Chapter 22 Missing pieces of the battle retold Part 2

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Flash back – Great Naruto Bridge, yesterday

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"Katsuya-sama, I will attack him head on, can you assist me when necessary?" Sakura whispered to her summon.

"Hai, Sakura-sama, I suggest attacking his body internally, as it will take longer time for his skin to absorb the ink to heal those injuries." Katsuya replied. Sakura nodded her head in understanding as she ran through the seal set to activate chakra scalpels in both her hands, as she then dropped into her stance.

Thomas's eyes narrowed, 'So it appears she knows medical jutsu, and that slug...this will be hard indeed.' He concluded as he drew several tagged kunai in his hands.

Thomas threw a pair of kunai each to his sides, as he then began rifling through seals, "Suiton Bakusui Shouha!" He whispered as he then aimed his head at the ground as a seemingly endless high stream of water sprayed out of his mouth.

Sakura's eyes narrowed, 'What is he...'

"Sakura-sama, look below you." Katsuya instructed seeing Sakura's puzzlement. Sakura did as instructed and her eyes widened in surprise. There was a thin layer of water that was surrounding the area. The water level had reached a point where it was overflowing off the sides of the bridge, making it roughly half a foot in level. Sakura was forced to flow chakra into her feet, to avoid losing her footing.

Sakura then quickly dodged as a small tentacle no thicker than a kunai shot out of the flooding water aiming for her head. Sakura took a sharp sweep at the tentacle with her scalpel, cutting the tentacle clean in half. She didn't get a break for long as several more tentacles whipped towards her. Suddenly the tentacles went dead and floated on the water surface, Sakura noticed that the tags the tentacles had come from were melted from Katsuya acid, and took the opportunity she was granted.

Sakura rushed towards Thomas, who seemed to be running through the seals for another jutsu, but did not make it in time as Sakura aimed for his heart with her scalpel. Her eyes widened though when the figure of Thomas dispersed into a pile of water.

'Mizu Bunshin!' She cursed mentally.

Sakura heard a humming noise and averted her gaze to see three tagged kunai's glowing in place of where the water clone was standing. On instinct she jumped backwards as a large tentacle armed with spines that were almost the size of her arm shot out towards her. Luckily it seemed the larger Tentacles weren't anywhere near as fast as the smaller ones and Sakura didn't have much trouble evading the spines, although the tentacle still adjusted and came after her retreating figure.

Katsuya slid through the water as a blur, until she was directly in front of Sakura and she burst herself into a swarm of small slugs no longer than a hand. The swarm then gripped onto the tentacle as it shot past them, still trying to impale Sakura. Due to the swarm's small size, most of them avoided getting torn apart from the spines. The slugs then began biting into the tentacle, releasing acid all over it, causing the tentacle to stop and begin shaking violently almost like a wild spasm, trying to fling the slugs off.

Sakura had to change her focus when she felt a presence behind her.

"Die!" Thomas hissed as he stabbed the surprised kunoichi in the back as it struck hard causing Sakura to gasp.

'poof'

Thomas inwardly cursed as the same log yet again that had already taken numerous punishment from earlier dropped to the floor with a loud splash. He lifted his gaze to see that Sakura had retreated back, next to the slowly burning away cut off tentacle of Wani, as Katsuya's miniature slug's overlapped each other forming a whole slug again. To ensure it wasn't used against him again, Thomas picked up the log by his seemingly deeply lodged kunai and gripping it underneath as he threw it over the edge of the bridge.

Sakura inwardly frowned, 'He knows what I am trying to do, I can't get a hit on him...unless.' Sakura knew that she was taking a major risk by what she was about to do, but if it worked, she should be able to inflict major damage on Thomas before he knew what hit him.

Sakura dashed straight towards Thomas, glaring hard into his brown eyes. Thomas countered by dropping a single kunai at his feet, as yet another tentacle shot out towards Sakura. Both the tentacle and Thomas didn't expect Sakura to not dodge though, as the Tentacle just grazed past her right arm, causing Sakura to grit her teeth as she continued her charge. The tentacle adjusted from its surprised motion, and whip lashed from her side.

"Sakura-sama duck!" The slug's voice commanded, as Sakura lowered her head just in time to avoid it taking her head clean off.

'Almost in range.' She mused, but when looking up was taken by surprise when she collided with a solid block of water.

The impossibly brick like water bullet practically knocked the wind out of her, as she rolled and skipped backwards like a spinning peddle across flat water. She eventually came to a stop and gasped for air, but wasn't given a chance to recover as the same whip of a tentacle was about to strike at her fallen form. A sudden sticky sensation came over her, as she effectively was crushed by something large sitting on her back.

'Katsuya-sama!'

The slug took the full force of the strike, as all Sakura felt was the sensation of something hard hitting her through a soft cushion, "Sakura-sama move!" The slug commanded again, as Sakura flowed chakra into her arms and pushed them aside before a second whiplash splashed against the water, hitting the cement underneath the surface.

Feeling the stickiness leave her, she pulled herself up and looked in worry at her summon. Katsuya's body had caved around her centre, with an accurate outline of the tentacles shape and features visible on the slugs flattened hide.

"Katsuya-sama! Are you ok!?" Sakura watched as akin to a balloon, the flatten section expanded until Katsuya was back to normal.

"I am fine, but what were you trying to do Sakura-sama?" Sakura groaned while eyeing Thomas, and answered her summon.

"I tried to hit him with my doujutsu, but he knocked me back just before I was in range." She explained, while scolding herself for being so rash.

"Are you injured Sakura-sama?"

"I'm ok." Sakura stood up and quickly shook her drenched hair, while restoring her chakra scalpels.

"Let's try your plan again Sakura-sama, this time I will cover you. Whatever you do, try as best as you can to not stop running towards him."

"Hai."

Sakura was off once again, only this time Thomas had prepared something in anticipation for her next action. Sakura almost reduced her speed in hesitation when she saw she was charging towards dozens of the blurring tentacles. Throwing her fear in the wind and remembering Katsuya's instructions, she picked up more chakra in her legs and sprinted straight into the living wall in front of her. Katsuya was slithered upright like a snake, preparing something from behind.

"Suppai renda!" She announced, when suddenly a stream of sizzling acid spewed from the slugs mouth. Sakura literally did not want to stop now when she realised what Katsuya was doing.

'She is going to protect me by using ACID BARRAGE?!'

The kunoichi picked up speed when the rain of acid began covering the area all around her. She frantically dodged and rolled through the lashing tentacles, who were trying to hopeless defend themselves from the burning acid in wild spasms. While she had to avoid now even coming into contact with them to not get burnt, she was grateful that the squid arms weren't homing in on her as she finally rolled under the last of the blocking tentacles and came face to face with her target, who gladly greeted her with a kunai. Before Thomas's kunai could make contact with her throat, she quickly unsheathed the kunai on her back and blocked it while glaring.

"Who the hell are you people!?" She barked, but Thomas did not answer her, only infuriating her further as she continued their exchange of steel.

"Why are you after Naruto?!"

Thomas once again did not answer her heated question, but instead gave an emotionless smirk which made her growl. Sakura tried to take a swing at Thomas with her fist, but the silent ANBU had already felt what it was like to be hit by that gloved fist, and appropriately dodged each attempt. Clashing again with their kunai's Thomas decided to end this, as a tentacle slithered from his grasp around the hilt, and locked Sakura's arm in an entangling hold like a snake.

Sakura went wide eyed, but before she could pull away, the tentacle had constricted painfully on her arm, allowing Thomas to pull out another one in his free hand and hold it against her throat, the steel already cutting into her flesh with a tickle of blood running down her neck. Thomas saw the Slug summon rush to try and save Sakura, so he didn't waste any time as he looked into the wide eyed girls bright emerald orbs in one moment, and slit her throat.

The ANBU went agape though when instead of blood, there were bright petals pouring out, as the rest of 'Sakura' exploded into petals.

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Present time

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"Huh? Sakura-chan I don't understand, what happened?" Naruto said, the excitement from the story showing across his face almost as if he was a child listening intensely to a camp fire story.

"I casted my genjutsu on him moments after the tentacle had grabbed me. "

She felt her neck as if in memory and continued with a wince, "The kunai only just missed me." Naruto mouthed a silent 'Oh' before nodding his head in understanding.

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Flash back resumed

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Taking advantage of Thomas's spaced out form, she tilted her head back and cried to her summon, "Katusya-sama! Help me!"

The summon had finally made it and slithered up Sakura's back in a blur, and enwrapped herself over the still constricting tentacle that was making Sakura grunt in pain. As if in an instant, the tentacle finally let go of its hold from contact with the slug's secreted acid, leaving behind its own ink in retaliation, making Sakura flick her numb hand to get the foul stuff off.

"Thanks Katsuya-sama."

Sakura returned focus on Thomas, realising that he was trying to break out of her genjutsu and readied her scalpels, removing all emotions on her face as she went to her task. Sakura aimed for as many vital organs and muscles she could, as she furiously slashed at Thomas, her scalpels humming violently on ever contact. During her attack on the stunned Thomas, blood was dripping out of his mouth and nose. Sakura then reeled back her arm and span around to deliver the finishing blow of her fist hitting the ANBU straight in the chest, sending him shooting away and crashing several meters into the water away from her.

"Now Katsuya-sama!" Sakura shouted. Katsuya was already making a bee line towards the lifeless body, preparing to have her acid eat away at the corpse before Wani could regenerate the destroyed organs.

Sakura's eyes narrowed though when she saw something glow on the edges of the large puddle they had been fighting on, until her eyes widened in recognition.

'W-When did he place those?!!' Her mind screamed.

"Katsuya-sama! Look out!" Sakura screamed, but it was too late as Katsuya had split into her hundreds of smaller self while airborne. Only a few slugs made it through, as a wall of at least a dozen, spines exposed tentacles, crushed and tore the tiny slugs apart. Thomas no longer could be seen through the wall, but judging by the puddle suddenly turning black, Sakura knew he already was covered in the ink.

'Goddamn it! Now all our hard work just got thrown out the window!' Sakura was pulled out of her musing when she felt a small object on her shoulder and turned to see a small slug resting there.

"Katsuya-sama?! Are you alright?!" Sakura voiced in concern.

The voice was a lot softer, but still recognizable to Sakura ,"Hai, unfortunately my mistake costed me too many of my smaller forms being destroyed, I will have to return to my realm now. If you need to summon me again I will be at the ready Sakura-sama."

Sakura sighed in relief, "I understand, thank you for the help Katsuya-sama." The slug then 'poofed' out of existence, leaving Sakura by herself to ponder her next actions.

'I do have enough chakra to summon another lesser form of Katsuya-sama again. But I won't have enough to heal anybody who may be seriously hurt otherwise...I will have to finish this off alone.' Sakura was pulled out of musing again when she heard the sound of scream behind the wall of tentacles which had now cleared and disappeared into the tags.

Sakura while wincing at what she saw grew, a smirk as well, '...Thank you Katsuya-sama!' Sakura thought, when she saw that the few remaining slugs had already eaten a part of Thomas's arm, and the acid was still present stopping the ink from regenerating the damage already done to his arm.

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Present time

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"Amazing! Those slugs spit really can chew through anything!" Naruto beamed, crossing his arms and nodding as if agreeing to his own comment. Sakura's eye twitched at the 'spit' statement but tried to ignore it.

"Umm-Indeed...I must say it was extremely useful that he couldn't form any more seals, it meant that I only had to worry about his summoning tags. But losing Katsuya-sama was when it started to cost me, dearly."

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Flashback resumed

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Thomas gritted his teeth, as he reached into his pocket and pulled out something Sakura couldn't quite make out at her distance, but since he then placed his palm in front of his mouth, Sakura assumed it was a soldier pill or some kind of pain killer. Sakura confirmed it was the later when his face had relaxed, although the occasional eye twitch hinted that Thomas will still in pain.

"You are indeed strong...but you are in the way of our mission, leave now. This is the only warning I am giving you." Thomas spoke, his voice void of emotions.

'So now you want to talk to me?!'

"And let you just kill Naruto?! Save your breath, because you are wasting your time!" Sakura hissed.

"....I see...then you leave me no choice, Wani seems to enjoy the taste of your blood and chakra from earlier anyway." Thomas responded as he gripped a single kunai in his hand, while Sakura payed a quick glance to her still numbed arm that was covered in bruising and was bleeding, before returning her fixed gaze on Thomas.

'What does he mean by tha-' Sakura was cut off from her thoughts when she saw several red glows emit from the puddle around her.

'OH CRAP!' Sakura screamed mentally as she dodged one tentacle, only to cry in pain when another from behind took a hard cut into her side, opening the wound further as the spines cut deeper into her side. Sakura desperately tried to counter with a chakra scalpel, successfully cutting the offending tentacle before it could inflict more damage.

Sakura then tilted her head to the side just before a tentacle could connect with her head, but that didn't save her completely from the spine that scratched across her cheek. Sakura retaliated by cutting the tentacle off again, only for another tentacle from the side to sweep and hit her knee hard, further cutting her in the process as she dropped to one knee.

'IM GETTING TORN APART I NEED TO MOVE!!! '

Before Sakura could recover, she was effectively held down on the spot by several tentacles which for some reason didn't have their spines exposed any more. They also had a warm and rough touch to them, almost as if they were recently burned by something. Thomas walked casually up to the struggling to break free Sakura, which only made the tentacles comply with an air denying constrict.

"Did you really think you, a chuunin, even one of your level, really stood a chance to defeat an ANBU single-handedly?" Thomas said still in his emotionless whisper, as he threw a tagged kunai in front of Sakura, and then repeated until Sakura had several kunai surrounding her. Sakura winced at every kunai digging through the water and hitting the cement.

"WHAT HAS NARUTO DONE?! WHY DO YOU WANT TO KILL HIM!?" She shouted, trying to ignore the fact she was in no situation to make demands.

The ANBU never complied, while he finished his job with a kunai landing in front of her, and then Thomas gave Sakura a disturbing smile that gave a chill down her spine.

"Wani enjoys eating the hard prey alive, this is the end for you." He then took several steps back as all the tags around Sakura glowed in union.

Sakura gasped loudly and her eyes bulged when she saw what looked like round walls begin to lift from the tags around her. She saw the start to what looked like sword length teeth, and then she understood what was happening.

'No...NO NO NO NO NO!!!!' She screamed internally as she tried to break out of the binding tentacles, but it was of no use.

'LET ME GO!' She screamed trying again, only to be rewarded by muscles aching protests for her to stop. Giving in to the pain, she silently looked down at the darkening water to see her fading reflection as the mouth had risen further to just above her crouched ensnared form, showing at least three layers worth of dozens of almost goldenly brown coloured teeth.

A lone tear ran down her face and rippled into the still fading reflection, followed by a second one...

...and then it rained.

Sakura emitted a loud sniffle when her body was covered in shadow from the wall of teeth, causing her to slightly gag at the foul smell of what smelt like rotting corpses.

'T-Tsunade-sama....Kakashi-sensei.......s-Sasuke-kun.....Naruto...........' A second loud sniffle was heard, Sakura not caring anymore at the foul smell.

'I failed....I couldn't help anybody... I am useless!'

"Greetings Sakura-sama, what can I do for you today"

"Look, here comes the next Tsunade!" Sakura's eyes widened and she lightly gasped when the memory of all the sick villagers' faces flashed in her mind.

"You make me proud"

"Sakura-chan…you are so awesome!"

"It is good to know we have arguably the best medic-nin in Konoha excluding Hokage-sama joining us on this mission."

"With the addition of Sakura on the team, if the situation indeed becomes dire, at least now I know we have great medical support, as well as another strong fighter." Sakura sniffled again at the memories of the praises she had received from the people she cared for.

"...You can help Naruto as well with his problem with the Kyuubi and Akatsuki, regardless what you truly believe." Sakura slammed her eyes shut tight as her heart began to hurt from the pain as more tears flowed, by now the mouth was almost double her crouched height, but it continued to rise as if sadistically enjoying her torment.

"Naruto...."

Her eyes shot open when she heard the familiar sound of her own younger voice loudly over her surroundings.

"I'm sorry, Naruto. You will have to wait a while...but next time...I won't get in the way." She shut her eyes again as another tear fell and rippled into the water, until they opened and gleamed full of determination through the growing darkness.

'I promised I wouldn't get in the way! I promised I would protect them!'

Sakura saw the image of her two old teammates when they were younger standing side by side, then it flashing to Tsunade and Shizune both sharing a soft smile...then her friend Ino, and the rest of the younger rookie 9...she then saw a glimpse of the current team she was a part of, with Naruto smiling in the middle with Shikamaru on his left giving a casual smirk, and Lee giving his nice guy pose on the right.

'I can't die here...I WILL NOT DIE HERE!'

"SHANNARO!!!!" She screamed as she was at the binds again with all her might, hearing the sounds of tearing as she continued her struggle against the living binds.

Sakura screamed again as she felt the tentacles binding her give way and broke apart with a sickening tear to the ears, almost as if she tore apart slime rather than a living entity. Ignoring her entire bodies cries of aches from doing the impossible, she prepared to jump out of the now slowly closing mouth. Before she could complete her action though, she was forced to cover her ears in pain as the creature emitted an ear piercing scream. The scream didn't end though, it almost sounded like something had just hurt Wani at a near unimaginable level. Sakura was then temporary blinded when the mouth instantly fell back through the tags, greeting her to the now unbelievably bright rays of the sun.

Sakura collapsed back on her knees and gasped endlessly for the fresh air she was denied in the mouth of Wani, her ears still ringing, along with her pulled muscles stinging all over. Thomas's eyes were widened, and partially agape.

"What did you do to Wani?!" He roared in a tone Sakura recognised as confusion and anger, which she obliged with a smirk through her gasps for air. Thomas was about to charge at Sakura again but he turned his head when he heard a scream coming from the other side of the bridge.

"Araiki....I warned you, you fool!" Thomas cursed aloud and ran towards his partner, who was being relentlessly attacked by Lee.

Sakura mentally took note from Thomas's mistake and remembered the ANBU's name for later. She then began healing her wounds, still wondering what happened to cause Wani to suddenly retreat.

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Present time

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Naruto looked at his team mate who was sitting in the chair in amazement, "Wow, Sakura-chan...you really gave it all you had!" Naruto beamed.

Sakura smiled and turned into his gaze, "Again Naruto, thank you...I probably wouldn't be here if it wasn't fo-"Sakura sent Naruto a confused gaze when he furiously was shaking his head.

"No Sakura-chan, you would have got out of that squid-teme's mouth yourself. Because you didn't give up." He said with pride for his friend clearly present in his voice.

Sakura averted her gaze to the carpet and smiled softly, "....Yeah." was all she said quietly.

"Although Sakura-chan, if you are convinced that I really did save you, how about a d-"

"NO!"

Naruto put on a fake pout and whined. "Sakura-chan!" he dragged, causing his friend to laugh.

"Neh but Sakura-chan, did you really tear apart the squid-teme's arms with your own strength?"

She nodded her head in response, not seeing what the big deal was until Naruto announced it cheerfully in awe, "Wow...you have amazing brute like strength."

"D-Did you just call me a brute?!"

The blond frantically waved his arms at his defensive with a sincere grin, "I mean it as a compliment, that's pretty amazing. No way could I do something like that normally."

Letting her raising fist go limp, she sighed, "Could you have used a more 'finesse' description other than brute then?"

The blond pointed his index finger up in protest, "But it is like a brute, you know, just like in those monster ape movie-"

"Naruto!" She growled, a vein instantly snapping, as she donged his head.

"Stop calling me that!"

The blond rubbed his head but surprisingly let out a giggle more than a whimper, 'Sakura-chan is so funny when she is angry...even if she is equally as scary at the same time.'

The kunoichi narrowed her eyes in suspicion to his chuckles and felt a smirk begin to twitch on her face, "What is so funny?"

"Nothing."

"Since we're all sharing stories here, don't mind sharing one with us Naruto?" Both teammates emitted a gasp of surprise and turned their heads to see Shikamaru leaning lazily against the wall near the door of the room.

Next to Shikamaru was an at attention Lee, "Sorry Sakura-san, Naruto-kun, Shikamaru-kun and myself heard you shouting at Naruto-kun, and Shikamaru-kun suggested we come and see if Naruto-kun would be bedridden again."

Sakura flushed at the memory of 'that' book, "Please don't remind me." She said through a grunt.

Shikamaru snicked and fixed his soft gaze on Naruto, "If you do not mind Naruto, I would like my explanation now, since it's not 'too troublesome' as somebody put it earlier." Shikamaru said, giving a brief glance at the now embarrassed Sakura.

Naruto blinked several times in thought and mumbled out incoherent words, "Err, Umm-"

He felt a hand rest on his back and looked in question to see his teammate smiling at him and taking his side while nodding her approval. Naruto returned the gesture and turned back and gave Shikamaru a traditional smile.

"Sure Shikamaru, what do you want to know?"