Satsuki stood by Haruto as they watched the medics carry Neji away on a stretcher. The pale girl had only caught snippets of their conversation but she knew enough that Neji was suffering from hate. She was slightly curious as to why she didn't feel suffering when she felt hate. All she felt when she hated was… salvation, purpose, her reason for living.
Neji and her were different. No one would understand her pain. To kill someone she once looked up to, and loved with all her heart—
Her peers would never understand, they all thought she was a bloodthirsty lunatic. She didn't know how Haruto got to Neji, how he could empathize, she thought it was all a bunch of crap to get the pale-eyed boy to lower his guard down. Satsuki had to commend Haruto's acting skills since he got to Neji like that. But she wouldn't try such shit.
She scoffed at the friendly gesture of helping the Hyuga up. Haruto looked at her curiously when he heard her made that sound of disbelief. He wasn't offended since he received her insults and mocks on a daily basis, and had long since accepted that it was part of her personality.
He grinned at his friend. "Don't worry. I won't help you out." Satsuki frowned at him. "I'll carry you bridal style out!"
"Idiot."
"You know you like me."
Satsuki was saved from retorting, and was able to hide her blush by jumping down the arena when the proctor barely announced the start of her fight. Genma stared at her. "You're that eager?" he asked curiously which earned him a death glare and a rather adorable blushing face.
"Just get on with it," the Uchiha growled menacingly; oddly, from the stands, the Senju heir laughed, crossing his arms behind his head with a satisfied grin.
"Fine." The proctor glanced at the Suna-nin, frowning at the boy's seemingly pained expression. He wondered if it was safe to let Konoha's prized Uchiha battle an insane psychopath. "Begin," the man said with no amount of enthusiasm.
The Uchiha attacked first, testing the waters as she flicked a few kunai and shuriken at her opponent. Her eyes narrowed, counting the seconds it took for Gaara's sand armor to rise. She wasn't as intimidated anymore by the speed of his sand seeing as Kakashi had forced her to work on speed.
She darted him cautiously, quickly, landing a blow on Gaara's face, faster than his sand could rise to protect him. She'd already determined that her speed surpassed his sand but his sand armor… it would be a tough nut to crack. She smirked, nevertheless. "So that's it?" she said, almost disappointed when cracks appeared in his face and started falling. "I'll tear it all off in no time."
It took her five minutes.
She'd darted in and out, landing lightning quick hits-she'd copied Haruto's earlier use of Shuunshin Jutsu, and was now putting it to good use—and watching with satisfaction as Gaara's so called invincible armor crumbled. There were no words capable of describing her pride and there was no suppressing the smirk.
"That's all?" she taunted, watching as Gaara struggled to look her in the eyes.
It was a foolish thing to do but to Satsuki's surprise, he wasn't influenced by her genjutsu. She doubted it mattered to the guy, even without her help, he already had trouble differentiating reality from illusion; she didn't think he was all that sane. Blinking, the Uchiha went on guard when she saw the fallen sand creeping back to Gaara, forming a cocoon around the boy.
Cautiously, she flickered forward. It was only thanks to her Sharingan that she managed to twist her body out of the way, avoiding the spike of sand from impaling her. Sighing, Satsuki flickered a respectable distance away, gathering chakra as she watched Gaara cautiously.
It was time to prove whether or not Kakashi's training was fruition or a complete waste of time.
The only thing preventing her eyesight from tunneling as she charged forward with such speed was the Sharingan; she could see now why Kakashi had chose to taught her this instead of Haruto or Sakura, their inferior eyes wouldn't handle it. Satsuki blinked a few times, the sound of bird chirping had died down, and she hurriedly pulled her hand back when she saw the sand forming and made a vain attempt at ripping her arm off.
She skidded a few feet back, wary and alarmed all the same when the sand that formed around Gaara turned out to be different from before; if a sand can be menacing or evil, she figured this would be it. Gaara looked her in the eyes with hurt and crazy teal eyes.
"My… blood! It's my blood!" The screech coming from the redhead was inhuman and human all the same; carrying undertones of different voices and sounding very human with the terror lacing the voice. What was this guy?
Satsuki didn't have time to ponder as the white feathers began to fall.
***
He formed a single seal, called out, "Kai!"
Haruto blinked, surprised that it had actually worked but then again, Ero-sennin had spent extra time training him in dispelling genjutsu and casting them. He only knew some genjutsu based off the Mokuton though, he still wasn't quite a master in that.
He scanned the arena, he'd expected Satsuki to be fighting but when he came to, all he saw was unconscious ninjas and civilians alike. He blinked when he saw Satsuki by the unconscious proctor's side. He wondered if this was a second-layered genjutsu and pinched himself. When the pain registered, he rushed towards her. "What happened?"
"Genjutsu…" answered Satsuki, eyes hard as she abandoned the proctor's side and stood. "Our match's been postponed, it seems. I recognize this: Nehan Shōja no Jutsu. It is a powerful genjutsu that generates a fluttering rain of sleep-inducing, illusory white feathers. Whomever sees them as they fall, piling up and covering the whole target area, will experience Eden-like bliss and fall into a state of tranquil slumber. No matter how much one resists the hypnotic spell, the desire to sleep is instinctive, and there's no fighting it. However, an experienced shinobi will be able to dispel the genjutsu before it takes effect." The Uchiha leveled him a slightly impressed look. "You did, not bad."
"What—Move!"
Following that single word was chaos.
Haruto and Satsuki skidded backwards from where their would-be assailant landed. He spotted the familiar and much detested Oto symbol. He picked up some of his fallen Hiraishin Kunais, no point letting his enemies get their hands on it right? He'd be screwed if they really took it with them.
Fortunately, Satsuki covered him. She met the Oto-nins in battle, easily slitting the throat of one ninja and crushing the guy's windpipe with a chakra empowered kick while Haruto scrambled to gather his kunais. He was about to call for his teammate's name when an unearthly howl, screech tore through the air.
It sent a shiver down his spine. What…? His golden eyes scoured the area until it landed on the person he supposed was Gaara. He gape in horror, half of Gaara had already been disembodied into sand, demonic yellow slits glare out at him and Satsuki.
The demon, Shukaku who seems to be in control was mumbling something incoherently. The rage in the demon's eyes was unmistakable when it landed on him and Satsuki who shared an uncertain glance with one another.
"Did anything to him?"
"No. Never even met him before."
"…—ma." Haruto blinked, was the demon calling for his mama ? He was a mama's boy, he knew but even he wouldn't be calling for his mother in battle; he would've laughed if the Killer Intent in the air wasn't so potent and real. He was about to yell for Satsuki to flee and find their friends when the demon's roar finally became coherent. "Hashirama!"
"I don't understand," whispered Haruto, paling rapidly as the demon roared in his face. "How does he know my great-grandfather? Gaara can't be that old."
"Not Gaara. It's his demon. Only you and your great-grandfather have attained Mokuton, which makes your chakra signature eerily similar. It's probably mistaking you as him," said Satsuki blandly, Haruto wondered how could she be so damn calm in such a situation, with carnage, war and destruction going on around her; unnerving how she looked so at home in a battlefield. "Remember how the Shodai caught all the Bijuus? He practically cursed them to an eternity of imprisonment. You're dead."
She sounded amused, if the ghost of a smile on her face was any indication.
He glared at his love interest; it was not funny, no matter how endearing her smile of amusement was. "Come on!" he yelled, grabbing her hand, the other hand hurling kunai at where he knew their friends were, and teleporting there in an instant.
Satsuki regarded him curiously. "That technique…"
He wondered if he should tell about his true parentage; he felt a flicker of doubt, she wouldn't change her opinion of him right? "It's my dad's signature jutsu," he said, watching as her eyes widen but other than that, she showed no other emotion. "And it's been created by my clan anyway."
Satsuki hummed, a non-committal sound as she crouched and dispelled the chakra on their peers. "Wake up!" Haruto yelled as he did the same, though with less grace and efficiency Satsuki did. Haruto glanced around desperately, noting that the civvies were asleep which was good. It would do them no good if the civvies panicked and got in the way; protecting was one thing, but protecting others and attacking was a whole new level.
Haruto also spotted Konoha-nins engaging the Oto-nins and Sound-nins. He wondered if Konoha can withstand the invasion. "Kakashi-sensei!" he called, noticing a particular silver-haired man. Very familiar and welcomed. His teacher landed before him, his eyes widening in surprise for a moment before he schooled his features and warily assessed the situation.
"Where's Satsuki?"
"She—" Ino broke off into a cough, rubbing her sore throat, squinting up at her allies before saying, "She went after that redhead monster. That sand thing! What is it? Satsuki ran after it!"
Haruto's blood went cold. "I have to—"
"You're right," said Kakashi-sensei. He gazed at them all. "Go to Satsuki, be her backup. Leave things here to us, come back as soon as you can but subdue the Jinchuuriki! Remember, this is a mission; prevent Gaara from unleashing the Bijuu here, in Konoha! Take whoever you want, but limit yourselves to the Genin, we don't have enough ninjas to spare."
Haruto winced slightly at the idea of fighting a fellow Jinchuuriki but if he wanted his village to stand, he had to go. He glanced at his comrades, all of them could be useful but Hinata-chan was injured, some came as spectators and had no equipment, they didn't expect a fight. Some had already fought. But they'd have to do, when facing against a Jinchuuriki and its guardians, they need as many numbers as they can. "Come on!" He shot off first, cursing himself for not placing a seal on Satsuki in the first place. He hadn't quite mastered the part of touch-and-seal yet.
As his friends caught up, he distributed the Hiraishin Kunais, each one as he explained that if they needed him, just throw it somewhere he can land once he teleported there. He could practically feel their curiosity and maybe he heard some brain gears whirling and fitting the puzzle pieces. Shikamaru had definitely figured something out, he just hoped that his friends wouldn't suddenly change their attitude towards him or something just because he was the Yondaime's son.
He cleared his throat awkwardly, keeping his eyes in the front. "You can ask me anything… that's if, if you want to."
Ino opened her mouth to say something but Shikamaru interrupted her. "You have a lot to answer, once we get back of course."
Tenten—the only member of Team Gai capable of assisting them at the moment since Neji was out and Lee was physically unfit—winked. "For now, we have to save your girlfriend from the enemy!"
"The other way around, Satsuki'd kick their ass!" corrected Haruto. "And she's not my girlfriend." He blushed slightly at the prospect even though the girl definitely wasn't someone who would like being labeled like that.
Sakura smiled painfully. "Haven't propose to her yet?"
"A-a-aren't you a-all t-too y-young for t-that?"
"She'll kill me," responded Haruto blandly, honestly, eliciting a small smile from the Hyuga girl.
Shikamaru sighed, shaking his head. "Women are like that, troublesome. My mom's like that too." His eyes cut to Haruto. "Ain't your mom like that too?"
The Senju grimaced, he knew how Shikamaru felt. But now was not the time. "Come on guys, put your backs into it!"
"We need a strategy," argued Sakura, who was ill at ease with the idea of charging their enemy head on without some sort of plan. Instinctively, Ino glanced towards Shikamaru who was undoubtedly the smartest among them.
The Nara frowned. "There's that fan girl and puppet guy with our Jinchuuriki, troublesome bunch, but nothing we can't handle," he grumbled and when he said that last part, it was with a matter-of-fact tone; it made his friends smile despite the situation. "With the Mokuton that can subdue the Bijuus, Haruto will take Gaara on. Puppet Boy… Shino can suck the guy's chakra up, Hinata can disable the chakra strings. Fan Girl… Choji and Tenten, one of you distract and the other take her down. The rest of us will take Gaara. When you're done with your battle, do assist the others," Shikamaru grimaced. "Especially us, I don't think we'll defeat Gaara that easily."
Sakura gulped, realizing that she was unlisted, which meant that she, Shikamaru, Kiba and Haruto would be going against Gaara. She flinched when she realized that she was probably the weakest and would be a hindrance. Why didn't Shikamaru point that out?
"Everyone understand what he said?" called Haruto after a beat. When they all chorused a positive, albeit hesitant, positives, the redhead boy nodded grimly. "They're close."
Haruto skidded to a halt on the tree branch, not leaving his perch on the tree even when the others landed on the clearing. Temari was their first challenge, her grim determination turned into momentary panic when she saw the numbers. Haruto's acute hearing caught her murmured cuss as she readied her fan.
"You're not passing."
Haruto frowned, snapping his fingers. The trees moved, branches elongating and snapping at Temari, threatening to disembowel her if she didn't surrender. The Suna Genin glanced around nervously, cursing herself for choosing to bring her brothers into the woods. She didn't take into account for Haruto, she'd forgotten all about that guy and his stupid wood-wielding abilities! If anything happened to her boys, she knew she'd be responsible and the thought of stupid Kankuro and even crazy Gaara hurt… her heart simply burned .
Haruto raised his hands, the branches followed, merging with one another and eventually formed a fist. With speed that Sakura didn't know it possessed, it lunged at Temari. But she doubted it'd work, unless they helped Haruto to restrain Temari or distract her.
Tenten seemed to share the same idea as she launched her scroll into the air, the scroll forming a graceful bow arc above Temari before it rained weapons down.
The rest of the Konoha-nins didn't even have to do anything as Haruto caught a distracted Temari. He glanced at her uncertainly, then at Shikamaru. Apparently, he was the unspoken mission leader. The Nara sighed when he saw the expectant looks on his friends's faces.
"Change of plans. We take them with us."
"I do not think it will be of use at all, if you're thinking along the same lines as I," inserted Shino calmly as he adjusted his glasses. "Why? Because Gaara simply is not the type to care about the well-being of others."
"I agree," added Ino in a rare moment of seriousness. "From what I can grasp of his personality, he totally wouldn't care even if we threaten him with Temari's life on the line."
"You must know of a way to subdue your psychopathic brother," said Shikamaru, brows creased into a thoughtful frown as he gazed at Temari's squirming form. "Tell us what you know and we won't kill you."
Temari sneered. "You think—" she choked, a gasp escaping her parted lips as the wooden fist tightened with a noisy creak. "I don't know!" yelled Temari desperately. "The only one who can stop him is our father."
"The Kazekage," supplied Sakura. "who initiated this attack. He won't help."
"Besides, he's fighting his own battle. He challenged the Hokage, remember?" Tenten rubbed her chin as she looked at the girl who caused her failure to advance into the finals. She didn't hold a grudge against her, it was just Tenten's bad luck that she was matched up against her and it was not fault of theirs when Temari needed to exude power for her village. "She'll be a hindrance if we free her now," the brunette added thoughtfully. "I propose we knock her out and then Haruto-kun can cage her, weaponless since we'll be taking the fan, right?"
"Sure. But not here, too close to Konoha, what if her allies come and free her?"
"Just bring her along for now."
The group resumed their gruesome pace without another word, occasionally glancing back to make sure their prisoner hadn't escape, and tuning out the blonde girl's curses of Konoha and its ninjas.
Shikamaru ignored her expertly, silently wondering how much longer before they reach their target; he was no sensor nin, so he couldn't actually tell a person's position from chakra alone. He only had time to wonder before something flew past them, and crashed into a nearby tree, on fire.
"Mokuton: Jubaku Eisō ."
Haruto made a few motions and the tree encased itself, closing in and forming a palm that held out the body of Temari's brother. His brows and visible skin were torched, and he was unconscious, which meant that Satsuki had probably taught him a good lesson. When he registered that, the Senju smirked, clenching his fist and the tree obeyed, crushing the boy's unconscious form and devouring him.
Temari screamed. "Kankuro, no!"
"Calm down," said Haruto, rolling his golden eyes at the dramatic flair. He made a sweeping motion with his hand and Temari found herself encased in a tree. Only her neck and head were free, her body however, she couldn't feel but she knew she was trapped either way. "A good prison, eh? Can't move a single muscle below her neck, strain too much and she'll suffocate and without handseals, no jutsus."
The way Haruto delivered the statement, in a cheery sing-song way sent a chill shooting down Ino's spine. He was dangerous despite his goofy and happy-go-lucky nature and wouldn't hesitate to kill. Ino glanced down at her hands, when she blinked, she thought she saw the ugly crimson liquid on her hands. She had been able to escape the genjutsu earlier than the rest, she'd woken to see an Sand-nin raising a kunai above their heads.
She reacted instantly of course. A flick, quick twist and turn of her wrist and he was down. She had been stunned at how easy and effortless it was. She'd always imagine, to kill someone, you need to struggle with the right and wrong and the consequences of what you're about to do. But it had been far too easy for her, there was nothing else to analyze when the enemy nin was dead.
Just a movement and he was dead. Ino felt fear and dread rising but it wasn't because of the unpleasantness of taking another's life, but the thought of, what if the ninja had someone willing to avenge him? What if this new guy was stronger? What if she died ? It hit her how utterly selfish, how cruel of her to only think about herself and not what the Oto-nins and Sand-nins were fighting for.
She had laid back down, tried to block everything out. It wasn't until Satsuki's chakra hit her full force did she jerk into a sitting position, then the fact that she was a fool for lowering her guard in a battlefield. She'd been embarrassed but fortunately, Satsuki didn't question her despite the strange glance.
Satsuki's kunai had been bloodied, she'd killed too but she hadn't seem as effected as Ino was. The Yamanaka wondered, was she the only one reacting like this?
"—no, Ino!" A hand clasped her shoulder and started shaking her out of her reverie. She blinked, golden eyes and red hair came into view. "Are you okay?" Haruto asked, concerned. "We really need to move on, the rest are ahead of us already."
"Let's talk on the way." When Haruto caught up to her, glancing at her curiously, she cleared her throat and spoke, "I killed someone, in the arena."
"So?"
"So?" repeated Ino, baffled, unable to comprehend why he was so accepting of it. "What do you mean by 'so'? I'm being serious here, I killed—you know what that means? Murder, take someone's life away, that guy will never walk, breathe or laugh ever again, never do anything we do and I am the cause! His family must've needed him to feed them, who'd work to put food on the table for them? His family and friends will mourn and it's all my fault—"
"Ino! Ino, calm down! Breathe, okay?" Haruto's eyes were sincerely concerned even though she'd been quite annoying to him, and they barely know one another. "You're hyperventilating. It's going to be okay."
"It's not! And now, we're probably going to die at Gaara's hand! Why did they have to start a war-?!"
"Ino." The sheer force he said her name made her stop, looking up at him uncertainly. Haruto's eyes softened into something akin to sadness, his eyes gaining some sort of age-old anguish as if he'd seen the world's end itself. "Both sides in the war are of the same breed, after all… motives for war are of no concern. Religion, ideology, resources, land, grudges, love, or just because… No matter how pathetic the reason, it's enough to start a war. War will never cease to exist… Reasons can be thought up after the act. Human nature pursues strife.
"It's good to know that you can feel pain, that you felt pain for the man you killed. I killed people too. Not just someone. If you don't share someone's pain, you can never understand them. But just because you understand them doesn't mean you can come to an agreement. That's the truth. If, through pain, we could've come to an agreement, we wouldn't be in this stupid war."
"That guy… he must have friends who'd hunt me down for their fallen comrade," said Ino sadly, slightly scared.
"This is inevitable… Love breeds sacrifice… which breeds hatred… We are both but humans, driven to seek vengeance under the banner of justice. However… if there is justice in vengeance, then justice will breed only more vengeance… thus forging more links in a chain of hatred.
"I believe this is what it means to be a ninja; we embody this never-ending chain of hatred and love. Our enemies and us are no different. We each act according to our own sense of justice. The justice we have meted out against them is no different than what they are trying to mete out against us."
The blonde girl blinked, staring at Haruto in a new light. She'd never known that he was such a deep guy. He always had a simple-minded goal in mind, smiled cheerily and didn't seem to take things seriously and was quite the klutz if what Sakura and Satsuki complained about were right. She'd never known he was hiding these thoughts, what his opinions about his profession were. Suddenly, she felt as if she'd known him her whole life, not just a simple crush she'd made up for attention.
Her heart thumped. Damn, if he keep this sort of attitude up, she might just end up falling for him.
"H-how did you cope?"
"I'm trying to protect people, my precious people. What's so wrong about that?"
And with that simple sentence, Ino's whole world cleared.