The Hope of the Senju Clan

Chapter 21: Mother's Fury

-With Sakura and Sasuke-

As the early morning dragged on into the afternoon, Sakura struggled to keep herself awake, as she had been up most of the night keeping watch over the unconscious Sasuke with Sai. They had of course tried to take turns in keeping guard, but Sakura found that she couldn't get any sleep as she kept having nightmares of Orochimaru and how close they had been in being killed. She also couldn't help but worry what happened to Naruto, even though they didn't get on too well, that didn't mean she wanted him to be killed.

When morning broke, Sai told her that he was going off to try and find Naruto and that he would be back in a couple of hours.

It was then in mid-afternoon, that Sakura's exhaustion had gotten the better of her, where she finally nodded off.

Seeing this, the Oto team that Orochimaru had sent to "test" Sasuke and Naruto, after they had their curse marks placed on them, attacked. The team had tracked down Sakura and Sai not long after they had escaped Orochimaru and kept hidden from them until Sakura and Sai stopped, where they then watched over them until the time was right.

When the Oto team attacked, they triggered some of Sakura and Sai's traps, but easily evaded them, where they prepared to kill her. Fortunately though, before the Oto team could kill Sakura, Rock Lee arrived and forced the Oto team back.

He then engaged the team leader Dosu, where thanks to watching Dosu and his team attack Kabuto earlier, Lee knew he had to keep his distance from Dosu because of his melody arm.

Sadly though that had also put Lee at a disadvantage, given how he was strictly a Taijutsu user and was forced to use his Omote Renge (Front Lotus) in the hope of taking Dosu out quickly.

Unfortunately Lee's attack failed, as Dosu's team-mate Zaku interfered, where Lee's attack did little damage to him. After which Dosu struck back at Lee and used his melody arm against Lee, whose body was fairly worn out from using the Omote Renge.

Even after being hit by Dosu melody arm, Lee continued to try and defend Sakura and Sasuke, but given the damage he took from Dosu's melody arm and from using Omote Renge, there was little he could do. He's was eventually knocked out by Dosu, when the Oto Genin made a direct hit on him with his melody arm.

After Lee had been defeated, Sakura tried to defend both Sasuke and Lee by herself, but despite her best efforts she was easily over powered. During the course of the fight she was caught by Kin who caught her by using her hair; where she then demanded Sakura tell them where Naruto was. Sakura of course answered that she didn't known, where upon hearing this, Kin stated that Sakura was then of no use to them and prepared to kill her. But before she could, Sakura cut her long her short, and freed herself from the Oto Kunoichi Kin, only to be then quickly caught by the Oto Kunoichi again.

But just when Kin was about to finish off the pink haired girl, team ten, who were hidding in the tree line watching the battle, arrived. Together the three Genin were able to push the Oto Genin back and held their own against them, they even captured the Oto Kunoichi Kin, where Ino took possession of her body.

As the battled continued, Lee's team-mates Hyuuga Neji and Tenten arrived, where they prepared to enter the fray for what Dosu and his team did to Lee. But before any of them could enter the battle, they suddenly notice the large pulse of Dark Chakra emanating from Sasuke, which had been slowly growing during the battle.

When everyone finally took notice, they saw Sasuke standing up, surrounded by Dark Chakra and with markings covering his body.

It was upon seeing this that Dosu realised that Orochimaru had placed his curse seal on Sasuke and that he and his team stood no chance of beating Sasuke with the curse seal helping him. But before he could order his team-mate Zaku to pull back, his teammate attacked and tried to kill both Sakura and Sasuke with his Zankūkyokuha (Extreme Decapitating Airwaves).