Chapter 20
Team 10 fought hard. In the end though they overestimated the element of surprise they had against the sound ninja. Their abilities were no use. Like Sakura and Lee they were tossed aside. It was a slight shock for them when Lee's team showed up to help as well. Neji was threatening revenge on the sound ninja when the strange chakra started to nag at their sense. The sound ninja tried to brush it off and act tough against Neji's threat. It was Neji, though, that pointed out Sasuke was a wake.
"Sasuke, you're awake!" Sakura exclaimed happily but her smile faded.
The Sasuke who stood before her was darker than her teammate. Along his arm, originating from his neck was a strange symbol. His eyes drifted over Kagome's body and then over Sakura. There was darkness in his eyes that came off of him in dark energy. The sound ninja backed away slowly as he stood up. Sakura wasn't completely sure what was going on. Was this Orochimaru's doing? Did that mean that he was also behind what ever had happened to Kagome? If that was the case, why hadn't she woken up like Sasuke? The other girl was still lying there, still as death, as she had been since she'd tried to heal Sasuke.
"Sakura…." Sasuke said drawing her attention. "Who did that to you?"
"Uh….Sasuke…" she stuttered trying to stall for time.
"Who did it?" he ground out.
"We did." Zaku boasted.
"And what about Kagome? Did you do that too?"
Zaku froze. His eyes wandered over the unconscious girl. He hadn't paid attention to her until that point. She hadn't moved, hell, she had barely breathed since the fight started but the boy was protective of her. The aura coming of him was dangerous. They should hav ended this faster ratheer than let the girl draw out the fight to the point that the boy woke up. They were out numbered and out matched with him awake. Panic flooded through him as the boy and girl sat there talking about the strange marks that covered his left side. Whatever they meant it was getting bad. The boys temper was already out of control and the others who had come to help were beginning to back off. Finally he turned his eyes back to them.
"Now, it as you guys, right?" Sasuke growled.
The others began to pull back. Dosu began yelling at Zaku to back down but the younger sound ninja didn't listen and began to press the attack again. His attack created a largee cloud of dust which lea Zaku to believe that he'd successfully blown Sasuke away. That was until the boy appeared behind him. It was then that Zaku realized that Sasuke was on a completely different level than the Leaf Ninja they'd already fought, he was dangerous and he was out to kill. Just as Sasuke's attack hit Zaku's eyes drifted to the girl that was still unconcious under the tree. Was all of this for the girl? Just who was she? No matter how he tried Zaku couldn't escape Sasuke's attacks. Suddenly the boy was behind him holding him by both his arms. He spoke but all Zaku could hear was the insanity in his voice just before he pulled harder, breaking both arms. Pain exploded through Zaku. Sasuke turned to Dosu his power rising. He stepped toward Dosu.
"Sasuke..."
Everyone froze. It had been Kagome's voice. Sakura looked behind her at the other girl. She was showing signs of waking up. It was slow going though and she looked to still be in pain. She glanced back at Sasuke who had froze before he could even take another stepped toward Dosu. Finally he glanced back.
"Stop..."
Slowly the marks receded from his arms. He fell to his knees as Sakura ran to catch him. Silently she thanked Kagome for waking up when she did. Sakura had no clue what Sasuke would have done but she knew she couldn't have done anything to stop it. Now, at least, Sasuke had calmed down. The others were still very near, they had left to avoid Sasuke's rage but she had faith that they would return if Dosu attempted to attack them on his own. Strange enough, he didn't move. He stayed where he was.
"You are strong," He said. "We can't defeat you at this time." He extended an Earth scroll toward them. "A gift for you, now let us leave. If we do some how meet agin we will not run nor will we hide." He picked up his teammates.
"Who is Orochimaru? What did he do to Sasuke?" Sakura yelled. "Why did he do it?"
"I do not know." Dosu said honestly. "We were merely ordered to kill Sasuke."
As the sound ninja left their freinds began to return to help them. Naruto was also beginning to wake up. Suddenly he awoke with a start with Choji and Shikamaru standing over him. The last thing he remembered was the fight with the strange guy, Orochimaru. Now suddenly there was no one in the clearing besides a bunch of his old classmates and the weirdo from the exam. Still hhe paniced and freaked out until Choji hit him over the head again. Finally he realized that the fight was over. He also noticed there were other things different. Sasuke looked darker than before and Sakura's hair was shorter.
"Sakura!" He yelled running over. "What happened to your hair?"
She smiled saddly and made up a lame excuse but he didn't notice. He really was dense. He began asking questions of the others who just shook their heads at him. Sakura finally told him that the others had come to their aid. She watched the others interact. After everything that had happened she wasn't sure how to handle everythiing. Since she had started the Academy she had been chasing Sasuke who had never even looked her way. Everything she had done was for him. She grew out her hair for him. She fought Ino for him. It all seemed pointless now. He liked Kagome and she obviously felt something for him.
And, now there was Lee. He had promised to protect her and nearly died in the process. He had admitted his faults, going so far as to admit the amount of hard work it had taken him to become so strong. Maybe she could do that. If anything, becoming stronger through hard work would be her way of thanking him for helping her. She stood and went to where he sat with his teammate.
"Thank you, Lee." She said with a smile. ""Thanks to you I've awakened. I feel like I'm already getting stronger and I promise that I'll keep training so that one day I can repay you for helping us." Sasuke joined her.
"I can see I still have a long way to go." Lee said bowing his head. "The Uchiha clan is truly strong. You, Sasuke Uchiha, are the owner incredible power. I was not strong enough to beat them on my own." He looked up at Sakura. "The next time we meet I will be a stronger man, I promise."
Sakura smiled a little brighter, "Yeah." She agreed.
"Sakura," Ino called ruining the moment. "Come over here, I'll fix your hair."
The clearing returned to the lazy atmosphere from before. Everyone was in their oown groups relaxing after the battle. Kagome was still mostly unconcioous. It seemed that her calling out had been her reacting to the energy Sasuke had been giving off. Still it made them more hopeful for her recovery. Sakura would look her way every once in a while as Ino worked on her hair. She wasn't so jealous of he girl anymore, she'd found a new path. She'd follow Lee's example and train even harder. One day she might even be a match for Kagome or Sasuke.
Kagome opened her eyes slowly. The dream had seemed short but she coould tell she had been unconcious for some time. Naruo and Sasuke had already awoken leaving her alone under the tree roots. She breathed deeply and sat up causing the world to spin slightly. As soon as everything calmed down she pushed herself up and began to walk out of the root cave. There had been a fight. It was obvious in the way the clearing had changed siince they'd chosen it and she'd passed out. Out in the open she could see even more damage and more people gathered around in different areas speaking about whatever had happened. Besides the presence of the other teams it was Sakura's hair that shocked her the most. It was a well known fact that Sasuke liked girls with long hair and that both Sakura and Ino had begun growing their hair out in order to catch his attention. Jealousy bubbled in her gut at the thought. Shaking her head at the thought she pushed the emotion down.
"Kagome!" Naruto cried.
Suddenly all eyes on were on her. Sakura looked relieved and all angry and jealousy disapeared at the thought of what she had probably had to endure alone while Kagome had been unconcious. She gave the petal haired girl an apologetic look. Behind her Ino glanced up from cleaninng up the cut to Sakura's hair with a slightly worried glance. Kagome could only assume the fight had ended a while ago.
"Kagome," this time it was Sasuke who had appeared at her side.
"What happened here?" she asked looking away from him.
"Apparently that ninja sent some of his underlings to finish us off. Sakura tried to hold them off and Lee came to her aid. Then others, by the time I woke up there was a small army here helping her."
"So did you finish them off or did the run?"
"They ran like cowards but they won't be a threat for a good long time. But what about you, what happened to you?"
She forced herself to lookk him in the eyes. He was worried, sincerely but it only made it hrder to explain wht happened. "I was trying to heal you after the fight and taking care of Naruto's wounds and I must have over exhausted myself."
He got closer and whispered, "Don't lie to me, Kagome. Sakura said you cried out before you passed out. What were you doing?"
She stared him down. "I was trying to remove the mark on your neck. The energy whipped back at mine and I passed out." She answered honestly.
His eyes darkened. The mark was already beginning to change him. He took her arm and pulled her away from the group. His grip was painfully tight. "Don't speak about that. Look I'm fine. I helped take those guys out before they could hurt you or the others. This power is incrideble. I need it. Not that you would understand." He let her go. "Just forget about it."
Kagome turned to the rest of the group who had watched the exchange. "Thank you all for your help," she said bowing. "I am sorry that I did nothing to help while you all risk your lives to help my teammates."
They all stared at her. Each of them had heard stories about the cold and distant girl and none of them expected her to be this polite. Looking at her she wasn't much but if rumor was true there was more to her than met the eye. So they watched her as she went over to Sakura and Ino.
"What happened?" Kagome asked.
"We were attacked. I cut my hair to escape one of them and Lee helped me to fight them off. We scared them off." Sakura said.
"So you're, alright?" Kagome asked. Sakura nodded. "What happened with Sasuke?"
Her face dropped. "When he woke up the mark had spread. He had this super dangerous aura and he kept asking the sound ninja if the had cut my hair or hurt you. One of them admitted it so Sasuke attacked him. At first it seemed like Sasuke was just attacking randomly but then he got super close to him and grabbed his arms. He asked the ninja if he was proud of his arms. Then he pulled and pulled till he broke both of them. Then you called out to him to stop him and he just froze."
"I-I stopped him?" Kagome asked in shock.
Sakura only nodded again. "The only one still concious grabbed the other two and left. Before he went he gave us this in order to stop us from going after them." She showed Kagome the Earth scroll.
"That's good because I took this off the guys who came ofter me earlier." Kagome produced a Heaven scroll from her pouch. "I didn't think we'd need it but I was hoping to get rid of them. So did they say why they attacked?"
"Orochimaru ordered them to."
"Orochimaru..." Kagome muttered, her fist clenched.
"What's wrong?" Sakura asked worried.
"It just doesn't make sense. Why would he do hat to sasuke and hen try to kill him?"
Ino listen distanly. It didn't make sense to her anyway. Whatever was going on had nothing to do with her so she just continued cleaming up the jagged cut job Sakura had done to her hair in order to escape. It was strange. Even though she'd been put on the the same team as Sasuke it appeared the Sakura was moving on. She had gotten a lot stronger than Ino had. It didn't matter, they would always be rivals because Sasuke would notice her strength soon and then Ino would have to work to beat her. Finishing up she rejoined her team and waved good bye. Lee and his team did the same not long after.
"We shoulld move out as well." Sasuke said.
"No, Sakura has been up all night defending us. She needs to rest. Healer's orders. We'll move on when she's ready." Kagome countered.
"I'm fine, really." The petal haired girl said trying to stand.
"Healer's orders." Kagome said pulling her down.
When Sakura woke up she noticed that Kagme and Sasuke were sitting on either side of her keeping watch. They were both tense and avoiding looking at the other. Their conversation earlier had definitely been a fight. They'd probably fught after she'd gone to sleep but Kagome had been right. She needed to rest. She yawned loud enough to break through the tension. Kagome stood and grabbed some food for her. Just like Kagome to be smart enough to plan ahead and bring food with her. It wasn't half bad either.
"Now that she's awake can we please move on?" Sasuke asked.
"Since we have both scrolls we can take our time. If we avoid meeting any other teams we should make it to the Tower with tie to spare. But yes, when Sakura is ready we can move on."
Sakra smirked. They were fighting! It sounded just like a little lover's spat. She laughed a little but caught herself before either of them heard. Knowing now that they both had feelings they wouldn't admit to. Life was going to be interesting until they decided to act on it. Sakura sighed. She stood and stretched preparing herself for the journey to get to the Tower.