Chapter 7 - 'Captured' Arc; Chapter 7

“Naruto, mob her with Shadow Clones!” Sakura yelled out. Naruto did, and the clones quickly swamped Azami from all sides. Meanwhile, Sakura made her move- she ran to Ryouko.

“Hold still, sempai! I’m going to heal you! Then we’re getting out of here!”

Sakura healed Ryouko’s burn, taking care to pull out any poison or anything else that might harm him. She found nothing, so she assumed Azami’s chakra had been involved somehow.

The burn was healed. But then something weird happened- the collar Azami had put on Ryouko yanked him backward. He tried to resist, but couldn’t do much since his hands were bound behind his back. The collar pulled him backward until he reached a tree branch. There, the chain wound around the branch and began to pull. Somehow, this collar had turned itself into a hangman’s noose!

“Predictable!” Azami crowed, destroying more clones. “It was so obvious you would do that. Now your sempai can suffer.”

Sakura just smirked back. A small breeze tossed her hair, adding to her confident look.
“You really think that was all that was happening? There were a hundred Shadow Clones here. It would be child’s play for one to…”

Ryouko grabbed the limb, his arm’s free now. A grinning Naruto clone gave Azami the finger and a pulled-down eyelid, holding up the chain that had trapped Ryouko’s arms until just now. The clone then used a kunai to cut Ryouko’s collar off.

Ryouko just fell to the ground like a limp rag.

Azami shook her head. “Amazing. A simple trap like that is too much for you?!”

“What did you do to him?!” Sakura demanded, clenching her fists. It seemed like, no matter what, this damn girl had her beaten!

“That collar was a chakra restraint. In other words, it choked off his chakra. When you released the collar, the chakra left him. It’ll come back, don’t worry- but he won’t be able to fight. If the collar had stayed on, then his chakra would have diminished little by little. But now…it really is all up to you two.”

Sakura suddenly remembered- the chakra cigarette in her waist pouch! Azami saying chakra so many times in one sentence reminded her! She quickly took it out of her waist pouch, stuffed it in Ryouko’s mouth, and…how was she going to light it?!

Urk…didn’t plan for that!

But she improvised. An exploding tag burned for a few seconds before it exploded. So all she had to do was stop it before it exploded, and the cigarette could be lit!”

“Naruto, stall her!”

Sakura helped Ryouko gulp in the good stuff from his chakra cigarette. He just had to get up! He didn’t have to fight- just run. That way, Naruto and Sakura didn’t have to keep worrying about him. They needed to focus on their own fight, and having Ryouko lying there like that wasn’t helping them.

“Just a reminder: If you lose, I get to keep him! And I promise you; he’ll be well taken care of- for a while. Then, he’ll become ‘just another’ object I own. He’ll live only to pleasure me and take care of me. If that’s not what you want for him, then you’d better plan something to save him!”

Sakura gritted her teeth, clenched her fist, and shouted: “You can’t have him! Even if he’s not ‘mine’, and I can’t lay claim to him…the likes of you won’t lay claim to him either!”

--

The worst part of all this for me was the wondering. Would it be so bad if Azami won? So what if she ‘owned’ me? She really seemed to like me. And, speaking as a guy…any guy would want an owner like her. I had seen both her sweet and sour sides, and both were damn attractive!

But on the other hand, there was Sakura. Kind, sweet, gentle, strong, and reliable. Azami was sexy in a worldly way; Sakura was more down to earth. To me, they were both the most beautiful women in the world. Azami had done nothing but abuse me, but all the same I could almost see that she loved me.

Sakura was out there, fighting a battle she might not win because she cared for me. But HOW did she care for me? The same way I cared for her? The way a student cares for a teacher? The way friends care for friends?

As I lay on the grass, my cigarette in my mouth, I realized how ashamed I felt. I had been defeated and humiliated so thoroughly that I couldn’t even get up and fight. I had been in worse positions than this and come out on top. But this time, I was just drained and willing to let fate take it’s course.

That’s the coward’s way out! Letting fate decide! If I do that, I’m no better than that smart-@$$ Neji Hyuuga! My position is clear.
--

“Sakura! You can do this!” Ryouko shouted. He had forced himself up against a tree, breathing heavily but staying upright.

I’ve long given up my own hopes and dreams. Since the Third Hokage told me what I would do, I always knew a day like this would come. I can’t let myself be selfish. I can’t do anything but support Sakura, and that’s all I should do. It’s my fight, but Azami involved Sakura. Now I’ve got to trust her skills.

Naruto grinned, an idea coming into his head. He whispered something to Sakura. She nodded, then turned away from Azami and cupped her hands. Naruto ran and vaulted off her hands, high up in the air. Up there, he used his Shadow Clone Jutsu. They all began to scramble, making it all but impossible for someone to pick out the real Naruto.

“Fine then! I’ll just destroy you all!” Azami yelled, using her strange wind blade again. Clone after clone fell and disappeared, until only two were left. One was the real Naruto. So Azami would hit him with her next attack, at the latest.

Scwick!

Azami’s sword arm dangled limply at her side. Sakura’s glowing blue hand had cut through muscles and tendons, and was coming back for a return strike. Azami managed to block the return strike. Naruto came flying in with a Rasengan, but that was dodged just barely by Azami.

--

I listened as Azami played a nasty card- one that involved all of us.

“Do you care for the boy you’re defending that strongly? What kind of feelings might you have? If it isn’t love, then I must say- I have never seen a friend defend another friend in such a fierce way.”

Azami healed her arm. She held it up, flexed it, then nodded; apparently satisfied with her handiwork.
“I’ve killed people with friends before. And they always say that they’d do anything for their friends. But when it comes to their friend’s lives versus their own, the first to die is the friend. Your life has been in plenty of danger, but you haven’t given a thought to your own life. Very impressive. The essence of a shinobi is to throw away emotions, and be that much stronger for it. But you seem to keep your motions and use them as a fuel of sorts…”

Sakura leapt back to Naruto and Ryouko, standing protectively in front of them. Both boys had just about zero chakra. It was up to Sakura.

“I love both these boys. In different ways. I won’t let you have either one of them,” Sakura said firmly. But her hands were shaking with emotion. “Why are you doing this? If you like Ryouko, why not just talk to him?! Why this elaborate scheme?! Why make him suffer?!”

Azami’s eyes widened as she smiled. “Isn’t it obvious? Little Ryouko there likes this. He would never get the guts to ask me out on his own. So, instead, I made it easy on him. I TOOK him. I broke his spirit. It makes him mine. He already likes me- now he knows what he has to look forward to. And I very much like what I see. Plus…Don’t you think it’s hot? To fight for your man, and your right to him? Don’t you want to say ‘this boy is mine, and no one else can have him’? It makes you feel strong, and it makes your man feel wanted. There’s no harm in it.”

Sakura was caught off guard. Azami was absolutely correct. Sakura liked to feel like she owned Naruto and Ryouko. She liked the thought that they might be dependent on her- like now, for example.
But she also liked the thought of belonging to them, too. It was a joint effort.

“…Even though I see your point, Azami…these two boys are MINE. And they’re off-limits to you. You can’t have them. Even if Ryouko loved you with all his heart, I would oppose it with my very being!”

I’ve got to admit, I really didn’t see that coming at all! Sakura felt like she owned me? And she loved me and Naruto, but in different ways? Which way did she love me? I really wanted to know!

Azami chuckled merrily, but lowered her weapon. “Alright, I’m convinced. I’ll let you hold on to my pet over there. In three months, when I beat him, I’ll own him fair and square. Then you can oppose it all you want, but it won’t matter. That boy is a gentleman. And a gentleman always backs his word…”

Azami appeared next to me, her hand under my chin. I was frozen by her touch again. My head was working more this time, and I felt something:
A mild genjutsu. THAT’S why I froze up when she talked to me! And I felt the trick this time because my chakra was so low. To release a genjutsu, aside from physical pain, you halt the flow of chakra to your brain. With so little chakra reaching my brain, this became apparent.

But even more apparent was the feeling of pleasantness. I liked this girl touching me and teasing me. That part wasn’t genjutsu. And the knowledge that, if I went with this girl, Sakura would oppose me…that made things worse.

Her hand still on my chin, she pulled me close.
“You’re an attractive boy. It must be hard to watch two girls you like fight. Or maybe…maybe it makes you happy. Maybe you want us to decide who you go with. Maybe you want to be owned by one of us.”

“Maybe I do,” I shot back. “So what?”

Azami kissed me again, knowing I didn’t have the strength to fight her.

“It’s nice to just let me own you, isn’t it? There are plenty of ways I can tell you’re liking this. So why fight it? Besides- you can’t fight it. You’re at my mercy at any given time. So you might as well just make it easier for both of us. In three months, I’ll be back to claim my prize- you.”

With that, Azami was gone, and I was defeated yet again. This time, with only words and a kiss, she had broken the shattered remains of my resolve into yet more pieces. But now, glowing at the center of my being was a warm feeling. The feeling of when Sakura spoke of loving me in some way.

I had three months. In between time, I had more missions to complete. For now, it’s best I let this go. But this story isn’t over…

Not by a long shot.
--

Next: 'Comrades' Arc

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