Requisition

Summary: AU. Brothels are businesses that are privately-owned, but government-mandated in the hopes of decreasing public crime. Anyone can be claimed for service and people can be sent there to disappear. Anyone can use them on a sliding-scale fee. Anything can be done other than murder. It's not a nice way to live. But it's a business. And a place to hold secrets.

Chapter 3: Sasuke

Requisition Class D: Individual under government order. Hidden from sight and government mandated. Brought for entrance.

------------
1.

There was no display of niceties when they brought in the black-haired boy. Naruto was passing through the corridor and he saw one of the male attendants walking by, holding the boy over his shoulder, while the kid cried with eyes wide-open. There was sound coming from him, but no words, and after a moment Naruto continued back to the Block as the attendant continued carrying the kid up the stairs.

Naruto sat in his room by himself. Occasionally a passing worker leaned a head in and asked if he was alright. He shrugged and continued to sit on the mattress, leaning against the wall.

The rooms weren't particularly bad, they were just very bare. There was a mattress and box-springs in each of the rooms, and the walls were painted a smooth white. The floor was cold tile, but the temperature was always mild. He could turn on the overhead light if he wanted, but for now he remained in the dark.

The girl that he'd been sharing a room with for over a month now had been killed by one of her clients. Killing was strictly against service policy, and the man who did it was now under surveillance. The point of these businesses were to give the potential killers and the deviants and those that liked to hurt, somewhere to go. If a client killed more than once, they would be detained by government officials and transferred for treatment. Killing once might be an accident, but twice made them officially dangerous.

All of the workers knew this. None of the clients did. No one outside of the business did.

Naruto had gotten attached to his friend. She had been requested fairly often, as was he, so they usually only saw each other at night. But then she would tell him her story and her fears. She'd been afraid of being killed before she could get out.

Information flowed openly among the workers and fulfillers. She'd been killed with a knife. The client got too caught up with what he was doing and made too many incisions. He apparently was so excited by all of the blood that he told the attendant (who hadn't noticed the girl had died) to charge from his account another two hours.

That had happened four days ago and Naruto still had trouble sleeping alone.


------------
2.

Sherry needed assistance for the newest recruit. He alternately fought and cried and he didn't speak when she spoke to him, no matter how kindly. But there were few gaps in his information.

This recruit had been handed to them by the government, so the application was simply a formality. He was an unfortunate mistake, a leftover from what was supposed to be a complete extermination of a powerful political enemy. The rest of the family had been killed in a massacre one night ago, but it turned out that this one son had been elsewhere at the time. Now they needed to get him out of sight.

The massacre was big news, so the government stated that it was going to put the boy under government protection and that he would disappear from sight. There were already suspicions about the origin of the massacre.

It was true that the clan had been getting smaller every year, that their blood was becoming increasingly thin. That made this the best time to strike. They had yet to replace some of their old ties with new alliances, and it left them unprotected.

The government officials used their sources within the media and made up some stories about the insanity that had clearly been running rampant in the family for generations. The campaign was going to be cruel and instant, and with any luck, the clan would fade into inconsequential memory, a simple bit of gossip.

But this kid hadn't been home. And the media had been the first to find out. So instead of wiping out everything all at once, all they had done was create a survivor. It was foolish and beyond careless, and it needed to be hidden from sight as soon as possible.

It was too dangerous to simply kill him. So he was being requisitioned for a mandated position within a government mandated establishment in a different city.

And this way, they'd be able to get pictures of him every year until the media finally lost interest in the kid and then they'd be able to kill him without any fear. So long as none of the clients learned his real name there was nothing to worry about. And it brought sadistic pleasure to those that had known the clan. If only his parents could have known what was going to happen to their little boy.

Sherry filled out his information easily, name was Sasuke Uchiha, age was 6, he was healthy and well cared for, his status was that of an orphan, with no siblings or next of kin. Placing him was going to be difficult. The kid was alternately struggling and crying. They didn't often get children from situations like these. She placed him under the category of unwilling frightened, but she figured that it would take some trials before they'd get a certain placement.

He struggled further when it came time to wash him and clothe him, so Sherry called for an attendant to give him a mild tranquilizer. The process was easier after that.

It was different for this kid. There were no pretenses about what he was doing here and therefore there was no reason for the segregation. He was taken to the doctor where his skin was opened so that the rods were grafted to his joints and sealed again. He sat submissively while his photos were taken. And then blacked out as they carried him away again.


------------
3.

When he woke up it was to find that he was lying in a bed. Everything was dark and it was very quiet, just the sound of occasional movement. His head felt foggy, but he sat up and tried to look around. Everything was bathed in a dim blue light. The light wasn't from the room itself, but rather crept in from the open doorway.

Someone was breathing nearby him, who was breathing? Sasuke turned and looked at the shadowy shape. It was a boy, curled on his side, facing away. His hair reflected the dim light, and he was clearly no bigger than Sasuke.

He simply stared dumbly for a few minutes as his addled brain tried to process everything. There was something deep and dark that was threatening to emerge from his unconsciousness. The kid next to him shifted and opened his eyes. He blinked slowly and rubbed his eyes. He glanced immediately towards the door and seemed to relax slightly at the sight of no one. Then he finally turned to Sasuke.

"You're awake," he said.

Sasuke couldn't answer, he didn't have quite enough control yet.

"They brought you in in the evening. I saw you earlier, in the hall, when they were taking you up the stairs. You got one of the meds."

The blond boy's voice was hoarse and it sounded too rough to be simply from sleep. "So you're new then?"

Sasuke's head still wasn't working completely, but he nodded slightly.

"I'm Naruto. I've been here awhile now."

Sasuke ignored him and started trying to crawl out of the bed.

"You shouldn't do that," Naruto warned, "They just did the graft today and your elbows and knees and stuff…"

There was a pain of a thousand fine pins jamming lengthwise into his body at every joint. His muscles instantly constricted and he let out a gasp. "Here," the blond boy said, grabbing Sasuke's chest to pull him carefully back onto the mattress.

Naruto continuously pressed his cooler palms against the burning joints as he spoke, "You can't try to leave tonight. Just wait awhile first."

"But-" Sasuke managed, though his teeth were clenched tight for the residual pain in his joints, "I can't stay here. I need to go home."

"Do you have a home?" Naruto whispered.

They had told him that he didn't and he had seen some…

"I'm going to go home," Sasuke said.

"You have a mom and a dad?"

They had told him that he didn't. That they'd been killed. There had been something on the news.

"I need to go find them."

"Are they dead? My parents are dead. Are yours dead, or did they take them away from you?" Naruto asked.

An attendant appeared at the doorway then. "You're both awake," she commented.

"Hi Mona," Naruto said, sitting up and away from Sasuke, "he tried moving."

"That's a bad idea. I'm here because it's time for more medication, Sasuke," Mona said as she leaned over the trembling six-year-old and took his arm

"I want to go home," he said to her.

"Sasuke, there was a terrible murder at your home and you are safer here. Naruto's a good little boy and he's going to help take care of you," Mona located Sasuke's vein easily through the white flesh and she efficiently injected some pain medication.

"Is he going to have to work with clients too?" Naruto whispered to Mona.

She smoothed her hand over Naruto's upturned head and kissed his forehead. "This is what everyone does in order to stay here, remember? We've talked about this before."

"It hurts though…"

"Oh Naruto, don't worry. We take good care of you here. Don't you like me and the others?"

"Yeah. But I hate being in the rooms."

Sasuke was listening and watching through a haze.

"Well you better get back to sleep, Naruto, you've got appointments tomorrow. Do you want some sleeping pills?"

"No. I'll just watch him for awhile and make sure he's okay."

Mona pushed Naruto back and tucked both boys carefully in. "He'll be fast asleep, don't worry at all, kiddo. I'll see you at breakfast, right?"

"Yup."

Mona left the room and Naruto watched until he was sure she was away and then he moved close to Sasuke so his breath was hot against Sasuke's ear. "It hurts a lot. We'll get out of here. Just need to wait."


------------
4.

Sasuke had never been beaten. He'd been spoiled as a child, given anything that he wanted, and had many people who paid a lot of attention to him. He hadn't turned into a snob yet, instead he was sweet. Obstinate and a bit bratty when things weren't going his way, but he was overall an interested child that loved his family. Kindergarten started for him in fall and he'd been accepted into a private school that seemed really nice when his mom took him on a tour to see the place. They'd gone shopping to get him fitted for uniforms and then she took him home and they went over the letters again.

So the first time that he was struck across the face he was shocked. His hand flew to his cheek and he tasted blood on the inside of his mouth. The man twisted a hand cruelly into his black hair and lifted him back to his feet to press their mouths together. They hadn't even gotten to the bed yet.

"Fucking beautiful," the man growled into his mouth, "So fucking beautiful…"

Naruto was gone when he was returned from the infirmary. He'd been lying on the bed, tears pouring down his cheeks when Naruto finally limped into the room about forty minutes later. "Hey Sasuke," he said, voice hoarser than it had been before, "I must've missed you in the infirmary. Shizune is a nice woman, isn't she?"

Naruto made his way to the bed and then crawled carefully and painfully toward the pillow and then put his head on the pillow beside Sasuke's and curled carefully on his side. "It gets better. Unless they want it to be worse. I guess…"

Sasuke raised his fists to his eyes to stifle the itchy, salty tears. "I want to go home," he mumbled, voice trembling.

Naruto sniffed then and pressed his head into Sasuke's shoulder. "Me too," he whispered. "We'll get out, okay. Both of us."

There was a pause before Naruto spoke again, his voice in an even fainter whisper, "I don't have a home. Can I go with you to yours?"

Sasuke took a wavering breath and nodded slightly. He moved slightly so that their heads were touching and they lay close together.

Then they let themselves wallow in their misery.

That was the one time, other than nights, that they visibly broke down in front of each other. The following day Naruto limped, like most of the kids in the Block did, into their room with a deck of cards. "One of the attendants taught me how to play War," Naruto said, "Wanna play?"

After four months Sasuke never cried in front of clients either. He couldn't stop his eyes from tearing up when there was extreme pain, but he didn't cry. That made him easier to classify and the receptionist and Sherry became much more comfortable with him. He made friends with Naruto only and took to simply staring down others that tried to speak to him. He wouldn't speak to the other kids, he treated the attendants with stiffness, no friendliness, and even then it was only when he had to or when he needed something.

They were beginning to give Naruto a bit of extra training then. He went from being unwilling to unwilling submissive, and they were trying to get him to start servicing those that were looking for 'consensual' children. The boy had a charm that drew clients to him.

They let Sasuke be their fighter. He wouldn't physically fight against the clients, the boy knew that he couldn't win and he had too much pride to fight so uselessly, but he was unwilling and resistant from start to finish. His injuries were always worse and every single session was immediately followed with a trip to the infirmary. And they had to throw out the sheets from every room he was in.

Granted, they usually had a lot of bloody sheets from all of the rooms.

------------
5.

"Time for your one year checkup, Naruto," Sherry said with a grin as she retrieved him from the common area.

"So that means I'm six now, right?" Naruto said as he got to his feet and accepted her offered hand.

"I believe it does. How about a little cake after the exam?" she asked.

"Yeah!" he exclaimed, "And I'll save some for Sasuke."

"That sounds like a nice thing to do," Sherry said as they walked up the stairs.

Dr. Lawrence seemed exactly as she had the year before. "My, you've been growing!" she said as she flipped through his old folder.

Naruto shrugged.

"Not too much, I hope," Sherry said, "I don't want my little boy growing up too fast."

Dr. Lawrence was pleased with his weight and nodded approvingly at his height. His throat, eyes, ears, nose, and heart were all in fine condition. The full-body exam yielded no external scars and she made an appreciative sound. "Shizune is doing beautiful work. He's still in perfect condition."

"We can take him off of the hemoglobin supplements now," Dr. Lawrence said, "It is going to increase bleeding when there are injuries, so let the receptionist know. The more violent clients must be notified of the change in levels for lethalness."

Sherry nodded. "I always take a copy of the records straight down to him. He'll take care of it."

"The notes from the attendants show that he's been on the anti-anxiety and anti-stressors consistently. His blood pressure is fine, so I don't think that his cortisol levels are too high, but I'm requesting that he be sent for further testing. We don't want to start having to deal with ulcers," Dr. Lawrence said, writing down notes in the folder before turning to Naruto and speaking directly.

"Do you get many headaches that aren't from being hit?" she asked.

He shook his head.

"Any pains that aren't from clients, are you waking up at nights with pain, any problems in the chest?"

He shook his head once again.

"Anything that you think I should know about?" she asked him.

"My teeth hurt," he said.

Sherry looked up from her notes and Dr. Lawrence frowned. "Your mouth looked fine," she murmured as she picked up her penlight.

Naruto obediently opened his mouth and waited while she shone the light and then pressed lightly on his gums and then a couple of teeth. Then she clicked off the light and considered him for a moment.

"Have clients been using jaw restraints a lot?" she asked.

"The black thing?" Naruto said, "Um. I don't think so. I don't know."

"What's wrong with his mouth?" Sherry asked.

Dr. Lawrence carefully felt along the outside of his mouth, following the curve of his jaw. "He's been biting down too hard. His jaw's no longer aligned."

"Can you fix it?" Sherry asked.

"How long has it hurt, Naruto?" Dr. Lawrence said.

"A long time."

"Why didn't you say anything sooner?" Sherry scolded.

"The attendants gave me pills that made it feel better," he said simply.

Dr. Lawrence sighed. "It's probably healed out of place," she said, "Take him to get x-rayed, but I'm almost positive that it's already healed."

"If it's healed then why is he still in pain?" Sherry asked.

"It clicks every time that he moves his jaw. It's out of alignment and it's going to ache worse and worse if it's not fixed."

Sherry frowned, "That's unacceptable. I don't want my little guy to have to deal with that. How do we fix it?"

"The first step would be to break his jaw again, and follow it up with surgical pins and wiring."

"Can Shizune do that?"

"No. Shizune takes care of surface wounds, and she can lightly graft bones back in place. He needs replacement and regeneration."

Naruto was zoned out by that point. He told them about the pain and they were going to take care of it for him. It was the way that things worked here. For some reason his mind drifted back to the girl that had been his roommate for awhile. If this was one year then it meant she'd been dead for a long time.

"Hey, did the man who killed Nalee kill anyone else?" he asked.

Both of the women turned to him. "What?"

"Nalee. Remember? She was my first person I shared a bed with," he said.

"Oh. Right," Sherry paused, "That man learned his lesson. It was an accident, after all. He still comes here a lot and he hasn't killed anyone else."

Naruto nodded. "What did you do with Nalee's body?" he asked.

"Well," Sherry said, "If there is a family waiting for them then we return the body to them. If there's no one there then we cremate- which means that we use fire to turn the body into ash- and we spread the ashes in a memorial garden out back."

"What's a garden?"

"It's a beautiful place outside with flowers and trees and bushes. There's usually some birds and squirrels around as well. It's very peaceful there and we take good care of it."

"Can I see it?" Naruto asked.

"Naruto, you know how the sensors work. You can't leave the building. When your service here is done, I promise that you'll be able to see it, okay?"

Naruto nodded again. It was a nice thought that Nalee was outside in a garden. She had been really scared of the dark. She'd told him that one night. Maybe there were lots of other people out there for her to be with and they were nice and didn't like pain or blood. He thought about asking, but Sherry and Dr. Lawrence were already talking again.

"So we'll have to call her in to take care of it. I hate calling her here, everyone from the government…they just make me nervous," Sherry said.

Dr. Lawrence shrugged. "It's either that or give him three months of recovery time. In which he can't take clients."

"I know. I'll call her in. It's just that I hate dealing with her."

"She's settled down, last I heard," Dr. Lawrence said, finishing her notes and shutting the folder, "Naruto, you can put your shirt back on now. I heard from Davis that her fiancé died, killed in some accident while they were out of town."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Davis and Michael and I were having lunch and he showed me the obit and everything. You've heard that her younger brother died several years ago. Apparently this one hit her pretty hard. Anyway, her skill is still as brilliant as ever."

"Huh," Sherry said thoughtfully. "It'll be interesting at least."

Sherry took him to the kitchens after that and pulled out a small white cake that fit in both of his hands. He grinned at her and held it carefully so that he'd be able to share it with Sasuke.

"When's my next client?" he asked.

Sherry took hold of his arm and began leading him back. The kids always walked slowly and she would have carried him, but it would hurt worse, the little ones were always sore. "There's no more this afternoon," she said, "We had to make sure that there would be enough time for the medical appointment."

Naruto's face stretched into a grin. "Really? I don't have to do anymore?"

"Not today," Sherry said squeezing his shoulder.

They passed by the reception desk and a sudden voice said, "Oh, I was hoping to see you."

Naruto looked up. Tom was standing there, he'd been selecting clients for appointments. Naruto saw his own picture on the screen.

"I heard that it's your one-year anniversary," Tom smiled, "Which they said is your birthday. So I have a present for you."

"A present?" Naruto repeated.

Tom nodded fondly and turned to the receptionist. "I'll give it to him now, since he's right here."

The receptionist nodded and took out a package from underneath his desk. Tom handed Naruto the gift, wrapped in rocket paper. Naruto stared at it for a moment and handed the little cake to Sherry. He carefully unwrapped it and opened the box. Inside was a brown teddy bear.

"Little boys should have something to sleep with at night, right?" Tom said.

The receptionist nodded. Naruto stared at the bear for a moment. Sherry put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. Naruto shifted his eyes up to Tom's face.

"Thank you," he said and hesitated. Then he walked forward and gave Tom a hug.

Tom smiled.

Sasuke was gone when Naruto returned and Naruto placed the cake carefully on the flat table he'd dragged in and then set the bear in the far corner of the room. They'd often use that table to play card games or set up dominoes. Naruto liked going out to the common area, but Sasuke didn't like to leave the room when he didn't have to. No one seemed to hold it against him.

Sasuke didn't return for almost an hour and when he did it was with a split lip and a heavy bruise on his left cheek. "Hi Sasuke," Naruto said.

Sasuke nodded in return. Naruto smiled, "I got a cake for my birthday. Wanna share it? I waited for you."

Sasuke didn't like sweet things. He limped over to sit next to Naruto and said thank you as he accepted his half. Then he ate every bite.


------------
6.

The receptionist didn't want Naruto out of commission for another day so soon after his one year mark, so he scheduled Naruto for a grueling five jobs in the course of six hours and followed it immediately with the reconstruction surgery.

Sherry seemed unhappy as she retrieved Naruto from his final client and took him quickly to the wash room to clean up a bit. But instead of escorting him to the infirmary to see Shizune, she redirected him to the room that he'd been in only once before, during his first day in this place. He got that uneasy feeling again, the silver of the room was somehow frightening.

There was a busty woman in the room, dressed almost casually with her blonde hair pulled into uneven pigtails. There were dark circles under her eyes and she directed Sherry to place Naruto on a gurney without turning around. Naruto rubbed his eye tiredly, but couldn't shake the jittery feeling.

The woman turned around and froze. "Oh my god," she breathed.

"What?" Sherry asked tensely.

"He-" the woman physically shook her head, "It's nothing. He just reminded me of someone."

There were dark circles under her eyes and she looked pale. She didn't look very healthy, especially for a doctor.

"You look like you've been through the wringer, kid."

"I had five appointments today. What are you going to do?" Naruto said.

"Five appointments," the woman repeated, shooting a dirty look at Sherry.

Sherry set her lips. "It's the receptionist who sets up the appointments. He knows exactly what he's doing."

"You know that I write a report of this," the woman said, "You better have everything documented just in case you get a visitor."

There was the tone of a casual threat. Sherry bristled. "You know what this business is, what we do here. The government mandates that these establishments exist, and they mandate that we have fulfillers of all ages, sexes, and types to satisfy those deviants in society. Would you want to have predators out there, snatching children, killing more and more because they can't legally satisfy their needs?"

"My personal opinion is not a reflection of government standards, no," the woman said, "I like children."

"You think I don't?"

"You send them to be raped and beaten daily, for money."

Sherry's face tightened, "They would be here, under these circumstances, whether I am here or not. But since I am here, I can make sure that they get treated, that they are clean, that the pain only lasts so long, and that they are safe. We have the lowest mortality rate in this part of the city."

"Being able to do that is a side effect of your job, it's not the reason you're here," the woman said easily, and she moved much nearer to Naruto and examined his jaw line with her fingers and eyes. "I'm going to make you go to sleep and when you wake up, you're going to feel much better."

Then without waiting for any response she pushed a syringe into his skin and unconsciousness claimed him quickly.


------------
A/N.

Three guess as to who the woman is (ha, like it's not completely and utterly obvious). Two guesses as to who she thought Naruto looked like.

Once again, thank you all so much for the reviews, I appreciate them so much. And the ratings! I've been fascinated at the different reactions to the chapters and the events. Especially people's views of who the truly evil ones are.

Reviewing means so much to any author, even it's a quick one telling you that they want to see more. And even the ones that tell you what you don't like.

But thank you for staying this long!

And finally, I have additional characters that are going to be added to the business. But I was wondering if I should add ones that aren't necessarily essential to the plot. I enjoy writing characters and I could actually intertwine them pretty easily. I won't tell who is going to be added, because I certainly shan't ruin the surprise. But is there anyone that would would brighten your day to see?

-CR.