Solari jumped form the tree and landed next to Sasuke. Sakura ran over to them but Solari stopped her. “Go find Naruto.” She said with a pained looked on her face.

“But what about Sasuke-kun?”

“I’ll find a place for him to stay until he regains consciousness.”

Sakura looked worried as she turned to find Naruto. As soon as Sakura was out of sight, Solari bent over Sasuke. She felt like she was about to cry, but no tears came out. If he survives this, his life will be even harder and more miserable than it already is. She picked him up and went off to find a place to stay.

A little bit later, Sakura found the overturned tree that Sasuke and Solari were under. She was carrying Naruto, who was unconscious. Laying him down on the ground next to Sasuke, she said, “What do we do now?”

“Well one thing is for sure, no one can tell Naruto about the curse marks Sasuke and I have. He would go blabbing to everyone.” Solari looked up from Sasuke’s face to see Sakura staring at her. It took a few seconds before Solari realized that Sakura was staring at the curse mark that was still covering her entire left side of her body.

“Are you going to be okay?”

“I’ll be fine, I’ve dealt with this before. The real question is, will Sasuke survive.” At the confused look on Sakura’s face Solari continued to explain. “There is only about a 10% survival rate for people with this particular curse mark. I was lucky.”

“Is there any way to find out if will survive?”

“I don’t know. I suppose if I listen to him close enough I can hear how his body is reacting to the mark. But you will have to keep a very good look out. I’ve never done this before and if I loose consciousness someone need to guard the three of us.”

Sakura nodded, showing she understood. Solari began to focus on Sasuke, using the same jutsu she used when listening to her surroundings. Instead of her finding Sasuke, however, something came out and grabbed her. The next thing she knew she was inside Sasuke’s mind. She did not only hear what he was thinking, she saw it to. She saw a 7-year-old boy she assumed was Sasuke. He was sitting in the corner of a room crying.

“I wasn’t strong enough. It’s my fault everyone died.” Solari felt like she was intruding and tried to pull away. However it didn’t work. She could get out of Sasuke’s mind. The last thing she heard was Sakura shout her name before Solari’s knees buckled and she fell, unconscious.

* * *

When Solari regained consciousness the first thing she saw was Sakura. Sakura was fighting Zaku, and losing. Turing her head she saw another boy fighting Dosu and Kin, he was also losing. Solari jumped up to help them and ran over to the boy.

“You must be Solari-san,” he said between punches. “My name is Rock Lee.”

Solari nodded in acknowledgement. “Great now let me help you.” She picked up a rock and threw it at Kin to get her attention. Kin turned and smiled.

“It’s about time.” Kin threw some senbon at Solari who jumped to avoid them. As she did this Solari noticed that the curse mark had gone back to normal and was no longer covering her body.

Good. She thought. Not only will this free up my movement, but now that the mark is not sealed I can use jutsus that were blocked by the seal. She dodged some more senbon and tried to bring Kin away from the others.

“Figures,” she said following her, “you were always so weak. I bet your doing this so the three of us won’t team up on you.”

“Not likely, maybe I just want to kill you first.” Solari swung a punch, which Kin dodged.

While Kin was on the ground she kicked Solari’s legs, causing her to fall to the ground.

“In order to kill me first you need to actually touch me.” Kin smirked but was forced to recede farther into the forest to avoid the cloud of kunai knifes and shuriken Solari had thrown.

They continued to fight. Kin was using a variety of senbon. Solari was using taijutsu and kunai knifes. Finally they both stopped. They both were equally battered and out of breath.

“Just as I thought. You’re as weak as ever.”

Solari smiled. “Hah, you’re not exactly unscathed yourself. Anyway I was holding back. You’re the one that’s just as weak.”

Kin ran at her and punched her in the stomach. Solari collapsed to the ground, coughing up blood.

“You were bluffing. You’re just as weak as ever.” Kin opened her hand and a senbon fell out, the tip of it was covered in blood.

Solari put her hand over her stomach and felt a small puncture wound. When she looked at her hand again she saw it covered in blood. She closed her eyes and breathed in slowly, waiting for the pain to stop. When she opened her eyes again the edges of her vision were blurred. She looked up at Kin and saw a muscle twitch in her right arm. Solari lifted an arm to block the punch without even noticing.

About time, she thought.

“What I thought you couldn’t do that anymore!” Kin sounded shocked.

“Hah, no it’s just been blocked by the curse mark. When Orochimaru unsealed the mark it was released. Remind me to send him a thank you card.” Kin threw a few more punches and kicks that Solari successfully blocked. “When did you change Kin? You used to be my best friend.”

“It’s called acting. The plan the entire time was for you to stay in the Sound village and serve Orochimaru-sama with your Uchiha kekki genkai.”

“You mean you knew who I was before I did?” Out of anger, Solari switched to the offensive. She threw some more kunais at Kin who dodged him.

“Yeah I did. But what happened to you? You used to be the best at gen- and ninjutsu.”

“There were Sound jutsu, I stopped using them when I came back to Kohona.”

“How noble.” They both stopped when they heard a scream come from the main are where everyone else was fighting. “Zaku!” Kin shouted.

“Sasuke?” Solari dropped her guard and Kin threw her against a tree.

Kin ran off and Solari got up to follow her. They both stopped on the edge of the clearing, staring horrified at the scene in front of them. Sasuke was awake, but something was clearly wrong with him. The curse mark was all over his body and he was attacking Zaku with unusually ferocity, even for him. Solari could see dark purple chakra circling Sasuke, and when she looked closer she noticed that the curse mark had spread all over his body.

“No!” Zaku screamed. Sasuke had pinned him to the ground and was pulling on both of Zaku’s arms.

“What? You seem to be awfully fond of you arms. I wonder what you would do if something happened to them.” He pulled a little harder, causing Zaku to wince.

“Please I’m begging you.” This was something Solari never expected from Zaku, he was pleading with Sasuke. Sasuke, however, seemed not to care, he pulled harder on Zaku’s arms until a very loud cracking sound was heard throughout the clearing.

“Sasuke stop it!” Sakura shouted. But Sasuke ignored her. Dosu got up and began to run away. Kin followed suit, leaving Zaku behind.

Sakura ran up to Sasuke and hugged him, begging him to stop. Solari ran up to Zaku. She hated him with every fiber of her being, yet she could not help but feel sorry for him.

“Get up,” she said nudging him with her foot. “Get out of here before I do worse to you.” Zaku got up and ran after Dosu and Kin, his broken arms flailing behind him.
Solari turned to see Sasuke on the ground. The curse mark had receded and Sakura was crying silently next to him.

“Is, is he going to be okay?” Sasuke asked.

“Yeah he’ll live.”

Sakura was not completely convinced. She looked into Solari’s eyes and gasped.
“You have the Sharingan?”

Solari shrugged. “Yeah I do but it’s nothing special. I never learned how to control it so it’s really more of a hindrance than a help.”

“When did you get it?”

“When I was 7. The same time I got this.” She showed Sakura her curse mark.

“Kakashi-sensei says that you only gain the Sharingan when your life is in danger. Sasuke got his while we were fighting Zabuza and Haku. When did you get yours?”

“I’d rather not say. The reason I got it is, well, complicated.” Sakura looked disappointed that she would not be able to learn more about her teammate but Solari changed the subject. “Now come on, I seriously doubt anyone will attack us anymore. Sasuke should wake up soon and hopefully Naruto also.” She remembered Lee, who had been fighting Dosu. She looked over where they were fighting and saw Lee, unconscious. “We may even be able to help Lee.”

She walked over to Lee and propped him up over her shoulder. Just as she was doing this she noticed a scroll sitting about 10 feet way. She put Lee down and went to get it. Fortunately it was not a trap, it was a genuine Earth scroll. She went back to help Lee, but before she could pick him up, an unfamiliar voice came from the tree above her.

“He’s our teammate let us take him.” Solari looked up to see Neji and Tenten standing in the tree.

Tenten jumped down and picked him up. “I got this under control.” She held the unconscious Lee facing her and began to shake him. “COME ON LEE PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER!” To Solari’s amazement, Lee actually opened his eyes.

“Good you’re awake we can go to the tower now. Come on,” Neji said indifferently.

“Wait!” As much as Solari wanted the Earth scroll, she thought that if Lee had dropped it during the fight she should return it. “Was this yours?”

“No, it must belong to whomever Lee was fighting.” Tenten said. “We don’t need it. You can have it.” With that Tenten, Neji, and Lee left in the direction of the tower.

Solari smiled. No more ninja to deal with if we get to the tower quick. Now all that’s left is to wake up Naruto. Thinking of what Tenten had done, Solari laughed. “Hey Sakura, I think Tenten gave me an idea of how to wake Naruto up.”

TO BE CONTINUED....

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