_._

The Story of Us

'For those who never gave up'

Naruto x OC

Friendship, Adventure, Romance

Chapter 22: Encounter

You can't run forever.

"Haruka Kanata"- Asian Kung-Fu Generation

"You again."

Gaara hadn't seen the group hiding in the trees, but Mitsuki had. Her attention had shifted from Kankuro the the branches above, and that was all the cues he needed to know that they had more company.

When his gaze fell on the blonde haired girl, recognition ignited inside of him. He remembered her from the incident in the alley way, and from the first exam. She had been staring at her twin like a lost dog begging for attention, a pathetic little girl who was nearly a foot shorter than her supposed mirror image. He could snap her like a twig with his bare hands, let alone using his sand.

Might as well put her out of her misery.

His sand was faster than most ninja, so it gave him a little surprise when the girl easily dodged. The sand wrapped around the branches, following the girl at his commanding hand. He expected her to realize she had run out of branch, but the girl evacuated of her own accord, landing on the ground as though it had been her attention all along.

Mitsuki stared at her while he looked to the trees and searched for the girl's teammates. Both had hidden well for the time being.

Mitsuki, on the other hand, looked like something was internally bothering her. She was never one to show an emotion, but there was something about the look in her eye that gave away to a hint of struggle.

This was likely the closest to pissed off she had ever been.

Hikari stayed on her toes, knowing the moment she touched the ground that there would be more attacks to come. She looked to Kankuro, seeing the prize being stuff into his pocket as he slowly backed away. Hikari turned her gaze to Mitsuki, and in the next second the girl was in front of her. Mitsuki made to swing, expecting to take Hikari by surprise with a quick strike to the side of her temple, but Hikari was over staring at her twin. She dodged backwards half a step from Mitsuki's strike, using the momentum to swing around before aiming a kick to the girl's chest. Mitsuki didn't have time to put up her guard and flew back a few feet.

Recognizing the fact that she was unguarded and slower, Mitsuki retreated. It was perfectly timed with Gaara's sand chasing down to the earth from the tree tops. Hikari sensed the movement, not even looking as she sprinted forwards. Her gaze locked onto Kankuro.

The older boy was amazed by her braveness, having expected something along the lines of an escape, not a direct confrontation. He soon realized why she was so bold when he stopped being able to move his body.

"What?!" His eyes looked down his body to see nothing holding him down, but his shadow was stretched longer than it should've been. All the way back into the trees it stretched- a paralyzing jutsu? Oh no….

"What are you doing Kankuro?!" Temari called.

Kankuro looked up as Hikari approached him, and with movements to fast to properly track she went after the scroll. What was worse was the storm cloud of sand hot on her heels was not slowing down for him. If anything Gaara was prepared to take down his own brother in order to get to Hikari, something Kankuro hadn't considered until now.

"G-Gaara!" Kankuro shouted, shutting his eyes, and at the last minute the sands split around him and continued on their war path after Hikari. He was a lucky man today, because Gaara still had some semblance of remembering that the exam wasn't over.

Hikari on the other hand, realized she was running directly towards the other teams. She had to turn, but the sand had branched out around her too much. She could attempt to run between all fo them, but even with her speed that would've been a bad idea. Hikari also knew wasting chakra on a big move right now would end in disaster. All she had to do was keep them focused long enough for Akira to get further away, and then it was her turn to scram.

Mitsuki seemed to catch on to the plan, noticing the shadow as well. She looked off to the bushes, and Hikari noticed the gaze as well. Mitsuki then appeared in front of the bushes, and Hikari had a new plan in mind.

Akira was still hiding behind said bush, planning to retreat once he knew he couldn't help Hikari further. It was a difficult task considering the girl was literally running for her life, but damn did she make it look like a cake walk. He was surprised when her lookalike showed up right in front of him. With his hiding spot compromised he saw no need to hide anymore and planned to hold her down, but before he could activate his jutsu he saw the giant cloud of sand flying over to them.

Gaara had taken his sights off Hikari for a split second, knowing that his sand would protect him regardless, and instead focused on the teammate Mitsuki had found. He would take care f that one, and dangle him in front of the girl before crushing them both. Akira activated his jutsu just before Mitsuki made a move to avoid the strike, but the sand didn't slow down at all. Akira began to sweat when he realized the girl didn't look bothered either, and he remembered the precision move from before where the cloud seamlessly split apart around the other guy and followed Hikari.

Shit.

Akira prepared to run, but there was nowhere to go. Capturing a teammate meant nothing if he was a dead man, so he lost his focus and released the jutsu at the same time. He flinched, the sand moving too quickly for him to dodge-

The sand halted, landing on the ground.

Everything went quiet in the clearing as the sand dropped. He could clearly see the reason as both he and the girl turned to get a good look at the sand user.

Kankuro and Temari couldn't believe what they were seeing, it wasn't possible. Not for some scrawny four foot tall kid!

But it was, it was clear as day right before their eyes.

Akira wasn't the only one to remember that precision move with the sand. Hikari had remembered it as well. She couldn't go to Akira though, as even she couldn't get past the sand and Mitsuki and also grab Akira to move without risking both their lives.

So she went to the source.

Gaara had stopped following her the moment Mitsuki moved away again, and it was her opening.

The sand to his left side raised as soon as she became close enough, but still Gaara didn't look at her, so she poured chakra into her feet and- much like that time with Reiji in the Land of Waves- she moved quickly around the wall of sand and kicked him in the temple.

Gaara hadn't seen the move coming, so when he got struck in the side of the head nothing quite registered for a second except for his world going sideways. Then the pain came, radiating from the point of contact and his neck. It hurt like hell, and he was confused what caused this pain. His eyes managed to catch sight of the blur that was Hikari moving away from him and backing over into the clearing.

And then he saw red.

Rage filled him- how dare she- who the hell did she think she was?!

"I'm…. Going to…. Kill you!" His raspy voice burned his throat, he had difficulty making sentences.

Temari couldn't believe what she just saw. This tiny midget had successfully gotten by Gaara's sand and struck down his sand to save her teammate. Mitsuki was so surprised she didn't move for a moment either, that was until she got her sights on Hikari, blatantly standing in the middle of the clearing.

Temari knew, it was too obvious of bait, but Gaara and Mitsuki looked undeniably pissed off now. Too pissed to actually think straight. Mitsuki actually showed something in her eyes, they narrowed slightly, which was more than enough for everyone who knew her to know this battle was getting to her. And Temari could see her little brother quickly becoming unhinged.

Gaara's sand lashed out wildly at Hikari, but in between the whips of sand Hikari saw Mitsuki staring straight at her. The smaller girl let out a tiny grin form on her otherwise poker face.

Gaara's rage was blinding, and as he could the girl he didn't kill her right away. He wrapped her up tightly in the sand and began to raise her up high. He wanted to slowly crunch each of her bones until there was nothing left but dust and-

"Gaara wait! That's Mitsuki!"

He froze, his eyes widening as he stared at the blonde trapped in the sand. It's grip loosened significantly after realizing the mistake. Sure enough, the taller blonde was wrapped up in his clutches, barely reacting to his imprisonment other than the narrowing of her eyes. Gaara searched the clearing, but found not a single trace of evidence as to where the girl had gone. Her teammate was gone too.

His whole body twitched, and for once Kankuro and Temari were too surprised by what had happened to notice.

"How the hell did that shrimp outfox you?" Kankuro asked Mitsuki, not wishing to die by directing the question to his fragile brother. Mitsuki took a deep breath, returning to her impassive state.

"She used a substitution jutsu right before Gaara grabbed me. I believe she hoped our likeness would distract our teams long enough so that hers could get away. She was right."

Gaara's sand spread violently, ripping down a few trees nearby. Both sand ninja that had been stationed on Mitsuki's team, and the elder sand siblings, were unnerved by the temper Gaara displayed. Mitsuki was the only one to calmly walk over to him.

"We should go, get another scroll, and then we can likely catch up with them in the tower." Gaara was still shaking, so Mitsuki tried again. "Gaara, we have to go."

The red haired boy's body tensed up, going so tight Kankuro thought he was really going to burst. Then the tension left him as all the sand returned to his gourd.

The eldest brother knew they hadn't seen the last of the Mitsuki lookalike, and Kankuro was nervous about how these two would react to seeing her again.

And perhaps if the Koissui hadn't made such a show, they would've noticed another team onlooking the entire event from the tops of the trees.

"That was a close on." Akira grumbled. We leapt through the trees nimbly, but I'd be lying if that confrontation didn't bother me. The killer intent on that Gaara kid was terrifying, not to mention the killer look coming from Mitsuki.

"Yeah! Sorry, I should've stopped the moment the sand followed." I felt bad, because Akira had tried his best to help me, while Reiji had been waiting on the outskirts the entire time for an opening.

"It's alright. We have what we come for. Our best bet now is to carefully make our way to the tower before night." Reiji called from ahead of us. "I'm the only one who will be unhindered by the darkness, so we can't risk getting attacked then. We'll separate a little, in case one of us falls into a trap. 100 feet at most."

"Wouldn't it be safer to stick together? We can all help each other then." I pointed out, but at the same time could sort of understand what Reiji was thinking. As it stood we had both scrolls, and just had to make it to the tower. I doubted many teams had both of theirs, sot he closer we got to the tower the more enemies we could encounter. If we all lined up and went together as we were, then there was a chance we would be caught in a massive trap. But if we spread out then the other two could rescue the third. However, it would be disastrous if two or all of us were caught during this time.

"Normally I would say yes, but Hikari is the fastest and I have the best eyes while Akira can immobilize." I perked at this, recognizing the hint of pride in Reiji's voice. "I have perfect confidence in all our capabilities."

Akira and I looked at each other, grinned, then looked back to Reiji.

"Whatever you say boss!" I teased, and we all dispersed. I could still get a small sense of Reiji from my point on the right, but Akira was completely out of my range. The Hyuga ended up being right, I was able to dodge quite. A few enemies by simply speeding by them instead of having to go back for my friends. This strategy wasn't working half bad, and from the feel I got from Reiji's constant movement he and Akira felt the same.

Ahmya shuffled in my kimono, almost sending me off balance. I had forgotten that she was even there. She stuck her nose out around my collar and yawned.

"I had the greatest nap ever! Your body is the perfect temperature Hikari!" She cooed, and I stifled a laugh the best that I could while continuing to jump between trees.

"Ahmya, that's kinda a creepy to say such things." I reminded her, though she looked completely unfazed.

"Well it's true! Naruto is always too warm and the open air is too cold but you're juuuust right! I-"

I noticed her stop talking and looked down at her, but from my position I could barely see her save for one tiny ear was tilted out.

"Ahmya, what-"

"Watch out!"

At her words my body reacted in time. The last branch I landed on gave me a half second to decide my direction of impact. A huge blast of fire was coming from the right. In an instant I leapt higher into the air, barely able to flip over the attack in time, before attaching to another branch to hang upside down.

An attack of that scale, and a fire one at that, must've come from the Uchiha. It was the specialty of the Uchiha after all to perform fire style at Genin level. I should've kept going, should've carried on to the tower, but there was one thing making me hesitate.

Sasuke, for all his talents, would never be dumb enough to use such a huge scale attack for no reason. It could only mean that he was forced to use it. And if he was using it, was it because he was cornered? Alone? I was nervous something happened to Naruto and Sakura. And if so, was Sasuke all by himself?

Reiji had stopped, and likely Akira did too. I looked in his general direction, then shook my head.

"Dammit."

Sasuke was never keen on accepting help from others. He always wanted to do things alone, his way, at his own pace. But from the moment he entered the forest he had never wished for more competent teammates than right now.

He was the brain behind this operation, there was no lie behind that. Naruto was getting caught half the time while Sakura followed along staring at him as usual. The Uchiha was frustrated, to put it simply. He didn't want to think for all three at them at once, but it looked like he had to.

So imagine the sheer frustration and surprise when Naruto, of all people, was the one to talk sense into him.

His fear of that grass ninja was nothing like he had ever felt in the past. Even seeing Itachi strike down his entire clan didn't elicit the same notion of fear. Perhaps because he had been too small at the time to grasp the meaning of danger, or perhaps it was because this grass ninja had no reason to know them. A stranger was the devil you never knew, which made the possibilities endless.

And he hated to admit it but- Naruto was right. He was becoming a coward, trying to survive and live day by day, but that wasn't how he would one day defeat Itachi. How did Hikari put it? Right, he had to grab it by the horns so to speak.

Seeing Naruto's will to fight awoken something deep inside of him, a buzzing in his head that built and built until he pressure became too much and then-

The Sharingan.

He had finally awoken his, albeit much later than he had initially hoped, but it was there and just in time. Sasuke needed the Sharingan to have a shred of hope to survive this attack, and he fought with everything he had, because he'd be damned if he got taken out by this ninja without giving it his all. He fought hard and bravely, by himself, because he didn't have anyone he could lean on, not like he would try. So when the damn ninja, after taking a Dragon Flame Jutsu to the face, simply walked it off, some part of him just didn't believe it.

The Grass ninja just stood up, and then performed hand signs as though nothing had harmed them.

"Very interesting, yes, I believe you'll do nicely." Her voice dropped, and her skin began to peel off as she moved. As the grass ninja completed her jutsu he felt the air grow thick and heavy, like he couldn't move from where he stood. His Sharingan read it as a paralysis jutsu, but that didn't help him when he was already caught.

He shouted, trying to fight it as Sakura grabbed at his sleeve, yelling for him to move. Naruto was still passed out, and this guy was still ready to go.

"What do you want?!" He yelled, his body feeling tense and heavy. The grass ninja chuckled, pulling off the skin of his face to reveal a pale shade beneath the original.

"My name is Orochimaru, and as for what I want you'll have to come and see me after you finish this test. For I can give you that which you search for most." He burned the scroll, looking Sasuke dead in the eye.

"Wh-Why don't you just beat it?! If we never meet again it'll be too soon!" Sakura shouted, but Sasuke could hear the trembling in her voice, she was still shaken up by the earlier encounter. Orochimaru just chuckled some more.

"Oh, we will meet again." Orochimaru made a hand sign as his neck elongated out. Like a snake it extended through the air, coming closer and closer to Sasuke. He tried to move, tried to lift and arm, but his body was frozen. Sakura couldn't see the attack coming, it was too fast for her, but he could feel it, his Sharingan keeping up with it every step of the way. He struggled, attempting to take a step but barely shifted his foot by the time Orochimaru's head was a few feet away.

Then the attack was halted, and he could see the surprise on Orochimaru's face. The paralysis stopped then as something shoved him roughly on his left side. It was a smaller person, who only came up to his shoulder, but the movement was very familiar to him.

Hikari was shoving Sasuke over, forcing him to take steps as Sakura finally started to move as well.

"Move it!" She shouted, grabbing both his and Sakura's hands to drag them along. Sasuke didn't think, he reacted to her voice and rushed with her. "Akira!"

"Yeah yeah." The Nara muttered, knowing the others were at a safe distance. He held the creepy snake-like ninja down though as Reiji came in to strike down the enemy. It was a perfect hand off as the Hyuga used the eight trigrams sixty four palms on Ororchimaru.

"H-Hikari?!" Sakura was confused when she saw the tiny blonde rushing ahead of her. Hikari on the other hand let go f the two when she knew they would follow.

"Where is Naruto?" She demanded. Sakura was surprised by the tone, but managed to scramble a response.

"He's passed out, but he's just ahead by the tree." She explained. Hikari surveyed ahead, and saw the Uzumaki hanging from a single kunai knife. A million questions came into her head, but nothing that would do service to the confusing position the Uzumaki was left in.

"Help me get him down Sasuke!" She called, leaping up to the pinned boy. When the Uchiha didn't immediately answer Hikari and Sakura both turned to him. "Sasuke!"

His head lifted then, refocusing on the two blondes before he jumped up and assisted. Before long Sasuke was carrying Naruto on his back while Hikari glanced in the way that they had come. Sakura felt her nerves rise again when she realized Hikari left her teammates behind to fight that freak.

"We should go back and help your teammates. That Orochimaru was way too strong for even Sasuke to handle." Sakura looked to Hikari, whose back was to them as she stared in the same direction. "Hikari, we need to help them."

The blonde turned away from the direction they had come from though, and instead opted for a different path.

"I have faith in my teammates," she said quietly. Sakura went to interrupt, but the blonde took off. Sasuke watched her leap into the air and decided she must've had a plan if she wasn't heading back. He chose to follow after her, and Sakura followed after him.

'This is a bad idea,' Sasuke thought. Yet the truth was if Hikari's team hadn't shown up he wasn't sure what would've happened.

"We chose a rendezvous point already," Hikari explained to them over her shoulder. "Akira and Reiji will lure that guy away and we'll all meet up later on."

"How long were you watching us?" Sakura was surprised they made such a smart plan so quickly. It made sense to split up now. Hikari's team could definitely tell the gap in power between them and Orochimaru, so they had Hikari, who was fast, grab Sakura's team and flee. Meanwhile her team would bait Orochimaru away. Orochimaru would expect her team to join up with his, which meant that he would likely follow the two from Hikari's team instead expecting to find them. It was pretty clear his goal was Sasuke, and Hikari knew this too.

"Not long, maybe a minute, but I could tell right away from the attack Sasuke let off that that guy was bad news. As much as I wanted to fight, I knew if Sasuke was having a hard time we didn't stand a chance." Hikari explained, and Sasuke was surprised by the admittance. He forgot sometimes how blunt Hikari could be when getting her point across. She was never rude, but sometimes quite surprising.

Sakura, on the other hand, was surprised. Hikari's team not only made this plan, but they did it after only watching for a minute at most. She saw the attack Sasuke let off too, which was probably what drew them closer in the first place. Sakura always knew Hikari was sharp, but this was impressive even to her.

And meanwhile, Sakura had stood around watching Sasuke do all the work. She hated it, hated the feeling of being completely useless.

The group moved further away from the spot, only stopping once Hikari told them to. She kept quiet though, listening for any movements. Sasuke's eyes began to burn, so he deactivated his Sharingan. His whole body felt heavy and exhausted, and after a quick look over to Hikari he soon realized this wasn't the destination, but rather a rest point. She was stopping so he could recover some strength.

"I'm fine." He insisted, mildly insulted she would stop for him, but one look from her told him it wasn't just for the Uchiha she was stopping the group. Her eyes glanced to the passed out boy on his back, then a soft word left her lips.

"Ahmya." She said quietly, and at first he expected this to be some sort of code, but then the collar of her shirt moved and a tiny creature popped out of there, pushing her sleeve to rest on the corner of her shoulder instead. Sasuke had never seen the beast before in his life, and his confusion was mirrored on Sakura's face as well.

The creature, Ahmya, as Hikari called it, was completely silent as it crawled to the top of Hikari's head and froze. Sasuke ad Sakura waited, not sure what was going on at first, but soon they both got their answer.

"I can't hear him," the creature spoke, "he's either fallen for the bait or he's hiding."

Hikari turned to Sakura and Sasuke, her eyes narrowed as he could practically hear the gears turning inside her head.

This didn't feel right, and Hikari had a sinking feeling in her gut they should've all stuck together. Too late for that now though.

"Alright, in case we get separated, this is where we need to-" Her eyes widened as Ahmya's claws suddenly gripped her scalp. "Watch-"

A massive blast of wind cut through her words and the group was forced to separate. Sasuke tried to watch himself, but ended up slamming his face into a tree and falling with the Uzumaki barely staying with him as they crashed to the ground.

This would've been a great time for the idiot to wake up, but he seemed out for the count. Whatever the case, the Uchiha was having a hard time trying to get to his feet. He felt exhausted, and whatever damage he received from the fall wasn't exactly helpful to his plight.

He tried to get his bearings and figure out where everyone else was first. The only person that was even in view was Sakura, who was shaking in absolute fear on a branch not far from where he was. He followed her gaze and found that Orochimaru hadn't fallen for the ploy at all. The man stood on the tree branch just across from him. There really was no running from him was there?

What was worse, Hikari had landed between them. She had fallen onto her back and was slowly getting up. It wasn't quick enough though as the snake's tongue darted out and wrapped around her neck. A choking sound could be heard as he lifted her slowly.

"Hikari!" Sasuke forced himself up at the prospect of danger, but his legs froze where they were. It was the same jutsu from before, and this time he was completely powerless to move.

"What a little brat," Orochimaru said around his tongue, bringing the girl closer to him. Hikari winced, clawing at her throat to try and get some air, but to no avail. Panic set onto her face as she was slowly choked out.
Sasuke couldn't move, but that meant Orochimaru had no intent on moving either. If Naruto would just wake up- no, he couldn't hope for something to happen, he had to make it happen.

'I've got to move… Now! Or….' He tried to force his body to move, but the more he fought the more tired he became, and the more futile the entire endeavour appeared.

Hikari stopped fighting the choking sensations, her hands going limp beside her. Sasuke looked up and for a moment he thought she had passed out, but it was just then that he realized something.

An explosive tag laid on her back. Orochimaru hadn't taken notice, because it was completely out of his sightline.

"You thought you could outsmart me? Such a feeble attempt. I could smell you little girl, smell the fear coursing through your veins. There was no where you could run." As he said this, Hikari smirked, surprising Orochimaru.

"I knew it."

The tag lit up, exploding the water clone and sending the fluid everywhere. It splashed all over the man, but before he could react to this he heard a distinct sound of birds chirping. H knew that sound, and it was coming at him fast from behind.

"What?!" He looked over his shoulder in time to see Hikari rushing him with electricity dancing over her palm. The sheer speed the kid could move was above a regular genin and perhaps most chuunin.

She struck him in the shoulder, the water that had splashed over him from the water clone earlier conducting the currents, further increasing the damage from her attack. Hikari didn't stop her momentum there though, and allowed herself to do a handstand on his shoulder before landing between him and Sasuke a small space away. She began her hand signs.

Snake, Rat, Dragon, Dog, Tiger!

"Wood style: Tree Bind Flourishing Burial!"

Orochimaru was pleasantly surprised when the bark of the tree opened around him and encapsulated his entire body. He had never expected to find such treasure in this forest, and now he had found two hidden gems.

Hikari was kneeling now, heavily breathing. Sasuke watched her in shock, impressed by the level of planning she had done for that counter attack. And what was that jutsu she had done earlier? The lightning, he had seen Kakashi do it once, but never got the name of it. He could see it took a toll on Hikari though, as her breathing was heavy, and her shoulders were sagged.

"I see," Orochimaru felt gleeful when he looked at the two gems. The girl was particularly fascinating. "You used your water clone as both a diversion and a means to power up your lightning attack. From the looks of it you can't actually form a Raikiri yet, so you used the water close to help you save your chakra and then used a wood release to capture me."

He chuckled, using his long tongue to languidly lick at his lips.

"Very interesting."

Hikari was not happy at that tone, knowing full well it wasn't something that a captured enemy should be saying. Which meant he knew something she didn't, or he was just that confident in himself.

"Tell me, are you one of my test subjects?" The question threw her off then, not completely understanding what he meant. "No, you'd be too young. Perhaps….. oh yes."

He licked his lips again, and a shiver went down Hikari's spine at the look in his eyes.
"I recognize those eyes. Yes, you have the same fire, perhaps that is why you don't tremble at the sight of me." Orochimaru chuckled again. "But I wonder, just where did you learn this jutsu? Unless… Ah, it's because you are the keeper of the nine tailed fox, aren't you? At least, you're in training to be."

Hikari's eyes widened, surprised he had come to that conclusion. He took that opening and extended his neck to come around her and clasped down on Sasuke's. The Uchiha was stunned, and Hikari barely had a chance to move as he passed her by.

"No!" She cried, trying to turn and defend, but it was already too late. The snake had bitten him, and the mark was deposited.

"You've got talent, I'll give you that," Orochimaru said, distracting Hikari. She realized her mistake when she turned back and saw Orochimaru's body freed from the wood release. She hadn't even realized he had done it, but his head that went for Sasuke was not the same as the one before. He had shed his previous body like a skin and wriggled himself out of her hold. The sight of the loose skin still stuck in her hold made her freeze up, and it was more than enough time for Orochimaru to strike at Hikari and send her flying into another tree. She had managed to guard, but the strength of his strike was so overwhelming that she forgot to take the landing right and cracked her head against the tree. "But you've got a long way to go. Perhaps I will leave you as you are for the time being."

Orochimaru watched the girl slowly begin her descent to the forest floor. Sakura, finally gaining her wits, realized that she was really the only one left, and jumped after the tiny girl. She caught up to her, and managed to grab her before she really broke her neck on the ground below.

"H-Hikari!" Sakura cried, finally finding her voice. The girl didn't respond at all, and when Sakura looked up again she saw that Orochimaru had vanished. Sakura stared at the small girl in her hands, then heard the screams of Sasuke as he grasped his neck in pain. She put Hikari on her back and climbed back up to him.

"Sasuke!" Sakura placed Hikari down on the wide branch and rushed over to him. Sasuke's whole body vibrated with pain, but by the time she got close enough to attempt to comfort him he simply collapsed and she rushed forwards to catch him.

Sakura stared at the boy in her arms, and then looked to her other teammate and then the tiny blonde passed out behind her.

"What… What am I…. What am I supposed to do?" She whispered, too afraid to make any louder sounds. She was still shaking, not sure what to do next. Did she try and wake them up? Was Sasuke dying? What about Naruto? Why hadn't he woken up? Where were Hikari's teammates? Was Hikari going to be alright?

"Help….." Sakura curled up closer to Sasuke, holding on for dear life to the passed out boy.

"Somebody, please help me…!"

Wow that was pretty intense! Wasn't kidding when I said Hikari would be a bit of a show off in this chapter. She really doesn't like to be, but when she has to Hikari can really throw down!

So, wondering what y'all think? Because I actually made this up on the fly. Something else was supposed to bring Hikari to know something was wrong, but I realized that I hadn't actually written in the hints in a previous chapter and went 'fuck it, this is what we're doing.' Thoughts? BTW, I am so excited to start morphing Sakura's character, because I desperately want things to change. She was super toxic the way Kishi wrote her and I demand change dammit! What's the point of writing fanfiction if you cant abuse the rules, Ammiright?

Review Replies

Mrs. Morgan 35: Tadaaa~! It has arrived!

Crimson G: Ah yes, tomatoes... I really hate tomatoes... Hate to disappoint but Sasuke does in fact have the Sharingan, but there is a key reason why it's only really popped up now, but I don't wanna give it away. Maybe you could guess it? And yeah, he technically activated it way back when but it seemed like a continuation error on Kishi's part.

Guest: Yeah I get ADD tendencies in the winter, and since we're on lock down I have the attention span of a peanut. And yeah, you can kinda forget that characters die a lot in this show, especially side characters. I mean the Forest of Death had about 100 people enter, but only like twenty people survived. And we're talking kids under the age of 15 predominantly. This show is actually quite brutal, but being part of this world they don't really realize this. The story will slowly and progressively get more serious and gruesome as time goes on. Shipuuden is definitely rated M for many reasons now, one of them being how brutal a few battles end up being.

LadyAmazon: Lol yes, I considered the RPS challenge, but figured Hikari and Lee should have a proper first battle. Don't worry, plenty of RPS tournaments to come!

SuggestionMan: This is a nice idea, but probably not one that will make it into this story. As it stands the story is gearing to be, in all of the books of this series, longer than the Harry Potter series. That's over 1 million words! I was trying to keep it tight at 500,000 words but that just isn't happening. We're not even half way through this book and already crossing 130,000 words. I wanted this book to be around 200,000 words, but it's likely going to be around 300,000. And Shipuuden is going to be almost twice as long if I've projected it correctly. So thank you for the choice, but it won't make it into this story. Perhaps into one of my spinoffs I plan to make with this world. One of them is my Shikamaru story I was going to post, but ended up choosing to save it since there would be a lot of spoilers.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed the previous chapter. Also please inform me of any errors even formatting ones. Sometimes they don't appear on the editor screen until I post it!

I hope everyone is doing well! Please stay safe!

Iland Girl