A/N: I don't own. We all know that.
This one is a bit darker…but I think that sets the mood for what I was going for. This wasn't meant to be such a cliff hanger and my apologies if it seems so.
….
"Wait," he heard her call out above the beating of his heart. He was nearly panting now, and they had been doing their best to put distance between the small scuffle with enemy nin and desperately make it to their rendezvous point as soon as possible. It took him a moment to register that she was now behind him as he came to an abrupt halt.
She had been running ahead for a while now, and he should have realized the moment he passed her that something was wrong. She was undoubtedly faster than he, and now he found out, just a bit better at knowing their surroundings as well.
She lingered on the periphery of the grounds: he several meters inside the graveyard. If he had been honest with himself it would have taken another few meters before realizing his blunder.
The air was cool and crisp- enough that they could see their breath in small clouds that dissipated in the small breezes that occasionally accompanied the night.
He turned around to face her, letting the last light of the sliver of the moon cast down on her pale blue features. Her eyes were locked on a head stone in front of her, and she took a step back from it, repelled like a same charged magnet. She glanced up with wide fearful eyes that locked with his.
He didn't like that look of uncertainty that lingered on her face. She had always been strong to him, and the thought that she couldn't do something because she was afraid unnerved him.
The moon was providing the only light to see. Lighting a torch was not an option; neither was running on the tops of the trees. They were nearly sitting ducks as it was to descend into the valley the way they did. The open fields they raced through provided no cover and to run along the branches of the trees now would be virtual suicide. But they needed to reach the city and valley below. Their team was there. The end of the mission was there. From there they would get a good nights rest at one of the many homey local inns before going back a full day's journey home. Going through the cemetery was the best way to shake anyone off if they were indeed being followed.
"We won't be able to see with out the light of the moon," she said shifting her weight and staring up at the dimly lit sky. He realized this was her attempt to tell him that she really didn't want to go through the cemetery blind. He didn't blame her.
Shino weighed his options. It was unlikely that they would continue without going through the heavily forested area, and going out of their way around the graveyard would not make the trip go any faster. Their best bet was a b-line through the cemetery.
Either way they would be plowing through the forest with out any light.
"We will make better time going through here," Shino finally said walking back to the frightened konoichi. "I can use my kakkai to guide us through."
He watched her come to terms with the decision, and she knew that this was something they were going to have to do, even if she didn't like it. She audibly swallowed and stared at the ominous forest that lay before them.
Shino took a chance and offered her his hand, "Come on," he prodded. She looked at his hand and he thought he saw just the briefest amount of relief mixed with subtle apprehension. She curtly nodded and took the proffered hand. Shino's kakkai buzzed fuzzily inside him-weather from fear or from her sudden contact with his skin he couldn't be sure. As they moved out of the moonlight and into the graveyard he felt her hand tense around his. He found himself giving her a small squeeze to comfort her and noticed just how his hand was so much warmer than hers. All the running they had done had left him slightly out of breath, but she was not in the least bit phased by such exercise. A testament to team Gai's strict regiment he was certain. That run was nothing but a walk in the park to her.
Or graveyard.
"Careful," he spoke leading her with a firm grip away from a pile of rocks. He realized (probably after her once again) that this was no ordinary burial ground. It was a hastily made graveyard, the kind that was poorly excavated after battles and slaughtered villages.
Field stones were placed in piles as makeshift headstones; trees were scarred with dull knives to mark the places of the dead. The small glimpses of light allowed through the trees let them see the sordid crude markings of hurriedly made graves.
Not all of the head stones were quite so rudimentary; the more elaborate grave markers were obviously the result of a loved one coming back to give proper rites to the dead. If he were to take a guess there were only a couple dozen or so proper memorials.
He tugged the girl in hand forward and came to an abrupt halt. She stopped too, but not before she brushed her chest up against his arm. She pulled herself back quickly, almost apologetically, and her small hand tensed around his.
"Follow closely," he advised. Through the meager light that managed to filter on through the thick trees he could see her silhouette nod ever so slightly as they sidestepped an open grave. Shino was suddenly grateful that he was not traveling with Kiba, who might have thought it would be all too funny to push him in, or try to loose him just so he could sneak up and scare him. Of course then Shino would have to kill him and just be glad for the convenience of not dragging the body far to bury it.
Tenten was no such person. Seeing the excavated hole of earth that they nearly plummeted into, she let go of his hand momentarily and seized his upper arm with both her arms in a vice grip. She clutched to him with out hesitation, and Shino was relishing the contact; in truth this was probably the closest he had ever been to a girl who wasn't Hinata or one of his relatives. He tried to push the thought of her body pinned so closely against his out of his mind and focus on the uneven terrain.
If they weren't stumbling on random rocks, they were tripping over tree roots or clumps of grass pushed up in knots from the soft pliable earth. They sidestepped marker after marker, trying to avoid walking directly on the graves themselves and twisted and snaked their way through the forested shroud. They went as fast as they dared. Shino used his kakkai to bounce off information and relay it to his person, but the feedback was blotchy at best.
The trees momentarily thinned in a small clearing, enough that the moon's light illuminated the small creek trickling before them. They dashed over the brook, and Shino hoped that the cemetery would not extend beyond the boundary of the steady stream. Shino frowned as he noted that it did, and not only that, it was more concentrated. They lingered there by the water's edge, trying to take in as much landscape they could with the minimal amount of light the small patch of sky offered. Shino was relieved to find Tenten's grip on him reaffirmed as if telling him that she trusted him to lead him through the darkness. Honestly, he wasn't expecting her to be so comfortable with his space. His kakkai buzzed warmly inside of him. He knew for certain now it was a response to her touch and proximity. He chanced a glance behind him as he stilled; their faces merely inches apart. Their breath hung in the calm chilled air between them and he could see little bursts of it with the moon spilling its blue light upon them.
He could feel his heart beat in his ears as he took in her soft features. Her nose was small and elegant. Her eyes were wide and nearly black in the lighting. But her pale creamy skin reflected one of calm strength beneath its surface.
She was beautiful.
He could feel her courage falter under his sudden scrutiny. Her hands began to loosen against his as if she had been caught steeling cookies out of the cookie jar. He quickly removed her doubts as he re-gripped their clasped hands.
"Stay close."
He pulled her forward almost possessively and her body once again brushed up against his arm, but this time she didn't pull away. He could faintly feel her hot breath mix with his. She squeezed his hands in approval. He found himself pleased and smiled on the inside. Perhaps this was cocky of him, but the thought of a woman, no, the thought of her not shying away, not being repulsed by his very being, the thought of her wanting to be close to him-it filled his body with a warmth that spread as vibrantly as the buzzing of his kakkai. It was hard not to smile on the outside.
He turned his head slowly to the task at hand and began once again leading her through the impossible forest.
He found himself slipping more than once, occasionally taking Tenten with him. The two didn't fall completely; instead they used each other for balance, sometimes locking their forearms together before straightening back up. The terrain had become more unstable and he was just grateful they hadn't taken a nasty fall that left them both in bruises.
Traipsing along, it was then his bugs warned him of the oncoming decline in the landscape, but as Shino feared, all too late. He lurched forward, unable to gain purchase in the dark, even with the use of his chakra. Adrenaline pumped through his system, blood rushed in his ears as he fell, pinning the weapon's mistress to the side of the ravine as they slid. She took the brunt of the fall even with his kakkai frantically swarming to try and soften the blow. They skidded to a slow muddy halt that included painful groans and grunts.
Propping himself on his elbows, he took a mental inventory and evaluated any wounds he might have obtained after the fall. Besides some basic scrapes and bruises, (and a huge blow to his pride,) he was all together fine. But the agitation of his kakkai weren't the only thing that alerted him of the sudden danger; it was the metallic scent that pierced and permeated the air. He was no Inuzuka, but Shino knew that was blood even if he couldn't see it.
More panic rippled through his already adrenaline lit body and he heard the fallen konoichi beside him hiss. Fumbling franticly in the darkness, he groped his hands in her direction.
"Where are you hurt?" his voice was raspy and desperately trying to remain calm. His mind completely shut down when his palm became engulfed in a warm sticky substance. She hissed again and shifted away from the pressure of his hand on her wound.
"We need to move," her voice came out remarkably more calm than his, but through a pain filled grunt. "Give me your shirt so I can tie off my arm."
There was a momentary pause as her words finally registered and he began to quickly remove his jacket and rid him self of his shirt. He shredded the shirt into stripes and slid slowly in the clay like mud until his knees pressed against her hips. She reached out a mud caked hand and placed it on his lower thigh to help guide him to her arm. With a trembling he hoped she wouldn't notice in the dark, he carefully slipped them strips under her arm and tied them off with simple knots. Lingering perhaps more than he should, he kept his hand on her arm as if to ground himself to her.
She was already shifting her weight forward when he asked her if she could stand. She stumbled into the mud and his grip increased on her as she threatened to take him with her. Stabilizing themselves against each other just covered him further in blood and mud, but staying clean was the furthest thing from his mind. He couldn't even see her to evaluate the wound on her arm or check her for other injuries. The rocks from the slide could have hit anything and he didn't want to take the chance that she could unknowingly be suffering from more prominent injuries. He summoned his kakkai to retrieve his jacket from the ground, it just as covered in mud as he. In the distance he could see the break in the tree line.
Light, sweet glorious light lay before them, leading the way to safety and help.
With out a second thought he picked her up with out permission and pulled his chakra to his bugs to guide his feet over the traps of the wooded area. He wanted to use this technique earlier, but feared it would deplete his chakra too quickly and he needed some reserved in case they were attacked. She bobbed her head against his neck as he had pulled her in a half cave man, half bridal carry. He just needed to get to the town-the warmly lit town where Hinata could take over and heal her wounds and keep the konoichi he feared he could not keep safe in tact. He prayed fervently that she could one day forgive him.
He placed her down in the open field and scanned her for more wounds. Her body looked almost black from the dark soaked earth clinging to her clothes and skin. It was hard to tell what was blood and was simply mud, so he managed to formulate enough chakra to produce a bug clone and alert their team of what had happened. He retied the knots (unnecessarily so) and noticed the bob of her head as he did.
"What's wrong?" he asked but was only met with her nearly rolling her eyes in the back of her head. She was trying desperately to stay awake. Shino grabbed the back of her head only to be met with another handful of her warm blood.
She had hit her head on of the many rocks on her fall down, no doubt his body adding to the amount of weight that was applied to it. He fell into another spurt of panic, even though he knew help was on the way and that head wounds looked far worse than they probably were, but some how, none of that seemed to still his erratic heartbeat.
Frantically clinging to his jacket with a two handed white-knuckled grip, the tight bunned konoichi pulled his ear to her lips and simply whispered this plea:
"Stay close."