Sorry for the lateness, I've been busy and had lots of problems but thats okay. This is deticated to my mom because 1.) today is her birthday, 2.)she supported the fact that i make stories (even yaoi stories), and 3.)she lets me on the computer from 6 in the morning to 10 at night. lol ^w^

Enjoy!

DISCLAIMER! I do not own or work for Naruto, therefore i don't own any of the charaters in this story... except for Lynne.

Chapter 9

Making Decisions

We've been in this damned dome for almost a half hour when Shikamaru opened his eyes again. Choji has eaten through four bags of chips and Neji had finally started to break a sweat. Naruto and Kiba looked close to passing out and I, too, have looked flushed and drained.

Every scratch, dent, mark, and hole Naruto and Kiba made was reforming and fixing itself. We weren't getting anywhere with this except tired. Kiba stood up and Akamaru lay at his feet, whimpering. "I give us about 10 more minutes of this before our chakras completely drained."

Shikamaru stood up and looked to a wall in the dome. "Hey out there! Let me talk to your leader, I've got a deal to propose." Shikamaru shouted so to be over heard by the Ninja's outside. "What I'm thinking is you let us out of this thing and in return we let you keep Sasuke."

"But, Shikamaru, what are you doing?" Naruto asked with confusion written all over his face.

What is Shikamaru thinking? He led this whole mission only to give up here? No way, there has to be a plan behind this.

Oh, you're right about that Lynne. Just watch. Ka Ryu said before his chuckling started to fade away.

"No deal, I've never let a captive go before," came a voice from the other side of the dome, "and I'm not about to start now."

"Aww, come on," Shikamaru continued. "Listen, how about you just let me go and keep the others." Naruto's eyes widened at the comment Shikamaru made and Kiba started to grind his teeth together. "All this fighting, I'm tired of it. It's really not my thing. "

Kiba snapped, "You little, you're selling us out! I'm going to ring your neck!"

Shikamaru just stood there, not even looking in Kiba's direction. "Shut up Kiba, for once in your life."

Kiba took a step forward and raised his clenched fists, "What did you say?" Kiba was getting close to punching Shikamaru.

That's when we heard it; it was a deep chuckling noise coming from the other side again. "So much for team work. So you're really the leader, huh? Way to set a fine example to the rest of your team. You see a man's true character when he is pushed to the edge of death. But you're hardly a man at all, certainly not one who's worthy of leading a team of ninja into battle." Choji was getting pretty pissed off and I could hear his teeth grinding from the other side of the dome. But the voice seemed to continue. "Sacrificing Sasuke and the rest of your squad, ha. So that's how a leaf Chunin acts? Did you really believe I might let you out? You deserve to die."

"That does it Shikamaru," Naruto yelled, "you dirty little traitor. Let's take this outside, just you and me!"

Kiba walked over next to Naruto, "What do you mean take this outside? How are you going to do that you idiot? We're trapped in here."

Naruto growled and turned to Kiba, "What did you just call me?"

Kiba grabbed Naruto by the collar of his jacket, "I called you an idiot, idiot!"

Naruto grabbed Kiba into a head lock and started yelling in Kiba's ear, "That's what I thought you said."

Choji looked over to the two, "Guys, that's enough! Everybody just shut up!" That make Naruto and Kiba stop in their tracks. Wow, who knew Choji had it in him? I thought.

Naruto let go of Kiba, who stood up straight, "Choji?" I looked over toward Shikamaru who was in is thinking pose again, and then back to Choji who was eating another bag of chips. Naruto noticed this too and started asking questions. "Is that all you think about?"

"That's Choji for you, conspires to a crisis by stuffing his face. He's a real big help." Kiba retorted. I was getting tired of this. Why was everyone fighting? Can't they see that Shikamaru is planning something and Choji is just trying to help? Of course not, because boys are idiots… well, with a few exceptions.

Naruto turned his back on Choji, "forget this; I'm going to give Shadow Clones a try."

Neji stepped up and spoke for the first time since the fight. "Don't bother, that ninja has incased this wall with chakra so that it repairs itself. Your Shadow Clones won't work; you'll only deplete your own chakra. The fact is, multiple attacks won't work. Our only chance is a Taijustu strong enough to destroy it in one blow."

Kiba looked over to where Choji was eating, "Well Choji has a Taijustu with a knock-out punch even stronger than mine, but just look at him. He's got other things on his mind."

Naruto turned around to face Choji again, "Come on, what are we going to do? Just stand here?"

That's when I noticed Shikamaru open his eyes and lift his head up. "Neji, I need you to focus those eyes of your on the wall directly behind you and directly behind Choji. Do you think you have enough Chakra for that?"

"I think so."

Naruto stomped a foot on the ground and raised a clenched fist, "Hold on, you're not going to listen to him?"

Choji stopped eating and stepped forward. "Naruto! You still don't get it, do you? Don't you remember what Shikamaru said when we came together as a team?" Naruto looked over to Choji again.

*Flash Back*

Shikamaru was stand in front of the group after going over the plan. "I know I usually seem like a pretty lazy guy, but not today. 'Cause now I'm responsible for your lives too."

*End Flash Back*

Shikamaru looked over towards Choji, "Okay Choji, try and keep your voice down, will yah?" Shikamaru turned towards Kiba and continued. "Kiba, are you up to putting another dent in that wall behind Choji?"

Kiba looked confused but agreed to it anyway. Kiba bent his knees and clapped his hands together in front of his face, "I don't know what's going on but I'm always up for going wild." Kiba jumped into the air and started spinning so fast that he resembled a drill bit. "Tunneling Fang." Kiba hit the wall directly behind Choji with a loud blast, bringing up a cloud of smoke with it. When Kiba finally stopped and land on the ground, huffing and sucking in air, there were several large dents in the walls.

Neji looked from one side of the wall to the other with his Byakugan. I looked at the dents too and noticed that one of the dents was healing slower than the others and at one point completely stopped.

Naruto looked over to Neji who was looking at the same spot that I was. Shikamaru looked at the groups and continued with his plan. "Alright, Neji, mark the spot with your kunai, will yah?" Shikamaru looked at Choji and continued again, "Choji, ready buddy?"

Choji stepped forward and smiled, "Shikamaru, I was born ready."

Shikamaru smiled, "Good, then let's get started."

Naruto looked from Choji to Shikamaru, "wait, let's get what started?"

Neji looked up toward Naruto, "As I said a moment ago, this wall surrounding us has been infused with chakra," Neji pulled a kunai out of his pouch and lifted it up to his face. "However, the strength of the chakra won't be uniform. Some points in the wall must be weaker than the others. Shikamaru was able to figure that out."

Naruto thought about it for a second, "He did, really? You could have fooled me. When the heck was this?"

Neji looked a little impatient but continued the lecture, "He's been watching, and taking league. For example, when Kiba and Akamaru were attacking the wall, while you were watching he was studying the wall. He observed that some areas repaired more slowly than others." Neji took a side step and threw the kunai across the dome and stuck it into a hole on the other side that we were looking at earlier. "That led him to suspect that it was those points that it was the weakest." Shikamaru smiled and nodded in agreement to Neji's statement. "Still, he needed to be sure. That's why he spoke to our captor as he did. It was a rouse, to trick him into giving away his position. And it worked, confirming that Shikamaru's suspicions were correct. The band of chakra running through the walls are the thinnest and the weakest the point opposite of his position." Neji looked over to Shikamaru, "That's about right, isn't it?"

Everyone looked towards Shikamaru who nodded and chuckled in agreement. Man, he's smarter that I gave him credit for. Did you know about this plan?

Yes, all along.

Then why didn't you tell me?

Because I didn't have to, Neji did that for me.

Well, thank you! I thought with sarcasm dripping from every word.

Everyone looked over to Choji, "Okay Choji, it's up to you," Shikamaru prompted.

Choji made a hand sign in front of his chest, "Okay." There was a puff of smoke and Choji's body started to expand until he resembled a ball. "Expansion Jutsu! Alright, here we go." Choji's limbs started to retract and disappear into his clothing and body, making him perfectly round. "Human Boulder!"

Choji started rolling and hitting the wall where the kunai was. Dust and dirt were flying everywhere. Choji just kept drilling into the wall. After only a few seconds Choji broke through the barrier and fresh air hit my face.

All six of us jumped out of the dome of dirt and stood in a line on the other side facing our captor. The rest of the walls rumbled into the ground leaving the fat man just standing there with his arms out, holding nothing.

Shikamaru smiled, "well Choji, there is just no other way of saying it. That was awesome." Choji smiled wide and chuckled like he was in front of an endless, free buffet. But a closer look showed me that Choji was running out of energy and chakra; his breaths were coming out in huffs and puffs. "He's by himself, guess the others went ahead."

Neji looked left to right with his Byakugan and confirmed that the others are nowhere to be seen. "Swell, and just when I thought we had caught up to them," Shikamaru ranted.

How the hell are we supposed to catch up with them now?

I was pulled out of my thoughts when we all heard a clapping noise coming from the fat man across the field. "Not a bad bit of handy work you guys," said the man while he smiled at us like a chestier cat, "for a bunch of losers."

Both Naruto and Kiba took a step forward, "What?" yelled Naruto.

"Who are you calling a bunch of losers?" yelled Kiba. Both Naruto and Kiba started charging toward the ninja. "Now that we're out, you're toast pal!"

"Out of the way," Naruto yelled next to Kiba, "this guy is mine!"

I was about to stop both of the idiots but a voice, coming from next to me, stopped me in my tracks. "Will you two stop?" I looked over to the source and found Neji glaring at the two knuckle-heads. Both Naruto and Kiba stopped in their tracks and looked back to Neji. "There's no way we can defeat him head-on. It's too dangerous."

"We just tore through this clown's barrier, how tough can he be?" Kiba asked. Kiba then made a hand sign and bent over to touch the ground. He then jumped into the air and started spinning like earlier. "Tunneling Fang!" but the move was stopped dead in its tracks when the man raised his arm and pushed Kiba backwards.

Naruto then jumped over Kiba's body and made an almost similar hand sign. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Suddenly there were two Naruto's coming at the man. Both of them pulled back their fist with an intention to punch the ninja. "Get a load of this you gorilla!" but Naruto's attack was also stopped by the man.

He pushed the real Naruto into a tree and head butted the clone in one swift movement. The clone disappeared in a puff of smoke. "I'm going to eat you guys for lunch."

Kiba stood up and faced the man, "Try it."

That made him even angrier and he charged the whole group. He slammed into Kiba and made him fall back a few feet. "Shoulder Charge." Naruto then jumped up and made a hand sign but the man kneed him in the gut before the Jutsu was activated, "Special Kick." Now both Naruto and Kiba lay in a heap on the ground. The man bent his knees and made a hand sign, "You guy's wouldn't even do as an appetizer."

Shikamaru stepped forward to address the group, "Carful everyone, this guy is just getting warmed up."

The man then slammed his hand down on the ground. The ground then started to crumble and knocked Naruto back some more. "Earth Style Barrier; Earth's Gold Prison!" the ground started to shake some more.

Choji then Jumped in front of the whole group and made a hand sign, "Expansion Jutsu; Human Boulder!" Choji's limbs retracted again and his body started to spin. A cloud of dust came up and made a cover for us to hide.

When the dust died down the man stood up straight and grunted, "Hardly worth the effort." He then looked from left to right.

*Elsewhere*

We were hiding in a bush not far from the sight. We were all sitting in a tight circle and were going over what we should do next. "We're running out of time," said Shikamaru. "There's no choice, we gotta split up."

"What would be the point in that?" asked Naruto.

"No, he's right," Neji activated his Byakugan and looked in the direction of where the man was. "With all our chakra taken away, even with the five of us against him, he's not going to be easy to take out. And with every second that passes Sasuke gets closer to the boarder. Once he crosses it, it'll all be out of our hands. So we should split into two groups, one to stop him and one to follow Sasuke."

Shikamaru nodded his head in agreement, "You'll head the second team, okay Neji?"

All of a sudden the ground started to shake and we heard a loud yell come from behind us. I looked over my shoulder to get a glance at who was yelling but caught sight of a tree falling down, getting ready to crush both me and Naruto. Naruto jumped out of the way and landed next to Choji while I landed next to Neji.

"So there you are," the man smiled at us.

Shikamaru turned to Neji, "Neji, you take Kiba, Lynne and Choji with you to go after Sasuke."

Neji nodded his head, "You've got it."

Choji scrunched up his nose. Shikamaru made a hand sign, "Naruto, you and I will take this guy."

The man kept smiling at us, "What are you going to do, play with my shadow again? Don't waste my time kid. You already showed me your parlor trick and once was enough."

Shikamaru let out one chuckle, "That's funny; I seem to remember someone around here getting taken in by that parlor trick."

I looked over and saw a line of black shadow moving over to the ninja, but it was stopped just before it could reach the man. I noticed that another black line was coming up from behind the man this time but he didn't seem to notice that.

The man turned and chuckled at Shikamaru, but just before the shadow reached his shadow he slammed his fist down on the ground and sent up a cloud of dust and dirt. When the dust died down Neji activated his Byakugan again, "He's disappeared."

Kiba sniffed that air. After getting a good sniff he snapped his head to the left and yelled, "He's behind us!"

Everyone looked and sure enough there he was. He slammed a hand down on the ground again and lifted up a huge chunk of the ground the size of the perimeter around the Hokage's office, "Earth Style; Sphere of Rage!" He then threw the large boulder at us.

"Are you insane?" Naruto screamed at the man.

The boulder started to barrel towards us, of course. We all jumped out of the way just in time before it could flatten us. When the boulder finally came to a stop all six of us landed in front of it. Shikamaru looked from left to right but the fat guy had disappeared.

The ground started to shake again, "Heads up you guys," Shikamaru yelled. "There's another one coming."

That's when a hand popped out of the ground rite beneath Shikamaru. He jumped but wasn't fast enough and was grabbed by the ankle as the man jumped out of the ground. When he had finally gotten all the way out he was holding Shikamaru by both ankles, up-side-down.

Nobody dared move in fear that the man would kill Shikamaru, "Your in charge of this rag-tag bunch, am I right? When you've got an idiot for a leader the whole team suffers." The man smiled at his own comment, "know what I mean?" I looked over when I heard an audible growl coming from Choji, but the man kept on talking like it was nothing, "you don't want to follow a guy like this. " The man then started to swing Shikamaru around in a circle above his head. "Let me just get rid of him for yah."

With that the man chucked Shikamaru over towards the forest line. We could only watch him as he got closer to hitting the trees with every second. That's when Choji yelled "Expansion Jutsu; Human Boulder." He then started to spin over towards the spot where Shikamaru was supposed to hit a tree but instead bounced off Choji's stomach.

Shikamaru landed with a flip, "Thanks Choji."

"Aww," We all looked back over towards the man again. "I try to help you guys out and look what you do. I don't know which is more pathetic, the fool or those who follow them."Tell you what, you don't want to keep working under this glommed face, little, shadow lover. I'll just kill you now and put you out of your misery."

Naruto Stepped toward him "It's time for you to shut your big mouth. Or I'll come shut it for you."

"NARUTO!" I looked back towards Choji who was getting up. "I'll handle him. This guy is mine."

The man's smiled fell off of his face. Everyone looked towards Choji as if he were crazy. "What the heck are you talking about?" Naruto yelled. "This isn't the type of guy you can take on your own."

"He's mine I said."

"Yeah, but Choji, you…"

Choji grabbed for a pouch out of his bag and held it out to Shikamaru, "Shikamaru, take these food pills for everyone."

"Choji, you're not gonna?"

"Uh huh," It was obvious that whatever they were talking about wasn't good but Choji only stood there with a smile on his face. "Don't worry; I've got my secret weapon with me."

Shikamaru grabbed the pouch but continued to worry, despite Choji's words. "Yeah, but Choji, this is…" Shikamaru's train of thought was trailed off as Choji just walked on ahead.

The man was standing in the same spot but was now holding a hand on his hip. "Oh, well this is priceless. You think I'm gonna wait forever?" The fat man then charged after us once more, but Choji was ahead of it already and stepped out in front of us. He then grabbed for something out of his bag and pulled out a case with three colored pills in the shape of balls in it, one green, the second yellow and the other red. "Hurry up, get going."

He then opened the top to the green pill and threw it into his mouth and started to chew.

"Get out of my way you joke," came the fat man as he got closer. There was a loud bam as Choji stopped the man in the middle of his charge. Wow, Choji is just full of surprises today.

"Shikamaru, get everybody and get out of here," Choji's voice was strained but we could all hear the urgency in the request. "What did the six of us fight together for? If we lose Sasuke we'll be just what this guy says we are, a stupid idiot of a leader and a band of rejects." Choji was holding onto the man the whole time he was talking. The man looked like he was shocked that he could be stopped so easily.

Shikamaru closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He then opened his eyes, "You better catch up with us Choji, you hear me?"

"Yeah, Yeah I hear, go already." Choji yelled one last time.

"Alright, let's move you guys!" Shikamaru ordered. Everyone yelled right and jumped off into the direction of Sasuke.

I stayed and looked over towards Choji, "Good luck Choji! Kick his ass for me too."

"Will do, just go!" I nodded my head even though I knew he couldn't see it and then jumped off to join the others.

Hope You enjoyed the next chapter, i wanted to take it all the way to the point that they (Lynne and naruto) meet Kimimaru but this just took so long. and i made it this way because the plot was good and i didnt want to mess it up. so sorry if you hate it this way.

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