authors note here heyaaa. been such a long time since the last time I was here. I heard my fave pairing is now cannon and I had to write something about it! hope you enjoy the story and also I'm not a native speaker so if anyone is interested in the story and wants to improve it for better reading quality I'd love that person to be my beta reader! Enjoy!
She is running, running and running but she isn't going anywhere. She could only hide, but she wouldn't be able to escape. The lengthy stone steps of the stairs are taking their toll on her, and she has to stop to take a breath.
"No, Sakura!" Ino tugs on her arm. "You can't stop now."
"Ino"-she couldn't breathe- "it's pointless."
At her words Ino's expression hardens into a stern glare, and she forcefully tugs at her arm.
"I'm going to carry you if I have to." She grabs Sakura and lifts her, but her condition isn't any better than Sakura's and she stumbles backwards, almost falling down the stairs. "I'm not giving you up."
The thundering steps and shouts are getting louder and louder, and finally the lights of their torches reaches where Ino and Sakura are standing.
"Tsunade-sama!" Ino shouts at the ceiling as she continues to climb up the stairs dragging Sakura with her.
"Ino it's no use." Sakura smiles, tears gathering at the corners of her eyes. "Let me go and run away. All they want is me. They won't hurt you and the others after they have me."
"They won't have you."
"Ino,"-Sakura grabs Ino's shoulder firmly. "Thank you for being my friend."
"Don't you dare!" Ino cries, too weak to be able to keep dragging Sakura now. "Don't you say goodbye now."
Sakura gives Ino one last smile, before voices becomes louder and louder and hands start grabbing her. She is forcefully pulled away from her friend. Ino tries to hold on to her with her all, but in the end both of them ends up drowning in the sea of angry people.
Sakura dreams of the fountain in the temple. She walks along the statues that are placed around the sacred fountain. She stops in front of the statue of the fox with its nine tails spread out like the rays of sun. It represented the god of Sun, Naruto, who took a piece of his own flesh and created the earth. Then he gave it his warmth and created life on it. That is why he is the god of creation and the god of life. When one of the life forms he created achieved the most perfect shape, when it became a human and achieved the body of gods, he then gave the world fire to transcend humans, therefore he is the god of humans. He is the first god to believe in what humans could achieve, the first god that believed humans could better the universe. He believed in them so much that he stole for them.
The fire he gave to them was stolen from the god of fire and thunder, Sasuke, who opposed to existence of the humans. He thought they were dangerous, that they would achieve dangerous amounts of power after the fire was given to them, that they were a threat. Sakura turned to the statue of a hawk, which represented him with it's fierce eyes and open beak as if it was moments away from hunting her. He believed that humans had to be destroyed, so he created wars and therefore became the god of war and destruction.
Sakura startsto feel a burning sensation on her hand and momentarily looks down to see her golden ring glowing. When she lifts her head back up instead of a marble hawk, she is looking at a real hawk. When she tries to retreat, she couldn't move her body and then suddenly everything blurs into gray.
"Finally." Sakura hears the unfamiliar voice of a woman. "I thought that they were going to have to burn you while you were sleeping, and where's the fun that?"
When Sakura regains her vision she realizes she is facing steel bars that are caging her, and she quickly sits up. The headache hits her like a brick on the head and she shuts her eyes down.
"Easy there"-the woman speaks again- "burning alive will hurt enough, so rest while you can."
"What are you talking about?" Sakura observes the girl with red hair and glasses as she presses down on her temples with her palms.
"I don't know, really." She shrugs. "I haven't been making sense for a long time now. It's not like I get to chat with people everyday. No one stays here for that long."
"Who are you?" Sakura looks around. "And where are we?"
"We're in the dungeons of the Hidden Sound Village," she explains. "My name is Karin, and you're Sakura, the priestess of the temple of Tsunade."
Sakura looks at her in utter surprise. "How did you know?"
Karin gives her an amused look. "Who doesn't know? You're the reason thousands of people travel to Hidden Leaf Village every year. You're everyone's last hope, the priestess with magical healing powers. They say if the body is fresh, you can even bring the dead back to life. Is that true?"
Sakura ignores the question. "Are you a priestess too?"
Karin laughs at that. "I wish, princess. Not even close. I wish I was something that foolish and innocent."
"Then who are you? Why are you here?" Sakura asks impatiently.
"I'm the daughter of Orochimaru from a human."
Sakura freezes in her place. Orochimaru, the most dangerous god among the others. He is the god of esotericism and curiosity, who brought innovation to the human world, but caused greater destruction than the god of destruction himself had ever did.
"A demi goddess…" Sakura murmurs to herself. They often have a touch of their parent's abilities, which is more than enough to make them powerful.
"More human than a goddess, to be honest." She raises her hands, dangling the chains that are connecting her handcuffs to the wall. "As you can see, I'm physically very vulnerable."
"Do you have a talent? A godly skill?" She must have one, Sakura is sure of it. According to what she said earlier, she has been here longer than any other prisoners. Sakura knows the other prisoners probably shared the fate she will face soon; execution. There must have been a reason for them to keep her.
"I can see and sense divine energy. They use me to spot gods when they come down to earth under disguise, and hunt down creations like you-like us."
"I'm no child of any god." Sakura lookes at her in suspicion. She has human parents whom she had to abandon in order to become a priestess, and she knows they are her real parents.
"You don't have to be one to carry divine energy." Karin rolls her eyes. She looks at the scar on Sakura's shoulder. It was left from the day she fell into the river. "You've been touched by a god." Then her eyes moved to Sakura's golden ring. "Gods seem to be favoring you. Seriously, where the hell do you think you got the healing ability from?"
Sakura touches her scar gently. "Are you saying Tsunade-sama gave me this ability herself?"
Karin rolls her eyes. "Tsunade my ass. She is not the goddess of healing."
This felt like an insult to Sakura. How could she dare using Tsunade-sama's name in such a rude manner.
"Of course she is! She is the goddess of knowledge and medicine."
"She is the goddess of medicine, alright, but you don't use medicine and scientific knowledge while healing your patients do you? You use the divine healing energy, and it is not a product of her." She sighs.
"You humans think you know everything about gods, you categorize their powers over and over again, but you'll never know them. Gods are deeper than what you think they are, they are complex, just like humans. They can't be this or that, you can't put boundaries on who they are and who they can be," She rants with a belittling expression on her face.
"Than who is it?" Sakura blurts out in curiosity. "Who is the god that gave me their energy?"
Karin shrugs. "If you want to know, give me the ring."
Sakura grabs her ring finger possessively after registering her words. "It's a present from a dear friend."
"You won't need that present while burning alive, will you?" Karin grins at her.
Sakura pulls herself back. Materialism-especially at a moment like this- is disgusting.
"I don't see how you will need it in this prison. It is not worth enough to buy you your freedom."
In a matter of seconds Karin is on Sakura, biting at her shoulder, pinning her to the ground and pulling the ring forcefully out of her finger as the only thing Sakura can do is the kick her legs out and scream.
Karin steps back as soon as she has the ring. She throws it to the ground and steps on it. Sakura makes a move for her foot, pissed off enough to fight her for the ring with all it takes, but the blinding flash of light coming underneath Karin's foot sets her back. When Karin raises her foot there's nothing on where the ring should be.
"What did you do to my ring?" Sakura shouts at her. Demi gods, those foul creatures are always the trickiest, one could never know what they were capable of.
"The ring was a cheap attempt of the god of sun to protect you. It was saving its repelling power for the moment they are going to burn you." Karin huffs.
"Then why did you do that?" Sakura grabs Karin's rugs. "Aren't we supposed to be on the same side?"
Karin pushed Sakura back. "No one can defy fate, not even gods. The ring was only going to complicate things for me and prolong things for you."
Sakura sits back down and lets Karin's words get to her. She is meant to die. Sakura is meant to be a simple sacrifice in this war that was declared by humans on gods. She knows she is supposed to be humble. A priestess is not a person herself. She is a mediator between humans and gods, nothing more. She serves the will of the cold gods, who never talk to her, who never reply, who never show her the right way. She bows down, she doesn't question, she doesn't expect anything, she gives up her own life and she serves.
But deep down, Sakura is a human and it is in human nature to believe in that they matter. And Sakura was sentenced to a painful death as if she didn't matter, as if she didn't serve enough, as if it would be better if she would spend her days not confined in that temple but outside, exploring life, exploring being a human. She regrets not being able to experience being a free human with her own will.
Her life has gone to waste for more than one reason. She has had failed in protecting her gods, and she has had failed in doing herself justice.
She doesn't flinch when she hears people coming. She doesn't move when they unlock their cell, and she doesn't fight when they pull her out.
"Bear with it!" Karin shouts, grabbing the bars after they lock the cell again. "Soon you'll know everything."
It's in the underworld Sakura would have the answers she has had searched for all her life. It's in there she hoped she would understand why the fate is as cruel as it is.
When they go outside she is thrown to the ground, on the mud. One of the guards grabs her hair and he starts dragging her on the ground. It hurts, it is humiliating, and she screams, trying to grab onto her hair, trying to ease the pain. People are gathering around her as the most important element of the public execution. They are excited, they are amused and they are shouting insults at her, cursing her, they are calling her a witch, a whore.
All she had ever done all her life was the heal them.
The guard picks her up and slams her to the stake. The crowd is cheering, as she gasps for air. They tie her arms and ankles and her neck to the stake.
"Stop it!" A man shouts. "Stop it for fuck's sake!" Sakura sees the black hair pulled into a ponytail.
It's Shikamaru-a soldier that knows this war is only going to destroy the human race, that had tried everything in his power to save Tsunade-sama's temple.
"Can't you see how precious she is? She is a gift from gods for you. She is here to protect us, to heal us! You're only causing harm to yourselves." He shouts with all his might.
"We want no gifts from gods." The old man, whom Sakura supposes is Danzo Shimura, the man leading this war speaks up. "We spent ceuntries worshipping them, being afraid of them. All they had ever done was to punish us, starve us, kill us, make us kill each other over their own fights. If they think a little whore is enough to make up for it, they are wrong."
The crowd goes wild.
"We won't stop until there is no trace of god on this earth. We won't stop until we are free. We won't stop until we are the ones controlling our own fate." Danzo says and marks for the guards to set the hays around Sakura on fire.
"You idiots-"
"Stop it Shikamaru!" Sakura shouts. She clenches her fists and chooses to fight back. Choses to revolt, something that she had never done all her life, but will do as she dies.
"Let them burn me. They don't deserve me." She screams with all her might when they lit up the hay from four different corners. "Let them die in the hands of gods with more pain than human race could ever imagine." She shouts in a rush as she shuts her eyes close. "Let there be no one to aid them then!"
Then she waits as the heat spreads around her, she waits as she can no longer breathe, she waits for it to hurt.
It doesn't hurt.