. . .
The awakening of memories from another life is not a neat, clean process.
. . .
The first time it happens Sakura dismisses it because to do otherwise would break her.
She is standing – still standing, even as her legs quake beneath her and shivers wrack her frame – kunai in hand as she guards Tazuna even though she knows she doesn't stand a chance against an A-class missing-nin. The sword – the one he threw effortlessly just moments ago – would tear through her body like paper, and she'd be dead before she could make a sound. Her whole life amounting to that one moment, just another dead genin, never to have achieved anything – never to have gotten Sasuke-kun to even look at her.
The air is heavy with what she knows is killing intent (one of the Academy books mentions it the user exudes pure intention to kill, having an effect on those around them to the extent of paralysing fear and visions of their own death with a side-note saying that their jounin-sensei would teach them how to resist it), stuttering her breaths and making her tremble with terror. She is too scared to remember that her teammates are standing beside her, that Kakashi-sensei is the one who will fight Zabuza, not her. She doesn't realise that as long as Kakashi-sensei is alive he'll keep her, keep them safe.
All that exists is the pressure smothering her senses, the inevitable death that hovers around her almost tangibly. She is utterly certain that she is going to die, that Zabuza is going to kill her with barely a passing acknowledgment of her existence. She is going to die.
And suddenly the corner of her mouth is twitching up into a half-smirk. Her stance changes from a tense defensive posture to an almost languid slump, head tilting and eyelids lowering lazily. The kunai once held so stiffly in her hands is spun, twirled between her fingers like there isn't a powerful shinobi stalking her from the mist he created.
No, that's not right. She knows he's there, can sense his life force even as it saturates the air around them, that bright spark of life she is so intimately familiar with. The killing intent that had just seconds ago been almost sending her to her knees, now glides over her rather than consumes her, like the warmth of an adoring fire licking comfortably at her skin.
She has felt far more powerful intent than this; a desire to kill that would crush the hearts of the weak-willed and bite the fleeing heels of those who once thought themselves strong. She has faced demons and monsters who knew the ways of death with such intimacy that they made it an art form, a grotesque beauty they flaunted in every movement, a knowledge of just how easy – natural – it would be for them to utterly destroy you.
This mortal man is nothing. The power of her existence rallies against the waves of killing intent because she will not die, not to this man, not ever and it dissipates like a breeze beneath the might of a hurricane. The two children near her still their shaking bodies and blink in confusion, the blond far more openly than the other child. Now, there is no fear.
And then Sakura gasps, sucking in breaths like she'd been underwater for hours. She feels like she was gone but not really gone, like she was in control but she wasn't really in control, and her kunai clatters to the ground. Her vision swims and her head pounds and she wonders what was that?
. . .
Two minds, two memories battle within a cage of flesh and soul. One is young and fragile, but this is her body and so she dominates. But the other is older, stronger, and she is patient.
. . .
The next time Sakura dreams, she is lying next to a lake.
She sits up and looks around, feeling oddly tranquil in this strange place. The grass beneath her fingers is a vibrant green, the same colour as her eyes, and it spreads across the flat plain surrounding her, daisies and a few sunflowers peppering the green. There is a forest of trees – cedar, some aspen, and a single towering oak tree - and she can hear birds tweeting from their depths, leaves rustling as a faint wind blows through the area. A moon hangs overhead and it is far larger than would be natural, dominating much of the red sky. It is an odd colour, far too bright to be compared to blood yet eerie enough for her gaze to dart away.
Her attention falls to the lake. Its black surface is disturbed by the ruins emerging in broken fingers reaching for the sky, their crumbling white stone startling against the dark water. She's never seen a structure like it before; the ruins are far larger than any building she's seen and its design is much bulkier than the houses in Konoha. They rise in peaks from the water, leaving much of the lake empty and still, like an entire city lurked beyond her sight.
Sakura rises to her feet and inches closer to the edge of the lake, hoping to be able to peer past the surface. But with each step she takes a prickle of unease runs down her spine, an alarm ringing in her mind with such growing intensity that she slows. Her eyes remain riveted on the black water. There is something wrong with the lake, something dangerous, and her earlier tranquillity quails in favour of a growing fear.
Sakura bites her lip before clenching her fists in determination. She steps closer, her toes only a couple of inches from the lake's end. She stares down at the black water.
Bright, golden eyes stare back.
Sakura screams, and wakes with her sheets tangled around her like a noose. She does not sleep for the rest of the night.
. . .
Dreams reveal, dreams deceive, dreams die.
. . .
A/N: I felt like writing something creepy, with a bunch of horror and surrealism, and this is the result. It's a bit of a twist on the whole 'OC-wakes-up-as-Sakura', a much darker version.The OC in this is pretty much a direct contrast to my OC in Reality's Delusion (another OC!Sakura fic) in terms of personality.
I'm trying to keep Sakura as in character as I can, but since I'm writing her being terrified and going insane my accuracy may be off. Let me know if she'd drastically OOC.
I don't own Naruto. I do own the OC – the one whose memories Sakura 'received' and the world the OC comes from.
Let me know what you think so far. Chapters will be quite short for now, but as a result they're posted quicker.
Please leave a review, and I'll try to answer any questions if you have them.