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ABC. Thought.


Chapter 13


"What the hell is this place? It's almost pitch black!" Sakura comments the moment she steps into the unknown space, and once she notices familiar silhouettes moving up ahead. The girl speeds up.

"Sasuke-kun! Naruto!"

She grabs their shoulders when catching up to them and they both spin around in alert by the sudden contact. As Sakura sees their faces, she sighs in relief to have finally found her teammates.

"Sakura-chan! why are you here?!"

Naruto gasps out loud when realizes it's her who has grabbed him from behind.

"Same goes with you two, I'm not going to abandon my friend that easily."

Sakura's confident response earns a huge grin from Naruto and a smirk from Sasuke. As both of them seem to be satisfied with her reckless action for once in a while. And the pink haired girl smiles together with them, thinking that perhaps she has not made a wrong decision after all.

Team 7 continues moving forward while having zero clue about their next destination, but what makes them worry the most right now is that they have lost track of Nina and their enemies.

"This place is creeping me out." Sakura shivers, being uncomfortable by strange air surround her. In here there's no sound, no smell, and it's suffocating them with this eerie feeling lingering up to their necks.

Therefore Sasuke suggests everyone to speed up to find the exit since he too, getting a bad vibe about this area. After sprinting through something seems like a long dark and narrow hallway, they're able to get out to see the light and breathe the fresh air. Then end up finding themselves standing in the middle of another forest.

"Wait a minute, this place is..."

Sakura walks back and forth to find things that resemblances to her home in hope to pinpoint their location. Soon she recognizes the familiar route, the same sunset just like the one they saw earlier and finally, Konoha's gate, which is now located far behind them.

"We are outside of Konoha? Lucky us!" The pink haired girl jumps in joy once finding out that they aren't too far away from their village. Since she's expected way worse from the beginning, like getting trapped inside another world or somewhere that is not suitable for human to live.

"Everyone, over there!"

Naruto spots the enemies up ahead and signal the others to follow. It doesn't take long for them to catch up with those robots and when they're close. Naruto casts Kage Bunshin and together with his clones, he makes a long jumps forward and lands several strong kicks at their heads. Successfully causing them to stop moving and turn their targets to him.

"You guys..." Nina turns speechless the moment she sees endless of Naruto's clones and multiple flying Shuriken, which are getting eliminated one after another by the energy beams.

In the end, none of them has wanted to give up on her.

"Nothing you say can change my mind now, Nina-chan. Because I already promised to stay by your side, and I don't intend to go back on my words."

It doesn't matter what he's doing now is utterly stupid and suicidal. Naruto's holding firm on his refusal to give up on rescuing his friend.

"Don't get too carried away, I simply follow to find out what more of these things can possibly do."

Sasuke smirks and states his excuse the moment their eyes meet.

"Why didn't you stop them, Sakura?"

Nina asks her, as she's expected Sakura to be the most rational one out of everyone here, and yet the only answer she receives is a head shake from the pink haired girl.

"I... don't care anymore! Danger or not, we shall face them! Together! That's what friends are for!"

Sprinting by Naruto's side, Sakura expresses to keeps on doing whatever she thinks is best. It seemed that Naruto's strong will of saving their teammate's life has overthrown the fear of facing strong enemies in her.

The machines gradually coming to stop and turns around to face the team 7. One of it opens fire with multiple of energy beams toward to where they are standing in order to separate them.

Another one acts as support by scanning the area to reveal the hidden opponents. So that the other one will force him/her out of their cover with its laser.

The last one's aiming for whoever has their guards down to catch them with extended arms. And the victim turns out to be Sakura, who is spotted having her back wide open because she's too focus on helping Naruto to find a place to hide. At result, she's gotten pinched onto a tree by its large hand and cannot find a way to get out.

"Sakura!"

Before any one of them can get to her, the robot has already charged its energy and shoots. Its attack hits the bull-eyes causes the target to be destroyed completely. And the next thing they know, both Sakura and Nina have stood right behind Sasuke and Naruto. With Sakura lying safely inside Nina's arms, still shutting her eyes and cowering.

They see the robotic arm which is holding Sakura's has now been sliced apart and falls onto the floor. As for the robot that keeps Nina as hostage, it has already been cut into pieces and explodes itself into bits.

"Took you long enough." Sasuke let out a sigh of relief once seeing his female teammates are still intact. He notices that Nina has drawn out her twin daggers and decided to fight for real.

"I-I'm alive?!" Sakura holds her face and looks around in confusion, not yet to figure out what just has happened to her. Only some seconds ago, she's being held down and about to be killed by the laser. Now she's standing together with the others, with no injuries or whatever.

Nina-chan saved me? But how? Sakura soon realizes that she's still lying on Nina's arms, her eyes widened both in awe and confusion when seeing the girl's burning in some kind of red aura they've never seen before. And it's not until her teammate collapses out of exhaustion, dragging her falling along onto the ground that Sakura's able to snap out of her shock.

"Nina-chan!"

"I'm... fine." Nina assures her, despite still struggling to get up and can barely breathe. That aura of hers has quickly faded away but her body's temperature is still higher than normal.

"What is... going on?!"

Naruto's frozen at his spot, not believing in what he has just seen. And Sasuke approaches the boy to snap him out of his fantasy. Also telling him to stop trying to understand something too ridiculous since it may wrecks his brain. Much to the boy's distress.

"That Nina girl... you better not get too close to her, Naruto. She may not be the person who you think she is."

Could it be that this was what he meant? Naruto's teeth cringe once being hit by the Uchiha's nonsense words from back then, only to get annoyed even more when it's Sasuke who was the first one to notice something odd about Nina and talked to him about it, out of all people.

"Had you known about this?"

He turns to ask him, recalling to Sasuke's annoying smug face when they first witnessing Nina using her hidden power. And the Uchiha simply shrugs in response.

"I only saw her tried it once. But trust me, I'm pretty much as clueless as you."

Unsettling to find out that Nina has been keeping such secret away from him for so long despite going through so many things together in the past, Naruto's expression gradually turns solemn. And as much as Naruto wants to confront her about it. However right now is obviously not the time, since there are still two of those killing machines waiting for them up ahead.

"Alright, I believe you know how to deal with those things?"

Pulling out more Shuriken from his pocket, Sasuke asks her. Somehow Nina's a little hesitate to answer before nodding to him.

"But Nina-chan, do you know why they're after you?"

Sakura's quite curious about the reason behind her sudden capture by the strange enemies, as it may have something to do with Konoha's situation. However the girl shakes her head in response, refusing to provide them any more info. "I'm sorry but... it's complicated."

"Then hurry up and tell us how to get rid them already." Seeing those robots have shape-shifted their arms into long blades and prepare to engage in battle again, Sasuke points at them and urges her to present the plan.

Soon, they're told to attack with everything they can. Tatjutsu, Ninjutsu, whatever that is used to hurt living being will be able to deal damage with them.

*The more they're getting hit, the better*

Once those things received a good amount of damage. Their cores, which are suppose to be placed hidden in the middle of their bodies and provide energy for them to move around, will be revealed. After that, all they have to do is destroy the core and those things will stop malfunctioning.

Or they can simply do what she did earlier, eliminating the robot completely by slicing it into pieces of junk. This is the quickest way to get rid of them but it's unlikely to happen with their abilities at the moment.

"I'm sorry but you guys are on your own in this fight."

Therefore Nina apologizes for not being able to join them for the big battle. That attack from earlier has drained what's left of her Ki, which is still replenishing from Kibutsuji incident, and leaving her in a serious vulnerable state. So she has no choice but to hide in the shadow and support them with her knowledge.

"Let me get you to somewhere safe first."

Sakura offers to stay behind to protect her since the girl's pretty much temporary immobilized, but Nina urges Sakura to helps the others instead. Assuring her that she will be fine since the robot aren't programmed to harm her. If possible they need her to stay alive and well in order to be experimented successfully.

"Alright, let's do this!"

Once making sure that everyone's ready, team 7 charges forward.

As usual, Naruto's first and main attack is to shower his opponents with clones and holding them down. Sasuke shows off with his skillful Shurikenjutsu and Tatjutsu, and casting Katon whenever possible. Sakura also sneaks in to distract the enemies, preventing them from landing any deadly laser on her teammates and throwing surprise attacks with them from time to time.

"Watch out, Naruto! Their eyes are programmed with abilities to deal with Shinobi's Bunshin technique." Nina quickly alerts Naruto when she sees him getting too far ahead of himself.

Naruto has been oddly silent, it feels as if he's not being himself right now. Nina frowns as she catches Naruto making unnecessary mistakes too often. It seems that the boy's too deep in his thoughts to focus on dealing damage. And that's definitely not a good sign.

Both Sasuke and Sakura have also notices the changes in him, but at the moment Sasuke's too busy with the machine to deal with him. So it's have to be Sakura's job to step in.

Slowly and steady, she waits for the right moment to move and once catching the enemy has turned its head away, Sakura dashes to where the real Naruto's standing and almost startles the boy off his feet.

"What are you-"

Not going to let Naruto finishes asking, Sakura jumps immediately into the point since they have no time to waste for a conversation.

"I know that you're upset because of Nina keeping secret from us."

And the moment she mentions their teammate's name, his serious expression once again showed and the grips on his Kunai tightened up.

"But I believe that she has her own reason to do so. And it's definitely not because she doesn't consider us as her friends. I mean, Nina-chan has almost risked her life saving me, hasn't she?"

Sakura states to continue believing in Nina and in hope he that will too, sharing the same feeling as hers. "You can ask Nina-chan about it later. But for now let's stay focus. Okay?"

While listening to Sakura's words, Naruto's eyes moves from Nina's hiding spot, seeing that despite not being in any condition for combats, Nina still standing tall watching their every move and prepare to do anything she can to support them.

Knowing her, Naruto's already imagined that Nina would jump out of her cover in any moment to fight in case of things going out of their hands.

Is that still not enough to prove how much she care for you?

His heart throbs by the thought, slowly realizing how much of a fool he's been acting. "You're right..."

Suddenly Naruto brighten up and nods to her. Much to Sakura's relief. Even though she doesn't know what's running inside his mind right now, at least its good to know that he's finally be able to get his head into the game.

Quickly, Naruto increases his clone amount and jumps into the battle to aid Sasuke, who are almost running out of breath due to having to keep the robots at bay by himself. Sakura too, joins the fight right after and the three of them face their enemies head on, not forgetting to work together as a team.

Everything's going smoothly and going according to plan, until the one-armed robot suddenly shape-shifting its blade into a high-tech gun and reveals a medium size tank containing green liquid attached behind its back. Instantly figure out its intention, Nina shouts.

"It's aiming at you, Naruto! Get out of there!"

As soon as she's done talking, the machine shoots a huge ball of green colored liquid toward to Naruto. Luckily, he summons his clone in mid air just in time to push himself out of the way and successfully dodges the upcoming hit.

"What the heck is that?!"

Naruto quickly regains his balance on the ground and gasps, watching his clone struggling within something look similar to green snort before him. A couple of seconds later, Naruto's clone dissipate while the liquid dissolves, leaving a hole about a human size on the ground.

"Melt-everything-gel, that's what we used to call it."

She explains and they all raise an eyebrow at the cringe-worthy name, "I know that sounds ridiculous but that exactly what it does. That gel will eat you up within seconds if you let any of them touch you."

As everyone's listening to her carefully word by word. She continues, even smirking.

"To think that there's a ranged type within the group. Considering this is our luck."

Still, none of them is able to comprehend her nonsense talk, only to get even more confused.

"There isn't much time to explain bits by bits but this gel is our ticket to do a one hit kill to that robot. It's much more convenient than the old-fashioned way by beating them up senselessly."

And they need to act fast because the other one, which is now identified as a melee type, has also revealed its secret weapon. It's a running round saw blade that equipped on both arms and they are as big as a human's torso.

Except it doesn't stay defensive like last time but dashes forward, destroying Naruto clones getting in its path by slashing their bodies while making its way toward to the real one, who is staying the furthest away from the fake Naruto.

It happens too fast for Naruto to react and Sasuke has no choice but to intervene. However the robot has countered his action by detaching one of the running saw blade on its arm and throwing it at him.

Luckily Sasuke's reaction is fast enough to dodge it while in mid air, twice, as the weapon's also acted as a boomerang and returned to its owner arm after being sent flying away.

When it's only a few steps away from getting to Naruto, Nina summons her clone to jump in between them to protect him. Seeing her, the machine halts for a mere second to scan her body before proceed slicing her apart. Saving enough time for Naruto to snap out from his shock and makes his escape by jumping onto the tree branch up above.

"This trick won't work on them second time." Nina informs her teammates. "Sasuke and Naruto, I need you two to keep that saw blade one busy, can you guys do that?"

After seeing them nod their heads to her, she then call out to Sakura, who is standing nearby watching for any strange movement from the ranged type robot. Hearing her voice, Sakura quickly approaches Nina's spot inside the bushes but still keeping an eye on it.

"Sakura, do you see those long tubes connecting to the back of gun-carry one? I need you to cut them apart for me."

Pointing at the one-armed target, Nina instructs her to initiate a sneak attack on it but Sakura seems somewhat wary about this idea, "Those things look tough, are you sure that our simple Kunai will work?"

She then hands Sakura one of her custom made daggers, which is surprisingly light enough for her to use. Not forgetting to remind her to avoid being touched by the gel from the container.

"Since this one has yet to analyze my clone, I will distract it while you find a way to get behind, okay?"

Sakura nods and holds the dagger tightly, watching Nina casting Bunshin no Jutsu with heavily trembling hands. Soon another clone of Nina appears standing right beside her and she gulps a big chump of breath down her throat. Their heavy tension is slowly eating Sakura from inside out by having to carry such sudden responsibility.

Right now they only have one chance to do a one hit K.O and if she blows it up, it'll be over for them.

"Are you ready?"

Therefore on the count of three, both Sakura and Nina's clone charges forward. While Nina stands in front of the ranged type to act as a bait, Sakura takes the chance to quietly gets behind its back.

Instantly notices odd movements from behind, the robot spins its head 180 degrees and finds Sakura when she's only a few steps away.

It charges for the laser attack with its eye and aims at her. Too late to run away, Sakura speeds up and make a long jump. Slashing the two long tubes, which are connecting to the gel container sitting on its back, apart within seconds and falls forward, doing a few spins on the ground before finally stop and gasping for air.

As expected, the green gel gushes out from the container through the broken tubes and completely eating up its legs in a blink of the eye. As the machine's struggling on the floor, the liquid quickly crawls toward to the body, finally reaching the core hiding deep inside and causes the robot to self-destruct right at the spot.

That attack just now had also gotten a few drops of gel on Nina's dagger and damaged its sharp edge. But at least Sakura didn't get hit by any. So it's considered a win for them.

"Yes!" Sakura cheers for her victory and Nina gives her a thumb up for doing a good job. Both Naruto and Sasuke have noticed their success due to the loud noises nearby.

That means... There's only one left to go!