Haruno Sakura and the War of Two Worlds

By Inner Self

Chapter 9

So I could be doing Chemistry or Physics or my journal on writing critiques, but I don't want you to assume I died. Spring Break was unexpectedly, unavoidably busy. I probably should spend my summer (working and) finishing this story. Biomedical engineering major. Not much time for reading or writing fan fiction as when I was sixteen.

Please tell me if there are grammar or tense errors. It should all be in past tense.

IMPORTANT?

Narutopedia Skill Points:

Madara: ? ( important?)

Itachi: 37.5 (tied with Jiraiya for 1st place)

"Bad Romance—Whoaoaoao…"

-Outside Konoha-

Three ANBU dashed through the treetops. The fox ANBU enthusiastically led the trio. "Come on, Kaka-er-Dog! Let's get this patrol over with! The sooner we finish, the sooner we can train or grab another mission."

The other two sighed. Naruto had been a workaholic the past few weeks. He'd always been determined, but never so solely driven. Naruto never talked about the funeral. Haruno Sakura's body was never recovered. No one close to Naruto, except perhaps Kakashi, knew what drove Naruto, whether it was revenge or hope. He worked as hard as ever, but he was barely half his old cheerful, charismatic self. Konoha was a more solemn place without the quirky, optimistic Uzumaki Naruto.

Kakashi knew it was pointless to try and slow Naruto down. Kakashi muttered into his mask, "I'm getting to old for this. Next mission, Tsunade-sama should assign that Neji kid in my place and let me go to a hot spring bath." Without a doubt, their six hour mission would be cut in half at the rate they traveled. "Hey, Naruto, some of us aren't getting any older. Some of us hit their thirties not long ago. Four hours. Let's make this trip to the Valley four hours each way."

That got Naruto to slow his pace a wee bit.

"Dickless is showing off again. Could he be compensating for something?"

"I don't think that's how compensation works, kid."

-Wizarding World-

Sakura ran out the castle with her robes flapping furiously in her wake. She whipped out her wand and called, "Accio broom!" It flew into her hand a minute later when she reached the edge of the forest. No one could fly nor apparate over the gates of Hogwarts without express permission. The Griffindors would have to attempt traveling through the forbidden forest and circle around the Hogwarts grounds to get to London. Perhaps the would go by broom as well? She ran faster, hoping they would take a moment to form a plan before running headfirst into danger.

Sakura saw three bodies further into the tree line. "Halt!" Sakura called. The three jumped. She ran closer and identified Ron, Neville, and Luna. They had their flying robes on, thick material to brush off some of the chilling air current. Ron made as if to pull out his wand, but Luna's calm voice stilled his hand.

"I don't think she's with them."

"What are you guys doing in the forest? It is Forbidden. Is this related to our club?"

Ron scrunched his nose, "Our club. You think this is our club? We collect money for you to make potions for us, to keep Madame Pomfrey's work minimal. There are no Slytherins in Dumbledore's Army."

Neville consented, "Don't mind him. He's on edge because we just escaped the Inquisitorial Squad-not that we did anything wrong. I appreciate all those potions you made for us. I've had the, er, pleasure of using your potions a couple times. They work quite well. We each brought three of your dittanies, just in case."

"Just in case of what?" Sakura asked authoritatively.

"Well, never mind that. What we're doing is necessary, that's all you need to know," Ron replied.

"'They have him at the place where it is hidden,' is what Harry said," replied Luna.

Sakura argued interrogated worriedly, "Where what is hidden? Do you have any idea how dangerous-"

"-Expelliarmus!" called a baritone voice coming up behind the Gryffindors and Ravenclaw. Sakura's wand swept from her inside robe pocket to Harry Potter's awaiting hand.

"Harry, what are you doing?" questioned Hermione at his side.

"She's Draco's friend. Draco has it out for me, his whole Death Eater family does. We have to go now, or it might be to late. I'll show you guys to the thestrals."

"Potter," Sakura tried to reason, "what are you doing?" Their lives could be at stake. She had to get them to stay.

"I'm sorry. Please go to the castle and tell Professor Dumbledore that we've gone to the Ministry. He needs to gather a couple of people for us."

"Professor Snape told me to find you guys and here you are. Do not move. Give me your wands."

"Accio Sakura's broom!" cried Harry.

Sakura growled. "Potter, you aren't listening."

"Please, no matter what Snape said, go tell Dumbledore that we've gone to the Ministry. We need to be certain that Dumbledore knows. The sooner he knows, the more help you can be to us. We have to get there and hold off until the reinforcements arrive."

"Potter, I'm sure the efforts of rookies like yourselves would be valiant, but you need to leave something like this rescue mission to experts. Floo the aurors. Go get Dumbledore yourself. I'm not taking my eyes off of you."

Harry clenched and unclenched his grip on his wand. "We may not know what we face, but we are prepared to rescue one of our own. I'm sorry."

Harry flicked his wand and the spell hit with just enough force to knock Sakura, though she struggled for a few seconds. "She'll wake up ten to fifteen minutes from now. The thestrals are over here…"

"Wait, Harry," called Hermione from behind the moving group. She cast a temporary disillusionment spell on Sakura's body. Unenthusiastically, she and the others followed after Harry.

… … …

This is not the first time this has happened to you, is it? You offered your help, but it was unwanted. You were abandoned and left unconscious. Sakura-san, you need to wake up this time.

Sakura sat up with a start. Her broom was gone. The grass rustled beside her. A warm air current brushed the back of her hand. A black-scaled horse with cloudy emerald eyes stood before her. She stared at it and it stared back. The eyes creeped her out. She recalled the death of Chiyo-baa-sama, Haku, and many others. She turned away.

"What creature are you?" she asked. The thestral showed minimal signs of understanding. Sakura got up. "Potter took my broom, didn't he?"

The thestral flared up its wings, and Sakura took notice.

"Can you fly?" she asked. The thestral bobbed its head. Sakura walked to its side. The thestral turned its head to watch her. She inspected the thestral for places to hold her footing. The thestral impatiently scraped the ground, thrice with a sweeping motion of its hoof. Sakura mounted. The thestral ran into the forest then took off.

"I really appreciate this. Do you know where we're going? Can you take me to the Ministry of Magic in London, England?" but garnered no intelligible response.

Sakura arrived at the telephone booth at five minutes past the closing time for ministry offices. She forgot that the booth required a pass code for access to the lift. Sakura tried a few words, including muggle, wizard, ministry, Fudge, and magic. The last one proved correct.

"Well, that was a close call," said the operator, giggling at her witty pun. "Otherwise, that briefcase or what-have-you would have to wait until tomorrow! Level, please?"

Sakura scanned her memory of the Ministry layout, which was vague at best. "Department of Magical Transportation, please," she said in a hurry to appear legitimate. They had public transportation so there was bound to be a department to regulate it.

"Level 6 coming up-or down, really," the intercom said as the floor descended below the booth.

"Um, I'm new. Today was my first day," Sakura said, cogs turning in her head. "I went to the wrong floor on accident. How many floors are there?"

The intercom explained the layout as they passed level three and briefed her on the other levels in under a minute. "-Level 9, the Department of Mysteries and Level 10, the Wizengamot Courtrooms, which are accessed by stairwell only. You have arrived at Level 6, Department of Magical Transportation. Doors opening. Watch your step."

Sakura activated a mild notice-me-not genjutsu as she stepped out of the lift, so as not to attract the attention of stragglers, and raced for the stairway. The Department of Mysteries sounded as cryptive as Harry's deflecting answers. She would start there and worry about the other departments later. She found the main stairway and took it down three floors to a hallway with blue carpet and abstract wall paintings. Following the corridor, she met a tall, ominous looking door composed of some sort of metal, painted black, possibly for added effect.

"…Where it is hidden…," Sakura quoted, figuratively holding her breath. She stepped into the room and closed the door. She noticed that all the doors were identical to the one she stepped through. Suddenly, the walls began to spin. Sakura saw red blurs on some of them. When the walls stopped revolving, she saw the X marks that she had not seen before. There were two and they skipped one door. Possibly, she entered through the door between them. Sakura opened the door between them. She saw the blue-carpeted hallway again.

"Right. Harry and the others must have put these Xs here. I'll choose one of the others and go from there."

Sakura was about to close the door as she entered one of the rooms, but she stopped herself. She swept through the room, past tanks with brains preserved in vermillion-colored liquids. She back-peddled to the revolving room. She almost closed the door to the brain room when she decided to test the others. They would not open if another was already open. Sakura went back into the brain room, leaving the door wide open. She checked the perimeter of the room and found an entryway leading to another room. It was filled with hundreds of shelves from what she could guess, looking at the rows running to her left and right. The shelves were lit only by the bluish light emitted by seemingly endless shelves of crystal balls. Sakura began to walk through row 189ab when she heard muttered speech far-off on the other side. Sakura shrugged off her robe. Gathering chakra into her feet and the soft underside of her arms and hands, she flipped unto the ceiling. She crawled along with her belly skimming the ceiling periodically. She reached the end of the darkest area of the ceiling. It gradually yielded to a mild lighting spell in the far corner that carried a bluish glow like the lumos of a wand. Two groups faced off. Harry was talking fiercely to a group shrouded in hooded black robes.

'Death Eaters, alright. Nine against five. It would be a massacre,' Sakura thought furiously, eyes narrowed. The ceiling was about eight meters high, Sakura presumed, enough to where she'd surely go unnoticed if she crawled into the grey blue area, between Harry and the Death Eaters. Something worried her though. She stopped when she was slightly past Harry, who stood wand ready at the front of his group with a crystal ball in his off-hand. The hairs on the back of her neck rose when she sensed an odd magic, almost like chakra, but it was so faint.

'It's not possible,' she chided herself. For all she knew, one of the Death Eater's was carrying a magical weapon. What mattered was her element of surprise. Instead of distracting herself with worry, Sakura focused her attention on her calculations. She calculated that she was 8 meters from her enemies and 8 meters high. 'Ok, girl, just like you practiced. You can throw about 12.5 meters per second, no chakra, without losing accuracy… Throwing at a 45 degree angle, the kunai would strike the ground at almost 6 meters and hit some Death Eater sods if I'm between 5 and 5.5 meters away.' Sakura checked her shoes. She remembered the last time Ino dragged her shoe shopping. Sakura's size was nearly 25 cm in length. She counted 12 paces to put her at the bottom of her estimated striking range.

'If only I had Tenten's instinct,' She mused. Still, she had her intellect. With a calm intake of breath, Sakura unhooked her kunai pouch and took out all her kunai but two. As soon as Sakura released the kunai, she negated her chakra and pushed off into a flip, covering her vitals with her limbs as best as she could, and landing at the last second…

"I'll give you one last chance, Mr. Potter," coaxed Lucius Malfoy, sweat perspiring on his brow. "If you give me the prophecy, then you and your little friends can go back to school, floo your Godfather, and talk about your grandest memories in life."

Harry rubbed his thumb over the crystal ball, brow creased in concentration. How much could a stupid crystal ball matter anyway? Voldemort was a loon. He could have the stupid prophecy if it made him sleep better at night. Harry extended his hand, to his friends' protests. Lucius Malfoy stepped forward from his flock. He flinched as several projectiles whizzed overhead, one cutting Mulciber deep at the base of his throat and another skimming his right shoulder. One stabbed McNair in the gut. One of the Lestrange brothers got stabbed in the side beneath heart. The brother Carrow was unfortunate; a kunai went through one of his eye sockets, no doubt killing him. His sister took one to her left shoulder and one tore a piece of her ear; nothing magic couldn't fix. Bellatrix stood coolly, as if submitting to fate or simply judging the ambush unworthy of panicked retaliation. Yet, the one that took a couple of her hairs lodged into the Carrow sister's left shoulder. Six kunai fell to the floor with a clang.

Sakura threw the last two as they all cried out in shock and pain and anger and pleas for healing. Alas, not many Death Eaters are strong with healing magic.

Sakura landed, scanned the casualties, and threw the last two kunai at the Death Eater flanking the group, who remained unscathed. She flicked them, putting her whole body into the hasty motion to enhance the throw, but they didn't meet their mark. An eerie silence befell those who were standing, contrasting with the muffled agony of the wounded Death Eaters. Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange sized her up. Their grips on their wands tightened. Their arms were tensed and ready to fire lethal spells.

Harry felt sickened yet fascinated, but he was also hopeful. He was jolted out of his state by a barked order from Sakura. He quickly unpocketed her wand. She held her off-hand to him, which shook noticeably, not breaking eye contact with Bellatrix Lestrange as Harry handed the wand to her. Sakura gripped firmly around the wand. Once the 'chivalrous' medic of Team 7, Sakura had spilt her first blood, killed her first opponent. Would Chiyo-baa-sama be proud of her? The effect of her first kill was subtle. Her righteous gaze remained, but deep within she felt... troubled. A part of her mourned the man who had not earned her pity. Another part reasoned that he had the aura of a ruthless murderer. And another part, one she could not describe, made her feel hot and cold and… troubled.

Sakura turned her attention to Lucius Malfoy and asked, "Does your wife know what you do? Does Draco know?" For a moment, disappointment and sadness trickled through. "Well, I'm sorry things have to be this way."

Suddenly, the Carrow woman shrieked, "Look what you did, you little bitch! Amycus, poor, poor Amycus. I'm going to cut you down into pretty little pieces, you whore-oh, Amycus!" The blood from her ear wound trickled heavily down her neck as her jaw moved. She kneeled to hold the prone form of Amycus in her arms. She waved her want futilely trying to conjure up any spell that could heal the dead.

"Nice shot, love," Bellatrix remarked, looking back drunken-like at Alecto Carrow.

"Hey, Rodolphus, love, get up. I need you to go find a healer before you bleed out. Get that Snape to do something other than layabout his back all day. That's my job," She insinuated and cackled.

Rodolphus summoned up enough magic and focus to flee the battle. McNair, in excruciating pain but bleeding out ever so slowly from his gut wound, apparated out to seek emergency healing. Mulciber, sprawled on the floor, bleeding out rapidly at the neck, fumbled for his wand and apparated out, but he splinched and left behind part of a leg.

"As for the rest of you, surrender, and I will spare your lives," Sakura addressed them as she eyed their leader, the father of her best friend.

Bellatrix and Rabastan drew their wands and sunk into a dueling stance. Sakura heard the unsheathing of wands behind her.

"Sakura," called the voice of one of the Death Eaters, startling Sakura as Bellatrix and Rabastan fired a hex her way. A number of protegos were cast on her immediately.

"Cease fire for a moment. I have something I want to say." The figure grasped the edge of his hood and pulled it off his head. He tossed his masque. It skims into one of the far corners of the room with a clatter. His face, still, is the masque of composure.

Bellatrix shifted from foot to foot impatiently and muttered reluctantly, "by all means, Avenger."

"Sakura," he repeated, calling the name of the shell-shocked kunoichi without the use of an honorific. Thus, he acknowledged their intimate relationship, broken by betrayal and distrust. Sakura dropped her guard, but resurrected it quickly, remembering Tsunade's vigorous drills. Tsunade had worked tirelessly to beat the softness out of her fighting style and to make her battle-hardened, especially after Gaara's return and her near-death experience, even more so when Tsunade woke from her coma, realizing the limit placed on their time together. Sakura got her lips to move, and tried to summon words. The wizards behind her were silent like the dead, possibly calculating, possibly not as shaken, possibly waiting for her move.

She started repeatedly, finally forming his name. "…Sasuke." She clenched her fists and reminded herself that he stood now as her enemy, this ghost from her past. She shifts her gaze back to him, eyes suspicious and deceptively hard. She pushed her vulnerable emotions away from the forefront of her mind.

Sasuke smirked. "Confused?" He doesn't bother to feign ignorance. She tried to kill him and seeing him again was like channeling spirits from the afterlife. "The reasoning is simple: You failed to kill me."

Impatiently, fearfully, she asked, "How are you alive, Sasuke? I forced myself to kill you. I cried myself to sleep many nights since that day… How are you alive?"

Sasuke let out a condescending laugh. "Sakura, you wanted to kill me. You lacked experience. You should have cut off my head. It would have been better than poisoning me. You really don't have what is necessary to be a shinobi. Still, you tried to kill me, Sakura, and that's a pain that really hurts."

"I tried to go against my conscience. Killing you was painful. I left you for dead, believing the toxins would finish the job. That poison rivaled those of Sasori."

"You never should have followed me into shinobi life. Now I'll be the death of you."

Sakura clenched her unarmed fist. Voice heavy with emotion, she replied, "I'm determined to incapacitate you, kill you if you're too weak to survive my attacks. So how can you be so certain that I will lose?"

The avenger shakes his head. "I have memorized Kabuto's shinobi cards. Your stats have improved, Sakura: 26 points. Naruto has caught up with you since our genin days. He has 26 points as well. If he were here, you may have stood a chance against my 31.5 stat points."

Sakura argued, "Well…Kabuto's stats aren't up to date. Also, there's no way in hell Naruto's stats are that low." Her jaw set in determination. Her blood was starting to boil. "If that's the case," she concluded, "then either the stats are wrong or I'm a force to be recognized. Naruto's the strongest shinobi I have ever seen. It's determination like his that makes a shinobi great!" Sakura's chakra began radiating over her skin and flared up into visible form. She pulled out her tanto and pressed some Earth chakra into it.

Harry pocketed the seer's orb and asked, "What should we do?"

Facing the Death Eaters, Sakura answered, "The Death Eaters will have to follow you. It's their orders. The four will follow you five. Avoid empty rooms and narrow corridors. I locked the revolving room in place. Head for the brain room entrance; it's the only way out of here if you can't apparate. Stick together and run!"

Sakura sunk into a fighting stance. She gathered chakra into her booted foot and struck the floor, sending violent tremors toward the Death Eaters. The tremors upset their footing and gave the young wizards a head start as they ran through the shelves of prophecies. Sasuke planted his feet firmly with chakra for reinforcement. Lucius Malfoy, at the edge of the area of effect, stumbled his way to the side where the young wizards had gone. When he got past the jinxed floor, he broke into a run.

After twenty seconds, the tremors wore off. The Death Eaters ran after the young wizards…

Sasuke dashed toward Sakura. Quick like lightning, the metal of his blade, concealed by his cloak, flickered into view and made a slashing arc. Sakura, trained best in defense, flicked her tanto toward his attack to block. She secured her wand between index and thumb and reinforced her defense, pressing the palm of her off-hand against the flat of the blade. She sunk into a lower stance and threw him back with her lower body strength.

"Stupify!" she cried, but Sasuke dodged narrowly. Sakura met him with her blade, but he blocked with his Lightning chakra infused one. A crack appeared in the blade. Sasuke activated his Sharingan.

His eyes narrowed. "Earth chakra manipulation? 27 stat points."

Sakura growled. She forced his blade up and threw a kick at the opening. Sasuke retreated again. Sakura fired another stupefy and missed.

"The question you must ask yourself is: Am I toying with you?" he smirked.

"Your blade is worthless against my tanto!"

He kept smirking. "Perhaps…" He dashed toward her. Right as he came within a meter of her, he disappeared. Sakura felt a piercing pain in her gut.

"…Perhaps not." She looked down. Sakura gathered Earth chakra around the blade to prevent lightning damage and to close off her pierced liver. The wall of chakra could not be sustained forever. She coughed violently and wiped her mouth. Blood. He whispered into her ear as she struggled to control and repair the damage.

"I would have let you live, Sakura. You of all people."

She gritted her teeth. "What do you mean? You aren't making much sense."

"All that matters is that I know everything. I will fulfill my vengeance, and it starts now."

"Sasuke…," she grounded out before another violent cough. Sakura switched her tanto to her left hand. She formed the hand seal for a releasing technique.

"You think this is an illusion?"

"No," she replied. She gathered her focus. "I just think your stat points are a joke."

A great surge of chakra channeled into a point behind her navel and spread of her body. Metallic red lines spread from to every region of her body. Sakura negated her Earth chakra barrier and ripped herself from Sasuke's katana. Blood splattered across the floor, but her wounds rapidly sealed.

"Check your stat book again," she said as she swiped her blade across his chest as they both retreated. The cut was superficial, but sparked some surprise. He dodged as she cast another stupefy.

Sasuke channeled chakra into his feet and raced after her. Sasuke dodged her hexes and she did her best to evade the slashing arcs of his blade. Each slash contacted her skin, but Sakura's skin stitched up immediately after. Sakura threw her tanto at Sasuke's face and rushed him. He moved out of the way, and Sakura spun on heel to get behind him. She threw a chakra punch. He turned his torso and brought up his blade, meaning to impale her shoulder, but he could not get the proper angle and grazed her arm. Sakura knew he would retreat and spiked her chakra. Sasuke moved before she could shatter his clavicle, but the large dose ensured enough of an impact so as to fracture.

She kept rushing him, pumping chakra into her feet to keep his pace. He increased his speed again and kept her at a distance with his blade. It was painful to rush him, but she had to land one hit, one perfect shot to knock him down. He allowed her to see an opening and she swung with all her might. Sasuke reappeared behind her and slashed at her back. He kicked the spot and she flew into a shelf of prophecies. The glass came down, shattering on the floor. Sakura lied dazed as Sasuke walked toward her.

"Out of chakra, yet?" he called to her prone form.

Get up, a voice coaxed in her head. You have to knock him out. The sooner, the better. If you have to retreat, do it, but you must not fight much longer. Do you know what your inner self has been up to?

Sakura shook her head and stood up. Sasuke was right in front of her. He grabbed her by the throat and formed a chidori. "This should do the trick. Let's test your regeneration technique one more time."

He plunged his hand into her stomach. Searing pain, concentrated in her gut, shot to all ends of her body. She pain was too much, and his choke hold was not allowing a proper supply of oxygen. Her eyes could not stay open any longer. She felt a mocking pressure on her lips as she passed out…

Sasuke kissed Sakura good-bye. He dropped her body on the floor and retrieved a cloth from his cloak to clean his blade. He watched in fascination as the last bit of her chakra reserves stitched up the gaping hole of her stomach.

"Hn. You're not dead yet." He pocketed the cleaning cloth. He considered her prone form and gripped his blade.

Her body twitched. Abruptly, a new chakra swarmed around her, a chaotic, angry red, fueled by bloodlust. The chakra materialized, gripped Sasuke, and threw him into shelf after shelf of prophecies. Thousands upon thousands of crystal balls rained down to the floor. Sakura stood. Her body looked as if it was being supported by chakra strings, like the angry red chakra was supporting it. Her eyes were glazed, but there was a fire inside.

"You were right, Itachi. You have such a foolish little brother…so foolish I could beat him to a bloody pulp…shannaro!"

… … … … …

Well, that's a pretty good fight, ne?

For the ambush, I used a graphing calculator. … Sakura-chan is SO SMART. Well, experienced too. Tenten can probably calculate on the fly. Or she just has magic hands. Well, Sakura guessed on the height vector but the distance vector was somewhat easier. It's just velocity x time.

Omaki:

A vision of Inner Sakura as she number crunches with paper, pencil, and the quadratic formula—she growls, but then yells, "Shannaro!" when she discovers the roots. I left this out b/c Inner Self is preoccupied… as you will see in the next chapter.

Please read and review. XD