"We fear that which we cannot see." -Bleach

The first thing Sasuke noticed was that Sakura's entire body seemed to straighten, her spine becoming erect. Her head fell back, her mouth open, eyes closed. Her arms fell into her lap, the book still tightly gripped in her hands. Sasuke tried to get up to see what was wrong, but found that he was being held down where he was, a few feet away from his teammate. He looked down, trying to move the flashlight around in his hand.

With a jolt, he saw hands on his arms, arms around his waist, people that seemed to be coming up from the floor. Their faces where glaring at him in a silent scream. They tugged harder, as if trying to drag him down into the floor to the level below. Sasuke's gaze shot up, and his heart dropped.

There was suddenly "people" everywhere, some young, some old; some healthy, and some that looked as if they had stepped off a battle ground. But the way they moved seemed to be with such a fluidness that they couldn't be walking—

It was then that Sasuke realized that they weren't walking.

He was seeing the dead.

His eyes widened as he looked at the ghosts—really looked at them. While some of them looked somewhat normal (for what he still considered normal) others were beaten, bruised, or just missing random body parts all together.

"She opened they book—"

"—they are still here?—"

"—can he see us?—"

"—they will die here—"

The whispered continued; he jumped as he felt—oh god he could feel them!—another hand prodding at his side, more ghosts pulling down on him. He tried to shout at them, demand that they let him go—but his voice wasn't working, his throat feeling tight. A face appeared right in front of his own, so close that he could see into the empty eye sockets. Before he could react, the face was gone, blending back into the crowd of the dead.

'Is this what she sees?'

A bright, blinding light suddenly erupted in front of him. When Sasuke looked he saw that the book had opened in Sakura's lap, the pages were flipping around madly—but it wasn't the book that was releasing the light.

It was the ghost that had its hands wrapped around Sakura's head.

Sasuke didn't know much about ghosts, about what they could do. But from what Sakura told him, they could do much more that what he was comfortable with. And when he was Sakura's face suddenly contorted in pain, he suddenly felt that same, unnamable desperate need to do something.

The ghost that had its hands on Sakura's head seemed to glow brighter, as well as the ghosts close to him—to Sakura, Sasuke realized. The further away the ghosts were from his teammate, the dimmer they were. Somehow, they were feeding off of some kind of energy within Sakura, making them visible to him.

And also, it made them stronger.

It was then that something snapped inside him. Something had to be done. He had to do something, even if he couldn't move.

"SAKURA!"

The air around him whirled as his voice carried throughout the underground. The dead souls went into a frenzy of movement, becoming one blur together. The sensation of the ghosts was almost substantial, to the point that dust was falling off walls, stinging Sasuke's eyes. The flashlights flickered erotically before going out completely. He quickly fought against what held him down, managing to move forward an inch or so in the general direction of where his teammate was.

He felt himself lurch forward as his restraints disappeared.

His hands fumbled with the flashlight that had landed at his feet when it was dropped from his grip earlier. After finding that it was still dead he started to feel along the floor, moving towards the direction where Sakura was. Sweat beaded his brow as his breath became shallow; the air was dense with dust and dirt from the energy still churning around them. The tips of his fingers touched a hard edge, a corner—the book! As he moved his hands along it, finding Sakura's hands, his breath hitched as he noticed how cold her skin was; it felt as if she had been recently submerged in ice, warmth not yet thawing her. His hands went hastily went up her arms and around her shoulders, another going under her knees as her lifted her up. As he stood, his legs shook, knees close to buckling, though not from the added weight. Sasuke felt a hard edge poking him in the chest; she still clutched the book like a lifeline. As he started to move forward, he suddenly realized that it was pitch black and he couldn't see. The atmosphere was still warm, turning hot, from the amount of spiritual energy. Before he could come up with a plan, his body turned cold, though not from a "sixth sense" or fear; it was almost relaxing.

"Don't worry." The voice came from within his mind; Sasuke felt his legs become stronger, his back straighter and his body began to move without his consent. "I'm going to help you get her out of here; you'd never find your way out without me, anyway."

As they moved along, he started piecing things together, making the situation just a bit clearer. He was being possessed, though by who, he still wasn't sure. The ghost communicated with him from within his own mind. He also had no idea why she would want to help.

"I warned the girl earlier for a reason. The two of you should have never come back down here," she said. So she was the ghost Sakura mentioned earlier.

"Why are you helping? I thought you wanted us dead."

"I never wished for your deaths. You are only assuming I did based on the actions of the other spirits in this cursed place." Sasuke had nothing to say after that. He wasn't able to fathom why the spirits would want them dead; as far as he knew, they had done nothing wrong.

As they moved out of the library and back onto the hidden streets, Sasuke heard then what he wasn't able to before. The cackling was loud, the screams filled with such painful terror. At that point, he was almost thankful that he couldn't see.

"Believe me, you'd really rather not."

The young Uchiha knew when they were out of the city limits when he was shocked by the sudden cold of the underground. The ghost was still in control of his body as they neared the stairs that led up to above ground—the small spot of light in the distance indicated so. He felt his legs lift them up into the light once they reached to top of the eroded steps. As they landed outside the opening, he thought that would be it; he was proven wrong when he still moved forward with his inhuman speed.

"I'm taking the both of you back to the girl's home. That is the safest place for her at the moment," the ghost explained. Sasuke wondered for a moment before remembering—before he had left, Riko had placed . . . something on her apartment, keeping her safe from dark and evil spirits. How the ghost knew this, he didn't know.

It wasn't long until they were standing at the window outside Sakura's bedroom. He heard the latch come undone, the ghost leaving his body. This time, his legs did buckle under him; he leaned against the window while standing on the small ledge. The window opened up and he slowly made his way in, Sakura still in his arms. Behind him he heard a slight shuffling, and turning, bit down a gasp, his eyes widening at the thing.

It was standing outside the window, just one the edge, not able to get past whatever Riko had done. The skin was nearly gone, the eyes absent. Its jaw hung, looking as if it wasn't even locked in, but merely attached by the little skin and muscle that was left. The head was bald with patches of wispy hair on the head. The cloths were ninja-wear, though it appeared to be rather recent.

Sasuke watched as the decaying body held out something—Sakura's red tote bag. But instead of being limp and empty, it appeared to be stuffed. Without warning, it fell from the hand that held it, a finger snapping. As the bag hit the floor, yellowed papers and books with torn edges and bindings peeked out from the top. Before Sasuke had the chance to move, the dead man was gone, and Sasuke honestly didn't care where he went. Turning, he went to lay Sakura down on her bed. When he did, he finally got a good look at her since things went haywire in the library. For the second time that day, his breathing halted, and he stared.

Her skin was pale, her hair's usual luster dulled, as if aged. There were bags under her eyes, her cheekbones sticking out. Through her torn and ripped cloths, Sasuke could clearly see her ribs. There was a gash on her knee, dirt and grime in the wound. Her slow breathing was loud, sounding strained. Her hands shook slightly.

She looked sick.

There was hardly ever a time that Sasuke was put into a situation when he didn't know what to do. It was rare, the last time he could recall . . . he didn't even know. He always had some sort of plan, or even a backup plan. Though this time, he knew that he was far out of his league.

After quickly getting Sakura under her covers, and even grabbing the afghan from her couch in the other room, he quickly searched her entire apartment for . . . something. He found his answer on a sticky note that was on her fridge.

'If you ever need me, just call.

~Riko'

Rushing back to her room, Sasuke grabbed her cell phone off of her desk (they have those, okay?). Scrolling through CONTACTS, he became irritated when he didn't find her brother's name—it should be here, shouldn't it?

And then he found this:

IDIOT TRAITOR

Well, that could be him.

Wasting no time, Sasuke hit CALL and waited through the ringing. As he waited, he kept his eyes on his teammate. How was it possible that she could go from looking completely healthy, then a couple hours later, go to look like . . .

. . . like she was dying.

"Hey Sis, everything alright?"

He didn't even know what was going on, and he already assumed that something was wrong. Sasuke took a deep breath.

"It's me. Sasuke."

"Sasuke? What's going on—is Sakura alright?" Riko demanded, his voice filled with worry. Faintly, Sasuke could hear the other two in the background, the girl asking questions.

"I'm not sure—" Sasuke was surprised by how calm his voice sounded "—something happened."

"What? What's going on?"

Sasuke took another deep breath, running his hand through his hair. It was dusty. "We—Sakura and I—were underground—"

"Underground? Why would the two of you be—?"

"Something with the spirits down there—don't ask how we already knew about it. But we were down there and something . . . happened. I'm not sure what it was, but the ghosts down there just went crazy—it was right after we found this book—but now, we're out, but she looks like she's aged years or something. She doesn't look right—she's cold, and her bones stick out in places that weren't visible a few hours ago and—"

"Shit; I'll be there. Just, try and keep her warm. If she wakes up at all, get her water. Hang on until I get there, alright?" he said, his voiced rushed. Sasuke nodded, and then remembered that he was on the phone.

"Right."

He heard the other line click before he closed her phone, setting it back on the dresser. He continued to look at Sakura, his gut clenching. He'd never gotten this nervous over her condition before—yes, he'd seen her hurt in battles in the past, but this just seemed to be different. Because this time, he didn't know what really happened or how to fix it. He didn't know if she was going to be okay; she didn't look like she would be okay.

Grabbing the chair by her desk, Sasuke pulled it up by her bed and sat down; he fisted his hands together as he watched her breathe.

For now, the only thing he could do was sit and wait.

Well, how was that? Dark and stuff...

R&R