Part 4 in the Obelisk series:
Kingdom of Man, Kingdom of Beasts, Kingdom of Monsters, and Kingdom of Gods.
OBELISK:
KINGDOM OF GODS
Gladiator Boneyard
It was hard to describe what Ibiki did to Sakura. All she could think of were metaphors, but literally, he was using his own, unfettered chakra to invade her mind and see her thoughts and past. Sakura didn't know what he was seeing, but whatever it was made him frustrated enough to smack her back into the hey and storm out, only to coming back after a meal and try again.
And again.
And again.
And again.
And again.
And again...
Sakura always screamed when he first pushed into her, tearing away her will, the part of her that resisted and pushed back against his intrusion. She was unaided without her chakra, and her resistance lasted a handful of heartbeats before it all came crashing down. It hurt in a way that was more than just physical. Yes, she felt pain like a migraine, but when he drew his chakra back, she felt weaker, diminished. Her anxiety and fear ate her alive.
"Why do you keep trying?" she once asked after his fifth attempt in the same day. She was exhausted and could hardly see straight. "You're not going to find what you're looking for."
She didn't know all the details of what he was attempting, but she knew enough to guess that her status as a dreamer had something to do with his inability to invade her mind like he would with the other actors. He would need to give up soon or keep her in the stables indefinitely because there as no way she would break now that she was beginning to believe she had the power to keep him out. With what little autonomy she had left, she would preserve what remained hers, including her thoughts and memories.
Ibiki raised a hand as if to stick her across the face with it, but grunted and turned away to pace at the opposite end of the room. It only took him a few strides before he calmed and approached her again. "There are always obstacles, but you can't resist forever."
"You can't keep trying forever either," Sakura coughed.
"No, but I can keep trying long enough." He stepped closer, near looming. "I will last longer than you."
And then he was back again in her brain, tilling it like a rocky field with sickles dug deep into the soil, overturning and piling mounds of her into neat little rows as he attempted to break through her barriers, to shatter the bedrock of her mind under all that tilling. It was a mess and Sakura cried every time a piece of her was overturned because it was a piece of her that hadn't meant to be overturned or touched or manipulated.
She wanted to push back, to rip her from her mind and dash him against the walls of the stables, but all she could manage was screams. Her throat cracked and broke at points, but she made a hell for his ears as best she could. Whatever he was looking for he wouldn't find it in her.
"That is enough."
Sakura fell limp into the hay. Ibiki turned to greet the new arrival and Sakura forced her eyes to open just enough for her to peek through her lashes. His hair was nicer, but combed down in front of half of his face. She searched her memory for the name and caught it. Izumo. This was the meaner of the two, the one who was angry at her for threatening his friend in a bid to earn their trust. Ironic, he would be the one interrupting her torture. She knew he didn't care for her or even about her, if his past actions were indicative of anything.
"She will need physical training as well as mental. You've had more than your share of time with her and now she's hardly worth the effort to pull out of the filth."
"You can have her once this is done."
"I didn't come here asking for your permission. I have my own orders to follow."
"Follow them tomorrow, or when I'm finished with her."
Izumo looked like the skin around his eyes was too taunt, but he kept his anger to a simmer just below the surface. He crossed his arms over his chest and shifted the weight of his body from one foot to the other in an effort to achieve a posture that said he didn't care what the scarred man said. "Were you able to see what sort of history she has? Do you know who here teachers have been, what her education has been, what her hands have killed? Surly you must know the beginning to those things. You've spent so much time together I would assume you know her wholly and completely by now." There was more than a little sarcasm in his tone.
"No matter what you might thing, what I do is delicate, requiring the upmost precision and patience. Don't seek to rush me."
"I'm not the only one here who you might think is being inconsiderate of your art, or have you forgotten that she needs physical prep for her fights? She wasn't bought for so much to sit around in the hey and play mind games with you." Izumo rolled his eyes. "We have other slaves for that."
Ibiki closed his eyes, looking resigned. "Is that an order?"
"It will be soon if I don't get what I want." Izumo glanced at Sakura and the sight of her made him grimace. "I should have started the day she first came back, but you've kept her too long and she's already exhausted."
"She's not to be taken out onto the property until I've approved her."
"Then approve her."
Ibiki looked like he wanted to bite his tongue. The unspoken exclamation of 'I can't' hung in the air between them and it made the scarred man all the more unsettled. If there was friendship between the two of them (and Sakura doubted there was) it was all but gone now. Ibiki had murder in his eyes as he turned away and stormed out.
"I'll take that as an okay," Izumo muttered under his breath to himself before turning towards her.
Absently he brushed aside the heavy bangs that fell in front of his right eye and Sakura caught a glimpse of the scar that ran over his lid at a crooked angle. Sakura looked away when his eyes landed on her face, but if he minded that she saw it wasn't apparent.
"Where are we going?" Sakura asked, catching her breath sharply when he tugged on her chains and the sore parts of her wrists throbbed. It would be days before the evidence of her shackles healed enough for short sleeves. Good thing it was cold when she woke up.
"Get up and walk,"Izumo he barked, not paying her question any heed. He sounded bored of her, actually.
Sakura wanted to fight him, she wanted to dig in her heels and snarl like the junkyard dogs she's seen before. Her arms tensed, bunching up and getting ready to pull back, but Sakura hushed her raging spirit and fought down her impulses. She wasn't going to run, no matter how much she was tempted to fight for her freedom. There would be a time to fight, but it wasn't now.
Izumo led her out of the stables and out across a long stretch of mostly open land before they came upon a well dug into the ground and surrounded by marble stone cut straight from a quarry not too far from the property. Izumo dropped her chain in order to pull up the rope that was attached to a bucket. Once at the top he unhooked the odd looking container and poured the water into a clay pot that was set aside the mound of marble. Done, he replaced the bucket on the rope and let it fall the rest of the way down.
"You'll carry your own water. Spill it and you'll have to go the day without it."
Izumo stepped away from the well and didn't touch a thing more, leaving her chain on the ground in the dust as well as the clay jug of water. When he kept moving Sakura took that as her cue to follow and scrambled to take up the job and carry what was left of her dragging chain.
When Sakura looked over her back the stable was small in the distance and her feet weren't heavy, but she could feel the phantom sensation of weariness. They had been walking quite a while when the path dipped down and the dust cleared away enough for Sakura to see the pit dug out and built up.
"Don't get too excited, this is just the training grounds." He walked ahead and then stopped, sand settling around his still feed in subtle mounds. "You'll need to prove yourself here before we start using you."
"You don't think I can fight?" Sakura bit out, setting her bot down, but not before taking a taste of the water. It was cool and a treat to her sore throat, but she was in the dream world and that meant she had no true need for water or food. Still, she didn't need to let them know that.
"Any animal afraid of dying can surprise the world. What can you actually do?" he asked, turning suddenly and throwing a small knife at the clay pot still in her hands. Water and pottery gushed over her wrists as the piece burst between her fingers and stopped the knife from hitting her chest.
Sakura jumped back, knowing there was no cover, there wasn't supposed to be. Arenas where men and women fought to the death weren't supposed to be areas where you could find an advantage in the terrain or use your head. No, people wanted contact and blood and death. There was no where she could run from it.
Izumo was someone close to Indra and Sakura knew why. Sakura threw out her senses as best she could with the chakra shackles still limiting her abilities. She wanted to weigh the world down and drag it all into slow motion so she could see the hands that were reaching for her face, but she couldn't do much other than try her best to stay ahead of the jabs.
She missed one strike and his hand made it to her neck with a python's finesse. She choked, feeling herself being lifted off the ground as he flexed his hand and made bruises in her skin. Sakura gasped, feeling her eyes bulge and her legs kick. There was nothing she could do here. He had her in one of the worst possible ways.
"Not so fun, is it?" he asked in a dry tone before he let her go to fall into a heap at his feet, kicking up sand and dust that choked her nose and mouth. Sakura gasped, lungs screaming as new air rushed in.
"I don't think you are worth what he paid for you. You were lucky and you were sneaky. You will not be worth the time to lift my eyelids when I see you fight."
"You…" Sakura could hardly form words. It all hurt and she wanted to cry for a friendly face.
He shifted and Sakura felt it in the hairs on her arm before she actually saw the movement. She reacted quickly, thinking she was dodging a sword at first, but the hand that passed over her head was nothing more than flesh. She wasn't training with Kisame again, but it felt similar. He had taught her how to dodge and duck almost as well as Tsunade had. Unlike Tsunade, Kisame and Sakura spent months together. What her brain didn't remember, her body did.
Sakura felt the bruises on her neck and used every part of her body to move and dodge so there wouldn't be any more marks when she woke up.
'Scarf. I can hide it with a scarf.'
Sakura caught his fist in the worst way; with her chest. The wind left her lungs and she was sent backwards only to land up in a heap of tangled limbs on the ground.
"If I had been holding a knife you would have been dead."
"That wouldn't have been fair," Sakura spit, knowing the words were wasted air. Nothing in the curse world was fair.
"Depending on how much your sponsor or owner likes you, the matches will never be fair. Sometimes there are weapons, sometimes there are not." Izumo stalked closer to her but stopped an arm's reach away. "Sometimes a man goes in with nothing but a cloth for his dignity while his opponent glistens in armor. It's all for a good show, nothing more."
Sakura looked up slowly and Izumo smirked at the fear he must have read in her expression.
"Are you going to ask how much our dear lord likes you?" Izumo knelt down and the smile on his face made Sakura want to turn and run. Her stomach was sick when he spoke. "Not enough to make it easy for you. His brother might have, if he had been the one to pick you out, but… ah it's never fair."
"What does that mean?"
"It means you better get better about fighting barehanded against a man with a knife. You don't want to die just yet, do you?"
Sakura wanted to snarl and bite into the man's neck with her teeth. "Take off these shackles and I'll show you what you want out of me."
"I can't, rules are rules. If you weren't shackled you would be too dangerous to keep alive."
Sakura snarled, feeling the anger make an ember in her chest she could hold onto. She was all sharp angles and wide strokes. Fueled with a desire to strike that smirk from his face, she refused to relent as she pressed the advantage. She was too wild and just fast enough that he began to retreat, likely counting on her to get tired so he could take advantage of when she faltered. In the dream and in her shackles there were a lot of things Sakura wasn't good at, but one of them wasn't her endurance, and she knew how to play to that.
It didn't take much longer before she started to see the worry bloom in the other man's eyes. She was too wild and too loud with her screams for her to go much longer, but she didn't stop, didn't falter, didn't let up, didn't give him an opening. Who would exhaust first? Him from dodging and blocking, or her from striking and screaming.
His frustration started to show and he made a move that she took advantage of and twisted into, bringing her leg up between them to kick him back. All that work and all she got was one kick in, but boy was it worth it. He tumbled over himself, dust rising in a cloud where he landed and struggled to his feet. She could see through the sand cloud his glare for her.
"Excellent stamina," a new voice said.
Sakura looked over her shoulder to see the other boy, the one with the wild hair at the edge of the ring walking towards them. He was smiling.
"Kotetsu, I thought you were elsewhere. You said you were too busy to help."
"You didn't say what you needed help with. I heard that she hadn't been cleared yet. What are the two of you doing out here?" Kotetsu asked, looking between the two of them easily.
Izumo snapped. "What does it look like, you fool?"
"It looks like she's going to kick your but. You better pray those shackles never come off."
Both boys looked to the shackles on her wrists and the long chain that connected them. Sakura tugged on them, making the links taunt between her wrists. The action almost made Izumo shiver, but she might have just imagined it. She wanted to believe he could be afraid of her.
"So, when can we start making money over here. Will she be well enough in two days?" Kotetsu asked, almost grinning at Sakura while he talked to the other man.
"Not for the Gladiator Boneyard."
"Eh? Why not?"
"She cost too much to die in her first match. We'll wait the month for the official run in the coliseum. They don't fight to the death there as long as that child is emperor. It's too sad a show to put your best fighters forward for."
"I don't know…" Kotetsu turned to Sakura and addressed her for the first time. "Have you ever killed a man before you became a slave? You can do it, but will you?"
"That doesn't sound like much fun, but do I really have a choice?" Sakura asked, feeling her stomach roll in the uneasy way that reminded her of what it felt like to look down into a pit.
She had killed, yes, she had done so before in the dream world, but it never felt real until she started to think about it. Sai had't been a true death, right? The faceless foes she had cut down, the monsters and beasts and wolves all were things she killed, and even some faceless dream appertains.
'You've become such a dirty thing. Remember when you didn't even take Orochimaru's life for killing Sasori. Now look at yourself. What a mess.'
Sakura wanted to shrink from the voice in her head. She felt bad for what she had done, but more than that, she felt bad for not feeling as bad about it as she should have. It barely phased her when she thought about what she did with her hands. Killing was second nature to her by now. If she was ever going to be free of the dream curse, she would have to dye her hands with even more red between now and then.
"Let me fight someone," she said, looking up at the two boys while mentally pushing down the guilt and repulsion. "I don't care, but I said I would, so let me keep my promise."
It was Izumo who said something back. "You're a slave, you don't need to keep promises, you do as you are told."
"Nah, don't be so hard on the girl. Why don't we try the boneyard in a few days? Work her up in time and teach her what she needs. She won't let us down if she fights like she just did."
"She's not a competent killer."
"Ten wasn't either until Ashura took her on, but look at her now. No one would have guessed such a scrawny little girl might grow up to be a weapon's mistress."
Izumo rolled his eyes, or at least only the one that was visible before shaking his head. "Yeah, but don't forget how much that pissed Indra off, having to give her to his brother." Izumo stalked closer to Sakura, stopping a foot away. "There's no way he will give this one up as well. No, she'll die first before he lets his pride take the fall and there is nothing Ashura can do this time."
Kotetsu hummed, looking over at Sakura as well. She hated how they were talking about her like she wasn't even there, but to them she was nothing more than livestock, a thing to be bought and traded. They could talk over her all they wanted, there was nothing she could do about it.
Kotetsu at least looked at her and smiled. "How about you feed her and let her bathe or something. She's been out here a while and for her first exercise you shouldn't overdo it. Bring her out again in the morning."
"Ibiki will need her after this. There's no use getting her cleaned off." When he saw Sakura flinch he frowned and averted his eyes, almost as if he cared that he was forcing her to do something she didn't want to do. Almost.
But if there was regret or hesitation there in the man, it wasn't enough to keep her from taking her back to the man with scars all over his face after he had trained her long and hard out in the ring. Ibiki didn't look any happier to see her than she did, but he didn't waste any time before splitting her mind apart with his ability.
Sakura screamed until the light was gone out of the world around her and the day was done. She fell back into the hay and thought that would be the end of it, but the dream didn't end this time either. When she looked up Ibiki was still there, eating food from a plate before glaring at the way she watched him. A minute later he took his things and left her locked up, likely assuming she would fall asleep again, but there was no dream in the dream world. She couldn't wake up either.
The curse was doing funny things to her again, lasting longer than it should. Sakura tried to force herself awake, afraid that she was sleeping longer than she should, but nothing worked. Her chakra was gone, and her senses were dull as could be. There was nothing she could do and that was almost as bad as the way Ibiki tore into her mind only to find nothing.
There were voices in the hallways around her stall and Sakura stilled in her bed, pretending to be asleep as a light drew closer and the voices became louder. Someone stopped at her door and may have they peaked in but one of the voices huffed in agitation and said 'come on' before the light eventually faded. Sakura couldn't be sure, but she almost thought she heard laughter too, the quiet kind people liked to hide behind their hands.
She sat up after the light and voices both faded to stare through the cracks and watch the shadows move out across the opening to the field she had been using to practice in earlier that day. Sakura tried the door and found it locked. Ibiki was always vigilant about that when he left. The first two bolts she could never reach were always secured and the third one she could reach was still in place. Even if she undid that one…
Feeling stupid Sakura slipped her fingers as far as they could go and caught the metal with her nail, pulling it up and to the side. The whole door heaved as it swung open, the other bolts undone from whoever had held the light earlier.
"That's not suspicious at all," Sakura huffed, looking out at the light that was almost gone from her view. Was it really worth it to chase after a pair of people who could be anyone?
It was a silly questions and she was already running out to meet them. Madness would eat her alive if she didn't move and do something. She only hoped that wasn't the whole point to the curse. If she knew it was a trap would she have still left the stables? Of course she would have. She needed to keep moving forward. There was no way she gave up a life of luxury with Madara to stay stuck in a dusty hay bed. She could have been happy, but it wasn't right so she forced herself to keep moving.
The training pit was close and she slowed down, making herself quiet as she approached. It was still night and no one would be able to see her if she stayed still, but she could be plenty loud, so she made sure she did her best to go unseen. Approaching the edge Sakura looked down and frowned when she saw a lantern in the dust, but no figure to hold it. There were footprints though, leading away from it in two directions. One pair was smaller than the other and she guessed they belonged to a woman.
Sakura crept down and stopped at the edge of the glow, hesitating before heading off towards the man's footprints.
The moment she stepped into the light the air around her changed and she felt chakra in it. Sakura sucked in a breath and dodged, moving before thinking. Someone's leg passed over her head and Sakura rolled into the body and leaving it before she could get caught in a grappling match. She was still in chains and didn't want that used against her.
It was a girl, she was barely modest and the swell of her breasts were clear as she righted herself. Loose brown hair fell back over her shoulders and Sakura blinked, recognizing the face. Tenten was an actor here and dressed like something from a 1980's Connan the Barbarian or He-man comic. Tenten winked at Sakura before kicking up more dirt and Sakura jumped back, seeing metal on her boots.
The two engaged and Sakura knew she was woefully inadequate to challenge the girl when she was set off and still shackles. Sakura was doing a good job of holding her own, but she didn't see how she could close the distance when her opponent had an unending supply of slender needles to shoot from the safety of the lantern's glow.
Tenten reached for something behind her and then Sakura saw the long steel face of a shorthanded battle ax. Tenten grinned with mirth in her eyes, making them glow, before she lunged with a wild swing. Sakura swore, knowing she was useless without a weapon of her own, and what she had been told before was repeating again and again in her head.
Depending on how much your sponsor or owner likes you, the matches will never be fair. Sometimes there are weapons, sometimes there are not. Sometimes a man goes in with nothing but a cloth for his dignity while his opponent glistens in armor.
Is this what it would be like for her in the matches? This wasn't fair, this really wasn't fair considering how good Tenten was with the ax. She held it like a pro so that when she moved her blade was an extension of her body. It was like how Sakura had tried to be with the sword during the time Kisame taught her. But Sakura didn't have a sword and Kisame wasn't here anymore to tell he what she could do. If he was, what would he say. It was hopeless.
'Use what you have, kid.'
Tenten was too close and Sakura held up her chains, a taunt barrier to catch her swing. The blade came down fast and the links shattered under the impact. Sakura felt something in her snap and then she surged forward, faster than before. Tenten tried to right herself in time, but Sakura could touch her chakra and was using it to move her in flash steps to stand behind the other girl. Sakura's hand came down hard on the back of Tenten's head and the girl went down.
There was recoil in Sakura's body and she shivered, backing up as the feeling of chakra was gone. The link between her shackles was severed, but the shackles were still on her wrist and those were the things that truly held her powers at bay. There was, however, now a crack in the barrier and Sakura could feel her chakra leaking through. It wasn't everything, but it was something. It was a fighting chance.
Sakura circled Tenten and kicked the ax away, keeping her own fists up and ready to strike.
"That's just terrible. It wasn't even five minutes."
Sakura flinched but didn't turn fully, only angled her body so she might keep Tenten in sight while she also saw the other figure come down into the light's ring. He looked too much like her own master to be anyone else.
"Are you the brother?" Sakura asked, trying to remember the name Kotetsu and Izumo had used.
"Oh my, you already know of me. I'm flattered," he laughed, looking like he didn't care that his slave was face down in the dirt with Sakura in striking zone, looking ready to kill. "I am Ashura. We're happy to meet you."
"We?" Sakura winced.
"Ah, well maybe Ten might not be so happy, but she will be once she wakes up. You did well. My brother has excellent taste. He was so lucky this time. I'm jealous all over again."
"What do you want?" Sakura snapped, not feeling like she was in control of anything anymore. The high of having won against Tenten was fading fast.
"Oh, you're not dumb either. Does my brother truly not know what he picked up? Such a shame to keep you all to himself. He should learn to share a little bit more," Ashura said with a wide smile that seemed almost honest. He was dressed simply in a long white tunic, but the dark purple cloth around his arms was expensive enough to mark him as important.
"You're not going to answer my question? What is it you want?" Sakura wanted her chakra back.
Ashura's smile was so disarming. He looked at her and Sakura felt a little ashamed of keeping her fists up. He just kept smiling at her and it was the last thing she expected until Tenten started to stir. Sakura backtracked another handful of steps and created distance.
"Imma kmph eeer…" she groaned.
Ashura laughed while Sakura tensed. "Don't become overeager my dear. It's you own fault for underestimating her. You were even flirting, I saw you."
"Master!" Ten cried, cheeks flushing. She glanced over at Sakura before climbing to her feet and collecting her weapons without another word.
Ashura just kept watching Sakura, his smile still in place. "Ah, I think I was going to answer your question from before. You wanted to know what it was I wanted, yes?" When she nodded he went on. "I want you to fight for me, just like Ten did. You'll be my champion instead of my brother's."
"What are you doing asking me that, I'm a slave, remember?" Sakura bit. She wanted to scream the words, she hated them so much.
"Ah, but you're also a creature of great power. You could just kill my brother if you wanted freedom. I would trust you to come back to me if you gave me your word."
'Kill.'
"What? What are you talking about? He's your brother. Why would you ask me to kill him?"
Ashura laughed again and Sakura felt like she needed to sit down. "Poor child doesn't know a thing. Everyone else knows we hate each other and this wouldn't be the first time one of us tried to kill the other, and gods knows this won't be the last time if I am unlucky."
"-No." Her voice was a hissing adder in the air between them.
It was the first time she saw his smile falter. He didn't look upset or angry, though. Ashura just watched her more closely, studying her even more. "There is something you want. Those shackles off. I'll take them off and you'll be powerful again. You can kill him."
"I said no."
"You don't want those shackles off?" He looked like he wanted to pity her. "He'll never do that for you. If you don't take my offer now you'll be in shackles for the rest of your life. You'll be in pain every day, you'll be beat and hurt and cursed for as long as you survive his pride. He wont' protect you in the ring."
"Yeah, I guessed as much, but I don't like the idea of killing in such a way. Maybe one day I might but I did say I wouldn't make trouble if they took my shackles off. I'm going to do the stupid thing and try to keep my word. I don't see him as my master, no one is my master, but I'll follow him for now." Where else would she find the Obelisk than with his help?
"Indra doesn't know the value of what he has."
"So says you, brother."
Sakura went stiff at the sound of the new voice. Ten was a pillar of stone from behind Ashura as the new body stepped into the light. Sakura held her breath as her slave owner took a stand behind her. Indra looked down at her and reached out to grab a fistful of her hair. He glanced sideways at his brother before bending down and kissing Sakura on the mouth. She felt her body go limp and burst into fire and freeze all at once. His other hand pulled at her hip, bringing her closer before he pulled away and let her stagger agains his chest.
"You didn't have to be so dramatic about it," Ashura huffed.
"And what if that was something I've been wanting to do?"
Ashura looked put out as he looked off and pouted. "It wasn't."
Indra looked down at Sakura and then released her. She stumbled backwards a few steps before finding her balance again. Her eyes were wide as he watched her. "At least now I know I can trust her not to kill me in my sleep for so petty a reason, but that's only the first step in graduating out of the shackles."
"You're welcome for that," Ashura huffed, beginning to turn away. "Come on Ten, brother wants a moment alone to tease his cute little slave. You'll have to wait for the morning to flirt with her again.
Sakura didn't see them go, she was staring up at the dark haired general in front of her. He was watching her, but she didn't recognize affection like she had before in other actors. His kiss had been something to throw her off, there was no emotion in it. This actor didn't like her like the others had.
"What is it you want…other than your shackles free?" he asked her after a minute.
Sakura wrested with an answer in her head before saying anything. "To win."
Her answer seemed to surprise him. Both his brows rose and the weight of his body shifted from one leg to the other. "Is that so? That is your honest desire, not even to survive, but to win."
"Why shouldn't it be? I've always had to fight in this stupid world and the ones before it. I'll always be fighting."
"…Is there a weapon you favor?"
Sakura grinned, thinking of her bone handle sword. "Take off my cuffs and I'll show you."
He glared at her and the look might as well have said 'do you think I am stupid' or something like that.
"Gods know what you might summon, I will not." When she grimaced he didn't relent. "You did well enough without a weapon. Back to the stables. I'll tell Ibiki not to bother with trying to know your mind. You will only focus on training your physical body."
When she didn't say anything right away or move he leaned in, almost looming over her. "Unless there is something else you would like to do; warm my bed?"
Sakura scowled, taking a step back. "I'm a fighter, nothing more or less."
Indra looked like he didn't care one way or the other as he turned from her and left the circle of light to walk back to wherever he had come from in the dark. He didn't call out to her and she didn't follow. When she got back to the stables she left the doors open and waited for the dream to end, but only morning came.
Another day passed with her training in the pits, running, lifting, sparing. Day turned to evening and between Kotetsu and Izumo she was nearly spent by the time she made it back to the stables. They told her tomorrow she would fight in her first match, but when she hit the hay the straw was cotton and her floor was a mattress and she was back in her room, waking up again after two days in the dream.
Sakura watched Ami's plane take off through the glass and sagged a bit, until her forehead was pressed against the cold surface. This was for her good. This would be what she needed. Going off to Europe to study on her father's money from a world renowned expert would be a dream to anyone, and so Sakura couldn't bring herself to feel resentment towards Ami for taking the offer.
Still
Sakura watched the heavy bodies of metal sail through the air to grow small and smaller until winking out of sight. There was a new one every few minutes. Who else was in the air flying to a new dream?
Another twinge of pain made Sakura grimace and she recognized the jealousy she tried to hold herself above. She adored Ami and wanted the best for her friend. Sakura didn't like the idea of being jealous of her friend for having such an amazing opportunity fall into her lap without any true effort. Ami was her friend. Sakura didn't want to be jealous of her friends. Sakura didn't want to be jealous at all.
But she was.
Sakura pulled herself away from the window and made her way out of the terminal back to the elevators that would take her to the pick up area. She had a few minutes before Ino would be there to pick her up, so she let her steps sag a bit, not caring that her pace was pitiful for such a busy airport.
What time was it? Sakura checked her phone again and groaned, realizing it was later than it actually was. She thought she would have more time. From Ami's plane took off it would take Ino an hour to meet Sakura at the drop off/pick up area. Had Sakura really been standing in front of that stupid window for forty five minutes? It hadn't felt like more than five.
Sakura checked her phone again, thinking she might have misread it, and did the math, only to curse when she realized she now only had five minutes to get to the other end of the airport. She had spaced out again and wasted time.
Breathing heavily, Sakura took the stairs down two at a time, trying not to look like she wanted to run the rest of the way like a madwoman because that's how she felt in her head. In her mind she was a slave in a dust pit tearing through the sand colored clouds with nothing but shackles to hold her back.
"SAKURA!" Ino's call was obnoxiously loud, but she didn't seem embarrassed about it.
Sakura sprinted the rest of the way and hopped into the blond's passenger side door. Ino looked like she wanted to hug or something but Sakura just waved her off. "There are people behind us, let's go!"
If she was put out or slighted Ino didn't let it slip in her expression. She pulled out easily and made herself a force to be reckoned with as she drove them out of the airport without mercy for all the other poor souls who wanted to merge into her lane. Ino drove the way she walked, with her chin high and her sights narrowed.
"I'm so glad you asked me this favor. I've been meaning to get together with you since I got back from Florida," Ino began after crossing the bridge onto lighter traffic.
"Is that so?" Sakura hadn't know Ino had been in Florida, only that she had been away for a while. Ino was like that. Work took her away at the drop of a hat to all these different places for a night or a weekend, and then she was back like nothing ever happened. It would kill her, financially, for Sakura to go away with Ami and her rent being no longer in the picture.
"Yeah." Ino nodded as she merged without her blinker. "I got another part time gig working at the modeling office in the city so I'll be around more often and working here, so like, it's sort of sustainable. I'm thinking of settling down for a year or two and wanted to know if you were interested."
"Interested? In what?"
"Us," Ino answer in a chirp, her whole face looked like a smile. "We can room together again. Wouldn't that be great. You could walk to the college and it would be just like what we talked about in high school."
Sakura shut her eyes and turned her face away. "I'm not going to college right now, Ino."
"Oh, yeah, I guess you're not, but you could if you were closer, so what about in the fall?"
"No, I'm not-" Sakura bit her lip and caught herself. "Right now I need to focus on working and making money. I couldn't possibly make it work with what I have now. And my head's not in the right space for school. I don't know if that's even for me anymore."
"How are you going to be a doctor with an attitude like that?" Ino laughed and Sakura wanted to choke. Ino meant to tease her friend, but all Sakura saw was sand for miles as a pair of shackles led her into an abyss of white. Sakura gripped the fabric of her seatbelt and twisted it in her hands, trying to recognize the feel of it, but her fingertips were numb.
Her mind was hot and arid as Sakura struggled to form her own thoughts in a windstorm of sparkling grain.
'What is true? I'm in the car with Ino. I'm in the passenger's seat. The sun is out. There are no clouds in the sky. It is 72 degrees outside, according to her car dash. I'm wearing converse sneakers. The air freshner is sand-sand-sand-vanilla!'
Sakura coughed and bent over to hack out the breath she had skipped over. Ino made a noise of concern and Sakura fixated on it, feeling like she might fly away if she didn't.
"These damn roads," Ino hissed. "I have water in the cupholder there." Ino pointed to a tumbler with lime and lemon slices floating across the top.
Sakura took a sip and placed it back before the blond could say anything else. "I just swallowed my breath wrong," Sakura lied, rolling her shoulders in an easy fashion. Her teeshirt was loose cotton that couldn't stay on both her shoulders at once, her left shoulder was the one left exposed now.
"But…yeah, it's fine if you don't want to go to the school or anything, but you could still work with me in the city and you wouldn't have to pay rent. Minimum wage jobs pay so much more in the city, you know. Plus, you're so smart I know I could get you into the editing team somewhere. And it, like I have a lot of room to myself, so you would be doing me a favor."
"I already have a job here. I would have to leave it behind without knowing if anything new would be better."
"It would be, I just know it would be!"
Sakura frowned, unable to see the upside to Ino's suggestion. It wouldn't be wise for Sakura to make any sudden moves, especially now with the dream world taking such a heavy toll on her. The Kingdom of Gods was nothing like the Kingdom of Monsters. The dreams lasted for days and she woke feeling older and more worn out than ever before.
"I'll think about it," Sakura finally said, knowing that telling Ino no would not be smart. Ino would just go on to try and make her offer seem better and better, but Sakura knew that Ino wasn't a miracle worker, and there was nothing Ino could do to make the nightmares and less real or her waking world any better.
AN: So I really want to know how Indra came across to you guys? Do you think he his truly indifferent to Sakura and doesn't care if she dies, or do you think that as an actor he is starting to turn towards her in a more positive way? I know what I think and I know what I have planned, but I'm hoping it will come across as a surprise.
For now it's still mostly just the plot of the curse and a hint of something else. She's progressively spending more and more of her time in the dream world. When she sleeps, her dreams are longer. Typically they were only a day long (sometimes less), but the deeper she goes, the longer the curse lasts.
Next time, Sakura enters the Boneyard and things turn red.
I hope you enjoyed. Please review.