"SASUKE!" Natsumi yelled, finally catching up with her team-mate on top of two giant statues facing each other, both standing on opposite heads. If not for Lee, she would have lost him for good. The bone-producing guy, Kimimaro, completely outclassed her in every way.
Even after she called upon the Kyuubi's chakra and produced close to a thousand clones, she failed to land a single hit on him. She could not even distract him and steal away the vessel that Sasuke was being sealed in. During the fight, Sasuke busted out of the vessel on his own and proceeded to flee, completely ignoring her attempts to talk to him. With a brand new change of plans, she opted to just run past Kimimaro but she failed at that too. Not only did she fail to hit Kimimaro or steal Sasuke away from him, now she could not even get past him to chase after Sasuke! All while she was utilizing the Kyuubi's chakra! Lee's timely arrival and capability of keeping up with Kimimaro's speed was the only thing that allowed her to continue her pursuit.
"Are you going to run away from me?" she demanded when he started walking away. That made him stop and finally turn to face her. She was shocked to see the left side of his face covered with black markings and his left eye coloured black with his pupils yellow.
"Yo, moron," Sasuke greeted her with cold sarcasm. "It's you, this time? I told Sakura this too: Stop concerning yourself with me." He started chuckling darkly when he saw the stunned look on Natsumi's face. "What's with that look?"
"Why? Why, Sasuke? Why have you become like this!" she yelled at him. What happened to the Sasuke that saved her life with disregard for his own, the Sasuke that treasured his team and friends?
"Whatever becomes of me, how does it have anything to do with you?" he asked. Her expression told him she had no answer. "I have my own path. No matter who it is, I'm not obliged to take orders from anyone. Let me make it clear for you. My childish games with you and Konoha are over. Go home."
"Everyone... Everyone risked their lives to catch up to you!" she told him with gritted teeth.
"How nice of them," he drawled dismissively and started walking away again. He stopped when he sensed hostility directed towards him. He turned around and saw Natsumi jumping towards him with intense fury on her face.
"What do you think your comrades in Konoha are!" she yelled as she tackled him to the ground and gave him a hard punch to his face, splitting his lip and drawing blood in his mouth. He spat some of it on her face, making her pull his collar in anger to glare directly into his eyes.
"Comrades? Have I become stronger while staying with those comrades?" he questioned her. "I'm going to where Orochimaru is."
"Orochimaru is the one who killed the Third Hokage and tried to destroy Konoha! You really think he'll give you power for free? He just wants your body as a container! You might never come back! You might die! There's no way I could just let you go to a place like that! And what do you mean you didn't get stronger? Have you forgotten just how much time Kakashi-sensei dedicated to training you for the Chuunin Exam? He ignored me for you, and I passed as well! He even taught you the Chidori! He had no obligation to teach that jutsu to you, but he did! That wasn't enough free power for you?"
"Kakashi's training was only out of necessity, even the Chidori. He never tried to teach us anything if it wasn't necessary. Or have you forgotten that? Did you even realize that in the first place? And I don't care about what Orochimaru wants. I don't care about any of that. If I can achieve my objective, then it's all fine. If you're going to get in my way, then I have no choice." He grabbed her tracksuit and pulled in return.
"You won't be able to. I'm going to take you back, by force if I have to!" He only laughed at her claim. "What are you laughing at?"
"You laughed too, that time," he replied. She clearly knew what he was referring to by the slight widening of her eyes. "Back then, you wanted to fight me, right? You were excited, right?"
"Only at first! But you weren't the same! That... That wasn't the kind of fight I wanted to fight. Because I was wrong," she admitted. "I only wanted to fight you fair and square as fellow Konoha ninjas. I didn't mean to... to look down on your skills as a ninja by claiming we were equal. You were, and still are, better than me in almost every way. So, I'm sorry for that time."
"I don't care about your reasons or your apology," he said and pulled her tracksuit upwards. Natsumi quickly sensed something was wrong when she felt herself being lifted up. Sasuke slowly stood up, hoisting her up with one hand as she struggled to pull his arm off. Smirking at her pained expression, he let her go and slammed a fist into her stomach. Blood was forcefully ejected from her mouth as she was blown back to the river in between the feet of the two statues. The force she was hit by made her skip across the surface of the river like a skipping stone before she was sent under. Sasuke could only wonder with glee at what kind of power was overflowing within him. A stab of pain from his Cursed Seal made him withdraw the power it granted him, removing the black markings from his face and the abnormal colouring of his left eye. The power it granted was starting to become familiar with his body but still needed more time to adjust before it stopped causing him pain when he used it. He wondered how much power he would have once it had completely adjusted to him and he could release the Cursed Seal to let out its true power.
"Open your damn eyes!" he heard Natsumi scream as she ran towards him on top of the river surface. She had spent quite a while underwater and he would be severely disappointed if she had been knocked out cold from just a single enhanced punch and actually ended up drowning. Whether it was from lingering power or Natsumi just being sloppy from her anger, Sasuke easily kicked her out of the air and stole her equipment pouch at the same time when she jumped towards him, sending her back into the river near the shoreline.
"My eyes have been open for a long time already. I've seen beyond my foolishness... Beyond stupid thoughts of being with my friends and dreaming of a peaceful future with like-minded fools. That's why I left the village. That is why I sought power! My dreams are not of the future. My dreams are of the past. Only there," he replied to her statement when she resurfaced again. He watched as she took out a shuriken from her other equipment pouch and threw it at him. He jumped away from it and returned fire with one of his stolen kunai. She dodged more frantically than he did and hid behind a tall rock. Using his superior skill as a ninja, he threw a kunai seemingly off-target and threw a second one to redirect its trajectory, landing a direct hit on a hiding Natsumi from above. A burst of white smoke revealed his hit target to be a clone but he was not deterred. He knew she was still in that area. He prepared several shurikens and kunais attached to ninja wire and waited for her to take action. When she did, he threw the shurikens in an advanced manner and planted the kunais on the ground as weights. As he predicted, she was still in the vicinity where she had been hiding when she charged out of her hiding spot, thinking he was done attacking her. Instead, she was caught in a web of ninja wire and tied to the same rock she was hiding behind.
"Sasuke! Are you serious?" Natsumi asked as she glared at him.
"I told you already. I don't need a future with you guys anymore," he said. Putting a loose wire to his lips and biting on it, he slowly made his seals. 'Katon: Ryuuka no Jutsu!' he called out the name of his jutsu mentally, sending a stream of fire down the wire he was biting on. The fire spread to the other wires and engulfed the trapped Natsumi who let out a scream of panic just before the flames reached her. He watched as the flames continued burning. He was prepared for it to be another clone and was on guard, but was still surprised when she charged straight out of the blaze and punched him across the face. She was stunned when he did not react in any way other than being forcibly moved with each successive punch he allowed her to land on him.
"Is this all?" he asked after she stopped from being too shocked at his lack of reaction. "If this is all you have, I won't have to use... it."
"What?"
"You haven't noticed, have you? I'm not using my Sharingan!" he stared at her, making sure she was looking directly into his normal, black eyes.
"Don't underestimate me!" she yelled as she threw another punch but her fist was caught in his hand this time.
"You lack power and desire. If I kept on playing friendly games with you guys," he pushed her off, sending her falling off the statue. He gave chase to her and stomped her repeatedly as they fell. "I wouldn't have been able to gain this much power." He finished off by kicking her hard enough to make a crater in the ground where she crashed and followed up with a final stomp, pushing her further into the crater as well as cushioning his own descent. He tossed his stolen equipment pouch back over his shoulder to where Natsumi laid motionless in her crater. "That's right. I need them... Power and hatred. In order to catch up to him." When he heard the sound of footsteps, he turned to face her. "Maybe you've woken up now. There's been interference from others before, but there won't be this time. I'll show you the real power of the Sharingan."
"Sure. Then I'll fight you with my real powers too," Natsumi shot back, reattaching her equipment pouch and dusting it off. "Watch carefully with that Sharingan of yours... My ninja way! Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
"If all you do is unnecessarily increase your numbers, you can't beat me." He charged straight into the dozen or so Natsumis and proceeded to clear house, leaving only the original untouched. "With the Sharingan, I can see which one is the real body with one glance. I was just playing along with your little game. No more holding back now."
Even as she was hit with an uppercut and then kicked away, Natsumi was somewhat aware that he only managed to identify the real her because there was a lack of white smoke to cloud his view when she made her clones. It made sense that his Sharingan allowed him to keep track of her real body like that. As she looked at the fireball threatening to engulf her, she managed to use the Kawarimi to escape to safety, hoping that Sasuke did not see her stunt. As she hid behind a small patch of bushes, she kept in mind that she had to pull her tricks where he could not or did not see her. She reminded herself that it was not the Byakugan. She could fool Neji with tricks performed right in front of him because it was still possible to distract him with a large number of clones and make him lose track of the real her, something she did in her match with him. Unless she could distract Sasuke to the point he took his eyes off her completely or perform her tricks with her clones while out of his sight, he would always know which one was the real her. She was just lucky she had that fight with him on top of the hospital roof. She now knew just enough that distracting him while he had his Sharingan active was way harder because of its ability to memorize things in great detail.
"I'm going to guess it's not, but is this your real power?" she heard Sasuke talk. Peeking out from her cover, she saw him looking in the complete other direction to where she was hiding. "Was this 'ninja way' you were babbling about this weak?" She decided now was not the time to pull those tricks and simply walked out of her hiding spot. "Do you still think I'm playing around by being your friend? Then, you are a hopeless moron!" As he charged in, she leaped over him and tried creating distance. He pursued her and engaged her in aerial close combat. "Stop fooling around! Show me your real powers, you so-called Number-One-Full-Of-Surprises ninja!" He landed a punch that broke her ribs, evident from the clear feeling of her bones creaking and crunching, making her lose her original flight path and plummet into the river. It took her over a minute to resurface and judging by how she was hacking out water, she was even closer to drowning than the previous time he dunked her underwater.
"Do you not consider me... your comrade any longer? Did all those things we did as Team 7 mean nothing to you?" she asked.
"No," he answered. "It wasn't meaningless. To me, you became my... friend."
"We've become... friends? Then... why?"
"All the more reason why... there's meaning in taking you down."
"I don't fully understand but... at least I understand that you want to fight me with everything you have! Sasuke!" They charged towards each other again, meeting in mid-air as they blocked each other's punch.
"I already said this earlier but... you were truly waiting for this too, weren't you? Neither Kakashi nor Sakura is present right now. So there's nobody here to stop us like that time before."
"You...!" Natsumi's retort was cut short when she felt Sasuke's hand fiddle in her equipment pouch and claiming a kunai for his use.
"This time around we're going to settle this for real! I will take you down!" Sasuke adjusted himself into a backwards free fall and threw his plundered kunai at Natsumi who responded in kind with a shuriken. With his Sharingan, he took notice of Natsumi being distracted by the projectiles colliding against each other and sneaked up to her, throwing her off, buying him time to prepare his Chidori.
"Same here! I'm gonna clobber you and take you back home even if I have to drag you!" she snapped back at him. She made a Kage Bunshin to prepare a Rasengan, the only way she knew how to block his Chidori. The clone threw her forward to meet his charge before dispelling itself. As the two jutsu clashed, she considered the meaning of why he would state out loud that he considered her a friend. Unfortunately for both of them, neither could keep up the deadlock and both were blown back by the concussive force of both jutsu cancelling each other out.
Sasuke was first to rise the surface of the river, cursing the fact that Natsumi could match his fully-powered Chidori to a tie. He remembered the jutsu she used, and how it blew a bigger hole in the water tanker on top of the hospital than his Chidori did. He glared in anger as Natsumi's body floated up to the surface lifelessly. He remembered Kakashi's warning about overusing the Chidori, and could not afford to waste a blow like he did if she was just going to cancel it out with a jutsu of equal power.
At the same time, Natsumi adjusted her limp position into a crouch, as she despaired over the realization that Sasuke had really intended to kill her. She watched with blank eyes as he activated his Cursed Seal for additional power, the black marks appearing on his face again.
"Did you know, Natsumi? Only the best ninjas are said to be able to read each other's hearts simply by an exchange of fists, even without saying anything..." Sasuke told her. "You're naive, Natsumi. How about it? Were you really able to read inside this heart of mine?" Without giving her time to answer, he flipped through the seals and fired off his Hosenka no Jutsu. She dodged by jumping away, but his Sharingan caught her actions before she completed them herself, enabling him to jump in advance and knock her back down the moment she cleared herself from his fireballs. Before she had a chance to regain complete balance from the fall, he landed a few more hard blows to soften her up for an opening for a Chidori. Eventually, she stopped trying to resist and he held her up by her tracksuit, his Chidori crackling in his left hand.
While she was being beaten up by Sasuke, Natsumi was buried deep in her thoughts, reflecting on her relationship with him. They were both absolute loners, so she was happy that there was someone like her. Over time, she found an irreplaceable friend in Hinata, so she believed that she could extend the same hand to him. But seeing his superior skills as a ninja, she grew jealous and wanted to be like him. Because she was stubborn, she did not want to admit even to herself that compared to him, she was indeed a loser. That feeling of being a loser did not disappear even when they were placed in Team 7 but when he told her he wanted to fight her as one of his opponents during the Chuunin Exam, she felt happy. She felt all her hard work finally paid off when he acknowledged her as someone worthy for him to fight. She thought they could finally get along as friends, until their current situation happened. Now she was not even sure if his declaration that they were friends were really true or not. If it truly her own delusions that they were friends, then it was really lame on her part. Regardless, she still did not want him to be taken away by Orochimaru.
...No, that was not right. He wanted to leave for Orochimaru. There was no 'taken away' here. Shikamaru said so even before they started their pursuit. They were chasing after a defector, not a hostage. Why did she forget that? No, she actually did not. She simply did not want to believe that Sasuke would willingly become a traitor to Konoha. All her hope that he was being manipulated in some way, however naive that hope was, was gone when she realized he wholeheartedly wanted to kill her because they were 'friends'. Like hell friends did that to each other. That should be obvious from the beginning. She was not going to take it. No way was she going to just let him kill her! The large fury hidden behind her depressed emotions since the start of their fight began to emerge as an orange aura around her. Sasuke took notice of it and figured it to be a power-up of some sort.
"It's too late now, Natsumi!" he shouted and plunged his Chidori into her heart. At such a close range, he did not believe she could actually do anything about it. When his Sharingan spotted her left arm moving to deliver a palm strike to his left hand, he was shocked. Unfortunately, there was too much momentum behind his attack to prevent the counter-attack even if he saw it. His attack sailed harmlessly past her shoulder and he could do nothing against the violent headbutt she delivered to him. As he stumbled back, he could only wonder what the red chakra around her was. He could not comprehend where the sudden boost of power was coming from. The wind began to howl and the water splashed around them hard as the red chakra grew more volatile around Natsumi. Suddenly, his Sharingan registered an image of a ferocious giant fox with multiple tails behind her.
'W-What the heck... is this?' he wondered in shock. That shock was further increased when she raised her head to face him. Her blue eyes had turned to red with slits for pupils. 'What? When did she have a dojutsu?'
"Sasuke, I will stop you, even if I have to break every bone in your arms and legs!" Natsumi snarled.
'That's Natsumi? What is this intimidating power? And what is that red chakra? Is she a monster?' he rattled off his thoughts. "What the heck are you?" he voiced out one of said thoughts.
"The one who'll defeat you! I'm not letting you get to Orochimaru, that's why I said I'll break every bone in your arms and legs if that's what it takes to stop you!" With a fierce swipe, she sent a shock wave of air towards Sasuke, blowing him off his feet. While he was off-balance, she charged forward and landed a combo on him ending with a hammer blow, sending him plunging into the depths of the river. Sasuke resurfaced quite a distance away and appeared to be fleeing. With the boost from Kyuubi, she caught up with him in a matter of seconds, pummeling him with another combo. When he was knocked back, he hastily shot off a Goukakyu no Jutsu at her when she jumped towards him. He was stunned when his fireball was dispersed harmlessly by what seemed to be a blast of air and he paid for his momentary stillness by a stomp to his body, sending him underneath the river again. When he tried to swim to safety, he was pursued by Natsumi who bum-rushed him underwater, knocking him skywards. She chased after him and grabbed him by the legs and threw him into a cliff side. Sasuke landed on a small piece of the mountain where there was a flat surface and she stood at a distance, waiting for him to take action. "Come back to your senses already! If not, I really will break your bones until you can't move and drag you back home!"
"Shut up... What the heck do you, who has neither parents nor siblings, think you understand?" he asked as he struggled back to his feet. "What makes you think that you, who's been all alone from the start, can understand anything about me? It's because I have the ties that I feel this agony. How could you possibly understand... what it feels like to lose all that!" If he was trying to make her feel guilt, he only succeeded in angering her even further.
"At least you had them! I had nothing! I don't envy you for losing your family, but the reason for that agony is because you had those ties to begin with! The ties of love that is proof of a family! Something I will never have! It's true that I can't understand how it feels to really have parents or siblings, but I know the loneliness of being alone. If a loser like me can find someone to drag me out of that pit, there's no way someone like you can't do it too!"
That made Sasuke vaguely remember a saying that went along the lines of having something and then losing it was better than not having it at all. He was not sure what the exact words were, but he did remember it infuriating him the moment he read about it sometime during the Academy years. Now after Natsumi's words, he could start picturing loneliness as a coin, and that the loneliness both of them felt were simply different sides of the same coin.
"Why, Natsumi? Why do you go to this extent for me?" he asked, his anger starting to give way to rationality.
"It's a tie between us that I've finally been able to have! That's why I'm gonna stop you."
"It's too late, Natsumi. It's already too late. I can't go back anymore," he told her while putting on his hitai-ate he kept in his pocket the whole time. He felt his Sharingan morph, with his surrounds having more clarity that before. His Sharingan had developed the third tomoe. "Come, Natsumi! In that case, I just have to cut that tie."
"Cut the tie, huh? Then why wear that hitai-ate now?"
"I'll acknowledge you... You're strong. And the reason for that is you're someone who knows the pain of solitude as I do. And that pain makes people stronger. And for that very reason, by cutting that tie, I will be able to obtain even greater strength. I will fight you now on equal terms. However, you won't even be able to inflict a scratch on my forehead. That's something that won't change in the least."
"So words are no longer required, huh? Sasuke!"
"You're right. I'm done with talking... From here on, it's only fighting. Come!"
Natsumi rose to the challenge and charged Sasuke. Her prior speed was rendered useless thanks to his improved Sharingan who was able to keep her in its sights, allowing him to block, counter, and dodge her wild attacks. As he made distance by leaping away and standing sideways on the cliff wall, he took note that he was able to see her compared to before where he could not see her at all until she attacked.
'Sasuke's movements are completely different that before!' Natsumi realized after being parried and knocked back yet again, unaware of the Sharingan's upgrade. 'But I couldn't care less about that! In any case, I can't afford to lose!' Her recklessness bore no fruit, with Sasuke still able to counter her perfectly. With a perfectly timed punch, he brought the fight back to the river by sending her flying there once again. 'It's no good... He's totally reading my movements,' she thought as she sank into the river depths, trying to buy herself some thinking time. She had noticed during their last exchange that Sasuke's Sharingan now resembled Kakashi's own and his eyes were zipping all over the place, keeping track of exactly where she was at any given time. 'Damn it... How do I go against him now?'
Sasuke moved to stand on the surface of the river, focusing his senses. When several things burst forth from underwater, he saw that they were Natsumi's Kage Bunshin. They were trying to suicide-dive into him while others engaged in close combat. Dispatching them with ease, he smirked at the thought that he was making her waste chakra. He realized his mistake too late when he felt his ankles being grabbed and he was pulled under. All those clones were diversions to make him drop his guard. He was flung around and smashed into the mountainside by a chain of connecting clones. Despite the damage, he was still able to fire off his Ryuuka no Jutsu and set the chain of clones aflame. The flames traveled down the chain into the river, burning all of them. However, he was now in a state of panic, because he did not expect the first Natsumi in the chain to be the real body. The way she muttered his name in a state of half-clarity freaked him out. Because of this panic, his brain did not register the Kawarimi being performed right in front of him even though his Sharingan saw the chakra buildup for the substitution. The clone burst into white smoke, its duty done as the selected target for the real Natsumi's Kawarimi. He snapped back to his senses only after he was socked in the gut hard enough to spit out specks of blood.
"It's too late, Natsumi. It's too late now! Natsumi!" he screamed at her as he picked himself up. "You want to understand me, huh? You want to understand what it's like to have your own brother kill your entire family? I heard about it! You want to be like family to Hinata, right? Then let me kill her, your 'family'! I'll believe that you truly understand me only then! Only when you know the pain that I went through!"
When Natsumi heard those words, her mind snapped. She paid no heed that he could possibly be taunting her. It was a threat, pure and simple. If he wanted to kill Hinata, she would bring him to hell's gate personally!
"You want to destroy him, don't you, kid?" Natsumi heard the Kyuubi speak, startling her. She did not notice she had entered the sewer of her seal. It began to chuckle menacingly at her when she turned to face it. "You're weak. You won't beat that brat the way you are now. Here's a special gift just for this occasion, unlike the last time you needed my chakra to save your pathetic life. You better be grateful to me... and to the Fourth Hokage who contained me within the likes of you! Feel free to destroy him as you please!" Natsumi could feel even more of the Kyuubi's chakra entering her and healing her entire body.
The sewer of the seal changed back to the view of the real world in a blink of her eyes. As her line of sight moved to Sasuke, a red bubbling cloak started to surround her. She could feel her injuries disappearing already. Sasuke was stunned by what was happening in front of him. She drew her arm back, putting him on guard. All he could see was a ball of invisible chakra heading towards him when she snapped her arm forward, visible only because of his Sharingan. He was prepared to dodge it, but was instead hit before the ball of chakra was even close to hitting him. He did not expect such a small movement from her to be able to send a shock wave of displaced air that shot forward in front of the ball of chakra, making it a double-layered attack which hit him square in the face. He could not account for the shock wave of air because it was not caused by any jutsu, so his Sharingan missed it. It was caused from the sheer speed of her palm thrust. As he was sent tumbling backwards like a tumbleweed into the river, the bubbling cloak enveloped her in its entirely and she let out a roar, giving in to the urge of animalistic behavior she was feeling. She went on all fours like a predator, ready to strike at Sasuke who was clutching his face and writhing in pain on the river surface. The cloak lifted her twintails and positioned them to resemble Kyuubi's long ears by suspending them diagonally upwards behind her head. Charging Sasuke once he was on his feet, she was able to regain the upper hand. When Sasuke dodged her punch cleanly, the coat forced her leg to move into a kick which struck him cleanly. While she would normally be worried by the loss of control of her own body, she was too infuriated with Sasuke to care at all about that.
When Sasuke leaped away and starting launching fireballs at her, she dashed off on all fours to chase him, outpacing the fireballs. When he fired off a large one, she rushed straight into it, instinctively knowing it would do no damage to her. If he wanted to fight the range game, then she would oblige him. Stretching her hand towards him, the chakra cloak around her arm responded in kind and stretched into a giant claw, extending to grab Sasuke. As fleet-footed as Sasuke was, he could not escape her clutches forever, eventually getting caught and smashed into a mountain wall. When she spotted the black marks of the Cursed Seal spreading across his face and body, she sneakily sent her chakra claw underground, snaring him while he was unaware, pulling him in and blowing him back again with a massive punch.
"You're not giving me much a choice here," Sasuke said as he pulled himself from the crater he made with his own body crashing into yet another mountain wall. "If I get tainted by this power, I don't even know what will happen to me in the end... But it can't be helped, can it, Natsumi?" The black marks started spreading all over Sasuke's body, this time changing his skin colour and growing out his hair. "It is certainly true that you were special. However... I am even more special than you."
"By special... By special, you meant that hideous form?" she growled, her rationality barely intact behind her fury, made worse by the influence of the Kyuubi's chakra.
"I don't feel like I'm gonna lose," he replied. Considering it a taunt, she charged forward and made to claw his face off while dragging him across several feet of mountain. When the dust cleared, she was shocked to see some sort of webbed hand covering Sasuke protectively. When it flexed, she crossed her arms for a hasty block as she was struck by said hand and crashed into the opposite mountain. When she picked herself up, she saw it was actually an extra appendage coming from Sasuke's back where wings would be placed if humans actually had wings. It was a seriously disturbing sight to behold, even more so when Sasuke grew another one, completing the pair.
"Sasuke... You..." She shook away her shock and stood up but realized she did not have any feeling in her left arm. Just her luck that she crashed in such a way that she dislocated her left arm despite taking little to no damage. She could feel the Kyuubi's chakra hastily trying to heal it but she was not sure she could buy herself enough time for it to heal completely.
"That power you have... seems to involve some risks too, huh?" Sasuke guessed. She did not bother to answer him because as far as she knew, there did not seem to be any risks after activating it. At least, there had been none so far other than intensifying her rage, but she did not consider that any sort of risk. "Did you know? This place... is called the 'Valley of the End'. I think this is the perfect stage, don't you think, Natsumi?" He caught himself before she had a chance to reply. "Oh yeah. I said there'd be no more talking, didn't I? Well, in that case, how about we bring this battle to a close? All our battles up to now!" He performed the seals for the Chidori and it came to life but instead of the bright blue electricity, it sparked with an ominous black electricity. Natsumi responded in kind of forming a Rasengan on her right hand, unknowingly doing it with a single hand like Jiraiya had wanted her to do. It was purple in colour, the normal blue corrupted by the red of the Kyuubi's chakra. The chakra cloak was automatically providing the shell for her and its own volatility was already rotating the chakra. All she needed to do was output the necessary chakra, something easily done with one hand. She never noticed she performed the Hakke Kuushou one-handed either when she usually needed two hands. They charged towards each other, slamming their respective jutsu against each other.
The chakra involved reacted violently, forming a circular purple dome around them. Inside, the Chidori and Rasengan cancelled each other out again. Sasuke was the first to realize when the deadlock ended thanks to his Sharingan and moved to plunge his clawed hand into her heart but changed his attack target at the last second and plunged his hand into her abdomen. Because of his attack, he could not dodge the retaliatory punch aimed for his face. He watched with enhanced clarity as the fist moved to his face, about to cave his nose in... and fell just out of reach. He almost laughed at the sheer irony that the reason he won the fight was because Natsumi was simply smaller than him. It would have ended in a tie if she had landed that punch.
The purple dome turned black and expanded before cracking like glass and exploding. The explosion of chakra reached even the sky, clearing the clouds for but a moment. Natsumi was on the ground unconscious, her hair ties having snapped and her extremely long hair was spread out beneath her. Sasuke watched her with a blank face until his Cursed Seal acted up and he fell to his knees in pain and coughed up blood. He ignored his hitai-ate that fell next to Natsumi's face as heavy rain started to fall. His last thoughts before leaving was spent wondering why he switched to a debilitating blow from a killing blow at the last second. After he no longer needed to focus on simply staying conscious, he noted that he only did so because he felt he would gain nothing from killing her. Their friendship was not that strong, not enough for him to feel any sort of grief or despair if he took her life. So why did he spare her when it was not for friendship? He could only chalk it down to a whim of mercy.
***Break Line***
When the report of the mission status was filed, the other teammates of the participating members were informed of their status. Hinata almost fainted upon hearing Neji was at the brink of death and Natsumi was severely injured with a puncture wound in her abdomen at the time of rescue. They were both safely recuperating in the hospital and she rushed there immediately upon receiving the news. Neji was unable to receive visitors for the time being as he was still in intensive care, but Natsumi was clear. When she arrived at Natsumi's room, she saw Sakura outside the door. She gave her a polite greeting and opened the door.
"Natsumi-chan!"
"Yeah, Sasuke's gone..." The tail end of Natsumi's conversation with Shikamaru was revealed to the two girls outside the room. Sakura had a crushed look on her face and Natsumi refused to face her, too ashamed of her failure to bring Sasuke back. Sakura could not take the silence and ran away from them, running past an approaching Tsunade and confusing her.
"Did something happen with Sakura?" Tsunade asked as she entered the room.
"Not really, she just ran off when she heard about our mission's failure," Shikamaru replied, trying to be nonchalant.
"I see. It does concern her team-mate so we can't blame her. Give her some time to regain her composure," she replied. "Anyway, I heard you suffered quite a serious injury, but you look quite well, considering the report."
"Well, yeah! Nothing can keep me down for long!" Natsumi bragged, looking quite unconvincing because of all the bandages visible even with her hospital gown. Despite her confident look, Hinata saw something else.
"Shikamaru-kun, is it alright if we could have some privacy with Tsunade-sama?" Hinata requested.
"Take all the time you need," he replied as he made his way to leave.
"You are not alright at all, are you, Natsumi-chan?" Hinata sat on the edge of the bed next to Natsumi and gently placed her hand on Natsumi's own. Natsumi's confident look quickly crumbled into one of self-loathing.
"I failed to retrieve Sasuke..." she said miserably.
"No-one has a perfect mission record, not even the best ninjas. You don't have to beat yourself up so hard over this."
"If it wasn't something as important as this and didn't involve the others!" she snapped. "Everyone got seriously hurt! Kiba, Chouji, Neji! Shikamaru was the only one who came back without being close to death! Everyone risked their lives to give me the chance to bring Sasuke back, and I failed! They trusted me with the most important part of the mission, and I screwed it up! If any of them had died, how am I supposed to apologize to them for failing?"
"No-one on the team died, so an apology is hardly necessary. We ninjas can die at any time, and at any place. All of them knew that," Tsunade told her. "But do you really understand this, Natsumi?"
"I know that! I... know that..."
"They'll forgive you. I forgive you. I'm sure Sakura will forgive you too. So how about forgiving yourself?"
"Baa-chan..."
"Don't be so down. Missions involving Sasuke will definitely come in the future. You still have chances to take him back. For now, rest up, heal, then train and get stronger for the next time you get the chance again! Got it?"
"Yeah! Thanks, baa-chan!" This time, a more genuine smile was on Natsumi's face.
"Good. I'll leave you two alone now," Tsunade waved goodbye and closed the door behind her.
"Are you feeling better now, Natsumi-chan?"
"More or less. I'm not depressed like before," she replied with a smile.
"Do you want me to stay with you? With Kiba-kun hurt and Shino-kun away with his father on a special mission, I have some free time."
"Of course! Please, Hinata-chan, stay with me!"
"Okay, okay," Hinata giggled. "I can also practice my medical ninjutsu on you. Tsunade-sama says I am making great progress although I still require the use of the Byakugan to make sure I'm doing it correctly. I don't have the confidence to try without it."
"Sure, go right ahead!"
***Break Line***
For the rest of the morning and afternoon, Hinata made little progress on her medical ninjutsu practice. It took her some time to get her normal chakra to turn into healing chakra and even then, she could only heal superficial damage such as scratches and scuffs on Natsumi's skin. The lacerations were left unhealed even though she tried. Hinata knew what her problem was and Tsunade had quickly identified it with just one glance when their lessons started. She told her her own low self-confidence as well as the fear of failure held her back. Activating and keeping her Byakugan active was a waste of chakra even if it did allow her to catch any mistakes on her part and correct her chakra quickly. It was also useful to immediately identify the problem areas and to monitor the patient's condition, but anything beyond that was simply a waste of chakra especially if she continued treating her Byakugan like a safety blanket. Chakra wastage was one of the worst things a medic-nin could do. Hinata's current task was to convert her normal chakra into healing chakra without the aid of her Byakugan at a quick pace, something she was still struggling with.
When evening arrived, Hinata was relaxing by cutting apple slices from Natsumi's fruit basket to feed her. Natsumi was more than happy to act like a pampered child waiting to be spoon-fed which Hinata found endearingly cute because whenever she offered a slice of fruit to her, her eyes started sparkling with a child's adoration. A sudden quake caused Hinata to lose her balance and fall directly on top of Natsumi. She let out a yelp of surprise while Natsumi was comically screaming and flailing her arms in pain from the weight of another person on top of her, attracting the attention of the person outside responsible for the quake.
"Was it really that big of an entrance on my... part...?" Jiraiya heard their screams and was about to let himself in through the window of Natsumi's room when he saw the two girls and where they were located. His worried look turned into a perverted, sleazy smile instantly. He was secretly glad that he decided to literally drop in on them with a giant toad summon right outside the window. Hinata was on top of Natsumi in a very suggestive straddling position. Her hands were on Natsumi's shoulders, looking as if she was holding her down and her knees were placed at the sides of Natsumi's hips. And because Hinata was just only beginning to pick herself up from the loss of balance, both girls' faces were very close to each other, almost like they were going in for a kiss if not for Natsumi making weird faces to express her pain. When he let out a perverted giggle, they both turned to face him with confused looks.
"Ero-Sennin? What's with that stupid look on your face?" Natsumi asked.
"Jiraiya-sama?" Hinata too was puzzled by his lecherous look.
"I always suspected you two were an item, but I never expected things to have gotten this far so fast," Jiraiya said, taking out his notepad and scribbling hastily on it.
"Huh? What are you babbling about? What item?" Natsumi snapped, not in any mood to entertain his perverse tendencies.
"U-Um... Natsumi-chan..." Hinata was the first to notice their compromising position the moment Jiraiya started writing in his notepad. Her face turned red in record time, only to turn redder when Natsumi ignorantly asked why her face was turning so red when she was the one in pain from having being pressed down on.
"Here, look," Jiraiya caught their attention, producing a mirror from seemingly nowhere, reflecting their images to them. The reflection perfectly showed Natsumi's face gradually turning the same shade of embarrassed red as her best friend when they saw themselves. Before they could fix themselves, however, the door to the room slid open with a bang.
"What's go-" Tsunade and Shizune were there, frozen in place just as they were about to step in. Their faces flushed in embarrassment, Shizune even more so than Tsunade, at having caught the two girls seemingly doing something really intimate. "Sorry for barging in," Tsunade apologized and quickly slammed the door shut again.
"No, wait! Tsunade-baa-chan!" Natsumi cried out.
"Please don't misunderstand, Tsunade-sama!" Hinata cried out as well, their denials of what went through Tsunade's mind turning into a jumbled mess of incoherent speech as both girls grew more and more embarrassed as even more people starting having wrong impressions of the two best friends.
Jiraiya was free to continue jotting down steamy plots for his novel as both girls ended up crashing their foreheads together while trying to untangle their limbs and fell in unconscious bliss in the same bed. When he was done, he decided to spare both girls some dignity and re-positioned them properly so they appeared to be merely sharing the same bed rather than looking like some failed attempt at a raunchy activity in a very public area such as the hospital.
***End of Chapter***
Differences
After the deadlock between the first Chidori versus Rasengan.
Canon: Naruto remained in a depressed slump until Sasuke impaled him with the Chidori. By the time he sorts out his thoughts about Sasuke's declaration of their friendship, he barely managed to save his own life by diverting the killing Chidori to his shoulder.
My version: Natsumi starts out depressed as well, but grows enraged after sorting out her thoughts about Sasuke's declaration of their friendship. Instead of Naruto wanting to save him by stopping him with force for the sake of their friendship, she wants to bring him back as the defector that he is. She completely deflects the killing Chidori with her better taijutsu.
When Sasuke yells at Naruto for claiming to understand him when he has not lost any sort of family because he had none in the first place.
Canon: Naruto claims that he wonders if the time he spent hanging out with Iruka could be considered as some sort of familial tie.
My version: Natsumi has that familial tie with Hinata, and Sasuke knows that. He tells her that if she truly wanted to understand him and his agony, to allow him to kill her. That enrages her to the point the Kyuubi felt her rage and grants her the chakra cloak, unlike Naruto who needed the chakra cloak to heal himself from a near-death situation.
When Naruto receives the chakra for the chakra cloak.
Canon: Kyuubi had to give it to him to save his life after suffering from a taijutsu maneuver that seemed to have broken his neck.
My version: Natsumi was never in any life-threatening situation throughout the fight, and only achieved it from Sasuke's provocation. Her rage from just hearing his threat to kill Hinata was enough to attract Kyuubi's attention and gave it to her, encouraging her to kill him.
The last blow after the final Chidori and Rasengan deadlock.
Canon: Naruto manages to scratch Sasuke's hitai-ate after Sasuke stabs him in the abdomen.
My version: Natsumi doesn't go for Sasuke's forehead after getting stabbed, but goes straight for his face. However, she doesn't even land a scratch on his nose, simply because she's too small.
During Naruto and Shikamaru's discussion about their failed mission in the hospital.
Canon: Sakura overhears that Naruto failed to bring back Sasuke outside his hospital room. She is crushed, and when Tsunade drops by for a visit, she has enough time to compose herself and pretend she's fine about the mission failure.
My version: Hinata arrives and opens the door to Natsumi's hospital room while Sakura is still outside, allowing everyone to see her crushed look just as Natsumi tells Shikamaru that she failed to bring back Sasuke. Sakura doesn't have the time to compose herself and runs away instead.
Extra Scene: Natsumi laments the fact she failed the mission and gets a pep talk from Tsunade about the reality of their profession.
***Break Line***
Good god! I don't know how many times I had to rewrite this because of how bad I am at fighting scenes! I can picture it in my head, but I just can't seem to be able to put it into words. I am truly sorry for readers of this story for the very long wait.
This is the first difference between Naruto and Natsumi's relationship with Sasuke. Between the boys, Sasuke secretly considers Naruto as his closest friend. But with Natsumi, he just barely considers her a friend, but still a friend even though she is actually closer to understanding his pain than Naruto is. This stems from the hospital fight, because Naruto wants to keep what he feels is his closest bond intact and just wants Sasuke's acknowledgement. Natsumi wants his acknowledgement as well, but quickly regrets the way she chased after it after remembering she already has a 'closest bond' with Hinata.
This chapter also shows the difference in emotional control between Naruto and Natsumi. Pre-Shippuden, Naruto has never been shown to fly off the handle so hard as to trigger any sort of Kyuubi-fueled rage power boost except for the time he believed Haku killed Sasuke. All the other times were him simply drawing it out. Natsumi, on the other hand, has already hit her rage trigger multiple times, especially when Hinata is involved. She can still draw out the Kyuubi's chakra normally if she wants to.
For the next chapter, it will be an original chapter taking place after the events of an OVA.
I look forward to getting more readers who like this story. Do Follow/Favorite/Review this story, and big thanks to those who are kind enough to do so!