A Hatred That Will Never Bloom Into Friendship

“Say what you like about Naruto, Sasuke! That his an idiot, or just gets in the way, or that his a loudmouth! But he’s no coward! At least he’s standing up for himself!”

That was Sakura. I stop before a huge clearing, and see her knelled down on the branch below me. I look back up and see Sasuke standing halfway away from us. His head was hung low, his fists tight at his side, and he was trembling.

Right at that moment, I feel a pair of eyes watching me, and a cold shiver races up my spine. I glance fleetingly to my left. It was the Grass Ninja with the very long tongue. He was watching me intently, with black, pitiless eyes.

A wind whips around me and I hear his snake like voice inside my head. “You have a marvelous gift, though it is a curse.” My eyes widen, and I take a step back in astonishment. “You want to control it, but you can’t do it alone. No one has the strength to help you, but I do. I can help you.” My heart races slightly, and pure fear ripples through me at his words. He can help me?

“Kimina?” I vaguely hear Sakura call my name. “Kimina!”

I shake my head back and forth and tear my gaze from the Grass Ninja. I jump down beside Sakura, and she turns to me with a bruised and cut face.

“What happened?” I ask feebly. “Where’s Naruto?”

Tears brim her eyes, and my heart skips a couple beats. Her gaze looks past me, and I turn around and see Naruto unconscious, dangling from a tree held by a single kunai.

She then gestures to the Grass shinobi. “It was him. He did all this.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Sasuke straighten up. I dash over to his side, and his eyes took me aback. Instead of the usual dark, they were red.

“Get away from here, Kimina. This doesn’t concern you. I can handle this,” he states simply.

“I’m not going anywhere, Sasuke. I’m definitely not doing this for you. I’m doing this to protect Naruto, and Sakura.”

Sasuke doesn’t respond and just runs at a blinding speed towards the Grass Ninja. I chase after him, and we go hand to and with the demon.

Everyone and everything moved in a blur, and I almost couldn’t keep up. Sasuke throws a punch; I hurl a kick. The attempts both fail and we rotate around each other. The Grass Ninja throws his fist at me, but just in time Sasuke grabs my arm and pulls me out of the way. The demon then twirls around and kicks Sasuke on the side of his head. He flies through the air, but lands on his feet lightly.

I look back at the Ninja just in time to move back to avoid a swipe, but I step back too fast and I lose my balance and fall flat on my butt. He swings his heel around and down, and I push myself up and barely miss getting hit.

The Ninja smiles at me before speeding off towards Sasuke. I take out a kunai knife and toss it quickly to Sasuke, who catches it and holds it out in front of him. The Grass shinobi leaps over him though, and so Sasuke just throws the knife behind him but the demon had already disappeared.

I swiftly run over to Sasuke, and we stand back to back, watching intently at our surroundings.

“Do you see him?” I ask him breathlessly. I honestly couldn’t, and every time I thought I spotted him, he was gone in a dizzying second. I glance back at Sasuke; his head was moving from side to side, and I wondered if his eyes were following the demon. I was right.

“Give me your hands!” he orders me promptly. I reach behind me and take both his hands. He holds my grip firm and he heaves me over his body. I flip and land on my feet in front of him.

In the second when I was lifted into the air, the Grass Ninja rushed past where I was. Sasuke saw the Ninja coming down my path, and knew that I didn’t, and he got me out of the way in precise time.

The Grass shinobi stops and smirks desirably. Sasuke spits out fireballs at him, each hitting there mark and exploding against the wood of the tree. He then opens his mouth wide and a huge stream of fire barrels out. The smoke rises up into the sky, and there was no sign of the demon. Has Sasuke done it? Unfortunately not.

The demon’s body stretches like a snake and he swipes out at us. We both jump back. Sasuke and I reach our hands out to each other. He swings me around him, and I kick my leg out. The Grass Ninja grabs my ankle and flings me over his shoulder, with Sasuke right along with me. We both land on our feet, and I throw my arms in front of me, emitting a massive gust of wind directly at the Ninja. His hair whips across his face, and he puts his arms over his face. His feet start to slide back a little. I smirk and rest my hands at my side, the wind dying down.

Sasuke comes up behind the Grass shinobi and grabs him around his neck and wraps his legs around his waist. They both topple over the tree branch. The demon screams as they fall, and the Ninja’s head hits the tree bark hard, with a sickening crack. Sasuke jumps off his back, and I drop down beside him.

Ineptly and shockingly, the Grass Ninja’s body slumps over and turns into mud.

“A substitution!” Sasuke yells.

Right then, we both get bombarded with shuriken and needles. Sasuke grabs my hand and pulls me back out of the shower of weapons. I grip his hand a little tighter before letting go, and we both run off in opposite directions.

The Grass Ninja goes after Sasuke, and Sasuke fails at attempts to block the demon’s attacks, and flies back and falls roughly.

I come up behind the Ninja and swipe at his back. He turns around and lunges at me. I hurriedly make a hand sign and the tree bark under our feet rips loudly off and I use it as a shield. I brace myself for the demon to blast through it, but nothing happens. I feel him behind me though, but it was too late. I turn and get hit hard in the face. I smash through the hovering bark and hit down hard and roll over next to Sasuke, my head resting on his side.

“This really was disappointing,” the demon hisses. Three small paper explosions set off on his back, and at that moment Sasuke and I leap up into the air.

Sasuke throws shuriken all around the Grass shinobi, with wired attached to them.

The demon’s mouth drops open. “The Sharingan Windmill Triple Attack!”

Sasuke pulls and tugs on the wires and they wrap around the Ninja and secure him to a tree trunk.

“Fire style: Dragon Flame jutsu!” Sasuke yells.

I jump next to him and also yell, “Fire style: Fireball jutsu!”

A huge flow of fire escapes out mouths, his fire dragon leading the front. The demon screams and hollers as the inferno consumes his body.

Sasuke and I slump over in exhaustion and Sakura runs up beside him. “You did it!” She puts her hand on Sasuke’s shoulder comfortingly. “You both did it! It’s all over now.” She was seriously wrong though.

The Grass Ninja steps out from the wires. His face was melted and I notice his headband now held the mark of the Sound village. He smiles viciously and Sasuke, Sakura, and I freeze up inside ourselves. It was like our muscles were tightening and our limbs were being bound without our control. Sakura and I fall to out knees.

“You have some mastery of the Sharingan, but so young in age,”—his voice changes from a female-pitch to a male’s—“you are definitely his brother, but your eyes are keener than Itachi’s.”

“Who are you, and what do you want?” Sakura demands.

The demon takes out a heaven scroll. “My name is Orochimaru, but it’ll have to wait as for what I want.” The scroll burns in a bright green flame. “First, Sasuke you have to defeat the Sound ninja who serve me.”

Sakura frowns. “I don’t know what your talking about, but if your done then just beat it!”

Orochimaru smirks and makes a hand sign. His neck stretches from his body and his head races towards Sasuke, with a malicious and hungry expression. He opens his mouth and sinks his teeth into his neck.

“Sasuke!” Sakura shouts.

“No!” I yell the same time as Sakura.

Orochimaru’s neck then condenses back to his physique and Sasuke grabs the back of his neck and falls down between Sakura and I, writhing and gasping in agony.

“Think of this, Sasuke, as a little parting gift. Very soon, you will come and seek me out and you will desire the power I can offer you.” The demon starts to sink slowly into the tree.

Sasuke leans his head over to me, and I see a black mark at the spot where Orochimaru had bit him. What the hell was that? I grit my teeth and force myself to my feet. The next words just tumbled out of my mouth. “You bastard! What did you do to him?” I run out to Orochimaru, kunai in hand.

I can help you control your power.

Sakura’s scream fills the air, and blood spills over the trees.