A/N: Well it's 3:30am and I still can't sleep so I decided to write this.
Well, here you go.
Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, do you think I'd spend my time writing these things?
"Please, stop. Please, let me go."
She longed to cry out, to struggle, to do anything that might bring about an end to her suffering, but it was no use. The hands on her mouth and throat stifled any noise, and the cords around her wrists held fast. As she hung there, tears streaming down her face, can came to realize that all she could do was watch. Watch and pray.
"Come on, come on Kira! I want to cut her open, I want to make her bleed!" Shu hissed.
"I agree with Shu, Kira. You're taking too long, besides I'm getting hungry." Yodai grumbled in agreement.
"Relax you two, like I said you'll get your turn." Kira replied, "but only once I'm done. So just be patient Shu."
"I know, I know. I just wish you…"
"Just wish I what, Shu?" Kira asked, glancing at his comrade.
Shu was staring at his arm with a look of sheer terror on his face. It was as though his arm had become something so terrible that he could not speak out of shock.
"Get them off me, get them off me, get them off me!" He cried. The malice in his voice replaced by panic.
"Shut him up, Yodai!" Kira ordered.
Wordlessly, Yodai removed his hand from Temari's neck and clamped it firmly over Shu's mouth.
"What the hell happened to him" Kira wondered. As he scanned Shu's writhing body he noticed something. A single thin needle lodged in his shoulder.
"Oh crap."
"Well it's about time you noticed." said a voice from the darkness, "It's sad that three ex-shinobi as infamous as yourselves would take so long to realize my presence."
"Who are you, and what the hell did you do to Shu?" demanded Kira.
"Who I am is not important. As to what I did to your little friend there, you see that needle in his shoulder is coated with an extremely potent hallucinogen, lysergic acid dithylamide to be precise. Also known as LSD, and let's just say that he's in for one hell of a bad trip."
"Damn you" Kira spat. "Yodai, gag her and then help me deal with our guest."
When Yodai went to move his hand, he found that Temari's head was no longer beneath it. Looking to see where she had gone he saw a figure lean Temari's stunned form against a wall a short distance away. The figure then slowly turned to face them. He blended in with the shadows so most of him could not be seen. From each arm there extended a thin foot-long blade, and where his face should have been, there was a mask. It was round and the eves were nothing more than narrow slits. It was blindingly white, like bleached bone, save for a thin red streak extending from the right eye to the bottom of the mask. The path it traced resembled that of a single tear of blood.
"Now then, I think I will tell you who I am." Said the figure, "I won't tell you my real name of course but will give you one that I think you're more familiar with."
The other two merely stood there, staring in disbelief at the man before them.
"Since I can see that you're staring at my mask, you probably already know who I am, but in case you don't let me make it inescapably clear. I go by the name of Strider, but most know me as the Crimson Tear Assassin."
A/N: I know I said this chapter would be longer, but it seems that this is the most I can write at any one time. So while I can't promise that the next chapters will be longer, I can promise that they won't get shorter.
Thanks to xXxKiki-chanxXx and feronia wings for reviewing.
You read it, so you know what to do now. Please review.