Departure

Release (Part 1)

"Naira! You can do this!" She screamed behind bars. A rope quickly swung down from above and, as if possessed, wrapped itself around DJ's neck. It became a noose. Suddenly, something appeared on my arm. It burned like I was getting a branded with a white-hot needle. The words were slowly and painfully etched onto my arm. It spelled out:

DJ IS DEAD.

"Don't listen to him!" Xandric yelled from her cell doors. A door opened in her cell and a blade sliced through her neck. Then again,

XANDRIC IS DEAD

no...

"You're almost there!" Ether Blake called out. She was suddenly picked up by the neck by a soldier and squeezed her windpipe so hard it was crushed. And again,

ETHER BLAKE IS DEAD

please...

"We believe in you! You're stronger!" Kusa roared. Syringes were forcefully stabbed into her body, injecting Cyanide and collecting chakra. Again,

KUSA IS DEAD

stop it...

"He's almost dead! Kill him!" A girl cried out by the name of Ranaku. Something was cocked and it aimed at her forehead. The trigger was pulled without hesitation. And again,

RANAKU IS DEAD.

NOOOO!!

I shot up from my bed in terror. Beads of sweat trickled down my neck and some fell off my chin and onto my covers- wait, bed?

"Hey, you ok?" A voice said. I looked up only to see the girl I saw back at the Akatsuki base. Long black hair tied up in pigtails. I scooted back in surprise and almost fell out of my bed, but she caught me before I could do so.

"Sorry! I didn't mean to startle you! It's just that this is the third time this week you woke up in the middle of the night like you've just seen a ghost." I just remembered everything. My friends were taken captive by my enemy, Soryn and The Prince. I sulked for a minute, and then shot a glance at the girl.

"Where am I?" I asked.

"You're in the Akatsuki infirmary. You took quite a beating from what I heard. Oh! My name's Ranaku." She held out her hand with a beaming smile. Ranaku...

"Naira."

"Yeah, Deidara carried you all the way here! Such a sweet guy! He even helped patch up your wounds. Your scythe was also fixed and re-sealed into its summoning scroll." I looked down at my patched up arm. She put a gentle hand in my shoulder and sat by me.

"I heard about your friends. I'm so sorry. The Prince also tried to do the same. A long time ago, he tried to get the Akatsuki to join him. Pein-sama said no and The Prince got really mad. We made it out alive because of his signature jutsu 'Shira Tensei'. So, like you, we got an ax to grind with him..."