My Boss The Genius

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PART FOURTEEN

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When she woke, Temari was a little unsure of what time it was. First of all, she didn't remember when she went to sleep, and second of all, she usually woke with the sun. So when her eyes opened and only darkness greeted her, Temari was sufficiently confused.

The floor was cold and in her tiny little black dress, she felt the chill of the concrete floor on her skin. A blanket was haphazardly thrown over her shoulders, but it was old and scratchy. A plastic cup filled with water lay near her, but she was instantly wary of it. Waking up in a strange place made her extremely cautious of food and drink, and she eyed it nervously even though her throat was quite parched.

"I didn't poison it," a voice said. Temari slowly raised her head to see a shadowed figure standing a few feet in front of her. She noticed that even if she wanted to run, her wrists were chained to a large crate behind her. He left her legs free and she shuffled them closer to her as if they would be safer the closer they were to her body. The figure reached down and gently lifted the cup. She jerked her head back when he tried to push it between her lips.

Temari kicked the cup out of his hands, scooting back until she touched the cold, metal crate behind her. She heard the shuffling of fabric before a lighter clicked on, the small flames revealing a familiar white-haired man. His lips were split into a shit-eating grin.

"Hello peach," he said.

His face was striking in the dim light, but striking in the deadly kind of way. Because Temari would never forget the white-haired man in front of her. Even his name rung loudly in her head, remembering the way Shikamaru had said it with such disdain and disgust.

"Hidan..."

He seemed amused by the fact that she remembered his name. He crouched down in front of her, shoving his face arrogantly in her face, observing her from up close. She felt severely under dressed, wearing the black dress from the party. But her feet were dirtied by the stone floor. She couldn't feel her toes and she was starting to shiver a little, but she wouldn't dare pick up the blanket that was on her shoulders when she woke up. She'd gone through worse than this before.

"You know, you'd look real fuckin' hot with your guts spillin' outta ya," he said nonchalantly, sending shivers up her spine. She tensed in readiness, preparing to fight with her legs and arms shackled. He casually lit a cigarette, and Temari glared at him. Somehow, it seemed unfair to die at the hands of a man who was starting to smell like the man she loved. But he made no move to touch her, blowing wispy smoke into her face.

It was a long two minutes, watching as he gradually finished his cigarette. It was thrown on the ground and he crushed it under his foot as he stood up.

"Just sit tight," he told her. "I'll fuck you up just as soon as I hang Nara's skin over the telephone cables."

Temari had a feeling he wasn't speaking in metaphors.

He walked out of sight, leaving her and the spilled cup of water on the ground. She waited an extra minute, just to be sure he wasn't coming back, before she started to shuffle around. The cold crate at her back had sucked out most of the warmth she had left, but she wasn't desperate enough to wrap herself in the scratchy old blanket yet. The chains on her feet weren't too short for her to walk around, so she awkwardly got onto her feet.

Using the metal crate as leverage, Temari started feeling her way around. Hidan had taken the only source of light with him, so she was forced to rely on her other senses. The only thing she could feel was cold metal, and she assumed she was in some kind of warehouse. Paths were created by the myriad of metal and wooden crates in the building, but even if she managed to find the exit, she couldn't run very far, or very fast, in her chains.

She walked for a few minutes, but couldn't really find anything that would be useful. She was never sure if what she was touching was a crate or a wall, so using the walls as a way to find the exit was kind of difficult. Honestly, Temari wouldn't be surprised if she was walking in circles at this point, but that was what it felt like.

She wasn't sure how much time passed before she finally sat down, leaning against a random crate. Her feet ached, but she still hadn't found the exit. Temari wanted to keep walking, because at least it felt like she was doing something. Her style had never been to wait for someone to save her, like some maiden in distress. But her feet were protesting any kind of movement.

If she dozed off, Temari didn't know, because in the next moment the lights flashed on, full-blast, and she shielded her eyes against the brightness. She could hear echoes of voices in the distance, but struggled to gain her senses back. When her sight adjusted, she saw that she was right; they locked her in a warehouse. The uniqueness of this particular warehouse was that it was underground. She couldn't see any windows or doors, but there was a system of stairs attached to the wall above her head. The next step was finding the entrance to that stair system.

But first, she wanted to see what all the commotion was about.

Creeping as quietly as she could with her chains, Temari gradually got closer and closer to the noises from the other side of the warehouse. She realized that those loud sounds were shots from a gun firing in the air. Her heart sped up. Did someone come to rescue her? (Not that she needed help or anything...)

She was getting pretty close to the gunfire, but pushed on. She had to know who was fighitng Hidan. If it were her allies, she could join them. If it was someone she didn't know, it was best to use the distraction to escape.

It didn't take long for her to find out when she turned a corner and Shikamaru roughly slammed into the crate in front of her.

"Damn..." he cursed.

"Shikamaru!" she called, rushing to him. He looked surprised at her presence, taking note of her chains.

"Shit!" he cursed, not saying a proper hello before shoving her back around the crate she just rounded. Some gunfire sounded, landing where they just stood. Shikamaru was pressing her up against a crate, his eyes wild with adrenaline. She was struck by the strong emotions in his eyes, so used to the half-lidded, dark eyes that only occasionally laughed at her. It made her heart pound in her head. She wondered how she could be thinking of something like that at a time like this.

Or maybe her heart was pounding in her head because Shikamaru forced it down again to avoid a stream of bullets. When the bullets stopped, Temari looked over Shikamaru's shoulder to see Hidan tapping a gun casually against his shoulder. Curious why he wasn't shooting, Temari looked at Shikamaru. He was bleeding, no doubt having been shot in the leg and the shoulder. His pant leg was soaked, and Temari wondered how long ago he'd been shot. The bullet in his shoulder looked new, and she realized he had gotten it while protecting her.

She grit her teeth. A Sabaku shouldn't need to be protected.

"Looks like I fuckin' got myself some trapped mice," Hidan said, smirking. Shikamaru cursed under his breath. "It'd be too fuckin' easy to put a sweetheart between your eyes," Hidan said, 'sweetheart' referring to one of the bullets in his gun, "So instead, I'll give you the fuckin' pleasure of watchin' me spill her guts."

There was a brief scuffle and some gunshots, and soon enough Temari found herself pressed against Hidan's chest, his arm tightening painfully over her neck. She grabbed that arm, digging her fingernails into its flesh, but it only made Hidan laugh. "That feels good," he told her, his breath splaying over her ear. She tried jerking away, but was unable to because of his chokehold on her.

Temari grit her teeth resolutely against her quickly disappearing oxygen. She felt so stupid, letting someone capture her and use her as a hostage. Sabaku's were better than this; she undergone too much training to let herself to be used. Temari tightened her grip on Hidan's arm, hoping that he wouldn't notice how tightly and firmly she was grabbing him. He probably thought she was just desperate now, clawing for freedom.

"Looks like you failed again, rookie," Hidan said, watching Shikamaru's face morph into rage. Shikamaru held his gun up, aiming it at Hidan. But Temari knew she was blocking a clear shot to Hidan, and saw the Red Cloud member pull a knife out of his back pocket. Her stomach lurched at the sight of it, remembering Hidan's promise to her earlier.

"Don't touch her," Shikamaru said. "It's me you want, isn't it?" But Hidan laughed, waving the knife around in the air, like he was playing with a toy.

"Her, you, what's the difference? Sooner or later, I'll kill all of you," he said, grinning maniacally. Temari could see the tension in Shikamaru's face as the knife was traced gently on her stomach. She didn't realize Hidan liked toying with people's emotions, but it played to her benefit. The blade came up, and she knew Hidan was going to plunge it into her stomach in the next second. Using his momentum to her advantage, Temari took action.

She felt the full weight of his body over her shoulder as she flipped him onto the ground.

Once he was on the ground, Shikamaru immediately moved in, gun pressed directly against the area between his eyes. Temari sat on the ground a few feet away, tired from using what little energy she had left to subdue Hidan. Her body jumped when Shikamaru's gun fired twice.

She watched his face become impassive, settling back into their normal apathy. He didn't look affected by what he'd just done, simply lifting his gun off a dead man's body. Some shouts occurred several meters away, and Temari recognized Naruto and Chouji's voice. But she had slipped into oblivion before they arrived. The last thing she saw, before tiredness won out, was Shikamaru's impassive expression aimed at the body of a man who once turned his world inside out.