Obito-Sensei Chapter 49
Ninja Clash in the Land of Waves
Could there be no finer example of that ambition than the Akatsuki? To think that there are those who would attempt to damage the integrity of the Land of Fire while such flagrant fools exist drives one to a rage; it is the kind of anger that inspires a conversation with the stars, in search of a meaning that cannot exist. The heavens may be arranged, but the follies of man emerge at random; while the universe has its celestial means of removing imperfections and shaping harmony in the night sky, it is men, and men alone, who can correct the failings of their fellows, a duty that every one of us must hold next to our soul at all times…
###
Shortly after the team's split, Sasuke and Haku were discussing the specifics of his black market sale.
"He has one shinobi with him, according to Hinata," he said, and glanced at Karin to confirm. She nodded.
"He's behind him, up on the roof. Though his chakra is odd, spread out. It could be a sensory jutsu, but it doesn't feel like one. More like concealment. He's probably trying to hide himself." Karin bit her lip. "I don't like it. It feels weird."
Sasuke shrugged. "If he causes trouble, we'll chase him off." He turned to Haku. "Are you ready?"
Haku smiled, hefted the case, and turned the corner down towards the warehouse. They were near the buyer, barely a hundred feet from him, and Sasuke couldn't help but chuckle at Haku's brazenness. The streets here ended in a row of slopes that worked down towards the wide flat docks and their warehouses, a series of ramps meant for heavy cargo, and were covered in guardrails meant to direct traffic. It was behind those rails that Sasuke and Karin took cover, watching Haku go. From this slightly elevated position, everything was crystal clear.
The buyer, Soichiro Kogane, was sitting in front of the fourth warehouse in a folding chair with an equally cheap plastic table set up in front of him. It was just as Hinata had described. As Haku approached, he sat up straight and adjusted his tie. Sasuke was surprised he stayed seated: he must have been confident to do that while a ninja was walking right at him holding a huge case.
His hired shinobi wasn't visible, but according to both Hinata and Karin he was concealed on the roof of the warehouse. Sasuke activated his Sharingan, scanning the roofline out of curiosity, but didn't see anything notable: just the wear and tear caused by the sea.
As Sasuke peered down on the scene, his cheap headset crackled. "Sasuke."
It was Kurenai's voice. He raised his hand and pressed the device further into his ear, trying to make the sound clearer. "Here," he whispered. Haku was getting closer, and he didn't want to miss the moment of contact.
Zabuza had a headset as well and so could surely hear Kurenai, but the man was nowhere to be seen and completely silent. He was standing vigil over all the proceedings like a bloodthirsty ghost.
"Hinata thought she saw something. She wants Karin to take a look as well to be sure."
Thought she saw something? Could you hide from the Byakugan? Sasuke hadn't known that, but really it was only sensible when it came to something as ridiculous as Hinata's range: it would be easy to miss fine details when you were taking in the sum of kilometers, even with his Sharigan. He shifted towards Karin.
"Karin," he asked. She looked over at him, obviously a little nervous. "Is there anyone near the other team? Another shinobi?"
One that wasn't already known about went unspoken. Karin concentrated, making a couple hand seals, and her chakra spiked. Three seconds went by, and she shook her head with a frown.
"There's thousands of people… there's a bunch of apartments around them," she said with an apologetic look. "But I think there could be a shinobi on one of the rooftops. It's a weak feeling… north-east of them, a little more than a hundred feet. It's barely moving."
"You're surrounded by people, but there's one that might be a shinobi near you," Sasuke repeated. "To the north-east. At the roofline. One hundred feet or so."
He let go of the receiver, looking back towards Haku. "Could a shinobi hide from you like that?" he asked, and Karin shrugged. "By suppressing their chakra?"
"They could," Karin confirmed. "But it would only really work in a place like this. You can't completely suppress your chakra or else you would, well, die." She giggled. "But people can learn to tamp it down. I guess it's trying to become more like a rock or a tree than a person." She got a distant look. "You have to have a strange mindset, I guess."
Sasuke didn't question the statement; it made perfect sense to him. Down below, Haku stopped about ten feet away from Soichiro.
"Good evening," he called out. Sasuke had to strain to hear. "I'm glad to see you're here."
"And I you," Soichiro said. He sounded irritated. "Did you bring the sword?"
Right to business, which Sasuke appreciated. Haku apparently did as well, since he laid the case down vertically and popped it open. Sasuke couldn't see the Kubikiribocho inside from his angle, but the way Soichiro's face lit up made it obvious he could.
"It's real…" he muttered, quiet enough that Sasuke had to read his lips. "I almost didn't believe it." He stood up, walking around the table. "I'll have to examine it, of course."
Examine it? That sparked a bit of concern. Did this guy really think he was qualified to check if one of the Legendary Swords of the Mist was real? Sasuke suppressed a scoff. The more money you had, the less sense you kept.
That didn't sound like him. It was something his father had said.
"Of course." Haku didn't move from the blade's side, but he didn't stop Soichiro from stepping forward. Sasuke could imagine the sound of Zabuza's teeth grinding as the businessman gently tugged the sword from the case, staggering under its weight as he looked over it with greedy eyes.
As he watched, there were voices in his head. Kurenai's and Sakura's, thankfully. It seemed they had found whatever Darui was leading them to.
"Building is clear. Sakura, still nothing?"
"Nothing out here. No one's moving. What's it look like in there, Kurenai?"
"It's full of machines. Printers, other things. Money too. It's all the Land of Fire's…" A rustling sound, a murmur, a slow male voice. Darui. "I can't tell myself, but I feel like this might be the main production center. It's big enough." The voice was directed at him. "Sasuke, do you read? I think we've got it."
Sasuke stood up from behind the railing, hopping over it. "I read," he said as Karin looked up at him curiously and followed. "We've just made contact with the buyer, but it sounds like it'll be a waste. We're coming." He looked back at Karin with a smirk, and she laughed; she found it just as funny as them that they'd wasted their time only for another village to drop the solution in their lap. "Thank Darui for me, will you?"
"Will do," Kurenai said, and then she was gone.
"Let's go," Sasuke said. Haku was looking back, and Soichiro too. The man's face had flushed red; Haku bringing friends obviously hadn't been part of the negotiation. "We'll check his money before we head out, but I'm satisfied." He looked around. "Where's Zabuza?"
As Sasuke asked that, hoping Karin would track down his murderous subordinate for him, there was a lound BOOM to the west.
He spun towards the sound, body flooded with adrenaline, and caught the last of the flash. The explosion had been huge, and smoke was already trailing off into the moonlight sky. He stared for more than a second, trying to understand what he was seeing. Then, he raised his hand to his headset.
"Sakura?" he barked into it. Neither Sakura or Kurenai responded; all he could hear on the other side was static and yelling. It sounded distant. Sasuke looked at Karin. "Karin-!"
"Shit!" she yelped, letting out an uncharacteristic curse. "Sasuke, the roof-!"
Thick blue chakra exploded off the rooftop, flooding down onto the docks like an ocean of impenetrable goo. It washed over Soichiro, Haku, Sasuke, and Karin, and Sasuke's whole body went cold. To the Sharingan the chakra was even more unsettling: Sasuke couldn't see through it at all.
Ninja came off the roof. Not just one: five in total, with two of them rapidly splitting into more than a half dozen clones each. Water, Sasuke thought, his body already going through the motions. He drew a knife in each hand and molded enough chakra in his lungs to burn down a building before his brain caught up with his instincts.
All of the shinobi wore plain face concealing masks, but one of the shorter ones wore his hitai-ate as a visible armband. It had four diagonal lines: the mark of the Village Hidden in the Mist.
Shit. Sasuke lowered himself, not sure what to do. Picking a fight with the Hidden Mist wasn't part of the mission, not unless they were responsible for the counterfeits… and he had a certainty that they were here for another reason.
"Now what's the meaning of this?" Haku said, cool as ice. "I hardly think this is necessary."
Soichiro sneered, still struggling with the weight of the blade. "Who could care about what scum like you deem necessary?" Now, all of them were surrounded by shinobi of the Hidden Mist: nearly twenty in total, though most of them were clones. Sasuke looked around, trying to gauge the situation as Karin drew closer to him: some of the shinobi were looking at him and some at Haku, but none of them could be read. It was an obvious intimidation strategy, but it was working.
One of the new arrivals, a huge man with a fiery red beard sprouting from beneath his mask, moved to Soichiro's side. He was obviously intent on the Kubikiribocho.
Sasuke's mind was still racing. A Hunter-Killer squad: self evident. Sent to retrieve the sword: self-evident. Arrived in the city in just a day, or already here? Both the options were unlucky: it might even be a mix, some here and some called in. Hidden from both Hinata's sight and Karin's sixth sense?
`I don't like it. It feels weird.`
The first ninja, Sasuke realized with a start as everything came together. He'd used some sort of concealment jutsu: he'd stayed visible but he'd hid his comrades. It was probably related to the thick gooey chakra that had poured off the rooftop that even his Sharingan couldn't penetrate. He hadn't known something like that could exist, and evidently Karin hadn't either.
But they were still young and stupid, and these ninja from Mist obviously weren't. Itachi would never have made such a dumb mistake. Itachi would have always assumed the worst, not the best, and that where there was one ninja, there were bound to be more. It didn't matter that Sasuke was a Jonin, he was still a moron compared to his brother.
"We had a fair arrangement," Haku said, still so mild despite being surrounded by ninja. "This will probably be bad for your reputation, Soichiro."
The older man sneered as he handed the blade to the large shinobi at his side. The ninja with the red beard held the blade up, his face unreadable behind the Hunter-nin mask. "This is the problem with you kind of people," Soichiro said, his voice full of contempt. "Did you seriously think you could sell part of Mist's history for a couple thousand Ryo?" He stepped forward, secure amongst the shinobi. "You're like greedy little rats, scurrying around and stealing what you can. You think you're a ninja just because you can make it from day to day?! Trash like you don't understand a thing about loyalty, loyalty to a village, to an ideal: you don't understand anything but money!"
Ah. Sasuke relaxed, just a fraction. The man was a patriot; it bled off of him. That must have been why he approached Haku in the first place. That made the situation a little different. They could probably work this out if they were revealed as more than mercenaries. Rain and Mist had no open quarrel, and the Hunter-nin wouldn't want to pick that fight.
Now he had a fraught political situation to work with, instead of a helpless one-
Ssauke heard a growl and the whistle of wind in his earpiece, and his world came crashing down as the red-bearded shinobi lifted the blade over his head and rested it on his shoulder. He spoke in a sonorous voice to Haku, muscles across his body rippling as chakra began to burst out of him.
"You were a fool to steal from the Hidden Mist," he said. His arm shifted, the blade lifting slightly as Haku slid a foot back, crystals of ice rising up around him. "Now-"
Even with his Sharingan, Sasuke could only barely track Zabuza Momoshiki. He wouldn't have even known to look for him if it weren't for the whistling wind in his earpiece that had warned him that Zabuza had jumped and was falling. The older shinobi made no noise, let off no killing intent: he was simply a murderous shadow that descended from the night and landed directly on top of his lifted blade. The Kubikiribocho began to fall thanks to Zabuza's deliberately distributed weight, and the executioner's hole at the apex of the blade slipped over the Hunter-nin's head and came to rest around his neck.
The ninja started to look to the right. His mask blocked his expression but the chakra that was exploding off him spiked and he started to duck, reaching for a weapon.
There wasn't enough time, not even for Sasuke, whose Sharingan told him what would happen a second before it did. As he opened his mouth to scream an order Zabuza kicked down, sending the blade slamming into the concrete. The Kubikiribocho sliced through the Mist shinobi's neck like warm butter, and the bearded man's head went flying.
The body hit the ground with a thud, and then the head did with a plop. Sasuke blinked, and then his whole body was trembling with rage.
'You stupid bastard.'
Zabuza looked through all the Mist ninja directly at Sasuke and smiled, revealing every one of his filed teeth.
"This sword was never Mist's," he growled.
The dock exploded into motion, every shinobi turning to attack the nearest enemy. Four rushed Sasuke and Karin, and he swept the first off its feet and smashed a second into a puddle with a high kick as he took in the new and violent situation. He and Haku would be fine, but in a close environment like this Karin would be overwhelmed in a second. What the hell had Zabuza been thinking?
Zabuza didn't move, even as a dozen shinobi charged him. He ran through a half dozen one handed seals in a heartbeat and water and mist exploded off of him and rolled in from the sea with supernatural speed. Visibility instantly dropped to zero; even with the Sharingan, Sasuke couldn't see a damn thing.
Karin let out a frightened sound. It must have been the same for her. If the mist was this full of Zabuza's chakra, it was probably suffocating for her senses. For another second, Sasuke fought blind, rolling on top of the woman he'd tripped and punching her twice in the throat and another time in the forehead for good measure. There was a crack, skull on concrete, and then he was off and running for Karin's last position, ducking under a sword blindly swung towards his head. Everywhere was loud chaos: Zabuza and Haku were fighting, but Karin was staying right where she was, paralyzed by the sudden violence.
Sasuke crashed into her, bringing them both to the ground, and as she desperately clawed at him he pulled her close and began rolling across the ground, away from the sounds of steel meeting bone. Sasuke heard blood splattering, the hollow thunk of a flak vest being punctured. Zabuza's, maybe? He almost hoped it was. If the man died, it would make things simpler.
His hopes were dashed a moment later. "That village was merely keeping it safe." The lunatic's voice echoed through the mist as if from every direction. "Until its true owner came along." There was an agonized, heavy scream; it sounded like Soichoro, and the scream carried on long past what was reasonable, nearly a full four seconds as Sasuke continued rolling across the ground and carrying Karin along.
"I am Zabuza Momochi, the demon born to carry this blade!"
Sasuke came back to his feet, running towards what he was pretty sure was south and tugging Karin behind him. As he did, he heard footsteps, intentionally made loud.
"Sasuke!" Haku had somehow found his way to their side. "We're going the right way; we should get out of here."
"What the fuck is he doing?" Sasuke hissed. "This is unacceptable!" Another scream, and a grunt of pain. More shinobi were dying back there, and all because Sasuke couldn't keep one man under control.
"I didn't expect it either," Haku said, and Sasuke twitched at the frankness in his voice. "Master Zabuza has always held a grudge against the Mist… but I didn't realize it was to this degree." He sighed. "He is the only one who can move through this mist at will: the only reasonable move after being caught in it is to retreat. But with the sea powering his jutsu, the affected area will likely be wide."
"Pick a direction then," Sasuke spat, putting all his imagined authority into it. "Get us out of here."
He couldn't see Haku nod, but after a moment the boy began moving away. Sasuke and Karin followed him, Sasuke's mind racing. A catastrophe on top of a catastrophe, that's what he'd found himself in. Kurenai still wasn't responding, but he decided to try again.
"Sakura?" he said, activating his earpiece. "Are you there?"
"Sasuke?" Sakura's voice came through, barely discernible, and Sasuke let out a sigh of relief. "You're okay?" He started to speak, but she cut him off. "Listen, we were ambushed by someone from ROOT, a Hyuuga! I don't know if there are more! Hinata's down, I think she was poisoned. She said Gaara was coming, and I bet there's more than just him! We've got to meet back up!"
For a second, Sasuke was wordless. Hinata had been poisoned? His heart constricted; all that was left inside him was directionless fury. "Fuck," he muttered under his breath, feeling Karin glance at him. Maybe this was why Naruto swore: it was cathartic. "Fuck!" He clicked the receiver back on. "It isn't any better here. The deal went bad, and Zabuza's gone insane. Is Kurenai alive?"
"She's alive. She was caught in the blast, but Naruto got to her. She… oh… crap." Sakura trailed off. "He's here."
Sasuke's whole body was jittering. "Sakura, stay alive. We're coming."
He heard Sakura laugh on the other side. The mist was growing fainter, falling away in thick whisps, and Sasuke pressed forward through it, seeing Haku's shadow leading. "I wonder how he found me," she said with a giggle. "I'll do my best. Hurry up, okay?"
"Sasuke," Karin whispered. "He's there. She's not back to the warehouse yet." They were in the night now, and Sasuke could see that a couple other Mist ninja had cleared the jutsu as well. They were looking around, and their featureless masks were locking on him, Karin, and Haku.
"Haku, Zabuza's your mess now. Try not to kill anyone if you can manage," Sasuke said with a sneer, and Haku nodded, pulling a clutch of senbon from his pouch and moving towards the Hunter-ninja. "Karin, take me to Sakura. Now."
They split towards their fates in the bloody night.
###
Sakura took her hand off her earpiece, letting it fall limply to her side. She was carrying Hinata over her back, and the girl felt heavier than ever. She was shivering, minor convulsions that made her rattle against Sakura's back.
Sakura couldn't care about that because she was being watched by four shinobi with such intense focus that she was sure that if she took another step the consequences would be immediate and irreversible.
She didn't know how they'd found her. They'd both been racing for the same location, her along the docks and them along the residential rooftops, but still, wasn't that just too unfair? Why couldn't it have been in another minute, when she was among her friends, when she wasn't carrying Hinata on her back?
She was starting to hyperventilate. She didn't want to do this. She couldn't do this. She felt young and weak and scared all over again, just like she had at the Chunin Exam. With the full moon shining down on all of them, the shinobi descended off the rooftops and slowly approached her. One led: the other three kept a wary pace.
They came to a stop fifteen feet away, and Sakura marked the distance with a sense of familiarity. That was the minimum safe range from his attacks.
"You," Gaara of the Desert said. His siblings shifted uncomfortably at his side; his teacher was staring straight ahead, not even looking at Sakura. What a coward. Just like last time, her fear was turning to anger. They were all equipped for a fight, Kankuro with his wrapped puppet, Temari with her fan, and Baki with a sword. "You're here."
He said it in such an academic way that Sakura had to take a moment to look him over, to see if it was the same Gaara. He was taller, just like her, and dressed in a thick white and brown cloak to insulate him from the weather. His gourd was strapped over his back; it was larger than before, and had more seals carved into its rim. His hair had been cut shorter, and for a mad moment she wondered if he'd done that himself, or if there was someone brave and stupid enough to be his barber. When they'd met almost two years ago, Gaara had been slight and pale, and while he was still pale his body was now more defined, obvious muscles in his arms and shoulders. Whether it was an illusion from the sand he wore as armor or genuine, it only served to make him more frightening.
His eyes weren't the same either. They were still flat and green, but where before they'd been as empty as the desert now they were full of a baleful interest.
"I'm here," she said as mildly as she could, pushing Hinata a little farther up her back. Gaara stayed focused on her, but the rest of his team noticed the movement and shifted some of their attention to Hinata. Good: Sakura was pretty sure that was her best chance. "I don't really care why you guys are: I'm taking her to a medic. You can escort me if you want." Sakura tried to smile. "After all, you're her allies, right?"
Gaara looked between her and Hinata with glacial speed, and she felt her blood run cold.
"I don't care about her," Gaara said. His teacher stepped forward with a dour look.
"Is your medic at the source of that explosion?" he said. He reached out with one hand. "We'll take the Hyuuga there."
As Sakura looked at the outstretched hand, she realized a couple things all at the same time. They all washed over her with the same cold surety.
Baki didn't see her as human. He barely looked at her even when he talked to her, and that was because he'd already accepted her as dead.
He was trying to take Hinata from her. The second that happened, Gaara wouldn't have any reason to not strike out at her. Even if Gaara gave no sign of doing that, Baki was sure he would: in that moment of clarity Sakura could read every inch of his body and every crease in his face, and they all screamed his fear of the inevitable violence in his student.
That meant Hinata was the only reason she was still alive. The girl stirred against her back, and Sakura felt her heart harden.
With only fifteen feet between her and Gaara, there was only one thing that would get her out of here in one piece.
'You don't get to just leave.'
Sakura turned west towards the warehouse and ran as fast as she could.
"Gaara!" Baki shouted out the order; not to act, but to stop. There was a crack, sand against concrete, and then a muffled gasp. Sakura didn't look back; she couldn't afford to. She just ran, desperation driving her forward. If she got back to Naruto and Shikamaru and Ino, maybe they could handle Gaara. At least get away from him. They could come back later if they needed to, but for now they had to get out-
"If you don't stop, she'll lose more than a finger." Gaara's voice rang out clear through the night, and Sakura blinked. She slowed and looked back. Gaara hadn't moved, but Baki was strung up in the air, suspended by a thin string of sand that had wrapped around his head and covered his mouth. He was struggling and flailing, trying to pull the sand away and breathe, and some of the skin on his face had been rubbed away leaving raw red flesh. Gaara's siblings were frozen at his sides, staring at their captured teacher.
"I don't care that she's from Konoha," Gaara said. "If you run, she'll die." He gestured, and part of the sand from the tether holding Baki shot out like a knife and buried itself several inches into the concrete. "I can do it from here." His eyes were wide and merciless. "Put her down."
"You'll kill me if I do that," Sakura said, weighing her options, and Gaara nodded.
"Yes," he said with a slight smile. "But at least she'll be alive, right?"
Stupid. Stupid! Could she shield Hinata and flee at the same time? There was no way she could run backwards fast enough to outpace Gaara. She could feel Hinata's shuddering getting more intense; she needed to get to Naruto as soon as possible.
"Listen!" she snapped, and Gaara cocked his head. "I'm going back to the warehouse: if you want to start something, do it after, alright?"
It was a pointless plea: the Gaara that she remembered wouldn't even consider it. But after a second, the other ninja shrugged.
"It makes no difference where you die," he mused. "But father probably would prefer I not kill any ninja from the Leaf." He glanced at Baki. "But you… you're free now, Sakura Haruno." His face split into a smile. "I can wait."
He was different, Sakura thought. Her heart was pounding in her ears. Different, and more dangerous for it. He'd learned patience. If she led him back, would he try to kill Naruto again?
No matter what, they had a better chance together than apart. She turned and started running once more, entire body vibrating in anticipation as she prepared to dodge an attack from behind, but none came. The team from Sand started following at a respectable distance.
Her hand wandered back up to her earpiece.
"Sasuke, you there?" she asked, and after a moment he responded.
"I'm here. We're on our way. Five minutes." He sounded furious. "There are shinobi everywhere. Everyone in the city is headed towards the explosion. We've seen three different villages already."
"Gaara is following me." Sakura banked around a familiar set of apartment blocks, drawing closer to the lingering smoke and the sound of voices. People were out, looking around the night, some pointing at her as she sprinted past. "Hinata needs a medic, and his team stopped him from attacking the both of us. But the second I pass her off, he's probably going to try to kill me."
"Well, you've already got your orders for that." Sasuke was speaking through gritted teeth. "Stay alive until we get there, and we'll figure the rest out after."
"There's a lot of people out," Sakura said. Hinata seemed to be getting heavier and heavier. "More than just shinobi. They're gonna get hurt."
"... Yeah," Sasuke eventually said. She was almost there, just another couple seconds. "Probably."
Sakura cleared a warehouse just like the one that had exploded and then she was there, less than a hundred feet along the docks from the site of the blast. Naruto, Shikamaru, Ino, Kurenai, and Darui were there. They were speaking with someone Sakura didn't recognize, arrayed in a defensive formation in front of Kurenai. She was lying on the ground making weak gestures.
Sakura twitched as her brain reset. They were missing someone. Haku, Karin, and Zabuza were with Sasuke; Suigetsu had been with them, and had chased after the ROOT agent with her and Hinata. He'd been blown to pieces by the Hyuuga's jutsu, but she'd seen him get up from damage that seemed just as severe; where the hell was he? She'd completely lost track of him in the chaos.
"Naruto!" she screamed out. Her teammate spun towards her, and then did a double-take. Shikamaru waved him away and he took off, meeting her halfway.
"You got her?" he said as they drew closer together. He was sweating, Sakura saw, and as she ran she peeled Hinata off her back and slid to a stop, laying her down on the ground.
"Hinata got her, but she's hurt! She got hit by one of the arrows, and now she's like this." Naruto was already barely listening to her; he'd gone to his knees, running glowing green hands over HInata, closely examining the nasty cut in her side. "But Naruto, Gaara's here. He's following right behind me. He'll be here any second."
Naruto paused. Then, he shook his head. "Fuck him," he muttered. He leaned farther over Hinata and began working his hands into the laceration in her side, gradually closing the wound. Faint black mucus began leaking from it, spreading in a wide puddle beneath her body. "Keep him off of me if that's what he's after. She's got something in her system, something bad. I gotta flush it out."
Sakura felt a flush of admiration from head to toe as Naruto ignored the world and focused solely on his patient. She didn't have time to think it over before Ino was there, running over and leaving Shikamaru between Darui and Kurenai.
"Sakura, you got her?" When Sakura nodded, she laughed. "Good! Can't believe someone was crazy enough to blow the warehouse like that. Some shinobi hired by the city showed up, but Kurenai-sensei is…" She trailed off, looking over Sakura's shoulder. "Oh shit, is that who I think it is?"
Sakura glanced back to find the team from Sand staring at her. She waved, trying to flippant, but the lack of reaction only unsettled her more.
"Yeah," she admitted to Ino. At a glance, her friend looked fine, if a little bruised. "He's waiting to kill me."
"You could tell him what you told me," Ino said, her tone suddenly sharp, and Sakura shook her head with a grimace.
"He wouldn't believe me. And even if he did, I don't think he'd care," she said. They were both standing between Gaara and Naruto now, presenting a united front and shielding him as he worked on Hinata.
"We should just run then," Ino muttered. "We're already hurt, and we got most of what we came for. We can come back and figure out the mess afterwards."
"He'll chase us," Sakura started to say, and then Gaara spoke up. The Sand team was thirty feet away, not very far for ninja, and they could both hear each other perfectly.
"I wouldn't chase you," he said. He had the same faint smile he'd put on when he'd spoken to his teacher.
"Yeah?" Sakura shot back. The shinobi that Shikamaru had been talking with was making his way over; the man was short, with long black hair and a green vest. Sakura didn't recognize his hitai-ate, which he wore around his neck like a scarf. "You know, I kinda doubt that."
"Yes." Gaara looked up at the huge and faintly red moon. "I understand why. But that's born out of your own misunderstanding." His smile grew wider. "We're going to fight again, Sakura Haruno, and without the Hokage or my father to get in the way. I've been thinking about it for a long time, and even more when I learned you left the Hidden Leaf."
Wider, some sand crumbing away from his face and revealing white teeth. "If you don't fight me, I'll kill all your friends. But it doesn't look like you have many here with you, and if they're fast enough, maybe they could get away with you. So once I'm done with them, I'll kill everyone in this city." He took a step forward, and Sakura couldn't help but take a step back. Ino took it with her. Gaara didn't stop talking. "I'll bury this whole stupid place, and every single person in it. And then, if I run out of people in the city, I'll start turning this whole country into one shared grave. Wave doesn't have allies, after all. Though that will take a while." He paused, musing. Twitched. "But I'm sure you'd come back by then. You got so angry over some worthless people from the Hidden Stone dying, right? Have you changed, Sakura? Or would that make you even angrier?"
Insane. Sakura twitched. He was completely insane. She almost said it out loud, but what good would stating the obvious do? She stared at Gaara, and then at his team.
"You'd let him do that?" she said. Her heart was becoming a furnace, fury filling her up and burning her sense away. "How cowardly can you be?!"
Temari flinched, but none of them said a thing. They just stood by Gaara's side, obviously terrified and totally silent.
"And you! You're really that pathetic?!" Sakura was starting to scream now. She didn't want to be at the center of this. Gaara stiffened.
"Sakura…" Ino said, trying and failing to caution her. It was way too late. She was getting carried away by her anger once more.
"You lose one fight and that's your reaction? You're like a fucking baby!" Sakura shouted. She stepped forward, not caring she was drawing closer to his range. "What, do you have nothing better to do than sit around and fantasize about killing someone you barely know?! Do you think I'm the same way? I've barely given you a single thought since the Exam! You're not special, and your philosophy is a bunch of bullshit! Get a life, shithead!"
"Okay…" the shinobi who'd been hired by Wave said. He was approaching from behind, and Sakura was sure he was making some sort of conciliatory motion. "I'm not sure what's going on here, but maybe we should calm down-"
"I didn't lose!" Gaara suddenly screamed, drawing down and widening his stance. Sand began pouring out of the gourd on his back, covering the dock around him, and in response Sakura unsheathed both her blades.
'Hyouryusuiken.'
Her Flowing Hail Blade spun out, rotating with a hungry whir as more and more sand piled around Gaara. Everyone was stepping away from the both of them, giving them distance. In her peripheral vision, Sakura could see civilians watching from the rooftops of the nearby apartments. It barely gave her pause. All of her focus was on Gaara.
"You ran away!" Gaara continued screaming. "You ran away because you knew I'd win! You ran away because you knew you were worth killing, and you didn't want to let me!" He doubled down, his body grotesquely swelling as sand piled on it, and his voice grew distorted and monstrous as he thrashed and roared. "But you can't run today, Sakura Haruno! Today, you're going to die!"
"Just try it, you worthless loser!" Sakura snarled. She cracked her swords, the sonic boom echoing through the city. "Try it, and I'll cut you to pieces!"
At that point, things escalated very quickly.
Ino had already started running while Sakura was shouting. She and Naruto both scooped Hinata from the ground and began carrying her away, Naruto still working his chakra through the Hyuuga's system. The shinobi hired by Wave was running too, not towards Shikamaru like Naruto and Ino but towards the apartment blocks, shouting out warnings to the civilians watching from their windows and roofs.
Gaara charged. He only barely resembled a human being; the sand he'd unleashed had piled so thickly on his body that there was only a suggestion at the teenager beneath. In places, his skin and the sand seemed to have melded together. His teeth had extended into fangs, and his eyes had gone black and gold; his arms had grown so long they dragged as he lunged forward, and the dock shook with the force of his charge.
Sakura was enraged, but her anger hadn't made her stupid enough to stand her ground. As Gaara charged, she retreated, hopping back with short, precise leaps and unleashing a barrage of strikes every time her footing was sure. With twenty feet between them, Sakura's Flowing Hail Blade began making countless contacts with Gaara.
Wherever the sword struck, it tore out great gouges of sand from Gaara's misshapen body. The wounds closed as quickly as they opened, sand flowing out of the gourd that had become a fleshy looking hump on Gaara's back, but Sakura didn't relent. She was barely thinking anymore. Even if she'd been telling the truth about barely thinking about Gaara, she'd still been sure this would happen someday, and so she didn't give herself time to be surprised or to hesitate. The warehouse exploding, her and Hinata's pursuit of the ROOT agent, and Sasuke being ambushed had already come close to overwhelming her; Gaara transforming into a monster and attacking was simply the final straw that deprived her of rational thought and convinced her to swing first and worry later.
That was fine, Sakura said to herself. I can start thinking again when he's dead. The ramifications of that striking when she got back to Konoha was something so distant that calling it a whisper would have been an exaggeration.
Gaara closed the distance with incredible speed, and the end almost came as soon as it had begun. Sakura leapt away and his huge hand flashed out, just as fast as it had when it had knocked her out back in the Chunin Exam, and fastened around Sakura's leg.
Deja vu. But as Gaara's hand tightened, Sakura lashed out with her knife and the lesser Hail Blade cut Gaara's hand clean off.
"It's sharper!" Gaara's voice was thick with glee. "And you have two!" As Sakura retreated once more and circled to keep Naruto and the others, especially the injured Kurenai and Darui, away from her back, he started laughing. Behind him, the ocean stretched out into endless darkness. "Good! That's good! It wouldn't be fun to kill you if you hadn't improved!"
Where was his team? Sakura's mind was going too fast and too slow. A glance told her that Gaara's siblings and teacher weren't supporting him; they were locked where they stood, watching the proceedings with a horrified fascination. The shinobi from Wave was yelling at them; it didn't seem to be making an impression.
Where was her team? Naruto was standing up, leaving Hinata on the floor. Was he done? He and Shikamaru and Ino and Kurenai were talking, Darui watching. Sakura couldn't hear them over Gaara's ranting. Naruto was already starting to move in her direction. He was out of patience.
"But it's still just a sword!" Gaara declared, raising his truncated arm. His hand wriggled back into existence, and then more sand began pouring out of it, forming into a spinning star: violent air currents whipped around his whole arm, rotating the oversized sand shuriken faster and faster. He drew back, his smile swallowing up his whole face. "Don't you have anything better?!"
He hurled the sand shuriken and a hurricane followed it.
Sakura, as if she had picked up a blade for the first time once more, cut it out of the air.
Her blades formed an x and struck the shuriken into four pieces, all of which cleanly missed her. The wind jutsu following it was torn apart as well, its structure destroyed by the simultaneous strikes, and what reached her was only a gale that picked her up and threw her several feet backwards without breaking bones or cutting her open.
Sakura landed without missing a step and began to advance, her entire body thrumming with purpose. For the first time in a long time, there was nothing in her heart but murder.
Then there was a crash, and her heart stopped, her rhythm disrupted and her self-righteousness falling apart. Another crash, and she risked a glance over her shoulder.
Behind her, one of the apartments was collapsing.
The shuriken, so neatly split, had smashed four tremendous holes in it all along the foundation. The wind that had followed hadn't helped, shattering windows and pushing down weakened walls. Slowly but surely, half the building began sliding to the side, grinding towards an inevitable fall.
People were screaming, running and scattering into the night. Some fell from the roof. More shinobi were arriving, and a pair that Sakura hadn't seen before who wore the crest of the Land of Grass caught a few as they fell, but not enough. The ones that hit the ground didn't get back up.
Sakura couldn't look away, but her instincts flung her to the right as Gaara's fist crashed down where she'd stood a second before. She rolled to her feet, only five feet away from him, way too close, but he didn't attack again, just watched her with a smile.
"I thought about your sword a lot," he said, and Sakura screamed and swung.
Gaara brought both his arms up, and the blade sliced entirely through the first before becoming embedded in the second. Sakura swung her knife, coming up from below to gut him, and Gaara shifted, the tremendous tail of a tanuki swinging around to smash the attack flat.
"It's sharp, and strong, and can reach far. In a lot of ways, it's like my sand." His tone was both amused and contemplative. "But all it can do is attack." He sneered at her. "So if we're close, like this-!"
As Sakura jumped back one of Gaara's oversized feet struck out, catching her in the gut and sending her flying away. It was only a glancing blow, but she still threw up in her mouth; it felt like everything in her stomach had been forced up into her chest and throat. She smashed into the side of the crumbling apartment and tumbled to her side, retching and trying to suck in air. There was a corpse not even four feet from her; an older man with a beard and no other hair who'd fallen straight down the side of the building. His head was smashed open like an egg, spilling red and gray yolk everywhere.
Sakura stared at the blood and brains and felt an urge to burn down the entire world take her heart and squeeze it in a deathly grip. No, it was more than that: she was actually being crushed. Part of Gaara's foot had detached and now she was covered in sand, plastered to the building and in the process of being squished as the sand cruelly constricted around her. She gagged, the air in her lungs getting forced out by the pressure.
"You're pathetic! It's beyond belief that someone like you made me bleed!" Gaara roared. The roar kept going as he raised his head up, like he was screaming at the sky itself. The moonlight poured over his body and revealed everything about his abandoned humanity in unwelcome clarity. "But we'll fix that mistake!"
Sakura struggled to break free, but her arms and swords were pinned. She could feel her ribs creak as Gaara stepped forward with a mad grin. She was about as doomed as you could get, and Gaara knew it. She was totally at his non-existent mercy.
That was probably why he didn't notice Naruto rushing at him from behind until it was too late.
Whether it was through following Sakura's line of sight or his own instincts, Gaara spun, his tail and arm forming a wall of force that would smash anyone approaching into paste. Naruto, his face twisted in fury, stepped right though it; he flung himself into the air, flattening his body out as a Rasengan formed in one of his hands, and slipped through the gap in the center of the attack between Gaara's arm and tail.
He landed on the other side as Gaara glared down at him, his entire body spinning into another strike as Naruto stepped forward. The Rasengan in his hand doubled, tripled in size, bigger than his head, and then Naruto slammed it directly into Gaara's side.
The jutsu exploded with bone-shattering force. Gaara was blown down the dock, his entire left side twisting up and falling away in clumps of sand and blood as he went head over heels. He tumbled, turning, and slammed his claws into the concrete, digging a deep scar as he slowly came to a stop. As he came back to his feet, he doubled over with a growl, panting and spitting up blood. Naruto straightened up, and Sakura nearly laughed at the absurdity of her thoughts as Gaara's sand stopped constricting around her.
'He's so damn cool.'
"You're right about that!" Naruto shouted at the bloodied monster. "Tonight, we're gonna fix some fucking mistakes!"
"Namikaze!" Gaara struggled back to his feet as Naruto brought his hands together and produced a dozen clones. Some rushed forward, a few towards the shattered apartment, and two towards Sakura. Sakura was pretty sure the real Naruto was heading right for Gaara. "Don't think I've forgotten about you!" he leered.
The pain in her chest was helping Sakura think more clearly. As some Narutos reached her side and began ripping away the stone-hard sand covering one of her arms, she spoke aloud in a rushed voice.
"He's insane. He's stronger, he's letting more of the Bijuu out," she babbled. Naruto partially freed her arm and she tried to slash up, to cut away some more of the sand and free herself. "But that's turned off his automatic defense. He can still control the sand, but it won't defend him." She struggled and rolled, finally coming free and taking a deep breath.
"You okay?!" Naruto asked, and she looked up into his wide blue eyes.
"Naruto," she said with as much fervor as she could manage. "We've got to stop him."
Naruto glanced at the dead men and women surrounding them. There were more than the bald man: now that Sakura had a moment, she could see at least half a dozen, all twisted and broken by the fall and Gaara's jutsu. One of Naruto's clones had rushed into the building, probably looking for wounded. "Yeah," he growled. "And we're gonna." He stood back up, and Sakura followed him.
"Let's get that bastard."
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AN: Whoops, bit of a break there! Sincerely sorry about that, but now, let's get back on track. Hope everyone's 2022 is going well!