"Sode no Shira-"
The command was interrupted when a hand was thrust into a female shinigami's way. "Urahara-san", the raven-haired shinigami began, "We have to stop Grand Fisher before he does some serious damage to her!" Urahara brought his fan to his face and began to fan himself. As he looked to both sides of him, he could see Ichigo and Rukia itching to burst into battle. Then he raised his sights to the hole in his ceiling that gave way to the night sky. "Follow me." Ichigo and Rukia stared at his back while he moved away. They gave each other weary looks before following his retreating back. Together, they walked to the front entrance of the store and looked up to see Sakura being held by her neck by the imposter Sakura. Everywhere around them in the space before the entrance into the street from Urahara's shop was littered with rubble and misplaced dust.
"L-let..me..g…go!" Sakura managed to choke out. The imposter Sakura's grip only seemed to tighten around her neck, sending her into a fit of gasping and choking for air. She desperately clawed at the hand that kept her captive. "Sakura!" Ichigo yelled. He jumped forward but was held back by Urahara. "Now, now, Ichigo. Your fight with Grand Fisher was over long ago. We shall sit back and watch for a while. If the situation becomes too dangerous, then we will step in and we can have Tessai perform his kido and/or bakudo to help us. Besides, this encounter might prove very interesting, wouldn't you agree, Ichigo-kun?" Ichigo glared at the hat-and-clogs wearing man and settled down. He focused his attention back to the fight that was playing out before them. The hand that was choking Sakura was removed as the fake Sakura stabbed her hand straight through Sakura's abdomen. She sagged against the imposter before she quickly drew her hand out. What followed next was a sensation unlike anything she has ever felt before. The fake Sakura pulled her hand out, and used the same hand to throw her to a cement wall.
"Ouch, that hurts-" her line of speech was cut off when she was suddenly pulled upwards again. Her vision swam and she struggled to maintain a clear focus on her opponent. "Do you see this?" Imposter Sakura began while picking up a long, silver chain. "This is what connects your pathetic soul body to your human body." She moved the chain up to her mouth and then bit down on it. She began to chew it until it broke completely and then spat out the metallic pieces. "When the chain connecting the soul body to the human body is severed," she thrust the other part of the chain away from her "the chain will begin to encroach upon itself for seventy-two hours' time. After seventy-two hours has passed, and the chain is completely destroyed, you are consumed by an-other-worldly power that will cripple your soul and turn you into a hollow. I, however, will make that shorter for you. Seventy-two hours is such a long time, wouldn't you agree?" She picked up the chain that fell from her chest and watched carefully as the chain began to eat itself. After it stopped, she moved her face near the base of the place where the chain was attached to Sakura's chest and bit down viciously. "If you're lucky," she spat out more metallic pieces, "you could go undetected for a while. If not, you'll be sliced and diced 'til you become part of the reishi particles that make up the Soul Society. I wouldn't put it past them, though, especially that stupid head captain of yours," imposter Sakura shot a mocking glare in Rukia's direction, "Yamotoe Genjoushi Sou-some name I couldn't be bothered to remember." What little was left of the chain that was protruding from Sakura's chest began to eat itself.
"Ichigo-kun, I think you remember what happens with the final encroachment, don't you?" Urahara brought his open fan to his face and looked on over it. Ichigo looked down and away then focused his attention back to Sakura. "The final encroachment," the imposter Sakura dropped Sakura to the ground and backed up as the chain destroyed itself along with the plate that was attached to her chest. Sakura was on her knees as she clawed at the gaping hole in her chest. "What's happening to-AAHH!" Her back arched as she started to scream; her echoes bouncing off the walls as she bent backwards to an unusual arch. Out of her eyes and mouth came this rushing white liquid that engulfed nearly all of her face.
"…is unlike the rest."
01.8
….
neca aut necari
'kill or be killed '
….
01.8
"If I can't eat you while you are in human form, then I will surely eat you when you are in hollow form. While you are confused and you run rampant is the perfect time to destroy you." Imposter Sakura looked on in distaste at the scene before her. She then looked to Ichigo and the others and gave them a look of utter contempt and disgust. "Boss'll take care of you guys, later." She turned back to the mutating Sakura. Bit by bit, a hollows mask began to form on her face. Imposter Sakura reached her hand out to grab Sakura but like before, her hand was repelled.
"Tsk, this is not fun at all." She then looked to Ichigo and charged at him. When she threw a punch aimed for his head, he responded by grabbing her fist and tossing her away from him.
"Not bad, Ichigo. You've still got it in you, huh? I whopped your butt last time and I'll do it again this time too." She charged at Ichigo again with her fist and collided with his sword.
"Bring it, scum!" Ichigo yelled in response.
01.8513
Inner Turbulence
Sakura awoke in darkness.
Am I dead?
She seemed to be floating in the darkness. Sakura closed her eyes again then re-opened them. She was lying under a huge cherry-blossom tree in a grassy field filled with flowers of all sorts of varieties. Sitting up, she looked around where she was currently sitting. Getting up, she moved around the big tree and found two younger girls sitting and picking flowers. One had pink hair, and the other had yellow hair.
Is that me and…Ino? Sakura half hid behind the tree, silently observing the younger version of herself and Ino.
"Wow Ino! The flowers you just picked are so pretty, like you. I could never be that pretty with my large forehead…" she said dejectedly.
"Ne, Sakura, you shouldn't let those bullies get to you. Your forehead looks just fine!" Ino said with much enthusiasm. She poked Sakura's nose teasingly. "My mommy said that some people are late bloomers. Maybe you're just a late bloomer too!"
"Late bloomer? More like no bloomer…" the younger Sakura pulled out a Cosmos flower and stared adoringly at it. She held the flower up so that it was next to Ino's face in her vision. The flower faded out of focus as she gazed at Ino longingly. Ino looked up from the flowers she was tinkering with and looked at her age-mate curiously. "Ino, you're just as pretty as this Cosmos flower.." Ino took the flower from Sakura's possession and broke off parts of the stem. "Sometimes," she began "we lose faith in ourselves. We fall down when we are not used to something happening. The same goes with flowers; everyone is different, but with enough love and nurturing, even the latest of bloomers can become the brightest and most beautiful of the bunch." Ino finished tampering with the stem of the flower and held it up to Sakura's face. "Come here, you silly." She said. Sakura hesitatingly drew her head forward, and Ino grabbed some of her pink locks and placed the flower in Sakura's hair. When Sakura sat back, messy strands of hair fell into her forehead. Ino looked at them with frustration and brushed them back so Sakura's forehead was fully exposed. Sakura gazed up at her with sullen eyes. Ino flicked her forehead.
"Ow! What was that for Ino-pig! That hurt…" she whined while rubbing her sore spot. Ino gazed up at the sky and chuckled thoughtfully. "Perhaps you too will grow to be even better than a Cosmos flower." Sakura ceased her rubbing and stared at Ino with wide eyes. "Y-you really think so?" Ino looked back to her and said confidently, "I know so." Sakura lunged for Ino and gave her a big hug, while Ino was struggling to get out of her grasp. "Hey l-lemme go you forehead girl!" Sakura just laughed and hugged her tighter.
Fingernails scraped the bark of a large cherry blossom tree as Sakura looked on at the scene that had just played right before her eyes. The younger Sakura and Ino heard her and whipped their heads in her direction. Sakura made herself known by coming from behind the tree. Both of the younger children stood up. There was an intense stare down between younger Ino, younger Sakura, and Sakura before Ino pulled out a red ribbon from her back pocket. She then held it out so that the younger Sakura could grab it, and when she did the landscape changed into that of a large, mostly cemented room.
She looked around. There was a large electronic board hung high above the ground to one side. As she slowly walked around, she saw many people that looked identical to the people whom she knew in real life. To her right, there was a man who looked like he could be doing something better than just standing where he was, and in front of her was Karin. She looked up at the electronic board, and saw that 'Haruno Sakura vs. Uzumaki Karin' had appeared. She surmised that they were fighting each other. When the bored looking guy who she assumed was the proctor waved his hand down in signal to begin, Karin charged at Sakura with formidable speed. Sakura could barely dodge as she was not used to this kind of thing.
"If you don't stop cowering about and woman up and fight me," Karin began "I'll just have to take Sasuke-kun away from you. It's not like he ever belonged to you in the first place-" she was cut off as Sakura delivered a punch to her right cheek and watched as she flew to the opposing wall. Sakura stared on in bewilderment before staring at her right fist she just used to punch Karin with. She flexed it twice and felt a strange energy running through it. The energy appeared and seemed to burn her hand, yet it was painless and glowed green. Ahead of her, Karin lifted herself out of the rubble and growled at Sakura. "You little wench! You'll pay for that." Karin raised her arm to face and bit harshly into it. Sakura gasped and took a step back as she watched Karin's injuries disappear. Karin removed her glasses and then closed her eyes. With the hand that wasn't holding her glasses she raked it through her hair slowly until the color turned pink. Then, with the hand that was holding her glasses, she used her other hand she crushed to smithereens in her hand, but she didn't let the pieces fall to the ground. Instead, when she reopened her hand, a small black hair tie appeared in its place. She used the hair tie to tie her now turned pink hair into a bun at the top of her head. Sakura stared on in mild shock that only grew when red now-turned-pink haired Karin opened her eyes to reveal that same other-worldly pigment she had seen so many times before in other characters.
"What's the matter? Is little Saku afraid to fight now? I guess we'll just have to fix that, won't we?" She smirked at Sakura. The next thing she did made everyone around the arena flinch with disgust; though the grown-ups seemed to tense and grow suspicious at her action. She opened her mouth wide and stuck her right hand down her throat, and pulled out a katana from her mouth. She then licked the blade all over tantalizingly, getting a rise out of Sakura. She looked up at the spectators for help but they were all more focused on the battle and who was going to win rather than whether or not the present opponents would be a threat to their safety. Sakura looked down at her attire and saw that she was wearing a red hoodie with a white circle as the insignia on her left arm. Feeling around her person, she located a pouch full of weapons just at her lower right back. She pulled out this short, black weird-looking object that didn't seem very useful, but she wielded it in self-defense anyways.
The match proctor sensed the uneasy tension between the two and stood as far back as he could possibly be. He looked to Sakura who seemed unsure as she wielded the sharp object and her morphed opponent who seemed to take on the same look as Sakura, except her eyes were of a foreign nature and looked dark and alluring yet mocking and dangerous. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see that up on the spectator balcony that a person walked up to the railing of this spectator balcony to peer on down below. A person, yes, but what attracted her gaze was the fact that as this person made their way through the people crowded around, they seemed to make a way for him to go through, as if he had held a high position in their lives. When she turned her head fully to this person, she found that the body was hidden in folds of red and white, and the hat that covered the person's face was of the same color combination, save for one detail. The hat was tilted in such a way that displayed the kanji on the person's hat; the kanji read "Fire".
Suddenly, conversations erupted out of the other persons in the spectators' place. The person raised a dainty hand, and Sakura surmised that the person was female. All commotion ceased and the woman used that same hand to flick the hat upwards, so that it was not obscuring her view. When her face was fully revealed, Sakura saw green eyes that looked condescendingly at her. "The most important rule of surviving," she began in a voice similar to Sakura's; albeit stronger with a gentle edge to it "is to never take your eyes off of your enemy." Suddenly Sakura was very aware of her surroundings as she realized that the morphed Karin had disappeared without a trace. Next thing she knew, the morphed Karin burst out of the ground underneath Sakura, delivering a painful upper-cut to Sakura's jaw and sent her flying.
"Rookie mistake." The morphed Karin sneered at Sakura as she lay in a daze. Sauntering up to Sakura that was laying on the ground, she picked her up by the scruff of her neck and held her above herself and began to yell at Sakura. "Is that all you've got? Surely this has to be some kind of a mistake! A joke! Surely the heavens jest that I am to be stuck with this queen! Surely the queen, my queen, of this asylum is not as weak and frail as this! This cannot be so! I refuse to be under such a weakling." Her grip on Sakura's neck tightened and Sakura began to cough and struggle against her. She was losing consciousness, and it wasn't only that. She felt as if dying here would be the complete end of her. Perhaps, this is the soul that is often fantasized about in those stories. Or perhaps this is me and my alternate personalities. Sakura took a good look at the person who was aspiring to kill her. Have I offended her? I have not wronged Karin, yet she has wronged me! What have I done to her? Sakura's eyes darted to the woman who wore the face-concealing hat. She looked into her eyes.
What are you doing? They seemed to say.
Are you as weak as people say you are? They doubted her credibility as a strong girl.
Why don't you get up and fight? Why must you allow yourself to be pushed around all the time? It was a question she asked herself on nights alone in her bed, wondering if Sasuke really loved her, and if her broken relationship with Ino was really the one of the worst things she could have done to herself and another person. Questions of the same nature and that were much in number that could be simplified into just one; her inability to act in retaliation against to those who oppose her in such a way as to leave her scarred and empty. She coughed again and her eyes were drooping. She was losing consciousness, and she was losing it quickly. Her eyes looked down to this morphed Karin and watched as she stared right back up at her in anger and amusement.
"Rise! Pick yourself up and fight!" The woman on the balcony commanded. The morphed Karin whipped her head over to the woman and spat. "Don't interfere and do not encourage her! You had your play time with her, now it's my turn!" The morphed Karin raised her middle finger to point directly at the woman in the balcony. A ball of energy was gathering at the pad of her finger, and for a moment Sakura was scared that that woman, who at the present time was her saving grace, would be lost forever. She began to struggle in her captor's grip until she just took a well-aimed kick at her chin, which sent her stumbling back and canceling the energy attack she was about to annihilate the woman with.
"Rookie mistake." Sakura repeated again in a mocking tone. "The most important rule of surviving;" Sakura pulled out gloves from one of her pockets and slipped them on. She flexed her fingers and dropped down to a familiar fighting stance, as if she'd done this all her life. It was strange, yet comforting. I guess I'm running on instincts now. The woman on the balcony looked on with a ghost of a smile. Sakura charged at the morphed Karin while she was in a daze "is to never take your eyes off of your enemy." The morphed Karin spat blood and was too late to defend herself as she suddenly came face-to-face with Sakura. She smirked at the morphed Karin and delivered an energy-charged upper cut to her chin and watched as she flew upwards near the ceiling and then fell back down like a rag doll. Sakura channeled more of this strange energy to her fist when all off a sudden the whole arena shook with a great force. She looked nervously to the woman in the stands who began to frown disapprovingly. Before she knew it the arena floor began to crumble quickly, and when she looked down the pieces seemed to fall into a sea of black nothingness. Sakura made to move but she could not act fast enough as she too was falling into the dark abyss. She reached out as if to grab the woman, but the woman had already disappeared. Sakura felt herself falling and shut her eyes forcefully, hoping that by some miracle she would be saved.
"You are running out of time." She opened her eyes again as she heard a voice speaking from her right. "This world will collapse unless you do something about it." Sakura looked to her right and saw the same woman from before, except her hat kanji read "flower".
"Who…who are you?" Sakura said as she reached out to grasp the mysterious woman. Upon contact the woman burst into millions of little cherry-blossoms. Out of all of the fleeting flowers she managed to grab a small one and clutched it close to herself. The darkness began to turn to a light blue as she fell through a liquid surface and floated to a meadow at the bottom of this seemingly large body of a certain liquid substance. She figured it was water, and she also found that, like before, she could breathe under this water. When she landed on her back in this meadow, she felt at ease, yet she also felt a rising deep disturbance within herself and her surroundings. Looking to her left, she saw an endless sea of cherry-blossoms. To her right, she only saw the same thing for hundreds of miles away.
"Do not tell me you have forgotten my name, blossom." Sakura sat up rapidly. "Hey!" she called. "This place…I can feel it disappearing! What do I do?" Sakura shouted in desperation.
"The answer" the woman said cryptically "lies within your hands." Sakura opened both palms and found a small half black half white blossom resting in the palm of her hands. She stood up and frantically looked around at the sea of cherry-blossoms. "Black and white should stand out, but dear Kami how am I ever going to find them in this sea of cherry-blossoms? It's as if my name sake has come back to bite me like it always does." She looked back down at the flower in her palm and glared at it. "You troublesome little-" she paused her tirade. "If this is a dream, then there must be some kind of a pattern—or something that stands out…something that each character has in common…something repeated…" she got right down to thinking and racked her brain with possible solutions. "Well there were the eyes…and the…the…" Sakura scratched her head. "Wow my head is itchy-wait! Head! Yes, of course! That scene with a younger Ino and myself, the flower in the hair, that lady with the hat whose kanji was always changing into something that had some relevance to my life, Karin who morphed into an almost carbon-copy of myself, and then the proctor and everyone else had this kind of head band on their heads with this weird engraving that looked like a leaf. Now, all I need to do is to figure out where this flower fits in all of this." She eyed the flower thoughtfully. "Maybe…it goes on my head?" She placed the black and white flower in her hair, and suddenly she could see where her targets were located; one white flower and one black flower. They were just a few feet ahead of her and she walked towards them.
"Congratulations. Now blossom, listen carefully;" The woman said as Sakura began to pull the white flower out of the ground. "What do you hear?" Sakura began to hear the voices of the many people in her life. Equality! Balance! Justice! They all seemed to say. "They all seem to shout for some kind of balance…"
For every good deed in the world, there is something evil made. Whether we like it or not, wherever there is peace or at least a false sense of it, take that as a sign that something sinister is brewing. It is better to know of both the good and bad so you are not taken by surprise in the long run.
The ground beneath her feet began to shake and rumble. In the distance, the land was crumbling into nothingness. She hesitated with her tugging and used her other hand to pull the black flower out as well. As they were pulled from the ground, swords of different energies came up out of the ground with it. The sword that was attached to the black flower emitted a white energy, whereas the sword that was attached to the white sword emitted a dark energy.
"Wield the zanpakuto! Take it, and charge forward!" Sakura still could not find the woman but nodded in response. She licked her lips and grabbed the hilts of both swords.
01.89999
Unconvincing explanations of the situations that prove to be quite troublesome aberrations that produce uncomfortable manifestations of tumultuous emotions inside oneself
"The hollowfication is almost complete."
Sakura's muffled shouts echoed out into the dark sky as her face was nearly covered by what appeared to be a mask. In an instant the rushing ceased and she fell forward on her face. All who spectated were silent. There was a sudden burst of energy that came from her as she rose up again. Everyone was prepared to attack if they had to. She looked into the eyes of her fake self, and then with a speed not even Ichigo could detect, grabbed her and threw her into the sky.
Sakura crouched then burst into the air after the Fake Sakura with determination. She was not herself, she mused because she would not have even considered it humanly possible to possess such speed and flexibility. Once she caught up with her faux self, she unleashed a series of punches and kicks that the other Sakura could not parry, let alone dodge. Sakura grabbed a chunk of the faux Sakura's hair, pulled her arm back, and punched her to the ground. She flew towards the ground with speed and landed with a sickening crack, while an unrelenting masked Sakura followed closely behind. While the imposter was down, she repeatedly punched energy-charged punches at the fake Sakura, and by then everyone was sure that the imposter was dead. She stood up from the ground, only to see that the fake was not, in fact, half-dead or even in the hole to begin with. She whipped her head towards the opening in front of Urahara's shop that leads into the streets. She made a move to go after her but stopped suddenly. Golden irises on black eyes glared at Ichigo and the others as she walked slowly towards them. Ichigo and the others were poised to attack, yet Urahara looked at her with a hint of glee in his eyes.
"What's so funn-" Sakura didn't finish that thought as she began to struggle with herself. "S-sto-stop! Y-you do not control m-me!" She gritted out. She lifted her hand to the side of her mask, and with great effort she pulled it off and it broke into pieces. The other-worldly tint in her eyes began to recede, and Urahara walked up to her and patted her on the back.
"Welcome to the club!" He cheerfully said. Sakura grumbled to herself.
"Yeah, sure whatever."
Ringringringring. Click.
"Yeah, this is he. What do you want dobe?"
A feminine body lying in bed next to him adjusted herself to look at the person who she was currently sharing the bed with. "What about Sakura? She's gone?"
"Sasuke-kun-"
"Shut the hell up. Can't you see I'm busy?" Sasuke spat at the woman. He returned to his phone conversation with Naruto.
"You stupid idiot! I thought you were like her care taker or something; how could you just let her leave like that? What if she gets hurt?"
There was more shouting on the other line.
"Okay maybe not caretaker, but still? And you say your parents won't let you out of the house? Fine, fine. I'll be there in a bit." He clicked a button on his phone to end the call and got up out of bed. He dressed himself in a white T-shirt and black skinny jeans with some black shoes and walked out side of his door to the door in front of his room. He burst into the room.
"Hey Itachi wake up! Sakura's gone missing. We have to go help the dobe look for her." At this Itachi shot up immediately and was getting dressed.
"Foolish little brother, would it have killed you to knock on the door for once in your life?" Itachi asked teasingly as he was getting dressed.
"Yes, it would have." Sasuke replied with haughtiness.
"How could Sakura have gone missing anyways? I thought you two were dating?"
Sasuke looked away from his brother and didn't answer. Suddenly, a pair of manicured hands grabbed onto Sasuke's shoulder and shook him. "Sasuke-kun! I thought you were leaving! You hurt my feelings back then, but that's okay! I'll forgive you." Sasuke shook in anger and embarrassment as he tried to pry the woman off of him. Itachi shook his head.
"Foolish little brother." He repeated.
haha, and that is the new chapter! thank you again for the reviews :)
and I haven't much to say this time around. I tried with the action scenes (I really did) but they didn't turn out the way I expected them too. Boo.
Anyways, thanks again my readers! :)