Once again, Sakura found herself covering her face with her hands. She was just unlucky with this clan. She dared look through the hole between her fingers to see him observing her. A loud bang and shrieks were heard at the other side of the wall and she whined.

She silently despaired and hoped for a sign to stop this massacre of her innocent mind. Mind you it was not really innocent but...it did not warrant such an act, in front of her, who never even kissed someone in her life. Itachi extended his hand to her and she took it with no hesitation. Everything to get out of this awkward moment. He took her to another unknown room and she had to wonder how he could maneuver himself in this labyrinth.

Itachi took out a big fan out of nowhere and handed it to her. She gave him a questioning gaze but he just gave her a scroll and vanished with a quick shunshin. This man is like hot and cold. One moment he's helping you and then he just leaves you alone. She unrolled the scroll and squinted at the small pictures. She was supposed to imitate that? That was the dance? Obviously not. It had to be some kind of training. Yeah, training.

"Move your hand to the right with the left foot floating in the air and a twirl? What?" She squinted at the paper. The content didn't change. Well, now she knew what to do, strike weird poses.

"Aaann!" *bang*"Moooore!" Agony or pleasure? They sound the same. That's one of the reason why they say there's not much difference between pain and pleasure. The question remains, why was she still hearing what was happening when she was far away from the occupied room?

Sakura jumped and ran as fast as she could while not making any noise. From all the screams she heard they were far from over in there and a change of bedroom would be really convenient. Disguise or not, if it was like that even before the priestess death then she might know why she sounded so...reluctant to do her duties. She returned to he entrance of the temple and kept the desire to just leave down to the bottom of her mind.

Why is this stain getting larger? She moved closer to the stained letters she noticed at the beginning and read them.

I can't read it.

Why is it crossed off?

Inner?

...

Fuck.

Why are you out of commission?!

Flashback

She heard him mumble a quick apology when it began.

"AaaaRGH!" She snapped her link to Inner's consciousness.

She did know why there was no response. Now she just had to find out how to get her link back from wherever she lost it along the way. For some reason, she did not think she would get the connection anytime soon.

Not only she just realized she was utterly alone in her predicament but she was also lost in the maze. Why did she bother with this mission? An uncomfortable sensation between her legs stopped her from dwelling on it any further. She was eventually found by Seiwa who oozed suspicion from his very being. To make a freshly graduated genin impersonate a dead person whose description was flawed and blurry around the edges and make said genin do the mission without a team was kind of presumptuous.

Eventually she was forced to relearn her body in ways she never tried to for fear of snapping in half for while she was flexible there were limits to it and get used to her periods. She was more than relieved when it stopped. Her interaction with people was lessening more and more as the festival got closer. She was dressed in lavish robes all day and her head was hurting from all the jumbos about purification and the rituals she had to get done.

"They do know I'm just a substitute, right?" She mumbled under her breath watching the servants come with more accessories than she could hold on her person.

Was it a test? To prove how well she could handle completing the tasks alone? Was it the same for her teammates? Will she find a way to get her inner back and stop talking to herself without getting a reply back? Her fate was so undetermined she did not know what she was supposed to do anymore.

The doomsday was here upon her and all she got from her enquiry was about how she could have eloped with her famous secret lover, not so secret if everyone knew about him in her opinion. Actually, everything since the beginning of the mission was strange. How could her connection to Inner be cut? How could her strongest defense against mental intrusions be annihilated by something like pain? It should have been blocked out. And there was still this stain that refused to leave her mind.

She clasped her hands together and began to disrupt her coils."Kai.' She whispered too lowly for anyone around to be able to hear it.

She could feel a small change but a coil refused to be put out of balance. She frowned and disrupted it again. She could feel a waver in her perception but nothing else. Whatever put her in what seemed to be an illusion was strong. When did she fall for it? For a genjutsu type she was unbelievably weak against them. She felt a presence getting closer to her position and laid her arms down to her sides.

"Seiwa-san?" He was wearing a blank mask.

"It's time for the opening ceremony." He extended his hand and waited for her to take it.

Sakura smothered her frown before it appeared and slowly laid her fingers which he immediately entwined with his. They bypassed several rooms and were walking in a random pattern that she knew was nowhere near the exit but they still got outside.

Illusion

She was sure of it now. She was trapped but she could not act before knowing where she was heading. She was a ninja, known for deception. She could not act like a foolhardy little newbie.

Break the illusion.

She would get caught if she were to be caught surprised when she broke the illusion. Wasn't it strange? How Uchiha Itachi suddenly appeared? It's well known that he's an anbu captain. He had no time to waste on a low rated mission.

Break.

Teamwork is what they teach the most when you graduate from the academy and choose to pursue this way.

Break.

So how could she be left alone in an unknown territory?

Pain was what made her communication with Inner stop. It takes more than that to make her lose it.

BREAK IT.

Everything was an illusion!

She snatched her hand away from the stranger and cursed her idiotic self from not having any weapon on her. Wait, genjutsu type, just make them appear. Throwing a handful of senbon without aiming she took this opportunity to run.

She could feel his eyes digging onto her back and sped up. Before she could reach the end of the forest, the sky was shrouded by a cloudy black substance. A hand tugged on her hair and she winced before being taken down to the ground, tackled by the man. His eyes glinted ominously with the pink glowing like a star against the blackened sky.

"KAI!" She unleashed her chakra without trying to control it, giving into the wild nature that clashed with the calm color the energy emitted.

The coy resisting suddenly gave out under the pressure and the pink glowing eyes darkened to a dull red. The sky shattered like a mirror and she recognized her landscape before the pieces tried to get back in their place.

Fighting the fatigue her sipping chakra provoked, she tried to do one last boost before hearing a familiar voice.

DAMN FUCKING SHIT! IT'S MY PLACE!

Inner Sakura fought back for her rightful place and the landscape got pulverized by the black tendrils that seemed come directly from her. By the time the imagined place got absorbed in its entirety, her defenses slammed back to their duty and a sense of calmness swept over her tired materialized body.

You took your damn time to wake up.

How was I supposed to know?!

One, the mission was suspicious. Two, you ever heard about the land of frost? If yes, it would have been logical to be given some information about it. Three, behavior. You should have noticed the change and they even gave us a clue. For fuck sake, they said it was for training!

I will have to put my guard once again.

No shit sherlock!

Nowadays, I feel quite foolish.

The only light from her mind was the one emanating from her body and it was slowly extinguishing with the sheer exhaustion she put on her head. Inner was nowhere energetic enough to recreate her persona and just vanished to take care of her own side. She was alone and waiting for her real body to wake up but first she had to rearrange all the tangled coils caused by the attack. She was quite pissed about it since she took a while to get self control.

A ray pierced through the void and her eyelids opened with a heavy weightiness. It was with half opened eyes that she got a hold of her situation and breathed out like she was still out cold. She could not see any details as the place was obscured by the night. She heard a snore to her right and the small hint of a camp fire from the smoky scent and the ashes itching at her throat.

After a few moments, she could note that she was in some sort of cave with 2 persons in her presence and no idea if there were other ones planning on coming back.

"Oi! She's moving!" A loud voice that grated on her nerves shouted out.

"I ain't gonna do a thing." This one was way smoother but the cruel tone took away the only redeeming quality she had found in it.

"Someone, get the illusionist in here." The man demanded authority and he was clearly the leader of the group.

"He's sleepin', still feelin' the effects of the lil' girl's fightin' against him." She wanted all of them to shut up.

"Damn man can't keep himself from getting hurt by a small behind the ears little girl." Hearing his voice, the frustration was rising and it wouldn't be long before she could use her limbs or even feel them.

All her energy had gone to escape from the intricate illusion fed by her mind but it didn't mean she was gonna let herself be caught a second time. One of the men walked away and her limbs awaken as her muscles screamed in pain. She was unarmed and there was nothing she could use to knock the man out except for the fire.

The fire! Of course, she was so idiotic for not taking elements into accounts though she was better off relying on the earth.

The moment she felt a flicker of her chakra she jumped into action. She slammed it to the ground and the earth crumbled and cracked to form a thin but long spike just beneath the stranger.

"Fuck!" She saw the shadows shift and the man holding onto his injured side.

She ignored her protesting legs and ran to the exit while making sure no one was following her trail. The sound of voices steered her from her designated way towards a potential way out of this trap.

"How many times do I have to repeat I can't fix it?!"A woman?

"Lot good you are..."

"A self destructive illusion! You ever heard of one during your short attempt at having an education?!"A small pause." I guess not." They were growling and yells coming from where she had initially woken up were getting closer.

"Ok, ok,ok. She uses her own aptitudes to feed and nourish whatever made her stuck in coma, understood? Easy explanation, even for you."

That, Sakura was definitely taking notes to discover what was amiss. Not awaiting for more than that, she sped up through a tunnel. Maneuvering through them in the dark was a big gamble except she did not have a lot of choices. She ran until she was blocked by a solid wall. It was a dead end. The footsteps were within her hearing.

What do I do now…

Crack.

Silence.

"Hikyo." She recognized her sensei.

"I've got her."

She had no time to react before they found her clutching to bribes of dirt clinging to the walls. If she was hallucinating, what was telling her it was not another one?

"Katou, light the room." They were used to being issued orders from him during their training but never had he sounded as serious as now.

"Hai sensei." She was able to see their faces and blinked in surprise. Their little rescuing was not without its own obstacles.

"Sakura?" He was unexpectedly gentle in his approach.

Black spots began to appear and the place was spinning. She lost her footing and held herself up by leaning on the flat surface. A curtain of magenta obscured her vision with the black spots growing larger until it invaded her whole vision. Her feet gave out under her and she was only conscious enough to feel an arm catching her before she faced the ground.

Well, now I don't have the choice between dream or reality.

A few snips of conversation filtered through her ears but did not register in her brain. The weightless feeling of being held in the air kept her company for a long time. A soft over slowly engulfed her and she fell asleep.

It was the probe of a sting on her arm that made her conscious of her current situation. She heard a startled yelp as she forced herself to sit up and slap a hand over whatever her arm was getting. It was reckless and unprofessional but she could be permitted to do mistakes as the puncture got worse and warm blood caressed her skin as it dropped on the sheets of the bed. It was obvious she was in a hospital room and the nurse was evidently getting reinforcements.

"The patient is awake!"

"Call the doctor!"

"All the doctors from this shift are taken."

"Can't someone find out where all the staff went?"

"Emergency! We need an available room, we have to operate now!"

"There's a shortage of anesthetics!"

"Where are-"

The hospital was busy. She could wait a little more to get out of the hospital. It's not like she's currently dying. She contemplated going back into oblivion but nowadays it felt like it was the only thing she did in her life. She laid back and watched the ceiling, waiting for a competent person to look after her case. It was gonna be long.

She got one by the end of the day not that she knew it with her current location. They said she was stable but needed to stay for a few days to monitor her body lest she gets back into a simulated coma. However it only meant she would use this break as meditating.

A familiar face showed up and he sat on the chair next to the bed.

"Hey kiddo." The eye patch was hanging precariously on his head.

"Sensei."

"Feeling good.?" Slap. She wanted to slap him.

"I am in a hospital bed forbidden to even go out. I do not feel good." Her limbs were getting complacent and it would be hell when she could go back training."Look at my face and tell me I'm smiling."

"What?"

"I am not so no and just get me out of here. There's only so much meditation I can tolerate without sweets."

"I'll visit you later." He got up.

"Don't you dare leave me alone!"

"Then stop sprouting nonsense!" He shouted back but did not move further away from her. Mission accomplished.

"Are you telling me I'm nonsense?!" Sakura was bordering the side of the bed and looked ready to pounce on him.

"What?! What did they give you in here?! That's why I hate hospitals!" He threw his hands in the air and sighed.

"We all hate hospitals!" A well known fact for those who take infiltration missions or all the newbies taught to never be in a situation where you show weakness.

"What? But your medic training, what happened to it?!"

"No!"

"No?"

"Nevermind, I'm just frustrated." And she diddn't want to be alone again.

They both calmed down and Sakura took a deep breath before asking what exactly happened to her as she could not rely on her own memories.

"We were heading out of the village for a C-rank mission when we were attacked. For some reason they targeted you while I was dealing with their leader. By the time we finished with them you were nowhere to be seen." Obito was guiltily fiddling with his fingers but maintained eye contact with her.

"What mission?" Did she replace her memories to make the illusion more believable? Why couldn't she remember?

"You don't remember...I should've known." Another sigh. There was still an element that titillated her.

"Obito-sensei, for how long was I missing?" She was scared of the answer. It seemed to be just a moment for her. She could vividly remember all the details that her mind scampered to mix and present to her.

"Three weeks."