The Lands Between.
The Royal Capital, Leyndell.
Leyndell's Subterranean Sewer System.
"Cha! I've been walking around these sewers for the last five damn days!"
Sewer rats, plus several dozen beasts which chose to make the underground network of tunnels their home, hurriedly scattered further into the darkness. At the same time, a slender silhouette came stomping out of a random sewer tunnel. Emerald orbs disdainfully studied the cavernous area their owner had stumbled upon after five days of non-stop searching for an exit to the surface. The cavern was wide enough to house a small town, and broken water pipes near the walls spilt fresh water that would've generally gone to Leyndell's citizens.
The slender silhouette sighed with frustration upon failing to find an exit leading out of these accursed sewers. "This is all Kaguya's fault," the shadowy figure took a seat upon the nearest comfortable rock formation. "Bitch just had to screw me over before Naruto and Sasuke finished sealing her away." The silhouette muttered a few nasty curses towards the Rabbit Goddess. At the same time, the events during the last moments of that particular battle for the Elemental Nations' survival played out within their mind's eye.
"Tch, I still can't understand why Kaguya decided to use the last of her chakra to open that dimensional portal." The doorway between worlds was created during the sealing process, so it wasn't like the Rabbit Goddess could've escaped to another universe. The only result from such an attempt would've been a new moon for whatever world Kaguya had tried to reach, and since the Rabbit Goddess wasn't a fool, the silhouette concluded she must've sent them to this dimension with some unknown purpose in mind.
"Cha, Kaguya even had the nerve to give me freaking horns!" Crystals placed above the cavern's ceiling suddenly began their illumination cycle, thus providing enough light to reveal the silhouette was none other than Sakura Haruno. Third member of Team Seven, apprentice to the great Lady Tsunade, kunoichi of Konohagakure and one of the Elemental Nations' greatest Medical-nin's. However, as previously stated, her head now supported twin cherry blossom horns, smoothly curved upwards from the sides of Sakura's skull.
Sakura grimaced while she touched the tips of her recently gained horns. She'd discovered the new features shortly after arriving within the sewers; the underground tunnel network had plenty of reflective water to use as an improvised mirror. The Pinkette freaked out for several hours during the first day before her ninja training kicked into overdrive, thus allowing Sakura to shift her attention to finding a way out of the sewers and hopefully discover some people who might provide shelter for the kunoichi's stay within this world.
Unfortunately for the medic-nin, whoever constructed the sewer network had gone for a maze style that cost Sakura five whole days of randomly wandering the dirty tunnels. Thankfully, the sewers were home to massive crabs, not the strangest nor deadliest creatures the kunoichi encountered during her ninja career, providing excellent meat after she effortlessly killed some dumb beasts. The sole downside was her cooking utensils needed to be forged from scavenged pieces of metal she found scattered throughout the place.
"Huh, at least Naruto nor Kakashi sensei are here to tease me about the horns," Sakura grumbled while unsealing her camping equipment from the small storage scroll most ninjas carried around with them. "Knowing those goofballs, they'd find some way to annoy the hell out of me." Obviously, she'd give her teammates chakra-enhanced punches for the teasing. However, until Sakura found a way to reopen the gateway to the Elemental Nations, she'd have to focus on surviving the new world Kaguya decided to send her.
After performing a quick earth jutsu to raise a stone platform above the sewer water, the Pinkette immediately set up camp for the night. Sakura would set some traps at the exits to the cavern later as there were plenty of animals down in the sewers of Leyndell that wouldn't hesitate to devour Sakura whilst she slept. Plus, the medic-nin saw signs of abandoned shelters during her travels which could only mean people were living within the underground network of tunnels. Obviously, there was a civilisation on the surface; all Sakura needed to do was reach it.
"Tch, I can only hope we share the same language," Sakura unsealed the cooking pot and then placed it at the stone platform's centre. "Otherwise, I'd be stuck trying to learn how to understand them for Kami knows how long." Sakura carefully unsealed her reserves of crab meat and then gently laid them out next to the cooking pot. It didn't take more than a few moments for the Medic-nin to unpack her remaining supplies and create a decent campfire, where a few strips of crab meat were cooking upon a metal grill which Sakura skilfully forged with a small fire Jutsu.
The scent of well-cooked meat soon filled the cavern; Sakura occasionally flipped the pieces of crab over the grill while also keeping an eye out for any uninvited guests. She'd rather eat ninja rations, but unfortunately, her supply ran dry after the third day. Hence, Sakura was preparing the giant crab meat for tonight's dinner. When the meat was cooked to perfection, Sakura removed it from the scarped-together grill and placed it upon a metallic plate, which she cleaned with the pipe water from the nearby wall pipes.
"I'd better find some new type of food soon," Sakura softly muttered while cutting into her meal for the night. "Because I'm getting real sick of crab meat." While attempting to enjoy the meal, Sakura reached inwards to check on her chakra reserves and found they were at reasonable levels for someone still recovering from a battle against the Rabbit Goddess. However, Sakura understood that the Strength of a Hundred Seal would need months or even years of recharging before it was again useable in live combat.
"Hope Naruto and Sasuke aren't causing any trouble while I'm gone," It was wishful thinking since Sakura knew those two were probably fighting now that Kaguya was out of the picture. "Because I'm not healing them." She huffed with obvious annoyance as those two idiots seemed to believe she'd be around to heal them after their fights. Well, maybe her teammates would learn to appreciate medics a lot more after spending some time without her there to heal their injuries.
Shelving her teammates' annoying habits to the back of her mind, for now, Sakura tidied up the cooking station at the heart of her campsite once she finished with the cooked crab meat. The Medic-nin then reseal the food supplies since they won't spoil whilst inside the scroll. However, after the food was sealed, a Giant Mud Crab wandered into the cavern, its colossal pinchers snapping threateningly at the air while its sense of smell picked up what its primitive brain thought was suitable prey.
Sakura sighed with frustration as the crab approached her campsite. "Can't a girl get one moment of peace around here?!" She rhetorically questioned the empty air while vanishing from the Giant crab's view via a burst of ninja speed. The giant crustacean paused all movement as its primitive brain tried to make sense of what it had just witnessed. Yet, the crab won't have much time to think about the sudden vanishing act since Sakura reappeared above the crustacean's head while her dainty hand was raised to deliver the killer blow.
"Eat this, you overgrown seafood!"
Sakura utterly crushed the crab's brain after her chakra-enhanced punch landed upon its thick carapace. A powerful shockwave exploded around the duo, causing dirty water to rise chaotically in small waves; Leyndell's sewer network rumbled like a mighty earthquake decided to hit the Lands between's capital city. Even the proud Erdtree, the most significant symbol of Queen Marika's power over the lands, trembled at the amount of force unleashed by Sakura Haruno's destructive punch, causing multiple civilians to panic at the unusual sight.
"Oops," Sakura embarrassedly rubbed her cherry blossom horns as the dirty water gradually calmed back to its previous state. "I might've overdone it with that particular punch." Pools of crab blood came rushing out of the dead crustacean's eyes as Sakura stood triumphantly on top of its carapace. The Pinkette prayed none above felt those tremors generated by the shockwaves unleashed by her enhanced punch since the last thing Sakura needed at the moment was for people to start believing she was some kind of monster.
"Cha, I'll let tomorrow Sakura figure out the possible repercussions," Sakura huffed whilst jumping off the crab and then proceeded to effortlessly drag the carcass to the campsite. "Because the current Sakura will make a shelter out of this crab's carapace!"
Little did Sakura know her display of strength hadn't gone unnoticed by certain factions within the Lands Between.
Meanwhile, Within A Random Tunnel.
Mohg, Omen, son of Queen Marika and twin brother of Morgott, had learned many harsh lessons during the past nine years of living within the sewers built underneath Leyndell. The cruelty of Marika's pet Omenkillers, who wander the Lands Between for Omens to murder in cold blood. Plus, the general hatred the surface dwellers held towards his people, which was born from propaganda fed to those ignorant sheep by the Golden Order, forced the Omen demigod to mature quickly; otherwise, Mohg would've never lived long enough to reach the age of five.
Yes, life within the darkness taught Mohg and his twin much about the cruelty of humanity and how to survive where most would perish. A primary lesson on such a subject was never to allow curiosity to override common sense. Mohg has witnessed plenty of his mother's pet killers die within the sewers after investigating random noise. Either turned out to be a deadly trap built by one of the smarter Omen or simply nesting Giant Mud Crabs who didn't like intruders threatening their incubating eggs.
In summary, curiosity was a death sentence for those forced to live underneath the capital city of the Lands Between. Yet, as tremors caused the walls surrounding him to violently quake from some unseen point of origin, Mohg felt flames of curiosity beginning to burn within his heart. The Omen demigod had never before experienced such quakes. Mohg was doubtful the surface dwellers were responsible for the unusual event since his mother was a Goddess Of Order, so causing random earthquakes would be against her divine nature.
"Perhaps I should find the source of these quakes," Mohg mused as the Omen lazily descended into the underground tunnels. "The distraction should entertain me until Morgott returns from his scavenging run." His twin had volunteered to leave for the surface to search for essential books since knowledge was a powerful tool, and both Omen demigods were determined to gather as much wisdom as they could get their hands upon. Besides, Morgott could handle any problems he might encounter on the surface. They've already grown to the height of adult men and, thanks to their Omen bloodline, would continue to increase in stature until they're the size of giants.
With mind now set on locating the origin of the tremor, he unfolded his bestial wings. The Omen demigod took to the sky and headed for an abandoned section of the sewers called the Abyssal Steps, where multiple Omens lived before a horde of Giant Crabs decided to forge a massive nursery within the territory. Mohg hadn't visited the Abyssal Steps for quite some time and hoped to begin the investigation within that particular underground section, then work his way through the entire network until the quake's origin was discovered.
The Omen wasn't overly worried about what could lurk at the Abyssal Steps; Omenkillers rarely ventured that deeply into the underground. Mohg was skilled enough with his trusty trident to deal with the beasts wandering the tunnels. The only threats he'd have to watch out for were fellow demigods. Mohg knew none of his siblings on the surface would ever dare come venturing into the darkness to challenge him, or Morgott since the Omen twins were lords of the underground, even if none above acknowledged such facts.
"I should bring the source of the quakes back to Morgott," Mohg happily mused as the winds danced across his bestial face. Truly the ability to fly was a gift he'd treasure until the day his soul left this world. "He always did enjoy solving a good mystery." The nine-year-old Omen knew Morgott would enjoy the surprise as good entertainment was rare for the underground inhabitants. Who knows, perhaps Mohg's twin might discover a method to control the earthquakes so the Omens could easily sneak to the surface for supplies.
Mohg's trident pierced the skull of a sizeable mutated rodent that attempted to attack him. "But, first, I'll need to find the source before any permanent plans can be made with Morgott." Retrieving the golden trident, without slowing down in the slightest, the Omen demigod vanished into the darkness which endless covered the tunnels of his home. However, the Omen prince was unaware his journey would lead him to Sakura's camp, where his destiny and the fates of multiple individuals throughout the realm shall be changed forever.
Their fateful encounter will be the catalyst for Sakura's eventual ascension as Queen Of Omens.