Chapter SIX

"I forgot to buy Souvenirs!" Ami blurted out of the blue. "Oh no!"

Sasuke sigh and Kakashi ignored the girl. Naruto gasped at the realization and Sakura pretended that none of them existed. She narrowed her eyes, something nudging her senses.

She paused in her steps and slowly turned to look left, eyes narrowing.

"What's wrong, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked. The boy refused to drop the suffix, even after Sakura had threatened him.

"Something's coming." She murmured. She dropped to her hand and knees and pressed her ear to the ground.

Ami shrugged her shoulders. "Really? That sounds like an excuse to me. If you're tired, you should just beg for a rest and maybe we'll consider it. Right, Sasuke-kun?" Her tone turned disgustingly sweet at the end and Sasuke inched away from her.

"Fifteen...no, Sixteen?" Sakura said. "Headed straight towards us."

Kakashi frowned. "Are you a sensor type?"

Sakura stood up and shook her head. "I can sense chakra much better than others, due to my close to perfect chakra control, but I am not a sensor." She tapped her ear. Kakashi nodded.

"Is someone really coming?" Ami asked.

Kakashi nodded.

"What are we going to do?" Ami freaked out.

Naruto, on the other hand, looked really happy. "Don't worry, Ami-chan! I'll beat them up!"

Ami made a face and shuffled towards Sasuke who quickly moved out of the way.

"The enemy is too close and your Genin are too slow for us to out run them." Sakura said.

Ami sneered at the insult but Kakashi stopped her from snapping back. "And what do you think of the enemy by judging them by their chakra?"

"They have too much chakra to be normal bandits." Sakura said. "My guess is that they are low level Nuke-nin, though there's an awful lot of them."

"Permission to engage?" Sakura asked.

Kakashi sigh.

Taking that as an affirmative, Sakura took out her scroll.

  .........................................     

The Nuke-nin erupted from all around them.

"Hand up all your belongings if you don't want to get hurt."

Sakura sigh. This was how it was all the time. "We don't have anything which would be of any value." She said.

"That's for us to decide."

"Hey, isn't that the Copy-ninja, Kakashi?" One of them asked.

"So, someone's actually done their homework." Sakura muttered. She hoped that these men were stupid enough to attack anyways.

They began to shuffle nervously. One of them, who appeared to be the leader, stepped forwards. "Don't step back! Not even the Copy-ninja can win against us. We have a advantage in numbers and he has a team of Genin to protect."

There.

The first wave of men came at them.

Sakura summoned Kubikiri-bocho. It was slightly lighter than what she thought it would weigh and with the help of her strengthened bones, she easily lifted it. Still, she gripping the handle of the sword she had never held, let alone used. Heck, she didn't even know how to use a sword! However, she decided that the concept must be similar to swinging around one of her bones, and she went with that thought before the more logical part of her mind could catch up.

She chopped the head off the first man without blinking. She ignored the annoying screeches that erupted from the Ami girl's mouth. Kakashi, who had stepped forwards to protect his team, stepped back to act as backup, just in case someone slipped past Sakura.

Sasuke and Naruto stood behind their teacher, for once, not complaining that they weren't allowed to fight. Horror filled their gaze as Sakura tore the arm off of a man without even looking at him, leaving his to wail on the ground. A few seconds later, she turned around and killed him. She sneered at the dead body as if she had killed him only because his cries had annoyed her.

Ami covered her face with her arms but Kakashi reached out and pulled them away. "Watch." He said, sounding more serious than any of them had ever heard him. "This is the truth to the Shinobi life. To become a hero, one has to kill their enemies. The finest shinobi have more blood on their hands than anyone. If you want to make a name for yourself, you have to watch this. This is the price shinobi pay. Power and strength come at a cost, more often being a life of another."

The men didn't even have time to run. They fell one by one, until only the leader was left. Sasuke realized with disgust that he had hidden behind him men the moment they had attacked.

Sakura stepped towards him, ignoring his cries of mercy. She sliced through his throat and caught his head by his hair as it fell. She turned towards Ami, who tried crawled away.

"Souvenir?" Sakura asked, holding it out.

Sakura didn't understand the scream of horror that followed.