The Calling

Author's notes: This chapter might confuse you a bit, but I don't think it'll be too terribly hard to understand. If it is, I'll gladly edit it.

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"It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Miss Sakura." Obunai smiled but it didn't reach his eyes. He could taste the fear running through the girl's veins, which only further excited him, and he tilted his head to the side like an inquiring youth. "You aren't what I pictured."

Sakura raised a brow and bit her lip. Every fiber in her being warned her of a danger she had never felt in her entire life—not even in Orochimaru's presence. It didn't take a genius to know that things were not looking up for her at the moment, and it took everything she had not to run. "What do you want?"

Obunai shifted his feet and began rubbing at his right wrist with his left hand. "To test you," he responded casually, "I need to make sure you're worth my while, you see." Releasing his wrist, he allowed his hands to fall freely by his sides and flashed a boyish grin. "Are you ready?"

A jolt ran through Sakura's body as she realized far too late that the second those words left Obunai's mouth, he was instantly in front of her with his fist planted in her gut. She gasped and staggered back from the force of the blow, one arm circling around her stomach and the other reaching into the pouch at her hip for a kunai. Clutching the weapon like a lifeline, she scanned the area for Obunai through hazy eyes—she could barely catch her breath.

"Is that all it's going to take, Miss Sakura?" Obunai whispered into Sakura's ear from behind. He brought his knee up and connected it with her spine, knocking her forward on her knees with a gasp. "Come on, surely you can defend yourself. I'm not even armed, and I've made no attempt to use any jutsu on you." Bringing his foot back, he jammed the toe of his shoe into Sakura's rib cage with a crushing blow that sent her flying into the air. When she connected with the ground, she came to a skidding halt about 5 feet away, lying stiffly on her stomach.

'I… what is wrong with me?' She thought angrily, clutching the dirt beneath her broken form. 'Why am I just letting him beat me like this?' Locking her jaw, she slowly pushed herself up, biting back the pain in her chest and stomach as she stood on unstable legs. "Stop it.." She breathed, glaring at the ground. "Stop it! Stop it right now!"

Obunai paused long enough to get a good look at her from where he stood. It was obvious she was having a hard time filling her lungs with air. She was also caked in dirt, the beginnings of blood forming at the corner of her mouth. He had to give her credit for actually standing up again, but other than that, she was incredibly inexperienced in the art of fighting. "My, my.. you think enemies are just going to stop when you tell them to?" He cocked his head and glanced at her in irritation. "You aren't worth my time, if you're just going to stand there and cry."

Sakura clutched the forgotten kunai in her hand. 'I can't beat this guy,' she thought, 'especially in the shape I'm in. What do I do?' Her eyes centered on her target, but she made no move to retaliate. 'There's something wrong about all of this. I can feel it.' Sakura's eyes narrowed stubbornly. "Obunai, isn't it?" She forced a grim smile. "I don't know what's going on, why you're attacking me, or how you know me. I do know that if you don't stop, I'm going to die, and I'm not ready to bite the bullet just yet."

Blinking heavily, the red-haired boy shook his head in disbelief. Was this girl for real? He quickly covered his bewilderment with a grin. "Then I suggest you come up with a plan real quick, Miss Sakura."

"Don't say my name like you know me," she snapped. "I'm not going to lift a finger until you tell me why you're doing this." Her eyes darkened considerably and she forced herself to calm down. 'I can do this. I went to the academy, I passed Kakashi-sensei's test, and I'm member of Team 7 just as much as Naruto and Sasuke.' She reassured herself. 'I can do this.'

A moment's hesitation left Obunai re-examining the girl before him. Just a few minutes ago, she was handicapped with her insecurities and overwhelming fear. Now it seemed like she was another person, but he could sense no other changes in her. "I'll do better than that," he said huskily, bowing his head to conceal his scheming eyes. "Here they come."

Confusion slapped Sakura hard in the face. She seemed to have the hardest time understanding men, and it was really starting to piss her off. 'What is he going on about?' She surveyed the area over and over in her skepticism—she learned right off the bat that Obunai wasn't one to be taken lightly—but came up empty every time. There were no sounds that she could hear of, which was odd in itself, and she certainly sensed no one else but Obunai. So what was going on?

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He could hear it. Smell it. Taste it. Sasuke raised his head to the sky in time to see them shoot past him from above, almost too fast for him to catch sight of them. It made his blood crawl to witness such urgency and not be apart of the action. He wanted so badly to be tested to the ultimate degree but until he surpassed his brother he would never know that kind of power.

Twiddling a kunai between his fingers, Sasuke gave it a quick once over before pocketing it in his pouch. It was almost time for him to join his teammates at the bridge, he reminded himself. But the more he tried to ignore his growing curiosity, the faster his feet moved in the opposite direction.

Then it hit him. His feet kicked off from the ground, body propelled in the air as the blurred form of Naruto came rocketing out from the bushes to his right. Sasuke twirled in the air and landed on his feet, a smirk on his face. "I don't have time for your games, blockhead."

Naruto skidded to a stop and turned to face his adversary. "You idiot, Sasuke! This isn't a game!" He barked out. "I hear Orochimaru's skulking around, and he's probably looking for you!"

Sasuke lowered his weapon and met Naruto's gaze. "If I'm not mistaken, you were his last target." He remarked dryly. "Where are Kakashi and Sakura?"

"What makes you think I know?"

A moment of silence passed before Sasuke shrugged and sheathed his weapon. He was right for once; asking Naruto anything was a stupid idea in itself. "I'm going to find them." He turned and started off in the direction Naruto had previously come from.

Naruto glared daggers into the black-haired boys back. 'Asshole, thinks he knows everything. Of all the people to run into, it had to be that guy. Psh.'

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Before Sakura even knew what hit her she was surrounded by the most hideous creatures she had ever seen in her life. Their approach was seething, tongues forked with long, clawed fingers and large almond shaped eyes that glowed an ominous red. What Sakura found even stranger was that the creatures bore the leaf headbands around their necks and shredded remains of Konoha uniforms.

"What's going on? What are you?" She asked. When she was given no response, she tried again, this time with a bit more gusto. "Please, tell me who and what you are!"

"Haruno Sakura," a voice echoed past the jaws of the creature nearest to her. It was deep and guttural, so much so that she had a hard time distinguishing certain vowels. "Lower your weapon immediately. We mean you no harm."

Her pulse quickened as her space seemed to be shrinking, the beasts closing in. "Stay away!" She shouted, clutching her weapon in both hands. For some reason she couldn't stop shaking. "I mean it, don't come any closer!"

Not heeding her warning, the beasts encircled her and prepared to leap. Sakura frantically held her weapon to her chest and closed her eyes tight, awaiting the inevitable.

A few seconds went by with no results, and when Sakura opened her eyes again, she found herself in a completely different place.

Trees were everywhere. Flowers vivid in warm, spring tones littered the landscape and swayed with the soft vibe of the breeze. The only thing Sakura found out of place was the sky—it was completely starch black.

"Watch out!"

"What the hell is going on?"

"Hold on, damnit! Don't panic!"

The sounds of distant voices assaulted Sakura's ears. They were everywhere, like she was in the middle of a sound barrier and being swallowed whole. Gradually they became so loud she found herself on her knees with her hands clamped tightly over her ears. What was going on? Where were they coming from? More importantly, who were they coming from?

Suddenly the voices stopped and Sakura felt the ground falling out from under her. She let out a soundless scream. Her whole body tingled, ached, and stretched all at once. Nausea bubbled up in her throat and stayed there, even as she finally seemed to land on something solid.

It took a few minutes for her to realize that she was considerably soaked from head to toe, but she wasn't cold. In fact she felt oddly over-heated, like her skin was on fire and melting off her bones. If she hadn't thrown up before, she was definitely about to now.

".. kura!"

She could barely make out her name over the noise in her head.

"Sakura!"

Shaking her head a few times, she finally identified of the familiar decibels of her name being said, but she couldn't seem to open her eyes. Out of fear or out of inability to do so, she didn't know. "Who's there?" Sakura jumped at the surprisingly deep sound of her own voice.

Silence followed, and for a brief moment Sakura pondered the idea that perhaps she was caught in some kind of Genjutsu. It didn't take a genius to figure out who was the practitioner. 'Obunai… could he have?' Swallowing a lump in her throat, she attempted to open her eyes.

At first everything was just flashy and dark, like when you close your eyes for a long time and suddenly open them. When that began to fade, all she could make out was a blurred mess of colors—mainly red, she added in a bit of a fright.

And then it hit her.

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Sasuke stood frozen in place with his jaw set tightly in shock. He had witnessed something similar before, but never in this magnitude. It was as if an ocean of blood and suddenly appeared, and she was at the heart of it.

There were no words spoken. Mainly because he had no words to say, he was so completely horrified that hiding it now would be impossible. At some point, while standing amongst the countless bodies—and body parts—he wondered if perhaps he was simply dreaming the whole thing. This wasn't real.

Until she screamed, and the reality of it came crashing down upon all who witnessed it.

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Sakura couldn't stop the air from leaving her lungs. She couldn't move, she couldn't speak, she couldn't conceive any type of rational thought. Everything was a jumbled mess and she screamed until her throat hurt, and then it became something more of a primal sound that emphasized her current position and state.

Needless to say she was caked in so much blood that it looked like she had soaked in it like a relaxing bubble bath. There were foreign weapons in both her hands that she had never seen before, with jagged edges and contours specifically designed to cause a great deal of damage to flesh with just one swipe. Bodies were everywhere around her, but she avoided the dirty details by closing her eyes.

The smell of blood was overwhelming. Sakura didn't care to see anything anymore. She just wanted to wake up from this nightmare and find herself safely tucked away in her bed. She wanted to walk into her living room and be greeted by her loving mother and the delicious aroma of breakfast being prepared. She wanted to leave her home with a smile and hurry along to see Sasuke and Naruto waiting at the bridge, Kakashi late as always.

But that wasn't going to happen. With a sinking feeling in her gut, Sakura bit her lip and faced the facts. Whatever had happened today, happened without her knowledge, and was most likely the clever maneuvering of a certain red-haired boy she had met only moments before. And as her world faded into black, she had no other choice than to accept the fact that she had been fooled.

Obunai had won, and she was about to lose in more ways than one.

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Not too vulgar, was it? I might have to up the rating later. Anyway, hope you enjoyed it. Sorry for the long wait, it's an even longer story, so I'll spare you the details. Thanks for being patient.

SS