Announcement and Sneak Peek at the end of the Chapter!
The rules were clear, etched into her mind like commandments carved in stone: Medical ninja do not step onto the front lines and they must be the last of their platoon to die. Essentially they were not to engage in any form of combat unless they were literally the last standing to defend their lives. It wasn't a matter of ego or pride. For if a medic lost their life, who would be there to heal and save those on their team? Sakura understood the weight of those rules, and the logic behind them. A healer's life was a thread that held the fabric of the team together. If that thread snapped, the entire tapestry would unravel. She had learned this lesson well under Tsunade's stern gaze, her mentor's voice echoing in her mind like a drumbeat: "A dead medic can't save anyone."
But rules, no matter how sacred, always had loopholes. Tsunade had taught her that too. The loophole was simple, yet fraught with risk. One that Sakura was still far off from attaining in her current state. It was not an easy feat but with it, Sakura would be able to defy the odds and fight alongside her teammates when the time came. Perhaps that was why she had managed to start climbing towards the peak where even her sister's apprentice had failed.
The journey to Hacho Village had been uneventful, the kind that lulled you into a false sense of security. If it wasn't for the fact that what mattered was what stood at the end of their travels and not anything during. It took less than a day for them to reach their destination, and by the time they arrived, the sun was hanging low, casting long shadows that stretched across the grounds. Birds had stopped filling the forest with their chirps and the smell of earth was growing strong as the grass became damp.
Hacho Village was a quiet settlement nestled on the outskirts of the Land of Fire, a place that seemed to exist in the liminal space between civilization and wilderness. The buildings were modest, their wooden frames weathered by time and the elements. There was an odd silence that filled the area as well, where there should've been traces of foosteps, voices, and shuffling outside.
As they approached the village gates, a man stepped forward to greet them. He was tall and his face lined with the marks of a life lived hard. His eyes, however, were sharp, scanning the group, but there was no suspicion as he noticed the headbands on them signifying them as Konoha shinobi.
"You're the shinobi they sent?" he asked, his voice rough but not unkind.
Their leader of the group stepped forward, "Yes. We're here to investigate our comrade's whereabouts and the state of the current mission you've requested,"
As they walked through the village, Sakura couldn't shake the feeling of unease that settled over her like a heavy cloak. The village was alive, but its pulse was weak, faltering. People moved about, their steps heavy and deliberate, as if each motion required more effort than it should. Their eyes were hollow, their faces gaunt, as though the light within them had been siphoned away. Something was wrong here—deeply wrong. The others on the team had noticed this as well.
"Can you explain the situation to us? What's happening in this village?" Tsunade had of course briefed them, but new information could've come forward in that time alone.
The man hesitated, his gaze darting toward the edge of the village, where the forest loomed like a silent sentinel. "It's not within the village," he said. "It's something… from the outside. It comes in. No one is safe."
Sakura's brow furrowed. "What comes in?"
The man's hands clenched into fists, his knuckles white. "We don't know….No one has seen anything but something is there. I'm sure of it. It comes to the village, and it… it takes our people. Then it leaves again. Without a trace."
He seemed to be choking on the weight of his own words, but they were so thick that even Sakura felt her skin crawl. It felt more like the regaling of a ghost story or a myth to discipline children. And while she put an effort to keep her expression neutral she couldn't help but feel a chill.
"When does it come?" she asked.
"At night. Always at night after the howling,"
Their team leader stepped forward, "That might not be much to go on, however since the culprit was said to come out only under the cover of night we must prepare,"
..
..
..
The warmth of summer that night did not suit the setting underlying for the shinobi. Its darkness broken only by the faint glow of the moon. The villagers already scampered to the safety of their homes, nightlife had become too dangerous to enjoy. The streets were eerily silent, the kind of silence that pressed against your ears and made your heartbeat sound like a drum. Sakura stood with her team near the edge of the forest, her senses on high alert. Every rustle of leaves or snap of a twig sent a jolt through her nerves.
The rest of the team was much calmer, and vigilant, but what could be expected from Anbu forces? Although this type of mission might've been below their pay grade no one had voiced a complaint. Likely even if they had one they wouldn't be foolish enough to bring it up in front of the Hokage's apprentice.
They weren't much conversationalist to begin with anyway. Perhaps it was the initial strain of the missions that pressed their mouths closed, but apart from necessary orders, no one spoke of anything mundane. Even though it was those very mundane conversation or even arguments that used to keep the nerves calm, at least for Sakura's old team. The bickering between Sasuke and Naruto would fill in the silence while Kakashi attempted to wrangle them in, and Sakura just watched from the sidelines, not finding her place to fit in that puzzle.
This was why when Tsunade ran her ragged with hospital hours, and medical practices and chakra training, she didn't find a word of complaint. In truth, being idle, gave too much space for you to look at yourself and Sakura didn't enjoy that. Things had gotten especially quiet without her teammates or missions.
It wasn't even two hours of the moon hanging in the sky before something broke through the night, enough to alert highly trained ninja and make the hairs on their necks stand. The noise was almost indescribable. It didn't belong to any animal that could be placed in the natural kingdom. This sound echoed through their bones. It was like a cry but holding some sort of guttural power, that assured it did not belong to any wounded creature, but something dominantly predatory. The sound was echoing off the trees like a death knell. The worst part, it was coming from behind them, in the direction of the village.
"Move!" one of the ANBU barked, already sprinting toward the sound. The others followed, their footsteps silent but swift. Sakura was about to follow along, in the front when one of them stepped in front blocking her path.
"Stay behind us," he ordered his voice firm. "You're a medic. You can't afford to get injured."
"How did they get passed us into the village?"
"I'm not sure, but we can't waste time thinking about that now,"
No one dragged their feet, as they broke through the forest in blurs and ran through the streets of the village. Lights had been put out deliberately to deter any signs of movement. It wasn't certain if everyone heard the screams, but if they did no one was willing to come out to investigate. But this was not an unfamiliar territory for these villagers. The fear was already set in their stomachs and now had blossomed into paralysis every time they heard that howling. The same couldn't be said for the Konoha shinobi who were eagerly rushing to find the source of that cry.
They reached the source of the screams within moments, but the silence that greeted them was worse than the noise. The street was empty, save for the bodies. Several villagers lay sprawled on the ground, their faces frozen in expressions of terror. There was no blood, no visible wounds—just the cold, lifeless stillness of death.
And then they saw it.
Lurking in the shadows, its form barely visible in the moonlight. A humanoid creature, unlike anything they've seen before. It stood at least two meters tall, its body encased in what looked like armor—dark, jagged plates that seemed to shift and pulse as though alive. Four long, white tails extended from its back, their ends sharp and pointed like arrowheads. The creature's torso was humanoid, with the outward appearance of a woman, but its chest bore a gaping hole, the edges of the armor around it jagged and uneven. From its back, four larger, spider-like appendages curled outward, their tips glinting in the dim light.
"How…?" That thing didn't have a heart, but a hole, a complete void, so how? "How… how can something like that even be alive?"
The creature turned its head, its yellow eyes narrowing as they locked onto the shinobi. It was an instant that could be described as the perfect moment for a predator locking eyes with its prey. Both would stare, in stillness, but for different reasons. Then, with a speed that defied its size, it launched itself forward, its tails whipping through the air like blades.
"Get ready!"
The creature was on them in an instant, its movements a blur of darkness and steel. One of its tails lashed out, slicing through the air with a whistle. The ANBU barely managed to dodge, the tail grazing his arm and leaving a deep gash. It moved again, this time it spun, its spider-like appendages on its back slamming into the ground with enough force to crack the stone. Another tail shot toward her, and she barely had time to leap out of the way, the sharp tip embedding itself in the ground.
"Stay focused!" the ANBU barked, his voice cutting through the chaos. "We need to take it down before it gets to anyone else!"
The team moved with great coordination, kunai and shuriken flew through the air, but the creature's armor deflected them with ease. One of the ANBU launched a fire jutsu, the flames engulfing the creature. For a moment, it seemed to work, however there was suddenly an overwhelming pressure and a force that pushed away the flames, and it appeared unscathed.
A low guttural growl in the creature's throat caught them off guard before it lunged again, the team scattered to make it lose its sense of control. Taking advantage of their numbers. Before it reached one of the anbu, their hands were moving in a flurry of seals, slamming into the ground to create a wall of earth to shield themselves, they heard the impact.
"What's the plan!?"
It wasn't even more than a few miliseconds before the air filled with the tanging iron taste of blood. The stone wall split in two, followed by a diagonally fallen torso of the anbu member, the ground watered in a red so thick you choked from looking at it.
The creature didn't even swat at the blade being thrown at it. Though its skin appeared normal, nothing pierced through it, as another ANBU discovered the hard way when they attempted to stab its neck. The sound of tearing fabric and flesh performed in sync as the shinobi's arm was removed as easily as shredded paper. The ANBU fell moments later, his body crumpling to the ground screaming in pain. This pattern followed until the entire team was on the ground, in similar states barely clinging to life.
Sakura's heart pounded in her chest, her frustration boiling over. She couldn't just stand there and watch.
'I HAVE TO MOVE!' This was against the rules, against her training, and her orders. But she couldn't care for the rules or order of things at this moment. Not when lives were hanging in the balance and ready to be dropped and shattered towards death.
With a cry of determination, she charged forward, her fist glowing with chakra. Tsunade's training had taught her well—her strength was unmatched she knew that much, comparable to that of her master's. While this abomination was distracted, Sakura took the chance to strike. She landed a devastating blow on the creature's sternum, the force of the impact sending it flying backward toward the darkness. She didn't dwell on the enemy though, that wasn't her intent. Merely to remove an obstacle from her path to healing.
She turned to the fallen ANBU, her hands already glowing with healing chakra. "Hold on," she whispered, her voice trembling. "I'll fix this." But before she could begin, a noise behind her made her freeze. She turned, her eyes widening as the creature loomed over her, its yellow eyes gleaming with malice. Walking upright as if it hadn't taken her punch at all.
Here was another thing about shinobi that Sakura failed to properly comprehend. Death was their constant companion, a specter that walked beside them with every step. A shinobi had to embrace it, to dance with it so that when the time came, they could meet it with open arms. But Sakura had always fought against death, her hands reaching out to pull others back from the brink. She had never learned to accept it, to see it as anything but an enemy.
She barely comprehended what transitioned the following minute.
First, there was a painful sensation—sharp and searing. An unnatural weight unnaturally fell through her, but when her eyes trailed down she soon realized where it had come from, protrusions, a clawed hand breaking through material, flesh, and bone as the creature's arm pierced through her chest. Sakura gasped, her mouth filling with the taste of blood. The creature lifted her effortlessly, holding her aloft as though she weighed nothing. Her vision blurred, the edges darkening as she struggled to stay conscious.
"Well, that was quite a punch for a little bug," the creature said, its voice cold and mocking. Even as Sakura's senses were fading with every drop of blood that puddled, somehow she knew that voice was going to be ingrained in her mind for what was left of her life. "I'll eat you first."
Eat? Sakura's mind reeled, her thoughts slipping away like sand through her fingers. She didn't want to die. Not like this. She had made it through so much and fought so hard. There was still so much she needed to do.
'Naruto… I'm sorry. You're going to have to save Sasuke.'
Her strength was fading, her body growing numb. She didn't even feel it when the creature opened its mouth, didn't feel the pull as her very being began to unravel. It was like stitches coming undone, her essence being torn apart thread by thread. She couldn't struggle, couldn't fight. All she could do was let go.
Just as darkness threatened to consume her, a beam of red light cut through the night, and into what remained of her line of vision. The creature howled again but it was different than what she heard before. This was the sound of pain. Somehow she could feel a tinge of satisfaction that someone managed to inflict harm to this thing that had taken the lives of her comrades.
It was now clutching the stump where its arm had been severed. As a consequence Sakura fell, her body hitting the ground with a dull thud but she couldn't even feel it, that was not a good sign. She stared up at the sky, her vision narrowing to a pinprick of light. Was this going to be the last thing she saw?
The moon looked just like the night Sasuke left the village. The night she had been left on the bench drenched in tears, and now she was under the same one, drenched in blood.
She couldn't see what confrontation was taking place right in her presence as she was so enchanted by what was only above her.
The creature was growling at the newcomer, who sauntered in with soft steps, clogs hitting the ground gently with an eerie sense of calm. Yet the air filled with deadly pressure again. Only it wasn't the creature doing this. As the figure neared, the creature stepped back. The air behind it tore open like paper to reveal a void of inky darkness. It stepped back, disappearing into the abyss with a final, guttural growl. As if promising a return.
"Well, this is a disaster," a voice said. Sakura didn't register its presence until it loomed over, blocking what would've been a magnificent view before death. Though her vision was blurry, the figure looming over her had distinct features. A stripped hat for one, though she couldn't make out the face through bangs. His face shadowed but his voice was calm but not amused. "Well, well," he said, crouching down beside her. "You're a tough one."
Sakura tried to speak, but the words wouldn't come. Her vision darkened, and the last thing she saw was that stripped hat.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter everyone. Next chapter will be coming soon, but if you'd like to read a little more then keep scrolling.
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-Kunoichi amongst Heroes chapter (98, 99, 100, 101)
-Kunoichi amongst Pirates chapter (44, 45, 46)
-Crossroads of Fate chapter (34, 35, 36, 37, 38)
-Through the Looking Glass chapter (46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51)
- (Bleach crossover) Kunoichi amongst Reapers: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
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-(SEQUEL) Through the Spyglass chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,6
-SPECIAL HALLOWEEN CHAPTER: Shinigami amongst Shinobi
Thanks for tuning in but now I've gotta tune out!
SNEAK PEEK CHAPTER 3:
"Who… who are you?" Sakura couldn't keep the tremble from her voice.
The other Sakura tilted her head, her black-and-yellow eyes narrowing in amusement. "What's with that look on your face, huh?" she said, her tone of voice mocking, but there was a guttural scrape to it that spoke of nothing natural. "You can't tell?"
Sakura's fists clenched at her sides. "There's no way you're me."
The mirror being laughed, a sound that was both familiar and alien. "Well, that's neither here nor there," she said, waving a hand dismissively. "But are you sure? Now's not the time for your pitiful overthinking. Though, I suppose that's all you've ever been good at."
Sakura's jaw tightened. She hated how this thing spoke, as if it knew her inside and out as if it had lived her life alongside her. "I want answers,"
"I can give them," she said. "I'll start with the obvious: you're going to die."