Heading after the flying knife proved to be a difficult task. Things like knives do not take into consideration that people can't fly. The pace was very fast and some had problem keeping up. The moved in groups of four and the last groups was of five. Remy took the lead followed by Halante, Karen and Art. After the first groups Gai's team followed, then Kakashi's team and finally the other shinobi. At first they traveled in silence but soon they teams started to talk with each other. The mysterious shinobi did not converse with those of Konoha but they did not avoid them as well.
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The
last group was the most interesting one.
It turned out that Akamaru had a big problem walking along the twins
and he kept quietly growling at them. Kiba tried to talk with him,
but the dog was stubborn. Soon Shikamaru could not resist mumbling
about how this mission was troublesome. The twins looked at him and
replied that they know what he means.
"So why are you two
taking part in this?" he asked them.
"Well it might be
troublesome but getting used to a new team member would be even more
troublesome." Replied Manfred.
"You
can say we got used to working with him. So it would be a bother
being on our own again." Finished
Lothar.
"Do you always have
the same opinion?" Kiba asked.
"We are one." Came
a short double response.
"It's really
strange when you talk at the same time…" Kiba noticed.
"For you it might
be, but for us it's easy." The twins spoke together.
"So what's with
you and your sister?" asked Kiba.
"She's a pain…"
one of the twins replied.
"I know what you
mean, I have two sisters… And I would not like getting in their
way…" Kiba smiled at them.
"Two
sisters? Then you are lucky… We have four…"
Both twins smirked.
"Karen is the
oldest, the other are just little kids."
"So you have a big
family?" Shino came into the conversation.
"Yeah, in our
village there is a saying 'The Hyuuga go into quality, and the
Toriyama go into number…' and our parents really believed that."
"So there are six of
you?" summed up with amazement Shikamaru.
"No, not six,
eight." Replied one of the twins. The other took up the topic "We
have two older brothers, Karen, then us, and then our little
sisters." He explained.
"That's a really
big family" Commented Kiba.
"We
haven't counted our cousins and all the kids are parents raised.
I'm scared of counting them myself…."
One of the twins replied.
The conversation when
on, Kiba had a lot of funny stories about his sisters to talk about,
and the twins also talked a lot about their little sisters, as it
turned out quickly three really annoying devils.
"I'm glad I don't
have any brothers or sister." Shikamaru summed up their stories.
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"TenTen are you
alright?" Lee asked looking at his fatigues teammate.
"I'm really tired
Lee…" she gasped.
"Well, that only
means you should train harder, you haven't trained with us for
several weeks and now your condition is low." Gai told her. "But
cheer up my youthful student! This mission might be really good
training for you." He smiled at her.
Neji did not take part in the conversation, he kept looking ahead observing the other groups in frost of them.
Not
Neji, nor Lee nor Gai did notice when
TenTen reached her limit. She gradually moved back and slower and
then she made a bad move.
The scene that
happened next was amazing to everyone who heard about it.
The girl slipped off a branch and was falling to the ground. One of the twins walking in the last group noticed her and ran up to catch her in mid air. He managed to get to her and land safely on a near by tree just to find that Akamaru had bit in his other arm. The boy tried to shake off the dog, but the pet did not let go. Soon the whole group had to stop, but most did not know what to do, Naruto began to laugh, and soon everyone was laughing. Finally Kiba manage to get his huge dog off the twin. But the dog still was eager to bite him again.
"Geez what has gotten into him?" Kiba growled at his pet.
"Dogs
and cats never go well together." Came a brief comment from the
leader of the first group.
"He probably thought
Manfred was attacking her, so Akamaru reacted in the way his
instincts told him to, meaning he attacked Manfred." Explained
Art.
"So you are cats?"
Shino asked. "My bugs told me there was a strange aura around
you."
"We are not cats, we
are cat summoners." Explained the other twin still laughing.
"Are you ok?"
Manfred asked TenTen still holding tightly to his arm.
"Yes I'm fine.
Just a bit tired…" she replied.
"Ok lets take a
break then." Art proclaimed landing on the ground.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
They all landed, some
took out water and food, some just sat on the grass and rested. Not
only TenTen was tired, but also the other girls looked weak. Only
Sakura was holding up, but she eat several food pills on the way.
She came up to the bitten twin.
"Can I take a look
at your arm? I'm a medical nin." She told him.
"No, it's
nothing." The twin replied.
"But I saw blood, so
your arm should be taken care of…" Exclaimed TenTen.
"Really, I'm ok
It's just a scratch." Manfred looked away from the girls trying
to find a way to escape. But the girls from Konoha are no pushovers.
Sakura looked at him and made a clear firm demand.
"Show
me your arm right now!" she told him. He
tried to make a move away from her, but TenTen went on him from
behind. He was in a trap. Before he could do anything the girl
caught him, and pulled up his sleeve. They both made a loud gasp.
"I am sure I saw
blood." TenTen said.
"I'm sure Akamaru
bites hard." Sakura said. "This is impossible."
"What is impossible?" Asked Naruto running up to them wanting to take a look. Soon Kakashi and the other had joined them, and all couldn't believe their eyes. There was no trace of Akamaru's bite, nothing, not even a scratch.
"As I said it's nothing, he doesn't bite that hard." The twin began struggling with the girls and moved away. Everyone knew what they saw, and somehow the explanation they got did not satisfy them at all. Kiba was most surprised of all, out of all people he knew best that Akamaru's bite had the power of crushing limbs.