*WARNING: Nonconsensual sexual encounters*

Chapter 3

Hina Sensei led the girls from the cafeteria to the showers, and then from the showers back to their respective barracks. The A girls (the ones who were more privileged) slept in one building and the B girls (the orphans and traitors' children) slept in another. It was no accident that female Shinobi monitored the A girls and the men monitored the B girls.

In only the few weeks that she had been at the Academy, Rei had come to the conclusion that if she could make it through this, these few years of training, then she'd be respected as a full-fledged Shinobi like Hina Sensei. When she wasn't a student any longer, her background wouldn't matter.

She would have to endure whatever happened until then.

The barracks were built of cement, like most buildings in the Mist. The small building held forty beds for the less fortunate girls, and at the moment only two were empty. Each bed had a small trunk set at its foot for each girl to store her clothes and necessities in, and Rei knelt by her trunk to retrieve her pajamas. She hadn't gotten any new ones in over a year since she didn't have any money, so they were pretty worn out. The faded grey shirt was thin and not as long as she would have liked now, and the shorts had a coin-sized hole in the right hip from where she'd caught them on a loose nail at the orphanage.

Risa clutched her threadbare robe tightly around her body, glancing back to the only door in the building. Zane Sensei was already there, leaning his back against the hinges and watching the girls as they disrobed. Most of them seemed to be used to the invasion and ignored him completely. Rei was not at that point yet.

She looked around quickly for anyone else who seemed to have reservations. A girl with shoulder-length violet hair was digging through her trunk slowly, looking up every few seconds at Zane Sensei. Rei scrambled through her memories for the girl's name. "Tanoka!" she said more loudly than strictly necessary. She waved the girl over and explained that two of them could hold up a blanket so a third could get dressed. Tanoka agreed readily, grabbing one end of the blanket that Rei ripped off of her bed.

The relief on Risa's face was almost palpable, and Rei and Tanoka stretched the blanket between the two of them to shield their classmate from the sensei's prying eyes. When he saw what they were doing, Zane Sensei made to move towards them, and Rei tightened her hold on the blanket.

But just at that moment, Niko Sensei came in the door. He looked at Zane Sensei the same way that he had looked at Rei when she was on the ground: like he was forced to deal with something unsavory and inconvenient. Zane Sensei turned on his heel and marched back to the door, muttering angrily to himself. Risa finished dressing in her pajamas quickly, then held the blanket in turn while Rei and Tanoka shed their robes for their T-shirts and shorts. It was expected that the monitors would turn their backs while the girls dressed, and most did.

"Five minutes until lights out," Niko Sensei announced, turning back around. He looked like a dark sentry, hands linked behind his back and his black hair falling over his forehead only serving to accentuate his severity.

The monitors switched shifts every few nights, and so far, three of the men had climbed into bed with a few of the girls. The girls were always quiet, never making even a sound of discomfort or surprise. Rei always clutched her blanket closer to her chest and prayed that they'd pass her over. She was an unremarkable, dark-haired and dark-eyed orphan, and she tried her best to blend into the background as often as she could. It had worked so far.

Risa settled into the bed next to Rei, covering herself up to her neck and closing her eyes before the lights had been extinguished. Rei cast one more look at the door. The two men were still standing motionless, looking very professional, but she was sure that wouldn't last long.

The lights went out, the quiet chatter ceased, and silence reigned. For about ten minutes.

The floorboards creaked and Rei opened her eyes a fraction of a centimeter, looking at Risa in the darkness. The other girl was curled up in a ball under her blanket, shielding herself the only way she knew how. But the footsteps stopped before they got to her bed. Rei almost whimpered audibly when she turned her head a few inches to the side to see Zane Sensei's shock of blonde hair at the end of her own bed. He wasn't approaching her, just looking. Then Niko Sensei left his post by the door and prodded the other man in the back with two fingers, saying just one word in the otherwise silent room: "No."

Zane Sensei barked a laugh. "You? And I thought you didn't swing that way." He leaned down and unlaced his boots slowly, agonizingly slowly. Risa had begun to tremble beneath her blanket. He dropped his boots and his grey flak jacket on top of Risa's trunk and walked around her bed, lifting the blanket and sliding in behind her. Risa didn't make a sound. She just shut her eyes as Zane Sensei spooned her from behind. The blanket was thin enough for Rei to see the shapes of their bodies clearly.

His hands moved urgently beneath the covers, and Risa's shorts fell to the floor.

It was about at that time that Rei noticed Niko Sensei sitting on her own trunk. Her heart seemed to stop for a very long second before picking up its pace in triple time. It became impossible to draw in a breath. He shucked off his boots and his jacket, just like Zane Sensei had done, and came around the side of the bed, his eyes impassive, his hands still.

She looked at him, trying to find words to beg him to leave, but they were stuck in her frozen throat. Whatever was coming, it had the other girls in the barracks terrified, and Rei didn't want to experience it firsthand. Desperate instincts kicked in, the same ones that had helped her escape the creep on the streets the first time, and she wrenched her blanket off of her body, throwing her feet to the floor.

Niko Sensei reached out with the speed of lightning and twisted her hair into a rope, viciously pulling her back across the bed and squashing her face tight against his chest. His heart was pounding. One of his knees was already pressing into the mattress and he flung her down beneath him, pressing her face into the pillow.

I might die tonight.

Her hands were useless. He was pinning her legs down with his own and he was already pulling at the waistband of her shorts. She forced her head to the side, just trying to breathe, and her shorts slipped down off of her feet, disappearing who knows where. Niko Sensei pulled the blanket back over their backs, shielding his actions.

He covered her with his body, spreading her legs and lowering himself between them. His mouth was at her ear, and he released her hair to grab onto her wrists, pinning them to the bed. "Scream," he whispered.

She didn't need any further encouragement. She opened her mouth and flooded the room with her voice, unsure of what was happening, and unsure of why she felt no pain. Zane Sensei was saying something encouraging in the background. The other girls were absolutely silent.

Niko Sensei moved against her back for a minute or two, pressing his pelvis against her backside, but Rei had a suspicion that he wasn't doing something right. She'd heard the girls talking about what the men did at night, but this wasn't it. He hadn't… entered her. She was still wearing her underclothes, and he hadn't undressed at all. What was he doing?

After a moment, he exhaled heavily and lowered his body onto hers, relaxing. Tremors ran through Rei's arms and legs, warring with the knowledge that she had somehow escaped what Risa had gone through. But why?

Niko Sensei was breathing hard against the back of her neck, saturating her skin with heat. Zane Sensei left Risa's bed, zipped his pants, and, after a moment, said, "Be back in a minute," and left the barracks.

Moving just a few inches, Niko Sensei pressed his mouth to Rei's ear, barely even whispering. But she caught his words. "If you want to live, you'll lie to the others. Act like walking pains you tomorrow."

With that, he pretended to adjust his clothing beneath her blanket and got up and left her bed, collecting his jacket and boots. He took his place back by the door like nothing had happened, settling in a chair and pulling a book from the pack by his feet, beginning to read by the faint light of the moon that peeked through the window.

Turning her head to the other side, Rei looked at Risa. She'd barely moved from the position she'd been in when Zane Sensei had slipped into her bed, and her eyes were glassy. She blinked once, then turned over very slowly.

Rei turned over the events of the last several minutes in her mind until she thought her mind would explode. The pain of her wounds had come flaring back to life, and her exhausted body got the better of her. As she slipped into unconsciousness, she noticed a dark patch of blood growing on Risa's blanket near her legs.