Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto
Chapter 5
So here is chapter 5
Side note before continuing. This story is a sasukeXsakura story, though there will not be much sasusaku moment till after the 3 year gap, because I can't take romance between 13 year olds seriously. Even if they have the mind of an eighteen year old. Romance between 13 year olds is just blah.
Anyway onward
"What's wrong with them?" Kakashi ask the blond boy from behind his perverted little green book.
The team was currently escorting Tazuna to the unfinished bridge and things were...tense. While Naruto remained wedged between Kakashi and Tazuna, Sakura and Sasuke were a few feet ahead of them completely ignoring each other. They down right refused to even look at each other.
Naruto stared at his two teammates and shrugged. "They had a fight yesterday."
Lowering his book, he peered at the blond. "About?"
"Not sure, they weren't making any sense."
By the time they arrived at the bridge, Tazuna was immediately surrounded by his fellow workers. Greeting and 'welcome backs' were exchanged.
"Well, we'll be going then." Kakashi spoke as he gave the bridge builder a small bow. The old man surrounded by his colleagues offered him a smile of 'thanks.'
"THAT'S RIGHT REMEMBER ME! THE GREAT NARUTO UZUMAKI." Naruto gave their client a 'good guy' pose.
Thwack
Kakashi gave the blond a slap on the back of the head, effectively shushing him. Mumbling a small remark of apology for Naruto's outburst, he dragged the blond boy away before he could spew another round of outbursts.
"You have a good team Kakashi-san."
The silver haired man stopped in his tracks and turned towards their client. His grey eyes softened. "I know."
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"KAKASHI-SENSEI!" Heads turned towards the pink haired girl, who was now in a defensive stance. Curious stares were shared.
"What's wrong?"
Sakura said nothing, but instead she pointed towards the rapidly approaching mist. Soon enough, the whole bridge was shrouded.
A scream was heard.
"Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura protect Tazuna!" Kakashi ordered with an urgency that they've never heard. Immediately the three surrounded their charge once more. Each with a kunai in hand they waited for the enemy to reveal themselves.
"Hatake Kakashi."
The silhouette of a large broad shouldered male manifested though the thick mist. Kakashi pulled up his hitai-ate, and reached for a kunai.
"You sure that's enough to handle my kubikiribocho."
A large sword cut though the mist, Kakashi instinctively raised the kunai to his left to block the incoming attack. When he heard the familiar clang of two metals, he raised his leg and kicked the mist ninja. A pained grunt was heard and once again the enemy disappeared into the fog.
Kakashi mentally sighed, this was going to be a long battle.
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"Tazuna stay behind me at all times." Sakura commanded the old man who was slightly cowering behind her. "Anything, Sasuke." Her green eyes stared at her two male teammates as they scanned the area for possible other enemies.
With his sharingan activated, he peered easily though the dense mist. A small quiver was seen from his left. "Left, 2 meters out."
Sakura immediately slide herself over to the left side of Tazuna, waiting for the enemy. However, Naruto had other ideas. The moment Sasuke gave the location of the second enemy, the blond launched himself into action. Making ten clones of himself, they all charged to the left. He ignored the yells from Sasuke to stop.
"TAKE THIS!" Naruto shouted when one of his clones found the enemy and landed a punch. The sound of a body hitting the ground and sliding backwards could be heard.
"Fast, but not fast enough."
A blurred figure sped through the fog and straight towards Naruto who had yet to notice. Hands flat out like the Hyuuga Hakke form, Haku was inches from Naruto's chest. Just as his hand was about to thrust into the blond's chest, another hand stopped his. Turning his head around, he stared at two glowing red eyes.
"I'm faster." said Sasuke, as he threw the mist ninja to the side.
Sliding back Haku stared at the two boys. A sly smirk crossed his face. "Hijutsu: Makyo Hyosho"
The mist around them warped, as large ice mirrors stacked themselves into a large dome around Naruto and Sasuke. The image of the long haired mist ninja etched into each and everyone of those mirrors. The sly smirk on his face grew larger. "Shall we play, boys?"
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Sakura felt her hand twitch as she watched the two ongoing battles. To her left her two teammates were trapped in Haku's bloodline, and on her right she could barely make out the two blur personals of her teacher and zabuza. A dull ache radiated in her chest. This reminded her all to much of the war. Naruto and Sasuke off fighting against the Juubi, Kakashi trapped in Kamui fighting his childhood teammate while she stood safely away from all the battles...watching.
'And the ending result was that they all died' the tiny mocking voice in her head rang out.
"Go help your teammates."
She snapped out of her thoughts, and turned to face Tazuna. "No, it's my duty to protect you." As much as she itched to help her team, Tazuna was her duty and as a ninja she mustn't fail. Gripping her kunai even tighter she silently cursed as she watched the two ongoing battles.
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A flurry of kunais rained down on Zabuza, who easily deflected them. "Is that -" he was cut short, when Kakashi vanished from his view.
"Here." Zabuza eyes widened, when he felt the cold metal of a kunai cutting into his throat. Taking a gamble, he took the end of his sword and rammed it into Kakashi's stomach. The kunai on his neck momentarily loosened, as he got free.
Watching as Kakashi spit out a mouthful of blood, he charged towards him brandishing the kubikirihocho. The blade made contact with the silver haired man and a puff of white smoke took it's place. When the smoke cleared a log fell with a dull thunk on the bridge.
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu."
The eight nin dogs emerged from the ground, each latching on to a section of Zabuza's leg, while pakkun merely sat uninterestedly on top of the huge black bull dog.
Growling Zabuza tried to get himself free.
"Raikiri!" Zabuza's eyes widened a fraction when he saw the ball of blue lightening slice through the mist and straight into his chest. Blood erupted from his mouth, as he stared down at the arm that was protruding from his chest. Tiny droplets of blood dripped down from his mouth.
"It's over, Zabuza." Said Kakashi, as he pulled his arm out, shaking the blood of his hand as he watched the mist ninja give another cough before crumbling to the ground dead.
The heavy mist almost instantaneously lifted. Lowering his hitai-ate, he walked to the bridge builder. His summonings disappeared in tiny puffs of smoke.
"NARUTO!"
A feral growl resounded on the silent bridge as the workers watched in shock. The large ice mirrors completely shattered, as Haku was sent flying out with a two tailed Naruto latched onto his throat.
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Naruto jumped and threw a punch at one of the ice mirrors in hopes that it would shatter, but no such thing happened. Growling he stubbornly continued to send punches and kicks at the chunk of ice.
"You're weak, boy." The hollow voice of haku rang out from within the dome.
Growling Naruto made twenty clones each of them attacking the mirrors.
"Calm down, Naruto." Sasuke said, as he grabbed tore the real Naruto off from one of the ice mirrors.
Still angry, Naruto managed to calm down a bit when he saw the stern look on Sasuke's face.
Tracking Haku with his sharingan, he was able to catch the mist ninja exiting one mirror to enter the next. Taking this opportunity, he raised his hand to his mouth. "Katon: Karyuu endan" A blast of fire emerged from is lips and shot straight towards Haku. It managed to snag the bottom of his pants leaving a scorched marking.
"That's the real one, so attack that one." Sasuke pointed the slightly wounded Haku to Naruto.
"Sensatsu suisho" Thousands of ice senbons rained out from the mirrors of the ice dome.
Now, Sasuke may be insanely fast, and have the strength rivaling a jounin's, but even he knew there was no way he could dodge all those needles, and especially with Naruto here, it was also up to him to protect the dumb blond. Gritting his teeth, he withdrew his kusanagi, and did his very best to deflect the thousands of tiny needles.
Once all the senbons were either one the ground, or embedded in some part of his body, Sasuke lowered his kusanagi. Raising his eyes he stared at the shocked expression on Naruto's face.
"What's that dumb expression for?" Sasuke gave the blond a dead pan stare as he wiped away a thin trail of blood dripping from his mouth.
"You…" Naruto pointed shockingly at his friend. "Why?"
Sasuke shrugged, as he pulled the needles that found their way into his body. Wincing each time the offending material exited.
A familiar growl rippled through Naruto's throat, immediately catching Sasuke's attention. He watched as demon-y red eyes over take the once cerulean blue. The three whiskers on each side of the blond's face grew more prominent, and a suffocating, vile red chakra oozed from him.
"Naruto calm down." Sasuke stared into Naruto's eyes with his sharingan hoping that it could somehow calm him down, but it only seemed to further agitate it. Faster than ever, more of the kyuubi's chakra pour out from Naruto and two tails formed behind the blond boy.
Letting out another inhuman roar, Naruto charged towards the mirrors.
"NARUTO!"
A feral growl resounded on the silent bridge as the workers watched in shock. The large ice mirrors completely shattered, as Haku was sent flying out with a two tailed Naruto latched onto his throat.
The only sound that was heard was Haku's desperate screams as the kyuubi Naruto mercilessly slashed at his body.
Sakura watched in horror, as she saw Naruto slowly lose himself. She remembered when Naruto had lost control during his battle with Orochimaru, and nearly hacked off her arm when she tried to approach him.
'This isn't him'
"NARUTO STOP!" Dropping her kunai to the ground she ran towards the blond boy. She ignored the worried shouts from Kakashi and Sasuke.
Once she got close to Naruto, she slowed her pace. "Naruto." She watched as the said boy turn towards her. One of his tails flicked towards her. Remembering how dangerous his tails were last time, she neatly dodged it. "Stop, this isn't you."
Naruto roared, as he pushed himself off Haku's lacerated body and headed towards Sakura.
"I'm sorry." Sakura whispered, as she gathered chakra to her palm, she watched as her chakra turn from the original blue color to a vibrant red. It was after that mission where Naruto nearly took her arm that she had decided to study up on sealing techniques for bijuus. After months of staying the Konoha archives she finally found a way she could suppress the kyuubi if it ever went out of control. The technique she was planning on using was incredibly dangerous for the user, since it involved coming into direct contact with the kyuubi's destructive chakra while maintaining the highest form of chakra control and manipulation of ones own chakra by changing it from it's normal blue to a destructive red.
Sliding one foot back, she saw Kakashi and Sasuke run towards her from the corner of her eye. But, before they reached her, she jumped towards the charging Naruto. With her hand outstretched before her, she slammed it into the blond's chest. The force behind her attack sent the both of them to the ground.
She held back a scream when she felt the chakra from the kyuubi graze against her other arm. She could feel the muscles in it being slowly ripped apart. Pumping more chakra to the hand that was placed on his chest, she watched the bubbling kyuubi chakra slowly receded. Cerulean eyes slowly emerged from within the red feral ones.
"S-Sakura-chan?"
Releasing the destructive chakra around her hand, she slowly staggered up. "Are you okay?"
Nodding, Naruto pushed himself up. His eyes widened when he saw the blood dripping down Sakura's arm. "Yo-your arm." He sputtered.
Glancing down at her limp arm, Sakura winced. The kyuubi chakra really did it's work this time. Shakily with her other hand she gathered the warm green glow of the healing chakra and gently pressed down on her injured arm. A small sigh escaped her lips when she felt the muscles slowly repair itself.
"Sakura, are you crazy!" The said girl slightly jumped at the loud shout. Meekly turning around she saw the furious look in Kakashi's lone eye. "That was highly irresponsible and reckless, you could have been seriously injured."
"Sorry." She lowered her head. "I read about that technique in a scroll once and I thought it could help."
Kakashi heaved a sigh. Granted her actions were stupid, but he had to give her brownie points for helping a teammate. "Are you sure you're okay?" His grey eye softened, as he examined the girl for any other signs of injury.
Nodding, she felt Kakashi lightly ruffled her hair.
"Okay. Stay here while I go talk to Tazuna." With that Kakashi walked towards their client.
"What happened Sakura-chan?" Naruto's brows furrowed in confusion.
"You att-"
"Haku attacked me." Sakura finished as she stepped in front of Sasuke. "But, I'm fine now."
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Sasuke felt something close to worry when he saw his pink haired teammate charge towards the raging blond, but felt absolute anger when she denied him the right to tell Naruto what really happened.
"Sakura I need to talk to you." He gritted, as he tugged the girl away from the blond. Once they were out of earshot he turned to her with a furious look.
"Are you crazy?" He seethed. "He could have killed you."
Sakura glared right back. "This happened before, or rather in the future, and I've learnt on how to handle it."
"He still could have killed you!"
"I can handle myself, Sasuke. Besides, I'm not just going to abandon Naruto when he's in that state. He never once left me, so I would never do that to him."
Sasuke slightly winced when he heard the double entendre in her phrase. "Fine, then why didn't you tell him the truth, if you care about him so much." He was slightly taken aback by how bitter he sounded. It was almost as if he cared about her and Naruto's relationship. Which he did not.
"Because when this happened before - in the future, it killed him when he found out. So I'm not putting him through that, especially when I have it under control."
"And if he kills you." Sasuke challenged.
"He doesn't." Sakura glared right back.
Sasuke opened his mouth to throw another retort at her, but closed it when he saw his third teammate approach them
"What are you guys talking about?" Naruto asked as he carelessly slung his arm across Sakura's shoulders.
"Just how much we love you." She grinned, while ignoring Sasuke's scoff. "Let's go to Kakashi-sensei okay?" Linking arms with an ecstatic blond, and dragging a reluctant Sasuke by the wrist, she pulled them towards their sensei.
"So you're telling me that you've had these two ninjas after you all this time?" Kakashi sounded pissed.
"I'm terribly sorry, Kakashi-san." Tazuna bowed deeply.
"Why didn't you just tell the Hokage-sama?"
"I don't have enough money to hire the more skilled ninjas." Tazuna looked ashamed. "Is there anything I can do to make it up to you guys?"
"How about it naming it 'the Great Naruto Bridge.'" Sakura pipped up, as she poked her head out from behind Kakashi.
Tazuna smiled. "Of course."
DONE, DONE, DONE! Chuunin exams will start very soon!
Guys let see if I can get 7 reviews for this chapter. If so I'll update the next chappie.
That is right I am soliciting for reviews...I have no shame anymore! hahahah sorry.