Fiat justitia, ruatcaelum

Fiat justitia, ruatcaelum =+=+= Let justice be done through heaven’s fall


Author’s introduction; This is one of my ‘stranger’ fics, so please give it some time. And forgive me any of the monstrous plot holes (and terribly miss-placed abilities). I prefer to write them off as an effect of the broken seal.
And if I have maimed a character in a fashion you don’t approve of, please bear with me.
In final, I lay no claim to any of the characters or locations portrayed that seem to have come from somewhere else.

Please enjoy at your leisure…

*******Something like a rabbit hole*******

Sakura could only gaze.
“I told you it was huge.” Sasuke leaned back against the wall.
“Help me, Sakura!” Naruto shouted, “I can’t get out and the ramen is getting low!”
Sakura’s hand traced the outside ring. Someone had painted a ridiculously massive seal around the door to Naruto’s apartment.
Two rings were laid upon the door, two more stretched down to the floor, and the fifth was thrown large enough to encompass the whole door.
She dipped the tip of her finger into the black substance, finding it to be sticky and fluid, as oil, but held granular particles in it. Ashes, perhaps. Or something ground to a fine dust.
“This is a lot of effort for a simple hoax.”
Sasuke barely blinked, “I tried the door. Neither Naruto nor I could budge it from the jamb. Not by any means.” He gestured to a fresh blast mark on the door.
*So we’ll just leave him in there to starve.* Sakura sighed, “I can try, Sasuke.”
“Sakura!” Naruto poked his head out through the ventilation window over the door, “If you can get me out of here, I swear I’ll love you forever!”
The girl sighed and pushed the follow up thought aside. She didn’t need his love right now. She needed to focus.
The kanji of the seal were intermixed with other symbols and signs. And some of the filler marks looked significant as well. *Pretty damn good for a hoax.*
With a hand steadied with patience, she scored the edge of a lesser symbol with a kunai. The paste came up grudgingly, and left a dark stain on the wood beneath it, but it seemed to be effectively removed.
“I might be able to do this…” Sakura took in the sight of the seal as a whole, “If I can damage enough of the right glyphs, the pattern should be rendered inert.”
“Good,” Sasuke actually nodded, “I’ll come back later.” And the Uchiha walked away, hands in his pockets. Not even sparing the concern to look back over his shoulder.
Sakura raised her hand after him, took a breath to call out… And then sighed. Naruto watched her from the small window.
“You’re not gonna just leave me here, right?” His eyes were the largest, bluest eyes Sakura had seen yet. And despite every intention she might have had, she melted under that pleading gaze. “Please… Pretty please…”
She couldn’t help but smile at the boy, “I’ll have you out of there in time for dinner, Naruto.”
Turning to her work, the razor edge of the knife made short work of the damaged symbol and her eyes scanned the massive ring for the next victim.
After almost an hour, she figured the outer most ring disabled. Without a certain way to test the theory, it was her best guess. But her resolve was firm. And reaffirmed every time she looked up from her work.
Above her, Naruto watched her work with an intensity she hadn’t seen in him before. His gaze pierced her in a way she hadn’t imagined he could. And his flawless silence the perfect complament to the random scrape of her blade.
Sakura moved the focus of her sabotage to the next ring in.
And she destroyed the next with perseverance.
At last, only the two rings of the door remained. And she could feel the toll of the battle. Her eyes burned. Her hands and back ached and throbbed.
She gave extra attention to the area where it appeared Sasuke had tried to blast the door open.
*A new glyph… or a smudge…* Sakura tore into her memory, digging deeply for the answer she knew lay buried someplace in all her reading and lessons. The marred blast site taunted her as she chewed her lip.
“You can do it.”
Sakura looked for the source of the low voice, lastly looking up at the blonde haired boy.
He was still watching her, “If anyone can finish this, Sakura, it’s you.”
More than just his words and the way he spoke them, the way his eyes never moved from hers filled Sakura with a strange glow. A well of warmth and strength. It eased her mind and aching back, steadied her hand.
His faith in her, as solid as his love of ramen, rejuvenated her.
Sakura settled to one knee and raised her knife to score the first glyph in the second ring.
“YO, Sakura!” A hand clapped Sakura on the shoulder, forcing her hand and gouging a hole through the seal’s inner ring and Sakura stared, waiting for oblivion.
“So what, you finally gone soft for Uzumaki? Does that mean you’ve given up on Sasuke?”
Sakura turned to face her rival in all things and brandished the stained kunai in the other girl’s face, “Damn you, Ino-pig! Can’t you see this is a very delicate place?” She pointed to the seal, “Someone has trapped Naruto in his room with it and here you come along trying to blow us all to a meat paste and all you can ask about is Uchiha Sasuke!”
Ino made a show of looking at the seal. “Looks complicated. And totally ineffective. Unless the goal of the seal was to waste someone’s afternoon.” Ino saluted the blonde that half hung out the window, “Uzumaki Naruto tops himself again.”
*Damn Ino!* Sakura felt the heat of rage bloom within her, “So why don’t you play along or go and wash your hair or try to seduce Sasuke or something!”
Ino smirked as her eyes lit up, “I think I may… Have fun, billboard brow!” Ino turned away and blew a kiss over her shoulder, “I’ve got a lunch date with Suke-kun!”
Sakura cast aside the urge to throw a rude sign at Ino’s back and turned back to the seal, trying to calm her seething mind and focus on the door.
“Thank you…” Sakura looked up. Naruto’s tone was almost silent. And the tears in the corner of his eyes almost leaking out.
Sakura felt a tug in her heart and drew herself from his gaze. The wells of his eyes were as deep as his heart and she grew pallid as her heart sped up. “Don’t do that. We’re comrades. Teammates. It’s my duty to help you…”
“I mean for believing me.” A tear hit the floor. “For knowing that this isn’t just another prank…”
Sakura shut her own eyes, “Yeah… well…”Her face grew hot. *Maybe Sasuke isn’t… What’s that?*
A thin, acrid sting cut at her nose. Her eyes snapped open and she beheld what she had feared; The inner ring was burning away. Flames of unearthly azure ate at the damaged mark and the thin smoke fell to the floor.
“oh no…”
The ring burned around and the kanji and glyphs flashed. Smoke the color of diseased flesh blasted from the core of the seal, washing over Sakura. She heard Naruto call out to her. Heard him slam the door from the inside. The door crackled as the wood absorbed the blow and held.
Then a flash of light. And a second. The remaining rings had burst somehow and twin waves of raw chakric force pounded her, knocked the wind out of her and threw her down.
She gasped deeply, only to gag on the thick smoke that still issued from the door. She coughed and retched, climbing to her feet as the smoke stilled.
The door hammered again, “Hang on!” And again. The kunai slipped from her grasp.
Sakura tried to speak, but in the place of words, a thin wisp of silvery blue smoke issued from her lips and her legs refused to hold her up.
*What’s wrong… what’s happening…*
The smoke began to move again.
Back the way it had come. A vortex where the seal had charred the door drawing the smoke, the walls, the floor, stretching all into the pit of black oblivion at the center.
And Sakura felt it’s pull. She turned away, trying to crawl, but with every move she made, the winds blew ever more fiercely.
“Naruto!”
The wall burst as Naruto came through the masonry, bits of stone, wood, and mortar scattering as much as it clung to him.
Sakura dug her nails into the floor as the winds intensified, though Naruto seemed immune.
And the winds were winning the tug-o-war.
Naruto dropped to the floor in front of Sakura, kneeling beside a body in the hall and shook the girl, “Sakura?” He shook harder, rolling her body over into his lap, “Sakura! Wake up!”
Sakura slipped back as shock tore through her mind. *I’m not in my body?!?!*
“Say something! Anything!” His eyes spilled tears as he looked back and forth, “Ino! Sasuke! Someone help her!!”
“Naruto!” Sakura felt her feet lift from the floor and began to slide more quickly as her purchase was stolen.
Naruto’s eyes zeroed on her, though they seemed unfocused. “I’m here! Help me, Naruto!”
He reached out toward her, still cradling her body. His hand missed hers by inches and Sakura flailed at the floor as she lost ground by the foot.
“Sakura?” He reached out further, his fingers tracing the score marks her fingernails had left in the wood floor.
Sakura felt her weight falling back She lunged outward, “Naruto!!” He lunged to her, pinned down by the body he held. Their hands grazed by the slimmest margin before the winds took fresh hold and Sakura flew into the consuming heart of the vortex.
As the darkness collapsed around her, she saw Naruto still reaching out for her, even as he held her lifeless body.

*****Awaken within a dream*****

Sakura bolted upright, sucking in her breath and panting. A damp cloth fell from her brow and hit the hand the held hers in her lap.
The gentle plap sparked Naruto to leap as though he’d been shocked by lightning.
“You’re awake!” He leaned in and hugged her tightly, the tears his eyes had spilled old were joined with new ones on the shoulder of her hospital pajamas. “I was so scared, Sakura. You were so cold and the way the smoke got sucked back into the seal…”
He refused to let go of her, gripping her hand though he back off far enough to gaze into her eyes, “I thought the smoke had done something to you, taken something from you…”