I apologize for the shortness. Longer next time, eh?
Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I own only about $57 and an ugly old laptop.
Equilibrium
She woke up abruptly on a hospital bed, the lights blindingly bright. She attempted to open her bloodshot eyes, the lights burning and immediately bringing forth tears. Sakura attempted to blink them away, squinting to adjust to the brightness but only succeeded in further blurring her vision. She shut her eyes before the lights could burn her eyes any further, the lights dazzlingly bright even through her eyelids. All she could see was red, gasping as the pain suddenly set in.
Every inch of her body ached, from her fingers to places she had not known could be sore. In her chest, between her collar bones, there was a dull throb – the feel of a slowly healing bruise. She attempted to cup her chest but couldn't seem to move her arms.
"Did you hear that?" someone hissed from… somewhere. The lights dancing in front of her eyes moved faster, effectively blinding her. She moaned again, trying to determine where the voices were coming from. She could only barely hear the muffled sound of quick footsteps against stone before she fell back out of conscious.
This was never supposed to happen.
Sakura woke with a start, attempting to figure out where the booming voice was coming from. Her eyes immediately began to burn as she opened them – she let out a little scream in surprise by the pain. Gathering up her chakra, she lifted her arm to soothe her damaged eyes.
And nothing.
Her chakra refused to bend to her will, her prized control falling to shit as she couldn't, for the life of her, gather her medical chakra into her hand.
Chakra doesn't work here.
"Who are you? Where am I?" She immediately deduced she had not, in fact, imagined the voice as she initially thought.
We're nowhere.
Sakura stood up unsteadily, still trying to grasp control of her chakra and she fell into a defensive stance. The low, booming voice let out a laugh.
Silly girl. Sit down and I shall explain.
She stood still, refusing to back down. "Where are we?" she repeated, attempting to keep the voice talking. Was it male? Female? What type of accent did it have? She couldn't tell a thing.
Such a suspicious little kunoichi. They have chosen well, I suppose. You are in my realm, girl. You will bring time to its rightful state.
Sakura let out a short bark of a laugh. The war-hardened shinobi (shinobi, not kunoichi) stood her ground, desperately trying to regain control of her chakra as her damaged eyes slowly began to leak blood. "And what is that supposed to mean?"
Stop fighting me, girl.
Sakura suddenly fell to her knees. Never had she felt such pure, such potent chakra. She felt it in every pore, her own chakra coils tingling unpleasantly in response. She didn't realize she was screaming until she felt the soreness of her own throat.
You may call me Kira.
Sakura dry heaved, struggling to regain balance to get back on her feet. "What are you?" She managed to spit out.
That is none of your concern. What your concern is to bring your timeline back into equilibrium.
She slowly forced herself standing, licking her dry, cracked lips and accidentally tasting her bitter blood-tears. She spat out, before getting back into her defensive stance. "What do you mean? What happened to me?"
You were captured by what your people called Madara. He tortured you, began experimenting his space-time ninjutsu when you were found. This jutsu of his broke the timeline as it should be and brought upon variations. Variations that never should have existed.
Despite herself, Sakura found herself intrigued. She spat out more blood before nodding slowly to the voice. "So he essentially broke fate." She could almost sense the voice's smile.
Now you've got it, girl. He had split the timeline into so many fragments, different fates, that the Gods have decided to intervene so to bring fate back into its original state. I am to send you back-
"Gods? That's bullshit," she interrupted angrily. This was just another Pein, she realized. And she, of course, had been captured.
Her chakra flow remained disrupted – no matter how hard she tried it would not realign itself. She was defenceless. And then suddenly the chakra hit her again, longer and harder.
Sakura screamed in pain, unable to keep it in. The chakra was too potent for her body to take, her skin burning in its wake.
Stupid girl. You were supposed to be intelligent – you will figure it out yourself.
Sakura fell to the floor, unable to move. Her muscles twitched sporadically from the overexposure to pure chakra, and she saw black.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
BeepBeepBeep.
Sakura woke with a gasp, drenched in sweat as she jerked up. All she saw was darkness – the pinkette swore beneath her breathe as she smoothed her fingers over her bandaged eyes.
"You were out for a long time, you know," came a soft voice to her right. Sakura jumped out of bed, taking the woman into a modified chokehold she learned from Tsunade lifetimes ago. The woman gasped, struggling to breathe as grabbed at Sakura's scrawny arms.
"Who are you" Sakura hissed. She unconciously spread out her chakra, sensing who was about. 5 civilians moving around the hall. 4 more with coiled developed enough to be shinobi – some stationary in rooms and others moving. The woman in front of her was a civilian; she noted but remained in position. Civilians can poison as well as any nin can with the correct training.
"Amaya Suzuki!" She cried, quickly losing oxygen. "Your nurse!"
Sakura loosened her hold slightly. "Where am I?"
"Konoha!" Amaya gasped, still clawing at Sakura's grasp. Sakura found herself struggling to push back, her strength fading away.
"Liar," Sakura growled, ripping the bandages off her eyes as she slowly gained on the nurse. Konoha had been destroyed during the invasion. There was no Konoha left.
"Please – your bandages-" Sakura realized suddenly that she could only see grey shapes and changes in light. But it was enough to see the woman in front of her. She held the woman down firmly – enough to restrain, not to harm.
"Please ninja-san, we're in Konoha. We're not going to harm you, we'll help you!" the woman pleaded beneath Sakura's hold. Before Sakura could respond, she heard another knock at the door.
"Amaya? I heard noises, what's going on?" Sakura turned sharply to the rather tall, gangly man at the door. One of the people with shinobi levels of chakra she realized with a slight widening of the eye, falling into defensive stance. Her body felt stiff, as if her muscles hadn't been moved in a long time, a layer of shiny new skin covering her exposed arms and legs.
Wait, shiny new skin?
Sakura did a quick double take of her appendages – her body seemed to be almost completely scabbed over and smaller than it once was. She sent a pulse of chakra through her body to check her vitals as her eyes could not make out the details of her abused skin. She realized with a start that she could control her chakra again and quickly began reinforcing her arms with the warmth of her rapidly declining chakra. Meanwhile, the man began to slowly walk forwards.
"Ninja-san, we found you at one of the ruins in our forests… we mean no harm, we only mean to help," the man repeated the nurse before him. Sakura turned to the window on the other side of the bed. The Hokage Monument.
She stared for a second, attempting to adjust the lack of clarity in her vision. For a second, it seemed like there were only three heads on the monument rather than five. Before her vision could adjust, there was another noise.
"Sakura-chan, is that you?" Sakura stared at the worried face of Iruka-sensei, who should be dead, before falling to a dead faint.
Chapter End
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