A loud creaking broke the silence, and a small chink of light splayed across the wall opposite. Naruto winced at the brightness, but otherwise, made no other movements. He heard footsteps approach the door to his cell, and heard the loud grinding of the door sliding open against the solid concrete flooring.
"He hasn't eaten for a few days... Maybe you can get him to...?" a voice whispered to some unknown person. It sounded distant, even if it was just a few feet from him.
More footsteps and the rustling of clothing signaled the approach of someone. Perhaps it was one of the ruthless guards, trying to force him to eat again. Or maybe, it was someone else...
A gentle hand lifted the hair that shrouded his eyes, and Naruto looked up, the bones in his neck crackling from immobility as he did so. A dark, slightly blurred outline of a person was all he could see. But even through the darkness, the cool, raven-black hair of the person seemed oddly familiar to him.
"Hey Naruto." said Sasuke. Naruto's eyes went wide with shock at the sight of his childhood friend. Sasuke's appearance hadn't changed much over the years; His hair was still the same rich black color that it had always been, with it slightly spiked in the back that makes him look like a cockateel, and his eyes were still the stony black that they always were - excepting the fact that he probably still had the sharingan eyes. The only thing that had noticeably changed about him was his clothing; He now wore a solid black hakama with the sleeves torn off. Both of his arms were wrapped in cloth bandages, with one going from the shoulder to the elbow, and the other going from the elbow down to his hand. His sword lay horizontally across his lower back, tightly bound in its sheath by more of the cloth bandaging.
Naruto opened his mouth to reply, his lips cracking from lack of nourishment, but no sound came out. He tried again, his vocal chords screaming from lack of use, and was able to squeak out a few syllables of the others name.
"Sa-su-ke...?" Naruto squeaked, wincing slightly at the pain coming from talking. Sasuke brought up a finger and placed it over Naruto's lips.
"You shouldn't talk. You could badly hurt your throat if you try." He then motioned for one of the guards. "Could you bring me a glass of water, please?" The guard nodded and momentarily disappeared from view, reappearing again with a glass of water. He handed it over to Sasuke, who thanked him, then brought the glass up to Naruto's lips.
"Here. You need to drink something." Naruto's hands came up to the glass and tried to grab onto it, but instead found his hands to be far too weak to even hold around the cup, let alone hold it up for him to get a drink. Sasuke noticed this and told him he'd hold up the glass for him while he drank. Naruto parted his chapped lips slightly and allowed Sasuke to tip the clear liquid into his mouth. The water was freezing, although there was no sight of ice or frost in the water, but the water tasted delicious all the same. After a few short gulps of the stuff, Sasuke brought the glass away and set it down beside him. Naruto feebly cleared his throat before speaking again.
"Why did you come here...?" he asked Sasuke. His voice was lower and somewhat raspier than he remembered, and was a little shocked. Sasuke looked down grimly before replying.
"When I heard that you had been imprisoned, and heard what the charges against you were, I grew very upset." Sasuke told him. He looked up at Naruto. "I first thought, 'This can't have been Naruto. I know him, and I just know that he would have to be utterly insane to commit these crimes.' But when I told Gaara of my thoughts, he told me that you had confessed upfront about the murders, and for me to remember the power of the Nine-Tailed Fox. I considered his words, and decided that I had to see for myself if this was true. So...here I am." Sasuke ended rather bleakly. Naruto nodded, lowering his head to hide his eyes beneath his hair again.
"I feel so stupid..." he said a while later. "I feel so...so weak. To think that I had let him take control of me, it's just so..." Sasuke saw Naruto's hands curl into fists angrily.
Neither of them talked for quite some time. Sasuke saw Naruto rub his face with his hands a few times, and guessed that he was crying out of shame and anger at himself.
O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O
Later that same evening, when almost the entire village had gone to bed, Naruto lay on his mattress. His eyes were closed, but he was merely feigning sleep. Memories of Sasuke's visit played back in his mind, like a continuously repeating movie.
Flashback
Naruto wiped away a tear that had formed in the corner of his eye. He wished that Sasuke would say something, something to take his mind off of this horrible ordeal he was being forced to endure.
The sudden rustle of Sasuke's hakama nearly answered his wish as Sasuke leaned forward, resting his chin on Naruto's shoulder and shifting his arms so it appeared to the guards that he was hugging his friend.
"Naruto..." Sasuke whispered, almost inaudibly, in his ear. "...make sure that you're awake tonight, around midnight or so."
Naruto shifted his head slightly to show that he didn't understand, and was asking why.
"...I'm going to kidnap you tonight. I'm going to get you out of this filthy prison and take you somewhere safe."
This time, Naruto somewhat nuzzled his head against Sasuke's to show that he understood. Tears began to well up in his eyes again.
Sasuke pulled away from Naruto and stood up, picking up the glass of water as he did so, then walked toward the door to leave.
'See you tonight.' he mouthed to Naruto, and Naruto nodded.
/Flashback
Naruto sighed and sat back up, mumbling something about not being able to sleep just loud enough for the guard to hear. He turned and sat back against the cold brick wall, staring, without really looking, at the wall opposite.
Minutes passed, and he found a small spider jumping across the wall he was staring at. Oh, how he hated spiders. He continued to watch the spider creep up the wall until he lost track of time completely, utterly mesmerized by the tiny arachnid, until a loud, sudden sound erupted beside him, making him jump and look around.
The guard had collapsed, and standing beside him with one hand raised was Sasuke. Naruto guessed that Sasuke had simply knocked the guard unconscious by hitting a pressure point on his neck instead of using some other alternative. He watched Sasuke bend down and pick a ring of keys off of the guard, cross over to the door and unlock it, then stride quickly up to him.
"Hello again." Sasuke said. He knelt down and unlocked the padlock on the handcuffs, then pried the cuffs off of Naruto's wrists and threw the cuffs off to the side. Naruto rubbed his wrists, thanking him. He also noticed that Sasuke was now carrying a small pack on his shoulders.
"You're welcome. Now, we've got to hurry and get out of here. I'm quite sure that the guards should be switching any time now, and I don't think visitors are allowed inside the prison in the middle of the night." He reached into the pack and pulled out another black hakama, neatly folded so it would fit inside the pack.
"Here, put this on. You'll be less noticable in the darkness in this than if you kept wearing those prison clothes." he said, holding out the clothing. Naruto looked down at his current outfit of a dirty grey tee shirt and a pair of equally dirty black capri-length pants with mild disgust, then gladly accepted the clothing.
Seeing Sasuke wear a hakama, you'd think that putting one on wouldn't be all that hard. No. The first time that Naruto tried putting on the pants, Sasuke stopped him and said that he was putting them on backwards. As if he knew which way the stupid things were supposed to go, being tagless and all! Finally, after a few minutes of hassling and hurrying to get the clothing on, Naruto had successfully changed into the hakama, his prison clothing piled in a messy heap where he had sat.
Sasuke sighed, relieved. "Well, now. I think we should get going right about now." He started walking towards the door, but stopped when he saw that Naruto wasn't following. "Can you still, you know...walk properly? Or do I have to carry you?" There was a hint of urgency in his voice.
Naruto shook his head. "No, I just got a little lightheaded for a moment, but it's passed now." And with that, he walked with Sasuke out of the cell, past the guard, then outside. The luminous moon was a little too bright for Naruto, having been cooped up in the darkness of the prison for so long, and he winced slightly at the sudden brightness of night. Sasuke let Naruto's eyes adjust to the light for a moment, then together, they disappeared into the night, leaving no trace of themselves behind.
O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O
lol I'm sorry, but did that whole 'brightness of night' part sound like an oxymoron? It did to me. Anyways, I hope you all like this random bit I wrote. There's probably going to be more of it, but it's gonna be part of a larger story that my friend Karri and I are developing (we're almost done with the first chapter, YAY!)
Please review! The button's right down there! You know you want to click it!
ViolentImpulses (aka Carrie) :
