SICK || A Naruto FanFiction

22. Snakes

Lots of jumpcuts so be prepared

Also yeah legit Haku's getting therapy and the others are not too far behind lmao

Is my update schedule fucked because of school? Yes.

Am I sorry? Yes.

::

Exotic birds chirped, and the leaves of the looming trees rustled as a soft morning light bathed the area in sunshine. The gigantic snake laid sprawled across the roots of trees, silently sleeping.

Within, Naruto groaned and shifted. It was no use, as it did nothing to help him escape. He wasn't even sure was he could do. His left hand was mangled, broken, and now the bones have healed together thanks to the Kyuubi's supercharged healing. It worried Naruto greatly, but now was not the time to be thinking about his injury.

Despair soon set in, something greatly unusual for the typically optimistic boy. 'Is this...how it ends?' Maybe he was just being dramatic. Faces of his friends and family-figures swirled through his head.

Iruka...Oji-san...Kakashi-sensei...Sasuke...Ken.

I'm so sorry.

With a startle, Naruto forced himself out of those depressing thoughts. No! He would not lay down and passively die when Ken fought every day like it was her last. Naruto couldn't do that to Ken. He couldn't just die.

His eyes returned to its typical determined stare. He was getting out of there, and he was returning to his family.

::

Blood splattered on the forest floor. Later, it would darken and solidify, soak into the ground as though a forgetful stain. Another mark in this blood-filled forest.

The foreign nin stood, staring blankly and impassively at the sight before her.

Or rather, the lack of a sight.

Her two kunai never made its mark, and instead lodged themselves deep into the bark of a tree, on that had been behind those two, annoying little genin.

Those two annoying little genin, that apparently, were nowhere to be found.

The corners of her lips twitched up in a smile, and the Grass nin's eyes darkened. "So that's how it is."

::

There was a loud bird somewhere nearby, squawking incessantly.

At the base of a tree, Ken and Sasuke sat, dirtied and inexplicably tired. 

Sasuke heaved, inhaling sharply and exhaling, focusing on his breathing rather than the kunai in his hand that was also lodged into his leg.

"That was stupid of you." Ken hissed, though tears pricked her eyes and all she wanted to do was hug Sasuke, find Naruto, and leave this god forsaken place.

Sasuke didn't respond nor rise to the bait. He stared down at his wound, making no move to remove the kunai or speak, his face contorted into one of pain.

::

"That was a stupid move." The Grass nin smirked at no one, inspecting the blood spatter in the floor. She was unaware of how her words echoed in another's somewhere else in the forest. "But a clever one. Desperate, nonetheless."

- Earlier -

In a quick, easy motion, as though she couldn't care less, the enemy kunoichi shot two kunai towards the two genin.