Chapter Fifteen: Life Must REALLY Hate Me

What's going on! This smell... it smells like... INGU POISON! Shadow woke up instantly, grabbing her bag and opening up the window; then jumping out onto the balcony. It was late at night, and a half moon stood by itself in the night sky.

Shadow panted, "So... You were suspicious of who we were! Show yourself jackass, I know you're there!" she yelled into the poison cloud. Out came a head of golden hair with a mask on. The kunoichi tried to create a water whip and use it on the man, but the poison had already been spreading. Damn, I hate this stuff. This poison is extremely rare, expensive and only grows in certain conditions, so how did he manage to get it?

The poison, Ingu Poison, as it was called, was a special poison used on prisoners in special prisons, and cancelled off all chakra, blocking it and also had the same effect on Shadow's ki. It usually lasted for an hour or two but really depended on how much was taken in.

"Oh yes. Actually, I suspected you from the very beginning. My mother would never walk in to an alley even if her life depended on it so how could your mother save her if she never went in? And I don't know many girls who would even dare get the idea of learning about working to please other people in a spa for the gods' sake." He smirked as he created shadow clones, though his voice was slightly muffled. "What will you do now? There's one of you and about 100 of me," mocked Li his voice doubling by the word and ten shadow clones charged at Shadow.

A puppet flew in slicing through a couple of the shadow clones and the ten that came after before returning to its source. As it settled again on Sasori's shoulders as he smirked and said in his lazy way, "Make that about three at least."

"Fine then!" Li screamed. "I can take you all down myself!"

Sasori jumped down from the roof and landed beside Shadow and asked simply, "Tag team?"

"Sure why not, I have first move though," she said watching him. He shrugged. Shadow pulled out her twin fans from the bag at her side and ran at a random Li. It jumped over her swing but Sasori's puppet came and knocked it out over the air.

"One down, it was a fake though," Shadow said using a fan as a shield against punches from five shadow clones, slicing them in return.

"Don't worry about them, just find the real one." Sasori said coolly dodging all attacks searching for the one that was farthest in the back of the mob.

Shadow stopped and pounded a foot on the roof, feeling the vibrations, and after a little more searching, and many dodges in multiple directions, she was able to find a body that seemed like it was standing calmly behind the whole crowd watching.

She dodged all the attacks, heading for it. She was about to swing her fan at Li, but was interrupted by a dart that had launched itself into her right wrist. She dropped her weapon, feeling the effects of the sleeping poison immediately.

She fell to the ground hearing the dull thud of wood fall down behind her, knowing that it was Sasori and his puppet too, also drugged with the sickly sweet smelling gas. She slipped away into unconsciousness right after she heard the snickering of Li. "So... You underestimated me just like all the others. Not surprising. Most people wouldn't expect someone with my looks to be able to fight. How unpleasant for you two."

Dammit! How could I let him get me? Shadow thought furiously. Ugh, he was right! I really did underestimate him!

Shadow had awoken behind wooden bars, which were in a criss-cross pattern, and were elevated above ground. Instead of her black boots and blue uniform, she wore a grey-ish dress that was more or less an oversized shirt, or possibly the guards' sick idea of a dress for a tramp. She watched the black beads click together on her right ankle, remembering when she had begun to wear them, and then she toyed with the red beads strung onto her left wrist. The red bracelet was usually hidden by the black wristbands Shadow usually wore, but they too had been confiscated. Shadow felt naked without her bag, and without her regular uniform. It had been awhile since she had to look at the charms she wore, and it sickened her.

She had thought of several ideas of escape but then remembered that her bag was in another room, she was too high up away from the earth (only about three feet really,) if she used fire she would burn herself, there was no water around; the air pressure was too low to use, and to keep herself alive, she had to drink at least a sip of the water the guards gave daily even though it was obvious that it had contained Ingu poison, given away by the fact of the murky color to it.

After she figured out that poison would be added to her food and water, she had even given up drinking and hadn't had much for at least a day. She had given up on food the first time her eyes laid sight on the moldy bread; the burnt rice and what looked to be oatmeal but looked more like maggots.

Next to her was Sasori, in a metal cage, not eating the food, but drinking the water at least. He sat in the farthest corner from her and made subtle movements with his right hand, curling and uncurling his fingers as if trying to summon chakra, even with the knowledge that it would be impossible to do in that sort of environment.

The whole room was filled with the smell of Ingu poison. They were in their own cells inside the village prison, way below surface obviously. From what Shadow remembered when she came to, they were pulled down several flights of stairs with guards flocking at every possible exit. They were placed in the lowest floor of the whole stupid place, always hearing the moans of other prisoners whose cells were about six feet apart.

Thankfully the shinobi's cells were together so in their brief moments of silence they could speak to each other.

Ugh. I totally screwed up on this. Shadow thought staring blankly at the wooden bars. Damn… She got up and began pacing in what little space there was in her cell Sasori watched her quietly.

She stopped to look at him for a brief moment, sending a small smile to him then furrowing thin eyebrows concentrating on a way out. She promised to stop drinking and eating the meals given and decided she'd rather just starve to death.

It had been a week, (or maybe it was only a few days? Shadow had lost count and since there were no windows where they were kept, she couldn't follow the moon or sun patterns) since they were captured.

She was sick and tired of being there. She hated it. She hated seeing the arrogant faces of the guards who taunted her when they came to check up. She was tired of being in a room where all male prisoners were being kept. She was tired of hearing their wolf whistles when the guards chained her up and took her out of the room to interrogate her. She was tired of listening to all the moans and groans of the prisoners and smelling the sickly sweet smelling air and she was definitely, absolutely, positively, 100 percent tired of being watched at by Sasori, 24/7.

She wiped her forehead, feeling the moisture of sweat from pacing for so long. She stared at it, when she got the most brilliant idea in a while. She had given up eating and drinking as little as possible for at least a day, so there wasn't enough Ingu Poison to fill her systems, and she had found a way out of breathing the air more than necessary by ripping off a small piece of her already extremely short skirt and tying it around her nose. She took another deep breath of her skirt, still smelling weakly of the small dose of perfume she had been able to spill onto the dress, and it smelled faintly of roses and lavender, and the girl began running back and forth in her cage.

Sasori watched her curiously, a smirk beginning the form as he tried to figure out what the heck his ignorant partner was doing exactly. "And you're doing this because..." he trailed off, a full smirk definitely on his face.

She said, "If I'm able to raise my body heat even by a few degrees, I'll be able to heat my foot up and weaken the wood, thereby breaking it!"

She stopped and raised her hands at her sides, then pushing them down and standing straight. She then turned her attention towards the wooden bars, and kicked her foot as hard as possible at it. Her foot was able to break through, and she then began to pull the wood apart until finally, she was able to escape.

A/N: Well! Thank you everyone that sent me PMs and comments on deviantart asking me to continue this series here on fanfiction net. I finally got the motivation to edit the next chapter and post it, so here it is. ^^

I guess I should really start editing the next chapters and hurry up and finish the series, huh? ^^; Ah... I'll try... Gah, this is so difficult. I started this series in junior high, so it's really painful for me to read now because I've improved so much more now. :/

Eh... Never mind, anyways, I'll try the next few chapters and get them up soon.

Thanks again for encouraging me to continue; I love you all! .

- Jackal

(I've also noticed that I've never written "Author's notes" for this series until now. I wonder why? D: I think I was just too lazy...)