By Flashfyre5
Chapter Ten: Genjutsu
“Well,” Sakura began, trying to muster
her courage. “What should we
do now?” She and Naruto stared
at each other in despair as fifteen minutes counted down on the examiner’s
clock. Naruto’s bad mood seemed
to have evaporated in his shock, and Sakura determined not to mention it.
“Let me think for a minute,” Naruto replied, his thought dissolving
into careful consideration. After
a few minutes of nervous pacing, he turned back to face Sakura, who had sat
down on the scroll table. “I
can make a really good diversion for ya.
Do you have a technique that’ll let you take advantage of it?” he asked. Sakura nodded after a moment’s thought,
her face becoming serious.
“I was hoping to save it for later,” she said, her voice trailing off
towards the end of the sentence. “But
we don’t have an option, do we?” Sakura shook her head, throwing off her
initial reluctance. Naruto shook
his head.
“Five minutes,” the man with the stopwatch called, and Sakura nodded
in his direction to acknowledge it.
To Naruto, she asked, “You’re still tired.
Can you fight?” Naruto
shook his head.
“But I can pull up enough chakra to give you an assistant. He’ll even help ya find Tsunade,” Naruto
said, grinning wryly. “You’re
probably not gonna like him very much, though.” Sakura’s eyebrows raised at this.
“Why not?” she asked, slightly nervous.
“Because he’s a pervert and a loudmouth. I don’t like him at all, but…” Naruto
trailed off, then shook his head. “The bastard gets the job done, that’s
for sure.”
“Just who are you talking about, here?” Sakura asked, her nervousness
growing considerably.
“A fox spirit named Jiko,” Naruto replied, performing a few hand seals
as the man with the stopwatch counted down the last seconds before the two
would be allowed to leave.
“You’re summoning a helper named ‘Trouble?’” Sakura asked wryly as
she cast a dull glare at Naruto.
“Actually, that’s pretty ironic,” Naruto said, pausing in his hand
seals. “His name really means
‘accident.’” When Sakura’s gaze
turned questioning, Naruto explained, “His mother didn’t want him.”
“Go!” the man with the stopwatch shouted, and Naruto finished the last
of his seals. As he did so, red
chakra flared around him, plainly visible to Sakura’s Sharingan eyes. Oddly enough, Naruto hadn’t commented
on them on their trip back to the clearing.
“Kuchiyose no Jutsu!” Naruto shouted, slamming his hand into the ground.
He was engulfed in an explosion of ninja smoke.
When it blew away, Naruto was again unconscious, and standing in front
of his fallen form was a large fox, standing upright on its hind feet.
“Hey, baby,” he said to Sakura, seeming to point at her with his forepaws.
“My name’s Jiko. Wanna go for a ride?” The fox was a little shorter than Sakura
was. He was dressed in a traditional
samurai kimono and obi, though both looked more than a little disheveled.
Behind him, two bushy red tails twitched, allowing him to keep his
vertical balance.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Sakura groaned, shaking her head. Jiko looked hurt for a moment.
“Not another one!” Jiko wailed, turning around. He marched over to the forest’s edge and
say down, his forelegs crossed sulkily.
“I swear, that brat never summons me next to a receptive woman,” the
fox muttered under his breath.
“Come on, let’s go,” Sakura said, jogging over to the red-furred creature.
“What?” he asked, looking up at her.
“It’s the middle of the jounin exams, and I’m short on time. We’ve gotta find Tsunade!” Sakura explained.
Jiko snorted in response.
“What’s in it for me?” the fox asked haughtily.
“Huh?” Sakura asked intelligently.
“Well, Naruto aint gonna be telling me to do anything in the immediate
future, and I don’t have to listen to you,” Jiko replied, a cunning grin on
his face. “I’m sure we can come
up with something…” Sakura could
feel him undressing her with his eyes, and she shuddered involuntarily.
“Well…” she began, then Inner Sakura helpfully supplied her with an
idea. Despite herself, Sakura
couldn’t help but grin. “Haven’t
you heard?” she asked with mock surprise.
“Tsunade is the most beautiful woman in Konoha!”
“Oh, really?” Jiko asked, his interest more than piqued.
“Of course!” Sakura continued, grinning. In her head, Inner Sakura was cackling
madly. “She’s got a beautiful
face, and a great bum, and breasts that go out to here!” Sakura said, making
arm motions to simulate a bosom that would be more realistically made with
basketballs. As predicted, Jiko’s
eyes bugged out. Inner Sakura’s
cackling turned to a variety of laughter more appropriate for mad scientists
and bad movie villains.
“Well, what are we waiting for?” Jiko asked enthusiastically. He sniffed the air a bit, then headed
into the forest, moving quickly.
“How do you know which one is her?” Sakura asked, catching up.
“The other two three female scents can’t be the woman you’re describing,”
Jiko replied, speeding up. Sakura
strained to keep up with him as the fox dropped to all fours. “One belongs to you, another smells…”
he trailed off for a moment, shuddering.
“Putrid. The third is
wearing perfume that you can only get in the Water country.” Sakura nodded, her confidence in the odd
fox raising a notch. Suddenly,
the fox exploded in a puff of ninja smoke.
In his place, what seemed to be a gigantic housecat ran.
“What the hell?” Sakura wondered aloud, confused. The cat exploded in ninja smoke again.
In its place was a chimpanzee, which hooked a branch and swung along,
moving as quickly as Sakura was with ease.
“Didn’t you know that foxes can use Henge no Jutsu at will?” the chimpanzee
asked, mischief sparkling in its black eyes. Sakura shook her head. The chimpanzee transformed again, this
time into a horse. Sakura took
the opportunity to leap onto its back.
“Hey!” Jiko shouted in protest, slowing.
“Go! If we don’t find
her by sundown, you’ll never get to see her!” Sakura lied smoothly. Jiko immediately sped up, galloping through
the forest at great speed. “Can
you still smell her?” she asked after a few minutes of Jiko’s high-speed pursuit.
“Yeah,” Jiko neighed, his voice distorted by the horse’s long throat.
“Not as well, but she’s there.”
Sakura nodded in satisfaction, but Jiko continued.
“I can’t wait,” he muttered just loud enough for Sakura to overhear. “Who cares if she doesn’t want me? I’m gonna be all over that babe!” Sakura suppressed another shudder, and
tried not to feel sorry for Tsunade.
“Why were you transforming while we were running back there?” Sakura
asked after a few minutes of Jiko’s perverted mutterings. Some of what the fox had apparently been
planning was… enough to make Sakura shudder. Naruto hadn’t been kidding; Jiko was a
pervert of a caliber to make even the legendary Jiraiya squirm.
“It’s fun!” Jiko said cheerfully.
Sakura looked again at the odd fox.
“That’s it?” she asked incredulously.
“That’s it,” Jiko confirmed with a shake of his head and neck. Sakura did her best not to shake her own
head in turn. Soon, though, Jiko
began to slow down.
“What’s wrong?” Sakura asked, leaning forward after a moment.
“We’re close,” Jiko replied quietly. “Her scent is thick here.” Sakura nodded and slipped down Jiko’s
red-haired side. The fox in horse’s
form quietly transformed into his true form, the tattered kimono and obi reappearing
on his now lupine form.
“She didn’t go very far,” Sakura noted, glancing around. Tsunade hadn’t even traveled half of the
distance that Taka had, and that made Sakura nervous.
“Her scent is laced with worry.
Does she fear you?” Jiko asked, moving forward with utter silence. Even his loose clothes didn’t rustle.
/Naruto was right. This guy is good,/ Sakura thought even
as she shook her head at Jiko’s question.
“She’s the Hokage,” Sakura answered the fox, following him half a step
behind. “There’s no reason for
her to be afraid of me.”
“Then that’s why she didn’t go far.
She fears something else, and needs to return to it,” Jiko reasoned,
and Sakura stopped short for a moment.
/Itachi,/ Sakura recalled, the memory of Sasuke’s attack still fresh
in her mind. “There,” Jiko whispered,
pointing with one of his paws. Sakura
shook herself from her unpleasant memories and moved forward carefully to
look in the direction that the fox spirit was pointing. There, sitting against a tree in the middle
of a small clearing, was Tsunade. She
looked troubled and distracted.
“Can you distract her?” Sakura whispered, fearing that her voice would
be audible to the legendary female ninja above the general clamor of everyday
forest life. The fox nodded once,
then grinned lecherously.
“For as long as you need,” Jiko replied, then transformed again. Sakura was amazed; he had such tight control
over his transformation skill that he managed to perform it with neither sound
nor smoke. In Jiko’s place, a
red-furred squirrel sat. With
a quick chitter, it dashed off towards Tsunade. As he left, Sakura formed the hand seals
that she would need to perform her most potent jutsu.
“Me Ni Mienai no Jutsu,” she muttered, and shuddered as the initial
investment of chakra poured out of her, empowering the technique.
* * * * * *
Tsunade looked up sharply. She
had just felt a surge of chakra nearby. Immediately, the legendary ninja jumped
to her feet and looked around nervously.
All she saw was a single red-furred squirrel limping along the edge
of the clearing. It was clutching
its front left paw to its chest as it went.
Tsunade was immediately suspicious of the creature, but she knew that
it could not be either Sakura or Naruto; neither had the kind of control that
they would need to change size that drastically, though Sakura would probably
be able to come close.
Finally, Tsunade’s medical inclinations
got the best of her, and she approached the squirrel slowly, staying very
carefully aware of the happenings in the rest of the clearing. As she approached it, the squirrel immediately
stood up on its hind legs, then darted away a few feet. This set Tsunade at ease; no human could
mimic the natural reactions of such a creature so completely.
“Come here, little one,” she called
softly, squatting down. The squirrel
sat up on its hind legs again and looked at her, its front left paw still
clutched to its chest. “Come
here. I won’t hurt you. I want to help you,” Tsunade cooed at
the little animal again, bending over.
Its eyes fixed on her, widening a bit. Slowly, tentatively, it started towards
her, halting every few steps it took.
Tsunade’s eyes narrowed suddenly, her suspicion renewed. She’d realized that the squirrel’s eyes
were fixed on her bosom. Suddenly,
the squirrel crouched and sprang towards her, exploding into ninja smoke in
mid-flight.
“Come to papa!” a voice erupted from
the cloud of smoke. Following
it, the form of a gigantic red-furred gorilla burst upon Tsunade. From her crouched position, Tsunade couldn’t
react quickly enough to escape from the path of the giant ape, and was bowled
over by it.
“What the hell?” Tsunade exclaimed,
grabbing the red-furred behemoth by its formidable arms and flinging it off
of her prone form. In mid-arc
it transformed again, this time emerging as a red-tailed hawk. While Tsunade kick-flipped herself to
her feet, the hawk strained for height.
Tsunade looked up just as the hawk tucked its arms in and dove toward
her. As if dove, the hawk exploded
again into a cloud of ninja smoke. This
time, the creature’s new form burst from the smoke before it had even fallen
through it completely; it had become an elephant, and Tsunade’s eyes widened
in alarm. She dove to her right,
knowing that even her strength couldn’t stop that much weight when it was
traveling at the kind of speed a hawk could achieve when it was diving.
Tsunade easily rolled to her feet
a safe distance from the falling elephant.
It struck the ground with a resounding crash, and the ground shuddered
beneath Tsunade. The gray-skinned
behemoth was slow to recover from the monumental fall, and Tsunade was about
to advance and finish the beast off when she was brought up short by a sharp
edge pressed against her throat.
“You’re dead,” Sakura’s muffled voice said simply. Tsunade glanced downward; she couldn’t
see whatever blade was pressing into her throat, but she could see the long
indentation line that it pressed in the flesh of her windpipe. Behind her, she could feel a woman’s body
pressing into her as Sakura took up a more certain position of supremacy.
“Impressive,” Tsunade admitted, and the blade was removed from her
throat. The elder woman turned
just in time to watch Sakura shimmer into view.
“What was that?” Tsunade asked curiously, knowing very well that there
were several techniques that could render a shinobi functionally invisible.
“Me Ni Mienai no Jutsu,” Sakura explained, sheathing her ninja-to with
a fluid movement. Tsunade’s eyebrows raised at this.
“That’s first-rate genjutsu,” Tsunade nodded, impressed. Sakura blushed a bit and used her right
hand to tuck her hair behind her ear, the nervous action belying her embarrassment.
“Who taught it to you?”
“I taught myself. I found
the technique on a scroll in my attic,” Sakura told her, blushing a little
more deeply. Behind Tsunade,
Jiko finally gathered the presence of mind to return to his true form. He emerged from the smoke and made his
way to the two women, massaging the back of his neck in pain.
“That’s quite something,” Tsunade shook her head, smiling. “Come on. We should be getting back.” Sakura nodded in agreement, and Jiko joined
them.
“Aww, her tits aren’t nearly as big as you said,” Jiko groaned at Sakura.
Tsunade’s face darkened immediately.
With a swift movement, she hammered the fox spirit on the head with
enough force to crush a boulder. Jiko
was sent back to wherever he came from with an explosion of ninja smoke, and
Tsunade’s expression brightened considerably.
“Thank you,” Sakura smiled, looking up at Tsunade. The Hokage smiled back at her for a moment,
then seemed to get serious.
“Sakura, you have Sharingan eyes,” Tsunade observed, her voice carrying
obvious concern. “What happened?”
“So that’s what it is,” Sakura mused aloud, then looked back at Tsunade.
As they conversed, the two began to walk back towards the staging area
for the exam. “I don’t know. Twice today I had a really bad headache.
After that, I could see everybody glowing,” Sakura explained, thinking. “I don’t know what brought it on the first
time, but it happened the second time when Sasuke…” she trailed off. Tsunade’s expression of concern immediately
deepened.
“What did Sasuke do?” Tsunade asked directly, worry in her voice.
“He used the scroll that I made for him,” Sakura admitted with a blush.
Tsunade cursed under her breath and looked away.
“Damn, now we’ve got two problems,” she muttered. Sakura looked up, then nodded in understanding.
“Itachi,” she said quietly, and Tsunade nodded.
“Whatever you do, stay away from Sasuke. It’s up to the Anbu and I to bring him
down,” Tsunade commanded, steel in her voice. Sakura looked up in surprise.
“What?” she asked. Despite
how Sasuke had treated her… how he had killed Kakashi-sensei… how he had hurt
Naruto… Sakura looked down in
shame, realizing that she still had feelings for the dark-haired boy, if for
nothing more than his constant companionship.
“He’s lost his mind. That’s
what the technique that he used does,” Tsunade explained, forcing Sakura to
look up at her. “It burns through
his mental capacities in exchange for physical power. The only thing that we can do is put him
down before he kills again.” Sakura’s
jaw trembled for a few moments, then she nodded. Tsunade turned from the young woman and
leapt into the trees, making her way away from Sakura quickly.
“Sasuke-kun,” Sakura said, trying her best not to cry. She failed after only a few short minutes.
* * * * * *
“Damn it, we’ve been chasing her for hours!” Neji cursed. Iruka simply nodded beside him, too tired
to do anything else. After a
minute, Neji stopped on a tree branch and rested. Iruka gratefully joined him, heaving for
breath next to the skilled Hyuuga. They
had been chasing after Sei for almost three hours now, moving as fast as they
could through the treetops in pursuit of the foreign Anbu. No matter how fast they moved, however,
Sei seemed to outrace them. Neji’s
Byakugan eyes could see her distant form clearly, but he could never catch
up to the woman, no matter how fast they traveled.
“She’s stopped too,” Neji said between breaths. Iruka nodded and sat down on the tree
branch hard, still gasping for air.
His hand found an irregularity in the tree branch and Iruka rubbed
the groove with his fingertips, trying to distract himself from how badly
his parched throat hurt.
“It’s like she’s one step ahead of us,” Iruka complained. Neji nodded in agreement and sat down
as well. “Are you sure that the
Byakugan is unique to the Hyuuga clan?”
“Dead sure,” Neji replied, his tone icy. Iruka, a bit unnerved, simply nodded in
reply. The two sat in silence
for a few long minutes, gathering their breath again. Iruka’s fingers continued to rub the little
irregularity that he’d found in the tree branch.
“She’s moving again,” Neji announced suddenly, pushing himself to his
feet. Iruka glanced downward
to see just what he had found with his hand before he got up as well. Neji leapt away, but Iruka ignored him,
intrigued by what he’d found. It
was tiny, but inscribed on the branch in red was the character for ‘tree.’ Iruka examined it more closely, and his
curiosity deepened. This symbol
had none of the wear or irregularity that would come from time; it was fresh.
“What on earth is this?” he wondered aloud, only noting peripherally
that Neji had probably left him long behind.
Iruka looked around, wondering if this was unique. Below him, he spotted a tiny speck of
red on a small boulder. Without
a second thought, Iruka slid from the tree branch to examine it more closely.
“Here too?” the elder chuunin muttered, running his hand over the symbol
for ‘rock.’ It too was inscribed
in red, the tiny mark showing no signs of wear or age. Iruka thought for a moment, then scratched
hard with his nail at the mark. When
that did nothing, he drew a kunai and scratched even harder. Eventually, he must have caused actual
damage to the symbol, because the boulder suddenly shimmered and disappeared.
After catching his balance, Iruka jumped back up to the tree branch
that he had been sitting on before.
He found the ‘tree’ symbol again with ease, and stabbed it hard with
his kunai. The whole tree vanished, and Iruka had
to catch himself before he struck the ground.
“Genjutsu,” he muttered to himself.
Iruka looked around, and was able to make out a little red symbol on
each and every significant object in the forest. /How did I miss them before?/ he wondered,
looking around slowly. /Wait…
the most powerful genjutsus are powered by the expectations and the knowledge
of whoever they’re used on. Maybe…/
Iruka thought. He closed his
eyes, and told himself that it was foolish to think that there were little
red characters on everything. When
he had himself reasonably convinced, he reopened his eyes. Just as Iruka had expected, he could no
longer see any of the characters. As
he thought about this and grinned, however, they slowly began to reappear.
“All right,” Iruka mused aloud, looking around slowly. “She must be using these characters as
the key element that holds the genjutsu together. Considering that it’s this powerful, a
release technique probably won’t work.”
Just to be safe, however, Iruka summoned a portion of his chakra and
attempted the technique. When
it failed to do anything, he nodded in confirmation, then groaned.
“Damn. I’ve convinced
myself that it won’t work, whether or not it actually will,” Iruka chided
himself. “Now I’ve gotta do this the hard way.”
Iruka thought carefully for a few minutes, examining the characters
on the various objects near to him. “Okay… There’s got to be a central symbol,
one that unifies the work of all of the detail ones here. I could probably beat it if I took out
each and every base character, but that’d take ages. I’ve gotta find some way to get to the
heart character,” Iruka mused, falling into silent thought again afterwards.
After a while, he shrugged.
“It’s worth a try, I guess,” he decided
aloud. Iruka closed his eyes,
and thought, /When I open my eyes, the central character will be in front
of me,/ firmly. He repeated this
thought over and over in his mind, clenching his teeth with determination. After a few minutes, the black-haired
chuunin opened his eyes. Laid
out before him on the ground was the character for ‘heart,’ at least fifteen
feet in length.
“The heart character,” Iruka mumbled aloud wryly, remembering his own
statement. He shook his head
with a grin and drew his kunai again.
/You’d think it would be better protected,/ he thought absently. Iruka immediately clamped down on the
thought, but it was far too late. Sliding
out from hiding places behind trees all around him, ninja clad in the traditional
black garb of their craft drew kunai and faced him.
“Damn it,” Iruka cursed, dashing forward towards the kanji in the ground,
hoping to destroy it before the shinobi could attack. They were fast, however, and Iruka was
forced to turn aside before he could get to the character. Soon, the chuunin was fighting for his
life, his black-garbed opponents attacking him from all sides. Iruka repeated to himself that these ninja
had to be unskilled for there to be so many of them. The logic of his statement seemed to work,
and the black-garbed mob seemed to slow down a bit. Iruka could see them making little mistakes,
and he grinned. Carefully, the
chuunin dodged the attacks that his opponents leveled against him, striking
out when he could. Whenever he
landed a blow, he thought, /That should be fatal!/ to himself.
Invariably, whichever shinobi he had struck would collapse in a pool
of blood.
Finally, Iruka decided that there were few enough of them to risk attacking
the symbol again. He reached
into his supplies pouch and withdrew an exploding note. Quickly, as the thing ignited, he wrapped
it around the handle of his kunai and leapt into the air. His black-garbed opponents tried to follow
him, but Iruka was still convinced of their lack of skill, and they found
themselves unable to match the chuunin’s leap. With a grin, Iruka slung his kunai at
the symbol. It struck the exact
center, and Iruka cheered a bit inside.
A split second later, the exploding note detonated, blowing fully half
of the character into the air.
Before the earth even began to arc downward, it shimmered and vanished.
Next, Iruka’s black-garbed opponents vanished.
They were soon followed by the trees, which seemed to shimmer for a
moment before vanishing. In the
distance Iruka could see a gray speck, which could only be Neji, stumble and
fall downwards. Then the whole
world, from the ground to the sky, shimmered, and darkness took Iruka.
He pushed his eyes open with a bit of effort. Iruka gathered his arms beneath him, realizing
that he was lying face-down in the loam of the forest floor. With little effort, Iruka pushed himself
to his feet. His throat no longer
hurt, and he no longer felt tired. /It
was all in my mind,/ Iruka thought, grinning. Next to him, Neji was moaning as the white-eyed
boy came to his senses.
“You’re the first one that’s ever defeated my Kaihou
Hon wo Kakeru,” Sei’s soft voice wafted down to Iruka, and the chuunin looked
upwards, still smiling. The foreign
Anbu was crouching on a tree branch above them, the characters of her tattoo
writhing and glowing softly.
“You hide the component characters very well,” Iruka nodded to her,
and Sei nodded to him in turn. “I’m
amazed that you can construct such an incredibly complex genjutsu. Is it a family technique?” Iruka asked.
Beside him, Neji was shaking his head and pushing himself to his feet.
“It is,” Sei replied, the characters of her tattooing settling into
place on her skin. They still
glowed softly, but no longer writhed like they once had. Iruka noted absently that the sun hung
low in the sky; they were running out of time.
“I thought so,” Iruka grinned, drawing a kunai and sliding into a ready
position. Sei noted this and
stood up fully, her tattoos glowing a bit more brightly.
“What the hell happened?” Neji asked, shaking his head. He had finally regained his feet and spread
them and his hands wide, preparing for the dreaded Hakke Rokujuuyonshou.
“Genjutsu,” Iruka explained, stepping a bit away from the Hyuuga prodigy.
“Be careful. She might have more.”
“Then I’ll take her out before she can use any,” Neji declared, leaping
upwards. “Hakke Rokujuuyonshou!”
he shouted as he flew towards the mist ninja.
She made no move to dodge, nor did she perform any hand seals. Instead, Sei merely held out her right
arm, pointed at Neji.
“Sokubakuriron no Jutsu,” she said quietly, and the characters on her right arm peeled themselves off and flew towards Neji, enlarging as they went. The long-haired boy recognized the danger he was in and abandoned his attack, throwing himself into a spinning dodge even as he flew towards Sei. The characters simply followed him, however. One by one, they plastered themselves into a cocoon around Neji, much larger than they had been when they were on Sei’s arm. Neji pushed at the characters from inside, but found that they were utterly immovable. His eyes widened, and the symbols constricted, binding his arms tightly to his sides. Slowly, he tumbled back to the ground, groaning quietly in pain as the characters drew ever tighter. Sei redirected her gaze to Iruka, who was still crouched in his ready position. With the barest hint of a smile, she held out her left hand and pointed it towards Iruka.
“Sokubakuriron
no Jutsu” Sei repeated softly, and the characters on her left arm lifted off
and flew towards Iruka. The chuunin,
knowing that he was taking a significant gamble, dropped his guard and closed
his eyes. The characters cocooned
him as they had Neji, but they did not constrict.
“This is genjutsu,” Iruka said softly, opening his eyes. The characters pulled away from him an
almost imperceptible amount. He
grinned, knowing that his gamble had paid off. “This is genjutsu!” Iruka declared, his
voice clear. The characters retreated,
then flew back towards Sei’s arm. She cursed, her eyes wide now.
“How did you know?” she asked, panic in her voice. Neji was still trapped, too consumed in
his world of imaginary pain to hear either of them.
“Your tattoos,” Iruka grinned confidently, rushing towards the genjutsu
mistress. “You use them to power
your genjutsu, so that it’s more effective and more immediately usable.” Sei’s eyes widened, and she dove from
her tree branch. As she dropped,
Iruka could see her performing hand seals.
/She’s done using genjutsu on me,/ he realized grimly, knowing that
she was still his superior at ninjutsu.
/I’ve got to close in and engage her./
“Mizu Tesabaki no Jutsu,” Sei shouted, finishing her hand seals. Iruka dodged immediately, but no attack
came. Instead, little balls and
pools of water seemed to form out of nowhere around her head. Sei immediately began to perform more
hand seals. /It’s some kind of
preparatory skill!/ Iruka realized, recovering from his dodge. He wasn’t fast enough, however; Sei finished
her hand seals with startling speed.
“Tokuketsu Kunai no Jutsu!” the Anbu cried, and one of the balls of
water hovering next to her head reshaped itself into a kunai. Then, with a harsh cracking sound, it
flash-froze. Sei plucked it out
of the air and slung it towards Iruka, who dodged it easily. Another sharp cracking sound split the
air of the clearing, and Iruka dodged again, not even needing to see that
Sei had made another kunai. As
he expected, an icy kunai struck the tree branch that he was currently balanced
on and shattered. Iruka continued
to dodge, and the cracking sounds that signaled the creation of a new kunai
for his opponent came faster and faster.
Every now and again, however, Iruka managed to leap a branch closer
to his opponent.
“It’s impressive that you can hold three jutsus at once,” Iruka noted
as he dodged, trying to look as relaxed as possible. In reality, Sei’s throws were getting
dangerously close to him. In
addition, Iruka had noticed that more water would appear, seemingly out of
nowhere, whenever Sei threw a kunai at him. /Her Mizu Tesabaki must allow her to pull
water out of the atmosphere,/ he reasoned, doing his best to continue his
slow advance. Sei’s cool and
collected expression was gone; panic was clearly written on her face now. Iruka grinned, planning to take full advantage
of this.
Suddenly, however, all the water around Sei froze at once, turning
into dozens of kunai. Her eyes
were wide, and her hands crossed. She
then flung them towards Iruka, and the kunai floating around her burst towards
the chuunin. Iruka was about
to perform Kawarimi, but stopped, a plan to potentially win the fight crystallizing
in his mind. Grinning, he performed
two hand seals, then brought his right hand to his mouth.
“Goukakyu no Jutsu!” Iruka shouted, exhaling into his fingers. A great ball of flame burst into existence
before him, and the flash-frozen kunai burst into it. They came out the other side as flying
spatters of water, which Iruka allowed to strike his body, to no effect. As soon as he could, Iruka dropped the
protection of the Goukakyu and leapt forward. Sei’s eyes widened as he advanced; the
water around her was still in droplet form, not nearly large enough to form
kunai with. She jumped off of
her tree branch, hoping to escape Iruka.
The chuunin
cheered mentally; Sei had played right into his trap. The scarred chuunin
rebounded off of Sei’s branch, having intended all along to do so. He quickly moved to shadow his target,
facing her as they flew through the air together.
“Gai taught
me this one!” he shouted, then kicked Sei hard in the gut. She flew upwards out of control. Iruka descended, but he caught a branch,
swung around it, and flew up towards Sei faster than ever. His outstretched foot struck her again
in the gut, and the foreign Anbu doubled over in pain. Iruka allowed his momentum to carry him
upwards a bit more. Still upside
down, Iruka kicked Sei from her left side.
She didn’t block it, and Iruka pushed of, spinning the opposite direction.
Sei managed to block this one, but it had been mostly a distraction
anyway.
Iruka
grabbed Sei’s right arm and pulled downwards on it. Then he pulled up, hurling himself towards
the ground. Sei spun in midair,
too hurt and disoriented to respond. As Iruka shot past her, he grabbed one
of her rotating arms again and used it to swing around below her, coming up
on her opposite side. Quickly,
knowing that this was the most critical part of the technique, Iruka jackknifed
his legs and yanked on his opponent’s arm again.
With incredible force, he smashed his feet into Sei’s back and sent
her plummeting towards the forest floor, about twenty feet below. Iruka floated for a minute from the force
of his blow, then hooked a nearby tree branch and followed his target downward,
his legs bunched beneath him for another massive kick. Sei struck the ground with a resounding
crash, and Iruka spread his legs much wider than he would, were he using this
technique for real.
“Tenjiku Ashige Rendan!” Iruka shouted, his
legs crashing into the ground on either side of Sei’s prone form.
The force of the impact buried his feet up to the ankles in the soft
earth and sent lances of pain up his legs from protesting feet.
Sei’s dazed eyes met his own, and she nodded slightly, acknowledging
his victory. Despite his aches,
Iruka pulled one foot, then the other from the ground, then offered Sei a
hand to help her rise. She took
it and stood shakily. Iruka absently
noticed that both her arms were again covered in tattoos; Neji must have been
freed.
“Your skill is great,” Sei said quietly, looking to her side. Iruka shook his head.
“You’re better. If you
hadn’t panicked at the end, I wouldn’t have been able to beat you,” Iruka
returned, and Sei blushed. Diplomatically,
Iruka suggested, “Let’s go peel Neji off the ground and get back, okay?”
Sei nodded in reply, and the two quietly limped towards Neji’s position.
* * * * * *
When Naruto came to, it was late; the sun had dipped below the horizon,
and few of the jounin that had participated in the test remained. Sakura sat quietly next to him, a thoughtful
expression on her face.
“Hey,” Naruto said hoarsely, his throat dry from his multiple trips
into unconsciousness. Sakura
gave him a wan smile before replying.
“Hey,” she returned, then lapsed into silence again. Naruto pushed himself to a seated position
next to Sakura. “They found Kakashi-sensei,”
she said after a few minutes of silence. Naruto looked down, his shoulders slumped.
“Is he dead?” Naruto asked, summoning his courage. Sakura nodded once. Naruto could see dried trails on her cheeks
where tears had streamed recently. The
blond-haired boy did his best not to cry himself.
“Taka-san too,” Sakura added with a sigh. “He tried to protect you when Sasuke…”
Naruto cursed, his face screwing up into an expression of held-back
pain.
“Damn it, Sasuke… Why?” Naruto asked himself, clutching his left hand
into a fist. Weakly, he let it
drop to the ground.
“Tsunade-sama said that he’s going crazy,” Sakura replied, even though
she knew that Naruto hadn’t asked her.
The blond-haired boy looked at her, his eyebrows rising in surprise. “That scroll he used,” Sakura supplied,
unable to return Naruto’s gaze. “It’s
not his fault.” She didn’t see
Naruto’s face fall a bit when she said that. After a moment, Naruto’s gaze turned downward
again.
“You still like him, don’t you?”
Naruto asked after a long moment.
Before she could answer, he added, “Really like him.” Sakura closed her mouth, thinking carefully.
“A part of me does,” she finally said. “The part of me that wants to hug and
hold him until he stops being so cold to everyone. Until he realizes that people love him
here, no matter how hard he pushes them away.” Sakura paused for a moment, drew in a
deep breath, then sighed heavily. “Another
part of me hates him for what he’s done,” Sakura said, holding back tears.
“And not just to Kakashi-sensei and Taka-san.
He’s hurt so many people so many times, and he’s never once had a good
reason.” Naruto nodded solemnly, and again the
two lapsed into silence.
“You know,” he started after a moment, then paused. “If you don’t want to, you don’t have
to go out with me.” Sakura looked
at her blond-haired companion; pain was written plainly on his face, even
though he tried to hide it from her by turning away.
“I understand,” he managed, but Sakura could hear the sobs that he
was holding back. Before she
could think twice about it, Sakura took his chin gently with her left hand
and pulled his face around to face her.
Then, gently, she kissed him, lingering lightly on his slightly-dry
lips. Inner Sakura said nothing, respecting
the moment. Slowly, she pulled
away and looked at Naruto, whose face was now written with an expression of
surprise.
“And another part of me sees you, Naruto,” she said, tears welling
up in her own eyes. “The most
loyal friend that I’ve ever known. You’ve
stayed with me for all this time, in spite of Sasuke, in spite of my own stupidity.
You’ve been a better friend than I deserve.”
Sakura paused, closing her eyes.
For the moment, she needed not to cry; she needed to finish saying
this. “And that part of me wonders if it’s just
friendship, or if there’s something more that we can have. I don’t know,” the pink-haired girl shook
her head, tears rolling down her cheeks despite her best efforts. “I don’t know what to do. But I do know that I want to find out…”
she trailed off, searching for words.
“What could be.”
Naruto just stared at her for a moment, then pulled Sakura in to an
embrace. He too cried, for the
first time in a long time. After
a while, they had cried all they could, and slowly parted.
“Sakura… chan,” Naruto added for the first time in years, and Sakura
smiled. Naruto looked around
for a minute, then stood decisively.
“I’m gonna bring him back,” he declared, looking down at Sakura, his
jaw set.
“Huh?” she asked, surprised.
“I’m gonna find Sasuke an beat the hell outta him until he realizes
just what he means to us,” Naruto nodded, clenching his fist again. “As soon as the tests are over…”
“Naruto…” Sakura trailed off, unsure of what more she could say. Naruto’s expression of determination dissolved
into one of satisfaction and hope.
“He and I’ve fought over the years, but he was the first guy I ever
met that considered me a rival… and a friend, even if he’d never admit it,”
Naruto explained. “And you deserve
to know for sure how he feels about you, Sakura-chan. I don’t wanna win you by default. I want to earn it.” Sakura found herself speechless. Naruto’s wan smile turned into a more
determined grin. “I’ll see you
tomorrow, okay?” Sakura nodded
in reply.
“At area forty-four,” she added, remembering the instructions that
she had been given at the end of the first test. Naruto nodded and walked away, his hands
in his pockets. Eventually, as
Naruto was about to pass out of sight, Sakura stood. Somewhere inside her chest, a spot of
warmth burned; even Inner Sakura had nothing to say.
“You want to earn me?” she asked to the softly blowing winds around
her. “I… I don’t know, but you
just might have.”
“I Had
A Dream,” from the Legend of Dragoon OST.
This is a nice, wistful song that’s perfect for the mood at the end
of the chapter.
Character
Themes:
Neji:
“My Shell,” by 4-Eyes. This little
gem is from the Ghost in the Shell OST.
New
Techniques:
Me Ni
Minai no Jutsu- Unseeing
Eye Skill. This powerful genjutsu
masks the Sakura from sight completely, giving her functional invisibility.
The genjutsu is centered on Sakura, and has an effective radius of
5 feet. Thus, she can hide one or two allies along
with her. Anyone that looks into
that five-foot radius space sees nothing out of the ordinary. The jutsu also muffles sound greatly-
as long as Sakura moves quietly, the jutsu makes her soundless as well.
Tenjiku
Ashige Rendan- Celestial
Axis Kick Combo. This technique
kicks its target into the air, then kicks them from the left, right, and below.
It finishes with a rotational kick from above, which becomes a falling
stomp to finish the opponent. Refer
to the action described leading up to this technique’s use by Iruka earlier
in the chapter.
Mizu Tesabaki
no Jutsu- Water
Manipulation Skill. This support
ninjutsu allows its user to control any local amount of water. Its most common use is to distil water
out of the atmosphere, making water-reliant jutsus usable anywhere except
the driest of places.
Touketsu
Kunai no Jutsu- Frozen
Kunai Skill. This skill allows
its user to flash freeze a small amount of water into a functional kunai. The ninja can then throw the kunai as
though it were a normal weapon. Touketsu
Kunai also allows the user to command that the kunai melt on command.
Thus, poison can be used to great effect with this jutsu.
Sokubakuriron
no Jutsu- Binding
Theory Skill. This is genjutsu
masquerading as ninjutsu. Using
text-based tattoos, the user of this jutsu is able to trap its target in what
seems to be a cocoon of text. The
more the target believes that he or she is bound with the skill, the more
completely they become bound. This
causes physical pain very quickly. Once
this occurs, the pain, seeming as a physical representation of the ‘binding,’
makes the jutsu functionally impossible to escape.
Kaihou
Hon wo Kakeru no Jutsu- The Book
Written in the Mind Skill. This
is an incredibly complicated genjutsu. The user entraps his or her target(s)
in an illusion completely contained within their mind(s). While entrapped in this technique, the
target(s) fall into unconsciousness in the real world. Nothing can wake them unless the user
releases the jutsu or they defeat it themselves. This genjutsu presents the target(s) with
a world where everything is exactly as they expect it to be. Every item in the illusion is marked with
a tiny symbol, which will appear in red if and only if one of the targets
of the genjutsu is aware of their existence. The only way to escape is to find and
destroy the central symbol that binds the genjutsu together.
Translations:
Jiko: Accident, Incident, Trouble. I’m sorry, but I just love Jiko. He might make a return appearance…