Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Chain Effect ❯ Chapter 2 ( Chapter 2 )

a/n - skakujou: the Rain village mentioned in this fic isn't the one in the series. We kind of found that out a little too late. Some OOCness here, since I'm such an incompetent writer. Plus thanks to darkworld for helping on the final fight scene between Amaya and Sasuke. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.

--

The ominous sound of what seemed to be thunder roared above as rain poured down from the sky, drenching the thick forests separating the Hidden Mist and the Rain. Two unlucky shinobi got to face the cold and wet head on, and they weren't too keen on being near so many trees where lightning could strike them.

Hatake Kakashi knelt over Sakura, who had recently awakened, and was examining how much damage was inflicted on her. He had carried her to an area that would keep them safe from the rain and danger of being electrocuted into oblivion, and was now waiting out the sudden storm on top of the wrapped scrolls and under a canvas.

"Where does it hurt?" He asked, cautiously prodding the area in which the attack had been inflicted on. Although she had only been knocked out and slightly winded, Kakashi wasn't sure if she was bleeding anywhere internally.

"Oww…" She sniffled as his fingers found over a spot near her left side. He paused in his search for the major hit, and the Copy-Ninja sat back in relief, letting Sakura have a moment of painless rest.

"I see. There's nothing to worry about, at least for the time being." He gave her a grin that she could see clearly through the black mask.

"The worst that will happen is bruising, but you'll be okay in a few days as long as you don't try anything rash."

His smile grew as the pink haired girl blushed, recalling what had happened prior. Besides taking that monstrous dive from the trees, she usually was the one that didn't rush into things at first sight. Kakashi wouldn't have to worry about anything happening to her while she was recovering.

"I didn't mean to, Kakashi-sensei, but I saw the poison and panicked…" Sakura trailed off, obviously upset with herself being a hindrance once again.

The jounin sighed, patting her on the head.

"Don't worry about it Sakura; you were able to give Sasuke some time to regain his side of the fight." She bit her lip.

"But wait…Kakashi-sensei, the injury that Sasuke-kun gave that girl made her loose a lot of blood. What if she…" Sakura took a shaky breath before continuing, "…dies? And why did she start getting angry when he Sasuke-kun started burning the trees? It was as if she was more concerned over that than her life. And what if-"

Kakashi held up a hand, cutting her off in mid sentence. With one eye he observed how anxious and knotted up she looked and felt. Inwardly he sighed, suddenly feeling old just thinking about how she would have to face more situations like this in the future and wondering what would happen.

"If she continues pursuing him after completing her next attack on Sasuke, yes, she will die." Sakura blinked, confused.

"Attack?" At his nod, she closed her eyes, focusing her attention on the area around her. Her eyes snapped open in shock.

"That's probably all the chakra she has left!" Her observation was confirmed with another silent nod. Sakura was silent in return, mulling blankly over what she had just been told. Kakashi merely shuffled around in response, pulling out the wrapped scrolls from underneath them, careful not to disturb Sakura in her sitting position.

She blinked, suddenly noticing Kakashi as he began binding the scrolls to his back, quickly pulling the straps over his shoulders and across his torso. All that was left was the canvas covering their heads, and the ground beneath them began to soak. Mud began to seep into her clothes, and she wrinkled her nose, shivering as cold radiated into her body.

"What are you doing?" He finished buckling the metal fasteners, tightening the straps across his chest. He then carefully gathered her in his arms, one hand prepared to pack the canvas away. Examining the amount of rain coming down from under the cloth shield, he spoke up.

"That attack is going to be headed this way pretty soon and we had best be moving along." Immediately she protested.

"But what about-"

"Don't worry about them, Sakura. We'll be able to find them after this storm passes." However, the smile from before did not surface on his face, his features once again becoming undetected under the mask. There was no way to sugarcoat the fact that both of them were aware of.

Neither knew if they would even find them alive.

--

"Try and run, Sasuke."

Which way would he go…which way…

"But where will you end up?"

He sprang past trees, retreating.

"How far will you run?"

Her voice followed him, no matter which way he turned and escaped to. It was as if she had become his shadow: always watching, waiting, and hunting. The situation he was in was all too familiar…

You're afraid. It's happening all over again, you scared little boy…

Truth whispered in his ears, accusingly; mockingly.

Afraid of the dark, afraid of dying, you miserable excuse for an avenger-

`Shut up.' He growled, eyes beginning to change in wisps of red. It fell silent, but left the twisted feeling of irony clouding his thoughts.

Fog rose up, as if trying to block the way out, choosing the paths for him. His range of visibility was lowering, and the pattering of rain splashing down beginning to flood the earth was drowning out everything else helpful to hear.

Except the voice. Her voice.

"Or are you running from pain? Running from me?"

In frustration, Sasuke missed his intended target.

"Shit!"

He landed on a young branch, which almost immediately broke under his weight and forced him to move again. His heart was racing as he descended towards the clearing, tense as the mist enveloped him in its silvery depths.

The possibility of Sasuke's head getting sliced off at any moment wasn't there, but seeing so much visible chakra from a shinobi around his age was enough to set him off. Flickers of blue chakra crackled above, suspended as if it were a marionette by strings curling around as several spirals. The atmosphere around the blue lightning suddenly seemed warped, drawing in water as it spun itself, as if it where making spiritual thread. It had begun to curl into a head resembling a crude dragon.

Sasuke landed on the soaked soil, grunting as he fell ungracefully in mud. He shot up, looking for the way out. Ignoring the hisses spitting from above, he noted that the fog had only surrounded the trees, leaving the clearing open.

However, there was something wrong. Sasuke narrowed his eyes, heading off towards the right. His feet kicked up water and mush as he leapt towards the edge of the dense trees, testing his theory. But he might've well have been running on a treadmill, for the distance seemed to stretch out and dance away as soon as he was about to reach the end of the clearing.

He smirked. A simple Genjutsu trick taught in the Academy. It was defeated by focus, although how fast you countered it depended on how centered you were in the first place.

Being short on time, he decided to take a short cut.

"Sharingan!" His dark eyes suddenly shone blood-red, two black marks in each eye appearing around his pupils. He quickly dissected the jutsu into information, and forced it to release. In an instant he found himself still in the center. In reality, Sasuke hadn't moved an inch.

Feeling the Sharingan depleting the last of his chakra reserves, he quickly let his bloodline trait relax and fade away, only to set his eyes on his current opponent several feet away. Sasuke turned to face her, noticing her equally disheveled state.

"Is that all the Village of the Hidden Rain has to offer?" They stared at each other, the rain forgotten even as it soaked them to the bone. Sharp flashes of light danced around them, illuminating the mist rising up to meet the sky and highlighting their sodden figures.

Currently, the shinobi were both at a stand still. Although Amaya had the advantage of the current weather and battle ground she was still bleeding intensively. Sasuke was in possession of more chakra and was ready to take on any attack that she made, but couldn't figure out what she was doing by capturing water.

They took the same breaths, breathing silently in rhythm, waiting for the pattern to be broken, waiting for the moment to catch the other winded. Slowly, a smile crept onto one of their faces.

"The Uchiha bloodline: that's how I've heard of you, Sasuke-chan." He was silent. Inside, distant anger began to surface. Her gaze bored into him, not letting his eyes leave hers. She slowly brought her hands up to chest height, implying the beginnings of a series of hand seals. His eyes narrowed, watching her movements carefully out of the corner of his eye.

"Even knowing that, you still try to perform seals in front of me? I could easily copy your jutsu as well." It was her turn to be quiet. The smile was still on her face, shining brightly, but it uttered no words. He pressed on.

"You barely have any chakra left. There's only enough to keep you from dying left in your body, am I right?" Still, the smile was present. But trying to decipher what was going on in her head was like navigating through thick mud neck high.

It wasn't a mask.

"I see…you're confident that you have all four corners of this situation covered. Is it because you have the bloodline? Or is it because I'm almost dead?" His hands clenched into fists.

"What you've been saying to me has been screaming arrogance. I know this; I can counter that; you obviously can't defeat me." The smile slipped from her face, and she closed her eyes.

"But you can't even see me; only the layers of my existance." Sasuke gritted his teeth, realizing why he thought of metaphorical mud.

`The faces…they're not acts…?'

A hand reached into a pouch, and pulled out three scrolls along with kunai. The ink began to run, smearing together and discoloring the outer backing of the scroll.

"And that is why…"

Her eyes snapped open.

"…you can't truly defeat me."

--

"Damn it, damn it, damn it!" Naruto swore as he bounded from tree to tree as one, not in his Kage Bunshin forms any longer. Rain pattered down on his head, making his blond hair flop on top of his head like a wet mop. And he was also trying to dive into some deep thinking on the way, trying to solve two or three things at once.

"And what the hell did that thief mean by, `It means your friend is dead'?!" Lightning flashed above, followed shortly by thunder. A strong gale cut through the trees, throwing leaves and twigs in his direction. Obviously, with all these distractions and not knowing exactly where his destination was, the shinobi wasn't having the best of luck in his objectives.

And getting hit in the face with numerous objects wasn't helping.

He gritted his teeth, dodging the debris being hurled at him and judging to where he would head next.

`Sasuke's on his own, so I should help him out.' Naruto growled, irritated at the thought of having to help his rival for Sakura's affections. And speaking of Sakura…

He gasped, realizing something for the first time. Abruptly he skidded to a halt in a tree, halting his trek towards where the most commotion could be heard from. The blond redirected himself in another direction and headed off, quickly abandoning Sasuke for his other teammate.

`Sakura-chan's out there all aloneby herselfand in danger!I've got to find her!' Of course, he conveniently forgot that Kakashi had also come on their trip and wouldn't have let anything happen to her, and it spurred him on to rescue the girl.

But then he remembered something else. If Sasuke died, then she would hate him for trying to save her and leaving the Uchiha to perish on his own. Such selfishness would not be tolerated, and he would indefinitely be on her `To Forever Hate, Kill, and Mangle' list.

Growling he spun around, landing on another branch once more, and not noticing that it waved unsteadily in his frustration.

However, before he could get onto any sort of heroics, a loud rumbling sound erupted. It was unlike any other thunder that he had heard before, and it was amplified to a point that it felt like someone had blasted the noise directly into his ear.

Yelling in fright than in pain, he clutched his head in, sinking down on the branch. His head was ringing as if alarms had gone off, and the screech kept echoing noisily, pounding against his eardrums. It came louder each time. So caught up in the sound, he didn't notice the slight pause in the torrent of rain, simmering down to a light sprinkle.

`What the hell is going on?!' He growled in frustration, a major headache forming.

And then it stopped.

Just like that. Naruto slowly opened his eyes, which had been closed in confusion. Then he blinked.

`Now what?'

He stood up, letting his hands fall to his sides. The branch swayed, giving him a good look at the ground. Naruto gulped, instinctively inching towards the trunk. All around him it was silent; nothing moved, save for water droplets cascading from foliage.

Then there was a another rumble, but it was quiet, as if it were distant. He furrowed his eyebrows, trying to figure out where it was coming from. It was the same sound from before, when he had deserted Kisho on the roof. Suddenly it grew louder and tunneled towards him, crashing through trees at a high speed.

And in seconds, he found out what that sound was.

"SHIT!!!"

--

In rapid succession, the scrolls were each pinned to three trees on the edge of the clearing, quickly unfurling to reveal the writings inside. She stood her ground, ponytail flapping in the wind, hands raised to chest height. Her glaring eyes caught Sasuke in their grasp, and she methodically began twisting her fingers in signs of all sorts, reciting each with smooth speed.

Amaya seemingly had found new strength as she began to perform her jutsu, her wound having begun to heal.

"…rat, boar, snake, goat…"

The hair on the back of his neck tingled, and he shivered. The chakra from above was beginning to overpower his sense of security. His wet clothes stuck to him, beginning to freeze his skin and restrict his movement. Sasuke shifted his stance, never leaving Amaya's form undetected.

She raised an eyebrow, lips cracking into a small smile. He stiffened, halting in the process.

"…bird, dog, rat, boar…"

The girl closed her eyes, tuning out her surroundings and focusing merely on her attack.

Sasuke moved.

He leaped towards her, catching her in the gut with his fist. It should have been enough to wind her and give openings for assault. But she kept going, her hands blurring into seals, undeterred by his attack. Sasuke cursed, realizing how serious the situation was. There was nothing short of killing her to get the attack to stop, and even if he did, the water above would come crashing down on the forest, crushing him and anything in its way. He looked towards the edge of the clearing, clenching his fists.

And even if he tried to escape she would probably catch up to him before he made it halfway across. He turned back, also ditching any more ideas with the Sharingan. His eyes weren't developed enough to see through attacks almost instantly; he would've had to have seen it at least twice.

The waste of chakra would tire him out, leaving him less of a chance to get out of there or even live. He stood there, letting the pattering cold slide down his skin, raising chills up his spine. The drone of her voice hummed eerily, creeping its way into his nerves.

Suddenly he lashed out, slamming his foot into her side. Amaya's eyes snapped open as her wound was torn open, blood beginning to seep out once again. Sasuke followed through with another kick, forcing her back. She stumbled, tripping over the new pain. Her knees buckled and she fell, sliding to the muddy forest floor. He slowly lowered his foot, watching her every move. Her hands were still moving, but much slower than before.

"Damn it…" his hand reached for his holster, looping a finger around a shuriken.

And suddenly the rumbling above stopped, cutting off abruptly. Sasuke stopped, letting the weapon slip back with a clink. He straightened up, narrowed eyes surveying the scene.

The pounding rain had lessened to a drizzle, and the sky seemed a shade lighter almost.

Almost.

It was silent. He stood still, listening for any movement.

Nothing.

He tore his eyes from the clearing to face the other ninja, who was finishing her seals.

And as she twisted her hands around for the last one, he knew he wouldn't be able to escape.

"…snake." And she stopped.

He held his breath, watching her intently. Sluggishly, the other shinobi pulled her hands apart, as if half asleep. Suddenly she pitched forward, arms flinging out in time to catch her before she fainted in the mud. Blood oozed from the cut, mixing with the soil beneath. Feeling the cool sludge slide between her fingers and seep underneath her fingernails she frowned. Her face was shadowed, her headband coming loose from its place on her head.

"You know…" she began exhaustedly, "…if you had been a smart little boy and had left instead of trying to kill me off…" Her hands fisted in the dirt, causing it to squelch unpleasantly. He listened, suddenly getting a feeling of a foreboding warning. Her last words came out as a faltering hiss.

"…you…would have lived."

She fell silent. Sasuke stood there somewhat awkwardly, contemplating on what to do next. He started to turn away and leave the clearing, now that all obstacles were out of the way. However, the mist was relentless: it simply did not die, and it rose, becoming a steaming maze. Sasuke froze, rethinking his way out.

Suddenly a loud rumble pierced his thoughts, crackling loudly. He looked up, jaw dropping open.

"Oh god…" Sasuke muttered. It seemed that Amaya still had a trick or two. The once great dragon head that she had created was now a featureless, teeming mass of water. He quickly threw a glance back at the girl. She hadn't moved from that spot. He muttered some more curses under his breath. She'd finally passed out, leaving him as the victor and alone to face the liquid. Now there was no control over her attack as it commenced, her chakra beginning to release its hold on the water. But that rumbling noise, could it be that water? Impossible: free of its puppetry, the water wouldn't cause a noise like that.

Unless...

Sasuke's eyes widened in shock, his speculations confirmed as the ground beneath began to splinter and shake.

"No!" Sasuke made as to leap away, but to no avail.

In a fraction of a second, powerful columns of water blasted through the ground with devastating results. His leg was caught by the high pressure and snapped, twisted in a disgusting angle. He fell to the ground in pain, groaning as his injury started to affect him. Amaya sat there, as if she were silently regarding the ground. Water spilled from the sky, breaking free as the chakra dissipated bit by bit. It splashed down, creating new trenches in the soil. He seethed, gritting his teeth in pain and anger.

"Dammit…what does it take…" Sasuke panted, short of breath, "to get rid of you?!" he roared. Sasuke could've sworn that even if she was really unconscious, that he saw a flicker of a smile on her face. He tried to drag himself through the mud, to get out of the way, to escape, to move: but his fingers had no hold and his leg was killing him. He shut his eyes.

He wasn't one to give up, but by now it was too late to do anything else, other than to wait.

And die.

He fell unconscious just as the last threads of chakra ruptured, and the attack broke free.

--

It was quiet.

The damage from the fight prior was enough to send a spectator into silence, especially of the clearing. Water had wiped out many of the dead trees which had been burned, and had left marks on the remaining trees. Leaves drifted in trickling streams of water, now lifeless and lacking the spirit that it had interlaced with chakra.

The clouds were now passing, grey and drifting aimlessly.

A lone, threadbare scroll flapped uselessly in the wind, still attached to a tree by a kunai. There was a deep indent where the point was imbedded into the trunk. Ink ran together, smearing into illegible markings that seeped into the parchment and dripped to the ground like thick tar. Blood stained the handle of the kunai. The others had been swept away.

Underneath some remaining foliage, the combatants and the rest of Team Seven rested, reparing and inspecting. In the current situation, only two were unhurt, one was bruised, and the other two…

Sasuke would live, and still would be able to live as a shinobi after his leg was repaired. But it would take several months before he could walk or run with it, and then a while after to let him attack with it. However, it wasn't sure when he would awaken out of his current state. His leg had been bound with a makeshift splint that would do for the time being.

The other shinobi, Amaya, was in critical condition as her future looked dim. She had lost a lot of blood from her wound and various other cuts, which had been simply stitched and bandaged, but the temporary treatment wouldn't last for much longer. She was breathing rather shallowly, and her chakra had been seriously depleted.

If they hadn't been picked up by the jounin, they would have both been crushed. It was obvious that she had been aiming for something close to suicidal, but if she had not been hurt earlier, she would have still been conscious, but worn out. The ones awake were silently wondering about what had driven her to react like she did.

Sakura was situated next to Sasuke, watching him frantically for signs of coming back to consciousness. She seemed to have forgotten about her own injuries, suddenly worried about Sasuke's well-being. Naruto had suffered some minor cuts and quite a scare from Amaya's attack, but was otherwise fine, though his constant gabbing was not present, and he was silent for a change.

Finishing the final touches on bandaging and such, Kakashi sat back, turning his attention towards them. Deciding that they couldn't waste any more time, he announced,

"Let's get moving, shall we?" Naruto jumped up, ready to get out of to forest.

Kakashi suddenly realized a dilemma. He couldn't carry both of the girls at the same time, especially when he needed to get to the village quickly without spilling any more blood. He looked over at Sakura.

"Can you make it on your own?"

The pink haired girl nodded in affirmation, although her voice and body language showed that she was still deeply moved over Sasuke's status.

"Yeah. I feel better now, and she," she spoke, pointing at Amaya, "needs medical attention right away: I'm not that important." Naruto finally spoke up, panicking.

"Hey, hey: Sakura-chan, didn't you get hurt?" Sakura glared at him in response.

"Naruto, you idiot! It's not me you need to worry about. I'm not dying any time soon!" He instantly shut up, not wanting to dig any further. Kakashi sighed, gathering Amaya in his arms.

Naruto followed suit, and hoisted Sasuke onto his back.

They quickly packed up and made their way towards the village, going as fast as they could.

However, they didn't notice the clearing's disheveled appearance change, bits of chakra sparking up from the damp ground.

--

A lone figure stirred, groaning as it struggled to open its eyes. A discarded weapon lay to the side, its blade shining dully. He managed to open both of them, and rolled over on his back. The wooden beams supporting the roof dug into his back, splinters poking at his spine. Straw crackled with every breath, imitating him. He lay still for a moment, glaring at the sky.

Arai Kisho was not a happy person. He had been defeated by an obnoxious brat who had a trick up his sleeve that anyone would last expect: Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. How could a technique such as this fall into the hands of someone like Naruto? And judging by how comfortable and confident he was with the attack, he'd obviously had quite a while to bond with it. Kisho frowned, silver eyes glinting.

However, it hadn't been used effectively. The Rain shinobi had been able to wake up within thirty minutes of the blond's assault, and already his cuts were halfway through healing. He sighed, praying for the Jutsu and its legendary uses.

He flipped himself up from his position on the roof, landing back on his feet. He sighed again, noticing the damage made to the roof.

`Yamada-san's not going to like the new decoration of blood and my imprint on his roof…' The yari was once again knotted around Kisho's torso, and as he was preparing to leave for the dirt road below, he stopped. His queue whipped about as he circled back around, facing the forest. It was quiet. He grimaced.

`She must have done it…' He clenched his hand, his right arm trembling with the intensity running through it to his fist. There was a group of five headed towards the village, but two of them he could barely sense…

His eyes shot open wide, his silver orbs in shock. In the next moment, Yamada's roof was abandoned.

The odd group made its way to the edge, trying not to cause commotion over their tattered state. Each one of them was caked in a fair amount of mud, tears, and were soaked by the rain. An uprising caused by the sight of one of their genin almost dead wouldn't be too beneficial at that moment. They moved quietly, reacting at every suspicious noise they came across.

Kakashi herded them into a side street, passing a busy intersection. He looked up and down the path, determining where they would end up next.

"There should be a facility around here somewhere…near the Elder's home…" As their team leader mused over which direction to follow, the genin currently conscious stood, constantly looking nervously over their shoulders. Each time they stood still for more than a minute, it felt as if someone had snuck up on them, passing their defense.

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei! When are we getting outta here?" Naruto badgered, only to be violently shushed by his teammate.

"Quiet!" She hissed. Kakashi turned around to chide and usher them to their next destination, but was too slow.

"Yasui!"

At the yell, everyone present in the streets froze: Team Seven in a mixture of fear and shock, and the villagers in astonishment. They jammed into the entrances of the small street from both sides, dangerous expressions beginning to surface on some, while others were merely curious.

The team shrunk back together, instinctively tensing. There was no where to hide. And inevitably, pairs of eyes slowly began to fix themselves on the comatose girl in Hatake Kakashi's arms, blood seeping through the temporary bandage and lying limply. She didn't appear to be in the least bit alive with almost all of her chakra drained and looking like she was dunked into a lake and drowned. Her shinobi headband hung awkwardly across her head, as if someone had tried to remove it.

And as if someone had flipped a switch, faces of anger and alarm quickly made their existence present.

Low hisses broke out through the gathered spectators, and whatever they had been working at was dropped immediately. Many of them, even including some children, were pulling out weapons from various hidden places from their clothing. They were all simple tools such as knives or needles as Sasuke had observed earlier, but by their show of no hesitant hands, they had been trained to use these sharp edges enough to hurt an opponent.

The two genin tensed, slowly sliding into their defensive position around Kakashi as they had done with Tazuna, keeping a hand ready to pull out kunai or shuriken. Kakashi regarded the crowd coolly, still keeping a loose stance.

"Stay where you are. If you show them hostility, they could end up attacking us." Naruto and Sakura flinched, the jounin's voice knocking them out of their concentration. Sasuke dimly registered the fat that weapons were suddenly being threatened in their direction.

Kakashi studied the armed villagers with his one visible eye, looking for a way to settle the situation without violence or provoking them even verbally. However, he was spared having to answer this on his own as Kisho suddenly dropped in ahead of the people, the yari on his back apparent. The jounin narrowed his eye, watching the genin carefully.

Kisho straightened; purposely ignoring Naruto's shocked face.

"Excuse me, but it's apparent that my friend here needs medical attention. If I could take her to the Village Elder…" He gestured, obviously implying that Amaya should be handed over to him. Although his tone wasn't menacing, it was stiff, and didn't leave much room for argument.

"Ah: I see." Slowly, so as not to open the wound any further, Kakashi carefully shifted her body into the other's arms.

He backed away, starting to head in a direction that would probably take her to a hospital ward of some sort.

"If you wish to leave this suffering village alive, complete your mission here as quickly as possible. Hospitality cannot be afforded or found here as easily as it could in Konohagakure." He stared at them, unnerving the team. His eyes flickered past Sakura and their jounin, landing purposely on the blond.

Naruto scowled.

`Bastard: They both started it by trying to pickpocket us. It's not like we wanted to stay in this stupid run-down village, but we have all rights to finish our mission in the time allowed by the old freak!'

He growled, tightening his grip on Sasuke. Not heeding Kakashi's earlier warning, he hollered,

"OI! You bastar-"

A needle ripped by, grazing Naruto's face. The boy yelped in surprise, a cut opening on his cheek. Sakura gasped.

"Naruto!"

The woman that had attacked Naruto pulled out another needle from her hair, letting it fall raggedly to her shoulders. Her face was livid, twisted into a dark expression as she caught his blue eyes staring back, surprised.

"Don't you ever denounce the shinobi of this village!" she shrieked, aiming for him again. As he dodged, cries erupted through the crowd, announcing battle in the streets. Weapons appeared from nowhere, ranging from knives to rocks. People pushed past each other, leaving a path for Kisho and heading for the foreigners. Sakura rushed in front of Naruto and Sasuke, taking out a kunai. She flinched as the bruises reacted to her defense.

Kakashi cursed and leapt towards them, preparing to get them out of the streets.

Just as he set foot back on the ground, a sharp voice called out.

"HALT!"

--

a/n: aw, dang…I didn't get to kill off Sasuke…. ^^ Well anyway, thanks to the people who reviewed.