The night was cold and ageless. Rido's midnight black curls shivered as if ignited by the very darkness itself. She tried to assess the situation as calmly as possibly but it was difficult considering the circumstances. The reality was as simple as it was devastating. If she wanted to save Naruto she had to fight Sasuke. If he was strong then she would have to release the sentinel, and if he was too strong then she would die.

It was all too simple.

Rido closed her eyes slowly, thinking of the life she might just be losing. A life riddled by curses and plagues. She thought back to the very beginning of her sinister past, the moment the sentinel's soul was tied with chains, to hers.

"Look at me!" the newest member of the Mortality Association barked to Rido who was lying in bloody chains in an unknown location.

She couldn't remember how she'd gotten there. The last thing she remembered was going into her family's garden to water the garden like her nanny had told her. After that everything had gone painfully black. Rido felt a throbbing ache in her chest that seemed to pulse in time with her heart.

"Did you hear me?" the stranger asked again.

Rido blinked hard and looked upward. Her vision was hazy but she could still make out the outline of a slender man with what looked like electric blue hair down to his waist. As her vision cleared she could she that he was clad in the recognizable black cloak of the Mortality Association. He peered down at her with fierce white eyes.

"Where am I?" Rido asked groggily. She tried to move but was suddenly aware of the thick chains that had her wrapped tightly in a painful vice grip.

"Mutsuhito Rido-sama of the royal Mutsuhito clan, do tell me young princess, how it feels to be treated like a commoner. Does it make you angry?"

"What?"

Just then another Mortality Associate entered. This one had snow white hair that rested cleanly at his shoulders. It was obvious that he was old, much into his hundreds if that was even possible. His face was gaunt as a corpse and his dark eyes seemed as dead and lifeless as just that.

"Matashiro, I see you've successfully captured Rido-sama."

The one called Matashiro grinned arrogantly and twirled a chain in his hand. "It was literally nothing."

The other nodded, slightly rolling his eyes at Matashiro's snobbish display. Then he looked at Rido, his face cruel and full of unexplained malice. "Don't move child, or you will soon be dead."

Rido froze.

"Good, it looks like you're attentive. That will lessen your suffering, I assure you." He turned, with apparent effort in his elderly state, to Matashiro. "Take her to the 'room'."

Matashiro beamed at the task. Rido could tell that he would enjoy dragging her by her chains very much.

"Wait!" Rido pleaded as the older one turned to leave her. "Please, tell me what's going on." She didn't even know herself where all her sudden courage came from. Goodness knew, she was scared to her very soul, but something compelled her to speak up.

Matashiro took offense to this free will. "You dare speak to Hanabusa Shinto-dono?" He ground the chain in his hands together and then pulled back to swing.

"Stop it Matashiro," lord Shinto ordered. He hesitated, glaring at Rido with relentless hate, but lowered the chain and tossed it away.

"Listen to me child. If you survive this, I want you to tell your pitiful clan that this is a warning. We rarely give warnings. Next time there will be none." His words were like the edge of a steel blade, cutting her with their icy force.

With that, he turned to leave.

She did not speak again.

***

In her new cell Rido sat in her chains, crying miserably as her captor, Matashiro, sat in the other corner, tossing a small ball carelessly against the wall. He was humming a nameless tune to himself, as if this was nothing new to him, as if he'd done this a thousand times before.

Everyone knew the Mortality Association was powerful and secretive. Most kept their eyes out of their business in pure fear, while others were said to have snooped in on the Associations activities and were never heard from again. Some claimed the Association was big on human experimentation, and even more said that the group was infamous for sacrificing people to their god. But those were all rumors. No one really knew anything about them or where they gathered.

So no one could save her now.

She whined as she took in this fact.

"Quite," her captor hissed. He kept tossing his toy against the brick.

"Am I going to die?" Rido whispered.

"Maybe," he said with an uncaring shrug. "you could survive; it all depends."

"Do…do you think it will hurt very much? What they do to me, I mean?"

Again, the man shrugged without concern. "Yeah, it should hurt. But, of course, that all depends on if you stay alive long enough to feel it."
Rido shivered making her chains rattle on the cold, concrete floor. She tucked her head into her knees and let the tears of fear and despair fall. She wasn't keeping time, it could have been hours before he spoke, but after a while the sound of the ball stopped.

"You know what really sickens me? It's that your royal clan thinks they can do whatever the hell they want. Kill whoever the hell they want to kill! Do you think that's right? Huh, princess? Did you know your disgrace of an older brother, Hintaro, killed one of our Associates? That bastard of a kid. Do you think that's right Rido?"

"I don't know," she whispered so softly she doubted he heard it. But he responded, "Of course you don't. You're only five-years-old after all."

Then they came.

Six figures crowded the doorway beckoning Matashiro to bring her. He turned to her and grinned wickedly. "It's time.

Now, in the present Rido ground her teeth, fuming at the memory of the terrifying people who hurt her. But she had a job to do now. She reminded herself that as she shot towards Sasuke.