The room is cool and dark as she comes to. She doesn't recognize the blinds or the ceiling, an indication that she hadn't returned home the night before.

The blankets are itchy and she sits up to examine them.

Jolted into full wakefulness at the realization that she's in a hospital bed, she wracks her memory for the events of the day before and draws a blank.

A black, leather bound book sits on the nightstand and she curiously draws it into her lap. There's something about it that urges her to open it and peer inside.

Interest turns to horror at the images and foreign writing on the aged, worn pages. She can't take her eyes off the image of a winged, clawed hominoid with glowing eyes. Her name is being whispered but she can't quite discern where it's coming from.

The drawing blinks and her heart leaps into her throat.

She snaps the book shut when the door flies open. "Sakura! Oh my god! I'm so glad you're okay!"

Her mother throws her arms around her neck and the object in the pink haired woman's lap is set to the side.

"What happened?"

Mebuki shakes her head. "We have no idea. Some kids playing in an abandoned house found you bleeding out."

Upon contemplation, the last thing Sakura remembers is saying goodbye to the Uzumaki triplets and making her way home.

Absent is the memory of actually making it.

xXx

It's awfully odd that she feels fine. Almost better than right before her memory dropped out.

"I wish I knew why you were out there..." Sighs her mother as they enter the threshold of their cozy two-storey house.

"Me, too," Sakura says. She passes the mirror in the hall and has to double take, thinking there was a man with long dark hair instead of her own reflection.

Jade meets jade as she stares herself down, trying to understand what is wrong with her brain.

Assuming it's merely the stress from what's happened, she carries on to her room.

Menma and Naruto have blown up the group chat with questions that she can't answer. She starts setting things out to go to school but her mother hovers in the doorway. "Could you stay home for the next few days? You gave us quite a scare."

Chest warm and fuzzy, she says, "I can do that."

Ino comes over for a few hours to study and they call it a night once the moon is high in the sky.

Her clock reads, 3:33 when she wakes from a deep sleep to a feeling of being watched.

Gaze scanning around the room, expecting to see her clingy parents, she can't help but feel something is amiss.

The closet doors creak open and Sakura leaps to her feet. "What the fuck?!"

"I told you we should have used the mirror." Comes a deep voice from the pitch black space.

"It's more fun this way." Says another. As if calling to a cat, he says, "Come here, little girl~"

"Who are you?!" She demands, debating on whether or not she can rush past it and out the door. Chances are fairly slim if they're tall or faster than her.

"Shisui, did you get the wrong house again?"

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"Bruh," Shisui complains. "How would that even be possible? The grimoire is basically a beacon."

"Okay," Says the other voice, "but I'm not seeing anything to indicate a summoning."

Sakura picks up the baseball bat leaned against her window and chooses a wide, defensive stance. "Show yourselves!"

Red eyes snap into existence and their gazes land on her shivering form.

"Uuhh," Says the one called Shisui. "You gotta be quiet okay? Don't freak out."

"No promises," She says, trying to calm her breathing. "You shouldn't be here."

"I told you, Shui.."

Illuminated by the moonlight creeping into the room, the owner of the left pair of gleaming, inhuman eyes slinks from the closet. His skin is smooth and pale like marble. A pair of fairy horns crest from his temples, curling upwards once they reach the crown of his head.

The second being follows, looking much the same but slimmer and shorter with a set of four small horns sprouting from just below his hairline.

"What the hell..." Sakura is utterly confused. "Why are you guys dressed like that?! And what are you doing in my house?!"

They look to each other. The smaller one, who the pink haired teen is completely sure she'd seen in the stead of her reflection earlier in the day, says, "The Queen of Hell sent us."

"Well," Says Shisui crossing his arms. "She sent me. He's tagging along for shits and giggles."

"It's not my fault you need supervision."

"For what?" Asks Sakura.

"It seems," Says the man with long hair, "that she's offended by whomever used you to open the Gates."

"Gates? Is this a prank?"

"I wish," Says Shisui with a flippant gesture. "We're supposed to keep them from coming back for you and bring them straight to her for reprimand."

Skeptical, she says, "And that means you have to hide in my closet?"

The smaller man's tone is haughty. "I wanted to use the mirror."

"Lame," Says the long-horned man while making an 'L' with his hand and putting it to his forehead. "Only the Old Ones do that boring shit."

The way the long haired man pouts with his arms crossed is mildly disarming.

Adjusting the weapon in her hand, she says. "I want you to leave."

"Okay." Says the bigger man.

Sakura just about loses her mind when they vanish through her bedroom door. She runs after them to make sure her parents are safe but finds no sign of them.

The front door is still locked and nothing is disturbed from the way things were before she went to bed. Her mom and dad are sleeping like the dead and she'd worry if it weren't for the fact that she can see Mebuki breathing while her father snores.

Skittishly, she edges back to her room.

She can't settle enough to close her eyes and if she does for any period of time, she feels heat against her cheeks and sees a peeling face with dead, vermillion eyes and full, red lips.

xXx

"Damn," Says Menma. "You really hit your head, huh?"

"Don't be a jerk!" Chides Naruko, blonde pigtails swishing as she berates him and they start to bicker.

"I believe you, Sakura-chan," Naruto tells her. "I dunno if I believe in that supernatural stuff, but I know you're super smart and know what you're talking about."

"Thank you," Says the pink haired woman. "I don't know if I believe it, either. But it was so fucking weird."

"Could it have been a dream?" Asks Menma.

She shakes her head. "It felt pretty real."

A crow drops onto her shoulder, scaring the group and screeching at the trio before preening at pink locks.

"This is why feeding strays is bad," The dark haired Uzumaki says.

"She feeds cats," Naruko says with her hands on her hips. "I've never seen her feed the birds."

The crow bristles when Naruto lifts his hand to pet it with the back of two fingers.

Testing a theory, she says, "It's okay. They're family."

The corvid gives the blonde a nasty side-eye before puffing its chest and allowing tentative stroking.

"I think you have a familiar," Says Naruto with awe. "How did you do all this?"

"I have no fucking idea," Admits Sakura as they start towards the ramen shop.

The bird makes war noises and flaps its wings anytime strangers walk too close to her, spooking them and entertaining the triplets.

When they seat themselves at Ichiraku's bar, someone perches beside Sakura. "Good morning, fellow mankind~! I'm looking for recommendations on the best nourishment."

The crow makes a happy noise, hopping from Sakura's shoulder to the spikey haired weirdo's.

"Miso tonkotsu is the best!" Says Naruto between mouthfuls of noodles.

The Haruno takes the opportunity to get a better look at him. His dark eyes are dead and his skin is sitting terribly wrong on his frame in a way she can't put her finger on. It makes Sakura's own flesh crawl.

"One of those, please!" He calls to Teuchi. When those around them are distracted and the bird has nested in his hair, he says, "I am very human."

"Right," Says Sakura as she picks at her ramen, having completely lost her appetite.

"My name's Sasuke." He says. "I'll be attending your highschool."

"I'm not helping you," Sakura says. "So you can take that skin suit somewhere else."

His expression of embarrassment unnaturally lags one second behind the rest of his body language as he covers his forehead. "Is it my horns? Are they showing?"

The crow chatters to him and he lowers his hands, listening as if he understands exactly what's being said.

"Aniki," He says, "I am acting like a human."

"Did he just call the bird his brother?" Asks Menma. "He must be on some good drugs."

"You think he'll share?" Asks Naruko.

Putting her face in her hands, the pink haired woman heaves a gusty sigh.