A/N : Hello and welcome to my work. This is a NaruTayu fic to begin with. While throughout the whole story there may be some other pairings mentioned, it is strictly NaruTayu. And I hope my writing has at least improved from my other two I have here. One is still a WIP. And onto the story, it may be a common point in which these two meet, but there will be significant changes as the story proceeds. You will see.

I do not own Naruto. If I did, then there wouldn't be a need for Madara to be Tobi. And Tobi wouldn't be a good boy.

I Need You

Chapter 1 : A Struggling Pain, A Welcoming Stranger

She was in pain.

The pain that if she could compare, would be like meeting the Shinigami's cold stare and be subdued by it in the most unfathomable of ways. If she by any chance could speak properly, then she'd say that's the closest she has ever been to Death.

Squinting her chocolate brown eyes in agony, she turned her barely moveable neck to stare at the vast blue sky. Clear of any clouds from the impervious rain that had just mere minutes ago had ended its precipice. There was no clear sign, apart from her drenched clothes, that it had rained. None.

No clouds. No wind to denote any weather change.

As she attempted to qualm the pain that struck her body, she came to the realization that there were no trees in her view. What had just happened? This was a forest. So there should be some kind of tree canopy or obstruct that prevented sight of the sky from the forest floor. Thinking on a certain memory, her eyes widened.

Of course she would remember. It came with a painful dull pain to her neck and her temple. Noticing a still wet spot out of the corner of her eyes to her brow, she noticed a crimson halo in her peripheral vision. Blood. When was the last time she saw blood that was solely hers?

Grunting to her dismay and well-being, if it could be call that, she slowly recalled what had happened. Mere hours or days before, she couldn't really say, had put her in a position of a mission objective. Vague memories of a fire pit in the night sky with 4 other individuals had cordially placed her mentality on edge. She couldn't remember who they were, but could minutely decipher what their lips read.

'Complete the mission.'

'Eliminate all.'

'He will get the boy.'

That last sentence didn't really make her feel easy. She had been on a mission. Was asked to eliminate all who stayed in her way. And a boy that was to be taken back to someone she couldn't even picture. No face, no pose, no character. But a simple, evil, cackle that made her fear it, had been heard perfectly.

A pain quickly simmered through her neck down her left jaw. After a few seconds, she drew a slow, airless breath. She didn't even know she was holding it in.

Putting forth the necessary will, she remembered what had happened after that fire pit. A capture of a raven-haired boy. The placement of his body in a container to which he was sealed. The run in with Shizune's tracking team and then the fighting with the five genin there after. 'Tsk.' She grunted as she eyed the wary sky.

Not long ago, she had faced of the pineapple-headed genin, who was in charge of the squad to retrieve the raven-haired boy. It all went well in her favor. It all was going according to her skills. She didn't take into account the boys intelligence and high perception. It then went all wrong.

She was pushed to use her Doki summons. The boy had evaded all attacks and began pacing around throwing kunai forth in order to disable her. Again, she thought with hate, the boy outdid her. He had set her up against a kunai with a paper bomb tag behind her and she clearly fell in its path.

The explosion that went off caused the injured kunoichi to wince and grunt at the memory. It was then that her power, she didn't know what or where it came from, had taken hold of her body. The zig-zag markings had covered her entire body. Head to toe. In a glow of light, her body had taken a complete change than her previous appearance. Her light skin tone had turned a dark brown. Her once wild crimson haired that was tucked under her cap, had grown longer and smoother, decorated with five oddly placed horns around her head. Her eyes had transcended from her chocolate brown to a vibrant yellow.

It was then the tide of the battle had completely returned in her favor. The pineapple boy had avoided direct confrontation, always muttering about 'troublesome women'. As the more she recalled the more she truly wished, she could remember how, when and where had she gotten that power.

She had the boy in her grips. She had him to the point of submission and execution. But again it all proved futile. The boy was trapped in a genjutsu when she had stepped up in front of him. Kunai at the ready. That was where she recalled was her biggest mistake.

In an attempt to move forward, she was stopped immobile. A feeling of complete and utter loss of body movement told her it wasn't because of her power. The boy had bound her with his...shadow?

A serious of curses strangled out of her pained chest. She couldn't believe what she was remembering. It seemed to her more like a dream if that was the case. The boy had again proven her attempts futile when he had used a broken ring finger to break the curse and use that as the means to begin the Shadow Possession Choke. Or what she thought it was called.

As it continued, the boy had her on edge. His shadow technique had elicited two shadow hands that swirled around her body, constricting her movements. As one made itself to her neck, she had willed her body to move. It continued back and forth, until finally a small budge was her answer.

The boy was losing his strength to hold the technique.

She smirked.

She recalled what his face had expressed at that point. He's struggling, pained expression told her that it would only be a matter of seconds before his technique died out, and he would be in a near hopeless situation against a kunoichi who still had energy and movement to spend.

Drifting out of her thoughts due to a pain in her left side of her chest, she looked around and her previous smirk had drifted into a pained grin.

She did not take into account the unexpected arrival of a Sand nin. More specifically a blond Sand kunoichi that had literally brought down the 'house' on her.

The more she thought about what had occurred, the more she seethed. The more she seethed, the further her focus of her surroundings dimmed. With an angered sigh, the tree she failed to notice on top of her, slipped further, crushing her body that drove her into strangled cry of pain.

Intense electrical subjugation of her body took place. She went limp for a couple of seconds to regain a small measurement of relief to her already battered and bruised body. It was just to much to handle in her state, as her eyes remained shut. She cursed herself for giving into weakness. She knew she wasn't supposed to do so. Something deep in the back of her mind told her not to fall into the frail shell of her former self. She damned herself for it if she were to cry in agony and sorrow.

Recalling on the four faces in her vague memories and the evil disembodied laugh, she grew angered. She hated not knowing who they were to her. And it only fueled her belief that they were truly people who had left her there and never came back. Her gut feeling told her to be strong even if faced with death. She laughed lightly at her predicament.

It was a straight emotional detachment.

Cold sensations coursed her body. The voice inside her head told her to kill of emotions and prioritize her mission.

'What mission?'

Cold blooded lectures on killing emotions and prioritizing what many considered blasphemy on morals. She started to wish she was dead.

Not long after an eerie silence, she flailed delicately to further acknowledge her situation. The Suna nin must have had strong skills in elemental wind manipulation to decimate, well, behead, a portion of the entire forest sector using wind from a single swing of her battle fan. A slight chuckle exited the trapped female's larynx. It was emotionally...helpless.

She knew she had it all, but didn't know what 'it' was. The inability to recall what she concluded, the past three years of her life, served her to hinder what exactly to think or act. It was all to clouded, all too unexplainable and utterly confusing.

As she thought more and more about what the other four during that night meant to her, the more she came to accept her inevitable lonely death. A pained childhood and a struggle to show her use to someone. Loneliness. It was something she really wanted to keep. But it was strange. She wanted something else. She did not know why...but she wanted...a home.

From the night before, to her now present situation, her life had taken a dive to the unknown and for once she didn't know exactly what to think, say or believe.

Unable to bend forth in an effort to alleviate the growing pain and stress in her near shredded lower back muscles, no thanks to the Suna kunoichi'sWind technique, she turned to her left side. As soon as she did, she cursed herself loudly. A whole forest would have been enough to kill her. Hell, the single swing of the blond Suna nin's battle fan, should have killed her then and there. She regretted ever trying to avoid full scale attacks. More profane words and strained ligaments near tearing point caused her to calm down. She was truly starting to feel invisible to the world. To herself.

The crows that had hovered over her since she had woken up had haunted her vision. She was slowly being petrified by such uselessness. Such inability to move. To be helped. Her flute, the only instrument that she could clearly recall using, was just a finger short away. Maybe if she could use it to summon those manifested Doki, she could be able to help herself. But that was not the case. It laid in front of her eyes, placed in a nearby tree. Trapped in the bark and crushed.

A shadowed gaze blanketed her eyes. Her crimson red hair, now caked in blood from the minor laceration of her right brow and right shoulder, seemed unwanted. Wild and unkempt. No glimmer of her previous display. Or trace of the wildness in it. The cap that no doubt was lost when she turned to use that unknown power, was gone far before. Her tattered and ripped tunic barely was sufficient enough to cover her now visible torso. Her abdomen, light bluish in tone, no doubt from a crushing blow, was visible. Part of her right leg, if depending on just air breeze, was drenched in blood. As she further diagnosed herself, despite not having sufficient knowledge to treat her wounds, she realized just to what extent of damage she received.

Dangerously fatal.

Lacerations covered her shoulder. Her right brow, was cut and bleeding. A fractured wrist in her left hand, which to her, was still mobile despite the swelling it displayed. The pain she had previously felt on her left breast, were exactly four fractured ribs, all slight nudging her skin. A severely fractured pelvis, that if not treated soon, would permanently disable her for life, was prominently the most painful as it was were the timber of a fallen tree laid across her. If she survived at all. Further diagnostics revealed what she feared.

Further down her right leg, were a wet sensation had previously made itself known, was decorated, if she were to put nicely, by severe cuts and bruises. The pale, milky skin she knew of her flashbacks, now seemed to appear like a dream. A grim, pain-struck sad tuck of her lip graced her pessimistic appearance. Her right foot was worse in terms of sensations, and if she could say, display.

Ripped tendons and bone shrapnel from a severely crushed ankle protruded from her heel. Minute electrical spasms jolted her already plagued mind. Not being able to feel all of her right foot, she concluded that three of her five toes, the right side of her foot, from her metatarsals up to her talus were paralyzed. Numb. Immobile. Dead.

No feeling what so ever.

It was then and there, that her pessimistic outlook had taken an even further dive. Strange how being in a near death situation and not being able to recall part of her personal memories served to completely and utterly destroy one's perception of reality.

Having finally gone through everything she could think off, she slowly moved to a pouch that was strapped to her left leg.

'I might as well end this painful existence.'

With that thought alone, she grasped whatever was left in the pouch. Disappointment. No kunai. None. And it nearly broke her down.

She was all alone, severely injured, confused and non-existent. She would certainly die here. It would either be a painful slow death, or a mere slip into a peaceful slumber. Neither sat well with her.

The pain in her neck struck again. All thoughts before were gone as a voice in her head simply disappeared. But not before speaking something that would undoubtedly haunt her.

'Thank you for your service, Tayuya.'

That utter mentioning of her name sent shudders down her spine, which brought forth pain. Slowly, with some daunting thought, she felt a pang of anguish, and hate. That cursed mark she watched in her flashback wasn't a delusional power. It was real. But the mark itself had faded slightly. Thinking further, she then realized that the voice in her head was similar to the voice of the disembodied one in her memories.

She was overwhelmed by fear.

Alone...

A rustle then widened her eyes. Thinking quickly she strangled a small cry, she knew, that sounded weak.

She wanted help.

She wanted someone.

Anyone.

And then, a blond boy appeared before her. A gentle smile plastered on his face.

Hope you enjoyed this. And please read and review. Hope to make you guys enjoy a good read. Thank you!