A/N: Hello again. Some of you might want to reread some of the previous chapters to remember what is happening in the plot – I'm painfully aware that three months has gone by without an update, but I've been trying to keep my bio updated about my progress through the chapter as much as possible to make up for it. Be sure to check it from time to time.

There's another reason why I chose to upload today – usually I sit on a finished chapter for a few days while editing.

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY TODAY! xD So I thought I'd really push myself into updating for you guys.

I'll see you at the end of the chapter.


Chapter 9: Taken – Part I

It was raining.

The clouds had been circling ominously over the village since the previous afternoon, growing darker and thicker, as if straining to hold the vast amounts of water from falling. They broke sometime in the early afternoon, releasing a torrential downpour over the village so thick that we could barely see out of the classroom windows. It set a gloomy atmosphere that mirrored my inner trepidations as I stared out the window at the trees that stooped like a frail person under the strength of the wind and rain.

She's not my sister!

The words had been echoing in my own head since they'd first been spoken all those months ago. I couldn't shake them. Just like I couldn't shake off the distrustful stares Kurenai would give me even now. Although she was right to distrust me. Maybe, somewhere deep in her subconscious, she remembered that it was I who had betrayed her, invaded her mind, and stolen her memories…

I deserved it.

But it still hurt nonetheless.

I could still remember from all those months ago when Mama and Papa had tried for the first time to reintroduce me to Kurenai as their daughter and Kurenai's sister. Given Kurenai's generally kindly nature, I was unprepared for the unprecedented explosion of fear and rage that blew up in our faces.


"You're not my sister! I don't believe any of you."

"Kurenai, trust us—"

"You just want me accept that I've had a sister this whole time and I didn't even know? That she's been living down the hall from me all this time? What if you're the ones that are being tricked? What if this is just some big genjutsu set up by her!" She jabbed a finger at me.

"I haven't—" I started.

"Don't be ridiculous," Papa stated. "That's preposterous."

"That's not my sister! That's not your daughter!" She shouted, beginning to turn red in the face from exertion. "I'm your daughter, and she's fooling both of you!"

"Just calm down, Kurenai. You know Ayaka but—"

"I think I would know if I had a sister!"

"You've forgotten," Mama interceded gently, trying to soothe the extremely agitated Kurenai.

She spun to face Mama. "How? No one has been telling me anything, except that I'm supposed to believe that this—this doppelganger is my sister! Who you've never mentioned and I've never seen before! How?"

For a moment, Mama and Papa seemed at a loss for words before looking at me in perturbed amazement. They had obviously just realised how deep and intricate the damage I had caused was. I had cut all evidence of my existence from her mind.

"You hit your head," Papa finally lied, albeit hesitantly.

"And I remember everything else except her!?" She jabbed her finger at me again for emphasis. Then she seemed to deflate, as if her anger had evaporated leaving behind sadness and anxiety. She shook her head, as though dismissing a thought. "You're all lying to me."

"No, we're not," Mama began. "Kurenai, just listen…"

"I'm… I'm going to go to my room." Kurenai turned and quickly darted away. The sudden change of her outrage to fear left me feeling slightly sick to the stomach. Kurenai was damaged, that much was plain to see.


I sighed, my mouth twisting with distaste as I turned away from the window.

"It can be said that it was the armistice at the end of the First Shinobi War that was responsible for starting the Second War," Takahata finished. He was slouching at his desk at the front of the classroom, lazily regaling us with the history of the Five Great Nations. "Do any of you…" -he paused to yawn widely- "…dickheads know what about the armistice started the Second Shinobi War?"

He was met with silence.

"Hm. Looks like I'll have to pick one of you. Yūhi? How about you answer my question."

I snapped to attention, struggling to recall his last question. "Um, w-wasn't it because… the Second War started because of… um, they had different opinions that, um, clashed and because they didn't want to, uh, listen to each other?" At Takahata-sensei's unimpressed face I struggled to amend my answer. "But then, I g-guess they never got along anyway! I mean if they got along they wouldn't have had the First Shinobi War in the first place! Which means the Second Hokage wouldn't have died, but I guess that also means the Third Hokage wouldn't have been chosen to lead the village. But I guess by this stage the Second Hokage would've passed away already, so the Third Hokage would probably still be the Third Hokage, which I guess means not much would have changed, but, uh—"

"Alright, alright! Stop before you give yourself an aneurysm." Takahata interrupted, making my face feel hot. I stared down at my desk, my ears burning, as he started to explain. "Economic instability. It was economic instability between the Great Five Nations that caused the Second Great Shinobi War. As shinobi, it is our job to serve our village with our very lives – to everything we can to increase the standing of Konoha. However, this sometimes means that to preserve the peace between the Five Great Nations, sacrifices must be made."

"What does that mean?" asked the girl sitting the next desk over from me.

Takahata yawned again and stretched before replying. "Well, running a village requires a complex equilibrium. As individual shinobi, we want to be strong, stronger than the other villages. We want to accept the most missions; produce the most goods and services – make the most money. All of which is good. But you can have too much of a good thing, especially if other nations start feeling threatened. Which is what started the Second War. Once one country broke the armistice, all of the Five Great Nations did, because if another nation was able to break the peace treaty, why shouldn't they? So we sacrifice, to maintain the equilibrium of power between the Five Nations. We sacrifice opportunities, deals, morals, people."

Silence filled the room. I was in a state of shock. Who'd have thought that Takahata-sensei would actually go through a whole explanation without even a single swear word – not to mention that the things he was saying were just as informative as they were horrifying.

Sacrificing people?

"But why do we have to sacrifice?" A boy towards the back of the class asked loudly. "Why can't the other villages sacrifice?"

Takahata sent the boy a flat look before deigning to reply. "I wouldn't expect little brats—" Ah, there was that ever-so-sweet insult. "—like you to understand. War is terrible. It's bloody, and hard, and haunting. If you make a mistake during wartime it could cost a person their life. We're at peace now, and that's the way Konohagakure likes it. If we were in wartime, you'd all have been sent out into the field against trained shinobi from other villages with about the same amount of training you have right now – you'd be cannon fodder. Does anybody here want to be cannon fodder?"

A vehement shaking of heads from the class made the edges of his mouth curl upwards for a split second, before it dropped and he re-set his bored gaze on the back wall behind us.

"If making these sacrifices keep war away from the village, then it is the Lord Hokage's responsibility to make those sacrifices for the betterment of the village."

I couldn't help raise my hand in question.

"Yūhi." He acknowledged.

"Ah, but what if… another Hidden Village came into our village and stole things – stole people." Takahata-sensei arched an eyebrow. "Would we just let them get away with it? With… invading our home and stealing?" I was aware that these questions were a little too revealing of my private vulnerabilities, but these were questions I needed answered. I was terrified of the prospect that another village could potentially raid the village, abduct children – abduct me – and get away with it because Konohagakure didn't want to cause a fuss.

Takahata-sensei levelled me a considering glance, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

But if that look had been chilling, the next words that Takahata-sensei spoke sent ice sliding down my spine and a sick feeling sinking to the bottom of my gut.

"It depends on its worth to the village."

"What do you mean?" I pressed, swallowing down the bile rising in my throat.

Takahata-sensei rolled his eyes in faux exasperation. "Well," he drawled out, presenting me with a flat look. "It all depends on whether or not this thing is worth starting a war over. Sometimes the Village will just have to let bygones be bygones, especially if it will help preserve the peace. Letting one person be taken might be better than letting thousands be killed in a war that could have been prevented."

I felt cold.

"That's not to say that the Village wouldn't kick up a stink about it, but this is just purely hypothetical, right? Yūhi?"

"Yeah—yes, of course, sensei."


"Yo."

I started, jerking back in my chair as Genma Shiranui plonked himself down on my desk shortly after class finished. I had been slowly packing up my things whilst Anko was off performing some kind of malevolent deed to Kotetsu and Izumo, something about her making them "dance into next week with my paperbombs".

That girl and her paperbombs…

"Oh, Shiranui-kun," I greeted, pushing back my chair to stand. I hadn't seen him since the Great Training Ground Debacle all those weeks ago, when Anko had managed to rope in some of our fellow Academy students to save Obito from Norisa-sensei's whip. "What are you doing here? Did you need me for something?"

"Well," he drawled, stretching out further over my desk lazily. "For starters, you can call me by my first name. I don't mind. And I actually came to ask you a question."

"A question?" I frowned, pausing in the act of gathering all my paraphernalia and dumping it into my schoolbag. What could he possibly want to ask me?

"Yeah. I was wondering if you had a relative a few years older than you? Her name was Kurinee—Kureena, something like that."

You're not my sister!

The memory returned like an unpleasant smell and I struggled not to show any indication that I felt uncomfortable at the very mention of her name.

"You mean Kurenai?"

"Are you sure? I'm pretty sure it's something like 'Kureena'."

I stared at him flatly, trying very hard to pretend that I didn't want to give him a slap to the face. I was pretty sure I knew my own sisters' name. "No. It's Kurenai."

"Yeah yeah, whatever. So, are you related? I hear she's trying out for the Genin exams in a few weeks."

Wow. That was the first I had heard of it. I mean, it's not like we spoke much at home, but still… it was hard to remember that I wasn't a part of her life anymore. I never saw her around in the Academy even when we had multi-cohort classes (which is how I met Genma), they seemed to always keep Kurenai's class away from them. I suppose I could attribute that to the Hokage wanting to prevent a confrontation between two sisters that could likely reveal my kekkai genkai abilities to the Village.

"Hellooo? Ayaka? You still in there?" I jerked into motion, shoving the rest of my stuff into my bag as Genma stopped waving his hand in my face. "You gonna answer, or what?"

"She's my sister," I answered touchily, swinging my backpack over my shoulder. "And yeah, of course I knew she was going for the genin exam. We're family, and family tells each other everything. Doesn't your family? If not, then why? Maybe you should think about being more open with your family like I so obviously am with mine."

He frowned, following me as I made my way to the classroom door. "Oooookay, so someone has family issues… Anyway there's no need to get so defensive, it was just a question." He was right, of course. He had caught me off guard with the news of Kurenai partaking in this years' genin exam. Obviously I wouldn't have expected to hear it straight from the source – Kurenai still wasn't on speaking terms with me – but it would have been nice for my parents to keep me apprised.

"You're right—sorry." I amended quickly, rushing to change the subject. "So you're trying out for the exam this year too?"

"Yeah, it'll be my third attempt at the exam."

"Your third?" I exclaimed, my hand flying to my throat dramatically in an effort to lighten his mood, as well as mine. "Have you thought of maybe taking up carpentry or something instead?"

Genma gave me a dry look. "Ha ha, very funny. Three attempts aren't even that bad. I mean, it's not great but at least there's people who're worse than me. But this'll be the year—I can feel it."

"You can feel it?"

"That's right."

"No, no. Let me repeat. You can 'feel' it? That you're going to pass this exam?" I remarked. "And you didn't feel it the first two times?"

He seemed a little bit stumped—and embarrassed. "It was a different feeling those time—"

"Of course it was."

"I'm not kidding," he cried.

"Have you met yourself, Genma? You're always kidding." I added dryly, to which he pouted in response before I gave in and began laughing. "Well, good luck. Let me know how you go."

We continued in silence for a little while, making our way through the press of Academy student bodies before Genma abruptly caught my arm and pulled me aside.

"I just remembered something," he declared in a hushed tone, leaning closer conspiratorially.

"Did you get a 'feeling' for that too?" I muttered, rubbing where he'd yanked my arm.

"Huh?"

"Nothing. You were saying…?"

"Oh right, well," he took a big breath, steadying himself. "I doubt you've heard this because apparently the teachers are trying to keep this under wraps, but…" Again, he leaned even closer and I fought the urge to roll my eyes.

"Just spit it out, already."

"All in good time," he grinned cheekily, but continued shortly after. "I heard that someone from your year level would be graduating this year. As in, they've already passed the exam with flying colours and are just waiting for the older students to finish so he can join a genin team at the same time."

"Really?" I asked, unimpressed.

"Really really."

"A six-year old? Like me?"

"Yup."

"Who?"

"Huh?"

"Who is it that's supposed to have graduated?" I had some serious doubts in this story of his. No one graduates from the Academy at six years old, not unless you're some kind of superhero prodigy like Kakashi Hatake, and even then, I'm pretty sure I would have heard about it.

"Well," he grinned, embarrassed. "I don't actually know. Like I said, it's a secret. But I saw his report, which had a picture of him. It's a boy, and he doesn't have many friends apparently. As in, he's really introverted and stuff."

"Oh really? I thought you'd said that you'd 'heard' this information, not seen it in a report. How did you get your eyes on a report that's supposedly so 'top secret'." A sudden thought occurred to me as he continued to gaze at me charmingly, trying to mask his embarrassment. "What did you do?" I sighed.

Really. Why did I have friends that were so much trouble? Anko, Obito, Genma—even Kotetsu and Izumo were troublemakers. Although in Izumo's defence, usually he was just being dragged into those situations by Kotetsu when shit went down and never actually wanted to cause trouble himself.

But still, I didn't fancy another trip to the Hokage's office over a repeat of the Great Training Ground Debacle.

"Weeell," Genma began, shifting uncomfortably. "I may have seen some documents on one of the sensei's desks about it before they were to be sent to the Hokage."

I felt my eyebrows rise. "What on earth were you doing in the Teachers' Lounge and how weren't you caught?"

"It was the middle of the night, duh." He replied, some of his self-confidence and cockiness returning as he spoke. I sent him a flat stare until he was suitably cowed into continuing. "And I, uh, may have been there to get the answers to the written part of the genin exam."

Annnnd there it was. Why was I not surprised?

"Yeah, that's some 'feeling' that 'this is the year', huh?" Cheater.

He had the good grace to blush.

"So," I started slowly, changing the subject. "You know what he looks like, but you don't know his name or anything?"

"That's right. I only brought it up because I saw him just before," Genma admitted.

"What? Where?"

"Outside, near that tree-swing thing in front of the Academy—Hey, wait! Where are you going?"

I ignored him, trusting that he would follow me outside and continued pushing through the crowd of students hurrying to get home and out of the downpour of rain.

I stopped when I got to the large tree that sat in front of the Academy building, slowly walking around it. It had been here a long time; so long that someone had attached a swing to one of its thick branches for the Academy children to play on. Although no one was actually really sure who had installed the swing in the first place, there were many fanciful stories associated with its inception. Such as the tale of the father who built the swing after his son had fallen to his death from swinging among the branches of the tree; or the story of the star-crossed lovers who could only meet under the tree during the night and would sit on the broad seat together and gaze into each others' eyes and blather on about how in love they were, etc.

Ugh, yuck.

Yeah, I wasn't a fan of love stories—especially star-crossed love stories, which my year ten English teacher could probably attest to after being handed an essay that of over three thousand words of rambling hate about how the tragic ending of the story was due to the stupidity of the characters rather than their "star-crossed" love being fated to doom by some higher power. I'd only gotten a B-grade for it; I'd never forgiven him for that.

Moving on…

The swing seat was empty now, which could be expected with the current weather, I supposed, everyone was in a rush to get home.

"Wha… what was that all about?" Genma huffed as he finally caught up. "Why'd you run off?"

"I wanted to talk to him."

"About what?"

"I don't know," I prevaricated. "Maybe ask him how he's so strong? Why no one knows him? But he's obviously not here, so it's not like it matters."

Genma cleared his throat, and his gaze travelled upwards, above my head, into the foliage of the tree.

I followed his gaze with my own, and blinked. There… was a boy in among the tree branches above us, no doubt watching as Genma and I had interacted beneath the tree. He had dark hair and large dark eyes, but it was hard to even ascertain that much as it was getting darker as the storm was blotting out the sun and sky with large blotches of inky-dark clouds.

"Genma?" I said quietly, unsure if he could even hear me over the sound of the heavy rain hitting everything outside the cover of the tree.

"Yeah," he replied, evenly. "This is him."

I supposed he looked sort of familiar, but not from seeing him in class. Perhaps he belonged to another class in my cohort?

"Hi," I greeted him, giving a half-wave and moving towards the trunk of the tree. "I'm Ayaka, it's nice to meet you." I gave him the most saccharine smile I could muster to help butter him up. The boy didn't respond, just gazed back at me owlishly. It was… a little weird.

Genma choked out a laugh, and I refrained from shooting him a glare.

"I heard that you're going to be graduating from the Academy to genin this year." I continued. "Congratulations. That's pretty impressive."

The boy blinked again, and then nimbly dropped down to the branch closest to me, his face dropping until it was just inches from mine. I was a little jealous; I had a problem or two with heights that got to me when even just climbing a tree. At his sudden closeness I could make out more of his features, his eyes were indeed dark and wide, but his hair was a light brown colour and his facial features were actually rather plain—not bad, just plain. I quickly backed up to give myself some personal space.

"You…" the boy began slowly, as if picking his words carefully. "You were in my class."

I frowned. I didn't remember him at all. "Really?"

He seemed slightly disappointed, but not surprised. "You don't remember me." He stated forlornly. I felt a crushing sense of guilt at that statement. It reminded me of the nightmares I had even to this day where the hands would go out of control, affecting and attacking everyone around me—making everyone forget my very existence—and leaving me a stranger to all the people I had known.

"I gave you back your pencil, once. You dropped it, and I picked it up for you." The boy remarked, sitting up on the branch. He cocked his head to the side. "I suppose you don't remember that either."

Needless to say, I did not.

"You don't seem to be like other kids our age," I noted aloud, purposely avoiding his soft accusation. "Is that why you've passed the genin exam already?"

His mouth twitched into a slight smile, it seemed to brighten his features slightly—perhaps he wasn't as plain as I'd originally thought?

"If that were the case," he began. "You would have passed the exams too. You're not exactly average either."

Huh? My heart leapt into my throat. How much did he know? "What do you mean?"

"You're not like our classmates," he admitted. "You're smarter than the others, I've seen you in class. But something else too… more mature, I guess."

Well that was a relief. I wanted to slap myself for thinking that he knew anything about the hands. Or that I was an adult trapped inside a child's body.

"Oh, well um… thank-you?" I wasn't sure what else to say. He obviously hadn't seen me choking on my milk this morning and spilling it all over my face and shirt, because that was just the epitome of 'maturity'.

Nonetheless, he was incredibly perceptive. Even I could tell that by having Chelsea's memories in my head, I'd been born as an adult and was just going through the motions of childhood. Sometimes it was fun, other times extraordinarily difficult.

"You're laying it on a bit thick there, don't you think, buddy?" Genma interrupted, suddenly sprouting up between the boy and myself. "Go find someone else to hit on."

"Genma-kun!" I hissed. "He's six years old—I'm six years old. Nobody is hitting on anybody."

"I wasn't hitting her," the boy frowned. "You were right there, watching me the whole time."

Perhaps he wasn't as perceptive as I first thought after all.

"Ugh, how did you become a genin?" Genma sniped.

"Genma-kun," I warned. "Stop trying to antagonise him."

The boy stiffened on his branch. "I should go."

"No, no. That's really not necessary. Genma's just being an idiot, don't let anything he says offend you." I blathered quickly, waving my hands at him in an effort to get him to stay.

"It was nice to meet you, Ayaka-san. I want to see you again soon." He said, giving me a small smile.

I made to protest as he jumped further up into the tree but soon became obscured by the foliage, no doubt jumping from tree to tree among the upper branches where he was out of site.

"'I want to see you again soon, Ayaka my love,'" Genma mimicked.

Thunder rumbled in the distance.

"You can be such a butt, Genma."

"Sorry if I ruined the little budding romance you had going on with him, but I was getting bored. What could you have possibly asked him anyway?" He yawned widely, not bothering to cover his mouth.

"I don't know. I would've liked to know the ninja scores he achieved."

"Yeah, that would have been interesting, I guess. But he seemed to me like a bit of a creep."

"He was endearing."

Genma eyebrows shot up into his hairline.

"Girls are so weird." He muttered, looking away.

"What was that?"

"Uh, nothing." He amended quickly. "Just don't get changed with your curtains open. He might come to 'see you again' while you're showering or something. Plus we still don't even know his name. Did you notice that we still haven't learnt his name?"

I had.

I sighed. "I'm sure he's not like that. You really are a butt." We left the tree, the rain having let up for the moment. It would be back with a vengeance tonight though, I was sure.

"But you like my butt," Genma grinned beside me.

"Don't be gross."


The rain held off just long enough for me to get completely soaked as I reached my front door. I rushed to let myself in before I could catch my death with pneumonia or something. Although it was the middle of the afternoon, the thick, dark clouds made it appear to be night and there was a freezing cold wind that only made it feel that much colder.

Kicking off my sodden shoes, I propped open the door with one of them as I tried to shake as much water as I could off of my clothes and arms before making my way further into the dark house.

"I'm home," I called out, padding down the hallway. Rivulets of water still ran down my arms and legs, dripping onto the hardwood floor with little tapping sounds.

Mama should have been home – Kurenai too, unless she was training with Papa again – but the house was seemingly empty. It was unsettling.

Thunder rumbled in the distance, as if in agreement.

"Kaa-san?" I called out, sticking my head inside her bedroom. The room was empty and the bed was untouched.

She must have gone out, I surmised, padding back into the bathroom to grab a towel. Maybe she had to check on her teahouse.

Mama's time had been divided up a lot by the teahouse/café she had decided to open. Having once been a kunoichi before Kurenai's birth, we – namely, me – had assumed that she would return as one if she ever wanted to work. Instead, she'd decided to be a small business owner and open her own teahouse. Given that it was going to open to the public next week I supposed that there was still a lot left for her to do before then.

There was a thud as something fell in the dining room.

Frowning, I finished patting my arms and legs dry before wrapping the towel around my shoulders and making my way to the where the sound had come from.

"Hello?" I called out again. "Is someone home?" I hoped it wasn't Kurenai; I wasn't in the mood for being confronted with her animosity and the repugnant perversion that I had caused in her character.

I found the dining room empty and impeccable—well, not quite. One of the chairs at the table had fallen sideways to lean against the chair adjacent, obviously that was what had caused the thud I'd heard in the bathroom. I almost dismissed it right there and then as it happened all the time; there was a small hooked portion of the chair that would always snag on a persons clothes if they walked too close, making the chair fall sideways.

Moving forward, I immediately righted the chair to its proper position and took a quick glance around the room again. Nothing else seemed to be very much out of place, so it seemed that the chair was the culprit.

My skin broke out in goosebumps as a thought occurred to me. Was someone in the house with me, after all? Had their clothes snagged on the piece of furniture? The door adjoining the dining room to our modest backyard was always left unlocked. In our defence, who in their right mind would steal from a family of shinobi?

Unless they aren't here to steal—maybe their just here to take?

The very thought made my stomach turn sour and, for the first time in a very long time, I felt a terrifyingly familiar tingling sensation from the Seal on the back of my neck.

Calm down, I chided. Maybe it isn't an intruder. Maybe it's just a friend of Papa's or Mama's. Maybe it's Sakumo.

Unsurprisingly, there were so many holes in that lie that it did little to comfort me. I couldn't help but remember what Takahata-sensei had said today about sacrifices being made for the sake of peace. That thought made the slight tingling on the back of my neck develop into more of an itch.

Perhaps you will turn into such a sacrifice, a small voice pondered. After all, what's the loss of a small non-canon girl in the scheme of things?

Sweltering warmth began to sweep over me in waves as the Seal Orochimaru had placed upon me all those months ago began to unravel.

Was I overreacting? Maybe. Was I going to be an adult and search the house to see if anyone was here? Hell no. Hopefully I could just ignore this and it would go away by itself.

But first, I really needed to get a handle on myself. Although the prospect of being taken terrified me, the seemingly more immediate and terrifying prospect was that I wouldn't be able to maintain the Seal and the hands would free themselves and wreak havoc on the minds and lives of the people closest to me.

I don't want to be alone.

The Seal on the back of my neck began to burn hot enough for me to break out in a sweat, and I had to actively fight against the urge to loosen the Seal to provide some relief. But releasing the hands was something I could not allow, not only could I not control them but I was also scared of the equal amounts of pain and euphoria I felt upon invading another person's mind.

I could more accurately express the feeling now than I could at the time – likely because the experience of having your brain grating against jagged razors as I dived into Kurenai's psych was a new experience for me, but also an exhilarating one. Although painful for me, the sensation of having complete an utter control over a person was empowering—and addictive. I'd only done it once – to Kurenai, an experience I hoped never to repeat – but sometimes I caught myself craving that kind of control. The hands had nearly attacked the Hokage without me even so much as having to touch him during the Sealing ceremony all those months ago just based on the supressed need I felt for that control.

A flash of lightning lit up the dining room behind me and I shivered. My shadow was huge, much larger than what I was used to—like that of a full-grown man.

A warm hand pressed hard against my mouth and another arm wrapped around my middle, binding my arms – through the towel – to my sides. The arms tugged me back against someone's chest as I made let out a startled squawk, my stomach twisting in surprise.

The arm around my middle tightened painfully and I began to struggle with effort, wriggling, kicking, and shouting as much as I could from behind his hand, my heart slamming into my sternum almost painfully. My foot caught the leg of a chair and I sent it toppling to the hardwood floor with a loud bang. I hoped it caught someone's attention, though with the rain coming down so hard outside I doubt even the neighbours would have heard anything.

But I was going to make as much noise and signs of struggle as possible.

It was likely that the thought occurred to my attacker too because he took his hand away from my mouth just long enough for me to pull in a deep breath and scream out before he abruptly cut me off by pressing a dirty piece of rag over both my mouth and nose.

I continued struggling for the next few seconds, screaming just for the sake of it now because I knew no one could hear me. I took a deep breath and was surprised that the rag actually smelled quite sweet, like something I couldn't quite remember…

Something like…

…like something…

…sickly… sweet… like…

My eyelids grew heavy, and I could feel my body slowing, slackening. My heart slowed down and I could feel my legs tremble under my weight.

And I was tired. So tired.

But something… I was trying… remember… that sweetness?

Was… a muscle-relaxant? Alpha2… adrenoceptor antagonist…? No no… a non-selective antagonist…? It smelt sickeningly sweet like… chloroform? That was… kinda cool. I didn't know that they even had chloroform in the Narutoverse. My thoughts were loopy and I was struggling to think clearly, to diagnose myself with my memories of muscle relaxants I'd learned in Chelsea's lifetime.

Think!

Choloform alone wasn't enough to knock out a person but… co-administered with diazepam? Not helpful… But still… a few minutes… unconsciousness… Needed fresh air…

I yawned, taking in even more of the chemical. My lids dipped even further.

I was going to pass out and… be taken… and… and…

No one would care.

Blackness yawned before me—then something exploded.


A/N: Thank you to everyone following this story, there's nearly 200 of you and I'm just amazed. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and take a take a little time to review this chapter if you have time.

Thanks to those who took the time to review the last (few) chapters: chaosrin, iluvfairytale, helenGet, CeresMaria, DeliciousCarrot (cool name), Slytherson, Apache27, Hanamaruko and tuskkins.


Interesting but useless information about the author and other stuff:

First and foremost, today (October 19) is my birthday!

The word "bae", used by many as a replacement for "baby", means "poop" in Danish.

Scotland Yard, one of the world's best-known police agencies, is built on top of an unsolved crime scene.

Two days ago, I met Jenna Coleman (who plays Clara Oswald in Doctor Who) and Alaina Huffman (who plays Abbadon in Supernatural) at a cocktail party. It. Was. Epic.

In the Victorian era they had special teacups that protected your moustache from getting dunked in your tea.

If you're snoring, you cannot be dreaming.


Thanks for reading.