YES! I FINALLY GOT THIS CHAPTER OUT! *Phew* And about time too! Hey guys, it's been a while, sorry for being so slow. For those who read my short story "Confessions" would know the reason behind why I haven't updated yet. Or better yet, if you've checked my profile recently then you would've known the reason behind it as well. (I only posted the short story so that those who don't check my profile for any updates about my updates could read my author's notes and be up to date about the reason behind my lack of activity on FanFiction.) This chapter is exceptionally long and yet I'm not even sure if it's a good chapter. I'm not certain, but I'll leave that for you (yes, you who is reading this TTwTT) and the others to decide for yourselves. :3 Well, here is the long awaited chapter of You and Me make We: Chapter 11! Enjoy everyone! X3
I do not own Naruto and any of the characters related to it, I simply developed the story. Beforehand, I apologize for any grammatical errors or whatnot, so please bear with me as I continue to work on that. TTwTT Thank you all and off you go reading this chapter! ;D
Chapter 11: Snatched (Part2)
"Alright guys, heads up. We're being supervised from this point on. Jiraiya sensei here will be overseeing all procedures and if you're ever leaving the group to another section of the attraction site, you MUST inform Jiraiya sensei beforehand – otherwise you'll be facing consequences for ignoring this warning."
The senior in charge of group A pointed at a certain senior as he snarled, "ESPECIALLY you Hans."
The senior raised his hands in a gesture of innocence as he exclaimed, "Hey now, what did I do wrong this time!? I swear; the piano didn't have anything to do with me!"
The group A leader crossed his arms, narrowing his eyes at him as he muttered, "Yeah… we'll see about that."
All the groups were assembled, all the group leaders set on edge ever since the piano and the accident with their senior in charge of sound controls – senior Ivy – who was found unconscious on the floor in the control's center.
Jiraiya scanned the groups, watching how every senior murmured to one another, looks of concern and puzzlement playing on their faces at the sudden news of adult supervision. Not that it would bother them really, but as students, having adult supervision took away the element of fun to manning a haunted house attraction all on their own; it sort of sucked.
Group leader A clapped his hands, calling out loudly, "Alright now ya'll, let's get this over with. Roll call, now! Group A!"
One by one, the seniors in group A barked out their names, hands raised high to show who the name belonged to as each senior were accounted for.
Group leader C called out her group, frowning at the absence of a member.
"Oh now of all times… TAYUYA! Where the hell is that girl?!"
One of the members from group C raised her hand as she exclaimed, "Oh right, sorry, I forgot to tell you – Tayuya said she forgot her walkie-talkie back in the last room we were in. She went back to fetch it real quick. You know how she is, a bit dazed probably from her last attraction job, what was it, 'Sleeping Beauty'?"
Group leader C shook her head at her own annoyance as group leader D frowned as he recognized another absence and exclaimed, "Okay, not cool – I don't see Hidan. Where's Hidan?"
A member of group D raised a hand as he shrugged and despondently replied, "Eh? Hidan? Oh, that shithead, right – he said he went to take a piss real quick."
The two leaders sourly contemplated the absence of two of their rowdiest members before shaking their heads sighing.
Group leader C irritably pressed her knuckles to her temple as she snapped, "Can someone go fetch Tayuya's rear end? She can't possibly be spending this much time to find a damn walkie-talkie!"
Group leader D barked a similar order for Hidan as two seniors got to their feet reluctantly and disappeared down different hallways to search for the other seniors.
Jiraiya crossed his arms as he then asked the group leaders, "Well then, besides our missing friends, what are you kids gonna do next here?"
One of the leaders piped up immediately, "Well in a moment the members of group A will disperse and take their positions in the first hallway. We'll already have group B set up in case the juniors jump for the second hallway after they finish up with the first one. The rest of us will monitor the two juniors and set off signals and whatnot to the group undergoing their part of the attraction as we wait."
Jiraiya nodded, "Pardon me for asking, but I was watching the last bit of footage of the two juniors and saw the 'floorboard' scene. The seniors there mentioned something about a key?"
Group leader E smiled as she went to the far back of the room as she then returned with a cage in hand; a black cat lying inside, green eyes blinking nonchalantly.
Jiraiya fought the urge to snort.
"A cat?"
The senior gave him a sour frown before snapping, "MY cat if you may; and her name is Sulfur, so don't insult my cat by addressing her as 'a cat'."
Jiraiya held up a hand, a gesture to express his apology, "Ah sorry, didn't mean to offend you. So what's the ca- erm – Sulfur going to do here?"
The senior smiled as she explained, "Well I've had her specifically trained for this moment. She's a smart cat and know exactly what to do. We've attached a ribbon around her neck with the key attached to the end, and basically the juniors will be chasing Sulfur around for the key until they finally get it. Eventually in the end, once they get it, they can go up the stairs and escape the attraction."
Another group leader nodded, nudging the other senior with his shoulder as he inputted, "Yeah, Hana here has it all figured out."
The cat, Sulfur, meowed from her cage, a black paw pawing the metal fenced cage door with a twinge of annoyance. The senior laughed as she set down the cage and began unlocking the front door.
"Yes, yes Sulfur, you know the time better than I do. Go get into position!"
The cat leaped out from the cage the moment the door swung open, disappearing down the hallway in a flash. Then the leader in charge of group A clapped his hands again for the attention of the other seniors as he barked, "Alright now, those juniors are going to head into a hallway soon, so you get your rears up and off the floor and get into position everyone! Take the freaking cat as an example if you may! Hurry up now, chop-chop, on the double!"
A senior grumbled to another senior as they passed the shouting leader that kept herding slow moving seniors down hallways like a shepherd's dog , "Yeah, chop-chop goes his tongue if he keeps yappering at us like an old goat."
Jiraiya crossed his arms watching the seniors move along, he frowned to himself. None of the seniors seemed at all like the type to mess around foolishly on the site; however he also knew that seniors were good actors and could mask their original intentions fairly well. He knew that for a fact after so many years of teaching at the Konoha School. But he couldn't get rid of the notion that he was overlooking something…
"Jiraiya-sensei? If you follow me, I can take you to a room to observe the seniors more closely."
Group leader C stood waiting for Jiraiya at one end of the hall as he nodded, walking over slowly as he replied, "Ah yes, that'll be good."
Jiraiya simply pushed aside the bugging feeling for now; whatever it was, Kakashi would surely figure it out – he was a sharp young man, he'd solve it. After all, all Jiraiya was entrusted to do was supervise a bunch of seniors.
Haunted houses typically really shouldn't be as frightening as they may seem. But in Temari's case, any particular haunted house that took a lot of time and effort to create, usually spells trouble for her. For God's sake, a piano just tried to kill her and Shikamaru! Why wouldn't she be a bit set on edge for anything else that awaited them!? Not to mention she'd be targeted first apparently… as it comes to show by a creepy message delivered on hidden speakers. Her evening so far had been just terrible.
"The map says there's a few classrooms in this hallway, not a lot though. But adding them all up from the first floor and all the hallways in it, I'd say we have about thirty to thirty five. That's excluding all bathrooms and extra rooms like storage and faculty rooms."
Temari glanced up at Shikamaru who was busy retying his hair back with the map stuffed in his back pocket and the flashlight handed off to Temari. It sort of perplexed Temari to think Shikamaru would've wanted to keep his hair that long and kept in such a ridiculous style – wouldn't most boys just keep it short? But the last time Temari asked him about several years back, he had simply shrugged and replied curtly, 'Guess it runs in the family. My dad wears his hair the same way.'
And that was that. Temari didn't think it was something she had any right to joke about; after all, she was the one with the crazy hair.
Shikamaru saw her mindlessly staring as he finished tying his hair back with a flash of fingers as he gave her a questioning look.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"I'm sure it was something…"
Shikamaru held her gaze a little longer before shrugging and brushing it aside as he added, "But it'd be too troublesome to try and find out what."
Shikamaru cracked a smile as he heard a grumbling sigh escape her lips; clearly she had heard him say that overused word for far too much. But of course, Shikamaru only spoke the truth and that was exactly what he did – too troublesome for him to bother with.
"It's something you really don't have to bother yourself with, now can you please tell me what the heck we're going to be doing now? We're clearly not getting things done as fast as we should be."
Shikamaru pointed down the hall as Temari handed him back the flashlight.
"Down this hall will be about seven rooms. Six of them are classrooms, one is a storage room, and another is an emergency exit, but I'd bet you it's blocked off, so no chance are we getting out of here through that. We'll divide the work between you and me, so you check three rooms; I'll check the other three. The last one, which is the storage room, we'll look into that one together. I was really hoping we didn't have to look through all these rooms, but we'll just have to do that for now until we know for sure where the key is."
"Right…"
They ventured forward in silence; the soft footfalls of their steps resounding up and down the hallway as they stepped over scraps of paper and random objects of no importance that was left littered across the carpeted hallway. That was when Temari caught sight of them. She immediately clung to Shikamaru's sleeve, her face paling at the sight dimly lit by the glow of their flashlight. Shikamaru frowned at her as he peered at her face and asked, "Hey, what are you looking like that for?"
Temari lifted a trembling finger as she pointed and asked back, "…What the heck is that?"
With hands folded in his lap, Sai looked between the two seniors before him with a question lingering his expression as he recapped, "Okay… so you're telling me that two troublemakers are making things difficult on you two?"
Sai had found himself disturbed from a moment of relief from all the work here at the haunted house, when group leaders of group C and D stormed his makeshift office, clearly unhappy with the outcomes of two of their workers.
Group leader C, who goes by the name Mindy, furiously nodded as she fumed, "Do you have anything idea Sai, the type of stress I go through to restrain Tayuya!? The last time I had to reprimand her for actions was when she got into a nasty fight with Hidan, claiming she was far more attractive than he is – like seriously, who gripes into an argument about who's better looking!? That's nothing but a boat load of bull-"
Group leader D, otherwise known as Kyle, stopped her mid-sentence as he stepped in front of her, diving her from Sai as he exclaimed, "What she was trying to say, is that Tayuya has become a nuisance for her as it's become a nuisance for me with Hidan. We're only asking that you at least talk to those two seniors to keep them in line for us, they certainly won't listen to us-"
"What the hell are you talking about Kyle!? I want those two kicked out! I've had enough of their bullsh-"
Kyle grabbed Mindy by the shoulders, pulling her away from the head senior as he shook her with a twinge of annoyance as he exasperated, "Can you please stop using that language in front of head senior!?"
Sai took a deep breath as he rubbed his forehead with one hand, exhausted by the many complaints he had to deal with, as he looked up at the two seniors and asked, "Okay, I get what you two are asking for. I could try talking with them, but what makes you think they'll listen to me if they won't even listen to you?"
Kyle seemed at lost for words at that as Mindy snapped to the chance, "Then just kick them off the attraction! They're nothing but trouble anyway!"
"You guys know I can't do that; Principal Tsunade put them with us herself because she wanted to give them a chance to present better conduct working with us. It just means we'll have to work harder to keep them in line, as Kyle here is trying to get to."
Sai rubbed his eyes as he sighed, shrugging as he leaned back in his seat as he muttered, "I really don't know what else to do than talk to them. Fine, the next time you see them, send them here, I'll see what I can do…"
Kyle appeared relieved as he thanked the head senior; but Mindy wallowed in bitter disappointment as she stalked out of the office with Kyle at the lead, constantly telling her that things would get better now that the situation would get solved. But Sai knew better than that; they simply knew that the situation wasn't theirs anymore; it was the head senior's now.
"Aw geez…!"
"Having issues within groups?"
Sai didn't have to look up to know who had entered the room.
"Please, not now Kakashi-sensei…"
"No, no, I'm only going to be asking about a few things. I want to hear a little more in detail about these two seniors particularly, care to elaborate?"
Kakashi swiveled Sai around in his seat to face him as he demanded for his attention, a sly smile on his face as he added, "If you just tell me a little more about them, I may or may not have found your culprits for the piano stunt."
"Seriously, why do we have to do all the damn work for finding their sorry asses? This is so stupid!"
The two seniors sent to fetch the missing seniors griped to one another concerning their task at hand, the girl, Maya, was clearly displeased with it.
The other senior, Uriah, sighed as he locked his hands behind his head as he grumbled back, "Yeah, this sucks. Not to mention Hidan is a sick jerk in the first place; that bastard can't keep his hands off any pretty ass chick he sees."
"I'm not surprised, that guy lets his hormones drive his sanity by the leash. But Tayuya, urgh, she's such a witch! Not only does she flaunts around how divinely skilled she is in band with her flute, but she goes around thinking everyone loves her and that they'll bend one knee to her in submission! Seriously, she's so full of herself!"
"Don't let her attitude get to you, you know that there's one in every school."
"But does that mean they have to stay that way!? I wish she'd just have a change of heart or something. I'm sure she's not that bad of a person if she'd only quit bossing people around like she has some sort of God given reason to."
Maya sighed as she shrugged, hands raised by her sides in a gesture of perplexity, "Oh I don't know anymore. I guess it's just how they were raised or something. Let's just find their sorry butts and drag them back by the teeth."
Uriah wrinkled his nose in disgust as he replied quickly, "Eww, I so don't want to drag Hidan by the butt with my teeth who has JUST gone to take a piss…!"
"Geez, can't you see I was using that as a figure of speech? You need to get a brain Uriah…"
"Yeah? Well maybe you should go get yours checked; because I sure don't see the logic behind it."
The two seniors moved off bickering to one another, passing an unseen shadow which stood discreetly in the dark, eyes narrowed as the two stalked off down the hallway.
"…Never liked that trashy girl anyway. She did nothing but gossip behind turned backs anyway."
Moving her untamed hair to one shoulder, Tayuya snorted in contempt at the two seniors as she slinked down the hall to a forgotten room, slipping herself inside to be greeted by another creep.
"Yo Tayuya! What took you so fucking long? Were you being a bitch to the other seniors again?"
"Shut up you piece of trash, it's not like you don't do the same thing too."
Hidan, who sat in the middle of the room behind a desk leaned back precariously on the edge of his chair as he propped his feet on the table edge, grinning like the freak he was as he laughed manically, "You got me, so we both play around with the head honchos around here, I don't blame you for doing it. Its fun isn't it? Fun as hell watching the teachers get all steamed up for all the crap I put them through."
"Just shut up you idiot, I didn't call us here to talk about the fun you had screwing around with teachers. We have more important things to discuss."
Hidan nodded as he landed the chair back on all fours as he leaned across the table with his elbows propped on the edge of the table with his hands folded under his chin as he exaggerated, "Riiiiiiight, the bet we planned out. I hope you're doing this right bitch, because if you mess up on even the slightest detail in this bet, you're screwed as hell."
Tayuya planted a foot on the edge of the table as she slung an arm over her propped up knee while she leaned slightly towards him, taking his glare with ease as she smirked, "Do I look like I'd want to screw up a fantastic chance to shove all my glory into your stuck up face? I'm about to show you what true talent is and you'll have no choice but to bow down and kiss my ass."
Hidan pauses, his sour glare slowly changing into a sultry grin as he shot back, "Gladly."
Tayuya planted a hand on his face and shoved him backwards, knocking him out of his seat as she flipped her hair to one side, snorting as she growled, "In your fucking dreams you pervert."
Hidan leaped to his feet, infuriated as he began rambling a string of profanity towards Tayuya when the door swings open to reveal the two seniors from earlier before.
"Tayuya! There you are! We were looking all over for you!"
Maya stalked up to Tayuya, glaring at the taller senior as she fussed, "Group leader C is unhappy with you! She was practically fuming at the fact you weren't at the last meeting, you missed something important!"
Tayuya rolled her eyes as she waved the air dismissively before her, "It's about the teachers on site isn't it? I already know, I passed by them while I was on the run getting my walkie-talkie, seems like the head senior is getting a bit paranoid don't you think?"
Uriah gave Tayuya a funny look as he responded, "Well, a piano DID just fall randomly from a secured wired cable – it almost severely injured the juniors!"
"Eh whatever, it was an accident right? A minor slip-up; stuff like that shouldn't happen again."
Maya planted her hands on her hips as she glared at Tayuya and barked, "Then you've clearly haven't heard about what happened to Ivy in the control room! Didn't you hear? She was found unconscious on the floor after someone made an unsettling comment about how the junior girl would be targeted first. If you ask me, someone is out to ruin the entire attraction!"
Tayuya snorted as she flipped her hair and shouldered past the seniors and out the door as she sniped, "Good riddance I'll say to that; this haunted house attraction is a sorry excuse anyway. Hidan would agree since he actually has experience with a few."
Hidan shrugged at the two seniors as he passed them as well, wordlessly.
Uriah simply gave Maya an expression of wonder and doubt at the reactions of both Tayuya and Hidan before Maya sighed and grumbled, "We need to report them."
"No kidding…"
Shikamaru didn't understand what Temari was referring to until he traced the direction of which she pointed off to and as he finally caught sight of what she saw, he simply sighed.
Stationed before them were neat rows of standing naked mannequins. Faceless statues stuck in awkward poses – a few limbless and others without heads. Shikamaru really didn't see anything potentially frightening about the mannequins. Honestly; they were just plastic life sized models for clothes. There was no element of fear in the mannequins in his opinion; but he assumed from Temari's point of view, who was already spooked by everything else since they stepped foot inside the haunted attraction, even silly mannequins became an icon of fear for her.
"Well as it seems, there appears to be an army of naked mannequins barring our way."
Temari gave Shikamaru a sour glare as she chided out of fear, "T…That's not exactly funny in this situation Nara!"
"Oh come on Temari, you can't seriously be freaked out by a bunch of pale faced dummies!"
Temari didn't meet his gaze as she rubbed her arms staring at the floor, nervously shifting from side to side. Shikamaru peered at her face as he asked again, with a twinge of surprise in his voice, "Well are you?"
She looked away as Shikamaru shook his head and attempted to assure her, "Look, no matter how you look at it, you can't help but admit these are nothing but silly props. We all see mannequins before; they're in every clothing department as far as I know. Seeing them here isn't that much of a difference, only of course, the ones here are naked and serve no purpose of the original principle they were created for…"
Temari inched behind the pondering Shikamaru as she mumbled softly, "Still…"
Shikamaru sighed as he then grabbed Temari's hand and shined the flashlight before them as he walked up towards the mannequins with Temari in tow.
"Come here Temari."
"What!? Shikamaru, stop, I don't want to get near those things – AH! SERIOUSLY NARA, LET ME GO!"
Shikamaru stopped and made Temari stand beside him as he handed her the flashlight, giving her a look that demanded her to stop freaking out as he reached forward and smacked off the head of the first mannequin before him.
Nothing happened.
"See? Nothing happened. They're nothing but plastic naked models Temari. Stop freaking out over something that hasn't ever unsettled you before. You don't break out in sweat when you see these guys in clothing departments do you?"
Temari flinched as the head rolled around to a stop at her foot, making her inch backwards as she gasped, "Okay, you've made your point, can we just go back and pick a different hallway now-?"
Suddenly the roof above Temari slid away as a shadowed object dropped and collapsed on Temari. Temari screamed as she battered at whatever fell on her to one side, crashing into Shikamaru. But as they fell to the ground, the army of mannequins followed their example and began to collapse in a pile over the two – like a flicked row of dominos. The clatter of plastic on carpet ended seconds later with the two of them nearly spooked to death.
Shikamaru threw up his arms to move the mannequins from his face, irritably shoving the naked models away from him and Temari as he looked down at the quivering girl sprawled on his lap.
"Damn Temari! If you're going to go berserk on me like some frightened little girl, at least try to do it without giving me half the scare!?"
Temari frighteningly shoved a mannequin away from her as she silently sat there hugging her knees, for once, quiet in her own distress. Shikamaru sighed as he decided not to accuse Temari of being frightened by whatever it was that fell from the ceiling; he too would've probably reacted similarly. It was an unexpected event, and things presented in an unexpected manner tended to unsettle anyone. He looked around for the flashlight that escaped his hand during the fall around the tangled mess of mannequins and detached limbs, able to quickly locate the flashlight at the source of the light.
The flashlight had conveniently fallen before the object, showing to Shikamaru through the bright light, another mannequin; however you could tell this one wasn't the one they had originally saw before them. The limbs were twisted in odd angles and the head was hanging off just barely as the body of the plastic model was stabbed and mangled horrifically. A sign was tacked to its head with an iron nail as words scratched into the wood boldly screamed: DIED A LIAR.
One could've easily mistaken one as a real body, but Shikamaru knew better. He had enough of his sanity left to know it was just a mannequin with a stupid sign tacked to the forehead. Things like this shouldn't scare him.
And it won't.
Ever.
Shikamaru snatched the flashlight and kicked the mannequin into the darkness, more for Temari's sake than his own, as he began growling to himself, "Shit! I'm done with this place!"
Shikamaru looked back at Temari who had remained silent ever since her little fright outburst, a quiet statue of fear which sat unmoving with arms wrapped around quivering legs, head buried in the cover of knees. He had never seen Temari in a state of shock; or fear at the least. But then again, he'd seen her react to thunder and darkness – two of her common secret phobias.
"Temari… how long are you going to stay like that?"
At first she didn't respond, her rigid form unwilling to unwind itself from her protective ball of her own arms and tucked in knees; but after staying patient for a few moments longer, Shikamaru witnessed her relaxing, her arms dropping from her knees, her legs sliding out before her as she sat there sighing, rubbing at her eyes - which he suspected were or had been tearing up.
"Oh God… sorry Shikamaru, I was just… ugh…"
Temari hung her head low as she added ungraciously against herself, "…I ended up acting like a silly frightened girl in front of you – again. It's happened so many times before, with the lightning and the dark and crap…"
Shikamaru found himself momentarily lost for words at her response, her hands left dry as they dropped from her face, concluding that she had not been crying.
"Well… you ARE a girl, sometimes its common nature for even the toughest female to break down from time to time…"
Shikamaru found these words ironically coming out from his own mouth; similar words had been translated to him by his own father once when he had asked him about women – and a direct question about how his father even got a relationship between him and his mother to work out. His father had simply gave his son an indecipherable expression before responding with a half smile, *"Son, it doesn't matter how strong-willed a woman is; in the end, any woman will be able to show kindness to the man they love."
Though Shikamaru was able to understand that this referred to a romantic relationship between opposite genders, it still perplexed Shikamaru to think this would ever apply to his father – hopefully this was one of those cases that it never ends up a 'like father-like son' situation.
Temari's dry snigger brought him back to reality, her next words coming out in a rush, "What do you know about girls? God, we need to appear strong so that embarrassing moments like this don't ever happen! But shit, I got myself stuck into that ditch more than once, it's ridiculously humiliating…!"
Shikamaru found himself lured towards her, scooting closer to her as he kicked a mannequin to one side, settling comfortably beside her as he placed a hand on her opposite shoulder and said something that even surprised himself, "It's never shameful to be embarrassed on a few occasions. It just comes to show that you're human."
He prepared himself for a spiteful comeback, or even a slap or a punch in the arm, but none of it ever came. Instead, Temari simply collapsed against him, leaning into him, letting his hand on her shoulder pull her closer. He sat there listening to a sigh escape her lips as she grumbled back after a long silence, "You have some fucking wise words in that noggin of yours Nara…"
Now that, he had no idea whether to take offense to or as a compliment, but he'd leave that up to ponder on later, because thinking about that now would be too much of a drag – especially after all the shock he went through in the last ten minutes.
Those three minutes of absolute silence had lead to an uncomfortable awkwardness for Temari. What was she doing anyway? Sitting there next to Shikamaru, leaning against him oddly content and unperturbed – she must seriously be losing her mind now. This was honestly unnecessary for the two of them to be sitting there among freaking mannequins with her being consulted with soothing words from a friend she could hardly call a friend.
So she quickly moved out from under his comforting arm, to avoid any further confusion that would lead to her imagination and sanity eloping off past the point of no return together, as she cleared her throat to awkwardly fill up the silence between them.
"Well uh, now that we've got these… things out of the way, I guess we can keep going…"
Shikamaru reluctantly got to his feet as he agreed halfheartedly, "Yeah, I guess. Geez… this is going to be such a drag going through all those rooms… I wish there was an easier way around it."
"Well then why don't you figure it out Sherlock? You're the one with the brains here to figure it all out."
"Nah, this is the best shot we got, going through all these rooms. Now either that means this is the best solution or I'm just too lazy to try and find a different way to sniff out the key."
"Probably both."
"…How does that work?"
Surprisingly, this time, Temari takes the lead. She had been reassured and now fully confident in herself now more than ever to appear unfazed by the scare she received from an unknown bundle of surprise from above her. (Which unfortunately she still doesn't know what it actually was and she hasn't asked Shikamaru about it either…) Shikamaru probably already has the impression that Temari is a female who needs emotional support during times when her fears broke down her iron wall of dignity and drowned her in humiliation – she'd have to quickly prove otherwise, or else she'd be stuck with a therapy partner for a long time. She really didn't need anyone to start worrying about her, much less Shikamaru. She didn't need him to start worrying about her then – so why start worrying about her now, or even ever?
Shikamaru stays oddly silent besides Temari, seeming to stare at their feet before asking suddenly, "Does your ankle hurt?"
Temari gave him a funny look as she stated, "Uh, it did long before but the pain was ebbing away…"
"Really? Because you're limping like a zombie right now."
Temari took a moment to stop walking to focus her attention on her previously injured ankle. Now that she was conscious of her injury, she was smacked full in the face the massive agony in her injury, which must've been amplified ever since she fell down farther back down the hall with the mannequins. And just when she thought her limp had left her a while before…!
Temari feigned an expression of unwavering stubbornness as she continued to walk (though she walked more gingerly than before) as she spouted, "Limp or not, it doesn't matter. I can walk just fine on my own-!"
Temari's foot caught in the uneven carpeted floor and at the pain of her ankle, her legs buckled from beneath her when suddenly he stepped in quickly to support her back on her feet. Flustering, clearly embarrassed at her own folly, Temari struggled with the help of Shikamaru back on steady ground as she exclaimed, "Thank you, I'm fine now-"
"It's okay, I got you-"
"No really, I'm fine you can just let me go now-"
"Clearly you're not, so you should just let me help-"
"I'm fine-!"
Suddenly with expert speed, Shikamaru wrapped one arm around her waist and the other clapped over her mouth, pulling her into the shadows as Temari struggles both in shock and surprise.
"Keep it down Temari, I heard something…!"
Silenced by his hiss, Temari stopped fighting as they stayed in the dark corner; ears alert for any other noises or sounds.
There is an abrupt, silent creak of a door swinging slowly shut – followed shortly by the soft thump of the door not shutting all the way – someone or something was down here with them. Though it was both highly unlikely and likely that it could be a senior, there were many reasons why they had every right to doubt that. Shikamaru drops his hand from Temari's mouth and waist as he peers around the corner, his eyes locking on the only door that remained slightly ajar.
A ragged sigh escaped his lips as he turned back to Temari and whispered, "Okay, so whatever that was, it's still inside that room…"
Temari already knew what he was implying and she simply nodded. Trusting that she understood his plan, Shikamaru silently beckoned for her to follow him as they crept forward towards the door; the flashlight held low on the ground so the light never touched the door – in case whoever or whatever was inside should ever see it before they saw the intruder itself.
Temari crouched down behind Shikamaru as he slowly reached forward and wedged his fingers in the slight opening, then with a mere flick of his wrist, he swung the door aside as he brought the flashlight up to blind whoever or whatever was inside as Temari watched in anticipation. Shikamaru and Temari found themselves staring at a black cat, which had nestled itself comfortably upon a pile of torn books, that now looked over at two with a twinge of annoyance in its meow at the sudden light. Temari remained to stay behind Shikamaru while peering over his shoulder at the animal as she frowned, her expression matching the perplexity and surprised note in Shikamaru's voice as he speaks for her, "A… cat?"
"What's a cat doing in here?"
Shikamaru didn't have to look at her as he directed a shrug to her, his eyes still locked on the irritated feline that began to meow again in annoyance, as if telling Shikamaru to move the flashlight to one side already.
"Now either this is some kind of joke or somehow in some way, part of the haunted house…"
The animal finally decided to stand up and stalk over to Shikamaru, planting a dainty paw on the flashlight as the animal gave Shikamaru a sour feline glare and meowed more forcefully this time. However Temari was no longer focused on the animal – but rather a key that hung from a ribbon on the animal's neck.
Shikamaru cursed as Temari instinctively lunged over Shikamaru's shoulder in attempts to snatch the key off the cat, but the animal hissed in both surprise and sudden fear as it bolted – escaping through an open low vent on the wall in the far dark corner. This left Temari dumbfounded with her hands empty and half sprawled over Shikamaru who was now clearly annoyed with her.
"What the hell Temari!? Warn me before you plan on jumping the cat? You nearly wrenched my shoulder out – and it's the same damn shoulder that got bruised mind you!"
Temari's mind was still on the key around the cat's neck to even bother with an apology as she scrambled to her feet – with some struggling moments – as she bolted down the hall mindlessly.
"Hey, hey Temari, where the hell are you going!?"
Instead of telling him her reason, she instead spouted back, "Just hurry the hell up and follow me! Didn't you see it!?"
Shikamaru had regained his bearings and came chasing after Temari, calling out to her down the hall in confusion, "See what!?"
"The key!"
Temari shot him a glance over her shoulder at the boy who gave her a look of surprise as she exclaimed again, "The key; it was on the damn cat!"
"Don't tell me now we're on a wild chase after an animal-!"
"Believe it or not Nara, but that's what this is becoming!"
"Can't we stop and have a plan first? Your ankle isn't going to be much help if we're going to be aimlessly chasing after it."
Shikamaru caught up to Temari quickly due to her injured ankle, and stopped her by grabbing her arm. She looked back at him and back to where the cat had disappeared to before giving in due to exhaustion.
"Oh fine, have it your way Nara. Now please tell me you actually have a plan."
Shikamaru smiled in relief as he nodded, "Yeah, I have a plan… sort of."
Temari shrugged as she retorted, "Yeah? Well it'll be better than nothing I guess. Now spit it out, I want to get out of here soon."
However things would get more difficult than catching a clever cat.
"Hey, Tayuya."
Glancing up from her corner, senior Maya stood before her with crossed arms and a smug expression as she jerked a thumb back at the head senior's make shift office.
"He's ready to see you now."
Sighing, she rose to her feet, shouldering past Maya bitterly as she stalked into the musty room, hands swinging limply at her side. Inside was the head senior with his assistant who were busy with the live footage displayed on a laptop. He sat back in his seat with his hand tracing the screen of the laptop as he spoke quietly with the assistant, nodding to each other in inaudible speech. Finally he patted the other senior on the shoulder who took the laptop under his arm and hurried out of the room, closing the door behind him to leave Tayuya alone in the room with the head senior.
Sai took a quick glance at Tayuya before sighing to one side, rubbing the corners of his eyes as he turned bodily towards her grumbling, "Take a seat… Tayuya."
Tayuya snatched a dusty chair from the wall and dropped it loudly on all four of its legs before collapsing on it, legs and arms crossed defiantly.
Silence.
"If you're going to tell me to get the hell off the attraction, I'm going to have to remind you why I'm here in the first place anyway."
Sai folded his hands in his lap as he shook his head at her, sighing as he retorted, "No, I'm not going to tell you to leave, Principal Tsunade made sure of that. All I can do now is to tell you what I told Hidan…"
Tayuya's eyebrows shot up her face as he leaned forward and growled, "If you screw up here, I won't tolerate it. Years of research is being branched off from this very site concerning these two juniors. If you think about pissing off the group leaders by pulling pranks or picking fights with the other seniors, I will report you to Principal Tsunade and see to it that you get your good for nothing behavior relocated in a disciplinary action school. Are we clear?"
Tayuya leaned back in her seat, smirking as she sniped back, "Heh, that's a poor threat you have up against me head senior. I'm fine with disciplinary schools; a whole lot better than this shit here. If you think I'm one bit fazed by your warning, consider yourself stupid."
Sai shrugged and gave her an equal expression of smug contentment as he replied, "All right… but be warned; something more fitting just might be coming your way."
Oddly enough, the smile continued to stay on his face despite whatever Tayuya said – that would be a problem.
Shikamaru took Temari's word concerning the cat's location as they formulated a plan to corner the animal and catch it. After that, they'd be done with this place for sure.
The cat was supposedly in the storage room in hallway C; not even sure that the cat was inside, Shikamaru planned to head inside anyway. He would move in, grab the cat with his jacket which would serve as a makeshift net and in any case that the animal slipped by him, Temari would catch it at the door. The plan was fairly simple, nothing fancy at all, but it's not like he had anything useful to work with – no bait, no luring, no nothing. So he'd have to go with this for now. Hopefully it'll play right into their hands so that things can be over with quickly – both for them and the cat.
"You stay here okay? I'll leave the flashlight with you, so you'd better be on alert if anything happens."
Temari nodded as he handed her the device, his jacket slipping off his shoulders as he held it out before him as he crept forward. Before he disappeared into the dark room, Temari called out quietly, "Don't do anything stupid Nara."
Shikamaru only smiled back at her before diving into the dark, forfeiting his trust with his eyes and turning to his hands and ears for help. Upon first entering the room, he saw enough from the flashlight to know there were crates and broken shelves of wood and dust; it shouldn't be too hard to maneuver himself around as long as he didn't make any noise to alert the cat.
Always reaching out with one hand to avoid running into something, Shikamaru crept towards the heart of the room, hoping to catch any noises coming from the cat if it were inside the room. He wasn't sure if the cat even knew they were here or not, but he was going to hope for now that it didn't – because he could hear soft scratching coming from the back of the room followed by a brief meow.
Gotcha now…!
Spreading his jacket out before him he creeped forward crouched low as he got closer and closer to the source of the noise. He saw a dark shadow struggle in a corner, the sound of claws against metal making him cringe as he dared to take another step towards the animal, hoping he was still undetected…
Right before he decided to lunge, there was a shout of surprise from behind her as the door to the storage room slammed shut, spooking both the animal and Shikamaru.
Now he was truly plunged into darkness. He couldn't see anything, but he did hear the sound of a metal vent being opened as the cat somehow escaped from the room all on its own. But now Shikamaru was alone and confused at the sudden turn of events as he stood in the dark, calling out in the darkness towards the door, "Temari!? What the hell is going on! TEMARI!"
Stumbling in the dark past crates and shelves, he traced the walls until he found the right one with the sealed door. Feeling puzzlement begin to intermingle with concern, he jostled the handle, finding to avail of opening it as he tried ramming up against it – instantly regretting as he had forgotten his shoulder was previously injured.
A light beamed through the slim window of the door, but it was too dirty to see anyone through it as he banged on the glass and called out, "Temari!"
There was a response of a following bang on the door, the handle being jostled as Temari called out faintly, "Shikamaru!? Are you okay in there!? Shikamaru!"
"Hell I'm not okay! What happened!? Did you shut the door!?"
"What!? Hell no I didn't! Some shit head threw a chair down the hallway at me and I had to jump out of the way – then suddenly, the door shuts on me! I can't get it to open on this side, it's like locked shut!"
Shikamaru slammed a fist up against the door as he growled, "Damn it…!"
"I'm sure this is just a set up from the seniors, I'll try to find something to try and open the door, but meanwhile, you just stay put! I doubt you can do much while being in the dark in there…"
"Yeah…"
"I'll be back!"
He listened to her footsteps disappear with the light as he slid down on the ground with his back up against the door, sighing as he drank in his surroundings; darkness, probably a bunch of shelves and crates around him, and insane silence. Normally this would've been nice for Shikamaru – being alone and in a quiet area – but if it meant being trapped in the dark in a dusty room full of storage and no escape… ah geez…!
Shikamaru clasped his hands in his lap as he stared up at the dark ceiling, resigning himself to wait for Temari's aid that may or may not come. Either way, if things didn't work out, there was always plan B – he still had the walkie-talkie that he can use to contact the seniors, he can call it quits and have them get him out. Sure it'd suck since they'd lose the entire game and walk away from all of this empty handed, but it'd be better than having Temari wander around aimlessly looking for anything to bust him out while he'd sit here wasting away for the rest of the night.
Either way, his situation currently sucked, not to mention the cat got away…
He hung his head at his own disappointment as he muttered at his hands, "Ah whatever then… at least I tried and yet, I got stuck in a stupid storage room. I hope Temari knows what to do…"
Shit! Shit! Shit!
Shikamaru got stuck in that room all because of her! But then again… it wasn't like she saw that chair coming. She was just sitting there, watching the door for him and prepared to nab a cat in case it got past Shikamaru, and suddenly farther down the hall – a chair comes tumbling to greet her!
She leaped out of the way, letting the chair clatter past her and around the same time, the door miraculously slammed on itself, locking Shikamaru within the room and plunged him into darkness. Temari couldn't help but feel thankful that it wasn't her in there without the flashlight. She would've freaked out so badly…
Enough of that and let's just find something to bust that dang door open!
Time began to trickle by in a senseless pace, she began to lose track of how long she had been wandering the hallway aimlessly; but none of that hardly mattered now that she spent her time debating with herself at the mouth of the hallway that led to the main hall. Here she could enter any of the other halls, but…
Pacing anxiously she twisted her hands around the flashlight, growling to herself as she muttered, "Okay Temari, you can do this. Just hurry into a hallway, find something and hurry right on back. It won't take long. Besides, if you run into something, beating the hell out of it always solves the problem. Maybe if I get lucky, I'll send someone to the ER and get us out of this joint faster than anyone can say 'shit'."
She paused, drinking in her satisfying rant before pacing once again, anxiety boiling over with doubt as she continued, "However on the other hand, those mannequins earlier before are as scary as shit. I don't want to get myself into a situation that could spook me half to death or permanently separate me and Shikamaru. Ah damn, why is it so hard to make a choice!? To go out or not to go out!? Simple question damn it!"
Temari pressed a hand to her forehead, groaning as she felt a headache come on as she tapped her foot in her own annoyance at her own indecision. Shikamaru was stuck in a room because she was scared of a freaking chair… somehow, more than ever before, she saw how ridiculously idiotic it all was. And now because of her foolish behavior, she let the door separate the two from each other. Now he's in the dark brooding over God knows what he pondered about in his spare time, stuck and unable to do anything about it. And knowing Shikamaru, he hated being unproductive at times. Yes, he was lazy, but that was only when he didn't have a goal to accomplish. So… Temari headed to the nearest wall and slammed her head against it, screaming in fury at her inability to make a quick decision. At times like this, she wished she had a few of Shikamaru's quick witted traits so she wouldn't have to flounder with these type of decisions. And a simple one at that – it only took a few steps to cross the main hall to a selected hallway from where she stood.
Tapping her forehead roughly against the wall, her head throbbing with the pain and the headache from earlier, as she sighed; deep in her own thoughts.
"This is so pathetic…!"
It took a moment longer before she slammed a fist to the wall, forming a firm resolve in her mind as she stood aside from the wall and faced the main hall with newfound confidence and exclaimed, "Alright! Let's go find shit!"
Taking a stiff step forward she began moving forward, stepping into the main hall when suddenly a hand snatched her wrist out from the darkness. Too startled to cry out, Temari did what came naturally to her. Grabbing the hand that gripped hers, she pulled the stranger out from the dark and slammed him (assuming it was a he) to the ground. Swinging her flashlight around she took a step back as she examined with narrowed eyes at the stranger, her heart in her throat as she prepared for a scare.
"Ouch! Seriously, are you planning on breaking every bone in my body or what?"
Stunned, Temari watched as the stranger sat up, rubbing the back of his head with a sour frown on his face, throwing her completely by surprise as she exclaimed, "S-Shikamaru!? But how the hell…?"
Shikamaru gave her a halfhearted smile as he laughed, "Ah well I can't really blame you for doing that. Of course you're a bit perplexed; I was stuck in a storage room and suddenly I pop out of nowhere grabbing your wrist. Sorry if I freaked you out."
Temari hurried to his side to help him back on his feet as she sheepishly brushed the dust off the back of his shirt, mumbling a halfhearted apology.
"S-Sorry… but how did you get out? Seriously, that door was like, sealed shut."
Shikamaru let out another short lived laugh as he responded, "I escaped the same way the cat did. I happened to find my way through the dark to the same vent the cat escaped through and squeezed my way out. It was a tight fit but I made it out just fine."
Temari nodded, drinking it in with little suspicion to the logic behind it as he peered at her face and smirked, "Why'd you ask?"
Temari threw him a look of confusion as she replied, "Eh? Well I just wanted to know how you got out when the door was locked shut and it was pitch black inside so I was just trying to see how you made it out…"
Shikamaru nudged her playfully as he laughed, "Really? Or maybe you were worried about me."
Temari stared in horror at his laughing smile as she flustered, "God damn it Nara, why would I be worried about you!?"
Shikamaru laughed continuously as he jabbed her shoulder, "So wait, if you were that worried about me, does that mean you like m-?"
Temari glared at him before slapping him mercilessly on the shoulder, knowing it would hurt because he injured it before as Shikamaru hissed in pain.
"How sick of you, you and I both know there's nothing like that between us so don't even joke around about it! Seriously, I never knew you'd joke about it either!"
Laughing Shikamaru shook his head, hands up to emphasize his point as he exclaimed, "Alright, alright, I understand. Sorry, that was irrational of me. Plus the joke wasn't even that funny."
Pouting Temari turned her back on him as she grumbled, "Yeah, it REALLY wasn't."
Throwing an arm around her shoulders Shikamaru brought back her attention, "Anyway, let's just go find that cat we lost back at the storage room. We still need to find that key and get the hell out of here."
Temari stared at the hand that hung from her shoulders as she suspiciously responded, "…Right…"
Then she shrugged his hand away as she stalked off, a bit nonplussed by Shikamaru's odd attitude towards her as a thought crossed her mind; Has he always laugh this often before…?
How long has it been? Three hours? He couldn't recall how long Temari had been absent since she left him in this room to find something to get him out. He didn't expect her to come back for a while, so he decided numbly to take a nap by the door. But having an unsettling feeling being stuck in a dusty dark room, he had woken up perhaps an hour or so later only to find her still gone. He continued to sit there in the dark with his hands clasped together, his legs outstretched before him. She couldn't be in trouble could she? Certainly she didn't run into any trouble… no, she must've if she's on her own, bumbling about without any notion of what she was doing.
Eesh, worrying about her was tiresome.
Not to mention he hated sitting here unable to do anything for himself…
But he had to know if she was okay. If anything happened to her…
Cursing he slammed a fist into the wall behind him as he got to his feet, nearly stumbling over a wooden crate as he groped in the darkness for the door again.
"Shit, what the hell am I doing? I've got to get my own sorry ass out of here…!"
He found the door again and tried the door knob again. Which was a stupid idea since he already knew it was locked securely in place for as long as he could remember. He tried kicking it open. Again, a stupid, futile attempt.
Blinded by the darkness and frustrated with his own worries, he continued to bang on the door, hoping that maybe the noise may draw Temari back down the hallway, but either way, it was satisfying as he drained his frustration with the effort. Finally he slumped up against the door dejected and upset; he couldn't believe he got himself stuck in this ridiculous situation. Temari was alone somewhere in this cursed attraction and he was stuck in a storage room like these forgotten crates and shelves beside him. He began to wonder if he too was forgotten…
Until he heard the scrape of the door's lock unlatching and suddenly from behind him, the door swung open and he tumbled out in the hallway in shock as light flooded into his vision, which came from the flashlight in the hand of his rescuer.
Looking up from where he lay at the stranger's feet he tried to distinguish who it was that got him out, none too surprisingly, it was Temari.
"Sorry it took so long; it wasn't easy to find something that would unlock the door."
Temari helped him to his feet as he staggered back up in surprise as he glanced back at the door and back to her as he asked, "Uh wow… I wasn't expecting it to be that easy…"
"Yeah well when you have a crowbar and a few tricks up your sleeves to unlatching a door inside out, things seem a whole lot easier than it normally would've been."
Shikamaru sighed as he shook his head, mostly relieved to find Temari safe and clearly capable of herself with or without him, as he resigned to thank her.
"Oh, well thanks anyway… it took you an awful long time to get back though."
Temari flashed a self satisfied smirk as she snorted, "Well I did say it wasn't easy. So naturally it took a long time."
Shikamaru asked for the flashlight and she handed it back to him. Then he pulled out the map from his back pocket and laid it out before them.
"Well let's get back to business now that you got me out of that joint. We need to find that cat I lost so we can get the key and get out of here. The cat really shouldn't have gone far though if it's still in this building with us with our key – so it should be relatively easy."
Temari nodded, though her attention seemed to be somewhere else as he pinpointed their next plausible location for the cat to escape to before folding up the map. Oddly enough, she stuck closely to his side and clung to his arm with her hand in his. This wasn't anything new, they had done this a few times before, but it seemed oddly different now with her practically attached to him like a leech – was this normal?
He gave her a questioning look before asking as they continued to walk down the hall, "Uh… are you okay? You don't seem quite like yourself."
Temari simply smiled as she leaned her head on his shoulder and replied, "I'm fine now that I'm with you again."
"Uh…"
The senior's cup of coffee hung limply in his hand as he squinted in puzzlement at the screen of the laptop, wondering why the hell he was seeing two sets of live footage of the same couple only in separate hallways. Something wasn't right here…
Concerned that maybe the cameras were acting up again, he ordered a group of seniors to check the cameras as he went off to bring the matters to the head senior; just in case it was something much more than that. Because if these two juniors were confusing one another as someone else; things could get really bad.
"What do you mean you don't have the map anymore?"
Shikamaru pulled his pockets inside out as to emphasize his point as he gave Temari a blunt expression, "I'm telling you, I lost the map back at the storage room. It's as good as gone."
Temari sighed as she ran a hand over her face as she grumbled, "Good God, sometimes you can be so useless! I mean, you've kept up so well with the map up until now when we need it most, now how are we ever going to find the cat and get our key!?"
Huffing she stalked a few steps away from Shikamaru, continuing to grumble and fuss about Shikamaru's recklessness. Shikamaru shrugged, unaffected by her stinging comment as he spoke, "Well… maybe it's better this way."
Temari turned around to look at him, flashlight raised as she asked, "Excuse me?"
Shikamaru shrugged, giving her the same irritating smile as he replied, "Nothing."
Temari took a moment to drink in that smile; she was certain he never made smiles as frequent as he was doing now. Much less, the smile he gave her wasn't a smile Shikamaru would deliver – his smiles were usually on the lazy side to be told. This was yet so familiar… like she had seen it before from someone else…
Temari's jaw stiffened as she turned her back on him again and kept moving forward.
"Let's just keep going then, we'll find that cat by chance hopefully then..."
Shikamaru stopped walking as she continued to walk, leaving her warily conscious of his absence beside her as she heard him call out to her, "Temari… can we talk?"
Halting in mid-stride she sighed and turned around, eyeing him as she silently allowed him to speak. He simply stared at her before emphasizing his point, "…Privately?"
"Uh, in case you're blind, we're the only two here."
"You're forgetting the cameras the seniors hid away in here."
Temari glanced around them, feeling stupid as she did so since there was a reason why these cameras were hidden as she sighed, "Okay then… fair enough, so where do you suggest we talk?"
Shikamaru walked to one side of the hallway and opened the door to a random classroom, giving her a look suggesting she stepped inside. She stubbornly stood where she was in the hallway as she asked, "Wouldn't the seniors put cameras in every room as well?"
Shikamaru gave her a knowing smile as he laughed, "You really think they had all the equipment to install cameras into every room in this building? It may be smaller than the main building itself, but it's still substantially large."
Falling silent and simply resigning to stand there with her arms crossed and expression grim, she considered his words carefully before slowly walking towards him and the door before entering, with him following closely behind, still doubting the logic behind his words.
She stood in the dark room watching him close the door behind him as she tapped her foot at him, arms crossed impatiently.
"Look, I want to get out of here as soon as possible, so make it snappy."
Shikamaru nodded, turning to face her with an odd smile as he replied, "Of course, I'll make it quick…"
He stepped up to Temari, hands raised to rest of her shoulders as he gave her that same irritating smile from earlier before.
"Well to be honest…"
He ran his hand down her arms and came to a stop at her elbows, then he moved his hands from her arms to her hips, bringing an expression of alarm on her face.
"I spent a while in the storage room reflecting on a few things…"
He gently pulled her forward, bringing his face closer to hers as he rested his forehead against hers, silently drinking in her stunned silence.
"One of them being you… and me…"
Temari blinked back in her stunned dumbfounded expression before attempting to step back, which she regretted not having done earlier before.
"Ooookay… good to know. Great talk, now let's move on and get the hell out of here-"
He yanked her closer and tilted his head to hers, attempting to catch her lips in the pull when she suddenly had him under a headlock, her arms tightening around his neck. He struggled to free himself when Temari brought a knee up to knee him in the gut, causing him to stagger on his feet in shock as she released him, but it was only the beginning. She advanced on him, her hand reaching for his hair as she grabbed him by the back of his head and slammed his face twice into the wall beside them and kicked his legs out from beneath him, standing over him in self satisfaction for bringing him to his knees. He groaned in agony as she kicked him on his back, a foot resting on his stomach as she leaned her weight into that one leg as she rested her arms on her knee looking down at him in amusement as she broke the silence with a short bark like laughter, "I have to admit man, you have some charm there. But you're more about the physical approach than the verbal aren't you big fella?"
He simply replied with another moan as she drove her heel into his stomach agonizingly before snapping, "Alright, let's cut to the chase, I know you're not Shikamaru. That idiot wouldn't pull the stunts like you would and I know with full confidence he doesn't have any sort of affection directed towards me. So you can strike that out of the book. Now tell me, who the hell are you and what the hell were you thinking!?"
The creep in disguise fell silent, then he starting chuckling, "Do you really have to ask?"
Then abruptly he grabbed her ankle and twisted it, unluckily it was the same that had given her trouble throughout the day as she cried in pain and collapsed, unable to support herself as he slammed and pinned her to the floor. With her ankle giving her the same familiar pain she had been fed up with, she allowed herself to be subjected under her attacker's hold, too focused on the pain of her ankle to consider his intentions.
"But if I really have to jump start that memory of yours, maybe this'll speak for your slow mind…"
Keeping her arms pinned under his knees he leaned forward, a sick smile on his face as he added, "Oh, and just so we come to an understanding here, don't take this personally. It's just business you know? It's the only way I can win this bet against a certain bitch. But anyway, I'll enjoy it while I can so you should too since neither one of us had the chance to last time we met."
Temari refocused her attention on him before exclaiming in shock, "Oh shit… Hidan?!"
Holding her head fast in his hands he leaned forward, his lips hovering over hers as she struggled to escape, only to no avail as he smiled cruelly and sang in a sing-songy voice, "Bingo."
Shikamaru looked up from the map he had folded out on his lap at the sound of a scream, frowning as he pinpointed its source back down C-hall.
"Did you hear that Temari?"
Temari glanced back at Shikamaru, who sat up against the wall of the intersection with the map out on his lap as she shrugged, "Not really. Sorry, I was off in my own thoughts…"
Shikamaru shrugged back, his pen casually marking C-hall on his map as Temari sidled up next to Shikamaru so that their shoulders touched.
"Hey Shikamaru… you want to know a little secret?"
Shikamaru smoothed the map out, his pen hovering over C-hall with great interest as he absentmindedly replied, "Hmm?"
"You know I've always… sort of liked you in the past."
"Mmhmm."
"You were always just so… interesting…"
"Mmhmm…"
"You have no idea how happy it makes me just by being with you…"
"Hmm?"
Temari sighed as she rolled her eyes, placing a hand on the map, drawing his attention to her completely as she leaned closer towards him.
"Can't you listen to me just this once? It's important that I say this."
Shikamaru blinked back at her blankly before allowing her to fold up the map and toss it over her shoulder dismissively.
"Uh… sure?"
"You remember what I said earlier?"
Shikamaru gave her an odd expression as he replied, "Uh, something about you liking me?"
She nodded; pleased to know he had been paying some attention to her as she urged, "Yes, that's right. Now that you know… how do you feel about me…?"
Shikamaru stared at her. Then he sighed as he patted her on the shoulder reassuringly.
"Look here Temari, you're a good friend and you should know by now that I care about you to some degree. So yes, I like you too."
He continued to pat her warmly on the shoulder as he grinned, "Friends through and through."
Temari smacked his arm away as she gave him a sour glare, "Idiot! That's not what I meant!"
He feigned surprise as he retorted, "Then what did you mean?"
She then moved to sit face forward in his lap, her arms snaking behind his neck as she pressed him up against the wall, a small smile hinted on her lips as she leaned closer to him, her lips pressed to his ear as she mumbled, "I'm sure you can figure that out…"
He cracked a smile back as he shrugged, "Hmm, I could, but I'm too lazy to you know…"
She smiled back as she drew closer, "Mmm… that's what I love about you…"
Inches before she could steal a kiss, he abruptly grabbed her wrists from behind his neck and pulled her away from him, pushing her off his lap as he cheerfully spoke, "Alright, enough of the fun for now, that was getting a little too far."
Temari eyed him in surprise as she gave him a look of puzzlement, "What? But we were just starting-"
Shikamaru hit her square on the forehead with the flashlight as he watched her collapse unconscious on the floor. He eyed the flashlight before shaking his head sighing, "Your cover up was pretty convincing Tayuya; but the one thing you couldn't quite live up to her image was her attitude towards me. Not to mention I was already suspicious of you ever since I laid eyes on the flashlight you had. The one Temari and I shared was blue – not green."
He rose to his feet, sighing as he stretched his arms up and over his head, his mind getting back into business as he considered where the real Temari could be. Glancing back down at Tayuya at his feet he sighed as he stepped a good feet away from her limp form.
"Ah… I almost forgot how sickening that girl can be. Ugh, anyway, I've got to go find Temari… but first…"
Pulling out the walkie-talkie at his belt he switched it on, speaking to it as he snapped, "This is Shikamaru requesting a senior please."
A split moment later the walkie-talkie crackled back to life in response as a voice spoke back, "This is group leader B, is there a problem?"
"Yes and no. One of your seniors tried to have her way with me and now she's lying unconscious at my feet. I want you to get her slutty ass out of here and give me a real good explanation after I go fetch my friend from another creep, what the hell this was all about. Thank you and have a good day."
"Huh? There are seniors down there with you? Hold on what's this all about-"
Switching off the walkie-talkie abruptly he turned back to C-Hall and hurried back down the hallway, recalling the vague scream having been emitted from deep within as he broke into a sprint. Thoughts crossed his mind.
If I got separated from Temari by Tayuya, no doubt she crossed paths with another look alike and mistakened him as me. I could cling onto the hope that she's smart enough to know that whoever that bastard is he's nothing like me. I don't know what Tayuya was plotting to do with me, acting all lovey dovey, but if Tayuya was trying to subdue me, could it be that Temari…?
He paused in the middle of the hall, glancing around the rooms that stretched endlessly, leaving him in a momentary confusion on what to do next.
I heard a scream earlier. Was that her? Is she right now being…
Startled by his own thoughts he tried to shake the thought away, fearing that if he lingered any longer with it, he'd be seeing delusions in his own mind.
"Shit… she really is a troublesome person. Causing me a lot of issues left and right…"
There was another scream and ruckus coming from further down the hall, noises of desks and chairs being knocked around. Sprinting once again he rushed towards the source of the noise, muttering, "When I find her I'm gonna…!"
"Motherfucker!"
Temari resorted to bite his fingers that held her face in place. Hidan yelped, yanking his hands back and in that brief moment, Temari slammed her forehead against his and tossed him away from her. She could've then jumped to her feet and ran off, but with her ankle twisted from his previous attack, she was incapable of getting back on her feet. She pulled herself away from him, wincing as she pulled her legs to her chest, gasping as she regained her breath. She hadn't realized she had been holding it while Hidan had her under his mercy. Hidan was already on his knees, a hand to his bruised forehead as he glared at Temari and cursed, "Aw fuck man, that really hurt you bitch! First you bite me and then you head butt me!"
Flashing a smirk she laughed scornfully, "Son of a bitch, that's what you deserved! Who the hell do you think you are trying to force yourself upon me?! You'd have better chances with a fucking animal you sick bastard!"
Getting to his feet Hidan simply smiled back at her, grabbing a chair next to him as he exclaimed, "Oh really now? Then here's a little fun fact about me."
Then suddenly he flung the chair at Temari, forcing her to leap to one side in the nick of time as she gasped in shock as the chair collapsed with a loud bang against the wall. The chair crippled upon impact.
"When girls start badmouthing me off and get me really pissed off, I can't hold myself back but to fuck them up so bad they end up in therapy and shit. You may be the most headstrong out of all the girls I've ever met, but that doesn't mean I can't break you."
Violently he hurled a desk at her, barely grazing her head as she rolled aside, finding herself at a disadvantage due to her injured ankle. God dang it, if she hadn't had this problem with her ankle, she could've beaten the shit out of this guy already – senior or not!
In that moment of evading a thrown desk, Hidan was back at her side, grabbed her wrist and slammed her up against the wall. Letting out another involuntary scream of agony as he twisted her wrist to one side, a crooked grin on his face as he cackled, "You act all high and mighty, throwing words at me and spitting at my feet. But we'll see just how sensitive and weak you really are in a moment."
Right before he could do anything else, hands wrapped around Hidan's neck and pulled him bodily off Temari, dragging him a few steps away from her as he yelled, "What the fuck, who the hell-!?"
Then those hands grabbed Hidan's head in a choke hold, mercilessly pinning him to his knees as he struggled for air. Temari watched in mild surprise as Hidan thrashed and then fell limp in her savior's arms, who in turn tossed him to one side bitterly. It was no surprise who it was.
"Just fucking go to sleep you mother fucker…"
Shikamaru sighed, a hand scratching the back of his head as he eyed Hidan's limp form by his feet.
"Come to think of it, this guy is even sicker than Tayuya."
Remembering why he knocked the guy out in the first place, he turned back to the cowering victim by the wall, who was staring in shock at the sudden turn of events. Sighing he stepped over the molester and crouched down before Temari, peering at her hidden face as he asked sourly, "Hey, sourpuss, why are you acting all freaked out about? I can't believe you got yourself into this kind of a situation, you're so stupid sometimes…"
Reaching forward he brushed her messy bangs aside from her face as he gently added, "Good thing I'm around though, right?"
Temari eyed Shikamaru for a moment before lashing a hand out and grabbing the front of his shirt, slamming him to the ground with surprising strength as he blinked up at her in astonishment. With a brooding glare Temari hissed, "I swear if you're another bastard that wants to fuck around with me…!"
Shikamaru held up his hands in his innocence, giving Temari a look of surprise as he exclaimed, "Good grief, calm down Temari! Isn't it obvious who the hell I am?"
Temari jerked her chin at Hidan, "He looks pretty much the same."
"That's because he got help with his stupid disguise. It should be so obvious though – that guy is older than me, taller than me, and physically and inadequate match. God, if I were you, I would've known right off the bat!"
Temari stared at Shikamaru for a moment longer. Then the hand that grasped his shirt with a straining fist released him slowly. Then she sighed, slumped up against the wall and threw a hand over her face, hiding her expression from him as she grumbled, "God I want to go home now…"
Sitting back up Shikamaru rubbed his shoulder, his thoughts once again circulating to injuries as he glanced at Temari's ankle.
"So… is it because of your ankle you weren't able to beat the crap out of the guy?"
Temari shifted her position so that her back was facing Shikamaru, hands at her face as she mumbled back, "Yeah… the stupid jerk twisted it when I had him on the ground."
Shooting a glare at the unconscious senior he grumbled back, "Shit, should've known…"
A moment of silence crossed between them before Shikamaru asked, "Temari… are you okay?"
Temari tossed a disgusted glare over her shoulder at him as she retorted, "Shit, I'm feeling like this is the best day ever, what do you think Nara?!"
Hiding her face again she sighed, "Damn it… all this shit starts happening ever since Kiba went around spreading rumors about us dating. Why couldn't I have thought it through and chose a different school…?"
Shikamaru reached over suddenly and rapped his knuckles on her head, causing her to turn around and smack his hand away, snapping venomously, "Don't touch me!"
"Excuse me Miss, but if you hadn't transferred to our school, you wouldn't have met me."
Temari scoffed, "I never wanted to meet you again!"
Shikamaru simply cocked his head at her before raising his eyebrows curiously.
"I wonder about that…"
Frowning at his implications, the door suddenly swung open as a horde of seniors spilled into the room. An emergency team falling upon the two, asking in rapid questions of any known injuries as Shikamaru got to his feet and shook his head.
"Nah, I'm good. Just help my friend here, her ankle has been bothering her again."
Turning to leave he added quickly, "Oh, and while you're at it, deal with the bastard on the ground. Make sure to report him along with the other senior I caught earlier. I expect a good long explanation for their ridiculous actions."
Temari lost sight of him as the seniors crowded around her, gently addressing to her ankle as they spouted words of apology for the mishap concerning her oppressor. Resigning to simply stay quiet and nod aimlessly at the seniors' words, she leaned up against the wall, sighing as she closed her eyes. Finally, shit was over.
The head senior arrived to the scene moments later with the two teachers behind him, nearly running into Shikamaru at the door.
"Ah, Shikamaru! How convenient, listen I heard about what you said about a senior from a group leader and I-"
Suddenly Shikamaru lashed out a hand and grasped the front of the head senior's shirt in his fist, glaring broodingly at the stunned senior as he growled, "If you ever let shit like that happen again on ANYONE, I swear I'll talk to the student council one of these days and shut down your little research game."
Leaning closer he added venomously, "I have direct connections to the president of the student council, so it won't be that difficult to silence your research game. Because of your lack of restriction and control over your staff, I nearly had my friend molested by a shitty bastard. Next time, you'd better reevaluate the way you do things so others don't end up like us."
Shoving Sai backwards he stalked past him and the mildly stunned teachers, his dark glare not leaving his face as he scowled for added measure, "This better had been worth our fucking time, Sai."
Watching the junior stalk away to exit the attraction Sai sighed, a hand at his chest as he muttered, "Ah geez… I really fucked things up this year."
Kakashi patted Jiraiya on the shoulder as he took a step after Shikamaru.
"Listen I'll take Shikamaru back to the main campus to rest up. You take care of things here with Sai."
Jiraiya nodded, for once not intending to goof on the job.
"Sure. Go on ahead."
Kakashi jogged off after his student as Sai and Jiraiya entered the room where the seniors were still fussing over Temari and awaiting Sai's orders to deal with a troublemaker.
Sai came next to the seniors that surrounded an unconscious Hidan, a look of disgust crossing his face as he sighed, "Just as Kakashi said. Hidan was scheming with Tayuya huh? Not much of a surprise…"
Jiraiya nodded as he crossed his arms, "Yeah, let's just hope when these two wake up, we find out the reason behind their idiotic behaviors. Tsunade is sure going to send them off to a disciplinary school after she hears about all of this."
Sai sighed as he shook his head.
"I've had the worst success this year. I just hope the data I gathered will be enough to make up for it. Though these two troublemaking seniors may have ruined it for us."
Jiraiya ordered the seniors to carry Hidan off to where Tayuya was as Sai came over to Temari, who was patched up, to apologize.
"My sincerest apologies Temari. I had no idea what these two were planning because I didn't think they'd be of any trouble. I assure you that you won't have to deal with any of our challenges again and you and Shikamaru will get your well deserved reward. We'll throw in bonuses most likely to make up for the additional troubles you two had to go through. So sorry."
Temari simply sat there with a blank expression, her eyes closing, completely forgetting all about Sai's words as she slipped into blissful rest. Finally, it was over. But she was yet far from the worst of her troubles.
Outside of the attraction, Kakashi led Shikamaru back to the main campus where he intended to leave to. Moments after he stepped out of the building, fireworks exploded beyond the treetops back at the main festival. Shikamaru stared stunned for a moment up at the sky, watching as the bright colors lit up the night; hiding the stars that dominated the inky heavens. Kakashi turned to see Shikamaru rooted to his spot, staring at the fireworks as he called out, "Nara, you coming?"
Shikamaru's gaze lingered on the fireworks before looking away muttering to himself, "Tsh, so loud and bright. Stars are better…"
With that he trudged away, his mind focused on one thing and one thing only – a warm bed and a dreamless night.
Yay! You reached the end, sorry, it must've been an awful long read. Hope your eyes don't hurt readers! That'd be bad. Anyway, endlessly grateful for all you guys for supporting my fanfictions by reading and reviewing, following and favoriting, you guys are all fantastic! XD I'm hoping on throwing in even more effort to whip up more updates quickly so that you guys don't have to slam your heads on your desks sobbing or grumbling in frustration for more. Thank you all for your support and please continue to read and review, to favorite and follow, and please, stay awesome everyone! :D Continue to take my polls, and if anyone is curious for when I'll have the next chapter out, check out my profile page, it'll have a section there where I keep up to date concerning any new updates. Thank you all and Happy 4th of July! :D