Kitsune no Akuryō

Pick Your Battles!!

Welcome to the next chapter of Kitsune no Akuryō. I know that it's been a long time in coming, but I hope you guys enjoy it. Amidst the already dangerous Chunin Exams, Team 7 has now faced off against a kusa-nin far outside of their league. Not only did he play with them like a cat, but he clean knocked Naruto out of commission. Now as the team is trying to regroup, new threats await.

   "So we've decided to play house in the middle of a death game? Let's make things more interesting, don't you think?"

     Sakura and Sasuke moved into half-diamond formation around Naruto as the three ninjas descended like vultures.

   The boy with a weird bracer glanced behind the two ninja and grinned, "Hm, I guess there was a change of plans. We'll see if Orochimaru still values your life, Uchiha Sasuke."

    The girl came at Sasuke and quickly put him on the defensive, throwing senbon at key chakra points. Sasuke activated his Sharingan as he dodged and struck back. Sasuke couldn't help glancing over at Naruto as a sense of déjà vu washed over him. He could hear the girl cry, "Your opponent is me," as she threw senbon which were just dodged from vital points. Sasuke grunted through pain where they did strike. The idiot needed to wake up so that he could defend himself. Sasuke didn't have time to baby him. He turned and dodged the next set of senbon before deciding to charge in. He was moving through the hand seals for his signature jutsu when he heard the soft jingle of bells. Sasuke hesitated for just a moment.

    A blast of air rang through his ears and brought the boy to his knees. When he regained his senses, he found himself facing another ninja, the other boy. He was already releasing air from his palms which came at varying rates and pressures. Sasuke quickly rolled away as he activated his sharingan yet again. He felt disoriented as the ringing still sounded in his ears and his head spun. He struggled through, trying to focus, but he couldn't help wonder, 'Why am I so weak?"

     He got up onto his feet and shook his head. He saw the other boy holding his palms at the ready to blast him away. Sasuke didn't hesitate. He raced through the necessary seals, saying, "Katon: Gōkakyū no jutsu.*"

    Sakura had fought the boy first, the one which projected air pressures through his palms. She remained on the defensive, making sure to dodge the attacks if nothing else. She couldn't help feel helpless as she tried to maneuver around the opponent. She did try to use the water release, but it was no match against these skilled genin. Even if she could race through the hand seals, the projected water was scattered into droplets and useless puddles around them. The stupid mute, Naruto, had to get knocked out to make them suffer.

    To make matters worse, as the fight progressed, moments came when she didn't feel like she could breathe and just barely jumped away as her opponent came in to strike. At other times, she began to feel a little dizzy, but that was nothing compared to the burst of wind which rushed across the field.

    She now found herself face to face with the girl, but Sakura could hardly focus her body was ready to topple already. The enemy grabbed her hair, "You think your so tough trying to play ninja in this fake world. You have no idea what real ninja do! You're a weak, foolish girl. How could you leave such an opening to be exploited."

    "Kin, finish her," a older male voice called.

    "Hm," Kin grunted, "this twit doesn't even know how to be a kunoichi. I could take all the time in the world, and she could still do nothing. She's too worried about trivial things." To emphasize her point, the girl wrenched on Sakura's hair so that she jerked harshly to the ground.

    The girl pulled Sakura back up by her hair and smirked, "To think that this was one of the best and brightest of the Leaf. Pathetic."

    Sakura felt humilated. She was on display for everyone to see. The ugly feeling was settling in the pit of her stomach. She saw Sasuke fighting a little ways off and could just see Naruto breathing shallowly in the hollow of the tree. She hated feeling stupid. She despised being mocked. In that moment, she loathed being useless. Why couldn't her team work together so that they wouldn't be in the mess? The next thought startled her: why couldn't she have just trained so that her team wouldn't have ended up in this mess in the first place?