Crossroads (A Naruto Fanfiction)

Just A Child

A/N: I am aware that Madara was the one to have kidnapped Rin and made it seem like Kiri kidnapped her, and that they chased her to retrieve the tailed beast. But for the sake of my story, it's different somewhat.

I could tell it was a while before I finally woke up. Nothing registered for a moment as my mind became conscious again before the pain kicked in. Ropes twisted around my ankles and wrists tightly enough to purple the tips of my fingers and toes, but with how dark it was, I could barely see an inch in front of me.

I startled when there was movement behind me. "Satsuki-Kun?" The soft and tired voice was Rin. "Don't be scared. I'm here to protect you." She soothed.

I couldn't take her words seriously no matter how much I wanted to believe them. She was captured as well by the shinobi who was skilled enough to take us from the middle of Konoha. Maybe that's why she sounded so defeated, to give a promise of safety when all the odds were stacked against us. To die again in this fashion, yet again having done nothing with my life.

"Satsuki-Kun," Rin called again. "Can you move back towards me?" I listened to her, since there was really nothing for me to do in this situation. The flexibility of my young body made it easy to work my way back towards her despite how painful it was to move around the ropes. Rin bent over on top of me, using her body as some sort of cover. I didn't know why she was doing that until I found myself relaxing and my short breaths slowed down to a more natural pace. Of course, Rin was a practicing medic. She would know how to deal with children in traumatic situations. Can I be counted as a child? Her tactic worked anyhow.

She stayed like that for who knows how long. In this complete darkness, all sense of time was lost and all we could do was wait for one of our kidnappers to come and give us some kind of clue as to why we were captured. My eyes were heavy with the fatigue from my own inner fear pressing down on me that was still there despite Rin's effort, when the seemingly only door to this dirt room opened. The dim lights from the other side were bright enough to blind us. It irritated me that I couldn't rub my eyes.

"Huh, so you guys are awake." It was a deep male voice and mocked us as he spoke. "Maybe these Konoha kids are actually worth the time. Hey, why did we need two of them again?"

"No clue, the captain just said to put them in the cell." This one was a woman, her voice bland and bored. My vision adjusted to the light quickly and I could see Rin still bent over me protectively and glared at the two older foreign shinobi. The hitaite they wore was not of Konoha.

"Loosen up girl," The guy said after noticing Rin's glare. "Listen to us and we're not gonna hurt you or that brat there." Rin's glare merely intensified.

The woman scoffed. "Shut up, there's no point talking to them. Konoha probably has troops scouring around the woods looking for them right now, so hurry up and grab the girl. Even if the troops aren't much, it's still dangerous."

"What is this?" Rin spoke up as the man took a few steps towards us.

"You'll find out soon girly." He simply said as he came close enough to reach out and grab ahold of Rin's collar and dragged her over me. Her indignant yells faded as she was taken away, leaving me alone with the woman still leaned up against the door frame. She was staring at me consideringly.

It was a minute or so before she stood straight and crouched over my vulnerable form. "You look familiar." She started, "Maybe I fought one of your relatives. Your father? Mother? Uncle? Or perhaps a brother or sister?" She waited to see how I would react to her words, but there was nothing as I tried to maintain my fear. However, I did feel shocked that she just confessed she, including the others, didn't know of my identity. As an Uchiha we usually wore our clan logo on our clothes, but I was still in my hospital gown. I didn't know if I should be more scared.

The woman cocked her head to the side. "I knew you were strange. I haven't met a kid as self-controlled as you before. Or perhaps, you're one of the prodigy kids running about in Konoha?" She shook her head. "That Hatake Kakashi... do you know him? He was part of destroying the Kanabi bridge, so we have no choice but to try and kill him on sight. A shame, as a certified prodigy myself, I wanted to see how we compare." How old was this woman, to say she wanted to compare herself to a 13-year-old? "You could fill in then. From what happened until now, what do you think is happening?"

I didn't reply. She waited, her face and posture unchanged as the seconds ticked by. It felt like an eternity until she sighed and stood back up and said, "I'm a patient lady. Only when the person actually follows through with me." She lashed out, the tip of her soles connecting perfectly with my jaw and twisting it with an audible crack to my neck, effectively making me cry out in pain. My voice scratched at my throat.

I didn't think this was how I would use my voice for the first time.

I thought my neck was broken for a second, but there was only a pressured pain. My inner cheek cut against my cheek and the blood dribbled past the corner of my lip. I was ashamed of the tears that came with the pain. The woman crouched over me once more. "I could easily kill you like that boy. I have no mercy, even for children like you. So answer me."

Again, I didn't reply. If I was going to die again, I might as well do my best to stay brave. I was weak then and still am, but I was not someone who let himself be put into a pitiful state by someone else. If there was one thing I knew, only you yourself can do the worst harm to you. Shaming myself by asking for mercy would be worse than getting killed by this woman.

"I see," she muttered, "I could only guess if you truly are brave, or a fool." She reached out and grabbed ahold of my dark hair and lifted my head up to meet her manic gaze. She scoffed at the tears that flooded out of my eyes and sneered, "You really are just a child, aren't you? Crying with only this." She suddenly let my hair go and my head banged on the dirt floor. Ringing erupted in my eardrums and all I could do was to keep my eyes shut through the pain. A moment later, the door to the cell closed, leaving me alone in the dark.