Disclaimer: Don't own anything.
Non-Beta version.

Queen's Gambit
By: Tsukiko Hoshino

You'd better hope and praythat you make it safe back to your own world,
You'd better hope and pray that you'll wake one day in your own world,
because when you sleep at nightthey don't hear your cries in your own world
Only time will tell If you can break the spell,Back in your own world
- Shakespeare's sister (Stay)

For a girl like her, college was a dream come true. An orphan since the moment of her birth it was as if the odds had been stacked against her since that time. Nothing deterred her though, not anymore.

Of course when she was a child plenty of things had.

No one seemed to want a child with pink hair.

No matter how good her grades were, no matter how polite or pretty she dressed no one ever wanted her for keeps.

The other children teased her ferociously, never letting her play with them, and when hopeful adoptees came to visit they would always see her off by herself face buried in some book. "A problem child." They'd whisper to themselves before turning their gaze to more outgoing children.

Like every child she had hopelessly wanted to fit in, strived to be as normal and as mundane as possible after realizing that standing out would only cause more problems for herself in the long run. It didn't do her much good in finding a family, but it got her through her teenage and childhood years.

'That doesn't matter anymore.' Sakura reminded herself. She was twice as bright and three times as hardworking as those other children because of it. She'd had to be after all. College wasn't going to come cheap and you didn't get into one of the best universities in Japan with half assed grades and lousy work ethic.

She worked two jobs one nearly right after the other with a few hours sleep in between before making her way to classes. She was running on empty nearly every day yet managed to rank at the top of each of her classes. She even did tutoring on demand just to get by. It was a long and arduous regimen, but she comforted herself. 'It'll all be over soon anyways.' She thought. A week from now she would begin her internship at the local hospital.

She would finally be able to breath, even if just a bit.

The internship wasn't going to pay much, and the hours would be painful, but it was one step closer to her dream. If there was anything Sakura was known for it was the single-minded pursuit of her goals. To her, until she accomplished that one thing, everything else had to take a back seat.

As a doctor, she would have everything she'd lacked as a child. She'd be respected and welcomed. People would listen to her when she talked, ask for her opinion in things. She wouldn't be told what to do or where to go. She'd be saving lives, prolonging them, and even enriching them. She'd be showing everyone her true worth.

Soon, she'd be one of the youngest doctors in the modern world at only 23. All the time she'd spent studying rather then playing was finally going to pay off.

Taking a deep breath she placed her hands on the wrought iron rail of her third floor terrace and looked out over the bustling city below. Honestly, she hated how confining and noisy the city was, but for the bath she'd chosen it was simply a necessary annoyance.

The thing she wanted most of all was to save lives. The thing that kept coming back to haunt her was that in the back of her mind she wondered that if the doctor who had attended her mother then maybe she would have been around to see her own daughter grow up like all parents should be able to.

It hurt her heart to think about what her life might have been if only things had been different. On a day like this she was far to weary to stop from thinking on it though. 'That's right.' She thought, standing a little straighter as she remembered something import. Turning on her heel, she seeked solace in her warm and dry apartment for a few moments. 'I have somewhere to be today.'

Today was the day of her birth, and subsequently her mother's death. Every year on that day she made sure to visit her mother's grave and do the usual cleaning, incense lighting, and offering to the dead. It was done twice a year, once on this day and another on O-bon in the summer.

Sliding the glass doors shut behind her, Sakura prepared to leave, slipping into her black rain boots and warm, grey peacoat. Before leaving she gave herself a once over in the mirror before grabbing her purse and umbrella.

The face in the mirror was not exactly homely, nor a modern day Helen of Troy. She sat somewhere in-between with a slightly broad forehead that was only accentuated by her long face framing bangs. Her hair was oddly colored, but exotic- or so she'd been told. Despite the oddness of it, she took great care in it, and it was what she prided herself on most although it had brought her unwanted trouble in the past. Pretty green eyes that should have clashed horridly with her hair but didn't and a slim but pert nose with full, shapely lips.

It was just to bad she lacked abysmally in the bust department.

'Well…Brains over beauty.' She reprimanded herself, flipping out the lights and slipping out the door.

She made it to the rail way just in time to avoid waiting in the rain for thirty minutes for another tram to come by. Traveling from Itabashi to Nagano took about an hour and a half so she easily settled into her seat, and flipped through the study book she kept handy inside her purse. It was a good opportunity to prepare. One the other hand her eyes would nervously flit around the enclosed space for no reason at all.

'Today feels kinda strange….' Sakura admitted to herself when exiting. What it was, she couldn't say exactly. Anticipation and anxiety seemed to be welling up inside her with each hour of the day. By the time she was off the railway, she was practically buzzing from it.

It felt like something was just going to sweep her off her feet.

Staring up at the gray sky, a tremble ran down the length of her spine. It felt like she was on the verge of some sort of momentous change. "Ridiculous." She murmured, shaking the thoughts away. With the expert flick of her hand she opened her umbrella to guard against the rain dripping sleepily down. "Now's not the time to suddenly become superstitious." She murmured to herself under her breath.

Pushing everything behind her, she went along on her merry way making a few stops to gather supplies before taking the long walk towards the cemetery. By the time she began making her way up the long and winding set of steps that lead to the solitary little hill the last vestiges of light were lingering on the horizon.

On the way up she passed by a uniformed man wearing an eye patch and a medical mask. It wasn't really an uncommon sight. Plenty of people in Japan wore the masks for a number of reasons; the sick wore it to prevent infection as a sign of social responsibility and those prone to allergies wore them to lesson their suffering. So as she passed by him, she wondered why the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end.

A shrill shriek escaped her lips, lingering into the night air as a hand grabbed her arm. Without even realizing it, her fist was already flying against the perpetrator, nailing him right in the nose. "O-oh!" She cried, covering her mouth in mortification. 'I just hit a cop.' She whimpered mentally when he hit the ground. This was awful, what if she got a record? Her life would be over.

"You…have a really good right hook." The guy groaned, rubbing his smarting nose through his mask. "You dropped your phone." He explained further, holding the simple black model out. At the very end of its charm strap hung a vibrant red, white and gold omamori, clearly labeling it as her own.

'How did that happen?' Sakura asked herself, reaching for it with a trembling hand. She was sure it'd been zipped up safe and sound inside her purse. Realizing she'd forgotten her manners, she quickly bowed deep in apologize. "I'm really very sorry." Her face was nearly as red as a cherry. "T-the weather must be getting to me." She explained lamely.

Even though he had silver hair, his face was very young. At least it seemed to be so from the very little she could see of it. "It's fine." He said, the one visible eye crinkling up into a crescent happily, she knew immediately that he must have been smiling beneath the white mask. "It's getting to be pretty dark, and the surroundings just make it even creepier." He mused looking up towards the looming cemetery hill as he stood and began brushing off his navy blue pants.

Instantly, a sharp stab of guilt went through her for being so freaked out by him mere moments before. He seemed perfectly nice, and normal. 'He's a police officer too.' She scolded herself. 'If you can't trust them, who can you trust?' At his words, she spared a brief glance towards the top of the hill, and admitted to herself that for the first time in years she was feeling apprehensive about being in a cemetery so close to dark all on her own.

As if sensing her discomfort, one lone, lazy grey eye studied her thoughtfully, before he cleared his throat. "Not to sound creepy, or give you the wrong impression, but if your worried I can stay with you." He explained.

"Oh!" Sakura startled, breaking free from her thoughts, before waving her hands nervously. "No, no. That's not necessary; I wouldn't want to trouble you." She explained quickly. "Besides, it's such a juvenile thing to be scared of the dark- but thank you anyways."

Sakura was never one to forget her manners when it counted.

He was silent for a moment, before nodding his head. "It wouldn't be any trouble mam', but if you're sure…" He trailed off doubtfully for a moment, before shrugging whatever he was thinking off. "Well have a nice night." He said, turning around and raising a hand in lazy farewell.

Although she had already turned her back to him, when she heard his good bye Sakura had turned, meaning to say the same only to find him already gone.

"Strange." She murmured to herself, wrapping her arm around her waist to ward off the sudden chill. He must have been in a large hurry to have disappeared so quickly. 'Well, no sense in lingering.' Sakura told herself, hurrying up the steps and past the gapping gate which hardly seemed to serve any purpose considering she'd never seen it closed once.

Her mother's stone monument was towards the very back where the lanterns light hardly reached, but she knew the way by heart even in the lack of light. Her steps were hurried and impatient as she moved along, cleaning and clearing the stone of grime and lighting the obligatory incense.

She wanted to be back on the railway before night fully set, and even though she kept repeating that to herself like a mantra somehow she managed to lose track of time regardless.

Already she was berating herself for being to proud to accept the police officers offer. 'What kind of idiot does that?' She asked herself venomously, before settling down to tell her mother how things were going in her life lately. It was the usual "Sorry mom, no boyfriend yet, I got all A's this semester, and so and so's a real jerk. My boss is killing me, if I have to deal with one more overtime without pay speech I'm gonna explode" Reel.

For a moment, as if she'd forgotten the uneasy feeling that had been plaguing her all day, Sakura finally felt at peace kneeling on the damp earth before that cold unfeeling stone. It was the riffling of clothing and foliage that finally snapped her out of her false sense of security.

Craning her neck to look in the direction of the sound, she saw a woman with long, dark black hair stumbling around in the dark a few yards away. The silky black strands obscured her face but her skin was pale and luminescent from what she could see. Watching the jerky uneven moments of the woman made her stomach churn. Despite that, the woman was attractive with large almond shaped eyes and a straight nicely proportioned nose- or what she could see of it.

The med student inside her was screaming that something wasn't right. 'Drunk maybe?' Sakura mused. Not knowing the answer, she did what any moral and upstanding citizen would have done. She made her way over and called out, trying to offer her assistance. "Miss, are you alright?" She called from a few feet away, still wary enough not to come to close to the stranger.

The woman looked up, her lower face obscured by a mask. Pale, Glassy blue eyes stared back at her. They were the color of a corpse's after the body had stopped producing melanin.

That was something she knew first hand considering she'd spent a fair bit of time dissecting cadavers. 'She could be blind.' She was quick to interrupt herself. Entertaining that sort of thought would only lead her to trouble.

A sinking feeling began gnawing at Sakura, this time much stronger then the ones she'd been feeling all day long. With a will of steel, she remained rooted where she was in an attempt to squash her inexplicable trepidation. 'If I run away now, how can I ever expect to be a good doctor?'

The woman was moving steadily closer until she was just a few feet away. "Am I beautiful?" She asked voice soft and lilting.

Already she wished she'd run away, wished she'd stuck close to the cop, and certainly wished she'd held off her visit even at the expense of tradition. Everything had been screaming at her since she'd left her apartment this morning that something was just not right. Instead of listening to her instincts she'd foolishly lulled herself into a false sense of security.

'Am I beautiful?' Sakura repeated numbly to herself, trying to figure out why the phrase seemed so familiar. Then, when her eyes traveled down the woman's arm to a pair of large sharp shears- like the plucking of a string, the memory sang back to her.

The kuchisake-onna- or split mouthed woman. Was the name Sakura knew her by. Older legends said she was the vain, but gorgeous wife of a ninja, who she had wronged. As a punishment he'd split her mouth from ear to ear all the while mocking her with the question "Who'll think you're beautiful now?".

In another version people said she was a woman raped, mutilated and eventually murdered by a gang. While her origins were always changing some facts never changed.

For one, it was neigh impossible to out run her.

If she answered no, she'd be killed, if she answered yes, she'd take the mask off and ask again. If her answer remained the same she'd be mutilated but get to keep her life. 'But of course that's all conjecture. ' Sakura thought to herself, green eyes flicking back and forth from the weapon to the woman's face.

Sweat was forming on her brow as her thoughts speed up. 'Some people say if you throw fruit or candy you'll have time to escape.' Of course she had none of that within reach, so it was useless information.

One more thing came to mind that she could do. It was said that if you could confuse her, you'd have long enough to escape.

Though she was entertaining these notion, in the back of her mind Sakura simply figured it was a deranged woman escaped from some sort of asylum emulating what she had once heard herself. How was she to know otherwise? Ghouls, ghosts, goblins and monsters—gods even, simply did not exsist to Haruno Sakura.

Tonight would put a swift end that blissful ignorance.

Swallowing thickly, Sakura nodded her head yes, and just as she did, the woman ripped the mask away to reveal a gapping chasm stretching from ear to ear. Having not expected it, Sakura clasped her hands to her mouth in horror. The action deftly silencing the small shrill cry that tried to escape. 'It's real? Is this really real?" Her shocked mind echoed repeatedly.

Although she'd seen plenty of horrendous wounds, even seen internal organs and held them in the palms of her hand as well as just about everything under the sun while preparing for her medical career, this was different. This wasn't natural. A person couldn't live, breath, walk and talk they way the phantom in front of her was doing at that very moment.

It wasn't possible.

This time, there was no finding a logical explanation for what she was seeing.

"Am I beautiful still?" The woman gurgled, blood spilling from her horrific wound, flowing from her mouth, down her neck to stain her once spotless white blouse. From ear to ear her gapping, drooling maw went giving one a clear view of the perfectly straight, would be white teeth inside.

"S-so-so." Sakura whimpered, flip flopping her wildly trembling hand back and forth to illustrate the statement. The statement seemed to confound the poor disfigured women, for her brows met in consternation and the gleaming scissors lowered just a fraction.

Taking that as a chance to escape, Sakura sprinted past her, making a straight shot into the woods that loomed just into the distance. 'How long do I have?' She asked herself numbly. How long would it be before that thing was running after her?

It was said you couldn't out run the Kuchisake-Onna, she could ran as fast as any car. 'It's also said that if she split your face open with her pretty little shears you'll become just like her.' The snark little voice in the back of her head warned. She was long past denying what she'd seen, though the shock of it had yet to wear off.

Like the beating of a drum, her heart grew louder, louder, and louder still. Hammering and rattling against its ivory cage.

It droned on and on, but still it was not enough to drown out an even more horrifying sound.

There, the sound of footsteps not far off behind her and quickly catching up.

Thinking quickly and half wild with instinct, Sakura veered off to the left sharply and nearly ran straight into an old collapsing tori gate. Hoping this was some kind of good luck omen- although she'd never believed in them before; she took a glance behind her to gauge the danger she was in.

Already through the dark foliage she could make out the face of her crazed hunter, and while Sakura was quickly running out of stamina, shewas not and would very soon be in range.

Deciding that things couldn't get any worse, she stumbled up the steps, skinning her hands and knees clumsily as she went.

Flying straight down the path like an arrow, she went beyond the purification trowel without stopping, beyond the guardian foxes, and even went as far to toss herself haphazardly over the stone gate baring the entrance to the inner shrine.

It was a scared place, where no one except the holiest of holies was meant to enter. "If there are… such things as god's… I really hope I will be forgiven." Sakura whispered fervently in between grasping breaths. The last thing she needed was a pissed off god coming after her.

For a split second she clapped her hands together in front of her in prayer before continuing on.

"You can't get away!" The rip faced woman's voice was no longer soft, but shrill. Like the cry of a banshee heralding death. Its pitch was high and hoarse, beyond what should have been in her capabilities considering the state of her mouth.

Peering behind her into the darkness, she saw the dark form of her pursuer clamoring over the same stone fence- although with much more trouble then she herself had faced.

That was all the courage Sakura needed to continue on. Turning her back, she was faced with the final barrier to the shrines inner heart.

It was the place where the physical symbol of the god being worshipped was en-housed, the place where its power was supposedly at its greatest.

In her mind, it was also the safest.

Staring at the mottled and torn shoji screens, she wondered if perhaps she might rethink that assumption. If there had been a god here, it hadn't been cared for in quite some time and had probably died. 'If they can do that.' Sakura thought blearily, eye lids hanging low over her eyes.

All of a sudden her world was turning upside down and she didn't know what to think anymore.
What was real, what wasn't real? Science could no longer answer everything.

It was like having the carpet ripped right out from under you.

'Well.' She corrected, sliding the doors open with force. "I know one thing." Her lips set into a grim line. "I don't want to die!"She all but screamed into the night, hands prying the doors open. she slipped inside and slammed the door shut just in time to block being stabbed with a pair of shears.

The thin wood bisecting the paper screens shook and rattled, splintering in some places before holding steadfast.

They would hold for now.

Quickly scrambling back, she hid behind the large altar circular hoping to put it between her and the enemy. The top of it was engraved with a thin line spiraling to the center. "This is it?" Sakura asked piteously, feeling her knees shake as she sunk down to the ground. She'd been hoping for something sharp and pointy, not some hunk of stone.

Instead she got a big piece of nothing.

Slumping over the altar for a moment, she took a deep breath, digging her nails into the smooth stone she was hiding behind. 'This sucks.' Sakura mused, quite aware of the understatement.

With her ear pressed up against the stone, she could just faintly hear something. 'Water?' Sakura mused, brow furrowing. "A well…" She said in realization, though it did her very little good. Peeking up from behind the stone, she took a look to see how her "friend" was fairing.

Although the Kuchisake-onna had all but torn it to pieces, she seemed almost stuck, but was very slowly but surely finding a way inside. "You…You…" she hissed digging the scissors into the ground as she used them to drag herself up.

"Yea me." Sakura replied back smartly, looking about as ferocious as a kitten with the way she was huddled in a corner. 'I'm too tired.' She admitted to herself at last.

To tired to run maybe, but not too tired to fight. Not yet.

The woman finally made a move, it was a deep forceful lunge right across the altar, and Sakura responded by waiting till the last second to grab the woman's elbows. A moment of struggle ensued and the blades were uncomfortably close to her face, but it interrupted the would be strike, and using all the strength she could muster to Sakura managed to shove her back.

It was enough to send the Kuchisake-onna tumbling right into the stone alter and sending a great crack through the archaic top.

Rolling to her side, Sakura sprung back to her feet and sprinted to the opposite wall, all the while keeping her eyes on the prone form lying on the well top.

A moment of tense anticipation passed, every single muscle in her body poised for the inevitable attack but then nothing happened, and all the tension she'd been feeling slowly drained away. "Is…it really over?" She asked herself, placing a hand to her forehead.

In retrospect, it was a stupid thing to say, because as soon as the words left her mouth she was grabbed by the hair and pinned against the cracking well top. Only snapping her head to the side saved her from having the left side of her face cut open. The blade made a shallow cut in her neck where the welling blood trickled down and dripped through the cracks before becoming wedged in the rock surface.

Grunting, the monster futilely tried to pull them out, her grip never wavering in the least.

"Why me?" Sakura screamed pushing the woman's head as far back as she could, her fingers digging into the woman's eyes. Her face wasn't getting any less creepy the longer Sakura looked at it.

The grip on her neck only tightened in response.

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" The Kuchisake-onna moaned, her pitch black hair was growing more and more haggard as the moments passed, while her skin grew blue and wan. It was the decomposition of a corpse, right before her eyes. Even the Fetid smell of a long past due corpse was finally permeating the air.

It really was such an awful way to go.

The inhumanly strong grip on Sakura's neck grew tighter like a nose, as finally the creature wrenched free its instrument of death.

The Glasgow grin on her face never changed, the cut muscles and tendons blaringly obvious even in the dim light. Fruitlessly clawing at the spirits hands, Sakura wondered what they would say about her when she was dead and gone.

She hardly had any friends, she had no family. They probably wouldn't even notice she was gone.

The silver blade rose high up.

Was she going to be doomed to wander the night and slice open the faces of foolish wanderers? She really, really hoped not.

Then like a falling star, the blade swiped down with a gleam.

Sakura closed her eyes in defeat and all went silent, like the world had fallen away.

One beat

Two beats

Three beats passed.

She was still alive.

Then, the hand that had once clamped down on her neck like a vise was no longer there.

Unfortunately she couldn't say the same about the putrid smell, which had doubled in strength. Cautiously opening her eyes, she let out a startled gasp at the tanned hand that had wound it's way through the cracking alter to grasp the sharp bladed cutters mere inches from the side of her face.

The kuchisake-onna was howling up a storm, inconsolably using both hands to try and pry the blades from interloper's hands as she wept openly. "I have too. I have too." It moaned scraggly head shaking to and fro.

Sakura almost felt bad for her, but she quickly striked the thought.

"Don't you think it'd be rude to cut up such a pretty face?" A low voice spoke from underneath Sakura's back; the words were light and buoyant. As if the situation at hand was normal. From where she was laying she could literally feel the hot breath ghost against the nape of her neck.

"Shut up!" The corpse howled jaw stretching open as it's flesh lost its elasticity.

Feeling more then a little startled, and at the end of her wits Sakura lashed out once more drawing her knees in close before snapping them into the chest of her crazed attacker. The feeling of bones shattering and the smell of corpse was enough to make her want to thrown up.

The kuchisake-onna tumbled to the floor, limbs and thinning hair awry, this way and that.

Rolling onto her stomach, from the cracks in the stone, Sakura could see one vibrant blue eye peering up at her.

Like a cats, it was luminescent and gleamed up at her from the darkness.

Mischief, mayhem- those were the things she saw in them.

"Hello." The male all but purred- his eyes far to pleased to be regarded as anything but suspicious peering up at her.

"Who are you?" Sakura hissed, narrowing her eyes at him. If she could see a mirror at the moment, she would have looked positively ferocious. Eyes ablaze and hair askew, like an animal.

"Ne, shouldn't I be asking that?" He wondered jovially. "After all, you're the one in my shrine." He pointed out. Fingers sifting through her hair, he gently drew her in close, until her forehead was pressed against the cool stone. "If you want to live, you should really do as I say." He murmured, nose pressing against hers. "That spirit won't stay down long ya know."

The fight drained out of her then.

From the corner of her eye, Sakura could see that he was right. "W-what do I do?" She whispered quietly, nervously licking her lips. Although she had a feeling asking him that was akin to making a deal with the devil.

She had not come all this way just to die. Those were the words she repeatedly whispered to herself.

Those impossibly bright blue eyes seem to smolder, and the stone that had stubbornly clung together suddenly broke apart with a great blast of air. If it hadn't of been for him swiftly gripping her arms, she too would have been blown away. "I'll take my payment later." He breathed into her ear, sending strangely delightful shivers down her spine.

If she thought the night couldn't and wouldn't get any weirder, she was wrong.

The guy had whiskers. Or at least what looked like them, three on each side of his face to be exact. Of course when he finally stepped away, she got an eyeful. "Naked!" She screamed shrilly, reflexes driving her to punch him in the head. "Why aren't you wearing any clothes? Don't go grabbing women when y-your…N-n-n…" She couldn't even complete the statement as she turned her back to him.

Covering her face with her hands, Sakura once again asked herself what Sin she'd committed in her last life to deserve the kind of punishment she was being put through. Surely, she must have murdered some kind of saint.

The man whimpered and rubbed the growing lump at the top of his head. She hit pretty damn hard. Straightening up, he huffed, hands on his hips impertinently. "Well sorry." He scoffed. "Next time I'll leave you to be attacked while I get a wardrobe change- dattebayo." It wasn't his fault he was missing his clothes.

Stretching out his muscles, he took pleasure in the kinks and joints lessening and popping at he went.

"Next time?" Sakura parroted dimly. 'A next time?' No way, no how. It was not going to happen. This was going to end tonight. 'But what the hell's a datttebayo?' She thought.

The boy- no the man that had saved her was standing with his hands on his hips, foot tapping impatiently, as he waited for his opponent to ready herself. His unruly blonde hair was slightly shaggy, the front strands dangling a bit longer then the hair at the nape of his neck. Most notably though, were the large orange ears perking up from the top of his head.

Without meaning too, her eyes trailed down the slopes of his broad back and tapered waist before resting on his tail bone. Or rather just above it, because she was totally not admiring his-She avoided the thought like it was a venomous snake.

In addition to his animalistic features he apparently had a tail

"That would explain things…"She stated hesitantly, before nearly choking on her own spit. 'I was not just staring at his ass.' Sakura stated to herself firmly. She wasn't. The smirk he gave her on the other hand gave her the distinct impression he knew just as well as she did, that she in fact had been admiring it.

While he'd been teasing her with his eyes, the kuchisake-onna had taken a stab at him, startling him enough to break eye contact. "Being asleep for so long must have made me soft." He mused nonchalantly, pink tongue laving the slash marring his arm lazily. "Still, you'll hardly be a challenge." He chuckled darkly, eyes changing from fathomless blue to vermillion.

The air seemed to grow ten times heavier, and the blade wielding woman trembled, her face had lost any of the flesh it once had, all of it having rotted away leaving nothing but a fearsomely grinning skull beneath it.

The air had become thick and heavy, as though the gravity around them had increased. Sweating slightly, Sakura slowly backed away.

Somehow, even after being chased around through a cemetery, through a forest in the middle of the night by a woman with scissors didn't seem nearly as frightening as the feeling that was pouring off that blonde man in waves.

It was like a hand had reached inside her chest and was slowly contracting its grip around her heart.

Seeking relief, she turned tail and ran, never looking back and never stopping once.

Everything from that moment to the moment she was safely aboard the bus taking her home was a blur.

"What…what just happened?" Sakura asked herself, fingers threading through her hair shakily.. Dragging her hands down her face to cover her lips, she shook her head to herself, completely unaware of the strange looks she was receiving.

It was little wonder why, considering she looked like hell. Her clothes were torn and dirtied, covered in dust and cobwebs. Her knees and hands were skinned; her neck was bruised and bloodied.

Still, they choose to mind their own business, not wanting to bring trouble into their own lives outside what was necessary.

Leaning her head back, Sakura closed her eyes and wondered if things would ever be the same again. 'Maybe…this is all just a dream?' She asked herself, eyes opening to peer out into the darkness lurking outside her window.

The pain in her neck begged to differ.

When the train finally came to a stop, she stumbled off and out into the night, cursing as the rain poured down in earnest. 'This is officially the worst birthday yet.' She moaned to herself, teeth chattering as she walked briskly along. It was a wonder her legs could even support her at this point with how wobbly they were feeling.

Tomorrow they would burn like fire, but in that moment she couldn't feel a thing but the stinging rain.

Every now and then, her eyes darted down the dark streets, keeping as close to the light posts dotted along the street as she could. From where she was standing, the towering buildings seemed to blend in to the inky sky. To her the yellow lit windows seemed like eyes bearing down on her.

The walk to her apartment bulding took forever, but Sakura had never been so happy to see the number 307 in her life. That was until she realized her keys were still in her purse. In the cemetery.

"Shannaro!" Sakura screamed fists clenching as she placed a swift kick to the door knob. It was money down the drain, but she couldn't bring herself to care as she slipped inside and flipped every light she could find on.

After dead bolting and chaining the door shut, she realized she'd made it home safely.

It didn't matter that point if it was a dream, or if it had been reality.

It was over now- Or so she told herself when she collapsed into bed that night.

She was wrong.

I've been wanting to write this thing for like half a year, I just never had the time D: Narusaku is one of my favorite couples, but to be honest there are not many good stories featuring them.

This, this is the tribute of my luv for their love. Ohhohoho…Naked naru.

Not even Sakura can resist that.

Any who, there is gonna be a lot of Japanese mythology/folklore/ urban legends as you can see already. Actually, it wont just be Japanese, eventually there will be vampires and werewolves, and and…shadow people and all those totally awesome occult thingies.

It isn't going to get any better guys…well it does if you like that stuff.

Writing about the split mouthed woman is scary. I made the mistake of looking at her pics in google and scared the hell out of myself at 12:00 Am. (don't do it guys!) For someone who likes the supernatural I'm a wimp.

There are a lot of claimed sightings of her in Japan, in different area's her aspects are different, but they also share a lot of similarities as most urban legends and myths tend to do.

Hope you're all enjoying this wherever you are, and props for getting it out in October! If we're lucky I might have chapter two up for Halloween (prolly not- but you can give me incentive)

An interesting note on Shannaro, it can have a couple different meanings depending on the context. In this cause she's basically saying " You got to be kidding me!"

Oh yeh, title is after a chess move.

Thanks for reading!