He'll wake up, back in a cell an unknown time later.

(Sasuke and Karin caught everyone, with zero fatalities and only a few deep scratches to Sasuke.)

Shoma wakes up instantly once he regains consciousness, his posture moving upright immediately and his fears are confirmed as he is greeted by the stone walls and darkness of his prison. He can only wonder if what Sasuke had said was right. If it was the only thing he had to lean on, then he was going to put his hopes on it. There wasn't any harm in it considering that everyone was in the same hopeless situation. 

Things do change a bit - new guards and scientists are appointed. Many of them are just as cruel as the last, and some of them are more punitive, and most of them are more powerful, but there's a handful who watch the others with careful eyes, who stop excesses from going too far, who actually seem to believe in anesthetics during surgery...

And after a very short time, one of the new guards - who some of the prisoners say helped regather them - ends up being the one to escort Shoma to his cell after an experiment. She's about his age, thirteen or fourteen, with her skin covered except her face, and her hair and large glasses concealing a good bit of that.

She stops them in the hallway when no one else is around, and regards Shoma, tilting her head a bit. 

"You're the one Sasuke-sama was talking to," she says, voice confident.

Shoma doesn't notice these changes at first, simply viewing them as guards who are all the same. However, it interests him when he finds that they start using anesthetics and stopping those who appear to be going to go to far with a prisoner. 

He has gone through another experimentation in order to try and strengthen his body so that he can use his seal more effectively, not talking to the guard that escorted him to his cell. Shoma is surprised though as she stops them in the hallway, He lets her regard him, unsure of why his usual routine has been changed.

He raises his eyebrows as the guard beings to talk to him. He considers for a moment that this is some sort of trap to get him to talk, but figures that if it was, he could put up with whatever punishment came afterwards. "Yeah, we talk," he says. "What of it?" he then asks, wondering if she's also a part of those who Sasuke had alluded to when he'd re-captured him and mentioned plots. He is not as standoffish as usual, not wanting to potentially ruin his chance of speaking with a guard.

"I was curious what he saw in someone like you."

Shoma blinks in surprise, his own head tilting now. "What do you mean?" he asks. He simply views the talks as nothing more than idle chatter, the boy having not said anymore on the matter from before. He had been surprised when Sasuke had spoken to him at first but after a while it had grown to be normal. 

"You don't seem like much of anything of worth."

Shoma isn't sure if he should feel insulted or not by her words. However, he hasn't had an argument in a while, so hopes for even just a little one. "Why do you think that? I must be some sort of worth if Sasuke talks to me," he says with an innocent smile. 

"He has odd tastes sometimes," she says, voice light.

The boy simply nods. "I suppose I'm just an odd taste he thinks is interesting," he says with a shrug. "Is that what we stopped here for?" he then asks, seeing that the other is not taking the bait. "I haven't heard of a guard stopping to talk with their prisoner before," he adds.

"You could use some lessons in subtlety." She shrugs, and prods him to start walking again.

Shoma doesn't speak, simply walking again as he's prodded. He spares a glance at the guard, and he wonders why they're so young. Wouldn't adults be more efficient in keeping prisoners in line? He doesn't think over this for too long though as he keeps his head down. "What makes you interesting?" he then asks, breaking the silence around them. There is no malice in his voice, simply curiousity. "I know that I'm not worth much, considering I'm a prisoner," he says. "But what are you worth?" he asks.

"You haven't heard? I'm a sensor."

His eyes widen slightly as he hears that the guard is a sensor. "I suppose that is quite a lot of worth," he says. He knows that sensors are renowned for their capabilites, some having stronger abilities than others. "I suppose I should watch my back then," he says, knowing that messing with the other wouldn't end well.

"Perhaps."

He doesn't speak anymore during his return to his cell. 

She'll leave him to his thoughts, after locking him in.

He is unsure of how much time passes, but the routine continues on as normal. He has been forced to practise his powers more often now, the experimentations working on making his body more capable. The guards remain the same and there is no other signs of another potential escape, nor a break in.

He walks with a guard as he's brought to the usual place where his experimentation takes place, expecting the usual. However he sees that there's another guard with another prisoner. Shoma instantly recognises the other as Juugo. He simply keeps his head down as the two guards argue about who was there at the right time and who wasn't. 

Juugo seems smaller than he did during the escape. More uncertain. He glances at Shoma a lot.

Shoma simply listens to the guards, both of them unable to come to a decision. He feels Juugo's glances on him, and he finally looks up, managing to make eye contact with him for a few brief moments before the two guards are guiding them towards abandoned cells. Shoma barely listens to them as he's locked up, glancing at Juugo a few times before he focus on looking straight ahead. He's surprised as the two guards turn and leave, wondering if they were new and inexperienced. "Don't get any funny ideas. If you try and bust out it won't end well for either of you," one of the guards say before they go down the hallway to sort out the mix-up.

Juugo seems very uncertain about this, and glances at Shoma a few times, before mumbling, "Sorry if I've hurt you before..."

Shoma keeps his eyes ahead until he hears Juugo's mumble. He leans back against the back of the cage and looks at the other. "It's no worries. You haven't hurt me before," he tells him. He's heard about the others rage outbursts, not really blaming the male for it. 

"How'd you end up here?" he asks after a lull.

Shoma shifts so he can face the other. "I was on a mission not long after I'd graduated," he begins. "I had to go a bit further out than my team-mates to deliver a parcel and since we wanted to finish quick, we split up. I went off into the outskirts of the leaf village, but I found that there wasn't anyone living at the house at I was meant to go to. Turns out that before I got there, the people living there had disappeared," he says. "It was then that I got kidnapped. Apparently Orochimaru got wind of it. I didn't have much time to do anything or try to run away," he shrugs. "That was about a year ago I think, I can't tell time in here," he tells Juugo. "I don't know why me though. Maybe it was just whoever was there was the unlucky one," he sighs.

"He promised me he'd fix my rages if I came to him."