"Computer."

"Yes, Master Sasuke?"

"Connect me to the main building of Scissila."

"Affirmative. One moment please."

He was fuming, almost beyond the point of no return. His eyebrows were furrowed in anger, the swirling whirlwind of irritation in his mind distracting him from the struggling blonde whose hair was firmly clenched in his hand. The teen jerking about frantically finally caught his attention and he pulled roughly on the locks in between his fingers, a silent command being the intention of the action.

The young man, whose body was lying halfway on the floor, gave a painful whine and clawed at the hand on his head in the best way he could manage at the moment. He was upset as well and he wanted to leave, but he was not strong enough to fight against the one who had a sort of death grip on his head. He could hardly make out any of his surroundings, the bright light of the computer screen blinding him slightly before he even really had the chance to see where he was.

"Connection confirmed."

A woman at flashed on screen shortly after. She was most likely a humanoid secretary 'doll' because she did not even smile at Sasuke when the video link started. Those types of models were more inclined to be programmed without emotions because they tended to be more efficient when it came to their precise duties. The majority of Scissila Corporation desk jobs were assigned to the androids they manufactured, the humans taking most of the higher paying jobs in the labs and other miscellaneous research facilities.

"Good evening. You have reached Scissila. How might we help you tonight?"

"Would you mind explaining this to me?" Sasuke asked back, yanking the boy up high enough for the woman on the screen to see.

**Earlier that day**

"Good morning, Master Sasuke. It is time for you to get up."

The computer's mechanical sounding voice was enough to wake him from his light slumber. The sunlight shone through the now open curtains, revealing the metallic city below.

Amolya was its name and—to those who lived within its walls—it was a type of technological paradise where all of the latest innovations were just barely out of their reach. While Amolya was highly populated, its citizens and patrons were of one class and one class only. The exceptionally wealthy. At least, that was the case of its human populous. All other occupants were either the 'dolls' that were constantly being bought and sold or the occasional animal.

Nineteen year old Uchiha Sasuke was one if Amolya's most prosperous inhabitants, a billionaire by the age of seventeen. Though he did make a substantial living by working at home, the bulk of his riches came from the inheritance money left for him by his deceased parents. He had lived in Amolya his entire life so far and—like most of the few long time citizens—he had become extremely bored with the infamous city's many attractions.

The appeal of Amolya could only enchant some people for so long and to be perfectly honest, he had lost the initial excitement the machine driven metropolis had instilled last year. Which was his main reason for his purchase of a custom made Scissila 'doll'. Owning one of these 'dolls' was the one thing he had not tried yet and his boredom was reason enough for him to attempt it. He was just tired of living in his large estate by himself. And, in retrospect, he had felt quite lonely in the past two years, though he would never admit it out loud. His brother, Uchiha Itachi, had moved out after their parents died, leaving not a single trance of his presence behind in their illustrious mansion.

"Computer. Turn on the news," Sasuke said after stretching out.

"Affirmative."

A female newscaster came into view in the form of a hologram projected onto the wall.

"And in other news, the Scissila Corporation has announced that they will begin producing of a new type of-"

Sasuke tuned it out after that, not wanting to hear about the company that was beginning to bother him. The Scissila Corporation was a very scrupulous, unbiased, and rather greedy kind of biotechnological business. As long as the customer paid the right price, they would sell anything to anyone, Sasuke being no exception to that rule of trade. But the problem was that custom units took longer to make than the common ones. He had been waiting for his original 'doll' to arrive for the past six months and waiting was not his forte, nor did he like doing it at all.

After taking a shower and fully dressing himself, Sasuke proceeded to his terminal, ready to start working on his new project. He was a freelance programmer that took just about any job he was offered at the right price. He had even done some work for Scissila though some of it was relatively minor compared to what their researchers did on a daily basis. Nevertheless, Sasuke was a very prominent person in his field, especially since he was relatively young for his choice of profession, meaning he could only get better as the years went by.

Eight hours later, Sasuke had finished assembling all the data for the Inauki Company, the main rival for the Scissila Corporation. He smirked to himself, wondering if his work for Scissila's competitor would backfire on him later. He could not count on one hand how many programmers had 'disappeared' because they helped out Inauki. Scissila prided themselves on being number one and having another company's status rise was not acceptable. But Scissila knew what kind of asset they would lose if they got rid of Sasuke so they left him alone when he made dealing with other businesses.

Sasuke sent all of the corresponding files to Inauki's main office and leaned back in his chair. He contemplated about turning in for the night, but that thought was thrown out the window when he heard a knock at the front door. He stood up with a sigh and exited his room, conveniently located within close proximity of the manor's entrance. When the door opened, the sight of a metal droid with a holographic clipboard greeted Sasuke.

"Delivery for Uchiha Sasuke from the Scissila Corporation," it said in a pitchy electronic voice.

After the droid received retinal verification, it left quickly after it got its pay and pushed the container inside Sasuke's home. Scissila wanted the transportation of 'dolls' to be as discreet as possible so Sasuke was not surprised by the druid's hasty departure. He narrowed his eyes at the box the droid had pushed in, inwardly glad that he did not have to do it himself.

Every 'doll' that was man-made by the scientists at the Scissila Corporation—whether common or custom made—arrived to their new owners in stainless steel boxes with a three foot length of transparent glass that was mainly used for the purposes of viewing the unit before it was brought out of its comatose like state. They were known to weigh a great deal and only enforced druids had the strength to handle them.

"Computer. Run diagnostics," Sasuke commanded crouch down to look through the glass.

"Affirmative. Analyzing for physical imperfections."

Sasuke almost laughed at the mere notion of finding physical anomalies. As far as he was concerned, the blonde laying before him was perfection in and of itself. In terms of its appearance—and from what he could see through the glass—it was exactly what he had asked for in the first place. He had given very specific details on how it should appear.

"Positive. No defects found. Analyzing bodily functions."

When Sasuke first considered ordering the 'doll', all he really wanted was a companion along the lines of a friend. Even now, as it was being analyzed, that was all he thought he wanted. But the form below him was just way too captivating to be human and yet it looked very much like a human should. The physical designers had certainly went above the bar for his 'doll', probably wanting to get more pay for the extra effort.

"Positive. No contaminations detected. All organ activity is normal."

"Evaluate the microchips next," Sasuke said, almost like an afterthought, so engrossed with his new 'doll' that he was hardly paying attention to the results of the individual scans.

"Affirmative. Examining brain implanted microchips."

Turning his head to the side, Sasuke wondered what type of blue they used for the eyes. He did not indicate a certain blue when he was going through physical features. But he kind of hoped they would be bright enough so as to set him apart from other 'dolls'.

"Negative. Error located."

Sasuke was snapped out of his thoughts and he looked at the monitor. There was indeed a red flashing error message on the luminescent screen.

"What is the error?"

"There appears to be some deficiency in its behavior. Origin and type cannot be verified until the unit has been activated."

He looked back at his new 'doll' for a few moments. Though Sasuke was an excellent programmer, he did not like to meddle in the behavioral algorithms because it was not his specialty. And for all he knew, Scissila could have used a new type of code that his computer was not familiar with. Besides, he did not want to mess it up even more if it was indeed faulty.

"Wake it up," Sasuke ordered.

"Affirmative. Running unit startup."

The cover of the container slowly slid open, exposing the entirety of the teen's body. He was wearing a form fitting body suit, the almost thin material enhancing his artificial muscles. The blonde male took in a breath and opened his bright blue eyes. He sat up and stared at Sasuke, not quite able to make out his figure.

"…Who the hell are you?" he asked.

That was most definitely not the greeting it was supposed to give to its new master. Sasuke had a exceedingly low tolerance when it came to other people's blunders and he was tremendously close to flying into an uncontrolled rage.

**Present time**

"I'm sorry, sir, but I don't see what the problem is. According to the paperwork, that is the model you asked for," the woman answered monotonously.

"What the hell are you doing?! Let me go!" the blonde yelled out suddenly.

"That's the problem! His behavioral chip is defective!" Sasuke replied while glaring death at the boy just an arm's length away from him.

"What would you like us to do about it?"

"I want you to take it back and-"

"I'm not an 'it', you bastard!" the teen interrupted.

Sasuke squeezed the blonde's head before letting it go, the abrupt drop to the floor hurting the young man more than he thought it would. His vision had finally adjusted and out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a door not twenty feet away from him. He did not know what would be behind the door, but even the slight chance of it being an exit was a good enough motive for him. But before he could even move, Sasuke placed his right boot on top of one of his hands, applying the sufficient amount pressure needed to prevent movement.

"But, sir, once you have activated it, any type of refund is null and void from that moment on. 'Naruto' now belongs to you."

"What?"

The quality of Sasuke's voice had noticeably calmed down, but it had become something of a frigidly quiet nature and it was all Naruto could do to keep from shuddering in fear.

"This is in accordance with our company policy. We can, however, offer to fix the flaw if that is what you want."

"Yes."

"Very well. You will be contacted at the appropriate time. Good night."

The image of the woman disappeared. Sasuke took his boot off of Naruto's hand, the teen immediately clutching the appendage to his chest. When Naruto looked at his hand, there was a clear imprint of the sole on his fingers. He had been mad ever since Sasuke had suddenly grabbed him by the hair for no reason, but now he was about to explode from how angry he was now.

"Look, I don't know who you think you are, but you can't treat me like this!" Naruto shouted vehemently.

Sasuke's fingers shakily clenched into a loose fist, the blonde's ranting driving a spike through his already irritated nerves. A slap to the face sent Naruto to the floor, his right cheek a bright crimson and pulsing with pain. Raising a hand up to soothe the throbbing, he glared up at Sasuke.

"You will not give me any backtalk ever again. Even though you are a malfunctioning 'doll', I still own you and you will do as I say," Sasuke murmured, his tone cold and threatening.

Sasuke knew he was not acting as he should, but he was upset to the point where rational thought was hardly possible. He grabbed the blonde's forearm and hauled him towards the door Naruto had been eyeing earlier. It slid open silently when Sasuke stepped up to the frame, recognizing the teen's heat signature. Lifting Naruto up to gaze at him momentarily, he threw the blonde to the ground, a hard thud echoing on the flooring.

"You will stay in here until I tell you otherwise."

And with that, the door slid closed and the numeric lock automatically triggered. Naruto stared at the darkness he had been plunged into. Part of him was glad that he did not make a run for this room when he had the chance. The other part wanted to beat all the sense out of Sasuke and hopefully escape. As his cerulean orbs became accustomed to the shadows that filled the bedroom he had been thrown into, he soon did not feel about sure being able to leave anytime soon.

But that would not stop him from trying.


Edit 5/12/2014; Removed author notes.