AN: So, this was a little something I had written a while back. An idea I had and couldn't bear to ignore. I hadn't planned on releasing it anytime soon, but since a few authors I follow released their own Halloween chapters/stories, I decided, why the hell not? So, with a brief touch-up, I decided to share this with you on this hallowed night. No promises as to when I will update this, but I love this idea too much to simply leave it like this, so it will be updated at least once a year if I don't get back to it before that. Enjoy.
Pre/proofreaders: Me and Kyluxia
Training ground forty-four, also known as the forest of death. One of the many dangerous places available around Konohagakure. However, what made this place special, was the number of rumors and superstitions spawned from the dark forest. At first, it had been nothing more than a particularly dangerous forest from the time of the First Hokage. Besides the unique, particularly vicious, and rather dangerous wildlife that claimed it as their home, it was still a regular forest. However, as time went on, and with the forest being continuously used for the Chūnin exams, the forest soon earned its nickname as the forest of death. With such a sinister-sounding nickname and the justified hesitation of many survivors of the forest to return there, it was inevitable that rumors and superstition began spreading, not just among the civilians, but also amongst the Shinobi of Konohagakure.
Unknown to everyone, this in of itself had an effect on the forest. The ideas, suspicions, rumors, and apprehension towards training ground forty-four, was something that slowly, but surely, reacted with, and tainted the chakra of the forest. As time went on, the forest only continued to grow more and more dangerous. While not aware of the reasons for it, it was still something that was eventually noted by the village, and when the forest eventually proved too dangerous, it stopped being used for the Chūnin Exams and became off-limits to anyone but those of Jōnin rank or above.
Even with the precautions taken, all it resulted in was more rumors and speculation, intensifying the verbal poison that slowly warped the forest. Soon, the forest visibly differed from its surroundings, becoming visibly strange, as the grass around it became darker, the shadows surrounding it more pronounced, and the feeling of always being watched rooting itself in whoever entered the place. Even those Jōnin brave enough to use the grounds found themselves unnerved and rarely returned. Soon, the forest of death was all but abandoned. For a while, this stopped the rumors. That is until the disappearances began.
Superstition is a funny thing. Ideas and fears that come to light, as to explain the things people fail to comprehend, because reassuring themselves they know what causes something, is far less scary than whatever crazy ideas they themselves come up with. Naturally, with the forest's reputation remembered, stories of ghosts, spirits, and monsters from the forest became the rumors that explained the disappearances. If only the people had known, that spinning such tales would eventually lead to them coming true.
Even after Orochimaru was revealed for the mad man he was, and the kidnappings were connected to him, there were still many people unaccounted for, and the rumors refused to die down. It didn't help that Orochimaru had been using the forest as his dumping ground for corpses and failed experiments, something that ended up sparking even more rumors and fears once it got out to the public.
By the time the Nine-tailed beast was one day released, the chakra in the forest had festered, darkened, and boiled in the darkness of human imagination. But it was the sudden explosion of demonic chakra that eventually made it awaken. Shadows suddenly sprung to life, beasts long-dead awoke and the spirits of the long-dead slipped from the belly of the Shinigami to stalk the forest once more.
As one, the forest began to breathe, and anything deemed not part of it, expelled, by violence or death, in any way necessary.
As such, when Obito Uchiha used the forest of death as his escape route, the same way he had casually snuck in through the forest everyone avoided, he found himself unable to leave. Unable to find his direction after appearing in the forest with his Sharingan's Kamui ability, he found himself unable to leave using the same means. No matter how much he tried, he always found himself back in the forest upon exiting the Kamui dimension.
Unable to escape the forest using his preferred method, he instead attempted to do so on foot. But once an intruder had stepped into the forest, there was no longer any way to escape, and so, without anyone's knowledge, the forest devoured Obito Uchiha, as well as his soul.
For a time, the forest remained peaceful, content in remaining dark in its own territory, awakening only to devour the intruders that dared disrespect its borders by trespassing. That is, until one day, the forest was awoken to find an ally amongst the trespassers. One freely given, that hadn't cursed it. One willing to become one with the forest.
A three-and-a-half-year-old Sakura Haruno couldn't understand what had made her parents behave the way they did. She could vaguely recall that it had been something she said, something that had made her parents look at her in a way that made her feel bad and ashamed. It worried her, but she trusted her parents, and when they said they would go on a little picnic, she had happily forgotten about her worries and left with her parents, unaware of their less than kind intentions.
The rumors concerning the Forest of Death had become so much worse over the years. It was said that no one that went into the forest survived, and those that did, barely escaped with their lives, marked by the forest, cursed in some way. Mebuki hadn't really paid too much attention to the rumors. She knew them to be true after all, she remembered her one time having gone through the forest when she was young. It had been a seemingly harmless dare, but she had barely escaped with her life. The scars along her legs and back were proof enough of that, and so was the mental counseling she had gone through since. The nightmares no longer came that often, but when they did, the fear in her heart always renewed.
And a few days ago, her worst fears had come true. While she had been scarred, as a survivor of the forest, she had never felt marked or worried about being cursed. That was until her only daughter had begun asking questions no parent would have to hear. And after the first one, they just kept coming. Mebuki had been convinced that she hadn't been cursed, instead, it was her daughter that had paid the price. Her precious little daughter had asked her what brains taste like and had questioned when they would be going home, despite already being at home. Her daughter seemed to always be standing by her bed with a big smile when the nightmares became too much, and she awoke. Mebuki couldn't handle it anymore.
She had loved her daughter, but clearly, Sakura Haruno didn't exist anymore. The forest had claimed its prize for her foolishness years ago, and she mourned, as she explained herself to her husband, managing to convince him that if Sakura wanted to go home, if the forest wanted her back, then they should obey before things became worse.
Understandably, it had taken her a lot of convincing, as what father would willingly entertain their wife's delusions, still, in the end, she eventually managed.
The sad reality however was, that while little Sakura Haruno was indeed marked with the chakra of the forest, it had in no way cursed her. An innocent question to her parents about the taste of brains, was nothing but the childish curiosity, having overheard monkey brains to be considered a delicacy in some far-off country. Asking to go home had been the confusing and games of a regular child, ones Mebuki had simply not seen for what they really were, and finding her mother to suffer from nightmares, Sakura had always been happy to see her presence making her mother wake up, glad that she was now free from the nightmares. Nightmares that continued to show her daughter asking other, equally terrifying and implicating questions she never would have been able to consider. It really was a sad thing that things went the way they did, and how Mebuki ended up seeing her own daughter as a monster of the forest. After all, the chakra of the forest reacted to beliefs, and with Sakura carrying part of the forest with her, it was inevitable that she would eventually become affected as well. Something that struck true, the moment her parents brought her into the forest's territory.
Getting past the gates to training ground forty-four hadn't been easy, but Mebuki remembered the way she had managed to do so in her youth, and once more, did so with ease. As soon as Sakura stepped upon the grass with her parents, she felt the forest latch onto her, and suddenly, she knew why they were there, what her parents' intentions were.
She was sad, naturally, but the fear, and regret, as well as the belief that she was already dead, that they had failed to protect her as her parents were so obvious to the forest. In stark contrast, the forest instead accepted her, welcomed her, and was as intrigued about her, as she was about it, for they were already connected.
Letting go of her parents' hands, Sakura stepped away from them, both of whom had frozen as the forest set its hostility on them. However, even as she had become part of the forest, Sakura couldn't bring herself to forsake her parents. So with a smile, she warned them.
"The forest doesn't like you. But I thank you for giving birth to me. I'm sorry I'm not who you wanted me to be, but I now feel at home. You should go, stay any longer, and the forest will devour you. Goodbye." Sakura told them, before turning around, and leaving her parents behind, disappearing behind the treeline, leaving her parents stunned and terrified. Eventually, Sakura's warning dawned on them, and they rapidly made their way back to Konoha, eager to escape the wrath of the forest, unaware of how the forest had already forgotten about them, as Sakura managed to convince it that they should instead be thanked for giving birth to her and bringing her there.
The ANBU that ended up apprehending them was punishment enough, even if neither Sakura nor the forest cared to notice the guards meant to prevent people from entering. It was only due to a newbie's mistake that Sakura's parents had gotten past them, and due to shock at Sakura's warning that ANBU failed to intervene before it was too late to save Sakura without going into the forest themselves. Something even hardened ANBU avoided, after their first trial by fire in that place.
As a result, Sakura disappeared and was considered dead at three and a half years old, while in reality, she thrived.
As much as Sakura found herself accepted by the forest, it didn't mean her life became easy or lacked any hardships. While everything within the forest was as one, there was still an ecosystem in place, which meant that there were predators and prey. Human as she was, Sakura was now part of this food chain, and as a mere four-year-old girl, by all means, she should have died in a matter of hours. Fortunately, for both Sakura and the forest as a whole, Sakura's acceptance into their midst meant that her consciousness became part of theirs, or at the very least connected to them. A higher form of awareness was suddenly in reach for every creature within the forest of death, and the forest was aware enough of itself to realize that Sakura was the reason for this.
Like all other beings in the forest, Sakura fell into her own role in the forest. An unspoken rule that guided her to her place. Like any other being in the forest, her chakra became part of the whole and the forest's chakra part of hers. While Sakura started out at the bottom of the food chain, she didn't have to fight for her life as long as she kept out of certain territories, or kept from agitating any of the other horrors in the forest, none of which she feared, as she saw them as part of the forest, the very same existence she was now part of. It was peaceful.
The knowledge shared by the common consciousness allowed her to live, survive, by letting her know what was edible, where to find water, and how to remain warm. With every being in the forest abusing their connection with her to outwit the competition and prey, Sakura found part of their collective knowledge flowing back to her. Slowly, but surely, Sakura learned to observe things as part of the forest. She could see the other horrors hunt, knew when someone unwelcome entered the forest, and when the dynamic in the forest changed. What Sakura and the rest of the forest failed to realize, was that just like the many horrors of the forest had come to be warped by the forest's chakra, so Sakura was changed as word about her spread within the village. It was slow and barely noticeable, but rumors about the forest child had ended up spreading through Inoichi after having been overheard while discussing the case where he had to mind-walk Mebuki Haruno after she had convinced her husband to abandon their daughter in the most dangerous place of Konohagakure. He himself had seen the truth, of how a four-year-old child had accepted, and spoken as if part of the forest. And so, the vague rumors about Sakura began changing her.
Sakura and the forest remained unaware of these changes until one day, a Kumo Shinobi entered their territory. Without much thought, the forest turned on the intruder, and before he knew what hit him, he lay on the forest floor, bleeding and praying as shadows ate at his flesh, while branches and roots held him down, all while a four-year-old girl with faded, pink hair and dull, green eyes, wearing rags, looked on in cruel fascination.
However, what truly became terrifying, was as Sakura suddenly felt a change. All of a sudden, the entire forest seemed to stop, and only the man's painful sobs echoed between the trees, as the child suddenly stood up with a smile, and walked over to him. "I wonder, how does your brain taste?" She asked the man in a raspy voice as it hadn't been used in a while. The man's last thoughts were of how he regretted ever agreeing to the mission that had brought him there, because there was nothing more terrifying than seeing a demon in the form of a child, gleefully telling you that they would eat your brain.
Sakura didn't care much for eating meat. It had always made her stomach feel bad, and the sticky blood always stained and quickly began smelling really bad. However, she couldn't go without meat for long and had accepted it as something she occasionally had to scavenge from abandoned prey, or sometimes from dead animals that another hunter was willing to share with her, acknowledging the gift of intelligence she willingly shared with the entire forest.
She wasn't certain as to why she had become curious about tasting the man's brain, as she had never been interested in doing so previously, but after her first bite, she knew she was hooked.
It wasn't that the taste or texture was anything particularly satisfying, it was the knowledge. With each bite, the man's memories flowed into her, his chakra and life force filling her stomach and body, making her crave more. Suddenly, the knowledge as to how to hunt like a human, how to wield weapons, and what it meant to be a Shinobi were things she knew. Her understanding of the world widened, and many more concepts and experiences suddenly expanded her thoughts, and in turn offered the forest even more knowledge and understanding than before.
With that one meal, Sakura suddenly knew for certain what her role in the forest was. She was the brain, she was the queen that would ensure the forest's growth, and she did so by taking everything from her prey. Specifically, intruders like humans.
No longer bothered by blood, Sakura used the man's knowledge to clean herself, before making herself a new outfit using his clothes. Slightly thankful for the small sewing kit he had with him, as well as the knowledge on how to use it. She was of course, clumsy as she had never used a needle before, and ended up making herself bleed plenty of times, but once she was done, she once more had something comfortable and protective to wear. She also realized that while she had scavenged the man's weapons, tools, and knowledge, it wasn't something that she could immediately use. The knowledge was already fading, only whatever she had intentionally focused on and deemed important seemed to remain, or at least, fade slower. If she wanted to make use of the knowledge, she needed to learn it herself, practice, and internalize it. As such, in order to do better in the future, to become a hunter, rather than a useful prey, she began practicing with kunai and shuriken, as well as her chakra.
And wasn't that a surprise? The knowledge of chakra had proven to be worth more than anything else. Suddenly, the forest was aware of how it functioned, where it had come from, and how to continue its own existence. As Sakura learned, so did the rest of the forest. Slowly but surely, all of them were learning to use the chakra they were all part of, and as a result, that chakra grew.
It was with a smile, that two months after the first human intruder had appeared, that another two did the same.
Smiling, Sakura ordered her shadows to stalk them, her snakes to poison them, and her birds to scare them. Although, the terms were used loosely, as none of them actually knew what to call the different individuals of the forest. They were just the closest things that Sakura could call them when comparing them to the memories of the man whose knowledge she had devoured.
Her shadows, small, flat beings that glided through the air without a sound, covered in eyes, and able to take on any color or pattern, easily hiding on any surface, able to observe and creep out anyone what didn't know about them, as they made it look as if whatever surface they were on was covered in eyes. Together, in great numbers, one could see millions of eyes covering every surface. Sakura liked to sleep with them, allowing them to act as a blanket for her, while she shared her body heat with them. They also made for excellent trackers, as they knew when they were observed, and could easily share their sight with her.
The snakes, long string-like creatures that flung themselves around the forest by swinging from anything they could grab onto. Their bite was poisonous, paralyzing anything they bit, while they constricted themselves around their prey. They had no eyes, only a mouth, and three sharp teeth, that also function as claws, which they used to grab onto branches, roots, or other beings to give them something to fling themselves from. Sakura had always wondered how they could move around so easily while being unable to see but it seemed they had an excellent ability to sense differences in temperature. It was why they had sought her out in the first place. They weren't all that strong on their own, but in a swarm, they easily cut off any escape routes their prey might have imagined, and encased them, before devouring them alive. Sakura liked to pet them, especially when they squirmed from pleasure at her touch.
The birds were honestly only called that because they could fly and were covered in feathers. As big as Sakura's four-year-old head, and covered in spike-like feathers, that somehow allowed them to fly, without any wings, they looked like black balls of feathers while leaving a trail of dark smoke behind. Sakura enjoyed the way they buzzed whenever they moved, or how happy they sounded whenever they shrieked as they locked onto their prey, their feathers solidifying into spikes, that allowed them to harm, and then feast on the blood of their prey, despite having no visible mouths to either shriek or eat with.
While she got along with most members of all three species, she had ended up with a personal pack, so to speak, of twenty shadows, six snakes, and four birds. They played, hunted, and fed together. Whenever one of them died, Sakura found a new one to add to her pack, after eating their brain and offering the rest of the corpse to the rest of the pack of course. In her eyes, their life was as good as it could get.
The shadows made it easy to keep track of the Shinobi, who had quickly become lost. Sakura had to admit that they were talented, as they moved fast, and managed to avoid many of the horrors that set their sights on them. Sakura made sure to mark any kills made by her pack for her to claim. While she couldn't physically stop any other predator from having a bite or two, she would know if anyone tried to claim anything that rightfully belonged to her and her pack. Considering how connected everything in the forest was to her, it was easy to find and punish any such troublemakers.
She began frowning as she felt her body's reserves run out, forcing her to rely on the forest's seemingly limitless chakra in order to support herself. She knew that if she took something from the reserve, she would eventually have to pay it back, as it technically wasn't her's to take. It was only because of her title that she could afford to borrow from it. Otherwise, it was something reserved only for the collective will of the forest.
Ordering her snakes to grab onto her, she used a burst of chakra to speed up, just like shea head learned from the memories of the dead Shinobi. She stopped as she was about to enter what she believed to be their range of awareness. Now, close enough, she released her snakes and watched through the eyes of her shadows as they attacked the Shinobi.
Their headbands were different from the previous one she had devoured, but they still seemed to be dangerous in their own right, as they had managed to survive this far. As her snakes launched themselves at them, they were viciously cut down. Sakura mourned their deaths but thanked them for revealing their opponents' skills. She didn't have any more dangerous creatures as part of her pack, but deeming the Shinobi as a clear threat against the forest, she could call down the entire population of the forest on them. Of course, it wasn't necessary. All she had to do was ask for help.
While the forest was normally a hierarchy, with the strongest being in charge, it didn't mean that one couldn't make allies or friends. One of the biggest, strongest, and friendliest allies Sakura had, was the Evertree. Sakura took care of it, and it helped her keep bothersome pests or creatures away. The reason she called it the Evertree, was because it could show up anywhere, at any moment. The only downside to it was that it absolutely hated being disturbed, and even if it did decide to show up and help her, it would do so reluctantly.
Still, even if it would be grumpy, it was an ally, and it did owe her. Not to mention, this was a threat to the forest, and the potential compensation was nothing so simple to ignore.
Indicating a spot in front of the speeding Shinobi, Sakura meantally called on the Evertree. The resulting massacre was a spectacle to behold. Out of the blue, a completely black tree appeared in the middle of the Shinobi's path. As soon as the Evertree registered their presence, each and every leaf-bare branch on its being came alive and lashed out like whips, the very tips opening up like trumpets before releasing a loud screech that forced the Shinobi to reflexively cover their ears in pain, only for the branches to descend on them. In mere moments, their bodies were broken, hammered beyond recognition, and no longer a threat.
As the broken forms of the two people fell to the ground with pained screams, Sakura landed next to them and gave the Evertree a salute in thanks, dismissing it with a mental promise to reimburse it. She then cringed as the tree shrieked at her in annoyance, before disappearing as suddenly as it had appeared, leaving Sakura, her shadows, and birds, with the soon-to-be corpses.
Leaning over the two twitching, groaning bodies, Sakura inspected them. Most of their limbs were broken, and one of them had their torso twisted in the middle, with their breath constantly hitching while they tried to cough, to no avail, sounding as if they were choking on their own blood. The other Shinobi was looking at Sakura with uncomprehending eyes, as she looked at them with a smile. They seemed to both be adults, and their headbands showed them to be Shinobi of Kirigakure, which explained their level of skill. From the Kumogakure Shinobi, Sakura knew that Kirgakure had suffered a lot of infighting, and only the strongest could really call such a place home.
She didn't bother memorizing their appearances, as just identifying their headbands had been strenuous enough on her eyes in the dark. Besides, she would soon know anything interesting directly from the source.
Amused by the woman who seemed unable to move, or say anything with her neck at an odd angle, Sakura took immense pleasure to see her face become horrified as she took her time in cutting her male companion open, digging his brain out and eating it in front of her. She could see the fear and horror, and it made her feel good, knowing she could inspire such emotions in her prey. She was their predator after all.
Once done, Sakura allowed her shadows and birds to descend on the still-warm corpse, before getting down on all fours and looking the woman in her blue eyes.
"You entered our territory, the forest does not like intruders." She told her, before once again picking up a kunai, and began carving the woman's head out.
From their memories, she deduced them to have been Jōnin, intending to spy on Konohagakure. They had thought they could infiltrate the village through the Forest of Death, despite knowing about its reputation, thinking it nothing other than superstition, or something they would be able to handle if it truly turned out to be a threat to them. It made Sakura uncomfortable to know that Shinboi might deem her territory as a whole a threat, and the forest itself agreed with her. It wasn't something that could stand. Unfortunately, they were at a loss as to how this issue could be resolved.
Unable to do anything concerning the issue as it was, Sakura didn't bother with it for much longer and instead settled for handing the second corpse over to her pack. As they abandoned the first corpse, Sakura was delighted to see the pile of bones that remained. Normally, not even they would have been spared, as the forest devoured everything it could, but the Bone-man had made her an offer once he found out about the previous Shinobi kill. If she brought him human bones, he would make her something from them, at least part of them. Sakura had seen what things he had managed to create from animal bones and was eager to earn herself some of his work. She was planning on asking him to make her a comb, as the memories of the Kirigakure Shinobi contained knowledge as to how she could make certain hygiene and beauty products, and together with a proper comb, she would finally be able to relive one of the few luxuries from her life as a human. That is to say, clean and properly brushed hair.
While her pack devoured the remainder of the woman, Sakura admired the different bones left behind by the man. For a moment, she tried to puzzle them together, and imagine how together they created a human but found herself unable to do so. Instead, she settled for a simple, much easier task of imagining what bones could be used to make her a comb, and which ones would make the best one. Sadly, she couldn't entertain herself in such a manner for long, before her pack finished devouring the woman, leaving her with a second pile of bones, and places to be. With a sigh, Sakura recruited her pack to help her carry the many bones, before using chakra to speed off towards where she knew the Bone man lived.
