In, one two three four five.
Pause.
Out, one two three four five.
Pause.
In, one two three-
Haruhi's mental counting was abruptly interrupted as her shaky breathing tapered off into painful sounding hacking. She doubled over, wrists aching from straining against the bonds as bile splashed against the dirty floor.
She groaned, head thumping against the wall behind her. That was not a smart move, as her already pounding migraine has her seeing stars from the intensity of the pain.
Tears tracked down her face against her will, sobs want to well up past her lips but she bit down harshly. She wouldn't give those fuckers the satisfaction.
"It's okay to cry, you know."
Haruhi's eyes snapped open. She didn't even realize she had closed them.
"Who's there?!" She croaked.
Silence.
Bleary eyes scanned the darkness of the cavernous hallway. So deep and encompassing it would swallow hamster Haruhi right up. Without her glasses, she was blinder than normal. And the weak flickering of the torch provided meager relief.
Maybe she had finally lost it.
After being kidnapped, beaten up, thrown, dropped, and experimented on, maybe her brain finally phoned it in.
After seeing the absolute clusterfuck that was ninja society she had just blue screened. She quit! Ka-put!
She sucked in a deep breath, chest rumbling from congestion as she tried and fail to regain any sense of control. It slipped through her fingers like water. Like trying to capture a cloud in a jar. Or some shit, she didn't know.
"Again, it's okay to cry."
Oh, she had so not imagined that.
"Who's there!?" She snapped. Her eyes roved over the bubbling darkness, and she gasped when she spotted the silhouette of a person in the corner of the hallway.
Haruhi doubted that even with her glasses she would have been able to tell anything of significance about the person. They wore black like a cloak. Their voice was purposefully lowered as to make it indistinguishable from either gender. Their frame could have been a slim man or a well built woman. It was impossible to tell.
They hesitated and Haruhi held her breath.
"...someone who wants to help."
Their voice was clearly lowered on purpose, and muffled by cloth. It sounded like it was made to be gravally.
"No shit." Haruhi said, just so tired with everything.
"Honest." They sounded so sincere too.
"Not gonna judge me for bawling like a baby? Throwing a little pity-party. Aren't I supposed to suck it up or something? Walk it off? Or whatever the bullshit ninja code says. No tears." Haruhi drawled, head spinning from hunger.
"Not at all." They whispered.
"Then what are you gonna do?"
The figure moved towards Haruhi and she felt her heart leap into her throat, but all they did was shade the torch so Haruhi couldn't make out their features. Not like it would really matter without her glasses but each to his own she guessed.
Haruhi hears the jangling of keys and she is frozen as they slide into the lock. A clanging noise rings through the cell, and her hair stands on end as the jail door shrieks as it's slid open.
She licks her cracked lips. The shackles shaked along with her hands.
The mysterious person is wearing gloves. Gently, they remove the chains with the tips of their fingers and help Haruhi lower her hands. They place apple slices and crackers in her lap, and a water bottle beside her. Haruhi could cry in relief.
"It's okay to cry." They repeated.
In the cover of darkness, where no one can see her, she cries.
She lets it all out.
You have been through unimaginable things these past couple of months. Far more than anyone should have had to deal with. Crying is nothing to be ashamed of, or to hide. You did your best with what you had, and I'm proud of you. But, even then, things will not always go well for you or how you planned them to, and it's important for you to know that it's not your fault."
Haruhi sniffled.
"Eat up. I'm going to leave your glasses and this by your feet. You have a bit of time before they arrive but not much. Finish and leave."
The shadow turned and strode down the hallway, saying one last thing before disappearing.
"You have a choice to make."
Haruhi called for them to stop, but they were already gone.
A second passed, before she shoved some cracker in her face. She chewed furiously, before downing some of the bottle. She finished the rest of the crackers and started on the apple slices.
She has the last few crammed into her mouth before she stood up on bambi legs. She patted the floor for her glasses and puts them on. Immediately her dank cell, no matter how dim, is thrown into sharp relief. She can make out the individual chains in the link, and the bricks on the side walls.
Her eyes land on a scrap of paper halfway to the door.
She lightly jogs over, and just stops to look at it.
It's the same seal that Haruhi had traced on the cover of her laminated book. It was the same seal she had emerged from in the hokage's office, which Kabuto had evidently stolen.
It was the same seal that had been used to make her full sized again.
Haruhi stared at it for a solid minute, wrapped in disbelief, before she stooped down and picked it up between her thumb and index finger.
It was hard to describe what it was like, going from a few inches tall back to her height of 5'9. It was dizzying. The best way she could describe it was like being on the elliptical for hours on end. When you finally step off the machine, walking regularly felt...strange.
She staggered out of the cell, ripping the torch off the wall. Haruhi trudged down the hall. She walked past rows of empty cells, calling out Sasuke's name.
She became more desperate with each one.
"Sasuke, please." She calls into the one at the end. No dice.
Her breathing is coming in short panicked gasps now, and she can feel the anxiety attack pressing in from the corners of her vision.
Haruhi sags against the wall, and it takes all she has in her not to drop her torch.
Shaking her head, she forces herself to stand. She can breakdown later. Sasuke needs her right now.
She thumps down the stone spiral staircase, and freezes as she hears a commotion.
"Orochimaru-sama wants me to guard the asset. You three hold of the invaders!"
"Yes sir!"
Three ninja wearing similar clothes to Orochimaru leap out one of the windows, and the one who barked the orders runs to the opposite side of the hall and turns the corner.
Haruhi creeps down to the last step, jumps off, and chases after him.
She knows, in her heart, that the asset must be Sasuke.
It has to be Sasuke.
Her brain is kicked into overdrive and she growls as she limps down the halls. The asset, really? That's what they were calling him? What kind of dehumanizing fuckery was that.
She turns the corner and stops dead in her tracks, a blade pressed to her throat.
She swallowed, feeling the blade press further into her jugular.
The person sighed.
"Oh, it's you. I didn't recognize you like that. Let me guess, Orochimaru?" they said, and leaned back. Haruhi turned around to find Anko standing behind her.
"Yes. Do you know where Sasuke is?" Haruhi asked. Haruhi stared at the body of the nin who was alive not one minute ago. His head was half severed by the same kunai just held at her throat.
Anko's lips pressed into a thin line, but before she could speak, a faint hissing noise cut her off.
Haruhi's stomach dropped, and she slowly turned towards the black hole in the wall where a door should be. She forced her feet to move towards the hissing, eyes alight with fear.
She stared into the abyss, holding out her torch in front of her.
The dim light had her thinking for a second she was hallucinating.
Sasuke was tied to the wall, ropes and cords circling his wrists, legs, and knees. Cords wound around his neck and shoulders, many more draped around his waist and legs. Her eyes widened in realization.
Those weren't cords.
Those were snakes.
Giving a shout of horror, Haruhi stumbled backwards and away from the pit, falling hard on her ass. Her torch clattered to her left, flame nearly sputtering out before stabilizing, the rush of oxygen making it brighter.
The Snakes were Mamushi. Haruhi recognized it from when Sakura and Haku were studying poisons.
"Y-you have to help him!" She begged Anko. A few bites and Sasuke was done for.
Anko scowled. Hands moving too fast for Haruhi's eyes to follow, she bit her thumb and shouted.
"Summoning jutsu!"
More snakes popped into existence at her feet and it was an exercise in self control for Haruhi not to jump away. Anko's snakes slithered into the pit and wound they're way around Sasuke, slowly dislodging the Mamushi.
Haruhi put her hands together and prayed.
Her eyes tracked the snakes, hoping they wouldn't recognize the others as imposters. Haruhi heard shouting from somewhere far away in the castle, and her lips quickened their pace.
She wanted to loot the nin's body, take his shoes for her bare feet, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from Sasuke.
He was pale as a ghost, lips cracked and dry from hunger and thirst. Ropey bruises covered the few exposed parts of his body from where snakes had crushed his failing limbs.
Achingly slowly, Anko's snakes wound under the one on his neck.
Sasuke's eyes fluttered open.
Haruhi shed a few tears of relief.
He seemed confused at first, eyes gliding over her like she didn't exist. His eyes were unseeing, and his head lolled to the side. After a second, he regained his bearings enough to spot her.
He tensed up.
The Mamushi started to hiss and Haruhi did the universal sign for silence at Sasuke.
He still seemed weak, but infinitely better than just a few seconds ago. He nodded slightly and watched as Anko's snakes replaced Orochimaru's.
He turned to stare at her, seemingly not being able to believe what was right before his eyes. Haruhi gave him a watery smile.
The last snake was replaced. Anko slowly edges Sasuke towards them, over the writing mass of deadly snakes a few feet below him. He reaches out with one hand, and Haruhi reaches back, making sure her leg is hooked behind the wall so she doesn't fall in.
Then, as one, the mamushi rise in a writhing mass of vengeance. They hiss like the devil and spit poison. Some splashes onto the wall next to her head, smoking.
Haruhi pulls Sasuke into her arms.
Anko's snakes poof out of existence and Haruhi jumps backwards, Sasuke cradled in her arms as Anko roars in outrage.
"Fireball jutsu!"
Flames erupt from her lips, roasting the snakes to death.
The crackling of burning reptile is the only sound, along with their panting. Haruhi's heart pounds in her hear as she checks Sasuke for bite wounds. She finds week old wounds and dried blood instead.
Week old wounds.
God, how long had they been here?
Sasuke mumbled something into her ear.
"What?" She croaks.
"...I didn't give in." He mumbles. Despite all his wounds, his obvious hunger and pain, Sasuke sounds happy.
"Yeah. You were really, really brave Sasuke. I'm so proud of you." Her voice is gravelly from tears.
Anko's eyes scanned Sasuke's shoulders for a curse mark, and finds them bare.
Haruhi feels him smile into her shoulder, and she lets out a shaky breath as she tries not to cry harder. She doesn't want to scare him even more.
She turns him over in her arms and presses the water bottle to his lips. He drinks a few small sips, sighing in relief.
"Got big." He says. His hand is wrapped around her wrist.
Haruhi sniffles, letting out a short snort of amusement.
"Yeah."
He blinks, obviously out of it, and nuzzles his face into her palm.
"This is touching in all, but we need to go." Anko speaks. Her eyes are shifting to the empty passageway.
Haruhi uses her free hand to jam the dead nin's shoes onto her feet. With Anko leading and Haruhi carrying Sasuke, they stalk down the halls where the yelling echoes off the walls.
One way or another, they are getting out of here.
So...
A lot happened here. Some questions have been answered, but even more have been raised. Who are the invaders? Is it the genin? The team Danzo says he sent? How did Kabuto swipe the seal from the Hokage's personal library? How will the genin react when they hear that? Who is doing the shouting?
And many, many more.
Question of the chapter: What do you thing of Haruhi being human sized now?