I feel so lazy, it's not even funny. I want to write, I don't want to write, then I want to write again… so I'm forcing myself down, and making myself write something.
New Naruto chapter out! GASP! -dies at content-
We're getting to the end people… (only a few more chapters….) but I have to say… Thanks for sticking with me. :)
Disclaimer: "Hey, this is that place!" "What place?" "Y'know, that place! The one where you're supposed to write something amusing, stating that no, you don't own Naruto and whatever other shit you use…" "Oh, that." "Yes, that." "It's called a disclaimer, stupid."
Dedication: To everyone who has reviewed (ILOVEYOUSOSOSOSOSOMUCH), AND SPECIAL THANKS TO Ronnie-sama, as always, because she's just special like that.
"Talking"
'Thinking'
((My
ANs. Bow to them. BOW, I SAY!!))
Emphasis on certain
words, or song lyrics. You're smart, you'll know the difference.
--
Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.
Damnit, time was moving so slowly.
Then again, Anko wasn't sure she wanted it to move any faster. Because if time moved, then that bastard would be back, and he would molest her some more, and she would retreat into herself, and then the cycle would repeat itself.
Rinse and repeat. And repeat. And repeat, and repeat, and repeat.
And urgh, she just didn't want to be alive anymore, because she couldn't move, she could hardly breath, and she definitely wasn't allowed to think.
Because thinking encompassed figuring out ways to escape this hellish place.
She shuddered as another scream tore through the silent, night air. This was not uncommon, but it still gave her the creeps.
Screaming here just meant someone else had fallen to her old caregivers' insanity.
She could still feel the lock picks, sewn into the hem of her shirt. Ew, this shirt hadn't been washed in days… Wait, it had only been hours. It just felt like days. And weeks. And months. And hell, it felt like she'd lost years of her life.
And maybe she had. Mentally, anyways.
It was exasperating. She could almost reach them, could almost reach her picks, one more flick of her wrist, and she would be out of here. For the last time, because she'd never be back her again.
But she didn't have the heart for it.
And then she heard it.
Slight rattling. Not the usual jarring of the doorknob.
It couldn't be the motherfucker, he was never that delicate.
Kabuto (so far, the only other person she had seen. He'd come in to make sure she wasn't poisoned. She had no idea why he stayed) had knocked, loudly enough to wake her from a deep slumber.
So it couldn't be him, either.
She held her breath, hoping, hoping, hoping, hoping, hoping, and hoping that it was somebody at least slightly sane.
And then she saw it. A pair of eyes, lit with insane, grim purpose, one black-irised, the other a with deep crimson iris, came into her vision.
She had never been so happy in her entire life.
Because if Kakashi was here, the girls were here. And life would be good again.
Hm. So that would explain the random earlier screaming.
A sick grin lit her lips. If she was lucky, the motherfucker was dead, and she could go home. Life would be so much easier if he was.
But she didn't make a sound, because Kakashi was standing in front of her, and then he picked the locks around her wrists, and he picked her up, and he kissed her.
He kissed her in a different way, a way he'd never kissed her before. There was something so desperate about it, something that spoke of complete and total worry, to the point where it was a sort of agony.
She liked it.
God, she really was twisted, wasn't she, to like this sort of thing. She had just nearly died, she felt dirty, violated and not nearly worth anything.
But he still wanted her.
You gotta give the guy some credit.
And then, even while they were kissing, the first tremor hit.
It wasn't something small. It was one of those earth-shaker kinds, the kind where thousands of people die.
Anko was having none of this.
She gently pulled away (no need to hurt the poor guy's feeling… really…), and pulled him out of the room.
"C'mon Kakashi, this is not the time to be making out, thank you very much…"
--
Sakura and Sasuke were running, their legs moving perfectly in sync.
They didn't have much time. No one had much time. They both knew, instinctively almost, that Kakashi had gone ahead, to find Anko.
The two of them, Naruto, Suigetsu, Karin, Tenten, Neji, Shino and Ino had remained behind to keep everyone else away. Naruto had tried to make sure Hinata had stayed with Temari and Shikamaru, because he was worried she might get hurt.
Aw, cute, he's worried about you. But pffft, not likely.
And so ten of them (Hinata included. Like Naruto was going to get away with controlling her!) had been bombarding the place for the last few hours.
Only recently had they actually managed to get inside.
Y'know, despite Hinata's lack of physical might, the girl's brains definitely made up for it. She was the one who had blown up half the rear wall.
Naruto had been astounded.
She hadn't even used gunpowder. She had used flour. Flower, as in, cooking flour. You know, the white stuff you usually put in cakes to make them taste yummy? Ya, that stuff. Hinata had used flower to explode a good portion Orochimaru's rear wall, the only wall he hadn't thought to protect.
Well, then again, he had obviously underestimated them.
When Naruto later asked Hinata about how she managed it, a self-satisfied smirk touched her lips.
"Kegs of flour did this?!"
"Naruto, flour heated under pressure explodes. It couldn't have worked better, even if I'd used gunpowder. I'm very happy with that outcome, personally."
He would merely shake his head in wonder, as his respect for the tiny indigo-haired woman grew exponentially.
Sakura had then proceeded to thwack him unceremoniously over the head.
"Quit your bloody flirting, and can we please go?! This place gives me the heebie-jeebies, understand?!"
"Yes, mother."
She glared at Naruto, and Sasuke let out a snort of laughter.
Watching Sakura beat Naruto into the ground really was exceptionally funny. And it was something that was actually worth his time, so it made it even better.
Because there were very few people that could beat Naruto into the ground and get away with it. Sakura was one of them.
Then the rosette (who had decided, for the sake of pissing Anko off, to keep her hair its usual pink) had shoved Naruto and Sasuke through the hole in the wall with a huff.
Jeez, no need to piss a PMSing girl off. Don't you know better?!
Karin went in last, and checked the surroundings to make certain no one had followed them in. Really, there was nothing better then this.
She hadn't had adrenaline flowing through her veins like this in a very long time.
"Saku. We're good. There's no one behind us."
Karin decided it was safe to use Sakura's nickname, because the other girl had left her hair pink anyways. And really, there was no better way to recognize Sakura then her hair.
So it didn't matter anyways.
"Thank God! Move it. Now."
The exasperation in her voice was palpable. And all the girls did as they were told, because, frankly, Sakura always was the leader in expeditions like this. She just was. There has never been any sort of resistance, mostly because she had done this breaking-and-entering thing the most.
Sasuke and the boys, on the other hand, did not like this situation. They weren't used to getting ordered around by a female, and usually, Sasuke led these kinds of hunts. They were standing against the wall, arms crossed over their chests, until Sakura turned and glared at them.
Well, they better get used to being told what to do. It's a fact of life. Sorry sweetie.
"Sasuke. Move. Your. Ass. Now. We don't have the time to be wasting over who leads it. This is our fight, Anko's girls fight. You're just along for the ride, and you know it. So don't start with me right now."
Apparently, this quelled his righteous anger on behalf of his manliness.
Hinata laughed softly.
"Jeez Saku, no need to get on his case like that. We're all here to get Anko back, but that was rather funny to see, I must admit."
And then Naruto started to roar with laughter, and the tension in the tiny makeshift room shattered into several thousand shards.
And this caused Sasuke to pout.
Sakura shoved him on the shoulder, sent him a half-smile and a glare, and he relented. No reason not to enjoy this while it lasted.
Besides, there would be time for explanations later.
A blink and a half later, and they were outside fighting. The clash of metal rang, and the whole place was soaked with crimson blood.
No, it wasn't very pleasant, not at all.
--
A blade whipped by Karin's head, and she ducked just in time to avoid having her jugular vein sliced open. It caught a good bit of her hair though, and it sheared it right off.
When she stood up again, scarlet hair drifted to the ground around her.
'Damnit, now I'll have to go get it cut short again…' with a mental sigh, Karin went back to work, cleaning up Sakura's mess.
Which, in all reality, meant killing the victims Sakura had left to die a painful, bloody death.
'Has the girl no compassion?!'
Karin looked down at a little girl, who had enough knife marks on her to have been dead. She was staring up at the sky sadly, waiting for her death.
She couldn't have been more then ten years old.
Karin knelt down beside her.
"Are you alright, honey?"
"No, miss. I just want my mummy. But daddy said mummy didn't want me, and then he left me out here…"
"Shhhh… sweetie, it'll be alright. I'm going to take you someplace safe, okay? What's your name?"
The little girl struggled to nod, and then gave up limply.
"My name's Moegi."
Karin picked up the little child, and bit her lip and the girl trembled in pain.
If Sakura had done this, there would be hell to pay… Neither Karin nor Hinata thought that the death of children helped anyone. Actually, they all thought that, but it was most repulsive to the two of them, due to both of their pasts.
"C'mon, just a tiny bit further… We'll get you to Hinata, and she'll fix you right up."
The diminutive girl shuddered again, and Karin clutched her closer.
'This little girl won't die, she can't die, and I will not let it happen…'
Karin rushed the rest of the way. Screw Sakura's victims; she didn't have time to play nice. She needed to help this small child.
"Hinata!! I need help!!"
Hinata came bounding out of that makeshift little room, saw the girl in Karin's arms, gasped, and ushered them inside.
There were already three other little children in the room, all of them boys. One of them looked strangely like Sasuke, another looked like a brown-haired version of Naruto, and the last one… well… his nose was running terribly.
The little girl reached for them.
"Konohamaru! Udon! Obito! You're all alright! Where's everyone else? Where's Hana-"
Her last words were cut off, because they had gathered around her, and pretty much cut off her air supply from the firmness of their hug.
"God, you're alright."
Apparently, this was all they were able to say, because Hinata gently pushed them out of the way.
"I need to take of her guys, okay? Then you can hug her some more."
They nodded, and stared at her in total reverence. Karin watched the proceedings with growing amusement, because they were staring at Hinata with puppy-love-struck expressions.
A few minutes later, Naruto came in, carrying another little boy. He set the child down, and touched Hinata's shoulder lightly. She turned, smiled at him, and put the small boy on a table.
She turned back to Moegi, and started to fix the little girl up.
Hinata meticulously wrapped Moegi's cuts and scrapes, and pronounced her to be fine.
And then the boys went back to glomping her.
After Moegi had fended them off, she turned to look at Karin.
"Thank you so much for saving me! But… But… there's someone else I really wish you could find. Her name's Hanabi, and she looks a lot like… Well, she looks a lot like her!"
Moegi pointed at Hinata.
But Hinata's eyes were already the size of dish plates. Naruto looked at her, concerned, and she spoke in a silent, soft whisper.
"Naruto. That might be my little sister. Please. If you can, find her. She's about fourteen, but she looks like she's ten. She's tiny. Please, Naruto, you have to find my little sister!"
Naruto nodded gravely, and dashed out the door. Hinata wanted the girl called Hanabi found. It shouldn't be that hard.
After all, there were very few people who looked like Hinata.
--