Chapter 1: Captured

'I can make it…I can make it...,' was the repetitive mantra going through Haruno Sakura's head as she raced towards the Hidden Leaf from the Land of Rivers. She was attempting to evade a group of criminals, who were in hot pursuit after she had killed their boss. The mission had involved the assassination of a lower-level minister, who was tied to an underground slave trade. Confidently, Sakura had requested to be sent alone in order not to attract too much attention. However, she was currently regretting it.

The mission had been simple, really. It involved four steps: seduce, isolate, assassinate and evade undetected. It all went according to plan until right after the actual assassination. One of the minister's thugs for hire had shown up outside the bedroom door just as she was about to make her escape. Looking around, she had realized the window was too small and blasting through it would have drawn too much attention. Gripping her kunai tighter, she had opened the door to fight her opponent, only to find that she was grossly outnumbered as more and more thugs entered the hallway.

Sakura had fought off over a dozen men before she had finally reached an exit. Just as she had been about to find cover by entering the forest, two shurikens had slammed into her back while another had grazed her shoulder. It had taken everything she had to keep going.

'I'm getting close to the border… I just have to get a little further', thought Sakura, as she jumped onto the next branch and teetered for a second. 'My chakra's getting low.' With each following jump, she felt slower and less balanced.

"Damn it!" she muttered, as one of her attackers came into view blocking her path. 'I can't believe he got ahead of me!'

Looking around from her perch, she realized she was surrounded. There were six attackers in the surrounding trees, ready to pounce. It took a second and they were on her. A few minutes into the battle, Sakura had taken out three opponents. She was busy deflecting a sword that was headed straight for her heart, when she felt someone land on the branch behind her. Not fast enough to turn around and intercept; she felt a painful chop to the back of her head before falling into oblivion.

Loud screaming jarred Sakura awake. She could hear a woman wailing not far away from her. Through her blurred and limited vision, she could make out the outline of metal bars and a man in the process of dragging away a young woman not unlike herself.

'I must be in one of their slave camps', Sakura thought. Although, she wanted to help the girl, it was painfully obvious that she had been beaten badly. Sakura was aware that her face was swollen, judging from her inability to open her eyes to more than slits. She was also nauseous and her head was pounding. While continuing to awaken, the pain she felt increased ten-fold as her brain registered the various injuries she had sustained throughout her body.

"I just dressed your wounds, so don't move around too much or you'll undo my work and get an infection," said someone behind her. Sakura tried to shift to see who it was but quickly decided against it as her back protested painfully. Instead, Sakura attempted to speak but all that came out was a weak moan. 'Great! I can't even speak anymore!' she thought.

"I've left some water, beside your mat. Have some when you think you can keep it down. Now, try to get some rest," said the voice once last time before she heard her cell door close and footsteps moving away from her.

Unable to keep her eyes open much longer, she slowly returned to numbing sleep.

It was dawn when she awoke next and it appeared bed rest had done her a great deal of good. She was still hurt, but now able to get to her feet and limp around her cell. She noticed her torso was tightly wrapped in bandages along with her right thigh and left arm. On top of that, she found herself wearing a loose grey robe, instead of the clothes she wore on her mission. Not that she minded terribly. 'Who would want to wear revealing, tight clothes over painful injuries anyway?'

As she looked around, Sakura saw that she was locked up in a cell located halfway down a long corridor containing a dozen more cells. Most of the occupants appeared to still be sleeping, but she could still make out that they mostly seemed to be women and children. A frown appeared on Sakura's face when she imagined what these poor souls must have been through to end up caged like animals and waiting to be sold off to the highest bidder.

Resolved to get herself out of this mess and help as many of these people as she could, Sakura prepared to heal herself. She grabbed the water next to her mat and drank it all, wishing there was more. She lay down on her mat, closed her eyes and started sensing for her chakra. Due to her injuries, she had a lower amount, but at least it was probably enough to heal the worst of her injuries. She concentrated and made the hand signals to turn her chakra into a healing force within her.

Nothing happened. She tried again, but still she was unable to mould and direct her chakra.

'Damn it! Why can't I use my chakra?' thought Sakura as she sat back up. She started feeling around her body and sure enough, there was a chakra limiter over the bandages around her neck and clavicle. As she felt along it, she discovers that the necklace was an inch in diameter and was too tight to pull over her head. Finding a locking device, she would need something long and narrow to pick the lock. 'I hope they didn't find it.' Brining her hands up into her messy hair, she found a metal pin she often used for far more than keeping her hair in place.

'With any luck, I'll have this off in no time!'

Not to draw attention to herself, Sakura lay back down facing away from the cell door and got to work.

'Stupid lock! Either, I've lost my touch or it was designed so it wouldn't unlock without the key. Those bastards!' fumed Sakura, as she continued to pick at the lock hoping for a change in luck.

Dawn slowly turned into mid-morning when she suddenly heard, "What are you doing?!" A guard had noticed what she was doing from the cell door. Before she knew it, her hair pin had been yanked away and her hands were roughly tied behind her back. Giving her a kick in the stomach for good measure, the guard walked away.

'I can't believe this!,' thought a discouraged Sakura still gasping for air. 'I'll never get out of here at this rate!' As her breathing become more normal, she started feeling something warm and sticky spreading on her back. It appeared that in her struggle she had reopened her wounds and blood was starting to soak the back of her robe.

Weakened and unable to fight back, Sakura was dragged from her cell and thrown into a bright room. Struggling to sit up, she looked around and noticed other men and women who were bound and wore chakra limiters like her. Suddenly, they all stood stiffly looking towards the door behind her. She glanced back and saw a rich looking middle-aged man walk in with two masked ninjas for protection.

She hissed in pain as the guard grabbed her elbow and made her stand up. "Stand up straight and keep your mouth shut," he whispered harshly into Sakura's ear, hitting her injured back as a warning for worse to come if she didn't obey. Sakura head snapped up and she grimaced at the pain she felt.

'That bastard! He'll pay for this!"

The rich man slowly walked around the slaves examining them closely before moving on to the next one. Another man was walking with him, explaining the strengths and weaknesses of each slave. As Sakura listened, it became clear that every slave in the room was a shinobi that had been captured.

"Ah…our newest member… She is looking weak at the moment, but we just recently acquired her by force and she hasn't recovered from her injuries yet."

"Why show her to me, if she isn't presentable?"

"We had a feeling you might be interested in her. She managed to assassinate one of our allies and defeat over a dozen men before she was taken down. Judging from her attacks, it would seem that she is earth-based and has incredible chakra control."

"Interesting…who is she?"

"No idea sir. She was not wearing anything that would identify her village of origin and she hasn't told us anything about herself," said the seller humbly.

"You have no information on this ninja and she's injured. Do you take me for a fool?" the rich man asked angrily.

"No sir! I believe her to be the most powerful ninja here. That's why we are showing her to you," nervously replied the other man.

"You'll have to lower the price because of the condition she is in and for taking a risk by not having any information on her."

"I understand, but she is worth a lot of money. I can't give you a discount…"

The haggling continued for a few minutes, until a deal was reached.

Sakura couldn't believe what was happening. She had just been sold to some creepy guy to do who knows what! Unconsciously, she had started struggling to get out of the guard's grip. As he growled at her to stand still, Sakura became more focused and slammed her foot down unto his, making him let go. Swiftly, she turned towards her attacker and kneed him in the family jewels, smirking as he went down in front of her.

Not able to bask in her victory for very long, one of the man's ninjas was suddenly behind her in the blink of an eye. A sickening feeling came over her at the familiarity of the situation. She felt the prick of a needle and she was already falling into darkness.

Uchiha Sasuke frowned at the sorry state she was in. As he carried her, he could tell she had a fever and that she was in urgent need of medical care.

"Master, the girl won't survive if I don't clean her wounds and patch her up. Is it possible to stop before nightfall?" he asked. As loathsome as the rich man could be, he would never squander his money, or in this case, an investment.

"Alright, we might as well camp here by the river," obliged Endo Kenichi (the rich man).

"Thank you, master," replied Sasuke, as he bowed to show respect.

As he gathered the things he would need, Sasuke couldn't help but feel hatred towards Endo, the man who had enslaved and abused him for the past two years. He had found himself in a similar situation to Sakura. After killing Itachi, he had been completely drained of chakra and too injured to move. He had passed out, only to awaken in a cage and soon to be auctioned off to the highest bidder. Unlike Sakura, everyone knew his name and abilities. He had attracted many bidders and his auction had been made into a show. For the proud Uchiha, standing bound and blindfolded on stage while being sold into slavery was the most humiliating moment of his life.

He picked up the unconscious Sakura and took her to the river. Trying to distract himself while he stripped and bathed her, Sasuke thought of how he could help her escape before it was too late. The problem with being enslaved by the Endo family was their knowledge of complicated seals that had been used by the people of the Whirlpool hidden village a long time ago.

'If they put that seal on her, she'll never be able to leave'.

Satisfied that her wounds were clean, he pulled her out of the water and set her on the rocky shore. Unable to ignore her body, he let his eyes roam her nude form, taking note of the injuries. As he dried her with a towel, he noticed that she felt cooler to the touch than before.

'Good, she might make it yet'.

Glad she was still unconscious for this part, he pulled out a needle and thread. He started stitching up the deep cuts in her back. The fact that she had torn open her stitches before made it harder the second time around.

'This will leave a bad scar, but at least it'll be on her back,' he thought while he concentrated on the task.

Finally finished, he bent towards her, cutting the string with his teeth. After applying salve on the rest of her cuts and scrapes, he wrapped most of her torso in bandages and dressed her in some of his cloths.

Once back at their temporary campsite, he lay her face down on his sleeping bag. Pushing his chakra into his legs, he leaped up and landed on a nearby branch intending to guard the campsite and Sakura.