Where... Am I?

Sasuke shook his head as his eyes opened to find everything around him in a blur. He shut his eyes tight and moved his hand to rub his eyes only to find it tied up to the ceiling of--

"A... Cave?" Sasuke finally understood that he was being held captive in some sort of cave. Certainly not the one he'd destroyed when he found out Sakura was gone, "W-wait... Sakura..."

"Sasuke!"

He looked a little further down the cave and recognized the trio all tied in the same way but further from him, "Shikamaru?"

"Yeah."

Sasuke peered his eyes to see in the darkness better, "is that Ino and Choji with you?"

"Yeah. How are you?"

"Not dead."

"Heh." Shikamaru tugged his arms at the rope, to no avail, he finally groaned, "this is such a drag..."

Sasuke peered down the other direction of the cave in search of an exit. He finally decided that there was no exit nearby and turned back to Shikamaru, "how long was I out?"

"Oh..." Shikamaru shrugged, "since I woke up? About thirty minutes to an hour... But then again, we've been in this cave. The guy out there told me it's been two days."

"Damn..." Sasuke wiped his forehead on his shoulder and stared at the cave floor, "that... That was no ordinary sleep..."

"Yeah." Shikamaru nodded, "I was able to wake from it because it was a Genjutsu. It took me a while, but I broke it. Choji and Ino aren't close enough for me to wake them with my Chakra, but I thought you'd wake up soon enough."

"But..." Sasuke pursed his lips, "how could that Genjutsu effect me? I'm an Uchiha, it shouldn't have--"

"Wait." Shikamaru shut his eyes, "you hear that?"

Sasuke turned to look in the opposite direction, where he saw a small light coming closer, "someone's here."

"He knows I'm awake." Shikamaru looked at Sasuke, "pretend you're asleep."

"What?!"

"Just do it."

He had no time to react, but Sasuke followed orders begrudgingly, shut his eyes, and fell back against the wall.

The leader set the torch he was holding in a rung on the cave wall and knelt by Shikamaru, "good morning. It's 5 in the morning."

Shikamaru peered at him and tried to make out the details in his face, only to be blocked out by an ANBU mask, "so, who are you?"

"Who am I? It wouldn't be much fun if I just told you, would it?"

"That... That chakra-masking technique..."

"Ah, you know." The man smirked, "I somehow knew you'd catch on. You know him, don't you? He helped you in the Land of Silence against the country head, Gengo, am I correct? His name was Rō?"

Shikamaru shivered, "'was'?"

"Oh yeah, he knew our plan, so we had to do something to keep his mouth shut, and that was our only option. As a valuable member of the Leaf Village's ANBU Black Ops, we had to do something to keep our mission under-wraps."

"Well." Shikamaru sneered, "your mission won't be too under-wraps once the Hokage finds out about this."

"Unless you die before you could ever tell the story."

After a moment, Shikamaru sighed and shook his head, "What do you want with us?"

"Heh." The man chuckled, "it's not you that I want. I just want revenge on this failure of an Uchiha."

"'Failure'? I don't think you have that right to speak that way."

"You think, huh?" The man slipped his hands into his pockets, "well, Sasuke's the final Uchiha, isn't that right? Why should we let such a corrupted clan be revived, have you ever thought of that?"

Shikamaru pursed his lips, "I don't quite see what you mean..."

"Come now. You're a smart young man with so much potential, so humor me a bit. You'll do what's best for the village, but do you know what the Uchiha have done in the past? Do you know what problems they've caused for the villagers? Don't you think 'doing the best for the village' would entail the complete erasure of that Hell of a clan?"

Shikamaru gripped his fists so tight that he felt blood run from his palms, "that's enough. You have no right to speak that way of the Uchiha clan or of Sasuke."

"What are you going to do, huh?" He cackled, "you're all shackled to the ground! And you know what?" He slowly approached Shikamaru, "you'll probably be dead within a few hours."

Shikamaru hissed under his breath, "go to Hell."

The leader sent a slap across Shikamaru's face before standing up and leaving, "Shin, stay on watch."

Shin... Shikamaru repeats as he sits back up against the cave wall.

Another ANBU ninja stood halfway through the cave between the hostages and the entrance, waiting for something to happen.

Shikamaru let out a sigh of relief and turned, "hey, Sasuke. You good?"

Sasuke's shoulders hunched over as he heaved heavy breaths, "whoever this guy is, I'm going to kill him... I'm going to kill him..."

"Sasuke!" Shikamaru leaned closer, "calm down! You're not thinking straight right now!"

"Why the hell are we here? Just show me Sakura's okay, dammit!"

"Sasuke...? Shikamaru... What's going on?"

Sasuke turns at the sound of Ino's weak voice, "tch..."

"Ino." Shikamaru turns his attention to her, "how are you?"

"Couldn't be better." Choji cracked his neck as he started gaining consciousness as well, "where are we?"

"We're being held hostage right now and we need some intel on Sakura's condition," Shikamaru informed them.

"Here." Sasuke looked up, "I can use my Amaterasu to burn the ropes."

"Wait." Shikamaru stopped him, "we need to know what's out there before we do anything reckless like that. If anything, they left your eyes uncovered because they wanted you to get out that easily. Let's hold back."

Feeling a bit shot down and frustrated, Sasuke agreed and leaned back, "so, what then?"

"Ino." Shikamaru turned to his teammate, "do you think you can use your Mind-Transfer Jutsu to the guy in here?"

"I-I think so..." Ino peered down the cave at the man standing near the entrance as she pulled herself up as far as she could and positioned the triangular shape of her fingers in front of her face, "Mind-Transfer Jutsu!"

After a few seconds, Shikamaru used his legs to catch Ino's body before it could hit the cave floor, "nice job, Ino."

Suddenly, the man at the entrance of the cave rubbed his head and casually stepped outside.

Just outside the cave, three other ANBU, along with their leader, stood around a campfire.

"Hey, Shin!" One of the ANBU turned to the supposed guard on duty, "why'd you leave your post?"

"I came to get some water, that's all. Sheesh, calm down." Ino, acting under Shin's form, walked over to where their packs were and rummaged through the stuff to find a bottle of water. As she did so, her eyes caught sight of a balled-up piece of paper. She quickly snatched it up, took the bottle, and headed back into the cave. Before leaving the body, she tossed the ball of paper and the bottle of water down further into the cave where the hostages were being kept.

"Nice." Shikamaru took the paper and the bottle as Ino slowly began waking up, "so, what's that?"

"I don't know..." Ino kicked the paper over to Sasuke, "I guess I should've opened it, huh?"

"It's fine." Sasuke used his feet to open the wad of paper and smooth it out, "it's a letter... Addressed to me."

"A letter..."

"Oh... I know this handwriting."

Sasuke frantically read through the letter and felt the blood drain from his face, "this isn't good."

Shikamaru sighed, "it's the village, isn't it?"

"Yeah. Naruto and Hinata were attacked. Supposedly the guys were after Boruto." Sasuke gripped his hand into a fist so hard, blood dripped down his wrist, "they were dressed as ANBU Black Ops."

"Hold on. 'Dressed'?" Choji asked, "as in, they're not ANBU?"

"They can't be. There's something very wrong with them. There's no way they could actually be the village's own ANBU unit... Right?" Ino awaited a response before sighing, "are they safe?"

"For now, yeah." Sasuke looked at her, "but that's not all. Hinata added that they knew the Fireball Jutsu."

Shikamaru leaned his head back thoughtfully, "The only clan known to use that jutsu is the Uchiha clan... Are you implying their leader is an Uchiha?"

"If that were the case." Ino looked at him, "then why is he after his own bloodline?"

"Things aren't adding up." Sasuke shut his eyes and the image of that kunai flashed in his mind, "Uchiha or not, I swear I'm going to kill him."

Shikamaru just turned to look at Choji, who shrugged, then sighed, "I know you must be feeling some serious hatred towards this guy, but you have to keep your cool. Don't get distracted by your anger."

At those words, Sasuke suddenly realized how he'd been acting: just like he used to. Blinded by rage.

The four immediately became silent once they heard footsteps echoing through the cave.

"You." Sasuke peered his eyes at the oncoming ninja, "you have Sakura, right?"

"I do." He smirked to himself, "she must really mean something to you if she's the first person that comes to mind when you see me."

"Don't give me that crap." Sasuke rolled his eyes, "I can't see your face, how should I know who you are? You kidnapped someone who means the world to me, how could I not worry about her."

The man was silent for a while before chuckling, "the Uchiha really do cherish love in a way that other shinobi don't. Your wife felt the same."

He looked at him, "'felt'?"

"Yes. She can no longer feel anything, now."

Sasuke nearly broke from the ropes holding him back, "what did you do to her? I swear if you hurt her or the baby..."

"Heh." The man chuckled, "why don't you see for yourself?"

Sasuke felt a pulse run through his head and spread to the rest of his body. It was a familiar feeling he knew all too well. He shut his eyes and made a single hand-sign, "release!"

Nothing.

He looked around in confusion, "the Genjutsu... It didn't release..."

The black darkness before him faded into an image, and all he heard was the sound of a baby crying.

"Sakura! Sakura, where are you..." Sasuke grabbed for his sword just when he saw a figure laying on the ground, "Sakura!"

He ran up to her but the figure didn't move. Not even her chest or her flat stomach.

"Wait... Where's..." Sasuke stared at her bruised face and the scars on her body, "what happened to..."

The cries got louder and louder until everything around him flashed right before his eyes until darkness overtook him once again.

Sakura is dead, Sasuke.

And so is your child.