"..." Normal chat.
ABC. Thought.
Chapter 18
And I wasn't wrong, at all...
Next morning.
Alright, if he goes right then I'll go left. and then...
"Stop."
As I'm about to catch Sasuke's fist, we're stopped the sound of Kakashi's voice. And from the rear of the battle ring, we see him holding his arm up while approaching us.
"Your moveset. It looks unnatural."
He points at me, comments about my clunky movements.
"Unnatural?"
My head tilts in confusion.
"To what I've witnessed yesterday."
And I frown. Still not understand a word. Yesterday? What is he talking about?
After spending a good while thinking, I gasp out loud. Finally figure out that Kakashi had followed me all the way to the lake but seen my battle against Sasuke that noon.
Of course! I was too focus on the fight to notice his presence!
Ignoring my annoyed face, Kakashi proceeds pointing out my flaws. How my actions aren't running smoothly as they're suppose to be, because I've been too focus on countering Sasuke's attack to actually fighting him.
To make it simple, I'm playing it too safe. That's why it's already been fifteen minutes into the battle and I've yet able to land any hit on my opponent.
"But that's what training is about. Right? To enhance our critical thinking instead of just mindlessly beating up someone."
In my own defense, this is a friendly match so there's no point for me to go all out. Yet both of them don't seem to prefer my overly defensive method. And Sasuke's expression right now showing him being the most displeased.
"If you intend to waste any more of my time being a bother. Then leave."
He spat, and I can feel his intense glare's piercing through my soul.
Great, now the Uchiha's mad.
Not wanting to fight with him so I turn to Kakashi for some assistance. Only to see him staring back at me with an emotionless face. I bet he's attempting to make me feel guilty for not being serious with Sasuke's training. And goddamn it worked...
"Alright, fine. If you want me to fight for real. So be it."
I hold my arms up in defeat and immediately Kakashi's face brightens up. After ordering us to go again, he returns to his old spot, taking out his notebook and pen. All prepared to watch and grade my abilities.
Here goes nothing!
The moment Kakashi gives us a signal, I charge ahead in hope to land my first hit on Sasuke's face. However, my fist misses him by an inch and he counters with a punch to my noses. Quickly I slap his hand away, one after another as they keep coming toward to my head.
To lower my defense, Sasuke adds a kick to my side and in order to dodge it, I jump. But so does he, and even higher than where I am at. Then Sasuke proceeds delivering series of kicks on my back and send me back to the ground again.
After landing on my feet safely, I look up to find my opponent and already see a foot flying toward to my face. Quickly I block the kick with my arms, but the force's still strong enough to send me flying meters away.
It only stops when my body hits a boulder and I begin to lose my balance. Once getting me into tough spot, Sasuke does several hand signs and I recognize what those are instantly.
That damned jerk, he's going to use Ninjutsu in a Tatjutsu-only match!
My teeth cringed at the unfairness, then I glance at Kakashi. The guy's still emotionless as ever and doesn't have any objection with what's about to happen.
Screw the rule then.
No time for hesitation, I pull out some shuriken and kunai from my pocket and thow them at Sasuke. As expected, he stops in half-way to dodge the daggers and I quickly get back on my feet, dash to where Sasuke is and punch him hard in the stomach.
Due to the impact, his puffed cheeks vanish and the ninjutsu is cancelled. While Sasuke's crouching in pain, I try to knee him on the face as payback. But he dodges and sweeps my other leg, causing me to fall flat on the floor.
Sasuke then jumps backward to keep distance while I get back up again. Now both of us are back to our starting point, with addition of bruises and messy clothes.
The fight goes on for an hour or two, Kakashi claps his hands as a hint for us to stop the battle. Once putting the notebook inside his jacket, he turns to me.
"I will take it from here. Good work."
Therefore I nod to him, disappointed somewhat since he doesn't have any comment on my performances. I wonder whether that's bad or good according to his standard...
Soon Kakashi leads Sasuke away and I find a place to rest.
From that day on beside from training Tatjutsu, Kakashi begun to order us to compete with each other in any type of sport he could think of. From long and short dashing, to tree and mountain climbing, swimming, and shuriken throwing.
We even spent a whole day trying to collect honey from local wasps nests, no need to tell to know whose strange idea that was.
At first, both Sasuke and I agreed that it's a bad plan to harvest from those hunters but our teacher digressed. Telling us that doing this would somehow enhance our skills and senses, plus a delicious reward if we succeeded. It's just too good to pass.
Despite all the heated explanations and objections, Sasuke and I still had to do it unless we wanted to hear him nagging about teamwork for the rest of the day.
Except there's no teamwork when the rule's changed in the middle of the battle, all thanks to Sasuke who kept complaining that it's too easy. Therefore we had to fight against each other over the rare honey in order to win. Almost killing each other in progress as both of us fell off a cliff while trying to get away from the angry wasps.
In the end the operation failed horribly, as expected, with no honey or whatsoever but stings and bruises scattered all over our bodies. But we had fun, for me at least. Such a pity that innocent moments like these never lasted too long.
In one morning.
"So this is Chidori..."
Nina comments in awe while watching him performing the technique.
Because Nina doesn't possess any Chakra, it's obvious that the Chakra Induction Paper doesn't work on her. And the only way to find out whether she's possessing any nature-related ability is through self-research, with extreme patient.
"Does it hurt when you're holding lightning like that?"
She asks, pointing at his sparkling hand.
"Not really."
Sasuke shakes his head and deactivates Chidori.
Ever since he's be able to use Chidori, his arm's also begin to be covered in white bandage, and it gets worse as day goes by. Whenever finish training with Kakashi, he would find a corner to sit down and start treating his wound in silent.
Figures that he wants to be alone, Nina can only stand aside and watching him. Though she did try asking him about it for a couple of times but he never response truthfully, always keeping everything to himself.
"But more importantly..."
Sasuke stops speaking once noticing Nina stands up abruptly. As she begins to look around the area, her calm demeanor's replaces with a serious expression which he rarely sees. And seconds later, Gaara shows up.
"Gaara, why are you here?"
Sasuke asks the unwelcome guest, while Nina's slowly moving toward the to back, trying her best not to get into eye contact with the sand shinobi. It seems as if she's being afraid of him.
"What is your motive? Why do you seek strength?"
Gaara ignores his questions completely. Of course, Sasuke doesn't have any obligation to answer him either. Everything's frozen until Gaara speaks up again, pointing at his face.
"Do not forget that you are my prey."
A brief moment after giving him a warning about their upcoming battle, Gaara leaves the area. And only after he's completely gone out of sight, Nina's be able to sigh in relief.
"Nina, you're shaking."
Somewhat is surprised by her reaction, Sasuke approaches and Nina flinches. As if she doesn't realize he's been there with her from the beginning as she's lost too deep in thought.
"Had you fought him before?"
She shakes her head in response.
"Then why are you looking like he's about to kill you."
Sasuke glances at her trembling fists, his head tilts in confusion.
"Did you see those soulless eyes just now? I bet his stare can kill people. You know?"
Nina coughs into her fist to calm down and tries to make it sound like a joke. Yet she's still so bad at hiding her nervousness as her eyes have been gluing to the ground below for the whole time.
"You're exaggerating."
Sasuke frowns in doubt, then she smiles to him awkwardly and walks away. While Kakashi doesn't say anything and just watch them from afar.
Soon after Kakashi ordered him to fetch some water so that they could have soup for dinner. It's already known that the lake was quite far away from their camping spot, and would take some time for him to finish the job. Still, he agreed and got moving immediately.
Once returning, Sasuke doesn't see Nina or Kakashi. Getting curious, he decides to go look for them. Soon Sasuke locates those two standing on a cliff not too far away and they both seem to be discussing about something.
Quickly, Sasuke hides behind a boulder nearby to eavesdrop their conversation. Yet he can't hear well from this distance, only pieces of here and there which is hard to define the topic.
A short moment later Sasuke notices Nina's eyes are looking at where he's standing and Kakashi speaks up.
"You can come out now, Sasuke."
Therefore Sasuke obeys and reveals himself. And from the look on his face, both of them can tell that he's annoyed, but also interested in their stories.
"It's nothing for you to concern."
Not going to wait to be questioned by his student, Kakashi states, and Sasuke nods in agreement. He then quietly returns to their camping spot, yet can't stop recalling to Nina's and Kakashi's troubled expressions throughout their last conversation.
Just what exactly were they talking about?
At night.
When getting ready for bed, Nina notices Sasuke's sitting alone on top of a boulder watching the stars up above. Perhaps unconsciously, his hand's caressing his neck, where the cursed mark is, while still being deep in thought.
"You're thinking of using that to fight Gaara, aren't you."
After a while Nina asks and his gaze turns to her. Seeing that she's lying on her mattress while staring at the night sky.
"And what if I will? Are you going to stop me?"
Sasuke's already suspected that Nina has known about the seal when he catches her glimpse on his neck from time to time, shortly after their reunion.
But who could have told her?
The amount of people involved is limited, and he doubt that Nina actually know any of them to ask. Not to mention the fact that they won't be willing to answer her truthfully.
Someone's close, probably a team 7 member.
There's Naruto, but it's unlikely since he's too busy training for the Chuunin exam to see her. And Kakashi would be out of the picture.
Then a certain pink-haired kunoichi comes into his mind. He figures that that girl would be the one to spoil it since she's never been able to keep her mouth shut.
"No, I don't think I have that much of confidence."
Nina shakes her head while Sasuke's eyebrow raises. Mostly confused whether she's joking or actually being serious. Though which one of it is true isn't really matter, as long as it saves him from trouble of dealing with unnecessary dramas.
"Good to know that you're brain is still functional."
He comments nonchalantly. And another long silence between them occurs, until she finds some courage to speaks again. Her voice sounds so soft that it feels almost like a murmur.
"I'm sorry... for not being there for you guys. The Chuunin exam, I mean."
Suddenly being reminded of those memories from the forest, Sasuke smirks bitterly. "Why? You wouldn't be able to change anything even if you was."
That's right, even if she's there, nothing would change. Perhaps even turned out worse. People had died in there, and she wouldn't be an exception either...
Nina bites her lips and covers herself with the blanket. As she can't find anything better to say and silently letting those words of his slowly eating her down to the core.
Next morning.
When the sun hasn't fully raised, Kakashi has told us to train by ourselves for a little while because he has something urgent to do. So we'll do just that.
As usual after eating breakfast and getting ready, we start with our daily morning workouts. Once done, Sasuke suggests.
"How about we have a match?"
And I'm about to say yes to his offer. Until he presents the rule, which is that we're going to use our forbidden techniques to decide the winner.
"No, I'm not going to play that game."
I back out without a doubt.
"Come on. Don't tell me you're not curious."
He tries persuading me. Pointing out the similarity between our abilities, which is that both are boosting the user's strength and speed then leaving him/her in a devastated state later. Also while activating the seal, he will have no chakra, just like how I have no Ki, to cast any Ninjutsu.
"You've said that you always wanted to know more about that power. Now is your chance."
Sasuke does have a point, and deep down in my heart I too, want to witness that cursed seal's capacity and how it will be comparing to what I am possessing.
"Fine, but only a for a little bit."
In the end, I can't reject the temptation. Despite knowing full well that I'm going to regret it, a lot.
"Ready... Go!"
Before I'm able to regain all my senses, the fight's already started soon after Sasuke's voice fades. As he activates his cursed seal instantly and charges forward. And I too, attempt to wield that strange power to take him down.
What's coming has to come, our fists collide. More keep coming and it doesn't stop, only getting faster by seconds. And after exchanging our attacks for a while, we notice that...
Not only speeds, but our strengths are also matched.
It's clear as day, while I don't want to admit it, he doesn't have anything to say about it. And the fight keeps going on until I have my chance to break out of it. For some reasons Sasuke doesn't chase after me, instead he stands there whispering something to himself and starts laughing.
What's wrong with him all of the sudden?
Frozen on the spot I watch him. The ringing in my ears worsen as his laughter gets louder and crazier. That's when I realize that Sasuke's enjoying the power Orochi has given him, wholeheartedly.
This is my fault.
After this fight, if Sasuke begins to rely on that seal more than he originally does at this point of the story. I won't be so sure what will be waiting for us in the future. Still, this is not the time for me to blame myself cause I have to come up with something, quick.
Think, Nina. Think!
Will Sasuke continue abusing this power from now on? Obviously yes, no matter what it takes.
Then what's the problem? No, the main issue here is that...
Will the story get twisted somehow thanks to this event? Probably yes. And I'm too scared to imagine the possibilities.
What am I suppose to do now? How am I suppose fix this?
Within that panic moment, I figured out that in order to crush that crazy idea of his, was to prove that the seal was not so incredible and perfect as he thought it would be...
While Sasuke's still fascinating about his gifted power, suddenly Nina's body flares up. And within a blink of an eye, she disappears from her spot then reappears right before his face. Seizing his neck and throws him onto the ground. His body hits the hard to surface below and causes them to break to pieces.
However unlike the last time they fight, it doesn't hurt at all and Sasuke smirks. He sweeps her legs and kicks her off to escape from being pinned down. It works and Sasuke immediately gets back on his feet.
Nina charges at him again and he manages to get behind her, Sasuke elbows her on the back but she's unfazed. Then she spins around and kicks him flying away.
She's become stronger and faster than before.
Suddenly Sasuke sees Nina's coughing out blood, despite barely receiving any damage. That must mean she's exceeding her limit. Yet she isn't showing any sign of calming down. Is she trying to kill herself?
"Let's just stop."
For both of their safeties, Sasuke offers a truce. However Nina doesn't seem to listen and keeps on attacking him. He has no choice but to fight back to defense himself. And running is not an option as no matter how far he goes, she will always catch up.
"What is this? I was only gone for ten minutes and you two were already trying to kill each other?"
Soon after Kakashi's voice appears, a smoke bomb's thrown into the middle and they both stop to cover their faces from the smoke. And as soon as it fades away, they see Kakashi's standing in between them. His hand catches Nina's fist when it almost reaches to Sasuke's face.
"Do you mind explaining what's going on?"
