Ch. 3

The 2 Lone Flowers

One Blossoms, One's plucked, and One Wilts

Tayuya stands frozen with fear as Kimimaro stares her down. "I have been searching for you and the others for an hour now. Where are the other three that were apart of the five man team?" Kimimaro asks his eyes seem to loathe her very existence.

"Why are you…? … Your body is no longer…?" Tayuya asks in a shaky voice. She feels threatened by his overwhelming presence.

"Kabuto-sensei has cured me. Now I'll ask you again where are the other three?" Kimimaro replies coldly interrupting her mid sentence.

Tayuya heart skips a beat when she hears him "Geez…why wont you just die" she thinks to herself.

"I don't know where those shit heads are," she quickly replies trying to keep her composer.

"I see…. I expected as much from you, seeing as you're not cable of much of anything," She grunts then immediately charges at him, her curse seal goes to level 2 as she runs. Coming at him with great speed she throws a punch. Unimpressed he calmly says, "I see…interesting" countering her effortlessly by knocking away her arm following, it up by using her own force he throws her away like she was a piece of thrash. She hits the base of a tree falling to the ground she clutches the earth picking up a hand full of dirt she gnarrs, "Damn… it." Kimimaro looks at her on the ground and calmly says

"For trash you're sure persistent… well then if you actually think you can win show me… show me your determination." Getting up using the tree to regain her balance she replies, "Don't get so cocky! You shit head. I'll make you regret saying that!" she pulls out her flute "The Magic Flute, Infinite Tuning Fork!" She begins to play the sound of her flute echoes around Kimimaro.

He looks down unimpressed then raises his arm and takes aim at her replying,

"Teshi Sendan (Finger Bullet Drill)" shooting his finger tips at her. She dodges them by jumping to the right, and without missing a note continues to plays her song. Kimimaro continues his attack only using the Teshi Sendan (Finger Bullet Drill). Tayuya continues to dodge while playing her flute. She thinks to herself "why…." A few finger bullets come straight for her she leans back to easily dodge them. "Why isn't my song working?" She jumps backwards and spins into a back flip to get some distance as Kimimaro lowers his arm.

"Your genjutsu won't work on me," Kimimaro says as he moves a few stray hairs out of his face

Her eyes widen as she stops her song "W-what are you talking about no one can escape my song!" she claims.

His left shoulder bone extends out as he grabs it with his right hand he says, "My Kekkei genkai (advanced bloodline) gives me the ability to manipulate my own skeletal structure. So to avoid your genjutsu I only have to move a bone into a nerve to shock me out of it. So no matter how strong your genjutsu is, it wont ever to effect me" She grinds her teeth "damn…I wont lose to you!" Tayuya shouts angrily.

"You shouldn't talk about things you can't change." Kimimaro replies

She grunts in anger, doing a few hand seals and shouts "Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Technique)" attempting to slam her hand down when Kimimaro cuts her off. He takes a single step leaping towards her with incredible speed he drawing his bone sword from out of his arm, he kicks her in the chest knocking her backwards, following it up with, "Tsubaki no Mai (Dance of the Camellia)" he cries out as he slashes and stabbing at her repeatedly as he sent her flying. She bounces twice upon hitting the ground before slamming into a rock.

She gags coughing up blood. Her curse seal reseeding back into the mark on the back of her neck as Kimimaro walks slowly over to her. She could barely breathe gasping for air when she wasn't hacking up blood. Tayuya's blood flows out of her multiple gashes and cuts like a small stream.

"I avoided hitting your vitals to give you a moment to reflect about your past failures but now I'm tired of looking at the thrash and shall take care of it" Kimimaro states as he inches every closer to her. She struggles just to turn her head towards him. Her eyes widen in horror as she slowly begins to catch her breath, but it leaves her quickly, as she is fearful from his presence as he draws near. Her breathing is rapid and heavy her mind racing "Is this it…after all my training, is this... my limit… to die in such a place…to this scum" she zones out for an instance remembering her battle with the Konoha brat.

"You were most careless when you said that the flute was your only weapon." His words echo in her head. "A weapon besides my flute… that's what that rat taught me but the only weapon I could use…" she winched closing her eyes at the thought of the only other weapon she could think of. Kimimaro looming over her now raises his sword saying, "Die" his sword coming down she blocks it with flute. The flute barely stopping his sword she shouts, "Wait!" "Oh?" Kimimaro eyes widen in a sort of happy surprised fashion. She turns her head away saying, "If you let me live I'll…" her lips mutter a phase only Kimimaro can hear. Her face becomes flustered as Kimimaro tilts his head to the side and asks, "Would you really disgrace yourself in such a manner just to live?" "Y-Yes…" She replies reluctantly, thinking, "A kunoichi (female ninja)…. Always has a weapon when fighting a male shinobi…and… and that is… that is… her body…" Kimimaro still looming over her, he puts his bone sword to her throat the point of the blade centimeters away from her neck.

He waves it slightly forcing her to rise. He backs her against the trunk of the tree. A drop of sweat runs down the side of her neck as she closes her eyes she thinks, "A kunoichi can always use her body for the weapon of Seduction… but…." Kimimaro pins her to the tree his body pushes against hers as he comes in close to whisper in her ear she closes her eyes turning her head away from him. "But …I never wanted to use such a thing…! Damn it!" Kimimaro whispers in her ear, her eyes widen with pain. A small trail of blood runs out the corner of her mouth. The view of them zooms out to the sky and pans to an overview of the Konoha village.

Back at Konoha Village in a hotel room we find Gaara starring out the open balcony viewing the village. Temari enters the living room with a yawn; she had over slept and had the pillow head to prove it. Seeing Gaara she smiles saying, "Brings back memories doesn't it" Gaara turns to her with a "huh" "this is the place we stayed at when we were here for the Chuunin Exams." Gaara turns away saying, I hadn't noticed" She smiles with a uncomfortable laugh replying, "Well you were bent set on killing everyone back then ha, ha..." He didn't reply as he turned back to look at the village remembering the battles that he had gone through during that time. Temari reaches out to him. "Gaara… I" "Temari I did a lot of bad things in the past but he showed me how to have a true purpose and how I don't have to be alone." She smiles feeling so proud of him. The smile quickly fades seeing something was troubling him.

"Gaara… what on your mind?" Temari asks. He continues to look out at the village his arms folded he replies, "Do you know that girl…? Tsunade-sama's apprentice?" Temari look confused then thinking" "Oh you must mean Sakura-san?" Temari replied. "Yes I did a lot of bad things to her as well and never…." "Aww you don't know how to apologize to her do you?" Temari says interrupting him. She wraps her arm around his neck grinning from ear to ear "You must really like her" She says to him.

Gaara looks away annoyed replying in a soft voice, "That's not true" She ignores him rubbing the top of his head replying," Don't worry I'll set up something with you and her when I meet with Shikamaru today." "What are you talking about and what this about Shikamaru?" She continued to ignore his words with a huge grin still on her face; she heads off to her room to go get changed to meet Shikamaru. She pops her head out of her room she waves at him saying "Don't worry Gaara just leave it to your Onee-chan (big sister). Gaara glaring at her as she slams her door he shouts, "TEMARI!!!"