Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Version 2: My Life as Haruno Sakura ❯ Bleed It Out ( Chapter 4 )

At a slow pace, Sasuke walked back towards the cave. After getting woken by the hosts, he traveled to the river. He had splashed water on his face, refilled the bottles, and then fished. Three, larger than normal, fish were hooked on wire, which was slung over Sasuke's shoulder. Since entering the forest, it had been a day and a half. He was hesitant about cooking something. The reason being that the smell could attract teams. Even though his team didn't have a scroll now, they could still come to them and attack. And with two teammates down, it would be harder than normal.

"Naruto... Mayu..." the Uchiha thought, sighing heavily. He stared at the ground as he walked. "How the hell are we going to pass this part of the exam when both of you are down? To add insult to injury, we don't have our scroll anymore." Sasuke thought back to what Orochimaru had done to the Heaven scroll. The sounds of animalistic whimpers pulled him out of his thoughts. He looked up. His eyes went slightly wider.

The family of tigers, which had taken his team and himself in, were at the entrance of the cave. Their eyes were focused on whatever it was inside of the cave. They seemed a bit frightened... perhaps even sad. "What the hell?" Sasuke picked up his pace. Upon reaching the mouth of the cave, he pushed the tigers out of the way. What he saw caused his onyx eyes to expand.

"... Sas-Sasuke...?" A hesitant voice spoke. The Uchiha slowly stepped forward. He almost could not believe it. His teammate was standing, two kunai in hand. His teammate's mouth dropped opened. Sasuke took another step forward, this time dropping everything he was holding. "Sasuke!" His teammate dropped the kunai and rushed at him, taking both of them down. "I thought you were eaten!"

Sasuke almost smirked as he sat up. "Only the dope is stupid enough to get eaten by something," he replied. He was shocked to find that his teammates grip on him increased. "M-Mayu...?" The girl didn't say a word. The two stayed like that for a few moments. "What's wrong?"

"You don't know how right you are..."

The green-eyed girl reared back and stared. She blinked before giving the Uchiha a vacant look. "What is it?" he asked. Mayu continued to stare into Sasuke's eyes. It freaked him out a bit. He opened his mouth to repeat his question but Mayu finally spoke up.

"When I ran at you... I kinda... used the last of my strength," she murmured, and then crumpled.

Her sudden weight caused Sasuke's body to fall back to the ground. "H-Hey...! Get off! You're heavy! Move–get off me!" His shouts fell on deaf ears. Sasuke finally stopped his demands and pushed the girl off. She groaned in response. "Honestly, Mayu...! If your body was weak in the first place, you shouldn't have rush at me like that!"

"If I had enough strength, I would so flick you off!"

"Stupid..." Sasuke picked up her body and placed her next to Naruto again. His dark eyes roamed over to the blond. He still had not wakened. And it seemed as if he would stay that way for a while. The Uchiha sighed lightly. Two was better than one, he supposed. Even if it was a total moron.

"So what's with the tigers?" Mayu's voice broke through Sasuke's thoughts. "I noticed that they didn't care that you came."

Sasuke glanced back at the mouth of the cave. The family of tigers had entered the cave, undetected. Dark eyes narrowed before turning back to the kunoichi. "I'm not really sure, myself." He picked up the discarded wipe squeezed out the rest of the water. "I didn't know that this was their home when I brought you and Naruto here. At first, they seemed like they were going to attack, but then they suddenly started licking the three of us." The tigers moved closer. "I guess that means that they accept us. It doesn't really make sense, but... at the time I didn't care." Sasuke's hand reached for one of the bottles, and then poured some of the cool water onto the wipe. He then placed the bottle to Mayu's lips. "You still have a fever, but it has gone down some."

Mayu drank some of the water, and then turned her head and spat the water out. "I'm surprised that's the only thing I have," she muttered, closing her eyes. Sasuke frowned as he put the wipe back on Mayu's forehead. She was acting as if she knew the symptoms she was supposed to have. But that couldn't be... right? Sasuke did the same to Naruto, excluding the drinking of the water.

"Hey..." The Uchiha began. Mayu grunted, telling him that she was listening. "Why did you do that?" His question only confused the kunoichi. She turned her head. Sasuke had been on Naruto's side. His eyes were on the ground. "Why did you take that hit for me? ... That thing on your arm... it was meant to hurt me, not you. Why did you do it?" Mayu didn't speak for a moment.

"I don't know," she spoke softly. "I wasn't supposed to. This body just reacted on its own. In my mind, I was only supposed to stab that guy with the kunai, and then throw the shuriken at him when he recoiled." Green eyes stared up at the roof of the cave. "This wasn't supposed to happen. I could have died–come to think of it, I shouldn't be up right now. I think it has something to do with this body."

"What are you going on about?"

"I've noticed that Sakura's abilities and strengths are added to my own," Mayu continued. "What I mean is that I can possibly heal faster than normal. I think that's what saved my life." The girl sighed and closed her eyes. "If it had been just me, or just Sakura, we probably would have died. The pain was so–it was horrible."

The cave was enveloped in silence. After a few moments, whimpers were heard. Sasuke's head turned towards the source of the noise. The tigers still seemed a bit wary. But that was understandable, he supposed. Mayu did just try to attack them--defend against them. He held his hand out towards the family. "It's alright now. The crazy cocoon isn't going to hurt you."

"Hey! Keep talking like that and I'm going to hurt you!"

After a second, the tigers walked forward. Two tigers went over to Mayu's body, causing the girl to visibly tense. "They're not going to hurt you either," Sasuke stated. A nose nudged Mayu's shoulder. She gradually relaxed as the tiger kept doing that action. The other two came towards Sasuke and Naruto and lied down. "It's been about a day and a half."

"Since we encountered Oro-teme?!"

"No, since we've started, moron," Sasuke muttered. "Stop jumping to conclusions all the time."

"Bite me," was the annoyed response. "Anyway, I guess that means we have only a few days to get the other scroll and with Naruto and me out of commission for a while, our time remaining might dwindle." Sasuke frowned.

"Didn't you see?" he asked. "That guy, Orochimaru, burned our scroll. We need to get both of them now." The cave grew silent again. Sasuke noticed the grin on his teammate’s face. He raised an eyebrow. “Mayu… what are you hiding?” If it was impossible for a grin to grow, Mayu sure didn’t care.

“Nooooothiiiiiiing…!”

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. He reached over Naruto’s body and pulled at the girl’s cheek. And of course Mayu squealed in response. The Uchiha finally released her cheek and frowned. “You tell me now.” It wasn’t a question. Mayu could tell that much. Too bad her body was too weak to reach up and nurse her poor abused cheek; it was now red.

“Remember when I asked to check the things you guys had?” Green eyes connected with onyx-colored eyes. The Uchiha nodded. He remembered quite well. Mayu didn’t ask like she said she did, though. She had ordered them to give her everything that they carried. The dobe of the team actually started stripping. Mayu had been quick to knock him over the head. After giving her the items, Mayu went behind a tree and didn’t come back for three minutes. When asked what she did, Mayu gave this ‘half-ass’ answer, which answered absolutely nothing.

“Yeah, what about it?” Sasuke shifted his weight on his other knee.

“Well, I originally wanted to check the weapons and other things you guys had,” Mayu replied. “While I was doing that, I couldn’t help but notice that Naruto had scrolls that matched the shape and color of our Heaven scroll…” She trailed off, hoping that Sasuke would fill in the blanks. He did.

“You little sneak. You switched out the scrolls, didn’t you?” The Uchiha had to smirk. He had to admit even he was fooled. The entire time he thought he had the real scroll, and then he thought Naruto had had it until Orochimaru had stolen and burned it. Mayu had probably done it because she thought that other teams would think the strongest person would have the scroll. Her plan worked. “You might be an idiot sometimes, but… that was clever.”

“Well, you know what they say–if you can fool your friends, you can fool your enemies!” Mayu grinned. “Yup! I’ve had the scroll this whole time. And as soon as Naruto and I get better, we’ll go out and get the other one!” Sasuke shook his head. His teammate was something else. “But we have to regain our strength, which means you too, Sasuke.”

“I’m not an idiot.”

“Could’ve fooled me!”

“Moron…”

“Anyway, I saw you were carrying something. It looked like fish,” Mayu commented. Sasuke turned his head towards the three dropped fishes. He grunted lightly. He had almost forgotten about those. “The smell should draw some teams in. Hopefully, Naruto’s up and eating by the time they show up.”

“So you want them to come to us?” Sasuke stood up and walked over to the fish. He picked them up and grimaced at the dirt that had become visible to his eyes.

“Of course, we need an Earth scroll!” Mayu retorted in a ‘duh’ type of manner.

“And what if we’re not ready?” Sasuke asked, slightly annoyed. “What then?” The kunoichi frowned. Her eyebrows knitted together. She was trying to remember something. Sasuke realized that his teammate did this whenever there was something important to remember.

“Ah…! You have soldier pills!” Mayu suddenly exclaimed. Sasuke lifted his head sharply. He had forgotten he brought those. He didn’t really think he’d need them, but he took them anyway. “Where’d you get them, anyway?” She had a suspicious tone in her voice. “I tried to buy some, but they said I couldn’t because I wasn’t old enough and I had to have a parent with me! How did you get some?” Sasuke shrugged, and then explained to her that the soldier pills were given to him.

“I didn’t even ask. He just gave them to me.”

“Stupid lucky advanced bloodlines…!” Mayu muttered. “Anyway, screw waiting around! Give me a soldier pill right now!” Sasuke walked over to their stuff. He pulled a capsule. Inside were tiny bead-like objects. He tossed the container up and caught it with his other hand.

“That’s a good idea,” he commented. “But you should probably have something to eat first.”

“What…?! No!” Mayu shouted. “Give me the soldier pill!”

“No. I’m going to get firewood,” Sasuke remarked, and then turned his back to her.

“Sasuke, if you don’t give me a friggin’ soldier pill, I swear to ass I’ll kick your God!”

The Uchiha turned his head, so he could stare at his teammate out of the corner of his eye. “You need to calm down. The blood is rushing to your head and causing you to become lightheaded,” he stated. He turned his head and began walking out of the cave, dropping the fish on his way out. “I’ll be back later.” Sasuke smirked when Mayu started screeching, telling him to ‘get his ass back here’. “Yeah, she’s something else, alright.”
**********************

Sasuke picked up yet another stick. Unfortunately, all the logs he found were wet from the river and he didn’t want to stray too far away from the where Mayu and Naruto were. A sigh escaped his lips as he picked up yet another twig. These skinny branches–would they really be enough for a fire? “I’ll get a couple more before heading back.”

There was a sudden rustle in a nearby bush. Sasuke stopped moving, not sure if he had heard right. Once again, the noise reached his ears. He turned his head sharply. His dark eyes scanned the surrounding area. He spotted a shaking bush. He raised an eyebrow. “Whoever it is, they suck at hiding…” His eyes narrowed as a hand reached into his holster. Several shuriken embedded into the bush. A frightened squeak was heard, and then a small animal scurried out from under the bush. He was running towards him in its panic. “A squirrel…?” Sasuke’s eyebrow twitched.

As the small creature ran pass, Sasuke quickly reached down and snatched it up by the tail. The squirrel, not liking this action, thrashed around. Sasuke held it at arms length in order to not get scratched. “As I thought…” he murmured, ignoring the clearly scared squeaks. “Even without my Sharingan, I could tell… It’s an explosive note.” He peeled the note from the squirrel’s body, and then tossed the animal away. He looked towards where the squirrel had come from and frowned. “Oi…! Whoever is out there, I’m not impressed!” Sasuke ripped the note in half. “What type of loser am I up against now?” he grumbled.

A laughed echoed throughout the area. Sasuke looked up. There, on top of a tree branch, were three Sound ninja. One was a pitiful excuse for a mummy, another was a girl, and the other guy looked as if he used more hair gel than Sasuke. … Not that Sasuke used a lot of hair gel… “Wait a minute,” Sasuke thought. “They’re ninja from the Sound village. These must be the three that serve that guy.”

“So you were able to see it, eh?” the mummy guy chuckled. The three jumped down from the branch. Sasuke backed up as they landed on the ground. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Sasuke-kun.”

“Believe me, the pleasure’s all yours,” Sasuke sneered. “I know you guys work for that creepy person, so why don’t you tell me what the hell was that thing he put on my teammate!” The three genin from the Sound looked genuinely surprised by his words. Sasuke noticed this. “So… You did not know . I wonder why.”

“I, too, wonder…” the mummy guy commented.

“Cut the crap…! If you don’t want to get hurt, you’ll answer my questions!”

“He’s kinda cute when he barks out demands like that.” The girl of the team grinned. She took a step forward as Sasuke scowled at her. “I’m going to enjoy fighting this guy.” Mr. Hair gel smirked as he, too, took a step forward.

“You might enjoy fighting him, but I’ll be the one to kill him, Kin.”

“You really think you have a chance?” Sasuke dropped the twigs and the useless explosive note.

“My, my… What a cocky brat,” Mr. Hair gel said. “I hate guys like you.”

“Yes, let’s kill him right away.” The mummy tilted his head to the side, and then jumped towards Sasuke. His teammates followed suite. The Uchiha narrowed his eyes as they came closer. He quickly went through some hand signs.

“Fire Style: Phoenix Fire Jutsu!”

Several balls of fire shot from Sasuke’s mouth. They headed towards the three. Their eyes widen as they tried to avoid the flames. However, one of them wasn’t lucky enough to dodge. One of the fireballs hit Mr. Hair gel square in the chest, knocking him back against a tree. He cried out in pain. The smell of burnt flesh caused the other two to look back at their squirming teammate. “Zaku…!” Kin shouted. Her comrade was grabbing at his chest and it sounded as if he couldn’t breathe. “You bastard!” She rounded on Sasuke, who was smirking.

“One down,” he said.

Sasuke took this time to examine the three. That guy, Zaku, he was down for the count. He didn’t have to worry about him getting up too soon. Sasuke’s eyes scanned over the female. Although she had avoided critical damage, he saw that her hair and parts of her clothes were charred and black from the flames. He also noticed that some of the flames had licked her skin as well. Sasuke looked at the mummy. Out of all of them, he seemed to get away from the attack. “So he’s the most skillful,” he deduced. “I don’t have time for weaklings like you.” Sasuke smirked. His taunting had caused the kunoichi to glare. “Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to try and kill your boyfriend. He was just in my way.”

“He’s not my boyfriend, you ass!” Kin rushed at Sasuke, completely ignoring the protest from her mummified teammate. The Uchiha sank into a stance as the girl moved closer. This kunoichi was stupid, he realized. Though, before Sasuke could do anything, someone had attacked the girl, knocking her into her teammate. The two fell to the ground. Kin winced as she clutched her stomach. “Damn it! Who the hell are you?!” The mummy angrily pushed his teammate off of him, and then stood up. Ignoring that, Kin also stood, glaring at the newcomer.

“What the hell?” Sasuke stared at the green-clad ninja in surprise. Just what was he thinking? He just appeared out of nowhere. Standing in front of Sasuke in an offensive stance was Rock Lee.

“I am Konoha’s Handsome Devil! My name is Rock Lee!” he introduced himself.

A sweat drop slowly slid down the back of Sasuke’s head.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he thought with a blank look.

The wind, dramatically, blew through Lee’s shiny bowl cut. This only added to Sasuke’s annoyance. “You’re not apart of his team! Why are you here?!” Kin sounded pissed. And why wouldn’t she be? This freak came out of nowhere and intercepted her attack on the arrogant Uchiha.

“I could not just stand by and watch as Sakura-san’s teammate try to fight two enemies,” Lee proclaimed. “Sakura-san would never forgive me if I let one of teammates get hurt!”

“You do realize that I’m your enemy, too, right?” Sasuke deadpanned.

“It does not matter at this moment, Uchiha-san!” Fire seemed to replace Lee’s eyes. “For two against one is unfair, so I will even the score!”

“Thanks, but you’re not needed,” Sasuke muttered. “And quit it with the poses already.” Lee instantly stopped flashing his teeth. “I don’t need your help. Get out of here!”

“Negative, Uchiha-san!” Sasuke sighed heavily.

“Fine, go ahead and get hurt.” The Uchiha narrowed his eyes. “I could use this to my advantage. I can see what their abilities are before I fight them myself,” he thought.

“Enough of this! I don’t care who you are!” Kin shouted. Multiple senbons flew towards Lee. With quickness, the taijutsu caught the needle like weapons. “Dosu, are you just going to stand there and do nothing?!” Kin glared at her teammate. The mummified ninja, Dosu, slowly pulled back his sleeve, revealing some type of an arm guard. Holes layered the surface of it.

He dashed towards Lee, fist ready to punch. The taijutsu user leapt back, narrowly missing the swipe of Dosu’s arm. Kin grinned. She knew that one swipe was enough. Lee blinked in surprise. His vision of Dosu had suddenly become blurry and distorted. He swayed back and forth a bit, causing Sasuke to look at him in confusion. “What just happened?” he thought.

“You may be fast, but our attacks are the speed of sound, thus surpassing yours,” Dosu remarked. Lee dropped to his knees. The world around him seemed to spin out of control. He panted heavily. Lee became too dizzy and so he threw up the contents in his stomach. He coughed and panted as blood spilled out of his ear.

“His left ear…” Sasuke stared even more confused than before. Lee grabbed his bleeding ear. “It doesn’t make sense. Why is he so damaged when he didn’t get hit? Could it be some type of jutsu?”

Dosu suddenly lifted his arm. “There’s a little trick to my attack,” he began. “Just dodging it won’t help. It’s sound. You dodged my fist, but you were attacked by the sound. Do you know what sound is? It is vibrations. Being able to hear something means your eardrum picks up on the vibrations in the air.” He pointed to his ear as if the Konoha shinobi didn’t know what an ear was. “A human eardrum will shatter at anything above 150 decibels. An opponent will lose their sense of balance. You won’t be able to move your body for awhile. Your moves won’t work on us.”

“Thanks for the lesson, but your voice is annoying. Shut up,” Sasuke sounded bored. Dosu glared at the Uchiha. There was haughty tone in his voice. It pissed him off.

“You arrogant little-” Kin never finished her sentence. A hand had grabbed her neck, preventing her from getting little to no oxygen. She grabbed Sasuke’s wrist with one hand, still trying to breathe.

“I said shut up. I have no problem taking a girl out.”

“He’s… He’s fast!” Kin thought, grinding her teeth together in frustration.

His grip on her neck became slightly tighter. A strangled gasp came from the kunoichi’s mouth. Kin’s eyes suddenly rolled back and her body went limp. Sasuke snorted before dropping her to the ground. He turned his eyes the unconscious Lee, and then to Dosu. “What a disappointment. Not even my teammates are that weak. I almost feel sorry for you.” Dosu stepped back as the Uchiha moved towards him. “Let’s hope you’re more of a challenge.”

Dosu suddenly ceased his movements, causing Sasuke to end his advancement as well. He was slightly surprised that his enemy had stopped. The mummified ninja suddenly chuckled as if he knew something Sasuke didn’t. “Sasuke-kun, a word of advice,” he began. Sasuke could tell he was smirking under those bandages. “You shouldn’t… underestimate my so called ‘weak’ teammates.” Sasuke’s dark eyes expanded in surprise as a gust of wind came at him. That gust turned into a powerful burst of air that sent him flying back. His back hit the tree. A sharp crack was hard as blood spurted from the Uchiha’s mouth. He sank to the ground on his hands and knees. Blood ran down his chin. He looked up, only to see four senbons flying towards him. Sasuke moved to the side, yet two of the senbons still managed to lodge into his shoulder.

He cried out in pain as he fell to the ground again. Besides the pain from the senbons in his right shoulder, every time he moved his left arm, it hurt. “Shit…! I think it’s dislocated!” Sasuke glared at the three standing ninja. Somehow, Zaku was standing; his position was behind and to the right of Dosu. One of his hands was placed over his burn, while the other hand was held out. Sasuke noticed the small hole in the palm of his hand. His eyes moved over to the girl. She had a smirk on her face, standing strong where he had dropped her before. “Damn it!” Kin had tricked him into thinking she was unconscious.

“Oh, how the mighty have fallen!” The girl was going to gloat. He had underestimated her. He had underestimated them all. It was time to show him who was stronger. “That’s what you get for taking us lightly. Look at you, all banged up. The three of us–we’re stronger than you.”

“This time I really am going to kill you,” Zaku said in a teasing manner. Oh, he was definitely having fun at this moment. The flames, although surprising, weren’t enough to take him down. He gently rubbed his tender flesh. It did hurt like hell, though.

“Damn it… I could activate my Sharingan, but it wouldn’t give me an advantage this time.” Sasuke tried to remove the senbons from his skin, but his jolts of pain coursed through his arm each time he tried to move it. “If I didn’t have this arm to deal with, I could still beat them.”

“Well, I do believe it’s time to end this once and for all,” Dosu mentioned.

“How pathetic of you, Uchiha Sasuke!” A voice was heard. The four looked up, trying to locate the speaker. It wasn’t long before their eyes stopped on the owner of that voice. There, standing on a giant tree branch, was Hyuga Neji and his teammate Tenten. He had this air of superiority around him.

“It’s him again.” Sasuke frowned. He did not want to appear weak in front of someone else, especially in front of someone like Neji. He seemed to like looking down on the weak and criticizing them. “Great. This is just so great.”

“We originally came looking for our teammate, and yet we find you practically groveling at the enemy’s feet,” Neji continued. Sasuke glowered. What the hell did he know? He was not groveling! “You are unfit to be a ninja. Being beaten by the likes of them.”

“Why don’t you come down here and say that to my face, pretty boy!” Zaku was pissed. How many more of them were going to show up? “Come down and kick our asses if you think you can!”

Neji only crossed his arms. A small smirk appeared on his face. Tenten noticed this and asked him if something was about to happen. The young genius didn’t reply to his teammate’s question. Instead, he stared down at the three sound ninja. “I don’t think that’s necessary.” Goosebumps suddenly appeared on Sasuke’s arms and his hair stood on end.

He slowly turned his head, as did everyone else. Gradually making their way towards the group, a lone figure with their head down became the center of attention. Sasuke turned on his Sharingan; Neji did the same with his Byakugan. “That chakra… it’s huge.” His mouth dropped open as the figure moved closer. “No, it can’t be!” The person finally stopped. Flames seemed to be tattooed all over their skin, including their face. The flames turned pitched black. It looked so… ugly on her.

Several bodies visibly shook at the newcomer’s arrival.

This presence… it seemed so vile, so tainted, so… inhumane. “What happened to her?” Sasuke thought. “She’s not even doing anything and yet I can actually feel weird chakra. That’s not how she usually-”

“Sasuke,” she spoke, unknowingly interrupting the Uchiha’s thoughts. “I can see that you’re hurt. Got over confident again, huh?” Her words were teasing, but Sasuke could tell there was not a trace of playful banter in her tone. “Who did this? It was all of them, wasn’t it? Because there is no way you could get those injuries from just one of them, right?”

Sasuke opened his mouth, but no words reached his tongue. Instead, he winced at the surge of pain from moving. A small frown became visible as green eyes turned to the Sound ninja. Kin flinched and took several steps back. She, too, could feel the frightening chakra that surrounded the Leaf kunoichi. “That mark…! Just as I thought… The curse seal has covered her body!” Dosu thought. “That must have been what Sasuke-kun was talking about before. So it was this teammate. What the hell is he thinking?” Sasuke struggled to stand. And although the pain was immense, he still managed to do so.

“Mayu,” he whispered. “Your body–it’s different.” Her green eyes, which seemed to have darkened since the last time he’d seen them, stared down at her hand.

“You don’t have to worry about that.” Her eyes looked back at the three Sound ninja. “I’m sure this is only temporary.” Mayu turned her back to the Uchiha.

“Just who the hell are you?!” Zaku yelled, annoyed.

“It’s not necessary to know that information, seeing as how you won’t be living too much longer.” Mayu pointed a finger. It was aimed at Dosu. “You first.”

Suddenly, large fangs were driven deep into Dosu’s forearm. He screamed in surprise, though most of it was from the pain. Zaku stepped away from his teammate, eyes wide in shock. “A tiger…?!” Dosu continued to scream, and yet the fangs only went deeper.

“N-No wa-way…” Kin murmured, watching her teammate try to get his arm free, but to no avail.

Mayu smiled sadistically. Green eyes watched the blood flow like a stream down Dosu’s arm and onto the ground below. “How wonderful! Truly magnificent! Now… Rip. It. Off.” Dosu’s visible eye widen in fear.

“Wh-What…?! No! Sto-Stop it!” His pleas were ignored as the feline shook its head, trying to remove the fragile arm from his socket. “Ple-Please…! I beg of you, stop!” Tears ran down his cheek, but those were ignored as well.

Everyone else seemed too shocked to move. Even Dosu’s teammates were in shock. With one last yank, the Sound ninja’s arm was torn from the rest of his body. The muffled scream was enough to snap his teammates out of their stunned silence. “Dosu…!” the two yelled in unison. The tiger quickly moved away from the boy, who had fallen to his knees by now. Blood gushed from his open wound, staining the ground red.

Never before seeing that much blood, Tenten turned her head away. Neji almost did the same, but he kept his eyes trained on the scene below. The tiger had come to Mayu’s side. The girl was stroking the head as if praising it for a job well done. The tiger dropped the useless, bloody arm and purred. “Who is this person…?” Neji had never seen someone smile at blood being shed.

Mayu turned her eyes back to the three. “You monster! I’ll kill you!” Zaku ran towards the Leaf kunoichi. The girl just grinned at his actions.

“Next,” she said. Before Zaku could reach her, he was mauled over by another tiger. He was tackled to the ground. The tiger bit into his arm. Frightened eyes stared up at the snarling giant cat. “You like them? They’re faster than the average tiger, but I guess that’d have to be living in this forest. Survival of the fittest and whatnot!”

Tears welled up in Kin’s eyes as she watched her comrade try to fight off the huge animal. His punches were having little to no effect on the creature. “Zaku…” she whispered. Her eyes took a glance at her one-armed teammate. “Dosu…” Lastly, her eyes settled on the sinister grin on the Leaf ninja’s face. “She hasn’t even begun to fight, and yet I’m terrified of her!” Her body shook. “Her chakra–she’s too much! And if those other people get involved, all of us are dead!”

“Last, but not least,” Mayu spoke. Her creepy voice caused the Sound kunoichi to gasp. “It’s your turn, girl.” She pointed a finger again. “Are you ready to become lunch?”

“Mayu, stop!” That frantic voice made Mayu’s posture falter. She slowly turned to face her teammate. “This isn’t you! This isn’t how it’s supposed to be… You can’t do this! Tell it to stop!”

Green and onyx eyes seemed to lock onto each other. They stayed that way for a few moments. The curse seal suddenly turned back into flame colors and retracted to the mark on her arm. The mark glowed red before it went black. “Stop…” Mayu murmured. The giant cat hopped off of Zaku and moved to the girl’s side. All the strength left her body, causing her to fall down. Sasuke dropped to his knees as Mayu panted heavily. “Oh, God…!” She stared wide-eyed at the ground; tears stung her eyes.

“Mayu…”

“You are stronger than we are,” Kin’s voice caused the two Leaf ninja to look towards her. She had a scroll in her hand. She tossed it over to them. Sasuke recognized it as the Earth scroll. His dark eyes grew wide. “Please accept this, and in exchange… you let us go. I take my teammates and go. Please… just let us go.”

“Kin, what are you-”

“Shut up, Zaku!” the girl snapped at her teammate. “And bring your butt over here! We’re leaving now!”

The spiky-haired male grumbled, and then stood. He moved over to his teammates, leaving a trail of blood from his arm. Kin picked up Dosu, and then jumped away. “This isn’t over!” Zaku muttered before he jumped away.

Mayu ignored the Sound’s departure and focused on the ground. She was shaking violently by now. “I… I was going to… I was going to let-” Even her voice trembled. Green eyes stared hard at the mark on her arm. “-This thing–it’s horrible!” Sasuke watched her shake. He felt as if he couldn’t do a thing to comfort her. Mayu might’ve been a ninja, a fighter, but she was no killer. Sasuke was certain that she would never take pleasure in ending someone’s life, and yet… she smiled when that guy’s arm was ripped off.

“She’s scared,” Sasuke thought. “How could I let this happen to her…? She shouldn’t have taken that bite for me!” The Uchiha turned his head away in shame. Once again, he had failed to protect those he cared about. He reached out and grabbed the scroll with his good arm. Now the team had both scrolls and they could head to the tower… once they were well rested, of course. After everything that had happened, they were physically and mentally not prepared. “What am I going to do about this shoulder?”

Tenten jumped on the ground. She made sure to stay away from the two tigers that growled at her. She went over to her teammate. “Wake up, Lee!” She shook her teammate, causing Lee’s head to go to and fro. Tenten finally dropped her comrade to the ground. Lee looked up at her, confused at seeing her face.

“Tenten…?” he murmured, still unsure. The kunoichi dropped down to his level. “Why are you here?”

“We came to help you,” she answered.

“Huh…? Where did the Sound ninja go?” Lee looked around, trying to locate the enemy.

“That girl, Sakura–she drove them away.” Tenten’s brown eyes traveled over to Sasuke and his teammate. “How she did it was scary, but she ended up driving them away all the same.” The kunoichi turned her eyes back to Lee. “We should get out of here.” Lee began to protest, but Tenten was not having that. “Now, Lee!” Lee quickly saluted his female companion, and then bounded off. Tenten shook her head before following after him. She glanced back at the two again. “That feeling… That terrifying feeling. I can’t believe Lee likes a girl like that… She seems dangerous.”

Mayu had finally snapped out of it and now her eyes were on her teammate. “Sasuke…” She tried to get his attention. The boy didn’t look up from the ground. “Sasuke, we need to go back to the cave. And… your injuries–everything I need to fix them is at the cave. I think I can even fix your shoulder.”

“How would you know how to do that?” Sasuke still hadn’t lifted his head.

“I saw it on T.V., of course,” Mayu responded. The Uchiha gave her a blank look. It was her tear-stained face that caused him to look away again.

“I know I’m not going to like this…” he mumbled.

“Probably not.”
***************************

Sasuke had his back against the wall. Mayu had already taken care of the senbons wounds. Now, all that was left was the shoulder. His teammate still hadn’t told him how she was going to do it. He stared at her back. Mayu was busy cooking the fish at the moment. Naruto was–Sasuke turned his eyes to his blond teammate. A flat expression appeared on his face. Naruto was still staring at him with a sour look. “What the hell are you looking at, dope?!”

Uzumaki Naruto had been staring since he woke up. Well, at first, he screamed and yelled something about Orochimaru, and then he screamed and pointed at the tigers. Mayu calmly explained to the blond that everything was fine. Sasuke had to hit him over the head a couple time to get him to relax. After that ordeal, Naruto just stared.

“Something’s different,” Naruto muttered.

“Oh, you mean other than my dislocated shoulder?” Sasuke asked sarcastically.

“Hahaha, very funny teme…!”

“Naruto, Sasuke, I think they’re ready!” Mayu announced, causing both heads to turn. The kunoichi handed her teammates one fish each; the cooked fishes were on sturdy little sticks. “Dig in…!”

“Itadakimasu…!” Naruto happily complied.

Sasuke waited a few seconds before doing the same. Mayu watched her teammates eating, and then her eyes settled on the fish in her hand. “Itadakimasu…” she murmured before nibbling on her portion of the meal. Team 7 ate their food in silence, each one having their own thoughts about their current situation.

The silence was broken by Naruto’s loud sigh of satisfaction. “Man, that hit the spot!” he exclaimed. “I wish it was ramen, though…” Sasuke threw down the stick, finished with his fish.

“Gochisousama…” he said, frowning.

“Ne, ne, Sakura-chan, Sasuke…!” The loud blond got their attention. “So what happened while I was sleep?”

Sasuke took a glance at his female teammate. She had her head tilted towards the ground, but her frown was still visible to his eyes. Not to mention the shaking of her body. Sasuke took the initiative and began telling Naruto what happened, leaving out bits and pieces of the story. “In the end, we received their Earth scroll.” The Uchiha finished.

“So you got hurt taking care of those Sound ninja?” Naruto muttered.

“Uh… yeah…” Sasuke lied. Of course he didn’t tell the truth about what happened. He also did not tell Naruto about the mark on Mayu’s arm, which had been hidden by bandages.

“Sooooo…! Now all we have to do is build up our strength, and then replace the Heaven scroll that guy took from me!”

“Not exactly, Naruto.” Mayu finally spoke up. She crawled over to her things. After rummaging through, she eventually pulled out a scroll. “Here’s the Heaven scroll.” Naruto sputtered in surprise, but Mayu got the gist of what he was trying to ask. “I switched an empty and the real scroll before we encountered anyone. That what I did when I asked to see your stuff, remember?” The blond looked confused, and then a light bulb seemed to appear over his head.

“Ah…! Sneaky, sneaky, Sakura-chan!” Naruto grinned. Mayu gave a wry smile. “But what about Sasuke’s arm? There’s still a chance that we’ll run into enemies!” The kunoichi nodded, dropped her stick, and then crawled over to Sasuke.

“I’ll take care of that now,” she said, placing one hand on Sasuke’s shoulder, while she placed the other hand on his forearm. The Uchiha winced at her touch. “It’s not dislocated, just merely out of place.” Sasuke gave her a flat expression.

“Isn’t that the same thing?”

Mayu returned the flat look.

“You know something… I’m not too sure.”

“You moron, just get on with it!”

“Hey, Sasuke…” Mayu started. Her eyes were on his arm. “Before I go through with this, I have a question for you.”

“What is it?”

CRACK

“AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!R 21; Sasuke let out a shriek of massive pain. “WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!” The Uchiha grunted as he fell forward, grasping his shoulder.

“Well, I was hoping to distract you from the pain… It didn’t work out the way if should have,” Mayu responded, sighing. “I thought by not expecting it, you’d be more surprised than in pain.”

“I’m… going… to… murder… you…” Sasuke panted. His breaths made some dirt fly up. Luckily, none of it went into his mouth. Mayu gently pulled Sasuke back up. She removed his shirt–Sasuke protested, but was much too tired to push her away–then began wrapping his forearm and shoulder.

“Don’t be such a baby, bird brain!” she scolded. “After I’m finished with this, we need to find somewhere else to go. Combined with the smell of cooking fish, Sasuke’s scream probably alerted other teams to our location.”

“Yeah, Sasuke, you big loud mouth!” Naruto chastised.

“You have no room to talk, dope!” Mayu tightened the bandage, causing Sasuke to wince and glare. She tied it into a knot. “You didn’t have to tie it that tight!”

“Yes, I did. If I didn’t, you’d be hurting again in a few hours.” Mayu stood up. “I think you can move it now and only have slight pain.” Her gaze was on both of her teammates. “Listen up!” She put her hands on her hips. “After we leave here, we’ll spend at least a day and a half hiding and recovering. Even if we do come across another team, we will not engage in combat. It would be too dangerous for us. After we’re all healed up, we’ll head for the tower. Sasuke, did you memorize that diagram Anko-sensei showed us?”

Sasuke nodded in confirmation. He picked up his discarded stick and began drawing in the dirt. After he was finished, he pointed to a location on the map. “Judging from the nearby river, I’d say we’re right here.”

“How far will it take to get to the tower from here?” Naruto asked.

“If we don’t encounter enemies, I’d say just a few hours, maybe less than that.”

“Adding the days of recuperation, we should reach the tower with a day to spare,” Mayu commented. She crossed her arms. “But I think we can be faster.”

“Huh…? What do you mean, Sakura-chan?” Naruto asked. “We can only travel so fast.”

“Yeah, and not to mention our calculations might be a little off. Even with this plan, we might not make it to the tower.”

“I’m just saying we can speed things up a bit. Not our recovery, but the pace–we can speed that up.”

“How are we supposed to do that?”

“Well, Naruto, have you ever ridden a tiger?”

“Eh?”

“Hell no!”
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