Wilted Efflorescence- Chapter 2
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When she woke, she was parched.
Not a normal parched, that you would feel after not drinking for a short amount of time, but a more desperate version that teetered on the edge of dehydration.
Her stomach clenched in its emptiness and twist with nausea.
Not that any of that was anything new.
Her head ached. Her muscles felt torn. But none of that mattered.
None of it mattered, because while she lay there with dust swirling around her and the night sky twinkling without a care in the world, her last friends ceased to exist.
It wouldn't be hard to claim her village destroyed.
Her village died with Naruto.
Yet she still lived.
She lived against her will.
She lived because it was his last wish and even though there was a gaping metaphorical hole where her heart was she had no choice but to continue.
Grimacing, she sat up. Slowly taking in everything around her and trying to view her newfound situation objectively.
Not being objective hurt too much.
Her limbs were shorter.
Extremely short.
She scowled as she realized that the process had reversed the rate of cell death.
Her body wasn't even made of the same cells as before.
The smell of fresh air, untainted by the blood of an unknown amount of corpses filled her nostrils along with the scent of decompositon covering her form. Her shorts and skirt no longer fit. Her shirt was more of a dress, so she hurriedly discard most of her clothing before rewrapping her chest. Her undergarments were too loose as well, so she took a Kunai and cut the sides before tying the material on the sides to her body for a better fit and slid the shirt back on. Her gloves were too large, but she was attached to them. They were a gift from Tsunade... her eyes watered at the thought of her shishou.
Quickly, she shoved the gloves into her Kunai pouch before using the excess material from her shorts to secure the pouch around her waist now that her thighs were too small.
She ignored the grime covering her from head to toe and reached for a ration bar and her canteen, filling herself up before looking around again to head out.
She looked down at her feet with a scowl. Her shinobi sandals would no longer fit either. Grabbing the excess bandages and ignoring the fact that they were a red brown color, she wrapped her feet. Leaving her toes to peak out slightly, she tied the material off at her ankles. Satisfied that her lower appendages were at least somewhat protected, she made her way. Determined to make it to Konoha as quickly as possible. The faster she fulfilled her word to Naruto, the quicker she would no longer have to suffer. She purposefully ignored her memories.
It had been three days before she actually reached the edge of the land of fire. Many times she had to hide her chakra and herself as to not be discovered. Years of war had mostly made that a subconscious thing, but she still put in the extra effort when she knew danger was near. She had not slept since she woke from the jutsu. She pushed herself at an extremely unhealthy limit. Forcing herself to practice and train while she ran. She ran and she did not stop.
She was scared to sleep. All of them had been. Her dreams were not dreams, but nightmares, filled with rotting corpses, loose intestines hanging from tents. Maggots squirming over and through exposed and rotting muscle. Shinobi of all ages missing limbs.
The worse was the ones including the people she knew. A dismembered head rolled towards her feet, silver locks clumped with rusty brown. Arteries spilling blood from the neck and an exposed esophagus. A bare face. It wasn't supposed to be bare. Where was the fabric. Where was the material? Not natural. Not natural. Blank eyes. Staring at nothing. Frozen in place until they popped from the decomposition and then never seen again.
She leaned against a nearby tree, breathing heavily before curling into a fetal position in an attempt to control her thoughts. Her small fingers dug harshly into her shins.
She couldn't take it any more.
She needed to find a stream.
Hyperventilating, she struggled to rush to the closest source of water. She was in fire country now. She knew it well. They all did.
An hour later and she was where she wanted to be. There were closer places but those places carried memories she did not want to relive. This one didn't.
Immediately, Sakura thrust her hands into the water, scrubbing, scratching, attempting to just get it off.
It wouldn't come off.
Her hands began to bleed as she cried.
She didn't realize she was speaking out loud while she scrubbed.
"No more. No more. Too many dead. I couldn't save them. No more. Why? Why won't it come off? I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I couldn't. I couldn't do it. I'm sorry."
Her voice rose in pitch as her sobs began to interrupt her speech.
Unfortunately for her, the noise brought attention.
Her stomach swirled with nausea and her throat had tightened on herself, but when she senses a few presences, she began to calm. She forced herself to continue her actions, but inside, she was relaxed. The familiar sense of an impending battle took over and she was no longer out of control.
She may be small, but she is still a veteran shinobi. Made that way from a one sided war that was filled with nothing but losses. Those that survived as long as she did... they couldn't be snuck up on that easily. Even if she was in the middle of a mental break down, she was still a shinobi, and no human in existence could sneak up on a veteran shinobi from the 4th shinobi war. They had adapted. They had to. There was no choice. Zetsu was the God of stealth. Ordinary senses would not help them survive against an army of Zetsu.
So when she sensed others in her vicinity, she pretended not to notice, waiting like a coiled cobra. Muscles relaxed, but still ready to tense and strike at the moment of weakness. Waiting for the enemy to falter. Waiting for her hands to once again be covered in fresh blood.
It was a normal sensation now.
The blood. It stayed. It didn't go away. It stained every bit of visable skin she had and her clothing was already dyed in it. Crumpled and stuff, but nothing she wasn't familiar with.
The longer she waited, the more confused she became. They weren't attacking. Why weren't they attacking? They're supposed to attack.
She began to drop her façade. There was no point in holding it up when it was unnecessary. She ran her hands through her hair. Strands of red catching in the open wounds made from her nails and sending a small sting through them. She turned to face the group behind her.
Instantly she regret her choice.
Three Konoha shinobi stood before her. One was an Uchiha. No one she knew, obviously, but the familial features and scowl still stood out and pierced through her. The other was a civilian, again, no one she knew, the final, which was a little odd of a pairing, was a Nara. Instantly Shikamaru's features crossed over this unknown shinobi and bile began to rise up her esophagus. So many memories. So much pain. It all crashed through her. Years of war flashed through her mind in an instant, but she still kept her face mostly blank.
The Uchiha spoke first.
"You're trespassing in the land of fire. Which in times of war can be punishable by death."
Immediately the civilian shinobi, lightly smacked her partner on the arm.
"Jeez, she's a kid. Can't you see she looks traumatized? Look at her? She looks like she's either gonna hurl or bolt. And she's covered in so much blood... obviously what she's wearing and carrying doesn't belong to her. It's not fit to her. It looks like everything she's wearing has been scavenged for her survival."
The Nara silently took in her appearance and glimpsed over at his comrades before addressing her.
"Tedious... who're you brat?"
She stayed silent for a fee minutes while the three shinobi stared her down.
"I'm Sakura. I'm not telling you my surname. K- Kaa-chan... she said it was dangerous to let people know..." She paused. Pretending she was trying to keep a straight face and failing. "I don't know how old I am or where I am... I just had to run. Run before they found me. She... she told me to run..." an image of Tsunade popped up in her mind as well as her biological mother, both dead, she felt the emotions take over. "They're dead. Dead. I couldn't save them. They made me leave. They bled out. So much blood." Her hands started shaking. "So many bodies. So much rot. When they came it was over. The enemy. They killed without mercy and I couldn't save them. I couldn't. No matter how hard I tried." Her breath began to speed up and her eyes glazed over. No longer seeing the Shinobi in front of her. "An unstoppable force. So many bodies. I was trained to save people but I couldn't I wasn't able to. So many dead. So many I couldn't save. Gone. Melting into the earth. Exposed flesh baking in the sun. Blood. So much blood. I was bathed in it. They all died and I lived. Why did I live why couldn't they live?"
Unknown to her the three shinobi were exchanging looks as well as quiet comments.
The woman frowned, "Poor kid. She's not even registering us as here right now. Looks like she's about to fall over."
The Uchiha stayed silent. Watching the hyperventilating child with grim understanding. It was war, after all. She was caught in the middle of it, too young to handle such a thing. Her village must have made the children learn what they could about medicine to take in refugees and then had been attacked. It wouldn't be the first time this has happened, and definitely not the last, but what she was describing was the worst case they had come across.
The Nara sighed audibly, "Looks like we might have to take her back to the village. Red hair is a rare trait these days, and she looks similar to Kushina-san. Might be an Uzumaki. It explains why she said she's not allowed to give out her surname... Oi, Akimi, try to knock some sense in her, she's not going anywhere in a catatonic state like that."
"I don't think that's a good idea... she might react violently." She grimaced but took a step forward regardless.
Immediately Sakura snapped out of it and refocused on the three in front of her.
Her jaw clenched as she realized she had once again lost herself in the abyss. If only there had been more time. Time to at least attempt handle the deaths of her comrades. Time to gain control over herself.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Releasing it slowly, her face relaxed as she cooly gazed at the shinobi before her.
"So, what is it that you want with me? Are you going to let me go, or take me with you?"
Akimi jerked slightly in shock. "Let you go? On your own? You look like you're barely functioning kid. That trauma you're carrying around with you will kill you out here. Look at you. You look like you've barely slept, barely ate, you've been moving for Kami knows how long but you aren't even sweating any more. I don't know about these guys, but I can't in good conscious leave a kid out here to die. You don't seem like you're a part of enemy forces, if you were, with that hair you'd stick out like a sore thumb. Plus, you might just have some family in our village. You come with us and after answering some questions and getting tested you might just have a new place to go."
Sakura snorted internally. Yeah. "Questions" like a friendly inquiry. Right, sure, and I'm an Uchiha. Hah.
It was nothing she couldn't handle though. Nothing they hadn't all delt with at some point in their lives. Ino made sure to help who was left with preventive measures. The longer the war had drawn out, the less people there were. The less people, the harder and longer and smarter they had to fight. With the increase of tactical measures and Zetsu prevention methods came a time where they'd be picked off one by one when they least expected it. Future strategies were leaked from interrogation and they were nigh prepared. So they learned. Jutsu were unavoidable if you were tied down, but that didn't mean you wouldn't be able to hide things if you knew how. Crafting memories and thoughts with the skill of the last and strongest Yamanaka in all of her generations. Each of them had been trained personally when they had the time.
The biggest hurdle since coming here was about to pass. Walking through those gates. Passing the chunin gate guards. Viewing a Hokage monument without Tsunade-shihou's face. Hell, even seeing the village actually there was something she wasn't looking forward to. Just the thought of walking into the village made her nauseous.
She wasn't sure she could handle the dense population either. She wasn't used to a large amount of people. Hadn't been for years. The noise of village life was a distant memory associated with better times turned bitter now that she would never have that again.
But she had to.
"...So, it will all be okay Sakura-chan! I'm counting on you!
...Those who break the rules and regulations are scum; but those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum! That's what Kakashi-sensei taught us!...
...it's my turn to be selfish, Sakura-chan...
...I'm asking you, please, go back. Watch me grow up happy and become Hokage!...
...Let's get this done, nee-chan!...
...Heh, we love you too Sakura-nee-chan!"
Fresh pain shot through her system and she took a shaky breath.
She was as ready as she could be.
"Hai. I'll go with you."