A.N.: End of Arc II, 4.8K words.
Barebones - Arc II: Runaway - Chapter 20: Ride the Waves
Underneath the sullen earth lies a seed waiting for a moment to break free.
A streetlight flickers as she walks underneath its beam of light, and Sakura can feel goosebumps rippling through her body in response. Something is off about this place, but it's impossible to pinpoint what without delving into paranoia. At first glance, there is nothing wrong with Engetsu: it's a small village, with maybe three dozen houses, each of them made of eroded black stone. It reeks of an obscure, ancient culture, lost in time.
This settlement has to be at least a couple centuries old, and that on its own is strangely nerve wracking. The dark, tortuous alleys and the many shadows in between the houses could hide many secrets… and perhaps, danger.
'You could just say this place is creepy and be done with it.' Her Inner Voice mutters, but there is a tinge of tension that laces each of the words. And if her inner consciousness is nervous, then there really must be something strange going on. Almost without noticing, Sakura ensures her group is close enough together.
It's a cloudy night, to top it off, which makes everything even darker. Her fears are confirmed when, under the light of the moon, she spots a shadow that wasn't there before… standing in the middle of the path. Feral, icy blue eyes trained on her much more intently than she would like.
As soon as the moonlight is gone again, it disappears, despite having stood straight under a still-working neon sign. A shiver runs down the pinkette's spine when she realises that maybe, just maybe, this is not a thing hiding only in her mind. She stops in her tracks, hand reaching out to grab Misho's shirt just in case
"Do you think this place could be like Shimo?" she mutters in a low voice, looking at nothing in particular. Her breath is distinctly quick, heartbeat accelerating to match the intensity of her fear. "You know, filled with angry spirits that hate my guts?"
Maru is quiet. She looks at him, but he seems to be watching something else, his gaze moving along one of the walls of a house, only a few meters away. The hammering in her chest grows, restless, as she follows the direction of the rat's gaze. It leads her to a patch of stone, adorned with silvery outlines and glimmers.
There is something crawling on the building, like an oversized spider missing half of its legs. The moment she puts her eyes on it, it glares back. The same cold, lifeless eyes… they are glassed over, like the ones of a dead fish. The thing tilts its head to the side, a quiet deadlock forcing Sakura to keep looking.
Something in her fears that, if she tears her gaze away from this thing, it will jump right at her. It's vaguely human-shaped, but that's as much as she can tell. Looking at it is like staring at pitch-black darkness. The thought that this thing (if it's the only one) crawling around, completely invisible, is enough to send anyone reeling into panic.
What is so off about it? Maybe she's expecting it to attack, but so far it hasn't done anything against them. She tries to find out why, and it takes an uncomfortably long period of time to figure out - the edges of the figure are fuzzy, distorting the wall behind it. It's as if this thing's image was merely overlaid atop the rest of the scenery.
Like a badly performed genjutsu. On cue, the thing chooses it's time to break the spell and visibly snarls, dozens of white fangs creating what has to be history's creepiest smile. It lunges forward, but this time, she is ready.
"Kai!"
Mere centimeters away from tearing off her face, the creature disappears. Sakura releases a breath she had unknowingly been holding, and looks around to see if there is anything else to take care of. However, the streets are empty again, although the eerie feeling of being watched from somewhere in the darkness remains.
She is ready to apply one of the most basic shinobi rules: if there is a trap, it's because someone set it up. Engetsu is by no stretch a ninja village - someone with very strong genjutsu capabilities was here. Or might still be, judging by how everything seems to be working: lights, chakra devices to keep away the frost and snow, and this strange technique that might haunt her nightmares later.
"You can sense chakra better than I can," she mutters, turning to the rat once more. Maru, in turn, is looking up at the bright orb of the moon. "Is there anyone besides us here? Alive," she adds, because the rat tends to look for every loophole in her questions, just to piss her off.
"Third house to the right, ah." He knew, probably since they stepped into the village. Was he testing her ability to figure out the trap? Nonetheless, Sakura feels confident enough now that she is aware of the trickery. While it means each step will have to be carefully calculated, it also tells that there are people here - ninja, by the looks of it.
And if they're anything like her, if they too survived the massacre, they might be just as insane and paranoid. Her heart skips a beat at the thought of meeting them - if they are not foes, this could be the legitimate reencounter with allies. She doesn't want to dare hope, but… the sole notion makes relieving reassurance spread through her heart.
She starts walking again, listening closely and trying to spots signs of any other trap. Only the distant sound of waves and two sets of footsteps break the spell of silence. Her steps take her to the house Maru pointed out. Nothing makes it any different from all the others, but if the rat is right, there is someone in here.
The kunoichi gives a side-glance to the black-haired boy who accompanies her. He has been quiet, particularly since they left Shimo, though he seems to be anything but afraid.
"You should wait away from here," she whispers - even with the strange spectre gone, the sensation of being watched by avid eyes is unsettling. Sakura doesn't want to disturb whatever forces are causing that to happen.
"Like hell I'm leaving you alone," Misho replies, crossing his arms stubbornly. Goddammit. This kid's fixation on her is going to get him killed at this rate! She wants to argue, putting her hands on her hips and applying her best serious expression to her features. He replies with a frown, but nonetheless refuses to comply.
"You've gotten in enough trouble because of me," she mutters, sighing. Would he be pissed if she just disabled his legs and arms for about ten minutes? No, that would leave him vulnerable. She tries to assess this situation with her legendary analysation skills, but it's clearly a battle of wills that won't be lost easily.
His lower lip quivers just slightly, and for a split second Sakura fears having to regret her choice of words, but he shakes his head vehemently.
"I won't get in the way, I promise," he pleads. The pinkette looks at Maru, desperately looking for help, but the rat seems to be very busy with his staff-juggling exercises.
"Fine. Like before - follow my orders," Sakura finally accepts, tentatively stepping towards the worn out wooden door. Her chakra-sensing skills are still quite skewed, but she has enough of them to help herself with opening it safely.
A small, stone lobby greets her gaze, its inconspicuous air only provoking her to feel more tense. She tries to tell herself it's just another abandoned house, but that isn't exactly true. There is a nearly invisible piece of metal wire running from one side of the hallway to the other.
Either whoever placed it is a rookie ninja, or the people hiding in here regularly use this entrance. If this place is used as a regular shelter, it's likely that the traps can be avoided instead of disabled, in order to get in. It's common shinobi logic - luring enemies into traps is much better than hoping to surprise them, at the cost of one's own mobility. A pinned shinobi is as good as a dead one.
She decides to go for the latter option. It's better to tread carefully than be too confident and end up, say, blown to bits. Then again, sneaking in a potentially unstable ninja's shelter isn't exactly much smarter, but she has to do something. This person might have been stranded here for a long time, or even in need of medical help.
It hits her that, whoever this is, they might be as terrified of enemies as she has been. Waltzing right into their safe haven, especially in her current condition, isn't what a sane person would do.
A kunai confirms her suspicions, though the throw is sloppy at best, and it misses by half a meter. She immediately raises her own pair of blades, but no more attacks come her way. The hallway is dark and unassuming, so she can't see where did it come from.
"I don't want to fight," she states, as clearly as possible. "I'm a medic." Right. It should be worth noted that she did have training regarding subduing potentially unstable, panicked shinobi.
Adrenaline is a bit of a bitch - some of her likely patients might be in shock, unable to distinguish friend from foe. In the heat of danger, some people cannot wait for it to wear off before being treated, though. Which is where her training comes into place. Without most of her chakra, it's unlikely she would be able to actually subdue anyone, but she should know enough to deal with this.
...Hopefully, without major injuries. She is Tsunade's apprentice after all. Sakura would like to believe that, even now, she is a capable medic-nin.
She squints, trying to discern the details of the hallway, but it's almost impossible. Sakura counts on Maru to block off any aggression she can't deal with, but her position is uncomfortably open as of now.
"State your name and allegiance!" replies a raspy voice, distinctly female. Every syllable is dripping with a silent warning, behind which hides the ugly beast that is desperation. Does this kunoichi have something so protect, besides her own life...?
"Sakura Haruno, shinobi of Konohagakure. I am Tsunade-sama's pupil, and as I said, I wish you no harm." Progress! Last time she tried to talk with some stranded, paranoid shinobi, she got an explosive tag to the face for her troubles.
For a few seconds that feel like an eternity, the kunoichi doesn't reply. Sakura represses the urge of biting her lower lip. If this person can see her, appearances are vital. There are many subtle gestures of body language that can help calm someone down or make them think one's an enemy.
"You're lying!" the kunoichi finally snaps - there's something in the way she talks that seems oddly familiar. Is it sadness or anger? "Sakura Haruno is dead!" Definitely anger. "Tell me your real name and intent, NOW!"
The pinkette grits her teeth - deciding that this just got a tad more complicated than it already was. She manages to discreetly push Misho out of the door.
"I am Sakura. If you need any proof, just turn on the lights."
Like hell she will do that. The kunoichi has the advantage of being somewhat hidden - Sakura doesn't know what is her exact situation, her strengths and weaknesses. And she is sure the other shinobi knows it too. But this isn't a fight, if she can avoid it. It's a mind-game.
"Who are you?" she inquires, after a whole, tense minute of silence. "I think you know me, but I can't recognise your voice." Which is true, to some extent. The voice doesn't sound right, either due to lack of water or overuse of vocal chords.
"Go guess, if you were her you would know," retorts the kunoichi, bitterly. There. A subtle inflexion, just a little detail of her speech pattern - Sakura finally recognises it. Her eyes widen in realisation.
"...Tenten?"
Truth be told, Sakura has fantasized about finding her old comrades again. Endless hours of hospital confinement and loneliness do funny things to anyone's head. And she would be lying if she said she hadn't imagined meeting up with them.
She never really admitted it, chalking it up to 'half-baked dreams before I fall asleep', which she knows is absolute bullshit. At first, she wanted to find the people she saw dying and be told it was just a bad dream. Overtime, however, she had to abandon these sorts of illusions - resorting to how she could possibly stumble upon a survivor from Konoha. A friend.
It was bleak, but it was hope. However, never in a million years would she have imagined she would find Tenten in one of Engetsu's houses. The chances were near zero - she even assumed that the fūinjutsu specialist had been one of the many casualties.
Among so many faces to look at in her nightmares, Sakura would assume the worst.
Yet here they are, face to face in this tiny hallway. It took quite a bit of arguing, but the pinkette managed to convince Tenten to come out. And then nearly fainted when she saw her fellow kunoichi's state.
It's a wonder how she manages to stand still, surely by willpower alone. Her hair is completely disheveled, and her clothes look like she has been through some sort of arctic jungle for a straight month. Even the bandages that Sakura can spot on her seem to be dirty, causing an itch on her medic instincts. The worst of it is Tenten's neck - judging by the amount of blood that seeped through the cloth, someone might have tried to slit her throat.
Her eyes, however, show the inner fire that she still hasn't lost. If anything, she seems more fiercely determined than ever - under all the blood and grime, the kunoichi Sakura knows still thrives.
There is a brief moment of stunned silence - apparently, neither of them expected this encounter. And like it happened when she awoke from her meditation-induced dream, Sakura finds herself unable to correctly organise her thoughts. Likewise, the brunette seems to be trying to understand this situation.
"How about," Sakura offers, raising a tentative smile. "I tend to your wounds and then we ask the questions?"
Tenten blinks, still looking at her suspiciously. There is a respectable barrier of traps set between them, but she is (reasonably) wary. Finally, she nods, narrowing her eyes a fraction of an inch and motioning to the kid on the doorway, with a hand that still fights to hold a kunai.
"These two stay out. Leave your weapons here. I still don't fully buy it… Sakura-san," she states, her tone leaving no option for an argument. The pinkette nods, quickly discarding her newly acquired stock of shinobi weaponry. It isn't much: a few kunai and senbon, wire, explosive tags… whatever she could get from Shimo, really.
Tenten's eyes follow her movements closely, but Sakura knows exactly how to move to avoid causing alarm. She leaves a few medical supplies in her small backpack, and nods as a confirmation that she is done.
"I'll be back soon," she promises to her two companions. The kid looks like he is about to protest, but she points an accusatory finger at him. "Follow orders." He nods, pouting, and she considers this her cue to step deeper into the house.
The brunette guides her through the traps - it turns out they're slightly sloppy, due to their maker's condition, leaving enough gaps for her to get past. They are relatively light, considering who set them up. Overwhelming enemies with a barrage of weapons seems to be something Tenten enjoys doing a bit too much.
Once she is past, she can see the finer details of her fellow kunoichi's plight - mainly, the pallor of her skin and the tiredness etched in every corner of her stance. She hides the latter well, but it's still obvious she is struggling to stand.
"Are you alone?" Sakura asks, looking towards the depths of the house.
Tenten seems to hesitate for a moment, and in doing so, she unwillingly answers the question. The brunette realises the slip, and shakes her head slowly. The mere motion makes Sakura wince… with her neck in this state, she should be in a bed!
"Lee is here too," Tenten admits, her demeanor expressing actual nervousness. She looks towards the end of the hallway, and then back at Sakura. Something is wrong. "You still haven't proved your identity, you know."
The pinkette wants to argue that she would be nearly impossible to mistake, when she realises that she can't be looking like a pretty angel as of now. When was the last proper shower she had? And then there's the issue of the dark tendrils covering pretty much the entirety of her skin. Thin and sickly looking, she is barely a shadow of her former self.
"Do I have to remind you of that one time we don't speak about?" Sakura grumbles, suddenly feeling a stroke of genius. "You know, when-"
Tenten slaps a hand over the pinkette's mouth, blushing furiously. It's nice to see some color on her face. Against her palm, Sakura finds herself grinning.
"It never happened," affirms Tenten, letting go of Sakura. She proceeds to place a hand on her own neck, a gesture the medic identifies as distressed. And also, not healthy. "I suppose it's a valid argument. No one else would know about it."
It goes unsaid that there is still a lingering tension between them, but the pinkette knows no good shinobi is without a healthy dose of distrust in this kind of situation. At least, not one that lives for too long.
'What's it with all these shinobi rules you're thinking of?' protests Sachi, snapping her attention back to the matter at hand. Right, can't forget about two people she believed dead.
"Come in," Tenten offers, turning around and walking through the hallway, unsteadily. Sakura promptly follows, giving a nod to her companions before entering a room, following the brunette.
A very familiar stench hits her nostrils as soon as the door opens. Rotten flesh, dirt of all kinds and blood. It's nauseating enough that she barely keeps her eyes from watering. It takes a few seconds for her eyes to adjust to a dimmer light, but when they do, she doesn't like what she sees.
It's a bedroom, walls and floor splattered with a lot of blood. Including a mark, suspiciously similar to the typical shape left when the neck's arteries are severed by a blade. Numerous weapons and various items are strewn across the ground, though what calls her attention is the body lying on the mattress, on its back.
That is Lee? Kami, if he isn't dead it's going to be a miracle!
No, he can't be dead - he wouldn't let himself go out like this.
'You keep telling yourself that, but if I were you I would wish for chakra to control,' states Sachi, scowling in the pinkette's mind.
It takes a few seconds for the picture to register fully, in which Tenten focuses her gaze on Sakura's. No wonder she is defensive as hell… If one of her teammates had been in this state...
It did happen before, remember?
So long ago, in the Forest of Death. Yes, she knows very well. However, she can't help but articulate her surprise in an almost forceful manner. It isn't everyday that one finds someone like Rock Lee in this state.
"What the hell happened to him?" she asks, turning to face the brunette. Tenten shakes her head a little.
"He got us out. Opened the Gates and stalled Sasuke Uchiha so a bunch of people could run. But… his wounds never healed, and we didn't have a medic," she explains. This time, when their eyes meet, there is the faintest glimmer of a plead. It doesn't look right on a person like her. "You can save him, right? I've tried all I can." Desperation speaks for her, but Tenten is one of the last people who would let these things get to her, and it still shows.
Sakura attempts to assess the situation as a medic, and she doesn't like what she sees. Approaching the bed only lets her see more and more problems. As a list: basically every limb in Lee's body has been crushed to some extent, large patches of skin burnt with a very familiar pattern and a few infected cuts to top it all off. Even the bandages are old - too old.
The question isn't how to heal him, but: how the hell is he not dead, if he has been like this for months?
"For the record, he wasn't this bad until a week or so ago," adds Tenten, dragging a chair towards the pinkette. "I had enough supplies to last at least nine months, but I had to give most of them to the other injured, and the rest were stolen. Up until then, keeping it under control was easy, but now that it's like this..." she trails off, fidgeting with a kunai.
"Gangrene on… essentially every limb," Sakura notes, biting her lower lip. "I've seen this kind of injury before," she adds, avoiding the mention that her own body has a similar condition. "He has been drained of chakra to the point where his body has decayed, but most of his vital organs are fine. Within our range of possibilities, he's lucky. His state is critical… it must be costing him all he has to remain alive."
Dammit, Lee...! His face seems to be contorted in discomfort, his consciousness faded very far from here. Somewhere, though, he still hasn't given up. And Sakura knows that even in this state, he will hold out as much as it's humanly possible. And then some more.
"Can you do it?" Tenten inquires, frowning.
She just had to ask that. Sakura feels slightly sick, looking down at her own hands. She hasn't been able to use the Mystical Palm in around two months. Even with it…
'Yes, I'm sure Tenten will be thrilled to know you'll just let him die without even trying,' chastises Sachi. No, Sakura isn't going to give up, but...
"I'll do my best," she replies, opening her backpack and frowning at the items she has. Even though she carefully handpicked the most useful things she could get, it's just not enough.
Not enough. Not good enough, no. Just like her. Just like back then-
She proceeds to mentally kick herself for having such thoughts, and gives a side-glance to Tenten, both gazes severe. This is a bizarre situation to be in, but as a shinobi, they've had worse. Why does it matter if ten minutes ago, Sakura was still standing at the door of this house? The important thing is the present, as she has tried to remind herself constantly.
"How exactly did you end up like this?" she asks, as nonchalantly as possible, expert fingers prying bloody cloth and bandages from her newest patient's body.
"I told you, we had to flee. By the time we got here, it had already been abandoned. We also had to deal with these wolf-dogs… that's how he got the slashes," she adds, pointing out to a few colorful, lengthy cuts on her teammate's side. "Stupid idiot can't help but throwing himself at danger," she grumbles. "I thought you were dead," she adds.
Sakura finds herself trying to compose her thoughts, and finding it's much harder than it should be.
"I escaped, too," she replies. That doesn't even convey all the shit she went through to do so, but now is not the time for that. "Long story short, Yugakure picked me up, but a personal mission took me to Shimo, and then here." Such is life.
Over the next half hour, Sakura listens to Tenten's retelling of how she and Lee wound up in this particularly… messy situation. Less than twenty people made it to Engetsu, most of the names only vaguely familiar to her. Engetsu's only attempt at modern civilization consists of crappy lamp posts and signs, so they were cut off from communication. Their best bet was to find a working ship (or fix one) and reach a populated area, but Lee's state wasn't good enough for it, regardless of his protests.
Tenten had seen herself forced to choose between waiting here a bit longer and the hazards of getting on a precariously kept together vessel - the most sane option seemed staying. It shouldn't have taken the group long to find a nearby island, and then they would come back with help. They never did.
She found herself in a bad situation when she was ambushed by marauding scavengers - this war barely had a winning side, so many bandits took the opportunity to loot whatever they could out of the corpses. Disgusting, yes, but they paid their price in spades: the group Tenten saw was desperate to get away from Frost. And unfortunately, she was alone to face all of them.
The brunette scared them off, true, but only after they stole her precious scroll. The one with nearly everything she had. It also cost her the wounds she has now, and an attempt at slitting her throat that was foiled only because of miraculous luck and timing.
'No wonder she's paranoid...' Sakura muses, after many fruitless attempts at dealing with Lee's situation.
It is getting worse by the minute, too. Her tampering with wounds and blood flow is breaking the precarious balance he had somehow achieved, and if she can't stabilise it soon… No, don't think like that, Sakura! Neither Misho nor Maru could help here… and judging by the rats' handiwork on the kid, even if the latter could do anything, it would likely kill Lee anyways.
Unwittingly, she finds herself at a crossroads. Though the choice is already made in her mind (because no way in hell she will abandon anyone like this), taking the steps is something she feels wary about.
"I can't really use chakra anymore," she bluntly admits, raising her hands until they're in front of her eyes. "If I do, I will suffer something similar to what he does." Tenten looks at her with a mix of shock and incredulity as she speaks.
"You can't heal him?" Her worry and desperation are painfully evident. Inwardly, Sakura winces when she hears the question. No, I can't do it.
"I can try, but it will hurt me too. If that happens, you must call in the rat and the kid. They will know what to do. If that doesn't work, then nothing will," she adds.
Sakura closes her eyes, placing her hands a few inches above the inert body in front of her. Her proficiency with the technique lets her use it without seals, but even then, this might not be possible at all. The very instant she attempts to channel chakra to her palms, a jolt of pain nearly sends her tumbling to the floor. Merely a warning of what is to come if she continues.
Gathering all the strength she can muster, she tries again… and again, and again. Until her arms feel heavy, and her head hurts.
'I won't give up, hell no!'
But it's pointless. No matter how hard she tries, it just becomes more painful each time. Her breathing is ragged, skin burning with irritation. She hears a distant, familiar voice, and turns her head only to find Naruto's spectre standing next to her.
"You can break it," he whispers. "You did it before."
"How?" she mutters, looking down at her hands. They haven't lit up with the slightest glow.
"Just like you stab with a sword… swiftly. All at once, or nothing at all."
She looks up at him, but he's gone. Sakura bites her lip, noticing now that Tenten is looking at her funny. It doesn't matter - the fox boy gave her the answer. Distantly, she hears bells. She's already crossing the threshold… Now all she needs is the last push.
Breathing deeply, she closes her eyes once more and readies herself for the last thing she can do. Sakura places a palm over Lee's heart, its steady beats reminding her of what is at risk here. If she does this wrong, it will be like applying manual cancer to his most vital organs...
All at once - she forces every single bit of energy she can spare through her right arm, and to her palm. The seal is overwhelmed for a split second, allowing her to break through and pass it over to him as delicately as she can. It only takes an infinitesimal amount of time for the Ningyo to react, before she even manages to pass it all through.
Sakura barely has time to feel the pain.
A.N.: I won't make a comment on this chapter (though I feel there are spelling errors in there... somewhere), 'cept some funfacts:
1) I will say that it was Tenten originally appeared in Chapter 4 - Temari/Kiba in Chapter 3. As I was writing those, I felt the typical evil sparks that fuels this whole story, and decided I would delay it until a meaningful moment. Particularly, in a place where no one would be expecting her to be.
2) I actually spared Lee [from dying to Sasuke, that is] because you never get enough youth these days. He was supposed to die horribly :)
3) In the beta version, Tenten acted as a voice of reason for Sakura - we all know Tenten doesn't give two flying fucks about whimping around. Writing her desperation, while it's obvious she's still good ol' stronk Tenten, was much better than the original idea.
Oh, and this: thank you all so friggin' much for all the support! (no, serious, it's awesome). I hope those of you who stick with reading will have enjoyed the massive trolling that was this chapter (and reviews of any kind are still welcome! Opinions are better than silence).
Huh [Guest]: godspeed, your wish has been heard loud and clear! Aaand thanks for reviewing, yo!
Cheerps!
Blu.