Author's note: I hope you love me. I update a lot. This story isn't the greatest, I'm so sorry, but it just flows so EASILY... I've got over 37 pages and I'm still typing strong. I don't own the Naruto universe. And I saw Kushina, too. SHE LOOKS LIKE ORIHIME WTH.

"There!" Katsuro had amazing night-sight. His pupils nearly filled his pale irises as they took in as much light as possible and reflected it back on the world. There was a blue flag that waved in a very slight breeze. The sun was on its way to rising, the air almost imperceptibly growing warmer.

"I don't see it," Momoko said doubtfully, breathing in short puffs. Amazingly, they hadn't encountered any other teams.

"I can," Megumi said, a bit unnecessarily as he stared into the dark.

"Oh, yes, why don't we all 'Byakugan' and have x-ray vision?" Suzume's temper had not improved. If anything, it had deteriorated drastically in the last two hours with Haruki and Katsuro constantly bickering. Everyone immediately recognized the tone in her voice and grew silent, Koga's nursing the bump on his head from disagreeing with her earlier.

"Any more sandpits?" the Inuzuka boy sneered at Asuka. She pouted, crossing her sunburned arms over her chest.

"Oh just cram it."

"Other teams wait in ambush," Yuuta said suddenly, standing stock-still as he listened intently to a wasp that had landed on the frame of his sunglasses. "One from Rain, Grass, and two from Suna. We should be able to get past the Rain and Grass teams, and maybe one of the Suna teams, but not both."

"So either way we're going to be totally screwed over my people who know the terrain and have a definite advantage," Haruki said flatly, throwing his arms into the air. "Oh goodie!"

"You have amazing chakra control," Suzume observed, taking in the technique with her Sharingan. They all clustered together, Kazuki leading the way, a shield of chakra making them look like dust devils.

"Thank you," he signed. "It is so rare to find someone who appreciates my skills."

"Shut up, Kazuki."

"My point is proven."

"Did they really think we would fall for that?" Momoko whispered and pointed up at the very top of the sides of the canyon. Small dark shapes leaned over to stare intently at the sandy gorge bottom.

"I swear the rain washes all sense out of their brains," Koga said in disdain, Jun making a weird growling noise like a chuckle. They continued on their way for another hour, Suzume taking over with the illusion when Kazuki couldn't keep it up anymore.

"Approaching the second San team…" Yuuta said quietly, his voice nearly lost over the dry breezes that swept over the desert. A hand shot out of the sand to grab Asuka's ankle. She screamed. "Approached."

The sand exploded under their feet, shattering the illusion and revealing three very dusty Sand genin. The three looked to be about sixteen. "Thanks for coming by to play," one giggled obscenely.

"Formation Leo!" Megumi cried hoarsely, grabbing chakra and barreling forward into the center Suna ninja. The Konoha genin spread out, each a point in the lion constellation with Megumi at the apex. The Kumo genin dashed out of the way, Katsuro and Kazuki pretty much drained of chakra and Asuka, quite frankly, rather useless at the moment being beet-red and dehydrated.

The middle Sand ninja hesitated, not prepared for a full-on attack. She took the attack in her arm and threw Haruki over her hip. She smirked as he spat out sand and started to form hand-seals but paused. She pulled up her sleeve, small bruised circles showing over certain nerves. "WHAT DID YOU DO YOU LITTLE FREAK?" she screeched, pulling out explosive tags and going after him.

The other two had zeroed in on Momoko, guessing her to be the weakest links. When they got within three feet of her she made a hand-sign. "Baika no jutsu!" she expanded at about sixty miles an hour, the two Sunagakure genin hitting at high velocity and keeling over with bloody noises and broken teeth.

"I beg your pardon," Megumi had darted under a ledge, having not realized before how tired he was and just how strong the enemy kunoichi was. A hand grabbed him by the back of the shirt and yanked him up onto the ledge. His rescuer, Katsuro, lashed out as he traded places with Megumi, his leg a blur as he aimed for a sensitive nerve in the kunoichi's neck. She snarled and blocked, recognizing chakra exhaustion in her opponent. She smirked at him.

"Something wrong?" she purred sweetly, making the sign of the tiger. Katsuro cursed, feeling his system over-heating. He'd had little to no rest just like the others, and the extremes of day and night temperatures were wreaking havoc on his body.

"Nothing's wrong, sweetheart," he said through gritted teeth, sweat dripping down his face. "In fact…. Everything is just… damn… right." He scrounged up his last little bit of chakra, fangs digging into his bottom lips and his ears growing larger and more pointed. She shrieked and broke away, shooting some sort of fire jutsu at him. He side-stepped easily, his reaction-time, already superb, jacked up with his blood-limit.

His inhumanly keen eyes picked out her shape as the sun started to creep into the sky. She created clones and, faster than the eye could follow, they each had a strip of red cloth in their hands and disappeared into the sand, taking her two team-mates with them. "Round two," Katsuro muttered, rolling his neck around and hearing the satisfying crack of crunching vertebrae.

Koga swore as he felt the slightest tug and his red marker disappeared. So too did the markers of the others. "Okay, evaluation," Suzume said, clapping her hands together. "We're up again three Sunagakure genin who are older and have more experience than us. This is their environment and they know the land. We're exhausted, tired, hungry, dehydrated, and just not made for this biome. Have I left anything out?"

"We have three blood-limits at our disposal and techniques from two different villages," Megumi said, shedding his jacket and tying it around his waist. He slid into a defensive Taijutsu stance. "But they've got our markers and until we get them back, we're permanently screwed."

"All for kicking their asses?" Jun jumped out of Koga's jacket and sniffed the air, growling. Small dips in the sand appeared around Yuuta as he stood there.

"Lion ants," he said by explanation, seeing Asuka's worried looks at the little pits.

Kazuki cracked his knuckles and drew out some exceptionally wicked-looking kunai from the inside pocket of his jacket. Asuka was looking a little faint, but holding up and took out a small-linked length of chain "At least metal doesn't rust when it's so dry." She said, wrapped it around a fist and leaving a bit to hang down and swing.

"Beneath you!" Haruki shouted to Katsuro, but the boy was already air-borne and spinning over the clone's head while Koga and Jun tore through it. The Inuzuka extracted a ragged strip of red cloth from between Jun's fangs.

"Got one marker," he called aloud. There was the crackle of knuckles and joints being shaken into more fight-ready positions.

"Bring it on."

Author's note: XD YAY! Tough boy talk. I've never really written the Torakiba blood limit in detail before. I don't want to focus too much on individual characters just yet. As you have probably guessed, Yuuta, Momoko, Asuka, Kazuki, and Koga are kind of side characters. Megumi will have his time, and so will the rest of Kakashi's team and Katsuro, being the tres awesome children of powerful people. Also, Koga is just Kiba's nephew. I thought it would be rather funny with Kiba being "Uncle Kiba". But his awesome name shall live on in "Torakiba" because, I mean, who DOESN'T want to have the name "Tiger Claw"? -pose of youth-

I love these guys, truly. It will be more about Suzume and Haruki later on. Right now they are more team-mates and Haruki's too busy being emo and kicking ass to pay attention to a certain pretty Uchiha girl. Enough talk, now. Until next time!

I love how they tell Kazuki to shut up. X3