uh, hi. 8D
title: epinephrine
pairing: sasuke/sakura, shikamaru/ino
summary: you wish this were just a game.
chapter: 2/5
notes: so, uh, i'm not completely dead yet. :D
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epinephrine
you’d better be more vicious, or they’ll eat you first.
-
-
-
Jiraiya was the first to speak. “Something’s not right.”
Tsunade was staring intently at the screen. “He’s…”
“Flickering. Yeah.”
“Just a minor glitch,” Orochimaru remarked. “I’ll have it fixed right away.”
“There was no glitch when the game testers were playing,” Tsunade pointed out. “So why now?”
“It could be any reason.” Orochimaru didn’t seem fazed. “Perhaps transferring it to a larger server had an effect on it. However, we’ll have it fixed.”
Something still didn’t sit well with her, but she remained silent.
-
“If you’re staying here, you have money, right?” Her blood ran colder than the blade against her throat.
“Who are you?” Her voice came out high-pitched and shaking. Her heart beat faster than it did when the bombs dropped, and the figure in the dark pressed the knife harder against her neck. When she swallowed, it cut into her skin. She tried not to flinch.
“None of your concern,” the voice hissed. It sounded male. “Now, will you give me your money your not?” Her wallet was still in the pocket of her jeans, which were folded neatly on the chair against the wall. She seriously contemplated on giving him her money, but it was clearly important in this game-and if she died, she’d get a second chance, and would know what was coming.
If she didn’t think fast, the latter would be what was happening.
Suddenly, a gunshot went off. She would’ve screamed, if her reflexes worked. Blood splattered on her cheek, and the figure hovering over her went slack, slumping onto her and the knife clattering to the wooden floor.
“Sakura?” Naruto’s voice was barely a whisper. “You okay?”
Her breath came out in a large whoosh, and her chest heaved with her panicked breathing. She could make out Naruto pulling the body off of her in the moonlight that came in from the window.
“This is a game,” he reminded her. “If you got time to rest, then it’d get boring.”
“Yeah, I realize that now.” She got out of bed, legs shaking a little. “We should get out of here.” So, quickly getting dressed and grabbing their food provisions, they left the house. She only hoped Yamato wouldn’t be angry-he’d understand, right?
They stole away in the dead of night, the cut on her neck scabbing over and the blood on her cheek that didn’t even belong to her drying.
-
They reached the next city by noon, completely and utterly drained.
Naruto had requested several times to stop and sleep, but Sakura continued on. She didn’t want to rest out in wilderness like this-despite being less prone to military attacks, the countryside was still dangerous and unpredictable.
“This should be Nagoya,” she muttered to herself. “They must’ve shrunk the actual country, if we were able to make it here so quickly.”
“Can we just sleep?” Naruto begged, finally catching up to her and falling to the ground. “I’m fine even if it’s right here.”
“Get up! You’re shameful! We didn’t even travel on foot most of the time!”
“Do you know how hard it is to by carried by a jet pack for hours?”
But she was tired, too. The adrenaline had long since worn off, and even the determination to get somewhere remotely safe was beginning to ebb away as well. Nagoya didn’t look much better than Kyoto, but there were people here, and people meant there would be noise and warnings if anything were to happen.
They needed to recharge their jet packs anyway. Finding the nearest alleyway with harmless-looking hobos, the two of them stumbled to the ground.
“This probably isn’t safe,” Sakura mumbled, using Naruto as a pillow.
“Whatever…I still have two lives left…”
-
“Get up.” Naruto frowned someone nudged him with a foot.
“Five more minutes, Sakura…”
“Dobe, I said get up.”
At the voice, Naruto’s eyes snapped open and he scrambled to his feet, leaving Sakura to tumble to the ground. She groaned and rolled over, curling up into a ball.
“Sasuke!” He threw his arms around his best friend. “You’re alive!”
Sasuke sounded a little pained. “Let go of me.”
“B-B-But,” he mock stuttered, “you’re alive! I was so worried about you! Do you know how much I missed you?” He pretended to wipe a tear from his eye. “All this time you were alone, all by yourself-alone…”
“Shut up, you moron.”
“Oh, by the way, I found our hero.” Naruto pointed to Sakura, who slowly stood to her feet, rubbing her eyes.
“Who are you?” she asked blearily.
“This is Sasuke, our defected weapon. Don’t worry-the stick up his ass is supposed to be there.”
“I hate you,” Sasuke said habitually.
Sakura inspected Sasuke, who looked a little revolted at her dirty clothes. Naruto thought it was rather endearing. “Well, at least you look smarter than Naruto.”
“Hey!”
“I’m Sakura,” she said, ignoring him and holding out her hand.
Sasuke stared at her hand-probably wondering where it’d been-before taking it briefly. “Pleasure.”
-
They’d continued to move, then; the city was eerily quiet, despite there being people who lived here. Everyone was almost terrified of what would happen if they spoke out-Sakura felt the very same fear creep up her spine. She wondered if that was part of the game.
“My baby!” Her head snapped to the side when a woman screamed, despair written all over her features. She followed her gaze, and her eyes widened when she saw a building begin its slow collapse; teetering dangerously, ready to plummet down into the middle of the street-
And right onto a baby, barely above the age of four, playing in the dead grass of its lawn.
“Why would anyone even leave their children alone in a place like this,” Sasuke scoffed, and Sakura’s nostrils flared, before she set her jaw determinedly and raced towards the baby.
“Sakura, no! What are you doing?” She barely registered Naruto’s words. She’d always had a soft spot for children-she supposed that’d be the death of her someday, game or not. The baby was ripping out the grass delightedly-a paradox of an image-completely oblivious to the falling cement and plaster. She wasn’t a fast runner, but there was time-it wasn’t completely collapsing yet and why was his mother just standing there with her mouth hanging open-
A large chunk broke off from the building and came crashing to the ground, landing just meters away from her and the baby. She gasped in surprise when something grabbed her around the waist and pulled her along, lightening fast. She didn’t know what was happening until she was set down on the ground again, Sasuke’s arm loosely around her waist and the baby in his other arm.
She found that from her sudden intake of air, she had begun to hiccup embarrassingly, but relief washed over her when she saw that the baby was safe and unharmed.
And the rest of the building collapsed.
“Oh, thank you, thank you so much,” the baby’s mother gasped as she stumbled her way towards them. “I couldn’t do anything-my body just froze and I couldn’t move-”
“You should be more careful with your children,” Sasuke murmured as he passed the now crying child to his mother. She thanked them numerous times, and Naruto nudged Sakura in the ribs. She glared at him.
“Teme must really like you,” he whispered, a fox-like grin spreading across his lips. His whisker-like scars did no help.
“Who?”
“Sasuke! He totally just saved your life, even though you still have three left!”
“He just wants to win,” she said, shrugging and pulling away from Sasuke when his arm left her waist. “Anyhow, he’s kind of an ass.”
“I think he was born that way. Or dropped on his head as a kid, or something.”
“Isn’t that you?”
“No! I’m perfectly normal!”
“She gave us this.” Sasuke interrupted their little banter, holding up what seemed to be a beaten paper clip. “As thanks. Said it was worth something.” His brows were knitted together, as if frustrated-Sakura would’ve been glad, to have saved someone’s child. Even if they weren’t real.
“If you don’t want it, I do.” She swiped it from his hand, and tucked it into her pocket. “Let’s go.”
-
“I will be stepping down from my post soon.” Yellow eyes were fixed on Ino. She shivered. Despite how awesome this guy was, he was still creepy. “I will propose…a deal to you.”
“Go for it.”
“We recently had a defected weapon.”
“We always have defected weapons,” she pointed out. Actually, they needed to fix that. They were growing more and more rebellious-the funds it took just to make more were way too high for her taste.
“Yes, well, this weapon is…special. He was one of our most skilled ones. And he has something I want.” Orochimaru’s lips stretched into a serpentine grin. “If you’re able to capture him alive and relatively unharmed, I’ll promote you to my current position.” She heard his unspoken words. And this country is yours. Ino had never been one for politics, but this was just awesome.
“I assume you have information on him, right?”
Orochimaru looked pleased. “Of course.” He pulled a file out from a drawer-his always-locked, confidential drawer. “I’ll have you look over these. Capture him however you deem necessary.”
“Of course.” She bowed her head a little, and did everything she could to not scurry out of the office in excitement, turning on the digital file and scanning the contents.
Uchiha Sasuke.
Cool. He sounded hot.
-
“If we follow the coast, we should reach Tokyo eventually,” Sakura was saying. Sasuke tried to hide his distaste-he had just escaped from there. “Hey, Sasuke, do you have any good food?”
Naruto snorted. “Not like he’d share if he did.”
“Ugh.” Sakura groaned. “I’m tired of all of this cup ramen.”
Amen, Sasuke thought.
He stopped walking just as they reached the edge of the city, eyes narrowing. Naruto and Sakura continued on, arguing about the value of ramen and health. Sasuke raised his hand and touched his ear, where a small radio was implanted. He raised the volume a little, and heard soft talking being exchanged by several people.
There were other defected weapons nearby.
Frowning, he followed Naruto and Sakura, eyes flickering from left to right. Most defected weapons weren’t friendly-he’d know. They usually attacked anyone they came across for food and money-and most of the time, they succeeded, with their enhanced speed and strength. They were made for combat-killing and mugging a few civilians would be a simple task.
His eyes flashed from onyx to red, just barely catching the quick movement and knocking Naruto and Sakura out of the way.
“Ow! What the hell, teme!”
Sasuke lowered into a crouch, vision red and catching every vivid detail as three figures came to a standstill around them.
“Give us all of your food and money, and we won’t hurt you,” one of them said-he had odd purple paint on his face.
“I want to kill them,” another said, rings of purple-black around his striking eyes.
“Gaara, c’mon…” The last one, a girl, placed her hands on the second’s shoulders from behind. “They look harmless. Let’s just take their stuff and go.”
“No way in hell are we giving you our stuff!” Naruto hollered. “Do you know how hard we worked to get all of this?” Sasuke felt the urge to bash his head into something hard. Sakura seemed to bare the same expression.
“We can always get more,” she coaxed him. “Let’s just give it and go.”
“I still have two lives left anyway!”
“See? They want to fight.” Gaara pulled himself from the girl’s grasp. “Just stand back, Temari, Kankurou. I’ll handle this.” Every muscle in Sasuke’s body tensed, and then he did the most sensible thing:
He ran.
-
“What?” Sakura gaped at the spot where Sasuke used to stand. He disappeared with lightening speed, but-he ran? “He just left us?”
Naruto looked just as dumbstruck, but for not as long. “Don’t worry. He probably has a plan.”
“Probably has a plan?” she shrieked. “He just escaped! We don’t exactly have super speed like him, do we? Unless we have some sort of secret powers-I’d love it if they came to life right about now!”
“Hey, calm down. Sasuke wouldn’t just leave us.”
Gaara surveyed them for a moment, before turning to the other two. “I’m going to get the guy who ran first. Don’t let them escape. I want to kill every last one of them.” And then he ran off with speed that rivaled Sasuke’s. The hairs on Sakura’s arm stood on end as they were left with Temari and Kankurou.
“Uh, hi.” She smiled meekly, slowly inching way. There was no way in hell she was waiting for Sasuke. He probably wasn’t coming back.
Temari put her hands on her hips. “We’re watching you,” she warned. Don’t try anything funny.”
Considering how their outfits matched Sasuke’s, they were also defected weapons. That meant that running wasn’t an option-they would catch them without a problem. So that meant fighting-but they were at a disadvantage for strength, too. Sakura swore under her breath.
Just think. She just needed to think. The game wouldn’t provide them with an impossible task.
“Naruto? Come over here.”
The blonde grinned and sidled over. “Did you finally realize your love for me?”
“No, I just want a grenade.”
With the bomb in her hand, she felt oddly rebellious. Now, if only she knew how to work it.
“Like this, Sakura.” Naruto pulled the ring that was situated at the top. “What did you want to do with it?”
“Um, throw it at them and have it explode?”
There was a brief silence. “Then you should throw it now…”
“Shit, you activated it?” Frantic, she threw it in the direction of Temari and Kankurou, and missed pathetically. It went off the moment it touched the ground. The two weapons stared at it lazily, and Sakura tugged Naruto’s arm, pulling them away and running as fast as her legs would take her.
“Did you think you could run from us so easily?” Within a matter of seconds, someone was behind her and holding her into a tight grip. It was Kankurou. His breath was hot on her cheek, and she writhed in his arms. Naruto’s eyes flared and he pulled out his gun.
“Don’t touch her, you bastard!”
Her eyes widened. “You idiot, don’t shoot! Your aim’s probably terrible!”
“I know what I’m doing!”
“No you don’t-” She was cut off by the gunshot-
And then she screamed.
Kankurou let go of her in surprise, and she fell to the ground, clutching her arm. It was bending in a horrific angle-the bullet must’ve hit her bone exactly. Her chest heaved in heavy breaths as she tried to control herself-the pain was immense. Tears immediately sprung to her eyes, and she cradled her steadily bleeding arm.
“Shit! Sakura! Sakura, are you okay?”
Temari laughed. “You’re a pretty stupid one, aren’t you?”
“Shut up!” Naruto bent down so he was on his knees. The tears were steadily streaming down her cheeks. “Sakura? Sakura-chan? You okay?”
“No, you-you-” Her voice came out choked. “You utter dumbass! Fuck, this hurts!”
Naruto’s blue eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. “You’re kind of scary when you swear.” She could only try to swallow her tears and rest her forehead against his shoulder.
This was it. They were going to die-Gaara was going to kill them until their lives ran out. So much for an awesome new game.
She wanted to go home.
-
Sasuke sunk to the ground when Gaara finally dropped dead. That was the last time he wanted to fight someone who had such high attack and defense stats.
He closed his eyes for a moment massaged his jaw; he had lost three teeth. One of his legs were fractured, from the way it gave out under his weight, and the sting that shot up his bone every time he had walked on it. His lips curved into a frown, and his mood worsened when he remembered something.
Things just kept on getting worse, didn’t they?
He had heard a scream a while back, high-pitched and clearly Sakura’s. He rid all unnecessary thoughts for a later time, hauling himself to his feet and beginning his slow walk back. Temari and Kankurou shouldn’t have hurt Sakura or Naruto, but they should’ve been able to tell that Gaara was dead from the little radio they all had installed in their ear, so they’d move on to attack them. He didn’t need that.
The scene he found was strange. Kankurou and Temari were looking at him with wary eyes, and both Sakura and Naruto were on the ground; Sakura’s back was facing him, her head bowed down.
“Let’s go,” Temari muttered to Kankurou. He didn’t need to be told twice. Both of them turned on their heels and sped off.
They were probably afraid. If Sasuke was able to take out Gaara, then the other two probably wouldn’t have stood a chance. They seemed like the more rational side of their three-man team, while Gaara was more of an offensive, spontaneous one.
When Naruto spotted Sasuke, he smiled. “See, Sakura-chan? He’s back! I told you so!” Sasuke shuddered a little at the tacked-on suffix, and wondered how it came to be.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, crouching at their sides. Sakura kept her eyes on the ground. “Dobe, what’d you do?”
“Heh.” Naruto scratched his cheek. “I accidentally…shot her?”
His eyes narrowed. “You did what.”
“It’s not my fault, okay? That dude was totally holding her hostage in all of the dirtiest ways, so I was going to shoot him down, but then he moved at the last second and then it hit Sakura-chan!”
Sasuke blinked. “You shot her.”
“Uh, yeah.”
“You shot her.”
“…Yeah.”
And people wondered why he was suicidal sometimes. “You moron.” Reaching for Sakura’s arm, he gently coaxed her good hand away from her injury. “Let me see it.”
“Why does it hurt so much?” she moaned. “I always thought I had a high pain tolerance.” His lips pressed into a thin, straight line. It was nasty. He could not believe that Naruto shot her.
“Do you want to leave the game?” Sakura looked up at him, teary-eyed, and nodded. “There’s a guy in yellow just over there. Let’s go.” He helped her to her feet, and winced when he applied pressure to his bad leg. He tried his best to hide his limp, but figured that she was too busy worrying about herself, and that Naruto was too stupid to notice, considering he freaking shot her.
The man in yellow was flickering when they approached him, which was a little disconcerting. “Hey,” Sasuke said loudly. “She wants to save and quit.”
The man didn’t move.
“Oi, are you listening?” Naruto waved his hand in front of his face. Still no reaction. Cautiously, Sasuke stretched out his bad leg and prodded the man’s shin.
His foot went right through.
-
“He has unnaturally high stats,” Shikamaru pointed out as they flipped through Uchiha Sasuke’s information together. “Judging from how long he’s been functioning for, he’s also pretty smart. We can’t get him with the regulars.”
“Making more models of Pein is way off the budget, though.” Ino bit her thumb, thinking. “Oh! Doesn’t he have a tracker on him?”
“We can check, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he destroyed it.” He rolled over to the computer on his chair, fingers flying fast on the keyboard. “Nope. Can’t trace him.”
“Isn’t it placed in the back of his neck, though?” Ino asked incredulously.
“It isn’t impossible to remove it without killing yourself, if you know what you’re doing.” Shikamaru furrowed his brow. “Troublesome.”
“Well, he’ll be heading towards here anyway, right? With the friend and hero or whatever. I don’t want to send out Pein, since he was so expensive to build, but…it’d be okay if we caught him here, right? All we have to do is immobilize him.”
“That’s possible.”
She rolled her eyes. “Can’t you sound a little more enthusiastic, for once?”
“I don’t think that was encoded in my genes.” He grinned.
She threw a memory chip at him.
-
Okay. Not good. Despite everything, Sakura could still process that, considering Sasuke and Naruto’s stunned silence.
“That’s not supposed to happen, is it?” she asked, relaxing a little. Her body was finally going into shock, and the pain was wearing off because of it.
“No.” Sasuke’s voice was grave. “The same way we aren’t supposed to feel any pain.” For a long moment, no one said anything-and then the fear came-a little at first, seemingly surprised and numbed-but it grew along with the silence, until Sakura’s eyes were wide and her hands were shaking.
They couldn’t get out, and God, her arm freaking hurt.
“Then what?” Naruto laughed shakily. “What happens now?”
“It would be safe to assume that this game is officially dangerous,” Sasuke said, unreadable. “For obvious reasons, don’t die. We don’t know what’ll happen if it’s your last life.” He glared at Naruto. “I lost two with Gaara already-I can’t save you all of the time.”
“So…we might…actually die if we lose the game?” Sakura squeaked.
“I don’t know. But we don’t want to risk it.”
The silence around them spread like a disease, and she tried to rid them of it. “My arm hurts.”
“You took a course in first aid once, right, Sasuke?” Naruto sounded uncharacteristically worried. “Can’t you, like, fix it a little?”
“I wouldn’t have to if some idiot didn’t shoot her in the first place.” But nevertheless, he gingerly took Sakura’s arm-she winced when he applied the slightest pressure onto it. When she looked at it, she felt a little nauseous; it bent so terribly. “I can set it straight, but it won’t be fixed completely; there’s probably more damage on a smaller scale. I could set it in a makeshift cast until we can get proper treatment, though.”
She smiled a little. “Thanks.”
So for the next little while, Sasuke went about looking for a good piece of wood to tie her arm to. She had to stuff her knuckles into her mouth to stop from screaming again when he straightened it a little-fuck, it hurt.
“I’ll treat you to lots of ramen once we get out of this,” Naruto promised.
“Yeah, um, let’s worry about that later, okay? Are our jet packs finished charging yet?”
“Um, yeah.”
“Okay, good. I don’t think I want to travel on foot for long.” She peered at Sasuke as he returned. “Aren’t you hurt somewhere? I mean, considering you fought the psychopath…”
“I lost two lives already,” he said shortly. “Do I need to be injured somewhere else?”
She shook her head, bangs falling into her eyes, but not caring much. “Sorry.” She had forgiven Sasuke for leaving them once she realized that he was only luring Gaara away, since it was obvious that he was the only one capable of fighting him, but they were all having a hard time right now-especially Naruto; the guilt was practically overflowing from his eyes-and Sasuke had no right to speak to her that way.
It was silent as he secured her arm to the stick with some bandages that he kept in his pack, and the put on their jet packs, rising into the air and setting off again.
She reached out for Naruto’s hand, giving it a squeeze of reassurance. She felt a little better when he squeezed back.
-
“Dammit, Orochimaru, I thought you said it was just a minor glitch!” Jiraiya roared, slamming his fists down onto the table.
“A miscalculation. It was a bigger error than I suspected.”
Tsunade stared. “So what’s happening?”
“It seems the players can’t save or quit the game…and somehow, their pain receptors have been activated, too.” She stared at the numerous screens in front of them, showing the game at every angle; four in one area and four in another. “The protagonists are the ones in the bigger danger right now, because they’ll constantly be in combat and life-threatening situations. The antagonists won’t be affected until later, when they meet the protagonists.”
“Can’t we just forcibly remove them, then?”
“That’ll result in brain damage that may or may not permanent. Out of all of us, you should know that best, Tsunade.”
“Then what’s going to happen to them?” Her voice came out strained and choked. This wasn’t supposed to happen. They were supposed to make a fortune off of this simulation game, and she was going to gamble her life away. This wasn’t supposed to happen.
“There seems to be no problem with the actual game,” Orochimaru continued as he scrolled through data. “It will progress as it’s supposed to. But somehow, selective parts of it have been corrupted in terms of leaving the game or making it an enjoyable experience.” He leaned back in his seat, crossing his arms. “It’s possible that we’re dealing with hackers.”
“You can hack a simulation game?” Jiraiya asked incredulously.
“With the technology we have now, anything is possible.” Silence lingered over the three, and Tsunade looked down to find her hands trembling. Pursing her lips, she spoke up.
“Send me in there.”
Jiraiya stared at her. “Are you crazy? Do you know how dangerous that is?”
“All you have to do is replace my character with my consciousness,” she argued, stubborn. “Orochimaru can do that, right? I mean, we can’t just leave them like that to fend for themselves-they’re just kids!”
“What if they just use up all of their lives?” he suggested hopefully. “Would they be taken out of the game, then?”
“That’s a possibility,” Orochimaru said thoughtfully, “but I doubt it’s that simple. Tsunade, considering the circumstances right now, would it be safe to intentionally cause damage to yourself in order to lose all three of your lives?”
“The stress on the brain might be too much,” she said, eyes falling, “with their pain receptors activated and all.”
“It’s called a painless death,” Jiraiya said, rolling his eyes. “Duh. Have you guys ever heard of grenades?”
“Those hurt, you idiot!” Tsunade shouted, whacking him over the head. “You suffer from first degree burns if you survive! Your body just goes into shock before you feel anything!”
“A gun to the head?”
“Shut up, Jiraiya; you’re the stupidest out of all of us here.” Her jaw was clenched, fists ready to break the next thing that moved. The two other men, seemingly being able to sense this, remained deathly still. They knew her too well. Finally, she breathed in deeply, and closed her eyes. “Send me in there.”
“But-”
“Send me in there.” She shot a dark look at Jiraiya, before shifting her attention to Orochimaru.
The dark-haired main was silent for a long moment, staring at her head-on-she responded fiercely, glaring for all it was worth. Then he sighed.
“Fine.”
She stood and made her way into the next room over, where there were simulation machines, reserved only for staff. Jiraiya was right at her heels, anger radiating from him like heat. “Just take a seat-I’ll need to make a few adjustments.” Orochimaru’s voice was strangely loud from through the door-she suddenly became aware of what she was doing-how she might not see her two dearest friends after this, how she might never live her dream of going to Vegas-and suddenly, Jiraiya didn’t seem so annoying.
“You don’t have to do this,” he said, voice low. She sat down in a seat, taking a deep breath.
“I do. The lives of five kids are more valuable than the life of an old hag.” She laughed, throat dry. “And besides, those three protagonists-what were their names again? I don’t even remember-but they oddly remind me of us.”
A small smile reached his lips. “Yeah, me too, actually.”
For the next minute or so, it was quiet, and she relished it-silence with Jiraiya was golden. Finally, Orochimaru entered, expression oddly blank. “You’ll have three lives, like the rest of the players. I’ve deduced that you’ll mostly come out safe if the game is defeated.”
“But wait, what about the antagonists?”
He was quiet. “Tsunade, I don’t always have the answers.”
She sighed. “Right. Sorry. Hook me up.” By the time the stimulators were placed on her head, she realized she was shivering. This might as well be the biggest mistake of her life.
“Uh”-she looked up at Jiraiya, who looked like he was having an internal battle with himself.
“Yeah?”
“Just-we’ll have sake waiting for you when you come back.” He shifted uneasily, and she smiled a little.
“Obviously. I expect no less.”
“Just relax and close your eyes,” Orochimaru said. “You’ll be there shortly.”
The last she heard before leaving the world was the steady, even breathing of her two favorite boys.
-
Sasuke heard Sakura shuffle around in the quiet of night. “Hey, Naruto?” Despite her whispering, it sounded so loud.
Naruto grumbled something as he rolled over. “What?” he asked groggily.
“Is it…okay to be scared?”
“Sakura-chan, I think we’re all scared.” His speech was slurred, and Sasuke frowned, trying to block out their voices.
“I don’t think Sasuke’s programmed to be scared.”
“Oh, trust me. He can be scared.”
There was nothing wrong with being afraid, Sasuke thought. It just proved he was human. He was real.
He was going to get out of this game.
a/n: i kept telling myself up post the next chapter but i was always too lazy ;____; sorry, guys.
pairing: sasuke/sakura, shikamaru/ino
summary: you wish this were just a game.
chapter: 2/5
notes: so, uh, i'm not completely dead yet. :D
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epinephrine
you’d better be more vicious, or they’ll eat you first.
-
-
-
Jiraiya was the first to speak. “Something’s not right.”
Tsunade was staring intently at the screen. “He’s…”
“Flickering. Yeah.”
“Just a minor glitch,” Orochimaru remarked. “I’ll have it fixed right away.”
“There was no glitch when the game testers were playing,” Tsunade pointed out. “So why now?”
“It could be any reason.” Orochimaru didn’t seem fazed. “Perhaps transferring it to a larger server had an effect on it. However, we’ll have it fixed.”
Something still didn’t sit well with her, but she remained silent.
-
“If you’re staying here, you have money, right?” Her blood ran colder than the blade against her throat.
“Who are you?” Her voice came out high-pitched and shaking. Her heart beat faster than it did when the bombs dropped, and the figure in the dark pressed the knife harder against her neck. When she swallowed, it cut into her skin. She tried not to flinch.
“None of your concern,” the voice hissed. It sounded male. “Now, will you give me your money your not?” Her wallet was still in the pocket of her jeans, which were folded neatly on the chair against the wall. She seriously contemplated on giving him her money, but it was clearly important in this game-and if she died, she’d get a second chance, and would know what was coming.
If she didn’t think fast, the latter would be what was happening.
Suddenly, a gunshot went off. She would’ve screamed, if her reflexes worked. Blood splattered on her cheek, and the figure hovering over her went slack, slumping onto her and the knife clattering to the wooden floor.
“Sakura?” Naruto’s voice was barely a whisper. “You okay?”
Her breath came out in a large whoosh, and her chest heaved with her panicked breathing. She could make out Naruto pulling the body off of her in the moonlight that came in from the window.
“This is a game,” he reminded her. “If you got time to rest, then it’d get boring.”
“Yeah, I realize that now.” She got out of bed, legs shaking a little. “We should get out of here.” So, quickly getting dressed and grabbing their food provisions, they left the house. She only hoped Yamato wouldn’t be angry-he’d understand, right?
They stole away in the dead of night, the cut on her neck scabbing over and the blood on her cheek that didn’t even belong to her drying.
-
They reached the next city by noon, completely and utterly drained.
Naruto had requested several times to stop and sleep, but Sakura continued on. She didn’t want to rest out in wilderness like this-despite being less prone to military attacks, the countryside was still dangerous and unpredictable.
“This should be Nagoya,” she muttered to herself. “They must’ve shrunk the actual country, if we were able to make it here so quickly.”
“Can we just sleep?” Naruto begged, finally catching up to her and falling to the ground. “I’m fine even if it’s right here.”
“Get up! You’re shameful! We didn’t even travel on foot most of the time!”
“Do you know how hard it is to by carried by a jet pack for hours?”
But she was tired, too. The adrenaline had long since worn off, and even the determination to get somewhere remotely safe was beginning to ebb away as well. Nagoya didn’t look much better than Kyoto, but there were people here, and people meant there would be noise and warnings if anything were to happen.
They needed to recharge their jet packs anyway. Finding the nearest alleyway with harmless-looking hobos, the two of them stumbled to the ground.
“This probably isn’t safe,” Sakura mumbled, using Naruto as a pillow.
“Whatever…I still have two lives left…”
-
“Get up.” Naruto frowned someone nudged him with a foot.
“Five more minutes, Sakura…”
“Dobe, I said get up.”
At the voice, Naruto’s eyes snapped open and he scrambled to his feet, leaving Sakura to tumble to the ground. She groaned and rolled over, curling up into a ball.
“Sasuke!” He threw his arms around his best friend. “You’re alive!”
Sasuke sounded a little pained. “Let go of me.”
“B-B-But,” he mock stuttered, “you’re alive! I was so worried about you! Do you know how much I missed you?” He pretended to wipe a tear from his eye. “All this time you were alone, all by yourself-alone…”
“Shut up, you moron.”
“Oh, by the way, I found our hero.” Naruto pointed to Sakura, who slowly stood to her feet, rubbing her eyes.
“Who are you?” she asked blearily.
“This is Sasuke, our defected weapon. Don’t worry-the stick up his ass is supposed to be there.”
“I hate you,” Sasuke said habitually.
Sakura inspected Sasuke, who looked a little revolted at her dirty clothes. Naruto thought it was rather endearing. “Well, at least you look smarter than Naruto.”
“Hey!”
“I’m Sakura,” she said, ignoring him and holding out her hand.
Sasuke stared at her hand-probably wondering where it’d been-before taking it briefly. “Pleasure.”
-
They’d continued to move, then; the city was eerily quiet, despite there being people who lived here. Everyone was almost terrified of what would happen if they spoke out-Sakura felt the very same fear creep up her spine. She wondered if that was part of the game.
“My baby!” Her head snapped to the side when a woman screamed, despair written all over her features. She followed her gaze, and her eyes widened when she saw a building begin its slow collapse; teetering dangerously, ready to plummet down into the middle of the street-
And right onto a baby, barely above the age of four, playing in the dead grass of its lawn.
“Why would anyone even leave their children alone in a place like this,” Sasuke scoffed, and Sakura’s nostrils flared, before she set her jaw determinedly and raced towards the baby.
“Sakura, no! What are you doing?” She barely registered Naruto’s words. She’d always had a soft spot for children-she supposed that’d be the death of her someday, game or not. The baby was ripping out the grass delightedly-a paradox of an image-completely oblivious to the falling cement and plaster. She wasn’t a fast runner, but there was time-it wasn’t completely collapsing yet and why was his mother just standing there with her mouth hanging open-
A large chunk broke off from the building and came crashing to the ground, landing just meters away from her and the baby. She gasped in surprise when something grabbed her around the waist and pulled her along, lightening fast. She didn’t know what was happening until she was set down on the ground again, Sasuke’s arm loosely around her waist and the baby in his other arm.
She found that from her sudden intake of air, she had begun to hiccup embarrassingly, but relief washed over her when she saw that the baby was safe and unharmed.
And the rest of the building collapsed.
“Oh, thank you, thank you so much,” the baby’s mother gasped as she stumbled her way towards them. “I couldn’t do anything-my body just froze and I couldn’t move-”
“You should be more careful with your children,” Sasuke murmured as he passed the now crying child to his mother. She thanked them numerous times, and Naruto nudged Sakura in the ribs. She glared at him.
“Teme must really like you,” he whispered, a fox-like grin spreading across his lips. His whisker-like scars did no help.
“Who?”
“Sasuke! He totally just saved your life, even though you still have three left!”
“He just wants to win,” she said, shrugging and pulling away from Sasuke when his arm left her waist. “Anyhow, he’s kind of an ass.”
“I think he was born that way. Or dropped on his head as a kid, or something.”
“Isn’t that you?”
“No! I’m perfectly normal!”
“She gave us this.” Sasuke interrupted their little banter, holding up what seemed to be a beaten paper clip. “As thanks. Said it was worth something.” His brows were knitted together, as if frustrated-Sakura would’ve been glad, to have saved someone’s child. Even if they weren’t real.
“If you don’t want it, I do.” She swiped it from his hand, and tucked it into her pocket. “Let’s go.”
-
“I will be stepping down from my post soon.” Yellow eyes were fixed on Ino. She shivered. Despite how awesome this guy was, he was still creepy. “I will propose…a deal to you.”
“Go for it.”
“We recently had a defected weapon.”
“We always have defected weapons,” she pointed out. Actually, they needed to fix that. They were growing more and more rebellious-the funds it took just to make more were way too high for her taste.
“Yes, well, this weapon is…special. He was one of our most skilled ones. And he has something I want.” Orochimaru’s lips stretched into a serpentine grin. “If you’re able to capture him alive and relatively unharmed, I’ll promote you to my current position.” She heard his unspoken words. And this country is yours. Ino had never been one for politics, but this was just awesome.
“I assume you have information on him, right?”
Orochimaru looked pleased. “Of course.” He pulled a file out from a drawer-his always-locked, confidential drawer. “I’ll have you look over these. Capture him however you deem necessary.”
“Of course.” She bowed her head a little, and did everything she could to not scurry out of the office in excitement, turning on the digital file and scanning the contents.
Uchiha Sasuke.
Cool. He sounded hot.
-
“If we follow the coast, we should reach Tokyo eventually,” Sakura was saying. Sasuke tried to hide his distaste-he had just escaped from there. “Hey, Sasuke, do you have any good food?”
Naruto snorted. “Not like he’d share if he did.”
“Ugh.” Sakura groaned. “I’m tired of all of this cup ramen.”
Amen, Sasuke thought.
He stopped walking just as they reached the edge of the city, eyes narrowing. Naruto and Sakura continued on, arguing about the value of ramen and health. Sasuke raised his hand and touched his ear, where a small radio was implanted. He raised the volume a little, and heard soft talking being exchanged by several people.
There were other defected weapons nearby.
Frowning, he followed Naruto and Sakura, eyes flickering from left to right. Most defected weapons weren’t friendly-he’d know. They usually attacked anyone they came across for food and money-and most of the time, they succeeded, with their enhanced speed and strength. They were made for combat-killing and mugging a few civilians would be a simple task.
His eyes flashed from onyx to red, just barely catching the quick movement and knocking Naruto and Sakura out of the way.
“Ow! What the hell, teme!”
Sasuke lowered into a crouch, vision red and catching every vivid detail as three figures came to a standstill around them.
“Give us all of your food and money, and we won’t hurt you,” one of them said-he had odd purple paint on his face.
“I want to kill them,” another said, rings of purple-black around his striking eyes.
“Gaara, c’mon…” The last one, a girl, placed her hands on the second’s shoulders from behind. “They look harmless. Let’s just take their stuff and go.”
“No way in hell are we giving you our stuff!” Naruto hollered. “Do you know how hard we worked to get all of this?” Sasuke felt the urge to bash his head into something hard. Sakura seemed to bare the same expression.
“We can always get more,” she coaxed him. “Let’s just give it and go.”
“I still have two lives left anyway!”
“See? They want to fight.” Gaara pulled himself from the girl’s grasp. “Just stand back, Temari, Kankurou. I’ll handle this.” Every muscle in Sasuke’s body tensed, and then he did the most sensible thing:
He ran.
-
“What?” Sakura gaped at the spot where Sasuke used to stand. He disappeared with lightening speed, but-he ran? “He just left us?”
Naruto looked just as dumbstruck, but for not as long. “Don’t worry. He probably has a plan.”
“Probably has a plan?” she shrieked. “He just escaped! We don’t exactly have super speed like him, do we? Unless we have some sort of secret powers-I’d love it if they came to life right about now!”
“Hey, calm down. Sasuke wouldn’t just leave us.”
Gaara surveyed them for a moment, before turning to the other two. “I’m going to get the guy who ran first. Don’t let them escape. I want to kill every last one of them.” And then he ran off with speed that rivaled Sasuke’s. The hairs on Sakura’s arm stood on end as they were left with Temari and Kankurou.
“Uh, hi.” She smiled meekly, slowly inching way. There was no way in hell she was waiting for Sasuke. He probably wasn’t coming back.
Temari put her hands on her hips. “We’re watching you,” she warned. Don’t try anything funny.”
Considering how their outfits matched Sasuke’s, they were also defected weapons. That meant that running wasn’t an option-they would catch them without a problem. So that meant fighting-but they were at a disadvantage for strength, too. Sakura swore under her breath.
Just think. She just needed to think. The game wouldn’t provide them with an impossible task.
“Naruto? Come over here.”
The blonde grinned and sidled over. “Did you finally realize your love for me?”
“No, I just want a grenade.”
With the bomb in her hand, she felt oddly rebellious. Now, if only she knew how to work it.
“Like this, Sakura.” Naruto pulled the ring that was situated at the top. “What did you want to do with it?”
“Um, throw it at them and have it explode?”
There was a brief silence. “Then you should throw it now…”
“Shit, you activated it?” Frantic, she threw it in the direction of Temari and Kankurou, and missed pathetically. It went off the moment it touched the ground. The two weapons stared at it lazily, and Sakura tugged Naruto’s arm, pulling them away and running as fast as her legs would take her.
“Did you think you could run from us so easily?” Within a matter of seconds, someone was behind her and holding her into a tight grip. It was Kankurou. His breath was hot on her cheek, and she writhed in his arms. Naruto’s eyes flared and he pulled out his gun.
“Don’t touch her, you bastard!”
Her eyes widened. “You idiot, don’t shoot! Your aim’s probably terrible!”
“I know what I’m doing!”
“No you don’t-” She was cut off by the gunshot-
And then she screamed.
Kankurou let go of her in surprise, and she fell to the ground, clutching her arm. It was bending in a horrific angle-the bullet must’ve hit her bone exactly. Her chest heaved in heavy breaths as she tried to control herself-the pain was immense. Tears immediately sprung to her eyes, and she cradled her steadily bleeding arm.
“Shit! Sakura! Sakura, are you okay?”
Temari laughed. “You’re a pretty stupid one, aren’t you?”
“Shut up!” Naruto bent down so he was on his knees. The tears were steadily streaming down her cheeks. “Sakura? Sakura-chan? You okay?”
“No, you-you-” Her voice came out choked. “You utter dumbass! Fuck, this hurts!”
Naruto’s blue eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. “You’re kind of scary when you swear.” She could only try to swallow her tears and rest her forehead against his shoulder.
This was it. They were going to die-Gaara was going to kill them until their lives ran out. So much for an awesome new game.
She wanted to go home.
-
Sasuke sunk to the ground when Gaara finally dropped dead. That was the last time he wanted to fight someone who had such high attack and defense stats.
He closed his eyes for a moment massaged his jaw; he had lost three teeth. One of his legs were fractured, from the way it gave out under his weight, and the sting that shot up his bone every time he had walked on it. His lips curved into a frown, and his mood worsened when he remembered something.
Things just kept on getting worse, didn’t they?
He had heard a scream a while back, high-pitched and clearly Sakura’s. He rid all unnecessary thoughts for a later time, hauling himself to his feet and beginning his slow walk back. Temari and Kankurou shouldn’t have hurt Sakura or Naruto, but they should’ve been able to tell that Gaara was dead from the little radio they all had installed in their ear, so they’d move on to attack them. He didn’t need that.
The scene he found was strange. Kankurou and Temari were looking at him with wary eyes, and both Sakura and Naruto were on the ground; Sakura’s back was facing him, her head bowed down.
“Let’s go,” Temari muttered to Kankurou. He didn’t need to be told twice. Both of them turned on their heels and sped off.
They were probably afraid. If Sasuke was able to take out Gaara, then the other two probably wouldn’t have stood a chance. They seemed like the more rational side of their three-man team, while Gaara was more of an offensive, spontaneous one.
When Naruto spotted Sasuke, he smiled. “See, Sakura-chan? He’s back! I told you so!” Sasuke shuddered a little at the tacked-on suffix, and wondered how it came to be.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, crouching at their sides. Sakura kept her eyes on the ground. “Dobe, what’d you do?”
“Heh.” Naruto scratched his cheek. “I accidentally…shot her?”
His eyes narrowed. “You did what.”
“It’s not my fault, okay? That dude was totally holding her hostage in all of the dirtiest ways, so I was going to shoot him down, but then he moved at the last second and then it hit Sakura-chan!”
Sasuke blinked. “You shot her.”
“Uh, yeah.”
“You shot her.”
“…Yeah.”
And people wondered why he was suicidal sometimes. “You moron.” Reaching for Sakura’s arm, he gently coaxed her good hand away from her injury. “Let me see it.”
“Why does it hurt so much?” she moaned. “I always thought I had a high pain tolerance.” His lips pressed into a thin, straight line. It was nasty. He could not believe that Naruto shot her.
“Do you want to leave the game?” Sakura looked up at him, teary-eyed, and nodded. “There’s a guy in yellow just over there. Let’s go.” He helped her to her feet, and winced when he applied pressure to his bad leg. He tried his best to hide his limp, but figured that she was too busy worrying about herself, and that Naruto was too stupid to notice, considering he freaking shot her.
The man in yellow was flickering when they approached him, which was a little disconcerting. “Hey,” Sasuke said loudly. “She wants to save and quit.”
The man didn’t move.
“Oi, are you listening?” Naruto waved his hand in front of his face. Still no reaction. Cautiously, Sasuke stretched out his bad leg and prodded the man’s shin.
His foot went right through.
-
“He has unnaturally high stats,” Shikamaru pointed out as they flipped through Uchiha Sasuke’s information together. “Judging from how long he’s been functioning for, he’s also pretty smart. We can’t get him with the regulars.”
“Making more models of Pein is way off the budget, though.” Ino bit her thumb, thinking. “Oh! Doesn’t he have a tracker on him?”
“We can check, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he destroyed it.” He rolled over to the computer on his chair, fingers flying fast on the keyboard. “Nope. Can’t trace him.”
“Isn’t it placed in the back of his neck, though?” Ino asked incredulously.
“It isn’t impossible to remove it without killing yourself, if you know what you’re doing.” Shikamaru furrowed his brow. “Troublesome.”
“Well, he’ll be heading towards here anyway, right? With the friend and hero or whatever. I don’t want to send out Pein, since he was so expensive to build, but…it’d be okay if we caught him here, right? All we have to do is immobilize him.”
“That’s possible.”
She rolled her eyes. “Can’t you sound a little more enthusiastic, for once?”
“I don’t think that was encoded in my genes.” He grinned.
She threw a memory chip at him.
-
Okay. Not good. Despite everything, Sakura could still process that, considering Sasuke and Naruto’s stunned silence.
“That’s not supposed to happen, is it?” she asked, relaxing a little. Her body was finally going into shock, and the pain was wearing off because of it.
“No.” Sasuke’s voice was grave. “The same way we aren’t supposed to feel any pain.” For a long moment, no one said anything-and then the fear came-a little at first, seemingly surprised and numbed-but it grew along with the silence, until Sakura’s eyes were wide and her hands were shaking.
They couldn’t get out, and God, her arm freaking hurt.
“Then what?” Naruto laughed shakily. “What happens now?”
“It would be safe to assume that this game is officially dangerous,” Sasuke said, unreadable. “For obvious reasons, don’t die. We don’t know what’ll happen if it’s your last life.” He glared at Naruto. “I lost two with Gaara already-I can’t save you all of the time.”
“So…we might…actually die if we lose the game?” Sakura squeaked.
“I don’t know. But we don’t want to risk it.”
The silence around them spread like a disease, and she tried to rid them of it. “My arm hurts.”
“You took a course in first aid once, right, Sasuke?” Naruto sounded uncharacteristically worried. “Can’t you, like, fix it a little?”
“I wouldn’t have to if some idiot didn’t shoot her in the first place.” But nevertheless, he gingerly took Sakura’s arm-she winced when he applied the slightest pressure onto it. When she looked at it, she felt a little nauseous; it bent so terribly. “I can set it straight, but it won’t be fixed completely; there’s probably more damage on a smaller scale. I could set it in a makeshift cast until we can get proper treatment, though.”
She smiled a little. “Thanks.”
So for the next little while, Sasuke went about looking for a good piece of wood to tie her arm to. She had to stuff her knuckles into her mouth to stop from screaming again when he straightened it a little-fuck, it hurt.
“I’ll treat you to lots of ramen once we get out of this,” Naruto promised.
“Yeah, um, let’s worry about that later, okay? Are our jet packs finished charging yet?”
“Um, yeah.”
“Okay, good. I don’t think I want to travel on foot for long.” She peered at Sasuke as he returned. “Aren’t you hurt somewhere? I mean, considering you fought the psychopath…”
“I lost two lives already,” he said shortly. “Do I need to be injured somewhere else?”
She shook her head, bangs falling into her eyes, but not caring much. “Sorry.” She had forgiven Sasuke for leaving them once she realized that he was only luring Gaara away, since it was obvious that he was the only one capable of fighting him, but they were all having a hard time right now-especially Naruto; the guilt was practically overflowing from his eyes-and Sasuke had no right to speak to her that way.
It was silent as he secured her arm to the stick with some bandages that he kept in his pack, and the put on their jet packs, rising into the air and setting off again.
She reached out for Naruto’s hand, giving it a squeeze of reassurance. She felt a little better when he squeezed back.
-
“Dammit, Orochimaru, I thought you said it was just a minor glitch!” Jiraiya roared, slamming his fists down onto the table.
“A miscalculation. It was a bigger error than I suspected.”
Tsunade stared. “So what’s happening?”
“It seems the players can’t save or quit the game…and somehow, their pain receptors have been activated, too.” She stared at the numerous screens in front of them, showing the game at every angle; four in one area and four in another. “The protagonists are the ones in the bigger danger right now, because they’ll constantly be in combat and life-threatening situations. The antagonists won’t be affected until later, when they meet the protagonists.”
“Can’t we just forcibly remove them, then?”
“That’ll result in brain damage that may or may not permanent. Out of all of us, you should know that best, Tsunade.”
“Then what’s going to happen to them?” Her voice came out strained and choked. This wasn’t supposed to happen. They were supposed to make a fortune off of this simulation game, and she was going to gamble her life away. This wasn’t supposed to happen.
“There seems to be no problem with the actual game,” Orochimaru continued as he scrolled through data. “It will progress as it’s supposed to. But somehow, selective parts of it have been corrupted in terms of leaving the game or making it an enjoyable experience.” He leaned back in his seat, crossing his arms. “It’s possible that we’re dealing with hackers.”
“You can hack a simulation game?” Jiraiya asked incredulously.
“With the technology we have now, anything is possible.” Silence lingered over the three, and Tsunade looked down to find her hands trembling. Pursing her lips, she spoke up.
“Send me in there.”
Jiraiya stared at her. “Are you crazy? Do you know how dangerous that is?”
“All you have to do is replace my character with my consciousness,” she argued, stubborn. “Orochimaru can do that, right? I mean, we can’t just leave them like that to fend for themselves-they’re just kids!”
“What if they just use up all of their lives?” he suggested hopefully. “Would they be taken out of the game, then?”
“That’s a possibility,” Orochimaru said thoughtfully, “but I doubt it’s that simple. Tsunade, considering the circumstances right now, would it be safe to intentionally cause damage to yourself in order to lose all three of your lives?”
“The stress on the brain might be too much,” she said, eyes falling, “with their pain receptors activated and all.”
“It’s called a painless death,” Jiraiya said, rolling his eyes. “Duh. Have you guys ever heard of grenades?”
“Those hurt, you idiot!” Tsunade shouted, whacking him over the head. “You suffer from first degree burns if you survive! Your body just goes into shock before you feel anything!”
“A gun to the head?”
“Shut up, Jiraiya; you’re the stupidest out of all of us here.” Her jaw was clenched, fists ready to break the next thing that moved. The two other men, seemingly being able to sense this, remained deathly still. They knew her too well. Finally, she breathed in deeply, and closed her eyes. “Send me in there.”
“But-”
“Send me in there.” She shot a dark look at Jiraiya, before shifting her attention to Orochimaru.
The dark-haired main was silent for a long moment, staring at her head-on-she responded fiercely, glaring for all it was worth. Then he sighed.
“Fine.”
She stood and made her way into the next room over, where there were simulation machines, reserved only for staff. Jiraiya was right at her heels, anger radiating from him like heat. “Just take a seat-I’ll need to make a few adjustments.” Orochimaru’s voice was strangely loud from through the door-she suddenly became aware of what she was doing-how she might not see her two dearest friends after this, how she might never live her dream of going to Vegas-and suddenly, Jiraiya didn’t seem so annoying.
“You don’t have to do this,” he said, voice low. She sat down in a seat, taking a deep breath.
“I do. The lives of five kids are more valuable than the life of an old hag.” She laughed, throat dry. “And besides, those three protagonists-what were their names again? I don’t even remember-but they oddly remind me of us.”
A small smile reached his lips. “Yeah, me too, actually.”
For the next minute or so, it was quiet, and she relished it-silence with Jiraiya was golden. Finally, Orochimaru entered, expression oddly blank. “You’ll have three lives, like the rest of the players. I’ve deduced that you’ll mostly come out safe if the game is defeated.”
“But wait, what about the antagonists?”
He was quiet. “Tsunade, I don’t always have the answers.”
She sighed. “Right. Sorry. Hook me up.” By the time the stimulators were placed on her head, she realized she was shivering. This might as well be the biggest mistake of her life.
“Uh”-she looked up at Jiraiya, who looked like he was having an internal battle with himself.
“Yeah?”
“Just-we’ll have sake waiting for you when you come back.” He shifted uneasily, and she smiled a little.
“Obviously. I expect no less.”
“Just relax and close your eyes,” Orochimaru said. “You’ll be there shortly.”
The last she heard before leaving the world was the steady, even breathing of her two favorite boys.
-
Sasuke heard Sakura shuffle around in the quiet of night. “Hey, Naruto?” Despite her whispering, it sounded so loud.
Naruto grumbled something as he rolled over. “What?” he asked groggily.
“Is it…okay to be scared?”
“Sakura-chan, I think we’re all scared.” His speech was slurred, and Sasuke frowned, trying to block out their voices.
“I don’t think Sasuke’s programmed to be scared.”
“Oh, trust me. He can be scared.”
There was nothing wrong with being afraid, Sasuke thought. It just proved he was human. He was real.
He was going to get out of this game.
a/n: i kept telling myself up post the next chapter but i was always too lazy ;____; sorry, guys.