Here we go, first things first, lot's of people where a bit thrown off by that last little bit at the end of chapter 10. It's just foreshadowing the first main antagonists!

Anyways, thanks to all you lovely people who review! Thanks to all you lovely people that follow/favorite this story as well.

Question, when I break to a new scene, I always use the three periods, like this ( ... ) Is that hard to follow?

Want a song to listen to while you read, try the song this chapter is named after, It's Thunder and It's Lightning by: We Were Promised Jetpacks

Well, Let's go!

Italics are thoughts, bold's and capitals are used for emphasis.

I don't own Naruto (Disclaimer)

Chapter 11

It's Thunder and It's Lightning, Part 2

Rain had continued to fall into the newly formed crater that Naruto and the Redhead occupied, causing the water level of the river that ran through it to rise fairly rapidly. Naruto had spent the time after Shikamaru left catching up on the sleep he'd missed the night before, but when he felt water soaking his butt, it roused him from his slumber, and he jumped to his feet and yelled, "Whoa that's cold!" He glanced around and noticed the heightened water level, "It sure got higher didn't it…,"he glanced down at the mysterious Kunoichi, "I better move her away from the bank….but Shikamaru said we should try not to move her…I best be careful!"

The blond knelt down on her left side and wrapped his right arm under her back and across her shoulders, lifting her off the back pack, and then he slowly crept his way up away from the water. He'd pulled her about five feet when he slipped on some loose rocks and toppled over, he managed to land on his butt and kept the girl from hitting the ground by pulling her head onto his lap, the blond let out a sigh of relief, "That was close, I nearly dropped her." Naruto shifted his legs to sit Indian style, making sure to keep her head off the ground and on his lap as he did so. He glanced at the river and back at the girl, "I guess that's far enough for now…besides," he winced as his left arm screamed in pain, "I don't think this arm wants me to move much more…I just had to go and force chakra through it…now it hurts even worse."

He closed his eyes, falling back asleep with a sound ninja lying across his lap isn't something he'd normally do, but what could it hurt? She was unconscious anyways! Naruto glared down at her sleeping form, "I'll make an exception this time, but just this once since you're sick and I need you to tell me where Sasuke is!"

Even though she couldn't hear him, he felt fully satisfied in justifying his actions. After a few more shivers, the genin fell back asleep.

…

Shikamaru had left right at daybreak in search of a doctor. It was now eight a.m. and he was marching his rain drenched form through a small village. There were few people around and they were all muttering to themselves, Shikamaru instantly recognized that something was amiss; he approached two old men sitting in front of a small restaurant, "What's going on?"

One of the old men looked up at Shikamaru, "It happened again."

Shikamaru lifted an eyebrow in confusion, "What happened again?"

The other old man stood from his chair, "A kid's gone missing, it's the second time…another boy went missing last week."

Shikamaru looked at the man intently, "Kids disappearing?"

Both old men spoke, "That's right."

"I'd like to investigate this," Shikamaru was certainly curious, kids disappearing was no small occurrence, but he had other issues as well, "But I need a doctor immediately, where's the closest one?"

The old man that was sitting looked up, "You're looking at him, the names Jin…whose sick m'boy?"

Shikamaru spoke quickly, "You are? Awesome, long story short, there's a girl collapsed and stuck in a hole, I need supplies to get her out and someone to come treat her quickly, she's in REALLY bad shape.

The old man stood up, "I see, is it particularly far?"

"It's a few hours there and back, but that's at my pace, it'll be longer for someone who's not trained like I am."

Jin put on his thinking cap when someone walked out of the restaurant, this new stranger was close to Shikamaru's age, he had shoulder length untamed black hair with the exception of a ponytail that bound it in the back, and he wore a large blue wind breaking jacket. The stranger approached Shikamaru, talking directly to the chunin, "I couldn't help but overhear…someone's sick out there and you need help getting them out fast?"

Shikamaru gave this new guy a suspicious look, "Yeah, what of it?"

The stranger looked him directly in the eye, "If fast is what you need, I'm your man…from the look of that band you wear, you're a Leaf Ninja aren't you?"

The chunin gave a simple reply, "Yeah."

"Well, I owe a debt to a Leaf Ninja, so I'll help you out," the stranger extended his hand out for a shake, "Name's Idate."

Shikamaru shook his hand, "I'm Shikamaru."

…

Back in the Leaf Village, a loud crash could be heard in the direction of the Hokage Mansion, Tsunade had just thrown a chair out one of the windows, allowing rain to blow into the room.

"What do you mean You can't find him! He couldn't even move yesterday! How far could he have gotten!?"

The six Ninja that stood at attention in front of her all ducked for cover as another large object went flying, after it crashed into the wall, one of the Ninja yelled at the Hokage, "Lady Tsunade! We don't have the money for you to keep breaking all this stuff!"

Tsunade snapped back, "Shut up Shizune!"

Shizune stepped back and put her arm up in her traditional defensive stance after she snapped at her aunt, "But…m'lady."

Tsunade ignored her and shifted her focus to the two other Kunoichis in the room, "Sakura, Ino! You checked all his usual stops!?"

Both girls replied in Unison, "Yes Mam!"

The Hokage bit the end of her thumbnail, "Hmmm, that brat didn't take off did he," her attention shifted to the last three Ninja's in the room, they were all ANBU, and all at full attention when Tsunade snapped, "You three are to do conduct a thorough search of the entire village!"

All three answered together, "Mam!"

The busty blond had a thought, "Shizune, who helped Naruto sneak out of the hospital yesterday?"

Shizune placed a hand on her chin, "I never saw anyone sneak him out, but If I had to guess, I'd say it'd be some of his friends."

"Hmmm," Tsunade looked at Sakura with deadly intent, "Sakura…I want a straight answer, who would help Naruto bust out, no sense covering for him, he NEEDS to be reined in for his own good."

Sakura glanced at Ino, and when the blond genin nodded at her, Sakura gave an answer, "We saw him with Shikamaru and Lee yesterday, I'd start with them."

Tsunade sat down in her ridiculously comfortable chair, being Hokage DID have SOME perks, "I see," she interlaced her fingers in front of her face, "Lee left the village this morning on a mission, so it couldn't have been him…Shizune, take Sakura and Ino and go Find Shikamaru, find out where they're hiding Naruto!"

She waved a hand to all six ninja's in front of her, "Now go!"

All six nodded and left her office with haste; Shizune, Sakura, and Ino out the door, while the three ANBU all disappeared in puffs of smoke, leaving the Hokage alone and seething in her now windy office.

The three ANBU appeared suddenly on the roof of the mansion, and one of them spoke a complaint, "Damn it, why us again, we just got back from a mission searching in the rain!?"

SMACK! A hand hit the back of the ANBU's head, "Shut up Nobu, orders are orders!"

Nobu glanced down at his leader, "But Boss…"

The man ignored his whiny subordinate; he instead glanced to his shorter comrade, "Let's go Sen."

"Yes sir!" They both shot off in different directions, headed to search for the missing genin.

Now that Nobu was alone on the roof, he let out a sigh, "Just great, and I had a lunch date today…"

The tall ANBU leapt off the roof and into the rain covered Village as he started the search.

…

After moving the girl far enough away from the river and out from under the opening in the ground above them, Naruto had been lost in the throes of a vivid dream, one so vivid that he was talking in his sleep, "It's so cold…but at least I've got this warm Ramen hehehehe," drool eked out of his mouth, "so good…"

His beautiful dream was suddenly interrupted by a heavy dose of pain in his chest; he let out a scream as he awoke, "Owwwwch!"

He was in full fight mode, ready to clobber the source of his pain when he saw it, "Hey, let go of me!" The Redheaded girl had both hands clenched tightly on his chain vest, forcing into and pinching the skin it lay over, Naruto screamed like a wild man again, "I said let go of me dam-"

He stopped mid-shout when he realized she wasn't doing it with any malice or on purpose; she was still unconscious, except now the girl was coughing violently and the look on her face showed pure pain, she'd latched onto his chest as a reaction, and her new condition had Naruto freaking out, so much so that he forgot about the pain in his chest, "Hey lady, what's wrong!?"

He glanced around her body frantically, trying desperately to figure out the source of the pain, and it led him to the gash across her stomach. His jacket that she now wore had pulled up high above her belly button, revealing the full length of the wound, and she'd somehow reopened it during his sleep. Naruto went wide eyed, "That's a lot of blood! What the hell do I do?"

A light bulb went off in his head, "Hold on a second lady!" He grabbed his back pack and nearly ripped it apart pulling out some bandages he'd packed in it. He laid some gauze pads across the wound, then followed them up with one long ace bandage, wrapping it around her stomach and back until he had the entirety of the wound covered. His final move was to wrap some tape around her as well, holding it all in place. Naruto knew full well that it was shoddy patchwork, but it was the best he could do, "Hopefully this'll help…man, I wish I knew more about first aid and medical ninjutsu…"

After kicking himself for that downfall, he gently pulled the orange jacket back down over the girl's belly, making sure not to hit her stomach. Once he had it back in place, he returned to his former seat and motioned the mysterious sound girl's head back onto his lap. She immediately returned to her prior position, unconsciously shifting onto her side. Just then a thunderclap bellowed through the crater, the sound made the girl jolt, causing her to cough a few more times. Once the coughs had subsided, she latched her hands back onto Naruto's vest and buried her face into his stomach.

The genin ignored the shivers taking hold of him and how hard she was pinching, who was he to complain when this girl was on her deathbed, "Don't you die on me lady, I still have questions for you, got that!?"

…

Shikamaru had gathered the supplies and the manpower he'd needed much quicker than he originally though he would. The chunin was now running full speed through the rain with an old doctor riding piggy back on him and another unexpected comrade. It wasn't so much the lack of effort it took to recruit the strangers help that surprised Shikamaru, what really had him baffled was that the guy could run just as fast as the Nara could…all while carrying a ton of rope and medical supplies on his back and in his arms. Shikamaru had to pose the question, "Hey…You said your name's Idate right…where the hell did you learn to run this fast?"

The black haired mystery man kept his focus on the path in front of him as he answered, "Well, Long story short, a long time ago I was training to be a ninja, speed was my specialty."

If they hadn't been in a rush, Shikamaru would have probed for more information, but for the time being, he considered the response to be adequate, "Makes Sense."

The old Doctor named Jin that rested on Shikamaru's back posed a question loud enough for everyone to hear, "So, How much farther m'boy?"

Shikamaru calculated quickly, "We're still about an hour away."

"An hour huh," Idate looked ahead, "Then let's pick up the pace!"

Shikamaru watched in disbelief as Idate pulled ahead of him, "*Sigh*, this is all too much work, what a drag."

The chunin sped up the pace, ignoring the stinging pain that the rain making contact with his eyes brought on, sighing heavily with every new step.

…

After they'd left Tsunade's office, Shizune decided to send Sakura and Ino over to the Nara household while she double checked all of Naruto's usual hang outs. So now Sakura and Ino were walking up to the door of Shikamaru's house, each carrying an umbrella and both sporting huge jackets. As soon as they got to the door they railed on it a few times and waited until Shikamaru's mother Yoshino opened it up, the fiery woman snapped immediately, "What do YOU two want, my son is NOT available for dates, I'm tired of telling you people this!?"

Ino snapped back, "WE ARE NOT here to ask him out!"

Yoshino's tone softened as she replied, "Oh, sorry Ino, I didn't realize it was you, hehe….what is it you need dear?"

"Lady Tsunade needs to see Shik-…..," Ino stopped mid-sentence and went wide eyed as she looked at Sakura, the pink haired girl had the same look, then both yelled at Yoshino in their creepy voice resonance, "What!? Girls are doing what!?"

Yoshino shook her head, "They keep coming over and trying to talk to him ever since he became a Chunin, I've had to beat them off with a stick, literally," she lifted a cane from behind the door, "I thought I was going to have to use it again, hahaha."

After the initial shock they felt about girls pursuing someone as undesirable as Shikamaru and then the fear when Yoshino giggled about beating people with a cane, both girls composed themselves and Sakura broke the silence, "So where is Shikamaru?"

Yoshino laid the cane across her shoulder like a baseball bat, "He left."

Ino asked the next question, "That doesn't clarify anything, where did he go?"

A voice called out from behind them, "I sent him grocery shopping."

Both genin turned to see Shikaku Nara walking up towards the house. Neither girl noticed the, don't say anything, look that Shikaku gave to his wife, causing the woman not to correct what he had said.

Sakura questioned him after he reached them, "Which store?"

Shikaku looked down at the pink haired girl, "That big one downtown."

Ino and Sakura looked at each other and nodded, and then they shifted their gaze's back up at Shikaku as they spoke in unison, "Thanks, see you guys later!"

After the two young Kunoichi's were long gone, Shikaku turned to walk inside but was stopped by his wife, she had her hands on her hips and an icy glare on her face, "Care to explain?"

Shikaku, "Sure," he gave her a broad grin and spoke goofily, "But only after you make me some hot tea."

She snapped at him, "Make it yourself!" She turned and headed into the house, shouting one last command over her shoulder as she disappeared down the hallway, "And make me some too!"

Shikaku laughed to himself, the smile on his face stayed put, he wasn't sure why, but he loved that fire.

…

After another hour of running through the heavy precipitation, Shikamaru, Idate, and Jin had finally made it back to the crater where Naruto was waiting. As soon as they got there, Shikamaru let Jin down off of his back and approached the huge hole, yelling down into it as soon as he reached it, "Hey Naruto, I'm back, You all right down there!?"

A shout rang back up to him, "I-I'm alright, but I don't know about the girl!"

The Chunin beckoned back, "Well just hold on a minute, I'll be down in a second!"

Shikamaru turned to face his two new companions when the younger of the two starting placing the supplies they'd brought on the ground, there were a few miscellaneous medical supplies and three VERY long ropes. After dropping them he asked an overly eager question, "Hey, did you say Naruto!?"

Shikamaru gave him an annoyed look, "Yeeeeeah, Why?"

"He's the ninja I owe a debt to, what are the odds?!"

Shikamaru sighed, "Well isn't that dandy, yet another Naruto fan…"

"Are you two idiots gonna dawdle all day or are you gonna get that girl out so I can take a look at her!?"

Both Shikamaru and Idate looked at the old man, apologizing instantly, "Sorry."

Idate began unraveling the rope's as Shikamaru fished into a bag they'd brought. The chunin fished out some burlap and unraveled it, it stretched to be six feet long by two feet wide. When he had it stretched out, Idate motioned some rope towards him, "Here."

"Right," Shikamaru grabbed it and went right back to work, pulling a knife out of his jacket, he cut a hole in each of the four corners of the burlap tarp. He ran the rope through two holes on one end and tied the rope back to itself. Idate followed suit by doing the same thing on the other side with his rope. The end result was a makeshift stretcher that could be lowered into the hole to retrieve the girl.

Idate looked at Shikamaru, "What now!?"

The chunin glanced around and spotted one of the huge downed trees that littered the area, "Lets tie it to that tree!"

Idate just nodded and grabbed his rope, Shikamaru did the same, and they both had the ropes tied up and ready to go in just seconds. Without saying anything else, Idate grabbed the burlap tarp and tossed it down into the hole, he waited till it hit the bottom before he turned back to Shikamaru, "So how are WE getting down there?"

Shikamaru had already figured that out too, he had a kunai in one hand and the third rope in the other, "Already a step ahead of ya!"

The Nara tied the rope to the end of the kunai, then threw it straight at the ground below his feet, sinking it a good two feet under. He finished by throwing the rope down into the hole, "We climb."

Idate gave him a sour look, "I hope you know how to tie a knot, If I die I'm blaming you."

Shikamaru grabbed onto the rope and started his descent into the hole, "Feel free to haunt me then."

"Ha," Idate just smirked and grabbed a hold of the rope, following fast behind Shikamaru.

As the two made their way down, Jin could only shake his head at what he deemed to be the idiocy of youth, "Young whippersnappers, no way I'D EVER climb into a hole that way."

Within seconds the two had made it down to the bottom of the rope, landing directly in the swelled underground river. Shikamaru instantly noticed how much it had grown, "The water level rose at least three feet since I've been gone, what a storm!"

"Well," Idate couldn't see anything, even though it was lit up above ground, the overcast conditions had stanched most of the light in the crater, "Where's Naruto?"

Shikamaru bolted through the water, "This way!"

After moving about fifty feet through the water they came upon Naruto, he'd moved the girl even further up the bank to escape the water, there was only a few feet of ground uncovered at this point. He still had the girls head lying in his lap but his back pack had been swept away by the current. To say Naruto was relieved to see them was an understatement, the blond spoke through chattering teeth, "S-s-s-s-hikamaru, j-j-j-ust i-in t-t-t-t-t-ime."

The chunin noticed just how cold Naruto must be, on top of the chattering, his skin was beet red and his breath wasn't visible, considering how easily visible his and Idate's where, Naruto's insides must have been cold as well, so Shikamaru removed his green flak jacket/vest and handed it to Naruto, "Sorry I'm late, here, put this on!"

Naruto had the jacket on over his lame arm and zipped over his chest with comically fast speed, "T-t-t-hanks!"

Idate stepped up and pulled his large blue jacket off as well, he offered It to Naruto, "Put this on too!"

It was too dark for Naruto to see this new guy's face, he just assumed that it was some random guy that Shikamaru had brought to help, so he didn't recognize who it was when he refused the jacket, "T-t-t-hanks, b-b-but I'd r-r-rather y-y-y-you w-w-wrap it around h-h-her l-l-legs."

Idate looked down at the redhead's legs, the only thing she had covering them were the same black shorts she'd been wearing when they found her, so he understood Naruto's reasoning, "Right, I'm on it!"

Shikamaru looked down at Naruto, "We'll get her out first, then we'll come help you, alright?"

Naruto gave a thumbs up as an answer.

Shikamaru called over to Idate, "You get her legs, and I'll get her arms."

Idate nodded, "Right!"

…

Shizune was pissed, soaked with rain and pissed.

The Jonin had reunited with Sakura and Ino during their search for the pigheaded blond and the lackluster lay about. They had gone to the market where Shikaku had said Shikamaru was headed; only to be told by a man that worked there that Shikamaru had just left and headed over to the Academy to speak with Iruka Amino. After hunting down Iruka, he told them that Shikamaru had just left, headed to visit Kiba Inuzuka . Then Kiba told them Shikamaru had just left and headed towards his best friend's house. After grilling Choji's family, they'd made no progress, getting the runaround again. Sakura and Ino just felt annoyed, hating the fact that they kept JUST missing the Nara boy, but Shizune was smarter than that.

The Jonin stopped in the middle of the street, "It's a conspiracy!"

Sakura and Ino looked up at the Jonin, "Huh?"

Shizune placed a hand on her chin, "They're all hiding something, and that SOMETHING is where Naruto and Shikamaru are at! Come on! let's go inform Lady Tsunade about this!"

All three Kunoichi's made for the Hokage Mansion.

…

After about twenty minutes of steady and careful work, Idate and Shikamaru had worked together to hoist the mysterious sound ninja out of the hole and onto the above ground. They'd laid her on the burlap, climbed out of the hole using the rope they'd hung, both grabbed one of the ropes attached to the home made stretcher, and then they VERY easily pulled her up. They'd sat her down under some trees to ward off the rain. Shikamaru had stayed with them while Idate went to help Naruto up out of the hole. Old man Rin was now busy doing what he did best, taking care of sick people.

The old doctor looked up at the chunin while he worked, "What the hell happened to this girl?"

Shikamaru just told the truth, "Honestly, She's an enemy of the Leaf Village, and I fought her. By the end of the fight, she was blown away by a wind jutsu and then buried under this grove of trees. She was stuck underground in this condition for three days and nights."

Jin went wide eyed, "Three whole days like this, I can't believe she's still alive!"

"Well, can you save her? It's important that she lives, a friend of ours was taken and she might just be able to tell us where he is."

Jin kept busying himself bandaging the smaller cuts on her body, "I don't know, She's past critical condition and I can't do much for her out here, we need to get her back to my clinic immediately."

Shikamaru looked over to see Idate pulling the last rope up arm over arm; he assumed Naruto must be on the end of it, "We need to hurry."

Exactly as Shikamaru had assumed, Naruto had grabbed onto the rope at the bottom of the crater with his good hand, and Idate was now pulling him up. ..and it was quite the task, "Damn Naruto, I think you got fatter since the last time I saw you!"

Naruto was still dangling about halfway down when he barked back, his body had warmed enough for the chattering to disappear, "Who the hell are you to call me fat, and what do you mean since the LAST time you saw me!?"

"What, you don't remember me!?"

Idate had pulled Naruto just a few feet from the top, and as the blond inched closer to the surface, the light became bright enough for Naruto to see this jackass's face, it took a second, but he recognized him, "Idate!?"

A bolt of lightning flashed as the speed demon grinned down at him, "Sup Naruto!?"

With a combined last pull, Naruto was up and out of the hole, much to his relief, "Whew! Finally, I thought I was gonna freeze to death, in that stupid pit! SO what the heck are you doing here Idate?"

Shikamaru had approached the two and spoke before Idate could answer, "No time for talk guys, we have to get this girl back to town now!"

Idate nodded, "Let's go!"

Naruto felt another heavy shiver, even though the chatter was gone, he was still feeling the cold, after all, Shikamaru's vest only covered so much, "Brrrrr, I hope they have a huge fire place…"

…

The sun had been up for a while over a desolate forest in the Fire Country. It was trying its best to shine brightly, but it was impeded by the raging storm that was covering the whole of the area, a storm that seemed to grow stronger with every new thunderclap. These harsh conditions had every living thing in the area holed up, leaving nothing to stand in the way of a fight that was about to break out. Three unfamiliar men stood in a small clearing; two stood together, both looking across the clearing at the third, older man. One of the two stepped forward, he wore a solid black uniform, had ridiculous pink hair, and an irritatingly high pitched voice, he glanced at his partner and spoke through the rain, "Well Mr. Nine, it looks like we were careless, this guy was faster than we thought."

The pink haired guy's partner wore the same black uniform, but his entire head was covered with a mask, which he yelled through, "Damn it Seth! Stop calling me Mr. Nine! It's not my fault I was born with nine fingers!"

The girly like man now revealed to be called Seth laughed, "Ha, my DEEPEST apologies Mr. Ren…anyways, what should we do about our visitor?"

The mysterious man called Ren glanced towards the third unknown man, "He's seen our faces, well, at least he's seen yours, we'll just have to Kill him!"

"Oh yeah…," the pink haired man licked his lips, "Sounds Delicious."

The third man that was standing across the clearing from them wore a simple blue t-shirt, matching pajama bottoms, and no shoes. He had been quietly catching his breath and listening as the two other men had their little chat, but when they spoke of killing him, he decided to finally speak up, "Ha! You think it'll be that easy huh!?"

Seth and Ren both focused on him without saying anything as a reply.

When neither said anything back to him, he screamed through the rain, "So where the hell are my kids, I know it was you who took them! Give them back and I may let you live!"

The pink haired man stepped forward and spoke menacingly, "You kill us, ha! What's an old country bumpkin like you gonna do, huh? A word of advice old man, just forget about all this, it's stupid to run straight to your death," he finished with a giggle.

Anger flooded the man and he growled as he shifted his right foot back and took on a partial fighting stance, the ground started to slowly tear around him and dirt lifted into the air as he barked back, "Cocky little bastard, a word of advice for YOU, next time, BE CAREFUL OF WHO'S KIDS YOU FUCK WITH!"

As his words carried, lightning struck the ground meters from them and the sound erupted, it was as if a bell went off signaling to start the fight. In a flash the older man disappeared from the spot he was standing and his left fist was crushing Seth's face in. Ren's eyes widened, it was almost slow motion for him, he watched as his partner's face was crushed, and moved quickly to catch Seth before he crashed into the ground. He barely managed to snag Seth and the momentum slid him a good ten feet backwards before he managed to stop, he looked up at the older man in shock, "Who the hell are you!?"

The older man just ignored the question; he began walking towards his two enemies, balling his fists and speaking evilly as he did so, "I take my advice back from earlier! You won't need it cause you're not gonna kidnap anymore children. I'M GONNA KILL YOU HERE AND NOW BEFORE YOU GET THE CHANCE TO!"

Ren panicked as his thoughts ran amok, "This guy's too strong for me to fight alone," he glanced down at his pink haired friend, "and Seth's down for the count…I gotta get us the hell out of here!" He reached into his uniform and pulled out two poison smoke bombs, launching them out towards the older man, "Eat this!"

Before the older man could react, the bombs had already exploded around him, fully enveloping him in the process; he threw an arm in front of his mouth, "Damn, poison! And I already inhaled it!"

He coughed violently and waited, it took thirty seconds for the smoke to dissipate, and when it did, he was disgusted with himself, both Ren and Seth were gone, "Son of a bitch, I let them escape," he fell to his knees and the image of three children flashed in his head, "Ryoichi, Ayako, Daiichi…..," his thoughts shifted to one last muttered phrase, "Damn it…"

That was it, his eyes shut as he passed out, falling face forward into the wet ground, leaving the rain to fall on his motionless body.

…

Jiraiya had been in heaven, research in this new town was going well, plenty of bodacious bodies. Unfortunately he had serious business to take care of, and the man he was supposed to meet had just walked into the tea shop the Sannin was currently sitting in. The man approached the frog wrangler, "Hello master Jiraiya."

Jiraiya screamed at the man with a mix of anger and disappointment showing in his face, "Move you idiot!"

The guy looked dazed, but that was short lived, Jiraiya grabbed the man and slammed him into one of the chairs that surrounded the table he was sitting at, "There's a lady coming through!"

The newcomer raised an eyebrow, "Huh?"

A pretty waitress walked up and placed a glass of hot tea in front of the pervy sage. Jiraiya spoke to the girl in his "You're so lovely" tone, "You'll have to excuse my friend, a pretty lady like you doesn't need to be knocked over by a brute like him!"

The girl placed her hands in front of her mouth as she ran away giggling, Jiraiya's new associate however, had a sour look on his face, "I'm a brute huh? Way to ruin my reputation."

Jiraiya flashed an innocent look, "My bad," the innocent look turned serious, "So, This intel you received…Kids are actually vanishing?"

The man nodded, "Yeah, it's strange, the first case I heard of was in this town, Kid just disappeared from his room while his family was asleep. Then there were reports of another kid going missing about thirty miles south of here, this family lived in the middle of nowhere…then just two days ago, another one vanished from here."

Jiraiya took a drink from his tea, then spoke from behind the glass, "Well, what makes you think these aren't just three different cases?"

The man leaned in, "Get this, all three kids were under the age of ten, all disappeared in the middle of the night with no sign of a break in," the man took a breath, "And the last thing is what made me the most suspicious, the first one was the son of a retired Samurai, the second was the son of an old Ninja, and the last one was the daughter of an old martial artist."

Jiraiya's eyes narrowed, "I see, all the offspring of fighters, Hmmmm, you were right to be suspicious."

"Well, that's all I know, I've got to be going, more intelligence to gather, later Master Jiraiya," The man left the shop in a flash.

After the man had gone, Pervy sage finished his tea and his flirting, once he was good and full of both he headed outside into the rain. He'd been walking and thinking when he sensed something strange.

There was a strong feeling of bloodlust in the air.

"What the hell? That's some powerful energy," Jiraiya glanced to the north, "Looks like it's coming from the forest north of here….I better go check this out."

The old novelist was off and gone in an instant, heading straight for what he thought would be a nasty looking battle.

How was it, let me know!

If you don't, I'll tell everyone about that secret you keep to yourself...(That one about the cow...)

As always, PLEASE send your music suggestions my way, I love discovering new stuff to listen to.

Later!