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Avenger's Destiny: Chapter 16

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Chapter 16 – Climax

Naruto chanced a glance at Kakashi, and for once in his life, he saw the Jounin frozen in total shock as he watched the battle taking an unexpected turn.

The electrical sparks of the Chidori was nearly too blinding to watch, but not one of the fascinated spectators could turn away from the scene. Sakura and Sasuke… both using Chidori against each other… was not exactly an ordinary sight.

After ensuring that Kabuto was not about to turn back for another attack on them anytime soon, the rest of the weary team joined Naruto and Kakashi at their post in the shelter of the trees, but not a word was exchanged.

Gaara watched, standing apart from the group with his arms crossed and his brow furrowed. Sai crouched next to the Kazekage, his expression unreadable.

Meanwhile, the duo engaged in battle were completely unaware of 0f their surroundings, pools of emerald and onyx stared intensely at each other, never wavering, never breaking contact.

“You… how…” Sasuke broke the silence with a hiss, sparing a quick glance at his Chidori, which was evenly matched by hers. Had Kakashi taught her Chidori as well? But then again, how could she have mastered it?

'Prejudice rules the world, doesn't it? Helps the male ego a little,' a voice smirked from the back of his head. He was underestimating her, and he knew it.

“Honestly, I don’t know,” Sakura said quietly, almost sarcastically. At that very same moment, both shinobis discharged their Chidori and leapt out of the way swiftly, barely escaping the electrical explosion several seconds later.

Without hesitating, Sasuke started on the offense again, using numerous weapons to accentuate his attacks on Sakura. His opponent was badly bruised, but her wounds healed as soon as they were inflicted.

‘Damn… for her to be a medic nin, of all things…’ Sasuke cursed inwardly as another deep slash wound on her arm healed without a trace.

The cherry blossom swung over a branch to avoid a kunai while taking the opportunity to execute a jutsu Tsunade had taught her just recently. Feeling about another dozen shurikens grazing her arms and drawing blood, Sakura swore under her breath and quickly performed her handseals, ignoring the bleeding gashes.

“Chuusuusei Biribiri!” (1) she dived, twisting to avoid his sword before hitting a point on Sasuke’s neck.

Sasuke, however, had activated his Sharingan at the last moment, enabling him to veer sideways slightly so that Sakura could not hit the point directly. The jutsu, supposed to disorientate its victim’s movements, totally immobilized him instead.

‘So hitting slightly to the left immobilizes the person… I have to remember that…’ Sakura made a mental note to tell Tsunade.

She stood from her landing position, facing Sasuke. Her face remained emotionless.

“You activated the Sharingan,” she said in a flat tone. “While fighting me,”

“So?” Sasuke shot back scathingly. “It doesn’t mean that I will go back to Konoha quietly and give up on killing Itachi,”

“When will you ever understand, Sasuke?” Sakura’s voice rose slightly. “We’re not asking you to give up your revenge – we simply want you to come home with us,” the tone of her voice lowered until they could barely hear it. He did not reply.

“Itachi might have killed your clan, but he’s still your brother,”

“Don’t you dare call that bastard my brother,” Sasuke snarled back in response.

Sakura continued, not heeding him.

“He might have betrayed Konoha and joined Akatsuki, but you know he still views you as his only family left,” Sakura took a step closer to him, staring him in the eye. The Sharingan no longer unnerved her, her willpower to stay in this game fought on. “Itachi kills anyone who gets in his way – but he never did touch you, or hurt you seriously - considering all the opportunities he had,”

“Itachi thinks of me as someone not worth killing because I am weak, in his terms,” Sasuke growled, trying to sort out his emotions while straining to break free of Sakura’s jutsu. ‘Damn that girl! Why does she have this effect on me?’

Sakura laughed. It was a short, bitter laugh, almost scornful.

“Do you really believe that’s true? That you’re ‘weaker’ and more ‘not worth killing’ than all the younger ones in your clan? It there’s one thing you don’t understand, Sasuke, its human nature. Your brother – he still harbours some connection to you, whatever he claims. And it’s because of that that he’s trying to make you hate him, to sever that connection. He can’t kill you because you meant the world to him back then, because you were the only one there for him, who saw everything that he went through, things that even his best friend didn’t know,”

All was quiet around them. Even though sunlight was streaming through the forest canopy, no animals or birds could be seen or heard. It was as if the entire world had stopped to watch and listen.

“Being betrayed by a sibling is painful, isn’t it?” Sakura asked quietly. “It feels like your heart has been ripped out… like you can never truly live again,”

“What would you know?” Sasuke spat bitterly.

“I know a lot more than you do, Sasuke,” the cherry blossom said softly. “Maybe Kakashi-sensei and Naruto wouldn’t understand what you felt because they never had siblings, but you’re wrong if you think I don’t know how it feels,”

Confusion was evident in Sasuke’s onyx eyes, but as he opened his mouth to speak, Sakura cut in, with a sudden question in a soft, hesitant voice.

“Do you – remember my brother, Sasuke?”

N

Kakashi and Naruto exchanged confused glances. Sakura had a brother? Was she lying, trying to coax the Uchiha? Naruto cast Neji a glance for confirmation. The Hyuuga prodigy shook his head.

So it was true. Sakura had a brother, and her own team members had never known. It was apparent that the rest of the girls knew, because they were the only ones not looking confused.

“You saved my brother from being crushed by a wagon, eleven years ago,”

Sakura spoke softly, haltingly, affected by the memory.

“You still smiled back then…”

As her voice echoed into the silence, Sasuke found the memory slowly returning to him. That little boy… with brown eyes and jet black hair – grinning widely up at him, thanking him for saving his life.

“Yuki died. A year later. He kept smiling while he was sick; trying to reassure me and my family that he was okay. But it made me feel worse. Like – like I was guilty for his death,” she whispered the last sentence. “I – couldn’t do anything to help him…"

Silence met her words.

“Was that how you felt, Sasuke?” she asked, her emerald eyes staring at him blankly. “Like you were the guilty one, not able to see his pain? You still have a brother… I have no one left,”

The cherry blossom was lost in thought, completely unaware of her surroundings.

“Whatever you say, Sasuke… blood is still thicker than water…”

By this time, she was only a foot away from him.

Sakura opened her mouth to speak again, but all that escaped her lips was a soft exclamation of surprise as she felt a sudden, jolting pain through her abdomen and shuddered, crumpling to the ground. She clutched her abdomen, feeling the warm blood trickling through her fingers.

The jutsu had worn off. Sasuke, hardly registering his own actions, had drawn back his katana, sparking with electricity, and driven it straight through his childhood teammate.

The pink-haired kunoichi slumped against a tree, numbness flooding her body. Everyone watched in stricken horror – Sakura was not healing herself.

Slowly, she tilted her head upwards to meet his icy, onyx stare, but much to everyone’s surprise, she was smiling softly, looking resigned.

“I’ve got nothing more to say… so kill me,”

N

“Don’t you dare, teme,”

Just as the raven-haired boy lifted his sword to strike, a sharp voice rang out, and two figures leapt before him, blocking his path.

Naruto and Kakashi faced him squarely, despite the latter’s wounds being barely healed. The Jounin winced as he felt a freshly-healed wound split open again, but he didn’t have time to care.

Sasuke let out a low laugh. “See, Sakura? You always have to be protected…”

Sakura did not open her eyes, holding back the tears that threatened to spill. In the end… after all that she had gone through… she was still what Sasuke termed as ‘weak’.

“That’s not true, Uchiha,” a sudden, quiet voice broke the tense silence as a certain opaque-eyed Hyuuga heir stepped out from behind the trees, slowly walking towards her friend. “Sakura-chan doesn’t need to be protected… she’d be willing die if it would bring you back to Konoha… but it seems that you haven’t changed – and we’re not going to let her die in vain,”

Glaring at him in a way Hinata had never known she was capable of, the normally shy girl knelt beside her pink-haired friend, shaking her gently. Through her blurred eyes, Sakura glanced at Hinata.

“I can’t heal this alone, Sakura-chan… you have to help,” Hinata indicated towards Sakura’s bleeding abdomen. She could tell that the kunoichi was getting dizzy from the blood loss and was not registering her words, from the way her emerald eyes were blank and unfocused. Immediately Hinata motioned Ino over, looking grim.

“We’ve got to heal her,”

N

Sakura felt herself sinking in the darkness of blissful ignorance as her world spun around her in an endless vortex. She could hear someone speaking, but she lacked the willpower to actually listen. Only Sasuke’s last words echoed in her subconscious.

“You always have to be protected…”

The cut in her heart had just grown deeper.

N

“So now you’d even kill Sakura-chan?” Naruto demanded furiously, fists clenched as his blue eyes blazed.

“I thought you had more honour than that, Sasuke,” Kakashi spoke quietly but firmly, in the tone that he had used on them when they were genin.

“She asked for it, didn’t she?” the Uchiha said simply.

“Sakura was just testing you, you moron!” Naruto growled, seething with fury.

“Putting her life on the line to test me?” Sasuke asked dryly, fingering his bloodied blade. “Who’d be such an… idiot?”

“She cares, teme! She cares so damn much about you!” This time, the blond boy yelled. “All of us do! And in the end, all you ever think about is your stupid revenge!”

“So why don’t you annoying idiots just leave me alone and get on with your pathetic little lives, Naruto? Why waste time on me?” Sasuke replied coldly. “When will you ever learn that I don’t care, even if you do?”

Naruto let out a deafening roar as he leapt at the Uchiha and tackled him to the ground, despite receiving numerous slashes on various parts of his body, seemingly not feeling the pain. Hinata gasped.

“I’m gonna kill you, you hear me? I’m gonna kill you – and rip you to pieces!”

A dangerous reddish-gold aura was enveloping Naruto as he grappled with Sasuke on the mossy forest ground. One of the Kyuubi’s tails lashed out fiercely, bringing down several trees.

Kakashi started in mixed horror and surprise, taking a step forward in a move to stop more of the Kyuubi’s tails from appearing, but he collapsed even before he took his second step.

Immediately Ino was beside him, dragging the senior Jounin back into safe territory. “Don’t move,” she commanded firmly. “You’re totally chakra depleted,”

“The… Kyuubi…” Kakashi whispered. Naruto was now sporting a second tail. Before them, Sasuke was transforming as well, his curse seal spreading like wildfire all over his body as he rolled out from under Naruto.

Ino gasped in horror, exchanging glances with Hinata. The Hyuuga heir, however, was more concerned about the fact that Sakura’s body was repelling her healing chakra, refusing to be healed. ‘Sakura-chan…’

Sasuke’s handsome face was becoming distorted, black marks crawling over it and changing his facial features, twisting it into a horrifying mask that rendered him entirely unrecognizable, apart from his mop of chicken hair.

His body had also transformed into the same twisted deformity, growing slightly larger and taller than he originally was. Wing-like formations broke out through the back of his shirt, extending and stretching out wide. The marks of the curse seal were etched into his pale skin, all over his body, while his eyes retained the blood red shade of the Uchiha Sharingan, with its three commas.

“He’s activated his curse seal at level 2,” Neji said quietly, unable to pry his eyes away from the battle. Shikamaru was frowning, obviously worried, while Lee was staring, wide eyed, at the battle. Akamaru was shaking inside Kiba’s jacket, while Kiba himself looked shaken. Tenten had already joined Ino and Hinata.

The two beasts, once teammates, snarled and growled at each other, yellowish cat-like eyes meeting blood red ones. Without hesitation, they leapt towards each other, aiming for the kill.

N

The battle was almost too confusing to watch. One moment the two boys were attacking each other with weapons, and another moment later, they were throwing punches and dodging kicks.

No words were spoken; the intensity in which they were glaring at each other said it all. Swirls of Naruto’s red-gold chakra danced around him his fourth tail appeared. The fifth tail was forming.

Sasuke seemed to be unaffected by the Kyuubi’s dangerous chakra, even as his fist made contact with Naruto’s face. But he had taken his share of beating, blood trickled from the corner of his mouth and his body was bruised all over.

Naruto was covered in his own blood, but his mind was elsewhere as he rampaged on, tearing the trees apart in an attempt to trap Sasuke. His fifth tail was now fully formed, lashing out dangerously close to the group of shinobis behind the trees, who leapt backwards in alarm.

“Oh no,” Shikamaru groaned. “This is bad…”

N

‘Hey!’ Sakura heard the Nanabi’s voice, rudely jolting out of her blissful darkness. ‘Get up and heal yourself right now!’

‘Uhh…’ </u>Sakura groaned. ‘I thought you’d heal me…’</u>

‘You said this was your fight, right? I’m not getting involved…’

‘Then just leave me alone…’</b>

‘Hell no. You promised Naruto that you’d bring Sasuke back together with him,’ the Nanabi chided sternly. ‘And now you’re leaving the job to him just because you got stabbed in the abdomen?’

‘I… promised?’</b> Sakura asked groggily, still not fully conscious. What promise?

‘Two years ago. You promised. I saw it in your mind,’ the seven-tailed demon phoenix told her quietly. ‘Hinata and Ino are trying to heal you, but you’re resisting it,’

‘Huh…’</b>

‘Sakura! Open your eyes and see what’s happening between your teammates! NOW!’

Whether if it was out of surprise, or fear, the cherry blossom obeyed.

The moment she caught sight of Naruto, consumed by the Kyuubi and performing the Rasengan; and Sasuke, with his curse seal activated, and his Chidori in his right hand, she bolted upright.

Hinata, Ino and Tenten nearly shrieked when Sakura jumped up suddenly, the gaping wound on her abdomen only partly healed by her own chakra.

Before any of them registered what was happening, Sakura was standing in the path of the two boys charging at each other, emerald eyes flashing dangerously as her deafening yell resounded in the clearing

“STOP IT! BOTH OF YOU!”
There! Done! Chapter 16, here we come!!!

^^ hope you guys like it! comment , okay!!!

-arissa-
© 2007 - 2024 aria-arissa
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missladylaura's avatar
i just finished reading it for the second time and it just keeps getting better. :D

you are such a great writer.People could learn alot from you, i know i have.....awwwwww im going all mushy now :hug: