Chapter 7: Never tell

He had been alone all of his life. He never knew his mother, rarely, if ever, saw his father, and, while he had been told, he had siblings he had yet to ever meet them. He hated it when the other children ran from him. All he ever wanted was a friend, but they all ran from him as if he was a monster…he didn't even know why.

A few days ago he had accidentally hurt Yasamaru and, tired of inflicting pain on others, he decided to end his mere six years of life. The sand stopped him. It always stopped him. Yasamaru said that it was a gift from his mother to protect her little boy in her absence…he would rather feel the pain.

He didn't go out much; he didn't like it when the people ran from him. But, for some reason, today he grabbed his worn and tattered bear and left the relative safety and comfort of his nursery, the only home he has ever known, and ventured out into the village; heading towards its boarder…

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"Sakura-chan," Ichigo called out from the back of their little group. "Chotto matte kudasai!"

"Ne Ichi-chan? Are you alright?" Sakura asked as she turned to face her younger cousin. Sakura's face twisted into concerned sympathy. She had forgotten that Ichigo had yet to begin her training and while the rest of them had already begun training in speed and stamina, Ichigo had not. Now that she actually thought about it, Sakura was really rather impressed. For a four, five she corrected herself, year old to keep up with four academy nins for nearly half-a-day of all out sprinting (of course that would be only about a power walk for most reasonably fit people in the real world) was rather remarkable.

"Ah! Gomen Ichi-chan!" Sakura exclaimed as she quickly slid to a stop, the leaves and dirt forming a small cyclone around her sandaled feet. Instantly the other three followed her lead, sliding to an abrupt halt.

"Are you ok, Ichigo-chan?" Naruto asked a bit louder than necessary.

"H-hai," the red head stuttered. "But I'm tired." She panted. "You-you run too-too fast."

"Gomen ne," Sasuke apologized. "We forgot that you haven't been trained."

"W-what will we do?" Hinata asked softly. "We aren't out of the fire nation yet. We still have at least another half-a-days run ahead of us."

"We'll have to take turns carrying her," was Sasuke's eventual response. "We can pass her off every hour until she can run again, but we still gotta hurry. Nee-chan said we have to be in the wind country by night time."

"Hai," the other three responded firmly.

"Come on Ichigo-chan," Sasuke said as he kneeled down, passing his pack to Sakura. "I'll carry you first."

"Arigato Sasuke-kun."

"Do itashimatte."

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Orochimaru smirked as he watched Itachi and Yume beg for Hikari's release. There pleas mixed with her agonizing screams was music to his ears. He couldn't help but relish in the torture that he was managing to inflict on all three of them at once. Then suddenly he raised his hand to his interrogation nin, Koisuke. With the absence of the interrogator's inflicted torture Hikari's screams quickly deteriorated to retching sobs.

"Now, will you tell me what it iss that I wish to know?" Orochimaru asked. "Or would you like it better if I had Koisuke-kun continue?" He raised his arm to signal Koisuke but Yume and Itachi cut him off.

"No!" Itachi shouted, tears slipping from the corners of his deep black eyes. "Please! Just leave her alone!"

"We'll tell you anything!" Yume added his own eyes filled with crystal tears.

"Wonderful," Orochimaru grinned happily as he lowered his hand. "Sso tell me, where are the main housess youngest memberss?"

"We don't know," Itachi answered brokenly.

Orochimaru hissed and he signaled to Koisuke. Once again Hikari's screams filled the vacant room despite their shouted protests.

"Once again," Orochimaru snapped as he signaled Koisuke to stop. "Where are the corner bratss?"

By this time Itachi was absolutely sobbing. "I-I d-don-n't kn-now! I l-lef-f-t bef-ore Hikari s-sent them o-off!"

"LIES!" Orochimaru shouted half crazed. "Koisuke! Un-strap the girl. We'll see how long his tongue can hold out before he tells."

"No!" Yume yelled as Koisuke signaled one of his helpers to release Itachi from the wall.

"He's telling the truth!" Hikari managed to shout through her raw throat. "I'm the only one who knows where they are!"

The room was deathly silent. "Iss that sso?" Orochimaru asked his eyes narrowed dangerously. "If sso, then where are they."

"Ch," Hikari just managed to scoff. "Like I'm gonna tell you."

Orochimaru nodded to Koisuke and the 'interrogator' ran a red hot kunai down the Haruno heir's bare left arm. Hikari's pain filled shriek vibrated off of the high ceiling making it seem as if twenty girls were screaming at once.

"Will you tell me now?" Orochimaru spat once Koisuke pulled the kunai away from her torn and blistered flesh.

"G-go to h-he-." She was cut off by her own scream as Koisuke once again dragged the kunai down her welted arm.

"If that is the way you are going to be then you will lay on this table everyday until either you talk or they return."

Hikari said nothing but her choice seemed clear as her screams continued to rebound through the whole of the hokage tower until the sun set that evening. She'd never tell.

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The sun had been down for nearly an hour but the edge of the fire nation was still nowhere in sight. Sasuke sighed as he noticed Ichigo sagging behind again. It would be Naruto's turn to carry her soon.

"Sasuke-kun," Sakura called. "Maybe we should stop. We're all really tired."

"Yeah!" Naruto added with a wide yawn.

"I-I think it's past our bed time too." Hinata put in as she nervously glanced at the fully risen moon.

Sasuke shook his head. "We can't stop until we're out of the fire nation."

Suddenly, the line of trees abruptly ended and the five mini nins found themselves running across a baron dessert.

"Ok," Sakura called to Sasuke. "We're out of the fire nation. Can we sleep now?"

"Huh?" Sasuke asked in confusion before he noticed that he was no longer dodging trees. "Oh," he said. "Yeah sure." And with that the five of them collapsed into blissful sleep.

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He was a little surprised at himself. After all, he's never left the village before, but now here he is traipsing through the dessert at night through the freezing cold. Not that he could feel the cold with a layer of sun warmed sand coating his body. It was starting to get rather heavy though. He yawned. He should stop and sleep soon but for some reason he couldn't stop walking. It was as if he had a predetermined destination and his feet were rather anxious to get there. Tired or no…

He had been walking in the endless streach of dessert for six hours before he was finally able to make out the blur of trees in the far distance. His feet began to pick up speed now that, what appeared to be, the goal lay visible before him.

Another hour and he was finally nearing the edge. He was almost there…just a little further…suddenly he tripped over something lying in the sand and he came crashing down into the sandy earth. He tried to stand again, sure that he was supposed to go into the forest but his legs would no longer support his weight and his eyes drooped with weariness. Finally he succumbed to the inky blackness of long overdue sleep; after all, he could always keep going in the morning…

End chapter 7

Kaliea: Bet you can't guess who 'he' is…like it's really all that hard. -.-; But yeah, I know he's not supposed to sleep, that will be explained later.

Review Answers:

Dragon Man 180: True but if I did that I'd run out of ideas for nin scrolls. Speaking of which if you have any ideas please send 'em in!

Danny-171984: Actually these scrolls aren't really for the readers. Well I mean they are…yeah anywho, they're actually the scrolls that Naruto and Sasuke carry in their back pack. Thanks for the compliment though.

Kaliea:(Beams) Thanks guys! You totally make my day! Oh yeah! I'm not grounded any more! I can get on the net without getting in trouble! YAY! Of course I had to clean the house first. -.-