Again, I do not own Naruto.
CHAPTER 9 - Missing
"I'm gay."
Temari blinked, tilting her head. "Yeah?"
Senta fumed in his seat, looking at his friend like she just swallowed a bug. "YEAH?! T-That's all you say?"
She laughed. "I mean, I kind of figured. Didn't you like that guy named Bunzo or something-"
"Hey! W-We don't talk about that!" He exclaimed. Senta sighed, checking his phone for a mere second before calming down completely. "It's getting late Temari, I better run. But it's such a surprise after years of not seeing each other, we finally do, Konoha really is a better place, a lot more friendly. Let's exchange numbers, keep in touch with you."
As he extended his phone out to her, she would text in her digits and would do the same process on her phone. She gave him his phone back, looking up as she smiled. "Definitely, I'll see you soon hun."
The two embraced before parting ways.
After what felt like hours at the mall, it was finally time for the gang to regroup. Shikamaru, Ino and Sakura sat near a large pillar outside the cinema, waiting for Sasuke and Naruto to finish their movie. Meanwhile, Ten Ten, Hinata, Kiba, and Neji were on their way up the escalators to meet with them in front of the cinema. They all looked tired, and the 'sporty' group walked onto the higher platform seeing countless bags next to Shikamaru.
"Damn, Shikamaru, had fun shopping for lingerie today?" Kiba joked, admiring all the bags that were cuddled next to him, one even slung around his wrist.
Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. I can't believe you guys left me with these girls, I spent a fortune today and I really don't want to have to explain to my parents that a lot of money came out of my card because that diva over there insisted I pay for all of Temari's clothes."
Ino instantly turned around. "WHO YOU CALLIN' DIVA?"
"You DIVA!"
"WHY YOU-"
Ten Ten got in between them, a worried tone escaped her voice. "Wait guys, where's Temari?"
They all began to look around, seeing that they were definitely missing a blonde, and it wasn't Naruto. As the panic began, Sasuke and Naruto then came out of the theaters.
"ALRIGHT! THAT WAS AWESOME!" Naruto rejoiced, swinging his arms behind his back. He seemed very satisfied with the movie. However, once he opened his eyes, he realized the rest of them looked like they just lost a wedding right or something.
Sasuke gazed at them in wonder. "What's going on?"
"We can't find Temari," Sakura told her boyfriend. "And she's not responding to any of our texts."
Ten Ten put her phone to her ear, desperately waiting for a call. "Come on, Temari..." She looked at the rest of her friends, who seemed to only be spam texting Temari. "Why is no one trying to call her? Come on guys, this could be serious."
"Okay, okay, we all need to calm down." Neji told them, as a chance to rectify the situation. "Ino, Temari was with you guys shopping, did she tell you guys where she was going?"
Ino, stopped texting for a moment. "No, but I saw her reunite with an old friend." She would then add on, "Shikamaru was there with her."
The rest of the group turned to Shikamaru in which he also stopped texting. "Right, it was some guy named Senta, and apparently he and her go away back, so they left to go eat the place where they sell.. sweet bread!"
Kiba raised an eyebrow. "This guy wasn't some predator now, was he?"
Shikamaru shook his head. "No, they seemed close. But this mall is huge, I figure she may have just gotten lost and ended up in an area where cell service is low."
"Oh shit." Sasuke cursed under his breath, causing Sakura to look at him worriedly.
"Sasuke? What's wrong?"
He glanced to his girlfriend before looking up to speak. "Guys, this is serious. If Temari is really there, she could be in a lot of danger."
"Damn, why man? What's up with that place?" Naruto asked him.
"Because," Sasuke continued. "Let's just say there's low cell service there for a reason."
Temari held her bag close to her, looking down at her phone, shaking it in aggravation as no messages were sending nor coming through.
"Come on! Damn thing." And then her phone died. Great. She shoved it inside her bag, looking around to see if anything familiar passed by.
As she continued to walk through a quieter end of the mall, she found an opening that seemed to be an unknown exit of the mall, in which she assumed lead to the parking lots. She would walk towards it, figuring that maybe since it's practically night already, that she could just meet up her friends in the parking lot of their car. However, when she entered the exit, it lead her to an alley way, with one opening, while the other one was a garbage can and a gated fence. Looking firstly at the direction of the closed off area, she turned to the opened area and saw two men with ragged clothing, smoking as if their life depended on it.
Just to her luck, they turned to her and gave a wicked smile she'd never be able to forget. She stepped back, about to make a run for it, however the exit door was locked. She continued to back up as the two men came closer to her. Temari didn't dare to make eye contact, but looked down. "W-What?"
"You look real good, sugar." One of them said, licking his lips as he looked at her in a malicious way.
The other man behind him nodded. "Mhm, you got a boyfriend?"
Temari didn't answer, but by the time her back practically reached the front of the garbage can, she tried to walk away from the man who kept leaning towards her, however he extended an arm out to block her from trying to escape, his hand touching the wall. "You're coming with us, sugar plum."
Ten Ten looked down at her watch. "Guys, it's almost closing. What do we do?"
"I have no idea, we need to go find her though." Kiba added.
"S-Should we call the police?" Hinata suggested.
Sasuke shook his head. "No, the police won't do," he told them. "I think it's best if two of us stay in the mall. I get that it's closing, but even security guards don't check towards that far end of the mall, and I'm almost positive that's where she went."
Sakura looked up at Sasuke, nodding. "So, I'm assuming you're one of them, you promise you'll stay safe?"
"Of course we'll stay safe, Sakura! No biggie!" Naruto grinned widely, swinging an arm over Sasuke's shoulders.
"Naruto, I'm bringing Shikamaru." Sasuke told him.
Shikamaru blinked, and Naruto looked betrayed. "WHAT? WHY?"
"Because Shikamaru has brains, now move it!" Sasuke began to jog down the escalators, followed by Shikamaru.
The gang stood there worriedly, until a security guard told them they had to leave the mall. They obliged, all waiting in Ten Ten's car as Shikamaru had not given his keys to any of them. In a matter of seconds, it started to rain outside.
'Please be safe, Temari.' Ten Ten thought to herself.
"Get away from me." She told him. Temari would crouch under his arm, in which he would swiftly grab her by the waist. On the other hand, the other guy tried to grab a hold of her legs, where he was successful, but this gave her an opportunity to kick him right in the nose, which she successfully did as well.
"AH!" The guy yelped, on the floor trying to put pressure on his now bleeding nose. "Bitch, you're gonna get it now!" He would slap her across the face, causing the left side of her face to beam pink. She gritted her teeth, feeling her eyes get wet but continued to fight back by kicking back into the guy's crotch behind her.
"FUCK!" He'd shout, loud enough for Sasuke and Shikamaru to hear near the exit.
Sasuke carefully listened in, scaling into the wall with his back on the wall, while Shikamaru did the same on the other. Although Sasuke seemed to take control in the operation, he could tell that Shikamaru was scared for Temari. He took a second to listen in, hearing that they were still creating commotion. He made eye contact with Shikamaru, seeing a harsh glare, as if Shikamaru had already sensed it was Temari behind the door.
The guy who approached Temari first then grabbed her by the hair, forcing her to get on her knees. The rain dropped hard, she felt her knee resist a scrape as it landed into a puddle. She gulped, nervously knowing what their intentions were. She tried to hide the wetness of her eyes, but she failed, and tears fell as she tried to escape his grip.
"Stop moving, bitch!" The one holding her hair told her.
The other guy began to play with the zipper of his jeans. "Yeah! Let's see what that precious little mouth of yours can do."
That's all it took for Shikamaru to burst out the door, grabbing the guy by the collar as he dragged him onto the floor to the point where it started to choke him, and he swung a hard fist onto the guy. The original hard fist turned into multiple, and he didn't stop swinging until he saw blood drip from his nose. On the other hand, Sasuke easily took the other guy down, punching him as well and kicking him into the garbage can, falling over and repeatedly kicking him in the balls. Temari was in shock, she looked like a mess, and she remained on the floor until the fighting was over.
However, the fighting wouldn't stop. Sasuke's man was down, but Shikamaru wouldn't stop punching the guy until he looked out of it. Temari then stood up, holding onto Shikamaru's arm that was punching the guy senseless.
"Shikamaru."
He kept punching.
"Shikamaru!"
He still kept punching.
"SHIKAMARU!" She yelled again, in which she also received aid from Sasuke.
"Shikamaru, stop!" He told him. And that's when Shikamaru did. The guy was out cold on the floor. Breathing and alive, but the soul seemed to be gone.
Temari and Sasuke looked at Shikamaru, identifying the tears from the raindrops. Temari and Sasuke stared at their friend, shocked from the adrenaline from not even ten minutes ago. The rain got heavier, and Temari undid her hair ties to distract herself from the intensity of the moment, while on the other hand Sasuke grabbed Shikamaru's arm, urging him to move his feet.
"I'll drive." Was all Sasuke said. His friend needed a time to cope, and Temari followed the boys, and couldn't help but feel guilty.
The trio made their way to the parking lot, Sakura rushing to them with an umbrella. "Are you guys okay? Temari! We were worried sick! Where were you?"
Temari looked to her friend, it wasn't like her to be sentimental, but she rushed to her arms and cried into her shoulder. Sakura, confused, used her free arm to wrap around the blonde's waist, and looked up to see that the two other guys who came to rescue her weren't in such great shape either.
Although both boys seemed to not have any bruises, Sakura couldn't help but notice the disturbed look on Sasuke's face. However, after being in a relationship with him for two years, she automatically recognized the expression, and decided it was not the best time to ask, a mistake she had done one too many times in the past. She then looked at Shikamaru, who looked down to his feet, looking at disturbed as Sasuke was. The boys stood there wet and soaking, while Sakura and Temari were still embraced in each other's arms. Soon enough, the rest of the gang jogged to the rest of them, guiding Temari into Shikamaru's car while Sasuke would again take Shikamaru by the arm and lead the way for him to walk.
"Naruto," Sakura called out to him. "You'll go in the bens, okay?"
Naruto nodded. It wasn't a time to ask questions.
And so, the rest of the gang squished into Ten Ten's car while Temari, Sasuke, Shikamaru and Neji took the Jeep. Neji, because Neji wasn't one to ask questions during a very bad situation.
Throughout the car ride, the clouds came in darker, and the water poured stronger. It was a coincidence, that on such a terrible day, that started off good, came in bad weather as if the universe looked down on all of them and read their minds. Temari pressed her forehead against the window, feeling herself constantly blinking to reduce any more tears to come out. And before she knew it, they were in front of her apartment building.
Without a word, she walked out and headed to the lobby. To the side of her eye, she saw Ino catch up to hand Temari the shopping bags. Temari fought her sadness to crack a smile, inserting her fingers into the hooks of the bag, and continued to walk inside the lobby of her apartment building and dragged her feet up the stairs. Her arm went a diagonal, intending to go for her tote bag to reach for hey keys, however, she realized that the only bags slung on her arms were the shopping ones. Panicking, she then realizes she left her tote bag in the car.
'Can this day get any worse?'