Its feathers were an inky, seamless black that gleamed under the sunlight. It was a fine-looking crow, she supposed, as far as crows went. Then the crow turned. And the eye that met her was not black, like the one that she had seen before, but a terribly, familiar red.
Sharingan, the Voice snarled.
Strangely, her mind went immediately not to the obvious suspect, but to Kakashi.
"H-how," Sakura stammered, taking a step back. A second later, she was in a world of red, blood dripping at the corners of the landscape, the crow in front of her.
"You summoned me," she heard in her head. The crow gazed placidly at her, but did not open its beak once.
"You've placed me in a genjutsu," she accused haltingly. When she reached for her kunai, she found that her pouch had disappeared.
"This is how I am able to communicate with you," the crow answered tonelessly, "You should be able to break out of it any time—a mild genjutsu like this is nothing for a genjutsu user."
Sakura stiffened. "I'm not a genjutsu user."
The crow's wings flashed out at that and the landscape seemed to explode in a flurry of black feathers. Their heavy, soft brush spilled around her, suffocating her in its sheer volume.
A second later, she could breathe again.
She stood at the exact training field she had been on minutes before. But the colors of the sky and the grass and the trees had become horribly distorted.
"You are a genjutsu user," the crow corrected coolly. "And your perfect chakra control enables you to excel in the field, on par with those possessing dojutsus. I am extremely picky—I would not have allowed the contract otherwise."
Genjutsu? She had been successfully placed her under a genjutsu almost five minutes into the bell test. Admittedly, she remembered an off-the-cuff remark about her possibly being well-suited for genjutsu, but had never been told anything about it beyond that.
"What have you learned?"
"About genjutsu?" Sakura responded, disarmed. "I—I can usually tell if they're there? Who are you? What are you called?"
The crow's wings flashed out again, and she reflexively flinched. However, nothing happened this time. A crow's features were not ones that were especially capable of emoting. Nevertheless, she felt the weight of the crow's burning gaze on her.
"What are your elemental affinities?"
"What?"
The crow's sharingan seemed to grow redder. "Has no one taught you anything?"
Sakura's mouth opened and then closed soundlessly.
The crow flapped its wings and took brief flight, before landing on her shoulder. Sakura turned her head to meet its gaze. Somehow, the crow's voice was louder now.
"Your body does not seem the type to put on significant muscle mass," the creature noted clinically, "But, like my other human, this does not mean you cannot gain strength."
"Other human?" Sakura caught immediately. "Do you have several other contractors?"
The crow cocked its head to the side. It seemed amused.
"One other," it answered. "For how much longer, I do not know."
This bird kills its contractors, the Voice growled. In the genjutsu, however, the Voice's words echoed around Sakura and the crow instead of remaining in her head.
The crow turned on her shoulder. "Interesting. And not true. The contract does not allow it. Do you know what you are?" the crow questioned lightly, seemingly at the Voice. Enraged silence responded to the question.
"No, then," the crow murmured. It met her gaze evenly. "I have carried multiple names. My other human calls me Shisui. If it suits, take it. Or—don't."
Not even a minute of reflection led Sakura to the conclusion that the crow seemed more trouble than it was worth. Tsunade had spoken of the slug as a kind, almost maternal creature—the crow, Shisui, or whatever it was called, was decidedly not that. Perhaps naively, Sakura assumed that could be the end of it. Unless she summoned it, she hardly imagined they would ever meet again; and after this, she decided she was never making those hand signs again.
"Nice meeting you," Sakura muttered, eyeing the space around the crow shiftily. Not. "It's been a rather long day, so I think I'll be heading home now."
The crow gazed back placidly.
"Are you going to dispel the genjutsu?" she asked sharply.
"No," it returned calmly. And the world dripped like melting paint all around her again. Faceless shinobi, dark shadowy forms spilling from the summons's wings, materialized in front of her.
Sakura sprung back in confusion, eyes round as she sought the crow. "What—?"
Even as her body moved, she didn't truly believe what was clearly imminent until it happened. The next thing Sakura knew was a rushing sound in her ears as she went flying back into a boulder. The shattering, mind-numbing pain hit her a second later.
She coughed, blood spilling from her mouth. When she saw the shinobi who had dealt the blow to her solar plexus rushing forward, however, she scrambled into a crouch, arms poised in front of her defensively.
What transpired was less of a battle and more of a glorified beat-up session. Each time Sakura thought she found an opening, an opportunity to move from the crouch into a more offensive stance, another shinobi stepped in and beat her back down. Within minutes, every bone in her body felt like it had shattered. With the last bit of her strength, her arms locked tightly around her rib cage and her head. When the shinobi stopped, it took her a long dazed moment to realize they had, so terrible was the pain. On the brink of consciousness, she looked blearily out. The crow was perched above her.
"Training," the crow said coldly, head cocked to the side. "Learn the water release technique properly by next time."
Next time?
When Sakura blinked, she found herself back on the training ground, somehow physically unharmed but aching, still feeling the echo of every one of the injuries.
The next day, Tsunade had scarcely left the training field before it made its appearance. It was more instinct than reason that led Sakura to dart in the opposite direction (though she was sure that reason would have led her to the same course of action as well). But it was too late. By the next blink, she found herself in the same oddly real yet undeniably distorted imitation of reality, the crow perched on a lone boulder before her.
"Did you do what I asked?"
Sakura bristled, unwilling to admit that, yes, she had. In the twenty four hours or so since had last seen the diabolical thing, she had been terrified of being caught like this again and beaten within an inch of her life. She was surprised to find, however, that despite her former fear, anger now dominated.
"I asked you a question," it said coldly.
It seemed anger also granted her a kind of temerity that made her former concerns of self-preservation concerningly null and void. She bared her teeth, ignoring the part of herself—some remnant of her old self—that was mollified by the behavior.
The crow shifted with transparent mockery. "For your sake later, I hope that is a 'yes.' But for now: katas. Yesterday, you demonstrated you knew none."
In the face of this ludicrous charge, Sakura said curtly, "I learned the academy katas."
If the crow had eyebrows, she had the sense that it would be raising one.
One wing lifted nonchalantly and two faceless shinobi misted into corporality in front of her. Throat drying, Sakura took a shaky step back, bravado shaken.
"Go on," Shisui said genially, "demonstrate your mastery."
Break them! The Voice crooned. Kill them, crush—
Not at all correlated to the Voice's goading, she convinced herself, she somehow mustered something considerably like courage but not quite the genuine article. Grounding her heels into the dirt, she launched forward.
Remarkably, the shinobi remained motionless. That is, until the moment her foot was a centimeter from the first's face. Then, a hand lashed out with punishing force and grasped her ankle.
"What do you call this?" the crow called from above her.
Sakura winced at the pressure of the shinobi's grip on her. Gritting her teeth, she bit out, "Mae tobi geri."
"I don't think so," Shisui murmured indifferently. It flapped its wings. At this apparent command, the shinobi yanked her ankle up. Agony burst through Sakura's pelvis, black spots flashing through her vision.
"That," the crow murmured, "is mae tobi geri."
When the shinobi still didn't let her ankle go, Sakura turned a vicious glare on the summon. "Alright. I get it."
"Do you?" Shisui remarked. "Excellent."
With another flap of wings, the shinobi let go. As she brought her leg down, however, it spoke again.
"Hold the position."
She froze.
The crow tutted. "No, no, you let your leg drop. Put it back where it was."
"That's impossible," Sakura grinded out. "I'm not that flexible—"
"And yet your leg was there before," Shisui said unfeelingly. "Move it back."
Aware of the lethal shinobi beside her who could attack at the crow's slightest indication, she released a pained grunt as she strained and stretched her foot a few inches higher. Each inch was a slow, gruesome struggle.
She managed for two minutes. "I can't hold it up anymore. I just can't."
"I understand. You're still weak," Shisui condemned with false kindness. "Why don't have your friend help you, then?"
"My friend?"
"I believe you refer to it as the Voice."
YES! Let me out! LET ME OUT—
"No." Sakura said with dangerous calm.
"No?"
"No."
The crow gazed at her for a long moment, gaze unreadable. Finally, it tilted its head. "Very well. Let's move onto something else then."
Faster than her eyes could keep track of, one of the shinobi left its partner to shunshin behind her. Its hands took possession of her arms and locked them behind her. Sakura let out an enraged cry, struggling to break free.
The other shinobi strode forward almost lazily. An arm's length away from her, it came to a stop and lifted its hand with deliberation. Then, it punched her in the face.
Her entire body recoiled from the blow and a low, guttural whine escaped her lips. When she opened her eyes, she felt disoriented and had to blink several times. The shinobi drew its fist back and planted it in the same exact place, in the same exact way.
Thud.
And that felt like a broken nose—the thought rose above the cloud of pain. Fury set in. "What's the point of this? Are you just going to have that thing punch me until I pass out?"
The crow gazed back without malice. "If that's what it takes for you to learn to take a punch."
Thud.
"Why don't you trying planting your feet."
Thud.
"Lean into the punch."
Thud.
"Can't even stand your ground then, can you?"
Thud.
"You lack a muscled frame to stabilize yourself—"
Thud.
"—your shoulders and arms are too soft now—"
Thud.
"—your legs too thin—"
Thud.
That was the last thing Sakura heard.
When she did return to the land of the conscious, it was with a loud, ugly choked noise. Then, she scrabbled to sit up, angling her head down so as not to choke on the blood pooling behind her nose and into her throat.
"Back?" Shisui greeted her, "Let's review the water release technique."
Sakura kept her head down, but darted slitted eyes up at the crow. "This is how you're going to play this? Every single time?"
"If I need to break you, I will break you. Every single time."
Author's Note: Please leave kudos and a comment!