chapter 1
This feeling, this fuzzy awareness crawling over her skin reminded her of the first time she had attempted to use her chakra to walk on water. There was the same uneasy acknowledgement, right before the gut wrenching drop out, of falling through the fragile liquid surface into the freezing cold below.
The unknown.
There was a subtle pulsating sensation, light at first, building up behind her eyes , into a roaring thunder. She could almost feel the leftover adrenaline leaving her blood. Adrenaline rush was nothing new to Sakura, who had faced enemy shinobi on missions, in war...seemingly constant battle and strife.
Pain. Her mind snapped back to the present.
Sakura tried to lift her fingers to the side of her head, stopping abruptly, as a new pain shot through her fingers, through her wrist and up her arm into her heart. Damn, she was hoping to soothe her aches with her chakra, perhaps she needed to take a full account of her injuries first?
Slowly, very slowly she tried to sit up, but gasped, there was no air in her lungs. Only burning.
She tried to speak but her tongue was too large it seemed, and tasted of rot.
Disgusting.
What had happened to her? One moment she was in the gardens just outside of the hospital picking herbs for Tsunade shishou, and the next, she was on her back in stifling, agonizing pain the likes of which she had never felt before.
She was disoriented. Trauma, she told herself. Shock. So, something had happened and she needed to figure out what it was, if she was alone, if Konoha was under attack or...
Slowly, and with tremendous effort, she opened her eyes, which also pained her, much to her annoyance and discomfort. She couldn't sense any danger nearby, but that didn't mean she was safe.
There had been a lot of unrest after Pein's attack and Konoha had just been rebuilt. Now would be the perfect time for another attack from an opposing village.
A calming breeze flowed over her warm cheeks and ruffled her hair over her open eyes. In relief she took in the Konoha sky. Blue, clear blue. Just the way she remembered it. She could almost feel her muscles relaxing in the same relief that was soothing her mind. Familiarity, everything was okay. She just needed to get up, to look around to see if there was any clue to what had happened to her.
The pain was fading to a dull ache.
The last of her senses, her ears, began to pick up the familiar sound of birds in the distance, of laughter from nearby villagers and...wait. What was that noise? It was so strange, so out of place and unfamiliar to her.
A low rumbling resonance that wasn't quite a growl but not, not a growl. It was a hum or a tremor, gravely and powerful.
Sakura placed her palms flat against the ground. She could feel the grass of the garden, the prickly plants of the…
No, something was off. Something wasn't right. She thought that the last of her senses to come back to her had been her hearing but no, it was smell. The air, it smelled off, it smelled...heavier.
It smelled disgusting.
She had to get up, she had to force herself to move, to...
Her eyes began to water as she began to cough, her hands coming up from her sides to cover her mouth. Sakura ignored the pain in her head and the cramp in her stomach to roll over and up into a sitting position. She felt sick. She felt like she was going to…
"Ugh." Sakura wiped the back of her hand against the corner of her mouth. "Gross."
"Are you alright?" A male voice spoke to her from behind.
Sakura pushed herself up into a kneeling position, whirled on her knee and shot up to her feet into a perfect defensive fighting stance, looking into one blue eye and one slate eye, but that wasn't what had her stumbling gracelessly backward.
Her eyes went wide as she took in her surroundings. She thought she was in the gardens of Konoha Hospital. She thought she was in her village, but this was definitely not Konoha.
There were buildings taller than any she had ever seen before, huge signs taller than the tallest buildings and lights, there were lights everywhere and it was the middle of the day. A large metal 'something' sped past the trees to her right. That noise, that was the low growling noise she had heard and…
"What, uh what village is this?" Sakura looked back at the man who had spoken to her, noticing his hair, like his eyes were two different colors. He looked similar to portrait drawings she had seen of the Lord First's younger brother, Itama Senju.
"Village? This is the city of Musutafu, in the Shizuoka Prefecture." Shouto replied, curiously.
"In Japan." He added just in case she didn't know what country she was in as well. She looked confused, distraught. He wasn't sure what had made him stop and ask her if she was okay. Usually he would turn his head the other way, it wasn't his business, it wasn't his problem.
He had his own problems to deal with and didn't need or want to take on the responsibility of anyone else's, much less a stranger. Perhaps it was her hair, pink, an unusual color even with the more popular quirks generating from his generation of quirk users. It was lighter than most pinks he had seen before.
Gentle. Somewhat in contrast to the girl before him.
She was no longer in a defensive fighting stance, but her fists were clenched, as her eyes darted around her. A fighter this one. Trained, the notion popped into his head. Interesting.
He knew that look. Determination. She was willing herself to be strong right now, trying very hard not to break down. It made him want to ask her more questions about herself but he could see she was in no mood to humor him.
"I can see you are fine. My name is Shouto Todoroki. I must go." Shouto bowed politely, turning to walk away.
"Sakura." Sakura blurted her name out to the man before he could leave. He had tried to be kind and she had been very rude. Warranted, but rude. "Haruno. My name is Sakura Haruno, thank you for um, asking if I was okay."
Shouto turned back around to face the girl, the question on the tip of his tongue, but he hesitated and she shifted her weight on her feet anxiously. She wanted to leave. She was embarrassed, he understood. He nodded to her once.
"I'm on my way to school but I walk back this way after, through the park on my way home if...you are still in the area and need…" He hesitated again. What was he doing, he didn't care, he didn't know her, and he couldn't afford to have anything distract him right now.
The entrance exam for his recommendation to UA was next week. He didn't have time for anything else. This was foolish of him, but he had already started so he might as well finish, and maybe, if he were honest, he did want to know her a little.
"...need any assistance?" He adjusted his book bag over his shoulder and looked at the odd looking girl taking in her odd clothes and the odd expression on her face. She wore a red sleeveless top, short, what appeared to be black bike shorts under a split pastel pink skirt with black toeless boots.
If he didn't know better, Shouto would have thought she looked like a ninja, from his old story books, and from the century old portraits that lined his family's private burial tomb. This wasn't ancient Japan though and the girl before him wasn't a ghost.
"Assistance." Sakura looked down at her hands, flexing her fingers meditatively. "No, I don't think I need any assistance." She needed to find out how she had gotten to, what had the man called this village? No, he had called it a city. What a strange word.
"It was nice to meet you Sakura." Shouto bowed again. "I must go. I don't want to be late for school. I'll see you later this afternoon, if you're...here."
Sakura nodded politely, her mind parsecting every word he had said to her, her eyes darting back and forth trying to take everything in at once.
Shouto paused. If she didn't know where she was…she might not have any... "Here."
Shouto pulled a few bills from his pocket and handed them to Sakura. "I don't wish to be rude but you don't seem to be from here, you might not um…"
Sakura looked at the strange paper. Was this money? She had only seen money in the form of coins before. Like her surroundings, it was strange and new. Almost dangerous in a threatening sort of way. However, he was right. She might need money. This seemed an awful lot like charity but...her stomach growled loudly. Her cheeks flushed and she took the money with another bow of thanks.
"Thank you, Todoroki san." Sakura's eyes rose to meet Shouto's. A bond was forming. She could feel it and she wasn't sure how she felt about it.
"Yes." Shouto said awkwardly. He never spoke this much, much less to someone he just met. He really did need to get moving. He was already late but… "If you can, if you want to...meet me here later when you get out of school?" He flushed. His cheeks matching her hair.
"School? I'm not in school. I finished when I was twelve." She told him.
Twelve, she had finished school when she was twelve? Was she a genius or something? No, forigen perhaps?
"Ah. I assumed we were the same age and, but twelve." Shouto stood there for a moment unsure how to respond.
"Then, perhaps not." His shoulders slumped forward. What had he been expecting? Fool, he berated himself. She probably thought he was a socially awkward nuisance. He turned to leave yet again but was pulled back around by her voice, softer this time.
"I'll be here." She must be mad. She shouldn't promise such things when she had no idea where she was or how she had gotten here but she looked down at the paper in her hand and at the spot on the ground where he had found her. She owed him this didn't she?
Shouto's eyes widened in surprise, but he nodded his head quickly in a slight jerking fashion.
"I'll see you later then." He turned and walked away.
"Later." Sakura watched the red and white haired man walk away from her.
Looking down at the papers in her hand again and she too turned and walked away. Only now, her situation didn't seem quite as bad. If she could, she would meet him here later. After all, he was the only person here that she knew. He had been kind to her. Sakura wasn't sure where she was or what her future held in store for her, it might be good to have...a friend.