--

Chapter Nine…

Sell Out

--

I awoke with my emotions floating somewhere between being shut down/ turned off and then close to a false happiness. My eyes weren't adjusting well to the white walls of the room so my hand was at my forehead in an attempt to shield them from the sun. I wasn't an entirely helpless person after all, but I didn't feel any strength that I could use to do anything worth my time…

A chime started to play itself a couple of yards away. It played along with a rather annoying buzz. It didn't take me long at all to recognize it as my cell phone ringing like crazy.

Lazily I looked for it, scanning the floor until I saw it moving towards the underside of a dresser. Tapping into the energy reserves I had left, I hopped out of the bed and made a grab for it before I wouldn't be able to reach it anymore. Clicking the needed button I brought it to my face.

"Itachi." I breathed.

He was the one that called, he had to be. I heard the bed shift behind me and I saw Sasuke get up, starring my way, tired but interested. I only looked at him for a moment. I quickly averted my eyes to some random corner of the room and waited for Itachi to speak.

"Where'd you spend the night?" He asked.

"Kiba's." I lied easily, knowing that if I said his brother's name it might spark a cause for alarm.

"Inuzuka?" He questioned.

"Yes. I think that's his last name." I was a little confused.

"I'm going to go pick you up, Naruto. Stay put."

"No." I said quietly and quickly. "I'm not at his house anymore." I waited for Itachi's reaction, when none came, I continued. "I went to that coffee shop. I'll wait for you here."

"Hn."

Another click and he was gone. I pushed my legs to work and ran to the corner of the room and gathered up my clothes in my arms.

"It'll take you five minutes on foot if you run now." I heard Sasuke say as he plopped back down on the bed.

I paused in my actions and stopped to take another look at him. Could he really save me like he said he would? Was I wrong to put my trust in him? Leave my fate in his hands like one of those highly devoted god followers?

I shook the thoughts and placed them in the back of my mind. I had to reach the shop before Itachi did and look as casual as possible. My heart gave a tug when I finally acknowledged what I'd be doing… Betray the one man who gave everything for me.

Heaven tell me, please…

I shut the door to Sasuke's room and got dressed as I ran. Not the wisest thing to do, considering the obstacle known as stairs were all too real.

…Please. Tell me it'll be worth it.

--

The unsettling feelings, I managed to repress shortly after getting to the café. They didn't bubble up until I saw Itachi arrive and I had to go out there to face him. He knew me too well not to know when something was bothering me. If he asked me anything…pressured me, I'd be done for and my plan for escape, whatever it was, would be lost.

So with a ton of will power, I opened the passenger side door and got in.

My chest hurting all the while.

I bit the inside of my lip and chanced a glance at him as he drove the car back to his house, he didn't look any different but it was that little detail that harmed my sanity the most.

"I'm…sorry." I said, softly and his attention was mine though he didn't look at me. "For what happened at the shoot."

"You embarrassed me, Naruto." Itachi said with no hint of emotion in his voice. I shivered.

"But I couldn't!" I snapped, "Gaara was uncomfortable and I didn't want to-"

"You did it for Gaara's sake?" Itachi cut me off, but his voice somehow cooled me down as well.

I nodded mutely at first before saying a softly murmured, "Yes."

He stayed quiet for some time, thinking the whole situation over, maybe?

"Naruto," his tone was at a point that meant his next words were going to be life lesson and punishment. "In this business you're in, you cannot be selfless and toss yourself out there to the dogs just because someone else is uncomfortable." His neutral voice was almost staggering. "Madara was furious."

A sigh, rare to my ears escaped his pale lips and it was then that I noticed the surrounding area wasn't one I recognized. We weren't going home?

The light turned red and suddenly I wanted nothing more than to jump out of the car, but I was glued to my seat, waiting intently for Itachi's next words. Hoping that whatever it was wasn't going to be bad news or anything that would… That would what? Why was I so panicked? What did I have to live for? My hope on a mediocre scale of one to ten was always somewhere set in the negatives, so then why did I care? ...It might've been the look of these new streets. Dirty and gray and as bleak as the weather, but darker than the rest of this god forsaken city.
My heart hitched.
I recognized this part of town.

"Itachi…" I choked out. "Where are we going?" I leaned towards him, reaching out my hand to his arm. Anything for some sign of support. "What happened with Madara?"

Itachi didn't look at me.

The light turned green.

The car moved forward in a direction I ran away from long ago.

"Itachi!" I screamed and jerked his arm but he barely budged. "What did he tell you? What did he say?!"

I felt my heart pound against my chest and my eyes began to burn. "Itachi, please…Why aren't you answering me?"

He moved his arm out of my grasp as the car came to a stop, I turned my head to look out the window beside me and I froze.

"Get out of the car." He said, his voice dead.

I didn't look at him and I didn't move. "…No." I whispered.

"Naruto."

"No!" I snapped, turning around. "I'm not going back there! Take me home! I want to go home!" I was screaming at the top of my lungs. "You can't do this to me!"

And suddenly…something shifted. My brain felt shot. Numbed. And my heart…felt loosened. My chest was ripping the whole in the center to new lengths and my eyes overflowed with tears as my hands shook at my lap. My throat felt closed. My world was utterly still. The only thing that was in front of me was a man whom I had thought I could trust…A man who I had loved once in my life. A man that had saved me from the depths of hell but then put me in a cage, only to return me from whence I came… A man who I had wished to betray; only to have him turn around and bite me back with much more…bone breaking force. I was lost now. I shook my head slowly…

"Why?" I sobbed. "Why can't you…" My words were lost to me.

I was broken. That had been the last straw. It had to have been. I didn't want to fight anymore…just wanted reason.

Itachi looked over my defeated form and for a moment I saw the guilt, but it was only for a moment.

"Get out of the car, Naruto. A room has been arranged and you will start work in two days time. If you try to run away they will find you. And the punishments will be nothing less than fatal."

I was barely listening to him, making a not to run away on purpose and hope they kill me when I'm found. Anything would be better.

"What about the debt?"

"It's been paid."

"Then why?" My voice was so small.

"I had to sell you to pay it off."

This news wasn't much of a surprise but I couldn't stop the pain it wrought upon me.

"There is no buying you back this time, Naruto. And you will behave."

I nodded, keeping my eyes on my trembling hands and willing them to stop. Praying my tears to stop falling. "Yes." I agreed.

I moved mechanically, opening the door and stepping one foot out the door, but instead of just walking out I looked back…sort of. My eyes were still downcast, not wanting to look at him but I had my attention on his general direction.

"Will I ever see you again?" I asked.

Only a part of me was interested and hopeful, but the rest…was just numb all around. Numb to any thoughts of any kind of hope or pleasure. I was going to be used and sold. A sell out. Worthless.

He wasn't looking at me either. This was fine. I couldn't blame him.

"No."

I let go of the breath I had been holding for whatever cause. Okay…

--

As I watched him drive off I stood very still and breaking ever so slowly. I didn't want to chase after him, I didn't want to go inside the building at my back, and I didn't want to think… But, of course, just because I didn't want something didn't mean I could stop it all from happening.

My thoughts ran wild.

One thought in particular.

'Sasuke…what are you going to do?'

He couldn't save me now. No one could.

I whipped my eyes. I'd need to do well here if I was going to be able to get any kind of freedom or rewards in the future. They weren't all treated like dirt here, right? I had no reason to hope for a better tomorrow…I was never going to let myself be so foolish again. But my heart was hurting. My whole body ached with sorrow. What had I ever done to deserve the life I was living? Itachi was yet another thought that plagued me. I had put too much of my faith in him. I should've known something like this was going to happen. That he was going to lose to Madara in the end just like everybody else. I was a fool to think either of the younger Uchihas could save me…Love me.

My tears…they were beginning to slow themselves.

I wasn't coping with my current situation. Not a chance. I was just…so tired of it all already. Why bother with myself any longer. All it did was serve to be my own downfall.

I clenched and unclenched my fists.

The door behind me opened and a soft female voice came to me.

"Are you, Naruto-kun?" she asked and I looked over my shoulder at the small girl. She was around my age, I thought. But she looked familiar. I wasn't sure from where though.

I nodded.

"Follow me please." She said quietly and I listened. Following her into the building and looking around and my future. Men and women alike smothering and fucking children of my age, dressed in kimonos of fine silk and satin. Moans and screams greeted my ears as I walked down the halls of paper walls and dimly lit candles.

None of this was new.

I recognized it all.

The girl in front of me was leading me to a room in the back. Whether it was going to my room again, I didn't know, but I knew the room as well.

The door was slid open when she said I was with her and my eyes of dimming azure met those of malicious crimson.

"Welcome home, Kitsune."

And I watched Madara's lips curl into a smirk as I was led forward, towards him like a dog to its new master. He was dressed in a black Kimono, the front open to his waist and the inside of it was red. He held a glass of what I assumed to be wine in his left hand as he reached out to me with the right. I took his hand with mine.

I could feel the frown on my face as the girl left us alone and the door was closed.

"Now now." He cooed. "Don't look at me like that, Naruto." He chuckled. "Or should I say, Kyuubi?"

I felt my whole body jerk at the name. I put my free hand to me head and the voice…That accursed voice bubbled up. Laughing again and screaming to be let out once more. I shuddered and Madara pulled me closer.

"No.." I tried to fight it all back but I lost.

Smoke fogged my senses and the last of my spirit died with one last prayer to the winds…

"…Sasuke."

--

THE END!

Well…Sell Out ended but that's not the end of this story. The sequel is in the process of being made. Sorry to say but you could think of this one as more of a prequel.

I'll see you all soon I hope!