Lotus Of The Leaf ~Book One~

Chapter 25! Eat of Be Eaten: Panic In The Forest!

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I clasp my hands together. 'Dragon-Tiger-Hare' "Water Style! Raging Waves!" My cheeks fill up and I blow a heavy stream of water.

"Fire Style! Phoenix Flower Jutsu!" Sasuke shouts in unison. With both my water jutsu and his fire jutsu, the enemy ninja has no choice but to take to the air. Sasuke meets him mid flight and their kunai's clash against each other. Sakura and I follow their battle, and an explosion goes off in front of Sasuke.

"Sasuke!" I call, running faster to get to him. The ninja appears behind him, demanding the scroll. I lift my hand again. "Water Style: Water Bullets!" I spit large projectiles of water, making him jump upwards. I keep shooting as Sasuke leaps upwards and buries his kunai into his gut.

"Are you alright?!" Sakura shouts.

"Don't just stand there, Sakura! This guys not alone!" Sasuke snaps back. "Watch out! The others could strike any second now!" The ninja kicks away.

"I wish! I came alone so I didn't arouse any suspicions! Big mistake!" The ninja grunts, jumping away with pained grunts. Sasuke landed as I ran up, panting lightly.

"You good?" I ask, palming his shoulder. He nods and stands up, staring at me with those eyes. "God, do you have to look cool right now? Come on, we need to think of a way to tell if we're really us if we get separated again." I state, tugging on his hand.

"Yeah. Definitely." Sakura and Naruto meet us in the middle and we all take a seat. "That proves we can't just trust appearances. We have to come up with a way of knowing if each of us is who we say we are." Sasuke starts. "And not some impostor using a transformation jutsu."

"Mm-hmm." Naruto hums.

"Alright." Sakura agrees. "So what do we do?"

"We need a password." I shift to sit on my knees, crossing my hands over my lap.

"What kinda password?" Naruto asks.

"A secret one. Something known only to the four of us." I state. The hairs on the back of my neck twitched upwards, and I immediately knew we were being watched. "And don't trust anyone who doesn't know it. No matter what." Naruto and Sakura both nodded silently. "Okay, listen closely, cause I only wanna say this once. The question will be; 'When does a ninja strike?'. And the response is; 'A ninja waits until the time is right. When the enemy sleeps and drops it's guard. When his weapons lie forgotten in the stillness of the night. That is the moment, for a ninja to strike.' Got it?" I ask, smirking at Sakura.

"I got it." She jeers.

Naruto had this look of being lost on his face. "... You got one... a little shorter?" Naruto asks.

"No, Naruto." Sasuke sighs. "That's it."

"Ugh, come on. What's wrong? Didn't you get it? I memorized it, easy!" Sakura bragged.

"Ah, yeah, sure. I got it!" Naruto says nervously. "No problem! I just thought it was gonna be a pass-word. Not a pass-speech!"

"Alright then..." Sasuke hums, standing up. "I'll take the scroll." He hums, looking to me.

"Sure." I reach into my pouch and pull out the scroll.

"Ah, wait a minute, Sasuke- Ah!" Naruto exclaims in pain as a needle flies by, slicing his other cheek. "What was that?" He questions, gazing into the dark woods. The sound of wind whistling echoes throughout the forest, and then turns into a tornado, pushing me into Sasuke. I grasp onto his shirt in shock as the wind blows each one of us away. Sasuke and I hide underneath a bush as we regain our footing.