The dusk was breaking as Pein stood at the large bay side window that sat in the center of the hospital room. He watched as the sun was setting casting the clear sky in an eerie red glow. Usually he greeted the evening with a burst of rain but tonight was different, his mind was at ease, his heart at rest from the constant racing of worry. In his eyes, it was a time of celebration for the birth of his and Sakura's triplets. He was content but at the same time bemused from the feelings that erupted inside him with great strength. Meanwhile behind him Sakura began to stir from her slumber, the triplets remaining at rest beside her bed in their separate cribs.
Her eyes were foggy as she tried to make out where Pein was standing, her vision slightly blurred as she began to gain focus. She eased up slightly onto her elbows as Pein remained un-noticing to her awakening. Her face was beautifully lit by the small remnants of light from the sun that poured into the room as the moon took it's place in a broadening dark sky that was lit in a blanket of glistening and glowing stars that shimmered radiantly.
She smiled as she got up from the bed, so quietly nobody would have noticed. Pein was so lost in thought, he couldn't even sense that she was coming up behind him until he felt her two slender arms wrap around his waist and her cheek resting against the middle of his back. He jumped only slightly which issued a soft laughter to erupt from Sakura's lips.
Gently Pein placed his hands over her forearms, rubbing them gently as he smiled. They remained silent, content just being accompanied by the other.
The silence in the room was short lived as the triplets began to cry out for Sakura. Her arms dropped from around Pein as she hurried over to the cribs, the triplets automatically silenced as they saw their mothers face. She smile brightly as she sat down on the bed and picked one of them up cradeling him in her arms. Pein followed after her picking up the second and placing him in Sakura's arms and then the third in the middle.
He smiled at Sakura and she returned a smile as he leant forward kissing her forehead, "I'm going to go see if I can find some bottles."
She nodded, "alright."
As Pein left the room, she began to hum softly, cradling the triplets in her arms. She managed to calm them down with ease. Pein walked around through the halls of the hospital at a somewhat frantic pace, looking for any hospital staff that might be able to provide him with the bottles for his and Sakura's children. The hospital seemed unusually quiet, and somewhat ominous. It seemed as though the entire hospital was completely empty. Finally Pein came across a nurse that was at the end of the hall. He asked for the three bottles and the nurse nodded. She nodded and cracked a small smile.
"I'll bring them to you and your wife's room in a moment," she said.
Pein blushed slightly hearing her words, "Well you see...we're not married yet..."
The nurse giggled a bit nodding as she walked away to get the children's bottles. Pein then began his walk back to Sakura's room. Meanwhile Sakura sat on her bed cradling the children. They squirmed slightly showing that they would wake soon. She looked at the door to her room growing slightly uneasy, wondering why Pein hadn't come back yet.
Meanwhile, Konan, Hidan, Kakazu, Zetsu, Tobi, Kisame and Itachi arrived outside the hospital. It was a very creepy looking building. It stood a few stories up with many cracks in the foundation going upwards towards the roof. The windows were dirty and discolored except the window in the center of the building which clearly was Sakura's room.
Hidan looked around, "what the fuck is this place? It's like a mother fucking insane asylum."
Konan shrugged a bit and walked ahead of everyone entering the hospital.
Itachi looked at Kisame, "perhaps we should stay out here. There's an insanely high amount of chakra resonating from under the hospital. It can't be Sasuke..his life was taken many moments ago."
Kisame nodded, signalling for Hidan, Kakazu, Zetsu and Tobi to go on ahead which they did, hurrying after Konan.
Pein re-entered Sakura's room and pulled up a chair beside her. he shot a warm smile at her, "The nurse said that she would bring the bottles up shortly."
Sakura heaved a sigh of relief, just glad that Pein came back to her. She gently cradled the triplets, still feeling uneasy. Pein had felt this too, but he had the other Rikudo bodies scoping around the hospital just in case. He saw what they saw, which was a empty hospital besides a few staff members that occasionally greeted the bodies. But for the most part, it seemed as though Sakura and the children were safe from danger.
Konan was still walking ahead of the other members. They followed close behind her as she wandered slightly aimlessly, trying to find her way to Sakura's room. Sure enough it seemed like they had been walking in circles as they reached the entrance of the hospital again.
"This is so odd...it's like a demented labyrinth. The building is enormous but there are no stairs or elevators," Konan sighed.
"This can't be a real hospital...it's not possible," Tobi said as he walked over placing a hand against the wall. He quickly drew his hand back shaking it.
"What the fuck is your problem Tobi?" Hidan asked, his head tilted in confusion.
"Nobody touch the walls. They suck the chakra right out of you. It's odd that it isn't doing it through the floor," he replied.
"Okay who is this asshole and what did he do with Tobi?" Hidan said, his head dropping slightly.
The others remained quiet, trying to assess the situation.
Pein and Sakura stayed in the room sitting quietly. By now they were both uneasy and somewhat worried. Pein stood and stuck his head out of the door looking for the nurse. No one. Not a single person was there and Pein couldn't sense any signs of life, not even Sakura and the childrens, despite the fact that he was standing so close to them.
"Sakura...somethings wrong."
Sakura looked up holding the children close to her. In her mind she had felt a disturbance for a while now. Pein's eyes narrowed as he snapped his fingers. As he did so the Rikudo bodies appeared in the room with them. "Asura, Human, and Hungry-Ghost Realm will remain here with Sakura. Me, Animal and Hell Realm will go and see what's going on."
"Lets try and find a way up to their floor...there has to be a way," Konan said, walking forward again.
Just then, Itachi and Kisame came running in.
"Konan! Stop! There's a chakra network under this building. It's a trap. We have to get out of here."
"But Pein and Sakura..." Konan was cut off by Hidan, "this is no fucking time to be concerned with them! Pein has all his bodies here, they can handle it!"
"Hidan you idiot! Sakura herself can probably not even move! They have triplets up there!" Konan almost yelled, her face flushed with anger.
Zetsu disappeared into the floor as his voice echoed, "I'm going down to check this out."
Hidan and Kakazu both grabbed Konan's wrists and began to pull her towards the exit which as they got close to it disappeared. Quicky Itachi activated his sharingan looking around eagerly to find a way out.
"What do you see?" Kisame asked.
"This whole hospital is made of chakra..." he replied.
The three Rikudo bodies that were doing patrol walked around the halls aimlessly. The entrances had disappeared, there was no way off the floor where they were. God Realm activated his Rinnegan scanning for any places that might be a escape route. Instead he found the same conclusion that Itachi had found. The building having it's own chakra network. God realm stood away from the wall and nodded at Asura Realm. Asura stepped forward and pulled his forearm off slightly shooting several missles from it. The missles made contact with the wall however to no avail. The wall remained unscratched.
God realm cursed loudly, "Come we have to protect Sakura."
The three bodies nodded and began running back to Sakura's room to protect her.
The remaining akatsuki members stood in the center of the hallway, back to back in two lines. The darker energy around the halls began to intensify greatly turning them a crimson blood red. The energy was not invisible, it was solid and leaking down the walls like soaking wet paint applied in too thick of a coat.
"Dammit, this isn't good at all," Itachi said, watching the liquid consume the floor.
In that moment, the others remained silent as eerie haunting screams echoed through the hallways before the sound of shattered glass took over. Nobody said anything, they tried to remain calm and stay still watching the horrors unfold. Ghostly screams mixed in with the sound of the shattered glass as a series of low growls took over. The walls began to move as within that instant, several arms broke through the surface grabbing at the air, their reach being disturbingly far.
The three Rikudo bodies experianced the same disturbing events that took place with the other members. God realm smirked slightly as the arms began to try and grab at the group.
God Realm extended his hand to the arms coming at them, "Shinra Tensei."
The arms were pushed back snapping backwards. The group then continued to run back to Sakura's room. The other three bodies stood close to Sakura, seeing what the other bodies saw they stood in place waiting for anything that might happen.
Itachi's chakra started to deplete as he kept his sharingan activated. He began to feel uneasy as his body trembled. Kisame placed a hand against his partner's shoulder trying to keep him balanced as they all tried to remain still.
"We can't last much longer..." Kisame said.
Just then, they could hear noises outside and fell silent when all they heard was a womans voice. "Silence!"
The eerie sounds faded away to nothing as the hospital began to turn back to normal.
"Fucking hell! What the fuck just happened!" Hidan yelled.
Konan was faced towards where the door was and it was coming back. Standing on the outside of the door was a woman with long red hair and bright red eyes. She was dressed in a pair of red capri pants with socks pulled over them. She wore shoes like Konan had never seen before. She had a long black and red striped tank-top on as well.
The Rikudo bodies stopped their running. Everything was now normal. Staff members walked through the halls as they normally did. God Realm walked forward seeing no signs of the mysterious chakra that was there previously. They then rushed back to Sakura's room. Sakura had the same confused look as the Rikudo bodies had. The nurse had come and given her the three bottles as if nothing had happened.
God Realm walked to Sakura. "I think it's best we leave this place as soon as possible." He said quietly.
The woman walked into the hospital and stopped standing in front of Konan, "you need to get out of here now. I can only suppress the chakra network for so long. This is an asylum, there are dead bodies buried beneath. It's the reason I could suppress the chakra...you need to find your leader and his girl and their children now! Top floor, hurry, and don't ask me to explain, there is no time!"
Konan nodded and looked at the others, "you all go outside with her, I'll be out with Pein and Sakura shortly."
The other members did not protest and made their way outside, however the mysterious woman walked to Konan, "I'm coming with you, let's go the stairs are over here."
She lead the way as her and Konan began to run, getting to the stairs running up them as fast as they could. Konan began yelling out for Pein.
"Pein! Pein where are you! We have to get out of here now!"
Pein looked up, hearing his name being called. By the sound of the voice it was Konan. He moved out of the room looking and saw as Konan and the mysterious red haired woman came running down the hall.
"Konan, what's wrong?"
She stopped as the red haired woman stopped behind her. Konan panted, "this...isn't a hospital...it's an asylum. There are dead bodies buried beneath here."
Pein's eyes widened a bit and nodded returning to the room picking Sakura in his arms as three Rikudo bodies grabbed the triplets.
"Lets go!" Said Pein.
The group then began running out of the asylum.
As they began running, the mysterious red heads control was starting to fade. "Dammit, there isn't enough time!" She skidded to a stop as the others started running. The woman began to do a series of handsigns, reciting darkened words.
"From the depths of hell, the limbs being ripped and torn from sockets, pull the dismembered bodies together in a wave of bloody lies and push them under! Forbidden Jutsu! Time of the Dead Silence!" As the asylum began getting corrupted by the chakra network again, the jutsu slowed it down greatly.
Pein continued running turning slightly seeing the woman's display of power. "I suggest you hurry!" Yelled Pein as He made a jump directly down the stairs keeping hold of Sakura in his arms, while the other bodies and Konan followed closely behind.
She had no time to catch up as she looked behind herself as she turned to run. Quickly she dived through the window as the glass shattered and she went through the air headed for a rough landing. The other Akatsuki members looked up seeing her heading towards the ground. None of them would be fast enough to catch her. With out even realizing what was happening, sand began to form in the area where the woman was about to land. She hit the sand sliding off of it into the ground and hit lightly off a tree as she groaned. Gaara ran to her side as Naruto, Deidara and Sasori ran to the others.
Shortly afterwards The Rikudo bodies along with Sakura and Konan came running out of the building. The all panted slightly seeing the events that took place ahead of them. Pein then gently let Sakura down, grasping her hand and walking to the group.
"Who is that girl?" Tobi asked.
Naruto looked over, "that, is Riyu Nikano...the Nikanokage of Nikanoru Village and Gaara's future wife."
Konan's eyes widened, "she's from the land of the dead...that explains why she was able to call the spirits back into silence for that time."
The land of the dead brought some memories back to Pein. It was one of their first missions when him, Yahiko, and Konan had formed the original Akatsuki.
"So she's the Land of the Dead's leader is she? Brings back memories doesn't it Konan?" He led Sakura, still holding her hand. "Me and Sakura thank you for helping us escape." Said Pein to Riyu.
She stood up with Gaara's assistance rubbing her head slightly, "not a problem. I've been trying to bring that Asylum down for years."
Pein looked at the building, "so you've been trying to destroy it?"
He continued looking at the mysterious building. He brought his hand up aiming it towards the building.
"Shinra Tensei!" He shot out the shockwave from his hand, which in fact did make contact with the building. However nothing happened, "What the hell is this?" Said Pein.
Riyu said nothing as she approached the building.
"Riyu, be careful," Gaara said softly.
She just nodded as she walked and stood right in front of the building placing her hands against the building as one of the hands came out enclosing over Riyu's hands, "this...was built by my father before he died."
Just then more hands came out. Two wrapped around her ankles, two around her wrist and one around her throat. She let out a low growl as the building began to morph into a human body, standing before Riyu, while the hands still held her in place.
A low voice began to speak, "by order of Orochimaru...you shall all be killed. It will be an honor to have my daughter's name at the top of the list."
Everyone's eyes widened, especially Gaara's and Sakura's. They were all at a loss for words and had been for several minutes since the events that took place.
Sakura gripped Pein's hands tightly, "we...have to protect...the babies Pein..."
Riyu's eyes slowly began to close as she tried to free herself from the spirits grasp. She spoke a few words before she was rendered unconscious, "get out of here...while you...c...an..."