Chapter 1

Sasuke and Sakura stood in the midst of the cliff top. Far below them they could hear the anxious thrash of the ocean waves against the shore, but in the absence of the moon's light they could see nothing. Only the blue and green emeralds of their eyes provided illumination as they begun their preparation.

If there had been a passerby, they would think they were just ordinary teenagers, on a midnight stargazing. But that was far from what their intentions were. Her pink hair long, past her shoulders, his ebony hair giving a bluish hue in the night.

"How much time do we have?'

"Approximately an hour."

"That's enough time, even if the others try to keep up." Sasuke turned his back to the cliff's end and the drop behind him. "Follow me." He threw himself off the cliff. Sakura pressed her palms together and sighed. This was Sasuke's way. He was always demanding to be the dominant leader, without even a smile.

Sakura would remember that the next time he needed help. First things first, she reminded herself. Holding back a scream for her anxiousness while she did it, Sakura too flung herself off the cliff's edge.

For one moment, as she gained the highest point in her jump, Sakura seemed to be suspended far above the ocean, almost as if gravity was considering whether to exert its weight on her or not. Still, as gravity decided not to make an exception for Haruno Sakura, and she began her descent, she had one advantage over it.

She swung on the rope wrapped tightly across her hips. She eased toward the rock of the cliff, and relaxed. Her muscles fixed in concentration as she arced down the cliff, her fingers sliding down the rope, as she'd been trained by Kakashi sensei. A light flashed at her farther down the cliff.

That was Sasuke. It was obvious he'd already discovered the entrance to the cave and claimed it for himself. Sakura rappelled toward him.

"Took your time," Sasuke muttered. His belt was unclipped, and he was crouched in the entrance of the tunnel.

"I was admiring the view?"

"Yeah, well you better start admiring the mission." Sasuke jerked his finger toward the shadows that probed the cave. "A hundred meters to Mizuki's complex. Let's go."

"So eager to save Konoha." Sakura sarcastically remarked.

"Yeah, and if we reach the core before Naruto, the better." Sasuke replied.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Short straw." Ino Yamanaka moaned as she crawled deeper beneath the earth's crust, the dirt tunnel showing no sign of ending. "Sasuke and Sakura get to rappel, Hinata and Kiba get sea approach, and what do we get? The way to crawl on our stomachs all the way to the complex." She paused to brush the blonde stand of hair away from her eyes. "Why is it us that always gets short straw?"

Uzumaki Naruto, close behind Ino, said nothing, but the expression beneath the mop of blonde hair suggested that he had a good idea. He thrust Sasuke's smug face from his mind. Focus on the mission, he demanded from himself. Only the mission matters.

"I just hope some of Mizuki's demon brothers welcome us to the core." Ino growled. "I've got a lot of anger I need to work out." Naruto sniffed.

"No way, Ino. We need to get to the core as quickly as possible. We don 't want to get caught here." He commented.

"That's you. I say that a mission without the opportunity to kick ass. Hey, Naruto…." Ino had stopped, knocking her fist on the metallic surface in front of her. The sound rang out deeply. "We're finally in."

"Awesome." Naruto grinned devilishly. Maybe he would get to the core faster than Sasuke and Sakura after all. They'd reached the complex, at the very least, as the sound testified. Still, there were many obstacles they would have to face.

The two of them crawled across the steel plates. The light was brighter as they neared the main body of the complex, allowing Naruto a more elegant view of his partner's rear as she crawled forward. Naruto was glad that Kiba was not in his position at this particular moment.

Ino paused again, this time because there was a wire grille blocking their path. She rolled back on herself and whispered to Naruto. "Where's this supposed to go again?" She inquired.

"An empty stock room." He reminded. "That's what I remember."

"Then your forgot something else," She added. "Make it an occupied stock room." She pointed with her index finger. Naruto gazed through the grille. Sure enough, a demon guard, in an silver suit and equipped heavily with several kunai and shuriken, was leaning against the wall. Naruto and Ino hadn't thought about this.

There's a solution to everything. Naruto felt sick when he saw an alarm switch attached to his torso gear. We have to sneak past him, somehow.

"What's he doing?" Ino hissed.

As if answering her, the guard removed his mouth guard and drew out a cigarette and a sapphire lighter.

"Smoke break." Naruto snickered. "What an idiot. Well, we've only have to wait, and…."

"Screw that plan." Ino scoffed. "I'm out of here." Her fists smashed into the grille, sending it crashing into the floor. The guard stood up in alarm, couching from his first drag of the cigarette. He groped for a kunai. He wasn't swift enough. Ino dropped from the vent, smirked, and lashed out with her left leg, snapping the guard's neck and brining him down.

He clattered to the floor with a groan. He didn't move.

"Someone should have told you," Ino sang. "Smoking is bad for you."

XXXXXXXXXX

They dragged the boat up onto the shingle and over to where the lurching rock would conceal it, then they crouched in the shadow of the same rock to recuperate. Inuzuka Kiba didn't look good, his natural complexion tingled with green.

"Water," He groaned. "Is made for washing with. That's no ocean, it's nature's way of showing how much it hates you. We should have missions to nice, sunny tropical islands with flat seas. There's no greatness with heavy tides and midnight." Kiba growled. Akamaru barked.

"Kiba," Hinata pleaded. "We should keep moving, don't you think?"

"It's not like it's that great of a wish, is it? Look at the ninja movies. An island like Poransu's wouldn't be that bad, would it? An awesome beach, waterfalls, oak trees. There has to be an island owned by a full-time freak in the real world, hasn't there? They should sent us there. And they could throw in a ninja girl as well, that'll increase my motivation."

"Well, I guess I would be one…wouldn't I?" Hinata inquired. Kiba gazed at her apologetically. Hinata continued bravely. "For motivation, if we don't get going now, I'm going to be motivating you by squeezing somewhere that hurts." She emphasized.

"Hinata," Kiba smiled. This was the first time she's ever insulted someone. He liked it. "Do you know how long I've waited for you to say that?" But he stood up and followed her.

They moved silently up the shore that surrounded the complex. Hinata gazed up at the foreboding cliff, wondering how the others were faring. She retrieved her gaze back to the mouth of the cave. It was much closer now. She wondered if they were progressing well, with the demon goons and sneaking.

There were two demon guards, alert, their vermillion eyes piercing the gloom.

"We could sneak past them, Kiba." She whispered, restraining his arm. Kiba felt his dog sense rush with emotion when she held him. They weren't together, but Kiba always considered it.

"I don't do sneaking." He replied. "It always makes me think we're defenseless. Anyway, I think these goons are up all the time, and they could use some sleep."

"Sleep needles?"

"Sleep needles. You taking one on the left or the right?" Simultaneously, they retrieved the thin needles from their belt. The silver gleamed in the starlight. Hinata broke off to the left, and Kiba and Akamaru barraged to the right. They angled their wrists.

With a whisper of air, they fired the needles toward their targets. The hours of training paid off. The needles struck them on the neck, blocking a vein, and injecting a poison into their bloodstream. Within seconds, they both collapsed. None of them would wake up before the sun has risen.

"Goodnight, suckers." Kiba crooned. "Sleep tight."

"Come on, Kiba," Hinata urged. "if they're dead, it's possible that it triggered some kind of alarm. We better get out of here before they send reinforcements." Kiba gazed up at the towering cliff before them.

"Of course." He remarked. "Cause I'm not taking the stairs."

XXXXXXXXXX

"All these corridors look alike." Sakura moaned. "You think Mizuki conquered a hotel and turned it into his complex?"

"Don't you pay attention during training?" Sasuke muttered. "Mizuki knew that there would be intruders, obviously. A nut like him wants people to get lost. He doesn't want anyone near the core at all. That's why he would make everything look the same, thinking they're getting closer. But its his way of making you lose your concentration."

"Congratulations, Sasuke, but this isn't the ninja academy anymore, or even real time training. This is the real thing, and we're lost." She replied bitterly. "Unless Mizuki put up signs, we don't have any idea which way it is to the core." She growled.

Sakura made her point sure enough. She and Sasuke had broken into the complex sure enough, using the cave as their entrance. They'd wandered for at least half an hour, wandering similar looking corridors. They were working under a deadline, a major deadline, this wasn't good. They hadn't encountered any goons so far, but Sakura was hopeful they would, for the sake of directions.

Sasuke frowned, he wasn't easy going in taking criticism. They hadn't progressed as swiftly as they had thought, but at least the other teams should still be behind. "I thought I memorized the way, but it would be better if we could check the belt brain."

He pressed a clip in his belt. A flash of emerald light jabbed out from the buckle and formed into a holographic picture of the complex. Three pairs of red dots flashed at different parts of the map.

"There we are." Sakura pointed out.

"Yeah, and there's the core." Sasuke observed. "The center of Mizuki's operation. And there's Naruto and Ino…." He stopped abruptly.

"Closer to the core than us." Sakura completed. Sasuke wasn't pleased. He tapped the clip a second time, and a blue line appeared on the map, starting from their dots to the core. The path was available for them. They just had to obey it. Sakura started off.

"Sasuke?" She walked down the corridor to the suggested path. "Weren't we supposed to beat them there?"

Sasuke was still watching the map, calculating the suggested path, and Ino and Naruto. He assumed the distance between Sakura and Sasuke to the core. There was no way they could beat Naruto and Ino to the core than them. He couldn't accept Naruto beating him.

But in the other route…. if Sasuke and Sakura took a left instead of a right, they'd have a swifter way there, and beat the way to the core before Naruto. He walked forward.

"Sasuke?" Sakura patiently inquired. "The belt said right."

"Well I say left."

"These routes have been purposefully worked out…."

"None of them are here with us now? Are they?"