DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto, any characters affiliated, the "I Spy" game, green (you can tell I'm running out of ideas), syringes, a campfire, the Hyuuga cursed seal, or the words 'baba ganoush'. Not that baba ganoush is in this chapter...(cough)

A/N: Almost couldn't post today...darned class in the library during my spare, not letting me use the computers...

Itachi: Ignore her. Just read.

"I spy, with my little eye, something that is..." Pooriin looked around for a second, then said, "Green."

Michiko yawned while she, Pooriin, and Goudon played their game; for the whole day, she didn't feel like she'd slept at all.

"That mossy log over there?" Michiko guessed, pointing to the side.

"No," Pooriin shook her head.

"Hinata's sleeping mat?" Goudon guessed, pointing at Hinata, who was walking backwards, watching the road behind them.

"No."

"Kurenai-san's water bottle?" Michiko guessed, pointing.

"No."

"That leaf?" Goudon asked, now bored.

"No."

"That leaf?" Goudon pointed at another leaf on the same tree.

"...No."

"That one?"

"No..."

"That one?"

"Aniki..."

"How about that one?" Goudon asked, this time pointing at a different tree.

Pooriin glared at her older brother, then at Michiko, who was trying to stifle a giggle.

"If neither of you want to play, then just say so," Pooriin huffed, crossing her arms.

"I don't wanna play anymore," Michiko said quickly.

"Me neither," Goudon agreed.

"You guys! This was supposed to be fun!" Pooriin exclaimed.

To a 6-year-old, Michiko thought.

Chatora...Kiba thought moodily, trying to be angry at her, and trying to suppress the urge to say that 'I spy' was still a favourite game of his, and he'd love to play with Pooriin. (A/N: ...Not like that...)

"No offence, Pooriin, but after a fourth hour, any game can get boring," Goudon said, trying not to grin.

"It wasn't four hours," Pooriin pouted, glancing at her watch, "It was...three hours and forty-eight minutes."

Michiko grinned, and Korii, who had been eavesdropping, rolled his eyes.

Too bad Inel-sensei isn't here; he'd want to play, Michiko thought.

Kyou had been sent by his father, Koshinu, to get one experienced jounin for help back in the Thyme Village. Apparently, some of the guests that had been invited to the reunion were causing problems in the village, as well as a group of troublemakers that had coordinated to wreak havoc on the village during their celebration. Inel had gone ahead that morning with Kyou to take care of the problem, leaving the group still in Korii and Shino's leadership, with Kurenai watching over them. Also, Michiko stood at the right beside Goudon, taking Inel's place in the guard formation. It was now late afternoon, and no other attacks had happened.

Now, Deniizu, who was still at the front of the group, saw something in the corner of her eye.

"Korii," Deniizu said, holding her arms out to the side so that the group stopped with her.

"I know," Korii nodded, focusing his Byakugan to the left, "There's someone there about 34 feet away...two people. Two brown-haired girls that look alike."

"Are they the same from before?" Shino asked.

"Yeah."

"I'll go check," Kurenai said, stepping out of her place, thinking, Inel-san is insane, trusting the whole group to two genins. I should go; none of them have nearly enough experience.

Korii nodded, and Kurenai walked into the woods where Korii pointed. Immediately, Kurenai could sense that there were two people directly in front of her, but with more people watching.

"Korii, is there anyone else around me?" Kurenai asked, calling back to the team, which was now quite a distance away.

Korii widened his Byakugan range and looked around Kurenai. Mentally kicking himself for focusing only on a small area, Korii saw people hidden around the new jounin.

"Yeah. Two people; one in the tree at about seven o'clock, the other in a bush at about two thirty," Korii called.

Kurenai deftly threw kunai at each place, and both strangers jumped out of their hiding places and attacked, along with the other two. The one in the tree was the boy in a long, brown coat, and the one in the bushes was the red-haired boy with the backpack of jars. Kurenai defended from all four of them easily, but something didn't feel right to her. She felt as if they were waiting for something.

"Ezu, do your thing!" the short-haired girl said.

"Not yet!" the boy in the brown coat said, "Wait for Sumoggu."

"I don't see why we don't just kill her," the other boy muttered, slashing at Kurenai's shoulder.

I'm a hostage? Kurenai thought.

"Korii..." Michiko started, then frowned and stopped talking.

"Yeah," Korii nodded, "Yeah, I feel it too."

"Should we help her?" Hinata asked, concerned.

"She's handling four people just fine," Deniizu shrugged, but she felt that strange sense of foreboding too.

"...I just don't want to make a mistake," Michiko said quietly, realizing that she had unintentionally taken out a kunai.

"If more people appear, we should help," Shino said, and Korii nodded.

"It's time, Ezu!" a new voice rang out.

The genins and their clients turned and saw the Dr. Mario look-alike, the girl in the green tunic, and the girl in white all jump into the fray.

"More people," Kiba said firmly, beginning to walk towards his sensei, "Let's go."

"Ok, Michiko, Hinata, Shino, all three of you stay with the clients. Deniizu, Kiba, we'll help Kurenai-san out," Korii ordered, already running.

The others followed promptly, all of them intent on helping Kurenai, until they noticed what was happening up ahead; they froze in their places when they realized what they were seeing.

The long-haired girl, Ezu, had created an intricate seal with her hands, and ice was quickly 'growing' in tendrils around Kurenai's legs from puddles that none of them had noticed. Kurenai tried to break away, but the ice was like steel. When the tendrils of ice reached Kurenai's waist, the enemy stopped fighting and stood back to watch, satisfied looks on their faces. Korii shook his head and pushed Kiba and Deniizu lightly, getting them to move again.

"Snap out of it!" he yelled, "Shit, we have to help!"

The ice held Kurenai's arms out to the side, immobilizing her, and the boy in black stepped forward, a syringe in his hand. With a small smile and mocking salute to the jounin, he injected the clear liquid into her right forearm, and he and his team disappeared while the ice tendrils melted away, just as Korii, Deniizu and Kiba reached Kurenai.

"Cowards," Kurenai muttered, feeling herself lose control of her arms and legs.

"What did they inject?" Korii asked brusquely, catching Kurenai as she fell.

"Some kind of poison," Kurenai answered, suddenly feeling drowsy and her speech beginning to slur, "Take care...clients...the clients..."

With that last phrase, Kurenai blacked out.

NOOO! ANGST! ANGST!

That night, Korii called a group meeting around their campfire. Looking around the fire, the seating arrangement was Korii, Deniizu, Kiba, Shino, Pooriin, Goudon, Bikto, and back to Korii again. Michiko and Hinata were in a tent within hearing distance, tending to Kurenai as the group spoke.

"Looks like we're in bad shape," Korii said after a moment of awkward silence, "We've all lost our sensei. Normally I'd throw a party if Inel-sensei were away on his own personal mission, but since Kurenai-sensei is away because she's been badly poisoned, I'll try to be considerate."

"Can't Michiko heal her?" Pooriin asked.

"No," Deniizu answered flatly, poking the fire with a stick so sparks flew, "She's trying, but since she hasn't had any experience with poisons before, there's not much she can do."

Bikto smirked and shook his head.

"Medical ninjas are useless," he snickered, earning a silencing glare from his siblings.

"Is there anything you can say that's helpful, Chatora?" Kiba growled, staring angrily into the fire.

"Moving right along," Korii spoke up loudly, "There's not much we can do right now, other than make a new formation and strategy to get to the Thyme village as quickly as possible. Shino, tell them the formation we discussed."

The Aburame nodded and took out a scroll from one of his pockets. He unrolled it and Korii held it up for all to see. There were symbols representing each person in their place in the new formation. Korii had the drawing of the Hyuuga branch family's cursed seal to stand for him. Deniizu had her personal symbol of an Egyptian eye, and Michiko had a weird symbol that looked like a four-leaf clover; both had drawn the symbol on all of their belongings since they were small. Kiba had a dog's pawprint with a triangular fang drawn on it, Shino had a rough sketch of a kikaichu, and Hinata had a yin-yang symbol; Kurenai simply had a 'k' with a circle around it, and the Chatora had their initials drawn in the same fashion.

"Pooriin and Bikto will carry Kurenai on her stretcher," Shino explained, pointing to the symbols that represented them, "Michiko will walk beside Kurenai to tend to her; Goudon will walk on the other side of the stretcher, with me on the outside; we still have to protect the clients. Deniizu and Korii will still be in front, and Hinata and Kiba will still be behind. There are fewer people now, and though that can make us less conspicuous to the enemy, we are also more vulnerable. All of us, even the two clients who are ninjas, will need to be on guard."

Hinata got out of the tent, walked to the group and examined the scroll's drawings for a moment before nodding. Pooriin grabbed her hand as she headed back to the tent to stop her.

"How are they?" Pooriin asked, concerned.

Kiba, Shino, Korii and Goudon looked up expectantly, as Hinata looked at the closed tent flap sadly, choosing her words.

"Michi-chan said that it's too early to tell," Hinata answered, and Pooriin let her go.

As Hinata re-entered the tent, Korii got up.

"Ok, guys. Let's get some sleep."

Itachi: Post a review. You know the drill. Just get out of my face.

A/N: (scared look, backs away slowly)