Sakura Coming Out Party

With Sasuke gone Naruto continued walking with Sakura trailing behind when he stopped dead and turned to look at her.

"Sakura, I was just thinking, what was it you were trying to tell me before?" asked Naruto, looking at the top of Sakura's head as she wouldn't look up to meet his eyes.

"Ino, I wanted to tell you that something was wrong with Ino," said Sakura in a soft voice. Now that the battle was over, she was retreating into her shell.

"Yeah, I kind of noticed that but what?" said Naruto, remembering all too well what Ino did.

"She came to my house and was asking about me, said something about you telling her to check on me," said Sakura as they continued to walk down the street, weaving around the ruins and avoiding the bodies still in the street from the fighting. Doing their best not to look at any of the faces fearing it was someone, anyone that they knew.

"Okay, but what does that have to do with, you know, what she did?" asked Naruto, jogging a little to catch up before walking at her side.

"I'm not sure, but as soon as she entered my house, my father started talking to her. She seemed to be fighting him, but then she stopped and said the dumbest thing," said Sakura, still staring at the ground, not looking up at Naruto at all.

"Strange, what kind of strange?" asked Naruto as he pulled her over to the right before she walked into a pile of something that must have been a person at one point before a toad stepped on them.

"She said 'yes, master' and then something I didn't hear until she said your name," said Sakura, her voice getting more and more quiet.

"Oh, okay. Then what?" asked Naruto, still not understanding what happened.

"She left and then my father spotted me on the stairs. He… you know what he does… well, I couldn't leave the house for a couple of days… You know, to heal. And when... I got out, I found Ino hanging all over you," said Sakura. She looked like she would pull her head into her shoulders like a turtle if she could.

"But what were you trying to tell me?", asked Naruto, still not getting what she was trying to say.

"It was yesterday, I was at the flower shop when you dropped her off and I confronted her. I was worried she was planning on doing something. She told me not to worry about it as she was following 'The Plan', you know the plan my father talks about all the time, and when she said it her eyes glowed." said Sakura now looking up at Naruto so he could see the tears in her eyes.

"I knew she was going to do something, I just knew it but I couldn't find you. I even went to the ramen place you go to all the time but there was this crazy crowd of people. The only place I knew you would be was in the arena." said Sakura, now stopping at the edge of what was once a busy shopping market but was now a burned-out hole. The question of what type of jutsu would do this flashed in her mind as she turned back to Naruto.

The puzzled look on Naruto's face told her she had to break it down for him.

"God Naruto how can you be so thick, my father put a jutsu of some type on Ino to make her like you so she could get close and kill you.", throwing her arms up air she started to walk around the crater leaving Naruto just standing there with his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water.

"Wait, wait, wait are you telling me Ino was faking liking me?" said Naruto as he leaped over the crater and caught up to Sakura.

"I have no idea how the jutsu works," said Sakura, turning on Naruto and pointing a finger at his chest, freezing him in place.

"You have to learn to not trust people, not everyone wants to be your friend. How you convinced Gaara to give up and let us take him in I still can't understand." Sakura took the time to wipe the tears off her face, she had no idea why she was crying but a feeling of great loss was overwhelming her.

Not knowing what else she could say to Naruto Sakura turned and started walking away, she soon heard his footsteps behind her as he continued to follow her down the street as she headed home.

Minutes passed and he followed her like a lost puppy as they passed streets and buildings that had been untouched by the battle to only turn a corner and find nothing but destruction. The randomness of it all didn't make any sense.

"Sakura?", He said from a few feet behind her.

"What?" she replied, she had given up on him at this point.

"Where are you going?", he asked not knowing what else to say but he couldn't stand the silence anymore.

"Home, I need to change my clothes, I have sand in places I don't want to talk about," she said, feeling the girt on every inch of her skin.

"OK", he said, still trailing behind his head filled with memories of all the good times he had with Ino over the last four days and coming to the understanding that it was all fake, like some cruel prank. Both young shinobi were staring at the ground as they walked, so lost in their own misery the world around them faded away as just background noise to their inner turmoil.

Somehow Sakura's feet found the steps leading up to her front door digging around in her pocket. She pulled out the key figuring that her family was still in the shelters in the mountain she looked up and froze.

"NO no no no no. NO!" she screamed, shaking Naruto out of his walking nightmare to look up.

Sakura had dropped to her knees on the top step that used to lead into her house. It was gone, not just gone but crushed into the ground along with the house behind it, with some minor damage to the houses on either side. The body of a very large snake had landed across the four adjacent streets, flattening the houses before bursting into smoke to return to whatever realm it came from.

Jumping to her feet, Sakura started digging into the rubble, throwing pieces into the street. Frantic to know if anyone was in the house, she yelled, "Naruto, help me move this," as she tried to move a large beam.

He moved into action, joining her on the top of the pile, and with the help of dozens of clones, they moved the large beam to the side. The small army of clones soon had the top layer removed, finding the remains of Sakura's now old room as they started pulling the second floor out of the way.

It was Sakura's scream that stopped all the clones in their tracks as Naruto ran over to see what she had found. She was standing over the remains of her mother, still in her favorite chair with her knitting still in her hands. All the clones came to help as they pulled her body free and started to clear away the top floor so they could see the whole living room.

It was no surprise when they found her father, pipe in hand, crushed into his chair not far away from her mother. They had been sitting there like any other day, thinking they were safe from the battle raging around them.

Sakura staggered back, leaving it all behind until she was in the middle of the street, looking at her hands covered in dirt and her mother's blood when it dawned on her what this truly meant.

Laying the body of the only man he could truly say he hated down, Naruto looked over at Sakura as she kneeled on the ground with her head bent down, touching the street as her whole body shook. He assumed she was crying until the sound of her laughter reached him. Running over, he placed a hand on her shoulder, causing her to sit up. She was laughing hysterically, and when she spotted the body of her broken father, she burst into laughter so hard she lost her breath as she pointed at the crushed and twisted form.

"Sakura, Sakura, calm down," said Naruto, not knowing what to do or say.

"Free… I… I am free," said Sakura between fits of laughter.

"Free?" said Naruto, not understanding what she meant.

"No more plans, no more pain. No more fear of doing or saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. Oh god, Naruto, I am free to live," said Sakura, taking in a deep breath as the idea of freedom washed over her.

"But your family, they are gone," said Naruto, not sure if she was able to understand what happened.

"So I see, you're the last Haruno," said Sasuke, standing on the building behind them.

"What? Why are you here?" asked Naruto, standing up from Sakura's side to face Sasuke.

"I was ordered by an Anbu to bring you to the Hokage's tower," he said, leaping down and walking over, scanning over the bodies of Sakura's parents like it was just another day.

"Hmph, I guess you know a little how I feel now," he said, looking down at Sakura who was still kneeling on the ground. "Still, it was only two, I lost hundreds."

When Sakura looked up, both boys were frozen in place as her eyes were glowing bright white, and a grim smile showed a set of pointed teeth now filling her mouth.

"I hate you so much," she said, slowly getting to her feet. Then, without warning and moving so fast it was a blur, she punched Sasuke in the chin, sending him flying backward a hundred feet before he landed on the ground to only slide in the dirt until he came up against a fence some distance away down the street.

Naruto ran over to Sasuke as he wasn't moving to check that he was still breathing. Placing a finger to Sasuke's neck, he found he had a strong heartbeat and he was breathing but was out cold. Something Naruto had been trying to do to him for months, Sakura does with one hit.

"Sakura, what is…?" said Naruto, losing his train of thought as he looked over at Sakura.

Her eyes were glowing brighter and brighter all the time; her skin was going from pale to dark brown to black. It was then she let out a primordial scream, throwing her head back as a dozen or more black, dry branches shot out of her back. They waved around like a living thing, searching the air before stopping and pointing at Naruto. Each of them bent at some joint as if they were made in segments.

She was breathing heavily and then stopped to lower her head from the sky and stare at him as if finding the target she had been looking for her whole life, her strange branches looking more like disjointed tentacles now as they waved around. She took one step toward him, and her leg burst open, growing in size as it was covered in scales resembling tree bark; then her other leg, on the third step, both her arms transformed, and by the fourth step, her body doubled in size, tearing the clothes from her body.

She didn't look human, not even a little, as she continued to grow in size and morph into some ten-foot-tall creature with arms that hung almost to the ground, covered in scales. When he looked at her face, the Sakura he knew was gone, to be replaced by a monster from his worst nightmare. The eyes that had shined so brightly were now replaced by black orbs the size of his palm, and with a mouth that split her face in two, filled with rows of blackened teeth, each ending in a point.

With her tentacles growing in size to match her body, any sign she was once human was gone as she growled, lunging forward, reaching for him with hands shaped into long claws.

Self-preservation took over as he dodged to the side, then rolled over the ground to escape the rush of tentacles that followed her arm. Spinning to his feet he put some distance between them as she turned and started to slowly walk toward him.

"CHAKRA… More Chakra…" came from deep within her as she moved closer, the need for chakra to fuel her new form burning inside her. The only driving need now was to consume the greatest source of chakra. To suck it dry and make it her own. A small part of her screamed no, but it was too small, too weak to overcome The Change.

"Sakura, Stop this," yelled Naruto as he ducked under a clawed hand, not wanting to fight her. He looked up and down the street and found not a single soul had returned; this part of the village was almost untouched, and the bulk of shinobi would be trying to find survivors where the fighting had been the worst. Feeling utterly alone, with no one to turn to for help or guidance, he circled around the creature, refusing to think of it as Sakura.

Thinking back to all the times she said she had to follow the plan, that her father said something about the change she expected, it all came flooding back. Was this the plan, or was it some grand hallucination or genjutsu he was dealing with?

Forming a hand sign, he sent a pulse of chakra out that would break any genjutsu, only for the creature to pause and take it all in, using its tentacles to gather all the chakra.

'That didn't work,' he thought, leaping back once again as a clawed hand came down, breaking the street open where he had just been standing.

In the inner depths of Sakura's mind, she watched as all the repressed trauma of her life fueled her inner darkness that, up to now, was just another side of herself she would talk to from time to time. Now it was clear that that inner voice's destructive potential was now an unchecked emotional monster made real. All the pain and suffering at the hands of her father was now being used as a fuel to attack anything in sight.

The realization that this was her father's plan all along, was to torture her and make her miserable so that when the time came she would lose all control and become this creature. Floating in the darkness of her mind, she cried and screamed out to no avail; this was the kekkei genkai she had feared becoming, she had changed places and now she was the little inner voice crying out.

Out on the street, Naruto was backed into a corner and had no way out but to fight back, hoping that Sakura would return and forgive him someday. He created a hundred clones, each jumping on the creature with a kunai in hand, trying to do the most damage they could. He soon learned that when a clone touched the creature, it sucked all the chakra out of them, dispersing them instantly.

The smoke and confusion did allow him to run between its legs and make his escape but with a scream more like a roar it spun around and gave chase. All those times Sakura had come to him, to hide in his apartment, came rushing back, his feelings of guilt and helplessness as he could see now what she was trying to do, her small cries for help he brushed off or ignored.

"NO, I will not run away, if I have to beat this out of you then I will.", he said more for his own ears than hers as she seemed not to have any. Waiting until it moved closer he jumped and smashed his fist with all its might into its chin hoping to shock her back to herself.

Meanwhile, Sakura's mind was a battleground of its own, torn between the darkness consuming her and the flicker of humanity still buried deep within. She struggled to regain control, to push back against the primal inner urges driving her to consume everything in her path.

Sakura roared in pain as Naruto's attacks found their mark, but she fought back with a ferocity that matched her monstrous form. Her claws slashed through the air, forcing Naruto to dance around her blows with nimble footwork.

As the battle raged on, Naruto's mind raced with possibilities. He needed to find a way to weaken Sakura, brute force wasn't working, it felt like he was punching trees that moved and fought back. With each exchange, he searched for a weakness he could exploit. Seeing nothing he formed the hand signs Jiraiya had worked so hard to teach him, "Wind Blade Jutsu", he yelled out sending a blast of cutting wind at the creature.

The blades had some effect as some of the tentacles were cut off to fade away into pink locks of hair as the creature roared and charged at him. He was quick but not quick enough as a claw hooked his jacket and sent him flying into a building. Shaking his head to clear it he took too long and found the creature hovering over him. With a long swing, it smashed him into the ground pinning him down. As the tentacles wrapped around him he could feel his chakra flowing into the thing.

A flashback of when Temari had pinned him down flashed into his mind as he reached deep inside and pulled on the fox chakra. The sudden flare of chakra backed the creature away before it lunged back at him. This chakra was what it was looking for and it wanted more, so much more.

The blow to the head from Naruto's chakra-infused fist sent it staggering back as he followed up with kicks and punches. His own inner demon fueling his rage and will to survive. If this creature wanted a fight he was going to give it to it.

Creating a clone he quickly from a Rasengan and charged at the creature only to see it absorb the chakra out of the jutsu before it could do any damage.

Even as he fought, Naruto couldn't shake the feeling of dread that gnawed at his insides. He knew that defeating Sakura's monstrous form wouldn't be enough – he had to find a way to save her, to bring her back from the darkness that threatened to consume her soul.

Resorting to the only thing that worked, with each punch and kick, Naruto silently prayed that somewhere deep within the darkness, Sakura's true self still lingered, waiting to be set free. And as he continued to battle against the monstrous creature, he vowed to never give up hope – for as long as there was breath in his body, he would fight for his friend's salvation, no matter the cost.

As Naruto and the monstrous Sakura faced each other from across the street, a tense silence fell over the battlefield. The crimson cloak of chakra enveloped Naruto's form, its ethereal glow casting eerie shadows across the desolate landscape. With a single tail of chakra swirling behind him, he bared his fangs in a silent challenge, his eyes burning with red chakra.

On the other side, Sakura's monstrous form loomed like a nightmare made flesh, her twisted tendrils writhing with unnatural energy. Half of her tentacles were missing, severed by the relentless onslaught of Naruto's Wind Blade Jutsu, but still, she showed no signs of slowing down. Her gaze locked onto Naruto's, a silent promise of destruction and despair. Nations and clans alike had fallen to her clan and this was no different.

For a moment, they stood locked in a deadly dance of predator and prey, each searching for a weakness in the other's defenses. The tension between them was palpable, a tangible force that hung heavy in the air like a shroud of impending doom. The world faded away as they focused solely on the other.

Then, with a sudden surge of movement, they both sprang into action, hurtling towards each other with reckless abandon. Naruto's cloak of chakra billowed behind him as he charged forward, his fists wreathed in flickering flames of fox fire. Sakura's monstrous form surged forward, her tentacles lashing out with blinding speed, each strike aimed with deadly precision.

The clash was fierce and brutal, a symphony of violence and chaos that echoed through the empty streets. Naruto dodged and weaved, his reflexes honed by all his training and battles, while Sakura's monstrous form seemed to move with a primal grace, her attacks relentless and unforgiving. His blood spattered on the ground as more tentacles fell to earth, each blow being traded leaving the other wounded.

But even as they traded blow for blow, neither of them showed any signs of faltering. In that moment, they were more than just shinobi locked in combat – they were two souls bound by fate, a fate that Naruto refused to accept. The more he fought, the more chakra he pulled upon, until a second tail joined the first, amplifying his speed and strength with each passing moment.

The surge of additional chakra seemed to draw the creature closer as if it were starving and Naruto was a buffet of energy. Even as his blows crashed into her, she pulled in his chakra and redoubled her own strength to match. This was the Nation killer, the clans had learned too late that they fueled the monster with every jutsu until they fell in defeat.

As the creature ensnared Naruto tightly in its tentacles, draining his chakra, a primal rage stirred within the fox. Enraged at the thought of someone or something using him as a source of power, the fox roared, its fury fueling Naruto's own. In a burst of raw energy, Naruto grew another tail, and then another, until four tails thrashed against the ground.

With this newfound strength, Naruto summoned his new reserves of chakra and managed to wrench his hands free from the creature's grasp. With fierce rage, he lunged forward, wrapping his hands around the creature's neck and choking it, channeling all of his anger and frustration into the struggle as the monster snapped his jaws trying to remove his head. The creature was crushing him in her hands as he did his best to choke the life out of her.

As the glow of chakra filled the area, enveloping them in a fiery red aura, Naruto felt a sudden disorientation. In a blinding flash, he found himself standing in a desolate black landscape, with only faint lights twinkling in the distance.

"What the Hell?" he said looking around, "Fox this is not the time for a visit" he screamed out getting no response

Needing to find answers, Naruto willed himself to float toward the nearest light until he came upon Sakura, standing amidst the darkness. Her figure seemed shrouded in shadows, her features obscured by the dim illumination.

Her eyes popped open, and she spoke with a voice that seemed to echo through the void, "Naruto, you must submit. I will not kill you if you submit," she said, floating in front of him.

"I can't do that, Sakura. You know that," replied Naruto, his voice hard.

"Then you will die, as have all the others before my clan," she said ominously, her form transforming into the monstrous creature, revealing that it had been a trick all along.

The battle unfolded as a clash of willpower, each combatant striving to dominate the other's mind. The creature, an embodiment of Sakura's darkest fears and repressed emotions, exerted every ounce of its power to bend Naruto to its will. Yet, Naruto remained strong, refusing to yield even as the creature's influence threatened to overwhelm him. He knew suffering, he knew pain and this was not the solution, his path was one of light not darkness.

"You must submit," came the haunting voice, echoing through the void, whether from Naruto or the fox within him, it was unclear.

With a defiant roar, Naruto pushed back against the creature, drawing upon the potent chakra of the fox within him. The creature began to weaken by the relentless assault and struggled to maintain its hold. Naruto had found the weakness, had found the limit of how much chakra it could absorb.

Then, in a moment of unexpected clarity, the real Sakura emerged from the depths of the creature's subconscious. With a strength she did not know she had, she joined Naruto in the battle against the creature, in truth her own inner demon.

"Naruto, I will submit to you," Sakura declared, her voice ringing out. "You will be my chakra, and I will be your will. I am yours to command."

The words hung heavy in the air, resonating with an ancient power as if invoking a forgotten jutsu. In that moment, the balance of power shifted, and Naruto and Sakura fought side by side, united against the malevolent force that threatened to consume them both.

"NO, you will submit to me!" roared out the creature even as it struggled to fight them both.

In a flash, the oppressive darkness of the mindscape shattered, replaced by a blinding cascade of light. Within this radiant expanse, the creature loomed larger, wreathed in swirling torrents of crimson and ivory chakra. Sensing the moment of reckoning, Naruto cast a confident grin toward Sakura, a silent acknowledgment passing between them as they prepared to end this battle of wills.

Beside him, Sakura returned the gesture with a smile tinged with sadness, her eyes betraying the weight of everything she had done, every painful moment of her life. As the brilliance of the light intensified, signaling the apex of their mental clash, both shinobi braced themselves for the imminent showdown with the relentless creature that in truth was Sakura's true inner self formed by a thousand blows, a thousand insults until it was pure rage.

With a deafening crescendo, the energies of the mindscape collided in a dazzling spectacle of unstoppable power meeting unmovable will. Naruto fought with every fiber of his being, he would never yield to this creature.

"Naruto," came Sakura's voice from all around, "I yield to you all that I am."

As the battle reached its height, a blinding flash engulfed the mindscape and spilled to the world outside, this was the ending of their struggle. When the brilliance subsided, Naruto stood panting, his head still spinning as he was abruptly returned to reality, his feet meeting solid ground with a jolt. Blinking away the remnants of the blinding light, he staggered forward, his gaze immediately drawn to the motionless form lying at his feet.

It was Sakura.

Her overwhelming presence was gone, her body still and lifeless under the unforgiving heat of the sun's harsh glow overhead. The buildings that once stood untouched by battle were now burning, sending their flames high into the air. Naruto's heart sank as he knelt beside her, a myriad of emotions flooding his mind. Relief washed over him at the sight of her, yet it was tempered by their ordeal and the uncertainty of what lay ahead. Was she herself or was the monster still in control?

The sun hung directly overhead, its heat joined with that of the fires was unforgiving, a reminder of the passage of time. Yet, amid the wreckage of the now burned out street, Naruto had some small hope as he touched her bare shoulder.

"Sakura?" Naruto questioned, uncertainty clouding his voice as he surveyed the scene before him. The girl lying naked at his feet stirred, her once-blazing eyes now dimming to a soft glow before fading entirely. As her emerald orbs met his gaze, she collapsed limply to the side, unconscious and spent, but alive. Relief flooded Naruto's heart as he knelt beside her, tenderly cradling her in his arms. He gently brushed the hair out of her face, noticing that she was missing a large amount of hair on the side of her head. He grinned, imagining her reaction upon seeing that half of her head was almost shaved. But now it is over, at least for today.

…..

I only hope that it was worth the build-up, trying to come up with an original creature was harder than I ever imagined. IF anyone is wondering, I wrote this chapter first and then had to find a way to get here. I have one more story ark to go.