Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Little Green Leaf ❯ Deathmatch ( Chapter 6 )

Sometimes, a good, strong, curse word can really fit the situation at hand. This chapter curses freely. I know most of you don't care, particularly if you know me personally, therefore having the knowledge that I swear like a truck driver with turrets, but I thought I'd warn ya. Thanks again to my lovely beta Archeeka, for all her help in everything.

 

 

While normally considered a relatively brief length of time; less than a week, even; when one is waiting for something, six days can take forever.

She had managed to occupy her time pretty well; even been assigned a three day mission escorting some rich businessman to the Grass country (which she felt was sort of below her, but the time frame was right), but that still gave her three days before she could meet him again.

Three weeks ago, if Tenten had been told that within the month she would actually miss Kankuro's company, she would have stabbed the messenger. Repeatedly.

But as it turned out, her great rival also seemed to be very slowly becoming her best friend.

She never would have thought that before their vacation from each other. Maybe regarded him as a friend after their most recent encounter, when they had stayed up until ungodly hours of the morning just talking, about everything and nothing; just enjoying each other's company for once; but certainly at that time she wouldn't have considered him her best friend.

Until she realized that around nine P.M., when normally she would already be en route to meet him, she would be getting kind of antsy. By midnight, when they normally met, she would go into a brief, mysterious depression, and if she was not doing something productive, it would quickly become a very bad mood. This was the lesson her teammates learned on their brief mission to the Grass Country, and since then Tenten had taken to training at night, just to have something to occupy her mind.

She couldn't get back on a normal sleep schedule either…. Couldn't seem to get tired until around 3:30 in the morning. A very unhealthy habit, she knew, but if she tried to sleep, she'd end up just laying there, tossing around, and thinking about how she wanted to fight him again. Thinking, how was his mission going? Was it dangerous? Would he return? Thinking about his fingers in her hair, the texture of his skin. Thinking that the next time she saw him, she was going to beat the living Hell out of him for throwing off balance her very pattern of life.

Her friends and family had now become slightly more than concerned. It was strange how she left every night around nine and didn't return until almost four A.M. or later, but never told anyone where she was going, or who she was meeting. Lee and Neji had been gone for a while and didn't hear about her bizarre schedule shift until it was too late to make corrections to it. Neji, of course, didn't care left, right, or sideways. But Lee was concerned. However, whenever he attempted to discus his worries with her, she changed the subject. He tried, even suggesting that they request a long mission that would take them out of Konoha to give her a chance to break out of her bad habit of staying out too late and maybe give them an opportunity to talk... but she declined, saying that she had something she had to do first, and that taking long missions would be difficult until she was able to complete a task she had set for herself. Lee pressed for more information, but that was all he could get.

What was it she did every evening that took until the early hours of the morning? Was she meeting her training partner, the one she had mentioned before, that brought her to Lee late one night with severe damage and traces of poison? If so, why couldn't they schedule their meeting in the daytime? He knew Tenten's agenda wasn't nearly so tight that she was too busy to see him until late, but admittedly, Lee knew almost nothing of her training partner. Perhaps he had more of a conflicting schedule?

Or then there was the obvious choice; they were trying to keep a secret.

But Lee couldn't even begin to think of a reason why. It didn't matter to him who Tenten trained with, so long as they were a good partner who would do well with her, and clearly they were, judging by her recent progress and unusual reactions to his presence or non-presence. So why the need to keep it concealed? Was Tenten embarrassed? Or was there really something behind the whole matter that needed to be kept in the dark, for fear of damaging their strange relationship?

Many of her close friends had seriously considered following her one night, just to see where she was going. But they all respected her privacy enough to decide against it, trusting that she would tell them eventually, when she was ready.

They hoped, though, that it would be sooner than later.

Finally, after much anticipation and mild frustration, the sixth night came. Tenten was clearly anxious that entire morning, feelings which just intensified as the sun set and the afternoon slowly melted into evening, and one minute seemed to take three; until she finally decided to just leave early before someone in her home decided to knock her unconscious just to keep her from pacing and clicking her fingernails and tapping her toes, and other annoyingly impatient habits.

So, she left at eight P.M., having been entirely ready three hours prior, even taking her hair down and putting it back up four times with the same results each time, in order to fix some minor flaw that only she was really aware of, if for no other reason than something to occupy her time. She wore her regular training outfit; the Chinese styled blouse and dark pants, but changed out of it a few times and then back into it before making a final decision.

She was armed to the teeth, in obvious places and unobvious places to uphold a sense of surprise, even sporting a plain looking but painfully sharp katana across her back, and even had a few clever ideas for their next fight, which she couldn't figure out why she hadn't put to use earlier.

Despite being a bit irritable the entire time, Tenten was glad for their six-day hiatus. She got a lot of solo training done, along with some sparring with Lee and Neji, all of which gave her some good ideas for what to use against Kankuro the next time they fought.

Tenten grinned broadly to herself as she dashed through the darkened trees. This time, she could really surprise him.

As she made her long journey, she went over scenarios in her head about how this fight would go, making sure to plan for every possible counter, even taking into consideration if he decided to bring Kuroari again, with or as opposed to Karasu. Remembering that sometimes Kankuro himself joined in the fight instead of controlling it from the shadows, which gave her the possibility that worst-case scenario, it was her against three.

A mischievous smile stretched across her lips. Even in that case, she felt that today for sure, she could win. Tenten snickered silently, reveling in her excitement and planning her victory, and the time passed by quite quickly.

Though, perhaps, too quickly. When she arrived at her destination in their usual meeting place, it occurred to her that she was an hour early. Now she would have to sit around in the trees for an hour and wait for him, or longer if he was late again. But at the same time as being a bit agitating, there was a slight thrill to being the first to arrive. This time, she could ambush him. She could hide in the dark branches and wait for his arrival, then spring like a trap and employ her new tactics at first sight of him, giving her the upper hand for once.

She smirked at this idea. There was no way this could backfire.

Unless the impossible happened…. Which, as it were, it did.

“Well,” a bemused and all too familiar voice was heard to say, “You're early.”

Tenten very nearly fell right over when she heard him. Suddenly frozen in place, she stared at him in shock. Why was that bastard so early, ruining all her plans?

“So are you,” she replied, regaining her composure, and added with a smirk, “Were you so anxious to see me?”

“Not so much as you to me, apparently,” he grinned at her and leapt to a closer branch to see her more clearly. Tenten was actually a bit surprised to see that once again, he wasn't wearing his paint. Except for the bandaged up Karasu slung across his back, Kankuro looked the same as the last time they met, the night they decided to postpone their match. The lightest blush tinted her cheeks.

“Well, I was going to set up some traps, but you went and ruined that by missing me too much,” she playfully commented with one hand slyly on her hip. She then raised her eyes to him demurely. “You aren't wearing your paint.”

“Oh, you noticed that,” he replied casually, as if it were an unobvious thing. “No, doesn't seem that I am. Why? Do you like the paint better?”

Tenten shook her head with a shy smile. “No. It's better this way.”

He smiled very lightly. “I thought that's what your opinion was.”

“Oh?” She raised a coy eyebrow, “And so that's why you did it? To impress me?”

“Of course.”

That response floored her. She had really expected a reply somewhere along the lines of anything but that. She then placed her hands on her hips, and replied with a roguish smile “Are you getting fresh with me, Kankuro?”

“Sure, whatever makes you happy,” he grinned with a passive shrug. “I just think it's easier for you to take me seriously when you can see my face.”

Tenten gave him a curious look as he continued, with the slightest of smiles. “It's easier for you to separate me from my brother and sister.”

To his surprise, Tenten scoffed in response and shook her head. He was a little offended, until she raised her head and smiled warmly at him.

“You jerk. I forgot about them long ago. This is between you and me.”

Kankuro grinned. Damn, he had missed her.

“But that doesn't mean you get to start painting your face again,” she continued, folding her arms crossly, “Or I'm going to have to personally wipe it off.”

“Ooh, promise?”

She smirked at him. “Ass. Let's fight, already.”

“You DID miss me,” he smirked impishly, lowering Karasu off his back and setting him noisily beside him on the branch. “Ready when you are.”

“I've been ready for days!”

With that statement, her hand came to her weapons pouch as she flew forward towards him, and in a flash she was on him, armed with a kunai, and within a moment she easily laid the weapon to rest between his narrow eyes.

For the briefest of seconds her heart stopped, having expected him to dodge. Quickly, though, that shock dissipated when she realized there was no blood. Kankuro's hand came up to his face and grabbed the kunai as sand began to fall from his skin, and quickly his cover dissolved, revealing Karasu with a big crack in his forehead where she had planted the kunai as he dislodged it with a forceful tug.

Beside him, the bandaged form Tenten had assumed to be Karasu unraveled suddenly, and the wrappings fell to Kankuro's feet. With his back to her, he half-turned and smirked wickedly, then quickly disappeared into the darkness to control his puppet out of harms way.

Now wielding Tenten's kunai in one of his four arms, Karasu came forward and attempted to grapple her. The lithe girl quickly spun out of the way, came around behind the puppet, and forced a dagger into the gears that would have been considered his knee joint. She dodged gracefully and backed up a few yards when Karasu swung at her, his wrists opened to reveal the poison tipped daggers.

She smirked to herself as she watched the marionette attempt to take a step forward with a disjointed knee. Things so far were working towards her favor.

But knees were things the doll didn't necessarily need. Karasu flew towards her then, slashing his blades. She deflected one with a kunai, and another of his arms attempted to surprise her with a low strike to her side. With her other hand she held that off, but was now all out of hands, where he had two more. Before he had the chance to utilize this advantage, with all her strength she threw off his two arms and flipped backwards. As her legs came up, she struck him as hard as she could in the jaw.

The wood cracked and some chips crumbled off, revealing some of the menacing drill Kankuro had stored inside Karasu's head; but aside from being momentarily thrown off balance, Karasu was fairly unaffected. She swore to herself as she up righted; somehow it was easy for her to forget that she was fighting a being that had no nerves and didn't feel pain. In a flash, the puppet recovered and barreled towards the girl. He threw himself into her at full force, knocking her onto her back several yards away. Tenten winced as she hit the hard earth, bruising her spine. As she recollected herself, she was surprised to see Karasu standing on a tree branch a fair distance away. His gears whirred eerily and his body began to move oddly. Tenten looked at him curiously, then watched in horror as suddenly the wood on his arms began to spring open, revealing several long knives in each of his four arms. Each thin silver blade gleamed darkly in the faint moonlight, undoubtedly soaked in blood from battles won and promising a messy death.

Then, unexpectedly, his joints began to rotate, spinning the gruesome knives at high speeds, increasing the danger considerably.

Tenten had never seen that before. Had that always been one of Karasu's features, or was it installed during their absence?

The marionette readied itself; it's terrible blades spinning treacherously, and suddenly flew down directly towards the startled girl. Tenten had to concentrate, or be pureed by the giant wooden blender rushing towards her at high velocity. Quickly she formulated a plan. The blades weren't spinning by way of chakra; it was a mechanism installed into the doll. If she could stop the gears from rotating, the knives would be easier to dodge.

Tenten set her teeth, and pulled out her kunai from a special reserve. As Karasu was just a yard away from dissecting her, she discharged them, followed immediately by a volley of shuriken, all carefully aimed. The weapons lodged themselves into Karasu's gears, blocking the mechanics and stopping the knives with a loud screech and a shower of sparks as the metals grinded against each other. His direction now shifted, Tenten dodged out of the way as Karasu smashed into a tree and tumbled unceremoniously to the ground, unable to use his arms.

It was about that moment when the seal was activated on the tags Tenten had tied to the kunai, and they exploded.

Tenten let out a short, wicked laugh as the wooden doll burst into flames. She then unsheathed the katana at her back. Before the puppet could find a way to stand and fight her as a giant flaming ball of disaster, she rushed towards him, and with all her might, plunged the sword into Karasu's back. The wood cracked as the blade went all the way through and into the ground beneath him. She stomped on the hilt to further lodge the blade into the ground, and for good measure, did the same with a kunai to the back of each of his hands, effectively pinning him down, broken and burning. Every move the puppet tried to make was in vain as the wood burned away, revealing all its hidden weapons and red-hot gears concealed within him.

Tenten turned up to the trees where she had last seen Kankuro, and smirked darkly. “I hope you brought your other one, because this one is dead.”

As if in response, a dark figure rained down from the branches, and Kankuro landed in front on her. Wordlessly, he wasted no time engaging her in melee combat, and it was clear by the look on his face that he was not happy with what had just happened.

They each drew a short blade and struck, each deflecting off the other's weapon. Tenten jumped back and threw a handful of shuriken at him, which he dodged gracefully, returning a kunai at her. She hopped back and the weapon thunked into the ground at her feet, and then unexpectedly it burst into a purple cloud of smoke.

Tenten quickly recognized this as poison. She exhaled sharply, to blast out any poison she may have inhaled, then covering her mouth and nose, ran from the fatal gas.

Predicting where she would go, Kankuro made a point to be standing directly in her path as she made her escape, and he was right. She dashed directly towards him, and he lunged his dagger forward, plunging it into her stomach.

He knew he had made a mistake the moment the hot blood gushed out of the wound and washed over his hand, staining it a deep red.

She gasped and then choked, her eyes wide with pain and shock, and as he pulled out the knife with a grotesque jerk, she winced in pain and her knees buckled, and before his eyes, she seemed to take forever to fall.

Her back hit the earth and her eyes still were wide, the blood kept coming and somehow, Kankuro was immobilized. The bloodied dagger slipped from his wet fingers and clattered to the ground and Kankuro couldn't seem to think of what he was supposed to do with this victory.

Oh fuck. Oh fuck. You were supposed to block, you idiot! Tenten! Are you okay? That didn't just happen. You aren't that stupid! Oh fuck, the blood. She's still bleeding. What the fuck do I do! Is she breathing? Is she conscious? Fuck! What do I- Fuck!

His body couldn't seem to figure out how to move and his mind couldn't comprehend. There had to be something he was supposed to do in the situation but he didn't know what it was. Stop the bleeding! He had to stop the bleeding! He remembered then the bandages he kept Karasu wrapped in. If he didn't do something quickly, Tenten was going to die.

As fast as he could, he located the bandages and pulled them back to where she lay. With shaking, slippery hands, he carefully pulled up the material of her stained blouse and revealed a deep, merciless cut up her abdomen, her flesh torn and her blood pouring out and pooling beneath her. He drew in his breath sharply, pained by the sight, and attempted to wrap the bandages around her wound, but the blood wouldn't stop and his panic was overwhelming. The last time he had seen this much blood, the person died.

He clenched his teeth and his body froze as a sense of dread suddenly washed over him.

The fucking poison. That dagger was poisoned. Oh God, why did I do that! Why would I have brought the poisoned daggers! That was so fucking dumb of me! I never actually wanted to KILL her! You stupid girl! Fuck!

Hot tears burned the corners of his eyes and he ignored them as hard as he could as he tried to tend to her wound but she kept soaking through and he was going to run out of clean bandages and then there was the poison and, oh shit, how long did it take for that stuff to kill a person? Had she at least bled most of it out by now?

A revelation.

The antidote. I keep a fucking antidote. You don't deal with poisons unless you fucking have one!

He fumbled through his pockets clumsily, his blood soaked and still uncontrollably shaking hands racing and panicking as sweat streaked down his face. The fuck! Where was it! Did he bring it? Why couldn't he find it! Oh God there was no time for this Oh Jesus she was going to die….

Finally, he pulled a small vial of light colored liquid out from his clothes. He breathed a sigh of relief and carefully tried to unscrew the cap. He took a deep breath, trying in vain to calm himself so that he didn't spill it all by shaking too much, then placed his hand under her head and tilted her face upwards to pour the fluid into her mouth.

Don't die.

Don't die.

Whatever you do, don't die!

If you ever want to see your friends…

If you ever want to face Temari…

If you ever want to fight me again!

Swallow this! And don't you DARE choke on it!

God damn you! Don't do this!

DON'T DIE!

Her throat opened up and the antidote slid down and Kankuro thanked whatever God had blessed him for that. The poison was at least taken care of, but he didn't know if there was any irreversible damage already, couldn't think straight to do the math.

Now there was just this giant gaping hole in her stomach and he just kept pressing his hands to it but they just kept soaking up more of her blood and did she have very much left? He couldn't even tell if she was alive or dead, her skin was so pale, but no one was going to come and there wasn't a hospital for miles but he couldn't help her all by himself, that much was clear.

He had to take her home. NOW.

But they were three hours away from NOWHERE on all sides, would she still be alive in three hours?

It didn't matter, there was no time. He quickly scooped the girl up in his arms, the bandages now finally seemed to be holding the blood in at least mostly, it was hard to tell what blood was already there and what blood was fresh from the cut but there was no time to think he just ran. So Kankuro ran. He ran as fast as he could, in whichever direction he was facing, because hesitation would cost him her life and he couldn't afford that. He prayed and he ran and he made a three-hour run to Konoha in less than two hours.