Author's notes: HAZAAH! Man, I can't believe how moving the last chapter was OMG OMG! But now that we are up to date and I am wide awake with the uploading (not that I ever was tired while uploading to begin with), we can get the next chapter up and running. I am currently working on chapter twentyfive, and I might end up waiting a wee while (about a week; more or less) to get further ahead, or trying so hard to catch up, then I'll end up updating the second I've finished each chapter. But I'm a fast typer so I'll get through it with a little ease. So here we have it, Chapter Twentythree: Final Encounter. What's going to happen? Read and find out, enjoy .
CHAPTER TWENTYTHREE: FINAL ENCOUNTER
The two Jounins didn't bother about trying to stay dry, they knew it would only waste dry clothes as well as time. Ever since Sakura told Kakashi about how Naruto had died, she felt like telling him almost everything she had to hide.
"You know what…?" Sakura started in an emotionless tone, "ever since that encounter with Sasuke that day, I've always felt unsafe, as though I'm being watched,"
Kakashi raised an eyebrow, trying to ignore the shower he was getting from the bad weather, "that's nonsense, even though Tsunade-sama warned us to stay on our toes about Sasuke, that doesn't mean he'd be targeting you or anything. But then again he might be after the both of us," he actually scared himself a bit there.
Sakura shook her head, "but why are we worrying so much, this is a mission to have fun, not plan ways to avoid getting targeted by a former teammate," she reached up and cuddled with the brown fox playfully.
The day was almost the same as every other day, it was now day ten on the mission, meaning there were only four more days left. Sakura hoped they would make it to the next village in time to do something fun and enjoyable.
"Why don't you read your Icha Icha books?" Sakura asked the really bored Jounin next to her.
Kakashi gave her a silent glare and looked up at the sky whilst holding his arms out to prove his point, "it's raining, my book will get wet if I read it now," he retorted with a pout.
Sakura just shrugged, "so, read it in the rain," she stuck out her tongue cheekily at the masked Jounin.
Kakashi rolled his eyes before sensing something sinister, "Sakura stop," he said firmly, grabbing Sakura's wrist. Sakura looked back at Kakashi, who bore an expression she knew well: the one that says 'we're about to be ambushed'.
"Chidori Nagashi!" came a voice from afar.
Suddenly a strike of blue lightning hit the ground a few metres in front of Sakura and was trailed along the road as if to split it. Kakashi should've been able to sense this coming, but the rain had amplified the electricity that it came in too quickly.
Sakura felt chills shoot down her spine when she finally recognised the voice. The user of the electricity technique had revealed its face, but it was something both Sakura and Kakashi feared to witness.
It was a large blood-red fox landing on the road before Sakura and Kakashi and eyed them evilly, "Team Kakashi," it said. Behind the red fox appeared someone who Sakura really didn't want to see. There in his simple robe revealing his chest and raven coloured hair stood the heir to the clan, Uchiha Sasuke.
"Finally found you," he declared with no emotion bearing on his straight face.
Sakura took a few steps back after realising what he must've been here for, "Sasuke, long time no see," said Kakashi so coolly as he placed his hand on the medic's shoulder to keep her calm.
"Hatake Kakashi, it sure has been, sensei," Sasuke uttered, leaning back a bit and placed a hand on the red fox's head in a mannerly fashion.
Sakura couldn't believe this boy used to be the all-that material of all fan girls in Konoha. She couldn't believe who he turned out to become. Kakashi stepped forward and grinned, "what brings you here?" he asked.
Sasuke closed his eyes, "I came for the rest of Team Kakashi. Since Sakura already took care of Naruto…" he trailed off, eyeing the medic eagerly. The red fox growled angrily at the other two foxes sitting on the other Jounins' shoulders, who only growled back.
"Aku, calm down, you can deal with them later, but right now I have my own business to attend to," his words made Sakura and Kakashi get into fighting positions.
"Why are you here?" Kakashi asked again.
Sasuke made eye contact with the silver haired Jounin and said, "like I said before, I'm here for you two, as part of my new mission," he paused, eyeing the pink haired Kunoichi, "I have avenged my clan and now a new mission has been brought up," Sakura's and Kakashi's eyes widened in surprise, "you found Itachi?" Sakura wondered and received a nod from the raven haired boy.
"Yeah, but he's dead now," he announced calmly.
Kakashi shook his head, "why are you after us?" Sasuke sighed, staying his normal and emotionless self, "I am to destroy all those who possess the Sharingan and Sakura was a witness to Naruto's demise, not to mention the cause as well," Sasuke reached back and pulled out his katana, waving it a bit and feeling the weight of the sharp blade and handle.
Both Jounins weren't liking where this was going, but ignored the way Sasuke was snickering at them. Sakura was getting freaked out at Sasuke's attitude; he sounded more alive than he did the last time she saw him, and of course seeing him that last time was a mistake.
Sasuke noticed the black and brown foxes by Kakashi and Sakura and glanced down at his own, "I suppose you haven't yet met my fox, Aku; I received him after I heard the news of Naruto's death. Such a shame to have such a loser die like that, don't you think Sakura?" Sasuke was tormenting the medic and Kakashi knew it.
"Don't talk about Naruto like that! You will take those words back," Kakashi rose his voice, making several handsigns until his hand began to glow.
Sasuke chuckled, "hah…the Chidori? Is that all you can strike at me?" he lowered his arms and snapped his fingers at the red fox by his side, "Aku, show him what a real Chidori is,"
With that said, Aku nodded his head and leapt in the air, "Chidori Nagashi!" roared the fox and an enormous amount of chakra built up in Aku's mouth. At an instant, Aku fired the jutsu, sending the lightning strike down upon Kakashi and Sakura.
Kakashi lifted his headband to reveal his Sharingan and jumped into action. Before Aku's Chidori hit them, Kakashi grabbed Sakura and the two foxes and leapt into the trees.
"As expected of the Copy Ninja," Aku said huskily as he landed safely.
Sasuke looked around, not moving his head an inch and finally activating his Sharingan, "I suppose you want to know how Aku got to be this big," Kakashi sat up in the trees with Sakura and the two foxes in his arms, keeping them as quiet as possible.
Sakura reached over and grabbed Kitsune gently without startling her and making noises, "find a place to hide, quickly," she ordered desperately.
Kitsune nodded and signalled to Kuro, who nodded in reply and the two jumped off into the trees, leaving Sakura and Kakashi to come up with a plan, "Sakura, remember what Tsunade-sama told us if we met Sasuke again?" he asked the medic, knowing how Sakura would react.
"Yeah…" Sakura frowned, looking over to the road where Sasuke stood.
Kakashi felt Sakura tense up in his arms as he looked down upon her in sorrow. He slowly put her on a branch and shifted off to the next tree, "ready for this?" he asked, pulling out a kunai from his backpack.
Sakura nodded hesitantly, trying to hide the fact she would regret everything that would happen. She knew this day would come, that she would perhaps have to kill Sasuke for the safety of her friends and Konoha, but now she was sitting up in a tree, struggling to keep it together. It was obviously harder than it seemed; Sasuke was her former teammate, the one she had a crush on, and her friend. She couldn't just run up to him and kill him.
Kakashi placed his hand on the medic's shoulder and frowned, "Sakura, you need to understand; you knew this would happen and you knew you had to do it," he told her. Sakura rubbed her eyes and clenched her fists, "I know," she said firmly and pulled out a kunai from her bag.
"Lets go," Kakashi created a few handsigns and allowed chakra to flow to his right hand. Sakura took a deep breath to calm herself and prepared for the worst that could happen.
Sasuke stood there in his normal stance, making quick glances to his surroundings and smirked, "there you are…" he snapped his fingers again, making Aku leap into action. Sasuke however raised a hand, symbolising the tiger sign and vanished.
Sakura was now on her own; Kakashi had gone off to take Sasuke on from another angle, leaving her to fend for herself. She saw Aku jump at her with his razor-sharp fangs and claws. Sakura easily evaded the attack but was surrounded by several copies of the red fox.
'How can a fox do this?' she thought, glaring at each clone.
Each Aku clone grinned evilly as they got ready to pounce on their prey and practically rip it to shreds, "Master Sasuke has taught me well, and I see that you haven't even learned to see which clone is real," he growled.
Sakura grinned, "I don't need to know where the real one is," and with one clean movement, she penetrated her chakra laden fists into the ground, causing the earth to crack and explode under the Aku clones and making them disappear in a cloud of smoke.
She suddenly felt a cold pain shoot through her arm and fell to the ground. Sakura looked up to find Aku nearly standing over her with blood on one of his claws. He took a few paces from the medic and generated a large amount of chakra, "not even a fair fight," Aku jumped up into the air. Sakura knew what was going to happen next; she had seen him do it only moments ago.
"Chidori!" the chakra was released through his jaws and at the near helpless Jounin.
Luckily, Sakura was smart enough to avoid such an attack without being rescued. Swiftly, she pounded her fists into the ground, causing the earth to rise in front of her as a shield. The chakra hit the earth wall and Sakura quickly pushed herself back and hit the ground more to create more platforms to protect herself from the jutsu.
Aku got up after having no success in laying a scratch on the medic from that jutsu and disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Sakura stood up, allowing chakra to poor through her hand and into her arm where the injury bled considerably. She promptly sensed the fox's chakra and faced him with a punch that sent him flying into a tree.
Sakura had to watch out, Aku was very fast and she was only lucky enough to have hit him. Not only that, but those attacks were affecting Sakura's muscles and soon it would wear her down. Aku shook his head vigorously and got up on all fours. Without a word or any threats at all, Aku sped toward the pink haired Kunoichi as fast as he could.
She didn't even see him until she hit the ground. Again, Aku went back for more, repeatedly running back and forth with his extreme speed and slashing Sakura at every split second he got. Before long, Sakura could barely handle the pain any longer and she would soon get herself killed by a fox.
"I have to hand it to you, you're the first victim to have survived this long against my speed, but that's not enough to stop me," Aku glowered deathly at Sakura with his dark eyes.
Sakura lay there, bleeding from many areas of her body and feeling every limb sting with pain. She hoped this wouldn't be the way it would end for her; she wanted to die fighting, not die in the claws of a damn fox. She wanted to make sure Kakashi would be alright, and…in fact, Sakura didn't want to die at all.
She tried to build up enough chakra and get her timing just right to hit Aku or kill him at her best thought. Aku smirked before launching himself at her with his jaws agape. Sakura braced herself for a beating when all of a sudden, a familiar brown fox jumped in and smashed Aku aside.
"Kitsune?" she sat there with her mouth open at what Kitsune had just done.
Kitsune had indeed rammed Aku away from Sakura to protect her. Kuro no doubt stood next to the brown fox, just as determined to help Sakura as Kitsune.
The two foxes stood in fortitude to protect their master and friend. Kuro rushed to help Sakura. He meowed and growled softly at the medic, as if trying to tell her something, but Sakura could understand by the worry in the black fox's eyes and when he was nudging her away from Aku.
"Is Kakashi okay?" Sakura asked, to only receive an ominous frown from Kuro.
Sakura knew what it meant, "thank you Kuro, and be careful, the both of you," she gave Kuro and peck on the top of his head and took off into the trees.
Aku growled angrily and attempted to chase after Sakura but was hit back by Kitsune again, "you little foxes can't hold me back," he warned, lowering his head to asses the situation.
The sound of metal hitting metal was all that could be heard when Sakura got closer to the open road. She finally managed to hide behind a tree far away so Sasuke and Kakashi couldn't sense her presence.
"You've gotten strong, Sasuke," Kakashi said panting as he dodged aimlessly from Sasuke's countless attacks.
Sasuke only smirked, "that's not all I have," he paused as he jumped back from a heavy kick from the Copy Nin, "when I found Aku I knew it meant something, so we trained until he grew almost five times his original size and he became immensely strong," he continued, making numerous handsigns.
"Katon: Gogakyou no Jutsu!" Sasuke announced and breathed a lungful of fire from his mouth and at Kakashi, who only countered with the same attack.
Right after using the Fire Style jutsu, Kakashi made more handsigns and said, "Water Dragon no Jutsu," and with that the rain was collected along with the puddles around him to create a huge dragon made of water. It roared menacingly as it fired itself toward the raven haired Uchiha.
It was a direct hit, but alas Sasuke disappeared, leaving a log. Kakashi cursed, 'the Replacement Jutsu…' he felt the air change and was smashed forward before landing with his hands and flipping himself upright and facing the attack head on.
Kakashi shook his head to rid himself of the unbalanced and dizzy feeling surging through him suddenly. He eyed Sasuke with his mismatched eyes before unexpectedly saw four, no five snakes shoot from Sasuke's arm and aimed at Kakashi.
"Striking Shadow Snake!" Sasuke shouted and as quick as he could, Kakashi jumped up in hopes of dodging the snakes but felt one bite into his ankle and then the lot gripped onto his body with their fangs.
Kakashi was vigorously heaved towards Sasuke and was punched right in the gut, sending him backwards and plummeting to the ground and sliding until he hit the trees behind him. The silver haired Jounin panted as he tried to get back up again. Building up the remainder of his chakra to his right hand and got ready to use his infamous technique.
Hopefully Kakashi was fast enough to hit Sasuke and kill him. Charging up his chakra as fast as he could, Kakashi got up and raced toward the Uchiha boy, "Chidori!" he yelled, thrusting his chakra charged arm at Sasuke at lightning speed.
He felt something hit, but it wasn't what he was targeting. He glared at the inanimate object with his fist jammed through it. He felt the replacement log weigh him down before he was punched recurrently until Sasuke's knuckles bled from the force. Kakashi's fist finally wedged out of the log and tried to block his movements but Sasuke was too quick for him.
Sasuke repeatedly threw his fists and feet at him, causing major damage to the Copy Ninja until the raven haired ninja slammed him into the ground hard using his chakra. Kakashi landed on his back, eyes widening from the pain and lay there motionless for a moment or two.
Sakura gasped, 'Kakashi cant be defeated, theres just no way he can,' she closed her eyes tightly and tried to wish a way she could help him out, but nothing came up.
Kakashi lay hopelessly on the ground as he watched Sasuke charge up his Chidori and let it run into his sword, "too bad Kakashi, you were quite the challenge," Sasuke stated as he aimed his katana at the silver haired Jounin.
Was this finally it? Was Kakashi finally defeated? 'The time has finally arrived' Kakashi said inwardly as he stared tiredly at the Uchiha heir.
'Its not over yet Sakura, Naruto didnt want you to watch Kakashi die right before your eyes. Prove to him that you can do something,' Inner Sakura spat, punching the air viciously as if trying to smack some sense into Sakura's brain.
"Chidori Nagashi," Sasuke shot the electrifying chakra through his katana and aimed it at the near-defeated Copy Nin before…
Everything went slow when Kakashi felt the blood splatter on his masked face. He had only just realised what had happened. The Copy Nin gazed in awe at the sight before him.
"Sa-Sakura?" he uttered as he stared at the unbalanced figure of Sakura before him.
Sakura winced as she felt the pain finally take affect. Her legs felt numb when she stared into Sasuke's dark eyes.
Kakashi was supposed get hit by Sasuke's jutsu, wasn't he? But he didn't feel the pain, instead, he found himself staring at his former student, standing at a limp and nearly dropping dead.
Hacking out blood, Sakura glared at Sasuke, who only stared back in slight surprise, "Sakura…why?" Kakashi asked in total shock.
Sakura coughed out more blood then fell to her knees, groaning at the pain in her stomach, "because…you…always protected me…" she muttered, grasping at the mud at her sides.
Kakashi forced himself to get up and he slowly made his way to Sakura, who was ready to pass out from the pain. Kakashi knew Sasuke would attempt to kill him, but he never expected Sakura to jump in front of him and take the hit; she wasn't supposed to.
"Sakura…"
"I couldn't…let my teammates get killed just like that now could I?" Sakura felt tears well up in the back of her eyes.
Kakashi grabbed Sakura right before she fell to the ground and saw the ominous look in her eyes, "but Sakura…you didn't have to do this," he said, staring at Sakura, who only looked back with a tired and distressing expression on her face.
Sakura grinned lightly as she looked over at Sasuke, who only waited patiently, "you dumbass, I'm a medic…I could easily heal myself," she uttered in pain as she returned her gaze to the shocked Copy Nin holding her.
"You're a fool Sakura…" Sasuke threatened as he lowered his sword.
Sakura ignored the statement and reached her hand over her stomach to try and heal the injury, but she didn't have enough chakra. This was the first time Sakura could see such a powerful emotion surging from Kakashi; it almost looked like he was about to cry. She took a deep and steady breath, trying to focus her chakra to through her hand, before feeling a larger hand over hers.
Sakura sat up, moving Kakashi's hand away from her and stood up, "Kakashi…I want to help you…it's my turn to save your ass," she straightened up as she gave Sasuke a death glare.
Kakashi said nothing but stood beside her to help. Kakashi didn't understand it: Sakura should've been on the ground and perhaps even dead, but why was she acting as though it was nothing? Why Sakura was acting this way he didn't know.
Sasuke merely laughed, "interesting to see my team turn against me like that; I thought you'd be more determined to get me back home,"
"As orders of the Hokage herself, we have been ordered to kill you when we found you," Sakura spoke boldly.
Author's notes: Okay, I'm not very good with fighting scenes, but that's up to you readers out there, so let me know if I did okay :). Yup, yup, chapter twentythree is out now, and I think it's a good one XD. I kinda made Sasuke the real emo-bully-guy-with-no-emotions-who-beats-the-living-hell-out-of-his-former-teammate-and-teacher, but that was to make the scene a little more exciting for you. Like I said earlier, the next chapter might come a little later, perhaps in about a week or so, it all depends on how far I get on the story. And speaking of story, we're about two thirds through now...pretty far huh? So yeah, I hope you liked this chapter, now reviews please