another update!
title: epinephrine
pairing: sasuke/sakura, shikamaru/ino
summary: you wish this were just a game.
chapter: 4/5
notes: so i actually made a mistake; i thought this fic had 4 chapters, but it actually has 5. surprise surprise! also, lj is finally working for me today, thank goodness :3 happy birthday, shirley! i hope this meets your expectations~
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epinephrine
you’d better be real, if you want to be alive.
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Sakura woke up, spooned together with Sasuke underneath a small children’s slide.
She vaguely recalled snuggling closer to him because it was cold, and she kind of remembered him tiredly pushing her away, but not having the energy to do so when she came closer the second time. And now, he was laying awkwardly on her arm that she couldn’t feel anymore, faces creepily close.
For someone so harsh and rude, he had rather pretty features. His lashes were long-much longer than hers, anyway-and he slept politely, too. The only sounds he made were from his breathing-he didn’t snore at all. She enjoyed this momentary peace-if anything, the sight of his relaxed face calmed her nerves down a bit for what was inevitably going to come.
The spell was broken when his eyes fluttered open, long lashes batting the sleep out of his dark, dark eyes. For a long moment, neither of them spoke.
“Um, good morning.” Her voice came out raspy. “You’re on my arm.”
It seemed he was still partially asleep, because he didn’t respond for a few seconds. He just blinked blearily at her, and she couldn’t help but think that it was actually kind of cute. She’d never seen a clueless Sasuke before. (Which was probably a good thing, too-they’d all be dead if it weren’t for him.)
“Your arm is digging into my side,” he finally said, not sounding much better than her.
“That’s because you’re lying on it,” she pointed out patiently. He had bad morning breath, and the sooner she got away from him, the better.
“I seem to have lost control of most of my limbs,” he said absently. “My circulation has been cut off.” When she looked down, she discovered that she was actually sprawled across his lower half-what an odd position they were in. Odd, but comfortable. She didn’t even notice.
“Sorry,” she mumbled, rolling off of him, and attempting to pull her arm out from under him. He grunted in response.
Everything was still for the next little while-she didn’t want to get up. Getting up entailed saving her life, and quite frankly, that seemed like a rather difficult task.
“You’re kind of nice to hang out with,” she said conversationally. “You know-when you’re not bitching about something.”
It seemed he was just as awake as her. “Hn.”
“Ino-she’s my best friend. She’s probably the prettiest girl I know. She’s also here somewhere.” She wasn’t sure why she was telling him this, but getting off her chest made her feel a little better. “I wonder if she’ll be okay?”
Sasuke didn’t answer-probably because he didn’t know. But after a short while, he said, “If she’s any smarter than Naruto, she’ll be fine.”
And, if anything, it made her a little more at ease.
Finally, after about ten more minutes of being lazy, Sasuke sat up, effectively banging his head against the low children’s slide above them. She tried to mask her smile, and he scowled. “In any case, we’re continuing on.”
“But what about Naruto?”
“We’ll deal with him later.” She wasn’t sure how to take this, but followed him out of the park nonetheless, with a frown.
They continued on their way again. It was still a little early-the sun was just peeking out above the tall skyscrapers, causing the towering shadows to loom over the entire city. It wasn’t as crowded as the day before, and as a result, Sasuke didn’t hold onto her wrist to keep from getting separated.
Tokyo, she realized, was completely different from Kyoto. And the rest of Japan, for that matter. Tokyo was technologically developed, busy-thriving with business and life. The rest of the country was purged of everything. People lived in poverty. Bombs sporadically fell from the sky. Buildings collapsed on children. How could they stand that? How could the government just decide something like that? People were dying; revolts sprung up out of nowhere-how could they all just brush that aside?
“It’s here.” Sasuke stopped walking, and caught in her own thoughts, she bumped into him. He looked at her blankly, and she had to hide her blush.
The research facility was probably the biggest tower of all. It was sleek with glass windows-and even a little intimidating, in fact. What happened in there was going to determine her future. Her life.
It was scary to think that everything would come to depend on one event. In life, you got second chances. There was no life or death. You could always pick yourself up.
Taking a deep breath and counting to three inside her head, Sakura walked up to the main entrance.
“Are you stupid?”
She found that she was jerked back by Sasuke by the wrist. She couldn’t quite decipher his expression-it was a cross between frustration and exasperation. “What?”
“You think no one’s going to ask for your identification and try to restrain you if you go through the front doors? Only authorized people are allowed in there.” He seemed almost disappointed at her stupidity. How did he deal with Naruto, then? “We’re entering through another way.”
“The back door?” she asked, trying to redeem herself.
“No.” Damn. “Our goal, ultimately, is to kill Orochimaru. He’ll be on the top floor, along with his best researchers and scientists. It’d be a pain to have to go through all those floors, and hiding from every person who happened to walk past us.”
“Then how do we get in?”
It was then that Sasuke smirked. “We climb up the building.”
There was a brief moment of silence. “Um, that’s smart of you, Sasuke, but…the last time I checked, even in this game, I’m not Spiderman.”
He gave her a look that said, Obviously, I am. She looked at him curiously. “The clothes that weapons wear allow them to do many things. All you have to do is hold onto me.”
Holding on, she came to learn, was easier said than done. When they rounded towards the back of the building and chose one of the corners to go up on and she secured her arms around his shoulders and her legs around his middle, she realized that just the mere action of holding on required much more exertion than she would’ve ever expected.
“Oh my God, Sasuke, I’m going to fall,” she said, panicking. “Go back down.” They weren’t even one floor up yet.
When both her feet were on solid ground again, she collapsed, finding that her knees were shaky and she couldn’t quite support her own weight.
“You,” Sasuke said flatly, “are useless.”
“I,” she replied vehemently, “am the hero.” They engaged in a brief glaring contest-which, of course, he obviously won. She expected nothing less, but that didn’t mean that she wasn’t frustrated with him by the end of it.
It was silent for a few moments. “I don’t have any ropes that could hold you to me, so we’re going to have to make do. But instead of holding onto my back, hold onto my front. My legs should give you some support.” Her cheeks flushed when she realized what that would mean. Close proximity to Sasuke was okay when they were sleeping, or when she was on his back-but his front was an entirely different story. He held his arms out. “Well?”
If he noticed her blush, he didn’t show it. “Um, okay.” She stepped towards him hesitantly, and placed her hands on his shoulders. “Do my legs go…”
“Yes. And you’d better hold on tighter, if you don’t want to fall.” She had no choice, really, so she wrapped her arms fully around his neck and jumped a little so her legs could go around his waist. It wasn’t a surprise that he could carry her, what with his enhanced strength and all-and before she knew it, they were climbing again.
He was right. It was a lot easier to hold on this way. As he scaled the wall upwards, his thighs almost provided some sort of seat for her. It still wasn’t a walk in the park, though. But she highly doubted it was very easy for him, either.
“How many floors does this building have?” she asked when his breathing became labored. She couldn’t see his expression right now, as her chin rested against her arm to get as much grip as she could. She was beginning to feel a little bad-if only she weren’t so heavy. Or if only she could climb right along with him-then he wouldn’t have to carry both of their weight…
“Too many,” he said gruffly.
“How many until you’re going to climb in through a window where we can go up the stairs the rest of the way?”
There was a pause. “Too many.”
To be honest, Sasuke smelled kind of gross. And she expected nothing less-they hadn’t exactly bathed in a while. She was sure she didn’t exactly had a mind-blowing fragrance either. She tried to ignore this, and how his body was gradually getting warmer as he exerted himself more and more.
And then she noticed: they were painfully high up.
Sakura had never been particularly afraid of heights-but not surprisingly, the fear struck her and sent a cold chill down her spine. If Sasuke were to lose his grip or if she were to let go, both of them would be tumbling to their deaths. The people down on the ground didn’t even think to look up-and the more she thought about it, the more frightening so thought this society was. It was every man for himself out here.
Finally, Sasuke stopped moving upwards and started moving sideways. He was muttering something under his breath, but she couldn’t quite hear. She was more concerned with the fact that her arms and legs were about to give out.
And then they were on solid ground. Her legs left his waist immediately, and the both of them stood there, just panting. She didn’t know where they were, but frankly, she didn’t care. She was just tired. Her arms hadn’t moved from their position around him yet, and her forehead pressed against the crook of his neck. He was sweating. She couldn’t care less.
And then suddenly, there were footsteps. Voices.
Sasuke reacted immediately-lifting her a few inches off the ground as if she were nothing more than a twig, and taking a few quick steps.
They were in a washroom, she realized.
“Stand on the toilet,” he muttered, breath still heavy. “And keep your head low.” She did as she was told-balancing on the toilet seat and keeping her hands on his shoulders to keep from falling. He held her steady by the hips once he closed and locked the door of the stall.
Judging from the voices that were chatting cheerily, they were in the men’s washroom. “I heard he’s throwing a fit.”
The other man laughed. “He’ll be subdued soon enough. Don’t they put sedatives in the food?”
“Yeah, but I heard he won’t touch it.”
“I also heard he’s bait for Uchiha Sasuke.”
Both of them froze at these words. She felt Sasuke’s grip tighten on her hips. They were talking about Naruto. Eventually, her forehead pressed against the top of his head. Her neck was cramping.
“Where are they keeping him?” The sound of the urinals flushed, and the taps turned on.
“In the higher security cells, I think. Well, at least, that’s what I’d suspect. Uchiha Sasuke’s probably one hell of a weapon, if Orochimaru-sama wants him alive.” The conversation of the two men continued, but there was no valuable information anymore. She closed her eyes and briefly rested her mind.
Sasuke only spoke after several minutes of silence. “The higher security cells are in the basement.” His voice was low.
“That’s…really far from here,” she said stupidly.
“We’ll get him after we kill Orochimaru,” he replied tersely. “He’ll probably just randomly shoot people if he was set free anyway.” She couldn’t help but laugh softly into his hair at that. This moment of peace evaporated quickly though, as he helped her to the floor and opened the door to the stall. “No matter what, always keep behind me.” She nodded to show that he heard, and he headed towards the exit to the washroom, footsteps light and almost inaudible.
From here on out, it was going to be as hard as hell to win. As if it wasn’t hard enough already.
-
“He’s in the building, he’s in the building!” Ino said excitedly, pointing at the screen. “Look!”
“I see.” But Shikamaru wasn’t really looking. He’d been watching Uchiha Sasuke’s movements for the past couple of hours, and finally deemed it more boring than usually. Now, he was watching Pein eat. He was oddly sophisticated and well-mannered, for someone who’d never had actual lessons in dinner etiquette before.
“Before we know it, I’m going to be the prime minister,” she continued to gush. “Then we’ll be rich and we’ll win!”
“Of course.” Even now, he didn’t find too much interest in this game. Sometimes, he hated himself for his intelligence. The only thing that was really keeping his attention was Ino. Which, of course, was more than enough.
The entire floor is deserted, save for them. It had always been this way-all of the resources on this floor was for them and them only. They were at the top of the food chain here-Orochimaru’s best researchers. There was only one floor above them, and that belonged to the prime minister himself. Sometimes, Shikamaru thought this to be a little unhealthy on his part-that meant being alone with Ino, with no distractions or reasons not to be this close and intimate with her.
He knew he should’ve minded more, but she could easily wipe all intelligent thoughts from his mind in an instant.
And maybe that was why he longed for her presence so much. She made him stop thinking, made him feel normal for once. Made him exhilarated and excited and feelings he rarely felt in his life.
“Ino,” he said, voice breathy as he pulled his mouth from hers.
Her eyes, ever so blue, were clouded over. “Mm?”
“There’s someone at the door.”
-
It took at least an hour of pausing and peeking and sprinting and hiding before they actually got to the stairs, where he finally relaxed. In a technology-based country like this, stairs were only used when the elevators weren’t working. And, of course, in an era like these, they were rarely faulty.
Sakura looked a little worse for wear, but she tried not to show it. He doubted he looked any better. Dark rings were appearing beneath her eyes, and her steps were slower than normal-the fatigue was hitting her, hard. And it would have the same effect on him too, if it weren’t for the fact that he was a weapon.
And they had several flights of stairs to climb up.
He said nothing as they began their walk. Her breaths became heavy and labored after the first flight-and he had expected nothing less, because she clearly wasn’t the athletic type. A part of him wondered why in the world she even chose to be the hero of this game in the first place.
“Would you like to rest?” he asked finally, when she really was lagging behind.
“Oh, yes,” she breathed in relief, and fell to sit on the stairs without another moment’s hesitation. “Where do you get that stamina? And you climbed up a freaking building, too.”
He shrugged. “The advantages of being a weapon.”
And that was when his eyes narrowed.
Sakura was flickering.
It was in the same way those men in yellow had flickered. Like a hologram. When he looked at his own hands, he saw that the same was happening to him.
They were running out of time.
“Get up,” he said shortly. “We’re continuing on.”
“What?” She looked back at him, incredulous. “It hasn’t even been a minute yet!”
“We have to go,” he urged. Then he turned, so his back faced her. He knelt down a little. “Climb onto my back. I’ll carry you.” There was a brief moment of contemplation, and the tension hung in the air. He knew she wasn’t comfortable with this. And that was only natural. Neither was he. But he didn’t want to die, and so this was the only option. He didn’t know how long they had left. Maybe he was a few hours. A few minutes. It’d better not be a few minutes.
Finally, he felt her hands at his shoulder blades. “On the count of three,” she said, sounding embarrassed. “One, two, three.” She hopped onto him, and he supported her easily. She was a small girl, despite her obvious strength when she willed it to appear.
They continued to move now, faster this time. He didn’t miss the way her chin nestled into the crook of his neck, her easy breathing compared to his deep inhalations and exhalations. Her hands locked together loosely underneath his chin, and he wondered how much farther up they’d have to go.
And then they reached a door. It was an odd door.
“Oh,” Sakura breathed, her voice much too closer to his ear for his liking. “Oh, it’s beautiful.” She wriggled on his back, and he let her down easily.
He touched a strange knob on the door. There was an odd button on it. He pushed it. Nothing happened. “This is a door, right?” he asked, feeling oddly stupid. She was kneeled down on her knees, inspecting the knob as if there was nothing else in the world. And for all he knew, there might not be, soon. They were flickering again.
“An old-fashioned door,” she said in wonder. “I read about them once. This is a doorknob-and that’s the lock. You need a key to open it.”
“Not a code?” All doors these days only required a simple combination of numbers-nothing inconvenient like a key. The chances of hacking it weren’t even possible now. Whoever designed this building was clever indeed.
“I might be able to unlock it,” she said uncertainly. “I’ve read on lock-picking as well. I just something long and thin…” Her voice trailed off, and then her eyes widened by a fraction. Almost excitedly, she stuck her hand into the pocket of her jeans, fishing around from something. Then she pulled something out.
The paper clip. The one he had completely forgotten about. (And of course he would. It was a paper clip.)
“You can open it?”
She glanced at the doorknob uncertainly, just as she flickered again. “I’ll try.”
“Do or do not,” he said sharply, recalling words that his father had told him long ago. He didn’t know what prompted him to remember this, but he did.
Sakura blinked. “What?”
“You either do it or you don’t. There is no trying.” She was about to open her mouth to retort, but just then, he momentarily disappeared, before coming back to life again. Her lips clamped shut, and she said nothing-merely pulled at the paper clip until it was one thin line of metal.
Despite himself, he found it interesting to watch her work. He hadn’t known Sakura for very long, so he’d never seen her concentrate on something before. She appeared to be a very studious person though, so it must not have been strange to see her focused. Her brows knitted together as she slipped the paper clip into the keyhole, turning it, pulling it out and reshaping it, and trying again. She flickered several times during this process, and with the way her eyes snapped towards her hands when it happened, she noticed. She only worked harder.
He wanted to ask her if she was scared. Frightened. Absolutely terrified. Because although he didn’t show it, he could feel it, down in his very bones. It shook his very core. As strong as he appeared on the outside, Sasuke was just human, and humans had weaknesses. Far too many, in his opinion.
There was no time for questions, though, because after a few more minutes of fiddling, the lock clicked open.
He was so relieved, he almost wanted to say that he loved her. Of course, he kept his tongue in check.
She straightened up, looking proud of herself. Her face looked grimy and in need of a wash, but that didn’t stop her smile from shining through as she pocketed the paper clip. “I knew this thing would come in handy.”
They fell into a tense silence after that, and he moved forward, reaching for the doorknob. “You turn this, right?”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
“I’m going to open it. Stay hidden, in case there’s danger.” She obediently pressed her back against the wall beside him. He turned the knob slowly and pulled the door open by a crack, peeking through it. “There are people,” he murmured, voice low.
Her breathing was shallow. “How many?”
“Two.”
“Just two?”
“A boy and a girl. They seem to be researchers.” He ignored the couple’s intimate way of touching, because it was then that he recognized the male. Shikamaru. “I know one of them. He’s a player.”
Sakura seemed to be on alert, then. “Really? What does the girl look like?”
He paused. “Blonde. Thin. Her hair is tied up in a ponytail-” He was immediately cut off when she pushed off the wall and wrenched the door straight open, pushing him back a couple of steps.
“Ino!”
-
The relief that flooded into her was unbelievable. She tripped over herself, stumbling into the room, wide-eyed and frantic.
The blonde girl blinked. “Forehead. Hey.”
The fright and adrenaline and desperation from the past three days suddenly rushed back into her, and she did something she rarely did-raced past the empty desks and the whirring machines, and pulled her best friend into her arms in a tight hug. Her vision was blurred from her tears.
“Um, Sakura?” Ino held her by the shoulders and held her at arm’s length, inspecting her with worried eyes. “You okay? It wasn’t that traumatizing, was it?”
She couldn’t help but let out a choked laugh. “Like you wouldn’t believe.”
Ino was okay. Ino was okay. All she had to do was tell her that there was something wrong with the game, and they’d get out of it together. Always together-when they were children, when they were teenagers-and now, when they were bordering adulthood. It didn’t even scare her that the image of her best friend flickered-because she could still feel her, hands solid and sturdy against her shoulders.
It would all be okay.
“You’re okay, right?” She gave her a onceover. “No injuries?”
“I’m sure I’m a lot better off than you. You look like you’ve fought a war.” And really, now that she thought about it, that wasn’t so far from the truth.
“We don’t have time.” Both girls turned towards Sasuke, who already had the other boy’s attention. Sakura never did get his name-but she supposed that wasn’t important. He came across as familiar, but she couldn’t remember where he’d seen him before. “Sakura, explain the situation to them. I’ll be back.” And he raced back the way they came, lightening fast. She was just about to ask where he was going, but then she remembered-Naruto.
How could she have forgotten Naruto?
-
Ino had never felt fear plague her the way it did now.
She had been afraid for exams, been afraid of boys, and sometimes even of Sakura-but none of that compared to now.
“We’re…going to die?” Her voice came out barely over a whisper.
Sakura didn’t look like she was doing any better. And with the way her hoodie was ripped, the way she was just so dirty and smelly only made the thought more ghastly. “No. We’re not dying.” There was that flash in the green that she’d known all her life. Her constant support. Her reassurance. “We’re going to make it out alive.”
She looked down at her hands, which flickered from time to time. She hadn’t even noticed-she’d been so preoccupied with Shikamaru that she didn’t notice anything.
What had Sakura been doing while she was flirting with her fellow researcher? Fighting? Running? Trying to survive?
“All we need to do is beat the game,” she said, words jumbling together. “But in order to do that, we have to beat the weapons that you guys made…it’ll lure Orochimaru out, and then we can kill him.”
It felt like a bucket of ice cold-water had been dumped on her head.
“Pein is programmed to be impossible to defeat,” she said hoarsely. “He’s designed to immobilize all weapons-but he’s specially made for Sasuke. He-he won’t be able to help you.” Sakura suddenly looked very pale. “I’m sorry, Forehead-I’m so sorry. We could shut him down, probably. That’d work.”
“Can’t.” Shikamaru shook his head. “Weapons are humans, too. It’s illegal to exterminate them.”
“Oh, who cares, Shikamaru? Our lives are at stake!”
“Shutting Pein down isn’t going to bring Orochimaru down here. You know that man-he never comes down unless it’s an absolute emergency. He’s never left his floor the entire time we’ve been here.” His brow was furrowed the way it usually was when he was deep in thought. Ino waited, because she knew he’d be struck with something brilliant-but Sakura fidgeted, because she was the object of his attention. “Is your father…Haruno Makoto?”
Ino was about to snap at him and say that he obviously wasn’t, but Sakura blinked, holding up her hand. “Wait. Yes, actually-yes, he is.”
“Seriously, Sakura? Your dad’s name is Jin!”
“I know, but-I have implanted memories of this character’s life. In the game, my father’s name is Makoto.” Shikamaru frowned at this, and went straight to his computer. The two girls followed behind apprehensively.
At a few clicks and a few strokes of the keyboard, a profile came up. “Haruno Makoto,” Shikamaru read out loud. “Position: weapon. Status: defect.”
-
Sasuke clenched his jaw angrily as he sped down the hallways, alarms ringing and people at his heels. They were catching up. His stamina could only last him so long.
Dammit, Naruto, where the hell are you?
pairing: sasuke/sakura, shikamaru/ino
summary: you wish this were just a game.
chapter: 4/5
notes: so i actually made a mistake; i thought this fic had 4 chapters, but it actually has 5. surprise surprise! also, lj is finally working for me today, thank goodness :3 happy birthday, shirley! i hope this meets your expectations~
<< previous chapter
next chapter >>
epinephrine
you’d better be real, if you want to be alive.
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-
-
Sakura woke up, spooned together with Sasuke underneath a small children’s slide.
She vaguely recalled snuggling closer to him because it was cold, and she kind of remembered him tiredly pushing her away, but not having the energy to do so when she came closer the second time. And now, he was laying awkwardly on her arm that she couldn’t feel anymore, faces creepily close.
For someone so harsh and rude, he had rather pretty features. His lashes were long-much longer than hers, anyway-and he slept politely, too. The only sounds he made were from his breathing-he didn’t snore at all. She enjoyed this momentary peace-if anything, the sight of his relaxed face calmed her nerves down a bit for what was inevitably going to come.
The spell was broken when his eyes fluttered open, long lashes batting the sleep out of his dark, dark eyes. For a long moment, neither of them spoke.
“Um, good morning.” Her voice came out raspy. “You’re on my arm.”
It seemed he was still partially asleep, because he didn’t respond for a few seconds. He just blinked blearily at her, and she couldn’t help but think that it was actually kind of cute. She’d never seen a clueless Sasuke before. (Which was probably a good thing, too-they’d all be dead if it weren’t for him.)
“Your arm is digging into my side,” he finally said, not sounding much better than her.
“That’s because you’re lying on it,” she pointed out patiently. He had bad morning breath, and the sooner she got away from him, the better.
“I seem to have lost control of most of my limbs,” he said absently. “My circulation has been cut off.” When she looked down, she discovered that she was actually sprawled across his lower half-what an odd position they were in. Odd, but comfortable. She didn’t even notice.
“Sorry,” she mumbled, rolling off of him, and attempting to pull her arm out from under him. He grunted in response.
Everything was still for the next little while-she didn’t want to get up. Getting up entailed saving her life, and quite frankly, that seemed like a rather difficult task.
“You’re kind of nice to hang out with,” she said conversationally. “You know-when you’re not bitching about something.”
It seemed he was just as awake as her. “Hn.”
“Ino-she’s my best friend. She’s probably the prettiest girl I know. She’s also here somewhere.” She wasn’t sure why she was telling him this, but getting off her chest made her feel a little better. “I wonder if she’ll be okay?”
Sasuke didn’t answer-probably because he didn’t know. But after a short while, he said, “If she’s any smarter than Naruto, she’ll be fine.”
And, if anything, it made her a little more at ease.
Finally, after about ten more minutes of being lazy, Sasuke sat up, effectively banging his head against the low children’s slide above them. She tried to mask her smile, and he scowled. “In any case, we’re continuing on.”
“But what about Naruto?”
“We’ll deal with him later.” She wasn’t sure how to take this, but followed him out of the park nonetheless, with a frown.
They continued on their way again. It was still a little early-the sun was just peeking out above the tall skyscrapers, causing the towering shadows to loom over the entire city. It wasn’t as crowded as the day before, and as a result, Sasuke didn’t hold onto her wrist to keep from getting separated.
Tokyo, she realized, was completely different from Kyoto. And the rest of Japan, for that matter. Tokyo was technologically developed, busy-thriving with business and life. The rest of the country was purged of everything. People lived in poverty. Bombs sporadically fell from the sky. Buildings collapsed on children. How could they stand that? How could the government just decide something like that? People were dying; revolts sprung up out of nowhere-how could they all just brush that aside?
“It’s here.” Sasuke stopped walking, and caught in her own thoughts, she bumped into him. He looked at her blankly, and she had to hide her blush.
The research facility was probably the biggest tower of all. It was sleek with glass windows-and even a little intimidating, in fact. What happened in there was going to determine her future. Her life.
It was scary to think that everything would come to depend on one event. In life, you got second chances. There was no life or death. You could always pick yourself up.
Taking a deep breath and counting to three inside her head, Sakura walked up to the main entrance.
“Are you stupid?”
She found that she was jerked back by Sasuke by the wrist. She couldn’t quite decipher his expression-it was a cross between frustration and exasperation. “What?”
“You think no one’s going to ask for your identification and try to restrain you if you go through the front doors? Only authorized people are allowed in there.” He seemed almost disappointed at her stupidity. How did he deal with Naruto, then? “We’re entering through another way.”
“The back door?” she asked, trying to redeem herself.
“No.” Damn. “Our goal, ultimately, is to kill Orochimaru. He’ll be on the top floor, along with his best researchers and scientists. It’d be a pain to have to go through all those floors, and hiding from every person who happened to walk past us.”
“Then how do we get in?”
It was then that Sasuke smirked. “We climb up the building.”
There was a brief moment of silence. “Um, that’s smart of you, Sasuke, but…the last time I checked, even in this game, I’m not Spiderman.”
He gave her a look that said, Obviously, I am. She looked at him curiously. “The clothes that weapons wear allow them to do many things. All you have to do is hold onto me.”
Holding on, she came to learn, was easier said than done. When they rounded towards the back of the building and chose one of the corners to go up on and she secured her arms around his shoulders and her legs around his middle, she realized that just the mere action of holding on required much more exertion than she would’ve ever expected.
“Oh my God, Sasuke, I’m going to fall,” she said, panicking. “Go back down.” They weren’t even one floor up yet.
When both her feet were on solid ground again, she collapsed, finding that her knees were shaky and she couldn’t quite support her own weight.
“You,” Sasuke said flatly, “are useless.”
“I,” she replied vehemently, “am the hero.” They engaged in a brief glaring contest-which, of course, he obviously won. She expected nothing less, but that didn’t mean that she wasn’t frustrated with him by the end of it.
It was silent for a few moments. “I don’t have any ropes that could hold you to me, so we’re going to have to make do. But instead of holding onto my back, hold onto my front. My legs should give you some support.” Her cheeks flushed when she realized what that would mean. Close proximity to Sasuke was okay when they were sleeping, or when she was on his back-but his front was an entirely different story. He held his arms out. “Well?”
If he noticed her blush, he didn’t show it. “Um, okay.” She stepped towards him hesitantly, and placed her hands on his shoulders. “Do my legs go…”
“Yes. And you’d better hold on tighter, if you don’t want to fall.” She had no choice, really, so she wrapped her arms fully around his neck and jumped a little so her legs could go around his waist. It wasn’t a surprise that he could carry her, what with his enhanced strength and all-and before she knew it, they were climbing again.
He was right. It was a lot easier to hold on this way. As he scaled the wall upwards, his thighs almost provided some sort of seat for her. It still wasn’t a walk in the park, though. But she highly doubted it was very easy for him, either.
“How many floors does this building have?” she asked when his breathing became labored. She couldn’t see his expression right now, as her chin rested against her arm to get as much grip as she could. She was beginning to feel a little bad-if only she weren’t so heavy. Or if only she could climb right along with him-then he wouldn’t have to carry both of their weight…
“Too many,” he said gruffly.
“How many until you’re going to climb in through a window where we can go up the stairs the rest of the way?”
There was a pause. “Too many.”
To be honest, Sasuke smelled kind of gross. And she expected nothing less-they hadn’t exactly bathed in a while. She was sure she didn’t exactly had a mind-blowing fragrance either. She tried to ignore this, and how his body was gradually getting warmer as he exerted himself more and more.
And then she noticed: they were painfully high up.
Sakura had never been particularly afraid of heights-but not surprisingly, the fear struck her and sent a cold chill down her spine. If Sasuke were to lose his grip or if she were to let go, both of them would be tumbling to their deaths. The people down on the ground didn’t even think to look up-and the more she thought about it, the more frightening so thought this society was. It was every man for himself out here.
Finally, Sasuke stopped moving upwards and started moving sideways. He was muttering something under his breath, but she couldn’t quite hear. She was more concerned with the fact that her arms and legs were about to give out.
And then they were on solid ground. Her legs left his waist immediately, and the both of them stood there, just panting. She didn’t know where they were, but frankly, she didn’t care. She was just tired. Her arms hadn’t moved from their position around him yet, and her forehead pressed against the crook of his neck. He was sweating. She couldn’t care less.
And then suddenly, there were footsteps. Voices.
Sasuke reacted immediately-lifting her a few inches off the ground as if she were nothing more than a twig, and taking a few quick steps.
They were in a washroom, she realized.
“Stand on the toilet,” he muttered, breath still heavy. “And keep your head low.” She did as she was told-balancing on the toilet seat and keeping her hands on his shoulders to keep from falling. He held her steady by the hips once he closed and locked the door of the stall.
Judging from the voices that were chatting cheerily, they were in the men’s washroom. “I heard he’s throwing a fit.”
The other man laughed. “He’ll be subdued soon enough. Don’t they put sedatives in the food?”
“Yeah, but I heard he won’t touch it.”
“I also heard he’s bait for Uchiha Sasuke.”
Both of them froze at these words. She felt Sasuke’s grip tighten on her hips. They were talking about Naruto. Eventually, her forehead pressed against the top of his head. Her neck was cramping.
“Where are they keeping him?” The sound of the urinals flushed, and the taps turned on.
“In the higher security cells, I think. Well, at least, that’s what I’d suspect. Uchiha Sasuke’s probably one hell of a weapon, if Orochimaru-sama wants him alive.” The conversation of the two men continued, but there was no valuable information anymore. She closed her eyes and briefly rested her mind.
Sasuke only spoke after several minutes of silence. “The higher security cells are in the basement.” His voice was low.
“That’s…really far from here,” she said stupidly.
“We’ll get him after we kill Orochimaru,” he replied tersely. “He’ll probably just randomly shoot people if he was set free anyway.” She couldn’t help but laugh softly into his hair at that. This moment of peace evaporated quickly though, as he helped her to the floor and opened the door to the stall. “No matter what, always keep behind me.” She nodded to show that he heard, and he headed towards the exit to the washroom, footsteps light and almost inaudible.
From here on out, it was going to be as hard as hell to win. As if it wasn’t hard enough already.
-
“He’s in the building, he’s in the building!” Ino said excitedly, pointing at the screen. “Look!”
“I see.” But Shikamaru wasn’t really looking. He’d been watching Uchiha Sasuke’s movements for the past couple of hours, and finally deemed it more boring than usually. Now, he was watching Pein eat. He was oddly sophisticated and well-mannered, for someone who’d never had actual lessons in dinner etiquette before.
“Before we know it, I’m going to be the prime minister,” she continued to gush. “Then we’ll be rich and we’ll win!”
“Of course.” Even now, he didn’t find too much interest in this game. Sometimes, he hated himself for his intelligence. The only thing that was really keeping his attention was Ino. Which, of course, was more than enough.
The entire floor is deserted, save for them. It had always been this way-all of the resources on this floor was for them and them only. They were at the top of the food chain here-Orochimaru’s best researchers. There was only one floor above them, and that belonged to the prime minister himself. Sometimes, Shikamaru thought this to be a little unhealthy on his part-that meant being alone with Ino, with no distractions or reasons not to be this close and intimate with her.
He knew he should’ve minded more, but she could easily wipe all intelligent thoughts from his mind in an instant.
And maybe that was why he longed for her presence so much. She made him stop thinking, made him feel normal for once. Made him exhilarated and excited and feelings he rarely felt in his life.
“Ino,” he said, voice breathy as he pulled his mouth from hers.
Her eyes, ever so blue, were clouded over. “Mm?”
“There’s someone at the door.”
-
It took at least an hour of pausing and peeking and sprinting and hiding before they actually got to the stairs, where he finally relaxed. In a technology-based country like this, stairs were only used when the elevators weren’t working. And, of course, in an era like these, they were rarely faulty.
Sakura looked a little worse for wear, but she tried not to show it. He doubted he looked any better. Dark rings were appearing beneath her eyes, and her steps were slower than normal-the fatigue was hitting her, hard. And it would have the same effect on him too, if it weren’t for the fact that he was a weapon.
And they had several flights of stairs to climb up.
He said nothing as they began their walk. Her breaths became heavy and labored after the first flight-and he had expected nothing less, because she clearly wasn’t the athletic type. A part of him wondered why in the world she even chose to be the hero of this game in the first place.
“Would you like to rest?” he asked finally, when she really was lagging behind.
“Oh, yes,” she breathed in relief, and fell to sit on the stairs without another moment’s hesitation. “Where do you get that stamina? And you climbed up a freaking building, too.”
He shrugged. “The advantages of being a weapon.”
And that was when his eyes narrowed.
Sakura was flickering.
It was in the same way those men in yellow had flickered. Like a hologram. When he looked at his own hands, he saw that the same was happening to him.
They were running out of time.
“Get up,” he said shortly. “We’re continuing on.”
“What?” She looked back at him, incredulous. “It hasn’t even been a minute yet!”
“We have to go,” he urged. Then he turned, so his back faced her. He knelt down a little. “Climb onto my back. I’ll carry you.” There was a brief moment of contemplation, and the tension hung in the air. He knew she wasn’t comfortable with this. And that was only natural. Neither was he. But he didn’t want to die, and so this was the only option. He didn’t know how long they had left. Maybe he was a few hours. A few minutes. It’d better not be a few minutes.
Finally, he felt her hands at his shoulder blades. “On the count of three,” she said, sounding embarrassed. “One, two, three.” She hopped onto him, and he supported her easily. She was a small girl, despite her obvious strength when she willed it to appear.
They continued to move now, faster this time. He didn’t miss the way her chin nestled into the crook of his neck, her easy breathing compared to his deep inhalations and exhalations. Her hands locked together loosely underneath his chin, and he wondered how much farther up they’d have to go.
And then they reached a door. It was an odd door.
“Oh,” Sakura breathed, her voice much too closer to his ear for his liking. “Oh, it’s beautiful.” She wriggled on his back, and he let her down easily.
He touched a strange knob on the door. There was an odd button on it. He pushed it. Nothing happened. “This is a door, right?” he asked, feeling oddly stupid. She was kneeled down on her knees, inspecting the knob as if there was nothing else in the world. And for all he knew, there might not be, soon. They were flickering again.
“An old-fashioned door,” she said in wonder. “I read about them once. This is a doorknob-and that’s the lock. You need a key to open it.”
“Not a code?” All doors these days only required a simple combination of numbers-nothing inconvenient like a key. The chances of hacking it weren’t even possible now. Whoever designed this building was clever indeed.
“I might be able to unlock it,” she said uncertainly. “I’ve read on lock-picking as well. I just something long and thin…” Her voice trailed off, and then her eyes widened by a fraction. Almost excitedly, she stuck her hand into the pocket of her jeans, fishing around from something. Then she pulled something out.
The paper clip. The one he had completely forgotten about. (And of course he would. It was a paper clip.)
“You can open it?”
She glanced at the doorknob uncertainly, just as she flickered again. “I’ll try.”
“Do or do not,” he said sharply, recalling words that his father had told him long ago. He didn’t know what prompted him to remember this, but he did.
Sakura blinked. “What?”
“You either do it or you don’t. There is no trying.” She was about to open her mouth to retort, but just then, he momentarily disappeared, before coming back to life again. Her lips clamped shut, and she said nothing-merely pulled at the paper clip until it was one thin line of metal.
Despite himself, he found it interesting to watch her work. He hadn’t known Sakura for very long, so he’d never seen her concentrate on something before. She appeared to be a very studious person though, so it must not have been strange to see her focused. Her brows knitted together as she slipped the paper clip into the keyhole, turning it, pulling it out and reshaping it, and trying again. She flickered several times during this process, and with the way her eyes snapped towards her hands when it happened, she noticed. She only worked harder.
He wanted to ask her if she was scared. Frightened. Absolutely terrified. Because although he didn’t show it, he could feel it, down in his very bones. It shook his very core. As strong as he appeared on the outside, Sasuke was just human, and humans had weaknesses. Far too many, in his opinion.
There was no time for questions, though, because after a few more minutes of fiddling, the lock clicked open.
He was so relieved, he almost wanted to say that he loved her. Of course, he kept his tongue in check.
She straightened up, looking proud of herself. Her face looked grimy and in need of a wash, but that didn’t stop her smile from shining through as she pocketed the paper clip. “I knew this thing would come in handy.”
They fell into a tense silence after that, and he moved forward, reaching for the doorknob. “You turn this, right?”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
“I’m going to open it. Stay hidden, in case there’s danger.” She obediently pressed her back against the wall beside him. He turned the knob slowly and pulled the door open by a crack, peeking through it. “There are people,” he murmured, voice low.
Her breathing was shallow. “How many?”
“Two.”
“Just two?”
“A boy and a girl. They seem to be researchers.” He ignored the couple’s intimate way of touching, because it was then that he recognized the male. Shikamaru. “I know one of them. He’s a player.”
Sakura seemed to be on alert, then. “Really? What does the girl look like?”
He paused. “Blonde. Thin. Her hair is tied up in a ponytail-” He was immediately cut off when she pushed off the wall and wrenched the door straight open, pushing him back a couple of steps.
“Ino!”
-
The relief that flooded into her was unbelievable. She tripped over herself, stumbling into the room, wide-eyed and frantic.
The blonde girl blinked. “Forehead. Hey.”
The fright and adrenaline and desperation from the past three days suddenly rushed back into her, and she did something she rarely did-raced past the empty desks and the whirring machines, and pulled her best friend into her arms in a tight hug. Her vision was blurred from her tears.
“Um, Sakura?” Ino held her by the shoulders and held her at arm’s length, inspecting her with worried eyes. “You okay? It wasn’t that traumatizing, was it?”
She couldn’t help but let out a choked laugh. “Like you wouldn’t believe.”
Ino was okay. Ino was okay. All she had to do was tell her that there was something wrong with the game, and they’d get out of it together. Always together-when they were children, when they were teenagers-and now, when they were bordering adulthood. It didn’t even scare her that the image of her best friend flickered-because she could still feel her, hands solid and sturdy against her shoulders.
It would all be okay.
“You’re okay, right?” She gave her a onceover. “No injuries?”
“I’m sure I’m a lot better off than you. You look like you’ve fought a war.” And really, now that she thought about it, that wasn’t so far from the truth.
“We don’t have time.” Both girls turned towards Sasuke, who already had the other boy’s attention. Sakura never did get his name-but she supposed that wasn’t important. He came across as familiar, but she couldn’t remember where he’d seen him before. “Sakura, explain the situation to them. I’ll be back.” And he raced back the way they came, lightening fast. She was just about to ask where he was going, but then she remembered-Naruto.
How could she have forgotten Naruto?
-
Ino had never felt fear plague her the way it did now.
She had been afraid for exams, been afraid of boys, and sometimes even of Sakura-but none of that compared to now.
“We’re…going to die?” Her voice came out barely over a whisper.
Sakura didn’t look like she was doing any better. And with the way her hoodie was ripped, the way she was just so dirty and smelly only made the thought more ghastly. “No. We’re not dying.” There was that flash in the green that she’d known all her life. Her constant support. Her reassurance. “We’re going to make it out alive.”
She looked down at her hands, which flickered from time to time. She hadn’t even noticed-she’d been so preoccupied with Shikamaru that she didn’t notice anything.
What had Sakura been doing while she was flirting with her fellow researcher? Fighting? Running? Trying to survive?
“All we need to do is beat the game,” she said, words jumbling together. “But in order to do that, we have to beat the weapons that you guys made…it’ll lure Orochimaru out, and then we can kill him.”
It felt like a bucket of ice cold-water had been dumped on her head.
“Pein is programmed to be impossible to defeat,” she said hoarsely. “He’s designed to immobilize all weapons-but he’s specially made for Sasuke. He-he won’t be able to help you.” Sakura suddenly looked very pale. “I’m sorry, Forehead-I’m so sorry. We could shut him down, probably. That’d work.”
“Can’t.” Shikamaru shook his head. “Weapons are humans, too. It’s illegal to exterminate them.”
“Oh, who cares, Shikamaru? Our lives are at stake!”
“Shutting Pein down isn’t going to bring Orochimaru down here. You know that man-he never comes down unless it’s an absolute emergency. He’s never left his floor the entire time we’ve been here.” His brow was furrowed the way it usually was when he was deep in thought. Ino waited, because she knew he’d be struck with something brilliant-but Sakura fidgeted, because she was the object of his attention. “Is your father…Haruno Makoto?”
Ino was about to snap at him and say that he obviously wasn’t, but Sakura blinked, holding up her hand. “Wait. Yes, actually-yes, he is.”
“Seriously, Sakura? Your dad’s name is Jin!”
“I know, but-I have implanted memories of this character’s life. In the game, my father’s name is Makoto.” Shikamaru frowned at this, and went straight to his computer. The two girls followed behind apprehensively.
At a few clicks and a few strokes of the keyboard, a profile came up. “Haruno Makoto,” Shikamaru read out loud. “Position: weapon. Status: defect.”
-
Sasuke clenched his jaw angrily as he sped down the hallways, alarms ringing and people at his heels. They were catching up. His stamina could only last him so long.
Dammit, Naruto, where the hell are you?