Hello people! Hope you guys like this chapter. Thanks to larrycucumber2, Hibiki-chan, MistFairie93, vampknight364, Valinor's Twilight, ruler of dragons, Uchiha Sasha, tru-viet, Lyris88, and Eterna1 for reviewing. Please review, the sooner you review the sooner I update and the more reviews I receive the more I write. Also, for those of you who review, I would like you to tell me if you think Okoru, Yu, and Zakyo should stay in Konoha for a while after the Chunin Exams. Now, on with the story!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the lovely Rei, the dashing Okoru, the arrogant Yu and the childish Zakyo.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Yu looked at Sakura carefully and smirked when as she noticed that she was scared. She was trying to hide it, but she could tell. Sakura glared at her and Yu chuckled.
"Hey, why don't you save yourself the trouble and give up?"
"Shut up, I'll beat you!"
Yu sighed.
"Look, you're not going to beat me, but if you won't give up I guess I can give you one chance to win. Come on, hit me as hard as you can."
Sakura looked at her strangely and then frowned as Yu obviously thought she was too weak to hurt her.
"Well, come on." Yu said mockingly.
Sakura ran towards her and Yu just stood there smirking. Sakura drew her fist back and swung with all her strength. She hit Yu and she slid back a bit. Sakura was surprised to see her still standing. Yu looked at Sakura and smirked. She spat out some blood.
"You really are weak. I don't see how you expect to win."
Sakura was surprised and she just stood there.
"I don't know why Rei defends you. You really aren't worth her time."
"What do you mean?" Sakura asked, confused.
Yu sighed.
"You really don't knowhow strong she is do you?"
Sakura just stood there.
"Well, there's no point in telling you. Now, come on, fight."
Yu made some hand signs and Sakura began to feel sleepy. Her vision blurred and when she blinked she found that she was no longer in the arena with Yu but in the park. As she walked she heard someone up ahead. She kept walking and everything seemed familiar. Then she saw Sasuke and Rei sitting on a bench. She felt anger and sadness take over her and she felt like she wanted to cry. She heard someone chuckling and turned around. She saw Yu sitting on a tree branch.
"Stop this!"
"Why, it's actually quite entertaining. I still can't believe this is one of your worst memories. You really don't know anything if this is the type of thing that hurts you the most. I guess that's why you're so weak. You've never experienced pain, but they have."
She gestured towards Rei and Sasuke as they stood to leave. Then Sakura recognized this as the night she ahd found out about Rei and Sasuke. Sakura glared at Yu as she looked at her with an amused expression.
"How are you doing this?"
"How am I doing what?"
"How can you make this illusion so real? How do you know about this?"
Yu smirked.
"That's a secret. Of course, your secrets aren't as safe as you thought Sakura. In fact, they can be accessed very easily. Still, I see you can tell this is an illusion. It doesn't really matter since it will only make things more interesting."
Sakura frowned and dispelled the illusion. When she opened her eyes she was standing back in the fighting arena with Yu in front of her. She was grinning widely and Sakura saw her glance at Rei. She turned towards her teammates and saw Rei frowning. It looked like she didn't like what was going on.
Everyone was confused on what was going on. Everyone except Rei, Okoru, and Zakyo. Yu and Sakura had been standing there for a while without moving.
"What's wrong with Sakura-chan, why isn't she moving?" Naruto asked.
"She's under one of Yu's illusions." Rei answered.
Okoru looked at Rei.
"If it's just an illusion, why hasn't she noticed?" He asked.
"She probably has."
They looked back down and saw Sakura glance up at them.
"See, she ended Yu's illusion."
"But why is Yu using a simple illusion?" Zakyo said.
"She's probably testing Sakura to see how vulnerable she is to Genjutsu."
"So, how good id she?"
Kakashi answered for Rei.
"Sakura's strong point is Genjutsu. She is able to control her flow of chakra precisely and is able to dispel illusions easily. She can also recognize them quickly."
He turned to Rei.
"Why does it matter how strong she is?"
Rei frowned.
"Yu is also specialized in Genjutsu which means that she is Sakura's worst choice for an opponent. She can create different types of illusions depending on her opponent's weakness to Genjutsu."
"I see."
They watched the match intently and Rei hoped that Yu wouldn't take things too far. She hadn't told Kakashi about Yu's other ability.
"Well Sakura, what did you think of my little trick?"
"How did you do it?"
"I told you, it's a secret, but let's just say that by the time this fight is over there won't be any secrets between me and you."
Sakura glared and Yu laughed.
"Come on Sakura, show me what you can do."
Sakura ran towards Yu and made some hand signs. A clone of her appeared on beth sides next to her. Yu grinned.
"Shadow clones? Well that's weak."
Yu dodged the first Sakura and punched her in the stomach then turned and kicked another. She jumped up and twisted to kick the third one. The two clones disappeared and Sakura laid on the ground. Yu shook her head and waited for her to stand up.
"You know, I don't even want to fight you anymore, you're too weak. I think I'll finish this now."
Sakura looked up as Yu made some hand signs. She closed her eyes and Sakura felt strange. Her head hurt slightly and then it just stopped. She stood up and looked up at Yu who was smirking back at her.
"I see, so that's what you fear the most, interesting."
Sakura was puzzled by her words.
"Still, simple illusions won't work on you. You can distinguish and repel them. But I have something for this kind of thing."
Yu disappeared and Sakura looked around the arena, but couldn't find her.
"Sakura-chan, look out!" Naruto yelled.
Sakura turned around and saw Yu in front of her. She smirked and punched Sakura sending her back against the wall. Sakura looked up and saw some kunai heading towards her. She closed her eyes and prepared herself for the pain but she didn't feel anything. She opened her eyes and saw that the kunai had hit the wall around her. She looked up at Yu who was smirking in front of her.
"Looks like you fell into my trap."
"What are you talking about? You didn't do anything."
"Are you sure about that?"
Sakura's eyes widened when she noticed that she couldn't move. She looked down and saw some chakra threads running across her body. She then noticed the tags on the kunai. She struggled to get away, but couldn't.
"Don't bother trying to get free. Once you get trapped by those you won't be able to get away unless I want you to. But that won't be anytime soon."
Sakura was scared. She didn't want to admit it, even to herself, but she was scared. She looked up at her teammates and saw everyone watching the fight intently. She could tell that Naruto and Kakashi were worried. She looked at Rei and saw that she looked upset. She wondered why she was mad. She knew she didn't like her so she thought Rei would be happy to see her losing. So, why did she care?
Rei looked down at the fight and frowned.
"Damn it, I told her not to do too much." She muttered so only Okoru could hear.
"Yeah, well, you know how stubborn she is."
She sighed.
"Rei-chan, what's going on?"
Rei turned to Naruto.
"Sakura is trapped by Yu's chakra threads. She won't be able to get away unless Yu releases her."
"But why did she trap her?"
Rei thought about what to tell Naruto. She knew he would worry about Sakura, btu she had to tell him. She was saved the trouble of answering by Okoru.
"Yu is getting ready to use one of her most powerful attacks. She needs Sakura to stay still and also, the chakra threads will help Yu channel her chakra into Sakura."
"What is she going to do?"
"She's going to use an illusion to beat Sakura."
"I thought illusions didn't work on Sakura." Naruto said confused.
Rei turned to him.
"Simple illusions don't, but this one is special. Most illusions are meant to cause fear to people in general so they can affect some more than others. However, this technique focuses on one of the victim's worst fears."
"But how can she know what Sakura-chan fears the most?"
"There are three parts to this technique. The first is where Yu finds that fear. She has the ability to channel her chakra into her opponent's mind for a moment and in that time she searches for any memories or fears that can help her with her illusions. The second part is where she binds the opponent with the threads. These threads help her pour in her chakra into the opponent, strengthening the effect of the illusion. The third and final part is the illusion itself. She can maintain it for as long as she pleases and up until now no one has been able to escape this technique."
"But, how can she do that? How can she look into a person's mind?"
"Yu is very strong mentally and she has superb control of her chakra. Her family is known for their skill in Genjutsu. Because of this she is excellent at Genjutsu as well and has been trained since she was small. She can manipulate her chakra to search inside a person's mind for anything she might find useful."
"Then, Sakura is done for. There is no way she can get out of this now." Kakashi said.
Rei was surprised to hear Kakashi say that, but she knew it was true.
"Get ready for my special trick." Yu made some hand signs and smirked at Sakura.
"Shadow Illusion!"
The room began to grow dark and Sakura felt tired and once again she closed her eyes. When she opened them she found herself alone in a dark space. She looked around, but there wasn't anyone around. She began to walk and then she saw someone moving up ahead. As she got closer to the persons he saw that it was Sasuke and Naruto. She smiled and ran up to them.
"Hey, guys."
They ignored her as she got closer and began to walk away. Sakura frowned and ran faster until she was closer. Then Rei walked up to them and began to talk to the two boys. She glared at the girl and reached them.
"Hey guys, what's going on? Didn't you hear me calling you?"
They turned to her and Sakura was surprised by the cold expressions on their faces.
"What do you want?" Naruto said coldly.
Sakura just looked at them strangely.
"If you don't have anything to say just go away."
"Yeah, why don't you go annoy someone else?" Sasuke said.
"What do you mean? Why are you guys acting like this?"
"Look, just go away, you're not in our team anymore so just leave us alone."
"Yeah, we don't need you anymore now that Rei-chan is here." Naruto said cheerfully.
Sakura was surprised to hear this. She watched as they turned around and began to walk away.
"Wait, you guys! Don't leave me here!"
She ran after them, but they disappeared into the darkness. She heard someone chuckling and turned to see Yu standing there.
"So, what do you think Sakura?"
Sakura glared and raised her hand while holding two fingers up.
"Kai!" She said.
She opened her eyes and was surprised to see that she wasn't able to dispel the illusion.
"What is this? Why can't I dispel the illusion?"
"Because this isn't just any illusion. This is what you fear the most Sakura and what you fear the most is your teammates replacing you. Of course, it might be too late."
"Shut up and stop this!"
"And why should I? After all, even if I stop this it will still be with you. This isn't just an illusion that you can get rid of. This illusion won't go away because it's in your mind and no matter what you say or do you will always fear it."
"Stop!"
"You know it's true. Your teammates are already more fond of Rei than they are of you."
"Shut up!"
"I mean, she's even going out with Sasuke."
"Stop!"
"I know it must be hard for you, I mean, they would rather be with someone they just met than with you. But then again, you're too weak. You're practically useless to them, all you do is whine and wait for them to save you when you're in trouble. I mean, if it wasn't for Rei Sasuke would have probably killed the Otonin in the forest."
"Shut up! It wasn't my fault!"
"Do you really think that? You were there. You were supposed to protect your teammates, but you failed. Rei managed to get away from Orochimaru and help you. If it wasn't for her who knows what would have happened."
Sakura began to cry as she knew what Yu was saying was true. She heard Yu laughing and sank to her knees. She just wanted it to end.
The arena had grown dark because of Yu's Genjutsu and everyone strained their eyes to see what was going on. They heard Sakura telling Yu to stop and Rei knew Yu had won. Once her eyes had grown used to the lack of light she watched as Yu stood before Sakura. She frowned as she sensed Sakura's chakra growing weaker. She knew she had to stop Yu.
"Yu, stop!" She called out.
Yu turned to her and frowned, but complied. The room went back to normal and Sakura fell limply to the ground. Yi was declared the winner and Kakashi appeared next to Sakura. He picked her up and took her back to where the others were. He set her against the wall.
"Is Sakura-chan alright?" Naruto asked.
"She's fine, she just needs to rest." Kakashi said.
Rei went over to Yu who stopped when she saw how upset Rei looked.
"I told you to take it easy on her." She said sternly.
"I did, you know that." Yu said indignantly.
"No, you didn't. When I told you not to overdo things you know I meant for you to not do that technique. You should know better than that."
Yu scowled.
"Why do you care? She's weak. I did her a favor by ending things quickly. Besides, what makes you think you can leave for years and then start giving us orders like nothing happened? When you left you made sure to tell me I was in charge, so why should I listen to you?"
Rei frowned.
"You know what, you're right. Why should I give a damn about what happens to you and the others. I don't care anymore so you can do whatever you want. Like you said, I have no right to order you around. I left and you shouldn't listen to me now that I'm back."
Rei turned around and went back to the others. Okoru walked up to Yu.
"Damn it Yu! Why did you do that?"
"You know I'm right Okoru. I don't care if she is our friend she has no right to tell us what to do, not after she left."
"She left for us you idiot. She was afraid Orochimaru would do something to us so she decided to run away. That's why she never went back to the village."
Yu just looked at Okoru with a surprised expression.
"I suggest you apologize." He said before going back to the others.
Yu sighed and walked over to her teammates.
"Hey, Rei-san, who do you think you'll have to fight?"
"I don't know Zakyo, but I know who you'll fight."
"Huh?"
Rei pointed to the board and Zakyo smiled.
"Yay I'm next!"
Rei smirked and knew Zakyo would win. After all, she was up against Ino.
End Chapter Thirty-Six
Hope you guys liked it and please review. The sooner you review the sooner I update and the more reviews I receive the more I write. Also, tell me if I should make Okoru, Yu, and Zakyo stay in Konoha for a while after the exams. Sayonara!