Chapter Text
Highschool work was nothing like academy work. That much Sakura had figured out in an instant upon laying eyes on both the homework and classwork given to her by Roland and Peter – her friends. The only ones she seemed to have excluding the few online contacts which didn’t count. She could hardly trust someone she hadn’t met in person. Facial expressions could say a lot about someone, and she liked to think herself rather adept at reading them. So there she was, with approximately three friends and an uncle. Knowledge of the supernatural world really seemed to draw a line in the sand between Sara and the rest of the mundane world. Sakura didn’t know if she’d even be able to remedy such a thing, even with her desire to live out her life there. She was socially inept as it was, and that was strange in itself.
Once she had stood side by side with Ino, gossiping and chatting amongst friends like there was no tomorrow. It was surprising how getting killed and thrown into a new, younger body in a new, strange world could affect one’s social skills.
Her fingers tightened their grip on the pillow she was clutching to her chest, a laugh bubbling up from her chest at the thought that she had altogether become a little too much like Kakashi. She even had a dog – Daisy – albeit she was a three-legged one. The original owner of that body had saved her with that strange healing power of hers not long before… the incident, as she was now terming her strange translocation to the body of Sara Grey.
She didn’t like to think back on it, fresh as it was in her mind.
A soft sigh escaped her, even as she threw herself off her bed and back to her desk. There was work to be done, and Sakura had no idea when she was supposed to finish it by. She didn’t want to become even more like Kakashi. The thought felt like it was tearing away at her insides, part of her wishing dearly for him, or perhaps the others to be by her side.
Yet they had gone on before her, and now she was alone in a strange world. Part of her wondered if they were running around somewhere in that world in the same situation as her. Though that was probably nothing more than a pipe dream. The luck of Team Seven was hardly that kind.
She closed her eyes, scowling as she looked through the internet, did her homework, and tried to adjust to the thing called life.
Daisy padded into her room eventually, a break from the monotony of it all. “Hey, girl,” she mumbled, wondering then if the dog could somehow detect how very different she was from one of her previous owners. Either that or the dog could feel how upset she was – which was probably more correct. Dogs were sensitive to that much, Sakura knew from the little Kakashi had told her. “How’ve you been with Nate?” she wondered, part of her questioning why she was talking to a dog, of all things. Yet she felt like rambling on, even if no one would be able to answer her.
Her life was a mess, plain and simple, and she probably ought to figure things out.
Sara Grey had some surprising connections, the main one being a man called Malloy who could get pretty much anything she needed for a price. Though admittedly those prices were easy to come by thanks to Sara Grey’s last friend – and ironically the one she was dreading meeting. Not many people were friends with trolls, but it was just her luck that the body—well, she was now supposed to be friends with Remy the troll who could probably break a vampire like a toothpick, if given the opportunity.
It was a shame Sara Grey had left the area when she’d been abducted by vampires. If she had been with a troll, then Sakura doubted such a chain of events would have happened. Remy had repeatedly warned her before about not going to large cities.
“He’s totally going to be furious when he next sees me,” Sakura muttered, burying her face in her hands and pushing herself to her feet then. “Might as well get it over with,” she added, thinking of a walk in troll-infested forests. It wasn’t like a vampire would be dumb enough to venture there, and the trees would probably calm her down what with her familiarity with them in both of those strange lives she seemed to have: one she had been born with, the other she had seemingly taken over.
“Sara?” Nate called, spying her as she ventured towards the stairs. “Where are you going?” he asked, wheeling himself towards her rather than staying where he was as he’d always done before. Things were changing. That fact was undeniable. Yet things would have always eventually changed, given how Sara was Sakura, and the world that much more confusing.
“Out,” she answered, seeing the concern and worry on his face before he could even formulate a response. “I’m going to the forest for a walk. I won’t go too far.”
He stared at her, green eyes cutting. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“I’ll be fine,” she grumbled. It wasn’t like she could tell Nate that she was about to go into a troll-infested forest where any local vamp wouldn’t go near. Not that he knew it was vampires she’d been abducted by in the first place. Her fingers went to her neck where the sole remaining scar of the encounter was. Four circular bits of pale skin which was always cold to the touch no matter what she did. Sakura wondered if it was something to do with her death and reincarnation which had left markings like that there. Sara had always healed neatly and without scars before her arrival, and even after her arrival, barring that single, distinctive scar.
Nate opened his mouth as if to argue, but he stopped and sighed ever so softly, perhaps remembering their disastrous dinner the night before. “If… If you think it’s a good idea. Take your cell with you, just in case,” he said, leaving no chance for her to refuse such a request.
Luckily, she’d anticipated such a reaction. She lifted her shiny new cell phone, waving it around pointedly. “I’ll call you if I get into trouble,” she said, already knowing that she wouldn’t. Unlike Sara, she was incredibly good at throwing a punch, and she had a better handle on the thing in the back of her mind which stayed there then, even without its cage of glowing power.
Her uncle nodded, and then she was down and out, and hurrying towards the forest closest to her, all the while praying she wasn’t about to die via angry troll. She ventured into the forest, vaguely wondering whether somehow Remy would know. For her own safety and Nate’s peace of mind, she prayed he didn’t notice. Nothing good would come of that, and so she only pinned her hopes on the matter and hurried further into the forest as fast as humanly possible.
It took less than a minute for her to encounter Remy.
“I tell you,” Remy said, large purple eyes boring into her with all the force of a tearful puppy trying to be stern. “City not safe. You stay away from city.”
Sakura blinked, part of her wishing beyond belief that the old Sara could have listened to her troll friend and not been quite as headstrong nor as reckless. “Yet I did,” she answered without a thought. “And now here we are…”
Fingers brushed against the scar on her neck, purple eyes boring into her own until she couldn’t manage to keep up that staring contest they seemed to have going on. Remy hadn’t seemed to notice anything different with her supernaturally speaking. The knot of nerves in her stomach untangled ever so slightly. “You will stay away from city this time, friend?” he asked her, and Sakura could only smile.
“Sure thing, Remy,” she remarked. “I’m planning on staying close by for the meantime… after everything…”
“Vampires,” Remy muttered. “Friend… what happened with vampires who attacked?” Purple eyes bore into her own with an unusual severity, a far cry away from the more relaxed looks she recalled from the memories of before.
“One of them is dead… the others are still out there,” Sakura said, frowning as she looked determinedly into the distance. “I… killed it…”
“Vampires determined,” Remy said seriously. “Not let prey go easily.”
“They’re miles away, Remy,” she mumbled, a sinking feeling in her gut telling her of the fact that the nightmares Sara had endured weren’t quite over yet. The creatures which had fed on Sara, hurt her, and killed her still lingered – and she was the one who was going to have to deal with that, wasn’t she?
“Distance small for vampire.”
Her eyes narrowed, hands curling up into fists at the thought of meeting more of those things with too sharp teeth and black claws which gouged through skin all too easily. “If they come, I will kill them the same as the other,” Sakura stated, a mixture of nerves and fear curling in her gut at the sorrowful look Remy gave her. Sara Grey had never been a particularly violent person. Sakura was rather the exact opposite. “Though I doubt I’ll be able to get any decent weapons unless I go to Malloy…”
The rules of that world, of the country and state she lived in were very finicky when it came to selling weaponry. It wasn’t as easy as going to the nearest weapons shop and making a purchase. Rather ID and other documentation was oftentimes needed, and those were things that she didn’t have. Nor would she be able to procure them that way without letting her uncle know that something was up. Somehow she doubted he would be approving of her having a weapon on her person. He didn’t seem the type – meaning Malloy was her only option. Only she herself didn’t have anything to trade with.
“Wait here.” With the curt command ringing in her ears, Remy vanished in a blur of movement. An eerie silence was left in his wake until the birds started singing, wind brushing the leaves and making them rustle, the peaceful sounds of nature overwhelming her then.
Sakura blinked, taking in the silence which had been left in his wake. Vaguely, she tried to figure out if she had made some sort of terrible faux pas, but nothing came to mind, from her own memories or the other ones as such. Before she could lose herself in the rabbit hole of her own thoughts though, her troll friend reappeared with presents in hand. Or should she say treasures?
“Clan have many pretty baubles,” Remy said, foisting the gemstones into her dumbstruck hands. “Only one Sara.”
Tears bit at the corners of her eyes, an overwhelming sense of guilt coming to gnaw at her very bones as she stared at the expensive gemstones which would happily buy her plenty of the kinds of weapons that she wanted. Proof of how much Remy cared for Sara, and yet Sara was already dead. Not that she was foolish enough to tell that to a troll who could very easily kill her. “Thanks, Remy,” she murmured, biting back her tears then and smiling up at the being who seemed to have her back.
It was then that she vowed it in her heart.
There was nothing she could do for the old Sara Grey – no way that she knew of to bring her back. Rather, she could only live on as that girl and try her best to make those who had loved her happy. Well, that and one other thing:
Kill every single vampire that she came across no matter what.
So there would be no more cases like Sara Grey’s, and so perhaps when she came face to face with the original soul of the body she’d taken over, she could hold her head high, look her in the eye, and tell her everything which had happened.