Chronicles of a Self-Made Shinobi: From One Nightmare to Another

Kumiko bent her knees and crouched in a ready position though she had nothing with which to defend herself. Kabuto shook furiously for a few moments before he was able to calm himself, and spoke.

"Very clever," he hissed. "I never thought you'd find Sasuke, let alone blackmail him into helping you. Your victory, however, ends here."

"You promised…" Kumiko began.

"I promised nothing!" he shouted at her. "That's twice you made a fool of me and I intend to make absolutely sure it will never happen again."

Kumiko yelped as a shadow clone snuck up behind her and tackled her to the ground. The real Kabuto rushed forward and tied her hands to her sides and her feet together as the other held her down.

"Now then, why don't we step into my laboratory," he growled as they lifted her from the ground and dragged her back down into the lair and back into darkness.

They threw her onto the floor of a dimply lit room and tied her to a column by the wall. The shadows clone disappeared with a grunt when Kumiko head-butted it and Kabuto struggled to force her into a sitting position on his own. When he finished he stood and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

"You're being difficult."

One wall of the room was full of machinery and a few monitors that looked on different sections of the labyrinth. There was also a hospital bed sitting in the center, covered by an off white sheet. Unlike all the other rooms in the lair, this one had an electrical light, which Kabuto flipped on.

"Don't worry I'm not going to kill you right away," he said. "I have a surprise for you first."

He turned and approached the hospital bed and Kumiko fearfully watched, knowing that something horrible must be hidden beneath the rough looking cloth. Kabuto whisked off the covering and she let out a whimpering noise when she saw what was lying underneath.

Lee stared defiantly up at the silver-haired shinobi. He was gagged and bound tightly to the hospital bed in such a way not even he could hope to break free.

"Lee!"

Startled, he whipped his head to the side and struggled against his bonds when he saw Kumiko. Kabuto removed his gag.

"Kumiko-san, Kumiko-san! You're alright!"

Kabuto chuckled. "My, my, isn't this adorable?"

Kabuto walked over to a medicine cabinet and rummaged through the contents before pulling out a long needle. He then inserted a capsule full of a red liquid that had been lying on the counter-top into the needle and squirted some of the substance out from the tip.

"I know you Kobayashi. Simply breaking you physically would be no fun at all. I have to break you mentally."

"No Kabuto, please, I'll do anything," she pleaded.

"Don't worry about me," Lee said. "You worry about figuring a way out of here."

Lee's words echoed the ones she had imagined a few days before while despairing on the side of the wall. Ever since Hidan had arrived to watch over her, Kumiko had prepared herself to face death. She promised to fight until every last bit of strength left her body, but also did not fear the ominous presence of death. But never did she consider that she might bring one of her friends down with her. It scared her more than any promise of death and tore down her iron resolve as if it were simply a piece of cloth.

"There's nothing you can offer that would give me more pleasure that watching you watch a friend die before your eyes," Kabuto snarled and approached the bed. "You may think you're worthy to be a great ninja, but you know nothing of true pain. You hold your friends too closely; you're too soft."

He stopped and towered above Lee who wasn't looking at him at all, instead he was staring at Kumiko.

"Please…Kabuto…"

"This 'medicine' here is one of my very own creations. When added directly into the blood stream it begins to clot all the chakra channels, one by one, slowly, then moves on to clot the blood vessels themselves, ending with the heart valves," Kabuto explained. "It's a very painful way to die."

By now Kumiko's pleadings had faded to a whisper. From up on the table Lee could barely hear her mumbling. Kabuto reached down and grabbed onto Lee's arm and placed the needle point right above his skin. Kumiko snapped her head up and stared at the needle. The room was completely silent.

Kabuto smiled.

No…

He placed the needle against Lee's skin.

No…

Lee turned his eyes upon the needle, finally aware of what was about to happen to him.

No…

Kabuto broke the skin and started slowly pushing the liquid into the leaf nin's body. It was a quarter gone when he heard a snapping sound and looked up just in time to see a pair of red eyes before claws swiped at his arm and knocked the needle out of his grip where it flew through the air and smashed to pieces against the far wall.