[Content Warning: Domestic Abuse, Dark]
The first thing she noted was that it was hot. Really damn hot. And dark, too. What the hell had happened to her? Where even was she? The last thing she remembered was...
No.
No, no, no, no, no! Saul... He!?!?
She looked up at the man whose palm emitted a fading green light. He had just used some sort of Jutsu on her to wake her up. When her eyes moved to his face, they blazed with hatred.
Her voice came out in a dry crack, "Saul..."
The man noted the dryness in her voice and pulled out a couple of prepared water bottles. He put one beside her head.
"Have a drink, Temari. You sound thirsty."
The blonde haired woman refused to even look at the bottle of water. Did he think she could just accept him? After what he did? Her voice went deep, cold.
"Why don't you just kill me..."
"Why would I? Come on, drink something."
He picked up the water bottle nonchalantly, unscrewed the cap, and tilted it to her lips. He tilted her head up for her to drink as if she was a baby. Temari took a few sips despite herself, then began greedily drinking down the entire bottle. She was thirsty. So thirsty she didn't even realize it. Every gulp of water was sweet and filled her with relish.
Soon the bottle was emptied. Saul unscrewed the cap off another bottle and held it to her lips, but Temari turned her head away from it violently. She began struggling to do something, to fight back.
Nothing happened. Her arms, her legs, they would not move. They laid twitching uselessly at her sides as Temari's torso twisted and turned. Then she attempted to circulate her Chakra.
But nothing happened when she tried to utilize it. Her chakra encountered some sort of barrier, rebounded, and then she felt a sharp, stinging pain in her arms and legs. What in the hell had he done to her!?
"Don't bother trying to use your chakra or trying to move around. It won't work."
Saul grabbed her chin and forced her to look up at him to stop her struggling. She could barely make out anything within the darkness, but Saul was releasing small wisps of chakra that barely illuminated the surrounding area. She was in some sort of underground cavern, surrounded by dirt walls and hanging tendrils of something that looked like a brown snake. Where in the fuck even was she!?
"The tendons in your arms and legs are no longer attached to your bone. You won't be able to move your arms and legs at all until you're looked at by a medical professional. Don't worry though, Temari. You won't undergo much suffering. You'll only be awake as long as I'm here with you anyway."
What the hell did he mean by that? Temari's mind was a confused mess. The mission to attack Konoha, his once familiar smile and presence, the pain and soreness radiating out from her nethers. A reminder of what he did.
Temari started sobbing uncontrollably.
Saul watched the blonde haired woman cry and sob as she lay helplessly on the floor, a prisoner within her own body. Then he sighed.
Lifting up her limp, useless body, he held the crying woman in his arms. He had grown attached to Temari sometime during their many lunches together. Seeing the normally proud sand princess brought to this state really brought home the gravity of what he had done to her.
Did he feel bad for her? Yes. Would he have done the same thing to her again, knowing how she'd react? Also, yes.
This b*tch had it coming to her. Calling him a pig all the time, speaking down to him with disdain, did she really think he was just going to take it with a smile? She wasn't even real in the first place! Why should he care!? When the bitch tried to stab him with that Kunai of hers in the forest, she should have known something like this was coming. She deserved to get raped! She should be grateful he was even letting her cry on him like this.
Temari's sobs turned into sad sniffles over time. Despite herself, her hatred, some instinctual part of her found comfort in his embrace. She was so hopeless, so confused.
If she was here, with him, not dead... Then her village. What happened to her village after the attack? And her brothers! Gaara! Kankuro! What happened to them!? She had been privately captured by Saul after all, but... If he was here with her now, then the attack must have failed miserably.
"Saul..." She croaked. "What happened to Gaara... Kankuro... Are they ok?"
Poor, poor, Temari. Before she had even asked about her own situation or well being, she was asking about her family. This was exactly why Saul had to take her like this. Temari's loyalty to her village and love for her family was unquestionable. There was no way he could realistically obtain the Sand Princess for himself without doing something drastic - especially after his relationship with Hinata came to fruition.
"Gaara... Is fine, I think. I personally returned him as a hostage to Konoha. The higher ups absolutely wouldn't kill a Jinchuriki like him, at least for the short term."
Temari exhaled a sigh of relief. "And what of my other brother, Kankuro? He's alive too, right?"
Temari's eyes were filled with hope. Saul however, remained silent. Tears started to stream down her face.
"Kankuro absolutely wouldn't have fought to the death. He is smarter than that. What happened to him? Please... Tell me."
"He didn't die by the hands of a Konoha ninja."
"...What... Do you mean?"
"I wasn't there at the time. But I told my comrades not to kill your brothers, and they listened. I heard that once Kankuro was subdued, he surrendered. But before they could capture him..."
"...What happened?"
"Your brother, Gaara, he lost control. He crushed Kankuro into meat paste, killing him with his own hands."
"No... No... Why are you lying to me...?"
Temari began sobbing once again. This had always been a fear of hers. Even in the Chunin exams, she had to plead with Gaara to stop him from losing control and killing her brother. Yet... And yet...! This time, she wasn't there to stop him.
It must have happened while she was fighting with the man in front of her. While he was playing around with her, while he was raping her, Kankuro... Kankuro had died. Grief welled up in her throat, and Temari choked up so hard that she couldn't breathe.
Saul moved in to hug her to him again, but this time she twisted out of his embrace. She fell back to the ground on her back. Pain shot up from her body, but Temari didn't notice. This was his fault. All his fault.
"You!" She shrieked, "This is YOUR FAULT!!! If Gaara hadn't been so agitated by being chased, he would have never done something like that! I could have calmed him! I could have done something! Gaara always listened to me! But while you were busy using my body to fucking bust a nut, Kankuro!!! Kankuro..."
She resumed sobbing miserably. Saul however, shook his head.
"Kankuro died," He continued, his voice cold, "Because of you. Not me."
"WHAT!?!?" Temari grew hysterical, "I-"
Saul slapped her in the face to shut her up.
"I told you to surrender. I ordered everyone on my side to spare your brothers, not just because of some valuable hostage crap. That was just rhetoric. Don't you think I don't know that your village is so poor they have nothing to offer, even if we took hostages? I did it for your sake, Temari. Even though you knew you were no match for me, even though you betrayed both my trust and that of my village's, I still offered you a chance for your sake.
If you had surrendered and went with me peacefully, do you think Gaara would have even gotten the chance to transform? To lose control and do that to your brother, Kankuro? Your stupid stubbornness to continue fighting a fight you knew you could never win is what caused your brother's death. Tell me Temari, don't you agree?"
Temari shook her head no while biting her lip so hard she caused it to bleed. She would not agree to something like that, never. Absolutely not! Even now, she wasn't saying anything only because she didn't want to be hit again for no reason. Saul however, frowned.
*Slap*
"Temari. Don't you agree with me?"
"...Fuck you!"
Saul was a lot less controlled now. He cursed, slapped her in the face, even punched her helpless body covered merely by thin sheets. All Temari could do was writhe and groan in pain, she couldn't even scream or cry out. The air was knocked out of her lungs. Her mind suddenly started to be covered by a haze of pain and suffering. Was this how it ended...?
Suddenly, a green sphere of light extended out of his hand and Temari's body was healed once more. Just enough that she could still feel the ache, but not enough that her mind grew hazy. The sharp clarity of the damage he had done returned to her in full force and Temari gritted her teeth in agony.
"You deserve everything that I've done to you, and that I'm doing right now. I will not tolerate any sort of disrespect! Now apologize to your dead brother, Kankuro, for getting him killed. Tell him you're sorry! I want to hear it!"
Temari, abused and now fearful, was not in any sort of state to resist his demands any longer. Her eyes were puffy and red from her continued crying, yet... Still, tears leaked out in full force once more.
"...I'm sorry... I'm sorry..." *sniff* "Saul, Kankuro, I'm so sorry..."
Her sobbing intensified, whether it was from the ache of being beaten, the horrible feeling of being forced to outwardly take the blame, or the creeping, chilling realization that maybe he was right. Maybe it was her fault after all...?
Author's Note: It's very interesting to write abuse scenes like this. From both the perspective of the abuser and the victim. The abuser will always seem to internally justify their actions, even though such justifications make no sense given the full context. You always have to be in the right after all, so your mind starts to believe in the justifications it creates to satisfy its own ego.
Unfortunately for the victim, they're also forced to believe in the abuser's justifications. Since they have no power to refuse, they start truly believing that the abuser is right. That they deserve what's being done to them. In a twisted sort of way, this is also conditioned because the pain stops, and the abuser rewards the victim for accepting their ideology. So they're forcibly rewired to accept a twisted, egocentric view of reality over time.
Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed reading this dark chapter! This is only the start of Temari and Saul's new relationship.
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