Part 4 in the Obelisk Series:
Kingdom of Man, Kingdom of Beasts, Kingdom of Monsters, and Kigdom of Gods.

OBELISK:
KINGDOM OF GODS

Gladiator Boneyard

There is a memory that is as much a part of her as any choice or action or thought. It's a memory that shaped her being from long ago when she was young and impressionable. Before the relationship became too rocky between her mother and her grandmother, Sakura had been a frequent visitor to her maternal grandmother, and together they often went out on trips into the city. Lunches at fancy hotels, ice skating in the fall, orchestra and art museums made up so much of their time together.

One day in the hotel's dining room, where the chairs are painted with gold, Sakura eats scones with her grandmother who has circumvented the world and humbled it all in her wake. To a child her grandmother is the pinnacle of greatness, the paragon adventurer with no rival in Sakura's eyes.

Noise from the entrance makes her look up, raspberry stains around her face. Being one of the most expensive and exclusive places to eat in New York City, famous people come in to dine all the time. There is a buzz as this woman walks in, and even Sakura's grandmother stops breathing as the brazened woman crosses the threshold, donned in white and gold with a man at each of her four corners.

Sakura remembers that moment that could have been insignificant if she had been with anyone else, but she had been with her grandmother-the woman who saw it all. When Sakura looked up at her grandmother she saw something that made her feel humbled.

The woman passed by their table, and every other table the heads dipped in respect for the Middle Eastern queen of a country torn open by war and bloodshed. She passed by Sakura and as a child Sakura remembered the moment the queen of a lost country made her six year old self afraid and mesmerized all at once.

Later on, she remembered wondering if that would be what it was like to meet God.

Blood

Blood

Blood

The earth is singing for it and Sakura is afraid there will be enough to drown them all in it. So much of it is her own as well. This wasn't how she intended the night to go once she fell asleep into the dream of the Obelisk curse.

This wasn't how things were supposed to go.

Ten And Sakura had entered at opposite ends of the arena. Sakura saw Kiba enter at the East gate and the unnamed hulk entered at the West. There was no warning, only a scream before Kiba started to charge the large man. Ten was faster though, intercepting Kiba with lethal accuracy. There was a small river of red running down his bare chest while Ten danced just out of reach, her daggers gleaming. Ashura had been generous.

Sakura returned her attention to the older fighter who paced just out of her reach, less reckless than expected. He reached into his belt and drew a pair of knuckle rings with points on the ends meant to tear and slash. Sakura cursed her luck. Indra hadn't given her any such advantage. Had he truly expected her to win this match?

She matches his stance with her own. When he paces left she paces right, keeping him an even distance from her body. When his elbows tense, so do hers. She can see the way he takes in his breaths. Chest inflating with new air before his ribs sink and push the old out. One inhale and then the next. The world fades further and further away.

'Don't forget your stance.' Zabuza is grumbling behind her. The memory of him is something she feels and knows, not only sees.

'He's right, Sakura,' Haku coos from somewhere she can't see. 'The first thing you learn in any martial art is how to stand. There is no way around this. If you do not stand properly then every move you make will be wrong.' The memory of the beautiful boy walks in front of her, passing across the opening between him and her. 'How to properly stand while fighting is not instinctive and it must be taught. Remember our words, there is no getting around this. So, stand firm here.'

Sakura remembers vividly what Kisame told her next, but she never sees Kisame or hears his words. The world is coming back to her and the giant of a man is rushing towards her, his knuckles up and his eyes hot like desert heat. Sakura turns and falls into the sand, rolling out of reach, only to spring up and turn around again.

'The second thing anyone should learn is how to fall over, and the third thing how to stand up again without dropping your guard,' Kisame barks from the shadows at the edge of the ring. 'Show me your fall from grace, eh?'

The man charges again but this time Sakura rolls in a different direction and springs up faster. He's not as easily tricks and stops before he can barrel past her too far. Her ankle is high, a knife across the sun, before it comes down with a wet sound across his face. Blood sprays across the sand and she feels something cold on her ankle. His face is a painted mess in red. His eyes are still as fierce as ever when he roars though, and Sakura fears there will be a part of her he will catch before she can find any victory for herself.

He moves and he is fast, there's no doubt he got as far as he has on something other than luck. Sakura is a petal adrift in the wind, refusing to be touched as she ducks and pivots out of the way, using her steps like chess pieces. Each one had a specific and detailed focus, and from the shadows, the memory of Kisame nods in appreciation. It's no sword fight, but her body will always be her first and last weapon, and her life is just as endangered here as any other time a man tried to kill her.

He closes in and tries with a bit more desperation to land a hit, faster and wider, but Sakura plays to her advantage. She won't tire out. She has an endurance that is as unending as her imagination so it's more of a waiting game than anything else if she can be patient enough. He swings over her and she nearly stumbles into his opposite fist, but she lets her legs collapse, dragging her down. At his ankles she takes a second to shift her weight before rolling back onto her back and kicking up with all the force she can muster. Her heel drives into his crotch and she hears the roar of shock from the onlookers as they watch. He screams and stumbles, and that's enough for her. His hands are loose and ease to break open long enough to steal one of his spiked knuckles. She knows he is aware of what she's doing, and he'll only be down for a second more before-

His freed hand reaches for her throat and catches it. People gasp as she chokes. His arm is still shaking, weak from the last impact, but he's regaining everything he lost in no time at all. Sakura feels her feet drag, toes lifting above the sand as he holds her aloft, a prize to destroy on his own.

Sakura struggles feeling her eyes begin to bulge. He's about to crush her windpipe and end the whole world around him and he doesn't even have a face she can remember-only eyes as hot as the desert and twice as brutal.

'Focus.'

Its enough for her to lift one leg up onto his shoulder, and then the other. She crosses her ankles and screws her heel into his face, bending at the waist to rip her free from his hand as they both tumbled into the sand, gasping and sprawling. She lost the knuckle, and he is without the other, but she hears metal on leather and rolls away in time to miss a dagger through her throat.

Another weapon. How much favor did she need for something so small? Sakura backs away as far as she can and curses the shackles around her wrists. If not for them she would have been fine, she would have destroyed the whole arena by now, punched it clean through and brought the stones down around them all. But the dream is not bent to her will, the dream is trying to kill her and have a good time doing it.

Sakura curses and braces to move. Adrenaline isn't in her blood yet, and she's still mostly in control, but there is a trickle there that makes her limbs loose, and she knows it is because of her fear. Adrenaline will give her a surge for fight or flight, but it will rob her of her greater focus and make her sloppy.

Across the arena Ten and Kiba are both bleeding from different places for different reasons. There is a muzzle of blood around Kiba's jaw from the wound on Ten's throwing arm. He bit her and would have torn her apart if he could have. But there's a metal star still stuck in his shoulder, buried deep enough to stay lodged throughout the fight. Kiba is using more energy and looks like he will tire sooner, but Ten's wavering on her feet, sick with blood loss. She won't make it long enough to outlast someone as feral as Kiba. She's outmatched. She's going to loose and it won't be the first time she's died in the dream world, and maybe not the last.

Sakura races forward first, but it's not towards her opponent, but towards Kiba. He hears her coming and pivots out of the way before she can come close, but it wasn't him Sakura had been aiming for. Sakura skids in the sand to stand alongside Ten, taking a posture that made her stand forward.

"Sakura," the other girl breaths, and she sounds so young.

"You're nearly dead on your feet," Sakura says, watching Kiba but making no move to engage him. If she's lucky, her opponent will do that for her.

"This wasn't a part of the plan. You shouldn't be over here," she hisses, sounding pained.

"You're hurt, Ten. You're not going to last much longer. You need medical assistance. Someone needs to look at that bite on you-"

Sakura feels the rush of air leave her lungs as a blade buries there. She can feel it inside her, it's small and thin, more like a needle than a knife, and it's burning like it was coated in poison or something. Kiba stills from across her, eyes wide and watching as Sakura feels her knees buckle.

It's in her, still in her, when she falls onto her side. She sucks in air and it's like sucking in water as she feels blood pool in her lung. The world around her is screaming and turning and twisting. She can see so little of it, but up somewhere in the stands, in a box trimmed in purple and red, the man she was told to call masters watches her in silent fury while his brother cackles. Indra looks like he wants to kill her himself while Ashura reaches for more wine to lift above his head and cheer with.

"Ten?"

"This wasn't a part of the plan. You were supposed to die in your own fight."

Sakura lifts her head just enough to see the girl with dirt on her face, struggling to hold onto a glare. Sakura feels soft and light while Ten trembles in something like rage. "God-how stupid are you? We're not friends, we're enemies. Ou-our masters are enemies. He told me to kill you, I ha-I had to. He made me."

Across the sands there is a figure. Baki stands in the shadows, watching her. His voice is in her head as she chokes on another blood flavored breath as it echoes in her ears.

'This is the Gate to the Kingdom of Gods, the Gladiator Boneyard. There is no one here who will love you anew, there is no one here who can save you. This is a selfish world you have chosen for yourself when you left behind the monsters who loved you. This is the end. What will you do now, humble dreamer?'

He looks up into the stands and Sakura follows his gaze to a booth where men and women sit on opposite sides of a pedestal. Between them is a crown made of polished glass, and in the center, the tallest point there is an Obelisk decoration thrumming with magic. The victor's crown is also her key to the next world, a key she should have been more focused on winning and less on saving others.

Indra gave her nothing, her hands are empty, her wrists are shackled, and her lungs are wet with blood. The world is gasping around her in a mess of colors and sounds. Sakura whimpers into the sand, squeezing her eyes shut and struggling to master the pain, to climb on top of it and push it down to a place where she couldn't feel it anymore.

'Sai, why aren't you here anymore?' She missed him, she missed the feeling of a friend in her corner as the world around her tried to kill her. She missed him. She missed his belief in her. The things he'd say…

"I'm sorry."

Sakura looked up and saw Ten above her with another knife raised.

"This one will end it faster."

Ten lifted the knife and swung it down. Sakura saw it move, saw all the parts of the younger girls hand and arm tense in the motion. The world slowed as the knife closed in and Sakura shut her eyes as flesh tore open and blood sprang free. There was a scream, high pitched and loud and Sakura's eyes went wide.

It wasn't her scream. She looked behind her and swallowed in surprise at what she saw. Kiba stood over her, blood dripping from his mouth that used to be in Ten's veins. A yard away the young girl lay,angry red paths down her front ending in deep pits in her guts that flowed red. She stared up at Kiba in shock, hands shivering over the wound that was leaking too much. There was a question in her eyes. "You? Why?"

Kiba just growled, bending lower over Sakura's felled body, protective, defensive, but still feral.

Ten reached into a pocket by her hip and pulled out a pair of needles, like the one buried in Sakura's lung. She held one, hand wobbling, before it dropped from her limp fingers.

"Behind you," Sakura hissed, feeling the breeze before she could see anything, but Kiba sensed it first.

He reeled over her like an animal and launched himself at the last man standing, not caring for size differences. Kiba was wild and everywhere and a better match for the man than Sakura had been. Somewhere in the stands his master should be smiling.

"What a lot we make," Ten wheezed, hand still over her wounds, though the pressure wasn't there anymore. She was going to bleed out soon. Her eyes drift upwards towards the brothers. "They both wanted to win so badly, but in the end, it won't be either of them."

It was too much, But Sakura still managed to pull herself up into her knees. She was drowning in her own lungs, but she managed enough to take a step, and then another, and then another, across the sands and through the blood until she was over Ten. The younger girl looked up at Sakura, eyes tired and worn. She was too young for eyes like those.

"Please," she whispered. "Just make it quick."

But Sakura had no knife and the strength to strangle wasn't in her arms anymore. Instead she laid her hands down on Ten's wounds and applied pressure. "It's going to be alright. You're going to be fine."

Ten laughed, tears in her eyes. "What are you saying. Look at you, you're going to die because of me. Don't tell me sweet lies."

"You're going to be okay, you're going to be just fine. We can fix this. It's going to be okay," Sakura whispered, staring down at her dull hands that refused to glow green. The shackles were still there, but if they weren't…oh, if they weren't there….

Ten laughed and it's a ripped sound that comes from her mouth. "Don't tell me pretty lies. I'm not supposed to like you anymore. Don't…" Ten catches herself on a sob and laughs over it, tears falling free now. "Don't."

"Shhh, shhh, it's fine. You're going to be okay, you're going to be okay. We can fix this. It's going to be okay."

Ten turns her face away and sobs once or twice, but then the breathing in her lungs makes her cough up even more blood. She's more red than girl and Sakura's afraid. She's never seen so much blood from a person. Ten will exsanguinate at this rate before the minute is up and the shackles are sill there. Sakura feels tears on her own face. The shackles are still on her wrist and there is nothing she can do.

A roar from around the world brings her eyes up and Sakura turns behind her to see what they're so worked up about. She hears his back break and then his body falls to the sand in a boneless bunch. It's his spine, his spine is snapped and there's no more life in him anymore. The other fighter stumbles backwards, blood down his face, his arms a mess that won't ever work properly again.

There's screaming and cheering from a thousand and one people, but Sakura's sobbing as the fighter walks over Kiba's lifeless body. His eyes are open, wide and clear enough to reflect the world. He had been looking at her when he fell and he was still looking at her, even after death.

'This is the Gate to the Kingdom of Gods, the Gladiator Boneyard. There is no one here who will love you anew, there is no one here who can save you. What will you do now, humble dreamer?'

"This is a nightmare, nothing but a nightmare, a dream, a dream," Sakura chants, watching the brute walk in circles of victory with his hand held high. He's chanting and cheering as Sakura's blood boils. "This is a nightmare, a dream, my nightmare, my dream. My dream-God, Sai, why?"

She doesn't hear the words, but his memory is there and Sakura feels what she felt when the Sigh of Dejection told her she was the one he believed in. She was in pain, her heart was broken, and she was surrounded by enemies and dead friends on all sides. From above them in the observation boxes, Ashura and Indra watch, less enthused than the others around them. Indra's eyes will not leave her and she burns.

"This is my dream and you are not my master."

Sakura feels it as the world bends around her. Her mind is stronger, she pushes against the restrictions, the walls built up around her, and something breaks. Baki moves, startled, but it's too late. The shackles are already gone, banished by her will. The world is warped, screeching all around her as she forces it down, angry and enraged with loss.

Sasori, Hungry, Deidara, Sai, Neji, Kakashi, Ten, Kiba, no more.

Sakura was a hurricane as chakra flared around her, overflowing with her will. The knife in her back was gone, the poison was gone, the hole was sealed, the wound was healed. Her hands hurt and she knew what they wanted. People were screaming for a new reason now, another fight, but she would make them scream for something else.

"No more."

Sakura raised her fist and brought it down with all her might, just like Tsunade taught her. What once had been sand and earth soon became a massacred terrain of uneven slabs heaved up out of their pockets in the globe to stand erect. Fissures ran up into the stands and a whole section collapsed as several dozen fell to their death. Sakura punched again and hissed as the sand jumped in the new destruction. Another section of seats crumbled.

The man who had kissed Kiba was dead, crushed between two bolders, but Indra and Ashura were still alive, watching from their box as all the others around them rushed for what they believed was safety.

Indra still watches her, the world of chaos around him mean nothing as he refuses to move. Beside him, his brother is just as stalwart. Chakra is something that both brothers have access to, a-bit in lesser dosages, but it's not enough to challenge her. That's why they kept her in chains and shackles, that's why 'savages' in the wild were hunted and captured so ruthlessly. The story of truth is there in his eyes, and even though Sakura hadn't been around for long, she knew with vivid certainty what was true in her gut. What she didn't know was what the brothers would do now. They couldn't stop her, but would they try. Would Ashura even weep for the body of the girl who had been so faithful to him?

Across the arena, in the shade of a chunk of earth still seeping sand from its edges, Baki stood watching her. And Sakura knew, if they weren't still running, every eye left in the stands was on her now. The dream was hers and hers alone. It had already taken so much-too much-from her, it was time she took something from it.

Sakura felt power in her legs when she jumped and landed on the tallest point of upturned there she straightened and jumped again, this time landing on the edge of the box's railing where the woman and man dressed in purple had once sat. They were gone now, and all that was left behind was their Onyx crown with the obelisk shining proudly in the center.

All the boxes, while separated, shared a hall, and the bow where the brothers watched wasn't far. She heard their approach. When she looked up, there Indra was, and beside him was his brother Ashura. Sakura looked to the younger brother first when she spoke.

"You told Ten to kill me, even though you knew how she felt, even though you teased her, mocked her, and wasted her admiration? Did it make you feel good, to step on someone under you?"

Chakra around her flared and the sand on the banister jumped away as if she were a great wind. She let her chakra burn like a flame all around her, the better for them to feel it and be daunted by it.

"You are angry," Ashura begins.

"I am beyond that!" Sakura snarls, and the force of her chakra pushes him back against a wall. He feels the force of her press down on his throat like a fist. She still has the memory of bruises from her own fight.

Indra takes a step, but it is not towards his brother, but rather away from him. He is a fool if he believes none of her wrath is left for him. She whips her eyes to him and he freezes like stone. Swallowing, he nods in her direction.

"How did you do it? Those shackles should have-"

Stone splits around her, groaning with strain but not enough to collapse or separate. "No! You don't get to ask questions here." She breaths in and feels the snarl tug her lip down and she regards him. "You…you do not ask questions of things, you demand answers, but I am not a thing and I will give you no answers. I told you before and I'll tell you again, I am not your property, I am not your slave." She holds up her wrists. "Now you can see it, I am free."

Sakura steps down from the ledge, and the chakra around her quells. What had once been a dress is now a mess of rags, torn, stained, and still bleeding other people's blood, but her posture makes it seem like she's wearing furs and silks and she believes it.

"Master," a new voice calls out, further below. Sakura looks over her shoulder to see Ibiki, the man who pried open her mind all those times in an attempt to see her secrets, standing amidst the rubble. Behind him trail Kotetsu and Izumo, both looking worried. There is no one calling out for Ashura.

"They're worried about you," Sakura mused out loud. "Do they think I am going to kill you? If so, why did you run towards me?"

Ashura watches her mutely while Indra raises his palms up and speaks. "Please, put your shackles back on and nothing will come to you. The other hunters will have been called by now, they'll come to subdue you. Others who have chakra greater than ours…"

"There is no one stronger than me in this dream, I think I just proved that to you." Sakura looks from Indra to his servants, eyes narrowed at Ibiki. "But you wouldn't have known it because you never saw it when you peaked into my mind with your faithful pet. What did you see? Did you see wolves, dead lovers, dead friends, dead monsters and beasts? No, how could you?"

She holds up a hand and feels something familiar as the bone sword falls like a weight into her palm to grasp. The sheath in her opposite hand has new decorations for her to look over later. She slips the blade back into it's sheath and hangs it at her side while the bloody rags around her melt into something else. Both men take a step back.

"That's not how chakra works," Ashura breaths, knuckles white at his side.

Feeling near drunk on power Sakura steps forward, the gold around her neck gleaming. In front of her the pedestal with the crown sits, closer than ever.

"If she touches that the night will shatter!" Kotetsu shouts, sounding frantic.

"Don't let her touch the cursed-" Izumo adds before wind makes him choke on swirling sand.

In front of her Indra and Ashura both ready new weapons, standing like mirrored images of each other. What once divided them in hate is gone. Now they are a united front.

"We can't let you take it, not when we know what you are," Ashura bites, shaking around the sword he has drawn with his own chakra.

Indra is more composed with his own chakra. "To humans it may be harmless, but to you…"

"She will end the world," Ibiki shots.

"To me?" Sakura tilts her head playfully, not the least bit intimidated by their postures. She knows what sort of well she draws from and how much greater her will to survive is. They are but actors, she is the dreamer. "And just what am I, if I'm not a slave, and not a human?"

Indra's sword glowed red before bursting out in a flame of fire. Ashura's sword crackled with lightning. Their looks were steadfast and Sakura knew the answer to her own question.

Somewhere close, Baki, her guide was watching.

This is the Gate to the Kingdom of Gods, the Gladiator Boneyard. What will you do now, humble dreamer?"

Sakura made herself a hurricane and brought down the rest of colosseum. Like ants, the brothers fell through the cracks and landed in broken bits at her feet. Smoke and dust and sand made the world a haze around her, but Sakura saw through it all. The obelisk was standing out brilliantly atop the rubble. Close by Indra lay across a slab of upturned earth, blooding out of his side and coughing. She had been far less gracious with Ashura.

The white cloth behind Sakura flapped in the haze and her gold armor stood out brilliantly, accenting the gold dust around her eyes.

"Don't," Indra tries again to speak his warning. When Sakura looks back over at him she's caught between wanting to laugh and maybe kiss away the blood running across his eyes.

"I told you I was a human being with rights and freedom, but I was wrong," Sakura says, holding his eye as he watches her. "I've become more than that, haven't I?"

His breathing is shallow, like hers had once been. "They told us a god would come for it. They said it needed a champion, so we went into the desert, where there were savages closer to their chakras, ones far stronger than ours. We wanted that honor, the honor of winning, but we also wanted to live. We wanted to survive the darkness of the end times. You will bring our world to a close, will you not?"

Sakura thought about gates and what happened to them after the dreamer moved on to a new kingdom. What became of the TeaLion Express, of The Monarch Woods, or the Marble Gardens? Did she care?

"I move from world to world. When I leave one behind, their is no purpose in it's existence anymore. Maybe your world will fall apart once I leave. I can not say."

"You will damn us all."

"You've been dead for centuries already. It's just your turn to move on."

He struggles, but there is real anger weighing his words down. "You devil! We deserve better than this destruction, you can't do this to us!"

Sakura reaches for the crown shaped wreath, feeling the dream around her shiver. "I am no devil, but this is my dream and I will be its god."

She crowns herself and her destruction is undone in darkness as the world falls away.

So Ends the Gladiator Boneyard

Enter the Kingdom of Gods

AN:/

Shorter than I wanted, but it ties up neatly at least. This is the last chapter of the last gate and after this it is the Kingdom Of Gods with familiar and brand new never before seen faces in the role of actors. She'll also learn more about what the Obelisk is and what it was created for. I hope to have more updates soon!

Just so you know, I've spent a lot of time writing micro fiction over on my tumblr page and my tumblr user name is vesperlionheart so if you ever want to look up me over there, that's how to find me. (links out don't work very well on this site.) I'll post a few of the things I wrote for tumblr, but some of it is too NSFW for this site so I'll keep it there.

Please remember to review, because really, that's what sustains me.