Mixed With the Lightning of Slaughter [ch. 8]
previous: 7 - such deliberate illusions
8 - those left behind
“You didn’t make too much of a mess, I hope,” Jiroubou muttered to Tayuya as they leapt from branch to branch. “We don’t need someone already raising the alarm about us.”
Tayuya’s mouth twisted up in a smirk. “I didn’t leave the usual kind of mess, if that’s what you’re yapping about,” she replied. “I don’t need to draw blood-best damn part of dying is the shock of dying. Kidoumaru did what he liked, but he’s an idiot when he fights. That dumb-looking boy-the jinchuuriki, the one Kabuto told us about? Insane healing factor?”
“He’s out?” Jiroubou interrupted. “He won’t be up anytime soon?”
“Damn yeah. A girl too, she won’t last long. But anyway, there Kidoumaru went, just playing around with the jinchuuriki like some stupid brat.”
And you don’t? “You know Orochimaru-sama said not to make too much noise and not to kill them-“
“Ha, we didn’t kill them-it’s up to them whether or not they’re going to kick off and get stuck in the ground. And goddamnit, we made sure they’d go out quietly.”
Jiroubou frowned. “You mentioned the shock of dying,” he said. “Don’t stretch it out so long-you depend too much on your genjutsu, Tayuya-”
“Like you depend too much on your blubber?” she shot back, pulling up her right sleeve; Jiroubou caught a quick glimpse of a seal, glaringly red against her shoulder. “It’s screwing her over right now, don’t talk shit like that, fatass!”
At another time and place, he might’ve reprimanded her for her language, but instead he exhaled with an irritated huff and did not reply. Tayuya had a remarkable lack of self-control when it came to swearing, and he didn’t want her speaking more loudly than she usually did.
How long will it take before Konoha figures out that he’s gone? We need to return to Orochimaru-sama as soon as possible so he can have his new container, if we make good time…
The Uchiha was a dark blur in front, Sakon and Kidoumaru flanking him on both sides. He moved swiftly, silently, to the point where his efficiency bled into the realm of involuntary movement, moving for the sake of moving.
Jiroubou noted that the boy hadn’t looked back once.
-----
The bed had been upended sometime during the fight, when the kunoichi had simply slammed it against the wall. It nearly smashed into Sakura, who jumped away from the wood splinters that flew in the air.
How did she do that? Who has the kind of strength like that? Sakura winced, wiping at her stinging cheek; her hand came away smeared in a light trail of blood. And where’s Naruto? I haven’t heard him shouting-and Sasuke-kun-
She barely ducked the fist that slammed into the wall above her, eyes wide as the plaster fell in bits and pieces on her hair. Don’t get distracted, don’t get distracted-she crouched down low, dodging the next punch, and barreled between the Oto nin’s legs, slashing at them with her kunai in both hands as she slid through, and ha!-it’d worked, and now the woman was turning around, her mouth no longer curved up, no longer so mocking and dismissive. There had been a look in her eyes reminiscent of a cat playing with a mouse, drawing out the struggle and milking it for all the cruel amusement she could-only Sakura wouldn’t play the victim.
I can fight too, Sakura thought fiercely, a growing, flushed sensation running through her body that pooled in the hollow of her neck and almost felt like it was choking her-her throat searing, touched by the fleeting brush of fire and the adrenaline that went to her brain with a wordless, roaring, inexplicable joy.
We won’t let Sasuke-kun go so easily.
“Don’t-underestimate-me,” she said, breathing heavily. “Don’t underestimate any of us-you don’t know how we Konoha nin work.”
The other ninja bared her teeth in a mirthless grin. “I don’t need to know how you fuckers work,” she snapped bluntly. “All I need to do is kill you.”
The sweep of air past Sakura’s face was all the warning she had before the kick caught her in the chest and sent her flying back. She hit the ground, the kunai knocked out of her hands by the impact. Still-keep moving, don’t be a sitting target, some old Academy lesson flashed through her mind-and she rolled to the side as part of the floor buckled under another punch. Why hasn’t anyone noticed what’s going on? Is she using genjutsu? Sakura thought, scrambling to her feet. And where’s Naruto? Naruto, who had his own special talent for making commotion-and surely someone must have heard the wall cracking, the floor cracking, her kunai and shuriken clattering.
And if Sasuke was not in the village-
-if Sasuke had left.
(Left her and Naruto and Kakashi-sensei behind, that’s not Sasuke-kun, she’s lying, they took him away by force and he wouldn’t do that!-but almost everything was possible for Sasuke-kun, and she could not deny this possibility either-)
Then this Oto nin was just playing for time, and Sakura needed to simply get out of the fight as soon as possible. The most important thing was making sure that the others knew.
She shook off the uneasiness rising up in her, that something simply felt wrong about this, that it seemed too real and not real enough all at once-
The door-
“Don’t count on leaving here that way. Time’s up, you pathetic piece of shit!” Her opponent darted between her and the door, crouched in an aggressive stance with a blazing look on her face. Her eyes were narrowed and the line of her mouth was set hard and thin.
I shouldn’t have been so obvious about that, Sakura thought in frustration. We’ve been going at each other for-oh god, how long, how long has Sasuke-kun been gone? “Don’t block my way!-“ even before she finished speaking, she’d already launched herself to the side of the Oto nin, in a feint so she’d go that way and-Sakura palmed her shuriken grimly-
She didn’t notice the smirk on the other’s face.
-and da-dum went her heart, da-dum echoing in her ears, and pain flaring out among her ribs.
Sakura breathed, and the stabbing, searing feeling that had crowded her head twisted upon itself and compressed into a thick, congealed mass at her chest. She looked down and saw the kunai first, pale and seeming almost insubstantial as it was buried to the handle in her-that’s my kunai, she realized dimly, that’s mine, she picked it up?-
-she looked down and saw the blood.
No, some quiet, implacable voice spoke in her mind. This is not real.
“You won’t leave this place by the door.” The kunoichi’s voice came like a ruthless slap to Sakura’s ears-“there’s better ways to get rid of trash, how about the window?”
Bright red hair and a cruel glee on her face, pushing the kunai deeper, deeper, Sakura limp with a dazed shock-no, no no no-and even as Sakura forced herself not to look at the blood and tried to wrestle control of the kunai away from the Oto nin, she felt the windowsill behind her, then open air, and-
-she fell.
-wished she hadn’t started to read the books on medical jutsu-she was bleeding, bleeding, blood in the chest cavity or air in the chest cavity or both-hemothorax, pneumothorax, hemopneumothorax, in brightly bolded letters and capitals to boot that trailed across the pages-“the resulting condition is the repression of respiration”-cold names, cold facts, but how could they ever describe the fear?-not like this, not like this-
-the wind wrapped around her harshly, leaving frigid fingerprints upon her back, her face, her heart-
-what floor was I on?-chances of breaking arms or legs?-
(chances of dying?)
The impact was quick, and sharp, and merciless.
With the agonizing crack that shot through her-the ground, I am gone, am I dead?-came a brilliant blinding flash across her vision, everything around her flickering from existence to a pure, pure white-
mom dad ino sensei sasuke naruto no no no
In the pure white silence of an instant-
(don’t underestimate me!
is she using genjutsu?)
-Sakura realized the truth of her own reality-I can’t die yet, she thought, all the foreboding of death abruptly gone, because-do not make me die, I won’t go out like this!
A wordless burst of chakra, like a explosion of stars in her mind, and-
I won’t die.
-looking at the blankness, the oblivion, and Sakura suddenly thought, I think I see-
We won’t let Sasuke-kun go so easily.
You are dying, a nameless voice said to her, you are dead dead dead DIE-
“No,” Sakura whispered, and the white silence shattered.
-----
She was staring up at the hospital ceiling. Not outside, she wasn’t outside on the ground at all-there was something on her forehead? Sakura reached up with her right hand to pull it off-a small square sheet of paper, with characters painted all around it, glowing red and now turning black-looks like a seal-and something was running alongside the left side of her body, something sticky and liquid along her arm and face-
Sakura turned her head to the left, yellow hair coming into sight. “Naruto!” she exclaimed, relief rushing through her-I was right, I didn’t die, it was genjutsu after all-(she carefully did not think about that moment of utter terror, falling through the air)-“Naruto!”
He lay face down, didn’t respond, and it was only then that she saw the strangely-shaped weapons embedded in his back. She jerked up her left hand to look at it; it was dripping with blood.
Sakura knew, instinctively, that it was not her blood.
“Kai!” she gasped, because he wouldn’t let himself be killed. Too loud, too obnoxious, too much orange and stupid boyish posturing and “Sakura-chan!” and just too much Naruto that he couldn’t be killed. Only-this was not an illusion, this was real, and-
She got to her feet, ignoring the sharp twinge in her chest-must be left over from the genjutsu, don’t bother!-and ran to the door, flinging it open with an incredible force born out of necessity. “Someone!” she screamed, throat scratchy and the dryness attempting to choke down her words-“get the Hokage!”
No answer-did the Oto nin somehow manage to deflect attention from this section? Hell!
Sakura darted down the corridor, her heart beating ridiculously fast (like when I died-) and her face wet with Naruto’s blood and her own tears.
Naruto, we need to go after Sasuke-kun, you can’t die-
-----
Tayuya hissed as she felt the seal on her shoulder flare momentarily in a searing flash, and pulled up her sleeve. Fuck. It was black now, which meant her genjutsu had ended, but-
“What happened?” Sakon called back.
The seal only hurt if her genjutsu was broken; otherwise, if it didn’t sting, the victim ought to have died from the sheer psychological shock of what the genjutsu created.
So the girl was alive after all.
Fuck.
“Go faster, dipshit!” she barked. “Konoha’s going to figure out that he’s gone soon-“ she glanced at the Uchiha boy-“and then it’ll be harder for us to make it to Orochimaru-sama on time!”
“I told you,” said Jiroubou next to her, who’d noticed her seal and what it meant, “you depend too much on your genjutsu-“
“Shut up,” said Tayuya. “Next time I’ll kill her for sure.”
-----
“-showed a great deal of willpower to be able to break out of the genjutsu-“
“I should’ve realized it earlier,” said a voice-Sakura-chan, sounding very small and tired. “I didn’t break it earlier and alert everyone-“
It’s Sakura-chan! She’s all right! were Naruto’s first thoughts, and then-where’d those stupid Orochimaru lapdogs go? Damn it, what happened to Sasuke?
“Don’t beat yourself up about it, this is the first time I’ve seen genjutsu used in combination with fuuinjutsu-Naruto!” Tsunade-baa-chan turned around. “You’re awake now.”
“Naruto!” Then Sakura was there, strain lining her face and voice and a quiet relief as well.
“Sakura-chan,” Naruto muttered groggily as he sat up-ow, what had that crazy spider nin done to him? he’d hit him with something in the back and then knocked him out again-“you’re okay?”
“I’m fine, you’re the one in bed!” Sakura shouted, but she didn’t seem mad, as she usually was when she raised her voice-“I thought you were going to die! There was so much blood-Tsunade-sama had to come in and make sure you were all right-“ Her voice broke and faltered.
Naruto looked down. “I wouldn’t die,” he said. “I don’t die like that, Sakura-chan, don’t worry.”
“It seems the Oto nin’s blades had chakra running through them,” said Tsunade as she crossed her arms over her chest. “It interfered with your own chakra flow, Naruto, so you… couldn’t heal as quickly as you normally would.” She gave Naruto a significant look.
The meaning didn’t go over his head. It was the Kyuubi’s healing ability, after all. Damn, so that’s how that Oto nin managed to keep me from just healing and fighting again.
Also. Wait. “Hey, where’s Sasuke? Where’d he go?”
Sakura’s face fell. “He’s gone,” she said quietly. “He’s not in Konoha anymore.”
“What?”
Tsunade looked even more irritated. “I’ve already called in Nara Shikamaru to head a retrieval mission for him. Since we don’t know for certain if he went willingly or not-“
What. “Sasuke wouldn’t leave!” Naruto snapped. “All that blah blah blah Orochimaru was blabbering about getting power, Sasuke doesn’t need that!”
“Well, it depends on whether or not your friend knows that himself,” Tsunade said tersely, but her face softened. “We’ll do what we can, Naruto.”
Naruto looked at Sakura; they exchanged silent glances. Sasuke-Naruto remembered the fake Sasuke saying, Go away. Just shut up, usuratonkachi. Dark eyes and dark hair and the smirk that was too much arrogance, too much carefully-masked anger-and by then, the real Sasuke must’ve gone. The bastard. “All right then,” said Naruto, and began to swing himself out of bed-he would get the bandages off as he left-
“What are you doing?” Tsunade stopped him from getting out.
“I gotta go talk to Shikamaru! I mean, you said he’s the one leading the mission, right?”
“No,” said Tsunade bluntly. “You were just attacked by Oto nin and you’re still recovering, I don’t think you’re ready to go-“
“Tsunade-baa-chan, I’m fine! Just look at me-“ You can’t keep me from going after him, he’s my teammate! Naruto thought. “And I have to beat him up when I find him for doing this too!”
“Nor Sakura,” she continued. “The genjutsu is disorienting, and your heart might be more vulnerable to shocks because of it. Both of you are not fit for participating in the mission-“
“Tsunade-sama!” Sakura looked stunned. “I can do it-and Naruto can as well, if you’d just let us-“
“We’re his teammates!” Naruto burst out. “He’ll listen to us more than he would to anyone else! I mean, what, it’s Shikamaru and other genin, that’s it?”
“I’ll send Kakashi out as well when he gets back from his mission, which should be soon,” Tsunade replied. “You two will stay here.”
“But-“
“That is an order,” snapped Tsunade. “There are other things involved.”
“Like what?” Naruto said challengingly. And if there were other things involved, then we should know about them anyway.
Tsunade merely glanced at him, before walking to the door. “Your chakra flow might still be somewhat disrupted from the effects of the blades,” she said. “Don’t move around too much.”
The door shut behind her.
“… she won’t let us go,” said Sakura almost disbelievingly. “She won’t let us go.”
Naruto felt his nails dig into his palms. “That’s stupid,” he said. “I mean, I heal quickly, so I could do it. And Sakura-chan, what happened with this genjutsu?”
“Oh!” Sakura averted her gaze. “It tried to make me think I’d died, that’s all.”
“It made you think you died?” Naruto stood up. “Wait, what did it-“
“That’s all,” Sakura cut him off. “I broke it, all right? That’s all.”
Naruto noticed how she shivered, just a little-she’s pretending it didn’t matter as much as it must have… but Sakura-chan doesn’t seem like she wants to talk about it, so-“Okay,” he said. “Hey, where’s my jumpsuit?”
Sakura looked startled. “Over there,” she said, pointing to the side. “But Naruto-what are we going to do about Sasuke-kun now-“
“Of course we’re going after him!” Naruto gritted his teeth. “We can’t let him get away!”
“Tsunade-sama said she wouldn’t let us-“
Naruto turned his head and gave Sakura a hard look. “I don’t listen to everything people say,” he said flatly. “It takes more than that to stop Uzumaki Naruto!”
Sakura stared at him for a moment, the corners of her mouth lifting up into a smile. There was something bright and infinitely resolute in the way her eyes narrowed and the way she straightened up. “All right,” she said. “I’ll see about getting supplies. And if we join up with Shikamaru and the others later, I don’t think they could really force us to come back.”
Naruto blinked, then grinned. “Yeah, okay!” he said. “Don’t take too long-we’re going after him together!”
-----
I hope the whole situation with the genjutsu made sense. As far as I can tell from canon, there are two requirements for the implementation of genjutsu: 1) that the chakra flow of the victim must be manipulated in some fashion, and 2) that the caster must be able to sense the victim’s chakra. Regarding Tayuya, since the Sound Four also seems to be pretty adept with seals, I thought it would be plausible for her to use seals in genjutsu as well. Basically, the seal would act as a conduit between her and the victim’s chakra, even when she’s far away (and would otherwise be unable to sense the chakra due to distance). Tayuya put the seal on Sakura to activate the genjutsu, employing the idea of literally making people believe they die. Sakura simply had enough willpower and determination to defy what she originally perceived as “reality” and break it. She’s trying to ignore the effects of her experience with “death,” but I’ll probably touch on those in the next few chapters. It’s not so easy to recover from things like that. (Thanks to fujiko1601 and helike for helping me figure out the genjutsu/Tayuya. ♥)
As for Naruto-Kidoumaru had the ability to work chakra into his weapons, as seen during his fight with Neji. I’m working under the assumption that the chakra in his “blades” (I’m thinking of the ones he uses when he’s playing “guess the real one” with Naruto’s kage bunshin on the spider web) would be able to disrupt the Kyuubi’s abilities to heal quickly, and then Kidoumaru proceeded to knock Naruto out.
Tsunade is being uncooperative. :P Part of it is due to Naruto and Sakura actually fighting this time; in canon, after all, neither of them received serious injuries. Also, there’s a lot more uncertainty about what exactly Sasuke is up to this time. Her POV will be appearing soon, I think.
Comments are lovely and much appreciated. :)
next: 9 - and after this our exile