The Legend of Konoha's Shooting Star

All Out War...!!

Sasuke stared at the crying child that stood across from him. 'Who is it?' he wondered, feeling strangely disturbed by the sight of him.

"Mom and Dad... didn't have to die..." the dark-haired boy sobbed with thick tears streaming down his face.

'The old me!?' Sasuke thought, startled when he recognized his younger self.

"In the end, if you don't have strength, you can't do anything..." younger Sasuke cried. 'Because I didn't have strength... the clan was wiped out... Everyone was killed..."

Sasuke's eyes widened as he was bombarded by the painful memories of seeing his own parents' corpses sprawled out on the floor of their home.

"No... You..." his younger self said, an eerie smirk spreading its way across his face as his voice changed to sound like Orochimaru's. "You let them die... All you did was watch..." he reached his hand up to pull away some of the flesh around his eye, which now resembled a snake's.

"If only you had strength..." Orochimaru's voice echoed in his mind.

"Uu..." Sasuke grimaced, but his pain and torment went unnoticed. Everyone else was too preoccupied with the battle at hand.

"Ino... Why...?" Sakura asked.

"I won't let you be the only one who gets to look good in front of  Sasuke-kun," Ino said with a smirk, a bead of sweat sliding down her face as she stared down the sound ninjas.

"Looks like more leaf insects have scurried into the open," Dosu remarked with disdain. All these fools did was up the body count.

Chōji flinched at the scary glare the bandaged sound ninja gave them. "What are you two thinking!?" he asked his teammates incredulously, starting to panic. "These guys are too dangerous, we'll be eaten!! Shikamaru, let go of my scarf!!!"

"Yeah, right, idiot," Shikamaru scolded him. "This sucks, but we have no choice. If Ino is coming out, then we men can't runaway. Give me a break!!"

"Sorry to get you guys involved," Ino apologized, "but we are the same team, we share the same destiny."

"We'll get through this somehow..." Shikamaru said, furrowing his brow with the hint of a smirk, already formulating a plan.

"Hehe, you can leave if you want," Zaku taunted Chōji with a smirk. "Fatty..."

Chōji's ear twitched. "What did he say?" he asked with an eerily calm voice. "I couldn't hear him..."

"Huh!?" Zaku said. Was that tub of lard hard of hearing, too?

'That word is a taboo for Chōji,' Shikamaru thought. 'Say it twice, and...'

"If you want to, you can run away... you fat ass!!" Zaku mocked Chōji again.

Chōji lost it. "I'm not a fat ass!!!! I'm just big-boned, dammit it!!!!" he roared with righteous fury and multiple veins throbbing on his head. "Yaaaaay!!! Hurray for big-boned!!!!" he cheered defiantly, raising his fists in the air.

'W... Wow...' Sakura thought, sweat-dropping. She knew it was a bad idea to call Chōji 'fat', but seeing the effects first hand was something else. He was like a completely different person.

"Alright!! You guys know, right!!!" Chōji challenged, pointing his finger at the enemy ninjas. "This is a war between the leaf and the sound!!!"

'Lucky, he's snapped,' Ino thought with a smirk.

"Man... this is going to suck..." Shikamaru said, finally letting go of his friend's scarf. There was no need to worry about Chōji running away now.