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CHAPTER 4:
The world snapped back into focus for Sakura, one moment she was standing in that crumbling world and the next she was opening her eyes in a dimly lit cavern, with her arms firmly bound in a manner that was hard for even shinobi to break from, where she was introduced to the white-haired man in the clogs and hat.
"The names Kisuke Urahara. Nice to see you didn't succumb to the hollow influence little lady," His voice was light, as if he was commenting on the weather and that was like being stuck by a needle without warning. She tried twisting against her bonds, testing the strength and durability of its hold but with each movement, they tightened like coils of a snake.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," He said tapping the air with his fan as she settled again, but her eyes were darting to take in her surroundings and find an exit. "I'm sure you've recalled what happened,"
A frown pressed into the crevices of her face. She blinked, disoriented "I thought I died. And then I was—somewhere else. Fighting something that looked like me. Was that real?"
Kisuke tilted his head, fan flicking open to obscure the lower half of his face. "Oh, that? You were fighting in your inner world. The depths of your soul."
Sakura stared at him. "That sounds ridiculous."
"And yet, here we are," he mused.
She exhaled sharply, shaking off the lingering dread. "We need to go back. The villagers—"
"Won't be in danger anymore," Kisuke interrupted. "The Hollow fled. It likely won't return; at least, not anytime soon. Breaking into your dimension wasn't exactly a simple feat, and in your current state, you wouldn't stand a chance against it again. Or did you forget how that went last time?"
She blinked, quick to take in the familiarity with which this person spoke on a subject that had been her mission's objective. "Hollow….that creature?"
"You're sharp," Sakura's jaw clenched. Kisuke's fan snapped shut. "A Hollow is a creature that devours the souls of the dead and the living."
The memory of the Hollow's blade spearing through her chest flashed in her mind, and her fingers twitched with the phantom sensation of her blood spilling. "I was this close to losing my life, and you're telling me it was a ghost?"
In tone alone, she already portrayed her disbelief in that definition of what attacked her. No, that thing was living, it was real, solid, and visible.
"No, not a ghost," Kisuke corrected wagging his finger. "A spirit. A malevolent one at that."
"Then how could it attack? Aren't ghosts or spirits or whatever that thing was, be incapable of interacting with the physical world?"
"Mmm, that's because it's not a ghost for staters. It's a spiritual being, with a mass of spiritual energy that allows it to interact with the living and the dead. That's also the reason normal attacks won't work on it. But you've probably realized that when you were fighting,"
Sakura looked down, "Then how would you fight it?"
"You'd need spirit energy—a good amount of it—which, I'm afraid, is more lacking in chakra-based techniques."
The more he spoke, the more lost Sakura felt. It was like he was leading her deeper into a maze with every word, the path only growing more convoluted.
"This is unreal," she muttered, wanting to press a hand to her forehead from the throbbing that was starting. Unfortunately, this stranger was far from finished leading her down a rabbit hole that would bring more turmoil than she could ever anticipate.
And then she recalled her current state that left her uncomfortably vulnerable to attacks and after her recent experience with that horrid doppelganger, she didn't want to feel vulnerable right now and couldn't mask that discomfort.
"Oh my apologies, but this could've gone either way," Kisuke snapped his fingers and the bonds around Sakura turned limp and fell freeing her.
"What does that mean?"
Kisuke's expression shifted, just slightly. "This hollow wasn't behaving normally. It didn't just attack you. It was trying to turn you into one,"
He spoke on the topic with an uncomfortable amount of familiarity while Sakura was struggling to wrap her head around the introduction to the context.
Sakura went still. "What?"
"That's why I had to pull you out when I did. If it had succeeded in fully devouring your soul, you would've become one of them."
A cold weight settled in Sakura's stomach. "So what are you saying? That I was this close to becoming a monster?"
Kisuke's eyes gleamed in the dim light. "Exactly."
..
..
..
Tessai stood in the open field, overlooking the rocky area, though he appeared to be indulged in his own thoughts that was far from the case. He was waiting like that for a good while. For the signal. And it came in the sound akin to shattering glass, but he knew what that really meant in this place where there were now objects for that. He watched without batting an eye behind his glasses, as reality was literally torn apart right in front of him, gaping open into white that his friend appeared from.
He had come a little later than expected but arrived nonetheless intact, however, he was not expecting Kisuke to pick up a souvenir from the other world. A young girl hanging limp in his arms, seemingly on the cusp of death, drooling blood.
Kisukle stepped through without his usual lazy grin.
Tessai covered his mouth as a sickening scent filled the air. He saw the way the girl's face had turned, a white substance, like liquid had formed on one part of her face and it was still moving like a living entity. And right above her chest, there was as dark as the purest tar, about the opening of a cap and still growing a hole.
"What is-
"Tessai!" Kisuke barked, voice sharp. "Barrier. Now."
Tessai's eyes widened behind his glasses, he did as instructed, forming a few hand gestures before clamping them together and watching as the portal behind them rippled and closed. "She's being overtaken? But she's human—"
"I know," Kisuke snapped, uncharacteristically tense. "This wasn't part of the plan, but there's still a chance,"
From then on Kisuke was quick to instruct Tessai on what to do and how to move, and within minutes they had set up the stage they needed for this particularly daunting performance. They were set in the underground training area beneath the shop, a wide enough space and a barrier secured to ensure no spirit energy would be detected.
As an extra precaution, they went deeper into the ground, and Tessai set extra protections from above. Kisuke had gone to the top to retrieve what he claimed would be necessary for this experiment but his breath hitched when he saw Kisuke walk in, holding a cubic item in his hand that radiated a powerful light it could be felt.
"Are you really going to use that?"
"It's a long shot, but it might be possible. Since she's one of those humans," Kisuke looked down at the object in his hands. 'I never thought I'd be using this again,'
"We'll take a chance," Kisuke said, voice low.
Tessai stiffened. "You're going to make her—?"
"Yes." Kisuke's eyes were shadowed beneath his hat. "Either she becomes a Hollow fully… or she becomes something else."
..
..
..
His voice was nearly grim and felt heavy to Sakura who was being suffocated by that weight pressing down on her as she came to fathom the information Kisuke shared. "Howllowfication is when a hollow soul is poured into another. You were about an inch from becoming a mindless monster. I couldn't prevent those boundaries between your souls from being breached. Instead, I had to turn your soul into a force that could counteract the hollows and keep things in balance."
It felt as if she had swallowed thorns, but Sakura kept her ears open even when it felt like her stomach was turning inside out. Shinobi weren't supposed to lose their composure just because things seemed to be falling apart around them or a situation appeared dire. However, that was not her strong suit.
"Congratulations," he said, fan fluttering and an annoyingly wide grin on his face with his nose up in the air. "You are now a Soul Reaper."
"A what?" She shot up so quickly that her head spun.
"Soul Reaper," Kisuke repeated as if discussing the weather. "A Shinigami,"
That very name sent a chill down her spine, but she attempted to mask it by making her words sharp. "Those aren't real,"
"Oh, but they are." He pointed his cane at her. "And you're one of them now. Your shihakushō and zanpakutō are proof of that."
"My what?"
"Your sword," Kisuke clarified, gesturing to the sleek, sheathed blade laid out beside her. Something she hadn't even noticed until now.
"This is mine?" Her fingers lingered over the sheath as she hesitated to touch it. Though she had faced this weapon before, she wasn't familiar with it combat-wise. Eventually, she mustered up the will to wrap her hand around it and examine the blade, unsheating it nothing stood out to her. It felt rather hollow to hold. She had a better connection to kunai knives than this stick of steel.
"You should get used to holding it because it's a part of you now,"
Sakura had to fill her chest with air to gather the strength to admit this to the stranger, "Nothing you're saying is making sense to me. Right now I'd just like to know how to go back home,"
"I'm afraid that's not possible at the moment," Kisuke's voice turned serious and he continued before Sakura could turn hostile as her eyes were already solidifying and she had another intake of breath to raise her voice a few octaves. "While you've warded off the Hollow, you're not out of the woods yet. There's an issue of control we have to deal with," He paused. "Oh, and there's one more thing you should know as far as going home…"
Sakura's stomach dropped before he even said it. Her instincts were a bit dulled out due to her drowsiness of the recent experience but she could still tell when someone was about to deliver a package she would not appreciate.
"Let's just say that the divide between life and death isn't the only one you've crossed,"
"Get the point,"
"Let's put it this way. You are currently in another world, a different dimension. The world of the living, but not yours,"
Silence and then Sakura who had been staring off passed Kisuke lifted her chin to the light and before she even moved he already knew what was coming.
"Now let's not get-
She ran. Her body blurred as she jumped crisscross, kicking off from the walls to reach the top and exit the hole.
"This is going to be a long night,"
..
..
..
Sakura didn't stop running when she reached the top of the hole. There was nothing but an open field with no vegetation, a desolate area but she could see something stretching out from a distance into the sky itself. She didn't turn back before rushing towards it, causing the wind to scream in her ears. She reached a ladder and was fast to climb straight into the sky that seemed to hold a little door opening up on it.
However bizarre this appeared, it wasn't enough to deter her from her determination to reach the outside world. She didn't believe what Kisuke told her, or rather she didn't want to admit it. She climbed with the desperate strength of someone who refused to be trapped.
When she broke through the top, she found herself in a cramped warehouse, shelves stacked high with unmarked boxes and an assortment of products lining the walls. She didn't stop. She sprinted past them, through narrow corridors, a sitting area, and passed the front of what looked like a little store you went to for that single odd item you needed in the moment. Finally, she burst through the sliding door, nearly throwing it broken, and hitting the open air.
At first, her eyes met a wide open area with a wall barricading the little shack shop, but she noted the dark silhouette towering over passed some poles and lines. Pushing heavily off her feet, she leaped straight to the top and when she saw more spaces to land from above in her wake, she began running. Hoping to get as far away as possible.
..
..
..
In her haste, many things went unnoticed in her eyes, a bad trait for a shinobi, but Sakura didn't have time to take in the scenery just yet as she was focused solely on escaping. Chakra pumped through her legs and filled her muscles with strength that allowed her to outrun a cheetah and jump high from the rooftops. And she kept on going, running without looking where she was. The wind grabbed her hair and whipped her brows, her breathing continued to grow erratic, losing its usual control when she moved. Her eyes lost focus and were darting around, trying to find anything familiar.
But there was nothing to note at the speeds she went and the way her panic was dragging her attention and smearing its vision with mud.
As a shinobi, she would be composed, and balanced but at this moment, Sakura felt like she was being shaken from the inside. It was different from a regular dose of fear. She knew when she was afraid, there were symptoms she could list out in her head but right now there was nothing filling it.
She felt as if she had been cut apart and somehow pasted together in the wrong order and that was making her suffocated with emotions that were leaving her blind and deaf to her surroundings.
Finally, Sakura couldn't handle running with that weight on her shoulders. When she landed on another roof, the heel of one foot met the toes of the other and she stumbled harshly, scraping up bits of concrete, the side of her mouth throbbed when she picked herself up. But she had finally come to a halt.
'Stupid clothes!' Grabbing at the stupid pants that spread around her when she landed. She didn't like how loose-fitting it was on her. The entire feeling was wrong to her. She felt like she wanted to tear not only the fabric but her skin with it.
"DAMMIT! GO AWAY!"
Her screams were reciprocated by loud vibrations and sound from below her, and forgetting that she was on the edge of a meltdown, leaned over the building with little regard for the 20 feet height and for the first time took in her surroundings. From down below, a street filled with people, making their way through each other, crossing paths and roads, cards lining those roads. And then she shifted focus a little. The city sprawled before her, a labyrinth of steel and neon, buildings clawing at the sky in similar shapes different from the architecture she was used to.
Her knees buckled. The rough concrete of the rooftop scraped against her palms as she collapsed, fingers tangling in her hair.
'This isn't Konoha. This isn't even my world.'
"Enjoying the sights?" Kisuke's voice came from directly behind her. He stood leisurely arms folded under his cloak.
Sakura whirled, "Explain it to me again,"
This time she was determined to hear the full answers. Ksiuke walked over to her leisurely, ignoring her pathetic stance. Though Sakura noted the seriousness in his slate-gray eyes. "As I said, this is another dimension. Think of it as... a parallel world to your own. It's actually a common theory that there are different versions of the same university, I don't suppose you've heard of that concept."
Although Sakura was an advent reader who enjoyed studying many topics ensuring she would have the most knowledge in any situation, she couldn't have hoped to prepare for something like this. Other dimensions were just concepts, and unproven theories sometimes integrated in works of fiction. And not one she thought she had to pay any mind to.
"Why did you bring me here?" She sounded indignant now, glaring at Kisuke. She wouldn't prefer to die in her homeland than in some other world.
"Because the tools I needed to save your life were right here, well at my shop, so I brought you here." Kisuke shrugged
"Then take me back!" Sakura slammed her fist into the rooftop, sending cracks spiderwebbing through the concrete. "If you can bring me here, you can—"
"No." The single word carried finality. "Not when you're like this."
Her breath came faster and she could feel her heart beating on her ribs. "What does that mean?"
Kisuke's cane tapped against the rooftop with a hollow tok. "Remember when I said you weren't out of the woods? That hollow didn't just wound you—it infected you. Right now, you're suppressing its essence, but without training..." He leaned closer, his shadow stretching long across the rooftop. "You'll hollowfy. Become a monster. And the first thing you'll do is devour everyone you've ever loved."
Sakura was about to call him out for the sour scare tactic however she didn't see so much as a flicker of deception in Kisuke's gaze as she held it.
"The hollow that crossed into your world has poisoned your soul with its own and you're currently a ticking time bomb waiting to go off since you can't control your spiritual powers yet. Hollows and soul reapers are spiritual creatures, they don't possess physical bodies. You," Kisuke pointed his cane at Sakura's chest where her heart would lay, "were torn to shreds in body and soul. You're only alive because you've been stitched together with the remaining tatters of both. The problem? Right now your stitches are still exposed, and if one thread is pulled right now you'll come apart,"
Her hands felt along her chest where the hollow had wounded her, but nothing appeared to be there. Her fingers froze. The tips brushed over a curve, it was hard like scarred skin but thicker. With little regard for dignity, Sakura reached into her kimono top, loosening the fabric to open a slit from her collar bone to her midsection as she felt around.
"What the hell is this?!" She didn't dare to draw in breath. Looking down her ears pounded from the blood pumping through.
There was nothing there.
Nothing but a black space around her chest, the size of a large coin.
"Like I said, you're not out of the woods yet,"
Hey, love
So, you just read that chapter.
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-Kunoichi amongst Heroes chapter (104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109)
-Kunoichi amongst Pirates chapter (48, 49, 50)
-Crossroads of Fate chapter (39, 40, 41, 42)
-Through the Looking Glass chapter (54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59)
- (Bleach crossover) Kunoichi amongst Reapers: (5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
-Commission: Demon slayer x My hero academia (PART 1 & 2)
- Kunoichi amongst Benders (Avatar x Naruto crossover) (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
-Kunoichi amongst Heroes WHAT IF SPIN OFF: Dorms and Exams
-SPECIAL HALLOWEEN CHAPTER: Shinigami amongst Shinobi