Hello.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Sanguine

def. 1. happy, hopeful; 2. crimson, blood-soaked.

Chapter 1

Rage

Twenty-year-old Haruno Sakura woke up abruptly as a foul stench hit her like a ton of bricks. Her dry throat contracted and she coughed, her hands flying to her face in an attempt to block out the odor. She swore under her breath and rolled over to the right side of her cot, knees bumping and digging into a particularly warm lump. She ignored the lump and tightly shut her eyes, pulling her measly cloth blanket closer to her. Slowly, she could feel the back of her eyes burn as exhaustion rolled in. She sighed as her instincts kicked in, sensing numerous presences all around her. 'It reeks,' She inwardly grumbled. 'It reeks of piss and death.'

Once her poor nose had gotten used to the putrid odor, Sakura wearily opened her eyes and twisted her neck to look over her shoulder. Her bleary vision cleared as rusted iron bars came into view. Past those bars were more bars, endlessly lining the hallway.

They were holding cells, and she was contained in one of them.

Indeed, she was a prisoner. One that was confined within the nation's most infamous impenetrable penitentiary, meant for the lowest beings of society. It was a place where the more dangerous you were, the higher in the building you would reside. It was a place where the higher in the building you resided, the harder it was for you to taste freedom. From the children that pick pockets, to the adulterating women. From the dirtiest of criminals, to the cruelest of murderers.

It was also a place well known for housing unwanted slaves.

Quietly, she sighed again and rested her head once more.

'I'm so, so tired...'

How many days has it been? How many months? Has it been a year or maybe two? The same thought process plagued her muddled mind, over and over again, day after day. Eventually, her mental strength wore out on her and she lost count after the first seven months of confinement. From time to time, she would wish to eventually be free of this forsaken prison, but of course reality would always hit back with reminders of her many sins. At the back of her mind, her conscious whispered to her, 'You are here... for forever.'

Her attention was drawn away as she heard various muttered curses from her fellow convicts. A gruff voice belonging to a man residing in the cell beside hers called out, "Who the hell died this time?"

Down the hall, someone replied, "The deranged merchant from Suna."

Several hoarse chuckles circulated around the prison chamber.

'Tanimura Shusuke,' Sakura recalled. 'The bony man with the crazed look in his eyes.' She chuckled heartlessly. He was known for luring young maidens with treasures that he had stolen from nobles and wealthy merchants. If he was successful, he would drug them, rape them, and then dismember them. Sakura never really liked the now deceased man, honestly never really dared to go near him. It was quite obvious that he had a few screws loose in his head, even without his heinous criminal records.

A female voice whispered from beside her. "No wonder we haven't been seeing him lately, right Sakura?"

Sakura cracked open her eyes, only to meet deep sea blue eyes belonging to a fairly petite and scrawny girl.

"Kaya," Greeted Sakura.

Hanzo Kaya was assigned as her cellmate whether or not Sakura wanted her at all. Three years her junior, Kaya was caught pick-pocketing a noblewoman's purse, and was then thrown behind bars on the spot. Sakura found it unfortunate that Kaya was sent to the most ruthless prison in the nation. However, the little girl did not belong in the higher floors of the prison, meant for jailing dangerous S-Classed criminals and whatnot.

The guards had simply told her, "There was not enough space for her in the lower floors."

"Bullshit," Sakura had sneered at them. But despite her cursing, there was nothing she could do about it.

Despite Sakura's many attempts to get rid of her, Kaya was the only person in this blasted facility that was brave enough to try and befriend her. Truly, it touched her heart, and so she allowed the companionship. Not only that, but Sakura would occasionally feel nostalgic as Kaya sometimes resembled an old friend who had passed away long ago.

Recalling the way her knees dug into something warm a few minutes prior, she realized now that that something was Kaya.

"Sorry," Sakura mumbled, "Did I wake you up?"

Kaya smiled and shook her head. "Not at all. I'm fine."

"Anyways," Kaya continued, "I'm glad I don't have to see or feel that lecherous stare of his ever again." She shuddered.

The edges of Sakura's lips slightly lifted upward in mild humor. "Lecherous indeed," She mused, "Any longer and I would've done something to him myself."

Kaya giggled despite knowing Sakura was being serious. Sakura never joked around.

Their quiet chatter was crudely interrupted by a thunderous chime that echoed throughout the entire facility. For once, Sakura was glad that she had woken up before the alarm.

"I can never get used to this," Kaya cringed. "Being woken up by that ghastly bell all the time is not good for my heart."

Sakura agreed wholeheartedly with her.

"It's time to get up," A commanding voice announced. The sound of metal banging against metal echoed as each cell's lock was becoming undone. Slowly, the sound of shuffling feet and exhausted moans were heard all around her.

It was the usual morning routine, where all the prisoners would be waken up at the early hours of dawn to be given rations for breakfast, and then hauled outside to the mines that surrounded the prison. Their daily labor was digging for gems and whatnot for the rich and ignorant nobles that financially kept the facility running.

"Sakura," Kaya nudged her, "Let's hurry and wash up."

Sakura nodded and slowly began to sit up. As the blanket fell off her, a metal collar around her neck was revealed, along with a sleeveless beige tunic. The tunic had deep slits on the side that reached her armpits. Luckily, the fabric was loosely laced together under her breasts and at her hips to prevent revealing more than what was needed. The tunic was also very short in length as it stopped right below her buttocks, showing off her long, pale, and mildly scarred legs. Frankly speaking, she detested how thin and short it was, but she had no say in what she was allowed to wear in a prison.

Her wrists and ankles were also cuffed by metal bands that were similar in design to the one around her collar. From one wrist to the other, and one ankle to the other, the metal bands were connected by fairly heavy chains that was also a meter long in length. Although her collar was simply for identification purposes, the bands around her wrists and ankles were measures taken to prevent her from using her chakra.

Following Kaya's urging, Sakura's chains clattered as she hobbled towards the rustic washing sink located in the far corner of their cell. As she got closer, she noticed her reflection through the dirty mirror perched above the sink. Sakura brushed her side-bangs away from her face and behind her ear. She stared at her reflection, and her reflection stared back at her.

'When was the last time I got a good look of myself?' She thought wryly.

Her long petal pink hair was now colored an unhealthy shade of dusty pink. Her cheeks were slightly hollowed in, and her lips were noticeably pale and chapped. Skin and bones were all she could see under her tunic. Her emerald eyes had also lost their beautiful shine and was replaced with pure exhaustion.

Beside her, Kaya was splashing her own face with water.

Sakura suddenly felt the urge to ask Kaya, "Do you happen to know what day it is today?"

Kaya looked up in surprise, rapidly blinking water out of her eyes. She knew exactly why her cellmate was asking for the date. Kaya's lips pursed and she hesitated, "Today is the hundredth and forty-sixth day of the Dragon Year."

Silence overcame them for a brief moment.

Sakura slowly swallowed the saliva that built up at the back of her throat and closed her eyes. She calmly exhaled through her nostrils and opened her eyes again. "I see," She said, "Thank you Kaya." She then leaned forward towards the sink and began to wash her own face.

Two years.

It had been two years since she became a prisoner. Memories of the past flooded her mind as she scrubbed dirt and oil off her face. Emotions that she hadn't felt in what seemed like ages welled in her chest. However, it was gone as quickly as it came as she recomposed herself. 'Two years is nothing,' She reminded herself, 'You're here forever.'

After she was done, the two girls began to make their way out of their cell. But before they could step out, the passage was unfortunately blocked by a rather big and burly man.

"You're slow," Sniffed the sentinel. "Not as fast you used to be huh, miss infamous assassin."

Sakura raised a questioning brow. "I'm afraid anyone hooked up to chains as heavy as these," She lifted her arms up, emphasizing the jangling chains between her wrist, and continued, "Would obviously slow down." Then she added, "Unfortunately for you," She lazily waved at his midsection. "You'll always be slowed down by a stomach you can't seem to get rid of."

The sentinel's cheeks flushed red in humiliation. "You-" He gritted out.

"Good day to you, sir." Sakura coolly said. She leisurely side-stepped past him and made her way out of the cell.

Behind her, she heard him shout, "Good day to you, princess."

Sakura ignored him and continued walking.

Kaya nervously tittered and darted past the fuming guard in order to catch up to her cellmate. When she finally caught up to the pinkette, Kaya exploded in a fit of giggles. "I don't think anyone here has won a verbal altercation against you yet."

"Impudent bastards," Grumbled Sakura. "Every single one of them."

They followed a crowd of prisoners down winding hallways and many staircases. The prison had a total of twenty-five floors, and their cell was on the eighteenth floor. Eventually coming down upon the lobby of the lowest floor, where a massive metal gate stood. The gate was one of the only two passageways within the vicinity. This particular one stood in between the facility and the outdoors, where the mines were located.

As the two girls entered the lobby, they saw rows upon rows of prisoners, the majority of them from other floors that had arrived before theirs. The rest of the prisoners were from her floor of the penitentiary, lined up and waiting for their rations at the center of the lobby.

"Sakura," Kaya tugged at the pinkette's tunic. "I'll go get our food rations. Wait here for me!" With that said, the scrawny girl ran off to join the line.

As Sakura waited for her cellmate, she watched the usual scenery that took place on a day to day basis. All around her, she saw men, women and children huddled up together while savoring their measly food. She spotted restrained bloodthirsty criminals, obviously imprisoned for killing a person or two. Occasionally, she would see people take their last breath as they fell victim to pure exhaustion and hunger.

"Walk faster if you don't want to lose your head early." Barked a nearby guard. He whacked his scabbard against the back of a woman's legs, causing her to fall over. From what Sakura could see, the woman already sported fresh wounds on her legs and arms. 'Marks from a whip.' She noted.

"P-Please," Begged the woman. She was sprawled on the floor. "Please... give me a few minutes to rest."

The guard's foot slammed against the woman's stomach. A distinct crack was heard along with her desperate gasps for air. "Get up," He growled. "Slaves don't get rest."

Sakura bit the inside of her cheek as she watched. The past two years she had been imprisoned, she would see a similar scene almost every day. Two days ago, it was a child. Last week, it was an elderly man. It was like seeing a one-sided fight between a rabbit and a tiger. It was awful, and it was brutal.

Sakura ripped her eyes away from the sentry and the woman. 'It's only one person.' She repeated, 'Only one person.' And that was what she would say to herself every day after turning her back once more.

Moments had passed by and Kaya had yet to come back. The younger of the two was no longer in the lineup for their food. Sakura frowned as she scanned across the lobby in search for her fellow inmate. She took notice of a group of restless prisoners, whispering among themselves as they watched an altercation between a sole female and several sentinels. Upon looking closer, Sakura stiffened in alarm as she realized that the female was Kaya.

'It's only one person.'

Slowly, she began to move towards Kaya and the soldiers.

'Only one person.'

Kaya held two small brown packages close to her chest, her sea blue eyes looking around frantically for a way out. She was surrounded by four armed men, all of which were leering at her dangerously.

"Where are you going with those two packages, lil' miss?" Grinned one of them, a captain of one of the troops within the prison.

"To my friend," Kaya nervously replied, "These are our rations."

"You can see your friend later," Hummed another guard. He smiled slyly as he pulled at her tunic. "How 'bout you spend awhile with us?"

"I have to get this to my friend," Kaya stammered. "She's hungry."

The guards laughed.

"So is every other prisoner here," The captain said. "But we don't really care."

A third guard on her right side roughly pulled at her arm. Kaya cried out from the pain and discomfort, the rations slipping out of her hands. "Scrawny," He commented, "But that doesn't matter anyways."

The other three guards laughed again. They began to close in on her, each guard pulling out knives and daggers from within their jackets. Petrified, Kaya began to scream and kick. However, the soldiers ignored her shrieking and tightened their grips on her as they began to slash away at her tunic with their daggers.

Eventually, the fourth guard kissed his teeth in annoyance, his ears aching from Kaya's shrieking. He slammed the hilt of his dagger across Kaya's cheek. "Shut up," He hissed, "Shut up before I cut your tongue."

Kaya's screaming was instantly halted, and she began to whimper. Her lower lip cracked open from the impact and began to bleed.

"Come on, man," The second guard snickered. "We need her tongue to be working."

They laughed again.

"P-Please," Kaya whispered. "Please let me go."

The third guard paused mid-laugh and sneered at her. "Hell n-urk!"

Chains came down on him and tightly wrapped around his neck. The guard's eyes bulged and his face turned a dangerous shade of red as he choked, desperately gasping for air. He clawed at the chains in an attempt to pull them off, his nails painfully scraping against his own neck. "...e..lp..." He wheezed. Seconds later, his eyes rolled upwards and his arms fell to his sides. The chains around his neck loosened and the lifeless body tumbled to the ground.

Kaya convulsed at the sight of a corpse right before her feet and she let out a horrified shriek into her hands. Her legs gave out on her and she fell a few inches away from the corpse. Her wide eyes traveled upwards, from the looping chains resting around the dead man's shoulders, to the ends of the chains that were attached to two black manacles. Manacles that happened to be wrapped around pale wrists belonging to one pink-haired woman.

Sakura stared impassively at the man that she had just strangled to death with her own shackles. Then she looked at the rest of the guards that surrounded Kaya. She made eye contact with the frightened child and motioned with her chin, as if telling Kaya to leave.

Kaya hesitated. A beat later, she pulled herself off the ground and scurried away.

"How dare you..." Growled the captain. His grip on his daggers tightened as he glared at Sakura. "Restrain her," He barked, pulling his comrades out of their daze.

The second guard ran at Sakura, his dagger readily positioned to lunge at her. Sakura tightened her chains around the dead man's neck again and hauled the corpse upwards in time to block the dagger. Her makeshift shield made a disturbing sound as it met with the dagger, blood quickly belching out of the wound. She swiftly unraveled her chains around the lifeless man's neck and sent a forceful kick against his back, sending both him and the second guard flying.

Behind her, the fourth guard hurled several blades towards her. Her shackles jingled as she side-stepped each blade and effortlessly caught them, rapidly flinging them back to their owner and impaling him in multiple areas of his body.

The captain faltered after seeing his comrades fall before him, but quickly gained his composure as other sentinels began to crowd around them, some even charging in at Sakura themselves.

As Sakura kicked and punched soldiers left and right, she began to feel a familiar tremor in the ground. Her eyes landed on the large gate that slowly began to open. The prisoners also took notice of the opening passage and began to evacuate towards the gate in a frenzy, hoping to escape the skirmish between a lone madwoman and many, many guards.

The captain took notice of the target in Sakura's eyes. "No!" He yelled, "Don't let her past those gates!"

Sakura hoisted up an unconscious man and threw him towards three men charging at her. She leaped onto the back of the unconscious man during the recoil and flew across hordes of soldiers. Touching down on the ground, she swiftly delivered a roundhouse kick to the guards surrounding her.

Her sharp eyes spotted the faint outline of a pair of daggers inside the jacket of one dead man. She focused strength into her legs and dived for the man's jacket, avoiding knives that flew at her as she tumbled. She stuck her hands into the inner pockets of the jacket and swiftly seized the two daggers, rolling on her backside in time to fend herself from another wave of descending blades. She kicked her heels against the ground and somersaulted backwards, expertly blocking an incoming guard's short-sword with the metal cuffs around her ankles. Landing on the balls of her feet, she quickly hoisted herself up and ran at the nearest man, blades ready in her hands.

Before she could reach him, she felt something narrow and thin pierce the back of her right thigh. Sakura twisted her neck around to look at the invasive object, eyes quickly narrowing as she recognized what she had been hit with.

"A tranquilizer," She breathed. 'And a familiar one at that.'

Nevertheless, she continued on her rampage. The anger within her, along with the raw thirst for freedom that welled up within her, fueled her and gave her the adrenaline that she needed.

Sakura hacked and slashed her way through the swarm of soldiers, until she finally reached the gate. As she darted past the gate, she saw the familiar bleary world outside of the prison. Next to the prison was the mines, a large sierra of rocks with it's own entryway that led underground. She noted the prisoners making their way into the mines. Briefly, she wondered if Kaya was there too.

Surrounding the prison and the mines however, was a large and extensive wall. It was this particular wall that the prison gained the title of "infamous impenetrable penitentiary." It was difficult to break in, and equally difficult to break out.

She began to feel the effects of the tranquilizer.

'I have to escape,' She thought, emerald eyes focused on the massive wall before her. 'I will escape.'

Sakura pumped more strength into her legs and kept running. She steered herself left and right, avoiding arrows sent from the watchtower attached to the prison behind her. As she continued to run, she encountered another mob of guards. She didn't falter and ran straight at them, the two blades in her hands readily positioned to slice and stab.

As she cut her way through the horde, she felt several prickling sensations as she was pierced with more tranquilizers. Her breath hitched in her throat as she stumbled, the potent drug coursing through her veins and numbing her muscles.

'A little more,' Her vision started to become hazy. 'Just a little more.'

Sakura winced as an arrow grazed her arm, blood spewing out of the wound. Her knuckles turned white as her grip on the stolen daggers tightened. Narrowly, she side-stepped a sword that swung at her side and she jammed her own dagger into the soldier. Her foot met another guard's stomach, sending him flying towards his comrades. With a new path carved open for her, she dropped her daggers and made a run for it.

She ran as fast as she could, ignoring the rain of arrows that whizzed past her. She leaped into the air and kicked against one man's shoulders to propel herself further. She tumbled as she landed on the ground, getting up immediately to lunge at a guard, pushing past him and several others.

'Almost there,' She chanted. 'Almost there.'

As she got closer and closer to the gate that stood in between the wall, she reached her hand out, fingers stretching and wiggling as she desperately tried to touch the gate.

Thwack!

Sakura's eyes slowly widened in disbelief. Her breath caught in her throat. Apprehension dawned as she realized that she had been hit with another sedative. She staggered and then collapsed, her fingers lightly brushing against the gate's cool slate metal. Her legs and arms were completely numb. Her mind had been taken over by drowsiness.

She chuckled hoarsely, "I can't escape..." Gradually, her quiet chuckles turned into a full-blown maniacal laugh.

Slowly, conscious and able-bodied guards began to gather around her. They watched her laugh as if she just had the time of her life. They watched as tears streamed out of the corner of her eyes, down her pale cheeks, and into the dirt.

"She's insane," Whispered one man. "She's a monster."

Haruno Sakura was sent to the penitentiary on the 84th day of the Tiger Year, to be imprisoned for life.

It was now the 146th day of the Dragon Year, approximately two years after her imprisonment.

47 jailers killed, and many, many others had been injured.

Haruno Sakura was sent to solitary confinement in a chamber at the very top of the prison.

A/N: A little bit of cringe-worthy almost-rape scenes, but that's the kind of world this is.

I've had this idea for awhile now. I don't know where it's going to go, but it'll work out somehow. I hope.

Also, I'm going by the Chinese zodiac calendar, if anyone is wondering about the dates.

Also, I'm pretty sure my fight scenes are terrible.