This is dedicated to MisakiofKonoha because 1) they gave me support for this story waaaaay back when it first started 2) I am in love with their Naruto stories, like oh dear Lord they're amazing and 3) because Ari and Violet demanded it. ALSO LOOK AT THAT BEAUTIFUL FANART CREATED BY THE WONDERFUL PoisonChimera!! ISN'T IT PERFECT?

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Ari's POV

Being separated from my sisters was one thing.

Being chased down by an overpowered, pill-popping Ninja was something much, much more hazardous to my health.

No. Seriously. This guys had to be on steroids or something. I was inching closer to Lee's almighty speed and he was right behind me. For Kami's sake, he was either on drugs or he had something like Kiba's All Fours Jutsu up his tacky sleeve. Gah. No. I didn't want something like that. Anything that reminded me of Dog Boy at this point was a major sore point and needed to be thrown off a cliff.

Unfortunately, there weren't any nearby cliffs to suit my excessive needs.

There was, however.... Actually, there was shit-nothing. I was literally just running around like a chicken with its head cut off, said head rolling around in the cow poop somewhere, two very sad, very glass eyes staring into infinity.

....Yeah. That sums it up nicely.

I cursed as my foot snagged on a gnarled root, nearly catapulting me into the dirt. Why was I not leaping through the trees like a goddamn gibbon? No, not a chimpanzee, a gibbon. Ya know, those little monkey things with the ridiculously long arms? Those. Not chimpanzees. Because I think they look cooler.

Anyway, I was running - like a normal person - on the ground because every time my muscles bunched, ready to make the jump upwards, there'd be this really obnoxious guy behind me throwing kunai at whatever branch I'd had my eyes on.

Some people were just so inconsiderate.

He hadn't thronw any jutsu at me yet, so I was thinking maybe he was a weapons guy. Or Taijutsu. Or, you know, weapons. Weapons sounded good, seeing as how he just he just poofed up one of those giant shuriken from a scroll slotted onto his belt. He swung his arm around and the shuriken rushed towards me, leaving me to make another ill-timed jump for the trees. He'd already launched another barrage of kunai for the branch, and they were so on-target I'd have been shish kebabbed if I didn't manage a twist mid-air, angling myself towards the ground again.

Gritting my teeth, I flipped around and spun into a Sand Hurricane. My sandal connected with the side of his head with a sickening crack, and a poof. A battered log thudded into the misty grass.

I landed, half-crouched, eyes peeled for any signs of movement. The fog wasn't helping any; shadows danced around, twisted and spun, and I couldn't keep track of what was mind-tricks and what was the enemy.

Movement. Little snippets of movement crowding the corners of my eyes. Hellishly bright reflections glinting off thrown kunai; kunai with no actually destination in mind, it looked like. Distractions? Maybe.

Scratch that: Definitely was the better word. Kami, I hated when people made my vocab so specific!

My head shot up as I sensed some scary shit behind me, my body twisting around - too late - to avoid the chain that wound around me, pinning my arms to my sides and rendering my legs useless. It pulled taut with enough force to bruise my used-to-abuse bones.

I grimaced, biting back the unmanly gasp that threatened to rush from my lips. I wasn't a guy, yeah; so what? Ninja were manly. Your argument is invalid.

So he was a weapons expert after all. How fracking lovely for me. Sure I'd always thought Tenten was pretty badass, maybe wished she could train me in the epic art of said badassery, but I didn't want her to kill me! That would defeat the whole purpose of my obsession - er, I mean admiration.

Yeah. That sounds less psychotic and creepy. Not that it really matters. You guys get me. Y'all feel me, right? Right. Y'all feel me.

Ok. I'll stop now, before I crack myself up so awesomely that I can't finish this little excerpt of how fan-tastic adventures in the realm of ramen and hot anime guys. And gals. I don't judge.

...We all know that's a lie, so I'll just leave it at that, 'kay?

I struggled to slip out of the chain; if I didn't get air soon, some really unfortunate guy was gonna have his ass haunted by ghost. And I wouldn't be pretty, cause I couldn't pull off Casper if ya payed me to do it. Nope. I'd be more like Paranormal Activity or something. I'd have grown men peeing themselves working twenty-four hours of my untimely death, guaranteed!

Anyway, back to the action!

I gritted my teeth as the chain was yanked forward, tugging me along with it. A calloused hand that coulda given Kankuro a run for his puppet-loving money brought me to a sudden stop by slamming into my forehead, fingers curling into my hair to hold me still when the backlash nearly sent me reeling a good thousand feet backwards.

A groan tickled the back of my throat, but I didn't let it slip past my lips. Like hell I was gonna feed his ego! But seriously. It hurt. Like hell. Like freaking Ao no Exorcist blue demon fire hell.

The fingers fiercely twisted in my hair forced my head back, bringing me up to eye-level with the devil himself. Some cruel, sadistic pleasure lit up his eyes, perfectly visible despite being veiled behind his obnoxious Kabuto-style frames. His not-so-free hand held the loose end of the chain, the silver links wound up to his forearm. He twisted his wrist, digging the chains into my blue-tinged flesh.

I couldn't have gasped even if I'd wanted to; I barely had enough oxygen handy to keep my brain from clocking out early. This really coulda been going about fifty times better. Hell.

"Shame you're all so young," he commented idly, probably vastly enjoying the glacial death glare I was failing miserably at giving him. "I would have liked more of a challenge than this. And you're not especially developed; it's no fun at all looking at you now!"

Wha...? Why'd I get stuck with the goddamn pervert?! And they couldn't have at least made him hot?! Wait, wait. Getting off track there, Ari. Kiba's the only smexy guy you need in your life! Well, it doesn't hurt that Sensei's hot too... But he's mature, so he'd probably go for Scar... Damn.

Kami. My loopy thoughts would have me blush if the goddamn blood hadn't already been goddamn drained from my goddamn face. God-damn.

Tunnel vision eclipsed my view of this tragedy, or whatever the hell ya wanna call it. I sucked in a tight breath, forced it down my constricted throat (yeah, the chains went there). A tendril of coherent thought snaked through my brain, and my next move was born.

I hawked a wad of spit straight for his face, and bam! Bulls-eye!

He stumbled back, spluttered nonsensical curses and going really red in the face, so I took the opportunity to hook my heels around his ankles and pull like my life depended on it. Cause, ya know, it kinda did.

We fell like Paul Bunyan chop-chop-chopping down an evergreen, but I was able to maneuver myself so that, the moment my back crashed down into the foggy mud, I shifted my weight and launched the bastard clear over my head. 

"Iwa Toss! The exciting new game from Fangirl Inc. 

~sponsored by Chakra-Powered Calphs~" 

He flew straighter than an arrow - straight into a tree branch about twenty feet off the ground, connecting with an auidble crack. But, oh hey, lucky me! He kept a crushing hold on his end of the chain (probably some cruel twist of fate for 'em or induced by the shock - whichever) and, as a result, I was sent spiralling up into the air, uncoiling myself with every dizzying revolution. And then I was free, a Chesire-worthy smile creeping across my lips and a terrifying glint of mischief lighting up my amber eyes.

I decided to take advantage of his disoriented state (he was more or less collapsed on the ground, his ass pointing skywards in an oh-so-attractive fashion) and test out the move Sensei had helped me work on in our last training session.

I landed, poised on my toes, before quickly darting forward, a blur to any average eyes that just happened to be watching me. Sensei had said that this move would work on anyone, so long as they didn't have any kekkei genkai, like the Byakugan or the Sharingan. I figured that meant the Rinegan, too, but seeing as how Hibiki Sensei didn't actually know I knew what the Rinegan was, I kept my loose mouth zipped during training.

Anyway, back to the semi-action.

Let me tell you something: Lee-speed comes in handy more often than ya might think.

Case in point:

Just as the bastardous Iwa Nin was struggling to his knees, I came in like... the Kool-Aid Man (ha! Not too cliche, just the right amount of stupidity in my humble opinion), my sandal-clad foot surging upwards, hooking under his chin (and, evidently, clamping his jaw shut so horrifically that a few teeth were scattered around the impact point) and knocking him as high as the shrouded treetops.

Suki came to mind as I shadowed the dazed Ninja. Gah. She was always popping up at the worst moments. Like a pit-stain you only notice when you're trying to get your crush's attention, or something.

Probably more like or something but I like my description better. So there.

I pushed the she-demon from my mind (grimacing because I had to) as I flipped round and rocketed my foot into the Iwa Nin's back - for a split second making a perfect V - sending him into the ground faster than a speeding bullet. Or a Japanese bullet train. Either worked. 

Then the free-fall started. Apart from my death-defying experience our first training day with the Sand Siblings, I'd come to love the feeling of the wind in your hair, pulling at your cheeks so you kept a perpetual smile on your face, the exhilaration you felt when you folded yourself into something that was supposed to resemble a spearhead but really just made you look like a wannabe Superman. And that's just what I did, but - just to be the freaking amazing Ninja you know I am - I added a spin that probably woulda clocked at about 750 RPM - or something faster, depending on how fast that actually is.

Scar's the book-smart Hayes sister. I'm the chillaxing one.

I drilled into the fallen Ninja's back with enough force to crack the ground beneath him and bury him a good ten feet below the wreckage. Dust exploded into the air, raining specks of dirt and decapitated worms among the disrupted fog. I wiped the guts from my cheeks as I flipped out of the destruction (proudly caused by moi).

"Ick." I spat out some questionable substances, cringing at the somethings that fell onto my open palm. Gah. Just gah. Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew. Ew. "Ugh. Kami that's disgusting. Kill me now." I cut my eyes to the sizable hole that still coughed up debris every so often, making sure that Ninja couldn't make good on my request. Heh. He was down. "By the way," I sang, cupping my hands around my mouth so that even in the proverbial China he could hear my mockery, "that was called Ghost Flower's Burial! New move I made up and didn't copy off Lee. Totally copyrighted this time, I swear! Hibiki Sensei even said it was an original!" I placed my hands on my hips, chest puffing up with the inflation of my ego. 

Kami, I was just great, wasn't I?

And that's when I made the mistake of turning around, dusting my hands off as I struck out in search of my sisters. 

The air froze for a moment, crackles of anticipating electricity turned to sparking icicles that pierced the back of my neck, and then time surged forward again as a kunai whispered past my face, taking a few wisps of my blue mane with it until it embedded itself in an unfortunate tree.

Well shit.

He wasn't dead.

That really shoulda broken his spine into nice little chunks. Hibiki Sensei said that if he hadn't summoned an earth wall at the last second, he'd have been paralyzed from the blow. I trusted Sensei; he didn't lie. So that meant this guy had a jutsu that hardened his muscles, because if he'd had any jutsu that affected the elements handy, he probably woulda used them to rip me to shreds before now. Well, it could have hardened his bones, but I didn't wanna think that, cause that just made me picture Kimimaro and all his shirtless, deformed glory.

Ari no likey the circus freak.

Er, I'll stop with the disturbed commentary for a little while.

I whipped around, hair flying, eyes widening, to the sight of the bloody-and-battered Iwa Ninja standing from the wreck, swaying, swaying, swaying like a puff of breath coulda knocked him back into his grave. I hissed a curse as an emphatically green glow engulfed his hand and he began healing the various life-threatening injuries infesting his body.

Shitake-freaking-mushrooms. We need a medic on our team. Bad. Like, ridiculously badly. Like holy shit we-need-a-medic-or-we-all-might-die-horrendous-deaths.

I didn't see how this was fair in any way. How was I supposed to know he was a Medic Nin too?! This was a conspiracy! Aliens were gonna come crashing through the trees any minute. 

Any minute now.... No? Damn.

I sprung into the air, just high enough to avoid having kunai-toting chain impale my stomach, cartwheeling to a standstill some ten feet away, a heaviness to my breathing now. The kunai flew for me again, causing me to back-handspring out of the way, only to feel grating bark dig roughly into my back, slicing mercilessly into my favorite hoodie. 

Shit! 

He threw two chains this time - one honed-in on my heart, the other looking to splatter my brains around for all the chibi forest animals to enjoy. I couldn't dodge to the side, the foliage around me too thick and too thorned for me to move sure-footed. Up and back were outta the question. And I had about two seconds to decide on--

I hate my life.

I inched my feet in opposite directions, finding little traction among the damp and sloshing leaves that littered the ground - pretty much exactly what I needed. I lost my footing - and my balance, practically - causing my feet to slide completely apart in a gut-wrenching split and for me to drop like the ball in Times Square on New Year's Eve.

Just in time, too; the kunai aiming for my heart only managed to sink in my shoulder, and was ripped free as I fell, tearing up through brittle flesh and into the bark just behind me. Crimson blood stained the ground around me, but I paid it no mind.

Honestly, the pain of the split was about a thousand times more painful than the godforsaken kunai. 

I knew I couldn't hold out any longer - he was too good, too many steps ahead. I needed to run. 

I hauled myself to my feet, commanding my agonized legs to run with as much fluidity as I could muster, disappearing into the veiled treeline, assured that my purseror was only seconds from giving chase.

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Let's fast forward a bit, shall we?

I'll save you the monumentally boring details of me being thisclose to getting killed, of me running for my life for what felt like a thousand years (probably more like ten minutes), of me swerving away from kunai and shuriken and the like, of me picking up another tailing Ninja (Kami knew how), and of me face-planting into the mud about a gajillion times. 

We'll start at the moment you've alllll been waiting for.

In this corner, we have the two lean-and-mean Iwa Ninja, ready to deliver the crushing final blow!

Aaaaaand, in this corner, we have the trembling Hayes Sisters, Ari and Scarlette, only a kunai to protect them and the shadow of death lurking over them, arms ready and welcoming!

I shushed my mental announcer, tightening my grip on the quaking kunai. My teeth had started chattering in time with the shaking of my hands. Black spots danced in the corners of my eyes, swelling into a thick blackness every so often so that I could barely see what was two feet in front of me. Scar sat like a cold, dead fish in my lap - unmoving and unnerving as hell.

The two Iwa Nin advanced, moving in sync, like they'd rehearsed before the big moment. Heh. That made a low chuckle slip past my numb lips. I could just see the, dressed in their best get-up, prancing around a stage, shouting lines like, "Oh, my dear comrade, what do we have here?"

"Two helpless girls in the woods? Oh my, let's kill them, shall we?"

"Oh, yes, oh yes indeed. Mother would be ever-so-delighted to roast their heads on spits for dinner!"

"And ah, it's been so long since we last had a proper meal of fangirls."

"Too long, brother, much too long~!"

....You get the drift. When in mortal danger, my mind likes to wander to some very suspicious corners that are usually left unchecked and crawling with radioactive spiders.

But seriously, they were gonna gut us. Savagely, if the wild fury burning in the katana-wielding guy was anything to go by.

And they lunged.

I tucked Scar against me, whispering a sort of apology as my eyes fell shut, trying to deny the reality I'd found myself trapped in.

Silence buzzed in my ears, as sharp as clear as the sound of waves lapping on a distant shore. Not the sound of metal tearing through flesh or sadistic cackles as they enjoyed their work to an unhealthy extant. Just simple silence.

And when I cracked open my sticky-with-tears eyes, I found out why.

A wall of soundless fire had burst into life in front of us, cutting off the view of our executioners. And crouched just shy of the flames was a pink blob tinted red with raw skin.

Violet.

Oh dear Kami -- "VIOLET!"

She snuck a cheeky grin over her shoulder. "Pink Ranger, go!" she cheered, fist-bumping the air. She started towards us, a look of pure euphoria radiating from her face (I could see it cause her fringe had been singed off) but stopped short when she saw the Iwa Ninja leaping over her barrier. 

I struggled to help, but it's not like she woulda needed it. She just blew out a badass fire dragon and let him take care of the dirty rascals while she scrambled over to our depressing corner of the world and took in our marginally lethal injuries.

How she had even an ounce of chakra left in her squishy frame was beyond me.

"Ari, Ari, Scar ohmygodareyoualrightwhathappenedissheokohmygodIamsosorryweneedSensei?!" She smushed her words together so awkwardly any other person would have just nodded, smiled a tight-lipped smile and hummed, "Mm hm." But this was me we're talking about. I spoke Violet fluently; even had a Master's in it.

"Not so good, Vi," I croaked; my throat was deader than Suna in a dry heat, so making conversation wasn't exactly pleasant. "Ran into those freaks" - I hooked my thumb at the fire wall, beyond which terrified gargles could be heard; how mysterious... - "and I'm guessing Scar had a nasty run-in too, else she wouldn't have ended up this badly."

Tears were already making their way down Violet's raw cheeks. "It's my fault!" she cried, tangling her fingers in her sooty champagne hair. "I didn't stay with her and she got hurt cause I left and ohmygod Ari what if she--"

I clapped a hand over her mouth. "Do. Not. Finish. That. Sentence," I hissed.

She nodded mutely and I dropped my hand. I exhaled a broken sigh. We didn't need that kinda thinking right now. Or ever, really, but especially not now. "Start wrapping her up, Vi," I ordered, fumbling with the bandages I'd taken out earlier. She obeyed without a word, settling into her work with vigor, only pulling up when she needed to flick a hand at her dragon to keep him moving.

Apparently they didn't have a jutsu to stop him, and Vi had enough chakra to keep him going for a while.

Win-win.

Or lose-win. No, no, it's a win-win, cause both me and Vi won it. Yeah. That makes sense.

I dug around for another roll to use on my shoulder and had actually attempted self-medication (a very terrible idea, just in case you're wondering) when a creaking in the branches above us stilled my hand.

The wall of fire winked out of existence like a cheesy birthday candle, along with Vi's dragon-head.

The Iwa Nin collapsed like it was nap-time, two kunai sticking out of their chests.

And Vi and I simultaneously cocked our heads back to stare at the figure currently perched atop two intertwined branches.

"I can't decide if you're lucky that I won't allow my ingrediants to be spent by other meaningless pawns, or simply destined to die as pitifully as possible."

My quickened breath hitched in my throat; Vi found my hand admist the tangle of bandages, threaded her fingers with mine; an uncomfortable frown flitted across Scar's slackened face.

Two mocking Sharingan eyes sneered down at us.

Looks like Obito had crashed the party (again), and now he didn't even have to whittle his time away waiting for Vi to come to the rescue. She already had, and it was all pointless in the end.

I groaned, smacking my head back into the tree behind me; the pain distracted me for a few precious seconds before reality crashed down on my shoulders again.

"Oh fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuudging hell."