Title; Innocence

Disclaimer; Nope I don't own any of the Naruto characters.

I.

"I'm cold." The blonde girl put it into words but each of the three had been thinking it for as long as they'd been in the forest. Away from the fires that had once been their village the chill Autumn air had begun to kept into their bones.

"We should find shelter." Came the blondes shaky voice again as she drew closer to the raven haired girl beside her for heat. It did little good though, all three had been in their nightwear when the attack had begun and her friends skin was colder than her own as they shivered together.

"We can't, they'll be looking for us." The tallest and oldest of the girls stood apart from the other two but as she spoke her eyes fell on the third girl still silent except for her shivering. She was an orphan that ran messages, served food and even sometimes assisted the villages blacksmith, they would not be looking for her but the third girl...

"So what, my father can pay them. They'd have fires and food and…" The blonde drifted off as the brunette sent her a scatting look that stole her confidence. Daughter of a silk merchant, with her father's wealth she may have been ransomed…if the raiders hadn't burned her family home and taken everything worth a penny from it beforehand.

"They're savages Ino, you can't reason with them." The brunette pressed on but slower than before. Taller and stronger she may have been but she was the thinnest too and shivering the hardest of the three.

"But Tenten I'm-" The blonde, Ino, was cut off as the older girl spun on her heel and whipped a hand across her cheek.

"You stupid girl, if you go back there those horsemen will strip you naked and pass you around their camp until the sunrises. They'll break your perfect little teeth when you try and tell them about daddy whip you bloody and stick their cocks where ever they damn well please." Tenten moved again pulling the still silent third girl with her. For a few moments Ino only stared at their retreating backs before she went scrambling after them.

All three girls huddled together and with a dry clap of heavenly anger the rain began to fall in a thick torrent.

"Where are we Hinata?" asked Ino tucking herself as tightly against the other girl as she could. They were the same age, just past sixteen and had grown up together but they'd never been friends really, friendly but not friends.

"A castle." Hinata answered lightly holding the other girl just as tightly. They'd come upon the looming fortress what felt like hours ago and Tenten the bravest of them had wandered off to explore the seemingly abandoned grounds while the other two hunkered together in the ruins that once served as an entrance gate.

The castle stood like an old man, bent and weary traced all over with wrinkles. Roots and weeds seemed to sprout between cracks in every stone near the ground and each and every metal fixture was rusted beyond recognition. There were no lights though as only the occasional flash of lightning revealed the dark palace with its crumbling towers broken windows and overgrown gardens.

It looked like something Hinata had once had nightmares about after having heard one too many ghost stories from her uncles. But she didn't say that to Ino, the silk born girl was already jumping at shadows and seeing eyes in the treeline.

"Does anyone live here?" asked the blonde and Hinata shook her head instantly. In all the maps and charts her father had shown her there had never been a castle marked in these woods but she felt confident in saying no one occupied it now. It had to be half flooded with all this rain and so many broken windows anyway.

"Tenten's been gone too long." Spoke Ino again through her chattering teeth squeezing Hinata tighter. The brunette had only went in search of dry wood in the shade of the castle or its outer walls but in the time she'd been absent they could have circled the ring half a dozen times. She could have fallen or been attacked by some wild animal or even simply abandoned the two soft born girls to fend for themselves but…

"She'll be back any minute now." Hinata answered more confident than she felt. It calmed the other girls trembling back to simple shivering for a moment at least though. Still as much time had passed again soon enough without any sign of their companion. The rain only grew heavier and the thunder more frequent.

There was a rusted clatter and a sharp squeal from above and both girls went tumbling back into the rain as the ancient gate came rushing down from its hiding place. Ino went left and Hinata went right and then both went rushing back as it became apparent that the gate was not going to strike again.

"It's stuck." Even with both of them lifting the gate refused to move an inch, its long fangs sunk deeply into the hard brown soil. Ino had begun to sob as she tried desperately to wrench the gate back up and Hinata began to shush her gently as she could. Until the blonde blinked and took a step back wide eyed. The dark girl inside the gate twisted to see what had caused the reaction and felt hopeful for a moment. High above the ground in one of the castle's windows candle light shun.

"Ino there's someone here, maybe Tenten woke them. I can get help." The dark girl rushed out ready to do just that. Except her companion was quick to grasp her arm in an icy tight grip, as Hinata glanced back she could see Ino's face had drained of whatever colour it had still possessed and her bright blue eyes were filled with naked terror.

"Don't go Hinata, don't leave me alone." She begged softly pulling at the other girls arm in her desperation. There was a sob only half broken in her voice and for a moment Hinata almost stayed for the girls sanity alone. But they might freeze to death long before anyone knew they were there, or starve if not that.

"It's only going to be for a few minutes okay, just to get help okay Ino." She didn't wait to hear her friends reply, the words hadn't warmed the other girl or dispelled her fear and if Hinata stayed a moment longer she mightn't have the resolve to leave after all.

The winds were howling worse than Hinata had ever experienced in her life and they threw her around as she ran across the courtyard pummelling her with twigs and leaves and muck as the rain cut through her thin clothes to lash her shoulders. The lightning came more than once as she bolted over the ruined path and frightened her to move even faster. Finally she hit the thick door and began to pound on it.

With a low whistle it swung open and she was inside.

Dripping wet and as filthy as the lowest beggar from the slums she took in the massive entrance hall. A roaring fire had been lit in the very centre of the room loosing thick black smoke high into the air to pass through holes cut in the celling but strangely Hinata couldn't feel any heat from it. Everything seemed to be at odds with itself, as if someone had taken three separate castles and swished them together. The portrait of a noble looking man on the right hand wall had been torn a quarter of the way down where an earlier underlying painting continued of a woman's naked body.

Arm chairs, couches and tables. Everything in the room seemed to start as one thing before suddenly changing into something else, sometimes subtlety and more often less so. A statue had its hands and half its face removed and replaced with large burning candles. What at first seemed to be a bear skin rug she soon realised was in fact scales cut and sown together only to resemble a bear's form. Another rug had been made of parts of paintings sown together, each of the edge squares were of painted hands seemingly severed and reaching out for the next of its kind and within the ring of hands were eyes and noses and smiles all mismatched and jumbled together in a wash of colours. Hinata had turned to a suit of armour dressed in skins when she heard the clatter of footsteps on the marble stairs.

The woman that stepped into view was as strange as the room they stood in. Pink haired she possessed a pair of green eyes Hinata thought might just be capable of glowing in the dark. One foot was bare while the other wore heels four or five inches high forcing her to walk with a broken rhythm and unnatural posture. She wore a house maids uniform that looked to have been torn and mended a thousand times with new fabrics added in carelessly here and there. Her skin was as pale and flawless as alabaster except for two obvious stretches along the insides of her arms were scars crisscrossed her veins from her wrists to her elbows.

Blankly without a word or a smile she stared at the intruder.

"I'm sorry, I'm from the village, Konoha. We were attacked and my friends and I we-" Hinata stopped talking as the other woman turned and began to climb the stairs again in her broken hobble giving Hinata a slight glimpse as the scars that also lined her half bare back. The pink haired women silently raised a hand and waved for the girl to follow.

The halls twisted like worms as Hinata followed the silent servant suspiciously eying each and every painting that seemed to follow the style of being torn and snitched together with another one until finally a complete one caught her eye and she found herself asking.

"Who is he?" The dark man depicted by the artist could have been a corpse if his skin was as pale as the work suggested. He looked a graceful sort of feral with his cold expression and the pale hand grasping the blade at his hip. It was the energy that the painter had captured that made the work unnerving though, his muscles looked almost to be twitching beneath his linen shirt and his eyes. Hinata couldn't help but think there was fury in those dark eyes and pain too, more than the dead eyes of a painting should rightfully possess.

The servant woman didn't answer though. She only stopped a moment to stare at the painting too and then slowly reached out a hand caressing the ink as if it were some lover long thought to be lost. Then she was moving again the click of her one shoe echoing in the young woman's ear.

She only paused again when they reached a pale oaken door. The pink haired servant woman stared at Hinata for a moment until it donned on the dark haired girl she was supposed to enter. Softly Hinata stepped past the silent woman and pushed her way inside.

The room could have been called a sanctuary, but only if your idea of a sanctuary was truly barren. The room was consistent where the other rooms Hinata had seen were not. It was Spartan though only a small fire against one wall revealing half of the room, two dark armchairs, a wolf's pelt and a table lying between them and a tapestry of a red and white family crest hanging over the fire.

"Who are you?" A cold voice came from behind one of the chairs as a shadow rose. It was the man from the painting, or his twin. He looked as old as the woman outside, maybe his mid-twenties or older, but he seemed less…strange. He dressed like her father would in his study, a heavy smoking robe over silken nightwear. In the darkness Hinata couldn't read his expression.

"I'm Hinata H-hyuuga, daughter of Hiashi Hyuuga of K-konoha. O-our village was sacked and my friends and I ran into the woods, t-they're both outside now if you could…" Hinata trailed off her stumbled speech. What was it she wanted. Shelter for a night. Help getting out past the fallen gate. Food. Clothing.

"Sit. Sakura!" His voice came like iron and the dark girl found herself skittering across the room to the fireside. Just like the fire in the first room this one seemed to give off no real heat, only smoke and light. The servant woman cracked open the door poking her head back in.

"If you would be so kind." Was all the man offered by way of command before he settled back into his seat. The dark girl was still filthy and didn't want to ruin her hosts chair.

"Sit Hinata Hyuuga." His voice came again in the same tones her father had always used and she'd always feared. This time she listened and sat lightly on the edge of the plush seat. She took a chance to examine her host, even in the orange light of the fires flames he seemed ghostly. Pale with dead angry eyes. After a moment Hinata's panic passed and her sense caught up with her.

"My friends they're-" she cut off as the door banged open and the woman from earlier, Sakura, re-entered a basin of water in her arms. Unceremoniously she dumped the basin at the side of Hinata's chair causing her to jump at the clatter as the steaming water splashed and swirled. She dumped a bundle of cloth next to the water before she stalked out of the room tersely the dark man's eyes on her back.

"You'll have to forgive my friend…she's weary of new faces. Your friends though are already inside the castle, the others found them." He smiled but Hinata didn't think it was a pleasant thing. Maybe that wasn't quite fair to say, on his handsome features it was an alluring quirk of the lips but it held no kindness to it. Instead the smile felt sharp, like a blade wrapped in velvet.

"Your friend?" Asked Hinata carefully pulling the basin closer to wash up as the man gestured for it. He smiled again but less wickedly. Her friends were already in the castle, he'd said friends so that had to mean both Ino and Tenten. If Tenten had roused the household it made sense, they would've went to the gate where Ino had waited.

"You took her for a maid I suppose, most do. It pleases her to serve me so I allow her too." Answered the still nameless man. There was an arrogance to him that Hinata could almost feel strangling the air. Pleases her to serve? She could still see the way the odd woman had stroked his painting. Reverent.

"I-I…yes I did…mister..?" Spoke the Hyuuga as she tried to get the thick muck from her legs. It seemed rooted though, as if it had become part of her in the short few hours it had spent clinging to her in the forest. Only when she glanced up did the girl realise the man had moved, silent as a thief to kneel before her. Sharply his hand reached out wrapping tight around her ankle. His hands were cold, colder than Ino or Tenten had been when they were running through the rain. A scalding cold.

"Sasuke Uchiha. Leave your feet to soak and dress yourself." He spoke before rising fluidly to his feet and striding from the room. The Hyuuga girl had only enough time to grab one of the thicker warmer looking tunics and replace her nightgown before the door creaked open again.

"My friends are in the castle now?" She asked again as the dark man, Sasuke, returned to his seat depositing a three pronged candle stick on the small circular table. Sakura was only moments behind with a silver tray balanced dangerously on her arm.

"They are." He answered dully as the tray was dropped only slightly less haphazardly than the basin had been. A host of smells assaulted the young girl as the dark man passed her a bowl of thick soup, some were good and as many more were bad but Hinata was too hungry to be picky. Two wine glasses were filled before Sakura left them again, still silent.

"She doesn't talk much does she?" Hinata found herself asking perhaps less than politely as the hot water began to restore feeling to her legs and the too sweet soup quelled her hunger. The dark man smiled now with all the wickedness and mirth of a snake about to strike.

"Women with no tongues rarely do." Was his callous reply spoken as the pink haired woman entered the room again. She didn't miss a beat though or even seem to notice Sasuke's words as she took to standing by his seat lopsided. The pale man glanced up toward her for a moment.

"Sakura show me your beautiful smile." His tone was so flat it almost seemed like he wasn't mocking her. Sakura certainly didn't seem to think so as her lips stretched wide in a jubilant grin for the man revealing rows of broken teeth and the ruin of a tongue, softly he smiled back at her. Then she faced Hinata again and her expression was like ice. Her soup had quickly lost its appeal all too suddenly.

"Thank you for your hospitality but I really should get my friends and leave. I wouldn't want the raiders to give you trouble for helping us." As Hinata had spoken Sasuke's left brow had rose in an expression she couldn't interpret as much more than sardonic. This man seemed to enjoy belittling people. As she went to rise though Hinata found she could not, there was a weight to the man's presence she couldn't seem to refuse.

"Those men won't find this place I assure you, and I've offered you no hospitality only what I must. Your friends are not here to take besides." Offered Sasuke plainly crossing one leg over the other and taking a long sip of his wine, softly the mute woman at his side settled herself on the arm rest and leaned over his shoulder.

"You said they were in the castle. Why can't we leave?" The young woman was growing more and more worried as the seconds ticked by. Everything in this castle seemed to offend some sixth sense in her. But she still couldn't stand up, she couldn't seem to move at all as the thin pale man rose to hover over her.

"You may leave whenever you like. But it was others that found your friends not I, they're below us now in the cellars." He spoke reaching and taking the second glass in his hand, softly he pressed it to her lips tipping a sip of the dry sharp wine into her mouth.

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Hinata as the sensation that they all were prisoners trapped in this fortress took hold of her. Sasuke laughed, a sound much like his smile, it sounded like bones cracking wetly beneath muscle and blood.

"What do you think it means Hinata Hyuuga?" he asked scornfully as he returned to his seat. Sakura had completely curled around him now and for a second Hinata feared that was what was intended for her. Had Sakura came here before seeking refuge from a storm and been transformed into that.

"I'm a prisoner." Hinata spoke and Sasuke snorted rolling his eyes.

"Not particularly bright are we? I told you, you may leave whenever you wish I do not keep prisoners. You've nothing to fear, in this place no harm can befall an innocent." He emptied the wine glass after he spoke and the woman who was his friend but played his servant climbed back to her feet to refill it. Hinata still couldn't stand up though.

"We're all innocent, we haven't committed any crimes." Hinata knew that as a fact, neither of the other girls were any more criminals than she herself was. Sasuke only smiled though, sadly for a moment before the cruelty swallowed that ghost up.

"Not that kind of innocence." The dark haired girl blushed prettily for a moment as she realised what the man had actually been implying.

"What is this place?" asked the Hyuuga, frightened and confused and wishing she could go back to hungry and soaked with her friends outside.

"I think you've already figured that out Hinata Hyuuga. You should leave soon."

And that's part one of an intended three. Going full on gothic horror here so I do hope you folks enjoy. Next part will be out as soon as it's ready and not a second sooner nor later so hope you're intrigued.

R&R