Author's note: I probably should have used the tag "Dead Dove: Do not Eat" for previous dark fics as well, but oh well, hindsight is 20/20 and a bitch as they say, you know how it is. 1) You could have had the prequel to Idyllic Picture but my brain decided otherwise. 2) This is a very dark fic so PAY ATTENTION TO THE WARNINGS. 3) My mind has once again come up with some dark shit; I no longer question my mind and you're probably better off not doing so either. 4) You all keep saying you'll read anything I come up with, so ... Guess this is another test of your faith in my writing? 5) As always, I do not know what I write. I'm just ... going along with the flow I guess. At least I managed to write something.

I have not forgotten about my other projects, don't worry; my mind is just bleh now. I hope to update at least one of the older projects next week.

Warnings: Multiple povs; Alternate universe; Dystopian setting; A/B/O dynamics; Omega Naruto; drama; DARK characters; Dead Dove: Do not Eat; violence; description of gore and injuries; character deaths; NOT FOR SAKURA FANS - though not limited to her alone, see the "character deaths" warning; let me know if I missed a warning; just prepare for some heavy, dark shit

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Kishimoto owns it.

I hope you'll like this? Not sure what to say here, except prepare yourselves

Part 1

She had been way too naïve, she realised far too late. She should have been more careful, warier when approaching the place. But she hadn't eaten in days by the time she had arrived here, had been too hungry, too thirsty to reconsider knocking on the door. She had been so happy to have found a safe place after so long on the road …

Everything had been too perfect, she acknowledged bleakly. Two years after society had entirely collapsed, the population abandoned by the government, the family shouldn't have been so well organised still. There had not been a trace of worry on their beautiful faces, not a hint of stress lingering in the air. It was as if this compound had withstood the dystopian nature of the world when nothing else had managed that. That should have been her first red flag. The whole family had been too at ease, too friendly to a stranger showing up in the middle of the night at their doorstep.

She had been desperate, though. On her own for so long she had eagerly latched onto the first place, the first people, that still appeared normal. Normalcy had fucked off the second society had shattered apart, however. It was every person for themselves now; trust had become more rare than pure red diamonds. To be greeted so friendly after two years of being on the run, of avoiding running into other people, worried when her next meal would come … Every alarm bell should have been blaring but she had ignored them all, too relieved to finally be in a safe place.

Now she was paying for it.

"They've grown quiet," the blond Omega, Naruto he had called himself, muttered from his spot in the corner. He had his legs pulled up; his skinny arms wrapped around them.

"No shit," Sakura spat out, irritation flaring up as much as the burn in her side did. "They didn't cut off our ears, you idiot, you don't need to state the obvious!"

"Don't be like that; we need to be a united front," Haku, a quiet, unassuming Beta, muttered exhausted. He was lying on his stomach; his back too lacerated to even stand up.

"A united front for what?" she shot back, curling her fingers around her forearms. "They took everything from us! We've got shit to defend us with! A united front, my arse!"

"Being a bitch won't do shit either," a red haired girl, Tayuya?, snorted. Even in the dim light the blood seeping through the bandages around her hand was visible.

"Fuck off!" Sakura snapped heatedly. "You don't get to - "

The door slamming in the corridor shut her up instantly and she froze up. Everyone in the room ceased moving at once; their breathing barely audible anymore. She didn't need to glance around to know what look everybody was currently wearing.

Fear.

Panic.

On the verge of crying.

She knew because that was exactly how she felt right now. To think she had felt so excited, so relieved, so happy when she had arrived here …

The door to their cel opened, spilling hellish bright light into the room. It made her flinch and close her eyes instinctively to protect them against the brightness. She forced them open after a couple of seconds, though, because not seeing was a hell of a lot more terrifying; the need to see was more important than protecting her sight was.

An Alpha, the youngest son of the family, stood in the doorway; his dark gaze taking in all of them. Sakura had thought him incredibly handsome upon her arrival here, easily the most handsome man she had ever met in her entire life. Beautiful enough to nearly turn her back into the giggling schoolgirl she had once been, blushing while butterflies raced through her stomach. He had lost none of his beauty, but all she could see now when he looked at her was the terrifying smirk on his face and the never ending glint of viciousness that lurked within the depths of the eyes she had thought so fascinating before. All his charisma had disappeared, leaving his face twisted as his true self spilt out.

That of a pure monster.

"Everybody get up," Sasuke ordered in his deep, smooth voice.

Before she would have wanted nothing more than to keep listening to his voice, let it soothe all her worries.

Now she would rather stab her own ears than ever hear even a single syllable leaving his mouth again.

His smirk turned absolutely sinister when he announced, "We are going to play a game."

They all trudged upstairs, Haku bracing himself against the wall as much as he could while he bit down on the inside of his cheek, refusing to even release the slightest noise of pain. It took all his restraint, though, leaving him sweating by the time he reached the top of the staircase. His back was in pure agony, feeling like molten lava was continuously poured over it, and he almost stumbled when he misjudged the height of the doorstep.

Another Beta, Kidomaru, hauled him up by his upper arm before he could faceplant and even though the roughness of the action only succeeded in increasing his pain, he still nodded gratefully at the other man. Kidomaru sneered, but didn't say anything; his right arm still hung limply at his side because neither of them had managed to put it back into its socket yet.

They were led into the … garden?

The burning pain in his back took a backseat for a moment as Haku tried to figure out what was going on, spotting similar looks of unease on everybody's faces.

Since he had fallen into the family's trap, he hadn't seen the garden at all anymore. As a matter of fact, he hadn't been outside at all and the icy wind that picked up had him shivering in his thin shirt and trousers. That only made his back protest even more and he clenched his teeth together, balling his hands into fists.

The garden seemed to melt with a forest, he realised, forcing himself to pay more attention to his surroundings than his aching body. The compound was walled with high fences but only on the sides; the entrance to the forest was completely devoid of a gate or a fence. The sight of the trees reaching tall and high into the darkening sky was like a mocking image of freedom and he swallowed. There was the urge to run away, to get the jump on the family before they could react but he knew better. The last person who had thought they could take the family by surprise had ended up bleeding out in their cell after he had had his ears, nose, tongue and hands cut off. Without weapons, without being at full strength, any form of retaliation was simply a death sentence.

Then again, he mused bleakly, watching how the family members gracefully spread out across the garden, perhaps this was going to be their death sentence anyways. Maybe the family had finally grown tired of playing with them all and decided to do away with them before the next batch of unlucky bastards would unknowingly offer themselves up to the family's deadly hospitality.

The youngest son halted in front of them. The dying sunlight highlighted some of the bluish hues in his black hair. Even two years after society had crashed down on them, the Alpha still looked like he could model for the most influential agencies. Haku really should have known better than to trust that. He should have known better but he hadn't.

And now he was here: completely at the mercy of a family who had adapted to the new world order a tad too much.

"We gathered all of you here because we are going to play a game," Sasuke began; his gaze turning calculating as he looked at each of them. "A special version of Hide and Seek if you will."

Haku wanted to close his eyes in resignation but couldn't. He was already too vulnerable to begin with; no reason to turn himself completely defenceless.

"Don't worry, the rules are very simple," he continued, smirking. He waved at the forest behind him. "When we give you the signal, you are going to run right into those woods. You'll have two options."

He raised two fingers in the air. "You can either choose to hide. It doesn't matter where. If you succeed in hiding from us until dawn breaks, you are free to go."

A shock of surprise ran through Haku's body and he stared wild-eyed at the Alpha, wondering if his ears were deceiving him. A quick glance around him showed the others in various stages of shock as well, so no, he wasn't mishearing things.

They were getting a chance to leave? They could be free again?

"Or you can choose to run," Sasuke continued, putting down his fingers. "There is a river which separates the woods – and in extension our property – from a road. If you can cross that river before we capture you, you are also free to go. You won't have your stuff with you, of course, but you will be free once more."

"And we're supposed to believe that?" Toneri spat incredulously. His looks could have netted him a modelling contract once upon a time as well – until half of his face had become burnt beyond recognition by Fugaku, the head of the family.

Itachi, Sasuke's older brother, raised an eyebrow. "We have no reason to lie to you," he said mildly. "It is as my brother says: if you manage to hide from us until dawn breaks or you cross the river before we capture you, you're free. No loopholes, no tricks, no lies."

"We believe in giving everybody a fair chance," Mikoto, the siblings' mother, spoke up.

She still looked and sounded as lovely as when Haku had first arrived and that perhaps made her the most terrifying of them all. Her sweet, friendly demeanour was nothing but a front; she was just as messed up as the rest of them.

How much of a fair chance did they really have, though, when they had barely got enough to eat to survive and everybody sported at least some kind of injury, whether that be cuts, burns or worse?

"We will give you a head start of ten minutes," Sasuke took over again. "Once the ten minutes are over, we will enter the woods and begin to play as well." His eyes positively glittered with viciousness now.

Haku's stomach turned, threatening to push out the little bit he had got to eat, at the thought of what these monsters considered playing.

Sasuke walked to the side. Now nothing stood in their way to their last hope of freedom.

"Get ready," Sasuke called out, crossing his arms; that ever present smirk blooming once again. "Set and … GO!"

Even though he believed this was a trap, Haku still forced himself to start running, pushing past the exhaustion threatening to drag him down immediately, past the searing agony in his back which made him want to collapse and never get up again. If this was going to be his only shot at freedom, his only chance to escape this damned hell, he was going to take it, no matter how much his body wanted to give up on him!

The others, even with their own injuries, were faster than him of course. They disappeared from his sight almost instantly the second they rushed into the woods. It made him feel more alone than ever before and a sense of dread started creeping up, filling his stomach like tar. He couldn't fault them for leaving him behind, though. Even though they had been locked up in the same cell for days, if not weeks, it wasn't as if a sense of camaraderie had ever grown between them. They would take care of each other's injuries to the best of their abilities, but that had been it.

If he wanted to make it out alive, he could only count on himself. So that was what he did.

He half stumbled half ran through the woods; his breath escaping in visible opaque puffs while his lungs screamed in protest. His back ached so badly to the point he was almost numb with it, but still he shouldered on, using the trees' trunks to push himself forwards. An owl hooted somewhere, some insects buzzed and a mouse skittered away before he could accidentally step on it.

He knew he couldn't keep running, though. Already he was slowing down, the pain becoming unbearable; his legs taking on the consistency of jelly. If he kept running, no doubt they would catch up to him soon, especially with how loud he was breathing and with the amount of noise he was creating, crashing through these bushes. He would need to hide, he decided, looking around wildly. He should find some bushes, perhaps dig himself some kind of pit and stay there until dawn would –

He was hit in the back of his head. Pain instantly exploded, making him cry out but before he could whirl around and defend himself, something slammed into his head again and –

Tayuya grimaced when upon retracing her steps, planning to confuse her pursuers in this manner, she came upon Haku's body. He was sprawled out in a small clearing and he clearly had had his brains bashed in. The back of his head was practically pulverised; his long dark hair matted, showing bits of skull and even some brain matter. Blood had already formed a pool around his head while his glazed over eyes were frozen in perpetual horror.

A bloodied, sharp rock had been discarded right next to him.

"Fuck," she muttered, covering her mouth and nose to protect them from the stench of blood.

Obviously their head start was over. She couldn't afford to linger here, not when those fuckers were clearly hunting them down already.

Rushing past the dead body, she considered her options again. She could try to hide but so far she hadn't encountered anything that could really act as some sort of terrific hiding spot. Taking in the trees towering over her, she bit down on her lip and debated whether she should try climbing in one of them. She had lost count of how many times she had done that when she had been a kid still, so she would be able to pull it off but … Would a tree be safe?

The sound of a gunshot ringing through the forest had her ducking instinctively; the racing of her heart having nothing to do with the running she was doing.

If they had guns, they might have night goggles as well. Fucking hell, they most likely had them because why else would they organise this fucked up game in the night?! She couldn't count on being safe in a tree, no matter how tall they were. Even if they couldn't physically get to her, if they saw her they could easily shoot her.

No, the trees weren't an option and there wasn't anything else that could serve as a safe hiding spot.

Ah!

She leant against a tree for a moment, catching her breath and contemplating the idea that had just popped into her head.

She could either run or hide; those douchebags had been clear about that. As long as they didn't find her before dawn, she would be safe. She could try to find her way across an increasingly darker forest and hope to reach the river before they could get her?

Or she could actually go back and hide near the compound.

She started grinning, ignoring the phantom pain in her missing fingers. Yes, that was what she would do! Those nutcases would expect her to either hide in the forest or make a run to the river – they would never expect her to hide near the hell hole itself! It was a foolproof plan! They would never anticipate one of their victims actually returning to their place of torture! With all of them busy chasing the others in the woods, none of them would even think to check the house.

"Guess I found a loophole instead," she smirked and turned around, taking a deep breath.

As silently as she could, she ran back in the direction she had come from. She had no idea how deep she had got into the woods, but it shouldn't take that long to run all the way back, right?

She tripped when her foot caught onto something and the foul taste of blood flooded her mouth when she bit down on her mouth upon catching her fall with her one good hand – and her injured one. Her left hand screamed in pain when she slammed it against the ground and the fierce bolt of pain was enough to make her gasp, biting down harshly on her lip to prevent more noise from escaping her. She knelt down on the ground, cradling her left hand against her stomach as she panted, squeezing her eyes shut.

When the pain subsided a bit she opened her eyes again and turned her head.

Only to slam her good hand across her mouth to muffle her scream when Toneri's soulless eyes stared right back at her. There was an actual goddamn arrow sticking through his temple! And another one through his throat! And was that –

She threw up, bitter bile coating her throat and her mouth, and she heaved and heaved, spluttering and almost choking, the vision of that cut out tongue resting in his open hand seared into the back of her eyelids.

Those sick fucks!

She pushed herself off the ground, almost slipping when the earth was wetter and crumblier than expected. She had to leave right the fuck now! She had to make it back to that godforsaken hellhole and remain hidden there until dawn broke so that she could finally –

Something slammed into her neck and pierced straight through her throat. She choked, spluttered out blood and grabbed the object in a panic; a garbled cry leaving her when nothing but absolute searing pain filled her entire body when she tried to tug out the weapon.

Someone kicked her from behind and she fell forwards, unable to brace herself. She smacked against the ground hard, a silent scream escaping her bloody lips when the weapon – was that a goddamn arrow?! – moved again, tearing her throat to shreds.

As she laid there choking in her own blood, feeling her life draining out of her, someone lightly stepped over her and disappeared amongst the bushes.

Right before her eyes slid close against her will, she looked up blurrily – and spotted some warm lights in the distance.

She had been so close …

They had been with twelve in the cell, squeezed together worse than sardines in a tin. At least sardines had more space than they had got. Sprawled across the dirty floor when injuries left them impossible to sit or lie on their back; curled up in the dampest corners, trying to escape those sons of bitches' attention whenever that fucking door would open.

They had been with twelve and already Kidomaru had counted five gunshots ringing through the air. Five gunshots didn't have to mean five dead bodies but somehow he severely doubted the family's aim would be that bad. They wouldn't waste resources; they were clever like that. They wouldn't take aim and shoot unless they were certain they wouldn't miss. No sense in wasting a bullet even when you were clearly fucked up in the mind department.

So five gunshots meant five people dead already. How long had it been since they had started to run for their lives? An hour? Two hours? How big was this forest even? Was he even running in the right direction still? He had no fucking clue, making him want to scream and yell and curse and slam his fists in those motherfucking trees which towered all around him!

But he couldn't do anything of that because running while clutching his one useless arm against his chest was already too much of a fucking strain as it was! He had tried to run while leaving his right arm dangling but every step, every contact his feet had made with the ground, had sent bolts of annoying pain through his useless shoulder. He was forced to clutch his right arm against his chest if he wanted to make any sort of headway, but keeping his arm pressed against his chest did nothing to improve his speed. Whatever he did, he was fucked!

Not as fucked as some of the others, though, he realised when he ran past a dead body. It had been one of the women, that much he could make out in the dark based on the long hair and the skirt, but her face was completely submerged into a pool of mud. He didn't need to be a pathologist to know a gun had been her end, though: the blasted open skull was a dead giveaway.

Better her than him, however. It did confirm that he would have to be even more careful than before. If she had been killed here, that meant the family wasn't that far off any longer. Running might actually no longer be a feasible option for him because while running brought him closer to the river, it also created a hell of a lot more noise. He had never been the type to take things slow, but now he forced himself to slow down to a walking pace until he was creeping past trees and bushes. He detested having to move so slowly but he wasn't an idiot.

Running had been the best option when they had still had their head start, but that small break was long over by now. Rushing wasn't going to do anything now but heighten the chances of getting himself killed. How did that one saying go again? Slow and steady wins the race or some shit like that? Well fuck, it was time to test that saying, he guessed! He would goddamn crawl across the ground if that meant none of those fuckers would catch him! Hiding wouldn't do shit, he knew that. Even after all the running he had done so far, he hadn't come across anything that could potentially serve as a hiding spot and he didn't want to waste precious time trying to find such a place either.

A sixth gunshot had him ducking behind a tree, holding his breath as he tried to determine where the sound had come from. Had it sounded close by? He thought it had but then again with how much loud noises echoed through the forest, his sense of direction had gone to shit after the second gunshot.

He couldn't risk staying here, though. While the tree was quite wide, certainly broad enough to act as cover, if he stayed here, he might as well just give himself up to those fuckers. If he would just keep going in the same direction, he should reach the river normally. As long as he didn't turn back, there was no way he could miss the river, especially if it did cut off the forest from the road entirely.

Of course whether it was a good idea to trust those arseholes on their word …

The noise of a branch splitting in two was impossibly louder than the gunshots had been and he whirled around, his heart shooting into his throat. Wildly he looked around himself, his mouth drying up when he saw a shadow flitting behind a tree.

Fuck.

They had found him!

Heedless of his fucked up right arm, Kidomaru started running, panic surging him onwards. Fucking being slow and steady! That was certainly going to get him killed now! The sound of light footsteps gaining on him was infinitely more terrifying than the gunshots had been.

"FUCK YOU!" he snarled in a panic, hating those fuckers for putting him through this much terror, loathing them for reducing him to nothing but –

Something heavy slammed into the back of his head, making him shout and lose his balance. Before he could recover, he fell straight into a creek and he spluttered, coughing when he accidentally inhaled some of the murky, disgusting water. He braced his good arm against the unsteady ground, using that to push himself back up. Before he could get back to his feet however, someone slammed into his back, pushing him back down.

"NO, WAI-"

He started to panic, struggling wildly but he was unable to stop his assailant from shoving his face back into the water, submerging him completely. He flailed with his good arm, tried to kick the other one off, attempted to fucking roll around, do something but nothing worked! The other one kept sitting on his back, kept his face shoved down into the water as he spluttered and choked and coughed and –

Sakura sank down on some roots sticking out of the ground, trying to catch her breath while her heart pounded like mad. Her skin prickled with uncomfortable heat, her chest felt too tight as her lungs desperately tried to capture enough oxygen to get her through until –

She slapped a hand over her mouth when she caught sight of the body dumped at the edge of the creek. She hadn't even seen it when she had got here! Feeling like she was going to be sick any moment now, she stumbled back onto her feet and hesitatingly, tentatively walked over to the dead body.

It had been a guy, that Kidomaru one maybe judging by his torn jeans jacket? He hadn't been shot like some of the others she had come across. With his head still submerged in the water, it didn't take a genius to figure out how he had been killed.

"Shit," she muttered wearily to herself and rubbed over her forehead.

She was so tired … She had done nothing but run ever since that family had started their miserable game and she was ready to drop any second now. But she couldn't. If she gave up now when freedom was so close by … She had to keep going, had to continue. Surely the river couldn't be that far off anymore? Or hell by this point she would even take something to hide in!

Something like a hollowed out trunk, maybe, she considered desperately as she started running again. Or maybe some kind of hole in the ground; the earth had softened up a lot since the latest bout of rain so it should be fairly easy to create some kind of pit. Seeking cover underneath some bushes might perhaps be an option or –

Or a dilapidated shed.

As the moon broke through the clouds, it flooded this area of the forest with its milky white rays and in doing so illuminated a small shed. It was clearly nothing more than four shoddy walls and an even shoddier looking roof; the walls themselves seemed to have some holes in them, nature and animals having done their number on it. It was partly hidden away underneath the branches of the trees nearby. Normally the holes in the walls would make her dismiss it as a shelter option because how much of a shelter could it really be when there were several holes exposing the interior?

But that was what made it absolutely perfect now! Those fuckers wouldn't expect her to hide into a shed that was far from a respectable shelter! They would see the holes and dismiss it as a suitable hiding spot! It was damn perfect! All she needed to do was get in there and wait until dawn broke so that she could make –

Her breathing hitched when the moonlight revealed something else – or better said, someone else.

Someone with a mop of blond hair, their too skinny body scurrying over to the shed she had just laid claim on.

Naruto.

It was Naruto making his way to the shed, obviously having the same idea she had. The shed was in no way big enough to keep the two of them hidden, however, and she wasn't going to give it up. Not now, not after having spent so much time running for her life, after weeks of being locked up and treated worse than a goddamn animal! She was going to have that shed all to herself, no matter what she had to do!

A sense of purpose falling over her, she felt calmer than ever before as she snatched a heavy stone from the ground. Curling her fingers around the rock, feeling its jagged edges dig into her skin, she honed in on the figure scurrying towards the shed and started walking towards him.

She was going to be the only one hiding in that shed. Nobody else. She would make sure of that.

AN2: So ... Any interest in the second part? Because this is a twoshot - well, will be a twoshot if there's interest for that at least. Sorry for my weird mind; I don't even know anymore, truly.

Please leave your thoughts behind in a review; should you spot any mistakes, please point them out to me.

I hope to see you all back in the next chapter! Please stay safe and take care of yourselves!

Cuddles

Melissa

P.S. For more information about my upcoming and posted stories, please visit my profile.