DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto, any characters affiliated, a silent Bikto, talking dogs or cats, smoke bombs, Dr. Mario (which I should've mentioned in past chapters, sorry!), insane dog-users-

Itachi: Enough! No-one reads disclaimers anyway! Just get on with the story!

A/N: Picky, picky...


On their fifth day of travel, everyone was silent, including Bikto. All remembered the seven ninjas from the day before; Kurenai was a living reminder. The young woman had sweat plastering her hair to her forehead; she was deathly pale, her pulse was erratic, and she wouldn't wake up, no matter what Michiko's efforts were. All the girl really knew to do was try keep her friend's sensei's temperature down with a wet cloth on her forehead and wrists.

Maybe I can extract the poison, Michiko thought, walking alongside the unconscious sensei, But how? That searching jutsu should work...Will I need to make a cut so that there's an opening for the poison to leave through? I wonder if that doctor has antidotes in the medical kit...

"Korii," Michiko called, continuing when Korii waved to her, "How many more days until the Thyme Village?"

"One and a half," Korii answered, before turning back to the road.

Is that enough time? Michiko thought, Can I leave the poison as is and let trained people work on Kurenai? But the poison is moving quickly...

"Deniizu, wait," Korii ordered, putting a hand on the girl's shoulder.

"Why?" Deniizu asked, looking down the road, already pulling out kunai.

"I see four people, two on each side," Korii answered in a low voice, so that only the group could hear, "Eleven o'clock, one o'clock, nine and three. Put the stretcher down, Pooriin, Bikto."

"Two more at seven and five o'clock," Hinata reported, as Pooriin and Bikto obeyed.

"Surround the clients and Kurenai," Korii ordered, already moving, "Ring formation."

Korii, Michiko, Kiba, Hinata, Shino, and Deniizu all stood in a circle, the five dogs stood in a slightly smaller ring on the inside, and Pooriin, Goudon, Bikto and Kurenai stood in the center. All looked straight ahead of themselves, trying to find out where the enemy was hidden.

"We know you're out there," Korii called into the surrounding woods, "Show yourselves and explain your intent."

They were met with silence, save for the wind. Hinata gulped, Pooriin wrung her hands, and Michiko frowned; all three were trying to keep a hold of her nerves. Korii, Deniizu, and Kiba were waiting expectantly; all three wanted something to beat up, though Kiba wanted to let out some anger against Bikto, while the other two had...other reasons. Shino, Bikto, and Goudon were all calm; the twins knew from experience how to deal with their fear, and Shino had had years of emotional training, even before the academy. The dogs and cats seemed calm, save for Athos, who was tense; he could smell a fight, and he was a protector like Michiko.

Guys, we have to be serious, Athos said quietly, Can you smell the danger?

All four of the dogs sniffed the air, and Porthos shook his head.

Jeez, you're almost as tense as Michi-chan, Porthos teased.

I'm not kidding, aniki! Athos protested.

Yeah, I smell it too, Akamaru and D'Artagnan nodded.

I can't, Aramis said, But I'll take your word for it.

"Get ready, boys," Michiko whispered, trying to keep her voice steady.

"Stay right with me, Akamaru," Kiba said, grinning at his companion.

Stupid dogs, getting all worked up, the silver tabby said.

Give them a break, the orange tabby said, It's their first mission.

The abrupt sound of hissing caused all present to look up at the sound's origin; instinctively, Deniizu jumped at the two, small spheres with her kunai raised.

"Deniizu, don't! It's a-" Korii and Kiba started, but it was too late.

Deniizu cut right into the objects, and smoke immediately covered the entire group.

"What was that?" Pooriin asked, as she soon lost sight of her group in the smoke.

"Two smoke bombs," Shino explained, trying to clear the smoke away by waving his arms, and only making it worse, "Cutting into them helped them spread faster."

"Sorry," Deniizu put her kunai away and reached around in the purple 'darkness', "That was a reflex. Michiko? Korii? Where are you guys?"

"Deniizu, basic ninja tools, smoke bombs, lesson one," Michiko hissed.

Smoke bombs both hide the user's position, and disorients the enemy, Deniizu remembered, clamping her mouth shut, However, though the enemy is disoriented, they must still be found; one key way to find an enemy in the smoke is sound.

Deniizu, I'm sending Porthos to you, D'Artagnan to Korii, Athos to the Chatora, and I'll keep Aramis with me, Michiko thought, Tell them so that they're not startled and won't attack my dogs.

I hear you, Deniizu thought back, relaying the thoughts to each person.

Michiko got on her hands and knees, and rubbed her right index finger and thumb together, making a small sound that the dogs would hear, leading them to her. When Michiko felt Aramis' thin form, she placed him on her head for temporary safekeeping. Athos was the thick-set dog, D'Artagnan wouldn't stay still, and Porthos had the roundest head; whispering her orders to each of them, she sent them off.

So that's what she does, Sumoggu thought, seeing Michiko work.

The black-clad bandit was very talented with poisons, and all that had to do with poisons. This included smoke bombs which can contain poison; Sumoggu could see a little bit better than others in thick fog or smoke. It wasn't a doujutsu, but a skill that he had developed over time; Michiko didn't know that the bandit was less than two meters away, and able to see and hear her every move.

Sumoggu knelt down and made the same sound that Michiko had with his fingers. Sure enough, all four dogs came back, including Aramis, who jumped down from Michiko's head.

"Hey, Aramis!" Michiko exclaimed, "Where are you going?"

All four dogs froze where they were, then charged straight for Michiko; Akamaru, having not heard any orders from Kiba, ran to help them. Unfortunately, Sumoggu had already seen the dogs; quickly, he grabbed each of them by the scruff of the neck and threw them towards a trap that was set to become a suspended net as soon as all five dogs were on top of it. Akamaru, the last to be caught, saw a little of what was happening and tried to bite Sumoggu, but still the white dog was thrown into the trap, and all the dogs were suspended high in the net.

"What just happened?" Michiko screamed, forgetting her advice of silence to Deniizu, "Where are my dogs?"

"Akamaru?" Kiba called, "Where are you? Hinata, can you find him?"

Hinata was shaking where she stood, trying to control her chakra and make sense of what was going on.

"It's your turn, Kishimu!" Sumoggu called calmly, jumping easily out of the smoke and into the trees when Michiko took a wild swipe at him.

"Korii, did you see the guy beside me?" Michiko yelled, starting to get annoyed.

"He's that Dr. Mario guy!" Korii answered, "Stay in your positions, guys; if they're after the twins, we can't give them any openings!"

"They still think we're, like, after those twins!" the short brown-haired girl giggled in her tree.

"Did anyone else hear that?" Kiba asked, his ears perking up.

"Emi!" the long brown-haired girl hissed, hitting her neighbour's shoulder.

"No...what did you hear, Kiba?" Korii asked.

"I don't know what they said, but I thought heard a girl's voice," Kiba answered.

"That was, like, close," Emi sighed, relieved.

"Hearing voices now, Inuzuka?" Bikto asked caustically.

"Shut up, Chatora!" Kiba growled.

Kiba had been completely blind in the smoke, but suddenly it was clearing away.

"Hey, I can see a little!" Kiba exclaimed, "The smoke is going away now!"

"What are you talking about, ahou?" Bikto asked, "Nothing's changing."

"No, it's true," Michiko protested, "I'm seeing clearer too."

Michiko and Kiba were side by side; Hinata looked around on the other side of Kiba, while Korii looked around on the other side of Michiko.

"Ano...Bikto's right," Hinata said quietly, "Nothing's changing."

"Yeah, I still need my Byakugan," Korii added.

"Guys, we're serious," Michiko said, "We can see better."

"The dog-users are going insane," Bikto snickered to himself.

"Michiko, something's not right," Deniizu said, looking around wildly in the smoke, "The smoke, if anything, is getting worse."

Deniizu was right; the smoke was getting denser. Michiko and Kiba, however, could see perfectly fine.

"I see someone in the woods there!" Kiba exclaimed, pointing, "I'm going!" he added, running into the forest.

"Kiba, wait!" Michiko called, running after him, "You need back-up!"

The group heard two soft thumps on the ground, and Korii and Hinata saw that both Kiba and Michiko had collapsed.

"They're unconscious," Hinata reported, after checking on them.

"Korii, what happened to them?" Shino asked, tersely.

"Pay attention to your own fight," a girl's voice advised ominously in the gloom.

"Where are you?" Deniizu snapped, waving her kunai around.

The telepath stepped forward to where she thought the voice had come from, trying to locate the speaker. Unwittingly, she stepped on a part of the ground that caved in under her, causing her to fall until she was waist deep in the dirt, and unable to move. She felt dirt being thrown around her, causing her to be partly buried and stuck where she was. Deniizu tried to hit at whoever was kicking dirt at her, but to no avail.

"Crap, I'm stuck!" Deniizu yelled, "Try not to trip over me!"

"Oh, I won't trip," a high girl's voice said from above Deniizu, "That's, like, so uncool. I'll just hit you. Bye-bye!"

"Wha-" was all that Deniizu could get out before the girl knocked her unconscious.

Hinata was frozen in her place beside Michiko; she was kneeling beside her friend, trying to protect her, but at the same time she was too afraid to move. Korii had his hands full with what seemed to be two attackers; one was continually dousing him with scalding hot water, and another was pelting him with what felt like balls of sticky grains. One of the 'grain bombs' had gotten him right in the eyes; try as he might, Korii couldn't pull away the gummy substance.

Damn...Korii thought, I've been slacking for too long; I'm not used to using the Byakugan this much. ...Deniizu...

"Bikto, we have to help them out!" Goudon said, already dropping his oversized backoack and pulling out his dagger.

"It's their mission, they can handle it," Bikto tsked, sitting down crosslegged on the ground.

"Get up!" Goudon ordered, kicking his brother in the side.

"Piss off," Bikto shrugged, being aggravatingly calm.

Goudon continued to try and get Bikto to help, and as they argued, Pooriin crawled away towards where she hoped Michiko and Hinata were, narrowly missing one other smoke bomb that landed nearby the twins.

"What was that?" Bikto interrupted Goudon in mid-argument.

As the twins looked around, trying to find the source of the small, quiet landing, a dark green smoke began to appear around them.

"What is this?" Goudon wondered out loud, "Just differently coloured smoke?"

Bikto had been feeling around for whatever had fallen; his hands came across the still form of one of the cats.

"Don't breathe it in!" Bikto exclaimed, right before taking a quick breath in and holding it.

Too late; some of the extra air that Bikto had just taken in had contained some of the poison, and Goudon had already accidentally breathed the gas in. The twins felt the life in their bodies ebb away, so that they no longer could move; both were still conscious, but neither could do anything to attack or defend from the enemy.

At least this is one way to not help that Inuzuka and his team, Bikto thought.

Shino felt wind and feathers brush against his face, and in an instant, a great bird of some sort was attacking him. Shino shielded his face and neck with his arms, trying to dodge and attack at the same time, but he couldn't see. The bug-user tried sending out kikaichu to form that jutsu that his father had told him about once: the Bug Jar Technique; but since Shino only had a vague idea of what the technique was, he ended up losing several bugs to the bird's talons before he called them back again.

"Somebody use a wind-type jutsu and clear the smoke away!" Shino exclaimed, half-screaming in pain when the bird got a good scrape near his eyes.

"Michiko, wake up," Pooriin begged, shaking her friend by the shoulders, "Hinata, what can we do?"

Hinata held her head between her hands as she shook it; she was too afraid that her helping would make matters worse. Her father's discouraging words echoed in her mind as she tried to pull herself together and fight.


A/N: CLIFFHANGER ENDING OF DOOM! AND I'M LATE FOR CLASS NOW! BYE!

Isaac: Why can't you be like me and skip...tsk. Review, reader.