"All Kill Landing Edge"

By Nes Mikel

Acknowledgment;

I hereby acknowledge that the work of fiction presented here is for my own personal amusement and entertainment purposes alone. I hereby also acknowledge that while this story is mostly based on Kishimoto Masashi's "Naruto", certain crossover elements from Type-Moon's "Garden of Sinners/Kara no Kyoukai" also exist, although knowledge of it is not a requirement. Thus, I acknowledge that the original story concept and ideas, while heavily altered for the sake of the crossover, are copyright of all its associates.

For non up-to-date readers, this fiction will contain spoilers up to the latest Naruto manga chapters.

With that said, enjoy.

"All Kill Landing Edge"

- Chapter Eight -

"Lanh Ca"

Vietnamese – "Cold Fish"

Uchiha Sasuke sat at the seat closest to the exit of the Academy classroom, wearing purple elbow warmers and a longer, more stuffed-out version of his standard black shirt and white pants, watching a certain girl from the corner of his eye. He had noticed her staring out of the window of the classroom from her opposite end, at the latest snowfall that had graced Konoha outside the Academy, looking distracted and aloof. Fire Country was usually known for their normally temperate weather, but this year it was especially cold. Although rumors – of which, that after this batch of snow had let up, spring would finally rear its head around the corner – did reach his ears, the normally cool and collected ten-year-old was starting to get sick of it. Because of the weather, outdoor classes were mostly canceled and the Academy teachers had instead settled into teaching their students theory and deskwork; a subject, which he had come to grudgingly admit was something necessary, still bugged the corner of his mind into thinking that it was the most useless subject of them all in his quest for becoming stronger.

The certain girl in question was a fair-skinned one with average height among their age group. She had blonde hair cut short at shoulder-length, with a slight protruding bang that mildly covered the right of her face. She also had fair green eyes that bordered on almost blue and sported a small green clip in her left side of her hair. A lesser-informed individual would've taken her appearance and current attitude as signs of weakness, but despite her thin physique that still had plenty of filling out left to do before she became an adult, Sasuke had noticed her energy and restlessness. Perhaps others would've confused themselves in thinking that her restlessness was something like boredom or lack of interest in class, but…

Only if they didn't see her eyes. Sasuke thought.

Ino's eyes were no longer 'young', he noticed. Her mouth below her was thinner too, and together they made her look far wiser, tougher… ruthless, even. Above all, they were signs of determination, signs that told Sasuke that Ino sought after strength now more than ever. They were the eyes and mouths of an reborn Yamanaka Ino, heiress of the Yamanaka Clan and to-be member of the much-anticipated next generation of the famous Ino-Shika-Cho trio. When Sasuke's eyes drifted apart towards the usually sleeping lazy boy and the other who Sasuke had never seen his hands empty with some sort of food or beverage, he noticed Nara Shikamaru grumbling to himself even more and Akimichi Chouji looking dismayed and beaten, for nothing occupied his hands today.

Something, had happened.

Sasuke's point-of-view shifted rapidly in-between them for several more seconds before turning his attention back to the teacher Umino Iruka who was currently in the middle of writing several equations on the blackboard. Frustrated, he focused his thoughts inwards. He had no clue what happened to Ino, or Shikamaru or Chouji for that matter, but it was obvious something had come to pass, and it irritated him. He told himself it was mostly because he paid actual attention to Yamanaka Ino – she was one of two girls in his Academy classes who didn't bother him constantly, and the only one who was obviously very interested in advancing herself as a kunoichi and had put actual effort into it. Sasuke still held a decent lead over Ino in fieldwork, but they were head-to-head in academics and competed against each other feverishly. That alone was enough for him to gather respect. He could almost call her his rival, and it was only his pride – pride as an Uchiha or just because it would be too bothersome if the other girls heard him, he didn't know – that prevented him for calling her one outright.

And now, something had happened to Ino that had ignited her motivation to become stronger, and Shikamaru and Chouji did not remain uninvolved in the whole thing. His mind briefly wandered in picking up a rumor he heard the other day about this certain Haruno Sakura, who, after being stuck two years in a coma, had finally woken up about two weeks ago, and he wondered if she anything to do with it. Sasuke vaguely recalled this Haruno Sakura through his memories. He did remember that a pink-haired girl had been a part of their class before, and she and Ino had been good friends. Ino's weekly hospital visits were also famous, as he was refused by Ino once when he thought to invite her in training together after class a few times. Maybe she did have to do with it, maybe she didn't. Nevertheless, this meant Sasuke was going to need to put extra effort into his training once class was done today, for he did not want to see Ino catch up to him that easily. But curiosity, once kindled, was difficult to extinguish. Just what exactly happened to Ino that made her so…?

"Sasuke, would you like to come up here please so you can solve this equation for us?" His teacher called up to him.

His train of thought broken, he nodded once and got up from his chair and walked himself up the classroom. As Umino Iruka passed him his piece of chalk so he could write, Uchiha Sasuke told himself he will find out what happened to Yamanaka Ino once class was over as he prepared the answer on the chalkboard.

And if it meant talking to that loud blonde idiot about it, so be it.

"Hey, dead last."

Uzumaki Naruto did not like Uchiha Sasuke. He couldn't exactly point a finger as to why he felt this way, but he had a nagging suspicion to the fact that it was because Sasuke and Ino seemed a little too close for Naruto's liking. Not like they were going out or anything, as Naruto remembers a time when Ino punched him in the gut when he asked (she even told him he was an absolute blockhead, how mean!), but every time he saw Sasuke beating Ino when they were competing during class, the feeling emerged.

"What do you want?" Naruto grumbled, stopping to turn just as he was about to leave class after the bell had rung. "And I'm not dead last!"

"Close enough." Sasuke shrugged as he replied, shooting down Naruto's defense of 'technically' not being the dead last in class. "You're down there in scores with ninjutsu and genjutsu anyway."

Naruto let loose a feral growl. Despite his many attempts to correct his weakness, even with the help from outward sources like Inoichi and Tenten it was proving to be difficult for Naruto to mold his chakra so he could correctly perform techniques that were considered even basic. It was only with Ino and Tenten's encouragements and Kiba's teasing he didn't let up in his efforts.

He had in fact seriously considered once in shifting into a more weapons-heavy style (after all, aren't ninjas that wielded big-ass bladed weapons cool looking?), especially after a certain after-school training session where, in his attempt at a henge transformation technique, Naruto blew up Kiba's Inuzuka clan household back yard. Although Naruto had no idea how a mere transformation technique could scatter so much dirt around, it was almost enough to make him seriously consider giving up on using jutsus ever. And that led to his visit of the weapon shop which Tenten's family ran, which then led to their first meeting. It was through this newly won friend that Naruto was told about a certain bowl-cut classmate of hers that dreamed of becoming a great ninja through taijutsu alone. Thus even if jutsus failed him, he still had a way to become a ninja, a way to become Hokage, and no matter what, he was going to achieve it.

And he especially wasn't going to let this bastard stand in his way towards that goal.

"You wanted something from me, didn't you?" Naruto replied, making certain his loathing was noticed by the other boy. "Not the best way to go about it, is it?"

"Whatever." Sasuke shrugged again, ignoring it. He looked away to his right. "I wanted to ask you about Ino."

Naruto did not like where this conversation was going. He felt a small pang deep in his heart. He quickly looked around the classroom and noticed they were the only ones left. At least she isn't around to hear it. Naruto thought.

"What about Ino-chan?" He asked.

"I wanted to ask what happened."

It was a vague question, but Naruto somehow understood just what exactly the Uchiha was asking for. Deciding he could at least tell the bastard that much, Naruto speaks again. "Well, you know how Ino-chan's always been trying to be stronger, right?"

Sasuke nods, urging him to continue.

"She was mainly trying to become stronger for Sakura-chan's sake." Naruto said. "Because… er, do you know about Sakura-chan?"

"Yes."

"Uh, okay. Well anyway, she woke up now, but apparently there's something wrong with her, and Ino-chan and her family feels responsible for it."

It wasn't very often where Naruto got to see the stoic-faced Uchiha's eyes widen in surprise, but the expression faded away as quickly as it came. "Responsible?" Sasuke asked Naruto after he'd recovered.

Naruto shrugged back. "I don't know the details. Ino-chan never really told me. But yeah, anyways, so in order to repay the debt, Ino-chan said she has to protect Sakura-chan now, and in order to that she said she's going to start training even more!" Naruto's voice grew larger with each sentence, excitement running in his bones now. "She's going to receive direct training from Inoichi-ojisan now! You got that, Sasuke-bastard?" He pointed a finger at Sasuke, his eyes beaming in fierce pride. "It means Ino-chan's gonna kick your ass once she starts learning awesome techniques from her dad! Believe it!"

Once he was finished, Naruto glowed at Sasuke, thinking he had no doubts that Sasuke was fully intimidated by now. But, as he soon found out, Sasuke's reaction wasn't quite something Naruto expected.

"Hn."

"Huh? Wait, that's it?" Naruto asked him, his excited mood quickly deflating. "Just a 'Hn'? I said she's going to kick your a-"

Before Naruto could say another word though, Sasuke turned around and calmly walked out of the classroom door.

Left all alone in the now-silent classroom, Naruto scratched his head in disgust. "You… gah! This is why you're such a bastard, Sasuke!"

Naruto's voice echoed harmlessly back at him.

Sakura did not know if she hated or liked these rehabilitation exercises. At first, she couldn't even hold her hands properly against the silver bars in the mirror-filled rehab room inside the Hospital, and every movement she made with her body responded back with intense pain rummaging from top to bottom. The worst part was where she was pretty much forced to keep her eyes open lest she lose her balance, and every moment she had her eyes open meant that she had to stare at the changed world filled with those black lines. And the longer she stared at it, the more nauseous she would get. She had to let the doctors know she was unable to continue after an hour at most, and much to her relief they didn't press her on with their insistence.

On the other hand, she did have to admit that these exercises were doing what the doctor had promised her with. Every day came with recorded progresses, and by the time she was done with her thirteenth session she could feel herself walking again, although she still needed the bars to support herself. By this twenty-eighth session she was able to walk across the room without using the bars at all, although it did leave her completely exhausted. But it did bring a much-needed smile back to her mouth.

It was when the doctors had settled her in a wheelchair when a certain white-robed man walked into the rehab room. All it took her was one look to realize who this visitor of hers was. She wouldn't be a villager of Konoha if she didn't know what that symbol on his cone-shaped hat meant.

"Pleased to meet you, I suppose?" The old man says as he walks calmly towards her and crouches down slightly so they were at the same level. "I believe this is the first time we've met." He extends his hand in greeting, smiling. "Good afternoon, Sakura. I am Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Third Hokage of this village."

"All Kill Landing Edge"

- Chapter Eight -

-END-

Author's Notes:

Chapter eight.

I should really try to get out of the habit of delaying until the last minute before I write. Another last-minute chapter. Quality? What's that?

All kidding aside, edits to come later. Forgive me. Also tried something different with the summary starting from this chapter in a vain attempt to attract more readers. But I can't be blamed for that, can I? Haha.

Thanks for reading!

- Nes Mikel

All Kill Landing Edge, Chapter Eight "Lanh Ca", First Edition: February 23rd, 2013, Last Edit: March 1st, 2013