I’m uploading everyone!!!!!! I hope you all enjoy!!

Dedication the same as normal. The first to answer the question is the one that gets the dedication!!

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Chapter 33

I felt like I was floating on air… between the world of the living and the world of dreams… I wished to stay in my dreams, to stay with my brother and my memories of him. I missed him so much. I knew when I woke up, that life wasn’t going to be a happy and care free as it was in my dreams. I knew in real life that something I cherished was gone forever, lost in the forest where Orochimaru attacked us. My team, Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura… without my clay pouch I am useless… I don’t like the feeling of being useless… it frightens me. These Iwa nin want to kill me and now they have the chance because they used an underhanded, weak, cowardly move. Even though Orochimaru was supposed to kill me for them… I knew that when they see me next they will attack with the intent to kill me.

They are the reason I’ve lost one of the three things I have from my brother, my Dei-dei and they are stupid enough to be manipulated by Orochimaru, stupid enough to think that a 6 year old would kill their parent’s! Rikku knew how I thought of killing when I was younger, I even said to her one day…

“The Village wants me to become a ninja before I’m eight Rikku… that scares me…”

“Why would that scare you Emi?...”

“Because, that means I’ll have to kill and become the village’s weapon, well that’s what Dei says… I’m not ready for that, yah. I want to be a kid for a while and practice my art…”

Even though I did end up killing before I was eight, I did it to protect someone. My brother. At that time I had seen enough of the ninja world from my brothers title of a missing-nin to know that it’s either kill or be killed in this world… that and the fact I got to show off my art which I rarely got to do at that time helps.

I was almost completely knocked out of my dream-like state and thoughts when I felt something dark start to form next to me… a dark chakra of the likes I have never felt before. It scares me… and it was in the real world. If I woke up… would I have to fight that too? I wouldn’t be able to without my clay… I’m completely useless.

Wait, useless… isn’t that what I always fought against? Even though I don’t have my main weapon, I still got something’s up my sleeve. I can’t just give up. I’ve still got my dream to fulfil and my team to protect. To fight side by side with.

I can’t give up; I’ve got to help them with all I’ve got! At those thoughts, I felt the dark chakra like it was touching me. My eyes snapped open and I heard a boom that sounded just like my art.

The first words I heard were, “Heh, looks like I blew them up into pieces,” some voice scoffed.

“Who did?” Sasuke voice… well I think it was Sasuke’s voice. It sounded a bit... off.

The sound of a punch hitting flesh was heard before “Zaku!” was shouted by someone in the area.

I tensed and I put my hands on either side of me and I pushed myself up off of the ground. I assessed the situation right away.

My scope was still on so I knew how many people were in the area. Three behind a bush, two in the tree and three nin’s I could see… Sound nin’s… two were awake, another was knocked out… the girl. My eyes stopped on another chakra… Lee?

“Emi, you’re awake!” Sakura exclaimed and I looked over at her and my eyes widened. She looked like she had gone through hell and back… her hair was short and she had bruises everywhere.

“yeah…” I trailed off. Even though I can still fight without my clay, I’m still upset about it, and I think I will be for a long while.

“Emi, Sasuke he’s…” Sakura trailed off and my eyes darted to Sasuke. My eyes widened at the chakra that my scope is detecting on him.

“I can see Sakura,” Sasuke’s skin was covered with odd tattoo type things.

Sasuke’s eyes darted to me and he smirked. “Good to see you awake, maybe you can help,” he stated and my eyes narrowed and I looked over to the Sound nin.

“Heh, those guys?” I muttered and I assessed on my own chakra. It was a bit better then when I passed out… actually, holy Jashin! My chakra is half full again! How is this possible, when I pass out from chakra exhaustion then it takes longer build half full, half a day at least of rest and I know I haven’t been out that for long. That is weird… is it because of my born kinjutsu? But this hasn’t happened before. I shook my head mentally. I don’t have time to think about these things…

Suddenly, Sasuke started to form hand signs. I tensed. I’ve got to see what this chakra has done to Sasuke. Chakra this dark must have some sort of effects on the mind and on how they act, if not then I’ll be as surprised as when I saw Naruto’s apartment clean!

When Sasuke was finished the signs. He blew multiple fire balls out towards a nin.

“Don’t get cocky! I’ll erase them!” the nin shouted, putting his arms forward and sending… what is that? Compressed air or something? No… air would make the fire stronger, this is something else.

The fire was extinguished but hidden inside of the fire were shuriken. “There are shuriken’s in the fire!” the nin shouted in shock.

The sound nin could do nothing to stop the attack so he was hit on all ends of the attack. I felt Sasuke move from beside us. My scope detected him move toward the sound nin. My eyes widened when I saw that he was below the nin. He had moved so quickly!

“Zaku! Below you!” the sound nin’s mummy teammate shouted a warning.

Sasuke quickly knocked the nin on the back of his knees to get him to knell before he suddenly grabbed the nin’s arms and pressed his foot on the nin’s back. My eyes narrowed at the awkward position the nin’s arms were in. One moved from Sasuke and… ouch.

My eyes darted to Sasuke’s face and I saw a deranged look on his face and in his eyes. I tensed. This isn’t Sasuke, this isn’t one of my best friends. I could see that. “You seem to be proud of your arms…”

I could feel Sakura shaking beside me in shock and my good hand darted towards hers to calm her down. I still know my other hand is broken… damned Orochimaru.

The nin looked back as Sasuke slowly pulled on his arms. “St-st-stop it!” the nin shouted before…

SNAP!!

I winced at the sound of his arms braking. Sakura’s hand tightened around mine as Sasuke just dropped the nin on the ground.

Sasuke looked around at the other nin. The one in a mummy type thing. “That leaves just you,” his voice… this can’t be Sasuke. “You better entertain me better than him.”

Sasuke walked passed Sakura and I. This isn’t Sasuke. I’m the one who says weird things like that… except it’s usually about art, not for this type of thing… he sounds like he enjoys this.

My eyes darted towards Sakura as she muttered under her breath. I couldn’t hear what she was saying. She was too quiet. But when I saw the tear’s coming out of her eyes. I knew Sakura was scared of this Sasuke… even I am a little.

Sakura looked at me and she dropped my hand. “Stop!” she shouted and jumped from the ground.

She bolt straight towards Sasuke and threw her arms around him. “Stop… please… stop,” Sakura looked right at him as he looked at her. He just stared at her. Sakura looked back, breaking the scare and looked right at me. “Emi… please…”

I nodded and I closed my eyes. I moved as quickly as I could right in front of Sasuke. To everyone that was watching, I knew it would look like I have moved from one place to another. Guess I lost yet another thing to this forest… my training weights…

Sasuke looked right at me and I put a hand on his shoulder. My good hand. “Alright Sasuke, look at me. You’ve protected Sakura, Naruto and I. we’re all good, but don’t go insane with this thing alright? We’re safe, you’re safe. All you’re doing now is scaring Sakura, and making me want to literally knock some sense into you. This isn’t you. Sasuke, this isn’t you,” I stressed to him and I saw his eyes widened before they drooped.

I saw the tattoo’s slowly start to recede… into his neck. I sighed in relief, however, that sigh turned into a gasp as Sasuke fell onto the ground on his knees. Sakura fell as well, but that was to keep him from falling back by having a hand on his back.

I slowly knelt in front of him as he breathed hard. I looked at him worried… what was that… my eyes darted to his neck and I noticed a mark on his neck… like three tad-poles going in a circle. Did Orochimaru do this to him?

“You’re strong,” a voice called out and my head snapped right over to them. It was mummy dude. He was looking at Sasuke as he pulled out something… the Earth scroll. “Sasuke-kun, we cannot defeat you,” the ninja knelt on the ground and dropped the scroll there. “Let’s make a deal. Please let us leave for now.”

Sasuke and Sakura both gasped at him and I tensed, just in case of a double cross. We are also surrounded by other ninja… I watched carefully as the sound nin walked to his team mates and collected them. “We might be asking for too much, but we have something to confirm. In exchange, I will promise this. If we are to fight each other in this exam for the second time… we will not run or hide,” he promised us and my eyes narrowed.

“If that occurs… you won’t just be dealing with Sakura and Sasuke… but the whole team,” I warned him and his eye narrowed on me. My hand twitched towards my clay- my heart about broke when I remembered again. The nin nodded once and headed back into the forest.

My head drooped in sadness at the loss of my clay pouch. Deidara is going to be so mad…

“Wait!” Sakura called and my head snapped towards her. What is she doing? My headed turned towards the nin as he looked back at us. “Who is Orochimaru?! What did he do to Sasuke?! Why Sasuke?!” So, Orochimaru did do this to him.

“I do not know. We were just ordered to kill Sasuke. But you…” he looked at me and I tensed. “He was supposed to kill you himself…” I bit my lip, already knowing this. “You know this.”

I looked away and he turned and jumped off.

My good hand curled into a ball tightly and I looked at the ground. He didn’t kill me… for some reason he didn’t kill me.

“Hey, are you okay?” my head snapped towards the voices coming from the people hiding in the bush. My eyes widened at the sight of Ino, Shika and Chouji. “It’s troublesome, Ino, but you take care of that Lee guy.”

Ino ran over to Lee and the other two ran to Naruto. My head snapped towards Sasuke when I saw him move and grab his own wrist, looking at his shaking hand.

“What was I…?” Sasuke asked in… fear of himself?

I looked into his eyes and I saw fear. I bit my lip and I sighed. Time to try to cheer him up… hopefully.

“Stop staring intently at your hand like that, just because I’ve got hand mouths, doesn’t mean you do, un,” I pointed out, waving my hand with my hand mouth showing, cheerily… but it sounded off. He looked at me and I sighed, my hand mouth disappeared and I dropped it. “That sucked as a cheering up method…” I trailed off. I sighed again, (AN it seems like Emi’s doing that a lot) “Your still you Sasuke, you’ve just got a… quirk now. You know, like how I get when an enemy turns into art and I get sort of distracted by the beauty, actually I don’t think you guys have actually seen that part of me…” I explained and he blinked at me.

“That’s a quirk?” he murmured and I nodded once.

“Yeah. The darker side, the side we all try to hide but we’ve all got our triggers and the effects it does. Mine is I don’t give a flying damn about the people who are around when I get so into my art... the sheer beauty of it ju....” I trailed off and my head dropped towards the ground. I felt tears form in my eyes. “Nevermind… your you and that’s all that counts, un.”

I knew Sasuke or Sakura would say something but someone, a certain fellow blonde shouted. “Everyone, hide! No, get down!” my head snapped towards the sound and my eyes widened at the sight of my little brother figure army crawling on the ground with a bump on his head. “Where is he, damn it…”

I snickered, he still think’s Orochimaru was here. Sakura muttered Naruto’s named as Shika and Chouji came up behind him and started to poke Naruto’s bump on his head with a stick.

“You’re pretty dumb, aren’t you?” Shika asked and Naruto sat up, looking up at them. “Actually, watch you pisses me off,” Sasuke and Sakura both looked away from them.

Naruto’s eyes glared at them as Chouji said. “Yeah.”

I sighed as Naruto looked over to Sasuke, Sakura and I. He was staring at something… I followed his sight and saw Sakura’s hair. I smiled a little, 3…2…1

“Sakura!” He shouted after I counted 1. Called it.

Sasuke and Sakua both looked back at Naruto as he started to run towards us. “What?” she asked.

“t-that…” Naruto dropped to his knees and slid to us. He stopped when he reached us. “Sakura! What happened to your hair?”

Sakura’s eyes widened in shock. “Oh, this?” Sakura reached and pulled a little of her now short hair. “Just changing my image. An image change,” I knew she was lying… but Naruto wouldn’t. I could see that she was sad about losing her long hair. “I like long hair. But, you know, it gets in the way when I move around in a forest like this.”

I smiled at her and I pulled a bit of my long hair. It had leaves all through it. “You got that right Sakura. Maybe I should cut mine too, yah?” I asked as Shika and Chouji came up from behind Naruto.

Sakura looked at me and smiled. “No way. If you do that, then we’d have nothing to do on our girl’s day,” she reminded me and I groaned. I forgot about that…

I noticed Naruto turn and looked at Shika and Chouji. “By the way, why are you guys here?” Naruto asked and Shika sighed in annoyance.

“Explaining it to you is too troublesome for me,” he retorted and I snickered a little. Same old Shika.

“Everyone helped us,” Sakura muttered and I looked at her in shock.

They did… I smiled a little. Konoha really is different than Iwa. My scope picked up the chakra movement of one of the people in the trees. My head snapped towards the moving chakra  and I saw… Tenten knelling in front of Ino who was supporting Lee up. I couldn’t hear anything so I looked away and back to Naruto who was confused.

He looked over at me in confusion. “Do look at me, I woke up about ten minutes ago,” I stressed to him, my hands up in the air. His eyes then narrowed on my broken hand.

“Emi! What happened to it?!” He exclaimed, grabbed the bad hand and I yelped in pain. He dropped it. “Sorry!”

“its fine… that snake-nin broke it…” I muttered and I rubbed it, I need to check the damage later I guess. My eyes darted for a second to where my clay pouch used to be.

I sighed forlornly (AN I have no idea if I used that right! ha) and I looked up. Naruto was watching me carefully, I waved him off. “I’m fine, it just sucks to be beaten, stupid snake guy just mocked my art,” I growled and Naruto snickered at my anger. He knows how much a hate it when some mocks my art.

I noticed Naruto start to look around when he noticed Lee and Tenten. He froze before he ran over to them. I snickered lightly as Saskura, Sasuke and I all got up and made our way over to them.

Naruto pointed at Lee and shouted. “You’re the fuzzy eyebrows guy!” Naruto exclaimed.

Sakura twitched. “Naruto! Don’t say that the Lee!” She shouted as she pulled back her fist and let it fly towards Naruto. Hitting him in the face and sending him flying back.  

My eyes widened and I looked at Sakura. She has… changed. No a lot but enough. She would have never defended Lee. What exactly happened?

Sakura looked at Lee and said. “Lee,” Lee and Tenten both looked at her. “Thank you,” she gave him a closed eye smile and smiled at him. “Thanks to you, my eyes are wide open now. I think I’ve become a little stronger.”

I looked at Lee and I saw tears start to form in his eyes. “Sakura…” he sniffled and wiped the tears away. “I… it looks like I need more training,” Lee looked up to Sasuke. “Sasuke. You live up to the reputation of the Uchiha clan,” Lee looked down at the ground sadly. “You drove the Sound ninja away. You truly possess great potential and power. While I lost horribly.” I tensed. Lee… lost? How freaking strong were those nin? They didn’t seem it… it must have been their attacks or jutsu. “Sakura, the lotus in Konoha blooms twice,” Lee stated and I smiled a little at him.

“What?” Sakura muttered under her breath in shock.

“The next time we meet, I promise that I will be a stronger man,” Lee promised and Sakura nodded her head with an ‘okay.’

Suddenly, Ino called out. “Hey, Sakura!” Sakura and I looked over to Ino as she waved at her. “Over here! I’ll fix up your hair. I’m sure Emiko doesn’t know how,” my eye twitched. It’s true but that’s because I’m not a girly girl.

“I’d go Sakura, she’s sort of right, I’d help but I’d make a mess of it,” I muttered to her and she looked at me.

“Emi…” She trailed off and then I felt her put a hand on my shoulder. “Your clay pouch…” she started and I light wiped her hand off of my shoulder.

“It’s fine, go, oh and yes, you now can call me Emi,” I lightly pushed her in Ino’s direction and she headed over there, with a shocked look on her face from my declared statement about my name.

I sighed sadly and I looked at the ground. My clay pouch gone… forever gone. Lost in this forest. I headed away from everyone; I needed time to pull myself together. I’m an emotional mess right now.

I found a tree and I leant against it and I slowly fell to the ground. My body wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, I blame my weird kinjutsu for that. It still ached but it was bearable. The worst of it was in my hand.

I pulled my knees to my chest and I hugged them, tucking my head in my knees. I just sat there, thinking off all the things I could do without my art. There isn’t much and I don’t know how it would do against the Iwa nin.

I heard footsteps headed towards me and I just kept still. “Emi,” I heard Sasuke’s voice and I lifted my head a little to look up at him.

“Sasuke… could you please leave? I need time to be alone right now. In my own little depressed bubble,” I muttered and then tucked my head in again.

I felt him lightly kick me in the side. My head snapped up into a glare. Doesn’t he get it? I want to be alone!

“Get lost Sasuke. I need to come to terms with something!” I snapped and he tensed before settling down on the ground in front of me.

“What do you need to come to terms with Emi? Your fine,” He said darkly and I knew what he left out ‘unlike me’.

“Okay, sure. I may not be like you Sasuke with that mark, but that Snake-nin took my clay pouch and threw it into the forest! It’s gone!” I exclaimed to him, glaring up a storm. “I have three things from my brother. My scope, Artsy the teddy, and that pouch and it’s gone! The last thing he gave me and it’s gone,” I curled up tighter into a ball and I buried my head into my knees as I felt the tears again. “Jashin, I was right. The real world is horrible compared to my memories,” I muttered.

 Sasuke sighed and he nudged me. “Emi. What happened to that girl who said she didn’t cry when her brother left her to Konoha, what happened to that girl who went toe to toe Kakashi-sensei? Don’t tell me she’s gone because she lost one connection to her brother?” he asked and I gulped.

I shook my head. “She’s sitting here… she’s just lost right now,” I sighed and then I shook my head quickly. “You’re right. I have to pull myself together. It’s not the last time I’ll see Dei-dei. This will just push me even more to find him… ang beat the living crap out of those Iwa Nin, Rikku included. It’s their fault it’s gone, Orochimaru wouldn’t have even known I was here,” hopefully.

Sasuke smirked at me and I got up. Sasuke followed my actions and I noticed everyone was now standing in their teams.

Naruto and Sakura were standing together and Ino, Shika and chouji stood together and Neji, Lee and Tenten also stood together.

Sasuke and I walked to Naruto and Sakura, in Sakura’s hand was the Earth scroll. I nodded at her quickly and faced the other teams.

“Thank you for the help,” I spoke up and Shika sighed in annoyance.

“It’s troublesome but we’re all friends, all Konoha Genin,” he informed us and he smirked at me.

I smiled and I looked at Lee’s teams. Lee gave me an thumbs up. “Good luck, we will see you when this exam is over! When we’ve got our 500 laps around the village!” Lee exclaimed and my eyes widened. I totally forgot about that!

Sakura and Naruto chuckled at my scared face. It’s been so long since I’ve done that before… I’m going to be so far behind… “Thank you all again. We would have been killed if it wasn’t for you guys,” Sakura spoke up and they all nodded.

“No problem forehead. We need to go, bye guys!” Ino shouted, waving bye and dragging her two team mates away into the forest. I snickered.

“We should go as well,” Neji spoke up, he looked over to us and at Sasuke carefully and then his eyes dropped to me. “farewell,” he said and then he jumped off.

“Bye guys!” Tenten shouted as she followed him. Lee just gave us a teeth twinkle smile and followed her.

I blinked and I looked back to my team. I noticed that Naruto and Sasuke we’re now looking at the scroll in Sakura’s hand. “So… now we have both scrolls?” Naruto asked, confused.

Sasuke shook his head. “No, that snake-nin burnt our heaven scoll,” he informed him and Naruto’s eyes widened.

“What?!” He exclaimed and I snickered.

They all looked at me and I put my hand into my shuriken pocket and I pulled out our heaven scroll. “Incorrect, the Heaven Scroll has been with me since I made the fakes.”

I looked at my teammates and their eyes were wide. “What?! But you said that Sasuke had it!” Sakura exclaimed and I shrugged.

“I lied; there was a chance I wouldn’t, actually more of a chance I wouldn’t lie. If Sasuke or Naruto asked who had the scoll, I would have told the truth, but you did Sakura, so I lied. And it worked out for the better, didn’t it?” I asked and she sighed.

“I guess… but that means…” her eyes slowly widened and I smirked at her.

Sasuke smirked at me. “Smart Emi,” Sasuke stated and I grinned brightly.

“eh…” we all looked at Naruto as he slowly realised what was going on. His eyes widened. “We can pass the exam!” he shouted and then he launched himself at me in a hug.

We both tumbled onto the ground and Naruto’s arms hugged me tight around the waist. “I love you Emi! You’re the best! We can pass, we can pass! That stupid Snake-nin failed to get the real scroll. Outsmarted by Emi!”

My eyes widened at Naruto’s words. It’s true; Orochimaru didn’t notice that the scroll was a fake… I actually outsmarted him! Or it could have been dumb luck, but I’m going with outsmart, keep my confidence up.

I then wrapped my arms around Naruto. “Thank you Naruto! You’re the best little brother figure ever,” I stated and we tightened our hold. “Love you to!” Naruto always knows what to say to cheer me up.

“Umm, Naruto, Emi. We need a plan here,” Sakura spoke up, breaking up our siblingness.

Naruto and I looked at each other and then let go. We both go up and I brushed of the dirt on me. “So, what’s the plan?” I asked and Sasuke crossed his arms.

“We can’t go start there; just in case an enemy attacks us,  we need time to rest our injuries. Somewhere where food is plentiful,” Sasuke explained and I bit my lip in thought.

“Wasn’t there a river on Anko-sensei’s map?” Sakura asked suddenly and I blinked at her. “The river has fish in it and it’d be a good place to get food and other materials,” She explained and I smiled.

“Yeah, your right. To the river it is then, we’ll stay there for the at least a full twenty-four hours and gather as much as our strength as possible and leave at night-time. The longer we’re out here, the worse this exam going to become, un,” I stated and Sasuke and Sakura both nodded.

“So, to the river!” Naruto exclaimed and I snickered. Naruto’s always the same. I hope he never changes, because if he does… I don’t know what I’ll do.

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There is chappy 33, yes I got it out, I’m glad too. I should be doing school work right now however I decided to write this, I hope you guys are happy. I won’t be uploaded anytime in the next week, I may get a chance after my exams, maybe.

I hope this chappy is alright, it’s not the best but there was a bit of bonding with Sakura (ew, I know. but hey, there can’t be too much team conflict) a bit of SasuEmi (it showed Sasuke cared when Emi talked to him when he was in curse mark mode) and of course the brotherly sisterly love between Naruto and Emiko. (I love writing them, there isn’t that much of it anymore… note to self, write more of those moments!!)

Right now, I’ve got my ancient history speech I’ve got to write on the brain. Boudica actually, and I would ask a Boudica related question but I think that’s a bit dumb so………

Question time!!!

Who do you guys want Emiko to fight in the Prelims? I’ve already got an idea of who I want her to fight and I have had that idea for a long time, but I want you guys to tell me. It can be completely serious or not. To the Iwa nin or the Canon nin. But you guys remember Emiko doesn’t have her clay so the battle is going to be intense.

Well, I guess that’s it for now… accept for you guys to Vote (holy flying Jashin!! 1750 votes!! Thank you all my lovely followers!!) Follow and of course my favourite… COMMENT!!

Tah tah for now!!

PS the pic on the side… I paused the anime as I was writing and… doesn’t this look like they’re about to kiss?!