Beautiful Silence

Chapter 25: Captured

After six hours, Riko reached the point in the map that the shinobi gave her. She looked around, confused by her surroundings. She was in the middle of the desert, with nothing but sand as far as the eye can reach. She looked again at the map, confirming that it was really the spot. While she was looking, she felt a sharp pain at the back of her head. Her vision then went black as her body fell forward down into the sand.

Noticing that both Riko and Gaara weren't home yet, Temari started getting worried. She had heard that one of the Konoha shinobi had arrived in pretty bad shape to Sunagakure. She decided to go check it out.

"Hey, Kankuro. Get off your lazy ass and come with me."

"What? Why?"

"We're going to look for Gaara and Riko. I'm getting a really bad feeling."

"Come on, you're probably worrying for nothing."

Temari looked at Kankuro with a menacing glare.

"I said... Get off your lazy ass and come with me!"

After shouting at him, Kankuro immediately got up and followed his sister. They headed for the hospital where the Konoha shinobi was being taken care of.

Gaara was running as fast as he could. He knew that Riko would be there much faster than him, so he didn't want to waste any time. According to the direction the man gave him, it should be located in the middle of the desert. Of course they wouldn't give the location of their hideout, but it meant that the hideout was close to that area. Eight hours after setting out, he was finally there and out of breath. He looked around frantically, not finding Riko anywhere in sight. He started looking around, using his sand to feel the recent indentations made by footsteps.

Temari and Kankuro were running to where the man told them to go. It took all of Kankuro's strength to stop Temari from beating the Konoha shinobi to death.

"I can't believe this! He'd sacrifice Riko just like that?"

"Hey, he thought it was the right thing to do..."

Even though Kankuro was saying that, he was also feeling angry at what was happening.

"He better not have led us nowhere."

Temari said between her teeth.

"Well, according to the directions, it is going to be in the middle of the desert."

"They wouldn't just give the hideout location to a guy like him. We'll just have to find it."

"Yeah... Those two better be ok."

Kankuro was also starting to get worried. The two siblings hoped that they would make it in time, before anything terrible happened.

Gaara was steadily following recent footsteps that were covered with newer layers of sand. There were only very tiny traces of footsteps that only he was able to feel, thanks to his control over sand. The only downside to doing it this way was that he had to be extremely careful as to not miss anything or to follow false trails. He wanted to get to Riko as fast as possible, but he knew that if he rushed it and lost patience then it might take much longer to get to where she was.

Riko's eyelids felt heavy. Her whole body felt like it weighted a ton. She had a pounding headache and her mouth and throat felt extremely dry. With a lot of effort, she was able to get her eyes open.

"Riko...!"

The voice pierced through her ears, worsening her headache. Riko, however, recognized the voice. She ignored the pain, feeling more relieved to hear Kurenai's voice once more. She tried moving her body, but she couldn't. She realized that she was lying on the ground. Her arms and feet wouldn't move. Riko started to panic, thrashing about wildly.

"Hey, hey! Restrain that demon child!"

A cold, harsh voice resounded. It sent chills down Riko's spine. She then felt someone pulling her up by her hair.

"Ah...!"

She then found herself looking at a pair of pitch black eyes. It was the man that was holding her by the hair. It wasn't just his pupils that were black, but his whole eyes. He was smiling crookedly at her with his scarred lips. His skin was pale, almost ashy. His hair was as black as his eyes. It was very long, with random strands falling over his face. Riko was terrified. She saw the cruelty in his eyes. They were stone cold. It took everything Riko had in her not to scream.

"Riko! Let her go!"

Riko's gaze followed where the voice was coming from. She found Kurenai and the rest of the squad chained up on the wall. They had wounds all over.

"Hehe, does it scare you? We held back on them, though."

The man yanked her hair even harder, causing her to yelp in pain.

"Now you will cooperate with us if you don't want them all to die."

He then let go of Riko's hair and grabbed her head from under her chin, turning her towards the injured Konoha shinobi once more. There stood a bulky man, holding a knife close to Kurenai's neck. Riko's heart dropped. She didn't want anything bad to happen to them, especially to Kurenai.

"Riko-chan, this was going to happen one day or another. And not only to you either."

Riko hiccuped trying to keep her tears from coming out. The pale man was taking a mocking tone with her.

"Riko! Get away from here! I know you can do it! Don't worry about us!"

Kurenai was desperately screaming at Riko to save herself, knowing very well what that meant for the rest of them.

"Haha! You can always run now, but we'd just keep coming. As soon as you try anything, they're dead. Then it'll be someone else who's precious to you. Let's say, that Gaara kid for instance."

At the mention of Gaara's name, Riko couldn't hold back her tears anymore.

"We know how much he's precious to you, now. It'd be really unfortunate if something were to happen to him, wouldn't it?"

The pale man then looked straight in Riko's eyes, with an oppressive glare.

"You can't escape us. We've been watching you for quite some time now. We knew that we couldn't just capture you like that. We were careless enough to try that on another demon. Each demon has a certain weakness. Yours is your kindness. You almost fooled us! From all the demons we've captured, you were certainly the only one that didn't act like one. Of course, our suspicions were confirmed when we witnessed your powers. Needless to say that what awaits you now is death. You probably never knew about this, but when a demon is slain with a weapon, a portion of its power is absorbed within that weapon. You'd be surprised at how powerful those weapons become."

Riko was shivering in fear and sobbing uncontrollably. She didn't want to die, but, more than anything, she didn't want anyone else to suffer because of her. She had accepted her fate. If it meant saving those she loved, she would give up her life for them.