She caught up to the stranger quickly and she noticed his four companions and the horse one of his companions was holding onto straight away. It wasn't the most pleasant of mornings, the air was cool and the soil was moist. The group below her trudged forwards and the pinkette who was nestled high in the trees took this time to take in the four males her guide had taken under his wing.
She recognised them as the four she had seen sleeping in the stranger's room, they were short and looked well-fed. The whole group travelled in a single file line with her guide at the front. Second in the line was a blue eyed male who had dark, curly hair. His skin was fair and he donned a white button up shirt with what looked like a brown waistcoat and a normal coat on top. He had on brown trousers that stopped past his knees and a green cloak that reached the end of his trousers. Behind the blue eyed boy there was a male with blondish hair, this boy also wore a cloak but his was more of a washed out green colour. Underneath his cloak he had on a white button up shirt and a yellow-ish coloured waistcoat along with a green coat and some dark trousers. Fourth in the line was a male with dark blonde hair that almost looked ginger. Much like the other two he wore a cloak over top his clothes, a brown button up shirt, some trousers and a brown waist coat. The fifth one in the line had a striking resemblance to the second one, they looked so similar that Sakura deduced that they were twins- if not they had to be brothers. He wore a green scarf that hid his button up shirt and his waist coat from view. His dark green jacket peaked out from under his brown cloak and his dark trousers were almost identical to the other three's. The four were all shockingly short and had big, hairy feet.
After analysing the four shorties, Sakura turned her attention to the animal the fourth one was holding onto. Back in the Shinobi Nations they had horses but the animals were usually used by civilians for transportation between villages. The pinkette had never actually seen a horse before but she had read about them. Her hands itched to examine the animal, to run her medical chakra through it and gain knowledge on its anatomy. The animal had a brown coat and the pinkette, even with her limited knowledge on the animal, could see that it was quite underfed.
'Poor thing..' Her eyes softened as she watched one of the shorties, as she was now calling them, lead the animal around a tree.
The group had only been travelling for a few hours and it was obvious that the four shorties were lagging behind. Sakura sighed, the speed the stranger had set for them to go was agonisingly slow and if anything potentially dangerous was following them then they were in trouble. It was blatantly clear that the small creatures weren't used to travelling and the kunoichi wanted to scream in frustration when they started to moan and complain in jumbled up grunts.
Ahh yes, Sakura didn't even attempt to guess what they were trying to say for all it sounded like to her ears was gibberish. The kunoichi would of been content to just ignore their mutters and murmurs if it wasn't for one of them grunting something that Sakura did not understand to the stranger. The rosette's eyes nearly pooped out of their sockets when the stranger replied to them in the same gibberish like language.
'Are they crazy or something..?' Even Inner was puzzled.
'I-I-I have no idea..' The medic nin had stopped in her tracks and had kneeled on a branch of a tree as she thought things over, her mouth agape. Their groans had sounded like words but she hadn't understood anything they had said. This was quite concerning since in the Shinobi Nations everyone spoke the same language. Sure, some villages made up a secret language in case anbu needed to communicate whilst on a stealth mission or something but they would normally use hand signs or would convey messages through their chakra. Sakura had known their was a chance she wasn't in the Shinobi Nations any longer but- well- having a language barrier really made things a lot more complicated. She couldn't ask anybody where she was, she couldn't communicate through words at all and well, she had no idea what she was going to do!
Her steady breathing grew into uneven, quick pants of air. Her mind was panicking over her current situation and Sakura was drowned in her worries. Her friends, family and everyone she knew were probably dying, crying out her name for help and she- she was stuck in an unknown world where she couldn't even speak to anyone to try and help her situation. She had known that she was most likely not in the Shinobi Nations any more, she had known that she could be in a completely different world but she had had a small ball of hope in her heart that somehow she was just in an area that had never been discovered before. She was realising now though that she had been foolish. She was foolish for even thinking she was still in her world for the second Inner had pointed out that there was no chakra in their surroundings all hope of still being somewhere in the Shinobi Nations should have been lost.
She was a fool for not realising this earlier. She was a fool for wasting her time following around a man she had labelled her guide. She was a fool, kami-sama she was a fool but why did she still believe there was hope? Why did she still feel like she could breathe whilst her friends were fighting for their lives? Was she really that selfish?
Tears escaped her eyes and all she could do was tightly grip the tree she was on as she sobbed her worries away. Her throat was tight and she couldn't breathe, she wanted to throw up and she was so scared. She was scared for her home; she was scared for her friends; she was scared for her family; she was scared for the future; and she was scared for herself.
'Outer.. you are not foolish. Remember when the trees moved and when we sensed a brief flicker of chakra from their movements? Remember when we faced off against the dark knights and they had chakra rolling off them? There is still chakra in this world it's just.. different. You didn't waste your time following around the stranger for we never would have gotten to where we are now. Thanks to you following him we have learnt a lot: we learnt that there are villages in this world; that there are Inns; we learnt that there is alcohol here; we learnt about the presence of the shadows; and we learnt that we aren't home. You are not selfish for why would you get so worked up over the fact that your friends and family may be in danger whilst your safe if you were? If anything I'm the fool, I'm the one who is stupid and I'm the one who is selfish. When you didn't want to steal a cloak from somebody I took control and did it. When we first got here I was the one who told you about the stranger's presence and I also told you about how there's no chakra anywhere. I was- am- the one who has done nothing but made snarky comments on what's going on and for that I am truly sorry. I apologise that you are mistaking my actions for your own and that you are calling yourself horrible things when really you should be calling me them. Please dry your tears Outer, from now on I shall do my best to help with our current situation, shannaro!'
The rosette was so shocked by Inner's words she hadn't noticed how her breathing returned to normal nor did she notice how she had calmed down. She thought over what Inner had said and nearly started crying again.
'Oh no! Outer? What is it this time, shannaro? Oh no..' Inner was freaking out in their mindscape, moving all over the place as she frantically tried to find out what was wrong.
'I'm you and you're me..' Inner stopped in her place, blinked before pulling on her hair.
'Why do you always have to look underneath the underneath? Shannaro!' She groaned.
From an outsider's point of view the whole situation was quite amusing. It was fortunate that the group of five- six if you count the horse- were far enough away from the kunoichi that they didn't notice her.
~{*.*}~
In the several days it took for the group to make it out of the forest Sakura had been pondering a way to conquer the language barrier. She wasn't planning on revealing herself anytime soon but one could only hold off the inevitable for so long. One of the solutions she had come up with was drawing, she wasn't too bad of an artist but her work would never be able to compare to something like Sai's pieces. Another solution she had come up with was getting someone to teach her how to speak whatever language the group spoke but again she was trying to keep to the shadows and asking someone to be her sensei didn't exactly follow that. The third and final option she had come up with was to use gestures such as nodding her head as an affirmative and whatnot to communicate, basically she would turn it into a big game of charades.
The seventeen year old sighed as she watched the group walk through the marshes. Sakura had cast a small genjutsu over herself so no one would notice her, she also made sure to keep her distance from the group. The kunoichi knew that the marshes were full of diseases but she was more focused on the dark creatures that seemed all too interested with the group.
After another hour or so the creatures still hadn't left and Sakura had had enough. She only knew a handful of different genjutsus but she had practiced until she had mastered them. She was naturally a genjutsu type so it hadn't taken her too long to learn them. The few she knew were extremely effective and the pinkette used them regularly.
Taking a deep breath the kunoichi grabbed one of the kunai with the Hiraishin seal wrapped round it and tossed it towards the group of six. The weapon was still in mid-air when she activated the seal and was transported to it. The medic grabbed the kunai and whilst she was still in the sky above the group she cast a genjutsu. This genjutsu would trick anyone outside her and the group into thinking the six were going in a completely different direction then they actually were. Normally the one who had been tricked would eventually pick up on the fact that it was a genjutsu but since the world she was in appeared to have no knowledge on the concept of chakra Sakura thought it was safe to assume that the creatures wouldn't be able to detect her illusion.
The pinkette landed silently on the ground behind the group and her eyes widened slightly when she realised just how tiny the four shorties really were. Sakura herself was short but the four men couldn't be taller then four feet. They were dwarfed by the stranger who was over six feet tall and Sakura could hear her Inner cackling away in their mindscape.
She shook her head and sighed. 'You are so childish.'
'Hey! Shannaro!'
~{*.*}~
Sakura wasn't sure how long it had been since they had left the village but they eventually arrived at what looked like an old watchtower. The rosette remembered her guide talking to the shorties- who Inner had deemed were too short to even be called that- when the old building had come into view.
She was satisfied that her genjutsu had warned away the dark creatures for she hadn't seen hide nor hair of them since she had cast the illusion. She had been travelling just behind the group, only straying away from them at night to scout the area or hunt for something to eat.
She was both relieved and anxious when they had stopped to rest near the watchtower. She had been feeling rather restless and since they had stopped moving she could probably speed around the area to get her muscles working. Unfortunately she was feeling quite paranoid because they had stopped moving. The stranger doubling back and covering their tracks was an obvious sign that they had somebody after them, the kunoichi just hoped whoever it was wasn't too dangerous.
A/N: I'm sorry this is slightly late, I was trying my best to get everything right and make this chapter a long one.
Sorry for any mistakes!
Hope you enjoyed!