Bound to You (Naruto)

Chapter Ten

Tsuki woke with a start, her head was swimming. Her body felt heavy. There was a gentle warm breeze brushing across her revealed skin. She struggled to open her eyes only to flinch as her retinas burned, it was daylight and she was outside. What was going on? Panicked she rolled into a sitting position and tried to feel around behind her, only to gasp as she found her hands bound behind her back. Her arms were numb from laying on them for so long.

Her heart began to race. She had no idea where she was or how to get back to the underground lair. She felt the trunk of a tree behind her, whoever had brought her here knew she was weak to sunlight and thought to leave her in the shade.

She heard what sounded like explosions in the distance and the sounds of people fighting. Where was she? Tsuki struggled against her bonds trying to break free. Why was she tied up? A worrisome thought crossed her mind. The last thing she remembered clearly was taking the sedatives Orochimaru had left her. There was another memory, though she wasn't entirely sure it wasn't a dream. She thought she remembered someone restraining her and forcing her to ingest something, but it was fuzzy.

She attempted to adjust her sitting position; her leg slipped out of the safety of the shade and she let out a hiss of pain as her leg began to sear. Pulling her leg back into the shadows, she tried to get a sense for what time of day it was and how much longer she'd have cover. Her pulse began to race unsteadily as she sensed a disturbance with Lord Orochimaru. The mark on the palm of her hand began to itch and burn. Something was wrong. He was in trouble.

The sunlight burned her retinas as she tried a second time to open her eyes. She squinted in an attempt to minimize the blinding light and reduce the damage and was briefly able to make out her surroundings. She was in a forest, there were trees all around her. Snapping her eyes tightly shut again she tried to focus on Orochimaru's presence. He wasn't too far away, maybe a kilometer. There were more explosions in the distance, sounding like they were coming from the direction she sensed Orochimaru's presence.

Her arms began to tingle and for a moment she thought the bonds keeping her arms behind her back were cutting off circulation until the tingling turned to burning. She let out a cry as her arms began to sear with pain, something was definitely wrong with Orochimaru! It was pure agony, it felt like her arms were being dipped in acid, she bit her lip to keep from crying out, but the pain was too great. Blood dribbled from her lip as she pierced through in her anguish and she couldn't hold back her screams.

The shadows around her shifted and she cried as her leg began to burn. She rolled to the other side of the trunk trying to conceal herself in the shadows. There were voices in the distance and approaching quickly. Someone had heard her scream. She squinted in an attempt to get a glimpse of her surroundings, she saw a group of men, all wearing matching shinobi attire with navy blue pants and long sleeve shirts and hunter green vests. They were approaching fast. Tsuki attempted to break from her bonds as she sensed Orochimaru's presence on the move, he was moving further away from her!

"Hey, look over there!" A voice called out and Tsuki screamed as a kunai pierced the trunk of the tree next to her face.

Her body moved on autopilot, twisting over and sliding her arms up, she managed to cut her bonds on the kunai before cupping her hands above her eyes so she could look around. There were more men approaching, fast and they didn't look friendly. She left the safety of the shade and bolted deeper into the forest with a cry. Why were they chasing her?!

"Get back here!"

Agony wormed through her, she chanced a glance down at her arms, they had turned a pale blueish purple and now felt like someone was slowly peeling off her skin, layer by layer cutting down to the bone. She winced as all of her revealed skin began to burn in the sunlight as she attempted to escape her pursuers.