Naruto 1. Introductions

1SC: Hey all! I came up with this idea from going to the Naruto section and reading god-knows-how-many fics where Sasuke and Sakura have a kid. I thought 'Hey, that's a pretty cool idea, let's take it one step further.' So, here we go.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, would I be writing this?

Chapter One

Introductions

It was a peaceful morning in Konoha. Even in the school where Iruka and Kakashi were reviewing the files of the students who had passed into the Genin level. "Hey, Kakashi, look at this." He held up a stack of files. "All of 'em passed."

"Seriously? Even Menrui?"

"Yep. Guess she didn't inherit her dad's study habits." Iruka laughed as he opened the files. Inside the first was a picture of Uzumaki Menrui. Black hair down to her waist, bright blue eyes, and a smile that always seemed to be on her face. Even had the little whisker marks. Definitely her father's daughter, save the hair color. Yeah, Naruto married Hinata. Actually, they had another little girl, Otanashii, who was two.

He pulled up another file. Uchiha Shingetsu. Another daddy's girl. In looks only, of course. Shingetsu had her father's dark hair and his facial structure, but she had Sakura's bright green eyes and slight build. Another top of the class, and not only in brains. The kid could use some pretty powerful jutsus. Iruka grimaced a bit as he remembered when he accidentally wandered into one of Shingetsu's training sessions... He got his ass singed by a fireball.

But she wasn't even close to her brother, Kakushin. He had graduated three years ago and had passed the Chunin exams two years after graduation. He hadn't bothered with the Jonin tests yet. He took after his mother more than he did Sasuke. Poor kid, getting stuck with Sakura's bright pink hair. He had her face, definantly, but his father's eyes. Piercing, cold, black... yeah, a lot like Sasuke's.

Who were the next files? "The Hyuuga kids. Well, it isn't any wonder they passed." Kakashi commented, pulling out one of his ever present naughty magazines, a.k.a. porn. (Kakashi: Adult manga! SC: Sure, whatever you say...)"Considering who their parents are.Yep, Neji and Tenten were the next Konoha couple to get married. Their triplets were just as deadly as their old Squad had been, minus the dork with the stupid bowl cut. All three had black hair and the white Byakugan eyes. Hari was oldest. He kept his hair chopped short, much like Hinata used to. Then came Hiun. She took after her mom. Even kept her hair up in buns like Tenten used to.

Kiseichu was the youngest. He looked exactly like his brother, but his hair was long like his dad's, if not a bit more messy. And he had a scar across the right side of his face that Hari lacked. Bad run in with a wolf in the woods. All three were just as powerful as their parents, with the temper to back it up. Fortunately, none of them but Kiseichu had a short fuse.

Ino and Shikamaru had gotten together as well. Their son, Nara Roba, had passed the test too. He looked almost exactly like his dad, save his white-blonde hair and other little hints of Ino's genes here and there. They also had a daughter, Kume, who was five.

Kakashi glanced up from his newest volume of Icha Icha Paradise. "Having fun going down memory lane, Iruka?"

Iruka chuckled. "I suppose." There was a crash outside. "What was that?"

"Get back here Kakushin!"

"Ha! Only if you can catch me, kozo-kun!"

The teachers groaned. Shingetsu and Kakushin. Again. They stepped out into the hallway just as Kakushin came barreling around the corner. "Oh! K-Kakashi-sensei! Iruka-sensei!" He stopped just before he ran into them.

Shingetsu stopped a few feet behind him. "Konichiwa, Kakashi-sensei, Iruka-sensei." She tucked the kunai in her hand back into her pouch, hooping no one noticed it.

"What's going on you two?" Iruka asked.

"It's Kakushin's fault-"

"Shut up, no it isn't-"

"Yes it is, if you would just give it back-"

"That's enough!" Kakashi yelled. Both shut up. "Shingetsu?"

The girl scowled at her brother. "He stole my hitai-ate." Iruka noticed that her bangs were messed up, like something had been ripped off her forehead. Not to mention the four tiny scratch marks near her hair...

"Hand it over." The silver-haired Jonin ordered. Kakushin pulled the headband out of his pocket and dropped it in the waiting hand. "Here you go, Shingetsu."

She took it gratefully and tied it onto her forehead. "Arigatou. Now if you'll excuse me, I was supposed to meet Menrui and Hiun fifteen minutes ago." She ran off.

Kakashi turned to the boy. "I'm pretty sure I already know the answer, but why did you steal your sister's hitai-ate exactly?"

Kakushin looked away. "I was trying to test her." Skeptical looks. "What? I was."

"Kakushin, don't make me have to tell your parents about this when they get back."

"It was just a joke! You know, ha ha?"

Iruka sighed. "If you were still a student, this wouldn't be so bad. But you aren't. You're a Chunin, almost ready for the Jonin tests. Which you may never pass if you don't start acting your age." He sighed. "Why don't you head home and try to avoid running into your sister and her friends?" Kakushin nodded and walked off.

Kakashi grinned under his mask. "Well, we did have one little prankster pass the Jonin exam."

Iruka grinned. "Naruto only passed because he knew when to get serious. Now, I believe we have a few more files to look over. And you ARE going to help me." He plucked the Icha Icha Paradise out of Kakashi's hands and ran back to the classroom.

The other man shrugged and pulled out yet another copy of the magazine. He always bought two, just in case.

--

Menrui growled and tapped her foot impatiently. "Where are they? Ooh, I swear, if those two are late again..." At that moment, Shingetsu ran up.

"Sorry. Kakushin's fault. He stole my hitai-ate."

"Why do you always blame him?"

"Because it always is. Just 'cause you think he's a reincarnation of a god or something..." She glanced over Menrui's shoulder. "Hark, the trouble triplets approach!"

"We heard that." Hiun told her, whacking at her head, missing by a hair.

"Ooh, I felt the wind from that one."

"Funny, Shin. Very funny." Hari muttered.

The girl looked offended. "What, am I not deserving enough to hear my full name?"

"No."

"Hari, you have no sense of humor."

Menrui stepped in. "Before this battle of words goes any further, we girls are going to ask you two non-girls to leave."

Kiseichu smirked. "Non-girls?"

"You heard me." She glanced to her left. "Look, here comes Roba. Talk to him." She walked off, Shingetsu and Hiun following.

"I can't believe we all passed." Shingetsu mused.

"Yeah, especially since Iruka-sensei's little incident with a certain someone's fireball jutsu..." Hiun grinned. Menrui snickered.

"Oh, shut up." She muttered. "Anyone know when the team's are being announced?"

"Tomorrow, I think." Menrui said. "Dad's all proud and crap that I passed first try." Hiun and Shingetsu glanced at each other. They knew better than to bring up how many tries it had taken Naruto to pass. Menrui was very touchy.

"You should've heard my mom when she heard all three of us passed. Dad didn't really say much, but he was proud, I could tell." Hiun said smugly.

"Yeah, we know. The all seeing Byakugan eye." Menrui muttered. "Quite frankly, I'm glad I can control mine and my eyes aren't always that creepy white."

"Better not let your mom hear you say that."

"Oops. Probably not." She giggled. "Wouldn't it be awesome if we all got on the same team?"

Hiun raised her eyebrow. "Do you know how slim those chances are?"

"Well, okay, not all of us, maybe just three or four of us." She turned to Shingetsu. "Maybe you could get paired up with Hari."

Shingetsu blushed. "I told you, I don't like Hari in that way."

"Then why are you blushing? Hm?"

"I am not!"

Hiun cackled evilly. "I am so telling him!"

"I'll kill you. I swear I will." She growled.

"You have to catch us first!" They yelled before running off.

"What... Menrui! Hiun! Get back here you traitors!"

She chased them to the village entrance, then turned around and went home. It wasn't worth it. Besides, they threatened her with that at least a hundred times a week. "Mom, Dad, I'm home." She called.

Sakura poked her head out of the kitchen. "Welcome back. Why are you covered in dirt?"

"I tried to tackle Menrui and missed." She lied. Actually, she had been tripped by a shadow clone of Menrui. _Then_ she missed tackling Hiun. "Where's dad?"

"Testing your brother's jutsus again."

"Oh." Silence.

"You wanna come in here and talk?"

"Sure." She walked in and sat down at the table. "We're getting sorted into squads tomorrow."

"Really? Isn't Kakashi still taking on a squad?"

"Yeah, but most of 'em are new guys. I think Iruka-sensei is doing a squad this year too."

"Is Gai?"

"If he is, I hope I don't get him." She muttered, resting her chin in her hands.

"That's not very nice."

"You and dad have said worse."

Sakura blushed a little. "I suppose your right."

"Right about what?" Sasuke asked, walking in with Kakushin behind him, the latter of the two looking quite tired.

"Oh, nothing."

"I'm sure." He walked over and gave Sakura a kiss on the cheek. Kakushin and Shingetsu stuck their tongues out. "I saw that you two."

--

After dinner, and another fight between Kakushin and Shingetsu, everyone went to bed. Shingetsu stared at her ceiling. 'Tomorrow's it. We'll be official Genin and go on our first mission. I wonder whose team I'll be on. With my luck, I'll get stuck with Kakashi or Iruka-sensei. I suppose it's better than one of the new Jonin. I guess Iruka wouldn't be so bad... he's just really strict... Kakashi wouldn't be so bad if he would put down the porn for a minute or two... man I'm tired...' She yawned and shut her eyes. 'I should really... just go to bed...'

--

SC: Well, what did you guys think? I know it wasn't the best first chapter ever, but I needed to introduce all the characters. Otanashii and Roba aren't really going to come in until later, but I needed to mention them now. I'm not sure how many teams there were (I missed a few episodes) so I'm just going to go with 10, cause that's the last team I know.

Anyway, I'd really like some feedback on this, so review please!

SpontaneousCombustion


	2. Sepration of the Cells

1SC: Okay, I got three reviews. Oh well. Anyway, here's Chapter two of Child of a Shinobi.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Duh.

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Chapter 2

Separation of the Cells

"Shingetsu, get your lazy butt out of bed!" Kakushin called as he passed her room. No response. "Shingetsu?" He pried open the door. "Brat?" He looked around. No Shingetsu. He scratched his head. 'She's already gone?' He walked out to the main room. "Hey mom, Shin's been kidnaped. Can we get a puppy?"

"She snuck out earlier. I'm pretty sure that she wasn't kidnaped." Sakura called from the couch. "She'll be back this afternoon. So no puppy."

"Damn."

"Language, Kakushin." Sasuke muttered as he walked past, cuffing his son on the head lightly.

"Gomen."

--

Tenten peered into her daughter's room to see... an empty bed. "Yep. Hiun's gone too."

Neji walked out of the boy's room. "You'd think they'd just found out that they'd suddenly jumped up to Jonin ranking."

"You weren't exactly calm when you found out." Tenten grinned as Neji blushed a light pink.

"I thought we agreed we weren't going to bring that up."

--

Ino grinned as she heard a stream of muffled curses from her son's room. "Shikamaru." She shook her husband lightly. "Wake up you lazy cloud gazer."

"Good morning to you too. Is he attempting to sneak out?"

"Attempting." She laughed. "He's about as graceful as a boar."

"Trying to shred a cherry blossom." Shikamaru muttered.

"What was that?"

"Nothing, nothing..."

--

"Menrui..." Silence. "Menrui..."

"You'll never wake her up that way, Hiun."

"Shut up, otouto-chan."

"He's right you know. She's not gonna wake up that way."

"Some friend you are."

"Consider it revenge for yesterday. Hold on, I've got some miso ramen in my pack..."

Menrui stirred suddenly. "Ngh?"

Hari chuckled. "Lazy, aren't we?"

"Shut up you loser." She growled.

"Break it up before Naruto and Hinata come in here." Shingetsu whispered harshly. "Come on, we've been planning this for three weeks." She crawled back through Menrui's window, followed by a still sleepy Menrui, Hiun, Kiseichu, Hari, and Roba.

--

As all six of the ninja appeared in the training field, Hari looked around. "We all know the rules, right?"

Menrui yawned. "Yeah, but you'll probably go over them again. We each try to kick each other's asses, you get knocked out or go past the out of bounds line, you're out."

"Thank you, Menrui, for that lovely description." Roba said dryly."Is everyone ready?" All six nodded. "Let's get going then. We definitely don't want to be late for the calling of the squads."

-Hiun's POV-

As soon as we started, Menrui summoned up an army of shadow clones. A trait she'd inherited from her father, lucky us. She seemed to be forgetting three of us had Byakugan, the all seeing evil eye. I did the appropriate hand signs, dodging the clones all the while. I glanced through the swarm until... Yes! There she was, in the middle of the group. Not the smartest place to be, but this was Menrui we were talking about. I leaped over to a tree, propelled myself off it, and rammed my friend in the back. Cheap shot, but if I'd come anywhere else, she would've seen me and done a substitution jutsu. Then I would've hit a log or a rock. No one seems to realize how much that hurts until they've done it...

Menrui's clones disappeared, seeing as I practically pile-drived() her. Then, I tossed her into the forest, out of bounds. "Dammit Hiun!" She cursed.

'She'll get over it.' I assured myself as I charged towards my little brother.

-Shingetsu's POV-

I would've thanked Hiun for taking care of Menrui's clones under normal circumstances, but these weren't normal circumstances. Right now, I needed to deal with Roba, who had at least three kunai coming at me. I ducked down and rolled to his side, tripping him. I leaped back and made a break for my own kunai and shuriken pouch, which someone, hackKiseichuhackhack, had cut off my waist. I'd take him after Roba.

As I grabbed my pouch, I saw Hiun slam the rounded end of a kunai into Kiseichu's forehead. 'Or not...' A shuriken imbedded itself in the dirt next to my palm. I looked up to see Hari standing on a tree branch above my head. "Pay attention, Shingetsu."

Ooh, I was in trouble now. I was good, but so was Hari. And he had that damned Byakugan... I would just have to be careful. Hopefully, Roba and Hiun would keep each other busy for a while. I quickly made the necessary hand signs and blew a fireball through my fingers. Hari dodged of course, but I'd expected that. I glanced over at Hiun for a moment but she was sitting down, nursing her wounds with Roba. Ha! They'd knocked each other out.

Unfortunately, I wasn't paying attention to Hari while I was doing this. A well aimed shuriken left a long cut in my cheek. "Ow!"

"What did I just tell you?"

"I don't know, why would I be listening to you?" I pulled a kunai from the still unattached pouch and threw it at Hari, cutting his shirt sleeve.

"Come on Shingetsu!" Menrui and Hiun cheered behind me.

"Kick her butt, Hari!" Roba yelled. Kiseichu was quiet. I smirked. 'So much for family loyalty.'

-Hari's POV-

'So much for family loyalty.' I thought. My sister was cheering for Shingetsu and Kiseichu wasn't cheering for either of us. 'At least Roba's on my side.' Another of Shin's weapons cut my shoulder, hitting skin instead of cloth. I hissed in pain. "Pay attention, Hari." She mocked.

Oh. Now she was just trying to _make_ me beat her. Now, let me get this straight: normally, I don't hit girls. I don't have a strict honor code or anything, I just don't. Most girls that annoy me are just trying to get a date. Go figure. But Shingetsu was just flat-out egging me on. Little brat. "Angering your opponent isn't usually a good idea."

"Still trying to be all psychological? Give it up. It's annoying."

"I'm just giving you some friendly advice." In the middle of a battle, I added silently. She suddenly realized something was up.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing much." I finished my jutsu. "Bye." A log stood on the branch I was previously on. I heard Shin curse as I peered through the branches of a tree behind her. 'Perfect.'

-Normal POV-

Shingetsu glanced around, trying to locate Hari's chakra. 'Where did he go?' A movement behind her caught her attention, and she whipped around and threw a kunai at it, then gasped. "Kakashi-sensei! Gomen nasai!"

The silver haired Jonin grinned under his mask, the kunai caught between his first and middle fingers. "No need to apologize. And Hari, would you mind coming out of that tree?" The Hyuuga jumped down.

"Behind me? You transported yourself behind me?" Shingetsu asked, mildly pissed that she didn't sense that. He shrugged.

Kakashi coughed, getting everyone's attention. "I just wanted to give you all your Squad numbers."

Menrui ran over. "We missed the ceremony!"

"No, no. We just decided it would be easier to deliver them this way. And by we, I mean Iruka and I."

"Of course." Everyone said as Kakashi pulled a stack of envelopes out his pocket.

"Now let's see... Hari, Hiun, Kiseichu, Shingetsu, Roba, and last but not least, Menrui." They all took their envelopes as their names were called. "Bye." He waved and disappeared.

"I've got to learn how to do that." Roba muttered, opening his envelope. "So much easier to get away from my parents when I'm in trouble." He glanced at the slip of paper in his hand. "'Squad 10, Akimichi Chouj.' Ah well. It's better than having to be on Gai's team."

"Didn't you hear? Gai's not taking a team this year. Lee took it instead." Hiun said, opening her envelope.

Roba laughed. "I pity anyone who get's him as a sensei."

Hiun groaned. "'Squad 5, Rock Lee.' Oh no, not Lee!"

"Lucky you." Kiseichu laughed as he opened his. "Dammit, I got Lee too!"

"Ha ha." Menrui laughed. "Lessee, 'Squad 8, Inuzuka Kiba.' Hey, I got Kiba-san! Awesome! That means I get to play with Akamaru. Who'd you get, Shingetsu?"

Shingetsu glanced at her paper. "'Squad 7, Hatake Kakashi.' That's pretty cool. What about you, Hari?"

Menrui turned to Roba. "Ten bucks says it's Lee."

"Your on." He whispered back. Then, in a normal volume. "Who'd you get?"

"The same." He muttered. "I'm in Kakashi-sensei's cell."

Menrui pouted as she handed the money to Roba. "I was so sure that you would've been in Lee's cell too!"

Hiun growled. "This is so not fair! How come me an' Kiseichu get stuck with Moe Howard the Third() and Hari gets Kakashi?"

Hari shrugged. "How should I know?"

Roba grunted. "This is rigged. Look, Tenten and Neji were both on Lee's team when it was Gai's cell. Now Lee's teaching Hiun and Kiseichu, not to mention some other poor sap. Chouji was on my mom and dad's team, and I got him for a teacher. And Sasuke and Sakura were both on Kakashi-sensei's team."

Menrui poked him. "Yeah, but what about me getting placed with Kiba-san?"

"Your mom was on Kiba's team and Naruto fought him in the Chuunin exams."

"Okay, fine. But that still doesn't explain why Hari is on Kakashi's team."

Roba paused to consider this. "Maybe Tsunade-sama didn't wanna put all three Hyuuga's on one team."

Hari looked over at Shingetsu. "Shall we finish?"

She paused, then shook her head. "No, I'm heading home."She walked into the forest. "You win." Everyone just filtered out of the clearing to their own homes to tell their parents the news. Hari frowned. A victory won from a forfeit isn't what he had wanted.

"Hari, let's go!" He sighed and followed Hiun. This would have to wait.

--

Kakashi poofed up behind Iruka. "I've asked you not to do that."

"I know, but since when have I listened?" He grinned under his mask.

"Never. Did you give them the envelopes?"

"Of course. Roba thinks that we've rigged the selections."

Iruka grinned. "Is it our fault Tsunade-sama decided to let us pick our own teams this year?"

-Earlier That Morning-

Tsunade sighed. "For the third time, Lee, you can't have the Hyuuga triplets on your team."

"Why not!"

"Because, Kakashi has already picked Hari." Lee glared at the aforementioned, who was reading a book. No surprise there... "But you can have Hiun and Kiseichu."

"Yeah!" Lee punched the air. Kiba, who was sitting next to him with Akamaru, who was sleeping, rolled his eyes.

"Kiba, who is your first pick?"

The Inuzuka looked over the list of Genin. "The Uzumaki kid." Tsunade nodded and moved the picture of Menrui under Squad 8's list.

"Let's see... Chouji?"

"Nara Roba." He said immediately. Chouji had filled out as he'd grown up, losing his... ah, plumpness and gaining muscle. But he still always had a bag of potato chips with him.

"All right. Kakashi, it's your turn again." No response. "Kakashi?" Crickets chirped. Tsunade glared and everyone plugged their ears. "Hatake Kakashi!"

He finally looked up. "Yes?"

Everyone sweat-dropped. "Your second pick please?"

"Oh, is that all? Uchiha Shingetsu." He received a few glares. Lots of people wanted the great prodigy Uchiha Sasuke's kid on their team. He grinned to himself. Sucks to be them.

This continued until all students were sorted. "Since we are now done, please take your students designated envelopes and deliver them."

Lee blinked. "Tsunade-sama, I thought we were going to announce the designated cells at the ceremony."

"Not this time, I'm afraid. We've received a mission and need the a few of our ANBU ninjas to leave immediately. There will be no time for the ceremony while they prepare."

Kiba growled softly. Since he had volunteered to lead a Genin cell this year, he wouldn't be going. Oh well, neither would Lee or Chouji. If he was going to suffer, at least they would be suffering with him. "Now I would suggest you get to delivering those envelopes. Your cells need to be prepared for their missions in two days."

As the crowd in the room dispersed, Tsunade stopped Iruka. "Iruka, please stay for a moment. I need you to deliver these." She handed him a stack of thick envelopes.

"Hai." He walked out to see Kakashi holding seven envelopes instead of just three. "Why do you have all those?"

"Kiba, Lee, and Chouji asked me to deliver Roba, Menrui, Hiun, and Kiseichu's letters. Said even they wouldn't be able to track them down."

"Sounds like their just being lazy to me."

Kakashi chuckled. "Probably. Gotta go." He half waved and poofed away.

--

"Those envelopes you had..." Kakashi started. "Were they the mission briefings?"

Iruka nodded. "I suppose you want to know if I happened to peek at them?"

"Of course not. I would never have even thought of accusing you of such a-okay, yeah."

"No, I didn't." He said, going back to walking.

"You can't tell me that. You had to have peeked just once."

Iruka looked around. "I caught a glance of one when Sasuke opened his. It said they were going to Kage Ryu island, but that's all I saw."

Kakashi frowned. "Kage Ryu...? Where is that?"

Iruka shrugged. "I don't know. I've never even heard of the place." Iruka said. As they passed a ramen shop, Iruka laughed. "Normally, I'd offer to buy you some dinner, but I'm broke."

"Ah, you took Naruto out for lunch?"

"Yep."

Kakashi laughed. "Well, then I guess I'll just have to pay this time."

--

"I'm home." Shingetsu called as she walked through the door. It was almost three o' clock in the afternoon. She had stopped to buy some new shuriken and kunai, considering she left most of her on the field. Not to mention she needed a new pouch to hold them.

Sakura walked out of she and Sasuke's bedroom. "Hey. Is the ceremony over already?"

"No, the ceremony got canceled." She held up the envelope. "I got put on Kakashi-sensei's squad."

Sakura laughed. " Kakashi's a great teacher. It's a good thing you got stuck with him. What happened to your cheek?"

Luckily, Sasuke leaned out the door at that moment, stopping her from having to answer. "You got Kakashi, Shingetsu?"

"Uh-huh. So did Hari." Shin walked into the kitchen and grabbed an apple. She glanced at the ANBU masks sitting on the counter. "Did you guys get a mission?"

"Unfortunately. We're leaving tonight, but Tsunade is going to brief us herself later this afternoon. Actually," He glanced out the window, "Sakura, we'd better get going to Tsunade's office."

The kunoichi nodded. "All right. I'll go get changed." Shingetsu noticed her father was already in the standard ANBU uniform. A minute later, Sakura came back out, slipping her vest on. "Okay, let's go." She hugged Shin. "See you once we get home."

"Yeah." Sasuke hugged her next. "See you later jo-chan. Tell your brother we said bye." They grabbed their masks and walked out the door. Shingetsu took a bite of her apple. 'Figures.'

--

Hari, Hiun, and Kiseichu walked into the Hyuuga home to hear silence. Hari glanced at the table in the middle of the hall and picked up the note lying there.

_Hey guys. _

_Your father and I got called out on a mission for Tsunade-sama. Sorry we won't be here to see you off on your first missions._

_Love you_

"Figures." He muttered, handing the note to his siblings.

Hiun tch-ed as she read the note. "Guess we know why the ceremony was canceled."

--

"Man, why does Tsunade have to send you off tonight?" Menrui whined.

Hinata smiled at her daughter. "It's a very important mission, Menrui."

Naruto grinned as well, though his usual perkiness wasn't there. "Don't worry, sweetheart. 'Ba-chan knows what she's doing. Anyway, the sooner we leave, the sooner we can get back. Hopefully we can get back before your mission ends."

"All right already, I get it!" Menrui walked back to her room and flopped down on her bed. "Figures."

--

"Bye Roba." Ino kissed her son's cheek.

He wiped it off. "Mom, I'm not five. I'm used to you and dad going on missions."

Shikamaru sighed. "Don't see why we all have to go. Doesn't sound like that big of a mission."

Roba shook his head. "You are so lazy, Shikamaru!" Ino yelled. "Tsunade-sama is making us all go for a reason so stop complaining! Bye Roba." She waved at him before walking out, yelling at Shikamaru still. Shikamaru waved over his shoulder at Roba.

Roba shut the door, then kicked it. "Figures."()

--

It's a wrestling move, but I didn't have a better description at the moment!

Yes, Moe Howard III. I say this because, while in the stupid forest before the Chunin preliminaries, Neji refers to Lee's hairdo as a Moe Howard haircut. He copied Gai, so Gai would be Moe Howard II. Moe Howard is the first Moe Howard. Obviously.

I know, I made them say/think the same thing. It's just to show how much they're connected. That, and I felt like it. So there!

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SC: That's it for Chapter 2. Not much to say except that if I'm spelling anything wrong, please tell me. I haven't gotten to see the entire series, and I've read most of the manga, but only the preliminaries of the Chunin exams, so I don't really know which teacher's who. Or everyone's Squad numbers. So I'm improvising. And I could use some clothes ideas for all of them, except Shingetsu. I've got her outfit planned out. Anyways, Read and review!


	3. Training Sucks

1SC: Yeah! More reviewsies! I love you guys! Um yeah, now that I've got that out of my system...

Puck: (Coughs) Aren't you supposed to tell them something?

SC: Huh?... Oh, right! For all of the readers of Hokage: Fire Shadow, I'm re-posting it. I've decided to make it a lot better and I'm going to draw out some of the fight scenes, like the one where Kiken is fighting Warui, and when Seigi's fighting Kurama, and Genkai and Kuwabara are dealing with Yusuke and Hiei... uh... Yeah, I just named all the major fights.

And in other news, Sal's cookies are burning.

Nyaack, sorry I had to say that! My friend Josh says it all the time when we need an abrupt subject change and... never mind, let's just get Chapter 3 started.

Puck: Good idea.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Naruto or anything having to do with ninjitsu.

--

Before we start, I'm going to give you guys a quick run through of the squads we'll actually be paying attention to. Which means more OCs for everyone to keep track of. If I had just separated them into two teams and made it easy on myself, you all would have hated me. Don't lie, I know you would've. So, we've got another bunch of OCs. Got it? Good, here we go.

Squad Number: Jonin/Sensei; Genin.

Squad 5: Rock Lee; Hyuuga Hiun, Hyuuga Kiseichu, and Michiyo Hamano.

Squad 7: Hatake Kakashi; Hyuuga Hari, Ogawa Asuka, and Uchiha Shingetsu.

Squad 8: Inuzuka Kiba (and Akamaru); Akimichi Chiaki, Nakashima Takai and Uzumaki Menrui

Squad 10: Akimichi Chouji; Masahiro Leiko, Michiyo Kurokawa (Yes, he's related to Hamano (first line)), and Nara Roba.

So those are our teams. Yes, I have a lot of new names, but I need three man squads, and if any one of you complains that I'm only focusing on four cells, I'll remind you that more cells means more OCs, which I don't think any of us want to handle. And I realize the way I divided up the teams was stupid, but I needed to get my teams like that and I decided that they would be picked that way. Hey, it's like Roba said: It was rigged. By the way, you might want to read the author's note at the end.

--

Chapter 3

Training (Sucks)

Kiseichu and Hiun walked into the classroom slowly, not really wanting to face Lee. "Ah, there you two are!" They winced. Damn it.

"Morning Lee-sensei." They responded in monotone voices.

"Hope you two aren't to tired, because we're setting off on our mission immediately."

A voice behind Lee groaned. "But no one else is even here yet!"Hiun peered around her teacher.

"Oh, hi Hamano." He grunted in return. "Not a morning person I see." He smirked at her.

Lee rapped them both on the head. "I said immediately! Let's get going!" He ordered, striking a 'good guy' pose and smiling, his teeth pinging brightly. All three genin groaned and followed their far to perky sensei out the classroom door. This was going to be a long mission.

--

Shingetsu walked into the classroom where she was supposed to meet up with her cell almost fifteen minutes late. "Hey."

Hari frowned. "You're late."

"Yeah, but Kakashi-sensei's never on time is he? I figured that if he was gonna be late as he always is, I was going to get an extra fifteen minutes of sleep."

He couldn't really argue with her logic. And besides, he had been tempted to sleep in as well. That didn't happen, however, because he had two siblings that were on a team where the sensei wasn't always late. If anything, Lee would probably be early. By three hours. "Tch, you are sooo lazy, Shingetsu." A voice from behind Hari muttered. "Just because our sensei's late doesn't mean you can use it as a reason."

"Morning to you too, Asuka." She said dryly. "And actually, it does."

The red-head sneered. "Says who?"

"Says me." She retorted, her eyes narrowing into her father's signature glare.

Hari looked behind the two glaring girls. "Hello, Kakashi-sensei."

"Ohayo. Sorry I'm late." He apologized. "Ladies." Shingetsu smiled and Asuka nodded. "I hope you weren't to inconvenienced."

Asuka snorted. "Well she sure wasn't. She only got here two minutes ago."

Kakashi glanced at Shingetsu. "Really? And why is that Shingetsu?"

Shin shrugged. "I was using my head. If you were going to be late, as you always are, no offense, then I may as well get some sleep because from what I've heard from my parents, your training isn't exactly easy."

"Smart girl." He tugged her hair before addressing all of them. "As you well know, we will be going on a D-ranked mission in a few days."

Asuka raised her hand. "But Kakashi-sensei, all the other cells have already left!"

Hari and Shingetsu rolled their eyes. "Yes, but the other teams don't have me leading them. We'll stay in Konoha for a few days and train, then set out for our assigned mission. Tsunade-sama has already approved this plan. Yes Hari?"

"If you don't mind me asking, what areas are we going to be focusing on? Chakra manipulation, ninjutsu, genjutsu, taijutsu...?"

"All of the above." Kakashi grinned. All three looked slightly nervous. This was not going to be a walk in the park...

--

Kiba groaned. "Menrui, I wouldn't mess with his ears. He really doesn't like it."

"Oh." The girl in question dropped Akamaru's ear. The dog sighed in relief and thanked his master. "Aka-chan, do you want your belly rubbed?" Now this idea he liked. He barked happily and thumped his tail on the floor a few times to show his approval.

"You are so pathetic, Uzumaki. Playing with a dog."

Akamaru and Menrui growled. "Shut up, Takai! Just 'cause Akamaru accidentally mistook you for a tree..." Akamaru snickered in the way only Kiba could hear. _Accident my furry behind! I just don't like him._

Kiba shook his head. He didn't know who was worse; his students or his dog. "Leave her be, Takai. Akamaru didn't do it on purpose. Besides, he's getting old. It was a simple mistake." The last Genin, Chiaki, scolded.

Menrui stuck her tongue out at both of them. "He's may be getting old, but he's not stupid! He just doesn't like Takai, not that I blame him." She muttered.

Kiba snickered as Takai turned bright red in fury. "That's enough you three. I've got the mission packet from Tsunade-sama. We'll be leaving as soon as I brief you about it. And Menrui, get Akamaru off your head, he's a dog, not a hat. Besides, I'm the only one who's allowed to do that."

"Hai, Kiba-sensei!" She mock saluted, setting down Akamaru. Kiba rolled his eyes. Definitely her father's daughter.

--

"Chouji, shouldn't we be doing something important? Like preparing for our mission?" Roba asked, completely bored.

"We are doing something important."

"I hardly think shopping for _potato chips_ qualifies as important."

Chouji turned around. "Roba, who is the Jonin here?"

Roba groaned. "You are."

"And who is the Genin?"

"Me. But why couldn't I have gone to get the rest of our supplies with Leiko and Kurokawa?"

"Because I said so. Besides, you're my best friends' kid. You've known me since you were two."

"Why does that have anything to do with my question?"

"Because I say so. Now hold these." Chouji shoved another pack of barbeque flavored chips into Roba's arms. He sighed. How had his parents put up with this?

--

Hari, Asuka, and Shingetsu walked out of the school frowning. "I can't believe this. After all that work in school, we're getting more training!"

Shingetsu groaned. "Just drop it, Asuka. My parents went through the exact same thing and survived it. So did Naruto." She smirked. "If he survived it, there's a slight chance you will."

Asuka growled. "Watch it, Uchiha. I don't care who your parents are, I'll kick your butt from here to the Village of the Sand Ninja."

"Would both of you just shut up?" Hari muttered, trying to suppress his oncoming headache.

Shingetsu shrugged. "Whatever. I'm gonna go restock on weapons before tomorrow. And buy dinner since I know Kakushin definitely won't. Bye!" She ran off in the direction of the weapons shop.

Asuka glared at her back before turning to Hari. "Why don't we go to Ichiraku or something, huh Hari?"

He turned around. "I have to get home." And with that, he walked off towards the Hyuuga estate.

--

The next morning, Squad 7 stood in the middle of the woods, shivering from the early morning chill. "I can't believe he made us get up so early. It's so cold!" Asuka whined, rubbing her arms.

'Well maybe if you'd dressed more warmly...' Hari thought, looking over Asuka's outfit. She was wearing a pink tank top, black capris, and a pair of black sandals. He had decided to dress warmly, it was the middle of autumn, and it was getting cold. So, he was wearing a pair of black jeans, thin enough to let him move freely but thick enough to keep the chilled winds from freezing him, and a white t-shirt covered by a black jacket. Bandages covered his hands and wrists, as a just-in-case precaution. He still had on sandals, though.

Shingetsu, who had no care whatsoever about temperature, had worn a dark blue dress much like Sakura had worn when she was still a Genin, though in place of the black spandex shorts (sorry, there isn't a better way to describe them) were tight black capris. She also had on a top made of the same material that came down halfway between her elbows and wrists under the dress, as well as a pair of fighter's gloves. Again, a pair of black sandals finished off her outfit. Of course, all three had on their hitai-ate headbands.

Kakashi popped up in front of them, waving with one hand and holding a magazine in the other. "Hey."

Hari looked up at the still barely risen sun. "You're not as late as usual, Kakashi-sensei."

"Yes, well we've got quite a bit of training to do." He turned to Shingetsu. "I suppose that Sakura and Sasuke have taught you how to climb trees without your hands, Shingetsu?" She nodded warily, not liking where this was going. "Good. Would you mind giving us a demonstration?"

'I knew I didn't like where this was going.' She thought. "Sure. I'm not very good at it, though."

"Don't worry. It took your dad a few dozen tries to get it to where he wanted it too." Kakashi grinned.

Shingetsu took a deep breath and pulled out a kunai, focusing her chakra downwards, towards the soles of her feet. 'Let's get this over with.' She ran at the tree and front of her and made it up five-eighths of the way up before her focus slipped. She made a quick slash with the kunai before she started falling. "Shimatta!"

Kakashi caught her with ease. "Very good. That's about to where your mother made it on her first try, though she managed to pull herself onto a branch." Shingetsu grinned sheepishly as Kakashi put her down. "All right, Hari, Asuka, you two give it a try. Just focus your chakra to your feet and get a running start."

Twenty-three seconds later, both came crashing down. Asuka managed to make it three-eighths of the way, while Hari made it half. Kakashi grinned behind his mask as Shingetsu gave them advice from the sidelines. They had made it much higher than his last team had. He had high hopes for this bunch. He couldn't wait for their mission to start.

--

"Are you sure this is the right place, Sasuke?" Naruto asked, his voice muffled under the kitsune mask he was wearing.

The Uchiha growled behind his own dragon-faced mask. "For the fiftieth time, dobe, yes!"

"Stop calling me that!"

Sakura shoved between the two boys, pushing up her bunny mask. "Stop it, both of you. Geez, I think you've gotten worse since we were younger."

Shikamaru smirked under his deer mask. "Aren't shinobi supposed to be silent?"

Ino, wearing a boar mask, elbowed his side. "Be nice." She hissed.

Tenten, in a tiger mask, inched closer to Neji. "I've gotta agree with Naruto on this one. This place is getting creepier by the second."

Neji frowned slightly under his monkey mask. "This fog isn't exactly helping my vision, even with the Byakugan eye."

Hinata, wearing a mouse mask, nodded. "I can barely use the Byakugan with this mask on."

Sasuke frowned. "Hey, I'm just following the map."

Neji stopped and pointed to a nearby tree. "Well that map is leading us in circles. I marked this tree earlier with a kunai."

Hinata fidgeted nervously. "I don't understand. We've been walking in a straight path this whole time."

Tenten grimaced. "Or we thought we had, at least."

Naruto groaned behind his mask. "I can't believe this. We got lost on a scouting mission!"

"Scouting and search-and-rescue." Sakura reminded him. "We got an SOS from this island, remember?"

Sasuke made a sound of disgust. "That's also where we got this useless map."

Ino suddenly smacked the back of her neck. "Ow!"

Shikamaru pulled up his mask. "What is it?"

"A bug bit me."

Sakura suddenly hit her arm. "Ouch, it got me too."

Shikamaru examined his wife's wound, his eyes widening. "That was no bug." He held up a small dart. "It was an injector."

Tenten gasped. "Then that means..."

Shikamaru nodded. "This entire thing was a setup."

--

SC: Just to clear a few things up:

One: Hari, Hiun, and Kiseichu live at the Hyuuga estate because Neji still lives there. When Hinata married Naruto, she got permission from her father (because we all know Hinata's dad's scary as hell) to move out. So Naruto, Hinata, Menrui, and Otanashii (still a baby) do not live on the Hyuuga estate.

Two: Yes, I know Kakashi is supposed to do that stupid 'get these bells from me or you have no lunch' test, but I don't give a care. He decided not to this time. So there.

Three: In case you've forgotten, ANBU members wear animal masks whilst on a mission. Therefore, Naruto, Hinata, Sakura, Sasuke, Ino, Shikamaru, Neji, and Tenten are wearing animal masks.

Four: If you didn't notice, the masks are of the hand-signs used in jutsus. (Monkey, Dragon, Rat, Rooster, Snake, Ox, Dog, Horse, Tiger, Boar, Ram, and Hare) I switched some of them to match peoples personalities. The kitsune mask is based of the dog because they're both canines. The mouse is the rat(both rodents), the bunny is the hare(same frickin difference), and the deer is the horse. Oh come on, a deer is sort of like a horse! And I just gave Neji the monkey mask to piss him off.

Just wanted to clear that up before anyone asks.

Oh, and since I want to make sure you guys actually read these things, in your review put down this sentence: Sakura's hair is pink. Easy, no? And if you don't want to put that down, put down something like 'I would never write a ridiculous sentence like Sakura's hair is pink.' Read and Review!

Ja ne!

SpontaneousCombustion (plays disco inferno in the background.) (Burn baby burn...)


	4. Mission Time

1SC: Heh... I love this story so much right now. I'm getting more reviews on these first few chapters than I did on Into the Game's first three chapters. That's kinda sad, actually... Whatever, on with the show!

Puck: Story.

SC: Must you always ruin the moment!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto characters, just their kids.

--

Chapter 4

Mission Time!

Shingetsu fell onto her couch gratefully, worn out from Kakashi-sensei's training. "Hey brat."

"Nngh."

"Tired?"

"No duh. Kakushin, would you mind getting some Ichiraku for dinner? I seriously can't feel my legs."

He tugged her hair. "Yeah, sure. Your cooking sucks in comparison to mom's anyway."

She growled as the door closed and the shuriken she had aimed at Kakushin's head imbedded itself in it. "Ass."

--

Hari murmured a greeting to Hanabi as he walked up to his room. Once he closed the door, he sat down on his bed and hissed in pain. Damn it, that had hurt! Maybe he should go and get some ice... no, that would require getting up and possibly tearing something, and he didn't have enough chakra for even a simple medicnin technique. And asking for help was most DEFINITELY out of the question.

He collapsed back on the bed. Maybe he'd just skip dinner tonight...

--

Asuka groaned as she threw a bag of frozen peas on her sore legs. Her parents were still at the hospital, of course, so she was on her own. Her room was mind-numbingly quiet, and it was driving her nuts. "Ooh... stupid Kakashi-sensei. If he hadn't insisted on all that training, I could just use a jutsu to numb the pain at least." She threw one of her pillows at her clock, which shook wildly on it's nail. "Oh no... please don't fall, please don't fall..." The nail shook out of the wall, letting the clock fall to its doom... on a pile of dirty clothes.

Asuka sighed and stumbled into the kitchen and over to the fridge. She reread the note taped there.

'Asuka,

We'll be late at the hospital tonight, so you're on your own for dinner.

Love you.

Mom and Dad.'

She frowned. Why tonight, of all nights, they had to work late completely alluded her. Well, there had been more activity at the hospitals, what with all the newbies getting their butts handed to them by their senseis during training and stuff, but it shouldn't be enough to make people actually have to do overtime! Asuka sighed and grabbed some instant ramen. She didn't feel all that hungry, but what the heck. She needed to eat something. Not like she could just skip dinner.

The next morning (whoop-dee-freaking-doo, I'm sure you all care so much)

Shingetsu growled as her shuriken missed the target's "vital spot" by a hair's breadth. Again. Which meant more laps. Her anger at her sensei was so pent up right now, she would've thrown the sharp, many-pointed star at him if she knew where the hell he was. So, she settled with demolishing the paper target, which was sitting there innocently, just doing its job (i.e: being a target), with the rest of her throwing arsenal. This included three more shuriken, she'd already thrown the other three, five kunai, one had been thrown at Hari, and over a dozen needles. Not to mention she finished it off by doing a fireball jutsu and burning it, and a good amount of the grass around it, after, of course, getting her weapons which were most definitely NOT fireproof.

Kakashi popped up behind her. "Well, I suppose that's one way to get rid of an enemy. Not a very subtle one, might I add, but it is effective."

She glared at him. "If you've come down here to tell me to run more laps around the village, I'm not going to."

He patted her head. "Then I wouldn't dream of it. Actually, I need to find Hari and Asuka."

Eyebrow raise. "How come?"

"Hm? Now what was it...?" Shingetsu sweatdropped. "Ah, yes. We need to get ready so we can leave on our mission tomorrow."

"Seriously!" Kakashi nodded. " The last I saw of them was when you told them to stop target practice and go climb trees again."

"All right then. Meet me back at the school in a few minutes and I'll brief everyone on the mission." Then, in true Kakashi style, he disappeared.

She blinked. "I hate when he does that."

And over with the grown-ups...

"Sakura? Sakura, wake up." Sasuke shook his wife's shoulder gently.

"Mm? Sasuke, what's wrong?"

"Look at your arm." The kunoichi raised her eyebrows but did as he told her. After a few stunned seconds, she screamed.

_That_ woke everyone up. Naruto was over first. "What's going- holy!" He stopped as he saw Sakura's arm. Thin black lines, wispy as smoke, were spreading from the puncture wound. Shikamaru pushed away Ino's white blonde hair to see the same thing happening to her neck.

"What the hell was in that thing?" Neji asked. The wind rustled the leaves behind him, making everyone jump.

Tenten growled. "Look at us. We're acting like a bunch of Genin again. Jumping at the wind- ow!" She moved her hand down to her ankle and froze. "Oh no." She pulled out a dart, identical to the one's that had hit Sakura and Ino.

Sasuke's eyes widened. "Naruto, get Hinata-" Hinata let out a little shriek as something hit her wrist. She turned her hand over to see another dart embedded there. Naruto pulled it out gently, trying not to hurt her.

Neji pulled Tenten close to him. "Either someone really doesn't want us to finish this job, or..." A flash of something silver flew through the trees. "Look out!"

Shikamaru made a snatch at the little silver object flying towards the blonde, but instead got another dart in his shoulder. "Naruto!"

Sasuke, being one of Naruto's closest friends, did the one thing he could: He scrambled up and shoved Naruto to the side, the dart sticking in his side instead. Another one shot him in the leg as he pulled out the first, and Neji pulled one out of his own thigh. "Stay down, Naruto."

The blonde nodded as Shikamaru, Ino, Sakura moved to stand around him. "Sasuke, we need to get out of here." Sakura said.

Sasuke nodded. "All right. The SOS was obviously fake, and that's exactly what we'll tell Tsunade. But we're going to make sure Naruto doesn't get hit." Everyone agreed with him and, if some not reluctantly, walked back to the boat surrounding Naruto, Sasuke's Sharingan and the Hyuugas' Byakugan going strong the whole way.

As they reached the boat that they had come in, Sakura and Hinata inspected it to make sure it hadn't been tampered with. "It's okay, it looks like no one's touched it." Sakura said. After a quick once-over with her Byakugan, Hinata agreed.

Even everyone climbed in and they were shoved off, the tension was still high. Only when the island was out of sight did anyone breathe slightly easier. But they were still all sitting around Naruto.

--

SC: I know, I know. It's really, really short. But I seriously have no mission ideas whatsoever. Why do you think I skipped all the mission briefings? But since I can't do a timeskip that big without my reviewers killing me, I need some ideas. Lots of them so I can have one for everybody. Cause if I have to think up all of them, then it's going to be a while before I update.

Ja ne.

SpontaneousCombustion


	5. A not so warm welcome home party

1SC: Okay, fair warning. Most of this chapter is completely random filler crap. Sorry.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

--

Chapter 5

The Decision

"I can't believe he still isn't here." Hari muttered.

Asuka, who had her head laid down on a table, looked up. "Seriously. How do you get lost on a five minute walk?"

"Well, it is Kakashi-sensei." Shingetsu replied, pulling a chair over to the cabinet by the wall to peer on top. "Ah ha!"

Hari glanced up. "Shingetsu, what are you doing?"

"I just found were Iruka-sensei puts all the stuff he confiscates." A pause. "Why is there porn up here?"

Kakashi, who had just walked in. "Those would be mine." He got a weird look from all of his students.

"Kakashi-sensei, what took you so long? We've been waiting." Asuka asked, standing up.

He blinked. "For what?"

"OUR MISSION!" All three yelled at once.

"Oh, yeah."

"What is it?" Again with the harmony.

"What's what?" If Kakashi didn't know any better, his students appeared to have flames rising from the ground behind them and in their eyes. "I'm just kidding. Your first mission is to guard this little guy for the day." Kakashi held out a tiny kitten.

Asuka slammed her hand on the table. "Wait a sec- we're being cat sitters!"

"Well, I guess... if you want to call it that..." Kakashi started, but was cut off by Shingetsu.

"It's only a D-ranked mission, Asuka. What did you expect, a mission to guard some big rich millionaire?" She asked, closing her eyes and reclining back in her chair.

"Well no, but not to guard a cat!" Asuka smirked and put her hands on her hips. "But it's perfectly suited for you, Shingetsu."

She opened one eye. "Was that supposed to be an insult?"

"No, a fact. You're not suited for anything above a D-ranked job."

Shingetsu stood. "And I suppose you are?"

"Yes, actually." Kakashi sighed. Why did this seem familiar? Let's see, two students... arguing all the time... ready to kill each other at any moment... oh yes, Naruto and Sasuke.

"Care to say that to my face!" Lightning sparked between the two girls' eyes.

Hari stepped between the two girls. "Would you two cut it out?"

"Sorry." Asuka muttered.

Shingetsu turned away, crossing her arms. "She started it."

Kakashi sighed. "I'll leave this to you three." He set the kitten down and walked out. It mewed piteously. Shingetsu, forgetting her rage at Asuka, went over and picked it up.

"Oh, cute!" Hari raised his eyebrows as Shingetsu Uchiha, who he'd known since they were little and had never shown affection for anyone other than her parents, much less cute and fuzzy animals, cooed over a kitten. And the kitten was _purring_!

He smirked. "I never knew you were so good with animals, Shin."

She turned around and blushed, the cat cradled in her arms. "I like cats, okay?"

Asuka walked over and took the cat from Shingetsu's arms. "Puh-lease! You'll probably scar the poor thing for life!"

Shingetsu held her hand out to stop Asuka. "Wait, don't-!"

"Hisssssss!"

"Ow!" Asuka dropped the poor creature and stuck her hand in her mouth. "It bit me!"

"-Hold it like that." Shingetsu finished. "It hurts any animal to get held under its legs like that, especially one as tiny as a kitten."

"Uh, guys?" Hari pointed their 'charge', which had just climbed out the window and onto a tree branch.

Shingetsu groaned. "Oh great. We've got a cat stuck in a tree. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get a cat out of a tree?" Blank stares. "Very, very, very hard. It's like getting Tsunade to stop gambling."

"So basically, we're doomed." Hari said.

Asuka's face lit up. "I've got an idea!"

Outside

"Why do I have to do this?" Hari muttered. The three Squad 7 members were standing at the base of the tree the kitten was stuck in.

"Come on, Hari. You're the best at henge-no-jutsu. And no one's going to see you." Shingetsu pleaded. "Please?"

He looked away. The puppy eyes were to much. "Fine." He made several hand signs. A second later, a large fish stood where Hari was. After a few minutes of climbing, and a few close calls, the kitten was back on the ground. Another poof, and the fish disappeared.

Shingetsu walked over and picked the kitten up. "How about I hold it for the rest of the day?"

Four weeks later

And so the completely pointless D-ranked missions continued: weeding gardens, walking dogs, housework, etc. Finally, the four squads had a day off.

"You have no idea how good it is to see you guys!" Menrui squealed, hugging Shingetsu and Hiun.

"We're glad to see you to, Menrui." Shingetsu told her.

"Yeah, but you mind letting go?" Hiun asked.

"Oh. Sorry." She giggled and let go.

Roba, who had just walked up, held his arms out. "What, no hug for me?" Menrui giggled and hugged Roba tightly. Shingetsu noticed Hiun glaring. She knew all to well the arguments between her two friends over Roba. Both of them liked him. A lot. But thankfully, neither of them were willing to risk their friendship over a guy, unlike a certain two kunoichi, (a/n: Sakura, Ino, I'm looking in your direction.) and the arguments were less and less frequent and violent. But that didn't mean they'd stop competing for attention.

Kiseichu nudged his brother. "So, how'd it go with Shin?"

Hari tapped his brother's scar. "Nothing, and nothing's going to happen, so unless you want another one of those, shut up." He walked over to the others.

"I'll take that as a 'really bad' or 'didn't even try'." Kiseichu muttered to himself, following behind. Menrui was going on about something or another.

"...So I was thinking we could go out to Gin-Kin tonight. You know, all of us."

"Shinobi don't go clubbing, Menrui." Hari told her.

"Yeah, but we haven't seen each other for more than, like, three minutes in the past four-and-a-half weeks! This is the one day we've all gotten off, and none of you want to do anything together! What kind of friends are we!"

They all looked around and each other. Hiun looked at Menrui. "You know, going out to a club sounds like a great way to unwind."

And so, the group eventually agreed to go, though a few were more forced than others.

That night

Kiseichu looked over at his brother as Hari leaned against the wall near the corner. "He is such a sociopath."

Roba nodded. "Yeah. No wonder he doesn't have a girlfriend. You seen the girls yet?"

"No. When we left, Hiun and Menrui were still picking out an outfit for Shingetsu." Kiseichu looked towards the door. "Hey, there they are... woah."

Roba turned around. "What are you... wow. Okay, yeah. Woah."

Menrui was wearing a bright orange miniskirt and matching tank top, again, brilliant orange. Her hair fell straight down to her waist and several bracelets jangled on her wrists.

Hiun had on a dark green mini-dress. Her hair was still up in its usual buns, but they were messier than usual and had small jewels woven into them. That was normal for them when they went here. It was Shingetsu they were woah-ing.

Shingetsu had on black jeans and a white halter with black-jeweled vines climbing up the side. Her hair was up in short ponytail on the nape of her neck with small pieces of hair escaping behind her ears. Menrui nudged her side. "Look, there's Hari. Go talk to him."

"I feel ridiculous." Shingetsu muttered. Both girls shoved her towards the Hyuuga, who had just seemed to notice her. She waved half-heartedly and, after sending a glare back towards her alleged 'friends', walked over. "Hey."

Hari smiled. "Hey." He was wearing a soft gray long-sleeved shirt and black cargo pants, probably picked out by his sister. "They're trying extra hard tonight."

Shingetsu glanced over her shoulder. Her other four friends were watching her and Hari from across the room. Well, two of them were. Roba and Menrui were busy talking to each other, which probably explained why Hiun looked so mad.. "Yeah. What's wrong? You look like you've got a headache."

"I do. I don't like clubs. Too loud."

Shingetsu grabbed his hand. "Well then, we'll go outside." She pulled him through the crowd and out the door. "Any better?"

"Much, thank you." He looked away from her. "Hey, Shin, do you want to go for a walk?"

"Ano? Yeah, sure." She smiled and, in a burst of boldness, slipped her hand into Hari's. "I'd like that."

Earlier, Hari's POV

I was standing in a corner of Gin-Kin. Why? Because for one thing, I had a pounding headache, and the lights and noise of the club wasn't helping. Two, I couldn't dance and therefore refused all offers from the girls who asked me. My little brother, on the other hand, had been on the dance floor with at least five different girls since we got here. Roba was diligently waiting for Menrui, of course, like he usually did. I shook my head. He was in _deep_.

Kiseichu looked over at me and raised his eyebrows. I gave him a clear 'I don't dance, and you know it' glare in response. He shook his head and went back to talking to Roba. I closed my eyes in an attempt to block out some of the bright light that was making my head hurt. I opened them to see the girls had walked through the door.

My eyes automatically traveled over to Shingetsu and my jaw nearly dropped to the floor. _Wow_. She looked... for lack of better word, great. She waved at me weakly and started walking over, though not after glaring at Menrui and Hiun. "Hey."

"Hey." I responded, smiling through my headache. "They're trying extra hard tonight."

"Yeah." She looked over her shoulder. I followed her gaze to see the rest of our rag-tag little group watching us from across the room. Except for Roba and Menrui, who were deeply involved in conversation. I chuckled. Hiun looked ready to throttle someone. "What's wrong? You look like you've got a headache."

Observant as ever. "I do. I don't like clubs. Too loud."

Shingetsu grinned and grabbed my hand. "Well then, we'll go outside." She tugged me through the crowd and out the door, where the silence washed over both of us. "Any better?"

I looked over at her. She looked even better without the ever-changing light colors. "Much thank you." I forced my gaze to the buildings in front of us. 'Well, now's as good a time as any...' "Hey Shin, do you want to go for a walk?"

She looked over at me, surprised. "Ano? Yeah, sure." She smiled and slipped her hand in mine. I prayed it was dark enough to hide the blush on my face. "I'd like that."

As we headed away from the club, I realized how many people were actually out tonight. There was a lot. Quite a few classmates from school, actually. I glared at anyone who even thought about smirking at me. "Come on, let's-"

"Shingetsu! Hari!" Both of us turned around to see Iruka-sensei running up to us.

I let go of Shingetsu's hand. "Iruka-sensei? What's going on?"

"It's your parents, they're back."

Shingetsu smiled. "Well, that's a good thing, right?"

Iruka shook his head. "No... the mission was a set up. They... they're at the hospital."**(a/n: And that would mark the end of the random filler crap. I'm sure you're all overjoyed.)**

Konoha's Hospital

Hari and Shingetsu ran into the waiting room to see one of the doctors standing there with Kakushin, Kiseichu, Hiun, Menrui, and Roba. "What's going on, what happened?" Hari question urgently.

"Hari, Shingetsu. We were waiting on you. Follow me."

The doctor led them to a large observation room where all their parents sat. All seven kids ran into the room to their parents. "Mom, what happened?" Shingetsu asked.

Sakura sighed. "When we were on the island..." The door opened again and they all looked up to see Tsunade walk in.

"Perhaps you should let me explain, Sakura." She looked solemn.

After a minute, when everyone was settled down, Tsunade pulled out the medical report. "It seems that the darts you were hit with were filled with a poison we couldn't identify. This means that it was another shinobi that attacked you, or the poison was taken off our records." She handed the sheets of paper to Sakura, who began to read them over carefully. "The poison moves extremely slowly, leaving a black trail behind it as it travels through the blood stream."

Sasuke grunted. "Probably to scare whoever was poisoned."

Tsunade nodded. "More than likely." She paused. "I need anyone not of Jonin rank to leave now."

"But Tsunade!"

"That was a direct order." The six Genins and one Chuunin left the room, grumbling under their breath.

After the door was shut, Tsunade locked it. Three times. She turned back to Sakura. "Did you finish?"

She nodded. "I didn't see anything that seemed different from any other poison, except that it moves extremely slow."

The Hokage closed her eyes and sighed. "Not all of the facts are in that report. It seems that, as the poison spreads, it turns the victim to... to stone."

There was a stunned silence over the room. "Tsunade... Tsunade, you can't be serious." Ino gasped.

"To do that, it would have to completely alter the structure of the body." Shikamaru said. "It's completely illogical. A poison that could do that would require ingredients that are found in places I doubt even the most skilled ninja could get to."

"But someone obviously did, Shikamaru." Tsunade snapped, cutting him off. "It will take over three months for the poison's effect to complete itself. Until then, you will all, with the exception of Naruto, be held here in the hospital. Please don't argue, it's for your own safety."

No one said anything, but faintly, they could hear sobbing coming from the hall. The door may have been locked, but it certainly wasn't sound proof. Tenten grasped Neji's hand tightly. "Tsunade-sama... can they...?"

She nodded and walked out, looking sadly at Menrui, who had obvious tear trails on her face, before walking down the hall. It took half a hundredth of a nanosecond for the kids to run back in the room and bury their faces in their parents' shoulders, their tears soaking them. Even Kakushin had tears running down his face as he hugged his mother. Hiun pulled away. "So it's true then? There isn't an antidote?"

Tenten shook her head and stroked her daughter's hair gently. "No, but Tsunade is sending ANBU's best to find one. Don't worry, we'll be fine."

Sasuke hugged Shingetsu tightly as she sobbed into his chest. This was the first time he'd seen either of his children cry since they were little, and it unnerved him greatly. Not to mention that the poison's effect would move twice as quickly in him since he'd taken a shot for Naruto. But he didn't regret it. Naruto was his friend. An annoying one at times, but his friend.

After many more tears, the kids decided to leave. Naruto told Menrui to go without him, he was going to stay with Hinata. After the door shut, Hinata touched her husband's hand softly. "Naruto, you don't have to stay."

"But I want to. Anyway, I feel horrible that the only reason I didn't get poisoned was 'cause you shoved me out of the way, Sasuke."

The Uchiha smirked and waved it off. "You would've done the same for me. And you really should go. No doubt Tsunade is going to put you on the team to find the antidote."

Naruto nodded. "Sometimes I hate when you're right." He kissed Hinata on the cheek before walking out.

Over at Shingetsu and Kakushin's...

"I can't believe this." Kakushin whispered. "Mom and dad might..."

"Don't you say it. Don't you dare say it!" Shingetsu hissed. "Mom and dad won't die. None of them will."

Menrui slumped over in her chair. "You sound so sure. What if there is no antidote? Then what's gonna happen, huh?"

Hari wiped his eyes miserably. "Every poison has an antidote. The team Tsunade sends out will find it."

Kiseichu jumped up angrily. "How do you know! They may never find it, and then all of our parents are going to die!"

Hiun jumped to Hari's aid. "Hey, he's just trying to help so lay off Kiseichu!"

Roba shook his head. "I've done the figures. It will be nearly impossible for any amount of shinobi to find a cure."

"You aren't helping Roba!"

"I'm trying to be realistic! I'm not going to put hope into anyone's head just to have it shattered when they don't come back with an antidote!"

"Everybody SHUT UP!" Shingetsu yelled. The room grew silent. "Now, I don't know about you guys, but I'm making sure that my parent's have a chance at surviving. That's why I'm leaving Konoha and going to that Kage Ryu place myself."

Kakushin rounded on her. "Are you crazy? You don't even know where the place is! Wait, how do you know where they went."

She considered how to answer carefully. Finally, she just told the truth: "I have mom's mission specs hidden in my room."

"But dad burned the envelopes! He always burns the envelopes."

"Not before I can use a substitution jutsu and switch out the real papers for fakes. I've been doing it since I was ten. That's four years, and I haven't gotten caught yet."

Menrui, and everyone else in the room for that matter, stared at her in disbelief. "Shin... do you know how much trouble you could get in for that?"

"Do you think I care!" She yelled. "I'm going, and whether or not you guys come is up to you. But I'm leaving after the ANBU do and I'm ready."

There was a thick silence in the room for a moment. "Well I'm coming." Menrui said. "I may only have one parent at risk here, but my mom is my dad's world. He loves her a lot, and I'm gonna make sure she stays alive. Besides, I don't wanna see Tenten-ba-san and Neji-ji-san turn into statues either."

The Hyuuga triplets all looked at each other. "We're going too. We've got an aunt on the line as well as our parents." Hari answered.

Roba nodded. "No way in hell am I staying behind while you idiots get yourselves killed. Besides, someone has to come with a plan so we don't get recognized."

Kakushin sighed. "Mom and dad would both throttle me if I let you out of my sight, Shingetsu, so I'm coming."

Shingetsu nodded. "Well then, it's settled. Roba, start planning. We're going to need some really good disguises if we're gonna get across half a continent unnoticed."

--

SC: I think that was a pretty damn good chapter. Well, good enough to make up for my last one at least. I'm focus a lot more on the ANBU squad much next chapter, but then I'm switching back to the kids. I'll give cookies to the reviewers who can guess any of the squad members other than Naruto, because he's a gimme. R&R peeps! Yes, I just said peeps. I've got a whole shelf full of those stupid little marshmallow chicks and bunnies.

Ja ne!

SC


	6. Escape from Konohagakure

1Please read the author's note at the bottom of the page.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

--

Chapter 6

Escape from Konohagakure

Tsunade looked over the shinobi standing before her. Aburame Shino, Inuzuka Kiba, Rock Lee, Maito Gai, Hatake Kakashi, Akimichi Chouji, and Uzumaki Naruto. She had considered sending Asuma along as well, but decided he would be needed here. They needed every medic they could get their hands on since Sakura and Ino, two of their best, were the ones who actually needed the medical attention. "You all know what your mission is." The team saluted her and disappeared, reappearing outside the village.

Kiba looked over at Naruto. The usually cheery blonde was eerily quiet and solemn. "Hey... hey Naruto, you okay?" No response. "Naruto?"

Kakashi turned around. "Leave him be, Kiba. Naruto's been through a lot." The air hanging around the ANBU squad was thick and heavy, the tension ready to snap at any moment. Even Gai and Lee were quiet. And Shino... well, Shino wasn't very talkative in the first place, but even the bugs were avoiding him.

Finally, Kakashi spoke up. "Naruto, the map?" He nodded and pulled it out.

"We're right here," Naruto pointed to the leaf symbol on the map that represented Konoha, "And the island is over here." He pointed to a ways off the coast, a bit past the island that held the Hidden Mist Village.

Lee blinked. "That's a long ways."

Kiba glared at him. "You think?"

"Don't you two start." Shino snapped.

Kakashi sighed. "Let's just go."

--

Tsunade turned to Iruka, who was staying in Konoha. "Tell every shinobi in the village, of all ranks, that absolutely NO ONE is to leave the village unless they are under my orders. If they do, it will be considered treason."

Iruka nodded, wondering what Tsunade was getting at and why she would instate this law now of all times, then disappeared.

--

"All right, the ANBU left this morning, so we've got maybe three days to get out before the calamity goes down." Roba muttered. "But we really need to think this over better. Unlike you guys, Menrui and I have younger siblings to take care of."

"Well, can't you have someone else watch them?" Shingetsu asked.

"I already do." Menrui said. "Hanabi-oba-san is watching her. She nearly busted me when I told her that I just couldn't do it. I love taking care of her. I'm surprised she believed me."

Roba sighed. "Well, I suppose I'll have to convince my grandparents to watch Kume then."

Kiseichu nodded. "Okay. But that leaves the problem of disguises still. I mean, the Byakugan eye isn't exactly common, and none of us the control over it Menrui does. Not to mention Tsunade-sama's new law that no one can leave the village."

Menrui shrugged. "You might. I mean, the only reason I can control mine is that dad isn't a Hyuuga, and Tenten-ba-san isn't, so maybe..."

Roba looked up from his notepad. "I'll make some contacts just in case. For you too, Menrui."

Kakushin nodded. "So no Sharingan either, ne?"

"Well, maybe. I might be able to fix is so you and Shingetsu can still use the Sharingan eye and have it not be visible to anyone. But it would take more than three days."

A silence hung over the group as everyone turned to Shingetsu. "What?"

"Well, it was your plan, Shin." Hari muttered. "You're kind of in charge here."

Shingetsu covered her eyes with her hands. "With Tsunade's new law... I don't know... it might just be better to leave now, without disguises, but... I... I guess leaving while everyone was still busy with recovering from the ANBU leaving would be best, but... but with all the chaos trying to find the antidote at the hospital, leaving after three days wouldn't impede us leaving too much." She started chewing on the knuckle of her right index finger, a nervous habit she really needed to stop. Shinobi weren't supposed to get nervous.

Hari jumped to the rescue, seeing as Shingetsu was falling fast. "Maybe if some of us helped you, Roba, then it would go faster."

He considered it. "That would speed the process... as long as no one screws anything up."

Four days and three nights later...

"Wow Roba. This stuff's great!" Hiun exclaimed. Her normally white eyes were now a creamy amber color and her hair was a light brown.

Kiseichu smirked. "Yeah. You did good, genius." His eyes were the same shade as Hiun's, as was his hair, though it was now cut in a fashion similar to his brothers. His scar was also gone, covered by makeup. "You're sure this stuff isn't going to come off?"

"For the fiftieth time, Kiseichu, no. Not until you wipe it off with this." He held up a bag of small purple vials. They all looked up as the door opened and Menrui and Shingetsu walked out. Menrui's whiskers were gone, covered by the same makeup as Kiseichu's scar, her bright blue eyes seemed, if at all possible, bluer, and her hair was, gasp, bright blonde. And cropped up to her shoulders.

"I can't believe this. I look like my dad's sexy jutsu with short hair." She muttered. Roba didn't say anything, but he did turn an odd shade of pink.

"Great job Roba." Shingetsu said. Her hair was dark red and had been extended out of her boyish cut down to the middle of her back. "It looks really natural."

Kakushin rolled his eyes. "All right, now if you ladies don't mind, it's our turn." He, Hari, and Roba walked into the latter's room and shut the door.

... a few minute later...

Finally, everyone was disguised. Hari had honey-gold eyes and bronze colored hair, which had gotten about an inch longer so it was down to his shoulders. Kakushin's hair, like Shingetsu's, was dark red, and his usually black eyes were a darker shade of emerald. Roba's hair was ebony black and his eyes were still the same color.

"If everyone's ready, let's get going." Hari said. Everyone nodded and grabbed a backpack off of the couch.

Menrui hesitated. "I can't believe we're actually doing this. I mean, we're abandoning Konoha."

Kakushin looked at her. "Get real, Menrui. We're six Genin and one Chuunin. No one's going to notice unless someone asks around about us. Now can we please go?" Everyone nodded and slipped out the door, hitting the lights. Once they shut the door, those who had one activated their respective blood traits (a/n: I can't remember the word! NOOO!).

"All clear this way." Hari muttered. After everyone else confirmed no one was in the immediate area, they all jumped to the roof.

Menrui turned around. "Hey, we can see the hospital from here." Everyone else turned around to look. And it was true, the building was visible from their position on the rooftop, even though the lights were all off.

"Let's just go." Shingetsu muttered, turning away. The others, some more slowly, turned away and followed her as she leapt across the rooftops.

Finally, they reached the bridge leading out of Konoha. Shingetsu turned around, for she was still in the lead. "Guys, I have to ask one more time. Is everyone sure they want to do this?"

Kiseichu groaned. "Are you telling me that after all that work Roba did, _all of us _did, that you're still not sure whether or not this is the right thing to do? Who put her in charge again?"

Hiun and Menrui both smacked him on the back of the head. "Shut up!"

"Look, I was just asking." She snapped. "No need to be a jerk, Kiseichu." She stalked across the bridge, barely remembering to keep quiet.

Hari shook his head as he walked past him. "Smooth, bro. Real smooth."

--

The sun was rising by the time the group stopped. "Shin, maybe we'd better take a break." Menrui said.

She looked up at the sky, which was quickly turning from gray to pink. "Yeah, okay. We'll take watch in shifts. Kakushin, you, Kiseichu, and Roba go first. Hiun and I will go next, and Hari and Menrui are last." After a bit of grumbling from Hiun, Menrui, and Roba, everyone agreed to this plan and those who didn't have the first shift went off to go to sleep.

Most of them did, anyway. Shingetsu was still brooding over the map. "This place is too far to make in one trip. But we can't stop on the island of Hidden Mist, there are ninja there. But there should be other islands along the way..." She yawned, and the map was snatched out of her hands. "What the heck?" She turned to see Hari behind her.

"Get some sleep, Shin. You've gotten less sleep than any of us."

She stuck her hand out for the map. "Give it back, I'm fine."

He rolled his eyes. "Please, you look like you've got a pair of black eyes. Get some sleep." He ordered again, pocketing the map. She gave up and laid down, asleep in an instant.

Hari smirked and laid down at the roots of the tree across from her, nodding off in barely ten seconds.

--

Iruka knocked on the Uzumaki household's front door. "Menrui? You awake yet?" No reply. He chuckled. "As lazy as her dad, that one." He opened the door, he'd had a key since Naruto moved in, and walked upstairs. "Menrui? Get up, I brought you Ichiraku." No response.

He frowned. That always brought Menrui, and Naruto, running. He slid open the bedroom door. The bed hadn't been slept in. He walked in. 'Maybe she's over at Shingetsu's. Or Hiun's.' His foot lowered on something, and he looked down to see what it was. His eyes widened, and he lifted his foot up.

With the word's 'Menrui Uzumaki' written in Neon colors across the back, was Menrui's hitai-ate. The bag dropped out of his hand as he ran down the stairs.

--

Tsunade rested her chin on her hands. "Are you positive that they aren't just visiting their parents?"

Iruka shook his head. "The hospital doesn't allow visitors for another hour, and all seven of them left behind their hitai-ates." He emptied a bag of dyes and materials used for making disguises when a henge no jutsu wouldn't hold long enough. "These were in Roba's room and these," He pulled a stack of papers from his vest, "Were in Shingetsu's."

Tsunade took them and gasped. "These are-!"

He nodded. "Sakura and Sasuke's mission specs. The map's missing."

She set down the papers and put a hand over her eyes. "So it's safe to assume that they've escaped Konoha." It wasn't a question, but Iruka nodded nonetheless. Tsunade was silent for a few minutes, approximately three, before she sat up straight, looking every part the Hokage she was. "Alert their parents first. Then find me these agents," She scribbled three or four names down on a piece of paper, "And bring them here. This is not a job for children to handle, and they've directly disobeyed my orders that no one is allowed to leave the city."

Iruka paused at the doorway. "Tsunade, if we do bring them back-"

She looked up at him with that piercing gaze of her's. "Not if, Iruka. When. And when you do bring them back, I'll deal with them. They are still shinobi, Genin or not, and know the rules. You will bring them to me as soon as you find them, understood?"

Iruka looked away. "Understood." He whispered sadly, walking out, shutting the door behind him.

--

SC: I know, another really short chapter, and I'm sorry, but breaking up with my boyfriends was more difficult than it should've been, and I'm going through horrible writer's block. The only way this was getting posted was if I did it now, while it was short, and I didn't wait forever.

Puck: Yeah, she's been miserable 'cause he tried to kill himself with sleeping pill OD. He's okay, but...

SC: Anyway, I have no witty remarks or threats right now, but I'm probably not going to update Into the Game anytime soon, or this, until Ronnie gets through his head that I don't want to get back together. Sorry.

SpontaneousCombustion


	7. Chapter 7

1Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any songs from Lion King.

--

Chapter 7

Finding a Boat (Should Not Be This Hard)

"Menrui...Menrui, wake up." Roba shook the girl.

She sat up with a start. "Wha...?"

"We're leaving."

"Yeah... okay. Just give me a second." She shook her head and stood up. She looked around to see Kakushin and Hari waking up Kiseichu, Shingetsu, and Hiun. "What time is it?" She yawned.

"The sun just set." Kakushin answered. "You've been asleep for almost twelve hours, so don't even say you're tired."

"Hate to break it to you, bro, but trees aren't exactly the most comfortable things to sleep on in the world." Shingetsu muttered, rubbing her neck.

"Someone else needs to be leader today, Shin's still half asleep." Kiseichu muttered.

"I'm fine, shut up." She snapped back, pulling the map out of her pocket.

Hiun peered over her shoulder. "So what does the all knowing map of wonder say?"

Shingetsu hit her with the map before looking at it again. "Mm... the map says... this way!" Shingetsu said, pointing north. Everyone headed that direction.  
Kakushin sighed, and Hiun turned to him, "What, upset your sister dragged ya into this?"  
Kakushin chuckled, "I guess so, but having to be in charge of a bunch of 12-year-olds... it's an annoyance."  
Hiun rolled her eyes, "So? You're fifteen, only three years older than us."  
"But you admit I'm older than you." Kakushin flatly pointed out.  
"..."  
"At a loss for words I see. I finally beat out the great Hyuuga intellect."  
"Why you-!" Before Hiun could contain herself, she jumped onto Kakushin, trying to yank his hair out.  
"Hey! Let go!" Both sped toward the others, who were keeping a steady pace. That is, until they all stopped and turned around to see what the commotion behind them was. Big mistake.  
Everyone collided with each other, Kakushin landed on top of Hiun in a... eh-hum, compromising position. "Er... would you love birds do it in a tent instead of on top of the rest of us?" Menrui muttered.  
"Or just let us beat up Kakushin for being a..." Hari couldn't seem to find the word he was looking for. Kiseichu's eyes blazed in fury. Shingetsu was still in shock from seeing her brother... laying on top of her best friend. That was **SO** wrong!

After a couple of minutes, and another few awkward positions, one of which caused Kakushin accidentally brushing his hand over Hiun's chest, they were moving again, though Kakushin was standing _far_ away from the Hyuuga triplets. The silence hovering around the group was suffocating, so Menrui broke it her way: singing the most annoying song she could think of. "Oh I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts, diddly-dee, there they are standing in a row, diddly, diddly, dee. Big ones, small ones, some the size of your head! And if you eat a poison one you'll surely wind up dead!"

"MENRUI!" Birds flew out of the nearby trees. The blonde-turned-brunette grew quiet.

The group traveled in silence again until Roba spoke up. "I just had a thought."

"If it has something to do with that cloud looking like a bunny, I'll strangle you." Hari threatened. Best friends or not, Roba's cloud descriptions could get quite long and very boring.

"Well, no, but now that you mention it..." He stopped as the eldest Hyuuga glared at him. "Never mind. I was just thinking that we should probably stop using our regular names. I mean, if Tsunade does send someone after us, and they ask around any of the towns we stop at, our names will give us away, different physical appearances or not."

"He's got a point." Kakushin muttered. "One mention of any of our names to the ANBU, and we're busted."

"So we think up new ones then." Shingetsu said. "Easy enough. Let's just stop here, you three have to be tired anyway, you were up for almost twenty-four hours, and we'll think while we rest."

Everyone agreed to this plan, especially those who'd had watch, and they stopped. "You know, that cloud really does look like a bunny."

--

"All right, I think that's all of them." Shingetsu looked down the list of names in her hand. It read:

'_Menrui: Soba_

_Roba: Uma_

_Kakushin: Karada_

_Shingetsu:_

_Hari: Hotai _

_Hiun: Kiken_

_Kiseichu: Komori _'

"Come on, Shin. It can't be that hard." Menrui said.

"Shut up. I helped all of you think of your names, I'm out of ideas." She muttered.

"Tsuki." Hari muttered.

"Huh?"

"Tsuki. Your name." Shingetsu paused to consider it, then wrote it down.

"Okay, we're done."

Roba, now Komori, yawned. "Maybe we should just go back to traveling during the day. I'm tired."

"Not tonight. We're not far enough yet." Shingetsu spread the map out in the middle of their circle. "There's a town about twelve miles from here. If we keep going like we have been, we should make it there by tomorrow afternoon."

"Wait a minute... you mean, without sleep, we'll make it there by tomorrow afternoon." Menrui said.

"It's that, or we risk getting caught. Besides, when we get there, we can find an inn and sleep as long as we want there."

Everyone, begrudgingly agreed with Shingetsu's logic and got up, trudging towards the town.

True to her math skills, they reached the town mid-afternoon the next day as Shingetsu said. They found an inn without much trouble and paid for a two of rooms for the next two days. Everyone promptly fell asleep as they got their rooms, not bothering with bed arrangements.

Later that evening, after everyone had awoken, refreshed and a lot less cranky, they discussed further into their plan.. "Okay, boss lady, what's next on the agenda?" Kiseichu asked.

"Well, we need to get some more supplies, and find a boat."

Kakushin rolled his eyes. "Really? I though we were going to swim to Kage Ryu."

Shin gave him a glare worthy of their father. "Really starting to annoy me with your sarcasm, bro."

"I've only just begun."

Hiun jumped, figuratively speaking, between the two. "Before we have an all out 'sibling war' in here, can we get back to the boat thing? Mainly, how we're going to afford it?"

Shingetsu and Kakushin looked at each other, then dug through their bags. Moments later, they both produced a full looking bag. "Mom and dad give us allowance." They said at once.

Roba looked at them both. "Okay, Hiun, Hari, and Kakushin are triplets and don't even do the creepy unanimous thing."

"Can't help it." They grinned, their fight seconds earlier forgotten. Hiun started laughing as Roba just gave them another look.

"You two are so troublesome."

"Love you too, Uma." Shingetsu muttered. Everyone gave her an odd look. "Hey, if we're going to use different names, then we might as well get used to using them. Now, we need to go shopping."

--

SC: Yeah, I know. Another short chapter, sorry. But I couldn't drag out the pointlessness of this chappie any longer. Next Chapter: Off to the Island Hidden in the Mist.

Ja ne

SC

P.S.: Here's a list of what the group's old and new names mean:

Menrui: noodles; Soba: noodles made of buckwheat

Roba: donkey; Uma: horse

Kakushin: core, heart of the problem; Karada: body/substance/reality/form

Shingetsu: new moon; Tsuki: moon

Hari: needle; Hotai: bandage

Hiun: doom, misfortune; Kiken: danger/peril/risk/hazard

Kiseichu: parasite; Komori: bat

The names are supposed to be somewhat similar to each other, for the sake of being able to remember them easier. I know. It's stupid. Just leave it be.


	8. Chapter 8

1SC: Chapter 8. Whoop-dee doo.

Disclai... I'm not even gonna bother.

--

Chapter 8

To Hidden Mist Island

"Have I mentioned I hate you, Tsuki?" Hiun asked.

"Thirty-seven times in the past hour." Shingetsu replied.

"Well I do."

"Thirty-eight then."

Hiun groaned. "We've checked three places and none of them are willing to let us rent a boat."

She smirked. "Wish Menrui was with us. That puppy-dog face of hers always works."

"Heh, yeah. Remember when she did a henge of Iruka-sensei and was mimicking him, and he walked up?"

"And all she had to do was the pout and he forgave her." They both laughed. "How did the rest of us get in trouble?"

"Oh, you know, scorching him with a fireball, nearly hitting him with a kunai, that stuff."

"Oh yeah, right. We thought he was Menrui in disguise still."

"Hey! Guys!" A voice from behind them called.

"Speak of the devil and she shall appear."

Menrui ran up, a panting Roba next to her. "Running... is so tiresome."

She hit him lightly, then turned back to the two girls. "I've got good news and bad news."

"Bad news first." Hiun answered automatically.

"We couldn't find anyone willing to rent us a boat, buuuuut..."

"But what?"

Roba straightened up. "We found out there's a barge leaving tomorrow afternoon to the Island Hidden in the Mist."

"Perfect, now we just need to find my annoying brother and your," Shingetsu turned to Hiun, "Annoying brother_s_, and then we can get some food."

xXx

Back in the hotel room, where everyone was eating ramen, another fight had started. "I say we just steal a boat." Kakushin muttered.

"We're not common criminals! We're Shinobi!" Hiun protested.

"We aren't anymore." Roba muttered.

"What do you mean?" Menrui asked, slurping up more noodles.

Roba looked at her, stirring his food with his chopsticks. "Think about it. We may be Genin, but we were still ninja. We're rouges. If we get caught... Tsunade-sama may have to kill us."

The room was silent as the extent of what they had done was starting to sink in. "We can't go home, can we?" Kiseichu asked quietly.

"Not unless you want to be placed under arrest at the gates."

Shingetsu got up to throw her bowl away. "We have to. Even if we don't find the antidote, we need to go back to... to say goodbye to our parents." Tears were obvious in her voice. 'Stop it Shin. A Shinobi doesn't cry.'

"Shingetsu?" Kakushin asked. "You okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine." She sat back down, her eyes wet but no tears were showing. "And use 'Tsuki' from now on. We need to get used to using our other names."

Hari set his bowl down. "Let's just not talk about it. We'll deal with the situation when it comes to us. For now, we need to plan out how to get a boat from Hidden Mist to Kage Ryu. If anyone's even heard of this place, they're more than likely Jonin. And if we ask one of them, we're busted."

"So what do you propose?" Hiun asked.

He looked up, his face serious. "I say that Karada's plan is the only thing we've got."

xXx

"Menrui -er, Soba-if you don't get up right now, we're leaving without you."

"Komori, you suck at doing this."

"You want to do it sis?"

"Sure. Watch." Hiun bent down and pulled the futon out from underneath Menrui. "Morning sunshine!"

Menrui glared at her, trying to untangle herself from her blanket. "I hate you."

"Love you too, get up, get dressed, we're leaving in like ten minutes." She ordered, shooing Kiseichu out of the room.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever."

xXx

"Would you hurry up?" Hari called from outside the boys room.

"Well, if I hadn't had to go wake up a certain bed head, I would've been done already!" Kiseichu muttered, walking out of the room. "Can we go before the boat leaves?"

xXx

Menrui leaned over the boat railing. "I love the ocean. It's so big!"

"That _is _why it's called the ocean." Roba muttered, sitting against the wall behind her.

She looked back at him. "You're no fun." He mumbled a 'whatever' under his breath before closing his eyes and falling asleep.

Kiseichu rolled his eyes. "Lazy ass." He tossed a shuriken up in the air like one would a ball. However, it was snatched away before it came back down.

Hari glared at his brother. "Stop being stupid. You think that anyone normal would be playing catch with a shuriken?" He hissed.

"Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed." He muttered. Hari glared at him again. Somehow, it wasn't as effective or scary as the Byakugan.

"Would you two cut it out?" Hiun hissed. "You," She turned to Kiseichu, "Stop playing with weapons and you," She turned to Hari, "Stop being so uptight."

Shingetsu looked up from the map. "Telling him to stop being uptight is like telling the sun not to rise and set. It just doesn't happen." Hari blushed a little and gave Kiseichu his shuriken back.

Kakushin groaned. If they were all going to act like this the whole trip to Hidden Mist, it was going to suck.

xXx

'Hidden Mist Island. One step closer.' Kakushin thought. "So, where to next?"

Shingetsu paused. "We'd better just find an inn for tonight. We'll start looking for a boat tomorrow morning."

Roba yawned. "Sounds like a plan to me. I'm tired."

"You're always tired." Menrui commented dryly. Watching the waves from the side of the boat had grown boring REALLY fast.

"Just stop arguing. You're giving me a headache." Hari muttered, brushing past them.

Hiun shook her head. "He's been like that the whole trip since SOMEONE," Here she looked pointedly at Hari. "Decided to try and throw kunai at the fish next to the boat."

Shingetsu gave Kiseichu a look. "Can we please just try to get along?" Menrui asked.

"Try, yes. Succeed, probably not." Kiseichu answered.

Menrui rolled her eyes. "Well, I'm not tired, so I'm going to look around. Uma, you wanna come with?"

Roba looked at her. "I just said I was tired." He complained, but followed after her anyway.

Kakushin glanced at Hiun. She was fuming. "Hey, Kiken, why don't we go look for boats?" He didn't give her a chance to respond and dragged her off in the opposite direction. Shingetsu glared at him. 'Great. He's leaving me with these two sourpusses.'

xXx

As they walked along, Menrui noticed Roba staring at her. "What?"

He blushed slightly. "Nothing. It's just..."

She stopped. "It's just what?"

"I thought you looked a little like my mom with your hair dyed blonde."

Her eyebrows rose. "I look like a forty-year-old?"

He blushed a deeper red. "No, that's not what I meant! I meant that you look... pretty." 'Gah, this is so troublesome.'

Menrui blushed slightly. "Oh." She started walking again. "Um... A-arigatou Roba-kun." She whispered.

A few minutes later, a gasp of surprise made Roba look up. "What?" Menrui pointed at the wall in front of them. He looked at it and let out a curse. "Come on, we have to tell everyone else." He tore down seven posters and grabbed Menrui's hand, pulling her back toward the inn.

xXx

"Roba, what's so important that you had to drag all of us back here to tell us?" Shingetsu asked.

"This." He threw the piece of paper down on the table.

"Oh no." Hiun muttered.

Kakushin slammed his fist on the table. "Damn it!"

Sitting in the middle of the table was a pile of wanted posters for Hyuuga Kiseichu, Hyuuga Hari, Hyuuga Hiun, Nara Roba, Uchiha Kakushin, Uchiha Shingetsu, and Uzumaki Menrui. Each poster had their picture from when they had just passed the Genin exam. "Tsunade must have sent out Shinobi to everywhere that we'd have to pass through as soon as she found out we were gone." Shingetsu muttered.

" 'Ba-chan's smart." Menrui muttered.

"She's also fast. She's probably already got ANBU after us." Hari muttered.

Kiseichu growled. "Now what do we do? If we've already got the best Shinobi in the village after us, we're screwed!"

"No, we're not." Shingetsu told him. "I don't know of any ANBU member that can walk on water long enough to make it all the way out here, much less to Kage Ryu. They'd run out of chakra. We still have a chance to beat them. We just have to move faster."

Kakushin looked at her suspiciously. "How much faster?"

"We have to leave tonight."

The room suddenly filled with protest. "Are you crazy, Shin? We haven't had enough time. We aren't prepared!" Hiun yelled.

"Shinobi think on their feet." She snapped back. "Look, we've had these rules drilled into our brains since we were little. Now how about instead of spouting them off we actually use them?"

They all looked at each other guiltily. "What's the plan?" Hari asked.

Shingetsu smiled, relieved. "All right. Nii-san, did you and Hiun- er, sorry- Kiken find any boat places?"

"Yeah. There's about ten along the pier. The second to last one on the left's the best choice. It's got around fifty boats. I doubt the owner would notice if one went missing."

Hiun gave a confirming nod. "We shouldn't have to much of a problem, except that the store next-door to him has three watch dogs."

Roba pulled a bottle of powder out of his bag. "This oughta kill their sense of smell for a while."

"What is it?"

"Chili pepper. Akamaru absolutely abhors the stuff. I've seen Kiba use it to keep him from getting out of the yard."

Kiseichu scoffed. "One problem genius. How do we get close enough to use it?"

The prodigy grinned. "Simple. Soba, you like dogs, right?"

Menrui nodded. "I absolutely love them. You know that."

"And you've never met a dog that's attacked you, right?"

"Yeah, why do you ask? Oh...oh!" The lightbulb in her head suddenly clicked on. "Nuh-uh, no way! I'm not gonna practically blind the poor dogs."

"Those 'poor dogs' have claws the size of my fist and teeth to match." Kakushin muttered. "They'd gladly rip us to shreds if they saw us."

"It won't do any permanent damage to them." Roba assured her. "Just a day or two, then they'll be fine."

She took the bottle. "Fine." She stood and walked out.

Shingetsu coughed. "Now, here's the plan..."

--

SC: And that's where I stop. I know, I know. I've been working on this for almost a month and it's this short. Well I'm sorry. I've redone parts of it four times, and I'm leaving for Michigan in three days and won't be back for a month.

Now, I know some of you just completely freaked out. Don't lie to the all-knowing authoress. Calm down, I'm uploading everything I've been working on so I'll have it when I go to Michigan. Anyway, R&R people!

Ja ne!

SC

'_Menrui: Soba_

_Roba: Uma_

_Kakushin: Karada_

_Shingetsu:_

_Hari: Hotai _

_Hiun: Kiken_

_Kiseichu: Komori _'


	9. Chapter 9

I don't own Naruto or its characters, so don't sue.

--

Chapter 9 

Setting off

'This is nuts.' Kiseichu thought to himself. 'Completely and utterly nuts.' "I can't believe what you made me do to those poor dogs." Menrui muttered.

"Shut up and stop whining or those 'poor dogs' are going to hear us!" Shingetsu hissed. Menrui fell silent and glanced at Hiun. Everyone was uneasy about this, but it seemed to be taking the greatest toll on their leader.

Roba jumped down from a nearby roof. "Alright, he's got the place locked up and is well on his way home."

"Good. Menrui, keep watch, and don't try to play with the dogs." Shingetsu ordered.

"I won't. I may be blonde now, but that doesn't mean I'm stupid." She muttered under her breath.

Hiun followed after the others as Menrui jumped up on the roof. She nudged Kakushin. "Hey, why's Tsuki so edgy?"

Kakushin shrugged. "I don't try to psychoanalyze my sister anymore. But from the looks of it, she feels like she's got the weight of the world on her shoulders. Or at least all seven of ours."

Roba whispering, "Okay, this is it," made them stop. They looked at the well-built shop in front of them.

"There aren't any alarms?" Hari asked.

Roba shook his head. "Not unless this guy is a Shinobi in disguise and he hid them pretty damn well."

"Alright then. Come on." Shingetsu slipped around back, and activated her Sharingan.

After a few minutes of struggling with the chains and ropes that held the boats in place, they managed to disentangle one that would hold them all somewhat comfortably. "Someone go get Menrui." She muttered.

"Soba." Hiun corrected.

"Just go get her!"

Hiun looked a bit startled but walked off anyway. She jumped onto the roof Menrui had been hiding on. "Let's go."

" 'Kay." Both jumped down, avoiding the dogs, and took their time getting back to the dock. "Is she still in a bad mood?"

"I'll say. Any idea why?"

"She's twelve, and having to act like an ANBU squad leader?"

Hiun nodded. "That's a good reason. You know, it seems kind of pointless to get this antidote to save our parents, just to get killed by Tsunade-sama."

"Life's a bitch, then you die. It's either A: we get the antidote, get back, save our 'rents, then get killed, B: We don't get the antidote, go back to say goodbye, and get killed, C: We don't get the antidote and live the rest of our lives as fugitives, or D: We get caught by the ANBU we've got after us, dragged back, and killed."

"You realize that all but one of those end in 'and get killed,' right?"

"Yeah. We're back." By then, everyone and everything had been loaded and they were ready to take off.

"Took long enough." Kiseichu muttered. Neither his sister nor cousin replied, just climbed into the boat and sat down. Shingetsu tossed a half-full sack of money onto the dock as Kakushin and Hari shoved the boat away from the it, into the current of the ocean.

"Which way now, Shin?" Hari asked.

She spread the map out on her knees, reading by moonlight. "Don't worry, the current will take us there. They all swirl around the island."

Kakushin grimaced. "When you say swirl, do you mean like deadly whirlpool type swirling?"

"No, it's only like that when the tide is coming in or out." She told him, placing the map back in her bag. "All we have to do now is wait."

xXx

The ANBU squad that was sent to find an antidote got quite a surprise in the middle of the night. "GAAAH! Iruka-sensei, don't do that!" Naruto yelped.

Kakashi actually looked up from his Icha Icha. "Iruka? What are you doing here?"

He sighed. "It's the kids… they've run off."

"WHAT!" Came the unanimous response, even from Shino. "But… how…" Naruto stumbled on his words.

Kiba groaned. "They're trying to find the antidote themselves."

Iruka nodded. "I'm afraid so. Now they're classified as rouges, and Tsunade's sending an ANBU team after them."

"You're kidding." Chouji said.

Iruka shook his head. "I wish. Kiba, Shino, Gai, and Lee will keep looking for the antidote. Kakashi, Chouji, and Naruto have to come with me to find…" He swallowed. "To find and capture the rouges."

Tension crackled in the air as the three Shinobi stood and followed Iruka back into the forest. Kakashi looked over at Naruto, who was obviously fighting not to cry and losing. He couldn't blame him; his emotions were going nuts too. Kakashi wasn't going to start crying by any means, but he was having a hard time keeping his feelings in check.

Naruto was not only fighting his tears, but against Kyuubi. This emotional strain was just what the kitsune needed to break loose, and Naruto most definitely DID NOT need that right now. He took a couple deep breaths and tried to focus on keeping up with Iruka, Kakashi, and Kiba. Not an easy take.

XXX

"Shin, floating in a boat for three days was not what I had in mind." Kiseichu muttered. "How do you know we're going in the right direction?"

"Because it's what the bloody map says." She growled. "You don't like it, you can always try swimming."

"Stop arguing already!" Menrui snapped. Both of them looked at her. "We're all in a bad mood. Arguing won't help."

Hiun nodded. "Just calm down."

Roba opened an eye, then sat up. "Guys? I think we're here." He pointed at the dark outline.

There was a cheer, but it was cut short by a loud roaring. "What's that noise?" Kakushin asked.

Hari looked over the edge of the boat. "We're speeding up."

Roba blanched. "Oh my god, it's the tides. As they neared the island, they saw the whirlpool surrounding it. One giant whirlpool that slammed against the rocky outskirts of the landmass.

The boat shook as its bottom hit the rocks. Everyone was thrown into the middle of the boat. "Everyone hold on!" Hari ordered, getting up on his knees to take a look around.

"To what?" Shingetsu yelled back as the boat slammed against another rock, throwing Hari down again, his arm on top of Shingetsu's waist. Both blushed but didn't move.

Roba had his arms around Menrui, who was holding onto his shirt. "If we make it through this, we'll be bonded by trauma." He muttered. A wave washed over the boat, soaking everyone. Suddenly, all the girls were grateful that none of them were wearing white shirts.

Hiun was lying on the floor of the boat, sandwiched between her little brother and Kakushin. Kiseichu got on his knees to look around as another wave slammed over the boat, knocking him over the edge. "KISEICHU!" Hiun and Hari screamed grabbing the edge of the boat and pulling themselves up.

"He'll die if he hits one of those rocks at this speed!" Roba said.

"We don't have any control of the boat!" Shingetsu groaned, putting her head in her hands. Hiun grabbed Hari's shoulder as they watched helplessly.

Kakushin cursed and did a few hand signs before jumping out of the boat, running over the water to the youngest Hyuuga. He pulled Kiseichu out from under the waves, and started back to the boat. That's when he started to sink. "Shimatta!" He managed to get Kiseichu into the boat before losing complete control and falling into the water.

A hand gripped his wrist and he felt himself get pulled up. Kakushin blinked a few times to see that Shingetsu had grabbed his wrist. Hari grabbed his other one and pulled him into the boat. "You two okay?" Shin asked. Both of them nodded, Kiseichu coughing up seawater. "Good. If anyone else gets the bright idea of standing up, or kneeling, or anything else, I'll stab them." She told them all, lying back down. Hari and the rest did as well.

About forty minutes later, the boat stopped lurching around and hitting rocks. Roba was the first one to sit up, Menrui still in his arms. "I think it stopped."

Shingetsu pushed herself up. "Genius, Roba. Pure, freaking genius." Carefully, the seven of them guided the boat to the shore.

Kakushin jumped onto the sand and kissed it. "Sweet, sweet land. Blecch." He spit out the sand that had gotten in his mouth.

"More genius. Wonderful." Hari muttered.

"Not so sweet now, is it?" Kiseichu called, climbing out of the boat. Roba helped Menrui over the edge as Hiun watched, her eyes rolling.

Shingetsu sighed. "Why don't we just stay here and rest for a little while?" The agreement was unanimous, and she and Hari walked off to get some dryer wood to burn.

Hiun walked over to where Kakushin was sitting in the sun, trying to dry off. "Kakushin?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for saving Kiseichu." She gave him a kiss on the cheek before walking back over to said brother to make sure he was okay. For the fifth time.

"Hiun, I'm fine."

"You nearly drowned, I'm allowed to be a little worried!" Kakushin smirked and rubbed his cheek where she'd kissed him. Maybe Kiseichu should be in danger more often…

He shook his head. 'No. She's one of your imouto-chan's best friend. Bad thoughts about your sister's friends are not allowed.' Pause. 'Damn, too late.'

--

SC: And that would be the next chapter. Yell at me all you want, the shorter chapters I have, the faster they're typed, the faster you can read them, and the faster I update. Four reviews people! From different people, okay?

Ja ne!

SC


	10. Release of fluff backup

I don't own Naruto, or any of its characters. I do, however, own Shingetsu, Kakushin, Hari, Hiun, Kiseichu, Roba, and Menrui. Sorry, listing them out made me feel all important and crap.

SC: There's going to be a little bit of fluff this chappie, so be prepared.

--

Chapter 10 

Doesn't have a title…

"Hari?" Shingetsu asked, grabbing another branch and snapping it off the tree it had been attached to.

"Hmm?"  
"If we make a fire, won't that produce smoke?"

The Hyuuga turned around. "Yeah, wh- oh." He dropped the twigs in his arms. "Well, I feel stupid now."

"You aren't the only one." She laughed, dropping her load as well. "Some prodigies we are, we can't even remember that fire makes smoke."

He sighed. "Might as well head back and have everyone laugh at us already."

"It was my idea, so I'll be getting laughed at more than you."

"I went along with it, though." He reminded her.

"Yeah, but I'm the one who dragged all of us into this mess in the first place, so not only will I get laughed at, I'll get blamed if we all get killed."

Hari laughed. "You're cute when you're frustrated."

Shingetsu stopped. "What did you just say?"

"Ano… that you're cute when you're frustrated?" 'Dammit, I was supposed to deny that.'

"Arigatou, Hari…kun."

"Did you just 'kun' me?"

"Would you have preferred bozu? Or chan?"

A pause. "No, kun is fine."

XXX

"Roba?" Menrui asked, nudging the almost-sleeping boy who was leaning against a tree.

"Hmm?" The Nara opened one eye and looked down at her. She was tracing circles in the sand with a stick.

"Do you… think I'm stupid?"

He sat up. "What in the world brought that up?"

She shrugged. "I just want to know, cuz you're the smartest Genin in Konoha, and I'm not even close."

"Menrui, you're a great Shinobi."

"No I'm not. We all know that I passed the finals by the skin of my teeth."

Roba put a hand on her shoulder. "You were just nervous. Even I was nervous."

She blinked and looked up at him. "Really?" He nodded and she grinned, hugging him tightly.

"Arigatou, Roba-kun! I feel a lot better now." Roba smiled down at her before going back to staring at the clouds. Actually, he hadn't been nervous in the least when they took the Genin exam. But there wasn't any need for Menrui to know that…

Hiun glared at Menrui from down near the water. She'd obviously lost, but that didn't mean she had to enjoy it. Taking care of Kiseichu could only distract her for so long, and his patience for being babied had run out pretty darn fast.

She felt someone sit down next to her. "Wow. If looks could kill…" Kakushin laughed.

Hiun turned around. "Don't you have anyone else to bother?"

"Hmm… let me think. My imouto-chan is off with your nii-san, Menrui and Roba are over there getting cuddly, and I'm absolutely terrified that if I try to bother your otouto-san, he'll kill me."

The female Hyuuga rolled her eyes. "You just saved his life."

"And Kiseichu would care about that if I start to annoy him why?" Hiun shrugged. He had a point; Kiseichu's fuse was not the longest in the world.

"I don't know, maybe he'd take it easy when he's killing you." She said, taking the contacts out of her eyes. She blinked a few times. "Much better."

Kakushin laughed. "I didn't even remember mine." He took his out as well, revealing the onyx color of his eyes. "Wow, you're right that is a lot better." (a/n:What, were you expecting Hiun and Kakushin to be all over each other? Uh, no, think again! Their relationship is love/hate. Mainly hate.)

XXX

"I can't believe that the kids would do this." Hinata muttered.

Sasuke scoffed. "I can."

"Even I've got to agree with Uchiha on this one." Neji sighed. "All seven of them are headstrong and stubborn."

"Yeah, can't imagine where they get THAT from." Tenten muttered. The women all glanced at their husbands, with the exception of Ino and Hinata, because Shikamaru was too lazy to be stubborn most of the time and Naruto, well, wasn't there.

Sakura sighed and relinquished her grip on Sasuke. Her arm hurt really badly, and if her eyes weren't fooling her, the skin around the puncture wound was starting to harden. "Can you really blame them? Wouldn't we all do the same thing if the positions were reversed?"

The answer was an unspoken but unanimous 'Yes.' Sasuke sighed. "But I can't believe they put the dobe on the retrieval team."

"Yeah, along with Iruka, Kakashi, and Chouji." Shikamaru said. "You'd think that Tsunade would've put someone who didn't have such strong emotional attachment to the kids on it."

Ino laughed. "That's probably WHY she did it. Think about it, genius. Our kids are gonna fight back, and Tsunade wants someone who can reason with them and bring them back without severely injuring them."

Sasuke frowned, his fists tightening. "I can't believe Shingetsu would actually take our mission specs."

Neji smirked. "The Uchiha rebel streak." Sasuke glared at him.

"Neji, don't start." Tenten warned. The Hyuuga's comment died in his throat. Sasuke didn't say anything. Instead, he chose to stand up and walk to the room assigned to Sakura and himself.

Needless to say, Sakura followed. "Sasuke?" She asked quietly, sitting next to him. "I'm sure they're fine, Sasuke."

Sasuke buried his head in his hands. "I know that Kakushin and Shingetsu are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves, Sakura, but…"

"But you still think of them as your little guy and baby girl?" He smirked and looked up at her.

"Yeah."

Sakura hugged him. "Get some sleep." She kissed his cheek and stood up.

"What, you aren't gonna join me?" He asked.

She chuckled. "Maybe later. I'm gonna go talk to the girls." Sakura walked out and shut the door. That was a lie, everyone had gone to bed already, but she needed time to think by herself.

She was really worried, not about herself or the kids, but her friends. If the poison was starting to influence her, then no doubt its affects were already working on Ino too. And Hinata and Tenten would be next, then the boys. But it was Sasuke she was most concerned for.

Her worry for him was increased not only by the fact that he was her husband, but that he had taken two shots of the poison, and he would be overtaken twice as fast. She didn't know how potent the poison was with one shot, but with two? The change might be sped up to much, much hastier, and Sasuke might…

Sakura shook her head. She couldn't allow herself to think that way.

Standing, she walked back into the bedroom and lay down next to Sasuke, who wrapped his arms and placed a kiss on her forehead. "Aishiteiru, Sakura-chan."

Sakura rested her head in the hollow of Sasuke's neck. "Aishiteiru, Sasuke-kun."

XXX

"Shikamaru?" Ino whispered.

"Hm?" He muttered, half asleep already.

"Do… do you think Roba's okay?"

Shikamaru opened his eyes and looked down at his wife. "I'm sure he's fine, Ino. He's not a little boy anymore."

"I know." Ino told him. "But every time I think about him, I picture that sweet little boy who used to sleep with your old deer plushie."

He smirked and kissed the top of Ino's head, burying his nose in his hair. "Don't worry, love. He's OUR son. And he's got all his friends with him… just don't worry about it, all right? It's just so-"

"Troublesome?" Ino cut him off, smiling.

"That's my line." He muttered, teasingly pinching her. She let out a little squeak of protest and pinched him back. Ah, the fun of marriage…

XXX

"Neji, you really shouldn't have said that to Sasuke." Tenten admonished, taking down her buns.

"I can't help it. Irking Uchiha always makes me feel better." He muttered, staring at his wife's back.

"Did it make you feel better about yourself this time?" She asked harshly.

Neji paused. "It… no. It made me feel worse."

Tenten turned and smirked at him. "That, Hyuuga Neji, would be called guilt. I know you aren't used to it, but it's a good start." She laid down, her back facing him. Neji stared at the ceiling, his hands behind his head.

"Tenten, I didn't really mean to say that to Sasuke. It just… slipped out."

She propped herself up on her elbows. "Is this an actual apology? Where _is_ my tape recorder?"

Neji sighed and looked at her, his lavender-white eyes meeting her dark ones. "I'm worried about them."

Tenten lay back down, this time facing her husband. "I know. We all are." She touched Neji's cheek.

He put his hand over hers. "They aren't ready for this kind of difficulty."

Tenten laughed. "Neji, if you'd pull your head out of that hole you've buried it in, you'd have noticed that Hari isn't the only skilled Shinobi among our children. You've been so overprotective of Hiun since she's your only daughter, and Kiseichu because of the incident with the wolf, that you haven't noticed that they're good fighters. And you dump all of your expectations on Hari."

Neji sighed once again and closed his fingers around Tenten's hand. "I've been a blind idiot, haven't I?"

"And now, we're making progress."

XXX

Hinata sighed and looked out her window at the moon hanging leisurely in the sky. It was at its half-full stage. Naruto loved the moon when it was like this. The first time she asked him why, he'd said that it was because the moon was optimistic all the time. When she'd questioned this (she'd been feeling particularly brave that night), he had replied, "It's always half-full. Have you ever heard of a half-empty moon?" Then he'd said, "And I figure, since the moon can look on the bright side of things, so can I!"

She fingered the locket around her neck. Naruto had taken her on their first date on the half moon, on their one-year anniversary when he'd given her this necklace, and even proposed to her on the half moon!

Tears came to the Hyuuga heiress' eyes, and she wiped them away. "Naruto-kun… find Menrui soon, so you can both come home safely."

XXX

"Menrui? What's wrong?" Hari asked as they ate sandwiches. They would've had instant ramen again, but that required hot water, and to heat water, they needed a fire, which our two brilliant prodigies have already deduced creates smoke.

His cousin touched her face and realized she'd been crying. "Iie, it's nothing. Just thinking of something that my 'tou-san told me about half-full moons."

"What was it?" Kakushin asked. "I mean, it isn't like we have anything else to talk about, and the silence has long since passed awkward."

Menrui smiled. "They told me that the moon is always the most optimistic at this phase."

"It's a hunk of rock; how can it be optimistic?" Hiun asked.

Menrui giggled. "Well, have you ever heard of a half-empty moon?"

Everyone started laughing. Kiseichu shook his head. "That is so like Naruto."

--

SC: Yep, there's your fluff filled chapter! I don't know why I added in the moon thing, it just seemed like thing Naruto would say, I guess. Well, whatever, R&R please!

Ja ne

SpontaneousCombustion


	11. Chapter 11

SC: Okay… this chapter must be finished…

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto, don't sue.

--

Chapter 11

Deeper

Kiseichu was up before the sun rose. Therefore, he was also up before everyone else. He glanced around at his friends. Menrui and Roba were cuddled up next to each other, Shingetsu had her head on Hari's shoulder, heck even Hiun and Kakushin were holding hands! Why the hell was he the only one who didn't have someone?

Sure, he and Hari had warred over Shingetsu once upon a time, but it was obvious who had won that battle. Kiseichu wasn't the one who was being used as the Uchiha's pillow. He glared at his brother before lying back down in the sand and trying to sleep. But it was too late, for the sun was rising and woke up everyone else.

After everyone had brushed the sand off his/her clothes and hair, Shingetsu turned to Roba. "Hey genius, where's that reversing stuff?" Roba tossed her a vial filled with the purple potion. "Thank you. Now, I am going to take a bath. Hiun, Menrui, you are welcome to join me. Those of you who aren't female: I even think that you're spying on me, you shall have your eyeballs ripped out and shoved down your throat."

Hiun and Menrui laughed and grabbed a vial of the liquid from Roba before running off.

After a moment, Kakushin muttered, "You know, it would almost be worth it."

He was promptly hit with three rocks.

XXX

"Was that a new one?"

"Nope. Okaa-san used it on Jiraiya-sama once."

Menrui giggled. "Seriously? Oji-chan doesn't seem like someone who'd listen to that…"

Hiun smirked. "He would if he was being held off a very high roof by the Godaime's apprentice."

"Good point. Do you really think they'd spy on us?"

Shingetsu giggled. "No. Three of them are related to at least one of us, and Roba respects you far too much to even try to spy on you." Menrui blushed dark red. "Ha, I get points."

"For what!"

"… ano… making you blush darker than humanly possible?"

"Hey, Shingetsu, if it isn't humanly possible, how is Menrui blushing that dark?"

"…

"…

"… Shut up Hiun."

XXX

After everyone was done and looked normal again (well, Naruto world normal), the process of actually planning what the hell they were doing began. Again.

Kiseichu groaned. "Someone remind me why we even _bothered_ to come here again?"

"Um… the very slim hope that there would be an antidote to save our parents?" Menrui supplied.

"Oh. Are we really that stupid?" He paused. "Don't answer that."

Shingetsu sighed. "Look, we can argue about how stupid we are or aren't later." She pulled a map out of her pack. "Okay, if this thing is right, then we're right here, on the south side of the island." She pointed to the edge of the map.

"And the SOS came from here." Hari pointed to a spot marked toward the middle of the map. "Which means…"

"We have to tromp through a lot of jungle." Roba sighed. "Joy."

--

"Urgh, how long have we been walking?" Kakushin groaned.

"Approximately ten minutes from the LAST time you asked." Roba responded.

Hiun rolled her eyes. "No need to get snip-eee!" The Hyuuga cut off with a shriek as she tripped.

"You okay?" Hari asked.

"Yeah, Hari, I'm just freaking peachy." She muttered, grabbing whatever had tripped her. "Damn rock." She said pulling her arm back to throw it. Her eyes widened and she dropped it, screaming. "It's a head! It a fucking head!"

"What?" Kakushin asked incredulously, picking up the rock. He stared at it, wide eyed, before showing it to the rest of the group.

Menrui let out a shriek. "Oh god…" Roba said.

The 'rock' was indeed a head. The face was frozen in an expression of pain and fear, and the eyes were staring down at where its body should have been.

"Get rid of it." Shingetsu ordered. "Get rid of the damn thing!" Kakushin did so gladly, tossing it into the bushes.

Kiseichu gulped. "Well, I guess we know that whoever's here doesn't like trespassers."

"This isn't the time to try and be funny, Kiseichu." Hari snapped, walking over to the still shuddering Hiun and helping her up.

"I wasn't trying to be funny! I was being serious!" The youngest Hyuuga yelled. "This is suicide, we should just turn around and head back to Konoha right now and face whatever punishment it is Tsunade's gonna give us!"

"May I remind you that we have gone against DIRECT ORDERS from the Hokage? An offense that is punishable by death?" Roba asked.

"Shove it, genius!" Kiseichu snapped. "This was all Shingetsu's idea anyway! If we get in trouble it's her fault!"

Hari glared at his brother. "You never had to go along with it."

"Oh look at Mr. High-and-mighty first born. You're only defending her 'cause you think she's hot!"

"Why you-!" Hari leapt at his brother, wrapping his hands around Kiseichu's throat.

"Hari, don't!"

"Shimatta, he's gonna frickin kill him!"

"Quick, get them off each other!"

Seconds later, Kakushin was holding Hari off the ground in a bear hug while Roba and Hiun were holding back Kiseichu.

"Kami-sama, what the hell is wrong with you two?" Menrui asked. "I mean, you're trying to kill each other over ONE TINY LITTLE FUCKING COMMENT! Now stop fighting and get along, dammit!" Everyone stared at the Uzumaki in shock. Menrui hardly ever cursed, much less at any of them.

"Menrui…" Hiun started.

Menrui cut her off. "Look, we're all tired, and sore, and frustrated. But getting angry at each other and trying to blame each other for this isn't going to help. So what if it was Shingetsu's idea? None of us had to come. We came because we wanted to and ALL of our parents are in danger. So can we please try to remember that and just go?"

Hari and Kiseichu looked at each other. "Gomen ne, Hari. I shouldn't have said that. It was immature."

Hari nodded. "And I'm sorry for losing my temper and attacking you." Kakushin set Hari down and Hiun and Roba released their grips on Kiseichu.

Kiseichu offered his hand. "So we're good?"

Hari smirked and shook it. "Yeah. For now."

Shingetsu sighed. "Well, now that you two are done trying to murder each other, can we go?" They nodded and started forward again.

xXx

Kakashi glanced at Naruto as they stepped off the boat and onto the docks of Hidden Mist Island. Chouji glanced around and caught sight of the wanted posters. He grimaced and nudged Iruka, pointing. Iruka followed the Akimichi's finger and grimaced as well. Naruto, unfortunately, saw as well.

Chouji put a hand on the blonde's shoulder. "Don't worry Naruto. Knowing them, they're probably already at that Kage Ryu island." This had been an attempt at cheering the Kyuubi vessel up; instead, it had the opposite effect. Chouji sighed. "Sorry man. That came out wrong."

"It's okay Chouji." Naruto told him, his voice hoarse from lack of use instead of overuse for once.

Iruka ruffled Naruto's spiky blonde hair. "We'll find them and bring them back, Naruto. They'll be alright."

The blonde managed a weak smile. "Yeah."

--

SC: Woohoo! Two updates (finally)! Okay, so, I'm back on track with everything, and now all my stories shall go back to their regular, hectic schedule of updateness. I'm sure you're all very happy. At least two reviews before I'll update!

Ja ne

SC


	12. Chapter 12

SC: Okay, time to try and get over my serious CoaS problem… unfortunately, my plot bunnies for this story seem to be getting crushed by writer's blocks more than any other bunnies. And since my sledgehammer has suddenly disappeared there isn't much I can do about.

Basically, all I'm saying is that the lack of updates on this story are not Puck's fault.

Puck: Thank you.

SC: But the lack of updates or suckiness of the updates on the other stories are Puck's fault, so you can blame him for that.

Puck: Hey!

SC: Anyway, on with the chapter!

--

Chapter 12

Byakuya Abarai: Ninja of the Shadowed Dragon

"Shin, we've been walking for hours." Menrui whined. "Can't we stop?"

Shingetsu looked back at her friend, then back at the map in her hands and sighed. "Yeah, I guess. It's almost too dark to read the map anyway."

Even sighed as they sat down. "So… is a fire still out of the question?" Kiseichu asked, lazily drawing circles in the dirt with a stick.

"Well, considering we're only SURROUNDED by flammable vegetation…" Roba drawled.

"A simple 'no' would've been fine."

Hiun sighed. "Boys, don't make us separate you two."

Hari smirked at his sister. "Yes ma'am."

"Shut up, I wasn't even talking to you."

Kakushin sighed. "Now, now children. Behave yourselves or I may have to… ano… tie you to that poor, defenseless tree over there!" He pointed in a random direction, only to find that he had pointed at a large fern. "I mean fern…" That got a laugh out of everyone.

As the laughter died, everyone found themselves in a better mood. "So, what do we do for the rest of the night? I mean, I'm not that tired yet, so trying to go to sleep seems kind of pointless." Hari said.

There was an almost unanimous shrug in response. "I dunno." Hiun said. "Tell stories?"

Kiseichu laughed. "Like what? We can't do anything scary. There's no fire to tell them around."

"Then… we can do stuff from when we kids." Menrui said, her grin still clearly visible in the dark. "Like when Hiun and Kiseichu got caught under the mistletoe a couple years back."

There were identical sounds of disgust from the two Hyuuga siblings as everyone else laughed. "You didn't actually have to kiss, you know." Shingetsu giggled.

"It wasn't on purpose!" Kiseichu yelled, his face obviously red.

"Yeah, we wouldn't have if you two idiots," Here Hiun pointed at the Uchiha siblings, "Hadn't run by and slammed us into each other!"

"Funny, I don't remember that." Kakushin said thoughtfully, trying not to laugh.

Hiun growled. "You kusoyaro! You do too!"

"Mmm, nope, don't think so."

At this point, everyone was laughing too hard, save the younger Hyuuga triplets, to stop Hiun from tackling Kakushin and attempting to strangle him.

As their laughter subsided, the group realized how tired they actually were and decided that it was best if they went to sleep. "Hey," Hari said suddenly, "What about keeping watch?"

Menrui rolled her eyes. "Hari, we're in the middle of the jungle. What do we need to keep watch for? Mosquitoes?"

He frowned. "What about the thing that attacked our parents?"

Everyone grew silent. "They were farther in than we are." Shingetsu said after a moment. "We should be fine. Besides, we all need the sleep." Reluctantly, the elder Hyuuga agreed, and all fell asleep.

--

"Naruto." The blonde shinobi turned to see Kakashi standing behind him.

"Oh. Hey Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi chuckled. "It's been years has it been since I taught you and you still call me sensei."

Naruto shrugged. "You still teach me a lot of things."

He smiled, tugging his former student's hair. "Are you trying to make me feel better?"

"Maybe a little." Naruto looked out over the village that they had stopped in. "Do you think they're okay?"

Kakashi's frown was hidden under his mask. All this worrying combined with no sleep was going to do some serious damage to Naruto if they had to fight whatever had the poison on Kage Ryu. Kakashi sighed and sat down next to Naruto. "I think that they're a little headstrong and stubborn, but they'll be fine." He smirked a little. "No doubt that Shingetsu is the leader behind this little endeavor of theirs, so they'll be fine."

Naruto nodded, a small smile on his face. "Yeah, I guess. If she's anywhere near as good a leader as Sasuke, nothing's going to happen to them."

Kakashi nodded. "C'mon, let's get some sleep."

--

Shingetsu opened her eyes wearily. 'Ugh… I'm still so tired…' She tried to shove herself up, only to find that she was moving as if she were submerged in syrup. 'What's wrong with me?' She managed to shove herself into a somewhat upright position using her elbows to support her. Her vision, which was above perfect, thanks to the Sharingan, was blurry, and barely made out the basic shapes of her friends lying beside her.

Looking down, she saw the pink hair of her brother. She nudged him. He didn't stir. "Ka'shin… wa' up." The Uchiha's words were slurred worse than Tsunade when she had too much to drink.

Shingetsu fell back onto the soft… whatever it was she was lying on. She frowned. Soft? They were outside, in the jungle… right? Something sharp stabbed her arm and she slipped back into unconsciousness.

"Ah-ah, not time for you to wake up yet, little one." A woman's voice crooned. She turned and pushed a few strands of Menrui's dark hair out of the Uzumaki's face. "Just be a good girl like your friends and stay asleep." She walked out of the room and knelt before the figure occupying the only chair in the next. It was a man in his late twenties. Dark indigo hair fell to his shoulders messily, badly in need of a good brushing. His sun deprived skin glowed orange from the torchlight around him, and nearly colorless eyes looked down at the woman under half-closed lids. A long vest made from black silk hung over his shoulders limply, and crimson hakama pants were tied around his waist with a black sash.

"Are they all sleeping soundly, Tsuki?"

Tsuki looked up, and the fire of the torches surrounding the walls gave her steely gray eyes an eerie red glow. Her silver blonde hair was held out of her face with a hitai-ate, but where the symbol of the village would be was smooth metal. Her features were soft and tanned with shadows from the dancing flames flickering over them. A form fitting white dress hugged her body, and black tights that came down midway down her thighs were visible under the almost waist-high slits in the sides. At first glance, one would think of her as very lovely, until they saw the pure ice in her eyes.

"One woke up, but she'll be out for another day or so now. Everything's going smoothly, Byakuya"

"Good." Byakuya fell back into silence.

Tsuki walked over behind him. "Relax, Bya-kun." She placed her hands on his shoulders and began to massage them. "You're so tense."

He sighed and sank down further in his chair. "I keep thinking."

Tsuki stopped her massage. "About?"

"_Him_. That shinobi."

Tsuki had to pause for a moment before she realized what he was talking about. "Oh! The one who you missed." She stroked his hair with one hand and left the other on his shoulder. "Poor Bya-kun. You need to get your mind off of it." Tsuki tilted his head up and kissed him. "We need to _take_ your mind off of it. I'll be right back." She walked out the a different door that was merely covered by a cloth, returning moments later with a cup half full of a thick, dark liquid.

Tsuki sat down on Byakuya's lap and put the rim of the glass to his lips. "Drink up." Byakuya opened his mouth and she tipped the cup, pouring it into his mouth.

When about a quarter was left, she stopped. "Feeling better?"

"Much." Came the reply, in a much stronger voice than had been used earlier. Byakuya grinned at her evilly, his eyes dark with a strength that hadn't been there before. "What do you say to having some fun?"

Tsuki stood up and took his hand, leading him through the cloth doorway once more. "Now_ there's_ an idea."

--

Sakura sighed as she watched Sasuke struggle to stand up. The poison in his body had already paralyzed from halfway up his left thigh down, making him unable to bend his leg. Lately, it had gotten so bad that he had to use a crutch to get around anywhere. Now, Sasuke was still an Uchiha, poisoned or not, and using a crutch was severely beating on his pride. So, he insisted on NOT using it and struggling to do everything.

As he fell down again, Sakura winced. "Sasuke, please!"

"I'm fine, Sakura." He growled, shoving himself up.

"No you aren't!" Tears broke free from Sakura's emerald eyes.

Outside Sakura and Sasuke's room, the rest of the afflicted shinobi listened to the Uchiha's fight. Tenten sighed. "He's still so stubborn… Sasuke is going to get himself hurt."

"What can we do about it? It's Sasuke." Hinata said softly. "Even if we offered to help him, he wouldn't accept it."

"You don't offer help to Uchiha." Neji told her. "You force it down his throat until he chokes on it."

Ino smiled at him. "Wow, is this the same Hyuuga Neji who bristled at the very mention of anything that sounded remotely _like_ Sasuke's name?" He gave her a 'Ino-shut-up' look, but she ignored it. "Tenten, where IS your tape recorder?"

The weapons mistress sighed. "If only I knew…"

"Okay, if we're done teasing me…" Tenten and Ino grinned at him.

Shikamaru sighed. "You realize that this is going to be one big pain in the ass, right?"

"Lazy." Ino chided.

"Um… maybe it would be better if just the girls offered to help Sasuke. If you offered, Neji-nii-san did, Sasuke might think you were just trying to insult him." Neji blushed slightly and 'hn'-ed.

Sakura and Sasuke walked out a second later. Sasuke was using the crutch and Sakura had an evil gleam in her eye that clearly said that she'd guilted him into it. Ino grinned and gave her a thumbs up when Sasuke had passed her and Tenten just grinned evilly. Hinata sighed, mentally thanking Sakura for doing whatever it was she did before Sasuke injured himself. Then, even though she didn't want it too, her mind turned to Naruto and Menrui. Biting her lip nervously, she thought, 'I hope they're all alright.'

--

SC: Finally! I update Child of a Shinobi! It's a miracle!!eleventy1!!! And I'm using l33t! Gah! Grammar… so bad…

Puck: (coughs)

SC: Right. Anyway, I've finally managed to get back into the swing of things since marching season ended. My fifteenth birthday has past (w00t!) and I don't feel any different, though I do get to go to bed at, le gasp, ten o'clock now! Ugh, stupid freakin' bedtimes… anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this horribly, HORRIBLY late chapter. Reviews will help me find my sledgehammer faster!

Ja ne

SpontaneousCombustion


	13. Chapter 13

Puck: Okay, since my scatterbrained creator is off playing Ninja somewhere, I'm doing the introduction this time.

SC: (appears in a poof of smoke)

Puck: GAH! Don't do that!

SC: (grins) (peace sign)

Puck: Oh… right… the 'silent but deadly' thing. Anyway, SpontaneousCombustion doesn't own Naruto, just her characters.

SC: (pulls out kunai)

Puck: And the plot line, but that's kind of obvious. (here, Puck receives boot to his kitten butt)

--

Chapter 13

Roba opened an eye as he heard the voices in the other room disappear. Sitting up, he silently thanked himself for being paranoid enough to build up immunity to most types of poisons and sleeping drafts. He slipped off of the bed he was laying on silently, looking over his friends. Other than a small red pinprick on Shingetsu's arm, which meant she'd been drugged again, they all seemed fine. Now, if he could just find his pack…

'Aha!' He thought triumphantly as he spotted it on a shelf and pulled it down. 'I just hope that there's enough left in here…' He pulled out a vial of shimmering green liquid and pulled the stopper out. A bitter stench filled his nose but he ignored it and walked over to where his friends were laying. For a moment, he stared at the room they were in. It was arranged like a small child's room, with calm, cutesy colors and tenderly made up beds. The girls were all lying on the left side, and the boys were on the right, minus one because he had woken up.

He clearly remembered the attack the night before. Hari had shouted out a warning, mainly because he never really went to sleep, before he got hit by a dart of some sort. The others went down quickly, him included.

Of course, the unconsciousness on his part had all been a feint. Lying there, pretending to be asleep for god knows how long while that woman, 'Tsuki' he remembered, fussed over them like they were infants. He lifted up Kiseichu's head, for that's who was closest, and poured five drops of the liquid down his throat. The Hyuuga coughed and sputtered for a minute as it went down, but then his eyes snapped open.

"Roba? What-" Roba slammed a hand over his friend's mouth and held a finger.

"Be quiet." He hissed. Kiseichu nodded and Roba removed his hand. "I'll explain once we're out of here." He moved on to the next bed, which had Kakushin lying in it, and pried his mouth open. Under his breath, he counted the number of drops that went into the Uchiha's mouth. The second drop had barely hit Kakushin's tongue when Kiseichu let out yell of surprise. Roba turned, barely avoiding the dart that flew past his ear.

Tsuki was standing there, and she didn't look pleased. "Someone's been bad."

Roba glanced at Kiseichu, who was falling back into unconsciousness. 'Crap!' He thought, dropping the vial and making the signs for a substitution jutsu. He reappeared outside, and started running, but not without throwing a furtive glance over his shoulder. He had barely caught sight of a small, somewhat worn down looking house when he realized he'd put his foot down on… well, something not solid. Roba looked down to see that he had taken the first step right off the side of a cliff.

At that moment, Nara Roba's only thoughts were 'Oh' and 'Fuck.' His mind went blank as he saw the side of the cliff rising up to meet him and he felt the sheer terror of realizing that he was probably about to die. 'Come on, genius, thing of something!' Screamed whatever was left of his reasoning mind. He tried to rack his brain for an idea, a thought, hell, even a word, but nothing came, and the ground was getting closer by the nano-second.

Then a thought did come to mind, and it was a clear and resounding 'Ow.' For you see, luck happened to be on out genius prodigy's side today, and Roba had slammed into a tree branch. On his stomach.

Okay, so maybe it wasn't luck. 'At least I'm not falling now.' He mused to himself… before he heard the branch cracking beneath him. With a groan, he realized that his force of impact combined with his weight was too much for the branch to handle. 'Note to self: Lay off the cookies.' Roba thought moments before the branch broke completely, sending him straight into the cliff side. He felt the wind get knocked out of him as his back hit hard rock, and he couldn't catch a breath as he fell down another couple of stories.

Let's just say that he wasn't in the best of shape when he hit bottom. The path hadn't been straight; let's face it, the impact probably would have left him unconscious and severely injured. No, Nara Roba was still very much alive, and very much in pain. Cuts and scrapes marred his body from the various foliage and rocks he'd encountered on his way down, his left arm had popped out of its socket from trying to grab hold of another tree branch he passed by, his clothes were pretty much ruined from the various rips and bloodstains, and he was pretty sure he had a concussion.

All in all, not bad for having just walked off a cliff.

Groaning, he sat up and leant back against the rocks from which he'd just tumbled. Tearing his shirt off, or what was left of it anyway, he made a makeshift sling and put his left arm in it. No way was he popping it back in himself. He stood, and after the head rush went away, started going through the forest.

'This is just brilliant.' He thought to himself. 'I'm running blind here, and my friends are all trapped with a pair of psycho nutcases!' Roba winced as his head throbbed. 'This was so stupid. Maybe Kiseichu was right; we SHOULD have just let the ANBU deal with this. Gah, this is so troublesome.' He paused. 'And now I sound like my dad. Great.'

Roba continued stumbling through the forest, and running into the occasional tree or low branch, before he reached the beach. Collapsing on the cool sand, his entire body was burning. He'd been walking for hours, and the sun was about to rise. And he was so tired… Roba's eyes started to close… maybe he should just sleep…

His eyes snapped open. No. No sleeping, not now! He shoved himself up and looked out at the ocean. 'The boat!' He thought, struggling to his feet. "Where'd we put it, what the hell'd we do with it?!"

Roba grinned as he saw it. But his grin fell when he realized that he was barely going to be able to get it in the water, much less steer it, on his own. He groaned and sat down, leaning up against it. "Now what am I gonna do?" He looked up at the cloudy sky, his eyes scanning for any sort of shapes. "Son of Konohagakure's best strategist and I can't even come up with a plan to save my friends. Not to mention I dropped my only vial with any form of an antidote in it." He sighed and let his head fall against his chest. "Some prodigy I am."

Roba bit his lip. "If I could just make a signal fire without giving my position away to that freaky lady…" An idea struck him and he turned and looked at the boat he was leaning against. A grin broke out on his face.

--

"Naruto, go to sleep. We can steer the boat." Chouji told the sleepy blonde. Naruto shook his head, rubbing his eyes.

"No, really, I'm fi-" He let out a huge yawn.

Iruka smacked him lightly in the back of the head. "No, really, you aren't fine. Get some sleep. We can all read a map." Naruto gave Iruka a half-hearted glare that was lessened by his extreme need for sleep before he laid back and closed his eyes, using his pack as a pillow.

After a few minutes, Iruka looked over at him. "Is he asleep?"

"Out like a light." Kakashi chuckled. "This is what he gets for faking to be asleep all night." He tugged the blonde's hair lightly. There was a grunt and a badly aimed swat in return. All three conscious Shinobi laughed slightly. Chouji leant back against the edge of the boat, looking up into the sky.

Iruka looked over at him. "Taking up cloud gazing, Chouji?"

Akimichi looked at him. "Nah, just trying to figure out how Shikamaru can do it for hours on end." Chouji's gaze drifted over Iruka's shoulder and his eyes widened. Iruka noticed this and turned.

"Kakashi, do you see that?"

The silver haired Jonin nodded. "I see it, Iruka." He made several quick hand signs. "Iruka grab Naruto." He nodded and crawled over to the blonde, making sure he was safe and sound and staying on the floor of the boat. He gave Kakashi a thumbs up, and the older Shinobi nodded, and closed his visible eye.

Iruka tugged Chouji down next to him. "Hold on."

"What's he dooooiiiiinnnngggg?!" Chouji's question turned into a yell as the boat suddenly began to fly through the water **(a/n: think 'speedboat' only it's powered by Kakashi's chakra.)**

Three and a half hours later, the boat slowed as they reached the source of all the confusion. It was a boat, much bigger than the five-person one that the ANBU agents were using, piled high with branches, driftwood, basically anything that would burn, sending up a smoke signal so large, that it was probably visible all the way from The Island Hidden in the Mist. It was tethered in the area of the whirlpools surrounding Kage Ryu, being destroyed by the high speeds of the tide-induced pools.

"Holy shit…" Naruto whispered, for he was now awake.

Iruka turned to Kakashi. "Can you get us through those whirlpools?"

Kakashi nodded. "Hang on." The wooden boat sped over the whirlpool like it was nothing, stopping when it ran into soft sand.

"Kakashi-sensei! Iruka-sensei!" Roba burst through the tree line. Chouji jumped out of the boat first and ran over.

"Damn it, Roba! What happened to you?" He asked, looking him over.

Roba winced as Chouji touched his shoulder. "I… ow… fell off a cliff."

Chouji frowned. "Hold still." He grabbed Roba's arm and popped it back into its socket. Roba cursed under his breath, sliding the sling off his shoulder. "Now, tell me what happened."

The story poured out of Roba's mouth without interruption. "And then I lit the boat on fire and just waited." He finished.

Chouji ruffled his hair. "Smart idea."

Iruka turned toward him. "Roba, what did you say those names were?"

Roba paused. "Tsuki and Byakuya. Why? Do you know them?"

Kakashi nodded, his expression, or what could be seen of it, grave. "Abarai Byakuya and Madarame Tsuki. Rogue shinobi from The Island Hidden in the Mist."

"Why am I suddenly having a Zabuza flashback?" Naruto muttered.

"Well, not really rogue, Kakashi." Iruka corrected. "They disappeared on a mission several years back. The rest of their team washed up on the shore of the island, their bodies mutilated. It was assumed that either the other two were dead, or they'd gone rogue."

"Well, we obviously know which one they are now." Naruto muttered. "Because they've gone completely insane and have the kids!"

Kakashi pulled a vial out of one of the pockets of his vest. "Roba." He looked up and caught it as it was thrown at him. "Drink it."

Roba glanced down at it. "What is it?"

"Medicine from the hospital. We brought some just in case." Roba nodded and pulled the stopper out, drinking it. His eyes widened and he spat it out, dropping the glass and spilling the rest in the sand. It was too late though, and Roba fell onto the sand, unconscious. "Fast acting anesthesia." Kakashi explained. "It would've worked even if he'd stopped to smell it first. He picked up the vial, frowning slightly at the small amount of liquid left in it. "I was hoping that I would be able to save some. I'm afraid that the two vials I have won't be enough to stop Byakuya."

Iruka looked over at Chouji. "Get him somewhere safe. Put him behind the rocks, with the boat." Chouji nodded and lifted Roba up, carrying him over.

"So, how do we find this cliff?" Naruto asked. "The trees are too high to be able to see it."

Iruka sighed. "Too bad Neji or Sasuke isn't here. A strong kekkei genkai would be useful right now."

Chouji walked back over. "He should be okay. How long is he going to be out?"

"A couple hours, maybe." Kakashi said. "According to Shikamaru, Roba's got a high tolerance for poisons and things of the like."

"Then we'd better get moving." Iruka muttered, starting into the trees.

--  
SC: God, I'm in such a rut for this story. It's because I've been watching the crappy dubbed version on Cartoon Network and it's been getting me frustrated because it sucks so bad! I mean, I know that's the only version some people have seen, but I really much prefer than manga.

Read and review please!

Ja ne  
SC


	14. Chapter 14

Puck: Okay, she's still doing the ninja thing, so I'm stuck doing this again.

SC: (peace sign)

Puck: Oh let's just get on with it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, so don't sue.

--

Chapter 14

Confrontation

"Naruto, do you see anything?" Iruka called. Said blonde shinobi was up in a tree, searching for the cliff Roba had described.

"Yeah. It's pretty far off." He jumped down. "Kid ran a lot farther than he thought."

Chouji frowned. "He'd just fallen off a cliff. He was scared and in some serious pain. And he did have a slight concussion." He glanced over at Kakashi. "AND WOULD YOU PUT DOWN THAT DAMN BOOK?!"

Kakashi looked up from his book. "I'm sorry; did you say something?" Chouji glared at him. "I'm kidding, Chouji." He tucked the book back in his vest pocket. "Let's get going." The group trekked for another few hours, with small stops so that Naruto could make sure they were going the right way every now and again, and they didn't seem to be making much progress.

Chouji groaned and slumped back against a tree trunk. "This is impossible! We've been walking for almost three hours and haven't gotten any closer!"

Naruto frowned and crossed his arms. "You know, this happened the last time I was here. We kept getting lost, even though we'd been walking a straight path."

Kakashi lifted an eyebrow behind his mask. "Really? I wonder…" Quickly, he put his hands together. "Release!" There was a small burst of chakra, then Kakashi disappeared.

"Ah! Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto yelled, looking around desperately for the silver-haired ANBU member.

"Calm down, Naruto. I'm right here." An invisible hand held a rock in the air. "It's genjutsu." The other three copied him to see…

"No way…" Chouji gasped, looking at their surroundings. The cliff, which had looked miles away from the treetops, was a mere few yards in front of them. Naruto leapt into the trees.

"We're on the other side of the island!" He yelped, coming back down.

Iruka frowned. "But this doesn't make any sense! We've been walking in a straight line!"

Kakashi shook his head. "No, we've only THOUGHT we were walking in a straight line. The genjutsu made us believe that we were taking a straight path, when in fact we were walking circles around the cliff base. That's why it seemed like Roba should have run farther than he said he did."

Naruto was still frowning. "But than why couldn't any of us notice it? Shouldn't have Sasuke's Sharingan or Neji and Hinata's Byakugan picked it up?"

"No." Kakashi said. "Hold on, let me finish. I wasn't sure of it until now, but there's been a fine mist since we arrived."

Iruka ran his finger over a leaf. It was wet. "Yeah, but this is in the same territory as Hidden Mist Island. That's nothing odd."

"Yes, but there's something mixed in with the water. A hallucinogen of some sort." He turned to Naruto. "Did anyone mention feeling odd while you were on your mission?"

The blonde paused. "No, not… actually, Neji said that he had been getting a headache, and Hinata wasn't looking to good. She said that her Byakugan was acting funny, but she thought it was the mask."

"It wasn't. You had all been breathing in the mist since you landed on the island. It didn't affect you, Sakura, Ino, or Shikamaru because none of you possess a powerful kekkei genkai that is centered in your eyes. I imagine that because Sasuke's Sharingan isn't a permanent condition, like the Byakugan, he didn't feel the effects until he actually tried to use it."

Iruka looked up at the mountain. "Makes sense to me. So, we start climbing?"

Chouji glanced over at Naruto. "Race ya' to the top."

Naruto smirked and poked Chouji's stomach. "Sure you can make it?"

"Are you calling me fat?"

Naruto shook his head quickly. "Wouldn't dream of it." Then, he leapt away, leaving the rest to follow.

.o0o.

Tsuki walked into the back room to see Byakuya sitting on his chair. "He escaped. Fell off the cliff side. And now the ANBU from Konoha are here again. And they brought the one that you missed with them."

Something resembling a smile tugged on Byakuya's lips. "Really? How nice of them to save me the trouble of hunting him down." He stood, pushing her away. "Did you erect the barrier?"

"Of course. I was just on my way to make the finishing touches downstairs. Have you chosen which one you want to use yet?"

"No." She kissed him, a hand running down his chest. Byakuya grabbed her wrist, pushing her away. "Not now, Tsuki."

She pouted a little, nodding. "Whatever you say, Bya-kun." She began to walk away, but he didn't release her grip.

"Come with me." She nodded and walked with him through the curtains. They stopped at the end of the two rows of beds. His gaze drifted over the sleeping figures of Hari, Kiseichu, and Kakushin. "Which one do you like?"

"For you or for me?" She asked.

"Me."

Tsuki shook his hand off and paced the row, looking over all three. She stopped at the end of Hari's. "I like this one, but he's a little young."

Byakuya joined her. "They're all the same age."

"He's older." She corrected, pointing to Kakushin.

A pause. "I don't like his hair."

"Of course you don't. It's pink. You hate pink. But you could always dye it." She pointed out. Turning, she looked over the girls. "Are you sure you don't want to keep one? I wouldn't mind."

"I already told you, no. Besides, I need all of the other five now that one's escaped." He muttered, looking between Hari and Kakushin. Tsuki draped her arms around his waist, resting her chin on his shoulder.

"You know, I really don't mind the younger one." She told him. "And I'm sure you can find one around that age for me sometime."

Byakuya looked over at her for a moment. "All right. Him then." He pointed to Hari.

Tsuki grinned at him and let go. "I'll go make the finishing touches then." Turning his head, she kissed him again before walking back between the curtains. Kneeling down next to the chair that Byakuya almost always occupied, she pried up a concealed trapdoor and descended the stairs underneath it.

Finally, the stairs gave way to cool, smooth floor. Reaching out, she grabbed a torch from its holder in the wall, lighting it. Walking around the perimeter of the room, she lit the rest of the sixteen torches needed to provide sufficient light. After the lights had been lit, she set the original torch back in its bracket and walked over to the table shoved up against left wall. Across its surface was an array of weapons that any respectable ninja would have with them at all times. But lying amidst the various shuriken, kunai, and needles were several swords and a pair of kusarigama.

Brushing one of the scythes out of the way, Tsuki picked up a long, sharp dagger. Pressing the tip against her left index finger, she made a neat slice. Blood welled up immediately. She set the blade down and walked over to the middle of the room, kneeling down in the middle of a large, complex circle that covered the entirety of the floor. Pressing her bleeding digit onto the stone, she began to continue a series of kanji already drawn there, moving around the outer ring of the circle.

After drawing for several minutes, she reached an already dried kanji, her work finished. Standing, she brushed the dust off of her knees and looked over the intricate circles. Surveying her work, she smiled, apparently satisfied. Moving to the center circle, just big enough to stand in, she moved her hands through a series of signs. "Tatsu, Tora, Ne, Tora, Saru, Tori, Mi, Inu, Ne." At the last syllable, she spun around, raising her hands into the air. She stopped, facing the wall opposite the staircase. A low rumble shook the room, dust and bits of rock falling from the ceiling.

The ground around the circle cracked apart, and slabs of rock shot out of the ground. Tsuki watched with a smirk as they fell toward the ground. She wrapped her left hand around her right wrist, sliding it back along her arm up to her elbow. Five, glowing red kanji appeared where her hand passed over. They shot off of her skin, burning onto the rock. "Earth style, stone coffin jutsu!" The slabs fell to the ground, forming into five long, rectangular boxes evenly spaced around the outer ring of the circle. After surveying her work one last time, she walked back over to and up the stairs.

.o0o.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me." Chouji groaned. Surrounding the hut that sat on top of the mountain was a large, black fire shield. Kakashi and Iruka both immediately thought of Orochimaru's attack on the Third Hokage during the Chuunin exams.

"We need to find whatever's maintaining the barrier and destroy it." Kakashi muttered.

Naruto looked over at him. "So… we split up?"

"We split up." Kakashi and Iruka disappeared, leaving Naruto and Chouji.

Chouji looked over at Naruto. "Splitting up never works…" He whined.

Naruto shrugged. "Yeah, but it usually gets the job done." And with that, he disappeared. Chouji sighed and started in the opposite direction of Naruto, heading after Iruka.

Inside, Byakuya frowned. "This is becoming bothersome. Tsuki!"

She walked into the room. "Yes?"

"Keep them busy until I can begin."

Tsuki smiled. "Of course, Bya-kun." She disappeared again, reappearing outside the hut, just inside the shield. Raising her hand to her mouth, she pressed her thumb hard against one of her canines. Blood welled up from the prick and she pressed it to the ground.

"Keep them busy, pets." She chuckled as the earth shifted below her.

--

SC: God, I have been having such a hard time writing this, though it may just be the lack of enthusiastic response from anyone but Kudari-chan. Read and review please!

Ja ne

SC


	15. Chapter 15

SC: (ninja! poof) Hey all. Look, I'm updating this again! After, like, a year of not updating. Yeah… sorry about that. I lost my passion for Naruto for a while. But, after watching about eight hours of it straight, and seeing Gaara get his ass kicked, I decided to give it another go.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I wish I did, but I don't.

--

Chapter 15

Killing what you can't hurt

'Why does it seem that I always get the dangerous missions?' Chouji asked himself as he worked his way around the barrier. 'And with no chips too… oh well. I'll just buy some more when I get back to Konoha. If I get back.' He added as an afterthought. 'Ooh, morbid.' He chided himself. 'Good thing Ino isn't here or she'd smack me.'

But thinking about Ino inevitably led Chouji to thinking of Shikamaru and the rest of his friends. He shook it off as he saw the first corner of the barrier, where Iruka had no doubt passed moments earlier. Stopping, he examined the scroll that had been placed to form the corner. Glancing past it, he saw a good-sized rock sitting just behind a pile of wood. 'Alright, easy. Just use a substitution jutsu and… um…' Chouji's thoughts were very rudely interrupted by the ground underneath him beginning to quake.

"This can't be good." He whispered, stepping back. An ear splitting crack sounded through the forest, scattering whatever birds there were in the trees, as three human-esque shaped rocks rose from the ground. "Oh boy."

The rock… things- could they be called people?- turned toward Chouji, who wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Okay, that's gross." He said, disgusted. In the middle of each of the things "faces" were a large, black eye with only a red pupil to cut through the inky color. "You wanna fight? Alright, let's go! _Baika-no-jutsu!_ The art of expansion!"

The earth imploded under the Akimichi's feet as he grew at least three times his regular height. Plucking up the three rock people, Chouji chuckled as he juggled them as easily as one would a ball. 'And Ino said that I couldn't juggle.' He thought as he caught all three in one hand and crushed them between his palms.

Releasing the jutsu, Chouji shrunk back down to his normal size and quickly completed his substitution jutsu. Peering out from behind the pile of wood, he quickly ran over to the scroll and pulled a smaller one out of one of his vest pockets. Unfurling it and slapping it on to the larger scroll's side- it stuck like glue- he used a substitution jutsu with the same rock as before just before the scroll exploded into several thousand fluttering bits of charred paper.

But the wall of fire stayed standing. 'The others must not have destroyed theirs yet.' Chouji thought to himself. 'If they got attacked… I'd better go find them.' He ran off in the direction Naruto had continued in.

--

"_Kage bunshin no jutsu!_" The cry echoed throughout the landscape, along with the hundred or so 'ninja! poof's that followed it. The golems had no chance of survival against Naruto's army of shadow clones, and were so squished beneath their sheer numbers.

Naruto allowed himself a triumphant grin (it was also somewhat smug; he'd gotten it from Sasuke) before turning back to the task at hand. Several hand signs later, the scroll was sitting in front of him, a log in its place. Pulling out a kunai, he proceeded to shred the paper from its tightly rolled cylinder until it appeared to be nothing more than several thousand ink stained pieces of confetti.

"Subtle." Chouji commented, stepping out into the open. Naruto looked over at him, then back at the mess lying at his feet, before grinning sheepishly at the other Jonin.

"Gets the job done." He said with a shrug. There was an explosion off in the forest. "That's the direction Kakashi and Iruka-sensei went in!" The blonde yelped, running off. Chouji let out a grumble before taking off after him.

"Kakashi-sensei! There was an explosion are you…" Naruto stopped, seeing his two teachers sitting on a formidable pile of motionless golems who had apparently been turned into so much mulch by the two men.

Kakashi looked up. "Oh, Naruto, Chouji. What took you two so long?"

Iruka laughed. "Yeah, we've been waiting on you two." Naruto glared at his former teachers, grumbling under his breath.

But the two Jonin sobered up as they leapt off the pile. "The barrier's down now, so we'd better hurry inside. Whatever Byakuya and Tsuki are holding the kids for, it can't be good, and we need to get them out of there, fast." Kakashi said, before disappearing with a burst of chakra-powered speed. The other three followed, racing across the hard-packed earth with apparent ease.

--

Tsuki's eyes snapped open as a startled gasp escaped her lips. Scrambling up, she ran into the hut and into the back room, throwing the trapdoor open with a bang. She practically slid down the stairs, her feet slipping from the edges and sending her vaulting forward another few steps before she regained her balance and continued downward. "Byakuya!" She cried, running into the room. "The barrier's been broken- the shinobi are here!"

Byakuya, who was standing in the center of the room, in the middle of the six coffins, glanced at her over his shoulder. "Are they now?" He asked with a strange air of indifference that didn't suit someone who was just told that ANBU level shinobi were coming after him.

Tsuki seemed to agree with the previous statement, as her abashed expression clearly showed her thoughts about his irrational calmness. "Byakuya, they're almost HERE. We're going to be killed!"

Byakuya merely laughed, throwing his head back at the apparent hilarity of her words. "Tsuki, Tsuki… you worry too much." He half-scolded as he turned around. On his pale but surprisingly muscled chest were several symbols painted in what appeared to be blood. "The ceremony's almost finished. Soon, I'll have a new body and more than enough power to get us out of this hellhole." He told her with a sinister smirk, stepping to the side. This small action revealed Hari, strung up against the wall with chains, the symbols painted on his chest mirroring the ones on Byakuya's.

Tsuki's eyes lit up. "Really? We'll finally be able to get out of here and take revenge on that idiotic village?"

Byakuya smirked and nodded. "Yes, all that and more, once we find you a body with as much power as this one. Now, come here and give me a kiss." Tsuki complied, stepping over the ornate circle on the floor to press her lips against Byakuya's, resting a hand on his shoulder, careful not to disturb the symbols on his chest.

"Distract them for just a little longer." He said as she began to ascend the staircase. "I'll join you once I'm done here."

Tsuki nodded, then seemingly disappeared up the stairs. Byakuya turned back to the unconscious Hari. "Just one last thing…" He muttered, pulling a kunai out of the pouch on his waist. Pressing his finger against the tip, a drop of blood trickled down the steel. Placing the kunai back in the pouch, he placed his finger against Hari's forehead and made a quick, clean stroke across it, leaving a crimson streak behind.

Byakuya appraised his work carefully, his eyes trailing over the teenager's body for a few minutes before, apparently satisfied, he stepped back into the circle. Squeezing his injured digit, three drops of blood traveled from the wound to the floor, making a nearly silent 'plip' sound. Steam began to rise from the dusty floor in thick, red waves. The inner edges of the circle began to steam and hiss, filling the chamber with the red stuff and bringing visibility down to nil.

Then, just as suddenly as it appeared, the smoke vanished, revealing that Byakuya had disappeared with it. Against the wall, Hari stirred, his eyes fluttering for a moment before snapping open. A swirl of black disappeared into the middle of the lavender-white eyes as the muscles in his arm tensed and snapped the chains holding them to the wall. "Perfect." He laughed, flexing his fingers. Walking over to the center of the circle, he picked up the bare hitai-ate that laid on the floor and tied it over his forehead.

--

"Give it up, Tsuki!" Kakashi ordered, a kunai poised and ready to be thrown in his hand. "You're almost out of chakra- just surrender peacefully."

Tsuki glared at him, panting tiredly. Cuts and bruises now marred her arms and face, and her kimono was severely ripped in several places, revealing the black bra she was wearing beneath it. "No…"

"Your choice." Naruto growled, throwing the shuriken between his knuckles. Tsuki dove to the ground, wincing as they sliced her back. However, she was met with the dull end of a kunai slamming into her forehead, knocking her unconscious.

"Cut it a little close there, didn't you?" A familiar figure asked Naruto, stepping into the open door of the hut, examining the shuriken embedded in the wall.

"Hari!" Iruka exclaimed.

"You're alright?" Chouji asked, not able to hide his own grin.

"Yeah." He shrugged.

Naruto ran over, clapping his hands on the younger shinobi's shoulders. "Man, are your parents gonna be happy to see-"

The blonde cut off with a pained, choking noise as Hari's fingers blocked the chakra points in his entire torso with little more than a blur. A malicious grin spread over his face as Naruto fell to the dirt at his feet, struggling to breathe. "Oh, did I forget to mention that I'm not Hari? My bad." He kicked the Jonin for emphasis.

Kakashi's eyes widened. "Byakuya!"

"Hari" grinned, spreading his arms wide. "In the flesh. Granted, it isn't mine, but it'll work." He stepped over Naruto, smirking. "On my last trip to the mainland, I stumbled across the notes of a rogue shinobi of Konohagakure named Orochimaru. His jutsu for body switching was… intriguing, but crude. I based my own technique off of those notes, refined them, and well… you can obviously see the results."

Iruka glared at him. "Where are the rest of them?"

"Hm? The rest of who?" He asked. "Oh, you mean those little annoyances that were with this one." He gestured down at Hari's body. "Unfortunately for them, I needed their energy to complete the transfer."

Iruka's eyes widened as he realized the implications of what he had just said. "No… they're not…"

"Dead." He shrugged. "Sacrifices had to be made, and unfortunately for them, their foolhardy bravery put them at the wrong place at the wrong time. All except for one… but it shouldn't take long to recover him. There's no where to run on this island."

"You stay away from him!" Chouji roared, pulling out a fistful of shuriken.

Iruka grabbed the Akimichi's arm and pulled it down. "Chouji, don't! That's still Hari's body!"

"Oh yes, don't hurt your precious student. He's still in here, just bound up tight with his friends chakra. And he'll stay there while I use his body to exact my revenge on the entire Mist Country."

**"No… you… won't!"** A glowing orange figure tackled Byakuya from behind.

Kakashi mentally groaned. 'Naruto's anger has gotten the best of him, and without any of his own chakra to contain it, Kyuubi must've taken over.' "Naruto, don't! You can't hurt him!"

The kitsune-possessed Jonin glanced over at Kakashi just long enough for Byakuya to force him away. He glanced down to see that his shirt had been ripped by Naruto's elongated nails, revealing the luminescent blood markings there, one of which had smeared slightly under the weight of the attack.

"This power…" He said, amazed. "Incredible…"

But below their feet, another incredible act was taking place. In one of the stone coffins circling the room, Uzumaki Menrui was stirring from a combination of her father's charka and an unknown factor. She moved her head slightly and let out a tiny moan. "Oohhh… my head… feels like I let Hiun use me as a punching bag again…" She cracked open one eye warily, then the other, and saw only black.

Her first thought was, logically, 'Oh my god, have I gone blind?' But slowly, as her eyes adjusted, she could make out the faint shadows above her, and she could feel cool stone under her back. Slowly, she raised her hands and felt around her and above her. Stone surrounded her body, trapping her in some sort of box.

This left only one problem: Menrui was claustrophobic.

Half a minute later, the coffin that had been so specifically crafted to house the young Genin had been vacated, its lid cracked to pieces on the floor. "Okay, easy…" Menrui muttered to herself, crawling over to the coffin next to her on elbows and knees. She winced at the sight of her bloody knuckles as she pulled herself up. Pressing the heels of her palm against the lid, she pushed, using whatever strength she could muster up.

Stone scraped against stone, and the lid fell to the floor. Menrui peered into the box. Kakushin was lying against the bottom, looking for all the world as though he was dead. Shaking, Menrui put a hand over his mouth. Faintly, there was a slow stream of air going in and out. She sighed in relief.

"Kakushin…" She whispered, shaking his shoulder. "Kakushin, wake up!" The pink-haired Uchiha didn't respond, though his head flopped to the side uselessly. Frowning, Menrui sent a burst of what little chakra she had left down her arm and into the Chuunin's shoulder.

His onyx eyes flickered open. "Unh… Menrui? Where are we?"

"I'm not sure, but help me get these boxes open." She said, pulling him into a sitting position.

Fifteen minutes later, the other three coffins had been opened, and the five Genin were seated around the room. "Last thing I remember, Hari was yelling for us to run for it." Kakushin muttered, pressing a hand against his temple.

"Where IS Hari?" Hiun asked, glancing around. "And Roba?"

"Roba escaped, I think." Kiseichu said. "He had one of his antitoxins with him. He managed to wake me up, but then that crazy bitch with the earth jutsus knocked me back out."

"But… that doesn't explain why Hari's missing." Kakushin reminded him. "I mean, he couldn't have just gotten up and walked away, right?"

"Maybe they killed him." Hiun smacked the back of her younger brother's head.

"Don't even say things like that!" She hissed. Then, she glanced up at the brunette sitting across from her. "Shin?"

Even though she was fully conscious, Shingetsu had yet to say a word. Instead, she sat with her knees hugged to her chest, staring at the floor near her feet. Kakushin looked down at his sister. "Shingetsu?"

She closed her eyes and shook her head. "Don't talk to me."

Menrui reached out a hand. "Shin…" Kakushin grabbed her wrist.

"Let her be, Menrui. Let's just see if we can get out of here."

"And do what?" Kiseichu asked sarcastically. "We're all completely useless without our chakra and our weapons! Do you want us to shake sticks at them?"

"No, but we may be able to overpower them- we're shinobi."

"And so are they." Shingetsu said. "Face it, Kakushin. We're totally defenseless, and there's no way for us to take them down. The two of them took down a team of ANBU level Jonin. Alone. And our parents were at full power."

"I'm sorry, would you like us to sit here and whine all day or escape?" Menrui asked. While the argument had proceeded, she had made her way over to the table full of weapons on the other side of the room. "Cause I think I can solve the whole 'defenseless' problem."

--

"Kakashi, what are we supposed to do?" Iruka asked, wincing as a fragment of rock whizzed past his face, slicing his cheek. "We can't stop Byakuya without hurting Hari!"

"I'm still working on that." Kakashi snapped, glaring at the shinobi. Iruka drew back slightly, as a glaring Sharingan is not something that one usually wants glaring you down.

Chouji glanced over at the two. "Well, I hate to rush you, Kakashi, but can you work on it faster? Hari- er, Byakuya is wreaking havoc and his blasts are getting closer to us."

"He's toying with us." The silver-haired ANBU muttered, running a hand through his hair. "With Hari's Byakugan, he should be able to see us easily."

"Unless he doesn't know how to use it yet." Iruka reminded him. "The air is still thick with the lingering chakra of Tsuki's barrier, and he may not be able to clearly locate us yet."

Chouji peered out at the possessed Hyuuga. "Yeah, well he's getting better. Fast. We need a plan NOW. There's no time to think!"

Kakashi's eyes widened. "That's it. Byakuya thinks he's safe because he's in Hari's body. If we take away that safety, then-"

There was a loud explosion behind their makeshift barrier. "What... was that?"

Chouji peered around the rock he crouched behind, blanching as he did. "Uh, guys? We may have a bigger problem than we thought."

"Chouji, what's going on out there?"

"Well, there's good news and bad news. The good news is, the kids are still alive."

Kakashi and Iruka both took a moment to register what Chouji had just said. "What's the bad news?" Iruka finally asked.

"They're going straight toward Byakuya."

--

"This place is seriously creeping me out." Kiseichu muttered as they looked around the bright, nursery-like room. A dagger was clutched in each of his hands.

Hiun's hand brushed lightly against the weapon pouch on her thigh. "We were sleeping in here. We were sleeping in here, totally out of it."

"It's better than those boxes." Menrui offered. Another weapon pouch was tied around her leg as well, as well as a dagger tucked in the waist of her jeans. "At least we were unconscious."

Kakushin nodded, then looked over at Shingetsu, who was frowning in deep concentration. "Sis? What's wrong?"

"I'm trying to activate my Sharingan, but it won't work." She muttered, opening her eyes, which were still green.

"Are you out of chakra?" Menrui asked.

Shingetsu closed her eyes again. "No... it's not that. I can feel my chakra, but it's like it's... just out of reach."

Kakushin concentrated on the centers of his eyes- the place chakra was directed to activate the Uchiha kekkei-genkai. "Mine's not working either. And Shingetsu's right; it's like the chakra is there, I just can't get to it."

Kiseichu shook his head. "Worry about this later- let's just get out of here!" He said, going over to the door and throwing it open. He paused in the doorway. "… Hari?"

Shingetsu was- not surprisingly- the first one to make it over. "What?" Her eyes locked onto the older Hyuuga, who was looking over his shoulder at the hut, his expression one of total shock and surprise.

"You're still alive…?" He murmured, his white-lavender eyes wide.

"That's not Hari." Hiun muttered.

Kiseichu turned around. "Hiun, what are you talking about? That's Hari! It has to be! Who else would it be?"

Hiun shook her head. "I don't know. All I know is that whoever it is, it's not our brother."

Shingetsu took a step back. "She's right. Something's… off about him."

"Off?" Hari laughed. "What are you talking about, Shin?"

She glared at him. "Don't call me that. Don't you _dare_ call me that. Only Hari calls me that and gets away with it."

Hari laughed and turned around. "Oh, but you see, I _am_ Hari now."

Menrui's eyes widened. "Oh my god."

"Is that… blood?" Hiun squeaked.

Hari looked down at his chest where Naruto had ripped his shirt. His eyes widened as he saw the smeared blood. "No… I see now. That's how you woke up…" He looked back up at them. "Well… we'll have to fix that."

"You aren't going to touch them!" Came a yell as someone tackled Hari to the ground.

"Roba!" Menrui cried, shoving past Shingetsu and Kiseichu and running out.

Roba looked back up at her. "Menrui, get back!" She stopped midway over to him.

Hari turned his head, spitting the dirt out of his mouth. "Protecting your girlfriend? That's gonna cost you." There was a burst of chakra that threw Roba back. He landed hard on the ground ten feet away.

Hari shoved himself up. "Let's see… who's next?" His eyes landed on Menrui. "Ah, there we go." He took a step forward.

**"Get away from my daughter!"** Naruto growled, lunging at Hari.

He stepped back out of the way, and the Kyuubi's claws tore through the rest of his shirt. "You just don't give up, do you?" He asked, pulling off the remaining tatters of cloth.

Kakashi's eyes widened. "What are those?"

"Those markings must be how Byakuya is possessing Hari. If we could just get rid of them somehow…" Chouji muttered.

Byakuya glared back over at the hiding Jonin. "That's enough out of you." He raised a hand.

All three of them let out a surprised yell as the ground underneath them opened up and swallowed them up to their waists. "I- I can't move!" Chouji grunted, pushing at the ground.

Iruka struggled against the constraint as well. "It- it's draining away… all of our chakra!"

Byakuya looked over at Naruto, who was pushing himself up. "Down boy!" He laughed as the ground curled up and over the bottom of his legs and up to his elbows.

"Dad!" Menrui shrieked, running over.

Naruto looked up at her. She was taken aback by the bright red of his eyes and the slitted, cat-like pupils, but knelt down next to him anyway. "Dad…"

Naruto looked down. **"Menrui, I promise I'll explain everything when we get home, but for now you have to get out of here!"**

"Nuh-uh, no way. Not until we get Hari back."

Byakuya rolled his eyes. "Oh please." He said, pulling a kunai out of the pouch at his thigh. That, however, was as far as he got as Shingetsu, Hiun, Kiseichu, and Kakushin charged him, weapons at the ready. He leapt over them, landing easily. "You're really going to try and attack me? You have no chakra- you're powerless."

"They might be," Byakuya turned to see Roba on his knees, "But I'm not! _Kagemane no jutsu!_"

Byakuya leapt back as Roba's shadow extended from the shadows of the trees, heading straight toward him. 'Clever little brat.' He thought, watching as the stream of black retreated back to its owner. 'He used his friends to distract me while he performed his jutsu.' He frowned. 'Even without their chakra, they're too much of a problem on my own. I need more time to get accustomed to this body. But Tsuki is still unconscious…' He shook his head and leapt over to the sleeping woman, scooping her up in his arms and leaping out of sight.

"Damn it!" Shingetsu cursed.

Kakushin put a hand on her shoulder. "He can't leave the island, Shin. We'll find him. For now, let's free Kakashi-sensei and the others."

Minutes later, all four Jonin had been freed from the rocky prisons. Naruto had even been de-Kyuubi-fied from the lack of chakra. "Thanks sweetheart." He murmured as Menrui unearthed his limbs.

"Daddy, sit down." She said, helping him to do so.

"We need a plan." Kakashi said.

"Yeah. That'll help. We're a bunch of Leaf Shinobi who have no chakra, and no way off this island." Kiseichu said.

Shingetsu glared at him. "We aren't leaving without Hari."

"Sheathe your claws, Shingetsu." Kakashi ordered. "We won't leave without him."

Shingetsu looked away awkwardly. "Now, let's get started on a plan."

--

SC: So… um… hi, everyone. Yeah, look at me, updating Child of a Shinobi again. Hopefully it'll get just as many reviews as it did when the story was out of commission. So, review please!

Ja ne  
SC


	16. Chapter 16

SC: So… um… hi?

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. There. You made me say it. (goes off to emo in the corner)

--

Chapter 16

Battle for life

_'Damn those little brats!'_ Byakuya growled as he ran through the trees, Tsuki in his arms. _'Now I not only have to deal with the Leaf Village's ANBU, but I have to take care of THEM as well. And with Tsuki out of commission, this isn't going to be as easy as I had planned._' He stopped and set her down, giving her body a quick once over. He growled. "Damn this body. It's trying to reject my attempts, and I can't use its chakra yet."

Tsuki stirred lightly, moaning. "Buh-Byakuya..." He looked down, startled, only to see that she was still unconscious.

He stood, looking down at her. "Sorry, Tsuki. I'll come back for you, I promise." His image flickered and then disappeared as the leaves rustled in the direction he went in.

.X.X.X.

"We're lucky that Byakuya still doesn't know how to control the Hyuuga chakra." Kiseichu muttered as the Konoha shinobi followed the familiar chakra signal of the oldest Hyuuga through the jungle.

Hiun smirked. "Guess we should thank 'tou-san for putting us through all those tracking exercises, huh Kiseichu?" Her brother grunted in return, concentrating on following the trail that Hari- well, Hari's body- had left behind.

"It's getting thinner." He muttered. "Byakuya is figuring out how to control Hari's chakra."

"Look!" Menrui called, pointing at the forest floor. The shinobi leapt from the branches.

"It's Tsuki." Iruka muttered.

"Bastard." Shingetsu muttered, feeling an unwanted surge of pity for the girl.

Within seconds, the rogue shinobi was bound to a nearby tree. "You guys go on ahead." Chouji said. "I'll stay here and watch her."

"You sure Chouji?" Naruto asked. He nodded.

"I'll stay behind too." Iruka volunteered. "Just in case she wakes up." The other Jonin nodded and turned back to the trail that would hopefully lead them to Byakuya.

Kakashi looked behind the group to see that Shingetsu was trailing behind by a few trees. He slowed his leaps. "Something wrong?"

Shingetsu looked up at him, then back in front of her, her expression saddened. "More than I'd care to talk about." She replied quietly.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Hiun called before the silver-haired Jonin could reply. He caught up with the girl, who had stopped on a branch with the rest of the Konoha shinobi.

"What is it, Hiun?"

"The trail ends." Kiseichu said bluntly. "He either cut off the chakra flow, or he disappeared into thin air."

"He knows we're following him. He has to." Menrui whispered, scared.

"Hm, you think?" The shinobi all looked around as Hari's voice came from nowhere.

Naruto growled. "Any chance you two still have enough chakra for the Byakugan?" Hiun and Kiseichu shook their heads.

"Our Sharingan are out too." Kakushin muttered.

"So what do we do? Stand here and let him pick us-" Roba froze as a kunai flew past his face… from the wrong direction. The group turned to Shingetsu, whose hand was dipping back into the weapon pouch around her waist for another knife. "What are you doing?! Trying to take my ear off?"

The brunette rolled her eyes and reached around him, pushing the branches out of the way. A piece of cloth was pinned beneath the knife she'd thrown- cloth that appeared to be from Hari's shirt. "Consciously or not, Hari is influencing Byakuya- he's still in there. Byakuya's fighting like Hari." She tugged the weapon out of the tree bark. "We just have to figure out how to get him out."

"The blood." Menrui said quietly. "When Ha- er, Byakuya saw us, he looked down at that mark on his chest that was smeared. Maybe if we can get rid of it…"

"There has to be more than one. We'd have to find them all." Kakashi said. "But it just might work."

"Yeah, great. Now we've just got to find him." Kiseichu said sarcastically. "Easy."

"More so than we might think." Hiun murmured. "You guys thinking what I'm thinking?"

Kakashi began to get nervous when the younger shinobi began to grin. "The usual?" Kiseichu questioned.

"Ten second start- no out of bounds." Shingetsu said with a confirming nod. "Single target, six pursuing."

"Olly-olly-oxen-free!" Menrui yelled, throwing her head back. Kakashi and Naruto winced, but there was a rustle of leaves and a 'thump' as Byakuya fell out of a nearby tree, startled.

"Some ninja." Kakushin laughed, diving toward the ground and the shinobi. Byakuya moved out of the way in the nick of time, though his shirt didn't survive. It revealed the next three blood symbols on his right shoulders and back. He ran toward the trees, only to be knocked flat on his back by Hiun.

"Wrong way." She growled, leaning down and swiping a bit more of the blood on his chest off. The newly cleared skin glowed orange for a moment before fading. A log quickly appeared where Byakuya was. "Menrui, the one on his chest's yours!" She yelled, taking off into the trees after him.

"What… are they doing?" Naruto asked.

"They appear to be playing a game." Kakashi observed pointedly, watching as Shingetsu gave out orders to the other Genin before disappearing herself. "And I do believe they're winning."

--

Byakuya panted as he dodged another blow from Menrui. Somehow, he had lost enough focus to allow those… idiot children to clear the symbol from his chest, which returned the Uzumaki's chakra to its rightful owner and allowed her to use her most powerful technique- the Multiple Shadow Clone jutsu.

He leapt into the trees again to find himself being pursued by the Hyuuga twins- and was promptly tackled down by Roba, who wiped clean the mark on his shoulder before being thrown off. The area glowed a deep blue before disappearing like the first mark had.

"Hell yeah!" Kiseichu yelled, his Byakugan activating. "Try hiding now, ya' bastard!"

"Power rush much?" Hiun asked sarcastically, watching her brother summon a water jutsu an hit the fleeing Byakuya in the back, smearing and finally destroying the last two marks. The skin underneath glowed bright red and blue, respectively, before fading to pale peach again. Byakuya stumbled to his feet and disappeared again.

"Wait, that was all of them, wasn't it?" Kakushin asked, confused.

"No, there were only four marks." Roba corrected. "Which means we're still missing…" All eyes turned to the youngest Uchiha.

"Mine." Shingetsu muttered.

"But where is it?" Menrui questioned. "I mean, it can't be, like, on his legs or anything, can it?"

Shingetsu paused, then grinned up at her older brother. "No- I know exactly where it is." She got no further, though, as she suddenly found a kunai pressed to her throat.

"And it's something that none of you will ever find out." Byakuya hissed. "You, my dear, have been a thorn in my side for too long- it's all too obvious that you are the leader of this little group, and I am going to fix that."

"No- you won't." Kakushin growled, his black eyes turning red. "Let go of my little sister."

"One more step and you won't have to worry about it anymore." He sneered, pressing the knife closer to Shingetsu's skin. Blood trickled down her throat. Kakushin paused.

Shingetsu, though, smirked. "You're an idiot." She chuckled to Byakuya.

"I've had enough of your mouth." He cried, slashing her throat… or he would've, if his arm was still in his control. "What…?!"

"She's right- you are an idiot." Roba smirked, lowering his arms to his sides. Byakuya's followed. Shingetsu stepped away from him, touching her throat.

"You're going to die when you get back into your own body." She told him cooly, reaching up and pulling off Hari's hitai-ate, consequently revealing the last mark. "Goodbye Byakuya." She smirked, rubbing it off with her thumb.

A howl ripped from Hari's throat as a ball of deep grey, nearly black chakra rose out of his body, and he went limp (well, as limp as one could get in Roba's clutches anyway). His head rose a moment later, and he looked around, confused. "What… where are we?"

"Think its really him?" Hiun questioned.

Hari looked offended. "Of course its really me! Who else would I be?"

Shingetsu tapped her chin. "I dunno… tell us something only Hari would know."

"Seriously, Shin?" She cocked an eyebrow. He sighed. "Fine, fine." After a pause, he grinned. "When we were little, mom used to call Kiseichu…"

"It's him!" Kiseichu blurted, interrupting whatever Hari was going to say. "You swore never to tell." He growled as Roba released his brother. Hari wasn't free for long, though, as Shingetsu immediately hugged him.

"So, I guess something happened, huh?" He asked softly.

Shingetsu laughed. "You have no idea." All of them looked up as the black ball of chakra, which had been hovering over their heads, suddenly flew back toward the hut with a sound like a scream.

"Follow it!" Shingetsu yelled, all seven disappearing into the brush.

--

Byakuya was not a happy camper when he awoke again, in his own body. "Damn it!" He cursed, overturning the nearby table topped with weapons. "How could I let myself be beaten by children?!"

"Because you suck?" He whipped around to see the aforementioned 'children' standing in the stairway. Kakushin was the one who had spoken.

He growled at them, but turned into a smirk as he straightened up. "Oh no. I've been cornered. Whatever shall I do?"

"You can't escape." Shingetsu said. "Not without leaving Tsuki behind."

Byakuya shrugged. "Who needs her? I already know the formula for her poisons- I can make them myself now. She's worthless to me."

"Glad to know." Shingetsu said, throwing a kunai at him. Byakuya moved slightly, the weapon barely scratching his cheek.

"How on earth could I be beaten by such amateurs?" He scoffed, leaning down and wrapping his fingers around the handle of a katana. He stood again, taking a step forward, then froze. "What-?" His eyes flickered to Roba, who laughed.

"Don't look at me." He smirked.

'Shingetsu' glared at Byakuya. "Traitor." With a puff of smoke, Tsuki took the young Genin's place. Byakuya's eyes widened, but he said nothing as his mouth could no longer move. "By the way, since you know my poisons so well, you should know what this one is." She walked down the stairs toward him. "Complete paralization within seconds of entering the bloodstream. One of my specialties."

"You remember our deal, Tsuki." Kakashi- suddenly appearing on the staircase- said quietly.

She nodded. "Of course. I will create the antidote for your ANBU agents and admit to the charges, as well as bear witness against Byakuya."

Kakashi nodded. "Iruka, Naruto." The two shinobi appeared at his side. "Why don't you help Byakuya to the boat?" The two of them descended the staircase, smirking. Chouji pried the katana from Byakuya's hand, grabbing the arm opposite of Naruto.

"You know that old saying. Hell hath no fury." Naruto chuckled as they dragged the immobile rogue up the stairs.

It didn't take long for everyone to reach the beach. While Kakashi was working on using a water jutsu to bring the boat back to shore, Shingetsu stood off to the side of the group. Menrui glanced over at her rather distant friend. "Shin? What's wrong? We're going home."

Shingetsu sighed. "Yeah. Home." She glanced over at Kakashi. "Great."

--

SC: Aaaand… that's that. The next chapter should be up pretty quickly, since I know I've had THAT scene planned out in my head since I pretty much started this story. Sorry for the long wait- I've been having a bit of a streak of bad luck with my writing. Nothing's been coming out like I wanted, and I haven't been posting… but I'm working on it. Anyway, reviews are really appreciated.

Ja ne  
SC


	17. Chapter 17

SC: So… um… hi?

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. There. You made me say it. (goes off to emo in the corner)

--

Chapter 17

Return and Punishment

It was a long trek back to Konohagakure- not only did the still-paralyzed Byakuya slow them down, but so did the black thought of what waited for them when they returned hovering over their heads.

"Shin?" She looked up to see Roba had fallen back to her slow pace. "Are you okay?"

Shingetsu gave a little half-smile that couldn't quite reach her eyes. "I'm not sure any more, Roba. I mean, we won. We got the antidote, we're gonna save our parents." She fell silent.

"But…?" Roba prompted.

"But why do I feel like we've lost?" She asked, her voice distant.

Roba sighed. "Because you know what's waiting for us back home." He said softly. "You know that Tsunade-sama's going to judge us, and she's going to-"

"No." Roba looked over at her, startled.

"'No?' Shin, what do you mean?"

She took a deep breath. "There won't be an 'us,' Roba. I'm going to take the fall for this." Her green eyes focused on the ground. "I'm going to tell Tsunade-sama the truth, and I'm going to make her let you guys off. I'm going to be the only one who gets stripped of my rank as a Shinobi."

"Shingetsu, you can't!"

"I can, Roba. And I will." She looked back up at him, her eyes boring into his. "Roba, promise me that you won't try to stop me, and that you won't tell the others what I'm going to do."

He drew away slightly. "Shingetsu… don't ask me to do that."

"_Please_, Roba. I need you to do this for me. You've been my best friend since before we could crawl. _Please_." She begged, grabbing the sleeve of his vest. "I can't let you guys ruin your lives because of my stupid idea."

"But we-" He stopped as she stuck out her lower lip slightly. Roba frowned, then let out a defeated sigh. "All right, Shingetsu. I won't stop you. But I'm not going to enjoy watching you crash and burn." He said before lengthening his steps and catching up with the others.

"I'm not asking you to enjoy it." She whispered. "Just to let me."

"Shingetsu, hurry up slowpoke!" Naruto called back.

"I-I'm coming!" She ran to catch up with the group.

"We should be back in Konohagakure in just a few hours." Kakushin said quietly to his sister as she slowed next to him.

"I know."

"We're going to be in big trouble when we get there."

"I know."

He glanced down at her. "What are you going to do?"

"What does it matter what I do?"

"Shingetsu, I'm your older brother- I know you. I saw you talking to Roba. Whatever it is you're planning, don't do it."

"I'm going to do what's right, Kakushin." Shingetsu said, looking up at him. Her emerald eyes were filled with determination. And, Kakushin noted, a little fear. "I'm going to do what I have to."

Kakashi glanced over his shoulder at the two siblings for a brief moment, then looked forward again, a small smile forming under his mask, though it was a sad one.

Shingetsu would have made a great Shinobi.

4534534

The familiar sight of Konoha's bridge was not a comforting one to the group. "All right, we'll split up here." Iruka said. "I'll go ahead with Tsuki to the hospital. Chouji, take Byakuya to the ANBU. Naruto and Kakashi will take you guys to see Tsunade." He couldn't help frowning as he spoke, before turning and running with the kunoichi toward the hospital.

Chouji hefted Byakuya up over his shoulder and, with a nod, the group started moving again.

The walk to Tsunade's office took almost thirty minutes, but seemed very slow. Chouji continued down to the ANBU jail with Byakuya as Kakashi knocked on the door. It opened, revealing Shizune standing there. She blinked, obviously surprised. "Kakashi! You're back!" Her eyes fell to the rather solemn looking group standing behind him. "Oh…! Um, Tsunade-sama went to the hospital to check on… why don't you come in?" She finally managed, stepping to the side.

Kakashi nodded politely, walking into the large, circular office, his group of (forcible) tag-a-longs following behind. It took almost an hour before the door opened again, and Tsunade walked in, not looking very happy…

… along with the also not very happy looking parents of the condemned Genin, who were all flesh and blood again. Shingetsu's green eyes automatically fell on her father, and more specifically the small strip of fading grey peeking out from beneath his shorts. Tsunade took a seat at her desk, her eyes scanning over the grim looking young teens standing in front of her.

"So…" She started slowly, resting her chin against her folded hands. "The seven of you disobeyed a direct order from the Hokage. From me. That, by law, is considered treason." Not a flinch from the line. "Which one of you is the ringleader of this little group?"

Movement to her left made her glance over as, not surprisingly, Shingetsu stepped forward. "I did, Tsunade-sama."

Protest broke out among the line. "Shin!"

"What are you doing?!"

"Guys, shut up." She ordered softly before looking back at Tsunade. "It was my idea that we sneak out of Konoha and go to Kage Ryu island to try and find a cure."

"How did you know how to get there?"

"I…" She faltered, glancing over at her parents. "I stole the mission papers and maps from my mom and dad's specs."  
"Shingetsu!" Sakura gasped. Tsunade held up a hand.

"Shingetsu, are you taking responsibility for this?" The fifth Hokage questioned softly.

"Yes."

Noise broke out again- protests, denials, and curses. Tsunade stopped them with a look. "You know what the consequences of this are."

It wasn't a question.

"Yes." Fear had leaked into the young girl's voice. Tsunade closed her eyes, and they stayed that way for a little over two minutes. When she opened them again, she only had one order.

"Out. Everyone. I need to talk to Shingetsu alone." Slowly but surely, the room emptied.

Hari grabbed Shingetsu's arm as he passed her. "Shin, what are you doing?"

"Just go, Hari." She whispered, lifting his hand off her carefully. As the door shut behind him, Tsunade stood and walked around her desk, moving over to a couch pushed up against the wall.

"Sit, Shingetsu." She said, patting the seat next to her. The brunette did so almost reluctantly. "What were you thinking, Shingetsu? Doing something this reckless, it's not like you."

She shrugged. "I don't know. I just… it felt like I had to, like no one else was doing anything. I wasn't thinking very straight."

"You did just find out your parents had been poisoned." Tsunade relented. "But that's no excuse."

"I know." She sighed, leaning forward to rest her elbows on her knees. "Tsunade-sama, I know I'm not in any position to be asking favors, but… this really was all my idea. I talked the others into it. I know you have to punish me, but can you let them off?"

"Shingetsu, that isn't an easy request. I can't let them off completely, but I can lighten their punishment." She paused, looking down at her. "I can't do anything about yours."

"I know." Came the reply, in a very small voice.

With a sigh, Tsunade stood up, walking over to the window covered wall, looking outside. "Three months."

Shingetsu looked up. "What?"

"Three months of no ninja activity whatsoever. That's your punishment." Tsunade said, turning around. "It will only be a month for your friends, but that's your punishment." The fifth Hokage smiled. "That should give you just enough time to get ready for the Chuunin exams."

"The… the Chuunin…? You mean, I'm still…?"

"Shingetsu, you may have disobeyed me, but you succeeded in your mission. And without you, Konohagakure would have lost some of its best shinobi." She smiled. "You did good, kid."

Shingetsu smiled, running up and hugging Tsunade. "I love you too, 'ba-chan."

"Alright, alright. Now, scoot."

"Yes ma'am." She said, leaving the Hokage's office in a rush. She had barely made it outside the building before she saw Sasuke sitting on a bench, obviously waiting for her. Taking a deep breath, Shingetsu walked over and stood in front of her father. "Dad… I…"

She cut off as Sasuke moved, and Shingetsu found her face buried in her father's shirt. He was hugging her? He should've been furious! Slowly, she glanced up at his face, and her eyes widened.

Uchiha Sasuke was… crying? "Dad?" She asked quietly.

"Do you have any idea how worried your mother and I have been?" He demanded.

"I know, I know! I'm sorry, I just… I couldn't sit here and not do anything."

Sasuke chuckled. "Well, you are definitely my daughter." There was a moment of silence.

"How's your leg?" Shingetsu asked. Sasuke blinked, surprised. "I saw the grey when we were in Tsunade's office."

"It's fine. The poison's fading fast."

Shin looked down at the ground. "Were you scared?"

"Yes." She looked up at him, startled. His onyx eyes softened as he continued. "But not for the reasons you're thinking. I was scared that my little girl was going to get herself killed and never come home again."

Shin couldn't help smiling a little. "I really am sorry, dad."

"I know." He said, putting an arm around her. "We should get home. Your mom is probably ready to burst." She nodded, following after him as he started down the road. Sasuke glanced down at his daughter. "So… what did Tsunade do to you?"

"Three months of no Shinobi activity." She said a little glumly. "I managed to get it down to a month for everyone else."

Sasuke chuckled, putting an arm around her shoulders.

"… dad?"

"Hm?"

"Am I grounded?"

Sasuke paused to think about this. "Mm… no. I think you've been punished enough."

"Mom's gonna lecture my ears off when I get home, isn't she?"

"You know it."

--

SC: And so, finally, Child of a Shinobi ends. I'm planning on a sequel, but I haven't been getting much response on this lately- my own fault, I know- and I'm not sure if I should. Oh well. You guys know I will anyway. Reviews are, as always, appreciated.

Ja ne  
SC

PS: Is anyone else not able to edit their profiles lately? I can't get the edit thing to load.


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Naruto