Sightless - UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Chapter 03 - Ghost Sighting

The stone was so unremarkable, that were she anyone else, she would doubt the accuracy of her coordinates. She fiddled with her necklace, like she always did when she was thinking. She could do this the hard way, or the easy way. Standing back, she slipped on her leather gloves.

The easy way, it is.

Concentrating chakra in her right fist, she tried to calibrate it the best she could. She only wanted to shatter the stone. It wouldn't do her any good if she collapsed the whole hideout, too. With a yell, she smashed her fist to the rock. Debris exploded in a million different directions as Sakura shielded her face. After the smoke and dust dissipated, she saw there was a wooden, trap door in the ground.

So definitely the right place, then.

Without hesitation, Sakura crouched and went for the steel knocker. As her gloved fingers touched it, an electricity simmered through her body. She froze. It dispersed, but she still felt it there, like a shadow. Dread from the night before, pooled in her gut - but it was stronger now. It was like every part of her was screaming to get out and run the other way. Except she couldn't move. Her mind clung to flashbacks at the Forest of Death, when Orochimaru paralysed her with his 'killing intent'. To this day, she had yet to encounter chakra as blood-curdling as his.

How did Sasuke stomach three years with the guy?

She swallowed the fear, because fear was anticipation. Fear, meant something was going to happen. The cursed may be mad with bloodlust, and closer to animals than humans, but that meant they were acting on instinct - and their instincts were telling them to leave this place alone, for a reason. Sakura yanked the door open in the face of every protesting feeling. There was no creak or groan of disuse. It was still possible that what she had opened, was simply a well-constructed, well-oiled, abandoned trap door. Though, more likely, someone had indeed stepped on the twigs, slashed through the leaves, moved the boulder, and gone through the hole. She stared at the abyss.

"'And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you'," she recited, under her breath.

Least dangerous assignment my foot.

The pit in the ground was pitch black, and she couldn't see the bottom. Perfect place for a trap, and definitely a place she should avoid. She stood and went to a tree. Snapping off a thick , 'club-like', branch she wrapped the tip in dry fabric, she had saved in her pack. If she had to face an enemy, she might as well see it coming.

Sakura didn't give herself a chance to hesitate, and fell through the hole in one bound. It wasn't deep enough where she thought she might have injured herself, but it knocked the breath from her. With a few hand-signs, and an exhale, she illuminated her branch with a small flame. Her fire-style wasn't very proficient, but she didn't need much.

She flailed the torch around her, but the light didn't reach far enough to see any walls, and she wasn't particularly inclined to explore. She picked a direction, and walked until she reached a wall. Sakura gasped. There was artwork on the walls - a lot of artwork. Every surface was covered in shades of browns, yellows, and reds. The walls themselves were sandstone, no doubt a lot older than trapdoor. Wherever she was, was here long time before Orochimaru got his slimy snakes on it.

The depictions were all different, but the same. They were all of people: people eating; people fishing; people dancing. Sakura smiled. These people used to be happy, she was sure of it. She dragged her fingers across the bare rock, and imagined the ancient hands moving along with her. She looked closer, and frowned. In every group of people painted in a dark red, there was someone drawn in yellow. It didn't seem like a king or a leader - there was no crown or symbol for the acknowledgement of power. Sakura followed the yellow man from depiction to depiction. She couldn't shake the feeling that there was a story behind him.