Part 4 in the Obelisk Series:
Kingdom of Man, Kingdom of Beasts, Kingdom of Monsters, and Kigdom of Gods.
OBELISK:
KINGDOM OF GODS
"I don't know how to stay tender
with this much blood in my mouth"
Emma Tranter - excerpt from heartless girls zine,
Recap: "Shit, Sakura what happened!" Karin reached for her and Sakura let herself be gathered into her friend's arms.
"Is that Sakura?" a new voice cried.
Sakura looked back over her shoulder and saw Ino on the stairs, looking shocked and less pissed. The blonde blinked and then was running for them.
"What happened to her, why is she like this?! Sakura!" Ino cried, sounding ready to start sobbing. "I thought she was supposed to be sick. What the hell are with those marks?"
Karin cursed loudly and kicked the door shut behind them as she dragged Sakura in. She hauled them to the living room couch and set Sakura down on the cushions for Ino to approach and fawn over.
"What the hell, girl?" Karin huffed, looking Sakura over with a look of wide eyed confusion. She swallowed and when she spoke again her voice was a slow tremble on the edge of rage. "What did they do to you?"
"Please, I can't go back there," Sakura whispered, feeling pain around her throat and not knowing if that was because of her tattoos or because she was crying.
Karin's glare was fierce as she bent to Sakura's side and grabbed the girl's shoulder. "You're going to tell me everything and then never do that again. I'm not letting those bastards pull you away again."
Final Chapter
Here we are at the end of it all
The music and the lights don't dance on daggers like they used to
Here we are at the end of all things
The wolves and the bests don't bite on our bones like they used to
Here we are at the end of another dream
The monsters and the lovers don't bleed into the sea like they used to
Here we are at the end of it again
The gods and the sands don't swallow things like they used to
Here we are at the end
-Vesper Chan, Kingdom of Gods, 2017
Karin turned on all the lights downstairs and then made coffee in the pot before realizing Sakura didn't drink coffee. She unplugged the machine and put a kettle of water on the stove to heat.
Ino had pulled Sakura up and was sitting so close their thighs were pressed together. One of her arms was wrapped around Sakura's shoulders and she was careful to avoid touching the tattoos that still seemed to sting when they were touched. They had stopped moving across her skin, but the smell of smoke still lingered.
Questions lingered between the girls so heavy it was something the tongue could taste.
"Here," Karin said, sounding softer than normal as shaped off a mug with lemongrass and honey tea. She glanced sideways to Ino. "You need something to wake up?"
Ion shook her head and bit her lip. "I'm plenty awake all on my own. I'll be fine."
Karin huffed and ran a hand through her hair. "I just got into bed, but I know what you mean. Damn, this is not how I thought tonight would go."
"I'm not complaining," Ino quickly interjected, leaning into Sakura. "I'm so glad to see you. I'm so glad I was here when you came. I know I wouldn't be the one you looked for if…" Ino's eyes glanced up at Karin and then dropped. "Never mind."
"I talked to Jugo a few weeks ago, he said you were checked into a behavioral health hospital and that we weren't allowed contact until your therapy was finished." Karin's eyes lingered on the dark marks around Sakura's neck. "I guess that was a load of horse shit as well."
"I knew that much," grumbled Ino.
Karin grimaced. "Still, I don't think there's an easy answer to any of this, is there? What happened, you joined a cult or did the cult join you?"
Sakura swallowed hot tea and let her breath warm. "Is that what it looks like?" she asked with a chuckle.
"Pretty much."
Sakura stood and set the mug down on the endurable before reaching for the hem of her shirt. She crossed her arms and tugged the shirt off over her head and let it dangle from one hand before she tossed it onto the couch. She stood in her bra, showing off the winged woman under her breasts and the scarab eating the sun between her shoulder blades. Down her spine trailed nile flowers.
"So an Egyptian cult?" Karin guessed with a crooked brow that matched the stance and posture she fell into.
"Something like that," Sakura said, touching the sun rays on her neck. "You remember those stories I started writing that you read once? The one about the world I said I was dreaming about?"
"A collective dream cult," Ino murmured aloud.
"I guess they really are a cult, but not without good reason. They would have rather been thought of as a secret society but yeah, they were connected to those dreams I was writing about. Crazy as it sounds, everything that happened when I was asleep was true to them."
"Crazy bastards," Karin hissed.
"The police can do something about this," Ino said.
Sakura shut her eyes anticipating this. "They weren't crazy. This," she pointed to the cut across her face, "happened in a dream. I dreamed of being attacked by wolves and woke up in a bed stained with blood. I dreamed of fights and woke up with bruises, I dreamed these nightmares and they followed me into he waking world. It all happened."
Ino made a dismissive sound but stopped when she saw Karin's face drain of color. "That's impossible," the blonde said.
"The wild dog attack…there wasn't any blood leading in from outside. Dad said it didn't make and sense but none of us could explain it any other way And there were rabies in your blood that they said they couldn't match to any dogs in the area because it was such a unique mutation. You know they called back asking about that a few times."
Sakura closed her eyes and remembered that night.
Her mind started cutting out. One minute she was in her bed, the next she's on the tile floor of her bathroom, climbing into the tub. Somehow she found her phone and hit something on speed dial. Someone called out her name a lot and the words that came from Sakura's lips made no sense, but it was clear they were panicked words. She was crying a lot and laying limp in the tub. She needed to clean her wounds, she needed to bind them. She needed to apply pressure and to stop the bleeding.
"It wasn't wild dogs, those were wolves and I was trying to get past them to an Obelisk in the dream."
"This is insane," Ino sighed, standing and pacing around the pair of girls. "This is what happens in stories. This doesn't really happen. It was a dream or an accident and your mind is trying to explain it with stories like it does. They did this to you. Don't protect them."
Sakura looked down at her hands and felt the burn as her tattoos stretched and covered more of her skin and seeped black smoke that glittered and twisted with minute streaks of lightning rounding the curves and edges. There were stars in the clouds that Sakura spilled from her fingers.
She looked up and both Karin and Ino had moved back to watch the smoke better. Ino was breathless and Karin was cursing and making the sign of the cross. Sakura remembered a time when they called her a saint for doing half as much.
"I wish it was all a dream, but this has followed me into the waking world one too many times to not believe in it like they do. They've been fighting for this power for centuries and Jugo's family is part of a larger coalition seeking to control whoever dreams inside the Obelisk."
"Obelisk?" Karin echoed. "Like the one you kept on the nightstand?"
Ino snapped at Karin with her hand and then pointed to something behind Sakura. Both girls looked and saw a mostly white Obelisk sitting on the edge of the end table, where it hadn't been just moments earlier.
"That one?" she hissed.
Sakura let the smoke dissipate and turned to reach for the Obelisk. It was mostly white with only one streak left colored in black.
"Sakura," Karin breathed. "How long has this been going on?"
"The dreams?" Sakura looked back over at the girls and noticed how each one had a different kind of horror in their expressions. "Since we moved into my grandmother's house."
Ino stepped forward, a new hardness in her pale blue eyes. She grabbed for Sakura's arms and held onto her just above the elbows. "I don't know what that means or what any of this has meant to you, but I'm not leaving until I understand. I'm awake now so tell me everything."
Karin made more tea and Sakura did her best to summarize all that happened to her in the Kingdom of Man, Beasts, and Monsters. It was close to morning when she explained how she got the first tattoo in the Kingdom of Gods.
Karin cursed at the light and went off to get dressed and write a note to her parents about why she wouldn't be coming into work. Ino waited for Karin to come back before she also left to dress and ready for the day. It was still dim out when the trio headed out to the high rise apartment Ino lived in. If they came searching for Sakura they would check out Karin, but Ino was a friend they wouldn't expect.
"It's sort of amazing to me how the two of you are like….such great friends now. Didn't you not get along when I went away? How did that change?" Sakura asked as she stepped into the apartment after Karin. Ino turned and flashed a bright smile. "Oh no, this is pretty recent, you're right. I still sort of hate her guts a little-"
"Right back at you, bitch," Karin snapped loudly from a back room that was out of sight.
Ino rolled her eyes. "But I can understand why the two of you are such good friends now. She reminds me a lot of you and she said the same thing about me. We sort of just…ended up on the same couch at a party a few times and then this happened." She shrugged. "I'd still rather hang out with you though, if we're being honest."
Karin yelled a long string of profanities from the other room that turned into insults and Ino explained that Karin had a long day and no rest, so it was best they let her sleep.
Sakura looked to the rising sun peaking up over the tops of skyscrapers. It had been many hours since she last dreamed and she was due back in that world soon.
"You have any strong coffee I could suck down?" Sakura asked, eyes still fixated on the large window that saw everything.
"It'll keep you up."
"I hope it does."
Yamato thought he was a mess about Sakura's escape but Jugo knew he was the real mess. He knew where she would run to and he knew what he needed to do if they left to bring her back. Karin was living with her parents still with the occasional visit from her boyfriend. Suigetsu hadn't said anything about the text questions Jugo had sent him, but that was to be expected. It was still early in the morning.
"I don't understand how she got through everyone. Even the cameras?!"
Hugo looked up and saw his grandfather talking to Homura. The older elder was red faced and angry about waking up from a magic induced sleep that only dissipated minutes ago. The whole compound was a hive of mess and anger.
"There was no one to monitor the cameras. She showed up and we have that evidence of her leaving, but the car hasn't been recovered yet. That will take some time." Log was trying to calm down the other man and Jugo felt bad for his grandfather.
"We know where she was heading. Why haven't they left for that woman's house?"
"Teams are leaving now."
"They should have left the minute the woke up."
"They are handling the situation now," Danzo cut in. Both men turned to see Danzo hunched over his cane and looking extra gruff. "But understand what this means for them, Homura. Sakura will not come back willingly and they may not be able to manage that anymore."
"They have to, even if it kills them. She's too dangerous now! She was able to manipulate the powers of the dream in the waking world. That must mean she earned a new god tattoo."
Jugo shut his eyes and tried not to think about what that meant. The last tattoo was on the body of her dear friend and one of the last people she would actually talk to. She had stopped talking to him and Yamato and Genma, but he knew her well enough to know that she needed people to talk to still. She had Sai and she had Gaara and maybe some others, but not many more. Karin and the girls were all cut off, after all. If she lost Gaara, it would have driven her off the edge a little.
"She's effective. We were not." Danzo's words were dower and full of gloom. "She has all she needs to ascend now."
"She won't be able to. In the accounts Gaara also had all the tattoos but he still died at the end. She doesn't know about the trap there waiting for her," said Homura.
"Neither do you. The existence of what lies at the end of the Obelisk is pure theory. We don't know if there is a trap of if it's just despair that killed Gaara."
Homura glared hard at Danzo, pulling himself up to his pitiful full height. "The Obelisk Trails are a rigged game. We knew this when we defected. It's why we are here now and not out hunting down new kids to slaughter in hopes of making a new god. She's a dead woman walking."
"So why are you desperate to get her back?" Danza challenged.
"Where she goes that thing will follow. We need to recover the Obelisk and minimize the damage a mad god might do. She's too dangerous to be left on her own."
"She's a person!"
The elders turned as one to see Jugo standing at the end of the hall, holding a notebook in one hand while the other was twisted into a tight fist. He was red in the face and his eyes were glassy, but he didn't back down or turn away.
"She's dangerous by her very nature," Homura argued, his tone calming enough to try and be soothing. He sounded like he was talking to an emotional child that needed to be calmed.
"She's still a human being, a person and not a…a piece of property you lost income on. If she's dangerous now it's because you-we made her like that."
"No one forced her to kill those gods."
Jugo felt tight and hot. He knew it was anger that made his body vibrate. "Not like you would know. She barely speaks about the terrible stuff she has to see inside the Obelisk. It's not normal, its' not typical. She's a mess with every right to be so and we-you can't blame her for that. She lives half her life in a war zone."
"All the more reason to bring her back. She's unstable."
"She's a person! Treat her like one."
Log took a step towards his grandson, his eyes full of pity.
"Jugo," he whispered. "Please don't get too upset over this. It's not your fault she ran away."
"Yes it is. I have to accept some of the blame for what we did. I wasn't there for her when everyone turned their back on her and treated her like a thing. I should have been her friend but I wasn't-I was her damn chronicler."
Jugo snarled and threw his notebook down. They called his name but he turned and stormed off, not caring who was shouting for him. He ran to his room and locked the door behind him. Logging on he accessed the protected internet server and sent a message to Karin.
Sakura was a shaking mess when Karin woke up in the middle of the day. All of the caffeine kept her awake, but did terrible things to her already starved body. It made her cold, too.
"You've been up this whole time?" Karin yawned wide and grabbed her hair to pull back out of her face. "Why haven't you put a bandage on that cut?"
Sakura shook her head and closed her eyes, hating how she wanted to yawn after seeing Karin do it. "It's fine. I can heal it up in the dream world. Once I sleep it will be fine again."
"What does that mean?"
"I told you that a woman taught me how to heal like in a video game? Yeah, I can still do that. This…" Sakura waved a hand in front of her face. "This is nothing."
"You hadn't finished telling me the rest of that story. Last I heard you were in a sticky situation."
"That's super vague. I'm always in a sticky situation. Was it the gate or the kingdom? Rome and slave girls or Egypt and monsters."
"Oh, you were on the Kingdom. I liked the part where you destroyed those brothers and crowned yourself their god." Karin laughed and scratched her stomach under her sleeping shirt. "That sounded like you."
"Yeah, I've killed a lot of things." She sounded wistful as she closed her eyes again. "After that I think it was the Crawling Chaos. There are these four bastard gods that live in the sandy world and each one has a power I need to use to get to the end of the world. Each tattoo used to be a god. They were ug-ly, straight out of a Lovecraft story."
"And you killed them."
Sakura looked up and saw that karin was grinning like a cat with cream. Her smile was wide and far stretching a way that made her seem all the more wild for it. Her red hair was a mess around her head like a wicked flame. Sakura missed Karin, missed her like this.
"Yeah," Sakura whispered. "I killed them all."
"That's you. I'll believe it. If someone had to endure that hell and came out on top I know it would be you. I've never met or known anyone stronger." Karin shook her head and her hair was tossed even more messily around. "And to think that while you were hanging out with me and Ami or Ino or anyone else, you were also dreaming about a world that kept trying to kill you. You still went to work and you still hung out with us. I don't know how…"
"You know I thought I was crazy for a while, right? I didn't tell anyone because I thought there was something wrong with me."
"Don't blame you. I always liked you crazy though, just so you know," said Karin. "It's out there now."
"It's cause you're crazy."
Karin raised her hands in mock defense. "Guilty as charged." She crossed the room to where Sakura sat and dropped down with a 'plop' sound. Her eyes were wide and awake. "Tell me the rest."
So Sakura did.
"So what are you going to do next? It sounds like this is almost over. You're at the end, right?" Karin asked.
It was getting harder and harder to stay awake and Sakura could feel the weight of her eyes sliding shut once more. "I sure hope so. I can't keep this up much longer."
"You sound like you're kicking ass and taking names," Karin commented before her voice dropped a note in tone. "But I understand how it can be traumatic based on some of the things you've said. I mean, they don't sound like real people to me, but you say their names like they're people we went to school with or something, like they're real. They're people you fell in love with, cared for, and felt betrayed by."
Sakura's eyes was closed and she knew she didn't have much longer left before she would have to go back to sleep. It was already late in the day and she suspected that the dream was hungry for more. "I'm so tired from loving corpses. My heart can't take this much longer."
"I don't think you'll have to. And…you're not alone in it now. Ino and me are here for you. She'll be home from work soon by the way. You think you'll be awake for that?"
Sakura shook her head and slumped forward a fraction more.
"Didn't think so based on the way you look. Don't fight, I'm just moving you to a more comfortable stretch on the couch. I'll be here while you sleep. I'll…keep watch or whatever."
Sakura didn't know if she said it out loud or if Karin even heard her, but she remembered wanted to say thank you as she felt her body sink down into the cushions.
When she opened her eyes again the weight was gone and the world was covered in quartz.
She inhaled sharply and smelled the desert in her nostrils.
At her side she saw Sai resting limp against her side. The head wound was gone and just the crusty stains remained. She ran her fingers through his hair, healing the scalp and cleaning the strands of blood. When she was done she leaned down to kiss the side of his head and then rest there for a moment, leaking healing chakra into his body without knowing what was wrong beyond the head wound. He was asleep and she still felt alone.
Sakura waved her hand and the crystal quartz melted away and she was able to look out at see the skeleton of the city surrounded by storm. There were hundreds of repeating square shaped homes with doors and window molded out of clay in the same way. It was all empty and all the same.
Still she could tell where the center of the city was. Her tattoos were pulling her in that direction. Without her tattoos she would likely be lost in the City of Undeclared Souls around the Temple of The Maker of the Earth, also called The Temple at the End of the World. It felt like the end of the world.
She heard stirring and looked back to see Sai stir. He woke blinking and stretching before reaching for her outstretched hand. He paused when he saw her face and then recognition dawned.
"Gaara."
His name still hurt and Sakura almost flinched at the sound. "Yeah."
"I'm so sorry, Sakura. I didn't foresee this. I should have known the enemy would not be content to forgot a last ditch effort when we were so close to the end."
"Is that why you were so paranoid about all those patrols?" Sakura asked.
"Possibly." Sai looking beyond her shoulder to the center of the city. "Are you here for the end of all things."
"What else would I be doing here?" Sakura asked sarcastically, shrugging her shoulders and smiling as pathetically as she knew how. "Isn't it time this all ended?"
"I suppose so." Sai looked to where the end of it all was and his eyes went hazy. "I've personally never been this far into the dream or this close to the heart of it."
"Me neither. We get to do this together."
Sai looked over at her eyes wide, as if he hadn't expected anything other than reverence and apprehension from her, but she was just casually standing and watching the same scene as him.
"You're not frightened?" he asked.
"I'm scared out of my damn mind, but that't how it's always been for me every night I go to sleep." Sakura yawned so wide her lips stretched back over her molars and showed off her teeth like they were meant for destruction before the yawn ended. She blinked and rubbed the tears out of her one eye, noticing Sai was still watching her. "Yeah, I'm scared, but that's nothing new and it helps no one if I let the fear make me useless. It's been too long and I've come too far. I'm not going to be helpless at this point, not now."
"That's incredibly brave of you," he said.
"I guess you could call it that." Sakura sighed and rubbed her shoulders. "At this point it's the only thing I know how to do. I don't know if you call that bravery or just plain stubbornness."
"Maybe both, but there is no reason to see that as something negative."
Sakura reached out with one hand and Sai grabbed on, lacking his fingers with hers. She glanced over at him and he was watching her.
"Together?" she asked.
"Together," he echoed.
She tugged him along, pulled on by the thrum of her own tattoos. The houses all looked the same and the city was a dizzying mess she couldn't imagine navigating on her own.
It took time, but eventually the houses fell away and there was the temple. Larger than any temple or ruin structure she had since encountered, Sakura noticed four different black Obelisks at the four corners of the courtyard. As she moved with Sai and passed them, the light made their surfaces appear white.
The temple was designed with several smaller domes encircling the large or main dome in the middle. There were no doors, but plenty of archways decorated with flowing gold silks that waved like dancers all on their own. There wasn't a wind, but the energy around the temple made the sinks move.
"What's inside?" Sakura asked.
"I'm not sure. The body of the fallen star, the mother of those bastard gods is said to be buried here. From her decayed corpse those horrors sprung forth, but what the people did with her remains after that…I was not privy to those details."
"I thought you knew everything?" Sakura teased while tugging him along.
"I know many secrets, but I do not know everything about the Obelisk."
"You knew about me though, that I would get here to this point."
Sai grinned and tugged on her arm. "I always knew that."
The temple seemed almost as immense as the city they had to trek through, and it was mostly dark with far off halls and hundreds of support pillars that kept the heavy roof from falling down on them. It was as much a maze meant to unsettle and dizzy them as the city outside.
Sakura felt like she walked forever with Sai, hand in hand, before there was a door. Her tattoos burned at the sight of it and she felt like her skin would separate to let the ink fly free from her body. Beyond the door was the end of it all, the end of all her dreams and nightmares.
"Do you want to rest here and come back tomorrow night?" Sai asked after a while passed of Sakura just staring at the door.
She shut her eyes, squeezing them closed. "No," she admitted after a longer moment. "I don't have that time. In the other world I'm sure they're looking for me. Maybe they won't find me, but I can't put Ino and Karin at risk any longer than this."
"Then let's open the door together."
Sakura braced against the brass surface and pushed her weight against it, straining when it wouldn't give. Sai was little help and she had to drop his hand to brace with both against the structure. There were no handles or locks, just solid stone and brass. She knew it could be moved, but it was taking all her strength plus another's just to make it budge.
She surged with chakra, channeling it into her arms and hands to make herself stronger and more solid. It came so weak and she could barely feel the chakra, but she still strained with everything she had.
The door began to buckle and rock fell from overhead as she inched the door open. Sweat snaked down her face and neck as she strained. Sai looked just as winded if not more so. The door did not want to budge.
She looked over the edge to where the two halves of the door met in the middle and saw through the gap she had created between the doors a new substance, white and shiny and maybe a little sticky.
"Those better not be goddamn spider webs," she grunted. "Ever freaking game needs a damn spider level, don't they?"
"I don't think that's it," gasped Sai, looking worse than Sakura had ever seen him. He shook and then fell against the door, limp from exhaustion.
Sakura screamed and put all that she could into pushing against the door. She felt like her body was tearing apart from the strain but the door was moving. She tried imagining elephants behind her, pushing with their trunks, she tried imagining circus strong men with waxed mustaches, she tried imagining anything that could help her open the door, but everything fizzled.
She gave up when there was a crack three inches wide between the two doors. "Why can't I summon anything?"
Sakura sank down along Sai and tried to dream up a narwhal in her palm but it fizzled. Suddenly she felt her throat tighten like she was about to cry and she knew it was the wrong thing to try and summon. She dropped her hand and tried to forget about gear and his fascination with Narwhals.
"You're too close to the source. Can't you feel it?"
"I can feel it, I just don't know what it means," Sakura coughed. Her lungs hurt.
"It's not supposed to be easy. It's the end, after all," he chuckled. S
Sakura lifted her head just enough to stare over at Sai through what was left of the long parts of her hair and smiled. "I'll get through, it's only a matter of time. It's just so odd…getting tired inside the dream. That's another new thing."
Sai nodded to the door behind them. "It is the end. You are the most human here."
Sakura blew up to move some of the stray strands out of her eyes. "Great."
"No, I think it is. It's what makes you strong. You're here because you're human…at the end of all things."
Sakura suddenly felt sick in her brain and scrambled to stand and back away from he doors, grabbing at her head. "Something's wrong!"
The world around her started to bleed. Colors escaped their boundaries and the scene tilted. The dream was ending for the night, but it was too early, it felt too early.
"Go," Sai said, sprinting up and standing by her side. "Something is wrong in the waking world. Go there and make sure you are safe. When you come back it will be the last dream so make sure your body is safe in the waking world."
Sakura felt another wave of sickness take root in her heart when she remembered, while she put the whole compound to sleep and ditched the stolen truck far away enough from Karin's family pizzeria, she didn't know if she had escaped from the eyes of those trying to kill her. What if they had been trailing her all along, waiting for her to fall asleep and become vulnerable?
Karin!
Sakura woke like a bullet from a gun. She twisted up off the couch leaking spoke from her eyes and mouth, seeing the waking world in a whole new way.
Karin wasn't anywhere visible, but the men in black were. It was dusk and in the dim of day they had come in through the window on black wires. The sight of her in smoke stopped one in his tracks, but the second one charged. Sakura was in no mood to take it easy and reached for his skull. Her smoke swarmed and she heard the crack. It felt like popping a grape and he fell just as limp.
Instead of making a dash for her, the other man in black leapt to the back of the room and turned sharply down a corner. Sakura heard the surprised scream of Karin and her blood boiled. She melted into smoke and chased him down the corner, stopping abruptly when she saw a knife at the pale throat of her friend's neck.
This was not the dream. Karin wasn't a dead actor. She could really die.
"Not another step."
Sakura raised her hands slowly, still feeling the smoke trail out of her mouth and eyes. Her vision was in shades of gray sparkles with flecks of gold here and there, just like the smoke.
"I'm leaving, with her. You'll not touch me."
"Leave her alone," Sakura snarled.
He moved the knife closer and a thin line of red began to form on the edge of his blade. Sakura choked and cowered, stepping back.
"You didn't come here to hurt her," Sakura tried again. There was no more smoke left in her now and the wholeness of color returned to her vision. "You came here for me."
He was completely masked, but she could hear his words just as well through the fabric. "You were supposed to be asleep and alone. He lied to me. I know about the others, I'm going home after this."
Sakura backed up, raised her hands in submission, and knelt down on her knees. "Don't hurt my friend."
"You just killed mine."
Sakura heard Karin gasp.
"He didn't leave me much choice, but I didn't wake up this morning wanting to have to kill anyone."
"Maybe, but tomorrow that will change. Too much power will corrupt you no matter who you are. You're already too dangerous to leave alive. I believe that."
"And who made you the judge and jury?" Sakura asked slowly, folding her hands behind her head and lowering her eyes.
"Throw yourself out the window and maybe I'll tell you." Karin struggled and he wrested with her more, reminding her of the knife at her throat. "I think that's actually a good idea. Get up and go to the window."
He pushed Karin forward and Sakura got up to keep the distance between them even. She walked backwards out into the living room with the open window and the dead body. He had died on the wood and the blood from his crushed skull pooled.
"Take him with you. It'll look like an accident."
Sakura swallowed and reached down for the body, wincing at the feel of his very real blood on her skin when she dragged him towards the window.
"You can't do this, you can't do this to her, you can't!" Karin was panicking. Here eyes were wide and darting. "She didn't do anything wrong."
"She's literally holding my dead friend," the man hissed, shaking Karin. "She's the monster and I'm just doing you a favor."
Karin started to sob so hard it wracked her whole body. He made a sound of digest and pulled away from her a little, letting her shake and heave out sobs.
"Not my best friend, I just got her back."
"Move," the assassin growled. "Out the window. Now."
"The police…someone…"Karin was crying. She stated to go limp in his arms and sag further down.
Sakura grunted, heaving the body up and stepped one leg over the edge of the window, out into open air. They were twelve stories up. It wouldn't be a pretty fall.
She glanced back at Karin and the assassin with the knife at her throat.
The sound was nothing ore than a pop with the silencer, but Karin screamed when the blood sprayed hot over her face. The knife fell away from her throat and she staggered away. Sakura dropped her body and ran to her friend, reaching her before reaching the man in the doorway, gun still leveled.
"Any more of them?" Danzo asked.
"I'm surprised you were able to see so well with only one eye," Sakura huffed, holding Karin closer. "What took you so long, old man?"
Danza didn't put the gun away but stepped into the room and kicked the door shut behind him. "Yamato and Genma are running around on your wild goose chase and would have done a splendid job if only Log hadn't noticed that message his brat grandson sent out. It seems someone still guessed where you were. You told me you didn't speak to anyone."
"I didn't. Jugo must have guessed," Sakura snapped.
"He knows you better than you thought he did."
Karin shook and looked up at Sakura who was holding her up. "Sakura?"
Sakura nodded at Danzo. "He helped me escape. I told you I wasn't entirely without friends there, right?"
"I didn't believe you." Karin looked back at the old man, swallowed and stood up on her own. "You really took your time getting here, didn't you. Sakura was out for hours."
"Apologies," he said while inclining his head in her direction. He looked back over at Sakura and smirked. "She reminds me of you."
"Flattering," Karin huffed, side eyeing Sakura.
"It gets worse," Sakura sighed. When she looked up Danzo was watching her so she swallowed her hesitation and went on. "I'm at the temple at the end. I was about to go in when these guys showed up. I'm one sleep away from ending it all."
Danzo's one visible eye widened for a moment before returning to normal. "I'll have men clean up the mess here. You need to come with me."
Karin latched onto Sakura's arm. "Why?"
"If it's true and you're at the end there are two things that will happen, you will die, or you will become a god. Neither of those things will be easy to explain if witnessed. You're coming to the docks. I have a shipping unit there you can hide out in."
Karin stepped forward, scowling through the blood splattered across her face. "She's not leaving my side. How do I know you're not just trying to kill her as well?"
"You don't, but you don't have a say in this. Sakura, say your goodbyes quickly before more come. Log is desperate to end it before more time goes on. He's now locked Jugo up."
"Not shy about his true colors is he," Sakura sighed. When Karin whirled on her Sakura felt pain in her chest again. Karin looked devastated. "I have to go, Kar."
"Don't Kar me, you were about to die for me, you don't get to leave me after something like that." She grabbed Sakura around the forearms. "You can't."
Sakura took her friend's head and kissed her there, not minding the blood that came up with her lips. "I love you, dear friend. I'll not be gone long. Believe me, I'm coming back for you and Ino and we'll take a nice long cruise after all this is done, or something really nice."
"Like we could afford that you idiot," Karin whispered, letting her lids lower and her head drop. "Stupid bitch."
"Love you too, babe."
Sakura left with Danzo and there was a black SUV with tinted windows she climbed into. No one saw her leave, which was good because there was blood on her shoulders and face that would be hard to explain. Like he said he would be, Danzo was alone and he drove her on his own down to the docks where there was a metal shipping container padlocked. There were air vents in the side she noticed as Danzo unlocked the front.
A couch in the back was the only normal thing about the container. It was filled with body armor, guns, and ammunition.
"This doesn't look legal," Sakura joked, settling down and resting her body.
Danzo raised up the padlock. "I'm locking us both in here. No one will be able to get in. Go back. Dream. Finish this."
Sakura closed her eyes and opened them again in a new world with stone and brass surrounding her.
She saw Sai where she left him and wondered if she had only been gone a smattering of minutes and not three hours.
"You're back. Were you hurt?"
"No, it was nothing. I'm fine." Sakura breathed deep and smelled the dust and the age of the desert in her nostrils. When she opened her eyes again Sai was watching her. "I'm ready to end this."
Sakura braced against the door and heaved with all her strength. It was slow work, but she heard the strands of white keeping the doors closed snap and stretch on the other side as she gained more ground. It gave a little, and then a little more. Three inches became five, and then a foot, and then two feet. Soon it was wide enough for her to step through along with Sai.
The room was massive, white, and….oddly bare. The only thing in the center of the room was snarled old trees with bare branches that stretched out far like naked fingers. It was oddly shaped too, and as Sakura walked around the outskirts of the temple to get a better view, she thought she knew why. It looked like a heart with veins being branches and arteries tree limbs. At the base of the tree was a white, mother of pearl basin.
"What is this?" Sakura breathed. Her voice echoed terrible and not at all at the same time. Sound was odd in this chamber.
"This is what is left of the mother god. Let's approach it." He grabbed her hand again, lacking his fingers with hers, and they walked up the white stone floors and then the white stone steps to the tree.
Sakura looked up and saw that there was a single fruit dangling from the branch of the tree, right over the empty basin. It looked like a pomegranate, but not like one she had ever seen before.
"What do I have to do?" Sakura asked, waiting for a prompt from anywhere to come in and explain what she needed to do next. There was no monster to kill, no enemy to defeat. What was left for her to do?
Sai pointed to the fruit. "The god nectar. You have to consume it."
It was too easy. There had to be something else to it. It was too simple a test for what the end result would be. It didn't make sense and that unnerved her.
Sakura reached up with both hands and grabbed at the fruit, tearing it free. She saw her reflection in the basin and guessed what she needed to do next. She split the fruit and the juices spilled like burning liquid in colors of gold and vermillion into the basin at her knees. She knelt and split the fruit further open, watching seeds spill out. When she though it was done the fruit withered in her fingers and became dust that drifted free.
Sai knelt down beside her. "It's a lot," he commented.
"It's not enough to make sense, though," Sakura said back.
She braced two hands on the basin and put her lips to the edge. She tilted it back just enough and tasted the sweet juice. It was wonderful and amazing and….it…burned. It was like drinking sugar acid. She swallowed what she could and felt it go straight to her tattoos, burning all the way there.
"I can't drink this!" Sakura exclaimed. "It's…it's…"
"The blood of a god. It's what you need to consume to finish this. You have to." He edged closer to her, expression drawn thin. "I know you can do this."
"Gaara said he made it all the way to the end and he still died." Her voice sounded detached. "This is what he meant. He got here and the game was rigged because a human can't become a god, can't comprehend a god, can't…" Sakura looked up the tree and felt like snarling. "No. It's not fair!"
She grabbed the basin again and sucked long and deep. It burned all the way down and she heard it just as well as she felt it. Her tattoos were screaming but they didn't help much. She drank, and drank until she had to stop and gag at the blood in her throat. She vomited up chunks of blood and flesh and knew it was carving her out. She tried to raise her hands with chakra in them to her body and heal, but her chakra flickered weakly and did little.
"Sakura."
She looked back at Sai and saw he was crying. There were tears on her face too.
"You said I can do this," she whispered, feeling blood pool around her teeth. She grabbed the basin again, noticing how there was still two thirds of it left. "I can do it."
The next mouthful made her gag back and she choked, grabbing her throat. It felt like it was barely there, burned thin. She was as human as she had ever been in the real world in this dream and it would be what killed her. She couldn't do it. She couldn't consume the god's ichor.
Sai reached out and tipped the basin but Sakura watched as it angled away from her, into Sai's mouth. Steam rose up and she saw him bleed from the mouthful.
"No! Sai, don't! I can't let you-don't hurt yourself!" Sakura pulled him away and cried when she saw how much he had drunk. It wasn't as much as her, but it was enough to hurt bad. There was blood.
"I said I believed in you," he whispered. His voice was raw and barely there.
"No, no, no, not my friends. You're not allowed to leave me too. I don't want to be alone here, not here!"
Sakura sobbed, feeling her tears sting with all the salt in them. Her mouth was a bloody mess just like his.
"You're not." Sai pointed behind her and she turned.
Gaara knelt down next to her and touched her shoulder. His skin was cold as ice and she could see through parts of him, but he was there. He smiled at her and it was Gaara, through and through. Ghost Gaara, but still Gaara.
"How?" was all she could manage.
"Because I loved you, because I wanted to be here…with you." Gaara reached for the basin and inhaled sharply. "I remember this now. I tried to take all this into me on my own and didn't get halfway done before it burned through me." He glanced sideways at Sakura. "You're doing better than I did, but I don't ever want to see you hurt. Let this dead ghost do some good."
Gaara leaned over and kissed her cheek right under her eye, tasting her tears before dipping his face to the rim and tilting the ichor into his body. Sakura cried out when she saw it burn him and he could only manage a mouthful before his form began to break apart. He let the basin fall back down as gold and blood stained his lips.
What would this cost him? Sakura could see it causing him pain as it devoured more than just a body made out of dream. His very soul was burning away, leaving behind not even a memory. If he consumed much more he would never be dreamed of again. He would be truly damed.
"Please…don't," Sakura whispered as realization colored her words. He just smiled at her.
"I love you," Gaara confessed before his body went up in gold flames.
Sakura sobbed, but reached for the basin again, fearing to look at Sai and see for herself why he was so quiet. She tilted the basin and drank another mouthful. She gagged and let it settle again as she pulled back and saw it was half gone but so was her body. The skin over her ribs was eaten away and she could see down to her floating ribs, pink stained and exposed. She felt the burn deep in her and knew she was bleeding even more. Her chakra did nothing.
"Love."
She looked up at the voice and saw dark red eyes and darker black hair as Madara settled around her.
"You too?" she asked in a voice that shouldn't have been her own. It sounded so destroyed.
"Of course. I wouldn't miss this for the world."
Sakura watched him watch her, knowing he saw a mess of a woman. She was broken more than ever before, and her body was far from beautiful, but he looked at her the same way he had back in another world's dream. He looked at her the same way he had when she stepped out on stage in a glittering white mermaid dress and pearls sewn through her hair. He looked at her like she was beautiful, not some bloody mess.
He reached over her with arms longer than hers to hold the basin. "I never wanted this for you, if I could take this burden from you I would. Sad to say all I can do is help support you in this struggle. I'm just a ghost now."
Madara reached down and kissed her above her eye, nose brushing aside her hair and inhaling deeply. He rested his face there and she could feel him gathering his resolve for whatever would come next. She pawed at him, trying to get him to stop. She knew what he was doing and what he was thinking.
"Don't," she said in a voice that was barely there.
He moved to the side to see her better and his eyes were like red jewels, spinning into new intricate patterns as he memorized her face. One of his eyes was bleeding.
"I am not worth the silt of the earth, I know this. I also know you don't love me when all I can do is adore you with every fiber of my being. I love you, Sakura, I truly, truly do, but I don't deserve you. Never doubt your worth."
He kissed her again before leaning over and tipping the bowl and drinking. It burned and he winced at the touch. Sakura actually saw steam as it seared down his throat and the edges of his form began to go black and break off. He drank deeply even when Sakura pawed at him to stop.
His burning increased and soon whole chucks of him were gone. He puled away gasping as blood leaked from both eyes and his mouth. He turned and looked back at her, brows drawn and lips brutally red. He might have said something, but in that moment she couldn't make it out as he too was burnt up.
Sakura, Sai, and the two actors who were self aware had both drank from the basin, but it was only a little less than half empty. It still wasn't enough to finish it. She wouldn't be able to end the world unless she consumed the rest of the juice so she took another deep mouthful, gagging around the blood and willing her tattoos to grow and cover more and more of her body. The more she drank the longer they grew, but there were holes in her and beetles were starting to crawl out of her. She could hear their wings humming.
She was black up to her elbows when she had to pull away one more time, gasping and gagging. She couldn't do it. Sai was still and limp, eyes oddly shadowed. Madara and Gaara were gone. They may have loved her, but she couldn't do it.
"Don't think that's the end of it."
A hand on her back made her look up and see Itachi, dressed in what she remembered seeing him wear back in the Kingdom of Beasts. The white porcelain mask was tied off to the side and his hair was high up in a ponytail.
It didn't make sense to her why he was in the Kingdom of Gods.
"Why?"
"I owe you a debt, one I could never repay, but one I hope to make myself useful to you here, where you have the most need. I may not be as self aware as the others, but I know enough to know you need help and I want to help you. I've always wanted to help you in spite of my role as an actor against you in these trials." He knelt down beside her and smiled. "Also, thank you for the kindness you showed my brother. Sasuke also didn't deserve it, but I think you showed him more genuine love than anyone he's known since becoming a part of this curse."
"I think you loved him," Sakura guessed, feeling light.
"I did, but I think I also loved you, so let me do this."
He reached past her and drank from the bowl. Sakura watched as he began to burn from the drink. His throat bobbed as he swallowed down more. It was hard to watch as he began to burn away too. When he couldn't take it any more he set the basin back down and panted. He looked up and smiled at her while the darkness ate him away. He reached up and poked the center of her forehead with affection.
"Stay safe."
She was alone again but she felt a little better. She felt well enough to take another mouthful into herself and almost strong enough to endure it when she burned from it. There was a third left she noticed as she sucked even more into her mouth. She gagged when she thought she couldn't take it anymore and looked back to see there was someone beside her, kneeling down.
"Pein?"
He smiled at the sound of his name. His hair was a mess and the piercings still gleamed, but he rolled his shoulders and pulled his leather jacket off to drop around her shoulders. He was how she remembered him back at the beginning, when the dream was still unbelievable.
"I'm here," he whispered, rubbing her shoulders through his jacket. "And I know I'm not the only one, but I wanted to be here to do this more than anything. I wanted to be here at the end of all things with you. The feelings I had for you were not fake. I remember missing you, searching for you after you left, before you moved on to the next gate."
She chuckled at the sight of him. "I remember. I saw you. Sai said it would be the last time I saw you…like this," she touched his arm and looked him over. "From the Kingdom of Man."
"I wasn't able to stop you. I know-I know it wasn't me you would have stayed for anyway, but I wanted to make you stay, all the same."
Sakura wasn't surprised when he reached to drink but cried all the same when she saw him start to break up into black bits that flared and burned away. At the last moment he reached for her face and held it in his palm before he was gone in a gasp of smoke. His jacket stayed on her shoulders though.
Less than a fourth left, Sakura drank more.
When she looked up again it was Kimimaro who was there, waiting to take his turn. Behind him, just out of sight was Kiba, fur around his face from the hood of his jacket. He was boyish and smiled brightly at her. Past him Neji stood in his uniform, watching. Sakura remembered the Morach woods and cried when each of them drank their fill. Kimimaro looked at her with such sorrow and regret she knew it hurt him just to look at her.
"I forgive you," she said, watching him burn and feeling the ice and wind of his kiss on her face one last time.
"Sakura," Kiba said, kneeling beside her. "We'll never forget you, so don't forget us."
Kiba drank and burned away.
Neji, Kagami, and Shizune all took mouthfuls for her too, whispering sweet words before they were consumed by the flames inside them.
"Be safe."
"Be brave."
"Know you are loved."
Sakura wasn't surprised when she saw Kisame and Zabuza step up with Haku. They knelt around her as a trio, sparing a kiss for her brow, her cheek, and the shell of her ear.
"I'm so proud of you, kid," Kisame laughed. "You've grown so much and learned a lot."
"Experience has made you stronger," Zabuza said.
Sakura sighed. "You were with me whenever I picked up my sword. Could you tell?"
Haku laughed watching their faces. "They could tell."
Sakura laughed through her tears as they each took turns drinking. Haku looked so beautiful as he burned away. Zabuza smiled for her as he extinguished soon after.
"Wherever you're going, take me with you," Kisame laughed before he drank his fill.
Tsunade came to her with Kakashi and there was Menma and Naruto trailing behind time. Sakura watched as others came, whispering words of love, encouragement, and adoration before drinking their fill. The juice in the basin was more caustic the further they got, and soon there was only a couple of handfuls left and plenty of ghostly memories.
Sakura took the basin and tipped it, but couldn't let the last of the juice fall into her mouth. She was too hurt and too far gone.
"I think you need help with that, doll face."
Sakura gasped in spite of the pain it caused in her throat and turned to see him there, smiling down at her with dark lashes and a smile saved just for her. He was wearing a plain white teeshirt, jeans, and a bruise on his cheek. He smelled like the Kingdom of Man and it was almost too much.
"I love you!" Sakura exclaimed, reaching for him. "You need to know that, I love you. You died and you didn't know it then, but you need to know it now."
Sasori's smile was so sad it made tears leak from his eyes. "No, I knew. I always knew. I knew before I could help myself that I loved you, and I knew when I died during that fight that you loved me too. I've always tried to come back for you. Someway, somehow, I always wanted to be next to you. I'm sorry I wasn't myself when we met again."
Sakura laughed and it sounded like choking. "You were an asshole."
His expression winced. "I'm sorry, I know."
"You even tried to kill me."
"Never! I was supposed to, that's what my script told me to do as an actor, but I just wanted to be with you so much I…I tried to break free and steal you away. I wouldn't have done that for anyone else, it wouldn't have been possible." His hands were around her face, cupping her bloody cheek and brushing away the tears. He held her like she was something precious and she believed she was because of him. His hands trailed down her shoulders to her elbows.
Sasori was just as beautiful as she remembered him. His face was soft and doll like with lashes that would make any woman envy. He was so handsome, but more than that, he was full of love. It didn't make sense how she felt like this for him. She wanted to touch him, feel him, always be next to him.
"I couldn't help myself," she admitted. "I just loved you."
He grabbed both sides of her face and pulled her closer. "And I love you." He closed the distance between them and ignored the blood around her mouth as he gave himself into the kiss.
Sakura felt like she was the one dying this time.
When she pulled back she was dizzy and had to blink to see again. Sasori was drinking some of the last of the juice and burning up at the edges for it. It hurt to watch him turn black at the edges, but he stopped after a moment with only a mouthful left behind and looked to her again.
"I'll see you in your dreams," he whispered before kissing her again. He burned away on her lips and Sakura opened her eyes to see nothing where once there had been the man she loved.
"I'll see you again, I swear."
Sakura grabbed the edges of the basin and braced once more. She tilted it up all the way and drank the last drop.
In the morning her body was discovered casually discarded on the docks, staining the wood with blood like wine. They said she drank bleach and ruled it a suicide. Her body was a mess that began to break apart when they collected her, festering with beetles and moths, but her dental records were checked and her DNA match.
It was Sakura and that was the last they saw of her.
Here we are at the end of it all
The music and the lights don't dance on daggers like they used to
Here we are at the end of all things
The wolves and the bests don't bite on our bones like they used to
Here we are at the end of another dream
The monsters and the lovers don't bleed into the sea like they used to
Here we are at the end of it again
The gods and the sands don't swallow things like they used to
Here we are at the end
-Vesper Chan, Kingdom of Gods, 2017
AN:/ And after 11K that's enough for the final chapter. The Epilogue is coming though, and the lose ends are tied up and things will not be as they appeared. Maybe not the happy ending that everyone wanted, maybe it is, maybe, maybe, maybe... You'll see in a couple of weeks once I finish that last piece.
But yeah, that all that took forever and I am so thankful for all you lovely readers for reading, reviewing, and sticking with me this whole time. I'm saying it again because it really is the thing that kept me going, Obelisk has been the one story, while not the most reviewed, has had the most meaningful reviews to me as an author.
This is my fav fic to work on partly because so many amazing people are taking part in the journey with me. It's amazing to hear people talk about how they can relate to Sakura and her struggle and see something strong there. I hope her journey has inspired and helped people. I know it's just a little fan fic, it's just a story, but it's a life's work that represents the ongoing struggle to survive and thrive in all that you do.
Obelisk was born out of the worst year of my life, and it's been a spine that keeps me upright as I adult my way through life. Thank you for sharing Obelisk with me. You're all lovely, I love you, and I'm in tears right now, but I think they're the good ones. I wouldn't not have gotten this far without the support, love, and care from this community. You guys are amazing.
So, one more update chapter is left in this series: the epilogue. It's been a long time in the making, but it is time for this story to come around.
I love you all. Thank you for sticking with me! (I'm still crying.)
If you can, please leave me a review to let me know you're still on board with the story and still find it interesting. I love to hear back from you and know my work is reaching people. Thank you!