Spirit of the Night

As the trio stopped in the road, Kiba, Shino and Hinata, along with their charge, came walking up to them. Naruto turned his head, and whispered furiously to Sakura, "Why didn't you say that Tsunade gave THESE guys the mission?" Sakura told him, "I didn't know who she gave it to, only the mission details." Naruto looked away, still somewhat annoyed.

"Oi, who are these guys, more of your stupid Konoha buddies?" The merchant spoke up, addressing Kiba. Kiba, obviously completely fed up with this guy, rounded on him.

"Yes, they are from Konoha, can't you tell from their forehead protectors?" Kiba shouted. The merchant wasn't impressed.

"Well, not from the gray-haired kid, he doesn't have one. What are they doing here?" Asked the merchant, pointing at the trio. Kiba opened his mouth to yell something, then paused.

"Who are you," he said, asking Ar'Keno, "and what ARE you guys doing here?" Sakura and Naruto looked at each other, eyes frantic.

"They are two ninjas I hired to escort me to my village" Ar'Keno said, adopting a lilting accent. "It is a small place, near the sea. I help run a ferry." Naruto and Sakura sighed in relief. Thank goodness for the rogue's quick thinking. Kiba nodded, accepting this answer, as did the merchant. Hinata stepped up to Ar'Keno and introduced herself.

"Hi, I'm H-Hyuuga Hinata. It's n-nice to meet y-you. These are my t-teammates, Aburame Shino, and Inuzuka Kiba. Th-this is our charge, Takahashi Shinjo." Ar'Keno gave her a kind smile.

"Nice to meet you to. My name is Kanaki Ikkano." Hinata smiled, and blushed. Kiba smiled at him, and Shino uttered a solemn 'it is nice to meet you'. Shinjo rolled his eyes, and humphed. Then Naruto noticed something.

"Kiba, where is Akamaru?"

"Hmm, oh he is scouting ahead. He should be back soon." Sakura shot Ar'Keno an alarmed look, and sidled over to him to chat.

"What's the matter?" Ar'Keno asked, dropping the accent.

"Can you hear Akamaru around? Inuzuka's depend heavily on their dogs for fighting, and if he is missing, they just eliminated Kiba as a strong fighting force." Ar'Keno nodded in understanding, then pricked his ears.

"Don't worry, Kiba's dog is about a mile down the road, and I can't hear anyone between us and him." Sakura sighed in relief. She knew Kiba was a good fighter, and it would stink if he was neutralized. The two turned back towards the rest, and Ar'Keno took a step towards Shinjo, and started up a friendly conversation. Sakura was chatting with Hinata, while Kiba and Naruto were having a large scale argument over something. Shino was watching with, well, he was just watching. When Akamaru came bounding down the road, Kiba ran out to greet him, and Ar'Keno shot a knowing glance at Sakura, who rolled her eyes. Shino asserted himself as captain of the mission, and ordered Kiba and Hinata to set up camp, slightly off the road. Ar'Keno went up to Shino and asked, "Do you mind if we tag along? I have a few trinkets to sell at a market nearby, and then we will be going the same direction back." Shino nodded his assent, then stalked off to find a campsite. Naruto walked up to Ar'Keno, and looked at him quizzically.

"Why are we sticking around? I thought we had to find the Sound guys." Sakura heard this and sighed at his stupidity.

"Idiot, the easiest way to find them is for them to find us. They will be looking for Shino's group, and when they attack, we pounce. This way we can hang around them without being noticed." Sakura explained to Naruto. He nodded in understanding, then posed a question.

"Where are these trinkets that you are going to sell?" Ar'Keno gave him a wicked smile, then replied, "I nicked some off of a few carts back at the marketplace in case we needed the money to buy something." Naruto and Sakura looked at him aghast.

"Why did you steal something, its wrong!" Naruto whispered. Sakura nodded at this statement.

"Hey, we might have needed the money, and I only stole stuff from people who could afford to have something stolen from them. I never steal from the needy." Ar'Keno defended himself vehemently. Naruto and Sakura were still mad, but didn't feel as bad. They were learning that Ar'Keno wasn't mean or cruel, despite his bad reputation.

"E-Everyone, dinner i-is ready." Hinata called out to them. Naruto rushed over and started eating. Everyone else came slower. Naruto was done faster than anyone.

"Hinata that was delicious, I didn't know that you could cook." Hinata's face turned bright red.

"Th-Thank you N-Naruto-kun." He gave her a smile. They all had dinner, which was quite exceptional considering the conditions, then Shino divided out the watch. He knew about the Sound ambushes, and even though he didn't think they would attack them, he wanted to be on guard. Kiba had the first watch, then Hinata, then Sakura, then Naruto. Everyone except Kiba and Akamaru crawled into their sleeping bags, and went to sleep. Pretty soon, snores echoed around the campsite, mainly from Naruto. Kiba entertained himself by poking at the fire, and petting his snoozing dog. After about two hours, he woke Hinata, who complacently got up, and sat down by the fire. Between staring at the fire, and staring at Naruto, she found herself dozing off. Next thing she knew, she was looking at two glowing yellow eyes. She started, surprised and angry at herself for falling asleep. She started to stammer out an apology, then was interrupted.

"Where I live, if the watchman is caught asleep, he isn't allowed to wake up. The person who finds him slits his throat right there." Her eyes widened at the thought, then tried to start talking again, but Ar'Keno interrupted her again.

"Its alright, you weren't asleep for long. I was watching you. Why don't you go back to bed. Don't worry about me, I normally stay up all night anyway. Just don't tell Shino." Hinata nodded, then sidled off to her sleeping bag. Ar'Keno took the rest of her watch, as well as Sakura's, and half of Naruto's. He leaned over, and shook Naruto's shoulder.

"Mm, five more minutes," Naruto mumbled. Ar'Keno rolled his eyes, then told him, "Get up, it's time for your watch." Naruto sat up showing all the enthusiasm as a sloth just being woken from a three year slumber.

"Have you been up all night?" Ar'Keno nodded.

"Yea, didn't I tell you that I'm nocturnal? I will only sleep at night if I am completely konked out." Naruto slowly emerged from his oh-so-warm sleeping bag into the cold night. He stood up, and asked Ar'Keno, "Did you hear anyone?" The rogue shook his head.

"No, just animals and the wind. No humans."

"How can you tell if it's a human?" Naruto asked.

"Two ways, the smaller the being, normally the faster, and the lighter, its heartbeat. Animals, unless it's a bear or something else that size, have a faster heart rate. Also, I didn't hear any fast approaching footsteps." Naruto nodded in understanding. Ar'Keno continued, "Also, if someone was here, don't you think I would have woken you guys up? I'm going to get as much sleep as possible now that the sun is up until everyone wakes up." Naruto glanced over to the eastern horizon, and indeed, there was the sun poking up. He nodded, and Ar'Keno crawled into his sleeping bag.

About an hour passed before Shino got up, and started gathering food for breakfast. Another half hour went by before Sakura and Hinata woke, and started helping Shino forage. Over the next hour, everyone got up, excluding Akamaru and Shinjo, because the dog seemed sick, and Shinjo was complaining that he hadn't slept well, so he needed more rest. Sakura checked Akamaru, said he only had a small infection, he would get better. She seemed worried about him, considering the looming Sound attack. She and Naruto were constantly asking their super ear if anyone was coming. He was sure no one was there; he was telling them he would tell them if someone was coming.

They went to the marketplace and sold some of the trinkets. Shinjo hadn't sold his special item, a gold Buddha statue, so they went toward another market. Eventually, Sakura and Naruto relaxed. They weren't constantly looking over their shoulder's, searching for a Sound attack force. Akamaru still hadn't gotten better. One day, Ar'Keno approached his teammates.

"We need to split off of this team. The Sound force has been here, the entire time, waiting for us to leave. Also, I'm running out of excuses for Shino to keep sticking around. We will stick somewhat close around them, but far enough away so the Sound don't know we are still here." Naruto and Sakura nodded, and went to pack up their stuff as Ar'Keno went to explain everything to Shino. Twenty minutes later, they were jumping through the trees away from the other team. Naruto was confused about something.

"Hey, why aren't we attacking them now?" Sakura added her voice, "yea, we can attack them without having to explain your skills to Shino's team." Ar'Keno glanced back, and replied, "We need them to report it so Tsunade can figure out that I didn't cause the leak. If you have been here and I haven't, then she should figure out that I can't be the leak."

"That makes sense." Sakura said, and Naruto agreed.

"Yea, I didn't think of that. We definitely want you cleared." They sped off, going around where the Sound team was supposed to be, staying just out of their way.

That night, when they stopped to set up their camp, they sat and discussed what their plan was.

"So, we are to wait until the Sound attacks Shinjo, then provide backup if they are failing, correct?" Sakura asked. Naruto answered.

"Right, but only us, not Ar'Keno, because he cant show his ninja skills unless necessary." Ar'Keno nodded his assent.

"You guys will say they already killed me, and they headed off in their direction, and we followed. If you really need help, I will come in."

"Should we try to capture one or two for interrogation?" Sakura asked.

"Definitely, we must find out who the leak is, and kill him." Naruto answered. They went to sleep, with Ar'Keno watching the camp the whole night. They would let him sleep for a few hours, and then run straight past the Sound camp, in Shino direction, luring them.

As Ar'Keno woke up, he noticed that Naruto and Sakura were already gone. He listened, and heard eleven heartbeats, five chasing two toward four. He figured that the Sound team had probably found them, and Naruto and Sakura had taken the initiative. He cleaned up camp as fast as possible, buried the supplies, and took off after the other ninja. By the time he caught up, (they were really far ahead), all eleven ninja were fighting in a clearing. As he took in the scene, he saw Shinjo heavily injured, being guarded by Hinata. Naruto and Sakura were engaging the leader. Shino had his hands full fighting three at once. Kiba was completely unconscious, curled around Akamaru. He saw Naruto and Sakura faring badly, and Shino being pummeled. He made a split decision, and leapt into the clearing, taking out the ninja attacking Hinata and two ninjas attacking Shino on the way down. As he landed, Shino and Hinata's eyes widened, for they had heard he was dead. Hinata quickly saw his chakra passages, remembered the recent events in Konoha, and easily connected the dots.

"The rogue?"

Hey guys, how ya doing? Ooh, Hinata found out, what are they gonna do! Thanks for reading, do you like it? please review, I need to know what I am doing wrong, what I could be doing better. Thanks to Nebula1701 for adding Spirit of the Night to your Story Alert, and thanks for xzavx for reviewing

-Prauge