A/n: I actually don't like this chapter that much cause i think it's crap quality. also sorry that both chapters so far are so short.
The hair at the back of her neck prickles and she shudders in the biting night air. Carefully she clutches the body of her comrade closer. His skin is stone cold now and skin pale, except for the horrible blotches of red that cover both of them.
She knows, at that moment, that she's no longer alone.
Something is watching her.
Her eyes dart around the surrounding trees, searching the shadows of the dimly lit forest for movement. her whole body tenses but she is already so exhausted.
Pink threads of hair whip around her face as her head moves from side to side. She needs to cut it again.
'Where?'
Her chakra flares as she panics, emerald eyes wide, she's alone, all of her teams opponents are dead too, but that doesn't rule out another attack.
Then she senses it.
It's a single signature less than two metres away, hidden in the underbush.
"Wh-who's there?" Her voice waivers and she curses to herself. Something is off, the chakra doesn't feel quite right.
The thundering of her heart drowns out the silence. No movement. No sound. It's like nothings there at all.
"Come out!" Her lips press into a thin line.
One hand slips into her kunai pouch even as the other lowers her teammates body. She stares intently in the direction she sensed the signature.
"I can sense your chakra!" She readies for an attack, tensing her muscles and widening her stance. Her grip tightens on the kunai.
Her hands are shaking, and not just from chakra exhaustion.
Wary, she takes a step forward and has to bite back a gasp.
It's no ninja.
The white fur of an animal covers his body, a wolf pelt maybe, but she can still see his eyes through the shadows. The're piercing blue. Her eyes roam along his strong jawline for a second, covered in faint blonde stubble.
His lips are pulled back in a snarl.
They stay like that for a moment.
Then he is growling at her.
"H-hey" Sakura takes a step towards the man-beast, holding her kunai in front of her in a defensive stance.
She has no idea what to do, she's never been trained to deal with something like this other than kill.
His growl increases and he snaps at her, his sharp canines glinting as his teeth click together.
she can see him trying to back up in that weird crouch of his.
His back leg slides back along the forest floor before his hand follows, his body is poised and ready and she can see the muscles coiling under his dirt-smudged skin.
"Who are you?" She narrows her eyes. No matter how animalistic this boy-no, man seemed, he was still human.
She took another step forward, intent on cornering him to get answers.
He took a step back.
All the while their eyes remained locked.
She notices when he tenses and his growl thunders in his chest. Its a warning. Shes seen and learned enough from the Inuzuka's to know.
Slowly she backs away a pace, holding her breath and relaxing slightly when the noise from between his teeth eases.
He's on her before her eyes can even widen in realization, his weight pinning her to the forest floor.
The breath leaves her lungs suddenly, leaving her gasping for air from the impact. She struggles for a moment, thrashing about, trying to twist from his predatory grasp. Dry sticks crack under her and a stone is digging into her hip. She knows it'll bruise.
Blood dribbles from her shoulders where his claws have sunken into her skin.
He's crouched slightly over her, his face covered in a vicious snarl. She can feel his hot breath on her neck. The fur of his pelt tickles his nose as his teeth graze her neck and she can smell a musty forest smell that lingers in her nostrils.
His canines are slicing at the pale flesh of her neck. Sakura feels the blood blossoming at the wound and she goes slack.
'This is it'she thinks. 'My name will never be on the memorial stone' Her sensei had always taught them what a great honor it was to have your name carved there. Butshe won't die in some grand battle for her country one day. Her name will never be on the stone.
She will die here, under the teeth of this beast, man, she reminds herself, all alone.
Then, as suddenly as he arrived, he is gone.
Her heart is beating a mile a minute as she lies there staring up at the stray threads of moonlight that filter through the trees, pale hair sprawled around her.
Her breath comes in short, chest heaving gasps.
'Wha-' Her mind is only working in half-formed words.
The musty-forest scent remains in her nose.