Chapter Two:
We're Not in Konoha Anymore
Sakura blinked. She blinked again. After rubbing her eyes, she finally gave up on trying to adjust them physically. Instead she just stared. Gone were the familiar colors of the forest, the multi-hued greens and browns, the calming hues of the natural earth. Gone was the forest. She seemed to be in a village of sorts. For some reason though, the houses seemed rather two dimensional, with only the bizarre colors making them stand out from the background. The shades before her were as bright as they were false; as if someone had gone crazy with a set of brilliant acrylic paints. The yellows, greens and blues… it hurt her eyes, this world of false color.
Remembering that she had been in the midst of something important, Sakura got to her feet; feeling like her head had been stuffed with peanut butter. She heard a whine and was grateful to see Pakkun stumble towards her, wagging his tail slightly. Before she could check on him though, a familiar voice interrupted her.
"Hey lady, you killed the Wicked Witch of the East! Cool!"
"What? Konahamaru?"
The Hokage's grandson greeted her with a toothy grin. He was flanked by his two omnipresent cohorts; all three of them were sporting Naruto-esque goggles, although the rest of their clothes appeared a bit odd.
"Witch?" Sakura turned to see where the boy was pointing. The false cabin of the clearing was there, although it also had been cast into a too-bright shade of brown. Odder still was that a pair of legs were sticking out from beneath the house.
"Oh no; is that Kurei-san?"
The words escaped her mouth before her brain caught up. No. If it was her adversary from the clearing then this so-called "Fairy Tale Jutsu" would have been undone. Sakura shook her head hard, her short pink tresses whipping against her cheek. She put away her throwing weapons to pinch herself on the arm to help clear the cobwebs from her head. That's right; none of this was real. It was all a type of powerful genjutsu, so powerful that it had confused her mind for a moment. She kept her eyes closed, locking the techni-color scenery outside as she rediscovered her center. She ignored Konahamaru's cheerful, "Thanks for killing that old bag; she ruled over us all for, like, centuries."
None of this is real. It's all genjutsu and I have to break free.
Once again she clasped her hands together, fingers intertwined as the first two fingers on each hand pointed skyward. Sakura didn't have a lot of chakra, but she was good at controlling the amount that she had. She could feel it flowing through her, rising up until her skin tingled with power. Her eyes snapped open; she noted with satisfaction that the dust around her was ascending on invisible currents, swirling around her feet and legs as the power of her chakra disturbed it from the ground.
Kai! Release!
She sent her chakra pulsing out; the techni-colored world around her shimmered and wavered under its assault. Konahamaru, still standing there with a too-large grin on his face, shimmered too. He and his friends were as false as the rest of her surroundings. Sakura panted slightly as she maintained her attack, hoping that this illusion would fade as the one in the clearing had done. The teen collapsed to her knees as her chakra ran low. The false scenery around her instantly smoothed itself, as if she hadn't done anything at all. Dizzy from expending so much chakra at once, Sakura fell forward, catching herself with her hands before her body could hit the ground.
A kernel of fear, one she always kept with her, suddenly grew inside her chest. She was trapped and alone. No teammates to help her out, no sensei to say that he would die before allowing his comrades to be killed. No one would come looking for her and she was at the mercy of who knows what kind of enemy. She heard a whine just before a cold nose touched her bare arm. Sakura gathered Pakkun up into her arms, just as a bright glow descended from the sky. The pink-haired kunoichimade it to her feet, still clinging to the surprisingly quiet ninja dog, as the light formed itself into…
"You!" Sakura spat the word. "What is this jutsu? What do you want from us?"
"I am Kurei, Good Witch of the North. Thank you for freeing these little ones from the tyranny of the Wicked Witch of the East."
It was the same old hag from the clearing: same wrinkled skin, same lifeless hair; and those eyes, with their concentric circles of red; those were the same too. The only difference was that she was now clothed in a brilliant white dress. Although only slightly taller than Konahamaru, she still patted the top of his head as she had spoken.
"So you are Kurei? I told you before; I am not your enemy. I'm from Konoha, sent to retrieve a scroll. There's no need for any of this!" Sakura gestured awkwardly with one hand, while still holding Pakkun with the other.
"Humph! And I'm supposed to believe that a no-talent girl like you is one of Konoha's kunoichi? Fat chance!"
The mirage Konahamaru giggled. Before Sakura could protest further, the woman continued. "Listen up, dearie, there's only one way for you to get out of this world. Your chakra isn't powerful enough to break my spell so you'll have to find another way. If you can manage to break free, I'll give you what you seek. Otherwise you can just stay here until you rot." A golden glow began to surround Kurei as she started to ascend into the air. "Oh, by the way, those shoes are yours." She waggled a gnarled hand towards the cabin behind Sakura before disappearing.
"Hey! Come back here, you old nut-bag! You have no right to keep me here! Do you hear me?!" Sakura yelled at the top of her voice, the vehement words dashing the smiles off of Konahamaru and his cronies. But it was to no end; the falsely-colored world remained and Kurei was gone.
Sakura grimaced and looked down at the dog in her arms. "Well this is a fine mess. What do you think we should do?"
Pakkun just whined at her.
"Oh come one! I need help here. Talk to me!"
The dog remained silent; Sakura couldn't believe that she actually craved his normal, baritone voice. "Look, I know that you might think it's smart to hide the fact that you can talk, but I could really use some advice…"
When silence once again met her heartfelt plea, Sakura decided that a change of strategy was in order. She held the small dog before her in both hands, turning him to face her. Taking a deep breath, she spoke in the highest falsetto she could manage. "Oh, look at the cute little puppy. Who's a cute doggy? Is it you? Yes, it is!" she gushed. The first time they had met, Pakkun had warned her to never call him a 'cute little dog'. Sakura figured that if anything would get him to break his silence, baby-talking at him would. Unfortunately, she was wrong. The pug-mix wiggled in her hands, but did nothing more.
"Hey, hey!" Konahamaru shouted, sounding a lot like the ninja he loved to emulate. "Aren't you going to take the shoes? They've got a powerful charm on them, you know. 'Though they're probably too nice for someone like you."
Sakura's inner warrior snarled a little, but she put Pakkun down and turned to see where Konahamaru was pointing. Sure enough, the legs that had been sticking out from beneath the house were gone, leaving a pair of open-toed shoes designed almost exactly like the pair she was wearing, only silver instead of blue. Sakura walked over to them and picked them up gingerly, ignoring the grinning illusory child. They were silver, not red, which probably meant that the 'Fairy Tale Jutsu' was following the book instead of the movie. Fortunately, Sakura had read the book.
With a wicked grin, she changed into the silver shoes. Gathering Master Kakashi's dog back up into her arms, the teen ordered the shoes to take her home. She took three steps… and went nowhere but the three steps. She tried clicking the heels together, but to no avail.
Konahamaru and his friends were watching with superior smirks on their faces. "Hey lady, want to know what you should do? You should go to the Emerald City and see the Great and Powerful Hokage. He can get you home."
If Sakura hadn't already known that the child before her was an illusion, that would have given it away. Konahamaru never spoke that respectfully of his grandfather. Usually he just called him 'the old geezer'. With an unladylike snort, she put Pakkun back down.
"You're not going to sing, are you?"
"What? No way! A super cool ninja like me would never sing! I'm just telling you that the Great and Powerful Hokage can probably get you home. All you have to do is follow this yellow dirt path."
Sakura rolled her eyes skyward before casting them in the indicated direction. Sure enough, there was a conspicuous trail of yellow earth leading out of the village. Her voice dripped with sarcasm. "Yeah, right. I'll just go following an imaginary trail to see an imaginary Hokage. Meanwhile, my real body will go walking off of a very real cliff or something. Thanks, but no thanks."
The boy interlaced his fingers behind his head. He gave a careless shrug. "Suite yourself, but if you think that the Good Witch of the North will run out of chakra if you just wait around; think again. This jutsu takes a lot of chakra to cast, but almost none to maintain. I'm sure that with that super broad-brow of yours, you can figure out what that means."
Sakura's eyes grew wide; there was no suppressing her inner warrior this time. It didn't matter that her antagonist was an illusion; no one made reference to her forehead and got away with it. With a flying leap, the kunoichi easily captured the child, putting him in a headlock. The boy's feet futilely kicked at the air as she held him up off the ground.
"What was that?" she hissed.
"Besides," he gasped, "If you don't leave, you'll never find the others."
Sakura loosened her grip slightly. "What others? Pakkun and I are the only real ones here."
"Ha! That's what you think! But if you really want to know the truth, you'll have to follow the path and find them."
The spiky-haired child gave a sudden squirm and freed himself. He scrambled a safe distance away before turning to point at her with an extended index finger. His two silent companions flanked him. "A-ha! I, Konahamaru, will be the greatest Hokage ever! A fire-breathing, broad-browed, old hag like you will never be able to stop the likes of me!"
Before Sakura could react, he threw a smoke bomb down, temporarily hiding his group behind a hazy wall of dense grey smoke. When it cleared, he and his friends were hiding underneath a blanket that was probably supposed to look like a pile of rocks. Except that the 'rocks' kept squirming and the natural tan color didn't blend into the brightly colored surroundings at all. Inflamed over the unnecessary forehead comments, Sakura proceeded to give all three illusion children a thump on the head, causing them to scurry off in great haste.
Then she planted her fists on her hips and scowled at her predicament. Her first instinct had been to stay put and let her captor run out of chakra, rending the jutsu useless. But if what Konahamaru had said was true, Kurei might not be using a lot of chakra to maintain her imaginary world. And what if there were others trapped here; real people like herself who had wandered in by accident? Sakura pursed her lips in thought. She had an underdeveloped talent for genjutsu; her sensei had even mentioned it before. So while she had managed to preserve herself and see that the world around her was false, it was entirely possible that others wouldn't be so lucky.
Her teal-colored eyes found Pakkun and she gave the ninja dog a worried look. There was no way to tell if he was actually lost to the spell or just acting. "Well, what do you think we should do?" she asked, not really expecting an answer. To her surprise, the small ninja dog started trotting down the yellow dirt path with a purpose, not even sparing a backwards glance at the girl. Sakura's scowl deepened, but what else could she do? She had to trust Master Kakashi's dog.
"All right, 'Toto'; let's go."
------------------------------------------------
A/N: As a further disclaimer, "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" was written by L. Frank Baum. I own as much of it as I do "Naruto", which is to say that I own nothing at all. This fact remains true for this chapter and every single chapter contained in this story.
As a side note, thanks to those who reviewed to the first chapter. I will use the "review reply" function as soon as it is back online. I thought I should at least let you know that I appreciate your kind words.