Out of Place

Chapter3

The petal haired kunoichi made her way towards her clone, making sure to not step on any thin or weak branches. Funnily enough the trees seemed to have given up on blocking her path. She smiled at the thought, it was really quite fascinating how the trees could move on there own. She yawned behind her hand as her eyes began to feel heavy.

'I should probably stop and meditate, making those Hiraishin seals sure took a tole on me..' Sakura stopped and settled down on a wide branch. The night was cold and the pink haired medic had to take off her chunin vest before getting out her cloak and putting it on in hopes of providing herself some warmth against the chilly night air. She sealed her vest in the storage seal that had previously contained her cloak.

She snuggled into her cloak and slipped into a state of meditation. She really wished that she could sleep but the closest things she could do was either knock herself unconscious- which would be plain stupid- or just meditate.

Once it was morning she slipped out of her meditation and felt a breeze rush past her, causing the leaves to rustle and the hood of her cloak to fall off her head. She arched her back in a stretch and rolled her neck, hearing a satisfying pop. The medic stood up and reached out with her chakra, trying to locate her clone.

She felt her clones chakra signature moving further and further away. 'Looks like the stranger is on the move again..' She thought. 'Maybe I should go back to meditating, my chakra still hasn't replenished fully."

She sat back down on the branch and started to meditate. She continued to do so until she decided to let her chakra soak into to her surroundings, her eyes shot open when she sensed two presences. The medic frowned as she sensed them begin to travel closer to her position, they were about a quarter of a mile away.

'Did they sense my chakra?' she immediately shook that thought away, wherever she was nobody else had chakra, at least not any she could sense. Plus, she had masked her chakra so that it was nearly undetectable, there was no way anybody could of sensed it. She was being rather silly, the two presences didn't have chakra so they must be from this odd world.

Shaking her head the kunoichi climbed down from the tree, making sure she didn't leave anything behind, and pulled up her hood. She made her way towards where she sensed the presences, making sure to keep to the shadows, the darkness was her cover. 

As the pinkette neared a small clearing she spotted the owners of the two presences. Unfortunately she didn't get a good look at them since they were hiding in shadows the trees provided. Sakura narrowed her eyes when she sensed the hostility rolling off the two.

'Odd.' She thought. Deciding that she shouldn't hang around the two the pinkette rushed away. She leaped into the trees, she was getting bad vibes from the two. It wouldn't do her any good if she ran into any trouble in this foreign land. Sakura just needed to focus on finding out exactly where she was and how to get back to the frontlines. Dread pooled in her stomach as anxiety hit. What if the war had already ended? What if they had lost? What if all her friends were dead?

Swallowing down the negative thoughts, Sakura focused on where she was going. The trees seemed to be laying out her path, using their branches to create an arch overhead. She couldn't help the smile that spread across her face as she thought back to when she first travelled by trees in this peculiar world. Closing her eyes she spread out her senses, trying to locate her clone. 

Her clone had travelled further, which of course meant that the stranger had travelled further as well. Although for some reason they had stopped moving. Did the stranger find her clone? She immediately dismissed this idea; he may be considered 'skilled' in this world but she doubted he could have discovered her clone, especially since she was disguised. Maybe he had reached his destination? That sounded a lot more logical. The emerald eyed seventeen year old decided to fish out one of her kunai that had the Hiraishin seal rapped round it. She had to learn how to use it and this seemed like a good chance.

Taking a deep breath she threw the kunai and in the next moment Sakura was forced to grab the same kunai that she had thrown. She landed on the branch of a tree and had to hold onto the trunk of the tree as the world around her started to spin.

'Holy-' Sakura gasped as she collapsed against the tree. The technique didn't use a lot of chakra, in fact even with her chakra control Sakura couldn't feel any difference in the amount of chakra she had. The reason why her head was spinning and she couldn't support herself was because Hiraishin is a Space/Time jutsu, that utilizes seals created by the user to perform a reverse summoning 'like' jutsu that teleports the ninja instantly to an area near the seal. So with her surroundings changing so suddenly along with the fact she's basically bending space and time, her mind could barely keep up. It was all a case of practice, Sakura just had to make sure she didn't use the technique during or to get into a fight just yet (unless it was to get away from one).

Steadying herself with the help of the tree, Sakura waited for her head to stop spinning and her stomach to stop rolling before she stood back up. The pinkette threw the kunai again and found herself stretching her arm to grab the kunai. She grasped a nearby branch when she nearly fell off the branch she was standing on. She waited until she stopped feeling woozy before she hoisted herself back on top of the branch. 

She sighed, 'This is going to be a long day..'

She kept on trying: throwing the kunai; catching it; steadying herself; and repeating it. After what felt like forever the unpleasant sensations Sakura got whenever she used the Hiraishin began to occur less and less frequently until finally, they didn't happen at all. 

The sky was dark when the seventeen year old stopped on a branch where the forest got cut off by a dirt road. Her brows furrowed as she let out a frustrated sigh. It seemed like she had been doing a lot of that lately. She closed her emerald orbs and reached out to find her clone. Her eyes snapped open and she jumped off to the side, following alongside the road hidden in the dark of the night. 

She smirked when she reached a small village. The kunoichi snuck into the village and climbed up the wall of a house. The Kunoichi travelled through the village by jumping from rooftop to rooftop. Back in Konoha the ninja would travel by rooftop all the time. Sakura smiled sadly at the memory. She made sure not to get discovered as she made her way over to where her clone was perched in a tree outside a building that was labelled 'The Prancing Pony'. Her clone appeared to have henged into a bird rather then staying in the form of the squirrel it had morphed into previously. 

She leaped into the tree it was in, catching it's attention.

"You sure took your time." Her clone said.

"You sound like Inner." Sakura stated.

"Whatever, I'll give you the details on the stranger." The clone started. "He basically just travelled as I'm sure you know, we didn't run into any trouble and arrived here earlier today. There really isn't much else to say apart from the fact that some people here are really short and have big, hairy feet. It also appears that pretty much everybody is afraid of our guide."

"So you didn't pick up on any extra information?"

"No, believe it or not it's kind of hard to gather information when people are constantly shooing you away." Well, it seemed like her clone had a bad day..

Deciding to change the topic of the conversation Sakura asked, "Where is the stranger anyway?"

"He's inside that building." Her clone said  , motioning towards the inn.

"Whatever, just try and keep an eye on him."

"Hai Hai." Her clone said, using it's wing to salute. Sakura leaped out of the tree and onto a nearby rooftop. She sped across the rooftops, flying through the air across the village. She made her way past the sleeping guard and rushed into the trees. She would use her time wisely to get used to travelling over longer distances using the Hiraishin.

A/N: Erm, please feel free to correct any mistakes!

Hope you enjoyed!