Freedom. Chapter 13: The Battle Of Falkirk.

(Note: And now comes another one of my favorite battles in "Braveheart." This chapter is kind of a sad one though, so be prepared. Enjoy. :D)

Disclaimer:
I do not own Braveheart or Naruto. Braveheart belongs to Mel Gibson, and Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. No copyright infringement intended. All copyrights are reserved.

When William told Robert to unite the clans, I thought we could trust him.

But little did I know... that things were about to change...

~ July 22, 1298 (The Battle Of Falkirk)... ~

Eight months have passed since William told Robert to unite the clans at Falkirk.

The Scots and Team Kakashi were getting to fight the English once more, hoping that they would win again, just like they did at Stirling.

All the Scots were assembled (William and Team Kakashi included) on the battlefield as they gazed at the English.

Hamish looked around to see if Robert was there, only to find out he wasn't.

"The Bruce is not coming, William," Hamish voiced his concern to William who still had faith in Robert.

"He'll come," William looked at Mornay and Lochlan and noticed their arrival on the battlefield. "Mornay and Lochlan have come. So will the Bruce."

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Naruto's anxiety started to kick in, concerned about the situation.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the battlefield, Longshanks sat on his horse, preparing for battle.

King Edward I was well-known as "Longshanks" because he had long legs. His crown was on top of a helmet, and he wore a robe with the emblem of England, as well as wearing a suit of armor underneath it. He also had blue eyes, and under his helmet, he had curly white hair, and a beard and mustache which matched his hair color.

"Quite a lovely gathering," Longshanks was impressed as he looked at an unknown knight right beside him. "Wouldn't you agree?"

The knight nodded at him in agreement.

Naruto noticed that Longshanks was on the battlefield.

"So... that's Longshanks," Naruto glared at him, as he realized that Longshanks reminded him of Orochimaru.

In the meantime, Sakura looked at William.

"William?" she asked.

"Yes, Sakura?" William turned his head to face her, who was standing to his right.

"In case this ends badly, I have something to tell you," she voiced.

"What is it? Better make it quick," William ordered.

"Well, you see... I...," Sakura was about to say.

"You...?" William was curious as to see what Sakura was going to say to him. Her heart began to pound really fast.

"I... I..."

"Out with it, Sakura!" William was starting to grow impatient with her.

Sakura shook her head.

"It's nothing. I'll tell you later," she lied, but Naruto knew that Sakura was starting to fall deeply and madly in love with William.

Then, the English General raised the English banner.

"Infantry! Cavalry! Advance!" the General commanded as the Irish (with the English calvary and infantry following closely behind), with their weapons in hand, started to charge towards the Scots. But then, the Scots stopped and noticed that the Irish were there to help them.

Longshanks scoffed.

"Irish."

"Glad to have you with us. Watch this," William stabbed his sword into the ground, grabbed a banner, and waved it, signaling the Scottish archers to shoot fire arrows into battlefield to hurt the Engish.

"Alright! I think we're doing pretty good so far!" Naruto cheered.

"This battle is not over yet, Naruto. Let's go," William said as he led Team Kakashi, the Irish and the rest of the Scots to the battle the English.

Like the Battle Of Stirling, the battle between the Scottish and English was fierce when it came to Falkirk. Everyone was getting either hurt or killed.

William began to signal the banner again, this time, at the Scottish nobles, hoping that they'd join him and his army in the fight.

Mornay and Lochlan looked at each other, planning to take their leave.

"Wait. William, what's going on?" Sakura questioned.

"No... it can't be. They betrayed us. How could they?" William questioned to himself as a look of rage and hate began to appear on his face.

Suddenly, Longshanks sent the archers to shoot their arrows at the English, Scots and Irish, and many of them were getting killed. Before they knew it, the Scots were losing. One arrow hit Morrison in the chest as he fell to the ground dead, while an English soldier stabbed on axe on Campbell's stomach.

"Campbell!" Kakashi rushed to his aid and killed the soldier who hurt Campbell.

"Send in our reinforcements," Longshanks signaled the English general to send the rest of the English army to fight the Irish and Scots.

But out of the corner of his eye, Longshanks saw that Sakura was fighting alongside William.

"That girl that's with Wallace. What's her name?" Longshanks inquired.

"Her name is Sakura Haruno, sire," the English General stated, looking at Longshanks.

"Hmm. It seems she's taken quite a liking to him," Longshanks looked at the rest of the English soldiers. "Bring me Wallace. Alive if possible. Dead, just as good. Bring Sakura to me, so I can see her writhe in agony as she sees her precious William Wallace die right in front of her. Once he's gone, I'm going to give Sakura to one of our nobles, so she'll never see him again. Send us news of our victory," Longshanks looked at the unknown knight. "Shall we retire?"

As the battle raged on, abruptly, Naruto noticed that a flying object was starting to head towards William.

"William! Look out!" Naruto screamed.

However, it was too late...

Sakura stopped, slowly turned her head, and realized what was happening to him. An arrow hit William in the chest, and he was wincing in pain.

Then, she remembered Naruto asking her about her feelings for William eight months earlier.

Flashback...

As William and Robert began to walk away from the table together, Sakura was going to try and calm William down, but Naruto grabbed her left fist with his right hand."Sakura, while William talks with Robert, I need to talk to you about something. It's rather important," Naruto urged as Sakura looked at him, concerned.

"What's wrong?"

"Well, it's about William," Naruto replied.

Sakura looked at William and back at Naruto.

"What about him?" she asked.

"Sakura, there's something I've been meaning to ask you. I've actually been thinking about this for a while since William joined Team Kakashi and after our battle with the English at Stirling," Naruto said.

Sakura listened on with a worried look on her face. Was this conversation going to turn into something good or bad?

"In fact," Naruto continued. "This question has been on my mind lately, because I've started to notice that the two of you are spending a lot of time together, even though we haven't known him that long."

"What is it, Naruto?" Sakura wondered as Naruto looked at William and then at Sakura.

"Alright. I'll tell you, but please don't get mad at me for saying this."

"Okay," Sakura responded.

"Okay. Here it goes," Naruto took a deep breath and looked

her straight in the eye while asking:

"Sakura, do you love William?"

Sakura was taken aback by this. Now normally, if it was Stephen or Naruto that asked her about her feelings for William, she'd punch them. However, this time she didn't do that, because she was in a state of shock.

"What?" she gasped.

"Do you love him?" Naruto repeated his question to Sakura who looked at William as he was talking with Robert.

"Unite us! Unite the clans!" William determined with a serious look on his face, and anger in his voice.

Sakura stared at William for a moment, and then gawked back at Naruto with a smile.

"Can I think about it for a little bit?"

"Sure," Naruto nodded as William and Robert began to shake their hands in agreement, while William walked back to Team Kakashi.

End of flashback...

Sakura's never been this scared before. Why, the last time she was like that was when she saw Sasuke getting the Curse Mark from Orochimaru at the Forest Of Death six years ago.

At that moment, she knew that she already lost Sasuke who abandoned her after his betrayal to Konoha by going to Orochimaru.

Then, she thought of Lady Chiyo, and about how she sacrificed her life to save Gaara, who had the Ichibi (Shikaku, the One-Tailed tanuki sand spirit) extracted from him by the Akatsuki, after he was captured by them.

First, Sakura lost Sasuke, then Chiyo, and now, she feared she was going to lose William too.

Tears formed in her eyes, and she clutched her chest with her hands, feeling an ache in her heart, as if she was worried that William was going to die.

So, she ran to William's side while screaming his name:

"WILLIAM!"

Finally, when she came to him, she saw William breaking off the arrow, while continuing to fight the English with all his might, even though his troops were fatally wounded and dead.

"William!" William turned around to look at Sakura and realized that she was the one calling his name.

She put her left hand on William's right shoulder, as if she was comforting him.

"Hang on, William. You're going to be okay," Sakura soothed him.

However, as soon as William saw Longshanks leaving with his knights, he was outraged.

The look of vengeance that William had on his face scared Sakura. She remembered seeing Sasuke with that same glare back when he was about to fight Naruto at the hospital rooftop of Konoha five years earlier before his departure.

Immediately, William ran to a nearby horse that had an English soldier on it, and pulled him off of it.

"No, wait!" Sakura cried, trying to stop William who just got on the horse and rode towards Longshanks.

Then, Naruto, Kakashi and Stephen saw that Sakura was running after him.

"Sakura! William" Naruto called out their names.

"Naruto! Quick! We must follow them!" Stephen demanded as he, Kakashi and Naruto found three horses, and rode after Sakura and William.

Sakura was still running after William, while an enraged William (who raised his sword) was charging towards Longshanks.

Then, the English General noticed that William was coming their way. The English General looked at the knight who was next to Longshanks before and ordered:

"Protect the king."

The knight turned and charged towards William, his lance in the air. Sakura stopped running, and noticed that the two men were about to kill each other.

"Oh no," Sakura whimpered to herself.

"Sakura!"

Sakura turned around and saw that Naruto was the one calling her name who arrived with Kakashi on horseback.

"Naruto! Kakashi-sensei! Thank goodness you're here! We have to stop this fight!" Sakura cried out.

"Too late! Look!" Kakashi pointed out as the knight knocked William off his horse with his lance pierced into his horse's chest and he fell face down on the grass.

"William!" Sakura cried as she rushed to his side along with Kakashi and Naruto. She turned William's body over to face her, and she began to heal him.

The knight dismounted off of his horse, threw the broken lance on the ground, and walked towards the unconscious William.

However, William's eyes snapped open, and noticed that the knight was coming towards him. Abruptly, William grabbed the knight and flipped him over, and was about to unsheathe his knife to slit his throat.

However, as William was about to slit the knight's throat, Kakashi, Naruto and Sakura heard a man's voice screaming under the helmet.

"Wait. That voice... it sounds so... familiar...," Sakura told herself.

Then, as soon as William removed the knight's helmet, Team Kakashi and William were shocked to discover...

That the knight that appeared before them...

...Was none other than Robert The Bruce.

To be continued in Chapter 14...

(Note: I felt like I just had to end this chapter with a cliffhanger to make it suspenseful. Also, as I was writing the part where William gets injured by the English, the song "No Good Deed" from the musical "Wicked" (which tells the story of the untold friendship between the witches of Oz in "The Wizard Of Oz") came to my mind, because in this chapter, the song (although it's not in this fanfic because of copyright) describes Sakura being in a state of panic as she's watching William getting wounded, that she almost doesn't know what to do. In my notes (on my iPhone), I also wrote fan-made lyrics to the song "No Good Deed" to fit the story. I sometimes write fan-made lyrics to songs (both with lyrics and instrumental music), and fan-made lyrics to songs that are in a different languages (i.e. Japanese). Anyway, hope you enjoyed Chapter 13 of "Freedom", and stay tuned for Chapter 14! Read and review, please! :D)