Individual Lives (A Naruto Fanfic)

Heal 1

I was jolted awake as the cell around me shook. Dust fell from the ceiling, barely visible in the darkness. Grimacing in pain, I pushed myself up, and slowly forced myself onto my feet.

I was alone, if an Akatsuki member was here they would have a lamp or a candle, but nothing disturbed the shadows.

Another shake made me stumble, and I could hear the ground caving in nearby. What if caved in on my cell? I would be crushed....

I tried to grab at the cell bars, but the shackles on my wrists and neck were chained to the far wall, and I could only get so far. The chains used to be longer, until I managed to land a punch on one of the Akatsuki members. They were significantly shorter when I woke up after the next genjutsu.

"Help! I'm still down here!" I called out. My skills meant a lot to the Akatsuki, so there is no way they would let me die down here, right?

I never got a reply, and as the occasional tremor shook the cell, I realised that either no one was actually here, or they had abandoned me. My shaking legs gave in under me, and I fell to the ground.

All this time, I'd held onto hope. Hope that I would get out. Hope that I would see Kakashi again. Hope that I'd murder the assholes that put me here. This hope was fading by the second.

I reached out, grabbing the red blanket they had been kind enough to give me, and wrapped it around naked form. They'd stripped me at some point, and never given me more clothes. This was the only warmth I ever felt.

Wrapping it around me like you would a towel, I sat on the floor of the cell, and adjusted the shackles on my wrist so they weren't too high up my forearm. These shackles somehow cancelled out my chakra, making me unable to do anything. I couldn't even use chakra to strengthen my arm enough to break the chain, which would be a piece of cake otherwise.

Sitting in that cell, I let myself reminisce. I looked back on the times where Kakashi and I were together, where he'd help me train, he'd cook for me, he'd help me with shopping. I could still remember his face perfectly, but remembering and seeing are nothing alike. The chances of me seeing his face again were slim, I knew that. I didn't want to accept it, but I knew it.

Another tremor vibrated through the Akatsuki hideout, and I closed my eyes. It was so close. Soon the cell would cave in...sealing my fate like a tomb.

I lay back down on the floor, clutching the blanket with both hands, and let my mind fall back into the darkness of my nightmares.

*#*#*#*

"Hikari! Hikari, wake up!"

A girl's voice was calling to me, one I knew. It wasn't the blue haired woman in the Akatsuki though, I knew her voice well enough to know this wasn't her.

Forcing my weak eyes open, I found green eyes staring at mine.

"Hikari! You're okay!" Arms wrapped around me in a hug, and I blinked at the bubblegum hair in my view.

"Sakura-chan? No.... This must be another genjutsu," I said softly, closing my eyes sadly.

"Hikari, it's really me. I'm here," she said leaning back. I opened one eye.

"Your illusions are too real Itachi. I can't keep track anymore," I said. My voice was scratchy, it must have been a few days since the last time I had been given food or water.

"Hikari, this isn't an illusion," she said, and I could hear sadness in her voice.

"Prove it. Prove something the Akatsuki doesn't know," I challenged.

"You were the one who first told me about Tsunade-sama. You told me about her to cheer me up and help me face the Chuunin exams back when I thought your name was Yumi," she said. I blinked in surprise, both my eyes wide, as I stared at her.