Chapter 1
He opened the cell door, and then I was roughly thrown in. I surveyed my 1surroundings – a dank, dark cell filled with other people, and a few kids.
I looked up at him with as much hatred as I had in me.
"So... This is my prison?" I demanded. Sai smiled and shook his head.
"Prison is such a harsh word; don't you agree Naruto-kun? I prefer home, myself," he said, his expression similar to the one Kakashi wore before I was taken. I stood, albeit shakily.
"I can't be here. I'm not supposed to be here. I should be out there… No-one should be locked away like this; no-one!" I said it with such passion, there was quite murmurs from the other people within the cell.
"Lord Uchiha-sama has declared you his. Until the mutts are willing to make an exchange with us, you are his. Therefore you will remain in the one place where you cannot escape from him. I'm sorry to do this to you Naruto-kun, but it's already too late…"
Sai shut the gate behind him looking in at us. I ran at it, shaking the bars. There had to be a way out. There just had to be.
"I'm warning you, there is nothing that can keep me in. I will find a way to escape. I promise you that," I said. Sai smiled, but it was different from all the others I had ever seen on his face. It looked real.
"I hope you do, Naruto-kun," and with that, Sai left.
I looked at the people who were in here with me. They looked so lost, so hopeless. I had to help them. There was gotta be something that I could do. I searched in my pockets, and jumped with joy when I pulled out a bobby pin.
"For once Sakura, I'm glad you did my hair…" I murmured to myself. I began trying to pick the lock, but for what ever reason it just wouldn't work. I was normally quite good at picking locks, so I couldn't understand why this just wasn't budging.
I felt a hand on my shoulder, and looked up to see a man with greyish white hair, and froze suddenly. My throat constricted, and I could feel the tears well up. The face, this person, I had not seen in a very long time.
"J-j-jir-rayai? I-is that r-r-r-really y-you?" I asked. He smiled and I bounced up from my position on the ground, and hugged him. I held onto him like a little kid as I cried, the pain from thinking he was gone forever, replaced with sheer happiness that I found him again.
"I promised you we'd meet again kid. I never break my promises…" I looked up into Jiraiya's face, and realised he had let a few tears slip free too.
The reunion between Jiraiya and me seemed to bring a new hope to the various other people. They started talking to me, and telling me about how they all ended up here in this prison. Some of the stories they told me were heart breaking. One woman was put in here for stealing some milk to feed her new born baby, and 'Lord Uchiha-sama' had demanded that she be punished.
I was listening to Jiraiya's recount of the day he disappeared.
"Well it all began on a routine training session with Team seven…
We had been out in the training grounds, showing Naruto some new techniques that would be useful to his training.
A boy about a year or two younger than me spoke up. "Wouldn't Naruto have the same training as the other ninja's?" Jiraiya smiled.
"That's a good question. But no, Naruto didn't have the same training as the other ninja's."
A young girl frowned. "But isn't he a ninja too?" she asked. Jiraiya nodded, and continued with his story.
So we were showing Naruto some handy techniques, when there was an explosion. Thankfully none of us were hurt. But that relief was short outlived. You see, once the smoke and dust had cleared from the explosion we were facing one of the most infamous groups of missing-nin I have ever met.
"The Akatsuki…" I whispered, with pure, unadulterated hate.
The Akatsuki were first and foremost bent on capturing Naruto. But in recent months we noticed that their objective had changed. They were after one of the Akatsuki's younger brothers.
Unfortunately, we didn't even get a fighting chance. Itachi blinded us all with one of his genjutsu and then tried to make off with Sasuke. Ofcourse, I tried to use forbidden jutsu on Itachi. What I didn't realise though was that none of the Akatsuki knew how to do any of the forbidden jutsu, so they thought they would be able to use me to learn how to do them. That's why I ended up here.
"But we saw you die. Unless … it was part of the genjutsu? But… Sakura showed us how to break it. We thought we had!" Jiraiya just shook his head.
"Itachi is a very powerful man, and now that he has unlocked some secret mystery weapon, they are more powerful than ever. It may have seemed like you broke the jutsu, but I promise you, it was still going. I heard you Sakura and Sai screaming out when I supposedly died."
There was a quite murmur between everyone. I knew they were all taking on board how much stronger the Uchiha were, compared to us.
The girl from earlier stood up and came over to me. "So how did you end up here Mr. Naruto sir?" she asked. Everyone sort of turned their heads to look at me.
"Well my relationship with Sasuke is… quite complicated you see. It also starts a very long time ago, before I met Jiraiya, or anyone in Konoha."
"According to Tsunade you don't have any memories of Konoha," said Jiraiya suspiciously. I shook my head, slight guilt crossing my face.
"I pretended to not remember anything, because some of it was… quite different compared with the lives of a ninja. The culture is very different, and any secrets the Uchiha have hidden well from the residents of Konoha, well I know about them all too well…"
One of the men, whom I had nicknamed sake for his love of the alcoholic beverage, cleared his throat.
"If you wouldn't mind sharing your story with us, we would be eternally grateful. It may also help us in our attempt to escape this prison. As you said when you first came in, no one should be locked up as we are here."
"I respect your opinion. All of you, no matter of your age or your backgrounds. It is quite an uncomfortable tale to tell. Some of the stuff I have seen is the stuff made up of fairytales. The really scary fairy tales, that is.
Well it started around a week or two after my fifth birthday…"
My mother, and father, was very close with the Uchiha family. Both mine and Sasuke's parents had grown up together, and so were very close. They were hoping that we, their children, would have a similar upbringing.
I had been attending my first ball, of sorts, with my parents. We were sitting a little bit away from where the thrones of the Uchiha's were. It was a small round table, slightly cordoned off, but only enough so that people got the message that the didn't want to be disturbed, but wanted to enjoy the ball that was going on.
It's here, that the real problem began. Mikoto, Sasuke's mother, was discussing the topic of Sasuke's and Itachi's future engagement. So far, it had been going well. A cousin of mine, Kyuubi, had been decided as the best candidate for Itachi, as they both got on well. Fugaku, Sasuke's father, had slipped in a comment about me and Sasuke having an arranged marriage. As me and Sasuke were quite close, despite the age difference, my mother and father had readily agreed. Even knowing the biggest secret the Uchiha family had they still agreed.
Skipping ahead to my sixth birthday, all my friends had gone home, and Sasuke and I were out in the back garden, sitting up against the tree. We had been talking about the future. I remember Sasuke promising to protect me for all of eternity. Whether we were together or not, he didn't care. That was also the… the first time I realised what being a VAMPIRE really meant. I had cut my finger against a blade of grass, and lifted it to examine the drop of blood that was forming. Sasuke had taken my hand into his own, his eyes glowing horribly red, and licked the blood. In all honesty it had been one of the most terrifying things in my life. Sasuke, a person quite older than me, yet so close to me, turning out to be a monster.
Things, thankfully, began to progress somewhat normally. Sasuke and I were still quite close, but the incident never repeated. It seemed to be a once off. Then, when I had turned ten, the accident happened. I had been playing in the garden waiting for my mother and father to come collect me from the Uchiha manor, when the ball I had been playing with went flying. I hadn't realised that there were the sounds of the horses coming up the driveway.
The ball scared the horses, and they latched free of the carriage that held my parents. The carriage then began to race backward, picking up speed at an alarming rate. When the carriage eventually crashed, the screams of my mother stopped. I remember racing towards the carriage, as fast as my small legs could carry me.
The scene was horrific. My father had been crushed under the roof of the carriage. It looked like he had to tried to shield my mother from the worst of it, but she had been impaled by one of the rails that held the wheels in place.
Sasuke pulled me away from the sight, while the security guards and various other personnel from the Uchiha manor saw to the crash.
I was then left orphaned. A lot of people pitied me because of it. But I didn't care. I was first and foremost, in my eyes, a murderer. It was me who scared the horses, and caused the crash to happen. If I hadn't have kicked the ball, maybe they would still be alive.
Mikoto took me in, then. To the outside world, it was simply because our parents had been so close, but the real reason was that Sasuke and I were engaged. She told me this herself. That was the only reason I was still even alive. Sasuke had pleaded with her. The reason I was saved, was because I'm engaged to that prick…
But how I ended up in Konoha, well that is quite a tale. Long story short, after Sasuke had left to begin his training as a ninja in Konoha, I ran away. I couldn't bear to stay at the one place I had loathed so much. It reminded me that I wasn't the only murderer not being searched for.
For around three years, roughly, I ran from place to place. I would move on again at the first sign of anyone related to the Uchiha's showing up. Eventually I ended up in Konoha. I began my training as a ninja; alongside the one person I hate the most.
Many of the faces around me bore sympathy. Something I did not want from them. I didn't need their sympathy. The past is in the past. I had moved on, and so should they.
Sake smiled, and stood. "You have shown great courage for one so young in his years. Your life has made some of ours look like heaven; but to be able to tell others about, even though no one else knew. I commend you for it. That was one of the toughest, but bravest things I have ever seen anyone do," and Sake got down on one knee, and bowed. A couple of others stood, and then bowed as Sake had done. Soon, everyone in the room had bowed down to me, including Jiraiya.
"Please, there's no need. I was merely appeasing you. You were kind enough to share your hardships with me, so I did the same in return. Jiraiya stood from his position, and smiled at me.
The next day had begun awfully. I had been rudely awoken by a man I didn't recognise, and Sake, arguing with each other. I assumed they were trying to talk in 'hushed tones'; however they weren't very good at it.
"You will do no such thing!" whisper cried Sake. The other man stood in a sort of fighting stance, as if this conversation could take on a fight at any minute.
"He wants something young, and fresh. I am merely suggesting that she should be the one to go. I never said that that was definitely what was going to happen. You can't just assume."
"What the hell is going on?" I demanded. Sake and the other man looked over to the cot I had been asleep on.
"Nothing important," said the man, "you just go on back to sleep and let the adults talk about things calmly, hmm?" I narrowed my eyes. I really didn't like this person and I hadn't been awake for five minutes.
"I'm pretty sure I can handle whatever's going on. I'm not that young, you know!" I huffed. Sake smiled, but it didn't last long.
"This man here is suggesting my granddaughter be used as a sacrifice for Lord Uchiha-sama, simply because she is young, and 'fresh', as he puts. I refused, and said that somebody else should go in her place. She is young, very young. I do not want her innocence corrupted until she has at least reached the beginning of adulthood. I made a promise to her mother that nothing would hurt her precious daughter, and I plan on keeping that promise." I nodded. I completely understood what Sake was talking about. I would have refused if it had of been my granddaughter.
The gate opened with a creek, and I turned to see Sai and two guards. It scared me slightly that I hadn't heard their footsteps, and I knew this was deliberate on Sai's part.
"I hate to break up this little get together, but unfortunately we cannot keep Lord Uchiha-sama waiting any longer. I'll be taking the girl and then I'll be on my way," he said.
"Your not taking her," I said, "there has to be another way around this." Sai looked at me, his fake small falling slightly.
"I'm sorry Naruto-kun but orders are orders. And Sasuke-sama doesn't like to be kept waiting." I froze with shock.
"Wait, I thought Lord Uchiha-sama was Itachi?" I said, horror filling me to the very core. Sai shook his head, letting a small giggle be heard.
"Silly Naruto-kun. Why would Itachi be here, and not with the Akatsuki? But nevermind that. Right now our most pressing concern is who will take the place of the young lady. I don't think there IS anyone else down here healthy and young enough to fit the description. Well, there is one person." Sai looked me right in the eye. "Will you take her place, Naruto-kun? Or shall I just take her, and the old man for any trouble he'll cause?" Sake watched me carefully. I didn't need to be a psychic to know what he was thinking. He didn't want his granddaughter to get hurt, and I was probably a lot more capable of protecting myself than she was.
I was thinking, though. It had been so long since I had Sasuke, and the prospect of seeing him again scared me. I didn't want to admit it, but Sasuke still meant a lot to me. If I said no using me as a sacrifice, Sake's granddaughter and Sake would both be taken away. But if I said yes, I'd have to face Sasuke, and I couldn't. I was just to much of a coward to face the one person I hated the most, but still cared for more than anyone else.
"I-I'm sorry, Sake. I can't. Sasuke and I just have too much history together. I'm just too much of a coward…" Sake looked so angry, and upset.
"I had better hopes for you, Naruto. I really did." One of the guards` went over to lift Sake's granddaughter.
"Wait! Don't touch her. I'll make a deal with you," I said to Sai. "I'll be Sasuke's main source, if… if you let all of these people go!" I pleaded. Sasuke thought for a minute.
"I will have to talk to Sasuke-same, but I'll see what I can do." The guard came over and put handcuffs around me, and took me out of the cell…