Turning of Time (Naruto Fanfic) [hiatus]

Turning of Time: Chapter 31

__3rd Pov__

Shikamaru froze, a look of shock overtaking his face. Choji was much the same, he had even stopped his incesent eating. Asuma looked away in slight shame, knowing this had happened when he was in charge of Sara.

Nobody said anything, until Mayu came up to them. "Hey, what's with the glum looks? We fought them off didn't we?" Nobody said anything in response and she looked around the group again. "Oh my! What happened to Ino?" She noticed first.

Asuma looked up slightly, "She was knocked out," he gave the simple version. Mayu of course could tell there was more to the story than that. She turned, as if to ask Sara.

Then it hit her. Her eyes widened as she finally put the pieces together. "What happened to Sara?" Mayu looked around the sombre group, but all she got were slight shakes of the head.

Suddenly there was a slight stirring from the wagon, and they all turned. Ino had begun to wake up.

_Travel to Sara Location_

There was a sudden clarity before Sara's eyes, as if a veil had been lifted. She looked around her, taking in the scene. It was dark, and the only light came from a few lanterns scattered throughout the room. Beyond the smell of smoke they gave of she could get a hint of a moist, earthy scent. They must be underground somewhere.

The room was small, only about 5 feet square, if that. It was clearly made as a holding cell for hostages. There were no furnishings, just a pole in the middle which she had been tied to. Her captors had been kind enough to give her a foot of rope, instead of tying her to the pole itself. There was one small door on the wall behind her.

As she sat there she also became aware of a recurring clang from outside the room. It could have been a number of things, but since they were bandits it was either a clang of the making of weapons, less likely, or the sound of a pickaxe hitting the side of a cavern, most likely. That would mean there would be a vein of gold or this was a jewel mine.

Then the door opened behind her and she turned, expecting food. Instead, she was faced with a very angry looking man with a severe injury on his leg, causing him to limp. What her eyes focused on wasn't the man though, but what he was holding.

He had a knife.

_To Shika!_

"Ino! Thank goodness you are alright!" Mayu rushed over with the other three.

Shikamaru didn't give Ino the chance to respond, "Do you know why Sara was taken?"

Ino, senses fully regained by that question looked down in guilt. It had been her fault Sara was taken, and she made that fully known.

"I'm sorry, if I had been more careful she wouldn't have been. We were fighting together when the numbers forced us apart. I was overwhelmed and someone grabbed me from behind. She made up some ridiculous lie about being cocaptian and offered herself as a hostage instead." Ino spoke quickly, tears shone in her eyes by the end.

"Ino, it's alright. Don't worry about it," Asuma reached out, trying to comfort her.

She shook her head vehemently, "No! It isn't! If I had been stronger, she wouldn't have been taken! It's all my fault!"

Asuma and Choji kept trying to calm her down while Shikamaru stood to the side in deep thought. Finally though everyone was shocked when Mayu got fed up, walked up, and slapped Ino right across the face. They all stood frozen for what seemed like an hour.

Mayu spoke up then, in a hard tone, but not an unkind one. "Quit crying. That won't solve anything, and it sure won't bring her back."

Slowly Ino looked up, staring Mayu in the eyes. "You're right, sorry." She turned to Shikamaru then. "Shikamaru, I have a message that Sara asked me to pass on. It doesn't make much sense, but I promised I would."

He looked up with surprise written on his usually stoic face. He recomposed himself then nodded for her to continue.

"Right then. These were her words exactly: 'Find Ino now, I should hear. Tell him everything. Many inner serious sounds imagine, over now.'" Ino laid slight stress on the him, as Sara had done.

Shikamaru didn't say anything for the longest time, then he slowly shook his head. He understood what Sara wanted him to do, and it was just like her.

"What is it Shikamaru? Do you know what she was talking about?" Asuma asked, seeing the gesture.

"Ah, yeah. She put a code in the message, even in her situation," he explained. "It was a simple code. You just take the first letter from the beginning of each word."

The others thought through the message, slowly Asuma spoke. "Finish the mission."

"That's what she said. Ino, do you have anything else?" Shikamaru looked over to his teammate.

Ino hesitated before answering. "Well... yes. However, Sara made me promise not to tell you before the end of this mission though."

"Don't hold back information, what else is there?" Asuma spoke.

Ino shook her head determined. "No. I want to rescue her just as bad as you both do, but she made it quite clear that we were to finish it."

When nobody argued Mayu broke the uncomfortable silence.

"Well, since it's the mission I requested of you, let's get this over with. No sense in wasting time here. Sooner you finish, the sooner you can save Sara."

Shikamaru looked up, steel in his eyes as apposed to the normal uncaring look. "Besides, Naruto's team was supposed to take out the bandits anyways. Maybe they'll get her out of there before us," doubt coated his words at the sentence though.

Ino looked up, "Yeah, maybe."

_Back to Sara, again_

Sara sat in a heap on the floor of the room, tears running down her face from the pain. Black dots danced in front of her eyes, but she knew she couldn't pass out, at least not yet.

Holding her stomach she pushed herself off the ground, a flash of pain danced throughout her body making her pause for just an instant. Then she continued her slow rise. She got into a sitting position and leaned back against the pole. She was no longer tied up, but there was no way she was going anywhere anytime soon.

Feebly her hand reached out and touched the corner of the med kit the man had left behind. She gripped it and pulled it towards her, ignoring the blood on the top of it. Undoing the latch she looked inside and saw gauze, bandages, and a little alchohol.

With one hand she tore off a portion of her skirt, grabbing the alchohol and soaking the dirty cloth in it. Gingerly Sara peeled her shirt away from her wound. She daubed the cleaner in, ignoring the shooting pain from the sting.

After cleaning the wound she dressed it with the gauze and bandages, knowing it would bleed through within the hour. Better than nothing though. She wrapped the other shallower cuts on her body then rested back against the pole yet again.

She remembered the man coming in here, angry. Apparently Sara had wounded him in the fight at the caravan, and he had gotten permission to rough her up a bit. After all, they needed her alive, but not healthy.

He hadn't used the knife at first. He punched her and kicked her until she was kneeling on the ground at his feet. Then taking the dull knife, he had pressed, dragging it across her skin and cutting it open in a delibrate manner. It had left jagged openings, ones that were sure to leave a few scars.

None of that was comparable to the pain of the last wound he had dealt though. He had cut, layer by layer, into her abdomine. Avoiding the points that would kill her. After a final kick to the head, he had left her on the ground, blood pulsing from her wound, on the ground.

With the wound to her stomach she knew that the most she would last, without better medical care, was 2 days. All she could hope for was that either Kakashi or Asuma would lead their teams here and aprehend the bandits.

Then all concious thought ceased as another wave of pain hit her. Spots danced before her eyes and this time she didn't resist. Slowly, blissfully, she fell into unconsciousness.

That was when the nightmares started.