Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Paradise Comes at a Price ❯ Uncertainty ( Chapter 2 )

I woke sometime later, feeling a pounding sensation from my skull and painful aching from my chest as well as from the wound on my leg. I was wheezing slightly from the broken ribs in my chest and each breath bought some new pain, making me wince as I sat up, groaning. It was cold out, each agonizing breath I exhaled made a white puff of steam rise and I noticed the grass about me covered with a layer of frost. Looking around, groggily, I remembered what was going, my mind going over the facts of the day before, the effects of the drug lasting up to 20 hours. I guessed it had been about 11 hours since I had fallen asleep. 11 hours out of action. I wondered how the war was going. What ifs started cycling through my mind and I just had to move, I had to do something.

 

I made my way out to the edge of the forest, crawling along the moist ground. It was freezing; making my shiver involuntarily while I peaked out from under the bush I had hid myself under at the edge of the thick foliage of the arena forest. It was silent, nothing moved. The stands were empty and there were distant sounds of clanking of the sorts. My heart pounded as a million `what ifs' filled my mind. Was the war over? Had they forgotten me? Had I really been left behind? Panic was slowly taking over. I had no idea what to do. For once in my life, with years of leading experience, filled with life changing decision-making, I finally had no idea of what to do.

 

I slumped against the ground, staring up at the foliage above, trying to run some rational thoughts of how to go about my next actions. It was so quiet I could hear my own heart beating and I could feel the aching, rumbling sensation throughout my stomach, both from hunger and broken ribs. There was a slightly burning sensation in my leg and I wondered if it was the poison burning away or if I was developing an infection. A rush of weakness over came me and I closed my eyes to stop the surge of dizziness that made my stomach churn. `What am I going to do?' I asked myself with no answer. I let my mind drift in and out of consciousness in the hopes that maybe I could come up with a plan.

 

 

I awoke later when a bright light shined over my face and I opened my eyes slowly. A face suddenly appeared over my own, blocking out the bright sunlight. I registered the other person and the situation I was in, and then my attention was drawn to the glimmering sliver forehead protector crowning a crown of golden hair, the symbol of the leaf was etched deep in the metal. Realisation, my eyes widened and I sprang up, leaping backwards into the forest more while drawing my weapons, ready for attack. The sudden movement made my head spin and I found myself unusually exhausted from such a simple action. Panting, I watched the enemy carefully making sure I was totally alert to everything around me. He wasn't alone.

 

“Oy, Sakura-Chan, Kaka-Sensei, come look at this!”

 

There first appeared a girl with short, pink hair. She looked at me for a moment confused and then her eyes widened in alarm.

 

“Kaka-Sensei!”

 

She yelled, pulling out her own weapons. Suddenly their Sensei appeared and I recognised him from before. He was one of the ones I had fought before in the stadium the shock of silver hair and concealed face as quite unique and memorable qualities. He narrowed his eyes at me and I felt venerable under his stare. I gripped my weapon tighter getting ready to fight in what would be the last battle I would ever fight.

 

“Sakura, Naurto”

 

He spoke sharply

 

“Go inform the Anbu we have an intruder.”

 

They both nodded and left instantly. He took a kunai from his holster almost casually, but at the same time, deadly serious and held it out, ready.

 

“Surrender, or be forced to surrender.”

 

`Shit.' I thought to myself `I can't win in this condition. I've got to escape.' I made an uncertain step backwards and was seized immediately by strong arms, which wrapped around my torso tightly. I made a strangled squeak as I felt my broken ribs dig deeper inside of me, and I struggled to release the pressure around me. The arms became tighter and desperately I tried to hit him with the kunai still in my hands only to be quickly disarmed by a suddenly appearing member of Anbu. I grit my teeth and stopped struggling, relaxing in the grip, concentrating on being able to breath again. The grip left and I now unsupported I dropped down to my knees, clutching my stomach in pain, doubling over. I felt irritation in my airways and I coughed violently, tasting the coopery tang of my blood in my mouth.

 

There was brief conversation between the Sensei and the Anbu member, which went unnoticed by me as I felt dizziness rush over me again. By this time I was sick of all of this. Why someone just finish me off already? Just stick the kunai into my heart, it easy. Hell, give me my weapons back and I'll do it for them. I just wanted everything to end already, there's no use dragging out the inevitable, there's nothing to wait for. I squeezed my eyes shut, waiting for that finishing blow that was send me onto the next plane of living. But what I wished for wasn't going to come easy as I heard the next words clear a blue sky that sent a chill into my heart.

 

“Send her to the interrogation team.”

 

This was enough to strike fear into my heart and make my eyes open wide. If it was anything like those interrogates back at the Sound, the next few days was going to be a living hell and if I survived that, I would be sent to torture specialists. Anything after that was a bonus of either a quick death after I was already a broken shell of my former self, or a slow, agonizing death, poisoned and melting away on the inside, alone, in my chamber of rotting corpses.

 

My arms were suddenly wrenched behind my back and I was pulled up to stand at full height the violent movement gave me the idea to exaggerate the swinging motion to throw my head back. It hit true into the face of the sensei, Kakashi, behind me and I felt the pain in the back of my own head as well as a slight crack of my opponents' nose fracturing. I chose then to feign feinting, falling limp in a instant, his arms let me fall, obviously reacting to the pain he would be feeling at the moment and cradle his own face. I hit the ground heavily, sticks and bark digging into some of my exposed skin irritatingly painful as I heard the groan of the victim to my head butt.

 

The harder voice of the Anbu chucked amusedly.

 

“She caught you unawares in desperation to get away, but in the process only made her fate inevitable. She's an aggressive one, I'm sure that Ibuki-san will have a challenge with her.”

 

He laughed again and I heard the dry, dead foliage crackle under the weight of someone walking.

 

“She got you good, does this hurt?”

 

There was a short strangled grunt of agonizing pain.

 

“Hn. Broken. Looks like you'll get some major bruising along with that. I suppose looking like a badger is better than being dead.”

 

There was a short growl

 

“I'm not so sure about that.”

 

The Anbu harder voice chuckled again

 

“Go to the medics, I'll escort the aggressive one to Ibuki.”

 

There was a grunt and what I presumed was Kakashi moved away from the scene while the Anbu walked closer.

 

“You can stop pretending now.”

 

I instantly moved back, standing and ready in a fighting stance. But I was already feeling light headed and the sudden movement had made me waver and struggle to keep my balance.

 

“There's no point in fighting now. You can hardly keep your vision let alone stand. If you come along quietly, there'll be less hassle for both of us and I won't have to resort to killing you.”

 

I inwardly shuddered at the Anbus' deathly intent to kill.

 

`He's right. Either way, it's going to end up in either two possibilities; death or captured. There's no way out. I've got to survive until I get an opportunity to escape. I've got to.'

 

I dropped my arms and sighed heavily. I felt the pain of defeat full on, feeling helpless to do anything to change the outcome. If I could've done anything I would've already done it. My sudden lapse in weakness made me remind myself of what I was doing.

 

A ninja must conceal all emotions.

 

The words floated through my head vaguely and I narrowed my eyes at the ground before me before raising my head to my enemy before me.

 

“Very well then.”

 

I stepped forwards, pulling off my weapon holsters and throwing them to the ground and stepping up and holding out my arms, my face blank. He pulled an elaborate electrical device from the pouch in the shape of a pair of circles joined together. They were thick and heavily intertwined with wires I noticed while he placed both of my wrists inside of the circles. He pushed on the circles until they fit my wrists tightly and pushed a tiny button. I felt like I was being shocked with electricity and I noticed that the rest of my chakara being drained from my entire being.

 

`This sucks' I thought sourly to myself. With my chakara reduced to nothing I felt heavier than I did before that caused me to droop forwards. I cringed when I bent over painful ribs and stumbled forwards as I was lead by the cuffs out of the forest by the Anbu member. As we stepped out into the clear arena, I saw many people, working to rebuild this village that we had damaged so heavily in the short war.

 

I saw the two kids that had found me and alerted their sensei to my presence in the first place and I found myself resenting them for making it all result to this. I searched myself for a decision and found it acceptable within myself to kill them when I had a chance. They may be kids, but just being a shinobi is a life risk weather they choose to acknowledge that fact or not. I could hear the whispers of the villagers as they spotted me, analysed me and sentenced me on the spot.

 

“She's from the sound. Does that mean there'll be an execution?”

 

“Nah, they banned those over forty years ago now.”

 

“Well what will they do with her?”

“She'll probably be sent to interrogation or be locked up until we have a new Hokage to deal with her.”

 

“She should be killed on the spot.”

 

“I hear interrogation is worse than death. They say they can break you without even resorting to the pain methods. If she isn't shamed enough already with defeat, she'll be begging for anything sharp enough to cut after spending a few days with Ibuki's team.”

 

I felt something in the pit of my stomach rise. I felt nervous and afraid. But I just have to go along with the flow. To survive I've got to stay sane. Sounds easy enough ignore everything, everything is a lie, they'll do anything to get the information they want. I wasn't so sure about the pain part of the interrogation, but I'd come to that problem when I come to it. Hopefully I would be long gone before that option would ever arise.

 

My legs wobbled but I kept them steady, step after step, to save what was left of my dignity. Towards something I secretly feared. The future is a scary place.

 

I was lead onwards, through the streets and up to the tower our team had tried so hard to infiltrate and up the long stair case, each step getting harder and harder to take. We reached a pair of plain oak doors, which were pushed aside by the Anbu to reveal a small room, occupied by a group of shinobi. I kept my face hidden by looking at the floor, but I could tell they all looked at me with deathly serious gazes by looking through the strands of hair that curtained over my face. An almost angry voice sounded in the room from one of the many occupants.

 

“What are you here for?”

 

The Anbu responed.

 

“I seek Ibuki, I have someone to place under his care.”

 

“Can you not place that person under the care of your students?”

 

“They do not have the talents that are required for looking after this one.”

 

This time another voice sounded from the group, it sounded darker, more gruff.

 

“And what talents may they be?”

 

The voice of the Anbu changed that to of more recognition than the flat voice he had been using before.

 

“Why interrogation, Ibuki. What else is there?”

 

“Hmph. You obviously don't know me well enough, young Anbu.”

 

“That may be a good thing, with your reputation to play with the minds of your friends.”

 

“It's all in good fun. Who's this person you need me to interrogate?”

 

I suspect looks were passed between, even gesturing backwards to myself.

 

“I see. What importance is she?”

 

“Apart of the sound army, we found her some minutes ago, in the forest of the arena hidden away in the bushes.”

 

I felt a rush of dizziness come over me again and I wavered on my feet, I shuddered in the non-existent cold, as sweat ran down my neck. I looked harder at the ground, to try to stop my head spinning.

 

“A General.”

 

Another voice had come in from behind, it vaguely sounded recognisable but I was lost as to whom it belonged to. My interrogator talked to this familiar person.

 

“How would you know this, Hatake-san”

 

“I fought with her during the invasion. Gai had luckily caught her off guard and rammed her through a wall. She disappeared under the debris. We were then attacked and didn't think of it since then.”

 

“I see. What's with your voice? You have some pretty bad bruising around that eye, what happened? I'm sure you didn't get that in the war.”

 

The Anbu chuckled.

 

“She broke his nose earlier on when we were trying to capture her.”

 

There was a momentarily a pause.

 

“Very well, I will take her. Hatake- san, would you be so good as to accompany me and the lady to the medical room.”

 

“Hai.”

 

My cuffs were passed and we poofed away to a new room, the sterile smell was almost overwhelming and the hum of machines was almost deafening compared to the quite life outside. I assumed we were somewhere underground as it seemed darker than usual even though there were lights on and there were no windows. There was a man at a desk, considering some papers thoughtfully before we had so suddenly disturbed him. Some acknowledgement passed between my torturer and the man at the desk before he spoke.

 

“Good evening Ibuki, what would you like?”

 

He grunted in an almost bored-like fashion.

 

“The usual, check-up first and then we'll test the drugs.”

 

He nodded, standing to gather his equipment and piling it onto another white table, probably used for operating on. He took a stethoscope and set it into place, in his ears and took the end of the listening device. He walked over to Ibuki turned and gestured that I was the one to be looked at. I returned the look he gave me with an empty glare, I wished then I wasn't so weak at the moment, otherwise I would have ripped him apart already.

 

“This is unusual; this is the first woman I've seen under your care since I started here.”

 

He moved towards me, opening my shirt to reveal my neatly bandaged chest and stomach and placed the cold steel of his listening instrument over my heart and other parts of my chest. He lingered some places more than most, staring into space obviously concentrating very hard on what he was listening to. He pulled the instrument from his ears, letting it dangle around his neck.

 

“Healthy as can be, although her breathing is abnormal.”

 

He moved his hands to my rib cage, my eyes narrowed at him coldly, he set his thumbs over the top of each side and pressed firmly and then began descending. He had barely moved a rib down when I gasped suddenly and yelped at the unexpected amount of pain, but his hands did not move, they moved along the rib causing pain before moving to the next, also bearing pain. I tried to pull away from Ibuki to protect myself from the assault but he held firm and then moved quickly to raise my arms over my head to rest at the back of my neck and held me there. I couldn't move in this position and had to endure the pain as each broken rib was pushed and probed, my breathing increased again from the strain and my head spun. I lost my balance for a moment and my legs gave way. He stopped me from hitting the ground and held me up to help me get my footing again. He finished his probing and then put a hand then to my forehead as if it were something that he did to every patient.

 

“Four broken ribs and a slight fever. The ribs aren't too badly damaged and they won't need and surgery of any kind, the fever could be just a coincidence sickness”

 

I let my head drop slowly and groaned, I felt the bile slowly rising in my stomach and up to my throat, I could feel myself panting and I could feel the heat radiating from my cheeks, even though I shivered. I wished then more than ever to blackout again. It would take away all the stress for at least a little while. Ibuki must have noticed me start to slump and jerked me suddenly up. My wish was answered.