The Calling
By ShinobiSpirit
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Author's Ranting #8: Hey all. Again. This chapter might be a tinsy winsy bit confusing… maybe. I guess it's up to you to determine that.
Thanks for reading. Reviewing. ^_^ All that good stuff.
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Voices. They were faint, and barely reached her sensitive ears, but she could hear them. One was soft and gentle, whispering words of comfort and courage. The other was more dark and deep, with a wispy, hoarse tone which spoke harsh, unsettling remarks that made Sakura feel somewhat discouraged. Just where was she, anyway?
Sakura slowly opened her eyes, and she was met with an empty, endless void of blackness. There was no up or down, left or right. No walls, no light, no sign of other people. No sign of other life, for that matter. At some point she was wondering if perhaps there was even any air, as it felt like she was breathing purely from habit, not impulse.
'Where.. am I?' Sakura thought nervously as she examined her surroundings. Strangely, she felt like she was floating off somewhere. There was no ground beneath her and no sky or space above her, it seemed.
Sakura opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. Instinctively, her hand came up to her throat and she attempted to speak again, only to have the same result. After a few moments, she began screaming. Screaming as hard as she could, but no sound followed. There was nothing, nothing at all. That is, until she felt a sharp pain coursing through her veins, and everything began to spin in a daze of blues and whites.
Suddenly, she found herself back in reality, Orochimaru's smirking face the first and only thing she could really see. What had he done to her while she was off in that dream? This pain.. it was simply unbearable.
"Ah.. I see you're finally awake." She could barely hear his soft words ringing through her ears. His face was starting to become slightly distorted as her vision began to blur. "W.. what did you.. do to me?" Sakura choked out, feeling her body go through a series of uncontrollable spasms, and she let out a loud cry. 'It.. hurts.. am I going to die?'
There was a cold sensation lingering in the back of her mind; like a drill, grinding it's way through her skull and entering her blood stream. She could feel it everywhere, all at once. What was it, this feeling? It was cold, yet hot, at the same time. Her blood boiled like liquid fire, and her skin felt like an old peach she had once found in the back of the fridge one day--when she had picked it up, the skin fell from the meat of the fruit and made quite a mess.
Sakura's breath was ragged and her heart beat ecstatically, not to mention her head was pounding. However, over what seemed like decades, her body had slowly become numb under the extreme amounts of pain racking her frail form. Perhaps her fortitude had returned just in the knick of time, or maybe she just couldn't feel anything. It was hard for her to tell, for certain.
"As expected, her body is taking a lot of time to adjust." Kabuto commented while examining Sakura's quivering body. "She won't be able to move for a while." He said thoughtfully, turning towards Orochimaru. "It'd be best if we removed her from her restraints and found her a proper bed to rest in until she has fully recuperated."
Orochimaru's eyes settled on the pink-headed girl once more. Though it was faint, he could feel it; that energy, brewing within her. His tongue outlined his slender lips hungrily--he couldn't wait to see her potential blossom into fierce rage, under the influence of his control. "Do as you see fit." He said calmly, a tuft of smoke clouding around his taught form. "Don't let me down, Kabuto."
His superior's voice resounded in his ears and he bowed his head respectfully in his master's departure. After he was gone, Kabuto straightened and walked over to the barely conscious girl bound to the stone wall. As he reached up to release her from the shackles, his nose picked up on the faint smell of blood, and it wasn't until he lifted Sakura into his arms that he found the reason why.
She had been biting her lip so hard, the life giving crimson liquid dripped down her pale chin and slender throat like a steady flowing river. Kabuto was startled by this, suddenly realizing that this girl's determination went past his expectations.
Even when balancing on the line between consciousness and unconsciousness, Sakura refused to scream.
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"Damn.." Naruto muttered under his breath, falling back on his bottom in exhaustion. "These walls are too thick!" He complained, a hand coming up to rub his throbbing head.
After hours of different methods, Naruto concluded that he was missing a very important detail concealed from the obvious. Perhaps he was trapped in a well thought out genjutsu, or maybe using his head--literally--was a mistake in itself. Either way, he was certain the stupid fox demon within him was laughing at his misfortune, as his embodied roommate wasn't responding to any of his commands.
'Okay, okay. Relax. Think. Think..' Naruto told himself, bringing his hands together in concentration. 'There's a way out of here..' He thought as he closed his eyes, inhaling and exhaling slowly, deeply, as if lost in meditation.
"Alright!" Naruto shouted, his eyes shooting open. "One more time!" He clamored as he rushed at the farthest wall, chakra collected at the soles of his feet to give him extra lift and acceleration. His last attempt proved successful and he pummeled through the stone wall like a charging titanium bull. Of course, Naruto focused so much chakra in his feet that he ended up going through several more walls, finally colliding with a body guard stationed outside a wooden door.
His head pounding like the steady rhythm of hard rain beating against the ceiling of his apartment, Naruto rose on unstable legs and he swayed from left to right like a ship caught in a storm. It was safe to say that he suddenly felt like hurling up whatever food he had in his empty, moaning stomach.
Shaking himself from his brief moment of collision withdrawal, Naruto focused his slightly blurred vision first on the unconscious guard on the floor, to the wooden door with the emblem of the Sound Village engraved in the center.
'Sakura-chan..' Naruto thought meekly as the faint aurora of cherry blossoms tickled his sense of smell. 'She must be in there!'
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"I see it!" TenTen exclaimed from her perch up in the canopy of the forest's tall tree's. "The port! It looks like we'll be there by dawn!"
Exciting news to the crew, but to Sasuke, it was nothing more than a head ache. He hadn't said much of anything the entire time, mainly because he felt mostly apathetic about the situation. Surely Naruto had already escaped with Sakura by now, so why was he being dragged into this? It wasn't his duty to save their asses every time they got in a mess, was it? Kakashi's lesson the first day was proving to have more affect on him than he previously thought, or rather, previously hoped.
"Sasuke-kun*?" Lee called from ahead. "Aren't you excited?" He asked almost too gently, earning him a silent 'leave me alone, I don't care' kind of glance from his stoic traveling companion. '.. I'll never figure that guy out.' Lee thought timidly as he turned his attention back to the pathway ahead.
"We should stop and rest." Neji suddenly said, his pace coming to a halt. Receiving a questioning look from Lee, he spoke once more. "Our enemies are most likely above our level. We'll need to be rested up for battle."
Lee nodded slowly, yet he still felt doubt settling in the pit of his stomach. Neji never carried out an action without thinking it through thoroughly first, so Lee felt he should trust their leader to a certain degree.
TenTen dropped down from a nearby tree in time to hear Neji's order, a sigh of relief escaping her throat. 'Good.. I'm beat.'
"I'm taking a walk." Sasuke mumbled after dropping his bag against the base of a large tree--mainly to assure his temporary traveling partners that he intended on returning, rather than to relieve himself of it's weight--and disappeared down a neighboring path without another word.
After a long haul with unwanted company, Sasuke needed time to himself.
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*I'm not sure, but I think Lee called him that once. If my memory serves me correctly, he called Sasuke that after Sakura's whole debut in the Chuunin Exam. Correct me if I'm wrong!
Anywho. I'm out.
SS 3
