Ripples

Chapter 19

                           Full Circle

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Sakura couldn't believe him – he was going to destroy Konoha? After Itachi had devoted his life to saving it? She could sympathize with the emotional shock Sasuke had just been dealt...but this, she would not condone – he needed to wake up to himself, and it looked like she was playing the role of alarm clock!

Sasuke darted out of the way of her fist, but Sakura was not deterred. She swung again, and this time hit a small rocky overhang when Sasuke dodged, smashing it to pieces and sending tiny stone shards flying through the air.

Sasuke blinked, trying to recover from the twin shocks of Sakura attacking him, and seeing an overhang of solid rock crumble like dry pasta when she punched it.

"I don't want to fight," he snapped.

"I do!" she yelled, her fist charging for his gut.

Sasuke countered, seizing her wrist and tossing her away. Sakura struck the ground...and disappeared in a burst of smoke.

Sasuke barely had time to realise she must have created a doppelganger in the chaotic rain of stone that had followed her destruction of the rock before he was whipping around, sensing a chakra signature behind him. Sakura's foot was so close to his face Sasuke didn't have time to mute the force he used – he just grabbed her ankle and twisted it violently.

A sickening crack echoed over the beach, and Sasuke was so shocked by the sight of bone protruding from Sakura's calf that the blow from the second doppelganger caught him completely by surprise. The breath was knocked from his body and he was sent flying – literally – backwards, to crash into the ocean beyond.

For a moment, Sasuke's world consisted of nothing but seawater and the throbbing in his lungs. He broke the surface, racing through the surf back to the beach, half-terrified that he'd done Sakura permanent damage...

Sakura was poised on one leg, her hands gripping her calf. Her face twisted in pain and determination, and then she jerked hard on the limb in her grip, snapping the bone back into place as bright chakra flowed across the broken skin. Barely a moment later, she put her leg back on the ground and it took her weight without a flinch.

And Sasuke was left staring. He didn't know much about medical jutsu, but he was certain the usual medic-nin wasn't able to repair a broken bone in the space of a few blinks. Even Kabuto had never been that fast...

Sakura grinned at the look of astonishment on Sasuke's face. Though she hated her strength still came as such a surprise to him – as though, even after all he'd learned about her and all they'd been through, he still expected her to be weak – she wasn't blind to how much of an advantage this gave her. Sasuke would be likely to underestimate her, and underestimating your opponent was a sure way to set a ninja on the road to defeat.

Her hands blurred through seals that Sasuke's Sharingan tried to memorise, though the Uchiha knew it would probably be useless – it wasn't enough to memorise the technique, he needed to be capable of performing the jutsu as well. And frankly, Sasuke could memorise Sakura's entire repertoire, but he didn't have the chakra control to pull off even one medical jutsu.

He darted out of the way as a chakra scalpel whizzed past his arm, twisting around with all of his inhuman speed in an effort to get behind her, perhaps knock her out...