Rogue.

An old friend.

"Hello?" A voice called to me, I ignored it, thinking it was another body to throw itself on the pile.

I kept my head down, focusing on the pain of those metal rods so that I could feel something but suddenly they were gone. I fell forwards, no longer pinned to the wall but instead of landing on the pile of bodies I landed on warm sand in front of me. It was back to its regular color, no blood or bodies in sight. I lifted my head and looked up in confusion, it wasn't Danzo I found this time but a familiar looking man in a black cloak covered in red clouds. His dark hair was tied back from his face, he had deep laugh lines, and bright red eyes. He had the same eyes I'd seen in the dark before I'd fallen into that nightmare land. I let my head fall back against the dirt, muttering out in monotone "Have you come to kill me now?"

"Where are you from?" The man asked, closer now as if he had leaned down beside me. "What is your name?"

I didn't want to answer him, I just wanted to die.

"I found you out here in the desert.. There is a body beside you but you were still breathing." He continued. "You're very badly sun scorched, I don't think you have very long so let me help you."

I lifted my head once more now, gazing around me for the body "Ryu?" I rasped out, wanting to see him again.

"I'm sorry." I was met with the face of this man, kind with concern. "I didn't break the genjutsu because I didn't want you to be in pain. I just changed it, to something less... horrible.. Who did this to you?"

"Danzo." I coughed, rolling onto my side so I could get a better look at him. I felt like I had been pinned to that wall for months, watching those bodies fall.

The man cursed under his breath "That bastard." His voice was a growl, he knew him... well it seemed. "What did he want with you? Who are you?" He asked again, tilting his head.

"K-Kairi." I managed, trying to pick myself up and failing as I collapsed back into the sand.

His eyes softened even more, and he moved towards me, brushing hair out of my face so he could look at my eyes. "I'm sorry I didn't recognise you, you have grown so much."

I stared at him in confusion, wondering how this man could possibly know me. It didn't help that I had completely repressed the day I'd met him, erasing it from my memory so that the pain wouldn't be too much.

"I guess you don't recognise me either, huh?" He shrugged. "I'm going to pick you up now, okay?"

I nodded, and he reached his arms under my body to pick me up bridal style. When he got to his feet again it looked like he was walking but we weren't moving anywhere. "I'm sorry." I said gently.

"My name is Itachi.. We met when you were very small, I was on a mission to your village and my friend was being rude to you."

I closed my eyes and tried to remember but all I got was a flash of Gaara's outreaching hand as he tried to crush me with his sand. I flinched, and the motion caused pain to shoot through my body, making me cough. When I opened my eyes again I found Itachi's staring intensely into mine. Something seemed to shift in the swirling pattern of those red eyes.

Itachi's face looked dark now, as if he had somehow seen what I had seen. "I'm so sorry your life has gone like this, Kairi." He gave me the saddest smile I'd ever seen. "This world makes monsters of us all."

We were silent for another few moments, Itachi walking in place and myself cradled in his arms, thinking about what he had said. This world was broken, and so were the people living in it. People like my father, or my little brother.. I'd learned over the years that Gaara didn't have a demon inside him at all but a tailed beast named Shukaku, my father had put it there when Gaara was only a baby. What kind of monster would put such a beast inside their own child? "I've no love for this world." I finally agreed with him.

"Your villagers are coming, I must leave you now." Itachi said as he gently set me on the ground. "Don't let them make a monster of you too."

He vanished into a murder of crows, spreading out into the sky as the genjutsu slipped away from me and the true sensation of pain began to set into my body. The sun burn made it impossible to move, and my throat was drier than I'd ever known. This pain made the pain in the genjutsu truly seem like a dream.

"Kairi! Thank god!" Baki cried out as he fell to his knees beside me, he seemed as if he was about to reach out to me but then decided not to. I was thankful he didn't, worried about anything touching my skin in the pain I was in now.