A Hundred Steps Ahead

Protect

CHAPTER 15: Protect

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Honestly, Shikamaru could've played out the whole thing that he was also a victim of the mysterious genjutsu that appeared around the arena. He could've played it out that he was too tired from his previous match that he was caught off – guard. But no, Asuma's lackadaisical attitude managed to engrave into him the off – handed mentions of teamwork and motivational speeches.

So now, here he was trying to get to Sakura, his injured, pierced by a fucking tendril of sand, teammate that was currently knocked unconscious by how fast everything went. If Shikamaru was being honest, he was so done of getting involved with shit like this, on his first year as a Genin, too.

"Sakura!" Shikamaru heard Asuma also reach for his teammate and he felt immense relief when he saw that the older man managed to get to her faster. Beside him, Shino pointed to a newly wrecked hole on the arena wall.

"Gaara and his siblings are making a run for it," a few insects appeared from underneath his coat, "This must be an attack."

"Yeah, no shit."

X

A flash of lightning piercing a torso.

A horrendous, manic shriek that seemed to pierce her eardrums.

Green eyes that glowed red for a brief moment.

And suddenly, "Let me see you bleed, little girl."

If Sakura was informed that the red head had an issue with seeing his blood, she wouldn't have pierced him at his torso. Currently, her issue was that she couldn't quite grasp how she ended up gasping for breath while looking at her own pierced torso.

Her mind pounded like she fell from a cliff and got whiplash. Her mouth was both dry as a desert and slimy as she coughed blood. Her ears were muffled like she was dunked underwater for a long time, but she could hear Asuma, Shikamaru, and Shino calling out for her name. Her eyes felt like it was being pulled down and her whole world was just spinning.

"Sakura," she could hear a muffled sound of fingers snapping near her, a glimpse of her emerald eyes easily connected to see Shikamaru, "You okay?"

"She is obviously not okay," Shino, ever the sassy king, snorted quietly before he set his gaze on her, "We're waiting for the medics to get you out of the sand, okay? We can't mindlessly put you on the ground and leave an open wound to bleed out."

She didn't know why, she was pretty sure she didn't get hit on the head, but she found herself snorting in amusement, "Seems like Gaara – san took the phrase 'An eye for an eye' too literally."

At her little moment, Asuma huffed in relief, "Glad to know that you're still kicking, Sakura."

"What happened?" The pinkette asked as she tried to make sense of what was happening. Around the arena, hazy emerald eyes could see that there were shinobi fighting while the civilians seemed to be asleep. From afar, an outline of a gigantic snake figure seemed to wreak havoc and smoke in the village, half-mindedly paying attention to the fact that the snake was crushing the Civilian District.

"Oi," Shikamaru snapped his fingers again, "Eyes on me, got that?" He waited for the girl to nod slowly in understanding before nodding himself, "Good. Long story short, you stabbed Gaara with your lightning jutsu, he got mad crazy and went bat-shit insane. Suddenly, the guy glowed red for a few moments before you were suddenly carried off by sand. You hit your head a couple of times before the sand stabbed you in the gut. You up to date now?"