A/N: Thanks for reading and your reviews. It means a lot. Also thanks for giving an OC story a shot. This is Ever Numb, chapter two of the Ever Tense prequel. Be sure to check out Ever Tense~Enjoy!

Chapter Two:

"Thank you kindly for your donation, Akatsuki." The three men turned to leave as the brute that locked her in the cell spoke, turned, and followed them out.

Kisame grunted in response, Itachi locked eyes with her, seemingly ignoring the man that'd put her in the cell. She raged inside as she watched his eyes, her heart and soul a torrent of emotions, all coming to the surface.

"Be numb." His words rang in her mind, and she couldn't hold it anymore, she screamed at the top of her lungs, in anger, in fear, in hate, she cried out her raw fury.

"You knew! From the beginning, you knew…what this was! Didn't you!?" Rei shrieked from behind her cell door, fingers curled around the iron bars in the huge oak door's window so tight that the knuckles ran white as bone.

"Yes," Itachi offered her that much in the least, and a sickeningly blood-shot Mangekyou Sharingan gaze at most.

"…why…?"

"You're a liability; we can no longer afford to have you around." He turned in the bright candle lit hall and began to leave, walking coldly away from her.

"So…You sold me!?" Rei easily guessed at what the place was, seeing only female captives in every cell they'd passed, and she guessed that this cell block was where they put kunoichi they'd bought, or…caught.

"Itachi! ...Did you honestly…never care about me?" She cried out, feeling the full force of the pain in her heart.

He turned just a bit, enough to catch just a glimpse of his eyes, "I may have once, but that time has passed."

"No, no, NO!" She wailed as she let her grip of the bars falter and let herself fall to the ground. "ITACHI!" She pounded her shaking fist into the thick wood.


"You were supposed to be asleep when we left you, forgive me Rei." Itachi had grinned darkly when her eyes flickered open.

"What went wrong?" She continued to play the nightmare-ish exchange in her mind. Recalling how she viciously snapped at him.

"Plans change." That was all he said. And then, he'd walked away from her, like a used tissue…she was disposable.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it," She cursed in a chant, "Damn you!" She hissed out viciously at the screech of the metal hinges on the steel door as it opened and Itachi left her behind.

Her heart was tearing out of her chest, "Damn it, damn it, damn it!" She couldn't stop repeating the chant, it wasn't really calming, but it kept her from trying to punch down the thick metal re-enforced cage door.

"Hey, Hun?" An older woman's voice called out from one of the other cells. The gentle tone laced with a worried undertone, brought her back to reality.

She sat up, feeling the pain in her back now, after lying for too long on the stone floor.

Rei waited, for a second, thinking perhaps the woman wasn't speaking to her, but to one of the other shinobi girls that were locked up.

"Yo, Fifth Cell!" A younger higher pitched voice resounded along the walls.

Rei struggled for her voice. "Y-yes?" She rose stiffly, and walked over to the window to peer out. The other four cells were on the right and left walls, hers on the back, and the door in the front. Now, two faces looked out from the cells nearest hers.

"Are you alright, Hun?" The older kunoichi's voice came again. Her face was pale, and she had very long looking dark hair, possibly brown, but in the dark of the cell it was hard to distinguish.

"Yeah, I think so…" Rei looked down, her face dull.

"Were those guys that brought you here really Akatsuki?" The other girl spoke up. She looked only a little older than Rei was, possibly nineteen, if the Ishida made a guess at it. Her hair was certainly black, and it was tugged up into two spiky, short tufts in the front, while in the back it was a shoulder length black curtain, and her bangs hung nearly in her green eyes.

She gritted her teeth, and clenched her fists into tight balls, her nails nipping at her soft skin.

"They were."

"How'd you end up with people like them," Asked the elder kunoichi.

"Sorry, it's a long…painful story; I'd rather not talk about it."

Rei saw the woman nod, and watched the other girl for a moment. "That was Uchiha Itachi…" She grinned.

"You're not his type!" Rei growled out.

The kunoichi's green eyes flared at her. "And you are? Is that why he put you in here?"

Rei turned, pressing her back to the door, "I used to be…" She slid down to the floor, hanging her head, crying silently, stifling the sobs with her hands cupped over her mouth.


Rei sat in the back of her cell, her body had gone numb a while back, but her mind was still the constant tidal wave of thoughts, battering her mental shores. She wasn't sure, but it seemed as though her energy was being drained. Rei thought maybe there was something in the cell or the hall that was stealing away hers and the others' chakra. The door itself was fitted against a shinobi's attacks and tricks; a barrier was laced lovingly around it.

"Come on, Hun…" The woman—Nanako of Cloud Country, called out to her for a sixth or seventh time.

"Give it a rest Nako-san" A voice from farther down called. "The poor child has been through a lot it seems."

"Alright, Misano. I just would like to know if she's alright." Rei could imagine her taking a sidelong glance at her dark cell door, now that the candles had died down a great deal. The only light was a dark copper orange that didn't give off much glow to light the room, the cells went black.

"She's just a baby." The green-eyed one chided from her cell, she must have been in the back of hers as well, judging from the sound of her voice.

"Don't mind Shiza, Hun, she's only angry…like the rest of us."

A loud "Humph!" came from Shiza's cell.

"Really I'm fine," Rei finally spoke up. "As…fine as I can be in here." She explained at the small worried gasp she heard. "I'd…just like to rest now…I'd like to sleep." She finished.

"Alright, then, I'll stop pestering you, Hun."

"It's alright," Rei looked up, smiling, even though no one could see it. "I know you're just being kind. And please…I'm Rei…call me Rei."

"Of course, Rei-chan, get some sleep."

Rei soundlessly flopped to her side, her hair curtaining her bare arms. The only time she'd ever regretted her choice in tank-tops over long sleeves and vests was at times like these, locked in a cold, stone cell.

She shivered herself into an unfeeling, uncaring, un-restful, sleep, in which she had no dreams, only a slight sense that related to being aware, but not awake.


It seemed that bright sun light was peeking in from somewhere but she realized when she opened her eyes that it was only the light of candles, candles that shown brighter than any she'd ever seen before. The light was merciless on her tired eyes.

No one spoke, nothing happened. Rei apathetically gazed at the wall, still lying on her side. Hours passed that way. She ignored the pain of hunger in her stomach and the dry feeling in her throat.

She could almost imagine the incessant ticking of a clock, though there wasn't one in the stone hall or cell. She tried to focus on the mental ticking, hoping to drag her mind away from thoughts of Itachi and all the "why's" and "what ifs" that came to her.

At one point a skinny, lanky man with shades came in and shoved a small plate of food in each cell. It looked more as if it were the scrapes of an already eaten meal, than a meal itself. Rei couldn't bring herself to move and get it, let alone actually eat it, if she had went to it.

She cringed away from it, feeling sick.

"You need to eat something Rei-chan." Nanako encouraged from her prison.

"I can't…I feel sick." Rei whined.

"You'll feel worse if you don't eat." Shiza grunted, with a full mouth by the sound of it.

Rei slunk over to the plate, there was a little bit of meat sitting there that looked like pork. She put a finger to it, finding that it was actually still warm; she plunked it in her mouth and chewed. It was a little more salty than her taste buds would have liked, but still, for prison food, it was rather good. She tore off another piece and ate it, and in that way she devoured the meat on the plate, leaving the slop that looked like mashed potatoes and gravy but could have just as easily been throw up.


"You were interested in a kunoichi, right Sir?" Two men entered the hall, a freezing breeze following them in like the shadow of death. Rei sat up, leaning against the back wall of her cell, barely keeping her head held up, let alone high.

"That's right." The blonde one said, peeking in to the first to cells, then moving to the last tree, looking in at Shiza and Nanako, then herself.

He pursed his lips, crooked a grin, and spun. "None of these are right." He said, seemingly displeased.

"I see, well Sir, we have ten more kunoichi in stock, would you like to take a look at them as well, perhaps there is someone to your liking."

"Yes, let's do that." Rei watched the salesman and his high-horse-riding client gallivant out of the room.

The one that was selling was dirty looking and short, but seemingly well fed, seeing as he was fat. The high horse guy was old and though he was well dressed, a fine silk kimono hanging about him, he was an ass.

Rei shrunk into a corner after the visitors departed. She fell asleep there that night, and didn't move until well into the next day, when they brought some more table scraps to her.

She greedily ate the meat, again leaving the slop, before slinking back once more to the far wall and pressing herself to it. She was shaking, no where near full, and she was tired and felling sick.

"How could you do this to me…?" Rei cursed under her breath.

Her body was cold and sore, her eyes swollen and red from tears that came and went like mood swings.

She pressed her back to the wall stretching before hunching over herself again. Her mind would race, and then suddenly go blank, exhausting her, but soon the blankness seemed to take a dominant place in the inner workings of her thoughts.

Rei didn't notice the day pass as she was lost in her oblivious state. The only thing that told her it was night was the soft croon that Nanako gave all the girls. Rei didn't reply.

At some point she fell asleep.


She woke up to the sound of riotous yelling and screaming. She cocked her head to the door, wondering if someone had made a run for it or something. Deciding she didn't care, she leaned her head back, going to try for more sleep, but in the still dark lit morning, she heard the most unlikely of sounds. Itachi's voice.

Sitting up she listened harder, but didn't hear anything in her direct hall. Rei struggled to get on her knees. She listened hard, catching again, what seemed like a familiar order coming smooth from his perfect lips.

Someone cried out "Akatsuki!" and Rei couldn't believe it, she froze for some time, listening to the yelling.

Footfalls echoed down the long hall outside her cell block, then stopped abruptly. Someone just outside grunted, and then there was a thump as a body hit the floor.

When he broke into her cell she was already on her feet tears in her eyes. She didn't have a second to think of hating him or of his betrayal, because in that next moment he was fiercely pressing his lips to hers, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Rei, I love you, I love you..." repeating quietly to himself the mantra, in between kissing her.

One strong hand twisted in her tangled hair, the other wrapped securely around her, pulling her into him. After freeing herself from her shock, at him, and at his near inaudible whispers, she brought her hands up to his chest, fisting the fabric. Testing, seeing if it was true as he continued to take her lips.

"Itachi…" She cried out, wrapping her arms around him when she concluded his arms around her were real, that the hand in her hair holding her face to his was real. "Damn…it…" She whined as she pressed her cold cheek to his warm one. "I love you…" She said the words impulsively.

He stopped suddenly, pulling away, looking her in the eyes, she could only stare back. "I'll explain everything." He whispered. Itachi never lied, never promised something he wouldn't act on. He would tell her.

Nodding was all she could manage in response.

Kisame stopped outside the open doorway, "Come on! Uchiha the place is nearly empty. Time to get outa here."

"We're leaving." Itachi concurred.

She nodded as he took her hand. As they ran past the other four cells Rei's heart nearly squeezed itself to the point of imploding, each of the other doors where flung open—one off the hinges—and were empty.

Good.

She couldn't help but be happy that they'd gotten out; those were some good woman, Shiza too, even if she had attitude problems.

End Chapter Two:


A/N: Thanks for reading, I hope you liked it. Please review!

Next chapter should be up soon~

AngelFire Rei~