Chapter Two: First Taste
"Hey, kid. Wake up."
Naruto opened his eyes blearily, and yawned. He'd never technically been 'asleep'- how the hell he was expected to sleep with all the whispering and laughter, he'd never know. It had started when he and Choji and Kiba and the others had first set foot in this place, and it hadn't stopped since. It had lessened somewhat when captain Obito and his cronies had passed by and called for lights out, but it had resumed once they were out of sight. There were whispers; hard to make out individual statements, but together, it was a large drone that irritated Naruto to no end. There were whispered threats, which were frightening but expected, and then there were the falsely sweet, sing-songs that were somehow more frightening than the threats. Somebody started crying.
Then the laughter began, and whatever small hope Naruto had had of sleeping vanished.
Combine that with his shitty lumpy mattress and pillow, and Naruto had spent the night with his pillow over his face and his fingers in his ears.
Now he sat up, still clutching the pillow to his chest. It was obvious he was exhausted. He was paler than usual, and bags hung under his eyes. He didn't have the same spunk that he'd displayed yesterday, and for once, didn't openly declare his wish to murder Obito.
Kakashi eyed him with amusement. "Rough night, eh?"
Naruto glared at the older man. "Just a bit," he said icily. He got up and stretched, his back cracking audibly as he did so. Somehow he'd ended up curled into a ball, and now his body hurt like hell. "Hey, when's breakfast? I'm starving!"
"Whenever they decide to give it to us," Kakashi said simply. Compared to Naruto, even he appeared well-rested. "You don't get to pick when you eat, you know."
"I hate this," Naruto grumbled, picking at his sleeve with perhaps more force than necessary, "I hate this whole being locked up thing so much."
"Gee, if I didn't know any better, I'd say we were in a prison," the older man said dryly.
Just then, the guards began bellowing for them to get back while they opened their doors. "You got your wish, kid," Kakashi said, taking the obligatory step backward while a stern-looking guard fumbled with the keys and started unlocking their door, "its chow time."
XxX
All the inmates were being filed into a single line in the mess hall, guards watching their every move. As the line got closer to the actual food servers, it was split into two lines, because of the huge number of inmates. Because they had been on the second floor, Kakashi and Naruto were towards the back of the line, Kakashi pairing up with a ninja Naruto had seen once before. He was tall, deeply tanned, with brown hair tied in a ponytail and a prominent scar across his nose. Looking at him, he didn't appear to be a criminal- he exuded an air of warmth, and upon meeting Naruto, his brown eyes were kind.
"New fish. Hi."
"Hi," Naruto said absently, gazing up at the line. They still had a ways to go before they were served, and by the looks of it, several tall guys up in front were haggling with the servers. Naruto couldn't see much of them, except one of them had blue skin. "How long is it gonna be?"
"Oh, I'd give it half an hour at this rate," Iruka said amiably, actually sounding HAPPY about this, "that's actually pretty good time, especially with the-"
"Iruka," Kakashi butted in, "enough." The older men shared a knowing look, which Naruto missed. He was still stuck on the fact that it'd be half an hour before he got anything to eat. This place sucked majorly.
"Sulking isn't going to make the line move any faster," Kakashi said, sounding amused as Naruto studied his feet intently. He hated wearing this grey crap. He wanted his trademark orange jumpsuit back. Aside from his jumpsuit, his headband had also been confiscated, along with all of his ninja weapons. Naruto wasn't a ninja any longer- amongst all these people in the same drab, boring clothes, he was just another face in a sea of strangers.
Hearing Kakashi's words, the blonde boy opened his mouth to unleash a number of witty retorts, but, incredibly, the line actually began to move. The group of men at the head of the line had moved on, apparently satisfied with their helpings. The blue-skinned guy was amongst them.
"Maybe it'll be less than half an hour after all," Iruka said happily, Naruto nodding agreement. He was starving! He hadn't eaten in…well, a day. Basically nothing for your average ninja, but well, Naruto LIVED to eat. For him not to eat in a whole day, that was scary.
The boy's blue eyes lit upon a familiar face. "Hey, it's Choji!" Indeed it was the stocky boy, a few people ahead of them in the line. He looked at no-one, choosing instead to stare at his feet. He was sweating profusely. If he heard Naruto call his name, he gave no sign that he did.
Iruka sought him out, and smiled fondly. Like Naruto, Choji had met Iruka before. "He's a good kid," he murmured, and Kakashi snorted.
"A good corpse, you mean."
Naruto stared at the silver-haired man in astonishment. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" he demanded, not caring who heard him. One of the big guys at one of the tables stared at him, expression perfectly smooth, before rejoining his comrades in a discussion.
Kakashi sighed in exasperation. "That Akimichi kid, he's a dead man walking. Not just anybody gets thrown in with Hidan…"
Iruka groaned. "I didn't know that. Is he seriously in there?" When Kakashi nodded, Iruka shook his head sadly. "That's too bad…he's such a good kid."
"Corpse," Kakashi corrected him, ignoring Naruto, who was quickly growing red in the face, eyes blazing.
"Corpse," Iruka sighed.
Naruto couldn't stand it any longer. "Will one of you jokers tell me what's going on?! What's wrong with him?!"
"Nothing's wrong with him," Kakashi said softly, almost sadly, "he's just dead, that's all."
And he wouldn't elaborate any more on the topic. The three ninja moved up the line, and as they did so, Naruto caught sight of what was unmistakeably…well, a girl. She was tall and slim, with soft pink hair that rested just above her shoulder blades. He couldn't see her face, since she was ahead in the line, but it was obvious she was female- no man could be that delicate, that feminine. "What the- there are girls in here!"
"Of course," Kakashi said, a bit irritated now, "this is blood prison, Naruto. Did you really think there were just male ninjas in the world?"
"I know there's girl ninjas as well," Naruto snapped, "but I didn't think they'd…you know…put girls in with the boys. Wouldn't there be…?"
"Rape? No. The women are only mixed with the men at mealtimes. We're kept separated, so rape doesn't happen."
"But-"
"Think about it, Naruto," Iruka said, voice a million times kinder than Kakashi's, "they hate us. They hate the fact that we can produce chakra when they can't. They keep the men and women separated so there is no rape, so we can't…"
"Ah, I get it!" Naruto's face had been furrowed in concentration. The two men could practically see the cogs working in what little brain there was. "They don't want the girls to have babies," he said, almost proudly. Iruka smiled and nodded, infinitely patient, but Kakashi merely stared at him like he was an idiot.
"Wow…" he muttered, turning away from them for the moment. They'd moved even closer to the servers now, and the pink-haired girl was gone. He couldn't believe that Obito had shoved this moron in with him…that man had a sick sense of humour.
Today's breakfast was some sort of grainy porridge, a cup of milk and a hunk of dried bread. Kakashi and Iruka took their servings with thanks, but when it was Naruto's turn, he stared at the food in amazement. "What the hell is this crap?!" he exclaimed, "Where's the ramen?"
The server, a burly, stocky old man, glared at him, saying nothing. Kakashi ignored the situation and plonked himself down at the nearest table, evidently choosing to take no part in Naruto's antics. Iruka, however, was of a nicer sort. He pulled Naruto away, hissing in his ear, "Just take it and go, Naruto!"
Naruto did so, albeit reluctantly. Iruka sat down next to Kakashi, and, with nowhere else to go, Naruto sat down as well. "This is actually pretty good stuff," Iruka said, trying to break the tension.
"Mm," came Kakashi's reply. Naruto was still staring at his meal in disgust.
"Do I really have to eat this?"
"No, you can throw it away and starve if you really want to." Kakashi's good humour seemed to have returned with a few mouthfuls of porridge. "It really doesn't bother me either way."
Scowling, Naruto drank his milk, ate half of the bread, and poked his porridge cautiously. As he was about to take his first mouthful, he saw something squirming in it. "What the hell!" he shouted, actually jumping up in alarm.
"What now?" Kakashi muttered.
"There's- there's a maggot in my food!"
"You lucky bastard," someone growled from the next table. Iruka tugged him down gently.
"Naruto, sit down. You're causing a scene, and in here, that's definitely NOT what you want." Sure enough, as the boy sat back down, his face now tinged with green, he felt eyes boring into him. Normally, he'd turn and snap at whoever was doing it, but these eyes weren't curious- they felt…almost predatory. It wasn't a good feeling, and Naruto finally shut up and ate his food, picking out the maggots as he went. Iruka took them from him and put them in his own porridge. Naruto felt the room sway, and swallowed the vomit that rose in him like a great snake.
"So, what actually happens here?" he asked the two men. They were hardly alone at their table- four other men sat with them- but they, for their part, ignored them, and Kakashi and Iruka were only too happy to return the favour.
Kakashi looked at him thoughtfully. "Sometimes they make us work," he said, "but not often. They don't want us keeping our strength up, see. So mostly they let us outside- by 'outside', I mean out in the fenced area- and we entertain ourselves. Sometimes they let us in the recreation room, but not often enough, for my liking. I miss reading…"
"So we don't even do anything interesting in this hellhole?" Naruto was incredulous. He'd heard that blood prison was bad, but seriously…this was worse than anything he'd imagined. He thought that they'd at least be put to work, which was bad enough, but it would have least provided some menial thoughtlessness that came with simple tasks, and he could have forgotten he was here in the first place, but now…doing absolutely nothing, Naruto knew he'd be left with his own thoughts. And, Kurama or no Kurama, that was a dangerous place to be.
"It's not all bad," Iruka said, trying to sound optimistic, but his voice was too cheerful, slightly strained, and it was obvious to them all that Naruto wasn't buying it one bit, and the scarred man dropped the act, "well, yeah. It's pretty bad. But you get used to it."
"Like hell I will," Naruto muttered, giving up on his porridge completely.
"You will," Kakashi said sternly, "or you won't survive here very long."
Naruto blinked.
XxX
After breakfast, they were once again herded into a line and told to follow captain Obito. So that was exactly what they did- if they tried to do anything different, there were numerous guards lining both sides of the line, and they'd beat up any offenders quite happily. So it was with some resentment that Naruto, along with the hundreds of other prisoners at blood prison, made their way outside to the 'recreation area'.
'Big fenced in area of absolutely nothing' might have been a better way to describe, for when they actually got outside, there was nothing. Naruto wasn't exaggerating, either. There was the traditional razor-wire fence, but inside that fence…was something like a field. There was no better way of describing it. Except the grass here was yellow and dead, and it crunched noisily under their sandals as they shuffled out into the open. There were no benches to sit down on, nothing to entertain themselves with- just, NOTHING.
As soon as the guards stepped away, that line dissolved into its separate cliques. Even as oblivious as he was, that much was obvious to Naruto. Small, weedy, lowly-looking ninja huddled in the corner, averting their eyes from everybody, trying not to stand out. Those same big guys that had spent so long holding up the line made their way to the other side, and immediately turned to each other, ignoring the rest of the world. Everybody else was in their own little world, doing their best to not cause trouble with the guards or other inmates.
Which left Naruto with a problem.
He had no 'clique', no 'group', so to speak. Hell, the only people he'd spoken to were Kakashi and Iruka, and as he looked around frantically, he realised that they, too, had disappeared.
"Crap."
"Hey, new fish," a voice growled from behind him. Naruto spun around, fist raised, and blinked. The man standing before him was beyond creepy looking, but his voice had been friendly enough. He was tall, slightly hunched over, with wild dark hair, a sickly complexion- hell, his skin was nearly grey- and dark eyes that seemed wild, dangerous. He smiled, and Naruto took a step backwards. His teeth were sharp!
"You look a little lost, fishy," this new guy said, leering at him, and Naruto felt his hackles rise up. Something about this guy pissed him off. "We all need friends in this place. I could be a friend to you." And he offered Naruto a bar of chocolate.
"What am I supposed to do with it?" he demanded. The man sighed.
"Take it, and you'll be safe. I'm offering my friendship to you, little fish." Naruto was sorely tempted by the chocolate, and this creep knew it. But the blonde boy withdrew his hand, shaking his head.
"Sorry. It looks real good, but I can take care of myself."
The guy's eyes flashed, and he bared his teeth- well, almost like an animal. "You'll regret not taking it," he snarled, and Naruto shrugged.
"I don't need an old man like you telling me what to do," he snapped back, squaring his shoulders- probably something this old asshole couldn't do. "I'll take care of myself, thanks."
The guy growled but backed down. He probably wasn't all that old, but his sickly pallor, combined with his grey clothes, made him look ancient. "The Akatsuki will get you," he rasped, "they'll beat a little runt like you to a pulp, and there'll be nothing you can do about it!"
"I'll take my chances," Naruto retorted, and stormed off. He was short tempered at the best of times, but he knew starting a fight here would likely result in him getting punched by Obito. He had no idea where he was going, but it didn't matter, so long as he away from that creep.
As it turned out, he marched straight into Iruka. "Naruto," he said, sounding relieved, "we didn't know where you had gotten to."
"Don't lie, Iruka," Kakashi said, sounding bored, "we knew exactly what was happening."
"Who the hell WAS that guy?!" Naruto exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air, "He was such a creep!"
"Keep your voice down," the silver-haired man snapped, glaring at the boy. His shouts had drawn a few curious glances, including several from the big group with the blue-skinned guy. "Look, what just happened is totally normal. Happens to every new fish that comes in here."
"But who was he?" he demanded in a furious whisper. Naruto didn't like being told what to do by anyone. "He offered me a chocolate bar."
"Is it chocolate bars this time?" Iruka sounded amused. "Back in my day, it was a packet of chips."
Naruto scowled at them both, wordlessly demanding an answer, until at last, Iruka gave in. "Okay, that guy there is Zabuza. He…offers 'friendship' to new fish, in exchange for…well, whatever he wants. That could be anything from doing his washing, picking out the critters in his food- or doing other stuff. And you have to pay him back double time."
"What do you mean?" Naruto whispered, sickened yet curious at the same time.
"Well…if he offers you a chocolate bar, for instance, then you have to give him two chocolate bars. Within a time limit. If you can't do it, he'll make your life hell until you can pay him back, or you kill yourself."
"What the fuck!" That was just nasty- low. Something he probably should have expected in a prison, but it surprised him nonetheless. "That bastard!"
"It's part of prison life, kid," Kakashi murmured, "happens everywhere."
"It's still not right," Naruto persisted, voice growing louder unintentionally, "that asshole should be-"
"What, locked up?" Kakashi asked. "He already is. I'm not sure what kind of world you've been living in, but this is prison, Naruto. Zabuza is but a fraction of what you should be looking out for."
"Yeah, I'd grow eyes in the back of my head if I were you," Iruka said, almost sadly. "You're new- they'll want to figure you out, and you rejecting Zabuza like that only makes them want to play with you more."
"Who is 'them'?" Naruto demanded. Kakashi sighed.
"You're not going to let this go, are you?" When Naruto shook his head, he sighed again, sounding tired. "All right, I suppose I can give you a rundown on our happy, happy housemates." He nodded towards the group of big guys at the other end. "That's the Akatsuki. Or, part of it, anyway. I don't know them very well, thank God, but they're…well, they're like the mobsters here. Piss one of them off, and you've got all of them on your ass. And believe me when I say that you do not want one of them sitting on you." He winced at some past memory, and touched his eye gently.
"What do you mean, part of them?"
"Well…their leader is in solitary confinement. He's been there from the very start. No-one's ever seen him. But, judging by how much respect the group gives him when he's not around…he must be damn powerful."
"Wow." Solitary confinement from the start. That guy must have done something pretty bad to wind up like that.
"Yeah. Pretty scary stuff. Now, let's see…that group over there, is your typical Akatsuki wannabes. Zabuza is one of them. So is that Suigetsu kid. They suck up to the Akatsuki hoping for some kind of favour in return, or even acknowledgement, but so far, no luck. They're not as dangerous, but still…I wouldn't recommend pissing them off. Over there are your Suna ninjas, they pretty much stick to themselves. Kankuro there is your go-to guy. Kumo nin mingle a bit, but they are a bit punchy if you get on their bad side. Hmm…more fish, you can tell, they always wander by themselves or form a group, not the best idea…and then there's us." As he was nodding towards the 'fish', Naruto saw Zabuza sidle up to Choji, chocolate bar in hand. As they watched, Choji took the chocolate, smiling, and they all groaned. When Zabuza left, his fangs were bared in a devilish grin. The young, feminine-looking boy beside him smiled, somewhat sadly as they rejoined the 'wannabes'.
"Jesus, that kid is dead," someone said beside them, a lanky youth that Naruto couldn't identity. Naruto balled his hands into fists.
"Choji, you moron!" he yelled, not caring who heard him, not even the Akatsuki, who were looking him over, amused. The fat boy ignored him, too preoccupied with gobbling the chocolate down.
Suddenly Iruka and Kakashi bustled Naruto way from the fat boy, chattering about anything else. Naruto went, shouting obscenities, but eventually he went quiet when he realised that he wasn't getting a reaction from Choji, nor from either of the two ninja hauling him away.
It was as though Choji Akimichi was already dead.
Naruto had gotten his first taste of prison, and he didn't like it.
Not at all.
XxX
"What do you think, Haku?" Zabuza Momochi peered down at the young boy beside him, who looked more like a girl than a boy. A light voice and long hair didn't help it any.
"I give him a week," Haku said soberly, "at best."
Zabuza grinned. "Heh, that fishy kid…he'll be a tasty snack. God knows there's enough of him to go around." They laughed a bit over that, and then the man murmured, "but that other kid…the one who refused the bait. What do you make of him?"
"I think he's…interesting," Haku said, after a few moments, "We may need to keep an eye on him, Zabuza. He could be a threat."
Zabuza snorted. "Him, a threat? Please." Though he outwardly rejected his student's advice, Zabuza nevertheless made a mental tab to keep an eye on the little blonde fish. Maybe they could use him to their advantage should the need arise. Or punch the shit out of him.
It didn't bother him either way.
