INSIDE THE MAD HOUSE
"It seems like it was so long ago that I, Haruno Sakura, was in the danger wing of the nut house along with criminals and psychopaths that you really are better off not knowing about. I wasn't really insane, (I wasn't!) but I sort of have this alter ego that takes over when I get really man and she/I/we get super strong and super violent.
After sending three guys into a coma after they tried hitting on me, I was incarcerated with all these other psychos. I shouldn't have been put in the same breathing vicinity as any of those men, but that wasn't what was done. I was thrown into the very jaws of what seemed like hell. You wouldn't believe some of what went on in there.
WARNING: AkaSaku and MultiSaku crack ahead. Really, you guys should know me better than this by now.
Standard diclaimer applied.
Sakura thought it poetic that the sky was overcast when she left the courthouse with her brainless oaf of a lawyer who couldn't do anything right to save either of their lives. If Sakura didn't know any better she would have thought her lawyer wanted her behind bars, he was that bad.
It was also overcast the day the elite ones who sought to judge others escorted her into that damed white building with roman pillars and an impressive front desk where everything looked just so perfect. It was so annoying how everything looked so perfect and in place.
Everything... except the cuffs on her wrists.
.
Keep it cool at the freakshow
Baby its a happy place
If you lose it, honey
Just take your time
Close his eyes
.
She returned to consciousness with a jerk followed by a dull ache in her lower back and chest. Her head was tipped backwards over the edge of a chair so that her wide eyes were opened towards the bleached ceiling.
'Ouch.' Sakura shifted in her seat and felt bruises around her lungs as they expanded with a shallow cough. She felt something sticky around her mouth like syrup that was beginning to dry. Sakura's lips were still cracked.
"You finally decide to join us Miss. Haruno."
The pink haired girl turned my head to the side, ignoring the pain popping up and down her neck from the movement, to see a tall red haired woman with a pointed witch nose and a mole on her chin. Ah yes, the reason God gave us middle fingers. 'I would flip her the bird myself if my hands weren't wrapped in potato sacks and wired to the table with plastic clips.'
Sakura grinned in spite of herself. "Nice to see you too, doc. How's it hanging?"
The red haired witch shifted weight from one side of her body to the other and looked the young girl over. She was wearing a long white lab coat buttoned up to the collar so unlike Sakura's own. Sakura's was the same color but much thicker with sleeves that wrapped around the front and tied off in the back like most straight jackets did.
The witch clicked over in her polished heels and grabbed Sakura's face between two fingers. Sakura jerked free, leaving one of the woman's fingers coated in red. Blood, Sakura realized. Her last memory sparked alive in her head and she giggled.
"Oh yeah, that was fun."
"Really, huh...I wonder how much more trouble such a creature as yourself will pose to us as well as the other patients."
Sakura's last memory played back in her head and she giggled again just to freak the red head out. Last thing that had happened to Sakura had been a fight in the brand new cell with date rape Sally. Sakura wasn't very found of being sweet talked and she made sure the pig knew that well enough by the time Sakura was drugged and removed.
"Hows her ear, doc?"
"Horribly mutilated. There is a limit to how much of your fractious behavior we are willing to tolerate with you."
Sakura rolled her head limply to the side and stared up at the doctor through sooty lashes and grinned wide. "Oh, well you know me, doc. I just love to be egregious." She drew out the last word in an effort to show how educated she could be when she wanted to.
'I had been on route to college before this whole fiasco even though I was only sixteen. Well, I was seventeen now. I spent my birthday last month in a bleached white room, screaming at the guards to let me out. I didn't want to spend another birthday behind these walls. With my sentence I would be in here till I was twenty one, the age of beer and handguns. I really don't want to stay stuck in here till I'm freaking twenty one!'
The witch waved her hand and then wiped whatever remained on her finger down the front of Sakura's shirt. "Haruno, or Sakura, whatever you prefer, the director has decided to move you into level D for extreme behavior patients. You will be given a single room cell but mobility will be restricted. From there he will personally decide what corse of action to take with you."
"Level D? Did we forget how to put are letters in order, Doc? I don't remember there ever being a D hell." Sakura laughed, still loopy and not yet sane.
There was level A for the females and then level B for the guys. Level A2 was for the really bad girls and B2 was for the homeboys. There was no level C or D for that matter. Sakura knew because she had actually paid attention to the white coats when they talked and explained everything in the beginning as well as in court. 'And what do you know, it doesn't pay shit.'
"Level D does not exist Haruno."
"Then where the hell am I going?" she laughed, her head falling back and eye lashes lowering halfway. She was still high and not in her right mind because of the fight and the blood. The true Sakura would wake up in the morning and be disgusted with herself and probably cry, but right now she loved it.
There were men coming through the doors, four of them in total. Two grabbed her arms and picked her up and the other two held sticks with white lights at the end. They stung like cattle prods, but they had to because the coat was so think.
'Bullshit if you ask me since they like to get you in the neck if they can.'
"Karin...where am I going?" Sakura whined, being dragged and poked out of the room with her staying behind.
She grinned like the she-devil Sakura knew she was right before the doors closed in the girl's face. "You are going to hell, Sakura Haruno."
The door slammed shut.
'And so that's how I ended up here, strapped back with white linen and sack cloth gloves across from a male with long black hair.'
Karin was right. Level D was hell.
.
Let the record play,
Let the record play,
Let the record play.
And the record keeps playing,
The same old song.
.
Sakura woke up to find her body sprawled about messily from another night where her mind was not her own. She moved her fingers one by one and then flexed her hand, twisting at the wrist. It hurt but so far there wasn't anything she couldn't move. If her bones had been broken they had magically healed during the night once again. It was an odd trait she didn't like questioning due to it's ties with their other mind festering inside her skull.
"Hello?" someone asked with a hushed whisper.
Sakura tilted her head back and looked back to see the upside-down figure of a young boy with wide, questioning eyes. He was quite a pretty boy Sakura noticed with smooth skin tanned just enough to make his long lashes stand out. Full lips too.
The boy moved a hand towards her and suddenly her body was not her own. Her leg, slim and long, like a perfect pin up model's, jerked upwards to kick his hand away before the rest of her torso followed, pulling into a helicopter like kick with her legs split into a perfect 90 degree angle. Like a cat she sprang back and crouched down low, her own eyes wide with fear.
"Owwww," the young boy moaned, grabbing his hand. She saw the pain she had caused him and instantly lamented.
"Ohmygosh I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you, it was just a reflex and I just woke up in a weird place so I didn't know and I hope you're alright," she quickly explained, blurring her words together in a rush of regret.
Thankfully the boy wasn't bitter.
"Nah, that's okay, I understand. I shouldn't have reached out when you were still drowsy. You're okay now, right?"
"Yeah...um, my name's Sakura by the way. Who are you?"
"My name is Naruto, I'm an inmate in here as well for the same reason as you. Dual personalities. I think that's why we are in the same room together." He looked around for emphasis. "This isn't my room and it doesn't look like a cell, so I'm expecting someone to walk in and talk with us. Look, there's even a desk here for them."
Sakura looked around real quick. "Talk to us, about what? Last thing I remember was being carried off to my own room."
Naruto coxed his head to one side, letting golden bangs fall away from his beautifle boyish face. "You don't know?"
She blinked. "Know what?"
"Domo has a reputation you know. There are tons of people who are let out early for allegedly taking secret tests or experiments, even though they say it's just good behavior." He then shrugged. "But then again, that's just talk, since no one who has ever come out has been any worse for the wear. I guess their kind of experiments are like psycho tests and surveys. I used to hate having to take those in school, ugh."
"...School you say. Naruto how old are you?"
"Me, I'm 16, but I look older don't I. What about you Sakura chan?"
"I'm 17."
"Eh, no fair, you're older than me. And here I thought I was hott stuff. Don't worry though, I dig older women, Sakura chan."
She ignored that last comment with relative ease. It was somewhat common to her throughout school considering she was on of the prettier girls in her small town of farm houses and smallish nightclubs where everyone knew everyone else "Naruto, how long have you been here in Domo?"
"About five months, why?"
She didn't get the chance to say more since two white coats and a man in a suite entered. The suited man had long black hair and golden eyes reminding Sakura of a snake. He smiled especially wide once he saw Sakura. "Good evening dears," he greeted as smoothly as a serpent. "I trust you are in good health so far."
"Who are you?"
His eyes were glowing with glee. "Oto Orochimaru, director of this fine establishment."
If she were in her other mind Sakura would have blurted out that his so called fine establishment sucked balls but she was sane at the moment so she just glared. "And what are you here for, Oto san?"
"Yeah, what are you here for you creep!" Naruto added, coming up beside Sakura trying to look cool.
"To aid you a bit."
She gave him a pointed stare.
He coughed. "You see, you condition is special. You were not in your own mind when you did what you did to get in here, either of you, so I'm willing to let you have some slack for that if you help us out."
Sakura crossed her arms, smelling something not quite legal. "How?"
"You are committed to five years originally, and have spent close to a whole year already in here. Eight months if I am right. Instead of living out the rest of those four years in the regular sections I would like it if you participated in some research experiments. You sentence would be cut in half to two years for good behavior."
"Is this legit?" Naruto asked, sounding confused.
"Completely!" the snake chirped.
Two years only? That meant she only had to be absent from the public for a little less than three years. She would be back before she turned twenty! She wanted it. She wanted it more than anything and felt the weakness in her pushing away rational thought. She didn't know anything about these tests or experiments but she wanted out so fearfully she would bite bullets for it.
"What would I need to do?" she asked.
"Just interact a bit with the other patients, communicate and maybe run a few field tests. We're more interested in the mental state of these men and yourself. Interviews, taped recordings, conversations,-"
"No, I mean, where do I sign?"
.
Silicon, saline, poison inject me
Baby, I'm a free bitch
.
It was a while before they did anything with her. They let her sit in her room and wait for days, driving her bonkers with the need for communication. She would call out and try to change her position but no one was there to hear her or to react to her words. To have no power over the course of things is a terrible feeling. This was one of the reasons Sakura did not complain so loudly when they did harm to her body and tortured her like a lab rat.
It was better than the silence.
The door opened and she barely had enough strength to look up, she was too tired.
"First day with the other rats, get up."
She was in one of those self hugging white jackets so it was a bit harder, but she used her well built body to rise up and followed the big guy out of the room where they hooked her collar to a plastic rope. They led her like a dog into another room with only a table and a chair and a very sad man who sat slumped.
He had green hair and gold eyes half lidded and glowing in the darkness. They jerked her into the seat across from him and hooked her leash to the table so she couldn't get up and run out. He was hooked down too, but he was so well built she wondered if he could just stand and release the both of them.
A box sunken into the table blinked and Sakura saw a small red light come on. She was supposed to talk with the guy, she remembered.
About what?
He spoke before she could.
"Why are you here?" he asked, voice deep and...what was it that his voice reminded her of?
"I'm dangerous apparently," she answered.
He smirked, looking her in the eye. "You're too thin to be dangerous. You wouldn't even be tasty." He looked away and they returned his gaze to her face, taking it in with more detail. She saw his expression soften. "No, you are too delicate for this horror. You look more like a flower than a criminal."
"My name is Sakura," she offered.
His eyes glowed brightly. "How uncanny. Spring child?"
"Yeah, what about you?"
"Zetsu...Born in the Winter. I kill anything I try to grow. I once tried to grow a Sakura tree you know, but it died. I like growing things...like grass. That doesn't die. It's one thing I can have. But I'll get better at it. I'll become better. I'm not the gardener, he is."
Yup, this one seemed loony. No wonder he was locked up.
"I used to work in a flower shop. I didn't grow anything but I got good at arranging flowers and making bouquets.
"Flowers are nice." His voice dropped and she didn't hear the second part. "You look like a flower."
"Mmm, yeah I guess so, but I don't grow any. I used to have a garden though. Tomatoes and strawberries, peas and watermelon, stuff like that."
He stared at her for a long time before answering. "Did you eat any of it?"
"Yeah."
"Was it good?"
"Eh, sometimes. The harvest wasn't always good, you know."
He blinked, content to stare at her. "Do you like to eat? What do you like to eat?"
She thought back to the stale plastic food they fed her and almost gagged. All she ate was crap inside Domo. She really wanted something real and fattening once more. What she wouldn't give for some hot steaming pasta and buttered bread. "Oh wow, there is so much I want to eat right now. There is this little Ma and Pa shop down the street where they serve the greatest pizza in the world and the macaroni is like nothing Kraft sells. Bow-ties and meatball heros, God what I wouldn't give for something like that now. And Sherbet. I love that stuff. What about you? What do you eat?"
"Flesh."
"Pardon?"
"I eat flesh," he explained as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. He spoke as if he were describing the weather.
"Really?"
"Yes."
Well that explained why he was locked up in a coat like hers and chained to the table with plastic. All of a sudden she was starting to get real uncomfortable with where she was and who she was sitting across from. People she beat up were nowhere near as strange as this guy and frankly it was daunting. If she had to, could she take someone like him down? Would she be able to defend herself with that other part of her mind? What did that split side of her think about all this?
Sakura didn't get a chance to find out because someone else's split side came out at that time.
"Now I'm hungry, come here and let me taste you!"
"What?" She squeaked, jumping up out of her sea and moving as far away from the table as her leash would allow her to. Her body was buzzing all over with fear as she saw herself reflected in those glassy yellow eyes. He was watching her like they were animals: a lion and a mouse.
"Let me have a bit, just a little lick."
Just then the white coats came in and broke the party up, tazing the green haired fraek back into submission while another pair clomped Sakura on the shoulder to sit down before unhooking her and dragging her out.
"Damn it I want it. I want flesh!"
Apparently this Zetsu guy had some issues with being submissive.
.
Everybody, with your fists raised high
Let me hear your battle cry tonight
Stand beside, or step aside
We're on the frontline
.
Sakura didn't want to do another interview. She absolutely refused to be in another room chained up like a raging animal next to the bloody jack ripper! Of course the administration said she could go screw herself and they would make her do what they wanted her to do. Thankfully, they wanted a field test with her next.
The jumpsuit was a bleach white and skintight. Thankfully it was made out of that spandex like material that athletes wore when running and playing so Sakura didn't find it uncomfortable in the least, just immodest. Her hands were covered in shackles bound in front of her, attached to a plastic chain that the white coats led her with.
The two leading her stopped outside a door where a third waited and they conversed for a minute before dragging her in. Sakura had only managed to hear a few words but they sounded to be of surprise and doubt.
The room was huge, several stories high and as big as a football field. The entire floor was plastic sounding under her feet and she wondered how badly it would hurt if she were to smash her face into it. They all stopped in the middle and released her chain but left the shackles on.
"Hey," she called out. "What about these things?"
"Remote control once we're safe."
'Once you're safe? What the hell does that mean?' Did they think she was going to jump them and steal their wallets or something?
Someone else was led into the room behind her. He was much taller then her with a body of a wrestler and the scars to prove it. He seemed like one of those guys that lived to perfect the body since it was so finely attended to with abs and pecks worthy of a small coven of cult like paparazzi. Something metal and thick was over his face and his ears.
The scientist unleashed him and then ran past Sakura, one being kind enough to tell her that the guy couldn't hear anything so she should use that to her advantage.
"Wait, use what?" Sakura asked, looking back over her shoulder.
She felt the wind and jumped back just in time to avoid getting hit. He swiped again and again with his fists, rapid fast. Sakura jumped backwards and stumbled on her feet with her hands still bound in the shackles. This guy was amazingly fast and twice her size at least an they expected her to fight him? Bonkers.
She fell backwards and he punched the floor where her head had been before she rolled away. She tried to swipe at his feet but it was like kicking at a metal pole. He wasn't moving. Reaching fast he grabbed her around the jaw and lifted her up off the ground with just one hand. Sakura tried to say something, to yell at him to put her down, but he didn't seem wiling.
Or he couldn't hear her.
It was a long shot but maybe if he could hear her he would put her down and leave her alone. Okay, it was a really long, long shot but she had to try something. For all she knew they probably told him she was something she wasn't...or bribed him with something if he won. It's not like she wanted to fight him. Maybe he felt the same way.
He slammed her into the ground and her world split like a screeching bird as the floor cracked beneath her. She was gone and she was present. She was everywhere and she was nowhere, existing in a billion broken particles as her senses reeled and scampered back together.
The man lifted her up once more ready to slam her into the ground but Sakura kicked him in the jaw with enough power to make him reel and release her. The metal under his chin chipped and broke off a bit. She kicked again then kneed him in the stomach, putting him off his rhythm. With her hands still shackled she raised those fists and brought them down hard on the contraption around his head.
She felt the heat in her fingers and her hands from pushing herself to her point of breaking but paid it no mind, since she was too far gone into her madness.
He struggled and fought back, swinging at her and landing blows most of the time, but she just took them and kept fighting back. Whatever it was that hugged his head it was hard. She hit with all her might but it only cracked till it was nothing but a glorified spiderweb around his face. Her hands were raw and bleeding and she saw it splattered over his face. The scientists or loon doctors had yet to release her shackles so her fists were still bound to on another by the wrist making it that much harder to fight.
Perfect.
He hit her once more in the gut and she felt it all over. She gasped, breathless, falling backwards with a thud. He loomed over her, taller and heavier with arms like tree trunks. She saw him bending down and growled while forcing her head back, hips up, and legs out. With both feet she put everything she had into that double kick to his face, breaking that thing once and for all.
The pieces fell all around the both of them but no one moved.
For one, Sakura could now see his face to the fullest without something to hide it and she had to admit it was fine. Strong jaw, even temples and a straight bridge of nose. His lips were pretty too. Not in a girly way, but in a healthy way.
He stared down at her for a while then jabbed out to grip her throat, startling her.
"No!" She choked loudly, shocking him so much he dropped her back on her butt. "Ugh...stop it. I don't want to fight anymore."
The man knelt down to be at eye level with her as she sat up, rubbing her throat and frowning to herself. She glared at him once she was sure he wouldn't grab for her again and he seemed surprised. Hesitantly he stretched out his fingers and brushed them over her lips. Sakura tried pulling away but his fingers followed. He poked her like she was a toy he had never seen before and tried forcing her mouth open. Sakura pulled away one more and accidently licked his finger when he followed.
"Yuck, stop it! What's wrong with you? Leave me alone now that you're done fighting. I'm tired and sore all over."
"Name."
At first Sakura wasn't sure if she heard him correctly since it was the first thing he ever said and it was gravel like. She stared at him so he repeated himself.
"Name?" This time it sounded like a question. His fingers brushed her lips lightly but pulled back.
She blinked once before regaining her senses. "Sakura...I'm Sakura. And you are?"
"...Zabuza."
Then the men in white came out to pull them away and send they to separate ends of the facility. Before the end of the day she would learn of his true nature and his famous killing trick known as hidden mist: silent killing, which was the reason they handicapped him.
"No one has ever survived in a match against him without the headgear."
.
He's always trouble with his noncomplacent
Shotgun eyes, shotgun eyes
His subtlety, his mystery
Not like the other guys
.
Sakura closed her eyes and let her head fall backwards over the edge of her chair, tired and quiet. The people in front of her packed up their equipment and made sure the recordings of her voice were safe before making room for the newest member. Another scientist she didn't bother to remember the face of. He had glasses and silver hair and seemed to been one of the head guys as far as she was concerned. His eyes were deceitful and his smile reminded her of the men who screamed for no apparent reason. He was mad just like the rest of them but he hid it from the rest of society better than she did apparently.
"Am I done?" she asked.
"Zabuza will be thankful for those recordings I'm sure. You don't have to do any more."
"But...?" she could smell the request lingering behind his fangs. They had more plans for her no doubt.
"Ah yes. Well you see a few of the other inmates observed your tousle with Zabuza and would like an interview with you. After consideration we've selected two who we believe are stable enough for such an encounter."
Sakura stared at the young man through narrowed eyes and frowned. "I thought we were patients here."
"Excuse me?"
"You called them inmates."
He pushed his glasses up and the sheen blocked out his eyes. "Of course you are correct, but you should no forget that these men have all committed terrible crimes in one way or another. That is why they are here in this level."
"Nice to know that these are the guys you want me to hang out with. I'm almost frightened."
"I don't think you have any reason to be with your own abilities. These next two inmates are generally well behaved so long as they are kept apart from materials they can manipulate to their enjoyment. The one is a pyromaniac and the other is a cult-leader/ serial killer."
"Just the kind of people I want to spend my day with."
The door opened and two men stepped in to act as bodyguards to Kabuto. Sakura looked towards them and watched as one of them came over to take her chair. They were not allowed to leave anything behind she could kill herself with. A rough hand on her shoulder pushed her off and she landed on her hip, hissing in pain. Kabuto stood up quickly and gave the guard a stern look, stopping the brute in his tracks. Kabuto looked down at Sakura who was glaring up at them and then looked back at the guard.
"Leave the chair," he said, brushing dust off his collar. "We're taking Sakura to another cell for the night."
"But sir, the director never said anything about-"
"The director doesn't tell you to breath and eat. When he is not present I am in charge and I said we will be taking Sakura to a new room."
No one said anything for a while and the grunt workers seemed to submit. Then finally, "Yes sir, where would you like her."
Kabuto smirked to himself at the change in attitude and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "We'll put her in the room opposite the youngest Uchiha. He could use something new to stare at and it would be good to observe considering the reaction the other one had the only time he was dragged in front of her room."
Sakura's eyes narrowed, annoyed that she was being talked about like she wasn't even there. They were going to put her in a room where someone could watch her-an Uchiha, whatever that was. Where had she heard that name before? She racked her brain for a memory of someone being dragged outside her door and felt the pain behind her lids at her recollection of those bloody red eyes.
Black stands of hair flew around his face and for a moment they parted enough to expose two piercing red eyes scarred with flecks of charcoal black. She saw the lids around his eyes expand in what seemed like surprise and his thrashing stopped as his whole body fell limp in the doctor's hands. His gaze was set on her and she could feel him looking at her more than see it for himself. It was a strange sort of gaze the man with long messy hair had. It was almost as if he could touch her or fell her with only his eyes.
"Shit..." she grumbled, letting her head fall back to hit the floor.
"Come on Sakura, don't make them carry you," she heard Kabuto say, even as she was picked up and throw over a shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
She didn't bother to count the doors between hers and the one they carried her off to. There were too many halls and her head was still throbbing in lingering pain from that man's searing eyes. She had never seen such a color before, even though she recognized it as red.
"Kabuto, where am I going?" she asked aloud, hoping the silver eyed snake was in a mood to treat her like a human. Sometimes she could get information from him on the other freaks locked up with her, sometimes she couldn't.
"We have three Uchiha here at this facility, all with some altering form of the same condition. Itachi Uchiha is the youngest, even though the middle one, Tobi, is frozen with the mental capacity of an eight year old." Kabuto looked over his shoulder at Sakura but didn't grin slyly like she expected him to. "The one who made a fuss outside your cell a few weeks back was the oldest of the three. His name is Madara."
They stopped and Sakura saw the corner of a door from where she was being held.
"Why are you leaving me with him then?"
Kabuto turned towards Sakura and reached out to grab a strand of her light pink tresses. He held it between his fingers before it fell out naturally. He didn't smile, but stood stoically as the guard carried her past him into the dark room with a dim outline of a mirror, or one of those one way mirrors. Sakura thought she might just be mistaken, but she could have sworn she saw Kabuto lift his fingers to his face and press them under his nose as if deep in thought...only not.
She didn't really get much time to think that over since she was thrown down onto the ground rather painfully and kicked away so the guards could back out with a lower chance of getting jumped. Her body was beyond sore at the moment.
The door closed with a loud bang and she was left in the gloom. It was not pitch black dark, but there wasn't enough light to see anything through the mirror. After a while her eyes adjusted and she could make out forms and what she thought was a body, but couldn't be sure.
Still on her back she coughed and almost choked on her own air. Her rips screamed violently and she had to roll onto her side to keep from experiencing too much pain. Blood fell from her mouth onto the floor and she had to struggle to wipe at it since her hands were still connected to each other at the wrist by a short chain of plastic.
A light came on overhead, not bright enough to hurt, but enough to illuminate color. She winced and moaned a bit, throwing an arm over her face to block it out. She didn't hear anything and from under her forearm she adjusted to the light in little to no time. With tired movements, she rolled her arm back and looked towards the wall with the mirror where she was positive there would be some sort of change to explain the illumination.
She was right.
He stood with hands pressed against the glass, his eyes a dim color of red. He was looking at her and she was thankful that his gaze did not hurt like the eyes of the older Uchiha. The male's eyes were younger and less developed.
He caught her staring at him and tapped the glass with one finger, not moving the rest of his hand off the glass.
Sakura dropped her arm back over her eyes, prepared to ignore him. Nothing happened for a long while, but eventually he tapped the glass again, and again, and again, and again. Ever three minutes without fail there would be that annoying pat, pat on the glass and it was growing more and more annoying.
"What!" she cried, sitting up, unable to take it any more.
She winced at the pain in her ribs from the sudden movement and crumbled forward a bit, closer to the glass. She hissed quietly to herself, trying to suck up the pain into a hole in her mind where it could no longer hurt her. When she looked up he was crouched down in front of her on the other side of the glass with a concerned expression. Somehow she found that annoying.
"Che, like you actually care."
Quietly she lay back down and closed her eyes. There was no more tapping and after a while she was gone into sleep.
.
Before electric light,
You paddled through the soup of darkness as a crocodile,
Cherry picking in the river,
I would leave crisp note footprints at the Bankside
.
Sakura didn't know what to expect after a shower and change of clothes by the female guards who were with her all the way to the community room where patients could hang out at their leisure. The madman she was set up with was one who preached perfection and slaughtered his small gang of followers in a manner she didn't want to have to hear about again.
Karin looked like she was having fun detailing all the bloodiest parts to Sakura. Of course that witch loved to see any other human in pain or discomfort, but somehow Sakura managed to make her way up to the top of her list.
Sakura was wearing a new jumper/bodysuit the same color as the bleached walls and floors with both hands stuck in a wrapped cloth and tied with more plastic chains. Her wrists were red and raw every-time she saw them these days.
The four female guards stopped and two took door handles and pulled, opening up the entrance to a well sized rec. room with bookshelves, pool tables and other such luxuries. A guard with a gun stood in every corner, watching a red haired man in the middle.
Hearing them come in, he looked up from his book and Sakura saw the light come into his coppery eyes the color of cinnamon. All of a sudden he was animated, moving towards her only to be stopped by the sound of guns clicking into action. He froze and grinned to himself, more annoyed than anything.
"You're here," he said, politely. "I've been waiting for you for the longest time. I was afraid that they wouldn't ever let us meet, but I've wanted this ever since I saw you first in that arena."
Sakura just nodded, eyes narrowed and distrusting. Sasori seemed to find that funny.
"Would you mind joining me with a game then?" he asked motioning to a chess table set up for the two of them.
Sakura would have like to refuse but the barrel in her back told her such a decision was unwise. She moved to the opposite side of the chess set and sat, glaring all the while at the redhead who seemed too pleasant to be trustworthy. Somehow Sakura had ended up behind the black pieces and had to wait for Sasori to move first before she could reply with a strike of her own.
"Do you know what the most painful level of hell is reserved for according to Dante?" he asked all of a sudden if it were the traffic he were commenting on. Sakura watched him for a moment as he observed the pieces and his possible move. He waited patiently for an answer, expecting one.
"Treachery if I remember correctly." Sakura moved one of her pieces forward, more concerned with the board than the conversation.
"Where do you think you'll end up?" Sasori asked, bring Sakura's eyes up to meet his own.
"I would like to think I wouldn't end up in hell, but if I had to say where I think I deserve to be, I'd been in Phlegethon."
"For violence?"
"No, I'd be one of those keeping the violent in the fire."
He laughed. "Delicious, coming from the hellcat who taught Momochi a lesson on the floor."
"Says the one who committed the second worst possible crime against humanity."
"Am I really the worst out there?"
"I'm having a hard time coming up with anyone that can beat you in treachery, Sasori of the red sand."
He didn't move any of his pieces. "Why?"
Sakura looked up from the board and glared openly at Sasori. "I'm nothing like you, so don't try dragging me down with your words. I didn't invite anyone over to skin them like dead animals."
"But is that really a sin when that is exactly what they wanted?"
"I have a hard time believing any of them wanted to become you puppets."
Sasori tiled his head to one angle, letting waved bangs fall around his eyes in a manner Sakura hated to admit to being what it really was. It was beautifle. He was beautifle, like a piece of art himself his bone structure was amazing and his eyes were captivating in a way entirely different from the Uchihas.
"They wanted immortality, I gave it to them."
"Lies."
"They were flawed creatures and they knew that."
Sakura violently jerked her piece forward on the board, ripping her eyes from his. She didn't dare look up again for fear of being sucked into the conversation. She hadn't meant to reply to anything he said to her, but it was just like being on the outside, talking about the dusty aspects of life most people her age didn't care for.
He didn't move his pieces but instead reached across the board and took her chin between his forefinger and his thumb. He lifted her face upwards and ran that thumb over her chin, lips and cheek in slow, sensual movements. It ignited a shameful aspect in Sakura and she wanted only one thing more than for him to leave her alone, and that was for him to keep on doing what he was doing. It was weird to be feeling such a way but she couldn't help it she was-
"No!" she hissed, pulling away, breathing hard. The guards moved a bit, but didn't step forward. Sakura kept breathing.
"...It's marvelous. Not even a scratch remains after what should have put you in the ground. There's nothing that can mar perfection. Ah yes, truly that is how it is."
Sakura just kept breathing, seeing only half through her bangs.
"You will live forever and you will be the embodiment of true beauty, more so than even my own art."
He moved one of his pieces.
"Checkmate."
.
Take your medicine and crawl before you walk
Think it through before you open you open your mouth to talk
Be an advocate of joy
Find your little heart's desire and
.
They left her in the room with the big mirror in the wall again. This time nothing happened and Sakura doubted someone was even on the other side.
Sakura preformed more physical tests that were more like coliseum fights for an audience she couldn't see and recorded spoken statements on the days they let her rest. Or at least she thought they were days. She was told that sometimes, after a big fight usually, she would sleep for days.
Once or twice she woke up and saw Kabuto there, staring at her or playing with her hair.
Her hair was much longer than it was when she was first admitted and now spilled over her shoulders. It was lighter too, for some reason. She probably looked like a different person now. She wondered if it looked better long or if she should just get it cut. Would they let her cut it? They didn't let her do a lot of the stuff she wanted to.
"We want you to try out another field test with a second patient who has a disposition much like your own."
Sakura looked up from the table where she was cuffed. "So?" She had learned to be a better cynic.
"The other artists has had his meeting with you revoked for bad behavior, so testings scheduled for later on are being pushed forward. You endurance has been increasing at extraordinary rates, you should know," Kabuto said as a matter of fact.
"So, what should that make me feel?"
"You should have some pride."
"Kind of hard to hang on to anything, including your dignity, when you're stuck in a place like this. Pride isn't something I'm all too familiar with."
"You were the one who wanted out so early."
Sakura closed her eyes, feeling the emotional weight fall down her back. She practiced deep breathing and at times she could see and feel the maw that was the manifestation of her insanity, her other side. It was something new to her and she suspected it had something to do with how often she was forced and pushed to call upon that darker half of herself. She hated how close that part of her had grown and at times it made her sick to the point of insomnia. Sleeping was getting harder. She wanted to run away from it.
"How long have I been here?" Sakura asked in a whisper. Kabuto heard her all the same and knew she was talking about level D rather than just Domo.
"Four months."
She almost broke down crying. It felt like years she had been a part of the system. Members like Zetsu and Sasori were driving her crazy from all the forced interviews and fights with the other monsters were terrible. Zetsu made her frightened to sleep at night and Sasori was doing other things with her head on top of scaring her.
She fought Zabuza several other times and he seemed even more intent on hurting her if only to provoke her into smashing his headgear again. But then there were instances when she didn't fight back, just laid there in her own blood far too tired to move. Sometimes she seriously thought suicide might just make things better. During those times he would hold her, cradle her in his arms and try to get her to move. The memory dug up the feeling of his padded, fingertips brushing strands of her hair out of her eyes and blood off her lips. It was as if she were a wounded animal to him. He confused her and she wanted to run from him along with the rest of the hell.
"Four months is nothing to sneer at. You're that much closer to what you want, think of it that way, Sakura," Kabuto cheerfully stated from across the table.
Sakura looked up and glared at him. Of course he didn't want her gone. She was precious material for his experiments. What a sicko. "I won't miss you once I'm gone."
Kabuto didn't say anything to that. He just stared at her, oddly serious in expression. The playful grin suited for a snake was absent. He stared at her for a long while, saying nothing and Sakura felt her skin crawl in discomfort. Finally he spoke.
"I think it's time we escort you back to your room."
The process began again. The shoving, the dragging, the degrading march of chained animals in human flesh down bleached white walls, closer to the shade of bone than anything else. The security was low this time with only one guard aside form Kabuto. They walked down the hallways that split and crossed few yards, meaning there was an average amount of traffic. Sakura kept her eyes down and her hands close to her body. She didn't think anything too dramatic was going to happen.
The sound of bodies hitting the floor and wall were the first things Sakura heard. She turned to look to her left, down the hall where the chaos was birthing and felt the physical impact of seeing that color of bloody red framed by eyelashes.
"It's Madara!"
"Get him down!" someone shouted.
"Shit."
"Don't let him go!" said another.
It was like a hive of bees all of a sudden, with anyone and everyone swarming to get to the black haired man with the bloody red eyes. It was like watching an animal the way he picked up those bodies in white and tossed them aside as if they weighed less than a pound. His body captured power in a single essence and it was sucking the breath out of Sakura. She could feel it in her knees, the weakening under his eyes.
If she thought Sasori was beautifle this monster was gorgeous.
"Kakashi!" Kabuto screamed, taking Sakura's hands from the guard. Another body came up, more powerful than the others and more trusted by the silver haired snake. "Take her, take Sakura and keep her safe!"
And just like that Sakura was spirited away from that black hole and red eyes. She wasn't even running, he just picked her up and carried her bridal style like nobody's business. She didn't know to where she was taken, or for how long she was held, but soon it was all over and she was sitting against a wall with a heaving chest that couldn't seem to take in any more air.
"Breath," someone said. "Just breath and you'll be fine. Deep breaths...yeah, there you go."
Sakura looked up, noticing for the first time who it was she had been with. There was sweat beaded across her brown, sticking her bangs to her face. He had his hands on her shoulders and was keeping her from falling sideways.
She looked at him and saw a shock of silver hair, one eye of charcoal gray and a skintight mask that blocked out his mouth. Thick bangs came down a covered the other eye, but she thought she saw a sliver of it through the stands. He was older, but she couldn't tell by how much or if it made him handsome or below average.
"You okay now?" he asked.
"Who... who was that?"
"You seem fine now, glad to see you're out of shock." He let go of her shoulders and she sat up on her own. "That was another one of the patients, probably one of our most dangerous if not the most deadly."
"Eyes... he was a...an Uchiha."
The silver haired man looked back at her with a narrowed eye, seemingly interested where as before he was bored with playing baby sitter. Sakura's mind was fragmented and concerned with other things though, so she didn't notice too much until he called her out on it.
"What do you know about the Uchiha?"
Sakura shivered a bit under his tone. "N-not much. Just that one of them is always on the other side of my room. There is a mirror he can watch through but I've only seen him once or twice."
She saw his eye narrow. "Who are you to be paired up with an Uchiha?" Before she could answer he yanked on her cuffs and turned them so he could see her number. She saw the reaction in his whole body. "Shit, level D? No wonder you were all the way down here! I didn't know there were any female in this level. How long have you been here?"
"...Four months. Is that bad?"
Kakashi shook his head. "I've noticed that this facility likes to keep specific information from me more and more as the years go by. No doubt they have something on your head keeping you here. Something illegal..." His words trailed off as he turned her wrists one way. Sakura almost whimpered at the action just cause it rubbed the raw spots the wrong way. He had pulled the cuffs forward to see the red ring that was bleeding in some parts. He didn't look happy.
"Please let me go."
He blinked, surprised and released her. "Sorry, my bad. When was the last time they took your cuffs off? They're supposed to remove them when you're in your cell to avoid this."
"They forget sometimes, but I'm out doing sometimes almost every day." Sakura looked up and narrowed her own eyes. "What about you, aren't you a guard? Why are civil with me?"
Kakashi smiled through his mask and she saw his eye crease. "Now enough of that, let's get you back to your cell where you can rest and relax without those nasty things to rub you raw any more than they already have. I'll trust you enough not to drag you so come on." He helped her up with a hand under her arm and was surprisingly gentle.
He led her down the halls, deeper into the compound till they were in the stricter areas with thick doors and thicker locks. Sakura recognized her room as the one she shared with the youngest Uchiha, the one named Itachi, and stepped in. Kakashi followed after her, making sure the lights were all on before he unlocked her cuffs. They stung, peeling off, and yet Sakura was still attuned enough to hear the thud of fingers on glass. Kakashi looked up over her head and saw the young male standing there, a mute as far as anyone knew, starting at the red rings around Sakura's wrists.
"These will be better in a few days, don't worry," Kakashi said without looking at her.
Itachi was still staring.
.
Silently reflection turns my world to stone
Patiently correction leaves us all alone
And sometimes I drown in the night
This engine's failing
.
Naruto huffed, leaning against the doorframe to Madara's cell in jeans and a casual long-sleeve shirt. The blond's hair was a wild mess but that only added to his good looks. He ran a hand through his hair and laughed bitterly at the sight before him.
"You're a real piece of work Uchiha, you know that. Someday you might just be too powerful for me to handle."
Madara didn't move from his crumpled heap on the floor, even though he was fully away and nearly unharmed. He could have jumped up whenever he wanted to and fought for another few dozen hours with the fox harboring brat of a young adult.
He could have, but he didn't.
No, his mind was too distracted for something like that. Thoughts and near fantasies of the girl that his eyes were drawn to and desired were all that he was made up of at the moment. The girl with the cherry blossom hair and eyes like freedom. She was a spirited goddess if ever there were such a thing. He didn't even need to see her fight to know that she was the embodiment of feminine power and might. He saw her and he knew, just knew.
And for that he loved her.
"Of please will you quit moaning to yourself, you're making me sick," Naruto complained like a child.
Madara didn't respond, even though he heard.
Naruto kicked the door with the toe of his shoe, showing off his boredom. It was always so much more fun when he could get a rise out of his prisoners. When they were flat like this it took all the fun out of his day. Naruto wouldn't have any of that! It pained him to have to tempt a lesser being with a fellow creature of divine origins, but it was probably the only thing he could do to move the oldest Uchiha to wake up and react like usual.
"If you act like that you'll never see my Sakura again."
Madara reacted, he rolled over just enough to stare over his shoulder at Naruto. "Sakura?"
"That's her name, the girl with cherry blossom hair. Fitting isn't it?"
"You said something about seeing her again."
"Did I?"
Madara growled like a wolf and felt the power in him rise.
Naruto just laughed, clearly amused. There wasn't any threat from just one other patient or prisoner. Naruto was the most powerful fighter in the whole building by a great deal. Madara was the one that came closest to being a threat but even he was less than a threat. Maybe with the right training and plenty of time, that Gaara kid, who was also a being of the same breed as Naruto and Sakura, might just rival the blond, but not at the moment. Narto was currently stronger than the red head by nine times.
"Cut it out, Naruto."
"Oh no, there you go addressing me without any respect. Don't you want to see her?"
The softening of the eyes was visible. He was filled with lovely images of her staring back at him from the other side of her cell door, of her walking down the hall with that bastard of a kid and another faceless scientist. She was perfect in his eyes. He needed to see her again. There was no doubt in his mind.
"Itachi is already attached to her a good deal and she's planned to play with my other favorite tomorrow. You'll have your work cut out for you if you decide to peruse her. I'm sure those two idiot artists want to be with her as well but so far only one has been allowed a meeting and she didn't like him too much."
Madara snarled to himself, fighting the rising power of rage. Jerking in his movements he turned to face Naruto with dark shadows stretched across his handsome face. His knuckles were white and his fists clenched tight at his sides.
Naruto's grin was devious in nature and he really did resemble the fox spirit/god that was rumored to dwell within him. "You won't be allowed anywhere near her if you keep acting the way you are. Something is going to have to change."
Madara's eyes bled a deeper, darker red.
"What do I have to do?"
.
I got this feeling that they're gonna break down the door
I got this feeling that they're gonna come back for more
See I was thinking that I lost my mind
But it's been getting to me all this time
And don't stop dragging me down
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AN: For Stormdragon666 who was so awesome to request this. I kind of went overboard...I know I promised myself I would never do another long oneshot but I couldn't help myself in the end, I just had to do it! I really had no choice in the matter, the story demanded it. So yeah, this is not a oneshot. It is a three to five shot, but most likely a three shot. I do not' want to go overboard and spend a whole year on this.
other thoughts...
Okay, so the original MAD HOUSE story had a lot more too it, like stuff I threw out or rewrite and this is some of it. Like, origionally I was going to start out with scens from Sakura inside Domo getting along with the guys and being beaten by Karin or going insane inside her cell. None of that seemed to work for me so I rewrote it and scrapped parts. 93% of this however is new and done with Storm in mind. I hope she likes it it, she deserves it for that sick adventure called The Night Under. Go read it, now!
Paper airplanes and fireflies, Fairy lights and forgotten lies They're all falling from the sky, Tumbling down from way up high. Answering my pitiful choking cries, So bloody cruel was my lover's lives