Barebones - Arc III: Ricochet - Chapter 23: Cheat the Rules

Fate is not made by gods, but crafted, changed by humans.

Scrolls and books are scattered across the ample table - mission reports, letters, but the majority are documents written ages ago, about secret jutsu that only a few select people ever knew about. Yet there are no records for the one he looks for: no clan, no Kage, ever heard about something called Ningyo (or Ningyō). As it is, Sasuke doesn't even have an accurate name for it. Puppet Seal, Mermaid Seal… there are jutsu with similar names, but none of them has characteristics like it.

He can still see the faint outline of Sakura (chakra flowing through her, intense fear radiating from her invisible figure - as she backed away from him). He would have thought it was just a dream, but the mattress had been distinctly marked by a kunai strike. He knew she wasn't really there, as she made no sound or had any weight on him (but…)

It felt so real (more than anything he has experienced in the past months). Yet it's not possible that Sakura simply dropped into his room. Unless… Concentrating, he sets his mind on the connection that they seem to share, this strange link that he can't fully understand yet. He can see glimpses of her through it, yet he refuses to make good use of it.

If she caught on (the doppelgänger snickers), things could get messy. Granting a person like her access to something so intimate could be troublesome, if not even dangerous. But this time, it's an exception - and he sees a bloody room, and a lifeless body that he knows too well. His breath halts - she died? He dreamed about it, but he didn't relate it to the fact that when he woke up, she was right there. Like everything else, it makes no sense.

Outside, it's almost dawn. The night has been plagued by voices and shadows trying to reach to him, stronger than ever, but his mind has been solely focused on solving this bizarre mystery. Her Ningyo seal seems to be one of a kind, a unique jutsu that was created by pure accident - and that means that to discover its true nature, he would have to see her from up close.

It's an ineffable feeling - but he knows she is alive. Just as much as he can feel his own hands, he knows she is there (but does he want her to be gone, to begin with? Shouldn't that make things easier?).

"Are you scared, sweetie?" Sasuke doesn't bother to give a glance to the apparition, who has been particularly poignant with her statements. What happened while he was asleep? Did, somehow, these two different versions of Sakura interact? "Afraid she'll bite off your face while you stare like an idiot?"

No, this vile clone is right - she is an enemy, and should be treated as such. It's truly impossible that she would want to be anything else, despite the bizarre sensations he can feel through the bond. It has to be a lie, a distortion. He knows that his own mind is twisted and bent, and discerning fake from real has become increasingly difficult. This must be the reflection of some foolish hope, from her, like the hatred of the doppelgänger.

It's not his, it's not true, it's just - fake love.

...Right?

Sakura Haruno was born as an average person - with a normal family background, a not-so-exciting childhood (no murders, massacres or missing parents), and definitely no bloodline abilities that could make her an outstanding shinobi. Pink hair is rare, and it's true that her intelligence is above the norm, but there was nothing else about her that could put her apart from other students.

And about her high scores? Anyone can be a bookworm with enough time. That alone doesn't make a good field shinobi. Though praised for her quick and analytical thinking, she spent a very long time being positively average or just outright bad at everything else. She had one unique talent: her ease in the field of thinking and studying patterns gave her prowess with chakra control and genjutsu dispelling. Did she make use of it? No, not really - she treated these skills like she would do with an exam.

Reach exactly what her sensei asked of her, and stop there. Why do any extra effort, when she could best her teammates at tree-climbing without even trying? She was already good at the task at hand, so there was no point in doing it again - schoolwork was over.

It took her too long too realise that as a shinobi, the limits of the human body are challenged constantly. Physically, psychologically and emotionally - in a battle, in war, passing the exam doesn't guarantee survival. It's rare to be in a perfect condition. A ninja that appreciates their life will need anything and everything in order to survive and thrive.

There is no perfect score. Even the strongest can fall prey to their weaknesses. Learning, trying, giving it all out on getting better… it makes the difference between life and death. And most importantly: it grants the ability to protect the things she cares for. This harsh reality slapped her when she was unable to do just that, and Sasuke slipped right between her fingers, Naruto following closely.

Ever since, she has been trying to make up for this mistake - she spent hours upon hours honing her skills, even the things she wasn't good at. The less liabilities, the better. Slowly but steadily, she stopped hiding behind the mask of a pretty girl - she had to give it all, no barriers held up. Even her inner voice stopped being prominent, as she didn't hide behind feigned neutrality so often.

Anything she could do to become better, she did. Yet at the end of these years of training, she was still used to relying on other people, unless she necessarily had to take a main role. While fearsome, Sakura was very aware that she was reluctant to take the spotlight - and with good reason. Perhaps it was a decayed remain of her past self, maybe a punishment - probably, it was just because she knew other people could do much better.

And she had to be there if these people got hurt - she was in charge of making sure that she didn't lose anyone, ever again. Even if it meant using her own hand to make a heart keep beating. At some point, she decided that it was time to truly shine - and so she stepped up next to her old teammates. With the Yin seal on her forehead, she had the right to be on the frontlines like any other shinobi, despite being a medic.

Then, everyone was gone and she was alone, bearing the burden of guilt and shame, the marks of a compassionate survivor. It wouldn't have happened if I had been stronger. If I had been able to save them. If I had fought Sasuke like I should have. Hour after hour, day after day - it ate away her mind. Because in the end, it hadn't mattered - none of it had.

Everyone was gone and, venomously, a dark part of her head still keeps saying that it is her fault. Shouldn't have wasted any chakra, shouldn't have spared a second thought for someone who should be an enemy. All her fault, for not doing what she should have instead of what her heart asked.

Maybe it is.

But there is no way to turn back time, except for myths of time-travelling scrolls and jutsu. Realistically, the end result is that only a few of these people survived: Sasuke is definitely the most prominent figure among these. She cannot possibly rely on him, because regardless of what his true self might be, he is even a bigger mess than she is. None of the other survivors could understand...

In truth, she is alone to take the reins and her own shot at changing destiny. No one else has the level of information and understanding that she does, the unwanted bond that has caused so much grief (yet neither side has been able to fully sever it). Now, it's up to her.

Sakura knows that her major flaw and still greatest strength are her emotions. Her heart, mind and body sway with their flow. Yet these sentiments have been crushing her soul for months… and they cloud the true answer to what should she do. In that regard, she will never be a good shinobi, and she knows. But now, the only solution is to find a way to tame them, accept them or get rid of them. She knows what her answer will be.

She knows too well.

There are hundreds of soul fragments within her body, only a reminder of the burden she carries. It has been proven to her that they can be both guidance and a source of danger, based on the oscillation of her own emotions and Sasuke's. She still had not expected when the rat mentioned 'combining natures' was for him to tell her to meditate, again.

Truth be told, the pinkette didn't feel too thrilled about going back there. Last time, she had barely any control at all over the things that happened. Even now, aware that there are 'spirits' protecting her, she feels uneasy. It doesn't bring back good memories.

"You have the knowledge of, ah, a few hundred shinobi stored within you," the rat explained, with a tone that challenged her acclaimed intelligence not too subtly. "I'm sure at least one of them can teach you how to make geodes, ah."

When she opens her eyes, the familiar meadow welcomes her warmly. Breathtaken, she blinks. It has been so long since she last saw anything remotely similar to home, the warmth of summer, the whispers of the trees… But this place, although clearly a fantasy, is a reflection of the place Sakura calls home. This time, it's as peaceful as the first time she saw it. It's inviting, genuinely nice.

However, this time it's not her inner self waiting for her, nor Naruto or Ino. The illusion of a peaceful mindscape dissolve into images of chaos and fire and screams - as she sees that the one waiting for her is none other than her mentor. Sakura is used to considering that most of the people she knows are dead - but it's one thing to guess, and another one to see the ghost of her mentor with her own eyes.

It's a completely different, horrifying feeling. Perhaps she started to regain hope, when she found people from her past. But the truth is, that the majority of them are still dead. Instead of having nothing to dream for, now she can feel how her heart crushed. The world spins around her, blurry, memories and sensations coming to her mind with the strength of a tsunami. It's unstoppable.

And just then, she perceives movement out of the corner of her eye - coming straight towards her. That's-

'DODGE!' Her instincts kick in, and the pinkette finds herself jumping away faster than she can process what is happening. When she lands, she hears a painfully familiar voice echoing in her ears.

"I knew I had taught you better than that." Her body is tense, ready for action, although her mind seems to be trying to pick up the scattered remains of her coherent thoughts. The illusion has shattered, and everything around her is frozen and silent. "Sakura!"

"Hai!" She responds by instinct, green eyes focusing on Tsunade. She really hasn't changed at all… Not in body, not in attitude. Her stance is the same as she remembers, her expression as fierce as it always was. As if this was just another day in a training ground, endlessly practicing a fighting style that she now knows by heart.

"Get a hold of yourself, Sakura!" And this time her eyes widen, surprise etched on her face, because a sudden thought has struck her mind: she believes in me. Even after her death, whatever remains of her shishou still reflects faith in her. Hard to tell when she nearly got knocked out in her own mindscape, but she knows well. A chain reaction sets off in her mind - another one she cannot stop, but this time, she doesn't want to. As if woken up from a dream, washed over by a wave of pleasant warmth, she realises it's not over yet.

It's a strange thought. But it feels nice.

Since then, the pinkette has been practicing under her tutelage once more. The first thing her shishou did was command her to analyse every pathway of the Ningyo - learn exactly where is each block and restriction, down to the most minute detail. The results ranged between expected and shocking.

As she sat in the middle of that peaceful meadow, Sakura discovered two things about the Ningyo: its restrictions against the Yin seal not only block it completely, but also affect the way her brain works. It's such a small thing… but her thoughts are filled with the venom inside the Ningyo, the one created by Sasuke's hatred. Hence the random outbursts of panic or unexplainable anger… the seal is anything but stable.

Secondly, half of her own heart has been smashed into a pulp. The memory of being held down, a fist crashing straight through her ribcage, replayed in her mindscape. In fact, the reason the seal has such a high level of control over her is that, for all intent and purpose, she should be dead. The damage was too much, yet in her desperate attempts at drawing energy from somewhere, she took the one that Sasuke had just given her, charged with both his hatred and chakra, and the lingering remains of natural energy in the atmosphere.

It wasn't a conscious effort, it did save her life… but the realisation was still shocking. A sense of overwhelming disgust washed over her, at the thought that she was barely a person anymore. Mingling energies doesn't even come close to describing it. The truth is that there isn't enough of a soul left inside her body, to be able to reconstruct it. Should the seal be removed, she would die. It explains so many things… even her newfound connection to the spirits of the deceased, whose existence she used to be sceptic about.

These are facts of life she will have to live with. Her own internal energy is held in a chokehold, barely short of being called a miracle.

Perhaps the shock of learning this was too much - that her soul is only kept together by thick threads of hatred. But she has collapsed once more - and it has been three days since the last time she visited her mindscape. Two more days of dodging her companions and their questions, because there is no way she could possibly explain without delving into insanity - it hasn't been much since she met up with her Konoha comrades, but she can already feel the strings of nostalgia tugging at her heart.

These people are all that remains of a very precious treasure, now a distant and distorted memory. Worrying about them, caring about their well being… it's just a second nature to her.

Perhaps that is why, when she perceives a pulse in the deepest regions of her heart, she enters a new state of frantic agitation. She can feel a surge of chakra racing through her veins, one that doesn't belong to her, but is altogether familiar. Something has happened to Sasuke, but it's difficult to tell if it's a good or a bad thing. The pinkette feels slightly nauseated - since the incident with Lee, she is certain she can perceive the state of her last teammate. It's vague and distant, but it's there.

And right now, it reminds her that he is still out there: hunting for her, restlessly, falling deeper and deeper into his own sinkhole of dementia… She can sense it, as if these feelings were her own. It reminds her that one way or the other, she has to get out of here. The others wouldn't stand a chance, and it's very unlikely that they would manage to escape. Where would they run to, anyways?

Tenten has managed to sink three whole ships, with no signs of progress - someone has to remain in charge of maneuver, yet no one seems to be capable of doing so.

The wolf-dogs have started to prey on them, too. It begins with distant howling, then bright eyes shining in the darkness around Engetsu… then, shadows moving through the alleys, watching, waiting. When the first one attacks, the rest follow en-masse. Since then, her group has moved closer to the docks and stays away from the ground as much as possible. These beasts are restless. They have been trained to use chakra for centuries, to hunt and kill with these rudimentary, yet effective methods.

Sakura knows that, as much as these animals can be loyal and beloved companions to humans, hunger has driven them over the edge. The ones that were abandoned have banded together, and it's certain they learned to hunt for humans. She still doesn't want to know how did they get the practice to do that. And she has seen and heard voices that shouldn't be there, coming from the position of the dogs. It's not farfetched to think they might be influenced by the lingering spiritual energy, caused by the war.

With the worst of winter ravaging the land around them, the constant threat of the canines and the lengthy list of disabilities that hold back the people from her group, it becomes obvious that the sea is the only escape. Maybe it's paranoia, that drove her to attempt the impossible; perhaps it's the fear that, sooner or later, someone will die and she can't let it happen. But she goes back.

Determined to, at least, try to put up a fight… against a fate that seems to be constantly trying to push her down.

One week is what it takes her to regain enough energy to move around without constant effort. Four days to learn her new limits regarding chakra manipulation, and by the end of it, she can manipulate it through her system without bumping into the Ningyo too much. Two days, and she learns that with some effort, it's possible to channel a marginally bigger amount of chakra through the holes of the seal.

It feels like choking - like going through a narrow tunnel where there is barely enough space to move. Yet the walls of the tunnel are made of tissue that can be pushed, even if it's painful. Too much chakra, and the seal closes around the hole; too little, and it's too slow to be worth anything.

Much to Sakura's chagrin, the Yin seal is still firmly shut off. None of her probing attempts helps, and in the end she has a brutal headache to prove her effort. But she can make chakra tendrils on her own, even some scalpels. She can walk up walls and stand atop the water once more. It requires the most minute manipulation of her chakra, and it would be impossible to straight up run up a house - moving the chakra around her constricted pathways requires time and effort.

But she can do it. And with some more practice, she is able to stick her arms into a basin of water, and pull back the transparent liquid, stuck to her. Then, she can expel it in an instant, all at once with perfect synchrony. Without spare energy to use and roughly half of her usual chakra amount, any jutsu is tiresome. Seals have to be done slowly, in order to avoid physical pain.

A month has passed - and today her steps take her to the nearest working ship. Sakura breathes deeply, her senses scanning her surroundings just to make sure that she isn't being preyed on. It's an uncharacteristically sunny day, and the sea is calm enough. It's time - she has been waiting for a week, but the weather isn't precisely peaceful in this wretched place.

Her fingers clench around the kunai - the one that has been chasing her in her dreams, since the day Misho snapped. She isn't entirely sure if the item is real, but she isn't about to ask. No matter where she leaves the weapon, it will end up reappearing somewhere near her in the future. She gave up trying to get rid of it weeks ago, instead using it as a focal point for her attention. There isn't anything special about it - yet she knows she would be able to recognise it anywhere.

"I really have never seen a condition like this before," comments Tenten, sitting near her as the pinkette starts her warm up exercise. Slow pushes of chakra throughout her body, following the rhythm of her breath and heartbeat. "Are you certain you can hold it up?" she adds, glancing with worry at the chosen vessel. It isn't like Tenten to doubt like this, but she has already seen Sakura's efforts in the past weeks.

Sakura shakes her head, making her chakra swirl and spin around one of her fingers. It's just enough that there is a soft glow around her figure. She makes it jump from one fingertip to the other, her brow furrowed at the slight sensation of pain. Throwing chakra out and catching it is the next exercise from Tsunade-sama - to ensure that she can manipulate it well enough.

Certain parts of her body are capable of holding more energy than others, so she has been trying to use that to her advantage. Shoulders, elbows, knees - any points where different parts of the chakra system converge. Passing it through the gates is the hardest part, but she'll find a workaround for that, too.

"I can't really do too much with it," she replies, stretching. "But I've studied the mechanisms of these ships… as long as the balance isn't overloaded or the energy runs out, it should be fine. They have a nifty storage system, even though they're not made for travelling as far as we intend to."

"Do you have a plan?" inquires Tenten, casually flicking a kunai over her shoulder. It lands in the middle of a set target, a few meters behind her. Injured or not, her aim is still on point. Sakura stands still, basking in the warmth of the sunlight, the breeze of the sea and the waves… It's truly a peaceful day.

"There are a few islands not far from here. We have a couple options, but most of them are too small and aren't populated. Once we find a village, we should stay undercover and keep moving." Tenten doesn't say it, but the question lingers in the air between them: and then, what? Where to go, what to do? "Let's see if this piece of rock can actually function!" she announces, deciding to veer her thoughts away from these dangerous places.

She hops onto the irregular floor of the chosen ship's deck, jogging down to the control room and sitting down on the small stool carved on stone. There are two small holes filled with ice on the sides of it, and two more on the ground - there, she puts her hands and feet, respectively.

Immediately, a jolt of energy runs through her arms and legs. As someone with an affinity towards water, this material charged with that elemental chakra feels nice. Warm, despite coolness of the ice. It shouldn't be hard to get her own energy through this. And as soon as she sends a small string of chakra through each of her extremities, connecting it to the ice, she can feel the entire structure of the ship around her.

Without seeing it, she can see every small and rudimentary mechanism, sense every last bit of water. And in this moment, she can't help but grin.

I've been hit, but not sunk. Not yet.

A.N.: The pacing will be speeding up a bit from here. The arc would take too long to be completed otherwise. Thanks for your support, feel free to leave any opinions/thoughts in the reviews.

Cheerps!