Hell Hath No Fury
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or its characters. I own only the plots/ideas/situations that I have placed the characters in.
She closes her eyes as her sleeping gas engulfs the small clearing. “Sorry guys, but I have my orders.”
Her chakra is at the ready and a moment later six shadow clones are standing next to her, awaiting orders. “Five of you will keep Kakashi and Naruto out of the fight. One of you stay here to watch over them.”
Without waiting for a response she sprints into the trees toward the mountains, it was time to bring Sasuke to heel. It took little time to reach the mountain top and even less time to pinpoint Sasuke's exact position. There were two others near by him, one was barely a blip and if they didn't receive medical attention soon, they wouldn't make it. The other one was Tobi; she'd have to wait until he left to make her move. She was under no illusions that she'd be able to take him at least not until her chakra coils matured fully.
The unexpected preparation time she was faced with was used to her advantage. Her hands are steady as she unseals her armor plates. Every plate was chakra infused metal, with elemental chakra conversion and elemental chakra storage seals etched on them. The beauty of the seals was that they were impossible for anyone, but her to use; they required perfect chakra control.
Once she had the plates strapped on, she formed a dozen earth clones, sending them underground to scout the battlefield. Immediately following them was a handful of shadow clones. As soon as an earth clone was in position a shadow clone switched with it. When the shadow clones dispelled, one by one, she knew her first priority was to rescue the fluctuating chakra signature of the Uzumaki woman.
'Are you ready for this?'
'I was born ready, Saku. Let's hit the bastard with everything we've got.' Her lips twitched, it seems Inner was just as eager for this as she was.
'Of course I am. Its high time we deliver on our promise.'
With a curt nod, her hands formed the sign. “Restraint Release; Chakra clone”
A thin film of dense black chakra rolled down her body from head to toe. She held the sign until half of her chakra was converted into yin chakra. Taking a deep breath she surrendered her control of the dense chakra before taking a step back. The black outline in front of her quickly expanded to fill the empty space left behind, it was always fascinating to watch as Inner took on color. As Inner finished forming, she held the heavy winter cloak out for Inner to take.
“D-Did you give me half of our chakra?”
“Unlike our knucklehead cousin, I'm not willing to use kid gloves. He's a criminal, a betrayer, and...he almost killed her,” Inner shivered at their K.I saturating the air, usually it was her job to handle that. “and I will not allow him the opportunity to finish the job. The last shadow clone is currently monitoring the injured Uzumaki, as soon as there's an opening, it will evac her to me. Make him hurt.”
At Inner's salute she gathered chakra into her palm and formed the correct shape of a stasis seal, holding it there as Inner leapt into the valley below.
“See ya.” His voice grated in her ears. She really didn't want to say it, but he was about to kill an unknown Uzumaki.
“Sasuke!”
One of his eyes wept blood as they narrowed in her direction. “...Sakura. What the hell do you want with me?”
Her eyebrow twitched as she heard Saku's voice, she'd forgotten how much better she'd gotten at her perception over long distances. 'He looks like a deranged murderer.'
'Still pretty?' It was a struggle not to show any outward sign of bemusement at the answer she received. 'Unfortunately.'
“I have orders to capture you,” She wants to snarl when he relaxes his guard, she barely refrains, “but it also allows me the opportunity to keep a promise I made.
His laughter is deep with a cruel edge as it echos across the broken bridge. “Hn, annoying.”
“Damn, looks like I owe that idiot a year of ramen.” She says, preparing to leap over the gap. “You're still as socially inept as usual. Guess I'm as bad at gambling as my mentor is.”
As her feet touched down on the stone she hears, “Come any closer and I'll kill her.”
When she rises from her crouch she sees him sneering down at the injured Uzumaki. She flares a bit of her chakra, she is delighted to see him shudder. She's all too happy to watch him tense up as she moves closer to the pair.
“Seeing as how I'm a medic and I am required to learn to detect changes in chakra as well as identify foreign chakra to flush a patient's system. Your Chidori Eisō has already done a bang up job of that.” He moves forward, stepping past the injured Uzumaki, sparing little to no concern for her. “Might as well let me put her out of her misery.”
“Tch,” His snort is full of derision. “this I have to see.” He simply allows her to step past and it's his first mistake. She sends a small smile to the injured Uzumaki as she mouths, 'Don't worry, we'll get you out of here.'
“Sasuke...d-” The words are lost as her clone make's its move. The crackle of his lighting chakra was drowned out by his scream as her water clone wrenches him through her. His screaming grows in its intensity as his skin burns. The water clone backhands him across the face, unbalancing him. She rushes forward grips both ankles and pivots to fling him over the bridge.
A split second before hitting the water, another water clone bursts from the lake, the uppercut launches him straight up into the air. From the corner of his eye he catches sight of the real Sakura. She's standing on a mountain top with a giant kunai in one hand and a closed fūma shuriken in in the other.
Her face is cold and calculating as she watches him sail upwards, she isn't sure which of her weapons she wanted to use. The sneer on his face doesn't outwardly affect her, but she is seething at his arrogance. 'The nerve of him, use the fūma.'
With little effort she snaps the fūma's blades into place before throwing it at him. Her hands form the sign as she allows the grin to spread on her face. The fūma slices the air, the moment she felt him shift to avoid it, Inner shouted, 'Shuriken shadow clones'
As her fūma multiplies into two thousand copies, a flick of her wrist attaches a chakra thread to the original. She strikes when she feels the shift in his chakra, there's a brief moment of resistance as the fūma meets flesh. Her grin turns nasty as she parries his chokutō with her left arm. She slams her right elbow into his side. She grips the sword with her left hand and rips it away from him. Her foot hits the mountain and she leaps off the crumbling rock. They both land on the lake's surface at the same time.
Sakura's grin is sickeningly sweet and so wide, its starting to hurt. She takes note of his rapid breathing, the chakra burns covering every inch of exposed skin, his bleeding cheek, and the way his left arm cradles the left side of his chest. She hoists his sword up, hands sliding along the blade's edge until their equal distance apart. His dark eyes flash red before he grimaces and they're dark once again.
Without preamble she brings the sword down over her knee. She relishes the way he flinches at the echoing snap of metal. Her laughter is light and airy as she tosses the broken ends to either side of her. “I hope your over sized lighting rod wasn't expensive?”
Her grin dims when he doesn't say anything, but than again, he never really needed to.
“Oh goody,” She claps her hands together at the way his face sours after a brief flash of surprise. She has finally become fluent in Stoic Uchiha. “I love breaking expensive things.”
“H-How are you this strong?!”
“Why the fuck do you care? You already murdered your brother. ” Her tone is flat, but her chakra saturates the air, when he starts to tremble, she spits “Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't that your sole purpose in life?”
“Hmph,” Her skin crawls at the appreciative gleam in his eyes. “I could use strength like yours when I attack Konoha. Why don't you join me, Sakura?”
“Orochimaru's invasion killed my parents.” She says and she is delighted with his sharp intake of breath. Her smile is rueful before her face goes blank. “Any affection I once held towards you dried up the night you chose that traitor over us. I'll be damned if I let you leave here and take away the only family I have left.”
She flashes forward as the last of her fūma cover the bottom of the lake and unseals her tantō, charging it with wind chakra stored in her armor plates. He jerks back to avoid the blow, but she wasn't aiming for him. As the blade touches the water's surface a smirk grows on his face. It vanishes when a whirlpool expands rapidly underneath him. 'Water release: raging current'
The instant she saw him disappear into her whirlpool she leapt onto the bridge, Inner emerged from the lake and joined her. “The barrier's started to collapse, we need to finish this.”
“Restraint Release: chakra cloak.” Inner's form wavered before dissolving into nothing. The rush of warmth was a soothing balm to the bone deep chill. Thin tendrils of warm black chakra wrapped around her exposed skin like bandages.
Water and metal fall over the bridge like hail, a moment later she cancels the seal on her fūma keeping the clone jutsu active, as a dense column of purple chakra shoots skyward. Sasuke shouts, “Susanoo”
Her grin returns as she attaches a chakra thread to her original shuriken still airborne. 'Inner Control: Towering shadow'
The shadow of her shuriken expands, seemingly consuming all traces of light from the sun, at the same time Sakura's own shadow expands too. She steps back and let's her shadow swallow her whole. As one they grip the giant shuriken and launch it with a burst of chakra at Sasuke.
“What the fuck are you?!” His voice is horse and muffled by his chakra construct. The Susanoo's arm raises its shield, too pre-occupied with the shuriken, he's too late to sense the switch. Instead of a shuriken hitting his Susanoo, a small black blur crashes into his chakra and punches him out of it with a yell of, “Shannaro!”
She follows the path of his flight and switches with his sword's empty sheath right before he lands. Her hand is slapped to his chest imprinting her stasis seal on him. With the last dregs of her chakra she seals the traitor into a scroll and collapses a moment later.
Six figures descend the mountain to surround their comrade, three of the six are gob smacked at the rapidly shrinking shuriken chakra construct that was without a doubt Sakura's. The other three are once more re-affirming to never, ever, ever get on Sakura's bad side.
“Kiba,” The aforementioned ninja jumped a foot in the air at hearing Sakura speak. “the boss is only suffering from chakra exhaustion. Uchiha Sasuke and an unknown Uzumaki are both in custody.”
“If she's out cold...how are you still here? Where's Sasuke?”
The clone turned to regard their cousin. “I was tasked with keeping watch over those four,” She waves in the direction of her squad, before pointing at the seal tag on her arm, “and the boss created this tag for such occasions. This tag prevents me from being dispelled through physical means.”
“What about Sasuke?”
“What about that asshole?”
“Sakura...”
“Don't 'Sakura' me Kakashi. You have no authority,” Her glare make's Akamaru and Kiba whine, Lee, Sai, and Naruto are frozen in place. “over the boss any longer nor are you privy to the details of the boss's S-ranked mission.”
The six of them were still reeling when Sakura's clone pulled the seal tag off her arm, used a small fire jutsu to destroy it, and dispel itself. Sai perfectly summed up their thoughts. “I wasn't aware, Ugly had been promoted to Jōnin.”
Her hand caught the wrist in a bruising grip. At the sheepish, and very familiar, chuckle she let go not feeling the slightest bit sorry. “Its bad form to startle a sleeping ninja Shika.”
“Someone has to keep you on your toes.” He sobered quickly as he took a seat in the chair by her bedside. “Naturally your idiot cousin and former sensei are buzzing with questions about what they saw during your fight.”
“Cut the shit, Shika.” She doesn't try to sit up as it will cause no end of trouble from the nurses.
“They're finally giving you the attention you wanted.” He says, face and voice carefully blank. It was no secret among their graduating class that Sakura was outright abandoned by her team. The last few years had been hard for everyone as they watched her struggle through it. “They've been gushing about how amazing you were, taking him down like that.”
“I didn't do it for them,” His head snaps up to look at her. Her eyes are alarmingly moist, the threat of tears is nothing new, “I swore to Inoichi, to the Nara, to the Akimichi, to the Inuzuka, and to the Hyūga to bring the traitor in for a trial. It was a bonus that I got to beat the shit out of him-.”
“-Sakura, how can you say that?” Both their heads swivel in the direction of the speaker. Naruto was standing with a bouquet of flowers in a vase and a take out bag from Ichiraku's.
“Shikamaru...” She waits until his eyes meet hers before addressing her cousin. “Naruto, you once told me that you hate people who lie to themselves. You're a fucking hypocrite. If anyone has been lying to themselves, its you. Sasuke has tried to kill us all numerous times. Over the three years you were gone, we've all run into him more than once. Every single time that bastard has tried his hardest to kill us.”
“No way, he wouldn't do that. That's not him. I refuse to believe that.” He walks forward only to stop when Shikamaru's kunai thuds into the wall. His cheek is stinging as the cut weeps blood.
“He put a Chidori through Ino's chest,” The shadows in the room deepen and writhe in agitation as his chakra plunges the room in darkness. “if Sakura hadn't started training seriously, if she hadn't learned of her family's ties to the Uzumaki, if she wasn't a sealing expert and if she...hadn't invented her medical stasis seal...”
“The woman I love would be dead as would Asuma-sensei. My parents died in Orochimaru's invasion, cousin.” Her laugh is bitter at the way Naruto's mouth is opening and closing; figures no one passed that information onto him. “My grandfather was your mother's older brother. We're family and that, is the only reason Shika isn't trying to kill you for defending the traitor. Thank you for stopping by, but please leave.”
Without a word or a backwards glance, the shell-shocked Naruto left.
“Mah that was a little harsh Sakura.”
“Trash like you,” She fought the urge to cackle when she heard him knock into the window's frame at the venom in her tone as he climbed into the room. “has no right to comment on how I choose to beat the naivete out of my cousin.”
Her eyes skewered her former sensei as he remained silent. “Surely you don't think that I-”
“-you bet your ass I do. What was I supposed to think when you didn't even bother to arrange for me to train during the chūnin exams, despite not moving to the 3rd round? Or how about when you taught me and Naruto, jack shit while you fawned over the bastard Uchiha? I learned more from Asuma-sensei in a week than the year I spent wasting away on your team.” She watched as Kakashi wilted with each accusation of abandonment, but there was nothing even closely resembling mercy in her; not anymore, not for him. “Be honest, Kaka-sensei, all you ever saw me as was a useless civilian-born ninja. I was only ever there as a pretty princess for them to rescue, wasn't I?”
“Yes and No.”
“When Sasuke inevitably gets away with only a slap on the wrist for his crimes, I'll be requesting an immediate re-assignment to team 10. Sai will be ecstatic to still have his spot on team 7.” Sakura's grin slowly vanishes. “I'll miss him the most.”
“I think it's best if you left my student to recuperate in peace,” She returns Asuma's smile with a small one of her own. “clearly your presence is detrimental to her recovery.”
Kakashi is gone before Asuma is done speaking. She doesn't feel a single ounce of pity or regret as Choji and Ino follow after Asuma, but she only has eyes for Ino.
“Hey.”
“Hey? Hey?! What the hell were you thinking just taking off like that?! Kiba and Lee told us how you went off half-cocked after that bastard!” One minute Ino was righteous fury and the next, she was a sobbing mess in Sakura's arms.
“Hey,” She made shushing noises and settled Ino's head underneath her chin, “I sent Inner with half my chakra in first. When he tried using that jutsu on her, I had one clone pull him through her and gave him chakra burns.”
As she spoke she used her right hand to rub soothing circles over Ino's back and waved their team out the door with her left. She stifled a snort at seeing Shikamaru and Choji pout. Asuma, the world's best sensei, pulled the two idiots out the door with a wink.
“Are they gone yet?” Ino's voice was still a bit shaky, in case Shika was dragging his feet.
“Yeah, they're gone.” In seconds their positions are reversed. The vise in her chest loosens as Ino wraps her arms around her. Her tears are hot and fast, each sob hits her like freight train.
“Shh,” Ino was torn on whether or not too go kick all of team 7's collective asses or stay with her Blossom. There was really only ever one choice she'd make. “I've got you. Later though, I'm going to kill all of them for hurting you.”
“I-Inner won't let you do that without her.”
“I wouldn't dream of excluding her, she has a mean right hook.”
Sakura snorted before closing her eyes and settling further into Ino. “They're not worth the effort, but I appreciate the thought.”
“Anything for my Blossom,” The tension in her body vanishes at the softness in Ino's voice. “I love you.”
“I love you too.” She whispered softly back. Her breathing evened out and before she gave into blessed sleep, she murmured, “Its nap time and you're my pillow, Spitfire.'