Ok, so this is an AU Naruto fanfic. It is set in some indeterminate country. In this world, chakra manipulation/other stuff shown later is regarded as "witchcraft" and is majorly hated. "Witch-children" are often killed, and all "witches" tend to hide their abilities. There will be at least one, but probably not many, important OC's. Please whatever gods may be watching, let her not turn into a Mary Sue. PLEASE. Some major non-canon changes, such as Itachi is not a homicidal psychopath. I am not Japanese, and do not know Japanese, but I will be throwing in some Japanese words/phrases. If I get them wrong, please tell me. Constructive criticism is welcome, flames will be laughed at and their spelling and grammar corrected. Please enjoy my first-ever fanfic!

Disclaimer: I own only my OC's and the characters of those who are out-of-character. I really hope that the Seven Deadly Sins nightclub exists only in my sick and twisted imagination.

warning: THIS IS NOT GOING TO BE A HAPPY FIC! It may have a happy ending, may not, but it will almost certainly be rated M. There will be mentions of child abuse, rape, torture, slavery, death, etc., and flashbacks showing some of it. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Bijuu

When Umino Iruka first joined the Konoha Police Department, he was twenty-three years old, not long out of college, and a complete idiot. He had thought of everything in terms of car chases, heroic rescues, and hostage situations in which the villains were all incompetent fuckwits and no one ever got hurt. Unsurprisingly, that notion was sandblasted out of his head during the first few days in the Police Academy. However, even with the grueling year of training, even worse rookie year, and four more years of active duty under his belt, he had never even imagined being in a situation like this! He stood outside of a club called "The Seven Deadly Sins," a nightclub so exclusive that you could only enter by the direct recommendation of another patron. And that was only for the front room! Of course, that may have had something to do with the fact that while the goings-on in the front room were legal, though some only barely, what happened in the back room most definitely was not- not for adults, and most definitely not for the children that their informant reported were the actual "performers." The informant had managed to procure an invitation to both the club and the back room, and by some freak of luck (or possibly some sleight-of-hand by Iruka's junior partner) their team had been chosen to go. The invitation was for one only, though, which was why Iruka was currently standing and wishing he had not been quite so convincing in his argument with Itachi over who exactly would be the one to go.
Flashback
After the assignment briefing, and the anguished cries of "Why them! Why not us!" from the teams who had been passed over, and the similarly anguished cries of "Why us! Why not them! Any of them!" from both Iruka and some of the less-enthusiastic members of the support team, Chief Sarutobi had smiled, that warm, gentle, "because I'm a sadistic, merciless bastard" smile, and told the assembled cops, "Because that's how it's going to be. Now, Umino-san, Uchiha-san, you two decide who's going in and who is staying on the headset. Have fun!"

Then, with the speed and grace given by long years of practice, the bastard slipped out of the room before anyone could so much as blink, let alone argue. He was quickly followed by all who didn't want to hear the imminent argument, as those who stayed started to make bets.

"I am going in."

"No, you're not. You are going to stay in the surveillance van, at least two blocks away, at all times."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

After about three minutes of this- uh... captivating... conversation, Iruka finally decided to stop acting like a five-year-old and use reason.

"Itachi, say you do go in. And then say that it turns out these are the people that have your brother. What will you do 1) when you recognize him, and 2) when they recognize you?"

"Probably shoot them."

"Point proved. You're staying behind."

"No."

"Yes."

A smirk: Itachi was much better at being an annoying juvenile than Iruka. After all, he'd had a lot more practice, and he'd had it more recently. "No."

Iruka slammed his head on the table. He had really hoped this would be easier. Then again, when exactly had anything in his life been easy?

"Itachi. I am your senior partner. You have an emotional connection to the case. I'm probably already pushing it by not insisting that we be removed from this case entirely. You are staying in the van. I am going in. End of story. Go get ready." Iruka walked out of the briefing room, not even noticing the people behind him collecting on their bets. He walked towards his desk, once again questioning whether or not he could deal with a case he had no idea why the police, of all people, were handling, as it was clearly at least federal-level, with a rookie partner who had already demonstrated that he couldn't keep a straight head when dealing with the aftermath of his parent's selling his little brother. The day his mother had gone berserk, killing her husband and then herself after writing a confession, Itachi had calmly and coolly walked to the shooting range, and proceeded to blow every single target to very small pieces. One onlooker had remarked that it was lucky there hadn't been a bazooka. The young man had a reputation for being utterly cold and impersonal, almost emotionless, but it seemed as though he had invested in his brother all the emotion and attachment he refused to otherwise show.

Iruka sighed and looked up. Was he doing the right thing? Probably not. Was he doing it anyway? Yes. If he was lucky, it wouldn't blow up, and Itachi might finally at least get some closure. Iruka didn't hold much hope that the boy was still alive. After all, he had only been seven, and he had been gone for three years. The statistics weren't good, and even if the boy was still alive, he had probably been used and abused to the point that even if they found what was left of the boy, it wouldn't be Itachi's little brother. Not anymore. Iruka had been a cop for long enough to stop believing in long-delayed happy endings. Either an ending was quick, or it wasn't happy. Iruka looked at the clock. Time to get ready for the infiltration. He snorted. This sounded like some bad movie! Iruka just hoped Itachi wasn't too angry anymore. He was terrifying when he was angry.

End Flashback
"I told you I should have gone. I could actually walk in."

Itachi wasn't as angry anymore, but he was still a smug, annoying bastard.

"Oh shut up, you-"

Itachi turned the speaker off for a few seconds, smirking. Nothing was quite as much fun as pissing off his senior partner.

Back in front of the club, Iruka took a deep breath, adjusted the tie of his suit, and stepped past the sign announcing "Gluttony Night," up to the black metal and plate-glass front door. He opened one side, rehearsing the procedure he had been taught for getting into the club.

Inside the door, there was a man standing at a podium, much like the ones at fancy restaurants. Iruka silently handed him the invitation for one "Hayate Iruka" to attend the "most delightfully sinful entertainment in Konoha, with unlimited guest access" for as long as he carried the invitation and abided by the club's rules. One of the most important of these rules, of course, being one that Iruka had no intention of following: never to allow anyone "untrustworthy" (translation, "anyone who would rat them out") to discover what went on in the club. The man behind the podium inspected the card, scanning it with a strange ultraviolet scanner to verify its authenticity. Iruka stood and tried not to sweat. Soon, however, the man handed the invitation back, pressed a button under the podium, and waved Iruka through the opening door to the front room of the Seven Deadly Sins.

On first sight, the club seemed exactly as it was pretending to be: an exclusive but law-abiding nightclub with an original gambit. In the front room, there were five long, curving tables filled with delicacies such as lobster, caviar, expensive sushi and sweets and wines. one whole table, in fact, was devoted to various types of alcohol and legal drugs, though some of them barely so. As Iruka sniffed the air, however, he noticed hints of other, most definitely illegal drugs wafting from a curtain at the other side of the room. The front room was not as important as the back: no doubt some, or even many of the patrons of the front room had no idea of the nature of the back room. Iruka moved gracefully through the room towards the curtain, interacting with the other patrons only as necessary, but with all his senses alert for trouble. As he got to the curtain, he patted his pocket to make sure that his invitation was still in place, and also as a prearranged signal.

"We've almost got what we need from this room, just turn back and scan it over for five-ten seconds and we're good to go," came Itachi's now calm, business-like voice.

"Good," Iruka muttered, both to the comment and the placement of the invitation, and turned back towards the front room. He gazed at it for perhaps fifteen seconds, just to be sure, then smiled slightly and turned back to the curtain-covered back room's entrance. Folding back the curtain slightly, Iruka slipped through and let the curtain fall behind him. There was a small amount of blue light, and Iruka used it to follow the very careful instructions on how to get into the back room, and not wind up in one of the four less-friendly places set up so uninitiated front-roomers couldn't wander where they shouldn't be. Iruka turned left, walked for one and a half meters, turned left again, three steps, turned right, put out his right hand, found the slot about a meter above the floor, took out his invitation card, and slid it in. The door opened much as the door to the front room had, revealing... another room. With an identical setup and podium. And someone who could have been the brother of the man from the first room. Iruka shuddered. Creepy.

Iruka gave the reclaimed invitation to the man, who went through the same routine as his possibly-clone. As the door opened, Iruka stepped through, nodding to the man. As the door closed Iruka walked casually a few meters to the right, and simply observed.

The set-up of the back room was somewhat different from that of the front room. All around the edges were small tables, chairs, and couches where people could eat, sit, talk, and get high. In the middle of the room was a large square platform/stage full of smallish round tables. On these tables were a selection of food, such as in the front room, but many of those foods were illegal, such as certain varieties of fish, and some meats were definitely out of season. Most of the tables, however, were filled with illegal liquors and drugs. There was enough evidence here to convict each and every person in the room, and it made Iruka's hands itch.

What he had the hardest time with, however, were the couple dozen children, none of them over about twelve, who slipped around the room quietly, refilling drinks and helping drunk and drugged patrons stay on their feet. Each child wore roughly the same outfit: a short black skirt and shiny black halter top for the gilrs, and black shorts and a black tee-shirt with a diagonal red net slash across the chest from left shoulder to right hip for the boys. Some of the children sat or stood next to favored patrons, feeding them, helping them with their drugs and drinks, and if they were lucky, being fed some by their "companions." Then Iruka's mind ground to a temorary halt as he noticed that each child also had something that looked very like a collar around their neck.

"Ah, a new guest!" came from a man to Iruka's right.

"I hope you are enjoying your evening. Please, come. Join the party. Here, the quail is especially good right now." The man took Iruka by the elbow and led him to the stage and the food there. Iruka took a slight breath, and smiled a somewhat conspiratorial smile.

"Yes, of course. And may I suppose that next month, the king crab will be the best?" Quail was incredibly illegal just then, and king crab, while not currently in season either, would carry the highest penalties the next.

"You understand perfectly, my dear sir," the man said with a laugh. "Oh, how rude of me! I haven't even introduced my self. Your pardon: my name is Pein. I am one of the first members of this establishment." Iruka bowed.

"Pein-san, I am Hatake Iruka. Please, think nothing of it, as I, too, was remiss in my introduction." Pein bowed back, then led Iruka over to one of the tables laden with drugs.

"Hatake-san, please, choose whatever you would like. As it is your first week of membership, as you may have noticed, everything is free. Come, have some!"

"Ah, Pein-san, I wish I could, but unfortunately I must drive myself back tonight. It wouldn't do to jeopardize this fine establishment by risking an encounter with the police! Perhaps I will be able to partake of the astounding selection of diversions you have available at some time in the future."

"One can only hope. Might I enquire as to whether you plan on attending the nights of the other sins this week?"

Iruka somehow managed to sound fervent and excited, rather than horrified and nauseous, as he replied, "I certainly hope so!"

Then came the most awkward and potentially dangerous part of the evening, as Pein offered a small girl as a "companion" for Iruka. The only reason he managed to get through it was Itachi saying instructions in his ear. Iruka still wasn't quite sure why Itachi couldn't have just gotten him out of it entirely, but as he shared his food with the black-haired, lilac-eyed "Hinata," he was glad that at least his cover wasn't blown all to hell.

Sometimes it was nice, having a cold, heartless bastard for a partner.

Soooo... is it ok so far? And yes, Pein. And no, Itachi is not a member of the Akatsuki. Haven't decided yet whether there will actually be an Akatsuki organization, or just some of the members. Anyhoo, reviews are nice and so are suggestions for improvement. No idea when I'll be able to update, but I'll aim for soon.

Next chapter: we see what happens on the other nights, meet some of the main characters, and Iruka gets spotted... but by whom?