My piece for day 1 of @akasakurevival server's summer event: Road Trip!
Featuring:
-Sasori trying to fix the problem
-Deidara backseat-engineering
-Sakura not at all surprised that this would happen to them
-Hidan, who can't be fucking bothered
-Kisame and Kakuzu already having given up and preparing to camp here for the night
-Itachi safely tucked away in the remnants of the AC
Gooooooood morning, every-sprout! I’m here to kick off the 2024 AkaSaku Summer Vacation Event with part one of my multi-prompt submission. And for once, I mostly finished it before Day 1 of the event hit! (Just one more scene in Chapter 3, hehehe.) Super excited to share this with ny’all. Enjoy!
Day 1 | Prompt A
Roadtrip!
[Made in participation of the @akasakurevival 2024 AkaSaku Summer Vacation Event]
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
title — this charming man (it's gruesome that someone so handsome should care)
rating — mature (mild descriptions of gore)
pairing — hidasaku
summary ;
the moon is blood red and all sakura can do is run (worst. summer. ever.)
// for the akasaku discord summer event! day 1 prompt — campsite + bonus horror theme 'slasher' //
The reddened light of the blood moon shone down on her back, and Sakura could only hope she was heading in the right direction.
The sound of her gasping breaths, rough and ragged, was far too loud for the silence of the night. The usual hum and buzz of the forest were oddly absent, but her heart pounding may have just drowned everything else out.
Sakura stumbled slightly over a tree root, barely catching herself before she hit the ground. The crimson tint of the moon overhead barely laid out the path before her, casting everything in an ominous maroon light. If she weren’t running for her life, she would laugh at the irony of everything appearing bathed in blood.
A twig snapped some distance behind her, Sakura letting out a whimper of fear as she forced her burning legs to continue pushing forward.
The forest opened up in front of her, signalling she was nearing the wooden signpost that marked the entrance of Camp Darkwood. There was still a red-and-blue streamer hung from one corner of the sign, a small breeze moving it back and forth in a taunting imitation of a welcoming wave.
⋆.˚ ☾ .⭒˚
“Helloooooo counsellors!” The lilting voice of the lanky man standing underneath the ‘Welcome to CAMP DARKWOOD’ sign drew Sakura’s gaze forward and silenced the chirp of conversation around her. She huffed a bit as a tall group shuffled in front of her, blocking her (admittedly limited) view of the speaker thanks to her shorter stature.
Sakura squeezed through the crowd, mumbling ‘sorry’ and ‘excuse me’ as she made her way to the edge of the group. “I am your head camp counsellor, Kakashi, and I’m looking forward to a fun, safe summer with you all,” His eyes crinkled above the navy bandana covering the lower half of his face, in what Sakura assumed to be a carefree smile.
She hummed to herself, mulling over what nickname she might choose. A buff blonde guy who had introduced himself as Naruto earlier this morning was shouting his ideas at a gloomy-looking pale guy beside him.
The person standing to her side let out a condescending scoff, making Sakura’s head turn in curiosity. A tall man with slicked-back silver hair and lavender eyes sneered at the loud blonde before returning to the leather-bound book in his hand.
Sakura peered over, curious, as subtly as she could. She barely saw what looked like an upside-down triangle with a circle surrounding it before the man snapped the book shut and looked at her disgruntledly.
Embarrassed and not wanting to make an enemy on her first day at camp, she smiled and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. “Ah, sorry. I didn’t mean to—my bad.” She stuck her hand out awkwardly as Kakashi continued to drone on about camp rules. “My name is Sakura.”
The man glanced down at her hand and then back up at her but made no move to take it. Instead, he tucked the other book underneath his arm and shoved both hands in his pocket.
"...Eyes to yourself,” he said, breaking eye contact as he said this and turning his body slightly away from her. His voice was low but smooth, and Sakura felt even more embarrassed as it made the hair on the back of her neck stand up straight.
She felt a sudden tug on the sleeve of her short-sleeved red top.
Sakura turned to her left, and a pretty brunette girl with warm hazel eyes was smiling widely at her. Thank God, anything to get out like that horribly awkward encounter. The girl introduced herself as Tenten and started chatting enthusiastically, asking if she would want to be bunkmates. Sakura hadn’t even realized Kakashi had finished his introductory speech, and the crowd was now dispersing.
Tenten was easy to get along with, and Sakura felt a bit of her anxiousness from before fading away as they walked towards the cabins.
She couldn’t help but sneak a peek in the direction of where the man with silver hair was standing, but let out a squeak of embarrassment and felt blood rush to her cheeks as she caught the man staring at her.
“Oh, ignore him,” Tenten huffed, “He’s been a dick to everyone that’s talked to him today. Wouldn’t stop writing in that little book the entire bus ride down. No clue why he signed up to be a camp counselor.”
Sakura could only let out a small laugh in response. Hopefully, she wasn't assigned to work with the strange silver-haired man during her time at camp.
⋆.˚ ☾ .⭒˚
Sakura stumbled again, catching herself this time on the wooden signpost. She paused momentarily, leaning heavily on it, attempting to catch her breath. The footsteps drew closer, panic and fear racing through her veins like lightning.
Sakura's mind raced, trying to remember the campgrounds' layout. Was the head counsellor's cabin beside the dining or rec hall? Or was it a bit closer to the lake? And was the lake northeast or northwest from here—
A hand slammed down onto her back, and Sakura shrieked in terror, ducking away to dislodge their hold.
She spun around and felt her panic lessen momentarily when she met the familiar eyes of Tenten.
"Oh my god, Tenten, I - thank god! We gotta, w-we have to…" Something wet landed on her face, and Sakura glanced upwards, worried that an incoming rainstorm would make their escape more difficult. The sky was pitch-black, empty.
Sakura turned to her friend and now realized the pallor of her skin and the shakiness of her gaze. Dark red liquid oozed down Tenten's chin, and Sakura knew the splatter she had felt was the blood her bunkmate had just coughed up.
"No, Tenten…," The brunette could only gurgle in response, choking on the lifeblood that was filling her lungs. Tenten collapsed forward, Sakura clapping her hand over her mouth to stop the scream clawing out of her throat.
A large knife was buried in the middle of Tenten’s back, shoved so harshly into her that the hilt met her flesh.
"No, no, no," Sakura whispered, her eyes filling with tears. She knelt beside her friend, but Tenten's eyes were already glazing over. She desperately tried to stem the bleeding with her hands, but Sakura’s fingers slipped around without purchase, soaked in Tenten’s blood.
Footsteps crunched closer, heavy and deliberate.
Sakura choked back a sob, the direness of their situation crashing down on her.
She ripped off a section of her blood-stained tee, tucking it tightly around Tenten’s knife wound to hopefully add some pressure to the grisly injury. “I-I’m so sorry, Tenten, I’m going to get help. I’m getting help, and I’ll come back, and you’ll be okay. Okay? I’m so sorry.”
The promise felt weak coming out of her, but Sakura didn’t have any time left to waste.
Wiping her bloodied hands on her shorts, Sakura rose on shaky legs and forced herself to run. She had to reach the head counsellor’s cabin, the radio system there being her best bet to reach the outside world and call for help.
Branches and bushes cut at her skin as she raced further into the campgrounds, and Sakura tried her best to focus on her surroundings.
She veered left, sprinting past the rec hall, its doors hanging open ominously, its interior shrouded in total darkness.
⋆.˚ ☾ .⭒˚
Sakura was assigned to work with the strange silver-haired man for craft hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
She didn’t think he was the best fit for organizing and leading a group of kids as they made pipe-cleaner animals, but head counselor Kakashi had made it very clear that no one could swap roles once assigned.
Sakura learned his name was Hidan as Kakashi read the assigned pairs out.
Glancing towards the tall man, Sakura felt the corner of her mouth twitch into a nervous smile as she found his lavender gaze already trained on her.
His head tilted almost curiously, but his face stayed neutral.
Tenten elbowed Sakura, “Bet you ten bucks he tries to get you to join some weird ass cult by the end of camp.” Sakura tittered, smacking her bunkmate’s arm playfully.
They had almost a whole week to prepare everything for the campers. Sakura spent afternoons cutting out colored paper shapes, pouring paint into plastic cups, and trying to start conversations with Hidan.
He only responded with one-word answers or hummed non-committally, regardless of subject she tried to broach. Normal icebreakers (where was he from? favorite color? any hobbies? star sign?) were unsuccessful. Hidan got particularly irritated when she asked why he decided to be a camp counselor for the summer.
In return, Sakura was overtly open with him (she was from Konoha, her favorite color was red, she liked to read, and she was an Aries (duh)) to try and fill the awkward silences that permeated the rec hall when they were together.
Hidan was never particularly rude to her, so Sakura began to suspect he was more socially awkward than mean.
If there were a task she was better suited to do, he would spend their prep time writing in his leather book and flipping through past entries. She sometimes heard him murmuring to himself (and cursing, every so often).
Hidan just seemed like an introvert. With pretty lavender eyes. And arms that looked particularly nice when lugging around storage bins.
Whispers and snickers from other counselors passing by the rec hall started to annoy her, and one of the veteran camp counselors, Asuma, always made sure to drop by and taunt her crafting partner.
"Hey, Hidan," Asuma called one afternoon, sauntering over as he puffed on a cigarette. "Writing your next sermon?" Hidan’s eyes narrowed, but he stayed silent, his pen scratching furiously on the paper.
Sakura rolled her eyes. “Don’t you need to go flirt with Kurenai or something, Asuma?” The older man chuckled, ashing his cig rudely close to the side of Hidan’s head. The grey specks floated down mockingly towards the silver-haired man.
"Just looking out for you, Sakura. Don’t want you getting roped into any blood rituals."
Hidan’s hand froze, and she thought for a moment he might respond. Instead, he blew the ash off of his journal, slammed it shut, and stood up, heading to the supply closet. “Fuck off, man.”
Sakura sent a scathing look Asuma’s way. He held his hands up in mock surrender, unaffected by her stare, and walked away with the same cocky amble. “Don’t come running to me on the blooOod moOoon!” He drew out the o’s of his words in a falsely spooky voice.
She rolled her eyes. Blood moons really weren’t that rare, she wanted to snip back, even with all the spooky stories that had been told around their nightly campfires. People liked to joke about Camp Darkwood having some twisted history surrounding blood moons, and this year was the first time a blood moon would appear during camp in over 30 years.
But Sakura was not superstitious and not one for scary stories (at all), so she paid no mind to these things.
Once the bearded man was gone, Sakura walked meekly to Hidan by the supply closet. “...Sorry about him. And, um, the others. I hope they aren’t bothering you too much.”
Hidan glanced at her, his expression unreadable. "I don’t care. Bunch of assholes." Sakura laughed at his bluntness, and a ripple of amusement danced through Hidan’s gaze. She felt her face flush at getting a proper response from him.
They weren’t suddenly best friends, but talking to Hidan became much easier for Sakura after that point.
⋆.˚ ☾ .⭒˚
She rounded the corner, the cabin now in sight, when her foot caught on something solid. Sakura tumbled forward, hitting the ground hard. Her palms stung from the impact, and she scrambled desperately.
Asuma lay sprawled on the ground, his eyes wide and bloodshot in a twisted expression of pure terror. A deep slash opened him up from neck to stomach; his front bathed in a swathe of crimson. Fleshy organs and pale bones peeked out of Asuma's corpse in grotesque proof of how savagely he had been killed.
Sakura recognized the more petite figure lying beside him as Kurenai; her throat slit so profoundly that her head was lolling to the side, nearly taken a right off her shoulders. This couldn't be real, she could not believe this was real.
Sakura felt bile rise in her throat, but she forced it down. There was no time for that. She had already wasted enough trying to comprehend the scene before her.
With one last horrified glance at her fellow counselors, she pushed herself forward, her legs trembling but still carrying her onward. Her wrist pulsed in pain, likely sprained from her fall.
She could now see the head counselor's cabin, a slight, dark silhouette against the trees. The sight gave her a burst of hope, and she pushed herself harder, practically falling up the steps as she reached the door. Sakura fumbled with the handle, her blood-slicked hands slipping on the metal, but she finally managed to throw the door open.
The cabin was dim and quiet, and she had only been there a few times during the day while working at camp.
Sakura tore through the cabin, pushing chairs out of her way and running her hands across tables in search of the radio. She stumbled over to the large desk in the corner and nearly knocked over a lamp in her haste. Her fingers trembled as she turned the knobs, trying to remember how Kakashi had shown them to use it during the orientation.
"Please, please work," she whispered, her voice shaking as much as her hands. Static crackled from the speakers, and for a heart-stopping moment, she thought the radio was broken. But then she heard a faint voice, distorted but there.
"This is Camp Darkwood, we need help! There's, there's been an attack. People are dead; please send help!" she cried into the microphone, hoping against hope that someone was listening.
The static continued, and she felt her heart sink. But then the voice came through more clearly, a man's voice asking for details and asking her to stay on the line. Relief flooded her, and Sakura sank to her knees, clutching the radio to her chest. She wanted to sleep so badly.
It was the first moment of stillness she’d felt that night. Sakura took the moment to close her eyes and breathe, inoutinoutinout—
The cabin door creaked open.
She probably should have ducked down to hide, but in her panicked state, heart in her throat, Sakura spun around. The radio slipped from her grasp and clattered to the floor. A tall figure stood in the doorway.
“Hidan,” she breathed.
⋆.˚ ☾ .⭒˚
The night's summer heat had been particularly oppressive, making sleep nearly impossible. Sakura tossed and turned for what felt like hours before she figured she might as well get up and get some fresh air. Maybe head down towards the lake.
She made it a few steps into the forest brush before she heard a noise—a faint shuffling of feet and rustling of leaves. Worried a camper may have gotten lost on their way to the outhouse, Sakura crept toward the sound.
"Hello? Need any help findi… oh," Sakura said, breaking through a thick set of trees and trailing off at the sight that greeted her.
Hidan was kneeling in a small clearing, scrambling to put some loose papers back in his journal. His forearms were glistening with something dark in the moonlight.
"Hidan?" she whispered. He turned sharply, his lavender eyes wide with surprise. Realizing who had stumbled upon him, the look was gone as quickly as it had appeared, replaced by a cool steadiness.
"Sakura," he said, his voice low and steady. "What are you doing out here?"
"I... I couldn't sleep," Sakura stammered. "What are you doing? Is — is that blood?"
Hidan glanced down at his hands, his expression unreadable. "It's nothing. Just a... small accident. I'll be fine."
Sakura wasn't convinced. She stepped closer, her concern outweighing her wariness. "Let me help," she insisted, hesitating before gently taking his hands in hers. Hidan's body tensed up, but he did not move to release her grip, so Sakura began to lead them to the nearby water pump.
The cool water felt soothing on her heated body as she scrubbed his forearms and hands clean. Sakura peeked at Hidan out of the corner of her eye, noticing how his muscles slowly relaxed under her touch, the way his eyes flickered between her and the darkness around them.
"Thank you," he muttered, his voice softer than she'd ever heard.
"It's no problem," she replied, smiling up at him. "But please, Hidan, if there's something going on, you can tell me. Please? Will you let me know?"
A smile danced on her mouth for a moment. But he shook his head, his expression closing off again. "It's nothing you need to worry about, Sakura. Just... go back to bed. I'll see you in the morning."
She wanted to press him further, to ask more questions, but the tired look in his eyes stopped her short.
Sakura nodded reluctantly, giving his hands one last squeeze before stepping back.
"Good night, Hidan," she said softly, returning to her cabin. He murmured a "g'night".
She tried to convince herself that the drawings in the dirt in front of Hidan were random, coincidental shapes. That they didn't resemble the upside-down triangle and circle she had seen in his journal, in the rosary that hung around his neck.
Sakura did not sleep very well for the rest of the night.
⋆.˚ ☾ .⭒˚
The silver-haired man took a step into the room, not responding as she called his name again, softer now, “ Hidan .”
Sakura gasped as he stepped in front of the window. The moonlight illuminated his figure, casting eerie shadows across the cabin floor. Hidan’s appearance was surreal.
His skin was pitch black, absorbing the dim light and giving him an almost spectral appearance. White, skeletal markings traced his body, creating the unsettling illusion of bones on the surface of his skin. The stark contrast between the darkness of his skin and the pitch-white of his bones, lit by the blood-red of the moon, was haunting.
Sakura's heart raced. “Hidan, what is this?”
He didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he moved with slow, deliberate steps toward her, his lavender eyes glowing with an unearthly light. She took a step back, a loud crunch resounding underneath her feet. The radio crackled a moment before going out, destroyed beyond use.
Hidan stopped in front of her, scanning her body. He paused on the blood covering her hands, his hands darting out to snag her arm. Sakura sniffled, a fresh round of tears welling up in her eyes, and Hidan’s movements softened. “Are you hurt?” He asked gruffly.
“N-no, this is all—this is, um, Tenten’s,” Anxiety crested over her again, “Oh god, it’s Tenten’s. This is all Tenten’s blood, she’s out there, dying, she was bleeding so much! Hidan, please, I…” Pressure on her arms pulled her forwards, and she was suddenly surrounded by the warmth of Hidan’s body.
“I’m so fucking sorry, Sakura. We’ll get her help, I promise. I’m here, now. I’m here to fix things.” He sighed above her, tucking Sakura underneath his chin. She wrapped her arms around his waist, hoping he wouldn’t care too much about the blood she was now spreading onto his shirt.
Sakura blubbered into his chest, allowing the absolute terror and adrenaline racing through her body to drain into the solid comfort he provided. As his words sunk in, though, she pulled back slightly to look up at Hidan.
“NO, no, you can’t go out there, Hidan. The killer, they—they’re fast. And so, so cruel, you didn’t see what they did to Asuma and Kurenai, they… please, Hidan, don’t try and fix it or fight it or anything, please just stay here until help comes. Please, god,” She begged, her hands sinking into the skin of his back almost harshly.
Hidan only shook his head, bringing his hand up to wipe away a tear that had escaped and now trailed down her cheek. “It’s okay, Sakura. It’s why I’m here.” He gestured to his skeletal appearance. “Jashin foretold me of this evil spirit, of its arrival on the blood moon. Has given me the strength to fight it.”
Sakura’s gaze immediately dropped to the rosary hanging from his neck. It seemed to stare back at her with an uncanny heat.
Her breath caught, “Jashin is… your god?”
A crazed smile spread across Hidan’s face, “More.”
He ducked his head down, laying a too-soft kiss against the side of her head. “I’m sorry for what you saw tonight. But everything will be okay now. Jashin has blessed us, will lead us to safety.”
A shaky sigh left Sakura’s mouth, her mind whirring. She wanted to believe him. The sincerity in his eyes, the warmth of his embrace, the way he had always seemed to watch over her during their time at camp. But the blood on his hands that night at the pump, the eerie symbols, the secrecy—everything felt too coincidental.
"W-why didn't you tell anyone about this before? Tell me before?"
He kissed his teeth, "Would you have thought me sane?"
No, probably not. But Sakura didn't say this aloud.
Hidan's hand trailed down to rest on the side of her face, cupping her cheek gently. "I will get us out of here," He leaned forward, and Sakura trembled in surprise as he placed a chaste kiss on the corner of her mouth. Too much was happening.
"Trust me, please."
In Hidan's unyielding embrace, Sakura wasn't sure if she had much of a choice. She nodded haltingly, "I trust you…"
Sakura felt his lips twist up into a smile on her cheek. "Good," he murmured, his voice a blend of relief and something else—a nagging doubt gnawed at the edges of her mind.
Happy AkaSaku Summer vacation!!! hosted by @akasakurevival.
For the first day, I chose Kisasaku Amusement Park. Sakura was scared but wanted to go on this ride so she asked Kisame to go with her. She had so much fun in the end.
