Happy New Year's Edition
Welcome to 2022
Season 1
Chapter 3: Invasion of Odawa Part 1
"We got out!" she shouts.
"Yes. The portal is closing!" He replies, shifting his gaze towards her.
The air taste so much fresher on the outside. Her hairs flapping wildly because of the winds. She suddenly feels a pulling sensation in her guts that is similar to falling down from a great height. She tries her best assessing their new environment before she can comprehends their dire situation.
Clouds. They are on the sky.
"Hey Sasuke! I think we are falling down!" She alerts.
"Right! Give me a sec…"
He had just deactivated the Susanoo earlier because it won't fit to passed through the portal's window. They've had to jumped during their escape and had to leaved it inside. Since the Susanoo is anchored to its user, the one that he activates earlier should have already been dissipated.
He swings his body around in mid air to see where is the portal earlier. Out of nowhere, a spear of lightning suddenly appears inches away from his left shoulder.
He swears he could see it moving in a slow motion because both of his Sharingan and Rinnegan are still activated. However, his body just don't have a sufficient time to reacts. Hell, even his eyes don't have a chance to blink. How could he not sense this thing's coming for him?
In just a millisecond.
BOOMMM!!!
The lightning struck!
On that millisecond, Sakura witnesses every single moments in slow motions. She could see Sasuke's agonized face appears right upon the impaler passes through his left shoulder. That was the last time she'd seen his face before the blinding lights replaces where the pair of his eyes staring back at her.
"Sasuke. No!!!" She stretches her hand trying to reached for the non existence after image.
She trails on the lightning chains thundering beneath the clouds. She was hoping Sasuke would gets up again and comes back for her with his Susanoo. She believes he was about to activate his Susanoo just now.
"SASUKE!!!" she shouts harder.
To her disappointment, nothing happens. Only a darkened clouds could be seen.
She turns around to see where the attack is coming from. It's from the tunnel! She squints her eyes on it and meticulously observes, something's moving inside it. It's you! She could see one of the Beasts draws an arrow and aiming towards her.
She crosses her hands guarding her vital organs, prepared for bracing the incoming impact. However, the attack never comes. She opens her eyes again and sees the portal is now has completely disappears. She exhales a long sigh. She was thinking about to meet the same fate as Sasuke.
"Ack!!!" She twitches, her head hurts so much.
Is it because of the atmosphere? Maybe, because the air is thinner in this altitude. Wait, no! It is her right hand. It hurts so much. The pain is pulsating on and on. It's draining her chakra. She struggles to let go off the device from her wrist.
Her efforts was in vain because she knows the Turtle has dug deep into her flesh and bones.
"SHANNAROO!!!" she screams out of her lung trying to takes it off.
The more she struggles the faster her chakra is being drained. She didn't realized this. The headache now becomes unbearable, her eyes is about to giving up but she struggles to keep them open. She has to try her best to stay awake.
Before she know, she falls unconscious on mid air.
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The gushing air violently blowing her face. It causes her breathing a little bit hard and her mouth has becomes drier. She then struggles to open her eyes but it won't open. She tries several attempts to blink before she finally managed to slightly opens her eyes. She adjusts her eyes to catches a glimpse of what is in front of her. She faintly sees the dark skies painted by the stars.
She forced herself to inhales more air to supplies more oxygen into her brain. After a few times controlling her breathing, she finally be able to takes control over her body. The view becomes much clearer.
It was bright when they got out from the portal. How long was I out?
She brainstorms herself trying to remembers what had just happened right before she passed out. Oh yeah, we were falling down… but to where? And Sasuke was struck by lightning. She looks around her. Where is he? She starts panicking.
"Sasuke! Sasuke!!" Sasuke!!!" with a cracking voice, she shouts several times.
No answer. Only darkness and the stars. Where am I? She feels her body is weightless and there is nothing to holds on to. Wait, am I still falling down? Reaching for her wrist, she feels about the Turtle. It's still here.
"No! I have to remove this!" She continues her earlier struggles.
Busy wrestling with her own wrist, she feels a heat radiated on her back. She then realize, she hasn't looked down below since she has awaken. No, at this point she don't really knows which way up and which way down. She should have done this much sooner. Landing on volcano is a terrifying way to die.
She puts some effort to flips her body downward to see what is happening down below.
An areal view sure looks amazing but what is that? A fire? Is it a burning forest? She squints her eyes hoping to gets a better view. No, that's a buildings. It looks like a whole city are being burned down to the ground.
"Whoa!".
The sight is mesmerizing. There are fires spreading all over a city. She could see every details of the building's structure and architectural design. There are concrete buildings mixed with wood. Some of it looks very similar to the buildings that she has seen in the Land of Fire. Shame, soon they will reduced to embers and finally to ashes.
When she still enjoying and appreciating how beautiful they are, every buildings seem to moving away from her. After a few seconds, the burning city has now leaving her view completely. The darkness night has taken over the panorama.
She then realized, she isn't just falling down vertically. She actually is flying on the horizontal direction and gradually downwards. She might have landed somewhere very soon. The surge of panics filling her adrenaline again. Its going to be very close to the land now.
"Activating shield. Activating shield. Activating shield." She startles as the Turtle activates and beeping.
She takes a look on it. Suddenly a bubble of green chakra forming from inside the Turtle. It is growing bigger and bigger and eventually envelopes her whole body. She could no longer feels the air rushing on her face as she is now completely sealed inside the bubble.
Tilting her head forwards and tries to identify the area where she could be landing. After fifteen minutes gliding on the air, she sees a blimps of light shining from afar. The lights becomes brighter as she draws closer and so is the view. It becomes much clearer.
Another city.
She estimates that the city is about two miles from her location now. A few concrete buildings could be seen as she is approaching. That's it! She is now heading into that direction. One minute to go, she prepares herself bracing for the impact.
Ten seconds before the crash.
She bends her knuckles and about to throw a punch. This is it!
"SHANNAROO!!" she screams while throwing her mighty punch into the building.
CRASSHHH!!!
The impacts are tremendously huge. The shock waves sends flying debris everywhere. Those debris are strong enough to destroys the nearby buildings. After five blocks of destroyed buildings, her projectile stops.
"Safely landed. Safely landed. Safely landed." She heard the Turtle is beeping with robotic voice on her wrist.
She finds herself lying down on a crater. Debris and dusts are covering all over her body. She wipes her hair and face and gathers herself together. She inspects every parts of her body looking for injuries. There are none. She looks back towards her previous projectiles, she sees the trails of impact she made just now.
"Whoa! I survived that?" she cheers. She knocks the device on her wrist. "You sure are very useful."
She stands up and she brushes the dusts all over her Jonin uniform. She looks around and trying to figure out if anyone is injured by her. She sees no one in the building where she had landed on. She goes around on the crumbled buildings nearby but no one is there too.
"Hey! Anybody here? Anybody hurt?" she shouts.
The eerily silent howls of wind returns her call. No one is here she guess. She then starts to pinpoints her location to identify where she exactly is.
"I fly from up there." She points her finger towards the direction where she was flying. "If another city is being burned from that direction." She remembers a burning city she passed by earlier. She looks at the opposite direction and pointed. "People must've been running away to that direction," she concludes.
People? Yeah!
Last time she was teleported with Naruto, there were peoples. Hopefully, this realm has 'people' too. Not another alien monsters shit like she had encountered inside the tunnel with Sasuke.
She then starts to walk towards the direction she pointed earlier. Slowly she strolls passed between building to building. The aesthetic is different from Konoha though. The buildings are neatly arranged side by side. She observes, other than the buildings she accidentally destroyed, this city pretty much is still intact.
What happened here, a war? As she is sunk into her thought, she heard someone is calling.
"Hey, sister!"
She startles and starts to look around to find where the voice is coming from.
"Here."
She spots a girl about her genin year hiding behind the corner of the nearby building.
"Oh, hey there!" she greets happily. Apparently, there is indeed a human.
"Come here!" the girl carefully shouts at her, afraid someone else might hear her.
She makes a little jogs towards the black haired girl.
"Are you looking for your family too?" the girl asks.
"Uh…no, I think. What is happening in here?" she retorts, only to be replied with a confused face by the girl.
"Sister please, help my grandmother she can't walk," the girl begs.
"Where is she?"
"Here, in our house, first floor." The girl is pointing to the upstairs.
She immediately grabs her hand and guides her towards the stairs. Sakura just silently obeys and follows the girl's lead. Her first question hasn't been answered yet, which annoys her so much.
Arriving on the first floor, there are door rooms arranged side by side. The girl drags her towards the door located at the corner most. The girl opens it and she sees an old lady sleeping on a lazy chair. She is around her mid seventies if Sakura could guess it correctly. The girl pulls her inside the room and she wakes her grandmother up.
"Grandma look! I brought someone to help us," says the girl with hope.
The old lady has awaken.
"Ayako! I thought I told you to go on the river. You might've missed the boat!" the old lady angrily says but she immediately embrace the child with tears.
"No grandma! I couldn't leave you here alone." The girl cries and buries her face into her chest.
Noticing Sakura is standing in front of her, the old lady then asks, "are you one of those rescue team?"
"I am the what?…Uh…I mean… yeah! Sure, I am the… rescue team," she blabbers.
"Oh! Thank god! Thank you for coming here Officer…?" The old lady is searching for a name to address her.
"Sakura…Sakura Uchiha."
The old lady holds Sakura's hand. Tears of hope could be seen on her eyes. "Thank you Officer Uchiha!"
"Please, just call me Sakura. Forgive me but your name is…?" Sakura asks trying to get to know of these peoples.
"Apologize my rudeness, Sakura. I'm Mito Hara, this is my grandchild, Ayako," she introduce.
"Alright Mrs. Hara, we will evacuate you from here," she says, understanding the dire situation they are in.
"Excuse me for asking, but is there someone else coming with you?" Mrs. Hara asks while looking around.
"No. Just me." She answers.
"You see, I can't walk and I might be a little heavy to be carried alone," she describes her conditions.
"Its okay Mrs. Hara," by saying this Sakura starts lifting the old lady to her chest with ease.
"Oh!" Mrs. Hara amazed and gives an embarrassing chuckles. "You are quite strong for a young lady."
Sakura blushes and just gives her an awkward smile.
"I'm ready!" Ayako says while carrying a large bag on her back.
They run towards downstairs and eventually to the road outside the building. Sakura turns around, trying to remembers which way she came from just now. Just when she stood there confused, Ayako leads their way on the road towards the river.
"Oh yeah! The river." Sakura remembers from what she could understand their conversation earlier.
"Hurry up! The Titan might be coming any time soon." Ayako says with a terrified voice.
"The Titan?" Sakura wonders but Ayako and Mrs. Hara didn't answer. She then follows Ayako from behind.
The road is well paved, makes it easier for them to run. It isn't that dark because the street lamps are still lit on. They must have been in hurry to evacuate the city. She looks around and sees some of the building's light is still lit on. Are there people still in there too?
"We are lucky to get the early warnings don't you think, Officer?"
Her head shifts to the old lady in her arms. "Lucky, why?"
"Nobuo falls in just one day without a warning. Most peoples are dead there including her father." She points at Ayako. "Her father was one of the soldiers stationed there. Odawa is lucky to be warned."
Sakura then remembers about the burning city she had passed by earlier. So, it must have been Nobuo. She didn't continue talking but focus to run.
After almost forty minutes on the run, she sees a wall barricading the road from afar. She could tell the wall is about fifteen meters tall and It's almost as tall as five stories buildings surrounding it. The wall must've been just recently built because she noticed it was made of using sandbags.
Why are they building a wall this tall though?
She sees a few soldiers are stationed on the top of the wall. There are guns and cannons installed.The long barrel of steel pointing towards the opposite direction to where they are going. She recognized this weapon but it was obsolete and fell out of the favour in the shinobi's world. Mainly, because it's too loud and compromised the stealthy.
"Halt! Who goes there?" shouts one of the soldiers.
Ayako abruptly stops her feet, Sakura follows the same. However, by this time they are already closed to the wall. A few blinding spotlights are shuns upon them. It is not necessary though because the street isn't really that dark.
"I am Ayako Hara! Daughter of Captain Shuri Hara!" she states her identity as she puts her hands on the air. "We came to cross the river."
There are a mumbling sounds could be heard on the top of the barricade. Sakura could hear some of the soldier saying, "Shuri is dead Sir."
A rope ladder is thrown from the wall and the soldier gesturing to climb up. The spotlights is then turned off so they can see upward. "Hurry up!"
Ayako hurriedly starts climbing the ladder. Sakura takes her bag so then she could climb much easier. She watches her climb the ladder until she reaches on top safely. The soldiers are busy preparing and assembling their weapons. She noticed none of them cares to come down for the old lady, only Ayako is waving at her.
"Hold your breath, Mrs. Hara!" She warns the old lady for what she's about to do.
She bends her knees and supplies a little bit of chakra to her feet. She jump! Only a gasping for air could be heard from the old lady. She landed next to Ayako who is still staring down bellow where Sakura was standing on.
None of the soldiers are paying any attention.
"Oh! You are up already?" the soldier breaking the silence while pulling the ladder up, not knowing what had just happened. "Get down to the stairs and try to catch up on the last boat at the harbour." He locks his eyes on Sakura trying to recognize her by her appearance. "You got it, priestess?"
Sakura nodes . Wait, priestess?
She dismiss her thought and turns to the girl. "Ayako come!"
She still freezes.
"Ayako?"
"Ye…yes!" Ayako stutters not believing what she had just saw. Mrs. Hara still speechless.
They climbs downs at the other side of the wall. The wall isn't built vertically straight line on the other side, it is more like a pyramid. This structures is designed to reinforce the integrity of the wall if it was to be hit from the other direction. Which Sakura thought it's a genius design.
Ayako carries her bag again before she starts running towards the harbour. Sakura follows after her. They are close already because the river is within their sight now. There are lights emitted from the boats moving on the river. The closer they get, the clearer the view of the river.
They turns right at the corner of the last building and heads towards the station. When they arrived there, it's empty. There is no one there. Even the staffs who worked there has left to save their live. The last boat had just leaved a few minutes ago. Ayako runs towards the jetty and shouts for the boat to come back. She is too late, no one heard her.
"No way." She cries staring on the river.
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They've been waiting there for more than an hour hoping for any boat might be returning from the other side. Any boat, even the military boat could do but none of them are to be seen here. If there are no boats here, does it mean that the soldier on this side has a limited supplies? Are they on a suicidal mission or something?
Mrs. Hara has been sitting on the jetty's floor while leaning on a pillar. She is embracing Ayako and calming the sobbing child. Sakura is standing on the edge of the jetty and observing on the other side of the river. The lights starts to fades away when she sees people are moving away from the river with their torch lights.
"The station there must've been empty too," Sakura breaks the silent as she saw the harbour station light has been turned off on the other side of the river.
"Yes. They are moving towards the refugee camp near the railway station," Mrs. Hara says giving up.
"We are a little bit too late," Ayako adds.
"Its okay Ayako, at least I'm still here with you," Mrs. Hara calms her.
Sakura leaves the two alone and didn't bothers to have another conversations. She herself hasn't had any chanced to catching up with what happened today. This morning she wakes up ready to punched Toneri in the face. Yet, here she is. Stuck in other people's war.
She don't really care what is happening in here. Meddling with another world's event is not only dangerous but there are consequences too. This is not her battle to fight. She has her own mission to complete and it's more urgent than this. For now, she has to find Sasuke and complete the mission in stealth.
….and please do anything to avoid any Otsutsuki's attention.
That words suddenly ringing inside her head. Toneri you bastard! What the hell happened inside the tunnel, it was his fault. It's the weapon meant to kill the Otsutsuki. Yeah, that same weapon had struck Sasuke. Now, she could only hoped Sasuke will survived for another day before she heals him.
What if he died back there?
Her eyes widen and she feels about to throw up at the thought. For sure she will be stuck in this world and Konoha…no, in fact the whole shinobi's world will gone. This mission is too crucial to be failed. Sasuke knows this too. He might have been on his way to find her here.
She stares on the water below the jetty. It's vibrating. Suddenly, a loud explosions from the cannon fires and guns could be heard. It is coming from the wall that they'd just climbed. She turns around to see the duo.
"They are here." Ayako shouts. Mrs. Hara just hug her tightly while crying.
Who, the Titans?
The images of the burning city of Nobuo sprung inside her head. They sure have a destructive force to reckon with. It's true this war is not her to fight, but leaving these two to die in despair is very wrong in so many ways. It's against her ninja way. She must bring these two to the other side of the river safely.
"Ayako, get up!" Sakura commands, "we are crossing this river."
"But how? I can't swim and grandma is…" Ayako looks at her grandma's condition.
"Just trust me okay?"
Ayako nodes and gets up.
Sakura grabs Mrs. Hara waist and carries her on her right shoulder. "Ayako! Come here!" Sakura gesturing Ayako to climb on her other shoulder.
"But…but how?" Ayako asks uncertain.
"Don't ask, just trust me okay?" Ayako nodes and climb on with Sakura helps. Both her and grandma now are on Sakura's shoulder. "Get ready!" Sakura warned before she immediately leaps on top of the river from the edge of the jetty.
"AAAAAHHH!!" Ayako screams.
Ayako swears they were all gonna sunk in the water. However, upon touching the water, she sees Sakura's feet are stomping like she is running on the ground.
We are on the water? No, Sakura is on the water. Yes, she is running on it.
"Hold on tight! We are close." Sakura orders not to freaked out.
Before Ayako knew, they are already on the other side of the river. She looks back at the jetty where they were just now. Unbelievable! It was just a few seconds crossing a hundred meters wide river. Just how fast she ran?
Running on the ground again but this time Sakura sprints on a much faster pace. She supplies more chakra to her feet so she can sustain the speed. Both Ayako and Mrs. Hara are still on her shoulder. Letting Ayako run by herself just slows them down at this rate.
Ahead of the road, Sakura sees another fortified wall. It is located a hundred meters from the river bank. Just like the other side of the river huh? This must be their second line of defence. Very good tactics. She compliments.
Avoiding to be halted again, Sakura looks into the surrounding buildings. Good! This will make an easier shortcut. She halted her sprint.
"I'm about to jump on the roof. Hold tight!" She warns them before she leaps onto the roof of the nearby building.
Another screams from Ayako.
Ayako swears that building just now is five stories tall. How could Sakura jump that high? No, Sakura has done so many things she never thought a human could do.
Sakura starts sprinting again on the rooftop and sometime she has to leaps from building to building. She now stealthily had bypassed the secondary fortification that blocking the road. She could see the soldiers are panicking and busy to readied their weapons.
On the top of the building where the second wall was erected, she stops for a second. She swings around her body left and then to the right, she sees the wall actually built perpendicular from the building to building all the way to the edge of the city.
She is amazed by the sight.
"Wow! Just how many of these walls were erected?" she asks when she sees the third line of wall ahead near the edge of the city.
Ayako and her grandma did not replies to her question as they are still in shock. She then continues to run and leaps from rooftop to rooftop.
They are now approaching the outskirt of Odawa City. Sakura sees the third line of the wall that she saw earlier. She bypasses the wall on the rooftop avoiding to be halted again until they reach the last building. She landed on a much lower building before she landed on the ground.
She lowers Ayako to the ground and leans Mrs. Hara on the nearby building. Ayako still standing freeze deadpanned, Mrs. Hara just sits there speechless.
"I'm sorry but where is the railway station again?" she asks at the shocked duo. None of them answers her question. "Ayako?"
The girl startles and awaken from her thought. "That…that…that way…five blocks." Ayako stutters while pointing on the direction on her right.
"The…railway station is… six miles from…the jetty we… were at." Mrs. Hara stutters with a genuinely terrified eyes.
Sakura thought the old lady is having a heart attack for a second. Kneeling down in front of Mrs. Hara and place her hand on Mrs. Hara's chest checking for her heartbeats. She tries her best to calm down the old lady.
"We…barely three minutes from the…jetty?" still stutters but now Ayako is staring on Sakura.
"Ah! I'm sorry. I've almost forgot you were on my shoulder." She scratches the back of her head apologizing.
Mrs. Hara now staring on Sakura's like she had just looking at a ghost. She touches Sakura's cheeks with her palms. Sakura replies with her attention eyes to Mrs. Hara's. The old lady is scanning on her face and caress her pink hair before she reached to holds Sakura's hand.
"I did not realized this earlier," the old lady says and sparks of hope appears on her face. "Are you the Red Goddess herself?"
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Constructive comments and criticism are welcomed and highly appreciated.
Author's note: Happy new year everyone! Thanks for reading my story. Honestly, this is the first chapter that I drafted and there are barely any changes in it. That's why I have finished this story much earlier than its publication.
Brace yourself together for the next chapter, things has just about to begin. Stay tuned!