Chapter 2

Demon of the city

Sarah felt her whole world spinning and everything was black. Her body felt limp and weak. Almost as if, she had fallen from a tall building onto her back. Her limbs trembled as she began to sit up. She could feel a cool breeze on the back of her neck and hear birds singing in the distance. Sarah opened her eyes, lowering her head, feeling the blinding light on her. She rubbed her eyes hard and looked around, her eyes finally focusing.

"Where am I?" she mumbled in a tired voice. Sarah found herself in a grassy field. To her North was a large forest that spanned past the horizon and to her South, in the distance, was a strange looking city. "Am I dreaming?" she thought to herself as she stood up and gained her balance. Standing there amongst the strange landscape, she pulled out her cell phone. Quickly putting the battery back into it, it powered on, but to her misfortune, there were no bars.

"Crap…" she muttered. "Well, I guess I'm gonna have to walk over to that… city?" Sarah sighed. "With any luck, someone there will be nice enough to lend me a phone to call home." Sarah walked for what seemed like hours; luckily, the weather was slightly cloudy, but beautiful. She looked up at the white clouds covering the sun and she shook her fist. "Don't you dare come out you bright bastard." She cursed at the sun.

Finally arriving at the strange city, she began to notice that the buildings were not really the kind she was used to seeing, they appeared Japanese, and the Japanese kanji written on some buildings gave it away. She stopped in front of a large sign and stared at it, admiring the bold brush strokes, and realizing that she could suddenly read Japanese.

"What the hell?" she blurted. "How can I read that?" she said, looking at all of the signs around her, being able to understand them. As she walked through the dirt street, she noticed an older looking woman, not to far from her. Sarah began to walk faster, catching up to her, and softly tapping her on the shoulder.

"あなたは私の子を見たことがありますか？"

"Wait, what? I don't understand you." Sarah replied, but the woman kept talking.

"この場所を離れる、それは呪われている… leave before it's too late…" she cried, as she ran off into a dark alley.

Sarah stood their, breathless, and confused, "Did... did I just understand what she said?" Not wasting anymore time pondering the strange event, she continued walking around. There were eyes on her, but whenever she would spot someone, they would run indoors and lock the doors. After 20 minutes of exploring, she concluded that she must be in Little Tokyo, but did Oregon have one? Moreover, if so, how did she get there? Tired and still a little confused, she sat down on a small bench and looked up. The sun gradually disappeared behind a mass of black clouds.

"Is it gonna rain?" she thought, just then, a white snake slithered past her foot, stopping to smell her with its tongue. It appeared to look up at her, before it left, slithering under a crevice under the bench.

"You should leave this place." A child's voice said.

"Where'd you come from?" she asked. The small child, a little girl, stood there with a stoic look on her face.

"People here are scared of strangers… people disappear everyday…" the child said in a nonchalant voice. "If you're not careful… the demon of this city will get you."

"Demon?" she replied, "Wait!" Sarah said, reaching out to grab the small girl, as she ran off towards a large dying tree. The little girl ran behind it and Sarah followed, Sarah paused for a second, hearing a blood curdling scream. "Little girl?" she said, walking slowly behind the tree, only find a small bloody handprint on the side of the tree.

"Oh my God" she gasped, walking backwards. "I have to leave this place." She thought. As she turned to flee a man in black garments appeared out of nowhere "You, you're not from around here. We have to leave this cursed city." he said.

Startled, Sarah, fell on her butt, attempting to kick the man in self-defense. "Get away from me!" she shouted.

"Calm down, I'm a scout from a neighboring village, I and five others came here to investigate odd disappearances, but only I remain. Something evil is taking people, if we do not leave, we will be next. My name is Sachio, my apologies for the informal introduction, but we really must leave."

Something about the man looked familiar to Sarah, his clothing, his voice, and then it hit her, somehow, she was in the world of Naruto, but how was that even possible? Sarah stood up, dusting herself off, when a thick heavy fog began to roll in. The sky turned even darker and the sun was nowhere in sight.

"Where are we?" she asked, following close.

"This used to be Trinity City. My clan came here to investigate, but we were, greeted by a hostile force."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"I'm not quite sure myself. The few people that we encountered in this city flee from us when we approach them. When we finally thought we had found answers… something began to pick us off, one by one my team disappeared."
"Why are you still here then?"

"I can't explain it, but, it seems that I'm trapped here. As if, I have been walking in circles in a maze. If you don't mind my asking, what clan do you belong to?" Sachio asked. "You're very oddly dressed."

"I don't belong to a clan…" she replied. "I am not even sure how I got here. A part of me still thinks that I'm dreaming."

"I see." Sachio came to a halt, "It seems that we can't go any further, but up."

"What do you mean?"

"You're joking? Right?" he said, leaping from ledge to ledge, getting four stories up.

"Oh… I can't do that…" Sarah said, biting her lip.

Sachio looked down at her, from up above, "are you serious?" he said loudly, leaping back down with little ease. "We'll have to find another means out of this accursed city."

As the two began backtracking, a dark figure followed them, from above, using the roofs. Tracking their every move.