ENJOY
Sakura struggled to control the tremors wracking her body as she defensively hovered over her unconscious teammates. The situation was dire, and it was bound to become legitimately unenviable within the next five minutes. Team Seven, less a team than a sickbay by this point, was cornered in the Forest of Death by a group of Sound Genin. One had a face covered in bandages, was clearly male, and was quite short, and the other two were fairly standard in appearance.
'I can't stop them. Even one of them would be too much' Sakura lamented as she tightened her grip on the kunai in her left hand. The only female of the opposing team then stepped forward and grinned. Before Sakura could move to react, the Sound kunoichi's hands flashed out in front of her and sent a storm of senbon needles flying in the pink haired girl's direction. The senbon buried themselves in Sakura's arms, legs, and the sides of her abdomen. The pain elicited a shrill cry of pain from the Konoha genin.
"Oh, we've got a screamer. Cute" the cruel Kunoichi sneered as Sakura gingerly picked the needles out of her skin. A moment after the cold jeer had reached her ears, Sakura was peppered with more needles. While she screamed, one of the Sound Kunoichi's teammates sighed.
"You're taking this too slowly, Kin. Let's put her away now" the girl's teammate said. The kunoichi, apparently named Kin, sighed and stepped back to allow her comrade into the fray.
"Have fun, Zaku" she said. The sound Shinobi then charged forward and knocked Sakura to her rear end with a ruthless punch to the left side of her jaw. The Konoha genin hit the ground in a daze, her equilibrium gone and her vision scrambled. Zaku stood over her and drew a kunai.
"Game over, kid" he said coldly. He then raised the blade over his head and drove it straight downward. Sakura squeezed her eyes shut and embraced the seemingly inevitable. To her surprise and relief, the cold steel of the kunai never made contact with her body. Sakura's eyes slowly drew open, and what she saw was shocking. Wrapped around Zaku's wrist was a tendril of what appeared to be sand.
"W-what the hell?" Zaku grunted as he tried and failed to free his arm from the animated sediment. Before he could utter any more confused cursings, the sound ninja was brutally slammed into a nearby tree by the sandy limb. Kin and her bandaged teammate gasped in horror as their comrade staggered and fell back down again after struggling his way to his feet.
"Frankly, I'm impressed. An impact like that, and all you have is a concussion"
The group of Sound Genin and Sakura all snapped to attention and turned their heads towards the dry voice they had all heard. Standing at the edge of the clearing was another group of Ninja. Their forehead protectors bore the symbol of Sunagakure. The cell consisted of two girls and a boy. The tallest of the group was the leftmost girl, who had what appeared to be a fan strapped to her back. The middle was a boy with face paint and a strange object on his back.
The final member of the team appeared to be the wielder of the sand, and she was by far the shortest. She had unkempt red hair that reached a few inches below her chin, pale blue eyes with dark circles, and a pale complexion. Sakura tensed at the sight of her.
'I've heard about her. Gaara of Desert. She apparently has a B-Ranked mission on her record' she thought to herself nervously. The redhead then took a few slow steps into the clearing, resulting in several respective steps backwards from the ninja occupying it.
"What the hell do you want?" Zaku hissed as he attempted to hide his obvious fear. Gaara's blank facial expression remained unchanged as she advanced forward.
"I've been following your team for a bit now. Mostly out of curiosity. I'd never even heard of the Hidden Sound Village until recently. I wanted to see if you were worth the trouble" she said eerily, paying his question no heed. Zaku backed up a step, but bumped into the tree he had been launched into.
"Worth the trouble? What's that supposed to mean?" he demanded in a falsely defiant tone. Gaara stopped stalking forward and allowed her first defined expression to form. A dark smirk.
"The trouble of drawing and quartering" she said in a deadly calm tone. Before the unfortunate Sound genin could respond, his neck was seized by another tendril of earthen dust, which was spewing from a gourd on Gaara's back. As he slowly asphyxiated from the pressure being put on his windpipe, Zaku's body was entirely encased in a coating of sand.
"Sand Coffin" Gaara said anticipatorily. She then opened and closed her right hand. A split second later. The Sound genin was crushed to a pulp, his blood spraying omnidirectionally. The rest of the children in attendance of the brutal murder, save for the redhead's comrades, all cried out in disgusted shock and horror. Gaara, whose face was speckled with blood, licked her lips and turned to face the remaining sound ninja.
Before she could speak, the pair disappeared into a puff of smoke. They had seen their chance to retreat, and they had taken it. The redhead frowned and stared off into the woods for a moment. Eventually, she turned her attention to Sakura.
"Perhaps you could fill the void"
Naruto's eyes creaked open as his senses returned to him. His vision was fuzzy, his hearing was muffled, and he felt little sensation in his body. Despite his dulled sensory capabilities, he could still sense a commotion nearby.
'You'd do good to get on your feet. If you wish for your teammate's survival, that is' an ancient voice suggested from the back of his mind. Naruto growled at the fox's voice, but took his advice and slowly rose to his feet. He scanned his surrounding area momentarily, quickly identifying the source of the disturbance that had awakened him from his forced slumber.
'Sakura? And...who're they?' he wondered as he watched his comrade rapidly retreat backwards away from a menacing, red-haired girl. Before he could get the chance to wrack his brain for the answer, the redhead in question glanced in his direction. The moment they made eye contact, Naruto's blood ran cold. He recognized her, if barely. Despite the limited familiarity, the blonde couldn't pinpoint the source of his underlying fear.
'You can sense it, can't you?' the fox asked as his host forced himself to take a step forward. Naruto clenched his jaw.
'Feel what?' he asked. The demonic beast chuckled and began to retreat into the backmost corners of Naruto's mind.
'Just you wait and see' he said vaguely before disappearing completely. The Jinchuuriki pushed away his curiosity and focused on the potential task before him.
"Get away from her" he growled. Gaara remained silent and gave him an assessing stare. After a few moments of tense silence, the sand that had been creeping towards Sakura changed its trajectory and began to drift towards Naruto.