The only warning we had was a slight creak. My partner was already out of the bed, fighting the first guy coming through the window.

Adrenalin rushed through my body. I threw a kunai at the enemy coming in through the door. Another followed and then another and another. They kept streaming into our little hotel room.

Soon there was barely room to fight. I fought my way to a wall that would soon lead outside.

I punched out a huge hole and then jumped two stories to the ground. Unfortunately, there were more enemies outside. Much more than I had anticipated. It looked like their entire army was converging on us. Knowing how secretive Rain could be this was very likely.

There were too many of them. In between one enemy and the next I looked for my teammate in the throng, but it was impossible to spot him.

I was completely drenched in water and in blood. The water was coming down so hard it was difficult to see.

The ninjas were coming harder and faster now. As soon as I took one down there were three more behind him. Sheer numbers can take down even the greatest ninja.

I shook my head to clear such depressing thoughts and focused solely on the battles at hand.

I was moving onto a new wave of ninja when the crowd seemed to thin a bit and I saw another body fighting. Time seemed to slow down as a ninja with bright orange hair appeared behind him and slid a black metal pipe through him.

I vaguely heard someone screaming and it took a second to realize that it was me. I was the one who was screaming.

I shoved through the enemy ninja. I caught my teammate just as he was about to fall.

"No no no no no…" was all I was able to say. The hand that wasn't supporting him fluttered over the pipe currently embedded in his chest. My chakra was too depleted to heal a wound of that stature.

"Don't leave me… please." I begged.

I felt the sharp edge of a pipe against the skin of my neck. "Surrender or die." A cold voice demanded.

"What do you want from us?" I asked.

"Information. Do you surrender?" the voice asked. He pressed the tip into my skin. I felt warm blood trickle down my neck, quickly replaced by the chill of the rain.

I realized I was shaking. My teammate looked like he had passed out from the pain. It hit me how alone I was just then. My partner was usually the one who made the calls, not that I didn't have a say in what we did, but he was more experienced than I was so it only made sense to do as he said.

But now I was all alone. I tried to think of what my teammate would have done in this situation but drew a blank.

I didn't want to die and my only chance - however slim that chance might have been – to save my teammate was to surrender.

"Yes." I said quietly. He didn't appear to hear me so I screamed it for everyone to hear the shame and defeat in my voice.

"Yes, God help me, yes."

At least they put us in adjacent cells. I leaned against the bars between us and watched my teammate intensely. They had removed the pipe and had healed him just enough so he wouldn't die right away.

After what felt like hours of staring, my teammate finally stirred. He coughed then groaned in pain.

"Are you ok?" I asked lunging against the bars.

My teammates head lolled to the side to look at me. "Sakura. Where are we?"

I gasped. "How do you know my name?"

"I've known for a very long time. Now answer my question." He said curtly.

I bit my lip beneath my mask and hesitated before answering. "We're currently imprisoned in the enemy base."

I heard him curse and then he rolled off the bed. He landed with a muffled thump and hissed in pain. He slowly made his way towards me. When he reached the bars he rested against them. Feeling the warmth emanating off of him eased my mind slightly. However, worry of infection and fever soon filled my mind.

He reached up and with some difficulty removed the armor over his chest. He fumbled around with it and then produced a slim scroll.

"What is that?" I asked with wide eyes.

"A transportation scroll. It will take you to Konoha." He replied.

"I thought those were illegal." I breathed, eyeing it with newfound admiration. I had no idea he carried something like that around with him.

"They are, but I had Naruto make this specifically for our team in case we ever got into trouble." He explained.

My eyes filled with tears at the thought of never seeing Naruto again. In that moment, I made my decision. My teammate needed to leave. He knew more about Konoha than I did. Besides I could hold my own for a few days until back up arrived.

"Take it." He said, offering it to me.

I shook my head. "No. You're more injured. Your wound could be infected and you need to be treated right away. I won't budge on this."

"I'm not leaving you here." He argued.

"Yes. You are. Who will most likely survive in this situation? Me, and you know it. Besides one of us has to inform the Hokage of this." I said calmly.

I could hear him gritting his teeth. "I don't want to leave you."

"You have to. Now, go, before they catch us." I said.

"One thing." He said. He pulled up his mask, then pulled up mine and crushed his mouth against mine. He lingered for a second before pulling away.

"I'll be back soon. Just hold on." He said, and then opened the scroll. He bit his finger, smeared blood across the paper and disappeared in a flash of bright light.

I slumped against the bars and adjusted my mask. The guards ran over to the cells, alerted by the bright light.

"Where's the other prisoner?!" they yelled at me.

I only stayed silent. Thoughts were spinning in my head, brought on by the kiss I had just received. It felt so familiar yet I knew I had never kissed my partner before… had I?

I got quite the beating for allowing my partner to escape. Of course, it hardly compared to some of the beatings I took from Tsunade during our legendary training sessions.

They threw me back into my cell. I crawled to the bed and hefted myself on top of it. I curled into a ball facing the wall and closed my eyes. Despite all my circumstances, I fell quickly asleep.

When I came to, they were letting a large blue man into my cell. I thought it was a little too early for hallucinations, but maybe they'd poisoned me.

"Are you real?" I asked slowly, still groggy from sleep.

The man laughed. "Of course I am, and so is this." He pulled a huge sword wrapped in bandages from over his shoulder.

I should've been afraid, but I wasn't. "Are you going to kill me?"

"Not today, sweet cheeks. I'm just here to drain your chakra. Are you going to be difficult?" he asked.

I shook my head back and forth a few too many times. Maybe they had poisoned me.

The man came closer and rested his sword lightly on my chest. I could feel it vibrating as it sucked all of my chakra away. As my chakra neared the bottom of the reserves I felt my heart rate speed up and I started sweating.

"That seems like enough." The man said lifting his sword. I thought I heard it growl, but I couldn't be too sure. Even though I was lying down the room seemed to spin.

"Unluckily for you, my sword seems to like your chakra. I'm sure we'll be seeing each other again." The blue man said.

"Wait." I said as he started to leave. I tried to lift my hand to grab his cloak, but my arm only flopped off the bed.

"Tell… tell your leader that… that I'm going to escape. He can't… can't keep me here… forever. No matter what he does… I'll escape." I promised. Darkness overwhelmed me and I fell into unconsciousness.

Strange dreams plagued me all night. Images of my partner filled them. Fighting with my partner, looking at my partner, kissing my partner… fucking my partner.

They were just dreams brought on by the circumstances, right? None of that had ever happened. We would never break the rules like that.

"Wake up." A voice demanded. So, I did.

Strange purple eyes with concentric ovals stared at me. They were too close. I flinched back. He blinked and leaned away.

"Tell me about Konoha." He said softly.

"It's hot there in the summer." I said, rolling my head back and looking at the ceiling. It was gray stone. There were miniscule cracks that I could just barely see.

"That's not what I wanted to know." He replied.

I sighed. "I know, but I can't give you any important information."

The man cocked his head and studied me. "Then I suppose we're not going to get along very well. It's such a shame, too. You have such a beautiful face. I would hate to ruin it." It was then that I realized my mask had been removed. I'm not sure what I had expected, but I thought I'd always have it as a last defense if nothing more than to hide the emotions that crossed my face.

The man was saying something but I had stopped listening. "Sound good?" he asked.

"What?" was my eloquent reply.

"I'll avoid your face for now, but everything else is fair game." He explained. I shrugged. It wasn't like I could stop him, now could I? To be honest, I didn't care about my face. The only time I saw it was when I looked in the mirror and half the time my face was covered by a mask anyway.

"Let's begin shall we?" he asked, picking up a slim pipe from a nearby table.

I tried to go to another place, but that's a little difficult when pipes are being shoved through your flesh. By the time he was done, I felt like a porcupine. I told him so.

"It's quite a beautiful sight. I'll send someone in to patch you up for next time. I do need to keep you alive after all." He replied and then left me alone in the room.

In ANBU, there had been training to prepare us for a situation where we captured by the enemy. I had gone through it like every other ANBU operative, but it couldn't compare to the real thing. Of course, we were just getting started and by the time I was done with this place I wondered if I would even be recognizable.

A slight man walked into the room. He cautiously approached me. There wasn't really a need for that; I was probably too weak to walk right now.

His hands shook slightly as he held them above my wounds. He worked carefully on each spike and did the bare minimum of healing required. He must've had impressive chakra stores to heal all the puncture wounds.

"Someone will be sent in to take you back to your cell." He said when he finished healing me. I only nodded.

My thoughts drifted to Konoha. Had my teammate made it safely there? Were they organizing a rescue mission, right now? When Naruto got wind of my situation he would freak. Even if the village didn't authorize a rescue mission he would come here himself. I could count on my whole team to do that for me. I would've done that for them.

The big blue guy entered the room. "Hey there. I told you we'd be seeing each other again." Big Blue would be a good name for him.

He leaned down and gently lifted me into his arms. He carried me bridal style back to my cell. On the way I told him "You know I don't expect you to be so nice to me. I am a prisoner after all."

"My mother taught me to be nice to pretty girls. Plus, the boss would not be happy if I injured you." He told me.

I glanced around. We were in a dank hallway, nearing my cell. "Doesn't look like there are many pretty girls around these parts."

He laughed. "You don't know how right you are. It's a total sausage fest around here."

I couldn't help but laugh. He sounded so disappointed. He laid me down on my bed. "Thanks, Big Blue." I told him.

"Hm, I've never had a nickname before. I think I like it." He told me, winking.

I nodded and then rolled over to face the wall, clearly dismissing him. He left without another word.

My thoughts drifted from one friend to another. I wished I could have hung out with my girlfriends more often. We often forget about the girls in our life when we're involved with a man, but it would've been nice to gossip with them one more time.

If I died here, I'm not sure how people would react. Naruto would probably go crazy and kill everyone in this base. Sasuke would become even more brooding than usual and put up even more walls to keep people away. Kakashi would do the same thing only more subtly. Even after all the years of knowing him, I could count on my hand how many deep conversations we'd had over the years. I didn't know Shisui well enough to predict how he would've reacted. He liked me so much it would probably traumatize him off women for forever or at least for a long time.

But my teammate… it was he who I was most worried about. From everything I had gathered it didn't seem like he had very many people he was close to. And being on a team with him, it felt like we were more than teammates, like I could talk to him about anything if I ever wanted to. He comforted me in Rain, and could tell I had desperately wanted to leave. If I died, he would probably get himself sent on a suicide mission.

I felt my moods darken; I would do my best to survive, but it was all in fate's hands now.

The days blended together. The only way I could tell one day from another was when Big Blue would drain my chakra. I think he did it daily. There was no sunlight down here. In fact, it was often pitch black. I could just barely make out a light at the end of the hallway if I strained at the bars.

Sessions with Purple Eyes were often and more painful than the previous session. I held out. He would often ask me only once for information at the very beginning of the session and then spend the rest of the time shoving pipes in me. I think he did that mostly to dampen my spirits. If that was his aim, it worked.

I hadn't laughed since after that first session with Big Blue. I couldn't find anything to laugh about now.

Konoha felt so far away. My friends and teammates felt so far away.

I was so weak these days. I was fed the bare minimum to keep me from starving. My skin was stretched tightly over my bones. My ribs were prominent and even standing up my stomach was concave.

Big Blue barely had to strain to pick me up. He commented how light I was and when he came to drain my chakra the next time he brought a high caloric protein bar. It was the best thing I'd eaten in days. It, at least, kept my hair from falling out.

Lately, I was obsessively sleeping. I got more sleep there than I had ever gotten in my life. If my chakra wasn't being drained or I wasn't being tortured I was asleep. I barely had the energy to do anything else.

I wasn't sure I could even walk anymore.

"My, my, my. How far you have fallen, Sakura." Purple Eyes said to me during one of our sessions.

I didn't respond.

"How do you think your friends would feel if they saw you now? I think they'd feel sorry for you and want to protect you. Everything you've worked so hard for over the years. Poof! Gone just like that in a matter of weeks. Where are your friends anyway? My sources in Konoha say that there was only a brief stir about your captivity but nothing else. I don't think they're coming my dear Sakura. How do you feel now about your village? Ready to give up information?"

Nobody was coming for me? I'd been in here weeks and no one was even bothering to come and break me out?

I couldn't help it. I started to laugh. Hysterically. Like what he'd just said was the funniest thing I'd ever heard. It was either laugh or cry and I'd rather look crazy than weak.

"Shut up." He said and backhanded me across the face. "Oops. My bad. I wasn't supposed to touch your face was I?" he asked.

My laughter had stopped as soon as he touched me. Darkness welled up inside of me. Was it too much to ask to go home?

Purple Eyes continued the session and the routine went on. When he was done the medic came in and healed me then Big Blue took me back to my prison cell.

I fell asleep again.

I found myself lying in water about three inches high. I sat up. I appeared to be in some type of sewer system. I didn't even want to think about what could have possibly been in that water.

I stood and started sloshing through the water. I could immediately tell this was a dream because I could actually walk. I was still stick thin but I could walk. If I could walk, could I do other things? I picked up my pace and soon I was running down the hall. It felt so good to run again.

I could feel energy amassing around me. I was starting to near a large metal door. The energy seemed to be coming from behind it.

I gently eased the door open and slipped inside. I gasped. Directly across from me were huge steel bars that held darkness behind them. Instinctively, I knew that there wasn't just darkness behind those bars. Halfway up where the bars met was a small seal.

"It's done." A deep voice growled from behind the bars. It sent chills down my back.

That was when I noticed a familiar figure standing in front of the bars. He was wearing his trademark black and orange jumpsuit. When he turned, his eyes were so blue. I had forgotten how blue they were.

I ran to him. He was running too and we slammed into each other. He wrapped his arms all the way around me. I buried my face in his shoulder and inhaled his scent. He smelled like home. I started to cry.

"Hey, hey. Don't cry." He said pulling away slightly.

"I'm just so… so happy to see you. Even if this is a dream and if I don't remember it when I wake up. I don't care. I've missed you so much." I said through my tears.

His hand came up and he wiped the tears from my face. "Listen I don't know how much time I have so I have to make this quick. We didn't forget about you and we're coming for you. It took us a little while to find out where you were but we'll be there soon. Hold on for another day. We're coming."

"How do I know this isn't just a dream?" I asked.

"I've been practicing sending chakra messages to people back in Konoha. Once I got pretty consistent I tried you. This is the first time I've been able to get through to you. This is the place where the nine-tails stays." He said gesturing around.

There wasn't any noise coming from behind the bars.

"Don't worry about him. He's asleep." Naruto said grinning.

The dream flickered like static. "The chakra is almost gone. I have to tell you one last thing: a message from your teammate." The dream was flickering more violently now.

Naruto's voice sounded like it was coming from far away and all I could make out was "Your teammate wanted me to tell you he's – "

I woke up, heart pounding. Could what he said have been real? Were they really coming for me? My hope rose but I quickly crushed it. What if it hadn't been real? I would get my hopes up for nothing.

I found I couldn't go back to sleep after that. My mind was racing with possibilities and I couldn't help but let a little hope seep throughout me.

I had almost forgotten what Naruto looked like. The way he smelled, the timbre of his voice. I knew them like my own self but somehow the details had started to escape me. I wondered what he'd been trying to say before he'd been cut off.

What I thought was probably a few hours later, Big Blue came in and drained what little chakra had coalesced in me last night. He sighed as if didn't enjoy doing this to me.

I didn't even look at him anymore. I stared at the ceiling and thought about better places to be.

He dropped a protein bar on my chest and then left without a word. I kind of missed the banter we once had. He was the only one who had felt like anything close to a friend in this place. Which was ridiculous, I know, but I couldn't help the way I felt.

I placed the bar in my pocket and promptly forgot about it. I wasn't hungry.

The day dragged by. I couldn't help but think of a possible escape. I had tried to escape once, but had been almost immediately caught and punished.

I sighed and resituated myself on my bed. I closed my eyes and tried to go back to sleep.

There were strange sounds filtering through the walls. Muffled booms and thuds. The guards were speaking quietly. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but they sounded slightly panicked.

I could only lie on my bed and listen. If this place came down on top of us, I didn't think I would mind. I would finally have my escape.

I heard steps thunder down the hall towards my cell. I'm not sure whom I was expecting but I wasn't expecting Big Blue. He opened my cell and swept me up into his arms.

I hung limply in his arms my head bouncing with every step he took. He took me down several hallways. Dust and little pieces of rock rained down on us.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Your friends have finally arrived." He told me. Hope and happiness welled in my heart. I yelled for joy. "Finally." I said, settling down a little.

Then I realized that the sounds of battle were beginning to recede. "Where are you taking me?" I asked.

"I'm hiding you where no one will find you." He explained.

"No. No, Big Blue. Don't do this. Please." I begged.

"I'm sorry, Sakura. As much as I like you, I like having my head attached to my body even more. Leader ordered me to put you somewhere for safe-keeping." He said.

"No!" I screamed. I started screaming as loud as I could, which wasn't very. I screamed for my teammates. I screamed all of their names, begging for help. No one heard.

The sounds were almost completely nonexistent now. Big Blue entered a small room in a small side hallway. I felt completely exhausted. All the excitement had taken all my energy.

Big Blue rested me gently against the wall which I slumped against and closed my eyes. I felt tears trickle down my cheeks. If Big Blue saw them, he didn't say anything.

I made a vow to myself. I wasn't killed or saved today I would kill myself. I couldn't take any more torture. I hadn't been outside or eaten real food in who knew how long.

Big Blue cocked his head to the side, listening to something. He looked from me to the door and then back again. He looked indecisive. Finally, he moved to the door. "Don't move." He said and then left me alone in the small room.

Ha, what a funny joke. I could barely lift my head. I moved my hand and something crinkled in my pocket. The protein bar.

A large boom sounded and more dust fell from the ceiling. Was it my imagination or had cracks also appeared in the ceiling?

As quickly as I could I pulled the bar out of my pocket and tried to open it. My fingers only fumbled with the packaging so I tore it open with my teeth. I ate the bar in about three bites. It made me feel slightly nauseous, but I was waiting for the sugar rush.

I felt a surge of energy and pulled myself to my feet with the help of the wall. Leaning heavily on said wall, I shuffled to the door. It took me a few tries to open the door, but I eventually managed it.

I peeked outside, but there was no one around. I wasn't sure what way to go. I hadn't seen any of the base except for the path from my cell to the torture chamber.

I decided to go away from the fighting. If I distracted one of my teammates while they were fighting they could die.

I shuffled along the wall. I felt like a zombie. Hell, I probably looked like one. Blood was all over my clothes, most of it mine. I hadn't washed in weeks; I must've stunk to high hell.

I made my way through the endless hallways. Suddenly, I heard footsteps running towards me. I hid beneath a table that was almost completely covered in shadows.

The steps were soft, like the person didn't want to be heard. Whoever it was, would stop occasionally and check inside rooms. As they neared I could hear them swear under their breath. The voice was low, so it must've been a man's. Why did that voice sound so familiar?

Who could it be?!