Pompeii
Chapter 34
jaylene

Sakura placed her dreamcatcher downstairs, looking around guiltily as she did so. She knew that her friends would have a quite a bit to say about what she was about to attempt. Sakura covered the dreamcatcher with a sheet, hoping that her recklessness would pay off. It was a gamble, but for the answers she sought, it would be more than worth it.

Sakura climbed the stairs to her apartment once more, blinking as she saw Sai sitting outside her front door. He hadn't been there five minutes prior, but Sakura was becoming accustomed to the abrupt comings and goings of those around her. Time and manners worked differently in Pompeii than they did in New York and she had to remember that.

"Hi Sai," she said, pushing open the front door as he stood. "What brings you my way tonight?"

"Yamato and your neighbor are bickering again," he said as he pushed past her, seeking the haven of her couch. He curled himself up there and watched her with unblinking, doleful eyes.

"Again?" Sakura repeated. She moved into the kitchen, rummaging through her drawers and grabbing a melatonin tablet. She chewed it, grimacing. It was just as well that Sai had arrived. Sakura was too keyed up for sleep at the moment. She might as well bake. "Have they been fighting often?" She paused in her search, thinking. "They did just fine at dinner the other night. It was awkward, but neighborly dinners often are."

"Ours are not," Sai pointed out. "They are conversing outside from their balconies. It seemed tense. Perhaps I misunderstood. You mentioned having dinner with them. Perhaps it is part of a specialized mating ritual?"

Sakura choked on the handful of chocolate chips she'd popped into her mouth. Coughing, tears streaming from her eyes, she pounded at her chest and finally managed in a weak voice, "Somehow I don't think that's the case," before devolving into giggles.

Sai entered the room, silent as always, crouching by her side. "Have I said something amusing?" he asked, seeming lost.

Sakura gasped for air and patted his hand as best she could. "Where have you been all my life? I have to keep you around!"

Sai cocked his head though Sakura thought she saw the slightest of smiles tucked away at the corners of his lips. "I accept," he replied. "Is it alright if I stay the night here? I do not wish to interrupt Yamato. This courting ceremony is obviously important to him."

Sakura sobered a bit, remembering the night she had planned. "You're welcome to stay, Sai, though I'm not sure if it'll be much quieter here."

"Why not?"

"I believe I'm going to have nightmares tonight," Sakura replied.

"Would you like me to wake you?" Sai asked, looking uncertain.

Sakura's smile warmed as she looked at him. "Thank you for the offer, but no. I have some questions I need answered."

Sai simply nodded, not asking questions as he followed her around the kitchen. He remained her silent but stalwart companion as she began to prepare lemon squares. Sai took directions in the kitchen gracefully and Sakura appreciated his presence as she worked through her jitters. The lemon squares could be taken down to the clinic tomorrow too. Sakura knew that a few of the clients would appreciate the homemade treat.

Sakura took a seat on the couch as the lemon squares baked, feeling the melatonin drag down against her eyelids. She was tired, even without the melatonin in her system.

"Go to sleep," Sai said, pulling her to her feet. "I'll take care of the lemon squares."

"Thanks, Sai," Sakura replied through her yawn. "You're the best."

She stumbled through her nightly habits before falling into bed, right as the timer in the kitchen dinged.

Sakura stood upon a chessboard, unable to protest as a ghostly hand, unattached to a body, moved her forward a space. She could feel the eyes, crawling across her skin, invading her boundaries. She was a pawn. Sakura stared up at the knight a few spaces away, its gaze unseen but still piercing.

Sakura felt taken apart, judged and found wanting.

She was powerless.

A scream rent the air and Sakura turned her eyes, catching sight of another pawn as it fell beneath the crushing weight of a rook. The sound of breaking bones was sickening, even more so when Sakura caught sight of the pawn's face.

It was her.

"A pity," a voice said. Sakura opened her mouth to scream against the pain of the voice, beyond male or female, ageless and all powerful. Yet nothing came out of her throat, she was drowning, choking on her own incompetence, her inability- "Let us try once more."

The hand grasped Sakura once more and again she moved forward another space. Sakura could see the white knight more clearly as he lifted his sword, running a whetstone against the edge. It was looking at her, warning her of what was to come. She was next, she was just a pawn, she was nothing-

NO.

Sakura took a deep breath, centering herself as she closed her eyes against the terror pressing down on her. This was a dream. She was not a pawn, she was so much more.

She would not be controlled.

Sakura opened her eyes again, muscles tensing, straining against whatever it was that held her still. She saw the knight begin to move her way in that all too familiar l-shape, both hands raising its sword. Sakura could see her reflection in the sword, her pale drawn face and determined eyes.

As the sword came down, Sakura sprung forward, ducking around the knight. She felt the sword pass closely over her head, ruffling her hair with the force of it. But she was already away, sprinting toward the end of the board. Dream physics still applied as the board stretched out across the horizon, too long for her to even see the end. However, Sakura had the power here and her steps ate up the ground beneath her. She could hear the enraged yells of the entity behind her and of the other pieces on the board, but Sakura didn't mind them.

She just had to make it to the end.

And suddenly she was there, staring down the wizened white king. It sat upon a regal throne but its body was deteriorating. It had lost its power, though it still wore the mantle of king. It was a sad thing, less than human dressed in the trappings of royalty and prestige. Sakura stepped up to it, shoving the king back against the throne, the knife Sai had given her materializing in her hands.

"I may have been a pawn," Sakura said, pressing the knife against the king's throat. She was addressing the entity as a whole, the thing in the forest that taunted and harassed her from the shadows. "But I have won your little game and I make the rules now." She drew the knife across the king's throat, ignoring the golden ichor that flowed down its lily white skin and the way it coated her hands. There was an ear-piercing shriek as Sakura lifted the crown from the king's head, a weighty, gaudy thing. The ichor flowed onto the crown, turning it gold. Sakura could feel her ears ringing, bleeding as the entity bellowed against her. She placed the crown upon her head. "I'm the motherfucking king here."

Sakura was ripped away from the board as an overload of images bombarded her. She saw the heroes of old, the sacrifice to the volcano, an old, angry anguish beating against her chest. They would pay; all of them would pay. She would not stop until Pompeii was ashes around her…

The scene shifted and suddenly she was in a fragrant garden, surrounded by trees of all kinds. Pears, peaches, pomegranates, and more hung ripe and heavy from the branches. Sakura reached out toward the trees, unbearably hungry…

It was dark, quiet. In the flicker of moonlight that shone through the thicket, Sakura could make out a small shrine. It came up about to Sakura's hip. It was covered in moss and various other flora, little bluebells growing alongside it. There was a small plaque at the front of the smooth shrine, though the words were worn away by time. Sakura knelt by it, a solemnity in her heart that wasn't there prior. She closed her eyes, bowing over the shrine.

"How could you?"

Sakura woke with a gasp, sweat slicking her skin. She sat up, glancing down at her fingers. They were clean. It had all been a dream.

Sakura exhaled heavily, flinging her arm across her eyes. She laid there for a few long moments, waiting for her heart rate to calm.

Finally she sat up, scrubbing her eyes.

It was time to get her dreamcatcher, though Sakura had a strong suspicion that the entity from the forest wouldn't be bothering her any time soon.

One thing she knew for sure, it wasn't Orochimaru.

"Are you joining me or not?" Sakura demanded, tucking the omamori behind the hamsa that hung around her neck. Sakura carried multiple talismans, nearly twenty in all, placed strategically around her body. Some were gifts, others were purchases from the Goblin Market. She had to be prepared. Sakura turned to the book expectantly. "Well?"

This is a bad idea, it replied, shaking its pages in her direction in a rueful manner.

"I know," Sakura said, pulling her hair into a ponytail. "However, I need some answers and no one has been forthcoming. So I need to find them for myself. I'm going out into the forest with or without you. I'd much prefer for you to be there with me."

I don't like this, the book said, snapping shut in anger.

"I know you don't and I know that I might get myself into even more trouble," Sakura said, methodically wrapping her knuckles with bandage. She tried a few strikes, bouncing on the balls of her feet. It had been years since her last boxing match, sometime back in college before medical school stole away her extracurricular activities, but it felt good to be back at it once more. "I refuse to be sidelined by others. I've been caught in the crosshairs of this fight one too many times."

The book didn't respond, but when Sakura headed for the door, it leapt in her way. I'm not pleased about this decision, but I'll feel better going with you rather than letting you struggle on your own.

"Great!" Sakura exclaimed, clapping her hands together. "Can you draw me a map to the site of the Founding Sacrifice?"

The book sat still for so long, Sakura wondered if it had heard her. Why do you want to go there?

"Because I'm nearly certain I had a vision of the place last night," Sakura replied. It had been difficult to sort through all of the things she'd seen the night before, but there was something about that last scene that seemed especially important. She remembered Suigetsu's words from so long ago. There was a site where the Founding happened and Sakura knew that shrine was for the Maiden who gave her life for the protection of Pompeii. She didn't think Suigetsu had actually followed through with his rash words about finding the site, if he had, he certainly hadn't mentioned anything. And Suigetsu was the bragging sort. "I have a general sense of its location, even if you decide to abstain from giving me the map. It'd just cut down on some of my wandering."

I'll guide you. If a book could sigh, Sakura assumed it'd be similar to what the book did now, folding its pages inward before releasing them outward once more. Know that I do this under protest and I reserve the right to be the first to say, "I told you so."

"Of course," Sakura said, locking up behind herself. "I'd be disappointed if it were any other way."

The book snapped itself shut in the way it always did when it felt snippy with her.

Sakura caressed the binding of the book fondly, glad to have it here with her. Despite her cavalier attitude, she was afraid. Her wrist ached as she remembered her last encounter with the trees. She knew what she was doing was foolhardy, but Sakura couldn't remain idle. The secrets being kept from her, for her "protection" as she heard over and over again, had devastating ramifications; ones that Sakura didn't know how to combat.

Which was why she marched up the path behind the clinic, making her way into the brush that grew with wild abandon. Sakura's mood darkened as her environment did, branches greedily crowding out the light of the sun. She was doubly grateful for the book's presence as it thrummed in her hands before falling open, showing a picture of the shrine within a circle, with words etched above it reading, "Founding Site." Beneath the picture was a box that showed three footprints.

"Cute," she murmured, feeling her anxiety abate slightly. "Will you let me spin the stop when we get to our destination?"

I'm a book, not a video game, the book said, writing above the faux PokeStop.

"Yeah, but you're a magic book," Sakura replied, unable to fight the grin that crossed her face. "Can I catch something too? I'd love a Wartortle."

Don't push your luck, kid, the book replied as the footprints bar pulsed. There were now only two tracks. We're getting closer.

Sakura looked up, startled to find that they'd made their way pretty deep into the forest. The trees that surrounded her towered high above her head, the branches so thick she couldn't see the tops of the trees. The book had done a good job of keeping her distracted, immersing her in its pages rather than the reality that encompassed them. Grip tightening on the book, Sakura said, "C'mon, not even a Pikachu?"

And so they continued back and forth, bantering lightheartedly. Yet Sakura didn't take her eyes off of her surroundings, attentive now to the encroaching shadows and rustling leaves. There were moments where the trees shook with the wind and Sakura almost thought she heard the whispers...but no, the sounds remained those of a normal forest.

So attuned was she to her surroundings, Sakura felt the moment things shifted. It was a slight thing, a hush brought on by magic. It felt sacred, tranquil. The hairs on Sakura's arms and neck stood on end. She couldn't help but feel that her very presence here defiled the land. This place was ancient and she was an interloper.

Something on the book's page flashed and Sakura glanced down. The footsteps had disappeared and the circle began spinning. The book made fireworks dance across the page. Sakura chuckled wetly, immediately looking around as her laughter echoed. It was a happy sound, but in this place it felt somehow violent.

"What was that for?" Sakura asked softly, hating the way her voice still carried.

You needed it. I've done my part; the rest is up to you, the book scrawled before folding shut.

Sakura patted its binding in thanks before tucking it away in her satchel. Her hands shook as she did so, but Sakura ignored that. She took a deep breath to steady herself, catching a heady scent, fresh and rich. It was opulence and life, something so unique that Sakura paused.

She took in her surroundings once more, following the scent as it led her along through the trees to a small pool of water. The water of the pond was still and should have been stagnate, but Sakura could see to the bottom of the pool. It was the clearest water she'd ever seen.

And beyond it lay the shrine. The areas uncovered by moss shone a brilliant white, untouched by time. At its base was a bundle of incense, the ends of which were lit. The incense was giving off the smell that led her here. Sakura, who'd been making her way toward the shrine, stopped short, as a shiver ran down her spine.

There was someone else here.

Sakura adjusted her stance, widening her legs and bringing her arms up at the ready. When nothing attacked, she cautiously reached for one of her charms, the nazar, and placed it over one eye. Still, she saw nothing.

Something creaked behind her and Sakura dropped into a crouch, turning, ready to strike.

The first thing she noticed were the . Daffodils in resplendent yellows and oranges, brimming with life. They sprung from every crevice, covering nearly every surface possible.

The second thing she noticed was that the flowers were covering a suit of armor. It was old, ancient really, rusting in places and missing parts. It was riddled with gaping holes, filled only by the abundant daffodils. It was empty, aside from the flowers. In truth, it seemed to be held together by the flowers that spilled over the seams, binding the armor to the earth and to life.

Sakura narrowed her eyes, straightening from her crouch. The suit of armor didn't move, though Sakura could almost feel it watching her. It was older and there were far fewer pieces, but Sakura could swear that she'd seen this set of armor before.

During Founder's Day.

Sakura gulped as she stared up at the suit of armor with new eyes. This, whatever it was, was the remnants of one of the Founders. The armor was obviously built for a large frame, as it stood nearly seven feet in height. Even in death, the Founders were larger than life.

Sakura wasn't sure if it was alive, but it was certainly capable of movement as it hadn't been here a few moments prior.

With shaky steps, Sakura made her way closer to the armor, watching for any sign of aggression. There were none. She reached out, fingers trembling and placed her hand to the chest piece of the armor. It was warm.

Sakura looked up into the face plate of the armor. Daffodils spilled over the edges and Sakura could see the emptiness behind them. Yet she could feel its gaze upon her, gentle but heavy. "What are you?" she asked, trailing a hand across the flower. "Why are you here?"

The armor offered her no response, not that she truly expected one. Instead it reached up with one massive hand and plucked a daffodil free of its shoulder. Slowly, it reached forward, tucking the flower behind her ear with a tenderness that belied its strength and size.

Sakura captured its hand in both of her own as it moved to pull away. Her eyes flickered to the shrine and the incense. "Do you guard this place?"

The wind whipped up around them and the suit of armor scooped her up in its arms, swiveling in place to drop her atop the shrine. The branches around them sprung to life and the whispers set in as the suit of armor took a defensive stance in front of the shrine, in front of her.

It was protecting her.

Sakura watched in awe as the armor, so docile and gentle moments ago, ripped a branch free and slammed it into its brethren in a cacophony of noises. Sakura noticed that none of the branches even attempted to attack her or the shrine, focusing entirely on the suit of armor.

For a moment, it seemed that the armor would win.

Then there was a horrific scraping sound as a branch pierced the side of the armor. The suit stumbled, daffodils falling as it wrenched free of the branch. More branches began to strike the armor, lancing it through. Sakura watched in horror, realizing with a start that the holes she'd seen in the armor earlier were from the trees.

The entity in the forest hated the suit of armor as much as, if not more than, it hated Sakura.

Sakura wrestled her knife out of her satchel before dropping the satchel and darting forward, heedless of the danger. She sliced across one of the branches that still pierced through the armor's side, smiling in satisfaction as it drew ichor to the surface.

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend," Sakura murmured through clenched teeth as she pulled away and parried a blow from another branch that left her arms aching.

Everything was still for a moment and Sakura had a feeling that she'd done something unexpected, both to the suit of armor and the entity of the forest.

Then, everything snapped back into action as a branch cracked against Sakura's jaw. Sakura tasted copper as the branch cut her skin open, but she gritted her teeth and reached out with one bandaged hand to take hold of the branch. She sliced through it with the knife, turning the branch left in her hand into a baton of sorts, knocking back the branches as they attempt to hit her.

Beside her, the suit of armor rose and began swatting at the branches that swarmed them. It took the heaviest of the blows, always angling itself over Sakura in protection.

Still, Sakura took her fair share of hits. Some places openly bled, while others formed the foundations for what Sakura knew would be fantastic bruises. The trees were unrelenting in their force. For every branch struck down, others rose to take its place. It was only a matter of time before they fell beneath the forest's force.

Sakura glanced at her companion, grinning as it took out three branches in one blow. She wasn't going to stop either. She couldn't give up now, no matter what.

There was a magnificent clanging sound somewhere beyond Sakura's line of sight and the whispers picked up into a crescendo of hatred. Sakura braced herself, knife flashing as it caught the flailing branches around her. And then the branches were gone, as were the whispers.

The entity fled.

Sakura glanced around, wondering why for a moment before her eyes caught off of gleaming metal. Another suit of armor crouched over a pile of broken branches, a large sword in its hand. This suit was similar to the first, though instead of daffodils, it was filled with marigolds. It stood to its full height and Sakura shrank back slightly as it turned her way. It flicked its sword once and approached.

Sakura widened her stance, raising her knife. She knew she was no match for this thing. She could taste the magic on it and on the other one, potent and heady and overwhelmingly powerful.

Still, she refused to go out without a fight.

The daffodil armor stepped in front of her, facing the marigold. They stood tensely for a long moment before the marigold suit returned its sword to its sheath. It thrust out another sword to the daffodil armor, which took it.

Sakura stayed on alert, ready for anything. She stepped forward, hissing as it agitated an injury on the meat of her thigh. She glanced down, glaring at the cut that seeped blood, hating her weakness. A shadow fell across her, the only warning she had before she found herself flung through the air, landing with a shriek in the pool of water.

Sakura leapt to her feet, raring for a fight. She stopped as she realized that there was no pain to any of her movements.

Sakura glanced down, awestruck when she found herself free of all blemishes. She was healed. Sakura looked up at the sets of armor once more, grinning as she exited the pool.

"No wonder you keep this place secret. You could easily put me out of my job."

Sakura walked out of the forest, bone-tired but satisfied. She hadn't gotten all of the answers she sought, hell, she had more questions now, but it was a start. She'd done something, however small it might be.

She'd promised to return to the clearing soon, but first Sakura needed to investigate the town more. Hiruzen was sure to have books on Pompeii's Founding. Maybe she could find out more about the heroes, about the warriors that once inhabited the suits of armor.

One thing Sakura knew for sure: the entity in the forest did not care for the shrine. In fact, Sakura was almost sure it feared that place.

Sakura glanced around, realizing that she was coming out of the thicket near the grocery store rather than her apartment. She'd no idea how she'd gotten that turned around in the forest, though she wasn't too surprised. Pompeii was surrounded on all sides by the trees.

"Sakura!"

Sakura turned slightly, raising a hand in greeting as Hashirama approached her. "Hashirama," she said. "It is nice to see you. How is the search going?"

"It's slow moving," he replied, looking harried. "There's less resources at hand than we're used to."

Sakura's frown deepened. She knew he considered Yamato one of those "resources." "Well, I hope everything is resolved soon. I'll see you around, I have to get home. I have dinner plans."

Sakura strolled on, conscious of his stare. What she did not realize, however, was the way his brows furrowed as he watched her leave. Hashirama then turned toward the forest, lips pursing as he traced her path with stormy eyes.

Note: pawns can become any piece EXCEPT a king, so basically dream!sakura breaks the game and gives the forest entity the middle finger. finally my third grade experience of chess club is of use in my adult life. are you proud of me mother?