The Dragon Queen // (Under Revision)

Warmth

Tsuyoi was being smothered by something heavy. It was warm, too. She flailed her arms, desperately trying to get a grip on the thing and get it the hell off of her.

"Here I come!" Sakura's voice reached her. A second later, the wall next to her ear exploded.

Tsuyoi's hands gripped someone's hair. Then the body coughed and groaned. It was Naruto.

Tsuyoi pushed hard. "Hnrrrgh!" A chunk of wall fell across Naruto's back. He groaned again. With a final heave, she pushed his body off of hers and raised herself up on one knee. She twisted her upper body and gripped a reasonable-sized rock from Sakura's punch that was thrust into her. She held it for a moment, bending her body to reciprocate her weight the same way as the rock's projectile, then flung it the other side of her, over Naruto and Sai's bodies on the ground. Tsuyoi's eyes flicked back to her left. Sakura came through a second after she let go of the rock, and her hands were already in position. She grabbed the oncoming Sakura, one hand on her collar and the other by the top of her pants and arched her back, launching her over Naruto and Sai as well. Sakura landed on her back and stayed where she was.

Tsuyoi stood, breathing hard.

Naruto's eyes peeked out from where he lay on the ground. "That was cool, Tsuyoi!"

"Not cool enough for you to come help me, Hayride," Tsuyoi griped, a vein throbbing on her forehead. Turning her attention to Sakura, she said, "Now is she still under the genjutsu or whatever?"

"Genjutsu?" Sakura sat up. "What genjutsu? Naruto, did you tell her that stupid fake jutsu about Sasuke?"

"It's fake?!"

"Of course it's fake!" Sakura yelled back. "We were messing with you the whole time!"

Their eyes met and suddenly the anger in both of them extinguished. They dissolved into giggling. Laughter bubbled up from Tsuyoi and quickly spread across the group. 

"What am I going to tell Tomoe and Fukuo when they ask why is the north wall pretty much destroyed?" Tsuyoi asked, rubbing her head with a hand as she looked back at the wall. Half of it was collapsed in a pile of rubble.

"We were....training?" Sai suggested, still laughing. 

Laughter rounded off from them again. But out of the corner of Tsuyoi's eye, she could still see the stake in the ground. Where the incident her kid mind had classified as everything gray had occurred. She turned her head away and held out her hand to Sai to help him up. He took it gladly. She glanced at his hand. As pale as he was, almost translucent in the setting sun, his fingers were warm. 

He met her eyes, his like black charcoals. There was warmth to them, too. She recalled the look on Sakura's face earlier. She may have been joking, but that pain she had felt from the kunoichi had been very real. And Naruto was a whole different puzzle on his own. 

"There's more to you guys than meets the eye, huh?"Tsuyoi said as she pulled Sai to his feet.

Sai tilted his head at her comment, but didn't say anything.

"Ha! What's that supposed to mean, rockhead?" Naruto teased.

Tsuyoi spun around, and the cretin was sneaking past the garden wall, the one kitty-corner to the north wall that was broken. "You get back here, you idiot-jerk! This is all your fault in the first place!"

"What?! My fault? Sai and Sakura were in on it too, ya know!" Naruto threw over his shoulder. The fool had started running. He disappeared around the corner.

"I deal with him once I finish killing you!" Tsuyoi gave chase, her blood boiling. 

"Right behind you!" Sakura yelled and started to follow.

Their shouts and laughter ran across the garden walls and the walls of the monastery until the sun set.