Chapter Text
Arid plains at night
Flames billowing high
This is where She makes her realm
Best to not go nigh
2 years before Rampage X, Shrine Ruins
Sakura slowly came to under an overgrown flowfern bush with a raging headache.
The first thing she registered was that it was kind of cold for the season. Her second clear thought was, This is a pretty shitty hiding spot.
She could at least give some points to Yesterday’s-Probably-Concussed-Sakura, since it was close enough to the main camp and not a place any of the monsters tended to linger. But it was still by the river path well travelled by all manners of wildlife and anything could have come upon her unconscious, and vulnerable, form.
Well, luck is part of being a good Hunter, she mused. Sometimes she was more like her old teammates than she thought.
It was easy to recognise where she was, but it took her several more minutes to remember why she was there as she checked her body over for injuries. She combed through her messy hair, the headache still present and a little distracting, but she couldn’t find any open head wounds. Her fingers came away without blood to her relief, only a few stray fern leaves falling to her lap.
She brought her hand down to her right side next, below her ribs where a cut was sluggishly bleeding. Too small to be claw or teeth marks from any monster around these parts, she probably had scraped against something in her escape and with the adrenaline had not even noticed it. Oh right, she was escaping something.
I was in the Shrine Ruins on a quest to get a wyvern egg, she realised with a jolt.
A fucking egg quest, of all things. Master Tsunade had needed one delivered asap when they realised their stores had emptied. Wyvern eggs were special little things, filled with bioenergy yet to be hatched into a terrifying baby monster, and they had a lot of healing properties that could be utilised by healers of Tsunade’s caliber.
Special little things, Tsunade always said, which Sakura usually rolled her eyes at in good humour. It probably did seem that way to a woman who looked like she could touch the clouds if only she stretched some.
In reality, they were gigantic eggs almost as big as her torso and could not be sealed into her item pouch like other knick knacks. Something to do with the bioenergy in a wyvern egg being too volatile to be sealed in such a way. No, she had to hug the damn thing like an actual baby and carry it all the way back to camp to put it in a more secure container exclusively made for transporting it back to the village. All the while praying whatever monster whose nest she stole the egg out of wouldn’t come looking in time.
It was a task most Hunters detested with passion, not because it was a difficult task compared to regular Hunts but because they were a total nuisance.
The eggs were notoriously breakable.
Normally she would have been sent here with an escort Hunter, a guard to check the path ahead for obstructions or worst case distract a monster while she booked it to the camp with her precious cargo. Sakura had Rank but she wasn’t a traditional Hunter that got sent on normal quests by herself, not really. Yet she had begged and pleaded with Tsunade to come alone, I’m strong enough to handle a measly egg quest by myself, aren’t I Master?
The implication, you trained me after all, hanging in the air between them.
Her beautiful Master, Commander of Village, Wyverian of Legend, had looked at her with narrowed honey eyes but had relented quicker than Sakura had expected, what with the empty state of their stocks and Tsunade’s need for an urgent delivery.
Sitting on the damp forest floor now with fresh bruises it was hard to feel as ecstatic as she had been walking out of Tsunade’s office.
Still, there was enough time to heal herself, and what Tsunade didn’t know wouldn’t mar her quest record. Sakura was an old hand at lying on her reports.
It’s fine, this is fine. I just have to grab the egg and climb back up to the main camp, Sakura thought. The vines leading up to the hidden location weren’t too far away from her position on the river bend.
Ah yes, the egg.
Which, to her growing horror, wasn’t currently innocently sitting on her lap or by her side.
Sakura frantically looked around, already dreading a trip back to the nest located at the farthest end of the Shrine Ruins to grab another egg. Failure was out of the question. Honestly, she would rather get eaten by its mother than walk back to the village empty handed.
She crawled back under the bush on all fours trying to see if she had stashed the thing around here somewhere before passing out last night. Shah Dalamadur willing, unbroken. She couldn’t see anything in the shrubbery and backed away. She patted herself down absentmindedly, despairing about her situation. She wasn’t injured beyond the cut on her side and a few bruises that would probably look ugly purple and yellow in a couple of days. Her item pouch was pretty much empty but it was of no issue, she could replenish some of the herbs to make basic healing potions on the way to the nest. If she was renowned for something, it was her skill in crafting and healing after all.
Chances to officially prove herself on record did not come by frequently, and Sakura would not, could not, waste this quest. It’s time to go get a motherfucking egg. She turned towards the river intent on washing up a little before setting out again when she noticed a spark of unusual colour in the corner of her eye.
Right there, by the river bank a glowing orange Spiribird, pecking at the rocks. Well, that’s weird. Spiribirds were small birds that glowed in distinct colours, owing to the pollen that accumulated on their bodies while drinking nectar. The glow had been mistaken by old folks of legend for lost human spirits hovering in the forests, hence their name. The pollen you could get from them on a Hunt were beneficial in all sorts of ways. None of that explained why it was trying to pick at a nectar-less river rock though.
She stared at the bird confused and upset before noticing, Hey, that’s my old grey cloak strewn about over the rocks.
“I thought it was a little too cold,” she muttered, walking closer to rescue her cloak from the tiny orange bird. She shooed it away with a rough motion, gladly letting some of the pollen it scattered settle on her petalace charm bracelet, already feeling a little sturdier by its effects.
She picked the cloak up off the river rocks and threw it on her shoulders, her gaze landing on what was totally not a big smooth river rock.
It was a big old wyvern egg.
Yesterday’s-Probably-Concussed-Sakura, you stupid genius bitch, Sakura laughed and bent down to pick up the unbroken egg. She thanked the moon, the stars, and all the Elder Dragon Gods she knew, for her sheer luck that nothing had stolen or broken the egg disguised as a rock under her cloak for the night.
She slowly made her way down the river, hobbling with the egg balanced in her arms, too afraid to use wirebugs for speed in case she didn’t land right and broke the egg. Too much was at stake.
When she made it to the base of the river, at the foot of the cliff where the the main camp sat, she realised it was too quiet.
Even without hulking monsters around there were always things scuttling or chirping away in the grassy plains sprawling next to the river here. She looked at the broken sanding stones in the middle of the plain before the road under it sloped up into a hill. Once upon a time it might have been one of the gates leading into the now decrepit shrines above. There was usually a pack of bombadgers lazing about by the stones but she couldn’t see any.
It was unnatural.
Something was coming. A predator much bigger than her that had scared the entire local endemic life into stillness.
Sakura turned her back to the plains and waded across the river towards the cliff side. She gently put the egg down on the floor by the vines she’d need later to climb up to the camp, and threw her cloak over it once again.
She crossed the river again and walked into the tall grass. She unsealed her Switch Axe, twirling it out in its axe form in a practiced motion. It’s been a long time old friend, she thought lowering her centre of gravity, steadying herself. She had no more potions or buffs or even traps left in her item pouch. All she had was the months and months of dodging instilled in her body by one master, and the Switch Axe given to her by the other.
She had hidden her beautiful weapon from almost everyone else. Originally made from a lot of poisonous Remobra parts, sleek little snake wyverns the signature of her second Master, she had lovingly upgraded it to a truly scary thing over the years, the sharp blades made from dark Nargacuga tail spikes shining with an odd purplish hue under the right light.
Sakura Haruno, age 18, maybe 5’2 and 100 pounds soaking wet, Hunter Rank: Low Chuunin, knew this is where her luck finally ran out.
The wind from mighty wings flapping above flattened the grass in the field around them and tossed short pink strands into her face.
She was expecting it but the sound of the roar still made her look up. You aren’t the only poisonous bitch here today, Sakura thought with a grim smile.
And her green eyes met those of an angry Rathian.
Looking for her stolen egg.
Fire scorching the earth
Lighting up the sky
When Her Highness sets her eyes on you
It’s time to say goodbye