𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐄 𝐍𝐎𝐈𝐑𝐄 | sasuke uchiha

Naori

"Up. Now."

I was awakened by someone roughly shaking me by the shoulders, and groggily looked up to see the face of presumably another Uchiha looming over me. Quickly regaining my senses, my gaze swept across the room to see what had become of the others. Ino and Sai were being hoisted to their feet by a couple of other soldiers, and I saw Yuki and Ryo being woken up on the bed.

Shoving aside the man who had woken me up, I rushed to the bedside, elbowing the woman who had been waking them up.

"Nee-chan...?" came Ryo's sleepy voice as he slowly sat up, rubbing his eyes. Beside him, Yuki blinked, and slowly rose as well. The woman beside me, with her dark purple hair and deep onyx eyes, let out a small "hmph!" and crossed her arms.

"Kohana, Yuki and Ryo, am I correct?" she asked smoothly, looking rather uncaring of the situation. I nodded and urged the two kids out of the bed, hoping that we wouldn't get on anyone's nerves.

"Yes. That's us."

The woman looked over at the three other men who were with Ino and Sai.

"Take those two down to Naruto," she ordered, nodding at the trio. The one who had shaken me awake, a man with light grey hair, raised an eyebrow at this woman.

"You don't want me to help you?" asked the man, looking half offended. The woman laughed, and waved him away.

"I'll be fine. Take those two down first. I'm sure they'll be happy to see their families." After a final exchange of nods, the men began to leave with Ino and Sai. I felt a pit the size of a black hole beginning to form in my stomach, which churned as I dared to speak to the woman.

"Where are they going?"

"To meet their families," she said coolly, motioning at Yuki and Ryo to get up. "You lot are going somewhere else. Come on now. We don't want to be late." She wasn't exactly mean, but she wasn't as nice as Shisui, either. In fact, the aura that she gave off was a "I'm only doing my job" kind of vibe, but it sure as hell was more comforting than Sasuke's asshole personality.

"Right." I helped Yuki and Ryo out of the bed, and reached for our backpacks when the woman held out an arm to stop me from reaching for it.

"You won't be needing those anymore," she said, shaking her head as she spoke. I bit my tongue, tasting the inside of my mouth. It was foul, and I longed for nothing more than to brush my teeth. "We'll get you settled when we're down there." I made a face of disagreement, but she didn't seem to notice as she walked out of the room, standing behind the door as she waited for me and the children to follow her out.

"I'm trusting you won't do anything stupid, like run away, so I won't be cuffing any of you guys, okay?"

I merely nodded, and with Yuki and Ryo holding my hand on either side of me, I hesitantly began to follow the woman as she led us down the same corridor we had come down last night, and then down numerous other flights of stairs. Everything looked like a winding maze to me, and everything looked the same. After being accustomed to seeing only metal bars and metal doors, I was surprised when the woman brought the children and I to the entrance of a corridor with a locked, highly armed security door. I watched, wide eyed, as the woman performed some sort of signs with her hands before placing her right hand on a scanning pad on the wall beside the door, which began to slide open after her touch.

"Were those signs a password or something?" I asked cautiously, attempting to make light of the situation. To my surprise, the woman laughed, and shook her head at me.

"They were hand seals," she said informatively, urging me and the children to walk through. We went ahead of her, and when she was past the door, it began to slide back to a close. The corridor we had just entered was a stark contrast to the metal bars and metal doors we had just left behind; it looked like your typical workplace or school corridor, with a window right at the end of it. Sunshine was streaming in, and I blinked at the sudden glare the light brought in. "Come along now."