Chapter 2

Lights and sounds flooded by neon increased the perpetual distortion of the bewildered Jinchuriki. Say that ten times fast. Unjust people with a sick sense of fun. Music that blared out from every access point. It smelled of drugs and disorder. A deadly combination indeed. It was a club. A club with the liking of danger around every corner. All of this was unknown to the Jinchuriki. However, they weren't there for dancing and false enlightenment. The black-hooded Uchiha led the Jinchuriki through the club. he seemed to have no trouble getting past them. Everyone seemed to bump into Reiki.

Eventually, they reached a door. Two tall, muscular bodyguards stood at the entrance of the door. They guarded it vigilantly; their eyes peering across the club folk. Any sign of danger would be Hell for the perpetrator. Strangely, each of them had a long, brutal scar around one of their hands; each being around the opposite hand of the other. But, for now, their eyes were scanning the Uchiha. Reiki couldn't help but sense a dab of fear in these same eyes. The bodyguards must have known the Uchiha from an incident of some kind. Perhaps Sasuke was even involved. Nonetheless, the Uchiha need not look at them. His Sharingan was well covered. "Password?" The man on the left asked. The Uchiha did not hesitate. He formed hand signs that Reiki was not familiar with. "Fuin Jutsu: Bijuu Chijimeru (Sealing Technique: Tailed Demon Constrict)!" Sasuke formed his middle and index fingers into the shape of a triangle by pressing them together. A flaming purple triangle of the same size and shape shot out onto the stone door before him. It shone brightly and a crease on the door formed along the middle.

"You may enter," the man to the right of door replied calmly with his arms still folded in front of him. Reiki had no choice but to follow the Uchiha once he began to push the door open. The man on the right put a hand on Reiki's shoulder and pushed him back, "Oi!" the Jinchuriki yelled out to the masculine men. They merely starred him in the eye and replied in unison, "You don't know the password, you can't enter."

This made the Uchiha stop from pushing opening the door. He didn't even turn around, "He's coming with me," he assured sternly; only turning his head to the right on doing so. The men wouldn't budge. "He's not going anywhere if he doesn't know the password," they repeated in unison.

The Uchiha didn't like this answer, "What did you say?" he asked. The neon lights began to flicker on and off, "Or do you wish to lose another hand?" The club folk stopped dancing and began to complain, "What's happening?" someone asked. "What's going on? What's up with the lights?" several others asked. The men looked at each other for a second and nodded. They seemed to have changed their minds, "Yes... yes, he may go with you," the man on the man on the left responded, swallowing before completing his sentence.

The Uchiha turned his head forward again, "That's what I thought," he then proceeded to continue opening the doors. What was that about? Reiki asked himself, blinking curiously, but did not hesitate to enter behind Sasuke. The two of them entered a small space similar to a dark room. There was only red light. The stone doors slammed behind them and the crease disappeared into oblivion. Reiki looked around the red-lit room. It was empty, but completely clean. It seemed as if it were brand new. As if not a single germ had penetrated it. The Uchiha was completely calm. He hadn't moved a muscle.

A loud speaker clicked on. There was a faint buzzing at first, then nothing. There were two clicks. Then nothing. Reiki looked for a speaker of some kind, but he couldn't find any such object. "Who is it?" a deep, ominous voice asked. His words were clean and his voice was crisp. Still, the voice seemed to be... unreal. "It's just me," Sasuke looked back at Reiki. His Sharingan was deactivated from his right eye, but the Mangekyou Sharingan in his left was still peering out at him. Reiki blinked with a surprised frown on his face. He was anxious, and the Uchiha could tell, "And I brought a friend along as well," he added, turning his hooded face back to the front wall. The Jinchuriki found it odd that he continued to keep his face hidden away from the world with that hood of his. Did he have something to hide? A scar, perhaps? Was his face mutilated in some kind of way? So many questions, but he knew that the Uchiha would answer none of them.

"Very well, I shall inspect the room now... and this friend of yours," the voice on the speaker seemed to spit out the word 'friend' in a cold, but saddened and hopeful way. A mysterious green beam infected the infra-red light of the room. Reiki hissed at the beam under his breath as it passed over him like a specter. Sasuke smiled, "Jinchuriki hate this beam," a crease formed along the middle of the wall in front of him and it began to to open up, "but I guess you could say that's the point."

When the doors before them opened up, Reiki was astounded at what he saw. Stone and concrete made up the walls; similar to that of a basement. They weren't painted or colored at all. They were just gray. But what was on these walls was what the Jinchuriki marveled at. Scrolls, weapons, even tables with experiments on them made up the room. It was a horror of a sight. However, Reiki did not find himself scared, just startled. It was nothing he hadn't seen before. Many weapons manufacturers keep all of their experimental or most-profitable items locked up. Several doors were lined up next to one another. There were three. Three concrete, sliding doors, much like the one they exited through just then. The black one in the center was what caught his eye. It read, "DO NOT ENTER!" in large, red lettering. It was not locked. It was chained. Long, lengthy chains bore across it and hung there limply with several or more locks keeping them together. Reiki could only conclude that there was something behind that door which somebody wanted to keep hidden. Lastly, a trail of paper led toward that very same door. The Jinchuriki could have swore that, looking down at it from an angle that it read-

But, a girl donning a similar black cloak to that of the Uchiha stepped on the piece of paper closest to Reiki, waking him up from his observant trance. Reiki blinked and looked up. A pale face with emerald green eyes and bubblegum pink hair starred him in the face. Shocked by this, he quickly stepped back from the girl. On further observation, a greenish-brown fluid was splattered all over her cloak. Either she puked or something exploded, "So, this is the one you've been telling me about Sasuke? I gotta tell you, he looks pretty damn beat," she sighed and folded her arms. "I can't be working with a man who doesn't know how to get himself clean."

"He just assassinated the two Tsuchikage brothers," the Uchiha explained briefly, not moving an inch when responding. The pink-haired girl froze after hearing this; her eyes snapping open wide. She turned her head swiftly toward Sasuke and pointed at the tattered Jinchuriki, "So... he's the one, eh? The one I heard about?" The Uchiha nodded. The girl blinked again and turned her sights back on Reiki with his mouth slightly agape, "Well, I'll get to work then. There's plenty that has to be done!" She was off, running toward the left gray door and was soon out of view.

Sasuke faced Reiki once again with a look of his Sharingan, "This is a laboratory designed for the purpose of hunting down and killing of-" but he was soon interrupted by the same pink-haired girl running back through the left gray door. "We're all ready, Sasuke-kun! You're friend can come with me now," she called to him. Reiki, at first finding this a little too extreme to comprehend, but went along for the ride. He walked over next to the frantic girl, quickly taking a last look back at Sasuke before entering the through the same gray door. This opened up to another infra-red room like the first. Reiki entered without a problem. Besides, he hadn't taken a proper look at the girl of this lab. Also the fact was, he couldn't stand being around the Uchiha.

The stone door soon closed up and a cranking sound could be heard. Then a click. Then another quick crank and they were off. From the feeling of being pushed down, he could guess that they were in an elevator this time around. He took a deep breath and leaned against the wall behind him with his arms folded across his chest. He closed his eyes for a moment. He was tense. The pink-haired girl could surely tell. Reiki was letting off excess chakra; unveiling his uncertain mood. Other than that however, the Jinchuriki was fine. He closed his eyes for a moment to collect his thoughts. He needed to cope with everything that had just happened. Time seemed to fly by. Had it only been an hour's time? Less than that, perhaps? Who could tell. All he had to think about was what course of action to take next. His eyes snapped open and the first thing he saw was the girl with the bubblegum pink hair. She didn't look at him. She didn't even face him. Her emerald eyes were facing the wall opposite to him and her back was turned. He thought he could remember recognizing from somewhere before, but when it reached the tip of his tongue, he immediately lost it. "We're here," a voice called to him; interrupting his thoughts.

The girl in the black cloak walked into a clear, glass room. It was spotless. So clean, it nearly blinded the Jinchuriki. Transitioning from a dark room to a light one wasn't fun. Reiki slowly walked into the large, spectacularly clean, glass room. He observed the space before him; with his eyes wandering to the floor below him. He nearly lost his balance as he saw that they were above a bottomless pit. A pool of darkness bubbled underneath the glass room. The girl with the pink hair however, did not appear so surprised.

The room was split into two rooms; only about a third of the entire space was dedicated to the first room they entered into. The other two-thirds were part of a larger room with several shoots at the edges of the bottom of that room that resembled shower heads. Reiki had two ideas what this room could be used for: as a torture chamber or for decontamination. The three outer most walls were painted cleanly in white, possibly to hide what would be going on in the room.

"Get up," she ordered emotionlessly, grabbing him by the arm and, from what it felt like, threw him up onto his feet. The young woman was, no doubt, strong, but this was just insane. Was she even thinking about it? With such strength, she could have nearly torn his limb from its socket. She then pushed him into the larger chamber while she, herself, headed over to a small keyboard-like device attached to the lower part of the outer room; centered to it. She appeared to be inputting orders or commands of some kind, but for what, he wasn't sure. After that, a green light flashed on at the top of the larger room; apparently signaling that it was ready for... whatever it was about to do. The pink-haired girl clicked one last button and the light above Reiki instantly blinked red. She nodded and rushed into the chamber, quickly pressing a panel on the wall to close the door that allowed excess into the large, white chamber. Oddly enough, she began quickly taking her clothes off in front of the confused Jinchuriki. The girl started taking her cloak off, revealing that she was wearing a red t-shirt and a pair of blue jeans. She turned to Reiki as soon as she began stripping her pants off.

"Take your clothes off," she ordered. Reiki's eyes grew wide and a bright, red blush smothered his face. He was speechless. But, the girl didn't stop, although, she seemed very annoyed and frazzled when she quickly learned of his disobedience, "if you don't, your cloths will be vaporized off anyway... not that you would want to keep wearing that," she explained briefly. "And believe me, it hurts like Hell."

Reiki took a double-take from his tattered clothing back to the girl. He did what he was told without even a second thought, but one quick thing did come to mind, "Can I... keep my underwear on?" he asked, still a little under-the-weather.

"Fine," she answered, leaving her own on as well. Reiki merely nodded, turning around. He was still a young lad himself, and, of course, this girl was certainly attractive. He didn't want anything else getting in his head, so he refused to look at her. Immediately, a sharp sizzle went off and white fumes began to cloud the glass room. Reiki could only guess why he was here. He assumed that both the Uchiha and this girl were affiliated with the Rain Country. Kagayaku must have told them to aid him in his killing of the Tsuchikages. So, why was this all still taking place? How did they know he killed the Tsuchikage brothers? Wasn't their mission over then? Or, perhaps it was that they were not, in fact, under the consent of the Rain Country's leader, but maybe the Uchiha needed him for something to help the Rain. After all, he promised him that he would help with Amegakure's deserving vengeance. Still, he couldn't help but think there was more to it. There had to be a catch of some kind, right?

"Say," the Jinchuriki began, "what's your name? I know the Uchiha's, but not yours. Who did you say you were again?" The pink-haired girl did not turn around upon answering. In fact, there was a slight hesitation to the coming of the answer.

"My name? I am... Sakura. Sakura Haruno," she answered, trying hard to hide any emotion, but it was clear that it was leaking out. Reiki turned his head and blinked, but was not wavered. He needed answers, "And... why am I here?" he asked next after a quick pause. Sakura did not turn around, for she did not answer. All was silent except for the pressing gas flooding the room. After a quick moment, the Jinchuriki quickly changed the subject. "What is this place? What's with the gas?" he asked calmly after turning his head back to its original position; away from the emerald-eyed, young girl.

Sakura was quick to answer this time around, "This is simply a decontamination chamber. In the next room, you and I are going to prepare for an assassination mission similar to the one with the two Tsuchikage brothers. Only," she stopped mid-sentence and lifted her head up to look at the ceiling, "you could say that the Tsuchikage assassination was merely a test. A test that was meant to prove your worth."

Reiki raised an eyebrow and turned himself toward Sakura. He didn't quite under stand what she meant by this, "So... are you saying that I was supposed to kill them?"

The pink-haired girl smiled and wrapped her arms behind her back, "Not precisely. You did kill them based entirely on your proven skill," she turned her her head and smiled at Reiki, "but you didn't kill the real Tsuchikage brothers."

Reiki's mind spiraled, but when he fully understood what she was talking about, his mind halted instantaneously. His breath shortened, his mind was blank, his eyes widened; his heart may have even skipped a beat. He gritted his teeth together as a shadow crossed over his eyes, "Then who did I kill?" he asked with anger beginning to boil inside of him, but her seemed frozen in place. Sakura kept her smile and turned her head back to the front wall and she giggled in response, "You killed two innocent, harmless people who were made into clones of those you were originally sent to kill," she explained briefly.

Reiki's fists clenched tightly and he began to shake. His head was hunched down and a tear began to form at the edge of his left eye. They... didn't seem like innocent men when I fought them. Their movements, their techniques... they were all real... weren't they? he asked himself as the mist began to cloud his view.