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Chapter 8: Decisions
"How much further?" questioned Zaiaku
Naruto pointed west, "About another kilometer," then he turned to Gaara, "Can you see anything?"
"It's all dirt and debri, the eye of sand can't see anything," he replied
'Please be ok, hime,' thought Zaiaku
'She will be little one' added Shiva
Before they reached the clearing Naruto felt his tag list begin to go off again, "Shit! Temari and Kankuro are in trouble."
"It's that rain team," replied Gaara, "Continue to the clearing and deal with the situation there, I will go to the suna team, which direction?"
"Half a kilometer north," replied Naruto, with that Gaara split off.
"SHIT! THIS IS GETTING BAD!" yelled Jouichi as he attempted to deflect another shower of senbon, he screamed as three imbedded into his leg.
Kankuro and Temari were fairing better, Temari was using her Kamitachi and Kankuro was successfully using Karasu to hide behind. As they were busy deflecting the incoming needles the remaining members of the rain team surprised them with another senbon assault from the other direction. All three members of team suna closed their eyes in preperation of the incoming death. It never came however, opening their eyes revealed a wall of, "Sand?" questioned Kankuro. As the sand fell they saw the black clad memeber of team oni standing in between them and the rain nins.
"Leave your scroll and retreat," he deadpanned.
one of the rain gennin laughed, "And if we don't?"
Gaara's eyes flared yellow and he smirked, "You made it rain needles, if you don't retreat, I'll make it rain blood."
'FINALLY!' cried Shukaku
"We'll take our chances!" cried a rain shinobi as he charged.
"Fine," stated the redhead. Gathering his sand behind him he raised his hand, "Suna Shuriken!" (Sand Shuriken) he called and dropped his arm straight down. The charging rain nin had no time to react and was hit full force, he was dead before he impacted the ground. Gaara looked at the last two, "Retreat and leave your scroll, I will not repeat myself again."
Meanwhile, Naruto and Zaiaku were looking on at the scene in front of them. Sakura was doing her best to guard Sasuke and Ryo from a very large snake. "It looks like the one I killed, I don't sense Orochimaru in the area, we should-" before he could finish Zaiaku was gone. "Shit!" cried the blonde as he took off.
'I guess they aren't going to come, it was stupid to think so,' thought Sakura as she started analyzing what she could do when the snake resumed his attack. On cue the giant serpent coiled back and charged, wrapping her arms around Sasuke in an attempt to guard him she heard a dull clang. Looking up she saw the red masked shinobi of team oni stopping the snake dead in his tracks with the flat of his sword.
Looking down Naruto smiled, "See, told you we'd be here," then he narrowed his eyes and looked up, "NOW! AOI!"
Glancing up Sakura saw the blue clad nin step off a branch and begin to fall head first towards the snake. Reaching to his waist Zaiaku gripped the scabbard of Shimotsuki with his left hand, and the handle with his right. Flicking his thumb he released the safety catch and drew, severing the snakes head and landing in a crouch. Standing up he sighed, "This better get harder." Looking down he saw Sakura craddeling Sasuke's head, "is he alright?" he questioned in a flat tone.
Back with the suna team, Gaara had successfully dispatched the remaining Rain gennin and was searching their corpses. Finally he located the scroll, "Here," he said as he tossed it to Temari.
The sandy blonde eyed him, "Arigato..." she paused, "Gaara."
"I was stupid to think you wouldn't figure it out," replied the redhead. "Get to the tower," with that and a small nod he vanished.
"That was Gaara wasn't it?" questioned Kankuro, Temari nodded, "Why didn't he tell us?"
"I don't know," she responded as she helped Jouichi up, "we should get to the tower."
Gaara came into the clearing and saw Naruto, Zaiaku, and Sakura sitting around a small fire. Sasuke and Ryo were bandaged up and resting near a tree. Upon landing Sakura was on the defensive, relaxing slightly when she saw who it was. Sitting back down she sighed, "Thank you, for saving us."
"What happened?" questioned Naruto
She shook her head, "I can't remember much, a grass nin attacked us. Sasuke and I were caught in some kind of genjutsu, Ryo tried to defend us, but he was beaten up by that giant snake." Sakura nervously rubbed her arms, "When I came to I saw that nin biting Sasuke-kun..."
The rest of the conversation was ignored by the three teens, they had heard what they needed to, Sasuke had been sealed. "Sakura-san, if you could please excuse us for a moment?" questioned Zaiaku, she nodded.
"Now what?" questioned Naruto, "Should we just pick them up and bolt for the tower?"
Gaara nodded, "I've already sent Temari and Kankuro." Then he eyed Sasuke, "We'll have to at least wait till his power releases or it'll be a problem." Zaiaku and Naruto sighed in agreement and all three made their way back to the camp site.
"We will stay here for tonight," stated Gaara, "Tomorrow we'll make for the tower. That should give ample time for Sasuke and Ryo to recover. Aka you take first watch, Aoi second, and I will take the last."
"What about me?" questioned Sakura
"You rest, you've earned it." replied Naruto, smiling under his mask.
Later that night Zaiaku was sitting by the fire, absentmindedly prodding it with a stick. 'This is too much, Sakura-hime this close, Rouga Nadare running Hyoukagure. I think you were very wrong in your assesment Shiva-san.'
'How so little one?' she questioned
'So much is different in this place,' he replied, looking over he saw Sakura looking at him, "Sakura-san, you should sleep."
She quietly stood up and sat next to him on the log, "I can't, too much has happened." She looked over at him intensely, "I have a question Aoi-san."
Zaiaku cocked an eyebrow, "Yes?"
"How are you, Aka-san, and Kuroi-san so strong?" then she looked skywards as she brought her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, "Kakashi-sensei said once that: 'in our world there are kids younger than you, and stronger than me.' I think you three are some of those special people, but it just baffles me, how?"
The white haired teen followed her gaze skywards, "We have to be," he replied simply, "Sometimes the strong think they need to prey on the weak, and the number of strong people that think like that are numerous. So, we have to be that much stronger so we can protect those that can't defend themselves." Then he shrugged, "It's just the way things go."
Sakura sighed, "Like me," Zaiaku threw her a questioning look, "I mean, you had to come save us because I was too weak to defend my teammates."
"You stood up to a one hundred foot tall snake, that's bravery, and bravery will push you to a greater strength." he replied
"You sound like our old teammate, Naruto. He was an idiot and would rush into bad situations, but he wouldn't ever quit." Sakura sighed, "sometimes I miss him, Sasuke is so quiet and Ryo just tries to emulate him." then she stifled a yawn, "I think I'm going back to sleep Aoi-san, thank you for talking to me."
Zaiaku nodded, "No problem," when she was out of ear shot he sighed, "Sakura-hime."
The next morning the Naruto and Zaiaku were awoken by Gaara nudging them with his foot. "Soon," is all he said as he eyed Sasuke.
Both boys were up in a shot, Naruto noticed that Ryo was awake, "Good to see you up and around," Ryo only nodded. Naruto then narrowed his eyes, "Someone's coming," he stated ripping Kubikiri out of the ground. Zaiaku crouched and prepared to use a jutsu as Gaara spread his sand out in a circle around himself. "Three, they're pretty fast. Two on the right one on the left."
"Oh, two leaf teams?" questioned a drawling voice as a heavily bandaged sound shinobi walked out from behind a tree. "Doesn't matter though."
As the five leaf gennin prepared for the sound to charge an eruption of chakra was felt behind them. "I think we'll leave this to him," stated Gaara as he stepped back, Naruto and Zaiaku mimiced his actions.
"W-w-what is that?" cried Dosu, 'so evil'
Sasuke looked at his skin as the cursed seal began to crawl over it, "This is true power," he whispered. Looking up he noticed that one of the sound nins had released a wind jutsu from his palms, easily dodging it Sasuke gripped both his arms and twisted them behind his back. "You seem very proud of these arms," placing his foot in his back he pulled till they made a sickening crack.
Immediately Dosu dropped to his knees, "Please Sasuke-sama! We apologize, we were only doing what we were told. We shall retreat and leave you and your teammates alone!" quickly he and Kin gathered their fallen comrade and departed.
Sasuke turned his eyes on team oni, "I wonder how strong you three are?" he questioned with a crazed look in his eye.
"You'd better get a grip Sasuke," stated Naruto glaring, "We came to help, that's all."
"We didn't ask for it," replied Sasuke as he began approaching team oni, sand quickly curled around his ankles rooting him in place.
"Sakura did," replied Zaiaku as he prepared to attack, "we're not that other team, you'd better get yourself under control before you over shoot your abilities." Then he went riged as Sakura ran up to Sasuke and wrapped her arms around him.
"SASUKE-KUN PLEASE STOP!" she cried, "please," she pleaded again.
Finally Sasuke calmed down and the seal began to retreat, blinking rapidly he looked around, "Wha-what happened?"
"We don't know," reaplied Gaara. When he looked around he noticed Zaiaku was looking somber, "Let's get to the tower."
Sasuke snorted, "We don't need you-"
He was cut off by Naruto slamming him into a tree, "Listen you self-righteous piece of shit," he growled, "You're getting our help. We don't give a shit about you, but we aren't going to let Sakura-san die because her teammates are too self absorbed to realize everyone needs a little assistance." Then he released him, "get your shit and get moving."
An hour later and both teams were at the tower. There were no incidents following the sound teams attack, save Sasuke rubbing his neck every once and a while and recieving dark looks from team oni each time. Finally stepping up to their corresponding doors Sasuke and Ryo went in without a word, Sakura however hugged Zaiaku and muttered an, "Arigato" before going in.
"Well," started Naruto but he recieved a smack to the head before he could finish
Zaiaku glared through a blush, "not a word, Uzumaki."
Team Oni made it's way into the center of the tower and joined the remaining teams which included: 7,8,10,12, Suna, Sound, and Oni. "Where the hell is Kabuto's team?" questioned Naruto.
His question was answered was answered by the third Hokage, "It seems we have too many teams for the finals, therefore we will be holding a small bout of semi-finals." he started, "Also apparently some of us are not who we say we are. To remedy this we are requiring you to issue a drop of blood, a simple jutsu will reveal your identity."
"Shit," hissed Naruto, "Now what?" as he pricked his finger and let a drop of blood fall onto a card and slid it into the random match generator.
Gaara shrugged, "Nothing, if we try we'll be in trouble," as he mimiced Naruto. Then he eyed Temari and Kankuro, "besides they've figured it out."
Zaiaku sighed and raised his hand, "Hokage-sama, will this display our REAL names?" he questioned.
Sarutobi and the gathered jounin cocked an eyebrow, "Do you have something to hide Aoi-san?"
The white haired teen sighed, "No Hokage-sama." resigning himself he copied his two companions. "Well hopefully I won't go first," he whispered to himself.
'Time to stop running little one,' stated Shiva.
'I was hoping it wouldn't be so soon in this world,' he replied
"Now we will begin the preliminary matches, please clear the floor." Said the third as the first set of names popped on the screen. All the gathered shinobi went wide-eyed at the first name. "Who?"
"Shit," hissed Zaiaku as he looked at the screen
Rouga Senmetsu vs. Hasuka Jouichi
Eyes were going everywhere as Jouichi walked to the center of the arena. Zaiaku took a deep breath and leaped over the railing, landing effortlessly on the floor. "Well," he said, "Let's begin."
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End Chapter 8
I know I lost some of my Sasuke fans, but I've already written a fic where he didn't get the seal. I wanted original, I haven't decided where his character is going yet.
Preview Chapter 9: Unmasked