Insomnia

Chapter 2

A Dream? Or Nightmare

I don't know where to start other than a quick rant. You know those stories that you find on fanfiction about girls who find themselves in Naruto or how they find the Akatsuki as cats? Yes, you do know what I'm talking about. I know you know. And how in said fanfictions the girls are treated pretty decently? From my personal experience I'm going to say that is a loud of complete and utter bullshit. My experience with the, at that moment in time, unnamed but assumed Deidara and Sasori, was awful.

The clay birds brought us a long distance from where I first woke up. We passed several different types of forests with more ridiculous trees and landscapes. While I call the landscapes ridiculous they were actually breath taking. I was used to ugly polluted skies and tall buildings. What I did see of vegetation was usually filled with litter or garbage that humans threw away. But this... this was pure. The air was clean and there was such a stretch of land that looked like it wasn't touched by humans. It was one of those photoshopped post card pictures but it wasn't. This was reality.

When the birds touched down it was at the base of a rocky, mountainous terrain at the edge of more woodlands. I was tossed off the bird and my legs collapsed beneath me. I was sore from sitting and my wrists were itchy and chaffing from the rope.

"Blindfold her." the assumed Sasori ordered and Deidara did so with a, "Good idea Danna, yeah."

My vision was cut off as they blindfolded me and I was lifted up onto Deidara's bony-ass shoulder and carried. At first warm air hit me but then after what felt like going down steps cool air hit my open skin. It was about a two minute walk to our destination and then I was dumped onto hard floor.

"Is this Fukusei Imati?" a woman's voice asked.

"She fit the description, un. How many women can look like that?"

My blind fold was ripped off and I found myself looking at a beautiful woman with pale skin, short blue hair and vivid amber eyes. A labret was situated under her full lips and lavender eye shadow a bit more purple than her hair was painted onto her eye lids.

Konan.

Konan's eyes narrowed at me and she looked at Deidara and Sasori, "This is not Fukusei Imati."

Deidara's visible eye widened and Sasori sounded annoyed as he replied, "Seeing a picture would not have wasted our time."

"What are we going to do with her now?" Deidara was the one who asked this very important question. Three pairs of eyes turned to me. I was worried. These three were super powered criminals who wouldn't give a fuck about killing me. I wasn't anything special to them.

"Do you know of Fukusei Imati? Are you related?" Konan's eyes were cold but distant. She was apathetic to my situation.

I shook my head, "No, I've never heard the name." Hopefully they would let me go. This seemed highly unlikely but a girl can dream.

"What were you doing in the middle of nowhere then, hm?" Deidara asked, "There were no civilian villages for kilometers. We didn't even sense you-" Deidara paused.

Konan, hearing something in his words, regarded me with a new look. All three seemed to stare at me intently before Konan said, "Put her in a cell. When Itachi returns he'll look at her."

Wait. What?

I looked between them, "What are you going to do with me-"

Deidara sneered at me, "Whatever we want, yeah."

Deidara lifted me by my hair and forced me out of the room. I was roughly led down a hallway with wooden panel flooring and walls that were entirely solid rock. Not even concrete, it was like the side of a cliff or a boulder. Deidara nearly pushed me down a set of stairs and actually did toss me into a cell. After removing my bindings Deidara locked the cell and dangled the keys tauntingly before pocketing them and heading towards the door. He paused for a moment and looked over his shoulder at me.

"Hey, girl." I narrowed my eyes at him, "If you aren't Fukusei Imati, who are you, yeah?"

I debated not answering him. But this was a criminal who would enjoy beating the shit out of me. So I held my tongue and answered placidly, "Itami."

Deidara processed this for a moment and regarded me with trained eyes. He was looking for lies, I realized.

"Well, Itami." my name rolled off his tongue. My name was ironic, meaning pain in Japanese. I asked my mom once why she named me that. She couldn't answer me. No doubt Deidara was questioning my name, "You're ours now. Whatever we decide to do with you. Things aren't looking up for you, yeah. Shitty luck that you were there." And then Deidara turned and was gone up the stairs.

I sat on the floor of my cell and wrapped my arms around my knees. Finally alone I was allowed to fully think things through. First, I found there was no way out. These cells were made to hold ninja and I was the furthest thing from a ninja. I was not getting out of this cell unless I had a key. Second, even if I did get out I would have no idea where I was going. Their base was probably huge and if I was caught by anyone I would be dead. Even if I got out from whatever crazy method then I still wouldn't know where to go. I would probably die in the wilderness. Even if I made it to a town I had no background or money. My clothes were strange and a bit foreign. Not to mention if all went right and I survived past all that there was a ninja war coming.

Next topic of thought. How the fuck did I get here?

I didn't meet some crazy person with some magical powers nor did some seer tell me I was gonna do something great. I didn't contact some greater deity or even step through some kind of portal... thing. I went to sleep. I fucking went to sleep and woke up a whole nother world away.

I spent what was probably hours in the cell. Eventually my thoughts stopped entertaining me and they started to wander to darker things. What would happen to me?

But that isn't significant enough to mention my entire thought train. What is significant is that eventually I started to get lulled to sleep. I was exhausted from thinking and just the entire situation was mentally taxing. My eyes closed and darkness overcame me.

For a second, that is.

My eyes opened and I found my reflection staring at me from my laptop. I bolted upright and wildly looked around my room. My room. I was home, I wasn't in that dank cell. I choked down a relieved laugh and dropped back down onto my pillow. My heart was racing but that would stop in a few minutes.

It had been a dream.

I had gotten worked up over a dream. Laughable, isn't it? Ugh, I'm better than that. But whatever, it had been realistic and a bit terrifying.

I noticed it when I went to change. My wrists were red and raw; chafed. I stared at them for a few seconds to register what I was seeing.

"Oh my fuck..." I whispered before shaking my head, "No, no that was just a dream. It had to have been. My laptop did this. Serves me right, falling asleep like I did."

I changed into jeans, a tank top and my sweatshirt again. After I left the bathroom I watched my phone light up on my desk. Looking at it revealed I had several text messages over the past ten minutes from my best friend. My best friend was a bright girl named Skye. Skye was average with hazel eyes, short wavy brunette hair and peachy skin. She was a cheerful artist who wore bright tank tops, shorts, and had a pair of knee high converse in every color. Shorts and tank tops aren't nice in the winter so add a gray sweatshirt and a pair of neon tights to any outfit for a complete look. Not to worry, Skye sounds insane but she's balanced by her boyfriend, Josh. Josh was an athlete who starred in basketball even though he was slightly pudgy and a bit short. Josh had dark eyes and hair with a shovel-face jawline. I know I sound awful describing my friends like I am but I am an honest person. Well. That's debatable.

Skye, who demanded to be answered immediately, started to call when I didn't answer her texts after a moment of reading through them. I answered it and Skye's dry yet bubbly and slightly whiny voice crackled through when I put it on speaker, "Itaaaaami! How are you? You're out of the hospital right? Sorry I didn't visit-"

Skye was cut off by Josh yelling over her, "I wasn't letting her in an ICU! Or whatever the area you were in."

"I'm not that bad." Skye retorted, no doubt pouting, "But anyway. Glad you're alive. We saw pictures of your car wreck on the news. That was brutal."

"Oh yeah, I wanna see that shit." I said as I opened up my computer. A quick google search of the date and news showed me the report on the accident. Yeah, there was a reason why my dad's car was gone now and only Jack and Chris's heap of rolling junk remained in our driveway.

"Can't believe you got out of that as easy as you did. What about your family?" Josh sounded closer now. He must have stolen Skye's phone.

I closed the tab after examining the wreck a bit, "Mom's in the hospital. Asshole's fine. Brothers are fine."

"You should like you care." drawled Josh.

"No one's dead so why should I care?" I countered. There was a disgruntled noise that Josh made in the back of his throat but Skye took the phone before he could say anything else.

"Hey hey, we should do something today. Just the three of us." Skye begged.

I paused, "We aren't inviting Violet or Kira?"

"They're more your friends than mine and I want it to just be my two favorite people in the world today, yeah?" Skye's voice throughout that sentence continued to get even more whinier and finally, I couldn't handle it. Skye's voice was honestly terribly obnoxious and I've choked her before because of it.

"Fine, but we're getting frozen yogurt and you're paying." I grumbled. Skye yayed and squeaked, "Josh is paying!" Josh gave another disgruntled throat noise.

The day went by with nothing too interesting happening. I got free frozen yogurt with the only cost being having to walk through crowds of people and sunlight. When I got home I made dinner that had Jack and Chris migrate into the kitchen from their respective rooms.

"C'mon Taaaaami. Eaaat with us." Jack whined as I made my plate and started towards the door. Chris shared similar sentiments with a mouth full of chicken.

"Ha, no." I threw over my shoulder.

Back in my room I ate dinner and took one of my knives and stuck it through the makeshift lock on my trapdoor. The lock was broken off but Chris knew how to use the hardware tools to make a better lock that just required me slipping something through it on the trapdoor end and the floor end. I used a knife because that was the strongest flat object I had.

You may wonder why I was locking it. Well, I'll explain.

When I say my dad and I have a bad relationship, I mean we are enemies. We are on the opposite sides of a war and the goal is to kill the other. Or, I suppose not kill. Maim is a better word. Scar after scar we paint each other because certainly he starts something and certainly I fight back. It's unnatural that we fight like that but it's how things work in our house. Pain is nothing new. But letting my guard down while I sleep, especially during a time like this, is just asking for something to hurt me. My mom is in the hospital and there isn't anything keeping him from drinking himself into oblivion.

With my trapdoor locked I changed into pajamas and went through the nightly ritual of taking piercings from my face. Finally I laid down to sleep and stared at the ceiling expecting my insomnia to fight me. But it didn't and darkness wrapped me in it's sweet embrace. Then I opened my eyes.

Dark concrete met my eyes and I sat up quickly. I was back in my cell and I quickly jabbed a nail into my leg. The pain came and internally I swore to myself. Fuck. I was back. And the pain was telling me this wasn't a dream and I wasn't going to believe in coincidence. There was absolutely no way my dream was continuing for a second night. I brought my knees to my chest and watched as the shadows on the walls danced with the candle light. Eventually after what must have been hours of waiting there was the creak of a door in the silence.

Footsteps came down the stairs and bright yellow blonde hair announced the entrance of Deidara. Deidara carried a small tray that he set on the table outside my cell. He grinned at me, "Food time, yeah."

I didn't say anything in response. Deidara took the keys with one hand and unlocked my cell. He swung the door open and told me, "Don't even try running or fighting. We both know you can't do shit, un."

I took the advice because that was entirely true. He slid the food on the ground to me and I leaned over my knees to look at it. The tray didn't have any utensils and the bowls were wooden. One bowl had rice and the other had miso soup with chunks of tofu floating in it.

"You're eating pretty good for a prisoner so take advantage." Deidara advised as he leaned against the wall outside the cell. I looked between him and the food before I picked up the soup and brought it up to my face. I smelled the soup and Deidara, watching this, gained an even wider grin than before. I swirled the soup around and decided that it wouldn't kill me. Probably. So I drank it. The rice I gave a similar treatment. Both tasted bland and I assumed I had old leftovers that they found in the fridge.

"That was smart, yeah. Checking it. You're not worth us killing like that though. We could just as easily slice your throat." Deidara was attempting to unnerve me. But I didn't let it get to me. I stared at him through the bars and we engaged in a contest of will. Neither of us wanted to lose to the other but eventually I won as Deidara sighed and looked up at the ceiling. That was a mental victory for myself.

"So you don't know Fukusei Imati?" Deidara asked, "You really don't, hm?"

I shook my head, "Never heard the name before."

"Is there any worth to keeping you alive, then?" Deidara continued.

I thought about how I knew the Naruto plot. Would that be useful information to barter? But that could be a double edged sword. Tobito killing me for my knowledge, them torturing it out of me... What could I possibly offer?

I chuckled to myself as a thought came to me. Deidara rose an eyebrow and I snickered to myself. With my own grin I offered, "Well, I can cook. Cook a lot better than the shit that meal was anyway."

I was honestly surprised when Deidara actually looked interested. Deidara looked like he was weighing the pros and cons of actually taking that offer and I wondered why he was actually considering it. This was an S rated ninja killer criminal so why was this even a thing?

"Can you clean?" questioned Deidara a few moments later. I slowly nodded and Deidara again seemed to think heavily. Then he stood up, "I'm going to go see what I can do, un. No one in this damn place can make a decent meal beside the Uchiha bastard and some of the room's stink. We could use a slave to abuse, yeah."

"Wait what." my mouth dropped and Deidara completely ignored me as he walked up the stairs. Then I realized something. The blonde had left my cell door unlocked.

Dumb blonde.

I shuffled to my cell door and pushed it to check if it really was unlocked. It swung open and I blinked.

"You're shitting me." I said. I looked around to see if I was being watched and I got to my feet and exited my cell. I actually almost regretted leaving my cell. There were three cells total and an open doorway that led to a bloody room. When I say bloody I mean I am ninety-nine percent sure that was the torture chamber. Now, as crazy as I am, at that point in time I was not crazy enough to go anywhere near that room.

Now, remember my earlier argument? Where I was listing the reasons I was going to die? Yeah. With that train of thought coming back to haunt me I actually got back in my cell and closed the door. Now, hear me out before you wonder why I would do that when I could make a run for it. That run for it would most likely end up with me being caught and killed. Or killed by something entirely unrelated if I did escape. Besides, as stupid as it was that Deidara was considering keeping me as a slave. That would have much more opportunity than leaving the cell.

And this decision is what kept me alive.

Deidara returned what I would estimate as ten minutes later and grinned at me through the bars of the cell door, "You're either smart or stupid, yeah."

"Excuse me?" I asked, somewhat dumbly.

Deidara swung open the door, "You definitely noticed this was unlocked. Why didn't you try to run, hm?"

Oh. Oh. Shit I was actually right in staying in the fucking cell. I cleared my throat to stop what was going to be a cross between a nervous and a crazy chuckle, "Well, I'm not exactly a ninja. So escaping probably wasn't happening."

Deidara nodded, "Well, you passed my test, yeah. Looks like you're the Akatsukis' new slave."

Deidara pulled me out of the cell and pushed me up the stairs while ranting-I'm sorry, explaining, "You can't escape. You don't know how to get out of the base nor where the entrance is, un. We'll kill you if you do anything stupid. You'll be responsible for making food and cleaning. If you don't do your jobs, well, you'll find out, yeah. Anything to add, slave?"

One day I think my sarcasm will kill me but not today, "Yes. I prefer the term maid."

Deidara laughed, "Too bad we don't have a maid costume, un."

Fuck. He got the last word.

AN

Fun Fact- I was sitting there rereading insomnia while going "Why would they go like, miles to find just a maid? Why not just take someone from the nearest town?" So, more plot! Fukusei Imati was actually a character in the previous Insomnia. However I've changed her name. Her name previously was Fukusei, and now Fukusei is her clan name.

I'm trying to make Itami make logical decisions. She isn't friends with the Akatsuki yet, nor has she gotten anyones name. Of course there are also ulterior motives at play from the Akatsuki Itami doesn't see yet.

Thanks to the following for reviewing:

wayward-winchesterss
Be-Mindful
IIBlueFoxBlazinII
Kuroyuki no Ryu
Akatsuki Wolf Rider
takininja13