Naruto shuddered as he herd the entrance to the hideout closing, HE was back. Naruto quietly stood up from the stone shelf he had been lounging on, and prepared himself for the arrival of his master. he wasn't eager'to know that his master had returned. oh he was far from eager, in fact he very much enjoyed is master's absence. the freedom to move about the base as he pleased, the choice of what he ate, when he ate, and how he ate,the overall comfort of being able to enter a room without wondering if he would be jumped, or oogled at By that penetratingly perverse stare. in fact he very much dreaded the times when his master decided to drop in on the cesspit that had become his permanent residence of almost four years.

But nonetheless he stood, at semi attention, near the entrance of the main hall of the master's residence. idly wondering just how long his master would stay this time. He shivered to think of the tortures and pain he would be forced to endure. it was a shiver not just of fear, but of anticipation as well, for it had become the only thing he could feel. At first he had been obsessed with leaving, trying time and time again to escape. only to be met at the entrance with the master's sharp eyes and cruel smile. So he no longer dared, he no longer cared. After the first year he had been all but broken, gone were the shining eyes, the bright smiles, the hot temper, and the brash attitude. Naruto was numb, and the only time he was sure he wasn't dead was when his master gave him the only thing he could feel anymore. Pain. That was his escape, and while he enjoyed his bouts of freedom and the ability to make choices on his own, even that was an illusion. he was free only within the master's rooms, and the master left him at these times, not because he had more important things to do, but so that he could watch as his precious pet's eyes died as he realized that he would never get his freedom, that he had no hope. so while Naruto dreaded the day when his master returned to him assuring him that he would have no freedom and would be here forever, he also savored the pain of that small ray of hope being torn from him. his master was the only one who could make him feel, and even if it hurt, it was far better then the numbness that often consumed him.

He could hear the voices in the passage. there were three. Had he known the master had brought a guest he would have put more on, he hated it when the master's acquaintances goggeled at him. Of the three voices he recognized two, his master and his assistant. He shifted his position as they neared the door, trying to cover a bit more of himself up. The door opened and the master stepped through along with his chief assistant, followed by something Naruto had not thought he would ever see again.

'Oh Kami,' he thought as his eyes widened and his body stiffened, 'he has found a new way to taunt me.' Then his body loosened and his eyes became lidded, almost lusty, as he felt the pain of that thing piercing deep into his already wound riddled heart. He relished the feeling of being alive as a new, undescribeable, pain tore through him. It was glorious, even he had not thought the master capable of such cruelty.

There, standing directly before him and staring at him with no hidden surprise, was a shinobi. the look of surprise was somehow wrong on the ninja's face as though he was unsure of how to go about it, and Naruto chuckled inwardly at it. this awkward, pale, gangly, and yet still well built, ninja looked quite hilarious and unsure of himself. The boy, about his age (in his later teens), had black hair and a rather cold looking outfit that exposed his stomach, that was black with red accents, and a pouch at his waist. but what drew Naruto, and yet repulsed him at the same time, was the boy's hia'te. it was normal enough as hia'te went, just a band worn around the head with a metal plate fixed to it's center. But peeking out from the pale teen's dark locks was the Konoha leaf, the symbol he had once held so dear that even his life was not as important. and this was his fresh pain, the new life he felt now was anguish at knowing that even if he did go back, he could never escape, he would never truly go back, he was stuck here. In this dingy, dusty hovel in the ground, eve if he left this place, his soul would be caught here, because it was already dead.