Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto
Chapter 2
Slaves to a Youkai
"Sith si la Retsam." The coyote youkai declared.
The Karasutaiyoukai stood up and took two steeps forward, his two coyote females doing the same.
Temari was awoken rather gently, and that took him by surprise. Youkai were generally not gentle creatures. With everyone awake and able to hear what was to be said, the Karasutaiyoukai stepped forward to stand before him.
"Ou kaeps ruo egagnal evals?" The taiyoukai asked in a deep, calm, voice.
"Se." He admitted.
"Yeth od ton?"
"Se." He answered again.
"Etalsnart." The taiyoukai commanded.
"Temari, Shikamaru."
They turned to face him, even if they could not see him.
"We are in a room with the Master of this citadel. He commands me to translate for him."
Genkaku almost expected to be punished for speaking out of turn, but that didn't happen. Instead the taiyoukai stopped in front of him first and began to speak. Genkaku translated.
"Each of you will be tested for your abilities, and then placed within my empire accordingly until such a time as you have learned your place, your master shall be the one who brought you in. Please me, and you may rise, displease me, and you will fall."
Genkaku did not like that translation at all. At least it seemed they were safe from torture for the time being.
"Take them away, leave the female."
"Se, Retsam." The others chorused back.
Genkaku glanced at Temari as he quickly translated what was going on to the others. Both her and Shikamaru went ridged.
"Evael eth yob ot etalsnart."
"Se."
"I am to stay to translate." Genkaku added.
That seemed to calm them down a little.
Shikamaru was dragged to his feet and pushed out of the room. Genkaku did not doubt that he would probably not see him again until after they were either freed or dead.
"Females are a rare find. A valuable commodity to my empire you will be." Genkaku translated for Temari.
He did not like the smirks the youkai in the room had.
"Special training will be giving to you." The taiyoukai turned to the coyote-youkai who had brought Temari in. "See to it she is well taken care of. I do not want any harm to come to her. I expect her to be productive."
"Se." The youkai bowed.
Genkaku glanced back to Temari, who had gone as ridged as he had, no doubt having come to the same conclusion about what the taiyoukai meant by 'being productive.'
His own captor dragged him to his feet. He grinded his teeth as the barbs from the whip tore more skin. He was pushed down the corridor until he was surrounded by utter darkness. Only then was he finally released. He whimpered slightly as more skin was pulled as the barbs were wrenched out.
"Come." Came the command.
"I can't see." He responded.
Since he was completely blind, he didn't see the blow coming and was on the ground clutching his face, blood trickling down it from were Karkla's talon had scratched his cheek.
"You will end all sentences with Master, slave." Karkla commanded.
"How unoriginal." He muttered to himself.
"Speak up slave." Karkla commanded.
"I said it's unoriginal." Genkaku said louder.
He braced himself for the hit that was sure to follow, but it never came. Since he couldn't see, he didn't see Karkla's head cock to the side.
"You have something better slave?"
Genkaku had expected to be hit again, not asked an opinion. He thought quickly.
"How about Karkla-sama? In my language 'sama' means Lord."
He had thought about lying and adding 'chan' or something derogatory like 'jiji' or 'bozo', but decided against it. All it would take was one creature that spoke his language to ruin that and earn himself one hell of a beating.
"Very well." Karkla finally agreed, much to his surprise. "Come." Came the command again.
"I can't see, Karkla-sama." He pointed out again.
Something tapped the band on his forehead and the tunnel lit up in a strange, green light. Karkla was standing in front of him and the other karasu-youkai who had caught him was standing behind him.
Karkla turned his back to him and started walking. He followed, noticing the place was a labyrinth of tunnels and he was quickly lost. Karkla led them up and down many shaft until he was hopelessly lost.
He noticed ladders had been carved in the stone of the shafts and had passed coyote-youkai climbing them. He had been carried by the other karasu-youkai to speed the trip up.
"This floor will be your home." Karkla declared as the other youkai set him down before flying off.
This hall had lights floating along the walls, he assumed they were similar to the chakra lights they used in Seika, and was lined with doors made of cloth. He assumed these were living quarters.
Karkla led him down the hall before stopping before a door with strange symbols carved into the wall above the door. Karkla parted the cloth and walked in, Genkaku followed him in.
The room wasn't spacious, but it was bigger then his room at Sanctuary. Floating lights that brightened as they entered also lighted the place. There wasn't much to the room. A nest of pillows and blankets made Karkla's bed. A table with one chair was in the center of the room. A bookshelf full of books and scrolls was on the wall opposite from the nest. A small chest was at the end of the nest. A rack hung on the wall next to the door that was currently empty.
The room was a mess. Scrolls and books littered the table and floor. Bones from previous meals were everywhere. Clothes were strewn about. Even the bed was a mess.
Karkla dropped his gear on the floor and marched up to his chest. Genkaku averted his eyes at the now naked youkai and didn't open them again until he felt Karkla's presence before him.
"I will tell you your duties once slave."
"Clean the room?" Genkaku hazard.
He quickly covered his face as Karkla raised a talon. Instead of a backhand, Karkla pushed him against the wall and spun him about until he was facing said wall. He yelped in pain as his wounded wrist touched the wall in an effort to steady himself.
He remained frozen to the spot as Karkla tore his clothes off of him with his talons, winching every time his talons sliced skin, until only his underwear was left. He hissed in pain, but refused to scream.
"Your smart mouth will get you into trouble slave." Karkla hissed. "Understand?"
"Yes, Karkla-sama." He answered through clenched teeth.
"This room will be spotless by the time I come back. Come."
Genkaku removed himself from the wall, walking gingerly and clutching his wounded wrist, which was now swollen and not looking good. Karkla led him to end of the hall if he left the room to his right.
There was a chute there and he could tell just from the slime covering the walls that it was for garbage before Karkla even told him it was. Karkla led him to the other end of the hall. He could hear the sound of rushing water before they even entered the room.
"An underground river." He noted. "No doubt this is run off from the snow on the mountain top. They must have a fire up their melting it."
This was to be the laundry room, bathing room, and drinking room. This was his only source of water. A glance around showed him at least two other slaves were already here, doing laundry.
He blinked, having not expected to see others. Both were human and both were male. Both completely ignored him, wore nothing more then a loincloth, and had scars crisscrossing their bodies from obvious punishment.
"They are of no concern to you." Karkla stated when the youkai noticed where his attention had wavered.
He was led back to the room and left with Karkla's promise of punishment if the room was not cleaned to his expectations. He was now alone. His first thought was to rush back to talk to the two other slaves, but he quickly tossed that aside. Fist he needed to deal with his wrist.
Finding scraps of cloth was not hard; his entire outfit was nothing more then shreds on the floor. He found a bowl somewhere in the mess and returned to the waterfall and pool, loaded down with all of the laundry. He might as well get it done while he was there. Both slaves were gone by the time he arrived.
He sat down, put a dried out peace of bone found lying on the floor in his mouth, and started on his wrist. The pain was astonishing and the bone quickly splintered in his mouth, but he endured. When he had scrubbed it as clean as he could he wrapped it up in several layers of cloth before tying it off.
It wasn't the worlds greatest, but it was all he had to work with at the moment. He cleaned up the small punctures all about his body from the whip before turning his attention back to the laundry and started to work on it. It wasn't easy to do with one hand, but he endured.
He didn't know how long he had, but he doubted the room would be spotless by the time Karkla returned. It wasn't until he walked in the room loaded down with wet clothes that he realized two things.
The first was that the night vision the band on his head granted turned off and on as needed; the second was that Karkla had left all of his weapons and armour on the floor where he had dropped them.
Genkaku quickly went through them. The whip, a bow, a quiver of arrows, two small knives, and the armour of braided feathers made the pile up.
He had no idea how to use anything but the knives, and they were far different from a kunai. He weighed his options. Without his chakra and one-handed he had a slim to zero chance of success if he assaulted Karkla.
Without two hands, he would never be able to climb the shaft and he had no idea where in the citadel he was. Attempts to escape at this point would be foolish.
Cleaning the place was exhausting and difficult when using only one hand. He didn't touch the books or scrolls that were opened and stacked the ones that were closed on the table.
The floor and table were grimy and took a lot of scrubbing to get clean, as did the dishes. He wasn't sure how long he worked, only that he was in the middle of scrubbing the floor when Karkla returned.
He froze, not certain what to expect. The room was half clean at best. Karkla looked around the room before settling his gaze on him. Genkaku was positive the youkai could hear his pounding heart from across the small room.
"Come." Karkla commanded.
Gulping, he set the scrap of cloth he had been using aside before getting up and following the youkai to the shaft. Another youkai was waiting for them. Once again he was flown between levels until they stopped on another floor, this one holding a single room with several desks.
To his surprise, Shikamaru and Temari were both there. Both Jounin were no longer blindfolded or gagged. Like him, Shikamaru was wearing next to nothing where as Temari was wearing a rather revealing, sandy coloured dress that was all but transparent. Shikamaru's arm had been treated better then his had.
"Genkaku." Temari greeted him. "What is going on?" She asked.
"I don't know." He admitted, walking up to join them.
"Where did you learn to speak their language?" Shikamaru asked.
"It's basic youkai. All children of Seika learn it. It's easy enough to learn as most of the words are just our own backwards."
"So evals is slave?" Temari asked.
"Right, and Restam is Master." Genkaku agreed.
"Figured that one out fast enough." She grumbled.
Another youkai walked in, this one in chains and appearing more like the cross between an owl and a human.
"Another slave." He noted.
"Be seated." The youkai commanded.
They each took a seat as instructed and shared a confused look.
"You will answer the questions on this test to the best of your ability." The youkai handed each of them a large bundle of papers, a pen, and inkwell. "You may begin."
For several seconds Genkaku stared at him in shock before remembering to translate for Temari and Shikamaru. They seemed just as stunned but all three of them did open up to the first page and he was thankful it was his left arm that was torn up and not his right.
(brake)
Temari frowned at the questions on the paper. She had been expecting some sort of interrogative questions, not an IQ test. It was pointless to pick a fight over something so basic as this and it did allow her to take her mind off of the situation.
After Genkaku had left the voice she had identified as the taiyoukai leader had spoken to her master for an extended length of time. Judging by the sound of the conversation and her master 'Es, Restem' answers, she figured he must have been receiving instructions.
Judging by what Genkaku had translated, human females were rare slaves and apparently she was worth something, though the comment about her being productive bothered her greatly.
The test was huge and by the time she finished, she was ready to sleep for a month. The strange owl like youkai gathered their test papers while their respective masters gathered them up.
She spared a glance at the two men, wondering if she would see them again before she was blindfolded once again and led out of the room. She was lost almost instantly as she was packed all over the place.
Her master was a karasu-youkai who showed amazing patience with her inability to understand him. When the blindfold was removed and the youkai carrying her set her down, she was back in the last room she had seen.
This creature was a strange youkai that looked like a giant rat with a strange, paddle like tail. Last time they had been here the creature had measured her neck. Now it held up a strange collar that had the hair on the neck rising in panic.
"What is that thing?" She demanded, trying to take a step back before walking into something big, furry, and very strong.
"Your task." The youkai behind her grunted.
She looked up to see what appeared to be ram, snow white fur and curled horns giving its race away. Had she seen one before, she might have called it a minataur.
"My task?" She demanded.
Her master began to speak and the youkai behind her translated.
"You are charged with the task of pleasing a male at night. Should you fail to please one before twenty hundred hours, you will be punished. Punishment will fall every hour after that one, the pain increasing exponentially until o-five hundred. During your time of cleansing you will be spared." The youkai translated.
"What?" She was caught between fury and fear.
She tried to move away from the approaching youkai, but the youkai behind her held her still with ease. She thrashed against him, trying to break free. She lashed out at the approaching youkai with her feet, doing anything and everything to fend him off. The strange creature stepped aside and moved right in next to her, making it too close to kick.
She retaliated with her head, trying to bite its fur-coated hands. She managed to get a hold of one hand. The thick fur prevented her dull teeth from doing much of anything to it. It ignored her teeth and snapped the collar around her neck. The youkai behind her let her go.
Her hands flew to the collar even as she spit fur out of her mouth. She tried to tear it off to no avail. It was skin tight and there was no sign of a clasp anywhere. Other then a hint of coolness from the collar, she felt nothing else coming from it. She gave up.
"Emoc." Her master commanded.
She had already discovered that word meant come. She ignored the order her eyes darting around the room for a tool to use. She spotted something promising and made a lunge for it.
The youkai behind her caught her before her feet had fully left the ground. She thrashed against it futilely. The youkai threw her over its shoulder and followed her master out of the room and back into the darkness.
She gave up fighting after they started to climb one of the shafts. She did not want to fall and the deprivation of her sight caused her a hint of panic. She was set down on one of the levels and only the looming presence of the towering youkai behind her kept her steady. At least she knew the shaft was behind her.
She walked slowly, one hand on the wall beside her and other held out in front of her. They walked for a while until her master threw back a door carved from bone and she had to blink her eyes to adjust to the sudden light.
It was a corridor with many bone doors. She was lead to the most ornament one at the end off the hall. Her master opened the door and she was led into a rather large room. Had she seen the one Genkaku's master owned, she would have found little difference save the size and a much larger stock of books and scrolls.
"Your masters quarters. You are to keep them clean. You will sleep here during your time of cleansing and after your fulfilling of your duty should you need a place to sleep." The Oushi-youkai translated for her as her master spoke.
"What is this time of cleansing you speak of?" She asked.
"When your body bleeds to renew itself." The Oushi-youkai translated.
She had figured he had meant her cycle, but just wanted to be sure. Her duties were the same as Genkaku's as far as pleasing her master went; it was the other half she was to fulfill at night that had her hackles up.
Like hell she would please some male because they commanded her to. She would sooner live with this promised punishment then bend her back for some youkai.
Like Genkaku, she was given a tour of the level, this one far richer then the other level. This one also had stairs and had four floors. It was explained that anyone on the four floors may request her services and she was obligated to fulfill them.
Like hell she would. That day would be a cold day in Jigoku indeed. She would sooner die then please these creatures. It was late by the time the tour was over and she was left in her master's room to start her duties.
Seeing as how escape was impossible right now, she opted for cleaning the mess up. Like hell she was going to live in a pigsty like this. It wasn't until later she noticed the collar on her neck had started to heat up. She ignored it. She was in the middle of stacking books when her body was racked with pain, causing her to cry out in shock.
She wasn't sure how long it lasted, but it felt like being electrocuted and was not very pleasant. She looked around the room and her eyes fell on the water clock on one of the bookshelves. It was twenty hundred hours.
"So that was what they meant by punishment." She noted rather dully. "I can take it. If they think this will break me they have another thing coming." She thought determinedly.
By oh one hundred she wasn't so sure she could take the pain. They weren't lying when they had said the pain grew exponentially. By the fourth punishment she was withering on the ground and screaming in pure agony, tears streaming down her face.
She lay on the floor, gasping after the pain ended for the forth time. She was curled up and crying. She had never expected it to be so bad. Her jaw was hurting from clenching her teeth and blood ran down her palms from where her nails had bitten into her hand.
"It is painful, is it not?"
She looked up at the Oushi-youkai and her master, both of them watching her with interest.
"It will be worse the next time, and the time after that." The Oushi-youkai walked up to her, shimmering as it did so until it appeared almost human.
It's eyes and the small horns, still curled like a rams on the side of his head, gave his heritage away. His hair was long, shaggy, and white, just like his fur had been. The rest of him appeared human enough.
She scrambled to her feet and backed away until she was pinned against the wall.
"The pain will grow until your screams will sooth the entire complex to sleep." The Oushi-youkai promised. "I can take that pain away if you let me."
"Leave me alone." She commanded in a rather shaky voice.
"If that is your will."
To her surprise the youkai backed off. She hadn't been expecting that.
"Sooner or later the pain will grow to be too much. If you wish to ease it, my room is the one across from your master's." He offered as he turned away from her and made for the door. "You will not be giving such a kind offer from the others. After nineteen-thirty you will be free game to any who wish to seek you. They will not accept your rejection. I strongly suggest you find a good roommate by then."
The door closed behind him and she turned her attention back to her master. He was still watching her and held out something for her to take. It appeared to be cloth of some sort.
Hesitantly she took it and unfolded it. It was a simple, light red evening gown of the finest silk she had ever seen. She quickly pulled it on to cover her near nudity. Her master pointed at the nest.
"Ile." She stated.
She would no sooner please him then the other youkai.
"Pels." The youkai stated and pointed again.
"Pels?" She asked.
"Pels." Her master commanded again, then held his hands clasped together and rested his head on them.
"Sleep." She finally translated. "You," she pointed to him, "want me," she pointed to herself, "to sleep," she mimicked his gesture, "there," she pointed to the nest.
"Se." He agreed.
She already knew that meant yes.
"I won't sleep with you anymore then I would sleep with him." She declared, waving her hand at the door where the other youkai had left.
His eyes furrowed as he tired to understand her, then laughed.
"On, on, on. ton ekil tath. Ou." He pointed to one side of the nest. "Em." He pointed to the other side.
"Ah." She clued in.
They would share the same nest, but nothing more. Her master returned to his true form, taking most of the nest up. She hesitated before joining him. It was surprisingly soft and warm.
She didn't fall asleep until after oh-five hundred when the collar quit punishing her for failing to please a male. As promised the pain grew worse each time until she was ready to break and seek the youkai across the hall just to end it, but she endured.
"He is right though." She thought grimly. "Sooner or later my resolve will break or I will be caught unaware by the others. I can not last long living through this pain."
It was not a pleasant thought. She silently hoped the others were not going through the same trials as she was. More so, she hoped rescue was on its way. She wasn't sure how long she would last until the collar finally broke her. If the pain she had suffered tonight was any indication, it wouldn't take long.
Another chapter down. More to come. Next chapter is probally one of my favorites.