Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters. This is just fan work for other fans and not for profit in any way.
Chronicle One: Shinobi in the Mist (Version 1.93)
Chapter 9
The buildings blurred past Lee as he sped through the streets of the town. Sakura was in trouble and he was her only back up. After the intelligence had been gathered on Kane, the Hokage had sent Sakura and himself to accomplish this mission. Just the two of them. Now, something had gone awry and Sakura was taken prisoner. He needed to go and get her out, no matter the cost. She is a person dear to him and he will do everything in his power to protect her.
Suddenly, he sensed movement. He quickly jumped into an alleyway and hid from plain sight. Four figures ran past him, seemingly intent on their destination. Another squad of mist ninja, he was getting close now.
Lee looked down at his red splattered bandages. The blood was from the nosebleeds that he had given to the ones he knocked unconscious. The display had been enough to scare the young genin into giving him the information that he needed. Now all he had to do was get to the base and get Sakura out. He hoped he wasn't too late.
Blue arcs of electricity coursed through Sakura's body, causing her to convulse in sheer agony. The girl's pain filled screams echoed around the room whilst Kane watched. Rubbing his brow, the mist ninja decided that he had seen enough.
"Stop," he told Worabi.
The grey eyed Jounin ignored him.
Kane stepped forward and grabbed his arm. "I SAID STOP!"
The other man grabbed Kane by his collar and shoved him back. With the ninjutsu interrupted, the electricity stopped but Sakura continued to writhe, her cries dying down to pained sobs.
"You don't tell me what to do," Worabi snarled as he stepped closer to his colleague. "And I've had quite enough of your shit for today."
Kane stared right back. "At the rate you were going, you were about to kill her."
"She'll give us what we need before then."
"No she won't. She's prepared to die with that information."
Worabi glanced over at Sakura's still shaking form. "I think I can make her change her mind."
Kane walked over to the girl. "What's the sequence?"
Sakura's slightly unfocused eyes glared at him. "Fuck you."
The man turned to give his colleague a knowing look before silently walking over to the exit and pushing the door open and holding it there. Worabi glanced one once last glance at the girl before reluctantly leaving the room. Kane followed him out before closing the door behind him and turning to face the other Jounin.
"Her teammates will come for her, I'm sure of that," he told Worabi. "That guy disguised as her boyfriend from the bar, he looked a lot like Rock Lee."
"Isn't he the Konoha ninja that can't even use ninjutsu or genjutsu?"
"He's still one of the Konoha Eleven, and I'm sure he'll try to come save her."
Worabi snorted, "He's only one. What can he possibly do?"
"She was only one," Kane replied indicating to Sakura through the door. "Yet she managed to infiltrate the base and wreck the place before we managed to stop her."
"She was disguised and you were still recovering," Worabi replied. "You're talking about someone who can't use ninjutsu, can't disguise himself nor use a powerful genjutsu like she did."
"If that's the case, then you should have no problems in catching him."
"Why would I want to do that?"
"Because," Kane explained, "we'll be able to use him as leverage against her."
"I told you that I can get it out of her," Worabi insisted.
"I don't think her demeanour has changed." The mist Jounin replied through gritted teeth. "Look, you've tried it your way and it wasn't successful. Try it my way. I'll talk to her and when you catch Lee, we'll bring him in and threaten to kill him in front of her. See if she yields then."
"You know if it wasn't for you, we wouldn't be in this fucking mess in the first place."
Kane gave his fellow mist ninja an exasperated look. "Lets just try and fix this alright?"
Worabi sighed and nodded before turning around and heading off. After his colleague had left, the dark haired Jounin re-entered the room and walked over to where Sakura was secured to the rack.
"You know this would all go a lot easier if you just cooperated," he told her.
The girl stared straight up at the ceiling, not bothering to respond to his comment. Kane made his way to the top of the rack and leaned over. Placing his hands on the sides of Sakura's head, he gazed down at her face. The girl focused her stare upon the mist Jounin, her emerald eyes blazing with hatred.
Kane gently stroked her hair. "Just tell us the sequence and we will let you go, I promise."
Sakura snorted at his comment. "Yeah right," she replied in a slightly cracked voice.
"I promise you," he assured her. "You have my word."
"Your word is worthless," she spat back at him.
"Look," he told her. "You tell us the sequence. Then I'll let you go and your friend Rock Lee can find you and take you home. However, if you continue to resist, your friend Lee will get caught and we'll be forced to kill him in order to convince you to give us what we want. Now, you don't want that to happen do you?"
"He won't risk his life on the off chance that he might save mine," Sakura replied. "And if he did, he's an idiot and deserves to die."
Kane laughed at her attempted bravado. "I know you Konoha ninjas are a very close knit group." The mist Jounin walked around the rack, placing a hand on Sakura's arm as he did so. As he ran his fingers down the length of the girl's wet body, he shook his head. "Worabi will do more excruciating things to you if you don't yield your information. And I'm not just talking about physical torture either."
"Do your worst," Sakura replied defiantly.
"You've got fight, I'll give you that," Kane complimented her. "I don't really care. By the end of the day, you're going to tell us what we need to know. The question is how much unpleasantness you want to go through before that happens."
Moving to the side of the room, the Jounin opened a tap to one of the many water pipes that ran through the building. From the ceiling of the room, drops of water began falling on the girl's forehead. She tried to shift out of the way but Kane grabbed a neck brace and secured it on her. Unable to move, the leaf kunoichi closed her eyes to shield them from the splashing droplets.
Kane stood and looked down at the prisoner. "I suggest you think on it." Turning, he left the room, leaving Sakura alone, with nothing but the tormenting drip of the water to keep her company.
The sound of his footsteps echoed throughout the stairwell as Lee descended into the building. As he walked, he came to a decision on his course of action. The entrances to the lower levels were most likely guarded. Well, it didn't matter. He would defeat all who stood in his way. There were no other methods of approach anyway. He wasn't going to get in disguised. Even Sakura's skills in espionage had not been enough. He doubted that he, someone unable to perform an imitation technique, was going to succeed where she had failed. No, he was going to storm his way in and rescue his teammate before they even knew what hit them. No one would expect a full frontal assault so that's what he was going to go with. With his speed and the element of surprise on his side, his plan should do the job.
Lee came to the bottom of the steel staircase and found himself at the end of a long corridor. At the other end, there appeared to be some sort of foyer where a sentry sat behind a desk. Relaxing his muscles, the leaf Jounin calmly proceeded into the enemy base.
The sentry was sitting idly behind the desk when he was alerted by the sound of someone approaching. He looked up and frowned. A green clad figure was walking along the grey walled corridor towards him. The person moved with an aura of confidence, as if nothing in the world could perturb him. As he came closer, the sentry could see that he was dressed in a green spandex suit and a matching army jacket. A layer of white bandages were wrapped around his arms which were at the moment, swinging loosely beside him. The green clad man did not resemble any mist ninja that the sentry recognised. However, if he wasn't a mist ninja, why did he so brazenly walk into their heavily guarded base? The sentry decided not to take any chances. Reaching over, he placed his hand over the alarm button before calling out to the green clothed man.
"Halt! Identify yourself."
The man continued walking. "I am the interrogator," he replied. "Someone called me in to obtain information from a prisoner."
"I wasn't notified," the sentry responded. "Stop where you are while I check with my superiors."
The other ninja continued to approach. "You should go ahead and press that alarm. Maybe then, someone will come to show me the way to the prison cells instead of asking stupid questions."
The sentry stared at the man and frowned. "Guards," he called out. Two mist ninja quickly appeared at the doorway behind him. "This man claims to be an interrogator that has been called in. Watch him while I go confirm with the masters."
"Yeah sure," one of the guards replied as he and his companion walked past the desk and approached the green clad ninja.
Turning, the sentry moved towards the door and was about to walk through when there was a sickening thud. An instant later, a heavy mass hit him in the back and carried him to the floor. Dazed, the sentry crawled out from under the object and shakily got up. As his vision began to clear, he heard a loud crash. Looking up, his eyes widened at the sight that greeted him. The green clad ninja was pinning one of the guards to the wall with his foot. The guard was slumped and unconscious. Glancing down, the sentry realised that the mass that had hit him was the other guard.
An arm suddenly slammed into his chest and rammed him against the wall. The crushing pressure caused the sentry's eyes to water. Through his blurred vision, he looked up into the round eyes of his assailant
"Where is the prisoner being held?" the other man asked him.
When he didn't answer, the green clad ninja increased the pressure to his chest. The sentry gritted his teeth and groaned through the pain. Suddenly, the cold rasp of an unsheathed knife reached his ears. He swallowed as the other man waved a blood stained kunai in front of his eyes.
"I was not lying about being an interrogator," his assailant informed him. Beads of sweat ran down the sentry's brow as the tip of the blade began digging into the corner of his eye.
"ARRGGHHH, STOP, STOP!" he screamed as flaring pain lanced through his left eye. The pain eased slightly.
Intense, round eyes glared at him. "This is the last time I'm going to ask. Where is the prisoner being held?"
"Three levels down," the sentry hurriedly told the other man. "The only entrance is the staircase at the south-east end of the building."
"I can tell that you are lying," the man's cold voice informed him. The pain in his eye suddenly flared again and he screamed.
"NO, NO," the sentry screamed in agony and desperation. "I SWEAR IT'S THE TRUTH, I SWEAR!"
The pain stopped. "Ok, I believe you," the ninja replied. As the words left the man's mouth, a hard fist suddenly slammed into the sentry's stomach and he blacked out.
Cold rivulets of water ran down Sakura's cheeks as the water drip continued to run. The Konoha Jounin shivered; her clothes were still damp from the soaking she received at the start of her interrogation. That had seemed like such a long time ago. Sakura wasn't sure how many hours had passed since she was captured. It seemed to her like days but she knew that it was most likely only a few hours. Torture usually lengthened a person's perception of time.
Sakura clenched her teeth. She will not let her misery overwhelm her. She will not succumb to despair. Her pain and discomfort were just signals in her brain, nothing more. No matter what these bastards do to her, she will not give in. The Konoha Jounin took a deep breath and concentrated on ignoring the cold. They will never get the seal sequence from her. Not even if they caught Lee and.. and...
An image of a bruised and battered Lee appeared in front of her. A knife was poised over her friend's throat and Worabi began shouting questions at her. Lee looked to her and gave her a sad smile, his dark eyes apologising to her. Suddenly, blood gushed from his mouth and throat, the red liquid spraying onto Sakura's face.
Sakura screamed and tried to dispel the mental image. She could feel his blood on her face, running into her mouth. The captured kunoichi desperately tried to shake her head, trying to get the liquid off her face. "NO NO NOOO," she cried to the empty room as liquid continued to run down her face. Breathing heavily, Sakura willed herself to calm down. Get a grip. Get a grip. GET A GRIP! He's still alive, he's not dead, it's just water on your face."
Slowly, the leaf Jounin's heart rate slowed down and her breathing relaxed. Lee won't be caught because he would have left already. He would need to head back and report that the mission had failed. Sakura silently hoped that he had, she didn't think she could face the prospect of watching a friend being executed in front of her. Another drop of liquid ran down Sakura's cheek. This drop had came from her eye.