Chapter five: Let's take them
It had been one hell of a day.
Ino was absolutely horrified. Her heart was beating faster than it had ever before, she had trouble breathing and she felt like she could pass out at any moment. She was most likely having a panic attack, but she couldn't stop. She had terror written all over her face and she was starting to feel numb in the lower parts of her body. She was absolutely sure that if she were to stay in one place, she would be found dead in that same spot. It was like she was a living character in the worst horror story she'd ever heard.
The blonde princess could barely hold her eyes open as she didn't want to even watch where she was going. Her mind was battling with her body about keeping her eyes open. But she really couldn't help herself. It was almost like every time she chose to change direction and turned around, she saw someone there. But when she looked really hard, there was nobody actually there. It was the creepiest she'd ever felt, her mind was playing tricks on her and she on the brink of bursting out to tears. Paranoia had her almost shaking, it was a miracle she remembered to breathe every now and then. She had a feeling that she was being watched and that is never a good feeling to have.
This lead to her just dashing in random directions, constantly changing where she was going and if it wasn't under the circumstances - it would've looked pretty funny.
"JESUS CHRIST WHY DOES LIFE HAVE TO BE SO DAMN HARD?!" Ino let out a frustrated scream, as if all the emotions she'd been keeping inside since their journey began just united into one loud and clear sentence. She could feel tears welling up in her eyes and making her vision blurry, but she didn't even bother wiping them away. She just let them fall down her ivory cheeks. She honestly couldn't keep her emotions stored up inside her, so she just let it all out in a very unladylike manner, unfit for a princess.
She cursed the shit out of everything.
Really loudly.
And she was not holding back.
Ino wanted to scream, shout, yell, cry, punch the living shit out of something, run, hide, then beat up something again out of pure anger and finally just die. Well, maybe not the last part. Everything else yes, but dying couldn't have have been what she wanted since she was currently trying really hard to avoid it.
Except cursing and screaming did not help her stay alive what so ever.
Her voice echoed through the forest. If she were to stop running and yelling for a second, it would've probably been dead silent apart from the sound of her own ragged breathing. It started to seem like a good idea to Ino. She knew that there was absolutely no point in running, but it prolonged the feeling of being alive, so she thought that it was worth it. At least she'd die knowing that she tried her hardest until the very last moment.
Ino's feet were really starting to hurt. She was the only one with proper shoes for the terrain, which had helped her a little bit. She didn't have blisters or anything like that, but her legs were starting to get tired and her whole lower body was starting to ache terribly. But still, she kept running forward. Well, her life was on the line here so who could blame a girl for trying.
All the adrenaline coursing through her veins was blurring her thought process, so all that she was able to process in her mind was along the lines of 'death, run, hurt, eek and why did I skip those bloody jogs around the courtyard'.
The sound of a horse's hooves pounding against the ground snapped Ino back into reality. She couldn't accurately pinpoint the actual direction the sounds were coming from, but she could clearly tell that they were getting closer. The second she took her eyes off where she was running to look behind her, she could feel the very tip of her foot get caught in something and she knew exactly what was going to happen.
She tripped on something, which was apparently a rock, and flew forwards finally falling flat on her face.
"Oh this is JUST great!" Ino sarcastically mumbled, not even really bothering to lift her face up from the dirt.
Her whole body ached. She stayed conscious, that was great. Ino managed to roll herself on to her back, and lifted her hand up to brush away the biggest patches of dirt from her face. Next she opened her eyes, growling from the pain that was slowly crawling up her body. Slowly she started moving, feeling that all her limbs were more or less in their dedicated places and nothing was severely damaged. Well, apart from her pride.
"Does it always have to be me?" the blonde princess sighed out of pure exhaustion and closed her eyes. Next she had to get up, which sounded easy, but with all of her energy completely drained, Ino almost felt like there was no chance in hell she would be getting on her feet. All she wanted to do was breathe and lay there. Just breathe for a good few minutes and not do anything. Her body wouldn't be able to take any more of this horribleness.
But there was only time for catching her breath. Ino knew she couldn't just lie on her back and do nothing - even though it was very tempting. She rolled back onto her stomach and pushed herself onto her knees with all the strength she had in her arms. With both hands pressed against her right knee, she started to push herself up, using all her remaining strength to get back on her two feet.
Suddenly she could feel the air around her move. It wasn't a normal breeze, she knew something was off. She couldn't see anything in front of her, which meant that the only way anything could possibly surprise her if it came from behind her. But how could she know if something was behind her without looking?
The princess listened carefully and didn't hear nothing. She'd stayed put for what appeared to be a forever. Now, Ino wasn't the most patient one out of the princesses, and it didn't take long until she got sick and tired of waiting for something to happen since clearly nothing was going to happen. So she let out a frustrated sigh and released herself from the tensed up state her body had been in.
She readied herself to continue her journey, shaking her legs and brushing her hands over her body to manage to get off most of the dirt and plant life she'd managed to get on herself. But Ino could still feel the odd atmosphere. She took a few steps, first just walking. Nothing happened. Then a few quicker ones, which were to get her speed up so that her running would start out smoother. Still nothing. Now she was in full run, maybe ten steps in, and something happened.
First she felt her arms being pulled to body and her chest constricted. Next went her legs, when she suddenly lost control of her movements when her lower limbs suddenly didn't move as she wanted them to. Now Ino's mind registered that she was really fucking screwed up.
And she fell flat on her face.
Again.
"You know this constant falling is really starting to piss me off!" Ino screamed, feeling that her limbs weren't moving like she wanted them to. She wiggled and contorted her body all kinds of ways, trying to free herself from the apparent restraints constricting her movements and breathing. Not successfully, obviously.
Suddenly Ino could feel herself being lifted off the ground by a rope which was tightly pressing her arms against her core. She managed to get a glimpse of a similar rope that tied her feet together before her body was spun around so that she was faced with the person who was lifting her up. Ino's face wasn't far away from her attacker's, her blue cerulean eyes staring into the dark brown eyes of the man now towering over her.
"The first time was your own fault."
His nonchalant, sarcastic voice echoed in the princess' ears, which made a vein in her forehead almost pop. But before she could come up with a snarky response, he pulled her to her feet.
"Hey!" Ino protested when he grabbed her hands and tied them tightly behind her back. "What the hell are you doing?"
"That's for me to know and you to find out."
Ino pressed her lips tightly together, holding back whatever was on her mind. She had been correct, this was definitely how she was going to die. Here and now, and she couldn't do anything about it.
Ino watched as her attacked pulled out a knife and her mind filled up with panic. Tears welled up in her eyes, her heart rate spiked up. This was her end. She prepared for the worst and closed her eyes, waiting for the impact of her flesh and the cold hard metal. But none of that happened.
The brown haired man cut the ropes that restricted her feet from moving. Ino could feel her heart rate slowly calming down, she carefully moved her legs.
"Now walk." Ino could feel his hand holding onto the ropes that tied her hands together. Ino tried to get away by resisting and struggling so that he would lose his grip, but he took a tight grip of her ponytail and yanked her head back so that her body came to contact with his.
"Nuh-uh, your idiotic escape attempts will only get you hurt." His tired i-told-you-so voice in her ear was really pissing Ino off, but he was so close to her that she could only think of the hot breath against the sensitive skin of her neck. Plus she wanted to keep all of the precious hair she could and not have any more of it ripped off. She needed to come up with a better escape plan, but she needed it fast. She wasn't sure how much time she had left.
Now he pushed her forward, so that she would walk. This time there was little to no space between them, he had a tight grip on both her hair and her hands. An unfamiliar scent flowed through the air and she didn't have to guess twice who it belonged to.
Suddenly a light bulb lit inside of her head and her lips curved into a mischievous smirk.
'Wind, I need your help.'
Ino could feel a rush of energy comb through her entire body. She could feel tingles go up and down her body, like the energy inside of her core was releasing itself into a beautiful dance. She knew that now was it, it would be now or never.
So she forcefully started to struggle, move and resist with all the strength she had in herself. Her attacker obviously started to fight back and tried to keep her under control. He watched her struggle, but he knew that there was no chance that she would get away.
With a rough grip he tried to grab her neck so that he could really keep the girl from getting these annoying fits, but he could no longer see the messy blonde hair in front of him. He'd just felt it in his hand and it was now gone. He stumbled back and stared at the spot the girl had been in just a few seconds ago. The girl had just disappeared.
"Where the hell did she go?" He kept searching for that same blonde hair from all around him, but the search was pointless.
What he didn't know was that Ino was now long gone running away, invisible.
Sakura was the last one to get away. Honestly the whole situation had freaked her out really badly and her hiding spot turned out to be the worst she could've possibly picked. The slippery moss-covered rocks that her spot was surrounded by weren't the best things to try to run on. So she got the worst start out of all the four princesses, nearly falling down before she'd really even gotten away. It was pure luck that she managed to get out of there on her two feet, without any injuries and amazingly - alive. Now she needed to make up for having a - wait for it - rocky start, so she ran the fastest she could.
What she didn't know that she was being followed.
Cold wind hit the pinkette's face, causing a stream of tears slide down from the corners of her eyes. She could taste the salty liquid on her lips, but didn't bother to wipe them away. In a way the tears were making her feel relieved, like when crying helps unleash bottled up feelings. This was pretty much that. She would run until she couldn't run anymore. Maybe that meant she would make it to the border, maybe it didn't. Was death really a worse ending than arranged marriage? Well, yes, but Sakura was way past the point of no return. She wouldn't be able to wiggle her way out of this one.
Her balance was shaken when she felt a tight grip on her shoulder pulling her back. The pinkette managed to shake herself loose and remain free, but her built up speed was now gone and she had to stop. Running away felt too cowardly for her now anyway. Her eyes were filled with anger and terror, adrenaline was coursing through her veins and she was ultimately just pissed now that she thought about it. She did not climb out of the highest window for nothing, she did not just travel beyond everything she knew without any food, water or sleep to be killed by some guy with weird hair. No, that was not how her story was going to end.
She turned to face the man who had chased her, her emerald eyes landing on him. If the situation hadn't been as serious as it was, she would've probably burst out laughing. The weird spiky haircut of the black haired rider really did look even worse now that she was closer. She could feel the giggle bubbling up her throat, but she controlled herself.
The distance between them wasn't much, roughly a few meters if she was lucky. Sakura knew that it wasn't a distance long enough where she could actually have a chance of escaping. Guess she would have to face the man now standing in front of her. And not laugh, even if his hair was ridiculous.
"Leave us."
Sakura tried to sound the coldest she ever could. But as hard as she tried to sound dangerous and show little to no emotion, the rider did not even flinch. What she didn't expect was his mouth curving into a small yet arrogant grin.
"I can't do that," he said smirking. "That wouldn't be any fun."
Sakura's eyes widened and she felt her heart rate fasten. She felt her body tense up and she was in full fight or flight mode. She knew that conflict was inevitable and the guy just admitted that he had no intentions of backing down and leaving her alone. In her mind, there was no other way this could've gone and she had to make hard choices.
But when the rider started to take steps towards her, even though they were calm and slow, the tension that had built up inside of her caused her to react. She moved to land a punch on him before he would be able to attack her. Theoretically it was a good plan, and it could've worked, if he hadn't grabbed Sakura's wrist mid air and stopped her attack. He dangled Sakura by the arm, silently examining her with his onyx black eyes.
"You're going to have to do a lot better than that."
Sakura wanted to scream. She wanted someone to know what was happening to her, but she just could not get a sensible sound out of her mouth. His grip on her wrist was tight and the fact that he was pulling her upwards by it was even more painful. But what was really freaking her out was that he was really close to her. Before she could even think about personal space, she felt a familiar pulsation going through her body.
She had no control over what was happening. The pinkette could feel her body going on defensive mode, but she had no idea what she was doing or how she was doing it. Then something twisted inside of her core so hard that Sakura almost twitched from pain. In the corner of her eye Sakura saw something fly right at her and her attacker so fast that she had no time to even react.
But the rider had to let go of her and pushed her body back in an effort of dodging the large boulder himself. It came way too close for comfort. So close to colliding with the two that Sakura could feel the drift of it when it flew past and crashed into a tree, knocking it down. Sakura was taken aback by what had just happened, but she also knew that this was her chance and that if she were to make a run for it, the time would be now.
Sakura couldn't even blink before he'd moved and appeared right in front of her face, wrapping his fingers around her slender throat. She couldn't even register how inhumanly fast he'd moved, but the feeling of pressure on her trachea caused her to panic. The princess tried to fight his arm off and dug her nails deep into the skin of the arm that was restricting her breathing.
Sakura expected to get some reaction out of the damn guy, but once again he showed no sign of being hurt even with droplets of blood trickling down his muscular arm. What the hell was up with this guy?
"So that's why you ran." His words were left ringing in Sakura's ears when she was lifted off her feet by the throat. He watched her struggle to breathe before forcefully throwing her aside to the ground.
Sakura literally saw stars. Her whole body was hurting after her collision with mother earth, but even if she wanted to get a word out, she needed to breathe first. Sakura brought her hand protectively over her throat. She watched her attacker get closer to her but wasn't able to move away quickly enough.
'This guy can't be human,' Sakura thought before her chest was pinned to the ground by one of the rider's knees pushing down on her.
The pinkette stared deep into the piercing onyx orbs that were observing her. He lifted her chin up with his fingers, examining her face closely.
"You're an interesting one."
Sakura had to admit. He was really attractive. His strong features framed his face perfectly, his skin was perfect - even his eyelashes were. But she needed to remember that his guy was going to kill her, so there shouldn't even be the faintest thought about his attractiveness on her mind.
So the pinkette tried her hardest to glare at the dark haired man, but nope. He didn't even seem to notice.
"You won't get away with this."
Sakura instantly regretted saying anything, because now he actually looked in her eyes and the coldness of his stare gave her goosebumps all over. But his dry laugh was what really started to piss the pinkette off. Was he really laughing at her? Not being taken seriously had really been an issue with her in her kingdom and she would not take it any more. She ran away from it with the possibility of dying and now she had nothing to lose.
But the rider seemed to be amused by Sakura's evident change of attitude. "And annoying."
This addition caused something to boil inside of the princess, a vein in her forehead to pop out and a delicious burst of power started to bubble in her core.
"Get. off. ME!" Sakura yelled and pushed all the power she had left into this one last move she was able to control.
Her emerald eyes glistened with hate as she watched tree roots shoot out of the ground and wrap themselves around her attacker and pulling him off of her. Surprised by Sakura's move, the man tried to shake and force the bloody plants off himself, but he was pulled away from the girl and his movements were restricted.
Watching the dark haired man struggle with the roots gave the princess so much satisfaction, but now she really had to leave. Sakura managed to get back up on her feet and started running. It didn't matter where, just anywhere she could. Her pace wasn't the best, she'd taken some major hits in her core and had a small limp in her run but there was no turning back. She would continue on.
Then a bright bolt of lightning that illuminated the whole forest for a second split the sky. After the bright light disappeared, came the rain and massive thunder. Sakura was soaked in seconds, it was like someone was just pouring bucketfuls of water on her, which was weird since it had been really nice weather literally minutes before.
'What the actual hell is this weather?' Sakura thought while wiping away water from her face and shielding her eyes from getting any more water on them.
The weather had turned upside down. It had been such nice weather, the sunlight had peeked through the little holes tree branches couldn't block. But now it was raining cats and dogs, and the loud noise of constant thunder was overpowering her hearing. The ground was getting slippery, which made staying up on her two feet harder and harder. Her pink hair was dripping wet and was sticking to her skin, water dripping down her neck. Now even the weather was against her?
The change of weather had all of the pinkette's focus, so she didn't even see her attacker get up from the ground. His eyes were glued to her, his lips slowly curving when watching the pink haired girl's form slowly get farther and farther.
"This is getting interesting."
Sakura peeked behind her, where she didn't see the rider. Only ripped up and dead vines where he should've been tied to the ground. Now she really needed to quicken up her pace if she wanted to get away. Sakura managed to take a few big leaps before she felt a surge of pain going through her body, and her fast pace just died. She didn't fall or stumble, but she'd just stopped. The pinkette was completely frozen in place, unable to move her body in any way.
Sakura tried to move her legs, nothing happened. She tried to move her hands, still nothing. She tried to turn her head, but she still couldn't get herself to move. It was like her body wasn't obeying her at all, as if she was disconnected to her own body.
Raindrops fell down to her face, dripping down her fair complexion. Thunder rang in her ears and another bright lightning bolt illuminated the forest around her. She could see another shadow behind her frozen form, which meant that he was right behind her.
"Weak."
Sakura felt a sharp pain in the back of her neck, which caused her vision to softly blur before completely blacking out
Sasuke caught the girl before she hit the ground. Now that she was unconscious, he could really have a good look at her. She was very slender, probably hadn't eaten anything for a few days. Her unusually coloured hair was dripping wet and partially stuck to her face and neck. Her eyes were closed, her lips slightly parted. She looked peaceful, finally. She was something he'd never seen before.
He lifted the girl's limp body up and carried her back to the pond where their horses were. Water was dripping down from his chin, but he had no free hands to wipe the water away. When he finally got to the horses, he laid her down next to them, under a tree where she would be somewhat shielded from the elements.
It didn't take long until his friends either came back with the girls or came back their way chasing them. The weather wasn't that bad now either, the raining had toned down into a soft trickle that created a calming sound when the droplets hit the tree leaves.
First arrived Naruto, who'd managed to capture the purple haired girl and was now dragging her with him. He was holding onto her hair and neck with one hand and her wrists with the other. She was still conscious and tried to fight off Naruto, who tried his best to hold her.
"Calm down, I'm not going to hurt you!" Naruto tried telling the girl, who was beyond hearing anything he tried to tell her.
Next arrived their lavender-eyed friend, Neji, who was carrying an unconscious, completely beaten up Tenten in his arms. She was an absolute mess. She had bruises all over her body and she was clearly bleeding from a few places. Neji had a limp in his walk and you could clearly see that she'd done some damage to him too. He definitely looked like he'd been in a fight. He didn't look as bad as the girl she was carrying, but his hair was a mess, the side of his neck had bruising and his arms were bruised, bloody or - burned?
Sasuke couldn't help but grin at the sight. Neji was absolutely pissed and Sasuke was loving it. "Got beaten up by a girl, huh?"
Neji angrily glared at him. If he wasn't carrying the girl, he probably would've done something worse. "Shut it."
Next up a screaming flash of blonde hair went by, Shikamaru not too far behind her on his horse. All three of the guys watched Shikamaru chase the blonde girl while she ran around in circles. For a while it was amusing, but after the third time of going around the same trees and the girl still running and screaming, it was starting to get a little boring.
Sasuke whistled to get the attention of Shikamaru, who was focused on following the girl. He glanced over to them and saw that all of the other girls were already caught. He and Sasuke exchanged looks without saying anything and he responded with a nod. He knew exactly what to do. Shikamaru stopped his horse and slammed his hands together, forming a sign with his hands.
This caused the running blonde to instantly fall down to the ground. The girl in Naruto's arms also lost her balance, but she didn't hit the ground like her friend, because she had someone holding onto her who kept her from hitting the ground. This though had no effect on the two already unconscious girls, who just lied still and didn't move.
"Why the HELL did we do this?" Shikamaru asked, clearly annoyed. He rubbed his right temple and tiredly glanced over to the blonde girl who was lying on the ground a few meters from him.
"Well we came to hunt, didn't we?" Sasuke nonchalantly answered, shrugging.
His response wasn't making anyone happy.
"Well what do you suppose we do with THEM now?" Neji asked, motioning to the unconscious girl in his arms.
Sasuke brushed the black locks away from his neck and ran his fingers over the dark tattoo-like birthmark. He glanced over to the pink haired girl. He knew what she'd been hiding, there was only one option for them.
"Let's take them."
❧ Goddess of Glam