Shikamaru called it "troublesome," having to lead four genin on such an easy mission. He could've easily done it with just Ino and Chouji, his teammates, but orders were orders. Tenten, Lee, Ino, Kiba, his dog Akamaru and Shikamaru were now headed back to Konoha, having safely delivered the scroll to the Kazekage of the Hidden Village of Sand, their allies. He didn't see the reason why Tsunade-sama saw fit to send five teenage ninjas to deliver this to their allies in Sand, but she did. They had made it there and were now in their way back without running into any enemy nins.

Shikamaru's thoughts were interrupted when Kiba stopped short next to him, listening to Akamaru, who was tucked in the front of the jacket Kiba always wore. "Oh?" he looked over at Shikamaru. "Akamaru smells someone injured nearby, maybe even dead by the scent of so much blood."

Akamaru jumped down and barked once at them. Without a word, they followed the nin dog into the forest. Akamaru led them first to a river, but there was no one there. Suddenly he barked and took off, heading upstream. As they went on, the ground rose away from the river, leaving no bank in most places and forcing them to continue up on the ridge.

Tenten had been running ahead of them stopped short; the others came to a halt behind her, following her gaze. Down below them there was a body lying face down half in and half out of the river. Leaping down to land on the bank around the unmoving nin, they stared at it. Worn dark colored pants and a black sport supporter was all the clothing she wore. Wounds on her back, sides and probably her front still bled sluggishly, and the blood twisted away on the water, explaining why Akamaru had been confused at first. There was a forehead protector clutched in her right hand. Silver gray hair framed her scarred shoulders and another mark on her left shoulder, mostly hidden by her silver hair. Curious, Shikamaru squatted down and brushed the figure's hair off of the mark. It was a curse seal. He got to his feet swiftly. Groaning, he scratched the back of his head. "Man, this mission is getting to be more troublesome than I thought it was going to be."

"You're calling that troublesome, Shikamaru?" Ino demanded. "I'd call it lucky! She must be one of Orochimaru's ninjas! Maybe she can tell us where Sasuke-kun is!"

Akamaru trotted over to the motionless form and sniffed it before barking once at Kiba, who picked him up and tucked him back in his jacket. "Akamaru says she's still alive."

Lee and Tenten knelt down next to the nin and carefully turned her over. She also wore an amethyst crystal wrapped in silver wire that hung from a black leather string. The forehead protector fell out of her limp hand. Lee picked it up and looked at it. His infamous bushy eyebrows shot up. "It-it's a Konoha forehead protector."

"Maybe it belongs to Sasuke." Kiba held out his hand to Lee, who passed it to him. Akamaru sniffed it before barking. "He says all he can smell on it is this girl's blood and river water," Kiba translated. "But it still might belong to Sasuke."

Tenten and Ino had started to bandage the major wounds on the unknown nin while the three boys stood guard. After they were done Shikamaru sent Ino ahead of them to inform Tsunade-sama about their find.

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Tsunade-sama and thee ANBU nins awaited Shikamaru's group when they arrived home early the next morning. One of the ANBU nins relieved Lee of the girl, who had yet to wake up. Luckily her wounds hadn't started to bleed through the bandages. He vanished along with the other two ANBU nins.

Tsunade nodded to them. "Good job in delivering the message to the kazekage. But finding this nin is even better. She might be able to tell us where Orochimaru is hiding with Sasuke. And Shikamaru," she added when the chuunin turned away. "I want you present when she is questioned."

"Tsunade-sama, is it possible that she's from Konoha?" Lee asked.

Tsunade shook her head. "No. I checked. We have no one at all missing that matches her description and age."

As they started to head into the village together, Shizune came running up to whisper hurriedly in her friends' ear. Tsunade looked at her sharply. "What? Her wounds have completely healed?"

Shizune nodded. Tsunade sighed, rubbing her temples. "And I had hoped that I'd be able to get a drink before I had to question her. Have the ANBU take her to one of the interrogation rooms. Shikamaru and I will be there as soon as we change."

Shizune nodded again. "Hai!"

Tsunade turned to Shikamaru. "You come with me. The rest of you go home and get some rest."

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Before Tsunade and Shikamaru went underground to where the nin had been taken, they were each given unmarked black clothes and an ANBU mask. They were then directed to side by side cubicles to change.

Shikamaru held up the black shirt in front of him. "Why do we have to do this? Seems rather troublesome to me."

It's so the female ninja you found doesn't know which village she's in."

"So you're sure that she's an enemy then, Tsunade-sama?"

Instead of answering his question, Tsunade replied instead, "What do you think?" She was curious as to what the young chuunin thoughts were.

Shikamaru thought for a moment. "Well, if she had been fighting someone from Konoha, then why hold onto to their forehead protector? Only reason I can think of if it isn't hers is that she needed it as proof that she had killed that person. But if it's hers, then that pretty much speaks for itself."

Tsunade emerged from the cubicle the same time Shikamaru emerged from his. "But what about the curse seal?" he asked. "I can't think of any reason for Orochimaru to give any of his enemies a curse seal. Can you?"

Tsunade hesitated for a brief second before saying, "There is a jounin in the village who has a curse seal only because that person was unlucky enough to have Orochimaru as a sensei. It doesn't mean that that jounin is sided with Orochimaru. But seeing as we don't have an record of this nin, it only makes sense that she would be one of Orochimaru's Sound nins, or someone who is allied with him."

There was an ANBU nin waiting for them. They followed him without a word.

Right before they entered the interrogation room, Tsunade stopped Shikamaru. "She will be chained with special metal chains meant to bind and absorb chakra, so don't be startled if she threatens to use her own; she can't. And don't try to use yours to make her talk, especially not your keikai. And remember you are just here to observe."

Shikamaru nodded as they passed through the door.

It was a large stone room with nothing unusual about it except that chains hung down from opposite corners of the ceiling, and in those chains was the female nin, head bowed. The bandages had been removes, and they could see that her wounds had indeed healed over completely; there weren't even any scars with most of them. Her necklace had been removed. A line of blood ran down her cheek from her temple; on the opposite side of her face another line of blood ran from her mouth.

The ANBU nin who had brought them there walked over in front of the girl.

"Look at me," he commanded.

The girl defied the order briefly, but then looked up. Black eyes glared up at them through silver bangs.

"What village are you from?"

"You tell me, mister ANBU."

A slap silenced the impudent girl. Tsunade held up her hand to stop him as he raised his hand to strike her again. "What is your name?"

The girl remained silent.

"You either tell us, or we'll make you tell us in time."

She still didn't answer. Shikamaru heard the clinking sound of the chain; the chains binding the girl tightened and she grimaced; blood ran down her arms from her wrists.

The ANBU nin forced her to look at him. "Where is Orochimaru?"

"I don't know where that bastard is!" she spat. Then she flinched, as if expecting to be struck. She wasn't.

"Why do you flinch after calling him that?"

An angry fire burned in the girl's eyes. "Go ahead and kill me now, Orochimaru ally! I'm not going to fight for you!"

"Ally? What gave you the impression that we are his ally or not?"

Silence, which was only broken by the clink of the chains as the tightened again. The girl gasped sharply as more blood ran down her arms.

Shikamaru decided to ask a question of his own even though Tsunade had told him not to. "What were you doing with a Konoha forehead protector?"

Tsunade turned to look at him. He was willing to bet that she was glaring at him under the mask. He kept his eyes on the girl. She seemed to pondering his question. Finally she said, "First tell me honestly if you're allied with the village of Konoha. Then I will give you all the answers you want."

"You're in no position to be offering deals, bitch." The ANBU nin said as the chains tightened again. Behind the backs of the ANBU nin and Tsunade, Shikamaru caught the girls' eye and nodded slightly.

She took a shaky breath. "So you are allied with Konoha? Then do you mind me asking which village this is?"

"Don't be insolent!" The ANBU nin raised his hand to strike her again. Shikamaru grabbed it. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," He whispered. Tsunade grabbed him by his shoulder and pulled him back to the door. "What the hell are you doing, Shikamaru?" she demanded.

He shrugged. "I think she will talk if she knew where she was."

"What if she uses that to get us to let her go?"

Under his mask, Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "Tsunade-sama, you said earlier that there was no record of anyone with her description from this village. Just tell her and let her hang herself with her own lies. If she says she is from one of our allies it wouldn't be that troublesome to check, would it?"

Tsunade shook her head. "We were right to make you chuunin. You take over the interrogation."

Troublesome, Shikamaru thought as he went back over to the girl. "Look at me," he told her. She did. "The answer to your question is that this village is Konoha."

A look of great happiness entered the girls' eyes, but then faded. "This is Konoha? I'm home?"

Shikamaru shrugged. "Maybe. Was that your head protector we found you with?"

The girl nodded. Shikamaru continued. "Why do you have a curse seal if you're enemies with Orochimaru?"

She hesitated, and the chains tightened again. She hissed in pain. Through gritted teeth she growled, "Because Orochimaru captured me six years ago and preformed many experiments on me. I was with my teammates in a practice field while we were waiting for our sensei. He attacked all of us and bit me, forming this wretched curse seal. He just killed the other two, saying that they were worthless. He often said how surprised he was that I never died from what he did to me." She smirked at them. "I guess that might've been a nice thing, to die back then. Finally he was organizing something, and he said that if I was discovered by one of his 'tools', things would fall apart. So he ordered three of his Sound nins to take me out and kill me, since I swore I would kill myself before I would fight for him. I managed to escape them and have been trying to avoid them since. They finally caught up with me near a river."

The ANBU man had perked up when she mentioned her teammates being killed by Orochimaru. "What is your name, girl? And who was your sensei?"

She closed her eyes and looked down as more blood ran down her wrists. "My name is Yakushi Kyiara and my sensei's name was Shiranui Genma."

None of them spoke for a moment. Finally the ANBU nin spoke. "You-you're Genma's missing student? But that was over six years ago and we never found any evidence that it was Orochimaru who killed those two genin. Can you prove that you're really Yakushi Kyiara?"

The girl didn't move. "I was part of Team Three. My other two teammates were Strana Oria and Luna Tienra. Genma-sensei's favorite saying is 'the power to believe in yourself, that will become the power to change the fate of yourself and others.'"

She looked up at them. "Have my brother or Genma-sensei identify me if you don't believe me."

Suddenly, another ANBU nin dropped from the ceiling. He bowed to Tsunade. "Hokage-sama, she tells the truth. I am trained in my keikai to see the difference between when someone lies and tells the truth."

The chains went slack at a motion from Tsunade, and the girl fell to the ground, unconscious. Tsunade and Shikamaru watched as the two ANBU carried her from the room before removing his mask and asking Tsunade, "Why does her name sound familiar?"

Tsunade also removed her mask. "Because she is the younger sister of Kabuto."