A Confluence of Stars
Summary: With the war over between two princedoms, Sakura, a sniper, returns home to celebrate Confluence with her grandmother, the local Story Keeper. She had expected it to be nothing more than just another celebration when the star rivers overlapped and the poor people partied. But, along with the rest of the world, Sakura soon realizes that Confluence did more than just give people a reason to celebrate. A wicked new world filled with monsters and magic straight from Baba's tales spills into theirs, and Sakura is forced to turn to her rifle and her stories to make sense of it.
"The old world is dying away, and the new world struggles to come forth: now is the time of monsters."
— Antonio Gramsci
Part 11
Sakura should have listened to the wisdom of her friend, but instead she checked in on her clothes, finding them still too damp to take and fold. That led to something else, and then that lento her wandering about, and when her feet wandered her brain followed.
She eventually made it into bed where sleep found her and held her tight. She woke in the morning with a fever and a pounding headache that traveled all the way down to her bones.
But at least her clothes were dry.
Sakura dressed in her things from yesterday, finding them dry, and folded up the jacket for Choji as well as the extra boots. She wiped her face down but still couldn't shake the heat that made her skin flush. It was a little too obvious, but she could still stand, so she decided to ignore it.
Choji and Omoi were already downstairs when she knocked on their door, but Shikamaru took their things from her and said he would pass along her thanks.
Yugito stopped her on the stairwell. "Back to the room until it's time to leave." She held up two plates and raised her brows. "Back to bed. You have a fever."
"It's just a cold from the rain. Those always pass easy," Sakura tried to explain, but Yugito forced her back to their shared room where they took breakfast together. Sakura only half tasted everything.
"How are you not hungover? You drank your weight in wine," Sakura asked, watching Yugito for signs of any discomfort.
"It was ale, not wine, and it wasn't that much. I wouldn't get drunk from something so meager."
"I learned something new about you," Sakura hummed, closing her eyes. "Was it good ale at least?"
When Yugito didn't respond right away Sakura opened her eyes and looked up. Yugito was staring at their mostly empty plates. "I wasn't drinking it for the taste. It's easier to not think about things when you're sloshed full."
Outside there was a glow of morning light, but the air still smelled like rain and the clouds were thick and low throughout the sky. It would rain. "What were you thinking about?"
Yugito collected their plates and carried them as a stack to the door. "Your story," she called before slipping out to return the dishes.
Left alone, Sakura played with the high waist of her pants, feeling around for the fabric doll she had made during the celebration of Confluence. It was still there, making her smile. It had gotten a little wet the other night, even with all the layers over it.
"Am I sick because I let you get wet too?" she asked out loud. The doll stayed silent but Sakura didn't mind. She hadn't been expecting an answer.
In the corner of the room closest to her bed her rifle stood up, leaning against the wall. She could see the carvings of enchanted horses and eggs with words inside. The skeletal snake with its jaws open wide over the trigger stood out. She reached for it to slip over her shoulder while pocketing the doll once more. She was fixing her pants when the door opened and Karui poked her head in. "We're heading out. You're backup. Be ready in three minutes."
"I'm ready now," Sakura answered, pulling the front parts of her blazer together.
Karui didn't say anything, but left the door open for Sakura to leave through.
Outside, everyone was mounted on a horse except for Yugito and the Major. Both women were talking to am older man who looked like the local who had first requested their service. Sakura came up behind them catching only bits of the end of their conversation.
They were going to the mountain.
The Major turned to face Sakura even as Yugito brought her horse over. "You'll be watching our back. There's a ledge you can plant yourself and keep watch with your rifle."
"You're going into the caves?" Sakura asked.
Samui waved her away and turned to her own steed. "Of course we are going to check if they are safe. Mount your horse, we're wasting daylight."
Sakura felt the wrongness of it in her bones, but took the bridle for her and swung up into the saddle. "But I won't be any good as a lookout if you go into the caves. I can't protect anyone in there."
"You'll do fine making sure no one follows us in."
"That won't be enough to keep you safe."
"You have your orders."
Sakura wanted to say more but the group was pulling away from her, easing their mounts into a canter out of the district and onto the road that was old but direct, ending right at the base of the twisted looking mountain. It was dark with heavy clouds, but there was no rain this time to obstruct their view of the face like shape of the structure. It was enough to spook one or two of the horses, but Karui was good at handling her frightened animal.
Yugito pulled away from the group, gesturing for Sakura to follow her to the cliffs she would perch at to better watch out for anything that might come up on their backs.
"I know you wanted to stay with me, but won't you go with them?" Sakura asked, still in her saddle.
Yugito turned her horse around, pulling back so they were even with each other even if they faced different directions. "You're not well. I should stay at your major can manage with only her own."
"I don't doubt that, but I'm worried about Choji and Shikamaru. She doesn't look out for them like she does the rest," Sakura admitted.
Yugito spared a glance back over her shoulder. "And why do you care about those two?"
"We were comrades once. I can't forget that so easily."
Yugito's lips tugged down into a frown. "Sakura…"
"Please. They need you more than I do. Trust me, that cave isn't all that it seems."
"Your suspicions are misplaced. It'll be fine. People have already visited most of the caves and no one has gone missing, it's just freaking them out until it's officially investigated."
"I shouldn't be separated from the rest of the group, but the Major is petty about some things. Just go with them," Sakura asked. When Yugito glanced up sharply to meet her eyes Sakura went on. "I was put on this team to help this group and I can't do that for anyone if I'm stuck where I can't see any of you. At least with you down there, I feel more at ease."
"I'm not here for their sake."
Sakura smiled, knowing well and good the weight of Yugito's words. "I know. But this is for me. I will have no peace until either you or I are allowed to venture with the party into the caves. Do you see the Major forgiving me so soon?"
"No, the Major is still pissed at you for your behavior yesterday. Regardless, you are worth your pay here as lookout considering the possibility of all this being a pretty elaborate set up by rebels to pick off the faithful in blue, bit by bit." Yugito sighed and glanced up at the dark sky. "You'll be fine on your own for a few hours I suppose."
"Thank you. I feel better already. Hey-" Sakura wavered in her saddle and had to drop her reigns to grip her saddle's front lip to steady herself.
She heard Yugito curse. "Damn it. You still have a fever. Take a nap here for all I care. I'll be fine and I won't let anything happen to the rest of them but I'm sure it'll be fine."
"Promise to be vigilant!"
"Who do you think I am?"
"Yugito-"
But the blonde had already dug in her heels and was heading away on a canter.
There was something wrong rolling about in her gut and the longer Sakura stayed on the cliff apart from the rest of the group the worse it felt. Wrong, wrong, wrong. It was in her bones, a violent fission that urged her to move. She was burning with a fever and sometimes it made her sway, but she was still up and able to move. She needed to move.
Sakura turned her horse around to chase after her friend, but the movement finally made her slip and she tumbled out of the saddle into the bush, catching the reins on the way down. Her horse snorted but stayed close as she rolled onto her side and gagged. She just barely scrambled upright in time before she threw up her breakfast. She heaved into the bushes and then fell back onto her side, sick and shivering all over. She was caught between her fever and her danger sense.
She tried to stand but ended up vomiting again. When she was done some of the nausea was gone and standing didn't make her dizzy. She climbed to her feet and took her rifle with her, not wanting to lose it if the horse ran off with all the things she had strapped to his saddle.
At the edge of the cliff she could see the shrunken bodies of her companions heading into one of the marked off caves that the people had asked be inspected by soldiers. She was far away enough that they were small, but she could still see them all perfectly.
Overhead the clouds rolled along, thickening at their lowest points with the promise of rain. The darkest ones drifted in front of the sun and swelled in the sky, making shadows all over the land.
"Turn back you idiots," Sakura groaned out loud, knowing they were already too far away for her to reach, even with a horse. By the time she got down to them they would already be inside one of the caves.
Sakura took up a watch, feeling sick and feverish all over. Over the next hour she threw up only one more time, and she wondered if it was because of nerves. She couldn't see anyone or hear anything in spite of her better than average hearing. They were deep inside agonized stone and there was no knowing what had happened to them since.
Sakura might have dozen, or maybe she stayed on the cusp of waking while entertaining a decent into older memories. She had been perched on a cliff overlooking entrances and exits to places both rugged and polished, far and near. She was no stranger to the high places, and watching over the cave made her remember some of those posts.
During a time not too long ago, towards the end of the war when her rifle was nearly full, she had hidden herself in the branches of a mighty oak two days in advance. The wide open jaws of the skeletal snake posed just above her trigger, reminder her never to hesitate least she be the one suffering for it. The war was nearly lost. She couldn't afford to be sympathetic.
In her memory Sakura sat and picked off enemy blue coats one by one, until their numbers were noticeably less. But after enough sacrifices had been made, a bullet found its way into her collarbone and she pitched backwards off the end of the tree branch. She plummeted the whole of the way down, landing horribly in a bank of snow that saved her life.
Sakura lay in the snow, bleeding out but safely hidden from sight until the rest of the day's sunlight was spent. It hurt, her wound burned and her stomach ached for food while her throat went dry for water, but she played the part of a corpse without fault. They would be watching for her, to make sure she was really dead, but they wouldn't watch forever. She gambled a day at most. She just had to play dead for an entire day and then she could go.
Nearly a mile away, and behind enemy lines, the blue dressed soldiers never sent anyone out to retrieve her body.
Their mistake.
They had celebrated her victory in their papers, only to lose nineteen more generals in a six day period-a personal best.
'The Snake Skinner knows how to shed her own skin and live again. She is an immortal monster,' the stories claimed.
But back in the present, sick to her stomach and left all alone on a cliff ledge, Sakura didn't feel like an immortal monster. She just felt nervous and upset for all the waiting she had to endure. The girl who played dead in the snow, unmoving for hours, was only a memory.
"Come on, Yugito. Bring them out unharmed," she whispered into the wood of her rifle.
It was hours later when they all emerged unscratched and unharmed. They were dirty and cranky about their explorations. The first group to head back was made up of The Major, Karui, and Shikamaru. All three were conversing on the topic of their day's of explorations. Sakura met them at the base, but didn't follow them when they passed. Instead she was waiting for Yugito who came out second to last. Choji stood beside her and waited, watching as Omoi dragged his feet.
"You're all safe," Sakura breathed.
Yugito frowned at something on her face but it was Choji who moved first, laying his hand over her forehead. "Sakura, you're burning up! How long have you had a fever?"
"She woke up with it, move your hand, it's already hot enough without the help," Yugito interjected, moving up to push the hand off Sakura's face.
Yugito reached for her water skin and poured some onto a cloth she handed over. With her rifle on her shoulder Sakura accepted the cloth and set it on her forehead, relaxing instantly.
"You didn't even nap, did you?" Yugito asked, sounding disappointed.
"I was waiting for you all to come out. I didn't know what had happened to any of you," Sakura protested, turning the cloth over on her forehead. "I couldn't sleep during such a time."
"Straight to bed when we get back then. I think I know where we could get some medicine for a fever," Choji said, looking worried between the two girls.
Sakura rolled her eyes, rocking back on her heels. Behind Choji she saw Omoi coming out of the cave last, holding something in his hand that had attracted all of his attention. The rolling feeling came back to her gut and Sakura nearly gagged from it.
Wrong, wrong, wrong.
She looked up again and saw the same thing with just one difference; behind the staff captain there was another figure. It wasn't a knight in shining armor made with honor, but it was something that might have been once upon a time. It was a skeletal horror in tarnished armor with a mouth of void lined with teeth and red coals where there should have been eyes in his wide open sockets. It was tied to the stone in Omoi's hand like a curse against trespassers.
A wraith.
She saw it draw something from it side, growing more and more solid the further it was pulled from the cave. The shadow passed over them and as Omoi stepped further into the weak light, out from the edge of the cave's reach, a horrible realness materialized over the boy's shoulder like something ripped from a child's nightmare.
Sakura shoved past Choji in a mad dark, making him stagger sideways behind her. She rolled her rifle off her shoulder too close to fire, but too close not to do something. Omoi looked up, surprised at her charge, but she just shoved him to the side in time to catch the spectral sword in the metal guard of her rifle. There was a spark and s heavy, solid clang.
"Shit, what is that?!" she heard someone scream from behind her.
They could see it too, which made sense. Out of the cave it was nearly solid. Anyone with or without magic would be able to make it out.
The skies rolled and then split open, the rain started to come down on Sakura and her opponent in soft pulls of mist. The monster leaned far and gagged over her, smelling like rot and death before pulling back and raising its sword again. Sakura rolled and pulled her rifle up when it's strike turned into a swing. Metal on metal made sparks and the rifle slipped in her hand
The wraith's sword slipped over the metal guard and she watched it graze the metal all the way into her shoulder. It bit like frost burn and fire and she screamed from it. There was light where its sword bit into her flesh, making her sick.
Her vision was a mess but she saw her rifle, saw her hand over the Leshy carving, far paler than it should have been. She felt the magic, the way it was drawn out through her wound into the wraith via his sword, feeding him like a leach. Bits of gray ash skin began to grow over his face, making him all the more horrible. She felt wrong all over but she also itched.
Sakura screamed a new war cry and made the things inside her, the wrongness, the itch, the magic, the veins of power she didn't understand, all flow in one direction. She made the things in her heart, the anger, the frustration, the hurt, the loss, the fear, the trauma too deep for words, all flow along with the magic, feeding it like oil fed a fire. She felt it fall out of her and something in her snapped, something wet and living.
The wraith pulled away, leaving his sword in her shoulder, but reached for another one at his side. Sakura saw it raise it's hand but before it could move, there was a roar not like thunder as wood under the earth rose up, dragging with it the bones and debris of an abandoned corner of forest. Sakura watched with distant awareness as a Leshy, the Leshy from her rifle, her Leshy with a name only she knew, assembled himself out of the discards of a forest until it towered over the wraith.
It roared with the voice of a bull before bringing one trunk sized fist down on the wraith. Like an egg the evil thing shattered and sick gray light scattered around them as a final cry scarred the air. Sakura fell backwards into the damp soil, feeling the cool of each under her face. People were screaming and both Choji and Yugito were running for her through the rain. There was still a sword in her that hadn't shattered with the wraith, and a towering mammoth of Leshy only she could call for.
Sakura felt faint from the fever and her wound. Her eyes wanted to close, so she let them, but she stayed awake and aware a second longer, just long enough to hear her own voice calling out for Zetsu. She didn't know who Zetsu was, but she knew he was hers and only hers.
"Be careful of your own magic. It's a strange and wild new world. There's no telling what might happen to you out there," her Baba had told her before she left home for the last time.
AN: I didn't forget about this story-I just got caught up in life! Oops. I had this chapter ready for a while now and I was excited to see what you all thought of Omoi after this. He's not such a terrible guy after all, right?
Thank you guys so much for showing an interest and reading this story of mine. I'm so in love with this world and hope it's a fun little trip for you as well. Some of the comments and questions have really just brightened my day. THANK YOU!
