Chapter 22: A Dark Dark Hole in the Ground

BANG!

The Dark bird slammed into Hinata's barrier full force. The noise was deafening and each of them covered their eyes against the blinding flash of light. Spots danced in front of Sakura's eyes, but squinting through them she could vaguely see the black shape of the Dark bird flying backwards over the structure of the entranceway, crashing into the treetops and dissipating like shadowy smoke.

Hinata stood in the same position, breathing hard but still on her feet. As they left the trees and made for her, her knees buckled, dropping her into Neji's waiting arms.

"Go," he told them, cradling Hinata's semiconscious form, "save little rabbit. I'll look after her."

"Catch up with us!" called Sakura over her shoulder as she and Shino raced through the crumbling entranceway, down the all but ruined steps and into the dark hole that was the harbingers' temple.

"Hold on, Hinata-chan," Neji murmured quietly, his clever fingers brushing quickly over a few exposed chakra points, checking for damage, "I've got you."

-Meanwhile-

"Matsuri!" Usagi screamed, bolting across the chamber to where the older ninja lay chained to the block of stone. She jumped up onto the alter, crouching over Matsuri's limp form and pulling a clump of gray cloth from her mouth.

"Usagi . . . chan . . ." Matsuri whispered hoarsely, looking dazedly at Usagi as though she could hardly believe her eyes.

"Yes, Matsuri-sensei, its me." Usagi murmured, barely suppressing a sob. Matsuri looked terrible, she must have been down there for days. There were numerous cuts on her face and hands, and her normally tan skin was terribly pale from lack of sunlight, despite being grubby and streaked with dirt. Tear stains carved rivers through the grime on her face, her lips were cracked and bleeding, and her short hair was matted and unkempt, bits of it clumped together with dried blood. But her eyes. They were the worst, they looked . . . dead. They had the hooded, defeated look of someone who has seen too much and been able to do too little. She looked at Usagi as though she barely recognized her. Then suddenly Matsuri jolted and her eyes came alive . . . with fear.

"No!" she howled, her eyes wide, wild and slightly mad, "Get away from me! You're just an illusion! No! No! Stay back! Stay back!"

"Matsuri-sensei!" Usagi cried in shock, falling backwards off the alter as Matsuri began to struggle, "Its me! Usagi! I swear, its me!"

"NO!" Matsuri screamed, shaking like a leaf, making her chains rattle, "You're just a genjutsu! You're just trying to trick me! Stay away from me!"

"Matsuri-sensei!" Usagi sobbed, tears leaking out of her eyes as she watched someone she loved and respected, a member of her family, rant crazily. It was obvious Matsuri had been down here a long time, and she hadn't just been chained up round the clock either. Someone had been using genjutsu to psychologically torture her. Usagi wondered pityingly just how many times someone Matsuri knew, Gaara, Naruto, Usagi herself, had come to rescue her, just to be revealed as a genjutsu as soon as they pulled her out into the sunlight.

"Matsuri-sensei," Usagi swallowed, fighting more tears, "Matsuri-sensei, I'm here. I really am, I swear. Ask me anything, something only the real me would know."

Matsuri looked as Usagi in fear, laced with something like suspicion. She was no longer screaming, but she still certainly wasn't sure.

"Go on," Usagi pressed, her voice cracking, "ask me something about Uncle Gaara, or my dad, something only someone in our family would know."

Matsuri was silent for a long moment, staring at Usagi as though mulling it all over. Usagi waited, holding her breath, hoping Matsuri would believe her.

"What was the lesson?" Matsuri croaked hoarsely.

"What?" Usagi asked, blinking.

"What was the lesson?" Matsuri repeated, "The one that Gaara-sensei taught me, when we first met. The one your dad helped me understand. What was the lesson?"

Usagi looked up at Matsuri. "It was that . . . that you don't have to be afraid of weapons, Matsuri-sensei," she whispered, "that they can be used to protect the people you love, not just to destroy others."

Matsuri's eyes widened. "Usagi-chan," she breathed, "it is you!"

"Of course," Usagi half laughed, half sobbed, "now come on, lets get you out of here."

Matsuri's chains were a real chore. Usagi tried just about everything, until at last another shadow clone and the rasengan were deemed necessary. Once Matsuri was free, Usagi helped her gingerly to her feet, and after a few shaky steps she discovered she could still walk. Then they were off down the dark stone hallway.

"Do you know the way out of here, Matsuri-sensei?" Usagi asked breathlessly as they ran.

Matsuri shook her head. "They blindfolded me when they brought me in."

"How did you get down here anyway?" Usagi asked, "I mean, The Hidden Sand Village is miles from here."

"I was on a mission," Matsuri explained, "after I was finished I went a little off course to see if I could catch Gaara-sama on his way back, but I was ambushed. There were almost twenty of them, and they overpowered me. Then they brought me here."

"How long were you in there?" Usagi asked tentatively, "I mean, you look pretty beat up."

"I'm not sure," Matsuri admitted, "but I feel like its been a while. They made sure I had no sense of time, and they used so many genjutsu on me I could barely tell up from down. "

Usagi frowned, her face twisted in a look of intense concentration. "Can corpses do genjutsu?" she asked finally.

Matsuri furrowed her brow, thinking hard. "I don't know," she concluded, "I suppose we'd have to ask Gaara . . ."

She didn't have time to say "sama." At that precise moment the wall directly in front of them to their left burst open, an enormous black panther with six legs and eight eyes charged into the hallway, blocking their path.

"Matsuri-sensei!" Usagi called as the panther crouched, ready to spring, "Look out!"

-Meanwhile-

A swarm of fireflies wove through the labyrinth of underground corridors, guiding the way for Shino and Sakura. Their feet pounded the dirt floor as they both tried to ignore the stench of blood that saturated the air. Sakura gagged, choking on the smell. This place was worse than Orochimaru's bases. She, of course, had been inside the Nightmare's temples before. The absolute darkness, the penetrating cold, the scent of death clinging to every surface, none of it was new to her. Still, seven years was a long time, and being in the lair of the worst evil imaginable wasn't something you ever really adjusted to.

"How big is this place?" Sakura called to Shino, trying to pull in a lungful of cold air.

"No way to tell," Shino droned in response, "all the temples are different. This one corridor might go on for miles."

"They couldn't have taken Usagi that far that fast," Sakura gasped, "she must be somewhere close, harbingers don't move that quickly."

"I'm sending out my insects to search, but so far there's no sign of her," he replied, "this is just he closest temple, we can't be sure she's even here. The Dark might have passed her on to something else and stayed to guard this temple, to throw us off."

"No!" Sakura cried, "she has to be here! Darks aren't that smart!"

"They aren't smart enough to kidnap without killing either," Shino pointed out, "but this one did. Either they've gotten smarter since we last faced this threat, or someone is directing them."

"How clever of you to have figured that out, Golden Soldier."

-Meanwhile-

"Matsuri-sensei!" Usagi called as the panther crouched, ready to spring, "Look out!"

Matsuri dived out of the way just as the Dark panther landed right where she'd been standing. Matsuri leaped to her feet, coughing in the dust her landing had kicked up, seeming shaken but unhurt. The only problem now was that the beast was now between Matsuri and Usagi, and Matsuri and their best guess at a way out.

"Usagi-chan!" Matsuri yelled, still coughing, "run! Get out of here!"

"No way!" Usagi called back, her face set, "not without you, Matsuri-sensei!"

"Usagi-chan, this isn't the time for . . ."

The Dark panther roared, drowning out Matsuri's words. It turned its head side to side, confused. It did not know which one of them to attack.

"I'm getting you out of here!" Usagi shouted, "no matter what!"

Usagi placed her hands together, forming no particular seal but concentrating hard, trying to remember everything her father had ever said to her about his demon. Her father had once told her about gaining access to the nine-tailed demon fox's chakra by simply retreating within himself, facing the fox and demanding it, but Sasuke had told her she didn't have the fox's conscious spirit. What was she meant to do then, ask the chakra for help?

Work, she thought desperately, work, damn you! I can't do this by myself, I need help! Please, Matsuri-sensei is in danger! Help me!

To her amazement, it worked.

Usagi felt a boiling heat bubble up through her veins almost instantly. Red hot energy exploded from a point somewhere in her stomach, engulfing her whole body. She felt like she could move faster than light, like she was light, a being made of nothing else but this pure, red, hot, powerful energy. She felt like she could fly. Chakra shot through her body, spewing out of her mouth in the form of long, sharp teeth, pressing out from her fingers as pointed claws. A veil of red covered her vision, and she tasted blood. She felt overly alive, like she had the life meant for two, ten, a hundred people.

She was only vaguely aware of the screams coming from somewhere behind her.

On some level she registered that they sounded somewhat like her Aunt Sakura, calling out her name.

But she couldn't worry about that now, she was far too alive for such things. Crouching down and letting her instincts guide her, she pushed off from the cold stone, now so much more comfortable for some reason, and launched herself at her enemy. She landed on top of it, settling on its chest, her feet hooked bellow its upper limbs, her hands at its throat, trapping it beneath her despite its superior size. Its muscles bunched as it tried to break free of her hold, but she held it fast.

"Usagi-chan, stop!" called a voice from . . . somewhere. She was barely distracted by it, and only noticed that it was male and . . . was it familiar? She couldn't tell. All she could see or hear or taste or smell or feel was the life draining out of the thing beneath her. It felt marvelous, to feel its life slipping between her fingers. This putrid little thing with mousy brown hair and wide glassy eyes.

"Usagi . . . chan . . . please," whispered Matsuri.

That snapped Usagi out of it. Suddenly, as though a switch had been thrown, she was back in the here and now, fully aware of Shino and Sakura tugging vainly at her shoulders, trying to pry her hands of Matsuri's neck.

Usagi shrieked and fell backwards, releasing Matsuri, who coughed, clutching at her throat. Sakura ran to Matsuri's side, placing a palm already glowing with green healing light to her neck, while Shino cradled a quivering Usagi in his arms.

"What . . . what . . . did I . . . just . . ." Usagi stammered. Her mind and body were both numb with shock, despite the hot ice pounding in her veins and the terrible spinning of the world around her and the deafening silence ringing in her ears.

"Never," Shino rasped, "use the nine-tails in a place like this, Usagi-chan. Never."

Author's Note: Beware the Chibis.