Chapter six: The cells

Sasuke started digging through the dark leather painnier that was tightly attached around his horse. After a while, he dug up some rope and as small silver dagger that shined in the minimal light the forest had. He twirled the blade in his hands before cutting two relatively short pieces out of it. The other guys watched as he tied the pink haired girl's wrists and ankles together, before lifting her on his horse, right behind his saddle.

Next up was Naruto's turn, to whom Sasuke threw the two items from his hands. Naruto laid the girl he had been holding down onto the ground, and easily caught the rope midair, but dodged the flying dagger.

"Bloody hell teme! You almost dug a hole in me with that thing!" The blonde yelled, trying to emphasize how annoyed he was by waving his arms in the air and vigorously pointing at the blade, which was now stuck to a tree.

"Just shut up and take it!" Neji commented in between rolling his eyes. He was still carrying the brown haired girl in his arms, which wasn't fun considering that she'd really beaten the crap out of them before. But now she looked peaceful. Even with bruises and blood covering her skin, she still somehow managed to look appealing. Something about the contrast of her fiery fighting and her serene appearance now intrigued him.

But dear god he did not want to be around when she woke up.

The guys took turns cutting the rope, repeating what Sasuke had done. Shikamaru was the last one to cut the last piece of the rope in two, before placing the dagger back to the bag where Sasuke had originally gotten it from. Then he was off to find where he'd left the blonde girl, who while falling unconscious had successfully managed to faceplant yet again.

Naruto felt really bad holding onto the ropes. He understood the girl's panic, he didn't want to hurt her.

"I'm sorry.." he softly whispered to the pale girl. He didn't like being this rough, it just wasn't his nature. Or maybe it was, but not in this situation. He would never want to hurt anyone who didn't deserve it. But when Sasuke looked over his shoulder to check if he was done, he didn't really have a choice. He tied up the girl's arms and legs, careful not to get any of her hair stands between the knot he tied around her wrists. He intentionally left the knots loose just to avoid hurting her and carefully lifted her up on his horse.

"Let's go then!" Neji tiredly huffed, anxious to finally get out of the god damn place. He limped over to his horse and practically threw the girl he'd been holding on the horse's back. She landed on her stomach with a thump, Neji could just feel all of the air getting pushed out of her lungs. He cringed at the sight, but wasn't sure if he was actually sorry or secretly glad because she got what she deserved for using him as a punching bag.

But with everyone else nicely sat up on their saddles, Neji chose not to look at the beaten up girl and got up on his horse. He stroked the light brown horse and tapped it's side gently before following his friends.

And they were off.

When on a horse, traveling even long distances wasn't that bad. It was quick, pleasant and a lot more comfortable than walking. Sasuke's black horse was first and led the pack. It wasn't only the fastest but also had the biggest ego - just like it's owner - so it was better for everyone just to stay behind him. They didn't need any more racing or accidents to happen.

The dark side wasn't that different from the lighter side of Quifilia. The forest was slightly thicker and didn't have a lot of light coming through the tree branches, but everything was mainly the same. They had the same exact trees and plants, same exact animals. The guys hadn't traveled long before it got a little sunnier. The forest became less thicker and darker when they got farther away from the border. Even the sun peeked from behind the treetops. The "dark" side wasn't that dark after all.

The hooves of the four horses made a loud clicking sound when they arrived on a light coloured stone bridge, that lead the four under a silver gate with beautiful markings spiraling down on it. After passing the gate, they slowed down. A long gravel path took them through a beautiful garden filled with colourful flowers and blooming trees. There were fountains all around with beautiful statues in the middle and the intoxicating smell of gardenias flowed through the air. It was like an oasis, it was like a paradise. Even the sky had cleared up and the sun was shining brightly over the white castle they were riding towards.

They finally arrived on a small courtyard, not too far away from the castle. The stables, which were located in a large light coloured stone building with a large entryway, were right on the other side of the courtyard.

"Princes, you are back early." They were greeted by a formally dressed, gray haired man that was standing in front of the stables.

"Yes Kakashi, we are. Now could you please get someone to take away our horses and alert the guards that we will be having visitors on our premises?" Sasuke asked the butler, dropping down from the saddle of his horse. Kakashi snapped his fingers and waited for staff to come from inside the stables to fulfill the prince's wishes. Confused by the princes having unconscious girls on their, he opened his mouth to ask details of these 'visitors', but he was interrupted by the staff coming to take care of the horses. Sasuke lifted the pink haired girl off of his horse and left his horse to the staff, who took it inside the stables.

"Artemis needs a good brushing, would you mind brushing her for me?" Neji kindly asked the woman who was holding onto his horse's reins. She was surprised by his request, but nodded in response.

"Yes prince, I would be glad to," she answered and waited until Neji lifted the girl off of the horse before she started walking the beautiful brown horse inside. She passed Naruto and Shikamaru, her curious eyes on the other two unconscious girls. When Shikamaru lifted the blonde girl from his horse, the marking that would normally be covered by her hair was completely visible to the maid's eyes.

"Oh my god.." she softly whispered, her eyes widening as she passed the two princes and entered the stables with Artemis. Before walking Artemis to her stall, she saw the girls being carried to the castle's direction from the corner of her eye.

Ino could feel the warmth of the sunlight, when it finally hit her skin. It felt pleasant, which tempted her to open her eyes. But the moment she did she was blinded by the rays of sunlight coming from a window she was directly in front of. She groaned and tried to move her hand to shied her tired eyes, but all of her limbs felt stiff, as if she hadn't moved in a long time. Ino proceeded to clumsily crawl away from the devilishly bright sunlight and rested her back against a wall.

"What the actual fuck.." the princess breathed out, as she slid her fingers on the cold stone floor she'd just woken up on. Her thought process was as stiff as her movements, she really couldn't remember what was going on. She could feel a headache pounding in the back of her head, but it started to get better as her eyes slowly got used to the amount of light in the room.

She saw metal bars surrounding the small square shaped space she was provided with. Okay, so she was in some sort of a cell. That was new. When she really focused her gaze to her side, she noticed a figure on the other side of the bars.

"Pink hair.." Ino mumbled, still trying to figure out the situation she was in. Her brain definitely wasn't working as sharply as before, but the pieces were starting to collect into a clear picture.

And then it hit her.

"SAKURA!" the blonde screamed, frantically crawling over to the bars that separated her from the unconscious girl. She grabbed a hold of one with her left hand, clinging to it while reaching through to the other cell with her right one. She prayed that her pink haired friend was okay, but she couldn't reach her even with the tips of her fingers.

"Wake up Sakura, please," Ino pleaded. She couldn't leave her. Not here. Not now. Her cerulean eyes welled with tears when she didn't hear a response, Sakura didn't even flinch. Ino turned to look around the room, seeing her two other friends also behind bars and out of her reach.

"Hinata.." she inaudibly whispered, turning her gaze from the limp blue haired girl to Tenten, who alarmingly caught Ino's attention. Her brain was slowly starting to work out all of the details now. She started to remember the forest, the panic, being chased. She remembered it all. She also remembered that she hadn't seen the other girls since they all bolted from their hiding places.

Tenten wasn't in the best shape. She was lying on her stomach, not moving. Ino couldn't tell if she was actually breathing or not. She had bruises all over body and blood on her clothes. She had cuts and wounds in multiple places, but they didn't look that bad. Most of the bleeding had stopped and nothing looked like she was in any immediate danger.

"Tenten, not you too," Ino groaned in exasperation and buried her face in her palms, letting her long blonde hair fall in front of her face. She was all alone, this was exactly what she'd been afraid of.

'This can't be happening' she thought to herself, holding a suppressed cry inside of her. Hearing a small rustling noise made her jump. She looked up from her hands with teary, confused eyes, only to see Tenten moving her bruised legs.

"Tenten!" Ino cried out and clung onto the bars that separated them. "Are you alright?"

She watched Tenten's body twitching and her eyes slowly opening. Ino felt joy lighting up her insides as she watched the brown haired girl get up, supporting her upper body on her forearms. It looked incredibly painful since her arms looked like they were in a really bad condition, but Tenten kept on pushing herself up until she was in a sitting position.

First she didn't say anything, she didn't really even give Ino a good glance. She examined herself first, checking out the wounds on her arms and legs, feeling that her body was somewhat okay. Only after she had made sure she was ultimately going to make it did she turn her eyes to Ino.

"Do I look alright?"

"Hell no, I thought you were dead."

Tenten gave herself another look and shrugged. "I'll survive, but we'll be needing Sakura's help for sure."

Then she turned to look at the unconscious pink princess. "So, what do you know?"

Ino gave the room they were in another good look. The room wasn't big, but it did hold a few cells in it. There were two rows of cells, both against one solid wall and an aisle separating them. The minimal light they had came from two windows, which were so high up that they wouldn't be able to reach them even if they tried. There was a large wooden door that most likely was the exit, which Ino had her eyes glued on.

"Well, not that much," the blonde princess sighed. "I've only been up a few minutes myself so not much more than you. What do you think happened to us?"

"No idea, I got knocked out by this one guy, but my god, if I ever see him again I will kill him and then KILL HIM AGAIN!" Tenten growled, clenching her fists and banging them against the floor. Which hurt. A lot.

"Oww.." her angered face turned soft as she softly blew cold air into her now more damaged hands.

Ino turned her gaze away from Tenten. In an attempt of standing up, she grabbed a tight hold of one of the bars that separated her and Tenten's cells, struggling to get up on her feet. Eventually she was able to pull herself up and support herself on her two legs, but standing up was slightly shaky at first. All of the effects of the running and traveling they'd done had now kicked in and Ino was not enjoying it.

"This was a bad idea, wouldn't recommend," Ino commented to Tenten, who nodded in agreement when looking at her trembling legs.

"Yeah, wasn't even going to try."

The blonde princess let out a frustrated sigh. "Well this is just great! We're trapped in this stupid whatever-dungeon, Hinata and Sakura are both unconscious and you look like shit. I feel groggy as fuck and my powers are completely drained," Ino started yelling, frustrated words just exploding out of her mouth. Even Tenten was surprised by the blonde's use of curse words.

"Calm down woman!"

An unfamiliar voice called out from behind them. Ino wasn't quite sure if to turn around or not, but she could feel a familiar presence. His presence.

"It's you," she hissed and turned around to face the man from the forest. "It was you, you did this to us didn't you!"

Shikamaru's eyebrow raise gave everyone else's a run for their money. He was leaning against the wooden door that was the only entryway to the room, his arms folded across his chest and a smug look on his face. His brown eyes clashed with the cerulean eyes of the girl he'd chased for a good half an hour, who was currently screaming to him at the top of her lungs. Her face had turned from an ivory shade into a red that resembled a ripe tomato and she was clinging onto the bars of her cell like she was going to bend a hole in them to get through. He wasn't sure if he should be afraid and actually take this girl seriously, but he had to admit that he really liked her more when she was unconscious. Now she was just plain annoying.

'Damn Sasuke, what did you get us into..' Shikamaru thought, before pushing himself up and tiredly lifting his arms behind his head.

"If you'd just calm down, I could finally let you and your friend out."

Ino's yelling stopped and she confusedly eyed the man in front of her. She took a step back and folded her arms across her chest, clearly sceptical of his words. The tension between Ino and her kidnapper was so extreme that Tenten just quietly looked at the events unfold, making sure not to attract any attention to herself what so ever. Ino stared into the calm eyes of her kidnapper, who stared right back into her cerulean ones.

"Now why would you do that after you went through all the trouble of kidnapping us?" Ino asked, her blue eyes examining him now that she could actually have a good look at him. His hair shined in the minimal lighting the room had. It was on a ponytail that still made his head slightly resemble a pineapple, but she was starting to get used to it. He was tall, he had broad shoulders and a generally well-toned body, which didn't seem compatible with the irritated look he seemed to constantly have. He had changed clothes from before and was now wearing a dark button-up shirt with the top two buttons left unbuttoned and black pants to complete the look. Guess he liked black.

"Well, your friend here", Shikamaru nudged to Tenten's relative direction not taking his eyes off Ino, "might want to get cleaned up from all the blood she's covered in and I doubt you want to just hang around here with passed out people." He dug through the front pocket of his pants and lifted up a bunch of keys, which he dangled in front of Ino.

She backed against the wall when he approached her cell to open the metal door. "I know you still did it."

Shikamaru sighed, he was getting bored of this nonsense. "Yes I did, so calm down you troublesome woman or I'll do it again."

That shut the blonde girl's mouth much to Shikamaru's delight. He then proceeded to open the door to the other girl's cell, who hesitated when he stuck his hand out to her.

"I thought you might need some help getting up."

Tenten eventually grabbed his hand and let him pull her to her feet. She surprisingly managed to stay on her two feet and nodded a thank you to him, her eyes roaming his body looking for possible weapons he could have.

This got Shikamaru to cautiously take a few steps back. "I have no intention of hurting you, so there is no need to look at me like a punching bag."

"By the way, you really beat up Neji. Good job, really put his arrogant ass back to it's place," Shikamaru said in a congratulatory fashion and walked over to the door, pulling it wide open.

Tenten and Ino were both completely confused, Tenten slowly realizing that this 'Neji' was most likely the guy who'd beat her up.

Ino hesitated. "But what about them?" she asked, looking over her shoulder at the two unconscious princesses. She was as worried for them as much as she was for herself and Tenten. Were they just going to leave them behind?

Shikamaru noticed the girl's worry. "All in due time. They still need to rest for a while before they wake up," he calmly said and walked through the door.

"How do you kno-" Ino asked, but he was already out of the room and probably couldn't even hear her words.

Ino and Tenten looked at each other. They both knew that they couldn't trust anything that they were told right now, but at this point they had no other choice but to follow him. Ino helped Tenten out of her cell and supported her when they entered the staircase that lead out from the room. When she heard the thump of the wooden door closing behind them, she felt the guilt of leaving her friends back there digging a hole in her heart.

"You coming or not?" Shikamaru's voice called out from the staircase that they were in and the girls started climbing up.

"We're coming, alright?!" Ino yelled back, slightly irritated. They were plunging into the unknown and expected to just trust whatever they were offered. But right now they had no other options, they needed to get Tenten cleaned up and Ino was in serious need of resting.

Haha! I finally managed to get chapter 6 out! Now let me know if you want more of a specific ship or not, I'd be interested to know. And just to be clear the timing is kind of medieval but not really, I won't be following any clothing from that time or anything like that. It's modern, but not modern - if that makes sense. Lets just all agree that it's a mix of timings since it's a fantasy world, okay?

❧ Goddess of Glam