𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐒𝐮𝐤𝐢 | ɴᴀʀᴜᴛᴏ

Second Test: 'Dyed' Hair

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✧˖*°࿐

Kazumi was enveloped in darkness; unconscious. It wasn't any ordinary darkness, it was plain blackness. Not a single light or figure could be seen other than herself.

However, that quickly changed when her body in the real world began to squirm. And a warm hand placed itself against her forehead. The feminine voice was familiar, whispering for her to quickly wake up and recover. The voice would then say the same thing to another— utterly terrified and desperate.

Although the rushed tone of the familiar girl, Kazumi was still travelling in the endless blackness of her mind. Her closed eyes squeezed further shut. Her brows furrowed and stressed. She was fighting an obvious nightmare.

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Wind harshly sliced her cheeks, her calves burning from each staggering step when rushing through a void of blackness. An outline, very vague, shape of trees and nature surrounding her, letting her know that through the darkness there is a forest.

Kazumi's breathing was heavy and uneven, entirely not her own. A heavy object weighed down on her chest and arms as she clutched an oval of darkness to her chest. She could not stop running through the forest that was certainly not the Forest of Death.

Her feet smacked against the black ground, lagging like treading on snow. A numbness engulfed her skin, and she realised she was tall. Very tall. Until suddenly stopping into an idle stance.

The ground became closer, and Kazumi shrunk. Despite her body returning to normal, what she was seeing still was unlike her own. Panic threatened to rise up her spine as she gazed around the thick void. From there on and back, it will always be black.

No matter how far she ran. She was trapped in a dream. A memory that was not hers.

"Wakeupwakeupwakeupwakeup." Kazumi's thoughts echoed like a pounding drum around the black world, startling her.

As if summoned, a sudden white light blinded her view for milliseconds. A figure emerged, flickering and glitching erratically. Her mind struggled to keep a hold of the person, noticing them holding onto a long object that was swallowed into the darkness below.

Kazumi's breath caught in her throat, expecting to see the man out of her worst nightmare. But it was not Orochimaru. Instead, she was face to face with a glowing Sanjiro. Her uncle and blood.

Yet, he was not looking at her clearly. He looked down at her like she were the typical enemy ninja he'd show no mercy to. "What a mess."

His words travelled to her ears, accelerating her heart into more uncomfortable pounds until it rang within her throat and pulsated in the tips of her fingers. In the distant back of her senses, she smelt iron.