Chapter 38
When Temari wakes up, she immediately feels that something is off. Slowly opening her eyes, she notices the room she's in is dark and a bit dank. Turning her head around on her lumpy pillow, she notices the silhouette of the cobwebs on the ceiling and an almost inch thick dust on every surfaces. Suppressing the urge to sneeze with her palm over her mouth, Temari's eyes feel on the wall on the left side of her narrow bed. Four chains with two loops for the hands and another two for the feet are installed on that wall.
Indeed the room appears like an abandoned prison cell and staring at its metallic walls and the dents dotting its surface, Temari is sure that it is fortified by strong steel and jutsu.
Shaking her head, to clear it, Temari thinks back. Last night, as usual, she was so tired but she still bothered to check if someone has been to her room while she was out working, satisfied, next she set traps to warn her if anyone is trying to infiltrate her quarters while she sleeps.
No, it wasn't her lack of defence that landed her in this position. No matter how skilled the nin is she would have noticed his entry inside her room last night and she would have put on a good fight. It was her room—it was already set as a trap right from the start even before she occupied it. She had chosen her room randomly and scanned it meticulously but she had never come across anything that looked like the dispenser of the odourless gas that rendered her unconscious. The sleeping gas must have been set up on all the rooms and have been camouflaged well.
She moves to sit on the edge of the bed; she then notices the dirty toy on the floor. Standing to pick it up, Temari gazes at the stuffed teddy bear on her hand.
Temari mumbles to herself, "A child was kept here," affirming the servant's gossip, adding to her uneasy feeling. She then searches for other objects that could tell her who among the Kazekage's sons the servant was referring to.
Days ago, as she and one of the other servants were wandering down the back hallway of the Kazekage's mansion on their way to one of their outside chores; Temari noticed a metallic well-sealed door. The servant walking beside her followed her eyes and whispered that the room was added as an extension to the Kazekage's house fifteen years ago. Everyone was prohibited to enter the room except one of the Kazekage's sons who was often sent to the room for discipline when he was younger. Temari knows that she is inside that room now, sharing the fate of one of her brothers or maybe Kamaru...
Temari shivers. The darkness relieved by a tiny bulb on a corner, the compact enclosing walls— Temari can't imagine growing up under the threat of this room if she misbehaved. The Kazekage doesn't show favor to any of his sons and the few times she has seen him around, he seems to ignore Shikamaru the most, while he talks down to Kankuro and Gaara, Gaara, he appears to grudgingly respect. So there's a chance that it was Shikamaru who have been the one confined here as a kid. Those shackles could have braced his small hands and feet. He must live in fear and desolation during those days.
Temari shakes her head, forcefully removing the images painted inside it.
No, it wasn't Shikamaru. It must be to someone else that the stuffed bear she's holding belongs to.
—o0o—
Without her fan, her chakra-infused kicks and jabs on the door of her prison is not powerful enough to crack it open. Reduce to shouting for help; Temari's voice has started to become hoarse after several hours of calling for somebody's attention when she hears someone on the other side.
"Open this damn door," Temari rasps, her throat felt dry. But being thirsty and hungry is the least of her problems right now. The person on the other side of the door could be the shinobi who have carried her inside this room to possibly die out of thirst and starvation. However, it could also be someone else—one of the servants perhaps. Temari knows she's grappling at straws as she shouts for assistance. But it's important that she doesn't die here. She refuses to die just like this.
"Get me out of here!" Temari demands as she pounds on the steel door, hard.
At first, the only sound Temari hears in response is that of someone chuckling. She then discovers that the person behind the door is Kankuro as his voice floats to her side of the room.
"So even father is pissed at you," Kankuro gloats after discovering Temari's predicament.
"Get me out of here or I swear I'll kill you if you don't."
"Temper, temper!" Kankuro mocks. "I have to go, training you know."
The next sound Temari detects are Kankuro's diminishing footsteps as he leaves.
"Dammit! Kankuro get back here!" Temari hollers, banging the door with all her might but it only adds another dent to its metallic solid surface.
TBC
~4/8/11AF~
A/N: Sandanio, your cave idea led me to this prison cell idea... yeah this chappie is that old...and I did say it morphed...
This story is so slooooow, it's killing me—by Chibiver...well, just an example of a review. Try doing it after you click that blue 'review' below, okay.