WHEW. WELL. HELLO THERE. LONG TIME NO SEE. Sorry I was just so unmotivated to do this chapter. I dunno, Just didn't feel like it. But once I actually started typing I couldn't stop. In fact, I'm so pathetic, that even as I was writing a part of this chapter I started crying a little bit. Just a tiny bit.
Anyway, enjoy the LONGEST CHAPTER?

"I'll do it," I mumbled, feeling cornered and trapped. There was no other way.

Sasuke looked down at me. He looked neither pleased nor displeased.

"Though they don't trust me as much as you think. That old man might, but the others don't. They all keep glaring at me. The old man trusts me the most, but that's not saying much. Even he sometimes looks reproachful. And now I'm risking my life for some scroll." I clasped my hands on the bars once again.

"You're not in any danger," Sasuke told me.

"Didn't you hear me? They don't trust me. You didn't see their eyes. They're waiting for one little slip up, I just know it. And then I'm gone."

"You're still not in any danger," Sasuke said.

I was about to yell, when I saw his lips move.

"I won't let them touch you," He mumbled, and he said it so quietly that I wasn't sure that I actually heard it. No one else seemed to have noticed it in the silence, so I shrugged it off.

After going through the plan once more and promising my return soon, (much to Juugo's relief), I trudged up the stairs back to the upper church. I kept on slipping every few seconds, so very childishly, I crawled up the stairs on all fours.

By the time I reached the final door entering the church, my black gloves were soaked, so I threw them behind me carelessly.

Upon opening the door, I jumped back quickly, almost falling down the flights of stairs.

The old man was standing there, a wide, stretched grin on his face. I wondered if he was waiting for me there the whole time, and the thought made me shiver.

"Welcome back, welcome back!" he greeted me cheerfully, and invited me to sit down on one of the pews. I looked down at it hesitantly, remembering the dead bodies that had occupied them only about an hour ago.

The old man saw my hesitation, and realized what I was worried about. He chuckled, and started rubbing the seats, apparently to emphasize how clean they are.

The withered man also bent down, smelling it. "See! Smells like cleaning products!"

I still stood there, watching his crazy antics.

He, thinking I was still hesitating to sit on the once dirty pews, bent down again.

"They really are clean!" He exclaimed, and started to lick the pew seat. I grimaced and backed away. Definitely standing.

He was about to prove to me they were clean once more, when I held up a hand to stop him.

"Enough. What do you want?" I demanded, growing impatient.

His face fell at my tone, and I almost felt bad. Behind his mad expressions, he looked like a normal old man.

"We want to show you around the entire village." He said simply, as if scared to extend on it any further.

To try and seem friendlier, I sat down on the pew beside him and looked around.

In the most kind voice I could manage, and the most convincing smile I could form, I turned to him.

"That would be nice," I said simply. It was amazing how that one sentence seemed to cheer him up entirely.

"Wonderful!" he exclaimed, clapping his hands together in his excitement. "I have other business to attend to, but you will be shown around by those fellows."

The old man's finger pointed over to a group of four men, two older, about in their forties and thirties, and the other two only a bit older than me, maybe twenty.

They all looked at me as if I were gum on their shoe.

But why? I thought bitterly. I'm your Goddess.

I spun around to look at the old man quickly.

"You're not coming?" I asked frantically, trying to control my voice.

"Oh, no... I have other business to attend to, Sakura…Don't worry, they won't hurt you. They just need some time to accept the new Goddess."

I tried listening to his words, but looking at the men made me uncomfortable.

The two older men were both tanned. One had sandy coloured hair and the other black. They both had brown eyes.

The two younger ones both had fairly pale skin, one having auburn, almost red, hair and blue eyes, the other had white blonde hair and brown eyes.

The four men didn't have sunken faces, or crazed looks in their eyes like the others. They looked almost normal, which made the thought much more frightening.

What normal person would want to bow to this kind of religion? One where it's okay to kill your followers?

The old man led me to them, and I remained stiff, looking straight ahead of me.

Did they have any weapons? Sasuke said he wouldn't let anything happen to me, but they could easily slit my throat right now and he'd never know.

"Well, off you go," The old man waved his hand, and the men started to move while I hesitantly followed. "Be sure to show her everything! She is our Goddess!" His yell was just heard as the white-blonde haired boy closed the door.

The four of us stood in front of the church for a couple of awkward moments. I dug my foot into the ground.

Finally taking some initiative, one of the older men started to walk, and we all followed.

"And that's a scarecrow that's been in this village for generations," The white haired boy said in his monotone voice. It reminded me of Sasuke's, but more robotic.

I went up to it, running my fingers across it just as a raven perched itself on one of the scarecrows arms.

The material was surprisingly smooth, and I frowned, rubbing it some more to try and figure out what it was.

"It's skin," The red haired boy said as if knowing what I was doing.

My hand recoiled so fast I almost hit myself in the chest. How could he say that so casually?

"It's skin from both our enemies and our villagers."

I tried to look at it as if I was fascinated, but I was far from. I took a steady step back and quickly turned around when I felt myself press against something.

The white haired boy looked down at me with his dark brown eyes. He was so pale, and so was his hair. It was a weird, but nice combination to have the dark eyes.

I apologized and moved away from him, but as soon as I did, he moved back up. I wondered what he was doing, until I realized he was just trying to get closer to the scare crow.

The burlap bag that was covering the head of the scarecrow swayed in the chilly wind, and the white haired boy reached to take it off.

The raven, which had been quietly sitting there up until now, started to peck furiously at his pale skin.

Dark beads of blood seeped out of his white skin, but he didn't react. He continued his action of removing the bag.

I thought I would be used to all these creepy twists by now, but I wasn't. I didn't make a sound, but my mouth opened slightly in disgust.

Just like how the scarecrow was made out of real skin on it's body, it also had real human parts on it's head. Shriveled human eyes, one blue and one green, were glued onto the ball of skin that was the head.

A nose, which by the perky shape I presumed to be a girls, was also perched on the blob.

But what got me the most for some reason was the mouth. A top lip and a bottom lip were either ripped off or cut off, and were now forming some kind of demented smile on the scarecrow.

"Why…uh, do we use this scarecrow?" I tried to sound interested, to make it sound as if the "Goddess" wanted to know more about her people.

"An offering," the red head said. "Just like how you saw the dead people hanging from the branches—they were offerings too."

I thought back to the corpses hanging on the tree.

But didn't the old man say that was an offering to the Goddess?

"But that was an offering to the tree Goddess," I said, not sure what else to call it, "Now that I'm the Goddess, can't we get rid all of this stuff? I don't need these offerings."

One of the older men cleared his throat.

"The offerings aren't just for you," He said gruffly, and looked around nervously, as if wondering what he was about to say next was okay. "They're also for the Demon."

My curiosity perked up at this, and I turned to the older man who was speaking. "Demon?"

"I…can't talk about it," He looked torn, as if wondering whether he should obey his rules to not speak of it, or to not serve a Goddess.

I didn't pester him. Somehow I didn't really want to know about this Demon.

"All we know is that it is all black, and has red eyes. We haven't seen it, but our ancestors have. The offerings make it happy, is what it says in the scriptures."

I turned to look at the white haired boy as he spoke. I frowned in thought. I doubted there was really any Demon. Their ancestors probably just saw a bear, shit themselves, and spouted off nonsense that it was a Demon.

"Well then. Is that all? I think you've showed me everything?" I wondered, and once I saw their nods, I began walking.

I heard a flapping noise, and looked over at the raven. It was flying above me, but looking down at me with watchful eyes.

In this village it always felt like you were being watched.

The familiar voice I heard next cut through the silence like a whip, and raised goose bumps on my arms.

"Now don't you laugh when the hearse goes by…"

A quiet, sing song voice sung, but I didn't dare look at him.

He started whistling, which was different from the last time, and I turned my head a bit and looked at him.

He was pointing directly at me with his lucky finger bone.

"Because you might be the next to die."

He didn't have to tell me twice.

Quickly, I skidded to the left and turned around, holding up my arms.

The white haired boys knife, which would have went into my back if the little boy hadn't been singing that song, was now gouged into my arm.

I could see the other end of the knife protruding from the other side of my arm, and a thick, steady stream of blood rolled to the ground.

Better that than my back though.

The raven from overhead screeched furiously from overhead and clawed and screamed at the white haired boy.

I was about to take the knife out of my arm and heal it, when I remembered I couldn't use chakra.

A bead of sweat added to my forehead.

I decided to keep the knife in for now, to stop the bleeding.

My green eyes met with the singing boys hazel. I gave him a look of gratitude.

He gave the tiniest of nods and begun his singing again.

I shifted my attention from the pain in my arm to the white haired boy in front of me.

"What was that?" I demanded.

It was obviously not a group attack—the others seemed just as horrified by what he had done as I was.

In fact, the white haired boy himself also seemed horrified, and he stared at my arm with wide gaping eyes.

Even though I was the one with the knife in my arm, suddenly I was worried about him.

"I…" He croaked frantically, and I could see his frame start to shake.

"What d-d-d-d-did I do?" His teeth clattered a mile a minute as he tried to form comprehendible sentences.

"You just stabbed me." I said, lifting up my arm.

It was obviously a rhetorical question, because he seemed horrified by my answer. To my surprise, he leaned over and threw up.

"I'm-m-m-m.. Sor-r-y.. What…"

I was confused now. This wasn't an act so that I would have mercy on him. What was wrong with him?

The others were still also gaping wide eyes at my arm. It appeared I was the only one capable of talking.

"I-I-It was too perf-f-f-fect.. I…I…I…I-I, I thought you were a D-demon," he rambled a mile a minute, still bent down and looking up at my wound.

"Me? Why?" I asked incredulously.

"It—it was j-just too p-p-perfect that as s-s-soon as ou-our tree di-die-died, you came along. And y-ou look exactly l-l-like a S-s-sakura tree in human-n fo-form. I thought you were a D-d-demon in disg-guise."

I weighed what he just said. It was plausible. But to stab me?

"Why would stabbing me determine if I was a Demon or not?"

"B-because th-their b-b-blood I-i-t's different."

I accepted that answer.

"But as you can see, I'm no Demon." I said simply, feeling my pulse in my arm.

His eyes widened again as if remembering what he had just done, and he looked like he was about to wretch again.

"I-I-I-I-" He struggled to swallow. He was clearly hysterical. "-I-m-m-m. S-s-s-s-sorry.. I-I didn't… P-please don't kill m-me…"

I raised an eyebrow.

"Kill you? No. Your theory was pretty alright, I guess. Though you could have just asked me to prove it or something."

"T-that would h-h-h-have b-been rud-de…"

I laughed. And stabbing me wasn't.

I walked over to him, careful not to move the knife lodged in my arm.

"Come on, get up," I said, heaving him up and supporting him on my shoulder.

Now that I was making body contact with him, I could really tell how much he was shaking. He was sweating all over, his skin was ice cold, and just being beside him made my body start to shake.

The raven who had attacked him so viscously earlier, was still floating in the air watching. I didn't know if birds could be angry, but this one looked pissed.

"Sakura!" The old man gasped in sheer horror.

Before I got to him, though, I helped the white haired boy who's name I learned was Elixir (which I thought was quite an odd name though I didn't say anything,) sit down on the pews, and then turned to the old man, who's blue eyes were wild and crazy as he looked at my injury.

The old man opened his mouth several times in an attempt to say something, but after a while nothing came out, and I grew impatient.

"It doesn't hurt anymore, I can hardly feel it," I said, though after the words were out of my mouth, I realized that probably wasn't such a good thing.

He still didn't say anything, and I frowned.

Though he did raise his shaky hands and swiftly pulled the knife out.

Caught off guard by the sudden action, I let out a cry of pain. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a white head shoot up in response.

I looked down at my arm, and distastefully looked at the area where the knife was pulled out of. I wish I had done it, he did it so sloppily.

The blood had started again. It wasn't dripping. It was more like a steady stream. It made me nervous.

The old man raised his shaky hands once again, and I gasped when green chakra came out.

He sucked at medical jutsu, so it wasn't doing anything, but I was still staring amazed at his hands.

How…?

"There," The old man said in a relieved voice, apparently proud of his superbhealing abilities.

All he did was repair the skin—the muscle was still a mess underneath. I would go to Karin later and ask her to let me bite her.

"All better?" He asked.

"Yeah." I lied, trying to keep my arm stiffly at my side to avoid moving it.

"Who did this?" His voice was more demanding and angrier now.

I quickly swallowed, not about to rat out the white haired boy, even if he was one of these crazy villagers. A part of me felt bad for him, and even liked him. It wasn't his fault he was born into this.

He told me he was checking if I was a Demon to protect the village.

I tried to conjure up an excuse for him. Fell on a sharp rock? No, there was a knife in my arm for God's sake. If only I had pulled it out earlier.

"ELIXIR!"The old man yelled, and my eyes widened. How did he know?

"THIS IS YOURKNIFE!" The old man bellowed, grabbing Elixir's black shirt and heaving him up off his seat.

Elixir was too terrified to answer. He looked over at me with his unmistakable wide brown eyes, and I clenched my fists.

"Get off him," I walked over and ripped the old mans hands away from Elixir.

The old man looked at me in astonishment and rage, as if surprised someone would oppose him. Then he seemed to remember I was his Goddess, and he smartened up.

"Sakura. You're a Goddess. That kind of behavior towards you is an immediate execution for him."

"E-Execut…" Elixir mumbled, and stopped short, staring wide eyed at the floor.

"No! He thought I was a demon, and his theory was plausible. I forgave him and I'm the one who was stabbed, for fucks sake! So if I can forgive him, you sure as hell will, and that's a fuckingORDER."

I was panting, and my heart was drumming loudly in my chest. My fingernails were digging into my hands.

That was the first time I had yelled at the old man like that, or used my authority. It felt good, especially when using it to save a life.

The only sounds that were heard was all of our breathing, more so my panting.

Beside me, Elixir gave me a look of happy disbelief, and rubbed at his eyes.

The old man apparently still didn't know what to say at my outburst, and I smiled smugly.

"V-very well. Elixir, you will be allowed to live. But, I warn you both. If he does something like that ever again, we won't fail to execute him. "

I nodded. "I'll agree to that. He won't do it again." I said confidently, and turned towards Elixir.

Before I could say anything he wrapped his arms around me and sobbed into my shirt. It was weird to be holding a man older than you as he cried.

I smiled sadly and hugged him back before releasing him.

"See you both later, I'm checking on the prisoners." I announced.

Elixir left the church as I started to head towards the dungeons, but the old man's hand was on my shoulder.

"Actually, we're going to execute them."

"Wha—what?" I asked. I didn't have an excuse to be mad about this to him.

"They're no longer needed. They're a part of the past you. We're part of the new you."

Any excuse to keep them alive. Come on.. Any excuse…

"Well, I'd like to keep them alive. I'm starting to forget my past life now that the Goddess is taking over my body. Me and her are sharing a body, you could say. And we're both curious about my past. So, if I do forget everything, I'd like to keep them around to fill me in. It may be useful in the long run to have someone around who knows about my past."

the old man seemed to think it was a fair argument, cause he nodded reluctantly. His face almost fell, as if he was deprived of killing people today.

I stepped down each dungeon stair carefully. I was far better than the last time.

I creaked open the wooden door which was quite heavy with my good arm, and made my way over to their cellar.

"Who is it?"

"The footsteps sound feminine. Think It's Sakura again?

"Who knows. What if that freaky chick is back?"

"Ugh…"

I snickered to myself. Never before have I felt the urge to know what someone sounds like so bad, so I could imitate this 'freaky chick's' voice.

But, I settled for "It's me!"

"Sakura?" The three of them asked again, like last time. Wasn't sure why they did that.

Reaching their cell, I crouched down again like last time.

But unlike last time, Sasuke, instead of standing in the shadows, marched up to the bars which he could easily break.

He was staring at something, though I didn't really care what. Though he did look extremely angry. I didn't dwell on his anger though—it wasn't very rare. Someone probably just said hello to him.

"I got injured, but I can't use my medical jutsu's as you know. Karin?" I asked her hopefully, turning to her.

"Yeah, sure," She agreed, apparently warming up to me, I've noticed. It was probably just because I was out risking my neck, and she got to be with Sasuke without me interrupting anything.

She reached out her arm and I was about to bite it, when she quickly pulled it back.

"If you say, 'Just kidding!' I'm going to let the old man execute you like he originally wanted."

"No, no—wait, he what? No, what I wanna know is, where is the injury anyway?"

I stretched out my arm tenderly, and grazed my finger softly on the disguised wound.

"But it doesn't look… If this is for muscle pains you can go fuck yourself."

I smiled and rolled my eyes, shaking my head.

"No, there is a wound. I got stabbed in the arm, and that old man attempted to heal me with his medical jutsu, though he sucks and it only attached the skin back together."

Karin nodded, looking at the spot where I pointed to on my arm.

"Cut the skin back open first, then you can bite me."

I did as she said, pulling out a Kunai and poking it into my skin. Since the muscle was ravaged underneath and the skin wasn't even attached, it just felt like poking a tooth pick through saran wrap.

Karin reached out her arm again once I had cut it all open, and I closed my mouth around her wrist.

"Ooh, some hot girl on girl action?" Suigetsu piped up, and I frowned at him, though I didn't say anything as my mouth was occupied.

I felt my muscles stitching themselves and repairing the ripped tissue. Once I was sure it was done, I leaned back.

"Thank you," I said to Karin, but she didn't look at me.

"Don't thank me. Without you we'd all die."

I smiled, though immediately stopped upon seeing Juugo's frantic expression.

"How? How did you get hurt?"

I thought about lying for a moment, but figured it couldn't do any harm.

I explained what had happened. About the four guys, about Elixir and his breakdown, and what happened after I heard he was to be executed.

"You're sure he's safe now? He won't try it again? Are you sure?" Juugo asked skeptically.

"Yes, I'm sure of it." I responded sternly.

"I just can't believe that creepy little boy helped…Guess we're in his debt…" Karin whispered.

"If that little boy didn't save you, you would have been backstabbed by the people you thought were your followers…get it? BACKSTABBED?" Suigetsu started cracking up all by himself, Karin looking at him angrily, and Juugo was looking sick just by imagining me getting stabbed in a critical spot..again.

I on the other hand was looking at Sasuke wearily. I knew he had something on his mind and he was about to say it.

"Kill him." He ordered simply, and I was taken aback from the directness.

"Who? Elixir?" Sasuke gave a curt nod, and I shook my head. "No!"

"No matter what you say, he's not trustworthy. Even if you think you trust someone, you're not always right. And after what he did I'd say he isn't."

"I don't care, Sasuke. I'm not letting him die. You're in the cell. I'm not. I make these decisions."

Sasuke glared at me with such white hot intensity, I would have recoiled any other time. But this time, I gasped.

"…You!" I shouted at Sasuke, jabbing an accusing finger at him. "You're the raven!"

Everyone else would have been confused, had I not told them the story from outside, raven and all.

"What? You think he's the raven that was outside with you?" Karin asked skeptically, but at the same time she seemed to believe it.

"How'd you use that technique though? No chakra, remember?" I asked jealously.

"I did the technique before we entered the village." He explained.

I thought for a moment, and frowned. "But why didn't it disappear? The barrier evaporates Chakra."

Sasuke, for once, looked confused. He frowned. "I'm not sure."

If I wasn't so intrigued I would have made a witty joke, but alas, I was intrigued.

Changing the subject, Sasuke looked down at me. "Did you find anything out about the scroll?"

I shook my head. "No. I got stabbed."

Suigetsu laughed, but the look on Sasuke's face made me think I was going to be stabbed again.

I nodded, waving him off and turned to walk away.

"I should go. It looks suspicious If I'm down here for too long."

Everybody waved me goodbye, but one hand reached out and grabbed my wrist. I turned to look around to see Sasuke reaching out of the bars and sternly gripping my arm.

"Don't get hurt again, Idiot."

I gave him a sad smile and shook him off.

Juugos P.O.V

I watched Sakura leave, my heart squeezing as she did so.

"She didn't even say anything," Sasuke growled under his breath. He ripped a chunk of the dungeon rock floor out of the ground, and threw it against the wall.

"Well, what was she supposed to say? She's in danger every minute. She can't exactly truthfully say she won't get hurt."

Sasuke went silent after that. I never had the last word when talking to Sasuke. Though that wasn't really the point.

"You have the raven to watch over her, right? So it's fine."

"All I can do as the raven is watch over her. But realistically what is a raven going to do if someone's charging at her with the intent to kill? All it can do is watch." Sasuke said in his usual detached voice, though I thought I heard it crack.

I listened for a few more moments, trying to decide if it was actually his voice, which I doubted, or the sounds of the rocks he was throwing scraping against the wall.

The latter. Definitely.

I brushed a strand of my pink hair out of my face as I searched the Altar of the church. The once half alive tree beside me was now completely wilted and shriveled, its pink now black.

That old man, who's name I really should learn, was out doing whatever he does when he randomly disappears sometimes. I take his absence as an opportunity to snoop.

Upon my searching, I found a box of matches, probably to light the candles.

An idea popped into my head, and I quickly scooped up about four matches, and put them in my navy blue skirt.

I had brought my backpack on this mission, and changed into my normal clothes. Though I was still armed.

I got up from my crouched position behind the altar and looked around, making sure the coast was clear.

Opening to the door and stepping out into the crisp air, I noticed the guard was gone. I shrugged. Easier for me.

Gripping the matches tightly in my hand, I marched over to the scarecrow.

It was a supposed offering to a Demon, but I'm the Goddess now, and this was too disturbing to keep.

To make it more flammable, I brought my mission clothes and strew them over the scarecrow.

Those were the clothes I was wearing when I first got here anyway, and they smelled like what the church smelled like when we first entered it.

The raven was soaring above me in a circle, and came to land on a fence a few feet away from me, watching me.

I quickly wiped two of the matches across the rough material of the burlap sack covering the scarecrow, and watched them as the flame on the end grew larger.

My hand reached up and silently, I lifted the burlap sack off of the scarecrows head, ready to get rid of it once and for all after a last look.

I definitely wasn't making a mistake by burning it. It was a monstrosity.

I looked at the mangled lips, the detached nose, and…

I stared at the eyes. My heart thundering in my chest.

Green and blue eyes.

Those were them.

Those were the eyes I saw when I first looked at this.

But now.

What colour were they?

Well that's quite obvious.

Brown of course.

But not just any brown eyes.

Why.

Why.

Why?

I sunk to my knees and leaned over, my forehead touching the ground.

I let out a shriek as my tears came streaming out of my eyes and my body shook from my crying.

This was the first time I've had a proper cry in a long time.

I didn't try to conceal my agony.

I let out a long piercing dreadful scream and dug my fingers into the ground as I shook.

Still crying, though not making a sound, I dropped one match on the scarecrow.

Elixir's wide eyes were staring at me.

"I'm sorry," I said, my lip trembling, and I wiped the other match on my skirt.

I'm so sorry.

I dropped the second match on the scarecrow. The other two I had lit earlier were on the ground, and I stomped on them.

I watched the fire slowly build up, until it was taller than me.

The flames licked every inch of the scarecrow, and almost got a taste of me before I backed away.

I wondered if Elixir was crying.

I wonder who killed him.

If it was the old man I'll kill him.

The raven pushed off the fence and soared into the air.

I lost sight of it in the clouds.