All That I Am (Discontinued)

6

Disciples (severely unedited)

Hashirama didn't shed a single tear when his youngest brother was in critical condition. At least not in front of them.

He had unintentionally revealed apart of his life that wasn't supposed to but found no ounce of his being that really cared.

The Haruno sympathetically placed a hand on his shoulder and gave a light squeeze. He didn't acknowledge her attempt to comfort him with silence and so she dropped her hand to her side again.

She recalled something her shishou told her often.

"It's the price we pay," Sakura said with clenched fists and a taut sad smile. "It's the price we pay as shinobi."

- x -

"Watch your head," said Sakura.

A kunai narrowly missed Naruto's head and he shot her a grateful glance. Up ahead, Hinata forced herself forwards with unrelenting power. Sakura could feel her might ebbing out of the Hyuga's pores. Hinata was distraught - two people had been taken from her. How could she possibly forgive that?

The enemy nin didn't show any signals of slowing. He often twisted in a mid-jump to hurl weapons at them, but it wasn't enough to injure them.

"What's that?" Naruto murmured when he noticed Hinata drawing a scroll from her back pouch.

His eyes widened in surprise when it cascaded to the ground below and in turn, a large windmill-like shuriken appeared in her small pale hand.

"What's Hinata-chan-? Eek!" An invisible chakra thread was attached to the giant shuriken and she swung it wildly behind her, causing it to almost - almost - nick Naruto's nose. With full force, she thrust it forwards and in no time at all it had caught up to the enemy nin.

In an instant, the nin threw Sasuke in front of himself to use as a shield however he didn't notice the second shuriken that approached his other side. He caught a glint of it in the corner of his eye and quickly went to turn.

It exploded into a cloud and Hinata was there, flying alongside him instead. She had utilised the transformation jutsu to get closer.

Glaring, her fingers tapped his sides to render him completely useless. The nin crumpled immediately, loosening his hold on Sasuke, and with a downward heel kick to the face, he plummeted towards the forest floor.

As Hinata snatched Sasuke's body up, Naruto was about to cheer when suddenly he was falling forwards. The scenery blurred as he tried to make sense of why he so abruptly had a mouthful of dirt and scraps on his forearms. Sakura's shrill cry out of pain whipped him back to reality immediately.

He twisted his torso around so he could see what was going on. Sakura had shoved him out of the way and her arms had been stabbed from two people either side of her. One he recognised as the nin who had up and offed with Sasuke, and the other - he had never seen before.

"Sakura-chan!"

   The other boy sent a kneecap right into Sakura's chin, sending her flying upwards and back, spitting blood. The sight of the dark red that oozed out of the Haruno made Naruto's chest squeeze painfully hard, and to hear to loud slam as her body hit a branch was enough to redden his face.

"Bastard!"  he roared in fury, fisting his hand up tight and glowering hatefully. "Don't touch Sakura-chan!"

He leapt up and swung a fist hard, the hardest he'd ever thrown. And just when he thought his knuckles would kiss the attacker's face, it was caught in midair. Like it weighed nothing. Like there was no power behind it at all. Naruto's face fell in confusion.