Chapter 3


The sun had set since long ago, however she was still riding on the path with the child and the horse. The child's crying became incessant and disparaging—she knew the infant was hungry but she could not stop riding for she feared for both their safeties if the situation somehow turned to her confronting the humanoid beasts. The horse seemed to be weary with fatigue also, as she encountered intermittent stops where the equine beast slowed to a tired jog before being coaxed into a full sprint again. She herself was exhausted and sore from the horseback riding, but she only had a few military ration pills left for a quick energy boost and wanted to save them for something more pressing.

At their last stop, the horse refused to move, instead opting to sit in protest and in exhaustion. Sakura could not coax the horse into moving, so as a last resort, she used her chakra and knowledge of medicine to stimulate the fight-or-flight reflex of the stubborn horse, and quickly mounted it as it turned to sprint off again.

She could see in the dim glow of the night another large wall in the distance, and hoped that she, her ward, and her horse would be safe within those encompassing barriers.

As she neared the wall, the horse began to slow down, and she steered the beast towards what looked to be the entrance of the wall. This one, she saw, had the insignia of a woman. Once she was at the wall, she carefully dismounted the horse and led the creature to the front of the wall. She could not get passed, as there was no other entrance beside what looked to be an archway to the other side. She turned to leave when she heard shouts from people who were descending the wall on black cables in the night.

"Stop! You will go no further." Again, Sakura found that she could not understand what they were saying, so she remained silent. These people who were once perched on the wall—there were about four of them—each had a hand on the hilt of their blades.

"Who are you? Why are you here? How did you survive the invasion when almost no one else has ever returned?" One of them questioned. The child bound to her began to cry again and Sakura's patience was wearing thin.

"I don't know why I'm here" she began in her native tongue, "but if you have any answers I am willing to cooperate with you." They couldn't understand her either.

"Hey! You think this is some kind of a fucking joke? Why do you sound like that?"

"You know, she doesn't sound like she's from around here. Maybe she's from outside the walls?"

"Yeah right, like anyone could exist out there with those godforsaken beasts."

"But she did manage to make it out here…"

"Why is her hair fucking pink?"

Sakura could sense the change in atmosphere. While they convened with each other, she could not ignore the subtle cues that would suggest that these men were ready for a fight. Even though it was pretty dark out, her trained sight could pick up a uniform they all wore. Their bodies seemed like seasoned soldier though the way they stood poised for attack suggested that they were no-where near chūnin level. If the large contraptions that each donned on their body and their distinct lack of a developed chakra system were any indication, she concludes that their line of work is not in stealth, and that they were nothing more than civilians in military gear.

Finally, one of the men turns to her and gestures for her to grab onto him so he can transport her over the wall. She shakes her head and holds a protect hand over the child strapped to her front, softly patting its back. Instead, she dismounts her mission pack from the horse who is by now, resting comfortably next to one of the nearby trees and straps it to her back.

Sakura walks to the edge of the wall and glances up. She turns back to the people behind her as they watch her with curiosity. One foot is placed on the wall, then soon after another, and another, until the people down below are shouting in panic at the sight before their eyes. Black cables are whirring around her as she breaks into a sprint up the wall and the people behind her try to catch up to her. She is barely visible in the night as she reaches the top of the wall, and is over again, sliding down the other side of the wall as she catches a minute glance of the town encompassed by the walls. She hits the ground in little to no time and unstraps the child from her front, wrapping it around the infant securely as she places the child next to a tree and a large building.

Quickly unsealing one of the minor foodstuffs from a scroll in her pack, she chewed another riceball quickly before taking it out of her mouth in one hand and gently feeding it to the child secured in her other hand. She does this a few more times before she detects the militants in the corner of her eye and leaves the rice ball and the infant behind. She is nearby when one of the men picks the child and the abandoned riceball up.

"Who do we tell?"

One seemed to ponder for a moment. "The country is dealing with titan invasion and if word got out that we let some random pink-haired freak get passed the wall unscathed then the king will have all our heads, and I'll lose my promotion. There will be no rest tonight. Find an orphanage for that child. If we cannot find her by dawn then this altercation never happened. Am I clear?" All four members of the little band answered him with calls of "Yes!" and "Yes sir!"

Sakura left the scene, not needing to suppress her breath or her chakra. If they could not detect her from at least twenty feet away, then she did not have to do much other than be vigilant of her surroundings for stray logs and leaves—little things that could trigger a serious chain of events.

She hopped from rooftop to rooftop, extending her senses with each leap to detect any abandoned buildings within the vicinity. There were a few, but she opted for the one that was close to what looked to be a market place. One window was open, so she entered through there instead of breaking in through the front door and touched down in the dusty room. She could sense no one in the house as she walked through the house unhindered, however she did not appreciate the unkemptness of the dusty place. There was a bed in the room she'd landed in, and a kitchen with a functional stove and running water. There was also a shower. She didn't plan on living there, though. The next day she would roam the city for answers as to why she was there.


Hey! So if you haven't already read my revised Chapter 2, please do so! Better quality, content, and it makes much more sense. Thanks for reading!