[Fic] -- "The Awakening"
Summary: She had been caught during her latest mission, somehow. When she woke up, nothing was the same. And now, running away from her captors, Haruno Sakura must fight to keep her life in a world that doesn't remember who she is.
Disclaimer: Don’t own Naruto.
Warning: A lot of AU elements and confusing stuff. Hopefully it’ll make sense when the story is done. Planning on having six chapters, so we’ll see.
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‘Where…?’
My eyes feel so heavy - so very heavy. I can’t open them even when I try. Sometimes my fingers twitch and it’s not a comfortable sensation.
‘Where am I?’
Everything around me is dark. I can tell that much even though my eyes are closed. But I can’t feel anything. I can’t smell anything. I can’t hear anything. It’s almost like I’m stuck in a big black void of nothingness. I get the feeling that if I could open my eyes, I’d still end up seeing what all of my other senses are feeling - or what they aren’t.
‘Hello?’
I’m missing something, but I don’t know what it is. There’s a big gap inside of me, and I don’t know how to fill it, or if it can be filled at all. I feel incomplete without this mysterious item and it’s slowly tearing me apart.
‘Is someone there?’
I can’t move - not of my own will, anyway. I can’t do anything. I feel like I’m trapped in a nightmare. Trapped. Can’t get out. Suffocating. Floating between two realms. Dreaming, but not dreaming, for what seems like all of eternity.
‘Can anyone hear me?’
And I want to wake up.
‘Please?’
I want to wake up.
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Apocryphal Realities
Ha - Sa: The Awakening
By Yatsuka Hikagi
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The first thing she noticed upon waking up was that she was wet, as in submerged in liquid from head to toe. The second thing was the oxygen mask fastened to her face and wires attached to the rest of her body. The third was that she didn’t have a clue where she was, how she got here, or what the hell was going on.
Oh, and there was also a large glass panel in front of her.
Maybe she had been captured after being knocked out during that last mission…?
‘Brilliant deduction, Sakura,’ her mind sarcastically quipped. ‘Being captured after getting ambushed by enemy shinobi in a foreign country - who would’a thunk?’
Sakura took a mental hammer to her brain and told it to shut up. Right now wasn’t the time to start developing a case of insanity or MPD (‘Too late for that one,’ her brain snorted.). She first had to make sure that all of her things were safe, unless the enemy had stripped her of her belongings already.
Wait… She was naked. And floating in a tank. With an oxygen mask. And unable to move. Perfect. Could this day get any better?!
Dammit. There went all the formulas she had been creating over the past month. Tsunade-sensei was going to be so pissed off when she found out that her research had been stripped from her.
Inwardly sighing, Sakura tried to see how much damage her body had sustained while being contained. After passing inspection, she opted to get the hell out of here and trek back to Konoha… If Konoha was anywhere close by…
There were surprisingly very few restraints keeping her in place, but her muscles had a hard time working them free. They must have put sedatives in her blood stream for her body to react so sluggishly. There was no other explanation because mere plastic-coated wires were not enough to tie her down on any normal day. Either that, or she could attribute it to atrophy, which led to the question of how long she had been unconscious.
She didn’t know any jutsu that could blast through the glass wall, though. And she had no idea of knowing how thick it was either. The liquid around her seemed to be a lot denser than regular water, and she had a hunch that her chakra-enhanced strength would be absorbed before ever making an impact. Plus she still felt sluggish.
Her only other option was to swim to the top, but first she had to get rid of those pesky wires keeping her down. Trying to tear them apart proved to be futile, as well as any other attempts to cut free from them.
But the sound of voices and footsteps outside quickly snapped her into attention. It wasn’t very loud, but the vibrations were being picked up and amplified due to the tank she was in, and Sakura wasn’t sure what to make of it.
There were two of them. One was male, and the other female. The words were a bit murky and hard to distinguish, but she was able to understand the majority of what was being spoken. They seemed rather close by, but she deduced that there was at least a door between her and the two strangers by the sound of it.
“How… How is he, Doctor?”
‘Female.’ She had a very nice voice, almost like the babysitters in her neighborhood back home.
“You mean Subject Three?”
‘Male.’ Sounded very proper and prim. Sakura wouldn’t have been surprised if the guy had glasses and his hair was combed neatly back.
“Yes. I’m worried. They say he’s been like that for a while.”
“Hold on, I need to look for my access card.” The doctor seemed to pause, as if searching through something. “I’d say that he is starting to stabilize again.”
“And any word about One and Two?”
“Subject One has just been released the other day.”
“The other day?” the nurse gasped. Sakura imagined that the woman brought a hand to her mouth. The nurse was beginning to fit the image of an older Hyuuga Hinata, and the thought made her lips twitch in amusement. “But how is that possible? He was suffering from severe mental trauma.”
The doctor sighed. “They wiped all of the downloaded software and placed restrictors on his hard drive. For the meantime, he’s running on his backup file. We can’t keep him locked up forever, you know. Fresh air and the semblance of a social life do them a lot of good; it keeps their artificial spirits happy, just like it does for the rest of mankind.”
“And Number Two?”
“Subject Two is… still under critical condition. We don’t know if he’ll ever be up and running again. Subject Three, on the other hand, has shown signs of waking sometime today. Ah, found it!”
Sakura heard clicking sounds accompanied by a series of beeps and she deduced that the doctor had found the access card he had been looking for. Which meant that she was currently in a locked room, supposedly under observation of some sort.
“Doctor, I still don’t know about this.”
“It’s fine. I have clearance to handle him - just the two of us this time. Last time the Board made the mistake of allowing more than just a doctor and his assistant check up on his status, and you know how that turned out.”
“I’m not sure if it’ll go smoothly this time around. Number Two was supposed to be able to handle the situation by himself, but Three overwhel-”
“Don’t worry. Hopefully he’ll be calmer this time around, depending on how he’s feeling - we’ll investigate the cause later. Now let’s run through our usual checkup here.”
Sakura tried to process all of the information while she was listening in, but doors suddenly opened at that point. She backpedaled away from the glass by using the surface as a spring board and tried to look as if she hadn’t moved from her original position. There was a sudden shower of light that illuminated the room as the two figures entered. With the light, Sakura was able to get a better grip on her surroundings.
The room was spacious. It wasn’t huge (not much bigger than a regular hospital room in Konoha) by any means, but there was enough room to house various pieces of equipment including a large cot next to the left wall and a desk on its opposite. It was much bigger than a cell, and for the first time Sakura wondered if she wasn’t being kept a prisoner like she had suspected. In fact, the place looked more like a labor-
The doctor’s voice broke her out of her thoughts.
“-nata-kun, could you please get her readings?”
“Right away.”
Sakura forced herself to relax as the lady drew closer to her tank. She regulated her breathing so that it would seem like she was still asleep and prayed to Kami that the woman wasn’t a medic-nin.
The assistant clicked away on one of the machines in front of her tank.
“Vital signs are normal, and brainwaves are stable and more active than usual. It seems like she’s coming out of hibernation.”
“Good. Then drain the tank and let’s get her over to the scanner for a complete analysis.”
“Yes sir.”
There was a beep and Sakura felt her world tilt sideways until the tank (she had only just realized that it was cylindrical) was parallel to the floor. The fluid then started trickling out through an opening somewhere (she had no idea how any of this was possible because the tank shouldn’t have been connected to anything right now - and how did it manage to tilt in the first place? - but it was hard to discern with one’s eyes closed) until she was lying with her back pressed to the glass.
Sakura opened her eyes for a quick peek, and was relieved to find that they weren’t looking in her direction. And her container was placed in such a way that they wouldn’t be able to see if her eyes were open or not. Meanwhile, the people outside were still present and working on the machines.
“There was a spike in brain activity. I think her senses registered the movement.”
“Excellent. Let’s get all of this done before she wakes up. Can you transfer her over? I’m just about done adjusting the monitors here.”
There were more clicks and the glass seemed to open up so that half of it slid up and away into a right angle above her. It took a few seconds for Sakura to realize that the other half wasn’t below her, and she was being sustained in the air by something she couldn’t see.
But this wasn’t on her mind for very long because she started moving - or at least, her body was being floated, it seemed - towards the cot she had seen earlier. She felt the hard surface come in contact with her skin, and all the wires snapped off on their own.
The lady from before appeared before her and Sakura quickly shut her eyes. The oxygen mask was removed and replaced with a smaller one.
“I’m going to start restoration on her muscles. You should begin work on connecting the nerves that haven’t been repaired since our last visit. Start with her eyes - our records state that they’re almost perfect again, but we still need to touch up a bit.”
“Hai, sensei. But it will take a few minutes afterwards for her body to adjust.”
“That’s fine. She should still be asleep. We’ve given her enough sedatives regularly to keep her down.”
There was a sudden bright light that blinded her even behind her eyelids. Pain coursed through her nerves for a brief instant, and she involuntarily let out a gasp. It was over in a second, but she still could feel the tingling sensation of electricity that remained behind.
“What happened?” the doctor asked. The nurse hesitated, her hands floating over a portable keyboard.
“I think she reacted to the restoration process.”
“Not good. That means her body’s developed a resistance to the drugs. Be prepared to restrain her if needs be. I have a small tranq with me in case of emergency.”
Sakura opened her eyes and tried flexing her fingers. Not so sluggish anymore, and definitely stronger. She knew that she wasn’t anywhere near her normal strength right now, but at least she could properly close her fist. Turning her head to get a better look at her supposed captors, she tried to judge the distance between her current location and the door.
Her eyes fell on the doctor and his assistant, but it seemed that her eyes weren’t focusing properly at the moment and she couldn’t make out their faces. Didn’t the nurse say that it would fix itself soon? She shook her head to clear her thoughts when she noticed the man approach her slowly.
And what was that in the doctor’s hands?
If there was a time to panic, now was a good time. Sakura didn’t intend to sit still and find out what sort of contraption the stranger held, but she knew that it couldn’t be anything good. From her past experiences, nothing that had a sharp pointy end ever served to be pleasant when it was pointed in her direction.
The doctor and his assistant edged closer, and Sakura’s instincts took over. With a push, she slid off of the cot and struck her opponents in the chin. They fell down to the cold floor, but not before the doctor was able to shoot her with some sort of dart on her leg. She quickly pulled it out and was relieved to note that less than half of the syringe had been injected and hadn’t hit her bloodstream yet.
But she was starting to feel weaker and knew that it was some sort of numbing agent. And if these two were using and treating her like an experiment, then she wasn’t going to stick around for much longer. Especially if the rest of the building was like this too.
‘But first…’ she thought as her mind started getting hazier, ‘clothes…’
Three minutes later, she was running through a maze of hallways wearing a spare lab coat, unable to find a way out. The sedative was threatening to make her collapse, but she was stubbornly trying to shake off its effects. Twice, she nearly collided into another person, but she had managed to evade at the last instant.
White, white, and more white. Turning left, then right, trying to find another staircase downwards… This place was like a maze. Door after door, every hallway looked exactly like the other save for the number plates on the walls - and the writing system used wasn’t one she was familiar with. A few times, she thought she passed by the same area, but it was not so. They must have designed the area to be difficult to take over in the case of a terrorist attack, like they did in television studios.
Sakura paused when she passed by a small window overlooking what seemed like the parking lot. Judging by the distance (thank goodness that her eyesight righted itself relatively soon after leaving her containment room), she was about three stories up. The facility was surrounded by a large wall, but she could just make out a gate off to the left side of the window pane. All she needed to do was travel in a southwest (at least, what she assumed was southwest according to the shadows in the parking lot) direction until she made it there. Getting over would be a problem she would deal with when it came to the time to do so.
She just wished she knew what happened to land her in this situation.
Everything was a blur from then on, but Sakura kept pushing herself to keep moving. It didn’t matter if the chemicals would circulate faster; she was dead meat if she got caught staying still. Somehow she managed to find a staircase, stumble through the main doors and reach the front gates. But the site outside was like a slap in the face.
This… This was not possible.
The landscape was just wrong. Buildings were stacked to the skies and the clouds that circled above them were like pillars of black smoke. There were automobiles, but they appeared to be traveling on roads that were suspended in the air. Every once in a while, an aircraft would soar over it all and descend somewhere behind the next hill.
But Sakura didn’t have the time to stare. Any minute now, someone would discover the unconscious bodies in the room she escaped from, and they would come looking for her. She needed to get as far away from here as possible. Maybe after eluding her pursuers, she would have time to think about what the hell was going on.
Fortunately, the gated facility was on top of a hill, one that provided an ample level of coverage. There were trees everywhere save on the asphalt-covered road that wound in zigzag patterns downwards past the gates. Figuring that to be the quickest way out, Sakura chose to follow the path from the trees. It seemed to lead towards civilization, so that would be the easiest way to blend in and find a way home.
Although nowhere near her best form, she still had enough strength to climb over the gates and continue on her journey. After covering a sufficient amount of distance, she paused under the covers of a large tree to access her condition now that she was supposedly safe.
Perhaps a genjutsu would help cover her tracks. Tsunade-sensei had said once that her illusions were top-notch thanks to her perfect chakra control and strong mind. Maybe they would help save her hide too.
Sakura brought her hands together to form the familiar seals and was shocked when her chakra refused to gather. She tried again, desperately pulling up whatever she could manage, but the result was the same. The pink-haired kunoichi felt like the ground had been pulled from underneath her feet.
She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t mold chakra anymore. Something had either drained her of her supply, or it had somehow blocked it off. Those people could have placed a seal on her while she was unconscious if they wanted to.
There was no helping it then. She was just going to have to jump through the trees without the security of chakra-footing, or she was going to have to sneak on the ground. The first option was a little dangerous, especially now that her sense of balance was starting to go askew.
‘I just hope that the city isn’t too far away…’
She prayed to the gods that she would have enough strength and stay awake long enough to get off this infernal hill and away from the facility that rested on top of it. Because at the rate she was going, her body was going to succumb to the effects of the sedative long before reaching the city limits.
To Be Continued…
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Author’s Notes:
I’m starting another story without finishing my current projects. Whoopie. But this story is short, unlike what I have planned for Black River and IWoTA. And I hope that I’ll be able to finish this and IANA soon, otherwise I’ll be up to my neck in work.
Sorry it's so confusing at first! But you'll see where I'm going with this. This chapter is supposedly the prologue; there will be four more chapters (which I haven't started on yet) followed by an epilogue. Hopefully it will start making sense around the third chapter when pieces start falling into place. I’ll explain my inspiration and the background for this piece at the epilogue - otherwise it would ruin the story elements.
Yatsuka Hikagi
2006.XII.12