I do not own Naruto Shippuden or any of the characters.

Ultimatum

Ryuu closed the door and yawned, stretching. He had finally finished healing Tayuya and it was getting late. She had given as much information as she could over the last week, identities of Orochimaru's henchmen, rumors about experiments, descriptions of other prisoners, but there wasn't actually that much information that could be proven as fact. So, as soon as the sun rose, Inoichi Yamanaka, Ino's father, would be using his telepathy ninjutsu to search Tayuya's memories to verify if she was telling the truth or not. Understandably, she was not excited. Ryuu wouldn't be either. But, there wasn't much else they could do, so Ryuu headed to his and Fu's room, finding Fu already asleep.

He climbed into bed, wrapping his arms around Fu, who scooted back against him, smiling, then closed his eyes. After about two hours, however, he opened his eyes again as he heard a door close. He sighed. He was hoping she wouldn't do it, but it seemed he had been wrong. He carefully climbed out of bed and walked to the window, looking out of it as he watched Tayuya, now wearing a black cloak, quickly making her way down the street.

Tayuya carefully peeked around the corner. It was clear. She ducked her head, holding the cloak tight around her as she hurriedly walked down the street to the trees. She was close, she thought. Somewhere about a mile ahead of her should be a wall. And beyond that, she'd be out of the village. No one poking around in her mind, no more house arrest, no torture. She'd be free. She could disappear. No one would find her. Not even Orochimaru. Finally, she reached the wall, climbing up onto it and smiling. All she had to do was drop off of it, and she'd be free.

"You really are troublesome, aren't you?" a voice spoke behind her, startling her and making her spin, hurling a kunai only for Ryuu to catch it.

"What do you want?" Tayuya asked.

"You're leaving?" Ryuu asked.

"That's right," Tayuya said. "And you can't stop me!"

"Can't I?" Ryuu asked.

Tayuya's eyes narrowed. He could. And she knew it. He had fought Kimimaro one-on-one and lived to tell about it. Kimimaro would have killed her in an instant.

"I'm not going to stop you, though," Ryuu said.

"Come again?" Tayuya asked.

"You're free to leave," Ryuu said.

Tayuya eyed him suspiciously.

"However, I just want you to consider this if you do," Ryuu said. "I've tried to treat you like a friend, as much as I could, over the last few weeks. I've done my best to keep you comfortable, happy, and safe. I even convinced Lady Tsunade to allow you to become a Hidden Leaf genin in a team with me and Fu, as a test to see if you can be trusted, or if you're still loyal to Orochimaru."

"Why would you do that?" Tayuya asked.

"Because I'm an idiot," Ryuu said. "I'm a naive fool who trusts too easily and who wanted to save you."

"From what?" Tayuya scoffed. "Death? You did that. Orochimaru? Good enough. I can hide from him."

"From yourself," Ryuu said, Tayuya staring at him. "I wanted to help lead you down a better road than the one you were on. I wanted to help you find a home in the Hidden Leaf, and to help you have friends, and a family among us."

"Why?" Tayuya asked.

"Because your life was stolen from you by Orochimaru," Ryuu said. "You deserve a second chance."

Tayuya stared at him.

"However," Ryuu said. "If you set one foot beyond that wall, I'll consider you an enemy to the Hidden Leaf. And the next time we meet, I'll treat you as such. You will be captured or killed depending on your actions at that time, and then, if you are captured, you will be turned over to Ibiki. You will not be given any measure of leniency the next time. But the choice is yours. You can stay and work to have a family here, or you can leave, and hope we never cross paths again."

And with that, Ryuu turned, walking away from her. Tayuya rolled her eyes and turned, preparing to drop off of the wall only to stop. He had treated her well. Better than even her own family had before Orochimaru burned her village to the ground. She had never been treated so much like a friend, or like family. As she looked back on it, she had to admit that she had been happy. Maybe it wasn't perfect, and maybe she did contract a little cabin fever from being locked in that room for a month, but she could hardly have left the room. Even trying to stand for more than a few minutes at a time had hurt.

She looked back, able to see the lights of the village over the trees. doubt filled her mind. What if Orochimaru could find her. What if she couldn't disappear. She couldn't handle being locked in a cell, and she would never be able to survive being tortured again. She still had nightmares all the time from what Orochimaru had done to her, and that had been years ago. But could she handle letting someone invade her mind, the one and only place that was supposed to belong to her and only her? Ryuu's words drifted through her mind again. His claims about wanting her to have friends and a home.

"Dammit Tayuya," she sighed. "When did you get soft? You don't need them. You don't need anyone."

She looked back to the village one last time then sighed, turning and dropping off the wall.

Ryuu stretched, yawning as he sat up in bed, looking down at Fu and smiling, seeing her still sound asleep. He bent down, kissing her lightly, feeling her start to kiss him back after a moment. Ryuu continued to kiss her for a few more minutes before pulling away, Fu sighing and looking up at him.

"Time to get up," he said, standing and grabbing a set of clean clothes and a towel, walking to their room's private bathroom.

He showered quickly then pulled his underwear and pants on, walking out into the room to see Fu gathering her things for a shower, already completely nude. He blushed, looking away, and Fu walked over, smiling and kissing him before slipping past him and closing the door. He sighed, rubbing his eyes and beginning to gather everything he'd need for the day. He didn't understand why she enjoyed teasing him so much. But he would never complain about it. After all, it was her way of showing him that she loved him. Not that that would ever be in question.

He pulled his shirt and flak jacket on, putting his kunai pouch on his leg and yawned. Waking up in the middle of the night to try one last time to save Tayuya had messed with his rest cycle and now he was tired. As he finished attaching his ninja tool pouch, Fu stepped out of the bathroom, once again completely nude. He looked away, sighing, and Fu walked past him, picking up her clothes from the bed, beginning to get dressed.

"Oh don't be like that," Fu said. "I forgot my clothes. Besides, it's not like you haven't seen me naked before."

"Are you kidding?" Ryuu snorted. "You're always walking around naked in here."

"Exactly," Fu said. "So you should be used to it."

Ryuu snorted, shaking his head and walking out of the room, closing the door behind him. He walked down to the kitchen and stopped, seeing Tayuya pouring some cereal into four bowls, a jug of milk sitting beside her.

"I hope you don't mind cereal," Tayuya said. "I can't cook."

Ryuu smiled. "Cereal's fine. I'm glad you came back."

"Yeah, well, I didn't do it because of you," Tayuya said. "I just don't like the idea of having to hide from anyone, that's all."

"Of course," Ryuu smiled, pouring milk into the cereal bowls for her while she put the cereal away and got four spoons. "Are you ready for today?"

"No," Tayuya admitted. "But what choice do I have?"

"You're sure there's nothing else you want to tell us before Inoichi sees your memories?" Ryuu asked.

"Unless you want to know how many times, or for how long, Orochimaru raped me, no," Tayuya said.

"I...I didn't mean-"

"I know," Tayuya said. "There's nothing else that I can think of. I'm not saying he won't find anything he's interested in, I just can't remember anything off the top of my head."

Ryuu nodded. "Okay. I'm sure you'll do fine. And Inoichi will make it as painless as he can. He doesn't like the idea of probing around in people's heads for any longer than necessary."

Tayuya nodded as Fu and Yugao both walked into the room, seeing the cereal.

"Thanks for making breakfast Tayuya," Fu smiled.

"Yeah, thanks," Yugao smiled.

Tayuya managed a small smile and they all began to eat, finishing quickly and cleaning their plates before leaving, all four heading to the Hokage's office. From there, Tsunade led them to Torture and Interrogation where Tayuya was locked in a large metal object so that only her head was free. Then, Inoichi placed a hand on her head and she grit her teeth as he entered her mind.

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