Note: I just bought a smart phone so I should be up-dating my stories a lot faster now that I have figured out how to do it through my phone.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor do I own the Naruto storyline.


Chapter Seven:

Broken Down Inside

I heard the distinctive sound of metal on metal and when I opened my eyes I could see the blonde boy standing over me my knife in his hand stopping the sword. He held the knife in one hand bracing it with the opposite as his knees bent from the weight of the man. I looked up at him in astonishment unsure if I was suppose to move or not. The boy's strange scars were slowly expanding as he growled at the man as if he were some kind of beast. Somehow seeing the boy returning to my side it gave me the courage to keep moving. From the position I laid I could see the second masked man running at him in full speed. Instinctively I crawled between the boy's legs drawing my fist back and punching the man between the legs.

The man collapsed to the floor in pain as I stood up unsure of what else to do. I heard the man holding Lady Mumi screech at his comrade to get up off the floor. While the other man entangled with the boy's knife cursed us. I did the only thing I could think about, charging at the man that held my lady captive. He was so startled by what I had done he could not move. I had no plan in mind as my fist swung on its own accord at the mans face. Blocking my attack, his massive hand enclosed my own. We stood in that position for a few minutes both our lungs laboring for air as the room began to fill with smoke.

"Get out of here!" Lady Mumi insisted as she struggled against the man's arm wrapped around her waist.

"I'm not leaving!" I yelled at her unsure if I could actually do anything against these men.

"Oh you will be leaving," my counter part growled through his mask, "But in pieces!"

He slung my little body so hard that I collided with the blond boy at the opposite side of the room. I felt my forehead collided with his temple as we were both sent hurtling to the ground. He groaned from beneath my body, and neither of us seemed to be able to move. It was all too much. We were just children we were not suppose to be battling for our very lives and yet, we were.

The boy's hands grabbed my ribs as he tried to gently shove me off of him. I could tell he had a mind to continue to fight which was startling to me at the very least. He managed to move me to the floor so he could sit up, growling darkly, "These guys…"

"This is impossible!" I whimpered trying my best to keep from crying in front of this mutual enemy of ours.

"Now she understands," the masked man nearest to us laughed.

"I'm not giving up!" the boy hissed, "And neither should you!"

"Enough!" the man holding my lady ordered, "Kill the girl. And remember the goal was always to capture the boy alive so that our lord could examine him."

"Right," both men nodded their heads in unison.

They charged right for us all of their weapons held above their heads. It would be seconds before they reached us. In my mind I understood that the boy and Lady Mumi were important enough to keep alive, but me…

Well I was to be killed.

I was no one important.

And no one worth saving.

This realization hurt me deeply.

"They're coming right at us!" I managed to choke out. My words had somehow crossed themselves between a defeated observation and a blood curdling scream. And the words of survival echoed in my mind: Get up and move!

I felt something surging inside my veins I had never felt before. Something so artificially natural that everything in the room instantly became very still. As if I had been pulled out of my own body I could see myself sitting inches away from the man's sword. But what was this strange sensation that I felt wiping through my limbs as if water? As if warm water that flowed so freely in a powerful formation that made me feel as if I was invincible. But I knew better than to believe that instinct. No one, no matter how strong they were, was completely invincible.

I was no different.

And then the realization that neither was he hit me with such an impact my legs began to move by themselves. I was on my feet in an instant all of my fears disappearing as I knocked the boy back to the floor. Surprised I had done it, he opened his mouth to protest. But his words were lost in my ears as I began to move with pure instinct. I ran at the man who was coming towards us, my body moving as if it had belong to someone else.

My enemy was so surprised by my actions that his own movement toward me was pulled to a halt. Jumping in the air I kicked his neck with such a force that I am sure that no child should have been able to possess. There was a crack from his neck before he fell to the ground. He never moved from the spot he had fallen, and he never again got up.

My attention turned to his comrades who were enraged at what I had just done to him. The instinct that had puppeteer my body fled as soon as it came leaving me defenseless. The blond had regained his footing and was at my side in an instant.

"How did you to do that?" he was overly impressed by me, "That was so cool!"

I could not respond to his question. At the time I had no idea how I had done it; although later I would find out just what all I was capable of. I grabbed his elbow in a panic pointing to the men who were racing toward at a speed we could barely see. Shifting in front of me he held up his knife, "Okay I got these guys…"

"That wont be necessary little boy, " a voice announced in front of us.

Where they had come from, and how we did not see them enter is still a mystery. But I do believe if they had not shown up when they had we would have both perished. There were four of them standing in front of us: three men and a single woman. Their faces were hidden behind masks representing animals and their bodies were clad in the uniform of the Resistance.

The woman, who wore a mask of a cat, turned toward us, "I think you and the little girl should make your escape right now while you can. We can handle it from here."

"But-" I began to protest.

"RUN Sakura!" Lady Mumi ordered me from the other side of the room, "If you do not I will not love you anymore! Now leave!"

I knew her words were false even though I knew she was lying they cut me deeper than I ever thought was possible. The boy grabbed my wrist and began to drag me towards the window so we could leave. One of the enemies tried to intercept us only to be knocked away by a man wearing a dog mask. I boy did not miss a beat as he jumped out the window dragging me out with him. We landed on the ground with a thud. I glanced back at the house to see it nearly all the way destroyed by the fire.

"Come on," the boy growled jerking my arm forward, "I know a place we can hide."

And so we ran.

We ran for what seemed like hours until he stopped in front of a large tree. A tree so immense that it stood out from all the other trees with roots so large we could have easily crawled underneath them and hid. He circled the tree carefully three times, scanning the forest as he did so, until he motioned for me to follow him. Crawling beneath the branches he whispered to me, "Follow me and stay close."

I did as I was told. As we crawled the ground began to slope downward. I released a hysterical giggle once I had realized we were crawling downward into the ground like a rabbit would. He didn't notice my hysteria but continued to follow the path he seemed to know so well. When we reached the bottom of the rabbit hole I could feel the force of gravity snatch me down. I finally stopped tumbling when the boy caught me in his arms.

"Sorry," he muttered, "I forgot to tell you about that."

"Its okay," I tried to see in the darkness of wherever we were but I could not see anything.

I could hear him grumbling to himself before something clicked and a light flashed on. Shielding my eyes for a minute from the sting of the brightness, all words were caught in my throat. This little rabbit hole of his lead into an underground home. There was a small amount of covers on the other side of the hole. And really describing it as a hole is very inaccurate. It was more like a bunker.

Scratching his head he must have read my thoughts, "Its from the war I think. This old guy showed it to me a year ago. He said the electricity and the plumbing ran off of the sun. Whatever that means."

"Do you live here?" I questioned noticing that the area we were in was only the main room. There were two large fabric cloths hanging in the door frames of this man made cave.

He shrugged, "Sometimes. Sometimes when I'm in the village I'll sleep in the old buildings. It just depends."

I felt pity for the boy as I watched him shake out the dirty blankets on the floor. Everything had happened so fast that night I hadn't realized just how tired I really was. He laid the covers as neatly as he could on the floor and pointed to them, "Sometimes it gets really cold down here but we can't make a fire because of the tree. Anyways you can have the blankets."

I crawled underneath the soiled fabric hoping he wouldn't notice the disgust I really felt for them. As soon as I closed my eyes I drifted off into a troubled sleep. Later that night I jerked awake finding that the light was dimming drastically. My only conclusion was that the boy had left it on either afraid of the dark himself, or he had done it for me. Taking in the well worn bunker I noticed he had curled up in the corner on the other side of the room. Standing up, I gathered the blankets in my arms and walked toward him trying to make as little noise as possible. Neatly dropping the covers over his shivering form I found the exit quickly and began to make my ascent to the top.

As I made my way to the top I glanced back only once wondering if I would ever see the boy again.