Author's Notes: Feels like I haven'tupdated in forever! I give a huge apology to all of my readers who have been waiting very patiently for this update. Please, enjoy!
Disclaimer: I have not, nor will I ever own Naruto. I simply play in their world.
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Chapter 7
Twelve Hours Ago...
Sakura awoke to blinding pain that stabbed at her eyes and left a numbness in her limbs. Her throat felt raw, as though she had swallowed razor blades.
She tried to speak, but it came out hoarse and croaking and she ended with a coughing fit that threatened to split her head apart.
"Easy, take slow sips. The pain goes away eventually."
The words sounded muffled but someone was pressing something to her mouth and she opened her cracked lips to take a grateful sip of lukewarm water. She swallowed another mouthful and felt the tissues in her throat loosen and ease.
"Th-thank you." she gasped as the darkness faded from her vision and she was able to see once again. "How...?" but her mind still felt oddly hazy and she had trouble forming the words.
"How long have you been here? Less than hour." The woman next to her sounded surprised...and suspicious. "Amazing really, most of the women who were drugged and brought her don't wake up for at several hours, if not a day."
"Who..." she tried again and once more ended up with another coughing fit for her efforts.
"That should be me asking questions."
"Aiko! Don't be such a bitch and give her some more water."
Sakura turned her head and saw with muted surprise that it was Kana who was addressing the other woman. Her normally braided back hair was down and full of tangles and there was a bruise that marred her upper left temple, as though she had been struck.
"Hey!" cried out the one called Aiko, as Kana took the cup from her fingers and gave it to Sakura to sip from. "We only get one jug a day! Don't waste it on her!"
Kana glared at the other woman. "Maybe you've been here so long that you don't remember what its like to wake up drugged and feeling like someone shoved a razor down your throat. Well I do, so she's getting the water."
Kana turned back to Sakura, who had put the cup down, still half full. "Drink up, I know it tastes awful, but it will help. My name is Kana."
"I'm...Yuuki. Are you...from Leaf?" Sakura asked, deciding the way that the woman Aiko was eyeing her it was best to keep her false name for now.
Kana nodded her head, a look of surprise in her hazel eyes. "Yeah, and so is Aine and Etsu. Aiko there is from Grass, Laika and Sumi are both from Sand."
"Have you no sense of self-preservation!" The woman Aiko hissed, digging her nails into Kana's bare arm, "she could be a spy for all we know and here you are spilling your guts! No wonder they caught you in a day!"
"Get away from her!" Sakura growled out soft and low, her temper clearing the cobwebs from her mind. Aiko gasped and dropped her hand from Kana's arm, who was rubbing it fiercely.
"Let me see your arm," Sakura told her as Kana held up the arm, the red marks from Aiko's fingers slowly starting to fade, "do you have any other bruises or injuries?"
Kana slowly shook her head, obviously puzzled by Sakura's questions. "No...but most of us were drugged when we came here. None of us remember how we got here or where we are."
Sakura looked around her surroundings and saw that they were in some kind of holding cell. The room was fairly large, with rough blankets lined up in a row so the women had to sleep side by side. She saw that there was only one window and it had thick steel bars on it. She was puzzled for the room was divided. The other half of the room was cut off also by thick, steel bars and held multiple sleeping mats, but she did not see any occupants. There was only one door that led into the room.
Again her eyes drifted to the window, it was large enough to fit a slender body through it, except for the metal bars that ran both horizontal and vertical.
"Forget it, those bars are made out of steel." Aiko sneered at her, seeing where her gaze had wandered, "so unless you can bend steel, you ain't going nowhere."
"Giving up so soon?" Sakura asked her mildly. She wondered how the other woman would react if she told her that although she couldn't bend steel, she could certainly break the concrete walls holding them in.
Aiko shot her a venomous look and stormed to the far corner of the wall and refused to speak to anyone else.
"Aiko has been here for two weeks now," a shy voice called out and Sakura turned to see a petite girl, no more than eighteen, with lovely strawberry-blonde hair that also looked liked it hadn't seen a comb in several day and startling amethyst eyes. She wore a torn pink-lace camisole and her white capri pants had a hole in one of the knee's. She wore no shoes and her legs showed several welts.
"Shut up Sumi!" Aiko snarled at her, "Or I'll tell the guard you've been hording food again!"
The girl Sumi swallowed hard and Sakura decided then and there she didn't like Aiko.
"Why are you hording food?" Sakura asked softly and Sumi crawled on her knee's to Sakura, seemingly unable to stand properly.
"For the...children." she whispered, looking frightened.
Sakura blinked at that, her eyes becoming confused. "Children? But I don't..." she trailed off as she looked at the divided cells. All those small blankets with no people. "Where?" she asked, her voice harsh against her ears.
"The prince," Aiko spat the word as if it were dirty, "took them just before you graced us with your presence. Probably showing them off to potential buyers."
"Prince?" Sakura asked, wondering if she was talking about the soon-to-be ruler of Cloud.
Aiko rolled her dark, cerulean eyes at Sakura. "What do you have sheep-for-shit brains? Prince Kisho, the ruler of Cloud. Gods I swear I am surrounded by airheads and morons!"
"Aiko!" snapped Kana and the other woman glared at her before looking back at Sakura with a malicious smile. "Better pray you're a virgin sweetness, otherwise you'll end up as a plaything for those bastard shinobi before your given to your master."
Sakura ignored the woman's cruel words and turned back to Kana. "Why would a prince of cloud want children?"
Kana gave her a pitying look. "Most of them will be sold as slave labor, either to the gem mines that many adults can't fit into or..." but Kana turned her eyes away and began fiddling with a string on the hem of her shirt.
"Or?" Sakura pressed, her stomach already churning at the answer she knew was coming.
"The really pretty girls will be sold into prostitution," Aiko finished, again the sneer of contempt in her voice, "just like the rest of us. There are those who prefer delicate flesh."
Even though Sakura was braced for the answer, it still made her stomach heave but she clenched her teeth together so as not to vomit.
Aiko raised a slender red eyebrow at her. "Huh, usually most of the girls throw up knowing little girls are being turned into whores. Guess you have a stronger stomach...or just don't care."
"Shut up Aiko!" Kana growled at the Grass woman, "Just because you're a cold, unfeeling bitch doesn't mean the rest of us are!"
Aiko shrugged her shoulders, "Hey I'm just looking to survive. Being a man's pleasure slave is better than being in the gem mines."
Sakura couldn't believe what she was hearing. The girl sounded...almost content to be sold as a sex slave.
"That's because you were already a whore!" cried out the girl, Etsu. She had wavy, brown hair and liquid chocolate-brown eyes like that of doe, "not all of us want to spend the rest of our lives on our backs!"
"Think you're so much better than me!" snarled Aiko at the other woman, "well you won't feel so high and mighty when a male has you pinned and pounding into you!"
Etsu broke into harsh sobs and the other woman, Aine, put her arms around the girl and and made soothing noises, trying to quiet her.
"If you don't shut up right now, I will give you a reason to cry."
All the women looked up and Sakura felt the bile rise in the back of her throat at the sound of Aiji's voice. Sakura noted that Aiko had backed herself up as far as she could in the corner and was playing least-in-sight.
"Now Aiji, is that anyway to talk to a woman?"
Sakura didn't recognize the voice but then Aiji stepped through the door and behind him Sakura could only assume was Prince Kisho by the clothing he wore and the fact that Aiji allowed the male to reprimand him and allowed him into the cell before him.
Kisho had dark, amber colored hair and sharp, golden eyes. He wore a Chinese-style vest of sapphire silk encrusted with gold around the collar and the fastenings. The pants he wore were of high-quality black leather, as were the leather gloves on his hands.
His eyes scanned the cell, until they came and rested on Sakura.
"So this is our newest bird. For once, Aiji, you were correct. She is very lovely."
Sakura hated him on sight, and she didn't bother to hide the look of loathing in her eyes.
Kisho's amber eyebrow raised at the obvious dislike in her jade eyes. "Though I must admit, I am surprised to see her awake. Are you losing your touch, shinobi? I thought you were skilled in poisons."
Aiji was also staring at Sakura with something akin to suspicion in his gray eyes. "She should still asleep," he murmured softly, "I gave her a dose high enough that she shouldn't have awakened until tomorrow at the earliest."
Kisho waved a gloved hand at him. "No matter, she is awake now and I find that I would very much like to inspect my newest treasure."
He waved another hand at the door and much to Sakura's horror, a half dozen children from both genders were herded into the cell. She estimated their ages between five and ten. All of them, except two girls no more than seven, wore dirty clothing and each bore signs of recent beatings. The two girls, however, looked pristine. The one girl had pale, golden hair that hung like a sheet down her back and wore a pure white dress that would have been lovely...if it hadn't been so sheer with pink ribbons on the shoulders that somehow made it seem obscene.
The other girl, with hair like midnight had her hair done in twin braids. She wore an identical dress, except hers was of palest blue with white ribbons. The dresses had no sleeves and barely came to their knee's.
Both girls had looks of utter terror on their thin faces and Sakura wanted nothing more than to wrap them up in her blanket and hide them from the gleaming eyes of Kisho.
"Aiji...put the two princesses with the other females. I believe I have whetted Lord Jamir's appetite, so I shall not need them for the mines."
The children had dead stares as they were herded into the next cell and their odd silence made the hairs the back of Sakura's neck stand up.
The three boys and one other girl were crowded into the cell as Aiji approached where the remaining women were being held.
"I suggest you ladies move to far wall, unless you want a repeat experience." He said this with his eyes on Kana and it was then Sakura knew that Aiji had given Kana the bruise on her temple.
Probably trying to escape...or trying to help the children. Kana had moved to where the bars divided the cell from the children and the four children had crowded close to her...but did not touch.
"Aiji...bring the new one to me. What was her name again?"
"She calls herself Yuuki." Aiji replied and waited for all the women to retreat.
Except for Sakura.
Aiji, with a malevolent smile, grabbed onto the girl with black braids and had wound her braid around his fist, until the girl was whimpering as she was forced on tip toes to keep her head straight.
"You will behave yourself when I unlock this door. If you do not," he gave the little girl a harsh shake which made her cry out, "she will pay for your defiance."
Sakura was shaking with a need to slaughter both men, but she contained her blood-lust when Aiji opened the cell door and shoved the one girl inside.
"Out, now."
Gritting her teeth, Sakura got to her feet and left the cell. Aiji shoved the other girl into the cell, and just as quickly had a kunai to Sakura's throat.
"A bit much for a single female, wouldn't you agree Aiji?" Kisho asked the Lightning shinobi with a mildness that caused blocks of ice to slip down Sakura's spine.
"Perhaps but this one," he gave he a rough shove towards the Cloud Prince, "isn't as meek as she pretends to be. Force will be necessary with her kind."
Her kind? What the hell does he mean by that?
However the answers were not forthcoming for Sakura, as Kisho seemed to understand Aiji's meaning quite clearly.
"Indeed," Prince Kisho murmured softly as he walked up Sakura. She could do nothing as Aiji still had the tip of his kunai resting on her carotid artery, she would bleed out in seconds with a flick of his fingers.
So she gritted her teeth and stood there, meek and docile, as the prince reached out and fingered her long, black hair. "Well, there are many ways to break women such as her." The pure arrogance in is voice told her everything she needed to know. This male was well versed in breaking strong-willed females.
Her stance might have been docile, but when she lifted her head to meet his golden eyes, her jade eyes were like living flames that promised death if she ever got free. Lesser males had fled before her eyes, but this one smiled with a look of anticipation as his gazed feasted on her face.
"Aiji, bring her to my room."
"Sir?" Aiji asked, and Sakura heard the confusion in his voice, despite his efforts to appear nonchalant. Something isn't going right and it has something to do with me. This could be the opening I need to get everyone out of this place.
She just prayed that she had given Sasuke enough time to get to her. She was tired of playing the weak female and if the look in Kisho's eyes was any indication, she was going to drop the act very soon.
She had no desire to be raped by this male.