Title: The Journey Home
Genre: Romance, Adventure, Mystery
Warnings: OCCness, OC-centric, Minor AU
Summary: The journey home has and always will be the most challenging part of a mission. Without your teammates or Sensei, things my seem to be like a complete hell. What extent will you go to to return home – without having the slightest idea of where you are, or how you got there?
Parings: NaruOC, Slight SasuSaku
It was like a terrible nightmare – however, Kaoru wasn't that lucky.
Her head pounded mercilessly with each beat of her heart as she scanned the candlelit room through bleary, beryl eyes. The rush of her blood through her body thundered as loud a drums in her ears.
How had things gotten to this?
She could feel that all her chakra was completely spent, with only a shrivel of strength left in her body. She did a mental check to make sure that nothing was broken or severely injured.
She struggled to her feet, using all of her willpower to ignore the hisses of pain that came from the numerous bleeding, oozing cuts and bruises that scattered her person. She spun around to look behind her only to be met with the other wall of the dimly lit room. She blinked a few times, summoning her eyesight to come back to her.
The flames of the candles along the room walls danced in the steady air, giving her shadow life and the room a neutral, warm tone.
She couldn't remember a thing. She couldn't remember where she was, how she got there, what happened to her teammates. Not a single thing.
Her blue eyes darted to the dull, silver doorknob of the door to her right.
She thought about her choices. Should she risk everything and dart through the door, or wait for fate to take it's course and remain in the enclosed room.
Her cautious, quiet attitude went out the window at this moment. The initial thought – dart through the door – was chosen.
"I can't expect to be helped if I just stay in this room," she thought to herself as she slowly inched closer towards the door, her breath hitching more and more with each step.
The adrenaline started to pump through her body with great urgency, preparing it to sprint, retreat, block...or fight if needed.
She let out one last breath, and she slowly twisted the knob, opening the wooden door. She peeked around the door frame before inching herself out.
Once she was finally in the hallway, she slowly pulled the door towards her until the soft 'click' reached her ears.
Her left hand gently reached to the wall so as to guide her in the right direction. The hall was lit exactly like the room, with dim, flickering candles that once again gave her moving shadow life. Her footsteps echoed quietly each time as the landed on the wooden floors beneath her.
She continued down the same path in complete silence, trying her best to go unnoticed.
The fifteen year old chunin knew best than to go prancing around in an unknown building.
Her hand eventually curved around a sharp corner that she cautiously turned. She looked behind her shoulder one more time before increasing her speed down the hallway.
The hallway led her to another turn, this time to a corridor with doors on each side. She let out a frustrated sigh as her situation got more complicated.
"Why something like this now-?" her whispers were cut short once her ears caught onto the light echo of multiple footsteps.
Her heart stopped and dropped to the pit of her stomach, shrinking smaller and smaller as the footsteps drew closer and closer. Her eyes darted around her, looking for any sort of weapon or cover or...-
"Door!" she whispered to herself as the idea dawned on her.
Her tan, slim fingers reached for the closest doorknob and twisted it open. She darted into another poorly lit room and closed the door behind her with all caution.
She leaned against the door, completely silent and still like a statue until she heard the footsteps slowly disappear in the distance. Letting out a quiet sigh, she slid down the door as she closed her eyes.
"Kami, if you can even hear me, at least tell me where I am," she pleaded as she brought her hands through her short, pale blond hair. "and please make my teammates be okay. Please."
Had the adrenaline not been pumping through her body continuously, she would've happily fallen asleep with the warm light of the candles lulling her to sleep. She forced herself onto her feet, swaying slightly before looking before her.
Another hallway that lead into complete darkness. A certain darkness that no one would willingly run into. However, Kaoru Ono had no other choice.
She took in a deep breath, clenched her teeth and fists and hurried down the darkened corridor. She only glanced back once at the retreating door behind her as a quiet rattle of the knob caught her attention.
Her heart beat increased along with her pace as she hurried towards the end of the hallway – if there was one anyway.
Completely shrouded in darkness, Kaoru reached her hand out to the wall once again to guide her, not letting up in her speed.
The opening of the door reached her ears just as her fingers curved around another corner that she sprinted around. Her heartbeat completely stopped once she found herself before another door.
The Kanji, 'Root' was carved into the large, aged wooden door. Kaoru shook her head violently, getting rid of the curious thoughts that flooded into her mind.
"Now isn't the time to be thinking about that!" She reminded herself as the hurried footsteps drew nearer and nearer.
Footsteps. Heartbeat. Footsteps. Heartbeat.
With her only chance of escape before her, she griped the knob and pushed through the heavy door, shutting it behind her immediately.
The door lead her to another hallway, one that was much more lit than the others to the point that her eyes screwed shut from the sudden brightness. The brightness wasn't the only thing that differed in this hallway. Unlike the others that were made with wooden floors and wooden walls, this one had it's natural characteristics of a rocky, rugged ground and wall alike.
She pushed herself off of the door and cautiously stalked down the hall that lead her to the bright source of light at the end of the tunnel.
It seemed all too cliché, and she would've agreed had her hope not soared to the stars at the thought of escaping from her unseen captors.
Her hopes soared to the heavens as a familiar sound reached her ears.
"Water!" she breathed out, deeming that there must've been a waterfall or small creek nearby.
"Then there has to be someone around that can help me! There has to be," she thought as she pushed herself farther down the hallway.
Everything was shattered though by the noise of the door behind her flying open.
Her eyes widened as a booming voice called out to her:
"Don't expect it to be this easy to escape."
She wanted to move. Only Kami knew how much she wanted to move, but her feet stayed put as if they were glued to the ground.
"Good choice, now, come back towards me slowly," the voice instructed with a slight amusement to it.
Her blue eyes screwed shut once again as she feared fate if she decided to continue down the cavern. A silent tear rolled it's way down her left cheek.
Why was she crying? When did she have the opportunity to start such a childish reaction?
Her eyes grew tighter to each other as she clenched her fists once again.
"There's no way in hell that I'll willingly walk to my death like that," she thought to herself, as she slowly opened her eyes. "because freedom requires courage," she muttered to herself as she once again took off down the hallway, ignoring the calls to stop that came from behind her.
"Stop! I have no hesitation to kill you!"
"Please, don't let it end like this," she pleaded as she neared the brightness at the end of the tunnel.
"Stop!"
Her eyes slammed shut as another tear flowed. "Please."
The sound of water met her ears with a vengeance as she found herself peering out of a cavern behind a large waterfall. She looked over the edged to cursed to herself quietly.
"That's got to be more than a 60 meter drop," She thought to herself as she looked over her right shoulder.
The calls still emitted from behind her, quietly coaxing her to jump.
She panicked. Her breath hitched as the voices rang in her ears as clear as day.
There wasn't any other choice. She had to.
With one last silent prayer, she leaped into the waterfall, the crushing current taking her lissome body with it.
Her eyes gently slid shut, "Please."
Her body must've went completely numb because she didn't feel when she hit the surface of the water below her, nor did she feel when she finally washed up onto the river bank below the cavern she leapt from.
She woke up the same way she did inside the room – through bleary eyes with a panicking heart.
She pushed herself up, onto her knees as she humped over, all of her strength completely spent. Her greenish-blue eyes blinked till they saw clearly again, revealing the dense forestation before her.
She tentatively looked around her, not seeing or hearing her previous unknown pursuers.
Despite herself, she endeavored to get back onto her feet and to, somewhat, shield herself from out in the open into the forest. She turned around and looked out at the large water fall and pond that she just traveled through.
Her dirty, scathed reflection gazed up at her as it twinkled in the blue water below her with each ripple of the water vibrating through it.
She could've sworn that she felt each vibration rattle through her body.
She gazed into her reflection, taking note that her hetai-ate that usually hung around her hips was missing, along with her kunai and shuriken pouch. "I couldn't have noticed that earlier," she mumbled to herself as she tore her eyes away from the water. Her feet dragging, she pulled her body into the forest and walked to what seemed to be the end of the earth for her.
She mumbled to herself a few encouraging words, pushing her body to go past it's limit and get out of view as best as she could. She finally gave out, her knees met with the ground below her.
She had to have been exhausted because she didn't even feel her face meet the dirt ground as she fainted.
The gentle tides of the water behind her, lulled her into a deep rewarding sleep.
A simple sentence drug Kaoru out of complete unconsciousness, "Hey, are you alright?"
Her hopes soared.