I don't own anything except my character.
The ground was cool and rocky, the air felt musky and thick. A weight pressed against her waist and arms, her wrist felt like they had a heavy bracelet on them. Foot steps echoed though the rocky corridor, the dim lights flickered every so often. She shifted her weight and heard the dull rustle of metal chains. She froze then after moment shifted her weight again. The rustle of metal chain lightly echoed off the rocky walls. Suzanna slowly opened her eyes at first then her eyes went wide as she realized where she was.
"Suzanna. Oh Suzanna, Wake up." a voice echoed in side her head.
"I'm up Rensha. What happened and why are we not out of this damn cave?" Suzanna thought. The chains were heavy and were looped around her waist one time. There was some slack in the chains but not a whole lot. She looked around and that her father, Kiba and Akamaru were in the same cell as she was as she sat up.
"We got separated from Ino and Colby. We took the wrong tunnel and after that I'm not sure what happened either." Rensha replied.
Suzanna leaned her head against the rocky wall and closed her eyes. In her mind she walked into a large room with red and gold trim along the base and top of the walls. The room was paint red with images of flames coming up from the base of the wall. On one wall was an outline of a large bird in gold, rising up from the flames and spread along the other walls were music notes painted in yellow and orange. The room was empty except for a few couches facing the large bird outline. Sitting in one of the couches was a lady dressed in a red skirt that stopped just above the knees, with yellow flames running up it. She wore a tight red shirt that stopped just above her waist. She had long brown hair that was pulled back into a pony-tail.
"How did we get separated from them?" Suzanna asked "They were right behind us."
"Colby blocked the corridor behind us numerous times to by us some time. Each time we got father ahead of him. Ino stayed with him the whole time, and that is how we got separated from them. When we reach were the tunnel divide we went right when they went left." Rensha explained. Suzanna balled up her fists in anger.
"Colby and dumb ass luck. Always finding the right way out, or making his own way. Wait.. why didn't you tell me that Colby was falling behind?" Suzanna asked accusingly.
"I did tell you but you didn't listen. You were solely focused on getting out that you didn't hear me" Rensha shot back. "Anyways that doesn't matter now, all you, Kiba and your father have to do is stay alive until the cavalry comes and busts us out of here."
"So Colby and Ino are coming back for us with help?" Suzanna asked. She knew Colby would try to come back either by himself or with Ino before going for help but he does have his moments where the light bulb comes on in that simple mind of his.
"Yes they have gone for help and a lot of it." Rensha smiled "They are getting the whole family together."
Suzanna's jaw hit the floor. The whole family? She could understand if he got a couple relatives but the whole family? That might be a little bit over kill but then again she figured that if Colby could do he would over do it.
"The ENTIRE family?" Suzanna asked in disbelief.
"Yes, the ENTIRE family is coming to save ours asses." Rensha smiled. Suzanna laughed with a smile. She knew the family would find her, just she didn't expect that they would be coming to help her.
"Alright, so what about Ino?" Suzanna asked. She and Ino were best friends and had become like sisters.
"Ino is fine and she is with Colby. She will be alright, you know Colby likes her don't you?" Rensha said with a smirk on her face.
"I figured he liked her, and I knows she likes him. So I would bet they are probably together right now. That' good he's found another girl after Ali was killed on that last mission he went on." She said as the memory of that mission came to her mind. Rensha nodded in agreement.
"Alright enough chatting to have company." Rensha said. Suzanna turned around and walked through the door.
Akamaru was growling as Suzanna opened her eyes. She looked at her father then to Kiba and Akamaru. Kiba and her father were chained up like she was and Akamaru had a metal collar around his neck. She looked at the door to the cell they were in. It was solid wood door with metal bracing on it. To either side of it was solid rock. The cell had no windows, and only a single tiny light bulb in the middle of the ceiling. The door opened and squeaked loudly. Suzanna's heart sank as a fire ignighted in her gut when she saw who walked in.
"Ah, finally you are awake. Now this time you don't have your cousin to step in and help you out." Lady Whittum walked into the cell with an evil smile don her face. Two ninja also walked into the cell behind her and stood on either side of her.
"What the hell do you want?" Kiba growled as he tried to loosen the chains. Lady Whittum motioned to him and one of the guards walked over to Kiba and kicked him right in the gut. Kiba slammed up against the rocky wall with a thud.
"Kiba!" Suzanna shouted. Suzanna tried to stand up but the chains were short and she was jerked back down to the floor. Still she tried to stand up again this time she strained against the chains as if she was trying to rip them out of the wall. She turned to her mother and death glared at her. "Don't you dare touch Kibe or I'l..."
"Or you will do what? You runt, look at yourself. You can do crap and there is no chance of you being rescued, because Colby and that other chick you were with are dead. They died trying to fight their way out." She said laughing. Suzanna's heart sank even more and the fire in her gut flared out, as the other guard walked up to and punched her in the gut. The blow knocked the wind out of her and sent her stumbling backwards into the wall before she sank back down onto her butt.
"She is lying Suzanna. Colby and Ino are still alive! Don't listen to her." Rensha's voice rang through Suzanna's head as she gasped trying to catch her breath.
"Now as for you." Lady Whittum said glaring at Steve, Suzanna's father. "You and that group of misfits you call a family are going to pay for what you did."
"For what we did? Woman you are nuts. You caused all that trouble for yourself. You went around trying to start crap between me and my family, while trying to get those closest to you to bend to your will. It didn't help that you treated Suzanna like shit her whole life." Steve shouted. Suzanna and Kiba looked over at Steve. Suzanna had seen her father mad before but not like this. This was beyond what she had seen when her father and her mother had fought before she ran off. Lady Whittum just laughed at him.
"Every night it seemed like you were taking Suzanna with you and staying over at your brother's house while you left me alone." She fired back.
"Gee I wounder why? Could how you always wanted to fight over the smallest thing, how you constantly treated Suzanna like she was nothing, or was it because you liked to float from man to man on the nights you supposedly stayed over at your sister's house." Steve countered. Suzanna smiled to herself but Lady Whittum saw her smirk.
"What are you smiling at, you no good runt!" She shouted as she back handed Suzanna across the face. Kiba sat back and watched trying find an opening where he could get in on the action, and he saw it when Suzanna got back handed.
"HEY BITCH! You keep your hands off of Suzanna!" Kiba shouted. "You won't stand a chance against any of us once we bust out of here!"
"Shut up, mut. This doesn't concern you." Lady Whittum said and the guard kicked Kiba in the gut again. This time Akamaru started barking and snarling like he was hyped up on one to many energy drinks or food pills. "Shut that mut up as well!"The guard nodded and went to kick Akamaru but ended up with his shin inside Akamaru's mouth. The jaws of the dog clamped down on the guards leg, the sickening sound of bones being crushed echoed around the cell. The guard yelled in pain and started beating Akamaru's large head with his fist. Akamaru didn't let go until Kiba yelled at him to let go as the guard pulled out a kuni knife. The guard limped away from Akamaru with his shin bent at an angle. Lady Whittum glanced at her watch as the guard limped out of the cell.
"I'll deal with you tomorrow. I need to get some rest before I finish you off tomorrow." She said and briskly left the cell with the other guard in tow. The door squeaked as it slammed shut. The locked latched and Suzanna, Kiba and Steve listened as the foot step faded away. Suzanna leaned against the wall as tears silently rolled down her cheek.
"Suz. Don't worry, Colby isn't dead and neither is the girl he is with. They will come back and with any luck they will have some extra help with them." Her father said trying to comfort her.
"I hope you are right. I don't want to die by her hand." Suzanna said as her voice quivered.
It was 10:30 at night and the moon was just starting to rise up. Ino was sitting on the platform alone as she waited for Colby to finish helping with the planning for tomorrow's attack on the underground cave system, Kiba, Suzanna and Steve were being held in. She had been helping with the planning but she quickly realized that this wasn't her thing to plan and decieded that it would be better if she let Colby and his family handle the planning. Ino leaned back in the bench and put her hands behind her head as she reflected what had gone on during the day: She waking up the cell and watching as Kiba, Suzanna, then her and finally Colby get dragged of to be interigated. Colby being thrown into her cell, and she taking care of him. Then Colby saving her ass from the guards which resulted in all the excitment of them breaking out. Just as she started to go over how she and Colby managed to get out but not the rest of them she heard foot steps coming towards her.
"Colby?" she asked as she sat up and looked down the platform. It was well lit and she could see who was coming but it wasn't Colby.
"No, but close." A voice replied, it was Jason. "Mind if I sit down?" he asked.
"No, not at all." Ino replied as she scooted over a little bit and Jason sat down and leaned back with his arms crossed.
"Moon sure is bright tonight aint it?" Jason said as he looked up at the moon. Ino did the same, but looked down the tracks when the sound of a horn echoed through the night. "It's one of them new diesel electrics the railroad is trying out. Suppose to be cheeper to run than the steam engines. I like em' they are a lot cleaner than the steam engines to work in but I hate that cheep noise maker they call a horn they have on them." Jason said. Ino looked back up at the moon and said nothing. She had a dreamy look in her eye as she leaned back and stared at the moon.
"You thinking about Colby are you?" Jason asked. Ino looked at him and smiled a little.
"Yeah. I've only know him a few days but... " Ino trailed off and didn't finish her scentence.
"But, you really like him already." Jason said taking a guess at what the rest of Ino's scentence might have been. Ino smiled and blushed a little, Jason smiled to knowing he had guessed right.
"Yeah, I do. I had the best night with him before he had to into that meeting." Ino said. A light appeared down the tracks as the horn echoed again through the night. "So what do you know about him?" she asked shyly.
Jason chuckled "Well what do you want to know? I can probably tell you a lot about him and guess at the rest."
"Well, did he ever have a girl friend?" Ino asked. Jason looked at her with a sad look on his face as the horn echoed again with the ringing of a bell in the background. The light from the locomotive's headlight gleamed off the tops of the rails.
"He did. For some 3 years. I've never seen him any happier than he was during those three years he had Ali. Everyone in one our family and her family swore that he would propose to her any day, but then they both were put on an A ranked mission. It was the first A ranked for both of them. We were in a rather large squad, there was 7 in our squad. Colby, Ali, myself, two from our family and two from her family. Our mission was to escort and protect a high ranking public official from our village to the Leaf Village. At the time there was only freight service beyond our village."
"I though that your family didn't like being ninja?" Ino asked.
Jason smiled. "My family in not the normal ninja family. We prefer to work on the railroad and earn our living than by assassinating people, escorting stuck up rich people, or any of that other ninja stuff. Just because you have the skill set of a ninja doesn't mean you have to use those skills to earn a living. We we like the Anbu of our village, but we mainly assist the Anbu that are around our village. Least that's what I do when I'm not work on the railroad. It's kinda hard to explain exactly why we don't just go and become full ninja. Yes the pay is better but with our family being so close together it doesn't seem worth possibly losing your life or losing a family member"
"Oh, so like being ninja is like a second job you do but don't really want to?" Ino asked trying to understand what Jason had said.
"Yeah, it' something like that I guess you could say." Jason said. The horn of the engine blared again as the diesel engine slowly rolled past Ino and Jason. The engine had a smooth slanted nose and had a streamlined body with only the short exhaust vents and the horn sticking out of the roof. The trucks had 3 axles on them and were painted sliver, the body had no paint on it except for two stripes of green and yellow running down either side. The unpainted areas were stainless steel that glistened in the moon light.
"So what happened to Ali?" Ino asked.
Jason watched the engine roll by as he answered, "She died during the mission. We were ambushed, Colby was holding her in his arms as she past. Technically the mission was a success but to us it was a complete disaster. Colby was crushed like a rock under a locomotive. He wouldn't talk, leave his room only to eat and use the bathroom."
"Wow." Ino said sadly, she couldn't think of what to say next.
"You know, when you and Colby kiss earlier that was the first time I've seen a genuine smile come out of him. I think you could help Colby out a lot if you two really get together." Jason said smiling. The rail cars made their signature click clack sound as they rolled past them.
"You really think so Jay?" A voice said.
Jason and Ino looked over to see Colby leaning up against the light pole looking up at the moon. Ino jumped up and ran over to him and tackled him into a hug which he returned.
"Yeah, I really do." Jason chuckled as Ino and Colby kissed each other quickly. The bright yellow caboose rolled by and it's two tail lamps glowed red. It rolled into the night as the red lamps glowed like eyes in the dark.
"Thanks Jay. Say it's getting late and we have a big assault planned for tomorrow, we should hit the hay for tonight." Said Colby. Jason nodded as he stood up. Together the 3 of them walked to one of the few hotels in town. There was only one room available and Jason already had his reserved and had already reserved the last available room for Colby and Ino. Jason walked showed the to their room. It was small but good enough for one night.
"Well, looks like we will be sharing." Colby chuckled when he saw the room only had one bed in it. On the bed was a large duffle bag.
"BRRR.. It's cold in here, I hope you would share, it's freezing in here." Ino complained. Jason and Colby laughed.
"Well good night love birds, and Colby your combat gear is on the bed and there is an extra set in there too." Jason said with a smile.
"Thanks Jason. Good night." Colby replied as he shut the door. "It aint cold in here. It's nice." he laughed.
"That's what you think. To me it's a friggen freezer in here." Ino said with a light glare at him, but Colby just laughed as he took off his shirt. Ino's eyes widened with shock and amazment. Colby was lean and mean muscle wise, with just enough to look buff but he wasn't jacked with 6 pack abs. What really caught Ino's attention were the scars all over his back and chest. One ran from his collar bone, across the top of his shoulder and down the back of his tricept.
"You going to sleep in your clothes tonight?" Colby asked casually not paying any mind to Ino staring at him. She didn't say anything but just kept on staring. "Ino? What you staring at?" he asked as he took off his paints. Underneath he wore a black pair of loose shorts. Ino shook her head.
"Where you get all those scars?" she asked as she sat down on the bed after he got into it. He scooted over against the wall and rolled onto his side facing her.
"Combat." He yawned "Come on it's late." Colby rolled onto his back and closed his eyes. Ino sighed and took off her clothes and got into bed next to him wearing her purple undies. She kissed him and cuddled up to him. He smiled and put his arm around her, together they fell asleep.