Chapter 2

His brother was the expendable second born, but for some reason Itachi had been compelled to spare his life.

Itachi looked down at Sasuke's recumbent form. A small cloth was covering his face to hide it from view. Though Sasuke was fully conscious, he could not move or speak, and hadn't for nearly a year. This condition was attributed to the seer who had been employed to rob Sasuke of the use of his body.

Wires adhered to Sasuke's forehead, chest, and arms led to surrounding machines that monitored his vitals. Tangled intravenous lines trailed in and out of several arteries along his body. The boy was growing thin, his skin becoming pallid. He continued to laboriously breathe, struggling against the inevitably of his demise.

He must truly hate me... Itachi mused of his brother's artificial paralysis. Itachi had hooked him to medicines to minimize his deterioration. He monitored Sasuke's frenzied brain activity, curious of how long he could consciously hate him.

But even Sasuke's organs were growing weary of him. His heart rate had declined, and his lungs were subdued, making it a constant struggle just to keep breathing. His chest heaved and his forehead perspired. He must have been in so much pain.

Sighing, Itachi strolled to the door and flicked down the light switch. "Goodnight little brother." Itachi exited the room and locked it behind him.

He was roughly jerked up from his bed, his limbs fastened in chains as he was marched down several staircases, too groggy to properly register what was happening. He was forced to walk through the darkness by the men surrounding him until he felt the rising sun touch the back of his skin and the gravel beneath his toes. He lifted his head, and saw the rebel himself.

It seemed Konoha had finally fallen to Itachi's reign.

"Uzumaki Naruto," muttered the man in question. "Your reputation is dubious at best. I do not think the two of us are unlike."

Naruto glared but said nothing.

"I'd like to invite you to work for me – no, with me."

Naruto angrily grinned. He tried to launch himself at the other man, but three of the guards held fast to the chains, and one cuffed him in the face, his nose cracking from the impact. After he was thrown to the ground, he climbed to all fours, spitting blood on the impeccable stone.

"Bring him to the telepaths. They'll change his mind," said a guard, grabbing Naruto round his neck and jerking him back to his feet. The man wore a triangular badge and seemed of higher rank than the others.

"Hideki, The telepaths were a liability. They are no longer in my company," Itachi said. "Neji?"

Only then did Naruto notice the long-haired man standing apart from the others.

"I cannot alter his motivations." Neji stepped forward. "But I can put him down."

Neji had white eyes, and Naruto knew him to be a seer, even though he had never encountered one, personally. Not many had. The blonde felt his hairs stand on end as veins came to surface on either side of Neji's eyes.

"No," said Itachi.

Neji stopped in his tracks.

"Unlike that insufferable brother of mine, this one might be of some use."

The seer pressed his lips, the veins on his temples retracting.

"He'll come with us."

The fortress was where Itachi stationed the three-hundred or so elite members of his military. It was also where he transitioned civilians into soldiers whether they liked it or not.

Suddenly everything that Naruto had been groomed toward until that moment no longer existed. He was given a sword, and instructed to fight.

Naruto threw it down. He didn't use swords.

Defiance, however, produced undesirable consequences. His healed nose was broken twice more, as well as his eye socket and a few ribs.

His accelerated healing drained his body, which led to lethargy and clumsiness. Despite his affinity for sparring, he was usually matched with more opponents than he could handle.

His body weakened, and soon it stopped recovering properly. His injuries lingered and would not heal.

After several days with a broken collar, his pain throbbing and continuous, Naruto was delivered to the resident medic: a pink-haired girl. She was pretty, and didn't mind that he was a traitor, albeit by force.

"Aren't we all?" she inquired, smiling at him.

"But you're enjoying it…" Naruro mused, watching Sakura examine her red lips in a compact mirror.

"As opposed to resisting? How is that serving you?"

Naruto looked down at his bandaged fingers. He clenched them into fists.

"I'm surviving." Sakura lowered the mirror and sent a soul-crushing frown that made him forget their discrepant viewpoints. "Until your next visit, Uzumaki Naruto." Then she smiled a smile that was disharmonious with her eyes. She had such jaded eyes, he almost missed what she had said.

Naruto caught himself. "Right. Until – then."

His collarbone healed with astonishing speed. It was like Sakura's touch was magical. Despite his disagreements with the myopic girl, Naruto could not help his mind lingering on her time and again. A few days later, Naruto was afflicted with a broken arm, so he returned to the medic's office, his fractured appendage dangling beside him. He poked his head inside, surprised not to find the Sakura, but a scowling blond instead.

He entered. "Hi, I—"

"Sit down," she sighed, not bothering to look at him.

Naruto obeyed.

The girl went about shuffling around papers, flipping through books, and dislodging a slipper from under her desk. Finally, she threw him a glance after fifteen minutes of ignoring him. Unlike Sakura, she didn't wear her hair down or adorn make-up. Clothes tucked, hair tied, she was the picture of professionalism in full medical uniform.

"What do you want?" She wrinkled her nose at him, betraying her distaste for the ill and injured.

Naruto forced a smile. He nodded to his limp limb. "My arm. It's-" He hissed in pain as she lifted it without warning, adjusting and aligning it, his body tightening and shoulders twisting. The girl did not have Sakura's touch. "You don't have to be so rough," he gasped, as she found a wooden plank to align the break. His eyes glimpsed the nametag affixed to her chest. Ino.

She finished up wrapping his arm, chuckling insincerely. He didn't understand the chuckle. "All better."

With that, Naruto left, his arm hurting worse that it had before.

To his exasperation, she was still there when he returned two days later to seek treatment for the same, now infected, arm.

"Where's Sakura?" he asked before crossing the threshold. Ino pulled up a chair. He hesitated, and sat, then she peered at his arm with a puzzlement that alarmed him.

"She's gone," said Ino. She took out a blade and tore at his bandages.

"What? Ow! What do you mean, gone?"

She rolled her eyes. "How am I supposed to know? Maybe it had something to do with you."

"What! OW!" Naruto was stabbed with a needle.

"There. All better. Now get out of my office."

"This is Sakura's-"

"Get. Out."

He retreated to his bedroom nursing his arm, and prayed to the gods it didn't fall off.

His ineffectual trips to the medic became a bitter routine. He and Ino no longer attempted to mask their disdain for each other and instead exchanged regular insults.

"Why are you always in here? Are you really that pathetic?"— She'd antagonize him.

He'd tribute her name to her startling weight problem even though she was distressingly thin. He'd call her ugly, though she was beautiful. He'd leave the office with more injuries than he'd gone in with.

One evening in the mess hall they accidentally caught eyes, and Naruto nearly regurgitated the sausage he had been happily chomping. Ino glared at him. He bared his teeth at her.

"Mmm, vixen," muttered the young man sitting across from him. Kiba's eyes followed Ino's long legs.

"Don't make me sick," Naruto grumbled into his food. He too glanced at Ino, noticing one of the guards stop her halfway to her table. The guard muttered something and grabbed her arm, urging her to follow. But Ino resisted.

An inane grin crossed Kiba's face. "I wouldn't mind having a piece for myself."

Every day it got harder for Naruto to discriminate between slaves and soldiers. Most had been forced into Itachi's war, and in their efforts to survive, had done what was inherent of humans—adapted. Soon the slaves became soldiers, and they enjoyed the benefits of an allegiance to Itachi. They beat the weak and those who resisted. They embellished themselves with fine clothes and jewelry. They took their pick of women.

This isn't my problem, Naruto reminded himself as he stared at his plate.

"Wonder if she's as flexible as she looks," remarked Kiba.

Everything was cumulating in his mind. Getting kidnapped had kindled it, then the beatings, the vituperations, the luxuries of treachery. Sakura's jadedness, Ino's bitterness, Kiba's indifference, and this, this pinnacle moment that made him feel he was about to burst. Naruto knew he would regret what he was about to do.

"Dammit," he imprecated, getting up and running over to the scene. Ino was rambling, quietly negotiating for her freedom, but fearing the consequences of causing a scene.

"No, listen, I'm the medic. Off limits. So just let me go. Fuck, let me go."

"Let her go."

The guard turned his attention to Naruto. At seeing him, Ino looked more confused than relieved.

"Uzumaki," muttered the man.

At seeing the guard up-close, his triangular badge was visible. Naruto recognized him as Hideki, one of Itachi's elite generals.

"This is none of your concern." Hideki watched Naruto coldly.

"She's mine," said Naruto firmly.

Hideki laughed. "Not tonight."

Naruto was shoved aside as the general dragged Ino along. She looked startling helpless, falling leaking from the corners of her eyes.

Naruto stood quiescent. He looked back at Kiba, who was pointing and laughing at him, and he wondered if he was being tested. Was he really becoming complacent in bondage like everyone else?

Clenching his fists, Naruto ran to Hideki, grabbing his shoulder to spin him around.

He ignored as Ino stumbled forward. Ignored her tear-gleaming cheeks, and her large, blue, wet eyes, because he fucking hated what he was doing for her.

Naruto's fist connected with the general's face with an audible crunch that sent the man crashing to the ground. Hideki feebly reached for his sword, but Naruto was already upon him, his canines lengthening and claws projecting. "Why are you so weak?" Naruto hissed, blue eyes turning scarlet as he slashed at the man's throat. His fingers snagged on ligaments and tendons, pulling and snapping them. Soon Naruto was vivisecting him, blood bubbling up from Hideki's exposed throat as he tried and failed to employ his trachea. Hideki opened and closed his mouth, resembling suffocating fish. This just brought Naruto to raucous laughter.

Naruto sighed and lifted his fingers in his mouth, tasting the blood, and his eyes glowed brighter.

When he caught wind of whispering voices, he looked up at the crowd that had formed around him. Kiba was there, his face the color of a winter moon. Naruto looked around for Ino, but she was already gone.

Suddenly a chain was jerked around Naruto's throat, people shoved aside as soldiers stormed through. Naruto felt the hilt of a weapon smash against his head, and then he was sentient no longer.

He awoke and became aware that he was being carried by the two guards flanking him, his head hanging and his toes sliding against the stone. The footsteps of other guards preceded and followed him. They proceeded through a spiral staircase made of eroded rock, the air growing cold and humid with their progression. Naruto knew they were descending into the earth, his pupils widening as they adjusted to the increasing darkness.

He could smell the earth, and hear the echoes. Dripping water, skin on stone, shuffling feet, and quiet groans. This must have been the dungeon no one liked to talk about.

They came upon a landing and Naruto was completely submerged in darkness, but the guards who surrounded him seemed to know where they were going. They ushered him through a corridor and there was the sound of keys jingling, followed by the screeching of metal on rock. Naruto was shoved through a door, and the air became ten times more unbearable. It hung with a fetid odor of blood, rot, and bodily fluids. The ground was hard, but cold and wet.

Naruto struggled as the guards seized his chains again. He swiped at them, only to be met with shadows. They dragged him to the far end of the room, forcing him to his back, and chained his wrists to the wall where they were left to hang awkwardly above him. His ankles were next, chained to the ground beneath him, then his waist for good measure.

"Bastards," Naruto hissed as he heard them withdraw. Stray droplets of water began to land on his forehead, rolling between his brows and stinging his eyes. "I'm going to kill Itachi!" he snarled manically. "Better yet – I'll kill all of you!" The guards slammed the door shut behind them. He heard a key turn in the lock.

So he lay there, teeth grit, staring peevishly at the darkness above. Several hours passed. Already, his wrists were sore. He shifted feebly, then writhed restively. His eyes glowed. He hissed and snarled.

Naruto heard the door being wrenched open. He narrowed his eyes as they came upon candle light, and stared at the outline of a woman in the entrance. She entered the room, and the light touched her face.

Naruto was washed with shock.

"Mother-?" Naruto managed. The red-haired woman knelt down beside him.

"Beast." His mother offered that beautiful smile of hers, pulling his head into his lap. "Whiskers..." she mused.

"What?"

She took to tracing his bristled cheeks beneath that dim, flickering candlelight. He met her eyes, which looked vacant and puzzling.

"Whiskers," Kushina said conclusively. Naruto stiffened when he noticed a dagger flash in her hand. He screamed as she pressed the blade into his cheek, hard enough to penetrate his mouth, nick his gums and clink against his teeth. She then dragged it, extending the wound.

As she drew the blade out, he choked on the blood in his mouth. Thoughtfully tilting her head, Kushina lowered the blade and started again, making another long line parallel to the first.

His screams echoing off the walls, his chest heaving erratically. Then once again, she paused. "Mother," Naruto managed. "Mother..."

She meticulously continued her work, and by the end of the hour, he had three gashes on his cheek, made to resemble whiskers.

Naruto had become stiff in her hold, eyes wide and glazed. He had fallen into shock, and wasn't to notice that his mother had turned into a young girl with dark hair.

The illusionist grinned to herself, gently turning Naruto's head to expose the right side of his face. She licked her knife clean, and started all over again.

When Naruto came to, he was alone and bleeding. He screamed out at the darkness, but choked on his injuries, instead relaxing his body and closing his eyes. The mutilation administered to his face made it difficult to breathe. Through the excruciating pain, his mind drifted to Sakura, for comfort. And then, inexplicably, he thought of her fill-in.

He mused about how funny it was that he was being jailed and tortured for the one person, in all the land, that he could not care less about.

He chuckled to himself.

He'd get her back one day, that Ino-troll. He'd fucking kill her if someone else didn't beat him to it.

More hours passed, or days, that he lay there, his hands numb, his face aching, and the dirty water dripping onto his head. He couldn't sleep, but occasionally lost consciousness. His hate for Ino made it almost bearably. His desire to kill her motivated him to live.

He spent many a night deliberating how he would do it. Maybe he'd strangle her to death. Or carve out her spine. Maybe he'd rip off her little blonde head and prop it on a stick.

He'd long lost conception of time by the day the door opened again. He stared up at it, wondering if his mother was back with more knives.

"Prince Naruto."

It was title that was only vaguely familiar by then. His lips parted as several figures approached in uniforms that did not indicate an allegiance to Itachi.

He was bundled up in blankets, seated with his mentor in the mess hall, where food and bodies littered the floor. He noticed Kiba's impaled corpse just a few yards away.

It was bizarre. He tried to remember the way things were before all this. "How long have I been gone?"

"A year, my prince."

"A year…."

Soldiers marched about searching under tables, in closets, cupboards—any place a small body could hide. More corpses were dragged in and dumped on the floor. Several prisoners were being brought in from the dungeons in chains, among them, a curiously blindfolded girl.

"We're seizing the fortress. None of these traitors are getting in or out..." Kakashi uttered "traitor" with such contempt, he nearly spat it.

Naruto absently touched his cheek. His healing powers had eventually kicked in, if just slightly. The open gashes on his face had closed, leaving red lines along his swollen cheeks. A little rest, and he would heal completely.

"We'll take care of things here, Naruto. I have some guards prepared up to escort you home."

Home…

"We're doing a full sweep. No one will get out alive."

That was when it struck Naruto. That important thing that was all he really thought about. Ino's life was his.

"Are you all right?" Kakashi was saying. "Naruto-?"

"I need to find her."

"Naruto-"

He threw off the blankets and ran out of the mess hall, entering the chaos of blood and bodies. Itachi's thinning forces; his own men overwhelming them. Naruto disregarded them all and searched for Ino, ignoring that he was tearing the wounds on his cheeks.

He was scarred into her brain. He had occupied it for so long.

And he was so near. She could sense him around her. He had been agonizingly close for a long while.

Though she didn't know him, and had never met him, being apart from him was a painful physical burden. By then, it felt like he was a piece of her. Like a lung, or a rib. Apart, neither was a whole.

They were together when she closed her eyes. She spent most of her time inside herself. Between bouts of lucidity, she imploded into her mind, where she would alternate between talking and bickering with him in various places she could not recognize. Once he touched her arm, trailing his fingers along it so intimately, she was surprised she had not pulled away. He was not a man of many words. She wasn't a loquacious being herself. And yet his company placated her through her days living behind a blindfold. He kept her company and kept her sane, even if he was just a specter when they were together.

Someone was undoing the chains that bound her wrists. Next, her blindfold was removed, but Hinata did not open her eyes.

"You're free," the solider said, confusion in his voice. "In the name of the Konoha Monarchy, you have been liberated."

Hinata's eyelashes shuddered. She wanted to open them so desperately. Everything had been dark for such a long time. "I have to find him," she mumbled, more to herself than anyone else.

"What?"

Hinata got up and pushed past the man, running off, but she heard no footsteps following. She didn't know where she was going, but she knew where she had to end up. She opened her eyes, unable to stop herself, tears trailing down her cheeks from pain of the light, and also from happiness that her ambition would see its closure.

Her head started throbbing, and Hinata had to stop. Laughing to herself, she wiped at her tears. When she lowered her hands again, she noticed she was by a door with a broken lock, the buzzing of machinery coming from inside. It stood ajar, and Hinata was allured by it. Hesitating only briefly, she walked inside.

"Ino?" Naruto shouted as he burst into the office.

The place had been trashed, texts and papers littering the floor. A shelf had been overturned in one corner, broken jars and clay bottles scattered about it. The top of Ino's uniform hung from the back of her desk chair, otherwise there was no sign of the blond-haired medic.

Naruto hurriedly looked in the closet, tossing aside uniforms and medical charts to reach every corner. He came upon a small compact-mirror, but brushed it away. Ino must have run off to hide somewhere. He had to find her before it was too late. He ran out of the room. "Ino!"

"Sasuke?"

She strongly suspected it was him. Though his face was covered, she recognized his ebony hair, his longish bangs, and his gaunt appearance from her initial dreams of him. His skin was frightfully pale. The tubes and wires protruding from it appeared to have been slashed, the connecting machines overturned and smashed to the floor. Buzzing and sparking, they slowly died.

Had he died?

She walked to the table, her happy tears becoming sad ones. Her surroundings seemed to be suffocating her. She grasped the table for support and leaned over him in consequence.

"Are you dead?" she asked meekly.

But there was no response beneath the cloth. His chest was unmoving. He didn't even seem to be breathing.

She reached down, carefully pulling the small cloth down from his face. Then she examined his features, the ones she had become so familiar with in her dreams. Now they were physical. Tangible. She placed her hands on either side of his face, her body working of its own accord. "Sasuke."

And at her whim, he opened his eyes, just slightly.

When white eyes met black, something registered. Something activated in both of them. Veins rose on Hinata's temples as Sasuke's eyes turned to spinning, crimson pools. His mind was unlocked. Hers had long been sealed.

It ended just as quickly as it occurred. Hinata collapsed to the ground in a faint, and with great effort, Sasuke forced himself upright, his muscles trembling from disuse. He climbed off the table, and was assaulted by waves of vertigo. He tried to focus on the figure sprawled on the ground through his torpor. Dry lips parting, he uttered a name he had never heard or spoken before.

"Hinata."

His energy depleting, Sasuke crumpled to the ground opposite her.