The Geis

by xi.writes

When medical student Haruno Sakura picked up an antique silver locket at the local flea market, she never expected it to be an ancient magical artefact. Now she's the hapless master to a menacing assassin demon with a thousand-year-old killing curse. ...Is it too late to adopt a cat instead? (A Halloween-inspired AU, told in drabbles.) /COMPLETE/

34. Chapter 34

"Okay, this is getting ridiculous."

Yanking the balaclava off and blowing her sweaty bangs away from her face, Sakura glared down at the hastily constructed ragdoll in her hands. In the dim blue twilight, its black button eyes seemed to twinkle tauntingly up at her. A fragment of what could have been Danzo's pelvic bone was tied around the doll's neck. "This clearly isn't working."

After carefully wiping down and returning the shovels they had 'borrowed' from the shed of an oblivious and peacefully slumbering neighbour, she and Itachi had made their way to a nearby park. Three hours later, Sakura found herself recreating a scene straight out of a bad Weird Sisters parody, the various items bought at Gaara's shop scattered haphazardly about her on the dewy grass.

"We've gone through every voodoo spell in the book, my hands are coated in dead dictator dust, and we're going to burn down the park if we don't blow out those candles soon." Not to mention her nerves were still on edge, after numerous unsuccessful attempts to shake off the strange, sinister feeling of being watched. Spinning around to check the bushes behind her just for good measure, Sakura promptly stepped on one of the nails that had fallen out of the pincushion Danzo doll at some point during their bungling attempts at black magic.

"Ow, goddammit!" she swore, inadvertently breaking the ash circle surrounding her when she hopped backwards to check the bottom of her bare foot for injury. "Great. Now I probably need a tetanus shot."

Itachi's preternatural eyes – the only part of his face not covered by the balaclava he hadn't yet removed – briefly flicked up from the pages of the book in his hands. "...You missed the final line of the last incantation."

Tired, cranky and in desperate need of some shut eye, Sakura opened her mouth to tell him in graphic (albeit physiologically impossible) terms exactly where he could shove the stupid book with its stupid incantations.

"The sun will rise soon," Itachi smoothly cut in, before she could launch into her angry tirade. His sharp gaze lingering over the exhausted slope of Sakura's shoulders and the dark smudges under her eyes. With a quiet, relenting sigh, he snuffed out the candles with a gloved hand. "...We can reevaluate our options in a few hours, after some rest."