(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?
Author's Notes: I am eternally grateful for the reviewers who
point out technical mistakes in my work. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Sakura made her way to the stadium. She felt as if her innards were
hollow. Today was the match with Potamos. Not only that, she had such a
weird dream. If she could just remember what it was about...
She rounded the corner, and was surprised to see who was sitting on
the park bench.
Her elfin friend, Minoru, was there. He covered his mouth as he yawned.
He was still in his forest-green robes, with the ribbon binding his wavy,
blond hair.
"Minoru-san!" Sakura waved to him. He looked up, and saw the pink-haired
girl come over. "The round doesn't begin for another hour-and-a-half."
"May I have the pleasure of escorting you?" he asked. His blue eyes
seemed to sparkle in the morning glow. "And remember, Sakura-san. You can't
refuse, because I got up this early for you. I don't want Potamos to attack
you until the match actually starts."
Color rose in Sakura's cheeks. "Oh... of course." She looked closely
at him. "Minoru-san, your eyes look blood-shot. Did you get enough sleep
last night?"
"Oh, I was doing some work. Nothing to worry about."
"Hmm." Sakura frowned.
"Did you sleep well last night?" Minoru asked. "Any dreams?"
Sakura cocked an eyebrow. "Maybe. I didn't have any nightmares."
"Excellent." Minoru smiled. "I presume you already broke your nightly
fast, but here's a little potion-drink I prepared for you. It will clean
out your system, and boost your stamina."
"Um, thanks," Sakura said as she took the tiny vile. "You mean like
an energy-drink?"
"That's what it's called in the human realm, I remember."
Sakura became suspicious as she looked at the pink liquid. She only
had met the elf less than two months ago, and he gave her a potion. "Aren't
these difficult and expensive to make? I didn't know you were into medicinal
alchemy."
"I have some experience in it, yes." His blue eyes pierced through her
green ones, as if knowing what was coming up next. "And no: I did not poison
it."
Her face blushed crimson. "Can you read minds?" she asked edgily. She
did not want to interrogate Minoru, but she hated feeling so vulnerable.
He smiled. "Maybe. But the point is, it's just an energy-booster for
your physical body. No formula has been discovered to raise or lower chakra."
"Have you ever heard of Hyourougan?" Sakura scoffed, recalling the pill
Kiba used in his fight against Naruto.
"Pardon?"
"Never mind," Sakura quickly said. "So, this is just an energy-drink."
"Yes!" he insisted with exasperation. "It will take a while to settle
in, though, so you should use it now."
"I hope it works, in whatever it's supposed to do," Sakura said. She
pulled the cork and downed the bottle's contents.
She choked on the liquid.
"Oh, yes, its flavor is a touch on the sour side."
"I'll never drink lemonade again..." Sakura mumbled as she pulled a
face. 'This stuff's disgusting!' "Tha...Thank you, Minoru-san."
Minoru gave a low chuckle as he saw Sakura's expression. 'You're too
trusting of me, Sakura-san...'
Potamos giggled with an evil smirk on her lips.
Sakura kept her face blank as she stared back. This was it.
"Ready... GO!!" The whistle blew.
Potamos blasted a column of water at Sakura. Sakura put chakra in her
feet to jump to the side. A long, narrow puddle resulted on the ground.
'Bunshin no Jutsu!' Sakura mentally called out as her hands flicked
into the sequence. Sakura's image split into two. She and her clone charged
toward Potamos, and they landed a 'double-kick' on the demon. The real
Sakura's leg broke apart a water clone. 'Yup,' she thought.
"I can do clones, too, you know!" the real Potamos squealed as she rose
from the water puddle. Her yellow-cat eyes glinted with mischief, as she
knew which of the two Sakuras was the real one. She aimed her hands at
Sakura's back, and gave another shot of water.
Sakura's hands had already completed the order.
'Kawarimi no Jutsu!'
Sakura and her clone switched places. As the clone took the hit, the
kunoichi appeared in front of her opponent and kicked her half-way across
the field, putting some chakra in her feet.
Potamos shrieked as her body skidded on the ground in a cloud of dust.
"Owie!" she wailed on the ground. "That really hurt!"
"I already knew that you were hiding in that puddle," Sakura called
out. "It wasn't absorbing too quickly in this dry ground."
"Holy crap; she actually hit her!" Hinagiku exclaimed from the stands.
"That took us forever when —"
"Potamos is now in a weaker form," Scarlett interrupted. "Still, Sakura
is keeping up in terms of speed." The love-angel's eyes narrowed on the
sight below. 'I just hope that Sakura can last,' the redhead thought to
herself. 'Potamos is a powerful water-demon, even though she's rather...
juvenile.'
Potamos gave a complaining wail, as she remained sprawled on the ground.
Sakura wondered whether the demon was going to get up at all. 'Is she
giving up ALREADY?'
But then, water enveloped Potamos' limp form. Sakura took this opportunity
to put a kunai between her teeth, and set shuriken within her fingers.
The blob of water around Potamos increased in mass, and then melted away
to reveal ten copies of the demon. Sakura crossed her arms with her fists
tight, ready to throw her shuriken.
'The real Potamos is one of them. I can feel it: her chakra is going
all over the place. She's a little sloppy with her spells — each clone
has different cuts and bruises on their faces. If only saw her wounds after
I kicked her, I would be able to figure out which one's which...' 'DAMN
IT!!'
Potamos and her clones charged.
The pink-haired kunoichi threw six shuriken. One missed, but the others
each hit a Potamos clone, disintegrating five.
'Crud,' Sakura thought as she bit the white wrappings on the handle.
She skipped out of the cluster's reach. 'My canceling technique won't work
for these. Clones aren't classified as genjutsu; they have some material
substance. Potamos hasn't revealed yet whether her Mizu-Bunshin can fight
on their own, but they definitely act as road-blocks.'
The kunoichi remained frosty. 'I'm in control, at least for the time
being.' The only thing that said otherwise was the difference in power:
Potamos clearly had more chakra to spare. The water-demon and her remaining
clones ran towards Sakura as a mass.
'I'd have to break them apart to find the real Potamos, using either
taijutsu or weaponry. The trap is too obvious: Potamos wants to surround
me with her clones, close-up. In that state, it would be a four-in-five
chance that I lash out against a clone while the real Potamos drives a
water column through my gut. My only chance is to keep my distance, and
make the clones separate before I attack.'
The pink-haired girl kicked off the ground, jumping out of the way.
The five Potamos followed Sakura. Again, Sakura ran in a different angle,
and all the clones followed likewise.
Sakura smiled. 'Okay, she's determined NOT to separate from her clones.
That would mean that they can't fight on their own like Naruto's Kage-Bunshin
or Zabuza's Mizu-Bunshin. In other words, they're props — they're just
like normal Bunshin. Now all I have to just decipher which one is Potamos
herself...'
Sakura stopped in her tracks. She took out the kunai in her mouth. 'I
don't like to make fun of people, but this is the only way. Time to put
on a little acting.'
Sakura laughed. "You call this a ninja-fight?"
A vein popped out of the real Potamos — which was hidden because of
her purple wavy hair.
Sakura decided to go further. "I can see through all your strategy."
Potamos and her clones frowned identically.
'One more nudge, one more nudge!'
"Plus, your aura REEKS like hell!" Sakura's voice was full of mockery.
"It's like a skunk in the middle of the city!"
"WHAT?!" the real Potamos shrieked in fury.
Her eyes widened, realizing her mistake.
"There you are!" Sakura yelled as she threw her kunai. She knew it would
miss — Potamos was too fast — but Sakura was ready to follow her with her
eyes and body. Sakura jumped after the real Potamos.
The clones attempted to block Sakura, but she slashed them apart, all
the time keeping her eyes on Potamos. "Get out of my way!" the kunoichi
snarled.
Sakura threw some shuriken after her, which the demon dodged. "You wanted
real ninja-to-ninja combat, right?!" the human girl challenged. "This is
what you get!"
"You're such a MEANIE!" Potamos cried out as she evaded Sakura's projectiles.
"That was hazing! And it wasn't even the good kind!"
'I'll ignore that comment,' Sakura mentally noted to herself.
"I'll show you what real torture is!" Potamos exclaimed. A spear of
ice formed in the hands of the demon, and she threw it at Sakura. Sakura
formed a seal — 'Kai!' — and the spear dissipated into a mist.
'That genjutsu-counter came of use after all,' Sakura thought with a
smile.
Potamos was surprised, but not impressed. "So you can take out illusion;
lots of shadow-beings can do that! Now it's anything goes!" Potamos jumped
away, and shot her hand into the air. "Hidden Mist!"
Clearly, bringing out a pool of water was not what Potamos intended
in her 'Hidden mist' spell. But that was exactly what happened: the arena
became completely submerged in water. It came up to Sakura's chest.
Potamos frowned in annoyance. "Pooey! But I guess this will work, too."
The purple-haired girl heaved a sigh as she dipped herself into the water
completely.
"Oh, crap!" Sakura immediately sent chakra into her palms. Being in
the water, with a water-demon, was more than risky — it was suicidal. Potamos
was trying to shoot water, in water, while Sakura was still in it.
The kunoichi pushed herself out and got on top the surface, making it
look as if it were simple as getting out of a regular swimming pool. Once
Sakura was on top of the water, she felt the strong current underneath.
Sakura carefully got up onto her two feet and corrected her posture.
She raised her right hand up to her chest. Her thumb, index finger and
middle finger were straight up together, while the ring and pinky fingers
were folded downward: half of a Tiger-In.
Potamos rose out of the water, and stood on its surface about twenty
meters away from Sakura.
"You can't be a water-demon, too!" Potamos whined.
"I'm not," Sakura answered, molding chakra.
"Oh." Potamos fidgeted.
Sakura grinned. "Based on how much aura you're radiating... I'm guessing
that you don't have the energy anymore to do your water-column vertically.
Physics 101: Pushing something up is much harder than pushing it sideways
or downward."
The demon's eyebrow twitched. "I still can, thank you very much. You
leave me no choice. Sure, you've given me what I wanted, but it's not good
enough!"
"A real ninja fight, you mean," Sakura intoned.
"Mmm hmm!" Potamos exclaimed. She flashed a cute smile — which curled
into a malicious grin a second later. "Thanks for at least trying! But
now," she smirked, "it's over." She extended her hand over the water. Its
surface began to waver.
Sakura's hands flicked together as she thought back. 'This will be my
first time using it on a person, but here I go.'
(( "Otou-san, can you teach me this jutsu?" Sakura asked hesitantly,
rolling out a scroll. He examined the section at which her finger indicated.
"Why this one?" he frowned. "I know how to do it, but this could be
too high for you."
"But I don't have any real jutsu that stops the enemy in their tracks.
Plus, Kakashi-sensei told me that I have some strength at genjutsu, and
this is one such type!"
"But it's not like you to use this one," he insisted. "Do you know what
it ACTUALLY shows the opponent?"
"I've had it done on me before," Sakura answered quietly.
Her father's eyes widened. He sat down. "Oh, gods. Well, I guess if
you're already around those types of ninja... You ought to know it, too.
Come here." ))
'Otou-san taught me this because he wanted me to defend myself. Potamos
wants to fight a ninja. That's what she wants; that's what she gets.'
The waves grew more turbid and violent. Sakura's hands stopped with
the final In. 'I'm gonna SAY this one, just for you, Potamos! Taste
it; yeah, BABY!!'
"Kanashibari no Jutsu!!" Sakura shouted.
Potamos froze. Red covered everything. It was her own blood. An enormous
spear sunk into her chest, violently ripping through and destroying her
heart.
Her voice broke into an ear-splitting scream.
'Another illusion?' Momoko thought to herself from the stands. 'But
it's Sakura who's casting it... What is Sakura doing to her?'
The water-demon collapsed in shock. Her knees were still resting on
the water, but they sent off shaking ripples across its surface. "Lemme
alone!!" Potamos wailed, crouching down and covering her head. "No! No!
I don't wanna die!!"
The water began to recede as Sakura walked toward the demon.
Soon, only a damp ground was left. Sakura's sandals became caked with
mud as she trod through the soaked earth. She looked like a soldier, going
through the somber remains of a war-ground.
The sobbing demon peeked up, only to meet the kunoichi's harsh glare.
Sakura pointed a kunai at her.
"You win!" Potamos screamed. "I give UUUUUUP!!!"
Sakura put back her weapon as the referee blew the whistle. "Winner:
Haruno Sakura!" the speakers blared out, setting off the applause from
the stands.
The pink-haired girl sighed in relief. She walked over to Potamos, and
stooped down to inspect the water-demon. The jutsu's effect wore off, as
Potamos was starting to realize what had happened.
"There's the ninja-fight you wanted." Sakura had to crouch like a hoodlum
in order to be at eye-level with Potamos. "I'm sorry if it was a tad scary.
But that's also a ninja skill."
Potamos hiccupped. The spell already had disappeared, but its memory
remained fresh in her mind. She had very little ki left: Sakura's genjutsu
made her lose control of her aura, thus making it fly out uselessly.
"That... that was an illusion?" she asked with a sniff.
Sakura nodded. "One of the many genjutsu my people use. You know, you
weren't bad at all in terms of making and using your clones in strategy.
With a little bit more control with your chakra, you'd make a good ninja."
Potamos' eyes started to fill with tears again. "You're so..."
Sakura rolled her eyes, waiting for the insult. 'Throw anything at me;
I'm used to it by now.'
"COOL!" Potamos shrieked in admiration.
This totally caught Sakura off-guard. What startled her even more was
that Potamos was now hugging her mid-rift.
In the stands, Hinagiku's jaw dropped. Scarlett growled. Momoko and
Yousuke could only watch while their ex-foe nuzzled against their daughter.
"Eh...EXCUSE ME?!?" the kunoichi asked.
"I've never had anybody really fight me like that! You're so NICE!"
"NICE?!" Sakura exclaimed. She wasn't worried anymore about getting
hurt from Potamos — after all, both were drained of their chakra. What
concerned Sakura, rather, was this demon's psychological health. "I just
showed you the image of DEATH, and you call that, 'NICE'?!"
"Everyone I've fought with before just kept blasting energy at my clones,
and I was so, very, extremely, totally, BORED with the same icky way of
fighting! You, however, saw through everything I said, and took ME seriously
as a NINJA! I'm so honored that you did that! I LOVE YOU!"
Potamos let go of the dumbfounded Sakura. The purple-haired girl folded
her hands together in humility and adoration. She looked up with hope shining
in her yellow cat-eyes.
"Could you be my training partner?" Potamos asked meekly. "Pretty please?"
Notes:
For those of you wondering, I'll give you the answer: no, this will
not be a yaoi/yuri. Sorry!
Yes, "Kanashibari no Jutsu" is the same one that Orochimaru used on
Sasuke and Sakura. The ANBU used it, too, when they saved Anko from that
pack of tigers right after she had a reunion with her old teacher.
If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, please tell me! If
I suck, by all means tell me. In an intelligent manner.
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