I do not own Naruto. Please do not sue me. This is my first Genma x Shizune fanfic. Enjoy! cough please excuse the grammar. I tried.

Three figures watches as they hid in the trees as the four green vested jounins left their country with their required prize. Their faces were each covered with a mask, bearing the Wood country symbol. That was their country's prized herb. It was never used anywhere outside their country. Any enemy who was poisoned by their own poison would not recover without it. To them, their enemies deserve to die.

"After them!" the leader whispered. His team was one of the five teams dispersed after their Kage has realized that outsiders had gotten a hand on their priced antidote.

Shizune's group has a formation with Genma leading the way, Raidou guarding the back, Iwashi behind her, and the medic right after the leader. Raidou's ears perked up, his ear muscles responding to the direction of the sounds coming behind him.

"They are coming, keep moving!"

Genma made an irritating sound; the enemy approach was reaching his ears. It does not sound like a small group of shinobi was chasing them but it seem like a whole lot of them coming right their way. Shizune looked at him and looked at the rest of the team. Based on experience, she could tell the guys were running low on chakra and stamina. Taking the pursuiters on would be a gamble.

They didn't get enough sleep as the enemy were on constant town patrol and occasionally knocked on their hotel door for checks of suspicious or wanted personal. Even at the midnight. The Woods ninjas were too observant and were always on alert. Shizune and her team had tried to sneak in using civilian clothing and acted normal.

However, their guard ferrets exposed their identities with their sense of smell after they have paid for the herb from the farmer. Alarm was raised and soon trouble started. Leaf Shinobi and their herbs do not go together it seems. It may take days to reach Konoha.

If they take them head on right now, they might not make it, if they try to lose them, it might work but still it depended on how much chakra was needed.

"Raidou…." Genma called out. He can't afford to waste any more energy to explain the next step.

"….." Raidou thought for a second and narrowed his eyes. "Got it, come on Iwashi." Iwashi looked at Raidou awkwardly. "Wait, Raidou!" Shizune called out. She wanted to remind them to keep in formation if they want to increase their success rate.

"Genma…."

"I will explain later. Come on." Shizune kept quiet and followed the other jounin.

The enemy jounin stopped his comrade from doing his jutsu further. His comrade stopped and hoped that his jutsu has caused psychological effect on the Konoha shinobis.

"Let's just go after them silently; they should be tired by now, search!" The groups of six were splitted into two groups.

"HA!"

The sound of their persuaders has ceased. Shizune continued to listen for more to confirm the situation.

"Genma.." she started.

"We are not out of their borders yet. They must be up to something." He jumped down to the bottom of the forest with Shizune after him.

Both jounins sat on the ground. The roots of the trees were gigantic there and it should cover them for a period of them as they rest. They tried to catch their breath as quietly as possible to avoid detection. They rested their back against the roots; none of them said a single word to each other.

Their mission objective was to retrieve a highly guarded special herb that was only found in the Wood country. Previously, a team of Konoha ninjas encountered the Wood ninjas during an escort of someone whom the Wood ninjas were after for a long time. Ninjas of both sides has missions to accomplish and put up a fierce fight. The battle resulted in severe casualty, It could have been worse if the ANBU on patrol had not intercepted. However, the Leaf ninjas are badly poisoned by their darts and weren't responding positively to the drugs, which they developed best to their knowledge.

Desperate to save these ninjas, Tsunade sent Shizune and her team to head to Woods country and acquire the required herbs. Before hand, she warned about that they do not have any intelligence of the Woods country since the country usually kept to itself. The best chance was to infiltrate the country by using civilian mode to prevent any unwanted uproar.

Genma kept watch and listened for approaching footsteps as Shizune rested. He hoped that Raidou and Iwashi would bring the required herbs to Tsunade. The reason he did the split, is to act as a scapegoat so that the other two could survive and save the affected Leaf ninjas. He wanted to send Shizune after Raidou but in this situation, he needed someone with more stamina, which was why he chose Iwashi over her. In this way, Raidou won't be slowed down. Girls…. He chewed on his senbon.

She needs to recover more chakra than me, being medic and all…he thought. He saw that the sky turned dark. Shizune gave an unintended cough and a croak which indicated she was going to throw up or something. Throw up? She has not eaten anything at all after that last food pill they had. It may not going to fill her up but still…

Damn, did I pushed her too hard? He thought, he has sure he has taken care of the team well and running for 4 hours straight was nothing to him. However, for Shizune, she has just gotten back to the village. Has she gotten stronger when she was away with Tsunade? Does she has the stamina to keep up? Has she trained? Genma wanted answers but decided to keep it. It has been a long time since he has a fellow higher ranked female jounin by his side. He cursed his ego.

"You all right? Don't force yourself." He finally spoke out in his usual casual voice. Shizune just nodded.

"I will be fine after a rest, don't worry." She gave a brave smile. Genma frowned, even though she said she was fine, her face color told another story, the face of fatigue. He hoped that she was not going to use her chakra for any instant body healing. There he saw it, fast hand seals with her one of her hands glowing. Genma stopped her.

"Don't do this."

"But Genma, we can't stay here forever, I got to."

"I am no medic but…" he took her wrist to feel her pulse. He later put a hand to her forehead. His eyes widened at his vital analysis and hoped he was wrong.
"Damn." he cursed in his mind.

Please review and I will update as soon as possible :D