A Confluence of Stars

Summary: With the war over between two princedoms, Sakura, a sniper, returns home to celebrate Confluence with her grandmother, the local Story Keeper. She had expected it to be nothing more than just another celebration when the star rivers overlapped and the poor people partied. But, along with the rest of the world, Sakura soon realizes that Confluence did more than just give people a reason to celebrate. A wicked new world filled with monsters and magic straight from Baba's tales spills into theirs, and Sakura is forced to turn to her rifle and her stories to make sense of it.

"The old world is dying away, and the new world struggles to come forth: now is the time of monsters."
— Antonio Gramsci

The scar on the top of her rifle where the scope should have sat looked more white than bone as she leveled herself on the edge of the cliff. Her uniform was birch colored, like the world around her, and under the white wolf hide she was practically a part of the frozen earth.

Sakura stared down the barrel of her gun to the world below, where nothing but white, white and more white swallowed up her sight. It was almost too bright to look at without tinted glasses, but if she wanted to see as far as she needed, she couldn't let anything hinder that.

In the valley below the first of the faces began to appear. Dark blue uniforms the color of an early night marched with a synchronicity her own unit lacked. The unit consisted of boys and men with waxed mustaches and trimmed haircuts that belied their savagery.

At the end of the procession a pair of men in pale blue uniforms rode together. One bent towards the other, speaking behind a gloved hand. A third figure in powdery blue, a woman, watched them from behind with extra medals on her chest.

Sakura watched them pass.

The last two figures on horses didn't wear uniforms, but they had up until yesterday. Last she saw the couple swaddled in rich furs, they had been standing in birch colors and swearing allegiance to a lie.

Sakura flipped the bolt of her rifle up and then pulled back enough to open the chamber for a clip of six gleaming cartridges, each one fashioned to pierce bone and metal. She pushed the clip down against the spring's resistance, feeling it fit into place before using the bolt to slide the first one forward.

She righted herself in the shallow snow once more, staring down her iron sights with both eyes peeled open. The woman laughed at her lover's joke and Sakura saw it all with impossible clarity.

Sakura stopped her breath, holding her life in her lungs for a moment before the valley cracked with her thunder.

The reaction was instant and she hurried to load the next round into the chamber, pulling the bolt back to let the spring push up her next cartridge. It was a ritual her body knew better than her mind by this point.

The male lover screamed until he couldn't anymore. The valley echoed a second time with Sakura's shot. The soldiers began to take cover and roll out their own rifles before she could load the third shot. She saw them searching for her, scanning the ridges for the gleam caught in a scope, but all she had were iron sights and eyes too wide with what little magic was left in the world.

She held her breath and remembered what it felt like to be an avatar of death. One more of the pale blue uniforms bled scarlet as the officer fell off his horse to land in the snow.

Shots rang out wide, blindly shooting at the cliff face with no real idea of where she might be hiding. Some of them hit close, but it wasn't close enough to make her think or even make her believe they had an idea of where she was.

She had six shots in a clip, but she only wanted the other two officers in pale blue. She had plenty.

"Four," she breathed onto the side of her rifle before holding her breath to still the edges of her body.

The fourth crack of thunder was followed by the female officer's hand at her heart, trying to push back in all the blood. Soldiers were running to help her but the other one in pale blue was up and running into the woods; even from so far away she could hear the screams to retreat.

It was poor form to kill a retreating enemy, but they were losing this war in their own damn country so poor form could go to the castles where they waxed their mustaches.

Sakura held her breath, pulled back and repeated the ritual. The air roared like a panther with her kill. The man staggered with his hands at his throat, rivers of red seeping through the cracks of his fingers before he fell face first into the snow.

She had one round to spare as she scooted backwards from the cliff's edge, work finished.

Chapter 1

Part 1

The cart shook as it dipped into the road's rut. Sakura's head slipped off the side of her rifle and hit the wagon's side with a loud enough thunk to draw attention. Across from her, Yugito Nii looked up from the bread roll she had been chewing through. She made a face and then continued eating.

Sakura cursed and rubbed the part of her head that throbbed. "How long did I nod off for?"

"Some hours I would say," Yugito answered. She didn't glance up from her bread again.

Yugito Nii hadn't bothered to let the long twin braids of her corn yellow hair down from where they coiled at the base of her nape, nor had she bothered to discard the navy blue jacket all Niebieski soldiers worn for a uniform. It had been months since the war ended, but she still dressed like it was a memory away.

Sakura yawned. Her jaw ached from sleeping on it wrong, but she ignored it. Sleep felt like it was still caught in the corners of her lashes, hanging just out of reach.

When Sakura stood the world around her swam for a moment before righting itself for her. The sway of the cart didn't help her balance much, but she made her way towards the edge to peer out from under the hanging tarp. With the sun so high up she had to squint to see anything in detail, but there was definitely something familiar about the trees.

"Where are we, did the driver say?" Sakura asked without looking back.

Yugito pushed the last of her bread into her mouth and swallowed what was already chewed. "We're almost there. He said in less than half an hour's time we'd be in the village so sit back down, you're making the cart sway."

"The cart sways on its own."

"But you make it sway more," Yugito grumbled. Her dark blue eyes narrowed with annoyance.

Bracing against the tarp frames, Sakura made her way back to where she had been sitting previously and lowered herself back down.

She reached for her rifle and turned it over so the carvings in the wooden stock caught the light. Sakura ran her bare hand over the designs, feeling the sandpapered edges and the rougher bits from both her skill and inexperience. It had taken her the entire war to finish carving her stories into her gun like protective totems to watch over her, and she could tell by how well they were done how old each carving was.

Some of them felt like they belonged to an entirely different person. She had been more of a girl before the Mad Wolf, the Firebird, and the Leshy each found a place in the wood of her rifle. Now she felt like something else, less a girl and more a storm trapped in the body of a girl. Girls didn't kill nearly as well as she had.

Sakura looked up to where Yugito sat with her back against the russet sacks. She was from the North, where the girls with corn yellow hair and eyes as fine as sky made their fathers proud with a uniform instead of a husband.

Yugito had done well for herself during her military career, well enough that she should have been able to retire to some type of luxury living in the newly conquered lands of the Niebieski principality. She should have been able to do whatever she wanted but she was in the back of a potato cart with a western sniper on her way to a no name mountain village to celebrate midnight Confluence.

"How much do you know about Confluence?" Sakura asked, suddenly curious.

"I know enough," Yugito answered in a tired tone without opening her eyes. She had folded her arms across her chest and leaned back into the potato sacks. "It's a celestial event that happens once every century or so where the star rivers cross for a night."

"Every one hundred and twenty five years," Sakura corrected. "And it's a complete overlap. The star rivers cross partially much more often."

Yugito cracked a single eye open then narrowed it promptly. Her brows were fair and slender, perfect for arching in condescension but Sakura didn't flinch. It had been a while since the last time Yugito had been able to intimidate her.

"Fine…" Yugito drawled, letting her eye fall shut again. "Every one hundred and twenty five years the star rivers overlap for a night. I'm sure plenty of people in the empire are eager to observe it, but we don't worship the stars or the old gods so there's no use in observing the day as a celebration."

The cart dipped again into another hole in the road but Sakura was awake to catch herself before she hit her head again. Outside the sun burned a little lower in the sky, peeking into the cracks between the tarp flaps.

"It's not about worship," Sakura said. "But there are traditions we carry on even if the belief has run out. I'm not sure what those traditions actually are, but my grandmother would know."

Yugito didn't say anything and didn't open her eyes, giving off no indication that she meant to continue the conversation, and that wasn't unusual. Yugito wasn't very talkative to begin with. It had been a quiet, uncomfortable trip from the blue capital all the way up the Boneridge Mountains.

"Did I heard one of you mention something about the Conflux?" the cart driver called back, leaning backwards to separate the tarp that divided them.

"Confluence, actually, but I've heard others call it differently. Are you planning on observing it yourself, sir?" Sakura asked.

The older trader shook his head and started to ease back into his seat. "Not myself, no, but I remember my father talking about it when he was a boy and it happened in his time, rest his ghost. If there is one in the village you can talk to the story keeper about any Conflux business you might have. You know of one?"

"That would be my grandmother. She's the Story Keeper."

Sakura felt Yugito's attention suddenly sharpen. When she turned to look over Yugito's eyes were open and wide enough to see Sakura anew.

"You didn't mention that," Yugito said.

"Does that change anything? You want to leave me be and finally split up? I won't be alone so you won't feel the need to watch me anymore."

The driver glanced between the two girls, squinting at either of their faces before making a low humming sound that seemed to imply thinking. "I thought you two might have been sisters, but nah, neither you look much like the other there."

"No, we're not related. She just insisted on following me home for the fun of it," Sakura explained with only a thin layer of sarcasm to flavor the words. "I couldn't shake her if I tried."

The driver laughed, straightening back up so that the flap fell back down between then, but his voice still called back to the pair of them. "It's nice to see such faithful friends."

It made Sakura look back over at Yugito again, because that was the odd thing; they weren't friends. They hadn't even been allies during the war. Sakura had been a contracted soldier for Brzoza, the Birch Principality and had tried to, unsuccessfully, push back the Blue Principality, Niebieski. Yugito had been a highly dedicated military officer in Niebieski's army. The two shouldn't have even known each other.

Sakura caught Yugito's eye and flinched when the older girl sat up and moved across the space between them to touch at a bruise forming where Sakura had hit her head upon waking. The blonde drew her thumb across the skin and it came away red from a tiny cut.

Sakura cursed and reached up to wipe at the cut herself. It wasn't anything major, and was far from the worse she had suffered when in uniform, but Yugito was making a fuss about it.

"It's nothing, don't worry about it," Sakura mumbled. Absently she wiped again, catching even more blood.

"That's not how you want to appear before your family for the first time in four years, is it?" Yugito said. She pulled away and grabbed for a white handkerchief lacking personal embroidery or initials. With a little bit of water from the canteen she had wet it and offered it to Sakura.

Sakura looked at the handkerchief and then the woman, before glancing back down at the handkerchief again. Hesitantly, she moved the hand off the cut on her forehead to take the offering. "Thanks."

Yugito closed her eyes and settled back into the stack of potato sacks. "Just don't die on me."

Sakura suspected the sentiment didn't run much deeper than that. Invisible as vice and as unseen as virtue, there was a thread more compelling than death that tied them together. Once upon a time Sakura had caught Yugito in her sights, but not fired. Once upon a time Sakura burned with a consuming fever Yugito knew how to tame. Enemies that should have killed each other on sight but did the opposite meant the girls were now strange things to each other.

In Sakura's mind the two of them were even. Sakura had spared Yugito's life once, and in turn the blonde had saved Sakura's. That should have been the end of it, but Yugito refused to let them part like that.

When asked the response was always some variation of the same sentiment, "I'm responsible for your life now."

Little later the road grew smooth and the first few painted houses of the village came into view. There were plenty of people too, considering how out of the way it was for Chmury, named after the low hanging clouds it seemed to be in love with. The things that made it inconvenient to travelers also made the village safe, and people lived like they believed it.

Sakura pressed some money to the driver and then hopped out the back with Yugito trailing along behind her. The pair of them squinted into the heavy sun.

"This place looks untouched," Yugito breathed, scanning around them with a hand resting atop the hilt of her saber.

"It mostly was. Come on, my grandmother lives further up on the cliff ledges. Weird old women do that."

Sakura began to walk but then paused, catching sight of her reflection in a shop window. She looked far too unusual in slim military trousers, boots, and a navy blazer. When she had worn a uniform it had been birch colored, like the country, but the cost of her life was those colors. She had been a contract killer, a soldier for hire, and so she had been spared like one too.

"You need to buy something here?" Yugito guessed. She looked into the shop and wrinkled her nose. "It's an embroiderer-no, a fabric outlet."

"I can do that well enough on my own, there's no need," Sakura huffed.

She felt color heat her cheeks as she realized what she must look like to the others. There was no one around who looked like her, or was dressed in the style she was. Village folk wore patches, loose cotton, and dirty grass stained trousers. Her buttons glared too brightly across her breast. She and Yugito stood out too much together.

With her rifle on her back and the few possessions to her name in a bag, Sakura led the other girl through the village already bustling for evening celebrations, to the edge where footpaths led up to the mountain settlements. Small ranches and farmsteads dotted each of the platforms for as far as the path went.

Further and steeper than any of the others, a humble hut with just enough land for a clutch of chickens and a pig, perched on the side of the mountains where the earth eased and leveled. The fence posts were all painted different colors and decorated with designs of flowers, feathers, and creatures that hid between the leaves.

The color wasn't unusual, every house and each storefront had some part of it painted to protect it from the ghosts of sallow hearts. Many places painted flowers and animals, but only the hut of the story teller painted Firebirds and Leshy and weeping princesses made out of rose buds. Sakura knew the stories for each one, but loved some more than others.

"It looks like your rifle," Yugito remarked idly, eyes missing little.

"Makes sense. This is where the stories came from."

Yugito hummed idly before following Sakura into the front yard. "Is this grandmother of yours also an eagle eye who professes to be born with magic in her pupils?"

Sakura knew she was being teased at best, and mocked at worst. It wasn't anything new. "Of course not. Grandmother has far more magic than I do in things that actually matter."

Yugito grinned as if Sakura had just told her something funny.

Sakura knocked on the front door, wrapping her knuckles just above the three painted horses, one as black as pitch, once as red as fire, and the last as gray as mist. Sakura spit onto her fingers and then wiped the dust off the gray horse, revealing the white coat underneath.

"She's really not kept up with some of these things," Sakura grumbled before stepping back to wipe her dirty fingers on her pant's leg.

"No more than you would have in the same situation," a coy voice teased from behind.

Yugito had already been turned around but Sakura spun on her heel and nearly tripped when she saw her cousin, Shizune with a basket on her hip and a rosy smile on her lips. At her ankles a tiny pig tottered.

"O-oi!" Sakura sputtered. "What are you doing here?" The shock washed over her, and then in a moment it didn't matter anymore because she was reaching for the older woman with eyes and hair as black as raven wings.

Shizune laughed and dropped the basket to take Sakura completely into her arms, still a half a head taller. "It is good to see you here, alive and well. We were worried about you."

"I sent you letters," Sakura said. Then she pulled away. "Didn't you get them?"

"Letters are nice, but there is only so much you can trust the words on paper. It's better to be able to see you here like this right now. I'm glad you're well. Who did you bring?"

"Ah-sorry, I forgot I didn't mention her in the last letter, but this is Yugito, she helped me when I was sick and she wanted to tag along with me. It's not too crowded in this shack, is it?"

"Only and always, but you know we're resilient people. We'll find the room." Shizune reached behind Sakura and extended her arms for another hug that Yugito was too slow to avoid. "Thank you for taking care of my sweet, stupid cousin. You're welcome in our house for all your days. Come in and rest. We can feed you now."

Shizune pushed the front door open as Sakura followed after her with the discarded laundry basket in her arms. Yugito exchanged a hesitant glance down at the tiny piglet before following him inside.

Shizune called out into the house. "Baba, oi-oi, Baba, look who it is. I told you she would be skinny."

Sakura snickered. "You still call Baba, Baba."

Looking backwards Shizune flicked her finger at Sakura's nose. "Baba will always be Baba. Don't act like a brat about it. Get in here, both of you."

The door swung closed and latched on its own, following the natural tilt of the door jam that had only grown more slanted with the passage of time. Sakura glanced back to gauge Yugito's reaction, but like most things, she kept what she felt off her face and out of her eyes.

Baba Tsunade shambled out from the back of the hut with a rooster in her arms, frowning at the noise. Once she was in the main room the brightly colored bird flapped out of her hands to land on the kitchen table and then scurry across it to leap onto a window ledge.

Baba Tsunade was an old woman, but the lines of her face did a poor job of hiding the beauty she had once been and still was. Her hair had been pulled back into twin, blond tails that reached the base of her back where they dangled with ribbons and pierced coins. The cane she often relied upon was gone, or at least out of sight.

"Took you long enough. Was the city too much for you to leave behind?" Tsunade teased. She grabbed for the laundry basket in Sakura's hand to pass off to Shizune. "Come here."

Sakura felt like someone much younger with her grandmother's arms around her. Tsunade smelled like burned wood and oil paints, but was warm from all the layers of soft cotton.

"You're still short."

Sakura jerked back sharply, a dark look in her eyes as she heard Shizune laugh behind her. "Baba!" Sakura exclaimed in embarrassment.

But Tsunade's attention had already switched to the foreigner standing closest to the door. "Who is the friend you brought with you into my house?"

"It wasn't my plan, she just insisted on following me," Sakura muttered. "Here, this is Yugito Nii, Yugito, this is my grandmother, Tsunade. Sakura gestured back and forth while providing introductions.

"You brought a friend home?" Tsunade asked, skepticism coloring her tone.

"I can make friends too. Don't be so mean to me after I just came home. I've been away for nearly four years and this is the way you treat me?"

"How was she?" Tsunade asked, leaning down to Yugito's side and whispering conspiratorially into the younger woman's ear. "Was she terribly fresh with her superiors or did she manage to keep her bite between her teeth after all?"

Shizune came up behind Sakura and rested a hand on her cousin's shoulder, watching the whole exchange with a tender expression. "Baba, don't be rude. Let the girls rest a bit before you integrate either of them. We have a full night ahead of us, after all."

"I'm old, it's impossible for me to be rude." Tsunade leaned back on her heel, still a half head taller than either of the new arrivals, and looked Yugito over without any effort to be subtle. "But I guess we can feed you for your stories."

Tsunade reached for their coats and hung them up by the door before turning towards the kitchen to prepare the lunch. Shizune hurried to deal with the laundry before joining them. Surprisingly enough, Yugito seamlessly inserted herself into the preparation of the meal. She held a knife well enough to chop mushrooms, even if she didn't know what shape they cooked best at.

Sakura wiped the spinach, mushroom, and cheese excess off her fingers before dropping the Pierogi into the bubbling water. By the time the table was set Tsunade had prepared the seasoned peas, along with the sauerkraut salad where apple, carrot, and onion all flavored the fermented cabbage.

From behind Sakura felt her grandmother press herself close. She bent down to kiss at Sakura's cheek and whisper a quiet thank you that might have been for the meal or might have been for coming home.

The women sat together at the table, and Yugito stared pointedly at the painted figures in the wood before a jab from Sakura broke her concentration. With a huff, Yugito replaced her dish atop the colored painting of a Leshy man on the table.

"Who painted all the pictures?" Yugito asked, ignoring Sakura's unimpressed look. Tsunade had almost served the pierogi but paused to answer the question.

"My grandmother, and her mother, and her mother as far back as these walls belonged to us. A little bit more is added each time this place changes hands. One day Shizune will add her stories to the home's bones."

"Shizune? Not…." Yugito let her words hang awkwardly as her gaze shifted from between Shizune and Sakura.

Tsunade laughed. "No, only one at a time and Shizune was the one I chose to tell my stories to."

Shizune reached over to finish filling the plates, but spoke as she worked. "The role is a little more complicated than just telling stories. Another component of the job is teaching the children how to read. You have to have the right temperament for that."

"As you probably guessed, I'm much more suited to things that need that," Sakura muttered while lifting a finger in the direction of the fireplace.

Yugito followed with her eyes and saw that Sakura pointed to a old musket that hung over the fireplace with a powder horn and metal ball pouch nailed just under it. The gun was old, too old to be efficient, but not too old to work, probably. It was typical to see the older firearms out in the country where it was near impossible to legally acquire a modern rifle. Each princedom had the same idea when it came to an armed populace. 'Less is best.'

"It was the only thing my magic was good for," Sakura amended.

"You say that literally but…" Yugito let her words drift once more as she switched her gaze from Sakura to the old grandmother at the opposite end of the table.

"No, that's what it is. Sakura was lucky with what she got, since none of her sisters could claim to fill a thimble with the magic in them. Out of all my grandchildren, Shizune and Sakura were the only two I even considered."

Tsunade filled a cup with wine and then passed it down to Shizune who passed it on to Yugito. Sakura was already drinking from hers, but held it out for more before she could finish the first cup.

"Then what can you do?" Yugito asked, looking to Shizune.

Tsunade laughed loud and full before Shizune could even open her mouth. "Listen to that? She's quite forward, isn't she? I shouldn't be surprised though, with a northern guest," Tsunade said with her attention on Shizune. Her smile was still in place when she switched her gaze back to Yugito at the opposite end of the table. "Best eat your food before it grows too cold, little cat."

Yugito ruffled at the nickname, but ducked her head and ate without further comment until the meal was mostly finished and room was found for more questions. Nothing as outlandish as magic was brought up again, and Sakura suspected Yugito believed it was all a family joke by the end of the meal, but didn't care to put any effort into persuading her.

Shizune left first to prepare an extra bed for Yugito in Sakura's old room. Yugito headed off to help leaving Sakura with Tsunade in the kitchen, cleaning up together.

Sakura gathered up the excess food and carried it outside to where the pigs could have at it in the morning when they roused. When she turned to head back inside her grandmothers was already there in the doorway, and in her hands was Sakura's rifle.

"You've picked up an interesting friend there. It's not often a soldier makes such a dedicated companion out of someone from the opposite side. What did you do?"

Sakura licked her lips, remembering what it felt like to go dry with fever that burned her out and left her feeling hollow the way threshing floors felt after a harvest. A fever that intense would have killed her without a doubt, but Yugito had been there when she shouldn't have been. Sakura ducked her head and kept the thoughts to herself.

"You might get an answer that makes more sense if you ask her yourself. I don't understand it that well on my own. I saved her life once, but she returned the favor, so as I see it we're even."

"And yet she's here." Tsunade turned the rifle over, running her fingers across the wooden faces and designs Sakura had hand carved. Finally she glanced up and held Sakura's eyes. "Why?"

"She said she's responsible for me since she saved my life, but I think she's a bit excessive with all this."

"Do you mind?" Tsunade pressed.

"Not really."

Sakura leaned back and looked up to where the sky was starting to burn in gold colors from afternoon's slip into evening. Dusk wasn't many hours away, and soon the night would reveal the rivers of stars that were destined to cross.

When silence stretched between them Sakura looked back down at her grandmother. "I don't dislike her, and I don't care to press her more than I have as to how she feels about every little thing. If you're alright with it, I don't have any issue with a tag along until she gets tired and goes home."

Tsunade laughed. "And how long do you think that will be? You think she'll stay until the Confluence, until you're settled in here, until you're married, until you're old and gray? How deep is the dedication of this girl to her ideals?"

"I couldn't tell you that, Baba. You might ask her yourself in the morning and get a better idea of it. For until the Confluence at least."

Tsunade nodded. "She's welcome as long as you are. You know I don't mind having another helper around. You can both work on the chores that go into this place and alleviate some of Shizune's burdens. And I'd be doing you both a favor. See, the two of you can practice adjusting to a life that doesn't involve gunpowder and sabers."

Sakura glanced away. "Of course."

Tsunade hummed and strode forward to press the rifle back into Sakura's hands. She ran a finger down the carved skeleton of a snake filled with flowers. The snake's skeletal jaws were wide and stretched over the iron trigger guard, poised to strike the finger the drew the trigger. "This is a new one. I recognize the others."

Sakura took the rifle carefully, her thumb lightly tracing the divots and grooves in the wood from her artistic efforts. "He's mine. I made him to remind me of-" Sakura caught her words behind her teeth and swallowed them back down. She licked her lips and tried again. "To remind me of what I needed to do."

"What is he called?"

Sakura snorted, shouldering the rifle and heading around her grandmother. "No use giving him a name. I'm the only one it matters to and I'm not a storyteller." Sakura waved a hand over her back as if to dismiss anything else her grandmother might say. "Never mind something this silly. You have plenty to prepare for the celebration tonight, don't you? Tell me about it and we'll help."

"There's nothing left for you to worry with. I'm sure you saw some of the set up on your way here. They're already celebrating but we won't be necessary until the stars are out. Come inside."

Sakura took a step and then paused, looking back. "Actually, I think I'd rather stay outside for a few minutes longer, if that's okay. Here, take my rifle inside, will you?"

Tsunade shot her a look but accepted the firearm and disappeared inside. Sakura was left one her own with the animals and the mountain air.

The pigs were half wild and grazing down the forested mountain side, loitering as they pleased until they were fat enough. Sakura noted that there were plenty of chickens to collect eggs from as the only male rooster had been effectively kept from their houses so far.

Four years ago there were nearly half as many chickens to collect eggs from, and she supposed it was thanks to Shizune's efforts the flock had more than doubled. Shizune was far more suited to the homestead lifestyle. She had far more patience than Sakura, and had a gift when it came to cultivating.

Sakura remembered Shizune just knowing when the chickens' eggs were ready, as well as which chickens could still lay eggs and which ones were too old for it. Shizune knew when things were ready to harvest without even checking the calendar. Shizune said she felt suggestions, and Tsunade explained that it was her gift. Sakura had eyes that could see impossibly far, but Shizune could feel the flow of future events. Between the two of them, it was an easy decision who Tsunade should pick.

Instead, she was….

Sakura closed her eyes and saw a different world, a world of white that bled red as body after body fell into the snow and bled out. She remembered the feel as cartridge after cartridge emptied out of her rifle, each one hitting something solid.

Perched high, she was behind enemy lines and nearly out of sight. She shouldn't haven been able to, but she saw down where the last person in a unit knelt to reload his weapon. She took him out. The person next to him noticed before Sakura killed her too. One by one, like dominoes, as soon as the solider noticed the dead comrade next to them Sakura's shot split them open.

And then there was a blond officer who turned and saw. She was the last one, left in ditch thick with corpses. Sakura saw the expression on her face too clearly to miss its meaning. The blond officer knew her death was coming but couldn't see from where it would spring.

Sakura loaded one last cartridge into her rifle, but her hand stilled on the bolt.

The woman was a mess in a torn and bloody blue uniform, and for some reason Sakura's stomach turned for the girl. The officer wasn't a woman. She was just a girl that looked too young to be so resigned for death.

Sakura righted her gun and backed up, leaving the blond officer to wonder when her death would find her.

"No trauma has discrete edges. Trauma bleeds. Out of wounds and across boundaries."
— Leslie Jamison,
The Empathy Exams: Essays

AN:So here is the first chapter of my RED KING knock-off, lol.

I wrote the first draft of this story earlier this year and it took me...months, to finish all 70K of it. I might have overthought some of it and worried too much about the plot of it, which is something I realized when I started rewrites and edits. But I did enjoy where this story took me. If you've seen my moodboard posts on tumblr you might have guessed that already.

Inspiration came from the game/books The Witcher, in that series there is an event called The Conjunction of Spheres that 'is a cataclysm which occurred 1,500 years before the events in the novels, trapping many "unnatural" creatures in this dimension, including ghouls, graveirs, and vampires.' I basically caught a 'what if plot bunny' from that and dreamed up an idea revolving around this thing called the Confluence of Stars where something similar happens-only in this world the magic leaks out and has been leaking out less and less each Confluence until no one believes in magic anymore.

Anyway, I won't get too deep into it. I've got more chapters getting cleaned up and those should be out shortly. I'd love to hear what you think in a review. Please and thank you. :)