Prologue

It was very cold that night, eight years ago. And wet too, since it heavily raining, as if the sky itself was crying for the many lives wasted on the Great Fourth Ninja War. Despite its name and despite the fact that it was, indeed, a war fought by ninja, the war was quite different from anything else that had been seen in the ninja world. That conflict wasn´t about rivaling clans or nations. No, it was a war against terror, against a terrorist organization and a mad scientist, the war against the people of the red cloud, Akatsuki.

Chaos was everywhere. Fighting zombies of your deceased loved ones was no easy task and for each allied ninja felled there was the possibility of finding a brand new undying enemy coming back. When I finally discovered what was going on, the war was halfway on and we were losing badly. But do you wanna know the worst part about it? It was to discover that I was being kept away from it, from trying to protect my precious people… and to find out that that Teme was undoubtedly trying to destroy Konoha. And the rest of the world as a bonus.

Of course, After finding out about what was going on and knowing that I wouldn´t just cross my arms and stay still, Baa-chan gave me a mission: try to locate Sasuke´s hideout. We had a lead to some possible places thanks to some of the most unwilling undead fought during the war. it must really suck to be a zombie… . So I was sent to investigate it with Sakura-chan and some guys from other villages.

The place was hard to find. It was located deep underground, at the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind, in a barren deserted area. It took us some time to find an entrance and we only managed to get in thanks to some rock ninja that was with us.

I would say the place was heavily guarded, with plenty of those curse marked monsters that snake bastard liked so much, but since Sakura and I are so awesome we just painted the walls a new shade of red and kept going.

The hideout was pretty much the typical Orochimaru maze: stone corridors that looked all the same, with some strange line pattern painted on the reddish brown walls; low light given by lit torches and candles; heavy iron doors; and the stench of fear, blood and death.

I was disappointed to discover that the last living Uchiha wasn´t there. What I found there was something entirely different though and I still thank the Will of Fire for directing me that way. What we thought was a hideout wasn´t really used for that.

That place was one sick, twisted, mad scientist laboratory.

You wouldn´t believe the things I've seen there. Each new rasenganed door was a portal to a distinctive horror show. Whole and parts of people locked in green liquid filled tubes, some weird devices that I can only imagine to be used for torture and other stuff I'm still trying to forget.

Half of our forces left their breakfast at that cursed place. The other half left unshed tears.

But the worst we found later, when we got the holding cells.

It seemed that that part of the hideout had been forgotten by their keepers, along with their "inhabitants". The prisoners that were still alive were barely so. They showed clear signs of malnourishment and starvation, besides injury, sickness and mental trauma… Sakura could give a better explanation about what we found there.

Well, usually that´s to be expected from Orochimaru´s lair. I know it sounds cruel but it is true.

But what really pissed me of…

There were children in those cells. Lots of them. Very young children, from what I believed to be from 3 to 5 years old. Most were already dead, other were completely disfigured, some turned into monsters, others turned into a puddle of meat… I started crying at that point.

We counted more than a hundred kids in there, but not even a quarter had survived.

I will never, ever forget their faces…