"Hello, Sakura-san."
Neji nodded, his face as impassible as ever, voice almost gentle. It clashed terribly with the angry, bulging veins around his eyes.
Sakura felt like screaming. 'Why the hell are you so calm?' 'What the fuck are you doing with Akatsuki?'
"Just what… What are you doing here?" Came out, instead.
"Isn't it obvious?" He shrugged. "Finishing the job." He pointed at Naruto.
"What do you want from him..?"
"The rest of the Nine-Tails. Indra-san has it, apparently. We didn't expect this sort of meeting today, but it would be foolish to ignore the opportunity presented to us."
Naruto said nothing, staring at him, unmoving, instead.
"You don't have to get involved, of course." Neji continued. "Let me take care of our jinchūriki problem, and you're free to go. As an old Konoha comrade."
"You left Konoha." She said, realizing how hypocritical that was.
"A few years ago, yes." Neji acknowledged. His eyes hardened. "Would you stay in a place that allowed your own family to enslave you? For that matter, would you stay with this kind of... family?" He stressed the word.
Of course she wouldn't.
"I'm not blaming you. I left even before, and I didn't have it half as rough." She said.
Neji nodded. "I'm glad you feel that way. Just because I disagree with… village and clan politics…" He said with distaste. "Doesn't mean I have anything against you. We were all slaves, if in a different way."
Naruto said nothing at this. She knew he agreed.
"No matter. I can't let you take Indra." She said, remembering to use whatever name Neji thought was his real identity.
"Step aside, Sakura-san. I'd rather not hurt you, but I will, if I have to." Neji said, indifferent.
"Oh…? You won't hurt me?" She shot back, voice hard. "I'd like to see you try."
Neji sighed.
It happened so fast that she would have missed it if she had blinked. Neji blurred forward, wreathed in yellow lightning. Naruto intercepted him, clad in blue.
The only difference was that Neji's aura covered him entirely, while Naruto could only manage his legs and something else at the same time. Which meant that he had to choose between enhancing his weapons… or his arms.
Either meant that right now… he didn't have enough cutting power to even go through Neji's shield. And if he did the opposite... he wouldn't be fast enough to reach him.
Water was weak against Lightning, so most of her jutsu were out of the question.
She sent her spectral hand through the ground, and it came out under Neji's feet to anchor him in place. The electricity went through, of course, and Sakura winced.
"Naruto!" She shouted.
"I'm on it."
Wind-natured chakra coursed through his blade. This was his way around the problem. His second blade aimed to cut Neji diagonally.
Neji's arm seemed to disappear.
"Eight Trigrams: Lightning Palm"
A wave of air and electricity slammed into Sakura, paralyzing her. She couldn't move at all, her every limb stiffening. The spectral arm faded into nothing, and Neji stepped away from Naruto.
He reappeared ten meters away, turning his Lightning aura down.
'He's saving chakra.' Sakura realized.
Naruto moved right next to her, defending her while she slowly recovered her mobility. She put a hand to the ground, marking it.
"He doesn't have the reserves to keep it up at all times." She said to Naruto.
He gave her a somewhat amused glance, despite the situation. "You'll find that most people don't. I can afford to, but I'm a bit of a special case."
"Don't let it go to your head." She grunted, her eye on Neji.
"Eh. He's better at using it than I am, anyway." He shrugged. "Are you alright?"
"…I'll manage."
"Cause I might need your help. This guy might be as good as Zabuza."
Neji slowly walked toward them.
"Surrender. There is no way out for you, Indra-san."
"Oh…? Why not?" Naruto shot back.
"You can't escape my eyes."
Naruto cackled. Sakura cracked an hesitant grin.
"Is this something you find amusing?" Neji raised an eyebrow.
"Nah. It's just I've heard this from every fancy eyes clan, by now." Naruto said. "In this sense, you're very… Hyūga."
This… might not have been the best thing to say. Neji frowned. On a Hyūga, this might as well mean fury.
"Be as it may, you won't-"
"Escape my fate, yeah, yeah, got it. Big talk." Naruto mocked.
"…What are you doing?" She whispered to him. This might not be the best time to pull a Kakashi.
Naruto ignored her, continuing. "Maybe you could give me a few tips about running away from my inescapable destiny, please. What did they offer you...? A way to remove the thing on your forehead?"
Neji disappeared again.
Naruto was ready this time. Wind rushed around him and into his swords, making him lighter and faster. The Lightning nature, he focused through his legs entirely.
"Gentle Step: Lightning Roar!"
The yellow chakra focused around Neji's hands changed shape, turning into tiger-shaped shrouds.
Naruto's hands went even faster, and he blocked them. Sakura saw surprise flash across his face, and he leaped away, swords showing no sign of the wind energy he had poured into them.
"These things absorb chakra…?" He groaned.
"Hm. Even someone like you can tell that much, then?" Neji taunted.
"I didn't think you even knew how to shit talk." Naruto poured more chakra into his swords.
"I usually don't bother speaking with dead men."
"Same here. Why don't you come and back up your claims, then?" Naruto rushed forward.
Neji's eyes could be everywhere at the same time, but it required a different level of focus. The very real threat of Naruto meant his focus was likely on him… and her current position.
Before Neji's shroud reappeared, Sakura created a second portal where she was.
It was likely the first time Neji really saw her use it, if the surprise on his face was any indication. She appeared behind him, slashing through his back diagonally.
The damned shroud appeared again, but a bit too late, as she had managed to wound him lightly. She disappeared again into the portal, and he used Lightning to cauterize his wound.
This wouldn't work again, most likely.
Naruto opted to throw his Wind-enhanced swords, in another move that took Neji by surprise. Then he jumped, bow unsealing, and three arrows of wind flew.
Neji deflected all of the projectiles, but the wind arrows opened wounds along his arms, despite his armor. He grunted.
Then the homemade — well, made by Karin — tag Sakura had slipped through the portal exploded behind him. He came out of the smoke at a high-speed, but not entirely unscathed.
Naruto punched him in the face, with a solid, wind-powered right hook. Before Neji could recover, he summoned a sword out of thin air.
The slash missed him, and he let the sword fall, coming up with a rising vertical spinning kick. The wind howled, and Neji had to use his wrists to shield himself from its hungry blades.
He deactivated his shroud again, since Lightning was weak to Wind and would only result in him getting more injured.
Sakura's spectral hand went through the portal, holding Neji in place. 'This should prevent him from using the Kaiten.'
Well, she hoped.
Then she went through it herself and grabbed one of Naruto's discarded swords. The chakra-conductive blade answered her. Instead of using Water, which she was more comfortable with, she focused on her weaker affinity with Earth.
It was better suited for blunt attacks, since her sword wouldn't penetrate his armor anyway.
She slammed the sword in the ground, burying it up to the hilt. Then she pulled it out, covered with rocks.
Neji was fighting Naruto and two of his clones, who prevented him from leaving the spot they were fighting in. That and the ghost hand wrapped around his ankle.
The Hyūga was also trying to gather his chakra around his right arm, in something that was starting to look like three floating claws made out of pure yellow electricity. Naruto never gave him enough time to complete them, keeping him on the ropes with Wind attacks.
Neji parried Naruto's strike, and answered it with a palm strike to the gut that he barely managed to deflect, by slapping his hand away.
Naruto held a Bird sign with his other hand.
"Wind Style: Quickening."
It was not aimed at himself, as Neji had thought, but at Sakura.
She felt herself become lighter, the wind carrying her along. It felt like gliding over the floor, to some degree.
Sakura's blunt rock sword-hammer had a longer reach, and she managed to slam it against Neji's wrist. He winced, but managed to turn on his shroud again, avoiding it getting broken. That was what Naruto had been waiting on. Sakura could see a bright light coming from under his collarbone.
"Wind. Gale Blitz."
Raw wind-natured chakra swirled around Neji, her spectral hand keeping him there. Then it started to swirl around him, destroying the clones and cutting into Neji's armor easily.
Too easily for Neji, apparently, since he turned his shroud off, once more. Sakura could not maintain her ghost hand in the cutting winds either, and she had to dispel it. Chakra poured out of all of Neji's tenketsu, and he started spinning.
His Kaiten had only grown more powerful, the rotation shielding him from the wind tornado altogether.
Naruto breathed hard, but he was somewhat amused. He continued to pour more chakra in the hurricane.
"He won't be able to stop spinning if he doesn't want to get shredded." He said. Then he stiffened. "But I think Zabuza is coming, and you're injured. We need to go. Now. He's not nearly as fast as Neji."
She nodded. She wasn't sure she could even fight against Neji, right now. They definitely wouldn't be able to manage fighting both at the same time.
Naruto created three clones. All four of them started channeling more Wind chakra in the tornado, forcing Neji to keep his rotation up.
Then the real Naruto picked her up, channeling whatever Wind chakra he still could mold after that, before adding Lightning to it.
He dashed off when Zabuza arrived into the clearing, howling.
Naruto leaped from tree to tree, branches exploding in his wake, flying to where the mist was thinner, too fast for Zabuza to follow.
He was getting somewhat low on chakra at this point, and carrying Sakura only added more to his exhaustion. But she was just as exhausted, he knew.
She looked a bit pale, and for the first time, he realized how small she felt in his arms.
Zabuza slammed a fist into a tree.
Neji made short work of the remaining clones, before dusting himself off. "They got away, then." He said, simply. "Next time."
Zabuza grunted. "I will make sure to cut a leg or two on the blond."
"Do as you wish. But later."
"Oh…? Since when do you presume you can order me around?" Zabuza glared at the younger man.
"We still have a mission to finish." Neji stared back. "Your sword can wait."
They glared at each other.
"Let's get going, then." Zabuza gritted out. "We still have a few more islands left."
Neji nodded. He didn't always like working with the man, but he could at least keep his priorities straight.
Once they had put several kilometers between themselves and the Akatsuki duo, — or rather, when Naruto was running so low on stamina that he had to — Naruto warped back to Umi.
Sakura carried both of them across the water, and he leaned on her.
They fell in the sand, breathing hard. That had been way too close to a disaster.
"Sasuke was right." Naruto broke the silence.
Sakura looked at him, too tired to even answer.
"…Neji's a fucking dick."
Sakura snorted.
They went back to the house, dragging their feet in doing so.
"Next time we go back to Mist…" Sakura started.
"You really want to go back?" He asked. "Maybe the mark we have there already is enough."
"It's too far away." She shook her head. "We'll go again… in a few days. I feel like dying, right now."
"I can help, if you want." He grinned.
"Fuck off." She grunted.
"Karin. Karin?" Naruto called. He knew she was likely not there, since he could not feel her chakra, but he tried anyway.
Someone called — with a weak voice — from up the stairs. He knew who it was, of course. He closed his eyes.
"Prepare for a long discussion." He whispered to Sakura. She squeezed his hand for support.
They climbed up. It was time to meet with Ino.
Ino was staring at Naruto, still unsure what to think.
She had not lied to him, she had figured who he was early on. Still, seeing the boy she had only known as Sarutobi Naruto… As this hulking blond man was disconcerting, to say the least.
And not just because physically, he looked nothing like the thirteen-year old she remembered, aside from his expression.
Both he and Sakura's clothes were torn, multiple healed wounds covering their bodies. Even though she was in the room, her mind kept looping back to one of the worst days in her life — the worst being, of course, Shikaku telling her the news about her dad.
The torture had been… bad. Worse than she expected, by far. Danzō — and she was almost sure it was him, since he was the one in charge of ROOT, unless he too had been killed — had left nothing to chance. She shivered.
She had spent around two days in his tender care, she estimated. More than enough to break any lesser person.
She knew she could expect some form of post-traumatic stress disorder. Many shinobi dealt with it, and as a Yamanaka, she was as well-equipped to manage as anyone was, if it ever came to it.
They had tried to break her, after all.
She hadn't said anything.
Unfortunately, this didn't make the torture hut any less or made her more capable of enduring the trauma. Nobody was impervious to torture. It just meant she was way harder to break than most people.
There were a few ways she had used to hold on.
Shutting her mind off was one. Removing her psyche from her physical body. Yamanaka were trained in this. They were hypnotized by their clan elders, who imprinted a psyche into their minds that manifested itself when a specific mode of stimulation was applied.
For example, pain inflicted on their body: their mind swapped to a separate persona to endure the torture. A bit like applied schizophrenia. Then they'd revert back to the original when the torture ended.
Hopefully.
Another way was shutting off their senses by focusing the pain elsewhere. Focusing on a mantra, recounting a story over and over again. As a Yamanaka, everything was about the mind… and how little anybody truly knew of it. So this had helped with the physical part. And she had known they needed her alive, that they wouldn't kill her. At least not before they had found something. She just had to hold.
Until what or when, she didn't know for sure.
But physical torture had mental effects. The whole idea of it was to elicit, train a behavior that wasn't there. Confuse, remove hope from the target.
The sleep deprivation, and water-boarding at random intervals had gotten to her, though. To her, this had been way worse than the more physical sort.
Struggling for every breath. Being choked by water, being allowed to breathe, being choked with water. Again and again. You couldn't even take complete breaths, as the imbalance between carbon dioxide and oxygen meant you reached oxygen starvation easily enough.
You were being drowned. Except it didn't end up in the usual 'blissful' coma.
Over time, you were looking at damage to the lungs, heart and brain.
Mentally… You were fucked. PTSD, severe mental distress, paranoia, suicidal tendencies, self-harm, dissociation and numerous other effects could appear in some people.
And…
Ah, she was definitely lost in thought.
She knew all of this from the get go and had been as prepared as she could. Hopefully that would prove to be enough.
Ino could still not move on her own, her tendons having been cut. Which would have been something she would have felt even more hopelessness about, but Karin — this godsend— had assured her that they would be able to heal her.
So…
Back to the room. She tried to put on her confident face.
It probably looked bad. Naruto seemed like he barely held back a wince, and Sakura's hand was tapping nervously on the floorboards, a childhood habit she apparently had never managed to get rid of.
Naruto… had likely gotten her in this mess in the first place. Not willingly, of course. She wasn't sure if Danzō had orchestrated the whole thing, but she wouldn't put it past him. Her timing had been terrible, if so.
In the wrong place, at the wrong moment.
She still couldn't figure what Naruto had been doing in the holding cells, either. Wait, was Naruto even his name…? She knew nothing about him.
Things had changed very quickly, once he had appeared in the village. Sarutobi was dealing under the table, the Hokage was dead, Danzō was likely in charge.
And apparently she was a wanted criminal. She had felt like crying, when Karin told her.
But Naruto… — or Indra, whoever he was now — had also pulled her out of this mess, even though he had done so in the most brutal way she could think of.
What had happened to the sweet boy who refused to kill…?
Realistically, she knew she couldn't have gone back to the village anyway. One reason was that she would never trust anybody who let Danzō pull this sort of shit to anybody under suspicion.
The second one being that no matter what she had known, she probably would have gotten killed. Villages didn't like loose ends, no matter how talented or useful.
Naruto had gotten her involved, by no real fault of his own. He had also saved her.
She sighed. Things had been pretty easy, once: Yamanaka Ino, 13 years-old, loved Sarutobi Naruto.
Ino broke the silence, her voice raspy but firm. She tried to look strong, so that they would not notice how close to the edge she really was.
"Tell me what happened. All of it. No more secrets."