ShuraZero
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Chapter 10: Phase Three: The Fragility of a Flower
🕑 Added 2025-08-05 05:15:49 +0000 UTCThe silence left by Sasuke's defeat was heavier than any scream. It settled over the training ground's clearing like a layer of dust, choking the sound of the wind. Sasuke hadn't said a word. He had stood up, his body trembling with a fury so cold it burned, and had left, disappearing into the dense woods without a single look back. His pride, shattered to pieces, was an invisible trail that only Naruto, with the weight of his new memories, could perceive.
Sakura remained motionless, her eyes fixed on the path where Sasuke had vanished. Her face, usually so expressive, was a pale mask of disbelief.
"Sasuke-kun…" she whispered, the word breaking in the air.
Naruto approached her cautiously. The ache in his backside had been replaced by a knot in his stomach. Seeing Sasuke like this, so broken, was worse than he remembered from his visions.
"Hey, Sakura-chan," he began, not quite sure what to say. "Don't worry about him. He's strong, he'll bounce back, believe it!"
Sakura's head turned toward him with alarming slowness. Her gaze was empty.
"What do you know?" she said, her voice strangely flat. "You didn't see it. Kakashi-sensei… he didn't even try. He treated him like an insect."
"Of course not! Sasuke is amazing!" Naruto replied, trying to inject some energy into the atmosphere. "It's just that Kakashi-sensei is an elite jōnin! He's supposed to be way stronger! That's the whole point!"
"You don't understand," Sakura said, shaking her head and looking away. Her attention returned to the path Sasuke had taken. "He… he needs help. He needs someone to be with him."
And with that, she got up and ran in the same direction as Sasuke, without giving Naruto a second glance.
Naruto sighed, running a hand through his hair.
There she goes! he thought, a knot of frustration tightening inside him. She's walking right into the trap! Can't she see it? This is exactly what Kakashi wants! To divide us!
He remembered this moment with painful clarity. The test wasn't over. Now came the cruelest part, the phase specifically designed to break the team's most vulnerable member.
His stomach churned. He hated this. He hated knowing what was going to happen and being unable to do anything. He knew the terror she was about to experience. He knew how Kakashi would use her devotion to Sasuke as a weapon to destroy her psychologically.
I can't stop her, he told himself, clenching his fists. If I tell her it's a genjutsu, she won't believe me. She'll think I'm jealous or trying to sabotage her! I have to let it happen… but I won't leave her alone.
He made a decision. His plan to end up tied to the post could wait a few minutes. With a stealth that contradicted his boisterous personality, he followed Sakura, keeping his distance, moving through the shadows of the trees like an orange phantom.
Sakura ran without direction, her heart hammering in her chest. She plunged deeper into the woods, away from the clearing. The forest air was cool and smelled of damp earth, but to her, it felt suffocating.
"Sasuke-kun!" she called out, her voice sounding small and fragile among the trees. "Where are you?!"
There was no answer. Only the whisper of the wind through the leaves and the crunch of her own footsteps. Panic, like an icy vine, began to creep up her throat.
"Sasuke-kun, please, answer me! I'm worried!"
She stopped in a small clearing, looking around desperately. The shadows of the trees looked like long, twisted fingers. Every sound, every movement, made her jump.
"Well, well. Looking for your prince charming?"
Kakashi's lazy voice sounded from behind her. Sakura spun around, her heart in her throat. Her sensei was leaning against a tree trunk, his orange book in hand, as if he had been there the whole time.
"Kakashi-sensei!" she exclaimed, relieved. "Have you seen Sasuke-kun? He ran off and—!"
"Ah, yes. I saw him," Kakashi said, turning a page. "He didn't look too good. In fact, he looked pretty bad."
Sakura's relief turned to ice-cold terror.
"Bad? What do you mean, bad? Is he hurt?"
"Hurt?" Kakashi let out a dry chuckle. "That's one way of putting it. His body was… mangled. And his pride, well, that's dust now. I suppose the reality of being a ninja was too much for him."
"No!" Sakura screamed. "That's not true! Sasuke-kun is strong! He's the best!"
"Is he?" Kakashi looked up from his book, his single visible eye gazing at her with a pity so palpable it made her flinch. "Maybe you should go see for yourself. He's over that way. Though I don't think you'll like what you find."
Sakura didn't wait another second. Fear gave her wings. She ran in the direction Kakashi had pointed, her mind blank with panic.
And then she saw him.
Lying on the ground, in the middle of a pool of blood that stained the grass, was Sasuke. His clothes were torn, his body covered in deep wounds, with kunai and shuriken sticking out of his limbs at impossible angles.
"SASUKE-KUN!!"
Sakura's scream was a tear in the fabric of reality. She knelt beside him, her hands trembling so much she didn't dare touch him. Tears streamed down her cheeks.
"No… no… this can't be happening…"
Sasuke coughed, a wet, terrible sound. A trickle of blood slid from the corner of his lips. His eyes, normally so full of fire and arrogance, were glassy, fixed on her.
"Sa… kura…" he whispered, each syllable seeming like torture.
"I'm here, Sasuke-kun! I'm here!" she sobbed, moving closer. "Don't worry, I'll save you! I'll get help!"
"If only… if only you had been by my side… instead of with that… useless—"
The words hit her like a punch to the gut. Guilt, sharper than any kunai, choked her.
"I'm sorry…" she whimpered. "I'm so sorry, Sasuke-kun…"
"Run, Sakura…" he whispered, his eyes beginning to lose what little light they had left. "Save yourself… You're… too… weak…"
His blood-covered hand fell to the ground with a dull thud. His head lolled to the side. His eyes stared blankly at the sky.
Sakura's world shattered.
The sky, the trees, the grass… everything dissolved into a vortex of pure terror. The air wouldn't enter her lungs. Her heart stopped. A scream, not of a little girl, but of an animal caught in a deadly trap, tore from the depths of her soul. A sharp, endless shriek that echoed throughout the training grounds.
And then, everything went black.
Hidden behind a thick oak tree, Naruto watched the scene unfold. He had seen Sakura kneel beside Sasuke's "corpse." He had heard every word of the cruel illusion. And he had heard the scream.
That scream pierced his very soul.
Damn it, Kakashi, he thought, and for the first time, he felt a wave of genuine anger toward his sensei. She needed to learn, but like this? So cruelly?
He saw Sakura collapse, unconscious. The illusion vanished, revealing an empty clearing, with no blood, no Sasuke, only a fainted girl on the grass.
Kakashi appeared beside her, stepping out of the shadows. He crouched down and examined her with a clinical gaze.
"A basic genjutsu, but effective," he muttered to himself. "If she breaks down over something like this, she has no chance on the battlefield."
Naruto gritted his teeth until his jaw ached.
You're wrong! he wanted to scream at the jōnin. She's not weak, she just cares about someone! And you used that! You used her love to torture her!
And in that moment, his determination, which had been a strategic idea, became an oath. A burning need.
Enough is enough.
The idea of strengthening Sakura, of giving her the Falna, suddenly felt less like a strategy and more like an urgent necessity. The system was a tool, yes, but it was a tool to help.
I'm going to change that, he vowed. I'm going to give you power, Sakura-chan. But not just the power to hit harder. I'll give you the power so that no one, ever again, can use your feelings against you. I'll help you find a strength that's all your own, one that doesn't need Sasuke to exist, believe it!
The idea of performing the ritual with Sakura, which had previously seemed like a logistical and social nightmare, now felt like a mission. It was the only cure he knew for the wound he had just witnessed.
Kakashi carefully lifted Sakura and leaned her against a tree, making sure she was safe. Then, his gaze shifted to the woods, directly to where Naruto was hiding.
"Time is running out, Naruto," his voice said, clear and resonant. "There are still two bells left."
Naruto didn't move until Kakashi disappeared again. He stepped out from his hiding spot and looked at Sakura, sleeping a restless sleep, her face streaked with dried tears.
He had always liked Sakura, but now, seeing how her own feelings had been used to make her fail filled him with a deep frustration.
First, we pass this test, he thought, his mind returning to the original plan. And then… then we'll start your real training.
He turned and headed back toward the center of the training grounds, where the three wooden posts stood. The sun was high in the sky. There wasn't much time left.
He found Sasuke sitting on a tree branch, his eyes closed, either meditating or, more likely, silently seething with rage.
"Hey, Sasuke," Naruto said, stopping beneath the tree.
Sasuke opened his eyes. They were two chips of obsidian, cold and sharp.
"Get lost, dobe. I'm not in the mood for your stupidity."
"This isn't stupidity!" Naruto insisted, and his voice had a weight that made Sasuke frown. "Listen, I've been thinking. Trying this separately doesn't work! I tried it, and he kicked my ass! You tried it, and… well, you know!"
Sasuke's jaw tensed.
"Don't compare me to you. My mistake was underestimating him. It won't happen again."
"That's not the point!" Naruto exclaimed. "The point is he's a jōnin! We're three genin! Don't you see? The only way we have a chance is together!"
Sasuke let out a bitter, joyless laugh.
"Together? With you? The clown who can't do anything right. And with Sakura? Who's nothing but a burden. I'd rather fail on my own than depend on you two."
The words hurt, but Naruto swallowed them. Sasuke's humiliation was a fortress, and at that moment, it was impregnable.
Fine. If that's how you want to play it…
"Alright!" Naruto said, shrugging and putting his mask of the carefree idiot back on. "Have it your way, teme! Just don't complain when I get both the bells!"
He turned before Sasuke could reply, running toward the clearing where the posts and the alarm clock were waiting.
His original plan, to be the decoy, to fail spectacularly to teach them a lesson, was still in effect. But now it had a new layer. A new urgency.
He wasn't just doing this to pass a test.
He was laying the groundwork. He was showing them, in his own strange and twisted way, that they needed each other.
He looked at the alarm clock. Less than fifteen minutes until noon.
It was time. Time for the grand finale. Time to get tied to the post.
A determined smile spread across his face.
Get ready, Kakashi-sensei, he thought as he planted himself in the middle of the clearing, in plain sight. The idiot is back for his final act!
