Hey guys! I'm still continuing, but I really really hope a lot more people review this chapter. I made it extra long, and it took me a while, so I truly hope you guys like it. Thank you so much!
Warning: Swearing and violence at the end of the chapter!
Chapter 4
The Beginning of Our Worst Nightmare
"You have an idea," said Tenten boringly. She sighed. "I think our master ideas have gotten us into enough trouble as it is…"
"No," said Ino. "This idea we have to follow up on."
"Fine, what is it?" Tenten asked as she put her fork down, apparently irritable now that her burn really was swelling severely.
"I see you're not eating either," Ino said gesturing towards Tenten's uneaten potatoes and bread.
"Not that hungry, you know?" Tenten explained. "So what's the idea?"
Ino leaned in. "I say, we take the food on our plates, put them in some napkins and bring them down the boys. They're working boiler duty full time, so we can just say we forgot our rags and ask to go down and get them." Ino smiled as if this were the craftiest plan ever to be collaborated.
"Yeah, like Mina's gonna buy that," Tenten said.
"We won't ask her then," said Ino. "We'll ask Kelisa. She's so careless when it comes to her job, she won't think twice about it. Come on, it's the absolute least we could to for them after what they did for us. They won't get any food at all if we don't."
Tenten thought for a second.
"What about Neji?" Ino asked more seriously. Now, Tenten sat back and bit her lip. Sure, she may have had feelings for Neji, but after just narrowly escaping Mina's wrath once, was she ready to put it all at risk? Again?
Hell yeah she was.
"Ok," she smiled. "Let's do it."
Ino smiled back. "Awesome. Now let's try to conceal this stuff…" She opened her many napkins, and casually slid her potatoes on to them. After they were all on the napkins, she carefully folded the sides of the napkins over the potatoes and put them in her pocket. She did the same with her bread, as did Tenten.
When the two flattened out their pockets that had slight bulges due to the food, they stood up and when to the exit, which of course was being safeguarded…er…more so stood next to by Kelisa. She was leaning against the doorway, head hung, clearly expressing how much she hated her job.
The two considered just slinking by while her head was hung, but then as they approached, she quickly snapped her head up.
"Can I…" she yawned. "Help you girls?"
"Um, yeah," said Tenten, as she was a better liar than Ino. "We left our wash rags in the boiler room. We need them to complete our next chores. Can we go get them please?" The girls postured themselves and tried to look elegant.
No need though, as Kelisa simply shrugged. "Go ahead, but return promptly." She let the girls pass.
As Tenten and Ino walked down the hallway leading out of the caf, Ino poked Tenten's side.
"Told ya…" She teased. Tenten fake punched her arm back.
"Shut up," she said.
As the two reached the stairwell, they halted when they saw some shadows walking up. They could immediately tell that one of them was Mina.
They quickly hid behind a ledge in the wall and heard the voices halt.
"Oh yes," they heard Mina's originally twisted voice feigning sweetness. "We offer many luxuries to our children here. We are sensitive to the fact that these kids have been through so much emotional pain, and make their lives as calm and soothing as possible."
Ino and Tenten had to stop themselves from gagging. Where they thinking of the same orphanage here?
"Oh that's good to hear…I believe my husband and I rushed into parenthood a bit, I just don't think we have the money or experience to handle a child at the moment." A woman with a younger and softer voice said. The girls heard a baby's cry. "Ssssh…it's ok sweetie…it's just your new home…" At this the baby cried harder. "That's strange. She usually never cries."
"Oh, I'm sure it's just the state of that old downstairs. No one goes down there anyway, so your child won't be exposed to any of the filth down there, no worries! We insure that our children are kept clearly away from and threat of illness or disease." Mina swept in, saving her from losing any chance of a new client.
"Oh, what a relief! I was getting a little conjested myself…aachoo!" The woman sneezed. "Oh, bless me! Sorry about that!"
"Bless you! Not a problem…here's a tissue. Where's your husband by the way…" Mina asked this last thing in a more skeptical way.
"Oh, I think he's just using the bathroom, that's all. Why?" The Woman asked, completely unaware.
"No reason!" Mina said, snapping back into happy-mode again. But the girls could tell she was mad about something. "Now, to the office to sign those legal papers, shall we?" Mina was rushing.
"Oh, but I would love to meet some of the children first!" The young woman said happily.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, but they can't have any visitors today," Mina said quickly. "They're very busy with their schoolwork, and finals are coming up soon. Speaking of which, did I tell you about what fine education we offer here?" The feet slowly lead away from the girl's direction to the office, as Mina had successfully redirected her.
"Oh, you did not! I'd love to hear all about it…" And so the voices trailed off.
Tenten and Ino stepped out of the ledge.
"How off can you get?" Tenten shook her head.
"Poor woman. Doesn't know the death trap she's landing her baby in." Ino said worriedly. Is this how everyone gets landed here? For goodness sakes, are there investigators for this kind of stuff?
"Come on," Tenten said hitched her thumb to the stairwell Mina and the young woman just exited. "Lunch break is almost over."
The two girls rushed down the stairs and down the hall to the boiler room. The could tell the boys were successful with lowering the heat, as it was not nearly as intense as it was when they were down there.
Ino opened the door. "Hey we brought some-" She cut off.
The boys weren't even there.
"What the?" Tenten stepped inside and looked around. "Where'd they go? They're working the all around shift, and Mina was just down here, they couldn't have made away."
The looked around more, until they heard some noises from the closet by the larger boiler. They heard some kicking too. Their eyes redirected to the source of the noises. They made them out quickly…there were people in there.
Ino ran over to the closet and pulled the handle. "God, why is everything so hard to budge in this room?" she asked as she pulled harder.
Tenten came to help, and with much force, the door flew open and out spilled the sweat-covered and burnt at the arms boys.
And you guess, they landed on top of the girls. Their mouths were covered in tape, and they were breathing heavily through their noses. Sweat dripped down their faces like there was no tomorrow.
Let's just say, if someone had entered the room just then, they would have gotten the completely wrong idea.
"Shikamaru?" Ino asked looking up at his pained looking face.
"Neji?" Tenten asked with just as much shock. The both ripped the tape off the boys mouths, ripping off the inevitable bits of skin.
"Very nice," Neji said to Tenten, rubbing the area around his mouth.
"Sorry," said Tenten as she sat up and Neji slid off her and sat beside her, breathing even more heavily than before.
Oddly enough however, Shikamaru made no move to get off Ino, though he may not have been realizing it at the time.
"What's going on?" Shikamaru asked her, not meaning 'whats up', but regarding why she was down there.
"I could ask you the same thing…" she said, looking at the closet. "But I'll answer you're question first. Here, we smuggled some food for you guys…there's no reason for you to suffer what we deserved." She took the wadded up napkins full of food out of her pockets.
Shikamaru just looked down at her, his breathing slowing, but heart beating faster. She had done that….for him?
"Thank…thank you," he said, starting to tremble for what reason he couldn't think of.
"Um," Ino said looking at their two bodies, still pressed together. "It may be hard for you to eat when we're...like this…"
"Oh!" Shikamaru quickly jumped off her and turned red. "Right. Sorry." Smooth one, Shikamaru…he thought. Very smooth…
He gently took the food from Ino. Ino looked at Neji and Tenten who were both sitting against the wall as Neji ate some bread. Well, those two were certainly quite the conversationalists.
"What happened?" Ino asked, breaking the silence.
"Huh?" Shikamaru asked, a potato in his mouth. Ino blushed a bit, because it looked pretty cute, but she quickly bit her cheek to stop the blood rush. (AN: This technique courtesy of ShikamaruHatake!)
"Why were you guys in that closet?" Tenten asked, standing up. "With you mouths taped?"
"Mina," the two boys said simply in unison.
"Details?" Tenten asked.
"It wouldn't have to do with that women we saw with Mina as we were coming here would it?" Ino asked.
"Bingo," said Shikamaru. "She basically said we were having company, grabbed us, taped our mouths and shoved us into that closet, threatening to hurt us even more if we messed this up."
The girls cringed at this. What kind of stuff was going on in this woman's head that made her so abusive?
"Then we heard voices go by the door," Neji went on, "We could easily tell it was a soon-to-be client Mina was buttering up. Of course she wouldn't want to run the risk of them thinking she was running some kind of sweat shop, so she just stored us away like we were old belongings." He said. "But there was that other guy…" he turned to Shikamaru.
"Oh yeah," said Shika. "He came so close to finding us, it made our rib cages drop. Lost hope though. Mina simply told him that the temperatures in here were bad for the lungs and dragged the guy out."
Must be that woman's husband…both girls thought.
"But he was definitely suspicious," Neji continued. "He wasn't giving into Mina's little happy act one bit. He wanted to see more than just what Mina was telling him." The girls were interested.
"I think he may be accomplishing that as we speak…" said Tenten, looking at Ino as both remembered the woman's words. Oh, I think he's just using the bathroom, that's all.
The boys looked at them funny and were about to ask about it, when a screeching noise sounded above them. Kelisa's whistle. They also heard other voices coming from the other end of the hallway above.
"What on Earth was that?"
"Oh, um nothing!"
"Will my child have to hear that every day?"
"Of course not! Probably just another child, you know, being curious with our band instruments."
"Oh, you teach band here too?"
The girls could have stamped their feet upon hearing what had just happened upstairs. For one thing, the whistle signaling the end of lunch. And two, the poor woman fell into one of Mina's traps. Again.
"I guess we got to go," Ino said to Shikamaru, picking up her rag as Tenten was ready to go out the door.
Ino turned to go, but Shikamaru took her by her elbow.
"Hey," he said in a deeper in a deeper voice than he had ever used around her before. She turned around. "Thanks." He said, giving her the same grin he gave her before.
"Anytime," she said back.
"You two! I hate to break up the moment! But Ino and I really got to go before we get our butts kicked by Kelisa. We didn't exactly 'return promptly'." Tenten said, breaking the two up.
"See ya," Ino said to Shika as he gently let loose her elbow. She left with Tenten.
"We got to get back up before-" Ino and Tenten bumped into something strong. They looked up to see a man with dark blue/blackish hair that went into a beard. Out of his mouth hung a cigarette.
"It's about time I actually saw some of the children here," the man said as he looked at the two girls' dirty rags and bruises. "And I'm not sure I'm impressed with their state." His eyebrows wrinkled in anger. Then the girls realized quickly that this was the husband.
"Um, hello sir," Tenten said as the two girls took a step back from the man. "We must be going now…" They attempted to leave but the man stopped them.
"Are all the children here like this?" he asked seriously.
"Like what?" Ino asked, pretending to be ignorant.
"You look abused to me." He answered, lightly picking up Ino's arm and examining her bruises. "These look fairly recent." His voice had anger in it.
Ino was about to begin, until a voice swept over.
"Oh! Deary me! Kurenai, looks like your husband has discovered…my two best actresses!" Mina gave down the stairs all to quickly and took each girl in an arm. "Amber," she gave Ino a squeeze. "And Mary Beth!" She gave Tenten a squeeze. Tenten wrinkled her nose in disgust. Mary Beth? Actresses?
"Oh, don't be panicked at their physical appearance!" she said as if it were nothing. "They're auditioning for our play we'll be putting on shortly! A Christmas Carol…they are going to be beggars, you see. Very passionate. Right girls?" She gave each girl a painful squeeze to their shoulders. "Right?" she dug her nails into their skin.
"Of course," the two girls said.
"Hm. If they are your best actresses, why are they playing beggars?" The man asked skeptically, not buying a word of what Mina just said.
"Asuma!" The woman who was Kurenai hissed at him in a "don't be rude!" way.
"Oh, well um…" Mina looked for a lie to pull out of the air to save her self from this one. "Multiple students play multiple parts. Did you know? They play beggars on the streets during some scenes, but are Bob Cratchit's daughters in others, you know?" Mina smiled an accomplished smile.
"Oh, that sounds wonderful!" Kurenai said, bouncing her baby.
"Indeed…wonderful." Asume said, still not phased. "Then I assume those two boys in that, might I add steaming hot, lung damaging boiler room will be playing beggars also?" He pointed at the boiler room door, which was left just ajar enough to see the two boys. The girls bit their lips. There would be hell to pay when they got out of this.
"Oh, them!" Mina tried to laugh it off. "Those boys are both auditioning for the role of Tiny Tim!" She said.
"Since they are both very blatantly Tiny," Asume said sarcastically, once again successfully contradicting Mina's attempts.
"Come on honey," he told Kurenai. "Let's look at some other orphanages…" He tried to take his wife with him, but she remained, looking at the ground.
"Sorry, dear," she said. "But I already filled out the forms. Mina now has full custody of Marnie." She propped up her baby, who was apparently named Marnie.
"Honey, you can't be serious," Asuma said, clenching his fists as Kurenai handed Marnie to Mina. "Have you not seen this place for what it is?"
"I have indeed, and I have decided it's a quaint little orphanage that provides care and nurturing to its children. And that's just what I want for my baby if I can't take care of her myself. I'm sorry dear, but I think I made the right choice." Kurenai kissed Marnie on the forehead one last time.
"Mommy loves you, sweetheart," she said, taking off her necklace and putting it on Marnie. "No matter how lonely you ever get, you will always have a piece of me with you. Never forget that."
Ino immediately felt her heart stop as she caught a glimpse of the necklace. The trinket on the chain was a diamond rose. (AN: Catch any hints of my other stories in that sentence?)
Ino looked at the chain around her own neck. One of the same. She had found it on her bed after she got home post-death of her parents. She looked back and forth, but decided it meant nothing. The world turns, and people can coincidentally have identical necklaces.
Asuma looked on in anger. He had just given his child up to this odd place.
"Ah, don't worry," Mina said, bouncing the baby roughly as she looked at the tearful Marnie in a fake maternal way. "Little Marnie is going to grow to be a very strong woman, I assure you," she said.
"Oh, I'm so glad!" Kurenai said happily as she started up the stairs. "Bye, honey!" She blew one last kiss to Marnie. Asuma also kissed Marnie goodbye.
"Be strong," he said into the baby's ear, though knowing she didn't understand. "You will need it for this place. A child of mine can bear through anything. Don't let this place destroy your dignity. Love you," he said before following his wife up the stairs, shooting Mina a look.
"This won't be the last time we meet." He said in a deathly voice only them two could hear. "If you hurt my girl…I will know."
As he walked away from Mina, he passed Tenten and Ino, who were standing by the stairwell.
"Please take good care of my daughter," he whispered as he passed.
With that, the couple both went up the stairwell. Mina stood where she was until she heard the final door close. Then, she sat Marnie on the ground, and all hell broke loose.
"Sluts! Unreliable, sneaky, filthy little BRATS!" She hit each girl with all the force she could muster. Before the girls knew it, they were on the ground with bloody noses.
The boys ran out the boiler room to their aid, but Mina halted them.
"And you boys! Have ANY of you ungrateful children ANY idea what you nearly cost me?"
It was official. Mina was flying off the handle.
"Ma'am, I heard shouting…MINA! What are you doing?!!!" Kelisa walked down the stairwell and instantly dropped the folders she had in hand.
"YOU!" Mina pointed a finger at the frightened Kelisa. "This is partially your fault! First, YOU let the girls out of the cafeteria, when you were well aware of their actions this morning!"
"I, I had no idea they weren't going to-"
"Save it. And second, I thought I told you NO WHISTLES on visiting days! Shit, it took me a lifetime to think up an excuse for that ruckus!" She turned back to the kids. "And you kids…" she said. "You kids think what's happening now is bad? Well just you wait. I run this show. Yep, that's right. And as long as I'm producing it, I won't be degraded by inferiors such as yourselves."
She looked down at the tearing Ino. "You," she said, cocking her head in faux-pity. "Poor you. You're folks died only recently, huh? They would be ashamed of you if they could see you now."
Then, she turned to Tenten. "You!" she laughed. "You never even knew your parents. What have you to build off of anyway?" Tenten looked at the ground and dug her nails into it.
"And you boys," she looked at them. "Your parents…all four of them brutally murdered. What fools they were, deserved what came to them. And you two…powerless to have stopped it." She pretended to tear.
"And what have we learned today?" she said, summing all of her insults up. "You're all too low of individuals for anyone to ever care about. If you're lucky, you may have a scrap of your lives left. But no…have things your way. Do you know what I think I'll do?" She picked up the small baby. "I might have a little fun messing up this child's life as well!"
Just then, Ino couldn't take it anymore. She swung her legs around, taking out Mina's feet from under her, sending her to the ground. Ino got ahold of Marnie first.
"Sadist…bastard…" Ino breathed as her nose bled, looking down at Mina.
Mina glared up at her. "Why you…"
"Go…to Hell…" Tenten said as she stood up. The boys ran over with the duct tape Mina had used against them earlier. With it, they tied her wrists to a stairwell pole. Mina kicked, but could break the strong tape's bond.
She looked up at Kelisa.
"Well, what are you waiting for? HELP ME!" She screamed at her. Kelisa looked at the kids, then at Mina's angry face. Back and back again. Until she made her decision. She kneeled next to Mina.
"I knew you would help me," Mina smiled evilly at the children. Then, before she knew it, Kelisa ripped off a huge strip of tape and taped Mina's mouth shut. Mina made muffled noises, but to no avail.
"Come on," Kelisa said the kids, gathering up her folders. She rushed down the stairwell and down the hallway. "Come!" she said when they hesitated. They all immediately followed. They could tell this was only the beginning of their worst nightmare.
Surprising enough, this is in fact a climax, but not the climax, so don't think it's all over before it even began. There are more surprises to come. Sorry Kurenai's so out of character, I just had to make her Asuma's wife! They're so cute together. And about the baby's name, I named her Marnie since my mom was about to name me that. R and R please, thanks guys!