Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Irony of it All ❯ Watch My Back ( Chapter 24 )

Chapter 23: Time to watch my back

 

Lee bent over, throwing up and blood ran down his ear. Rayne gave a shuddered sigh. Kin was both shock and mad at Rayne pushing her feet off. Now her head hung limp, blood trickling from her forehead and mouth, dirt streaked on her cheeks. Kin smirked, watching Dosu and Lee.

“M-my ear...” Lee put his left arm against his ear.

"There's a little trick behind my attack," Dosu started to speak, raising his right arm. He showed the silver contraption with the seven holes. "Dodging will not help you."

“Wh-what's the trick?” Sakura questioned.

"It is sound," Dosu answered. "You may have dodged my fist, but you cannot dodge the sound."

"S-sound?" Lee echoed.

"Do you know what sound is?" Dosu asked.

"Vibrations..." Sakura answered.

"Give the girl a cookie." Sakura glared.

"Being able to hear something means that your eardrum catches the vibration in the ear." Dosu tugged on his ear. "And the human eardrum will shatter at anything above 150 decibels. On top of that, by applying a shock to the semicircular canals, an opponent will lose his sense of balance." Rayne bit her lip. “These sound ninjas sure do know their stuff....” She looked to Kin. “Did she use sound in her technique as well?”

"You won't be able to move your body for a while," Dosu told the fallen Lee. "Your taijutsu skills will not work on us." Zaku smirked, his hands still in the ground.

"It was working for a while, before I showed you my technique." Zaku took his hands from the dirt. Showing Lee his palms, they had round holes in the center of each of them. "I can control supersonic waves and air pressure. I can completely destroy something as tough as a rock." Rayne's eyes widened in realization.

"So when Lee used secondary Lotus and Dosu went to hit the ground, you pushed your hands into the ground, sending air waves to cushion the dirt for Dosu's fall."

Zaku smirked slightly. "She understands."

A memory came back to Lee.

 

 

Gai smiled at the young Lee. "Lee, this move is only to be used when protecting someone important."

"Someone important?" Lee echoed. Gai placed a hand on Lee's shoulder, grinning.

"I'm still impressed that you mastered it. Well done Lee."

Lee smiled, happy tears in his eyes.

"Okay, you're next," Dosu finally announced. Lee gasped as Dosu brought back his right arm, running past Lee to Sakura. Sakura's eyes widened as she brought out a kunai.

"Sakura!" Rayne cried attempting to get up but fell right back down. “That idiot! What is she doing!?”

Dosu's eye widened as Lee came running. "Konoha Whirlwind!" Lee went to kick Dosu but ended up crying in pain as blood trickled down his face. Lee's kick failed and he fell to the ground. Lee quickly stood in front of Sakura and Dosu ran at Lee. Dosu went for a hit at Lee's side but Lee held an arm to his ear. Dosu activated his technique and amplified sound rang from the thing on his right arm. Lee held back Dosu's arm but the sound waves still slammed into his ear drums.

"Lee..." Sakura muttered.

Lee screamed out in pain. Rayne watched horrified. "St-stop!" Kin turned and looked at her, taking a kunai out of her pouch. She smirked. "Does it hurt to watch?" She only receives a glare. Rayne opened her mouth reply before a thought went through her head,

“Don't show your emotions.” Rayne closed her mouth an stood up shakily, leaning on the tree. Kin's eyes flashed a sour smile on her face. With one last yell, Lee fell to the ground on his side.

"Now then, time to finish you off," Dosu said, raising his arm again.

"That's what you think!" Sakura yelled, throwing three kunai at Dosu. Dosu simply held the metal contraption to his face and the kunai bounced off of it. Sakura gasped.

"Come on, let's run away," Chouji urged as him, Shikamaru and Ino watched team seven from the bushes.

"It looks like Sasuke and Naruto are down from the count. Lee looks beaten Rayne and Sakura are left...and Rayne's in a tight spot...." Shikamaru observed, his eyes mainly focused on her beaten body. Ino watched with terror. Shikamaru turned to Ino.

"What are you going to do, Ino?"

"Wh-what are you asking me for?" Ino asked.

"Sakura's in danger, is that okay with you?" Shikamaru asked, eyes narrowed. "The two of you use to be best friends right?" Ino shut her eyes before turning to Shikamaru. "What about Rayne!? She's your best friend isn't she! Chouji's too!" Shikamaru closed his mouth and quietly turned to the battle field. He rested his gaze on Rayne as she moved with all her might to dodge a kunai thrown from Kin.

 

 

 

"Okay class, we have a student transferring," Iruka spoke to his class of eight-year-old ninja academy students. The class watched the front. Some murmurs were passed between friends while other students watched blankly.

"Okay Rayne, introduce yourself," Iruka spoke softly, looking down. After a long, silent moment, a short girl with black hair with purple highlights stepped out from behind Iruka. Her onyx eyes scanned the classroom a moment before glancing up at Iruka quietly.

Iruka smiled. "Class, this is Raito Rayne." Iruka looked down to Rayne. "Is there something you would like to say to the class?"

Rayne stared directly at the class. "Why are they all here?"

"Excuse me?" Iruka asked.

"They are here to become ninja? Why? This is there something motivating them?" the girl turned to Iruka, looking at him with such a cool look in her stare. "If not then they're all going to die.” All around, students tensed up. It was very quiet, only a few whispers coming from the right side of the room. Iruka looked shocked himself, obviously not expecting the girl to speak such a morbid thing.

“Who is this girl?” Shikamaru wondered, his head only slightly lifted from his arms.

"Uh...uh...please, find a seat, Rayne. Any seat at all," Iruka spoke, snapping out of his shock.

Rayne stared past the class to the back wall. She stared at it for a while, as though having a staring contest with it before she started to move, her black cargo's swishing together as she made her way up the stairs. Every pair of eyes in the room seemed to follow her graceful movement as she stopped at the third row. She walked down the row of seats until she got to the open seat next to the wall, the seat next to Shikamaru. Later that day Iruka passed out a short quiz. It wasn't hard, simply a review of what was learned yesterday. Rayne picked up her pencil, breezing through the quiz. She placed her pencil down after three minutes of picking it up and she looked over. She stared at the young boy beside her, he had his head in his arms, seeming to be asleep. Rayne glanced at his paper and frowned, all the answers were wrong. In fact, they seemed to have just been slopped on there. She stared at the paper a moment before looking back at the boy. When lunch break came round, all the students went outside. Shikamaru, and his best friend Chouji, walked to their normal spot, in the shade of a large oak tree. As Chouji began munching on one of his many rice balls, Shikamaru stared pensively at the ground. He placed his index finger on the ground, moving it every so often, moving in the direction of a Shouji board, should he have had one on there. Rayne watched them from up in a tree a yard or two away. She watched Shikamaru's finger movements and got a pensive look herself. The next day, Rayne came to class again. Shikamaru sat in his usual spot, in the third row, second seat from the wall. Chouji, as usual, sat on Shikamaru's right side. Shikamaru placed his head on the table, closing his eyes for a quiet nap. That's what Shikamaru did, he slept. He often liked to watch the clouds too. The difficult part was not getting grass stains on his clothes from lying on the ground. If so, his mother would kill him. Shikamaru suddenly opened his eyes. Slowly, he turned his head slightly; enough to stare at Rayne as she pulled up the seat next to him and sat down. The girl stared at the front of the room; her eyes glued to the black chalkboard, her hands under her chin, holding her head.

Shikamaru was about to turn away and go back to sleep when..."Hey. Shikamaru looked to his left again. The girl still did not look at him, but she opened her mouth. "Do you not want to be a ninja?" Shikamaru lifted his head slightly, staring at the girl with...curiosity.

The girl turned her head, looking at Shikamaru. "Not that it's any of my business mind you, but do you care?" Seeing that Shikamaru had no intent of joining the conversation, Rayne continued. "Yesterday, the quiz, you just wrote any random answer down. At first I thought you just might be dumb-"

Shikamaru wrinkled his nose.

"-but then at lunch, I found you were not. As your friend, Choji was it, there," Rayne pointed past Shikamaru to Chouji. "ate, you played Shouji on the grass. The movements of your fingers, the moves, they were genious. You're not stupid. So I was wondering, why you did not show your potential?" Shikamaru just smirked, shaking his head and looking forward.

"Unbelievable, do you really have nothing better to do?" But Rayne didn't seem offended, she simply looked forward too. "No, I was making an observation. Now I just see you are smart, and lazy. I was thinking...if you ever need a partner in Shouji..." Shikamaru's attention turned to her. A small smile slid onto Rayne's face as Shikamaru smirked.

"You're on."

 

 

 

"W-we can't just jump in there," Ino said, snapping Shikamaru out of his thoughts. Ino bit her lip as she looked foward again, her legs starting to shake. “Even if I did join into the battle, I'll just get beat...”

"Take this!" Sakura yelled, throwing several shuriken at Dosu. Zaku quickly appeared in front of him, blowing the shuriken back at Sakura with the air pressure coming from the holes in his hands.

"Sakura!" Rayne yelled ripping the hem of her shirt as Sakura held her arms in front of her.

"Aw, worried about your teammate?" Kin taunted walking closer. Rayne scowled, having enough. Quickly rapping her bleeding leg, she send some chakra to her right leg, she kicked Kin in the stomach, sending her flying back. Kin skidded on the ground as she quickly scrambled to her feet, panting.

Kin got up, wincing slightly at the new cuts on her arm. "You bitch!" Kin ran after Rayne, she put her arms to her face. Kin's eyes flashed with anger and she appeared behind Rayne. Rayne gasp, ducked and spin around, tripping Kin. Kin growl and punched Rayne in the jaw, sending her flying backwards.




Team ten continued to watch. As Rayne flew back, the fight reflected in Shikamaru's eyes. His eyes quivered. “Rayne....”

"Come on you guys!" Rayne whined. She stood over her friends, Chouji and Shikamaru laid in the grass under a tree. Shikamaru opened one eye, staring up at Rayne. "Come on Rayne, don't you ever, ya know, rest?"

"Yeah, at night, like most people, now come on!" Keoko put her hands on her hips.

"But I just wanna lay heeeere," Chouji groaned, holding his stomach. Keoko sighed. That was the problem with Chouji. That boy of nine at like a boy of 14 and it got to him, eeeeverytime.

Finally Rayne gave up. "Fine! If you guys change your mind, I'll be by the river as planned."

And so Rayne made her way to the river, alone. It was about ten minutes later and Shikamaru was starting to feel bad. Against his wishes, he sighed heavily and sat up, scratching the back of his head. He looked over to his friend. "Come on Chouji, let's go follow Rayne."

"Do we have to?" Chouji complained.

Shikamaru sighed. "Yes. That troublesome woman'll just put us in trouble." Chouji sighed but stood up and the two began to walk towards the river. For some reason, Rayne liked to sit beside that river as they played or something. Shikamaru didn't know why. Something about reflections in a ripple or something. His brain hurt sometimes when trying to figure out the logic running through Rayne's head. Shikamaru and Chouji stepped over a fallen tree and saw the flash of red from her shirt through the trees, signaling they had found Rayne. The two sighed and started to walk over, only to hear a cry from Rayne. They're eyes widened as Rayne came into sight, as did two boys, maybe three years older. They stood over Rayne's huddled form, their shadows looming over her. They smiled devilishly, blood trickling from Rayne's mouth as she defended herself while they sneered some comment at her.

"Hey!" Shikamaru started to run over, Chouji following in his wake.

The boys looked up. "Oh, man come on!" they yelled to each other, taking off, seeing someone besides the two boys and the girl. Shikamaru glared after the boy but continued running over to Rayne, oblivious to the person behind them. He stopped next to her and leaned down. Chouji got behind Rayne, helping her sit up.

"Rayne?" Shikamaru asked uncertainly. Rayne looked up, making Shikamaru gasp. It may have only been a moment, a split second, but Shikamaru saw it. For a brief moment, Rayne's onyx eyes had flashed red. But after a moment it was gone.

"Sh-Shikamaru?" Rayne whimpered. Shikamaru shook his head from the change and looked at Rayne. Rayne let a tear fall and she jumped forward onto Shikamaru, hugging his neck. All was unaware of the person in the trees watching them.




When Rayne rolled over, she was surprised to see Kin was not there to give her another beating. But as she started to get to your knees, the gray camouflage of the sound ninjas' outfits clouded her vision. She looked up to find Dosu, standing over her and smirking. Rayne willed her eyes to not quiver as she was roughly dragged upright by the arm. Grabbing both her wrists, Dosu held them behind her back and forced her chin into the north direction, causing her to watch the scene in front of her. Sakura sat on the ground, head bent towards the ground. Kin held a fist full of Sakura's hair as she stood over her.

"S-Sakura..." Rayne muttered weakly from blood lose from her leg.

"Your hair is much glossier than mine," Kin spoke to Sakura, jerking Sakura's head to the right with one motion of her arm. "If you took less time caring for your hair and more time training, you wouldn't have to watch your teammates die." Kin looked over to her teammate. "Zaku, kill Sasuke in front of this girl."

"No!" Rayne screamed.

“I-I won't let you...” Sakura urged herself. She started to move forward but was pulled back by Kin.

"S...Sakura..." Lee spoke weakly, managing to get a side view of Sakura from the ground. Sakura's fingers dug up the dirt around her as tears fell into her lap. “I...I can't move...”

Rayne watched Sakura, her eyelids half-closing. “This can't be. I still have to hold my promise to Itachi-sensei!” Rayne watched dully as Zaku neared the den. “Naruto....Sakura....Sasuke.....” Rayne felt her wrist go numb, but tried to struggle out of his grip. Sakura bowed her head as well, tears falling quickly down her cheeks as images of Sasuke and Naruto flashed in her head. “I'm just a nuisance again. I've always had someone there to protect me...”

Sakura looked up slightly, looking over to Rayne, watching her struggle and shouting for Kin to don't hurt Sakura. “I've...I've always said I was better...always tried to act better....”

Sakura looked down again. “But truth is...”

"Let's do this," Zaku spoke, walking towards the den, a twisted smile on his face. Rayne looked up, watching Zaku before she let out a groan of pain. She bit down hard on her lip, blood slowly coming from it. Dosu twisted her arms, not enough to break them but enough to hut like hell. Sakura slowly reached for a kunai. Shakily, she brought it in front of her.

"What are you going to do with that? There's no point, it won't work on me," Kin spoke. Sakura turned her head slightly, a smirk set upon her face.

"This isn't for you," Sakura spoke. Everyone's eyes widened as Sakura brought the blade up and slicing it through her hair. Kin fell backwards, fistfull of hair still in her hand.

“I've always acted like a real ninja, and I've always said how much I loved Sasuke. I've always lectured Naruto about me being better than him and boasted about being better than Keoko....”

Pink bubblegum hair flew around Sakura as the image of Rayne, Naruto's and Sasuke's back flashed before her eyes.

“But I've always been watching their backs...” Sakura walked behind her team, staring at the backs of Sasuke, Naruto and Rayne walking ahead.

“They've always found to protect me....” Sakura's eyes faced forward.

“Naruto, Sasuke, Lee, even you Rayne....” The image of the four of them appeared in her head.

Naruto grinned. "Hi Sakura!"

"Sakura!" Lee smiled.

Sasuke stuffed his hands in his pockets, smirking and nodding.

Rayne turned her head, gave a grin and waved.

“I guess...I've always wanted to become like the four of you....”

The strands of pink hair fell around Sakura's standing form.

“Everyone...this time....” Sakura's Konoha headband hit the ground.

“It's time to watch my back....”