Theone holding Naruto punches him at his stomach. Too much pain for him to take and he falls unconscious. The leader, the one holding Naruto, says, "Come on, boys. Let's play." They carry Naruto somewhere… and danger is on its way.
They dump and tie Naruto at a cubicle and the blond wakes up. He struggles to break free and he yells, "Hey! What is this?" The leader says after a spit, "The new intern is sure noisy, huh." Someone says with a malicious smile, "I'll put that patient to sleep. You guys take care of him." Naruto has his eyes big and he growls at the guys, "Hey! What do you mean with that!"
"…" The guys look at each other and they all bear malicious smiles at him. The blond knows that this is bad… and he is not sure if this is a nightmare of some sort. Sasuke does not even recognize him…
He tries to break free and then one of the interns draws out some barb wire. Naruto's eyes grow big again as the leader gets the barb wire and lines it with the blond's shoulders. The leader smirks and says, "Let the fun begins."
000ooo000
The other guy is setting up a little experiment for a bomb. He is assembling things and the trigger is the oxygen valve. Instead of oxygen, methane gas is loaded at the oxygen tank beside him. But a nurse sees him and talks to him about his new patients and the conditions of his patients. The utility custodian walks by and grabs the oxygen tanks beside the guy. Since it is lighter, he considers it empty. He takes it for refilling and it has been taken before the other guy knows…
The guy panics when the tank disappears and he runs away from the nurse with due respects. He looks around for the utility custodian, "Oh, fuck…"
The custodian mounts the tank near the refilling machine… in a room filled with oxygen tanks…
The guy runs towards the men's toilet…
The guys at the men's room seem to stab a slab of meat…
Stab. Stab. Stab.
The guy reaches the floor where his partners in crime are…
The brutal 'murder' continues…
Stab. Stab. Stab.
The custodian holds the valve and turns it…
Click.
BOOM!
Dreamcatcher Nights
Rei Haruno
Night 3: Sakura's Judgment
'He has lost so much… and he will not let it happen again…'
"Oh shit!" The leader yells and the whole gang meets at the men's room. The whole building shakes in the explosion. The parked cars boom their alarms and the computers jam at the impact. The fire alarm sounds and the deadly flames creep faster than expected. The doctors and nurses cannot access the ER and ICU and the patients are dead on the spot. The sound of Code Blue plagues the ears of all the nurses who are busy saving movable patients. The flames seep through each room… blasting every oxygen tank they find. The UM MedCenter has been put to total chaos and the neighboring buildings start evacuation. The silent and sleepy city has been awakened by the powerful explosion.
The guy in charge of the bomb yells, "Let's get the fuck out of here! The utility custodian triggers the bomb and the whole oxygen room had blown up! The whole system is down and the sprinklers won't turn on!"
"That's fuck! Let's go!" The men runs off… leaving the bloody cubicle open… and the thought-so dead man alive.
Just like what Naruto has seen before… he is tied up in place. Barb wires are wrapped around him and deep wounds of stabbing have punched holes in Naruto's body. The blond is panting for breath… and then the place starts to heat up. The whole floor starts to burn and Naruto is stuck at wherever he is. He tries to call for anyone but his throat is heavily damaged by the barb wires encircling his neck. Tears start to flow from his eyes and he thinks of only one thing…
'Sasuke… will you escape the fire?'
Then he remembers that Sasuke is burning… burning so hard that it pains Naruto to visualize what Sasuke could be going through that very moment. He cries… and cries…
The spiky lights starts to engulf the men's room and Naruto will get burned as well. He eyes at the fire… those flames that drain him his life and hopes to see the poor boy one more time. The blond's eyes choose to close and wait for the burning sensation. He knows that there will be no escape and there's no one to save him.
Soon enough the flames start eating Naruto and his body rattles in pain. He sees visions at the red horizon before him and witnesses another soul's suffering. The burning boy starts to squeal in pain with the blond. Both are feeling the same level of scorch… but Sasuke seems to get hurt more than Naruto does. Naruto is feeling somehow numb already from the piercing of the barb wire. Tears flowing from Naruto's eyes start to vanish as the fire eats up Naruto's face. The tears of pity dissolve in the heat… and pain…
Pain is everything they feel…
000ooo000
Another nightmare ends and the blond wakes up with tears and piercing sadness in his system. Sakura runs her hand at Naruto's face and the blond notices that she is beside him. He blushes and she smiles sweetly at him, "Uzumaki, you've been crying the whole time I've seen you. Is something wrong?"
"Saku— I mean Haruno." Naruto whispers and she continues to run her delicate hands at his face and finally caps it at his cheek, "Are you feeling better now?" Naruto tries to nod but he can't. Sakura chuckles a bit and Naruto blushes at the scene. He smiles… but it vanishes as coldness conquers the place again. Sakura twitches and looks around, "It's getting cold again. Is it always like this here, Uzumaki?"
"Not really—" Naruto shifts up in his surprise of the sudden temperature drop. But wait…
'Oh fuck I can move…'
He sits up and Sakura wonders at the thing, "Huh? I thought you can't move, Uzumaki." Naruto tries to move some more… and finding out that he can move his legs as well… makes him worry and fear the worst case scenario. He has seen a ghost of the other realm kill… and there's no way the others can't. Naruto holds Sakura close and he whispers, "Stay quiet for a while, Sakura."
"Why?" Sakura makes a squeak but Naruto can't possibly say what's going on. He only has an idea of what might happen and not what exactly is happening. He has already realized that the more he can move his body… the deeper in the other realm he gets. Seriously, aside from the temperature drop, nothing else is happening but Naruto fears the appearance of even just one of them.
Sakura wonders at the reaction and seems to feel something funny at her soles. She looks down and something seems to be flooding the room. She frowns at it and reaches for the floor. Naruto looks at what Sakura is doing and sees the foreign thing that floods the room. The yellowish liquid continues to reach up and the two decides to raise their legs above the bed. Sakura wonders, "Is that… the liquid in IV drips?"
"IV drips?" Naruto echoes and remembers something in his nightmare. He can't deny that he has already forgotten how horrible his nightmare is. But he needs to deal with this kind of things like he is so much used to it. The nightmares have been bugging him day in day out… and it seems like there is no end of it. Forgetting about it must have angered the spirits.
But there's no time concluding about it for now. Naruto remembers that Hinata has three IV drips with her and she might have died because of overdose. If Sasuke's haunting is blood and the redhead's is the wall thing, this IV drips flood must be Hinata's. Naruto looks around and sees a faint image of Hinata swaying around the room. And for the record… Sakura can freaking see it. She gapes her mouth open and she whispers, "Naruto, do you see that?" She seems to point the swaying image. Naruto nods and calls… "Hinata… is something wrong?"
A sudden booming sound disturbs the two and in a blink, the whole room has grown bloody. Sakura covers her mouth and Naruto holds her closer. The door opens on its own and a ghostly Hinata walks in the room… without the wheelchair for Naruto. Different from what Naruto can remember, her light eyes are glaring with killing intent at Sakura. Yellow liquid is flowing out her mouth and is connecting to the one flooding the room. Naruto calls again, "Hinata? What's happening?"
"…" Hinata cocks her head to the side forcefully… and which proves her neck is broken and it clicks at every movement. The two pulls back in terror and it is the first time Naruto has seen Hinata as scary as what he is seeing now. Before he is just fears the redhead but now… he's adding Hinata to the list. The place remains to be bloody and the yellow liquid fills in the floor. Naruto cries a bit as Sakura hugs him in fear, "Hi— Hinata! Please!"
Then the walls start to wriggle and Naruto know the redhead will be coming. Hinata stops walking to them and the redhead emerges from the sea of wall near Sakura. The rotten hands emerge with her and try to grab Sakura. But Naruto pulls her away and the redhead speaks, "Seriously, kid."
"Karin." They hear Hinata's voice and they turn to see the Hinata Naruto has always seen. He calls again, "Hinata!" Karin, the redhead, frowns at the brunette and she says, "I knew it. You wouldn't do it. That's why I'm here." Hinata walks nearer and Sakura starts to hyperventilate seeing ghosts… she always called non-existent.
"That is not always a solution, Karin… and he knows that." Hinata says and Karin snaps, "Okay then, you can stop me… for now. But I'm warning you… you wouldn't want him to do it." Karin glares at the scared Sakura and the trembling Naruto and to Hinata, "Sometimes, you should listen to him. Who knows how aggressive he can get…" She reaches out more to get to Naruto's side as the wall seems to stretch the cement to support her, "Listen to me, kid. He wouldn't want you flirting around…"
Sakura twitches and Karin grabs the pink locks and pulls on it. The pinky winces and the redhead hisses at her ears, "That head could be a beautiful ornament. I wonder when I can chop it off your neck." She let goes and submerges at the wall and then she speaks, "You three are lucky… as long as he would not stop me." The walls stop wriggling and the place returns to normal. Naruto crashes at the bed and Sakura exclaims, "Uzumaki!"
"My body… hurts." Naruto tries to restrain the pain his body is feeling. He then screams in pain and the pinky rushes to call a nurse. Naruto continues to cry in excessive pain that he has never experience before. But Hinata appears by his side again and runs her hand at Naruto's hair… to calm him a bit. He whispers, "Sakura… I need to… go after her…"
000ooo000
Sakura runs at the hallways and she seems to be running for hours. She stops to pant and looks around. The endless hallways start to wind and Sakura wonders… and so she walks towards a direction. The afternoon skies have darkened so much and it scares Sakura so much. She leans at a wall and gulps in fear. She then remembers about Karin and jerks to get away from the wall. She lands on her ass as she falls off balance when she jerks away. She stays at her position as she listens to the sound… that conquers almost every other one.
Dug-Dug. Dug-Dug. Dug-Dug.
The sound of heartbeat echoes at the hallway and Sakura is getting paralyzed by what she hears. Fear creeps into her system and she begins to look for her best friend who happens to be just on her way to the hospital with that dog boy, Inuzuka. She stares at the empty horizon and hears footsteps.
"You're being a little generous, miss." A guy's voice says and Sakura looks around to find the speaker. A hand holds her arm and she shrieks to get her arm back. She looks behind her… to find a detached arm holding hers. She screams in fear and tries to take it off. The hand let goes and another one holds her head. A pair of floating arms is trying to touch her everywhere. She stands up while screaming and runs away further.
She is running at the endless hallways and she is running closed-eyes. She then bumps into somebody and she gets thrown by the impact. But the guy catches her and says, "Oops." Sakura looks at him and he smiles… a somehow creepy one. Sakura backs off a bit and says an apology, "Uhm, I'm so sorry." The guy replies with the plastered smile, "It's alright. By the way, my name is Sai. What's yours?"
"Sa… Sakura." She says and backs off a little further. She notices that the guy's arms are still circling around her like how they do at the catch. Then she notices his sleeves are… empty. She turns to her back and sees the detached arms holding her. She flings back to the guy and he grows serious, "You don't really have to get scared. I don't do women." Sakura raises a brow and seems to forget the fear for a second by the unexpected thing to say. The arms let go and connects back to Sai as he walks towards her. He says, "I heard Hinata refuses to take you. I understand why but… his orders are kind of… absolute."
"Who is this 'he'?" Sakura asks and she tries to back off somehow. The guy smiles and he says, "More like the overlord in this place. He can devour the others with ease… that's why we do our best to please him. We do everything he says and we need to do it the way he wanted. It's not like he's some kind of a dictator… he only gives orders once in a blue moon, after all." Sakura frowns at the guy and says, "And why does he…" She hesitates to finish her question and so she turns away. The guy knows what she wanted to say, though, "You mean about that guy Naruto?"
"You know Naruto?" Sakura twitches and he answers, "Everyone knows Naruto. He seems to get so fond of that blond kid. Touching him would mean eternal suffering on our part. But to think that he had that kind of taste. Even I found Naruto first, I cannot just risk my fun just to own him." Sakura freezes and grows… somewhat disgusted, 'What? These ghosts are going gay over Uzumaki?' She twitches some more and rows her eyes big, 'And since Uzumaki likes me… they all wanted to… get rid of me! But… I can't just… leave him alone. But still…'
"You probably know why Karin and Hinata tried to attack you." Sai smiles and the girl asks, "How am I going to get out of this place? You know… get back to where Naruto is?" The guy drops his smile and grows serious again. Sakura doesn't like the action and it makes her shudder somehow. She tries to say, "I—"
"You can't get out of this place."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"You need to die first."
Sakura freezes and she cannot possibly say something with the thing Sai has told her. Tears start to fall from her eyes and she realizes that there's no easy way out this mess. It was all Uzumaki's fault. She thinks that he's the one to blame for this. He attracts that ghosts and he should shoo them away. But it could be too late for her…
"But I think you can talk to him." Sai smiles and Sakura listens to him, "If you can convince him to let you go, I think you can survive the night." Sakura takes a deep breath and she asks for directions, "Where is this guy?" Sai shrugs his shoulders and points at the horizon, "I don't know and he changes rooms frequently. He only appears when he wanted to. If ever you see a blazing room, go in and you'll see him… burning. Just talk… and try not to get caught in his fires, okay?"
"Don't you have a name for him?" Sakura asks and Sai waves goodbye in return. The ghost vanishes and Sakura gazes at the horizon and starts to walk… thinking of seeing a blazing room and getting out of that labyrinth because, 'Labyrinths do not exist… since there is no maze one cannot get out of.'
000ooo000
"She's gone to call a nurse and she's not back yet?" Ino wonders and Naruto nods. Kiba, Ino, Minato and Kushina are already there since after class and work has come. Kushina seems to get worried and Minato seriously does not understand everything that is happening around the UM MedCenter. Naruto then twitches and feels a different thing, 'Maybe Sakura has been captured! I need to save her!' He then shut his eyes and seems to call out to the ghosts, 'Sasuke! Hinata! Please! Don't hurt her!'
Kiba watches Naruto shut his eyes and seem to do some communication with the otherworld as he calls it. He says, "Oi, Naruto. Are you planning to call those ghosts? No way, man." Minato twitches and blurts out unintentionally, "Ghosts? Call?" Kushina taps Naruto and he opens his eyes to look at her, "Hey, young man. What are you doing?" Ino gulps and speaks out with her scared voice, "Do those ghosts… know where Sakura could be?"
"I… I'm not sure." Naruto says and then Minato suddenly speaks with a different tone, "You know exactly where that girl is." They twitch and look at the older blond. Kiba asks while the other three seem to feel different, "What do you mean by that, Uncle?" Kushina then frowns at her husband… realizing that it couldn't be him anymore. Naruto gazes at him… and everyone watches him lift his face to look directly at Naruto's eyes.
Instead of strong blue eyes, onyx eyes welcome them and Naruto automatically knows who could it be. The blond gulps and the redhead mother murmurs, "You're not Minato." The other two shrieks and looks directly at the guy. 'Minato' leans at the wall and crosses his arms at his chest, "How many times do Hinata have to take you there for you to remember the existence of that place?"
"Take her back here, Sasuke." Naruto says… more like a warning and Sasuke in Minato's body remains silent. He answers, "I refuse." Naruto grows angry and tries to lunge at the guy… but he cannot move. His mother pleads on his behalf, "What do you want from her? Do you want something in exchange?" The other three looks at her and then to Sasuke. The guy drops his arms and walks near Kushina. His aura starts to get dark and angry, "… Never. Bargain. With me—"
"Sasuke!" Naruto calls in a mad tone and says, "Not my parents, too!" He stops walking… and he turns to Naruto. He puts a hand at the hips, "Fine then. Look for her if you like." Minato then falls to the floor and Kushina kneels down to wake him up. The other two gets frozen by the events and Ino says, "Where… is Sakura, Uzumaki?"
"They call it the Realm of the Dead." Naruto endures the pain of moving, sitting up and going to his dad. Kushina stops him from moving further and he says, "But I'm not sure how… many ghosts there are in that realm. I hope Sakura will still be okay until I… get her back." Naruto lunges at the floor and crawls painfully towards the door. The three watches him and then the room temperature suddenly reaches zero. The door opens and a girl in a dress comes in. Ino yells, "That's the girl I saw!"
"Naruto…" Hinata murmurs and Naruto continues to crawl towards her, "I need to find Sakura! Hinata! Take me to where she is! PLEASE!" The brunette looks away and helps him up. She hesitates to say yes but she has to, "Okay, Naruto. I'll take you there… but— promise me, that whatever he tells—"
"I don't care about him for now. I wanted to take Sakura from that place." Naruto insists and Hinata murmurs as the dark wheelchair appears before them, "Naruto…" The blond sits and Hinata holds the handle…
"The way you speak and act… makes him want to really… really slaughter that girl."
000ooo000
Sakura stops walking and she has walked some more hours in the place. She rests her legs by sitting at the middle of the hallway. She pants and sighs… she knows the guy would not want to see her… alive. Then footsteps come from somewhere and Sakura grows cautious. She looks around and sees a guy walking towards her. He is wrapped by lots of bloody bandages and blood drips from the tips of those fingers. Sakura backs off by standing up and the guy starts to walk slower… and burn. But no painful scream comes from the guy and he says, "He just said he wanted to fetch you up from this place. He didn't say unhurt."
"Are you… the 'he' everyone calls an overlord?" Sakura walks backwards to keep distance from the burning guy. The guy refuse to answer and she can see tears flowing from his fire-covered cheeks. She stops moving and says, "You want Naruto, right?" The guy stops walking and Sakura says, "I… It's not like I like him or whatsoever. You can take him if you like… just… stop dragging me in this mess."
"I… can take him?" The guy repeats and she nods…
"Who are you to just give away people like you own them!" He rages around and fire eats the whole place. Her clothes catch fire and she's starts to burn as well. She screams in pain and it feels like even more painful than the real flame. Filled with hatred and killing intent, the flames of Sasuke seem to burn Sakura's soul and she can feel it very well. Her skin is not burning despite the deadly flames that have been eating her up. Sakura screams so bad… and she's starting to claw herself to relieve some pain that burns her internally. She looks at the guy… and the place starts to darken. Darkness eats everything and Sakura feels one thing…
It surely feels like…
Death.
[End of Chapter Three]
Konan: Welcome to the end comments of the third chapter of Dreamcatcher Nights. Rei Haruno had requested us to appear in this section… despite the absence of any very significant notes. *a placard shows up above them YAY! PEINKO FOR TODAY!*
Pein: She wants to emphasize that she's more on the Anti-NaruSaku part but she's striving to improve the one-sided NaruSaku. She tends to do a one-sided love story when she doesn't like the pairing but it is essential for flavor. The other pairings will come in due time… but for now, let most of them feel pain.
Konan: She has also introduced Sai who will be making the move in later chapters. She's still formulating if she will include the idea of SaiNaru. She declares Martial— (huh? Never mind that one) that pairings are shifting but SasuNaru will be as solid as a rock. Smiling face…
Pein: That ends the comments. She wants to thank you for reading further and eventually finishing the fic.
Konan: *lowers the paper I gave* I wonder… is this her version of Kabuto's Resurrection Jutsu (which she says is better since the summoned completely submits to her will and she can control even the Living)? Calling forth anyone, dead or alive, and making them do some… strange, unnatural things?
Pein: It's not just her. Most of the… what she calls the 'Fanfiction Clan' can do such. Some members make the summoned do stranger things as well. Like… changing the gender and changing the way they talk and react. Even the preference. They can even invade our minds and change everything we know… and they can also control our actions. (Like right now, she's making us say insignificant things… and unnecessary comments.)
Konan: It's good Madara won't be able to put his hands on this kind of Kekkei Genkai…