Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto...that being said...

WARNING ~ WARNING ~ WARNING ~ WARNING ~ WARNING ~ WARNING

THIS CHAPTER SCARED THE CRAP OF OF ME!

I am currently huddled under a blanket in my bed chanting, "It's not real, it's not real, it's not real!"

READ AT YOUR OWN RISK! THE RATING HAS CHANGED TO M BECAUSE OF IT!

P.S.

Anko is one twisted woman

P.S.S.

Forgot to add something - girl's thinking it was a genjutsu - so I added it!

Chapter Four:

Anko's Temple

What'soever I've feared has come to life

And what'soever I've fought off became my life

Just when everyday seemed to greet me with a smile

Sunspots have faded and now I'm doing time

'Cause I fell on black days

~Soundgarden~

One year, nine months ago

"And how are my precious little students?" shouted a cheerful voice behind them. "I have the absolute best lesson planned! It's going to occur sometime this week so be prepared because I'm not going to tell you exactly when it will happen. You all will like my little temple. It's a real scream!"

With that said, Anko walked out of the classroom leaving quite a few confused girls behind. "Does that mean we can leave?" asked Sakura aloud.

"Well duh, forehead girl, unless you plan on staying here by yourself!"

"Shut up Ino pig. That sounds scary."

"Ah, she's probably just exaggerating so she can scare you…big baby."

"W-Well I g-guess I'll l-leave too," stammered Hinata.

~~O~~

Sakura was shopping with her mother in the market when it happened.

Hinata was in the clan courtyard pressing flowers when it happened.

Ino was finishing a delivery for the shop when it happened.

None of them were prepared when it happened...

~~ Darkness~~

Whispers.

When Sakura opened her eyes to the flickering candlelight, she discovered she was in some sort of subterranean cavern. There were stairs leading up to a heavy wooden door. Ino and Hinata were lying on their sides beside her. There was no one else there. Sakura walked up the stairs and tried the door. It wouldn't open.

Whispers.

"Who's there?" she called out timidly.

"S-Sakura? Where are w-we?" asked Hinata getting up slowly.

"I don't know. I wonder if this is Anko Sensei's new lesson. This doesn't really look like a temple to me though."

"Then where is everyone else at dummy," snapped Ino.

"Do I look like I know Pig?!" shouted Sakura testily.

Whispers.

"Do you hear that?"

"H-Hear what?"

Whispers.

Suddenly Hinata heard the whispers, and her skin seemed to turn to ice in that instant. It was a wordless hissing, a soft sound, but growing louder by the second. She heard an echoing scream in the distance. "That s-sounds like S-Sachiko," she said.

And then she felt something crawling up her leg.

She reached down, brushed at her leg, and knocked it away.

Shuddering for some odd reason, she walked to the tiny candle, picked it up, and held it up high in the air.

Roaches. Thousands upon thousands of roaches were teeming in the room. They were on the floor, on the walls, on the low ceiling. They were not just ordinary roaches, but enormous things, over three inches long, an inch or two wide, with energetic legs and especially long feelers that moved around anxiously. Their shiny green-brown outer shells appeared to be gummy and damp, like splotches of dark snot.

The whispering was the sound of their endless, continual movement, long legs and quavering antennae brushing against other long legs and antennae, relentlessly crawling and scuttling and bustling this way and that way.

The girls froze. Sakura shakily brought her hand in front of her to make the ram seal. "Release!" she shouted.

Nothing happened.

"Release! "Release! "Release, damn it!" she shouted with a hysterical edge to her voice. Ino copied her.

Nothing happened.

Hinata focused her eyes and shouted "Byakugan!"

"They're real," they said in dismay as one.

Sakura screamed. Ino screamed. Hinata tried to scream, but no sound came out.

The roaches shied away from the candlelight. They were evidently subterranean insects that survived only in the dark. The three girls quickly realized this truth and looked up at the meager little stump of a candle. They heard another terrified scream in the distance bouncing off the walls.

Sakura grimaced, "That sounded like Momoka."

The whispering grew louder.

More roaches were pouring into the room. They were coming out of a crack in the floor. Coming out by tens...by scores…by hundreds… There were a couple of thousand of the repulsive, sickening things in the room already, and the chamber was no more than fifteen or twenty feet on one side. They piled up two and three deep in the other half of the room, avoiding the light, but getting bolder by the minute.

Sakura and Ino whimpered helplessly. In that moment, shy quiet Hinata changed, like a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis. "They are beetles," she said firmly, "They are nothing but subterranean beetles."

"R-Roaches," insisted Ino.

Hinata handed the candle to Sakura and grabbed Ino by the arms. She forced the petrified girl to look into her eyes. She said slowly, "You listen to me, Yamanaka…They are beetles. They are only beetles. Repeat it to yourself, over and over if you have to."

Ino nodded then began to chant, "They're only beetles, they're only beetles, they're only beetles…"

She took the candle from Sakura white-fisted grasp and said the same to her even though she was just as horrified as they were.

They were still gushing from the hole, a writhing, squirming, putrid mass.

They mounted up on one another; five, six, and seven deep, covering the walls and the ceiling, endlessly moving, swarming restlessly. The quiet whisper of their movements became a roar.

Suddenly, the roaches moved toward them. The strain of them piling up on top of each other finally caused them to spill at her like a breaking wave, in a roiling green-brown mass. In spite of the candle, they surged forward, hissing.

The girls screamed and started up the steps. Ino pounded on the locked door, shrieking for help which did not come. They looked back down at the bottom of the steps. Just the sight of the humming mass of insects made them all gag with revulsion.

They chanted together, "They're only beetles, they're only beetles, they're only beetles…"

The candle sputtered…

"They're only beetles, they're only beetles, they're only beetles…"

The room below looked as though it was waist-deep in roaches. A huge ocean of them moving back and forth and hissing in a way that it seemed almost as if it were one living thing down there, one grotesque being with thousands of legs and antennae and hungry mouths.

The candle sputtered…

"They're only beetles, they're only beetles, they're only beetles…"

Behind them, the whispering in the dark cavern grew louder with each shattering thump of their hearts. Some of the insects were crawling up the steps despite the light. Two of them reached Hinata's feet and she stomped on them. More came.

The candle died…

For a brief moment, the whispering seemed to stop, but then it grew even louder then before.

Hinata felt a few on her ankles, and she quickly bent down and brushed them away. One of them scurried up her left arm. She clapped a hand on it, squashed it. "Sakura," she said sternly, "Break that damn door down."

A roach dropped from the ceiling, onto her head. With a shudder of revulsion, she plucked it out of her hair, and threw it away.

Sakura screamed as she felt them crawling under her clothes. "But…but…I can't. I've only been able to do it once. It's hard to focus."

Ino continued to scream with her hands clamped over her mouth and nose to prevent the roaches from crawling in.

Hinata slapped the pink-haired girl lightly. "I believe in you, Sakura. You can do it. Now show us what a fine kunoichi you are and break down that damn door. Now!"

Abject fear was squashed as the fire returned to Sakura's eyes. She ignored the creepy, repulsive feeling of the insects touching her body. She focused her chakra in her hands, cocked her arm back, and slammed her fist into the door. It was reduced to nothing but splinters.

"Get them off, get them off, get them off!" screamed Ino, stripping off her clothes and running in circles.

Sakura began to sob as she took off her own clothes while Hinata calmly pulled off the roaches from their bodies. She then took off her own clothes and shook them out. She hugged both girls and soothed their terror.

"I hate that evil woman," wailed Ino while Sakura patted her comfortingly.

"I really don't like Anko Sensei right now either," admitted Hinata with a guilty flush.

"What?!" shouted a familiar evil voice from above them, "What do'ya mean, you don't like me?" asked Anko.

They looked up and saw her standing on a tree branch above them. She jumped down and pulled out a pocket watch. She clicked her tongue when she saw the time. "How many times do I have to tell you girls to always be prepared? I mean, you could have easily picked the locks. The other girls managed to do that."

"Hey, we got out!" yelled Ino.

"True, but what happens if Sakura isn't with you? What then, hmm?"

Ino and Hinata looked down with a blush. It was true. Without Sakura, they would still be in there.

"Ooh, that reminds me, one group hasn't made it out yet, so I guess I should release them from the temple." She ran off with a cheery wave.

"Hinata," said Sakura timidly, "You were the one who really saved us, not me. I just wanted to say…thanks."

"Me too, Hinata. I'm proud to call you my sister," added Ino, "The both of you."

AN:

In case you are thinking this chapter somewhat mirrors the incident with the boys and the leeches, yeah I know. It didn't occur to me until I was done writing it, but I liked it too much to scrap it. Yeah, it's also has kinda a Temple of Doom thing going on here too (Awesome movie, btw). So now the girls are close, I mean come on, if you can survive something like that with another person - you gotta be tight! (Picture the Harry Potter/Troll scene!)

Did anyone else have to pick up their feet from the floor after reading it, or was that just me?! lol

Thanks to everyone who has reviewed/favorited/followed my little tale.

Next chapter is much longer, I swear(over 6,000 words)! I just had to put this out first.

Please don't hate me for writing this, what can I say, my mind's not broken - just bent!

Ja Ne

AZFAERYDUST