Ringing. Ringing. Pounding through her head. Blinding her. She clutched her hair and scrunched up her eyes. What was it? What was this… thing, taking control of her? God, it hurt so much. Why wouldn't it stop? Why didn't someone help her?

"Help me!" she sobbed. "Save me!"

"Sakura-chan!" She heard a cry and felt her body being rocked forward and backwards. She opened her eyes a fraction. Who was this strange boy with spiky yellow hair and cerulean eyes looking down at hair, brimming with concern?

"Sakura-chan, what's wrong?"

"Save me!" She was in too much pain to say anything else. She needed help. Why didn't someone save her? Suddenly, for the first time, she thought of something other than her pain. It was just one image. It seemed to force itself into her head.

A thin snake-like face, pale, with a sickly smile and the eyes of a snake. Who was he? What was his name? Something was coming back to her.

"Oro-Oro…Oroshi-Orochi…Orochimaru!" Yes! That was it!

"Orochimaru!" She screamed once more. "Save me Orochimaru!"

"Sakura-chan!" His eyes seemed disturbed.

"He was telling the truth." She heard a new voice, and saw a boy with dark eyes and straight black hair. No, on second thoughts it was slightly blue.

"We have to take her back."

"To that bastard?" The other screamed. "You must be joking, Sai!"

"Look at her." His cold voice cut through the air.

The blond looked at her in despair.

By now she had gone back to clutching her hair and rocking back and forth, mumbling,

"Save me, Orochimaru. Please. Help me. I'm dying. I must be dying…"

"There's no other choice." She heard the cold voice come from inches behind her, but before she could turn, she felt a sharp pain in her neck, and then darkness.

She awoke in a dark cave. The pain had not stopped. She screamed at the fresh ache. She felt as if she was being slowly cut several times, with each cut hurting more than the last.

"Ah." She heard a new voice. A slimy voice that made her shiver. She looked up.

"O-Orochimaru?" She felt her voice trembling.

"I did tell you you'd have to come crawling back to me for help."

She heard the blond growl.

"What have you done to her, you bastard?"

Orochimaru gave an evil cackle.

"Nothing that you need to know, my dear Naruto. All you need to know, is that I can save her…"

She had a flash of relief, and was about to sigh, when it came back. She gasped,

"No, please! Help me!"

"…or I can make it even worse!"

She felt his fingernail pierce her head, and suddenly the pain was multiplied by a thousand times. She screamed and began to writhe on the floor.

"Sakura!" The blond's eyes flicked to her, but then returned to Orochimaru's face. "You bastard!"

She saw him lunge at Orochimaru, but he just grabbed him and thrust him to the floor.

"Naruto, Naruto, Naruto." Orochimaru said in a fake sad voice. "You will never learn, will you?"

"Why are you doing this?" She heard the cold voice for the first time since she woke up.

"Now that…" Orochimaru said, displaying a sign of annoyance for the first time. "Is really none of your business."

"Just save her, you disgusting low-life scum." It came through clenched teeth.

"Now, now, do you really think trash talking is the way to get me to help you?"

"I'm… sorry." Again the answer came through clenched teeth.

"What are you saying, Sai?" shouted the blond.

The cold-voiced one cast such a glare at him that he was silenced.

"Now that's more like it." Orochimaru smiled. "However, there is still one condition."

A second of grim silence entailed, before Orochimaru's eyes narrowed, while his mouth broke into a wide smile as the following words slid out of his mouth.

"She's mine."

The cold-voiced one's eyes narrowed, while the blond looked at Orochimaru as if he was crazy, which wasn't too far off the mark.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"She's mine – I get to keep her. She comes with me, and you never see her again." Orochimaru almost squirmed in delight. "Now, can I make it any clearer?"

"No way, you frigging bastard!" screeched the blond.

However, his look of furiousness turned to pain as Sakura began to quietly sob.

"Help me…" she whispered. "Save me… Stop it! Please, stop it! JUST STOP IT!"

She began to scream.

"My, aren't you selfish?" smirked Orochimaru. "Keeping her in all this pain when all I need is a simple yes?"

"Why are you doing this?" This time it was the blond's turn to say it. His voice broke while he said.

Orochimaru frowned, cocking his head to one side, almost comically.

"Didn't I already tell you?" He put his face close to the blond's, which made him recoil from the foul stench. "It's really none of your business."

"Don't you dare say it's to be your damned whore or I'm sure she'd rather die." The blond's voice shook.

"Oh, Naruto." Laughed Orochimaru. "Trust me; you don't need to worry about that quarter."

"Trust you?" muttered the blond. "I'd rather shove a pole up my ass."

"Naruto, we don't have a choice." The cold voice again.

Orochimaru smiled at the sound.

"At least someone has some sense!"

"Are you crazy, Sai? We can do something else! We'll-we'll-we'll take her back to Konoha and Tsunade will heal her." But the blond's voice was laden with doubt, and even he didn't truly believe it. After looking at the floor for a period of stillness he said, "I'm sorry Sakura-chan. Believe me all I ever did was for you." He slowly got up and walked to the cold-voiced one.

"Wait." The cold-voiced one spoke out once more. "Show us that you will heal her."

Suddenly, she felt the weight of a thousand elephants being lifted off her. She sighed and her tensed shoulders slumped.

"Th-thank you." she managed to get out before falling to her side unconscious.

When she woke, she was in a dark room, with four candles on wall-brackets as the only lighting. She was lying on a hard bed with a thin mattress. The room was bare apart from a small table next to the bed, a thick rope which hung by her bed and three doors. She got up and opened the first one. Inside was a tiny room, which she realized was a cupboard, containing some baggy robes. The next one she found led into a small bathroom. She was about to open the final door, when it was done for her.

"Hello Sakura-chan." She knew that slithering voice. "I see you've had a look around. What do you think of your new quarters?"

"Well, seeing as I don't remember having any other quarters, I guess they're alright. By the way, why does everyone keep calling me Sakura-chan? Is that my name?" Strangely, she couldn't seem to remember her name. She had been in too much pain to worry about it before, but now, it was slightly alarming.

"Yes, Sakura-chan. You had a bit of a bump on the head so you might not be able to remember much."

"Then why do I remember you?" Sakura seemed to have a strange new streak of inquisitiveness, which irritated Orochimaru.

"Because, my dear, I am your best friend. Remember that. I always was, and always will be." He put his face close to hers, causing her to shrink backwards, from risk of fainting from the fumes.

'Why does my best friend stink so much?' Thought Sakura to herself.

"Well, I don't have much time to waste, so I've got to be going, but if you need anything ring the bell." Orochimaru indicated the thick rope. He was about to exit, when he added, "Also, Sakura-chan, do not come out of this door. Remember I am your best friend…" He said as the door shut.

'Well, that was kind of creepy.' thought Sakura. 'My best friend seems to be a tad weird.'

She lay back onto her bed and put her arms behind her head.

She had been thinking to herself for four hours, when she got angry and rang the bell with ferocity.

A few minutes later, a meek looking girl entered.

"Is there anything to do around here?" asked Sakura abruptly.

The girl stood there, looking like a frightened mouse. Sakura, getting bored, rolled her eyes and said,

"Oh whatever, just get me some water."

The girl scuttled away. She soon returned with the water, and after drinking it Sakura. sat on her bed and stared at the ceiling.

'I wonder who I really am.' she thought. 'What did I used to be like?'

She spent an hour pondering and laughing like a lunatic at her own thoughts as she imagined ridiculous possibilities of who she used to be before she got fed up.

'That's it.' she thought. 'I'm out of here.'

She headed towards the third door and opened it. It took quite a bit of force as it was a heavy door and needed to be slid open. She looked out into a dark hallway lit by candles for as long as she could see on either side of her, uninterrupted bar a door exactly opposite her own. She was about to exit her room, when she heard footsteps and lo and behold was Orochimaru.

"Sakura!" he said, stopped still in his tracks. "What are you doing? I told you not to come out of this door!" For an instance he actually looked angry. Then he calmed down and a sickly smile spread on his face. "After all, I am your best friend! I only want what's best for you, right? Now I think you should get some sleep. It's quite late."

Sakura gave an obviously fake smile and then retired into her bedroom, slamming the door shut.

She waited to see what the reaction would be, but all that happened after about 5 seconds of suspense, was the sound of a key grinding in a lock.

"Argh!" Sakura slammed her hand down on her bed. "If my stupid best friend wants the best for me, why won't he let me have some damn fun?" And with that, she threw herself onto the bed and fell asleep with a vengeance.