Doubts of Yesterday
Chapter 5: Wounded
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKWhen they finally arrived in Suna, Gaara had no information to offer them. And unsurprisingly, the ninja he was going to send along with them was no other than Kankurou, the puppet master.
Soon after this short reunion, the three shinobi took off, headed towards the area near the Fire Country. It was very quiet between the three of them and all attempts at conversation Kankurou and Sakura tried to make was quickly trailed off into silence. Finally, realizing how impossible it was going to be to talk, they settled with the silence.
Of course, the same thing was going through all of their heads. Temari could be dead. This whole search could be pointless.
Naruto didn't want to think that way; things had come through in far worse situations than this. He knew there wasn't a good chance they'd find Temari, especially going off of the little amount of info they had. By little, I mean microscopic. They had no information whatsoever besides the fact that Temari had left Konoha four days ago and hadn't returned to Suna. Besides that, there were no traces of her.
How could a person just disappear like that? Someone had to have seen her… there was just no way Temari could disappear like that. Or so he thought, he had never heard of a missing person really, most ninjas, if they didn't come back from their mission, they were dead, and nobody went after them.
These thoughts and others created a negative silence between the three instead of a less tense silence of nervous minds. But the added negative thoughts just put a rough edge on the silence. If only they had some sort of clue… some sort of lead, any sort at all.
Finally, after awhile, Kankurou made a stab at conversation, "A few days before Temari left, she told me something about a place she had discovered. It seemed to be abandoned, but she wasn't so sure about it."
"Do you think she went there, Kankurou-san?" Sakura questioned the older ninja. When Kankurou nodded, she added quickly, "Do you know where it is?"
Kankurou shook his head, "No, not particularly. She said was well hidden, but not impossible to find. She described to me what the building looked like, and what the surroundings looked like."
"So another dead end…?" Sakura questioned a bit disappointed. She hadn't even noticed the fox boy's attention was fully on their conversation.
"Let's try to find that place." Naruto insisted, "It's the only hint we've got. And what if Temari's there? And in trouble?" He didn't want to risk it. They had to check into all possibilities, and they had nowhere to turn to at the moment.
Kankurou looked sheepish, "I suppose. I'll keep an eye out for anything that looks remotely like it could be it." He wanted to find Temari as much as Naruto did, but he doubted the old building had anything to do with Temari's disappearance. It was odd that Temari had mentioned it, then about a week later turned up missing…
& & & &
It was dark, almost no light entered the room, the only window was small, and there was some sort of material covering it. She shifted, only to have a sharp pain hit her side, like a knife being twisted inside of her flesh. With a gasp, stopped all movement. Tentatively, she looked down at her side. The fabric was ripped, and drenched in dried blood. She uttered a curse when she realized she had reopened the wound, and new, bright red blood oozed out from underneath the dried blood.
She winced. How long had she been here? She left Konoha three days ago, last time she checked. She didn't know how long she had been unconscious, and there were no clues around her. Even if their had been, chances are she wouldn't have been able to see them, the room was too dark. With a sigh, she flexed her wrists and ankles. Tied. Not very well, but the injury to her side would keep her from going anywhere too far. She'd have to wait for it to heal, and she didn't know how long that'd be.
With a sinking heart, she realized that she was probably labeled 'Presumed Dead' at the moment. Nobody would come looking for her; she was on her own. But she had known this, if she had ever been captured, she was pretty much on her own unless they knew where she was. Nobody knew where she was, she had kept it secret that she was heading for a visit of an unlikely place…
Naruto… she had left the village without telling him she had to go. Did he know of her disappearance? Did anybody know? She sighed once again. The situation was almost hopeless, she had only herself to rely on for escape. But there were probably guards around the place… if she tried getting out; she'd have to be in better shape than she is now. Even then, who says they won't take her out of this room and into a better one, one that she couldn't easily break the window and jump out? The chance now was something that she couldn't pass up, that she wouldn't pass up normally. But she could hardly move, the injury on her side was serious, and moving would only make it worse, she'd only be endangering herself if she tried to leave.
She moved her head so she was facing the window. The substance that covered the window was just an inner layer of glass, she had thought it was blocked because of the lack of sunlight. It wasn't sunny out, that was all… but why leave such an easy escape route? There had to be something up with that window, even in her current condition, she could still bust the window and leave.
Nobody was that sloppy. The inner layer must have some sort of security precautions on it, otherwise whoever was holding her captive were complete morons. She was a Jounin after all, escaping though a window would be no big deal if she wasn't so injured. But she was. And she couldn't change that at the moment. She'd have to wait at least until it sealed up a bit more. She didn't want to risk going out yet.
She examined her surroundings once more. There was only one window, and she was lying on something hard. The floor, she noted almost automatically. There seemed to be only one other piece of furniture in the room, and that was a bed in the corner, messy white covers spread out hastily over it's surface. There was a door nearby, but Temari suspected it was locked. Paper was cluttered about the floor near her, but as far as she could tell, nothing was printed on the papers. She wasn't tied to anything, which gave her a bit of an advantage. As soon as she could move without too much pain, she could sit up…
But what scared her the most about this whole situation is that she had plenty of time—too much time—to think about what they could do to her, and what they wanted her for. She didn't want to think about it, she knew if she did, the more possibilities that came up, the less she'd feel the need to get out, the need to escape. The more hopeless the situation seemed, the less a person wanted to spend energy on it.
It wasn't like she had a choice to spend energy on this situation or not. She was in no position to be making demands or arrangements. She had to plan carefully if she hoped to get out. She had no idea who her captors were, much less their rank of strategic ability, but she hoped they were complete and utter morons.
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A/N: Short again, but whatever. You can live with this much, I updated twice in one day. Review.