Born to die
~Chapter 4~
"Sand Siblings and Team seven!"
(Have two quotes today! Cha! P.s. if you don't like it, deal with it.)
"When you forgive, you in no way change the past - but you sure do change the future." ~ Bernard Meltzer
"Forgiveness is like faith. You have to keep reviving It." ~ Mason Cooley
"
Disclaimer: Sure, I'll agree that I own Naruto if you can stay on Kemuri when he is majorly pissed off and roaring fire for thirty minutes. Thought so.
Author Notes: Hello there reader!
Sorry about the long update time! Had my first horse show of the season over the weekend and only came home with reserve-champion, (apparently a bad-thing by eyes of my dad. –Baka.) So had to go on hold for a bit.
Anyway please enjoy this particularly long chapter! Next up- CHUNIN EXAMS! Now, do I do this in 3 parts or two because lets just say we will be seeing some MAJOR KICK-ASS KUNOICHI SAKURA! In the forest of death and tag-team battles in the preliminary rounds instead of normal battles! Please review your answers!
I'd like to thank the following for actually reviewing this story!
BB'S-SHINIGAMI-KURA-HARUNO
And
Whitelily
Bold = inner/demons
italic = telepathic talking/ talking with demons or inner/ summon talking
Kemuri talks in italics because all summons talk telepathically.
Sakura swiftly dodged the three kunai that had been expertly thrown at her with great skill, but her opponent was the master of weapons themselves and thus the third kunai managed to graze her arm. She hissed in pain and quickly allowed her hand to drift to the hilt of that weapon.
Before she had the chance to draw it a green blur charged up behind her, and attempted to land a blow before she shot into the air, and came plummeting down to the ground. Chakra pumping in her outstretched foot the Kunoichi smirked sadistically before slamming her foot into the ground and watched as half the battlefield erupted into moderate chaos right before her.
Safely hidden in the dense forest, a pair of pearly eyes watched the pink-haired shinobi's moves with precision as the veins on his face deepened with slight fatigue. A small, cocky smirk settled onto his lips, "your not safe yet little Kunoichi." He thought before performing multiple hand seals to fast for the eye to see and charging – undetected into the battle.
Konoha's green beast and the master of weapons herself panted heavily a good distance away from their opponent who was watching them with an animalistic gaze. Brown eyes flickered to black and a nod was exchanged toward the opponent Kunoichi – or rather behind her and the ninja suddenly burst into action.
"Twin rising dragons!"
Sakura smirked from behind a veil of pink hair, she didn't need to open her eyes to know that her bowl-cut haired teammate was charging at her now with inhuman speed and her other bun-haired teammate was unleashing an army of weapons on her right now. What worried her was where the one with the ponytail was- but that would have to wait unless the thousands of deadly kunai raining down on her decided to suddenly disappear.
"Crystal style: Crystal encampment wall!" Sakura commanded, making the five hand seals as she spoke. Immediately a huge, mountain-sized wall of dangerously sharp crystals erupted from the ground in front of her. The deadly rain of kunai fell helpless to the crystalline barrier and the green blur could only collide with the crystal and create and imprint of himself.
Sakura giggled into a gloved hand, effectively muffling her girlish noises before alerting herself again to the scattered chakra signatures in the area and wondering "now where did that boy go-"
"Eight trigrams one hundred twenty-eight palms!"
"That's where." Sakura's inner stated smugly as her outer attempted to whirl around and intercept the oncoming attack. Though it proved useless against the Hyuuga prodigy's attack and he began to deliver the first of his 128-chakra killing strikes.
Sakura closed her eyes, concentrating her chakra to flow only in certain areas of her body- a handy little trait that owed it's success to the kunoichi's unique chakra control power.
"Sixty-two, sixty-three, sixty-four" sakura's mouth drew tight with concentration as she felt her chakra pathways sealed off one by one. It was like rapidly gaining altitude without yawning or having yours ears popping, only the single way to release this pressure was to stop the move before it ended. A task easier said than done.
"One-hundred twenty five, One-hundred twenty six, One-hundred twenty seven-" Sakura snapped her eyes open and pushed her chakra back into her system before the finale – deadly move could be made.
"Guess we are going to have to use that weapon today." She thought bitterly, allowing her hand to fly over and grasp an ancient black scabbard.
Her inner grinned broadly, "Finally! We've been holding out finally time to break this baby in! CHA!" she shouted, fist-pumping the air for added effect.
Time itself seemed to slow for the present battle, brown hair whipped around a sweat drenched face as white eyes widened ever so slightly in surprise and irritation. Sakura's nimble fingers quickly rapped the silk covered hilt before clenching down firmly, and drawing the deadly blade in a single fluid motion to face white eyes with her own emerald ones.
Breath hitched as Sakura brought the sharpened blade of her katana out from it's cozy scabbard, and whirled around thrusting the cold, killing steel right to the neck of the Hyuuga prodigy who could only stand still or be de-capitated on the spot.
Sakura leaned in over the bloodthirsty edge of her young blade, bringing her mouth right next to the ear of the Hyuuga. He shivered slightly as her warm breath met the cold skin on his neck and she whispered, "I win."
Neji sighed lightly with relief before glaring at his sparring partner, "Mitarashi-san, this is simply a training session. We do not seek to chop our teammates heads off during them." He growled. Sakura huffed and rolled her eyes as she withdrew her sword, wiping its clean blade on her arm as an added measure before re-sheathing it and smirking.
"Ah, But Hyuuga-san- isn't it you who said training is only practical if one goes at it with the intent to kill? Ne?" Neji glared even harder at her as sakura giggled with victory, wiping the sweat off her brow with an equally sweaty forearm.
"Grrr, I hate y-"
"Umm! Hey! A little help over here!" came the voice of an exhausted Kunoichi. Sakura smirked playfully at Neji before dragging her feet over to where TenTen was with a sulking Neji in tow.
"OH! I'm sorry bushy brow jr.!" Sakura whined out upon seeing her self-proclaimed 'youthful' teammate buried five feet into her crystal barricade.
TenTen laughed as she grabbed lee's left leg and pulling, "He manages to do this every time, you'd think he would eventually learn." She deadpanned earning a series of muffled cries from said boy as she and sakura attempted to pull him from the crystal.
Neji rolled his eyes in irritation of his teammates childish antics before sitting down on a rock and thinking, "this could take a while."
Almost immediately Sakura shot her head up and stared at Neji, "This isn't going to take a while for your information Hyuuga!" she hissed smartly while tenten muffled even more uncontrollable giggles into her sleeve.
Neji groaned before looking away, annoyed with his pink-haired teammates new mind-infiltration abilities and grumbling something along the lines of no respect for other people's privacy.
Sakura poked her head back out from the hole and shouted, "I heard that!" which was followed up by yet another round of TenTen's unstoppable laughter.
The pink-haired Kunoichi growled before wiping the sweat off her brow, "Alright, screw this!" she growled releasing lee's leg with a heavy thud. "I've got almost no chakra left and obviously bushy brow over here managed to get himself really stuck this time." TenTen sighed while smiling and shaking her head with an amused look on her face.
"Ahh, Saku your so lucky to have a summon like Kemuri. He's always saving our butts at the end of the day!" TenTen teased as sakura brought her fingers to her mouth and let out a loud, clear whistle.
"Yah TenTen, I'm so lucky to have an asshole of a summon to chat my ear off at the end of the day. And he always save's Lee's ass not ours to be correct." Sakura said, glaring slightly at tenten before turning to meet her scowling nin-horse with a cheesy smile.
"Here we go-" Inner sakura groaned.
Kemuri scowled at his partner before huffing and successfully blowing his thick, inky black forelock away from his amber eyes giving sakura the 'serious' look. "I am not an Ass Kunoichi! You just always happen to be grumpy at the end of the day after these insane training sessions!" he stated in a 'matter of factly' way.
Sakura rolled her eyes, "Ya, And Whatever. Could you just get him out so we can all go home and sleep please?" she asked, leaning against the cool crystal walls and closing her eyes to relax a bit.
Kemuri smirked, "Ah so you admit you do need me Pinky?" he asked smugly.
Sakura cracked an eye open slightly, "When did I ever say I didn't pony boy?" she bit back before grabbing TenTen's hand and dragging her out of the cave to let Kemuri do his work.
"So Saku, finally decided to use the sword?" TenTen asked nonchalantly while drooling over her friend's katana. Sakura eyed her warily, scooting the scabbard further back on her hip and further away from TenTen's grabby hands.
"Umm, Ya. Since the Chunin exams are tomorrow and all I said 'what the heck, why not?'" Sakura answered, leaning against the broad trunk of one of the few standing trees at team guys training ground. TenTen's face lit up with surprise upon hearing 'Chunin exams' before she began to giggle lightly.
"Ohh Ya! I completely forgot about them! I'm so excited we finally get to become Chunin!" Tenten squealed, practically bouncing up and down while sakura smirked at her friend.
"Of course you would forget something as important as the Chunin exams." Neji added from his spot on a stray rock.
Sakura glared slightly at the Hyuuga before cocking an eyebrow upwards, "Well look who decided to join the conversation! I don't recall you being invited Hyuuga." She growled playfully.
Neji smirked back at his competitive and aggressive teammate, "I invited myself."
Sakura was silent with shock for a moment and was about to bit back with some vocabulary most wouldn't think a nine year old girl knew when suddenly a green blur came shooting from the direction of a crumbling crystal wall- straight for her. The Kunoichi sighed and then side-steeped to the left watching as said green blur crashed right into the tree.
"Lee, you do this ever single day. When are you going to learn that sakura isn't going to stand there and hug your 'youthfulness'?" TenTen deadpanned while sakura shook her head with disappointment and Neji rolled his eyes.
Lee pried himself from yet another object in the last five minutes before turning to smile sheepishly at sakura, "Ahh! I must thank your youthful summon for extracting me from the most youthful defense you have created! For falling for your trick again my youthful blossom I will run 100 laps around Konoha, and if I cannot do that I will do 1000 sit-ups! And if I cannot do that I'll-"
"We get it lee!" TenTen yelled and lee sweat dropped before dashing off in the direction of the setting sun.
Sakura huffed, blowing a stray piece of carnation hair up, "Ya, you go do that lee." She said smirking at her witty remark.
TenTen laughed before walking off; "I got to go home now guys, I'll see you at the Chunin exams tomorrow!" she called back, waving at sakura who winked to her brunette friend.
Sakura groaned slightly and pushed herself up off of her perch in the tree, "Well, I better get going soon too. Anko might have Dumplings for us tonight!" she said, practically drooling at the thought of her sensei's Anko dumplings for dinner.
Neji smirked, "You and your guardian have an unnatural addiction to both Dango and dumplings." He said smartly.
Sakura stopped walking and glanced back over her shoulder at the cocky Neji, raising an eyebrow in question "what's wrong with that huh Hyuuga?"
Neji's smirk grew broader as he walked over to sakura and stepped in pace with her, "its weird and abnormal. All you ever eat is Dango and dumplings." Sakura let a low, animalistic growl escape her throat as Neji snickered ever so faintly at his teammates obvious reaction.
"Whatever Hyuuga." She spat back, shaking her head so that her two long pigtails flopped about in Neji's face. "So, what about the Chunin exams tomorrow? You excited?" sakura asked, successfully changing the topic at hand from sugary sweets to the next day's superficial exams.
Neji snorted, and swatted sakura's candyfloss hair away from his face before he scoffed slightly, "In all truth we have waited much to long to take this test." He stated blandly earning a chuckle from sakura as they continued down the path that would take them home.
Sakura kicked a stray stone out of the path they were walking on, one that wound around the very edges of Konoha and conveniently passed by both the Hyuuga compound and sakura's apartment. "Oh, jealous are we that I'm only nine and a half and taking the exam? and yet the hyuuga prodigy is almost twelve?" she said, her voice dripping with sweet sarcasm.
Neji glared at her, "You shouldn't be allowed to take the test Kunoichi. You're far to young and are probably going to get yourself killed out there." He said with forced bitterness, it had become quite hard for him to be cruel toward sakura lately.
Sakura growled a warning again at him, "Uh-Huh. Yah sure like that's going to happen. In case you didn't notice Neji, I just wiped the floor with all three of you guys today!" she said triumphantly, puffing out her chest with pride as Neji turned the path that led to the Hyuuga residence.
He stopped at the gates and looked back over his shoulder, "Just don't be late Sakura-Chan." He said, drawling out on the 'sakura-Chan' with a devious smirk before turning around and walking into the Hyuuga residence.
Sakura smirked to herself, drawing the hood of her inky black silk cloak over her head and continued down along the path. "He is so jealous." Inner said, grinning in the light of her own self-arrogance.
She shot a glare at her strange split personality, "Would you hush up? I swear for once its actually silent and that's when you decide to start babbling again." She snapped. Her inner gave no apparent answer aside from a few huffs and grumbles so sakura continued walking.
She relished the rare moment of peace, one thing even scarce in the world of a simple genin. She inhaled deeply and quickly snorted in disgust as the normal scent of pines and heated tanbark that bombarded her nose evaded her and instead was replaced by seven different scents and subsequently seven chakra signatures.
Sakura stealthily changes her course and travelled through the trees toward the cluster of chakra about a half mile away. The scents that invaded her nose were familiar, and foreign. Immediately she recognized the scent of konohamaru's gang of academy kids and growled, "what in kami's name are those four doing out at this time of night" she thought before creeping a bit closer.
"Hey! That hurt punk!" someone yelled causing sakura's head to shot up in alarm. Whoever they were they certainly weren't someone she knew and they didn't sound friendly.
"Put him down Kankuro! You know you'll pay for that later!" came another voice, foreign yet feminine at the same time.
Sakura narrowed her eyes in suspicion before taking another whiff of the air.
The next four startled the Kunoichi enough to almost send her plummeting to the floor below her. The first to hit her like a hot, muggy summers day, "salty and dry with wood shavings, and salty yet again with a hint of vanilla?" she thought to herself, and immediately coming to a conclusion. "These must be sand shinobi? What are they doing here?" sakura growled lowly, sneaking even closer to the scene.
"Hey, he wont be here for a while. Let's have some fun while we can." Came the male's voice again. There was something about the tone that made sakura involuntarily bristle at his words.
There were still two identities that needed to be discovered before she could confront them, so she sniffed again. "Water? –No. Damp, rain ya! Rain! Where have I smelled that be-" sakura stopped her unnatural sniffing as her body went rigid and began to tremble slightly with memories. "Sasuke." She growled out, snarling in anger. "And that means the last smell is most likely- ramen!"
Sakura didn't need any more convincing to guess what was going on. Konohamaru had probably run into some sand Nin and gotten them angry and Naruto and Sasuke *cue hissing* had returned from their little "excursion" and were now arguing with the sand Nin.
"You'd better take your hands off him right now!" as if to prove sakura's point the loud, unmistakable voice of Uzamaki Naruto rang out into the clearing.
"Let go of me you jerk!" Konohamaru squealed causing the hair on sakura's neck to stand up on end like she was a lion or some carnivorous beast getting excited with the anticipation of the kill.
Sakura suddenly became aware of the killing intent that was rolling off of her in waves and set to work quieting her ancy nerves before she gave herself away
"Ha, your feisty but not for long." The sand-nin said and sakura could barely keep herself from cutting the Nin's pretty little head off and mounting it on her wall at that point.
Naruto on the other hand seemed to have no such control. "PUT HIM DOWN!" Naruto yelled before launching himself toward the sand-nin. Sakura's emerald green orbs tracked his movements quickly and she pressed her palm into the ground.
"Crystal control." She whispered before forcing her chakra into the dragon veins of the ground and straight to Naruto's feet. Moments later Naruto was stopped dead in his tracks with his feet weighted down by sakura's heavy crystal.
"Gotcha." Inner mused while her outer smirked in success. Sakura quickly re-focused her attention back on the Nin, but what caught her interest the most was where Sasuke was.
"He's hiding in a tree?" she thought to herself, humored as to how a great and powerful Uchiha was quietly hiding while a battle happened. "Got to make sure this is an extra special performance then, we'll see how he likes it." She added before allowing her eyes to dart back to the two sand-nin.
The sand-nin scoffed, "Hah! Your leaf-genin? Looks like your whole village is full of wimps!" he spat with that 'I'm so much better than you' tone.
"Oh he did not just say that!" her inner roared, throwing a tantrum inside her subconscious realm.
"Cut it out! That hurts!" Konohamaru squealed as the sand-nin began shaking him roughly by the collar.
That crossed the line for sakura, and she alerted everyone in the clearing to how pissed off she was at the moment by growling the deepest, most feral, animalistic, bloodthirsty growl any of them had ever heard. (And that's saying something seeing as how Kankuro and Temari live with Gaara!)
Her emerald eyes glistened with bloodlust as her pupils thinned slightly. All eyes darted around trying to locate the rogue beast that had managed to sneak up on them. Sakura quickly forced chakra into her palms and slammed them into the ground, causing a nice distracting mini-earthquake to ensue.
Taking advantage of the ninja's confusion she darted forward, quickly snatching Konohamaru away from the sand-nin and elbowing him in the gut at the same time before springing back next to Naruto.
Naruto had absolutely no idea what was going on, one minute he was rushing to kick that Nin's ass and the next he can't move! Then some animal growls at them from somewhere and now a mini-earthquake! What had happened to Konoha when they were gone?
About fifteen seconds had passed from when sakura had snatched up Konohamaru who was currently clinging to her leg with all his might. Her face hidden in the shadows of her cloak as she growled lightly in anger. Naruto's head shot to the side and he jumped in surprise, "W-Who are you? W-when did you get? How did you-"?
Sakura quickly interrupted Naruto who was making quite a fool of himself at the moment. "Naruto shut up!" she yelled, knocking him upside the head with her fist before turning back to the sand Nin.
"Oww." He whined silently, stealing a glance back at the cloaked shinobi Naruto couldn't help but think that they reminded him slightly of sakura.
"Huh, I thought that Suna's ninja were supposed to be the best of the best." She started, watching as the male sand-nin in what looked like a black cat suit tried to get up. "But I guess that was just a rumor because obviously you don't have the guts to pick on someone your own size! Let alone fight someone who's worth a challenge!" Sakura put every last bit of nasty, evil, bloodlust emotion she had into her words as she practically spat them out.
Naruto just looked in complete and utter Aww at this shinobi, whoever they were they had guts to stand up to the sand Nin like that and then talk to them like trash.
The two sand-nin stared at this strange, cloaked shinobi with cold glares, but her emerald eyes only seemed to return said glare ten-fold causing the blond-nin to refrain from helping out her partner.
'They seem kind of, familiar.' Sakura thought before quickly shaking her head.
"If you wanted a real battle then I'll give you one you'll never forget! But this isn't the place to do it, I don't know about Suna but her in Konoha we actually have respect for our village and so we have special areas to train!" The male sand-nin finally got up, clutching him stomach from the blow still he glared straight at sakura.
"Was that a challenge brat?" he growled back, anger rolling off of him in waves as he began to shoulder off whatever was getting a piggy-back ride from him.
Inner had been silent until now and suddenly roared, "I don't care if this guys our long lost savior! This bitch is going down! SHANNARO!"
"The hell it was!" Sakura snapped back, the eager tone in her voice not missed. Even though she was almost completely out of chakra how could she pass up a good fight? Simple, she couldn't!
"Kankuro! Don't be stupid!" the blond nin yelled out, but she seemed more like she was yelling at him in fear of something rather than just chastising him for his blatant stupidity of actually trying to challenge a ninja who was obviously more skilled than oneself.
"Don't worry Temari I got time to test out my new move on t his little pun-" Before the cat ninja could finish his sentence a dirt-clog came hurling from seemingly no-where, straight toward him.
Sakura smirked under her cloak before darting in front of the black-clad sand shinobi and punching the dirt-clog into nothing but dust. Still smirking she looked up, green eyes staring right where a certain someone was hiding in the trees. "You know Uchiha, it's rude to stick your nose in other peoples business." Sakura said smugly, giving away Sasuke's position to the whole group.
Sakura quickly darted back to Naruto's side just as the Uchiha jumped down from his perch in the tree obviously not happy in the least bit with this stranger. "Who are you?" he asked-no demanded. Pointing a steady finger at the cloaked shinobi.
Sakura chuckled slightly under the shadow of her hood, "Now Now Sasuke-kun. Where are your manners? Why would I not tell Naruto and then tell you huh?" she teased staring forward the whole time.
Sasuke growled, "Stop speaking in riddles and answer the question!" he said, desperately trying to keep his anger under wraps because Uchihas did not loose their cool in front of anyone. Period.
"You two are a disgrace." A new element added itself to the equation, one whose voice was as equally cold and distant as the Uchihas but more bloodthirsty. The two sand ninja visibly shivered in fear of this newcomer while Konohamaru and his gang scampered off, and Sasuke and Naruto froze.
Sakura looked up ever so slightly, and allowed her eyes to meet with sea foam green ones. Suddenly her whole mind started spinning, her vision went blurry and then focused as black dots began to dance across her eyes.
"He looks so- like I- I think I know-" sakura thought before the light finally caved and she was plunged into darkness.
Flashback time!
"Bye-Bye Onee-san! Bye-bye Stitchy-kun!" a little girl said, waving at two cloaked men as they left the park quickly.
One of them stopped briefly, "Be careful." He reminded gently through telepathy and the girl answered with a smile and a nod before he disappeared again.
The little pink-haired girl turned quickly and assessed the whole park; it was a really nice one despite the fact that it felt like an oven outside. There were swings, slides, monkey bars, and a sandbox?
Startled slightly with her discovery sakura looked closer, and noticed a single mess of red hair plopped right in the middle of said sandbox.
"That boy, he's all alone. I wonder why?" "Sakura wondered silently to herself. Her creamy beige silk cloak shielding her from the harsh rays of the sun, but they couldn't shield her for what happened next.
Suddenly Sakura sensed something coming at her- and fast. She whirled around only to meet an oncoming fist that smashed into her face, instead of the intended back of her head target.
She crashed to the ground, and her cloak flew back revealing a large forehead and pink, candy floss hair.
"Hey! FOREHEAD! We don't like outsiders here!" A boy spat, pointing an antagonizing finger at sakura's slightly limp form.
"HA-HA!" Another one yelled, encouraging the rest of the group to join in.
The little mop of red hair moved, it's owner glancing up from underneath its shaggy curtain at the scene that was unfurling. His sea foam eyes widened slightly in surprise for multiple reasons. One, the teasing and taunting weren't directed at him. Two, there was a newcomer in the park, and three, she had pink hair!
"Who is that?" he wondered silently, staring with interest at the crumpled form of the four year old girl.
"She's different." Shukaku said, joining in his containers conversation.
"Obviously" Gaara deadpanned back before another chorus of teasing erupted from the group.
"Forehead! Forehead!"
"Hey Billboard brow!"
"Ha-Ha! Pinky!"
"Weakling!" On that last remark Sakura's emerald eyes shot open, glistening with rage and anger just in time to see a kick thrust at her stomach. A sickening crack filled the air followed by the cruel laughter of the pink-haired girls bullies.
Her eyes widened with pain before narrowing again, black pupils thinning into dangerous slits giving the young girl a very feral appearance. Suddenly a deep, terrifying growl erupted from her throat, startling all the other children into silence as she struggled to get up.
"I- Am- NOT- WEAK!" she hissed, glaring from behind her messy carnation hair as some of the group shivered with fear causing her to smirk.
"Oh yeah?" The leader said, stepping up to the challenge.
Sakura glared harder as more growls and snarls bubbled from her throat, making it so a blind man would think her a lion not a girl. "Yeah. Why? You think not?" she snarled, whipping her head up to fully expose her fiery green eyes.
"Yeah."
Gaara could only stare at the young girl with widened eyes. She was so wild- so different- so-
"Like me." He thought, his heart pounding against his ribcage as he watched the pink-haired girl start to snarl after seemingly being knocked out.
"She is strong. She would make good prey for us." Shukaku said, licking his lips hungrily as Gaara shook his head.
"No! Is she a Jinjuriki too?" he asked hopefully.
"No." His demon stated, relishing in the boys disappointment before continuing. "But she is a demon on her own. Just sealed away at the moment."
Gaara's eyes flashed open with surprise again as he heard the most feral and terrifying growl come from the girls throat. "She-She is?"
Suddenly the girl had staggered to her feet, and her eyes shined with a bloodlust that made Shukaku drool with envy. Although it seemed like a painful bloodlust to her too, and that she was aware of it which killed any chances of a demon.
The leader of the gang quickly made to punch this bratty new girl but something stopped him, something that sent the rest of his posse screaming and running for their lives and had him trembling with fear.
"Huh?" Sakura wondered out loud, cracking an eye open after the anticipated attack never came. Sand, sand was chasing everyone flying around everywhere in flurries and forms she had never thought possible.
"What is that?" her inner shrieked, causing sakura to whirl around and come face to face with the same red-haired, green-eyed boy she had seen playing in the sand box earlier. His chakra dark and malevolent and would've made even the strongest of shinobi shiver but not sakura, ironically she was in a way used to this sort of thing.
The screams slowly died down as the two children locked gazes until Gaara lowered his, "You can run now, I wont get mad." He mumbled sadly, turning to walk away.
Suddenly he heard a soft snarl and felt a warm sensation on his shoulder. His sand-
"It hasn't moved at all!" he thought frantically, pulling to move from the warm tingly sensation but found his feet wouldn't budge.
"Crystal?" his demon mused, chuckling darkly at the substance that kept his container still.
"Now why on earth would I do that silly?" came a voice, soft and sweet like silky petals. Gaara turned and saw two bright minty green eyes staring into his own, soft with sadness and joy at the same time.
Gaara stared shocked, "Y-You aren't afraid?" he stuttered out partly in Aww and anger as her eyes softened even further.
A giggle erupted from her lips as she let go of his shoulder and withdrew her crystal. "Now, why would I be afraid of a friend ne?" she asked sweetly.
Gaara suddenly looked down, "I'm a monster. I have a demon inside of me and everyone is afraid of me." He said sadly, stifling sniffle as his eyes clenched shut.
Another snarl escaped the pinkette lips causing Gaara's head to shoot up, "NO YOUR NOT! Monster's attack people, monsters hurt them but monsters don't help friends. Only friends do that." She said warmly, her voice filed with fight. "Besides, " she whispered, "as far as I'm concerned I'm just as much a monster as you are."
Gaara only heard one thing out of that whole speech, "Friend?" he whispered, his eyes sparkling with hope.
"She's right." Shukaku laughed darkly.
Sakura snapped out of her stupor before smiling warmly at her new friend. " That's right, we're friends are we not?" she giggled, "Anyway my name's sakura. What's yours?"
"Sabaku-no-Gaara." He whispered quietly.
Sakura giggled warmly again before poking him softly in the forehead with her pointer finger and middle finger and then reaching for his hand, "Well, thank you Gaara!" she said softly.
Gaara's head once again shot up in surprise, 'is this going to happen all the time?' he wondered before gasping, "Thank you? What for?" he asked in a startled tone.
"For being my first friend." She answered back.
Gaara allowed a smile to reach his feature before he answered back, "You're my first friend too."
Suddenly Sakura tackled the boy into a hug, something Gaara had never really experienced before. "We'll always be friends Gaara, forever and ever."
Gaara's startled expression melted into content one as he whispered, "I'll never let you go, sakura-chan. My best friend."
(Flashback IS GONE!)
Suddenly sakura felt her conscious return back to her body. She just stood there for a good thirty seconds, gaping under the darkness of her hood at what had just happened.
"I-I remember." She whispered, so softly that not even Naruto who was standing right next to her could hear the faint sound of her voice.
"It's, It's him?" her inner gaped.
"I think so." She added, staring at the redheaded boy in front of her. He fit the description of the boy from her childhood. Same red hair, same sea foam green eyes, same black rims that made him resemble a cross between a raccoon and a panda slightly.
Taking a step forward toward where the boy was standing, sakura shakily spoke up "G-Gaara? Is that you?" she asked tentatively.
Gaara's eyes widened a bit, "Is it her?" he wondered silently, gazing at this cloaked shinobi with interest.
"Well if that growling is anything to go by then it sure sounds like it boy." Shukaku growled.
Gaara raised a non-existent eyebrow in question and sakura blushed slightly, though no one could see it. Carefully she grasped the rim of her hood and drew it down.
Naruto, Temari, and Kankuro gasped slightly as two, loose pink pigtails spilled out of the hood and two bright, sparkling emerald green eyes shined with hope as she stared across the clearing toward Gaara. "Is that you Gaara?" sakura asked again, this time her voice more steady and confident.
Gaara's eyes widened again, "It's her." He mumbled before quickly shaking himself out of his stupor and nodding slowly.
"Sakura? " he questioned, his emotions strangely deciding to make an appearance in the usually stoic redheads voice as it trembled ever so slightly.
Sakura nodded as well, but much more vigorously than Gaara had and with a bright smile on her face. "SAKURA-CHAN!"
Sakura whirled around to see Naruto staring hopefully at her, his sky-blue eyes sparkling with hope as he yelled out her name just like he used to- before they ditched her. Sakura smiled softly back at the blond, nodding her head lightly in acknowledgment "Ohayo Naruto-kun!" she chirped sweetly before turning to face Sasuke. Her sweet features immediately twisted into a scowl, "Uchiha." She grunted.
Naruto nearly fainted with joy; his sakura-Chan had called him Naruto-kun! Not Naruto, or Baka, or stupid but Naruto-kun! AND she had called the teme Uchiha! HAH! He quickly made to tackle her in a hug but someone beat him to it.
"SAKURA!" squealed a much more feminine blond as sakura was tackled to the ground by the sand-shinobi in question. "Ah! Sakura it's you! It's you! It's really you!" Temari cried with a fan-girl tone to her voice.
Sakura surprisingly giggled at the older ninja's silly actions, "Yes Temari! It's me! I remember! Now would you please get off of me so some other idiot can tackle me to the ground." She said sweetly. Temari smiled sheepishly as she rolled off sakura and sprung to her feet, pulling the pink-haired shinobi with her.
"Heheh, sorry Saku! It's just it's been such a long time and ya…" Temari said, dusting sakura's black turned gray cloak off.
The other sand-nin who was dressed in a black-cat like ninja suit with purple makeup stepped up, smiling a failed-attempt player smile at sakura. "Hey sakura-Chan, still as good looking as ever." He said slyly, winking at the girl who stared back with a bored expression on her face.
Sakura smiled a sickly sweet smile back, strolling over right next to Kankuro before smashing her fist into his head and sending the poor ninja several feet into the ground. She smirked before crouching down and poking him in the forehead, "see you haven't changed a bit Kankuro." She said with a sickly sweetness before turning to face Gaara.
Sakura began walking toward him; her stride was long and confident even though she knew about Gaara's unpredictable demon. Her eyes never wavered from his own as she came to a stop about three feet away from the red-haired Jinjuriki. "Gaara." She whispered, and then to the surprise of everyone latched onto him tightly.
Gaara immediately stiffened upon the contact and his sand rose to attack but suddenly it was restrained by, "crystal?" he wondered, and then smirked remembering his little friends affinity for the substance was almost as strong as his was for sand.
Temari and Kankuro stared on, still a bit dumbfounded by the whole experience as Naruto's face turned bright red in anger. Sasuke scowled, "Hey! What's your name?" he called out, effectively breaking up the long overdue reunion.
Sakura whipped around with fire in her eyes, "Kami Sasuke! I've said it like a million times already!" she growled out. Gaara rested a hand on her shoulder and easily calmed her down while smirking to himself.
"Funny." He thought.
"What's funny boy? The kid with the chicken ass hairdo or the fact that you're calming someone else down for once?" Shukaku mused.
Gaara chuckled ever so silently, "I don't know, both?" He answered back before returning his attention to the Uchiha.
"It is proper that one does not ask the name of another without giving their own first." Gaara retorted bitterly, scowling at the Uchiha with a murderous glint in his eyes.
Sasuke returned Gaara's glare as best he could, "Uchiha Sasuke." He muttered just loud enough for the redhead to hear. Sakura fumed silently at her stubborn teammate, why did he have to act like such a high and mighty ass all the time?
"Easy answer, Uchiha." Her inner deadpanned earning a disappointed sigh from sakura.
"Sabaku-no-Gaara." Gaara replied stoically.
Kankuro, Temari, and Naruto watched the battle between emotionless go down, and then Naruto mumbled, "awkward…" Sakura just managed to hear Naruto's little comment and giggled lightly into a gloved hand.
Temari rolled her eyes before glancing at the sun, "Oh shoot!" she yelled causing sakura to immediately jump into a defensive stance with a hand on the hilt of her katana. Gaara turned around and raised an eyebrow in question of his older sibling who shuddered by habit before gulping and answering, "It's getting late guys and the first part of the Chunin exams are tomorrow. We should get going to the hotel."
Kankuro yawned in agreement and hoisted himself out of the little crater in the ground he was so conveniently punched into. Gaara nodded before turning back around to face sakura, "We will be leaving now, until tomorrow Sakura-chan."
Naruto's face went bright red with anger but before he even had the chance to yell back some ridiculous comeback sakura dashed to his side and slung an arm casually around his soldier causing his face to turn pink with blush.
"You bet Gaara!" she yelled back, waving as the sand siblings went their separate way to rest for the night before she turned back to address her ex-'boys'. "So, you guys ready for the Chunin exams tomorrow?" she asked eagerly.
Naruto's blue eyes grew wide with excitement, "Totally Sakura-Chan! Believe it!" he shouted earning a giggle from Sakura. The blond ninja smiled one of his famous Colgate smiles while thinking 'Sakura-Chan hasn't changed a bit! Maybe we can be a team again?'
Sasuke scoffed, "Hn, how are you in the Chunin exams? You don't have a team." He said flatly. Sakura's eyes immediately went cold, any and all light flickering out from them instantaneously.
She chuckled darkly and Naruto gulped but didn't dare move, "Uchiha, for your information I have a squad and as you will soon find out it is the most successful genin squad of its time."
Naruto's was sure he felt his jaw hit the ground as the Kyuubi inside him chuckled, "wow, talk about bragging rights."
"Tell me about it." Naruto said back, still gawking at his pink-haired friend who was smirking victoriously at a scowling Uchiha.
Sasuke glared at her before turning his nose up at her, "I'm going home." He said emotionlessly and then turned around and began walking home in the direction of his apartment.
Sakura sighed, her face instantly exchanging its scowl for a sad yet hopeful expression. "Sasuke hasn't changed one bit has he?" she asked Naruto, not bothering to look at him though as her eyes were trained forward with bloodlust on the back of the youngest Uchiha.
Naruto looked at Sakura quickly, " Ya, he's still the same old teme as he was before." He chirped earning a warm giggle from sakura that made his spirits jump.
The pink-haired genin quickly wiped a stray tear of laughter away before hugging Naruto lightly, "Thanks Naruto." She whispered into his jacket before quickly pulling away.
"Easy there saku, he might get the wrong idea!" Inner chided earning a snicker from her outer self.
When Naruto finally snapped out of his momentary daze he noticed There was no blush on her face, no red-tipped ears, but instead fiery green eyes that the blond boy loved to see almost as much as the blush. Sakura grinned at the gaping boy with determination, "Well, it's getting late and if I'm going to kick your asses tomorrow in the Chunin exams I'm going to need my rest!" she said confidently.
Now that snapped Naruto out of it real fast, "Hey! Wait a minute! You'll see Sakura-Chan! Sasuke-teme and I have gotten a lot stronger than we were before!" he shouted back, his voice loud enough to make the people in Suna cover their ears.
"Ohh, burn!" inner hissed, "he totally just dissed us on how leaving made them stronger!"
Sakura inwardly sniffled, "Ya, but he's Naruto. I mean he doesn't realize these things and-"
"WELL IT'S ABOUT TIME HE STARTS! CHA!" her inner yelled in rage.
Sakura sighed, she knew what her inner self said was true but pounding the blond's ass a mile into the ground wasn't going to fix the way they saw her. "Ya, but we have to put the past behind us or else well never move on, ne?"
"Fine." Inner grumbled.
Suddenly sakura became aware of Naruto, well more his face and the distance it was from hers. The very Close distance.
Her eyes narrowed, 'who does he think he is?" she growled inwardly before smirking and kneeing the boy in his 'sensitive' area. Naruto hissed in pain before whimpering and crumbling to the ground in a fetal position.
"Naruto, a ninja should always be aware of their surroundings no matter the situation." She teased, wagging a finger at the boy who was clearly in a great deal of pain.
"Look who's talking miss 'I'm going to leave rain check reality for a minute guys while I chat with inner!' " Inner deadpanned.
Sakura glared darkly at her inner before snarling, "Shut up."
Returning her attention to Naruto who was still curled in a ball whimpering she smiled triumphantly, placing her hands on her black clad hips, "Well, it's time for me to hit the sack Naruto." She said.
Naruto-amazingly- Shot to his feet right away, "I'll walk you home sakura-Chan!" he yelled eagerly, his blue eyes flashing with excitement.
Sakura giggled softly once again to humor her blond haired ex-teammate before bringing her fingers up to her mouth and whistling sharply, scaring the living daylights out of poor Naruto. "GAH! Sakrua-chan! What was that for?" he whined, staring at her like a confused puppy.
Suddenly Naruto felt a hot breath on his neck, and stared wide-eyed at sakura with a 'help me please!' look on his face. Sakura smirked and nodded upward with her eyes, "Well, what do you know it's my ride!" she chirped.
Naruto rolled his head up and came face to face with a lot of deep, coffee colored fuzz that belonged to champagne colored face. His eyes sparkled with remembrance, "KEMURI!" He yelled causing said nin-horse to flinch a little at the sound.
Kemuri snorted before darting over to his companions side with un-matched speed, "Well, it's Naruto alright. No one yells so loud that I'm positive my ear drums have burst." He groaned sarcastically.
Naruto smiled sheepishly and scratched the back of his head while sakura shot a glare at her pony boy and muttered, "Show-off."
Kemuri smirked and leaned down right next to her before shouting, "WHAT? I CANT HEAR YOU?" Naruto started laughing hysterically while sakura groaned and punched Kemuri in the shoulder non the lightly before gracefully boosting onto his 7 foot tall back.
She fake-saluted to the still laughing Naruto, "Well, catch you tomorrow Baka!" before whirling around and cantering quickly off.
Kemuri glanced back at his girl, "Does it still hurt?" he asked telepathically as usual.
Sakura sniffed a bit before gulping a deep breath of icy air and grinning softly but at least geniounly, "Ya, but remember? Naruto wasn't to hot on the idea of kicking me off the team." She said, "if anyone is getting their ass kicked it'll be Hatake when I find him, and then I'll wipe the table with Sasuke afterwards."
Kemuri whinnied a with amusement, "I'm proud of you kid. You've got a good head on your shoulders now don't you forget it. But just know it's perfectly fine to want their heads mounted over the fireplace, everyone expects that." Sakura rolled her eyes before hugging to muscled neck of her nin-horse tightly as he cantered away.
"Ya Kemuri I know. Don't go sounding like Anko now okay, one Anko is more than enough!" Sakura teased, sitting straight up again as they continued on their way.
Neither knew what the Chunin exams would hold though. In fact no one knew, not Naruto, not Sasuke, not the rookie nine or even the Hokage. The sand siblings had thought they knew but seeing sakura again was making them have second thoughts.
The only one that did know sat crouched in the cover of the trees, slitted eyes watching the pink-haired ninja with great interest as she darted away on her nin-horse at blinding speeds.
"Ku-ku-ku-ku, so we meet again, Ryuu."
Author Note (part two!):
So? Was it good?
Anway here are the options for the Chunin exam arc. Which is like the 3rd biggest part of my story (its gonna end up being like 200,000 words!)
Option 1: three chapters
Option 2: four chapters (three chapters shared between last two parts of test.)
PLEASE REVIEW ME!