That face haunted me even while I was unconscious and I woke with a start. The first thing I noticed was that it was dark, so dark that even with my eyes open I was virtually blind. My body still had the after effects of being paralyze and so, it took extra effort to move my hand, then my legs then struggle to my feet.

I pushed myself up against the wall, leaning heavily since I couldn't quite hold my own weight as yet, and waited impatiently for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. I needed to get out of here. I needed to find some way to escape this place and get back to the others. I wasn't about to allow them to just take me back like that. There were people waiting for me, a life I had created. I was not about to let all that be ripped away from me.

When I thought I was strong enough I tried walking but, that wasn't the case. I was still too weak and so I fell to the ground. My eyes finally adjusted, somewhat to the darkness, and I could see a little clearly what was around me.

I was in a cell. There were four dreary walls surrounding me and, in the wall in front of me, there was a small opening that could be slid aside. Other than that small piece of contact to the outside, separated by tiny cell bars on my side by the way, I was isolated. I didn't know if there were any more cells around me, it was dead silent.

I tried listening for any sounds but there was nothing. It was as if I was alone in the whole world. That wasn't sitting well with me.

I struggled to my feet again and, this time, I got up without the support of the wall. I tried putting one foot before the other, moving forward and, in what felt like years, I finally made it across the room.

I banged on the metal door. "Let me out of here!!" I bellowed, creating a ruckus. "Saiko you damn crazy witch! You better let me out of here before I tear this place down brick by brick!!!"

"He said you were pretty docile the last you were here." The opening in the door slid to the side and I was staring into Saiko's arrogant brown eyes. Even without seeing her mouth itself, I could tell she was smirking. "Well, I guess it was all that morphine. Now I know why they found the need to subdue you."

I glared at her. "Because of my wonderful nature?"

"Because you're too feisty for your own good, that's why. You're disturbing the other inmates."

Well, that answered my question of whether I was alone or not. "How many of us are you keeping here?"

"Oh, no. There's only one of you. The rest are just some guys with pretty nice abilities, nothing close to what you can do, sadly."

"What the hell do you intend on doing with these people? They didn't do anything."

Saiko looked as if she was quickly getting bored of the conversation. "You're preaching to the wrong choir, girl. I don't call the shots around here. He does."

I quickly got scared but as soon as it came I pushed it aside. I wasn't the same girl who ran away in what seemed like so long ago. I've grown. I'm not going to be the same girl that had ran at the very sound of Zabuza's voice. If I had to fight my way out of here, I would.

"Well, he sure got you wrapped around his little finger," I said with a smirk, trying to draw her out.

Saiko didn't look bothered. "I am. He's my master. I would give my life for him in the span of a second. And soon, when you find out what his cause is, you will too."

I scoffed. "Not likely. That man is crazy."

Saiko shrugged. "You'll see. He called for you anyway. I don't know why I'm sitting here talking to you."

Her eyes disappeared from the slit and soon after, I heard locks sliding apart. There were about ten locks before the heavy metal door swung open. I looked at Saiko. "Do you really need that many locks on my door? Am I that dangerous?"

"You don't know you're power, don't you?" She rolled her eyes to the sky. "You don't deserve it. I should be the one with your power, not you." Saiko took something from her pouch hooked to her butt and held it up. It looked like handcuffs but it glowed a bright red. "Like it?" she asked, grinning.

I eyed it suspiciously. "What is that?"

"It's your own personal restraint. Aren't you happy to be getting all this special treatment?" Before I could respond, she pulled me from the wall I had been leaning heavily on, since my body was still oh so weak, and cuffed me.

As soon as she secured it, it burned my hand so bad, I fell to the ground with a strangled cry. The pain radiating from my hands was so incredible, tears pricked my eyes, but I quickly dashed them away. I didn't want Saiko to see me weak. She looked content with seeing me writhe on the floor however. She just kept grinning.

"Aw look at that," she taunted from above me. I tried glaring at her, but my body was too busy squirming around on the ground. The pain was so intense. "Not so feisty anymore, huh? That pain you're feeling? Just one of the downsides of being a jinjuriki."

She grabbed me by my elbow and pulled me up. I gritted my teeth, trying to hold back my cry of pain. "What are you talking about?" I pushed out.

"Can I even call you that?" she rambled on. She began leading me down a large narrow walkway. It looks as if my cell was the only one with four walls. The other cells were blocked off with cell bars and throughout the pain, I saw so many different, tortured faces behind those cell bars. And they all wore the same expression as they watched me pass: pity.

"You aren't really a jinjuriki, are you? More like some hybrid. Anyway, he specially devised that to subdue you since he knows how you get when you're angry. First morphine, now this. Change is wonderful."

I gritted my teeth to hold back my remark. It really didn't matter much if I did. The pain I was in was so awesome (in a bad way of course), I literally thought that death was just around the corner. Tears even came to my eyes, that's how bad I felt.

Saiko seemed to be enjoying it immensely. The blasted smirk never left her face as she continued to hold my cuffed hands and my elbow as if I were some wanted criminal. Not once did she spare a glance to the persons in the cells. I looked at each and every one of them, but then ... something caught my eye.

Something red flashed in the darkness. I stopped, momentarily forgetting the pain I was in and the fact that I was being led to my doom. I stopped and stared as something red disappeared then appeared again almost instantly. I narrowed my eyes.

"What the hell are you stopping for?" Saiko asked, before looking into the cell. "Oho," she said after, amusement in her voice. "This should be fun." She let go of my arms.

The red thing came closer and slowly, I found myself inching closer and closer to the cell bars. Then it came into the light and I saw that it was a boy, around my age, maybe older. He had black hair and eyes as red as fire. I stared at him, confused out of my mind. His eyes were just like mine.

"Reina...?" the boy asked, frowning. He came to the cell bars and wrapped his hands around it.

I frowned in return. "What ... Dan?"

"Reina! Reina!"

I rushed over to the cell. It couldn't be ... Dan ... he was dead. I stared at him with eyes wide, trying to see if this was an illusion. As soon as I reached the cell bars, I collapsed, both from shock and from the pain radiating throughout my body. I couldn't handle both.

"Reina, you're alive!" Dan reached through the bars and clasped my face. I didn't want to draw away. I wanted to break those bars down, tear open my cuffs and hug him until we both died of lack of oxygen. Such was my relief at seeing him. My best friend who I thought was dead all this time was staring back at me through the bars of a cell, in the home of a maniac.

"Dan, what happened? I thought you died! There was so much blood, and all the servants were dead and my parents and ..."

"I didn't die. He killed my parents too and then he took me. I thought you were dead!"

"He took me away too!"

"Why? What does he want with us?"

"I don't know." The tears were running freely now and for once, I didn't care. "He wants me for ... well ... my power, but I don't know for what purpose."

Dan frowned. "What power? Our eyes?"

"Well ... something like that ..." I quickly tried to change the subject. "So, are we the only ones? Did he take anyone else?"

"Not that I know of." Dan's hands were in my hair, his eyes running all over my face as if he couldn't believe I was right before him. I wished I could touch him too. "I can't believe you're alive..."

"I missed you," I confessed.

"I missed you too. So much. I-"

"Okay, that's it." Saiko appeared behind me and yanked me upwards. Somehow that sudden movement made the pain more intense and I cried out. "Time to go."

"Stop it, you're hurting her!" Dan shouted at her, standing up.

"Pipe down, pipsqueak." Saiko pushed me in front of her. "Loverboy would be so heartbroken to see you like that," she said, and I could hear the laughter in her voice without having to see her smile.

"Loverboy? Reina, what's going on?"

"Oh, nothing, pipsqueak."

I tried to struggle against her but the combination of the pain and her advantageous position over me made me weak and useless. Dan cried out my name over and over as she led me away and in turn, so did I. I tried to get away from her with every bit of strength I had in me but it was to no avail. I was simple too weak and in pain to do any damage.

Dan was alive... Just thinking about it made tears come to my eyes again. He was alive and rotting in the cell of this psychopath. Why did he take Dan? Why didn't he just kill him? Not that I was complaining at all but ... what was it about Dan that made him important to him?

I didn't get a chance to think about it anymore because I was roughly shoved into a room. As soon as I stepped in I froze. This room...

This very room I had lived in for the past years. This one room with the cold metal table and the uncomfortable chair where I sat, day and night being tortured, where I ate, slept and, sadly, went to the bathroom.

Saiko had to push me to get me to move from the spot I had frozen in. She pushed me into the chair, and re-cuffed the handcuffs to the chair. I didn't have any chance to spring out of the chair when she had briefly taken it off me. I was too much in pain for that.

Saiko seemed to have developed a completely new personality. Gone was the grinning girl and standing before me, waiting nervously with her hands behind her, was a girl who was all business.

Soon after, the door opened and he walked in.

He looked as if he hadn't aged a day. Instead of the man you would have thought him to be, he looked not one day over twenty. His brown hair was still shoulder length and thick, his hazel eyes were still cold and crazy looking and his face was still masculine and very attractive. His body boasted strength, which was one of the reasons I had been too scared to take him on physically, given my very weak disposition.

"Hello, Reina," he said smoothly, standing on the other side of the table.

I didn't answer. I just stared at him. It was at that moment, I realized that I wasn't scared of him anymore. He sent people to attack my friends, he poisoned me, he killed my parents and my clansmen, and he stole Dan, making me think he was dead all this time when he was just a few doors away from me. This was man was going to die someday and it will most assuredly be by my hands.

"What? No welcome?" He shook his head. "And we haven't seen each other for such a long time? I'm wounded."

I didn't reply.

"Well, since you won't be answering me, I'll just get straight to the point." He sat on the edge of the table and stared at me, looking me up and down. "You've grown."

"Have I?" I said, finally. "I didn't notice."

"Ah, there she is. I was hoping the jinjuriki cuffs would have taken a little of that bite out of your tone. Guess that was too much to hope for."

"What am I doing here?"

"You mean you don't know? I need you, Reina. You are Masuta."

"What exactly do you need me for?"

"To rule the world, of course."

I barked a laugh, ignoring the way the cuffs bit into my skin. This was the worthy cause Saiko was talking about? My wrist was bleeding now. Hopefully, I bled so much I can slip out of the cuffs. "You want me to help you take over the world?"

"Yes, but I doubt you'll consent to that."

"Shocker!"

"But, I don't need you're consent. Neither the Ten Tails. I have my own way of getting what I want."

I narrowed my eyes. "And what is that?"

"You see, I'm the reason why you stayed in Konoha for so long." He smirked at me which made me narrow my eyes even more.

"What are you talking about?"

"Actually, I came up with the whole thing. You see, sadly, my scientific abilities are limited. Nothing I've created will be able to hold or control Masuta. Even that cuff you wear won't last long. So I had to find a way to turn you to my cause."

He hopped off the table, obviously engrossed in his story. "Then I came up with the perfect plan. I created an opportunity for you to escape, which luckily you did. Then I sent two guards to go after you and pretend to get you back. I mean, what's the fun in making you just leave. Now I knew that you would be crossing the path of some ninjas returning from their mission and so, when they fought my guards, I made sure they pretended to get beaten."

"Of course, this would make you feel safe with them. They are Konoha ninjas, for God's sake. I didn't know they were your age however, but it just made everything easier. So, you took up a new life in Konoha. Nice fake name by the way, I like it. And you, slowly, became close to your comrades. Which was exactly what I wanted."

I stared at him as if he had just grown two horns. "How do you know that?"

"I've been watching you Reina. That tattoo on your inner wrist, how do you think you got it?"

I look down at the fiery circle with a drop of water in the centre. For some reason I had thought it was because of my elements but...

He laughed. "Do you know what they call me, Reina?" I didn't get a chance to answer. "No one knows. As far as everyone in this building is concerned, I just appeared out of nowhere and started plundering villages and clans. Started collecting people to become a part of my army. I can't rule the world without an army."

This man was crazy.

"Why do you need Dan?" I asked, trying not to show how his words had affected me. "He doesn't have any special powers. He has the Ketsuekigan but so do I. You don't need him."

"That's where you're wrong. How do you think I've managed to look so young for so long?"

"What?"

"He has the ability to draw energy from his surroundings and into someone or something else. It has its many uses, both in combat and off field."

"So you've just been using him as your own personal fountain of youth?" I asked him, disgusted.

Of course, he was fazed at all. "For now, yes. And besides, he is quite advanced in his Ketsuekigan. Almost perfected it, that is."

"You're a monster."

"What else is new?" Then he jumped, as if he just remembered something. "Oh yes, I was explaining my plan to you and you distracted me. Now, as to why you will be willing to work with me, yes. You see, having people you care about can be very dangerous."

Oh no. "What do you mean by that?"

"Oh, I think you know. I am a genius but let me see if I can break it down for you so that you can understand. I may not be able to control you indefinitely but, before you 'left' I implanted a chip into your brain. I've noticed that whenever you get angry and your eye comes out, your face gets red due to the sudden rush of blood to your head. Now with all that extra blood in your head, it will trigger off the chip which has been placed in the temporal lobe. This area deals with emotions, memory, thought and the like. What does the chip do you ask?" I could tell he was getting excited. Obviously when he speaks about his inventions, he becomes happy.

I didn't ask, but I was very curious.

"The chip triggers your most fond memories in details, meaning your memory of something that happened and who you were with when it happened. Then it temporarily rewrites this memory and replaces it with a thought: the thought to kill the actors of those memories you hold so dear."

My heart sank. I knew where he was getting at even before he finished his sentence. He must have caught my expression because he laughed.

"When did you ..."

"You won't remember. I had performed the operation while you were unconscious and when I tested it, you forgot everything."

He tested it? I almost vomited. He made me kill someone close to me? Who?

"It was that girl you had befriended here. She was becoming a bit of a burden so I was glad for the help of getting rid of her. Of course, you're parents are dead because of you so you won't have to worry about them, but Dan is still alive and so are your friends in Kumogakure so you better think wisely."

He didn't even have to ask me. I didn't know whether what he said was true or not but, judging from his superior look and the smirk Saiko was hiding, told me that it was the truth. I didn't even have to think about it. All I had to do was picture Naruto's face, Kiba, Hinata, Sakura, Dan ... Sasuke ... and I knew what I was going to do.

But I couldn't say it.

He smirked. "Don't worry about answering. I'll give you a week to think of your answer. And don't forget that I will always be watching you."

I slumped down in my chair, dazed and no longer feeling the pain. He was right, even the cuff couldn't hold me. Saiko had to drag my body up and force me to walk. That was how dazed I was.

He led the way out of the room. A dozen twisting dark hallways, ten trips to the floor when I fell over my feet and what felt like an hour but was probably about ten minutes later, we arrived to a cell. At first I thought it was my cell but then I noticed a dark cloud crowding the door.

He stopped before the door. "This I think you should see. As one of my secret weapons, I should show you another secret weapon."

Inside was dark and it took me a while to adjust to the darkness. Sitting in the centre of the room was an old man with his back turned to us. He was sitting with one leg crossed over the other, his hands resting on his knees.

"Watch this. Now!"

The man raised his hands and suddenly the darkness gathered together and formed shapes of men along the walls. My eyes widened.

"You ..."

"Yes, we were the ones who attacked Kumogakure. Amazing ability, isn't it? To create shadows out of the darkness for combat?" He was beaming.

"You can't do that!"

"Can't do what? Destroy the village? That snake did it to Konoha so why can't I?"

"Why are you doing this?"

"There's a clan I'm interested in, but that's none of your concern. By tomorrow night, the village will be completely destroyed with no survivors. Except the persons I want, that is."

I lunged after him but he dodged it. "Saiko, take her back to her cell. You'll stay there until you finally say the words, 'I'll join you'. Go."

"No!" I lunged after him again but he dodged it once more. Saiko grabbed me and stabbed something in my neck. "No! No ... you can't ... they're innocent ..."

My head lolled backwards but I didn't pass out until after I heard the words, "So were your parents."

Hey guys. Now I just want to make this clear to everyone. The makers of Naruto will forever be the owners and I only own my characters, and, since this is a fanfiction featuring my character Lea, the story while be centred around her. So although I will be following the storyline (except for my inouts for example, this mission and her interactions with Sasuke, Kiba etc) I won't be doing every little thing because, as I said before, the story is about Lea, not Naruto.

But, don't worry, the important details will be incorporated so yes, Sasuke will leave, lol.

Vote and Comment :)