*Uh, this chapter goes to a dark place. I didn't even realize until midway through that I should probably pop a warning up at the top. So, without spoiling too much, here is your warning: Dark themes ahead including starvation and horrible things that go along with being held captive.


Chapter Nine: Captivity


(Sunday)

Sasuke takes a quick moment to check his outfit before heading downstairs. He opted to dress in a suit for the meeting. It's been awhile since he's last worn one.

He adjusts the tie and descends downstairs. Breakfast is its usual affair, and afterward, his father leads him and Itachi out to the SUV so they can take off.

The roads are a little congested, but they make it to City Hall with ten minutes to spare. Sasuke follows his father as they head inside, and make their way to the conference room. A huge, modular table takes up most the room's space. About twelve chairs surround the connecting surfaces, leaving a square-shaped gap in the middle.

Sasuke takes the seat with his place card at the back end of the room. His father goes to sit next to Minato, who is already chatting with a few of the department representatives, at the front end. Itachi takes his place as USO's second in command.

Technically, his brother's attendance is a little questionable. As long as the group has Fugaku, they don't need another USO employee. He wonders which strings Itachi pulled to be here and why. Guess time will tell.

The teen mentally shrugs looks around to see what other faces he recognizes.

Shikaku Nara (Head Strategist) sits on the Fire Lord's left, picking at a nail. Next to him, Mitokado Homura is engaged in a conversation across the table with his fellow Counselor, Utatane Koharu. Tsunade (his doctor, and Head of Human Services and Health) is adjacent to the woman's left giving her opinion on Ibiki's (Head of National Security and Defense) unhealthy cat. Anko Mitarashi (Head of Foreign Affairs) is laughing at the man's unusually flustered face.

A few other new faces filter about the room as well, but he doesn't recognize them. They must have lower, but still important positions.

At the clearing of Fugaku's throat, Minato quickly finishes up his conversation and bangs his nearby gavel a moment later. The room quiets and those who are still standing, sit. All the attention focuses on the Fire Lord.

"Right, I'll be conducting this time so let's go ahead and get this meeting started. I apologize for calling you all out here on this beautiful Sunday morning, but there are a few pressing issues we need to discuss.

First off, three years ago, Fugaku's son was taken by Orochimaru to Sound. As I'm sure most of you have recently seen on the news, he is now back. I've requested his attendance today to ask a few security questions and get some information about the country he was in."

Sasuke resists an urge to crack his stiff neck. Hopefully, this won't take too long. And, if he plays his cards right, he can get them to take a positive interest in Sound.

"We've already interviewed the Uchiha about the day he was taken and are looking into the security breach. Orochimaru was a cunning traitor who had inside information. We are taking every preventative measure to ensure an incident like this never happens again. Young man, while I am extremely sorry for what happened, you also have my sincerest gratitude for protecting my son. Thank you, I am in your debt."

Uncomfortable with the man's emotional gaze, and all the other eyes in the room, Sasuke looks down at the red carpet to his left. "Just... don't let it happen again."

"I'm sure what my son meant to say was: it was his pleasure. He is glad to have been of assistance. The Uchiha pride themselves on keeping your family and others safe. It's in his blood."

Sasuke sees no reason to look up and see his father schmoozing to the Fire Lord. Ridiculous. If it had been anyone other than Naruto, he would have let the psychopath have at them. Okay, maybe he would have done the same thing for Itachi or his mother and, possibly Minato, but still.

"While that may be the case, Fugaku, I don't want to undermine Sasuke's sacrifice." The teen can, once again, feel the man's heavy stare. He decides to quit studying the floor and face the man head on.

He starts to open his mouth, but the Fire Lord continues. "Son, we would like you to share your experience with us. Because of the closed off borders, Sound has been incredibly hard to get into until recently. You are the first we've seen go in from Fire and successfully get out during the time it was locked down. I'd like you to start at the beginning. We'll try to hold all our questions until the end."

If that's the case, and he can help move along this meeting, he is happy to comply. So, he began the telling of his edited version. Minato may know some of the truth, but Sasuke didn't have any intention of telling the others.

So, he told them the story (once again) of how he directed Orochimaru's attention and got in his vehicle. Then, how the man blindfolded him and took him to a cold, underground facility. A cave-like structure that only had one entrance which was heavily guarded, discouraging any thoughts of escape. Not that many tried; the punishment for getting caught involved being thrown into "the pit."

An involuntary shudder wracks his frame at the mention of the word. Thankfully, they don't ask him to elaborate at his pause, so he continues. "I spent my first couple weeks in a cell with eight people. Well, at least there were eight when I first arrived. By the time they transferred me to the lab, I was the only one left. Apparently, they had subjected us all to the same virus, and my immune system was the only one capable of fighting if off. I figured it was because I was a recent arrival. The others looked like they had been in captivity for far longer."

The middle part isn't exactly true. They only gave Sasuke a bracelet to monitor his vitals before locking him in the dungeon, there was not any virus involved. The truth is more gruesome.

If Sasuke closes his eyes, he can still smell the foul, decaying odor of the small square foot room. There wasn't any privacy. The left corner had a bucket for waste, but the other subjects had all but given up on moving for such a trivial bodily function. "Just let it go where you are," they wearily advised on the second day when he couldn't hold it any longer as he squatted in the corner. He disregarded an old man's warning of saving his energy for the inevitable fight when the meager food rations would get dropped off. Sasuke wasn't going to be reduced to the pitiful state that the others had fallen into. He was an Uchiha, and he had his pride, dammit.

Despite being the youngest, he'd punch and kick until he could wrestle away whatever he could get from the thinner bodies every third morning and shove the morsel down his throat. It was every man for himself. By the end of the second week, no one talked to him anymore because they either hated him for getting most of the food or they were too tired. Even he was now wondering what the point of getting up was. Then, one day, the man who collected the dead came in holding his nose, yanked him to his feet and shuffled him off to a shower room.

"Clean yourself off," he had said.

Happy to oblige, Sasuke went over to the first stall and spent nearly an hour scrubbing, doing just that. He didn't even care that the water was cold.

They gave him new clothes, and Orochimaru praised him for his "ruthlessness." Sasuke had to suppress his shame. He didn't try to equal out the one-person portion they received in the morning. Water was given freely. Why should he help those who didn't want to help themselves? They'd rather sit in their own waste wallowing in self-pity than fight for survival. Besides, Sasuke had his own hunger and reason to fight. He needed to keep Orochimaru's attention even if he had to throw away his humanity. The life of his best friend depended on it.

He pushed down the unpleasant feeling in his gut. "My time in the lab went exactly as you'd expect," he told the room. "They did a few experimental adjustments on my body. After my recovery, they were pleased with the results and added me to a training class. It seemed Orochimaru was preparing his army to go to war."

Taking a quick second to study the reactions, he notes that no one is surprised by his revelation. Not that they should be, they all know of the scientist's desire for more power.

"The rest of the time in the program was used for building stamina and strengthening our bodies. We spent some time with weaponry and learning basic military tactics. Once and awhile they'd pull one of us back onto the operating table for a few tweaks, but otherwise, there wasn't much excitement."

"Excitement," he hears Counselor Homura scoff.

He ignores the rude comment and scrutinizing eyes. "By the time I had been there for two years, they took my group off of the island and moved us out to patrol their cities."

"Wait," his father interrupts. "They took you out of the facility? Why didn't you try to escape a year ago?"

Minato intervenes. "I thought we were going to save all questing until the end."

"It's fine," Sasuke waves them off. "None of us could escape because we had ankle monitors that would explode if we went out of range of our commander. They weren't small explosions, either. They were designed to take us, and whatever was within the next three meters."

He takes his eyes off the somber Uchiha patriarch and moves on. "The country had strict regulations, so we had a lot to enforce. When the rebellion started, it didn't really come as a surprise.

One night, there was an attack near the barracks we slept in. Naturally, we all rushed into our gear and marched outside. Taka, the local vigilante, was up on the roof of the squad next door, fighting its commander. By the time another explosion shook the ground, Taka had pushed the other man off the roof and started shouting in the chaos. Basically, he told us that Orochimaru's group was getting disbanded. We could all stay in the country, join his side and live as happy, law-abiding citizens until the day we die, or we could stay in the group that favored Orochimaru and run because we were all going to be killed. Naturally, at his display of power, everyone sided with him.

Our devices were deactivated, we put out the fires. Some of us settled down for the night, while others went out in celebration. I saw my chance to escape and took it. The country was still locked down at that point, but I knew the patrols, so it wasn't too difficult to sneak out. Once I got past the wall, I borrowed a vehicle and got the hell out of dodge. I think you can guess the rest of the story."

It had bits of the truth to it. Except, Sasuke had been away from the island a few times before his promotion to Taka, the squad leader for his small group. He may not have had to wear ankle bracelet but just the knowledge of what would happen should he decide escape was enough. Eventually, his team bested even the Sound Four and got assigned high-class missions.

"You mentioned this 'Taka,'" a counselor starts off with the first question. "How dangerous of a threat is he? Rumor has it that he toppled a few villages by himself."

Sasuke waves the man off. "Those rumors are exaggerated, as rumors always are. The country is busy stabilizing itself. They don't have the time or resources to target their neighbors."

"For now. However, once they get to their feet they'll want to walk." Koharu adds her two cents.

"If you form an alliance with them, you won't have to worry about them trying to invade here. If you help them now, I'm sure they will repay the favor later," Sasuke makes a bold statement.

No one says anything for a few seconds, all are too busy staring at him. Well, let them think what they want. He did come over to help, it is as good as time as any for them to see his stance.

"We'll discuss this further in another meeting," Fire Lord decides.

In other words, 'when you're not here,' Sasuke mentally interprets.

"Right, let's move on."

Sasuke ends up answering several more inquiries ranging from his new abilities to Orochimaru's hideouts, experiments, subordinates, Kimimaro, and the new state of Sound. Finally, after what feels like a few hours, they wrap up and adjourn.

Sasuke is walking in silence next to his brother down the courthouse stairs when his father's hand falls onto his shoulder.

Surprised, he turns to look at the man.

"We have a meeting with a reporter from CNN soon."

"What? When did this happen?"

"When they contacted me, and I set one up."

"Father…" Itachi speaks for the first time from this morning, but Sasuke tunes him out. This is Fugaku's way of getting back at him for the press conference a few days ago. After Sasuke's short statement, the man said they would "talk about this later." Well, it's later.

They are still arguing.

"He was not clear enough with his first statement. I told him he should have let me handle it. Now, the sharks want more. If we give CNN an exclusive to his story, we won't have to worry about the media lurking around the office or at our home. With just one interview, it will be over, and our lives will be easier. Think of this as a band-aid: it's better to rip it all off at once rather than prolong the suffering."

"You didn't even ask for Sasuke's consent. If he wants to keep his life private, then he has the right to do so!"

"It's fine!" Sasuke finally growls. "But this is the last time. No more impromptu meetings after this."

"Good." The Uchiha patriarch smirks and makes his way down the stairs.

"Sasuke, you don't have to do this." He ignores the look his brother is giving him and follows his father back to the car.

"Like I said, it's fine."

After a heavy sigh, Itachi too, makes his way down.


The one-on-one session with the reporter doesn't take much time. Sasuke tells the man with brown hair the nearly same story he fed some members of Minato's cabinet, leaving out any ties to Naruto and the abilities he's gained. After he is done, the reporter tries to question Itachi, but his brother doesn't have it. So, the man moves on to Fugaku, who, apparently had a few words to say. Mainly about how proud he was of his son's escape and how well he's handled the situation.

"A true Uchiha," he ends. But not before adding another shameless plug for their company.

Inwardly, Sasuke boils on their way home.

How dare his father use his kidnapping as a way to advertise for USO.

How dare he!

Using Sasuke's experience for his own benefit. Tch, he should throw the man in a jail cell and starve him for a week to see how he handles it. He doubts Fugaku would come out as strong as he did.

It may be true that his family is made up of a bunch of manipulators, but this is going too far. The only thing his father cares about is his image and his legacy.

Then again, maybe the man thought he is protecting his son by delivering the story to a single, trusted source. That way they wouldn't have to deal with wild rumors or media ambushes.

Whatever. It still pisses him off.

As soon as they arrive at the house, it's back out to the woods for Sasuke.


A/N:


This chapter wasn't having it. However, now that we've gotten all this out of the way, we can move on to Sasuke's first day of High School. I mean, the first day on the job. :)

On another note, man, Fugaku seems like such a bad parent. He's not very good with his emotions and only trying to help his son out in the ways he knows how. He's coming off as quite the douche though. Not exactly my intention. Woops.

Also, I added a few more tags on AO3. If you're from Fanfiction, you might want to take a look at the comment section there. You might find some brief spoilers/teasers. ;) OR, if you have a question you desperately want to be answered, I'm better at replying on that site than FF. I'm sorry! I'll do better here.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or CNN.

Next time: High School, a flirty secretary, and well, Naruto.