Chapter 2

It was only a moment. That was what it felt like to Sasuke. He had fallen unconscious for a single moment. When he opened his eyes, he was confused and disoriented. It felt like he was moving but his legs were not touching the ground. The sky was strange. No, not the sky, this was inside a building, the ceiling of a building. It was with bright light and walls on both sides.

He turned his head and met blue eyes. They stared at each other for two or three seconds and the one to react was Sasuke with an ear splitting scream and without any restraint. The person whom those eyes belonged to looked at him unspeaking.

Sasuke struggled, still shouting for an unknown person, anyone to come help him. His struggle got him falling hard on the floor with his side. That hurt and choked off his screams, causing him to start coughing.

That person, that person had let him go. He had dropped Sasuke on the floor like a bag of old boots.

"What the hell," he coughed still holding his aching side. Then he looked up and it was a familiar face that looked down coldly at him. It was him, that boy from the lake.

"You," he pointed.

The boy didn't say a word and saucily walked around Sasuke, leaving him on the floor. So rude.

"Hey," Sasuke rose to his feet and pointed at the shirtless back. "How can you drop a person like that and on this hard floor?"

The person did not reply and just opened a door at the end of the corridor.

"Hey," Sasuke has had his fair share of rudeness after all; he has been tutor to some rich and arrogant students, that's how he has funded his education up till now. "You have to reply when someone is talking to you."

The blue eyes met his and Sasuke froze in fright. Why did he have eyes like that? It was too blue to be real. In A.L.U people who have done surgeries all over the body so they had features that were fictional wasn't unusual. In fact, it was unusual for there to be someone who hasn't done at least one. Yet those eyes were really unusual, or maybe Sasuke just thought so because of that snake. What had happened to it? How had he been rescued?

The boy opened his mouth as though he could read Sasuke's thoughts and had the answers to all his questions. "Come here," he said.

His voice was coarse and young and the way he spoke seemed like he didn't really know how to speak Japanese or had a speech impairment.

"What? Are you giving me a command right now?" Sasuke blinked at him.

The boy sighed and continued looking at him,

"Who are you "Sasuke asked, deciding to get some answers. "Where is this place, how did I get here. Were you carrying me just now?"

No answer was fast coming. Sasuke frowned and leaned forward, "do you not understand what I am saying?"

The boy let go of the door he was holding and started walking towards Sasuke. The focused eyes and the steady way he was looking at Sasuke were a bit worrying and Sasuke took a cautious step back, but tanned arms circled his back before he could run away. He stared at it in confusion then blinked at the face now close to his.

"wh-what are you doing," his voice shook and he held up his hands reflexively. Hard cold chest touched his fingers slightly and made him shiver. This person was so cold, too cold and it can't be normal, and he was shirtless. Why the hell was he shirtless?

Before he could speak again he was being flipped from his feet and into the arms of the boy, who was at least ten years younger than him.

Stunned into silence, Sasuke didn't say anything until he was brought to the door and then thrown into a white room without windows.

It hurt. It hurt. Groaning in pain on the floor, Sasuke rolled into a seating position and held his sides that were injured.

"Just what are you doing?! Are you out of your mind?!" it's been a while since Sasuke raised his voice. This was the second time this Dobe has thrown him down like some deranged wrestler from the olden days.

The door was about to be rolled closed by his silent assaulter. Sasuke scrambled for it and pushed his face between causing the boy to stop.

"wh-who are you, what is all this? Are you—am I a prisoner?"

The sudden thought was shocking to the point Sasuke thought he would faint. If he thought about it, there was no way he had gotten away from that nightmare unscathed.

Don't tell me—are they going to feed me to that giant snake?

"No!" all his fears came to light in his mind and he could only grab onto the leg of the boy.

"Let me go! Why are you doing this to me?" he screamed. "I don't mean anyone any harm, I'm just here to look for my grandfather. I don't want to stay here either, I don't want anything, just let me go!"

A foot smashed into his head so bad he fell away, letting go of the leg-lifeline

"Ah shut up," the person who had said this was not the blonde boy. Sasuke blinked a few times then a boy of the same height with brown hair and colored marks drawn on his face showed up. "So noisy."

In his hand he was holding a club. Did he just use that to hit Sasuke? He was speechlessly looking, too terrified to form words.

"Just stay in your cage quietly, got that?" he scratched his heavy head of brown shaggy hair and smashed the door closed.

Was that a dog ear he just saw on the boy's head?

Sasuke shook his head to break the image away then he rubbed his head and went to the door to start hammering on it but paused with his fist raised.

"Let's calm down Sasuke. Let's think rationally about this"

He lowered himself to his knees and lowered his head to slow his panicked breathing. It felt like there wasn't enough air. There were no windows, just walls, unending walls. It made it hard to focus on thought so he started the breathing exercise.

Breath in, count one, breath out, count two, breath in, count three.

It worked and lowered his aggravated blood pressure by a lot.

"So," he muttered and tried to focus on the small window in the door. He stood and looked through it. "This must be some kind of experimenting building," he concluded.

There were other doors around and Sasuke had noticed many modern equipment coming here. The doors looked open and there was no subject in there. His heart skipped as he thought that wasn't true, he could be the only experimental subject in here. This could, as matter of fact, be the food storage area and he was being kept in stock, for now.

Finding his breathing climbing again, Sasuke muttered lowly, "Don't panic, think. Think Sasuke"

"Think Sasuke!" his grandfather's voice overlapped his. "You never think, now you've got yourself hurt. Stop crying, you are not a child!"

Sasuke took a breath. Funny how in this situation his grandfather's cold voice was what pulled his focus straight.

Yes, he was in the forest and was being attacked by hordes of chimpanzees. If that was true, then that—that snake was also true. Then after that, did the company appear to save him?

"No, those two don't look like they belong with the company and that boy, he was the same one, the one that disappeared into the water."

Seeing as he knows his way around then he was probably a native of Intos forest. Then if that can be believed, that meant he was rescued by the natives of the forest?

No, that doesn't agree with the setting. If it was a native then why was he saved and why was he brought here? Looking at the place, this can only be produced by A.L.U. if the story of there being no other survivors anywhere in the world is to be believed, then…

"Could this be…" Sasuke took a step back, eyes trembling. "Could this be grandfather's facility?" then, his grandfather had rescued him.

A sigh escaped his mouth. At the back of his mind he had thought briefly of the possibility that the man was dead, after all he was an eighty years old man. But this made sense, this answered all the questions.

Relieved, Sasuke sat on the floor and looked at the door, waiting.

A day went by and no one came to look for him. His grandfather must be annoyed that Sasuke came to look for him when it was so dangerous. Sasuke understood that, it was possible, but locking him away without food, was his grandfather that cruel?

Sasuke thought about it and remembered an old memory from when he was five years old. His parents had vanished when he was four and the institution finally gave his grandfather full custody of him.

"Now that you are here, just do what you want, don't bother me." he brushed past with his back hunched, his white balding head bowed calculating another project.

When he was like that, no one existed for his grandfather, not even the younger and hurting Sasuke.

He remembered going to bed without food a few times and sleeping alone, pulling the blankets over his head because he was scared of the dark and the wood hitting his window.

Sasuke lowered his head and sighed. He rubbed his eyes that were severely sleep deprived. He had not been sleeping very much with the exams so close and he wasn't much of a sleeper anyway and his grandfather's disappearance didn't help at all.

After what felt like a whole day the door was pulled open. Sasuke scrambled to his feet. The person coming turned out to be not his grandfather but the golden haired youth.

Blue eyes met black eyes and paused. They looked at each other, Sasuke with so much to say but not sure which to start with, the youth with only the heavens knows what in his mind.

"Where—"

"Is this you?" a photo was thrust in front of him. Sasuke adjusted his vision to stare at the picture. He blinked a couple of times opened mouth, with the rest of his words caught in his throat.

"wh-why do you have that?"

"Is this you is what I asked," the accent was really something. Who talks like that? Even none Japanese speakers don't have that kind of tone.

"Why?" Sasuke asked with some traces of annoyance that made his brows twitched, "Why do you want to know. Why should I tell you when you haven't said anything to me? "

The blonde brows squeezed together and he pulled the picture away. Sasuke was sure he would walk out then, he was ready to jump to his knees and beg, he couldn't take another day in this white space of nothingness with only his memories for company.

"What do you want to know?"

Sasuke thought his ears were deceiving him. "What? Are you going to answer me?"

He nodded like a string held his head stiff .

Sasuke was a bit speechless, but then he cleared his throat. "Who are you and what is this place, why are you keeping me here?"

A finger was thrust forward startling Sasuke to silence. "wh-what are you doing?"

"Can only answer one of your questions," the boy said, Sasuke had to listen closely, and thankfully he talked slowly.

"Why?" he asked, not about to take that. Just what was that?

"You, who you are, are not clear."

Sasuke took a moment to digest that. 'Oh you mean you don't trust me?" he asked.

"Yes, trust."

"Ah, well, I don't trust you either, but I guess we have to give each other some leeway."

"Okay, tell me, who are you?"

He seemed to think about it. "I have many names," he said, "I am mostly called Ashteri, but the old man called me Naruto."

"The old man! Are you referring to my grandfather?!" Sasuke jumped at the most important thing.

"Grandfather," he paused and then held up the picture again , "then is this you?"

Sasuke looked at the picture. It was obvious he was the one in that picture, a four year old him holding a water ball and grinning.

He nodded, "yes, that's me." he looked away from the picture. "How did you get it?"

"The old man, he always have this on him. He always talk about him to us."

"So it really is my grandfather. Tell me where he is, I need to see him."

He must have startled the youth because when he grabbed the cold hand blue eyes went wide and his mouth fell open . They looked at each other then Sasuke uncomfortably had to let go.

"Sorry," he lowered his head, " I'm just in a hurry to see him. He is here isn't he?"

"He was," that dog like bastard who had smashed Sasuke's head stood at the door. "Why did you come here to see him, Naruto?"

Naruto turned and regarded his partner, "I came to see this," he held up the photo.

"What? Don't tell me," the dog guy leaned forward and peered between Sasuke and the picture. "It doesn't look like him at all. This one's head is way bigger, his legs are even longer."

Sasuke scoffed, "that's because I grew up, idiot."

"What did you just call me? Idiot? That's an insult isn't it?"

Now that Sasuke thought about it, this psycho had the same speech problem but not as bad as Naruto.

"If I smack your lips it will seal shut forever."

"Your head is obviously empty if you think your hand can seal my lips forever."

"What? This rude jerk!" Sasuke shrank back wide eyed when the dog guy came rushing towards him. The look in his eyes screamed that he was going to hurt Sasuke and having never been in a fight before, he had no way of defending himself against this athletic looking asshole.

Naruto stood in front of him his tanned back facing Sasuke and hissed so loud and clear, and there was a faint but obvious vibration, the cell seemed to tremble. Sasuke stared in shocked silence wondering if he was losing it, because it looked like those blue eyes just turned slit like a snake's and there was a fang poking out from his opened mouth. What the hell is all this?