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9 days ago
Jonin Exam Day 7
There was a clicking of a pen in the boardroom.
Click, click.
Click, click.
Tap, tap, tap.
Click, click.
Sakura was nearly biting through her lip to stop herself from yelling at the Water Daimyo to 'please for the love of Gods, stop before I take that pen and jam it in your eye.'
Click, click.
Kill him. Do it. Kill him.
Calming breaths didn't help her here. Not even digging her nails into her own palm seemed to take her mind off of it. She felt like she had lightning in her veins, and it was getting increasingly hard to stay still. Pressed up against the wall where she, and four other contracted shinobi stood behind their charges. They were allowed to be inside since the one time the shinobi were to wait outside, there was a mercenary attack that took out two of the five Daimyo's, and just about killed two more.
It was unanimous that protection be close at hand, at all times.
Click, click.
But Sakura would give her right leg to just get that man to stop clicking his goddamn pen.
"Oooh, Sakura-chan," Mimic-Ino cooed, wrapping her arms around Sakura. "You're so tense! You like totally need a massage."
And now this is the worst it can be, she thought to herself. I think I like it better when you torment me, and not crush on me like a pre-teen girl.
There was a shuffling, the men rising from their chairs, reaching around to give each other handshakes and pats on the back. No doubt congratulating themselves for being the most powerful men in the world. Now that she thought about it, she never heard of a female Daimyo before.
Sexist bastards.
"Haruno-kun," The Fire Daimyo came up to her with a familiar smile.
"Lord Masato," she greeted with a low bow. "It's nice to see you again."
He clapped her on the shoulder. "Looks like you're doing well. Old Botan not giving you too hard a time, eh?" He leaned in with a secret grin that told her he knew exactly what kind of misogynistic man the Earth Daimyo was.
Shaking her head, she put on her best professional smile. Fuck you and your group of sexist assholes. "Absolutely not, my Lord. He has been quite pleasant to work with."
Masato frowned slightly, faltering. "Huh. Well, I must leave, but I look forward to seeing Team Seven again in the autumn for our annual retreat to the warm south."
Another deep bow, and she was called away by the king of misogyny himself.
Botan tossed his jacket at Sakura, who scrambled to catch the very expensive fur before it hit the ground. "I want to stay the night before we leave for Iwa. Prepare dinner for me, and I would like some sake as well." He demanded, as she rushed after the man with Nakamura the advisor trailing. The timid, quite lanky looking man had traveled ahead to prep for Lord Botan's arrival, ensuring a comfortable stay. "Clean my clothes as well. It doesn't do my image well if I am covered in dust and grime while returning."
She bit back a resigning sign. Just three more days. Just get through three more days.
-x-
She awoke to bugs lodged in her throat, in her nose, choking and gasping for air. She clawed and scratched at the elusive things that disappeared back inside her body. The feel of their feet crawling around inside her. She grabbed the kunai from underneath her pillow, slashing a deep cut across her bare thigh, and like magic, it all disappeared.
She tossed the weapon on the other side of the bed, grabbing a stray towel from her shower, and pressing it to the wound. Sakura pinched the bridge of her nose, and like clockwork, a headache was beginning to build up in her left eye this time.
It was always a pattern.
The bugs would wreak havoc inside her, escalating to feeding on her insides. Then the headaches would pound, make her nauseous and sensitive to light. The voices came after that, dozens of them speaking in her ears, scratching at her ear canals.
And of course, the Mimic which always appeared somewhere in between all that.
There was always a shift whenever Mimic would appear. Like a new chakra signature, except different. "Go away," her voice heavy, tired, exhausted. She had been living with this poison in her system for eight days, she had learned how to battle the side-effects, but she was barely getting an hour of sleep each night. It was getting so hard to focus, to concentrate.
The Mimic didn't say anything, and that made Sakura nervous. Glancing up, she wished it were someone else. Anyone else but Sasori.
His neck was still jagged, cut open, raw and bleeding down his uniform. He stood at the foot of her bed, arms crossed, staring her down.
"What?" Sakura snapped, looking away. "Is this supposed to scare me? I killed you, you're dead. How are you going to hurt me now?"
He cocked his head to the side, a sickening slick sound of where his skin was beginning to rip apart. Her stomach rolled. Mimic-Sasori reached a hand up, and clawed down his face with blunted nails.
Sakura let out a sharp gasp, feeling it on her skin. She reached up to feel the four scratch marks on her face. He did it again, and the blood was leaking into Sakura's eyes. "Stop!"
Mimic-Sasori clawed, and clawed, and ripped at his own face. Sakura's was facing the punishment when he began to dig for his own eyeballs. She screamed, when she felt his blunted nails scratch at her eyeballs, digging and digging and digging.
Her eyes were bleeding, her face was a torn-up mess and she screamed. "Stop it!"
-x-
In the mirror, she ignored the bug that lurked out the corner of her eye. Her face was a mess of scratch marks, her eyes blazing red, swollen and bloody. She didn't know what happened after last night. Maybe she passed out due to pain. Maybe she's in a hallucination right now.
Looking down at her hands, her nails were caked with her own blood, traces of her own flesh underneath. She reached to turn on the water, turned it as hot as it would go, and she scrubbed.
"The hallucination is not doing this to me. I am doing this to me." She told herself. "I don't fear the hallucinations. They are not real."
She tied an eight knot on a rope wrapped around her wrist. It was the only way she could think of tracking the days without causing further harm to her body. She pressed healing hands to her face, watching the marks disappear.
A loud pounding on her door caught her mid-scratch for another multi-legged fiend coming out of her ear. "Haruno-san! Lord Botan is ready to leave," Nakamura called from the other side of her door.
"I am not crazy."
Mimic-Ino popped up at that moment with a doubtful look. "You sure about that, Sakura-chan? Don't you think that this poison is working a lit-t-t-le too well?" She fake-gasped, pressing a manicured hand to her mouth. "What if it isn't the poison at all? What if you really are bat-shit insane now? Oh dear, your little boyfriends totally don't want a basket-case."
She didn't want it to, but that little seed of doubt had been planted and her voice sounded less sure than before. "I am not crazy."
The chorus of voices in her head openly mocked her.
-x-
7 days ago
Jonin Exam Day 9
Sakura came to with a fist flying straight to her face. Only by years of training, years of honed instincts had her ducking, and plunging a kunai directly into the attacker's abdomen. The masked man was down, with another coming up quick behind her.
Her sword unsheathed, she Stepped behind the man, swinging down at him. This one blocked it with reinforced arm guards, trying to get her to back off with a rounded kick.
It worked, and she skidded back, nearly tripping over a body.
She was somewhere between Storm and Earth, judging by the landscape. She wasn't out of it as long as before, which gave her hope that maybe these blackouts would stop.
"Just hand him over, and I'll share the profit with you," the mercenary called, pulling himself into a defensive position. "He ain't worth all this," with a gestured to the twelve off bodies around them.
Sakura took a deep breath, forcing herself to remember all the training she had. She sheathed the sword, with a nod of her head. "How much are we talking?" She called, hunching her shoulders, trying to look as innocent as possible.
But, this man had watched her take down his fellow teammates. He wouldn't be fooled that easily.
From behind the mask, she could tell he was grinning widely. "See, I knew you'd come around. I mean, now that all these worthless sods are dead, it just means more for us."
She hummed, nodding along. "Honestly, I can't imagine the kind of money a Daimyo pulls in. I don't know why I didn't think of it before."
His attention had been caught, and Sakura just needed to find the right moment. He took a step forward to her, kunai twirled around his finger. The moment he released it from his hand, aiming for her chest, she was gone.
Her weapon was already cutting across his neck, and the he fell to the ground, choking to death in his own blood.
When she rejoined Botan and Nakamura, they both had equal looks of distrust on their faces, no doubt having heard the conversation she had. "What?" She snapped, ripping off her bloody bandages to rewrap them. "I didn't mean any of it."
"A-ah," Nakamura laughed nervously, rubbing a hand along the back of his neck. "Glad you're on our side, then?"
Sakura knew this exam was going to kill her. Either literally or figuratively. She never had to deal with these type of people when she did her own solo missions. But those were mostly information gathering, maybe the odd escort mission for noble ladies. She promised that when she got back to the village, she would demand to Tsunade to never, ever give her a Daimyo mission ever again. Especially in Earth country. She never wanted to set foot in Earth country ever again.
"Lets go." Sakura demanded, tying off the bandage and pulling herself up onto her horse, coaxing him into a canter.
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A/N: Alright kids, we're getting close to the present time.