It took two hours for Uzumaki and the new kid to start an argument. Sakura thought this was quite an impressive stretch of time, but the vein on Tiger's forehead disagreed.
"Please stop staring at me, don't make me hit you." New kid said, somehow without putting a single hint of animosity in his tone or his body language. Instead, it was said with the polite indifference of a retail worker nine hours into a twelve hour Boxing Day shift, working entirely on muscle memory alone as the hundredth soccer mom of the day insisted that he 'just check in the back'. It was actually impressive how bland the kid could make his smile.
"Every damn thing you say just pisses me off!" Uzumaki yelled, brandishing a fist threateningly.
"I don't have any malice towards you,"
"LIAR!"
"I'm just trying to put on that kind of attitude."
"AHA! You do have malice!" Uzumaki was growing red-faced with anger. "Why the hell are you here?! All you do is piss people off!"
"Hey, hey!" Said Tiger. "Don't say something like that right in front of your taicho!" He seemed to be under the mistaken impression that the Uzumaki held even a token amount of respect for authority.
And really, the kid was mistreated by adults his whole life, nearly got murdered by one of his academy teachers and then was taught by Hatake and the perverted Sannin. Sakura could see where he was coming from.
"Teamwork and cooperation are the most important things in a team. I thought Kakashi-san had already taught you that." Tiger continued. "Someone like you in a team with the great Kakashi-san, what is it with you?"
Sometimes Sakura wondered if Tiger ever actually went through puberty or if he simply fell off a tree one day, fully grown and worshipping Hatake as a minor deity. You would think someone with even vague memories of being a teenage boy wouldn't have to ask why a teenage boy was picking fights.
"He's not a real member of team Kakashi! He's temporary!" Uzumaki cried, pointing a finger into the new kid's face. "He's nowhere near as cool as Sasuke! I'll never consider him a real member!"
"Well I'm glad you think of me that way." New kid said. "I wouldn't want to be likened to the weak, shit for brains Orochimaru's clone who only cared about power and ran off to Orochimaru, betraying Konoha."
"You bastard." Uzumaki growled, fist clenched as he stepped forward.
Sakura smiled cheerfully as the Uzumaki threw a punch at the new kid. Having seen it coming from a mile away, the new kid dodged but Uzumaki was forming the seal for shadow clones and about to-
A massive cage of wood sprung up from nowhere behind the three of them and both boys stopped mid-movement.
"I said there's not much time until Tenchi bridge, but there's five days. If you guys won't stop arguing, I'll have to toss you in a cage. As the mediator, here's my proposition." Tiger said, leaning against the cage walls. "You can spend all day or so in a cage to work out your differences or we can go to a hotel that has hot springs, what'll it be?
"You guys don't know me very well either." Tiger's face became intense, using the glare he'd perfected to put drunk ANBU in line. Unsurprisingly, it worked great on the Uzumaki. "I like being nice and friendly, but I don't have any problems ruling with fear, either." The Uzumaki was nodding fiercely, Sakura and New Kid nodded along with him.
Tiger got rid of the cage and the group went back to walking in silence.
After a minute or two, Sakura moved into step with New Kid.
"You know," She said and he fake smiled at her. "Four out of six things you said were factually incorrect, and one of the other two is very subjective."
"Ah and which were those?" New Kid asked.
"You said Sasuke is a 'weak willed shit-for-brains Orochimaru's clone who only cared about power and ran off to Orochimaru, betraying Konoha'." Sakura said. Uzumaki became progressively angrier as she talked but she waved a placating hand and he stayed silent.. "Your first supposition was that Sasuke is weak. Sasuke is not only talented, but he's also an exceptionally hard worker, he was the strongest genin in the leaf when he left and I can guarantee that he's been training his ass off ever since and will in all likely hood probably be at least jōnin level. Ergo, he really can't be earnestly called weak."
New Kid made no expression to acknowledge her statement until he gave a single, tiny nod. She simply waited, smiling pleasantly and walking along side him until he did.
"Your second supposition was that Sasuke has 'shit for brains'. Aside from the fact that that's physically impossible, Sasuke is also extremely intelligent. While his social skills are lacking, he was often the quickest to work out strategies and would use complex, multi-step plans to back those he fought into a corner." She said, paying particular attention to the way New Kid's eyes tightened just a few millimetres. "But to be fair, that is anecdotal evidence, I mean Naruto and I only spent almost every day with the guy for a year as well as most of our childhood. It's not like we would know wether or not he's smart."
She chuckled. New Kid opened his mouth to say something in response but Sakura barrelled over him. She wanted to make clear this conversation was anything but friendly.
"Third supposition, that Sasuke is an 'Orochimaru's clone'. Aside from the fact that they don't even look similar, they both have very different goals and ideals. Orochimaru's greatest drive in life is to achieve immortality and master every jutsu in existence. He is driven by a passion for science that outweighs any morals he has, leading him to perform human experimentation and countless horrific atrocities because his goals are ultimately selfish ones. Orochimaru only wants to achieve things for himself so he uses others to do so. Sasuke, however, is driven by the deep seeded desire to avenge his family. His life long ambition is to rebuild the Uchiha clan and avenge those that have died. He is driven by selfless goals, to achieve things for the other's he held important to him, so he does not use others to do so. He is completely, fundamentally unlike Orochimaru.
"Fourth supposition. Sasuke 'only cared for power'. This is false. Sasuke has one ambition in life and he simply sees power as a way to achieve this. His quest for power is ultimately for the sake of his goal, not for the sake of the power itself. He's also particularly fond of tomatoes.
"Your fifth statement was actually correct. Sasuke did leave konoha to go to Orochimaru." Sakura said cheerfully. Uzumaki was grinning and Tiger looked just a little shell shocked. New Kid was fake smiling but the tightness around his eyes had increased another few millimetres and his brows were just ever so slightly furrowed. After a few minutes of silence Kew Kid finally cracked.
"And the sixth?" He asked.
"Ah! Well, you said that Sasuke has betrayed Konoha but I would personally argue that he has done no such thing." She replied.
"He left the village."
"He did do that, but there's no evidence that he has shared sensitive information about the village or that he has actually taken any physical actions against the village. In fact, the evidence we have just points to Sasuke having gone to one place and trained for two and a half years. He didn't have a mission nor any responsibilities when he left. He just simply quit being a Konoha shinobi and left the village. I fail to see how that is betrayal. Or even wrong, really."
"It's desertion." New Kid replied.
"It is, but only if you hold him as bound to the contract we sign upon joining the academy. That contract states that upon graduation we become a member of the military and are legally bound to serve a full five years service. However we sign this contract as children. Sasuke signed it when he was five. Children are unable to grasp the full scope of their decisions, they think in the short term, cannot comprehend the way their choices affect themselves and others, nor can they grasp the physical and mental effect the shinobi career can have on a person. If someone cannot fully comprehend their own decisions, how can their decisions possibly be taken as binding without that inherently being a form of manipulation and indoctrination and hence morally reprehensible?"
New Kid looked away from her, black eyes fixed on the horizon. "That is a lot to think about."
"Of course!" Sakura replied with a sympathetic smile. "You wouldn't want to thoughtlessly run your mouth about things you know nothing about, that could really upset the people around you!" Her voice was full of humour as she clapped the New Kid's back just a little too hard to be friendly.
Sakura took a few quick strides to catch up to Uzumaki, ignoring Tiger's admonishing glance, dark eyes following her warily all the way.
"Hey Naruto how's getting the Rasengan one handed going?"
"Ah I actually did it."
"No way, good job!"
"Yeah but it took like twenty minutes to form it."
The hot springs were certainly a pleasant break. Probably.
Sakura wouldn't know.
Instead, she was henged into a man, surrounded by an expensive notice-me-not seal and imitating New Kids' chakra to methodically work her way through his bag. She searched quickly, having entered soon after the boys, with a particular target in mind. At the bottom of his bag, behind a seal trap that would have burned her hand off if she hadn't been mimicking the teen's chakra, was the envelope.
Sakura opened it.
It was ANBU personnel files.
It looked like every ANBU personnel file.
She had three choices. First, leave it unchanged, making certain New Kid wouldn't realise its discovery and everything would go as planned. Second, change it just a little, knowing the bird only saw the kid look through the first few pages. Third, burn everything inside.
For any of the options, slipping one of the seeds she'd been given into it was a must.
She grimaced. Sakura was a self-centred person. She knew this.
She flicked through the pages until she came across her own profile. With chocolate coloured skin, brown eyes, caramel hair and a completely different facial structure, the picture looked nothing like Sakura. No one flicking through them would connect the image to her.
(Henges and physical disguises were banned when taking the photo. Since Sakura's abilities were neither, she'd been able to successfully argue the use of them when she took it. She was pretty sure the commander had just found it funny, anyway.)
The name though. Just a glance away from it were the damning words 'Haruno Sakura'. She pulled the profile and stuffed it into her cheek. Let her saliva dissolve the paper until she could swallow it to be permanently destroyed without risking fire, chakra spikes or potentially leaving sensitive information lying around. After a half-moments consideration she pulled the files of team Ro that were in the back half of the envelope as well. It was only Monkey's and Cat's, but it was better than nothing. Those joined her own. A seed was pressed into one of the packet's corners, slotted underneath the paper section of the most thickness in the best attempt to hide it.
She had almost, almost considered finishing when she found the scroll. It looked like a basic food kit sealing scroll on the outside, but when she peeked inside it she stopped. Unrolled it. Put her hands over the markings.
A burst of New Kid's chakra and a small black book poofed into view. She flipped through the pages, noting the crossed out faces and confirmed her suspicions about the kid- there was no way he was here to infiltrate them, Shimura had to be smarter than sending a kid with no social skills on an infiltration mission to survive so many years- when she stopped. A smile stretched her face.
Looked like New Kid was trying to assassinate the Uchiha. No wonder he got so stressed when she talked about Uchiha's likely abilities. She replaced the book, resealing it, and rolled up the scroll.
She would be interested in seeing the Uchiha destroy the idiot. She hummed. Maybe she'd get lucky and could nudge them in the right direction.
Sakura replaced everything in his bag, making careful effort to leave it exactly how it had been when she'd found it. She had already slipped a seed into his food, now she was done for the night.
She finally headed out and to a quiet corner, and dropped her henge. The water was warm and she remained relaxed even through the Uzumaki being predictably loud and distracting.
Sakura awoke well rested and with almost no soreness in her body.
Considering how slowly they'd travelled the day before followed by the long bath and actual futon rather than a blanket on the ground, it wasn't all that surprising. Still, though, it was a little strange.
She rolled into a sitting position and narrowed her eyes at New Kid's silhouette at the edge of the pier.
She sighed, stretched and got changed into her jōnin gear, leaving her hair down in deference to her relaxed state. Operation convert the New Kid in the Uzumaki's place was a go.
"Hey New Kid!" She called cheerfully. "You're an artist, huh?" She leant over his shoulder.
"Do you need something?" He asked. She tilted her head.
"I'm expressing an interest in your interests," She explained. "In that manner trying to form a basis of emotional connection between us as teammates, the first step to building a real bond with someone."
"I see." The kid clearly didn't.
"I'm surprised it's abstract." She said. "You seem more like a surrealist, but I suppose this is your squishy hedgehog insides showing." He blinked. "Does it have a title?"
"…who knows." He answered. She considered the picture.
"It reminds me of a dream I had, once." She started. "About these flowers called poppies. There was a great battle that left the lands in ruin and the earth nothing but fields of mud. Once the battle was finished the very first plants to grow were bright red poppies as if they'd been fed by the sheer amount of blood soaking the soil." She turned back to the New Kid with a smile. "I think it's beautiful."
He looked down at the picture. "I don't feel anything at all."
Sakura felt defeated. Her skills laid more at getting to the sane ones. Weirdos, sure, but sane.
She had no idea how Uzumaki did it.
It was looking more and more like she'd get to see that fight.
"Well that sure explains why everything you say is insensible!" Uzumaki cried from behind them. "We're about ready to head out! Yamato-taicho told me to come get you."
"Alright." Said Sakura.
Uzumaki sidled up to the New Kid and peered over his shoulder. "Hey! That picture's nothing special!"
"Indeed, just like your penis."
"I'm going to be completely straight forward and honest!" Uzumaki yelled. "I absolutely hate you! If you have a problem with me, then quit it with the fake smile and start being straight forward and honest yourself! If you want to fight I'll take you on any time!"
"You don't understand." New Kid said. "I just don't think anything of you, one way or the other. Please go on ahead, I'll follow as soon as I've cleared things up here."
"Let me help." Sakura said, stepping smoothly in between the two boys in an effort to prevent massive amounts of violence whilst Tiger was waiting for them.
(You didn't keep Tiger waiting. You just didn't.)
She handed him a small book. "Did you also draw this?"
"Yeah." New Kid said and snatched it from her. She scented blood in the water.
"Oh really!" She grinned. "A picture book, huh? I would love to see it sometime, if you wouldn't mind."
"Actually I would." He said, far, far too quickly. "This book isn't finished yet. Also I make a point of not letting people touch this. Because it's my older brother's."
Her grin widened as the boy stalked away. It was always satisfying when she found someone's pressure point.
Sakura watched the boy's fight Tiger feeling as though she was watching a car crash in slow motion. The Uzumaki was brash and fell for basic plays, seemingly even more so with the need to prove himself better than New Kid over his head, and the New Kid was ruthless and uncaring about the Uzumaki to the point of negligence.
Watching them fail to work together and then almost come to blows just seemed inevitable. She would not, however, stand for the New Kid manipulating the Uzumaki by pushing the Sasuke button.
"What would Sasuke-kun have done in that situation? Fought while looking after you?" New kid taunted, even as he wore a horrible fake smile and his voice was flat. "As a companion and a member of team Kakashi? The one who betrayed the village and injured you, you still refer to him as a friend?"
"He would, actually." Sakura replied with a smile and the pair looked at her. She turned to the Uzumaki. "Remember, in our very first fight he saved your life and put himself as a human shield in front of me." The blonde was perking up. "And the fight against Haku, where he activated the Sharingan and then used it to stop you from getting hit, taking near fatal wounds himself in the process."
"That's right! If it's to save a friend, I'll do anything." Uzumaki said, filled with determination as he stared at the New Kid, a small smile on his face. "Even work with you."
The Uzumaki left. Sakura turned poisonous green eyes onto the New Kid.
"If the 'traitor' to the village would stick his neck out for others but you won't, what does that say about you?" She asked.
"Why do you both still care about Sasuke that much?" He asked.
"I don't." She replied easily. His eyes flickered a little in surprise. "Frankly, I'm not a very sentimental person. It takes years to get into the circle of people I really care about, and Uchiha didn't do that. I really couldn't give a shit about wether or not he comes back to the village, wether he lives or dies."
"Then why-"
"I see that orange idiot," She interrupted, pointing at the Uzumaki. "As something of a little cousin. He sees Sasuke as a brother to him and wishes to do everything in his power to bring Uchiha back. This would not only be beneficial for the village, and therefore beneficial for the people I care about, but it's something that I genuinely believe Naruto could manage. I care about him enough to want him happy, so I do my best to encourage and help his achievable goals.
"Don't you understand Naruto's feelings?" She asked and her smile turned mean. "How far would you go to bring your brother back, if it were possible?"
(No one carried around something as unwieldy as a book everywhere if it wasn't the very last thing they had of a person.)
He smiled a horrible, fake smile. "No, not at all." He said. "I have none of what you call 'emotions'."
Sakura couldn't help it. She laughed. When she reigned herself in a hand was on the New Kid's shoulder and her face was flushed with heat. "I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be mean. Just, that's the stupidest thing anyone has ever told me."
There was a tiny furrow between the New Kids brow's.
"Sai." She said, voice serious. "If you don't have emotions, what's stopping you from simply laying down and never moving again?"
"I exist to do my duty." He said, voice flat.
"Okay but why?"
"I exist beca-" He started, she shook her head and interrupted him.
"No, not why you exist." She said, green eyes boring into black. "Why do you do your duty?" The furrow deepened.
"It is what I must do."
"No you don't. What's stopping you from just not doing it?"
"That would be betraying my village and I wou-"
"Would what? Be killed? Why would an emotionless shell care? What point is there in wasting effort on living if there's nothing driving your actions? Duty is a nebulous concept that is nothing without satisfaction, fulfilment and happiness."
"I do not know these feelings."
"Ah! But feeling and knowing what you're feeling is different." She pointed to the furrow in his brows. "See! That little furrow is confusion. When you're stressed you're eyes tighten here," She pointed at the corner of an eye, "And raise just a few millimetres." She pointed at the very corner of his mouth. "When you ate my cookies, these turned upwards just a few degrees in happiness. You're not emotionless, you've just gotten too good at ignoring those emotions until you've forgotten how to recognise them."
The New Kid's brow smoothed and he put on a nonsense fake smile, but the very corners of his lips had quirked. She grinned back at him and pointed.
"There! See! The corners of your lips are smiling."
"I did not think that was possible." New Kid replied, tone flat but just a little higher pitched then usual "No one has ever read anything from my face before."
"Those people weren't trained by Morino Ibiki himself." Her smile was smug.
"Come on, let's get going." The Uzumaki interrupted. "If we're not there by noon tomorrow, this'll all be for nothing!"
Sakura somehow wasn't surprised that it was Kabuto on the bridge. Her mental 'this is a trap set for Sasori by Orochimaru' tally went up significantly. Tiger had decided it was an extremely unlikely eventuality but, well, here they were.
Morino Ibiki hadn't gotten anything out of the kid in a month. This capture was a bust.
She watched Tiger talk to the man from under his henge- she'd taught him how to stop the chakra bleed off herself during her time on team Ro; the guy was bloody good at it, apparently his mokuton required a considerable amount of chakra control- with a growing sense of despair.
The kid was talking circles around him, likely stalling for Orochimaru to come out.
Their only hope of getting anything out of this mission was New Kid doing something interesting.
"The wind's really strong, I can't pick up anything they're saying." Uzumaki complained.
"That's why we were able to get so close, our scent and sound are carried by the wind, so they don't know we're here." Sakura said, helpfully not mentioning that her enhanced hearing could pick it up. Hopefully New Kid would underestimate her.
"Just what is he doing? Why doesn't he go ahead with the capture already?"
"This is Kabuto we're talking about, there's a high chance this is a trap set up by Orochimaru. Playing into their hand by trying to capture him at the wrong moment would likely end in Kabuto's escape and taicho's death. He needs to be extremely careful."
"What do you mean, a trap by Orochimaru?!" Uzumaki exclaimed.
"I think it's not unlikely this entire thing is a trap set up to capture Sasori that we've wandered into." Sakura explained.
Just as she finished, Orochimaru appeared. Sakura nodded.
"Mhm, Orochimaru trap."
Kabuto played spy and then took out Tiger's henge. Tiger leapt, throwing himself into the air and getting tangled by snakes only to Kawarimi out.
"He was working with Orochimaru!" The Uzumaki cried. Tiger made a signal and they leapt out of the bushes, landing as three before him.
"The Kyuubi and the pink one is here. Let's play with them a little." Orochimaru hissed. "I'll give you the pleasure of telling you which has gotten stronger, you or Sasuke-kun."
"Give Sasuke," Uzumaki growled. "Back!"
The air was poisonous. A visible aura was bubbling around him. But it was different to any use of the Kyuubi's chakra Sakura had ever seen. Like wearing a suit of acid rather than simply changing colours slightly. His expression lost any sense of coherency and her instincts spiked. Naruto's scowl was pure rage.
There was no way that would end well.
"There is no giving him back, Naruto-kun." Kabuto said. "Here, let me explain it to you, Sasuke-kun came of his own free will. It's about time you got over it, going on like that it ha-"
"Oh shut up you fucking creep!" Sakura spat. She turned to Naruto. "NARUTO!" She yelled, the boiling boy turned to look at her, eyes wide and angry. "We will get Sasuke back, but we will do it together as Naruto and Sakura. Not the Kyuubi!"
His stance relaxed a little and the bubbling slowly begun to calm.
"If you want to know about our Sasuke-kun, you could try to force it out of me." Orochimaru taunted and Sakura watched with annoyance as Naruto immediately fell for it, bubbling coming back two times as strong and lips pulling back in a snarl. "If you can, that is."
Naruto launched himself across the bridge and smashed Orochimaru away, a single, bubbling tail sprouting from his aura.
"Oh my, you sure have become quite the jinchūriki, Naruto-kun." The man said, his face half ripped off to expose another face. "And that explains why you were chosen to watch over him. It would appear my experiments were of some help after all. I should think Konoha should be more appreciative, wouldn't you agree, dearest guinea pig of mine?"
Sakura turned to look at Tiger, ignoring the ensuing monologue about Orochimaru's genius.
"What the fuck does he mean, 'why you were chosen'?" She hissed quietly. Tiger grimaced.
"The mokuton can control the kyuubi." He answered she widened her eyes disbelievingly.
"Well, then fucking control it!" She gestured towards the wildly bubbling Naruto. Tiger hesitated but ultimately nodded and clapped his hands into a seal.
Naurto started screaming. He grew another two tails.
The bridge exploded and Sakura was thrown backwards in a flash of light and a wave of poisonous chakra that left her eyes burning and her ears ringing. She tried to stick to the ground, to roll, to anything but her senses were thrown completely out of whack and she couldn't tell up from down.
There was a sharp pain in the back of her head and then black.
She awoke to the strange feeling of moving ink under her skin, hands on her arms lifting her off the ink and setting her on wood. She opened her eyes to a nauseating blur. The world was spinning around her, her eyes catching on every tiny movement and making her head pulse painfully from the overwhelming amount of information.
Her ears, thankfully, were slowly starting to work again, the ringing dying down and the sound of panicked calls reaching her ears.
"Taicho?" She slurred.
"Sakura, are you okay?" He said, a relieved note to his voice.
"Can't see." She said and the hands on her arms tightened. "Naruto?"
"Across the bridge with Orochimaru."
"You?"
"Here."
"Why haven't you gone after Naruto?"
"I sent a clone."
"Is a clone capable of controlling the nine tails?"
"I can't just leave you defenceless."
"Taicho, I can't see. I'm not fucking defenceless. GO AFTER NARUTO."
"Fine, but stay here."
"I'll be fine." She said and pushed herself to standing, slitting open one eye to confirm that yes, her vision was still fucked. She pulled a Hatake and pushed down her hitai-ate. She heard the distinctive sounds of leaping over wood and she walked the other direction. Soon, the tap of wood under her feet became the crush of grass.
Sakura sent out a string of chakra until it hit a tree and then walked half it's distance. She pulled the string back to halfway between her and the tree and worked on painstakingly building a sphere web of strings around her. Four going out from the cardinal directions and twisting, two going horizontally and two going vertically. Of the two, each covered half a sphere each.
A senbon would be able to get past it, but little else bigger would. It took considerable effort to maintain but it wasn't like she had to use the concentration on seeing, anyway. It would be just like moving through her mist, except no-one else had the same handicap and there was a nearby fight occurring between two monstrous pairs of chakra that was making sensing anything beyond their overwhelmingly huge attacks well beyond her skill level.
Simple.
She unsheathed her chokutō
Sakura heard the almost silent footsteps a mile away. The harsh crunching sounds stood out unnaturally against the gentle background of animal's movements and the wind through the plants.
Sakura lifted her chokutō and pointed it at the man the moment he stepped out of the treeline. He froze.
"Want to play, Kabuto-kun?" Sakura crooned. She heard the slightest shifting of weight backwards. "I haven't killed in a little while, I'm getting twitchy, you know?"
"I do." He replied, voice flat. "I saw you at the chūnin exams." Her smile widened.
"Did you? I'd wondered if you had." She said. "Did you know I got you arrested? Showing such pretty little information to the Uchiha. Tsk, tsk."
"I had thought the move worth the risks." He answered. She could hear his breathing picking up slightly. He could feel it too, then.
The bloodlust in the air.
"If it had been any normal group of genin it would have been."
"But we've never been normal." His voice was sardonic. Her smile showed too many teeth.
"I am curious though," She tilted her head. "Why is that fight happening?" She gestured to the booming noises over her shoulder.
"Ah, I fear Orochimaru-sama has grown bored recently." He replied and she nodded.
"And you?"
"Me?"
"Have you gotten bored, Kabuto-kun?" She asked and shifted into a stance. His breathing quickened further.
"Oh terribly."
His pouch rustled and a trio of shuriken flew through her web. Sakura easily deflected them with a flick of her blade. She tilted her head and pouted.
"Just checking you can actually fight like this." He chuckled and he launched into action, blurring through her barrier and sending the distinctive swish of a kunai through the air. She flicked her sword up, blocked the kunai with the weight of an arm and half a body behind it and heard the rustle of his far shoulder and the telltale shifting of the air. She dropped into a crouch, ducking the punch, and sent a palm into his chest, pulsing it with enough chakra that the front of it exploded into chunks of blood and bone beneath it. The body flew out of her web and made the thunk and slide of hitting a tree.
"You dead?" She said, her tone bored.
"I am a very competent medical ninja." He replied, not even sounding winded, and she snorted.
A sound appeared behind her and she twisted, slashing her blade as she skipped backwards. The kunai grazed her arm but her chokutō slashed through a thigh in return. Shunshin. Asshole.
She drove forwards, following the warmth of human flesh and the sounds of steps over grass, swiping and slashing and dodging. Most of the time she missed but some of the time she didn't. It was always brutal.
The backs of knees, insides of elbows, thighs, stomachs, ribs.
She gained a slash over her forearm and a nasty bruise on the outside of her right thigh in return.
The man was leading her into the trees. She let him. Her webbing was attached to herself, so it moved with her, and the extra debris in the forest would only help her out noise wise.
He figured that out pretty quickly. Tried to use a tree to sneak at her from behind, not realising that the webbing had given him away and the rustle of his clothing made him easy to track once found. He scuttled over the bark, groaning wood and almost soundless taps, and one arm of his shirt was pulled back, rubbing against his chest and with minimal movement from his hair.
She twirled at the last minute, chokutō snapping around and slicing through his neck. She felt it catch the bone. Just scratch it a little. But it didn't go all the way through before he shunshined away.
Sick of the smell of damp, she turned and headed back out of the forest. Back to the open bit of grass.
Footsteps appeared after a few minutes. "How are you doing that?" His voice wasn't even slightly off.
"Do you have any sensory abilities?" She asked.
"Not pleasant ones." She could hear the grimace in his voice, but also the rustle of clothing to form hand signs. "Ah. An interesting use of puppetry, certainly."
"Strings are exceedingly useful when you're creative with them." She said, her heart rate lessening. The chum in the water had dissipated, having well and truly demonstrated her ability to kill him he wouldn't let her get another chance. "Too many puppeteers get caught up in constantly improving the puppets, and they never think about the strings."
"Did Sasori get caught up like that?" He asked, overly casually.
"I wouldn't know." She said. "He only went through two puppets before I boiled his heart out."
"Ah, that is good news."
A mighty crash sounded from next to them, the burning sensation of acidic chakra filling the area.
"I also killed Deidra." She said, raising her voice over the smashing sound of rocks. "I'll probably kill quite a few more Akatsuki, but only with my eyes working. Mind helping a girl out?" She smiled winningly at the man as the dust settled.
"It is always nice to get confirmation of Akatsuki rumours. I expect you to deliver on that promise." He said, walking up to her. She kept a careful sense out for killing intent as he did, but as he ended up in front of her it was just the soothing warmth of medical chakra that flowed through her system.
She pushed up the hitai-ate as he stopped and smiled ferally up at the teen. "It'll be my pleasure."
He shunshined away. Sakura heard the running footsteps coming across the bridge and she looked over to see Tiger coming towards her and the giant, raging chakra monster next to her.
She paused. Narrowed her eyes at the trees across the bridge and scowled. The fucking creep had improved her eyesight.
Crowds were going to be a nightmare.