6 - Scrolls

Fuyuka found Sakura treating the injured and unconscious Sasuke and Naruto after a while. The pink-haired girl filled her in on the situation, while Fuyuka explained how the snaky genin- no, Orochimaru's teammates were rotting on the forest floor right now.

"You can take a break now, I might be no good at healing and stuff but I can defend you guys. I'll wake you if something's up," Fuyuka promised. Sakura thanked her, quickly nodding off.

A while later, a rustling in the bushes caught Fuyuka's attention. It was a squirrel, attached with a paper bomb. Hey, she managed to cheat in the written test via direct looking, she could spot a bomb fine. She tossed a rock at the animal, causing it to squeak and scurry off.

Other than that, nothing bad happened until the sound ninja team approached her.

"We want to fight Sasuke. Wake him, girl," the guy with a lot of bandages demanded. Fuyuka rolled her eyes. She had heard about the curse mark from Sakura. "Yeah, no."

She retrieved two kunai from her holster and stepped out from the shelter of the tree. "Too bad, so sad, you're up against me."

Of course, the blue-haired girl knew she couldn't beat a whole team while defending. Still, she'll hold on, and wake Sakura if need be. Sakura had set up booby traps earlier, including a log that can be triggered by cutting a string.

It didn't do much, but it bought enough time for her to swap her kunai for shuriken and throw one at each. She managed to hit all three, though none of them were a clean shot.

The girl raced towards bandage guy, kicking him on the stomach before launching a kunai towards spiky hair guy. She jumped out of the way before bandage guy could do anything, kicking the girl before casting a clone jutsu.

Still, she was quickly overwhelmed as she was still overwhelmed as she was mildly injured from her previous fight and she was alone against three opponents.

While she was occupied with the girl and bandage guy, spiky hair guy had managed to sneak past and held a kunai against Sakura's throat. "Move and she dies."

Shit.

"Leaf Hurricane!"

At this point, the noise had woken Sakura up. The pink-haired girl blinked, finding Fuyuka and Rock Lee fighting the sound ninja. "Ah, Sakura, you are awake. I did swear to protect you until I die."

Sakura blinked. "Th-thank you, Lee, Fuyuka."

Due to the two of them being slightly outmatched, Sakura grabbed a kunai of her own to join the fight. However, the female sound ninja managed to get behind her, grabbing her by the long pink hair.

Sakura squeezed her eyes shut as the girl barraged her with insults. Finally, Sakura grabbed the kunai, having fallen near her, and cut off her hair with a slice.

Still, they were still at a disadvantage. At least until Ino, Shikamaru and Choji appeared from the bushes, ready to assist.

Lee was knocked out, Sakura still injured. Fuyuka was starting to falter, and Ino-Shika-Cho was underwhelming with how dramatic they were.

"It's pathetic, really, minor sound ninja picking on the weak ones."

The genin on the forest floor looked up at the two standing on the tree branch.

"Pretty Hyuga boy and Buns," Fuyuka identified, earning the slightest sign of a smile from the brown-haired girl. "Interesting nicknames, don't you think, Neji?"

"That's our teammate over there," Neji said, pointing to the unconscious Lee. His Byakugan activated, veins appearing beside his eyes. "You're the ones who beat him."

Neji was about to gentle fist their asses to hell when a dark purple chakra began to rise from the unconscious Sasuke. He stood up slowly, revealing that his curse mark had expanded and his body was now covered in black markings.

He wasn't the usual Sasuke, he was far too cruel and violent as he not-so-gentle fisted the sound ninja's asses to hell. He would have killed them had Sakura not stepped forth and hugged him. That didn't sound too cool, but his curse mark receded, revealing an exhausted and tired Sasuke.

Life was going terribly. There wasn't much time left, and they were still sitting scroll-less on a shore, fishing.

"I'm going to get water," Sasuke announced, grabbing a basket and walking off.

"Fuyuka, can you get some edible plants? I don't want to eat only fish," Sakura requested. The blue-haired girl nodded, walking away in the opposite direction.

Fuyuka spotted a bush of berries she recognized. She sniffed them slightly, and while her sense of smell is nowhere near good, these things seemed to be the fruit she recognized. After gathering a handful, her eyes landed on a flower-like plant.

Fuyuka wasn't usually a flower fan, but this was a really beautiful plant. Its stem was solid black instead of green with no leaves. The star-shaped petals were a dark navy blue dotted with silver specks.

Also, she felt something in her chakra stirring.

The girl plucked the flower and tied her hair into a loose ponytail, sticking the blue plant there. She could sense, somehow, that she should keep this thing.

Keeping her handful of berries and loose ponytail, she returned to the camp, finding Naruto and Sakura being scolded by Sasuke and good old Kabuto.

"What's going on?" she asked, dropping the berries Sakura asked for beside the cooking fish. Sasuke filled her in on their teammates' idiotic attempt to open the scroll, causing Fuyuka to glare at them. "Were you trying to get us killed?"

"We didn't know, okay?" Naruto cried dramatically. Fuyuka rolled her eyes. "Ugh. Forget it. Sakura, I brought some berries."

Sakura nodded in gratitude, glancing at the berries. They had eaten them a few times before in the forest. Before Sakura could pick them up, though, she glanced at Fuyuka's loose ponytail. "Thanks. And... what's with the new hairstyle?"

"I dunno."

Sakura nodded. Sasuke then tried to challenge Kabuto to fight for the scrolls, but the silver-haired boy offered to take them where there will be scrolls to collect.

"Well, that's great and all," Fuyuka decided, cracking her knuckles. "But we didn't do all the fishing and gathering for nothing. Are we gonna eat or not?"