Chapter Six

-Matsuri's POV-

Not a single person from Group B was released from the asylum. All the girls from Group A were released, leaving me, Sakura, Ino, Tenten, and Temari in the dust. Ino suspected they spilled the beans about everything, given their tendency to be loose-lipped.

We all were given one room to share with two bunk beds, but Sakura wasn't allowed to join us. Feeding into Ino's theory that the other girls had thrown everyone under the bus, those who'd been given body modifications were kept separate from the facility's general population.

Once the evaluations were complete, we were escorted to our new room, and we hadn't seen our pink-haired friend since. That was just over two months ago.

Since Dr. Shizune Kato had been the first to welcome us upon our arrival, I thought she'd be the person primarily interacting with us, but I was wrong. After that first day, we didn't hear from her again. The nurses and doctors who oversaw our care changed every few days, so I stopped trying to memorize names.

Each day consisted of the same routine. First, we'd wake up, freshen up, and then be escorted to the cafeteria for breakfast. After that, we alternate between lessons and therapy sessions that are supposed to help prepare us for our return to society, but it was apparent that wasn't going to happen, or else they wouldn't have kept us here at all.

After lunch, we go to the gymnasium for two hours for our physical health. After dinner, we're given a few hours of free time in the common area so long as we behave. To my surprise, we're permitted visitation with the boys during this time, and that's what we do.

On day sixty-four of our residency, something changed the course of everyone's actions. All of us were sitting in a tight circle: me, Ino, Tenten, Temari, Kankuro, Naruto, Sai, and Neji. Sasori was usually with us, but he'd started a fight with a couple of male nurses because they wouldn't tell us about our separated friends and ended up in solitary confinement.

Tenten, once again, was trying to get information on Neji's behalf without the young man asking her to, something she did back during The Program as well, "So…have you sensed anything yet?"

Most of us, including myself, shot her a stern warning. Naruto wasn't handling things very well. He was irritable and unfriendly, the complete opposite of his usual personality. The longer we were stuck here, the worse it got.

During the first month of our stay, he claimed to be able to feel that she was alive but that something was off about her. Days after that, though, he'd dropped to the ground in the common room in tears, saying he couldn't feel her anymore. Since that day, he's been asked about it a few times, but asking just puts him in mental distress. It wordlessly became taboo to bring her up in an effort to keep the young man calm.

The man in question jerked his head to the side to meet Tenten's eye with a glare, "Don't you think I'd say something if I had?"

The girl put her hands up in defense, "I'm sorry. I'm just worried. None one's telling us anything."

The rest of the group sighed in defeat, and Naruto got to his feet as his voice raised, "Are you trying to say that I'm not worried, too? You don't have a clue what this feels like!"

A few security personnel started heading in our direction to get him under control, but the entire room froze when an odd siren sounded outside. It seemed to be the storm siren, but there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and it wasn't the time for them to be tested.

One of the friendlier guards, who we learned was named Shikamaru, clicked on the television and flipped through several channels until it landed on the local news. Everyone slowly got to their feet when thick red and black alerts started running across the bottom half of the screen, with a loud alarm sound blaring over the newscaster's voice.

"This is not a drill. Konoha is under attack. Find shelter immediately."

The warning was repeated endlessly, and no one dared move for multiple moments. The first person to react was one of the bulkier security guards, who pulled his radio from his hip and left the room as he babbled into the receiver.

My entire body was frozen with fear, and I couldn't move. What does it mean by "under attack"? Is it another country attacking us? If so, were they using bombs or maybe chemical warfare? The warning was too vague.

The other patients in the common area suddenly started running around and panicking like crazy as they tried to escape the room. Screams and hollers filled the air almost as loudly as the blaring sirens, but not quite.

Shikamaru wordlessly motioned for our group to stick together so he could help the other guards round up the more unstable patients. He knew he could trust us to behave and has even spoken to a few of us personally to let us know how the friends who were separated from us in the asylum were doing.

Temari grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the way of a large man sprinting by. I offered her a grateful look but couldn't react further because a loud explosion sounded in the distance. The floor of the room rumbled, and the lights even flickered. A yelp of surprise managed to slip past my lips, and I crouched to the ground with everyone else, my arms circling above my head in case the ceiling began to cave in.

Sai bravely rushed to the window and yelled over the noise, "It's the gas station down the street!" Another explosion sounded, and Ino rushed over to grab his arm and tug him down as the glass windows shattered. Both of them ended up with minor cuts but no severe injuries.

Naruto hurried over and guided them back to us. Once together, he spoke over the ruckus in the room, "No matter what happens, stick together!" No one disagreed.

Before we could devise an escape plan, Shikamaru joined us, "Let's go!"

The door to the room had been busted down by the hoard of frenzied patients, and he wordlessly led us out. None of the other security guards even bothered trying to stop us. They were too busy restraining residents or trying to escape the building themselves.

It took a long time for us to make it to the stairwell, and when we did, we realized at least one of the bottom floors was on fire because thick smoke was flowing heavily upward. Our guide cursed before facing us, "There's another stairwell on the other side of the building, but there's a chance it'll be on fire too."

He looked at our small group, "What do you guys want to do?"

My mind reeled, but I could only think of one thing, and it wasn't somehow getting downstairs. I yelled over the loud room, "We have to save the others! Where are they?"

Temari argued loudly, "We can't help anyone else if we don't save ourselves first!"

My dislike of the woman flared up. Is that what she told herself when she stood by and let her baby brother get beaten daily? I squeezed my eyes closed and clenched both my hands into fists, "Go if you want, but I'm not leaving them!"

Ino grabbed my wrist and nodded in agreement when I opened my eyes to look her way. The group agreed to find the others one by one before trying to escape. Even Temari and Shikamaru were forced to come along because they were outvoted.

So we hurried in the opposite direction, going up the stairs to the next floor rather than down. The air was thick with smoke, so we tried to stay low to the ground with our shirts pulled up to cover the lower half of our faces.

After exiting the stairwell, it was much easier to breathe. This floor was the uppermost part of the tall building. The last set of stairs leads to the roof.

The hallway was long, straight, and deadly silent, quite the opposite of the hysteria just one floor below. Each side of the room had thick metal doors with no windows. A few of them were ajar, but most were still shut.

I swallowed my terrified scream when I glanced into the first open room to see a female nurse lying dead on the floor. Her head appeared to have been slammed against the wall multiple times because there were blood marks on it.

"This is where the dangerous patients are held if you didn't gather that on your own."

Since the door to this room was open and the patient was gone, at least one murderer was loose in these hallways.

"Your friends are at the end of the hall. Follow me."

We hurried down the incredibly long corridor for an extremely tall and muscular man to shoot out of one of the doorways. Tenten let out a shocked scream, but Neji swiftly landed a few hits that left him incapacitated. The two shared a look before silently joining back up with us.

Finally, we reached the last set of doors, one on each side of the hall. After fiddling with the large keyrings on his belt, Shikamaru unlocked the door of the first one before motioning that we should take a step back. We did, unsure what to expect.

The man stepped swiftly to the side as he pulled the door open, and a wild-looking Sasuke stepped out and immediately tried to attack the person closest to him. His eyes were almost glowing bright red, but his rage immediately dissipated when Sai pulled him into a tight embrace. The brothers didn't say a word but wordlessly acknowledged one another before Sai turned and motioned to Shikamaru that it was time to open the next door.

"This one's Sakura, I think," our guide said.

Sasuke nodded, "It is."

Ino gave the young man a confused look, "How do you know? Were you guys able to talk or something?"

He shook his head unreadably, "We should get Hidan first and have him open it so no one gets killed."

Everyone looked shocked, Shikamaru included, but he didn't argue and headed to the door two away from Sasuke's. Knowing Hidan, he's probably been causing all kinds of trouble, so it's no wonder a security officer like our new friend would know exactly where his room was.

The man reacted similarly to Sasuke, only calming down when Naruto decided to get a bit of the retribution he's been talking about and punched him in the face. He spit a bit of blood onto the floor before laughing loudly, "And here I thought you guys would leave me here to die!"

"Don't celebrate just yet. Open that door right there," The Uzumaki boy pointed at the one Sakura was said to be behind.

Sasuke motioned for us to get further back than I thought we needed, but I was quickly proven wrong when Hidan turned the key to her door. It immediately slammed open, and the young man was hit with a series of swift punches that nearly went through his entire body.

When they finally stopped, he let out a slight snicker, "Damn, you sure didn't hold back, Forehead."

No less than ten fist-sized holes lay about the front of his body, most of which were on his torso. My blood turned to ice when Sakura stepped into view. Her hair was wild, her clothes torn, and her eyes filled with rage. Hidan rested his hands on his knees and breathed deeply as his wounds healed.

Ino stepped forward to approach her best friend but froze when the young woman suddenly grabbed the man in front of her's shoulders and shoved him down so she could knee him in the face. When he rose slightly afterward, she slammed her forehead against his with a loud 'crack!'.

I thought Hidan would be done for after that, but instead, he caught her hand when she went for more and slammed his elbow down on her arm. My stomach churned at the sound of her bone snapping.

Ino, Sasuke, and Naruto rushed forward to tear the man away from her, but I watched in disbelief as my pink-haired friend cried out in pain and cradled the damaged limb against her body. Her other hand landed on the area Hidan had come into contact with, and the sound of the bone cracking came again.

Everyone, Hidan and those holding him at bay stared as her mangled arm straightened back out, and she flexed her fingers before pulling herself together and cutting off her tears. Her glare fell back on the silver-haired man, "Don't ever fucking call me that again."

Dark green eyes suddenly widened and appeared lighter when Ino abandoned the three boys and threw her arms around her best friend, "Oh, Sakura! I missed you so much!" The pair fell into a puddle of tears, and soon we were moving on.

My anxiety grew increasingly with each person we freed until the only one left was Gaara. Temari and Kankuro were noticeably uncomfortable, going so far as falling to the back of the pack as Shikamaru stuck the key in his door. He rushed for cover as he had with everyone else, a better-safe-than-sorry attitude, but Gaara didn't come out of his room like everyone else had.

No one dared move as we waited a few moments in silence. Temari pulled Shikamaru away when he tried to look inside, obviously worried her little brother would kill him. I gave her and her older brother a look of disgust.

Had they worried about Gaara's well-being at all this entire time? I couldn't go a day without thinking of him; he doesn't even like me. It became clear that they weren't going to approach, so I decided to do it. He's a human being and deserves to have someone think about him when he's not around, just like anyone else.

Hesitantly, I stepped closer to the doorway, ignoring a few friends who hissed at me to get back and let Hidan take another one for the team. "Gaara…It's Matsuri. I'm coming in," I tried to keep my voice soft and calm, attempting not to startle him if he wasn't in a sound mind.

There was no response. Taking a strengthening breath, I turned into the room, eyes widening at the sight. My chin quivered, and tears started flowing as I stared at his shaking form. Gaara was crouched into a ball in the corner of the room with his hands over his ears and his face buried in his knees.

"Gaara…" My voice cracked as I somehow managed to stop myself from breaking down into sobs.

I knew the moment I realized some of our friends had been placed in solitary rooms that he would react drastically in one of two ways. He'd either lash out and become even more dangerous than before or be too terrified to function. Honestly, I'd hoped he'd chosen anger because I was used to dealing with that by now. This, though, was absolutely heartbreaking.

Slowly to not frighten him further, I crouched in front of him and lowered my voice further so those outside wouldn't overhear, "It's okay now, Gaara. I've come to get you out of here."

I really wanted to reach out and try to hold his hand or something to comfort him, but I knew he wouldn't react well to any contact he didn't initiate right now. His trembling didn't slow, but he raised his head slightly, and his hands loosened against his ears.

Beautiful teal eyes opened to meet mine, and I offered him a smile as I wiped my tears, "Hey. Long time no see."