AN: I don't own Naruto
Previously: "This should be interesting. They've grown so much, I wonder what they can do now?" Kakashi thought.
"Be careful Naruto-kun, you too Sakura-chan. No need to go overboard." Hinata thought.
"Kick his ass girl!" Ino cheered to herself.
"Use the power of youth Sakura-san!" Lee called out. She only waved at him in response.
What everyone didn't understand or know, even Kakashi, was how much Sakura and Naruto have changed.
Chapter 4 – Time to kick ass!
"Sakura-chan!" Naruto called out from her side of the field.
"What Naruto?" Sakura asked.
"Can you promise me something?" Naruto asked, while adjusting his forehead protector.
"Yeah, sure." Sakura couldn't help but feel concerned from his serious tone.
"If the kyuubi somehow slips out during the battle….Stop the battle and stay away from me." Naruto was looking serious. Sakura nodded in understanding.
"Ok, but you know I can take care of myself, and everyone is here incase something goes wrong. So don't go easy on me, you promised."
"Ok, but still….just be careful." Naruto said with a grin on his face.
Naruto gave a thumbs up to Sakura. She just smiled in response, while getting into a fighting stance. He did the same, as he took a glance toward Kakashi. He saw that his sensei was watching him. Naruto guessed he would watch him for the whole battle. "Kakashi-sensei, you know what to do if things get out of hand." Naruto thought keeping his eye contact with the one-eyed nin. As if they mentally read each other's mind, Kakashi gave him a small nod in agreement.
A soft wind blew by between the two, causing the leaves of the trees to sway in a light motion. The warmth and light of the sun was present as the tension of an upcoming battle was in the air. Sakura and Naruto looked intently at each other. "Lets do this." They both thought as they lunged at each other.
-Orochimaru's hideout-
"Kabuto, are the preparations set?" Orochimaru asked.
"Hai, but I still don't see why we can't start our attack on Kohona. We have more than enough shinobi to over power them." Kabuto said, while readjusting his glasses.
"Ah, Kabuto. You will see the fruit of our works as we execute this plan, but for now, leave your questions behind and continue with your tasks."
"Hai, Orochimaru-sama." Kabuto gave a curt bow before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.
"What is it Sasuke-kun?" Orochimaru said, facing the young raven haired nin in the corner of the room, leaning against the wall.
"When will I have my chance to face my brother, in this little plan of yours? You promised the chance to kill him before I give up my body." Sasuke said in a cold tone, as he glared at the snake-nin.
"Patience, Sasuke-kun. You will spill your brother's blood soon enough."
"You said the same thing last time, which if I'm not mistaken, was last year! Give me a direct answer now!" Sasuke demanded. At this Orochimaru got pissed off.
"Don't you dare talk to me in such a manner! You wouldn't have been able to touch a hair on Itachi's head if I hadn't gave you power!" Orochimaru hissed at him. A dark aura of chakra was forming around him, but this didn't bother Sasuke the least.
"But as I can see, you didn't give me enough power. The day that Naruto and Sakura came to retrieve me six months ago, I found that they were almost as strong as me." "And in Naruto's case, maybe stronger." Sasuke gritted his teeth, and clenched his fists tightly at this thought. "Right now, from what I can see, I could have gained the power I obtained from you back in Kohana! Being barley capable of stopping Naruto isn't good enough!"
"Sasuke-kun your stepp-"
"Heh….And I even heard that Sakura was able to defeat one of the members of Akatsuki." Sasuke stated, cutting Orochimaru off. He wasn't able to really fight her one-on-one, but from that one small piece of information alone, he could tell she is became a decent shinobi.
Sasuke could tell that it took almost everything the snake-nin had to keep from ripping of his head. "That's enough!" Orochimaru yelled. "You insignificant little boy, do you know the boundaries that you have crossed just now? Or is your common sense clouded by your stupidity?" He hissed.
"Hmph, what does a pedophile like you know about boundaries? Common sense? I lost that when I came to you, but found it again with the conclusion I have founded just now."
Orochimaru was now, not for a long time, utterly confused, but he didn't show it. "And what conclusion would that be." He spat.
"That an unneeded piece of shit like you is no longer required in my revenge of killing Itachi. You are weak from your used up body, and you can't use your arms. So now, I will go find power another way, my way. In the last six months, I began to understand that you were nothing compared to Itachi. Why risk receiving power from a weak bastard like you when I could have grown even stronger on my own?" Sasuke simply stated.
"Why you!" Orochimaru yelled as he charged at Sasuke.
"Hn." Sasuke activated his sharingan and quickly released a genjutsu. Even though Orochimaru dispelled it easily, it still succeeded in providing a small distraction that Sasuke wanted. He quickly dodged the incoming attack and stabbed the snake-sanin in his left shoulder. Orochimaru let out a small gasp in pain. Sasuke took this time to tighten his grip on the imbedded kunai and drag it down his arm. Blood splattered out of the wound, staining the ground and his clothes. Orochimaru let out a cry in pain. Sasuke smirked and made a couple of hand seals to release his katon fire jutsu (AN: sry don't know the names of the jutsus!), but just before he could let the flames out, Orochimaru swiped at Sasuke's heels with his right leg, causing Sasuke to barely miss his attack, and only burn part of Orochimaru's right shoulder. They continued their small battle, as sound ninjas began rushing in the building to see what all the commotion was all about.
Sasuke sensed the approaching shinobi and figured he should high-tail it out there quick.
Sasuke continued to fight the sanke-nin, determined to get out of there without anymore set backs.
The sound shinobi were now outside the door of Orochimaru's chamber.
"Should we go in?" One ninja whispered nervously. They could here objects in the room being thrown and smashed.
"No way! Remember last time we interrupted his quality time with Kabuto!" Another sound ninja replied. The other shinobi remembered that encounter. They wished for that event to never occur again as long as they lived.
"But it doesn't sound like Kabuto……" The sound nins were now staring at their comrade.
"And how would you know what Kabuto sounds like?…….Wait never mind, I don't want to know." Whispered another nin. Then they heard a lot of grunting, and then a few barely audible curses. The building itself seemed to shudder.
"What the hell are we still doing here! This is sick! Lets get ou-" But before the nin could finish, someone in the room started to laugh. Curious to why someone was laughing they put their ears to the door.
From inside they heard a voice say, "So this is all the great Sannin can do? Patehetic; no wonder you needed a strong body every couple of years. You can't even handle me, I guess it was bad luck finding me in that forest."
Sasuke then quickly left the hideout in a puff of smoke. The shinobi outside just heard a loud 'poof' and then nothing.
They then agreed to the idea that they heard nothing; that they were never there, and left the door to Orochimaru's chamber. "Remember, we heard nothing, and we never went near that door for the whole day, got it!" The leader of the small group of sound nins said. Everyone quickly nodded their heads.
Orochimaru was back in his chamber knocked out completely, which seems to be caused by a large box of Icha Icha Paradise books, and pictures of Kabuto……….
- Back at the training hallow-
'BAM' Naruto skidded along the ground forcefully, sliding for a good twenty feet. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. He smirked at his teammate.
Sakura smiled back at him and charged at him with a kunai in hand. Naruto quickly got up and used his trademark kage bunshin. He made four clones. Sakura stopped in her tracks as the clones surrounded her, each clone then threw a kunai at her. She easily dodged it by jumping straight into the air, but then saw that there were shiriken hidden in the shadow of each of the kunais. She readied herself to deflect the incoming shirikens until they transformed into another set of clones. "Damn! I should have known this was coming" Sakura thought as she remembered the same strategy was used on Zabuza. Each of the clones came in from all four sides while each of them called out a syllable. "Oh great, it's the Naruto favorite combo…" Sakura thought.
"U-Zu-Ma-Ki" The clones called out as each successfully landed a kick on her. She was shot back up into the air, she knew what was coming next. Just as she thought Naruto appeared above her yelling "Naruto!"
She quickly turned her body towards Naruto while gathering chakra into her hands. Naruto was about to strike her with his heel, but she caught his kick. While still in the air, holding tight she threw Naruto straight down. Naruto collided against the forest ground. A small crater was formed around the nin, but that didn't stop him from realizing his teammate falling straight at him with the intension of plowing him into the ground with a kick. Knowing her inhuman strength, he had to get out of there quickly! He quickly rolled over to the side, just in time to dodge the near lethal attack. The crater formed before was now ten times in depth and size. Naruto sweat dropped. "She could have killed me! Holy shit!" Naruto thought as he stood up. He saw Sakura jump out of the crater. The other shinobi watched in amazement from the safety of the trees with their eyes literally popping out of their heads.
"I-is tha..that really Sakura-chan?" Hinata whispered to herself.
"Damn Sakura! Don't kill him." Ino said, though she was impressed of her friend's strength.
"D-don't h-hurt yourselfs t-too much!" Hinata mumbled out loud.
"How troublesome, they're destroying the training hallow." Shikamaru stated.
"This is a good match, right Kakashi?" Sai asked.
"Yes, but they're still holding back. You can tell." Kakashi answered.
"Hn, your right, but they might destroy the village if they both get carried away." Sai said while giving his fake smiling. Kakashi let out a small chuckle.
"That's true." Sai looked out at the battle, but then frowned.
"Anything wrong?" Sai shook his head.
"No."
"Emotions can be hidden, but they be sensed by those around you."
"It's nothing." Sai continued to watch the battle, but a hint of sadness was in his eyes, which Kakashi noticed.
"You want to be with them, don't you?"
"What do you mean?"
"If you feel left out, why don't you try and hangout with them more. I'm sure you read about being social."
"It doesn't seem fitting; and from experience, nothing goes by the book these days."
"What are you trying to say?"
"I can't replace your student Kakashi." There was a small pause.
"Sai, listen to me right now. You are their teammate, you are everyone's comrade. You proved that back a couple of months ago. No one can ever replace a teammate and it's almost impossible to break a strong bond, but there is always a way to make new friends and new bonds. Remember that." Sai nodded "Besides, I can see that everyone is warming up to you….well most of them, and you're even learning how to act around them. For example, you learned not to call Sasuke a traitor in front of Sakura, and found a way to say sorry to Naruto by getting him ramen." Sai thought about what he said as they continued to watch the fight.
Sakura was now panting a little and so was Naruto. "This is all I can do against Naruto? Either I became a lot stronger or he's going easy on me." Sakura couldn't decide if it were one or the other. Then she recalled the haunting event that happened three years ago when she first took the chunnin exam. "So weak and useless." Sakura thought. But she wasn't twelve anymore. She wasn't just a no talented loser. She was the apprentice of the Hokage herself! She is one of Kohana's prized medic ninja! "I'm not weak anymore, I'll prove it to my friends here, that I'm not the one who's going to hold everyone back! I have as much strength as Naruto to bring Sasuke back. I'm not looking at their backs anymore. I'm looking straight into their eyes!" Sakura thought as she positioned herself once more in a fighting stance. Naruto smiled and did the same. After a small pause, Sakura charged toward Naruto.
With three kunais in each hand, Sakura threw the ones in her right hand straight at Naruto. Right after, Sakura punched the ground with her right fist making a small cloud of dirt, and threw the other three kunai in her left hand straight to were she last saw Naruto. She quickly made two clones of herself before Naruto would notice.
Naruto leaped back away from the dirt cloud while dodging the three kunai that were aimed straight at him. "What the hell is she up to?" Naruto thought as her concentrated and searched for his teammate's chakra signature.
Sakura used her chakra to speed up her movements as one of her clones appeared behind Naruto. Naruto instantly turned around to with a kunai in hand, ready to stop her attack, but was stopped himself as Sakura's other clone kicked him in the back of his head. At the same moment, the clone that was in front of Naruto crouched down and swiped at his heels with its left leg. Still in shock, and some pain, Naruto wasn't able to defend himself. He was in midair, back facing the ground. As it seemed like time was slowing down, the real Sakura appeared right in front of him with a her heel extended out about three feet away from making contact with his gut.
"Hmph, got him now." Sakura thought as she swung her heel downwards with her chakra concentrated on it.
By pure instinct, Naruto realized that if he got a direct hit from Sakura's attack he was screwed. Naruto swiftly caught Sakura's heel right before it could strike him, but the force of the blow sent him and the kunoichi into another crater. The entire training hallow shook for a small moment. Then there was a silent pause.
"That was awesome!" Kiba exclaimed, Akamaru barked in agreement.
"Are you freaken kidding me Kiba! I think Sakura killed him!" Ino argued.
"GO Sakura-san! Use your spring of youth to guide you to victory!" Lee exclaimed.
"N-naruto….k-kun?" Hinata stuttered worried that her friend might have killed her crush.
"Remember me not to piss off Sakura, ok Sai." Kakashi said his eyes bulged out.
"Ok, but that won't be necessary if she gets convicted for murder." Sai said, while gulping.
Back in the crater. "Naruto?….You ok." Sakura said while trying to stand up, she bumped her head on something, and now she was starting to get a migraine. Naruto was lying on the ground, face-up, with his eyes closed. He wasn't moving. Sakura got totally freaked out. "Did I put too muck chakra into that last attack?" She thought as she kneeled down close to him to check his breathing. When she put her ear next to his mouth to see if he was breathing, Naruto's body poofed in a cloud of smoke. "What the fuck!" She thought as she found the ground, beneath Naruto's bunshin, beginning to crack. "Shit!" Sakura thought as she hurried to get away from the underground attack that Kakashi used when he placed a test between her and Naruto the same day he came back from his 3-year training. But her efforts of escape were in vain as Naruto placed an uppercut to Sakura's chin, which made her soar out of the crater. She landed on her ass, and saw Naruto jump out of the crater and land in front of her. She rubbed her chin as she stood up. A smirk played across his chin.
"You almost got me there Sakura-chan." Naruto said while crossing his arms.
Sakura gave him one of her famous smiles.
"Uh oh." Sai instantly knew that smile, and what she usually did right after showing it. He gulped. Curious to Sai's sudden uneasiness, which he did believe was an emotion that Sai didn't know he was showing at the moment, decided to ask what the heck was wrong with him. Sai's only response was a slightly frightened look. "I thought you never showed emotions." Kakashi thought, but understood him as he heard a huge crash from the battle. Kakashi instantly turned his view to his former subordinates to see that Naruto was lying on the ground again about thirty feet away from where he last saw him stood. Sakura still stood there with her fist extended. Kakashi and the others just sweat dropped.
"That' what you get you baka!" Sakura yelled as she regained her posture.
Naruto stood up once more with a nervous expression, while wiping off the blood that trickled down from the corner of his lips.
"I think I would have been knock out if I didn't dodge a little from that last one." Naruto thought as he gave a metal note to himself to revise his will when he got back home.
"Hey Naruto! You mind if we bring out some friends?" Sakura yelled with a smirk on her face. Confused Naruto just yelled back, "What the hell are you suggesting." Naruto thought that she was talking about tag teaming with the others in their fight.
"I'm saying that if you wanted to bring out the frog boss. I want to test my summon!"
"You have a summon? Since when?"
"Since a couple month ago!"
"Well lets see what it can do!" Naruto exclaimed as he bit his thumb, letting some blood pour out. Sakura did the same. The both proformed their hand seals, and slammed there hands onto the ground in unison. He had some idea of what her summon might be, it was a little obvious. With Sasuke summoning that snake, him with the frog boss, it was most likely that she would summon……
Still looking around for any signs of the Akatsuki, Neji and the others continued their search until they all stopped when their heard two loud eruptions toward the sparring area. They all turned around to see two huge clouds of smoke. As the smoke cleared they saw a gigantic frog and a gigantic slug; each with a tiny figure standing on each of them.
"Lets go back to the training hallow the Akastuki are probably their with Tsunade and the Ero-senin." Shikamaru stated while spinting along the direction towards the hallow. Everyone rushed to the battle. Neji activated his byakugen to see what's up. Neji stopped all of a sudden.
"What are you doing Neji?" Tenten asked.
"That's not Tsunade." Neji simply stated.
Everyone looked confused. To answer them Neji said, "It's Sakura. It seems that she learned another thing from the hokage, and Naruto is on the frog."
"Why the hell are they bringing out those summons for?" Shikamaru stated. "How troublesome." He thought about the work that would have to be done to fix the landscape. He let out a sigh and continued his way toward the fighting pair.
"What are you doing?" Shino asked.
"Going to stop the fight. They're too trouble some. They're going to screw this whole place up if we don't stop them."
Neji and the rest agree as they raced toward the fight.
Naruto smiled to see that he was right about her summoning Tsunade's trademark slug. Everyone still in the trees out of the battle pretty much shit in their pants, except Choji, he wet his. They were all astonished with the pair. "This is going to be a small problem" Kakashi thought. He figured that Tsunade would have his head for the damage cost the two were about to cause; but before he could do anything the two already started to fight again. "Shit" He thought.
Next time: "GODAMMIT YOU TWO STOP NOW!"….."W-what are you doing here, what do you want?"….."I'll die before I let you touch him, Itachi!"….."Sakura-chan…it's ok."
AN: Hope ya liked the chapter. I'm still listening to suggestions if you're interested. (God I can't write stories easily…) Well thx again!