Chapter 14
No, No, no... no.
'This can't be happening'
'No, not to Naruto.'
'Oh god, how did this even happen'
2 Hours ago...
"Sakura,"
"Sakura!"
Sakura jerked back into reality after her mind had just palled over all the possibilities. Sasuke's mismatched eyes met her emerald ones, her lower lips quivered in panic and her fingers trembled. He grasped them and pulled her toward him.
"Sakura, snap out of it!"
Her head plowed into his chest without even considering to grip herself once as tears streaked her cheeks, some wetting his dark vest and some falling into the dewy grass. His arms circled her back, comforting her and pulling her closer while his face rested atop hers. His hooded eyes were constantly raking their surroundings while alternatively staring at his partner.
"Sa-su-ke, how co-could this hap-happen?" she shuddered, her tears sempiternally flowing.
"Sakura, get a hold of yourself. We have to get outta here. They would have noticed his radio and those hounds would easily gather our scent from his clothing and come after us."
The distress in his voice spoke volumes of their tough luck although he passively worried about Naruto the same as she did. His thoughts wandered off to how they would even pick up Kametatsu's scent off Naruto and wonder if he was behind his killing. Thoughts wandering into the actions they will take once the Second Sanctum made that inference. He immediately snapped out of it and glared at Sakura below, who was clinging to his shirt, cheeks soaked with tears. He lifted her and dashed into the cave with the underground tunnel system.
"Wh-what are you doing?" she whimpered.
"Exactly what you asked me to before, only now I think it's our only shot at figuring out if we can infiltrate the camp and retrieve Naruto." His response was very solid as if he already was confident of their probability of saving Naruto. Sakura tugged at his shirt and he gently placed her onto the ground, they raced towards the opening that led them underground, but now the lighting inside was completely natural; the light that entered the cave the only source. Sakura had wiped the streaks of tears that marred her cheeks and shuffled behind Sasuke right before something caught her eye. She kneeled before the scaffolding of concrete wiping the dirt off the kanji engraved on it.
It read '18-32-45' and quickly brought her hand over to another engraving, wiping it clean that read 'Welcome to the beginning'.
Her brain recalled the faint kanji that marked the walls of the cave outside that clearly read, 'Welcome to the end'. The stark contradiction now only heightening her optimism, but the digits seemed to make no sense. It could be a secret code to some combination lock or something merely trivial. Her arm raised and beckoned to Sasuke to come look at her finding, he kneeled on one knee beside her and stared at the engravings raptly. "What do you think it could be?" she posed the question. He shrugged and lifted her up by the forearm tugging her to come along. They stepped into the interior of the tunnels and took a left where they encountered the entrance of the cryptic tunnel. The darkness was intimidating, Sakura shuddered due to the cold breeze that blew from behind and into the tunnel blowing her hair forward. Sasuke turned toward her, lifting a finger to tuck the loose pink strands behind her ear.
"Shall we?" His arm motioned forward asking her.
"Mhm," she replied after a pause.
They stepped inside, their eyes constantly straying to discover any obvious articles in the debris that were present a good fifty meters inside the tunnel. The blockade looked unrealistic, almost man-made due to the fact that there was no wreckage that could explain the reason of all the rubble that was present; the roofing was intact, the walls untouched. Sakura pulled out the mini-torch from her tool belt and switched it on. The light was faint and provided minimum visibility, their eyes flickered dauntingly while their feet took careful steps avoiding the craters and rubble from hindering them.
The faint light only began to scatter upon reflecting off the debris that was now just a few feet away from them. Sasuke tilted his eyes toward Sakura, giving her a brisk nod and she simply took a dozen steps back. Her palm accumulated a surmountable chunk of her chakra as she paced forward raising her fist forward in a terrifying punch to the surface of the wreckage. The rubble began to collapse even further and scattered before them giving some way for them to ascend the mass and move forward. They flung into the air mounting the rubble and carefully moved ahead, flicking the torch to discover their surroundings.
Sakura and Sasuke started to realize that this tunnel was no ordinary tube that merely carried water from one point to another, or a sewage or even a bunker. It was indeed a supply drain that troops used back in the early days to provide equipment, rations, and other military stocks to the soldiers probably situated on top in their camps. They looked around for any ladders to ascend the pipe but couldn't find any, neither were any openings present. If this was really a supply drain, it would definitely have a bloody opening. Sakura's mind drifted to illusions of Naruto being threatened, beaten and chained, her body shuddered incessantly and she stopped walking to get a grip on herself. Sasuke turned around to look at her immediately grasping her arm before she would fall to her knees, the rubble was just too vulnerable right now and could give way any time if anything heavy met in contact with it. He tried to lift her up but she didn't budge and yanked her arm back placing it over her face and weeping gently, tears once again streaked her cheeks and drained into her black vest.
Sasuke couldn't bear it anymore, he wanted to assure her that they would get Naruto back, yet he couldn't even feel the conviction in the thought himself. He kneeled beside her and gently placed a thumb on her cheek wiping her tears away alternatively doing so to the other side. Sakura shivered and clenched her arms tightly to her chest lowering her eyes into her lap. Sasuke traced his thumb down to her chin and lifted it very gently, bringing her gaze to meet his. Soft emerald orbs peered into mismatching obsidian and gray eyes almost communicating the anxiety in them. Her pupils glistened with the faint remnant of tears and her lips were a flush red. He inched closer to the side of her face, his breath heaving down the collar of her shirt and her exposed neck. His face gently pressed to her cheek now and she felt a colossal heat surface to her face, she tried to restrain her quivering frame but just couldn't control herself due to the proximity between them. Images of Sasuke choking her and striking a kunai at her fiercely surfaced into her mind. She yanked backward from his grip and in the process ended up staring into his eyes again. This time his eyes could notice the stark difference, the clear contempt in them as the tears had dried away and the tint of her irises was a far much deeper shade.
She pulled a couple inches away from his form and placed her palms on her knees, lowering her head. His eyes did not leave her face and his mind did not leave her uncertainty he had just witnessed. His hand extended almost unconsciously and placed itself on hers not before he leaned forward to look at her face closely. Sakura hadn't recovered from his sudden action and didn't anticipate his forehead grazing her's. Her irises lifted up to look into his.
"I know I couldn't protect you. I know I can't protect even Naruto. I know that my words mean less to you now than they ever did. But know one thing, I would give my life to save yours or Naruto's if it ever came to that." Sasuke's words poured out of his lips like a poem; A poem that gave Sakura's heart the solace it desired.
"My father once told me, when I was young, everything before the 'but' is bullshit," she responded and snickered softly.
"Hn." Sasuke acknowledged her statement with his trademark expression and chuckled afterward.
"I haven't heard that in a while."
He straightened out his posture, pushing his forehead into hers a little firmly. Their foreheads were now flat against each other and their noses brushed. Sakura choked on her breath a little and her eyes jutted outward. Sasuke's breath lingered on her face and her neck and she relaxed in the surge of warm air that hit her features tentatively. She knew what was coming; eyes stopped blinking and pulses raced, blood surfaced to her cheeks coloring them a bright shade of pink. His lips nipped hers gently holding the lower in place for a second. Their eyes met shortly before they crashed into one another's embrace, lips interlocked and fretting together. Her hands had laced around his neck pulling him closer and his has slid around her waist doing the same. Their kiss started off unconventional yet bordered on the desire the two had for each other. It almost felt rough to Sakura as his arm pulled her into his lap and weaved upward to grab her by the neck; a sensation Sakura was all too familiar with. Yet this time it felt propagated by his starving desire to dominate her, passionately. He choked her softly and her breathing quivered heightening her pleasure, she released a moan into his mouth. His tongue tugged at her teeth steadily as she let it through once and for all, his tongue slithered into the extent of her mouth and hungrily tasted her. They hadn't realized how savage their actions started to seem as her fingers were now threaded through his raven locks, his through her pink hair. Due to the height difference between them, Sasuke found it difficult to constantly crane his neck to kiss her. He took a lump of her hair and pulled back bending her face backward exposing her neck. He fervently kissed her neck and bit into her pale, tender skin leaving purple and red bruises along the way. Their eyes met one more time, their gaze salacious. She could feel his uneven breathing across her neck and he could see the deepening blush of her cheeks.
They separated from each other swiftly after spending a few moments staring. Sakura's face felt hot and feverish, while Sasuke simply recalled their moment etching it into his memory, securing it permanently.
Walking into the internal cavity of the tunnel started to wear the both of them out. It had been twenty minutes of relentless walking, punching, scrambling, walking punching scrambling through all the rubble and it seemed endless. The opening of the tunnel faded away into the distance and Sakura's face started to show the first signs of exhaustion. She had expended half of her chakra and needed to rest, but she obviously wouldn't admit to it since she was recklessly determined to retrieve Naruto and get the hell out of here and back to Konoha. Her steps were labored now and she slumped into the rubble and fell on her back, Sasuke immediately raced toward her and picked her lithe frame up placing her on his lap.
"We aren't going anywhere with this, huh?" she whispered and turned her head away repressing the urge to cry. Somehow, the thought of Naruto being locked up or beaten or hurt just couldn't be fathomed by her conscience right now.
"We need to get out of here, maybe the other tunnel-"
"Sasuke, THIS IS THE TUNNEL that leads underground the camp, not the OTHER ONE, that goes in the opposite direction!" she screamed right after lifting herself off his lap, her voice had peaked a decibel she had never used with him before.
He simply did not answer. Sensing her rage and her state of weakness it wasn't a good idea to get her riled up for nothing by shooting an unseemly reply. He got up and patted the dust off his shirt, tugging her hand to now walk out of the tunnel. She quickly spun around and pulled her arm back. "What do you think you're doing?" she demanded in a firm tone.
"We are getting out of here."
"The hell we are. What's the plan now? To go up to them and give ourselves up? Perhaps take them all on and free Naruto? What are you-"
"Yes! That is exactly what we are going to do!" he yelled back.
She stood there stunned. Surprised how asinine his approach had just become. Her eyes snapped back and forth between each of his before shifting in a widening gaze to the wall beside them. They bored into the vague etching that she could make out on its surface after a few moments of tremendous glancing. Sasuke's gaze followed hers only to skewer his brows into a fuzzy mess, his eyes reamed at the kanji that was engraved into the wall in very small fonts. He wiped the dirt off of it with his sleeve.
'Keep counting'.
They exchanged glances as if to ascertain that they both had read the same thing. In no way did any of these engravings make sense to them unless- Sakura's brain snapped at the thought.
They were actually all connected.
Sasuke stared into her direction waiting for her to speak.
"The cave clearly had a 'Welcome to the end' on it right? That just was meant to mislead whoever wasn't aware of the underground tunnels. But then when we reached here, it said 'Welcome to the beginning' which clearly means that there is more to these tunnels than we know. Now we saw some numbers engraved in a combination or something and then this sign. I mean I would have guessed they could have been coordinates if we were to suppose this was a supply drain right? But then again how the hell will coordinates help in a linear structure. Now it all makes sense!" she squealed when ending her statement.
"Hn?"
"18-32-45! They are the one-dimensional coordinates we need to use to dig up into the roof."
Sasuke blinked a few times before it even made sense to it. And then it did. He was so oblivious to this before when he read the kanji just now and Sakura had already deduced it. He smirked, like almost in recognition of her intellect but immediately skewered his brows again.
"We don't know what measuring parameter these coordinates are meant to use though." His question was quite relevantly notable.
"We'll just have to figure it out. It could be in feet, meters, yards, but I doubt it would be in inches and kilometers and such because-"
Sasuke cut her statement by pointing upward to the wall that had the kanji engraved on it. Sakura's eyes squinted to catch the faint carving right below it which looked rather insignificant due to its obscurity, it was really kanji or any code language either. It was a series of elliptical circles that were placed zig-zag to each other.
"FOOTSTEPS!" both cried.
Their eyes were fixed together when Sakura completed the tiny puzzle, "Keep counting footsteps."
"God we were so stupid wasting all this energy digging into the tunnel so further when all we had to do was walk a few steps back there and dig into the roof," she added.
"Yeah, but we gotta hurry. We have already wasted an hour at least and the funny thing is, if the supply drain runs below the camp, then they haven't quite come after us since we did make quite the racket. That just means we have a long we to dig before we reach up to ground level" Sasuke replied.
"Alright, let's go!"
Pacing towards the entrance their feet scraped the ground coarsely coming to a halt when they reached the opening a few minutes later. They turned around facing the tunnel now.
"Let's see. 18-32-45 right? It's gotta be 18, 32 and 45 steps. So that means three stops? Now we don't know which stop to dig into. We could easily get captured if we dig into a tent or simply get detected. So what do we do about that?" Sakura quickly asked him knowing that time was running out of their hands.
"Hn. Do you remember the camp layout?"
"Yeah, what of it?"
"Remember how we saw a prison cell right in front of the gardens, a good twenty meters from the entrance?"
"Oh yeah."
"My bet is we'll just have to dig up from 18 steps and see where we come up. I mean that sounds better than digging into the interiors of the camp right?"
Sakura nodded and stood firmly fixing her posture. She placed her feet together at the same mark and stepped carefully, counting her steps audibly.
"One..two...three..."
Her eyes were transfixed at the roof and her breath wavered slightly.
"Twelve...thirteen..fourteen,"
Sasuke was still standing at the entrance of the tunnel staring into her back.
"Sixteen...seveenteen...eighteen."
His eyes now lifted to look up at the exact mark above her, feet pressing into the ground propelling him into the air. He landed feet first on the roof and moved steadily to match Sakura's position. Sakura flung herself off the ground and landed beside Sasuke. With gravity acting as a deterrence, they could only use a slightly lesser portion of their chakra to dig in as the rest was consumed in maintaining their stance. His eyelids lifted to reveal a pair of eyes that drilled into its field of vision, which right now was Sakura's face.
Her arms made a dozen hand signs before it rested into the last hand sign, Boar.
Doton: Kaido ShÅkutsu
Her arms flung outward almost imaginarily lifting something the rubble beneath them while amassing it to form a giant cylindrical boulder. She dragged her palms closer shaping the boulder into something like a cone now as it lifted itself off of the ground levitating right below them.
"Jump!" she screamed at Sasuke.
The boulder drilled into the roof smoothly with slight clatter while the tunnel vibrated softly. They had now landed onto the ground and Sakura's arms had flung upward supporting the boulder with no physical association whatsoever, only chakra based. Sasuke's eyes bored into the now enlargening hole as well, almost anticipating men pouring down from it once light swarm into the tunnel. His hand rested on the hilt of his Kusanagi. A few more seconds passed as the large chunks of the earth shattered away falling to the ground. Sasuke deflected the bits falling over Sakura with his sword as she took a few steps behind, her arms still holding up. Moments passed and she settled her arms bringing them down, kneeling to relax them on her lap. She had consumed a significant amount of chakra now and her arms seemed to be timeworn.
"I think that's enough, we should dig from here up. We don't want to alert the enemy," Sasuke quickly stated. Sakura lifted herself shoving her fatigue away for one last attempt before ceasing her efforts. The boulder had now crashed onto the ground with a loud thud and they leaped onto it, they pulled out their toggle ropes and attached it to a kunai casting it onto the roof. Climbing the rope steadily, they both concentrated chakra to their hands and shoved the dirt simultaneously. Small chunks of the earth descended in clumps onto the floor below them while Sakura had even held onto Sasuke's rope for him. After a while, the dissipating earth gave way to an extreme amount of earth to fall off causing their kunai to dislodge. They landed firmly onto the boulder. They launched their ropes into the roof again and this seemed to keep going on for quite some time. Just when Sakura was about to wave her hand and pull her rope out and fall to the ground, collapsing in exhaustion, light sated in through a tiny gap that had opened into the surface. Both their eyes exchanged quick glances before pulling out their toggle ropes and landing onto the boulder below them.
They breathed frantically, afraid the earth would give in any moment revealing them and partially due to their fatigue. Sasuke turned to look at Sakura, who was panting, her arms spread onto her knees firmly as she crouched her back. Then his gaze shifted to the gap in the roof through which the sun light descended.
He fumbled before speaking, "Sakura, do you have-"
"I am fine, give me a minute."
She rested in the same position until her breathing stabilized. Her arms spread across pumping chakra through them and propelled the boulder to rise accumulating more rubble into it. They reached the opening and were only a mere few feet away before she collapsed on to her knees. Sasuke instantly grabbed her before she could and placed her in his lap.
"Hold on just a little longer Sakura."
Her eyelids drooped while her head nodded several times. Flashes of Naruto being tortured and tormented repeatedly filled her mind with anguish, she pushed off of Sasuke's lap and breathed uncontrollably. His hand was still holding onto her back while she rested against it and breathed more calmingly now. They both got onto their feet and looked up into the tiny opening only to later exchange glances.
"Higher," she whispered.
Sasuke lifted her a little higher as she straddled his shoulders, her gaze now met the sun light clearly and stretched along the scene. She jerked her head side to side before her gaze glued to a certain scene. What occurred before her although made her yelp in shock, she gasped sharply only to be quietened by Sasuke who motioned her to stay silent. Her eyes now slanted into the opening to look at what she had just now conceived only to be reasserted she wasn't having another hallucination.
Naruto was tied up to an X-cross with heavy chains that restrained his arms, chest, hips, and feet. A sort of cast held his forehead in position and his mouth was gagged. The pedestal he was placed on was surrounded by a strange dark purple aura, almost like chakra while he firmly stood enchained. His chest seemed to be bruised by lashes and his shirt nowhere to be seen. His pants were tattered from the hem and what appeared like blood had dried up on the skin of his feet after seeping from his chest all the way down. A man now appeared to climb the stairs to the pedestal with a long leather tassel-like tool in his hand. He stood right in front of Naruto mumbling about something and a few moments later began flogging Naruto vehemently with it. Spurts of blood trickled from his jaw and chest and some even splattered onto the floor of the pedestal. Dozens of men were surrounding the pedestal cursing at their captive while the flogging continued.
No, No, no... no.
'This can't be happening'
'No, not to Naruto.'
'Oh god, how did this even happen'
Sakura immediately slipped off Sasuke's shoulders and fell to the boulder, breaking into a stream of tears. Her words were sketchy and incomplete yet Sasuke construed the gist of everything that was going on. His face contorted into a fearsome expression, brows squeezed together, nose all scrunched up and lips pouting angrily. His blood was boiling and his bones were aching to eliminate every man right above them starting with the flogger first. What he couldn't interpret was the purple aura that surrounded Naruto. Naruto could have easily gone into Sage mode and broken off his chains freeing himself and made a run for it, yet he didn't. Perhaps, he couldn't. Perhaps the purple aura was dispelling any chakra within its confines. Sakura was now gazing into a mismatching set of eyes, one deep red and the other gray. His Sharingan spun several times before he stood up and lifted Sakura with him.
The hole was approximately a few meters north west of the prison cell which is why they could easily view the central clearing of the camp where Naruto was being tortured. This meant that they had either opened a gap somewhere in front of the prison or somewhere between the sentry situated outside the entrance of the camp and the prison cell. Sasuke did not waste any time to weigh his options, he simply turned to look at Sakura interpreted his look and instantly accumulated chakra onto her arms and propelled the boulder further up. Sasuke palmed the earth aside and widened the gap enough to slip out of it. He stomped his feet onto the boulder and a gush of chakra surged him outward, immediately rolled onto the side to avoid being noticed and reached the prison cell beside him.
A lone gardener who seemed to be tending to the plants in the nursery stood a mere ten meters away from Sasuke. He yielded his sword and crawled towards him, instantly slashing his throat. Sasuke hustled between the plants and stealthily crawled his way from the nursery to the periphery of the green house avoiding the couple of medics working inside. His palms pressed against the glass of the structure, eyes tilting to his right before glancing out to look at Naruto. The commotion was deafening as men stomped their feet and yelled, "Kill him!" repeatedly.
Sasuke inched outward slightly forming the ram hand sign closing his right eyelid. His Rinnegan immediately spun and sucked Naruto into a Space-Time warp that openly right behind him taking the X-cross and Naruto both into it. Sasuke jerked backward in nausea that followed the use of his Rinnegan and slumped on to the ground on his knee. His eyes closed, he heaved a few times and his ears pulled into them the growing commotion of the men outside that had gone completely delirious.
He pushed his arm onto his knee lifting up, his eyes opened very slowly right before his head got struck painfully by something heavy as he slumped back into his former position collapsing on the ground.
Someone shouted at the men as a swarm of them gathered around him. They somehow managed to not see a pair of emerald eyes that were peering from out an opening in the ground that had now been quickly shut with mud before she tumbled into a fall and collapsed as well; cheeks soaked with tears and her body shivering irrepressibly.
-xxx-
I know how weak Sakura might seem as of now to each one of you all, but believe me this isn't how it is going to be. I have been away for 5 days or so because I had hit quite the writer's block and couldn't come up with much. I mean yes this was all planned but trust me there have been so many renditions you won't believe it. I have been sick as well so I couldn't write much but your reviews always make me realize how important it is for me to keep on.
Don't forget to review this chapter and let me know what went right/wrong? Next Chapter comes out tomorrow at 1200 hrs +05:30 IST
OH AND YES! I quoted Jon Snow/Ned stark here from GOT because I just had to. Love you all.