The Preparations
Preparations, as Sakura knew well, were rather important in the grand scheme of things.
A difference in supplies and other mental preparations could make a difference when out on a mission – sometimes the difference between dying in the field and making it back home to Konohagakure. Not that she was apparently ever going home to Konohagakure. Sakura gritted her teeth, hope pulsing beneath her skin at the wish of returning to Konoha with Naruto and Sasuke – the idea they might somehow, miraculously find her. Naruto had always been great with miracles.
Fingers steepled beneath her chin, Sakura took in the supplies she had amassed over the last few days, something akin to spite rising thick and hot in her belly. She was going to survive this grand Quest thing with her wits, chakra, and a sheer dose of stubbornness.
Eyes narrowed, she cast her gaze on the many different books in front of her – each of them depicting one of the many different clans she could possibly join. There were a plethora of them, each as strange and weird as the next, and Sakura couldn’t quite fathom the sheer enormity of the world she had landed upon. She also wasn’t sure which one would be the best to join, though she was rather hoping for either Senju or another mana-orientated clan, if only so she could legally research the seal or ritual – whatever they called it there – to cross dimensions.
After all, whatever the so-called clans of that world did to them – the ones who arrived there as nothing but blank slates to be moulded to their whims – changed them to make them more alike to the clan they joined.
Meaning, should she join a clan, she would likely somehow gain the ability to use mana. First she simply had to get through the Quest and join a clan. However one did that after the Quest’s completion. No one she had spoken to had been particularly talkative on that matter, and Sakura was left to ponder over things with a careful, appraising eye.
Well, to ponder things as well as scrape the scraps of her sanity together in order to survive whatever ordeal was coming for her out in a strange land which she didn’t know enough about. Information was most often a deciding factor in whether one came back alive or didn’t in the end, and it was just that which Sakura knew she was missing. She had grown up in the Elemental Nations. She knew the dangers of there intimately. She hadn’t grown up on that world, as part of one of those mystical, mythical clans. She didn’t know the dangers of that world.
Greedy eyes flickered over the pages, the looming deadline of the beginning of the Quest hovering before her like an axe over her neck, and she devoured as much as she physically could. Inked letters felt as though they had been burned into her retinas by the end, all the new knowledge about wild dragons, wyverns, phoenixes, gryphons, hydras, and manticores – some of the more dangerous creatures there – rattling about in her brain, along with the best ways to either kill them or get away from them.
She needed to survive after all, and then she could figure out a possible method of getting home. Her stomach twisted at the thought. Sakura closed her eyes, lying back and staring at the high ceiling above her. The longer she lay there, thinking about home, the worse the gnawing doubts at the back of her head became. Staring up at the ceiling and the light fixture there, part of her wondered if she’d ever get home at the rate everything was going at.
Slamming her eyes closed, banishing the negative thought away, part of her wondering about everything which had led up to that moment. They had defeated Kaguya and Madara. The war was supposed to be over. Naruto and Sasuke had the power to release everyone from the genjutsu, and yet Sasuke had wanted to kill Tsunade and the rest of the Kage. Kill her mentor. And for what?
Sakura huffed, placing an arm over her eyes as she mused about all the possible things which could have already taken place back in the Elemental Nations. It was almost funny how she’d never thought about – never entertained – the possibility of Naruto losing to Sasuke. That in itself was a foreign concept to her. Yet now there was that insidious fear creeping through her gut. Because what if Sasuke somehow won.
Could she really go back to the Elemental Nations with a smile on her face if that were the case?
But she wouldn’t know the situation until she somehow, miraculously made her way back to her world. Her home. No matter how far off the possibility was. Unless Naruto’s luck could somehow reach through dimensions and bring her home.
The sound of knuckles rapping against her door had her climbing back to her feet ever so slowly. Cautious, she strode over to the eyehole, peering through it to find her usual visitor. Senju Kaida.
Sakura wrenched the door open with a pointed sigh. “What is it this time?”
A small bag was held up, fancy, silver, and altogether far too bright for her liking and needs. It was why Sakura had avoided it when picking up the basic supplies which they needed for the Quest. “You need this,” she said, dumping the ostentatious bag into her hands which automatically caught the thing. “You might turn your nose up at the design, but there are protective enchantments lain upon it. It’s the bag you’re supposed to put everything you might acquire on your quest – say the parts of a creature you might defeat, or a rare plant you might come across. It’s quite important that you gather things on the Quest.”
“But, let me guess, you won’t tell me the reason for it,” Sakura grumbled, already far too familiar with the elf’s secretive ways. “Typical,” she muttered, scowling as Kaida only smiled sheepishly at her, looking as apologetic as ever. Not that Sakura really cared. Apologies weren’t going to get her home or open up any doors for her.
“Everyone else will start the Quest with the same knowledge as you, and everything will become clear in time,” Kaida said, still being as surreptitious as ever.
“Yeah, yeah,” Sakura mumbled. “So you’ve already said…”
“I wish you the best of luck, Sakura.”
“Cool,” Sakura said blandly, closing the door in an instant and going back to her meagre preparations which wouldn’t hopefully be quite so meagre by the time she was through with them. There was still a lot to do – a lot to memorise and learn – and there was so little time left. But she was going to try and understand that world a bit better, join a clan, acquire mana, and hopefully figure out the way home.
First, though, she had to make it through the Quest.
A dry wind whistled through the branches of the trees, and Sakura let out a long, slow sigh as she took in the sight of the castle behind her – the castle she was leaving behind for what was in front of her. Before her stretched a large forest, the leaves of trees varying shades of red, bright and dark. Red like the blood that might be spilled where she was going.
The home of the druids was not easy to find, nor was the journey there easy.
Strength was important for survival in that strange world she had fallen into, though no one seemed to realised she had shed blood and tears to attain the level of strength she had, even if the sensors of that world couldn’t detect that much. Fingers curled into fists, part of her ignoring the snickering directed her way at the sight of her there.
With pastel pink hair, a heart-shaped face, and jade green eyes she didn’t look particularly threatening amidst the others milling about in front of their so-called testing grounds. Not to mention she didn’t have the mana some were showing off, nor did she have any scars which proved what she had survived. No one seemed to realise that she could heal her own wounds before they scarred. No one seemed to realise she might be all the more dangerous for it. Sakura thought that was fine – after all, there was nothing she could really do. Spite still boiled in her belly at that though. They’d soon learn, she mused. Especially when she successfully completed the Quest, and the druids decided upon which clan she would join.
Tightening her grip on her belongings, she eyed up the mountains she could see in the distance, and the deep crevasse which tore the red forest before her in two. Her eyes flickered down to the map Kaida had given her upon her arrival there, orientating it and debating about what the best route to the marked destination there.
The crevice was probably her best bet, especially because of how many junctions it had. It was a landmark she could use to orient herself at all times. The only problem was that is seemed far too easy to simply follow it. Her brow furrowed, wracking her brains for any reason to not go that way – but the benefits seemingly outweighed any drawbacks, and so that was how she would navigate, she decided.
Sighing yet again, mind made up, she looked out at the forest once more, hating how she shivered at the sight. There was just something about it which made it look inordinately creepy and ominous. Which was probably why the so-called Quest was done there. It would hardly be a Quest if the journey was simple. Quests, at least in the books she had read, fictional in her last world and informative in her new world, had a struggle to reach a goal. Without that struggle there was no point. It would be a boring book without a struggle, especially the fiction she had read in her free time between missions.
Never had she thought she’d become something of a protagonist in one. Soft laughter escaped her at the thought, and she tightened the straps of her bag, hating the obnoxiously silver pouch attached to her waist.
She was about to go into a forest, and something as bright as silver would draw the eye. Part of snidely reminded her of how she’d worn red in a forest many times before. Ironically enough, red would have helped her blend in better compared to the simple brown pants and green tunic she had opted to wear. Though hindsight was always an irritating fact of life. She couldn’t change her decisions now, just like she couldn’t change the fact she was so far from home.
The place where the boy she had loved had rammed a hand through her chest, even if that had only been a simple genjutsu.
Her shoulders sunk, and Sakura shook her head, eyes focused on the forest and the promise of adventure before her. It felt good to be getting out of her room there and doing something. The fresh air tasted wonderful on her tongue, and the blood thrumming through her veins sang in excitement as she geared up, waiting for the loud gong of the bell which would signal the beginnings of the Quest which might well decide her future.
After all, if she didn’t get into a clan which studied mana or otherwise used it, then her chances of going home would sink right down.
Sakura gritted her teeth.
That wouldn’t happen.
She wouldn’t let it.