𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐃 𝐁𝐘 𝐘𝐎𝐔.

Chapter XXXII - Pools (𝘾𝙃𝙀𝙍𝙍𝙔 𝘽𝙇𝙊𝙎𝙎𝙊𝙈 𝙁𝙀𝙎𝙏𝙄𝙑𝘼𝙇)

The next thing she knew, the man's eyes turned a deep shade of red; the onyx orbs morphing into that of symbols, scattered behind his half-lidded eyelids, that of which were looking down at her with something dark.

She had no idea what it was, but she was already caught in something.

Something she really didn't like. 

She could barely see, just faint outlines of what was in front of her. The figure before her reached forward, searched for a moment in a garment that she could no longer feel, before pulling out a rectangular object that was flat.

My phone.

She still couldn't move.

A nightmare? No, how could that be? She'd been wide awake, staring at his stationary position for much too long for her not to notice movement. A hallucination, maybe? But as far as she'd known, she hadn't been injected with any sort of drug. Or maybe, just maybe, this was something darker.

She screamed.

- - - - - 

What the hell was he doing?

What in the gods name was he doing right now?

He must have officially lost his mind, there was absolutely no way that he was doing this right now. 

He was walking through a dimly lit hallway with stones as walls and planks as a roof. He figured this was some storage space, but it was too quiet and empty to be such a thing. He couldn't actually understand why, but he'd pushed passed his two friends and jogged here.

Walking down the hall, he noticed that there was the smallest slant to the floor, so unnoticeable that you'd have to be walking for quite a long time to actually reach what should be called a basement.

He was going to call it instinct, or plain stupidity, but really who was more stupid if both the Uzumaki and Nara were following closely behind him, without a single care in the world? 

A scream erupted from down the hall, sounding like it came from all directions.

He ran faster.

- - - - -

Empty darkness.

..light?

No, that can't be. 

It's dark again.

Where the hell am I?

A really loud sound emerged from Sakura's subconscious, a loud drip. She had no idea what it was--and then she realized that she was inside the darkness, and could move. 

She stepped, and light emerged. It wasn't bright enough that she could completely make out what was around her, but it was bright enough that she could see her own hands.

She glanced around, trying her best to find something, and she did.

A large spot of blue--actually, two. One was especially large, another was small, and there was a large stream extending from the two and making its way further into the darkness; where she couldn't see.

She suddenly got very close to those pools in just a few steps, and crouched down before the larger one. 

Her brows knitted together, she could see that the blue liquid was the source of the dripping, and was originating from the stream steadily; the pool was nearly full, but the liquid continued to flow.

She stared at it for just another moment, before standing straight and walking over to the other, much smaller one. It didn't have the same structure, and was just a small pool. She felt the weirdest urge to touch it, but figured there would probably be a conse-

"Sakura-san?" 

The pinkette screamed, lunging back before stumbling over her own feet in a feeble attempt to regain balance. She looked around frantically, trying to find the source of the soft, yet loud voice. She was about to give up, call herself crazy, before she heard the voice behind her.

"Sakura-san??"

She spun around, coming face-to-face with a--

slug.

She screamed again, receiving absolutely no reaction from the being before her. It simply stared with those weird eye-things, and Sakura honestly had no idea whether she should have run or not, but her feet wouldn't move.

"...sakura-san."

Sakura blinked, before nodding very, very slowly. 

"Oh. Are you a reincarnation? Perhaps you don't know what that is--to be very honest with you, I actually don't understand any of that either, but it seems your past self was very interested in the idea of a new life--maybe she's around, she could explain this to you."

Sakura remained frozen, the only thing she was able to move was her mouth.

"..who are you?"

The slug seemed to focus all its attention on her, and for just a moment, it seemed to smile.

"Katsuyu-sama."