Snakes are Venomous, Flowers are Poisonous

Chapter 24: Summons

Sakura groaned and raised her hand to her head. She swore she could feel screaming all around her as she grit her teeth and tried to remember what happened. But, the noise only seemed to be growing as she continued to gain consciousness. There were high pitched screams, low bleats of noise, voices that seemed to be swinging sweetly, and everything in between. They overlapped to create a cacophony that only caused her to wince in pain.

Eventually, she was able to crack her eyes open and covered her ears in a desperate attempt to block out all the noise, but it only helped marginally. Blinking, she frowned when she was met with a dark grey landscape.

The sky and ground were only separated by a few shades of grey, the sky being darker and filled with black, drifting clouds. The ground was drab, with rocks and dead trees littered around her as the place extended on for miles until it bled into the equally dreadful sky. Swallowing thickly, Sakura hugged herself as she realized she was the only thing of any color in this world of grey.

No matter how much she looked around, there wasn't another soul. However, the noises hadn't diminished in the least. There didn't seem to be any one place the many sounds were coming from.

Wobblily, Sakura got to her feet. She remembered performing the reverse summoning, but now the issue was trying to find out where it had sent her. As she tried to figure out what had happened, it was quite difficult with the noise surrounding her and trying to pound into her head. Already, she could feel a throbbing taking over her head as she tried to ignore the pain.

"Hello?" She called out, desperately trying to be heard over all the noise.

Everything stopped.

As if they hadn't occurred at all, the sounds disappeared, and she was left in deafening silence. Flinching at the lack of assault on her ears, Sakura whipped her head around to try and find anything. None of the trees looked like they had been alive in decades, while the landscape was bare of anything other than a few piles of pebbles.

"Is anyone there?" She asked, voice softer this time, in fear of her own ability to make noise of disappearing as well. No matter how long she waited, there was not response. "Please! Is there anyone here?"

Growing frustrated, Sakura tried to think of anything that would help her in this situation. Did she do something wrong? She swore she had done all the signs right and everything, there was no logical reason as to why she shouldn't be meeting a summons by now. Would she be forced to do the technique again to get home? Had she failed?

At that last thought, she shook herself. She wasn't a failure! She had simply not figured out what was happening, that was all!

Taking a deep breath, she reached out with her chakra and couldn't feel anything.

Shit.

"That won't work here."

"Ah!"

Swirling around, she tried to locate the voice that had spoken, but was met with nothing other than a dead landscape. Heart pounding, Sakura slipped a kunai into her palm and continued to scan her eyes all around her.

"That won't help either," the voice laughed cruelly. The voice sounded cracked and worn, as if the being speaking hadn't had a drink of water in a century. It's pitched changed mid-syllable, and impossible to pinpoint where exactly it was coming from. "You came to our land, hatchling. This is not like your world. You are at our mercy."