189A/N: Hey everyone. Sorry for the delay. Projects...tests...finals..reports...HOMEWORK...Yuck! lol.
I added more about Sanomi's little 'dimension.' I put this like so many chapters ago that I might've not explained it thoroughly. So this is the explanation:
As a Kochou Samurai, Sanomi is able to go inside a little dimension whenever she is unconscious or possible death. This dimension is where the Kochou Guardian(Chikako), heals her wounds or might be possible for her to wake up if death occurs. But it matters how much power the dimension has. Chikako doesn't use her own power but only the dimension. If the dimension has less power the guardian has a choice to use her own power or give energy to the dimension.
Oh...so confusing but I hope this clear things up a bit more. If you have any questions, private message me and I'll try to get back to anyone. So...here it is! Chapter 29!
Dimensions
Chapter 29: Dire Tragedies and the Kochou Demon
Third Phase Arena
"Ah. Sanomi-chan! Sensei." Sakura exclaimed as Sanomi walked near her with Kakashi.
The match had exhausted her and she needed rest. She brushed her short black hair with her fingertips, making it look neater. She felt bad for losing the hair she grew, but she knew that no matter what she looked, she would still be herself.
Earlier Naruto had left them because he wanted a better view of Sasuke's match. Sanomi wanted to go with him but Kakashi didn't let her for a specific reason.
He had to treat her injuries since no one else would and believe him, Sanomi doesn't really bandage herself that well. Sure she would ask Akemi-sama, the Great Kochou Spirit, to heal her cuts and bruises, but for some reason, she wasn't responding at all-same with her guardian Chikako...who didn't spoke with her after the match.
Secretly, Sanomi started to get worried, feeling that something was wrong. Chikako would give her praise and congratulate her after a certain fight, but this time Chikako just left her with no words spoken to her, she couldn't feel or sense Chikako anywhere.
"Hi Sakura." Sanomi said softly as she stood by.
"You doing okay?" Ino questioned. Sanomi nodded and noticed that blood was trickling down her cheek. She quickly wiped it and received a bandage from Kakashi.
"Domo arigatou." Sanomi unwrapped the bandage and stuck it in her cheek. Kakashi eyed the glare Sakura had towards him and he knew why.
"I'm sorry for troubling you Sakura. I should've notified you earlier." Kakashi apologized. He had the right to since he left her worrying about Sasuke and not telling her anything.
Sakura still cared for Sasuke as a teammate yet she still had more feelings. She was wondering why Sanomi got to know more about Sasuke than her, shouldn't the teammates have the right to know about the same amount of knowledge for each other? Naruto still doesn't know about the mark on Sasuke's neck, received from Orochimaru. Although, Sakura promised Sasuke not to tell at all, since Naruto would worry about him.
The black-haired girl stared at Sakura for a moment to see if she would be angry at their sensei, but noticed the quivering of her lips.
"D-Daijoubu." Sakura whispered.
/Whoa...I thought she would explode./ Ino thought.
"Sensei..." Sakura spoke once more,
"is...is Sasuke...going to be all right?"
Kakashi took the question in before he answered. He eyed Sanomi seeing that she had no expression to the question. Sanomi sensed that her teacher, hoped for more approval, so nodded her head saying it was okay to her. Kakashi finally had some encouragement to tell Sakura.
"He's fine." He assured her once more.
Sakura finally made a smile hearing this from her sensei. Meanwhile, Sanomi walked over to the group and saw Chouji sitting down listening to the conversation. She saw the crunchy chips in front of her and she was drooling happily. She couldn't be too worried because she always trusted Chikako and Akemi-sama for their miraculous abilities.
"Can I have a chip? Chouji-san?" Sanomi asked politely.
Chouji was munching away from all the chips that would disappear, but he eyed the last chip in the bag and was thinking. He eyed Sanomi with that tiny smile and knew that she was tired from the match. Chouji peeked into his humongous bag of food and saw a tiny apple for her to eat.
/So red and luscious.../ Chouji thought. Yet he turned down food before. So...
"Take this." Chouji held the apple for her. Sanomi happily smiled and took it out of his hands faithfully.
"Arigatou Chouji-san. Ah!" Sanomi munched the tiny apple, not trying to eat the core.
/Amai desu.../ Sanomi thought dreamily.
/Dang...the girl's hungry./ Chouji thought looking at her. Sakura and Ino just stared at her weirdly.
"Uh...Sakura-chan, does she even eat at all at your house?" Ino whispered.
"She turned down food sometimes and this time it's today." She responded. Sanomi gulped the last piece of the apple and threw it in a nearby trashcan. But it missed...
"HEY WATCH WHERE YOU THROW!" A spectator shouted at her. He had an eaten apple on his head and it fell as slowly as possible to the ground.
"Gomenasai!" Sanomi apologized. Everyone sweatdropped about her actions.
"Sanomi. I missed your match didn't I?" Lee asked suddenly.
Sanomi had a sad expression on her face, seeing that Lee was in crutches. Nurses said that there were no possibilities for Lee to be a ninja again. But Sanomi hoped that he would be okay.
"Well...match or no match you would still cheer for me, ne?" Sanomi winked. Lee gulped shyly and nodded.
"By the way sensei..." Sanomi whispered. Kakashi eyed her to see what she wanted.
"You must've worked hard with Sasuke huh?" Kakashi made a hidden smirk under his mask.
"Chidori is no easy task. Believe me." Kakashi muttered.
"Hm..." Sanomi had a uneasy expression on her face.
"Sensei..." Sakura spoke to Kakashi. Sanomi was about to comment him about something else, but she let Sakura have a turn. Kakashi paid attention to the bubble-gum haired girl.
"What made you so late?" Sakura asked. In the group there was also Maito Gai with them.
"Is there a reason?" Gai asked. Kakashi chuckled to himself as Sanomi sighed with his weird actions.
"You'll see for yourself." Kakashi said.
Back at the stadium, Gaara and Sasuke were ready for combat. Gaara was ready to fight and it worried Sanomi dearly. Sure she watched a couple of episodes of Naruto everyday, but she never seen this one. She had to know what would happen and hope that it doesn't prevent Sasuke from killing himself. She scolded herself from not watching all the episodes yet.
She stood and saw that some of the audience were looking at her other than Sasuke and Gaara, which was strange since this would be a match of a lifetime. So...why were they were paying attention to her? Kakashi started to notice this also and thought it was the match they were looking at. But it turned out that their attention was within Sanomi.
"Sanomi..." Sanomi turned around knowing that her sensei had said those words. "Did you-"
"Yeah...I used the jutsu..." Sanomi said willfully. She thought that audience would pay less attention to her because she was a new person in the battlefield. She never knew it could draw so much awareness because she did that flying jutsu. That drew much attention.
"Okay. The match between Uchiha Sasuke and Sabaku no Gaara would now begin!" The proctor announced. Soon all the of the audience stopped paying attention to Sanomi and watched the match had just begun.
/Thank Kami-sama! I hate it when people stare at me./ Sanomi thought.
She spotted Sasuke making so much remarkable speed when the match started immediately other than glaring at each other intently. Kakashi's training wasn't just fun and games, it was real. He fought his hardest and the best thing, was that there was physical contact with him and Gaara. He was able to hit him without difficulty.
Lee eyed Sasuke, watching his fantastic movement. His speed matched Lee's own Taijutsu. Gaara was just standing there examining the speed. It was the same pace as the last person he fought with: Rock Lee. The amazing part of it all was that Sasuke had his Sharingan eyes on.
Sanomi was glad to see him with those eyes in battle. She would always question herself if she would really fight Sasuke someday. It would take years to master like him. It took a while before Gaara finally came to a point where he didn't have much chakra left to make more of the shields.
"You made him master Taijutsu?" Gai asked Kakashi.
"Hai."
"Why on earth would you do that?" Gai continued.
/Come on Sasuke.../ Sanomi prayed.
Suddenly, Gaara wasn't in the mood to play games either. He started to form himself into a sand shield forming a sphere and went inside. As Sasuke tried to make the sphere budge there was no possibility. Inside Gaara was chanting a jutsu trying to take his time. Sasuke tried to crack the sphere just a little but to no avail.
/Great.../ Sanomi thought, as sweat was beating down on her forehead.
/Demo.../
"Kakashi-sensei!" The group turned around and saw Naruto panting madly with Shikamaru who followed right behind. The group exchanged weird looks towards them.
"What's wrong?" His sensei asked.
"Kakashi-sensei, you have to stop the match. Gaara's only purpose is to kill." Naruto explained the reason why he came.
"Nani? Naruto what are you talking about?" Ino asked bewildered.
"If you don't do something, Sasuke will die! Sensei!" Naruto shouted. Kakashi stared at him and then back at the match. Sasuke felt exhausted, but he doesn't want to give up.
"Let him continue the match, Naruto. Everything will be fine." He responded. Everyone was shocked by the words Kakashi had said.
/But that means.../ Sanomi turned back to the stadium taking a look at Sasuke. He was ready to do a certain move.
/That means he's ready to do it? The move he's been practicing?/
"You'll see what Sasuke has done. He might surprise you." Kakashi said knowing that everyone was doubting him.
Everyone noticed Sasuke squatting down in a position and a click was heard in from his arm. He started to form hand signs not seen from him before and after that sparkling of lightning was heard from his hand.
/The sound of chirping.../ Sanomi thought.
Sasuke had a azure crackling ball of chakra in his hand-Chidori. Everyone's eyes widened and Sasuke began to run straight at the stadium wall. He was coming back down with much speed while Kakashi and Gai explained what this move was to the Genin. While Gaara was just chanting more of the jutsu Sasuke was running straight at the sphere to even budge it. He struck with all his might and he made a hit!
"Awesome." Sanomi whispered to herself.
"Hai, Sasuke was capable of being just like me." Kakashi said.
Sasuke was staying as still as he could trying to see if it did any good. He had just put a hole in the sphere, which was great! But why would it be such a bad thing to him?
Inside the sphere Gaara was just shocked. He saw his own blood, which freaked him out. Showing his pain, he screamed madly after seeing his own blood. The sphere didn't complete, which was a unpleasant thing for him. Sasuke could just gape when he finally realized that he had to back away. But it was too late. The sphere closed rapidly and Sasuke's arm was stuck momentarily. He pulled with all his might as Gaara was wanting to kill.
Sasuke swiftly pulled his arm out and backed away a few feet, but just as he was backing up, a sand arm reached out for him. Luckily, it didn't grab the Uchiha boy. The arm looked so frightening as it had purple-veins peeking out. Sharp nails were on its hand and it was flexible. Sasuke watched as the sand drained around Gaara making him look appalling. He could only stare at him as the arm went back to the sphere.
"Look...he's really hurt." Temari said as she noticed the wound on Gaara's shoulder. She trembled inside,
/He wounded Gaara!/
/Dang.../ Sanomi thought as Gaara was struggling with the wound.
/SANOMI!/
/Huh?/ Sanomi was frightened by the sudden voice. She couldn't tell whose voice was it. It could either be Chikako or Akemi-sama's.
/Chikako? Akemi-sama?/ Sanomi tried to contact them. But nothing was heard after that sudden shout.
/What the hell.../ Sanomi couldn't think straight now. What was going on?
Sanomi's Dimension
The darkness of Sanomi's dimension was not dark anymore. A burst of crimson light was all over. Groans and moans echoed all around as Chikako and Akemi-sama was pushing something away from a wall.
"Akemi-sensei it hurts!"
"Just push harder. It has to get away from this area!" Akemi pushed harder. Chikako followed her the same way. The object that was pushing forward towards them was the Kochou Demon...
For some reason the demon woke up. Akemi couldn't believe that it would wake up at a time like this. She sensed something in Sanomi's dimension and saw that a wall cracked open. The demon was supposed to be sealed by Akemi-sama herself.
/How could this happen? I did the spell correctly when I did this.../ Akemi thought madly to herself.
/And that was years ago.../
Ninja World
"Ah..." Sanomi felt a shock to her head. It was like tiny bolts of lightning charging multiple times.
/What's wrong with me.../ Sanomi clutched her head trying not to get so much attention. Booming was heard around the Hokage's area and everyone was wondering what was that. Suddenly a feather dropped down to the ground.
/Feather...genjutsu.../ Sanomi looked up and saw a bunch of feathers floating down from the spectator's view. Everyone was asleep but the shinobi.
"Release." Sanomi whispered and the genjutsu had disappeared. She had to thank Sakura later for teaching her how to stop a genjutsu.
/Could this be...a raid? But for what?/ Sanomi questioned herself. She wished to have answers but an object was coming right at her.
CLANK
"Huh?" While Sanomi was in a daze there was a kunai going straight at her. But luckily Kakashi-sensei blocked it.
"What's happening?" Sanomi asked.
"I don't know." Sakura responded.
"Sakura! Sanomi! Stay down!" Kakashi commanded.
Many ANBU were going straight to where the Hokage was. Sanomi's eyes widened seeing that the Kazekage had the Sandaime captive holding a kunai. Sanomi could only watch as Kakashi and Gai protected her and Sakura. Sakura ducked down to where her seat was trying not to get hit-Sound nin had attacked them in an instant.
/I can't believe I have to be involved by this.../ Sanomi thought. A Sound nin was right behind her and Sanomi could only make a hard punch on the guy. The guy fell in an instant and Sanomi had to keep watch of her surroundings.
/Where the hell is Chikako-san?/ Sanomi thought madly.
Back at the stadium, the Sand siblings were on their own mission. Since Gaara had wasted much of his chakra before the operation, Temari and Kankuro had to treat his wounds, ordered from their sensei. The proctor could only watch as they were having a stare-off with the Sand sensei. The sensei ordered one more time fiercely and once the siblings were gone, the proctor made a comment to Sasuke.
"Sasuke...your Chuunin Exams are over." Sasuke was shocked to hear that.
"You have reached Chuunin level, and you can still continue with your match. I just have to deal with this guy." He was mentioning the Sand sensei. Sasuke could only agree on that statement and went off on his own to find the siblings.
/Sasuke.../ As Sanomi was hiding behind a wall to get away from the Sound nin she spotted Sasuke trying to find his opponent. He went over the wall of the stadium and Sanomi could only watch. Just as she was about to find Sakura a shock of pain startled her head. It was like electricity transferring to her body.
/Itai...Itai...ITAI/ Sanomi clutched her head with pain.
The last thing she spotted was that the Kazekage was the snake: Orochimaru. He stabbed his hand with a kunai and people sense that there was going to be a fight between the sensei...and student. ANBU were watching outside the shield that four Sound nin formed so that no one interfered with Orochimaru's goal for revenge. He wanted to be the Hokage of Konohagakure but Sarutobi declined the offer. The only thing Sanomi could do was trying to stand this unknown pain in her head.
Sanomi's Dimension
"Chikako don't stop!" Akemi-sama yelled as her brown hair was flying by the massive wind. The Kochou Demon was getting stronger by the second.
"Akemi-sama! I can't!" Chikako fell with a thud of exhaustion and Akemi could only watch her and pushed harder. Akemi had to get Chikako out of the dimension.
"Chikako! Wake up!" Akemi shouted. Chikako struggled to wake up and she did. She felt weak and could no longer move.
"Just tell me what to do Akemi-sama!" Chikako healed herself with little power and she was healed just a bit. But it's enough to command what Akemi-sama wanted.
"Get out of this dimension and warn Sanomi. She cannot give in to the Kochou Demon. If this demon comes out Sanomi could be in grave danger." Akemi commanded. Chikako could only watch Akemi push harder so that the demon couldn't get out.
"Akemi-sama! I can't leave you! If the demon comes out you'll be devoured by it!"
"I DON'T CARE!" Chikako's eyes were with worry.
"Just protect Sanomi...that's your goal in life Chikako...the demon wants her more than me. I'm just a spirit of the Kochou Samurai, this demon wants her because of her mortal body. I'm just hidden away from the samurai." Akemi groaned with pain as the demon got closer out of the wall.
"Akemi-sama-"
"DO IT!" Akemi shouted. Chikako put her head down and she disappeared out of the dimension.
/Kuso.../ Akemi was alone now. She transformed herself into the Kochou Spirit, a large butterfly with greater power than the demon. Light versus Dark. Akemi hoped that she would win this fight.
Ninja World
/ITAI!/ Sanomi cried loudly.
"What's with the girl?" A Sound nin spotted her in pain.
"Who cares lets get her!" As the Sound nin were after Sanomi two arrows were shot and the Sound nins landed with a thud. Blood oozed in the back of their backs.
"Sanomi-chan!" Chikako flew slowly towards her.
"Chikako-san, what's happening to me?" Sanomi groaned with pain.
"Sanomi be strong! Don't give in from the demon!" Chikako shouted. Sanomi's eyes widened. The Kochou Demon? The Kochou Demon that she heard and spoken of?
A/N: Don't worry. Chapter 30 is being beta-read okay? So it will come in a flash. Please review!