Ironies and Things That go Bump in the Dark
You're not afraid of the Dark, are you?
Sakura walked in first cautiously spreading out her chakra sense to see if any of the creatures were close. They were several hundred feet down and to the right of her position. Towards the crash ship, into the desert.
"Okay, they're several hundred square meters South-west of here." Sakura reported her shoulders relaxing slightly as the tension drained away. She could afford to relax right now. The creatures were far away and Johns wouldn't dare attack her because everyone else liked her, or at the very least trusted her.
"How would you know?" Johns demanded arrogantly.
"Chakra sense. I can feel the energy in everything." Sakura answered nonchalantly. Naruto had taken her to Mt Myoboku searching for the most exotic herbs they could hopeing they could find a cure to the chakra poison. They hadn't but the Great Toad Sage (also known as the Great Honorable Geezer by most of the toad summons) had told Fukasaku and Shima to teach her senjutsu. He had said it may help her 'feel' the plants that were needed to cure the ninja. It hadn't worked.
Naruto had left her on the mountain returning to Konoha to defend the village and its shinobi as well as he could without using chakra. The use of chakra simply sped up the poisons progress. Rock Lee was less effected than anyone else simply because he couldn't access his chakra. Sure it was still killing him, but it was working at such a slow rate he was more likely to be killed on a mission than from the poison.
Sakura, true to nature, had quickly memorized all that the elder toads could tell her about nature chakra before they set out to teach her it. It took her over a year. A year she should've been defending Konoha and searching for a cure. But she had mastered it. More than most could ever say, and she became an honorary member of the toad summon's family. She had a tattoo on her left arm just below her elbow to prove it. On her right arm below the elbow was a similar tattoo, though it was older by several years.
The tattoo on her right arm was for ninken. Specificly her old sensei's ninken, or rather the desendants of Kakashi's ninken. Summons last a long time but even summons can die of old age. Pakkun, who had been the youngest of Kakashi's ninken, had passed away three centuries ago at the ripe old age of 2,365 human years old. Which was two and a half times longer than most summons lasted. It might've had to do with him being around her and her medicinal chakra so long, sort of a fountain of youth effect. She digressed, either way it would do her no good to think of it now. She had her memories of them and that's all she could ask.
So lost in her thoughts she didn't even notice everyone follow Frye out of the coring room.
"Sakura sensei?" Jack asked.
"I'm coming." Sakura muttered absently rubbing her arms. She hadn't summoned either of her summons for almost five decades. Maybe she could? Just to see the new generation? Or even some of her older companions? She shook the notion off, maybe later.
She followed behind Jack easily following her to the room where all the survivors were gathering.
The group watched as Frye precisely turned the model of the solar system, 20...21...22. And with a soft click it stopped as Frye's hand froze softly in surprise. She quickly moved it foreward half a turn. Still the same.
"An eclipse." She muttered, horror barely noticable in her sotto voce.
"You're not afraid of the dark, are you?" Riddick asked a smirk growing on his face.
Frye gave him a look of disgust before she quickly marched out of the room. Johns followed behind like a puppy following its master.
Sakura stared at the model closely. A half year long eclipse. Nearly unheard of. Only a few poor planets had that bad of luck. Sure some planets only had a couple hours of sunlight a day; but a whole year of darkness, no sunlight whatsoever. That was harsh.
"Sakura-sensei?" Jack asked.
Sakura sighed. "We're going to need some help for this." She told Jack bluntly before rolling up her long black sleeves up past her elbow. She bit her finger hard drawling blood and dragged it across the tattoo with the word ninken on it. And with a billow of smoke a whole pack of dogs appeared. Not a small pack like Kakashi's either. This pack had over fifty dogs in it. The oldest dog, the leader, stepped foreward. "Sakura-sama." He said bowing his head humbly "It is a great honor to see you again. I haven't seen you since I was a pup. I feared I wouldn't see you again in my lifetime." He said.
Sakura laughed lightly. "Oh Funsha, you little flatterer. You have grown though haven't you? Boss summon and all." She said teasingly. Funsha had been exactly like Naruto, he wanted to be the boss summon from the very start. It had probabily had to do with being the runt of his litter.
Funsha was a jet black labrador, who stood about as high as her hip. Which explained his name Funsha meant Jet. Across his back was the pack's traditional jacket with the heno-heno-moheji seal and around his neck was a konoha forehead protector. Even though Konoha had long since been destroyed both she and her summons had kept the headbands, a reminder of where they had come from.
A pastel yellow labrador was sitting just behind Funsha looking eager.
"And who is this?" Sakura asked looking at the yellow dog.
"This is my mate, my angel, the love of my life, Tenshi." Funsha said with the air of a love struck fool.
Said dog blushed as much as a dog could and whacked him on his head with her tail. "Just Tenshi. My mate is a little too dramatic for my tastes sometimes." She said softly her voice chiming gently as she offered her paw in a classic shake position. Sakura gently accepted the paw and shook it once, a soft up and down motion before letting it go.
"Woah! Sakura-sensei is so cool!" Jack cheered from her spot toward the back of the house.
"Sakura-sensei?" Funsha asked "You've taken on an apprentice?" He asked examining the child that looked like a boy but smelled like a girl.
"Hai, she has some chakra. Just not activated yet. But I believe she will be a good student." Sakura explained.
"Since she is your student do you wish for her to sign the contract with the pack?" Funsha asked seriously. Sakura had been their only summoner since the creator of the contract had died nearly three thousand years ago.
"Not right now. Maybe once we get of this desolate hunk of rock." Sakura answered. "For now I need you and your pack to find as much eatable food as you can. Be careful if you go in the dark, there are some nocturnal creatures around here that will eat anything. They are both carnivourous and canibalistic." Sakura warned harshly.
"Hai, Sakura-sama!" The pack barked in chorus.
"Good, meet me back at the ship with anything you find." Sakura said as she led her awestruck student out of the building.
"Where did all these mutts come from?" Johns demanded harshly as he saw her coming out of the building followed by a large pack of dogs.
"They're summons. Summons are creatures who, with a contract and a little bit of blood and chakra, can be called from a side dimension to aid the summoner." Sakura explained. "I have them searching for edible food, they will bring it to the ship for storage." She explained.
Johns scoffed and stumbled off somewhere looking like a drunk. 'He probabily needs a fix.' Sakura thought disgustedly.
Several minutes later Frye walked by following the same path Johns had without a word.
Then the sun started to darken.
"I'll go get the cells from the crash ship. Everyone else stay here." Sakura ordered harshly.
"No way am I gonna trust you with our lives." Johns said bluntly.
"I'll go with." Riddick added.
"I'm the captain." Frye said.
"Which is why you need to stay. If you die who's going to get the rest of us off this piece of shit planet?" Sakura demanded.
"I'm going." Frye said seriously in a voice the brooked no arguments.
"You're all going to slow me down. I can run faster than most cars can run. We'll be reduced to a crawl if you come." Sakura tried to talk them out of it.
"We're coming." Johns said heafting his rifle threatenningly, which did nothing to intimidate Sakura.
"Fine! Everyone else get into the ship and turn on all the lights. They seem to hurt the bastards." Sakura ordered.
"Yes, sensei." Jack replied obidently, she knew how strong her sensei was. She would return, with the needed power cells.
"I fixed the sandcat." Shazza added. "That should cut some of the time down." She added.
Sakura nodded in thanks. "Everyone get your asses where they're supposed to be. Suddenly a pack of dogs burst around the corner carrying cans and packages of food. "And store that food on the ship." She told them. "Funsha! Tenshi! You're pack should dismiss themselves as soon as possible. Things are about to get ugly here." She said turning to the leaders of the pack.
"Hai, Sakura-sama. We shall do as you request." Funsha said turning to issue his orders to his pack counting to make sure all of them had gone before following afterwards with his mate.
"Let's get this stupid expedition out of the way." Sakura said bluntly. "We only need one cell. It shouldn't take too long."
A/N: This chapter is dedicated to marrieh, who wanted Sakura to summon animals. Personally I think Sakura is starting to turn mary-sue-ish. She's immortal, unable to be harmed, she's immune to poisons, perfect chakra control, the ability to use senjutsu and now I've made her able to summon animals, two different contracts none the less. So I figure this should have 2 or 3 more chapters until it's done. Feedback is welcomed, needed and appriciated. Please review. I want to try for a hundred reviews on at least one of my stories, so I'm hoping you guys will help with that.