Naruto gasped in pain as Karin finished; aside from telling Naruto her name, Karin had told her nothing. No reason why she was being held, no answers - just... Nothing.

Karin was getting increasingly frustrated, too. Naruto took a deep breath and centered herself with the Force, ready for the pain. Ready for the taunts.

Just as Karin's hand descended, a voice cut through sharply.

"Karin!"

Karin removed her hand.

A redheaded young human appeared. He was in his thirties, late twenties; his red hair was cut short and his brown eyes were cold. Almost unnaturally cold.

"Alterians, as I've come to expect, have far greater immunity to poisons," he said to Naruto almost conversationally. "This will make you far more susceptible to Karin's Shatterpoint ability. You know, she's broken stronger humans before." Karin grinned deviously. "Now, be honest with me - how much does it hurt?"

He slid a needle into one of her veins.

"What - do you want?" Naruto asked through ragged breaths, her only comfort her whip coiled around her body.

"Well, I just want to see how this poison affects Alterian biology, and how it'll react to the other poison inside you," he said mildly. "The name is Sasori, by the way."

"Sasori!" Karin scowled. "Don't you think that -"

Sasori turned a frozen glare on her. "Sidious was fine with her knowing. We're not exactly on anyone's lists; well, maybe the Black Sun's list, but that's different." He looked down at Naruto, who was beginning to feel a curious burning sensation.

Like hell was she going to tell her captors.

"Anything?" he asked her.

She glared at him.

"Karin."

Karin's hand descended, and Naruto's mind was psychologically attacked as lightning arched from her fingers. This was Karin's ability; to find the weak point and get through it to shatter her mind into a hundred pieces.

Naruto wouldn't let her.

~:~

"She's suffering through it," Sasori frowned. "Deidara, why don't you go and be a little nice to her? Make it seem like she has a friend down there, even if you're not really down there. It should break her eventually."

Deidara shrugged. "Sure." He slipped off the stool he had been on and walked out, whistling.

Kabuto's eyes followed him.

~:~

Naruto heard footsteps descending, and took a deep breath as she chanted the Code mentally.

There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no ignorance, there is knowledge. There is no passion, there is serenity. There is no chaos, there is harmony. There is no death, there is the Force.

"What are you doing? Napping?"

Naruto opened her eyes. "None of your business," she told him. His blue eyes regarded her, his long yellow hair in a ponytail and bangs over one half of his head, shadowing his eyes. "Why are you here?"

"Figured I'd see how our resident prisoner is doing. I'm Deidara, by the way." Deidara smiled at her and looked at the screens that indicated her health. "It would be easier if you just broke, you know."

Naruto scowled at him. "If I just broke, then that would mean that Sasori and Karin have won."

Deidara nodded. "Sasori broke me a long time ago."

Naruto glanced at him. He seemed perfectly at ease with his own breaking.

"I see," she said, glancing at him through the Force. He wasn't Force-sensitive, which meant she could use the Jedi mind trick. She didn't like using it. It felt like cheating (even though it really technically wasn't). "I don't suppose you'll loosen the restraints against my tail a bit, would you?"

Deidara smiled. "Nope, sorry, discomfort is priority in keeping a victim in here. You'll find you can't use the Force in here. While you were unconscious they put ysalimiri in here - it negates the Force from being used."

Naruto wasn't about to call him out on that blatant lie.

"Deidara~!" A new voice called in a sing-song tone. Deidara stiffened. Naruto pretended to be unconscious. "I finally have you here, all alone." Naruto peeked one of her eyes open. A white-haired man she recognized from 'Wanted' holos was standing there - Kabuto Yakushi. "Sasori can't save you now~" he laughed sinisterly.

Naruto glanced at Deidara, who backed up swiftly.

She focused on using the Force to stop that needle from descending into Deidara's neck - as it slipped in, Naruto lost it.

"SASORI!" She screamed, her powerful lungs expelling a lot of sound. "SASORI, DEIDARA'S IN -"

Kabuto slapped her, then stuck the needle in her own neck.

Naruto's eyes went wide as she could feel the mass of Dark Force hurtling at her.

"Oh, Sith," she said before the Dark Force slammed into her.

~:~

Sasori was busy working on a new poison - this one he was sure she'd be affected by and have to scream.

Then a scream split the air, his name. And then his name again, followed by Deidara.

Both Karin and Sasori abandoned their workstations, entering the room to see Kabuto standing over Deidara and the newly-unconscious Alterian.

"You touched Deidara." Sasori's voice was flat.

"I've been wanting to do that for weeks," Kabuto said with a gleeful smile. "Finally, I can become a part of the Sith Empire."

"Like hell," Karin said with a smirk. "After all, Deidara was the only one keeping you alive. You're a loose thread, Kabuto... And look at what you've done to him." Karin may have, for all intents and purposes, be their little servant, but she was frightful when she tapped into the Dark Side.

Kabuto paled. "What - no, you're mistaken! Master Sidious even said -"

"Enough." Sasori's voice was quiet.

Kabuto swallowed.

"Karin, do whatever you wish to him." Karin smiled nastily.

She grabbed Kabuto and shocked him, enjoying the screams of pain as she dragged him to another area. Sasori knelt next to Deidara, touching his neck for a pulse.

Even as he did so, Deidara's eyes opened.

"Ugh," Deidara moaned. "It feels like I swallowed a ton of ash and fire. Ugh. How disgusting."

Sasori frowned. "What did he do to the girl?"

Deidara shrugged. "He just used most of the poison he made on her because he didn't get that much in me, thanks to her scream."

Ordinarily, Sasori hated owing people. But he hated people just letting his Deidara get injured or poisoned, too. So now he owed the girl.

He hauled Deidara up. "Come. We're retiring for the night."