Chapter Sixteen: Beyond The Worst-case Scenario
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto
Tsurara landed hard with a dull thud behind Sakura...several shuriken protruding from her torso and arms.
Grinding her teeth, Sakura withdrew a tag from her holster and glared down the synthetic Hyuga before her: Brown hair held loosely in a ponytail, white eyes, a slender build...not unlike Neji, but more built and more mature in his appearance.
"Move aside." She said, unwilling to harm an individual who had probably been brainwashed since his 'conception'.
"No." He replied, crouching in the stance of the juken.
'Your funeral.' She thought as she tossed the tag, bringing her hands together in the seal of the Tiger.
The water tag burst forward a stream so powerful in should have been enough to break his ribs. As expected, her preformed the Rotation--coming to a stop, he realized she had disappeared.
"Over here!" She cried, running side long at him with a senbon in her hand.
He spun to meet her, knocking the weapon from her hand and landing a blow to her stomach. Sakura--rather than fighting the momentum--used it to pull into a handstand, healing herself before she ever touched the ground.
"Behind you."
She ducked under a kunai as it arced where he head had been a moment before. Glimpsing her attacker, she realized this one had the Sharigan. Level Two to be precise.
'Fuck.' She thought, releasing her full fury into the ground at his feet. It was enough to knock the 'Uchiha' back in time for her to evade another juken-style attack. Beside her, Hebi was attacking Kabuto with everything he had, but by now they were surrounded by several Byakugan and Sharigan holders.
She felt the earth beside her shiver slightly and she realized without a doubt that Hebi was down--but the ebb and flow of his chakra told her he wasn't critically injured. Ryuu--having sustained chakra-based blows from both the 'Hyuga' and Kabuto was faltering and obviously Tsurara wasn't going anywhere.
'Where is Sasuke?' She wondered as she preformed a simple clone jutsu.
"Are you looking for this one?"
She turned to see Kabuto smirking over a critically injured Sasuke.
"That's it!" Sakura yelled, drilling her fist into the nearest enemy. If organized thinking wasn't working, she would brawl her way out.
Spinning, she caught one between her legs as she shifted and threw him into Kabuto. As she brought her feet down, she forced her remaining chakra into them. The resulting blow was just distracting enough for her clones to slip in and evacuate her teammates. Creating one last Shadow Clone to aid in the healing process, she kept up the distraction...layering genjutsu, taijutsu, and ninjutsu down so thickly even the Byakugan and Sharigan were hindered, she beathed a sigh of relief when her clone motioned to her that they were completely out of range.
Of course, she didn't have enough chakra to resist the advances now...
But nobody ever said she had counted on coming out of the mission alive...
TBC