After I read my reviews, I started sniffing a little at how sweet they were. You guys are like my best friends when I say something negative about myself… There was even one reviewer that said my story was the best ever I was about to cry. Thanks a bunch!! You have no idea how much I love you (but not in a creepy stalker/child molester way)!!
Mood: Touched… you guys are really, really sweet…
Status: Just looking over some stuff for the play we have going on.
Soundtrack: Ichirin no Hana – HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR (aka the 3rd opening for Bleach). I still love "Suigintou no Yoru" by Noriaki Sugiyama!! I squealed 'cause he sounded really hot… like Sasuke should sound when he sings… even though the song was for Bleach Beat Collection, but who gives a damn?
Disclaimer: I don't really own anything, not even the idea since it's based off a bunch of different things that came together into something that sounded good for a story. Life a bitch that way isn't it?
All around him, it was wet and clear. He was one of them… one of the fish. Naruto moved in the stream, his attention caught by several of his "fellow species". He was one of them… only… he was the predator of the water.
He pounced. They were caught off guard and jumped out of the waves in surprise, only to be struck by kunai, pinning the three fish to the tree trunk on the side.
Naruto rose from the water, breathing heavily and scowling. Sasuke frowned that there were only three and scolded Naruto, "Move around more. I want some for preservation purposes. Three isn't enough."
"EHH?!"
"I need three more," he explained to his red-faced comrade, "baka…"
"THIS IS REALLY TIRING!!" Naruto yelled at the cocky Uchiha, "WHY DON'T YOU DO IT?!"
Sasuke played stupid and innocently excused himself, "I think Sakura has the fire ready, since I smell smoke, so three is fine."
Naruto still stood in the water, not really understanding what just happened
"Eh? Wait… WAIT FOR ME, KUSO!!"
Sakura sat in front of the blaze with her knees up to her chin, staring at the fire while her other teammates ate a bit cautiously. She was still in slight shock over her outburst with the Sound nin they encountered, and her companions were worried at the stated that she was in.
"Sakura," Sasuke pulled the fish away from his mouth, "You should eat, to regain your strength. It'll affect the team."
She blankly stated, "I don't really have an appetite."
He sighed, "We're all eating, so you should too. Stop being annoying."
Sakura looked up and nodded, "Hai." She took the one that was left, which was the medium-sized one, since Naruto jumped for the biggest, and Sasuke, being worried about her well-being, left the bigger one for her, taking the smallest and most-burnt one for himself.
"That can't be the only reason you're worried."
She took the warm fish to her lips and started nibbling, only to bring it down, "It… may be possible there aren't anymore Heaven scrolls."
He frowned, "Eh, what do you mean?"
"Four days have passed out of five, meaning eighty percent has been used up," Sakura explained. "Seventy-eight participants, twenty-six teams… Only twelve teams can pass now, ever since Orochimaru burnt the Heaven scroll. There's no guarantee that the others are safe. We also wasted two days to recover from… everything."
Sasuke nodded, "Our next enemy might be our last chance then." He glanced at Sakura who just stared at her fish.
"Eat, you need it."
She bit her lip, but nodded and took slow bites out of the warm filling fish, blushing as well. Sakura couldn't help but enjoy it when he scolded her to take better care of herself, not that she was being irresponsible on purpose… just, hearing him encourage her to look after herself… it made it feel like he cared…
You know that'll never happen.
Sakura stared up at herself. What do you mean?
Think about it Sakura-chan, her other self hissed, all those other girls… Ino… Tenten… even Hinata… what do they have? They'll try to take him from our very grasp… That would be bad… heartbreaking… painful…
They… they wouldn't do that…! Don't…
What's keeping them? What's keeping him? We're different.
Sakura shook her head in denial. No… Sasuke-kun… he wouldn't do that…
They have power, grace, and beauty. What's keeping them, Sakura-chan? You were never friends. How do you know they aren't against you?
They just aren't… aren't those kinds of people…!
How do you know? The only way you can find happiness with Sasuke-kun is wipe out the competition… make sure they can't breathe a single breath on him…
Wipe… them out…?
Or… break his heart before he breaks yours…
N-no… Sasuke-kun cares for me…
You have to kill him… it's that simple.
Stop it! Who are you?!
"WHO ARE YOU?!"
"SAKURA-CHAN!! SAKURA-CHAN!! TEME CAN'T BREATHE!! SAKURA-CHAN!!"
She opened her eyes to see that she was nearly on top of Sasuke, holding his neck with both hands. Sasuke tried to pry her off, but she was sending chakra to her hands to enhance her grip, nearly breaking his neck if he wasn't trying his best to send some to his neck to fight with her perfect control. Naruto was also trying to get Sakura off of him, but he didn't really do anything but look like he was helping.
Sakura immediately jumped off of him, "S-sorry… are you okay…?"
Sasuke turned over and coughed a little before sitting up and holding his neck, "Aa… what was that all about?"
She sat stiffly with her hands in her lap and looked over when he dropped his hands from his neck to show hand-shaped bruises. Sakura looked away and jerked her head to his water container without looking at him, "You should fill that up before we leave."
Sasuke watched her carefully as he reached to his container and started to walk back into the forest to fill it.
"K-kuso…" she whispered as she put a hand to her head. What was going on? All of a sudden, there's this urge to kill everything… everyone… no matter how nice and sweet, innocent and pure… she needed to see blood… Sakura wanted to see bloody cherry blossoms.
"Sakura-chan," Naruto's voice was surprisingly serious, "Is there anything you wanna tell me, now that teme's gone? You've been acting… well not yourself ever since whatever happened at the cave."
"If I wanted to talk to you about it, I would've, so leave me alone."
"D-demo… Sakura-chan…!"
"Shut up."
Naruto froze. What happened to that cheerful powerful kunochi he always knew? Sakura-chan may have scolded him, but never has she said something that… cold… even though it was something he was accustomed to from Sasuke-teme, but not Sakura-chan. She just wasn't that type of person…
Minato… I wonder… if you were still alive… what would you do if you knew I was released? You were always so cocky… always believing your silly seals were full-proof. It may have worked for the Kyuubi, but here I am, ne Minato? As I promised, I didn't kill you, but I have to make up for that promise, since you lied to me… I thought you said he was dead… I thought you said your son was dead… liar…
"You shouldn't do that."
Sakura looked over to see a silver-haired man crouched over Naruto, like he was holding him back from doing something. She saw that the blonde's thumb was prying the edge of the scroll open. Sakura immediately stood up, in position if this man tried to pull anything on them.
She heard footsteps approaching and looked at the corner of her eye to see Sasuke with his eyes wide. He sprinted over to them, forgetting his original purpose of leaving the two and letting the water pour out of his container.
Sakura sat in her ball position next to Sasuke's feet as the silver-haired man, who introduced himself as Kabuto at the beginning. Team 7 listened to his warning.
"Those who break the rules will be forced into a situation in which they must retire," he explained, "In the last exam, when the scrolls were opened, people would see a sleep-inducing inscription. So they'll remain in this forest until the exams end."
"Your name is Kabuto, right?" Sasuke questioned, "What are you doing here alone?"
He turned away a bit, "It's not like I was after your scroll or anything."
"Right… if you wanted to, you could've stolen it right from Naruto back there… so you're after the scroll of Heaven too?"
"No," Kabuto smirked, "I already have both." He reached into his side pouch to pull out the two scrolls, "See?" He tucked them away again and sighed, "A lot happened, but I was on my way to the tower to meet up with my teammates. Excuse me now."
Kabuto made his way to leave.
"WAIT!"
Sakura's eyes turned into slits when she saw the smirk that crossed the man's face. He turned around to look at Sasuke who addressed him.
"Fight me," Sasuke ordered, "Fight me now."
Sakura followed Kabuto's lead and only really half-listened to the information he was saying. His appearance seemed harmless, but there was something about the way he watched them, particularly Sasuke, very carefully. There was something very strange about that man.
Now, it was night and they've been walking around the clearing where it seemed like it was safe to stop. The hours have been countless since the stopped at this area and Sakura couldn't take it much more. All of a sudden her body felt heavier than it should've and before she knew it, Sakura was on the ground from exhaustion.
"Sakura-chan!"
She felt someone pull her up gently and saw Sasuke with a grim expression, "I told you that you needed to eat."
Sakura shook her head, "That's… not it. We've been walking forever, but the tower doesn't get closer."
He looked up to see what she was talking about, and saw that it was the same distance ever since they got there. Kabuto smirked at her observation and looked to the side to see the centipede, "It seems we're already inside someone's 'passionate welcome'…"
"Genjutsu?" Sasuke growled as he looked around.
Kabuto nodded, "It seems so. I was completely fooled. They've been trying to get us weaker but having us walk around in circles to use up our strength. Of course the weakest link would've crashed first."
Weakest link…? Weak…
Sakura was frozen in her steps and was trapped inside her mind to notice the hundreds of clones surrounding them.
I was the weakest…? I was just a burden all along…?
Sakura-chan…There it was again… that cold breath that would blow into her ear… taunting her.
There we go. Now you see? The world just sees us as nothing. We are nothing. We're walked all over. What should we do?Her body thought on its own, she slowly crouched down with her arms wrapped around her knees.
I… I don't know…
Then I should help you Sakura-chan.The hundreds of clones made they're way towards the group.
Let me show you…They were less than a meter away from attacking.
… what we can do…
All of a sudden, the clones exploded into nothing but puddles. Naruto's eyes widened as he saw cuts on his legs and arms… he could even feel some on his back. Sasuke looked at his own cuts to see it was what looked to be petals that were in his wounds.
The hidden Rain nin whispered to each other, "I must've not preformed it fully."
"What are you talking about?! You never mess up on this? S-something happened…."
"Of course…" Sakura was behind them with a grim smile, "No one pays attention to the female minor…"
"Where's Sakura?!" Naruto asked, panicking as he ran around in pointless circles.
Sasuke looked as well, not being able to detect her chakra, but felt four unfamiliar chakras present.
Kabuto became cautious as well, what is with this presence I'm feeling?! Where could that little brat gone of to…? Kuso…
"AGGHHH!!!"
Sasuke and Kabuto turned over to Naruto at the sound of his yell. Sasuke saw him laying on the ground with a bloody body hanging over him.
"GEDDITOFFGEDDITOFFGEDDITOFF NOW!!!!!"
He finally managed to throw the body off. Kabuto went up to examine the body. It looked exactly like the clones… so this must be the person that…
"AGGGHHHH!!!"
Kabuto looked over to see Naruto being pinned down again by two more bodies, both decapitated. Sasuke threw them off of him as quickly as Naruto could, scrambled away from them.
"Miss me?"
All three looked over to see Sakura with blood all over her arms and in her hand at the side, the head of one of the bodies. They're legs screamed for them to run, but they couldn't. All three of them were frozen in fear at the girl with a piercing green eye and her hair fallen over half of her face.
This isn't Sakura… no doubt it's her… but it isn't her chakra… Sasuke examined the girl to see there was a slightly visible symbol on her head, which was made out to be the word "spring".
Sakura chuckled and threw the head aside, "Your turn…"
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I hope it wasn't too gory. Heh… I just kinda wanted to emphasize her merciless attitude. There's a link to the drawing of "Inner Sakura" on my profile in case you can't imagine her with her hair over her face. Remember to read the Artist's Note under the drawing since it explains the appearance difference between Sakura and "Inner Sakura".
Ne, please tell me if I'm going a little too fast cause I think I am... but then if I slow down it might get boring and I don't know... Oh, and I just had this up this morning and got about 15 notifications for people reviewing and such so thanks!!
Also, thanks a bunch to Kiri-tan (for helping me find my mistakes and correcting them) and TwilightRaver (for reviewing every chapter)! You two stuck since the beginning and I really hope you stick till the end!
Hugs and Kisses,
Lilium :X