Warnings: This fic contains FemNaruto. This fic is AU as I've tried to flesh out the Naruto world just a bit. I am not an experienced writer, edit my own stuff, and generally write late at night so my apologies for the errors that I've undoubtedly missed. On top of that characters may come out as OOC despite my best attempts at keeping them as in-character as possible. Also clichés, unoriginality, the usual.

Rated: M for possible future violence, cursing, intimate situations, etc.

Additional notes:

Reviews are appreciated, like, a bunch.

Chapter Seven: Of Fractured Minds and Drugs

There were times when Naruto thought of how close to insanity she might be. Really, she was aware of her own behavior and her own faults to a T but had not bothered to do anything about it. Certain behaviors became second nature far too easily and if she were to be perfectly honest with herself some of her quirks were benefiting her.

Her fluid personality for example.

Within her lay the potential of one of the shinobi-world's greatest infiltrators and it wasn't for nothing that her information-network had merged with and surpassed the one created by her teacher. It had all started when she tinkered with the Kage Bunshin no jutsu and made vital breakthroughs; a seal of her own design extended their lives vastly, giving them years of freedom as long as they meditated and drew in energy from the surrounding nature. On top of that she had figured out a way to transfer short messages and stretches of memory if necessary.

Before her chakra had begun to fail her she had managed to plant eighty-two different incarnations of her throughout the elemental nations who sent word whenever something of note happened.

They were merchants, artisans, artists and a whole host of other things but never shinobi. Enough damage and the constructs still dispelled albeit leaving a corpse behind that evaporated into chakra within days.

While highly successful, she knew that she ran a great risk of snapping and going completely insane as she lost her sense of self. While Naruto Uzumaki was her dominant personality, there were eight other rooms in her psyche, albeit small, that housed different wills and experiences that were different from her own to some degree.

Over the time of one, two or three years of life they had separate from her the clones managed to develop personalities of their own as they grew and adapted. A great resource at times but also a possible weakness that could cripple her for life if too many of her parts died at once.

The Kyuubi was a great help with mitigating the damage but he couldn't hinder the trauma of dying away from friends and family and longing for people she didn't know in the morning and loved so hopelessly it hurt in the evening. Really, once this mess was over with she'd have to dismantle the network. A Hokage couldn't have such weakness in their life.

Fourty-two days had passed since Flower Country and she had gotten word of Sasuke's hunting her which was a novel experience in and of itself because the prospect scared her to her core. She was terrified of everything he represented and everything he could mean for her.

Stubborn to a fault and overwhelmingly skilled she knew that he was one of the few who could find her no matter how much she hid and if anything their impromptu moment had convinced her that she needed to stay away, as far away as possible. She had expected to be able to use him without consequence, stick close to him and have him help her regain her power without emotionally investing herself. Then they could have returned to Konoha and gone their separate ways after that but no.

She had seen her own lust, need and vulnerable hunger reflected in his dark pools threatening to drown her and she had retreated; shocked by the intimacy and set off-balance as she realized that just as she wanted to use him, he would use her.

If she succumbed to him she would be dependent on his help completely, disqualifying herself from her dream and Kakashi would let the Uchiha take her place. The Uchiha would restore his clan's name to greatness and Naruto would be little more than disproportionately powerful breeding stock as Konoha regained strength through the natural Sharingan.

No.

Better to keep far away from her once-rival and instead focus on finishing the mission with or without him. Sure, it was more of a challenge but she had found something of a workaround to gain her chakra, albeit only for a limited amount of time and in his hunt for her he continued performing tasks which was the whole reason she had left her plans behind in the first place even as she left the apartment in a blurry haze.

Naruto's chest rose and fell evenly as she kept sitting seiza, energy rushing through her as she recalled Flower Country, dredging up her chakra and clambering on to the feelings associated with the memory while simultaneously attempting to send out her power to her clones.

They shone in her awareness like beacons and she was sending out delicate strings, images and commands traversing vast distances as she communicated and coordinated her network while her mind was in turn bombarded with thoughts not completely her own. Panic threatened to well up in her chest and the woman breathed in deeply. She refused to be overwhelmed, even as something within her was screaming with rage and anguish.

The reason for her inner turmoil was simple.

Contact had been made with one of her biggest targets. Three leaders had remained unknown throughout the years that she had been working on establishing her information network and dismantling the faction Keikan no Naki* ; the group of minor villages, criminals, merchants and nobles that had been feeding the disease festering in the nooks and crannies between the major villages for years.

'It wasn't me', the blonde repeated within her mind as she was assaulted with memories from within one of the rooms she kept locked and hidden within herself. Sometimes this happened. Vivid flashbacks from a past she hated to remember and recollections of memories that she knew had changed her to her core. As always the shinobi did what no sane psychologist would advise; she squashed the panic and buried the episode under denial, rejecting everything from herself.

She wasn't the one who had been drugged, sold and used. She hadn't been the one to be taken from the filthiest of prisons to the prestigious courts of the nobles and seen the dark dealings that transpired as the world went to sleep. She didn't remember the sensation of bleeding out in an alley, helpless and alone.

'Focus.' Naruto told herself, the mere notion piercing through her distress like a knife as she sifted through information received. If she crumbled her network would crumble with her and that would be disastrous. On top of that she would never get to see the leaders of the Keikan no Naki face justice.

The Shujinmochi*, The Daimyo's Samurai, who dealt in slavery, arming and training bandits and who was known for cultivating a ruthlessness and a loyalty in those who were in his ranks.

The Sokushitsu*, The Noble's Concubine, who Naruto believed dealt exclusively with drugs, prostitution and assassinations as well as securing and managing finances.

And last was the Yamasachihiko*, The Prince of the Mountain of Fortune, whom she knew next to nothing about. He led them, he had started it all and she would be the one to kill him.

The Sokushitsu had slipped up in Earth Country and one of her copies had happened upon a man who knew more than he should in one of the seedier parts of the capital. The clone who had encountered the source had him under watch and if Naruto wanted to catch him for a thorough interrogation she would have to get there within the next eleven days before he left the country.

If she got the identity of the person behind the title of Sokushitsu she would be able to take out one of the brains behind a large chunk of the organized crime in the shinobi nations.

Naruto stood up from her seiza, suddenly completely aware of the world around her and feeling filled with a new sense of purpose. If she could kill one of them she could go back home afterwards and coordinate the rest of her one-woman-crusade from Konoha. Stupidity was sometimes one of her traits but not when it came to the Keikan.

The network wielded the clout of a nation without actually being one and if they found out who she was things would get ugly both for herself and her village.

Rising from her place Naruto strapped on her standard ANBU gear before heading out from the small base. She had a source to catch.

His chokuto had sliced through enough bodies to become dull. This was a fact that the Uchiha really disliked. Charcoal orbs eyed the destruction around him with disinterest. A crimson mask depicting a raging oni covered his fair features and with the hooded dark-gray cloak Sasuke looked the part of assassin.

The facility he had destroyed had housed a solid two-hundred and eighty-six shinobi, thirty-two chemists and a greenhouse containing plants Sasuke recognized as hallucinogenic as well as several types of opiates.

The three main buildings now lay ruined and burning as a direct result of his jutsus. The shinobi were all dead by his hand apart from one, their bodies lying broken and battered all over the place. Flickering orange flames lit up the night sky, the smoke drifting into the air as the inferno ate at the toppled over structures.

He scoffed.

Sasuke had learned a great deal during the last fifty-three days.

There was an underground crime syndicate pulling more strings than he thought possible. Three leaders remained and Sasuke was trailing them, searching for and obtaining leads on their identity and location. A majority of his directives were connected with ruining the organizations illicit revenue streams from drugs, trafficking and mercenary work and others were purely information-gathering.

"Where is the Sokushitsu?" Sasuke questioned, staring down at the last man alive. The shinobi was bleeding out slowly, one arm severed at the elbow and blood dribbling down his chin. A Waterfall headband with a score across the metal told of an allegiance long forsaken.

"Fuck you." Was the defiant and stubborn reply given, the words wet with blood. Sasuke couldn't help but admire the spirit of this particular shinobi. He had fought well and with skill, utilizing earth jutsus with a rare mastery, but it hadn't been enough.

"You will either tell me now of your own volition or be in a world of pain."
The threat was casual, yet held promise. Sasuke doubted intimidation would work against a shinobi of the man's caliber and if it did he would be disappointed.

"I ain't talkin'." The gruff soon-to-be corpse managed to wheeze out. Charcoal orbs became crimson and all the ninja could do was let his eyes widen with surprise and recognition before Sasuke was invading the shinobi's mindscape, easily dominating the dying man's lesser will.

What he knew was conveyed to Sasuke as a rapid stream of images and sensations pertaining to what he had asked. The process was draining but Sasuke was not in the mood for wasting time. If he found solid intel he'd be one step closer to catching Naruto. As he finished the process with a surge of chakra he stared down the man before decapitating him with a slash of his blade, the head rolling to the ground with a soft thud.

While the now dead man hadn't had enough information to grasp the the implications of the orders he had been given, Sasuke had no issue piecing the puzzle together. The Keikan no Naki had caught wind of the organized nature of the setbacks they had suffered and bait had been laid out for him and Naruto.

The Sokushitsu had opened a false window of opportunity that was surely a trap. Sasuke knew that he wasn't rash enough to take the bait so easily but a Naruto who wasn't at full capacity yet had hunted down and dismantled the organization for years now wouldn't hesitate to take the risk.

The Uchiha wasn't stupid; there had to be more than rational thought that drove Naruto forward to search and destroy so relentlessly. He himself knew the fervor that drove her. It was personal and echoed within him in a way that brought back memories of times he would rather forget.

"One of these days I'll stop bailing the moron out of these messes," Sasuke promised himself as he looked east towards his next destination. The newly acquired goal was to follow the lead and spring the trap which in turn meant heading to Earth Country. With a weary sigh Sasuke disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

There were many things that were terrible about being drugged against ones will.

As she sat naked and kneeling in front of a throne in an audience-room that could comfortably fit a banquet with a few hundred guests, the worst part about the whole ordeal wasn't that she was powerless, nude or feeling several degrees of pain and humiliation as well as panic.

Nor was it the madness that had been steadily eating away at her sanity for days as she stared up at one of the people she had come to hate more than anything in this world.

No, the worst part of her current situation was the mixture of euphoric joy and numb apathy stifling everything about her like a cold and wet all-encompassing blanket. She was aware of the fact that she was experiencing a synthetic emotional state just as keenly as she was aware of her skin tingling pleasantly at the mere thought of receiving more of the drug.

The narcotic gave a euphoric rush while also acting as a strong sedative to the point where it was close to physically impossible to act on negative emotions as it messed with the subject's hormones as well as chakra system. A highly sophisticated product that was a key factor in the success the Keikan no Naki had when it came to human trafficking and prostitution.

The mastermind behind that side of things was sitting right there, lounging on the throne and Naruto loathed the fact that she wouldn't do anything except obey. Her mind was far too sluggish and after the third aggression attempt her dose had been upped to dangerous levels. Not even the Kyuubi could filter it out to manageable levels more than to make sure she didn't die.

She could register his howling even now, a faint sensation of impotent rage, frothing and mad at the edge of her consciousness, constant and never ceasing. In her current state she couldn't focus properly, complex thought fleeing from her more often than not.

All her brain-capacity went towards not revealing important secrets while at the same time keeping them interesting enough to make her worth keeping alive. It was walking backwards on a tightrope but nothing had ever been as important as succeeding.

A glance to either of the walls would reveal the lines of both men and women staring straight ahead with silly grins on their faces. Naruto didn't intend to end up like them, enjoying their stations in life as part of the Shokushitsu's network wholly and completely to the point where they refused to imagine any other life. Complete addicts.

"You're a particularly naughty one, Nami-chan. Despite continued exposure to the Widow's Complacency you still aren't spilling all your secrets."

The first thing Naruto had noticed about the woman who bore the moniker Shokushitsu was that she was the picture of seduction and exceedingly hard to determine when it came to age. Her pale skin was smooth and her high cheekbones, full crimson lips, and slow commanding speech spoke of nobility.

A tattoo sitting snugly right above her collarbones showcased her allegiance: A laurel wreathl contained within a tear.

Long, burgundy hair flowed loose like a river to stop just above her waist. The yukata she was wearing was open, yet covered enough of her shapely figure to not reveal anything indecent in what amounted to an unfulfilled promise to anyone who dared to look.

The most striking feature was her eyes; a warm orange the colour of evening sky and burning tongues of flame, staring with a cruel detachment that shone through every sickly sweet word she spoke. The woman was poisoned honey and candy containing razorblades and ash, broken and insane in ways that even Orochimaru never was, if only because his cruelty served a vision while hers only served her own greed and sadism.

"A little birdy whispered in my ear that you travelled with someone named Setsumaru?" The woman questioned, catching the stutter of Naruto's breath as she thought not of Setsumaru but of Sasuke. She usually avoided any thoughts of him, the emotion connected to him in her fragile state being able to cut a hole even in her drugged haze.

"We...grew up together...and I...was going to help him follow his dreams." Naruto managed to string the sentence together, unable to hide her reluctance and slight discomfort.

Her captor reveled in the display, pressing the topic with that sickeningly sweet voice of hers.

"Why is it that you are here alone and he isn't? Where was he when you came into my care, little saboteur?" Naruto knew that she would have shuddered if she could, but that wasn't a possibility.

"We almost slept...together but we didn't and...I-I didn't feel like staying would be good for anyone and that's...why I left him." Orange eyes focused on her, lapping up the words as she rose to her feet and strode over only to stop in front of her captive's kneeling form. Warm and soft fingers grasped Naruto's chin while the smell of fresh peaches drifted from the woman who now stood in such close proximity.

"You poor thing." The redhead purred, leaning down and putting her face close to Naruto, invading her space in a show of ownership and dominance as she stared deep into azure orbs with unnerving interest.

"I'll send you back to your room for today, Nami-san. Don't worry. Once I know who hired you and who exactly dares to target my life's work I'll get Setsumaru for you and make him your pet along with anyone else who wronged you. You'll be head of the pack since you'll be a good girl and tell me more of your secrets. You'll love me for that right, Nami-chan?"

She found herself dutifully nodding happily, somewhere deep inside of her hating that she was feeling genuine joy at the prospect but not able to do anything about it. The power wasn't hers and she wasn't lucid enough to take action and if she truly allowed the horror of her captivity to sink in she feared not even the drugs could numb the full extent of her mental collapse.

Seventy-eight days since Konoha. They had been moved two times, once by boat. She was guessing Water country or Wave by this point but she couldn't be sure. Always sedated, always groggy and dull. A spell of dizziness came upon her and she began to feel the world tilting at an axis. Her captor noticed.

"Take her back to her room and have her cleaned and fed. She has been exceedingly good today. I might even reward her properly myself if she keeps up this level of obedience." The Shokushitsu ordered two of the particularly burly men lining the walls, directing them over with a well-manicured finger. Said finger touched her shoulder briefly, a sting alerting her to the fact of the nail breaking her skin; the world turned hazy as she received her dose, the drug washing away all of her worries and thoughts in an exhilarating rush.

Suddenly nothing really mattered at all.

He doesn't recognize her at first. Vividly blue eyes are glossy and unseeing as she sits at the desk, focus barely on the mirror she is sitting in front of. This is supposedly the current favorite toy of the Shokushitsu according to his sources.

Long chestnut hair is being brushed with meticulous and lethargic movements as a small tuneless melody is hummed. Bars cover the windows but apart from that nothing conveys that the luxurious room is a prison, the sea surrounding Wave-country perfectly visible from the huge windows and everything inside of the space seeming painstakingly and lovingly crafted to be beautiful as well as comfortable. A gilded cage if he had ever seen one.

She cranes her neck to see him as he enters, despite the fact that few people should be able to notice him when he masks his presence and as always he knows. Her pupils are unnaturally large and there is only the faintest spark of recognition, the yukata she wears is too revealing to be anything she would have picked herself and her skin bears marks he knows shouldn't be there.

Naruto had been turned into a porcelain doll, done up for someone's sick enjoyment, and it galled Sasuke to the core because these things didn't happen to them. They were invincible; managed to somehow come unscathed from any and all situations while somehow utterly decimating all opposition.

This whole operation was a mistake. How could he think she would be able to handle something of this magnitude without chakra-no, he wasn't going to wallow in regret. Right now they needed to move.

The mansion he had found her at wasn't heavily guarded but sophisticated seals were at work.
A scowl was etched beneath his mask as he crouched in front of her, running hands over her to check for injuries. She tried to focus on him but her eyes kept wandering and her mouth opened and closed as she began to frown, unable to speak properly. Two slender arms extended towards him in a facsimile of a child wanting to be carried as her blue orbs began to swim with tears.

Gathering up the woman in his arms, Sasuke released a frustrated growl. Had she developed a dependency yet? How long had she been captured for? Where could they go to be safe and get her the attention she needed?

His eyes caught sight of a piece of paper placed innocently on the desk Naruto had been sitting at.

You may have her back, "Setsumaru". I will find you soon and then you will be just as broken as she has been. Take care until we meet properly. She tells me you are very pretty. Oh, and tell your Kage I will be targeting people from his nation next as retaliation for meddling with what is mine.

He crosses two nations before stopping, sandaled feet taking him to one of the few bases he knows she herself built. Nestled into the side of a mountain the place was one of the better ones he knew of.

His bloodline takes him into space that is real yet imagined at the same time as he faces the Kyuubi, greatest of the nine.

Rage has filled the beast in a way that sets off alarms in the animal parts of his brain but he ignores the sensation, even as the oppressive hatred lies heavy in the air like a living breathing entity wishing him harm.

"How long?" His voice was calm but inside he was a storm.

"She thinks mere days have passed. In reality the twenty-second day in captivity just ended." The Kyuubi growled as he stared down at Sasuke menacingly.

"Where were you, Uchiha?"

"Keeping away, as she wanted to."

"That worked out well, you insolent and useless monkey! If you do not help me purge these toxins from her system I will break out of this cage and devour you whole as she leaves her mortal body, do you understand you wretched thrice-damned Uchiha?!"

The giant fox was venting for all he was worth, the mindscape shaking with every pacing fall of his paws.

"How?" Sasuke questioned, listening intently as the Kyuubi roared instructions.

"Use those cursed eyes of yours and help ease my power through her system with your own! It will hurt her but is better than the alternative where those drugs kill her or worse, give her a permanent dependency!"

"Understood Kurama."

"GET TO WORKING THEN USELESS GNAT!"

Forcefully he is ejected out of the mindscape and finds himself standing above a fuzzing Naruto. For two days she had been drifting in and out of consciousness but now he held the key to making her lucid again. Usually the Uchiha didn't use the Rinnegan. He didn't trust himself with it and he could count the people he'd need to use it against with the fingers on his right hand and still have fingers to spare, but now, as he activated the eye, he thanked the Rikodou Sennin for the gift he had been given.

A hand was placed on Naruto's stomach while the other rested on her cool forehead. Both began to glow with a burning cyan flame as he began to guide Kurama's energy throughout the woman's system. It took all of seven seconds before she started screaming and thrashing, Sasuke creating a clone to hold her down forcefully as he continued the slow purge. Every second of her agony sent daggers into his heart but he continued steadfast.

It took eight hours before she started spouting feverish confessions and the things she uttered were worrying to a degree he didn't think possible. Rooms upon rooms in her mind and the possibility of breaking. How she already thought she was broken beyond all repair.

Memories of a captivity she suppressed yet knew shaped her more than any death could as she stretched the limits of what she thought herself capable of and for the first time in years he understood her again as she spilled what lay inside her in all its grotesque and beautiful glory; a mix of loyalty, pain, love and purpose.

The Keikan no Naki had a lot to answer for. Once she had her chakra back they would hunt and they would destroy. There was no other alternative.

Bags lay under his eyes and his skin had taken on an ashen gray color as he finished after twenty-two consecutive hours, the sun shining in through the mouth of the cave-base.

"Sasuke?" Azure eyes focused on him and his heart skipped a beat as he stared down at her, deactivating the Rinnegan as her hand rose to touch his cheek with wonder as if to confirm that it truly was he. He hadn't heard her say his name for months. The small things were what he missed the most. She breathed a sigh of relief and closed her eyes again.

"You look like shit." She mumbled sleepily, her voice sounding as exhausted as he felt. He was pretty sure his chakra reserves were embarrassingly depleted.

"Hmph. " He grunted, scooting to lean against the closest wall. "Sleep. Tomorrow we plan-"

"-I might sleep forever." She interrupted. "But if I do manage to wake up then yeah. We're going to," The woman yawned wide. "Plan all day unless I die from sleeping on the hard ground."

Again Sasuke grunted, unceremoniously deciding that the ground wasn't a good place for recuperating. Two strides brought him back over to her and without preamble he scooped her up in his arms, sat down against the wall and placed her in his lap against her wishes, the kunoichi protesting indignantly but without energy. She was running on fumes more than anything.

"You can whine tomorrow."

"You're an asshole." She insisted sleepily. "An asshole who rescues people far too late. Ever since the Chuunin Exams you've always been," Again she yawned, stretching weakly before snuggling closer.

"Late just like Kakashi. Late to come back to us. Late to get that Konoha is your home. Idiot."

"I rescued you. Stop whining would you, Naruto-chan?"
She remained silent, snores echoing in the small base soon after while Sasuke followed suite in falling asleep.

Author's Corner

Dictionary: woo!

Keikan no Naki - Weeping Laurel
Sokushitsu- Noble's Concubine
Shujinmochi- Samurai attached to a daimyo
Yamasachihiko- Prince of the Mountain of Fortune

Review Replies: woo!

Ducki9:

Thanks for the review! I'm glad you're enjoying the fic! Don't know if this satisfies any of your curiosity but it's a new chapter in any case, that's something I guess?

death390:

You didn't have to wait long!

JuiceOfThe Orange:

You're welcome! Thanks for reviewing!

TheBeauty:

Thanks! I really enjoy writing it when I have the time. It's surprisingly fun!

professionalVamp:

Shh, it's okay, it's okay.

YYonder:

Thank you! I aim to write some "cool chap"-level chapters!

DrippySpaff:

Your usernames are cooler than mine and that makes me jealous. Thanks for reviewing, I was very entertained by your reaction!
Why change from VadersBitch?

HumanChaos:

It came from my brain and I still barely understand that people read these chapters. Thanks you so much for your kind words, they grease my engine, sharpen my blade, charges my car, etc. Really appreciate it!

feathered-equine:

If I was a real human and not just a bowl of rice I would blush at your review. Really, I'm flattered!