Silence.
This was it! The big mission! He finally got to go on a mission WORTHY of his talents! He would show that old lady Tsunade how strong he was! Not the mention the whole Sand Village; that was bonus points.
More silence.
He wondered how tough these gangsters really were. Of course, it didn't matter in the least; he would still blow them away into next month. Yeah… Next month sounded good.
Continued silence.
Ok, now it was getting ridiculous. Wasn't anything going to happen?! Glancing around, the boy found no signs of… well… life! No birds were chirping, and there wasn't even a nice breeze; ok, ok, no problem, no problem… He was sure that he was going to get plenty of action when they reached Sunagakure. But, still… Good lord, wasn't anyone going to say something?! The boy had to convince himself that he wasn't traveling with a pack of undead zombies. Although…. Fighting zombies would be fun and exotic, wouldn't it?
And still, the silence prolonged.
No, wait!! He heard something!
Yawn.
The boy had to restrain himself from sighing very heavily. "Well crap…" He thought as one of his teammates (the laziest person on the face of the planet, he was sure) heaved a loud yawn.
"He did say that Granny Tsunade was trying to kill him…" The blond thought, glancing at his topic of thought, "Oh well… No zombies here I guess…"
"Hey, Kankuro…"
Naruto was sure he heard angels sing; someone talked!! Hopefully what he said would spark some dangerous topic of choice, or maybe some giant man-eating giraffe would- Ok, never mind, that's just ridiculous… Naruto concluded that his thoughts of a tough battle had crossed over to another atmosphere ENTIRELY.
"Yeah?" Kankuro, who was leading the group, turned a glance at Shikamaru, who had just broken the eerie silence.
"I have a question about these people who are terrorizing your town," Shikamaru answered as the group jumped across the trees.
Kankuro's brow furrowed. Did he have to say terrorizing? "Yeah, what about 'em?"
"Are these guys just run of the mill bandits, or are they actual ninja?"
The question surprised Naruto, Choji, and Kiba.
Kankuro was silent.
"I mean, if they were just bandits, I can't see how they would've eluded the Sand's ninja for this long," Shikamaru finished, clarifying his question.
The Sand shinobi looked suddenly uncomfortable, "We don't know."
"You don't know??" Kiba asked, accenting the 'know' part, "How can you not tell?"
"You guys don't know about how those villagers were killed, do you?" Kankuro responded roughly.
"… How?" Shikamaru asked after he knew by the sudden chill in the air that no one else was going to ask.
Kankuro didn't respond for a moment. He stopped jumping and let himself fall to the forest floor. The rest of them followed his lead and waited for him to answer Shikamaru's grim question. Kankuro turned to face all of them, "They were found bu-" His eyes widened, "Everyone get down!!" He yelled suddenly as a flurry of kunai came raining down on them.
Shocked, everyone ducked into the trees to avoid being pricked by the horrible ninja tool. There wasn't more than one flurry though, so they all quickly got up, getting into battle ready stances.
"W-What the hell?!" Naruto said, glaring back at the direction the kunai came from.
"Kankuro?!" Shikamaru said, quickly turning to him.
Kankuro slipped Crow off his back, "Watch it, you guys! It's them."
"Them?" Choji repeated, looking on into the trees, "You mean those people that are terrorizing the Sand?"
"Yeah," Kankuro said grimly.
Suddenly, three of their attackers jumped down to the ground, staring the group down. Each of them had dark masks like Kakashi, so only their eyes could be seen.
"Who the hell are you guys?!" Naruto yelled out, although Kankuro had just confirmed that they were the enemy.
The one in the middle chuckled, "My name is Hideyoshi. These are my brothers, Katsuo," He pointed to his left, "and Ren," He pointed to his right, "Pleased to make your acquaintance," He said sneeringly, in a voice that could make you cringe, "?!" Hideyoshi's eyes widened as he and his brothers stopped; like they were frozen.
Naruto, who was confused, turned around and smiled when he saw Shikamaru holding them down with his Shadow Possession Jutsu, "Yeah, alright Shikamaru!!" The whole group seemed to be happier at seeing this.
"Unfortunately…" Shikamaru smirked, still holding them, "The feeling of acquaintance isn't' mutual."
"You guys don't know who you're up against!" Kiba said as he and Akamaru got ready for a fight.
Hideyoshi, Katsuo, and Ren smirked, "No…" Hideyoshi said, "You're the ones who don't know you you're up against!"
Suddenly, Katsuo disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
"What?? A Substitution Jutsu?!" Naruto exclaimed.
"I didn't think anyone could escape the Shadow Possession Jutsu like that!" Choji said.
"No one has before…" Shikamaru said dangerously.
"Careful guys! He could be anywhere!" Kankuro warned, getting Crow ready,"Damn, I didn't think to bring the Black Ant…"
"?!" Shikamaru suddenly clenched his teeth together, grunting.
"Shikamaru? What's wrong??" Choji asked quickly.
"I…. I don't know… I… I can't…" Shikamaru's shoulders started shaking and beads of sweat started rolling down his face.
"Hey, what's going on?!" Naruto asked quickly, running up to Shikamaru and Choji.
Hideyoshi laughed, drawing everyone's attention,"You haven't seen anything yet, children!"
The shadow that impaired Hideyoshi and Ren's movements slowly started to dissipate and return to Shikamaru, who looked like he might crumble at any moment.
"Shikamaru!" Choji knelt down by his best friend, holding on to his shoulder, "Are you alright?!"
"The shadow came back…" Kiba said, flabbergasted.
The moment the shadow came back, Shikamaru broke down on his hands and knees. His breathing was labored, and his body became hot from sweat. Every breath was let out in desperate gasps.
"What the hell did you do to him?!" Naruto demanded, staring at Hideyoshi with a loathsome glare.
"Quite a nasty glare, boy," Hideyoshi and Ren both chuckled, "But it's Katsuo's handiwork this time…"
"The ninja that disappeared?" Naruto thought.
"Hunt him down," Kankuro said, stepping forward with Crow. He looked angry.
"No problem!" Kiba said confidently, throwing in a smirk, "Akamaru!" The small dog barked and hopped onto Kiba's back as he crouched down, "Ninja Art: beast Mimicry!" Akamaru then transformed into a copy of Kiba, "Fang Over Fang!!" A swirling vortex is what became of Kiba and Akamaru as they launched into the trees.
"Brother, it seems that they have one of Konoha's dogs with them," Ren said to Hideyoshi as the two of them watched Kiba and Akamaru burrow into the trees looking for their brother, mildly interested.
"I see that," Hideyoshi said while looking at the explosive attack.
"Hey, don't look at him!"
"Huh?"
Naruto flew up into the air and wound up his fist, going down to punch Hideyoshi, "I'm YOUR fight!"
Underneath his mask, Hideyoshi smirked, "Sorry," He and Ren jumped back to the branch of a tree, "But I'm afraid we've run out of time."
"What?!" Naruto said as he landed back on solid ground.
"We'll definitely play again sometime," Hideyoshi waved, "Goodbye for now!" Then, he and Ren disappeared without a trace.
Soon after, Kiba an Akamaru's attack ended, leaving many a toppled tree in its wake. However…
"It's no good!" Kiba yelled to the others, "I've lost all of their scents!"
"Gaah!!" Shikamaru gasped loudly, falling to his face.
"Shikamaru!!" Choji called out again with worry in his voice.
"Damn it!" Naruto yelled as he ran back to the group, "They're all gone!"
Everyone gathered around Shikamaru, since he was the one who had received the enemy's attack
Struggling, he managed to turn himself to his back and open his eyes. He breathed long heavy breathes, "That…" He gasped, "Was hell…"
