Hey guys! Hmm...this might seem early for a new story, since I've just finished Gentle Lie, but...school's starting soon, which means my senior year has arrived. I'll be very busy this year, so please don't get mad at me if I don't update. I also have a life outside of typing fanfictions! This story is also set in a different time period than Gentle Lie, so please tell me what you think of the introduction so far (: To the ones who are not new to me, I hope you guys will support this story if it interests you! To everyone, please give me your feedback on how you think the story is so far! Arigatou gozaimasu, minna-san!

Oh, and to people who have read Gentle Lie, I lied...somewhat. Gentle Lie isn't the first fanfiction that I've written. This one is. Gentle Lie is the first one that I've posted online for you guys to read. I wonder if you guys will notice a difference in the writing styles for Gentle Lie and this story? It's only slightly different for the first three chapters, but...not that much, since I wrote this story...almost eight months ago! Wow, time sure flies! XD This is my 'present' to you all, so to speak for...school starting again. *sarcasm*

P.S. Sasuke may seem OOC at first. He will change more to...his own Sasuke-ness in a chapter or two. Let me know if he is please! And there will be a few lemons in this story.

Disclaimer : I wish I owned Naruto. Kishimoto-sensei's working so hard to get his chapters out every week.

Sasuke felt as if his head weighed a hundred pounds. He struggled to pry his aching body off of the soft bed he had awakened on. The room spun round and round in his disoriented mind and Sasuke found it quite difficult to stop himself from emptying the contents of his stomach onto the comforter covering the lower half of his body. Lifting a hand to gingerly touch the place on his head that hurt the most, he found bandages covering it…along with the rest of his head. He cursed inwardly as he slowly began to remember how he had come to be where he was.

"There he is! Get him!!!" screamed a man in a black suit with a crowbar.

Sasuke, walking down a street carrying a book bag with a few books that weighed about five pounds each, stopped as twelve men surrounded him. Each man held a weapon of some sort, a gun, a crowbar, an axe, a... flamethrower?! and various other dangerous looking weapons. Completely surrounded with no one in the vicinity to help him, Sasuke was forced to fight for himself. Swinging his bag full of heavy books, he launched it at a man who was holding a wooden club. Caught off guard, the man toppled over as the book bag hit him squarely in the chest, knocking him out.

Running past the fallen man, Sasuke snatched up his book bag and ran for it, only to be blocked by other men of the gang. Two men caught him off guard from behind and pinned him to the ground while another wrestled the bag out of his hands. Struggling futilely, Sasuke sank into unconsciousness as a man swiped a hard object across the back of his head.

"..........."

Sweeping the contours of the room with onyx-black eyes, an object of a vibrant colour caught his eyes, a magenta envelope. 'Nasty' he thought. He swiped the envelope from the bedside table and tore it open, restless to get to its contents. He never was one for patience.

Uchiha Sasuke-san,

Uchiha Itachi, your brother, owes us a substantial amount of money. He was supposed to have paid it like a few months ago but he sort of disappeared without a trace. So we have decided to keep you here as a hostage until your brother returns the money he owes us. Don't worry; we won't hurt you unless your brother's debt remains unpaid for the next 6 months. If not, we'll ruin you for sure, worse than we already have. For the time being, please make yourself at home as much as possible. Oh yeah, sorry 'bout that bump on your noggin. You should change your dressings after you get up. First aid kit's in the cupboard above the toilet. 

'Till then.

P.S. You will get updated with the status of the debt every month. Food and supplies will be dropped off every so often. ~

Debt Owing: £ 500, 000

Lips in a tight frown on his statuesque face, thoughts raced through the younger Uchiha's mind. His brother got him involved with debt collectors. 'Hn. Another one. Seems like he's still borrowing money from people. He's going to get killed one of these days. And he's going to drag me down WITH him. Just like now. I'm stuck in a really made up room. Is this even for real? They even tell me where the first aid kit is and when to change my dressings. What kind of fucked up kidnapping is this? And what do they mean ruin "us" more? We haven't seen each other for a long time, and I believe "we" are already ruined enough as it is, the worst thing is probably kill us which is kind of a relief to be away from this sort of life...' His thoughts trailed on as he balled up the letter unconsciously in his hand. Distracted by his thoughts, Sasuke missed the P.P.S. at the near bottom of the letter.

P.P.S. Company will be joining you shortly.

Settling himself back onto the pillow he was resting on, Sasuke stared at the mahogany coloured ceiling and drifted off to sleep once more.

"Sasuke! They're here, we have to leave! Hurry!!!" screamed Itachi, holding a bag.

"But why onii-chan? Who're they? We just got settled here! I don't want to run away again!" Sasuke yelled.

Having no time to respond to the whines of his younger brother, Uchiha Itachi clapped a hand over Sasuke's mouth. Lifting him up, Itachi ran towards the living room window where a fire escape ladder was present just outside of it. Forcing the window open, Itachi's eyes widened as he heard the thundering footsteps of shouting men stop at his front door.

Quickly launching himself out the window with Sasuke, the two Uchiha brothers hung in mid-air for a split second before Itachi grabbed one of the rungs of the ladder. His feet slipped from one of the rungs and in mere seconds, the brothers were swinging in the air with one of Itachi's hands holding up both their weight. At that moment, the front door of their apartment broke from its hinges from the men's forceful hits. Recovering from the near-death experience, Itachi nimbly shinnied down the ladder with Sasuke; they both took off into the tearing night. It seemed as if the sky was crying for them, their lifestyle of always running away...

Waking up with a jolt, Sasuke sat on the bed, blankly staring at the blue sheets covering the bed. Shaking his head trying to clear it of memories 7 years' past, he greatly regretted it as his head spun. Sighing as he got up, he grabbed the envelope and letter from the bedside table and threw them into a wastebasket. He then headed out the door in search of the bathroom. 'Going to kill him for letting me be kidnapped. Extra two lives for the swollen head and nausea it's causing me...'

Sasuke slipped his way across the hardwood floor and opened doors until he found the washroom. Opening the cupboard specified in the letter, Sasuke found a massive first aid kit and put it on the counter beside the sink. Undoing the clasp holding the box together, a jumble of items exploded from the packed kit. Struggling to keep it closed, Sasuke grabbed antiseptics, gauze, and a few other items essential for patching up and cleaning his wounds. He left the items he needed on top of the kit after closing it with great difficulty.

'.... What kind of idiot packed these so tightly together? Don't they know that this could cause some of the packaging to burst open and get contaminated with germs? It's so damn hard trying to find anything in here; everything's so cluttered...'

Looking into the mirror, Sasuke found several cuts on his cheeks and his head swathed in bandages. Gently unwrapping the bandages his head was dressed with, Sasuke threw them into a basket beside the toilet. Stripping himself of clothing, Sasuke stepped in the shower and turned the hot water on full blast. Placing both his hands on the tiled wall of the shower, hot water sprayed onto the bump on his head. Sasuke gingerly touched the swelling, the throbbing of it making him flinch. Finishing his shower, he dressed himself before he got to work on his wounds.

Sweeping his slightly damp hair aside, Sasuke cleansed the bump with antiseptics and put a piece of gauze over it. Securing the piece of gauze with bandages and a clip, Sasuke disinfected the scratches on his face and threw the used materials into the trash can. Feeling lightheaded after the shower and redressing of his injuries, Sasuke set out to explore the rest of the house.

After finding a spare bedroom, a hot tub, an outdoor pool, a massive living room, a games room, a study room, a classy kitchen, three bathrooms and more, Sasuke could find no evidence of any human or organism living there besides himself. No spider webs, no dust, no unwashed glassware, everything was sparkling clean, and he enjoyed having the feeling of not having to do work for once. He remembered always doing the dishes, the cooking, the housekeeping and everything else. What sparked his curiosity was that there were two bedrooms on the 2nd story, and the second bedroom was neatly cleaned, swept up, and aired out... just like the rest of the house and his own bedroom.

'Maybe I'm just thinking too much.' He muttered to himself.

But why, though? After a lengthy exploration of the summerhouse, it became quite apparent that there was far more stuff than one person living here for six months could ever need. Even with his... kidnappers? Benefactors? He didn't even know what to call them now after surveying the structure and wealth of the house. It seemed like his charges were just giving him a free stay at this mansion before his brother decided to pay off his debts; even though he'd moved out and away for over a year, away from his brother and the monstrous debts he owed others. It seemed like he'd never be able to get away from them as long as he had Uchiha blood flowing through him.

'What a pain. As always, he'll probably pay off the debt in time. He always does. This time shouldn't be of any difference than other times. His only bro gets kidnapped. Damn. Gotta save him. Bring money. Get back bro. Borrow more money, more debts, and onto the next kidnapping of the same younger brother. This cycle never ends' Sasuke snorted. Looking around with a smirk on his face; another thought struck him. 'Hn. The note said I'm stuck here for the next six months, and it said I should make myself at home, right? That bastard's going to use the entire six months to pay off his debt anyway. Always been his style, always will.' With that, Sasuke whipped the door of the fridge open and casted his thoughts aside.

– A week later –

Cold air rushed past the immobilized pink-haired girl as she was dropped from a plane. Struggling to break free of the taut ropes that bound her arms to her side, she soon realized that her efforts were wasted. Fear worked its way into the heart of Sakura Haruno; the blindfold did not allow her to see what was going on. Ready to have her head bashed open by the force she would hit the pavement (or some other equally cold and impenetrable surface), she silently prayed that her death would be quick and painless. What she didn't expect however, before having her fall broken by a body of water, was feeling the tips of her toes slide across something smooth as she was engulfed by the enormous wave of water her fall had stirred up. She heard curse words before all went out of focus; she hits the pool's water surface and becomes unconscious.

Sitting on a floatation device in the outdoor pool, Sasuke had the iPod speakers that he had found in the games room blaring with music from the iPod he had also found along with the speakers. Closing his eyes, hoping to get some sleep while absorbing some Vitamin D, Sasuke was rudely interrupted by a commotion. Something landed in the area of water right beside his floatation device, and splashed water over him AND his speakers; the speakers made a funny crackling sound. It wasn't that he minded this particularly, but that something had hit the edge of his floating bed and capsized it, flipping both him and the floatation device over and up, dumping Sasuke into the cold water.

Not having taken a breath before entering the water, Sasuke choked on the amount of pool water he inhaled. Kicking his legs hard to get back to the surface to gulp in some nice, fresh, un-chlorinated air, Sasuke brushed past something as he surfaced. Gasping for air, Sasuke looked for the object or thing that caused the capsizing of his floatation device. Seeing a flash of pink, he dove towards the bottom of the pool; getting a closer look, he saw a pink-haired girl tied in ropes, unmoving. Agilely swimming through the waters to get to her, Sasuke pushed the girl onto one of his shoulders and swam upwards, into the warm, welcoming rays of sunlight and place where there were plentiful amounts of oxygen.

Placing the girl on the patio beside the pool, Sasuke got to work on untying the ropes binding her arms to her sides. Freeing her, Sasuke grabbed her shoulders and shook them, receiving no response. Laying her down onto the patio again with her face up, he performed CPR on her twice before she came to. Seeing the haziness lifting from her eyes as they slid into focus, Sasuke gave a sigh of relief as she struggled to get up.

As he put his hand down on the patio to push himself up, his fingertips touched a sticky, warm substance. Having had so many experiences and run-ins with gangs, thugs and debt collectors, he didn't need to be a genius to know that it was blood on his fingertips. Looking down, onyx-black eyes widened as they saw how much the area was covered with blood. Disbelief showing on his face, Sasuke located the source of the trickling blood, and it was none other than one of the wrists of the lady he had just rescued. Snatching a towel from the side of the pool, he held her wrist together with the towel to try to stem the flow of blood steadily streaming out. Meeting eyes with the pink-haired stranger, Sasuke gave an alarmed look as her eyes lost focus again and she fell forwards into his arms.

"What the hell?!"

Sasuke's debt : £ 499, 001

And this is my new story! Reviews are much appreciated! Actually, without reviews, I probably won't continue with this story. I need reviews to actually know if people like this story or not, so I won't waste my time typing this for...non-existent readers ): I won't update this until...I have received 10 reviews. Sorry guys ): So...review please! Much love! Oh uh...critical comments are always loved, but if you just have flames. Forget it.

- Kanryu 08/28/09