A/N:

Chapter 8: Foundation of the Divisions, Finale! Shadow of Sakura! (Part 2 of 2)

"Ugh… my head…" Sakura groaned, getting up from where she had been unconscious. "Where… where am I?"

Sakura looked around, but didn't even recognize the area. It was slightly rundown, but looked to have a good foundation.

And was that…

"What in the world…? When did the Uzumaki have a candy shop?" Sakura asked herself out loud.

Indeed, there was a rundown-looking candy shop in front of her with a huge sign atop it that read, Uzumaki's Shop. Next to the sign was a giant lollipop, indicating that it was a place where sweets were sold.

"Oh dear, and they told me that you wouldn't be here for another hour, or so… Oh dear, oh dear…" came a voice behind Sakura.

She leapt to her feet, getting into the standard Academy stance. The man before her didn't seem intimidated though, with his messy light blond hair and his funky green clothes. The stripped white and dark green bucket hat atop his head was equally weird.

And who the heck wore geta-sandals outside of tradition anyway?

To be honest, he looked like he was related to Naruto, though his eyes were gray instead of blue.

"Hello there, little miss! My name is Kisuke Urahara, and I'm the owner of this here candy shop!" The man proudly stated with a small fan hiding the lower half of his face. Sakura narrowed her eyes at him. "I was told by my young friends that you'd be making a stop here for testing. Is that true?"

Sakura sighed. She might as well get this over with. "Yeah, that's why I was drugged and kidnapped to this place, I guess. So, what do I have to do?"

"All you have to do is follow me!" Kisuke exclaimed, waving his fan at her. He moved past her with such fluid motion that for a second Sakura thought he was floating on air.

The man laid her into the candy shop, which seemed just as dilapidated inside as out.

"Care for anything sweet before we start your test?" Kisuke asked lightly, but Sakura was not falling for any tricks.

"No thanks. I was taught never to accept candy from strangers." Sakura said while crossing her arms. "Let's just get this testing stuff out of the way so we can both go our separate ways."

"My, my… so eager… But for how long, I wonder?" Kisuke said to himself aloud. "Well then, I guess we'd better get started then. If you'll just take your place over by that boulder."

Sakura's eyes widened as she instantly found herself in another strange setting. When did she enter this wasteland? What the hell had just happened?

"What in the world…? How did…? Did you just teleport us!?" Sakura was seriously beginning to freak out. "How in the hell did you do that without touching me, or even me being aware of it? What in the name of Yami are you, man?"

"Oh my…" Kisuke tilted his head and his hat to hide his sinister grin. "You give me too much credit. These days, I'm just a plain old candy-store owner."

"I don't believe anything you say!" Sakura shouted. "And where are we anyhow? I barely knew where that candy store was relative to the village, and now I could be half way to Kumo no Raiton for all I know!"

"QUIET, PINKIE!" a roar came from out of nowhere, making Sakura jump in surprise.

A tall, muscular man with sharp features and short-length silver hair had appeared on the scene. His brown eyes were glaring at her.

"Kensei, good that you made it. The others will be arriving soon." Kisuke said as he waved stupidly to his companion.

"Are we late, then?" another voice called out as Sakura turned to see a group come walking toward them.

A blond cat leapt onto the shoulder of a man with jaw-length blond hair in a straight cut.

The other two was a timid girl with black hair in two pig-tails poked her head out shyly from behind a rather large man with a pink bowl haircut in a green suit. Sakura blanched at the sight of this guy. She was sure he was meant to be a mockery of her. She felt disgusted.

"Good, good. Everyone is here. That means we can begin in earnest, young Miss Haruno." Kisuke clapped his hands together with a smile. "Are you ready?"

Sakura leaned to one side with a hand on her hip, the stance of an annoyed woman. "I've been ready since I woke up unaware of my surroundings. Let's just get done with this nonsense."

"Right then! For your first challenge, you must go one-on-one with our little Ururu." Kisuke said as the frail-looking girl stepped forward.

Before Sakura could even object to fighting what appeared to be a seven-year-old girl, an equally small red-haired boy came out of nowhere and started harassing her. He was roughing up her hair and pushing her around. The others didn't seem to take notice of this, however, as they were moving over to a crate and talking amongst themselves.

"Dummy little Ururu!" the kid shouted, using his fist to harshly dig his knuckles into her scalp. "You can't fight! Just let me do it, you coward! We all know girls can't fight!"

"Hey you little brat!" Sakura snapped, finally having enough. She marched right up to the kid, and pushed him away from the girl. "You better leave her alone, or I'll show you just how much a girl can beat you into a bloody pulp!"

The red-headed boy glared up at her, and she glared right back.

That was, until she heard a pop and flinched back when streamers of paper fell in her face.

"Congratulations, Miss Haruno! You passed the first test!" Kisuke popped another party streamer at the pink-haired girl. "That was the Test of Justice, and you passed with flying colors. Jinta isn't actually that mean to Ururu. He was just pretending to be for the sake of seeing if you would stop him. A member of the Konoha Divisions should never let an injustice go unchallenged, no matter how small."

"You people have severe mental issues…" Sakura muttered aloud out the corner of her mouth.

"But you still have your first challenge to complete. First challenge, but actually the second test. You really must fight Ururu in a one-on-one contest of Taijutsu combat." Kisuke informed her, but still Sakura looked skeptical.

"She's just a little girl. I'm not going to fight her! I mean, has she even been to the Academy yet?" Sakura asked, gesturing over to where Ururu was putting on her light fighting gear. The child still had tears shining in her eyes from being bullied by Jinta.

"D-Don't worry, Miss Haruno… I w-wouldn't hurt you t-too badly…" with that said, Ururu bowed formally to Sakura in her cute little flower-decorated gear.

"This is utterly ridiculous!" Sakura slapped away the fight gear the huge pink-haired guy was trying to hand her. "I'm not going to fight her! She's a tiny girl, even compared to me! This is completely out of hand now, Naruto—AIYEH!"

Ururu came at her with a left hook that put cracks in the boulder behind her. If Sakura hadn't seen the little girl practically skipping up toward her, she would have lost her head. Instead, Sakura had ducked and ran away screaming.

"What are you running for? I thought she was just a tiny tot?" Jinta shouted after Sakura, who was still scrambling to dodge Ururu's onslaught of powerful blows.

"Screw this crap, man!" Sakura yelled, stumbling a bit as she moved over a boulder that was shattered by a karate chop from the girl in pig-tails. "This is insane! Who is this girl?"

"She's our little pride and joy!" Kisuke sang with a smile on his face.

Sakura, however, wasn't about to outdone. Ururu was monstrous strong for a little girl, but her attack patterns and speed were easily readable. What the girl lacked in speed and technique were more than made up by her strength. Sakura skidded to a stop as she turned on the girl coming at her with a furious right hook.

"If I can just redirect her punch, I can get her in a grabble. Then I'll pinch the nerve cluster in her neck, and she'll be out like a light for a few minutes at least." Sakura thought, watching closely as the girl got within striking distance. "So, I'm not going to fight a little girl, but if I can take her out of the equation, it won't be a problem! CHA!"

But in that instance, Ururu proved to be faster than Sakura had calculated, appearing within inches of her with her fist mere hairs away from impacting her face. All Sakura could do in that small span of time was look shocked beyond reason.

The pink-haired girl was even more shocked when she didn't feel that monstrous strength-packed fist impacting with her face in the next second. When she opened her fear-closed eyes, Sakura saw that Kisuke Urahara had actually caught Ururu's arm from the side as casually as Sakura might pick a flower from her mother's rose garden.

"I think that's enough, don't you, Miss Haruno?" Kisuke said with that smarmy smile on his face again.

"You people… really are… fuckin' insane…" Sakura panted, clearly out of breath.

"My, my… Miss Haruno, you have quite the mouth. What would your mother say if she heard you now?" Kisuke said as he guided Ururu away to take off her fight gear.

"So... is that it? Am I… a part of the Divisions now?" Sakura asked, finally getting her breathing and heart rate under control.

"Hmph, you've only just passed the Test of Bravery. Standing your ground is instrumental in being a member of the Divisions. Even if the opponent has ten times your power, you must stand and fight in the defense of those cannot do it themselves!" Kensei barked with applause from Jinta, the big guy in the mint green suit, and little Ururu. The blond guy with straight hair only sighed and muttered something to himself.

"Kensei is right, little Miss Haruno." The blond guy with straight hair finally spoke up, his bottom row of teeth showing with his every word. "That was only the second test. There are two more tests before you can be accepted as part of the Divisions. They are the Test of Survival and the Test of Instinct. If you can complete these two final tests, then you will officially be part of the Divisions. Think you can handle that, hm?"

Sakura sighed as she put her hair back over her shoulders. "I guess we won't know until I try. The sun hasn't moved an inch in the sky wherever we are, but I'm sure it's getting late."

"So brave and tenacious... But, I suppose we shouldn't expect anything less of Miss Haruno at this point." Kisuke said as he came forward with his fan hiding the bottom half of his face. "Let the Test of Survival begin then!"

Kisuke closed his fan and pointed it off into the distance to the side of everyone, but Sakura gasped as the ground beneath her disappeared and she fell into an abyss of darkness.

"Welcome, Miss Haruno… to the Shattered Shaft…" Kisuke's voice was ominous as Sakura dropped all the way to the bottom where there existed only a padded bed bottom, the bones of some dead guy, and a few rocks. "As you'll notice the sides of this pit are unusually smooth, so they'll be no climb out by way of walking up using your chakra. Well, if you even possess such an advantaged ability for your age."

"Get to the point, ya damn blond dummy!" Jinta stamped his foot repeatedly in annoyance. "I'm getting sick of being pint-sized over here!"

"Well, to make things short since some of us are getting anxious…" Kisuke sighed as he knelt by the edge of the trap hole, then looked down upon Sakura with the eyes of the devil. "You have three days in order to find the power within yourself to escape… or else die down there… Alone… Broken… Forgotten…"

Sakura's eyes widened beyond belief. There was no way! No way in hell! "Hey! HEY! You can't just do this! This isn't some test—this is crazy! This is against the law! You guys knocked me unconscious! You guys kidnapped me to this place! You can't just leave me down here to die! Naruto! NARUTO, YOU BASTARD!"

"I'm sorry, Miss Haruno, but it's out of our hands now. Only you can save yourself from a pitiful death. Not even your classmates will be able to save you here and now. Not Naruto. Not Ino. Not Hinata or Kiba. Not Shikamaru or Choji. Not even your precious Sasuke." Kisuke said as he stood to full height. "If you want to live, then find the will within yourself to survive."

And with that said, Kisuke walked away from the edge of the pit. He disappeared from Sakura's field of vision, and her panic began to rise.

Sakura's breathing came short and fast, her heart racing. This was it. This was how she was going to die. In a strange place, at an unknown time, in a pit without anyone to care.

Her mother had to be worried sick by this point. Probably fretting in the chair by their front door.

"Where's my little girl? Where in heaven's name is my Sakura?" her mom would cry herself to sleep in that chair while her daughter starved to death in a pit.

Sakura felt faint on her feet. Suddenly, all her thought revolved around death. Everything else left her. She felt empty inside. Hollow. Like a shell of her normal self. With each passing thought she felt her sanity slip away from her. She kicked and screamed and clawed at the walls, but no one came to her rescue. All of a sudden, everything became all too real. This was where she was fated to die. Her father would mourn her silently, being the support, her mother would need to get over their daughter's death. There would be no body recovered, so her funeral would be a closed case with a picture of her atop it. It would be the picture she took last month as it was most recent. People would come to the service out of politeness, but none of them would have anything intimate to say about her. They would give words of encouragement and say that she was in a better place.

But she wouldn't be… she'd be bones in this pit…

"I can't… I can't die here!" Sakura screamed, screwing her eyes shut tight. "I don't wanna die here! Let me out! LET ME OUT! I WANT TO LIVE! I WANT TO LIVE!"

Sakura screamed at the top of her lungs as tears started to stream down her face.

"I'M GOING TO DIE! SOMEONE HELP ME, PLEASE! I'M GOING TO DIE HERE!" Sakura's voice bellowed, shaking the pit as she lost her mind after only a few hours. Her heart was racing. She felt like walls were closing in on her. She hated that feeling. It drove her crazy. Her father always said it was the Haruno family survival instinct. That when the tough got going, the Haruno family fought like cornered wild animals. But there was no one to fight. There was nothing to do.

"NO, NO! I REFUSE! I REFUSE TO DIE! NOT HERE! NOT NOW! DO YOU HEAR ME?!"

But there came no sounds. No voices. There was only her and her shattered mind.

There was only death ahead of her…

"I REFUSE TO DIE HERE! I REFUSE TO DIE! ARRGGHH!"

"So… how long do you think it will take her to escape the pit?" Shinji asked his cohorts.

"What was the longest any of us were down there?" Ururu tapped her chin, trying to remember.

"That would be… you," the blond cat pointed a paw at Kisuke, "You were the one who set the three-day standard. You dug your way through the ground and out of the pit. You needed to be in the hospital for a couple of days afterward because you were so close to starvation and dehydration."

"Hmm, sounds about right. To be honest, I don't even remember my time in the pit. It was all such a blur. Came damn close to losing my mind, though." Kisuke fanned himself as they all sat around a table inside the candy shop.

"That's it though. The isolation of it all is what kills you." Kensei said, wedeling a wooden toy with a combat knife. "Being down there… I thought I saw ghosts… of my family…"

"Oh, Sas—" Ururu was about to say, but the Hachi covered her mouth.

"Remember, young Miss Ururu, our true names are not spoken during the initiation process." Hachi said, but then everyone threw a look at Kiba, who had dropped his transformation.

"What?" Kiba snapped at them, "I hate being runt-sized. Why couldn't I have been Renji or Ikkaku? Hell, I wanted to be Komomura!"

"That was not what we decided, though, was it? It was decided that you play the part of Jinta for the Test of Justice!" Kensei fired back, slamming the edge of his combat knife into the table in front of Kiba. That had the dog boy going a little pale. "Be lucky that we even allow you to participate in the process! If not for the Test of Instinct being against one of us as a random opponent, then the only people who are really needed here are Kisuke and Ururu!"

"Still feel cheated, hmph…." Kiba muttered, crossing his arms.

"That pit really is something though… a twisted stroke of genius on your part, Kisuke…" Shinji complimented as he stood and went to the sliding door that separate the wasteland from the candy shop. "The Head-Captain was very generous giving us the use of the Iwa-Defense training grounds for this kinda thing. Even helped us erect this shop with this barrier seal that acts as an instant transport to the field. But the pit… a pure move of intellect to use something Ichigo needed to regain his Shinigami powers as a test of survival wit."

"Glad we improved it though." The blond cat said while swishing her tail. "The padded bottom, rocks, and bones were nice touches. No need to dig your way out when you can use what's around you to escape. The bones can be sharpened on the rocks, or the rocks to sharpen each other. The padded bottom can be cut up to use as rope. The rocks can be use as grapples to help with weight issues. It all came together very nicely I must ad—"

The blond feline, who was so busy about to finish patting itself on the back, was interrupted by a scream. The most blood-curdling scream they had ever heard, and it rang out for all to hear.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

The group leapt to their feet as they all stared at the sliding door in fear and shock.

"Just what the hell was that?" Kensei asked as they ran for the door. Shinji slung it open, and in seconds they were all standing in the wasteland.

"It sounded like an animal." Kiba looked around, his eyes going in every direction.

"It sounded like a damn demon." Shinji gritted out as he prepared for anything.

Kisuke was the one to bring up the rear, coming to the forefront of their group calmly as he glanced around for anything at all out of place.

Then he heard it.

"Does anyone else hear that?" Kisuke asked, eyes narrowed ahead of him.

Kiba focused a bit, and became very much aware of the sound. It sent a shiver up his spine. "Is that… Is that a someone breathing? It almost sounds like a monster!"

"And its coming from…" Kensei closed his eyes to concentrate on the breathing, then snapped them open in shock. "The pit!"

"Sakura!" the blond cat gasped, then jumped forward toward where the pit was located.

But Kisuke grabbed the cat just before she could look over the edge. That was a saving grace, though, as the cat would have been crushed by a bloody hand that came over the edge of the pit and cracked the ground as it clawed its way up.

"What the devil?" Kensei asked, brown eyes wide as Sakura came over the edge like a zombie from a late-night television show.

Sakura rasped loudly like a dying animal as she crawled up and out of the pit.

But this… thing… was not Sakura at all.

The whites of its eyes had turned completely black. The jade green of Sakura's eyes had turned to yellow irises that looked sickly. Its tongue lolled out of its mouth like a deprived creature who wanted a taste of human flesh. It moved with unnatural twinges and twitches, its neck snapped from one side to the other as it stared at the group.

"WAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" this thing bellowed in wicked laughter that shook the ground, "FREE! FREE! FREE FROM IT ALL! FREE AT LAST! THAT FOOL DIDN'T KNOW WHAT SHE WAS DOING, BUT NOW I'M FREE AT LAST!"

Kisuke narrowed his eyes at the Sakura-imposter. Just what in the world was this thing?

It snapped its head toward them, then licked its lips as if they appeared delicious. "Sakura was a fool! Fearing death? Ha! She's been so afraid her whole life, but at last I'm now free!"

Then it surprised them all by rushing toward them with a burst of speed they had no idea was coming. The group scattered, and it went after Kiba, who defended himself from its bloody clawing attacks with blocks and parries.

"I'm going to kill you all for putting me in that pit! Then I'll thank your graves for setting me free! WAHAHAHAHAH!" the evil creature laughed insanely as Kiba kicked it away, and into a boulder, which cracked upon impact.

"What the hell are you?" Kiba asked, heaving in breath from the sudden attack. The creature only laughed more as it closed the distance between them in the blink of an eye.

Only to be stomped into the ground by Ino, who had transformed back into her regular appearance from that of a cat.

"What fun! Oh, what fun! What fun!" the deranged monstrosity cackled as it picked its face up from the crater it had made. "Oh, but can't you tell, chew toy? I AM SAKURA! WAHAHAHA!"

"The hell you are, you twisted spawn!" Ino spat, spinning around to deliver a kick to its face that sent it flipping back toward Shikamaru, who was just finishing up a wire trap that imprisoned the malice thing. "You're about as much Sakura as I am fat."

"Oh, then you must be getting tubby there, chubbs, because I am Sakura Haruno!" the creature said with the vilest smirk the group had ever seen. It struggled against the wiring, but it couldn't seem to break free. The wires were beginning to dig into its skin, creating small cuts.

By this point, all pretenses and transformations were dropped. Naruto, Sasuke, Choji, and Hinata joined the other three.

Each was fully ready for a fight.

"How did this happen? What went wrong? She was barely down there for a few hours." Naruto asked, looking more worried than fearful like his cohorts.

"Oh, it's not really your faults. It's just all inside me! You're getting a good look at the real wild side." The twisted version of Sakura sang, its head bobbing some as it still struggled to get free. Blood was now flowing freely from a multitude of cuts along its arms and legs that were bound in wire. "When the tough gets going, I come out to play! WAHAHAHA! This is what it looks like to lose your mind! WAHAHAHA!"

"What do we do?" Hinata fretted, "Should we contact the Hokage?"

"We'll have to." Shikamaru sighed. "Our top priority is Sakura's safety and wellbeing. We couldn't have possibly known something like… this… would be unleashed. A medic-ninja at the hospital will be able to reverse this… whatever this is. At least… that's my hope…"

"Oh, so quick to assume! I love it!" the anti-Sakura grinned, showing all her teeth in a creepy fashion. "But just how will you do that, I wonder? I'm not going back! I refuse! Guess little old Sakura will just have to die here and now, then!"

"What the—?" Sasuke's eyes widened as this twisted version of Sakura tried to rip herself apart by forcing her body against the wires. "Cut the wires! She'll bleed out!"

Shikamaru cursed as he snapped the main wire, causing all the others to drop limply.

"Hahaha! Gotcha!" evil Sakura cackled as she dropped to the ground, and leapt at Shikamaru. She threw blood in his face, stinging his eyes, before grabbing him by the neck. Shikamaru was just barely able to save himself by kicking her leg, making her hesitate in snapping his neck enough for Kiba and Hinata to come to his rescue.

Kiba struck Sakura in the back while Hinata hit her with Gentle Fist strike to the stomach. Sakura coughed up blood, but spun with the two attacks and drop-kicked Kiba into the ground while punching Hinata into the air.

"How is she still moving so well?" Ino asked as she rushed into the fight alongside Sasuke. The two started combating the black-eyed Sakura with standard Taijutsu, but it became increasingly apparent that this thing was not fighting like the Sakura they knew at all. "She's lost plenty of blood. She should be down for the count by now!"

"Look out!" Naruto yelled, but it was too late. Ino found herself in a grapple that had Sasuke's foot buried at her windpipe. Ino gasped and hacked as her breathing was shot to hell, right before she was thrown into Sasuke and the two were used as stepping stones for the evil Sakura to reach Naruto.

Naruto was not so easily shaken though. He stood his ground, defending himself by throwing the oncoming Sakura into a boulder when she flew at him. The wicked pinkette laughed as she pulled herself from the impression her body had made in the rock. "You are something else… whatever you are… You don't move like Sakura. You don't talk like her. But I guess you have all her smarts and stuff."

Naruto's eyes narrowed, and Sakura smirked viciously at him. "And those wounds… they're healing really fast. Those cuts have stopped bleeding, and so have your fingers. I guess you just ignore pain and press onward toward whatever you set your sights on. It's like all of Sakura's body and mind got a supercharge…"

"I don't like you very much. You talk too much, and you reek of power! Terrifying power! I cannot let you live! You must should DIE!" Sakura screamed, charging at Naruto with something gleaming in her hand.

"Naruto! Look out! She's got a kunai!" Kiba yelled, helping Hinata up of the ground.

"Dammit!" Sasuke cursed, feeling his kunai pouch empty of his emergency weapon. That crazy girl had stolen it from him.

"Naruto, move!" Ino shouted, seeing that Naruto had not bothered to move an inch, even as the dark Sakura raced toward him with the kunai aiming for his stomach.

"You're not Sakura… but you have Sakura's body…" Naruto said, standing rooted to the spot. His eyes were fierce with determination "We brought her into this… I can't bring myself to do what's needed for bringing you down… It would only hurt Sakura…"

"Then all the better for me! WAHAHAHAHA!" dark Sakura laughed manically as she aimed to gut Naruto like a fish.

A shadow leapt from behind the rocks, and the clashing of two metals rang out.

All eyes widened upon seeing a completely unknown figure with inky black hair who was protecting Naruto with the use of a wakizashi short sword.

"Oh my…" the pale-skinned stranger said with extremely narrowed eyes and the grin of a Cheshire cat, "That sure was a close one, hmm. Wouldn't you agree… Capt'n?"

A/N: And so, the other boot has dropped. We now have Sakura and a mystery kid in the Divisions!

Until Next Time, See Ya!