Transition
Sakura is perceived from the perspectives of others as she changes during the years into something else entirely. The people near her follows her transition closely and when she starts abandoning everything she held dear - she gets closer and closer to her goal.
Chapter 13
The Sweetest Poison
Through the Eyes of a Boy Who Was Once Loved, an Old Puppeteer and the Red Scorpion
The Fox Boy Uzumaki Naruto
When she came back and her eyes were green again, she slid the katana back into its scabbard, her eyes were distant and thoughtful. Naruto cleared his throat and the vermillion man waited patiently with knitted eyebrows in front of the girl. Had he seen her eyes flash white when she had opened them?
"You seem a bit out of it. You alright?" Naruto worried his lip and shook her gently. She blinked.
"Oh. Yeah! I'm fine, I'm fine. Just- had my mind elsewhere." Sakura said and smiled reassuringly, absentmindedly stroking the hilt of her katana.
"So what did she tell you?" Naruto inquired and Sakura chewed her lip.
"The Merge is a technique where my chakras and Izanami's blend together in its currents, similar to a dam opening in different directions, giving my body and mind a boost of sorts." She explained and cracked her neck.
"That is correct. She told you about the repercussions as well?" Suzaku asked, his arms crossed over his chest. The other celestials had gone back to training and took no note of what occurred behind the single tree.
"Yes. She said there was a large risk for her overruling me and taking over my body." The pinkette replied and squinted her eyes at the horizon, watching Genbu perform a few rough and powerful movements with his sledge hammer.
"Then don't do it!" Naruto exclaimed. "That's obvious. It's too large a risk."
"Well, she promised me to not take over. Since we're in a contract bound by blood. So I'm considering doing it..." Sakura said and her smile was slanted.
"What, wait. Do you really trust her words?" Naruto asked, unbelieving.
"Yes. Somehow, I do."
"That is good, then. I will now teach you the basics of my sword technique Ephemeral Sun Dance. We'll just go through the first five movements, then you will have to train them on your own until they are perfected. If you ever will perfect them to my satisfaction, then I will teach you five more. There are a total of 66 moves on the first level. Understood?"
"Yes!" Sakura smiled and her little dance she made out of sheer happiness surprised Naruto, her spinning around in the sand and laughing with pink hair whirling around her creamily tinted face. She was as glad as a Naruto who had just gotten a steamy cup of noodles from Ichiraku's after a long mission.
Deciding he had been resting for too long and wondering if Sai had passed out due to the heat a few yards away, Naruto went back to go spar against Sai. It was interesting fighting living drawings of lions and birds and serpents, but he would draw his final card now. Sai sweated in the sun, practicing throwing kunai at his drawings of little birds in the sky. When he noticed Naruto approaching, the fox boy's grin widened.
"Sexy no Jutsu!"
The Boy Who Was Once Loved
The midday sun shone starkly through the large windows of his office and he moved uneasily around, letting his sands slither around his feet unconsciously. His composure was failing him. The newly acquired information on Akatsuki and the little villages wanting to wage war against Suna was seriously pissing him off.
"So, what you're saying is that for some purpose unknown, the Akatsuki members are wandering around killing off jinchuuriki containers." The pinkette stated, rather than questioned him. The four Konohagakure shinobi was gathered in his office, his two siblings were at his side and they all wore serious expressions.
"Correct." Gaara said and turned his back to the window, to look at the shinobi in his room of power.
"We need more information on this." Kakashi mumbled. Naruto frowned and stared at Gaara, as if he stared long enough, he'd know the reason why.
"More importantly, we need to be careful. If they're strong enough to kill off jinchuuriki containers, then that means both Naruto and Gaara are in danger." The pinkette commented, her green eyes clear.
"They would not be so foolish as to attack the Kazekage!" Kankuro exclaimed.
"But we don't know that. Maybe they have the guts and power to do it. Better be careful, than to regret it afterwards." Sakura clipped.
"What she's saying is true. Kazekage-sama, it would be for the better to level up the security around Suna and position more bodyguards on watch." Sai said and watched as Gaara nodded.
"That has already been taken care of." Temari said and cracked her knuckles. The red headed young man raised an eye brow at this and Temari chuckled behind her fan.
"Being one step ahead is my job, brother." She smiled and Gaara felt his trust deepen for the blonde. She was still afraid of him, he could see, but all the same she was trying hard for his sake.
"So, what's going to be our next move? 'ttebayo, I say we search for them and change the game!" Naruto cheered and fist pumped, his eyes burning. Gaara saw in his cerulean blue eyes that he was sad, he was sad for the two jinchuuriki containers that had died and he had never even met them. Gaara realised that it was this part of Naruto that had made him see him as a friend. His softness. His compassion. His fire.
"That'd be fun. A little Akatsuki hunt." Sakura agreed and her eyes glittered. At that, Gaara almost smirked. This pinkette that proved so much more bloodthirsty than what she first had given the impression of, that little sprinkle of insanity in her emerald eyes and yet, yet he saw how much she cared for her teammates. She was not so lost as he had once been. Shukaku growled inside him and Gaara ignored the caged monster.
"That might not be very wise, since we do not know how powerful they are. But- if we indeed find one or two Akatsuki members, it would be perfect for interrogation." Kakashi mused, his eye thoughtful as his gaze seemingly unconsciously found Sakura. She smiled innocently at him and he sharply turned his head away.
"I agree. Let us turn the tables. I suggest that we form a team, that will have only one purpose and that is to track down Akatsuki members and cage them for interrogation. If needed be, you have my permission to kill them in case of emergency." Gaara stated and the rest of the shinobi nodded in agreement.
"That means that Naruto cannot be on the team, though. It would be far too dangerous." Sai concluded and Naruto was about to protest, but Kakashi waved with his hand, stopping his words.
"What Sai is saying is true. Naruto, you must go back to Konoha." The Copy Nin drawled.
"No! I'm in on this too!" Naruto yelled. "I'm much stronger now than before. I can handle them." He seethed, clenching his fists. Sakura only looked at him with pale eyes.
"Please. If not for my own sake, I want to do it for the fallen jinchuuriki containers and their beasts. I feel like I owe it to them." The Kyuubi container almost whispered, something he was not too often prone to do. The room fell silent.
"We could have use for his powers." Sakura stated and twirled a pink lock around her fingers. "We could also use him as a decoy, to lure those bastards out from whatever shit hole they're hiding in."
Gaara thought about her statement for a second and saw the advantage in doing so. Searching for Akatsuki would most probably be difficult since they had their ways of disappearing. If Akatsuki got the information of Naruto being outside of Konoha, they wouldn't miss the chance.
"It would be more efficient that way." Sakura said and scratched her pink head.
"Dattebayo, I'm going to be bait?" Naruto asked grumpily, yet he hid a smile.
"It is still too dangerous." Kakashi said and frowned. "But I get your point. We have no idea where Akatsuki might be. If we could construct a trap..."
Gaara saw the Copy Nin's mind at work and then it was agreed that Naruto was to be on the team. The Kazekage only needed to look at his siblings questioningly, and they voiced their thoughts on the matter.
"I volunteer on being on the track team." Temari said confidently and Kankuro sighed.
"I guess I'm going as well." He grumbled. "We need to find replacements for our positions..."
"I need you here, Kankuro. As head of security, in case Akatsuki finds their way here. Your orders are to get the fight out of Suna if it happens. No harm will come to Sunagakure's population." Gaara demanded and Kankuro swallowed.
"I will gather a few of Sunagakure's stronger shinobi for the track team's back up." The Kazekage said. "We'll meet up within forty minutes from now. Be prepared for travel. I will see to having spread some rumours of Naruto's presence in Suna, and we'll see how it goes from there. I believe that it would be for the better to make it looked like Team Seven are travelling back to Konoha and then we could make use of the decoy plan on the way, instead of bringing Akatsuki to Suna where civilians might get hurt."
"Sounds good." Kakashi said and the Konohagakure shinobi bowed respectfully to the Kazekage and disappeared from his office.
Gaara mused for a few seconds, then he decided. "Call for Chiyo. She will accompany the Konohagakure shinobi in the track team. We could make use of her poisons, and puppets in tracking the members."
"But Gaara, she's retired." Temari commented. "If not dead. Who knows about that old hag."
"Hey. She and her brother has served Suna for a long time. Don't talk about her that way." Kankuro scolded his sister and tapped Gaara's office desk.
"Yeah, yeah." Temari said bitterly. "Whatever."
"You're just pissed at her because she tricked you." Kankuro smirked and patted her head.
"It's not funny fooling people that they're dead!" Temari yelled with flushed cheeks.
Gaara hid a soft smile as he watched his arguing siblings and cleared his throat. The two Suna shinobi froze and then straightened up.
"I will call for her, Gaara-sama. But it is not certain she will agree." Temari said politely.
"Then make her." The Kazekage said and gracefully went to sit at his office desk, starting to file a few papers. That was his siblings cue to leave, and so they did. Gaara was left alone in his office and he sighed.
An Old Puppeteer
Quiet.
The silence was always so welcome to her tired ears, as she sat at the fishing pond with no bait on her fishing rod. Ears that had become so used to screams and the clashing of metal against metal. To the hollow sobs of dying soldiers. To her puppets clawing through flesh. To the poison she had concocted seething and bubbling in enemy soldiers veins, thrashing down their systems and organs withering.
Her brother was nearly asleep as he sat besides her with his own fishing rod and she smiled half heartedly. They were too old, both of them. But the the will to live had yet to be extinguished in them. Steps in a not so far distance broke the comfortable silence and Chiyo wrinkled her eyebrows and smirked playfully as she recognised the chakra presence. She closed her eyes and slowed her breathing until it was almost non-existent.
"Chiyo-baa sama?" A female voice inquired and the old woman felt Temari standing besides her. She did not answer her, as she sat completely still.
"Chiyo-baa sama? Hello? Oi!" Temari continued and Chiyo heard hints of discomfort in her voice.
"Oh, god. Don't play tricks with me! It won't work this time. You're not dead, you old-" Temari snarled and then she noted Chiyo's chakras were nonexistent and that the old woman didn't breath.
"No. No, you won't fool me... Chiyo-baa sama? Fuck. Fuck." Temari said and hesitated, then she bent over in front of Chiyo's face, to probably take her pulse.
"Pah!" Chiyo yelled and opened her eyes, and as she did Temari fell with a most hilarious expression on her face into the pond. The old woman cackled whole heartedly as she watched the famous fan wielding kunoichi of Suna boil angrily in the water, dripping wet.
Temari scowled and shook her clothes as she rose from the water and waddled up to the waterside. With mischievous eyes Chiyo watched the blond kunoichi and shake off the water and her pride, cleared her throat and applied a polite expression on her dripping face.
"We've just recently heard a two manned team from Akatsuki has been sighted near the borders of Suna. One is a long haired blond and the other a strange crouching man with a cloth covering his mouth. We are dispatched at the moment you decide to join us, Chiyo-baa sama."
"A crouching man, you say?" Chiyo sniffed. If what she suspected was true, if it truly was him...
"I will join you little youngsters. For this one time." Chiyo said and slowly rose from her sitting position, poking on her brother who only muttered sleepy threats. She gave up on telling him she was leaving for Sunagakure's sake once again and then she looked at the kunoichi standing patiently a bit further away from the pond.
"But my bones are tired and weary. Carry me." Chiyo complained and arched her back with a grimace, yet she smirked behind her old woman facade and Temari grit her teeth visibly, clearly thinking it was beneath her to carry an old woman. Yet she huffed and heavily pulled Chiyo on her back and walked briskly away to the gates of Suna all the while explaining that they were to join a team from Konohagakure.
Chiyo sniffed. Konohagakure, was it? She had no higher expectations from them than from a toad. She recalled the war and she could never see them as anything more than those who murdered her friends. The swollen red sun hung in the sky as they shuffled up to the gates, where a crowd of shinobi stood and waited for them. Temari bit her lip and coughed as she walked up to them with Chiyo on her back. With one swift movement, the old woman jumped from the girl's back and flung herself through the air and gracefully landed before the Konoha shinobi. A flash of silver had her eyes stop at a masked man and her heart froze. Hatake Sakumo? But when she took a closer look at the man, she knew it was not him and she retracted her poisoned senbon she had readied within her sleeve.
It was the Copy Nin, not the man who had killed her family. Chiyo was fast to come to this conclusion and she twitched her fingers. She had been too near to kill him on sight. The team greeted her politely and she only nodded curtly. An outrageous colour in her peripheral vision made her turn her head and a girl stared back at her, a girl with pink hair and pale green eyes. Chiyo cackled loudly and looked condescendingly at the girl. Temari had told her about that one.
"Pinky. I heard you were the apprentice of that slug-girl." The old kunoichi snorted. "Such a useless blond woman. Can't even tolerate the sight of blood."
"Don't talk about Tsunade that way." The pinkette's voice was suddenly chilly, slithering and dangerous. Her eyes were scarce, empty green.
"Easy now. We fought in the war. It is hard to see past enemy facades." Chiyo wrinkled her eye brows. "She used to counter my poisons quite well."
"I expect no less from Tsunade. I'm Sakura, by the way." Sakura smiled and her dangerous tone dropped. The blond boy nodded jerkily, his blue eyes shining.
"Baa-chan's awesome." He agreed and then looked at the man who was so similar to the murderer of Chiyo's family. "Are we going or what?"
"Yes, now everyone's gathered. We're heading for the mountain pass. Let's go!"
As they ran together, Chiyo fell in pace at the back of the team together with the pink haired girl. Temari ran side by side with the pale stomach showing man, and Kakashi lead the group at the front together with Naruto. With a glance at her side, Chiyo noted the girl's hands and the sword strapped at her back. It was a strange sword, old and withered, yet it looked like it almost was vibrating. This perked the old woman's hard won interest.
"Your hands. They're calloused from sword use." Chiyo noted. "It is most uncommon for kunoichi to use swords."
"Just so." The pink haired woman replied casually and didn't take her eyes off the sandy road.
"How come it is your weapon of choice?" The old woman inquired as she paved her feet lightly into the soil, easily keeping up with the track team.
"I just got my hands on an unique katana a while back. It's a good one and it would be foolish of me not to make use of it."
"I see. And that is the one strapped on your back?" Chiyo presumed.
"Yes." Sakura said and glanced at Chiyo, her hair swirling around her face. "I have heard of you. Your weapons are puppets and poisons."
"Correct, Pinky." Chiyo chuckled. Her old reputation had apparently reached Konoha's younger generation.
"Interesting. I have never seen a true puppeteer in action." The pinkette commented.
"Then I hope you will not have the chance to." The old woman's smile turned slanted.
A sudden pitch of chakra caught Chiyo's attention and she looked ahead of her. She saw a man with a black cloak walk towards them, the cloth stretching and rippling in the wind from the south. When he noticed the team of shinobi approaching him, he leered and waved with his hand. A deformity of sorts, or an implant, was visible on it. An open mouth laughed in the palm of his hand, a tongue slithering across its teeth. Chiyo felt disgust well up in her throat.
"That's an Akatsuki dude!" Naruto yelled and shot off directly, shortly followed by Kakashi, Sai and Temari. Chiyo and Sakura stopped at the same time, to watch. The blond Akatsuki member raised an eyebrow and laughed. He then produced large amounts of clay from a pocket, fast to chew and spit it out. The clay took the form of a large bird and he settled on it, the bird of clay flapping its wings and within seconds it was in the air. The batting of clay wings created currents of wind in the air as it soared higher.
"We're following him. Stay put. The information we attained says there's a second Akatsuki member around somewhere. If you see him, call for reinforcements and watch him; but whatever you do, do not instigate battle." Kakashi ordered the two women as he looked up into the sky, where the clay bird flapped away to the south. Towards Sunagakure.
"Roger that." Sakura smiled sweetly, and it seemed the silver haired man did not notice the slight pressure of disappointment in her voice. Chiyo wrinkled her eyebrows.
"We're going to catch him." Kakashi assured them and then he flashed away, joining the others as they followed the blond Akatsuki member which perched on the clay bird.
As they watched the team disappear fast between high sand dunes, Sakura poked Chiyo on her shoulder.
"We have company." She smiled and just as she said this, a shadow appeared besides them. Chiyo swiftly spun around only to see a crouching man with the standard black Akatsuki cloak, rimmed with red clouds at the hem, approaching them casually as if he had all the time in the world. The man looked more like a monster than anything and Chiyo's suspicions proved to be true. She recognised the form.
They were near the mountain and a sudden explosion, probably set off by the flick of the monster's tail, made rubbles of stones fall from the walls, the probability of it having been several explosive tags came to Chiyo's mind. Sakura evaded the falling rocks fluently, Chiyo got hit by a few but she cared nonetheless for her wounds and they saw the crouching man walk inside the cave. Chiyo squinted her eyes and the pink haired woman nodded, as they followed after the Akatsuki member. Cautiously, Chiyo searched for traps with her eyes.
"Injuries?" Sakura asked the old woman, her eyes clouded by the dust.
"A busted lip and broken skin, nothing severe." Chiyo dismissed her wounds with a wave of her hand as they were inside the cave. The Akatsuki member waited for them in the dar end of the cave. Her grandchild's puppet looked at them silently and Chiyo felt her fingers numbing, getting colder. Oh, that child. Abandoned and lonely, crazed by his family's death.
"Sasori..." Chiyo whispered and the puppet didn't move in response. Sakura blinked at her side, not asking how come she knew him.
"Nothing is new under the sun, it seems." A light, emotionless voice was heard from somewhere Chiyo couldn't identify. Was he hiding inside his puppet? Or was he at a safe distance away, watching them? Suddenly, the crouching man produced a pipe from under his coat and something whistled in the still air of the cave.
"What are you doing?" Chiyo asked warily as she saw the pink haired woman react to the pipe instantly.
"Libelulle Noir. It is a most effective jutsu." Sakura explained as she formed seals with her fingers in a blur; dragon, fish, dragonfly, tiger. "You'll see."
A stark fog seeped from every corner of the cave, and it was strange. The fog was similar to thousands of black dragonflies bunched up in clouds, covering Chiyo's vision completely. It was like the night itself had turned into dragonflies.
"It dispels the more common poisons, as the one he just produced from that pipe, and works as an escape manoeuvre. I've developed it myself."
"That is impressive." Chiyo commented. "After all, a woman with a gallant spirit matching any man's is a rarity indeed."
"Are you kidding me?" Sakura laughed unabashedly, the sound tingling through the air. "Then you haven't met a whole lot of men."
"You should be more attentive to your surroundings." That light voice was heard again and the swishing sound of projectiles made the two kunoichi aware of the kunais heading towards them. Sakura broke her concentration as well as her jutsu of black dragonflies and evaded the kunais, as did Chiyo as she hopped further away, and then even further. Suddenly, a rock that had been left unsteady from the explosions fell in front of Chiyo, blocking the entrance to the cave. She cursed loudly and started searching for a way to get inside. The girl had to manage on her own for a while, and she prayed that the girl would survive.
The Scorpion of the Red Sands Sasori
The second gas he had produced when his grandmother was out of the way, the lethal black one, cleared and there she was, with a finely plucked and pink raised eyebrow. As if asking 'was that it?'.
"This can't be. You're supposed to be dead." Sasori said sternly, his fingers twitching. He had dropped his crouching monster puppet form and now used it as his shield against her katana and as an offensive weapon with his chakra strings connected to his finger tips. He stood in his complete puppet form, his ageless wooden and porcelain skin shining dense in the murkiness of the cave, his hair a ever vermillion red. His poisonous gas was supposed to have finished her as it evaporated and only left a distinct smell of rotting apples.
"Oh? How come? Because of this little gas?" The pinkette laughed.
"It's my most prominent Araignée poison in its gas form. You.. should have fallen."
"You mean Araignée de Sang? Ah, I ate that for breakfast this morning."
"You- ate- Are you a Black Widow?"
"No, but my friend is. She suggested some extra spices in my food to put up a resistance. There are not many poisons that will kill me, just perhaps give me a slightly annoying headache."
Sasori had enough of talking. If she wasn't dead now, she would be later this day. For a long while, they fought. Then she found his heart and he realised he was not immortal.
"Number two hundred and seventy one." Was the last words Sasori of the Red Sands heard before his mind slipped away into darkness, never to awake again.
The Puppeteer Chiyo
Her grandchild was dead and she mourned him. But she knew it had to be done. One silent tear slipped from her eye down her wrinkled cheek.
The Konoha nin headed back to their village after having lost sight of the blond Akatsuki member on the bird of clay and Chiyo wished they would never return. All which those Konoha shinobi brought with them was the shadow of death. And that shadow was the most visible in a pair of pale, green eyes.
The Man with a Borrowed Eye Hatake Kakashi
The messenger hawk flapped away into the sunset and Kakashi felt his chest burn, caused by the written words in the report from the Godaime as they were headed back to Konoha. But this changed everything. They had found him. With a clap of his hands, he caught the attention of his tired teammates.
"Trustworthy intel says we have acquired the location of Orochimaru's hidden lair. We are the closest to the site and will proceed in our current team. We will also move on with caution since this is a wanted criminal and missing nin of Konoha. On orders from the Hokage, we are to catch Orochimaru on sight. This applies to Uchiha Sasuke and Yakushi Kabuto as well." Kakashi stated coldly and silence pressed.
"Teme!" Naruto yelled, his eyes burning. "I'm going to get him back, 'ttebayo!"
"What are we waiting for? Let's go." Sakura said evenly and her eyes were unreadable. Sai said nothing.
"Follow after me." Kakashi commanded and disappeared in a flash through the trees, his teammates following close behind. He was still angry with his pink haired former student. She had disobeyed him, having gone into battle with an Akatsuki member so foolishly. But the outcome had been different than what he would have suspected; she had killed him. And all this made her even so more dangerous; an disobedient killer. Kakashi only hoped she would come to her senses. Instead of thinking about the Haruno, he started focusing on finding Sasuke.
The Man with a Name Sai
They ran within the lair, through long corridors that never seemed to end, never stopping their search for the Uchiha. After a long while they stopped for a short break and they were all tired of searching. With a vein pulsing at Banshee's forehead, she kindly asked permission to destroy the place and lure out the rats. Kakashi had pondered for a second, since they had been searching to no avail for the last hour, and he said yes. With a shout of 'shannaro', Sakura smashed the ground and it shook to pieces in explosions. They were all fast to evade falling rocks and slid across the shaking walls, until they were out of the now destroyed lair of Orochimaru's.
In the rubble left of the hideout, the sun shone dimly on the crevices and cracks. All drenched in sweat, Team Seven breathed heavily and their eyes soared through the destruction, looking for every sign, every movement that would tell them there was more to this than stones and misguided information. As always, that Banshee's strength was incredible, Sai thought as he saw parts of the ground fall through a few corridors, crashing loudly with dust piles spiralling through the air. Then three figures appeared, almost out of nowhere, and he could almost touch the thick tension in the air as his team members realised who was meeting their gazes.
The survivor of the Uchiha massacre stood only ten feet away, on a rock looming over them together with a tall, sickly looking man with long black hair and snake-like eyes as well as a man with glasses and silver hair. Naruto yelled something, Kakashi commented on something, Sakura was quiet, but Sai couldn't hear them. All he was focused on was the two bloody eyed Sharingan eyes, which were deep whirl pools of hatred and lustful revenge. His face was as cold as snow on a winter morning, expressionless yet filled to the brink of dark determination.
Sai clenched his fists. The time had come for him to fulfil his orders. The man called Uchiha Sasuke would die this day and in that complete the mission Assassination of the Last Fan. Sai would not disappoint Danzō and nothing would stop him from slitting the defector's throat if Sakura failed to do so.
The Avenger Uchiha Sasuke
"Oh-oh, the Kyuubi container pleases us with a visit. How endearing." Orochimaru said and let his snake-like eyes slither across Naruto's form. The boy grit his teeth and anger burned in his cerulean blue eyes. "Ah, and the famous Copy Nin as well. What a little feast."
Not until then had Sasuke seen the pink haired kunoichi from his old team. Her presence was almost unnoticeable, as she stood and watched him silently. She hadn't said a word. Her eyes were more pale than he remembered them to be.
"Hn."
Naruto looked helplessly at his female teammate with pleading sky blue eyes.
"Please translate Sasuke for me." He asked of his pink haired friend, pointing accusatorially at the dangerous man on the other side of the cave. Sakura raised an eyebrow.
"You need to be highly perceptive, look for every sign. I believe the slightest twist of his mouth means powerful resentment. I think I could correctly translate that little 'Hn' to 'I will kill you, stop bothering me'. Or it might mean 'I'm grumpy today because there's a giant stick up my ass, so fuck off'."
"Oh, I see! Cheers, Sakura-chan. I think the latter translation would be correct." Naruto chirped and grinned obnoxiously. It seemed Orochimaru had tired of his former team's mindless chatter already as he waved his hands.
"Sasuke-kun. You may play with the little girl and your replacement in your former team. I'll go take care of these pests." Orochimaru purred and whirled away, to clash his sword with Kakashi's kunai. Naruto yelled as a snake slithered towards him, with gaping jaws and dripping poison. He kicked it away furiously, so it hit the wall of rocks hard.
"No! I'm going to fight Sasuke-Teme!" The blond Kyuubi container shouted as he tried to get past Orochimaru, but the Snake Sannin wouldn't let him.
"I will not allow you to do so, boy. I don't want my dear Sasuke-kun to scar his face nor dirty his hands with your impure blood."
Sasuke's replacement produced a few painted lions and Sasuke simply slashed them away, noticing the trap wires strapped to them. In a flicker, he used Kusanagi to gather the wires and whipped them away, towards the replacer. Sasuke's replacement in team Seven didn't have the time to evade and was trapped within his own iron wires, slicing his skin as he was stuck on the wall of the cave. Sasuke smirked arrogantly as he saw blood trickle down the man's body, like spider web it spread down on his visible muscled abdomen.
Naruto was busy plopping Kagebunshins everywhere together with Kakashi as they fought Kabuto and Orochimaru, and didn't see the replacer fall in blood on the wall of stone. But that annoying girl did. She didn't scream and didn't cry, but he saw her eyes burn even though they stood a hundred feet away from each other. And then something in her eyes switched. They turned white.
She was about to sprint to where the replacer were pinned unconscious at the cave wall, but he wouldn't let her heal him. Sasuke swiftly spun around, meeting her katana with his own. Sparks flew off the metals. In a blur, he retracted and met her sword again, harder this time. She held up and it surprised him slightly that she hadn't been swept away by the force. Her eyes glistened like hard edged diamonds. There was a slight sheen of sweat on her tense arms. He continued with the flurry of attacks, yet she either met them or evaded them with a centimetres advantage. In a movement, she jumped back several feet, her eyes wide eyed as she stared at Kusanagi with confusion. Sasuke was about to jump after her, but then he was disturbed by her wave of her hand.
"You can't be serious." She whispered and somehow, Sasuke knew it wasn't directed at him. He stopped. At whom she had directed the words, he didn't know. Her eyes were so eerily pearly white, similar to a Hyuuga's opalescent eyes with the exception of the black pupil being left, all predatory like in her eyes. Was it some kind of kekkei genkai?
"Is that katana Izanagi? You're- What do you mean you can't fight him-" She was cut short, her moon white eyes widening as they stared at his sword. Suddenly, Kusanagi hummed in his grip. He felt something within the sword convulse at the mention of 'Izanagi'. It was like it was trying to tell him something, but he couldn't hear it. Something, a black maze of hatred within his chest, hindered the sword's sounds from reaching him. He shrugged.
She was talking to herself again, muttering and cursing as she looked at her katana.
"Your chakra is acting up, Izanami-sama. What is- It's a turmoil! Please calm yourself-" The pinkette stared confusedly at the sword and Sasuke had had enough of this game.
She was fast, he admitted, but he was faster. He went after her, flash stepped in front of her, and succeeded in slicing a shallow wound on her side when she tried to evade it. Blood squirted from her skin, drenching the white in red trails. He took his chance and was at her again, yet she didn't back down as he slashed at her again, evading it as she stepped to one side within millimetres reach of Kusanagi. Her eyes gleamed and she focused on him wholly. Then she opened her mouth as she met his sword with her own. Sasuke noted that Kusanagi and Sakura's sword were eerily similar.
"I have something important I need to tell you, Sasuke-kun," She declared as she sifted through a flurry of dispelling jutsus to avoid his Sharingan's power as he cast simple genjutsu techniques, hazing her mind at the same time as they fought with swords. "The man you want to kill, your brother-"
"Don't you dare go there." Sasuke clipped.
"But you must know-"
"There's nothing you can say that will change my mind! That man is going to die. There is nothing else I must know, Sa-ku-ra." He said icily and flung himself at annoying woman knew how to open wounds. How to open his door to hatred and unwanted memories. She was supposed to heal, not claw her way trough his flesh and find what he most desired and hated. The desire to kill. The hatred that consumed him. He knew this and he revelled in it, since he knew no other feeling that could fill his heart to its completion. Other feelings were meek and fragile. His were strong.
"You truly are blind, Sasuke. Would you just listen-" Sakura's voice grew a pitch higher, apparently she had started to get annoyed too, but he broke her off.
"Shut up." The revenger said and he was tired of her voice already. It was distracting and it didn't belong in the echoes of the dark cave.
He heard explosions and cries from the other side of the cave, where Kakashi and Naruto battled Orochimaru and Kabuto. Naruto's kage bunshins swelled within the cave, shouting and cursing the 'perverted snake pedophile'. Sasuke felt his mouth stretch. He cursed his lack of concentration on his own fight as he felt Sakura's sword lightly touch his shoulder in a blur of movement. A shallow wound, but a wound all the same, let three droplets of clear blood run down his slender yet muscled arm.
It seemed Sakura was just as surprised as he was when he retracted, holding his hand over the injury as he jumped back, away from her. He settled on a large rock, looking down on her. He could see she was exhausted from the fight, yet her white eyes never left his. She breathed heavily and readied herself for another flurry of attacks and he himself started to gather the Chidori within Kusanagi. He would end this charade - he was tired of surprises. In the corner of his eye, he felt Orochimaru's presence.
He saw the fast and gigantic snake before she did. In one swift aggressive movement, the huge animal summoning of Orochimaru's snaked up to her and the large jaws clipped her torso at the side, sinking its teeth deep into her flesh. Her eyes widened with surprise as she looked down on Hebimaru's death grip on her body, clenching hard. She yelped in pain, then she shuddered violently and her eyes rolled up in her head leaving her unconscious in the snake's bite. Hebimaru let her go, the sharp and large teeth slipping out of her with a sickening sound and red blood and Sasuke saw holes left of its teeth left on Sakura's small frame in a half moon shape. The wounds bled ominously and he knew that if the wounds didn't kill her, the unrivalled deadly poison of Hebimaru's glands would. Her katana clinked to the rocky ground as she fell.
He felt something in his heart protest, clench in coldness. Sakura would die this day. He had not planned on it, it wasn't part of his goal. His impassive eyes regarded her slumped form on the stony ground, letting the water of her life pool around her so still, still body. She was an annoying hindrance, always a grain of sand in his eyes, but still he couldn't get that so very strange and heavy feeling off his chest. His Sharingan eyes burned. In that moment, his hatred for the world deepened. His heart, his mind, his whole being was a black never ending abyss. He lost himself in the blackness, he couldn't see the light anymore. It was plainly gone. He couldn't see the colours anymore.
A painful cry broke the silence. Naruto's kage bunshins disappeared in a cloud of smoke and in an instant, he cradled Sakura in his arms. Sasuke saw tears dribble down on the scarred cheeks of the Kyuubi container as he rocked the girl back and forth. Her body was limp in his arms and the blood on her hideous wounds coloured his neon orange jacket into a scarlet nuance.
Orochimaru was instantly besides him, laying a hand on his shoulder. Sasuke didn't look at his teacher. His eyes were still at Naruto's huddled form, and the splay of pink hair covering Naruto's shaking shoulder.
"You're still too weak. We're going." Orochimaru said, his snake eyes calling back Hebimaru who waited patiently at his side. The snake poofed out of existence. Kabuto showed up, bleeding from several claw marks on his arms. He pushed his glasses up his nose and regarded Sasuke with unhidden contempt.
"This is your baggage, Sasuke-kun. I don't want anything to do with them again. Next time - Kill. Them. Off." He said sharply, healing his wounds absentmindedly but with gritted teeth. Sasuke still said nothing.
Naruto's chakra suddenly flared. Red burning chakra covered his whole body, bubbling with inhibited power, protruding ominously. He gave another cry, of malice and ill intent and sadness and anger. Sasuke saw the first tail of the Kyuubi's chakra lash out into existence. He was turning.
"Oh shit." Kabuto wheezed as a wall of red chakra hit them with full force, making Kabuto almost topple over. Sasuke felt Kusanagi hum, as if appreciating the force.
"We're going. Now." Orochimaru said sternly and he dragged Sasuke away, gripping his shoulder hard, into the forest, away from the destroyed cave. Sasuke felt his mind cloud, as if he couldn't think straight. It was all just a jumble of thoughts and nothingness and blurriness. All that was displayed on his inner retina was a bleeding girl with pink hair and she wasn't moving. His foot steps were light as they were trained to be, he ran fast together with Orochimaru and Kabuto without knowing really what he was doing. Where he was going.
All he knew was that he was running away from a dying girl and a fox.
Author's Note
Hello!
I have horrible news. I think I'm transitioning into a Writer's Block. Oh the fucking horror. It might have been caused by the latest reviews and I just feel much more pressured than before, I'm not sure. One reviewer said the quality of grammar has been declining and I sincerely apologize for that. I haven't noticed it. I just write as I normally do and I always ask if any of you notice any errors. Please, please tell me specifically and I will adjust it!
I love to write, I do, but there's always that moment when you feel like it's not worth it, you know? I spend hours on unpaid work. I enjoy it, I do! But it's just- sometimes, I feel really ugh, unappreciated? I think many writers can relate to this feeling here. So you probably know what I'm babbling about.
But this is not true to all reviewers. I receive love all the way from you guys. And you should know I write almost solely for your sake.
The poll has ended by the way. I know now what you guys want and I've become more confused as I said in last chapter's A/N, haha. Harem-Cold-Ass Sakura might happen yo.
I have gotten a Beta Reader as well! Say hello to eiramrose ! She's wonderful and has given me awesome feedback. Kisses to her!
Sorry for the short-ass chapter, because as I told you, upcoming Writer's Block. Can feel it in my numbing fingers. If any of you guys want to shoot off ideas with me on what's to come in Transition, do feel free to PM me. I might be able to get past this Writer's Block faster that way.
Love ya,
fascalia