Sakura's strength

Naruto: Tales of Ashihara

Prologue – Arc 3: Inner-demon

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Chapter 28 – Sakura's strength

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An hour after he found his son using unknown abilities in the backyard, Tsubai is in the hospital of Kiri with Sana. The Ripper managed to run away from the village and went to meet with his employer to discuss the unplanned difficulty of this mission. He abandoned his girlfriend, Mimi, and left her to the enemy. Lethally injured and paralyzed by whatever happened to her, she's been brought to the hospital. Sana has been using her unique jutsu to try and send her back to her state of before she encountered the thing that did this to her, but can't help it. She doesn't have enough chakra to save the stranger woman in her current state.

"It's no use…" she says. "We can't do anything. It's over for her."

Tsubai says nothing and just looks at the dying woman lying there. He thinks about the fact that this makes his son a murderer with only 13 months old. The chakra he felt, the feeling he got,… This makes him shiver.

"Tsubai, your boy scares me." says Kasha in his head.

"Yeah. Me too." he answers.

"Don't let it go." says Daikoku about the dying woman. "She's done for, but you can still get what she knows. Take her memories."

Tsubai agrees and holds the woman's head as her life signs are fading away. Now empty of memories, she dies. Sana sighs, disappointed in her own self. Tsubai pats her head.

"What are you sad about?" he says rhetorically. "Nobody could have done anything. And I have all the intel she could have given us. So we didn't lose anything."

"Well… She's lost her life." answers Sana.

"… Yeah." quietly answers Tsubai. "Looks like my son's a damn monster. 'T will be hard to still see him as an innocent toddler after this."

Tsubai recalls Mimi's memories in his mind and sees what she saw in her last moments of consciousness. It's nothing but empty eyes staring at her. She was surrounded by dense mist and unable to see anything else than these eyes that appeared and disappeared right in front of her. This is what she kept seeing until her last breath. "A genjutsu then" thinks Tsubai, who trembles, uncomfortable after recalling these memories.

He also recalls all that she knew about her mission and that other man Kobo faced. Everything he learns, he finds it quite uncommon. The identity of their employer is the most particular thing to him. Isami Kurama, Tsubai has heard this name before. He even met this man. He decides to report it all to the Mizukage.

Later in her office, Mei Terumi is sitting with Kobo and Tsubai in front of her. She is reading a paper on which Tsubai hurried to write everything he now knew about a certain Isami Kurama, Guroi, and Suto.

"So this Isami is looking to steal a tengu for an unknown reason." she says. "He's trying to avoid the two big heads of Konoha, and is currently hiding there, in the land of Fire. Is that so?"

"I forgot to mention that I know this guy." adds Tsubai. "He's a traveler who visited my village a year after the war."

In Tsubai's head, Daikoku comments about this and gives his theories.

"You may believe that this guy found out and studied the tengu after coming to the village, but I don't think so."

"What you think?"

"When he came to Ryuka, he spent a lot of time with your old man. He was probably already aware of your clan's nature and actually visited to get more information about it. He must have found out about the little chances of survival to becoming a yamabushi, and spent the last few years looking for a way to avoid this risk."

Tsubai thinks of it. For what reason would this man want a tengu so bad that he sends top mercenaries collect one for him? And what is that serum that makes him more capable of bearing a tengu? He looks at the Mizukage, who's staring at him, waiting for more details.

"Um… Yeah, so he's a wanderer who could have been looking for a tengu for a long time." he says.

Mei looks at the paper and then at Kobo. All he said about the man he fought, and what she's read on this paper basically answers any question the could have had about the Ripper. All that remains for his case now is just a name in the bingo book, waiting to be checked off.

About this Isami, she thinks that bringing all they know to Konoha is the best thing to do. If this man hides on their territory, and is running after a power that they already know very well, then letting them take the rest is what to do.

"Mizuno?" asks Mei to one of her bodyguards standing on her right. "Bring all these data to the Hokage and assist him until this case is closed."

"As you wish, Lady 5th." answers the kunoichi.

Mizuno is a tall woman with long brown hair, dressed with the uniform of Kiri's high-graded personal. She replaces Ao, who died during the climax night of the 4th war, as the Mizukage's advisor and bodyguard. Being a sensor type kunoichi specializing in Ninjutsu and Security, she clearly has all the needed qualifications to succeed him and more. About as old as Chojuro, she was part of the Sensor division during the fourth, joined the main battlefield with the rest of the alliance, and ended up among the roughly 10 thousands survivors of the war, from the original 80 thousands ninjas and samurai.

She takes the papers written by Tsubai, seals them all in a scroll and leaves without saying a word. She considers that she has enough indications about her task and immediately goes on the mission. Mei now looks at Tsubai, and changes the subject to what happened with his son.

"So angst and illusion?" she asks. "This new born tengu seems similar to Kokoro's Kawahime in abilities, just a lot edgier. Is he even really born yet?"

"I don't know…" answers the Minamoto clan head. "It's not yet visible to anything else than Takeshi's eyes. It's at least what Tentoki thinks. It's odd, because I don't think anyone else went through such a phase before."

"What do you think has something special then? The Tengu, or the Yamabushi?"

"Don't know either. But I think Tentoki said something about Takeshi being unique… Should probably ask him again."

"… Do as you want. Let's keep this out of conversations for now and just wait for him to grow up."

Tsubai doesn't answer, but quietly agrees. He and Kobo then leave for their homes where Kobo waits for Sana to get back from her work at the hospital, and Tsubai finds his woman feeding the toddler as if nothing happened. He sits next to her and looks at his son, who innocently looks back and stays silent. Tsubai gets uncomfortable again. He can't not associate his son with what he did to that woman anymore. He just hopes that his tengu won't turn out to be like Ryutoki.

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In the land of Fire, Sai and Sakura followed the suspect's traces as asked by the Hokage. They started at his last known location indicated by Kakashi, and have now been on these tracks for nearly a day. Now they finally reach a place where he could have settled for a few hours. No traces of chakra or footprints continue from there on.

Ninpo – Choju Giga

Sai releases a few ink snakes from a scroll and lets them crawl around to find something. An explanation to this abrupt lack of traces. They gather in front of a boulder, sitting against a tree. Sai gets nearer and inspects the rock and its surroundings. It seems like it was moved over to cover something.

Sakura comes closer to it. She is using a metamorphosis jutsu to hide her pregnant belly. She grabs the boulder from underneath with one hand and easily lifts and throws it away, revealing a man-sized hole in the soil. Sai summons a few ink beasts and sends them down the hole to check for safety, and clues about what awaits them down there.

"There's a hallway inside." he says. "Should we go and see by ourselves?"

Sakura nods and jumps down the hole with no hesitation. Sai follows her. Now in complete darkness, the former Root ninja pulls out a little lamp that he lights up to see at least where he is walking. They get deeper and deeper in the hall, until they reach a steel door. Sai inspects it to see if he can send other snakes on the other side, but there is no wide enough space surrounding the door. Sakura breathes in and focuses her mind to sense and hear what is on the other side.

She can't feel any living thing, so she decides that discretion isn't a priority. She punches the door away and gets to see the inside: a laboratory, with a very odd decoration. There's a dentist chair next to a chemistry table on the left, a random stone bench in the middle of the room, and a hospital bed with what appears to be a dead body, with a dissected abdomen and guts leaking out, lying on it. There also are broken screens and pipes on the walls and ceiling. The two Konoha-nins carefully walk in, following the steps of ink creatures to avoid falling in an unexpected setup.

However, even with this much precaution, they both surprisingly trigger mechanisms that unleash traps. Some kind of sentient ropes fall from the behind the pipes on the ceiling and catch on Sakura's arms and feet, then spread her limbs wide. Sai finds himself locked in a water tube that suddenly crawled out of another broken pipe on the ceiling. When it makes contact with the ground, this water column stabilizes and traps him in. Sakura looks around to understand how these things suddenly moved, and notices that the dissected corpse on the table changed his arm's position.

The body suddenly rises to sit on the bed. He turns his head to see the trapped intruders and then looks at his leaking guts. He carelessly grabs them and pushes them back in his body. He stands up and goes to grab a needle on his chemistry desk that he uses to sew his abdomen up. While he's doing this with one hand, he presses his other on a sign on the wall. Sai now feels his chakra being absorbed by the water column.

The dead body walking makes a satisfied fac while admiring the ninjas caught up in his lab's traps. This man is Suto, the criminal ninja scientist to whom this hideout belongs. Sakura clenches her fists and forces her way through the trap. Out of raw strength, she rips the ropes off and gets back on the ground.

"My, My… If it isn't Sakura Haruno." says Suto.

"It's Sakura Uchiha." answers the kunoichi. "Who are you?"

"What? You break into someone's home and ask who he is? That's really bad manners, young girl."

"Don't play with me. Are you the one who disguised as my husband?"

"I am not, but are you sure you want to go for an interview? I don't think your friend would enjoy waiting for us to finish while his chakra and strength are slowly leaving him."

Sakura turns around to see Sai who looks like he's fighting to remain conscious and avoid drowning. She steps forward to him and tries to break the water prison, but she gets electrocuted by a lightning barrier that appears when she gets too close, and is pushed away. She's sent crashing into the wall, and her transformation jutsu wears off.

"Hmm?" makes the scientist who slightly leans his head forward and raises an eyebrow. "You suddenly got fat. Looks like you just ate a baby." he says, sarcastically.

Sakura stands up, unsettled by the shock, but quickly gets back to her senses and tries to think of a way to free Sai.

"What is this thing?" she asks, referring to the water column. "You better answer quick or I'll have to force it out of you."

"Don't bother trying to use brute force. It won't break as long as I keep it active." confidently says Suto.

"So if I get rid of you, It'll release him." suggests Sakura.

"Yeah right, but…"

Before he can finish his sentence, Sakura swiftly and violently punches through the air. Without any physical contact, she strikes the scientist away with just air propelled by her fist. He's pushed away and smashes into his chemistry desk that breaks under his back.

"Wow, Hohoho, HAHAHA!" he laughs uncontrollably. "That is impressive!… But it doesn't work on me."

Sakura straightens herself, and just waits for explanation. The mad scientist stands up covered with cuts caused by the glass shards of broken chemistry equipment, and with acid spilled over him melting his skin and clothes.

"This body can't feel any pain. I got rid of this human weakness long ago. So the prison won't wear off unless you kill me."

Sakura widens her eyes, as she has to make a decision, and quick. Suto keeps explaining the situation to mess with her.

"You get it, don't you. You have to choose between your mission, that is collecting information, and your friend's life. What is more important to a ninja, huh? The only way to free this man is to kill me and miss your chance to get answers." He confidently walks toward her. "Now you might think that I can't be serious, as I'm potentially inciting you to kill me. Well don't get any wrong idea, I'm not in danger at all here. You see… I'm only a perfect genetic clone of my original. So dying would not be my end at all. Many others of me will still keep living… See, the only losers here are you. You either fail the mission, or your colleague. And me, I'll just lose the few worthless equipment that is here. See, cloning, body enhancing, immunity to pain,… These are just some of my best achievements…"

Sakura stopped listening but is still amazed by this man's monologue. The scientist is carelessly and proudly spitting out all the details she needs to know about the situation, and way more. How can someone be such a great scientist, with so many great accomplishment, but still be so dumb?

Suto reaches her and bends forward to bring his face closer to hers. Still teasing her, he keeps talking.

"So, what worthless thing do you decide to do?"

Sakura looks at him, and expires. Besides his extreme stupidity, this sick man is over confidently incorrect about he thinks he knows. This situation isn't a dilemma at all, since Konoha has the means necessary to collect data from a dead body's mind. However, even without this fact, the choice still is obvious. Accomplishing the mission is important, but to not give up on your partners is even more. This is part of the basic teaching of the 6th Hokage, and to not consider it shows how little this guy knows about his opponent.

Sakura sighs, and stares at Suto right in the eyes with a slight smile. This is enough for him to understand her resolve, so he carelessly tries to stab her with the needle he's still holding in his hand. Sakura's faster. With enough strength to shatter an iron shelter, she quickly hits him in the torso and completely breaks his rib cage. The strength of this punch pressures against his heart and crushes it to death. The thick veins covering the man's face inflate even more and explode as he flies through the lab and the wall.

Pushed by the pressure, the ground under her feet and all the walls break. All the furniture in the room is lifted up and thrown away. The water prison collapses and Sai is freed. He falls down, but Sakura catches him before he faints to the ground.

Shosen Jutsu

She uses the mystical palm to restore his chakra and waits for him to get back to his senses. When he does, he looks around and sees the aftermath of Sakura's simple punch. Before he says anything, Sakura optimistically explains.

"Let's inspect this room. Then we'll get this man's body to Konoha. The interrogation force might actually be able to access his memories."

Sai understands her proposition. He stands up and goes on to proceed as she told. Together, they look for a few clues in the room. Based on prints, hair and chakra remains, they find that 4 people were there in the last few days. The man they just met must have been the owner of the lab, and among the 3 others people must be the impersonator, a survivor of the Kurama clan. Once they're done with this, they get the scientist clone's dead body and leave for Konoha.

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The next morning, on the northern east coast of the country, Isami Kurama, the vagabond disguise master, sees a little boat get closer to land. He waits until it does and sees the Ripper come to him, alone.

"Why didn't you just go by yourself?" asks Guroi. "Your skills would have made it easier… Though you'd still have failed."

"I don't want to go too far away from this land. Going across another sea is too much. What happened?" he asks.

"You didn't tell me about the Sharingan user that guards Tsubai's house. And you didn't mention that the target could be dangerous."

"What do you mean? You failed then."

"That's what I said. The kid sort of killed Mimi, so I'm alone again. I thought it was just a 1 year old who couldn't do anything else than shitting his toddler pants, but he actually has powers. And he's heavily protected. You underestimated the mission's difficulty and misguided me."

"That is a problem. I really didn't think you'd fail. And I didn't think that the new tengu would have awakened already."

"I can handle a failure. What really annoys me is that they have Mimi's body. And with Tsubai's jutsu to steal memories, they'll get information about me. So I'll have to stay away from any activity for a while. Maybe I should leave the continent."

"I never told you about Tsubai's jutsu. How do you know about it?"

"I have contacts, that know a lot about stuff. You're not my only source."

"… I see… I'm sorry for Mimi."

"Oh, right. This sucks too. I'll have to find a new sidekick now, or maybe I'll go solo."

"Uh, I thought you were a couple."

"We were. But whatever, she mostly served me as an assistant. She's not the first girlfriend of mine that dies… I have a question before I leave."

"Which is?"

"Why do you want a demon up your ass so much? And why do you specifically want the kid's one?"

"First question is none of your business… About the second one, I'd have gladly taken Riku Minamoto's tengu, but I hadn't met Suto back then, so I had no way to be sure of surviving the tengu's presence in me. Choosing the kid's tengu rather than any other was just an effort to try and make the job easier for you. But it didn't help as I can see."

"Don't get the wrong idea. If you simply told us to get his mother's beast or this other young girl's, I'd have done it. But your precaution turned against me. Also, I lost a sidekick for you, so you better consider your business as my business. So what do you need a tengu for?"

"This sounds like a threat but whatever… Just consider this need as a religious belief."

"Don't mess with me. You're not the kind of guy to believe in any religion."

"… Not exactly religion, but traditions at least." answers Isami, who doesn't want to tell more about his passed life as a soldier for his clan.

Guroi doesn't ask anything more. He just takes his unique sword out of the boat and carries it on his shoulder. He turns around and goes to leave.

"Whatever… I'm heading back to Suto's lab."

"It's been destroyed, and he was killed." answers Isami.

"Come again?"

"Ninjas of Konoha followed my steps and found the lab. They destroyed it and killed Suto."

"How about that? Looks like we both made a stupid mistake this week. You're just wrong about one thing. Suto's not dead. He was just one of his many genetic clones. The original is in a lab based outside this country. He has labs and doppelgangers all around the world, and even outside the continent."

"Outside the continent? Where?"

"Wouldn't you like to know… Whatever… If you don't need me, I better get cover there, outside the continent." answers Guroi who turns around and walks away.

"… That's okay. I don't think I need you now." quietly says Isami. "I have stuff to settle with Konoha before I can resume my tengu hunt."

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End of Chapter 28 – Next Chapter: Perfect demonic illusion