"HARUMI! WHERE ARE YOU?!" Hido searched the forest for a sign of his friend. She hadn't come home a night ago, and that was very odd for her. She was always nervous that something would happen to him so she was always home by the time he got back to make sure he'd arrive safe. When he first got back, he thought she might've fallen asleep by the river or just lost track of time, so he went to bed. When he didn't see her when he woke up again, he got really worried. He spent the whole day searching for her, but he couldn't find her. It had been a day, and the sun was starting to rise for the second day.
"Harumi? Are you there?" Akito called out. Hido had called her for help; she was from the Hidden Mist and he thought she might be able to see signs beside the river where he had first met her.
He felt his chest tightening, where on earth was she? Why the hell didn't he trust his gut and try to find her a night ago? Sure, he liked Akito quite a bit, but Harumi meant more to him. He let out a groan-like frustrated scream when he thought of all the things that could be happening to her right now. What if Danzo wanted her back? What if the man who traumatized her when she was a child wanted her back in his clutches? What if Itachi found her? His head was spinning and he felt like throwing up. He could feel cold blood rush through his body at the thoughts, and he began to spiral.
"If there's any kind of God listening, I'm begging you. Leave her alone, she's suffered enough for a lifetime, she deserves to have a happy life. Give her back to me, please give her back to me," he whispered as he almost felt tears come to his eyes. He couldn't lose her, he'd give up everything in this world but her. He loved her with every bit of his damned heart, he'd rather die than to see her suffer again.
"Hido, we'll find her, okay? I'm sure she just got lost. There's no crime around here, she's safe." Akito rubbed his back comfortingly. It made her sad to see him so stressed, she didn't expect to see such a strong reaction from him, but she understood. Hido felt guilty lying to her about Harumi and himself, the poor girl had no idea what she was getting caught up in. He had told her they were both former ninjas that decided they wanted to travel the world together. Obviously he hadn't known her long enough to tell her anything about them, but he didn't want her to face any consequences because of them.
"I'm such an idiot! God, I should've looked around the night she didn't come home!" he yelled in anger, shaking his head. Akito hugged him, knowing he needed one. He reluctantly hugged her back, but it felt like a betrayal to be comforted while he didn't know what was happening to Harumi. He only hoped that she would be okay. Just where was his girl?
Harumi's eyes slowly fluttered open, yawning as she got up. The curtains were drawn, darkening the room. She sighed, Hido should've just woken her up. She got up to make breakfast when she looked down at her hands. They were tied. She was confused, what the heck? Suddenly, all the memories from the night before flashed through her mind. She froze, the last thing she remembered seeing was-
She looked around in a panic, feeling her heart hammering harshly against chest, reminding her that she was very much awake. She slowly opened the curtains, it revealed the bright sun shining through the barred balcony. Her hands began to shake, the bars brought back bad memories. It made her feel trapped and somewhat suffocated. She found herself breathing heavier, the ropes around her wrists not helping the feeling. She quickly -but very quietly- ran to the door and tried to open it, only to see it was locked.
Her body continued to shake as she sensed a barrier on the other side of the door. She bit into her lip deeply when she looked back down at her hand. She had been squirming and moving so much that the rope had been digging into her skin deeply. The memories were pouring back into her mind, but at least they weren't chains. Still, it didn't help and the last thing she needed was to start panicking and losing sight of how to get out. She put her foot against the ropes and sent a concentrated amount of chakra out her foot and through the rope, cutting it. She took off the extra parts, and there were red marks left around her wrists due how tight they were, how long they were there, and how much she'd wriggled.
She took a deep breath, she knew what she had to do. She quickly concentrated, feeling the barrier extending above her to the roof, but not below her. However, there was someone in the room under her. It wasn't Itachi, it didn't feel like his chakra. She slowly jumped up, sending her chakra to the heel of her foot. As it connected with the floor, it broke, causing her to fall straight into the room under hers.
A boy with blonde hair sat up straight, looking at her in shock. He had his hair parted in a way that covered one eye, and he wore a black coat with red clouds on it. She immediately recognized it, it was the same one she had seen Itachi wearing before she passed out. She broke down the shocked boy's door in a millisecond and dashed out. It was an interesting set up, there was a long hallway and it had two exits. One was beside a barred window, but it only had two doors and was a dead end. The other was a corner, but she didn't know what was on the other side of it.
She decided to risk it and quickly made a turn in the corner of the hallway, only to slam into something that zapped her when she touched it. Her eyes widened, there was nothing there. Her eyes widened further when she realized that the chakra barrier ended about one meter after turning the corner. Her hands turned to fists when she realized someone wanted her to think that the floor below didn't have a barrier, trapping her.
Trapped, she was trapped. No, no she wasn't. She wouldn't be trapped, not again.
"So you're finally awake, huh? I gotta say, I didn't expect you to break the floor." The blonde boy walked out of the room. Her eyes narrowed at him, he couldn't have been older than her, they frankly seemed to look around the same age.
"I'm sorry, I would've knocked but having my hands tied and all made me feel a little unwelcomed," Harumi replied as she got up. His eyebrows raised in amusement as a grin made its way onto his face. He wasn't expecting such a witty response. He was about to open his mouth to say something, but she was gone. He titled his head to the side to look around the corner, what the hell? She just disappeared! He was looking right at her, and she just vanished. She suddenly appeared at the other end of the hallway, blood falling from her fingertips.
The blonde boy was confused, did she hurt herself just now? It was only until she turned around and looked at his neck with a sigh did he realize what was going on. He quickly touched it to see blood, she cut him! It wasn't deep, it was more like a graze than anything. The realization came to him, she would've cut open his throat had he not tilted his head when he did.
"Hey! What the hell is your problem?!" he exclaimed, only to see her gone again. He ducked as fast as he could, this time prepared for her attack. He turned to see her back where she started, but what she had in her hand angered him. She was holding a few blonde strands in her hand, looking at him with a quirked up eyebrow. His face nearly turned red in anger. His hair was a work of art! How dare she ruin it?! He was about to open his mouth to yell when he noticed she stretched her hand out to the barrier and touched, watching as it zapped her. When she continued to let it do so, he snapped.
"Are you stupid? You were just kidnapped, put into a powerful barrier, and now you're trying to escape in front of your kidnapper?" he asked boredly but when he noticed she was still focused on the barrier, he added, "The barrier's just going to keep zapping you anyway, idiot," while groaning. His eyes widened when he noticed a sudden surge in her chakra. Her expression was calm, and he nearly had a heart attack when he noticed the barrier beginning to crack. No, he couldn't let her get away on his watch. He quickly got up and ran towards her, but he saw her whisper something.
A bolt of lightning was sent his way that he barely dodged. What the heck was up with the girl? He ran towards her and got out his clay, preparing his explosion release but was interrupted when she rammed her foot into his body, sending him flying back. This, however, affected her as well. She lost concentration for a second and the barrier sent a powerful zap through her hand, burning it slightly.
"Ow, ow, ow- see what you did?! Couldn't you just leave me alone?!"Harumi said to the blonde boy who was getting up. She knew that if she was to break the barrier, she needed to finish him off first. She considered cutting his throat open while speeding past him, but she didn't want to waste chakra in case he showed up. Taijutsu it was, she decided. She quickly ran up to him and tried to throw a punch at his recovering body, but he dodged, trying to hit her as her stance was now open and available to target. He quickly grabbed onto her shoulder, readying to knee her in the stomach. But, he was suddenly stopped as her other arm turned and elbowed him in the face.
He threw his head back in pain, holding his cheek which felt like it was now throbbing. She quickly turned around, trying to land another kick, but he dodged. She infused chakra in her feet and jumped on the wall nearest to him. Before he could react, she ran beside him, punching the other cheek which had not yet been injured, causing both to throb. It wasn't on purpose and she didn't really notice. But, she had the sudden urge to compare him to a puffer fish, but refrained from commenting. Before he could get his head on straight, Harumi jumped atop him.
He swore right then and there that he would kill her for this.
Because of his throbbing head, he didn't see the punch she threw at him, being unable to block or respond. In a quick attempt to get her off, he sent his palm flying into her chin, causing her to fall back off of him. Thankfully, with the amount of years she had of training, she was used to this. She always kept her jaw tight during a fight to avoid biting her tongue off.
He then saw the opportunity to get on top of her. Still dizzy from what he thought was a concussion, he gave her his best punch in the moment. She caught his punch though, as his vision was still a bit blurred. His eyes widened as she bucked her hips up high, pushing onto his chest, and using the momentum of his falling figure to throw him over her head. He fell into the wall with the barred window, shaking his head as the world spun.
She got up, pulled her fist back and ran towards him. This would knock him out for sure. Just as she was about to hit him, her fist connected with something very sharp. She hissed in pain and pulled her hand back, watching as there were now puncture wounds in her knuckles. She looked up again, it was something very odd. It was really big and blue, filled with hundreds of sharp edges. It came out from the dead end hallway with two doors, did that mean-
"Oh come on now Deidara, is she giving you that hard of a time?" a voice asked before walking out of the dead end hallway and in front of the blonde boy, or Deidara as he called him. Harumi let out an audible small gasp, she didn't understand what she was looking at. There was a six foot something shark man standing in front of her, carrying a gigantic spiky sword with a mouth.
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