Hoshigaki

Verge

The woman pulled back and smiled, dark eyes briefly flashing a dusty yellow as she patted Sakura's cheek once and drifted off to her "teammates". Sakura stood paralyzed, nails digging so far into her skin she could feel quiet dribble of blood winding in her palm lines. The cheek those pale, spindly fingers touched felt as if a thousand snakes were crawling beneath her skin—slimy and writhing and sharp and venomous, why is he here what is he doing how many more people are going to die—

That touch was all she could think about, and she barely noted the hand shaking her shoulder nor the other grasping her wrists and turning them upwards. Everything blurred as she was being quickly dragged out of the building, as pressure was pressed into her hands, as the surroundings changed around her from stuffy tan walls packed with participants to mostly plain white walls with padded flooring beneath her feet.

But what she did notice, though, was the quick sting on that wriggling cheek that twisted her head left.

"... I did not expect you to hit her that hard."

"She hasn't said anythin' in like, ten minutes and she's never spazzed out on me before!"

"Arf!"

Sakura blinked and looked around to take in the fact that she was standing in the middle of her room. Her four hand-drawn scrolls hung at her back and her friends peered at her with unveiled concern. She bit her lip, eyes darting around the room—and then relaxed a touch, seeing that, all four seals were in their respective spots around them. She sighed, the exhaustion crashing into her in a wave. "Sorry," she said. "I lost myself for a bit."

"A bit?!" Kiba repeated incredulously. His hands flung out in front of him. "That creepy lady was all over you like flies on a stupid, dumb shit no one wants to pick up at the park!"

Shino opened his mouth, closed it and scrunched his brow at Kiba, then turned back. "I might not use his choice of simile, but he's not wrong," he admitted. "That woman obviously knew you to some degree—" Sakura looked away, frowning— "so the questions remain: who was she and how did you know each other? She was a Kusa-nin, so that immediately draws upon your time before being brought into Konoha."

They all flinched when Sakura suddenly dropped into one of the ratty bean bags on the ground. With one hand she rubbed her forehead, and with the other she gripped the back of her neck. "He's not a Kusa-nin," she informed them quietly. "I'm nearly a hundred percent sure he's using the Shoushagan and the real Kusa-nin and her team are long dead."

Shino slowly lowered himself onto the threadbare cushion. "That's Orochimaru's technique, Sakura."

Her hands dropped to her sides and she leaned back against the wall. Her silence was unsettling at first, but the more she didn't speak and the longer she avoided their eyes, it amassed to startling beacon of clarity—for Shino, at the very least, and his skin started to pale as sweat broke out on his hairline.

"I was being... hypothetical," he said. "The chances of it truly happening were zero to none. Why? Because I was foolish enough to believe he wasn't a factor I needed to consider!"

Kiba's eyes darted from Shino's defeated posture to Sakura's tired slump. "What-What the hell are you guys talking about?" Akamaru ducked his head and whined, and Kiba sputtered. "No way. No fucking way. That snake bastard isn't in Konoha and isn't in the exams and ISN'T..." He trailed off when he realized no one spoke up to tell him any different. He then allowed himself to drop backwards into the sea of pillows and floor seats, snatched the closest cushion, and pressed it to his face to fill the room with his muffled screaming for the next half a minute.

No one stopped him.

But then he tossed the striped pink cushion aside and shot up into a sitting position, eyes blazing and confused and scared. "Sakura, you... How'd you know it was Orochimaru and not some crazy lady?" Shino blinked rapidly and quickly turned to his friend in question, hackles rising. "You knew him, he... he knew—"