The Perils of Dimension Hopping | A Naruto/LOTR Crossover

Chapter Six: Moonlit Nightmares

"You should never have returned here."

The whispers wove through her dreams, the voice making her blood curdle as the misty amber wisps invaded her mind.

"You should not have come!"

It was dark – so very dark – the edges of the strange vision clouded in grey smoke, the ruins of some tower littered all around her as she stood there. Confusion ran high, and Sakura almost whimpered as something came into sight. It looked like a wolf... only it was bigger, and far more deadly than any wolf she'd seen before in the Elemental Nations. But these weren't the Elemental Nations, the sly voice in the back of her head reminded her, and it wasn't Inner. Inner was one of her few sources of strength in her strange new world.

A howl pierced the night, but it wasn't the baying of any wolf. No. It was a call to arms. Sakura wasn't sure how she knew it, but that was what it was. A cold feeling passed through her, and Sakura blinked as wolf after wolf came towards the central gathering place within the tower ruins. It was like she was a ghost, a cold shiver running down her spine whenever the strange big wolves stepped through her. And then the wolves started talking to each other, in a language she oddly enough could understand. Sakura blinked, watching as a figure that was most definitely not a wolf stepped out of the shadows, a black cloak pulled over them so she couldn't ascertain their identity. Not that she'd have recognised them. She didn't want to get closer either. The eeriness of the entire place unnerved her.

"The empty vessel..." the words were rasped out from underneath the cloak. "Bring me the empty vessel..." The base of a spear banged against the ground in his grasp, and she flinched as the sound echoed around the ruins. "Those are your master's orders. He needs it to save our lord."

Sakura blinked, the hairs on the back of her neck rising as the shadowed eyes of the being lifted, a sniffling sound coming from under the hood. Like scenting out prey.

"Wait... something is not right here..."

Her throat was dry. Bone dry.

Eyes locked on hers, yellow and acrid in colouring, and her stomach dropped to her toes. He'd found her... she was going to get ripped apart by the strange intelligent wolves around them who wouldn't take too kindly to being watched in the middle of whatever it was they were doing. "We're being watched..."

She scrambled back, breathing frantically as she tried to find the nearest exit. The creature had seen her, even though she wasn't physically there. It was impossible. She didn't even understand how she was there in the first place. What the hell was going on? she wondered, eyes widening as the ground seemed to drop out from under her, a glowing slitted amber eye peering down at her as she fell down into the earth, much like she had on her way to the strange place.

Sakura shot up in bed, breathing heavily, her tiny body trembling as she tried to process what the hell had just happened. A nightmare? But it had felt so real. Too real.

"Brat?" Madara blinked sleepily up at her from where his head was still somehow snuggled into the crook of her neck. "What's wrong?" he whispered, ever mindful of their host somewhere else in that very weird building. "It's still dark outside. Go back to sleep already."

The wolves had been so big compared to her tiny scrawny body, their teeth sharp and dripping with saliva, eyes beady and intelligent. Sakura didn't want to see them again. The thought terrified her, and it made her hands fist in the clothes Madara wore. She didn't even know how she'd ended up in that situation. She'd just fallen asleep. She was scared to fall back asleep. The amber eye made her feel sick, and it made her head pound.