Shikamaru looked at Temari, wearing a curious expression. If she hadn't known better, she would have thought that he was worried.
"You're really going in, are you?"
"I'll have to," was Temari's short reply.
On her guard, with a kunai, ready to strike, in her hand Temari stepped into the labyrinth and looked from left to right. She didn't feel the presence of anyone other than good-for-nothing outside.
It was a dismal looking path. It was paved with grey tiles and the castle-like walls, which were made out of dark bricks, were glistening with slime. Here and there a bare twig grew out from between the stone. Yellowish green, strange mosses – on which knobs grew that looked like eyeballs with yellow, pupil-les irises - were the only source of colour to be found.
If Temari hadn't been able to sense chakra, Shikamaru surely would have scared the living daylight out of her when he creeped up behind her, quiet as a shadow, and mumbled, "Cosy, isn't it?"
"Yes, delightful," Temari curtly replied and sighed, "So… left and right basically look the same. Which way would you go?"
Shikamaru yawned and stretched elaborately before he answered, "I wouldn't go either way."
"Could've seen that coming," Temari said, rolling her eyes, "Thanks for nothing, Shinemaru."
"Mendoukusei… It's Shikamaru."
"Duh!" Temari retorted, annoyed, "It was a pun, you know, 'shine' meaning die and all."
"Har har," he said, not amused.
"Now get lost, I'm in a hurry."
"Ha! That's a funny thing to say when I'm the one leaving the maze."
And so they parted. Now that she was alone, Temari noticed how quiet it was in the labyrinth. There was no sign of life whatsoever. All of a sudden the gates slammed shut. She had been so focused on the silence that the bang made her jump. As it echoed through the passage and faded away, Temari was trying to decide on going left or right. There wasn't much to base her decision on. Didn't people in stories always turn their backs on the sunny looking path? In this case neither of them looked particularly bright and breezy, but the right one was definitely messier: it was littered with branches.
Right it was.
Temari started walking, running would do her no good at this point: she had to save energy. It felt like the eyeball like knobs lurked after her, but when she looked around at them, they held quite still. Even so, she was convinced that she was being watched.
After a couple of minutes Temari started getting impatient. Ttaku! she thought, what do they mean labyrinth? There aren't any turns or corners or anything... So she started running.
That didn't help at all, nothing changed: all she saw were the same bricks, branches, twigs and eyeball-mosses.
Impatience turned into anger. She brought out her fan and tried to break apart the wall with her kamaitachi no jutsu. Which didn't work. "Are you fucking kidding me?!" she bellowed, "What the fuck are those walls made of?!"
She groaned desperately and crouched down on the ground, staring at her knees and clutching her hair.
"Damn it!"
"Ohayou!" a small voice beside her then said.
Temari looked around and saw nothing but a tiny, pale-orange, chubby-cheeked toad with bright orange markings. She looked from left to right once more, but saw no other living creature and this toad wore a little blue vest, so hesitantly she asked the amphibian "did you just say 'good morning'?"
"Nah, I said 'ohayou', but that's close enough," it smiled brightly, causing it's cheeks to puff up even more.
"You happened to know the way to this labyrinth?" Temari tried hopefully.
"Nah, I'm just a toad!"
"Shit..."
"Come inside and meet Gamakichi nii-chan! We have great snacks!" the cheerful toad said.
"No thanks," Temari sighed, "I have to solve this labyrinth, but how am I supposed to do that when there aren't any turns or openings?"
"Well, you're not looking right! It's full of openings!"
Temari gazed at the creature.
"What do you mean? Where are they?" she said, distrustfully.
"There's one right across from you!" the toad said, as though it was in plain sight.
Temari looked and all she saw was a wall. "No there isn't." She got up to examine the bricks.
"'Course there is!" the toad replied, "go on, walk through it."
Temari still didn't believe him, "It's just a wall!"
"Things aren't always what they seem in this place. Go on, go on!" he urged.
So Temari walked up to the wall slowly, still believing it was solid, but then saw a paralleled path appear.
"Eeeeeh...?" she softly exclaimed, astonished. Then she turned to the toad and bowed, beaming, "Thank you! That was really helpful!" and turned left.
"Don't go that way!" the toad hurriedly yelled after her, "Never go that way!"
"Oh, thanks!" Temari bowed again as she came past the opening.
"She'd have gone straight to the castle..." the toad muttered after Temari had disappeared behind the wall.
Meanwhile, in a cave underneath the castle in the centre of the labyrinth, a flickering and buzzing figure appeared. The only thing distinguishable was the outline of spiky hair, cloudlike shapes on its robe and its sharp, curious eyes. They were purple and from its pupil expanded, like water ripples, several rings.
Soon after this apparition, an even stranger figure came out. At first it seemed like an enormous Venus fly-trap grew rapidly from the cave floor, but then it's leaves opened and trough it, two eyes with yellow, pupil-less irises peered out of a half black, half white face.
"Zetsu," the hologram addressed it in a deep, metallic voice, "They are late."
"The Jinchuuriki was stronger than Deidara had anticipated," sniggered the white side of the face.
"Sasori was later kept busy by the Jinchuuriki's brother," black Zetsu added, grumbling, "but they got rid of him and will arrive in half a day."
"Fine... Any other news?"
"Yes indeed!" was white Zetsu's excited answer.
"A girl has entered the labyrinth," the black half explained, "the Jinchuuriki's sister..."
The flashing man was not impressed.
"Have Tobi take care of her," he ordered and vanished.