SICK || A Naruto FanFiction

12. Drowning

The path was boring.

It was an endless trail going straight forward, no twists or turns, nothing different. The same dirt, grass, trees and sky for the past 4 hours.

Naruto seemed to be slightly avoiding her, Sasuke wasn't talkative, Kakashi was reading his porn as usual, and Tazuna reeked of alcohol.

Ken groaned, stuffing her face in her hands.

"Ken, are you alright?" Kakashi noted absentmindedly, focusing on the book in his hands.

"It's fine. I'm just...tired." The half-lie easily rolled off her tongue.

"Hm. Well we have been going for a few hours. Perhaps it would be best if we took a small break."

"No no no, it's okay." Ken waved off his concerns. "I can totally go for longer." She coughed weakly, which didn't really help her argument.

"Okay." Kakashi shrugged. It didn't seem to matter.

"So, Sasuke." Ken whistled.

Sasuke grunted, though he lifted his eyes to meet Ken's. "What was it like having pink hair?" Ken grinned.

Naruto perked up, scurrying to their side. "Yeah, dattebayo! Was it vibrant like Sakura's or kinda dull?"

Sasuke sent him an odd look, while Ken looked amused. "Why do you want to know?"

The tips of his ears turned red, and Naruto pouted. "I wanted to reuse the leftover dye on someone else, but it has to be really bright."

Sasuke's face reddened as he looked down in embarrassment, recalling the day he refused to step foot outside. "..it was really bright."

Ken cackled as Naruto pumped a triumphant fist.

"Yes!"

::

A puddle. How peculiar.

As far as Ken could remember, it hadn't rained. Not even a hint of clouds to disrupt this sunny day.

She shrugged it off, though quietly snapped open her senbon pouch. Just in case. But Ken nearly forgot about it, passing by the puddle dismissively.

It just sat there. Like a puddle.

Until it wasn't a puddle, no, it was two men with sharp grins and even sharper knives.

"Holy fuck!" Ken screeched as her sensei was cut to ribbons. Her heart was about to burst as adrenaline took over, rapidly throwing senbon at the enemy.

Miss. Miss. Hit leg. Miss. Hit arm.

Their movements grew sluggish, and both of them crumpled to the ground, twitching.

Sasuke and Naruto eased out of their fighting, Tazuna gaping openly at the three children, watching with wide eyes as Naruto restrained both of them to the tree with a long piece of rope.

Ken stepped forward, nudging the semi-unconscious body with her foot. One of them kneeled over and retched into the bushes, the other gasping as his airways began to paralyze.

She nodded grimly, satisfied with her work, though made a mental note to work on her aiming. "I have the antidote." She shook the small vial full of clear liquid. After administering the antidote, she hesitantly inched away. "It'll kick in in about 40 minutes, as long as you hold out for that long. It wasn't more than 2mg, I swear."

Loud, clear clapping came from behind them. Kakashi smiled. "You guys did well." Not even Naruto looked surprised, just highly annoyed. "Sasuke, good job on acting quickly. Naruto, you took a while to spring into action but you hit them hard." Naruto beamed. "Ken." He turned sharply onto her. "Do you even have a permit for that poison?"