What is this? The beginnings of a multi-chap? Long time no see story with no 'complete' status ^3^

Anyways, first attempt at an AU that isn't just some highschool thing. Slave!Sasuke? I think so *evil grin* Because I NEED to torture him. Possibly gonna be interesting :)

So yeah, chapter one? Here we go.

Day In, Day Out

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At first Sasuke thought he could take it. This life. This life that he was imprisoned within. He thought he could take the cold floor he slept on, the annoying head of the person beside him on his shoulder, the paper thin, dirty as hell clothing. He thought he could even take the occasional beating. All he had to do was be good right? Behave, be quiet and obedient. This option was better than the alternative right? If he wasn't here he'd be on the streets, and not that he actually really spoke to anyone, but he wasn't alone here. At least when it was really cold there was a bit of body heat.

Yes, he'd been terrified when they came after him, chasing him through the town until they wore him down and cuffed his hands… But it wouldn't be so bad right? As long as he did what he was told, both here and wherever he went next, as long as he was good, he could take it. It was bearable.

That's what he thought at first. But then, after just the first days had passed, after seeing the hormonal teenage boys take the helplessly frail girls in the corner of their dim quarters by force, after being taken himself against a wall in the dead of night by the less female-inclined boys, after living on the tiny amounts of food, after watching his wrists grow thin, after feeling his teeth begin to ache… He thought maybe it would be better just to die.

Under the lip of an overhead veranda in the heart of the city, they kept the slaves. The cheap, badly constructed wall to keep them in was coming loose and thinning in places but no person within had the strength to try and escape. No one inside cared anymore. There was no closeness between the slaves. No groups. The days were mostly spent sitting in silence with the door opening once in the morning and a group of girls and boys being dragged by their wooden block bound hands out to the street side to be sold amongst the hustle and bustle of the busy city, and then once more when they threw back the left overs. Sasuke was waiting for his day. Day in, day out he waited but somehow he was never picked. He assumed it was because there were a lot of girls. Girls seemed to be popular. And slower. Easier to catch. But the age of some of them disgusted Sasuke. As if someone that small, with such tiny hands and no strength at all could do any work. But the people who collected up the slaves didn't care. They came after any child alone. It didn't matter if you were dressed nicely, if you spoke like a noble. If you were alone they'd chase you. They barely ever brought in adults. Buyers wanted youngsters who still had their whole life ahead of them. A life of slavery.

That was what Sasuke waited for. He doubted life would get better but without some sort of goal, something to look forward to, he would become like some of the others. The ones who never got up all day. Just sat and never spoke. Or lay and slept all day. The ones past wishing. The ones who no longer cried or scurried for precious food. The ones who unlike Sasuke who simply considered dying being better than this but still wished to leave, wanted to die. Nothing mattered to them.

Sasuke spent the vast majority of his time next to one of the narrow barred windows- one of the only sources of light when the doors were closed. At night it was pitch-black. He knelt on the old box crate that the keepers had once bought them rotten apples in and watched the people go by, wandered the stalls in sight with his eyes; the pretty coloured silks that he was sure were fakes, being sold across the road, the weapons, shiny sword upon shiny sword, the jewelry. Thankfully there were no food stalls near enough the slaves' prison that their smells carried too heavily on the wind.

He watched the people. And he waited, and hated life. Life was unfair and painful and above all, waiting for his day to leave this place, to start a new life, to be saved… or to die, was boring. Day after day he sat and watched with the side of his face leant against the edge of where the window had been carved out. He spent so much time there that his eyes had erased the rows of bars from his vision and the scene that he watched everyday was clear and whole.

On this particular day, Sasuke was sitting watching the woman across the road try to sell her fakes to some rich looking man. Her smile was much too wide and the way she desperately pulled one cloth after another in front of the man trying to make a sale made Sasuke hate her. It was hot today too. Sasuke looked away from the street and tipped his head forward to tie his hair in a high ponytail to keep it off his neck. He hated the long hair, it had always been short before he had come here but they wouldn't let him cut it.

When Sasuke turned back to the window the light and the street had been blocked out by someone's obnoxious face.

"Ya know," said the voice of the face filling the window. Big blue eyes blinked and then the person moved back slightly. Light spilled weakly into room. "I always thought you were a girl." Sasuke frowned and was silent for a moment. The other person said nothing else.

"Well excuse me for being a guy," Sasuke snapped, surprising himself that he could actually still speak. It'd been a while.

The person at the window laughed and Sasuke observed that he too was a guy. Blonde hair, tan skin, blue eyes and weird lines stretching across his cheeks.

"Nah, it's just that, I see you sometimes, well every time I come here, looking out the window. You have real pretty eyes and long hair so I thought you were a girl. Sorry about that." Sasuke knelt forward and rested his arms under his chin. The blonde guy was grinning and rubbing the back of his neck like he was embarrassed or something.

Weirdo… Is he leaving soon or…

"What's your name?" Sasuke blinked and furrowed his eyebrows. What was with this guy? Who just stops and talks to a slave? Most people didn't even look his way when they passed.

"Sasuke…" he replied slowly.

"I'm Naruto. How old are you?"

"Seventeen."

"I see. Me too..." Awkward silence followed. Sasuke watched people pass on either side of Naruto and tried to ignore the blonde watching him with his big blue eyes.

"So how'd you get in there?" asked Naruto and Sasuke's sharp black eyes snapped back to him. He opened his mouth and then shut it. Naruto blinked innocently.

What kind of question is that?

Again Naruto blinked. Sasuke decided he'd rather not answer so he replied, "through the door" and Naruto laughed which wasn't really what Sasuke had been aiming for. He mostly just wanted Naruto to leave.

"What I meant is how did you end up in that situation of yours, being a slave and everything," chuckled Naruto and then looked to Sasuke for a proper answer. The raven haired boy lowered his eyes and wrinkled his nose uncomfortably. He could feel Naruto waiting and there was something about how the blonde seemed like he'd just sit without tiring made Sasuke feel like he needed to answer…

"They take anyone…" He began. " Any kid. I mean I'm hardly a kid but they still came after me. They chase you and bring you here… They don't feed you, they don't clean you…" Sasuke's voice was small. He wanted to sound indifferent but couldn't seem to make himself sound anything close. Naruto had leaned forward, taking the light again, to listen, his face very close to Sasuke's. He hummed carelessly under his breath and Sasuke all of a sudden felt angry.

"Not that a young master like you would know anything about it," He spat, pushing his face between the bars and forcing Naruto out. He scowled, hating the way Naruto was dressed. His pretty clothing and the shiny blue gem around his neck. His clean skin and soft looking hair, the healthy flush across his cheeks, the white teeth he showed Sasuke when he grinned, how he stood on the bright, busy side of the bars when Sasuke lived in the filth and darkness. Cold eyes flicked up and down over Naruto's frame. He clenched his jaw and glared but Naruto's face was calm. He looked sad. Sasuke hissed through his teeth and then moved back, falling into the shadows and turning away, coming back to his senses. It wasn't Naruto's fault he was in here.

Naruto stepped up again. Sasuke glanced at him.

"Why are you even here?" growled Sasuke. Naruto said nothing but put one hand between the bars and reached out to Sasuke. Sasuke backed away, wrapping his thin arms around himself.

"What? What do you want? People don't talk to slaves. People don't try to be friendly to slaves. People buy slaves and work slaves. People use slaves. Beat them. Rape them… What is it that you want?" Naruto smiled a little and withdrew his arm. Sasuke heard him dust his hands off on his pants.

"If you're looking out the window I think that you must want someone to talk to you. I'm gonna come back tomorrow Sasuke. I promise" Naruto disappeared from the window and Sasuke sat back down on his crate with his back to the window.

What the hell…

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Naruto in fact did keep his promise. Sasuke guessed it was about noon when he came back. This time he wore a plain, wide necked, white shirt and black slacks. Sasuke watched him as he approached, an uninterested expression on his face as he took in the mess of blonde hair, the bright blue eyes, the broad shoulders and exposed collar bone. The way his chest didn't seem to cave in on its self like Sasuke's.

"Hey."

"Hey."

"Hows it going?"

"How do you think it's going dumbass." Naruto smiled slightly and looked apologetic. Sasuke moved himself into a more comfortable kneeling position and faced Naruto.

"Sorry," he apologized. Sasuke rolled his head to the side on his arms and watched Naruto shift his weight to one leg. Getting comfortable for conversation Sasuke assumed.

"S'ok."

"You tied your hair up again."

"Yeah, it's annoying when it's down. Makes my neck all sweaty…"

"Hmm… I think makes you look more girly, the way it looks all layered and spiky at the top of the ponytail." Sasuke thinned his eyes against the sun, Naruto's figure stretching out across his eyelashes.

"Whatever." Naruto was smiling at him.

"You look like a cat like that." Sasuke grunted, opened his eyes properly and watched Naruto's bright blues drift sideways and he stepped out to see around the corner where they were selling today's lots. They could hear the auctioneer calling the bids. This one seemed to be going for quite the high price. Sasuke picked it as the teenage girl with the huge chest they had hauled out this morning. He remembered how some of the older boys who still had some sort of appetite for that kind of thing had pounced on her. She probably wouldn't go to a situation much better by the look of her and the sound of her auction.

"So when do you think that'll be you?" Naruto's question was soft and his eyes were sad when they meet gaze again. Sasuke swallowed and the blonde continued, his eyes on Sasuke. "You might go somewhere better than this right? To some nice house on the hillside. But you've gotta be twice as pretty as that girl out there… The buyers look like they want a slave for more than just cleaning… Who knows what could happen to you if you're sold. Maybe it would be better to stay put…" When Naruto was finished talking he was still looking through at the boy behind the bars. Sasuke broke away first and then shrugged.

"They decide when it's my turn to be out there but I think they think that I've still got some life in me since I still get up and go get food at the door and actually get up to come over here everyday so they don't want to put me out in case I'm rebellious… As for whether it will be better… I think it'd be much the same anywhere…" Sasuke felt Naruto tense. The raven smiled miserably and turned back to the blonde.

"What? You thought that sort of thing didn't happen inside here too? You think that we all just go to sleep at night. You think all the boys leave all the girls alone? As if. Some days I can't sit down. I stand the whole day."

Naruto's mouth fell slack, his eyes widening at what Sasuke implied but wouldn't directly say.

"Sasuke… Why do you…-"

"Why do I what?" Sasuke said calmly cutting through Naruto's words. "Let them? I don't have a choice. Why do I not fend them off? I can't. I'm a slave. I don't have a choice in anything. I live to serve. This my life. This is-" This time it was Sasuke's turn to be cut off. Naruto's hands shot through the bars and grabbed Sasuke by the collar, jerking him forward, the motion driving splinters from the crate under his knees into his flesh. The thin tunic he was wearing rode up as Naruto dragged him in close. Sasuke yelped and tried to pull it down at the back as it exposed him naked to his hips.

"Oi! What are you doing? Let go you moron!" hissed Sasuke angrily. They were nose to nose. Naruto looked hurt and Sasuke wanted to hit him. It wasn't him who was getting it was it? So what was with that face?

"Sasuke, listen to me. You have to tell the keepers, the guards what's going on in there! I'll tell them! You, the girls, other boys, no one should have that done to them!" Sasuke struggled and dug his long broken fingernails into Naruto's hands.

"Let go! The keepers don't care! They don't give a damn what happens to us! Let go damnit!" Naruto loosened his grip slightly and Sasuke tore himself free and stumbled back. His grazed knees were bleeding and the raven cursed the stupid idiot. How long would something so simple take to heal on him? And infection? The risk of infection through even the tiniest of wounds in there was ridiculously high.

Idiot!

"What the hell?" snarled Sasuke taking small steps forward again to address Naruto and readjusting his clothing, glancing around the room. Two boys in the corner were watching him, three girls along the back wall. Sasuke climbed up onto the crate and stuck his nose between the bars. Naruto came close again.

"What the hell was that about? Normal people don't grab people like that!"

"Sorry. I just didn't like hearing that… I don't like seeing bad things happen to my friends." Said Naruto. His fingertips butterflied the back of Sasuke's hand where it held the base of the window ledge.

"We're not friends and you haven't seen anything," muttered Sasuke moving his hand away but Naruto carried on like he hadn't spoken.

"Is there really nothing we…" Sasuke turned his mouth down at the way Naruto spoke of the two of them, yesterday strangers, as a collective unit. "…can do Sasuke? There has to be some kind of decent person around? Don't they keep watch on you or something to make sure nothing happens?"

"Of course not. I told you, they don't care." Naruto drew back. Sasuke took the time to examine where his chest had smacked against the wall for bruises and consider why he was actually engaging in some kind of conversation with someone as irritating, horrendously impulsive and loud mouthed as Naruto.

"Na, Sasuke." Sasuke didn't answer when Naruto called him. He wasn't sure he wanted to talk to the blonde but didn't move away from the window. He played absently with the fluffy, spiky bit to his ponytail that Naruto had commented on.

"Sasuke," he called again. Sasuke looked up. Naruto had his hands through the bars again. "Show me your hands." Sasuke narrowed his eyes.

"What interest do my hands have to you…"

"Can I see them or not?" Naruto's face was serious.

Sasuke hesitantly put his hands up, palms out, in front of him and Naruto reached out and took one gently in his slightly larger, warm hand. He guided it carefully between the bars and pulled Sasuke's arm into the light to his elbow. His skin was painfully pale. Sasuke shuffled uneasily as Naruto breathed in loudly through his nose and encircled Sasuke's wrist with his fingers. There was room to spare.

"So small…" murmured Naruto squeezing lightly and rubbing at his heartbeat. "Too small…"

He then let go of Sasuke's wrist and spread his white hand out flat with his, running his thumb over the ragged edges of Sasuke's long fingernails.

"How much do they feed you?"

"…Not a lot. Just enough…" Naruto nodded and Sasuke's eyes skirted off to one side, unnerved by the blonde's serious face.

"Look. This is scary." Naruto held his wrist up next to Sasuke's and the difference in size was frightening. Naruto's looked huge, his skin a warm creamy brown colour. Healthy. When he rolled up his sleeves his arm was free of bruises and clean. Sasuke's arm was a strange, almost grey sort of colour.

"Ok that's enough," said Sasuke abruptly and pulled his arm back in, holding the limb against him and rubbing the skin that Naruto had touched. Naruto leant in as far as he could, gripping the bars.

"Na, Sasuke. We're friends ok?" His loud voice echoed unnaturally inside the walls of the slave quarters. Sasuke eyed him from the shadows and wished he'd keep his voice down.

"I'll come back tomorrow ok?" Sasuke said nothing. Naruto nodded to himself, took one last look at Sasuke standing in front of his kneeling crate and was gone.

Sasuke stood for a moment and then moved back to the window looking this way and that but Naruto had already disappeared into the crowd.

"Oi, you." Sasuke turned and recoiled as he saw one of the corner boys standing and coming across the room. Sasuke remembered him coming in last week. He still had good colouring and didn't stumble when he got to his feet. His walk was firm and strong. Sasuke pressed his back against the wall.

"What?" The boy was before him, about head taller and with broad shoulders and thick legs.

"I heard ya talking to that guy. About shit that happens. Does that really happen?" Sasuke ducked his head and drew into himself. He knew, as a man, as a once prideful man, he should stand up straight and not appear frightened. Stand his ground. But the last time he did that he'd been beaten by someone bigger than him. He'd learnt it really was best to do what he was told.

"You know it does. You've heard haven't you?" muttered Sasuke, averting his eyes. The boy took a step forward and put one hand on the wall behind Sasuke's head, the other slinked to Sasuke's bony hip.

"I heard ya talking n' sayin' that you once got it done to you to huh?"

Not once.

Sasuke batted his hand away but it came right back. He moved out from under it but it followed.

"And…" The hand moved behind Sasuke and skimmed across his back and ghosted over where it rose into his behind, the touch vividly sickening through the thin cloth. "I also saw this." The boy grabbed a handful of Sasuke's flesh and the raven hissed and shoved the other male.

"Back off." But he just came right back. He took Sasuke's face between thumb and finger and forced him to look at him.

"Yeah, you're real cute. Skinny and all but cute. Like a girl. If you don't want ta get it up the ass from just anyone again, how 'bout hooking onta me. We could be a real thing. Then not just anyone could touch you, what was it? Sasuke…" He stroked the side of Sasuke's face with his thumb and the raven shivered at the way he dragged out the S's in his name.

"Thanks but no thanks," replied Sasuke quietly, eyes toward the ground. He felt the boy pause, straighten up, then move away. When Sasuke looked up he shrugged his shoulders and grinned. His eyes were shiny in the shadows and held a cruel glint.

"Your loss…Talk to you later, Sasuke kun." He melted into the shadows and Sasuke's breathing picked up and he pressed himself into the wall clutching the neck of his tunic.

Something in his tone had Sasuke's palms sweaty. He didn't show how his stomach twisted on his face but something in that tone…

A promise.

That there was more to come…

Sasuke spent the rest of the day with his knees drawn up to his chest, his tunic tucked between his legs, watching the outside world with only his eyes peeking over the top of the ledge. No one spoke to him. He didn't speak to anyone. He just watched. Long into the night, too on edge to sleep, too scared of what might happen should he sleep without his back up against the wall. So he watched. The empty stalls, the deserted streets. He watched. And waited.