"Only half a blue sky

Kinda there but not quite

I'm walking around with just one shoe

I'm half a heart without you

I'm half a man at best,

With half an arrow in my chest

I miss everything we do,

I'm half a heart without you"

-Half a Heart by One Direction

Illusion

Chapter One- Half a Heart

Obito couldn't believe what he was seeing. He knew it wasn't her, Rin, but this girl looked so similar. What were the chances of him finding a girl like this in the Mist village, around the same age Rin would have been? He had to have her.

Atsuko was just grabbing some groceries for her apartment, giving the vender a smile and a thank you as she bought some fish. She brushed some of her short brown hair out of her face as she checked her list one more time.

Yup, that's the last of it. She thought before putting her list in her pocket and heading towards her apartment, which was on the outskirts of the village. She liked the quiet.

She hummed to herself as she listened to the crunching of snow beneath her feet but slowed as she started feeling like someone was watching her.

Looking around, she didn't see anyone so she continued her walking, boiling down the feeling to her being paranoid. But when she still felt someone's eyes on her a minute later when she was completely alone, she was a little more suspicious. She became hyper aware; of the snow falling, of her own footsteps, of the crinkle of the paper bag of her groceries, the crisp scent of the cool air. She heard a whirling noise behind her and began to turn around but before she could see what was making the strange noise she was hit in the temple.

Obito caught her body before it hit the ground and examined it for a second. She wore a turtle neck and a standard Mist robe but it cut off about mid-thigh. If she didn't have long cow patterned socks and shorts showing under her robe he would have wondered if she was cold but he supposed she was probably used to this weather.

Lastly, he looked at her face. She wore her headband around her forehead and her hair was a bit longer than Rin's had been but there was still a resemblance. He couldn't tell what color her eyes were but it didn't really matter to him either way. Her face reminded him of her so much it didn't make a difference.

With a swirl they were gone and the old evidence they were there was some footsteps and a bag of groceries strewn across the ground quickly being covered with snow.

The next thing Atsuko knew, she was waking up in what looked like a cell. She didn't panic (she had been trained better than that); she just looked around the room to see if she could find a clue as to where she was and how to get out. Unfortunately, the room was dimly lit and there wasn't anything in the room except bars keeping her in her cell and a chair on the other side of the room. Not even a window to see outside or to break out of.

She tested the shackles binding her wrists but hissed as that only succeeded in chaffing the sensitive skin of her wrists.

She didn't notice anybody in the room with her until she heard someone outside her cell say, "Oh, you're awake. I should go tell him."

Whipping her head around to see the speaker, she screamed as the saw an aloe vera plant with a multi colored man inside sticking out of the floor. He laughed at her before working his way back into the floor and he was gone.

"What the hell was that!?" Atsuko asked herself, trying to process the strange event. Though she shouldn't have been that shocked, she had heard of stranger things before. Like Kisame Hoshigake; The Monster of the Hidden Mist, who had originated from her village. She heard he looked like a shark so an aloe vera plant man must be possible, right?

Suddenly, Atsuko was shaken out of her thoughts she heard echoing footsteps coming closer. As she squinted, a man came into view; wearing a cloak with a red cloud on it and an orange mask.

He stopped in front of her cell and just stood there, staring at her-waiting for her to make the first move. So she did.

"Who are you? Where am I?" she asked, moving forward in a kneeling position to see him better, having been sitting on her butt before. He didn't say anything for a minute as he took in the sound of her voice. It was different from Rin's- deeper but not manly. It was rich and smooth. It would have been almost soothing had she not been kind of frightened at the moment.

"Who are you?" he asked in return, pointedly ignoring her questions. This question took Atsuko by suprise, why would someone abduct her without knowing who she was? And even then, why would they suddenly want to know her?

"Nahina,...Atsuko..." she answered suspiciously. She didn't trust this man and had ever right not to.

The plant man emerged from the wall this time as she said this.

"Atsuko...That's a pretty name." The Aloe-man said with a smile, looking at the man in the mask for his opinion.

"Quiet Zetsu." The man in the mask said harshly, making the name named Zetsu's smile fade. He seemed to be thinking for a minute before finally deciding to speak again. "From now on," he addressed Atsuko, "you will be my prisoner. You will stay down here for the rest of you days. If you even think about escaping, I will not hesitate to kill you. Do you understand me?"

Atsuko, wide eyed and she just stared at the strange orange mask in horror.

"I said, do you understand?" he said again, this time a bit more loudly, this time making her jump and nod vigorously.

"Good." With that, he seemed to swirl into himself and disappear. A single tear slid down her face but she quickly wiped it away. Ninja's didn't cry.

"Don't cry Atsuko-chan." The man named Zetsu was still in the room, a fact she seemed to have overlooked somehow and his attempts at calming her down only made her jump again. "He's really not that bad. Don't worry." With a smile he wiggled back into the wall and was gone.

And Atsuko was left alone in a dark, dank cell with her thoughts.

Who was that man and his plant friend?

Why did they want her?

How was she going to escape?