Shooting Straight

Chapter 18

In the belly of the forest, Tsukame Itakare retracted her whip- wiping it clean of blood as she did so, clicking her tongue in dismay at the mess she'd made. Once clean, her weapon wound itself around her wrist before solidifying into a thin metal bracelet. 

She turned away from the three lifeless bodies, neatly arranged into a pile in front of her, brandishing a bloodied heaven scroll in her hand and examining it before glancing up at her two witnesses. 

"Did we really have to kill them all?" One of them signed, shaking his hand to be rid of the blood. The crimson colour matched that of his dark eyes as they flickered to meet Tsukame's crystal gaze. Her lips twitched up into a smirk.  

"Seriously Tsukame, this is just disgusting." From beside her, her other teammate spoke. His soft, tomato-red hair was ruffled, and his bangs fell to cover a majority of his face. His violet eyes fell upon the silver-haired kunoichi of the team. "I could basically smell the fear coming off them, they would've given up the scroll without the mess. There's blood everywhere- this will take forever to get out of my clothes." He let out a sigh and a grumble, tugging at his stained shirt. 

"Don't be such a baby Seishi," Tsukame rolled her eyes at her teammates, "You too, Takeshi." 

"Just because you're a fricken maniac doesn't mean you have to drag us into it." Takeshi returned the expression, running a hand through his mess of auburn hair. "We have both the scrolls, we should be headed to the tower already. What are you waiting for?"

"I'm waiting for someone. Come on, it's still the first day- we have plenty of time." She hummed, offering a mischievous smile. The boys let out consecutive huffs, admitting their defeat as she grinned and offered the scroll to Takeshi, who pocketed it alongside their earth scroll.

"Now, let us find him." 

Taking each of the boy's hands in her own, she lead them deeper into the forest in search of the particular genin on her mind. 

~~~

Sasuke sat propped against the wide trunk of a tree as Sakura stared intently at him, concern swimming within her gaze. He forced himself to breathe at a steady pace as his hand gripped the kunai embedded in his thigh, knuckles white around the black metal handle as he worked up the nerve to remove the weapon. 

He clenched his eyes shut, grasping tighter around the knife before quickly pulling it free from his flesh with a muffled cry of pain. Blood gushed from the wound, worsened by the increasing rate of Sasuke's heartbeat; his name fell off Sakura's tongue in a panicked yell, causing him to slap a hand over her mouth to keep her quiet as he surveyed their surroundings, ignoring the intense throbbing of his leg. 

With his thoughts running a mile a minute, Sasuke found himself entirely wrapped up in his head, hands shaking as adrenaline ran a marathon throughout his body. Beside him, Sakura felt tears well up in her eyes as she tried to tug his hand away from her mouth, begging to warn him of the shadow that had fallen over them. 

In the last second, before the snake descended on them, Sakura wrenched his arm away from her, screaming loud enough to cause Sasuke to turn, eyes blazing red as the snake lunged. 

At the very last second, Sakura wrenched herself out of Sasuke's grip, a loud shriek escaping her. Sasuke turned, eyes blazing red as the large snake descended upon them, jaw snapping. The two genin launched themselves off the branch just in time to avoid becoming snake food. 

Sakura landed in a crouch a few metres away, watching in horror as the giant body of the beast curled up and around the length of the tree they had previously inhabited. The animal ignored her completely, instead choosing to lunge for Sasuke, who was still airborne.