Disclaimer: I don't own or make money off of Naruto.

A/N: This story is my first ever, so any obvious mistakes or weirdness is likely due to that fact. Regardless, any reviews are welcome and much appreciated. The eventual pairing here is indeed Kisame x Sakura, with a sprinkling of Sasuke x Sakura, so move on if any of that offends you. Mature rating because of language, violence and eventual sexual stuff, so keep that in mind too.

Italicized phrases in 'single quotations' are mental thoughts. Phrases in "regular quotations" are voiced.

Enjoy!

Consciousness kicked in an hour before enough energy could be summoned for the task of willing her eyelids to open. This time was vaguely used to gauge the situation she was in. This feeling - it was so, well, alien. She felt as if her mind was in someone else's body - her limbs, muscles, nerves unable to cooperate. It was an alarming state to be in for someone so extensively trained in her field, and as immediately as her sluggish mind could allow, her medical side began assessing the state of immobility which her body was currently in.

'Okay Sakura, focus...focus.'

Instinct and conditioned training in medical jutsu required for chakra to be spread like a meshy web as a kind of body scan in which to assess what was wrong. This, she soon found out, was problem number one. Her chakra, it seemed, was inert.

Panic.

Not being able to even faintly crack open an eyelid was bad enough for someone without such convenient bloodline traits like the Byakugan - but now Sakura was rendered completely blind without her ability to use her chakra as a form of insight.

She would have screamed, but apparently that part of her wasn't working either. After a few moments of trying to calm herself with optimistic mantras, she decided to assess which other parts of her person were handicapped.

'Focus.'

Okay, that was good; if she had the ability to talk to her mental self, it meant that she was still alive with her cognitive centers intact. Paralyzed but alive nonetheless.

'Great. Okay, next.'

Senses. In paralysis victims, we check the senses. Sight clearly was not an option. Touch - also unable to process. Alarmingly, even temperature was impossible to feel.

Sound.

Sakura, with the renewed optimism of some sort of goal to strive towards, bade her ears to please function, and willed her tumultuous mind to shut up for once.

'There.'

She hadn't noticed before but there was the distinct drone of some sort of machinery, perhaps a fan or radiator working a small distance away. Unless, of course, it was her mind making this noise. Not willing to give into defeat and delusion just yet, she listened further. Anything, anything to help her get some sort of idea where she was and how she came into such a vulnerable position - or at least as an indicator of her existence.

Then a soft puff of breath came from somewhere nearby. She wouldn't have noticed it unless her mind wasn't so desperately searching for sonar evidence of life, but it was unmistakeably real and not the result of a delusional mind. Intent to cement its existence in this void she currently inhabited, Sakura listened with renewed purpose.

After what seemed like an eternity or perhaps two minutes, Sakura got her confirmation: she was not alone. The sound was very small - strained - like the individual's lungs were overinflated with air but could only release a millisecond of breath before holding it again. She listened to this sound for a while longer trying to conclude what this thing was which she was trapped with. Before she was able to deduct anything from her observations, she was interrupted.

The pinpointed, strained listening of Sakura's ears almost knocked her unconscious again after a loud, agonizingly metallic moan came from somewhere off to her right. After her hearing became somewhat functional again, she noticed a very minute, yet very real lightening of the black behind her eyelids.

'Good, my eyes are still here.'

Mentally stiffening at the unknown reality she was about to succumb to, Sakura prepared for the worst.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Steps. Steps on... concrete? They were long, purposeful and calculated, coming closer to where she was situated. Depending on her hearing as her only crutch, Sakura guessed that the strides came from a male. Perhaps a large male. A large male who knew what he was about to do. Suddenly she was wishing she hadn't taught her ears to be so acute in this short time, because the agonizing tap of shoes on concrete was causing her to want to crawl out of her skin from the anxiety. Maybe she should've stuck with the 'ignorance is bliss' state of mind.

The steps came to a stop right in front of her, and moments later there was an odd shift, then a tiny tingling feeling at the base of her neck. The tingle went from a very slight, almost-numb tap, to an agonizing spread of millions of needles outwards from that one tiny point of origin. It felt like being an icicle thrown into a hot spring - a hot spring full of senbon. If she could see, Sakura felt like her skin would look like it was bubbling - the threads of muscles underneath trying to jump out individually towards their own freedom. After some minutes passed, and the feeling went to where she assumed her toes were, Sakura's body mentally slumped and she felt like she possessed a material form for once in her ordeal. Material, but aching - aching, and so damn sore.

She just wanted to curl up in a bed and let sleep wash over her and never awaken.

Unfortunately, consciousness refused to go away and she was left dealing with the aftermath of her miserable ache. At this point she didn't want to register anything anymore and tried instead to keep her mind blank to will this horrible ache away. But sadly, select body parts chose this inopportune time to make their individual troubles known to her. Her lips felt like sandpaper. Her throat was so dry that she hoped to vomit just to get some form of lubrication there to take the tight, itching feeling away. Her hair clung grotesquely to her scalp like dead leeches and she could literally feel the grime under her nails, behind her ears, all over.

Realization hit her - she had been here for at least a few days judging by the level of dehydration so far. And whoever kept her here didn't care a whole lot about her hygiene and hydration apparently. If her body wasn't still so pathetically numb feeling, she would have felt anger - maybe embarrassment - at her current state of neglect.

Then someone spoke.

"You will need to be washed."

It was a small voice - not the commanding boom she was expecting. Either way Sakura's heavy eyelids opened halfway as she tried to understand from within her hazy thoughts what had just been uttered. Her useless throat felt like it wasn't even wide enough to fit a pencil through, convulsing vainly like a fat grub at the need to produce sound. Realizing that her eyes were also crusty from misuse, she closed them firmly and let fate take over.

The man - she noticed in the brief few seconds she had opened her eyes - was also not as large as she thought. He was rather regular looking and wore a black shirt and dull black pants. Sakura was busy sifting through her mental database of people he might resemble so she could figure out just what the hell was happening, and who, and where, and what but then there was a hand on her forehead effectively silencing her tumultuous mind.

Goose bumps erupted on her skin at the cold touch and once again her whole body threatened to collapse. Why hadn't she fallen down yet anyway? Still not wanting to open her eyes and witness whatever was happening, she let herself try to feel.

'Ah.'

She had been restrained.

'No wonder.'

Despite the sickening feeling of being half-numb, Sakura felt the metal clasped around her small wrists fastened somewhere above her head on either side. She also thanked whichever deities were out there that she was still fully clothed - from what she could feel - filthy or not. Then remembering her current state, her vulnerability made itself known to her again and feebly she attempted to bring her arms together, resulting in the still-present man in front of her to speak again.

"Do not struggle. I will return shortly."

With that, he left the room. Sakura took this opportunity to release the breath she didn't realize she held. After silence reinstated itself in the room she reopened her eyes to look at her surroundings. She was in a prison, by the looks of things. It was a medium sized room, concrete lining all the sides. Sakura had expected the place to be dirty or damp due to faulty plumbing, but it was surprisingly clean and clinical looking from what she could see in the dim light. The ceiling hung lower than most rooms she'd been in, and there were no windows, lending a claustrophobic feel to the place. And to her right was the metal door which was the source of her eardrum's misery earlier.

As her eyes continued to scan the room for minute details which may or may not be of importance, she gasped when they landed on a figure - a figure in the same position as herself, arms shackled to the wall behind him. So, that faint breath she heard was not just a figment of her imagination.

She was not alone.