IV: cave
When she first opened her eyes again she still believed that she died in that forest, died on that guy who seemed to have confused her with another person, some kind of "dog". Slowly she turned her head to one side, realizing that every inch of her body hurt as if it was on fire. As she saw the mask she wore as she ran away from her brother, she understood why the stranger called her as he did. 'Was he looking for him instead of me?' Suddenly all the things the ninja had said to her before made sense. How he talked about the "ANBU dog" being able to see things other people couldn't. It must have been about that eye her brother had received after the death of his comrade but she didn't know more about that creepy looking thing. Slowly and with pain almost not bearable she was about to try getting up on her feet so she could explore the place she landed at but got stopped by a cold and distant voice. "I wouldn't do that." Not being able to withstand her urge she screamed as loud as she could and was suddenly glad for the fact that she was – obviously had been placed – in a corner where she could sit back up to the wall facing the whole dark room.
"You can't go away from here, we won't let you. But we won't kill you either since you can be of good use to us, little Hatake." A deep voice purred from the other end of the room covered in darkness before she passed out again.
"Sensei, there's no way you're being serious. I won't-"
"You better shut up now, she's awake."
The darkness around her slowly settled down and she began to see shapes while she blinked against the source of light – a hole in the cave she was sitting in the corner of. It must be daytime by now but she didn't have a clue of what day it was and how long she had been passed out. All she knew was that her bones hurt like hell and that she actually had thought of herself of a dead girl. It took her a few moments to realize that, first of all, she wasn't alone in this cave and second, someone had taken care of her injuries by bandaging almost her whole body. As she rubbed her eyes to sharpen her eyesight, she could see the shadows of two people standing further away from her corner but they were obviously staring at her.
Another blink and one of the men stood in front of her. Wait, how did he do that? Not even she could move that fast and as far as she could tell he wasn't even a lightning style user. Sayuri narrowed her eyes as the man with the orange mask tapped her on her forehead like she was some kind of dangerous animal that could attack any minute after poking it with a stick. Eyes widened she stared at the indeed scary but somehow weird man, not daring to say a word and pulling her hood a little more down as if it could protect her from evil and every kind of harm.
"You must be pretty confused." She risked a short glance at the other guy who just scared the fuck out of her even more. He looked like a zombie, somehow dead but alive and after all – he was talking to her so he couldn't be dead as long as she wasn't. "We saved you."
The silver haired girl pressed herself even more against the wall as the masked guy came closer and closer. What did he want and why did he look at her like some kind of psychopath? Though she couldn't see his face she was pretty sure his expression wasn't friendly at all at the moment. Why did they save her from the shinobi of Amegakure?
"I would like to talk to her alone." The other guy left after he looked back at Sayuri for one last time. What was it with her that he was staring at her like that? Many questions and she didn't even manage to bring out one of them as the old zombie-like man walked towards her. She tried to set upright but ended up on her knees because they couldn't carry her yet again and carefully bowed before him, her eyes facing the ground. She was crying and scared and all she wanted at the moment was to be at her brother's side apologizing for running away from her save home. "Stop crying already, will you?" The opposite happened. "Strength, in its all forms, determines the worth of an individual. At the moment you're not worth anything we did for you but I'm pretty sure this will change."
This wasn't alright; she wasn't supposed to be here. Her place was at home with her brother, the only family she had left. He needed her even though he didn't show it to her the last few days and she needed him too. The old man seemed to have given up on trying to make her talk so he simply continued his monologue. "What I'm saying is that you will have the chance of proving that you were worth saving by training with my student you've met before. We've got plans to accomplish that won't work out if he doesn't have a partner to train with and since I'm not capable at the very moment, you will be doing that part. As another part of my team if you want to call it that." That creepy guy? Sayuri frowned. No way.
"Or.." Of course there wouldn't be a real choice for her, she already assumed it. "You're never gonna make it out alive again to see your brother. If you want to see him again after your training will be over, that's your decision to make." Why wouldn't she want to see Kakashi again? Slightly confused she dared to take a closer look at the man standing in front of her and regretted it instantly. Why her? Why didn't they just let her die? This didn't really look like a collection camp for people that almost got killed offside their villages so what the hell did they want with her? Why should she train with that zombie's student that seemed to be some kind of psychopath instead of accepting her own death as she did in the forest of the Hidden Rain earlier?
Truth be told, she didn't have the courage to even say one little word so she just kept quiet. That living corpse saved her after all so she would have to trust him now if she wanted to see her beloved brother again. "I assume we have an agreement then."