Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Snake and the Forgotten One ❯ The Unforseen Events ( Chapter 1 )

Sakura moved hurriedly through the streets of Konoha towards the hospital, having heard news of what had happened between her sensei and two Akatsuki members concerning her teammate Naruto. Seeing the hospital, she reached the front desk and asked where her sensei was. Receiving the room number, several floors up, she took the steps three at a time, rushing onward. Please let Kakashi-sensei be alright Kami-sama, Sakura thought. As she reached the door, she saw that her other teammate, Sasuke, had joined her. As they simultaneously reached the door, she saw several Jounins within the room along with Kakashi. One had just barged in. “Is it really true that one of the intruders was Uchiha Itachi?” Hearing this, both of the Genin froze, albeit for different reasons. Immediately Sasuke took off, apparently seeking vengeance upon his brother. Sakura stood there for a moment longer, and then gave chase. “Sasuke-kun, wait!”

Five minutes later, Sakura decided that her search for Sasuke was futile. Please Sasuke-kun, don't do anything foolish. Forlorn, Sakura decided to go to the training grounds in what she supposed was a futile attempt to catch up with her teammates, both who were gifted enough to be important to two major criminal organizations. She didn't want all the trouble those two had, but gosh darn it, she was a shinobi too! Then again, she was the weakest part of her team…Well, I might as well try something to catch up. Sakura then arrived at the training grounds just a little ways out of the walls of Konoha, three wooden posts with targets on them surrounded by trees on one side and a field on the other.

Time to try something new today. Sakura had seen both of her teammates do unique jutsus numerous times. All she had were the techniques that she learned at the Academy and the Kai technique for canceling Genjutsu. She needed to amp up her arsenal big time. Sakura closed her eyes and recalled the familiar hand seals that Sasuke did every time before he used his Katon technique, along with the breathing motion that he always did. Maybe he gathers chakra in his lungs with that motion. Oh well, it's worth a shot. Sakura made the three familiar seals, concentrated chakra in her lungs, and blew out between her extended forefinger and thumb. A small burst of flame about two feet long blew out. I guess I just don't have enough chakra to do frequent large bursts like Sasuke does. One of those kind and thirty-five percent of my chakra is gone. That small burst alone took five percent. I guess what I really need to do is work on building up my chakra. It might never be as great as Sasuke-kun's or Naruto's, but the least I can do is try. With that, Sakura stood up on her hands and concentrated her chakra into her arms to stay up as an endurance test. Unknowingly to the kunoichi, she was being watched by four eyes, one a pair of snake eyes.

Orochimaru watched as the pink-haired Genin pushed herself, disgusted at what he saw. So weak, yet a mere Genin like this poor example was able to control my Gaia curse seal on the Uchiha boy? He remembered the reports that he had heard about the incident-all was going to plan, Sasuke was in the throes of the curse and was about to wipe out all three of the strong Sound Genin, but this pesky girl had interrupted. She could cause problems later, so it may be best to rid of her now. Orochimaru almost gave Kabuto the signal to eliminate the girl, but something stopped him. A small flare of unique chakra burst from the kunoichi, a hint of an untapped talent. This one may have potential. After all, it's not every Genin that has enough talent to suppress my powers…she may also become another incentive for the Uchiha to come to me. With that, Orochimaru prepared for his next move. Kabuto noticed, surprised that his master would use such an investment on this waste of air. In the next moment, Orochimaru's neck stretched out, prepared with a `gift.'

Sakura suddenly felt an alarmingly strong burst of chakra from the nearby foliage. Immediately returning to her feet, she pulled out a kunai and turned to face the intruder. Halfway through her turn though, she froze in fear as she saw what was approaching her. No…it can't be… Before Sakura knew what hit her, Orochimaru's teeth sunk into her neck, permeating the kunoichi's fear even more. Orochimaru! But why…Suddenly he withdrew, and three familiar symbols formed on the right part of her neck that connected to the shoulder, three comma-like figures appearing. Any thoughts of reasoning that Sakura had were suddenly eliminated by waves of immense pain unlike anything that she had ever felt before. Reaching up toward the seal, Sakura screamed in pain, suddenly feeling even more sorry for Sasuke than she ever had, but this was eliminated as the pain grew, almost beyond bearing as she knelt to the ground, screams intensifying and becoming more primordial. Two ninjas stepped out from the bushes and Orochimaru spoke. “Right now you are nothing, a mere hindrance to those around you. I can make you into something more, a force to be reckoned with. Consider this through your torment. There's only a 10% chance that you will survive, but I have faith in you little blossom. For now, ja ne.” With that, the two left, leaving Sakura alone in her universe of pain as her screams intensified even further before she finally collapsed in a heap. Two Chuunin who were patrolling the area were drawn to the sound a few moments too late to catch what happened. Once carried her over his shoulder, heading to the hospital while the other went to follow the trail of the two enemy shinobi. He was never seen again.

 

Mitarashi Anko was walking through Konoha eating some odango after helping out with the attack clean up for two hours. She then saw a Chuunin rush in a blur with a pink mass over his shoulder in the direction of the hospital. Normally Anko would have just continued on, but her neck suddenly twinged with pain, and three burning marks appeared. Could it possibly be…? Anko suddenly forgot about her odango for the first time in her life as she rushed to the hospital, determined to reach it before the Chuunin. If word of this gets out, that girl will never be trusted by anyone, and right now the only one who could seal it is hospitalized himself. Anko successfully intercepted the Chuunin two blocks before the hospital. Anko stood in front of him with her smile on her face. “Please, allow me.” Not being one to question one of the special Jounin, the Chuunin handed Sakura over to Anko, who proceeded to take her to the hospital, albeit a less public entrance. As soon as she opened the door, a small special team of medic nins were suddenly on alert, knowing that that door was only used for severe cases. When they saw Anko carrying an apparently uninjured Genin, they were suddenly greatly annoyed, that is, until she spoke. “We have a similar problem.” All of a sudden understanding, one of the medics grabbed a nearby gurney while the other two carefully took Sakura from Orochimaru's former student. As soon as she was carefully lowered down, the team rushed off to the most secret portion of the hospital, reserved for particularly deadly situations. As soon as Sakura had a syringe drip in her, on oxygen, and attached to all sorts of monitoring machines, all that the team could do was to keep an eye on her vital signs and hope that she would survive. Outside in the hallway, Anko sat down. It appears that Team 7 isn't having very good luck today…and none of them even know about this.

 

Sakura wandered alone in a dark abyss, searching for something, but she didn't know what. She was cold, and the chill permeated to her inner core. Suddenly, she found what she was looking for, but she desperately wished that she had never found it. Before her, her sensei was a bloody mess, her favorite blonde Genin was undergoing immense pain at the hands of nine people in black coats with red clouds, and Sasuke was being pinned down by Orochimaru. Sakura tried to move to help them, but she froze with fear, knowing that she would never be able to help her teammates. As the Sannin slaughtered her raven-haired friend and Konoha's Number One Loudest Ninja was eliminated by Akatsuki, Sakura knelt on the ground, petrified as a voice echoed inside of her. Don't you see it? Right now, you are useless, and you know that some day the ones you admire will need help. If you have enough power, enough strength, you can save them from this. Sakura paused for a moment. Power? That's something that I don't have. It's the only thing that will save my team though. Suddenly anger coursed through the girl's heart. How dare they do this to the people I hold dear! They'll pay for this! Sakura became a wind of destruction, eliminating everything in her path.

 

The next day Anko was heading through the hallway to check on the girl's condition, returning from making out her report and turning it in to the now defunct Hokage office, ready to be read by whoever took up the position. Suddenly Anko heard screams echoing from down the hall. Fearing the worst, Anko suddenly sped up, slid to a stop before the door, slammed it open, and unfortunately found something very close to the worst.

One of the medics was in a pulpy mess down on the ground, barely recognizable anymore. Another medic cowered in fear on the opposite wall, eyes wide with terror. The final and third medic was pinned against the wall by a hand covered in marks, his feet dangling. As the attackers head turned to face the intruder, Anko saw beneath the pink locks a face that was halfway covered with black, smudged marks with an eye that had a yellow iris, and where the white of the eye should have been, there was nothing but solid black. Sakura grinned and threw the medic at Anko.

Anko instinctively caught the medic and quickly placed him down. As she came up, a blur sped in her direction. Prepared, Anko braced her right arm at the elbow with her left hand and made a punching motion. “Secret Snake Summoning no Jutsu!” Several long snakes shot out of the sleeve of her coat and wrapped around Sakura, who then proceeded to attempt to shake off the snakes. Anko tightened her grip, and the struggling was proved useless. Sakura glared at Anko, and if looks could kill, the Jounin would have died there. Anko decided to take charge of the situation. “Calm down girl. I know it hurts like heck, but this isn't you. Don't let yourself be influenced so easily by him. Doing so is admitting that he's won, and you don't seem to strike me as someone who likes to lose.” Understanding suddenly came into Sakura's eyes as the seal began to retreat back on to her neck. As soon as it went back into its original form, she collapsed. As Anko caught the girl, she decided to take the unnamed Genin back to her apartment, and as she headed that way, Anko dreaded more than just another report to fill out and the phone call she would have to make to the girl's parents, who would definitely be worried by now.

 

Sakura awoke in an unfamiliar environment on her left side. Her eyes closed, she could tell she was on a soft surface, perhaps a couch or pad of some sort. Listening for any sounds in accordance with her training, Sakura heard nothing and deemed it safe to open her eyes. She found herself on a low-lying, brown sofa made of velvety upholstery, rectangular in design. Not too far off was a simple, black coffee table made of wood, with several scrolls on it, along with a few odango sticks, minus the dumplings. Sitting up, Sakura observed more of the room that she was in. The walls were a dark tan color, and there was a bookcase in the far corner of the room, containing yet more scrolls and what looked like mission logs. The room was the average size for a living room and by the door she saw a coat rack attached to the wall, a beige coat trench coat on one of the hooks. Behind her there was a small kitchen attachment. The appliances were somewhat old, but were kept clean and orderly. Judging from the kitchen, the owner must like how silver, brown, and black went together. The carpeting from the living room ended when it reached the end of the counter that ran between the kitchen and the living room and met cherry wood flooring. A bit away from the counter there was a small round table made of a dark red wood that had worn edges close to the wall, beneath a window, with two chairs made of the same wood set up at it. Several feet behind the table was a closed door made of black walnut, which presumably led to a bedroom or bathroom. Close to the entrance was another door, made of the same wood. It was the afore-mentioned door that opened, and out of it came a very well-known, pale-eyed Jounin, whose purple hair was freshly put into its signature messy tail.

Said Jounin appeared to be surprised at Sakura's awareness. I was out for longer than that…I guess you can't judge a book by its pink, fluffy cover. Anko had just finished speaking with the other Harunos. Sakura turned, arms on the back of the couch and on her knees to face Anko fully. “I just finished speaking with your parents, Sakura. They've agreed that it's best that you stay with me until your curse seal can be contained, unless you think otherwise. I can tell when and what can cause it to flare up too much, so until Kakashi gets well, I'll be taking the place of a seal.” Sakura looked at the Jounin. “How can you tell when my seal's about to flare up?” Anko looked surprised. “Huh, I guess it hasn't reached the new Genin, but almost all of the Konoha shinobi above the Chuunin level know I have a seal myself.” Anko looked at Sakura's clothes, which she had been wearing for several days now. Anko reached behind the counter and pulled up a paper sack. “I thought you might want to freshen up a bit, so I dug out some of my old clothes from when I was younger and thought they might fit you, even if they are just a tad loose. There's also some shampoo and soap in the bathroom, but I figured you probably like that smelly kind that you kids seem to like, so there's some cherry scented in this bag.” Sakura got up and took the bag. “The bathroom's by the front over there.” Sakura nodded, still just in a small bit of a daze. “Thank you…”

 

Hot steam poured down on Sakura's face, the water running through her hair and down the small of her back. She looked at the large bottle of shampoo in her hand and squeezed a palm full into her hand as a warm, cherry blossom scent surrounded her. Wow, this is pretty high quality stuff…I wonder why Anko-san is being so nice to me when I don't even know her. Sakura lost herself in her thoughts as she lathered the suds through her hair and allowed it to rinse. As she worked conditioner through her locks, her thoughts went down another trail. That power that went through me…that wasn't natural, but I think I liked it. Is that a part of what makes a curse seal so dangerous? I can see now how somebody can be tempted into using it, even if it eats away at you. She's right though. It's not my power, it's his. I'll help Sasuke-kun and Naruto with my strength, not his!

Sakura turned off the steaming water and stepped out of the shower and reached for a towel to dry off. As she finished drying off, she reached for the bag that she had set on the floor and removed the garments. Inside was a black netted shirt, some dark beige shorts, and brown ninja tabi boots. She pulled the shirt over her head. It was slightly stiff, so it offered a little more modesty than most shirts and fit more like a normal shirt with the cuffs hanging off her arms instead of clinging, but it did cling at the bottom hem. The shorts proved to be comfortable as well, as did the tabi boots. Hmm, never seen brown before. It's nice and dark though. As Sakura reached for the bag to fold it up and toss it, she noticed something else on the bottom. It was a brown rope tied into a somewhat crude necklace. Picking it up, Sakura was surprised at how easily the knot was untied. She tied it around her neck and looked into the small mirror about the sink. It's not half bad. I like it! Sakura tied her forehead protector on in its usual bandanna style, completing the outfit. She left the bathroom and went into the kitchen and found a small black trash can under the sink and threw the bag away.

Suddenly Sakura's stomach let out a loud rumble. She blushed and looked around, relieved that the second Chuunin examiner was nowhere in sight. A yellow sticky note on the fridge caught her attention:

 

Had to go run some errands. Help yourself to whatever's in the fridge, or there's also some yen in the drawer by the sink. If you go out, grab me some odango, or else!

 

Anko

 

Sakura looked in the fridge, and upon finding something green and fuzzy, decided that the safer, healthier option would be to go grab something. She grabbed the money and headed out the door to find something to eat, but it was unusually cold out this evening. Brr, there has to be something around here to keep warm…it was at that time Sakura's attention was drawn to a smaller coat on the rack that was the same beige color and style, but it was a normal waist length. Great, she's trying to make a mini-me…she grabbed it and dashed out.

 

Anko walked out of the hospital yet again. This is becoming a regular occurrence, darn it. The Uchiha boy had been brought in yesterday and showed no signs of regaining consciousness, a sure sign of high mental stress when there were no outward signs of damage. Anko let out a world-weary mushroom sigh and continued down the road and tried to figure out a way to tell the Haruno girl in a way that wouldn't cause her to panic and start a candlelight vigil amongst all of the fan girls. With all that heat and light, no one would get any sleep.

Suddenly a large, scary monster let out a deep rumble. This monster just happened to reside in Anko's stomach. Of course her stomach didn't rumble. She was a Jounin, and Jounins are highly disciplined. Giving in to the force that ultimately drives all life, she started to head towards her favorite odango stand and was pleasantly surprised to see a puff of pink hair already there and ordering several sticks. She was highly disappointed when she only saw five stick.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5