So let me start by saying that my absence has been inexcusable. I've had so many ideas for this story that I just end up not writing them out and I've actually flaked on putting out new chapters. This chapter two is a prime example of such flakiness. I decided that I didn't want Sakura to go through five years of working with our Shiganshina heroes in only the third chapter, so I've made some revisions and changed the course of action for the story. I hope you wont be too mad at me, since we are still stuck in the second chapter and as a treat I promise to churn out two more as my apology to you lovely readers. I admittedly struggle with perfectionism and most of the time I resist going back to change what I've already put up.
In this chapter you will see a change of pace. Future chapters will also be changed.
Chapter Two
Sakura walked back inside the antique warehouse towards the closet in the back. She opened the door and ran forward but was only met with a solid wall and a bruise.
"Ow…" she mumbled as she rubbed her bruised forehead.
Shit. How am I going to get back to Naruto and the others?
Sakura examined the antique warehouse, noticing the various out-of-shape items strewn haphazardly on the ground broken and on the shelves. One item in particular was a cracked vase with what looked to be ancient kanji written in black on its side.
"Hope", she said aloud.
Sakura gently placed the broken vase back on the wooden floor of the antique shop and looked out of the large window. She extended her senses and chakra carefully, making sure to not alert any possible enemy-ninja in the vicinity. She felt several large and abnormal chakra signatures in the distance, and a few normal undeveloped chakra signatures nearby. The abnormal chakras were disconcerting but not of immediate concern, so she tucked this little piece of information in the back of her mind for the time being.
Straightening her mission bag on her shoulders, Sakura quietly closed the antique shop door and darted to the place she found the normal chakra signatures. She found that as she progressed towards the area, the passing scenery revealed more and more of the town she was in to be decimated. Houses were smashed precariously, shards of glass poking out of massive wooden piles dangerously, and much of the cobblestone path was destroyed and upturned.
It's almost as if someone had created the destruction using explosive tags, she mused. Sakura slowed to a stop in front of one heaping pile of wood and glass and looked closer.
No. It's like…something really large being stepped on these houses. But what could be large enough to practically step on these homes? There were large cement boulders littered across the town.
It must've been the boulders, she concluded. Then how did the boulders manage to destroy the homes?
Though Sakura knew better than to doubt the impossible, especially knowing her line of work, she kept the possibility that something abnormal may have caused mayhem and destruction to the town, and subsequently caused all of its residents to evacuate in droves, with only a few left behind.
She turned to sprint off again to the chakra signatures she sensed.
Sakura found herself at the entrance to a dark alley. She walked through, making her presence known so as to not startle the people she was approaching, which proved to be futile as once she appeared to have startled the group, causing one of its members to stand and charge at her with a broken glass shard. She was not surprised, and side-stepped the man as he swept the air down next to her, completely missing her. She used this to her advantage by grabbing the wrist holding the broken shard with her left hand, swiping at his left leg out from under him with hers and pinning him to the ground with the arm holding the shard directly on his neck, face first into the ground. He struggled against her vice-like grip, muffled sounds coming from his mouth as he struggled to vocalize his frustrations. Sakura shifted so he could speak, noticing that his other companions had come to his rescue. One of them moved forward, and in response Sakura pressed the shard closer to her victim's neck in warning. The man under her said something in a language she could not understand to them, and they stood down.
"Green vest, black pants, and no cape? Did the military get a wardrobe upgrade?"
Sakura looked down at him in confusion.
"Hard of hearing? Well it's about time that useless military came to save us! We didn't think anyone would find us here. But anyways, where are the rest of the people on your team? Where are the horses? The carriages?" The man was speaking in that language he used to address one of his comrades. Sakura could not understand what he was saying. So she decided to ask him to explain himself, this godforsaken town, this world to her. He, unfortunately, only looked at her with the same expression she guessed she had on her face while he was talking.
"Miss…did you hit your head or something? Did the titan invasion traumatize you that much? You're speaking gibberish! And why is your hair pink?" The man peaked up at her with his questioning gaze.
They could not understand each other. Sakura would not find the answers to her question here.
She released the man and stood a few feet back. Sakura got a good look at the man and his comrades. They were filthy, putrid, emaciated, and a whole slew of other things she could point out about them. It was likely that whatever destroyed this town destroyed their way of life and ability to sustain themselves. Her stomach lurched, watching them as empathy washed over her for their plight.
She took her bag off of her shoulders to pull out a scroll. She released the contents of the scroll that contained her food with a hand gesture, a puff of smoke appeared as her audience watched on in amazement. A readily-prepared bowl of twelve rice balls appeared on the scroll, and she pushed it toward the band of people. They eyed it with curiosity before the man whom lunged at her—she guessed that was their leader—nodded to another of his men to go and pick up the bowl. The man picked the bowl of rice balls up and hesitantly tasted one, and to his and Sakura's delight, it tasted wonderful. The man turned to his leader and nodded quickly, and the leader stole a weary glance at their pink-haired invader who remained indifferent to the situation while packing the scroll back into her bag before turning to his men and sharing the rest of the dish. By the time they looked back to where Sakura was standing, they found the area suspiciously empty.
Sakura had backed out of the alley and darted away from the scene, deciding to herself that she had wasted too much time convening with the people in the alley. No information was gained, and much to her chagrin she has found that in this strange world she is in, she must learn the ways and the language of the people if she is to survive.
Sakura decided to take to the rooftops of whatever building was left in the town in order to get a better understanding of her position. She scoped the landscape and saw that in the distance there was a large and encompassing wall with a gaping hole at what looked to be the former entrance. There was a stream up ahead that lead into a forested path, and near that forested path she saw what looked to be a stable for horses. And if she looked just a pit further—passed the stable and beyond the destroyed homes of the townspeople, she could see tall beings in the distance, aimlessly roaming around what little was left of the town and upturning fallen beams of wood and shards of glass carelessly, as if they were looking for the very people that inhabited the town.
She could not get a good look from her position, but whatever they were Sakura would not sit around to find out. The seemed to be uncoordinated brutes, and she had no doubt in her ability to fight off a few. But all at once? She knew she would be out-manned and out-gunned. She turned back to the alley she found the homeless group of people in to warn them, using hand gestures, of the danger that lie ahead. The leader's face paled at the news and he turned to his people, relaying to them the news that this new stranger with pink hair brings. They all—like their leader—turned pallid with raw fear and Sakura felt terrible that she could not help them.
One of them—a woman—held a bundle in her arms as she walked up to Sakura choking back sobs with tears on her face. She held the child out to Sakura, and at first Sakura could not understand what was happening, but as the wheels began to turn in her head and a resounding crash nearby startled them, Sakura realized what she had to do.
They probably came to the same conclusion as she—that there was no feasible way for someone like Sakura to save them, so they opted to have the only child among them be the sole survivor. Sakura held the child in her arms, gently supporting the baby's head with her arm as the woman pulled off a blanket and used it to fasten the baby to her body. The woman began to cry in earnest as she backed away, and Sakura began to seriously consider to plan an escape for these forsaken people. The crash nearby sounded nearer, and as Sakura turned to leap onto a rooftop next to them, she spared them one last glance before running away.
As she hopped from rooftop to rubble, she looked back to see what had caused to noise. What she found stirred a deep disgust within her, and she quickly learned why the abnormal chakra signatures she sensed earlier were so discontenting.
The beings themselves seemed almost like the caricatures from the book her grandmother gave her and the drawings her father used to show to her in scrolls he bought from the local market. It was almost too unreal the way they looked, and for a split second Sakura feared that she would not escape the town unscathed. She prayed to the kami for the safety of the people she left behind, hoping that she was stealthy enough to not give away their position. Fortunately for her and the child she was carrying, she was fast enough to escape the danger of the beings while ensuring the safety of her ward.
She looked forward again and pumped chakra into her legs as she approached the stable. Once there she found only three horses—all of them identical—and saddled the one that looked to be the most powerful. By this time the child in her arms was crying, and Sakura needed to leave before she could attract attention from anymore of the grotesque, human-like beings. The horse, in her hurry, was startled and neighed angrily, refusing to move. She rested her hand against the cranium of the horse and slowly pumped chakra into its brain to calm it down. The horse calmed down considerably and she stroked its mane to calm it further. With this she was able to lead the horse out of the stable and onto the path where the cobblestone became dirt.
With the child fastened to her person and her mission bag fastened to the horse as to lessen the weight on her, she rode off into the forest at top speed, sun setting behind her; she prayed that the path led her to somewhere far from the barren town and the humanoid creatures that inhabited it.