They were currently taking a break, hiding amongst the higher branches, where they were just underneath the roof of the canopy made a good place to see the enemy coming. Sakura gave Naruto a piece of rationed meat and took of sip of water herself, Sasuke's arm was still protected by the crystal and had asked for her to remove it saying it was healed but Sakura couldn't, she didn't know how and he would have to wait until it wore off. Naruto looked down somewhere and Sakura followed his line of sight, she didn't see anything but glared nonetheless, she listened for something, anything. That's when it struck her.
"Guys, listen" she said and they did, for a long moment before Naruto spoke.
"I don't hear anything," he said but Sakura didn't look at him, she was busy scanning the world below them.
"Exactly, there isn't a sound, no animals or birds, even the insects have fled" she said and the two froze in realization of her words, they were being watched.
"Sasuke, Sakura, use your eyes" Naruto said and she spared him a praising glance before looking back down, Kurisutarubyū activated, and saw the world in crystal. Every animal had disappeared but there was something, in one of the trees is what looked something like a snake but had a very dark and twisted chakra around it, she embedded a kunai into the tree where it was and the paper bomb attached to it exploded.
"What?" Naruto asked but she didn't look away as the thing began to move.
"Something is in that tree," she said as it began to reveal itself, it was a grass ninja but she was much more frightening. Who, or what, is she?
"Heh, very good, I didn't expect to be found so quickly, does it have something to do with those eyes of yours?" she asked, looking at Sasuke, Sakura had to suppress a growl. The stranger thought it was the Sharingan; she really shouldn't be surprised since only a few knew of her kekkei genkai.
"Or is it you, with the eyes of moving water?" the grass nin said as she looked at Sakura, her eyes widened slightly. When she activates her Kurisutarubyū her eyes look like when light seeps through water; her normal eye color remains the same but the difference are the lines of darker green move fluently around the iris of her eyes, like water.
"Who are you?" Naruto called out and the snake like ninja grinned.
"Your death" she said and Naruto growled, he lunged at her but she summoned a huge snake and it quickly swallowed the orange clad ninja.
"Naruto!" his two teammates screamed. Sakura jumped towards the snake so she could gut it but the grass nin kicked her away in mid air. Sakura landed on a tree branch holding her side, bastard. Sasuke moved to her side and looked at the ninja.
"She's stronger than us," he whispered and Sakura nodded, but something was wrong.
"Too strong to be a genin" she said and he glanced at her, now that she mentioned it she had a point. She was too strong to be a genin.
"Your not a genin are you!" Sakura yelled as she stood up, her chakra had already been dealt with her formally injured side. The grass nin grinned, Sasuke didn't give her time to respond as he shot into action, throwing kunai at her he landed on the same branch as the enemy. The ninja had dodged them and seemed to be waiting for his next move, Sasuke took the opportunity and tangled the grass nin in the wires that were connected to the kunai, his hands sped through the necessary hand signs as he performed a katon jutsu, the grass ninja was engulfed in flames.
"Did I get him?" Sasuke muttered to him self, Sakura jumped down to his level, her eyes glaring as she saw through the smoke with her Kurisutarubyū.
"Unfortunately, no" she whispered and he growled, the smoke cleared to reveal something they did not expect. The ninja standing before them had half her face peeling off; Sakura felt her stomach churn as the enemy smiled all to sweetly.
"Not bad, though I must admit I expected better from an Uchiha," she said, but her- his voice had changed, it wasn't a girls voice anymore it was… that thing was a guy?
"Now tell me girl, where did get those eyes? I have never seen them before" he said and Sakura glared.
"I'm not telling you!" she yelled as she ran for him, she twisted her chakra so she would have thirty seconds to dispel it otherwise face the consequences of corrupted chakra. She put her whole body into one punch but he grabbed her arm and flew her into the air, he then kicked her in the stomach and she hit the trunk of the tree. She slid down and landed on the branch, Sakura fell to her knees as she gripped her stomach. She looked up to see the snake eyed man standing in front of her; he kneeled down in front of her and cupped her chin so she looked directly into his eyes.
"Did actually you think that would work?" he chuckled and she smirked, he froze as his body began to shake.
"Yes actually" she said as he fell onto his side, her eyes showed that he was dispelling the corrupted chakra and that it would only last a few seconds.
"Sasuke, run!" she yelled as she grabbed his hand and followed the trail of the giant snake that ate Naruto, releasing her Kurisutarubyū. She could feel the snake nin had regained the ability to move, she had already let go of Sasuke's hand, and she sped up in her panic. She snake demon appeared out of the blue and Sakura ended up on it's head, she looked into one of it's eyes for a long while before it spoke.
"You are a Haruno yes?" it asked, the 's' being prolonged due to it being a snake, Sakura nodded. Upon seeing the nod it began hacking, it then coughed Naruto and he was covered in slime.
"He is your friend, yes?" it- he asked again and she smiled.
"Yes he is! Thank you!" she said, her smile didn't last long as she felt the snake master approach. She began panicking again at the thought of facing that monster.
"Dammit! Sasuke, Naruto we need to move now!" she yelled, before she could move the snake offered her a branch to step onto, she landed on the tree branch and bowed quickly to the snake.
"Thank you for releasing my friend" she said and leapt to a higher branch.
"Your welcome Haruno-sama, I must leave now or surely be punished by Orochimaru-sama" he said as he bowed and disappeared. She turned away and jumped to her teammates, they were about to get away when the snake ninja, Orochimaru, caught up with them.
"Thought you could get away?" he said as he threw a kunai with a paper bomb attached to it, they scattered and he went for Naruto first. Holding him by the neck and his fingers were lit by small purple flames, Sakura didn't know what he was going to do but it couldn't be good, before he could strike the fox host she threw a chakra crystal at his hand. It struck his hand and encased it in chakra, he looked from an unconscious Naruto to his hand and then, finally, to her.
"What is this?" he hissed, literally, and she froze. He had a teammate hostage and was now solely focused on her… wait! He is focused on her, which means Sasuke can sneak up and at the least slow Orochimaru down.
"Like I said before, I'm not telling you" she said smartly and jumped back, she saw Sasuke in the corner of her eye but… he wasn't moving, what is he doing?
"Sasuke, what are you doing?" she called but Sasuke didn't answer, all he did was shiver. She spared a glance over his way, her eyes widened.
'Dammit! Genjutsu' her Inner said and she called out to Sasuke.
"Sasuke, it's a genjustu! Snap out of it!" she called but he didn't move, didn't blink. Orochimaru smirked wickedly as she tried to save her friend.
"There's no use, he can't hear you," he said and she turned to him, eyes frozen a cold glare.
"What do you want?" she demanded, this goes far beyond getting some measly scroll and there was no way that this was part of the exam.
"I want Sasuke," he said and the first thought that went through her mind was 'pedophile' but she knew that it wasn't about his fetish, hopefully.
"You've got to be kidding me…" she mumbled, she jumped to another branch and landed in front of Sasuke, standing protectively she glared at him.
"That's not going to happen" she announce and the snake nin smiled all the more. Throwing away Naruto Sakura was only given a few moments to do many things. She threw a kunai and it snagged on Naruto's baggy jumper, stopping the fall, as she tried to produce a shield in time.
She failed.
He pushed her aside and bit Sasuke at the junction between neck and shoulder, the boy screamed in pain as he fell to one knee, Sakura froze; Naruto was unconscious and tangling by a kunai and Sasuke was in paralyzed and in pain all because of him.
Sakura felt rage thunder through her veins, her Kurisutarubyū automatically activated and her crystal shattered.
"You bastard" her voice sounded as though there was multiple of her speaking at the same time, her green chakra swirled around her wildly, and her hair came undone and flew around her. She growled low and dangerous, this man was going to pay!
She came at him with inhuman speed, he flew backwards, then forwards and in every direction while in mid air. Pain coursing through him every time he was pushed to a different direction, Sakura then appeared above him and forced her heel into his gut; he hacked up blood as a crater formed around where he landed.
'What is this power?' was all he could think before he was kneed in the ribs, she didn't give him time to move as she flipped forward, grabbing his hair in the process, and threw him into a boulder. The boulder itself cracked under the force of the sudden impact.
"What are you?" he hacked; he didn't seem all that scared, more like thrilled, he had found another vessel. She glared at him with a look that actually made a cold shiver run down his all to flexible spine.
"Your death" she mimicked as she threw kunai that was covered in her crystal. He dodged them easily enough but did not expect them to explode, he felt the broken shards enter his back and he hissed in pain, he staggered before feeling a familiar pain; she had manage to paralyze him again, but this was different. He wasn't able to move at all and he couldn't even move his chakra to dispel it faster, he was at her mercy. Sakura watched as he fell to the ground, limp.
She glared at the man as she raised her hand, her fist clenched around something invisible. Her green crystal began forming and a long staff appeared, twice her height, and a large blade appeared. She pulled the blade down and maneuvered it from above her to behind her, a strong wind swirled around her before pulsing outward, thick layers of powerful chakra cloaked her body and swirled like a protective shield.
She raised her scythe over her shoulder, using both hands, and was about to deliver it down upon the man whose chakra resembled a snake.
"Stop!" she heard a familiar voice yell; she turned her head to see Anko with four Anbu with her.
"He is to be taken in and interrogated, you take you teammates and get out of here," she said and Sakura glared slightly, the others stiffened as her swirling chakra reflected her emotions. But instead of fighting them her scythe broke into pieces, starting at both ends the crystal broke away and disappeared. She nodded to them before grabbing both her teammates and jumping away, the Anbu team watched as the pink haired ninja jumped away with amazing speed for a ninja, despite the extra weight.
"That's Haruno Sakura right?" Anko asked, one of the Anbu nodded, and she laughed,
"I feel sorry for anyone who ends up fighting her," she muttered and the Anbu were surprise, though they didn't show it. Anko never felt sorry for anyone so this was a surprise, they turned their attention to the snake master.
"Well this is interesting" one of the Anbu muttered.
"What?" Anko asked, the Anbu didn't look at her but explained nonetheless.
"His chakra networks have been completely frozen to the point where he can barely breath, it seems that some sort of crystal is doing this" he explained and Anko sighed, this was just going to cause more work. They picked up a limp Orochimaru and made their way to the highest security cell they had.
Sakura bit down another chakra pill, it had been two days since the fight with Orochimaru, three if you include the day they actually fought him, and they only had two days left. She sat down under a giant tree that gave a hut like feel, the roots had pushed up the body and provided a cage-like shelter with one big entrance; Sakura sat there watching her surroundings with tired eyes. She could use her chakra crystal again but that would make it to easy for her to be detected, so she uses chakra pills, but even with those bland pills she is still tired. Sakura twitched when she heard a twig snap, her sharp eyes caught sight of something small.
A squirrel, or a chipmunk, she wasn't sure but she didn't care, she threw a kunai and it landed at the animals feet, just in case. The small ball of fur squeaked and ran off, leaving her be. A long while past before she sensed something, and it wasn't friendly.
"Some lookout you turned out to be, can't even stay awake" she heard a females voice comment snidely. Sakura was wide-awake now, adrenalin coursing through her at the sight of an enemy.
"This should be easy enough, move aside and let us fight Sasuke or we'll kill you too," one of the males said, his voice was laced with confidence. Sakura glared, like hell she was just going to lay down after everything that has happened to her, she hasn't had a wink of sleep but she was still going to fight to the death if she had to. She stood and waited for them to fall for her trap, they walked forward but the cocky guy stopped them.
"Kin stop, this moss doesn't naturally grow on clearings like this, it usually grows on trees" he said as he smirked at the girl sitting under the ancient tree.
'Not good' was the first thing that went through her mind but as they jumped over the moss she cut a wire placed just behind her, they heard a deep groaning sound as a large tree trunk came swinging in their direction.
"Pathetic" the bandaged one muttered before he punched the trunk with the device on his arm, as expected it shattered, but what he did not expect was a pink haired girl to appear amongst the debris posed in a position to hit him, and hit him she did. Hard. He crashed into the hard soil faster than anyone could react, she didn't hit his face but his torso. He could feel the broken bones and could still feel the painful buzz of the chakra-induced attack, the pinkette landed gracefully on the ground and waited for their next move.
The overconfident male ninja moved first using a technique called 'Decapitating Airwaves' which Sakura avoided by jumping up, the female member threw senbon while Sakura was in mid-air. Flipping backwards she avoided them and landed on all fours staring at her enemies.
"Not bad" the bandaged one muttered, she looked back and forth between the three. Kin moved first, throwing senbon she expected the pinkette to at least move out of the way but instead she just swatted them away with her hand. This surprised the sound trio.
"How did you…" Kin trailed off before looking to her overconfident partner
"Zaku, give my senbon a boost" she said and he nodded, she threw a handful of senbon and he increased the speed with his wind specialty, Sakura this time ducked under the flying projectiles, the needles embedding themselves into the roots of the tree.
"Dosu, help us out!" Kin yelled. Dosu's single visible eye crinkled showing that he was smirking, having Kakashi as your teacher did have a few extra pros. the bandaged man didn't move from his spot, instead he tapped the strange device on his arm, her ears rung in pain but that was nothing to burning pain coming from her collarbones. The crystal was vibrating and it was causing a lot of friction and pain, Sakura fell to her knees as she bit back a scream.
"This seems to affect you more than most, ninja" Dosu chuckled while his partners smirked, Sakura glared at them while she tried to figure a way out of this. But it's hard to think with that painful ringing in her ears, she couldn't think strait and it was getting more painful the longer the ringing went on. Suddenly Sakura felt a painful jolt as her head was pulled back, the ringing had stopped and it became easier to think but she was completely immobilized. Sakura tilted her head to see Kin holding her ponytail in a tight grip.
"What pretty hair, unfortunately it won't do you much good here" she chuckled "Did you honestly think you could beat us? There's no way a weakling like you could win" the dark haired girl finished, that was their first mistake. Sakura froze for a long while, before she began shaking. Zaku chuckled thinking that she was frightened and would start begging for her life, second mistake.
"Kin, just kill the bitch already, I want to see if that Uchiha is really all that" Zaku called out casually, Kin smirked but paused when she felt the girl in her grasp move. She peered down only to smirk; the pinkette had pulled out a kunai.
"That isn't going to work on me" she said confidently, Sakura smirked up at her, something in those green eyes made the sound nin falter.
"It's not for you" Sakura moved and cut her hair, kin stumbling back as her hairband fell out. Sakura stood and glared at the two boys in front of her; if crystals vibrate from sound waves then she might be able to use that against them. Sakura broke her crystal again and felt the energy flood her system, before Dosu could activate his sound attack she sent her chakra to her feet and pulsed it over the surface of the earth.
'Secret crystal technique: crystal field!' she screamed the knew technique in her mind as the ground became covered in green crystal, the enemies jumped up to avoid the strange material and landed safely on the ground. Sakura was standing in front of the entrance to the risen tree that made the make shift hut, standing strait ready for them. Zaku, having the least amount of patience, moved first. He ran strait at her ready but had to change his path as a giant crystal shot up from the ground, sticking up at an odd angle everyone stared.
"What the hell is this?" he yelled looking from the crystal to the green-eyed girl.
"My bloodline" Sakura said before more crystal 'spikes' came out chasing the sound ninja, he jumped away but noticed that the spikes were chasing his teammates. They were eventually forced together surrounded by the chakra crystals, but she didn't attack. Instead she jumped onto one of the higher crystals, crouching casually she stared down at them.
"Give me your scroll and I'll let you live," she said but she noticed the body language of Dosu, Sakura saw this and jumped back as he tapped his sound device. That was there final mistake. The sound vibrated and amplified from the crystals surrounding them and they screamed out in pain, Sakura winced as it hurt her too but not as much as it was hurting them. The crystals began to crack, the pressure escalating, before shattering into pieces; Sakura covered her eyes as smoke covered the clearing.
Sakura coughed as she looked through the smoke, watching the unmoving bodies she approached carefully. Deeming it safe she rummaged through there bags and found the scroll she needed, reabsorbing her crystals she felt refreshed but her energy drained when she re-sealed it back into it's crystal state.
She allowed some chakra to flow through her body so she wouldn't collapse. Sakura froze suddenly as she felt a malevolent chakra; she turned to see Sasuke with half his body covered by black markings and dark chakra swirling around him. He stared at her and she did the same, she wanted to move to break this spell but at the same time dare not to. Finally Sasuke moved, walking over to her, he crouched onto one knee and lightly brushed away some strands of her, now short, pink hair from her eyes.
"What happened?" he asked and Sakura repressed a shiver from the evil feeling of the chakra.
"Sasuke, power down, we don't want to attract any more enemies" she diverted as she stood up, she wobbled slightly and Sasuke was immediately they're to hold her steady.
"Only if you tell me what happened" he replied and Sakura nodded with a sigh, she heard Naruto groaning slightly and smiled slightly.
"I'll tell you on the way, come on" she said as she moved to pick Naruto up and carry him piggyback style.
"Sakura…" Sasuke growled slightly, Sakura looked him strait in the eye.
"I had to use my chakra crystal technique which means anyone within a three kilometer radius should of been able to sense it and will no doubt come looking, if we leave now we might be able to avoid them, therefor I'll tell you on the way" she explained and he nodded, but he did grumble a little. He packed up everything quickly, powering down as he did so, and followed Sakura through the forest. They only had until tomorrow.