Eimii
30th June 2006, 03:07 AM
Disclaimer: All characters portrayed in this chapter (and, indeed, all
foreseeable chapters to come) are the creations and property of
Kishimoto Masashi. I claim no legal right to use them, and I am making
no money off of this piece of fanfiction... wait, no. I lie; go back to
that first part. There _is_ one character in here that Kishimoto didn't
make up... but he's not all that important, so don't go running away
just yet ^_^;...
Spoiler Warning: This chapter still takes place during the intermission
between the second and third stages of the Chuunin Exam. That will
change soon; time _does_ move in Suiren, so shortly the fic will be
taking place during the third stage of the Chuunin Exam... (Yaaaay!)
Non-Yaoi Warning: There's one scene in this chapter where two men appear
onscreen at the same time; there's still no Yaoi, but watch for it if
you're the type that likes to insinuate such things. Those that like to
insinuate scandalous Yuri shenanigans might have an easier time with
this chapter, but keep in mind that this fic isn't about romance thus
far, and you'd have to make some pretty big assertions to call what
happens Yuri, so don't get your hopes up -_-;...
Continuity Warning: Okay, so i lied again; no continuity yet. This
chapter isn't directly after the previous one, but the jump is shorter
this time. I keep getting the urge to leave some of the boring (and not
so boring) bits left unsaid, to spare your attention and tease your
imagination... or something...
This chapter was originally chapters 4, 5 and 6 of Suiren (titled
'Shadows' part I, II and III respectively), but since it was all
supposed to be one big chapter to start with, i'm going to make it all
one big chapter now. Make sense? This is the first of several _huge_
chapters that were broken up in the original posting due to chapter
size and the speed at which i write. The originals can still be found at
www.fanfiction.net/~eimii, though this version has been revised a bit
for posting to the FFML. This chapter marks a return to the 'meaty'
(read: verbose and often over-descriptive) writing style that i used in
my earlier Ranma fics, so be prepared for things to go more slowly; you
have been warned -_-;...
This is also the point where i'll probably really start revising the
story so that it flows better, makes more sense and has fewer
canon/factual errors, so any C&C and suggestions you have to give me
would be greatly appreciated! Thanks for reading this far, and enjoy the
show!
~Eimii
SHADOWS...
Listening carefully by the side of the door so she wouldn't cast a
shadow under it, Sakura was forced to wonder why she was even bothering.
If she was right, checking these doors was a complete waste of time.
This one would be like all of the others, with Mitarashi Anko or some
other unspeakable horror lurking behind it, ready to set her heart
hammering anew as they continued the twisted game of cat and mouse
they'd been playing since Sakura had woken hours earlier, naked and
alone in an empty room somewhere deep within the bowels of ANBU's
torture and interrogation facility.
At least, that's where Sakura assumed they were. The endless miles
corridors that she'd been wandering through were probably just an
elaborate genjutsu that the examiner was using to torment her. The
simpler versions of such techniques- the ones that could be maintained
for hours on end -depended on having a homogenous environment for the
victims to wander in, such as poorly-lit forest path or a series of
specially prepared rooms with no telltale features to distinguish one
from the next... much like these halls, with their drab gray plaster
walls, half burnt-out ceiling lamps and heavy, black metal doors.
Unfortunately, Anko wasn't giving her a lot of options. Sitting still
was probably about as effective as moving, but she wasn't the _only_
thing loose down here, it seemed. *Ugh- it's a good thing they had
eyes,* the pink haired girl mused with a shudder, rubbing the very
real-looking sucker marks on her arm. At least she'd managed to pilfer
some scraps of clothing off of the corpses she'd found in one of the
other rooms. She never though she'd actually miss that damn green
jumpsuit, until she was forced to run around like a rat in a maze
wearing nothing but her pride, which was notably lacking at the moment.
*This sucks! What did I do to deserve this!* Her little accident in the
street would barely qualify as a childish prank, even if it had been
intentional. *Which it _wasn't!_ Gods, why did I even run? I should have
just given up.* The worst part was that she didn't know _what_ the hell
had had happened in the end, when her body had started moving and
talking all by itself. She'd _never_ have insulted Anko like that, even
if she agreed with every word of it; making psychopaths angry at you
just wasn't very smart.
*Maybe I'm going insane from studying too much genjutsu.* The books said
it happened sometimes; people got carried away and destroyed their own
minds. Sakura released a helpless sigh. She wasn't training to beat Ino
only to end up defeating herself instead- and whatever Anko was doing to
her couldn't be helping matters! *Dammit, the only way out of here is
through _her_!*
She would just have to confront the demon, then... but how? She wasn't a
genius ninja; she was barely even mediocre. She didn't have any special
techniques, and she had to assume that Anko controlled the environment
completely, so elaborate traps would be useless. It always came back to
control- Anko had her hooks in Sakura's mind, and Sakura wasn't good
enough to dig them out. *Maybe a counterattack of some sort- but she's a
_jounin_! I wouldn't even know where to start!*
That wasn't entirely true, though. Sakura had studied the underlying
concepts behind a number of different genjutsu in her quest to find a
counter to the Shintenshin. As most of her books were intended for
academic purposes rather than training, she'd been forced to work out
the actual mechanics of the techniques herself, but she'd already had
some success with her concealment genjutsu. Ino's family technique had
proven a bit harder to crack, but she thought she had a reasonably good
idea of how it worked, and she _did_ know how to construct a simple
invasive genjutsu, in theory... but would that be enough?
*...It had better be.* An electric thrill surged from the base of her
spine to the top of her head; she was going to do it! It felt good to
finally have a plan, even if it was a crazy, doomed plan. Almost
absently, her hands began working as her gaze grew distant- looking
inward, as she felt out which seals opened the right chakra pathways.
They weren't the seals for the Shintenshin- in fact, they probably
weren't even close, but instinct told her that they would do. *But if I
screw up, I'm dead meat.* Sakura didn't want to think about what could
happen to her if her technique didn't work like it was supposed to.
"To hell with it! I've had enough!" Shoving doubt and worry for her
mortal soul aside, the young genin stepped away from the wall and took a
bold stance in front of the door. Anko was probably waiting for her
behind it; the sadistic bitch hadn't shown her face in a while. Sakura
was almost starting to forget how humiliating it was, having that
woman's mocking laugher chasing after her as she ran away. *Enough
running; from now on, the only people who see my back are those I've
sworn to protect, as a ninja.* Reaching down with rock-steady hand,
Sakura gripped the door knob and turned.
To her credit, the pink-haired girl didn't even flinch when Anko looked
up at her as the door swung open, those golden reptilian eyes fixing on
her with a paralyzing, hypnotic gaze. Blood dribbled down the jounin's
chin as she chewed noisily, bones grinding under her teeth. The limp,
headless body of a rat was clutched brutally in her claw-like fingers as
she lay supine in the middle of the room, amidst a nest of writhing
snakes. *What is it with this woman and snakes?*
"I was wondering when you'd join me; I'm afraid we've had to start
without you," the monster woman drawled, oozing sick sensuality with
every word. She glanced lazily down at the rat. "Don't worry, though,
it'll take more than this to spoil my appetite... but perhaps _you_ can
satisfy me." Anko's grin was all fangs, pearly white stained with red.
"Don't let your eyes get too big for your stomach," Sakura quipped,
unimpressed; she was still riding too high on adrenalin to care how
terrifying Anko looked. Dropping into a ready stance, her gaze drifted
to the back of the room, behind the examiner. There was a doorway with
stairs there, seeming to lead up, but Sakura knew that for the trick it
was. Still, she made sure to telegraph her intent to make a break for
the stairwell. "Get out of my way," she commanded, trying to look as
imposing as her petite, bedraggled, near-naked form would allow.
"Ooooh... is the little devil feeling feisty now?" Anko chuckled with
evil glee as she fairly slithered forward, arms and legs seeming almost
an afterthought as she got to her feet. "Maybe you aren't so boring
after all, morsel."
Hands flying together in a familiar set of seals, Sakura sneered.
"Didn't your parents ever teach you not to play with your food?"
Shooting up the wall behind the cloud of smoke that accompanied the
appearance of four bunshin, the determined girl threw up her strongest
concealment genjutsu and galloped on all fours across the ceiling as her
doppelgangers dashed forth, zigzagging erratically around the room.
Anko struck like a viper, barely moving as her hands flickered out
impossibly far to eradicate two of the clones instantly. Meanwhile, one
of the remaining two made a break for the door she'd come in while the
other rocketed toward the stairs. The obvious feint proved just enough
to keep Anko's attention divided for the final moment Sakura needed to
close on the jounin. By the time Anko sensed her and looked up, Sakura's
descending foot was mere inches from the examiner's face, even as the
smaller kunoichi's hands furiously formed another string of seals.
It was therefore by only by a hair's breadth that the ANBU managed to
evade, twisting aside like her body was water, flowing around the
attack. "You're a gutsy one, ain'cha?" Anko observed with a smile of
playful, bloodthirsty appreciation, even as she wrapped herself around
Sakura in a constrictor's killing embrace. "You nearly got me there,"
she whispered almost consolingly into Sakura's ear from over her
shoulder, before twisting around grotesquely to look her victim in the
eye, "but even crazy kids like you should know that it takes more than
guts and luck to win a fight."
The confusion on Anko's face was more than ample reward as Sakura's
emerald gaze burned into her with defiance and victory. "I never count
on guts or luck for anything. They're nothing if you don't have a plan."
With that, she craned her neck forward and locked lips with the
surprised examiner, then flinched hard and bit the tip of her tongue as
her soul exploded.
*I just kissed a woman who was eating a rat.*
This was the first thought that occurred to Sakura as she lay on the
ground, reeling in shock. There were a few things that seemed very wrong
with that statement. *I just kissed a _woman_... who was eating a
_rat_... how on earth did that happen?* It took her a few more moments
to remember the details of the plan that had brought her to this drastic
action.
The one part of the Shintenshin that had given Sakura the most headaches
over the last three weeks was how the mind was projected out of the
body. She just couldn't figure out how so much information could be
moved around safely without some sort of conduit. This meant that, for
the improvised version that she'd kludged together, she had to actually
_touch_ Anko for it to work. Contact between parts that had a major
concentration of chakra gates seemed like her best shot; hands, mouths
or... elsewhere.
Though she'd have preferred to catch one of Anko's punches or something,
an opportunity had presented itself and she'd taken it. *And I kissed
Anko...* And then there was pain: blinding agony unlike anything she had
dreamt possible had blossomed within her, like the very blood in her
veins had suddenly turned to burning white phosphorous. It'd passed so
quickly that she didn't think she'd even had a chance to scream, but her
body still tingled with the memory of it, like the afterimages left on
the eye by a flash bulb.
That it had hurt at all was definitely a bad sign; she'd probably done
serious injury to herself, but that was too big to take in at the
moment. Instead, she concentrated on the metallic tang of blood in her
mouth. *...she was eating a _rat._* Had she succeeded? Was she now in
Anko's body? The idea that she might be swishing around a mouthful of
rat blood made her want to vomit, but she held down her gorge and, with
an effort, managed not to swallow.
Pushing herself up on her palms, Sakura turned to the side to spit, at
the same time taking a look around. Her heart sank when she saw Anko
sitting opposite her, legs crossed and holding her head in her hands
like she trying to keep it from falling apart. So it hadn't worked...
though it looked like she'd hurt the jounin at least as much as she'd
hurt herself.
She must have broken the genjutsu as well, for the pile of snakes was
gone and Anko looked relatively normal again. There were also closed
doors on either side of the room that she hadn't noticed before, and the
open door behind Anko no longer had stairs behind it.
When Sakura's gaze finally returned to the examiner, Anko had looked up,
and was now staring at her in confusion. Setting her jaw, Sakura glared
right back and rolled into a low crouch, preparing to defend herself.
She'd made her bed so she'd better be ready to sleep in it, even if
there was still a snake in the sheets.
This action only seemed to confuse Anko more. The older woman looked
like she wanted to ask her something, but couldn't find the words.
Suddenly, however, her perfectly normal brown eyes widened in
realization, and a huge grin split her face from ear to ear. "Ah- hah!
Hahaha! Hell yeah- that's more like it!" Slapping her thigh in renewed
enthusiasm, Anko flipped backwards and got to her feet. "Not quite what
I had in mind, but I can work with this," she noted ominously, cracking
her knuckles and grinning like the madwoman she was.
"What the hell did I ever do to you to deserve this!" Sakura roared,
nerves and weariness finally getting the better of her.
The examiner's good mood seemed to evaporate instantly, and after
simmering for all of two seconds she was as red in the face as Sakura.
"What did ya do ta me?! Ya tried ta (&$in' _kill_ me for trippin' over
yer fat ass and knockin' ya inta the mud, and _then_ ya locked me in yer
private sicko fantasy land for four hours just so ya could $%#(& with my
head until I went as nuts as you!" Anko declared, stabbing an accusing
finger at the pink-haired kunoichi. "And lemmie tell ya, that is
seriously (%)&$in' nuts! I mean, what the hell was with the (#$&in'
bagpipes in the room with the giant pudding thing that tried ta eat
me!?"
Despite her frustration, Sakura could tell that something wasn't adding
up, so she chose her next words carefully. "What!? Don't point your
nasty rat-squeezing fingers at me, psycho-woman!" Well... relatively
carefully, compared to what she'd really wanted to say. Hastily, she cut
to the meat of the crazy notion that had just popped into her head. "And
don't you accuse _me_ of setting that crap up! Just who the hell do you
think I am!"
"One %(&!#ed up bitch with a seriously creepy snake fetish!" Anko
snapped, though her ire was also starting to show cracks of uncertainty.
Drawing herself to her full height, Sakura crossed her arms, for the
first time noticing that she was naked again; the rags she'd been
wearing had apparently been part of the genjutsu as well. "You must be
confusing me with someone else... like, say, _yourself!_" she accused,
valiantly fighting the urge to cover up for the sake of righteous
indignation and her newly rekindled ninja pride. "Unless you want to
tell me that you _aren't_ Mitarashi Anko?!"
The tall woman shot an indignant look at her, accompanied an obscene
gesture. "Damn straight I'm not (#&$in' Mitarashi Anko!"
"Then who the hell are you?!"
"Who else could I possibly (%&)$in' be?! I'm Haruno Sakura!"
That was the answer she was expecting, but the pink-haired kunoichi
still had to sneer in contempt- she would feel downright insulted if
this was some sort of ploy, and the jounin really thought she was that
stupid. "Who does that make me then? 'Cause _I'm_ certainly not
Mitarashi Anko..."
The brunette glared at her suspiciously. "Look, there's only two !(#$in'
people here, so one of us's gotta be Anko, and the other's gotta be
Sakura," Anko pointed out, starting to sound a little exasperated.
"So what makes you think _you're_ Sakura?" the shorter girl shot back.
Uncrossing her arms, she placed a hand on her chest. "At least _I've_
got the right body for it. And I _sound_ more like Haruno Sakura; if mom
ever caught _me_ talking like that, she'd come down on my head so hard
that ANBU could send every hunter-nin they have after me and they'd
never find more that a few pink hairs and a greasy stain on the
pavement!"
This seemed to give Anko pause. "What- I mean yeah, I guess she'd be
kinda pissed about that, but... I- well, she ain't here _now_," she
sputtered uncertainly, clenching her jaw as Sakura gave her an
unimpressed look. "Well )(&$! I don't know!" Throwing her hands up in
frustration, she cast her gaze around the room, as if the 'real'
Mitarashi Anko might be hiding somewhere, watching them. When she turned
again to Sakura, the serious, worried expression she wore seemed
strangely out of place on her face. "All I know is that _I'm_ Haruno
Sakura... and I can prove it; can you?"
Quirking an eyebrow, the naked girl set her face in a flat mask of
determination. "You bet I can." Absently, she was aware that whatever
was going on, time might be of the essence, but her growing curiosity
demanded satisfaction. "Since I've got the better claim at the moment,
I'll go first. Finish this poem: 'By the eye or hand; does the brittle
autumn leaf-'"
"'-weather the wind?'" Anko added immediately, a smile of satisfaction
threatening to unseat the frown upon her lips.
"Where is it from?" Sakura persisted.
An air of confidence returned to the older woman's posture. "'S the only
poem I ever got an 'A' on in kunoichi training. I swear, that snooty old
hag had it in for me from the start." At her interrogator's nod of
acknowledgment, she continued. "What color underwear were ya wearing the
first time you saw Sasuke?"
Sakura thought for a moment, then frowned. "That's a trick question."
"And why's that?"
"Because I wasn't wearing any underwear."
Anko's face morphed into a suggestive leer. "Any particular reason, or
were ya just feelin' like goin' commando that day?"
"Why don't you tell me?" Sakura demanded, becoming slightly irritated.
"That question was too general; you could have just been fishing for
information."
The other woman snorted in indignation. "Feh- fine, whatever. I wasn't
wearin' any 'cause it was after gym class on swim day. I was wearin' a
bathin' suit." She crossed her arms as Sakura had earlier, a picture of
incredulity. "Happy now? That's two questions for you; I want another!"
Sakura waved her off. "Fine, fine, just make it good this time."
Cocking her head to the side, the examiner considered for a good minute
before turning back again with a hard, critical eye. "I had an imaginary
friend, before I met Ino. What was her name?"
"...I don't remember," Sakura admitted unhappily, her expression
falling. "I haven't even thought of her in years." She wasn't about to
start doubting herself, but that little detail bugged Sakura even more
than she was letting on. Her memory was eidetic; she never forgot
anything that she couldn't bring back with a little effort. That was
something even Shikamaru, with his incredible intellect, couldn't hold
over her. "I'm not sure... I don't think she ever had one," she decided
aloud, looking up.
Anko's expression was conflicted now. She seemed troubled, but also a
bit nostalgic. "Kinda weird, ain't it?... Hmpf, but If I dunno, and you
dunno, then I guess that's the right answer," she conceded with a twinge
of irony.
"That was almost a trick question as well, you know," the pink-haired
kunoichi pointed out.
"Yeah, but'cha can't say I was fishin'; I gave ya somethin' first, ta
show ya we were on the same page. So... satisfied?"
Yet another question Sakura wasn't sure she could answer, but she nodded
anyway. "And you?"
In response, Anko plopped back down on the floor, propping her elbow on
her knee and her chin in her hand. "Hell no! I mean, where the #()$&
does this leave _us_ then?" Though frustrated and confused, the older
woman sounded relieved to be allowed to swear again, now that she'd
proven her claim on her identity. "We can't _both_ be Sakura."
"...Can't we, though?" Sakura waited for Anko's questioning look before
explaining. "Remember the first time Naruto used the Kagebunshin during
Kakashi-sensei's test? Sensei pulled a kawarimi and all of the Naruto
clones ended up attacking each other. Some advanced bunshin techniques
seem to create pretty convincing duplicates."
The pseudo-Jounin's frown turned thoughtful. "This ain't exactly a
$(&in' bunshin, though, and I kinda doubt Naruto's copies got memories
like you and I do. They wouldn't need 'em, since bunshin don't last very
long."
"Hmm..." With furrowed brow, Sakura's again went through the seals that
she'd used for her failed 'Shintenshin.' Now that she was relatively
calm, she was almost horrified at what she came up with. *How the hell
did I manage to not _die!_* A bead of cold sweat trickled down the side
of her now much paler face as she coughed to clear her suddenly dry
throat. "Well... I- _we_ weren't exactly careful when we came up with
the technique, were we? I think we're very lucky if a little mix-up is
all we have to worry about."
"Luck nothin'!" Apparently noting Sakura's confusion the... other Sakura
cast her a roguish grin that seemed perfectly at home on Anko's face.
"We've got better chakra control than anyone, even Sasuke! If there's
any $#(in; reason we pulled off _anythin'_ like what we were plannin',
it's that."
Despite herself, the petal-tressed girl had to break a weak smile. "And
is this anything like what we had planned?"
"We're completely in control, ain't we?"
"That's debatable. I mean, like I pointed out earlier, we aren't exactly
perfect copies of each other. So, assuming that I'm the original- just
assuming, for sake of argument!" she added quickly, as the other Sakura
puffed up for another tirade. "Assuming that, then you may not be
entirely in control of Anko, because it almost seems like a bit of her
personality is leaking out."
Anko-Sakura wasn't to be quelled that easily, however. "Are ya sayin'
that I act like that )(&$in' snake bitch!"
"Well, you do seem a bit... excitable."
"I'm havin' a (%!&in' mental breakdown here!" the brunette snapped
defensively. "_Excuse me_ if I'm a little on edge!"
"You were acting odd before too, when you thought that I was Anko," the
Sakura in the proper body pointed out. "But if you don't like that idea,
then what are _your_ thoughts?"
Catching the veiled jab at her competence, the elder kunoichi sneered at
the younger. "I'm _glad_ you asked. If I _am_ the copy, and I ain't
sayin' that I am... though I guess it's the most reasonable
possibility," she admitted very grudging, "but if I am, then maybe I
might not be...'complete.' I seem ta have all the memories, but I don't
have the... I dunno, the-"
"Personality?" Sakura snipped.
"#($& you! Like ya _really_ wanna be li'l miss perfect all the time?
Puhleeeze- that's %(&$in' bullshit, and you know it!" After a short
stare down Sakura blushed and dropped her gaze, looking abashed. "I
think maybe I just don't have the... the patience, or somethin'. Or
maybe I just ain't ashamed 'a who I am." She cast the pink-haired girl
another significant look, this one laced with disdain. "Didn't it feel
great ta stop runnin' with yer tail between yer legs long enough ta turn
around and get up in that bitch's face?"
Looking into the other woman's defiant eyes, Sakura realized that she
couldn't win. She tried not to feel embarrassed as she cracked a grin
somewhat less brazen than the ones her counterpart seemed to favor.
"Yeah, it did. But you'll excuse me if I don't feel like getting 'up in
her face' again, anytime soon- and who knows how long this will last? In
fact, right now, I think we should be concentrating on how we're going
to get out of here."
"Hah, you'll get no arguments from me there," Anko-Sakura quipped
lightly, already back in good spirits. Sakura was struck by how similar
this version of _her_ seemed to another loudmouthed genin she could
name. It was really weird, but kinda funny, too. While she was observing
this, the brunette had gotten back to her feet and was examining one of
the two new doors. "Check the other one, will ya?" she called over her
shoulder, even as Sakura moved to comply.
Neither of the doors were locked, but neither of them led anywhere of
note either. The awkward pair decided that it would be best if they kept
each other in sight, just it case it looked like the jutsu was about to
fail, since they had no idea what would happen then. As such, they
started going from one featureless room to the next, checking each door
they found along the way.
There were far fewer than it had initially seemed, but that was no
surprise. the entire facility seemed to be laid out on a 9x9 grid, with
each room connected to all of the adjacent ones. It had only seemed be
larger and more complex because of the genjutsu. Unfortunately, they
didn't find Sakura's clothes, which had been confiscated while she was
unconscious, and all the doors around the perimeter had brick walls
behind them, so they couldn't find a way out.
It was only when they came back to the center room, where Sakura had
encountered Anko, that the possessed Jounin noticed that there was some
scuffing around the one of the corners of the ceiling. Closer inspection
revealed it to be a hidden trap door, with a tiny slot that was probably
a keyhole. Standing in the corner, Sakura now covered up by Anko's coat,
the pair stared up at the egress in contemplation.
"Ya think we can force it?" Anko-Sakura suggested, though she seemed
dubious of that plan.
Sakura shook her head doubtfully. "I don't think we should try; who
knows what sorts of traps they might have on it. And you're sure you
don't have the key on you?" She turned to look at her... her what? She
still wasn't sure what to call the woman who wasn't exactly a copy of
herself.
"I told ya before, I checked _everywhere,_" the woman who was definitely
not Anko snapped, going a bit red. "The psycho carries some
really )$(&ed' up shit on 'er, but I didn't find any keys. Ya sure ya
ain't got it on _you_?"
"She didn't leave me _anything_ when I woke up, much less a key," Sakura
dismissed hotly, as she locked serious gazes with her companion.
"Dammit, where the hell could she have put it?"
"Hmm..."
"..."
"..."
Their eyes traveled downward simultaneously. "...$#(&in' snake woman,"
the dark-haired Sakura commented in annoyance. "Should'a guessed that
first."
"Ugh..." the pink-haired Sakura agreed. "Go into the other room before
you check, alright."
"Ya oughta ()%&in' check too," Anko-Sakura suggested, giving her a dirty
look.
Sakura stuck her tongue out in disgust. "...after, if you don't find
it."
"Alright, alright..." Walking into the next room, the tall woman went
around the corner but didn't shut the door behind her.
*Hmm... I guess it's a good thing I was paying attention when they
taught us how to regurgitate small objects at will...* A horrible, wet
retching noise drifted over from the other side of the wall. *Though
apparently not enough attention,* she mused with a shudder.
"Well... I don't see Mr. Squeakers in here anywhere, at least," Anko's
voice commented weakly, "but this woman must eat dango like Naruto eats
ramen..."
"I don't need a play by play!" Sakura shouted back, just in case her
counterpart had anything else to say along those lines. "Did you find
the key?" she pressed.
"Just a sec- still lookin'..." A few moments later there was a
triumphant cry. "Alright! Yeah, I got it!" Anko-Sakura came back around
the corner shortly afterward, wiping her fingers on her skirt and
clutching a small, shiny object in her hands.
Sakura made _no_ move to take and examine the key for herself; just
eyeing the glistening wet piece of metal was making her mildly nauseous.
"Ouch- I'll bet that hurt going down."
Seeing that she was stuck holding it, the brunette just grimaced and
nodded. "So now what? It'd be nice if we could just walk outta here, but
I'm guessin' that ain't very )($&in' likely."
The pink-haired girl had to agree. "Un... she brought me down here naked
and unconscious; as suspicious as that already is, it might be more
suspicious if we don't leave in an appropriate manner. Of course, then
you might have to bluff our way out of ANBU headquarters. We really
don't have any idea where we are, after all..." Looking up from her
contemplation of the key, Sakura was suddenly struck by a sense of deep
foreboding; Anko-Sakura was grinning at her again, the same cocky grin
that Naruto always wore right before he was about do something foolish.
"Heh, don't worry about it!" she scoffed brashly, which of course only
served to make Sakura worry even more. "Just leave everythin' ta me!"
Pushing open the door above her head with one hand as she held the inert
form of Haruno Sakura against her back with the other, 'Anko' couldn't
help but revel in the sheer physical power that the jounin's larger,
more developed body possessed. Sakura had been training with Gai for
weeks and she'd definitely seen some impressive improvement, if she did
say so herself, but Anko was on a whole different level entirely. She
was sure that she could have smashed the trap door right off of its
hinges without breaking a sweat. As her eyes cleared the lip above
however, one glance at the vicious forest of anti-intrusion seals
scrawled across the floor around the opening made her thankful that she
hadn't tried.
Pulling herself up, she took care not to knock her limp passenger
against the edges of the doorway. They'd decided to pretend that
'Sakura' had fainted from the strain of torture. Unfortunately, this was
ANBU they were talking about, so feigned unconsciousness simply wouldn't
fly. After the pink-haired girl had stripped back to her birthday suit,
the genin-in-jounin's clothing had performed a genjutsu on her that
would knock her out for a few minutes.
That had been the hardest part of the plan to convince her counterpart
of. The other Sakura was still a bit suspicious of her, and doubly wary
of being helpless in her presence, and she couldn't say that she blamed
the girl. This entire situation just had too many unknowns, not the
least of them being how she was in Anko's body and her own at the same
time, and how long she would stay that way.
Looking around the small room she'd entered, Sakura noted that the
single thick, heavy door at one end was open; apparently, Anko hadn't
though her worth trouble of a full lockdown. *Lucky! It'd be a $)(%in'
bitch if I had ta come up with a password or somethin' ta get 'em ta
open the door...* Still, that didn't mean that she was home free. There
were still procedures for kidnappings and interrogations, and if she
didn't play 'Anko' _to the hilt_, the suspicious nature of shinobi might
just land them in a tighter spot than they'd started in.
Walking through the doorway, she didn't notice anybody else in the
narrow hallway outside. The passage was lined with similar doors as far
as she could see, with a bend at one end and a flight of stairs at the
other. Given the pipes running along the ceiling and the total lack of
windows, the stairs seemed like the better bet. Adjusting her grip on
the sleeping girl so she wouldn't flop over backwards, Sakura started
walking with even, confident strides towards her goal. She should have
been scared completely out of her wits- no, she _was_ scared; she was
absolutely terrified, but the fear was invigorating, like she was
discovering for the first time what it meant to be alive.
Sakura hastily reined herself in before she could get too excited over
the sheer madness of what she was attempting. This wasn't the time to
lose her head like that idiot Naruto always did; she was a _thinking_
ninja, even if kicking butt and taking names sometimes seemed like more
fun. She slowed as she started up the stairs, eyes peeled and ears
pricked as she searched for any sign of scrutiny. She was soon rewarded
by the sound of voices above, one female and one male. The woman sounded
vaguely familiar.
Not hesitating even long enough to hear what was being said, as that
would be suspicious, she reached the top a second later. A pretty face
with dark red eyes and pouting lips was assigned to the familiar voice,
and it came with a name: Yuuhi Kurenai, the jounin instructor for team
4. The man's voice belonged to a masked ANBU guard that was lounging
against the wall by the stairwell. As the gazes of the chatting pair
turned to her, hints of surprise and satisfaction flickered across
Kurenai-sensei's face, and Sakura suddenly knew that she- or at least
Anko -had been the subject of their conversation.
*Wait, no- she ain't 'Kurenai-sensei!' $&%(, what would Anko call her?!*
Blazing through her vast store of local and tactical knowledge, Sakura
instantly determined that there were so few female Jounin in Konoha that
they probably all knew each other at least in passing. She also realized
that it was getting close to noon, Kurenai was most likely looking for
her, and Anko wasn't one to stand by formalities. Taking all these
things into account, she reached deep into whatever store of acting
talent she had hidden in her and blurted out the first thing that came
to mind.
"Yuuhiii! Feed me!" the wild-haired brunette cried, a manic grin
breaking across her beaming face.
Kurenai's lips dipped down into a frown for a moment, before one corner
of her mouth turned up in a smirk. "Ah-ah; not this time, Anko. You
still owe me, and I intend to collect."
*Gotcha!* Sakura put on her best 'perfect little angel' expression,
complete with huge, shiny doe-eyes, and turned it full force on the
instructor. It actually _did_ make her look innocent when she was in her
own body, but served to do exactly the opposite on Anko's naturally
mischievous face. "I have no idea what you're talking about,
Yuuhi-chan."
The other kunoichi snorted in annoyance and crossed her arms. "You're
not fooling anyone, Anko. Honestly, it's just three little meals. I buy
you food all the time; why are you being such a child about this?"
That was an excellent question... and one Sakura didn't have an answer
to. But at least Kurenai seemed to half expect this sort of reaction
from Anko. She'd just have to see how far she could take it. "But Yuuhi,
why do I have to buy you _three_?" she demanded, dropping the sweetness
and light in favor of the whiny, contrite tone that Naruto always used
when he didn't want to believe that something was true.
"Because that was the deal! All three of my students passed your section
of the exam, so you have to buy me lunch three times. It's as simple as
that." So that was it. The other woman seemed satisfied that her
reasoning was too tight for Anko to worm out of it.
Sakura, however, was willing to bet that a silly thing like 'logic'
wouldn't stop the examiner from trying. "That's no fair! It was all or
nothin' for my exam! I should only have to buy you lunch once for the
whole team!"
Despite 'Anko's' protests, the long-haired Jounin seemed confident that
her victim would eventually give in- or at least Kurenai didn't appear
upset that she was being so stubborn. "Tough; one student, one meal.
Those were the terms, Anko. If you don't like it, you shouldn't have
made the bet."
Frowning and scratching her chin, Sakura put on a suspicious look. "I
don't remember _those_ terms."
Now it was Kurenai's turn to smile like the cat that ate the canary.
"Sure you do: you said, and I quote, 'If any of those dumb rookies can
pass _my_ test, I'll buy you lunch!"
"Ah-!" Sakura tried to interrupt, but the other woman wasn't finished
yet.
"-and then _I_ said, 'Alright, I'm going to hold you to that, Anko. You
have to buy me lunch for every one of my students that passes your
test,' and you said 'Deal!' and we shook on it." Spreading her hands to
show that all had been revealed, Kurenai smiled wider as she looked at
Anko's face. "So you see, everything is in order, neat and tidy. All
three of my students passed. You've already fed me once; two more times
and you're in the clear."
Bristling with indignation, Sakura made like she was having trouble
finding her tongue. "H-Hey, you tricked me!"
"Yup."
"Grrr..."
"Don't pout," Kurenai chided evenly. "Really, Anko, you should learn to
listen more carefully before you open your mouth."
Deciding that she'd pushed far enough, Sakura released a half-defeated
sigh, her expression melting into annoyance. "Fine, whatever. So where
do you wanna go- and it better not be somewhere expensive!"
"Ahem-"
Both women turned to look at the by now forgotten ANBU who was standing
just a few feet away. Seeing that he had their attention, the man
pointed at the sleeping form of Sakura, still perched on 'Anko's' back.
He didn't say anything, and he barely even moved, but somehow his
posture alone managed to convey amusement, question, and expectation.
*Time ta earn my keep. Here goes nothin'...* Her mouth forming an 'O' of
surprise, as if she'd just realized that she was carrying a naked girl
on her back, 'Anko' turned and moved toward the masked ninja, indicating
that he should relieve her of her passenger. When he'd complied, she
dusted her hands off and peered at Sakura's sleeping body in sadistic
amusement. "Go ahead'n send her home when she wakes up. I don't think we
need to worry about her; I guarantee, she's learned her lesson."
Sakura could swear that she heard an exasperated sigh from behind the
man's mask, but she was already turning back to Kurenai. If she didn't
bail soon he might think of some paperwork or something that he wanted
her to do, and then the jig would be up. "C'mon, lets get this over
with. I know a great ramen place near here," she suggested,
surreptitiously watching Kurenai's body language so that when they
started walking they were both headed in the same direction.
"Nice try, but I think I have a better idea," the other woman remarked
gamely, smirking when Sakura made a face and stuck Anko's tongue out at
her. Before they left the room, Kurenai Yuuhi cast a final glance back
at the ANBU guard, who was now carrying the unconscious pink-haired girl
in another direction. Returning her gaze to her companion, she quirked
an inquisitive eyebrow. "Should I even ask?"
Chuckling for reasons that only she could know, 'Anko' waved
dismissively. "Just another stupid kid..." She'd have wished the other
Sakura luck, but she suspected she needed it more herself. Impersonating
Anko was turning out to be surprisingly easy, but despite her success
thus far she doubted she could fool the Jounin for much longer.
Strangely, though, she wasn't all that worried. *Ah, ta hell with it. At
least I get a free lunch...*
Sakura did _not_ stir to consciousness with a disoriented start; she'd
made sure that she would be fully aware of her surroundings immediately
upon waking up by using the Fushinka no Jutsu before she was knocked
out. For this reason, even before she opened her eyes, she realized that
she was awake, that she was lying on something reasonably soft, and that
she was covered up from the neck down, probably by a blanket.
The faintly fresh, damp smell of the air told her that she was above
ground again, and that it had stopped raining outside, but the room she
was in probably didn't have any open windows. And a sudden shuffling
noise somewhere nearby made her aware that she wasn't alone in the room,
as she'd originally thought, and that whoever was with her had realized
she was awake, and wanted her to know that they were there.
*Well, that was quick. No point in pretending now...* Still, Sakura
began by cautiously cracking an eyelid and peering to the side. She was
greeted by the sight of a masked ANBU ninja straddling a backwards chair
and leaning forward with his arms on the back rest, staring right at
her.
Heaving a resigned sigh, the pink-haired girl opened her eyes completely
and sat up, holding the plain blue blanket to her chest. She was laying
on a worn red couch at one end of a well-lit room with barred windows. A
few more simple wooden chairs were scattered around, and a mound of
jarring green cloth that could only be The Jumpsuit was folded neatly
atop the coffee table that sat between her and the room's only door,
beside which the other ninja sat. Realizing that she was still naked
under the blanket, and that the ANBU was a man, Sakura's face colored
and she shot her guard a small frown.
The ninja responded by silently getting up and leaving the room, though
he didn't close the door behind him. Sakura could tell he standing was
right beside it, listening to her. *Well, I _am_ a prisoner; I guess I
can't hope for much more than that...* Getting up, she searched through
the pile of clothes until she found her underwear and began dressing.
Sakura decided to forego the jumpsuit, since she wore her regular
running shorts and a black mesh half-shirt underneath it anyhow, just in
case she ever had to ditch her training uniform quickly. For instance,
if she ever saw Ino coming, she'd be out of that thing so fast that Gai
probably wouldn't even notice until minutes later.
Tying on her forehead protector in her traditional fashion, Sakura
checked herself over once, thankful that she'd worn a black sports bra
that didn't clash with the rest of her now somewhat minimal attire.
Finally, she took a moment to glance around the room.
The windows were definitely out of the question; even if she managed to
get to them before he stopped her, Sakura couldn't see how the barred
gratings could be opened or removed without just tearing them out of the
walls. Likewise, nothing in the room seemed like it would make an
effective weapon- for _her_, anyway -against a prepared ANBU
assassination specialist. Gai didn't permit her to have any weapons on
her while she was training so there weren't any in her clothes, not that
she would have expected them to still be there if there had been.
So it didn't appear that she'd be able to slip away or fight her way
out... but the _plan_ had been that she wouldn't need to. *Where the
hell is she?!* The absence of Mitarashi Anko or the copy of Haruno
Sakura that was impersonating her was the most disturbing detail of her
current predicament.
Still, they _were_ returning her things, including the broken halves of
her bird mask, which now lay atop the jumpsuit still sitting folded on
the table. That was probably a good sign. *Only one way to find out,
though...* Deciding that it was time to face the music, Sakura cleared
her throat and looked toward the door.
The ninja returned almost immediately; he probably paused before
entering the room to make sure he wasn't going to be ambushed. When he
saw Sakura standing there, hands on her hips, staring at him
expectantly, a muffled laugh escaped from behind his mask. "How are you
feeling?" he asked, at the same time appraising her, likely trying to
gauge her mental state from her body language. He seemed amused by what
he saw.
"Aside from being mentally scarred for life, I feel fine," Sakura
replied, her irate, defiant mood from earlier not completely evaporated
yet. Also, upon reflection, she really did feel remarkably healthy; none
of the wounds she'd sustained in the genjutsu remained, not even the
sucker marks, and the lingering pain from her mis-executed technique had
long since faded. Still... while he was asking: "Actually, I tried to
perform a counter-genjutsu technique and I think I did it wrong. It hurt
a _lot_, like my chakra was on fire, but for only a moment."
"Hmm..." Peering more closely at her, the ANBU formed a few seals that
Sakura though she actually recognized, and then stared hard at her.
"Well, your chakra flow seems to be regular, if a bit weak, but I would
guess that's from overexertion."
*He could tell all that just from performing a technique and looking at
me?* Then she remembered where she'd seen those seals before. *Byakugan!
He must be a Hyuuga behind that mask!* It wasn't surprising that the
village's self-proclaimed 'strongest bloodline' would have a few members
in ANBU, but it was a definite stroke of luck for her. It eased her mind
a bit to know that she hadn't caused any _obvious_ damage with that
crazy gamble, but also made her even more curious about what she'd done
to herself.
That wasn't something she could ask now, though, without knowing the
current disposition of her erstwhile counterpart. *Freedom first,
answers later.* Nodding to herself, Sakura gave the ninja a questioning
look, as if she didn't know how he'd examined her. "Well... that's a
relief, I guess. Do I get to go now?"
"...nice to see you're not taking this badly," her guard replied drolly,
though he didn't step out of the doorway. "Do you understand what you
did wrong?"
"I pissed off Mitarashi Anko?" Sakura replied in an equally droll voice,
peering at him through lidded eyes. "Or, perhaps I was acting
'suspiciously,' during a very tense time for our village's security
forces?"
The masked man just shook his head and turned around. "You're a sharp
one, kid, but don't let it go to your head; people are strung so tight
right now, you might just lose it." With that he began walking away.
Taking this as her cue, Sakura scooped up the remaining items on the
table and followed. *Huh... so are we just going to 'forget' this little
incident, then?*
They weren't very deep in the building as it turned out, and just a few
minutes of walking brought them to a rather spare reception area with a
few old, overstuffed chairs and an unmasked chuunin lounging behind a
heavy-looking dark wood desk. The Jounin leading her motioned for Sakura
to wait, so she took a seat on the armrest of one of the chairs while he
went up to the desk and began filling out some forms.
He brought a clipboard over to her a moment later, and the pink-haired
kunoichi found herself scanning through a pile of non-disclosure and
release of liability agreements that she was apparently supposed to
sign, in triplicate. *I suppose mistakenly torturing your own village's
citizens isn't something they take lightly in ANBU. Hmm... I wonder if I
could sue...*
The thought of dragging Anko before a tribunal of the Village elders was
definitely enticing, but then Sakura remembered that she was probably
committing assault and coercion through genjutsu upon a Chuunin Exam
Examiner even as she sat there. *Ugh... there's no way this is going to
end well unless I can somehow convince her to forgive me. I gotta find
her!* After committing the forms to memory, just in case she needed to
know the specific language of her release later, Sakura signed on the
dotted line and looked up, searching for her warden, but he was nowhere
in sight.
The pink-haired girl then flinched violently as a something landed on
the top of her head. Looking over her shoulder, she saw the ANBU guard
removing his hand, leaving something behind as he reached with the other
for the clipboard she was holding. Sakura surrendered it without
struggle, reaching up to remove the object he'd dropped on her; it was a
clay mask, not unlike the one he was wearing himself.
"Replacement," he explained as he leafed through the forms, motioning
with the clipboard toward the broken mask sitting atop the jumpsuit
she'd set on the chair.
"Ah- ...thanks." Examining the mask more closely, Sakura noted that it
was rather different from the one she'd had before. Firstly, it seemed
to be a genuine _hunter nin_ mask, white with red accents and complete
with the Konoha leaf upon the forehead to indicate the village she
hailed from. It was also a different shape from the bird mask Anko had
broken. It was a fox mask instead, with abstract curves indicating a
snout and ears, and sharply tilted eye slits. Screwing her face up in
confusion, Sakura peered questioningly at the Jounin.
"Well," he began with a sheepish shrug, "If you're going to go around
wearing a mask, I figure a little warning might be in order, just so we
know what to expect in case we have to pick you up again."
*I AM NOT A TROUBLEMAKER, DAMMIT!* Sakura could _tell_ the man was
grinning like an idiot behind that monkey-mask he was wearing. Gods- she
could just see this spreading around the village like wildfire. She'd
have a rep as bad as Naruto's before she knew it. But it wouldn't do to
fan the flames anymore than she already had. Putting on a nervous smile,
she fingered the mask in her hands absently. "I don't think you need to
worry about that. I know better now."
The famous all-piercing eyes of the Hyuuga had apparently missed her
moment of indignation. "Heh... just try not to get caught by Anko-sama
next time," he teased lightly. Flipping through the pages one last time,
he nodded and lowered the clipboard. "Everything seems to be in order
here. You're free to go." Reaching under his arm, he handed her the
straw raincoat she'd been wearing earlier.
Perching the mask on the top of her head so she wouldn't forget it- it
may have been a joke at her expense, but it was still kinda cool -Sakura
accepted the raincoat with another tired, "Thanks." Since she couldn't
hear any rain outside, she used the roughly braided straw to wrap the
jumpsuit and the remains of her old mask, carrying the bundle under her
arm.
As she turned to go, Sakura started to wave over her shoulder at the
unexpectedly reasonable ninja, then smirked at the grinning monkey
depicted on his mask and pulled the fox mask down to cover her own face.
"Give Mitarashi-san my regards?"
Both the ANBU and the chuunin behind the desk had to laugh at this.
"Heh, sure thing..."
As she walked out onto the stone landing that kept what remained of the
'street' from flowing into the building, Sakura noticed a familiar,
slouch-shouldered form standing a little ways away. The slick-haired
young man looked up when she emerged, and an skeptical frown spread
across his face. "Haruno, is that you?"
"Shikamaru, what are you doing here?" Flipping the mask back onto the
top of her head, Sakura peered at the boy inquisitively.
The Nara Clan heir simply shrugged, quickly getting over the absurdity
of Haruno Sakura coming out of an ANBU haunt wearing a hunter nin mask.
"Ino asked me to help her find out where you were, to see if you were
okay."
*That was awfully thoughtful of her.* She and Ino hadn't parted company
on very pleasant terms that morning. Still, Sakura's harrowing chase
through the streets and eventual capture and abduction by Mitarashi Anko
fell comfortably outside of the demilitarized zone in their friendship
surrounding the disputed state of 'Sasuke.' She'd likely have done the
same, had their situations been reversed.
*But Ino-pig would probably have gotten caught in front of the butcher
shop,* she mused with a grin, which widened in response to the put-upon
look on Shikamaru's face. "Well, you've found me," she declared, "and I
think I'm okay, all things considered. How did you know to look here?"
She gestured to the nondescript building behind them. Like most
facilities reserved for the more sensitive aspects of the ninja trade,
it was unmarked.
The shorter boy grimaced, as if it wasn't worth the breath to explain,
though he did anyway under her expectant stare. "Nothing weird. I saw
the second examiner and another woman go into a restaurant, so I just
followed their trail back and ended up here."
"Oh?" A glance at the road, which in this part of town was little more
than a wide strip of mud, churned by the rain and thousands of walking
feet, caused Sakura's thin pink brows to rise on her pleasantly wide
forehead. *What the hell kind of trail could he have possibly followed
through _that_? This isn't Kiba and Akamaru we're talking about here.*
The image of lazy, cantankerous Shikamaru, snorting along with his face
buried in the mud, made Sakura chuckle in amusement.
Her expression quickly sobered, however, as her thoughts turned to the
other 'Sakura' that was probably still wandering around in Anko's body,
getting into who knows what kinds of trouble. This wasn't over yet, not
by a long shot, but at least Shikamaru's method of finding her was a
lucky coincidence. "Do you remember what restaurant they went to?" she
questioned.
She must not have hidden her urgency very well, for the boy's expression
immediately soured. If everything Ino said about him was true, Shikamaru
could smell a hassle a mile away, so she was quick to reassure him, "I'd
just like to know where it is, so I can avoid it on my way home."
He didn't seem entirely placated, but Shikamaru apparently decided that
it was too much trouble to find out what she was really up to. "It was
that new Wave Country seafood restaurant near the Paradise bathhouse,"
he supplied tersely. "'Dolphin Tail' is the name."
"Thanks Shikamaru," Sakura sang a bit too cheerily. "I think I'm gonna
go home now, so my parents know I'm alright."
Shikamaru's eyes widened. "...wait, don't-"
Cutting him off, Sakura sketched a quick bow and turned to go. "Thank
Ino for me, will you?" she called over her shoulder.
"If you'll wait ju-"
But the pink-haired kunoichi was already leaping away, reflexively
pulling the mask down over her face as she touched down on a nearby
rooftop and sped off in the direction of the hot springs area, where
most of the better village bathhouses were. *Oh yeah, that was _real_
smooth, Sakura. He doesn't suspect a thing...* She didn't have time for
subtlety, though.
At least she didn't think she had to worry about Shikamaru too much. His
preternatural laziness meant he tended to mind his own business, unlike
some busybodies she knew, who seemed to take no greater pleasure than in
chasing after other people's troubles. *Like I haven't given her
_enough_ to think about already...*
"...So, did you find out if she's in there yet, or is this a red
herring?"
Lowering his eyes from the rooftops across the street, Shikamaru's frown
deepened as his bossy teammate came walking up, chewing on a crepe that
she'd bought from one of the multitudinous street-side vendors that had
come out of the woodwork since the Chuunin Exam had started. "...you
just missed her," he muttered, stuffing his hands in his pockets.
Ino bristled. "What- you let her leave?! Why didn't you tell her to
wait?" His customary 'it was too much trouble' shrug predictably caused
the blonde to shift into High Annoyance Mode. "That crazy forehead girl
_will_ apologize to my face for ruining my morning!" she ranted, looking
a bit more irritated and less worried than she had earlier. "Which way
did she go?"
"..."
Finding the restaurant was relatively easy, even though she'd never
eaten there before. Her family wasn't _poor_, but her mom was first
generation city-folk. All of her mother's brothers were farmers, so the
food was always home-cooked in the Haruno household. She only ever got
to eat out when she was with her team.
This was why, when she caught sight of Yuuhi Kurenai and Mitarashi Anko
sitting in the window, talking animatedly over a table full of
half-demolished plates of gorgeous, fancy, foreign food, Sakura took a
moment to seethe in envy. *Well _she_ certainly looks like she's
enjoying herself.*
Of course this probably was furthest from the case, she told herself,
but it was still quite shocking to see the two jounin chatting like old
friends, as if nothing at all was amiss. Had the jutsu ended? Was
Mitarashi Anko back- and if so, what had happened to the other 'her?'
She was suddenly glad for the mask, and what little anonymity it offered
her, given that she was one of only two people she'd ever met with hair
the color of cherry blossoms, the other being her grandmother.
Still, her hair probably wasn't enough of a giveaway that the real
Mitarashi Anko to abandon a meal to chase her down, but it might be
enough for her double, since the other Sakura would be expecting her. It
was another gamble, far too many in one day for a girl who liked to know
all of the cards in play before she made her move, but her luck had held
_this_ far... Clutching the straw-wrapped bundle behind her back, Sakura
took a deep breath and walked into 'Anko's' line of sight, leaning
against a lamp post and watching for any change in the woman's demeanor.
"-You're kidding me! The little shit actually put his head in your
_lap_?" Sakura gaped in disbelief. "What did you-" A flash of pink
outside and across the street drew her eye. *...FINALLY! #)&!* Glancing
back to her companion, the brunette's gaze swept down until it fell upon
a small black box clipped to the waist of her short skirt. "-Ah! Sorry,
Yuuhi, pager's buzzin'. I gotta go take this." Excusing herself, she
pulled out her chair and began walking to the rear of the restaurant.
Strolling past the pay-phones by the bathroom, which were thankfully out
of sight from the table they'd taken, Sakura proceeded to the emergency
exit. Deftly defusing the alarms on the door with a few quick,
well-placed needle pokes, she checked to make sure no one was watching,
then pushed open the door and hurried outside, shutting it behind her.
It was only a few moments later that the pink-haired girl appeared,
ducking out from behind a dumpster that partially blocked one end of the
alley behind the restaurant. She didn't take off the mask, but Sakura
had seen her own body often enough for there to be no doubt about who it
was.
"It's about (#&!(%in' time!" she hissed, rushing forward when the other
Sakura didn't approach. "Get me the hell outta here!"
Though she'd initially looked ready to bolt, her counterpart now seemed
satisfied of her identity. "You want to just leave?" the shorter girl
questioned, sounding dissatisfied with this suggestion. "What about
Kurenai-sensei? You have to tell her _something_ or she'll get
suspicious."
"That ain't what I #!(%in' mean!" Sakura could feel tears whipping down
the sides of her face as she shook her head frantically, but she didn't
care. "I mean out of _here_!" She slapped a palm against Anko's chest
for emphasis. "I think I'm losin' my )(&$in' mind!"
"Is it really that bad? I'm actually kind of amazed that you've managed
to last this long-"
Seeing that she wasn't getting point across, Sakura growled, screwing
Anko's face into a scowl of frustration. "I mean that literally! I mean
I'm losin' _me_! I also thought it was too #)(&$in' good ta be true, how
easy it was ta 'pretend' ta be Anko an' fool 'er, and it _is_. She's
leakin' out!"
At this, the other Sakura _did_ take a step back, eyeing her
distrustfully. "Then it's like I thought after all?"
"Yes- no- I dunno! This ain't the #%()in' _time_!" By now, the brunette
was barely keeping her voice under control. *Why can't she see
how )#(!%in' bad this is?!* "You've gotta get me outta here! I don't
wanna turn inta Anko!" she pleaded, staring directly into the mask's
eyes, trying to force the other girl to understand.
Now the other Sakura finally seemed to get it, but the pink-haired
girl's body language was uncertain. "I'm not even sure if that's
possible..." she protested distraughtly, taking on a thoughtful pose.
"How long do you think you have left, before...?"
"Not ()&$in' long! I'm forgettin' all I ever knew about _me_, but I
think I know more about Mitarashi now than anyone deserves ta, and
it's )(&$in' scarin' the shit outta me! Did'ja know she actually _cares_
how many )&#$in' dango were left in the tray she was eatin' when we
knocked 'er over!" Throwing her hands up, Sakura ground her teeth in
frustration. "I'm gettin' pissed off just thinkin' about it- AAAARGH!
Help me!"
"But I don't know how!"
"Do the technique again!"
The other Sakura tensed up, but seemed to consider it. "We don't know
that that would work- It'd probably just make things worse..."
"Well (&)$! There's gotta be somethin' we can do!" Crumbling to her
knees, Sakura punched the ground angrily. She'd be damned before she
gave up, but her double's relative calm, which should have been
reassuring, was instead beginning to try her patience. She couldn't help
but feel like she was being abandoned.
*&)#($ that! I won't be left behind again!* Looking up with blazing
eyes, she frantically tried to think of something- _anything_ that might
enable her to get out Mitarashi Anko's accursed body. "...Take off your
mask," she commanded, her voice quiet and grave.
"What?" the other Sakura wondered, shifting warily.
"Take off the #(&$in' mask!" not waiting for a response this time,
Sakura surged forward with all the inhuman speed that Anko's body could
muster, wrenching the mask up to reveal a pair of shocked emerald eyes,
but that wasn't what she was after.
Looking lower, she finally found a pair of smooth lips, parted slightly
in a gasp of surprise. *Here goes nothin'!* Putting her other hand on
the shorter girl's cheek to steady her, Sakura whispered a hasty prayer
to her ancestors and dove in, trying with all her might to pour her very
soul into the stunned kunoichi in her arms.
At first, Sakura was too shocked to know what to feel. She couldn't even
begin to understand the battle for identity that her double was waging
in Anko's body, but the fear was becoming infectious. Trying to keep her
cool and figure out what to do had distracted her so much that she
hadn't noticed the other woman's change in demeanor until it was too
late. Then, before she could even panic, she was caught in the deepest,
most terrified and passionate kiss that she could imagine, the kind of
kiss that makes you forget where you are and what you were doing the
moment before.
She'd just recovered enough to wonder distantly at the soft warmth of
Anko's lips on hers, when the lingering dregs of fear were suddenly
drowned in a flood of feeling. There wasn't any pain this time, just an
electric jolt of connection followed by a wild stream of thoughts,
images, and emotions, all flowing together like an entire lifetime
compressed into a single second. Fighting to keep her head above water,
Sakura's first gasp of air was filled by an overwhelming sense of
relief.
She didn't even understand _why_ she was relieved until the swirling
miasma of memory settled enough for her to pick out individual moments.
The confusion of waking up and seeing herself spit out a mouthful of
bloody saliva; anger, as the pink-haired girl who might have been Anko
accused _her_ of being Anko; distress, as the way she talked was brought
up; triumph, as she walked out of the ANBU interrogation facility with
Kurenai; terror, as she realized she was losing herself; then finally
came relief, as she realized that she'd _done_ it! She was in her own
body again!
Except she'd also been in her own body the entire time, and the new
memories were having a hard time finding a place among the ones she
already had. Head still swimming, Sakura stumbled backwards out of
Anko's limp arms, her mask tumbling back into place.
Instinct took hold where reason failed, and she realized that the
Jounin's eyes, pointed straight at her, were glazed, but beginning to
focus again. Speed and stealth were her allies as both ninja and prey,
and without even thinking she embraced both, vanishing from sight as she
rocketed toward the sky on legs propelled by frantic might.
"And here I thought you were trying to skip out on the bill..."
"Huh?" Blinking, the short-haired brunette straightened and turned
around to see Yuuhi Kurenai standing in the restaurant's back door. Her
friend of several years was only partially successful in hiding the
shocked look on her face, covering it half-heartedly with a mysterious
smile.
"...Bill?" Anko wondered aloud, still trying to figure out what had just
happened.
"Here, Miss," came another voice, as a young, red-faced waiter shoved a
small plastic tray into her hands before quickly ducking back inside.
Eyes automatically drifting down to the object in her hands, Anko stared
at it uncomprehendingly for a few seconds, then realization dawned.
"AAAAAH? YUUUHIII! I can't afford this!" she screeched, holding the
tablet at arm's length, like the numbers might get smaller if they were
farther away.
"...fine, If that's the way you're going to be, then I won't ask,"
Kurenai muttered with a disappointed sniff. Instantly, the iron of
command stiffened her back and hardened her voice. "But you _will_ pay
for lunch!"
"But Yuuhiii, I'll starve!" Anko protested, hurrying after the other
woman as she disappeared back inside.
"Hmph, a bit less dango and sweets every day would be good for you..."
"That's not fair!"
"..."
"..."
"Shikamaru," Ino prompted, gross disbelief making her voice faint and
airy, "after Mitarashi-san kissed her, how did Sakura look to you?"
Silent as a stone, the slick-haired boy just turned away, feigning
disinterest, and she instantly knew that she'd get nothing from him.
She'd seen it clearly enough herself not to need any confirmation, but
someone saying it aloud somehow seemed necessary for it to really be
_real_.
"She looked... relieved, to me- happy, almost," the blonde girl finally
declared, shaking her head. *Who would have thought that- that
_Sakura_... no _wonder_ she hasn't made any progress with Sasuke...*
"I'm going home," Shikamaru declared suddenly, startling her. He didn't
even wait for a response before starting to walk away.
"A- aaaah... thanks for your help." She managed a jerky nod at his
retreating back, but Ino was already falling back into her own thoughts.
*Dammit, I knew we should have gotten closer- at least then we could
have heard what they said! What the heck is going on here!*
Frowning, Ino bit her lower lip and began walking, not really caring
where her legs took her. "What's going on with you, Sakura...?"
S U I R E N
To be continued...
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foreseeable chapters to come) are the creations and property of
Kishimoto Masashi. I claim no legal right to use them, and I am making
no money off of this piece of fanfiction... wait, no. I lie; go back to
that first part. There _is_ one character in here that Kishimoto didn't
make up... but he's not all that important, so don't go running away
just yet ^_^;...
Spoiler Warning: This chapter still takes place during the intermission
between the second and third stages of the Chuunin Exam. That will
change soon; time _does_ move in Suiren, so shortly the fic will be
taking place during the third stage of the Chuunin Exam... (Yaaaay!)
Non-Yaoi Warning: There's one scene in this chapter where two men appear
onscreen at the same time; there's still no Yaoi, but watch for it if
you're the type that likes to insinuate such things. Those that like to
insinuate scandalous Yuri shenanigans might have an easier time with
this chapter, but keep in mind that this fic isn't about romance thus
far, and you'd have to make some pretty big assertions to call what
happens Yuri, so don't get your hopes up -_-;...
Continuity Warning: Okay, so i lied again; no continuity yet. This
chapter isn't directly after the previous one, but the jump is shorter
this time. I keep getting the urge to leave some of the boring (and not
so boring) bits left unsaid, to spare your attention and tease your
imagination... or something...
This chapter was originally chapters 4, 5 and 6 of Suiren (titled
'Shadows' part I, II and III respectively), but since it was all
supposed to be one big chapter to start with, i'm going to make it all
one big chapter now. Make sense? This is the first of several _huge_
chapters that were broken up in the original posting due to chapter
size and the speed at which i write. The originals can still be found at
www.fanfiction.net/~eimii, though this version has been revised a bit
for posting to the FFML. This chapter marks a return to the 'meaty'
(read: verbose and often over-descriptive) writing style that i used in
my earlier Ranma fics, so be prepared for things to go more slowly; you
have been warned -_-;...
This is also the point where i'll probably really start revising the
story so that it flows better, makes more sense and has fewer
canon/factual errors, so any C&C and suggestions you have to give me
would be greatly appreciated! Thanks for reading this far, and enjoy the
show!
~Eimii
SHADOWS...
Listening carefully by the side of the door so she wouldn't cast a
shadow under it, Sakura was forced to wonder why she was even bothering.
If she was right, checking these doors was a complete waste of time.
This one would be like all of the others, with Mitarashi Anko or some
other unspeakable horror lurking behind it, ready to set her heart
hammering anew as they continued the twisted game of cat and mouse
they'd been playing since Sakura had woken hours earlier, naked and
alone in an empty room somewhere deep within the bowels of ANBU's
torture and interrogation facility.
At least, that's where Sakura assumed they were. The endless miles
corridors that she'd been wandering through were probably just an
elaborate genjutsu that the examiner was using to torment her. The
simpler versions of such techniques- the ones that could be maintained
for hours on end -depended on having a homogenous environment for the
victims to wander in, such as poorly-lit forest path or a series of
specially prepared rooms with no telltale features to distinguish one
from the next... much like these halls, with their drab gray plaster
walls, half burnt-out ceiling lamps and heavy, black metal doors.
Unfortunately, Anko wasn't giving her a lot of options. Sitting still
was probably about as effective as moving, but she wasn't the _only_
thing loose down here, it seemed. *Ugh- it's a good thing they had
eyes,* the pink haired girl mused with a shudder, rubbing the very
real-looking sucker marks on her arm. At least she'd managed to pilfer
some scraps of clothing off of the corpses she'd found in one of the
other rooms. She never though she'd actually miss that damn green
jumpsuit, until she was forced to run around like a rat in a maze
wearing nothing but her pride, which was notably lacking at the moment.
*This sucks! What did I do to deserve this!* Her little accident in the
street would barely qualify as a childish prank, even if it had been
intentional. *Which it _wasn't!_ Gods, why did I even run? I should have
just given up.* The worst part was that she didn't know _what_ the hell
had had happened in the end, when her body had started moving and
talking all by itself. She'd _never_ have insulted Anko like that, even
if she agreed with every word of it; making psychopaths angry at you
just wasn't very smart.
*Maybe I'm going insane from studying too much genjutsu.* The books said
it happened sometimes; people got carried away and destroyed their own
minds. Sakura released a helpless sigh. She wasn't training to beat Ino
only to end up defeating herself instead- and whatever Anko was doing to
her couldn't be helping matters! *Dammit, the only way out of here is
through _her_!*
She would just have to confront the demon, then... but how? She wasn't a
genius ninja; she was barely even mediocre. She didn't have any special
techniques, and she had to assume that Anko controlled the environment
completely, so elaborate traps would be useless. It always came back to
control- Anko had her hooks in Sakura's mind, and Sakura wasn't good
enough to dig them out. *Maybe a counterattack of some sort- but she's a
_jounin_! I wouldn't even know where to start!*
That wasn't entirely true, though. Sakura had studied the underlying
concepts behind a number of different genjutsu in her quest to find a
counter to the Shintenshin. As most of her books were intended for
academic purposes rather than training, she'd been forced to work out
the actual mechanics of the techniques herself, but she'd already had
some success with her concealment genjutsu. Ino's family technique had
proven a bit harder to crack, but she thought she had a reasonably good
idea of how it worked, and she _did_ know how to construct a simple
invasive genjutsu, in theory... but would that be enough?
*...It had better be.* An electric thrill surged from the base of her
spine to the top of her head; she was going to do it! It felt good to
finally have a plan, even if it was a crazy, doomed plan. Almost
absently, her hands began working as her gaze grew distant- looking
inward, as she felt out which seals opened the right chakra pathways.
They weren't the seals for the Shintenshin- in fact, they probably
weren't even close, but instinct told her that they would do. *But if I
screw up, I'm dead meat.* Sakura didn't want to think about what could
happen to her if her technique didn't work like it was supposed to.
"To hell with it! I've had enough!" Shoving doubt and worry for her
mortal soul aside, the young genin stepped away from the wall and took a
bold stance in front of the door. Anko was probably waiting for her
behind it; the sadistic bitch hadn't shown her face in a while. Sakura
was almost starting to forget how humiliating it was, having that
woman's mocking laugher chasing after her as she ran away. *Enough
running; from now on, the only people who see my back are those I've
sworn to protect, as a ninja.* Reaching down with rock-steady hand,
Sakura gripped the door knob and turned.
To her credit, the pink-haired girl didn't even flinch when Anko looked
up at her as the door swung open, those golden reptilian eyes fixing on
her with a paralyzing, hypnotic gaze. Blood dribbled down the jounin's
chin as she chewed noisily, bones grinding under her teeth. The limp,
headless body of a rat was clutched brutally in her claw-like fingers as
she lay supine in the middle of the room, amidst a nest of writhing
snakes. *What is it with this woman and snakes?*
"I was wondering when you'd join me; I'm afraid we've had to start
without you," the monster woman drawled, oozing sick sensuality with
every word. She glanced lazily down at the rat. "Don't worry, though,
it'll take more than this to spoil my appetite... but perhaps _you_ can
satisfy me." Anko's grin was all fangs, pearly white stained with red.
"Don't let your eyes get too big for your stomach," Sakura quipped,
unimpressed; she was still riding too high on adrenalin to care how
terrifying Anko looked. Dropping into a ready stance, her gaze drifted
to the back of the room, behind the examiner. There was a doorway with
stairs there, seeming to lead up, but Sakura knew that for the trick it
was. Still, she made sure to telegraph her intent to make a break for
the stairwell. "Get out of my way," she commanded, trying to look as
imposing as her petite, bedraggled, near-naked form would allow.
"Ooooh... is the little devil feeling feisty now?" Anko chuckled with
evil glee as she fairly slithered forward, arms and legs seeming almost
an afterthought as she got to her feet. "Maybe you aren't so boring
after all, morsel."
Hands flying together in a familiar set of seals, Sakura sneered.
"Didn't your parents ever teach you not to play with your food?"
Shooting up the wall behind the cloud of smoke that accompanied the
appearance of four bunshin, the determined girl threw up her strongest
concealment genjutsu and galloped on all fours across the ceiling as her
doppelgangers dashed forth, zigzagging erratically around the room.
Anko struck like a viper, barely moving as her hands flickered out
impossibly far to eradicate two of the clones instantly. Meanwhile, one
of the remaining two made a break for the door she'd come in while the
other rocketed toward the stairs. The obvious feint proved just enough
to keep Anko's attention divided for the final moment Sakura needed to
close on the jounin. By the time Anko sensed her and looked up, Sakura's
descending foot was mere inches from the examiner's face, even as the
smaller kunoichi's hands furiously formed another string of seals.
It was therefore by only by a hair's breadth that the ANBU managed to
evade, twisting aside like her body was water, flowing around the
attack. "You're a gutsy one, ain'cha?" Anko observed with a smile of
playful, bloodthirsty appreciation, even as she wrapped herself around
Sakura in a constrictor's killing embrace. "You nearly got me there,"
she whispered almost consolingly into Sakura's ear from over her
shoulder, before twisting around grotesquely to look her victim in the
eye, "but even crazy kids like you should know that it takes more than
guts and luck to win a fight."
The confusion on Anko's face was more than ample reward as Sakura's
emerald gaze burned into her with defiance and victory. "I never count
on guts or luck for anything. They're nothing if you don't have a plan."
With that, she craned her neck forward and locked lips with the
surprised examiner, then flinched hard and bit the tip of her tongue as
her soul exploded.
*I just kissed a woman who was eating a rat.*
This was the first thought that occurred to Sakura as she lay on the
ground, reeling in shock. There were a few things that seemed very wrong
with that statement. *I just kissed a _woman_... who was eating a
_rat_... how on earth did that happen?* It took her a few more moments
to remember the details of the plan that had brought her to this drastic
action.
The one part of the Shintenshin that had given Sakura the most headaches
over the last three weeks was how the mind was projected out of the
body. She just couldn't figure out how so much information could be
moved around safely without some sort of conduit. This meant that, for
the improvised version that she'd kludged together, she had to actually
_touch_ Anko for it to work. Contact between parts that had a major
concentration of chakra gates seemed like her best shot; hands, mouths
or... elsewhere.
Though she'd have preferred to catch one of Anko's punches or something,
an opportunity had presented itself and she'd taken it. *And I kissed
Anko...* And then there was pain: blinding agony unlike anything she had
dreamt possible had blossomed within her, like the very blood in her
veins had suddenly turned to burning white phosphorous. It'd passed so
quickly that she didn't think she'd even had a chance to scream, but her
body still tingled with the memory of it, like the afterimages left on
the eye by a flash bulb.
That it had hurt at all was definitely a bad sign; she'd probably done
serious injury to herself, but that was too big to take in at the
moment. Instead, she concentrated on the metallic tang of blood in her
mouth. *...she was eating a _rat._* Had she succeeded? Was she now in
Anko's body? The idea that she might be swishing around a mouthful of
rat blood made her want to vomit, but she held down her gorge and, with
an effort, managed not to swallow.
Pushing herself up on her palms, Sakura turned to the side to spit, at
the same time taking a look around. Her heart sank when she saw Anko
sitting opposite her, legs crossed and holding her head in her hands
like she trying to keep it from falling apart. So it hadn't worked...
though it looked like she'd hurt the jounin at least as much as she'd
hurt herself.
She must have broken the genjutsu as well, for the pile of snakes was
gone and Anko looked relatively normal again. There were also closed
doors on either side of the room that she hadn't noticed before, and the
open door behind Anko no longer had stairs behind it.
When Sakura's gaze finally returned to the examiner, Anko had looked up,
and was now staring at her in confusion. Setting her jaw, Sakura glared
right back and rolled into a low crouch, preparing to defend herself.
She'd made her bed so she'd better be ready to sleep in it, even if
there was still a snake in the sheets.
This action only seemed to confuse Anko more. The older woman looked
like she wanted to ask her something, but couldn't find the words.
Suddenly, however, her perfectly normal brown eyes widened in
realization, and a huge grin split her face from ear to ear. "Ah- hah!
Hahaha! Hell yeah- that's more like it!" Slapping her thigh in renewed
enthusiasm, Anko flipped backwards and got to her feet. "Not quite what
I had in mind, but I can work with this," she noted ominously, cracking
her knuckles and grinning like the madwoman she was.
"What the hell did I ever do to you to deserve this!" Sakura roared,
nerves and weariness finally getting the better of her.
The examiner's good mood seemed to evaporate instantly, and after
simmering for all of two seconds she was as red in the face as Sakura.
"What did ya do ta me?! Ya tried ta (&$in' _kill_ me for trippin' over
yer fat ass and knockin' ya inta the mud, and _then_ ya locked me in yer
private sicko fantasy land for four hours just so ya could $%#(& with my
head until I went as nuts as you!" Anko declared, stabbing an accusing
finger at the pink-haired kunoichi. "And lemmie tell ya, that is
seriously (%)&$in' nuts! I mean, what the hell was with the (#$&in'
bagpipes in the room with the giant pudding thing that tried ta eat
me!?"
Despite her frustration, Sakura could tell that something wasn't adding
up, so she chose her next words carefully. "What!? Don't point your
nasty rat-squeezing fingers at me, psycho-woman!" Well... relatively
carefully, compared to what she'd really wanted to say. Hastily, she cut
to the meat of the crazy notion that had just popped into her head. "And
don't you accuse _me_ of setting that crap up! Just who the hell do you
think I am!"
"One %(&!#ed up bitch with a seriously creepy snake fetish!" Anko
snapped, though her ire was also starting to show cracks of uncertainty.
Drawing herself to her full height, Sakura crossed her arms, for the
first time noticing that she was naked again; the rags she'd been
wearing had apparently been part of the genjutsu as well. "You must be
confusing me with someone else... like, say, _yourself!_" she accused,
valiantly fighting the urge to cover up for the sake of righteous
indignation and her newly rekindled ninja pride. "Unless you want to
tell me that you _aren't_ Mitarashi Anko?!"
The tall woman shot an indignant look at her, accompanied an obscene
gesture. "Damn straight I'm not (#&$in' Mitarashi Anko!"
"Then who the hell are you?!"
"Who else could I possibly (%&)$in' be?! I'm Haruno Sakura!"
That was the answer she was expecting, but the pink-haired kunoichi
still had to sneer in contempt- she would feel downright insulted if
this was some sort of ploy, and the jounin really thought she was that
stupid. "Who does that make me then? 'Cause _I'm_ certainly not
Mitarashi Anko..."
The brunette glared at her suspiciously. "Look, there's only two !(#$in'
people here, so one of us's gotta be Anko, and the other's gotta be
Sakura," Anko pointed out, starting to sound a little exasperated.
"So what makes you think _you're_ Sakura?" the shorter girl shot back.
Uncrossing her arms, she placed a hand on her chest. "At least _I've_
got the right body for it. And I _sound_ more like Haruno Sakura; if mom
ever caught _me_ talking like that, she'd come down on my head so hard
that ANBU could send every hunter-nin they have after me and they'd
never find more that a few pink hairs and a greasy stain on the
pavement!"
This seemed to give Anko pause. "What- I mean yeah, I guess she'd be
kinda pissed about that, but... I- well, she ain't here _now_," she
sputtered uncertainly, clenching her jaw as Sakura gave her an
unimpressed look. "Well )(&$! I don't know!" Throwing her hands up in
frustration, she cast her gaze around the room, as if the 'real'
Mitarashi Anko might be hiding somewhere, watching them. When she turned
again to Sakura, the serious, worried expression she wore seemed
strangely out of place on her face. "All I know is that _I'm_ Haruno
Sakura... and I can prove it; can you?"
Quirking an eyebrow, the naked girl set her face in a flat mask of
determination. "You bet I can." Absently, she was aware that whatever
was going on, time might be of the essence, but her growing curiosity
demanded satisfaction. "Since I've got the better claim at the moment,
I'll go first. Finish this poem: 'By the eye or hand; does the brittle
autumn leaf-'"
"'-weather the wind?'" Anko added immediately, a smile of satisfaction
threatening to unseat the frown upon her lips.
"Where is it from?" Sakura persisted.
An air of confidence returned to the older woman's posture. "'S the only
poem I ever got an 'A' on in kunoichi training. I swear, that snooty old
hag had it in for me from the start." At her interrogator's nod of
acknowledgment, she continued. "What color underwear were ya wearing the
first time you saw Sasuke?"
Sakura thought for a moment, then frowned. "That's a trick question."
"And why's that?"
"Because I wasn't wearing any underwear."
Anko's face morphed into a suggestive leer. "Any particular reason, or
were ya just feelin' like goin' commando that day?"
"Why don't you tell me?" Sakura demanded, becoming slightly irritated.
"That question was too general; you could have just been fishing for
information."
The other woman snorted in indignation. "Feh- fine, whatever. I wasn't
wearin' any 'cause it was after gym class on swim day. I was wearin' a
bathin' suit." She crossed her arms as Sakura had earlier, a picture of
incredulity. "Happy now? That's two questions for you; I want another!"
Sakura waved her off. "Fine, fine, just make it good this time."
Cocking her head to the side, the examiner considered for a good minute
before turning back again with a hard, critical eye. "I had an imaginary
friend, before I met Ino. What was her name?"
"...I don't remember," Sakura admitted unhappily, her expression
falling. "I haven't even thought of her in years." She wasn't about to
start doubting herself, but that little detail bugged Sakura even more
than she was letting on. Her memory was eidetic; she never forgot
anything that she couldn't bring back with a little effort. That was
something even Shikamaru, with his incredible intellect, couldn't hold
over her. "I'm not sure... I don't think she ever had one," she decided
aloud, looking up.
Anko's expression was conflicted now. She seemed troubled, but also a
bit nostalgic. "Kinda weird, ain't it?... Hmpf, but If I dunno, and you
dunno, then I guess that's the right answer," she conceded with a twinge
of irony.
"That was almost a trick question as well, you know," the pink-haired
kunoichi pointed out.
"Yeah, but'cha can't say I was fishin'; I gave ya somethin' first, ta
show ya we were on the same page. So... satisfied?"
Yet another question Sakura wasn't sure she could answer, but she nodded
anyway. "And you?"
In response, Anko plopped back down on the floor, propping her elbow on
her knee and her chin in her hand. "Hell no! I mean, where the #()$&
does this leave _us_ then?" Though frustrated and confused, the older
woman sounded relieved to be allowed to swear again, now that she'd
proven her claim on her identity. "We can't _both_ be Sakura."
"...Can't we, though?" Sakura waited for Anko's questioning look before
explaining. "Remember the first time Naruto used the Kagebunshin during
Kakashi-sensei's test? Sensei pulled a kawarimi and all of the Naruto
clones ended up attacking each other. Some advanced bunshin techniques
seem to create pretty convincing duplicates."
The pseudo-Jounin's frown turned thoughtful. "This ain't exactly a
$(&in' bunshin, though, and I kinda doubt Naruto's copies got memories
like you and I do. They wouldn't need 'em, since bunshin don't last very
long."
"Hmm..." With furrowed brow, Sakura's again went through the seals that
she'd used for her failed 'Shintenshin.' Now that she was relatively
calm, she was almost horrified at what she came up with. *How the hell
did I manage to not _die!_* A bead of cold sweat trickled down the side
of her now much paler face as she coughed to clear her suddenly dry
throat. "Well... I- _we_ weren't exactly careful when we came up with
the technique, were we? I think we're very lucky if a little mix-up is
all we have to worry about."
"Luck nothin'!" Apparently noting Sakura's confusion the... other Sakura
cast her a roguish grin that seemed perfectly at home on Anko's face.
"We've got better chakra control than anyone, even Sasuke! If there's
any $#(in; reason we pulled off _anythin'_ like what we were plannin',
it's that."
Despite herself, the petal-tressed girl had to break a weak smile. "And
is this anything like what we had planned?"
"We're completely in control, ain't we?"
"That's debatable. I mean, like I pointed out earlier, we aren't exactly
perfect copies of each other. So, assuming that I'm the original- just
assuming, for sake of argument!" she added quickly, as the other Sakura
puffed up for another tirade. "Assuming that, then you may not be
entirely in control of Anko, because it almost seems like a bit of her
personality is leaking out."
Anko-Sakura wasn't to be quelled that easily, however. "Are ya sayin'
that I act like that )(&$in' snake bitch!"
"Well, you do seem a bit... excitable."
"I'm havin' a (%!&in' mental breakdown here!" the brunette snapped
defensively. "_Excuse me_ if I'm a little on edge!"
"You were acting odd before too, when you thought that I was Anko," the
Sakura in the proper body pointed out. "But if you don't like that idea,
then what are _your_ thoughts?"
Catching the veiled jab at her competence, the elder kunoichi sneered at
the younger. "I'm _glad_ you asked. If I _am_ the copy, and I ain't
sayin' that I am... though I guess it's the most reasonable
possibility," she admitted very grudging, "but if I am, then maybe I
might not be...'complete.' I seem ta have all the memories, but I don't
have the... I dunno, the-"
"Personality?" Sakura snipped.
"#($& you! Like ya _really_ wanna be li'l miss perfect all the time?
Puhleeeze- that's %(&$in' bullshit, and you know it!" After a short
stare down Sakura blushed and dropped her gaze, looking abashed. "I
think maybe I just don't have the... the patience, or somethin'. Or
maybe I just ain't ashamed 'a who I am." She cast the pink-haired girl
another significant look, this one laced with disdain. "Didn't it feel
great ta stop runnin' with yer tail between yer legs long enough ta turn
around and get up in that bitch's face?"
Looking into the other woman's defiant eyes, Sakura realized that she
couldn't win. She tried not to feel embarrassed as she cracked a grin
somewhat less brazen than the ones her counterpart seemed to favor.
"Yeah, it did. But you'll excuse me if I don't feel like getting 'up in
her face' again, anytime soon- and who knows how long this will last? In
fact, right now, I think we should be concentrating on how we're going
to get out of here."
"Hah, you'll get no arguments from me there," Anko-Sakura quipped
lightly, already back in good spirits. Sakura was struck by how similar
this version of _her_ seemed to another loudmouthed genin she could
name. It was really weird, but kinda funny, too. While she was observing
this, the brunette had gotten back to her feet and was examining one of
the two new doors. "Check the other one, will ya?" she called over her
shoulder, even as Sakura moved to comply.
Neither of the doors were locked, but neither of them led anywhere of
note either. The awkward pair decided that it would be best if they kept
each other in sight, just it case it looked like the jutsu was about to
fail, since they had no idea what would happen then. As such, they
started going from one featureless room to the next, checking each door
they found along the way.
There were far fewer than it had initially seemed, but that was no
surprise. the entire facility seemed to be laid out on a 9x9 grid, with
each room connected to all of the adjacent ones. It had only seemed be
larger and more complex because of the genjutsu. Unfortunately, they
didn't find Sakura's clothes, which had been confiscated while she was
unconscious, and all the doors around the perimeter had brick walls
behind them, so they couldn't find a way out.
It was only when they came back to the center room, where Sakura had
encountered Anko, that the possessed Jounin noticed that there was some
scuffing around the one of the corners of the ceiling. Closer inspection
revealed it to be a hidden trap door, with a tiny slot that was probably
a keyhole. Standing in the corner, Sakura now covered up by Anko's coat,
the pair stared up at the egress in contemplation.
"Ya think we can force it?" Anko-Sakura suggested, though she seemed
dubious of that plan.
Sakura shook her head doubtfully. "I don't think we should try; who
knows what sorts of traps they might have on it. And you're sure you
don't have the key on you?" She turned to look at her... her what? She
still wasn't sure what to call the woman who wasn't exactly a copy of
herself.
"I told ya before, I checked _everywhere,_" the woman who was definitely
not Anko snapped, going a bit red. "The psycho carries some
really )$(&ed' up shit on 'er, but I didn't find any keys. Ya sure ya
ain't got it on _you_?"
"She didn't leave me _anything_ when I woke up, much less a key," Sakura
dismissed hotly, as she locked serious gazes with her companion.
"Dammit, where the hell could she have put it?"
"Hmm..."
"..."
"..."
Their eyes traveled downward simultaneously. "...$#(&in' snake woman,"
the dark-haired Sakura commented in annoyance. "Should'a guessed that
first."
"Ugh..." the pink-haired Sakura agreed. "Go into the other room before
you check, alright."
"Ya oughta ()%&in' check too," Anko-Sakura suggested, giving her a dirty
look.
Sakura stuck her tongue out in disgust. "...after, if you don't find
it."
"Alright, alright..." Walking into the next room, the tall woman went
around the corner but didn't shut the door behind her.
*Hmm... I guess it's a good thing I was paying attention when they
taught us how to regurgitate small objects at will...* A horrible, wet
retching noise drifted over from the other side of the wall. *Though
apparently not enough attention,* she mused with a shudder.
"Well... I don't see Mr. Squeakers in here anywhere, at least," Anko's
voice commented weakly, "but this woman must eat dango like Naruto eats
ramen..."
"I don't need a play by play!" Sakura shouted back, just in case her
counterpart had anything else to say along those lines. "Did you find
the key?" she pressed.
"Just a sec- still lookin'..." A few moments later there was a
triumphant cry. "Alright! Yeah, I got it!" Anko-Sakura came back around
the corner shortly afterward, wiping her fingers on her skirt and
clutching a small, shiny object in her hands.
Sakura made _no_ move to take and examine the key for herself; just
eyeing the glistening wet piece of metal was making her mildly nauseous.
"Ouch- I'll bet that hurt going down."
Seeing that she was stuck holding it, the brunette just grimaced and
nodded. "So now what? It'd be nice if we could just walk outta here, but
I'm guessin' that ain't very )($&in' likely."
The pink-haired girl had to agree. "Un... she brought me down here naked
and unconscious; as suspicious as that already is, it might be more
suspicious if we don't leave in an appropriate manner. Of course, then
you might have to bluff our way out of ANBU headquarters. We really
don't have any idea where we are, after all..." Looking up from her
contemplation of the key, Sakura was suddenly struck by a sense of deep
foreboding; Anko-Sakura was grinning at her again, the same cocky grin
that Naruto always wore right before he was about do something foolish.
"Heh, don't worry about it!" she scoffed brashly, which of course only
served to make Sakura worry even more. "Just leave everythin' ta me!"
Pushing open the door above her head with one hand as she held the inert
form of Haruno Sakura against her back with the other, 'Anko' couldn't
help but revel in the sheer physical power that the jounin's larger,
more developed body possessed. Sakura had been training with Gai for
weeks and she'd definitely seen some impressive improvement, if she did
say so herself, but Anko was on a whole different level entirely. She
was sure that she could have smashed the trap door right off of its
hinges without breaking a sweat. As her eyes cleared the lip above
however, one glance at the vicious forest of anti-intrusion seals
scrawled across the floor around the opening made her thankful that she
hadn't tried.
Pulling herself up, she took care not to knock her limp passenger
against the edges of the doorway. They'd decided to pretend that
'Sakura' had fainted from the strain of torture. Unfortunately, this was
ANBU they were talking about, so feigned unconsciousness simply wouldn't
fly. After the pink-haired girl had stripped back to her birthday suit,
the genin-in-jounin's clothing had performed a genjutsu on her that
would knock her out for a few minutes.
That had been the hardest part of the plan to convince her counterpart
of. The other Sakura was still a bit suspicious of her, and doubly wary
of being helpless in her presence, and she couldn't say that she blamed
the girl. This entire situation just had too many unknowns, not the
least of them being how she was in Anko's body and her own at the same
time, and how long she would stay that way.
Looking around the small room she'd entered, Sakura noted that the
single thick, heavy door at one end was open; apparently, Anko hadn't
though her worth trouble of a full lockdown. *Lucky! It'd be a $)(%in'
bitch if I had ta come up with a password or somethin' ta get 'em ta
open the door...* Still, that didn't mean that she was home free. There
were still procedures for kidnappings and interrogations, and if she
didn't play 'Anko' _to the hilt_, the suspicious nature of shinobi might
just land them in a tighter spot than they'd started in.
Walking through the doorway, she didn't notice anybody else in the
narrow hallway outside. The passage was lined with similar doors as far
as she could see, with a bend at one end and a flight of stairs at the
other. Given the pipes running along the ceiling and the total lack of
windows, the stairs seemed like the better bet. Adjusting her grip on
the sleeping girl so she wouldn't flop over backwards, Sakura started
walking with even, confident strides towards her goal. She should have
been scared completely out of her wits- no, she _was_ scared; she was
absolutely terrified, but the fear was invigorating, like she was
discovering for the first time what it meant to be alive.
Sakura hastily reined herself in before she could get too excited over
the sheer madness of what she was attempting. This wasn't the time to
lose her head like that idiot Naruto always did; she was a _thinking_
ninja, even if kicking butt and taking names sometimes seemed like more
fun. She slowed as she started up the stairs, eyes peeled and ears
pricked as she searched for any sign of scrutiny. She was soon rewarded
by the sound of voices above, one female and one male. The woman sounded
vaguely familiar.
Not hesitating even long enough to hear what was being said, as that
would be suspicious, she reached the top a second later. A pretty face
with dark red eyes and pouting lips was assigned to the familiar voice,
and it came with a name: Yuuhi Kurenai, the jounin instructor for team
4. The man's voice belonged to a masked ANBU guard that was lounging
against the wall by the stairwell. As the gazes of the chatting pair
turned to her, hints of surprise and satisfaction flickered across
Kurenai-sensei's face, and Sakura suddenly knew that she- or at least
Anko -had been the subject of their conversation.
*Wait, no- she ain't 'Kurenai-sensei!' $&%(, what would Anko call her?!*
Blazing through her vast store of local and tactical knowledge, Sakura
instantly determined that there were so few female Jounin in Konoha that
they probably all knew each other at least in passing. She also realized
that it was getting close to noon, Kurenai was most likely looking for
her, and Anko wasn't one to stand by formalities. Taking all these
things into account, she reached deep into whatever store of acting
talent she had hidden in her and blurted out the first thing that came
to mind.
"Yuuhiii! Feed me!" the wild-haired brunette cried, a manic grin
breaking across her beaming face.
Kurenai's lips dipped down into a frown for a moment, before one corner
of her mouth turned up in a smirk. "Ah-ah; not this time, Anko. You
still owe me, and I intend to collect."
*Gotcha!* Sakura put on her best 'perfect little angel' expression,
complete with huge, shiny doe-eyes, and turned it full force on the
instructor. It actually _did_ make her look innocent when she was in her
own body, but served to do exactly the opposite on Anko's naturally
mischievous face. "I have no idea what you're talking about,
Yuuhi-chan."
The other kunoichi snorted in annoyance and crossed her arms. "You're
not fooling anyone, Anko. Honestly, it's just three little meals. I buy
you food all the time; why are you being such a child about this?"
That was an excellent question... and one Sakura didn't have an answer
to. But at least Kurenai seemed to half expect this sort of reaction
from Anko. She'd just have to see how far she could take it. "But Yuuhi,
why do I have to buy you _three_?" she demanded, dropping the sweetness
and light in favor of the whiny, contrite tone that Naruto always used
when he didn't want to believe that something was true.
"Because that was the deal! All three of my students passed your section
of the exam, so you have to buy me lunch three times. It's as simple as
that." So that was it. The other woman seemed satisfied that her
reasoning was too tight for Anko to worm out of it.
Sakura, however, was willing to bet that a silly thing like 'logic'
wouldn't stop the examiner from trying. "That's no fair! It was all or
nothin' for my exam! I should only have to buy you lunch once for the
whole team!"
Despite 'Anko's' protests, the long-haired Jounin seemed confident that
her victim would eventually give in- or at least Kurenai didn't appear
upset that she was being so stubborn. "Tough; one student, one meal.
Those were the terms, Anko. If you don't like it, you shouldn't have
made the bet."
Frowning and scratching her chin, Sakura put on a suspicious look. "I
don't remember _those_ terms."
Now it was Kurenai's turn to smile like the cat that ate the canary.
"Sure you do: you said, and I quote, 'If any of those dumb rookies can
pass _my_ test, I'll buy you lunch!"
"Ah-!" Sakura tried to interrupt, but the other woman wasn't finished
yet.
"-and then _I_ said, 'Alright, I'm going to hold you to that, Anko. You
have to buy me lunch for every one of my students that passes your
test,' and you said 'Deal!' and we shook on it." Spreading her hands to
show that all had been revealed, Kurenai smiled wider as she looked at
Anko's face. "So you see, everything is in order, neat and tidy. All
three of my students passed. You've already fed me once; two more times
and you're in the clear."
Bristling with indignation, Sakura made like she was having trouble
finding her tongue. "H-Hey, you tricked me!"
"Yup."
"Grrr..."
"Don't pout," Kurenai chided evenly. "Really, Anko, you should learn to
listen more carefully before you open your mouth."
Deciding that she'd pushed far enough, Sakura released a half-defeated
sigh, her expression melting into annoyance. "Fine, whatever. So where
do you wanna go- and it better not be somewhere expensive!"
"Ahem-"
Both women turned to look at the by now forgotten ANBU who was standing
just a few feet away. Seeing that he had their attention, the man
pointed at the sleeping form of Sakura, still perched on 'Anko's' back.
He didn't say anything, and he barely even moved, but somehow his
posture alone managed to convey amusement, question, and expectation.
*Time ta earn my keep. Here goes nothin'...* Her mouth forming an 'O' of
surprise, as if she'd just realized that she was carrying a naked girl
on her back, 'Anko' turned and moved toward the masked ninja, indicating
that he should relieve her of her passenger. When he'd complied, she
dusted her hands off and peered at Sakura's sleeping body in sadistic
amusement. "Go ahead'n send her home when she wakes up. I don't think we
need to worry about her; I guarantee, she's learned her lesson."
Sakura could swear that she heard an exasperated sigh from behind the
man's mask, but she was already turning back to Kurenai. If she didn't
bail soon he might think of some paperwork or something that he wanted
her to do, and then the jig would be up. "C'mon, lets get this over
with. I know a great ramen place near here," she suggested,
surreptitiously watching Kurenai's body language so that when they
started walking they were both headed in the same direction.
"Nice try, but I think I have a better idea," the other woman remarked
gamely, smirking when Sakura made a face and stuck Anko's tongue out at
her. Before they left the room, Kurenai Yuuhi cast a final glance back
at the ANBU guard, who was now carrying the unconscious pink-haired girl
in another direction. Returning her gaze to her companion, she quirked
an inquisitive eyebrow. "Should I even ask?"
Chuckling for reasons that only she could know, 'Anko' waved
dismissively. "Just another stupid kid..." She'd have wished the other
Sakura luck, but she suspected she needed it more herself. Impersonating
Anko was turning out to be surprisingly easy, but despite her success
thus far she doubted she could fool the Jounin for much longer.
Strangely, though, she wasn't all that worried. *Ah, ta hell with it. At
least I get a free lunch...*
Sakura did _not_ stir to consciousness with a disoriented start; she'd
made sure that she would be fully aware of her surroundings immediately
upon waking up by using the Fushinka no Jutsu before she was knocked
out. For this reason, even before she opened her eyes, she realized that
she was awake, that she was lying on something reasonably soft, and that
she was covered up from the neck down, probably by a blanket.
The faintly fresh, damp smell of the air told her that she was above
ground again, and that it had stopped raining outside, but the room she
was in probably didn't have any open windows. And a sudden shuffling
noise somewhere nearby made her aware that she wasn't alone in the room,
as she'd originally thought, and that whoever was with her had realized
she was awake, and wanted her to know that they were there.
*Well, that was quick. No point in pretending now...* Still, Sakura
began by cautiously cracking an eyelid and peering to the side. She was
greeted by the sight of a masked ANBU ninja straddling a backwards chair
and leaning forward with his arms on the back rest, staring right at
her.
Heaving a resigned sigh, the pink-haired girl opened her eyes completely
and sat up, holding the plain blue blanket to her chest. She was laying
on a worn red couch at one end of a well-lit room with barred windows. A
few more simple wooden chairs were scattered around, and a mound of
jarring green cloth that could only be The Jumpsuit was folded neatly
atop the coffee table that sat between her and the room's only door,
beside which the other ninja sat. Realizing that she was still naked
under the blanket, and that the ANBU was a man, Sakura's face colored
and she shot her guard a small frown.
The ninja responded by silently getting up and leaving the room, though
he didn't close the door behind him. Sakura could tell he standing was
right beside it, listening to her. *Well, I _am_ a prisoner; I guess I
can't hope for much more than that...* Getting up, she searched through
the pile of clothes until she found her underwear and began dressing.
Sakura decided to forego the jumpsuit, since she wore her regular
running shorts and a black mesh half-shirt underneath it anyhow, just in
case she ever had to ditch her training uniform quickly. For instance,
if she ever saw Ino coming, she'd be out of that thing so fast that Gai
probably wouldn't even notice until minutes later.
Tying on her forehead protector in her traditional fashion, Sakura
checked herself over once, thankful that she'd worn a black sports bra
that didn't clash with the rest of her now somewhat minimal attire.
Finally, she took a moment to glance around the room.
The windows were definitely out of the question; even if she managed to
get to them before he stopped her, Sakura couldn't see how the barred
gratings could be opened or removed without just tearing them out of the
walls. Likewise, nothing in the room seemed like it would make an
effective weapon- for _her_, anyway -against a prepared ANBU
assassination specialist. Gai didn't permit her to have any weapons on
her while she was training so there weren't any in her clothes, not that
she would have expected them to still be there if there had been.
So it didn't appear that she'd be able to slip away or fight her way
out... but the _plan_ had been that she wouldn't need to. *Where the
hell is she?!* The absence of Mitarashi Anko or the copy of Haruno
Sakura that was impersonating her was the most disturbing detail of her
current predicament.
Still, they _were_ returning her things, including the broken halves of
her bird mask, which now lay atop the jumpsuit still sitting folded on
the table. That was probably a good sign. *Only one way to find out,
though...* Deciding that it was time to face the music, Sakura cleared
her throat and looked toward the door.
The ninja returned almost immediately; he probably paused before
entering the room to make sure he wasn't going to be ambushed. When he
saw Sakura standing there, hands on her hips, staring at him
expectantly, a muffled laugh escaped from behind his mask. "How are you
feeling?" he asked, at the same time appraising her, likely trying to
gauge her mental state from her body language. He seemed amused by what
he saw.
"Aside from being mentally scarred for life, I feel fine," Sakura
replied, her irate, defiant mood from earlier not completely evaporated
yet. Also, upon reflection, she really did feel remarkably healthy; none
of the wounds she'd sustained in the genjutsu remained, not even the
sucker marks, and the lingering pain from her mis-executed technique had
long since faded. Still... while he was asking: "Actually, I tried to
perform a counter-genjutsu technique and I think I did it wrong. It hurt
a _lot_, like my chakra was on fire, but for only a moment."
"Hmm..." Peering more closely at her, the ANBU formed a few seals that
Sakura though she actually recognized, and then stared hard at her.
"Well, your chakra flow seems to be regular, if a bit weak, but I would
guess that's from overexertion."
*He could tell all that just from performing a technique and looking at
me?* Then she remembered where she'd seen those seals before. *Byakugan!
He must be a Hyuuga behind that mask!* It wasn't surprising that the
village's self-proclaimed 'strongest bloodline' would have a few members
in ANBU, but it was a definite stroke of luck for her. It eased her mind
a bit to know that she hadn't caused any _obvious_ damage with that
crazy gamble, but also made her even more curious about what she'd done
to herself.
That wasn't something she could ask now, though, without knowing the
current disposition of her erstwhile counterpart. *Freedom first,
answers later.* Nodding to herself, Sakura gave the ninja a questioning
look, as if she didn't know how he'd examined her. "Well... that's a
relief, I guess. Do I get to go now?"
"...nice to see you're not taking this badly," her guard replied drolly,
though he didn't step out of the doorway. "Do you understand what you
did wrong?"
"I pissed off Mitarashi Anko?" Sakura replied in an equally droll voice,
peering at him through lidded eyes. "Or, perhaps I was acting
'suspiciously,' during a very tense time for our village's security
forces?"
The masked man just shook his head and turned around. "You're a sharp
one, kid, but don't let it go to your head; people are strung so tight
right now, you might just lose it." With that he began walking away.
Taking this as her cue, Sakura scooped up the remaining items on the
table and followed. *Huh... so are we just going to 'forget' this little
incident, then?*
They weren't very deep in the building as it turned out, and just a few
minutes of walking brought them to a rather spare reception area with a
few old, overstuffed chairs and an unmasked chuunin lounging behind a
heavy-looking dark wood desk. The Jounin leading her motioned for Sakura
to wait, so she took a seat on the armrest of one of the chairs while he
went up to the desk and began filling out some forms.
He brought a clipboard over to her a moment later, and the pink-haired
kunoichi found herself scanning through a pile of non-disclosure and
release of liability agreements that she was apparently supposed to
sign, in triplicate. *I suppose mistakenly torturing your own village's
citizens isn't something they take lightly in ANBU. Hmm... I wonder if I
could sue...*
The thought of dragging Anko before a tribunal of the Village elders was
definitely enticing, but then Sakura remembered that she was probably
committing assault and coercion through genjutsu upon a Chuunin Exam
Examiner even as she sat there. *Ugh... there's no way this is going to
end well unless I can somehow convince her to forgive me. I gotta find
her!* After committing the forms to memory, just in case she needed to
know the specific language of her release later, Sakura signed on the
dotted line and looked up, searching for her warden, but he was nowhere
in sight.
The pink-haired girl then flinched violently as a something landed on
the top of her head. Looking over her shoulder, she saw the ANBU guard
removing his hand, leaving something behind as he reached with the other
for the clipboard she was holding. Sakura surrendered it without
struggle, reaching up to remove the object he'd dropped on her; it was a
clay mask, not unlike the one he was wearing himself.
"Replacement," he explained as he leafed through the forms, motioning
with the clipboard toward the broken mask sitting atop the jumpsuit
she'd set on the chair.
"Ah- ...thanks." Examining the mask more closely, Sakura noted that it
was rather different from the one she'd had before. Firstly, it seemed
to be a genuine _hunter nin_ mask, white with red accents and complete
with the Konoha leaf upon the forehead to indicate the village she
hailed from. It was also a different shape from the bird mask Anko had
broken. It was a fox mask instead, with abstract curves indicating a
snout and ears, and sharply tilted eye slits. Screwing her face up in
confusion, Sakura peered questioningly at the Jounin.
"Well," he began with a sheepish shrug, "If you're going to go around
wearing a mask, I figure a little warning might be in order, just so we
know what to expect in case we have to pick you up again."
*I AM NOT A TROUBLEMAKER, DAMMIT!* Sakura could _tell_ the man was
grinning like an idiot behind that monkey-mask he was wearing. Gods- she
could just see this spreading around the village like wildfire. She'd
have a rep as bad as Naruto's before she knew it. But it wouldn't do to
fan the flames anymore than she already had. Putting on a nervous smile,
she fingered the mask in her hands absently. "I don't think you need to
worry about that. I know better now."
The famous all-piercing eyes of the Hyuuga had apparently missed her
moment of indignation. "Heh... just try not to get caught by Anko-sama
next time," he teased lightly. Flipping through the pages one last time,
he nodded and lowered the clipboard. "Everything seems to be in order
here. You're free to go." Reaching under his arm, he handed her the
straw raincoat she'd been wearing earlier.
Perching the mask on the top of her head so she wouldn't forget it- it
may have been a joke at her expense, but it was still kinda cool -Sakura
accepted the raincoat with another tired, "Thanks." Since she couldn't
hear any rain outside, she used the roughly braided straw to wrap the
jumpsuit and the remains of her old mask, carrying the bundle under her
arm.
As she turned to go, Sakura started to wave over her shoulder at the
unexpectedly reasonable ninja, then smirked at the grinning monkey
depicted on his mask and pulled the fox mask down to cover her own face.
"Give Mitarashi-san my regards?"
Both the ANBU and the chuunin behind the desk had to laugh at this.
"Heh, sure thing..."
As she walked out onto the stone landing that kept what remained of the
'street' from flowing into the building, Sakura noticed a familiar,
slouch-shouldered form standing a little ways away. The slick-haired
young man looked up when she emerged, and an skeptical frown spread
across his face. "Haruno, is that you?"
"Shikamaru, what are you doing here?" Flipping the mask back onto the
top of her head, Sakura peered at the boy inquisitively.
The Nara Clan heir simply shrugged, quickly getting over the absurdity
of Haruno Sakura coming out of an ANBU haunt wearing a hunter nin mask.
"Ino asked me to help her find out where you were, to see if you were
okay."
*That was awfully thoughtful of her.* She and Ino hadn't parted company
on very pleasant terms that morning. Still, Sakura's harrowing chase
through the streets and eventual capture and abduction by Mitarashi Anko
fell comfortably outside of the demilitarized zone in their friendship
surrounding the disputed state of 'Sasuke.' She'd likely have done the
same, had their situations been reversed.
*But Ino-pig would probably have gotten caught in front of the butcher
shop,* she mused with a grin, which widened in response to the put-upon
look on Shikamaru's face. "Well, you've found me," she declared, "and I
think I'm okay, all things considered. How did you know to look here?"
She gestured to the nondescript building behind them. Like most
facilities reserved for the more sensitive aspects of the ninja trade,
it was unmarked.
The shorter boy grimaced, as if it wasn't worth the breath to explain,
though he did anyway under her expectant stare. "Nothing weird. I saw
the second examiner and another woman go into a restaurant, so I just
followed their trail back and ended up here."
"Oh?" A glance at the road, which in this part of town was little more
than a wide strip of mud, churned by the rain and thousands of walking
feet, caused Sakura's thin pink brows to rise on her pleasantly wide
forehead. *What the hell kind of trail could he have possibly followed
through _that_? This isn't Kiba and Akamaru we're talking about here.*
The image of lazy, cantankerous Shikamaru, snorting along with his face
buried in the mud, made Sakura chuckle in amusement.
Her expression quickly sobered, however, as her thoughts turned to the
other 'Sakura' that was probably still wandering around in Anko's body,
getting into who knows what kinds of trouble. This wasn't over yet, not
by a long shot, but at least Shikamaru's method of finding her was a
lucky coincidence. "Do you remember what restaurant they went to?" she
questioned.
She must not have hidden her urgency very well, for the boy's expression
immediately soured. If everything Ino said about him was true, Shikamaru
could smell a hassle a mile away, so she was quick to reassure him, "I'd
just like to know where it is, so I can avoid it on my way home."
He didn't seem entirely placated, but Shikamaru apparently decided that
it was too much trouble to find out what she was really up to. "It was
that new Wave Country seafood restaurant near the Paradise bathhouse,"
he supplied tersely. "'Dolphin Tail' is the name."
"Thanks Shikamaru," Sakura sang a bit too cheerily. "I think I'm gonna
go home now, so my parents know I'm alright."
Shikamaru's eyes widened. "...wait, don't-"
Cutting him off, Sakura sketched a quick bow and turned to go. "Thank
Ino for me, will you?" she called over her shoulder.
"If you'll wait ju-"
But the pink-haired kunoichi was already leaping away, reflexively
pulling the mask down over her face as she touched down on a nearby
rooftop and sped off in the direction of the hot springs area, where
most of the better village bathhouses were. *Oh yeah, that was _real_
smooth, Sakura. He doesn't suspect a thing...* She didn't have time for
subtlety, though.
At least she didn't think she had to worry about Shikamaru too much. His
preternatural laziness meant he tended to mind his own business, unlike
some busybodies she knew, who seemed to take no greater pleasure than in
chasing after other people's troubles. *Like I haven't given her
_enough_ to think about already...*
"...So, did you find out if she's in there yet, or is this a red
herring?"
Lowering his eyes from the rooftops across the street, Shikamaru's frown
deepened as his bossy teammate came walking up, chewing on a crepe that
she'd bought from one of the multitudinous street-side vendors that had
come out of the woodwork since the Chuunin Exam had started. "...you
just missed her," he muttered, stuffing his hands in his pockets.
Ino bristled. "What- you let her leave?! Why didn't you tell her to
wait?" His customary 'it was too much trouble' shrug predictably caused
the blonde to shift into High Annoyance Mode. "That crazy forehead girl
_will_ apologize to my face for ruining my morning!" she ranted, looking
a bit more irritated and less worried than she had earlier. "Which way
did she go?"
"..."
Finding the restaurant was relatively easy, even though she'd never
eaten there before. Her family wasn't _poor_, but her mom was first
generation city-folk. All of her mother's brothers were farmers, so the
food was always home-cooked in the Haruno household. She only ever got
to eat out when she was with her team.
This was why, when she caught sight of Yuuhi Kurenai and Mitarashi Anko
sitting in the window, talking animatedly over a table full of
half-demolished plates of gorgeous, fancy, foreign food, Sakura took a
moment to seethe in envy. *Well _she_ certainly looks like she's
enjoying herself.*
Of course this probably was furthest from the case, she told herself,
but it was still quite shocking to see the two jounin chatting like old
friends, as if nothing at all was amiss. Had the jutsu ended? Was
Mitarashi Anko back- and if so, what had happened to the other 'her?'
She was suddenly glad for the mask, and what little anonymity it offered
her, given that she was one of only two people she'd ever met with hair
the color of cherry blossoms, the other being her grandmother.
Still, her hair probably wasn't enough of a giveaway that the real
Mitarashi Anko to abandon a meal to chase her down, but it might be
enough for her double, since the other Sakura would be expecting her. It
was another gamble, far too many in one day for a girl who liked to know
all of the cards in play before she made her move, but her luck had held
_this_ far... Clutching the straw-wrapped bundle behind her back, Sakura
took a deep breath and walked into 'Anko's' line of sight, leaning
against a lamp post and watching for any change in the woman's demeanor.
"-You're kidding me! The little shit actually put his head in your
_lap_?" Sakura gaped in disbelief. "What did you-" A flash of pink
outside and across the street drew her eye. *...FINALLY! #)&!* Glancing
back to her companion, the brunette's gaze swept down until it fell upon
a small black box clipped to the waist of her short skirt. "-Ah! Sorry,
Yuuhi, pager's buzzin'. I gotta go take this." Excusing herself, she
pulled out her chair and began walking to the rear of the restaurant.
Strolling past the pay-phones by the bathroom, which were thankfully out
of sight from the table they'd taken, Sakura proceeded to the emergency
exit. Deftly defusing the alarms on the door with a few quick,
well-placed needle pokes, she checked to make sure no one was watching,
then pushed open the door and hurried outside, shutting it behind her.
It was only a few moments later that the pink-haired girl appeared,
ducking out from behind a dumpster that partially blocked one end of the
alley behind the restaurant. She didn't take off the mask, but Sakura
had seen her own body often enough for there to be no doubt about who it
was.
"It's about (#&!(%in' time!" she hissed, rushing forward when the other
Sakura didn't approach. "Get me the hell outta here!"
Though she'd initially looked ready to bolt, her counterpart now seemed
satisfied of her identity. "You want to just leave?" the shorter girl
questioned, sounding dissatisfied with this suggestion. "What about
Kurenai-sensei? You have to tell her _something_ or she'll get
suspicious."
"That ain't what I #!(%in' mean!" Sakura could feel tears whipping down
the sides of her face as she shook her head frantically, but she didn't
care. "I mean out of _here_!" She slapped a palm against Anko's chest
for emphasis. "I think I'm losin' my )(&$in' mind!"
"Is it really that bad? I'm actually kind of amazed that you've managed
to last this long-"
Seeing that she wasn't getting point across, Sakura growled, screwing
Anko's face into a scowl of frustration. "I mean that literally! I mean
I'm losin' _me_! I also thought it was too #)(&$in' good ta be true, how
easy it was ta 'pretend' ta be Anko an' fool 'er, and it _is_. She's
leakin' out!"
At this, the other Sakura _did_ take a step back, eyeing her
distrustfully. "Then it's like I thought after all?"
"Yes- no- I dunno! This ain't the #%()in' _time_!" By now, the brunette
was barely keeping her voice under control. *Why can't she see
how )#(!%in' bad this is?!* "You've gotta get me outta here! I don't
wanna turn inta Anko!" she pleaded, staring directly into the mask's
eyes, trying to force the other girl to understand.
Now the other Sakura finally seemed to get it, but the pink-haired
girl's body language was uncertain. "I'm not even sure if that's
possible..." she protested distraughtly, taking on a thoughtful pose.
"How long do you think you have left, before...?"
"Not ()&$in' long! I'm forgettin' all I ever knew about _me_, but I
think I know more about Mitarashi now than anyone deserves ta, and
it's )(&$in' scarin' the shit outta me! Did'ja know she actually _cares_
how many )&#$in' dango were left in the tray she was eatin' when we
knocked 'er over!" Throwing her hands up, Sakura ground her teeth in
frustration. "I'm gettin' pissed off just thinkin' about it- AAAARGH!
Help me!"
"But I don't know how!"
"Do the technique again!"
The other Sakura tensed up, but seemed to consider it. "We don't know
that that would work- It'd probably just make things worse..."
"Well (&)$! There's gotta be somethin' we can do!" Crumbling to her
knees, Sakura punched the ground angrily. She'd be damned before she
gave up, but her double's relative calm, which should have been
reassuring, was instead beginning to try her patience. She couldn't help
but feel like she was being abandoned.
*&)#($ that! I won't be left behind again!* Looking up with blazing
eyes, she frantically tried to think of something- _anything_ that might
enable her to get out Mitarashi Anko's accursed body. "...Take off your
mask," she commanded, her voice quiet and grave.
"What?" the other Sakura wondered, shifting warily.
"Take off the #(&$in' mask!" not waiting for a response this time,
Sakura surged forward with all the inhuman speed that Anko's body could
muster, wrenching the mask up to reveal a pair of shocked emerald eyes,
but that wasn't what she was after.
Looking lower, she finally found a pair of smooth lips, parted slightly
in a gasp of surprise. *Here goes nothin'!* Putting her other hand on
the shorter girl's cheek to steady her, Sakura whispered a hasty prayer
to her ancestors and dove in, trying with all her might to pour her very
soul into the stunned kunoichi in her arms.
At first, Sakura was too shocked to know what to feel. She couldn't even
begin to understand the battle for identity that her double was waging
in Anko's body, but the fear was becoming infectious. Trying to keep her
cool and figure out what to do had distracted her so much that she
hadn't noticed the other woman's change in demeanor until it was too
late. Then, before she could even panic, she was caught in the deepest,
most terrified and passionate kiss that she could imagine, the kind of
kiss that makes you forget where you are and what you were doing the
moment before.
She'd just recovered enough to wonder distantly at the soft warmth of
Anko's lips on hers, when the lingering dregs of fear were suddenly
drowned in a flood of feeling. There wasn't any pain this time, just an
electric jolt of connection followed by a wild stream of thoughts,
images, and emotions, all flowing together like an entire lifetime
compressed into a single second. Fighting to keep her head above water,
Sakura's first gasp of air was filled by an overwhelming sense of
relief.
She didn't even understand _why_ she was relieved until the swirling
miasma of memory settled enough for her to pick out individual moments.
The confusion of waking up and seeing herself spit out a mouthful of
bloody saliva; anger, as the pink-haired girl who might have been Anko
accused _her_ of being Anko; distress, as the way she talked was brought
up; triumph, as she walked out of the ANBU interrogation facility with
Kurenai; terror, as she realized she was losing herself; then finally
came relief, as she realized that she'd _done_ it! She was in her own
body again!
Except she'd also been in her own body the entire time, and the new
memories were having a hard time finding a place among the ones she
already had. Head still swimming, Sakura stumbled backwards out of
Anko's limp arms, her mask tumbling back into place.
Instinct took hold where reason failed, and she realized that the
Jounin's eyes, pointed straight at her, were glazed, but beginning to
focus again. Speed and stealth were her allies as both ninja and prey,
and without even thinking she embraced both, vanishing from sight as she
rocketed toward the sky on legs propelled by frantic might.
"And here I thought you were trying to skip out on the bill..."
"Huh?" Blinking, the short-haired brunette straightened and turned
around to see Yuuhi Kurenai standing in the restaurant's back door. Her
friend of several years was only partially successful in hiding the
shocked look on her face, covering it half-heartedly with a mysterious
smile.
"...Bill?" Anko wondered aloud, still trying to figure out what had just
happened.
"Here, Miss," came another voice, as a young, red-faced waiter shoved a
small plastic tray into her hands before quickly ducking back inside.
Eyes automatically drifting down to the object in her hands, Anko stared
at it uncomprehendingly for a few seconds, then realization dawned.
"AAAAAH? YUUUHIII! I can't afford this!" she screeched, holding the
tablet at arm's length, like the numbers might get smaller if they were
farther away.
"...fine, If that's the way you're going to be, then I won't ask,"
Kurenai muttered with a disappointed sniff. Instantly, the iron of
command stiffened her back and hardened her voice. "But you _will_ pay
for lunch!"
"But Yuuhiii, I'll starve!" Anko protested, hurrying after the other
woman as she disappeared back inside.
"Hmph, a bit less dango and sweets every day would be good for you..."
"That's not fair!"
"..."
"..."
"Shikamaru," Ino prompted, gross disbelief making her voice faint and
airy, "after Mitarashi-san kissed her, how did Sakura look to you?"
Silent as a stone, the slick-haired boy just turned away, feigning
disinterest, and she instantly knew that she'd get nothing from him.
She'd seen it clearly enough herself not to need any confirmation, but
someone saying it aloud somehow seemed necessary for it to really be
_real_.
"She looked... relieved, to me- happy, almost," the blonde girl finally
declared, shaking her head. *Who would have thought that- that
_Sakura_... no _wonder_ she hasn't made any progress with Sasuke...*
"I'm going home," Shikamaru declared suddenly, startling her. He didn't
even wait for a response before starting to walk away.
"A- aaaah... thanks for your help." She managed a jerky nod at his
retreating back, but Ino was already falling back into her own thoughts.
*Dammit, I knew we should have gotten closer- at least then we could
have heard what they said! What the heck is going on here!*
Frowning, Ino bit her lower lip and began walking, not really caring
where her legs took her. "What's going on with you, Sakura...?"
S U I R E N
To be continued...
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