35. Last chapter I asked if I should start a side-story or write in here as interludes but no one said anything in their reviews (gasp :( But the reviews were lovely though!) Uh, so I'll ask here again. So!
Dear Readers,
Should I start a new side story list, or should I just write them in as interludes?
If you'd rather not review or PM, please do head over to the poll :) on my profile. I will tally the numbers up and tell you all next chapter. If it's a side story, I'll post it when the next chapter is due. If it's following interludes, I will post that here too. This really doesn't affect content, but I just wanted to know what you all prefer.
It was funny to think that Itachi-san would concoct such an elaborate Genjutsu till the most minute detail of Tenzo's intelligent response but forget that she was supposed to hurt if she were speared through the chest.
She laughs because she can breathe – even though the male's hand is clamped around her throat she's breathing easily. She throws her chain out and stops flailing uselessly, chains exploding from her like her chakra is limitless because it's an illusion and she can do whatever she wants.
The invaders shift immediately in response, they all protect the one with the longest hair. It's a male with hair spiked upwards but long sideburns – his face is stern even without the expression on his face.
With eye lines not so different from Itachi's, Sakura wonders what's so important about him.
She kills the girl who dropped Hinata first because she was the closest.
They're like corpses without a single reaction when their comrade falls. The girl she couldn't fault for a lack of reaction since there isn't much delay between dying and having your heart pushed out the back your chest.
That male blurs into action, making hand seals.
Sakura has a bad feeling about this bad dream of hers so she sends her chains after that one, forcing him to move away.
Just in time too, since a sealing array blooms across the ground. Without the summoner being inside it soon fizzles out.
And just to be safe, a couple of her chains abscond with the body of that dead girl.
The rest of them don't simply stand there as she would like them too, the round-headed one leaps from his teammate's corpse and she feels her chains weakening as his hands touch her constructs.
"Chakra-absorber is Eggy and Seals-user is Frowny."
Ino-look-alike hangs back, not engaging her and she guesses that that ninja must be a Ninjutsu-type.
Machine-arm opens fire on her – the first time she has encountered machines sophisticated enough to fire like a homing missile and she looks into those purple eyes as her chains come up like a wall.
They detonate in her face, smoke obscuring her vision.
She's flying backwards but there isn't a single building all around for her to be slammed into.
Wrapping herself in chains she bounces like a hamster ball, rolling till the momentum is gone.
Already the ninja are upon her, she notes how again, two stay back and two rush her.
Where is that pesky last – she's yanked vertically upwards, limbs flagging uselessly.
The sudden motion results in just enough inertia, the black rod slides as easily out of her chest.
She knows it is a dream so she doesn't look down to question why am I not bleeding?
The last one who both pushes and pulls her has his hand outstretched.
She acts like she's helpless, waits till he slides another rod out from his other sleeve.
She impales him on spiked chains, momentum carrying them clean through and upwards into the sky, diverting the rod that would have otherwise gone through her head into her shoulder.
The slight widening of eyes is all she gets before they drop into freefall.
Machine shoots off his fingers as missiles, trying to cut her off from the push-pull guy's corpse.
Sakura drops into a crouch, chains gathering their second body.
Round-head is behind her, she feels her chakra draining out and she floods him with it – it's a genjutsu and I'm not running out of chakra so he has to give.
Ino-lookalike is there, staring at her with a damnably curious look on his face.
Flashstepping to have a little distance, Sakura moves towards the dead girl only to watch a grotesque head swallow it, chain and all.
She cries out, teeth and jaws clamping down on her, large crescents gouged into her skin, feels the body in her grasp liquidise and then solidify into a lump of rearranged bits that are finally spat out by the head.
Her chains are readily healing her wounds, also faithfully keeping their hold on the mangled form of the kunoichi.
Tangled as they are, they are no worse for wear compared to the clearly dead shinobi who has an arm fused to a joint at an odd angle.
Ah, so he's supposed to heal them.
As she lunges for Healer, the head he summoned rolls its eyes and vanishes in a puff of smoke.
A hand lands itself on her head but she shakes it off, feeling for once an actual tug on her chakra.
The Healer falls before the chakra absorber gets to her.
Since the healer is down Sakura assumes that they are close to finished.
She let her guard down and well, wasn't that a great idea?
A couple of short rods pierce her in a randomised pattern, the eight critical points of a human being's body and she blinks because she is bleeding.
Sakura blinks hard, blinks a few more times and suddenly the six ninja are standing before her, all fully intact, with some very conscious hostages.
Oh, was that not real after all?
The blood loss is getting to her instead of the chakra expenditure and she notes, the rods embedded in her frame are glowing blue.
It hits her and she asks push-and-pull, "These are chakra receivers, aren't they?"
Without waiting for his response, she pulls.
"The chakra has got to come from somewhere. If all of you have these then your chakra is coming from one person. It can't be nature chakra because I would have died."
The ninja moves to attack her but she's whisked away at the last moment.
Sakura watches as wood sprouts from the ground to separate the captives from their captors.
As they move, the ground becomes exceedingly far and she murmurs softly, "Don't drop me."
"You took rather long to catch on, Sakura-san. I had almost thought you would not get the cues I dropped you."
She rests and heals as the Uchiha flits across the ground.
None of the invaders gives chase so she assumes that this is within the plan of the Akatsuki leader.
"Are you taking me to the chakra battery of the ninja? He must be the true leader."
"I'm bringing you to heal him, Sakura-san. Those are my orders. Capture one Haruno Sakura."
Humming she gazes idly back at the crumbling wall of Konoha proper.
"Should I be trying to escape then, Itachi-san?"
"Inadvisable. I will be forced to kill you so I do not compromise my position."
She relaxes, focussing on producing more chakra and healing her injuries.
By the time Itachi slows down, Sakura is nearly back at her most functional.
The moment she stepped past that curtain of vines she lost control of her own limbs.
The receivers along her arms, chest and legs glowed brightly – weighing her down like lead and she fell to the ground.
"Haruno… Sakura..,"
A low, rasping voice greets her. Her traitorous limbs lift her into a kneeling position and her head snaps upwards.
"I will heal you," she says, "But I need to be in control of my chakra to do that. If you try you will only hurt yourself."
The enemy doesn't buy her ploy, moving her hands and using muscle memory to begin the Mystical Palm Jutsu.
With a little force, she causes her chakra flow to sputter, flooding the male's system with unfiltered chakra and burning him in the process.
He drops her to the floor and she only gives him an even look, saying, 'I told you so.'
A lady melts out from the shadows and meticulously yanks the receivers out of her body.
Paper seals her wounds, that same paper binds her legs.
"Heal him, Leaf ninja."
"Why do you trust me, kunoichi-san?"
Piercing amber eyes meeting her green, the lady with lavender hair adorned with paper flowers dismisses her with a flick of those eyes.
"Nagato can revive your village. If you heal him, that is. It is your choice, Konoha-nin."
Sakura's lips quirk, raising her hand and compacting her fingers to chop, blue whirring to life.
"I don't particularly care about the village, kunoichi-san."
The lady has her restrained before the sickly male even coughs.
She notes the emaciated body with rib bones sticking out, matted red hair falling like a curtain but not enough to hide the purple-ringed eyes.
Not that she does not believe in the male's power but that she doesn't care.
"Konan, enough."
Nagato addresses her directly.
"The six people plus the wood user are in my grasp. Any moment I can kill them. As easily as I kill I can revive. Among the already dead is your sensei, Hatake. Will you still refuse, Haruno Sakura?"
She mulls over it, pretends to, knows her traitorous heart is beginning to falter.
"I doubt you could have killed sensei. He's sneaky like that."
The male's lips tighten imperceptibly.
"Do you know a lady called Tenkawa?"
Sakura freezes.
"I can read minds at the cost of the life who holds that information," the red-head replies conversationally, "now tell me, did you know that she was married to your foster father?"
She rears back in shock, disregarding the lead weighing down her body, "He's not my foster father."
"I didn't even tell you who is 'he'. Must I find out if your little brother hates you for killing his mother for you to give in?"
Her chains latch onto his chakra system and cut off the outflows.
"You will revive them. Right now."
Still he muses as if she can't just kill him there and then, "I am an Uzumaki. Chains are our speciality. And yet you try using this bastardised form on me..? Konan, go, catch up with Itachi and finish off Konoha. I can deal with this child alone."
The paper-user does not object.
Sakura tells him, "Naruto would be ashamed to have a relative like you."
Oh, it's dirty but she's nearly desperate.
"Would he? Or would be ashamed of you, Haruno Sakura?"
She smiles thinly.
"Naruto-chan knows exactly what kind of person I am. If you made him choose, you would break his heart, Nagato-san. Now throw in how you hurt Sasuke-chan's brother, killed sensei… who do you think he'll side with?"
Her chains glow green and thicken, her chakra fills him and forces itself out through his chakra rods.
The red-head watches her movement and stays quiet for a brief period.
"I see that incentives were the wrong way to go about dealing with you."
She vents her chakra through him, healing him then redirecting that chakra away from his coils, keeping him on the cusp of health but not quite enough for him to put up a fight.
"Did you have another way planned, Nagato-san?"
He turns her chains on her, absorbing chakra like the other one did, floats her in the air so he's just out of her reach but doesn't hurt her.
"Ah, so they aren't real. You're the only one alive. That's why they need the rods, if not they have no chakra, no abilities."
He sets her down gently, his hunched figure in the machine shadowed by the paper walls around them.
"You're a little slower than what Itachi assured me, but you will do. Haruno Sakura, become Akatsuki's medic. Your skills are evident in the conduction of chakra through rods made of mine. We require your aid if we are to revive your village."
The machine whirrs and extends her a chakra transmitter to hold.
She knows, she knows, maybe this isn't the way things are supposed to go but she complies and pumps the frail male full of healing chakra, conducting them through his chains, pulling chakra from the paper walls and the trees she can feel around them.
He initiates some jutsu, she feels his muscle dissolving right beneath her fingertips and she shuts off his chakra valves.
Sakura's chains have spiderwebbed to cover all the surfaces of their crumbling cave, the groan of the environment whose life she's draining – ah that covers her voice.
"I don't care who doesn't manage to get revived, but I am going to keep you alive for Naru-naru. You are not… allowed to die."
Good kid, she thinks as she sets to work on his skeletal structure.
There are no more funny jutsu for the time being, she allows herself to be immersed in her work.
"You didn't have a good childhood, did you? You didn't grow up in Uzushio at any rate."
Her binds are tight but the male's lips are loose.
"I grew up in Ame. Eventually, Jiraiya was the one to tell me that I was an Uzumaki. But by then, Uzushio was gone."
She augments his hollow bones, supplies his system with more chakra so it stops eating his flesh to sustain itself.
"Rain? During the civil war period, I'm guessing. Your bone records show a period of famine when you were younger, you're not as old as you look. Even now, you're not eating properly. After this, I'll have Itachi bring you supplements."
Despite the male's red hair being streaked with white and grey, she places him in his thirties, early forties.
A male who doesn't eat, doesn't sleep, doesn't exercise and who looks twice his age.
She fills in his frame with solidified packs of his and her chakra.
"If my long-term health is of such concern to you then you should join us. After all, I have already stated that we have a medic position open."
Her chains form little chakra nodules in his system, lowering his maximum outflow.
"The pay is good, Sakura-san," Itachi adds as he returns.
He lays a mirage style genjutsu over her vision to show her the sight of Konoha, flattened.
"I'll think about it, Nagato-san, but not now."
As more chakra from the environment is placed into the ninja, his hair brightens to a maroon instead of the previous dried blood shade.
"Itachi, are you still keeping time?"
"Calculating time, and yes, Leader-sama. We have two hours before our chances dip below fifty percent."
Sakura keeps at her work, suffusing the machine with healing chakra meant to release at intervals, filling the seals Konan offers up.
"Peace will only exist when people stop fighting. Sakura, I will show you that our way is the only way."
She tugs off his purple chains, quietly replying, "If that is what it takes for peace to be achieved, then it will happen only if this world ceases to exist."
The Rinnegan user appears not to hear.
"I will place my receivers in you to use you as a conduit. You will receive my chakra and help me revive all those who have been killed today. Itachi will carry you back to the village, the only thing you need to do is to remember not to struggle."
Her chains wrap around the black receivers, masking the chakra signature with hers. Itachi aids her in adorning her collarbones with the little studs – genjutsu handy as always in masking the pain.
The other animated corpses are waiting for them, healer-corpse steps forward to take her.
His (its?) soothing chakra washes over her, sedating her natural response.
Nagato calmly informs her in her head that, "I will be taking over control now. Anyone who looks at you will see the Rinnegan in your eyes. If later, this causes a problem, you can claim ignorance. Itachi will back you up if in the end, you decide you don't want to join.
Her fingers (And their fingers) form simple enough seals. They shake as her eyes catch sight of cooling bodies beneath her (their) feet.
Healer summons the grotesque head again, "It's the King of Hell, Sakura. Now is not the time to resist."
Their mouths open, "Gedo: Samsara of Heavenly Life."
The head swells in size, jaw dropping and mouth opening so wide the entire figure is curved backwards.
While the rest of the corpses draw back after the summoning, she's made to move closer and extend her chains to support the thing.
Sakura watches a butterfly leave the gaping maw, then a cloud of fog.
Just one, or two, then, a whole torrent of mist floods out. She maintains a steady grip on the King of Hell's teeth, chains anchoring them both to the ground.
The temperature around them both drops, and she swears, she swears she hears sensei.
It's a bad, bad dream to think of someone's whose dead, it's like the person is haunting you. An ill omen if she takes it that way.
Hinata-chan stirs at her feet, her control over the King of Hell momentarily wanes.
Healer, she, walks over to help the heiress into a seated position.
And Hinata-chan rests a hand on the rough, cold cheek of the corpse she's somehow usurped control over, calls out to her, "Sakura-chan… Where are you?"
The King of Hell spits out a bunch of chains to keep her from running to Hina-hina.
And the movement attracts attention.
Healer keeps a firm, gentle hold on her friend, preventing her from rushing needlessly to her death.
Sakura's hands have shifted from holding the purple chains to clinging to them for dear life as her chakra is surely being drained away.
"You will be hurt if you continue to resist. You are a conduit, not the source, Sakura. Now, let go."
Not that she has much of a choice since her natural store runs out easily.
Torn sleeves flapping in the invisible breeze belie the chakra surging through and out of her via the conducting rods.
Shibi-sama wakes up, then Ino-chan, then Hokage-sama, similarly, they are restrained almost tenderly by the corpses which are no longer entirely Nagato-san's.
Her broken shoulder has healed well but the volume of chakra going through her makes her feel like her whole arm could be blown off at any moment.
She feels the ebb and flow of Nagato's chakra through her, dully hears his groan of exertion and begins to panic when the stream starts to slow.
Shika-chan isn't waking up.
The Uzumaki controlling the jutsu audibly frowns, "Ask the King of Hell for his soul."
"Shika-chan's, spit him out, right now, please…" The creature arches an eyebrow.
"Walk into his mouth, it will lead you to the Realm of the Dead."
Possessed, she steps a leg in, hesitating when not even the base of the summon's mouth greets her foot.
She hesitates, peering cautiously into the dark unknown.
"If you do not go quickly, the further your Shika-chan's soul will get."
She shakes off the lingering doubt, dark like a shackle on her feet.
Nagato gives her a little chakra and she steps into the gaping maw.
To the horrified audience that couldn't see the King of Hell, it was as if she collapsed mid-step.
"It was like my Shadow Possession was nothing, she stepped forward anyway," is the report by Commander Nara who was on-site.
The five remaining, living members of the attack force which decimated Konoha were executed.
Uchiha Itachi is reinstated, Uzumaki Nagato and Ame no Konan are both recognised as leaders of Amegakure.
[Because Sakura is an idiot who never told anyone where she was going and Itachi preyed on Jiraiya's own weakness, painted Konan as a peace envoy and offered Nagato's services to 'heal' Sakura.]
"I don't understand what is wrong with them. They're like living corpses," remarks the Hokage and Kabuto is the one who has to say it, "They're in a vegetative state, we're unsure when they will wake up, or even if they will."
1st of April! Okay, this time, I'm on time, but I've written myself into a conundrum. I need your help to firstly, answer the question at the top, and tell me what sort of world you want the underworld to be. Sakura needs to find Shikamaru, that's how things go, but what world should it be? The usual ghost world, or a future/past without Sakura, or some other interesting setting?
They could be entirely a creation of Nagato's, or space-time rending alternate realities, or all kinds of things really. But what do you all want to see?
Much love, do review and help me continue my thoughts! I read all your reviews and really appreciate them, so, keep talking to me okay :)
