teammates hand and dragged them down the streets to their protests.
A SHORT TIME LATER…
Sakura glared at the academy student that had just called her ugly. Her aura rose around her dangerously and Naruto and the kid backed away in fear. Her genjutsu'd eyes narrowed dangerously as she hissed for the two to run. Not wanting to antagonize the preteen further, the males obliged. Sakura counted to 3 and, failing to calm down, chased after them. It didn't matter that the kid was the Hokage's grandson. He insulted her and was, therefore, going to pay. Sasuke had excused himself from the ramen bar early on before the whole fiasco. She was so occupied in her anger that she didn't notice the teen in the trio's path until Konohamaru bowled into him.
A tanned hand roughly grabbed the 9 year old and held him up by his scarf. "Oi, gaki, what the hell do you think you're doing?" The teen was a few years older than them, about 15 or 16, wearing a black catlike suit and wore purple make-up.
"Hey, let go of Konohamaru, asshole!" Naruto shouted and prepared to attack.
Sakura quickly intervened, her arm shooting out in front of the orange clad boy as her eyes narrowed on the steel placard on his hood. An hourglass, the symbol of Sunagakure. "You should know, that threatening the Hokage's grandson isn't a good way for you to be recognized in the upcoming Exams." She tried emulating her taicho's speech pattern from when he was annoyed with Renji-baka.
Naruto looked at her weirdly. "Eh? This guy is here for the Chuunin Exams?"
Sakura nodded her head at the older teen who was standing by, looking at the situation with slight apprehension. "Her too, but I can't tell where the third member is."
Just as she said that, a menacing aura filled the Konoha genins' senses. Sakura and Naruto looked up at the tree that overhung the fence. Hanging upside down was a boy their age with blood red, tousled hair and cutting jade eyes. Sakura's eyes widened in shock and confusion as she witnessed something…abnormal about the boy's aura. At first glance, it appeared a pure blood red and was massive, extremely massive. But upon closer inspection there was a very, very narrow aura line of blue surrounding his immediate form. She cast a glance to Naruto who's aura was similar but was completely opposite in form. She could also see the chains binding the redhead's blue aura to him just as they bound the red in Naruto's. It was…confusing.
"Enough, Kankuro, you are an embarrassment to Suna." The redhead disappeared in a swirl of sand only to appear in front of them.
Kankuro limply released Konohamaru. "I-It was- I was j-just messin' around, Gaara."
Jade eyes narrowed piercingly on the brunette male, "Damare." His aura flared and created a pressure on those nearby. Sakura trembled slightly, it was nowhere near as bad as when she had been attacked by the swarm of hollows though. Naruto shook where he stood, this guy was powerful, no doubt about that. Jade eyes frosted over as he regarded the genin before him. "I apologize for my teammates' behavior. Temari, Kankuro." He bowed slightly and was gone in a swirl of sand once more, the other two from Suna vanishing with him.
Naruto scrabbled to get a hold of himself while Konohamaru sniffled and cried from the terror the unseen to him aura made him feel. "Sakura, did…did you feel that? That was-"
"I know, he had two souls too. I've never heard of such a thing, but I'm going to ask Taicho or Renji-baka about. They might know something." Sakura glanced at Konohamaru. "We should get Konohamaru home."
Naruto gulped. "Yeah, let's do that. Then we gotta get to the training grounds! C'mon, Sakura-chan, hurry up or we'll be late like Kaka-sensei!" He scooped up Konohamaru and grabbed Sakura's hand much to her irritation.
"I'm coming, okay?" Oh, she couldn't wait to get training.
SSD: Whew, man I finally FINALLY finished this after a year of being stumped. And yes, I did bring in the Sailor Moon cast as the Haruno Clan so you can expect to see more of them in later chapters. Also, Run (pronounced the same as rune), Rin, Ran and Kiyume are my own characters. I'll probably bring them in for a few Auth-*BANG* Zah?
(Door to studio blasts to the far side of the wall with black scorch marks on it. In the doorway stands a tall blonde male with his hair pulled back in a tight ponytail. He wears a red Chinese style shirt/vest that falls to mid-thigh and black capri pants with soft black slippers.)
SSD: (gulp) Uh, hey Ru-EEP! (ducks as a blaze of blue fire soars past her head)
Run: (Glare) I told you I had no wish to be in such frivolous fancies as this and you disobey me. (snarl) Give me one good reason not to kill you, creator be damned.
SSD: (cries) Why oh why do my creations not love me? What have done to deserve this?
Run: (give Glare of Death Lvl 3) I'm waiting for an answer, onna!
SSD: Because, because I really really like you? And you're powerful and awesome and totally hot, no pun intended?
Run: (GoD Lvl 2) And my demotion to a mortal?
SSD: Who said anything about mortal? Sakura's comment was 2-way and you know that!
Run: Tch, I suppose I can find your answers suitable. But do not drag me into something like this without my permission again or there will be consequences. (storms out of the studio)
SSD: (sags in relief and glares at hiding cast) And why didn't you guys help?
Sakura: You know your OCs don't like to get along with cannon characters with the few exceptions.
SSD: Yeah, but-
Renji: That and you really think we want to be on The Blaze King's bad side. Fuck no.
SSD: (looks pleadingly at Grimmjow)
Grimmjow: (shifts uncomfortably) This is so fucking out of character for me but will NOT fuck around with that guy. Even I know better than that.
SSD: Fine, fine, I get the picture (grumble grumble) Anyway, that's it for this chapter. Stick around for Trinity Blades Sage 2: Training from the Pits of Hell
Sakura: Eh? (looks at script) (blanches) I've been…He's a…WHAT THE FUCK?