Demolition
Speechless, Sakura stared at her opponent. He wanted... she should... Had everyone lost their minds? What did everyone expect from her? She was 13 years old, damn it, and far from being a good ninja. She couldn't possibly spy on an entire village without being discovered. As if Nagare saw her doubts, he put a hand on her shoulder to give her a bit of security, but it had a completely different effect on the pink haired girl.
"Don't worry, no one will suspect you or anything like that, not if my cover story is executed accurately. You are young and if the rumors about the new Mizukage are true, you are more than safe. No one will think you are a spy. All you have to do is act according to the situation. Something that should not be difficult for you. I'm sure you'll quickly understand what my cover story means for you. But now rest, we'll talk another time." No sooner had Nagare finished his words than Sakura felt Chakra pass through her body, and with one blow, the world around her exploded into bright, glistening light.
Something was happening around her, she felt it and yet her body did not obey. Everything around her was shrouded in a thick fog that blocked all her senses as if nothing could get through it, neither from inside nor from outside. Sakura felt strangely detached from her body and there, there it was again! A sound or a feeling, saying exactly what it was, she couldn't, but something was there, outside the fog that held her captive. Did she really want to know what was going on outside? Inside that fog everything seemed so light and peaceful, she had nothing to do, she could just be. No faces to haunt her. No pictures of her old team, what had left her behind, no feelings of guilt and no fear of being exposed. But wait a minute... what would she expose herself to?
"-ra! - up! -kura!" That voice. She knew this voice. "Sakura wake up and come to your senses!"
Loudly the voice broke through the fog and Sakura wanted to cover her ears, but it didn't work, her arms didn't obey her, they did something completely different and this voice. "Inner?" Sakura's voice was nothing more than a whisper, but it seemed to be enough when a relieved sound reached her ears. "What-" All of a sudden, the mist that surrounded her disappeared and with eyes wide open, Sakura stared into a bloody, no less shocked face of a man before he coughed up blood and spread it on her face, while little by little, life disappeared from his eyes.
The young Kunoichi was still staring stunned when the sai she held in her hand slipped out of the man's body and he fell lifeless to the ground. An outcry startled the young girl from her rigidity and only thanks to her reflexes could she avoid the sword stroke with a sideward movement.
"I'll make you pay, you bitch," another man threw at her head, while he kept reaching out for her with his sword like a madman. His attacks were neither deliberate nor coordinated, which was why Sakura had less trouble dodging, she had had much more difficult training partners. However, she didn't have time to think about what was actually happening right now, which frustrated and annoyed the pink-haired girl more and more the more time she wasted with unnecessary dodging.
It was as if suddenly a switch in her head was flipped and the young Kunoichi switched from defense to attack and a little later the next lifeless person was lying on the ground. With a sharp retraction of air, Sakura regained consciousness and grasped the fact that she had wiped out two human lives in a very short time without inhibitions or precise memory. What was going on here?
Cries of pain reached her ears and the Kunoichi looked around more closely. What she discovered made her shudder. The camp was... it was... destroyed. Tents that she usually passed by were cut up, run down or no longer existed. Others were in flames and nothing resembled the otherwise structured camp she knew. Lifeless bodies lined the ground, as well as vast amounts of blood and ashes. The sight alone was enough to make her bile come up and the next moment she threw up next to the remains of a tent. Her whole body trembled and despite the anguished cries that came to her ear, she could not manage to move without being hit by another wave of nausea.
She didn't have an exact idea of what had happened and Inner was unusually quiet, but everything indicated an attack on the camp. Why and who and for what reason, she could not say, but the more she looked around, the clearer it became that she knew many of the lifeless bodies. After all, they were inhabitants of the camp, and even though she had no close contact with most of them, they certainly did not deserve to die. Another scream reached her ears and Sakura's head shot up in the direction from which the scream had come. From the back of the camp, where the sleeping tents were ... where Gen had his tent! Panic filled her. What if Gen had fallen victim to the attackers and he was now one of the many dead? The thought weighed heavily, even though she had decided not to build a close relationship with him. But what could she do about it? She was alone in a camp full of strangers and not everyone was nice to her. So it was no wonder that she clung to the first person who was kind to her, even though his training was exhausting and hard. He had taken care of her without really demanding anything from her, almost like Haku and Zabuza. She knew that she had to betray him in a way, the two mist ninjas were simply at the forefront of her mind, but she could not deny that Gen had become important to her as well over time. Important enough that she could not bear the thought that something could have happened to him.
Without thinking further, Sakura ran off, avoiding looking around, not wanting and unable to bear the sight of the numerous bodies. Nevertheless, she could not help but notice that the camp resembled a battlefield more than anything else. On the way, she heard whimpering voices begging for help. Here and there injured people were moving on the ground, reaching out in her direction, but Sakura didn't stop. She had only one goal and that was to find Gen. If she let herself be distracted now and came to the aid of others, she might come too late to save the old man. Besides, she didn't believe that she could help the seriously injured people, she hadn't learned that much about medical care yet.
The deeper she ran into the camp, the hotter and smokier it got, the more screams and fighting noises increased, however, the smoke from the burning tents made it difficult for Sakura to see anything more clearly.
The smoke burned in her lungs, but Sakura did not allow herself to give in to the urge to cough. Her eyes narrowed to slits, searching the surroundings for possible enemies or Gen. For a while, however, she could see nothing but flames, smoke, and destruction. Panic spread through her when she realized that she didn't run into any fighters, but only heard the sounds. Something was wrong, Sakura couldn't figure out what it was though. Genjutsu flitted through her mind but was immediately dismissed, lacking the certain feeling she always had when caught in a genjutsu at the academy. Still, it wasn't reassuring. Then she suddenly heard voices and froze.
"Come on, spill it already, old man. Where have you been hiding them? I can stand here all day and play this game. Don't prolong your suffering unnecessarily and start talking. I will also make your death quick and painless afterwards." Spoke a deep male voice with a murderousness that made Sakura tremble. Even Zabuza's Killing Intent was harmless in comparison. A scream of pain reached her ears and made her wince. It was so damn close and Sakura thought she could almost feel the pain.
"Forget it! I won't tell you anything." That was clearly Gen's voice, and Sakura crept closer to the voices, but stopped rooted to the spot when she saw the scenario before her after circling a pile of broken tents, including Gen's. A huge figure dressed in a black cloak stood menacingly over the figure of Gen lying on the ground. A broad sword had bored into Gen's shoulder, and the stranger let the blade cut deeper and deeper into his flesh. Gen himself looked battered, his clothes sunk and cut in some places, blood running freely from his wounds and Sakura had never seen him so pale and battered. Again she felt sick, but suppressed the urge to vomit, no matter how much she felt like it.
More cries of pain reached her ears as the unknown seemed to torture Gen unhindered. Sakura could not watch it any longer. Swallowing her fear, she gripped her sais tighter than necessary and jumped.
She probably should have come up with a strategy first, but it was too late when the thought occurred to her. All she wanted was for him to stop torturing Gen. Her blades penetrated effortlessly through the fabric of the cloak but the skin underneath seemed to be different, firmer, more robust and not so easily injured, only a bit of red blood remained on her blades. Without thinking any further about it, her body fell into a defensive position, positioning Sais so that she could both attack and defend should the stranger move to attack. However, instead of a counterattack, the person began to laugh with a fervor that was incomprehensible to Sakura. Her grip tightened again around her weapons.
"There was a little fish in camp after all and I thought everyone was taken care of and now this little guppy manages to surprise me. Well, let's see how good you are with your toothpicks." The stranger seemed to be audibly enjoying the situation, his eyes twinkling out of the darkness of his hood, and in the glow of the blazing flames, Sakura could make out pointed teeth in a cold grin. After that, everything happened too quickly.
The stranger disappeared from his position, only to reappear in front of her and struck Sakura with the broadside of his sword, who could not react quickly enough and was torn off her feet by the force. Only with great effort she could save herself into a sideways roll, to immediately come to a halt on her feet again. Just in time to be able to counter another blow. But she was no match for the stranger's strength and sank more and more to her knees. With all her strength she braced herself against the attack, only to jump out of the sword radius with a skillful leap. It didn't do her much good when the stranger started to attack again, putting Sakura more and more in dicey defensive positions. Even though Sakura's body slid into the trained forms as if by itself and it protected her more than once from more serious injuries than just deep scratches, it quickly became visible that she was far inferior to her opponent. He played her like a violinist plays his violin or an artist his canvas, and judging by his laughter, he was enjoying himself, which made the young kunoichi grind her teeth in frustration.
Again and again Sakura parried one blow after another until at some point a too strong strike came. She slid backwards due to the force and had to jump over the stranger to get out of his attack path, where she landed unhappily on a pile of disturbed tents and crumpled. Taking advantage of the carelessness, the stranger leapt to attack again, sending her flying across the compound with a heavy thud. Coughing up blood, she nearly came to rest next to Gen, and Sakura found it increasingly difficult to keep her eyes open, let alone stand up.
"What already at your end? We've only just begun." Taunted the stranger, sounding almost a bit disappointed as he slowly walked towards her.
"Aren't you done yet?!" Sounded another voice, which made the stranger pause and Sakura unobtrusively tried to look for the voice's resource.
"Ah, the old man didn't give anything out and then Guppy came here and look, she has swords, I just couldn't resist. At that, I thought you took care of everyone in the camp."
The second unknown person seemed unconcerned by the news and followed his partner's gesture with a slow movement of his head as he pointed to Sakura lying on the ground.
"Hmm, I hope you didn't rough her up too much. She's the one we're only supposed to mess up a little, but not seriously hurt. If you have nothing else, let's go." Sakura blinked several times to keep from drifting into unconsciousness. Had she heard the second stranger correctly?
"Too bad Guppy, but I guess that's it for our little fight. You weren't really a challenge, but you have talent and it was fun to push you to your limits. Keep practicing your swordsmanship, who knows, you might be a better opponent for me next time Guppy. Ja ne~" And with that, the stranger disappeared. Sakura was left behind, surrounded by shattered and burned camprests and the still bleeding but quite lifeless looking Gen.
A feeble cough came from the side and when Sakura turned her head in that direction, she found Gene's gaze and how he seemed to want to get something from his pocket.
"Girl... here... help." he uttered with a gasp as he tried almost desperately to get something out of his pocket from the side of his pant leg. Only with effort Sakura was able to pick herself up and crawl the bit over to Gen, before she removed Gen's shaky hands from his trouser leg pocket to open it herself. While it took her a few tries as well, she was nowhere near as battered as Gen. The small scroll she pulled out of his pocket, however, made little sense. When she tried to hand it to Gen, he grabbed hers with both hands and shook his head weakly.
"Chakra..." He coughed, breathing heavily a few times in the aftermath before continuing to speak. "Let chakra...flow...in scroll...quickly." Sakura barely understood what he wanted her to do. Why was this scroll so important, shouldn't she rather try to help him? Surely she couldn't just let him...
"Go ahead girl... I don't have much time left..." Gen shook his head as Sakura made an effort to disagree and squeezed his hands around hers just a little more. "You can't do anything... too much blood... but this, you can still do for me... channel your chakra..." a gurgling sound came from him and tears came to Sakura's eyes. There was no way she could stand idly by and watch him die?! Sobbing, she nodded as Gen once again squeezed her hands that were closed around the scroll. She was just able to call up her chakra and let it flow through her hands into the parchment scroll when she already felt Gen doing the same. Just a little later, something inside her 'clicked' into place and the scroll in her hand felt different, as if it were a part of her.
"This... this is all I have left to give you, girl. I want you to have it... In the scroll... responds to your chakra... chakra code to open..." Those were the last words of Gen and left behind was Sakura. Confused, exhausted, worn out, hurt, devastated, and with a sadness in her heart that she couldn't process.
Why had she allowed them to form a bond with each other? Why were they attacked and why did Gen have to give his life? Why was she spared? Absentmindedly, she stowed away the scroll, only to break down crying over Gen afterwards.
She was exhausted and finished with the world, so she didn't notice how a group of ninjas approached the destroyed camp. She was already unconscious when the group arrived and took in the extent of the destruction.
"No survivors found sir."
"Hey, over here. This girl here is still breathing and has a pulse. Faint but present. The man below her, is dead."
A person not much taller than Sakura herself stepped out of the shadows and eyed the pink-haired one through the slits of his mask. A single survivor? Coincidence?
"We'll take her with us. Maybe she can give us answers as to what happened here. Mizukage-sama won't be too thrilled with the turn of events."
A unanimous "Hai." came from the others and only a short time later the group of ninjas sprinted off. Back to their homes. Back to Kirigakure.