Heyy, heyy, fans!
Not like there are any, but, oh, well.
Here's the twelveth chapter for yaa..
Sorry, if I took a little too long to post up.
I kinda got a late start on this 'cause I was a bit busy..
With summer affairs and whatnot.
But, here it is, finally..!
Disclaimer: (c) Masashi Kishimoto. I own nothing except Sorano and Nozomi. And, the plot, of course.
Shikamaru ran in fear as Sorano bounded towards him, while Zetsu remained on the ground in utter confusion.
"Zetsu! RUN!!" Shikamaru yelled to the top of his lungs.
Zetsu scrambled to his feet and began to run after Shikamaru, with Sorano, fully demon now, chasing them and gaining speed with every second.
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Meanwhile, back at the bath house, there was little Nozomi pulling the unconscious Neji up the stairs.
"Man," Nozomi paused her thoughts and actions to wipe a sweat drop from her brow. "Why is he so heavy?"
She pulled Neji up the stairs and down the hall to the room Shikamaru's team was staying in. Nozomi bursted through the door to find them all sitting there, worrying about Sorano.
"You guys!" Nozomi yelled.
Naruto looked up. "What, Nozomi? Wait, didn't you go with Shikamaru?"
"I was going to but, Neji had an accident. I can't explain now. Look at the ground! Do you not see him lying here unconscious?"
"Well, yes, but, what are we supposed to do about it?"
"Does someone know how to heal him?"
Moegi looked up. "I've been training under Sakura and Sorano's been showing me a thing or two, here and there. I'll give it a shot."
"But.. what if it doesn't work?" Konohamaru asked negatively.
"Don't bring me down, Konohamaru, and it will work. Now, I need complete silence. Shh.." Moegi put her finger to her lips.
She made a hand signal and began summoning chakra. "Urghh..!" she cried out.
Nozomi turned Neji over and pulled him closer to Moegi. She put each of her hands ontop of Neji's chest. That familiar, creepy, green aura surrounded both of her hands. After she had begun to heal longer than usually needed, she began to worry. Neji was still laying there, unconscious.
"Nozomi.." Moegi started.
"Yeah..?" Nozomi replied.
"Okay, I know I'm not the best medical ninja out there, but, what I do know is that there is something terribly wrong with Neji. I've healed longer than needed and he's still not conscious. We're gonna have to take him to a hospital."
"I can't do it right now. I have to go and aid Shikamaru. Neji means alot to me, but if I don't go, more people will die other than just him. You guys can take care of him while I'm gone, can't you?"
"Sure, I guess. At least, we'll try," Naruto said.
"Thank you so much, Naruto. I am so grateful," Nozomi said, while quickly bowing.
Nozomi then sped out of the room and out of the hole in the wall. She followed the invisible string of chakra past the path the tunnel was taking, through the forest, and into a deserted riverbed. As she neared the clearing, she saw a weird, orange chakra, only familiar to her through Naruto. She had remembered the times he had been taken over by the Kyuubi and her uncle, Yamato, was the only one who could repress it back. She learned from her uncle the art to repress demons like that.
"But, this isn't Naruto," she thought. "He's back at the bath house. So, who is this, then?"
Nozomi continued walking up the shore into the flowers. She noticed two people running from the chakra and saw one wearing an Akatsuki cloak and the other wearing a jonin vest. She immediately knew the one in the vest was Shikamaru. The other one looked like a moving plant wearing a coat. But, she knew what she had to do. She quickly pulled out a seal to repress the demon. She began to try to make contact with Shikamaru and try to tell him to distract the beast. She waved and wobbled and did everything in her power to try to get him to notice her. He finally looked at her and she started yelling at him to distract the demon. He understood and told Zetsu to do the same. They both began to distract the orange beast. Nozomi ran up behind the diverted brute, did a few hand signs, and forced the seal onto its back. Suddenly, the half-dog, half-human beast stopped and began to turn around to face Nozomi. She could tell it was getting weaker, but not weak enough. One tail started to disintegrate. The beast put on a devilish smile and arrowed its eyes at Nozomi.
"Nozomi! Run!" Shikamaru yelled.
Nozomi looked in fear at the snarling beast. She backed up a little and began to run for her dear life. "Oh, crap! How am I gonna get this beast off of my tail? Wait a minute, Yamato taught me, one chakra seal per tail. Aw, man, I am so dumb. Okay, so, I've used one, one tail has been deteriorated. So, that should leave me.. about nine more chakra seals. Okay, so, one down four to go."
Nozomi pulled out four chakra seals. She quickly thought and ran to a tree, and she transported herself to the top. The monster was delirious not even for a little bit. It quickly began chopping at the tree, which was what Nozomi wanted. The tree began to tip and sway and as it was about to fall, Nozomi used her speed to put all four of the chakra seals onto the beast. The beast stopped and the tails looked as if they were crumbling. Sorano's whiskers and "dog" look began to disappear and her normal look came to surface. Nozomi hopped off of her and stepped back. As Sorano began to fall forward, Nozomi ran to catch the unconscious girl.
"Nozomi.." Shikamaru said, while he and Zetsu came over to her and Sorano. "Give her to me."
Nozomi lifted Sorano up to Shikamaru's arms. He cradled the motionless body in a bridal style way of holding. The scratches on her body and face looked painful. Just seeing her like this made him want to cry. She was a very unhappy person, he could tell. There were things he didn't even know about her, but it made him want to protect her from all of the evils that surrounded her, but he knew he couldn't.
Suddenly, Sorano began to move slightly. She opened her eyes to see Shikamaru looking down on her. She wiggled out of his arms and realized what she had almost done. She had almost killed Shikamaru, Zetsu, and someone she didn't even know. She backed away from them all. Fearing that chakra might leak out again, she began to run. Run as far away as she could from the people that had helped her. Was she really gonna let the faulty sealing of a demon repay those that have helped her like that? She could hear Shikamaru calling her name, but she didn't want to stop. She couldn't stop. She knew that if she did, over time, he would end up getting hurt by the monster inside of her. Suddenly, she realized she couldn't run anymore. She stopped and fell to her knees. The tears she had been crying for her loved ones had finally came out. She fell face first into the flowers.
Just then, Shikamaru, Zetsu, and Nozomi all ran to her.
"Help me get her up," Shikamaru said to the both of them.
They rolled Sorano over on her backside. She had mud all over her face as the result from the mixture of dirt and tears. Sorano sat up and put her hands over her face to hide the, what she called, ugliness.
Shikamaru kneeled down beside her. "Sorano? Are you okay?" He put his hand on hers and began to remove it from her face.
Sorano was silent for a little bit. "Shikamaru?" she questioned after a while.
"Yeah?"
"I'm sorry."
Shikamaru was stunned. None of this was her fault. "Sorano, you don't have anything to be sorry for."
"Yes, Shikamaru, I do. I'm sorry for putting you through this. I don't deserve the kindness that you give me. All of the sacrifices you have made for me, I don't and never will deserve it." Sorano turned to look at Zetsu and Nozomi. "You too, Zetsu. And you, whom I do not know the name of."
"Nozomi," Nozomi said.
"Well, thank you so much, Nozomi, for saving Shikamaru's, Zetsu's, and possibly my life. You're a hero."
"No, I'm not. I was just doing what I was taught to do. Nothing special."
"Maybe not in your eyes. But to me, you've just saved three lives."
Nozomi bowed her head in a humbled state. She wasn't really a "cocky" kind of girl. Also, she didn't really take compliments too well.
Shikamaru looked at Sorano's mud-splotched face. He took her head in his hands and wiped the almost dried mud from her pretty profile. "There," he said. "All clean."
Sorano looked into Shikamaru's coal-colored eyes. For that one moment, she could see bright, beautiful colors jumping for complete joy through those black orbs of his. She wasn't sure if anyone else could see them, but she was sure they were real and they were magical. There was no where else in the world they'd rather have been with at the time.
Shikamaru took Sorano's hand and whispered, "I'm so happy you're okay. Right now, nothing in the world could make me happier than I am right now. Well, unless you did something totally shocking, but-"
Shikamaru was interrupted by Sorano pressing her lips against his once more. Being as shocked as he was, Shikamaru fell onto to his back because he was caught so off guard. There they were, Sorano ontop of Shikamaru, now starting to make out.
I mean, honestly, you must have thought what Nozomi and Zetsu were thinking, right?
"Uhm.. I didn't know Shikamaru was like that. Wow, they must be in some kinda love to express that in public," Nozomi thought.
"Wow. I wish I was Shikamaru. He's such a lucky guy. Sorano's way too good for him, though. Does that mean we can eat him? No. Why not?! Because Sorano loves him," Zetsu thought.
After Shikamaru and Sorano had stopped themselves from going too far, Nozomi, Shikamaru, and Sorano decided it was time to part ways with Zetsu.
"Zetsu, thank you, so much, for all you've done for me. You helped me get my freedom back and you saved my life. I will never forget you," Sorano said, kissing his cheek. "I'm sorry I couldn't heal you, because of my accident. I could do it now, very quickly, if you would like me to."
"Won't you lose control of your chakra again?" Zetsu asked.
Sorano chuckled, "No. I have a chakra seal." She revelaed a chakra seal placed on her wrist to make sure none of the Gobi's chakra would get into her chakra system.
"Oh, okay."
Sorano quickly healed Zetsu's arm wound and said her goodbyes to him.
"See you later," Shikamaru told Zetsu.
"Yeah," Zetsu said and he leaned in closer to Shikamaru. "You know, you're a really lucky guy."
"I know."
Zetsu chuckled.
Shikamaru walked away from Zetsu and Nozomi walked up to him.
"Hi, I'm Nozomi," she said.
"I'm Zetsu," he said.
"Haha, I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself earlier. I would've, but with all the commotion.." Nozomi trailed off.
"It's fine. It was nice to meet you."
"You too. Bye!"
"Bye."
Nozomi, Shikamaru, and Sorano headed back to the bath house. By this time, it was beginning to get dark. They journeyed until they got to the bath house and went in to where they had last left Naruto, Konohamaru, Moegi, Udon, and Neji. As they looked into the room, it was empty, so apparently they had checked out. Sorano got her clothes after she had realized she was still in her robe from the bath house, while Shikamaru checked his tracking device to see the red dots of his squad members. As they followed the four dots, they appeared at a hospital. Naruto was there waiting in the lobby for them.
"Shikamaru! Nozomi!" there was a long pause. "Sorano!" Naruto ran over to Sorano and gave her a hug. "Are you okay? Did they brainwash you? Are you gonna die?"
"Naruto! Naruto!" Sorano interrupted his questioning mouth. "I am okay, they did not brainwash me, and I'm not gonna die."
"Okay. That's good."
"Naruto, how's Neji?" Nozomi asked.
"Oh, well, he's not doing so well." Naruto's excited emotions suddenly mellowed out.
"Well, what's wrong?"
"Neji's dead."
Cliffhanger much?
Haha..
Just gonna have to wait until next chapter to find out what's happened to Neji.
xD
I hope you enjoyed the chapter!
Send in a review if you would like!
Thanks!
Until next timee..