Of Tales now and Long Ago

Of Birds and Scorpions

Chapter FIVE

"Nii-san?" Sasuke asked.

Itachi blinked. "Yes?"

"Where's Sakura?"

Itachi inwardly winced.

"She was supposed to be back a week ago, right?" He asked. "She's missing the Academy!"

Itachi offered his brother a small smile. "Something just came up." He said. "She will be back soon."

Sasuke looked down, unconvinced, and Itachi didn't know what to say to make it better.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Come at me."

Sakura charged her chakra up to her hand and formed a sphere with it. She held it out in front of her. With her perfect chakra control, the pressure of having such a huge amount of compressed chakra on her palm was minimized. She charged forwards, running chakra to her legs to make them move faster.

She knew from experience that Toneri, even without the power of sight, was a very strong opponent. He was not someone Sakura could even hope to beat at the moment. True to her thoughts, Toneri easily dodged Sakura's blow. Sakura moved chakra to one foot, helping to spin around and block Toneri's Puppet Cursing sphere with her own. She was flung backwards, and the force behind her created a crater on the wall she crashed against.

Sakura let out a grunt as she slid onto the floor.

"Sakura-sama?"

Sakura groaned. "I'm fine." She got to her feet and reformed her Puppet Cursing Sphere. "Again." They repeated the small routine.

Two hours and a few dozen craters later, Sakura collapsed onto her knees, panting.

Toneri smiled at her from across the cave. "Are you okay?"

Sakura nodded. "Yeah. Just tired."

Toneri summoned a puppet and ordered it to prepare dinner.

Sakura slowly stood up on shaky legs. "What time is it?"

Toneri blinked. "I would guess that it is around six going by Earth time, but I am not exactly sure."

Sakura nodded. "Okay."

"How is your Water Dragon Bullet technique training going?" Toneri asked.

Sakura winced. "Uh, not very well." She told him of all the problems she had, how she could not balance the chakra circulation of the jutsu and the sphere. Toneri nodded thoughtfully.

"We'll do some training to help with that." He said.

Sakura nodded.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Sakura flashed through the forty four hand seals and rushed her chakra to the water at her feet, molding it into shape and willing it to rise. Rise, with the power, the speed, and the strength of a dragon.

"Suiton: Suiryudan no jutsu!"

The water in front of her moved, rippling and slowly shifting form. A huge dragon rose out of the water, baring it's sharp fangs.

Sakura took in a shaky breath and slowly removed her right hand from the seal, trying to support the jutsu with just the other. She summoned a Puppet Cursing sphere and slowly raised it towards her left hand. She placed her Puppet Cursing sphere above it and channeled the compressed chakra through her arm. However, the moment her chakra raveled through her hand and appeared withing the water dragon, it exploded, raining down heavily around them.