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Chapter 4
The lights on the field flicked off as the coach left, leaving the setting sun to flood the diamond with red light. Sasuke stood alone. Naruto and Kiba approached him slowly. Sasuke watch them near; they all stood in silence for a moment.
"Why are you here Sasuke?" Naruto questioned. Sasuke lifted the corner of his mouth in a lopsided grin.
"The same reason you are," he answered. Kiba tensed. Naruto nodded.
"You haven't found them yet either, have you?" he asked. Sasuke took a breath, frowning, and titled his head to the side; a silent no.
"That's what I thought," Naruto stated and he shouted out when he saw Sasuke turn and walk away, "hey wait!" Sasuke said nothing.
"You should join our search," Naruto called, "together we have a better chance of finding them." The statement made him pause and let out a single laugh, not a real laugh, but still a laugh.
"I have no need-" he began to say.
"You haven't found anything yet, together we can cover more ground," Naruto stated, "be our teammate again."
"No," Sasuke said forcefully. He turned and moved off. Naruto growled and lunged; Kiba was too late to stop him as he closed the distance between them. Sasuke turned and caught the fist Naruto had aimed for his head.
"Why not?" Naruto snarled. Sasuke gave no verbal answer, instead moving to punch Naruto. The blond caught the punch. He had improved in the time they had been apart; there was no way Sasuke could deny him that fact. They stood locked together, struggling, glaring. Kiba was unsure how to interfere with the two. They seemed to have things under control. It was probably a good thing that neither had their arsenal of ninja weapons on their person; although the rasengon and chidori needed nothing that they did not already have.
An unbearably long silence passed until both boys released each other and stood straight. It seemed they had come to a silent agreement. Without another word, they both turned and walked away; Naruto returned to Kiba and Sasuke vanished.
"What was that about?" Kiba asked as they walked home.
"He agreed to share what he finds as long as we do the same," Naruto explained as he walked, looking ahead. Kiba just stared and did not question it. He had never really understood the Uchiha before, why would now be any different?
They came home to find everyone doing homework. When asked about what happened, they explained they made the team. After answering questions about the other boys who had made it onto the team as well, Naruto shared his news.
"Sasuke's on the team too," he stated. The room was silent, then filled with a chorus of noise as questions were thrown at the two of them. Naruto waited with uncharacteristic patience until it was quiet, at least somewhat.
"He's agreed to help us search," Naruto added.
"Why?" Tenten questioned.
"Because we're looking for the same thing," Naruto replied, "and if we find something-"
"He wants us to share it," Shikamaru finished the statement and Naruto nodded. The room was silent.
"Well," Ino said.
"We won't need to worry about him giving up our cover," Hinata added. Agreed mutterings of the word 'true' were passed around the room.
"I don't trust him," Neji said slowly, "or what he's up to, but as long as he doesn't get in our way-"
"Or us in his," Lee said thoughtfully.
"This could work," added Sakura.
"I don't like it," Shikamaru stated bluntly.
"If we don't find anything we don't have to tell him anything," Chouji offered. That fact seemed to placate the genius some. They spoke little on the Sasuke topic and they split for bed.
-0-0-0-
The girls had been correct in their observation on the cliquey nature of the students. Once inside, the teams learned things they had never guessed. Most was useless gossip, such as who was dating who, who was doing things they should not be doing, and where the parties were happening each weekend. Each club had different people to examine, and the gossip they had to sort through was always skewed.
Though none of the groups ever talked about ninja in the school, some events were suspicious. The injuries that Sakura tended to were too deep sometimes, too perfect to be normal. Some of the soccer girls Tenten played with were too connected with each other. But each of the events could be contributed to something else as well. They tried to debunk them all while playing the roles of normal students.
Every day they went to class and then to practices, and every day they found no outstanding evidence of this clan's existence. If Tsunade had not said that they were here, they would never have guessed it.
Another week and half passed with nothing to go on. The only news they received was Naruto and Kiba's announcement that the first game of the season was Friday, and that they should all come to watch. They agreed, since they had gone to Ino's volleyball game earlier in the week. The team lost, but it had been a close match and was at least exciting to watch. Tenten and Lee had yet to bring news about their own sports games.
-0-0-0-
A large portion of the school gathered at the diamond, filling the stands. The rookie nine, Sai, and team Gai split up to better watch everyone. Neji and Hinata sat at the top of the bleachers above the dugout. Every now and again one of them would scan the area for chakra signatures, always finding nothing. They had focused on Sasuke when he appeared on the field to bat. He had hidden his chakra well. He swung and sent the other team scrambling for the ball.
A lone girl sat on the bench in front of them clapping each time the team got on base. She seemed to be really into the game. Hinata recognized her from her history class, but the girl made no move for conversation.
Three innings later the two Hyuugas had found nothing out of the ordinary. They noticed that Naruto hit a homerun in the second inning, but nothing else was exciting enough to mention. It was not until a student who they had never seen in either of their classes rushed up to the girl. He was a senior with black hair, completely normal, until Neji and Hinata heard what he said.
"What are you doing here alone?" he hissed at the girl. They felt the smallest hint of chakra. The cousins paid attention to his words while attempting to be engrossed in the game neither of them had ever completely understood and did not plan to learn.
"You know what your father said about going off without one of us," he continued. Hinata looked at the two of them. She would have guessed them to be siblings, but maybe there were like Neji and herself, only cousins, or some other blood relation.
"That was only because I couldn't defend myself before," the girl whispered, "but I shadowed yesterday for the first time, remember. I'm strong now. I can look out for myself." Neji and Hinata gave each other little sideways glances. They were unsure what they were hearing, but it sounded like two ninja talking, two shadow ninja. The boy glanced around and grabbed the girl's arm.
"Come on, we'll discuss this somewhere else," he hissed. He pulled her to her feet and practically raced down the bleachers. Neji and Hinata followed after them, leaving the baseball game behind them. They passed screaming freshman girls trying to call Sasuke to look their way. The targets vanished behind the concession stand into what looked like a storage room.
Neji and Hinata both activated their byakugan and crept inside. Two chakra signatures flared to life before their eyes. Hinata suddenly wished they had a long distance fighter with them to stop the two in case it came to blows. At least they know what they looked like now to track them further.
The chakra vanished after another moment and the cousins stepped into the room completely, coming face to face with the two ninja. They looked up in surprise. The girl looked back and forth between the two other ninja as the boy took a step forward.
"Students aren't allowed-" he began to say
"You're breaking that rule as well," Neji interrupted, "we need to speak with you two privately."
"Were you following us?" the girl questioned.
"We have some questions-" Hinata started to say.
"Look, whatever you're doing, you're looking at the wrong people," the boy stated. He began to pull the girl towards the door. Neji let his chakra flare slightly and activated his eyes. The two reacted instantly.
"What do you want?" The boy asked slowly, finally seeing them as a threat. Hinata moved to take a step forward and found she couldn't. The two stood frozen before the shadow ninja.
"How?" she muttered. Neji blinked and his eyes returned to normal, as normal as his Hyuuga blood allowed.
"Our village needs information," Neji stated.
"Our clan isn't for hire," the boy replied, misinterpreting the statement.
"No," Hinata clarified, "we need you to tell us how to defeat shadows." She worried she had not heard the hokage as well as she though when she spoke the words because the other ninja did not react.
"Why?" asked the boy finally, his curiosity sparked, "why do you need that knowledge?"
"Our hokage sent us to retrieve it, it was our mission," Hinata added. Under normal circumstances, mission objectives were not discussed, but this situation lacked usable information. Tsunade had not disclosed much to them before they left. Silence fell between all of them for a moment.
After quiet deliberation, Hinata and Neji were released from the mysterious bind they had been under and the boy answered their question.
"We need to discuss the situation with our clan. We will meet you tonight at 10pm out on the soccer field with our answer," he stated. Neji and Hinata nodded. The two shadow ninja walked out of the door and vanished. Neji could feel a small rush of chakra, but it soon faded. Nothing of them remained to follow.
That night, after all the baseball spectators had gone home and even the custodians had finished cleaning, the twelve ninja from Konoha gathered on the soccer field. Sasuke was there as well, but he hung back from the group slightly. Naruto and Kiba hummed with energy from their big win from before, but kept quiet with the others as they waited. Their sensei's stood amongst them, keeping lookout with rest of the them. 10 o'clock struck and the shadows deepened.
At the far end of the field, figures appeared. They walked forward, growing in number as they moved closer. There seemed to be twenty of them. The boy who had met Neji and Hinata earlier led them. When they reached centerfield, they halted and he stepped forward.
"Our clan has agreed to let you know the secret only if you tell us the reason why," the boy explained.
"But we weren't given a rea-" Naruto shouted. Sakura punched him lightly in the arm.
"If we tell you," she called out, "can we be sure you won't give us faulty information?"
"You have our word," a young man in their group promised. The boy nodded. Sakura turned to her own teammates with a question in her eyes. None of them knew the worth of these ninja's word. After a moment they seemed to believe they could trust them. What other choice did they have?
"Our allies were attacked by shadows. The shadows seemed to be able to move, think, and act on their own. They are headed in our village's direction," Sakura stated. The Konoha ninja were silent as they thought about what she had just said.
"Why do you need our help?" asked one of the shadow ninja.
"We can't defeat them or even land an attack," Sakura replied, "We need to know how to defeat them to keep our village safe." The others nodded in agreement and turned to look across the field.
"We accept your reason and will help," a ninja stated from the others.
"So you'll tell us how to defeat them?" Tenten asked.
"We'll do even more," he answered, "we will help you in their destruction." The whole group drew close and stood in an even semi-circle facing the Konoha ninja. They ranged in age from 25 to 12 years old, the youngest batch of ninja from their clan no doubt.
"Why are you going to help us fight?" Shikamaru asked bluntly.
"Because they are traitors to our clan who abused our ability and must be stopped before they can destroy us for banishing them," one of the shadow ninja stated.
"Why are they traitors?" asked Hinata quietly.
"You banished them?" questioned Kurnai.
"They belonged to the same clan," Sakura recited from the scroll, "but a disagreement drove them into two different sects."
"A disagreement over how our power was to be used," came the answer, "humans are not meant to be without a physical body for long, no matter if they have the chakra for it or not. That is our ability, become shadows and nothing more for as long as we can hold onto the form without losing our humanity."
"And these others wanted what?" Neji questioned.
"They wanted to leave the physical realm entirely and simply live as shadows. Shadows don't need to breath, eat, open doors or anything of the sort. As a shadow, one can fashion chakra into any weapon without actually having it. I guess they succeeded in becoming one with the shadow world."
"How do you fight a shadow?" Kiba questioned.
"These shadows are simply a form for their chakra. Attacks and weapons can kill them if they use chakra as well. The enemy can only be affected by other chakra attacks, so they aren't hurt with taijutsu and normal physical moves.
"Which is why they didn't attack civilians and only focused on ninja," Sakura stated to herself as it made sense in her mind.
"Genjutsu, if strong enough, will work. Elemental attacks, because they are created with chakra, will work. Weapons, if laced with chakra, will also work. The most important thing to remember though is defense, watch your own shadow."
"Why?" asked Lee.
"They can only attack you through your shadow. They move remarkably fast as well, so keeping an eye on the enemy will be difficult. It would be best to take them on in a location that is open but provides cover to block your shadow from extending too far. Noontime is also a good time, since it's when your shadow is shortest and easy to guard."
"Does that answer all your questions?"
"I think so," came the collective reply from Naruto and his friends.
"Then we are ready to leave," the boy stated. "When will you return home? We shall follow."
"We were going to teleport back," Kakashi stated, "we can bring everyone along if all of you are assisting us. We can leave whenever you are ready." The Konoha ninjas had been prepared. They left the apartment the way they found it and changed back into their normal clothing, leaving the school uniforms behind. They had brought nothing, so they needed to take nothing back.
"We're ready now," one of the shadow ninjas announced.
One more chapter to go...