The Willow Maiden [Naruto]

{29} Taken Home

Ruka sprints through the forest as she leaves the leaf village ninja to Sasori and Deidara. As planned, Ruka was to flee and go to the other Akatsuki hideout or meet up with another pair of Akatsuki members. 

She escapes through the back of the hideout, through her garden, as Naruto and Kakashi chased after her. They sent clones after Deidara to rescue Gaara before they ran after Ruka. The only thing that ran through Ruka's mind was, 'I have to escape. . . I have to escape. . .'

"Ruka! This way!" Zetsu, being the helper in the Akatsuki, guided Ruka to the quickest route to the next hidden hideout, or the next pair of Akatsuki partners. 

Looking behind her, seeing how Naruto and Kakashi are catching up her, in her mind she pictures them as the Grass Ninja Warriors, from the Grass Village, chasing after her like before. It made her mind race. 

She raises her hand in front of her and uses the trees beside her to block their path, and hopefully to grab them and wrap them with their tree branches. 

"She's too fast! Isn't there a way to slow her down!?" Naruto questions his sensei. 

"If we attack her, we will only frighten her. We need to block her path somehow." Kakashi replies while looking at Ruka. First, looking at the trees, then back at Ruka, Kakashi takes out kunai with tag bombs attached to them. "Brace yourself, Naruto!" 

Kakashi throws the tag bombs in front of Ruka, hitting the trees, then exploding. The tall trees fell, almost hitting Ruka, but she used the thorns from her body to break through. But the trees were just a distraction. 

"Now! Naruto!" Kakashi signals. 

Naruto grabbed Ruka from behind and tackled her to the ground. He pinned her to the ground with her hands beside her head. Ruka began to panic and struggled, assuming that Naruto would hurt her. 

"Ruka! Listen to me!" Naruto shouted in her face as she struggled underneath him. 

"Let me go!" Ruka pleaded. 

"I'm not going to hurt you. I would never do that. I'm your friend. It's me, Naruto!" 

"Please, let me go!" Ruka shut her eyes, scared out of her mind, as tears began to well up, even though Naruto's hold on her wasn't that tight. As Ruka opened her eyes, she came face to face with a blonde boy with whiskers on his face. She remembers a face like his, yet she doesn't remember much about him. 'A familiar face. . . Where have I seen this face before? . . .' She asks herself within her thoughts, slowly beginning to calm down and come to her senses. 

"See? I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to talk, okay? I'm going to let you go now." Naruto tells the girl and slowly nods her head. As Naruto slowly releases Ruka, the girl glares and uses the roots from underneath the ground to wrap around Naruto's ankles and fling him to a tree. 

"Naruto!" Kakashi shouts  for his student. Looking back at Ruka, she is in front of him and she stabs Kakashi in the side with cold eyes, staring into his.  Afterwards, Ruka runs away again, but her feet sink into the ground. 

'My feet! I cannot move!' She panics. But she doesn't know that she's in a genjutsu, and she has no idea what that is. The moment she looked into Kakashi's eyes she was under his genjutsu. So, right now, she's sitting on the ground. 

"You gave me no other choice, Ruka. If you're not going to listen, then this was the only option I could think of." Kakashi whispers to himself before going to check on Naruto. 

"Kakashi-Sensei? How's Ruka? Is she alright?" Naruto questions while rubbing the back of his head. 

"I put her under a genjutsu. She's not going to run away." Kakashi answers, looking back at Ruka. 

"I don't get it. Why won't she listen to us? Why does she keep running away?" 

"Because she thinks that we're her enemy. Being in the Akatsuki for so long, she can't trust the outside world. Just like back then." Referring to when they first met. "Let's bring her back to the village as soon as possible. The Akatsuki might come looking for her." 

"Right." Naruto nods and carries Ruka on his back. 

It was decided that Kakashi wasn't going to let Ruka out of the genjutsu until they had returned to the village, but it wasn't going to be easy earning her trust back. 

Her memories have been altered, nothing but painful and frightened memories fills her head, she is afraid of the outside world once more, and now she doesn't know what to expect once she returns to the leaf village. There's no telling what could happen. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~