"Simple," Dosu said standing perfectly erect for the first time that I've seen. "We fight out way of here."
Fight our way out of here? Even though we spent years training under Orochimaru's tutelage, we are no where near as strong as this 'Kabuto' guy he spoke of earlier.
"Fight?! How the hell are we gonna fight? We have no weapons, we're low on chakra, and now, after hearing your stupid ass, we obviously have no plan!" Zaku yelled, even though his voice could probably be heard throughout the entire cell block, I nodded in agreement. From the way Orochimaru spoke his name, I could tell he thought highly of this Kabuto guy. If 'fighting our way out of here' was Dosu's only plan, there is no way we'll get out of here unscathed.
"If we work together. I guarantee everything will go our way."
"Work togethe-? Oh my fucking god! Have you lost your mind! My arms are broken and Kin can't do shit," He said nodding his head in my direction. "Which means you're fighting that Kabuto guy on your own!" Letting Zaku's stupid comment about my worth slide, I had to admit that Zaku is right. Compared to my male teammates, Im not necessarily the strongest, but that doesn't mean I can't do anything at all.
Dosu sighed, "your negativity is becoming a pain in the ass, Zaku. Please just shut up for once."
Zaku narrowed his eyes at Dosu but surprisingly kept quiet. Turing to me Dosu asked, "Kin, you still know where all of the pressure points on the human body are, don't you?" Pfft, such a stupid question, of course I do. I know each and every pressure point by heart. And not to toot my own horn, but I can hit them with perfect precision with my eyes closed.
"Yeah."
"Excellent." He replied, putting his index finger and thumb on his chin. Usually that gesture meant that he was deep in thought, so I took this opportunity to look around. Unlike my previous cell, this one is much larger. Looking ahead, I noticed a very small, very dirty barred window with a rotting wooden panel, about six feet from the ground. Overhead on the left and right sides of the ceiling, were pipes that were years beyond the need to be replaced. And in the center of the ceiling was an exposed light bulb providing very little light, swaying slightly by a short cord. Behind me, a large steel door with multiple lock mechanisms.
I watched as Dosu walked over to the tiny window and inspected its wooden panel. I wonder if he's going to use it as some sort of weapon? Hmm, I should ask. "Hey Dosu wh-?
Of course Zaku interrupted me. Obvious by now that he can't keep quiet for more than five minutes, I let him have his way. "What are you doing Dosu? None of us can fit through that window?"
"I know that Zaku. Shut up!" Zaku 'humphed' at sat crisscrossed where he stood, grumbling something that sounded a lot like 'you shut up.'
Smiling a little at Zaku's childishness, I decided to sit down as well. Although I had been unconscious I felt as if I hadn't slept in days, but I refused to close my eyes in case something unexpected happened. With Orochimaru and Kabuto out for our lives, all of us had to be alert and as focused as possible. After a few minutes of silence, I heard Dosu whisper "ahh, here we are" more so to himself than anyone else. I watched him as he inched his face closer to the lower left corner of the window panel, and wondered what he could possibly be doing as he promptly removed his forehead protector.
Seeing Dosu's forehead protector reflect the dim light to the opposite side of the room as it sat on the old windowpane reminded me of my own. I wore this symbolic piece of head ware daily, never had I gone anywhere without it. It is as if it had become apart of me. This moment also made me realize that forehead protectors are worn by shinobi who take pride in their village, and for those who are willing to die for it. I don't deserve to wear this headband anymore. Or much rather, this headband doesn't deserve to be worn by me. I don't want to die for this village and I sure as hell don't take pride in it anymore. Once I get out of here, I'm putting this pathetic place behind me. With that, I reached underneath my long mane and untied my forehead protector and let it drop to the floor, allowing the metallic clank to echo the room.
Dosu turned his head towards the sound, then briefly looked up to me before resuming his task at the window. Zaku leaned to his left buttock in an attempt to see what that sound was. "I removed my headband." I told him before he could ask. "You should remove yours too." I knew he wasn't able to on his own. I just like getting on his nerves.
"Fuck you Kin." I smiled at his words and crawled over to him, not caring that I dirtied my hands and knees in the process. I sat in front of him and roughly snatched his headband off of his head and calmly sat it in his lap "You're welcome." I said satisfied, knowing that the smallest things I did irritated the hell out of Zaku. I stood up ignoring any possible insults Zaku had for me and walked over to Dosu.
Once there, I peered over Dosu's shoulder, curious as to what he was doing but also trying not to disturb him. I noticed that Dosu was using the metal part of his headband to chip away at the wood surrounding a large nail. I hope he wasn't planning on using that measly thing as a weapon. It'll be totally ineffective against Kabuto.
"What are you doing Dosu?" I decided to ask.
He ignored me and continued chipping away at the wood. Feeling slightly annoyed at being ignored, I crossed my arms and shifted my weight onto my left leg and stared at his back, losing interest in what he was doing with every passing second. Then hearing Dosu give what sounded like a sigh in relief, I peaked over his shoulder just as he uncaringly tossed his headband to the ground and began to pry a rusty nail that was only but an inch or so exposed out of the wall with his fingers. I grimaced as I watched him struggle to remove the object and cutting the flesh of his index finger. Finally, with one last tug, the nail was free.
Dosu twirled the three and a half inch nail in his bloodied fingers and gave it a nod of approval.
"Alright. Kabuto could come any minute now." Dosu said suddenly turning around, making me jump back a few feet due to being startled. "We're going to get out of here alive, however in order to do that. I need the both of you to listen closely." Zaku and I gave a nod.
He smirked under his mask and said, "here's what were going to do."
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My heart jumped into my throat upon hearing the door unlock. I took one last look at my teammates, each of us sitting in different corners of the cell. Dosu and Zaku were sitting in the corners adjacent to the window. I was sitting in a corner on the opposite side of the room facing both of my teammates. My position was the most important because when the door opened, I would be hidden behind it.
When the door opened, my breathing accelerated. It's now or never, I can't fail them.
"Well well well." The white haired male I assumed was Kabuto said. He had the same oil lamp Orochimaru had earlier, he held it up and illuminated Zaku and Dosu in their corners "you aren't sitting near one another? Are you upset at each other about your failures during your simple mission?" He chuckled and walked further into the room, leaving the door slightly open.
Zaku spoke up, "so you must be Kabuto right? You're here to kill us?"
Chuckling again, Kabuto sat the lamp down "No I'm not here to kill you. Lord Orochimaru is going to do that. I'm just here to pay you back from when you idiots broke my glasses during the first exam."
With each passing moment, I became more and more nervous. I silently pulled my knees up to my chest and hugged them tightly. "Oh god, oh god, oh god. When is Dosu going to give me the signal? If he doesn't do it soon, I'll-"
My thoughts were interrupted when I saw Dosu kick his sandle off towards the ceiling and destroy the light, then using his other foot, he attempted to knock Kabuto off balance with a foot sweep. "My signal!" I thought.
Kabuto skillfully dodged Dosu's simple move and landed a few feet in front of me. Now was my chance! With speed that I'll probably never be able to match again, I drove the rusted nail into a pressure point in Kabuto's left thigh.
"Argh!" He yelled and fell onto the floor clutching his leg "you bitch!"
Using the ribbon from my hair as planned, I sat on top of Kabuto's back and wrapped it around his mouth to silence him.
"Dosu!" I yelled. My heart was racing like crazy. Never have I been so scared in my life.
Dosu rushed towards me removing the stash around his waist and expertly tied Kabuto's hands behind his back. Kabuto struggled to get free, but fortunately he couldn't due to the temporary paralyzing of his left leg.
"Kin, finish your part." Dosu said grabbing the ring of keys from Kabuto's belt.
Oh that's right. I almost forgot. I snatched the bloody nail from Kabuto's leg and jabbed it into his right arm, paralyzing it.
"Good, now he won't be able to escape from these confines for a while" Dosu said.
Getting off of Kabuto's back, I brisked towards Zaku to help him stand up before the final part of our plan was initiated. Together we walked out of the cell and watched as Dosu gathered all of our headbands and removed his robe throwing them into a pile.
Giving Kabuto one last look, Dosu kicked the oil lamp over, setting his clothing and our headbands ablaze. The oil burned quickly, Dosu hurried out of the room and closed the steel door behind him, locking it.
Kabuto's muffled yells could be heard as the three of us ran down the very hallway I remembered walking through with Orochimaru.
"Now that the hard part's done what are we gonna do now?" Zaku asked with a surprisingly low voice.
"Now... we find an exit." Dosu answered. I stared at Dosu's back as he walked ahead of Zaku and me. I couldn't help but smile. He really did it. He got us out of that terrible situation. I am so grateful to have met him. Without him I would've been dead a long time ago.
"Dosu..?"
"Yes Kin?"
"Thanks... for everything."
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"We've been wandering around this place for hours." Zaku said lagging behind
"No, we've been walking for no more than thirty minutes Zaku." I answered. Well, it does seem like we've been walking for hours, I guess that's because we kept running into dead ends. It's like this prison is some kind of maze. I sighed feeling somewhat dejected. All of that hard work meant nothing if we were trapped in this prison and Orochimaru could easily find us. I shuddered at the thought of what he would do to us once he found it what we did to his beloved henchman.
"Dosu, this prison is like a maze of some sort. We'll never be able to find our way out of here," I said for some reason avoiding eye contact with him.
Dosu gasped suddenly "...a maze." He placed his hand on the right wall "I know how we can get out of here."
"Really how?!" Zaku yelled. Sigh. Really, again with the yelling?
"Lower your voice Zaku... and to answer your question, all we need to due is follow the right wall. Doing so will lead us to either an entrance or an exit. Both will lead to our freedom." Dosu said.
"How do you know which one is the right wall? " Zaku asked.
Dosu stared at Zaku as if waiting for him to say that he was joking. When those words didn't come, he answered."...the wall on the right hand side Zaku."
"Oh... well Kin didn't get it so I asked for her."
"What?!" I unintentionally shrieked.
"Keep your voices down." Dosu said
"Sorry" I whispered. I placed my hand on the wall to the right of me and followed Dosu, Zaku following close behind.
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Surprisingly enough no one pursued us and after an hour or so we managed to find the exit.
"Wow, I cant believe we're alive!" I said laughing. I rolled on the forest ground as happy as I've ever been before.
"So... where are we going to go from here?" I sat up as Zaku asked the dreaded question. I felt tears well up in eyes for the second time today, thinking about how we may go separate ways. When I first met them, yeah, I would've loved the opportunity to leave them behind. But now, after all we've been through. I don't ever want them to leave my side.
All of us remained silent, not sure of what to say. So... I decided to speak up.
"Uh well, I recognize the forest were in. We're near the Village Hidden in the Leaves..." I don't know why I feel so nervous all of a sudden. Maybe I'm worried about what they'll think.
"Everyone we met there deeply cared for one another and they looked very happy in each others company. I want that. So, I was going to try to make amends and live there." I looked up to see Dosu and Zaku looking at each other with skeptical look on their faces. Oh no, with the look they're giving each other it's obvious that they don't want to go. Maybe I should leave it at that and hope that they'll follow me. No, Dosu is way too stubborn and Zaku is an idiot. They won't go to the Village on their own.
"Well Kin, don't you want to ask us something?" Zaku said taunting me in a sing song voice.
Giving Zaku a look that could kill him in ten different ways if it were possible, I took a deep breath and did the unthinkable. "Will you guys come with me?"
Silence followed my question rather than an answer. I stared at the both of them, hoping, praying that they would come with me. Dosu turned his head from me and said. "What are we waiting for? Let's go to the Village Hidden in the Leaves."
"Yes!" I yelled pumping my fist in the air. I quickly stood up and gave them both the biggest and only hugs they'll ever get from me, surprisingly enough they hugged me back. Giggling, I forced myself out of the group hug and hopped into the trees with my two best friends following close behind.
I couldn't help but outright laugh at this point. We were finally free of that monster we gave our lives to. Now I can express myself with laughter as much as I wanted to, I no longer need to be the serious, boring girl I once was. I looked over my shoulder to see if Dosu and Zaku were still following me and sure enough they were, however both of them were staring off into space, oblivious to my joy.
Whistling to get their attention I yelled, "Once we reach Konoha guys, we won't have to worry about anything else ever again. Because from then on, we'll be living the good life." I smiled and raced through the trees as fast as I could to finally reach our well deserved nirvana.
Whew, I finished this at 2:30 in the morning. I'm really tired ,so if there are any mistakes please let me know. Also, I apologize if their way of getting out of the prison was a little... uneventful. Making Kin say that everything looked the same in the first chapter was a mistake on my part. I didn't know how to get them out otherwise, so making the prison a maze and using the "right wall" method was my only option. And plus, I couldn't think of anything else. So... yeah. Leave a review or fav if you want. Next chapter should be up by tomorrow or Saturday! Thanks for reading!
-Floral Summit