Chapter 5
Yuuko silently slipped inside the Uchiha house and removed her boots. She went into the kitchen to make some tea for herself. As she waited for the water to boil she tied her hair up in a high ponytail and flexed her arm muscles slightly before unbalancing herself and falling to the floor, hands before her straight into doing push-ups. While she did a small work-out her mind was in turmoil.
Ketricken's here. The fact that her best friend was here early conserned her greatly. Ketricken was never early nor late. She was always precise and does everything exactly like she promises. And the elder girl had promised to be here two weeks after Yuuko would arrive so she would have plenty of time to spend with Kakashi and Sarutobi-sensei before she and Ketricken would leave for Sound into what would probably be many years of hiding. Did something happen, something that made Ketricken leave, maybe run away? Or was it true, that in spite of the many things the girl had done to help Yuuko, she was a spy for Orochimaru, and he was sick of waiting?
No, I trust her. Why did I act like don't? Yes, she did trust her. With all her heart she knew that Ketricken would never betray her. Ketricken had been the one to take her in when she was stranded in the middle of nowhere. Ketricken had been the one who helped her get back up on her feet. Ketricken had been the one there for her, when nightmares of the Akatsuki tortured her during the night. Ketricken had trusted her deeply enough to tell her of the pains of her past, tell and show Yuuko the things no one else knew about. Yes, Yuuko trusted Ketricken. And she always will.
She sighed heavily, rose and prepared the tea. Yuuko left it to cool slightly and dropped back on the kitchen floor to continue with her push-ups.
I have to apologize. Ketricken probably didn't need an apology, but Yuuko needed to do it. To tell her just how much she meant to her, and just how much she cared.
I can't lose her. Without Ketricken she would be a wreck, with no place to go and with no one to be with her during the next long years in hiding.
She smiled slightly as she did the last push-up. Yuuko had made up her mind.
She stood up, took her tea to go upstairs to her room, but noticed the silence in the house. Yuuko went and peeked inside Sasuke's room in-case he was taking a nap, but it was empty. She frowned a little, but decided to ignore the thought that maybe he was in danger. He can take care of himself.
With many thoughts in her head that were blocking her senses, Yuuko headed for her room and opened the door, eyes widening at the sight that welcomed her. The intruders threw a large net at her, making Yuuko blink.
She cursed when she realized she didn't have her kunai with her. Then she could feel another presence behind her and before she could turn around she was hit on the head with something she later thought could have been a vase considering the sound it made when the item broke against the back of her head.
Yuuko's final thought before being swallowed by darkness was a whiny, You gotta be kidding me.
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When Sasuke returned from his every day walk (dripping wet for it was raining again), he knew something wasn't right. The tea kettle half-full of warm water and the opened teabag left on the kitchen counter notified him that Yuuko was or had been at his home. The bad feeling didn't leave when he made his way to Yuuko's room, but only greatened when he saw the spilt tea plus the shards of the broken cup and the slightly broken vase on the floor at the doorway.
He frowned in thought and (although he would never admit it) worry. He entered the room and after a bit of looking around his suspicions were confirmed by the broken window, muddy footprints and the blood on the broken vase. Yuuko had been taken. By force. Sasuke's frown deepened. But who had kidnapped her? He froze when he remembered something she had said.
"-He is one of my many enemies. He captured me a while back. Tortured me for information, I didn't have-"
Could it be? Was it truly possible? Sasuke's fists clenched in anger. Did Itachi really come back to Konoha? To steal Yuuko?
Then he spotted something. Blood on the window frame. Did the captor drag her out of the window? He growled mentally. So many fucking questions and not one answer. He hurried out of the room, down the stairs, out of the house and to the spot of land under the window of her room. He looked around for any more signs and soon found some more blood. There was an actual trail of blood drops about four meters apart from each other, that led away from the Uchiha compound. Yuuko was losing blood. He needed to find her. And fast.
Sasuke bolted into a run, feeling a desperate need to get to her, and not knowing why.
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Yuuko groaned as she woke.
"What the fuck happened?" She mumbled and tried to reach for the back of her head that hurt like hell, but failed. Her eyes snapped open and she would have welcomed the dim light in the alleyway she was in with eagerness, if not for the fact that her hands were tied tightly together with thick ropes that cut into the skin of her wrists and that she was looking at the faces of her seven captors. She recognized two of them and winced.
"Right, now I remember."
"Who the hell do you think you are, that you can just come out of nowhere and move in with our Sasuke-kun!"
Yuuko sighed as the girl's spit hit her face. "How about we introduce ourselves, I'm Yuuko." She wiped the spit away with her hands and smiled friendly at the four girls that looked a bit taken aback by that statement. The two she recognized actually introduced themselves as well.
"I-I'm Ino."
"And I'm S-Sakura."
"Don't tell her your names, you idiots!" The chubby brunette with too much make-up was doing all the yelling so Yuuko assumed she was this little gang's leader. They all seemed to be a bit dumb and overly obsessed with the Uchiha, which meant getting herself out of this could turn out to be rather easy.
I just can't believe these twits actually managed to catch me off-guard.
"Just out of curiosity," I adressed the leader and she seemed to turn her nose up as if she had the higher authority here. "Who planned this ever so brilliant scheme to sneak into the house when no one was home, catch me with a net, hit my head so that I lose unconscious and drag me into a deserted alleyway with my hands tied tightly in front of me?"
"It was her brother." The girl she pointed at looked like a rat with her thin face; straight, thin nose; shining black eyes and greasy looking short hair. She obviously looked proud so Yuuko doubted if anyone had caught the sarcasm in her voice when she had said brilliant.
"My brother agreed to meet us here and tie your hands together. He had thought of it, when we asked his advice on how to make sure you wouldn't attack us as soon as you woke up."
Yuuko almost snorted. Almost. These kids were so dumb they didn't take rope as an option to keep her from ruining their (what they thought were pretty) faces. Their brother probably had some kind of an inkling of what they might do to her, 'cause he had left her legs free. Either he was really dumb or really considerate, to leave her some means of escape if things should get out of hand.
"So... what will you do with me, now that you have me?"
She received a kick in the face. Yuuko almost laughed. Almost. That kick wouldn't even leave a bruise.
"We're gonna fuck up that pretty little face of yours so bad that the next time you look into a mirror, you won't even recognize yourself!"
This time a punch was given by one of the other three girls. That... actually hurt.
"Maybe we shouldn't, I mean isn't this a bit drastic?"
"Shut up, Sakura!"
Another kick. Her jaw was really starting to hurt now.
"But what if someone comes?"
"Ino, don't you start too! This was your idea in the first place!"
A slap on her left cheek, and she winced. That's gonna leave a mark.
"I only suggested that we punish her, not that we beat her up! She's bleeding! What if she dies or something?"
"Oh don't be such a sissy, Ino. She's not gonna die! And this is her punishment! Her punishment for daring to live with our Sasuke-kun!"
Another punch. Yuuko spit out the blood that flowed into her mouth from underneath the threatheningly loose tooth. "I'm terribly sorry about that you know. I should have known not to touch your Sasuke-kun. But I will move out in a few days. I'll even leave Konoha!"
The captors looked at each other for a few moments, not knowing what to do before turning their expectant gazes to their leader. Who in fact looked a little uncomfortable.
"Uh, that'll do I guess."
She motioned for Sakura to untie her, and she was about to do so, when someone interrupted by storming into the alley. Loud squealing erupted and he looked so horrified, that Yuuko would have laughed if not considering the situation they were in. Rabid fan-girls plus Sasuke equals Sasuke being goo-goo eyed at. Add a dark alleyway in there somewhere and the result you get - a molested Sasuke.
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He honestly didn't know which was worse. The fact that Yuuko was badly hurt or the fact that he was in a deserted alley with seven of his admirers. One look at the pure glee and eagerness on the members of the gang's faces solved that question. The fan-girls were definetly worse. He took a step back and thought of making a run for it, but was too late for a second later two fan-girls had latched themselves onto his arms and the others surrounded them, touching him everywhere. Everywhere.
Sasuke compared his options. Either get rid of these obnoxious creatures himself or call for help. He tried to reach for his kunai-pack, but both the chubby and the ratty looking girl were holding onto his arm too tightly for him to reach it or to make any seals. He groaned, annoyed. He couldn't see Yuuko either, being completely surroundedby the girls.
He sighed in desperation, "Help!"
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Yuuko had rosen -- wobbly -- and had tried to get rid of the ropes, but they were indeed masterfully tied with knots she couldn't get rid of with just her teeth. She frowned in thought when she saw how completely out of sight Sasuke was. She could only see his legs and two pairs of legs on each side of him. Therefore his arms were being held, he couldn't throw a kunai at Yuuko and he definetly couldn't do much to save himself.
"Help!"
The desperate cry made her grin in amusement before realizing just how serious this was. Sasuke's being molested.
She sighed deeply and made her way towards the bunch, crouched down and kicked the legs from under three girls at once making them fall on their bottoms. They cried out in pain and humiliation while Yuuko kicked their leader in the stomach and Sasuke shoved the other girl off of him. They took off in a run. Luckily the fan-girls weren't nearly fast enought to catch up to them so they made it safely back to the Uchiha residence.
They ran inside and slammed the door behind them, Sasuke leaning on the door while Yuuko supported herself by grabbing the edge of a nearby furniture (that happened to be a cupboard). They panted, slightly out-of-breath. She groaned mentally, for her tooth, jaw, cheek and most of all her head were all hurting so much she wanted to cry. But she held it in. She has dealt with injuries far worse than a few bruises from the local nutties. When they had finally caught their breaths they stood there a few more moments in silence. Silence, that was broken by Sasuke.
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"Never thought they could be so scary."
A few seconds later he realized just what he said and hit himself mentally. I just admitted I'm scared of a bunch of girls, what the hell?
He heard snickering and glared at Yuuko who was trying hard not to laugh, but she obviously couldn't hold back a grin.
"This. Never. Happened." He was gritting his teeth so hard it was probably tough to understand them but she nodded and he relaxed... a little. She groaned then and he looked at her again in (although he would never admit it) worry. Now that he could see her injuries in a better light he frowned. Bruised jaw, a very red cheek that was turning purple and some blood had dribbled down her chin. But he was worried about her head. She slightly swayed and he tensed, ready to catch her.
"Can you do me a favor?" Her words were slurred, he noticed. That must be a bad thing. She swayed even more and he took a step towards her, now even more tense.
"Hn."
Yuuko took that as a yes and said, "Catch me," before fainting, Sasuke barely managing to catch her. He took her in his arms and struggled his way upstairs. She was a little bit taller than him and nicely muscled which didn't make her any lighter. He kicked the door to her room open and stumbled his way to her bed. Then he gently placed her on the blankets and turned Yuuko on her side so he could have a look at that wound. He grimaced when he saw the cut. It wasn't life-threathening, but it was pretty bad.
She moaned and shifted a bit, so she was now laying on her back. Sasuke stared at her delicate face. She seemed... relaxed. Something he now realized she never had been before. Yes she laughed and smiled, but never in a manner that would betray any feelings other than amusement. He gently touched her cheek with his fingers.
So soft. He blinked and drew his hand back like he had been burned. What am I doing? He shook his head and she moaned again softly, raising her hands to scratch the place he had touched. Only then did he notice that her hands were tied. He quickly removed the rope and gently rubbed at the red marks, to get the blood flowing a bit better.
Sasuke sighed and went to look for the medical kit, that he knew was somewhere in the bathroom.