Chapter THIRTEEN

"You guys were the only full team to move on to the Third part." Kakashi smiled. "I'm so proud of you, my cute little minions" He gave each of them a hair ruffle. "You guys have a month to prepare for the Third part of the Chunin Exams, and so, you guys need to train, learn super duper techniques etcetera etcetera." He smiled.

"Naruto, your training will be looked over by your parents, Minato-sensei and Kushina-chan. I heard something about Jiraiya-sama as well."

He turned to Sasuke. "As for you, Sasuke, Itachi and I will be helping you with the Sharingan, as well as a few Uchiha techniques on Itachi's part and maybe somethings from me..."

He then turned to Sakura. "You, Sakura-chan have someone who volunteered to teach you. Remember Anko, the second proctor?" Sakura nodded.

"The crazy one?"Naruto asked.

Kakashi smiled. "That sums her up. Anyways, she offered to teach you. Something about matching brain waves..." He winced at the view of a Anko-corrupted Sakura.

"Anyways, Sasuke, you are to meet Itachi and I at the usual training ground at six o'clock sharp. Naruto, you'll have to ask your parents about your training. Sakura, Anko should come for you. Use this month wisely. Dismissed."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Oi, Pinky!"

Sakura looked up at the name people tended to call her upon first meetings. She smiled. "Mitarashi-san!" She waved.

Anko jumped off the roof and landed next to her. "Yo! As you've probably heard, I've offered to take you under my wing, so feel honored!"

Sakura nodded.

"Also, be prepared for the most harsh training of your life! I won't have my student loosing the finals against some Brains-only-Nara-Sissy and that Sand-castle-princess."

Anko then got to her feet and Sakura obediently followed. "We'll start with the basics and see where you need help and stuff." Anko led the way to the rooftops, and then towards the training grounds. Anko chose a wide spaced area, then turned around. "We're going to spar, and I want you to come at me with everything you have!"

Sakura nodded, dropping into the Juken stance. Anko whistled. "Heard from Minato that you have the Byakugan. Well, whenever you're ready."

Sakura decided to start with a simple Taijutsu battle. She channeled her chakra around her body, just to get herself warm, before she leaped forward.

With her knowledge about the Tenketsu, as well as her chakra scalpels, she could not only block the chakra points, but she could sever the nerve system all together. It worked as a double block.

But that was only if she could get close enough to touch her opponent.

Anko dodged Sakura's first attack, then blocked the second. She grabbed Sakura's wrist and threw her back, but didn't take advantage of the opening, probably to see what Sakura could do.

And Sakura wasn't one to disappoint.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

During the course of the battle, Sakura had gone from simple Taijutsu to aiming to Tenketsu, and then she had activated her Byakugan, and the two had flown around for a while, resulting in a cracked rib for Sakura and a cut leg muscle for Anko.

They had then moved on to Ninjutsu, where Sakura had surprised Anko when she had sucked the life out of a few trees and bashed a hole through a few more with her Puppet-Cursing sphere. Then Anko had summoned a few snakes, scared the life out of Inner, who, in a state of panic, forced Sakura to summon Kurogarasu to counter. The crow had appeared in its full size, scaring everyone in the vicinity with its ferocious cry.

By the end of the battle nearly every shinobi in the area was watching. Half, because they were on duty and the loud noise had alarmed them, the other because they were free and had wondered about the ground shaking. There was also a lot of civilians. All in all, there were a lot of spectators, all curious about the ruckus. Who wouldn't be curious if a crow twice the size of a person just appeared in the training grounds?

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

To say that Anko was impressed, would be an understatement. Sure, she was scolded by the Hokage for taking a spar too far, but it was worth it. The cherry on top was the look of pure horror on Kakashi's face when Anko had declared that she was going to adopt Sakura.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Okay. Now, I have a basic idea of what you can do." Anko smirked. "I'm going to go home and put together a training menu, or something that will probably push you way past your limits. Is there anything you specifically want to work on?"

Sakura frowned for a moment. "You saw the chakra sphere I created right?"

Anko nodded

"That's something that's taught down my clan, and I've been thinking..." She then rattled off her idea, about the special characteristic of her chakra and how she could use that to her advantage, as it was more powerful and...sharp than most, and how she wanted to adapt it into a killer final move.

Anko had an thoughtful look on her face. "Do you have like, a specific kind of characteristic in mind?"

At Sakura's confused expression, she elaborated. "Do you want a wide range attack or heavy damage attack? Or a damaging from the inside kind? Something that explodes?"

Sakura bit her lip. "I don't know yet. It was just a rough idea."

Anko smirked and patted her shoulder. "Don't worry, Pinky, I'll help ya! But once this whole thing works and ya bust a hole into Sand-castle-princess's chest you gotta give me some credit!"

"Deal." Sakura grinned. The two shook hands.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

With her Inner and her amazing memory, Sakura preferred a theoretical way of learning. She liked the theoretical, picture-and-learn kind of approach over a physical, beat-it-in approach. Still, she was Sakura, and she was very good at adapting. She easily adjusted into Anko's try first, think later way of teaching.

Anko, on the other hand, was glad she had taken Sakura in. It was refreshing to meet someone who didn't question her methods. Sakura did as she was told. She didn't gape and stare at everything Anko said and did.

And she liked dango.

Also, Anko loved Sakura's Inner. And Inner liked Anko too. And if Inner liked someone, Sakura liked them too.

All in all, they got along very well.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

When Minato was pulled away from his son's training a second time that week, he wasn't pleased. It didn't makes things any better when Anko was lead into his office a second time.

Still, he was the Hokage and he had to act like it...

"What do you want?" Anko barked. "I have an adorable student waiting for me."

Minato sighed. "I've gotten reports of suspicious activity going on in the Forest of Death." He said. "And your name is coming up more often than not on said reports."

Anko snorted. "Pinky and I are just working on something."

Minato raised an eyebrow."Oh?"

Anko got his message, and crossed her arms. "Nope. Not happening."

Minato rubbed his forehead. "Anko..."

Anko groaned. "Fine. I'll give you a hint. We're working on Sakura's Ultimate killer finish jutsu!" And she was gone.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

The day of the finals came much faster than people thought. Then again, it may just have been to the excitement and fear in the air.

Sakura was one of the few who actually wasn't worried. In fact, she was about to burst from excitement.

"Now, listen well. You go in there and beat the shot out of the Nara, the Sand Brat, become Chunin, give me half the credit for your ultimate finish, and make me proud. Got it?"

Sakura smiled up at Anko and nodded. "Mkay!"

"Good luck." Anko ruffled Sakura's pink locks before vanishing in a puff of smoke.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Sakura."

Sakura twirled around, meeting a pair of pale lilac eyes. "Hi Neji!"

"What were you going with Mitarashi-san?" Neji asked.

"She trained me." Sakura told him. "I can't wait to make Chunin."

Neji smirked. "You? Chunin? You sound confident."

Sakura smiled, but there was something different. "Because I am."

"And why is that?"

Then she was back to normal, as normal as Sakura usually was, the slight unfocused look back in her eyes. "Because."

Neji sighed. "Well, good luck."

Sakura nodded. "You too."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Hey Sakura."

"Hi Shika!" Sakura waved, returning the lazy arm motion which she decided was a wave.

Shikamaru stuffed his hands into his pocket and yawned. "This is troublesome."

Sakura smiled.

"My father told me you were training with Anko?"

Sakura simply nodded.

"I hope you don't pick up the annoying habits of other women."

"Hm?"

Shikamaru shook his head. "Nothing." He stretched. "Anyways, good luck."

Sakura nodded. "Good luck to you too."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Shiranui Genma, the new proctor was already running through the intro speech. She glanced around the crowed, and a blond flash caught her eye.

"Sakura-chan!"

Naruto pounced on the pinkette the first chance he got. Sakura smiled and tugged him off. She nudged Sasuke with her shoulder, and received a huff in response.

"Hi, Ruto, Suke!" She smiled at them both, then turned to greet her teacher. "Hey, Kashi-sensei, Tachi." Kakashi sent her his eye smile while Itachi nodded in acknowledgement.

"How was training, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked. "Mine was awesome! Tou-san's as awesome as I thought and kaa-san was more scarier than ever! And I met this guy called Jiraiya, who's a Sannin, and he taught me-"

Sasuke elbowed him, cutting him off. "I thought you were asking Sakura how her training was."

Naruto bit back whatever he had been planning to retort with and turned to Sakura. "So?"

Sakura grinned and raised her pointer finger to her lips. "It's a secret." She whispered. "You'll see."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

The first match was soon called out. Naruto pumped his fist into the air in excitement.

Namikaze Naruto VS Hyuuga Neji

"I'll bash that Hyuuga Bastard into the ground." He declared, pointing across the stadium to where Neji stood, his arms crossed.

He was about to jump down into the arena when Sakura grabbed his wrist. Naruto turned around.

"You'll save him. I know you will."

"Uh...Sakura-chan?"

Sakura blinked, then smiled. "It's nothing." She paused. "Good luck."

Naruto puffed his chest out. "I don't need luck!" He then jumped down to meet the Hyuuga.

"What was that about?" Sasuke asked.

Sakura shook her head. "Nothing."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

The moment the match was started, Naruto brought his hands together into a hand sign. "Kage bunshin no jutsu!" Five copies of Naruto popped to life beside him. They all charged at Neji, who narrowed his Byakugan eyes before landing a few blows onto the clones, making them vanish in a cloud of smoke.

"Those aren't normal clones." Neji murmured.

Naruto huffed. "Of course! I'm too cool for the normal ones!"

Five other shadows appeared in the smoke and this time, Neji attacked first. He brushed his palm across two of them, and them vanished. He knocked away a third Naruto, only to let a hint of surprise seep onto his face when the Naruto didn't poof away, but spunk around mid air and landed a heavy blow on Neji's crossed arms.

"Shadow clones are different from normal clones." Naruto said. "I can adjust how much chakra each clone receives!"

Neji quickly got rid of the other two. "It doesn't matter." He said. "If I don't know which one the real one is, I'll get rid of all of them."

"Oh?" Naruto smirked. "Then how about this?" He brought his hands up again. "Taju, Kage bunshin no jutsu!" Thirty or so Naruto clones appeared, all scoffing and making faces at the Hyuuga, who wasn't able to conceal the look of surprise on his face.

The clones all launched themselves at Neji, and the match soon became non-visible due to the puffs of smoke going up left and right.

Neji was more skilled as an individual, but Naruto used the sheer amount of clones to try and overwhelm Neji.

Still, Neji had something up his sleeve as well.

"Hakkesho Kaiten!"

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Sakura shot a look at Hinata, then at Hiashi, both who's faces were looks of pure shock.

The Hakkesho Kaiten was a move only taught down the main family. However, Neji, someone of the branch family, had picked it up. Seeing that it wasn't taught in the branch family, it had to mean that Neji had taught himself the move through observation.

Sakura knew better than anyone how quickly he had picked it up, seeing as she had practiced it with him.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

The spinning wall of chakra got rid of all the clones around the Hyuuga.

Neji came to a graceful stop facing Naruto, who had a slightly surprised look on his face, which slowly melted away into amusement. He crossed his arms in a confident way. "Oh?"

Neji narrowed his eyes and dropped into the Juken stance.

Naruto looked like he had barely managed to dodge the attack that suddenly came his way. Unfazed, Neji spun gracefully, hands already lashing out at Naruto. "Hakke Rokujyuyon Sho!"

Naruto was flung back with each strike and Neji followed him with practiced ease. Naruto flew backwards as Neji's sixth round of strikes met their mark. Gekko, seeming to know at least a little of the Eight Trigrams attacks, made the slightest of moves to declare the match over, only to pause when there was a shift in the dust from where Naruto had collapsed.

Neji watched with slightly wide eyes as Naruto managed to roll onto his stomach, then push himself up on shaky limbs.

"You should've stayed down." Neji murmured. "No matter what, a person's destiny is chosen at the very beginning, and mine was decided the moment you became my opponent." He shifted his stance. "No matter what, there are those who will prevail, and there are those who fall. One can struggle all he likes, but nothing can change that."

Naruto let out a pained chuckle, and finally managed to get to his feet. "I see."

Neji narrowed his eyes.

"I think I get it, why you..." He trailed off and grinned. "Still, sorry, not happening."

Neji gritted his teeth, then appeared before Naruto again, landing several heavy looking blows onto the blond.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"He blocked his chakra points." Sakura murmured.

Itachi let out a soft sigh, glancing down at the girl who was using his sleeve to hide her eyes.

"Can you make it even more obvious?" Sasuke asked.

Sakura paused, then peeped at him from around Itachi's sleeve. "Bout what?" She blinked innocently with her green eyes.

Sasuke sighed. "Never mind."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

When the burning orange chakra surrounded Naruto's body, Neji instinctively shielded his face with his arms. The orange, almost red chakra radiated Naruto off in waves.

Naruto shot Neji a face splitting grin, and even as the red chakra faded away, the grin remained.

"What..." Neji's eyes widened when he realized that the chakra blocks on Naruto's chakra points had all been removed.

Naruto let out a huff of breath. "Sorry, Neji. I don't know what happened to you and whatever, but I have things I have to do as well. On the way, maybe I can help you smash your destiny into pieces from the goodness of my heart." He smiled. "In fact, I'll tell you a story. I'm the Hokage's son."

Neji snorted. Everyone knew that.

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "But I feel as if the life I've lived so far isn't my own. It feels like I'm living the life of the Hokage's Son, not Namikaze Naruto, an actual person. I want to change that."

The serious atmosphere was then shattered by Naruto's cheeky grin. "But that doesn't mean I wont take advantage of everything I can."

He summoned a clone, and he summoned a ball of chakra onto his palm. The clone used it's hands to act as shells for the rapidly growing sphere of chakra.

"RASENGAN!"

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

The uproar caused by the crowd was deafening. The smoke cleared, revealing Neji who was sitting on the floor, leaning heavily on the wall behind him.

He looked shell shocked, staring up at Naruto as he grinned down at him. There were no marks of any injuries on him. He simply looked dazed.

A huge crater was formed a meter or so above the Hyuuga's head, and Naruto's hand was placed on the center of it.

Naruto drew his hand back, an unreadable expression on his face.

A bewildered Genma blinked a few times. He fumbled around with the senbon in his mouth. "Th-The winner is Namikaze Naruto!"

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"The Rasengan?" Sasuke asked, his mouth still hanging partially open due to the shock of the move Naruto had pulled out. "That's like..."

Naruto thumped himself on the chest. "Cool, huh?"

Sasuke huffed. "Yeah, right." Still, he patted Naruto a few times on the back, sending the blond stumbling.

"Hey!" Naruto glared at the raven, but his eyes sparkled.

"That was so cool! The Rasengan is the signature move created by the Yellow Flash himself, right?" Sakura asked.

Kakashi nodded, his single visible eye glowing.

Naruto grinned. "Well, now you both have to win your matches, and we can say goodbye to all those stupid D-ranks!"

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Temari VS Dosu Kinuta

"I think this one will be a pretty interesting match." Sakura announced.

Sasuke shook his head. "You know, you're starting to sound less and less like the Sakura we know. You sound too intelligent"

Naruto jumped to her defense. "Hey! Sakura-chan's always smart!'

Sakura nodded. "Yeah, Suke, I'm always smart."

Sasuke sighed.

Both Temari and Dosu jumped into the battle field. They both looked confident, and held themselves so.

"I'm betting on the Sand girl." Naruto said. "Wind seems like a much more...bigger thing compared so sound."

"But sound is faster in speed compared to wind." Sasuke pointed out.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

The moment the match started, Temari jumped back, creating space between her and her opponent. She had seem glimpse of Dosu's match before. This guy probably wasn't as stupid as his teammates.

Temari's attacks were long range, and so, she was an expert on staying away from opponents while bombarding them with her wind attacks. From what Temari had seen of the guy's sound attacks, they were mostly short range. Mediums could be used to send vibrations through. Also, from what Temari had seen of Dosu's previous fight, he could manipulate the sound caused by his arm gadget.

Temari opened the first section of her fan and sent a torrent of wind towards Dosu, who didn't try and block, remembering what had happened to Hinata who had done so. He made a dive to the side and managed to avoid majority of the damage. He could see the slight dent in the gorun where the wind was traveled.

Temari held up her fan. "That was one star of three. Two more and this is over."

This time, Dosu attacked.

Dosu swung his Kyoumei Speaker back, then thrust his arm forward, sending forth a wave of sound.

Temari, who knew the kind of damage a sound wave could do to an opponent, having seen Dosu's previous match, also knew that over confidence would ocst her this match.

She opened her fan fully and sent a torrent of wind towards where Dosu was.

The wind, which had been visible due to the sheer amount and power put into the attack, seemed to collide with something, before it dissipated into thin air. When nothing happened after a second, Temari smirked.

While requiring quite a lot of chakra behind every attack, Temari now knew that her wind was capable of negating the opponent's sound. Now, with her long range attacks and the knowledge that she could block the opponent's attacks, she knew she had an advantage in this battle.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"The Winner is Temari!" Genma announced.

The medics rushed around, trying to apply first aid treatment to an unconscious Dosu. Said Sound-nin had put up a good fight despite his range disadvantage. Still, he didn't have any moves or attacks in his arsenal that allowed him to keep up with Temari's speed and ability to stay away form an opponent while exploiting her long range attack. He had managed to land a few of his own attacks on Temari, but had been overwhelmed by Temari's wind attacks.

He lay in a mangled state as the medics seemed to finally be satisfied with their rushed attempt to stabilize him and they carried him off to the infirmary while Temari walked up the stands to once again join her siblings.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Uchiha Sasuke VS Aburame Shino

"Good luck." Sakura grinned.

"Don't loose, Teme. It's be sad if only you lost while the two of us passed."

Sasuke smirked. "You wish. If you make Chunin, I undoubtedly will."

"Overconfidence is something that can lead even the most strongest to defeat." Itachi said.

Sasuke looked like he was holding back the urge to roll his eyes. Still, he nodded. "I know."

Itachi smiled. "Good luck."

Kakashi just ruffled Sasuke's hair. Sasuke shook off the Copy-ninja's hand and jumped off the balcony.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Uchiha-san." Shino, always the quiet, yet polite one, greeted Sasuke.

"Shino." Sasuke, on the other hand, still had that hate for any sort of honorific or anything close to showing any sort of act of respect to anyone, just went straight with the name. Itachi was still attempting to get Sasuke to become more polite. Sakura and Naruto didn't seem to mind, as they seemed to enjoy the attention Sasuke showered them with. Kakashi had long ago given up on trying to get Sasuke to give him a honorific, and it didn't even bother him anymore.

"Begin!" Genma jumped back.

Shino raised an arm and summoned a swarm of insects, which surrounded the Aburame. He sent them towards Sasuke, who had already brought his hands up to form a series of hand signs.

"Katon: Goukakyu no jutsu!" He sent the fireball, which was much bigger than the one he had summoned during Team 7 training, towards the bugs.

Sasuke wondered it the shift on Shino's face was of guilt. The Aburame himself had jumped to the side to avoid the fireball. Shino was quick to recover, and he summoned another swarm, though this time he kept it close.

From what Sasuke had gathered of Shino from both his battle against Ino, then all the way back in the Academy days, he had a rough outline of Shino's skills.

From Ino's match, he knew that Shino's insects had the ability to absorb chakra, probably at an impressive rate.

From their times at the Academy, he knew that he was above Shino in both speed and strength. However, if he got too close, Shino would probably plant a bug on him, and then it would be over.

Like Naruto, Sasuke had a few tricks up his sleeve too.

With his Sharingan, he could probably see the smallest of the smallest bugs flying around. It would also give him an advantage at a lot of other areas. With that thought in mind, he activated his Sharingan.

His eyes bled red, tomoes flickering into existence. He had awakened a few more stages from before. Now, he had three in his right eye and two in his left compared to his previous two in the right and one in the left.

The reason he had managed to awaken them didn't sound that impressive in comparison. Who knew Itachi's slave-driving training could put Sasuke under enough stress to awaken the next few stages of the Sharingan?

That was a tale he would take with him to the grave.

At once, he could see small, individual specks of color flying around Shino, which he quickly identified as bugs. He kept an eye on them, then turned back to look at Shino, sightly impressed by the sheer amount of bugs living on Shino's body.

He had a thought of Naruto telling him to 'Stop ogling Shino and fight!' and he quickly looked away, beating up the Imaginary Naruto.

He brought his hands up, this time deciding to attack first. He brought his hands up to form another set of hand signs. "Katon: Housenka no jutsu!" Several fire balls flew towards Shino and his insects. Since Sasuke could control the fireballs with his chakra, he used them to ward off the swarm of insects that had tried to sneak up on him from the side.

Still, that was an impressive amount of bugs everywhere. Sooner or later, he would run out of chakra, and them the bugs would be onto him.

He would have to target Shino himself.

Still, it was annoying. Sasuke snarled, glancing around at the seemingly endless amount of insects flying around, surrounding him. He had wanted to save this till the last round, when he was facing either Sakura or Naruto (The thought that he could loose before he reached the finals hadn't even crossed his mind, seeing as he was an Uchiha and all)

However, he knew that the real objective behind this round of the exam was to show off that you were Chunin material, and that was what he would do.

It wouldn't do to be left behind by Naruto and Sakura.

With that thought in mind, he plastered the most Uchiha-like smirk he could muster onto his face, something he would never admit to have practiced in front of a mirror.

He gripped his left arm with his right and held it low. He let out a small breath, and noticed the insects closest to him flinch away, having sensed the slightly static in the air. He smirked, and gripped his arm harder, charging enough lighting chakra into his hand for it to have become slightly visible.

Shino, having noticed something, sent a swarm of insects towards him, only for the bugs to stop moving a little bit away from Sasuke, caught up in the static wave. Sasuke smirked at Shino in triumph, who looked slightly confused. Sasuke pumped a huge wave of chakra into his hand, completely forming what was like the shell of the actual technique.

He held up his hand and charged forwards towards Shino with a vicious battle cry of "CHIDORI!" The Aburame must have realized that whatever Sasuke had planned was dangerous, for he did something just before Sasuke made contact with him.

Sasuke's Chidori tore right through Shino's hastily created bug clone, killing all the insects and leaving them to fall to the ground. Sasuke didn't waste any time, and changed directions sharply, flying towards Shino again.

Shino instinctively brought his arms in a feeble attempt to block, but Sasuke stopped his lightning encased hand just before Shino's head. He wouldn't want to kill Shino, opponent or not.

There was a pause, before Genma announced. "The winner is Uchiha Sasuke!"

The cheers that accompanied Sasuke's victory was loud enough to compare to the one of Naruto's.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Chidori." Sakura smiled, clearly impressed. "You guys actually did improve."

Naruto shoved her. "Of course! I'm the future Hokage!" He either hadn't noticed, or was ignoring, the light insult.

Sasuke simply smirked, crossing his arms in a smug manner. "I couldn't say the same for you."

Sakura huffed. "How would you know? I haven't even fought yet!" She then released a shrill, insane laughter which had Kakashi cringing from the sheer Anko-ness.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Orochimaru's planning an invasion on Konoha."

Toneri smiled, but didn't turn around to greet the owner of the voice. "I see."

Black Zetsu let out a growling sound. "Don't pretend like you didn't know."

Toneri shrugged.

"You aren't going to warn her?"

Toneri shrugged again.

Black Zetsu sent out a Killing Intent. "You claim to be loyal to Ka-Sakura-sama, but looking at your actions, I doubt that."

This time, Toneri turned around. "Why can't you always talk like that?"

Black Zetsu bristled. "Shut up. Don't change the subject."

Toneri glanced around the Otsutsuki tunnels running underground with unseeing eyes. "I have my reasons."

Black Zetsu growled. "Right. Reasons for leading...Sakura-sama into a situation where she had to forcefully awaken the Tenseigan, which may or may not have lead to permanent blindness, or even death."

Toneri chuckled, and Black Zetsu realized his mistake.

"You were there, I see." Toneri smiled. "If so, let me ask, why didn't you help her?"

"If I had appeared, Orochimaru will not only be sure that White Zetsu and I are not one individual being, but will also think that the Akatsuki wants something with Sakura-sama, which will only endanger her."

"Couldn't you have killed Orochimaru?"

Black Zetsu rippled in a negative way. "The Akatsuki keeps an eye on it's members almost as strictly as it does it's targets. Even if I am not one of Pain's, but Obito's, sooner or later, they will know."

"Well, that's a pity, isn't it." Toneri snapped his fingers and Black Zetsu felt a swirl of chakra. "Though we head in similar paths, we'll stand on opposite ends as the final fork."

"You! What are you planning!" Black Zetsu snarled out, even as his choice became more and more distant.

"You should stop the hesitation with her name, you know. Sakura-sama herself doesn't know yet." Toneri shot the black ripple one more amused smiled before Black Zetsu was forcefully teleported out of the tunnels.

"Humanity weaponized the gift called Chakra. They used it as a means for war, a way to fight and kill." Toneri murmured after the last traces of Black Zetsu was gone. "The wish of the Branch Family will be accomplished. The Shinobi world will be destroyed, simply as punishment."