Title; Lucky

Disclaimer; Nope I don't own any of the Naruto characters.

Okay so the pairing will be SasuHina in the end, but don't expect me to avoid muddying the waters a bit first. Just trust me, in the end SasuHina.

Chapter 8-


Whatever I'd thought of fear before, it was nothing compared to the beast that stalked my mind now so completely alone. Each and every shadow seemed to contain a writhing mess of death to my wandering eye and every moan or creak of the building rattled my nerves further, and there were a lot of them. The building was poorly built at best and the icy wind whistled through gaps and tears in its iron structure chilling me as it howled and cried.

It couldn't have been much more than an hour ago I left Sasuke, inching my way through the dark corridors in search of some way up. But it felt as if an eternity had passed, and I'd used up all my corridors.

The only staircase looked to have been stripped almost torn away and I'd had no luck finding a fire escape or somewhere more climbable which left only one course of action open. Searching the rooms. I was hesitant though, no, more than hesitant. Blood stains coated the walls and lay in puddles here and there and all I could think was that whatever it had been that caused them was still lurking here somewhere.

Gun at the ready in inexperienced bruised hands I pushed the first door open scanning the darkness with a panicked fervour. Nothing, or nothing alive anyway and no leaked blood around the room. The room was Spartan, decorated only by rows of bunk beds and heavy cases. A quick search revealed the cases held nothing but military fatigues absent crests or flags or any revealing markers and the occasional helmet or two. I took a helmet and one of the uniform coats. I couldn't think of any possible advantage jungle camouflage would give me at the moment but it helped battle the chill a little at least.

Somehow I was more nervous coming to the second door, perhaps because I knew at least one held danger and the odds of picking that door had just increased. Playing Russian roulette with myself huh, what a way to go.

I twisted the handle and pushed but to little effect but a slight shake, the door wasn't locked but it was barricaded from within. I heard something, scratchy for lack of a better word, moving about through the gap. Weary of turning my back to the suspicious door I tried the one next to it finding it opened easily.

A flickering light blinded me for a second and in reflex I fired, my gun rattling furiously until it clicked empty. As my vision returned I was greeted to an empty room, a couch and some other odd things across from me riddled with the last of my clip. Clumsily I slid the empty metal free and replaced it with my second and as it were last clip.

The room seemed to be a common area. An old common area, kind that would have seemed retro in the nineteen fifties. An old record player lay gathering dust in one corner and in a move that dictated either brilliance or insanity I decided to play detective and put it on play. There was nothing but brittle dead air for a moment before a voice came on high and airy but distinctly male.

"Project report two hundred and fifty um…oh I forget. The last of the survivors have been imprisoned by that titan yet again and I find myself once more without aids or resources for my research. Certainly it would appear either he is becoming more skilful or rather the society is becoming more complacent in whom they select." I heard nothing for a few moments save grunts and hums that seemed to be in the affirmative, as if someone else were there talking to him.

"Yes I do see your point. I must began to take measures against the Warden lest he spoil all my fun. One of the failures should suffice, after all he should only be weakened not outright destroyed. I wouldn't want to see him replaced." The voice continued to tut to itself before it divulged into scientific jargon, chemical compositions and such for whatever experiment it had just performed. I shut off the recorder ignoring the feel of slime the voice had brought with it to the room.

I didn't really know what to make of all that except that whomever it was hadn't done a good job in taking his measures against the Warden. But who was he, he didn't seem to be one of our captors but he'd referenced them as a society of some sort. And what exactly had he been creating?

More questions now than answers my eyes picked out something in the back corner of the room, a small window that seemed to lead to the next room, the barricaded room. I examined it carefully and decided on a course for action, the window was clearly designed for food or other small items to be passed through and I doubted even I would be getting through it without some time and effort squeezing my way painfully.

If something dangerous was in the room this was my chance to get a drop on it with cover.

The rusted latch opened easily enough but not without a fair amount of noise and I heard the thing shuffling and scratching as the window slid open. I blinked in the low light picking out first the blood smears and then the body. Barely alive the man's pain creased features took me in with a look of confusion, undoubtedly he hadn't been expecting a young woman garbed in a torn bridesmaid dress and too large military fatigues.

I wasted no time beginning but it still took me almost five minutes to bend and shift through the tight passage and get to the man's aid. I pulled his hand and the rag he held away from his chest revealing three near parallel cuts running along the flesh leaking blood in a slow steady stream, from each wound pale purple and black lines snaked outward signs of some infection I supposed.

"Hey, what's a…what's a pretty thing like you doing here?" His voice was cracked and dry but he forced the line out between coughs. I glanced around the bare kitchen picking out a tap and moved to get him a drink. A hand caught my wrist before I could get far though.

"Water's bad, bad in this whole place. I'm Nagato by the way." He tried for what I guessed was to be a flirty smile but it came out as more of a grimace. I helped him get the rag back on his wound and instead fished my water bottle from my pack.

"I'm ah, Hinata." It felt awkward introducing myself to a man that seemed to be on the cusp of death, he pushed away the offered water with a weak shake of his head.

"Don't, you'll need that Hinata. Listen to me okay." His hand half flopped onto my shoulder and for the first time I noticed that the man's eyes, pain stricken as they were, were nothing short of beautiful. A poets eyes I thought.

"Listen there's a…a thing loose here. Real dangerous." He began, focus dropping here and there as his wound and dry throat aggravated him.

"I know the giant, the Warden, he was on the ground floor but he's gone now." I tried to forget that he'd taken Sakura with him. It was horrifying knowing I'd abandoned her and terrifying knowing there was literally no other choice. The man, Nagato, groaned and shook his head.

"No not a giant, smaller, lizard fucking insect man." That was not reassuring.

"What do you mean, Nagato, was this the thing that hurt you?" Now that I thought of it nether the zombies nor the Warden could inflict a wound like this one. Whatever had done it must have been clawed and faster than the average ghoul.

"Yes. Listen he's, it's got claws big talon things. And its skin's hard, armoured, like its bones are on the outside. But its eyes are bad, delicate. It hates the light. Here." The image he conjured was nothing but worrying and I tried to control my imagination as he pushed a dark metal object towards me.

"Flares. A few doors down there should be a security office, there's vent access in there. Get out of here…pretty miss Hinata." I accepted the odd shaped flare gun and the two spare shots the man offered me.

"I've got a friend here, I'm gonna come back here once I find him alright." I didn't even believe myself, not because I wouldn't come back but because I could already see this man's fate. He'd lost too much blood and that wound was definitely infected and with something I'd wager no doctor in the real world was experienced with.

A little hesitantly I left him squeezing back out through the window and shutting it behind me pushing the ragged couch against the passage in a barricade that looked as rushed and sloppy as it was. Despite what he'd told me though I now felt a little less nervous knowing there was another person up here and that creature was likely long gone too. If I wasn't assuming too much then it was the creation that voice had spoken of, the one released to inconvenience the Warden.

I found the door marked with an almost completely faded 'S'. The old wood creaked as I pushed the door open and reflexively I clicked the lock shut behind me. A wall of monitors took up most of the left wall at least half of them broken or linked to broken cameras. They were organised by floors I noticed with all the lower screens showing hordes of the Undead and the top row was almost completely offline bar an empty hallway or dorm room. On the mid-levels though I was quick to pick out the Uchiha descending to the second floor I didn't doubt in search of his brunette partner, what an impression that girl had made on him to warrant such a brave and stupid move. Another on the third floor showed Nagato still clearly alive and for the moment safe.

I saw the vent access quickly enough and as I pulled a nearby desk to aid in my climb I made another discovery. Attached beneath the desk was a slick dark riot shotgun oiled and ready for use, I found a dozen slugs boxed in the desk drawer and loaded half into the weapon and pocketed the spares before shouldering the weapon. I wasn't too keen to use it unless I had too. I'd fired one before when I'd been dragged to a firing range by my sister and her sociopath boyfriend for her birthday and it hadn't been a pleasant experience.

Just as I'd managed to remove the vent cover a noise from the monitor startled me. I approached the crackling screen and bit back my repulsion as I saw the source of the sounds. Crouched on all fours a human sized figure scuttled though the corridors pausing at each blood spear for a moment before it finally reached Nagato's room.

Without any apparent effort it tore the door from its hinges, half shredding the sturdy wood with its claws and with as little effort it tore through the rest of the barricade in seconds. Nagato didn't stand a chance, in seconds the creature was upon him savaging him with a high wail that smothered his own shriek. As he pulled back I saw what remained of the pained man, his face and arms had been untouched but his chest was completely hollowed out.

The things face was a twisted parody of a man's with fangs and pincers bursting from its distorted jaw. It was silent for a second before the sickly yellow eyes blinked and focused on the camera staring right back at me. It began to wail again and I rushed to the vent forgetting any notions of making a barricade or trying to fight such a thing.

I made it into the vent pulling the grate back up and freezing as the door came apart and the monstrosity entered the room. It sniffed around for a few minutes I guessed confused as to where I'd went before a bright flash on one of the monitors set it off. Viciously it began to tear into the screens wailing in fury.

I used the noisy chance to crawl away hoping it wouldn't realise just how to follow me.


I began to realise pretty quickly that there wasn't much in the way of shame or privacy down here. The prisoners were quick to relieve themselves without much care of who might be watching and more than once already I'd seen a woman or even a man mounted and screwed quite publicly without anyone blinking an eye.

And somehow Temari was not the one I was connecting with.

"It's the food I believe, drugged." Shino the quiet man mentioned when I brought up the subject, apparently Temari had been quicker to eat than the reluctant man and she'd already grown more feral.

"You sure it's not just people." I'll admit that I was only playing the devil's advocate at this point, most of these people had regressed beyond any kind of humanity and they had to have been helped there. It made sense that way, you take anger, frustration and survival instincts some of the strongest human triggers and you fuck around with the brain chemistry a little to help them reach insanity that much quicker.

"I've seen enough evil to know it when I see it. This isn't evil, it's a by-product of evil actions by evil men." Answered the man solemnly. I could see that, these shadows of men and women weren't evil in themselves but rather subjects, slaves, creations of it.

"And what makes you so resilient to it?" I asked ignoring the grumble of my stomach as the feral blonde approached us some tasteless dried meat in her hand, I refused the offered piece.

"They know they shouldn't be here." I raised an eyebrow at the odd answer but Temari decided to put it in much clearer if ever so slightly unpleasant terms.

"This son of a bitch deserves here." She spat, actually physically spat on the dark man before marching away to do who knows what. I kept the eyebrow raised.

"I am a man of evil deeds and evil actions miss Sakura. I've always expected to end up in hell so for me, there is no frustration, no anger, no surprise." And no self-righteous anger or self-pity to be manipulated. I decided to be careful how I asked further questions, if he was a serial killer playing the part of ally I had no intention of convincing him to do otherwise.

"She means something to you though. I saw…in my dream, you protecting her." I spoke, I'd remembered it quite clearly that he'd stepped in. Not something I thought evil men made a habit of doing for people that hated them so it had to mean something more.

"When I was eighteen I received a promotion, from car jack to hit man. The first man I killed was a writer, divorced for loving his career more than his wife. One of those martyr type investigating some people that really didn't want to be investigated." I had a feeling I knew where this was going. The tone in the man's voice told so much more than his words especially given he'd hadn't spoken in anything but a flat tone before now.

"I strangled him in his kitchen one morning, let his face flop into a bowl of some sugary cereal and looked up to realise his daughter was staying with him that weekend. She'd walked in to see her father's last breath gasping moments." My eyes flickered to the blonde across the room and he seemed to take it as a question.

"No, she just resembles the girl, or what she might have looked like now. Temari hates me for an entirely different reason." I didn't miss what was implied by the sentence and shivered at the thought that despite all his manners and sanity compared to everyone else in this pit he was probably the worst one.

"You're right you do belong down here." I found myself whispering leaning back against the padded wall my plans of escape dying away, I'd hoped to turn these two into allies and find a way out but with Temari becoming indoctrinated and the truth of Shino revealed…I wasn't sure I had a play that didn't start and end with turning my smuggled gun on myself to make the process quick and relatively painless.

"But neither of you do. I'll free you on condition that you take Temari, I don't believe this place has bound her completely yet." I wasn't sure what else to do except nod and accept the deal. Did I believe he could release us, not a chance, but damn it all to hell if I was going easily.


"Shit, fucking." She continued to swear for a couple of minute as the cold water drenched us through our clothing but eventually she calmed and buried her head in my shoulder shivering and clinging to me. I shut the water off once I was certain we'd both been washed free of the blood and vomit.

"Ten…" I couldn't think of a damn thing that made any sense to say in this moment, wow that was a close one huh, sorry 'bout the near rape. My mouth felt like sand paper and I settled for abandoning my voice instead clinging back to the woman hoping somehow if we held tight enough we'd smoother the pain and horror.

"Sasuke…give me a gun." I did with more than a fair share of hesitance, she didn't seem to catch it just accepted the cold steel and gripped it behind my back tightly.

"He, he tried to…" she began but I shushed her. It didn't need to be said, or maybe it did I had no idea what to do or how to help.

"I killed him Sasuke, I killed him, I…" her voice was hollow, she was speaking from somewhere far far away.

"I know, you stopped him." My first stumble, or the first one she'd point out as her grip suddenly broke and she shook her head furiously brown eyes puffy and swollen.

"I killed a man Sasuke. I'm a goddamn murder, I've been killing people for days now. Fucking enjoying it. I enjoyed it. Fucking sick, it's no wonder I…" she cut off and I wrapped her gently back into an embrace as she started to sob again. Self-blame, she thought…

"You're not a murderer Teagan not even close. You're doing what anyone would do, what I'd do. I wish I could kill that son of a bitch again for…that wasn't a man, even less so than those ghouls are." We were silent then for a long time as we just held each other. I wasn't going to fool myself into thinking Tenten would get over this any time soon but as she finally pulled away snapping the action on the pistol and tucking it into her waist band I saw I'd clearly been underestimating her inner resolve.

"I want them, whoever put us here, caused all this shit. I want them strung up and torn apart." She'd fallen back on anger, and a desire for vengeance. It mightn't have been healthy but at least I could see something of the woman returning to her eyes, replacing the horror and desperation that had filled them so completely when I'd found her sobbing in that room.


Pov's. Hinata, Sakura, Sasuke.

Well she'll probably need a couple of decades of therapy if she makes it from the island but for now at least she's holding herself together with anger and a burning desire for revenge as her coping mechanism. Don't you know a stories dark when revenge is portrayed in a positive light. Screw it, I don't like how preachy the manga gets about revenge being the root of all evil anyway, if I wanted to learn about Gandi's ideals I wouldn't be reading about bloody ninja.

Sakura's still in a den of Vipers and as it were has only a King Cobra to help her and Hinata's part I really enjoyed writing, given she's the least action orientated of the four I haven't been able to give her the attention she deserved with them all together safe and sound…well maybe not safe…or particularly sound but still.

So how do you think Tenten's going to greet B, all things considered. And just what is Kabuto up to let alone his royal evilness Orochimaru. And the hammer wielding Warden, he's on the prowl again as is the newly introduced…honestly I've no idea what to call it, man-spider?

JokerAtWork- All things come to an end, the horror will too...eventually.

Artemis Of The Golden Distaff- Yes it was Tenten sorry for not posting the Povs.

Anyway do enjoy.

R&R