A/N: I found it necessary to add in other POVs as well, but I hope it won't be too confusing. I won't add more than what appears in this chapter!
Definitely Shikamaru and Temari will still provide the main POVs, but they can't be everywhere at once.
Please read and review, thanks :)
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------------Temari------------
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I considered my options.
One, I do as he says and he rapes me. Definitely out.
Two, I grab whatever chance to escape. Assuming I can find my way out of the caverns.
Simple plans – and incredibly stupid. I forced myself to relax. I didn't have much choice here: my limbs were about as strong as uncooked noodles, so if he really chose brute force I'd be dead in two heartbeats. On the other hand, he was under the impression that my legs were still bound. So there might be an element of surprise.
Since these were chakra-absorbing rope, I merely had to ensure that I do not use chakra. Again, simple and stupid.
"Good girl," Shikio praised as I swallowed the last mouthful. He offered me a napkin and I dabbed at my lips. He caressed my cheek and I twisted away from his touch.
I did not miss the shadow of anger in his eyes.
"Strip. And bathe. Then you can use the necessary before I make love to you."
"You can't make love to me, Shikio," I said, looking into his gray-green eyes, now black in the candlelight. "You can't make love to someone who doesn't love you."
"You'll be saying something different later," he hissed as he bent over me.
I bared my teeth. "Only he can make love to me, Shikio. You're just a pathetic shmuck who can't accept he's been outclassed. In every. Single. Way."
Okay, option three. I piss him off so much he forgets about the bath and try to kill me. Mortal combat, that I can deal with.
Door number three it is.
Time to press on.
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------------Shikamaru------------
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"No, wait." I stopped everyone. "If Chouji and Kankurou goes, they can't see inside the room. Gaara and I, who are the team leaders, will be grouped together. This is in error."
"Make up your mind, brother," Kankurou drawled.
I shushed him and forced myself to divorce my emotions from the job. This was supposed to be easy, since I was ANBU too, but somehow I had never figured Temari needing rescue. She was the one rushing to save my ass, usually.
"Gaara, you and Kankurou have worked together before. You two go to the sealed room. Hinata, lead me and Chouji on. Since we've worked together on some Konoha cases, we operate better as a sub-team." I took a breath. This was the right decision. "Kankurou, Gaara, if in twenty minutes we don't hear from either of you, I will assume there is another pathway from that sealed room. If it turns out that we three are stuck in a dead end, I will double back and try your path."
"If you hear from us in ten minutes – don't bother doubling back." Gaara took the lead. I handed Kankurou a handful of rubber balls.
He tucked them into his shirt. "One ball should tell us all we need to know about the room, huh."
"Yeah. Make sure you fling them hard enough, and bounce them off the walls and ceilings too."
"Got it."
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------------Temari------------
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I could feel the sting of the slap on my cheek. He hauled me to my feet and started shaking me violently.
"What does it TAKE TO MAKE YOU HAPPY?!" he screamed. I staggered away, noting that the ropes had slipped to my ankles.
Good.
"I brought you everything. I sent you flowers, dresses. I bought you a house, even! You ignored everything I did for you, for that Konoha tactician. Why, Temari?" Shikio was practically begging. "I tried to make you see sense. I read more, I went to learn about strategies, I joined ANBU for you. And don't tell me you don't remember the time we went on our first mission together. We shared so much... I treasured every moment I had with you, Temari. From the enemies' major parts down to the littlest blade of grass that your wind blade sheared into scrap, I kept as mementos. And you treat me like dirt!"
"Listen to yourself," I said, voicing my disdain as plainly as I could. "We had ONE mission together, my last ANBU mission. And which sane person keeps such mementos?"
"What has the Konoha shinobi done for you?"
I laughed. "You can't begin to compare yourself with him. There is no scale of reference large enough."
"SHUT UP!" Shikio raised his palm to slap me again. I angled my face to his prepared blow.
It didn't come.
Crap. One more good slap and I'd be out the door by now.
Shikio suddenly pressed his mouth on mine, his hands scrabbling at my clothes. I shoved him as hard as I could – and believe me, carting my fan around for years have given me arm muscles you wouldn't believe – and tore off the bindings on my ankles.
I might be weak from lack of food and drink, but I would not be touched by anyone else.
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------------Shikamaru------------
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Hinata paused at the junction.
"Left, an apparent dead end fifteen meters on. Straight path, a door set into the rock, but framed by some seals."
I calculated the odds. "Hinata, you and Chouji take the straight path. I'll try for the dead end."
"Be careful, you." Chouji's concern was apparent as I passed him half of the rubber balls I had in my pack.
I lifted a brow. "I don't plan to die without telling the troublesome woman off first, Chouji. See ya."
"Sh-shouldn't we wait for Gaara and Kankurou?"
I paused. "Hinata, my wife-to-be is in the hands of a demented stalker. I don't think I will wait." I slashed on the limestone walls with a kunai, marked it with my initials, and did the same for Hinata and Chouji. "There. This would help them. If they do come by here."
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------------Kankurou------------
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I hurled a rubber ball straight into the wall while holding my breath. The little orb bounced off the different surfaces, and both of us ducked behind the sand shield as thousands of needles spurted erratically from hidden spots.
"Presenting the latest fad in entertainment," I quipped. "Death to Superballs."
"I don't think there are more traps in that room," my brother said, completely ignoring my verbal brilliance. Ah well. I had my lovely wife Tomoe to admire me and cut me down to size, as needed.
Gaara moved forward, unafraid. I half-smiled. He always had the air of being separate: separate from the common populace, separate from the events around him, separate from living. It was good that Hinata had chosen, however coincidentally, Gaara's own hideout when she needed time alone, away from... what was her ex's name? Now that would bug me all day...
"Kankurou." I jerked my mind back to the here and now. Gaara was peering at a metal door. "Can you get this open? It's set completely into the rock."
I ran my hands over it. "Sealed?"
"I can't find any openings."
Gaara stepped back so I could do my work. He knew who was more mechanically inclined in the family. I pulled out a small puppet, my own design: a masterpiece, even if I do say so myself. Tracing over the edges, I tried to locate the smallest break between metal and rock.
Found it.
Ugh. The limestone was wet. The puppet twitched to life as I pulled chakra strings from its tiny joints.
"What's it do?" Gaara was interested. He bent low to examine it.
"It's a slug," I said. "Completely made out of specially treated gel, yet with the delicacy of operating like Karasu. It can – and will – ooze through most openings and then -" I grunted with the effort of manipulating the small puppet "- open doors or decode anything, with the help of this. Attach it to my right hand's middle finger, will ya?"
Soon my tiny monitor flickered into life. There was a lock on the door on the other side. I grinned.
"Score."
Gaara nodded his approval when the puppet slug moved over the combination keypad. I pondered over which combination to enter, when Gaara said, "Her birthday."
"You sure? I don't want needlepalooza again."
"He's obsessed with her. It will be her birthday."
I sighed. It made sense. I made to key it in, then paused.
"Uh, Gaara? When is Temari's birthday?"
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------------Shikamaru------------
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I knew they would worry about me, but I preferred to work alone these days.
Call it a side effect of working in ANBU.
There it was. Dead end, like Hinata said.
I moved right up to the wall, then turned and caught a kunai in my hands. It had fired at me from behind. I glanced about me quickly, then ducked and rolled.
Kunai and shuriken thudded into the space I had been a second ago.
"That was close," I muttered under my breath. Shikio was a poisons expert, I recalled; probably most of these were coated with some deadly potion.
I pulled on my special gloves and collected the gift of throwing blades now stuck in the walls and floor and – hello, overkill? – ceiling.
If he had gone to the trouble of setting up a trap here...
I prodded the wall in sections, not missing any bit of slimy wet rock.
There.
I pulled a thin bobby pin from my pouch – thank you, Temari – and began picking at the tiny, tiny lock.
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------------Chouji------------
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"Chouji-kun."
I looked at the diminutive kunoichi. "Yes?"
"... how is Shino?"
Oh yes. They haven't met with each other since they broke up a year ago. I scratched the back of my neck, unsure of what to say.
"He's, uh... he's fine." That was true enough. "He's taken on a genin team after you two... after what happened. They'll be headed to Suna for the next chuunin exams."
"Oh? That's great." She stopped and flung an arm out to stop me. "Genjutsu. It's a thin rock bridge over a wide and deep pit. Lined with spikes."
I looked at the long, wide, well-lit corridor in front of me. "Good catch, Hinata." I closed my eyes and formed the hand seals to undo the illusion.
About eighty paces earlier the limestone caverns had turned into usual rock corridors. Torches lined the walls and, every ten feet either Hinata or I would score the walls at eye-level for the other three, in case they needed to find us.
Now, as I opened my eyes again, I realized the two of us were probably on the right path.
There was no way anyone would build a pit that deep, with spikes that sharp, and a bridge that narrow, if it was not the right path.
Hinata hesitated as she scanned the surrounds for traps. I didn't bother tossing the rubber balls: what was the point? I could see the spike-pit from where we stood. Only the points glinted greenly in the light of the torches.
Poisoned.
I touched the path with the tip of my right foot. The builder might have a sharp sense of humor, but it felt sturdy enough. I put more weight on my foot, and stepped onto the bridge.
"Not a problem, Hinata. We'll just -" I rushed at her and the two of us rolled back to the relative safety of the corridor.
Tongues of flame roared sporadically along the length of the bridge.
"We'll just barbecue to our deaths," I said weakly.
