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OMIGOD TEAMWORK. beginning of Chapter six :O :O :O
*gasp* *shock* *awe!*
Fresh off the presses therefore probably riddled with mistakes, OOC-ness, heavy-handedness and lots of repetitions. If anything bothers you tell me and i'll fix it, it's just the first draft.
Previous scene
"If that can make the Council feel better," she'd said back then, when they told her the condition to participate in the tournament. "I don't mind. To be frank, I like it better that way."
And she'd smiled at Tsunade-sama, and allowed them to place another flow-restrictive seal on the chakra pipeline between her and Naruto. Because even though she'd only been Tsunade's apprentice for a couple of weeks, already she felt stronger and more confident; and she didn't want the crutch of Naruto's chakra to be too easy to lean on. There were too many strings attached.
Chakra to feed the child, that was all she really asked for, and chakra to keep herself alive in case everything else failed, though it might burn her to death before it could do any good.
It burned now, molten metal in her belly, breaking past the damming seal, forcing its way through her coil system. She fell to her knees with a little gasp. Her first instinct was to resist the flow, but it would just end up bursting through anyway. Convert -- she needed to grab hold of it and convert it into something she could use -- but there was so much of it.
Sitting duck, she realized through the shock. Move, move, move! She knew it had been too long; their enemies wouldn't have the decency to wait until she got a handle on the demon chakra flood. But holding it back was taking so much of her concentration. She allowed some chakra to slip through, pour up her spine and down her arms, through her skin, making her fingernails ache and her muscles clench, and she climbed back up on her feet and forced her eyes open.
The world was painfully bright at first, a hundred snapshots too vivid for her brain. Colors felt -- off. Not the right spectrum.
But not off enough to mix up red and blue.
Naruto's eyes weren't blue.
He was sitting where he'd fallen, only two steps away from Sakura. The enemy nin, the tall, broad one who'd touched him and made him fall like a puppet with a dead puppeteer, stared at him in disbelief. The other enemy, with the pale green hair, was swaying on his feet, dark skin turned grayish and eyes unfocused, all the hallmarks of severe chakra drain.
Not-Naruto smiled then, or smirked, or bared fangs maybe. "...Heh."
Red-gold chakra boiled over, covered his bare chest and poured down over his pants and onto the ground, blackening it. Sakura's belly pulsed painfully and the world seemed to dance under her, like trying to stand on a moving swing. She didn't know how she kept her footing; sheer stubbornness maybe.
"Naruto!" she called, frantic, praying he would hear and put a stop to it.
He glanced at her over his shoulder, and threw his head back, and laughed. It wasn't even a cruel laugh, but deeply amused, like life was just that hilarious. It chilled her to the bone. It wasn't Naruto laughter at all.
"What the fuck--" the green-haired nin growled, and fished a couple of kunai out of his pouch with a hand that shook with exhaustion.
Naruto's head tilted slowly as he considered the two strangers. Sakura opened her mouth, closed it, swallowed. They were enemies -- but it wasn't war. It was serious -- it was important -- but in the end it was just a test, just a way to see how every country measured up.
There would be no measuring up if she didn't do something. There would just be a very one-sided slaughter. "No!" she snapped, trying to get their attention. The tall one threw her a wary look, listening, but the green-haired one was too angry to bother. "No! Just run away --"
Naruto laughed softly, with a rough, pleased voice that made her feel queasy. "Oh yes. Run."
And then everything just kind of happened together -- green-hair throwing the kunai and Sakura throwing herself at Naruto and Naruto throwing his hand out, and -- chakra, enough to liquefy metal in mid-flight, a paw of fire that stretched faster than her eye could see.
Blood sizzled, splashed the rocks; the big guy yelled, "Kon!", as his teammate was swatted away like a mosquito, body clawed open in four separate lines. Sakura fell to her knees. Something was trying to burn its way out of her belly.
"You'll kill the child!" she screamed, hands clenched on her stomach.
A tan-and-black blur raced to his fallen comrade and carried him away as Naruto turned to look at her. Sakura's body still burned all over, a deep ache spreading through her chakra system. Convert, convert, she repeated to herself -- there should have been a seal to do that for her, but Kyuubi bursting through -- she knew it wasn't there anymore.
What other safeties had been torn away? Oh god -- the baby, the baby -- possessed, monstrous -- dying, burned alive inside her where it should have been safe --
"If it's so weak," he started with disdain, and she didn't think past the sudden rage. Naruto's head snapped to the side, cheek sliced open by her claws.
Panting, hand smarting where his chakra had sparked at her skin, she glared at the creature. Not Naruto, never Naruto -- they didn't even look alike, the demon's eyes a malevolent, narrowed red.
He lifted a hand to his already-healing cheek, and wiped the blood with his fingers, and licked them, his red eyes fixed onto her, and she was going to die.
"Down!"
Sakura hit the ground. A blue and black shape flew over her head, crackling with lightning. Impact. Explosion. She rolled away, skidding down the slope. Crap, no, the canyon wasn't safe, she couldn't let herself fall. She dug her fingers into the earth and screamed again as her own weight tried to tear long, curved nails out. She kept moving -- got her footing, scrambled up. Sasuke and Kyuubi were rushing at each other, crashing and then coming apart again.
The katana-wielding woman who had been sparring with Sasuke was crouching on a boulder, her long, black tail of hair singed at the end, watching the fight in utter confusion.
"Run already!" Sakura snarled at her as she reached the boulder.
"What?"
"He'll tear out your guts and dance in them if Sasuke can't hold him back!"
As her teammates rolled downhill, Sakura chanced a glance their way. Red-gold chakra still danced, burning Sasuke's skin whenever he darted close enough to strike -- burning inside her belly like an echo. Her fingers still ached, though the claws had stopped growing. She swallowed the bitter desire to go and help. She would only be a hindrance. Even Sasuke was barely fast enough to stay ahead of Kyuubi's harshest attacks. If she went, she would get in their way and die. Or get Sasuke killed -- even worse.
The whole valley shook, a cloud of dust racing her up the slope, overtaking her in a second. She couldn't hear the crackle of the Chidori over the roar of earth and rocks tumbling down the cliffs, and she coughed in the dust.
In a minute there wouldn't be a cliff left anymore -- no canyon, no slope, no bowl-shaped valley.
"What the fuck is going on?" the enemy girl snarled as she burst out of the dust on Sakura's flank. The giant wolf followed, ears flat on his neck, the old, graying three-tailed fox held in his mouth like a cub.
The smaller foxes were like a wave of fur through the rocks, a torrent running upstream, nothing in their eyes but blind animal panic; Sakura almost tripped on one of them. She didn't answer the katana girl.
The ground was pulled out from under her feet like a carpet even as she ran, and she could see the trees lining up the edges of the basin slowly topple inwards. Rocks started rolling down, loose soil flowing and piling up in strange spurts, tripping her up. She didn't have time to trip!
"Run, run, run!"
Katana-girl and her wolf darted ahead of her. Through the smoke she could see a hulking shape, the tallest ninja struggling to carry his teammate.
"Ride!" the girl snapped, sending the wolf at them, but when the big guy tried to jump the earth slid out from under his feet and he landed on his knees. A green-haired head lolled boneless.
Sakura could already see Naruto's face when he woke up and found out he had gutted a guy, killed him. She veered to meet them, snatched a hold on the big guy's arm and heaved to get him back up. The katana girl's hand flew to her weapon, but she held herself back at the last moment and helped him clamber on, and then the wolf was bounding up, leaving the two girls behind.
Channeling chakra to her feet, Sakura kicked off and vaulted over a rock; she landed wrong, rolling and bruising her shoulder, but it didn't matter. She'd passed the most dangerous point of the landslide. There it was -- lower bushes, flatter ground, the sea wind.
"There!" Sakura pointed out; there were deep-rooted rocky formations straight ahead, a more solid shelter than bushes and unsteady earth.
Behind them the earth trembled and dust rose to block out the sun as the avalanche of earth hit the canyon and crumbled it closed.
She couldn't see her teammates. Bile in her throat, Sakura turned around to keep an eye on the enemy trio.
They were from Grass, she noticed without really caring, and they weren't paying much attention to her at the moment. The forehead protector was probably the only thing that had saved green-hair's eye from being clawed out; his artfully pretty-boy hair had been burned off on one side and a small cut on his brow bled profusely.
It was nothing compared to the exposed ribs and pierced abdomen muscles on the rest of him. Kyuubi hadn't missed his organs by much, and if he got an infection it would be irrelevant.
Sakura sent a ripple of soothing chakra through her belly, seeking the fetus, assuring herself that it was still living. It was, but that was all she could tell. She didn't know if it had been injured. Her control wasn't fine enough to tell; she would have to wait for Tsunade to check. In the meantime there were other things that needed to be done.
She took a step forward. There was a snik-sound and then she had a long blade at her throat. The wolf snarled low in his throat at her. The white of his eyes was still showing. Sakura stilled. The animal's nerve might break first, and then no amount of logic and calm would help.
"Back off."
Sakura ground her teeth. "Listen, I'm trained as a medic--"
But on the ground where he'd laid down green-hair, the big guy was taking his glove off with steady professionalism. He had blood on his clothes, from his friend's wounds and from sharp cuts made from Sasuke's kunai no doubt -- but underneath the skin was whole. And then she understood that she and Sasuke had guessed wrong. Despite the bulk and the big quarterstaff he favored, he wasn't their heavy-hitter -- he was their medic-nin.
"We don't need your help, Leaf," the black-haired girl said, and her lips twisted in a cultured sneer that meant she was thinking worse.
Sakura's fists clenched, wishing nothing more than to punch her in the jaw, but the sword was still under her neck; and if the girl was fast enough to hold her own against Sasuke, even for a short time, then she was too fast for her.
Sasuke. Sakura needed to conserve her chakra for when she had to heal him, anyway. But. But.
Sakura stepped back out of reach and swung her fist at a close-by rock, so frustrated she could have screamed. What was she supposed to do? Go back, to watch the fight so she could intervene? Or -- no, make sure they got the hell out of the area first, and learn how to fix it.
"What the hell did you do to Naruto?"
The big guy didn't look up, hands gloved in green chakra, but he tilted his head a little. "I didn't do that. Berserk fits -- not a trick I know."
"I know you didn't. What were you trying for? How do I fix it? You just -- touched him..." She narrowed her eyes. Just a touch, and Naruto had fallen. "... Medical jutsu, huh."
"Stop distracting him," katana-girl hissed.
"It's alright, Zenko." He paused, hands resting over his friend's ribs, feeling for breaks. "Yes. It goes directly for the nervous system -- used for surgery, where drugs would be metabolized too fast, temporarily closes the connection between mind and body so pain wouldn't wake them."
Oh hell. Just the thing -- the precise thing to get Kyuubi free from Naruto's control. Suppress Naruto's awareness in such a way that even his subconscious couldn't get in the way. And then -- no, she was still missing something... Otherwise it might have happened before, Kyuubi struggling for control when Naruto got knocked out.
"I'd have to touch your teammate to fix it."
Sakura shook her head grimly. That... would take some doing. "How long does it take to wear off?"
"Eight hours. Ten."
Sakura clenched her fists, and twitched in surprise when her claws pierced her skin. "... That's not happening."
"What is wrong with him anyway?"
Sakura hesitated. "... Experiment." Not too far from the truth. "Teach me how to wake him."
The big guy shook his head with what seemed to be honest regret. "It's a secret Grass Country exclusive."
"Your teammate, your mess," the girl -- Zenko -- added with another cold glare.
Sakura exploded. "Teach me how to wake him because if I don't he's going to track you down and he's going to kill you all -- there, is that good enough for you?!"
Sasuke was fighting. Kyuubi was -- not safe, but manageable, when Naruto was awake to rein him in if he got too far. But Naruto wasn't. Kyuubi was completely free to act for the first time in eighteen years. And she was hiding in the background again because she was still too weak even now, and they were refusing her the way to fix things.
"...Why would he?" Zenko asked, frowning as if she was starting to believe Sakura a little despite herself.
"Because he's a predator," Sakura said quietly, desperate to convince them. "He's a sadistic predator who stalks and kills for fun. Rabbits aren't going to challenge him, and you three are the closest."
The girl straightened her back and snapped, "Maneki. Get Kon. We're moving out."
Sakura's mouth opened to protest.
"Can't stop healing now, Zenko. I'll lose him." The green light intensified under Maneki's big hands, knitting muscle back together. There was still a large slice across green-hair's belly, organs visible underneath.
Sakura sneaked around Zenko and knelt on the other side of green-hair's body. "I'll help. Tell me how to wake up Naruto. I think -- he'll let me get close to him." Perhaps. If she played it right. If Kyuubi was in the right mood -- if he didn't want to punish her for clawing him up. If he underestimated her again.
She placed her hands over Maneki's; after a second of hesitation, he nodded imperceptibly. She concentrated her chakra and gave it to him.
For a moment it was difficult to purify her chakra so that it shone clear green and was suitable for medical jutsu. The raw demon chakra was still tainting her body, and it didn't want to twist that way. She spared a thought to wonder why she wasn't still being flooded by more... Perhaps the distance. It might happen again when she got back to wake Naruto.
Behind her Zenko fumed, but she turned away on her heel to keep watch. The dust had settled.
"Are they still fighting?" she asked; she couldn't turn to look.
"Can't see them."
Sakura swallowed nervously. Surely Sasuke wouldn't be under the landslide -- no, he had learned a couple of basic Doton techniques from Kakashi-sensei. He'd be okay.
The old three-tailed fox crawled closer and gave a long, grave look at his unconscious summoner. His front paws were almost shaped like hands, Sakura saw. One of them was broken -- crushed.
Then he looked up at Sakura and it clicked in her mind. Fox summon. Naruto unconscious, unable to wake up, and someone calling up foxes.
"We did not know," the fox said soberly. "We would not have been so foolish."
She shook her head, still amazed, her hands on Maneki's to offer more chakra. "But this isn't how summoning works. You call up a specific individual, not just ... call."
The green-haired boy muttered something that sounded like "Goddamn Leaf." He cracked an eye open and glared fuzzily. "Ossan... shut up."
"Trade secret, huh?" Sakura retorted, rolling her eyes at him. An area summoning, instead of targeting an individual? She's never heard the thing might be possible. Just their luck it turned out to be.
She took her hands off Maneki's as he finished up. He started closing another, more shallow slice, one that still dug into the muscle but didn't bare Kon's organs to view; Sakura sat back and frowned down at him.
"Piece of advice for you -- don't summon again. He'll find you."
Maneki glanced at her and blinked. "... Your -- experiment. He's some kind of fox?"
Sakura shrugged. It wasn't like the village heads didn't know who was the demon bearer for Kyuubi; it didn't matter much if she let that info slip. She didn't want that idiot to light up another 'come and get me' signal flare. What if it still worked when he was asleep? -- Oh. What if that was why Naruto had started sleepwalking again?
Not the right moment to ponder that question. "So. You told me you'd explain how to stop him."
Zenko glowered for a second before turning pointedly away. Maneki nodded slowly as he gathered his thoughts, still working on his teammate's cut. "How are you with the nervous system?"
"... I'm... not." Sakura looked away, embarrassed; but Sasuke and Naruto needed her, so she lifted her chin and stared him down. "Haven't started on it yet. But if you show me, I'll get it." Sakura looked down at the old fox.
"I'm not about to let him knock me out, though. Do you mind if he demonstrates with you?"
The three-tailed fox nodded his grey-tinged head. "If it keeps the great one from his revenge, I will accept. Maneki-kun?"
Maneki finished reattaching the muscles and sighed. "Fine. I'll show you how to stop him."
"Mmh. Do show her," Kyuubi purred from his perch, on the opposite direction from the ex-valley.
Next.
Fresh off the presses therefore probably riddled with mistakes, OOC-ness, heavy-handedness and lots of repetitions. If anything bothers you tell me and i'll fix it, it's just the first draft.
Previous scene
"If that can make the Council feel better," she'd said back then, when they told her the condition to participate in the tournament. "I don't mind. To be frank, I like it better that way."
And she'd smiled at Tsunade-sama, and allowed them to place another flow-restrictive seal on the chakra pipeline between her and Naruto. Because even though she'd only been Tsunade's apprentice for a couple of weeks, already she felt stronger and more confident; and she didn't want the crutch of Naruto's chakra to be too easy to lean on. There were too many strings attached.
Chakra to feed the child, that was all she really asked for, and chakra to keep herself alive in case everything else failed, though it might burn her to death before it could do any good.
It burned now, molten metal in her belly, breaking past the damming seal, forcing its way through her coil system. She fell to her knees with a little gasp. Her first instinct was to resist the flow, but it would just end up bursting through anyway. Convert -- she needed to grab hold of it and convert it into something she could use -- but there was so much of it.
Sitting duck, she realized through the shock. Move, move, move! She knew it had been too long; their enemies wouldn't have the decency to wait until she got a handle on the demon chakra flood. But holding it back was taking so much of her concentration. She allowed some chakra to slip through, pour up her spine and down her arms, through her skin, making her fingernails ache and her muscles clench, and she climbed back up on her feet and forced her eyes open.
The world was painfully bright at first, a hundred snapshots too vivid for her brain. Colors felt -- off. Not the right spectrum.
But not off enough to mix up red and blue.
Naruto's eyes weren't blue.
He was sitting where he'd fallen, only two steps away from Sakura. The enemy nin, the tall, broad one who'd touched him and made him fall like a puppet with a dead puppeteer, stared at him in disbelief. The other enemy, with the pale green hair, was swaying on his feet, dark skin turned grayish and eyes unfocused, all the hallmarks of severe chakra drain.
Not-Naruto smiled then, or smirked, or bared fangs maybe. "...Heh."
Red-gold chakra boiled over, covered his bare chest and poured down over his pants and onto the ground, blackening it. Sakura's belly pulsed painfully and the world seemed to dance under her, like trying to stand on a moving swing. She didn't know how she kept her footing; sheer stubbornness maybe.
"Naruto!" she called, frantic, praying he would hear and put a stop to it.
He glanced at her over his shoulder, and threw his head back, and laughed. It wasn't even a cruel laugh, but deeply amused, like life was just that hilarious. It chilled her to the bone. It wasn't Naruto laughter at all.
"What the fuck--" the green-haired nin growled, and fished a couple of kunai out of his pouch with a hand that shook with exhaustion.
Naruto's head tilted slowly as he considered the two strangers. Sakura opened her mouth, closed it, swallowed. They were enemies -- but it wasn't war. It was serious -- it was important -- but in the end it was just a test, just a way to see how every country measured up.
There would be no measuring up if she didn't do something. There would just be a very one-sided slaughter. "No!" she snapped, trying to get their attention. The tall one threw her a wary look, listening, but the green-haired one was too angry to bother. "No! Just run away --"
Naruto laughed softly, with a rough, pleased voice that made her feel queasy. "Oh yes. Run."
And then everything just kind of happened together -- green-hair throwing the kunai and Sakura throwing herself at Naruto and Naruto throwing his hand out, and -- chakra, enough to liquefy metal in mid-flight, a paw of fire that stretched faster than her eye could see.
Blood sizzled, splashed the rocks; the big guy yelled, "Kon!", as his teammate was swatted away like a mosquito, body clawed open in four separate lines. Sakura fell to her knees. Something was trying to burn its way out of her belly.
"You'll kill the child!" she screamed, hands clenched on her stomach.
A tan-and-black blur raced to his fallen comrade and carried him away as Naruto turned to look at her. Sakura's body still burned all over, a deep ache spreading through her chakra system. Convert, convert, she repeated to herself -- there should have been a seal to do that for her, but Kyuubi bursting through -- she knew it wasn't there anymore.
What other safeties had been torn away? Oh god -- the baby, the baby -- possessed, monstrous -- dying, burned alive inside her where it should have been safe --
"If it's so weak," he started with disdain, and she didn't think past the sudden rage. Naruto's head snapped to the side, cheek sliced open by her claws.
Panting, hand smarting where his chakra had sparked at her skin, she glared at the creature. Not Naruto, never Naruto -- they didn't even look alike, the demon's eyes a malevolent, narrowed red.
He lifted a hand to his already-healing cheek, and wiped the blood with his fingers, and licked them, his red eyes fixed onto her, and she was going to die.
"Down!"
Sakura hit the ground. A blue and black shape flew over her head, crackling with lightning. Impact. Explosion. She rolled away, skidding down the slope. Crap, no, the canyon wasn't safe, she couldn't let herself fall. She dug her fingers into the earth and screamed again as her own weight tried to tear long, curved nails out. She kept moving -- got her footing, scrambled up. Sasuke and Kyuubi were rushing at each other, crashing and then coming apart again.
The katana-wielding woman who had been sparring with Sasuke was crouching on a boulder, her long, black tail of hair singed at the end, watching the fight in utter confusion.
"Run already!" Sakura snarled at her as she reached the boulder.
"What?"
"He'll tear out your guts and dance in them if Sasuke can't hold him back!"
As her teammates rolled downhill, Sakura chanced a glance their way. Red-gold chakra still danced, burning Sasuke's skin whenever he darted close enough to strike -- burning inside her belly like an echo. Her fingers still ached, though the claws had stopped growing. She swallowed the bitter desire to go and help. She would only be a hindrance. Even Sasuke was barely fast enough to stay ahead of Kyuubi's harshest attacks. If she went, she would get in their way and die. Or get Sasuke killed -- even worse.
The whole valley shook, a cloud of dust racing her up the slope, overtaking her in a second. She couldn't hear the crackle of the Chidori over the roar of earth and rocks tumbling down the cliffs, and she coughed in the dust.
In a minute there wouldn't be a cliff left anymore -- no canyon, no slope, no bowl-shaped valley.
"What the fuck is going on?" the enemy girl snarled as she burst out of the dust on Sakura's flank. The giant wolf followed, ears flat on his neck, the old, graying three-tailed fox held in his mouth like a cub.
The smaller foxes were like a wave of fur through the rocks, a torrent running upstream, nothing in their eyes but blind animal panic; Sakura almost tripped on one of them. She didn't answer the katana girl.
The ground was pulled out from under her feet like a carpet even as she ran, and she could see the trees lining up the edges of the basin slowly topple inwards. Rocks started rolling down, loose soil flowing and piling up in strange spurts, tripping her up. She didn't have time to trip!
"Run, run, run!"
Katana-girl and her wolf darted ahead of her. Through the smoke she could see a hulking shape, the tallest ninja struggling to carry his teammate.
"Ride!" the girl snapped, sending the wolf at them, but when the big guy tried to jump the earth slid out from under his feet and he landed on his knees. A green-haired head lolled boneless.
Sakura could already see Naruto's face when he woke up and found out he had gutted a guy, killed him. She veered to meet them, snatched a hold on the big guy's arm and heaved to get him back up. The katana girl's hand flew to her weapon, but she held herself back at the last moment and helped him clamber on, and then the wolf was bounding up, leaving the two girls behind.
Channeling chakra to her feet, Sakura kicked off and vaulted over a rock; she landed wrong, rolling and bruising her shoulder, but it didn't matter. She'd passed the most dangerous point of the landslide. There it was -- lower bushes, flatter ground, the sea wind.
"There!" Sakura pointed out; there were deep-rooted rocky formations straight ahead, a more solid shelter than bushes and unsteady earth.
Behind them the earth trembled and dust rose to block out the sun as the avalanche of earth hit the canyon and crumbled it closed.
She couldn't see her teammates. Bile in her throat, Sakura turned around to keep an eye on the enemy trio.
They were from Grass, she noticed without really caring, and they weren't paying much attention to her at the moment. The forehead protector was probably the only thing that had saved green-hair's eye from being clawed out; his artfully pretty-boy hair had been burned off on one side and a small cut on his brow bled profusely.
It was nothing compared to the exposed ribs and pierced abdomen muscles on the rest of him. Kyuubi hadn't missed his organs by much, and if he got an infection it would be irrelevant.
Sakura sent a ripple of soothing chakra through her belly, seeking the fetus, assuring herself that it was still living. It was, but that was all she could tell. She didn't know if it had been injured. Her control wasn't fine enough to tell; she would have to wait for Tsunade to check. In the meantime there were other things that needed to be done.
She took a step forward. There was a snik-sound and then she had a long blade at her throat. The wolf snarled low in his throat at her. The white of his eyes was still showing. Sakura stilled. The animal's nerve might break first, and then no amount of logic and calm would help.
"Back off."
Sakura ground her teeth. "Listen, I'm trained as a medic--"
But on the ground where he'd laid down green-hair, the big guy was taking his glove off with steady professionalism. He had blood on his clothes, from his friend's wounds and from sharp cuts made from Sasuke's kunai no doubt -- but underneath the skin was whole. And then she understood that she and Sasuke had guessed wrong. Despite the bulk and the big quarterstaff he favored, he wasn't their heavy-hitter -- he was their medic-nin.
"We don't need your help, Leaf," the black-haired girl said, and her lips twisted in a cultured sneer that meant she was thinking worse.
Sakura's fists clenched, wishing nothing more than to punch her in the jaw, but the sword was still under her neck; and if the girl was fast enough to hold her own against Sasuke, even for a short time, then she was too fast for her.
Sasuke. Sakura needed to conserve her chakra for when she had to heal him, anyway. But. But.
Sakura stepped back out of reach and swung her fist at a close-by rock, so frustrated she could have screamed. What was she supposed to do? Go back, to watch the fight so she could intervene? Or -- no, make sure they got the hell out of the area first, and learn how to fix it.
"What the hell did you do to Naruto?"
The big guy didn't look up, hands gloved in green chakra, but he tilted his head a little. "I didn't do that. Berserk fits -- not a trick I know."
"I know you didn't. What were you trying for? How do I fix it? You just -- touched him..." She narrowed her eyes. Just a touch, and Naruto had fallen. "... Medical jutsu, huh."
"Stop distracting him," katana-girl hissed.
"It's alright, Zenko." He paused, hands resting over his friend's ribs, feeling for breaks. "Yes. It goes directly for the nervous system -- used for surgery, where drugs would be metabolized too fast, temporarily closes the connection between mind and body so pain wouldn't wake them."
Oh hell. Just the thing -- the precise thing to get Kyuubi free from Naruto's control. Suppress Naruto's awareness in such a way that even his subconscious couldn't get in the way. And then -- no, she was still missing something... Otherwise it might have happened before, Kyuubi struggling for control when Naruto got knocked out.
"I'd have to touch your teammate to fix it."
Sakura shook her head grimly. That... would take some doing. "How long does it take to wear off?"
"Eight hours. Ten."
Sakura clenched her fists, and twitched in surprise when her claws pierced her skin. "... That's not happening."
"What is wrong with him anyway?"
Sakura hesitated. "... Experiment." Not too far from the truth. "Teach me how to wake him."
The big guy shook his head with what seemed to be honest regret. "It's a secret Grass Country exclusive."
"Your teammate, your mess," the girl -- Zenko -- added with another cold glare.
Sakura exploded. "Teach me how to wake him because if I don't he's going to track you down and he's going to kill you all -- there, is that good enough for you?!"
Sasuke was fighting. Kyuubi was -- not safe, but manageable, when Naruto was awake to rein him in if he got too far. But Naruto wasn't. Kyuubi was completely free to act for the first time in eighteen years. And she was hiding in the background again because she was still too weak even now, and they were refusing her the way to fix things.
"...Why would he?" Zenko asked, frowning as if she was starting to believe Sakura a little despite herself.
"Because he's a predator," Sakura said quietly, desperate to convince them. "He's a sadistic predator who stalks and kills for fun. Rabbits aren't going to challenge him, and you three are the closest."
The girl straightened her back and snapped, "Maneki. Get Kon. We're moving out."
Sakura's mouth opened to protest.
"Can't stop healing now, Zenko. I'll lose him." The green light intensified under Maneki's big hands, knitting muscle back together. There was still a large slice across green-hair's belly, organs visible underneath.
Sakura sneaked around Zenko and knelt on the other side of green-hair's body. "I'll help. Tell me how to wake up Naruto. I think -- he'll let me get close to him." Perhaps. If she played it right. If Kyuubi was in the right mood -- if he didn't want to punish her for clawing him up. If he underestimated her again.
She placed her hands over Maneki's; after a second of hesitation, he nodded imperceptibly. She concentrated her chakra and gave it to him.
For a moment it was difficult to purify her chakra so that it shone clear green and was suitable for medical jutsu. The raw demon chakra was still tainting her body, and it didn't want to twist that way. She spared a thought to wonder why she wasn't still being flooded by more... Perhaps the distance. It might happen again when she got back to wake Naruto.
Behind her Zenko fumed, but she turned away on her heel to keep watch. The dust had settled.
"Are they still fighting?" she asked; she couldn't turn to look.
"Can't see them."
Sakura swallowed nervously. Surely Sasuke wouldn't be under the landslide -- no, he had learned a couple of basic Doton techniques from Kakashi-sensei. He'd be okay.
The old three-tailed fox crawled closer and gave a long, grave look at his unconscious summoner. His front paws were almost shaped like hands, Sakura saw. One of them was broken -- crushed.
Then he looked up at Sakura and it clicked in her mind. Fox summon. Naruto unconscious, unable to wake up, and someone calling up foxes.
"We did not know," the fox said soberly. "We would not have been so foolish."
She shook her head, still amazed, her hands on Maneki's to offer more chakra. "But this isn't how summoning works. You call up a specific individual, not just ... call."
The green-haired boy muttered something that sounded like "Goddamn Leaf." He cracked an eye open and glared fuzzily. "Ossan... shut up."
"Trade secret, huh?" Sakura retorted, rolling her eyes at him. An area summoning, instead of targeting an individual? She's never heard the thing might be possible. Just their luck it turned out to be.
She took her hands off Maneki's as he finished up. He started closing another, more shallow slice, one that still dug into the muscle but didn't bare Kon's organs to view; Sakura sat back and frowned down at him.
"Piece of advice for you -- don't summon again. He'll find you."
Maneki glanced at her and blinked. "... Your -- experiment. He's some kind of fox?"
Sakura shrugged. It wasn't like the village heads didn't know who was the demon bearer for Kyuubi; it didn't matter much if she let that info slip. She didn't want that idiot to light up another 'come and get me' signal flare. What if it still worked when he was asleep? -- Oh. What if that was why Naruto had started sleepwalking again?
Not the right moment to ponder that question. "So. You told me you'd explain how to stop him."
Zenko glowered for a second before turning pointedly away. Maneki nodded slowly as he gathered his thoughts, still working on his teammate's cut. "How are you with the nervous system?"
"... I'm... not." Sakura looked away, embarrassed; but Sasuke and Naruto needed her, so she lifted her chin and stared him down. "Haven't started on it yet. But if you show me, I'll get it." Sakura looked down at the old fox.
"I'm not about to let him knock me out, though. Do you mind if he demonstrates with you?"
The three-tailed fox nodded his grey-tinged head. "If it keeps the great one from his revenge, I will accept. Maneki-kun?"
Maneki finished reattaching the muscles and sighed. "Fine. I'll show you how to stop him."
"Mmh. Do show her," Kyuubi purred from his perch, on the opposite direction from the ex-valley.
Next.
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