Prologue: Darkness

The room was tiny, filled with stale air. The stones were cold, and dank. There was no light, save for a tiny sliver at the bottom of the door, which barely illuminated the floor, let alone the rest of the somewhat damp room. There was almost no sound, the room closing in around it's sole occupant, who was huddled in one corner, shivering and sobbing pathetically. She was dressed in the tattered remains of her former uniform, her black coat and skirt ripped to shreds and smothered in dirt. She was young, only about fourteen, but her age wasn't apparent through the malnouirishment that was all too evident in her features.

She didn't know how long she'd been there. She'd fled her former master in tears at midsummer, but time slowed down when she'd been thrown into this hole. The questions came next, and she whimpered every time the sickly black mark on her shoulder was prodded by her 'inquisitors'. Inquisitors who, apparently felt the need for her to be naked during questioning.

Her head snapped up and she tried to scramble further into the corner as voices drifted through the tiny crack under the door, her sobbing growing louder as the memories of her past visitors flooded into her mind. Her tears started up again unvoluntarily when a shadow stopped in front of her door, blocking out the only source of light in her world...

Morino Ibiki stopped in front of the only room on the level that was lit up as occupied, frowning down at the clipboard he held. There wasn't supposed to be anyone this far down... In fact, the logs he held in front of him stated that nobody had been down here in months... His gaze shifted from the small red light to the paper, and back again. "What the hell...?" He muttered aloud, reaching for the spinbar that locked the room shut. Unlike all the rest of the doors on the floor, this one was extremely well-kept, which bothered him even more. The door swung open, and he was greeted by a loud whimper.

"P-please... I d-didn't know..." The girl cried, hiding her tear-streaked face behind her wild, unkempt violet hair. Hair that he recognised immediately.

"Wha...?" This was not right... This kid was released three months ago! "Why are you in here?" He asked, dumbfounded.

"I swear it... I s-swear it..." She sobbed repeatedly, rocking back and forth in her corner. Ibiki's senses returned to him in an instant, and his training kicked in. The girl let out a strangled scream when he reached for her, but he didn't hesitate. He had to help her now or she would suffer even greater psychological damage as the seconds ticked past...

She was prepared for the worst. She didn't recognise this man, so he was probably new to her handling crew. And the new ones always felt the need to 'mark' her as theirs. At least, the last few had...

But the man did not grab her. To her astonishment, she felt a heavy coat drape over her dishevelled body, the sudden warmth startling her out of her tears. And when she looked back up at the man, he didn't seem nearly as bad as he had a second ago. There was a genuinely concerned expression on his scarred face that sparked a tiny flare of hope in her tortured body, a hope that she latched onto with a madwoman's deathgrip. "I'm here to help you." He said gently, reaching out a hand. "If you'll let me..."

The offered hand was ignored, in favour of what she really needed. The man made a slight "Oof!" sound as he was knocked clean off his feet, but the tiny girl latched herself around his waist, and let her sorrow pour out into his chest...

Sarutobi rocked the small blonde baby in his arms, cooing softly as he slowly drifted off to sleep. Scarcely three days had passed since the child's father had orphaned his son, and saved his home in doing it. The demon fox that had attacked them now slumbered within the soul of this poor child, and already the village council was calling for his blood. He laid the sleeping boy back into his small cradle beside the Hokage's desk and sat back into his chair, chewing thoughtfully on the end of his unlit pipe. "What must be done...?" He asked aloud, pondering the solution to the problem the boy posed. "Nobody has seen him... Nobody knows whose child he is... All they see is the Kitsune... What to do, indeed..."

The door to his office opened silently just then, and Ibiki, the new head of ANBU torture and interrogation stepped into the room, a sleeping girl wrapped in his coat held in his arms. "I'm sorry to disturb you, Hokage-sama, but we have a big problem." He laid the sleeping girl on a chair to one side of the room, and relayed what he'd found to his leader. "...And after she'd cried herself to sleep, I inspected the extent of her injuries..." His expression fell. "She's been beaten on a near-constant basis for at least a month, and... Raped, sir... Several times..."

The Professor visibly sagged under his grief. "Go." He commanded simply. "I'll deal with this. You've done the right thing, Ibiki..." The large ANBU captain nodded and left the room, pausing to cast one last glance at the girl before he closed the door behind himself.

The Hokage slumped in his seat, emotionally and physically drained. "I've failed you two... Failed in my duties as Hokage..." He whispered hoarsely, looking over the two children, so similar in their predicaments. "I'm sorry, Naruto-kun... Anko-chan..." His apologies fell on deaf ears, however, and the pair slumbered on, unaware of the life-changing decision the old man was coming to in his mind. "I will make this right... I swear it..."

A/N: Ever get that one idea that will never leave you alone? Yeah. Here's my latest one.