The Dragon Queen // (Under Revision)

Laughingstock

"Naruto! You had us waiting for forever!" Sakura cried. She stood from the table where she and Sai were seated as Naruto and Tsuyoi entered the room. Naruto crossed over and gingerly slid Tsuyoi in one of the chairs.

"Sorry, Sakura." He turned around to inspect Tsuyoi. "You still can't move?"

"Nope," Tsuyoi sighed. Her arms and legs still felt like lead. She desperately tried to wiggle her fingers, her toes, anything, but nothing happened. She felt a jolt of fear. What if I don't walk again? She recalled Chizu's surprise at her using a Pillar and an Art at the same time. She was surprised because Tsuyoi shouldn't have been able to do it. But Tsuyoi could. For a moment.

If she remembered correctly, she was first to do so. But she was also the only Arakawa to be Dragon Queen, too. The first to overlap the two abilities, to have a genkai kekkei and be trained in the Arts. She had discovered that she was able to use both a Pillar and an Art by experimentation about four months ago, she remembered now. But it completely trashed her inner reiki system and immobilized her, like right now.

She closed her eyes and reach out for a kite string. Her fingers closed around one. She remembered that she had been sitting on her bed. She had charged up her Hammerfist, a dairokkan pillar, on her right hand and her Obsidian Talon move on the other. After a minute and a half of just sustained use, both of her arms went limp and the reiki was cut off for about half an hour after.

And if that was just from sustained use...no wonder I can't move. I went on a whole rampage. And there's no telling how much my emotions affected the reiki either...

"I feel like absolute sosuke right now," she moaned, opening her eyes. The word, sosuke, pronounced soo-sis-kay, rolled off her tongue. She didn't think anything of it. She could barely tilt her head backwards to yawn.

"Sosuke?" Sakura asked. She shifted her body in the chair, her pink hair sliding off of her shoulder. 

Tsuyoi met her eyes. "Yeah, sosuke." There was a strange look in them.

A pause. 

"I don't know what that means."

Were you supposed to? "Sosuke. It means...like, to put it simply, uh...crap." They don't speak Lioditian....but is it that difficult?

Sakura continued to stare. "I don't get it."

"Sakura. It's a swear word."

The light bulb didn't click. The girl's pale green eyes still bore into hers vacantly.

"WHAT THE HELL, GIRL? DO I HAVE TO SPELL IT OUT?" Tsuyoi roared, half-joking, half-assessing her reaction.

"Tsuyoi," Naruto said softly, his voice breathy against her ear. "Sosuke sounds just like Sasuke...it's only a letter apart, right?"

Sakura continued to stare. Tsuyoi wanted to wave her hand in front of the girl's face, but her hand wouldn't move. Her pinky finger twitched though. Finally!

"Tsuyoi....don't make any sudden moves." Naruto whispered, placing his hand on her shoulder. Tsuyoi paused from her rejoicing and looked up at him. Her neck and shoulders could move now too.

"What's wrong her?" Tsuyoi's heartbeat quickened. Her hands itched. She needed to be able to defend herself. How could I let myself get so comfortable around these outsiders? At the end of the day, that's what they still are and I have to be careful.

"She's only thinking of Sasuke now. You've put her under the greatest genjutsu of all time, Tsuyoi-san." Sai added on, standing slowly. Tsuyoi twisted her head to look at Sai, who kept his dark eyes trained on Sakura. Naruto squeezed her shoulder in a gentle reprimand. "It's the Eye of Sorrow, the Cursed Shadow of Sasuke Uchiha."