A/N: This here is my start for the AU contest posted up in the LJ KakaSaku community, with my assigned theme being psychic powers. I've not done much AU reading in the Naruto fandom before so this one's kinda new to me, but it's been pretty interesting up to this point. However since I didn't finish this story in time I am going back and rewriting it and fleshing it out since I really am kinda taken with this story.
This story is a bit darker than I normally take on (I blame too much news for that) so just also be aware that these characters reflect their environment. That is all.
I now return you to your regularly scheduled fanfiction.
Challenge: Alternate Universe
Theme: Psychic Powers
Rating: M - language & content
Warnings: Psychological trauma, death, torture (non-graphic)
1. Sakura
She was running, a sense of bone-deep foreboding enveloping her as her panting echoed in own her ears, becoming all she could hear in the cavernous emptiness. Head swiveling, her eyes darted in all directions as she sought any avenue of escape, but her feet hastened her implacably down the path to meet what awaited. She tried to force her eyes shut, knowing what she'd find just around the next bend, every fiber of her being fighting to avoid the scene, but her body refused to comply. After the dark void, an explosion of garishly bright colors flashed before her, her mind momentarily stunned by the jarring transition. It took a moment for it all to filter in, to understand that the brilliant red was anything but festive as it splattered on the now constrictively tight walls and spilled through her trembling fingers, soaking through the raven hair she reflexively clutched at. She reached down, arms cradling, ears ringing, mind spinning, as her world contracted to a point of bright darkness that pulsated over and over against the inside of her skull, the force of her own screams bringing her forcefully back to consciousness.
Her eyes flew open with a snap and on a shocked gasp she tried to escape, clawing at the tangle of sheets that made it suddenly impossible to sit up. Just a dream then. No, not a dream, not even a nightmare: a memory. Fingers shaking, she pushed irritably at her bangs, sticky with sweat and clinging to her forehead. Shaking her head she tried to dispel the last clinging tendrils of the dream that wasn't a dream, only to realize it wasn't a ringing in her ears she was hearing; the screams were outside her head as well. With a sigh she realized Tsunade must've snuck up into her section of the compound again.
Even considering Sakura's own twisted past, she didn't envy the demons the old woman had in her closet. Tsunade was a tough old broad to have made it this many years not only under that burden, but also as a female leader in the underworld. But whether it was because of her strength or in spite of it, she often sought one of the empty rooms in Sakura's quarters.
After all, there were reasons that Sakura was sequestered to her own little section of the compound at night and it wasn't for her safety. Sakura's power had a range of one hundred feet but when she was unconscious she couldn't exactly control it. Unsurprisingly the sane ones in the organization that had taken her in weren't anxious to experience a taste of what her subconscious would conjure, so they made sure she had a hundred and fifty feet to herself on all sides. It was for those self-same reasons that Tsunade, when she was coherent enough to make the trip – which wasn't often anymore – banished herself to nighttime terrors at the side of a woman who could literally make them come to life.
Sakura just really didn't want to deal with it tonight though, especially when she knew there was no chance of her falling back asleep and she'd be listening to the woman's lucid nightmares until dawn.
Drawing a blanket around her shoulders she stood and started prowling down the halls. Since she wasn't asleep anymore the danger had passed so she could use any part of these rooms as she wanted. She still felt like a caged animal but at least she had room to breathe, room to move away from Tsunade's agitated cries and pleas for forgiveness.
The name Orochimaru tumbled from the old woman's lips in the tiniest of whispers and Sakura couldn't repress a shiver.
