Accidentally
Chapter 14:Acquaintances
Zetsu felt a flare of chakra, only seconds away from his station, and in return sent his own into the ground. Several vines shot out of the ground where the uninvited visitors were, and Zetsu arose in front of them. He almost instantly recognized the Leaf headbands. Deciding that, no, these people are certainly not with Sasuke or Kabuto, and that they, actually, all looked fairly familiar, he refrained ftom destroying them for now.
When he glanced around, he recognized all but the one with black hair and deathly pale skin. Zetsu had apparently glanced too long as the unfamiliar boy smiled at him and nodded, adding his face to Zetsu's database. The Kyuubi was among the group, but he wasn't their top priority at the moment. He hit the end of the group as his eyes fell upon a shinobi that he knew all too well from when Pein had requested that he spy on Sakura.
"You are Shikamaru Nara," his lighter half stated pointedly.
Shikamaru said nothing, but only looked at Zetsu. This guy popping up like some sort of trip wire security system told him one thing: We're getting impeccably close to Sakura.
The look in this boy's eyes, Zetsu thought, it's almost as if he has the sharingan. As if he's sharing his information and memories with us willingly.
...and it is for that reason and that reason alone, that Zetsu released only that boy. Shikamaru still said nothing, but as he continued towards his destination, he looked back at Zetsu, smiling slightly and nodding in gratitude.
"I'm coming, Sakura. I know you don't need help, but...I'm sure Sasuke doesn't know that," he whispered to himself.
Speaking of which: Oh, the wonderfully short story it was of how they got past that damned Uchiha unharmed...
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Sasuke looked on suspiciously at the group of four that silently passed by he and Kabuto as they hid in the trees - masked chakra and all - and he noticed two things; One: Naruto was asleep on Kakashi's back, mumbling incoherent things about hunger and ramen and forgetting his underwear. Two: They all looked horribly dejected and out of place.
He leaned in closer to listen as conversation broke out. Shikamaru placed his hands behind his head and yawned, looking at Naruto wearily as he drooled on his sensei's back and seemed to have noticed Kakashi shiver a little.
"Eh, Kakashi-sensei," Shikamaru started.
"We're completely lost, right?" Sai finished, still smiling creepily.
Naruto snored abruptly, and the Jounin of their group sighed warily. They all stopped in their places while Shikamaru pulled a map out of Kakashi's kunai pouch. Sasuke felt like facepalming, and signaled to Kabuto to let them pass. He nodded, but looked suspicious, nevertheless. The young Uchiha merely shook his head, as if to say, "Don't worry; they're idiots."
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Shikamaru blinked. "Seems they've evaporated, Sensei," he noted quietly.
"Thank Kami," Hatake responded before dropping Naruto completely on the ground.
"A little too quick for the Dickless Wonder, correct?"
Nodding, Shikamaru glanced at Sai and thought about his statement. He'd have to come up with an excuse for Sasuke to prevent suspicion. They had no such time for second-guessing, especially when they were this close. He may be doing Sakura more harm than good by agreeing to this mission, but that didn't change how much Shikamaru wanted to see Sakura. He watched as Kakashi worked out the plan they had formulated with his ninja dogs.
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To this very moment, Shikamaru was unsure of how exactly either Sasuke or Pakkun had gotten past Zetsu, but the plant man's chakra hadn't been lingering long besides. Early bird evades the carnivorous plant-human hybrid, Shikamaru joked, but he only found himself facepalming mid-treehop.
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"Come on, you chicken-assed pussy! You're the cause of all of Pinky's distress, aren't you?!" Hidan yelled, obviously ready to get down.
"Hoh-hoh, Hidan! You'd better quit antagonizing him. He might snap!" Tobi mocked, eyeing Sasuke from where he stood at Hidan's left.
The Jashinist whirled on Tobi, grabbing him by the collar of his cloak."Shut up, swirls," he shouted, and Deidara took this time to snort, "I know what I'm doing!"
Swirls...? Sakura sweatdropped, and she noticed Kakuzu roll his bright green eyes.
"Quite a group of captors you have there, Sakura," came Sasuke's voice from the platform below.
Sakura gave him a dry look and a vein popped in Hidan's temple. "ALRIGHT THAT'S IT! YOUR ASS IS GRASS, UCHI-!"
"Hidan," Sakura called in a flat tone. He looked at her but quickly looked away, sighing with an eyeroll. He pouted as the Uchiha released a signature 'Hn' but noticed how Sakura's eyes became distant.
"Come on now, Sakura," Sasuke ordered calmly, "Let's go find Itachi together. They haven't treated you badly here, have the-"
"SHUT UP, SASUKE! Since when have you cared about anyone else's welfare other than your own?! Get out of here," she shouted, and a good portion of the Akatsuki, as well as Sasuke, flinched, "Our bonds were severed the moment you left the village, and you know that!"
It was silent for a few long moments after that. Then, as if on Que Sakura disappeared, and in the blink of an eye, she was in front of Sasuke. Her fist was pulled back and ready to fire. Sasuke smirked, scoffing as he grabbed her swiftly by the throat, not bothering in the slightest to be gentle.
He momentarily wondered why the Akatsuki were still motionless. However, his questions were answered when the Sakura at his hand was replaced with a stick, and Sasuke was violently pushed out of the line of fire by Kabuto, only to have him knocked a good twenty feet back into the forest by the Sakura that had approached quietly from behind.
Sasuke quickly covered his shock and gripped his katana, turning to the pinkette and, without a moment's hesitation, activated Chidori Stream and charged. He was holding back, and she knew it, but mercy be damned, that was his mistake.
OOO
"Okay," Sasuke panted, "enough of this game."
He moved to make hand seals, but Sakura just couldn't afford to let him do that. They were both bruised, beaten, and scratched up. Sakura had the lighter of the injuries, while Sasuke had a rather deep gash in his right side from when Sakura had gotten witty with her own Chakra Scalpel Technique. Konoha and Akatsuki's prized kunoichi ran at Sasuke with a chakra-less fist, which Sasuke chose to catch, while his other hand flew up to his katana.
"Sakura-chan, yeah!" came Deidara's shout as the Uchiha's sword penetrated her torso.
So now, both of Sakura's hands were concentrated on preventing her old teammate's blade from going any deeper than its near-one inch into the spot over her lung. She already had a similar scar, and she didn't plan to make it symmetrical any time soon. Sasuke struggled to keep hold of his sword as he made the next move; not that he openly displayed his distress anyway.
Sakura's eyes shot wide open from her previous scowl as she watched Sasuke form one-handed seals. She scowled, though it was short-lived. Her mind was suddenly wiped blank, and her muscles relaxed, her arms falling from the blade and to her sides. Sasuke pulled away and whacked her with the back of the blade, only causing her to stumble backwards a bit, but otherwise keeping her on her feet. Sheathing his weapon he walked to the pink-haired shinobi in front of him, tilting her chin up so that her faded eyes met his. Sasuke blinked slowly, and now the Mangekyou was activated.
Before he could accomplish much of anything, however, he was sent flying about ten feet when the orange-masked one he knew as Tobi jumped to the front, the rest of the Akatsuki only seconds behind.
"Oops," Tobi remarked feign-guiltily.
It was at this time that Sasuke noticed that Itachi had arrived on the scene, as well as the the prior-missing puppet master.
"Sorry Sasuke-chan," Kisame began mockingly, placing his hands onto Deidara's back.
"Hate to break it to you, yeah," the blond continued, following Kisame's suit with his partner.
"But the Akatsuki's bonds are quite stronger than you'd care to think." Itachi and Sasori went on in unison.
"For example," said Kakuzu, planting his hands on Hidan's back.
"You fuck with one of us," Hidan smirked, completing the jutsu by landing his own hands onto the still-dazed kunoichi.
The force of the technique blew Sasuke back another three yards or so, and Kabuto was barely noticed as he made is way back out of the forest, broken glasses, jaw, nose, and all. Sakura snapped back to life with the reinforced chakra swimming through her. Neither Sasuke nor the Akatsuki had ever seen her eyes so fiery as she finished, "You fuck with all of us!"
Sakura lunged - or at least Sasuke must've thought she did, because he tripped on his own two feet and nearly fell as he tried to get away from Sakura. Apparently his sharingan had shown him more than he'd wanted to see, because fear shone through his eyes before he could stop it from surfacing. Eyes wide and brows down-set Sakura jumped up in the air and backwards, what looked like a mile away from Sasuke's point of view, to where she had felt Kabuto's chakra momentarily spike the second before she'd passed out. She grabbed him violently by the neck and slammed him into - not against, but into - a nearby tree, glaring holes through his face.
"What shit are you trying to pull back here?" she addressed harshy.
Kabuto examined her face carefully, Strange. Her eyes are alight with a blood lust I thought was impossible to mark the face of Sasuke-kun's innocent little Sakura Haruno.
"No matter," he smirked at her, "You're too late."
She watched, and reacted, a little too late as Kabuto pulled his arm back and threw a scroll Sakura had not previously noticed - and damned herself for not doing so - into the air, seal already set. Sakura gave no moments' hesitation to grab that arm and snap it like a twig. Kabuto's face scrunched up in pain, malice, and a few other emotions Sakura didn't care to read. He slid down the now half-demolished tree while Sakura turned away to witness several nin - Sound nin - materialize from the parchment floating in the air only three feet above her. They flew in front of Sasuke, Sakura cursing. After a fit of coughing up blood, Kabuto looked up to the kunoichi calmly.
"The Akatsuki have taught you well Sakura-chan," he smiled.
"I've been here for a week," she replied without turning to face him, "But maybe if you weren't such an ignorant little assface, perhaps you'd know that I've been able to do these things for a while."
Kabuto couldn't help but be a little awestruck when she turned to him finally, her own slit-eyed smirk in place, "And more."
With that, she returned her attention to the mess on the battlefield, looking around for an option or answer of any sort, and it came when a formidable explosion sounded in the northwest corner. She accurately noticed a familiar bird fly from the smoke caused by the impact.
"Go on, Sakura-chan! We've got you covered, yeah!" Deidara called to her, pumping his fist enthusiastically.
She would have smiled, but as she listened to Deidara, she stared at Sasuke, and he returned her gaze as Sakura's mediocre abdomen wound began to glow that phosphorescent green hue. She walked calmly through the ruckus and bloodshed around her. As if the gods made it this way, there was a clear straightaway path, leading her to Sasuke. The Cherry Blossom made it past the mobs and screaming and fighting, where she was left in a cleaner clearing for Sasuke and herself to follow the mobs' suits.
They stayed with gazes interlocked endlessly. Their deadly optics told many a story.
"Hey, Sakura-chan!" Naruto calls.
Sakura turns, "Naruto? What are you doing at the hospital? I'm working, baka!"
"Sorry, Sakura, but..." he starts as his shoulders sag. "I think we've finally got it! We know where Sasuke is!"
She turns to him with a smile unwavering and replies, "Who?"
Naruto stops completely. Just as he wants to question her, Sakura's pager sounds and she bids him adieu.
Sasuke's brow furrows, and Sakura's shoulders tense up. What's this?
"That's quite a bump on the head, Kabuto." Says Sasuke dryly.
Kabuto winces. He noticed? "Y-yeah...crazy fight on the bridge. You should've been there."
Sasuke looks back to his hand injury, wrapping it cautiously. "I dissent."
"You sure? You REALLY should have seen Sakura. She's grown. A lot. Kept her hair short, though." he claims absently.
The raven-haired boy raises an eyebrow. An emotion akin to disappointment shone through, but he neglects to understand why. "Who?"
Kabuto looks to his acquaintance oddly, but just in time, Orochimaru pages him in quest for his medicine. Throwing one last glance at Sasuke, Kabuto leaves the room.
The two shinobi of formidable level straightened themselves, dropping hands at sides.
In an invisible spur of movement, Sakura begins to close the distance between them while Sasuke revs up chakra for Chidori. If only to waste time, he uses hand signs this time.
Yet...
...Sasuke finds himself unable to move.
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Hey there. Hey. Hi.
Fuckin' cliffhangers, man.
Fuckin' cliffhangers.
Been reading new chapters. Dafuq Sasuke? Dafuq.
Questions?
Tobi: Ooh! Ooh! Me! MEEEE! Mememememememememememeeeee~!
Yes?
"Do you like waffles?"
Go fuck yourself now, please. But yes. I do.
Fourteenth chapter now, you guys. Woop woop.
Later bros. See you next installment.
;D