When sand brings leaflets into their hearts.
There was a drip of cold water in the corner of her cell. Her labored breathing cutting the air between them. Her body was probably aching by the unseen torments of their captors. All their information had been leached out the first night of their capture. Now they were kept as toys. Guinea pigs.
Every night, he came. Every night they suffered his new designs of mind torture. For a second they were each transported into Hell in which they suffered forty eight hours. Hearing the soft footsteps halt outside the bars, then the slight creak as rusted barred doors swung slowly open. Akastuki robes stopped before him and a hand pulled him up from the cold hard floor to face red demon eyes.
He could barely mutter in protest, "Ita-"
"MANGEKYO!"
He was the leader of a two man cell, on a simple mission, how could he have let this happen?
* * *
"Tsunade-sama!"
The Hokage looked up from her mass of forms she was ticking off in surprise as her aide rushed into the room.
"Tsunade-sama, please look at this." Shizune was panting.
Looking down at the papers thrown onto her desk, Tsunade began to read. By the end she had paled and her hands were trembling. She whispered, "Can this be verified?"
Shizune nodded, "Jiraiya-sama reported this."
In a flurry Tsunade stood up, as she ran out, she called behind her, "Call the Jounins to me immediately!"
"Hai!"
*
* *
The
Kazekage released the messenger hawk and watched it disappear into
the darkening sky. There's going to be a storm. Looking down at a
tiny white scroll in his hand he frowned.
"Gaara. What is it?"
Clenching his fist, holding the crushed white piece of paper tightly, Gaara of the Desert turned to face his sister.
"Temari, call Kankuro and the others."
She didn't hesitate when she caught the look in his eye, "Hai. Kazekage sama"
*
* *
"Sakura."
Her
named echoed in their stone cage, his voice was hollow. Sakura looked
up from her fetal position into equally hollow eyes. Heavy chains
clunked as she shifted, the sound horrifically loud in the darkness.
She nodded despairingly, "It was the Village again, Shikamaru.
And everyone... Everyone..."
Her
dry eyes held terrors a sea of tears won't wash away.
"I know Sakura. It's the same here."
"I just... Just want..."
"I know. Me too."
"It won't end will it, Shikamaru?"
He didn't answer but closed his eyes to face his nightmares. As hellish as they are he would still wake up from them, but answering that question, means admitting to the ice cold truth of their reality.
Sakura watched her partner succumb to the snatching hands of his subconscious. Shikamaru must be exhausted. HE hadn't shown up for four days. And that meant no food or water for four days. Maybe this time they can die in peace. A scrapping sound from the door sent panic signals to her brain. If she wasn't so weak she would have shot her head up to see those dreaded robes. The soft treading of footfalls stopped by Shikamaru first. For a while she waited to hear her friends despairing gasp as he looked into dreadful red eyes. It didn't come. Then the footsteps approached her, and she looked at navy boots. The shadowy figure knelt beside her and lifted her up so she could look into the familiar masked face of Kakashi sensei.
He had done this before. Let them believe they were to be saved before he cruelly massacred the fake rescuers in front of them. This time however, instead of mouthing sweet assurances and picking her up, Kakashi let out a colorful string of curses. However Sakura wasn't sure, everything seemed faded and moved really slow. Like in those movies Naruto always wanted her to watch with him. Naruto. Yes Naruto, let's go watch movies tomorrow. But not now. Too tired. Tomorrow, defiantly tomorrow. She could hear many footsteps. Was it time for breakfast? It's too early mom, another five minutes...
* * *
"Kakashi."
"They were abandoned Hokage."
They were seated in the pristine corridors of the Sand Villages hospital. Tsunade looked at Hatake Kakashi for a minute, taking in his heated voice and disheveled clothes, before taking a seat next to the ninja. He probably hadn't rested since the rescue, most of them hadn't. They were waiting for the Akatsuki to try and counter-attack. If they didn't, she and Gaara must still keep a wary eye out for them. She had rushed to the village of sand to help out with the emergency care, last night.
The two were silent for a while. His next words were so soft, she had to strain to hear them.
"Abandoned to die. If we hadn't come..."
"Perhaps we still didn't come in time. We have done our best, but for the two of them, only time can tell if they will survive."
They sat in silence. Kakashi remembered clearly the utter hopelessness in Sakura's stark gaze. After examining Shikamaru and picking up Sakura. That look will haunt him to the grave. "It's the Akatsuki. They did it, didn't they? What did they want? What could those two have possibly done to earn ... THIS?" His voice trembled ever so slightly.
"Kakashi..."
Without a word Kakashi stood up and stalked off through the white corridors of the hospital ward, leaving Tsunade open mouthed. Kakashi had always been respectful to the Hokage. Dry and cheeky, yes. But never outright rude. To produce such a strong reaction, just what did he see down there?
Kakashi and the medic team, half the Konoha jounins and half the Wind jounins and those injured in the dismantling of the traps took the two rescued and went straight to the Hidden village of sand, as it was closer. After emergency care only that night could decide if they lived or died. Their lives balanced on a knifes blade and everyone held their breath. They had risked their lives distracting the Akatsuki and proceeding with the carefully constructed plan of rescue, and maybe it was all for nothing.
Gaara stood by the window as Temari paced in front of him. His eyes were focused on the shallow breathing patterns of the two people lying in the hospital beds. After being wheeled out, they had been in a comatose like state for a couple of hours. What worried him were the looks of such fear, horror and hopelessness that occasionally crossed their faces.
Temari drew a ragged breath, "How can you be so calm Gaara?"
His eyes flickered to meet hers in a flat stare. "I'm not calm Temari. You above all others should know me better than that."
"I know." She sunk into one of the empty beds. She dropped her face into her hands. "Five months Gaara. They had been pronounced dead. We went to their ceremonial funeral, for crying out loud! And all that time. At the mercy of the Akatsuki's..."
"I know that Temari." He stated harshly. It was the closest he came to shouting in his entire life. Excluding when he was manically hysterical when possessed by Shukaku. Noting her shocked expression, he sighed. "I don't think I could have survived, not for that long." Having admitted that, he transferred his attention to the shallow breathing. It was all he could do now. It was all that all of them could do now.
