Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Hopes and Dreams ❯ Chapter 8 - Honor before Death ( Chapter 8 )

Chapter 8 - Honor before Death

 

Pain backed away from the sand shield he just struck. There stood the Kazekage with his brother, sister, and two other Sand Village kunoichi. The first of the two had long rose red hair and hazel green eyes. She was wearing a crimson red robe with a Chinese collar, and a black vest with a single shoulder strap, just like the Kazekage.

 

The other had short bold bright red hair coming out of the cat like ANBU mask with a cracked Sand symbol. Her blue eyes glared through the mask like a pair of cats' eyes glowing in the dead of night. She was wearing a shirt cut into the shape of a red spade with a red skirt and black shorts, covered up by a black over robe with a black cat embroidered in the back.

 

“Rukai,” said Gaara at the first kunoichi. “Check on the other Leaf Village ninja and heal them if needed.”

 

“Yes Kazekage-kun,” replied Rukai, as she walked over to Kakashi. He was a little surprised at first, but she smiled at him to calm his nerves.

 

“It's ok,” she said. “I was trained by Chiyo-ba-sama. I am an excellent healer.”

 

Naruto stood up. He was a little confused about what just transpired. He was happy to see Gaara and his team, but how did they know where they were and why were they here?

 

“How did you find us,” asked Naruto.

 

“The Fifth Hokage sent us a message,” said Temari. “She had a feeling you would be in trouble, so she sent us your coordinates. We've been looking of you guys for a week.”

 

“She filled us in on everything,” interrupted Gaara, with a rare smile. “I had a feeling you wouldn't lose out to me, Sixth Hokage.”

 

“As much as you two would like to catch up on old times,” interrupted Kankuro. “We have a bit of a situation here.”

 

Pain looked back; his expression never changing from eerily calm. He looked at them, plotting his next move.

 

“So you did survive the bijuu extraction,” said Pain. “You shouldn't be as tough as you used to be without the Shukaku. Konan, fall back.”

 

Konan reassimilated herself from the many pieces of origami next to Pain. Her face and arms cut up from Ten-ten's attack. Pain noticed two familiar sources of chakra coming towards them.

 

“What took you so long,” he said.

 

“We had to come all the way from the hideout,” replied Kisame, walking with Zetsu. “And besides, I thought you two would have been able to take these brats on your own.”

 

“Looks like we have you out numbered,” interrupted Kankuro, as the rest of the ninja prepared for battle.

 

Rukai had finished healing Neji and was about to heal Sakura, but Sakura refused it. “Are you sure,” asked Rukai.

 

“Yes,” she said. “I have already healed myself.”

 

Rukai helped her up and they both ran over to join the battle. Sakura stood next to Naruto. He looked over to her, concerned about her.

 

“Sakura,” he said. “Are you sure you can fight?”

 

“Naruto,” she replied smiling. “I did train with Tsunade-sama. I'm stronger than you think.”

 

Naruto smiled at her as he understood what she was saying. His facial expression immediately changed as he turned to face their enemy. `Pain,' he thought. `Your Mine.'

 

The four Akatsuki members charged at the awaiting Leaf and Sand ninja, splitting them up into separate groups. Pain took on Naruto, Neji, Gaara and Rukai. Konan took on Lee, Ten-ten, Yamato and Sai. Kisame went for Gai, the Sand Guard Ninja, and Kankuro, and finally Zetsu took on Kakashi, Sakura, and Temari. Naruto looked at Kakashi as if to tell Kakashi to take care of Sakura. Kakashi nodded to show he understood and put Naruto at ease.

 

Sai used his Ink Justu to make three lions and charged them at Konan. She turned herself into paper just before lions could hit her, but just as she did that, Yamato used his Four Pillar Prison Jutsu to hold her inside with the three ink lions. Konan escaped through the cracks of the structure and reassimilated herself on top of it. She had no time to rest however, as Lee kicked her right in the chin, forcing her high into the air.

 

As her body glided through the air, as Lee appeared right behind her.

 

“Get ready for my greatest technique,” he exclaimed, as he wrapped himself around her body, spinning her violently down toward the ground.

 

“This is pointless,” she said plainly. She began to change into origami, when she noticed Ten-ten already up in the air high above them. The two scrolls unraveled quickly as another round of kunai, shuriken, and other assorted blades fell from the sky. The expression on Konan's completely changed from calm to fear as she knew she could not escape.

 

The last thing she heard before she hit the ground violently was Lee's voice yelling, “Primary Lotus!!!!”

 

Kisame had just smashed one of Kankuro's puppets to pieces with his sword Shark Skin. Just as he was about to turn away, Kankuro launched the puppets head at Kisame, with a blade soaked with poison sticking out of its mouth. Just before he was about to attack the Sand Guard Kunoichi, Kisame swung his sword back behind to defend himself from the puppets head, then swung it in front of him to block the Sand kunoichi's kunai and sliding kick.

 

“Is that the best you brats can do,” laughed Kisame.

 

Without a word and anger pulsating in her eyes, the kunoichi ran up his sword in a flash, flipping over his swinging arm and stabbed Kisame in the back with an exploding kunai. She spun in the air, making fast hand signs. She bit her thumb and landed with one hand on the ground.

 

“Summoning Jutsu!,” she yelled, and a gigantic tiger appeared. It jumped toward Kisame. But with in an instant, Kisame had already made his hand signs, making two water clones in the process. They blocked the oversized tiger.

 

“You've got to be kidding me,” mocked Kisame. Just as he finished his jest, he felt a huge explosion of charka from behind him.

 

“The Sixth Gate: Gate Of Joy, Open!!!,” yelled Gai. He immediately charged at his enemy. Kisame tried to block, but Gai was too fast, kicking him high into the air.

 

Gai used his Morning Peacock technique as he let out an intense amount of punches into Kisame. They burned him as if they were shots of fire. The final blow sent him crashing down to the earth, creating a huge crater below.

 

Pain was able to doge all of Neji's Eight Trigrams 64 Palms attack. He grabbed Neji's arm and threw him to the ground as he sensed two more sorces of chakra around him. One was coming from behind him and the other was standing to his right.

 

He quickly used a Summoning Jutsu by summoning a huge lobster to hold off Gaara's sand coming towards him, while Rukai came at him with her Crimson Rose Whip. Pain wrapped the rose whip around his forearm, and sent Rukai flying to the ground. Gaara used his sand to protect her from the fall, and tried to get his sand around Pains ankles to hold him in place.

 

“Rasengan!,” yelled Naruto, as he ran at the held down Akatsuki leader. But Pain jumped into the air, watching Naruto attack completely miss.

 

“Nice try,” said Pain calmly, but something wasn't right. Then he saw the shadow clone with the Rasengan poof away. He looked around to find Naruto, until he heard a voice coming at him from above.

 

“You're Mine!,” shouted Naruto, falling towards Pain with another clone next to him. “Giant Ball Rasengan!”

 

Pain had just enough time to block the hit by crossing both of his arms, but the blow was still powerful enough to drive him deep into the earth below. When the smoke cleared, Naruto saw a shattered piece of wood that should have been Pain. `A substitution,' he thought angrily. He looked up to see Pain standing right there, staring at him. Naruto moved back and stood next to Neji, as both of them prepared to charge again.

 

Temari hit Zetsu with a huge gust of wind from her fan, trying to knock him into the air, but Zetsu embedded himself into the ground, as if he was taking root. As the wind hampered his vision, Zetsu could barely see Sakura running at him as she laid one of her chakra engulfed fist right into his face. However Zetsu closed the flytrap around his head to protect himself from the blow. Kakashi charged at Zetsu with his Chidori from behind, but at the last second Zetsu used two vines that came out from under the sleeve of his cloak and wrapped them around Kakashi's ankles, sending him flying into Temari, knocking them both hard to the ground.

 

He then flung Sakura back with three more vines coming from the other sleeve of his cloak. She skidded across the ground from the tremendous impact of the hit. She looked up to see all five vines coming at her at once with no time to react. She turned her head away and tried to shield herself from the blow. She could hear the vines wrap around something, but to her surprise it wasn't her. She looked up, and tears began to flood her face.

 

There stood Naruto, standing right above her with vines wrapped tightly around his neck, wrists, and ankles. She couldn't move; she couldn't speak at the sight of her love taking this agonizing pain for her. All he could do was look at her, trying to burn the image of her face into his memory as he slipped out of consciousness. The last thing he heard was Pain voice yelling, “Don't kill him Zetsu, we need him to finish our plans.”

 

Zetsu complied with Pains request and began to pull Naruto's limp body toward him; that is until he met some resistants.

 

“I won't let you take Naruto!,” yelled Sakura with tears still streaming down her face. And with that, she pulled Naruto over to her, almost yanking Zetsu out of the ground with him. Zetsu then pulled back, but Sakura wouldn't budge. It became a tug of war for Naruto's body. The other Leaf and Sand ninja tried to help Sakura, but they were cut off and distracted by the other three remaining Akatsuki members.

 

Sakura was fighting on sheer will power. `I won't let you go,' she thought to herself. She could feel herself winning. `They can't have you. They won't get you!'

 

Pain was in aw of this kunoichi's strength and determination. `Unbelievable,' he thought. `This girl is matching Zetsu's strength; she maybe even stronger.'

 

Each time she felt Naruto slip away, she would wrap her hands around his back tighter. She had blocked everything else out of her mind. She couldn't hear anyone else. She couldn't see anything else.

 

Memories kept running through her mind. His smiling face; her hands began to slip. All the times he had saved her before; she was slowly losing her footing. The night they spent together; her eyes opened with intent and determination.

 

“YOU CAN”T HAVE NARUTO!!!,” she screamed. She regained her footing and grabbed tightly onto his jacket.

 

She made one huge pull for Naruto, ripping him out of two of the five vines; along with Zetsu from out of the earth. Zetsu struggled to regain his footing. Pain saw this, he had to think fast. He knew this would probably be their best shot at the Nine Tails. His demeanor however, never changed from calm. With in a flash he summoned another lobster to handle the Leaf and Sand ninja, and within an instant had all ready made a familiar hand sign.

 

“Wind Style: Cyclone Blow Jutsu!,” he said, and a huge gust of wind came crashing down on Sakura.

 

She held him tight as wind came crashing down on top of her. “I WON'T LET YOU GO!!!!!,” she screamed again, but all of her cries would be in vain as the unrelenting wind finally blew Sakura away with Naruto's jacket held tightly in her hands.

 

Sakura flew backward. Her head bounced off a tree and she fell face first into the earth. She fought as hard as she could to stay conscious, but the darkness began to surround her. `Naruto,” she thought before her whole world finally turned to nothingness.