Wassup ya'll? Yes, I know it's been a super long time since I've posted a new chapter, I apologize. But heads up, I'll have more time to work on more chapters after the first week of June, so look forward to that because school ends soon! Woo-hoo! Of course, finals have to be on the last week. TT_TT So not looking forward to that.

Anyway, forget about my life and my stupid excuses why I couldn't write a recent chapter. Here is Chapter 10 for you guys! I wanted to keep writing more about this 'haunted house' thing I have going on because the entire game challenge thing was getting too long in my opinion and I really needed to cut that short. So hopefully by the next one or two chapters, it'll all be over by then. I've made this chapter basically part 1 of 2 parts because this chapter was getting too long and lengthy - over 20 pages! So I decided to cut it to two parts, I hope you don't mind. But I wrote a lot purposefully to make up for making you guys wait. I'm not sure if I did my best on this chapter, but I really do hope it satisfies you guys for what you were looking for. Anyway, without any further ado - read on! XD

Chapter 10: Snatched (Part1)

Shikamaru eyed the skies, absorbing in the wide expanse of the open sky, the pale pink and purple streaks that smeared across the blue as evening started to settle in. It wouldn't be before long the day ended – and so will the festivities. If there was one thing he'd say about it; THANK GOD it was all finally coming to an end. Shikamaru continued to gaze over the horizon just above the trees as the sun began its slow descent. He heard the soft crunch of shoes upon grass and he turned his gaze ever so slightly over his shoulder to catch a glimpse of the one who stepped out of the tent behind him.

Temari stood sighing with her hands working through the tangles in her hair as she stood behind him dressed in a fresh change of clothes. She quickly fashioned her hair back into the four ponytails she liked so much and then took a great big yawn and stretched her arms over her head as she groaned – clearly exhausted. She looked down at Shikamaru who had turned to look back at the sky, though his attention was still focused on her as she came sinking down to her knees next to him as she silently sat beside him looking up at the sky with him.

"…The sky looks pretty this evening…"

"…I like it better with some decent clouds…"

"Hmm, I bet you do…"

Temari rested her head on her arms as she gave him a sideways look and watched him zoning off as he stared off into the distance, his hair tied into a messy ponytail, his expression softer than usual…

"A-hem, well, we'd better get ready; we'll be heading out soon."
Temari stood, her hands brushing the grass from her pants as she continued to mumble, "The seniors said they'd be back soon to lead us the rest of the way..."

Shikamaru aimlessly nodded as Temari stood idly beside him as she crossed her arms in silence. They must've been that way for a good while before they heard the seniors calling out to them from farther down the fields, waving to them wildly making such a loud ruckus as they waved them over. Shikamaru got to his aching feet as he rolled his shoulders and took a deep breath before turning to Temari and awkwardly held out his hand to her. She eyed it and couldn't help but crack a tiny smile. She shrugged and took his hand, their fingers lacing together as they began walking side by side, hand in hand. Normally he wouldn't have bothered to do so; but he found himself wanting to since she had a sensitive ankle to walk on and he didn't intend for her to limp behind him. She didn't mind that he cared; she knew he could be insensitive sometimes and often times, very cold to others. But she knew that sometimes he really did care. And it was nice to know that the guy actually had human traits to him. The seniors caught sight of their hands and smiled again, the same reaction they had given every time they assumed something.

"God I'm sick and tired of them looking at us like that…"
Temari shouldered him teasingly as she let out a short laugh, "Well you can't blame them; they're stuck on thinking we're destined lovers."

Shikamaru gave her a sour frown as he muttered back, "Us? Oh geez, don't even joke about it."

Temari laughed again and he felt the knot in his stomach tighten and he swallowed and looked away, ignoring her bright smile.

"But it is kind of bothersome anyway. Do we really have to explain it to them every single time that we're not what they think we are?"
Shikamaru eyed her as he squeezed her hand unconsciously as he simply cracked a soft smile, "Hmm… it'll get to their heads one day that they're just dreaming up the impossible."

The two came up to the seniors who stood in the tall grass as they grinned wickedly.

"Now this is going to be extra fun for you two. You ready for this?"
Temari pulled her hand away from Shikamaru as she crossed her arms under her chest and leaned on her uninjured ankle so she gave her injured one some relief from supporting her own weight; an eye roll displayed on her face as she sarcastically droned, "Ready as we'll ever be."

Then suddenly she was tossed a flashlight, which fumbled in her hands as she finally caught it as Shikamaru snatched the map in mid-toss given to him by another senior. A senior rubbed his hands together as he cackled, "Now… who's ready for some spooky fun?"

Temari and Shikamaru shared a look as the seniors snickered to themselves as they walked off, expecting the two to follow as Temari exclaimed after them, "Hey, hey wait! You didn't tell us what we're going to be doing, what's the map for? What's this flashlight for? Where are you taking us? What is going on here-"
A senior turned around and whistled, holding out his hands to calm her down, "Cool it there girl, you're about to see where we're taking you. Geez, can't you enjoy a good surprise when it's about to come to you?"

Temari sourly scowled as she grumbled, "Only if I can see it coming…"

Shikamaru silently nudged her shoulder as he gave her a ghost of a smile before extending his hand out to her again.

"Well whatever it is, we'll get through it. Need a hand?"

Temari eyed him as she took his hand and asked, "Was that meant to be a really bad pun or an offer?"

Shikamaru shrugged as he laughed lightly, "Take it as you want; it can be either one."

Temari nudged him back as they shared his smile, their footsteps synchronized in stride with their hands tightly locked together between them.

Kankuro angrily tapped his fingers on the table before him and his brother as he glared at his cell phone before him.

"Why … in the world… is she not… PICKING UP THE DAMN PHONE!?"

Kankuro attempted to flip the table over in his fury when Gaara slammed his feet on top of the table to keep it rooted to the ground as he glared at his older brother.

"Don't throw such a tantrum Kankuro; I'm sure Temari has a reasonable explanation."

Kankuro laughed hysterically, throwing up his hands as he exclaimed, "Oh yeah, oh yeah sure Gaara, sure. Just like how she MUST have a REASONABLE explanation for NOT COMING HOME yesterday night! And what's her excuse for this!? Oops, sorry guys, I forgot to let you guys know that I was at some place over the rainbow doing God knows what, and yes, I probably turned off my phone' since I've only gotten her DAMN VOICEMAILS in response!"

Gaara shook his head as he crossed his arms before his chest and plopped back down in his seat heavily as he sighed, "You need to trust in Temari more Kankuro; she's older than both of us and she can handle things by herself. She knows what's best in every situation; all we can do is sit patiently and wait for a reasonable explanation."

Kankuro slammed his hands on the table as he gave his brother a look, "AND what if it's NOT a 'reasonable' explanation!?"

Gaara narrowed his eyes at his brother as he leaned back in his seat, "It shouldn't come down to THAT Kankuro… Temari knows better."

Kankuro angrily tsked to himself as he shoved the cell phone back in his pocket, shaking his head in his own distress as he cursed, "God damn it Gaara, what does Temari know anymore?! She's been acting weird every since that rumor went around about her and that Nara sucker! You don't that she's... dating him behind our backs do you?"
Gaara raised his eyebrows at Kankuro as he snorted, "You're making it sound like as if she shouldn't-"
"Well of course! She sure as hell can't go around dating boys without telling us and WITHOUT our approval! Who wants to have a sister dating some sh*tty guy!?"

Gaara shook his head as he stated, "Either way Kankuro, Temari is bound to go off and date guys. Now either you don't like the concept of having a brother in law in the future when she goes off and gets married – IF she gets married – or you just hate Shikamaru Nara in particular…"

Kankuro crossed his arms as he rolled his eyes as he scoffed, "God, Temari can go marry and divorce with her husband later in the future and I wouldn't even blink an eye at it. But for her to be dating that Nara guy!? That's stretching my tolerance right there."

Gaara frowned at his brother as he asked with a shrug, "What's so bad about Shikamaru? He's a good guy and he's clever-"

"You think that because you only see the GOOD points of him! Turn your attention to the BAD things about him!"

Kankuro slammed a foot on the table as he held out a hand and began counting down the fingers, "ONE: his lazy attitude! He acts like he doesn't care about a single thing in the world and ignores everyone he finds annoying! He'd ignore Temari if they were to be dating, either to keep his reputation up, or to keep their relationship discrete, or maybe even because he'll find her as an annoying clingy girlfriend or something! I am NOT giving my sister over to a guy who'll simply push her away and run away from her every time he sees her down the hallways, if he's doing it for any one of the reasons mentioned or anything NEAR to them! I refuse!"

Gaara leaned back even farther as Kankuro shoved two fingers in his face with a shout, "TWO: he's likes to take things FAST in my opinion! You saw him at our house last time right? We gave him our guest room to stay in and where do we find him the next morning!? IN TEMARI'S BED! Now doesn't THAT give off a bad message!?"

Kankuro then held up the third and last finger as he spat, "AND THIRD – LAST OF ALL; I HATE KNOW-IT-ALLS!"

Gaara eyed Kankuro and then sighed as he plainly summed it up, "So you basically don't like Shikamaru because he's smarter, cooler, and a whole lot more mature than you? God, you're so lame Kankuro."

Kankuro flustered as he tried to get his point across again, but Gaara dismissed his attempts as pointless and simply tuned out his argumentative brother. Luckily that was when three good souls appeared and saved him from his brother's useless ranting.

"Yo! Gaara! Fancy running in you here! I thought you weren't big on the festival type foods?"
Gaara looked up to see Kiba jogging over to his side with a large white dog running in wild circles around his heels, panting and barking with joy as it came barreling over with him. Gaara scooted farther back in his seat as the dog came up to him curiously as it planted its paws on his knees and sniffed his face anxiously, its tail wagging from side to side wildly. Kiba grabbed the large animal off Gaara as he restrained the dog from knocking Gaara over.

"Sorry Gaara, Akamaru is a bit excited today since he gets to see both new and old faces again."

Akamaru, the dog, barked at Gaara and panted with a silly happy expression slapped on his face with Kiba's hand ruffling his fur.

"Isn't he just the sweetest little furry ball of love?"
Ino sauntered over to Kiba's side to fondle the animal's ears as she smiled to Gaara.

"Hey Gaara! Nice running into you today, how are you and your brother enjoying the festival?"

Gaara sighed as he jabbed a thumb towards Kankuro, "You could say I had a better time yesterday…"

Kankuro was still ranting at his brother as he exclaimed, "F*ck, Gaara! Look at me when I'm f*cking talking to you! God d*mn it, don't you ignore me little bro! I'm trying to get my point across to you d*mnit!"
Kiba raised his eyebrows at the fuming brother as he asked, "Uh… what the hell is his problem?"
Gaara eyed his brother over his shoulder as he let out another string of curses as he snorted, "You can just ignore him for now. He's just mad over the fact that Temari didn't come back home yesterday night and to top it off, he doesn't even know where she is."

Ino clapped her hands as her eyes brightened, "Ah! I know where Temari is-!"

Hands grabbed her one both shoulders as Kankuro spun her around and shook her angrily, "WHERE THE F*CK IS SHE!?"
Frightened at the sudden grab, Ino smacked his arms away and spat back, "OH MY F*CKING GOD, DON'T TOUCH ME AND STOP SCREAM AT MY FACE YOU B*STARD!"
Gaara watched the two cursing and screaming at one another in amusement as Kiba eyed Gaara and asked, "Erm… should I break it up?"
Gaara shrugged as he sat back and crossed his arms across his chest, "If you want to. But I doubt you can get between those two now without getting your eyes clawed out; if I recall, Ino can be very…"

Gaara tried to find the right words as he tapped his chin thoughtfully, "Oh how should I put it…?"

Kiba watched him as he snapped his fingers and finally spoke, "Ah, truculent. There we go…"

Kiba frowned as he tried to understand what the heck that word meant as the two began to push one another and created a scene. Kiba was about to stop them when Gaara asked, "By the way, do you know where my sister went? Like I said, she didn't come home last night so I do hope she's alright…"
Gaara looked up at Kiba as he added, "She didn't contact us to let us know she was alright. Kankuro is just worried that's all…"

Kiba nodded as he kept his eyes on the growing conflict between Ino and Kankuro as he answered, "Oh, right. Well last time we saw her, they were at the forest at the back of the school after finishing the obstacle course challenge assigned to them this morning. I think they're heading off to the haunted house next."

Gaara stared at Kiba as he frowned, "…'they'?"
Kiba looked back at Gaara before realizing his error and laughed, "Oh, that's right. Shikamaru was with her since yesterday the entire time. It's the requirement for the game they're playing to have a partner so that's what they're doing."
Gaara shook his head as he tried to understand what Kiba was saying, "So wait, you're telling me that right now, Temari and Shikamaru are working together to play some kind of a game?"

Kiba nodded, "Yup."

"Where are they now?"
"Like I said, they may be at the haunted house by now."

"Haunted…"

Gaara stood abruptly as he turned to look at his brother, who was still getting in Ino's face, as he firmly barked, "Kankuro."

Kankuro immediately stopped in the middle of his banter, his glare shifting to his brother which immediately drained of his anger as he gave him his undivided attention.

Gaara grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair as he shrugged it on, walking past his brother as he spoke, "We need to get Temari out of there. Now."

Kiba and Ino frowned in confusion as Kankuro turned heel and departed with his brother, leaving Ino shouting after the two, "Hey! Where the hell are you two going!? What do you mean you need to take Temari out – wait, where are you taking her out of!? Good God, hey- HEY WAIT!"

Ino cupped her hands around her mouth as she shouted to Kankuro, "HEY F*CKER, I'M NOT DONE WITH YOU!"

Kankuro halted in mid-step as he turned and boldly flipped her off before turning back around to catch up with his brother. Ino stood there gawking before turning to Kiba with an infuriated expression as she shrieked, "DID YOU SEE WHAT THAT B*STARD DID!? HOW DARE HE!"

"Ino, stop yelling."

Ino stopped as she noticed the frown stained on Kiba's face as he scratched his head, engrossed in his own thoughts as he murmured, "What's gotten them all riled up…? Haunted house…? Temari…?"

The senior shook his head as he tapped his clipboard with his pen agitatedly as he snapped, "Good God, you're acting as if I'm sending you into a gas chamber or something; it's just a haunted house, nothing you can't handle chick!"
Shikamaru shifted his gaze back to Temari, seeing the stubborn set of her jaw as she lashed back out, "Well then you obviously don't know what the f*ck I've been through in the past because I'm SO not going to step foot into that d*mn place! Assign us to something else!"

He moved his gaze back to the senior as the senior ran a hand through his hair irritably as he flipped through his papers on his clipboard, shaking his head in disgust as he threw up his hands exasperated.

"Oh my God, for the last time, we have no other challenges for you guys to take. The head senior himself wants you to take this one specifically; nothing else would be assigned to you two. Please, just bear with it and pull through, it's vital that you take this challenge. Don't forget that we're doing our research on you guys as you play the game-"

"F*CK THE D*MN RESEARCH, I'm not going to go in there and get f*ck up by whatever jump scares you have in plan for us! It's either you scratch this off the list or no game!"

The senior sighed as he turned to Shikamaru and beckoned to him. Shikamaru watched the senior walk off some distance as he got to his feet reluctantly. He shared a look with Temari, who watched him start after the senior, his hands in his pockets as he yawned impulsively. The senior eyed Shikamaru as he came to stand before him as he asked in a bored manner, "What now?"
"You need to talk to her."
Shikamaru sighed as he allowed his gaze to wander off from the senior's stern expression as he shrugged, "Oh God, you're asking the wrong person-"

"No, it has to be you."
The senior crossed his arms as he jerked his head towards Temari as he exclaimed, "That girl will listen to no one else but you at the moment. I'd ask someone else if I knew who she would listen to, but you're the only option here. Please, you've got to convince her."

Shikamaru stared at the senior as he asked, "What's so important about the haunted house challenge anyway? Why can't you just assign us to something else? It's obvious that the haunted house is making her uncomfortable. I doubt she'll agree to anything if it involves that."

The senior shook his head as he folded his hands together to explain.

"Well you see… it's difficult to put into exact words. The haunted house we designed in a way that hopefully will bring a significant change to the entire system of the game. This is the first time we've tried the haunted house and we're hoping it'll work out. You two will be our first ones to try it and we need to know if it'll work out for future reference. It's probably a lot to ask of her, considering that your partner is against the concept, but it'd be fantastic if you two would be the first to try it."
Shikamaru sighed, clearly not convinced that it was important enough as the senior tried something else, "Please, if you get her to accept the challenge, I'll talk to the head senior to throw in a bonus for the prize at the end."

Shikamaru usually didn't like briberies; he had plenty of experience with them and he didn't like them at all. But sometimes he couldn't resist a good deal, but it all depended on what he'd benefit from it…

"…Like what?"

The senior blinked.

"Huh?"
Shikamaru planted his hands on his hips as he gave the senior a haughty look, "Well if I'm going to get my head chewed off by her, it better be for a good cause. I'm not going to do it if you're going to throw in something ridiculous or pathetic."

The senior held his gaze as he shot back, "I thought you weren't the picky type."

Shikamaru immediately tossed back, "What do you know about me?"
The two stood in silence, holding each other's gazes in a silent contest. Finally the senior relented, "Oh alright, alright. You get whatever you want. Just name it."

Shikamaru considered the offer and nodded, "I'll talk to Temari about it. But you'll keep your end of the promise right?"
The senior slapped a hand to his chest as he exclaimed, "I swear by the blood coursing through my veins, I will."
Shikamaru stalked back to Temari, turning his back on the senior as he caught a glimpse of Temari's face; she was standing back where they left her as she waited for him to finish talking things over with the senior. He didn't like the look on her face. He mumbled to himself as he drove his hands deeper into his pockets, "Oh sh*t I'm going to die…"

Temari eyed Shikamaru as he approached.

"Well…? What did you two decide? It better be what I want to hear."

Shikamaru sighed as he shook his head, 'Here goes nothing…'

"Hey uh, Temari; if there was a bonus thrown in with the prize, what would you want it to be…?"
Temari stared at Shikamaru as she then immediately snapped, "Its bribery isn't it? The senior f*cking bribed you!"

Shikamaru shook his head.

"No, no, it's not, really. We have choice here, I'm just saying, it sounded pretty good to me so I was just wondering-"

"Shikamaru, there is no way in the whole d*mn world am I going to step foot into that d*mn building!"

"Temari, just hear me out-"

"Hear what out!? You're going to go on about taking the d*mn bribe and getting myself jump scared inside that building!? I don't know about you, but I know pretty d*mn straight that I don't like haunted houses since they scare the sh*t out of me!"

Shikamaru sighed as he shook his head, "Look… Temari, aside from the… bonus, I really think we should just take it as it comes."

Temari gave him a glare as she hissed, "…Why?"
"Well it's simple really. This is the last challenge. After this, we're done. We take our prize and that's that. You wanted to get this over with as soon as possible, so now is as good as any chance we've got. Plus you're not going to handle it on your own…"
Shikamaru awkwardly added in, "I'm uh, here for you."

Temari made a face that immediately sent him a message that what he just said sounded just as bad as it seemed. He meant to put it in a way that way she wouldn't feel so bad about taking on the challenge, but uh… she may have taken it in a way he didn't intend for it to be taken.

"Well uh, you know, I mean, you won't have to go through it by yourself. I've got your back and well uh, yeah…"

Temari sighed as she looked down at the ground and kicked at the grass at their feet.

"…Fine. I'll do it."
Shikamaru stared at her, staring at the blank expression on her face as he asked cautiously, "W-What…? Just like that? That easy?!"
Temari gave him a sour frown as she snapped, "What!? You want me to take it back!?"
Shikamaru held out his hands, shaking his head furiously as he exclaimed quickly, "No, no, no, no, no, it's fine! Your response was good! It was good…!"

Temari huffed as she growled, "Good. Now as for that BRIBERY deal the seniors made with you…"

Temari crossed her arms as she asked as nonchalantly as she could, "Have you established already what it was going to be…?"

Shikamaru shook his head, gesturing back at her as he replied, "No, I was going to leave it up to you since you were the one who'd say yes or no to the challenge…"

"Great. Make the seniors extend the outing for Downtown Konoha; I'm going to spend more than just a few days there if it's as good as you people claim it is."

With that, Temari stalked away to a nearby senior to ask of her for any directions for the challenge, leaving Shikamaru shocked at the unexpected inclination she expressed at the offer. She actually agreed to it! Holy crap…

The senior jogged back up to Shikamaru after noticing Temari stalk off and asked, "Well!? What did she say!?"
Shikamaru felt an amused smile force itself on his face as he hid it with a hand from the senior.

"Oh uh, she said yes…"

The senior eyed him, wondering if he should question him about the hand but decided to stay out of it as he asked another question, "And the deal…?"
Shikamaru looked at the senior over his hidden smile behind his hand as he added in, "Ah that. Well she wants an extended time frame for the visit to Downtown Konoha…"

The senior sighed as he yanked out his walkie-talkie from his belt and switched it on with a grumble, "Of course… of course she wanted that."

At the senior's annoyance, the smile grew on his face, making him turn and walk away to take the time to let it dissolve away from any peering eyes… why was he smiling anyway?

Temari didn't even understand why she even agreed to it in the first place. She knew she couldn't handle haunted houses; the entire theme of scaring the sh*t out of those who entered creeped her out. Maybe she could handle the stereotypical versions of haunted houses, where the cheesy stupid ghosts popped out from visible hatches from the ceilings or whenever someone jumped out from a room with a fake ax stuck to their bloody heads – it got annoying yes, but never was it frightening. But after she experienced a certain haunted house back in Suna creatively delivered by some tricksters in the festival… it didn't go well for her. Not only that, her phobia for the dark had only increased over the years since her father's abuse and adding that to her fear of haunted houses… it was bound to have come to this. This sooo wasn't going to end well.

Temari fiddled with the flashlight in her hand as Shikamaru investigated the broken bridge that separated them from the haunted house site across the open over grown fields beyond. Shikamaru stepped back from the gorge the bridge was supposed to have hung over, as he critically thought out loud to himself, "Well the bridge is out. We can't get across using that. We could go around, but this gorge seems to go on forever into the edges of the forest on both sides, must've been a river once. The school facilities must've ignored it when it ran dry; the gorge and broken bridge keeps troublemakers out of the abandoned facility to avoid having to regularly check in for any misbehaving students doing drugs or something there. Pretty convenient if you ask me."
Shikamaru scanned the rest of their surroundings as he asked absentmindedly, "What about you Temari? What do you think?"
Temari stared at Shikamaru as he turned to look at her in her silence; he frowned and asked, "Hey, what's up with you? And why are you looking at me like that?"

Temari dropped her gaze, realizing that she had been glaring at him as she sighed, "Sorry, it's nothing…"

Shikamaru fell silent, obviously disturbed by her previous gaze as he then shook his head and responded, "…if you're still pissed at the seniors about getting stuck in this jam in the first place, you know I'm here for you to talk about it."

Temari gave him a look.

"What are you, my psychiatrist? Look, I'm not furious or anything or having issues about it, so why don't you just shut up about it and let's get this shit over with?"

Shikamaru stared at her as he shrugged and turned away from her, "Fine, just thought you wanted to blow off some steam about it. But now I see you're just fine. Now if you're going to handle this shit with me, why don't you help me figure something out here?"

Temari stubbornly crossed her arms as she snapped back, "Hell, I thought you were the smart ass one here."

Shikamaru turned back towards her and gave her a glare, "What the hell is your problem? First you start bitching around to the seniors because of this haunted house and the next you're bitching me off! Are you trying to provoke me?!"

"F*ck you Shikamaru, you're just a sensitive b*stard anyway!"

Shikamaru stared at her, clearly shocked at her response as he then calmly asked, "…Temari… are you scared?"
Temari glared at him, angered by his comment as she lashed out, "What the f*ck makes you think that!? I'm NOT scared, I'm just f*cking pissed that I have to put up with this sh*t because of some f*cking bribery!"

"Then why the hell are you flipping out NOW about it when you could've said something more about it earlier!?"

"Why don't you just f*cking forget about it all!? God, you're so f*cking nosy now-!"

Then suddenly she's breathing in his jacket, hands behind her back pulling her close as she found herself staring over his shoulder. His warm arms wrapped around her as he silenced her rant, all of the anger – and secretly, her fear – she had bottled inside her dissolved to dust. He nestled his chin on her opposite shoulder as he murmured to her, "Really Temari, you're going to freak out people when you flip out like that. You should really learn how to just admit it that sometimes, you're scared. It's a whole lot better than lashing out on other people."
Temari's hands twitched, having the strange urge to hug him back, to clutch at his arms and bury her face in his shoulder. But that'd be weird. Come on, this was Shikamaru for crying out loud! Those rumors about her and this Nara guy hooking up weren't going to disappear on its own; especially after they hopped aboard this game crap that was trying to make those rumors true in the name of research. Good Lord, the things she got herself wounded up in.

Temari then gingerly pushed herself away, brushing her loose bangs behind her ears as she cleared her throat to empty the silence between them, "Well then uh… my apologies for being sh*tty to you. Now can we please get on with our lives here?"

She avoided his gaze as she hastily searched around them and pointed randomly, "Uh, tree!"

Shikamaru gave her a half smile of amusement as he chuckled, "What?"
"Tree."

Temari pointed again, as if she wanted him to do the rest of the thinking for her, which she did, since she had no idea why the f*ck she was pointing to it.

Shikamaru stared at the tree, the cogs in his mind turning as he smiled.

"Ah, how simple of them."

Now it was Temari's turn to blank out.

"What?"

"The seniors; look at how they conveniently placed a rope around that top branch…"

Shikamaru brushed past Temari, their shoulders touching as Temari leaped to one side as if she had been shocked with electricity. But Shikamaru didn't notice as he continued to stalk forward, marching through tall grass as he went up to the tree to examine the thick rope that coiled around the base of the tree like a limp snake.

D*mn… why was Temari set on edge now about physically touching him!? She seriously couldn't be taking this crap like any other girl would; acting all girly and nervous whenever she got even NEAR the guy she liked- WHOA!

Temari dropped to her knees, surprised at her own mental words as she dug her fingernails in her scalp, staring holes into the ground as she gasped, "Holy… sh*t… what did I just-"

"Hey Temari! The rope seems stable; we can swing across it without a problem! Hey, you okay?"

When Temari didn't answer and continued to mumble to herself in the middle of the field, Shikamaru sighed and called out again, "Geez Temari! I'm getting really tired of asking you the same d*mn question. Are you okay?"

Temari ignored him, tuning out the world around her as she consoled herself like a maniac. Shikamaru stared at her and sighed as he marched over, thinking how stupid she was acting right now. Clearly she was overreacting about something, and whatever it was, Shikamaru preferred for her to keep it to herself, like how she always liked to keep it as.

Shikamaru grasped her arm and yanked her to her feet, dragging her towards the tree as he grumbled, "Come on now, don't you break down on me. We've got to get through this sh*t and I'm not going through it without you. Rules are rules in this silly game. Now pull yourself together and grab the rope."

He shoved her near the lip of the small but deep ravine, making her stumble on the edge and leap backwards as she snapped back to reality, gasping in surprise at the dark trench before her.

"Sh*t Shikamaru! I get it! So stop trying to kill me every chance you get one!"

Shikamaru kept his mouth shut, his arms crossed as he nodded to her to grab the rope. She eyed the rope and the tree; her lips pursed as she then suddenly twirled around, hurried behind Shikamaru and pushed him forward.

"Um… I'd prefer you to go first."

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow.

"I thought I was proper etiquette to let the ladies go first?"

"Screw that! You really want me to swing on that without knowing how secure it is? You're heavier than me, you swing first and then I'll be the one to judge if it'll hold ME when I go."

Shikamaru rolled his eyes as he grumbled back at her, grabbing the rope in both hands, "Geez, fine by me. But you better give a hand if I fall down inside that trench."

Temari crossed her arms and grimly frowned.

"Oh trust me, I won't."
Shikamaru shot her a dirty look as he delivered a dry laugh, "Ha-ha, how very reassuring of you."

Then without giving her another look, he swung by, reaching the other side flawlessly as he stepped off, leaving the rope to swing back to her where she clumsily grasped it in her own surprise that he had gotten across so easily. She expected him to flail around; not acting as cool as he usually composed himself… great. She probably jinxed it for herself; SHE was probably going to be depicted as the flailing idiot as Shikamaru stands there smirking at her. Good God, the things she got stuck to dealing with…

Shikamaru turned around and did exactly as she presumed; stood with his arms crossed and a wide smirk on his face.

That stupid jackass.

"Now get your lazy ss over Temari! I don't have all day!"

Temari stepped to the edge, glaring at him as she shouted, "Who are you calling lazy, lazy!?"

Shikamaru shook his head, flashing a wry smile, "God, that has got to be the worst come back you've ever came up with."

"WHAT DID YOU SAY-?"

That was when she slipped. Shrieking in surprise, she clung to the rope as she swung precariously over, her hastened grip on the rope slipping as she fell at the last second – inches from safety. She wasn't even given time to scream as she plummeted towards the trench, a deep fear rising from the pit of stomach as she felt the gravity of her weight pull her down. She could've sworn she'd have a heart attack right here and then… if it hadn't been for that familiar bone crushing grip on her arm that yanked her to solid ground.

From the moment she was staring down at pitch black darkness, she connected with tall stalks of grass as she collapsed in the fields with Shikamaru underneath.

Their fall was clumsy and unexpected, legs tangling the moment she was snatched from danger. Shikamaru cursed and tried to steady each other, but Temari's momentum of being swung towards him had pushed him backwards on his heels and he fell heavily to the ground with her in tow. Now they laid there groaning as Temari rubbed her hip – on which she fell on – and Shikamaru hissing in pain as he clutched his previously injured shoulder, obviously banged up again.

"Holy crap, Shikamaru, what did you do this time!?"

Temari scrambled to her knees, taking some time to untangle their legs as she clambered off of him, sitting on her knees beside him as she eyed him with shock, surprise and a stubborn pride that told him that she wasn't going to say thank you for getting the two of them entangled.

"What did I do? Well sh*t, you make it sound like I'M to blame for something I didn't even mean to do."

Shikamaru winced as he moved his arm around, trying to determine if the bruise was as bad as it stung since it was pretty bad before he got it slammed again the second time around. He wasn't about to check it either, his discolored skin only made him feel worse about it.

Temari crossed her arms, a look of confusion playing on her face as she debated on what to say. Should she say sorry? But what was there to say sorry for? Tell him that he'd be alright? Well obviously that wouldn't be any time soon. Tell him to get his ass off the ground?

"Get your ass off the ground Shikamaru and man up! I… I don't have time for you to roll on the floor sucking your thumb whining about how your shoulder hurts!"

Shikamaru laid there in silence with his back turned to Temari as he then silently sat up, grass sticking to his hair as he kept his gaze averted from Temari.

"Yeah, sure… I guess."

Surprisingly, he didn't put an effort to defend himself on the matter and she didn't want to ask him why; he'd probably shrug his shoulders and snap back, "Because it's troublesome to even try."

Shikamaru got to his feet as he clutched his shoulder, obviously trying to make it seem like he was simply massaging a sore, but she knew better than that; the twinge of hidden pain in his face made it clear that it hurt more than it seemed.

"Since you seem eager to get going again, we'd better head on inside. Let's go."

Temari meant to get to her feet when she fell back clutching her ankle, muttering a string of curse phrases as she rubbed her injured ankle – also previously affected. Shikamaru turned to her and gave her a look of dull interest.

"Good God, don't tell me your ankle hurts again."

She glared at him, about to tell him to simply shut up and help her when he sourly drawled back at her, "Get your ass off the ground and man up about it. Oh wait, you're female."

Then turning and waving his hand dismissively he sourly added, "My bad. Now if you're going to just sit there and sob about your ankle, I can call the seniors over in a jiffy with the walkie-talkie and call quits today. I'm tired already, being the lazy bum I am."

What was coming out of his mouth? Why was he giving her this sh*t? Temari watched him saunter away with him clutching his bruised shoulder as she mumbled under her breath, getting to her feet painfully, "That little b*stard… not an ounce of kindness in that heart."

She finally got to her feet, favoring her uninjured leg as she staggered after him, keeping the frown on her face from Shikamaru's previous venomous replies – what a jerk. And she had almost forgotten about that.

"What's their status so far?"

Sai leaned over the senior's shoulder as he eyed the reports the senior had filed in his hands as the startled senior began reporting.

"Oh, uh, yes. We uh recently just prepared everything for these two, hopefully things work out and don't berserk on us. After all, we did do twelve run-throughs months before with the system, to make sure nothing was wrong. All systems checked in from groups A – E. Everything is ready to go."
The head senior nodded, "Yes, yes, good to know that things are running smoothly but I want to know as soon as those juniors step foot inside the building, you understand? I need to observe every move they make."

The senior nodded, "Roger that sir."

"You two are making this sound like some kind of governmental operation taking place here. It's enough to make me crack a grin."

Sai turned to see Jiraiya grinning at him, clearly amused at the short conversation the two had previously conversed before he spoke up.

"Oh, you sir. What are you doing here?"

Jiraiya shook his head at him as he settled himself into a sofa seat inside the makeshift office they had thrown together at the second floor of their 'haunted house', perfect for monitoring at the base.

"You forget that I'm required to monitor you seniors from doing anything crazy or over the top. Prevent you guys from doing anything potentially questionable with these juniors. Like making them do certain things for instances."

Jiraiya chuckled as he leaned back grinning, "Though I wouldn't mind to see the show."

"And that's where I step in, sir."

Kakashi appeared through the door way, a tired expression on his face despite his eyes staying alert with the surroundings around himself, obviously not too keen on being here.

Sai eyed the other teacher as he sighed, "You too sir?"

"Hey, I didn't sign up to play babysitter for a man who's older than me. I was pinned with the job from Principal Tsunade."

Kakashi sat in the sofa seat across from Jiraiya as Sai rolled his eyes.

"You didn't seem to mind when you met him; you love his books."

Kakashi cracked a hidden grin and muttered, "That I do have to agree to."

Sai shook his head at the two teachers and turned back to talk with the senior even further when the door slammed open. In stormed an angry junior as he grabbed Sai by the collar of his vest and growled menacingly, "I don't know who the f*ck you are, but you better stop everything right now and let my sister out of your sick game. I don't what the hell you were thinking, but of all people, my sister shouldn't be in that building!"

Sai stared at the angry stranger as he asked, clearly puzzled, "Um… who are you?"

Kakashi leaped up from his seat, hurrying over to pry the stranger's hands off Sai as he instantly snapped, "Kankuro! That's not how you treat head seniors!"

Kankuro looked at Sai and back at Kakashi as he gawked, "You've got to be pulling my leg right there; this guy doesn't look like he's even a year older than me!"

"Kankuro, you dumbass. I'm going to wring your neck when we get home."

Gaara stalked inside suddenly from out of the blue, giving his brother a nasty glare of promised death as Kankuro whimpered and muttered a halfhearted apology as he stood to one side, letting his brother take the initiative.

Gaara turned to Sai and began, "I apologize for my brother's outburst. But he's right. My sister shouldn't be in this 'haunted house' I've been informed of. It just wouldn't cope well with the current mental state she is in."

Sai frowned as he shook his head, "I'm sorry, but I still don't understand who you two are. And are you talking about Temari?"
Kankuro growled at Sai, "You're d*mn right, now get her the hell out of there-"

Gaara glared at Kankuro who immediately shut up and hung his head, staying to the side as Gaara resumed the conversation.

"Yes, her; she's our sister."

Sai tapped the senior beside him to take notes as he asked, "Can you tell me why you need her to be extracted? I mean, this is an important stage in my research you know."

Kankuro gave Sai an expression of 'are you demented' as he gagged, "A f*cking research you call it!? Of what!?"

Gaara grabbed Kankuro by his ear and dragged him out of the office. It was quiet for a while before Gaara stepped back inside, a look of satisfaction branded on his face as he continued without the side commentaries from his brother.

"She has phobias of the dark and relatively, phobias of anything that scares her at random. Not particularly anything, but as long as it's spontaneous and unexpected in a frightening environment, she will be easily spooked and it doesn't settle well with her. We had to take her to the ER once after going into a haunted house back in Suna because she stopped breathing from the jump scares."

Sai nodded, drinking it in as he then carefully replied, "Yes, I understand your grave concerns… but she's with someone who will help her through it all to the end. I swear to you that nothing should be too frightening for her as long as HE'S around."

Gaara raised his eyebrow at the mention of 'HE'S' as he crossed his arms and asked, already knowing the answer, "Who?"
Sai smiled and shrugged, "Really now, that's like a rhetorical question now; we all know who."

"Why are you asking me such an annoying question?"
Shikamaru tried to ignore her from behind him as he tried opening the front door – like most haunted houses kept unlocked – but oddly enough, found it either jammed or as he assumed, locked.

Temari, apparently trying to keep her mind off the haunted house, was asking random questions she found interesting mainly for her delight rather than a substitute for the attention she had been giving to the haunted house with rising fear.

"Well I just want to know if you ever fell in love sometime in the past. You don't seem like the kind of guy that would hook up with a girl, so I was just curious, you know?"

Shikamaru pressed a hand up against the double glass doors, wondering how the hell they were supposed to get inside.

Temari nudged him from behind, teasingly almost.

"Hey, come on, don't ignore me Shikamaru! I wanna know!"

"Don't bother me Temari; can't you see I'm trying to think here?"

Temari sighed, crossing her arms as she asked quietly, "Why the hell are you mad at me…?"
To be honest, he was a bit sour with her. What she said earlier when he clearly injured his shoulder, he expected maybe just an ounce of sympathy from her, but of course, she chose to snap at him to get off his ass and man up. Good grief, that girl just had no pity for the less fortunate.

The glass doors were barred by several long planks of wood and as he rattled the doors, they were chained at the handles on the other side. He couldn't see anything past the glass doors because they were smeared and tainted with red paint – which he silently assumed, was meant to be 'blood' – as he peered inside, trying to determine what was supposed to serve as an opening. Surely the seniors hadn't meant for them to break into the haunted house, yes? Like seriously, they wanted them to go into the haunted house, it should be unlocked. All haunted houses were open for the public; so why was this one locked? Shikamaru could only conclude that the seniors were either idiots and forgot to open the front doors or they were testing their critical thinking juices to break in themselves like this was some kind of fortified paranormal building. What a joke. If it was the second conclusion, it'd be ridiculous of them; especially against a kid with over two hundred IQ.

He was about to cook up some kind of a solution to this entrance issue, but that was when suddenly he heard the chains fall away from the doors on the other side and slid open automatically by some unseen force. Shikamaru again speculated that it wouldn't be too hard to attach pulleys to the doors' sides and stay in the shadows while pulling the doors open. Of course, the only other person who wasn't as skeptical was Temari who was no fussing over the mysterious opening door.

"Holy sh*t, that thing just opened on its own!"
Shikamaru ignored her as he peered inside, catching a glimpse of wire by the edge of the door's frame and cracked a smile.

"Bingo."

"What?"

"Nothing. Just hand me the flashlight."

Temari clutched the flashlight in hand and mumbled nearly inaudibly, "But uh… can I hold it instead?"
Shikamaru caught her gaze for a millisecond before looking away grumbling, "Fine, whatever. But stick close to me since I won't be able to see sh*t without you holding the flashlight up for me."

Shikamaru made a move to step inside when Temari grabbed the hem of his jacket.

"Wait…! Erm…"

Shikamaru eyed her hand, refusing to look at her face as she mumbled, "Look… just to clear out the bad air between us, if you're pissed about what I said back there when we fell, I'm sorry… is your shoulder feeling better?"

Normally, Shikamaru would've probably spouted something out like, 'why didn't you ask about it thirty minutes ago when I actually in some serious sh*tty pain?', but nothing of the sort came out. Instead, he found himself looking away, muttering with an overgrowing sense of silly happiness blooming somewhere in his chest at her words, "Uh yeah, it's feel better. And uh… apology accepted."

A hug would be nice.

Shikamaru smacked himself on the forehead as Temari blinked at him in surprise.
"What the hell did you do that to yourself for?"

Shikamaru hissed, rubbing his stinging forehead as he shook his head, "Sorry… just had to clear a bad thought."

He wasn't lying really; it WAS bad thought – a nasty, foreign side of his thoughts that have never taken its place in his mind at all! This was outrageously ridiculous – what was getting into his mind these days!? Geez, maybe if she had stayed back in Suna, he wouldn't be stuck in this position in the first place!

Shikamaru dropped his hand from his face as he sighed and slumped his shoulders from a sudden rush of exhaustion and the same clear confusion about his own thoughts and feelings.

"Let's head inside now; I'm tired of standing at the doorway."

Temari stood closer to him, their shoulders brushing as she nestled closer to his side, almost touching leg to leg, hip to hip. Shikamaru edged farther away, more for the sake of his sanity, as he coughed to one side and began to move forward into the dark musty building.

It smelled like a dusty attic and represented it well; dusty, bare except for the few articles of furniture strewn haphazardly across hallways, and this sense of dullness and void filled the entire building due to the lack of color, items, and people.

The two barely stepped seven steps into the building when they began to hear a faint hissing noise – like the sound of a wire cord slipping out of a pulley.

Shikamaru and Temari shared a look, knowing that the two of them could hear it. Temari kept moving her flashlight around, trying to see where that noise was coming from, when Shikamaru looked upwards. He was glad he did, because he could see a large black shadow coming for them rapidly without the flashlight beamed upon it, so he did the only sensible thing to do.

"GET THE F*CK DOWN!"

Shikamaru tackled Temari to one side, rolling over each other until they slammed up against a random dusty sofa seat as whatever had been suspended over them finally crashed in a loud eerie echo. The echo rang throughout their ears even long after it had faded away. Temari was shivering with fear up against Shikamaru, clutching the flashlight in both hands with pale knuckles as she tried to breathe- her breaths hitched and kept short. Shikamaru was in pain again, if he kept falling to the ground like so, he swore that his bruise would never heal over. It seemed to him that it only got worse and worse.

Shikamaru forced himself to blink away the spots of pain blooming into his sight as he struggled to his knees, edging away from Temari's shivering body as he gingerly plucked the flashlight from her hands and shined it to the large black smashed object before the front door.

A grand piano. The keys of white and black were smashed and scattered like woodchips across the floor around the smashed base; the black polished legs of the instrument lay in ruins next to the keys. It was a mottled heap of smashed black polished wood and strings, the eerie ring emitted from the piano when it collapsed seconds before they escaped its landing spot.

Shikamaru felt a weight press against him as he looked down at Temari who was clinging to his abdomen, her face buried in his chest.

"That came out of nowhere and I swear… my heart was going to just explode-"

Temari's voice cracked and Shikamaru found his fingers woven into hers as he ran his free hand over her hair as he mumbled to her soothingly, pulling her closer, "Its fine now, nobody got hurt – especially you."

But Shikamaru couldn't get the nagging feeling that the piano crashing wasn't planned. Yes, having it suspended was probably part of something – maybe they meant to drop it AFTER they walked out of harm's way. But for the chances of it to fall the moment they stepped underneath it… was it too early to say that someone was playing games with them?

The dust that rolled off the ground from the piano's impact was still floating around in the air, making the light from their flashlight hazy as he sighed, a swirl of dust flying around as he exhaled.

"Well this is going to suck."

The seniors in the roof from where the cable had suspended the piano were in silent horror. No one had noticed the cable slip and snap. The wired cable went whirring out of its lock and dropped the piano off cue. They didn't realize what had happened until they heard the boy below shout and suddenly – bam! An echoing roar from a destroyed piano. Crap. The head senior was going to kill them.

The senior in charge of group A glared at his partners and hissed almost inaudibly, "Who the hell f*cked up the cable!?"

The seniors swore to one another that it wasn't them – even the only joker on the team that was probably the only one responsible for this incident – and that they had absolutely no idea how it could've happened. The seniors were confused; they had made sure the cable was secured, checking it every now and then as they waited for the signal to loosen the lock, but somehow inconspicuously, it slipped and almost killed two juniors. There was no way it was an accident; someone touched it.

The senior next to the senior in charge whimpered as she whispered in fear, "Are you going to report it to the head senior? I really don't want to get in trouble."

The senior sighed, shook his head and pulled out his walkie-talkie, crawling to safer ground off the thin roofing tiles as he groaned back, "Well if I don't, who will?"

The incident spread like wildfire via walkie-talkie to all groups from A to E. But the head senior witnessed it via camera; and he wasn't very happy about it when he got the report from group leader A who was at the scene of the incident.

Sai was standing in a corner, as far away from the staring teachers as possible as he hissed with a hand over his mouth to the walkie-talkie, "What the hell do you mean it just 'slipped'!?"

The voice on the other end cracked with uncertainty and obviously, distress, "I'm sorry, but it got f*cked up and I have no idea who would pull a joke like that. It's not even funny. I'm positive that no one in the group is crazy – or mentally deranged – enough to even let something that drastic occur. Not even Hans, who's the only stupid joker in the group."

Sai rubbed his temples, remembering how the juniors got stuck in the forest all over again as he recalled the stress from that mishap. He was not going to let that happen again – no, he wouldn't even tolerate it.

"Well someone has to have done it – wire cables that thick and well strung can't possibly snap on its own – someone was crazy enough to do it, and I want to know who and I want to know NOW. If I find out that it's one of the members in your group, I don't care who, I will suspend ALL of you. You hear me? All of you."

There was silence and then a firm reply, "Yes, I understand… head senior."

Sai pondered a while longer before groaning and reluctantly added, "I wasn't going to do this, but since I don't want to be responsible of any more potential incidents, I'm going to send a teacher over to supervise the teams-"

"What? But head senior, that's a bit well… aren't you overreacting a bit? The juniors didn't get hit thanks to the boy's fast thinking."

"I'd rather have people think I was overreacting than irresponsible if any of the juniors get injured any further – I already risked having one get sick back in the forest during a challenge. She twisted her ankle and previous before on the obstacle course, the boy injured his shoulder. I can't afford to break the trust of the principal just yet, not when I'm this close to get my finalized data. So I'm not going to let some mysterious ghost like stranger f*ck this up. Whether you like it or not, I will have a teacher there to make sure everything run smoothly. And nothing else."

"And which teacher would you be sending?"

Sai jumped out of his skin as he fumbled with the walkie-talkie in hand and clutched at his pounding chest, staring over his shoulder at Kakashi, who had somehow ghosted his way to his side and overheard the last few words that had been exchanged.

"What's this piano incident I'm hearing?"
"Uh, nothing sir. It was just a mishap back at the haunted house. But don't worry, I'll report it and have a teacher get on to it-"

"I'll go."

"What?"
Kakashi crossed his arms as he firmly spoke back, "Look, I wasn't put on detective duty for nothing before I settled for a simpler job as a school teacher. Working for the CIA and the FBI for five years each has given me plenty of experience to sniff out the culprit behind the curtains pulling the strings. Trust me; I'd be the best one to place within this haunted house of yours."
Sai gave Kakashi a look as he reasoned, "Well sir, I really don't think that's necessary for you to… investigate upon the matter. It wasn't like any one was going to be killed-"

"I'd beg to differ; a grand piano falling from a suspended cable up on the roof is bound to get SOMEBODY killed if they were at the point of impact. Someone wasn't fooling around with them, I'll tell you that much. It has to be more than an accident; we'll have to assume at the moment that it may have been intentional."

Sai didn't want to have an investigation over this, because they did have to consider this – maybe it really WAS an accident. How embarrassing would it be for both of them if it had ended up to be nobody's fault?

"Well sir, I would think it's the complete opposite; we all have to assume that at the moment, it may have been a complete accident. It could be that no one is to blame."

Kakashi considered this as he shrugged and replied, "You may be right on that, but like you said earlier to the walkie-talkie, it'd be better for people to think you overreacted rather than an irresponsible leader that got two juniors killed. Or severely injured. It's your choice really since you're the head senior here; either have me just sniff around to see if it really was an accident, or just blow it off and possibly encounter another 'accident' far worse than a broken piano hanging meters off the ground."

Sai switched tactics as he saw that Kakashi wouldn't be relenting – or INSISTING- that an investigation should be at hand.

"Well sir…. I just told them that I'd be sending a teacher to SUPERVISE – not to investigate."

"That can be arranged. After all, Jiraiya needs to come with me since I have to be around him all the time. He can supervise and I'll investigate."

Jiraiya perked up at the mention of his names as he called out, "I heard my name!"

Kakashi crossed is arms as he gave Sai a serious look.

"Principal Tsunade would probably want me to investigate any way. Anything to make sure an accident was an accident – and nothing MORE than an accident."

Sai crossed his arms and asked bluntly back, "Are you sure you're doing this because you think there was intention behind this, or just because you miss the good old days and want a taste of it again? It's not like there's a junior killer in those groups."

Kakashi's expression went blank as he replied with a hint of venom, "Well… that wasn't completely RUDE at all. You do realize I'll have to report everything you do to Principal Tsunade yes? Even your decisions?"
Sai quickly replied, "No sir, your job is NOT to report to Principal Tsunade about ME; I believe your job was specifically ordered for you to watch JIRAIYA and make sure HE didn't do anything wrong. You were required only to report about him."

Kakashi lashed back, "Doesn't mean I can't report about you too."

Jiraiya watched the two volley back and forth for a while, each insisting their side of the case. Kakashi obviously insisted for a quick investigation to take place – having two juniors injured in a loosely monitored haunted house could get ugly. Nobody wanted the neighborhood press to swarm the fields if something major did occur to those two. But on the other hand, Sai seemed pretty certain to remain unconvinced at the moment. It was quite possible it was simply an accident. Even the seniors all knew that hanging a grand piano by a wired cable attached to a pulley wouldn't hold forever, even if it was locked in place and secured, something was bound to slip up. But Jiraiya had to side with Kakashi on this one; the seniors had told Sai that they performed twelve run-throughs and found no issue with at any point throughout the system – including that grand piano. So something had to be strangely odd about the slip up of something so dangerous. And these juniors were injured already from the obstacle course earlier before. They get so much as a scratch then Principal Tsunade would come looking for ALL their heads on a stake for it. She had zero toleration for student injuries that occurred on campus. She didn't like handling the upset phone calls from parents about injured students, it made her appear as if she was an irresponsible staff member that got children injured.

"I'll supervise."
Sai stared at Jiraiya as he groaned, "Oh come on now, not you too-"

"I seriously don't know where all your manners went boy. But hear me out on this; I agree with Kakashi that this couldn't have been an accident. You ran a test run on this haunted house twelve times and had no problems whatsoever with a piano falling unnoticed."

Sai rubbed the back of his neck as he nodded, "True… but-"
"So what is there to disagree about? Do you or do you not want the finalized results of your 'experiment' here?"
Sai looked between the two teachers and groaned as he threw up his hands and gave in, "Oh fine, go do what you want. You two have authority over me anyway, and I have to report to Principal Tsunade anyway. Hopefully she won't murder me for letting so unfortunate happen."

Kakashi shared a grin with Jiraiya as he replied, "Just tell her that I've got this taken care of, she shouldn't have much complaints after that."

This was so far, a thrilling experience. A grand entrance presented by a grand piano with a loud bang, yup, things were great! Oh, and don't forget the fact that she was nearly underneath that thing and could've been severely injured – or worse – if it hadn't been for Shikamaru tackling her to one side. Yes, things were definitely working out! Also take note of the extreme overuse of sarcasm here. Of course Temari was pissed as hell! Because things were already scaring her and what spooked her was a stupid piano. Being around Shikamaru had made her realize just how girly she was when she had truly believed she didn't possess a single ounce of it. But now, all she could do was growl at her own vulnerabilities. What a shame it was to be frightened by a piano, come on now, she was stronger at will than this!
Her ankle was killing her and it seemed to be the same for Shikamaru, whose shoulder was bothering him again as they walked down a narrow hallway together, her limp and his shoulder forcing them to a slower pace than they would've liked to have gone. The two were absolutely determined to get through with this and leave this place – piano and all.

To fill up the silence, Temari asked Shikamaru quietly, "Do you think it was an accident?"

Shikamaru looked at her, realizing he was talking to her and not to herself, he answered after pondering it to himself after a brief moment of silence.

"…It certainly didn't seem like it. We heard it start falling the moment we stopped beneath it, it wasn't an accident"
He held Temari's gaze as he firmly added, "It couldn't have been."

The two fell silent again, the flashlight in Shikamaru's hand glaring into the dark hallway ahead of them as they walked side by side. Still, there was something left unsaid that had been itching her to say. So she sighed mentally to herself and chalked up the nerve to bother to say it.

Shikamaru felt a shoulder brush his intentionally, and he gave Temari a glimpse as she stared at him, almost uncomfortably.

"Er… I just wanted to say…"

She blindly moved her bangs out of her eyes as she grumbled almost inaudibly, "…Thanks for helping me back there… and for before at the tree…"

Temari realized she hadn't really thanked him for that either, only then did she realize how incredibly ungrateful she had been not to have realized that earlier before – and she had been a total jerk to him by telling him to man up about his injured shoulder.

Shikamaru shrugged after not responding, the slight slump in his shoulder disappearing as he sighed and exaggerated, "Well of course, you can't take care of yourself. And if you had seen that piano coming, you would've stood there rooted to the ground gawking, not knowing what to do. I have to keep my eye on you whenever I'm around you, you always end up getting into some crazy sh*t."

That sparked a nerve in Temari as she nudged him back, wincing as she wished she hadn't done that due to her twisted ankle as she muttered back, "Hey! I can take care of myself; I don't need you or anyone else in particular to take care of me all the time!"

Shikamaru rubbed his shoulder, gingerly fingering the bruised skin beneath the sleeve of his jacket as he murmured back, "Sure you do…"

Suddenly, there was a shrill laughter echoing down the hall and Temari jumped, startled by the noise, and clung to Shikamaru's elbow, eyes wide like a cat set on edge. Shikamaru simply stood with his head slightly tilted, lazily looking about the hallway before nodding to himself.

"Thought so."

"What?"

Temari shook his elbow, a bit desperate to know what he meant by that blunt statement amidst the shrill laughter.

"What do you mean 'thought so'?!"
Shikamaru extended a finger towards the edge of a roof, a coil of wire butting out from the edge almost unnoticed as he smiled.

"Not as scary as you think when they let things like that slip by. They must've installed a sound system – obviously – and wired the entire place with it. Either it's a recording or a microphone so that someone can laugh into it. More likely it's going to be a recording."

Shikamaru smirked, shaking his head at the laughter, which now seemed annoying rather than creepy.

"It's stupid really. The laughter is just so stereotypical of a haunted house-"

The laugh suddenly was cut off, replaced by a scream of sheer terror, spouts of static, and then, silence. Both juniors paused in mid-step, frozen in place at the absence of the projected voice. Temari looked at Shikamaru, her pale face growing paler as she meekly mumbled, "Okay… am I going crazy, or did that sound like someone was being strangled off the microphone, because it sure didn't sound like a recording…"

Suddenly, the statics came back on, filling the hallway before silence stretched painfully in the air. Then a voice, unidentifiable barely spoke, breathing a breath of whispers into the speakers as it spoke with a hint of glee, "The first to go will be the girl."

Jiraiya and Kakashi traveled down from the makeshift office at the second floor down to where the seniors were hidden off into the shadows, when they heard the strange occurrence of a senior's laughter being cut off and replaced by a stranger's comment, "The first to go will be the girl."

Kakashi took that chance to leave Jiraiya to meet up with the rest of the seniors as he headed off to where the sound system was being manned, believing quite sure that the strangled voice wasn't part of the show. But just to make sure…

Kakashi entered a room where he knew was where the control center was for the wired sound systems and stood in shock at the scene before him. The senior, probably responsible for emitting strange sound effects was sprawled on the floor, her headphones still attached to her head, the microphone still set on the table neatly. Her eyes were closed and she didn't seem to be moving. He quickly came over and checked for a pulse – she was still alive and was breathing just fine. But by judging how she didn't wake up after shaking her ruthlessly about, she had been knocked out – but by who was the question. He stood, wondering if the person behind the interference with the sound system was also behind the piano incident when he noticed a message scrawled on the wood of the table right before the microphone, written with a red pen: "STAY OUT OF THIS SHERLOCK. I WARNED YOU ONCE."

Kakashi was unfazed by the message as he ran his fingers over the words, snorting as he muttered to himself, "Heh… figures."

"Okay, that was some creepy ass sh*t, and I don't know if that was intentional or not, but it sure sounded like someone was being strangled off the microphone!"

Shikamaru avoided her gaze as he stared straight ahead, shouldering her hand off his shoulder whenever she tried to make him stop to talk to her.

"How do you know it was a microphone like system? It could've been just a recording, a very realistic recording."

She gave him a dry look as she spat, "With static?"

"Yes, with static. It's not impossible to record static you know."

"I still don't believe that. I still think someone is behind this, the piano and now this. What the hell do they mean that I'd be the first to go?! I'd rather NOT be whatever it is they're planning next!"

Shikamaru turned heel and forced her to a stop, staring at her as he grabbed her shoulders and shook her slightly, "Nothing is going to happen to you. The seniors won't let that happen and I won't let that happen. So can you please, stop worrying about it? It was probably just a glitch in the system, they'll handle it. For now, just gather your wits together and help me find a way out of this haunted house, okay?"
He patted her gently on the side before walking off again, leaving Temari to swim in her own distress. Sighing, she quickly followed after him, knowing that at least for now, she shouldn't stray from him – because he was the only one with the darn flashlight…

They rounded the corner and found it opened up into another lobby; a staircase lead upstairs to the second floor as five hallways surrounded them besides the staircase. Temari noticed Shikamaru eyeing the staircase as he thought out loud to himself, "We could go upstairs… I doubt those hallways have an exit worthy of using without getting spooked. Same may go for the stairs but… upstairs there should be an exit to the roof and I'm pretty sure they keep an escape ladder down the back side of every school building I case the students got trapped on the roof due to fire or whatever and had to escape quickly…"

Temari sighed and shrugged, "Then just go for the stairs."

Shikamaru eyed her as he replied, "You want to go first?"
Temari shook her head gesturing for him to go up first.

"Oh no, not at all. You're the one with the flashlight, you should go up first."

Shikamaru smirked, handing the flashlight to her as he replied, "There. Now you can go first."
Temari handed it back, giving him a dry glare as she dryly laughed, "Ha-ha, very funny. Get up there wise guy."

"Whatever happened to 'ladies first'?"

"This isn't a time for you to use that phrase. You're only going to make it sound like you're sending me off to the slaughter first. Now get up there or choose a hallway!"

Shikamaru sighed as he took back the flashlight, he eyed the rotting stairway steps as he shrugged and started walking up the steps. Temari followed closely behind, staying one or two steps behind him to avoid stepping on the back of his heels. The slowly ascended in silence, the only noises audible were the creaks of the floor boards of the stairs as they stepped on them, the wood groaning as if it couldn't handle their weight after all these years. One thing Temari had noticed was that the floor was completely stripped of tiles and carpet, leaving either a basic concrete or wood foundation bare to the bone. It reminded her of some kind of remodeling job left half accomplished.

"So… how come you were so against coming to this haunted house when you went to the one at the first day of the festival?"

Temari frowned, not able to recall this known fact as she asked, "Wait… I did? When, wait, where?"

Shikamaru looked back at her, smiling slightly in bemusement as he responded, "Uh… when I had you forced into debt to me for saving you from getting cut up by glass at the class café. I was being a bit too mean and sent you into one of those mini haunted house attractions within the school."

Temari remained with a blank expression of confusion as Shikamaru sighed.

"Does molester ring a bell?"
Temari brightened, snapping her fingers at the epiphany as she exclaimed, "Ah! That, I remember now! What was that guy, Hido? Hida? Hidan?"
Shikamaru rolled his eyes as he muttered to himself something about creepy perverts as Temari answered his question.
"Well… I was able to go to that one since it was minor and not that creepy. I mean, yes, I still got freaked out, but wouldn't you be too if some guy was talking about doing weird sh*t to you and then drain the blood out of you and turn you inside out? It was freaky, but never was it too scary. I can handle small minor ones… but big shot haunted houses like this one, it scares me to death because it can do a number of things with the equipment they had to put it together. They could make ten different kind of screams scream at the same time on the loud speakers hidden in the roof, or make pianos drop, or even set up creepy mirrors that gave optical illusions, or-"

Shikamaru was about to intervene, to tell her that he understood when something bursted through the wooden board of the stair step he stepped on and fastened on his ankle, instantly trying to drag him down. Shikamaru collapsed against the stairs, cursing as he saw the bloody hand grab his ankle and pull him downwards, his foot disappearing through the floorboard with the hand as he fought to pull his foot back out. Temari was screaming, watching in stunned horror as the flashlight went wild in Shikamaru's hand as he struggled to break free, a low level of panic rising once his foot didn't break loose from the stranger's grasp. After a split second after his foot was taken in captive, the grip was released. He quickly pulled his foot free and stared at the hole in the floorboard; pitch darkness was inside as he heard a soft moan.

"No one goes up without the key…"

Obviously this was a senior trying to make an attempt to sound like some creepy ghoul, but now that Shikamaru could recognize the voice as a senior's, he instantly felt annoyed with this senior, pissed at how it nearly gave him a shock for having his ankle snatched at.

The hand creeped back out, patting around the hole as if to search for Shikamaru's foot again as the message repeated itself. Temari was standing farther below the steps, hands clapped over her mouth as she stood in shock, watching with a pale face as Shikamaru irritably stomped on the hand, satisfied to hear the senior below curse and yank his hand back. Then in a flash, hands exploded throughout the rest of the stairs, hands of all shapes and sizes punched through wood as it grabbed for anything it could grab, grabbing their ankles as a chorus of moans exclaimed, "NO ONE GOES UP WITHOUT THE KEY."

Temari was already hurrying down the steps, stepping on the hands to keep them from grabbing her as Shikamaru followed her, kicking at any hand that tried to grab him and pin him to the stairs. The moment he stepped off the last stair case, the hands disappeared back under the floorboards as if nothing had ever happened, the moan cut off instantly.

Temari was gasping in fear, a hand at her chest as if to stop her racing heart, a look of horror on her face as she paled yet still. Shikamaru released a breath he had realized he had been holding on to, exhaling more in relief now that the fiasco of creepy hands had ended. Shikamaru glanced over to Temari as he meekly stated, "Well… now we know where not to go yet."
Temari nodded, silently agreeing as she added, "Y-Yeah… didn't they say something about a key though…?"

Shikamaru agreed with her as he glanced at the five hallways around them.

"Well then… I guess its somewhere in one of these five hallways."

Temari sighed, "Great. The seniors always find a way somehow to make sure we get through every single one of these hallways just to experience those jump scares awaiting us. I'm really not in the mood for anything creepier than floorboard hands."
Shikamaru stood there, thinking for a moment before turning to her asking, "How about this instead of floorboard hands?"
He reached over and grabbed her left hand with his right hand, interlinking their fingers as he gave her hand a light squeeze. There was a rush of relief that spread through him starting from his chest, holding her hand gave him some reassurance that he wasn't alone in this and that she was there beside him.

Temari stared at their hands and frowned slightly, not sure why Shikamaru wanted to hold hands anyway, but decided to let it go and let him do whatever he wanted. Besides, holding his hand made her feel better and reassured her that she had someone to support her.

"Better, yes?"
Temari cracked a tiny smile, shrugging as she squeezed his hand back.
"Better."

Hope it was satisfactory, this story so far. I'm nowhere near the end of the story yet, so there should be plenty more chapters to come. Chapter 11 will of course be titled 'Snatched (Part 2)' since I have something fun in mind. I think the next chapter will really be a fun read, so I'll make sure to have it out as soon as I can get it out. You should expect it around the second week of June (or maybe even the third since the second week of June I have a week event thing to go to) so keep checking my profile page to check on updates in the 'UPDATES' section.

Please continue to review and read, I know waiting is the worst part about this, but remember my fellow fans! Patience is a virtue! But yes, I will hurry the hell up. XD I have a new poll up, please check it out on my profile page and please cast your vote! Just a simple question, it really shouldn't take you too long. So if you're bored or whatever, check it out please! :)

I'll be back with Chapter 11, keep checking out my profile page for updates, see you again in the next chapter! :D Love you all! Thanks for R&R, keep it up guys! And yes, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for your patience! Mwa~ my love to everyone! TTwTT I shall work my butt off for you guys now that summer is getting closer! See you next time! :3