Chapter Text
Sakura blinked her eyes blurrily. The wind had been rushing past her body for a while now. How long has it been? Twenty? No, thirty minutes? She hadn't been keeping track.
Twisting her body against the bright light, she looked down and squinted—a mass of grey shapes coming closer and closer at an alarming rate.
Sakura didn't know what to think. Just hours ago, she had been in a deep sleep. Then she found herself sailing through an endless blue sky. While nursing the mother of all migraines. It felt different. The world felt different. Was it remnants of Kaguya's power? God forbid, Sasuke again?
She pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind. Now wasn't the time to try and pin the blame. Gathering chakra to the soles of her hands and feet, she curled her body inwards like a cat and pushed downward.
The ground shook and trembled, splitting open like fruit beneath her. Trying to be mindful of where she landed, she had tried to limit the damage by reducing her chakra, but the impact was still too great. Groaning from the pain, she took a moment to assess her injuries. Did she just sprain both knees and an ankle? Just fucking great, she huffed.
-
Chaos and screams erupted from the street as the ground quivered. Amajiki Tamaki stumbled around before grabbing onto the nearest surface, the Pro Hero Fat Gum. Was it an earthquake?
"Whoa! Speak of the devil." Fat Gum shouted. The group of three steadied themselves against the tremor.
"It came from over there!" Kirishima roared, his body already hardened to face an unknown threat. The redhead raced off to an adjacent alley, or what remained of it.
"Red Riot, don't run off!" They ran to the supposed source of the quake and gaped.
In the middle of the crater, a small injured pink-haired girl kneeled, clutching her knees with glowing green hands. Groaning as she attempted to shake herself from her daze, she looked up.
"Who the hell...?" Her eyes shot wide as she tried to process the sight before her. A red-headed boy in a black costume with what seemed like hard and sharp edges running over his skin. A gigantic yellow and circular man with no neck. Her blood ran cold when her eyes landed on the last figure.
"...Sasuke?" Wide green eyes blinked one too many times in her confused state. A stab of pain shot through her head as she clutched her head back down to the concrete. Her vision blurred as she tried to get up.
"It's a fight! Someone help!" The three looked up to find a pack of thugs headed towards them.
"No lucky breaks for us, huh!? And we were just about to make a name for ourselves too!!" A man with dark-ringed eyes yelled, looking back at the alley where he sprinted from.
"Split up for now!" He hollered at his gang of five, unaware he had run into the group of heroes.
"Not so fast!" Fat Gum exclaimed loudly, expanding his body to catch most of them.
"Shoot! It's Fat!! We're sinking in!"
"That's Mr Fat the Sinker to you!" The hero bellowed while grasping the group of thugs tightly to his stomach. Activating his quirk, the leader of the thugs weaselled past the hero's embrace. "Hey, you have the same quirk as Edge!"
The villain ran behind the yellow hero and dashed towards Amajiki. Before Amajiki could even think to transform his fingers into tentacles, the pink-haired girl flew at what seemed like lightning speed from the crater to land a punch on the villain.
A sickening crack echoed in the alley. The villain's head flung to the side like a ragdoll, painting the wall next to them a bright crimson. Her eyes narrowed; she really hadn't meant to put that much power into that punch. Tilting her head at who she thought was her teammate, with clouded eyes still, she huffed, "Sasuke... what the hell is happening? I didn't heal both my legs just to save you-"
"Ugh, my head is killing me..." Sweat dripped from her tired face onto her bloody arms.
Their eyes met when she looked up. Amajiki and Kirishima stood still, both speechless, looking at the thug's body. Kirishima gaped; he was pretty sure that guy was dead, judging from the shape of his head.
Meanwhile, a crowd gathered around them and cheered for the heroes. Her head was pounding with pain as the racket increased from the public.
It wasn't enough to distract her from the sound of what seemed like senbon piercing the air hurtling towards Sasuke.
"Look out! Get down!" Fat Gum called out as a gun was pulled out from within the crowd.
She blinked and turned rapidly, jerking her arm out to catch the projectile.
What she hadn't expected though, was a second and third projectile hitting her square in the shoulder and chest.
A poison? She wondered as her eyes narrowed at the fired injection she caught. Her eyes were still blurry from the fall. Her chakra already working in overdrive to eliminate the threat from her body. She jerked her head up to meet the frightened gaze of the shooter. As she moved to lunge at him, she suddenly found herself bound in what she thought were Sasuke's snake summons.
Brow furrowing, she used her free hand to sign a substitution jutsu. Leaping backwards, she glared at Sasuke's blurred outline. Was that a wing coming out of him?
"What do you think you're doing!? Get him, not me!" She pointed at the shooter's fast retreating form in the crowd.
"YOU'RE MINE!" The redhead roared as he followed the remaining thug into the panicking crowd.
Yanking the two injections out of her body roughly, she followed by leaping over the stampeding crowd and onto a roof.
-
"You're good enough to be a hero, so don't even pretend to understand..."
She caught the tail end of the conversation and rounded the corner just in time to see the shooter inject himself in the neck with a large syringe.
"What'd you do!? What was that injection!? You okay!?" Kirishima jumped closer to the shooter as he writhed in pain.
There was a flash of light as the villain suddenly burst into a wreath of jutting knives. Grunting in pain, Kirishima activated his quirk just in time as the blades skirted past his skin.
When it seemed like the blades stopped growing, Sakura landed behind Kirishima to yank his hair and threw him behind her a few meters away.
Taking in the villain, she dove underneath the blades and took a swipe at his feet. He shot forward, trying to catch her, but was slowed by his knives screeching and cutting against the walls.
"A sudden power-up!?" Kirishima cried out. Sakura gritted her teeth as one blade grazed her in the thigh.
"Shannaro!" Her eyes reflected the blue glow of her fist as she thumped him in the back of his head. The villain collapsed to the ground at her feet.
Just in time to see Sasuke skidding into the narrow alleyway, bounding into action with snakes reaching out to constrict her again. Springing off the nearby shop sign, Sakura dodged the extended limbs and lifted her knee.
For a moment, she wasn't sure she had him. It was never this easy before. In hindsight, that should've been a glaring red flag. Her foot connected with the side of his head, knocking him unconscious. She caught him before he touched the ground.
Right now, she was going to regroup somewhere safe with Sasuke. Even if he was acting crazy at the moment. There was still the matter of the poison. She glanced at the red-headed boy and debated whether to knock him out. No, there was no time for that; the yellow man and a group of uniformed men were running towards them already.
She breathed a sigh and retreated onto the rooftops with knocked-out Sasuke draped over her shoulders.
Kirishima gaped again for the second time today.
"FAT GUM!! AMAJIKI-SENPAI WAS KIDNAPPED!"