(Tim Seltzer, seltzer@seltzerbooks.com) Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I do not own Wedding Peach.
I do not own any great quantity of money or property. I'm a STUDENT; that's
why I'm poor, okay?
Sakura was among the thirty-two finalists; she had three days to rest
and train before her next fight.
The pink-haired genin woke up in her room of the Fuuma residence. Momoko
sat in a chair next to the bed, wringing the water out of a small towel
over a basin. "Mmmmm... hi, Momoko," Sakura mumbled. Her body ached all
over. She noticed that she was at the Fuuma home in her bed. "Did I pass
out?"
"Yes. That fight was amazing, Sakura," Momoko said as she laid the wet
towel on Sakura's smooth forehead. "You surprised a lot of people. The
other matches of the first round are going, now as we speak."
"There are still more rounds, though," Sakura murmured. "And I guess
you won't let me go see the other matches. I want to see what the others
can do."
"Don't worry about being prepared for the next rounds. We'll get you
something that will help. But today, you need to REST."
A tiny knock was heard from the door. Momoko got up to see who it was:
Umi, hugging a small book. Her sky-blue hair was in a short French-braid.
"Mommy, is Sakura-oneechan okay?"
"Yes, Pumpkin, she's fine and awake," Momoko said. "You want to come
see her?" Umi answered by scuffling in the room.
"Hi, Umi-chan," Sakura weakly said. "I guess you want me to read, right?"
The little girl smiled and nodded.
"Umi, Sakura needs to rest now," Momoko said. "She's gone through a
big fight." Umi's eyes looked down in disappointment.
"No, no!" Sakura insisted with a smile. "It's not as if I'm sick or
contagious; I'm just a little banged up. C'mon, Umi, you can come in bed
and we'll read your book." Umi's eyes shined, and she crawled into the
covers next to Sakura. 'Besides, I did kinda promise her that, once the
match was over...' Sakura mused inside.
Momoko thought the matter through. Umi hadn't shown this much enthusiasm
for reading before. Sakura needed to rest. And both looked at Momoko with
puppy-dog eyes, looking hopelessly cute together. The love-angel sighed.
"...That's fine. But make sure you stay in bed, Sakura, except for going
to the bathroom. I want you to rest until tomorrow morning, understood?"
The sprite and the kunoichi grinned in triumph. Momoko left the room to
make some more tea. Umi quickly flipped through book and started to read
— Umi read the odd-numbered pages, and Sakura took the even-numbered ones.
By the fifth chapter, Sakura noticed that Umi fell asleep against her.
The tiny girl smiled as she breathed peacefully and quietly. 'Maybe this
isn't such a bad dimension after all," Sakura thought to herself.
Minoru pulled his arrow across the bow, and released it. It hit the
target dead-on. He was dressed in his tan and forest-green battle uniform,
looking a lot more masculine than he did in his usual robes. It made sense
to train with this on: it was easier to fight in, and he could transform
into it whenever he pleased. He avoided wearing the gear in public, though.
It always brought unwanted attention. The men around him would grow sullen
or antagonistic. The women, especially the young girls — Minoru shuddered
at the memory of what happened to him in the first (and last) tournament
he entered.
Of course, nobody saw him as he practiced; everybody was attending the
matches of the first round. True to his word, he had seen Sakura's fight,
but only hers. Rarely did he have the chance to train in full armor with
nobody watching, and today was one of them.
The elf took out three arrows from his quiver. He drew all three shafts
across his bow, instilling a little chakra into the feathered ends through
his fingers.
A single pencil-thin branch on the great oak caught his eye. He aimed
at it and released. Two of the arrows hit the branch, making it oscillate
wildly. The third arrow missed, and instead flew through the branches and
stabbed itself into the trunk.
'Damn, I'm getting rusty,' he thought. He walked to the tree and collected
the arrows.
Minoru found Sakura to be... peculiar. He had almost panicked when Sakura
discovered his secret. Instead, she waved it off and simply accepted his
friendship. Then he saw her with the tree-climbing exercise, emphasizing
her bizarre nature. And the third event — this morning's fight — showed
him how much of a determined warrior she was.
The tremor in his stomach returned whenever he recalled Sakura's match
with Cardella. He witnessed her analytical skills and maturity in the face
of a threat. That was her strength: combining limited resources with cool
strategy. Sakura saw through and defeated the vampire's powerful calling
spell, armed with a little ki, grappling techniques, and a few small weapons.
'Sakura-san... Are you really a thirteen-year-old human girl?' he wondered.
A mental chime entered his thoughts. Sakura was in danger. Minoru could
feel someone else's blood-lust, and it was directed towards the kunoichi.
He de-transformed back into his green robes, and ran off towards the Fuuma
residence.
"I don't know where exactly I am...
but I at least know that she lives around here,
la-la, la-la-la, la-la-la..."
A girl with a wavy, purple bob was skipping and making up lyrics to
a melody vaguely similar to "The Star-Spangled Banner". She had a pair
of enormous purple-black earrings that completely cupped her ears, almost
like headphones. She wore a red fairy dress, the petal-like ends draping
prettily over the fluffed-up lavender shorts she wore underneath. Black
sandals laced her feet, and she wore purple gloves. Her yellow eyes were
a little cat-like — but otherwise, she looked like a bubbly and happy teenage
girl. Her voice was so adorable that it could have come from a child. Nobody
could guess that she was really a water-demon.
"Ufufufu... Sakura, human ninja, I'm gonna see if you're worthy! Yeay,
yeay!" She giggled to herself. She danced a little jig as she skipped on
the street where the Fuuma mansion was. It was hard to tell whether she
was insane, plainly happy, or both. Minoru sure couldn't — and he just
so happened to be standing right behind her.
"What are you doing here?" he demanded. The voice came out of the blue,
making the water-demon leap in her skin.
"Oh, pooey, someone found me," she whined. Her head turned slowly around.
There stood an elf in long, green robes with a bow drawn, ready at any
second to shoot an arrow into her back.
"It's not that hard, really, when such murderous intent is radiating
from you," Minoru answered as he tightened his grip on the arrow. "And
I also know that you're after Haruno Sakura."
"Geez, Miss, you're really good," the demon replied, not knowing that
the archer was really a man. "But although I MIGHT want to kill her, I
don't want to kill her NOW; if I do end up wanting to kill her, that'll
be much later, so go back to minding your own business," she answered in
a single breath.
Minoru looked at her in disbelief.
"...please," she ended.
The elf's forehead creased. "You are sickeningly absurd. Are you a clown
by profession? Because you certainly dress like one."
"I resent that!" she shrieked. "I like dressing cute! Besides..." Minoru
felt something cold and sharp touch his neck. "Why are you so concerned
with Sakura yourself?"
The elf's eyes widened. The real demon stood behind Minoru, holding
a tiny knife near his jugular. Meanwhile, the clone he was aiming at splashed
away, falling into a puddle of water.
"Are you going to kill me?" the elf asked. His voice was terrifyingly
calm, and his smile was unnatural.
"Well, I'd like to," the purple-haired demon behind him replied. She
smirked. "You seem very close to the human, though, so maybe I shouldn't."
"Indeed," a voice said from behind. Sakura had appeared behind the water
demon, holding a kunai at her throat. She had seen the entire incident
from her window, and she was definitely not going to let her friend be
murdered. The kunoichi's eyes were sharp and cold. "You kill Minoru-san,
and I'll kill you."
"Wow, you're good, too," the water-demon said as she dropped the knife.
"Don't worry, I have no interest in killing him, actually." She fluffed
up her hair as Minoru slipped away from her reach.
Sakura remained in her spot, keeping the kunai at the demon's throat.
"Who are you?" Sakura asked.
"I'm not answering unless you let me go..." the purple-haired girl sang.
She wasn't scared; it was obvious that Sakura was lacking in interrogation
skills. Sakura jumped five feet backward. She ran next to Minoru and took
a fighting stance, just in case the demon really wanted to attack them.
"Thank you!" the water-demon exclaimed cheerfully, "Because I actually
don't wanna fight you now." She posed. "I am Potamos of the Suima-Zoku,
and I want to go against you in the junior tournament!"
Sakura and Minoru stared.
"And why should I believe you?" Sakura spat. "You probably just want
to kill me; you tried to kill Minoru-san!"
"No, no, no! Why don't people understand me!? Nobody understands meeeee!"
Potamos wailed as tears came into her eyes. "I just wanted to test her
whether the elf also was a..." She stopped.
"Yes?" Sakura asked quizzically.
"ANYWAYS!" Potamos burst out, "Haruno Sakura, I want to fight YOU in
the tournament! I saw the tournament's set-up, and if you can go far enough
to meet me in the top eight, I KNOW that you'll be a worthy opponent! I'll
be extremely... DISAPPOINTED... if you don't make it, okay! And if you
chicken out, I WILL KILL YOU for raising my expectations unnecessarily
high!!! So there!"
The water demon ran off, crying.
A silence ensured in the streets.
"What... was that?" Sakura murmured. 'SHE'S A LUNATIC!!!'
"She's a lunatic," Minoru mumbled, oblivious to what Sakura's guts screamed
out. "...What are you going to do, Sakura-san?"
The kunoichi hypothesized the possibilities.
Choice number one: Sakura loses a match. Potamos would be irritated,
but would figure that Sakura wasn't as strong enough as she wanted.
Choice number two: Sakura faces Potamos. Some possibility that Potamos
would kill her during the fight.
Choice number three: Sakura surrenders and drops out of the tournament
entirely. Very high possibility that Potamos would hunt her down.
'Cross out choice number three,' Sakura thought. She breathed.
"I'll just do what she wants. I'll remain in the tournament, fighting
my ass off. Besides, I need to prove myself to the committees." She saw
the look of worry on Minoru's face.
"Hey, I'm training at the dojo during weekdays. Angel Salvia will give
me private lessons starting tomorrow. It's not like I'm totally hopeless."
The kunoichi proceeded to yawn. "I'm going back to bed now. Momoko will
go in hysterics if she saw I left the house. See yah, Minoru-san."
"Sakura-san," Minoru stopped Sakura by grabbing her wrist. His expression
was grave. "Make sure you learn as much as you can from Angels Daisy and
Salvia. They're one of the top fighters among the love-angels. And I most
certainly don't want you killed."
Sakura smiled, and nodded. "Thank you, Minoru-san." She slipped through
the gates and, using her partially recovered chakra supply, ran up the
walls into her bedroom window.
"Orochimaru-sama, the monthly report on the Fire country," Kabuto said
as he dropped the papers on the desk. "It was worth ten lives of our forces."
The ninja-master picked them up. "Sasuke-kun, you can go now if you
want to."
"I don't care," Sasuke said in a monotone. He was sitting on the floor
in the corner, completely devoid of emotion.
Orochimaru read through the paper. Something caught his eye. His tongue
licked his lips. "Hmpf, Tsunade-hime is still hesitant to name that genin
a missing-nin. Right after those streaks, her precious little student vanishes...
Just plain denial."
Sasuke knew about the mysterious meteor incident, but only that it happened
near Konoha village. That a genin disappeared during the same time, or
that Tsunade tutored the very same ninja — that part was news to him.
"Her own student gone missing?" Sasuke sneered. "Is the Hokage really
that competent?"
"Tsunade is a worthy opponent, much as I hate to admit it." Orochimaru
ground his teeth. "And that STUPID Jiraiya is still hanging around Konoha..."
His eyes scanned the paper, and stopped. He reread the name. 'Why does
this name seem so familiar?' He glanced at Sasuke.
Then Orochimaru started laughing quietly. To top that off, he did it
in Sasuke's direction, much to the young man's annoyance. 'This is rich,'
Orochimaru thought.
"What?" Sasuke intoned coldly.
"You probably don't care about her anymore," Orochimaru said, "but this
will teach you more about death."
Notes:
"Suima" - means 'water demon'.
"Zoku" - means 'clan'.
"Hime" - means' princess'.
Yes, Potamos is supposed to be dead. But I brought her back to life,
as you can see from Salvia's comments back in Chapter Two.
And here's a little tidbit about Potamos' voice: it is very cute. How
cute? I regret to say that I have only read the manga of "Wedding Peach";
I have never seen the anime. But from a little Internet research, I found
out that the voice of Potamos is played by the same seiyuu of Usagi/Sailor
Moon in the "Sailor Moon" series, and Excel in "Excel Saga" — Mitsuishi
Kotono. So Potamos' voice is very, very cute.
If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, please tell me! If
I suck, by all means tell me. In an intelligent manner.
Book
collections on CD and DVD. A library for the price of a book.