Teamwork 3 - chapter 6 - part 2

[askerian]

Unbetaed, barely read over again, if you find mistakes plz tell me i'll fix it *lovelove* if the action is unclear also tell me, and also it felt VERY slow in a couple of places for me but i can't be sure because it might just be that i spent too long torturing myself on it. If it does feel slow for you as well please tell me.

I wanted to write more, but alas I must crash. *takes three bazilion notes*

Part 1


Maneki finished reattaching the muscles and sighed. "Fine. I'll show you how to stop him."

"Mmh. Do show her," Kyuubi purred from his comfortable sprawl on a tall rock, on the opposite direction from the ex-valley.

Zenko's hands flew to her pouches before Sakura could even fully realize what Kyuubi being here -- lounging, not fighting -- meant. A handful of kunai flew at him. He didn't bother to deflect them; he inclined his head out of the way, and allowed another two blades to slice through the meat of his shoulder and upper arm.

Then the wounds sizzled closed.

"You aim like shit," he said with dark amusement.

Sakura threw herself at Zenko and tackled her out of the way as a whip of red chakra slashed the air.

Kyuubi growled softly, raked his claws over the rock he lounged on, leaving gouges, and gave Sakura a displeased look. "Bitch, stop getting in the way."

Sakura's belly pulsed painfully and she clenched a hand over the seal inked on her skin. It felt red-hot through the cloth.

"Get off me!" Zenko kicked her off and leaped back to her feet. "I'll just get his heart--"

"I do not think it will work," the old fox said with quiet desperation.

"He's right, it really won't," Sakura said hurriedly. She didn't have a clue, actually -- but he healed so fast, he'd probably fix himself the second the blade came out. Probably. She wasn't going to bet on it. She didn't want Naruto to die.

She didn't want Naruto to die. She'd rather allow Kyuubi to rampage than kill Naruto. Even though he might never forgive her.

Sakura shook her head and clenched her fists, nicking herself with the claws. It didn't matter; the slices were shallow and she was better with fists than with open hands. She couldn't just give up yet; there had to be ways to stop him, even though she couldn't think of one right now with the pressure of his chakra and murderous intent all around --

Escape, she remembered Kakashi saying. Escape, regroup. Then plan.

But she couldn't. Because -- "Where is Sasuke?"

Kyuubi gave an uncaring shrug, not even gracing her with a glance.

Sakura stiffened in rage. "What the hell have you done to Sasuke?!"

Kyuubi growled at her, upper lip curling to bare a thick fang. "Stop screeching. You don't need a tongue to be useful to me."

The threat made her pause. Not very long. "... Where is Sasuke," she repeated, as steady as she could. He couldn't be dead, he just couldn't. There was no way he would have been killed. Especially not in such a short time.

She didn't give a damn about any sleep jutsu, Naruto would have woken up. There was just no way.

Kyuubi's eyes slid away from her like she wasn't worth his attention, taking in the katana in the other girl's hand, the wounded man on the ground, the medic-nin in his combat stance over the wounded boy, the summons. The old fox was so flat on the ground he looked like a moth-eaten carpet.

Kyuubi sniffed the air, Naruto's nose and Naruto's face but the body language was so wrong. "... You're the one with the cat." he said, looking straight at Maneki. "Hm. Might as well start with you."

She saw Maneki twitch back as if to dodge, and then glance down at his wounded friend, and she realized he was going to stand his ground. Because if he ran and Kyuubi switched targets then there would be no one in range to stop him.

She started to move -- couldn't take a second step. Maneki had thrown a handful of kunai to slow Kyuubi down, and Kyuubi had vaporized them in mid-air without breaking stride and she couldn't even scream. Her knees hit the ground and she curled up around her belly.

Chakra overload again, damn it, no -- her muscles started to ache as she redirected chakra as far away from her womb as possible. She had no chakra-heavy techniques to her name, with how little she could usually spare, apart from her healing -- but the demon chakra just refused to be used that way. How to spend it, get it out, get it away -- what jutsu did she know?

She lifted her head, squinted; the world had gone weird too-sharp colors again. Red-orange fire danced on the hard-packed earth, blackened tall rocks. Zenko stifled an incensed cry as her katana went red-hot, burning her hand. The Grass kunoichi had gotten him -- Kyuubi -- Sakura could see, sword going straight through his side, and he hissed in annoyance between his too-sharp teeth. Maneki had a knee on the ground and his sliced shoulder bled in fat red drops onto his injured teammate, who was just awake enough to glare furiously and push himself away inch by inch with elbows and heels.

Sakura gritted her teeth and started shaping seals, fighting the red chakra inside her every step of the way.

She could smell cooked meat from there, but Zenko didn't let go of the sword -- just pulled it free and went into a two-handed grip and sliced again, low to the ground, aiming for the back of Kyuubi's ankles.

He jumped over, predictably.

Maneki surged forward like an avalanche and planted two green-glowing hands on the middle of his chest. Sakura almost lost her hand seal in shock as she watched Kyuubi fly back and crash into the ground.

For a second she thought Maneki had dealt actual damage; Kyuubi jumped back into a crouch, but his upper lip was curled up in an angry snarl and he had a hand pressed to his chest.

Then he uncoiled like a spring, flying at the two Grass nins so fast Sakura's eye couldn't follow.

She could calculate where he would be, though. And she knew exactly how fast her jutsu traveled.

Water coalesced and shot forward, pulled out of the air itself. It was a basic Suiton jutsu, nothing complicated, just a spurt of water. She fed it all the chakra she could, and it came out like a water cannon instead.

A cloud of steam bloomed when it met Kyuubi's aura, blocking out the battlefield; she couldn't tell what had happened. Water ran downhill back to where she was kneeling, and it was warm to the touch, soaking her dress and shoes. Sakura climbed back to her feet slowly, rebalancing her energies. She'd overloaded the jutsu, and some of the energy had come back to her instead of going neatly into the spell, but it was manageable now.

"Nice," someone said, two steps away from her, and she gave a full-body twitch and jerked around.

"Sasuke!"

He was bleeding, of course, she'd expected as much, but not that badly -- scratches and slices, not the deep red gushing she had feared. Hair in disarray, dust caked over his wounds -- standing on his own two feet, and not appearing to favor anything. She'd imagined so much worse.

"What hap--"

A bellowing roar cut her off and she looked up at the battleground again. Kyuubi stood where the Grass team had been, but of the trio there was not a trace. Kyuubi paced angrily, fingers curling, raking his claws through imaginary flesh. Water ran downhill in little rivulets on the hard earth, making just enough mud to speckle up his pant legs. He was soaked, blond bangs sticking to his face, water running down bare shoulders, washing down the blood he had shed when Zenko ran him through. The wound was long since closed, of course.

"Doton," Sasuke said quietly to her as he moved to stand by her side.

Sakura glanced down. Underground, all three of them? It made the Grass team a little safer, but not too much. They wouldn't be able to tunnel very far, and if they went too fast Kyuubi would hear them. He definitely had enough chakra to take out a chunk of the hillside.

She'd had all the landslides she could handle today. "We should move up," she said back, just as softly. Sasuke nodded and started moving, giving Kyuubi a wide berth.

Kyuubi kept pacing, staring down at the ground, tilting his head like a dog listening to faraway howls. At least his chakra was calmer; no longer a complete aura, just a handful of gold tendrils curling and rising from his shoulders.

"... What happened to you?" she whispered to Sasuke, her eyes still on the blond creature that wasn't her teammate. "You didn't come back for so long -- did he knock you out?"

Sasuke grumbled something under his breath and pulled a leaf out of his hair.

"... No," he eventually muttered. "Listen, it doesn't matter, we need to figure out what to do. What do we know?"

She shook her head. She was even more curious now, but it could wait. He was there, it was good enough. "Naruto is being suppressed via sleep jutsu. It'll take at least eight hours to wear off. And I think..." She hesitated. "Green-haired guy is a fox summoner."

Sasuke made a little hissing sound as he took that in. "Huh. Tried aiming at the scroll?"

Sakura blinked; she hadn't thought of that, she'd just looked for a solution on the medic side of things. "Didn't see it. I don't think Kyuubi would go back anyway. Kon summons weird -- attracts local beasts instead of teleporting them to him."

Kyuubi stuck his claws in a waist-high boulder and heaved it out of its hole, sending it rolling away. He peered down at the ground beneath it, scowling. He looked two seconds away from puffing up his cheeks like Naruto did when he felt grumpy, and for a second she couldn't remember why he had terrified her so much.

"Huh." Sasuke frowned, staring at the fox.

A muscle in his jaw kept jumping. Sakura tilted her head, inquiring. "What is it?"

"...Nothing."

It wasn't, of course, but he wasn't going to tell her. Frustration about the situation most likely. "We need to do something," she said as she watched Kyuubi slash at the ground with chakra claws, a hand clenched on her belly. The surge was minimal, easily dispersed.

"Sakura?"

"Backlash," she said tersely, because she didn't want to show how much the situation worried her. "The damming seal is gone."

"Shit."

"Mmh."

Kyuubi clawed at the ground again, slashing earth away in deep gouges here and there -- and then his seemingly random pattern started focusing on a specific area. His shoulders straightened slightly, the cant of his head changed. Sakura couldn't see his face and wasn't used to his body language, but she could tell that his predatory interest -- catlike playfulness -- was coming back.

"He's found them," she said, and bit her lip.

Sasuke didn't say anything for a second, and then answered with a brusqueness that startled her. "We should consider letting him have them."

The muscles in Sakura's shoulders tightened and she forbade herself to look his way. From his tone, Sasuke didn't like his own suggestion either.

"They're enemies after all," she said tonelessly.

"Yeah."

"...Pretend I'm not pregnant."

Sasuke took his eyes off Kyuubi and stared at her, sharingan eyes spinning. "--What?"

"No, pretend I'm Naruto. Now what should we do?"

Sasuke closed his eyes briefly.

"... Fight." He let out a short, irritated breath. "Problem is, in the end it won't do a thing. He wants to kill them first. He'll swat us down, go after them, and then come back and beat on us more."

Which, she understood, was what Kyuubi had done to Sasuke. "But he won't kill us," she replied with more certainty than she felt. Kyuubi was now digging in a specific area, his face turned her way just enough to let her see the fanged smirk. "... He won't beat me up," she said. Not body blows at least -- skin and muscles, yes, but she should be safe from internal trauma. "But be it now or later, he'll beat on you until you can't move and then we'll be sitting ducks."

Sasuke twitched his head, sending dark locks flying away from his face. "I don't care."

Sakura took a deep breath, braced herself, and buried every single misgiving she had so nothing showed in her voice but determination.

"When they pop up, grab them and run. I'll distract him until he loses your tracks. When the jutsu breaks... I guess you'll know."

"... Sakura, are you joking," Sasuke asked flatly.

"Sasuke-kun. He's going to kill them. Probably by dismemberment." Sasuke opened his mouth but she just kept talking over him. "And then Naruto will wake up, and what will you tell him? 'Sorry, it was easier on us to let you pull them apart alive'?"

"Sakura," Sasuke protested in a quiet voice, his hand closing around her wrist.

Sakura allowed herself to lean on Sasuke's shoulder for a second, and gave him a fleeting smile. "He won't hurt me," she said. "He hasn't yet. He's been all talk with me. I'll be fine. Maybe a bit bruised, but fine. You need to get ready to go."

She started walking forward.

Sasuke's hand tightened briefly, as if he was thinking of holding her back, and then released her and fell away. He followed without another word, moving away so they would each have more space to maneuver. His jaw was set in a grim, displeased way.

He didn't have to like it, Sakura told herself. She didn't have the chakra to heal him from a bloody pulp back into a human being, much less the know-how. Therefore he needed to stay away until Naruto woke up. And she needed to do her best to make sure Kyuubi wasn't going to rampage all over the island.

Kyuubi glanced at her when she was a dozen feet away, but by then she was already cocking her fist and swinging it down to the hard packed ground.



next.