The darkness was…really dark. That was the only way Temari could describe it. Not only was it dark, it was boring and rather unchanging. That was the creepy part—where in the hell did they stash her that had absolutely no sounds at all?

Did they plan on driving her insane with silence and complete and utter darkness? Well, she had only been conscious here for more or less than ten minutes and their plan was already working.

"I HATE YOU ALL!" She shouted at the darkness.

Hate you all, hate you all, you all, you all, you all.

Well the echo was no more comforting, she thought as she shakily got on her feet. She pressed her back against the wall and tentatively shifted sideways, testing the ground before she stepped. Each footstep made no noise against the ground, she noted carefully, as she continued her journey.

It had occurred to her she was in a basement, the only thing that prevented her from believing that was the ground beneath her was not concrete, as typical in basements, and there were no noises. No generators, no pipes, no footsteps upstairs. Complete and utter silence.

Although the chance she was underground was high. Very high.

She carefully inched her way forward, and blinked when she felt the floor go up, like a step. She followed it, and found a set of large stairs, and began her ascent. When she had gone up what she estimated fifteen or twenty steps, it cut off into a long space. She edged along the wall until she hit the opposite wall.

Feeling her hands across it, she felt a door jamb, and desperately she searched around for the doorknob. She grasped it firmly in her hand and turned it. It was locked, so she jingled it a little.

"Shit!" She shouted, kicking the door. Her head gave a nasty throb causing her to fall to the ground. She let out a string of curses and didn't bother getting up.

--

"I'm sorry, we're too late." Sakura words were stuck in his head, even awhile after they had left her cherry lips.

"She shouldn't have gone off her own. As tragic as it is, she was dead the moment she decided to leave the team." Sakura said matter-of-factly. Naruto couldn't help but notice how annoying she was when she was referring back to her Academy training. Rules of the ninja his ass…

"Shut up." Naruto said, gritting his teeth. Sakura looked at him, her green eyes widened in surprise at his harsh response to her rambling. He was still sitting amongst the blood that stained the area, his claws digging into his palms, letting his own blood run down his palms to mix with the blood on the ground.

Sakura glanced at Naruto, then at the blood that was flowing to mix with the blood on the ground. "…we'll need to move quickly if we hope to find her, alive or dead."

--

Jiraiya arrived at the place Kakashi and the others had been staying, only to be informed that they had checked out early that morning. 'Tsunade said that they'd be here… Kakashi hadn't said anything about leaving until tomorrow morning… something's changed…' He thought, as he walked back onto the streets.

Seeing a beautiful long haired woman, he got a cheesy smile on his face, "Kakashi can wait. Trusting them, they haven't done anything rash…" He said outloud to himself as he literally skipped after her.

--

Temari woke up some time later still on the floor. This time, she was not greeted by darkness, but by a surprising amount of light. She blinked, and waited for her eyes to adjust before checking the source, which was a lightbulb that hung perilously on the ceiling from a long electrical wire.

Blinking again, she managed to sit up and fully examine the room. It was large and open, with a high ceiling. It was drafty, along with a cold, damp atmosphere that wasn't diminished by the light. It was completely empty except for the stairwell she was currently sitting on, and there were no windows, no other doors.

'Ventilation,' She thought, and quickly ran down the steps. After thoroughly searching the room, she was alarmed to find no ventilation shafts at all, 'Either they plan on suffocating me, or they don't plan on keeping me here long…' She glanced around the room, then said out loud to herself, "The room is large enough though, I shouldn't be too worried about air. And the door isn't completely sealed around the edges, some air can get in from there…" But besides lack of oxygen, radon could escape from the Earth's crust and rise into the floor, if she was indeed in a basement, or underground.

But she wouldn't think about that. Radon was pretty by location, even if she was in a basement or underground, the chances of the radon collecting in a deadly amount was slim, unless she was sitting above a natural pocket…

She blinked and wiped the blood off her fingers onto the front of her kimono. It wasn't pretty, but it sure as hell was practical in essence, because as far as she could tell, she could be here for a long, long time.

---

Some time had past before Temari began hearing the noises. The roar of something that would have probably been deafening if she had been covered by a nice thick layer of dirt.

"WHY?!" She screamed out. It tore at her throat, and she fell silent as the echoes screamed back at her. She had taken to talking to herself outloud now, anything to distract herself from the silence that surrounded her. It could have been days since she had first woken, but there was no way to tell. She sleep when she needed to, and she had this aching need to go to the bathroom. She didn't even bother trying to hide the tear streaks that had appeared down her dirty cheeks.

She practically jumped to her feet as the door was thrown open, "I'm sorry you were thrown into this, Temari-san."

---

It had been months since the capture on that fateful mission. She wouldn't ever forget the sinking disappointment that the face she had seen in the doorway of that hell wasn't the one she had wanted to see the most.

And despite the fact that she was now residing in Konoha for her… issues, she didn't see him at all. Ever. It had made her…different.

She was residing in Konoha because of their therapy programs. After a few weeks back from the mission, Gaara sent her away to receive therapeutic help after the ones in Suna had failed…

She stripped down to nothing and slipped into the shower, 'not that they help…' she thought as she adjusted the water temperature. She turned the knob all the way to the left so the prickly hot spikes plummeted her back, stinging and stabbing her delicate flesh. She didn't turn on any cold, and it wasn't because it felt good. Hell, it didn't even feel bad. That was the problem.

She was completely and utterly numb, feeling nothing. Gaara didn't see her fit to perform her duties in her current condition…and she'd do as she was told.

That's what a ninja was.

---

"Why don't you go visit her?" Sakura asked, staring into the blue orbs that belonged to a certain blonde haired loudmouth. He merely shrugged at her.

He wouldn't tell her that the only reason he hadn't gone to visit Temari was the fact he was so ashamed of the way he wasn't able to figure out where she was at, to be the first face she saw when she was rescued. Ero-Sannin took that chance from him…he couldn't face her, not now, not ever. Not while the shame was still there.

It was another promise broken.

"She misses you."

"Did she tell you that?"

"Yes." Sakura hesitated. Temari hadn't actually said anything about Naruto since she had gotten here. It gave her a sense that she was guilty for this; the way they were acting towards each other. They avoided each other like the plague and completely ignored the existence of the other. For once, Inner Sakura and Sakura were in mutual agreement.

"No she didn't."

"Okay, so she didn't." Sakura blurted, frustrated, "But she was thinking it. Do you think you can just avoid her forever? It's going to kick you in the ass someday!"

"Will you just be quiet, Sakura? You don't understand anything!"

Sakura gritted her teeth, "Bullshit!" She held Naruto up by the small turtle-neck collar he had donned after turning fifteen, "Sasuke leaving affected me in a way it didn't affect you. And guess what? It hurts Naruto! You can't run around leading on girls then completely ignoring their existence! It fucking hurts."

"It'll be better for her in the long run." Naruto told her, taken aback by her sudden use of force. He'd never understand girls…

"Like hell it will. You practically traumatized her—she attends therapy everyday! It's not for injuries like you think, it's for fucking emotional problems." She empthasized, "She'll be attending therapy for a long time. And by the looks of it, she's never going to heal, and it'll be all your fault. Something needs to change, Naruto! And it needs to change now, before it's too late." She didn't know why she was pushing this so hard, after all this was her chance, her one chance to take what she wanted. But she knew she it wasn't for her.

"You expect me to—"

"I expect you to at least make an effort to be with her!" Sakura said, cutting him off quickly, "She'll never forgive you, Naruto. I won't be able to forgive you. Forget about your almighty pride for once in your life and get off your lazy ass—"

"So that's what I am? I'm lazy?" Sakura stopped at his interruption. He was now staring at her, no longer willing to let her have the upperhand, "I'm not lazy, Sakura. You don't understand what went on there. You can't understand."

"What don't I understand?"

Naruto just shook his head.

---

Kakashi sighed as he looked down at his two bickering team members. The upside of this whole thing was that neither of them noticed he was late, and instead focused all of their energies taking it out on each other. But that also came with an downside; the fact that they no longer worked well as a team while they were arguing like this. But it wasn't like Tsunade-sama could spare them for a week to have them resolve their differences, and Temari was out of comission from now until the Earth implodes on itself…

"Sakura, Naruto, that's enough for today. We have few minor errands to finish then you can have the rest of the afternoon to argue. I would suggest that you two resolve your differences as soon as possible, though, Tsunade-sama won't be happy if you two can't work effectively together." Kakashi hopped down off the roof and landed next to Sakura, who turned to him and nodded, but not before casting Naruto a particularly nasty glare.

What did you do to that one?

'Have you not been paying attention?' Naruto asked, annoyed. It had been awhile since the Kyuubi had said anything, so hopefully he'd be sastisfied for another few months after this.

Even soap operas get boring when you watch the same one over and over.

'Don't mess with me today, Kyuubi.'

Oooh, so frightening, Whiskers.

'WHISKERS?!'

There was some deep laughter that obviously came from the Kyuubi before his head returned to silence. Naruto sighed aloud, and followed the rest of his team. Those errands weren't going to finish themselves, after all.

---

It'd been a long time, since he had seen the gates of Konoha. His dark eyes narrowed at the sight of them, so vulnerable and unprotected to the outlandish powers that could cause it's demise. He knew that Konoha wasn't to be underestimated, but neither was he. Not with his new powers, his new abilities…his new life.

His eyes narrowed even farther as he felt a certain pining, a need to be within the safety of the walls, to be held in the cradle known as peace. He had grown up there, after all. Born and raised as a Konoha shinobi…

He ran his fingers along the Oto symbol that was carved into the metal plate of his headband. Had he lost his way? Maybe this wasn't the greatest path he could have chosen, but it wasn't the worst, he supposed. After all, there could be fates much worse than this one. Much worse.

But now wasn't a time for remorse. He was too far along for any such thoughts. Uchiha Sasuke sent one last longing glance at the gates before disappearing into the darkness to return to Orochimaru. He would be back, and next time, that blonde idiot wouldn't be alive.

----

Merry Christmas everyone: DDDD