peachpit: WOW! I finally got this chapter done! Have fun reading! I'll try and update soon! Oh, and thank you for the reviews. I appriciate every one of them, I really, really do. Thank you so much! Arigato! And thank you for the offers of help, but I have a few friends who offered to help as well...I will try to improve myself.
The three girls stood close together as they were lead out of the front door, outside into the damp air. Under a roofed walkway, they were lead by Akitaro to what looked like the back of a tall white building. When they reached the back room, the bulky man turned to face the group of girls he was herding.
"Your duties are written on your job cards. Get to work. You'll break for lunch in three hours."
With that, he turned and locked the door behind him. Tenten waited a moment, as to make sure he was completely gone, before turning to Temari.
"What's a job card?" she questioned.
"I'll show you in a minute," The blonde replied. "First, you need to wash your face and fix your hair or the guests might complain. You don't want one of Akitaro's punishments."
Tenten swallowed the lump in her throat and followed Temari to a small dirty bathroom in the back, Hinata trailing behind quietly. When she saw her reflection in the mirror, she felt hot tears begin to well up in her eyes. Her face was filthy. Small purple bruises could be seen scattered across her darkened skin. Her once smooth, ebony hair that had been placed carefully in to tidy symmetrical buns now lied in two matted messes on her head. She felt as bad as she looked.
Ferociously, she yanked her hair down and began combing through the knotted mess with her fingers. Watching her, Temari reached into the right pocket of her faded blue pants and pulled out a small, plastic comb.
"Let me help," She ordered more than asked. Tenten retreated her shaking hands and let her arms hang limply at her side, a feeling of hopelessness filled Tenten's chest.
As Temari slowly and carefully began working through Tenten's knots, she turned her head to the silent Hyuuga.
"Go ahead and wash your face off while I work on her hair."
Hinata nodded and walked timidly to the old, cracking sink.
Minutes later, Temari led the two younger girls to a small room with a large bulletin board on the wall. Papers were scattered sporadically over it. Temari traced her finger along the surface of one sheet of paper with names listed on it.
"Your names aren't up here yet," she stated. "but I have room duty, so you two can come with me." Temari re-tied the waist of her apron. Tenten and Hinata had been instructed to grab one on their way over, and proceeded on tying it neatly on.
Room duty was fairly easy. Your job was to go into rooms that had been used the night before and replace the sheets, clean the floor, and make sure everything was in order. Occasionally you were expected to clean the hallways.
Four days after her arrival, Tenten was washing the hall floor. Two neat, brunette braids hung loosely over her shoulders. Hinata had gone with Temari to get a bucket of water to mop with. Setting aside her rag, Tenten sighed as she stood up. Stretching, she lazily walked to an loosely shut window in the void hallway, taking advantage of the solitude. It was still raining out.
Gazing downward from the black sky, she looked towards the ground two stories down. She could easily jump the distance if she had been in better condition. It seems Temari had been correct when she told Tenten they stuck her with tranquilizer every day. Her hand rose to the sore red spot on her neck that had been getting redder and more painful with each stick.
Luckily, she had gotten used to the side effect of feeling unable to move excessively and found doing her duties slightly easier. To avoid swelling and adding any further discomfort, the withdrew her hand from the small red prick. She focused her attention once again to the glass window. She noticed the edge was cracked open slightly.
She pushed slightly on the window's smooth surface. If creaked ajar slightly. She pushed again, more boldly, and the window creaked open. The door swung crookedly on it's rusted hinges sideways outward. Tenten placed both hands on the windowsill and gingerly peeked her head outward.
Tenten observed the way the roof had been built kept and rain from pelting her in the face. Luckily, the rain was also falling straight downward so none got inside. Closing her chocolate eyes, she inhaled deeply, savoring the scent of fresh air.
"Such a dreary day out," she mumbled as if to start a conversation with herself.
Despite herself, she began to let her mind wander freely from this dark ominous prison she was held captive in.
"I wonder…" she muttered, "…what Neji and Lee are doing…"
Her eyes slowly opened once more as she began to feel a lump grow in the midst of her dry throat. Her eyes began to sting from forcing herself to swallow the lump, along with a few tears.
Where they even looking for her? Did they even know she was gone? Of course they did. She must have had to be gone from Konoha for at least four days now. Surly they would notice her absence and come looking? Certainly they would come to her rescue…
But then again, it had been four whole days with no sign of any of her teammates nor any rescue-search teams. Were they lost somewhere? Had they given up hope? All this rain would make it extremely difficult to follow anyone's tracks.
Her teammates were smart, though. Perhaps she had left them some sort of clues at the place of her capture. She rubbed her swollen eyes once more. What had happened that night? Everything seemed like nothing but a blur to her. She couldn't remember a thing about that night.
She had come here pretty roughed up, though. She remembered the many scratches and bruises on her teammates as well. This made her conclude she must have put up some sort of fight. Making the hints of a struggle left behind where she was captured would give her teammates some sort of lead.
Her thoughts were interrupted with the sounds of people approaching. She turned her head to see Temari and Hinata walking towards her. Hinata had a large bucket in her hands, Temari held another. The handle grasped in her hand swung loosely, splattering small droplets of soapy water on the wooden floor.
Temari had been in the middle of telling Hinata something, in which Tenten could only graps a few words like "fan" and "wind". She smiled softly as her comrades dropped the buckets on the ground at their feet.
"Sorry it took awhile, Tenten." Temari said while wiping a few drops of sudsy water off of her arm and onto her dampening apron. "We had to go to the back room because the sink in the hall closet isn't working."
"Isokay," Tenten mumbled as a response. Hinata got to her knees and dipped a rag in the soapy water.
"You sure have been working diligently today," Temari observed with a yawn and a stretched. Hinata glanced up slightly.
"If I work hard," she muttered quietly while going back to work. "then I can drown out what is going on around me,"
An ominous feeling of discomfort shot through Tenten's gut. Poor Hinata had it just as bad as her, and she was trying to ignore the bad situation by keeping herself busy. Tenten knelt down by her milky-eyed friend. Perhaps, she should spend less time think negatively about her teammates and more time doing something productive. Like, finding a way home, for example.
Temari draped her rag halfway out of her apron pocket and turned to face the end of the hallway. Tenten looked up at her.
"What is it?" She asked.
"Someone's coming down the hall," the tall sand kunoichi replied plainly. Sure enough, a few seconds later Tenten saw the shadow of someone turning around the corner. Tenten stood up next to Temari; Hinata stayed crouched down and acted as if she hadn't even noticed. They saw a man begin to walk down the hallway towards them.
Temari took a step forward,
"Sir, this hallway has been blocked off. We're cleaning it now. If you'd like, I can get an attendant to show you to—"
The man came closer and cut her off.
"—Shut up, I work here." He snapped.
Temari stopped moving and tried to refrain from sending him a nasty look. She didn't try hard enough, though. The man ignored her and scanned the three girls.
"Are you three cleaning this floor yourself?" He demanded.
Without turning to face him, Temari said flatly,
"No, just this hallway. There are at least four more on this floor."
He grunted and nodded, though Tenten thought it looked as if his mind were elsewhere. Suddenly, his dark green eyes flashed in her direction. Tenten's spine stiffened as she struggled to keep from moving.
He continued to stare for a moment before shaking his head and facing the three of them,
"We have a customer." He said tonelessly.
Tenten glanced apprehensively towards Temari, who had begun to show signs of discomfort. Temari slowly turned and had opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off again by the man.
"He gave us a specific description on the kind of girl he wanted," He paused a moment to let out a cough.
"I can do it," Temari stated firmly.
He shook her off with his hand. Tenten felt a fear grow in the pit of her stomach as the man looked in her general direction. Tenten was still as he took a step towards her.
Her eye's widened in shock and horror as the man pointed to not her, but the crouched and still Hinata and said,
"You."
Hinata froze.
"And shut that fuckin' window on your way out, it's bloody freezing in here."
peachpit: Review please! Reviews keep me going!