Chapter 4.
"W-wait! Where are you going!? Diyla!" Naruto shouts as he stumbles forward. He hears the door close and falls back on his butt.
"Who are you?" comes a voice from behind him.
Naruto turns around. It was a boy, his age, his clothing brown from dirt and tattered after obviously being worn for a while. His faded brown eyes seem to have lost hope years ago.
"Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto says simply.
"No, I mean your code." the weak boy says, pointing to Naruto's arm. Naruto just now realizes that he has some sort of imprint on his arm.
"Reolic." Naruto attempts to pronounce.
"You're a ninja?!" the boy says in disbelief.
"Yeah. Where is this place?" Naruto asks.
"Oh right. None of us are really sure, but it doesn't really matter. We can't escape." The boy says.
"Nothing is inescapable." Naruto says, scratching his head.
"This place is. Even ninjas like you haven't been able to escape." The boy says sadly.
"Who is Diyla?" Naruto asks.
"She is a ninja working under the Boss. Rumor is her parents are being held captive, and she is working to keep them alive." Another boy in their cell speaks up.
"Despite the fact that a few of us are here because of her, she is really nice to us. She sneaks us extra bread and water, and gives us whatever she can to survive, despite the Boss's orders." The boy says, giving a weak smile.
"She's stupid. Working that hard and killing so many people for two parents." Naruto says.
Diyla walks through the corridors, silently wondering what to say. What could she say? She reaches a metal door and opens it. A man with dark, wild hair and a woman with brown hair are in chains.
"A-are you guys feeling better?" she asks, peeking over the slightly open door.
"Go away!" the man shouts at her.
"I need to make sure you are okay, dad." Diyla insists.
"We don't need you here." The woman says.
"I'll get you guys out of here soon, so hang in there." Diyla says, cowering.
"If you really want to do something for us, kill us." The woman says coldly.
"Don't say stuff like that! I'm your daughter! I'll never let you two die!" Diyla insists.
"You're not our daughter. Our daughter died two years ago. You're just a demon living in her skin!" the man shouts at her.
"C-call me if you need anything at all." Diyla says, looking down so a shadow is covering her face.
She closes the door and walks down the corridor again. Her walk turns into a run and she flies by the prisoner cells. Naruto watches her, when he caught something. It was a tear, she was crying.
"What was that about?" Naruto asks, crossing his arms and turning to face the other prisoners.
"Not sure, but it happens a lot." says the fourth boy in the cell. There were only four boys in Naruto's cell, including him. They were all his age, and they had apparently been in the jail for a while. In the prison, people were given numbers. Naruto was 99. They were 48, 34, and 27. They called each other by their numbers.
"Naruto!?" Sakura calls. She stops and takes a break. She, Sasuke, and Kakashi had been searching for what seemed like hours. They sat on some rocks nearby and took some sips of water.
"What now, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asks.
"We have to keep looking." Kakashi states.
"Knowing Naruto, he probably got caught up in a fight for no reason." Sasuke says, leaning against a rock and holding his water canteen.
Sakura is looking up at the sky, when she notices something. Something was shining on her left. She turns, it was a kunai. She walks over to it.
"A marker?" Sakura asks out loud.
"Huh?" Sasuke says, opening his eyes and looking in her direction. He sees it and walks over.
Naruto sits, talking to his new friends about the outside world; what Konoha's changes have been, his adventures, his friends. They hang onto every word. Naruto felt calm, at least as calm as a prisoner could feel. It was an unfamiliar feeling, but he liked talking to his new friends.
He hears someone behind him and turns around to face the bars. Diyla was squatting down in front of the bars.
"Gotcha guys some extras." She says, smiling and slipping pieces of bread through the bars.
"Hey Naruto, how is it going?" She asks like it wasn't her fault he was here in the first place. For some reason, he took this as a gesture of friendship and takes the bread.
"Why were you crying earlier?" He asks. 48, the guy he talked to first, elbows him in the back.
"It's okay. I visited a place where I'm not exactly wanted." Diyla says, scratching the back of her head and smiling. It was false-acceptance; Naruto could pick it up.
"I've got some news for the chain." She says to 48.
"Really?" he asks.
"Everything is going to change during dinnertime, tomorrow. Make sure no guards hear it." Diyla says, suddenly changing to a serious emotion. 48's eyes grew wide. He nods and she walks off.
"What does that mean?" Naruto asks, turning around. He sees everybody staring at each other, grinning.
"What?" Naruto asks, scratching his head.
"It's finally come." 48 says, standing up and walking over the wall on the side of our cell. He pulls out the loose brick in the wall that separates the cells and whispers something to the people next to us. Then he puts it back in place and sits down, smiling.
Something big was happening, and Naruto had a pretty good feeling he was going to be in the middle of it.