Plot

Standing at the edge of a rocky mountain with scarves covering their heads and light coloured clothes to keep their skin from burning under the sun, Sakura and Megumi stood looking over the morning desert that they had just arrived in. The place from where they had to begin their journey on foot.

"Nee…Rura….how do so little shinobi cover such a large area?"

"The shinobi from all the hidden villages in the country only cover the non standard areas that other shinobi use. Typical roadways that merchants use are usually manned and cleared of bandits by the Daimyo's army."

"Hmm…."

"Let's go! It's going to be noon in a couple of hours and I don't want to be caught without any shade."

"You know a village nearby?"

"No, but there usually is a town around the border since it can be used as an outpost more easily during times of war."

"Oh! That makes sense."

Sakura stepped off of the cliff as she began to slide down the rocky surface of the mountain while using chakra on the soles of her feet to stay attached to the mountain side.

"Hey! No fair! You gotta wait for me!!" Megumi shouted as he began to slide down the mountain with his own technique of moving across surfaces by sliding, catching up to Sakura quickly.

"Oh? How are you doing that Megi?" Sakura said as she saw Megumi's descent was much smoother than her own, it looked like he was gliding on ice.

"Huh? This?" Megumi asked as he skidded around on the surface of the mountain by adjusting his chakra output.

"Yeah…that looks cool…"

"I'm just controlling chakra to cushion my feet and moving my center of mass to control the direction I'm falling in! It feels quite funny at first but you get used to it once you do it a couple of times!"

"....huh…it shouldn't be that easy….let me try it out once…." Sakura said as she jumped off of the cliff when they were about to reach the sandy desert floor where she tried to cushion her feet with chakra but immediately found herself thrown back because of the amount of chakra she had used, her fall cushioned only because Megumi rushed in to support her.

With a scrunched up face, Sakura tried to go at it again when she found her leg this time slip from underneath her as she did a full split and fell face first.

"Shit!!! This is hard!!! It's like running on ice!! How are you doing that!?"

"Hehe! But it's cool isn't it!?"

"How did you come up with that!!?? Like seriously!??!"

"Hey! I had no shoes while I was running around in the forest and needed something to cushion my feet that kept forming blisters!"

Sakura's expression became comforted as she felt she made Megumi remember something terrible but Megumi picked her up and dusted her a little before sliding off in front of her this time, laughing and shouting, "Haha!! I'm ahead of you now!!"

Sakura shook her head as she ran after him after making sure to get all the sand out of her scarf.

"Wait for meeee!!!"

"HAHA!! TRY TO CATCH MEEEE!!"

"NOOO!! YOU PROBABLY DON'T KNOW WHAT TO SAY IF YOU COME ACROSS A PATROL SO STAY WITH MEEE!!"

""AH!! Well alright…" Megumi stopped as he looked back and waited for Sakura to catch up to him.

Moving side by side with each other Sakura and Megumi moved along the desert mountains as they effortlessly glided through until it was afternoon when Megumi suddenly stopped after he spotted Sakura suddenly stopping and turning around to look in a different direction.

"What? Found a town already?"

Sakura didn't reply as she kept looking in the same direction causing Megumi to become silent and try seeing if he could see or hear something from ahead.

Megumi tried to look into the horizon after amplifying his view but couldn't spot much else since the rocky mountains were blocking his vision when Sakura suddenly started to run in that direction as if something needed her immediate attention.

Looking at Sakura's face Megumi realized something serious had happened as he grabbed Sakura's hand and stopped her and teleported along with her over fifty feet into the sky from where they could both look down on the situation clearly.

"There!" Sakura pointed as Megumi saw a wagon full of people and children being dragged into a mountain cave with a few of the prisoners being shipped outside as they pulled the wagons through the sand.

Megumi instantly teleported Sakura outside as he himself teleported inside the cave.

The smell of blood, feces and other bodily fluids instantly assaulted Megumi's nose as a few sudden startled sounds from the bandits moving around made its way through the cave at his appearance.

"Hey you! Who're you?!"

Megumi calmly looked on as he spotted the bandit along with his friends unhook his cheap looking katana from his belt as he summoned his own katana into his hands.

Feeling confident against a ten year old child who they assumed had sneaked in using a simple transformation jutsu, the bandits began encircling the child as one of them ran over to him and swung down his sword.

"Arrggghhhhhhh!!!!!!!" A high pitched heart wrenching scream entered the cave from the outside, distracting the guards for a moment which Megumi took advantage of.

The sword swinging bandit stumbled as he felt his sword pass through nothing but empty air as Megumi vanished from in front of him when all the bandits around him had fallen down groaning in pain.

Megumi became visible once more as the last bandit that had encircled him fell to the floor as he flicked his katana to get rid of the few blood stains left on it.

Megumi glanced at the last bandit who was still on the floor after his missed swing as he slowly walked to the man when a kunai almost pierced the bandit's heart and killed him instantly but Megumi's sword blocked it.

"Why did you leave them alive?" Sakura questioned in a harsh voice.

"Firstly, I don't want to judge if someone deserves to live but secondly this isn't the land of fire. We'd probably be treated as criminals and captured if we killed any of them in the Land of Wind."

Sakura just glared at Megumi as if she wasn't going to let this pass.

*sigh*

"Let's help the people inside first? Your bandit's scream probably alerted everyone inside already."

With a swift nod, Sakura began moving into the cave as she glared at all the fallen bandits whose tendons Megumi had sliced off, making them unable to move without squealing in pain.

Combined with the heavy blow Megumi had given them on the head with his hilt only made them concussed as they felt extremely disoriented and were probably suffering from heavy headaches.

Just when the bandit who had tried saving Megumi began to shout to warn everyone inside about them, he ended up spitting his tongue out of his mouth.

"I only said I didn't want to kill you." Megumi spoke in a cold tone as he looked down at the bandit now making unrecognizable sounds in shock and confusion.

Shaking his head, Megumi began to walk deeper into the cave behind Sakura who had been scanning all the captives held in cages like animals for any serious wounds that needed immediate treatment.

Her eyes became colder as she spotted the men trying to hide children and women behind them to the back of the cages as they eyed the two kids warily and increased her palace slightly.

As they reached deeper into the cave that had become darker and was now only lit by torches placed around the walls of the cave, Megumi suddenly pulled Sakura back as she looked at him with the same cold eyes, but he just pointed with his eyes as he spoke to her telepathically, 'You were about to step into a trap.'

Sakura looked down and noticed her feet were about to walk into a simple wire trap as she shook her head and tightened her grip over her katana when Megumi let her go.

Taking slow and measured steps, Megumi along with Sakura came across what seemed to be a dungeon with people tied up to the walls in chains, their bodies carved with whipping marks, most unconscious as they were bleeding out but some just hanging on the walls with dead eyes as if nothing else in the world would faze them.

Children as young as four, lying naked, mostly dead, some strung to wooden posts with freshly dried tears on their faces, their limbs pulled apart, multiple scars on their bodies, with limp artificial wooden mechanical protrusions attached to their bodies.

Men with their limbs chopped up, still dripping blood groaning in pain, unable to produce sounds simply because of the weakness they were feeling.

Disabled women, girls, naked, with the same limp artificial wooden limps sutured onto their bodies, tears long dried up, expressions of drugged ecstasies, clear signs of abuse, sometimes twitching with signs of aliveness but most times just lost while staring at the floor under their faces.

*gag* *gag* *gag*

Sakura heaved up a puddle of bile while clutching onto Megumi as he helped calm her down and spoke in a soft voice, "Help them…they need you."

Sakura firmed her eyes and nodded as Megumi examined the dungeon for entrances and exits as he tried to deduce where all the other bandits had gone.

Scanning the dimly lit room, a silent hollow feeling captured his mind as he spotted a pile of chopped up limbs in the corner mixed in with used medical equipment.

Ignoring the pile of body parts, Megumi picked out a torch and scanned the walls as he figured out there was a Doton jutsu user among the group since the walls inside the room were all half baked and looked artificially built.

The floor though looked solid and so it didn't take Megumi long to find the direction of exit which was easily indicated by the signs of use, with things like scratches and dents and depressions on the stone surfaces from the most used parts of the dungeon easily caught light in the small dungeon.

Although the area where the victims were kept saw a lot of use, a single otherwise meaningless trail led to a wall in the dungeon, seemingly a deadend.

*Shhhwwwoooopppp**Slice**pssshhhhh*

*Baanngggg*

With a small sweep across, a triangular hole cut through, large enough for Megumi to comfortably walk into the tunnel behind it.

With calculated steps Megumi took loud steps as he made his steps echo through the tunnel on purpose.

Walking into the dark tunnel lit only by his torch, Megumi's eyes got colder and colder as he stepped through the tunnel. Finally reaching a dark area with walls all around Megumi let his torch fall as all the walls suddenly shot out spikes aimed at him, looking to make swiss cheese out of him.

Before anything could happen to Megumi though, he was back in the dungeon with Sakura helping her move the critically injured, sometimes taking away their life as humanely as possible since they were being kept alive simply by being fed drugs and were long gone mentally.

Several of the victims had signs of proper operations done on them with surgical scars being the only things remaining as artificial limbs had been frankensteined onto them like the nightmarish inhumane experiments conducted during world war two.

Sakura didn't question anything since for now the patients came first.

It was nearly an hour later when Sakura and Megumi took a break.

"There might be some people in that tunnel that need your help."

Sakura looked closely at Megumi but all he said was, "Don't kill them." In a serious voice that Sakura forced herself to obey since it promised her that killing them was the worse choice in this situation.

Sakura slowly walked toward the tunnel after she plucked out a torch and began to step toward the opening in the wall that Megumi had carved out.

As she got closer, occasionally groaning made itself heard, when suddenly she heard a splash.

Looking under her feet Sakura saw that she had stepped in blood that had been flowing out of the tunnel.

Taking unconcerned steps into the cave Sakura walked through as she began to put together the pieces she had seen together.

The broken, limp wooden limbs, the captured civilian prisoners, their location so close to the border, all of it suddenly clicked as she raised her torch that threw light onto the macabre pincushion room Megumi had created.

She remembered the words Megumi haad told her, "Don't kill them." It wasn't a request, but a statement that was made keeping their situation in mind.

Inside the small room that Megumi had moved out of were spikes emitting out of every place wall like a cactus, but stuck at their ends were people dressed like bandits, all alive and breathing but all holding bloodshot eyes with tears streaming out making throaty screams as loud as their throats would let them, as their saliva a leaked from their mouths that had the tips of some spikes in them keeping them open, making them unable to speak, as the other spikes pierced the other areas in their bodies leaving them hanging in the air like used puppet dolls.

As soon as Sakura made eye contact with one of them she sliced away his eyes but still kept him alive. Moving ahead to heal them up just enough so that they didn't leak blood like taps, Sakura closed their wounds but left them hanging on their rocky spikes. Since their constant groaning was getting annoying but not wanting to lessen their immediate suffering she left the small pincushion room for the outside where Megumi was.

Stepping back into the dungeon, Sakura saw Megumi standing with his eyes closed as seals visibly moved around the walls as piles of either gold or research papers teleported around his feet.

Once he noticed Sakura come closer to him he stopped as he wrapped his arms around her waist as Sakura buried herself in his chest, unable to hold herself any longer.

The darkness in the cave seemed to weep with her at the tragedy that had been committed inadvertently from her inventions.

"It's not your fault that other people choose to be cruel." Megumi whispered as he slowly but gently stroked Sakura's hair.

"It'll all be alright."

"You'll be fine."

"It'll be alright."

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A/N: Will upload an extra chapter for every hundred power stones! Pictures in chapter and paragraph comments.

Thank you for reading!

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