Chapter 6 – Fire and Brimstone

Alright double release chapter. Honestly I normally write these author notes before I release the chapter but I had to make an exception here to note that I ended up writing this in one day as well. Might have another one out by Wednesday or sooner. So I'll probably release multiple chapters, possibly up to five which should make up for my lack of activity for the last month. Sorry about that by the way. Anyway enjoy the chapter.

Disclaimer: I'd love to own Naruto, but since I don't I'll write this fanfic to make myself feel better.

Transitions and flashbacks are in italics.

Tailed beast speech is in bold.

'Thoughts are in single quotations.'

Deep underground…

"Naruto-san, pull back!"

"Enemies to our left, two dozen of them!"

"No way am I pulling back now!"

"We should have- Argh!"

"Enzo!"

"Tatsu-san, we got to push through them!"

"Don't worry about a thing Naruto-san, just hold down the line."

"Tatsu-san!"

"Dammit, they're everywhere!"

To say that they failed to prevent the raid was an understatement. Naruto watched it with his own eyes. They were like a legion, a horde. They were… endless. Naruto could say without a doubt that he couldn't have summoned enough clones to take them all on. It didn't stop him from trying. But that was the thing. His efforts… had been useless. They tore his bunshin to shreds. Every attempt to take down one of the Iwa ninja was thwarted with such quickness and brutality that even Naruto felt terrified by it. But the worst part was Tatsu and Enzo. Naruto had underestimated Enzo. He thought he was a career chunin and a cowardly one at that. But Enzo shined to him that day. He'd never seen someone hold two kunai like that and tear enemies apart. It was extremely bloody, and Enzo took to it with such professionalism. In that moment, Naruto realized that Enzo wasn't boring like he thought, he was just reserved. And when he said all those things about wanting to stay safe, he was doing it for Naruto. Tatsu was an even greater fighter than Naruto thought he'd be. It was insane watching him work. A single punch from him parted those legions like they were a river.

He honestly thought they could win. How foolish of him. He watched it happen. He watched each of his comrades fall, torn apart by Iwa's numbers. And when they came to him, he froze up. It wasn't the first time he hadn't known what to do. And it irked him, it irked him that he could do nothing. After that, everything was a blur. What was more, all he could think about were Enzo and Tatsu and the others. What happened to them was horrific. Watching the swarm of Iwa ninja overwhelm them. Their fates were unknown to him, but he did know one thing. It was foolish trying to stand up to them. He watched his allies die to the horde, again, and again, and again. On replay, as if he were trying to torture himself.

Do you see the results of your actions, brat?

'Kyubi! Why!?'

I warned you, you couldn't handle them.

'No, why didn't you lend me your power then?'

Are you so weak as to have to rely on my power to fight? It disgusts me that you can't even handle something like this on your own.

'What did you want me to do?! Take on a thousand ninja?!'

Weren't you excited to do it? Both of you, no as I said, all of you are foolish. Trying to stand against odds that you know will overwhelm you.

'If you'd just-'

Wake up to reality you brat! There are few who ever hold the power to perform the feats you ningen call miracles. Your Yondaime for example, was one of those people. But do you know how he could do those things? Things such as taking on one thousand shinobi?

'That doesn't matter right-'

Through hard work. Effort. Suffering even. No creature, not even the Biju, can escape that fact. I myself took ages to accumulate even this much power. So tell me… what makes you think that a wet behind the ears brat like you, with barely months of fighting experience, can perform those kinds of miracles?

'…'

Precisely, you don't think. You just charge in, and things tend to work out don't they? Well, looks like it took one thousand shinobi to erase that luck of yours. I hope you're proud of yourself.

'We could have stopped them together dammit! I thought we were a team!'

It takes more than simple teamwork to take on that task. Do you know what would have happened if I'd lent you my power in that moment? You would have gone berserk. Your emotions were so unstable that even I wouldn't have been able to stop you. Because you lack the qualities your village wants out of you.

'Qualities?'

Apathy. Coldness. Ruthlessness. They want you to act without emotion, without conscience. To become an automaton. To them, you have to become something not alive. But you can't do that. None of you ningen can. And that, is your only saving grace.

'…I don't get it. Why do I have to be that? Can't I just-'

You can't. If you stayed that way, you'd surely die. Luckily for you, I'm here. That's the only reason you still breathe till this day. Now, wake up.

Naruto blearily opened his eyes. Glancing about, he couldn't see anything at first. However, as his eyes adjusted, he could make out small light sources. Like lamps on a wall, they were small blue orbs that emanated a blue light, and they hung to what seemed to be the cylindrical black walls of his room. He tried to move, but found his legs wouldn't budge. He tried his arms, the same thing. Then, and only then, did he realize that he was hanging spread eagle in the middle of what he could only assume was a prison cell. His jacket was unzipped and his undershirt was missing with his seal visible and a strange matrix written over it.

How ironic, the jailer has become the jailed.

"M-My chakra… it feels sluggish..."

Be happy you can still feel it. It seems they couldn't develop a seal powerful enough to seal all of your chakra, so they're using a different one which slows down your chakra flow enough that it becomes useless. And these chains are clearly chakra suppressants.

"Can you lend me some?"

Even if I could, which I can't, I really don't feel like it.

"Huh why?"

Well, they somehow reverse engineered and applied a deactivated reverse tetragram seal to your seal.

Naruto blinked.

"What the hell does that mean?"

Essentially any chakra I attempt to send your way is rebounded almost. Except for a tiny bit, which is how I'm still communicating with you. It's very smart actually, I'll give them that much.

"So is there any way to break the seal?"

The only way to do that would be to activate the seal.

"Alright so let's do that!"

In order to do that, you would have to die.

"Aw c'mon! So unless I die you and I are stuck this way?"

So it would appear. Now, I'm going to take a nap, enjoy your stay in an underground prison.

Naruto groaned as the Kyubi went quiet. In all honesty, he felt bad. He knew he was treating the Kyubi like it was nothing but a tool, but he really did need its help to get out. However, not only could the Kyubi not help him, it didn't want to. And he couldn't help himself either with his chakra as it was.

"Dammit…"

In an upper area of the prison…

The screams. Why wouldn't the screams stop? They just went on for ages until eventually they went quiet. Then a new voice would begin anew. This had been going on for so long now that he'd just stopped blocking out the sounds. He treated it as ambience. After all, trauma meant little to Sasuke.

When Kakashi and Yugao had proposed to take on the camp of shinobi, Sasuke had assumed it meant at best a few dozen. A little difficult but plausible. Though taking care of Sakura proved to be a thorn in his side, he went through with it, to his chagrin. However, when a literal wave of Iwa ninja fell upon them in the midst of their efforts, blindsided couldn't even describe it. They were outright crushed. Honestly, he thought he was a dead man, but apparently he was not. He still breathed when he found himself awake in a prison. The grey walls were periodically lit by torches. With its corridor like structure, to Sasuke it felt more like a maze. It was a small cell he was placed in, with four other Konoha ninja and a Kusa ninja. They were all cuffed to a wall, but just by the hands. Honestly, if it wasn't for the materials he'd received, he'd be a blind man. The other ninja weren't even slightly lively. If it wasn't for the rising and falling of their chests, Sasuke would have thought they were dead. Their clothes were ragged and bloodied, without a doubt they'd put up a serious fight. But just like Sasuke they'd lost. He himself had his shirt reduced to ribbons by a shinobi with steel claws. He could still feel the sting of the steel on his chest. Anyway, after glancing at the other shinobi to see if they were still conscious, he closed his eyes.

'My chakra is being supressed by the chains, but that's okay. I have just the thing.'

It was a little trick he'd been shown before he left. He focused on his throat for a second before he regurgitated a small orb into his mouth. Biting onto the orb, he then spat it out of his mouth. If one looked at the orb, they'd see it had sealing script on it. As it hit the floor, a small puff of smoke went off, revealing a set of tools.

"Bingo."

Using his foot, he dragged the tools behind his back, within reach of his hands. Reaching for the one he needed, he quietly began sawing away at his hand cuffs.

'This could take a while, but I don't need to rush. If my estimate is right, I've only been here for around a day or so. Which means I have about three days or so before everything here comes crashing down.'

Sasuke just needed to stay alive long enough to use the chaos to his advantage. Once he secured what he needed, he'd be able to progress towards his objective. That is, killing Itachi.

In another area of the same prison…

"I'm sorry."

Sakura stared. She didn't know what to say at that point. She was… in shock? She didn't know. The last day or so had just been so traumatic that she'd lost the ability to speak. Or rather, her throat hurt so much from all the throwing up she'd done that it hurt to speak. Where should she start? Ah yes, from the moment she'd seen Sasuke grabbed the day before. She hadn't even understood what was going on fully, she'd just been socked in the stomach. She remembered trying to move, her mind racing in panic. She also remembered being stepped on. She honestly thought she was going to die. Then suddenly, the woman who was going to kill her got killed herself. Beheaded right in front of her eyes. Some of the blood actually got on her face.

After that, it had been something of a rollercoaster. Sasuke took her, told her to hide and suddenly she was watching him do things she'd never thought he could. Violent things that scared her. She knew she shouldn't have been terrified. She'd taken the Chunin Exams with them, she'd been with them when they fought in Nami no Kuni. She thought she was ready. Clearly she was not. Her fear in that moment controlled her, it made her do something rash. She screamed, and because of that Sasuke lost his advantage. Perhaps that Iwa contingent was unexpected, but she knew that Sasuke might've stood a better chance if he hadn't been distracted in that moment. So she blamed herself for that loss.

Then of course, there came the journey to Iwagakure. Unlike most who had been unconscious, Sakura had been wide awake the entire time. She saw everything. She tried to fight back, screamed some more even, because she couldn't do much else. Powerlessness, she decided, was a curse. When you could do nothing about your situation, there's nothing you think of more than what you could have done. Regret… was a result of powerlessness. Her situation didn't get much better after reaching Iwagakure. Because yes, she was in Iwagakure.

She remembered there were some who actually got loose while they were being transported. They attempted to run. She even saw a few who got far. They all were killed. After the fifth death, she lost the ability to scream. After the tenth, she lost the ability to talk. And after the twentieth, she became nearly emotionally numb. After that point, she saw, yet she didn't react. Within the prison, they weren't treated as humans. She didn't understand it, and perhaps she lost the ability to understand altogether.

Ah of course, her current circumstance. She was in a small cell, which originally had eight people. Now it only held two. The reason would be one that Sakura didn't want to think about. One by one, the prisoners were taken from their cells. Then, the screaming would begin. It started softly, in small exclamations and whimpers. Then it would get louder. It would continue on, endlessly. What they were doing to those people she didn't want to know.

Nonetheless, she was one of the last prisoners remaining in her cell. What a coincidence it was, that she shared it with the same kunoichi she had an argument with before this all began. Neither of them were in good condition, but at least they still had wearable clothes. It would have been really awkward of they didn't. Sakura found it strange though, that she would apologize. The kunoichi continued.

"I don't know what came over me… even now, I'm still confused."

That kunoichi had gone through something far more traumatic than Sakura had. Sakura had decided this from the moment she saw the girl missing a right arm. A good section of her left side was burnt, without a doubt from a Katon jutsu. Then again, an explosive tag could achieve the same result. Either way, it had been a painful journey for her.

"Fighting over a guy, and he doesn't like either of us. Wouldn't you say that was stupid?"

Sakura stared back, not knowing what to say, even up till then.

"Well I think it was stupid. We should have focused on preparing to fight, but instead all we could think about was a guy."

Sakura wasn't sure what she was getting at.

"A guy… who doesn't even care. He's selfish isn't he?"

Now that got Sakura's attention. She wanted to retort, to say that wasn't the case but all that came out of her mouth was hoarse coughing. Sakura didn't believe Sasuke was selfish, she never had. Sure he would blow her off sometimes, and preferred to do things for his own benefits, but when it came to the team he fought hard. She could never think of him as selfish.

"You're his teammate so you should see it. Even if you don't now, you probably will soon."

Sakura continued to stare, her blank face revealing none of her thoughts. Then, she heard the familiar click of the cell lock. Both Sakura and the kunoichi knew what was about to happen. Both of them had already resigned themselves. An Iwa ninja, clad in what appeared to be samurai armour, undid the cuffs on the kunoichi before dragging her out of the cell by the scruff of her jacket, if it could be called that anymore. As it locked once more, Sakura spared a glance at her and her eyes widened. The kunoichi was smiling at her. And it made her feel all the more worse for it.

Returning to Sasuke's cell…

CLINK!

Sasuke winced at the loud noise of the chains hitting the ground. He glanced about quickly before deciding he was still in the safe. He collected the tools from behind his back, pocketing them.

"Alright now I just have to wait for a good opportunity to move…"

He knew that the bars were not something he could risk cutting with the tool set he had. And while he had access to his chakra again, he didn't know any jutsu that could break him out without making a ruckus. Then he got the most stupid and brain dead idea.

'This could either kill me or let me out with ease.'

He stuck his head through the bars, glancing left and right before seeing there was a guard at the end of the hallway. Then he backed up and shouted loudly.

"WHAT THE HELL!"

The guard at the end of the hallway, who'd been dozing off, suddenly got alert. He began walking towards the cell he heard the loud shout from. Unsheathing a kunai from his holster, he clanged it loudly against the cell.

"Quiet down in there!"

He then noticed one of the empty chains in the cell. He immediately panicked, taking out his keys to inspect the cell. As he opened it, and walked inside, he was not prepared for what happened. A pair of hands suddenly gripped the back of his head and chin before twisting his head, breaking his neck as a result. He died instantly. Sasuke stared down from ceiling, making tsk sounds as he watched the guard crumple.

"What an idiot…"

He hopped down from the ceiling, and made quick work of looting the guard's items. A full pouch of shuriken, kunai and a wide assortment of ninja tools plus the keys. Exactly what he needed. He glanced at the other ninja before asking.

"You guys want out right?"

Two of them, a male Kusa ninja and a female Konoha jonin nodded quickly despite having their heads down the entire time, while a rather beaten Konoha chunin nodded weakly. The others didn't respond but he assumed they did as well.

He quickly began unlocking their handcuffs, handing them a share of the ninja tools in the pouch.

"Don't ask how I got out, just work with me."

Sasuke didn't need people who would question his every move. What he needed, were people who would unquestioningly move when he needed them to. What he needed was a capable team of ninja who held one motive, and focused on it. These ninja met that requirement. And that, made Sasuke a very happy Uchiha in that moment.

Returning to Sakura's cell...

"You're up, Pinkie."

Sakura grunted, yes grunted, as her chains were undone. She'd been half-awake for about half an hour. Given that she'd listened to the kunoichi getting tortured for around fifteen minutes, she estimated that they took a prisoner to get tortured every forty five minutes. She glanced upward, noting that the guard didn't have any blood on him.

'Either he isn't taking part in it, or whatever they're doing doesn't involve blood.'

Normally she'd feel disgusted by such a thing. But when that kunoichi was getting tortured, Sakura felt something break inside her. It was as if, she went from wanting to scream her heart out for the kunoichi to suddenly wanting nothing to do with her. She felt tired. Tired of having feelings that made her feel worse and worse with every passing moment. So she stopped. Stopped feeling depressed and stopped caring. There was just an acceptance in the fact that she would die. If that was where it was all meant for it to end so be it. She just didn't want to waste anymore of her tears on things that wouldn't matter in the end.

As the guard prepared to drag her away she spoke, her voice hoarse.

"I'll walk."

The guard paused.

"Whatever. Don't try anything funny."

Sakura unsteadily rose to her feet. She took on step forward, then another. She managed to start a somewhat steady pace with the occasional limp when her left leg would act up. Likely because of when an Iwa ninja thought she was resisting and kicked her there. She kept walking though, not really caring. The guard wouldn't admit it, but it unnerved him. Some of the prisoners he'd brought over had tried to remain stoic but eventually they all broke. Sakura though, she seemed to simply have no emotion. She moved, ignored pain, and kept moving. Because there was no way she wasn't in pain. As they were about to turn about a corner, an Iwa ninja ran into the guard. He appeared out of breath.

"Finally! We got a problem!"

The guard seemed surprised.

"What kind?"

"A prison break."

"What?! Why haven't you contacted the main office?"

"We tried but the comms are acting up! I don't know why either."

"Shit! Alright, take this girl and bring her to level three. I'll go check on the comms."

The guard quickly turned around before rushing down the hallway. He reached about halfway before a barrage of shuriken suddenly buried into several gaps in his armour. He gasped in surprise.

"W-What…"

He turned around to see not an Iwa ninja but a Konoha jonin and Sasuke. As he realized what had fully happened, a Kusa ninja snuck up behind him, stabbing him in the jugular with a kunai. The guard stumbled before collapsing in shock. Blood poured from his wound despite his attempts to block it with his hands.

Sakura gazed at the scene that had occurred before turning around. The Konoha jonin's palm started glowing green, a sign of the Mystical Palm (Shosen), before asking.

"Can I?"

Sakura nodded and the jonin started treating her. Sasuke in the meanwhile, went to inspect the corpse. The Kusa ninja tossed him a pouch.

"This was all he had. Mind if I keep his sword, they're my specialty."

"Yeah go ahead. The better our firepower the greater our chances of breaking out are."

A Konoha chunin ran around the corner, glancing backwards before continuing.

"We freed two more cells worth of prisoners."

Sasuke nodded before tossing him a key from the guard's pouch.

"Here, based on the number of keys I think this will free another three cells."

As the chunin was about to turn around Sakura surprisingly stopped him.

"Don't bother. They've all been taken."

The chunin looked Sakura up and down before asking.

"Taken where?"

"I don't know. To get tortured I guess."

Sasuke stared at Sakura as if she'd grown a second head. Sakura stared right back before she spoke.

"What?"

This was new. Sasuke wasn't sure exactly what happened but Sakura was different now. This different Sakura though, to Sasuke, looked rather useful.

"Can you tell us anything else?"

Sakura closed her eyes in thought before opening them and responding.

"They seem to take the prisoners from the cells every forty-five minutes. I was supposed to be next."

"Tch. That's not good then."

"Why's that?"

"If the transfer is like clockwork, they'll notice the difference in time."

The chunin glanced between the two of them.

"So then, what's our play?"

Sasuke sighed before responding.

"We'll have to go on the offensive. What's our exact numbers?"

The chunin replied immediately.

"Four jonin, thirteen chunin and eleven genin for a total of twenty eight ninja. Only the jonin and chunin are armed. Well except you."

Sasuke grunted.

"Have the genin receive arms, the jonin have the most skill in the group so they will have to compensate."

The chunin nodded before heading back around the corner. Sakura stared oddly at Sasuke.

"Aren't you a genin Sasuke? Why are they listening to you as if you're in charge?"

Sasuke shrugged as he honestly couldn't answer that question. To him they just followed what he said, and what he said worked so it was alright. However, they were in a bit of a pickle. With Sakura up next for transfer, they were working on borrowed time. Borrowed time which was quickly running out. Sasuke was racking his brain for solutions but none were coming. He didn't have a clue how he was going to stop the guards from being alerted. Once they were it would all come crashing down on them. He sighed before resigning himself to one solution that could work.

"Sakura, do you have any ideas on how to prevent the guards from going on alert?"

Sakura was surprised for a second as she hadn't expected Sasuke to ask her for advice. She cleared her throat, which did more damage than anything else but it didn't matter to her.

"Well, if we're on borrowed time there is one way we can extend it."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. Sakura continued.

"The guard mentioned something about a level three. I assumed that was a different floor, and given how I could hear the screams from my cell easily, it probably has an entrance around this general area."

The jonin who healed Sakura realized what Sakura was getting at.

"You're planning on launching an attack on the third floor. That could play to our advantage, but it's dangerous you know."

Sakura nodded her head.

"It is, but we're already in danger. If we can find out where they're sending the prisoners, then we can take them by surprise there. It's likely that there's an essential comm station there too."

Sasuke spoke.

"What makes you say that?"

"When you mentioned that the comms were down, and that was a risky move Sasuke, the guard didn't use any sort of communication device. Instead he decided to run to a location we don't know of. From what I know there are two main types of comms used in shinobi operations. Radio earpieces for short range communication in the field and relay stations for quick transferal of information over a somewhat longer range. Given this information, our best course of action would be to hijack those relay stations and -"

"Use them to cover for our movements."

"Exactly."

Sasuke would have applauded Sakura in that moment, except he saw no value in it. He had to admit, her studying paid off. Sasuke added on.

"Kakashi sent one of his ninkens to Konoha to report on the situation up here. That should have been at least one day ago. Knowing this, we have to survive down here for the next two to three days if we want to escape."

Sakura frowned.

"The odds of us surviving that long are low. Even if we hijack the comms, we're in enemy territory. Someone's bound to notice a discrepancy."

Sasuke sighed once more before removing a few shuriken from the pouch. He then handed the pouch to the jonin.

"Yeah I know, but we don't have a choice."

He turned around before going about the corner. There twenty five ninja were assembled, all worse for wear, but all determined. Sakura came around the corner, slightly surprised that so many shinobi were assembled. Sasuke let a grim smile cross his face.

"Two days is how long we got until the Hokage shows up. Until that point we have three goals. One, to free as many ninja as possible. Two, to disable the enemies' ability to find us through all means. And three, to prepare for war with Iwagakure."

No matter how he looked at it, war was inevitable. Iwa went out of their way to capture ninja instead of killing them, but from how he saw it, they were just killing the ninja in a worse fashion. It seemed that Iwa wanted to send a message to Konoha, that war with them was inevitable. And despite Kakashi telling him that he didn't want war with Iwa, Sasuke felt all the more obliged to incite it.

"Our first task right now, is to make our way to level three of this prison, and find the site where they are torturing prisoners. It's highly likely that there's a relay station there too, so watch out for it. We are going to take down that site, and maintain control over it. That, is our task for now. Let's get going."

The ninja all showed their agreement for the plan. Sasuke then sighed.

"On that note, does anyone know where the entrance to level three is?"

All the ninja shook their heads. Sasuke grunted.

"Alright then, the task stated before is now our second task. Our first task now is to find the entrance to level three."

Sakura wondered for a second if Sasuke was really qualified for the position he currently held before reminding herself that he made it this far. They all had. She glanced determinedly at him.

"We should probably do our best to find Kakashi-sensei. He's got to be around here somewhere."

"Good point. I suspect the levels of this prison have differing security though. To better hold stronger prisoners. And you know, Kakashi is as strong as they come."

"It won't be easy. I get it. But we can't leave without him."

Sasuke closed his eyes.

"Yeah I know, he's our sensei."

End of Chapter

Oh yay, prison. Prisons are scary to me, which is why it's the perfect place for the next part of this storyline to go down. I got the idea for this from… somewhere, won't say where yet. I'll leave that for when I finish this arc, because yes, this is an arc. Anyway, this is chapter two of the possible five for this week. Enjoy this while it lasts because there's no way I can keep up this posting speed under normal conditions.