Shikamaru watched as Mist's running became more frantic. She navigated the streets extremely well for someone who did not know them. Almost anticipating dead ends and large open spaces, but she became impatient with not being on the roof tops. They all knew taking to the roofs meant attracting their attacker, who was most likely still tracking them.

Shikamaru also realized he had no idea where exactly she intended to stop running. Most of her movements were west bound so maybe she was aiming for a wall. Maybe an escape, but she hadn't left the city yet in the time that she had disappeared from the complex and he didn't know why. It was a thought that he pushed to the back of his mind as it was irrelevant at the moment.

Why were they following her, was the real question. A thought that only plagued Shikamaru for a millisecond as he heard a heavy crash no more than 70 meters behind them.

Shikamaru turned to see the street filled with rushing water. He caught a glimpse of a white masked figure through the haze of rain, shrouded in dark cloths standing at the top of a building, but his vision was suddenly blocked by a two story tall mud wall that erupted from the cobble stone street. He turned back to Mist, who was now standing between Ino and him, her arms out stretched holding a hand sign in concentration.

"Up" she shouted. Ino and Shikamaru both exchanged a look and scaled the walls until they landed on the roof.

They looked back to find that Mist had released her jutsu. The earth came crashing down as a powerful rush of water filled the streets. She had managed to make her way up to them before the tides swept debris down the street, knocking against the flat faced buildings along the way and dragging any content that wasn't brick or boarded down with it.

They all looked down the path to find that the figure had vanished from their original spot. When Shikamru turned back to the two kunoichi Mist had already taken off again and Ino was close behind her. He shook his head in frustration and broke into a run. Focusing his chakra into his feet as he jumped from one rooftop to another.

He was on Ino's heals now. She was making signs with her hands that he couldn't see, but he recognized instantly as she finished, one hand moving to her forehead, with her thumb and ring finger coming together forming a circle. He sped up so he was in line with her and she flicked her wrist out in his direction. The Mind Connection Jutsu solidified and he could almost feel her anger.

'If you did this just to yell at me, we have more important things to worry about' He thought.

'You are so off Shikamaru Nara!'Her voice echoed in Shikamaru's mind drenched in frustration.

'West bound, what do you think she's heading for?' She quickly calmed herself.

'She's not trying to escape the city, she wouldn't have saved us.' Shikamaru let his thoughts bounce around his head as Ino listened in.

'There!' Shikamaru saw the edge of the city come into view and the tree line rise up in front of them. 'She has an earth affinity, she's looking for earth. She'll be most effective at warding off an attack there.'

'She's looking for a fight?!' Ino thought as they finally made it to the last building before they saw Mist drop off into the brush.

'Stop' Shikamaru heard Ino's voice loud in his mind. 'We don't know who she's trying to fight here. It could very well be us. Did you really drink that much? She's an enemy of Konoha. An enemy of us!'

He tried hard to keep his mind quiet, to not think of his next decision. He had some feeling that he needed to follow Mist. That some kind of answer was with her. That she had the last pieces to the puzzle that had plagued him since the beginning of this all.

"Shikamaru." Ino shouted as he stepped off the ledge falling out of sight bellow the canopy of the trees.

It was less than a second before he heard Ino's feet lightly hit the ground. She would follow him into any battle. Her trust in him was unwavering.

It might have been her greatest weakness.

It was even darker underneath the trees, the full moon only peeking through patches of leaves and the rain hadn't yet let up so the sounds of the forest around them were blurred and muffled. A flash of blonde hair swung out from the trees 20 meters ahead of them and the distinct sound of kunai flying through the air quickly followed. The two caught a glint of moonlight hitting metal and knew that four kunai were coming directly at them.

Ino and Shikamaru didn't have time to exchange looks, but he could imagine the look on her face as he heard Ino's voice ring in his mind. They both dodged away from one another, the kunai flying centimeters from their faces

'I told you so.'

Ino didn't have time to relish in her small victory as they heard the sound of metal hitting metal. They both looked back down at where they had been standing and found 8 kunai laying on the ground. Shikamaru turned to see a figure in all black with a white mask now charging towards them.

It was the ANBU. The ANBU had attacked them all, not once, not twice, but three times now.

Was killing Mist that important that they would risk the lives of two jonin? Shikamaru thought. That last attack was directed at them and Mist revealed herself to protect them, and now they had to ward off a Konoha ANBU attack. What a drag, Shikamaru thought.

The masked figure came for him first, at full speed, a kunai in both hands.

Shikamaru's long range was far superior to his short range attacks, so he would have to make some distance between the two of them.

He used a replacement jutsu for the first attack letting the ANBUs kunai sink deep into a wooden log, gaining about 10 meters of distance before he pulled out his own kunai. The ANBU ducked avoiding the kunai, as Shikamaru expected, but it landed in a patch of moonlight on the tree behind her. The masked figure charged at him again, but stopped mid step as Shikamaru caught her from behind with the thin shadow made by the kunai.

Ino walked slowly up to the ANBU, hesitantly making signs with her hands. She looked back at Shikamaru as if she was trying to ask him weather this was the right thing to do or not, but none of her words echoed in his head. She turned to the ANBU whose body shook trying to resist Shikamaru's shadows. Ino reached two fingers under the girl's mask and resting them on her temple.

Shikamaru released his jutsu as Ino pulled her hands away and the girl fell to the ground, her mind locked. It was done. There was no turning back now.

"What did I just do Shika?" Ino said turning to him her eyes wide. "What are we doing!?"

"I don't…" Shikamaru stepped towards her, his hand moving out reflexively to comfort her, but she took a step back and his hand fell to his side clenched in a fist of anger. He couldn't place the feeling. Wondering if it was at her for rejecting his attempt at connection, at himself for getting her entangled in this mess, or at the girl in the center of all this chaos.

"What do we do now?" Ino said her voice cracking. "You always think everything through. What was the end game here? What was the strategy?"

"I didn't… I don't know what I was thinking." Shikamaru replied taking another step towards Ino, trying again to calm her down.

He surprised himself with the level of calmness he felt about this all, but her emotions affected him deeply.

Ino's eyes welled up with tears of frustration, but she quickly masked her emotions. Her mouth unmoving and eyes going empty as she stared at Shikamaru.

"We have to go to the Hokage."

"Not just yet, Ino."

She moved to speak, but stopped, her eyes widen as Mist jumped down from the tree above her.

"We have two more coming." She said looking between the two, realizing she had dropped down into something she was not meant to hear.

She brushed them off quickly, turning on the balls of her feet before breaking into a run.

Shikamaru looked back at Ino, he shook his head, mentally scolding himself before he turned and followed Mist. Ino's anger boiling over again, as she unwilling broke into a run. But stopped short as, again, she heard the familiar sound of kunai flying through the air.

"Shika!" She screamed just in time for him to recognize the sound.

He reacted quickly out of instinct. Jumping forward and taking Mist down with him.

She had turned her body at the sound of Ino's cry so their chests collided and their bodies fumbled together as they hit the ground, sliding through the wet earth. He saw an unfamiliar look of surprise on her face at this act of blind protection, and then a look of horror as she watched his body lurch over her with the impact of the kunai.

Shikamaru grinned at her reaction and Mist furrowed her brow in confused anger. He reached back and pulled the kunai out of his thick flak jacket his smile becoming wider.

Mist scoffed and pushing Shikamaru over, and quickly rolled to her feet as the two ANBU ascended on them. He followed swiftly, jumping up into a defense position.

"Now that you're done rolling around in the grass. What do you propose we do?" Ino belted out in anger.

Shikamaru quickly looked over the ANBU. One was making hand signs, that meant long range, but he couldn't decipher the jutsu, the one on the right was wielding sharp blades in each hand, short range.

'Ino, we'll take the one on the left.' He proposed to her, knowing that Mist could handle herself and hoping he could protect Ino from the mess he had gotten them both into.

"Mist on the right." Shikamaru said in a low voice.

She lowered her head. Analyzing the ANBU's movements carefully.

Ino pulled out two kunai settling back into a defensive pose and waiting for Shikamaru's jutsu. This was not an unfamiliar thing to them, and their battle techniques were like clockwork, but they both let out shouts of surprise as the ground beneath their feet dropped 10 meters and they found themselves in a basin of earth.

Mist had used an earth jutsu to drop the playing field even more. The ANBU were unfazed, skidding down the side of the basin and continuing on their way to the center of the basin where the three waited.

Mist lowered her body and began to run at them dragging her hands along the earth as she went. Ino and Shikamaru watched as she pulled her hands up, thick blades of hardened earth encapsulating her fists. It appeared as if she was going to go hand to hand, but just as she reached them she used a chakra infused jump and sailed over the pair thrusting her arms down at them and releasing the earth blades. They both avoided them with skillful speed as she landed behind the two ANBU.

In perfect synchronicity one swerved to face her and the other stood to face Shikamaru and Ino, who both stood frozen in place.

'See they're not attacking us like you thought Shikamaru. They're just after her.'

'Don't speak too soon.' Shikamaru thought as the ANBU reached into his utility pouch, pulling out a kunai. Then made hand signs to quickly produce two clones.

Shikamaru heard rumors of who was enlisted in the ANBU, but they were just whispers. Being in the Strategic Unit meant any mission that was too dangerous or sensitive was handed over to them. The ANBU was run within, so the Strategic Unit played no role in assigning missions and deciding who fit best for them. He had no idea of the skill levels and genjutsus of its members, so he didn't know what to expect from these enemies, which put them at a huge disadvantage because the ANBU probably knew all their tricks.

But there were still those who spoke in passing of missions, lives lost and battles waged by the secret society. Maybe they would give something away that revealed their identity.

This particular ANBU obviously wasn't going to give up the secret of his genjutsu. He was using short range attacks and hand to hand combat to exhaust Shikamaru and Ino. They could both see that his partner was doing the same with Mist as she moved with furry, pulling blade after blade from the walls and floor of the basin.

It wasn't until they heard a yell of frustration from Mist that their foe slowed his attacks focusing on the battle behind them as he warded off a shower of kunia from Ino. Ino and Shikamaru were also distracted as they saw Mist make hand signs. Even through the rain Shikamaru could see her eyes changing to a dark stormy blue.

"No don't let her use that jutsu." They heard the ANBU scream muffled through his mask as he turned fully away from the two and began running towards Mist

It was too late. Mist's fist slammed into the mud soaked with rain and in a split second they didn't see her. They didn't see anything. Just mist.

Shikamaru knew Ino was close to him. She normally stayed a couple meters away from Shikamaru in battle, even though she rarely used her full body mind transfer jutsu in situations like this, their earlier days of learning to fight as genin always subconsciously forced them to gravitate towards each other when a fight became murky.

He reached his hand out hoping to find her. He brushed her skin and she pulled away in fear reflexively trying not to make a sound of surprised.

'Shika' He heard her voice in his head with the slightest inflection of fear.

'Its me'

Ino stepped in closer, putting one hand on his shoulder. He reached back resting his at her waist and bring her behind him. He pulled a kunia from one of his vest pockets and listening closely. The rain was coming down heavy, putting a haze over the only sense he had left in the dense mist. He couldn't hear footsteps or kunia fly or the impact of hand to hand combat. He forced himself to listen harder, but as he did, even the sound of rain began to fade until he couldn't hear anything. The fear of vulnerability made his muscles tense and he held tighter to Ino's waist, but then he noticed he couldn't even feel that.

All his senses were blurred and vacant. This was no ordinary water jutsu, this mist was a genjutsu. It created some kind of sensory deprivation. Shikamaru felt alone and defenseless as had no sense as to what was going on around him, but then he remembered Ino's mind connection jutsu maybe it was still there.

'Ino!' he called out in his mind.

'Shikamaru! What's going on? Where did you go? I can't see anything. I can't hear anything.' She sounded scared and desperate. The jutsu was working just as intended on her, but Shikamaru had figured it out, and thankfully it hadn't broken their connection.

'It's just a genjutsu Ino' Shikamaru tried to stay calm for her sake 'It's just an illusion'

'I can't even feel chakra. I don't know where anyone is.' She sounded frantic 'I can't even feel you. What were we thinking? What was I thinking?'

'It's a genjutsu of the mind Ino. You have the best chance of breaking this.'

He couldn't hear any distinct thoughts, but fragments of her thoughts made the connection sound like static noise.

'Calm down, Ino.' He tried to sound soothing. 'Just think of the task at hand. Focus on the complexity of the illusion.'

'I can't' he heard her cry in desperation.

She was letting the fear get the best of her. It was her emotions that dictated her battles, it was what made them so different. Shikamaru was calculated and let emotions fall to the side in battle. Ino harnessed hers to fuel her fighting, but now it was her downfall. She wasn't thinking.

Shikamaru didn't know if it was minutes or hours, but all of a sudden his senses where back. The rain heavy and loud, almost too loud for him to bear and the cold of the droplets felt like sharp stones hitting his face. The mist was still thick, making it impossible for him to see any more than a meter ahead of him but he could feel Ino's waist warm against his hand.

He quickly turned around, pulling her into an embrace. He could feel her body tremble against his, and he silently cursed himself for being the cause of all this. He closed his eyes in frustrated anger, forgetting that they were still in the middle of a huge hole in the earth with two ANBU after them.

He snapped back to reality, opening his eyes to find that the mist had cleared. He let Ino go reluctantly and turned. Mist was standing over two ANBU lying motionless on the ground.