Summary: Kenobi escapes by jumping into a random simulation. However, things go wrong and he cannot leave. What he needs is an exit strategy... but is he ready to follow it?

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Rated T for some language and violence.

The long awaited... (maybe)... chapter 25!

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PART 7:

THE GRIND

A pale morning glow filtered through the trees.

Only a slight breeze filled the gaps between them, for nothing lived in this forest. It was through this eerie décor that Sakura and I followed Naruto's signal.

"I found an entrance!"

I skidded to a halt, Sakura dropping behind silently.

"You did?" she asked, perplexed. "Where?"

I turned to see her search the surroundings intensely. The kunoichi was completely oblivious to what I now faced: an armored hatch sunken into the soil with a tag spelling "Hidden" on it.

"Sakura." She twisted around, missing me.

"Where are you?"

I frowned. "Right here." I stepped away from the entrance.

"How-" she gasped, immediately bringing her hands together to dispel a jutsu.

"No!" I cried, reaching to stop her. "It's a genjutsu. I think it stops you from seeing. It surrounds an underground entrance, right here." I waved at the area behind me. "If you dispel it, it might alert Kabuto!"

"Oh… fine" Sakura grumbled.

I offered a hand. She took, it perplexed. "I'm guiding you through the area of effect, so hold on."

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The underground entrance turned out to open only from the inside. Fortunately, it was made of iron, so I got past by opening a hole in the metal without disturbing the tag. It led to a flight of unlit stairs leading deep under the forest.

"I think this is the end." I whispered.

"End of what?"

"These stairs… they can't be the main entrance. They're a one way exit… maybe an emergency escape route. They don't go any further, I can feel something metallic in the way." I let go of her hand. She held on. "Sakura, you can't get lost in here."

She spoke quickly, with an edge of nervousness. "I can't see in this darkness. Come on. Can you get us past?"

"It's a metal door, so give me a minute to work the lock." I pulled her closer. "Emm, Sakura?"

"Yeah?"

I took a deep breath.

"I don't know what's on the other side, so…" I said, before hesitating. I didn't know how she would take it. "I wanted to tell you…"

"You don't have to say it. I know."

I turned to face her. Pitch black darkness hid her from me despite the short distance that separated us.

The words came out despite myself. "Don't come back for me. If I tell you to leave, go."

"That's not-"

"What you expected to hear?" I sighed. "I created this mess. I can't lose you to it."

Her response was curt. "No. I was going to say that it is not your decision to make."

"I…"

"When the time comes, I'll be the one choosing what to do. You can't boss me around like that."

"Yes, but-"

"Kenobi!" she hissed.

I paused mid-sentence. Could she not see how guilty I felt? How could I convince Sakura that if I lost her too, then it would all have been for nothing? I could hear her breaths echo softly in the enclosed space, her hand held firmly in mine, the heat radiating from her body… if only I could reach out and explain how I felt.

She did it in my place.

I felt her arms slide behind my neck and pull me against her. I wrapped myself around her in return without hesitation, thanking whatever entity had granted my wish.

I pressed my cheek against hers. "I'm so sorry." I whispered.

"Don't be."

With a final squeeze, she let go. I felt refreshed. I felt confident. I felt her by my side, both literally and figuratively. Somehow, I knew that as long as I held onto her hand, I wouldn't lose her.

"Let's go get Naruto now."

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Carefully, I unlocked the door.

Light flooded the staircase. I blinked as it grew in intensity, until the door had swung fully open. Sakura walked out in front of me.

Quickly adjusting, I inspected the surroundings. I established with a quick survey that nothing moved. I could relax for now.

The door was in fact the back of a bookcase. I stepped out and pushed it shut. What I had guessed was an emergency exit disappeared seamlessly into the wall.

I looked around. Several torches lined the walls, illuminating what I realized was a study room. Scrolls were piled up on shelves running in all direction. They were tall enough to touch the ceiling. Giant preservation jars served as decorations, inhabited by ghastly corpses. In the center of the carpeted floor was a vast desk laden with ink pots, white paper and even a primitive computer.

"Look here!"

I shuffled next to Sakura, on my guard. The kunoichi was holding up a scroll, the ink on it still wet.

"Naruto is mentioned here… and here." She looked up to face me. "It's recent."

I scowled in consternation. "Does it say anything about his condition?"

Sakura stared are the writing for a few seconds. "I… I don't think so. These are only notes about the Bijuu."

"Damn."

I circled around the desk, eyeing the only visible door in the room.

"We've got to hurry." I continued. "You see all the scrolls on the desk? That's got to be his recent work." She nodded. "How many can you seal for transport?"

She immediately reached inside her pouch. I left her to take care of sealing some scrolls to take with us, and headed to the door at the other end of the room.

It had a wooden frame, but no lock. I stared pensively at it. If the ink was still wet on the notes Kabuto had taken… then he could not have gone far. In fact, he could return any time now. Gasping with realization, I grabbed a handful of metal and molded it into a weapon pointed at the door.

Sakura saw the shape take form in the air and ducked under the desk. I flattened myself next to the doorframe and waited, a blade in hand. Seconds passed. Silence.

With a quick sign, I indicated for Sakura to come over. She grabbed another scroll, crammed it into her pouch and hopped next to me. I tapped my ear once she positioned herself against the wall.

"Sakura." I transmitted. "Kabuto is still here. We have to move."

"Got it."

I moved towards the door. The kunoichi grabbed my arm and pulled me back.

"Hey!"

I faced her, astonished.

"I have to be in front. I'm the close range fighter! Remember that." She stepped in front of me and placed a hand on the door knob. "Now get behind me."

I obeyed her silently. It wasn't exactly the configuration I had hoped for. She held up three fingers and began counting down. I cleared my mind, readied myself to fight… and seek revenge.

What? I paused, surprised by my own thoughts. Why would I look forward to payback when Kabuto was no more than a program scripted to act that way?

Sakura pulled open the door. I rushed out behind her.

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The underground base we were in was nothing like the one we had last visited.

The door had opened to corridor, a downwards-sloping path both dusty, narrow and filthy. The air was thick and laden with a musty odor. Barely illuminating the rough-cut rock walls were unevenly spaced torches. Many were burnt out, leading to long stretches of darkness.

I followed Sakura closely. There was no need to stay back; my projectiles could run down the entire pathway unhindered.

"See anything?" she whispered.

I used her earpiece to reply. "You've got the better eyesight."

The kunoichi didn't answer. We resumed our crouching run in silence.

Minutes later, I tapped her shoulder. She didn't stop until we were halfway between two torches, where it was harder to spot us.

"What now?" she hissed, nose crinkled.

"I used the distance we travelled to calculate the distance to Naruto's position." I pointed down through the floor. "He's around five hundred steps in that direction."

"We should hurry if we're that close."

I shook my head. "No, think about it for a bit. It's a huge distance between the study room and where Kabuto's keeping him." Sakura frowned and leaned against the rock wall, listening. "The only place he'd want to keep himself eight hundred meters from is where he conducts his experiments. We'd be walking straight into his laboratory. And if Juugo is anything to go by, we're going to meet some pretty lethal stuff in there."

"I get you point. But-" Her eyes flashed dangerously. "If you're correct, then we can't leave Naruto in there any longer."

"Isn't it-"

"Kenobi! I don't know what he's doing to Naruto and I won't leave him there any longer!"

I hesitated to counter. A good look revealed all the signs of her distress and knew she couldn't be reasoned. She'd rush ahead alone if I told her to slow down.

With a sigh, I nudged her forward. "Let's go then."

I heard her let out the breath she'd been holding in.

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We covered the remaining ground in minutes.

"Stop!" I shouted.

Sakura dug her feet in, skidding to a halt. I reversed the push of my magnetic fields until I had slowed down enough to jump off the metal platform and trot. Closing the path was massive armor-plated wall. A thick-set hatch sealed it hermetically.

"It's metal! Can you get though it?"

I placed my hands on the obstacle to speed up the process. "Already done. Stand back."

The kunoichi shuffled backwards. The metal plating lost all shape and practically flowed down to the floor. Without hesitation, she jumped through the hole I had made and picked up speed. I stole some of the metal and rushed behind her.

A few seconds later, we found ourselves in an empty space.

The corridor simply ended in pitch black nothingness. A slight breeze indicated that we were no longer within its confines. I spotted two dots of light in new area. One was a flickering yellow far ahead. The other was a tiny patch of blue light on the ceiling. It was a window to the surface.

I heard her voice in my ear. "How big is this place?!"

"It's a dome." I transmitted. "Wait a second."

I brought myself alongside her. "This place is too massive for us to search through. We're going to have to go there." Sakura looked at where I pointed. The faraway torch looked like a matchstick. "I don't know what we'll find there, so stay on guard."

"Is that where Naruto is?"

"No. He's on a deeper level."

She nodded, consternated. "Let's not stay here then. We're too exposed."

"Agreed. Let me carry you."

Sakura scowled but followed me onto the platform. Seconds later, we halted next to the torch. What we found was even more puzzling than the empty cavern we were in.

"Is that-"

"Sloped and hardened. Vision slits with retractable shields. And this hatch… not even you could punch through it." I stopped circling the squat pyramid and looked up at her. "I think it's an armored observation post."

Sakura frowned. "Looks like it, but… to observe what?" She waved her hands at the emptiness behind us. "What is this place?"

"The Pit."

We both jumped at the voice. It boomed from all sides. A decidedly Kabuto-like chuckle followed.

The voice reverberated once again. "Oh do excuse the barbaric term the inhabitants have come up with." Our gazes met. Inhabitants? "This is where my more explosive experiments are held. I designed it myself." The voice, which I was now sure was Kabuto's, made him seem proud of his achievement.

"What do we do now?" Sakura whispered. I motioned for her to keep quiet. Kabuto continued, oblivious to the exchange. I deduced that he could not see us.

"It's not often that I have the opportunity to do some pest control like now, so I think I'll go ahead and get some useful information out of it. I've followed your performance in the forest closely, Kenobi." His words echoed ominously. "I've created a short test. It won't last long, I assure you."

Kabuto snapped his fingers over the microphone.

One by one, torches burst into flames and cleared the darkness. Sakura and I watched tensely as they made formed circle, casting long wavering pillars of light. Sparsed between the torches in the distance were the inhabitants the medic-nin had mentioned. Pale, misshaped figures crawled and stumbled in all directions. They were only barely humanoid.

"These are my creations!" Kabuto exclaimed. "My first attempt, I admit. They are a rough draft of what I intend to create: artificial warriors, built for war and loyal to the letter." A pained moan rose from the monsters in return. I counted hundreds of them. "I'm working on something better now… but I still have one last use for these."

The monsters stilled. Sakura turned still next to me. All around us, rows upon rows of twisted flesh started moving in unison… closing in on our position.

Kabuto's voice boomed through the speakers. It was raw with anger and hate. "You made me lose something dear to me, Kenobi. My creations cannot be crushed so easily and they will exact my vengeance. Prepare yourself! Put up a show and keep me entertained… anything less and something precious to you will be lost."

"What's he talking about?" Sakura whispered.

"You." I faced her. "He's probably targeting you to get to me."

The voice in the speakers broke. "I can't repair them! I-I… can't put them back together again." the man whined. "You've taken away the only thing I held onto throughout the years. My face, my loyalty, my soul… all changed but these glasses were the only constant."

Sakura looked perplexed. "His glasses?"

I nodded, eyeing the moving masses around us. "I broke them. Made him angry."

"I… see." she said.

Silence settled over the cave. I felt Sakura tremble by my side, breath heavy. I took her hand. She gulped and looked at me, before returning her gaze to our opponents. They were still shuffling slowly.

"Sakura." I whispered. "I'm here."

She looked down and shut her eyes tightly, fingers gripping my hand.

"We can do this."

The kunoichi nodded, gulping.

I squeezed her fingers and let go. She gave me one last look. Torchlight reflected on her pupils, a fire that came as much from the inside as the outside. I clenched my fist to capture the lingering heat of her touch. I would protect that warmth; that was my promise.

A chill then passed down my spine.

The monsters snapped into a runs. Nothing announced the charge other than a rush of wind and the clicks of their claws on the stone floor.

"Get down!"

Sakura crouched back-to-back and pulled a weapon from her pouch. I extended my magnetic touch upwards. Six linear accelerators aimed at their targets, vibrating with magnetic energy.

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A thunderclap rolled over the walls.

The first wave of grey flesh exploded. Metal spears carved corridors down the mass of assailants. Before the echoes subsided, dozens had been turned into mangled flesh. More monsters stumbled from the shower of splintered bone and shattered rock.

However, hundreds remained. The swarm continued without care for their fallen comrades, hopping above the corpses and shoving the injured aside.

I gritted my teeth and recharged the accelerators. Sakura was immobile, probably thinking up of a plan. I left her to deal with our tactical options and gazed ahead. Barely a hundred meters separated us from the charging mass now.

I fired again.

The second volley was equally devastating. No cries of pain covered the wet tearing sounds. The uneven lighting meant I could not evaluate the full number of monsters we faced, nor the proportion I had eliminated, but their lines had certainly been thinned. The floor was littered with their dead behind them.

"Sakura!" The kunoichi's eyes remained locked on the approaching creatures. "We have to move, now! We can't let them circle us."

"Got it." she replied.

The air rippled behind my back. I followed her, jumping over the nightmarish sea of grey. After landing, it took me a second to understand her plan. We had retreated to the corridor. Sakura had evaluated the size of the creatures and planned to funnel them down to a single column. That way, instead of being overwhelmed, we would outnumber our opponents two-to-one when we fought them one at a time.

"How much have you got left?" the kunoichi questioned.

"Huh?"

I was busy tracing my fingers along the edges of the armored door I had melted through earlier. If I could reform it and turn the terrain to my own advantage-

"Your reserves! How much remains?!"

"Ah-"

My fingers froze. "Half." I looked up at her. "I'm down to half my power."

"What the-" Sakura bit her lip, fists clenched. She sent a nervous glance down the corridor. "What are we going to do now?!"

I thought hard. The cannons cost me too much to use, and I had fifteen, maybe twenty seconds before they turned around and reached the tunnel's entrance. "We switch positions. You go in support."

"No!"

"Listen, Sakura. We don't have time. I'll block a monster's movements, and you come up and destroy it. Do you understand?"

The kunoichi glared at me before stepping back. I turned around and returned to my task. The metal flowed under my fingers, expanding to cover the walls and floor, and narrowing the entrance. It solidified just as I was knocked to my feet. A thunderous shockwave shook the rock around us, generated by the impact of dozens of monsters reaching for the same hole in the wall.

The metal frame creaked and peeled back, but it could only let one creature through.

I peeked through a crack. A pair of furious yellow eyes met mine, floating amidst a two meter tall pool of shadows and muscle. As the creature worked its way through the metal, I saw more of its features. The head was flattened to one side, with disproportionately large jaws sporting a full row of dagger-like teeth. Its arms ended in scythes, each as long as a sword. They were currently being used to pry apart the edges of the hole it had made.

I readied myself. I only had half my reserves left, and hundreds of monsters in front of me. Whatever I used to deal with them, it had to be efficient and quick. The screech of tearing metal snapped me back to the present.

With a tremendous feat of strength, Kabuto's experiment tore through the steel like paper. I barely glimpsed it move before a blade of bone carved the air above my head. I jumped over the second swing, landing flat on my chest.

I saw the monster's muscles bulge in anticipation of another strike. A pink blur crashed into it before it swung down. My eyes widened at the sharpened bone embedded in the floor next to my head.

"Kenobi!"

I jerked to my feet at the cry.

Sakura dodged a furious swing and stepped back, kunai raised. She was caught between her opponent and whatever was clawing its way through the mangled metal behind her.

The monster had turned its back to me. From my sleeve, I drew a length of wire and looped it. Sakura glanced past the monster and nodded.

It attacked.

The monster slashed with its right scythe. The kunoichi sidestepped it swiftly and parried with her knife. Her back was now against the wall. I saw her opponent twist for another strike and acted.

Three loops of metal wire flew though the air and wound themselves around the raised limb. They were instantly stretched taught and snapped one after the other, freeing the blade. The damage was done however. Sakura curled into the opening I had created and struck upwards. With a burst of chakra, her arm tore through the shoulder. The kunoichi mouthed a silent 'Shannaro!' before flesh exploded around her fist.

I raised my arms to avoid getting splattered. Sakura was by my side moments later, panting.

"You okay?" she asked.

I glanced to the side, frowning. I was the one going to ask the question. My reply was cut off when I heard the groan.

Its arm and half of its chest lay in chunks at its feet, and yet it was the monster's first sign of pain. My eyes widened when it staggered to its feet and shook its head. Sakura's curse summed up my surprise.

I used her earpiece. "I'll pin it down. Go for the head."

The grey beast reacted as if it had heard me. It entered a frenzy, swinging its remaining scythe right and left and gouging trenches in the walls. There was no way to dodge the strikes. I exchanged a look with the kunoichi and retreated with her.

The monster saw us move backwards. It crouched, legs bending unnaturally. Then… it was over in a second.

It dug its claws into the ground and leaped forward. A shield appeared over my forearm, with which I deflected the scythe. Sakura slid out from behind me, raised her fist and brought it down on the monster as it sailed past.

A cloud of dust accompanied the resulting crash. I nearly lost my footing as fissures ran through the ground, the sound amplified by the narrow corridor. Squinting, I made out the kunoichi's figure. She stepped out of the crater, entire arm slick with grey fluids. Behind her, a pit replaced where the monster's head should have rested. It was fully immobile.

I flashed a smile at her. Her expression eased up and she returned the- a shadow darkened the dust behind her. I rushed to cover her with the shield, arriving moments before three claws carved their marks on the metal.

Sakura jumped away in surprise. I left the shield planted in the ground and stepped back, forming a spear in my hand as I did so. I grimaced when the claws extended and wrapped around the shield, crushing it.

The dust cleared slightly.

Our second opponent was a hideous mix between a werewolf and a squid. It had a wolf's maw and an uneven mane of grey fur. One long, muscular arm ended in a set of daggers, while the other gave way to a several stubby tentacles. They twirled in the air restlessly.

The chimera exhaled. Looking closer, I spotted the cuts it had received pushing its mass past the jagged edges of the metal frame. His jaw slammed shut and lunged for me.

The floor and walls were covered by a sheet of metal. I pulled on it. A pillar of steel rushed upwards, pinning the arm against the ceiling. Tentacles shot out from the side. I rolled against the blow, twisting to drive a spear through them.

The monster howled, both of his arms stuck to the walls. Sakura jumped over me, glowing fist raised for a killing blow. My heart skipped a beat. At the sight of her, the chimera trembled with rage. His muscles bulged and his jaws slammed shut. Metal creaked, and with a mighty pull, he freed his clawed hand. The claws blurred and slammed the kunoichi against the wall.

"Sakura!"

My eyes darted between her crumpled form and the monster's movements. Without hesitation, he ripped the other arm away from the spear, leaving behind half the tentacles. I readied a second spear in my hand and launched myself at him.

Yellow eyes swiveled to track me. Claws shot out. With a last-second magnetic field, I slid past, rolling until I was at Sakura's side. A shield rose just in time to deflect the tentacled strike. I grabbed her wrist.

The monster's eyes were now rolling in their orbits, foam escaping its jaws. Both arms dove in a simultaneous strike. Metal jumped on front of me. When three daggers pierced the temporary defense, they hit nothing but air.

Twenty meters deeper into the tunnel, I slowly unloaded Sakura from my back and lay her on the ground. She hissed in pain. I crouched quickly to roll her onto her other side. Doing so revealed the deep gash running across her ribs.

Her eyes flickered open.

"Stay here, Sakura." I whispered.

The kunoichi gulped and licked her lips. "Give me a minute to heal myself." she said, voice hoarse.

I nodded firmly and stood up. Further down the corridor, the chimera was going crazy. I watched as he spun in circles, biting his own arm and slashing the walls as he went around. Without a doubt, I knew that Kabuto had reduced his experiments to mindless monsters. There was nothing human left in him, nothing but the obligation to follow Kabuto's orders and go insane without a target in sight.

With a sigh, I presented myself to him.

The monster's reaction was instantaneous. He dropped to all fours and clawed at the ground to accelerate in my direction. If I dodged, he'd continue to Sakura's position, so I braced myself for impact.

Instead, I was run over by a train.

The impact sent me tumbling down the corridor. I felt the three dents in my armor poke my chest. Quickly, I planted a spike into the ground to stop myself. My wrist protested painfully, but I ignored it to concentrate on the diving shadow above me.

I rolled just in time to hear bony daggers penetrate the stone next to my head. He stood above me now. I lunged my spear into the unprotected chest and gripped it to stand up.

I lost my footing immediately to a pair of tentacles that wound themselves around my ankle. My eyes widened. The monster's left arm blurred and I felt myself slammed against the ceiling with a sickening crunch. My vision became blurred. Metal flowed down my sleeves, reforming into a weapon. A second pull flung me out of the crater and into a new one in the wall.

I was bleeding. My nose had been broken. My ankle burned from the vice-like grip of the chimera's tentacles, and the monster brought back its claws to impale me.

A surge of energy ran through me. I saw the grey flesh descend slowly, penetrating the air, and soon me too. Just then, two magnetic fields synchronized. I reached out for them and threw them in the claw's path. Steel followed, touching the daggers in a shower of sparks. I blinked. The monster continued forward, pulled by the momentum of his strike. My right hand rose. The spear I held slid into the neck and between the vertebrae in effortlessly.

I exhaled, trembling. Hot fluid flowed down my bruised arm. Slowly, the tentacles around my leg uncurled and fell to the floor. Kabuto's experiment was frozen in place, only his eyes swiveling to give me a murderous stare. Seconds later, the body fell to the floor, immobile.

Taking care not to damage myself further, I climbed out from the pile of rocks I lay in. This was no time to rest. By experience, I knew the monster was unlikely to stay down. Hundreds more were making their way down the corridor. Behind me, I glimpsed the pale green glow from Sakura's healing technique. She was not done yet. Maybe she had broken some bones.

I shook myself back into action.

First, I reformed the armored door, smoothened the damaged metal surfaces and recovered the spears I had used. The last one was still imbedded in the creature's spine. It came out with a scraping, ceramic sound. I closed my eyes and put him out of his misery.

My next step was to move the bodies further back, out of the way of the combat area. I cleared it from debris and crouched next to Sakura.

All I had to do now was wait, a spear in hand, for the next abomination to break through the metal plating.

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The battles were exhausting. The pressure was not only physical, but mental as well.

Each monster that broke through had to be defeated. Any other result was unthinkable. There was no escape, no negotiation, nothing but my metal pitted against an unyielding fury.

What worried me the most was Sakura. She was deathly pale. A sheen of sickly sweat dampened her clothes and skin. Every use of her destructive technique left her shaking until she recovered. The problem was, it was taking her longer and longer to gather enough chakra for another use, and many times I had to defeat my opponent without her.

My own condition was not better.

I flipped in the air, passing over a vicious pair of pincers. I stuck my sandals to the ceiling and gathered the surrounding metal in front of me. Instants later, a blast of water exploded against it. I moved before the air cleared again.

Gaining magnetic traction on the walls, I ran behind the creature and lunged with the spear. With a crunch, the sharp metal pierced the chitin plating. I dodged out of the way of the twitching tail armed with serrated bones and commanded my metal to take the dying corpse away.

I drew in a ragged gulp of air.

Yes, I couldn't keep this up. My lungs burned, and my muscles felt as if acid ran through them. My heart… well, it was still beating. I scratched my hair and concentrated on the armored barrier. It would last a bit longer this time.

Once my breath was under control, I walked over to where Sakura was propped up against the wall.

"Ke-nobi." she whispered once I neared. "I'm sorry…"

"Enough!"

The kunoichi looked downcast.

"Enough." I repeated softer. "I already told you. You've lost half your blood and I can't remember how many times you've healed the both of us. Stop saying you're sorry. You're doing amazing."

Sakura smiled weakly before her eyelids drooped. I didn't wake her. I'd deal with the next one alone. Reaching for her medical pouch, I pulled out a length of bandaging cloth. I used it to wipe the blood dripping down my wrists and ankles. Protecting my skin from the wire frame's brutal accelerations was the least of my worries.

While I did so, I peered into the darkness at the back of the tunnel. Fifty seven corpses were piled up out of sight in there. I closed my eyes to better remember the scene. Outside were more than three hundred.

Something heavy slammed against the barrier, sending a hollow echo down the corridor. The action was repeated again and again. Slowly but surely, the metal bulged inwards, fissure spreading from the center.

I tightened my fists around the length of metal I held and walked closer. Patches of stone scorched by jets of flame or ground to dust by streams of water surrounded me. Elsewhere, the stone had simply been crushed to bits. It really did look like a battlefield.

Suddenly, I felt something between my toes.

I paused and looked down. My foot had sunk into a patch of wet earth. My brows furrowed before rising in apprehension.

Water was rising through the ground. Puddles were already forming ahead. I could see the ripples on their surface, forming after each blow to the door.

I pictured the tunnel. It was slanted downwards. If water rose from the lower end, we would be trapped when the level reached the height of the entrance. Waiting for them to attack us wouldn't be profitable anymore. The longer we waited, the more water we'd have to go through to reach the main cavern and Naruto.

I spat a curse. They were literally flushing us out.

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"Sakura." I nudged her again. "Sakura, wake up!"

Her heavy eyelids slowly parted. They were ringed with black, and her face was pale with exhaustion. She looked around, taking short breaths.

Her eyes went to the still cooling body behind me, the intricate web of craters, Doton stalagmites and twisted metal, the stream of water flowing through gaps in the steel door into a miniature lake that covered most of the tunnel's floor… The kunoichi then took in my latest set of injuries before her eyelids drooped-

"Wake up!"

She groaned her discomfort. "How long has… it been?"

I stared at her blankly. Underground, I had lost track of time. "I don't know. We can't stay here anymore." I offered her a hand. She took it and I lifted her to her feet. "We're going back to the cave."

Sakura immediately spun, lost her footing and fell leaning against the wall. Her hands went to massage her forehead. "Fucking headache…"

I grinned and moved to hold her upright with one arm. She grudging accepted my support, allowing me to guide her past the deepening pools towards the barrier I was holding up. We paused along the way for her to pick up her medical kit.

"What's that awful noise?" she asked, indicating lazily towards the metal wall. It sounded like a giant dog was trying to dig its way through, scratching the metal repeatedly.

"Our next guest." I said before sighing and touching the metal with my fingers. "I don't have time to deal with it, so I'm going to do this the hard way."

"You mean-"

The accumulated magnetic field pulsed into metal. With a sharp 'bang', the door was slammed into a conical shape, hopefully impaling whatever stood on the other side.

Sakura's eyes widened, gazing at the pit that had appeared in the door. The scratching had stopped.

Her voice was shaky, without the energy she usually put into it. "Didn't that use a lot of your power or something? You're supposed to be saving it!"

I waited for her to get back to breathing calmly before answering.

"Sakura… my reserves are long gone."

Her breath stilled. I winced at how she looked. Her stained outfit, ghastly face and trembling limbs seemed more fitting for a Halloween costume than a trained ninja. As for me… it didn't matter if every inch of my body burned with exhaustion and electric pain. I could recover. She, however, could die of chakra exhaustion.

I snapped her out of her stunned silence. "Let's get going."

She nodded and followed me to the metal door. I opened the tip of the cone to create a looking hole. Satisfied by the absence of nearby monsters, I widened the opening to let us through. Sakura crawled behind me on the slick metal surface.

Behind the barrier was… well, not a battlefield, but a twisted version of an insect collector's cabinet. All over the walls, dead creatures of all shapes and sizes were pinned by metal spears. The stench was unbearable. The water level was knee deep, thick with strange blood and ichors.

"You did all this?"

I nodded. "You helped me, if you can't remember." We sloshed past a mass of grey flesh which had burst like a ripe fruit. "That'd be your work."

The kunoichi averted her gaze, sickened. "Where's the rest?" she asked.

"I don't really know. Kabuto ordered them to attack you, so when they couldn't see you anymore... they just stopped following us." I pulled my foot out of the muddy water with a squelch. "They're still outside the corridor though."

A few minutes later, we faced another metal barrier. Behind us, spaced at regular intervals, were silver rings indicating the previous limits I had set for the combat zone.

Sakura's voice was wheezy and weak from the short walk. "What's behind this?"

I poked it with a finger, creating a hole. A stream of water flew out. "I think we're going to have to swim."

The kunoichi cracked her fingers and began stretching. Some color returned to her face. I turned around to face the barrier again, trying to think of a plan that would get both us back to the cave through an unknown distance of water.

I stepped to the side and pulled a spear from one of the impaled creatures. Its jaw moved languishly.

"Sakura!"

She looked up from her medical pouch.

"Hold on to me."

Sakura nodded, popped something into her mouth and crouched behind me. I planted the metal spear into the wet soil and locked my fingers around it. Her arms made their way around my waist and gripped tightly. I allowed myself a short smile.

"Ready?"

"Go!"

A magnetic field flickered into existence and pushed the metal barrier aside like a curtain.

I held my breath. Sakura's grip tightened. A wall of water burst through the gap and exploded into the corridor.

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I basically have a full-time job now. Combined with the heat and exhaustion of fasting during summer, it doesn't leave much time for me to type freely. So yeah, it took me over a month to write a measly 6k words. At least I hope you enjoy them.