Something to Fight For (Naruto)

Attempting (Murder)

The month went by unbearably slow for Haruka, but at the same time it sped right on by.

Naruto was busy training with Jiraiya, so she couldn't follow him around. He was safe with the Sannin, so she didn't worry as much as she would have otherwise. Still, now that her job was put on hold, she had absolutely nothing to do.

Her salvation came in the form of the Konohamru Ninja Squad.

Everyday, after they left the academy, they helped her get more people for the deal. It was the perfect time to do so, considering all of the people from other villages that were visiting. They managed to get fourty more in the end, though not without hardship.

One lady made them massage her feet, which were filled with fungus and bunions, and one man said he would do so only if they cleaned his house filled with mold and mysterious substances. Another person they asked, a foreign nin, said that they wanted her to kill someone for them in return. Though once the Konohamaru Squad explained that 'you can't just kill people 'cuz random guys ask you to!', she had to turn down that offer.

Their collaborations only filled up her time for the afternoon though, so she trained during the mornings.

She mainly worked on her medical ninjutsu, and got pretty far along with it. A book she had found in the library taught her how to transfer injuries sustained on others to herself, which would require less chakra but more sacrifice. It was perfect for any future emergencies.

Also, she learned a sealing jutsu. It was small, just letting the user block another's memories. The jutsu used a huge amount of chakra depending on the amount of memories you want to seal, but Haruka figured it could help in the future if she had to keep something hidden for Nii-san.

The two weren't anywhere near perfected, but that would come in time. Knowing the basic principles of them were good enough for her at the moment.

Right when she had begun settling into a routine, it was disrupted.

It started when she saw Jiraiya in town with Nii-san. They had been staying near the place where she had originally found them, so to see them out and about was suspicious.

What was worse was what Jiraiya had Nii-san do. Haruka had started tailing them when she first saw them, and watched as Nii-san tried to hug Sakura. That itself was extremely strange. Then, he went to the Ramen stand and gorged himself on 33 bowls of Ramen. Haruka managed to pay for it when he wasn't looking, frowning.

Something was not right.

She kept following Nii-san as he walked with Jiraiya to a part of Konoha she had never been before. It was dense with trees and brush at first, but as they continued on it slowly thinned out. Nii-san was whining the whole time about being ditched, but Haruka's heart just thumped uneasily. Everything in her was screaming that something was very, very wrong.

When they stopped and Jiraiya started speaking to Nii-san quietly, it was then Haruka realized why she was so freaked out.

Everything Nii-san had done was the type of thing he'd put on a bucket list. Right when she thought this though, it happened.

Jiraiya pushed Nii-san.

He pushed him hard enough so that he fell off a cliff into a huge, jagged chasm.

Haruka saw red.

Screaming, she lunged toward him, hoping to be able to catch up to him and at least break his fall. Before she could, though, Jiraiya stopped her. Struggling, she could only watch as he disappeared into the blackness.

Jiraiya put a hand over her mouth to muffle her yelling as to keep others from hearing and coming over. He knew the situation did not look good, but it couldn't be helped: Naruto needed an extra 'push' to learn the summoning jutsu, and this was the quickest way.

Thinking quickly, Haruka shoved chakra into her mouth over her teeth. Using it to sharpen them and give her jaw more strength, she bit down onto Jiraiya's hand, breaking the skin and possibly a few bones.

 Cursing, Jiraiya moved his hand away from the girl, giving her more freedom of movement in her head. Then she redirected the chakra from her teeth to the back of her head and threw her head backwards, successfully head butting him.

Jiraiya dropped the girl, holding his bleeding hand to his broken nose. He didn't expect her chakra control to be so precise since she hadn't used any when she had attacked him the first time. It was like a mini Tsunade, something that promised hell for him.

Haruka was devastated. No, that wasn't quite right; She was more than devastated. The only thing she had ever cared about, her Nii-san, was gone and most likely dead by now because of Jiraiya. There was no way for her to be able to help him at this point, considering his weight and velocity. So, before she jumped in after him, there was one thing she had to do.

Kill the perv.

 With an enraged cry, she pounced on him. She didn't even bother with her knives since she wanted to make his death as slow and as painful as possible.

"Calm down!" Jiraiya ordered, but it was not use. She kept on coming. He shoved her backwards, making her fall on her butt. As she was in the air, she took the gold bands off her ankles and put all three onto her fingers. There was no point in worrying over her legs when she was just going to die anyway after he was dead.

She flashed away, going behind him. Jiraiya was surprised at her speed, eyes having trouble keeping up with her. She was just a blur to him. He also had trouble keeping up with Might Gai, but he was a Jonin. To be able to reach the speed she had, she must have done some extremely intense training.

 He used his Needle Jizō to protect himself, his hair making a spiky cocoon around him. When the girl punched it, she was stabbed with the points, making her hand bleed intensely. She didn't even notice though. Continuing, she stepped back and used the Cherry Blossom Impact technique, making the ground rupture and break. Jiraiya was forced out of his cocoon so he could dodge.

He didn't want to hurt the kid; she was just trying to get 'revenge' for her brother. Still. he had to end this now. Though her strength was nowhere near Tsunade's, her anger was making her very aggressive. There was a chance that she would hurt herself, or others.

Making a few quick hand signs, he slammed his hand on the ground and summoned a medium sized toad. He used this one because he was sure Naruto wouldn't summon it if he managed to get enough chakra as he fell, and even if he did it wouldn't be able to do anything to help anyway.

Without hesitating, the toad whipped it's tongue out toward the girl, wrapping her up in it. She hadn't seen it coming from the cover the smoke that came from the jutsu caused, and was easily captured.

She screamed loudly, head thrown back. Thrashing, she began spitting out every curse word she had learned at the base at Jiraiya. Normally, she despised cursing, but now was an exception.

Jiraiya's eyes widened at all the words the girl knew. Her vocabulary was certainly... extensive, that was for sure.

"Are-" He went to ask, but was cut off by a loud sound. One that was fairly familiar.

"JIRAIYA!!!"

Current Count: 89

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Soooooooooooooooo...

This was hard to write for some reason. Dunno why.

I wrote this last chapter, but for those of you who didn't see, I started a oneshot book. IT WILL NOT AFFECT THE UPDATES OF THIS BOOK AT ALL. I swear!!! I'll only update it once I've updated this one. This one will always come first, and the oneshots will in no way make these updates slower. I just wanted a little bit of variety, ya know?

Song is just 'cuz.

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