AN/ Disclaimer: Hello again readers,

I've come to post another chapter :) I hope you enjoyed the previous one. I'll be honest with you guys, I've had a pretty harsh week so this chapter has been rushed so that I could release it on time. You have my deepest apologies if it is terrible. The dialogue still very closely follows that of the manga; I've made a few changes here and there. I've tried to keep the characters in character.

A big thank you to those who have favourited/ followed this fanfiction, I'll try to update it on a regular basis; I may have to miss a few deadlines here and there as I am starting my NVQ Level 2 at work soon.

I do no own Naruto or Corpse Party. Both belong to their respective authors and representatives. This is non-profitable. Please support the official releases.

Enjoy! ❤

A Familiar Tale

Sakura leaned against one of the small desks; she held her mobile phone above her head in hopes of gaining a signal, but her attempts all proved to be in vain. She heaved a sigh and tucked her phone away in the breast pocket of her blouse.

"Maybe the others are around here somewhere too." She voiced her thoughts aloud. Sakura raise her voice so that anyone nearby would be able to hear her calls. "Ino! Sasuke! Naruto! Anyone?" She limped across the classroom to the door and peered into the corridor; hoping that one of her friends would be rushing towards her or at least calling back to her to let her know that she wasn't alone, but no such call nor any of signs of her friends came to her.

Without warning the room began to shudder; just as it had done after Sakura and her friends had made the Sachiko Ever After Charm. Fearing that the floor would fall from beneath her again, Sakura held onto the doorframe to stop herself from falling and closed her eyes tight in fear of what might happen next. The shaking stopped as abruptly as it had started. The pink haired teen remained where she stood with her eyes closed for a few minutes before deeming it safe to open them again. She surveyed the room; searching for any differences the room layout, but hoping that the second earthquake had somehow transported her back to her own classroom in Konoha Academy. A heavy feeling settled over her as her eyes scanned the same musty room that she had been in before the second earthquake; wooden beams had fallen here and there around the room, some of the desks had fallen over and more of the windows were now cracked. Dust had been thrown into the air by the sudden disturbance; making the air feel even denser.

"Guh!" A gasp came from somewhere inside the classroom; making the hairs on the back of Sakura's neck stand and adrenaline pumped through her body.

The pink haired girl slowly and silently approached the source of the gasp; picking up one of the wooden beams that had fallen along the way, just in case she was met by a foe. She ducked and dived between the desks; placing her feet carefully upon the wooden floor to test if it would creak or not. She listened out for more gasps or even a voice and peered into the darkness as she drew closer to her destination.

"H-hello?" A familiar voice reached Sakura's ears. "Is there anyone here? Where am I?"

"Ino!" Sakura shot up into a standing position; ignoring the dull ache from her sprained ankle. She let the wooden beam fall to the floor and rushed to her friend's side. "Ino, it's me!"

"Sakura?" Ino replied; stumbling forwards to meet the pink haired teen. "Where's everyone else?"

"I don't know, I was alone until I found you."

Ino glanced around the room; taking in her surroundings. "This place is creepy. Is this TenTen's idea of a joke?"

"Huh?" Sakura cocked her head at Ino. "I never thought about that… maybe. I did read a sign over there, apparently this place is called Tenshin Elementary."

"That's impossible." Ino sighed. "That's the school that TenTen was talking about in her little ghost tale, it doesn't exist! And even if it did, the school was torn down after the death of that teacher." Ino reasoned in a confident tone. "This has to be a prank."

"Yeah." Sakura nodded slowly. "That makes sense, we should find the others and tell them to cut it out, then we can all go home."

"Maybe we should split up, we'll find them easier that way." Ino suggested with a small shrug. "We can text each other when we find someone."

"No good." Sakura shook her head and the blonde girl as she pulled her mobile phone out and showed it to her friend. "No signal. We should stick together so we don't lose each other."

"Okay, let's get going. I don't want to stay in this creepy room." Ino began to lead the way towards the classroom door, only to stop again when she realised that Sakura was hobbling along at a much slower pace. "Hey, what's wrong with your foot?"

"I think I sprained it when I fell earlier, but it's okay, it only hurts a little."

"Here." Ino moved closer to Sakura and draped the pink haired girl's arm over her shoulders. "I'll help you."

Sakura gave Ino a grateful smile as the pair began to move again. "Thanks, Ino."

The girls crossed the threshold into the corridor and were met by the same eerie conditions that they had seen in the classroom.

"The corridor too?" Ino blinked in confusion as she whipped her head from left to right. "Woah, TenTen really takes her pranks seriously, Naruto should be jealous. How long do you think it took her to prepare all of this?"

Sakura wasn't listening to Ino; instead she was entirely focused on a putrid smell that had assaulted her nostrils from the moment they entered the corridor. "What's that disgusting smell?"

"Huh?" Ino smelt the air and wrinkled her nose. "Urgh! I think it's coming from that bucket over there." The blonde pointed at the metal container that sat beside a long row of school lockers. The pair drew closer to the bucket as peered inside to see that it was full of liquid. "It's… yellow?"

"Ew!" Sakura cringed away from the bucket. "Ino, it's pee!"

"That's disgusting!" Ino shrieked; jumping away from the bucket too.

Sakura tugged on Ino's sleeve; wishing to put as much distance between the filthy bucket and herself. "Let's keep moving."

"Agreed!" Ino fell into step beside Sakura; offering her should to the other girl again - who gladly accepted the offer.

A dense and foreboding atmosphere seemed to press against the girls in the darkness; making them both feel claustrophobic and the silence between them felt as though it stretched for hour rather than mere minutes. The slightest noise - such as a creaky floorboard - would startle the girls and make them stare frantically about themselves.

"It almost seems as though there's no one here, doesn't it?" Ino finally spoke up. "You don't think the others have gone home, do you?"

"We'll keep looking for a while longer." Sakura replied. Ino's words had made her feel even more uneasy about their situation. "If we can't find them, we'll just find the main exit and wait for them outside."

"Right." Ino perked up and pointed ahead of them. "Look, Sakura! There's some stairs, they should take us down to the ground floor! Maybe everyone else will be looking for the exit too!"

"Good thinking, Ino!" Sakura beamed at the blonde and they hurried down the stairs together. Relief coursed through Sakura; she felt glad to have someone like Ino by her side in a strange place like this. Despite the fact the the pair would sometime argue, they always worked well together under pressure and were so in sync it was almost as though one could read the other's mind.

They walked through the corridors until they found themselves facing several large wooden shelves; each one was littered with odd shoes, a few more shoes could be found on the floor as though they had accidentally been knocked off of the shelves.

"This must be the exit." Sakura observed; she let go of Ino's shoulders to support her own weight and headed towards the large oak doors. "We should wait for everyone outside. If we keep walking around in here, we might miss them."

"Good idea." Ino nodded and followed her peer. "Besides, this place is really giving me the creeps."

"Tell me about it." Sakura laughed nervously and placed her hands around the handle of the door and pulled. "Huh?" She pulled again but harder this time. "It won't open!"

"Let me try." Ino clasped her hands around the handle as Sakura stepped to one side; she pulled with all her might but the door didn't budge."I-it's locked!"

"Maybe we should look for the key?"

"We're on the ground floor, right? We could climb out of a window." Ino suggested in a thoughtful tone.

"I tried the windows earlier." Sakura heaved a sigh. "They wouldn't budge either."

"Are we really stuck here?" Ino watched as Sakura observed the shoe rack.

"Hey, take a look at these." Sakura waved one of the shoes at the blonde teenager.

"What about them?" Ino shrugged. "They're shoes."

"But look at the size of them."

"They're kid's shoes?"

"Right! And remember those desks back in the classroom? They were tiny too and then there was that notice -"

"Sakura, you're over thinking this." Ino cast her friend a concerned look. "I told you, this is all too similar to TenTen's scary story, it's just one big prank. Come on, lets find everyone else and then get out of here." Ino began to walk down the corridor again with Sakura in tow. "There should be an emergency exit around here somewhere." Ino gave Sakura a confident smile.

"This is a pretty big school." Ino chuckled quietly as the girls ascended another set of stairs.

"Even bigger than Konoha Academy." Sakura added. The two teenagers turned around a corner and headed off down another corridor. "Huh?" Sakura slowed her pace until she stopped walking; forcing her blonde friend to stop in her tracks too.

"What's wrong, Sakura?" Ino blinked at the pink haired girl in confusion but received no answer. "Sakura?" She pushed her friend for an answer.

"Did you hear that?" Sakura asked in a hushed tone. "Someone or something just made a noise over there." Sakura nodded towards another corridor that turned off of the one they were following.

"Huh?" Ino squinted in the direction that Sakura had pointed out; but it was too dark for her to see very far. "Really?"

"I can't hear it clearly…" Sakura untangled herself from Ino's support and began to walk down the darkened corridor towards the source of the noise she had heard.

"H-hey!" Ino called after her friend as she jogged a little to catch up with Sakura. "Wait for me!"

"It might be Sasuke and the others!" Sakura looked back at Ino with a hopeful gleam in her eyes. She picked up her pace and darted down the corridor ahead of Ino; only to stop once more at a door.

"S-Sakura!" Ino huffed as she finally caught up with the pink haired teen. "Don't just run off like that!"

"It's a classroom." Sakura observed; her gaze fell upon a sign above the wooden door that read '2-A'. Without waiting another second, Sakura pulled the door open - almost pulling it off of it's rusted hinges - and stared inside. "It's really dark." She then raised her voice. "Is anyone in here?"

No response.

"That's weird." Sakura stepped over the threshold. "I'm sure I heard someone in here just now."

"Are you sure it wasn't just your imagination?" Ino reasoned with a sigh as she too entered the classroom. "In a place like this, your mind can play all sorts of tricks."

"Look!" Sakura gasped; ignoring Ino's comment and pointing at a figure that was laying face-down on the floor in between two rows of desks. She ran towards the figure, dropped to her knees and scooped the person up in her arms; only to be met by a horrifying sight and a squelchy feeling in her hands.

Sakura stared transfixed at the rotting corpse of a human being; the eyes were milky white and seemed to be oozing, the body had rotted enough so that the clothes - of which were filthy and tattered - looked as though they were over several times too big for their owner, the hair was very fine and concealed with blood and the face was almost only a skull; any lingering flesh looked as though it was about to slip off of the bone.

Sakura's breathing deepened and a nauseous feeling swarmed over her; even though she wished nothing more than to remove her gaze from the revolting body, she found herself unable to move her eyes.

"AAAAARGH!" Sakura pushed the corpse off of herself and rushed to her feet with tears welling in her eyes.

"Sakura!" Ino hurried to the other girl's side. "What happened? What's wrong?"

"B-body!" Sakura pointed a shaky finger at the corpse that she had just cast away.

"URGH!" Ino recoiled away from the body and shielded her mouth to stop herself from retching. "I-is that a real corpse?"

"I - I think so."

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Ino braved another glance at the corpse only to flinch away again. "That's disgusting! Sakura, hurry up! I don't want to stay in this room!" Ino tugged impatiently on Sakura's sleeve.

"Yeah." Sakura replied shakily as she turned away from the corpse to rejoin Ino.

"Uh… guh…" A noise issued from behind the girls; making both of them stop in their tracks with wide eyes.

"That noise again?" Sakura tentatively glanced over her shoulder.

The noise appeared to be coming from the corpse; which was now in a sitting position. "Uh… huhu… huhu…"

Ino too had turned to stare at the corpse. "Is… it laughing?"

"Huhu… huhu…" A purple coloured aura seemed to be seeping from the corpse until in formed almost a human shape; leaving it's shell to clatter to the floor. "So you people… so you're the sacrifices this time."

"A ghost!" Ino gasped; too afraid to look away from the purple haze that resided above the corpse.

"I was trapped in here, just like you are now."

"Trapped?" Sakura shared a brief glance with Ino.

"Yes. You'll never escape this place, never go home again." The apparition continued. "This place was greater by a terrible revenant. Call it an alternative dimension for spirits, of you will. I died here because I couldn't escape this place."

"Couldn't escape?" Ino enquired; feeling a lump rise in her throat. "What do you mean?"

"These spirits - with their strength - have been abducting innocent people one by one and trapping them in this place." The apparition explained. "Up until now, no one has ever escaped, but this time you two are not the only ones here. Eleven others have been brought to this place too."

"Really?" Relief coursed through Sakura and she looked towards Ino with a small smile. "That'd be Sasuke, Naruto and the others!"

"However," The apparition regained Sakura and Ino's attention, "you have no way of seeing each other. This place is like a con-glomeration of many different enclosed spaces. Your classmates are also in this school, but they are not in the same space. Basically, you're in the same place, but because you don't exist in the same dimension, you have no way of meeting each other face to face. If you want to meet each other again, you must find a way to exist in the same dimension."

"So this is just one of many closed spaces?" Sakura whispered more to herself than anyone else.

"Exist in the same dimension?" Ino stared at the floor with a quizzical expression.

"Of course, solving the problem of alternative dimensions won't be enough." The apparition elaborated once more. "You won't be able to escape, but at least you will be comforted at the thought of dying together."

"WHAT?" Ino and Sakura shrieked in unison.

"What do you mean by 'dying together'?" Sakura questioned in a shaky voice.

"Who is this revenant you mentioned earlier?" Ino demanded in an angry tone. "And why are they doing this to us?"

"I don't know." The apparition replied. "Whether it be their intentions or if a way of escaping this place exists, you two were able to exist in the same dimension. You are very fortunate. You'll be able to come up with more ideas together. Please don't end up like me…"