"Hey now," the knocker said with a deep, pleasant voice, "It's rude to stare, you know."
The knocker had a canine look with pointed ears, from which a ring with a knob protruded, and two wavy decorative lines on each cheek.
"Woa, sorry," Temari said, a bit startled as she had not expected the thing to start speaking, "I was just wondering how to get through."
"Hmmm?" the knocker wiggled its ears.
"Pleath ekthuth him, he'th theaf ath a poth," the right knocker told Temari. She saw that this one held its ring in its mouth, which made it difficult to speak. The knocker's face resembled that of a cat with crescent shaped lines around the sides of its eyes, which were in turn enveloped by lines on its cheeks and temples.
"Why, you shouldn't speak with your mouth full," the dog chuckled.
"I'm noth!" the cat retorted.
"Hmm?"
"Hang on, I can't understand you," Temari said, took hold of the ring and was about to take it out, when she heard Chouji walk up to hear, still chewing loudly.
"Aren't you full yet?" she asked him.
"Nah! This stuff is real tasty, I can't get enough!" he had his, by now notably smaller hands full of food.
Temari grinned and returned to business, pulling the ring out of the cat's mouth.
"Gaaah," it exclaimed, thoroughly stretching its jaw, "It feels so good to get that thing out!"
"Now, what were you saying?" Temari asked.
"I said: please excuse him, he's deaf as a post," the cat sighed.
"My, you guys certainly like to mumble," it's neighbor butted in, "won't you speak up and let me be a part of the conversation, huh?"
"Ah, SURE SENPAI!" the cat practically shouted and then addressed Temari in the same volume, "SO YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW TO GET THOUGH?!"
"Er, yes please," Temari replied uncertain if she should scream as well.
"Hmm?" the dog repeated calmly.
"YES PLEASE!" she cried and shot a warning glace at Chouji, who was barely able to hold his laughter.
"Ahh, alright then," the deaf doorknocker said in an entertained tone, "Knock, and the door will open."
"OKAY! THANKS!"
Temari looked at the ring she was still holding and figured that if she had to put it back anyway, she might as well use it. But first she wanted to know what could be awaiting her behind the doors.
"Where do these lead to, anyway?" she asked the cat, pushing the door for no particular reason.
"Sorry, I have no idea," it replied with a friendly smile and its regular intensity of voice, paying no attention to its colleague's protesting moan, "We're just the knockers."
"Hm, too bad," Temari said and held the ring up to its lips.
"I don't want that thing back in my mouth!" the knocker uttered, looking slightly panicked and closed his mouth tightly.
"Come on," Temari said, "I wanna knock."
"Na-ah!" it muttered from the corners of its mouth.
"He doesn't want it back, huh?" the dog grinned, "Can't say I blame him…"
A cunning look appeared in its eyes and he continued in a deeper voice: "Well, I sure have respect for the guy, managing to hold that detestable thing between his jaws for such a long time. I highly doubt that just anyone could've done it. Come girl, knock on my door. I will sacrifice my delicate ears so that my dear kouhai can rest for a while longer."
Temari looked at the cat-face, which had been staring at his colleague in awe since somewhere halfway the speech, and shrugged.
"Alright," she said and had already started moving to her left, when the right woke from its daze, cried: "Wait, stop! I'll do it!" and opened its mouth wide. Tameri stared at it in amazement, then, while she stuffed the ring back into its mouth, glanced at the other and mouthed "smoooth!", with a well-done-I'm-impressed look on her face. It gave a proud smirk in reply.
Temari sniggered and turned to Chouji.
"So, what are you going to do?" she asked him.
"I don't know where you're going," he shrugged, "but I guess I'll tag along."
"Fine by me," Temari smiled and finally lifted the ring and banged it against the firm wood - and once more for good measure - of the door in front of them. It slowly creaked open and revealed a densely vegetated forest.
Curiously looking around, Temari, directly followed by Chouji, stepped through the opening and on a damp forest trail. Temari had almost forgotten about the eerie looking places of the Labyrinth after the fresh garden she'd just come from, but was reminded instantly when she walked into this part. The wide, misshapen trees let through barely any light, the still air was hazy and bleak, and thick rotting braches on the forest floor were covered in spider webs and goo. But it was also quiet, there wasn't so much as a breeze to stir the leafy trees, so - while she stayed on her guard, of course - Temari didn't really worry about surprise attacks.
This time Temari had taken slamming doors into consideration, but Chouji obviously wasn't as experienced as her, because when the one behind them, like any door she'd come across in the maze, suddenly and loudly closed, she heard him yelp and sigh a moment later. She laughed at him quietly. It felt kind of good to have a traveling companion.
After Temari shortly explained her situation, they moved through the trees in silence, as the trail slowly narrowed and ultimately completely disappeared. They tried to keep going in a line as straight as possible, while the spooky woods only got spookier. Every now and then they'd come across dead trees that looked especially dreadful, with shapes that reminded them of freakish creatures.
"This place gives me the creeps," Chouji shivered.
"Yeah, me too," Temari nodded, "But there isn't really anything to be scared of, is there? We've been in here for a while and nothing happened," Temari said.
He only made a disbelieving sound, so she looked around at her companion to smile reassuringly at him, only to see that he had vanished into thin air.
"Shit!" Temari looked around her frantically to spot possible attackers, but there was nothing to be seen and she didn't feel anyone either. So she decided to look for clues of what could have happened to Chouji on the forest floor. His footprints disappeared where the earth had been slightly disrupted and Temari concluded that there must have been some sort of trapdoor, that had opened, pulled Chouji down and closed crazy fast.
For a moment she hesitated: she didn't want to leave Chouji behind, but she could discover no way to go after him and the clock was ticking. She had to find Gaara.
"Ah, shit… I'm so sorry Chouji..." she moaned regretfully and started running. This time she was hyper sensitive to her surroundings. She had underestimated the forest. Sure enough: she'd been running only for a few minutes when she shortly heard rhythmic tapping. Instantly she was set to attack whatever was coming.