Sai and Ino continued to lock lips, hungry for each other as the heat increased between them. Things were hot, heavy, and ecstatic as they shed half of their clothes, tossing them in a discarded pile on the floor. Ino continued to grind against him, feeling a mix of emotions bubbling in her chest. She didn't feel the same way she'd felt any other time she'd had encounters like this; there was something different about it, but she was too intoxicated to put her finger on it.

On the other hand, Sai returned to old experiences he remembered from his early days with Root. He wasn't inexperienced, but tension relief between comrades had been necessary in some of his cases, especially when you were undercover. Finding relief when you had a moment to satiate one another was wonderful, even if it was brief with no emotional attachments.

Sai remembered those days. It'd been a while, but if Ino wanted something without any strings, he'd be forced to oblige. His hands wandered along her bare skin, his lips running along her cheek until it reached her neck, suckling there as he could hear her breathing heavily in his ear. His heart was racing the entire time, encouraging him to take things further and further.

Everything happened faster than either of them could react.

The sound of a heavy, blunt object hitting the back of Sai's skull echoed across the room, sending him reeling forward and causing Ino—who by now was half-naked—to fall back onto the coffee table. Sai's vision was blurring, but he could hear Ino shrieking.

Well, shrieking was putting it mildly. She'd shrieked when Sai was struck, fumbling as she rolled off the coffee table. One of the empty bottles hit the carpet next to her, and she reached for it frantically, raising it and brandishing it like a weapon. They had guns pointed at her, but she was too intoxicated and pissed off to care. She swung wildly, but they didn't fire; that must have meant they had the task of delivering her alive to wherever they were supposed to.

She managed to clip one on the arm, but he grasped her wrist in a tight grip, enough that her grasp on the bottle loosened from the pain. With one swift strike to the solar plexus, he drove the air from her lungs and left her dizzy. The other held a cloth over her face, and with a surprised inhale, she was out cold.

"Damn... he could have warned us that she'd be feisty," one of the men griped. "I'll get her to the car. You take care of him." He hoisted Ino over one shoulder and strode out of the house, leaving the other man to deal with Sai.

For the first time in his life, Sai felt genuine fear. It was fear as he remembered it, staring up at the eyes of the man in front of him. He couldn't make out details, but he saw... grey hair. Or was it silver? He couldn't tell exactly. His eyes seemed light in colour as well, a striking shade that he couldn't miss. He recognized them from somewhere, but with his throbbing headache, he couldn't tell.

A shot rang out, and Sai felt his vision go entirely black.

Ino had just started to come through as she was tied up in the back of the large van, the sound of a gunshot enough to rouse her from her briefly sedated state. Her heart was racing a million miles a minute, but she couldn't break free of the ties on her wrists and ankles, nor could she seemingly make any noise through the gag they'd tied in her mouth.

But the shot startled her. A second one rang out, and from the briefly opened van door, she could see a flash from the house's living room.

Sai... where was Sai? Ino looked around frantically, seeing him nowhere. The second man exited the house, a gun in hand; Sai was nowhere to be found. She thrashed and screamed from the back of the van, trying to kick out in the direction of the grey-haired man as he climbed into the back with her. She managed to clip his ankle with the heel of her foot, and he groaned in pain.

"Shut up and quit squirming," the other man demanded as he put the van into gear. "If you don't, Arata here will get to have fun with you to keep you quiet. Or screaming. It depends how you like it." His comment was followed by a dark chuckle that made Ino's body go cold all over and silenced her immediately. She knew exactly what they were implying, and it made her sick.

"I mean... would that affect our pay?" Arata asked, and the other man barked a laugh. "Seriously, Maotoku."

"I doubt it," Maotoku replied. "Pretty sure he knows she's a whore already." Ino cringed at that. Ouch. She was no such thing. She was simply adventurous and enjoyed the thrill; there was nothing wrong with that! In fact, she was meticulous about her endeavours. As careful as she could be, anyway.

"All right then. If she starts getting too feisty, I'll try to save some for you." He leaned back and rested against the side, closing his eyes. "No promises, though."

"Ah, it's fine," Maotoku said with a wave of his hand. "I'll just buy one with the money we're gonna get for this. The DA's worth a pretty penny, and he was more than willing to pay it. Just don't mess up her pretty face, or he'll probably be mad. He was pretty explicit about that part. Not so much about the rest."

Ino couldn't believe this. She struggled to piece it together, and the conclusions she was coming to weren't what she wanted to know. Sai... If there'd been gunshots when he left, then... Was He even alive? Was this really happening to her?

She hoped it was just a horrible, wine-induced nightmare she'd soon wake up from. She tried to suppress a shiver, and Maotoku groaned, reaching to the passenger seat and tossing a jacket back. "At least give her a fucking jacket, Arata, you pig." Arata grumbled in response, doing his best to wrap Ino in the jacket and zip it up. It constricted her even further, but she was too frightened to fight back against it.

At some point, they stopped, and Ino felt one of the men pull a bag over her head, taking away her ability to see. They roughly hauled her somewhere by the arm, grumbling as she nearly tripped and fell on her face. She heard the sound of metal, and someone cut the ropes at her wrist before she was shoved forward, landing hard on one shoulder. She scrambled to move her arms into the oversized jacket she'd had zipped up over her, tearing the sack off her head and fumbling with the gag in her mouth just as the sound of metal meant the doors to wherever she was being held were locked shut.

It was... a cage of sorts. Likely a pen used for a wild zoo animal, but it was spacious enough that a human could stay in it with no issues. She screamed for them to let her go, but Maotoku rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Quit screaming. It's a waste of time. No one will hear you out here. Fucking entitled lawyers," he swore under his breath, stomping off. What did he mean by 'out here'? Where even was 'here'? She hadn't the faintest clue. The air felt muggy and humid, very much unlike what Ino was used to.

"Finally. It only took forever to get you separated from the rest of your entourage." A familiar voice talking in a way that Ino had never heard in her life sent chills down her spine. She froze, unable to form words as a tall man with blonde hair pulled back in a high ponytail stared her down. His hair was slightly more tousled than Ino's around the bangs, almost spiky, and his eyes were a rich shade of green.

"What..?" Ino stared in surprise, not sure what exactly he was talking about. Hell, she was still struggling to have it sink in. She looked around, seeing no one else in the vicinity other than Maotoku walking away and seemingly counting a stack of cash. What in the hell was going on here? And why?

"You heard what I said, little bush clover." He looked at her attire, then sighed. "Of course, as always, your escapades were the only way to get close to you. Well, perhaps that was because you were supposed to be hard to get to, given your position, but... It seems your position hasn't helped us stay under the radar from Akatsuki and more accurately drew them right to us. Or perhaps it was that pest, Sai... Either way, he's been dealt with."

"Dealt with?" Ino's jaw hung wide. "What do you mean, 'dealt with'? Since when you do you get to decide-"

"Since you're my daughter, of course. You galavant about enough as you please. The least I could do was save you from a life of being tied to a Root member. I couldn't let that cycle continue, Ino. Your mother and I escaped Akatsuki once, and I wasn't about to let one of their little pawns lead Akatsuki back to us." That still didn't answer her question. What did he mean by 'dealt with'?

"That's not an answer, dad! What the hell do you mean 'dealt with'?!" She could feel tears burning in her eye, but she was determined to find out. Inoichi sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration.

"Dead, of course. Did that explosion dampen your brains, too?" She'd never heard this side of her father before, but that first word sunk in too deeply, silencing her. Her father had always been kind, doting on her, encouraging her to be her best, pushing her to be the best lawyer out there, to be the best prosecutor possible, and inspiring her to protect those she loved and cared for fiercely. It had led to her strong friendship with Sakura and her strong family bonds. Lately, those bonds had been weakening with all of the new information she'd learned about them, though...

"What? He... No, he's... No," Ino denied, stepping back from the bars toward the rear of the cage. No, that couldn't be right. Sai couldn't be dead. He was stronger than that, tougher than that. And yet... Ino couldn't help but remember back to when she'd been in the van, seeing the flash of a gunshot in the living room of the safe house.

"You'll come to terms with it eventually. He would've turned you right over to Akatsuki along with your mother and I. Of course, I had to see that didn't happen. Once you've calmed down from your little... tantrum of sorts, I'll send your mother over. We have a new life to start, Ino. Prepare yourself." Ino couldn't even comprehend his words. She'd sunk to her knees, feeling like a hole had been torn in her chest. Why did her chest ache so much from that news?

Sai didn't mean that much to her.

Did he?

A/N: Hey everyone! I just wanted to throw a teensy apology for not updating as soon as I would have liked. I had a work trip right after the last update (thought I would have time to write, but it was a cesspool of chaos), then had to play catch-up at work for the week after, followed by Thanksgiving... and realistically, October to February is absurdly busy at work for me. As a result, my updates probably won't come as often, as I just won't have as much time to write. But don't fret! I definitely will still be updating my stories and still writing, it just may take longer to get chapters out.