Chapter two
Cold. But how can it be cold? It was so hot.
White stars rise and recede behind the girls eyelids.
Eyes. Get your eyes open. She orders herself.
The girl's eyelids flutter open, revealing dark chocolate eyes, ringed in black, shocking against her sun-kissed skin. Her almond shaped eyes are fringed with corresponding black lashes, dyed golden at the ends from exposure to the sun.
She hears the sound of metal grating against itself and pushes herself up on her side, head swirling from all the toxins she had inhaled earlier.
"Rio Toyohai." It isn't a question, it is a direct address.
"That depends, who's asking?" She rasps.
Talking feels like having ones vocal chords put through a paper shredder.
Blinking away the water in her eyes, Rio realises she's surrounded by rolling stone walls and is lying on a bare concrete floor. There are no windows, no way to tell what time it is. Only a single metal door pierces the endless stone, white lights flickering unsettlingly above them.
A man leaning on the open door frame stands looking down at her, arms crossed, daring her to make a run for it. He is unusually tall, wears a long black coat, and she recognises the Leaf headband on the bandanna covering his head.
She gasps in fright when he steps out of the shadow and she sees the two terrible scars that slash across his face, puckering his brown skin. Her breathing stops completely when her eyes meet with his. He stares at her with a predatory gaze, like a young boy who will pull all the legs off of a stick insect one by one to watch it thrash its distorted body on the ground just to see how long it will last.
The man's shoulders shake, a deep rumbling echoing around the walls of her cell.
"Bravery will not help you here Rio, it would be best for both of us if you just give me what I want."
"I don't understand." Rio replies genuinely, not to his statement, but thinking of the attack on her village.
The interrogators face hardens. She shies back against the wall, then kicks herself internally for not holding her ground.
Be brave. Be brave...
"Don't play games with me! We know you bear the seal!" His eyes drift down, resting on her midriff, where her sleeveless top has been ripped away to expose the twining black lines of the seal that contains the secret her parents had worked so hard on with Orochimaru.
A sudden wave of grief hits her, which quickly turns to anger. His invasive glare makes her want to hide the mark, but she forces her hands to stay by her sides.
I will not show weakness in front of this man! The Leaf burnt down my home, killed my family, my friends!
The interrogator notices the change in her features and, letting out a breath he was holding, slowly closes the screeching metal door.
"If you insist on doing this the hard way, I can promise you, you will regret it."
Rio's response is as short and sharp as the crack of his hand against her face that follows suit.
"Go to hell."