Chapter 15 - ArcII: Love and Combat- Chapter 4

Ryouko yanked himself out of the shadow, resting on one knee for a moment. His head was down, and he looked tired. But he snapped his head up and attacked.

Fast! Azami had time to think before Ryouko flew into her at top speed, a punch grazing her stomach. The material on her dress shredded, exposing a large gash across her stomach.
That much destructive force…is it a tailed beast? Is he a jinchuuriki? …No. I could have sensed that. What I sense is his own chakra. There’s just more of it. Too much! He can’t possibly control that!

Ryouko kicked himself backward; a cloud of dust rose up as his foot left the ground. He landed twenty feet away, his handsigns already finished. BOTH sets of handsigns.

“Fire Style: Fire Dragon- Release! Earth Style: Earth Dragon: Release!”

The earth dragon, made of the ground around Ryouko, rose up in the air and began circling. Azami created her blade of wind, watching it carefully. She glanced at Ryouko. He had made the sign of the tiger, and he inhaled a big gulp of air and chakra. He began to blow outward through his clenched hand.
A dragon formed. It kept coming and coming, circling Ryouko three full times before it was done. It whipped around Ryouko and headed straight for Azami. She got her wind blade in the way, blocking the dragon as it plowed into it at top speed. A dark shadow covering her and a lot of the surrounding area reminded her:

The earth dragon above me! But I can’t let go of the wind sword! And there’s no way I can take a hit from that thing!

Azami looked around wildly. She saw Ryouko already beginning to show fatigue. She guessed that this was a new thing to him. So she made a move that both infuriated Ryouko and made him realize that he was really out of his class.

In a flash, Azami had grabbed the newly-arrived Sakura and Naruto, and put up a barrier jutsu.

“Surrender or I kill them!” Azami shouted. “Attack this dome with those creatures, and all three of us perish! What will you do now?”

Ryouko made eye contact with both Naruto and Sakura. He knew what he had to do. His chakra began to suppress itself, and he let himself sink to one knee. His dragons faded and disappeared.

“Good boy. Now, admit your defeat…”

Sakura couldn’t stay quiet anymore. “SCREW THAT! Ryouko, get over it! You can’t let her take you away! You and Naruto…I love you both! In different ways! I won’t let either of you go! I‘ll kill her myself!”

Ryouko couldn’t have been more proud. He had never said ‘I quit’- this fight was still going. And his chakra was back in his body. So he stood up, backed up a step or two, then ran forward, charging the dome. He leapt high, chakra in his foot, and he shattered Azami’s barrier.
==

Azami couldn’t believe it. Not even as Ryouko grabbed her by her gown and held her up.

“No more. I won’t go with you. Not like this. Not after you nearly tricked me into having sex with you. Not when you threatened Naruto-dono and Ojousama. I should kill you…”

Ryouko set her down, and gave her a hug instead.

“…I can’t kill you. You’re unfortunate in the same way as I am. You know what I mean, I think. So, go, and chalk this up to experience: Involve my students again, and I WILL kill you.”

Azami hugged back, whispering her consent.

“Ryouko…there was no genjutsu on you. You stopped short of having sex with me of your own volition. You have more character than anyone I know. Don’t lose that character, okay?”

Ryouko gave her a little tug closer. “If I was really in love with you, then sex would have been the wrong thing at that point. Neither of us need to make that kind of mistake. Despite our careers…we have morals and personal codes. Though they really suck sometimes.”

Azami turned a sigh into a laugh and squeezed back. “Yeah. Oh well. It’s odd to think of myself as an upstanding person. It’s even more odd to think that someone else thinks that of me.”

Azami made a handsign. One of her shadows came and began to swallow her up.
--

As Azami disappeared, I began to feel the effects of unleashing my curse bindings. It began as a small cut on my cheek. Then it spread, until blood was everywhere. At each tenketsu, an ‘X’ of my blood was placed. That meant hundreds, if not thousands of red X’s began to pop up all over my body. I began to get dizzy from blood loss and fell to one knee.

Blood dripped from my head, matting my hair down and turning my world a hazy red. Soon my left eye was covered with blood so much that I couldn’t open it. Blood crisscrossed my arms, turning my black shirt crimson.

“Wha-what’s happening?!”
Sakura fell backward, landing on her bottom, her jaw slack with shock. In all her studies, she’d never even HEARD of something like this.

Azami slowed herself, even getting ready to get out of the shadow. Naruto warded her off with a kunai.

“Just go. Sakura is the best medical ninja our village has. He’ll be fine.”

Azami looked a little hurt, and even a little guilty (Since she pushed Ryouko so far), but she agreed and left in silence, giving Ryouko a worried glance as the shadow swallowed the last bit of her up.

I just let myself kneel there, staring at where the shadow had been. Something inside me just snapped. I felt hopeless; helpless. It’s the worst, most useless emotion a warrior can have, and here it was, hitting me at a horrible time. But I couldn’t help it. It was all just too much.

It took…this much? And I still barely won? How powerful is that girl? How weak am I? Ojousama…Naruto-dono…they almost died…because I couldn’t protect them. The one thing I’m supposed to do, above all else…and I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t do my job. And what Sakura said…I don’t understand.

“…I’m fine.”
Did I say that?

“Just help me up. The bleeding’s stopped.”
That was true, but still…

“Good bluff back there, Sakura.”
Bluff? Risking your life is a ‘bluff’ suddenly?

“Naruto, you too. She had one eye on both of you, so she didn’t see me coming.”
Yeah? Way to take credit, big guy! What a hero.

Naruto got under my shoulder, helping me to my feet. But Sakura stayed back. She was absolutely shaking. My concern took over. Naruto wanted to take a look, too. He knew that look all too well, and he was ready to run for it. When Sakura got like that, he usually got hit.

But Sakura strode over to me and grabbed me by the shirt collar.
“If you EVER try to do something that dangerous on your own again, I’ll break all your bones, heal you, then break them again! You hear me?!”

Now I was the one who was slack-jawed. Her grip tightened, and she actually lifted me up onto my toes, then into the air.
“You hear me?! You and Naruto, and Sasuke, always doing stupid things by yourselves! I’m not the weak little girl I was! You don’t have to do something like that anymore! I can help!”

I only noticed the tears now. She was crying over worry for me. It felt both good and bad; sweet and sour. But it was just letting her close to me again. Wait, she had said something about loving Naruto and I in different ways.
No. No! I’ve sacrificed too much to make sure they get together! I can’t let her start to love me! Not now! But I wanna know what she meant. She loves us ‘in different ways’.

My voice trembled, either with emotion or from bloodloss. “You said…you loved Naruto and I…in different ways. I…don’t get it.”

Sakura was a little surprised that I would ask so directly. And she didn’t have an answer. I could see she was fluster, and had no idea what to say.

“I saw the commotion from the mansion and I-”
Lady Tsunade and several jonin had come running. They just froze. All they saw was Sakura holding me in the air, her hand in a fist, and me bloodied almost beyond recognition. (At this point, Sakura dropped me painfully onto the ground)

“Sakura! You went too far! He’s not Naruto!” Tsunade yelled, plucking me from the ground.

I had to laugh at the irony. In my head, anyway. Out loud, it hurt too much. Definitely hurt a rib or six.

“No, M’lady, she didn’t do it. It was an old grudge that I settled. That’s all.”
I laughed at myself. I still felt so useless; things still felt hopeless. What could I do but laugh at myself?

I need to take some time to think. Well, this injury gives me an excuse, anyway.

“Lady Tsunade, I’d like to take some time, and go heal myself somewhere. I’ll be happy to tell you what happened, but I’d really like to rest first.”

Sakura glared at me. I folded immediately.
“I’ll make it a business trip, and take Sakura and Naruto with me.”
--

This was victory?

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