Authoress Chat: So, this is my first Naruto fan-fiction in quite some time. This work is mature, dark and deals with tragic things. Please keep that in mind, especially going into this story. All cruelties have their purpose...

Disclaimer: None of this characters, with the exception of Niji and Kaikyu are mine.

The Cell

Another hoarse and terror-filled scream pierced the night. In the deep tunnels of earth, the sound seemed to be swallowed up. The walls were tight, the air hot, and oxygen was scarce. But the pain...it was unbearable. And she was suffering it all alone. Well, she was almost alone.

The gate to her cage opened with a slow creak. Out of an almost pitch-blackness came a light. In the flickering orange glow, she made out the face of a snake. It was that dreaded snake that had done this to her to begin with. A shaking hand lifted up, struggling to grasp his life in her hands. Her fingers ached to destroy what was so wicked...but there it was again. The pain started and she gave up, no longer trying to capture a non-existent soul.

A dark chuckle sounded in the deep and a hint of glass shimmered in the background. Of course, he had brought along his tool. Though the earth was wet with innumerable tears of grief, she held the rest back. There was no way that he would witness her weakness again. It amused him far too much.

"How is it coming along?"

She glared at him.

"You know...you know how this...is," she struggled.

"It looks painful. Perhaps I should have you healed," he hummed.

"I could do it," the young bespectacled one offered.

But before he could move, she backed up against the wall. She hissed, screaming irate curses and clutching her stomach, like a wounded animal. Finally the guttural moan came out.

"Fuck you..."

The snake came to her with a speed that defied natural law. He was face to face with the woman in labor, staring with incalculable malice.

"Now, now," he jeered. "My dear Niji, is that any way for a priestess to talk? And just think of the children."

She screamed again in his face. Her long black hair was matted to her forehead and neck. Her body, naked and covered in sweat, was exhausted. Her body shook as another contraction slammed into her and more blood spurted from between her legs, mingling with the pool already beneath her. She was dying and she knew it. Why would she receive medical assistance from the monsters who had done this to her?

Finally, he spoke.

"Don't be unreasonable. We can't very well have you die on us, can we?"

"Your genes are rare indeed," his puppet chimed in.

As she groaned again, he was openly amused. The chuckles couldn't seem to stop coming.

"So what will you do, Kabuto?"

Kabuto responded in much the same manner.

"Her death is out of the question. If the mitosis hasn't occurred correctly, her children will be useless and we'll need to create a new batch of zygotes to implant. We can't do that if we let her die."

"So keeping such a pious pain around is without a doubt the only option, you see?" he said, looking her way. "Oh well. Must I hold on to her?"

Niji screamed once again, in agony and fear as the snake proposed touching her. She couldn't let them do it! Her death would atone for the impure acts that had been committed on her body!

"I'll proceed however you like, Lord Orochimaru," Kabuto sighed. "Usually, I'd just sever a ligament or two. But she can't afford the blood loss. After you, milord."

Orochimaru took her by the arms and pinned them above her head, as Kabuto began to quickly create the hand-seals for his medical ninjutsu. Pressing his hands to her womb, Kabuto began to knit together the torn tissues of her uterus. Just then, he realized that Niji was beginning to crown.

"You have to push now."

She screamed and shook her head.

No, I refuse to do that now," she said. It was her first clear sentence in days. "I refuse. If I can...help it, this child and I...we will go to Hell!"

Orochimaru grasped her by the throat and applied just enough pressure on her carotid artery to send her into a daze. She was too stubborn, but also too valuable, too annoying yet too marvelous. For all the reasons he could list to kill her, he could list a million more to save her for later.

Suddenly, there was a prick in her arm. Niji was used to being poked, prodded and tortured mercilessly but this would prove to be the worst thing that they had ever done to her. She had but a few moments of blurred resistance left to her before she could not stop the horrific sensation of birth.

Her legs shook but no matter how hard she tried to fight it, the first of her dreaded offspring escaped from her. She finally couldn't hold back the anguish or tears. A broken cry escaped, a howl of surrender to a defiling so profound as to warrant death. She struggled to grip herself between her legs, to no avail, as the next baby crowned.

"I see that the oxytocin worked," Orochimaru said smiling.

Kabuto played with his glasses.

"Of course it did." He paused. "At twice the dosage. I wish that she had been more cooperative."

She howled for mercy as yet another life-form crawled from her, followed by another. It took only minutes for Niji to birth four children and the first had already proven deceased. As Niji began to slow down, the fifth and final baby began to crown. She slummped against the wall. It was no use. It was no use to resist, as the pain had become excruciating. Reluctantly, she pushed downwards, screaming hoarsely as Kabuto ripped the life from her.

Her heart beat hard against her chest as she felt it skip a fair number of beats. Niji felt as though her heart could seize at any second. She became violently ill all at once and with a strained heave, she vomited right on her tormentors.

"All of this pain and evil," she thought one last time. "And for what purpose?"

And then, she was gone.

Authoress Chat: Hope I didn't put off too many people. Please review, even if you disliked it. I'm open. Also, about the chapter, it's title is significant to this story for more than one reason.