She slumped her body against a wall while the others went to find a sensei to report and submit their scroll. Every inch of her body was screaming in agony yet all she felt was numbness. Drawing her knees up, she then rested her head down, letting her hands wrapped itself securely around her legs.
How long had it been since she was left alone, to her thoughts.
An hour? A few minutes? A mere second?
It didn't matter, since no matter how long it lasted, her thoughts would always wandered to her family.
Soft footsteps echoed in the empty hallway, but Hanami chose to ignore it. After all, she was too tired to even do anything. Tilting her head to the side, she had to at least see who it was.
A familiar red head with his arms folded continued to walk towards her and stopped in front.
Silence engulfed them. It wasn't awkward or creepy. Neither spoke nor acknowledge each other either. When a few other footsteps were heard, the male's lips parted before proceeding to wherever his destination was.
"Ne Hana-chan! Are you okay?"
Naruto bend down to her level, making eye contact to make sure she heard him.
He was about to reach for her forehead when a hand shot out and stopped him. It grabbed onto Hanami's arm gently, pulling her forward while her body willingly let the source do whatever it was going to do.
She then felt herself leaning against something warm, but she was too tired, and her vision was getting blurry. In the end, she decided to embrace the warmness of that person and fell into a light slumber. All she could remember was those words she never wanted to hear.
"Let's go and find a room to rest before the next exam start. We were all worn out from the last fight." Sasuke explained while the others agreed.
When they reached a vacant room, he laid Hanami down on the bed while Naruto made himself comfortable on a chair, falling asleep almost immediately. Sakura, had her back against the opposite wall as she too, closed her eyes and rested.
Sasuke sat next to the bed, his back against the bedside. Soon, it was nightfall, and tomorrow would definitely means the start of the last exam.
"..."
Soft groans escaped Hanami's lips, her fingers rubbed against her eyes while a yawn was heard from her next.
A smile tugged the corner of her lips when she saw the familiar jet-black hair in front of her. Reaching out, she lightly played with Sasuke's hair, it's locks gracefully twirling around her fingers.
Suddenly, the hair moved, and she found herself staring into two onyx pair of eyes.
Seating up, she motioned for him to follow, while they quietly slipped away from the room and towards the roof.
"Well, I believe you owe me some explanation." She huffed, waiting for him to settle down next to her.
Her eyes caught sight of the markings on his lower neck, and she couldn't help tracing it with her fingers.
"What happened, Sasuke?"
// flashback //
Naruto went to take a leak but came back fully reciting the codeword they had discussed a few minutes ago. Everyone knew he was a fake so Sasuke attacked the guy by throwing a kunai, though the enemy easily dodged. After all, Naruto would never be able to remember the codeword down to the last letter.
Naruto then changed to a female ninja from the hidden village of the grass. She smirked as she took out her 'earth' scroll.
"You want my earth scroll right? Since you have the heaven scroll..."
However, she swallowed it with a long tongue and smirked devilishly.
"Now let's begin, the battle for each other's scroll-"
Sasuke and Sakura was stunned but Hanami was on guard. She was suspicious because she had a feeling she saw that female ninja before. Though it's difficult to search her memory at a situation like this, thus, she dropped the matter for now.
"with our lives on the line."
She finished, sticking her finger in her eye.
Almost immediately, a genjutsu was casted causing everyone to see an image of their death.
Sakura slumped her body as she fell, tears flowing down continuously.
Sasuke however, tried to grabbed onto another kunai but it was difficult to move.
Hanami, was least affected. For unknown reason, fear did not consumed her when she saw the image of her death. Maybe...she unconsciously thought it was actually fine if that were to became a reality.
Though it still does have some side-effect.
Trembling a little, Hanami looked over to Sasuke and Sakura, knowing that ninja was probably quite strong.
"Hehe...you can no longer move..."
She smirked, moving her hands to let all her kunai strike them.
However, Sasuke managed to escaped and hid behind a tree while Hanami barely able to stand as she protected Sakura from those kunai. She tried to flick all of them away with her kunai but some managed to stick itself onto her leg and arm.
Panting, Hanami slapped Sakura hard, to wake her up.
"Snap out of it Sakura!"
Sakura gasped when she saw Hanami's state in front of her.
"H-Hana...chan..."
Her eyes widened when Hanami pulled out those kunai from her body.
'Tch...stupid annoying kunai.'
She cursed under her breath.
"Hmm...not bad, to be able to move without even causing pain on yourself."
The enemy complimented openly, while she looked over to where Sasuke was hiding.
'These two...are no ordinary prey.'
She thought.
Suddenly, a snake came out of nowhere and attacked them, but Hanami pushed herself away, throwing a few kunai at it with explosive tags. It managed to kill it but the enemy slipped out from the snake with a huge grin on her face.
Everything felt like it happened really fast from that moment because the ninja flew towards Hanami and Naruto appeared by throwing shurikens at the enemy to stop her from getting close to Hanami.
"I'm sorry Sasuke!! I forget the codeword!"
He grinned.
"Nice job Naruto!"
Sakura cheered.
"Naruto! I know you think you're cool trying to save us but forget it! Just run away! This enemy is on a whole new level!"
He shouted, with his sharingan activated.
"It's looks like you've defeated the snake...Naruto-kun..."
The enemy smiled creepily.
Just then, Sasuke gave up and was about to hand over the scroll to the enemy just so she could spare them but Naruto intercepted and punched him aggressively.
"I know I forget the codeword but I think you're the fake Sasuke! The Sasuke I know was never a coward like you! Do you think the enemy might even leave us obediently just because she got the scroll?!"
He gritted his teeth in anger while Hanami place a hand on his shoulder and flashed him a reassuring smile.
"Don't worry Naruto-kun, there had to be a reason why he did that. Though you're right, it was foolish of him to even think of doing that."
She then turned to face the enemy with a glare.
"Snakes...so many of them. It really reminds me of someone."
She muttered under her breath. Just then, a giant purple snake was summoned and something clicked in her head.
She knew it. She recognized that snake. The same snake that appeared when the sound ninja attacked her clan.
Anger boiled within the pits of her stomach as she clenched her fingers to a tight fist, not caring if her nails had dug into her flesh.
Naruto fought with the purple snake and protected Sasuke when the head of the snake almost crushed them. Though Hanami knew Naruto was probably using the nine-tailed chakra that Kakashi-sensei warned her about. However, it doesn't seem like he was a threat and his conscious was still there so Hanami decided it should be save to leave him as he is.
"Hey you alright...scaredy-cat?"
Sasuke's eyes widened when he saw Naruto protected them.
Just then, Naruto was pulled towards Orochimaru and he sealed the chakra back so Naruto was unconscious.
"NARUTO-KUN?!"
Sakura screamed as he fell, but Hanami saved him by throwing a kunai, allowing Naruto to be stuck on a tree.
Something snapped in Sasuke's mind and he activated his sharingan again. He went full out against Orochimaru and Hanami backed him up as much as possible but absentmindedly, she activated her kekkei genkai.
Golden chains trapped Orochimaru in his spot as Sasuke did a dragon fire no jutsu.
However, it seemed like it only affected the outside of the enemy as her skinned peeled off to show only the left side of his eye.
"W-who the hell are you?!"
Sasuke shouted, not in fear but anger when Orochimaru mentioned Itachi.
"Orochimaru"
Both Hanami and Orochimaru answered at the same time.
"Hmm so I see...you're the last of the Tenshi clan aren't you? To be able to meet Kitame's daughter here must be fate~"
He grinned from ear to ear.
"Well, it was honorable for your father to sacrificed himself to chain his own body along with me. Though how foolish to think I came unprepared. Of course, that body was just an armor. The real me was hiding inside."
He chuckled with the deep voice of his while he stared at Hanami.
"Now, I really want you."
He licked his lips with a smirk, doing a hand sign as his head flew towards Hanami.
Fear consumed her, and her legs gave away, causing her fall back as she stared at Orochimaru's flying head.
Sasuke was first to regain his composure as he pushed Hanami out of the way, causing himself to be the one Orochimary bit instead while they fell from the tree.
"Tch...no matter. Having Sasuke is a bonus anyway. I'll come back for you again, Hanami Hime."
He slipped away silently.
Hanami lost conscious went her head throbbed in pain from remembering her past, and Sasuke carried her to a nearby tree. Though he was in serious pain after that.
Soon, he himself fainted from the unbearable pain and Sakura had to carry all three of them to a safer location.
// end of flashback //
Hanami just sat there quietly, her legs dangling from the roof.
"I'm sorry..."
She muttered, feeing guilty and ashamed of herself for letting the trauma of her past distract her during a serious battle.
She thought she was strong, she thought all those trainings she forced herself to keep up was enough but it's never was. It's not good enough, she's not good enough.
Sasuke watched her eyes became dull and a pained expression made its way up to his face. He didn't know what to say since even though he doesn't blame her for it, it'll never get through that stubborn head of hers.
"Let's go back, the others might wake up soon."
He stood and leave but only to realize she wasn't following.
Sighing, Sasuke grabbed her hand to pull her up and dragged her back to their room.
Though what she said next stunned him.
"Sasuke, Gaara knew about my identity..."