"He's what?!" She was... shocked to say the least. Temari didn't know an appropriate way to react to the news. "Shikamaru is missing for a week and I'm just now finding out?" Kakashi rubbed the back of his neck. He did feel bad, and he had thought about telling her. But he also felt as if it was best to wait for her to arrive to explain the situation. That way he had more... control (?) of how the woman acted on the situation.

Kakashi had heard from the Konoha eleven about how the sand siblings could be scary, but how Temari was just completely terrifying. Nobody knew how she'd react when she found out her boyfriend never returned from his mission. "I'm sorry, Temari. I should have contacted your"

"You didn't think until now to tell me? It's not hard to reach me. I could have been here sooner and I could be helping!" He shook his head.

"That's partially why I didn't tell you. I had no idea how you'd react and we already have an investigation going on. We didn't want you to interfere with our leads.." He noticed her face starting to turn red as she was holding her breath.

"Really? You think I'm that impulsive? I'm not an idiot! I would have come here first thing!" Okay, now she was pissed. Kakashi knew he had fucked up. He just didn't know how to fix it. She took a deep breath. "Can I please have permission to help find him? I won't do anything stupid. I can request a longer stay from the Kazekage.. Please just let me help find him..."

He sighed. "I suppose you can help. On a few conditions of course," She nodded. "First, you don't leave the village without my permission. I need to know where you are at all times. Second is you must have an escort. It can be someone you're familiar with if you'd like... Someone else on the team that's searching for him. How about Ino?" She smiled and agreed. Temari was quite fond of Ino.

"Deal, now I need to contact Gaara-" He cut her off.

"My last condition," She raised one of her eyebrows. "You must report to me every evening. If you break any of these agreements then you will be on your way back to the Sand Village with a couple of escorts and I will let Gaara know that if you come back into Fire territory before this mission is finished then you will be arrested." Who knew this guy could be such an asshole?

"I won't break any of the agreements.. trust me." He smiled at the young lady and sent Shino, who was acting as Shikamaru's fill in advisor, to fetch Ino so she could begin her time as Temari's escort.

Temari bowed to Kakashi. "Thank you, Hokage. I really appreciate you allowing me to join your team." He waved her off.

"It's the least I could do after not telling you sooner. I will contact Gaara for you so you don't need to worry about that." She bowed again and waited until Ino appeared.

"Temari! It's so good to see you!" She jumped into Temari's arms. The girl had clearly been crying. She then turned to Kakashi. "We have another clue," She placed a tape recorder on his desk and played back the tape that was inside.

"When will you give us the information?" A moment of silence happened after the disturbing voice played, followed by what sounded like someone getting punched and some weak coughing. That caused Temari to flinch. "Come on, you piece of shit! Just tell us what we want to know and we will let you go!" Another sound, this time it sounded harder. A kick maybe?

Temari paused the tape. "He said we.. That means there's more than one. And they're after information. Something Shikamaru must know or they wouldn't have done this in the first place." The other three nodded. "Did you all already know this?" Their heads shook no. So that was good, they had some new information to play off of.

She resumed the tape. "I won't tell you anything, so all of this is just pointless on your part. You're wasting your time." Temari's heart started racing at the sound of the voice. Her mouth slightly agape. Suddenly a loud crunching noise followed by Shikamaru screaming. Ino covered her mouth. This must have been why she came in so upset.

The tape ended. His screams echoing through Temari's head. She was still processing everything that was happening all at once. "Temari? You okay?" Ino's voice cut through the screams. She nodded.

"Just processing.. Can I see the rest of the information you have?" Ino looked to Kakashi and he nodded. Ino then lead her into a room. In there sat three people. Sakura, Choji, and another blonde woman whom Temari hadn't recognized. The trio looked up at her as she entered the room. The two familiar people stood up and rushed to hug her. What's with all of the touching around here?

"We're so glad you're here. I'm sure you'll be a lot of help." Sakura stated. Choji just sniffled and smiled. "Come sit!" She was then drug over to the table. "This is Shiho, by the way. Shiho, this is Temari." She turned back to Temari. "Here's everything we know... and it's not much." She turned her attention towards the board at the front of the room. It had everything they had learned up until the tape. "This isn't all of us. We have a few in the field searching for any type of lead. We were just summoned here because we heard Ino had another clue. You're just in time to listen to it." She sighed.

"We just listened to it... But I guess it wont hurt to listen again. Just to make sure we didn't miss anything the first time." Temari was basically trying to convince herself that it will be okay to listen to it again. For the sake of Shikamaru. She shut her eyes as she listened.

They all gathered around the center of the table as the tape played. The same voices, the same sounds... The same scream, over again. The one she couldn't get out of her head. But this time, they didn't stop the tape.

Moments later, something they hadn't heard before played. Her eyes shot open. "Time to go to sleep!" The same voice of the disgusting person that's hurting Shikamaru. It then went silent. She could feel her heart racing once more and nobody in the room spoke.

The man stepped on his hand and he could hear every bone inside being crushed. Shikamaru couldn't hold back the scream he released. He was trying to play it cool. He knew they were recording this 'interview' as they like to call it. He didn't want anyone that heard it to panic.

Shikamaru rolled onto his side and cradled his hand. He had been knocked onto the floor after the punch in the stomach. And had yet to get up after being kicked in the side.

"Time to go to sleep!" His eyes widened and he struggled to get up. He knew what was coming next.

The amount of Demerol they had injected in him was not a good amount. He could feel himself slowing becoming addicted to it. Which is exactly why he was trying to avoid it. The last thing he needed was to be addicted to something, giving them something to use against him.

Quickly after the needle was removed, his world drifted into darkness.

Thanks for reading. There will be more soon. xoxo