A/N: Sorry for the long delay, guys. I'm working on some larger projects, plus work is killing me! Hopefully you'll enjoy this new edition.

Chapter Three: Back in Action

"Dammit, you guys," she said, disentangling them and straightening them out side by side on the ground. "I told you to be careful."

Each was unconscious. Kiba looked like he'd taken the majority of the beating, with a deep laceration across his chest that bled freely, and his red clan marks livid on the pale relief of his cheeks. The wound wasn't serious enough to worry her, but she did take care to use her medical jutsu to heal it up. There didn't seem to be any internal injuries, though both of them were going to be bruised and a little sore. She couldn't waste the chakra on every nick and bruise, so after she healed Kiba, she used a small vial of ammonia to revive them from unconsciousness.

Kiba's eyes fluttered as he came back to reality. "Wakey, wakey," Ino said as she patted his cheek. "Now's not the time for napping."

"Unh," he replied. And then something weird happened. He put his hand on hers and captured it against his cheek. "I feel like a train wreck."

Startled, Ino fumbled for a response when his touch sizzled up her arm. "Look like one, for sure."

"Thanks, cupcake." He released her hand, and when he tried to sit up, he couldn't, so Ino helped him out and propped him against the tree trunk. She shifted backwards to get some space as Akamaru nuzzled his head into Kiba's chest. "You healed me?"

Ino sat back to wipe sweat from her brow. "Course I did. You were bleeding all over the place. Duh."

The thoughtful look fit his features strangely, the red triangles flat and unmoving on his cheeks, his wild eyes intense on her. A moment transpired between them, where it seemed like Kiba was contemplating her, or changing his mind about something, but Ino couldn't put her finger on what exactly his emotional state was. She flipped her hair over her shoulder and broke eye contact when the pause nerved her up.

"I had Karin with Mind-Body Switch, but lost it when Suigetsu hit me. They couldn't have gotten far. Why don't we catch our breath for a moment?" She needed the time to examine the memory she sieved from Karin's mind, anyway. "We need to decide what to do next."

"Did you pick anything up inside Karin's mind when you were in there?"

Ino glanced back at him. How'd he know? Or maybe it was a good guess. "Yeah. Give me a minute to look at it and then we can discuss."

He nodded as he scratched behind Akamaru's ears and rested his own head against the tree behind him, closing his eyes and sighing. Ino spared him a lingering gaze, understanding that the fight with Suigetsu had forced out a lot of bluster and hot air. Perhaps that had been for the best. Now that Kiba and Akamaru knew who they were dealing with, she hoped they'd be more inclined to listen to her strategy. It might be that they'd have to subdue Karin and she'd have to neutralize Suigetsu using her mind techniques. But was Karin worth the trouble?

Swiftly she dipped into her own memory banks to the pilfered memory and replayed it. She didn't focus on the details of the memory, but on the emotions and thought process behind Karin's responses to her father's questions. There definitely seemed to be an aura of panic, of unknowing, and Karin's mind during the memory scrambled to satisfy the interrogator while seemingly leaving out key elements. Ino's conclusion was swift and sure; Karin had played at knowing more than she did. Her knowledge of Orochimaru and Kabuto was limited. She'd been a jailer at one of Orochimaru's installations, but as far as plans and whereabouts are concerned, she was as ignorant as Leaf was.

Ino came forward from her internal musings. "Kiba," she said, calling his attention to her. His eyes opened and shifted to her face. "Karin doesn't have any additional information on Orochimaru or Kabuto. Or Sasuke for that matter except for whatever Suigetsu told her, and I didn't have the chance to scan for that information."

He winced. "Shit. That means she was faking it to stall for time."

"Yeah." They sat in contemplative silence for a moment. "Think we should continue the mission?"

"Hell, yeah, we should continue the mission." His hand passed over the bloodied, torn shirt and flak jacket where he'd been wounded by a vicious blade. "I owe that shithead Suigetsu some payback."

She sighed and rolled her eyes. "That's not a good enough reason."

"We oughta let the higher-ups decide if she's worthwhile or not. Our objectives are clear." He patted Akamaru's head. The dog shuffled a few steps back and Kiba pushed himself to standing. Then he reached a hand down to her. "We can still end this. You in?"

Well, when he put it like that… "I've got your back," she said and accepted Kiba's help in standing. Once again, his touch charged her nerves up her arm. "Can you find their scent?"

His glare was withering. "I'll pretend you didn't ask that. This way," he continued, nodding with his chin.

As a team, they leapt into the treetops and thick branches of the green forest, and Ino followed behind Kiba and Akamaru as they dove headlong through foliage. After a while, Kiba slowed and stopped, and this time, Ino caught herself in time to drop in at his side.

"What's up?"

He held his hand up for silence. She remained quiet as he scrunched his eyes closed. He breathed in through his mouth a few times, and when that seemed to give him trouble, he put his fingers up in that familiar concentration sign.

"Hm," he grunted. "Both Karin and Suigetsu's scents diverge at this point. One set goes in that direction," he pointed one way, "and the other goes in this direction," he pointed opposite the first direction. "There's a source point this way."

"What direction is that?"

He tilted his head. "North. Northeast a bit."

"One's a false trail," Ino concluded. It was a logical step for two people running from the law. She reached into their pack and found the map she'd seen earlier. Unfolding it, she held one side of it and was pleased when Kiba took the other side to stretch the map open all the way so that they could consult it together. "Okay, so we're here, I think." She put her finger on their approximate location. "How far away do you smell the source of the northeast scent trail?"

Kiba concentrated briefly. "I'm guessin' about half-a-klick."

Ino used the first knuckle of her finger to measure the distance. "There doesn't seem to be any viable escape in that direction. See, it's more forest. Why would they run further into Fire country? But if you trace in the opposite direction," she drew her finger across the paper, "the trail leads to a river. Wouldn't that make sense? Suigetsu would feel most comfortable around a water source, and look, there's a town downriver where they could resupply and possibly find another escape route out of Fire country."

When he spoke- -"How can we be sure that they took the river without checkin' out the other trail first?"- -his voice was next to her ear. The lowness of it, the gruffness, vibrated a shower of tingles that progressed from her eardrum down her spine, and Ino couldn't understand why his voice was so much sexier than it had been.

"I have a few tricks up my sleeve," she told him. He helped her fold the map, and damn it, when his hands brushed hers, she didn't appreciate her insides turning to goo. "I can pick up chakra trails like you can pick up scent trails. Let me concentrate for a couple seconds and we'll know which way they went for sure."

"Cool," he said, and his smile was lethal and beautiful. "Yer awfully handy."

Seriously, that smile was a secret weapon. Her heart decided to increase pace. She flicked her hair out of her face. "I have many useful techniques."

He startled her when he touched the slim lock that functioned as her bangs. "I'm sure you do," he said. The atmosphere went pretty crazy then, intense and prickling, and Ino knocked his hand away because he put her on edge, and it wasn't an edge of irritation but one of…attraction. All she could think was how she wanted to ease into a kiss with him, and how completely inappropriate that would be at this dire time.

"Shut up, Inuzuka, and give me some space here. I can't freaking concentrate with you panting in my ear," she snapped. Attraction to Inuzuka wasn't in her job description and she certainly didn't want to leave the insulated box that was her mocking, scathing relationship with him.

To her relief, he slid backwards and put up his hands as if to say, 'Okay, okay. You win.' Ino ignored the stirred emotions and calmed herself with breathing. After a few seconds, she meted out her chakra into the technique that allowed her to sense residual chakra trails. Ah, she'd been right. There wasn't any apparent chakra in the northeast trail, but plenty to follow going southwest.

"Towards the river," she said at last.

He nodded, and they fell into their strategic formation. As they hustled without conversation, focused on closing the gap of time and distance, morning became early afternoon, which became late afternoon, and at last they arrived at the river. The river was a wide, muddy thing with a few feet of narrow sandbank along the sides, and Ino's nose crinkled in repugnancy with the heavy fish-odor of the river.

"Whew," she said, waving a hand in front of her nose. "It stinks."

Kiba said nothing. She turned to him and saw his features were clouded with aggravation. Something was wrong.

"What is it?"

"They had a fucking boat ready," he spat. She followed his gaze to a pair of footprints that led to the water's edge, and between them, a shallow, wide groove that indicated they'd dragged a boat into the water. "They've gotten a huge lead on us by now. Dammit. We were so fucking close!"

Ino touched his shoulder. "We know where they're headed. We should rest and eat and try to cover the distance tonight. We'll be pushing it, but we can't afford to miss this opportunity."

Though still fuming, Kiba nodded his agreement.

Together, as a team, they stood at the lapping river, eyes set on the lowered sun that sparkled across the dark, deceptively slow-moving water. Ino knew that tomorrow might bring them within range once more of their prey, and if she and Kiba and Akamaru were lucky, Karin and Suigetsu would assume that they were in the clear. That would be their final mistake.

A/N: Thanks again for reading. Let me know what you think. Next chapter TBA. =)