Redemption
I was walking from the hospital after two shifts of work when I felt a shiver of chakra race through the air. It rumbled across the earth, tingling up my legs as I braced them for balance. The pressure of the chakra was eminent, strong like the force of oceanic waves. It expanded, curling onto everything that crossed its path.
I smelled burnt hair and felt a stinging all over my skin. Looking down, I saw the chakra eating away at my skin and hair like acid. I hissed, jumping to a roof top nearby. The chakra wasn't as bad there, and the pain lessened.
People around me were just as anxious and frightened as I was, ninja and civilians alike. They ran away, or stood petrified with wide doe eyes. Some looked to others with questioning gazes, or into the distance to try to figure where the raw power was coming from.
A chunin hopped to my position on the roof, out of breath. "Lady Sakura, what is this?"
I glanced at him, and then to my surroundings. The village itself wasn't where this queer chakra generated from...and it also wasn't the cliffs of the Hokages that caused this. My eyes narrowed, sensing greater power from the forest beyond the main gates.
"outside the village, in the forests."
A split second passed, and then everything exploded.
Rays of pink and blue light blasted into the Heavens from a point in the forests, blinding anyone who looked at them. I turned my eyes away with a shielding, glove-cladded, hand. Noise filled the gaps of time, just as chakra erupted. My ears ached, and a blast of wind and power knocked me straight off my feet.
Struggling to get off the ground, I shouted to the Chunin to inform the Hokage of what was witnessed here, although I highly doubt she didn't see it herself. I gathered a bit of chakra to my feet, jumped to the ground, not taking even a second to pause as I raced in the direction that the explosion came from.
It was a strange feeling, running in the ruckus. The entire village vibrated from what just happened, and I felt every single vibration throughout my body as I ran, until my heart pulsed in time with the earth beneath me.
I spotted a golden ponytail swinging ahead of me. "Ino!" I called, pushing my legs harder until I caught up with her. We kept pace with each other as we raced out of the village gates.
"You saw that too, right?" She asked.
I nodded. "who do you think caused it? I've never seen anything like that before, not even from when Akatsuki attacked the village."
She shook her head, and I could see the worry flash in her eyes. "I don't know. But we're going to find out, and stop whatever, or whoever, it is."
About six kilometers away from the village, the acrid smell of smoke filled our lungs. We stopped, breathless and coughing. "We...must...be getting...close," I hacked, barely able to whisper to Ino. Smog drifted into our sight, choking out all breathable air. We ripped parts of our clothes to tie over our noses and mouths. If only we had something to protect our streaming eyes, but that wasn't not our biggest priority at the moment.
We couldn't see even three feet ahead of us, but I could only imagine how the trees and shrubs were transformed into black stubs of ash. We moved in with caution, on guard for any possible ambush that might be awaiting us. The smoke thickened, and the ground became unlevel, causing us to move even slower.
We finally reached it, the only indictor was the sharp swoop the ground went into. Ino possesses Wind Style, and so she was able to construct a jutsu to blast away all the smoke and ash.
If only she hadn't.
What we saw made me pray for the smoke to whoosh back, no matter the tearing eyes and the choking lungs.
Anything would have been better than what lay before us.
Poprincess.57
