Chapter Seventeen
Bushy Brow's Pledge: Undying Love and Protection
Sakura reached up and took a damp piece of cloth that was hanging over a branch above her head. She had been caring for Naruto and Sasuke by trying to keep their fevers down for a few hours now. Putting the cloth on her leg, she folded it and then held it in her hand as she poured a bit of cold water on it. She then wrung it out until all the excess water was off and took the old cloth off of Sasuke's forehead, replacing it with the newly dampened one.
The pinkette stood up and hung the old cloth over the branch in place of the other one and sighed. She repeated the process with Naruto, but this time biting her lip and mentally willing him to wake up and lighten her mood in that way that only Naruto knew how. But she knew that that wouldn't happen if she didn't take proper care of him.
'I feel bad for Sasuke.' Sakura thought.
'Why?' Inner asked, crossing her arms.
'His seal probably hurts more than mine. I mean, the one Orochimaru gave me only gave me power once and after that it was just there to make sure I obeyed the leader. Really, it's more of a dog collar than a curse seal. Sasuke's will give him power, bring him pain and most likely drive him to seeking out Orochi-basterd.' She remarked.
'Oh yeah…what a useless curse seal. They just use it to keep me in line. Well, it's not like we need the power boost.' Inner grinned at her own joke.
'Yet…you know what'll happen to us soon. I've been using the Kanjoo jiyuu too much and…' The pinkette trailed off, not willing to finish that thought. Her head bobbed up and down. She was tired and the fact that her seal still stung wasn't helping.
'Don't fall asleep! If you do, who will protect Sasuke and Naruto-kun?! Shannaro!' Her second soul scolded. It was no use as Sakura's eyes slid closed.
—
Naruto sat up with a yawn and a stretch, waking Sakura in the loudness of his wakening. She looked at the blonde and grinned. Sasuke was the next to rise, and he rubbed his head. The cloths that she had placed on their foreheads were now in their laps and their Hatei-ates were still next to her leg.
"Sakura-can! Did you look after us?" Naruto asked with a happy smile on his face. Sakura nodded.
"Arigatou." Sasuke muttered. He and Naruto fell into a silent conversation, which Sakura couldn't quite hear. She then saw something in the bush and her eyes widened.
"You'll soon know what it's like to be prey…with me as your predator!" He promised, his neck extending as his head soared towards them. The head soon became a snake and Sakura looked quickly back to her team. She tried to warn them, but nothing came out of her mouth. She tried again, and still was only met with silence.
'My voice! I can't talk!' She panicked. 'All of our voices are gone!' The pinkette realised when she couldn't hear Naruto and Sasuke's words of conversation. The snake drew nearer and nearer. His head hovered over the boys. He opened his mouth and then-
—
Sakura's eyes snapped open with a gasp as she looked around, searching for any signs of reality within her nightmare. None were there and she sighed in relief. She quickly checked the cloths on Naruto and Sasuke's foreheads, seeing that they needed changing. This time, she changed Naruto's first and then Sasuke's. Looking up, she noticed the sun shining through the clouds.
'I can't believe it's daytime already.' She frowned. Something behind her made a bush rustle and her head snapped in that direction. Taking out a kunai, the ex-Snow ninja held it tightly and her enemy moved into view to reveal…a squirrel. It came closer and closer and Sakura frowned, throwing the kunai at it anyway.
'WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!' Inner screamed as the petrified squirrel ran away from her.
'It shouldn't have snuck up on me. Stupid squirrel.' Sakura scowled.
[--
"And I thought for sure that would work." Zaku sighed, seeing the squirrel run away. "Do you think she saw the paper bomb we put on it?" He smirked.
"Possible, but I believe it was another reason." Dosu mused.
"What're you thinking?" The dark-haired Oto-nin asked.
"I'm thinking that we should get closer and find out." He replied, pulling down a branch to get a good look at Sakura. "Will that be a problem?"
"No! I told you, I only find her interesting. It should be fun to fight someone who uses three fighting styles." Zaku grinned.
"Three?" Kin echoed, flipping her hair over she shoulder.
"The Haruno style, the Yuki style and the Konoha style." Dosu answered for his comrade. "Now, let's get going." He chuckled.
[--
Lee jumped from branch to branch, performing flips and kicking off hard to keep a steady pace. A rustle sounded below him and, being the curious ninja he was, he looked down at the noise-maker. Leaves were falling gently from when he had landed and caused them to fall. Looking at them, Lee grew determined.
'Okay! If I can catch all twenty of those leaves before they hit the ground, then Sakura-san will fall in love with me!' He thought with a large blush spreading across his cheeks and nose. 'But, if I cannot, then she will never return my feelings. That is the challenge that I am going to give myself. I will show her I am worthy!'
With a fire of determination lit in his eyes, Lee jumped off of the branch and began grabbing the leaves quickly, counting off the amount in his head as he did. One, two, three, four…five, six, seven, eight. He continued falling at a great speed, catching the leaves.
'YES! I am going to get them all!' He cheered. However, before he could grab the last leaf, his back hit a thick branch. Lee's eyes watered with pain. 'Nine…teen…' The boy counted, looking at the last leaf.
"One left!" He cried, jumping down. Just before he could grasp it, Lee saw a squirrel with its back on fire. He dove towards it and picked it up, pulling the tag off of its back. "That was close." He acknowledged, crushing the tag in his hand. "This paper bomb explodes after a certain amount of time. Who would do such an awful thing?"
The last leaf lay forgotten on the forest floor.
[--
Neji walked along the forest floor, keeping his eyes peeled for any sign of another team. He paused, feeling a chakra and sighed, shaking his head slightly. The Hyuuga looked over to the bush on his right and his eyes narrowed.
Crouched behind the bush, team ten—Ino, Shikamaru and Choji—held their breath, waiting for him to pass. If you looked carefully enough, you could see Ino trying her best not to fan-out and fawn over the Hyuuga boy with long, coffee coloured hair.
"Alright." Neji sighed. "Stop hiding and come out." He called. Team ten all froze as their eyes widened.
"Dude, how could he have seen us? We hid so fast!" Ino asked in shock with her eyes still wide and her voice low.
"What a drag. Now that this guy's found us out, this is gonna be such a pain." Shikamaru sighed. "Troublesome."
"No big deal." Ino assured. "Our hide and hang out strategy didn't work, so we'll just use strategy number two." She told them.
"Whaaat? Are you serious, Ino?" Choji hissed.
"You got a problem with that? Trust me, this plan can't fail." She told them confidently.
"Well, what've we got to lose?" Shikamaru sighed.
Team ten ran out of the bush with stars in their eyes, looking at Neji as he turned. Ino was giggling and Choji and Shikamaru looked like they were about to faint. Only the Yamanaka seemed to be acting normally though, since she was a born fangirl.
"Oh, wow." She gushed. "Imagine running into last year's number one rookie, Hyuuga Neji, out here!"
"Can I have your autograph?" Shikamaru asked, trying to sound as convincing as possible.
"Ugh, it's you guys." He groaned, his shoulders slumping slightly.
"Yeah!" Ino smiled, reaching up to her hair band. 'Strategy two; where you fall head-over-heals in love with my beauty.' She thought, undoing her hair band and letting her blonde locks loose. "Hi there. I've been wanting to meet you for a really long time, Neji. So…hi." She cooed.
"Get lost." Neji said bluntly, turning and walking away.
'WHAT?!' Ino roared mentally. 'He should have been pulled over by my beauty! Why didn't that work?! URGH! It just makes me so angry! I could hit something!' She screamed, pumping her fists towards Neji's retreating back and clenching her teeth.
"Did you just raise your fists to me?" Neji asked, stopping but not turning around. "Does that mean you wanna fight?" He questioned. Ino stiffened and immediately lowered her arms to her sides.
"No…no way! Course not!" She assured, rubbing the back of her head.
"Che. Go away." He said, looking over his shoulder at them. "Even if I was to steal a scroll from you cowardly wimps, everybody would just laugh at me for it."
"Sounds good to me!" Ino cried as she, Shikamaru and Choji ran and jumped through a bush to get away.
"Hm. They scurry off like cockroaches." Neji scoffed.
[--
'Just as I though.' Shikamaru sighed mentally as he and the rest of his squad were trying to catch their breath. 'A guy like him wouldn't take a scroll from people like us…unless we turned on him and attacked.'
"Alright!" Ino yelled, standing up and re-doing her hair while smiling fakely. "Let's see if we can find some weaklings!" She laughed, obviously faking it very badly.
"Yeah, well, I doubt we'll find anyone weaker than us." Shikamaru scoffed, rolling his eyes.
[--
Sakura desperately tried to hover more into the woken world than the sleeping one as she drifted in and out of consciousness. Her eyes closed, and she snapped them back open, only to have them close again. The guard she kept around herself was wavering and all of the ninja skills were weakening with her exhaustion.
"Some lookout you are. You're half asleep." A man's voice mused from behind her. her eyes widened and she turned, seeing Zaku and his team standing metres away from the kunai she had thrown at the squirrel only moments ago.
"At least you don't have to keep watch anymore." Dosu mused, taking over from Zaku. "What's the point after we've already found you? Now, wake Sasuke up. We want to fight him."
'Feh, as if. I need him to pass this exam.' Sakura scoffed mentally as she reached for her kunai holster. "What do you want here? I mean, what do you really what?! I know that Orochi-basterd-maru is calling the shots from the shadows."
"What?!" Dosu asked, obviously shocked that she knew Orochimaru and that she would call him such a disrespectful name.
"He's already got the curse seal and won't be able to fight properly for a while, so stop being such cowards and come to battle him when he has his strength back!" Sakura yelled.
"What in the world could he be thinking?" Dosu asked himself. "How do you know of the curse seal?" he questioned the pinkette. She stood with a smirk and untied her jumper from around her waist, throwing it to the ground so that it wouldn't get in the way of the fight she knew would ensue.
"Like I should tell you." She scoffed.
"I can't stay quiet after hearing you talk to us like that." Zaku mused with a sadistic grin. "First, I'll kill you, and then I'll kill Sasuke." He stated, jumping towards her.
"Oh, so you know more techniques that Butt-grab no jutsu?" Sakura mocked, building up the remainder of her chakra into storage so that she didn't waste it.
"Wait, Zaku." Dosu warned before Zaku could take another step.
"What? Why?" Zaku question. Dosu said nothing, but walked forwards towards Sakura. He put his hand on the ground and smirked behind the bandages that covered his mouth.
"It's so obvious." He mused. "This is the colour of dirt that's recently been dug up and this kind of grass doesn't grow in a place like this." Dosu stated, looking at Sakura for some kind of reaction. She didn't move and her face remained neutral. "You know, if you're going to lay a trap, there's no point unless you make sure it's actually hidden."
"I'll remember that." Sakura smirked as he lifted the clump of fake grass she had set over her trap.
"Ha! You're just a joke. You threw that kunai so that the squirrel wouldn't spring the trap you set." Zaku boasted, proud of his 'amazing intellect'.
"Sure…let's go with that." She sweat dropped.
"Now, we kill her." Dosu stated, tilting his head. The three Sound-nin jumped towards Sakura, who smirked and cut the wire on her right with a kunai.
"A log!" Zaku called when a very large log fell from the canopy above their head, poised to crush them into the ground.
"She also laid a trap above? Watch out!" Dosu called as the log drew nearer to him and his squad. "Nice try, girl." He mused, placing his hand on the log and forming the tiger seal with his free hand. The log burst into nothing but a shower of splinters and the ninja continued to jump at her.
"Crap." She cursed, holding the kunai in front of her to defend herself.
"Clearly the rumours about you being strong were all false. You have no talent at all." Dosu smirked.
"Konoha Senpu!" She heard a voice chime loudly as a blur of green and black jumped in the middle of the group of Oto-nin and kicked them away from Sakura. They all moved back, bracing their landings and standing on their feet, looking more than a little agitated.
"What the-?" Sakura whispered when the blur landed in front of her in a taijutsu stand. She would recognise those spandex anywhere. "Lee-san?"
"It looks to me like you are the ones who need to make more of an effort, Otogakure ninja." Lee noticed as he stood firm with the squirrel on his shoulder.
"Who are you?" Dosu asked, trying to calm his anger.
"I am the handsome devil of the Leaf Village, Konohagakure…and my name is Rock Lee." He replied.
'Handsome…devil?' Sakura asked herself with a sweat drop.
'RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! IT'S HERE! RUN!' Inner freaked when she saw Lee land in front of Sakura.
"Wh…What are you doing here, Lee-san?" Sakura asked, deciding to try her best not to do as Inner suggested.
"I will always appear. Anytime and anywhere you are in trouble or in need of assistance, Sakura-san." Lee replied, rubbing the squirrel's chin gently and with a smile. "It is all thanks to you, little one. And now it is time for you to run along." He cooed, putting the squirrel down. The squirrel, as if understanding what was said, ran and lay beside Naruto, who was the furthest from Sakura.
'That fuzzy rat led him here?! I'll kill it!' Inner roared.
"But, Lee-san, we're enemies during this test." Sakura frowned, trying to find an ulterior motive behind his heroic words.
"Sakura-san, I already told you…I will protect you until I die." He told her as she looked at him in surprise.
—
"My name is Rock Lee." He stated proudly. "You are Sakura, right?"
"How…How do you know my name?" She asked suspiciously. Lee gave her a 'thumbs up' and grinned, closing one eye in a wink with his blush still in place, thus assuming the full 'good-guy' pose.
"Please be my girlfriend!" He asked, not noticing the two glares he was getting from her team. "I vow to protect you with my life." The boy added as his tooth pinged.
—
"Yes…thanks…Rock Lee." She said calmly, nodding her head.
'Yes!' Lee cheered with water running from his eyes. 'She said yes, Gai-sensei! She said yes!'
"It looks like I have no choice." Dosu stated, taking out his Earth scroll and holding it in front of him. "Zaku, I'll let you have Sasuke." He allowed, throwing the scroll to his male team mate. "I'll take care of these two." He stated as Lee watched Sakura shakily move her hand to grab a shuriken.
'It does not look like Sakura-san is in any condition to fight.' He noticed when her arm tensed, relaxed and began shaking again.
"The guy with the bushy eyebrows is quite good at taijutsu. Looks like I get to have some fun." Dosu sneered, pulling up his sleeve to reveal his metal-covered arm. He charged towards Lee and all Sakura could do was watch while trying to build her chakra up enough to support her tired body.
She frowned and threw a kunai towards the man, but he dodged and jumped up. Lee also jumped into the air and landed down, sticking him hand into the ground and pulling up a think root. It stopped the Sound-nin from getting any closer to Lee and he was forced to jump back or risk putting himself in a position of vulnerability. Sakura's calculating eyes watched the whole fight with interest.
"I am positive that there is some kind of trick behind your attack." Lee recognised, letting go of the root, but it stayed put. "Therefore, I will not waste my time trying to dodge it."
"Huh?" Dosu grunted in mild surprise.
"After all, I have seen your jutsu before." He stated almost smugly.
"Heh." Zaku laughed in amusement.
'Woah…maybe Lee is cooler than I give him credit for.' Sakura noted.
'Do you like him more than Naruto-chan?' Inner asked slyly. Rolling her eyes, Sakura sighed mentally.
'Of course not.' She admitted.
'So…you like Naru-chan. Huh?'
'Ye…No…I have no clue.' She confessed.
'Of course, having said that, my odds are still not good as it is three against one. I have to take a chance.' He realised. 'One at a time. I will attack each of them with all my might.'
[--
Back with team ten, Choji was munching on his food in a tree—he's the lookout, by the way—while Ino and Shikamaru stood on the forest floor, waiting for Choji to call down to them about another team or something they would need to react to.
"Oh man!" Ino whined. "There doesn't seem t be anyone around here weaker than us!"
"Not so fast." Shikamaru realised. "I still think that Naruto's team may be weaker than we are." He told her.
"TAKE THAT BACK RIGHT NOW, YOU JERK!" Ino commanded in anger.
"What do you mean?" Shikamaru sighed with his brow raised.
"There's no doubt that Naruto's weak and Sakura would probably just ignore us if we came for the scroll, but Sasuke-kun is awesome!" She defended her crush. Shikamaru crossed his arms and frowned.
"Yeah, whatever." He grunted.
"And anyway, I thought you liked Sakura." The blonde scoffed.
"Liking someone like her is too troublesome. I gave up when I realised that it would be too much of a drag to get her to like me back." He sighed, shrugging.
"What about Choji?" Ino asked, eyes wide.
"He's more interested in this other girl, now." Shikamaru told her.
"Well…you still shouldn't be insulting Sasuke-kun!" Ino cried.
"Maybe your precious Sasuke-kun is better in theory than in practice." The boy grunted as Ino growled in anger and he sweat dropped. "Alright, alright, I apologise. I never meant to upset you." He sighed. 'What a total drag. I say one negative thing about Sasuke and I get the evil eye from his number one fan, here.'
"There is no way Sasuke-kun could lose a battle." Ino finalised, crossing her arms and looking away from Shikamaru. "Ha! But Sakura and Naruto's a different matter! He might be just weak enough for all of us to take down when Sakura's not around." She nodded.
Up his tree, Choji paused in his munching and looked out, squinting his eyes to see the scene not too far away better. His suspicion was confirmed and he yelled down to his feuding team mates loudly.
"Hey! Sasuke's collapsed!" He called. Ino and Shikamaru looked up at him in question. "And Sakura's fighting!" He added.
"What did you say?" Ino asked. She and Shikamaru jumped up and landed on either side of him to get a look. Ino saw what was going on and her eyes narrowed.
[--
"He's late." Tenten sighed as she and Neji stood near the kunai, waiting for Lee. "And he's never late. Lee is always…well…fanatical about being on time. Maybe he ran into the enemy." She gasped. "Do you think…" The girl trailed off as Neji chuckled.
"No, I'm sure he's alright." He opened his eyes and frowned. "But still, we'd better go find him."
"Right." Tenten agreed. They jumped through the trees, keeping an eye out for anything that could lead them to their overly-youthful team mate.
—
The large, thick tree stump split in half as Lee jumped up and down in joy with waterfall tears coming from his eyes and a large smile on his face, going from ear to ear. Gai was watching him, also grinning at his star pupil's achievement.
"YES! I did it! I finally mastered the jutsu!" He cheered, still jumping for joy and grinning widely.
"Come on, that's enough rest! You're wasting your precious youth." Gai scolded Neji and Tenten, who had both paused not too long ago to catch their breath. They were covered in small scratches and looked exhausted while Lee looked as if he could run another seven hundred laps around Konoha. Neji scowled as he looked at his male team mate.
'This jutsu…in the end, only Lee could make it his own.' Gai smile as his pupil continued to celebrate.
"I did it! I actually did it!" He cheered.
"Lee." Gai called.
"After all that practice I actually pulled it off!" He yelled, not hearing his sensei call him.
"Lee!" Gai called a little louder.
"If I just try hard enough, I can do anything!"
"LEE!" Gai bellowed.
"I can't believe that I really did it!"
"QUIET!" He yelled loudly, punching Lee in the cheek. The boy flew back and fell to the ground, getting up with a groan of pain. "Now, listen to your sensei's awesomeness."
"Yes, I am ready to hear your amazing wisdom, sir." Lee acknowledged while Neji looked blankly at the two and Tenten's mouth was open wide in shock.
"This new jutsu, Omote Renge, is now forbidden." Gai told him in all seriousness and without even a hint of joking in his voice. All three of his students gasped.
"What do you mean, Gai-sensei?" Lee asked desperately. "Why?"
"This jutsu, it puts a huge strain on your body's muscles. It's a self-sacrificing technique. Normally, humans only use at least twenty percent of their muscle's strength. If all of the power were to be used, the muscles would disintegrate, so the brain regulation how much power the muscles can exhort. But this jutsu is different. It uses chakra, with forces the brain to go passed its limits, allowing for continuous, high-speed taijutsu. In other words, this jutsu relies on a secret technique. It brings forth power almost to the limits of the human body, so you see, it's very dangerous."
"I understand, Gai-sensei." Lee nodded.
"There's one time this jutsu can be used. When a particular condition is met." Gai stated, holding up one finger. Lee saluted him.
"Yes, I see. So what is the condition, sir?" Lee asked.
"Are you ready? You all need to take this to heart. The condition is…"
—
'The condition is…' Neji thought as he carried on jumping.
[--
Lee began to unwrap the bandages around his wrists, a stern and serious look on his face.
'Gai-sensei, I have to use the Omote Renge now. The condition had been met. I must use the jutsu.' Lee thought to himself. The Sound ninja charged again and Lee spoke, but Gai's voice underlined his own as he echoed the words from not too long ago.
"To protect the life of someone precious!"
"He disappeared!" Dosu cried in shock. Before he could figure out what was going on, Lee appeared under him and kicked the bottom of his chin, sending in reeling back. Jumping up behind him, Lee and Dosu soared upwards in the air.
"Not yet!" Lee called. The bandages from his arms wrapped around Dosu, holding him in place, as Lee twisted them and they fell to the ground head-first.
"Oh no, Dosu. There's no way he can break his fall!" Zaku realised, performing hand seals at a fast rate.
"Take this!" Lee cried as he twisted again, making them both spin around quickly. "Omote Renge!"
Zaku finished his hand seals and dug his hands into the ground, sending his jutsu across to where Dosu would land. As the fur-backed ninja landed, the ground around him rose up with the pressure.
'Argh, what is this feeling?' Lee asked himself as he jumped away from the place Dosu landed.
"Ha, got you just in time." Zaku smirked, his hands still in the ground as two lines of risen rock went from the appendages to where Dosu landed only seconds ago. "That impact could have been much worst for you." He mused. Dosu moved a little and pulled his upper body out of the ground, shaking his head.
"What?! This cannot be!" Lee, who had landed just in front of Sakura, cried out in shock.
"That's a frightening jutsu. You nearly took me out, even though I landed on this soft dirt." Dosu stated. Lee panted as Dosu stood and pulled up his sleeve again. "Now, it's my turn."
'Oh no, my body still has not recovered from that jutsu.' Lee thought as he panted. Dosu charged and swung his arm as Lee dodged the blow, only to cry out in pain when his ears began to ring. His vision began to blur and ripple.
"Your jutsu is indeed fast," Dosu recognised. Lee blink and when he opened his eyes, Dosu was closer. "but our is even faster because it travels at the speed of sound." He stated. Lee fell to his knees and tried to get his mind straight again. "Effort by itself does nothing. Now watch; we're going to show you something called 'the wall'."
Kin smirked.
Zaku smirked.
Dosu smirked.
Sakura gritted her teeth.
Lee panted.
The Consequence
Sakura watched the enemy as she listened to Lee's gasps of breath. He was tied from the use of that Taijutsu move, and she knew it. The enemy knew it too, and Kin, Dosu and Zaku were fully prepared to use his weakness to their advantage in this fight. Lee, as he was blinking and trying to get his vision straight, felt a lurch in his stomach. He leant forwards and threw up in front of him, getting Sakura's almost worried eyes to fall on his shivering form.
"Lee-san! What's wrong?" She asked. 'This happened with Kabuto too, before the first exam!' The girl remembered.
'CHA! What kind of freak jutsu is that?!' Inner yelled, pointing an angry finger at Dosu.
Lee just froze as his ears felt like they were exploding from the inside, a great pain coming shortly after. His eyes widened and Sakura saw a thin trail of blood coming from his ear. It wasn't a good sign. The Taijutsu user groaned in pain and coughed, still feeling like he was going to pass out any second from the pain.
'My…My ear!' He cried mentally as both of his hands went up to cup the throbbing part of his head.
"Oh, I forgot to mention this little gadget I wear." Dosu mused with a smirk as he lifted his metal-covered arm. "You might be able to dodge my blows, but you can't get away from it."
'Damn…this guy literally has a trick up his sleeve.' Sakura thought with no humour at all. Dosu laughed and put his arms down again.
"I don't need to strike you with my fists." He pointed out. "I can hit you with the power of sound."
"Sound?" Lee croaked.
"What makes it possible for the ear to hear things?" Dosu asked. "What is sound, really?"
"Vibrations." Sakura stated through gritted teeth.
"Give the little lady a prize." Dosu snorted. "Yes. It's the vibration of molecules in the ear. That creates a sound-wave. These vibrations are collected by the ear, and then connected through your outer ear canal to your eardrum. What interests me are the organs of your inner ear. The ones that affect your sense of balance and your ability to move. Feeling a little dizzy? Nauseous? That's right; best not even try to stand up for a while."
"You see, buddy, all that old fashioned taijutsu stuff won't work against us." Zaku stated proudly. Lee growled. "Not that your not pretty good at it, it's just that; what's the point? Compared to our jutsu, that stuff's yesterday's news." He pulled his hands out of the ground. "See, I can control ultrasonic waves and air pressure. I can do things you've never even dreamed of."
—
"Take this!" Lee cried as he twisted again, making them both spin around quickly. "Omote Renge!"
Zaku finished his hand seals and dug his hands into the ground, sending his jutsu across to where Dosu would land. As the fur-backed ninja landed, the ground around him rose up with the pressure.
—
"I can obliterate boulders or make the ground itself as soft as a silken feather cushion." Zaku boasted. He showed Lee his palms, which had metal circles in the middle. What looked like a stream of air rushed out of them and he smirked. "Face it, little man; you're up against the jutsu of the future."
Sakura frowned and bit back a gasp of surprise, which Zaku caught. He looked at her and smirked, chuckling a bit as well. Lee was still gasping in pain, but h too was more than a little intimidated by this new discovery about the three Otogakure ninja. If this was their Genin power, then the green-clad boy really didn't want to meet a Jounin.
"Now then, little girl! It's your turn!" Dosu yelled, pulling back his arm to strike. Lee's eyes widened when he heard the declaration and Sakura tensed.
'I can't block and I'm not fast enough to dodge!' She realised. Dosu ran passed Lee and right towards the pink haired girl as she clenched her fists, rapidly trying to think of a way to evade.
"No!" Lee cried. Sakura pulled out a kunai and held it in front of her, no ways to escape forming in her mind. "NO!" The boy cried again as he rose and ran to the girl to protect her.
"What?!" Dosu growled in surprise.
"Lee!" Sakura recognised.
"Konoha Senpu!" He cried, aiming his leg to kick Dosu. Lee clenched his eyes shut in pain and Dosu took advantage of his slowed speed to grab the leg.
"Hm, not so effective as it was before, is it?" He mused mockingly as Lee groaned in pain. Dosu jumped back and aimed a fist at Lee. "Still, it's impressive that you can move at all. We'll have to do something about that." The arm moved up and Lee blocked by holding his arms over his injured ear, protecting it. Dosu just grunted and activated his jutsu, forcing a high-pitched noise to leak from his metal appendage.
"Lee! No!" Sakura gasped.
"Do you hear that? The jutsu amplified the vibration from the impact, turning them into a wave of sound." Dosu informed him. "The sound wave I control with my chakra, focusing it on any target I desire!" He yelled, focusing all his attack on Lee's injured ear.
"Stop it!" Sakura yelled. Dosu stopped the jutsu and Lee fell to the ground, his eyes wide and blood trickling from his ear still.
"All right, little man…time to end it." Dosu stated darkly.
"That's what you think!" Sakura yelled, throwing three kunai and two shuriken at him. He just lifted his arm and they hit it, falling uselessly to the ground.
"Ah…I'd almost forgotten you." Dosu hummed.
In a bush not too far from the fight, Ino, Shikamaru and Choji were crouched. They watched the battle from when Lee first preformed his Omote Renge, but remained hidden for fear of their own lives.
"These guys are scary. I vote for getting outta here." Choji stated, gulping and—for once—not eating anything.
"Sasuke and Naruto are totally out of it, and Lee's not looking too good either." Shikamaru reported. "Looks like Sakura's pretty weak at the moment as well. How troublesome." He sighed. "Well, what do you wanna do…Ino?"
"Why ask me, huh?" She replied, frozen in shock while looking at the fight.
"Well, if we don't do something soon, she's toast. Team seven probably had another fight before this one and Sakura looks like she's way weaker that usual." He whispered back. "You cool with that?"
"Wha-?" Ino asked in shock.
"You, her and Hinata. The three of you got along pretty well a few years ago, didn't you?" He asked.
—
"Ino-san?" Sakura asked coolly, her eyes half closed.
"Hm? What is it, Sakura-san?" Ino asked her companion. They weren't really friends, but the two of them weren't too far from the concept of friendship with each other.
"I though about what you said…about becoming full friends. Like Hinata-chan and I." She answered.
"And?" The blonde smiled hopefully.
"I can't. I know that anyone who gets too close to me will end up hurt anyway. Hinata-chan accepted this fact. Whether you accept it or not is your own problem, but everyone I've made friends with so far has come close to death shortly after."
"Death?" Ino whispered.
"Yes. There are very few people I feel that I would protect from that and, despite the bond I feel with you, you are not one of those people." Sakura told her calmly, not meaning any ill will towards the blue-eyed girl.
"B-But…what about Hinata-san?!" Ino cried.
"She and three others…that's all." Sakura stated. "Good bye, Ino-san."
—
'Geez, Ino, get a grip!' Ino scolded herself. 'That's all ancient history. She was doing it to…protect me in some weird way.'
"Well?" Shikamaru prompted. "Ino!" He called, seeing that she wasn't listening to him. She jumped and faced the pineapple headed boy on her team with a frown. "Well? What do you wanna do?"
"Why do you keep asking me that? What am I supposed to do?" She hissed with a scowl. "You want me to g out there and get myself killed?"
"Heh?" Shikamaru grunted in surprise. That soon turned to anger at her selfish attitude.
'I mean…that's all that would happen.' She assured herself as she stood on shaky legs. 'I'd just be in the same fix she is. And what good would that do anybody?'
"HA!" Sakura cried as she launched four shuriken at Dosu. Zaku slid in front of him and readied a hand sign before facing his palms to the weapons and using air pressure to blow them away. Sakura moved her arms over her face to avoid getting dust in her eyes.
'A wall of air.' She realised. 'Weapons would just bounce off.' The girl tried to move to the side, but only then realised that the woman from the team of Sound ninja—Kin—was behind her. Kin grabbed Sakura's locks of hair and smirked, holding the girl in place.
"My, my, what soft and shiny hair." She mused with a smirk. "But you know what? If you spent a little less time shampooing and a little more time practicing your jutsu, you might not be in this fix." The woman sneered, moving Sakura's head with her hair.
"I don't shampoo that often. It's just that I have nicer hair than you." The pinkette scoffed, receiving a sharp tug on her hair. She hissed and clenched her eyes shut. 'Okay, so maybe insulting the enemy isn't the best idea at this point in time.'
'Gee, ya think?' Inner rolled her eyes.
"Hey, Zaku! I know what would be fun!" Kin called. "Let's make Miss Beauty Queen watch while we finish off that Sasuke guy." She smirked.
"Yeah, like I care." Sakura scoffed. Kin looked at her through narrow eyes before smirking again.
"Or perhaps the blonde one?" She added. Sakura's eyes widened and she froze, getting a smirk out of all the Sound ninja.
"Why not? Sounds like fun to me." Zaku chuckled.
'You stay away from him!' Sakura growled mentally as she tried her luck at pulling away from Kin, who just pulled her back.
"Don't even try." Kin said loudly.
"Sakura." Lee groaned as he moved his head painfully to look at the trapped pink haired ninja.
'It's no use. There's only one way out of this…and the consequences of that are…well…' She trailed off, clenching both her hands and teeth. 'Why to go, Sakura. You won't even help others when you suffer for it. How selfish are you?!'
"Okay, let's do this." Zaku hummed as he walked towards Naruto and Sasuke with a grin. However, no one noticed the purple chakra seeping from the mark on Sasuke's neck.
"Man, this thing's about to get really ugly!" Shikamaru gasped as he and the rest of his team watched Zaku continue to approach the unconscious boys. He passed Sakura and Ino froze.
"What do I do?" She muttered to herself, but no one heard her.
"Forget it!" Sakura yelled, getting Zaku to stop and everyone to look at her. she took out a kunai and gripped it tightly in her hands, her arms shaking with second thoughts.
"Come on." Kin scoffed. "That's pointless. It won't work on me." She stated, but frowned when Sakura turned around, a smirk prominent on her face.
"It's not mean for you." Sakura stated darkly, causing Kin's eyes to widen.
"What the-?!" She asked. Everyone was in shock as the blade came slicing through the locks of candyfloss, separating them from Sakura's head and thus freeing her from Kin. Her hair, once falling down to her knees, was not barely longer than Kiba's, with the exception of her collarbone-length bangs.
Stray locks floated around her and three long strands remained on the kunai, moving with the movement of her cutting. Sakura's eye were closed and a content smile set on her face as she felt the hair she cut brushing her arms and cheeks as it moved to settle on the ground. Her breath rushed out in a sigh and she half opened her eyes.
'I've always wanted to be a true ninja…but I was only used for killing, making me nothing more than a cold-blooded murderer.' Sakura said to herself. 'Growing up…I was taught to save myself, and not care if my team died. As long I was alive and could kill again, my father was alright with everything else. So, I grew up selfish.'
—
"Sakura-san! Help!" A man drowning in his own blood cried, holding out a hand to the six-year-old. She turned away from him.
"It's not my problem to worry for your life." She said, running back to her village and leaving the man to die.
—
'Then…I met Naruto. At first, I thought he was a fool. A nobody who wanted to be acknowledged. It didn't matter to me that he was put down and hurt by everyone, just as long as they left me alone. Hinata-chan was a different story. She was the second. The second to actually enter my world. Her and Tsuki. The only ones I cared about enough to protect them.'
—
"I…h-heard that y-you're new…"
"I am."
"M-My name is Hy-Hyuuga Hinata."
"Go away."
—
'I was taught to push everyone away. When they got too close, my father would hurt them. When I let them get too close, my father hurt me. But, everything changed when Naruto took that scroll. I could only think of how selfish he was being…how uncaring of other…how much he was acting like me.'
—
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" She hissed angrily at him, her emerald orbs burning with rage.
—
'Now…I will stop being so selfish. I will protect those close to me with my life. I will never let someone die as long as I can do something to help them. No matter what the consequences. You taught me that Uzumaki Naruto. And…I thank you.' She smiled, looking back at her team mate fondly. She then turn to Lee. 'Lee…you're not even on my team…but you put your life on the line for me…that's selflessness, if nothing else. I will learn from you two…I will never be so selfish again! That is my way of the ninja!'
'S-Sakura…' Ino thought with wide eyes as Sakura's fist clenched.
'Sakura…san…' Lee gasped mentally when her eyes opened, showing raw determination.
"Kin! Finish her!" Zaku ordered with a growl. Kin took a kunai and jumped towards Sakura, who was using hand seals. Zaku saw the ones she was using and smirked. 'Hmm. I know that hand sign.' He smirked, using a jutsu of his own. Kin hit her, but she was replaced by a log in a cloud of smoke.
"A Kawarimi!" Kin realised with shock over her face.
'You think you can fool me with that lame ninjutsu?' Zaku asked mentally as he held his hands at the ready. 'I'm onto you…in fact, I'm way ahead of you.' He smirked when Sakura ran at him. "Kin! Get outta the way!" He yelled, Kin jumping away as she was told.
"Take that!" Sakura called, launching her shuriken at him.
"Pathetic!" Zaku scoffed. He readied his hands and saw that she was using the same seals as before. 'Again with the signs?' He asked himself, irritated with the repeated jutsu. "Zankuha!" He called, sending a wave of air to the weapons and causing them to hit Sakura, who was once again replaced with a log. "Okay, where are you now?" He asked, looking around. Sakura appeared behind Kin, who was a few feet in front of Zaku. She preformed a series of fast hand seals she gritted her teeth.
"Kanjoo Jiyuu!" She called, but nothing noticeable happened. Zaku scoffed and threw a kunai at her, but she turned into a log again.
"Like that was a surprise." Zaku snorted. "Now, were are you?" He asked himself, looking around. She appeared above him, her eyes a burning red, and he scoffed. "Please, you can't even create a good clone. The eye colour is wrong." He told her, grabbing three kunai and throwing them at her.
"Ugh." The girl groaned as the kunai hit her. Zaku grinned, looking around again for the real Sakura, but all that he discovered was that she was real when two splotches of blood hit him, one on his cheek and the other on his Hatei-ate. He looked up again.
'This time it's really her! But…the eyes!' He thought as she landed and drove a kunai through his arm. Zaku's eyes narrowed in pain and the Red-eyed Sakura flipped over and landed a few feet away. Zaku got up and pulled the kunai out of his arm, only to see the red-eyed Sakura with a dark blue-eyed one.
"Che…pathetic." The red eyed one scoffed.
"What is this?" Zaku asked, his eyes wide.
"A kekkei genkai." A grey eyed one—Emotionless—told him blankly as she stepped into the clearing.
"Too bad! Now we have to kick your butt, cutie!" Desire giggled as she jumped down from a high branch and looked at Zaku.
"Oh well, today was looking dull anyway." Depression sighed, still standing next to Rage.
"Baka-Sakura's used the Kanjoo Jiyuu too soon! Now she'll have to fact the consequences!" Anger—purple eyes—yelled as she kicked Kin in the hip and stood with the others.
'Sakura…' Hinata—who was in a bush on the other side of the clearing to team ten with Kiba and Shino—thought with wide eyes.
—
Hinata walked to the Hokage tower with her father and her little sister to speak with Sarutobi about mission given to the Hyuuga clan. Hiashi wasn't happy that two of his clan members had been receiving only D-ranked missions for the past two weeks at their current Chunin level while the Genin Uchihas had been getting C-ranked missions.
"Wait here." Hiashi grunted to Hinata, who nodded as her father and sister entered the tower. Just as he walked in, a girl walked out wearing a traditional Haruno fighting style kimono.
It was red and stopped just above the knees with slits up to her hips. The lining of the kimono was white and the under shorts, which went to the middle of her thighs, was both black. The sleeves of the kimono stopped at her wrists but fanned out in a small bell shape. The white obi had a black and red serpent on it while her kunai holster remained strapped her to my right leg and her shuriken pouch still sat on her left hip. She also wore a pair of black, fingerless gloves that stop at the wrist and black shinobi boots. On the back of her kimono, in the middle of her shoulder blades, was a white circle. Her hair, which reached to her hips and was pulled across her shoulder in a braid, had small snowflakes decorating it.
"Ex-Excuse me." Hinata muttered before the girl could go too far.
"What?" She asked, turning to face Hinata and narrowing her eyes.
"I…h-heard that y-you're new…" The Hyuuga stuttered.
"I am." The pinkette replied with a grunt.
"M-My name is Hy-Hyuuga Hinata." She introduced herself.
"Go away." The girl said, turning and leaving.
—
'Sakura-san…' Ino thought.
—
"Hey, Ino-chan! Where are you going?" A friend of Ino's asked when she saw the blonde walking in the opposite direction to were they usually had lunch.
"Just to meet someone. I'll be back soon!" She promised, running off to see the pink haired girl who had just joined her class. When she got to the place Sakura had stopped, she saw that Hinata was sitting with her, fidgeting with her shirt as the Haruno girl ignored her.
"A-Ah! Ino-s-san." Hinata stuttered, standing up and bowing to Ino.
"Hm? Oh, hi, Hinata-san!" Ino smiled. Sakura sighed.
"See, she knows you. Go and bug her." She grunted to Hinata, pointing to Ino as she said it.
"B-But…S-Sakura-san…" Hinata protested weakly.
"I like to be alone. It means that I only have to look out for myself." She glared.
"That's pretty selfish." Ino commented.
"So?" Sakura asked, taking a bite of her rice from her Bento.
"Well…I'm Yamanaka Ino."
"You know what? I'm leaving."
—
"We'll kill you for even trying to hurt Naruto-kun!" Anger yelled, clenching her fists. She ran forwards a bit, but had to stop when Shy fell to her knees
"S-Sakura-ch-chan i-isn't s-st-strong e-enough a-at the m-moment to s-support us f-for to-too l-long." She muttered, clutching her abdomen in pain as her legs began to turn into pale green butterflies.
"Great! The one time she uses us with consequence is the one time she's too weak to keep us all out for as long as we're needed!!!" Rage screamed when Shy disappeared into butterflies up to her neck. Three seconds later, the weakest emotion was gone.
—
"Hinata-san…Ino-san…" Sakura trailed off as she and the two other girls sat in the back of the classroom.
"Yeah?" Ino asked, smiling at the girl she hung out with.
"Wh-What is it, S-Sakura-san?" Hinata stuttered.
"Let…go to the tree…you know, for lunch." She stated unsurely. Ino and Hinata smiled, knowing that she was making an effort and it was hard for her to be social.
—
Rage growled and Anger clenched her fists tighter as Desire and Love both disappeared together, being the twin emotions. They nodded to the others and decided to use their limited time to fight.
Rage ran at Zaku from the right while Anger jumped up to get him from above and Emotionless threw kunai at him. Zaku sent the kunai back with air pressure and jumped out of the way of Anger and Rage, but got hit in the back by Pride's foot. She grinned, but then exploded into millions of black butterflies.
With a loud battle cry, Rage pulled back her fist and aimed it at Zaku, but the closer she came the more her fist became butterflies. Her knuckles were millimetres from his face when they became red butterflies, followed by the red of her arm, her chest, her neck and thighs and finally the rest of her.
Brown butterflies appeared to the Right of Vain as Intelligent disappeared and Vain followed her before she could even get a yell out to the others.
As Fear vanished into yellow butterflies, Envy threw kunai at Zaku from his left and Happy threw them from his right. Only two kunai actually hit him and they disappeared in waves of dark green and orange butterflies.
Now, with only Anger, Emotionless and Depression left, they all ran at him together. Anger began to disappear, but she managed to hit him once in the face with her fist and throw Depression into an attacking position before all that was left of her was purple butterflies.
Now, the clearing was covered in all kind of butterflies, all waiting for Depression to join them so that they could go back into Emotionless. And join them she did, right after knocking Zaku back into a tree. She burst into dark blue butterflies and all of the emotions flew back into the grey eyed one, who closed her eyes and fell to her knees.
"Shit…it didn't last long enough." Sakura panted, opening her emerald green eyes. She looked back at Naruto and Sasuke, then turned her gaze to Lee before growling and standing up.
"You'll pay for that!" Zaku promised, rushing forwards and punching the weakened Sakura in the cheek. She flew back and hit a tree, but he wasn't done. He grabbed her by the neck and held her against the tree as he punched her left cheek three times, getting hard with each hit. Then, he pulled her away from the tree and kicked her in the stomach, sending her into a heap in the middle of the clearing.
She tried to get up, but her arm slipped and she fell back on her face with a thud. Zaku walked up to her, a scowl on his face, and he brought his foot down hard on her left arm, braking the bone in her lower arm. He heard the snap and smirked, kicking her in the chest and breaking two of her ribs. Sakura cried out in pain and tried to use her right arm—the uninjured one—to get up.
Ino watched in shock as Sakura got kicked again and cried out as she was sent across the ground. She never thought that she would see such a proud girl beaten down so badly. As Sakura cried out in pain again, Ino had to cringe away, but she still heard the distinct crack of another rib.
—
"Hey, Ino-san?" Sakura called, her arms behind her back.
"Yeah?" Ino smiled.
"You like Sasuke-san…right?" She asked. Ino nodded, but looked at Sakura curiously.
"Do you like him too?" She questioned. Sakura scowled.
"No." She said blankly. "But, I just found out something that you might want to know about him. I could improve your chance to get him."
"Tell me! Tell me!" Ino cheered.
"He likes girl with long hair."
—
"I though about what you said…about becoming full friends. Like Hinata-chan and I." She answered.
"And?" The blonde smiled hopefully.
"I can't. I know that anyone who gets too close to me will end up hurt anyway. Hinata-chan accepted this fact. Whether you accept it or not is your own problem, but everyone I've made friends with so far has come close to death shortly after."
—
Ino and Sakura stood with their back to one another, their long hair flowing in the wind.
"Ha! Your hair is pretty long. You sure you don't like Sasuke-kun?"
"I like him about as much as I like you, Ino-pig."
"Grrrrr! I'm not going to lose to you, Sakura! One day, I'll show you how much better I am than you! I will never let you show me up!"
—
Blood poured from a wound on Sakura's arm where the bone was forced through the skin. She just grit her teeth as Zaku's fist came down on her face once again. He picked her up by her collar and kicked her in the stomach, sending her to the ground once again.
"Oh man…this is bad." Choji cried out when he saw Zaku punch Sakura in the nose, probably breaking it and causing blood to trickle out.
"Well, Ino? Do we help now?" Shikamaru asked.
"Say so long, brat!" Zaku growled, facing his palm as her and preparing to cut her to ribbons.
'I guess…that this is finally it. No more Akatsuki to worry about. No more regrets. No more pain…I never did get to tell Naruto how much I...like him.' She thought, closing her eyes and waiting for her end.
Just before set lose his attack, Ino, Shikamaru and Choji—who Ino and Shikamaru had pulled out using his scarf—were in front of her. Behind the pinkette was Hinata, Kiba and Shino, along with Akamaru, who ran to her side and growled in Zaku's direction. Zaku straightened a bit.
"Huh?" He grunted breathlessly, probably a little tired from beating Sakura in her weakened state. "Heh, so what's this? The second and third strings?" Zaku asked in amusement.
"Ino…Hinata-chan." Sakura panted, not even trying to get up again.
"Surprised? I told you that I'd never let you show me up, didn't I?" The blonde stated.
'That consequence…I wonder if it'll come back to haunt me.' Sakura mused as she looked at team ten.
'Probably.' Inner sighed.
'Losing the Kanjoo Jiyuu forever isn't that bad…right?'