The Choice
Silence met her words, the thud-thud of her thumping heart echoing in her ears as she stared at the monster before her. Part of her wanted to run. Part of her wanted to lament the mess her life had become. Yet she did neither.
Then the world before her shifted with the movement of both combatants.
Of course – it wasn’t like the manticore could monologue at her, the way so many of their enemies had loved to. She almost rolled her eyes. It was a near thing.
Sakura lifted her shield, blocking the swipe of thick, lethal back claws which sent her skidding backwards a metre or two. A grunt escaped her, even with her hastily released Yin Seal, feeling the very impact in her bones themselves. She didn’t lose her balance though, and her feet were already moving on instinct, carrying her forwards, and then rolling her to the side as she spotted the familiar amber glow in the back of its throat before the torrent was unleashed again. Think, she reminded herself, gritting her teeth at the blistering heat which surrounded her and sucked the very air out of her lungs. Luck and skill could only get her so far without a half decent plan. Only she had absolutely no idea of what could work against a monster like the one before her and there was no time to lament about her unpreparedness. Her arrogance in believing she could beat it as she was. Fight and win. That was all she could think about; all she dared to think about. Twenty seconds passed, the torrent stopped, and Sakura leapt out of the way of those claws, rolling to her feet in the soft sand, eyes widening at the rush of air which brushed against her face before the black, deadly stinger buried itself in the sand where her head had just been.
She sucked in a sharp breath, circling around her quarry, squinting against the blown up sand as leathery wings beat. Another torrent of flames was unleashed, the stream of fire moving around even as she tried to block it with that hot shield of hers. A cry of pain escaped her, flames licking against her skin before the fires stopped moments later. Twenty seconds again. Sakura felt her eyes narrow. “Twenty seconds,” she murmured, knowing then that was probably how long the manticore could spew flames for at a time. “Could be worse,” she muttered to herself, chakra thrumming beneath her skin.
Her throat was bone dry, eyes scanning the manticore for every tense of muscle and movement which would give away its next action, not that there was much of a gap between them. It was fast, vicious, and deadly. Sakura only hoped she was faster and that much more vicious. No – she had to be. The blade and shield felt clunky in her grasp, weapons she wasn’t as comfortable with as she was her fists and they made her feel uneasy. Off balance. Yet they were her protection, and were apparently the best way to injure the creature before her. That was what the winged lions had all but told her, and they knew the beings of that world better than she.
Feet dug into the sand, and Sakura grunted as she ran forwards, angling herself differently that time. Claws grazed against the shield that time, momentum keeping her on the forward charge as she ducked down on pure instinct. Air moved above her head, the tell-tale rush of movement informing her of the blow she had just dodged. Falling to the ground in a roll, she lashed out at the thick pelt above her, scowling as wings flapped, leaving only a thin line where her sword had cut into the beast. If it had even cut in at all. There was no blood on her blade – it’s hide was thick, perhaps too thick, and her sword wasn’t seemingly sharp enough.
Sakura swore as she lay on her back, spying a familiar amber glow, barely having enough time to get her shield up before another blast of fire came her way.
It was a stalemate at best, and she was losing at worst.
The little slither of light above was cut off, a heavy weight clamping on her shield, and Sakura bit back another curse as the manticore clamped its jaws around her shield, lifting her and her little bit of protection off the ground.
Amber eyes bore into her own, cold and cruel, and Sakura snarled, using the grip she had on her shield as leverage to leap up and stab her sword into its face. It needed to let go—
Sakura blinked, coldness running through her as she realised her mistake far, far too late. Tears filled her eyes at the burning, stinging, freezing pain in her arm. She had been too focused on trying to injure it, escape the flames, and get her bloody shield arm back that she had forgotten the venom. She stared at it then, the stinger buried in her skin, gritting her teeth at the wooziness which overcame her then. It couldn’t work that quickly could it? But then again, what did she know about how things worked in that world?
She was a stranger, an arrogant stranger in a land with unfamiliar stars and strange creatures which seemed all too eager to kill her. A smile curled at her lips, pathetic and weak, irritation and hatred swirling in her gut at the thought of it all—
Of the hand which had speared through her chest. Of waking up and being told ‘you can’t go home’. Of the stupid wyvern which had made her fall down. Of her own idiocy and cluelessness which had led to her running into that wyvern. Of the damned manticore which just had to be situated between her and her freedom.
“Quester!”
She wrenched her arm loose, stumbling back, eyes wide as she stared into those amber ones even as her own sped-up healing worked against her, sealing the payload of lethal venom beneath her skin. Sakura blinked once more, the world around her nothing but grey shapes, a flash of amber, and the ringing noises in her head.
Sand shifted beneath her hands as she landed on them, and dimly, she was aware of a tugging sensation at her collar.
Then it was nothing but darkness.
Naruto was calling her name, the pounding sensation telling her he was also knocking on her door.
Groaning, Sakura sat up, frowning at the covers she pushed back. She didn’t remember those covers – in fact, she didn’t remember tucking herself into bed at all. Another persistent series of knocks made the pounding sensation in her head worse, and Sakura decided she ought to deal with the source of those sounds. “I’m coming to the door so knock it off!” she shouted, rubbing at her pulsing temples as she went and wrenched the door to the apartment open.
“Sakura!” Naruto greeted, as though he hadn’t been the one to wake her nor the one to keep calling out her name for the past five minutes. “Did you forget about team breakfast?” he asked, and Sakura gritted her teeth and wondered why she was so irritated beyond the pain in her head. It was a pain she should have been able to heal, being the stellar med-nin that she was, and yet…
“Always so arrogant, aren’t we?” the childish voice made her freeze, even as Naruto frowned at her from where he stood.
“Is everything alright, Sakura?” he asked, peering at her as though he hadn’t heard that childish voice from behind her. The same voice which sent shivers down her spine as flashes of memory came to haunt her. Hadn’t she been fighting something? Sakura frowned, rubbing at her head again, gritting her teeth at the feeling that she was forgetting something important.
She turned, staring at the small, unmistakably preteen version of her which stood there in her small apartment without a care in the world. The thing which wasn’t her smiled at her then. “Thinking we can solve everything by ourselves. Since when have we been able to charge into things without a plan? Without a second thought?”
Sakura blinked, mouth opening and closing soundlessly a few times. “Since the war,” she mumbled, thinking on the pinnacle of the events which had made her into what she was – a survivor, a soldier, a conqueror. She was the one who had punched Ootsutsuki Kaguya in the head and helped her teammates seal her forevermore.
“What war?” Naruto asked, looking ever so confused, only adding fuel to the fire which told her that something was very, very wrong.
“It all went to our head,” another voice spoke, a short-haired version of her younger teenage self appearing then as if out of thin air. “Now look at what’s happened.”
Comprehension dawned, her eyes widening as she remembered the manticore and what had followed. “Oh,” she mumbled, staring at the visage of Naruto who stood at her door, staring at her with a smile and worried eyes. “It’s not real, is it?” she asked, already dreading the answer as she stared out her door at the friend she longed to see again and the familiar village she had undoubtedly left behind, stranded as she was beneath different stars.
Not that she could really see the stars at the bottom of the crevasse as she was undoubtedly trapped – if she was alive at all. Her fingers brushed over her arm, finally taking in the black lines which spread across the rest of her body. The place where the stinger had struck was the epicentre of it all, the heart of the inky spider’s web which had spread across her body. “Isn’t it obvious?” her teenaged self asked, tilting her head. “You’ve got a choice to make—”
“Sakura.”
The drawled sound of her name made her stiffen, a pain coming to rest in her chest, even as her fist began moving. She lashed out, not wanting to look upon his visage, shielding her gaze as the reality around her shattered like glass.
“There was never any choice,” she said, turning in that white space she found herself in now that the illusion – that tantalising illusion – was gone. “I fought in a war to stop a madman from plunging the world into that of an illusion. Do you really think I’d allow myself to live in that which I shed blood, sweat, and tears to prevent from becoming a reality?”
Hands clenched into fists, she turned, walking away into that whiteness which seemed to have no end. Not that it mattered – she’d find a way out somehow.
“You really don’t learn easily, do you?”
Sakura ignored those words, storming further into the whiteness, hating the echoes of her own laughter which followed her as she ventured further into the white mists.
“Perhaps forever plunging in without a plan and a backup plan is simply part of our nature? Who knows?”
Darkness met her eyes as she opened them. Blinking a few times, she relaxed as the familiar dim blue lighting of the depths of the crevasse met her gaze. A soft sigh escaped her, a lingering ache making her wince as she sat up ever so slowly. Even in the dimness of it all she could see the lingering aftereffects of her ill thought out fight with the manticore.
“Idiot,” she muttered, burying her head in her hands.
“So you are awake, Quester,” a winged lion spoke, entering the little cave she had undoubtedly been stashed within. “Good. That is good. Adelais’ sacrifice wasn’t in vain…” Ardelia murmured, sounding unquestionably sorrowful.
Sakura stilled at that, her mouth becoming infinitely dry. “Adelais…” she trailed off, remembering the winged lion who had first greeted her when she fell down to that place. “Adelais is… dead?” she asked, part of her wishing it wasn’t true – because there were only so many meanings of sacrifice, especially when one’s opponent was a manticore.
Ardelia inclined her head. “He sacrificed himself to buy time to get you back here,” she answered, ignorant of the ice which filled her belly at those words. At the confirmation that another had died to save her.
She had thought that she was above being saved – that she was strong, far too strong to need to be rescued. Sakura threw her head back, tears streaming from her eyes at her own helplessness as she laughed brokenly. “I barely knew him,” she said, wondering what had been going through that lion’s head when he decided to give up his life for a literal stranger.
“He considered you our hope,” Ardelia answered. “Rest now. You have only just awoken, and you will be fairly weak for the time being.”
Weak.
The flat truth of her state there cut right through her heart, her hands curling into fists at the indignity of it all.
Arrogant.
Sakura could only wonder if that was how it had all gone wrong – if she had thought herself strong so much that it had led to arrogance. Perhaps in the Elemental Nations she had been strong, and yet she was no longer in the Elemental Nations. She was in a new, strange world, and there… there she might as well be nothing more than an idiotic ant.